Chapter 438 Death of Zhou Chong
If it were a field battle, Sun Ce might not be willing to exchange prisoners, but if he were to defend the city, the morale requirements for his soldiers would be much lower. With the protection of the city wall, the will to fight would be easily restored as the war progresses.
Huan Jie felt that this was justified, so he summoned Kuai Yue's envoy.
When the other party heard this, he suddenly looked embarrassed. After all, Kuai Yue only wanted to exchange the upper-level prisoners of both sides, and did not mention the lower-level soldiers.
"This... my chief governor did not mention this. It is really difficult for foreign ministers to make the decision."
"In that case."
Sun Ce suddenly interjected: "Then it's of no use for you to stay in Linxiang. Why don't you go back and report to your chief governor, please get his approval, and then come back to discuss it."
Huan Jie nodded in agreement: "What Bo Fu said is my opinion. You can go back and report it to the commander-in-chief of your army."
The envoy from Kuai Yue saw that Huan Jie was determined and had to resign.
Sun Ce insisted on the exchange of all prisoners of war between the two armies. Naturally, he valued the more than 5,000 soldiers. He could trade more than 2,000 for more than 5,000. Since he was on the defensive side, he naturally made a lot of money. It is not surprising why Kuai Yue only asked for the exchange of upper-level prisoners and said nothing about the exchange of soldiers for prisoners.
After Kuai Yue's envoy returned, he reported to Kuai Yue.
Kuai Yue laughed and said to Cai Mao beside him: "Degui, it seems that Mao Gui and others will be aggrieved for the time being."
Cai Mao understood what Kuai Yue meant. Even if he was the commander-in-chief, he would definitely not agree to the exchange of prisoners. This would be a huge disadvantage to the Jingbei Army.
Originally, they were the defenders of the city, and they sent 5,000 young men to the other side, so that they could exchange for more than 2,000 people. Even if the attackers and defenders lost 1:2 here and there, they would still have to lose more than 7,000 people. Not to mention that the advantage of a strong city like Linxiang is far more than 1:2.
"Okay."
Cai Mao's reaction made Kuai Yue very satisfied, and he immediately ordered: "In this case, Degui, you should speed up and reach the foot of Linxiang City within three days to build a fortress for the army."
"Here!"
Cai Mao stood up and held his hands in his hands: "The last general takes orders."
*
When Cai Mao arrived at Wangcheng, the city was already deserted. Not only were the houses burned down, but even the city gates were deliberately damaged.
Cai Mao was very angry, but there was nothing he could do.
The other party knows the art of war, so it is naturally impossible for him to leave Wangcheng intact to himself.
Wangcheng is only a few dozen miles away from Linxiang. If it falls into Cai Mao's hands intact, it can be immediately used as an advance base. It can not only store a large amount of food, ordnance and other materials, but also place wounded soldiers.
Fortunately, no matter how much Wangcheng was destroyed, the city wall was still intact. This was also because Sun Ce and others did not have time.
"Leave three thousand young men to clean up the city and build warehouses and houses without any mistakes."
Cai Mao gave instructions and rested in Wangcheng for only one day before continuing to Linxiang.
At noon the next day, Cai Mao's army arrived outside Linxiang City and faced Linxiang across the river.
At this time, Cai Mao was based on the east of the Xiang River, north of the Liu River, and southeast of Linxiang City.
Cai Mao looked at the city wall of Linxiang City, which was more than three feet high. He did not rush to cross the river, but first set up camp on the north bank.
At this time, Sun Ce on the tower saw this scene and sighed with regret.
He has selected three thousand elite soldiers and two hundred cavalry, and is waiting at the east gate.
As long as Cai Mao dares to cross the river, he will give him a surprise.
Cai Mao was stationed east of the Xiangshui River, but found that the surrounding mountains and forests had been cleared. This was one of the few suggestions that Zhang Xian and Huan Jie had adopted a few months ago.
As a result, if Cai Mao wanted to build a fort, in addition to the wood transported with the army, he had to travel dozens of miles to Yuchi Mountain around Wangcheng to cut it down.
As a result, Cai Mao's progress was greatly delayed. Four days later, when Kuai Yue led the main force and hundreds of large and small ships to Linxiang, less than a quarter of the progress of the camp was completed.
After Kuai Yue understood the situation, he did not blame Cai Mao. This kind of strong wall and clearing the country was common. Unless the opponent had no war experience at all, or was in a hurry and had no time, it would be impossible to leave the trees in the suburbs for the attacking party.
After disembarking, Kuai Yue ordered additional men to cut down the trees. He also ordered the rear team to stop at Baqiu and Wangcheng and not to move forward for the time being.
In this way, two days later, the camp to the north of Linxiang was finally completed, facing Linxiang City across the Liushui River.
The next day, with the advance base in place, the Jingbei Army began to cross the river.
