Chapter 277: Soldiers Attack Ruyin
Zhou Yu was surprised. Liu Xun had been using this to tempt Zhou Yu to help, but Zhou Yu actually didn't have much hope.
After all, he knew very well the character of Liu Xun, and he had actually made other preparations.
I just didn't expect Liu Xun to be serious this time and conscript him as the captain of Lujiang. This is a military position and is more than enough to command an army.
Zhou Yu once served as the chief of Juchao under Yuan Shu, which was the head of Liubaishi County. Yuan Shu also wanted to promote Zhou Yu to the rank of captain, but Zhou Yu refused.
But Zhou Yu had enough qualifications. At this time, Liu Xun recruited Zhou Yu as the captain. Not only was his name justifiable, but his abilities and qualifications were very matched. No one would object.
For Liu Xun, Zhou Yu really worked hard in this incident, and he must be rewarded no matter what, otherwise who will work hard for him in the future?
There is a deeper reason, that is, the reputation of the Zhou family in Lujiang is too high, and Zhou Yu now represents the Zhou family.
Liu Xun deliberately dispatched Zhou Yu out of Lujiang in the name of reinforcing Shouchun so that he would not be able to come back for a while.
In this way, no matter what decision Liu Xun wants to make in the future, he can make it alone without having to go to Zhou Yu to discuss it, or even divide the interests to win over the other party to agree with him.
Liu Xun looked at Zhou Yu's grateful face, thinking that he had killed two birds with one stone, and couldn't help but smile proudly.
Zhou Yu also smiled brightly on the side. After all, his goal was achieved, and he didn't expect that at the end, he would get an unexpected surprise.
With the military position of Lujiang Captain, he could legitimately lead the army northward. This was a big patch in Zhou Yu's plan.
In this way, Zhou Yu felt that his plan was foolproof.
That night, Liu Xun stayed with Zhou Yu for a banquet. Both parties got what they wanted and were in a good mood, so they both got drunk before resting.
********
After Liu Bei received Liu Pi's surrender, he immediately appointed Liu Pi as his general. He Man, Zhang Peng, Zhou Cang, and Pei Yi were appointed as his generals in charge of Runan. Captains of the front, rear, left and right.
At the same time, Liu Bei also transferred Liu Pi to lead He Man and Zhang Peng to select 6,000 people to meet at the foot of Ruyin City and join forces to move south.
Liu Pi immediately accepted the order and prepared to say goodbye and leave.
Liu Bei grabbed Liu Pi's hand and said: "Gong Xiao, you need to know something before you go. Our Xuzhou army has strict military discipline and is strictly prohibited from disturbing the people. However, those who rob the people and invade the local area will definitely not be killed. Rao. I know that your military discipline has always been lax, but now that you are under Bei's rule, you can no longer ignore this matter."
Liu Pi, whose courtesy name is Gongxiao.
After hearing this, he nodded repeatedly and said: "My lord, please be at ease. If I know this, I will pay more attention to it. When I return to Pingyu this time, I will first rectify military discipline, select elites, and meet with my lord at Ruyin!"
"Good!"
Liu Bei patted Liu Pi's hand: "Be prepared to wait for me in Ruyin"
"Thank you Ming Gong! ”
Liu Bei sent Liu Pi five li away from Xiang County. Liu Pi repeatedly asked Liu Bei to stay, and then he gave up.
Liu Pi, He Man, and Zhang Peng bowed farewell to Liu Bei, then got on their horses and returned to Pingyu.
After returning to Xiang County, Liu Bei received a document from Zhang Fei's department.
The document reported that after Zhang Fei reunited with Zhao Yun's troops, he set off his troops southward under the guidance of Guo Jia and arrived at Longkang City along the Lishui River.
During the process of going south, the surrounding counties of Peiguo and Runan frequently sent up and down orders and bowed to Chen Chen.
Among them are Shansang County in Runan, Zhi County, Lin County, Zhuyi and Fuli in Peiguo.
At the suggestion of Guo Jia and Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei accepted their surrender and asked them to deliver food to Longkang City.
At this time, there were more than 4,000 defenders in Longkang City. The main force was Liang Gang's 2,000 men, plus 1,000 defenders, hundreds of county soldiers and powerful local tribesmen. The remaining The next thousand are the young men gathered temporarily.
Among them, the ones who can really fight are Liang Gang's two thousand troops and one thousand defenders. The remaining more than a thousand young and strong county soldiers are probably only capable of throwing a stone and shooting an arrow.
Seeing Zhang Fei tens of thousands of people. Liang Gang was very flustered.
