Dragon of the Three Kingdoms

The last thing left is Kuaiji.

Compared with the other chaotic prefectures in Yangzhou, Kuaiji is a relatively stable one, and it doesn't matter whether it is the imperial court, Yuan Shu, or a local family, it seems that no one has the intention of embarrassing Kuaiji.

The reason is that the surname of Gein Kuaiji's prefect is Tang, and his name is Tang Hao. He has a widowed daughter in his family, and his son-in-law is the young emperor of the Han Dynasty who was poisoned by Dong Zhuo, King Hongnong Liu Bian!

The ending of Liu Bian, the emperor, was very tragic and very sympathetic. He was young when he was poisoned and had no heirs left. There was only one concubine, Tang Ji, who was the daughter of Tang Hao. After Liu Bian's death, Tang Ji had a very hard life as a woman, and she was almost forced to be taken as a concubine by Li Jue. In the end, after several twists and turns, it was thanks to Li Yi's blessing that she returned to Kuaiji where his father was.

Tang Hao may want to draw a line with the royal family, or he may feel sorry for his daughter who is still young. He intends to find someone to remarry Tang Ji, but Tang Concubine refuses to do so. She wants to keep the chastity for the young emperor, and Tang Mao has nothing to do with her Therefore, Tang Ji stayed in Kuaiji like this.

It was precisely because of Tang Ji's existence that neither the family nor Yuan Shu was willing to embarrass Tang Mao. After all, Liu Bian's incident was too sympathetic. If someone embarrassed his widow, he would definitely be stabbed in the back.

It is precisely because of this that Kuaiji is temporarily regarded as a piece of pure land in Yangzhou, and it is also a place that Li Yi regarded as something in his pocket early on.

Dong Zhuo was killed by Li Yi, and Li Ru was also pissed off by Li Yi. In other words, Li Yi avenged Liu Bian, and it is not an exaggeration to say that he was Tang Ji's benefactor. However, others need to give way to the people of the Tang family, but Li Yi doesn't need it, and after a letter is passed, Li Yi is [-]% sure that Tang Mao will take the initiative to open the city and surrender.

In this way, Li Yi mobilized the army in an orderly manner while gathering information from Yangzhou. First, he gathered soldiers and horses in Xiapi, then crossed the Huai River, entered Guangling, "purchased" grain in Dongyang, and made a gesture of intimidating Wujun. Li Yi turned around and went to Huai Ling in Xiapi, because this is the closest place to Jiujiang among Xiapi.

In fact, Li Yi really wanted to use Yuzhou to attack Shouchun, because if he marched from Yuzhou, although he needed to cross the Huaihe River, Li Yi only needed to take down the two counties of Xiacai and Heping, and then he could follow the fat water and approach directly Shouchun, quite convenient.

If you attack from the direction of Xiapi, although you don't need to cross the river, Li Yi has to pull seven or eight cities in a row to reach the city of Shouchun, which is almost twice as difficult as walking in Yuzhou.

It's a pity that Li Yi couldn't hold back a few days ago, and cut down Kong Rong's emissary, so Li Yi really didn't dare to detour Yuzhou. The ghost knows whether Kong Rong will come to him later at a critical moment, so in the end Li Yi still chose In order to send troops from Huailing, and arrived at the first stop of Yangzhou, the city of Zhongli County, on the tenth day of April.

In the big camp ten miles outside of Zhongli City, Li Yi and a group of officials gathered around a sand table that had just been made, which contained the general terrain around Zhongli County, and beside it was a stack of atlases, which were originally created by Pang Degong. The topographic map given to Li Yi, Li Yi is now using the two to confirm each other, hoping to find some suitable and good ways.

While everyone was thinking about countermeasures, Xu Shu was talking to everyone about the latest information that had just been sorted out.

"General Gan Ning succeeded a few days ago. To show his sincerity, Xu Gong from the Wu Commandery went to the river bank to meet Gan Ning with wine and meat. But Gan Ning suddenly launched an attack. Xu Gong had no time to guard against it. Gan Ning killed him with his own hands. Most of them were killed or injured, and according to Gan Ning's letter, there were quite a few officials among them, and most of them were Xu Gong's confidantes."

With a smile on Li Yi's face, he said to Kuai Yue: "Xingba's contribution this time is really gratifying, the military commander should not miss him."

Kuai Yue smiled and complimented, "Don't worry, my lord, and if it wasn't for my lord's command, Gan Ning would not have achieved this feat."

