The battle of Xiangfan is about to break out.
As for Jiangling, the seat of Nanjun, five hundred miles away from Xiangfan, Wang Ji also had a headache as to what to do next.
In the battle under Jiangling City, although Wang Ji held on to the defense line, burned the food and fodder of Lü Meng's army, and forced Lü Meng to temporarily suspend his troops, his own losses were not small.
The eight thousand Jiangling garrison who fought out of the city suffered more than three thousand casualties. In the end, it was only by holding on with one breath that the soldiers could not collapse under such heavy damage.
After Deng Ai and Shi Bao led their troops back to reinforce, although they brought nearly 5,000 men, which could make up for the loss of troops, and even slightly increased their troops, the troops that Wang Ji could use now were More than 10,000 people.
But Lu Meng not only did not withdraw his troops as Wang Ji expected, but also received support from the Sun brothers. Now, there are a total of 50,000 attacking troops under Jiangling City.
Wang Ji didn't understand where Lu Meng had the confidence to stay under Jiangling City when there was insufficient food and grass.
Are you really not afraid of a mutiny? !
As for the military report of Wang Ji's reinforcements, it has been sent to Xiangyang for almost 20 days, but there is still no reply from Xiangyang. Wang Ji is a little afraid to ask if he has any reinforcements coming.
For the time being, we can only consider using the 12,000 people who can still fight to defend the attack of 50,000 people on the opposite side.
Fortunately, although Lu Meng gathered the reinforcements from the Sun brothers and stationed troops in the military camp, he did not launch an attack for the time being.
At one time, Shi Bao and Deng Ai both judged that Lu Meng was waiting for the subsequent supplies of food and grass to arrive, and the camp should be short of food now. After all, they were the ones who burned it, and they knew exactly how much food and grass they had burned.
Therefore, Shi Bao and Deng Ai both asked for a fight and went out of the city to attack Lu Meng's camp. They might even gain unexpected results.
But Wang Ji rejected the two's request to fight.
Because Wang Ji can't afford the loss.
It is useless to attack a camp of fifty thousand people with few soldiers. If there is a fraud with more soldiers, Wang Ji cannot afford to lose. After all, Lu Meng is not that kind of reckless man. He has already been attacked by someone once, and there is no way he can return it. Will relax the guard against the camp.
Wang Ji also judged that it was true that he would not go out to fight and wait for the food and fodder to be in place. However, Wang Ji was also not sure whether Lu Meng would set up an ambush and wait for the defenders of Jiangling City to come out of the city to attack him.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, it is better to defend the city.
As for Lu Meng, at first he really wanted to create the appearance of an empty garrison in the camp, attract Jiangling City defenders to fight, and then set up an ambush to encircle and annihilate them.
But soon, Lu Meng no longer had this intention.
Xu Sheng's cronies came across the river to report that the Wuling reinforcements had arrived at the Public Security Bureau, and together with the Public Security defenders, they defeated Xu Sheng's siege army, and the Public Security siege had been lifted.
Xu Sheng now leads more than 3,000 remnant soldiers and is guarding the public security ferry to ensure the smooth flow of food routes. At the same time, he also hopes that Lu Meng can send troops to rescue.
Now Lu Meng was in no mood to set up an ambush.
There is already a shortage of food, and now the retreat may be threatened. If the generals of the Jiangdong Army who were unwilling to attack Jiangling knew about this, something might happen.
Therefore, Lu Meng was very worried and quickly sent 3,000 reinforcements to Xu Sheng.
Not daring to mobilize troops from other generals' camps, Lu Meng could only mobilize troops from his own central army. Therefore, it was not easy to give Xu Sheng 3,000 reinforcements.
This was not good news for Lu Meng, but Lu Meng was not so unlucky after all, and he soon got an unexpected surprise.
Lu Xun, the guard at Lukou, personally escorted a batch of grain and grass to Lu Meng's camp.
This is three days shorter than Lu Meng's estimated time for replenishing food and grass.
Although Lu Xun didn't transport much grain and grass, it could solve the urgent need after all. Moreover, this was extra grain and grass, which was not within the supply quota. In other words, normal supplies of grain and grass would be delivered in three days.
Lu Meng was so happy that the injury on his shoulder felt better. He excitedly went out of the camp to greet Lu Xun.
This batch of food and grass from Lu Xun was so timely, and it was of great help to Lu Meng in stabilizing the morale of the army.
Originally, Lu Meng's camp was about to run out of food and grass. Although a batch of food and grass was transferred from Xu Sheng, they could only live frugally, which was very detrimental to the morale of the army.
Not to mention that Xu Sheng's defeat caused all the food and grass to be lost. Next, when stationed at the public security ferry, a large battalion will definitely be needed to support Xu Sheng's army with food and grass. The food and grass problem will be even more stretched.
It's okay now. Although Lu Xun didn't transport much food and grass, it can give the soldiers hope. In addition, Lu Xun's food and grass will not be a big problem if they last three days. After three days, the supply of food and grass will arrive, and the morale of the army will be completely stabilized. .
Therefore, Lu Meng was really grateful to Lu Xun for transporting food this time. He pulled Lu Xun into his camp and asked about the details.
