The collapse of the Chu State was by no means only reflected in the western and central areas of Chu. In fact, the situation in the eastern area of Chu was not optimistic either.
The so-called Chudong generally refers to the army headed by Shouling Jun Jingyun and responsible for blocking the Wei State East Road Commander Le Yi, including Diyang Jun Xiong Li, Shen Tukang, Hou Yu, Gongyang Jian, Biancang Ke, Zhou Wei,
Mou Luo and other generals of Chu State.
The army in this regard can be roughly divided into two groups. One is the army led by Lord Shouling Jingyun.
After the defeat of "all the states in the attack on Wei" that day, Xiang Mo, the commander-in-chief, cut off his troops at Yongqiu, and Lord Shouling Jingyun led the remaining troops to retreat to "Pengcheng".
During this period, Chu State actually thought of protecting Qi and Lu, out of the thought of losing their lips and teeth, to prevent this country from being retaliated by Wei State.
Unexpectedly, Lu State soon fell to Wei State. As for Qi State, when Wei State attacked Qi State, not only did it dispatch more than 400,000 Wei-Korean coalition troops, but also there was merchant water. The two counties of Song County had a total of about ten
The Wei army, which numbered more than ten thousand, was eyeing the Chu State. Although the Chu State did not dare to act rashly, it could only watch the Qi State be overthrown by the Wei State.
In the spring of this year, when Wei launched a three-pronged attack on Chu, Shouling Jun Jingyun garrisoned Pengcheng and took into account the offensives of Wei generals Sima Shang and Le Yi - but in general, Shouling Junjing
Yun was mainly responsible for the east route, that is, the Wei army on the east route that met Wei General Le Yi.
The composition of the Wei army on the east route was also very mixed. In addition to the two Wei armies composed of Wei generals Cao Yan's Hanoi army and Qu Cheng's Yanling army, there were more armies composed of Koreans and Qi people. The former included the Yuan Dynasty army.
The army led by Yi Hou Han Pu, and the latter generally refers to the original Qi army led by Tian Dan and Tian Wu, which was reorganized by Le Yi, such as Jimo Army, Beihai Navy, Donglai Army, etc., about ten
About ten thousand people.
There are 100,000 Wei soldiers, more than 100,000 Korean soldiers, and more than 100,000 Qi soldiers. This means that Wei's eastern army has more than 300,000 troops. What's terrible is that among these 30 troops, at least 70% are Wei soldiers.
Although we cannot say that every soldier is an elite soldier from the three kingdoms of China, the former Han Dynasty, and the former Qi Dynasty, at least they are veterans who have experienced several fierce battles.
The offensive of the Wei army on the east route was mainly divided into two parts. One was the land army led by the three generals Le Yi, Tian Dan and Tian Wu.
After Wei King Zhao Run ordered the use of troops against Chu, Wei generals Le Yi, Tian Dan and Tian Wu led their troops out of Beihai and Langya counties to capture Donghai County.
As for the second force, they were the Hejian navy led by Wei general Yan Kui and the Huling navy led by Wei general Li Ji. These two naval forces were originally stationed in Beihai and did not leave until the eve of the battle.
They arrived at the coastal city "Langya Yi" in Langya County by sea, and expanded the seaport here, preparing to use this seaport as a rear stronghold to launch a leaping attack on Chu and Yue.
However, in the early stages of the war, the naval forces of Yan Kui and Li Ji did not participate in the battle for the time being.
Around April, Le Yi, Tian Dan, and Tian Wu led their armies to arrive at Donghai County, which meant that the war between the Wei army on the east route and Chu Dong began.
Donghai County was originally the territory of Qi State, but it was not captured by Chu State until the "First Central Plains Melee".
Oh, at that time, the Chu State was still a member of the "Four Kingdoms Alliance of Wei, Qin, Wei, and Chu".
The general stationed in Donghai County is "Shen Tukang", who was born as a general in Fu Lisai. He was once a subordinate of General Xiang Mo, and was later ordered to garrison "Tancheng". The other Chu generals such as Hou Yu, Tu Shen, Gongyang Jian and others
, stationed in "Lanlingyi", "Jiqiu", "Qi" and other places respectively.
