Regarding Wei Yan's problem, Zhang Xi still doesn't know how to solve it.
Zhang Xi was surprised when Wei Yan suddenly appeared in his escort and took on the role of captain of the bodyguard.
But after a brief exchange with Wei Yan, Zhang Xi roughly understood the purpose of Wei Yan's appearance.
One was sent by Liu Bei to protect Zhang Xi.
The other is that Liu Bei hopes that Zhang Xi will find an opportunity to let Wei Yan lead the troops alone in Jiangxia so that he can exercise.
As for the relationship between Zhang Xi and Wei Yan, although Liu Bei had heard about it, he didn't take it seriously.
Speaking of which, Wei Yan was kind enough to recommend Zhang Xi. Zhang Xi was Bai Shen, Wei Yan was the head of the recruitment hall, and Zhang Xi entered the official position through the recruitment hall.
Although it is just a formality, on the surface, Zhang Xi is indeed a talent recommended by Wei Yan.
And Liu Bei also knew that although Wei Yan sometimes spoke poorly, Wei Yan still admired people who were truly capable, so Liu Bei believed that there was no fundamental conflict between Wei Yan and Zhang Xi. The small misunderstanding was easily resolved after both parties became familiar with each other's personalities.
Liu Bei's idea was good, but the problem was that neither Zhang Xi nor Wei Yan had any intention of reconciling with the other party.
On this patrol, Zhang Xi's original intention was to take Kou Feng with him, and let Wei Yan cooperate with Chen Dao in the army to preside over the new method training.
But Wei Yan refused, saying that he was Zhang Xi's guard captain and that he had to follow Zhang Xi when he went on patrol.
At first glance, it seemed that Wei Yan cared about Zhang Xi, but in fact, Zhang Xi always felt that Wei Yan was mocking him. He had been in Jiangxia for so long and still hadn't arranged a suitable position for him.
Well, that’s what Zhang Xi thought anyway.
In fact, Wei Yan was not as mean as Zhang Xi thought. Of course, he did not care about Zhang Xi. The main reason was that he was worried about Zhang Xi's ability and wanted to go on inspection tours with him to see the defense issues in various places.
Regarding the matter of military training, Wei Yan could not admit it. After all, he himself lost to the soldiers trained by Zhang Xi in a head-on battle. Wei Yan admitted this.
But apart from other talents in military training, Wei Yan did not see Zhang Xi display them.
Especially when it came to the field of military command, Wei Yan felt that he was definitely better than Zhang Xi.
Wei Yan, as Liu Bei's confidant, couldn't help but know how important Jiangxia was, so it was normal for him to be worried and follow Zhang Xi out to see the defenses of various places.
The three of them set off awkwardly together. The first thing they wanted to inspect was the two counties in the southeast of Jiangxia - Xiaji and Qichun.
These two counties are at the junction of Jiangxia County and Jiangdong. Once Jiangdong goes north along the Yangtze River to attack Jiangxia, these two counties will be attacked first.
In December last year, Jiangdong broke through the defenses from here and withdrew his troops from here.
Because a large number of people and property were looted when Jiangdong withdrew its troops, these two counties have not yet recovered. Not to mention the sparse population, the entire defense along the river is in a state of neglect.
Zhang Xi summoned the local county magistrate and county lieutenant and scolded them for not caring about defense. But after half of the words were said, there was nothing left to say.
There's no one around. How do you defend yourself? !
In this era, there was no such efficient organizational capability that could complete population migration in just three months. In this era, such a thing would take at least a year to be initially completed.
There is really no one in Xiaji and Qichun counties now. They don't even have enough manpower for spring plowing, let alone restoring defense.
Jiangdong is poisonous enough. They plunder the population not only to enrich themselves, but more importantly, to keep the defenses of Xiaji and Qichun in a state of neglect in a short period of time.
This shocked Zhang Xi.
The last time Jiangdong retreated was due to unexpected factors and Sun Quan's mother died of illness.
In other words, Jiangdong's retreat was not out of strategic considerations, but out of necessity.
But when he left, he took away the population of Xiaji and Qichun counties, making it impossible for the two counties to resume production in a short period of time. This shows that Jiangdong will definitely attack again before these two counties resume production and defense. .
When Jiangdong invades next time, Xiaji and Qichun will have no way to defend themselves. There will be a big gap in the defense line along the river, allowing Jiangdong to easily break into Jiangxia from these two counties and approach E County. and Zhu County.
Behind E County and Zhu County is Xiling County, the administrative center of Jiangxia.
This is equivalent to Jiangxia's first barrier being in vain, but Zhang Xi still has no solution.
Deploying troops from Xiling? !
It's possible, but given the current situation in these two counties, there are not many civilians, and they can't even organize spring plowing. If you let the soldiers come over, who will eat and drink? !
We can't always rely on long-distance transportation of food from Xiling, right? !
Therefore, there is really nothing Zhang Xi can do about these two counties.
Not to mention Zhang Xi, even Wei Yan and Kou Feng were confused.
Zhang Xi once asked them to garrison these two counties. Given the current situation, what could they do if Jiangdong invaded.
At that time, Kou Feng and Wei Yan thought about it for a long time, and they had only one solution - to abandon the two counties, preserve their strength, and retreat to Zhu County and E County upstream.
Zhang Xi could only sigh, no longer criticized the two county chiefs harshly, and continued upstream with Kou Feng and Wei Yan.
Along the way, Zhang Xi had no intention of sightseeing. The main purpose was to inspect the defense system along the river left by Huang Zu.
