Zhang Cheng is unlucky, really.
Ever since he was tricked by Zhuge Ke, changed from navy commander to army general, and entered Jingnan with 15,000 soldiers, Zhang Cheng had not lived in peace for a few days.
Before, I was constantly being transferred to support from various places, traveling back and forth between Wuling and Changsha counties.
After that, he was finally transferred to Liling County to stop the Shu army. Within a month, his opponent made trouble again.
A division of the Shu army made Zhang Cheng mistakenly believe that the Shu army was going to divide its troops to attack Changsha County, so he had to send 5,000 soldiers back to support Changsha, reducing the number of defenders in Liling County.
But then, Zhang Cheng found that he had been fooled. The Shu army commander Shi Bao on the opposite side just made a false shot, and the 20,000 soldiers he sent came back again, besieging his 10,000 soldiers with 30,000 people.
Originally, Zhang Cheng thought that he had fallen into a trap and had divided his troops in vain, which might make him unable to defend Liling County. However, during the subsequent city defense battle, Zhang Cheng discovered that the Shu army's siege battle was actually so stretched. .
With a strength comparison of one to three, it is not impossible to defend Liling County.
Now, Zhang Cheng felt that he could hold Liling County and might even be able to repel the Shu army's attack, so he held on even harder.
But, after guarding for less than half a month, Shi Bao, the general on the opposite side, did something wrong again.
He withdrew his troops and retreated.
This was not a case of having to retreat after being unable to attack for a long time. Zhang Cheng could still see this.
However, after fighting for less than half a month, Shi Bao still had at least 25,000 troops in his hands. It would be too childish to just withdraw like this.
Anyway, from Zhang Cheng's point of view, Shi Bao must be playing another trick to lure the snake out of its hole. This time, he can't be fooled as easily as last time.
For this reason, Zhang Cheng did not relax his vigilance and still defended the city of Liling County in preparation for war. At the same time, he sent his own scouts to search for traces of the Shu army within a radius of fifty miles around Liling County.
Finally, Zhang Cheng discovered that Shi Bao led his troops and retreated towards the Xiang River.
The Xiangshui River is at least 80 miles away from Liling County. Is it true that the siege has been withdrawn after retreating so far? !
Zhang Cheng always felt something was wrong. Thinking from his perspective, he really didn't think Shi Bao had any reason to withdraw his troops.
There is no reason for 25,000 soldiers to withdraw against a city guarded by only 8,000 people.
So. Xiangshui? !
Going up the Xiang River, it seems to be southern Hunan, right? !
And less than eighty miles away from southern Hunan is Changsha County, right? ! Changsha County? !
Zhang Cheng suddenly realized something was wrong, and immediately asked his scouts to set off as soon as possible to check whether a large number of ferries suddenly appeared in the Xiangshui River Basin.
What Zhang Cheng fears most now is that Shi Bao gives up the attack on Liling County and goes up the Xiang River to attack Xiangnan County.
On the Xiangnan County side, there are no soldiers from Soochow County to defend it. With a force of 25,000, it can be said that Xiangnan can be captured almost without a fight.
Once Shi Bao captures southern Hunan, he will inevitably turn eastward and attack Changsha County, which is where the Soochow Army in Jingnan stores grain and grass.
Although Lu Zhi was stationed in Changsha County, and after Zhang Cheng's rescue, there were 8,000 troops guarding Lu Zhi, Zhang Cheng was really worried about Lu Zhi's military capabilities.
Once Shi Bao really gave up attacking Liling County and switched to attacking Changsha County, it would be impossible for Zhang Cheng not to be in a hurry.
Even if Shi Bao attacks Changsha County, there is no need to consider the issue of logistical supplies. Xiangxiang County in Lingling County and Xiangnan County in Changsha County are only separated by the Xiang River. If supplies are to be transported through this route, it will be difficult to transport supplies. It might be a little shorter than Shi Bao's current logistics supply route for attacking Liling County.
No matter what Zhang Cheng thought, he felt that Shi Bao had gone north to attack Changsha County, so now, should he return to defend Changsha County? !
According to common sense, he should immediately return to defend Changsha County, but the last encounter made Zhang Cheng a little cautious.
Last time Shi Bao made a simple division of troops and allowed himself to separate five thousand soldiers from Liling County. What if Shi Bao repeated his old tricks this time? !
Pretend to withdraw from Liling County and pretend to march north of the Xiang River. When he really withdraws his troops to rescue Changsha, he will lead his troops back. Then won't he be able to occupy Liling, a traffic artery, without any bloodshed? !
He still has 25,000 soldiers in his hands. If these soldiers ignore Changsha County and directly lead troops to attack Yichun County and break into Yuzhang County. Even if Yuzhang County can be defended in the end, Zhang Cheng will inevitably be defeated after the war. Accountable.
Although his father is protecting him, he will not die, but Zhang Cheng's military career and official career are probably over here. From now on, he can only stay at home and be a second-generation nobleman waiting to die. .
So Zhang Cheng is really hesitant, should he return to the army? !
Zhang Cheng hesitated like this. Shi Bao seemed a little confused about this Zhang Cheng, but he was calm.
Shi Bao chose to withdraw the siege of Liling County, in fact, half of it was because he really couldn't fight anymore.
There is no way, Shi Bao knows very well what kind of goods he has in his hands.
