In Lujiang County and Xunyang County, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were training their naval forces and had a stalemate with Huangzu of Jiangxia across the river.
"This is unreasonable! That thief Huang Zu can really endure it, and he won't even come out like this!" Sun Ce said angrily in the big tent.
"Yeah, I really didn't expect it." Zhou Yu rolled his eyes, and at the same time said in his heart: Such a simple provoking method, Huang Zu is cheating!
There are only 8,000 old and weak people. Even though Sun Ce is brave and powerful, and Zhou Yu has exhausted all his plans, he still has more than enough defense but not enough offense.
This is exactly what Yuan Shu wants to achieve. Yuan Shu wants to take advantage of Sun Ce's self-contained tribe, but is also very afraid of it.
"Report! Jiangdong military situation..." The messenger's voice sounded in the military camp.
And on this day, the "variable" that Zhou Yu had been waiting for arrived much earlier than he expected, and this "variable" was completely different from what he expected!
These messenger soldiers were not from Yuan Shu, but from Sun Ce's old department. Zhou Yu specially sent a team to inquire about the military situation in Jianghuai.
Hearing the urgent tone of the messenger, Zhou Yu quickly let him in.
It turned out that Zhou Yu took a gamble, hoping that Zhang Xun would not be able to attack Quacheng for a long time, which would lead to Yuan Shu's army being short of food and grass. In Yuan Shu's plan, Zhang Xun needed to quickly capture Wu Commandery and Kuaiji, and be self-sufficient as soon as possible, and even feed back.
Only Huainan.
However, before Zhou Yu expected that Yuan Shu was running out of food and grass, important news from Jiangdong had already arrived?
This makes Zhou Yu a little nervous...
I saw the messenger coming in covered in travel. He looked like he had been traveling day and night, and even looked a little exhausted.
Sun Ce quickly asked someone to roast a wild boar leg - this was how he regained his strength when he was cold.
Of course, Zhou Yu stopped people and went to cook porridge and light food. Fenghan ate wild boar legs. This kind of operation is not something ordinary people can learn.
"Tell me slowly, what happened in Jiangdong?" Zhou Yu asked.
"The army was defeated..." the messenger said breathlessly.
"Defeated? So quickly... Could it be that Lu Bu in Quacheng went out to meet the enemy?" Zhou Yu said in surprise.
"It's... a battle, Zhang Xun was defeated!" The messenger took a breath.
"Zhang Xun was defeated? He was so honest? He actually fought against Chen Gong with troops several times larger than the enemy's?" Zhou Yu became increasingly confused about the situation.
"It's four thousand to ten thousand..." the messenger added.
"He lost even ten thousand yuan? Could it be a fraud...and he actually gave in and retreated?" In Zhou Yu's impression, Zhang Xun was not so upright.
"I'm not admitting defeat! It was indeed a fraud. During the battle, Zhang Xun ambushed thousands of soldiers and horses, but he still lost...and the whole army collapsed and fled all the way back to Danyang. When he wanted to cross the river, he was recruited by Bai Tu again.
The water thieves plundered and died on the river!" The messenger finally finished in one breath.
Zhou Yu:……
What's going on? Ten thousand versus four thousand, he still has the nerve to ambush, and even though he ambushed, he actually lost the whole thing?
Zhang Xun...is he thinking of nothing but Yuan Shu?
It's no wonder that the messengers didn't know the specific situation, because the news came from the defeated army who fled back to Huainan - in their impression, it was Zhang Xun who took the initiative to ambush Chen Gong.
Sun Ce on the side was also stunned for a while, Zhang Xun... was simply amazing!
"Gong Jin, has our opportunity come?" Sun Ce said happily after being surprised.
According to Zhou Yu's previous deduction, as long as Zhang Xun could not win quickly, they would have a chance to ask for orders to go to Jiangdong, but now... Zhang Xun was directly defeated quickly.
Zhou Yu said somewhat seriously: "The battle with Jingzhou should be over here, but I'm afraid there is no chance to go to Jiangdong for the time being."