Mainly some arrow towers and city gates.
But as expected by Zhang Xi, most of these places have been abandoned.
On the one hand, the counties along the river are underpopulated and financially unable to repair these military buildings.
On the other hand, none of these local officials believed that Jiangdong would invade the country again at this time.
It is March, the time for spring plowing.
Not only Jiangxia needs spring plowing, but Jiangdong also needs spring plowing, and spring plowing requires people and labor.
If Jiangdong sends troops at this time, the people and laborers will be recruited as auxiliary soldiers, responsible for transporting food and so on, so it will affect spring plowing.
This is also the reason why wars in these years usually occur in summer or after autumn.
It is a very common sense thing to start a war during spring plowing. In other words, Zhang Xi is an official from the county. If he were his subordinates, the local officials along the coast would have looked down upon Zhang Xi.
But only Zhang Xi knew that this was absolutely possible.
First, because Jiangdong's economic model is different, they rely heavily on the supply of local aristocratic families. Cutting off spring farming for a year is really not a big deal for the aristocratic families, as long as there is sufficient exchange of benefits.
Secondly, it is written in the history books that Huang Zu originally died in this raid.
Although it seems inconsistent with common sense, there are still few times when we use troops by surprise these days. Don't you know how you lost the three northern counties of Jiangxia the year before last? It has only been two years, and you have forgotten all of them? !
Zhang Xi really had nothing to do with these local officials, so he had to set off quickly, rush to E County, and then prepare to start the arrangement.
The reason why it is E County is because Jiangxia's naval forces are currently stationed here. As the postal governor of Jiangxia County, he is qualified to mobilize these naval forces.
Another thing is that behind E County is Xiling County, the county government. Zhang Xi gives orders here, and the officials and generals of E County dare not disobey.
After Zhang Xi arrived in E County, the first thing he did was to make a surprise inspection of the E County navy station.
Then Zhang Xi saw that the navy was like fishermen, and occasionally sent two boats out for inspection. Most of the people stayed on the boats, either basking in the sun or sleeping.
In that scene, let alone an old soldier like Wei Yan who looked angry, even a half-timer like Zhang Xi found it unacceptable.
With this group of navy soldiers, I hope Huang Zu died unjustly in the war.
After hearing the news, the chief and deputy commanders of the Jiangxia navy, Zhang Shuo and Chen, saw that Zhang Xi had entered the military camp and saw everything that should be seen and what should not be seen. At the moment, they could only bow their heads and admit their mistakes.
It's definitely not worth it to rebel for such a trivial matter. I really don't dare to kill Zhang Xi to silence him.
Moreover, Zhang Shuo and Chen really didn't think it was a big deal. The Jiangxia navy had already made plans. At least they sent people out to patrol the river and would conduct regular drills.
If you have the ability, go to Nanjun and you will know. Jiangxia Navy is already considered the elite of Jingzhou Navy.
Zhang Xi was very angry, especially angry at Zhang Shuo and Chen for being so nonchalant. But what would happen if he was angry again? !
Zhang Xi didn't understand the navy, and neither did Wei Yan and Kou Feng. If he was allowed to control the navy, God knows what kind of jokes would happen.
No matter how reluctant he was, Zhang Xi could only scold Zhang Shuo and Chen Ji twice, but he really didn't dare to remove them from their posts because Zhang Xi did not have qualified navy generals in his hands.
Scolding them can only relieve their anger temporarily. After the scolding, they still have to rely on these two people to manage the navy training.
It's just that Zhang Xi's scolding finally had some effect this time. Zhang Shuo and Chen, under Zhang Xi's nose, had to deal with this first, even if they were superficial.
Therefore, at Zhang Xi's request, the Jiangxia Navy sent out small boats at fixed times every day to strengthen patrols along the river. The Jiangxia Navy also needed to follow the drill requirements and practice on time to fool Zhang Xi first.
This is the consensus reached by Zhang Shuo and Chen.
After inspecting the navy, Zhang Xi immediately turned around and went to the county government of E County. He showed his official seal and took over the defense of E County. His first order was to ask E County and Zhu County on the other side of the river to send county soldiers to take over the defense along the river. defense facilities.
As for the defense of the two counties, Zhang Xi immediately wrote a handwritten letter and asked the guards to rush back to Xiling County and hand it over to Liu Qi, asking him to quickly dispatch reinforcements.
As for the army, Zhang Xi really doesn't need to be polite to these people. If it doesn't work, he can still send Kou Feng and Wei Yan out.
Zhang Xi is a general of the water-deficient army, but army generals are quite wealthy. It would be difficult to find anyone stronger than Kou Feng in Jiangxia, let alone Chen Dao and Wei Yan.
After finishing these two things, Zhang Xi breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhang Xi did not know the specific time of Jiangdong's sneak attack. He only knew that it was spring. He also attacked Xiling County, the seat of Jiangxia, forcing Huang Zu to abandon the city and flee. In the end, he was caught up and killed by the cavalry.
Now Zhang Xi can only pray that he can take these measures in time. At the very least, they must serve as a warning and a hindrance.
Huang Zu is no longer in Jiangxia. If it were Liu Qi. If Liu Qi died in this sneak attack, Zhang Xi simply couldn't imagine what kind of chain reaction it would cause.
Therefore, Zhang Xi began to adjust the defense on the map while patiently waiting for reinforcements from Xiling.
However, before the reinforcements from Xiling arrived, the invading army from Jiangdong arrived.
Zhang Xi was so frightened that his whole back was soaked.
(End of chapter)
