In May of the ninth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (204 AD). Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The main force of Liu Bei's Yizhou army was crossing the river, all the way to Jiangling City, the seat of governance in Nanjun, and was rapidly approaching.

Since Pang Tong used stratagem to help Liu Bei occupy Yizhou two years ago, Liu Bei has been aggressively expanding his army. As the land of abundance, the mountains around Yizhou not only cut off Yizhou from the outside world, but also provide a natural barrier for Yizhou, making it far away from war.

Although there were a series of rebellions here during the reign of Emperor Ling of Han, the scale of these rebellions was limited and did not cause much damage to Yizhou. Therefore, up to now, Yizhou is still relatively wealthy, with a large population, with a total population of more than 6 million.

Of course, many of these people are not under Liu Bei's control, they are the so-called Nanban, or Nanxiyi. Historical Records. The Biography of Southwest Yilie": "The data of the Southwest Yijun is long, and Yelang is the largest; Its Ximimo genus is the largest in Yunnan; Since the north of Yunnan, the number of monarchs is long, and Qiongdu is the largest; This is all knotted, ploughed fields, and there are gatherings. Its outer west from the east of the same division, north to Yu, named Song, Kunming, all braided hair, with the migration of livestock, no constant place, no king, the place can be thousands of miles. From the northeast of Song, the number of kings is long, and the migration and the bamboo are the largest; From the northeast of Zizhen, the number of monarchs is long, and Ran Juan is the largest. Its customs or indigenous, or migratory, in the west of Shu. ”

In the hundreds of years between the 3rd ~ 5th centuries B.C., the Nanban was distributed in present-day Yunnan Province, Guizhou Province, southern Gansu Province, and southwestern Sichuan Province. During the Warring States period, Qin placed three counties in the southwest region: Ba, Shu and Hanzhong. Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty continued to operate until the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and successively placed eight counties, including Qianwei, Qiqi, Yueyun, Wenshan, Shenli, Wudu, Yizhou and Yongchang.

The inhabitants of this area are many tribes of Diqiang, Baiyue and Baipu. In central Yunnan and northeastern Yunnan, there are Yu, Yunnan, Mimo, Laoba, Suo, etc.; In western Yunnan, there are Yun, Kunming, Siyu, Tongshi, Yuntang, Ailao, etc.; In the southeast of Yunnan and the west of Qianxi, there are Yelang, Jumachi, Leaky Sleep, and Ran, etc.; In northern Yunnan and southwest Sichuan, there are Qiongdu, steep, Xiaodu, Mosha, etc.; In the northwest of Sichuan and Gannan, there are Ranshu, Baima and so on.

The total population of these barbarians is more than two million. These barbarians are actually in an independent state, ruled by the barbarian kings of various tribes, and Liu Bei has nothing to do with it. In other words, the population under Liu Bei's rule is four million. Among them, there are many people who belong to the tenants of those powerful clans, and these are probably nearly a million.

In the end, Liu Bei was able to really rule over a population of about three million.

In order to be able to compete with the powerful Northern Xinjiang Army, Liu Bei insisted on raising an army of 500,000 out of a population of about 3 million.

The year before last, when Li Yi set off the battle of the southern expedition to destroy Cao Cao, Liu Bei originally planned to come out of the nest and attack Guanzhong in response to Cao Cao. However, Cao Cao was defeated too quickly in the area of Xu Yang, and the Northern Xinjiang Army in Guanzhong was blocked by the dangerous pass city, and it was slow to attack Guanzhong. After Liu Bei learned the news that Cao Cao had been defeated, he knew that the general trend had gone and retreated to Yizhou.

In the past year, Liu Bei and his subordinate strategists and generals summarized and analyzed the failures of the coalition forces of the southern princes in the previous years.

It is believed that the princes of the south are fighting on their own, and although they seem to be working together against the northern army each time, they are actually not really coordinated. In addition, although the number of the princes' coalition army is very large, most of them are temporary mountain villagers, ordinary people, who have not received systematic military training, and lack combat experience, so the princes' armies in various places have been successively concentrated by the Northern Xinjiang Army, and each has been broken.

After summarizing, Liu Bei and everyone also discussed many ways to deal with it. For example, military training was carried out in Yizhou to strengthen ties with princes from all walks of life.

However, after a year, Liu Bei found that Yizhou, a country of abundance far away from the Central Plains, not only ensured his safety, but also restricted his development.

What is especially important is that after raising such a large army, Yizhou's financial income cannot be raised at all. Therefore, this army can only be half-cultivated and half-army, and most of the year is spent in tuntian, and there is very little time to really be able to conduct military training. There is no way to do it, if you don't do it, you will starve to death.

Liu Bei and his strategists and generals all realized that if they continued to nest in this corner of Yizhou, without more territory, it would be difficult for the Yizhou army to survive.

Therefore, finding a place to survive for the future of the Yizhou Army has always been the primary issue for Liu Bei. As for anything else to defeat Li Yi and Zhongxing Dahan, he was not very interested.

The so-called cangli knows etiquette, food and clothing are sufficient and knows honor and disgrace, there is a crisis in survival, what other things to talk about?

To the north of Yizhou are Sili's Jingzhaoyin and Youfufeng and Liangzhou's Wudu County, which are full of high mountains, which make it impossible for the Northern Xinjiang Army to go south on a large scale, and at the same time, it also makes Liu Bei's road to the north full of hardships. Moreover, the Northern Xinjiang Army left strong troops in Xiliang and Guanzhong, with the purpose of blocking his way north.

