Zhou Tai took 10,000 reinforcements from Xiangyang and marched quickly to Jiangling.
With the experience of leading the team before, Zhou Tai's marching speed was much faster this time than before.
In addition, this was a military operation to rescue Jiangling, and Zhou Tai also wanted to be rewarded for his meritorious service. Therefore, Zhou Tai used a semi-hurried march along the way to urge the soldiers to hurry up.
Of course, Zhou Tai also knew where the limit of the sergeants' march in one day was, and he was not a brainless person. Even though he was anxious to make meritorious deeds, he also knew that if the soldiers were squeezed too much, even if the soldiers endured the journey without mutiny, they would not mutiny when they arrived in Jiangling. His reinforcements will not have much combat effectiveness.
Such reinforcements will be useless even at Jiangling.
Therefore, although Zhou Tai was really anxious to achieve meritorious service, he did not lose his mind after all. He marched in a hurry and marched in a hurry. Although the soldiers would complain, they did not feel dissatisfied under Zhou Tai's control.
This shows the importance of Zhou Tai's experience in leading thousands of troops from Jiangling to Xiangyang.
If Zhou Tai did not have this kind of experience in leading thousands of troops, then he would probably have to fumble while marching now, and would never dare to use a sudden march to rescue Jiangling. Then God knows when he can get to Jiangling.
After all, it is already December, and it is not a warm winter in Jingzhou this year, and heavy snow may block roads at any time.
Zhou Tai rushed all the way to Jiangling to support, while Lu Xun, leading 5,000 troops, bypassed the main road and marched towards Yidu County with no support.
It is not an easy task for five thousand men to conquer a county, but there is no way. This is the largest force Lu Meng can mobilize for himself.
The only good thing is that Lu Meng did not ask Lu Xun to capture Yidu quickly. He only asked Lu Xun to capture Yidu and block the entrance of Xichuan soldiers into Jingzhou before he captured Jiangling.
After all, most of the Xichuan soldiers are still confronting Cao Cao in Hanzhong. They can't come so quickly.
But Lu Xun felt that if he followed Lu Meng's request and acted in such a step-by-step manner, he would not be able to demonstrate his ability.
Moreover, Liu Beijun's Yidu governor Meng Da is also quite interesting.
Now Jiangdong Army is attacking Nanjun. After hearing the news, Meng Da, the prefect of Yidu, gathered troops to defend the east side or stationed troops to defend the county. This is understandable.
But according to the report from the detective, although this Mengda arranged people to defend in two or three counties on the east side, he focused his defense on the direction of the three east counties in the north. So, what on earth is this man thinking? !
Lu Xun carefully studied the map of Yidu County. Although the two counties in the north are very close to the three counties in the east, it only takes a few days to move troops back and forth to shift the focus of defense, but a few days can sometimes be fatal.
What's more, Meng Da really has no defense against the southern riverside area. Does he really not know what Jiangdong Army is best at? !
Lu Xun didn't understand Meng Da's approach, but Lu Xun knew very well that since Meng Da arranged his defense like this, he would be really sorry if he didn't take advantage of the good opportunity Meng Da created for him.
They continued their covert march one after another, cutting directly from the southeast corner of Yidu County. Instead of attacking the county seat, they directly attacked the county seat of Yidu County, which was also Mengda's garrison.
To capture the thief, capture the king first.
Meng Da, on the other hand, was indeed a little careless.
As for Meng Da, he is capable. After all, he can make friends with Fazheng and Li Yan, and he can also prosper in Cao Wei. It would be too much to say that he is uneducated and has no skills.
But Meng Da's character was really not good, he was capricious and unjust for his own benefit. In the end, because of his arrogance and unpreparedness, he was killed by Sima Yi in a surprise march, which caused his subsequent reputation to plummet.
But really speaking, maybe Meng Da can't reach the level of Fa Zheng, but he can still guard one side like Li Yan.
Meng Da really didn't want to take the risk of sending troops to rescue Nanjun. He managed Yidu County as his own one-third of an acre and was unwilling to take any risks.
But one thing is that Nanjun was attacked by Jiangdong, and Yidu was not 100% safe. Meng Da knew these things in his heart.
Even if Meng Da doesn't want to rescue Nanjun, Meng Da is very concerned about the defense of Yidu. After all, Yidu has been regarded as his own territory by Meng Da.
Therefore, after Mengda rejected Xu Shu's request for help, he didn't do nothing. He still redeployed the soldiers from all counties and strengthened the defense in the east of Yidu.
But because Mengda rejected Xu Shu's request for help and mentioned in the letter that the three eastern counties were unstable and could go south at any time, Mengda had to allocate some of his soldiers to the north.
In Mengda's view, the Shen brothers in Dongsan County are the household dogs and will never attack him easily. Therefore, preventing the troops in the northern part of Yidu County is actually just a show.
Mengda dared to do this because the two counties in the north of Yidu were not far from the county seat of Yidu and the three counties in the east, and it only took a few days to return to defense.
Even if Jiangdong really sends people to raid the eastern part of Yidu County, as long as the soldiers on the eastern front can hold back for a few days, the Yidu County soldiers in the north can rescue them in time without affecting the overall defense layout.
As for the south side, Mengda did not send troops to defend along the river, but it was not because Mengda did not know the power of the Jiangdong navy.
