Zhu Wei subdued Gan Ning and Su Fei, and then merged the ships of the two of them and headed towards Xiling County.

At this time, Pang Yan, Tai Shici, Ling Cao, and Ma Zhong in front had already set up a large camp outside Xiling County, waiting for Zhu Wei to come over and preside over the overall situation and attack Xiling City.

And this Xiling County is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the southern foot of Dabie Mountain, the topography of the county is high in the north and low in the south, roughly three and a half mountains, one and a half points of water, five points of fields, but it is also a good county for grain production, no wonder it will become the place of Jiangxia County.

Xiling County is located next to Xiling Xiashui, the county also has several portals on land and water, but Xiling County is a big county in Jiangxia after all, so the city is much taller and thicker than the previous Qiantang County, and there are many urn cities in the land gate, but there are only simple water urn cities surrounded by wooden fences on the water in the water gate.

There are more than 15,000 soldiers commanded by Huang Zu in the county, and at this time, Huang Zu used the influence of the Huang family in Jiangxia to draw tens of thousands of private soldiers and domestic slaves from all ethnic groups in the city, and also formed an army into the sequence of guarding Xiling County.

Therefore, at this moment, there are at least more than 25,000 garrisons in Xiling County, so Huang Zu still has some confidence in sticking to Xiling City and waiting for Liu Biao to send reinforcements from Xiangyang and Jiangling.

It's just that Huang Zu didn't know that Zhu Wei had already sent a fine work to explore in and around Xiling County, with the help of Zhu Wei's Three Kingdoms game system, when he was still in Yuzhang, Zhu Wei and Wang Yuyan constructed the sand table landform of Xiling County, Jiangxia, and knew the detailed geomorphological environment around Xiling County and in the city.

With the experience of attacking Qiantang County, Zhu Wei was still preparing to use gunpowder to blow open the water gate of Xiling County and enter Xiling County from the waterway, which was also the easiest way to break the city.

Now Zhu Wei has more than 15,000 Xionglu battalions commanded by Pang Yan, more than 6,000 people in Tai Shici's sharpshooter battalion, plus more than 7,000 Chinese troops and more than 3,000 people who have just surrendered to Su Fei and Gan Ning.

It seems that the number of people Zhu Wei besieging the city is about the same as the number of defenders in Xiling County, but Zhu Wei's side, except for Su Fei and Gan Ning's newly surrendered soldiers, are all elite soldiers, and most of Huang Zu's soldiers are also Jiangxia soldiers of different ages, as for those private soldiers and young men, they are a rabble who have not been trained much.

In addition, this time, Zhu Wei's subordinates were accompanied by Pang Yan, Tai Shici, and Gan Ning, so Zhu Wei didn't have to worry about attacking the city at all.

What Zhu Wei needs to think about is what to do after taking Xiling City, or how to make Huang Zu unable to escape after the city is broken, or whether to consider whether he can surround the point and send reinforcements, surround Xiling City and not attack for the time being, and wait for Liu Biao to send reinforcements from Xiangyang and Jiangling, and then return to fight Xiling City after eating these reinforcements.

Of course, after these reinforcements were laid, Zhu Wei also had an excuse to attack Jiangling and Xiangyang.

According to Zhu Wei's idea, it is best to let Cai Mao in Jiangling send troops to help, so that Cai Mao's navy can reach the battlefield chosen by Zhu Wei to fight, and then eat some of Jiangling's navy, and then the strength of Cai Mao's navy can be weakened.

To tell the truth, if Zhu Wei attacks Jingzhou, he will definitely cross the Yangtze River, and Cai Mao's naval army in Jiangling can drive to the Yangtze River at any time to intercept it, which can be regarded as the biggest obstacle for Zhu Wei to cross the river.

If you can eliminate some of the strength of Cai Mao's army, it will naturally reduce the difficulty of crossing the river by a few points.

Therefore, after Zhu Wei arrived at the land and water camp set up by his army outside Xiling City, he gathered his generals, laid out a few sand tables in the Jiangxia region, and then hung up the Jiangxia map, and discussed the next strategy with everyone.

