Jiangling is located in Jingzhou. It borders Xiangyang to the north, Changsha to the south, Jiangxia to the east, and the Three Gorges to the west. It is the absolute core and strategic hub of Jingzhou.
Once Jiangling was lost, Xiangyang was directly exposed to Liu Jingjun's troops. In addition, Liu Biao vomited blood and fell ill. At this time, even the traffickers and lackeys at the bottom could tell that Jingzhou was afraid that things were going to change. Those at the top The Jingzhou civil and military officials and the northern and southern scholars could not fail to see that they split into three major camps due to their different interests.
First of all, there are the die-hards. Pang Ji, the ruler, and Kuai Liang, the chief secretary, began to follow Liu Biaodan when he rode into Jingzhou and established the relationship between monarch and minister. To this day, they have long been inseparable and share weal and woe. They are representatives of the die-hards. .
Among the three major camps, the die-hard camp has the largest number of people. Liu Biao has been in charge of Jingchu for more than ten years and has promoted countless civil servants and military officials. The guest general Liu Bei also belongs to this camp.
The second is the fence-riding faction. Liu Xian is the representative of the fence-riding faction. He is from Lingling, Jingnan, and is half a fellow villager with Liu Jing. He has always admired Liu Jing very much, and many of his sons and nephews have also invested in it. Under Liu Jing's command, Liu Xian will not betray Liu Biao, but he will not resist Liu Jing either, so he has become particularly silent recently.
The last one is the one with the smallest number of the three major camps. It cannot be said to be a surrender faction. At best, it can only be regarded as a clandestine faction. They secretly wrote a few letters to express their admiration for Liu Jing. After all, although Liu Jing is now in power, as long as he Even before Liu Biao died, things were still changing.
Since July, Liu Jing has received letters from Xiangyang almost every day. Of course, except for letters from his teacher Song Zhong and Wang Can, most of the other letters are through Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, and Li Yan and others handed it over to him.
It was through these letters that Xiangyang had no secrets for Liu Jing. When he learned that Liu Biao fell ill with vomiting blood, he wanted to go north immediately and take advantage of his illness to kill him.
However, when he attacked Jiangling, he suffered as many as 8,000 casualties, which was more than a quarter of his total strength. In addition, due to the raging plague in Jiangling, he was currently unable to march into Xiangyang.
However, he would not delay for too long. He planned to spend one to two months to replenish his troops and control the epidemic, and then immediately go north to avoid allowing Liu Biao to catch his breath.
…………
Jiaozhou, Yulin County.
Bushan is the county seat of Yulin County. It is more than seven miles away from the Zhou Dynasty. It is built with rammed earth walls and six gates. It is surrounded by rivers on three sides: north, east and south, and has a cut on the west. It can be said that there are dangers from mountains and rivers, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.
A black-robed knight galloped out of the north gate of Blin, holding a banner in his hand and shouting: "The Lord is traveling to the county, pedestrians should avoid..."
Many passers-by, whether they were Han Chinese with their hair tied in short jackets or barbarians with bare feet and buns, all retreated to the side of the road and lay down on the ground after hearing this.
Amidst the ringing of bells and chimes, colorfully decorated carriages slowly drove out of the city gate under the escort of soldiers. There were nine carriages in front and behind the entire traveling convoy, and more than 300 soldiers.
Among the nine Anchai, the fourth one is the largest in size and the most luxuriously decorated. It is made in Han Dynasty: "From the public minister to the county, there are three hundred stone chiefs to lead the followers, and there are five officials under the door, the thief Cao, and the supervising thief meritorious Cao, all with swords." "Guide of the third car." Naturally, the fourth car was Wang Qiang, the prefect of Yulin.
On the left and right sides of Wang Qiang's chariot, there were not only many armored soldiers guarding him, but also horsemen holding staffs, raising fans, and playing flutes and flutes. The scene was so grand that even Liu Jing would probably feel inferior to him when he saw it.
Wang Qiang was born as a merchant and indeed loved luxury, but the reason why he was so high-profile was because he had no choice but to do so.
