My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 266 How could Liu Biao be faster than me!
On April 16, the fifth year of Jian'an, on the surface of the Yangtze River north of Baqiu County, Changsha County.

Thousands of ships were racing against each other, and more than 700 warships of battleship class and above, carrying tens of thousands of troops, arrived at the mouth of Dongting Lake in a mighty force.

On the largest new warship, Gan Ning's "General of the Army" banner was fluttering on the masthead.

Zhang Xian started his army on April 6th, and only on April 10th did he take the water route out of Dongting Lake and leave Changsha County. On the 11th, he was discovered by Liu Bei in Wuchang County, who immediately raised an army to intercept him.

To get from Wuchang to Baqiu (Yueyang) in Changsha County, one had to go upstream along the Yangtze River, and the marching speed was relatively slow.

The total straight-line distance is 350 miles, but the Yangtze River is more winding in this section, so the waterway distance is closer to 500 miles.

The route had to pass through the strategically located Chibi, with no city for more than 100 miles on either side. This place was also the mountainous area at the junction of Hunan and Hubei in later times, with few people. The mountains on both sides were rugged, there were no roads, and the only way was by water.

After passing through this section of the river at Chibi, you have to go south and pass through two small counties, Puqi and Zhouling, before you can reach Baqiu.

It took Liu Bei's army five full days to cover such a long distance, which was considered quite sudden.

Gan Ning himself took a low-power telescope made of Donghai County crystal, observed the vast lake ahead, and said to Zhang Fei who was on the same boat:

"General Zhang, take care on your journey. I will escort you to the mouth of the Lishui River on the west bank of Dongting Lake. From now on, you will have to travel light and fast along the Lishui River to get food from the enemy. I have to send General Zhao to take Baqiu first, and then intercept Zhang Xian's northern expeditionary army on their way back by water. It will take at least fifteen days before a follow-up grain ship can deliver food to you."

Gan Ning is still one rank lower than Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, and is only a General of the Central Army. He dare not address the Lieutenant General or the Assistant General by their names, but only by their titles, which seems a bit restrained.

Zhang Fei rubbed his hands, not minding: "Brother has already taken care of it. I will make forced landings in a few small counties of Wuling along the way. Are you still worried about lack of military rations? Our army is coming so fast, how can a common man like Jin Xuan be on guard everywhere!"

Gan Ning was polite to Zhang Fei, and seeing that Zhang Fei didn't mind, he successfully escorted Zhang Fei to the mouth of the Lishui River. After making sure that they would not be intercepted by the navy of the Jingnan rebels, they parted ways.

If you go upstream from Dongting Lake and take the Yangtze River, the waterway will be very tortuous and the water will be relatively turbulent, and it will disturb Liu Biao's army in the north of the river along the way. It takes about 400 miles to reach Chanling, and another five or six days of sailing.

If you take the Lishui River, the waterway is almost straight west and the water flow is gentler. It only takes 200 miles by water, and then a few dozen miles north of the river to reach Chanling, which can save two or three days than taking the Yangtze River.

The most important thing for Zhang Fei on this journey is to hurry, so he would rather take the last day of land travel.

……

After Gan Ning separated from Zhang Fei, they continued to return to the east bank of Dongting Lake, found a port anchorage, unloaded and landed Zhao Yun's troops. Then Zhao Yun divided his troops and attacked Baqiu directly, first besieging Hukou County, which controlled the strategic point of Dongting and Yunmeng.

When Gan Ning's fleet sailed into Dongting Lake, the Changsha garrison lookout in Baqiu had already discovered their tracks, but there was nothing they could do.

The defenders could only watch Zhao Yun land and besiege him, not daring to go out of the city to intercept him. They even dared not try to "attack him halfway across the river" and push Zhao Yun into the lake when he landed.

Zhao Yun surrounded Ba Qiu smoothly, and then ordered people to prepare for the siege, assemble the Ge Gongche and other siege equipment. At the same time, he displayed the flags, personally went out to intimidate, and sent scolds to convey messages to persuade them to surrender.

Zhao Yun originally thought that the situation in Baqiu could be resolved peacefully. After all, Zhang Xian did not have any famous or fierce generals known for their perseverance, so it was impossible for him to have confidants to defend everywhere.