As for Lu Xun's visit this time, there really wasn't anything special about him. He was just being cautious, just in case.
Lu Xun was not a god either. He was guarding the house in Lukou's place for Lü Meng. It was impossible for him to know so quickly that Lü Meng's attack in Jiangling City was unsuccessful and most of the food and grass were burned. Now the food and grass were in short supply.
Lu Xun just sent an extra batch of food with a cautious attitude.
If nothing happens, it's not a bad thing to stock up on more food and grass in the camp, but if something happens... Look, doesn't it play a vital role now? !
Lu Meng was particularly emotional about this. Lu Xun's actions were simply a breath of fresh air among the Jiangdong generals who were in such chaos now.
As for Lu Xun, he was also very curious as to why the current battle situation suddenly became like this.
Lu Meng was honest and told Lu Xun what happened recently.
After hearing this, Lu Xun frowned.
From the perspective of post-mortem review, Lu Meng made a big mistake when his food and fodder were burned this time. This should not be a mistake that an excellent commander who has experienced hundreds of battles should make.
You know, Lu Meng's camp is ten miles away from Jiangling City, and the camp area is only two or three miles in radius. With this distance, it can be said that the rear army is under his nose, and his food and grass can be burned. It is really unreasonable.
But on the other hand, Wang Ji, the defender of Jiangling City, happened to take advantage of the illusion of darkness under the lamp, and used the excuse of going out of the city to fight in the field to transfer Lu Meng from the central army to the front army, leaving the rear camp with insufficient defense and a successful sneak attack.
This is like sitting alone at home, and a thief still sneaks into the home and steals things. To outsiders, the owner seems stupid, and he can't even see the things under his nose, but from the owner's perspective, who would have thought This thief is so bold that he dares to break into the house when the owner is at home.
Besides, it's not like Lü Meng didn't send people to protect the rear army. Even if the defenders were not strong in combat strength, with a size of 3,000, as long as they could delay a little time, it would be enough to give Lü Meng a chance to react. But the Jiangling defenders obviously didn't give Lü Meng this chance. , and even dared to ambush Quan Cong's rescue team halfway.
It can be seen that the defender of Jiangling City is not a fool. He has planned everything and is willing to take risks. Losing to such a person is actually not an injustice.
If there was anything wrong with Lu Meng's response, in Lu Xun's opinion, it was that Lu Meng was too anxious and always wanted to swallow up Nanjun in one go, which led to his orders being somewhat eager for quick success.
If Lü Meng decisively stopped attacking when the fire broke out in the rear camp and retreated his troops to put out the fire, there would not be much loss of food and grass. After all, they were very close and there were many people. After putting out the fire, he should be able to grab a batch of food.
Relying on this batch of food, Lu Meng could organize his soldiers to attack the city while waiting for the next batch of food supplies. Instead of being like now, he did not dare to act rashly in order to worry about the morale of the camp, but instead gave the defenders in Jiangling City a rest. time.
But then again, the reason why Lu Meng was anxious to defeat the defenders of Jiangling City was entirely because this attack was originally a sneak attack. If he could not advance quickly, occupy Nanjun, and wait until Guan Yu returned to rescue, then Lu Meng would have no choice but to retreat and defend. A choice was made.
Therefore, Lu Xun thought for a long time, and he still felt that Lu Meng's response was not a big problem. The current situation can only be said to be caused by many reasons.
But no matter what, the current situation is quite unfavorable to Jiangdong.
Especially after Wuling Xu Shu freed up his hands to support Wenpin of the Public Security Bureau and repel Xu Sheng's siege, the situation has been completely reversed.
Xu Sheng's approach of sticking to the public security ferry was very correct. We should not relax our protection of the grain road just because the other party did not have a naval force. What if they really hid a few warships to no avail? !
Once the food route is cut off, Lu Meng cannot break through Jiangling in a short time and wait for Guan Yu to come back for reinforcements. It is really hard to say how many of the 50,000 Jiangdong troops will be able to return alive.
Lu Meng was also worried about this matter, so he asked, "In this situation, I wonder if Bo Yan can give me some advice?!"
Lu Xun laughed when he heard this.
What can he do? !
The entire strategic planning was done by Lu Meng, and he was fully aware of it for only more than a month.
The current situation has deviated greatly from what Lu Meng had originally expected. Lu Meng didn't know how to adjust. Why would he still ask him? !
Moreover, the two men had completely different leadership styles, and Lu Xun would not take such risks with his troops.
If it were Lu Xun, when the attack on Gong'an continued, he would stay at the gate of Gong'an City and write a letter to Wuling Xu Shu, saying that he had no use in breaking the covenant, but the emperor had an edict and had no choice but to follow it.
In other words, if the backstab fails, he should quickly abdicate his responsibility, saying that he sent troops just for show and did not really intend to betray the alliance.
Then ask the lord to send a debater to Hanzhong to "explain the whole story." I believe Liu Bei will most likely tolerate this anger because of Cao Cao's power.
After all, there wasn't much actual loss.
But now, Lu Meng has already reached Jiangling City, and it is too late to sever the relationship at this time.
(End of chapter)