When Liu Zong captured Yulin County, he only used his army to suppress the dissatisfaction and did not really take control of Yulin County.
After Wang Qiang took over Yulin County, Liu Zong led his army back to the north, and the counties of Yulin were immediately in chaos. Wang Qiang relied on his own more than a thousand steps to suppress, win over, and alienate. It took nearly a year to completely calm down. Rebellions everywhere.
Yulin is located in a borderland, and not to mention the untrained barbarians, even the Han people are often fierce in temperament and not afraid of officials. Wang Qiang acted in a high-profile manner in order to deter unruly people.
The car drove out of the north gate and walked along the Lushui River. Wang Qiang looked at both sides of the Lushui River from the distance in the car and saw the green fields in the wilderness. For example, if you are from Huangmi, this crop is sugar cane. If Sugarcane is from the common people, all the vegetation is growing, except for the Sugarcane grows sideways, hence the name sugarcane, and because of its sweet juice, it is also called sugarcane.
Early last year, when he set out to go south, Liu Jing specifically asked him to plant sugar cane in Yulin and teach him how to make sugar.
Although Wang Qiang had doubts, he immediately started planting sugar cane after taking office. However, the subsequent rebellions in various places diverted most of his energy, and this was his first time planting. To be cautious, he only planted a few hundred acres. .
After harvesting sugar cane last year and successfully producing extremely luscious cane sugar, Wang Qiang was once a businessman. How could he not realize the huge benefits hidden in cane sugar? This year, he did not hesitate to expand the scale of sugar cane planting several times.
While Wang Qiang was inspecting the sugarcane forest in the river, he suddenly heard someone shouting: "Beacon fire, beacon fire..."
Wang Qiang was startled and hurriedly looked outside the car, and sure enough he saw black smoke rising into the sky from the west.
It has been more than a year since he took charge of Yulin County. During this period, he suppressed rebellions and pacified the barbarians, and his prestige increased day by day, so he was no longer willing to settle east of Bushan.
In the spring of this year, when he knew that Liu Jing was going to lead his army to the northern expedition to Liu Biao, Zhang Jin would definitely not miss this opportunity. He even sent people to the territory of Anguang County, four to five hundred miles west of Bushan, to set up beacons. Taiwan, in preparation for Zhang Jin.
Now that the war breaks out, it must be Zhang Jin who comes to kill him.
Wang Qiang has a sinister temperament, and the city is very deep. He has always been indifferent to emotions and anger. When he saw the expressions on the left and right, he was frightened and at a loss. He shouted in a deep voice: "The enemy is still hundreds of miles away. How can you be so panicked?" Then he untied his waist. He carried a sword and handed it to a personal guard, saying: "If anyone makes a loud noise again, kill them with this sword!"
"Nuo." The guards all took orders with their swords.
The hearts of the left and right were awe-inspiring, and everyone was as silent as a chill. Wang Qiang was a ruthless man, not only ruthless to his enemies, but also ruthless to his own people. If anyone dared to go against his will, he would definitely die.
The personal guards held Wang Qiang's sword and rode horses among the convoy. Wherever they passed, the wind and waves were calm.
Seeing that the convoy was back in order, Wang Qiang couldn't help but snorted coldly and said to another guard: "Go to the beacon tower quickly and set off the fire to send a message."
"promise."
Soon, the beacon fire started in Bushan, soon the beacon fire started in Zhongliu, the beacon fire started in Guilin, the beacon fire started in Tanzhong... The beacon fire started in Guiyang County... The beacon fire started in Changsha County...
The beacon fire may be hundreds of miles away, and the torch will be placed on the top of a solitary mountain, facing each other across the green river, maybe fifty miles, or thirty miles away. When the bandits arrive, they will raise the alarm to each other, and they can travel thousands of miles in one night.
Historically, Sun Quan raised a beacon at Yiling in Nanjun at dusk, and drummed three drums across Jingzhou and Yangzhou, reaching Wujun.
Wang Qiang raised a beacon at Yulinbu Mountain, and on the same day he crossed Jiaozhou and Jingzhou and reached Jiangling.