Most of these Chu generals were generals under Xiang Mo's command. Although they are not outstanding, they can be regarded as veterans with rich combat experience.
The problem is that it still seems a little inadequate for these generals to serve as opponents for famous generals such as Le Yi, Tian Dan, and Tian Wu.
In early April, Le Yi ordered the vanguard general Tian Wu to capture "Ji Qiu".
Jiqiu, also known as Zhuqiu, this city is to the north of Kaiyang. During the first melee in the Central Plains, after the Chu army captured Donghai County, it was in this area that they fought with the martial arts soldiers recruited by Qi.
A bloody battle began, and in the end they ran out of food and grass and were defeated by Qi's martial arts warriors. The Chu army stopped at Donghai County in that war and failed to break through Langya County.
Perhaps because of this reason, Wei General Tian Wu and his troops were full of fighting spirit when they captured Jiqiu, as if they wanted to take revenge for the war that happened here. However, I believe it was more the former Qi soldiers and generals who attacked Chu.
The resentment of 'abandoning Qi' before.
After all, Qi and Chu had previously signed an alliance agreement to advance and retreat together, and when Chu sent troops to attack Wei, Qi also provided food and fodder for the Chu army free of charge. Although this move was mainly for Qi's own benefit,
But most of the soldiers and generals of the Qi State did not see it that way. They would think that the Chu State was ungrateful and allowed Qi State to be overthrown by Wei State after draining Qi State of its food and grass.
All in all, when Tian Wu captured Jiqiu, whether it was this fierce general from the former Qi Dynasty or the soldiers of the former Qi Dynasty under his command, they fought extremely fiercely, as if they wanted to vent the anger of "subjugation" on the Chu army.
The city of Jiqiu was captured by Tian Wu in just two days, which shocked Wei generals Cao Yan, Qu Cheng, and Yuanyi Marquis Han Pu.
After all, for a long time, Qi's soldiers have been insulated from praises such as bravery and bravery. The reason is that Qi was wealthy before. Therefore, compared with Wei, Chu, South Korea and other countries with constant foreign wars, the character of Qi people is poor.
They appear to be relatively cowardly and conservative, and tactics like life-for-life are almost never seen on Qi soldiers.
But today, the former Qi generals under Tian Wu made Cao Yan, Qu Cheng, Han Pu and others look at them with admiration.
Especially Tian Wu, this fierce general of the Qi State personally attacked the city wall and killed the Jiqiu guard "Tu Shen". It can be said that he was the bravest of the three armies and bluffed the Chu army into defeat.
However, compared to Tian Wu's bravery, it is the former's eldest son Tian Tian who is more valued by Le Yi.
Tian Tian is currently in his twenties, brave, resourceful, and well-founded in his advance and retreat. In fact, in Le Yi's opinion, Tian Tian is actually more suitable for the position of pioneer general than his father Tian Wu.
After Jiqiu was captured, the road to Donghai County was completely opened.
Seeing this, Le Yi waved his army forward, crossed "Zeng Mountain", and approached Tancheng.
It is worth mentioning that Shen Tukang, the Chu general stationed in Tancheng, sent his general "Zhou Wei" to ambush in the Zhanshan area during this period, trying to get behind the Wei army when the Wei army attacked Tancheng, and together with the Chu army in Tancheng, they attacked the Wei army.
Launch a two-sided flanking attack.
It has to be said that Shen Tukang's idea was good, but unfortunately, he was facing both Le Yi and Tian Dan. How could such a crude strategy deceive Le Yi and Tian Dan?
No, Chu general Zhou Wei not only failed to successfully ambush the Wei army, but was killed by Tian Dan for a while. Zhou Wei himself was also surrounded by an army led by Tian Wu's eldest son Tian Tian. Although Zhou Wei fought hard to kill
He fought against the enemy and hoped to break through the siege, but in the end, he fell under the sword of the Wei army.
