Chapter 321 Withdrawal

Chapter 321 Withdrawal

Chapter 321 Withdrawal
The distance between Nanyang and Xiangyang is not short, it is a full three hundred miles away.

The round trip of 600 miles is very time-consuming.

Even before the battle started, the "war correspondent" Hu Wu Fuzhi was still persuading Shao Xun not to go south and to return quickly.

Shao Xun admitted that what he said made sense, but did not accept it.

After heading south from Wancheng, the road conditions were unexpectedly good: mainly because it was wide enough.

It can be seen that since the Cao Wei era, great importance has been attached to the Jingxiang area.

This is also a commercial avenue and has been since the end of the Han Dynasty. Countless people have become rich because of it. When Shi Chong was the governor of Jingzhou, it was probably the period when he accumulated wealth the fastest in his life.

On the night of the 20th, the army arrived in Yuyang. Shao Xun stayed in the ancestral home of the Le family and visited Lan Ji's mother, Liu.

"Tao Nu is a miserable person. You must treat her well, my lord." Liu was old and had little energy. She was about to fall asleep, but when she heard that the famous Lord Chen was coming, she insisted on meeting him.

She asked Shao Xun to sit next to the candlelight and looked at it carefully for a long time. Then she sighed and kept talking: "Tao Nu met the wrong person. At that time, King Chengdu..."

Shao Xun listened patiently with a smile on his face.

When he and Lan Ji talked at night, they would occasionally mention the King of Chengdu. Every time this happened, Lan Ji would get goose bumps all over her body, and she would be so nervous... so cute.

"Your Excellency, please don't go to Xiangyang." Liu suddenly said.

"Why?" Shao Xun was a little surprised.

"Most of your soldiers are from the north, and they may not be able to adapt to the situation there. If an epidemic strikes, the soldiers who have fought for a hundred battles will be gone." Liu said, "I know that you have practiced martial arts for many years and are in good health, but epidemics are hard to explain, hard to explain..."

When Shao Xun heard this, he was filled with awe.

Mrs. Liu was indeed knowledgeable, and she even pointed out something he had overlooked.

Nanyang is OK, it is considered a maturely developed area. But Xiangyang is a region with a network of rivers and streams, and the level of development is not high. The army may go south without any problems, or it may be troublesome. Who can tell?
"Thank you for your advice, old lady." Shao Xun cupped his hands and said.

Liu sighed, squinted her eyes, and looked at Shao Xun carefully, saying: "Your Excellency has great ambitions, and you also know when to act. If you want to achieve your ambitions in the future, just treat my daughter well."

Shao Xun said quickly: "Don't worry, old lady. Tao Nu is very charming and serves the old lady diligently. I love her very much."

Liu nodded, then said goodbye and left.

Shao Xun then bent over his desk and handled several important official matters.

This is a rather plain and elegant study, but there is actually a bow hanging on the wall, which perhaps reflects the living conditions of the scholars at that time: they had to balance reading and martial arts.

Le Guang is the protagonist of the idiom “seeing a snake in a cup”.

Shao Xun looked at the bow again and found that it was indeed a horn bow used by cavalry.

It seems that the Nanyang Le family has a certain foundation in riding and archery. No wonder Le Kai said before that he had assembled more than 2,000 "infantry and cavalry".

It is one of the hometowns of Huaiying Tuqi, quite interesting.

Tang Jian was lingering outside the door. After Shao Xun finished writing a letter, he called him in and sent the letter out.

The letter was sent to Pei Chun.

Shao Xun asked him to send a thousand soldiers from the county and recruit another two thousand strong men to Chenggao County to occupy the city gate.

Chenggao is located on the Dawei Mountain, and was originally a city established by Zheng during the Spring and Autumn Period. Ten miles southwest of the county is Xuanmen Slope, and there is a pass on the slope, called "Xuanmen Pass", which was one of the eight passes in Luoyang during the late Han Dynasty. This pass blocked the southern entrance of the slope.

It was later abandoned and a new pass was built two miles southeast of the county, called "Hu Lao Pass" - the pass was located in the middle of the slope.

