Zhou Ping learned about Li Jia's plan to stop the enemy in Huailing City, and when he sent people to report what happened here to Liu Bei, he emphasized this matter and wanted Liu Bei to reuse Li Jia.
Liu Bei is very short of generals now. He has a few brave generals, but he is in urgent need of wise generals.
For generals like Li Jia who are good at using tricks, he must discover more for Liu Bei.
The commander in chief should be wise, and the general trapped in battle should be brave.
Of course, a wise general like Li Jia cannot command an army like Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lu Meng, and Lu Xun who were reused by Sun Quan, because the people Liu Bei trusts most are Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and most of his troops are composed of these two.
People rule.
Although Sun Quan was not very good at commanding troops, he was still remarkable at employing people.
Sun Quan can be regarded as someone who knows people well and is good at assigning tasks, except for himself.
"Marquis Li Jun, I heard that you once advised Lu You to escape. Is this true?"
Zhou Ping called Li Jia for questioning.
"Yes." Li Jia knew calmly.
"Why?"
"My subordinates believe that General Lu is guilty, but not wrong. Moreover, General Lu has been kind to me. I don't want to see him killed, but he refuses to listen to me."
Zhou Ping asked: "Since he is guilty, why do he say he is innocent?"
Li Jia replied: "Disobeying military orders and abandoning the city is a crime. But Huailing is a useless and trapped city. General Lu led us to abandon the city and retreat. There is no fault. Yuan Shu's goal in sending troops this time is Xuyi and Huai
The mausoleum is originally an indisputable city. We only need to send troops to station on the east bank of the Huaihe River, right here, to prevent Yuan Shu's troops from crossing the river. There is really no need to cross the river to garrison Huailing and attract Yuan Shu's army, and our reinforcements will
It was difficult to get there for a while, making Huailing a besieged and isolated city."
Zhou Ping smiled slightly: "Haha, what you said makes sense, but if you have any objections, you can raise them with the envoy instead of making the decision on your own, disobeying military orders and destroying the envoy's plan. Huailing is not a useless city. As for its use,
I can’t tell you now, but you will know later.”
"Huai Ling is not a lonely city. As you said, Yuan Shu's target is Xuyi. He will not spend a lot of troops to deal with such a useless city like Huai Ling. He will only leave some troops to guard Huai Ling and protect his own army.
After that, Langya soldiers and horses will arrive in a few days. By then, will Huailing still be trapped in an isolated city?"
"Marquis Li Jun, you once advised Lu You to escape, and you also advised him to stick to Huailing. You also used truth and lies to confuse the enemy generals, so that the enemy soldiers did not dare to pursue you. You also separated the city head, opened the city gates, and used the empty city strategy.
, delaying the enemy soldiers and allowing the soldiers time to cross the river. It shows that you are a loyal, wise and brave person, and will be reused by the envoy in the future. I just hope you can remember that as a soldier, you must obey military orders unconditionally at all times, and don't let it down.
Your trust and kindness!"
Tian Yu and Xu Chu's ambush cannot be told to Li Jia yet. When they appear and cut off Yuan Shu's food route, Li Jia will naturally understand the use of Huai Ling.
Li Jia originally thought that Zhou Ping would hold him accountable for persuading Lu You to escape, but he didn't expect that he would actually say that. He knew that Liu Shijun would not hold him accountable and might reuse him.
From this point of view, neither Liu Shijun nor Zhou Sima in front of him are mediocre people. They can understand what they are doing and have tolerance for others.
He immediately raised his hands and said, "No."
Zhou Ping ordered the two battalions of sergeants to dig trenches and build fortifications, intending to stay by the river for a long time, so that the enemy soldiers in Huailing City did not dare to cross the river to attack.
Five days later, Zang Ba arrived with Sun Guan Yinli and seven thousand Taishan soldiers.
Zhou Ping welcomed Zang Ba, asked him to set up another camp next to Danyang Camp and Xuzhou Camp, and then called him and Sun Guan Yinli to his tent.
