In late July of the fifth year of Long'an of the Han Dynasty, the main force of the Han army on the left crossed the Huai River and appeared on the south bank of Xinxi, crossing the bank with the army on the right. Huang Quan's navy, fully loaded with military supplies, followed the army in the westernmost part. After the left army advanced to Liao County and Yangquan, they immediately deployed their formations to surround the two cities. Zhou Buyi also sent flying cavalry to report back to Liu Xie.
At this time, Liu Xie established a large tent in Jiangbei to coordinate the operations of the three departments. Zhou Buji's envoy delivered the letter to the account and stood aside waiting for the emperor's reply. There were more than ten confidant guards in the room, holding knives and staring at the envoy. This made the messenger a little uncomfortable. He lowered his eyes and looked at his muddy boots, waiting for the emperor to speak.
The letter was not long. After reading it, Liu Xie put it on the table. Without raising his head, he asked the envoy in an understated tone: "The letter from the Governor is very short. Is there any other message you want to convey?"
The envoy's speech was a little unclear, as if he was stuttering, but he still said: "There is no message. The Grand Governor told me before he came that if your Majesty wants to ask anything, just ask me directly."
Liu Xie nodded and suddenly asked: "How is the morale of the Wu bandits in the city? Who is guarding it?"
After hearing this, the envoy summed up his words, and then said eloquently: "The ones guarding Liao County are Yuan Yao, the pseudo-Qiangnu Colonel, and the pseudo-Qiangnu Colonel Wei Yi is guarding Yangquan. They are all people with names but no actual achievements. Junior, and the Commander-in-Chief took us around the city wall, but we did not see the flag of the Wu thieves. It can be seen that these two people have lost their courage, and the soldiers in the army should also be discouraged. Although the Commander-in-Chief did not say it explicitly, but according to the From what I’ve seen, I’m afraid it won’t take five days for these two cities to fall.”
When Liu Xie saw that he was answering fluently, he just wanted to take the exam for a moment. He leaned back and asked, "In your opinion, will our army have a smooth sailing in this battle, or will it encounter dangers? If so, where will the obstacles lie?" where?"
The envoy thought about it and said: "Neither of these two cities are dangerous places in Huainan. The reason why the Wu people did not abandon their defense was just to delay the defense, so it seemed simple. But my scouts have already found out that the thief Lu Su, the governor of Huainan, There are eighteen forts built in the Bagong Mountain area. It would take a lot of time to conquer them one by one, and if they are passed without attacking, it may cause trouble in the future. The Wu people will definitely use this as a winning hand to try to force Wang Shi back. Huaibei, so in my humble opinion, this battle will be difficult, and it will probably take place on Bagong Mountain."
When Liu Xie heard this, he suddenly raised his head and looked at the messenger for the first time. I saw that he was tall and thin, with a young and dark face and a thin beard, with a short beard extending from his chin to both sides of his temples. He wears a white scarf with a bun on his head, a robe with a wide collar and narrow sleeves, and a rhinoceros belt around his waist. There was only a scabbard on the belt, because the sword was taken away by the guard when he entered the door.
Seeing that this man had a firm expression and showed no timidity in front of the emperor, Liu Xie felt a little appreciative of him and no longer cared about his eloquence. So he followed his words and said: "What you said is indeed reasonable, so after capturing the two cities, our army will use the navy to surround the bandits in Bagong Mountain. After the majority of the enemy arrives, we will order the Zhou Governor's troops to Act with camera in the south. Whether this battle can go smoothly depends on whether your elite troops on the left can defeat the enemy in Huainan. But in my opinion, the Wu thieves can only fight Zhou Yu alone, and now he is not here Our army will definitely win here. I will write a letter immediately and take it to the Zhou Governor, instructing him to attack the city quickly. After the city is broken, do not hesitate and go south immediately to capture the cities of Anfeng."
He also asked the envoy his name and family background. The messenger answered hesitantly: "I was born in the Deng family of Nanyang, and went north with Taifu Liu. The clan now lives in Yingchuan. My real name is Fan, and later I changed my name to Ai, and my courtesy name is Shizai. I am now the chief bookkeeper in the governor's account."
"Oh? Your real name is Deng Fan, why did you change your name?"
Deng Ai said with embarrassment: "My father died young and did not name Wei Chen. He only left small characters. Therefore, Wei Chen chose his own name. When I was in Yingchuan, I read "Taiqiu Gong" written by Cai Yonggong. There are two sentences in the stele: "Writing is a model for the world, and behavior is a scholar's code." Weichen liked it very much, so he named himself Deng Fan, with the courtesy name Shize. Unexpectedly, there was someone with the same name and the same name in the clan, so he had to change his name again."
Liu Xie couldn't help but fell into deep thought after hearing this. He smiled a little and then joked to Deng Ai: "So, you are destined to be our prime minister!"
Deng Ai quickly apologized and said, "I just long for the legacy of my ancestors. How can I dare to cling to the prime minister?"
"Well, it's good to have such ambition, okay!" Liu Xie originally wanted to send Deng Ai away, but now he appreciated him more and suddenly wanted to give him something. He saw that Deng Ai's scabbard was empty, so he grabbed the sword he had placed on the table and threw it to him. Deng Ai hurriedly caught it and felt that the sword was heavy. He looked down and saw that the scabbard was inlaid with gold ornaments. It must be a precious sword! When I was panicking, I heard the emperor say: "You are the one who wants to go into battle to kill the enemy. I will give you a good sword to cut off the enemy's head!"
