It has been a month since the Battle of E County.
After the E County Defense Battle, although Liu Qi took most of the credit in the battle report to Liu Biao, Liu Qi still had to show some appreciation for Zhang Xi and Wei Yan, the two heroes of the E County Defense Battle, in order to convince the public. .
Zhang Xi was already the postal governor of Jiangxia, and his official position and power were not small. Liu Qi did not promote Zhang Xi, but gave Zhang Xi a mansion, ten servants, and some money and silk.
Now it's better, Xiao Qibao and Xiao Qi Xiaoba no longer have to live in an inn, they finally have a new house to live in, and little Deng Ai no longer has to go to the inn to study and study every day.
As for Wei Yan, on Zhang Xi's recommendation, he was appointed by Liu Qi as the captain of Hengjiang, commanding thousands of people, and returned to Chen to control.
Liu Qi still had some brains. He knew that Wei Yan, Zhang Xi, and Chen Dao were all his borrowed guest generals, so when it came to controlling the military, Liu Qi also consciously let these people stay together, and what he really relied on was , or the group of people led by Su Fei.
It's Wei Yan's position. I've only heard that Jiangdong once established the rank of General Hengjiang, but I've never heard of Colonel Hengjiang.
Besides, Wei Yan is not a navy soldier. He is a landlubber who vomits when he gets on a boat. How can he be considered a "Hengjiang" captain?
However, these days, both the military system and the official system are in a mess. Zhang Xi once served as the "Grain and Grass Registrar". This "Hengjiang Colonel" may have been created by Liu Qi, so don't worry about it so much.
Strictly speaking, the governor of a place only handles government affairs, and he is not qualified to appoint deputies such as the county magistrate or military positions such as the general.
But these are troubled times, and Jingzhou belongs to the Liu Biao family. Although daily rights are restricted, personnel appointments can still be easily done. A school captain, or even a word from Liu Qi, does not need to be reported to Xiangyang Liu Biao. .
As for Huang She, this guy who stole the chicken but lost the rice was severely punished by Zhou Yu in Xiaji and suffered heavy losses.
Of course, Liu Qi would not let go of such an opportunity. He was already very wary of the number of soldiers under Huang She's command. Now that he had a ready reason, he immediately began to divide Huang She's number of soldiers.
Of course, I didn't dare to go too far. After all, I wanted to give face to the Huang family in Jingzhou. I just reduced the number of Huang She's troops from the original 10,000 to 7,000, and the remaining 3,000 were given to Su Fei.
Of course Huang She was dissatisfied, but he suffered a huge loss because he was defeated. He was unable to replenish enough troops in a short period of time, which gave Liu Qi an excuse to split.
Therefore, Huang She was dissatisfied and Liu Qi didn't do everything right, so he endured it.
Oh, by the way, there was another hero named Kou Feng who was responsible for the defense of E city.
But Liu Qi didn't care about Kou Feng at all, because in Liu Qi's view, Kou Feng belonged to Zhang Xi's personal guard, and Zhang Xi should decide the reward and punishment, so he did not intervene and did not grant any official position to Kou Feng.
If Zhang Xi had not recommended Wei Yan to Liu Qi, Liu Qi would not have interfered with Wei Yan's affairs. After all, Wei Yan was also Zhang Xi's personal captain in name.
Kou Feng was very dissatisfied with this, and Zhang Xi had to coax this Erha to calm him down.
Let's talk about Kou Feng's temper. Zhang Xi feels that he still needs to find a chance to break up with him in the future. He can't lose his temper just because he feels unsatisfied.
Otherwise, if he still partners with Meng Da and goes to Shangyong County in the future, he may still be able to rob someone's honor guard.
But Zhang Xi doesn't have time now.
The battle to defend Hubei ended in late April and lasted for a little more than a month.
But by the time Zhang Xi finished sorting out Echeng's defense and returned to Xiling County, it was already mid-May.
Zhang Xi doesn't remember when the battle of Changbanpo happened, but he only remembers that it was probably in the second half of the year, so there was not much time left for Zhang Xi.
Zhang Xi's original plan was to train the army in Jiangxia and use three to four months to train a group of usable soldiers. Who knew that Jiangdong would attack in the middle, which delayed more than two months.
Therefore, Zhang Xi had to catch up and join the Wugang Che training program without being proficient in the Yuanyang Formation.
If you are in a hurry, you can practice as much as you can. Zhang Xi has no choice.
Originally, Zhang Xi was thinking about training a group of cavalry. After all, there is no cavalry to cooperate. Even if the Yuanyang Formation and Wugang Chariot are used to defeat infantry, if they encounter the enemy's cavalry, they will have to defend their lives. .
But finally gave up.
First of all, it is easy to train the navy in Jiangxia, but the cavalry is a bit difficult. Except for a few generals and officers who can ride horses when traveling, the others have never even touched horse hair.
Secondly, Zhang Xi doesn't know how to train cavalry.
The cavalry must fight on horseback, not just step on a bench and mount the horse, and then let the horse carry it.
There is no need for others to dissuade this kind of thing. Zhang Xi gave up on his own initiative after trying it for a while.
Without horses, it would be difficult to defeat Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry in the plains. Therefore, Zhang Xi also gave up this idea and turned around to think about how to send troops in time to support Liu Bei's retreat.
But since the decision is to support Liu Bei, the navy is also a key part of it.
Therefore, after returning to Xiling, Zhang Xi often wrote to Chen Ju, the commander of the navy, to review the friendship of fighting side by side under the city of Hubei.
Chen Jiu is now one of the few commanders of the Jiangxia Navy. He is not only relied upon by Liu Qi, but also by the Jiangxia Navy.
