Just when Zhang Yun and Liu Bei were about to abandon Yicheng and evacuate to Zhonglu, they didn't know that Liu Jing had openly built embankments and canals and planted flags to show off his momentum a few days ago. In fact, he secretly sent Gan Ning, Han Guang, and Liu
Liang and others, with ten thousand people on foot and on horseback, lie down in the Tezhong Valley northwest of Yicheng.
That's right, this is the place where the Baizhong barbarians live. Not long after the Yi king Meiping fled back to Baozhong, Liu Jingjun came to kill him. Meiping thought Liu Jingjun was coming to encircle and suppress him, so he was so frightened that he lost his mind and gathered the people to defend the place.
On the other hand, an envoy was sent to ask for surrender.
In order to show sincerity to Liu Jing, Mei Ping did not hesitate to send his eldest son Mei Fu. The generals had received Liu Jing's instructions before and comforted Mei Ping, Mei Fu and his son, and then waited for Zhang Yun and Liu Bei to surrender.
When the rooster crows, Zhang Yun and Liu Bei ordered the soldiers to have a good meal. Then they abandoned all their baggage and even the seriously wounded, and the whole army marched lightly and simply, and filed out of Yicheng and headed northwest.
Zhonglu is about a hundred miles away from Yicheng. In the Han Dynasty, marches usually traveled forty or fifty miles a day. However, if they marched urgently, they could also march a hundred miles a day. The Jingzhou army had to rush back to Zhonglu within one day.
At first, Zhang Yun and Liu Bei were still a little frightened. Seeing that Liu Jingjun never came after them, their hearts that had been hanging around fell back a little.
However, they still did not dare to take it lightly. They did not stop during the journey and ran for dozens of miles in one breath. By the time they were eating, they were already halfway through the journey.
The Jingzhou army had been on the road for a long time. The soldiers were tired and hungry, and were stumbling. Someone suggested that Zhang Yun rest for a while before continuing on their way.
Zhang Yun refused without thinking. Now that they were not out of danger, Liu Jingjun might chase them at any time. He planned to go another ten miles and rest after crossing the Weishui River. Even if Liu Jingjun chased him by then,
We can only look at each other across the water, and there is nothing we can do about them.
In order to get out of danger as soon as possible, the officers and soldiers of the Jingzhou Army had no choice but to grit their teeth and continue on their way.
"Here we come..." Gan Ning stood on the mountainside, watching the Jingzhou army coming from south to north. Although this Jingzhou army had experienced a major defeat, it still numbered seven or eight thousand people. As it marched, dust was flying and it was quite impressive.
However, Liu Jing's army was more numerous, with tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry, and he waited for distance, for leisure, for work, and for hunger... Facing the Jingzhou Army, Liu Jing's army had the advantage. The outcome of this battle was already determined, and there was no suspense at all.
.
Gan Ning sent an order to all ministries to hide their flags, silence their drums, and make no sound. Han Guang on the other side also issued the same order.
Within a moment, the front of the Jingzhou Army stepped into the ambush site and headed north.
The soldiers of Liu Jing's army crouched in the valleys and dense forests on both sides of the road, lying or sitting, holding their crossbows full, holding their breath, letting the front of the Jingzhou army pass in front of them, and patiently waiting for the opportunity.
The officers and men of the Jingzhou Army were focused on their way, unaware that they had fallen into an ambush.
When all the Jingzhou troops entered the ambush circle, drums suddenly sounded loudly in the mountains and forests. Liu Jingjun's crossbowmen rose up with a loud shout and launched an attack. Arrows flew towards the Jingzhou troops like a gust of wind and rain.
"Boo...hoo...boo..."
Waves of dense arrow rain poured down. The Jingzhou army marched lightly. There were few armored men and the soldiers were unprepared. The casualties were a mess for a while.
"It's over..." Zhang Yun and Liu Bei looked at each other, feeling cold in their hearts. They had been preparing for Liu Jingjun to chase them from behind, but they didn't expect Liu Jing to have set an ambush here in advance.