Unlike Cai Mao's time before, this time there was an endless fleet of ships on the Xiangshui River and Liuhe River, with a total of two to three hundred large and small warships. These warships are fully equipped with bows and crossbows and can cover a distance of 40 to 80 meters from the shore.
At the same time, there are also some warships with deep drafts. They are obviously carrying heavy loads, and they are most likely armored elites. They can use the mobility of the waterway at any time to outflank the flanks and rear of the troops leaving the city.
Cai Mao took Huang Zhong as the vanguard and Wenpin as the supporter. Cai Yan crossed the river downstream of Liushui River to outflank him, and officially began the river-crossing operation.
Just when Cai Mao's entire army, and even Kuai Yue, felt that it was impossible for Jingnan's army to come out of the city to harass, the trumpet for dispatching troops was sounded at the top of the city.
**
A battle had just ended. Although Cai Mao successfully crossed the river, he was attacked back and forth by Sun Ce, destroying two formations and causing hundreds of casualties.
This victory was far smaller than that of the Battle of Wangcheng, but the boost to the morale of Linxiang City was far greater than the previous one.
Sun Ce only led more than 3,000 men, but he was able to move freely among tens of thousands of enemy formations, and even defeated two enemy formations. This was more of a morale booster than the great victory at Lubu.
The morale on Linxiang's side increased greatly, but Cai Mao's face turned ugly.
The two formations defeated by Sun Ce were the raiding formations outflanked by Cai Yan.
They were not the main force, but the troops protecting the flanks of the main force. However, they were defeated by Sun Ce in one blow, so fast that even Huang Zhong and Wenpin had no time to rescue them.
Without the support of the fleet and the threats from Huang Zhong and Wenpin, Cai Yan would have lost hundreds of people.
Cai Mao was angry and anxious about this, but he had nothing to do. He arranged this task for Cai Yan because it was easier. But who would have thought that Cai Yan was also eager to achieve success and rushed too hard to find a fighting opportunity for Sun Ce.
Fortunately, the damage was not serious, Huang Zhong and Wenpin also helped cover it up, and Cai Yan did complete the task of covering the flank in a sense, and finally returned the favor.
The war in Liuhenan came to an end. Kuai Yue, who stood on the watchtower and saw the overall situation, did not punish Cai Yan. Instead, he rewarded Cai Yan based on his meritorious deeds and canceled the previous guilt, which was regarded as atonement.
In the following days, the Jingbei Army continued to cross Liushui and began to build fortresses south of Liushui.
During this period of time, Sun Ce made several attacks, and each time he was able to gain more or less advantage, disrupting the Jingbei Army's fortification rhythm and slowing down their progress.
This piecemeal attack also caused thousands of casualties to the Jingbei Army and burned down more than ten construction sites. The progress of the fortification that was supposed to be completed within April was suddenly delayed by Sun Ce for more than half a month.
By mid-May, the large fortress was completed and many siege equipment were ready, and Sun Ce could no longer attack easily.
This also means that the official siege of Jingbei Army is coming. **
"Zhou Boyuan, I respect you as a famous scholar in Huaisi. I am tolerant of you, but not without a bottom line!"
Liu Xun stood in front of a bed in Zhou's house in Shu County, with a ferocious look on his face: "Will you write this letter today or not!?"
Zhou Chong was almost exhausted at this time.
All the elite descendants of the family were killed by Dong Zhuo in Luoyang. His younger brother was far away in Luozhong, unable to recover.
Now that he is in Shu County, he is like Liu Xun's shield.
What have I, Zhou Chong, done in my life?
Zhou Chong's eyes turned to Liu Xun. Seeing the fierce look on his face, he just felt ridiculous.
This Liu Xun was also from a famous family in Shandong, and he was a descendant of the Han royal family. Why didn't you see that he was such an idiot in the past?
"Are you going to write or not!?"
Liu Xun looked at Zhou Chong and was irritated by the contempt and disgust contained in it. He rushed forward and grabbed Zhou Chong's neck.
The reason Liu Xun was so anxious was because Shucheng was about to run out of food.
Please...you...Collect_6Ⅰ9ⅠBookⅠ(Six\\\Nine\\\Book\\\!)
The continuous drought has already drained the people of Shu County of their food rations. Now, even Liu Xun has no food in his inner treasury.
It turns out that Jingzhou sent some food from time to time to meet urgent needs, but since the mutiny in Jingnan when he raised troops to resist Liu Biao's rule at the end of last year, Jingzhou has never sent food over again.
First, Jingzhou is about to launch troops, and it will be a war involving 100,000 people, so it has to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
Secondly, at this critical moment, Liu Biao and even the upper echelons of Northern Jingzhou did not want to provoke Liu Bei and Liu Feng's father and son.
But this time, Liu Xun was sitting on the wax.
Even though he had been desperately hoarding food before, the remaining food was now completely exhausted.