Zhang Xi and Chen Ju had fought side by side and had a good impression of the navy commander.
It is true that Chen Jiu's navy training was lax, but most of the Jingzhou army in these years were like this. If we really want to blame him, the source is Liu Biao in Xiangyang City, and Chen Jiu cannot change it.
On the other hand, Chen Jiu's naval command level is not bad.
Although he cannot compare with famous generals like Zhou Yu, he can still be said to be "familiar with water warfare". Such talents are also scarce for Liu Bei.
What's more, Zhang Xi couldn't do anything to rescue Liu Bei in time without the cooperation of the navy commander.
Therefore, apart from supervising Jiangxia Army training during this period, Zhang Xi spent the rest of his time busy wooing Chen Jiu.
If Xiling hadn't been a bit far away from Shaxian, Zhang Xi would have wanted to go to Shaxian a few more times to have a good relationship with Chen.
As for little Deng Ai, he basically focused on self-study during this period. Zhang Xi really didn't have time to teach this future famous general, now a little brat.
When it came to early June, Liu Qi's spy in Xiangyang received news that made Liu Qi unable to sit still.
Liu Biao was seriously ill.
Liu Qi immediately summoned Chen Zhen, Su Fei, and Zhang Xi to discuss going to Xiangyang to visit the doctor.
Liu Qi must go for this matter.
The father was seriously ill, but the son stayed in Jiangxia and never returned. In this era, it was called unfilial and could directly deprive Liu Qi of the qualification to inherit Jingzhou.
But Liu Qi was worried that if his father was seriously ill and unable to take charge, and the power in Xiangyang was in the hands of the Cai family, then he might go to Xiangyang and not be able to get out.
In this regard, Chen Zhen said that Liu Qi need not worry.
The Cai family is an aristocratic family, and what they pay attention to is the inheritance of poems, books, etiquette, and not the king of the mountain.
Liu Qi was the governor of Jiangxia appointed by Liu Biao himself, and he returned to Xiangyang to visit his doctor out of filial piety. The Cai family did not dare to risk the disapproval of the world and detain or even kill Liu Qi.
Of course, if Liu Qi is really worried, Chen Zhen suggested that he, a famous scholar from Nanyang, accompany Liu Qi to Jiangxia and have him as a witness. If he doesn't believe that the Cai family dares to kill him too.
As for Jiangxia, don't let down your guard and seize the time to prepare your troops. If there is a real emergency, you can at least force Cai not to act rashly.
Therefore, Liu Qi made a decision and decided to take Chen Zhen to Xiangyang to visit the doctor, while Zhang Xi and Su Fei reorganized their troops, joined Chen Jiu, and were ready to march westward at any time.
After Liu Qi made these arrangements, he hurriedly took Chen Zhen to Xiangyang.
As for Zhang Xi, Liu Biao was seriously ill, which was simply a signal that Cao's army was about to move south, and Zhang Xi's sense of urgency suddenly came.
Sergeant training began to be stepped up. With Liu Qi's order, Zhang Xi directly changed the Jiangxia Army's original training every five days to every three days.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Xi made a special trip to Sha Xian, where he and Chen had a drink, gave away a lot of gold and silver, and communicated with each other about their feelings.
Zhang Xi's days passed in such a rush day by day.
In late June, Liu Qi finally rushed back from Xiangyang.
This time when he went to Xiangyang, Liu Qi was indeed not detained by Cai, but Liu Qi, a son, did not see his father.
In the name of Liu Qi leaving Jiangxia without permission and Jiangxia's important territory must be lost, Cai directly blocked Liu Qi from the Prefectural Mufu Mansion and did not let him in at all.
Of course Liu Qi is not stupid. This situation is obvious, that is, Liu Biao is indeed seriously ill and can no longer manage.
Otherwise, when his son comes back, no matter how much Liu Biao dislikes Liu Qi, he won't be able to meet him.
Liu Qi was anxious. He knew that if he just returned to Jiangxia, he would miss the position of Jingzhou Mu for the rest of his life.
Therefore, he cried loudly outside the governor's house, trying to create public opinion and force Cai to let him in to see Liu Biao.
But Cai was not moved at all. Even when Chen Zhen went up to argue with the Cai family, they just pretended not to hear.
Seeing that making trouble was useless, Chen Zhen could only help Liu Qi up and go back to the hotel to rest.
The next day, Chen Zhen went to visit the other three major families in Jingzhou and wanted to ask them to come forward to help negotiate peace.
The father is seriously ill and the son is not allowed to see his father. What kind of inheritance of poetry, books and etiquette is this? !
But the other three aristocratic families in Jingzhou were very polite to Chen Zhen, but none of them wanted to help Liu Qi.
This can only be blamed on Liu Qi. He had offended these aristocratic families so harshly that no one was willing to stand up and support him, let alone let him be the shepherd of Jingzhou.
When Chen Zhen saw this posture, he instantly understood Liu Qi's situation. He didn't know whether he should feel sad for Liu Qi or happy for Liu Bei.
Returning to Guanyi, I persuaded Liu Qi that it would be better to return to Jiangxia as soon as possible before making plans.
Liu Qi was not willing to give up, but he went to the Prefectural Mufu Mansion for three consecutive days, and without exception was blocked from the house. Liu Qi had no choice but to leave the city crying and return to Jiangxia.
As Liu Qi returned to Jiangxia, another news came from the north.
According to the news from Liu Bei, Cao Cao officially raised his troops in early June and led an army of 150,000 people from Xudu to officially set off for Wancheng.
(End of chapter)
