It can be said that Xiangyang, Liu Biao's base camp, will inevitably be the most difficult battlefield in the first battle of Zhu Wei and Jingbei.

If Zhu Weizhen had an army of more than 100,000 troops, he might be able to surround the main city of Xiangyang and Fancheng on the north bank of the Han River, and treat the two cities as one city.

But now Zhu Wei only has about 50,000 troops to attack Xiangyang after all, so he can only find a place to set up a large camp in the southeast of the main city of Xiangyang, and then start a fierce offensive and defensive battle with Liu Biao in Xiangyang.

But in this way, Fancheng has become the second safety zone of the main city of Xiangyang, and it is completely possible to recruit young and strong people in Fancheng, train new soldiers, and continuously send reinforcements to Xiangyang City.

Moreover, Xiangyang City covers a very wide area, and there is also farmland in the city that can be cultivated and cultivated, and there is a water source provided by Han Shui, which is also enough for the soldiers and civilians of Xiangyang City to take water.

Therefore, even if Zhu Wei wants to fight a protracted battle with Liu Biao in Xiangyang, he may not be able to force Xiangyang to run out of food, so the only way to capture Xiangyang City is to wave his troops to attack, and he insists on attacking the city wall, breaking through the city gate and entering Xiangyang City.

It's just that although this Xiangyang City is an old-style earthen city with rammed earth structure, it is indeed a tall and thick fortified city under the construction of Liu Biao, and the Southern Song Dynasty in later generations is based on the original ancient city, and after outsourcing bricks and stones in important areas, it will resist the siege of Mengyuan for more than three years, which shows that the defense of Xiangyang City is strong.

In addition, Liu Biao's subordinates are also assisted by military advisors and strategists, unlike Zhu Wei's previous fights against Zhenrong, Huang Zu and so on, who can transfer Liu Biao's troops out of the city through strategy, and this time Liu Biao may also firmly rely on the geographical advantages of Xiangyang to carry out the final defense.

Previously, Wang Yuyan sent Mu Lan and Teng Yuyan to lead the cavalry into Nanyang County, although there was the idea of asking Liu Biao to send reinforcements from Xiangyang City to Nanyang County, but in the face of Zhu Wei's strong attack, Liu Biao may not divide his troops again, but may call Wen Ping and Zhang Xiu to help.

Therefore, the more significance of Mu Lan and Teng Yuyan sending troops to Nanyang County this time is to prevent Nanyang County Wenpin and Zhang Xiu from returning to Xiangyang.

In general, Zhu Wei was ready to fight a siege battle, so he naturally prepared a lot of siege equipment in Yuzhang's craftsman workshop and transported it with the help of river boats.

On the one hand, Huang Yueying can assist Wang Yuyan in handling trivial chores in the army, so that Wang Yuyan can spare more time to study military strategy and tactics, and on the other hand, he wants to give full play to Huang Yueying's talent for machinery and equipment, and can help Zhu Wei construct the design of various siege equipment in time when attacking the city.

Therefore, in Zhu Wei's Chinese army, he also brought many craftsmen from the craftsman workshop, ready to build siege equipment on the spot when needed, to help him attack Xiangyang City.

Of course, as the news of Zhu Wei's army was discovered by Liu Biao, Liu Biao also made various response measures.

On the one hand, Liu Biao issued a letter angrily denouncing Zhu Wei's move as a rebellion, and asked Xu Du to ask the Son of Heaven to issue an order to convict Zhu Wei, but on the other hand, he personally brought 10,000 troops to Yicheng, and joined Liu Qi's 15,000 troops originally stationed in Yicheng, as the first battlefield to start a war with Zhu Wei's army.

No matter what the battle on Yicheng's side is, it can block the progress of Zhu Wei's army.

Even if Yicheng's side is defeated, Liu Biao will have time to make more defensive preparations on the Xiangyang side, and he can also call on the Xiangyang side to train a large number of young men to assist Liu Biao in guarding Xiangyang.

The most southern-county head snake still has an advantage in this regard.

