In the winter of the fifth year of Yanping (205), Xiahoudun, Cao Hong, Li Dian, and Le Jin, four generals, under the instructions of Cao Cao, completely abandoned Yuzhou. led his troops to Jingzhou.

Traveling to Luyang, Xiahoudun said to the generals: "When the Han army enters Jing, it must pass through here." I'm on my own. Er waited for the speed to help Zixiao break the Wu army. ”

If the Han army chased from Yuzhou, the most convenient path would naturally be to take Luyang. Otherwise, you can only bypass the Green Forest Mountain and take the road of Zang Ba and Xiahou Yuan before. But Xiahoudun felt that it was impossible for the Han army to leave Nanyang Town alone, and take the green forest road to take Jiangxia, which made no such sense. So he decided to stay here to resist the Han army and buy time for Cao's army.

After Cao Hong, Li Dian, and Le Jin bid farewell to Xiahoudun in Luyang, they went straight to Jiangling. Traveled to Xiangyang, meeting Cao Ren's messenger. Cao Ren was overjoyed when he learned that the generals were heading south. So someone was sent to contact him.

Everyone rested in Xiangyang, and then got the current situation in Jingzhou in Cao Ren's envoys. It turns out that after several large and small wars, Jingzhou is still in a stalemate.

Huarong City is currently the focus of contention between the Cao and Wu armies, and the two armies have repeatedly attacked and defended here. Jingling City was also still in the hands of the Wu army, and Li Tong was stationed there, keeping an eye on the Jingling army. And Zang Ba arrived at the city of Jingling, but the general of Jingling was not fooled, so he joined forces with Li Tongbing and stationed in the camp.

Xiahou Yuan still led the cavalry and attacked the place in the northern part of Jiangxia to draw Zhou Yu's energy. In previous wars, the Wu army had the upper hand.

Not to mention the success of the attack on Huarong, he also seriously injured Cai Mao, the general of the Jingzhou Navy Army. In the Battle of Anlu, the Cao army was defeated. forced Zang Ba to go to Jingling. Huang Gai crossed at night, and broke Huang Shot and Zhao Yan. It was even in Huarong that he successfully defended Cao Jun's counterattack.

It can be said that if Cao Jun does not increase his troops, under the leadership of Zhou Yu, Cao Jun will inevitably not be able to please him. It was also under this understanding, and under the pressure of the Han army step by step, Cao Cao chose to make a lone bet.

The current Jingzhou can be said to be star-studded, Cao Cao's side, there are Xiahoudun, Xiahouyuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Yu Ban, Le Jin, Li Dian, Zang Ba, Li Tong, Zhao Yan and others; On the Wu army's side, there are Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, Jiang Qin, Zhou Tai and others. Those who can fight and rush, both civil and military, are here.

After Huang Gai opened the passage to the north, Yu Ban also followed Huang Gai to Huarong City. No one in the three southern counties suppressed, Wuling Taishou Puyangyi stayed in Changsha, and saw that the Jiangnan air defense was weak, so he unceremoniously sent the soldiers, horses, grain and grass of the three counties of Jingnan to Jiangxia in a steady stream. to help your own army.

After receiving Cao Ren's information, Cao Hong and the other generals discussed where to send the troops. Cao Hong said: "Today, Wen Ze, Bo Ran and Huang Gai and others are competing for Huarong, why not take the road to the south, and help Wen to seize Huarong, and then raise troops to attack Jingling?" ”

What Cao Hong said is also the mainstream thinking of Cao Jun in Jingzhou at present. If they don't defeat Huarong, they won't be able to deal with Jingling wholeheartedly. There is no way to talk about a large-scale counteroffensive.

In fact, among the counties occupied by the Wu army in Jingzhou, only Jiangxia was the most important. Therefore, Cao Ren's previous series of war plans were all centered on Jiangxia.

