SFS Chapter 752 Shen Yi's Scheme
Chapter 752 Shen Yi's Scheme
Upon suddenly learning of the incident in Xiling, Wen Ping was extremely anxious and wished he could rush back immediately, but he knew clearly that what he should be most wary of now was Shen Yi across the river.
Compared to Sun Lang's 20,000 newly recruited rebel troops, Shen Yi's 30,000 elite soldiers are his greatest enemy. If he ignores Shen Yi because of Sun Lang and allows Shen Yi to cross the river, then Jiangxia may really fall.
Therefore, Wen Ping gave Yang Tai a brief instruction and immediately returned to the county town to take charge. As soon as he returned to the town, he dispatched a large number of scouts to investigate the situation in various counties in Jiangnan and Jiangxia. At the same time, he sent messengers to the capital to report.
at the same time……
Shen Yi, who was in E County across the river, had received Guan Yan's message two days earlier. Upon receiving the message, he dared not delay and immediately prepared provisions and ships to cross the river. At the same time, he sent a messenger to Jiangling to report to Liu Bei.
He couldn't make such a big decision on his own; he would definitely have to report it and ask for help.
At this moment, Shen Yi was staring blankly at the map in his room, pondering how to cross the river smoothly and quickly break through Wen Ping's defenses when his deputy general Hao Yu suddenly ran in, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "General, news has come back from Jiangbei that Yang Tai has led several thousand men back to Xiling. It seems that Wen Ping has received news of the incident in Xiling."
Shen Yi frowned and said, "So the matter in Xiling is more serious than we thought. It's so serious that Wen Ping is completely desperate. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent Yang Tai back."
The one who knows you best is always your enemy. As the main general defending the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, Shen Yi had conducted in-depth investigations into his opponent Wen Ping and his subordinates, and thus knew the importance of Yang Tai in Wen Ping's heart.
With the incident at Xiling, Wen Ping would certainly pay more attention to the frontline defense. Yet, under these circumstances, he sent his most important deputy back to Xiling, which shows just how critical the situation at Xiling has become.
Hao Yu exclaimed excitedly, "So Guan Yan has temporarily taken control of Xiling City?"
"If Sun Lang arrives in time, wouldn't Xiling City be ours?"
Shen Yi said, "It's possible, but only if we can successfully cross the river. Have you heard anything from Generals Ding Feng and Zhou Shao?"
Shen Yi currently has three deputy generals: Hao Yu, Ding Feng, and Zhou Shao.
Although Shen Yi was far less experienced than Ding Feng, Ding Feng was still Shen Yi's defeated foe. If you can't win on the battlefield, you have to obey orders off the battlefield.
As for Ding Feng's good brother Lü Ju, he was transferred to a civilian post in the rear and far away from the front lines because of his father Lü Fan.
Therefore, upon receiving Guan Yan's message, Shen Yi gave Ding Feng and Zhou Shao a secret mission: to secretly cross the river and persuade an enemy army to defect.
Currently, besides Shen Yi and Wen Ping's border troops and Sun Lang's rebel army, there is another large army in Jiangxia: 20,000 elite Wu troops who were brought from Ruxukou to Chaisang by Zhou Tai and then coerced by Lü Fan to surrender to Cao Wei.
When Lü Fan surrendered to Wei, Cao Cao attached great importance to his arrival. Coincidentally, Hu Xiu, the former governor of Jingzhou, and Fu Fang, the prefect of Nanxiang, surrendered to Guan Yu during the Battle of Xiangfan and were killed by Xu Huang, leaving the governorship of Jingzhou vacant. Cao Cao then appointed Lü Fan to fill the vacancy.
However, it was impossible for Lü Fan to take tens of thousands of troops with him when he took office. He only brought a few thousand trusted men who were stationed with him in Chaisang. As for Zhou Tai's troops, a small part of them were incorporated into Wen Ping's army in Jiangxia, while the majority of the rest were dismissed and settled in Jiangxia to farm.
It must be said that Cao Cao was very foolish in dealing with the surrendered soldiers and the Hu people. Take the north for example. After Cao Cao defeated the Wuhuan, he moved all the Wuhuan people to the You and Ji provinces. There was nothing wrong with moving them inland, but at least move them further away. Instead, he just moved them to the You and Ji provinces and then ignored them.
What kind of place are You and Ji provinces? They are the border between the Central Plains and the grasslands, separated from the ancestral land of the Wuhuan by only the Great Wall. As long as you want, you can go home to visit at any time. What kind of migration is this?
There were also the Southern Xiongnu. After Cao Cao defeated the Southern Xiongnu and the Jiedi tribes, he also relocated them to the Shuofang and Yanmen areas, which was equivalent to moving them from outside the Great Wall to inside the Great Wall.