"General Zang, Yuan Shu's army has arrived at Xuyi. Now there are only more than 20,000 soldiers in Xuyi City. I must quickly lead the troops here to help. You stay here and must not let the enemy soldiers cross the river. In the meantime, you can stay by the river.
We built a raft and deliberately let the enemy soldiers see it, making them think that we were about to cross the river to attack the city, so they would have trouble sleeping and eating."
"You don't have to actually cross the river to attack the city. Since Huailing City has been lost, it is useless and does not need to be recaptured. Your main purpose is to block the enemy from the other side of the river and prevent them from crossing the river. The second is to contain the enemy.
The enemy soldiers in Huailing City prevent them from leaving the city easily. If the enemy soldiers are about to leave the city, you can use your troops to cross the river and force the enemy soldiers back into the city."
Zang Ba was now a Zhonglang general, so Zhou Ping called him a general.
Huailing City is now occupied by Yuan Shu, which is not a bad thing for our side.
In this way, Yuan Shu must not have expected that he would ambush his troops in advance in order to cut off his food supply.
If Huailing City was in his own hands, Yuan Shu would send more soldiers and horses to escort the grain and grass. However, if Huailing is occupied by him, there may not be too many soldiers to escort the grain and grass, and Tian Yu and Xu Chu would be able to succeed more easily.
Zang Ba didn't quite understand. He led seven thousand soldiers and horses to help the envoy, but he got the job of watching the enemy across the river. He couldn't fight with the enemy, and it was difficult to make meritorious deeds.
Especially if you haven't done any meritorious deeds yet, the envoy appoints you as the Zhonglang General and rewards you in advance, but you have no meritorious deeds, how can you deserve this reward?
"Sir, there are only five thousand enemies in Huai Ling City. Although we only have seven thousand troops, it is not difficult to cross the river and capture Huai Ling. Why don't we have to cross the river to attack the enemy?"
Zang Ba knew that Liu Bei had always called Zhou Ping sir, so he called him that instead of Zhou Sima.
Zhou Ping smiled and said: "With your bravery, it is indeed not difficult to capture Huailing, but there will be many casualties in attacking the city. Besides, Huailing is useless now, and attacking it is useless. You only need to contain the enemies of Huailing City.
It is a great achievement to prevent them from leaving the city. If the enemy soldiers leave the city, you can cross the river to capture the city and attack the enemy behind."
"Sir, do you want the enemies of Huailing City to be unable to leave the city?" Zang Ba understood Zhou Ping's point.
"Not bad." Zhou Ping nodded and smiled.
Yin Li interrupted at this time: "Wouldn't it be better for us to cross the river and stay under the city?"
After hearing this, Sun Guan shook his head slightly: "Huailing City is only three or four miles away from the river. It will not be easy for us to cross the river. The enemy soldiers will attack us while we are halfway across."
Zhou Ping smiled again and said to Zang Ba and others: "In short, if the enemy soldiers do not leave the city, you do not need to cross the river. You only need to make a move to cross the river. If the enemy leaves the city, you can quickly cross and seize the city, and then follow the enemy to attack."
If Zang Ba's troops really cross the river to guard Huailing City, Yuan Shu may send troops to assist, and the number of troops to protect the grain supply will also increase. This will not be beneficial to Tian Yu, Xu Chu and the others to rob the grain road.
Although Zang Ba and Sun Guan still don't know why Zhou Ping made such arrangements, he now represents the envoy, and what he says is like the envoy's order, and they can only follow it.
Two days later, Zhou Ping and Zhang Fei set off towards Xuyi with 3,000 Danyang soldiers and more than 4,000 Xuzhou soldiers.
However, the soldiers and horses left, but the camp remained in its original place. He deliberately stayed behind to make the enemies of Huailing City think that there were 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers and horses stationed on the other side to guard the camp, so they became even more afraid and were always worried that they would cross the river to attack.