Liu Xun then set his sights on the big families in the city. This was not because he was showing mercy to the people at the bottom, but because the people at the bottom would not survive now.
It's just that the current situation really echoes the old saying that even the landlords have no food left. Liu Xun, who couldn't find any food, finally came up with the idea of forcing Zhou Chong to write a letter to Zhou Yu asking for food.
Only then did Liu Xun forcefully break into Zhou's mansion and force Zhou Chong to write a letter to Zhou Yu.
At this time, Zhou Chong was already skinny and bones, and Liu Xun lifted him up without any effort at all. But Zhou Chong, who was also powerless, turned pale, and Liu Xun grabbed his collar, tightening his neck.
"Animals...animals..."
Zhou Chong struggled to spit out a few words.
At this moment, Zhou Chong only had disgust and hatred for Liu Xun in his eyes.
Shucheng, which was originally a Shangxian County, now has no civilians in sight. Starving people and bones are everywhere.
As early as last year, the people in the city had eaten up all the food they could eat, and in the end they were eating each other, so that now there are not even a few people alive in Shu City.
Except for a few wealthy families, there were only living people in the county mansion and the barracks.
In sharp contrast, in Jiujiang and the north of Lujiang next door, thanks to Liu Bei and Liu Feng's father and son's efforts in disaster relief, not only did no one starve to death, but a large number of water conservancy projects were even built to irrigate more areas. field.
All this is because of Liu Xun.
Zhou Chong wished he could eat his flesh, drink his blood, cramp his tendons, and smash Liu Xun's bones into ashes.
Liu Xun frowned slightly. He couldn't hear clearly and could only move forward.
"Liu...Zitai,...you deserve to die. I'll wait for you below."
When Liu Xun heard Zhou Chong insulting and cursing him, he became furious and couldn't help but hit Zhou Chong's head with the handle of the knife with his left hand.
Zhou Chong was already exhausted. Even if Liu Xun didn't take action, he would be dead. He couldn't bear the heavy blow and died on the spot.
Seeing Zhou Chong dying, Liu Xun was dumbfounded. He just wanted to force Zhou Chong to write to Zhou Yu asking for food, but why did this old guy ask for death?
Liu Xun felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. Zhou Chong was not an ordinary person. He was the previous generation head of the Zhou family in Huaisi. Although he had not served as the third official like his ancestors, he was still a prominent official with two thousand stones.
If all the elite children of the Zhou family had not been deceived by Dong Zhuo and sent to Luoyang to be slaughtered in one go, when would it be Liu Xun's turn to make the decision in Lujiang?
If this were not the case, Zhou Chong had been in Shucheng all the time. Did Liu Xun come to persecute him only when he was at the end of his rope?
Liu Xun stood there stupidly for a long time. It was not until his confidant came forward to ask that he said three words in a daze.
"Woe, woe..."
**
Wu County, Wu County, Yangzhou.
Liu Feng's General Zuo's Mansion has many documents coming in and out every day and manages the entire Yangzhou, as well as some asset workshops in Xuzhou and Yuzhou.
It has already entered June, and summer harvests in various places are extremely busy. After the summer harvest, it is even busier for summer sowing.
On this day, Zhuge Liang suddenly sent an urgent document to the inner room.
Liu Feng was a little surprised. The content of the urgent document that Zhuge Liang could pick out must be very important.
"Kong Ming, what happened?"
However, Zhuge Liang sent the document to Liu Baofei before replying: "Guanzhong urgent report."
"So fast!?"
Liu Feng's face darkened, and he immediately opened the silk book and started reading.
Sure enough, just as he feared, the information recorded in the silk book was the news that Cao Cao defeated the coalition forces of Li Jue and Guo Si and occupied Chang'an.
Regarding Cao Cao's movements, Liu Feng has always been placed in the first level of intelligence, higher than Yuan Shao's second level. Currently, the only people who can rank first in Liu Feng's intelligence system are Cao Cao and Liu Feng's first target, Liu Biao.
Cao Cao sent out troops in early March, with Cao Ren as the main general and six thousand troops. It took half a month to capture Tongguan. Next, Cao Ren, Yue Jin, and Yu Jin were selected as generals to sweep Guanzhong.
In mid-April, the three generals successively captured Huayin, Zhengcheng, Linjin and other counties and approached Chang'an.
In late April, Cao Cao officially led his troops into battle. Within ten days, the army arrived outside Chang'an City and garrisoned on Ba Ling. Guanzhong was shocked.
A series of defeats made Li Jue, Guo Si and others in Chang'an City panic. Although they did not dare to fight, there was no food in Chang'an City. More importantly, Chang'an is a giant city in this era, with a circumference of up to sixty-five miles. If you want to defend such a huge city, it is impossible to defend the city wall alone without tens of thousands of people.
(End of chapter)