If it is a core place like Linxiang County, the capital of Changsha County, the possibility of defending to the end may be greater.

However, the defender's reaction was beyond Zhao Yun's expectations.

On the top of the city wall of Ba Qiu, a Confucian general was seen patrolling the city and suppressing the soldiers. He also asked the military law team to repeatedly publicize the righteousness of the court.

"Don't panic! Zhao Yun is just a general under the traitor Liu Bei. Envoy Zhang is a loyal minister who obeyed the imperial edict of Xudu! Our army will punish the rebels with obedience. We just need to defend the city to the death! Envoy Zhang will definitely return to rescue! The righteous armies from other counties will arrive soon!"

Zhao Yun was far away and couldn't hear clearly what was being shouted on the city wall at first. It took him a long time to react.

Zhao Yun was suspicious and asked several local officers in Jingzhou: "Who is this Baqiu garrison commander? Why is he so stubborn?"

The local officers of Jingzhou were also confused at first. After a while, Wei Yan, the Marquis of Qujun, who had good observation skills, dared to speculate:

"Could it be Linxiang Huanjie? I heard that this man sneaked back to Changsha from Xudu and was responsible for helping Cao Cao contact Zhang Xian. If it's him, it's not surprising that he is so stubborn."

When Wei Yan served under Liu Biao half a year ago, he was only a garrison commander. Later, he surrendered to Liu Bei and was promoted to the rank of Marquis of Qujun. After all, he was not even 20 years old and had no new military achievements, so it was impossible for him to be promoted continuously.

During the past six months, Wei Yan has been studying in the library of the Wuchang Academy, delving into history books and military strategies, and has made some progress.

When Liu Bei led the army this time, he needed to equip Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun with some officers and counselors who were familiar with the local conditions in Jingzhou, to assist the army and lead the way.

Liu Bei considered that Zhang Fei was not smart enough, so he assigned Xu Shu to Zhang Fei. Then he assigned Wei Yan and Xiang Lang, who had come to surrender together, to Zhao Yun. These people were very familiar with the local situation and could provide a lot of detailed support.

The fact that Huan Jie went from Xudu to Changsha to help Cao Cao win over Zhang Xian was actually known to the top brass of Liu Bei's army. When the battle was about to begin, Zhuge Liang passed this information to the main officers who were carrying out the combat mission, but did not explain it in detail. So Wei Yan did not know where the information came from, he only knew that Huan Jie existed.

There is no need to ask questions that should not be asked.

At this moment, after listening to Wei Yan's explanation, Zhao Yun humbly asked for advice and asked him to provide more details.

After all, Zhao Yun was the last to arrive among all the generals. He only rested in Wuchang for two days before going out on the expedition. He did not have time to understand many situations and was simply too busy to handle everything.

Wei Yan quickly seized the opportunity to show off his skills and introduced himself, "Huan Jie is from Linxiang County, Changsha Prefecture. Twelve years ago, after Sun Jian defeated the Changsha rebel Qu Xing, he was appointed as the governor of Changsha by the imperial court.

The governor had the right to recommend an honest official every year. Huan Jie was recommended by Sun Jian as an honest official the year after Sun Jian took office as governor of Changsha. Later, he was able to serve as an official in the imperial court. Eight years ago, Sun Jian was shot and killed by Huang Zu, a subordinate of Liu Biao, in the Battle of Xianshan. Huan Jie, as an official of the imperial court, went to Liu Biao to plead for the return of Sun Jian's body.

Just because the Sun family was Huan Jie's benefactor, Huan Jie hated Liu Biao. This time, Cao Cao selected an official from Linxiang, Changsha, from among the officials in the capital, and secretly returned to Changsha to persuade Zhang Xian to rebel against Liu Biao and establish himself.

He should know that if he falls into the hands of the lord, he will surely die a miserable death for helping Cao Cao persuade Zhang Xian to rebel, and he will definitely resist to the end. "

After hearing the whole story, Zhao Yun also agreed with Wei Yan's judgment.