As for the method of breaking through Xiling City, it has been said before, anyway, it is enough to prepare to use gunpowder bamboo barrels to blow up the water gate of Xiling City, even if there is a water urn city composed of wooden fences inside, but it can't stop the gunpowder arrows of the bed ballista from destroying, so there is no need to discuss more.

Anyway, according to Zhu Wei and Wang Yuyan's analysis of the state of Xiling City in advance, if nothing else, it would be easy to break through Xiling City, and there was no need to consider other methods of climbing the city and attacking it.

So what this military discussion wants to discuss is how to block Huang Zu's retreat from Xiling County, and whether to stop attacking Xiling City for the time being, and deal with Liu Biao's reinforcements by encircling the points.

The first is to prevent Huang Zu from escaping, the county seat of Jiangxia County was originally not Xiling County, but Anlu County, the ancient Chu land closer to Xiangyang, but Anlu County is near Guyun Mengze north of the Yangtze River, and later because of the change of population settlement, Anlu County is obviously not suitable for the requirements of population growth, so it was only in the Eastern Han Dynasty that the county seat was changed to Xiling County.

If Huang Zu withdraws from Xiling County, flees in the direction of Anlu, and enters the Yunmengze area, Zhu Wei's pursuit will also be in trouble, and maybe Huang Zu can rebuild the defense line on Anlu's side, so that Zhu Wei will not be able to settle Jiangxia in a battle.

Therefore, this attack on Xiling County must ensure that Huang Zu is taken, so that the influence of Huang Zu on Jiangxia can be eliminated from the bottom, and Jiang Xia will not be left with future troubles, otherwise with the background of the Huang family to which Huang Zu belongs in Jiangxia, he may make trouble and rebel in Jiangxia at any time, and if he takes Jiangxia, he will become a chicken rib.

In this way, at the beginning of this military discussion, Wang Yuyan used the sand table of Xiling County to assign tasks to Pang Yan, Tai Shici, Gan Ning and other generals, in addition to blowing up the water gate to attack Pang Yan and Tai Shici in Xiling County, Ling Cao, Gan Ning and others arranged ambushes around Xiling County.

After Wang Yuyan arranged these things one by one, Zhu Wei raised the question of how to deal with Jiangling and Xiangyang if reinforcements came, which was related to Zhu Wei's long-term strategy for Jingzhou.

In fact, this time to attack Jiangxia, Zhu Wei also had two strategic options.

The first strategy was to temporarily stop the pace of conquest after capturing Jiangxia, and the next step was to consolidate the rule of Jiangxia, integrate Jiangxia into Zhu Wei's territory, and then shift the military strategy to the four counties of Jingnan located south of the Yangtze River, and simply isolate the forces of Liu Biao in Jingzhou north of the Yangtze River.

But the premise of this strategy is that after Zhu Wei took Jiangxia, Liu Biao did not make a big move to counterattack Jiangxia, so that Zhu Wei could have time and energy to deal with the four counties of Jingnan.

The second strategy is to take Jingzhou in one fell swoop, so he simply fought all the way to Xiangyang, captured Xiangyang, and captured the entire territory of Jingzhou.

But this strategy is to start a full-scale war with Liu Biao, with Zhu Wei's current strength, it may still be a little insufficient, and after all, Jingzhou Liu Biao is the official Jingzhou pastor, if Zhu Wei attacks Jingzhou, he lacks enough name and identity.

This attack on Jiangxia can be said to be because Jiangxia soldiers insulted Zhu Jun's coffin, and Zhu Wei sent troops to ask Huang Zu for revenge for his father's humiliation, which is barely reasonable.

But if it really launched a full-scale invasion war against Liu Biao in Jingzhou, this excuse would not work, unless it was supported by Liu Xuan, but this time Zhu Wei suddenly sent troops to Jiangxia, even Liu Xuan was completely unaware.

Next, if Liu Miao knew about Zhu Wei's actions, he might not necessarily support Zhu Wei's attack on Jingzhou...... [.]