Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 349 Jiangling City
In September of the sixth year of Jian'an, Bai Tu led 10,000 elite soldiers and went up the river from Jinling to Jiangling...
Ten thousand, not a very impressive number, but Bai Tu was only here as a mascot. With the other three armies and the newly recruited troops in the past two years, the General’s Mansion has a total of one hundred thousand troops on the Jiangling battlefield!
It's a complete "Just show up, why bring a gift (bing)"...
Of course, no matter how many people there are, they can't let Bai Tu chat and come here on his own, that would be too embarrassing, so they still gathered 10,000 elite soldiers, and Lu Bu also came with them!
It can be said that the General's Mansion has clenched its fists this time, ready to "kill" Jiang Ling with one blow, and does not want to fight a protracted war.
Bai Tu was calculating the days. By now, something must have happened to some of the people. However, he still had to wait for news about the outcome and who would become the emperor.
During the same month when Bai Tu came, Sun Ce, Zhao Yun and others were just standing there doing nothing - the news that Bai Tu was going to lead the army in person spread much faster than his own men!
Knowing that Baitu was on the way, the soldiers on the front line worked extra hard. Even if there were any frictions between the various units, they all exercised restraint. The biggest "dispute" was about striving to be the first.
After all, whether it is Zhao Yun, Sun Ce, Chen Gong, Zhang Xiu... none of them are difficult to get along with. When you count them all, Zhou San'er is the one who has the most trouble. But with Sun Ce around, he is easier to deal with.
When Bai Tu arrived at Jiangling, the enemy camps outside the city had basically been wiped out, leaving only the most difficult Jiangling City, which was difficult to defend...
It’s better not to mention the likes of Liu Pan and Han Xuan, but the great General Huang Zhong indeed made Zhao Yun and Sun Ce hesitate to advance!
Now he is not afraid of Huang Zhong fighting against generals. Zhang Liao is slightly inferior to him in pure martial arts, but Sun Ce can at least be on par with him, and Zhao Yun is confident of winning after more than a hundred rounds.
Speaking of which, Zhao Yun felt a little embarrassed. After all... the other person was just an old man , and fighting with him in a leash was a bit of bullying.
But who made Zhao Yun take this slow and steady approach?
Now Lu Bu has arrived with Bai Tu. If Huang Zhong dares to go down the city to challenge him, the General's Mansion will prevent him from returning. It's just that... Huang Zhong is just older, not senile, and he won't come out to fight now.
After Bai Tu arrived at the Jiangling military camp, he first met Sun Ce, Zhao Yun and others... especially Zhang Xiu!
Although Zhang Xiu had already worked in the General's Mansion two years ago, because Nanyang was far away from the General's Mansion, even after it was opened up, Zhang Xiu continued to fight on the front lines, and Bai Tu did not specifically ask him to leave the front lines and return to Nanjing to report on his work.
Therefore, Zhang Xiu, the vanguard captain of the General's Mansion, who led the northernmost army of the General's Mansion and was the actual governor of the military and political affairs of Wancheng area and northern Nanyang, saw Bai Tu for the first time.
"I am Zhang Xiu, the humble general, and I am here to greet my lord!" Zhang Xiu bowed to Bai Tu.
"Youwei, please don't be so polite... The affairs of Nanyang are largely due to Youwei's care. I am a little ashamed to meet you today." Bai Tu hurriedly praised Zhang Xiu and said.
“Actually, it’s nothing… After Uncle Wenhe left, it’s always been Zilong who has been helping me. Xiu is just a rough man, how can he know how to manage things? It’s already the limit for me to be trusted by the lord and be able to lead troops to fight.” Zhang Xiu was not very good at speaking. Compared with Zhao Yun, he was more like a pure warrior, without a trace of literary air.
"Wenhe is doing well in Jinling, but Wenhe's daughter is getting married this year, so I didn't bother him to come with us."
"I... ahem, Xiu also heard about it. Thanks to the lord, otherwise my niece and the others would still be detained by Duan Wei!" Zhang Xiu was still not used to calling himself "Xiu", but his "I" always exuded the momentum of "Laozi", and Jia Xu had specially reminded him of this.
Bai Tu then talked about Jia Xu, which really brought him closer to Zhang Xiu. However, he really didn't understand how his generation was calculated. He called Jia Xu "uncle" and Jia Xu's daughter "niece"...
After discussing the "Source of the Rainbow" with Zhang Xiu, Bai Tu spoke to the generals about the affairs of Jiangling City.
"Jiangling has been the ancient capital of the Chu State since the pre-Qin period, and has been the center of the South for hundreds of years. The city walls are as solid as those of Luoyang in the past. The effect of the Baigong Cannon is not obvious, and... the places around where it is convenient to get stones for making bullets have basically been mined by us. It will take a longer time to make stone bullets now." Zhou Yu reported to Bai Tu the undesirability of demolition-style sieges.
The Baigong Cannon itself has limited effect on real first-tier cities and military fortresses, but Jiangling is not only among the first-tier cities, but also... has a historical heritage that surpasses Luoyang!
Luoyang declined so easily because Dong Zhuo's fire and forced relocation burned out the people's hearts.
"However, the garrison in Jiangling is insufficient. Even if the militia is mobilized, there are only about 30,000 people... and among them, only the Jingzhou troops withdrawn from Jingnan can be considered well-trained veterans with battlefield experience." Chen Gong added.
"This afternoon, I will go to the battlefield in person to see if I can persuade them to surrender... If Jiang Ling is willing to surrender the city, a lot of blood will be saved, whether for the enemy or for us, the military or civilians." Bai Tu nodded and said.
The generals and counselors had no objection to this - Bai Tu had already come in person, so it was only natural for him to go and call for the formation first.
However, Liu Pan is Liu Biao's nephew, so I'm afraid he won't surrender so easily.
…
There was celebration among the troops in the General's Mansion. Although Jiangling had been surrounded and its ears and eyes were blocked, they had heard the news before that Bai Tu would personally lead the army!
Seeing that the city was becoming even more gloomy, Liu Pan was quite proactive. He called aides such as Han Xuan, as well as generals such as Huang Zhong, to the camp to discuss matters - in fact, there was nothing to "discuss", the main purpose was to cheer everyone up.
Now that the day is almost here, Liu Pan no longer conceals the fact that something might happen in Xu Du. Instead, he adds fuel to the fire, making it seem as if the imperial court has changed its name to Liu again and will soon teach these traitors a lesson, and that what lies ahead is only the darkness before dawn.
Han Xuan, Jin Xuan, Zhao Fan and the others actually fell for it. The gloom on their faces immediately disappeared. On the contrary, Huang Zhong remained expressionless. Firstly, he had guessed it before, and secondly... Huang Zhong knew the situation in Jiangling better. What about Xu Du and the imperial court? If the General's Mansion did not hesitate to suffer casualties, it might be too late to put out a nearby fire!
What's even more terrifying is that Huang Zhong calculated the time when the attack on the General's Mansion would begin...
You wouldn't have leaked the news a long time ago, right?
If the General's Mansion had really anticipated this, then the other party was now planning to capture Jiangling before the imperial court mediated!
Of course, Huang Zhong understood Liu Pan and the other people's personalities. Although he was worried, he would not say it out loud and spoil the fun.
However, another person present, Wei, who also noticed something, did not control his expression so strictly...
"Wei Yan! What's that expression on your face? Are you dissatisfied with me? You dare to shake the morale of the army in the face of a powerful enemy... Come on! Take him out and beat him with twenty military sticks!"