"What? Then we..." Sun Ce scratched his head.
"Wait." Zhou Yu said directly.
As Zhou Yu expected, news came not long after that Yuan Shu sent Han Yin to Xiangyang to meet Liu Biao. It was nominally to wish him a birthday, but everyone knew that... he had a vague intention of negotiating peace.
Liu Biao and Yuan Shu are also old enemies. Liu Biao was a member of the clan who was granted the title of Mu of Jingzhou during Dong Zhuo's chaos. He originally came to Jingzhou on horseback. He relied on his personality charm and communicative skills, as well as the righteousness of the imperial court, to win Jingzhou.
, mainly with the support of the Nanjun wealthy family.
Jingzhou spans the Yangtze River, borders Nanzhong to the west, and Yangzhou to the east. It was originally seven counties, which can be divided into three counties in the north and four counties in the south. Moreover... it is a state that cannot be "read on a map".
Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the entire Jingzhou had a population of more than six million, and its area looked huge on the map. But in fact, more than one-third of the population was concentrated in the seemingly small Nanyang County north of the Yangtze River——
That is the hometown of Yuan family.
As for the four southern counties, Lingling, Guiyang, and Changsha, which appear to be very large, have a combined population of about the same as Nanyang. As for the "super large" county, Wuling County, also southwest of Jingzhou, has a registered population of only over 200,000.
Only one-tenth of Nanyang...
In fact, since the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wuling County has been a "prefecture and county on the map". Whether it is the administrative seat or the settlement area of Han people, they are all concentrated in the northeast corner of Wuling County. The southwest part is close to Nanzhong, and the situation is similar to Nanzhong -
- There are Nanzhong barbarians in Nanzhong, who are Meng Huo's group in later generations, and there are also Wuling barbarians in Wuling.
When the Eastern Han Dynasty was at its peak, it didn't care much about this place. The purpose of establishing Wuling County was not so much to govern, but to prevent these Wuling barbarians from joining forces to cause trouble.
When Liu Biao first arrived, Kuai Yue of the Kuai family set a general tone for him to govern Jingzhou - to control Jiangling in the south and Xiangyang in the north, and the eight counties of Jingzhou could be passed on.
Jiangling and Xiangyang are the two important places in Nanjun.
It seems to be said very arrogantly, with the energy of subduing the enemy without fighting, but when translated into actual meaning, it actually means: sit firmly in Nanjun, and the other counties will just be obedient in name...
Liu Biao did exactly this in his early Jingzhou strategy. He cooperated with the Nanjun family, accumulated strength, and gathered troops to support him. Although he hated Yuan Shu who had occupied Nanyang, he still expressed his hatred for Yuan Shu, who was the governor of Nanyang, to ease the situation.
Because of the relationship, Huang Zu of Jiangxia was nominally at his disposal.
As for the four counties in Jingbei...or rather the three counties outside Wuling, historically they were still separated and combined with Liu Biao until a few years later.
The convenience he has in Jingzhou is that his enemies are not very strong, but compared to Cao Cao and Yuan Shu, he has no advantage.
As for Nanyang County, the most elite county in Jingzhou, when the princes were fighting against Dong, Liu Biao tricked Yuan Shu and blocked his way back, and at that time, Sun Jian also wanted to forcefully cross Jiangxia and return to his hometown in Changsha.
As a result, he died in the middle of nowhere.
Yuan Shu hated Liu Biao because of this, and Sun Ce and Huang Zu also wanted to kill their father.
In fact, Liu Biao was also quite miserable. When later generations drew maps of this period, they always painted all of Jingzhou in Liu Biao's color. Those who didn't know better thought that he was more vicious than Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Bei combined at that time.
Simply AFK all the way until Cao Cao consolidates the north.
At this time, famine was widespread in Guanzhong under the scourge of Dong Zhuo's old troops. Zhang Ji was causing trouble in Nanyang in order to grab food. Therefore, after sending Han Yin to Jingzhou to celebrate Liu Biao's birthday, Liu Biao also took advantage of the situation to restrain Huang Zu, and the river became calm for a while.