Deng Ai quickly handed over his hand and thanked him. Knowing that the emperor had begun to pay attention to him, he had mixed feelings in his heart, and secretly made up his mind: "In a few years, there will be no more wars in the world, so I have to seize this last opportunity. "
Liu Xie, on the other hand, asked for paper and pen to reply to Zhou Buyi in person. At this moment, urgent reports were sent from left and right. Liu Xie was displeased and stopped writing and opened it to read. After reading a few lines, he became furious, threw the letter to the ground, and slapped several cases. Deng Ai and everyone in the tent were shocked when they saw this, and quickly lowered their heads without saying a word.
Liu Xie stared at Deng Ai and suppressed his anger. Without saying a word, he finished writing the letter to Zhou Buji and sent Deng Ai back out of the tent. Then he called Guo Huai and Wei Xi in and told them: "Qianjia was attacked by Zhou Yu's troops in Jingzhou. He was defeated and unable to escape. He actually surrendered to Zhou Yu!"
Guo Huai and others were shocked when they heard this. This time the army marched eastward. Although the main battlefield was in Huainan, from the overall perspective, all the land bordering the Wu people had been caught in the flames of war, and Jingzhou was naturally no exception. Before Liu Xie set off, he had already issued an edict to the Nanfu Han army in Xiangyang and Suixian, ordering them to contain the Wu army in Jingzhou so that they could not rush to support the lower reaches. Now the people in charge of the Nanfu are Chen Zhang, Qian Jia, and Zhang Bao. They have all been friends of the emperor since childhood. Liu Xie originally trusted them extremely, but unexpectedly, Qian Jia's entire army was wiped out. Come.
Liu Xie took a long breath, and then said to Wei Xi: "Go to the Eastern Capital in person, pass my message to the Chancellor, and ask them to allocate another 20,000 troops from Guanxi, and Sima Zhongda will go out to help Yicheng. , and pay attention to Zhou Yu's actions in Jiangling." He also said to Liu Fang: "Take my letter and rush to Xiangyang immediately. Let Chen Zhang temporarily take charge of the army, collect the remaining troops, and defend Xiangyang. We must not let this city fall to Wu. in human hands.”
After finishing speaking, Wei Xi did not leave immediately, but asked: "Your Majesty, how do you plan to deal with Qianjia's surrender?"
Liu Xie had completely calmed down at this time. When he mentioned Qianjia, there was a slight sneer at the corner of his mouth, and he said slowly: "It's not that he doesn't understand the principle of killing oneself to make a benevolence, it's just that he always has luck. He must think that my family and his family are family friends, and I I didn't dare to do anything to his family, so I surrendered to the Wu thief. I really can't put Qian in prison, but in the future if I catch him, it won't be as simple as beheading him!"
Shortly after the Han army received the news of Jingzhou's defeat, the Han army's Zhou Buyi troops began to attack the city aggressively, just like the previous siege of Huaibei. The Han army gradually shrank its front around the two cities, trapping the Wu people in the city to death, and then rolled out stone-launching carts and hurled stones at the city walls. As predicted by the Han army, these small cities only served to delay the Han army's offensive. Their defenses were not strong. They only lasted for two days before many city walls were breached. The Han army waited until the gap was large enough to accommodate nearly a hundred people. When they entered at the same time, they immediately swarmed up and the Wu people in the city were unable to resist. On the third day, the two cities were completely occupied by the Han army. Among them, two thousand Wu people who were captured were escorted back to the north bank of Huai River that night.
After conquering Liao County and Yangquan, the Han army continued to advance eastward and soon arrived at Feishui at noon on the second day. At the same time, they also saw Bagong Mountain on the other side. Liu Xie, Zhou Buyi and others had seen maps of Huainan many times, but only when they saw Bagong Mountain with their own eyes did they realize how difficult the terrain here was.
I don’t know if it was the result of deliberate cleaning by the Wu people. For nearly fifty miles around Bagong Mountain, there was almost a completely flat beach. If the Han army was stationed here, there would be no possibility of hiding their whereabouts. Moreover, the terrain of Bagong Mountain is extremely dangerous. Except for the southeast corner, it is completely surrounded by the Huaihe River. It is completely impossible to transport stone carts. The cavalry has no room to use. They can only have the infantry cross the river and attack the mountain stronghold. This will almost The advantage of the Han army was completely wiped out. Of course, it is not that there is no good news, but under this situation, the Huai River turns thousands of times, and there is no room for the building ships to play. The Wu people's possible advantage in the navy was also wiped out.
The forwards of the left army captured some Wu scouts at this time. After interrogation, they learned that the Wu navy was still watching at Chaohu. So the Han army made a decisive and tentative attack first. Yang Qiu led 6,000 men across the Feishui River and walked through the mountains to attack Wu Renwu Village. When the Wu people saw the Han army entering the river bank, they immediately came down the mountain to fight. They fired arrows at the Han soldiers who were walking slowly in the mud. Many Han soldiers were shot into hedgehogs before they even reached the foot of the mountain, so they had to retreat and consider the long term. .
Under this situation, Liu Xie discussed with the generals and decided to follow Chen Chong's tactics when he entered Shu, using camp against camp. Wang Ling was ordered to build a pontoon bridge at Yandun Mountain first, and then lay planks on the river beach to build a camp. Once there is a bridgehead, the foundation of the Han army will naturally be firm. But this also greatly slowed down the Han army's attack. Until mid-August, the Wu people could not prevent the Han army from setting up camp, and the Han army could not break the Wu people's Wuzhai.
On the other side, the Wu army of the Wu people also arrived in Huainan smoothly. After they received the news of the victory of the Wu army in Jingchu, their morale had been greatly boosted, and they finally sailed into Shaopi Daze with great force.