After two defeats and the death of two generals, the morale of the Chu troops in Donghai County was greatly reduced. Even the Chu general Shen Tukang, who had planned to take the initiative, gave up his original plan at this moment and decided to stick to the candid and wait for reinforcements.
.
At the same time, Le Yi was discussing with Tian Dan.
As a former Korean general as famous as Yanmen Guardsman Li Mu, Le Yi is best at siege. Although Tancheng is strong, in Le Yi's eyes, it is nothing more than that.
He said to Tian Dan: "There are few soldiers in the East China Sea (prefecture), and it seems that the Chu State does not intend to defend this place. If you and I storm Tancheng, the Chu State may give up the East China Sea and retreat southward. It is better to surround the city and use it to
Use the opportunity to trap and kill the Chu army."
Of course Tian Dan understood what Le Yi meant. It was nothing more than besieging the city and calling for reinforcements. He nodded and said, "In that case, Tian will lead his troops to Pengcheng on his own."
Le Yi was stunned for a moment, and soon, a smile appeared on his face, which had always been informal.
He had to admit that it was easy to communicate with Tian Dan, who was also good at leading troops in battles. No, he had just proposed the suggestion of "siege the city for reinforcements", and Tian Dan knew what he meant by the sound of the strings.
So, Le Yi and Tian Dan divided their troops in the Tancheng area, and Le Yi led the rest of the army to surround Tan City, assuming a posture of besieging Tan City, while Tian Dan quietly led the army to Pengcheng.
From early May to mid-May, Le Yi deliberately slowed down the siege of Tan City and asked his soldiers to build siege weapons in a hurry.
Even after the siege weapons were ready, he only attacked Tancheng briefly.
This caused dissatisfaction with Wei general Cao Yan.
Since King Zhao Jiang of Yan was ordered to return to Wei by the Wei State's Tiance Mansion because he ordered the massacre of the Qi people in Linzi, his clan chief Cao Yan became the backbone of the Wei army and also shouldered the responsibility of 'supervising the army'.
duty to urge Le Yi, Tian Dan and other generals to surrender.
In Cao Yan's view, although the walls of Tancheng were strong, his Wei army numbered more than 300,000. How could it be blocked by this small city?
In fact, even Tian Wu was quite unswervingly opposed to Le Yi's "passive and idle war". He invited Ying to fight several times and was even willing to issue a military order for this purpose.
Since both Cao Yan and Tian Wu had doubts about their decision, Le Yi had no choice but to share his thoughts with the second general and told the second general: "Our army was delayed here for ten days, but in exchange for at least three
Ten days of progress.”
Cao Yan and General Tian were doubtful.
However, since Wei King Zhao Run personally appointed Le Yi as the coach, Cao Yan did not want to push too hard, so he temporarily followed Le Yi's arrangement.
In mid-May, Lord Shouling Jingyun, who was stationed in Pengcheng, was greatly surprised when he learned the news that "Leyi was blocked in Tancheng".
Because as Le Yi guessed, Donghai County had actually been abandoned by the Chu State a long time ago - the Chu State was originally planning to block the Wei army in Pengcheng and Pi (Xiapi), and for this reason, Shouling Jun Jingyun and Diyang Jun Xiong
Li had already made defensive preparations in advance at these two places.
Unexpectedly, Tancheng could actually stop the Wei army and intercept famous generals like Le Yi.
"Should we send troops to help?"
Shoulingjun Jingyun hesitated.
Even though Jingyun knew nothing about military affairs when his father Jingshe took charge of the army for the first time after the incident, over the years, he has been assisted by his deputy general Yangyou and has experienced wars himself. Of course, he also wanted to use the strategy of "siege the city and mobilize reinforcements".
He was afraid that Le Yi was deliberately using Tancheng as bait to get him to lead his army to support Tancheng.
But after careful consideration, he finally decided to send troops to Tancheng. When he sent troops, he sent a message to Xiong Li, Lord Diyang, who was stationed in Pi County, and invited Xiong Li to lead his army to support Tancheng.