The only ones that can really be used are 10,000 Dahan County soldiers, and the remaining 20,000 Wuxi barbarians can be used in field battles, but they are only used to siege the city to cause chaos.
Just counting on the siege ability and fighting will of this group of people, Shi Bao fought for three days and found that his idea was too good.
It is true that the Soochow Army on the opposite side is not a strong army, and its performance in defending the city is a mess. But it can't stand up to the fact that its own side is also fighting in a muddle.
It is not impossible to capture Liling County, but it is estimated that after the battle is over, the 10,000 county soldiers under his command will suffer almost all casualties.
At that time, this group of Wuxi barbarians broke away from Wuling County and fought with Lingling County. They had no scruples. It was hard to say whether Shi Bao, who did not have enough county soldiers, could suppress them.
Therefore, Shi Bao didn't want to fight for casualties in Liling County so hard, so he had to find a way to let the Liling County defenders divide their forces again.
Last time Shi Bao used a trick to pretend to attack Changsha, which caused Liling County to send 5,000 soldiers to Changsha for rescue. So if he repeats the same trick this time and makes it more realistic, will it cause the Liling County defenders to retreat directly to Changsha? !
The distance between Liling County and Changsha is still quite far, at least two to three hundred miles. There is enough space in the middle for Shi Bao to set up an ambush halfway. As long as he does not engage in siege warfare to ambush the defenders who retreated to Changsha, But for field battles, the Wuxi barbarians in Shi Bao's hands would be of sufficient use.
This was Shi Bao's plan. To this end, he wrote to Pan Jun in Quanling in advance, hoping that Pan Jun would collect a large number of ferries and go north along the Xiang River, giving the illusion that he would take a detour north to attack Changsha.
Shi Bao himself, after continuing to besiege Liling County for more than ten days, chose to withdraw from the siege and retreat to the direction of the Xiang River.
On the one hand, it is to give Zhang Cheng enough space to give him the opportunity to evacuate Liling County with his entire army. On the other hand, Shi Bao really needs to be transported quickly by waterway to get ahead of Zhang Cheng in the middle of Liling County and Changsha. , choose a suitable ambush location to ambush Zhang Cheng's returning army.
But Zhang Cheng has been standing still in Liling County during this period, which made Shi Bao feel a little hesitant. Could it be that Zhang Cheng saw through his own plan, or that he didn't care about the gains and losses of Changsha County at all, so he just didn't plan to return for reinforcements? ? !
If the stalemate continues like this, it will be difficult to fight.
But fortunately, after Zhang Cheng hesitated for five days, he finally decided to return to Changsha County and withdraw his troops. Shi Bao then confidently waved his troops on board the ship and led his troops north to the predetermined ambush site, waiting to ambush Zhang Chengjun.
Then...the two had an encounter.
Yes, no one expected that the two of them would encounter each other at a place other than the ambush location.
Zhang Cheng was actually still hesitating whether to withdraw his troops. He was really worried that Shi Bao was repeating his old tricks and would seize Liling County after he withdrew his troops.
Therefore, Zhang Cheng chose a rather strange approach. He pretended to withdraw his troops and leave Liling County. However, less than fifty miles north, Zhang Cheng immediately chose to return to Liling County via a detour from the bank of the Xiang River.
If Shi Bao chooses to repeat his old tricks, Zhang Cheng can definitely return to Liling County before Shi Bao does.
And even if Shi Bao really chooses to go north, Zhang Cheng will only waste two more days by doing so. No matter how incompetent he is, Lu Ju can still hold on for two days, right? !
As for why he took a detour to the Xiangshui River, Zhang Cheng actually wanted to get closer to the Xiangshui River to investigate the situation and see if Shi Bao had really gone north along the Xiangshui River.
As for Shi Bao, Shi Bao has no choice.
Going north from the Xiang River, it is about less than a hundred miles and you will enter the range of Hengshan Mountain. You must disembark in advance before entering the west of Hengshan Mountain. Otherwise, if you want to set up an ambush, you have to cross Hengshan Mountain, or occupy southern Hunan first, and then detour southward. .
If you do this, the journey is too far and you may not be able to stop Zhang Cheng.
Therefore, Shi Bao could only choose to lead his troops to disembark ashore about sixty miles north of Liling County, and then go north by land to the scheduled ambush site.
Then, the two scouts met directly not far from the shore of Xiangshui River.
The fact that each other's scouts have encountered each other means that the two armies are not far apart, no more than twenty miles away. If there is an encounter, there will be a fight.
Fortunately, there are many people on Shibao's side, and the Wuxi barbarians are still capable of fighting in the field and can help a lot. However, Zhang Cheng's side only has a total of more than 8,000 people, facing 25,000 It is impossible to withstand an attack of more than a thousand people.
After a fierce battle, Zhang Cheng finally failed to hold on and could only lead his troops to retreat.
But at this time, it was impossible for Zhang Cheng to withdraw to Liling County. Therefore, Zhang Cheng had no choice but to lead the remaining army to retreat northward, intending to withdraw to Changsha County and assist Lu Zhi in defending Changsha.
Then just outside Changsha City, he was blocked by Jiang Wei.
The remaining five thousand county soldiers were completely defeated and fled, and Zhang Cheng himself was unfortunately captured.
(End of chapter)