As Liu Bei's official position became larger and larger, his reputation became higher and higher, and his direct ministers also became more and more famous.
Liu Bei's close generals such as Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun have also become famous at this time. They are well known in Xuzhou, and they are also well-known outside Xuzhou.
As one of Yuan Shu's most powerful generals, Liang Gang naturally has great vision.
He had also heard about the great fame of Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun. Now that they were serving only one of them, their strength was still five times lower.
Liang Gang was already restless at this time, but when things came to a close, he could only bite the bullet and deploy troops to defend.
Fortunately, he has not been lazy since he came to Longkang. He patrolled the Longkang city defense conscientiously and reinforced and improved the deficiencies.
Now, he is very grateful for his previous diligence, which gave him a sense of security.
However, Zhang Fei had no intention of attacking the city immediately. Instead, he went down to the camp and dug deep trenches, as if he wanted to surround Long Kang.
Although Liang Gang was confused, he was also a little happy. He wished that Zhang Fei would surround him for a year and a half. Anyway, there was a lot of food savings in Longkang City, which was enough to feed Liang Gang's army for half a year.
After half a year, there is a high probability that the war between Yuan Shu and Liu Bei will be decided. By then, he will wait and see and make a decision, but he will be much happier than starting the fight now.
Zhang Fei seemed to have really heard Liang Gang's thoughts. After leaving camp, he cut down trees and began to build various siege equipment in an orderly but unhurried manner.
Liang Gang also knew that once the siege equipment was ready, it would be time for the opponent to launch a general attack.
He wanted to destroy it, but Zhang Feijun protected the siege weapons very tightly, so Liang Gang could only sigh.
After learning that Zhang Fei had surrounded Long Kang, Liu Bei's middle army finally moved.
Liu Bei took Tian Yu as the vanguard and personally commanded an army of 24,000, falsely claiming to be 100,000, and marched straight towards Ruyin City along the Ying River.
As Liu Bei's old brother, Tian Yu was also the second batch of veterans to take charge of various schools. Although he stayed in Peiguo for the past year, he tried his best to stabilize the place, eliminate bandits, and assisted Chen Gui to govern Peiguo prosperously.
As a military general who is less than thirty, Tian Yu is not willing to retire in Peiguo.
This time Liu Bei was marching south, and Tian Yu was overjoyed when he was specially transferred from Pei State for reinforcements.
However, Liu Bei also received letters from his favorite generals such as Zang Ba and Qian Zhao. The two were very envious of Tian Yu for being able to get Liu Bei's orders, and expressed their feelings in letters in various ways. I want to make contributions to Xuzhou and want to contribute to Liu Bei's request.
The forced Liu Bei had to repeatedly revise the book to appease the other party, and promised that he would give priority to recruiting them for the next war.
After receiving Liu Bei's assurance, Zang Ba and Qian Zhao calmed down for a while. However, a few days later, they sent another letter asking Liu Bei if they had enough troops. If necessary, they could mobilize some more troops from them.
As Liu Bei's career continues to grow, everyone's confidence and vision will naturally continue to increase.
In the past, Zang Ba’s goal was just to guard a county. Tian Yu and Qian Zhao also just wanted to stand out and become famous.
But now Liu Bei has become a hussar general and the governor of the three states. This makes Zang Ba and others can't help but wonder if they can set their life goals higher, such as one state. The governor, or even the state pastor?
If you want to continue to be promoted, you obviously need meritorious service, and a lot of meritorious service.
Compared with long-term political merit, military merit will undoubtedly be a faster source of merit.
It is not surprising that Zang Ba and Qianzhao are so active.
In Liu Bei's army, Xun You served as a member of the army to offer wine, and recruited Chen Jiao, Xu Xuan and others to serve as confidential documents in the army.
Ruyin City is an important town in Runan. Although the county is governed by Pingyu, Ruyin is not inferior to Pingyu in all aspects, but even surpasses it.
Especially the city wall. The perimeter of the city wall of Ruyin City is sixteen miles. The walls are all three feet high, more than six feet wide at the bottom, and one to three feet wide at the top. The widest part can even accommodate a galloping horse.
The wall is made of rammed earth, with bricks on the outside. There is a 2-meter-high stone foundation at the lower part of the outer wall. The whole body is tilted inward and divided layer by layer.
The northeastern part of the city is adjacent to Yingshui River. The city draws water from Yingshui River and surrounds the city wall, forming a moat more than one foot wide. Such a fortified city is not inferior to Shouchun. Coupled with the army of five to six thousand people in the city and the same number of young men, it is no wonder that Yuan Shu has great confidence in Ruyin.