It is not that he is confident that he can defeat Le Yi. The main purpose of Lord Shouling Jingyun is to delay time and use the vast territory of Chu State in exchange for a chance to breathe. This is the latest order from the Chu King's capital Shou Ying.
As for whether Tancheng was a trap for Leyi to besiege the city and seek reinforcements, Lord Shouling Jingyun also took precautions. In his opinion, the worst he could do if he and Lord Diyang Xiong Li sent troops to support Tancheng would be to retreat back to Pengcheng and Xiapi. Le Yi is also a human being, as long as they take precautions and don't give Le Yi a chance to sneak attack on them.
Could it be that Le Yi could devise a plan to kill them out of thin air?
With this idea in mind, Lord Shouling Jingyun left his deputy Yangyou to guard Pengcheng, while he led 100,000 Chu troops to support Pengcheng. On the other side, Lord Diyang Xiong Li, who was stationed in Pi County, also sent 50,000 troops to respond to Jing's attack. Cloud action.
It has to be said that whether it was Shouling Lord Jingyun or Diyang Lord Xiong Li, they were indeed cautious enough not to give the Wei army the slightest chance to sneak attack on them. Even Le Yi could not find any flaws for a while.
But Le Yi didn't care about this. In his heart, Lord Shouling Jingyun and Lord Diyang Xiong Li were already in his jar.
However, others did not know that, neither Cao Yan nor Tian Wu on the Wei side, nor Shouling Lord Jingyun and Diyang Lord Xiong Li on the Chu army side, were unaware at this moment.
In this way, the Wei and Chu armies faced each other in Tancheng for another full month.
The confrontation reached the point where Wei General Cao Yan couldn't bear it anymore and ran to Le Yi again to question the latter, but Le Yi said calmly: "General Cao, don't be anxious, we will defeat the enemy in these few days."
Cao Yan was once again doubtful.
But facts proved that Le Yi's judgment was correct.
Around mid-June, Xiong Li, Lord of Diyang, received the news. He was shocked to learn that Wei generals Yan Kui and Li Ji led the Hejian navy and Huling navy to attack Guangling. He was frightened to death.
Guangling County is located southeast of Pi County and east of Jiujiang County. If Guangling County is attacked by the Wei army, not only will Diyang Lord Xiong Li himself be cut off by the Wei army, but the Wei army can even directly threaten the royal capital Shoying.
In a state of shock, Lord Diyang Xiong Li immediately sent someone to inform Lord Shouling Jingyun, telling him that he must withdraw his troops immediately and send troops to support Guangling.
At the same time, Lord Shouling Jingyun also received news that Wei general Tian Dan led his army to attack Pengcheng.
Similar to the situation in Guangling County, Pengcheng is also located to the south of Donghai County. If Pengcheng is captured by Tian Dan, the army under Shouling Lord Jingyun will also fall into the belly of the Wei army.
In this case, Lord Shouling Jingyun and Lord Diyang Xiong Li had no choice but to abandon Tancheng and prepare to seize the opportunity to quietly withdraw their troops.
But it is a pity that Le Yi had been waiting for the Chu army to withdraw for a long time. How could Jing Yun and Xiong Li retreat so easily?
On the night when Jingyun and Xiong Li retreated, Le Yi ordered an all-out attack, and ordered Cao Yan, Qu Cheng, Han Pu, Tian Wu, Tian Tian and other generals to lead their armies to capture Jingyun. 's army.
As for Tancheng, Le Yi didn't even bother to attack.
Because Shouling Lord Jingyun and Diyang Lord Xiong Li were in a hurry to withdraw their troops and had no intention of fighting, their armies were defeated by the Wei army.
It is worth mentioning that that night, Tancheng guard Shen Tukang also heard the noise outside the city, but because the city was surrounded by Wei troops, he did not dare to act rashly, for fear of Le Yi's conspiracy.
What he didn't expect was that when he climbed up the city wall after dawn and took a look, not only the more than 100,000 troops under Shouling Lord Jingyun and Diyang Lord Xiong Li had disappeared without a trace, but also the more than 300,000 Wei troops under Le Yi's command had disappeared. So that outside the city, where hundreds of thousands of Wei and Chu armies were originally facing each other, was now empty.