Zhao Yun stroked his beard and thought to himself, "From this, it can be seen that Huan Jie must be extremely stubborn. Moreover, Yun Chang and Zi Yu are still fighting with Sun Ce. The lord intends to destroy Jingnan first and then destroy Sun. Huan Jie was recommended by Sun Jian to serve in the government. He is loyal to Cao Cao and the Sun family. We must not let him live to continue to cause harm."

Zhao Yun was determined to kill, so he gave up trying to persuade them to surrender and ordered his troops to deploy according to the normal siege process, first capturing Ba Qiu and killing Huan Jie, and then dealing with the rest.

……

On the other hand, after Zhao Yun sent out his troops, he was temporarily stopped by Huan Jie in Baqiu.

On the other side, Zhang Fei went upstream from the Lishui River on the west bank of Dongting Lake without encountering any resistance along the way. In just two days, Zhang Fei went upstream for more than 200 miles and arrived at Zuotang County in Wuling County.

There were no more than a thousand soldiers defending Zuotang County, including some temporarily recruited local militiamen, who were ordered by Wuling Prefect Jin Xuan to defend the county to the death.

With Zhang Fei's power, it would be a piece of cake for him to capture Tang County by force.

However, it would take at least three days to cut down trees and build siege weapons, assemble the siege weapons shipped by ship, and organize a strong attack. And no matter how strong Zhang Fei was, he might not be able to take down the enemy in the first wave.

In order to save time, Zhang Fei chose to divide his troops into several thousand and set up camp in the east of Zuotang County to besiege it. He built a temporary wharf to unload all the troops and supplies carried by the ships on the Lishui River.

Then he took the main force, especially all the cavalry troops, bypassed Zuotang County and marched north by land to Chanling.

Chanling County is located near Youjiangkou, a tributary of the Yangtze River south of the Yangtze River. Its geographical location is not important today.

But seven or eight years later, after the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei stationed troops at Youjiangkou, using it as a base to cooperate with Zhou Yu to attack Jiangling, Nanjun controlled by Cao Ren. Later, Liu Bei built a new city, Gong'an County, at Youjiangkou downstream of Chanling as a barrier along the Yangtze River downstream of Jiangling.

When Lu Meng finally launched a surprise attack on Nanjun, it was Shi Ren who surrendered first in Gong'an County, and then persuaded Mi Fang in Jiangling to surrender as well, which led to Lu Meng's capture of Nanjun.

Today, Youjiangkou Dazhai and Gong'an County do not exist yet, so Chanling is already regarded as the throat of the Yangtze River and the gateway to the south of the Yangtze River in the lower reaches of Jiangling.

As long as Zhang Fei captured Chanling from Jin Xuan, it would be difficult for Liu Biao's army to cross the river and move south.

Zhang Fei ignored the road behind him and bypassed Zuo Tang. He marched on horseback for a day, crossing some hills in the middle, and finally arrived near Chanling County.

He originally thought that when he arrived, Jin Xuan's troops would definitely retreat back to Chanling to defend it, and he would have to work hard to break the city.

But the actual situation greatly surprised Zhang Fei.

When they were still thirty or forty miles away from the city, the scouts he sent out to explore the way came back on horseback to report that they had discovered signs of a battle between the two armies in Chanling.

"General! When we were scouting near Chanling County, we found several camps outside the city, seemingly preparing to attack the city. The four gates of Chanling County were tightly closed, as if they were holding out and waiting for help!"

Zhang Fei was anxious when he heard this: "What? Whose banner is this? Didn't Liu Biao send Liu Pan, Huang Zhong and Wen Pin to the north to attack Wancheng? How could he transfer troops from Jiangling to cross the river and counterattack Chanling so quickly?"

The scout immediately explained: "The troops attacking the city...are flying golden banners. They don't look like Liu Biao's troops. Could they be Jin Xuan's men?"

Zhang Fei was stunned, and became even more confused: "Jin Xuan's people? Isn't Jin Xuan the governor of Wuling? Isn't Chanling County a city in Wuling County? How could Jin Xuan attack himself? Nonsense! How did you get the information?
All troops, speed up and follow me to Chanling! If I find out that you are talking nonsense and spreading false military information, you will be in trouble soon!"

(End of this chapter)