Mengda had no choice but to do this. He didn't have many naval forces at hand, and his troops were not enough. He couldn't set up a defense line along the river. Therefore, he could only temporarily abandon the defense along the southern river.
Once Jiangdong's army marches by water, Mengda will take the initiative to shrink his troops to defend the county and give up the land in the south to lure Jiangdong's soldiers ashore to fight. Then Mengda will contact Auxiliary Kuang who is defending in Yufu, and ask Auxiliary to lead the naval army along the way. They descended the river, harassed Jiangdong Army's retreat and food supply routes, and trapped Jiangdong Army on the shore.
In a land battle and a city defense battle, Meng Da felt that he would not lose to Jiangdong's people.
But Mengda really didn't expect that Lu Xun did not take the water route, and bypassed the county defenses in the east by land. He marched covertly along the way, cutting in from the southeast of Yidu County, and was not discovered until he was close to the capital of Yidu County.
And Meng Da never expected that Lu Xun did not take care of the surrounding counties at all, but directly led his troops towards the county where Meng Da was located, trying to break through the county as quickly as possible and seize Yidu County.
Now, Mengda had two choices before him.
One is to stick to the county rule by oneself, and then order the soldiers of Yidu County outside to cut off Lu Xun's retreat.
After all, although Lu Xun's advance was fast, he did not occupy any county towns. There were no supply nodes, so he had to fight quickly.
In this case, Meng Da only needs to be able to hold on to the county seat, wait until Lu Xun runs out of food, and then slowly deal with this group of Jiangdong troops who have gone deep into the army alone.
The other is to order all the county soldiers outside to return to the county to support the county. As long as the county is defended, even if a few outlying counties are lost, it will not affect the overall situation. At least there will still be an escape route.
After all, Lu Xun didn't bring many soldiers. Once Meng Da gathered the county soldiers to hold on, he would have more troops than Lu Xun. If he couldn't hold Yidu anymore, then Meng Da would just find a stone and kill him.
Two choices were placed in front of Mengda, and it was up to Mengda to choose.
Although the first option is a bit risky, once successful, the benefits will be relatively large, and the five thousand soldiers who invaded Jiangdong can be wiped out.
The second option is relatively safe, without too much risk, and it is easier to defend Yidu.
After some thought, Mengda chose the first option.
Although the first option will put oneself in danger, once successful, it will be a great achievement to completely wipe out these Jiangdong soldiers who have invaded the border.
After all, Meng Da has already refused to rescue Nanjun. If he doesn't do something to give Liu Bei an explanation, it will probably be a bit troublesome to fool people like Liu Bei just based on his excuses for not sending troops.
Although Fazheng and Li Yanhui helped to protect him, and Iru Sichuan also had credit, wouldn't it be better if he could do something to prove that he really couldn't leave, or even gain some credit or something.
Based on this idea, Meng Da decided to strengthen the city defense in the county and let half of the troops from the three eastern counties be used to cut off the retreat of Lu Xun's five thousand soldiers.
As long as he held on for ten days and a half, Lu Xun would retreat due to lack of food. At that time, if he could lead the pursuit by himself, he would definitely win a complete victory.
Meng Da had a good idea, but the problem was that the Lu Xun in front of him was not the kind of mediocre general who would only act according to the established plan.
After Lu Xun led his troops to quickly march to Yidu County, he did not attack the city immediately. Instead, he set up camp first and sent out scouting horses to collect intelligence on the surrounding areas.
After receiving the news that Yidu County soldiers appeared on the back road, Lu Xun immediately ordered to hoist flags all over the camp, leaving a few troops to act as a surrogate. He led the remaining troops to counterattack the three eastern counties, and easily defeated them. The defense of the three counties east of Yidu completely opened up its own food routes.
At the same time, before Mengda could react, he quickly moved north to cut off the connection between Mengda and the soldiers of the two northern counties.
Lu Xun acted very quickly. In less than ten days, he fought in three places and easily separated the connection between Mengda and the external county soldiers.
As for Meng Da, it took him three days to discover that the camp in front of him was empty.
It was these three days that gave Lu Xun an opportunity and kept Meng Da in a passive situation.
After Mengda discovered that the camp in front of him was empty, he immediately realized Lu Xun's plan and quickly sent people to contact the three eastern counties. However, it was already a step too late. The three eastern counties had been captured by Lu Xun.
After receiving the news that the three eastern counties had been captured by Lu Xun, Mengda immediately understood that Lu Xun might go north to cut off his connection with the northern county soldiers, and quickly ordered the northern county soldiers to shrink back to Yidu County, the county seat.
But by the time the northern county soldiers received the order, Lu Xun had already cut off the northern county soldiers' return route.
Meng Da was actually not stupid. He could guess Lu Xun's intentions in response, but because of the three-day time difference, Meng Da was passive everywhere.
Finally, Mengda gritted his teeth and wanted to send troops to cooperate with the northern county soldiers to attack Lu Xun from both sides. However, before Mengda could go far out of the city, he received a message from Lu Xun who took advantage of the northern county soldiers' panic and completely defeated the northern county soldiers. information.
When Meng Da heard the news, he knew that he was no longer able to defeat Lu Xun's invading army, so he could only retreat to the county and stick to his defense.
But the problem now is that after Lu Xun cleared out the county soldiers in the east and north, Mengda only had more than 2,000 people stationed in Yidu County, while Lu Xun suffered almost no losses.
The situation has changed.
(End of chapter)
