Chapter 427 Across the River

Wei Yan and Zhang Liao fought all the way to Jiangling from both fronts. However, Cai Hao and others had already made up their minds to withdraw their troops and almost emptied Jiangling. When Wei Yan and Zhang Liao met at the foot of Jiangling City, Jiangling had become an empty city, but Zhang Liao had robbed a lot. It was a pity that Gan Ning was not with him. There were not many generals around him who were good at water warfare. At this moment, he could only look at the river and sigh.

"General Wei Yan, please see me, general!" Wei Yan came to Zhang Liao and saluted Zhang Liao.

"Good boy, let me help you. You can take over Xiangyang City directly!" Zhang Liao looked at Wei Yan and smiled. He didn't care about Jingzhou's contribution. After all, his contribution to defeating Shu and the Western Regions was enough to stabilize his current status. Although he didn't It's a bit regretful to be able to participate in the battle of the Central Plains. It's a bit unpleasant to be taken away by Gao Shun's men now, but it's not like he hates Wei Yan because of it.

Are you a young man? He is arrogant. Lu Bu was much more arrogant than Wei Yan when he was young. Look at how stable he is now.

"It's not the general's intention, it's just that the Jingzhou army is too inexperienced." Wei Yan said proudly.

"Okay." Zhang Liao waved his hand. As expected of someone who came from Ma Chao, he looked just like Ma Chao back then: "Here, help me rectify Nanjun. As for Jiangxia, I will leave it to Gongming to pacify."

Wei Yan got the first credit, so Zhang Liao didn't argue with him. However, Zhang Liao also wanted to promote his own people for Jiangxia's credit, and handed it over to Xu Huang. Everyone knew that the world was about to be ruined, and that was all he had to take credit for. Zhang Liao doesn't need it, but Xu Huang, who has been with Zhang Liao for many years, does. He doesn't have to fight with Wei Yan, but he has to fight for his own men.

"Listen to the general." Wei Yan didn't refuse. Since Zhang Liao didn't care about him, he couldn't push further. As the three most independent generals under Lu Bu, don't really think that he has no temper.

Zhang Liao nodded and said nothing more. After Xu Huang received the general order from Zhang Liao, he quickly reorganized his troops and set off for the expedition the next day.

Jiangxia was given to Sun Ce back then, but Sun Ce had no intention of repaying it. Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened in Xinye. Sun Ce died and Jiangdong was in civil strife. Naturally, he was unable to continue to dominate Jiangxia and quickly withdrew from Jiangxia.

The purpose of Liu Biao's temporary surrender of Jiangxia to Sun Ce was to restrict the family and transfer back Huang Zu, who nominally belonged to him but was actually his warlord.

At other times, it was not easy to transfer Huang Zu back, but at that time it was the general trend for the princes to unite to fight against Lu Bu. The big families in Jingzhou such as Cai Mao, Kuai Liang, and Zhang Yun all sided with Liu Biao, and even the Huang family also sided with Liu Biao. Huang Zu Jiangxia could only give up and support the general trend of the alliance to defeat Lu.

However, there is no need to mention the outcome of that battle now. The alliance was considered defeated and even Sun Ce died.

If Sun Ce had not died, he would most likely have refused to pay it back, but if Sun Ce died in the battle, the Sun family could hardly save Jiangdong, so how could they dare to covet Jiangxia and return it obediently.

However, Liu Biao did not let Huang Zu continue to serve as the governor of Jiangxia. Instead, he sent Liu Qi to Jiangxia, first to protect Liu Qi, and later to further strengthen his control over Jingzhou.

It is a pity that Liu Biao died of illness not long after, otherwise Jingzhou may not be in the situation it is today.

However, Liu Qi was defeated by Deng Ai outside Fancheng, and his morale was not high. When he was ready to mobilize all his troops for support after returning, Xiangyang had been captured by Wei Yan, and all the way to Jiangling.

Even though Liu Qi wanted to help, he was unable to save the day. Now that Zhang Liao and Wei Yan had captured Nanjun and were unable to cross the river, their attention naturally fell on Jiangxia. Xu Huang led his army across the river to attack, and the generals on Liu Qi's side were beheaded within three days. Eighteen soldiers and more than 10,000 soldiers and horses were defeated. Seeing that the army was about to attack Xiling, Liu Qi did not choose to flee from Xiakou to Jingnan, but chose to surrender.

Liu Cong and Liu Qi were both members of the Han clan. Even if Lu Bu didn't tell them, Xu Huang would not dare to kill them randomly if they surrendered. After regaining Jiangxia, he took Liu Qi to Jiangling.

Zhang Liao immediately went out to welcome Liu Qi after hearing the news. Liu Qi's surrender was not only an issue for the Han clan, but also related to Zhang Liao's navy. The Jingzhou navy was pretty good, at least more reliable than theirs.

Gan Ning, the unreliable man, went to Youzhou and never came back. Zhang Liao was in urgent need of sailors to help him cross the river, so he had a very warm attitude towards Liu Qi.

"General Zhang doesn't have to be like this. I can only surrender the general. The general is so powerful that I can hear it like thunder." Liu Qi was a little uncomfortable with Zhang Liao's warmth. Is a Han clan member so prestigious?

Zhang Liao, like Gao Shun, is a pure general, not very good at polite words. Hearing this, he smiled and said: "My eldest son, I want to cross the river, but I don't have a navy. Should the navy generals under your account be there?" Young master, I wonder if you can recommend me."

He didn't directly ask for help. Zhang Liao didn't dare to use the newly surrendered troops if they dared to help him. He just wanted to recruit a few experienced navy generals to surrender, firstly to learn naval warfare tactics, and secondly to take a look at them. Can we recruit two replacements for Gan Ning?

