Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 360: The Jing Army Marches North
The commander of the Jingzhou army was Kuai Yue, who also had the great general Wen Pin. They marched northward, and several counties that were originally fence-sitters surrendered.
The defenders who were originally loyal to Zhang Xiu surrendered or fled. After all...if the Xiliang Army's military discipline was really strong, would Guanzhong be in this state now?
Never expect an army with poor discipline to remain loyal.
On the other hand, Kuai Yue, a scholar, also followed Wen Pin closely and chased the fleeing defenders everywhere. In the end, he actually caught them in the tail!
Hundreds of scattered soldiers were crushed by the army and instantly turned into hundreds of blood-stained armors and dozens of prisoners...
That’s right, Kuai Yue wanted to launch a rapid and lightning attack and brought out almost all the cavalry from Jingzhou Prefecture - in order to deceive the enemy into opening the city of Wan, he took along a part of the surrendered defeated troops.
They marched quickly all the way, mobilizing almost all the cavalry of Jingzhou Prefecture, and when they arrived near Wancheng, they were not even much later than the news of the fall of Nieyang County!
Outside Wancheng, taking advantage of the night, five thousand main cavalrymen advanced slowly and silently without holding torches, and two miles ahead were the hundreds of elite soldiers led by Wen Pin - Ji-made soldiers. They could also change their armor, but their acting skills... required special training, or in other words, they needed veterans to be competent.
Because Jingzhou is the only way for Yizhou to leave Sichuan after Hanzhong was completely blocked, it is relatively easy for Jingzhou Prefecture to buy Dian horses. The number and elite level of the cavalry cannot be compared with those in the Central Plains and Hebei, but it is more than the General's Mansion before conquering Zhang Xiu two years ago!
There were real Xiliang captives in the dug-out army. Although they felt guilty when they shouted, Lei Xu and Zhang Xian didn't hear any flaws. Moreover, they came at night, so it was even harder to recognize them by their appearance.
It should have been easy to deceive the two people if they had achieved this, but Zhang Chunhua saw through it!
Because Zhang Chunhua was Jia Xu's student, and... it was rumored that she had some unclear relationship with Bai Tu, so before Zhang Xiu left, he reminded the two of them not to neglect them.
Lei Xu and Zhang Xian are also old hands. Not to mention their respect for Jia Xu, just the future... ahem, this factor makes them have no choice but to curry favor with him. Zhang Xiu's reminder is actually completely unnecessary . Not only should they not be negligent, they can be even more shameless!
Even at such a critical moment, when Zhang Chunhua asked to go up to the city wall, both of them ordered people not to stop her.
It was a good thing that it was like this, because then Zhang Chunhua discovered the flaw - each of these people looked extremely embarrassed, some were even being held or carried by their comrades, and blood could be seen on their bodies, but... everyone had a complete set of weapons in their hands!
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xian wanted to say that the men of Xiliang would never abandon their weapons when retreating.
After all, the situation in Liangzhou is that they often have to face foreign races. Once the army is defeated, they will most likely have to wander around in the enemy's mopping-up area for a few days. Without weapons, even if they run faster, their survival rate will be lower!
Therefore, in this regard, the elites of Xiliang will not make the mistake of abandoning their weapons.
However, Zhang Xian and Lei Xu thought about it and understood that this only refers to a small number of elite troops. The garrison troops sent to various counties are at most 10% elite, and the rest are new soldiers recruited locally...
So the two of them accepted the opinion of Zhang Chunhua, who looked very young and was still a woman - at this time, Jia Xu's identity as a student undoubtedly provided Zhang Chunhua with higher credibility!
After listening to Zhang Chunhua's advice, the two men shouted to delay time while taking advantage of the situation. They followed Zhang Chunhua's command and arranged three rows of strong crossbowmen in the dark in the city gate, with countless people holding shields, guns and bows on both wings.
After the fake hundreds of defeated soldiers entered the city, they were illuminated by the lights near the city gate. The three rows of crossbowmen a hundred steps away were completely in darkness, and at most they could see some vague outlines!
As soon as Wen Pin entered the city, he discovered that there was something wrong with the four torches - why were they all shining around the city gate?
"The enemy has fallen into a trap! Draw the fire!" The generals who had been arranged around shouted at this time.
In this way, Wen Pin was still able to keep his composure, but the captured captain was already shouting, "Wait! Generals... I was forced to do this!"
After hearing this, how could Lei Xu and Zhang Xian not know it was a trick?
Directly give the order to shoot arrows - forced? Damn your grandma's forced...
Not to mention occupying the city gate, now only the vanguard of the gate was in the open, completely passively taking the fire, and couldn't even see where the enemy was in the dark. Even the most elite and best prepared to fight for their lives fell into panic.
Before the main force ambushed outside could rush to the city wall, most of the troops had already been killed, and only a small part of them retreated. Wen Pin himself almost died in it...
When Bai Tu was meeting Jian Yong, the urgent news he received was mainly about the Jingzhou army heading north and the news that Wancheng had made preparations for defense!
For Wancheng, the casualties of this battle were small, but it broke the morale of the Jingzhou army. More importantly, with Wancheng's high walls and deep trenches, if a surprise attack failed, a forceful assault would take more than a few months!
Although most of the elite troops of Wancheng were taken away by Zhang Xiu to fight, the part that remained behind consisted mostly of new recruits, and there were still sufficient grassroots backbone generals. As long as they kept their spirits up and did not get instigated by internal rebellion or tricked into opening the city gates, they would not need any strategies from famous generals and could just obey orders to "defend the city to the death" and last for some time.
Wancheng is no longer isolated and helpless, and the main force of the General's Mansion is not far from Xiangyang and Fancheng!
Moreover, the Wancheng Army, which was led by the Xiliang Army as its backbone, was inherently immune to the use of the imperial court's righteousness to persuade them to surrender.
Zhang Xiu's troops were inherited from Zhang Ji, and Zhang Ji, together with Li Jue and Guo Si, counterattacked Chang'an after Jia Xu offered advice.
If they trusted the imperial court, would the Han Dynasty have ended up like this?
After all, after Dong Zhuo's death, they only asked for a pardon but were denied it. There was even a rumor among the people of Liangzhou that the imperial court wanted to "kill all the people of Liangzhou"...
It is unknown whether this is a rumor or Wang Yun's angry words, but... this part of the Xiliang Army's generals can be said to have a deep "court ptsd", which is completely different from the new Xiliang Army led by Ma Teng and Han Sui who now claim to be loyal to the court!
After Zhang Xiu surrendered to the General's Mansion, and especially recently, after the Wancheng area along the northern part of Jiangxia and the southern part of Runan were connected with Yangzhou, they gradually enjoyed the treatment of the General's Mansion's army. Knowing that there would be support, how could they listen to Kuai Yue's lies?
As for why Bai Tu appeared to be cold and sarcastic on the surface but was secretly happy?
Firstly, since Wancheng was not taken by surprise attack, it was basically impossible to conquer it quickly; secondly... this was not like Liu Biao's style, but rather it seemed that the gentry in Nanjun were getting anxious!
In other words, the situation in Xiangyang has probably changed a lot.
Well, it should be the slight linkage effect brought about by the improvement of the living standards of the people of Xiangyang under the humanitarian care of "Yangzhou's sugar, meat and livestock are dumped at a discount, and various recipes are also provided"!
Anyway, Bai Tu has no bad intentions...