This arrangement was fine when Cao Wei was powerful, but when Cao Wei weakened and the War of the Eight Princes broke out in the Western Jin Dynasty, these foreign tribes didn't even need to cross the Great Wall; they could directly invade the Central Plains.
Damn Cao Cao, if you've already relocated the Hu people inland, couldn't you have moved them a little further away? Relocated them to Yanzhou, Yuzhou, or even Xuzhou and Huainan, and then completely dispersed and distributed them to various counties and towns. How much trouble would that have caused?
And look what happened! You let them climb over the wall and even gave them their own armed forces. It would be a shame if they didn't rebel!
Moreover, the border is the most unstable place. If we leave such a group of potential threats in the most turbulent place, wouldn't they rebel at the slightest disturbance?
Cao Cao also made the same lazy mistake regarding Zhou Tai's 20,000 troops stationed at Ruxukou, settling them nearby in Jiangxia County, where they were then targeted by Shen Yi.
Shen Yi had long coveted Zhou Tai's legacy, so as soon as he took office in Chaisang, he sent people across the river to investigate the situation of the surrendered Wei and Wu armies, trying to make contact with them and establish relations. After receiving Guan Yan's letter, he immediately sent Ding Feng and Zhou Tai's eldest son, Zhou Shao, across the river to persuade them to defect, preparing to bring this large army back.
Now the opportunity has come. If Sun Lang can arrive at Xiling in time and gain a foothold, and Ding Feng and Zhou Shao can then promptly persuade the surrendered Wei and Wu troops to attack Wen Ping from behind, while we attack from the front, even if Wen Ping has three heads and six arms, he cannot withstand being attacked from both sides.
Hao Yu replied, "There's no news yet; it might take some time."
Shen Yi said, "No news is good news. It proves that they have not been discovered by Wen Ping yet. Continue to send people to keep an eye on them. Once we receive news from Ding Feng and Zhou Shao, we will immediately force our way across the river and fight Wen Ping to the death."
They had not yet received Liu Bei's orders. Without the imperial court's command, they rashly went to war with Wen Ping. In the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, they would have been punished, at the very least dismissed from their posts and at worst imprisoned.
But the Han Dynasty was different. The Han Dynasty believed in the theory that "generals in the field may disobey the emperor's orders." Frontline generals could decide for themselves whether to attack when they encountered a battle opportunity. They would be punished if they lost, and rewarded if they won.
Hao Yu nodded and said, "This subordinate will go and keep an eye on things. I will report to you immediately upon receiving General Ding Feng's order."
After bowing and taking his leave, Shen Yi continued to stare at the map, pondering how to defeat Wen Ping, and how to gain a foothold after defeating Wen Ping and withstand the Wei army's counterattack.
……
After receiving Wen Ping's order, Deputy General Yang Tai dared not delay and led three thousand troops back to Xiling at top speed. When they arrived at the city of Xiling day and night, the sky seemed to have collapsed.
At this moment, the gates of Xiling City were tightly closed, and the battle flag of the Han Dynasty was flying on the city walls. Xiling had fallen.
Yang Tai had only three thousand soldiers and no siege equipment, so he had no choice but to temporarily station them outside the city while sending out scouts to contact the gentry outside the city.
It would have been better if they hadn't contacted each other. Once they did, all the officials in Xiling City, including the prefectural magistrate and county magistrate, as well as the heads of the gentry families, came. As soon as they arrived, they rushed into Yang Tai's tent and accused the Han army of crimes, making Yang Tai's head ache with noise.
Huang Mao, the young master of the Huang family, shouted the loudest, tearfully accusing, "General Yang, you must do justice for me! Our Huang family's nearly one million shi of grain in the city has been robbed by the Han army."
Upon hearing this, Yang Tai was so angry that he wanted to throw the kettle in front of him on the head. How dare you say such a thing, aiding the enemy?
He ignored Huang Mao and instead looked at You Ding, the prefect of Jiangxia County, and asked, "What is the current situation inside the city?"
Compared to Huang Mao, who only knew how to shout, You Ding was much more rational and calmly said, "General Wen Dai has been captured, all five thousand garrison troops have been captured, and Sun Lang's five thousand vanguard troops have also entered the city to join Guan Yan. All of us who could provide support have been driven out of the city by the Han army. In addition, with the defenses of Xiling, there is no hope of taking back the city in a short time!"
"However, Sun Lang's main force has only just crossed the Tongbai Mountains and is still seventy or eighty li away from here. Moreover, they have been traveling for days and are exhausted. If the general can take the initiative to attack and quickly reach Sun Lang, it may have a miraculous effect."