When he thought of this, Zhang Liao wanted to scold him. Gan Ning was really unreliable at all, otherwise they wouldn't have watched Liu Cong run away.

"There are quite a few generals in Jingzhou who are good at water warfare, and the strongest among them is General Zhongye." Liu Qi thought for a while and said, "Of course, there are other water generals, but I always feel they are worse than General Zhongye. ”

"Wenpin is not bad." Wei Yan nodded in approval. When the Nanyang Army's equipment was not available, he suffered several losses from Wenpin. Basically, Wenpin was not as good as Wei Yan when he went ashore, but when he got to the water Wei Yan couldn't defeat Wenpin.

Later, with the advent of Lian Nu, the Jingzhou Army was gradually suppressed. As long as they did not go into the water, the Jingzhou Army was no match.

Now... the art of war seems to be useless. As long as they are not too stupid and have enough logistics, the Nanyang Army has no reason to lose. Too many battle losses will be a shame.

"It's a pity that Wenpin has already crossed the river." Zhang Liao has nothing to do about it. The Jingzhou Army will definitely block the river. If they want to cross the river now, the other side will definitely use their naval superiority to restrict this side, and may even directly attack the ships here. and navy.

Besides, if a general like Wenpin could be captured, the Jingzhou Navy would actually have nothing to fear.

"I heard brother Liu Pan talk about a person before. He was Huang Zhong, a veteran in Jingzhou. In the early years of the Yellow Turban rebellion, he defeated thousands of troops. General Wenpin and brother Liu Pan were both mentored by this man. However, because of his old age, he never It has to be reused," Liu Qi recalled.

"How old is this person?" Zhang Liao asked doubtfully.

"Looking at it, he must be in his late teens."

"Seventy?" Wei Yan shook his head: "Then it's better not to look for him and let him spend his remaining years peacefully."

It is only a matter of time before we reach Jingnan. There is no need to find a veteran and disturb people's purity.

"Where is this person?" Zhang Liao looked at Liu Qi and asked.

Liu Qi shook his head: "I've only heard about it, but I don't know who this person is or where he lives now."

"Thank you, sir." Zhang Liao sighed. It seemed that he could only find another way to cross the river.

"General, I have an idea! Maybe you can give it a try." After sending Liu Qi away, Wei Yan came to Zhang Liao and suggested to Zhang Liao.

"Oh?" Zhang Liao looked at Wei Yan.

"The last general led a group of troops and crossed the river pretending to be Jingzhou's defeated army. He found an opportunity to burn their warships. The general took advantage of the situation and sent his troops across the river!" Wei Yan looked at Zhang Liao and said.

The biggest problem now is not that there is no boat, but that there is a boat that dare not cross the river. Although beating the Jingzhou Army on the ground is like beating a son, if their armor sinks in the river, it doesn't matter whether it will flood after falling into the water. , at most there would be a bubble on the river to prove that they had been there.

Without navy generals and navy, it would be delusional to cross the river.

Zhang Liao nodded when he heard this, this is also a method.

"General." Xu Huang suddenly looked at Zhang Liao and said: "My lord defeated the Naugo Kingdom's vine armor soldiers in southern Xinjiang and captured a large number of vine armors. When he left, he left three thousand pairs of vine armors with the general. What if we use the vine armors to cross the river? ?”

"Tengjia?" Wei Yan looked at Xu Huang in confusion: "How can this thing cross the river?"

"This rattan armor was made by the Ugo people by weaving rattan and repeatedly soaking it in oil. It is not only invulnerable to weapons and bullets, but also unsinkable when exposed to water. Our soldiers wearing rattan armor when crossing the river will not enter the water even if the boat sinks. And This thing is quite light, and when you look at it, it is the best armor for fighting in the water!" Xu Huang said.

"There is such a strange thing? Or three thousand pairs?" Wei Yan asked in surprise.

"Not bad!" Xu Huang nodded.

Zhang Liao thought: "In this case, I have a plan. I will follow Wen Chang's plan, and Wen Chang will disguise himself as Jingzhou's defeated army and sneak into the enemy's army. However, there is no need to burn the boats. Gongming will lead the Tengjia army to cross the river. Attack from a flank and break the enemy's water stronghold. When things are done, I will send my troops across the river!"

Strategies are not considered clever, but in fact, most strategies don't look too clever, they just need to be applicable. One of Wei Yan and Xu Huang beside Zhang Liao is brave and careful, with the talent of a general, and the other is calm and capable, and also a man of his own. , if these two people can cooperate, and Zhang Liao is in the middle to coordinate, it will not be a problem to break the water stronghold and connect the main force to cross the river.

"General, take your orders!" Wei Yan nodded immediately.

These people who got through naturally had to use the Nanyang Army. Nanyang originally belonged to Jingzhou, but was later occupied by Yuan Shu and Lu Bu. It never really belonged to Jingzhou, and the words were similar. There were even many Jingzhou people in the Nanyang Army. , now that the Jingzhou army has suffered a huge defeat, morale is low, and the army is in chaos. On the Jiangbei side, there are still Jingzhou troops fleeing from time to time. It is still feasible for him to lead his troops there in batches.

Xu Huang also nodded. He recognized Wei Yan's ability. Both sides cooperated. Although this time there were no firearms such as Vulcan Cannon, Detonating Thunder, and Sky-shaking Thunder, the Shu army's combat power was already good. With the cooperation of Tengjia, even if These Jingzhou troops will definitely be defeated in close combat.

"Go and prepare. You decide how to do it!" Zhang Liao directly delegated power. As long as his subordinates are capable, he doesn't have to worry too much. They will make improvements on their own. He only needs to wait for the results and send the troops, horses, and baggage in time. Next Just capture Jingnan!