Not to mention the west and south of Yizhou, which is a large plateau, and it is difficult for the Han people to survive except for those grassy Qiang people. To the south, there are mountains and forests, poisonous insects and beasts are rampant, and there are powerful Nanbans, which are difficult to conquer in a short time.

After repeated consultations with the strategists and generals under his command, everyone finally set their eyes on Jingzhou.

First of all, Liu Biao of Jingzhou is weak, although he has the rich Jingzhou, his ability is too average, and it is very likely to be attacked. Secondly, Jingzhou has been attacked by the Northern Xinjiang Army all these years, and has failed year after year, leaving his already limited strength with little left. Finally, there are various indications that the Northern Xinjiang Army may attack Jingzhou on a large scale this year, and the timing of attacking Jingzhou at this time is the most appropriate.

Sure enough, Liu Bei and his strategists and generals made this decision, and the news came from Jingzhou that the Northern Xinjiang Army was heading south and attacking Xiangyang.

This is a godsend, in order to fight against the powerful Northern Frontier Army, Liu Biao will definitely transfer all his troops to the front line. In this way, the four counties of Jingnan will be empty, which happens to be cheaper than Liu Bei.

Liu Bei set a plan of action. Taking advantage of Liu Biao's time to face Li Yi in the north, he sent troops to Jingzhou, first fully flowered, and captured the four counties of Jingnan before the arrival of summer. Then use the natural danger of the river to confront the Northern Xinjiang Army.

The Northern Xinjiang Army is all northerners, and it will definitely be difficult for them to adapt to the hot and humid weather in the south. So when summer comes, the Northern Frontier Army will definitely encounter all kinds of troubles. At that time, it was the opportunity for the Yizhou army, they could take the opportunity to attack the Jiangbei region of Jingzhou, dare the northern army to return to the north of Hanshui, or even drive Jingzhou out completely.

At that time, they could ally with Sun Quan and Zhou Yu in Jiangdong to fight against Li Yi together, and completely form a three-legged situation.

Just when Liu Bei was about to send troops, a better news came: Liu Biao sent an envoy to ask for help!

This was just dozing off when someone brought a pillow, and now, Liu Bei even had an excuse to send troops to Jingzhou, without having to bear the infamy of attacking his allies.

Therefore, Liu Bei happily agreed to the Iraqi nationality, and then sent troops out of Sichuan one after another. The Yizhou army was divided into two routes, and Liu Bei led the main force of the Yizhou army to the east along the Great River to seize Nanjun; Zhang Ren led his army from Fuling in Ba County in the south, entered Wuling County in Jingnan, quickly occupied the cities of Wuling County, and then pounced on Changsha County.

Liu Bei led the main force of the Yizhou Army, Zhou Cangbu, Li Yanbu, and Wu Yi's 150,000 horses, and suddenly launched an attack on Nanjun. Because of Liu Biao's envoy Yizhi, the officials of Nanjun would not guard against Liu Bei at all, and the four cities of Wuxian, Zigui, Sheshan, and Yiling in the west were captured by Liu Bei one after another.

………………

Yiling is located on the bank of the Xiling Gorge in the middle of Nanjun, which is near Yichang in later generations. This place is the boundary of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and belongs to the transition zone from the Sichuan Mountains in western Hubei to the Jianghan Plain. The ground chokes the throats of the two states, controls Bashu on the top, and leads Jingxiang on the bottom.

There is the name of "the water is here and the mountain is here", which means that the tall and steep Yizhou mountain range has become a small hill here, and the turbulent river water has been smooth when it arrives here, and it has turned the danger into a tomb, so it is named "Yiling".

The main force of the Yizhou Army marched eastward along the Great River and landed at Yiling.

Dense crowds of large and small ships are scattered on the river, waiting to dock.

The soldiers who have already gone ashore are lined up on the shore, and the soldiers are all dressed as commoners in short robes (the Han Dynasty stipulates that the common people are not allowed to wear all kinds of colored clothing, only natural linen), wear boots and shoes, and carry various weapons such as swords, spears, bows and arrows. Officers of the various ministries stood in front of the queue in armor.

"My lord, 30,000 troops have come ashore. General Wu Yi's army was chasing the enemy general Gao Xianzhi's troops. ”

Liu Bei raised his eyes and glanced at the scout, but did not make a sound.

Liu Bei is of medium stature, in his forties, with a burly body, a long face and a long beard, his hands above his knees, and a pair of bright eyes under his thick eyebrows. Behind him stood a young man in his twenties, tall, with slightly dark skin, a small round face, and a very clever look. His name is Wu Lan, and he is a brave and warlike general under Liu Bei, who is very talented.

Liu Bei looked at the rushing river and asked thoughtfully, "How far away are Liu Xuan's troops?" ”

"Back to the lord, General Liu's troops are still in Ziguicheng and have not been dispatched." The scout hurriedly replied.

Liu Bei's thick eyebrows immediately tightened, and his face was very ugly. Liu Bi was originally a general under Liu Yan and Liu Zhang, and later used a trick to seize Yizhou, although Liu Bi surrendered to himself on the surface, he has always been very dissatisfied with himself in his heart. In order to stabilize the hearts of the generals in Yizhou, he didn't do anything with him.

Liu Bei said coldly: "Urge again." He was ordered to set out tomorrow with his army, attack and advance in the direction of Linfu, and cover the flank of the main army. If the military aircraft is delayed again, military law will be involved. ”