After the Battle of Xiangfan ended that year, all the counties in the southern part of Nanyang County asked Liu Bei to surrender.
In this case, Liu Bei established Yiyang County according to the needs of the current situation, and made the counties in the southern part of Nanyang County that he recovered that year as subordinate counties of Yiyang County.
Liu Bei's move had two purposes.
The first purpose is to make Yiyang County a buffer zone between Jingzhou and the Central Plains, and to expand the strategic depth of the Jihan regime in the northern Jingzhou region.
With the existence of Yiyang County, even if Sima Yi, who was stationed in Wancheng, made a surprise attack in the future, Zhang Fei, who was in charge of Xiangyang, would have enough reaction time to dispatch his troops.
Liu Bei's first purpose is to defend, and his second purpose is to attack.
Yiyang County can be regarded as both a buffer zone and a war base for the Han army in the northern Jingbei region.
If Jingzhou wants to make a northern expedition in the future, then the Jingzhou defender can first transport soldiers, food, grass and military supplies to Xinye City.
In this way, the Jingzhou garrison's Northern Expedition will be greatly reduced in the future, and fighter opportunities can be created as quickly as possible.
That's exactly what Zhang Fei did at the moment.
As early as the news of Mi Yang's victory in Liangzhou reached Xiangyang, Zhang Fei, who knew Liu Bei very well, knew that Liu Bei would definitely take advantage of this opportunity to launch the first Northern Expedition.
According to Longzhong's idea at that time, once Yizhou sent troops to the Northern Expedition, Jingzhou would also respond on the flanks, thus putting Cao Wei in a pincer attack from the east and west.
Zhang Fei may seem careless on the surface, but his grasp of the current situation is no worse than any famous general in the world.
Precisely because he had deduced this in advance, Zhang Fei began to transport troops and food to Xinye one after another as early as two months ago.
As of today, there are 20,000 Han troops inside and outside Xinye City, with more than 100,000 shi of food and grass.
And this is only the strategic reserve that Zhang Fei can mobilize in the early stage.
Zhang Fei has been unknown in the war for the past three years because he has been immersed in farming for the past three years.
Thanks to Jingzhou's geographical advantages, and thanks to Zhang Sanye's diligent cultivation over the past three years, Jingzhou can now mobilize an army of 60,000 people and assemble hundreds of thousands of stones of grain and grass.
Such strategic reserves are enough for Mr. Zhang to fight a hearty battle.
Of course, due to his distrust of Sun Quan, Zhang Fei still left 10,000 Han troops around the public security guard, watching Jiangdong's every move.
Even though he had received news before, Jiangdong had sent a large army to Huainan.
But when Jiangdong made a sneak attack on Jingzhou, Guan Yu received the news that Sun Quan was leading his troops north to attack Hefei.
With the lessons learned from the past and the fact that he is a neighbor of Jackal, Zhang Fei will not relax his vigilance towards Jiangdong.
But even if 10,000 troops were allocated to guard Jingnan, Zhang Fei still had 50,000 troops to use in this Northern Expedition.
At present, the remaining 30,000 Han troops are still gathering on their way to Xinye.
However, even though the 30,000 Han troops had not yet arrived, the impatient Zhang Fei quickly held a military meeting after arriving at Xinye City.
Participating in this military meeting were all senior generals in Jingzhou.
Zhang Fei first looked at Li Yan, who was sitting below him, and asked eagerly:
"Can our army fight now?"
Before Liu Bei left Jingzhou, he left Zhang Fei with two great talents, one in literature and one in military affairs.
Deng Zhi was the one who wrote, and Li Yan was the one who wrote the martial arts.
When transporting troops and horses to Xinye before, Zhang Fei did not handle the matter himself, but instead entrusted the matter to Li Yan.
Now Zhang Fei asked how the 20,000 Han troops sent earlier were getting along.
After hearing Zhang Fei's inquiry, Li Yan did not dare to neglect.
Although he is proud of himself, he cannot be proud in front of Zhang Fei.
Not to mention him, even when Mi Yang came in front of Zhang Fei, she had to respectfully call him uncle.
His own boss is like this, let alone Li Yan.
Li Yan replied: "The 20,000 sergeants transferred by Deng Shangshu before have been divided into camps and organized by Yan.
The cavalry general only needs to send someone to take charge."
"In addition, Yan has also made all arrangements for the polishing of the ordnance used by the 20,000 sergeants and the transportation of grain and grass.
As long as the Chariot General gives the order, the 20,000 sergeants inside and outside Xinye City can follow the Chariot General in the northern expedition at any time."
Li Yan's answer made Zhang Fei overjoyed.
Although Li Yan has some personality flaws, his ability to do things is really impressive.
Yiyang County was placed in Li Yan's hands, and there was never any major turmoil.
After the great joy, Zhang Fei immediately said to Li Yan:
"Tomorrow I will lead the army to march north, and the safety of Yiyang County will be left to Zhengfang."
After hearing that Zhang Fei was so eager to lead his army in the Northern Expedition, Li Yan couldn't help but persuade him:
"General Chariot and Cavalry, why are you so anxious?
At present, our army still has 30,000 troops that have not yet been assembled. It would not be too late to wait for the 30,000 soldiers to gather before embarking on the Northern Expedition.
Besides, the movement of the bandits in Wancheng is unknown, so it would be better for General Chariot and Cavalry to find out the situation first."
The reason why Li Yan advised Zhang Fei was that, as he said, he hoped that Zhang Fei would wait until the army was assembled before setting off on the expedition.
This will undoubtedly have a greater chance of winning.
On the other hand, the reason he did not explain is that he believed that Cao Wei's Annan general Sima Yi was not an easy character to get along with.