A few days later, Lord Shouling Jingyun, who was anxious to lead his army back to Pengcheng, was ambushed by Wei general Tian Dan in the Pengcheng area.
In fact, it was not actually an ambush. It was simply Tian Dan blocking the troops sent by Pengcheng guard Yang You to meet Jing Yun, blocking the latter's only way to retreat.
Being surrounded by enemies from both sides, Lord Shouling Jingyun suffered a disastrous defeat and led his remaining troops to retreat southward into Jiujiang County.
At this time, Tian Dan slowly joined forces with Cao Yan, Qu Cheng and others to capture Pengcheng.
Upon learning that Lord Shouling Jingyun was defeated, Pengcheng guard Yang You sighed and had no choice but to withdraw his troops in advance before the Wei army completely surrounded Pengcheng.
If Shouling Lord Jingyun had not led his army to support Tancheng before, Pengcheng could have supported it for a few months before retreating. But now, the strength of his troops alone is not enough to defeat Tian Dan, Cao Yan, and Qu. After holding on for a long time under the attack of several people, Yang You finally chose to retreat instead of taking up all his troops and being surrounded and annihilated by the Wei army.
In this way, Pengcheng County, which Shouling Lord Jingyun and his deputy Yang You had managed for more than a year, was easily captured by the Wei army.
On the other side, Tian Wu and Tian Tian's father and son also insisted on Xiong Li, the Lord of Diyang, and chased into Pi County. They conquered "Pi County", "Qi Li", "Zhong Wu", "Xia Xiang", etc. Several cities led to half of Pi County being easily occupied by the Wei army.
At this time, Le Yi turned back to attack Tancheng.
Seeing that the situation was over, the Chu general Shen Tukang surrendered the city and begged for his life. Therefore, the Wei army easily captured Tancheng again.
It must be admitted that Le Yi fulfilled his promise. Although he deliberately delayed more than a month in Tancheng, he did gain back three months, allowing the Wei army to easily defeat the two Chu garrison camps of Peng and Pi. He gathered heavily troops in the small county and advanced the battle line to Jiujiang County in one fell swoop, approaching Shouying, the capital of Chu State.
Afterwards, Cao Yan came to Le Yi in person and apologized to the coach for his previous doubts.
Although Le Yi was not a tactful person and would not take advantage of the situation to establish a good relationship with Cao Yan, the Zongwei Chief of Yanwang Zhaojiang, he would not take such a trivial matter to his heart.
Tian Wu, who was also somewhat suspicious of Le Yi, did not apologize to Le Yi out of self-esteem. Instead, his eldest son Tian Tian came forward to apologize on his father's behalf.
However, although he did not apologize, after this incident, Tian Wu no longer doubted Le Yi's orders.
It is no exaggeration to say that through his excellent military use, Le Yi gradually made his generals trust him, and this chaotic army composed of Wei people, Koreans, and Qi people gradually became a rope. , which made the Wei army's offensive become more fierce.
After that, Wei general Tian Dan captured Peixian County, and Wei general Tian Wu combined with the two naval armies of Yan Kui and Li Ji to capture Guangling County.
After all three battlefields were defeated, King Xiong Tuo of Chu had no choice but to formally decide to abandon the royal capital Shoying and move the capital to "Pengli".
By August or September, the troops of Chu generals such as Xinyang Jun Xiang Pei, Shouling Jun Jingyun, and Diyang Jun Xiong Li were gradually reduced to Jiujiang County by the three armies of the Wei army.
In the late autumn of that year, the Chu army retreated to the south bank of the river one after another, mainly deploying defenses in the southern part of Jiujiang County. However, the Wei army did not pursue them, but focused on capturing the Chu land north of the river.
In November, as winter was approaching, the war between Wei and Chu was temporarily suspended.
At this time, the Chu State had lost all the land north of the Dajiang River. Even Changsha south of the Dajiang River was within the attack range of Shen Yu, the leader of the Wei army on the west route, leaving only half of Jiujiang County.