However, reality dealt Cao Ren a heavy blow. Jiangxia is not so easy to fight. In history, from Sun Jian to Sun Ce, and then to Sun Quan, he fought Jiangxia countless times until he grinded Huang Zu to death. That's what happened. The time span spanned from the Chuping period to the Jian'an period, as long as more than ten years, countless soldiers and horses were killed and wounded, and even Sun Jian was folded in this battle. It can be seen that Jiangxia is easy to defend and difficult to attack. In fact, 2,000 years later, Jiangxia (Wuhan) is still a hub city in China and an important town in central China.

Le Jin pondered for a while, and said: "Huarong and Jingling rely on each other, Jingling and Anlu, Anlu and Xiakou, and rely on each other, interlocking. If you attack this, you will help, and if you attack you, you will help. In my opinion, it is better to gather a large army and cut off the grain route of the Wu army. ”

When Cao Hong and Li Dian heard this, they looked at each other for a moment and felt that this matter was feasible. So he looked at Le Jin and said, "Where will you attack?" ”

Le Jin clicked twice on the map and said: "Go south to attack the three counties of Changsha and break Zhou Yu's arm; Or attack Xiling, choke the throat of the river, and cut off the coming aid of Yangzhou. ”

Cao Hong and Li Dian looked at the map and felt that this matter was feasible, so they went to Cao Ren. After Cao Ren received the letter, he opened it and said in his heart, I already had this intention, but the troops at hand were insufficient. He had this intention when he asked Yu Banzhen to guard Xiaoling, but he slacked off for a while and let Huang Gai smuggle across the river, causing the situation to collapse.

Indeed, if Yu Ban had been able to suppress Huang Gai's power before, it would not be able to control the river, and Xiahou Yuan and others would attack Xiling counties in the north of Jiangxia. In such a situation, Zhou Yu is really not easy to deal with.

If it weren't for the Jingling Jiancheng, and Xu Sheng and Pan Zhang guarded it, and Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu personally dispatched to relieve the siege of Anlu, I am afraid that Jiangxia would already be in danger.

Now that the Yuzhou army is sweeping in, if Cao Ren still can't use it, it will be in vain to become a general. I immediately agreed with Cao Hong's opinion. Let Cao Hong and Li Dian take 20,000 soldiers and horses, quickly cross south, pass through Wuling, and attack Changsha. He also asked Le Jin and Zhao Yan to lead 20,000 horses to Xiangyang, go out of Jiangxia, meet with Xiahou Yuan, and surround Xiling together. If you capture Xiling, take advantage of the situation and attack Exian.

The three generals, who received the order, quickly launched the operation.

At the same time, the battle for Huarong has also entered a white heat. Huang Gai stuck to the city and fought hard, so as to repel wave after wave of attacks by the Cao army outside the city.

Yu Ban also had red eyes, he was careless, the tiger took a nap, was smuggled across the river by Huang Gai, and attacked Huang Shot and Zhao Yan. Not to mention the defeat of Cao Jun, he was also beheaded by Huang Shot.

Cao Ren sent a letter to reprimand him, and Yu Ban was also very sad in his heart. After working hard in Xiaoling for so long, a credit has all been lost, how can he be willing. In order to wash away the shame, he fought to the death with Huang Gai under the city.

Siege warfare, in addition to hard fighting, taking human lives to consume, in fact, there is not much way to think. The water attack is unreliable, although Huarong is surrounded by Daze, but it itself is on the high side. It is difficult to divert water to flood the city. The fire attack is also unreliable, Huarong City is close to Shuize, and there is no shortage of water in the city. Digging tunnels, a shovel down is full of water, digging three feet into the ground, and the spring water gushes into puddles. Night Raid? The yellow cover in the city is a night attack. Persuasion, hehe, if you can persuade to surrender, the previous guards have already surrendered. Wait until this happens. Huang Gai is the old man in front of Sun Jian, the hardcore lackey of the Sun family, and Yu Ban has never had the idea of persuading him to surrender......

After all the means were exhausted, Yu Ban could only honestly attack Huang Gai. Of course, he still has an advantage. First, it is convenient to obtain materials outside the city, and the earth, stone and wood are inexhaustible, unlike in the city, in the case of being besieged, the material consumption is a point, and there is no supplement. The second is that he has the trebuchet, a big killer.