"So, the idea of impounding water to flood the city was just to force us to abandon the city and ambush them halfway?" Zhang Yun and Liu Bei reacted quickly, with shock on their faces.
It turns out that every decision they made before was not made by themselves. They were like puppets on strings, being played by Liu Jing without knowing it. Such a discovery is really hard to accept.
"Kill...kill..."
After several rounds of arrow rain, Gan Ning and Han Guang, one on the left and the other on the right, fought their way out of the valley and dense forest and attacked the Jingzhou Army in chaos in the road.
Gan Ning took the lead, like a tiger, swooping down from the mountain and crashing into the Jingzhou army first, swinging his halberds left and right, invincible. The troops followed closely behind, swarmed onto the road, and met the Jingzhou army hand-to-hand.
The officers and soldiers of the Jingzhou Army drove for dozens of miles in a row. They were very exhausted both mentally and physically. They were not even able to handle bows and crossbows, let alone hand-to-hand combat. Once the two sides fought, the Jingzhou Army was like paper.
, collapsed at the first touch, and fled in all directions.
Han Guang on the other side was equally unstoppable. One on the left and one on the right, they launched a tidal wave of fierce attacks on the front, middle and rear of the Jingzhou Army. The Jingzhou Army was instantly torn apart and defeated.
At the same time, Liu Liang personally commanded the second battalion of cavalry, galloping out from the dense forest at the rear and charging the Jingzhou Army from behind.
Seeing the cavalry rushing in like a turbulent wave, the Jingzhou soldiers who were behind were extremely frightened and did not dare to fight against them. The soldiers shouted and immediately dispersed.
Liu Liang led the second battalion of cavalry, like a sharp sword, and drove straight in. Wherever he passed, the Jingzhou army broke out in waves, and no one dared to stop it.
Zhang Yun and Liu Bei saw that the army of more than 7,000 people was disintegrating at a speed visible to the naked eye. Even if Sun and Wu were revived, they might not be able to save their lives. At this moment, the two of them had a tacit understanding. They looked at each other and decisively abandoned the army and fled.
Zhang Yun and Liu Bei have done things like cutting off a strong man's wrist not once or twice, without any psychological burden, and it can be said that he made a prompt decision.
And it was this decisiveness that allowed them to escape successfully before Liu Jingjun completed the encirclement.
At this time, Liu Liang was leading his cavalry to charge in the rear. Gan Ning and Han Guang lacked cavalry, so they could only watch Zhang Yun and Liu Bei's two hundred cavalry break through the blockade and fly away.
By the time Liu Liang arrived with his cavalry, Zhang Yun and Liu Bei had already left for a long time. Liu Liang was unwilling and led his cavalry in pursuit. Unfortunately, he pursued them all the way to the shore of Weishui, but there was no trace of Zhang Yun, Liu Bei and others. Liu Liang had no choice but to
They gave up the pursuit and instead captured the defeated soldiers of the Jingzhou army.
When Liu Liang and his cavalry returned with prisoners several times his own, Gan Ning and Han Guang had already ended the battle.
Since the Jingzhou Army was exhausted before the war began and the soldiers had no intention of fighting, more than 5,000 Jingzhou Army surrendered, and more than a thousand others took advantage of the chaos to escape, leaving only a few hundred dead. However, Liu Jingjun's casualties were minimal.
It's a pity that Zhang Yun and Liu Bei escaped, otherwise this would have been a perfect ambush.
The good news came back in the afternoon. At this time, Liu Jing was no longer in the camp, but in Yicheng.
After Zhang Yun and Liu Bei fled, the officials and people of Yicheng were very knowledgeable. Before dawn, they took Niujiu to the camp to pay homage to Liu Jing and offered the city to surrender.
The state of Yi, which was more than ten miles north of Yicheng, also surrendered after hearing the news.
So far, the seventeen counties in Nanjun, except Xiangyang and Zhonglu counties, and the remaining fifteen counties have fallen into Liu Jing's hands.