Don’t underestimate the strength of five or six thousand men. If it is a field battle, I am afraid Liu Bei can defeat the opponent with a thousand-man team or even a few hundred-man team, and then chase the rabbit. As if chasing and beating.
It would be completely different when it comes to defending the city. These young adults are a powerful supplement to the regular army. They are also the best logistics troops and can be responsible for transporting weapons and supplies, large oil and grease, etc. to the city. task.
At the same time, they can be incorporated into the regular army at any time to supplement military strength.
With the city wall as a support, these young and strong people will become more courageous, and as the battle progresses, they will even evolve into veterans.
So once the siege fails to capture the opponent in a short period of time, it will easily evolve into a long siege.
As soon as Liu Bei's army moved, Qiao Rui's request for help came to Shouchun like snowflakes.
Unfortunately, they failed to get any reinforcements. Instead, they were scolded by Yuan Shu, who ordered Qiaorui to defend Ruyin and was strictly prohibited from abandoning the city.
At the same time, Yuan Shu also sent a message to Qiao Rui, clearly informing him that he was already raising troops and that reinforcements from all walks of life would gather in Shouchun and then go north to relieve Ruyin.
Ruyin is less than two hundred miles away from Shouchun, and there is Shen County in the middle.
Once Yuan Shu assembles an elite force of 20,000 to 30,000 people and goes north, it is really possible to successfully relieve the siege.
On the other hand, Yuan Shu also urged Liu Xun, Sun Ben and others to speed up the dispatch of reinforcements, and approved Liu Xun's recommendation of Zhou Yu as the captain of Lujiang.
At this time, Yuan Shu was eager to recruit more forces to serve him. It was rare that the Zhou family was willing to take up a military position at this juncture. Not only did Yuan Shu not become suspicious, he even felt surprised.
Under pressure from Yuan Shu, Sun Ben and Sun Xiang had to gather 8,000 men to set out first. Sun Xiang personally led them to Hefei, waiting for the reinforcements from Lujiang to gather before continuing to reinforce Shouchun to the north.
Li Yang originally had more than 20,000 people, but Sun Bi and Sun Xiang had secretly sent 5,000 people across the river to join Sun Ce in Wudi.
At present, there are only 15,000 people left in Li Yang. After discussing with Sun Xiang, Sun Ben and Sun Xiang decided to send 8,000 troops first. Sun Xiang and Sun Ben each sent 4,000 troops, and Sun Ben led the remaining 5,000 troops. People guard Liyang, and at the same time quietly expand some military strength to prevent Liu Bei's army in Guangling or Liu Yao's army in Niuzhu on the other side from attacking.
After receiving the news from Yuan Shu and Sun Ben, Liu Xun also urged Zhou Yu to leave.
So Zhou Yu finally led eight thousand troops and more than five thousand civilians, escorting hundreds of large and small vehicles carrying tens of thousands of stones of grain and began to head north.
He will arrive at Hefei within five days, and then the grain will be transported to Shouchun by water. The men and horses took the land route and rushed to Shouchun with Sun Xiang for reinforcements.
At this time, among the eight thousand Buqu in Lujiang, 4,500 were from the Zhou Yu family. They were either old Buqu or Zhuang Ding. Some even served the Zhou family for three generations. Their loyalty was quite high. high.
Among the remaining 3,500 people, 30% have an oblique relationship with the Zhou family. Even the remaining people have heard of the Zhou family.
Therefore, Zhou Yu quickly gathered his troops and firmly controlled the military power of these eight thousand troops.
Sun Xiang took the 4,000 men from his headquarters and the 4,000 additional men assigned to him by Sun Bi to set off first. After all, not only did they have a long way to go, but one-third of the journey was on mountain roads. .
In fact, neither Sun Xiang nor Sun Ben wanted to come.
It’s just that Yuan Shu has never treated them badly, and there is no stupid behavior in history such as proclaiming emperor.
Sun Ce is still in Jiangdong after all, and he is surrounded by enemies. He has an excuse for not coming, but Sun Ben and Sun Xiang have to come, otherwise their reputation will really be ruined on the street. .
Sun Xiang set off bravely and arrived in Hefei on the fifth day of September. At this time, Zhou Yu had already set off from Shucheng County for three days. He would be able to arrive in Hefei in just two days.
Fortunately, after Liu Bei arrived at Ruyin City, the news was the same as the news from Long Kang. He was just doing civil engineering. While surrounding Ruyin, he was building engineering equipment on a large scale, but it was too late. It has not yet launched an offensive against the city wall.
The Qiao Rui in the city were standing ready while working hard to mobilize the power of the city to increase the chance of winning the defense.