This Hulao Pass was later called "the old Hulao Pass" because a new Hulao Pass was built on the bank of Sishui in the first year of the Sui Dynasty, also known as "Sishui Pass".

Xinguan City was moved to the foot of Da'an Mountain, bordering the Yellow River to the north and the mountains to the south, while also blocking the northern gorge of the slope.

The reason why Xinguancheng was built here was probably because the Yellow River silted up and formed a piece of land on the northern foot of Mount Dawei. People traveling east and west could walk along the riverside without having to go up the mountain and take the slope.

At this time, this riverside road had not yet appeared, and people still had to take the mountain road between Luoyang and Xingyang, so Hulao Pass or Chenggao Pass was the top priority.

Controlling Hulao Pass means controlling the most convenient road out of Luoyang to the east.

It's not impossible to take a detour, but it's more troublesome and risky.

In history, Gao Huan had crossed mountains and rivers and launched surprise attacks via detours. This shows how much inconvenience the loss of Hulao Pass caused to the Eastern Wei, forcing both sides to fight a major battle here.

This is a vital place.

"Wait." Shao Xun held Tang Jian and said, "Let the messenger bring a message."

"Please speak, my lord."

"Store enough food and fodder in the city. If you dare to flee without a fight, I will kill you."

Tang Jian was stunned at first, then nodded: "Yes."

This sentence is quite heavy.

It is unknown whether Pei Chun will listen to it, but it should have some effect.

It was inevitable that the Huns would move south to besiege Luoyang. If they blocked Hulao Pass and locked the three passes in southern Luoyang, if they wanted to advance into Yuzhou, they would have to retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River and then cross the river from Jijun to the south, which would be a big detour and very inconvenient.

As a result, the army was split into two groups, east and west, and could not respond to each other. It was very troublesome and dangerous.

It’s hard to say, maybe we should just give up at this point.

******
After leaving Yuyang, we arrived in Rang County in one day.

Then they doubled their speed and arrived at Deng County on the 23rd, occupying the deserted county town.

At this time, a report came from the army that some powerful people in Sui State who had joined Wang Ru had rebelled and killed the officials appointed by Wang Ru. Shao Xun asked someone to bring the map and looked at it carefully.

When the Ming Dynasty was first unified, Jingzhou was a very vast territory, with a total of 22 counties and kingdoms under its jurisdiction.

Now it is far worse than before.

First, Jiangzhou was established, and the three counties of Wuchang, Ancheng and Guiyang were taken away - and seven counties were taken from Yangzhou.

The three counties of Xincheng, Weixing and Shangyong were also transferred to Liangzhou.

After the current emperor ascended the throne, he took Changsha, Hengyang and other five counties from Jingzhou to establish Xiangzhou. He also took Guiyang from Jiangzhou and attached it to Xiangzhou, and took Shi'an and other nine counties from Guangzhou and attached them to Xiangzhou.

The entire area of ​​Jingzhou was greatly reduced, and only eleven counties and kingdoms remained.

Some adjustments were also made within Jingzhou.

Jingling County was separated from Jiangxia.

The State of Sui was established for King Sui. This state was very small and only governed two counties, Sui and Pinglin.

When Xinye King Sima Xin was alive, Xinye and other counties were separated to establish Xinye State.

After Sima Xin was defeated and died without an heir, the kingdom was abolished and all the counties were merged into Yiyang. Although Sima Shao was adopted as the king later, the title of a county king was changed to a county king - after all, the previous Xinye king was Sima Jue's man, so he really stood on the wrong side, and the new king had no relationship with Sima Yue, otherwise, what would happen if he created a new Cai Kingdom for you like Sima Teng did?

With this calculation, there were still thirteen counties and kingdoms in Jingzhou at this time, but the area had shrunk greatly and was no longer comparable to before.

However, Shao Xun had already submitted a petition requesting the re-establishment of Xinye County, which would govern the five counties of Xinye, Jiyang, Rang, Chaoyang, and Caiyang, and to appoint Yu Fang as the prefect to reward him for his contribution in killing the rebels, and to serve as the first line of defense against Wang Ru.

At this time, Yu Fang followed him and brought more than a thousand soldiers and horses.