At the same time, Liu Biao also ordered Cai Mao of Jiangling to send troops to attack from the Yangtze River to cut off the logistics and grain routes of Zhu Wei's army, and then also blocked the retreat of Zhu Wei's army through the Han River, preparing to flank Zhu Wei's army before and after.

It's just that Cai Mao's side quickly responded, saying that Jiangling was also facing the threat of Zhu Wei's Jingnan camp in Xiaoling County, and at the same time, the Yangtze River waterway was on the Chibi side, which had been blocked by the naval army commanded by Gan Ning under Zhu Wei's account.

However, Cai Mao still agreed to send 5,000 soldiers and horses to Yicheng to help Liu Biao meet Zhu Wei.

It can be said that the series of military arrangements made by Liu Biao in order to meet Zhu Wei are still similar to Wang Yuyan's previous strategic analysis, but they have all been dealt with by Wang Yuyan's troops in advance.

For example, on the side of Nanyang County, before Liu Biao could give any instructions to Nanyang County, Liu Biao had already received a message from Nanyang County's Wenpin and Zhang Xiu, saying that Zhu Wei had a group of soldiers and horses attacking the city and plundering land in Nanyang County, and three county towns had already been captured, and the enemy army was advancing in the direction of Xinye, so it was predicted that the real target of the enemy army should be the appearance of the northern area of Xiangyang.

At the same time, Liu Biao also issued a military order to Zhang Xiu, summoning Zhang Xiu to deal with Zhu Wei's army in Nanyang County, and after solving Zhu Wei's partial army as soon as possible, he and Wen Ping came to aid Xiangyang.

For a time, Liu Biao's side can also be regarded as the mobilization of the whole army and the whole people.

In order to deal with the invasion of Zhu Wei's claimed army of 200,000, Liu Biao recruited a large number of young and strong people in several cities to increase the defensive strength of Liu Biao's side, so that the available troops under Liu Biao's account also doubled several times at once.

In this way, with Zhu Wei's dispatch of troops to Jingbei, the atmosphere in Jingbei suddenly became full of gunpowder, and Yicheng, a frontier town facing Jiangxia County in Nanjun, became the first confrontation battlefield between Zhu Wei and Liu Biao's armies.

Liu Biao used the foundation of Liu Qi's garrison in Yicheng before, but he could also use Yicheng as the foundation of defense, and occupied some geographical advantages more than Zhu Wei.

This Yicheng is also a medium-sized county under the radiation of Xiangyang, the landform in the territory is mainly "three mountains, two rivers and five fields" pattern, the Han River will naturally divide the Yicheng landscape into two pieces of east and west, to the east and west gradually show the change of plains, hills and mountains, and extend the altitude in a stepped manner.

Therefore, the territory of Yicheng is also surrounded by mountains in the east and west, but the central zone is a river valley plain suitable for the people to survive and settle, and the topography of this river valley plain is also high in the north and low in the south, open to the south.

Now the Yicheng garrisoned by Liu Biao is located in a highland position in the west of the middle of the river valley plain, which is condescending compared to the central and southern part of the river valley plain.

After Zhu Wei's army entered Nanjun from Hanshui, he learned the news that Liu Biao was stationed in Yicheng to face the battle, so he built a temporary land and water camp as a forward military base on the north bank of Hanshui, which was about ten miles away from Yicheng.

Zhu Wei's army can also use the Han River as a natural barrier to protect the safety of the camp, and is not afraid of Liu Biao's sudden attack when the camp is built.

At this time, Zhu Wei's army that came to Yicheng had nearly 50,000 main soldiers and more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, and it was claimed that it was still a 100,000 army.

And Liu Biao with the help of Yicheng County Chengchi guard, there are more than 25,000 regular soldiers, and nearly 20,000 young and strong soldiers in Yicheng, although the strength is not as good as Zhu Wei, but with the help of Yicheng's geographical advantages, in terms of the comparison of troops in the offensive and defensive battles of defending the city, he is not afraid of Zhu Wei's military advantage.

However, Liu Biao did not mean to take the initiative to fight......