This time Liu Bei went south, attracting a lot of attention. Cao Cao in the north, Liu Biao in the south, the Emperor in Luozhong, and even Yuan Shao north of the Yellow River and Liu Yao south of the Yangtze River all sent scouts , espionage, and detailed operations to explore the situation of the war.
Intelligence on the battlefield was continuously sent back to Cao Cao. Cao Cao found it interesting, so he sent Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, Man Chong, and Xi Xi into custody.
Xi Lu is the latest talent he has recruited. His courtesy name is Hongyu, and he is from Gaoping County, Shanyang County.
Xi Lu was born in the Gaoping Xi family, and was a classmate of Sun Qian, who served under Liu Bei, but his qualifications were much more powerful than Sun Qian's.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xi family was just a family with a high profile in the county. It enjoyed a good reputation in Gaoping, but it was no longer prominent in Yanzhou. Compared with the Zhou family in Shucheng, it was like the stars compared with the bright moon, and it was not ranked at all.
What no one could have imagined is that the Zhou family in Shucheng, which is now a big family, has been cursed since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. First, the direct descendants were wiped out by Dong Zhuo, and Zhou Yu relied on After turning over, he died young.
The eldest son was very heroic and loved his father, but he died earlier. His daughter married the prince Sun Deng, but Sun Deng was not a holiday. After the younger son made a mistake, he was demoted to the wilderness by Sun Quan.
Since then, the Zhou family in Shucheng has failed to recover and disappeared in the long river of history.
On the contrary, it was Xi Li who ushered in the glory of the Xi clan for hundreds of years.
The main deeds of Xi Lu are in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms and the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, but he does not appear in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
But the things he did were the highlight of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Speaking of Xi Lu, we must mention Xun Yu, the gravedigger of the Han Dynasty.
Xun Yu was known as a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty all his life, and he never betrayed the Han Dynasty until his death. However, almost everyone he recommended turned against him and strived to become a minister of Wei.
Zhong Yao, Hua Xin, Wang Lang, Du Ji, Zhao Yan, Chen Qun, etc. are almost all like this.
And this Xi Liu is the leader among them.
After being recommended by Xun Yu, he guessed Cao Cao's thoughts and took the lead to defeat Kong Rong and remove him from office.
Although a year later, the imperial court again appointed Kong Rong as a Taizhong doctor, but Xi Lu's contribution was noticed by Cao Cao.
Later, Zhao Wen was killed suddenly after overthrowing Situ, was executed for framing Kong Yuan, and forced the queen to be killed despite the emperor's pleas. Xi Lu almost became Cao Cao's white glove.
Although Xi Lu himself was not ranked among the three princes like Cheng Yu, Wang Lang, Hua Xin, Zhong Yao, and Chen Qun, his sons were still rewarded with two thousand shi.
The descendants of Xi Lu really made their fortune in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. They gave birth to a queen and a queen mother. They once dominated the central government and all three brothers were in charge of the government.
From then on to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Xi family has always been one of the first-class families in the world.
At this time, Xi Lu was still acting like a famous sage, following Xun Yu.
"Please take a look, gentlemen."
Cao Cao pointed to the map and said: "Liu Xuande is trying to make a fool of himself. He sent out three armies and went south to conquer Huaihe, but he stayed under the fortified city and made a lot of equipment. , what do you think it means? ”
Although there are only a few people present, they are all top wise men of this era. Xi Xi may not be the best, but he is definitely a wise man.
A few people looked at the map while listening to Cao Cao's introduction of the specific situation.
The more they listened, the more they felt that something was wrong.
It is said that soldiers are valuable and quick, but how can Liu Bei use troops like this?
Even if food aid is available, is there no need to waste it so much?
Do you want to besiege the city?
"Xuan Degong has been on the battlefield for a long time and is no ordinary person. This time when he went south, he specially ordered his son to go to Luo to seek orders. There must be deep meaning."
Man Boning was the first one. When he spoke, his voice was loud and upright: "From Chong's point of view, Xuande Gong must have a back-up move, but where is the back-up move? Chong is short of wisdom and it is unknown."
After listening, Man Chong was full of Chong. After saying this, Cheng Yu nodded in agreement and said, "What Boning said coincides with mine. Although Yu doesn't know where Xuande's intentions lie, he must have started his back-up plan before he completed the construction of the fortifications."
Cheng Yu was in charge of all matters in Yanzhou at this time. He should have rushed back to Yanzhou, but was delayed due to some matters, so he had not yet left Luoyang, so he was summoned by Cao Cao.
(End of this chapter)