In the past three years, because his station was close to Wancheng, Li Yan had fought with Sima Yi many times overtly and covertly.
For example, at the beginning, Li Yan originally wanted to take advantage of the Wancheng army's instability and lead his army to surprise Jiyang.
But that attack was repulsed by Sima Yi as he had expected.
Not only this time, Li Yan also fought against Sima Yi at other times, but generally speaking, Li Yan suffered more.
Although Li Yan was proud, he was not blindly arrogant. It is not difficult to see from those encounters that Sima Yi was quite capable of military strategy.
Under this situation, Li Yan really didn't want Zhang Fei to make any advances.
But after listening to Li Yan's words, Zhang Fei smiled and said:
"Zhengfang only knows one, but doesn't know the other.
The Prime Minister's "Longzhong Dui" back then was known to the whole world. Now that His Majesty has sent troops from Yizhou, it won't be long before he rebels against Wei and will surely strengthen Nanyang's defenses.
As the saying goes, the most important thing about military speed is that it can surprise you.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Before I left Xiangyang, I specially released the news that I would lead 50,000 troops in the Northern Expedition.
This is not just a lie, but a reflection of our true military power in Jingzhou.
I think this news has already reached the ears of that little thief Sima.
And my previous move to mobilize troops to Xinye was definitely not concealed from the spies of that little thief Sima.
Therefore, the little thief Sima naturally knows that I still have tens of thousands of troops that have not yet been assembled.
There is falsehood among truth, which has been difficult to distinguish since ancient times.
After learning that Jingzhou can raise 50,000 troops, and also knowing that the 50,000 army has not yet been assembled, Sima Xiaothief may think like Zhengfang, I will wait until the army is assembled before going out.
After all, the Northern Expedition is a major event and one should be cautious.
It's hard for Sima Xiaothief to expect that I would lead the army to go on an expedition in advance before the army was fully assembled.
In this way, our army can catch the enemy by surprise, which may have miraculous effects."
After listening to Zhang Fei's explanation, Li Yan suddenly realized.
It turns out that Zhang Fei only seemed anxious on the surface, but in fact he had special considerations in wanting to lead his army to the expedition in advance.
From a military perspective alone, Zhang Fei's unexpected move did have a chance of success.
I have long heard that the styles of using troops between chariot and cavalry generals are very different from those of the generals. Therefore, the generals always strive for stability in their troops, while the chariot and cavalry generals are good at using strange tactics.
Of course, since it is called a strange strategy, unless the character of each opponent can be accurately predicted, there is no guarantee that it will succeed every time.
But it is undeniable that once a strange plan succeeds, the results that can be obtained are often great.
For example, during the great victory in Brazil, didn't Zhang He be beaten to the point of climbing a mountain and escaping?
Since Zhang Fei has his own considerations, Li Yan is not going to continue to dissuade him.
After Li Yan left to prepare for tomorrow's expedition, Zhang Fei looked at the other generals in the hall.
Guan Ping, Liao Hua, Zhang Bao, Guan Xing, Zhao Lei, Mi An, etc.
Compared with the complex composition of Liangzhou's general rate, the composition of Jingzhou's general rate is relatively pure.
It is mainly divided into two parts, one part is the old troops left by Guan Yu, and the other part is the descendants of Yuan Cong who have gradually joined the army in recent years.
Just reading the names of these generals, probably among the people present, only Guan Ping could barely be called famous.
But the lack of fame does not mean that the quality of these people is not high.
Perhaps this battle will be their battle to become famous.
Thinking of Zhang Fei's eyes, he looked at Zhang Bao.
"Tomorrow, you will lead three thousand elites as the vanguard of our army and rush to Jiyang."
Although Zhang Bao is Zhang Fei's son, Zhang Fei, like Guan Yu, likes to train his son.
The position of pioneer is important, but it is also very dangerous.
After Zhang Bao heard Zhang Fei's order, he walked out of the queue without thinking, bowed to Zhang Fei and said:
"The last general takes command!"
Seeing Zhang Bao acting like a newborn calf not afraid of tigers, Zhang Fei felt relieved in his heart, but did not show it on his face.
After arranging the vanguard position, Zhang Fei asked most of the generals to retire, except Guan Ping.
After all the other generals left the hall, Zhang Fei gave Guan Ping a secret mission.
"Tomorrow you will hold my military talisman and lead the rear army of five thousand soldiers towards Jiyang for me."
After hearing about this secret mission, Guan Ping couldn't help but be stunned.
From Zhang Fei's arrangements just now, ordinary people would think that Zhang Fei will focus his main attack on Ji Yang in the future.
But if that's the case, why doesn't Zhang Fei lead the remaining army towards Ji Yang?
After seeing Guan Ping's puzzled look, Zhang Fei said to Guan Ping:
"Even if our army cannot capture Jiyang by surprise, it can still besiege Jiyang.
Jiyang is an important route for our army to advance north. Once Sima Xiaothief learns that our army is approaching Jiyang City, he will definitely lead his army to support us.
By then, Wancheng's military strength will be empty.
What you have to do is very simple, that is, hold my military talisman and use my flag to disguise five thousand soldiers as an army of more than ten thousand, which will definitely confuse the enemy and make them think that I am outside Jiyang City."
"Both brother and Zisheng have praised you for your calm character, so I entrust you with this important task. I hope you won't disappoint me!"
Zhang Fei didn't say clearly what he was going to do, but it could be seen from Zhang Fei's cautious look that his mission must be very important.
After knowing this, Guan Ping immediately bowed to Zhang Fei and said:
"Ping, I swear to never disgrace my life!"
Seeing Guan Ping accept the order, Zhang Fei's lips showed a smile.
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This chapter has been completed!