The Xinye Yu family is the descendant of Yu Meng, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty. Their starting point was higher than that of the Yingchuan Yu family, but their development was not as good as theirs. Perhaps it was because of their circle - the scholars of Jingzhou were obviously not comparable to the scholars of Ruyang and Yingzhou in politics.

"The situation is very clear." Shao Xun stood on the top of Deng County City and looked to the south with regret.

Deng County was originally under the jurisdiction of Yiyang and is now one of the eight counties in Xiangyang County. Fancheng is not far to the south.

If Wang Ru did not defend Deng, but gathered a lot of troops in Fancheng and held his ground, his intention would be clear.

Le Kai and Yu Fang, who also followed along the way, looked at each other with unclear meanings in their minds.

"Let's not talk about other counties and kingdoms. Xinye, Nanyang, and Shunyang counties must watch over each other and help each other." Shao Xun looked at the two and said, "The three families together can gather tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. If we fight well, we will not be afraid of Wang Ru. After I return to the north, I don't want to hear that one family is surrounded and the other two sit and watch. Yang Zuyan is not here today, but I will make it clear to him. If we are separated, we will be weak, but if we are united, we will be strong. If the three families are united, no one can easily swallow you up."

Le Kai and Yu Fang looked at each other again and said in unison, "We will obey your orders."

They could hear that the prince treated the three counties as their private territories and used the words "you wait".

Sometimes, they feel that troubled times are bad.

Sometimes, I feel that troubled times are a paradise for ambitious people.

When the imperial court had great authority, how could it allow them to seize military and political power in the local areas?
But when the authority of the imperial court weakened, local power was filled by the aristocratic families.

They vaguely felt that even if someone would restore the old country in the future, the aristocratic politics would not be eliminated for a while, and would reach new heights during this chaotic time.

Chen Hou, the nominal overlord of Luonan and Yuzhou, seems to have tacitly acknowledged their status in the local area?
There was a sound of horse hooves in the distance.

Soon, several soldiers came over with a messenger.

"Sir, this is Wang Ru's messenger." After Tang Jian led his men forward and searched him, he invited the messenger over and reported.

Shao Xun looked at the messenger.

A typical middle-aged scholar, trembling with fear but forcing himself to be alert, looked at Shao Xun.

Shao Xun was too lazy to pay attention to him and took the letter and started reading.

After reading it, he asked, "Why did you deliver the letter for Wang Ru?"

"All the young members of my family are held captive by him, so I had no choice but to do it," the messenger replied.

"Wang Ru is a powerful figure after all, but he is trapped in an isolated city and dares not go out to fight. Why is that?"

"The general has won battle after battle, and his bravery is unstoppable. His reputation is so great that it has been heard far and wide." The messenger replied, "Although the troops are numerous, their morale is chaotic and the leaders are not united. Therefore, we are defending the city and waiting for the general to withdraw."

Shao Xun laughed and said, "Wang Ru is quite straightforward and is not afraid of me knowing the truth."

The messenger nodded his head.

"Please give Wang Ru a message for me." Shao Xun said.

"General, please speak."

"When I defeat the Xiongnu, I will..." Shao Xun stroked the hilt of the sword at his waist and said, "I will lead the loyal and righteous troops, lead the obedient people, beat the drums to punish the criminals, and march south with swords. Can the isolated city of Xiangyang withstand the attack of the strong army?"

"The court sent back refugees, and they rebelled out of anger. It was a temporary thing and understandable. If the king is sensible and surrenders, I will ensure that he is safe." Shao Xun continued, "Take back what he said."

"As you wish." the messenger replied.

After the messenger left, Shao Xun waited in Deng County for two days.

During this period, scouts reported that Wang Ru had almost abandoned all of his outer strongholds and retreated to Fancheng and Xiangyang, with no intention of launching any attack.

Shao Xun sighed, knowing that this guy was determined to hold on and would not leave.

Although there is not much food and grass in the city, it should not be a problem to hold out for a month or two. There are also a large number of Guanxi followers, and they are sitting in a strong city, so it is not easy to capture.

There is no time to waste with him, so we can only withdraw our troops first.

(End of this chapter)