Li Yi shook his head with a smile, but he didn't answer, because he didn't want to compete with his subordinates for credit.

Li Yi asked Xu Shu, "Where is Xingba now?"

Xu Shu replied: "After General Gan killed Xu Gong, he seized three large ships in the local area, and now he is rushing towards the lord along the waterway. He just wanted to avoid revealing his whereabouts, and he couldn't go all out, so the exact time is hard to estimate. .”

Li Yi nodded, and said: "Reply to him, let him put safety first, and if there is an accident, put his own safety first, and allow him to act cheaply."

Li Yi's explanation is to learn from the previous lesson and let Gan Ning loose the rein, so as to avoid a situation like Guangling again. If Mi Zhu hadn't gone in time, people like Gan Ning would have been in danger.

Of course, Li Yi didn't say exactly how "cheap" the so-called "doing things cheaply" was, but he believed that Gan Ning would understand.

After Xu Shu wrote down this point, he continued: "Yuan Shu knew that the lord was going to send troops to Yangzhou, and began to mobilize troops from all over the country a few days ago. Among them, Yuzhang was unable to support Jiujiang because of his defense against Jiangxia. , Danyang Yuan Yin claims to send [-] troops, but according to the report, Danyang actually sent less than [-] troops, and the rest of Kuaiji did not take any action. Wu Jun was rectifying the troops before, and it seemed that he would take action, but with Xu Gong's death, Those soldiers and horses are already in the hands of the Yan family brothers and Zhu Zhi.

"So, counting the reinforcements from Danyang and Lujiang, Jiujiang now has close to [-] troops, but most of them are new recruits, so it's hard to estimate the actual strength."

"In addition, since the lord's army arrived in Huai Ling, Yuan Shu believed that the lord should march from the south of the Huai River, so Yuan Shu withdrew all the troops from Xiacai, Ping'a, and Yicheng in Huaibei, and stationed all the troops in Jiujiang. In Huainan."

"Based on what we have found so far, there are more than [-] soldiers in Shouchun's garrison. Yuan Shu himself sits in the town, Ji Ling leads [-] troops in Zhongli, and Chen Jilei Bo leads [-] troops in Dangtu and Maqiuju. On the first line, then Chen Lan guards Yinling, and Qiao Rui guards Xiquyang. The specific strength of these two places is unknown, but the maximum number of troops is no more than six or seven thousand."

After Xu Shu finished speaking, he took a step back, bowed slightly and said, "The strength of Yangzhou's troops is probably like this."

Li Yi nodded to show that he understood, then frowned and stared at the sand table in silence.

Li Yi knew that there was one more thing Xu Shu didn't say just now, that is, since Yuan Shu knew that he was going to attack, he must strengthen the city's defenses in advance, and the difficulty of storming would definitely be higher than usual.

Now, Li Yi can lead his enemies to death without blinking an eye, but if there are too many people, Li Yi still feels unbearable when thousands or even tens of thousands of lives have to be decided at one time.

Just when Li Yi was thinking, someone else suddenly laughed. Li Yi turned his head and saw that it was Xun You. He couldn't help asking curiously, "Why are you laughing, sir?"

Xun You shook his head with a smile on his face and said: "Before I came to Yangzhou, I heard that Yuan Shu had changed a lot since Xiangyang was defeated. He issued many wise policies, such as treating soldiers well, not allowing local officials to exploit the people, etc. At that time, I I am worried because of this, I am afraid that Yuan Shu will really try his best to rule, and the lord may have some twists and turns in this battle, but now it seems, hehe, Yuan Shu is still the same Yuan Shu, so there is nothing to be afraid of."

Xun You's words directly aroused everyone's interest, because although Li Yi defeated Yuan Shu with less and killed Yuan Shu last time, everyone knew that Li Yi had played tricks, and in the next few battles, Li Yi also all To put it bluntly, if you make a move with an absolute advantage, you can win if you change your pig and become the coach.

But this time is different, this time Li Yi has no chance to play tricks, and Yuan Shu will not be careless. This battle is a head-to-head battle between two forces, so no one will underestimate Yuan Shu, let alone the current Yuan Shu and the previous ones. Yuan Shu is completely different.

Then, under such circumstances, it would be interesting for Xun You to openly mock Yuan Shu.

Seeing everyone looking at him, Xun You compared his hands and said, "Assuming that Yuan Shu has merged with Liu Wan, the lord has only [-] troops. Although Jingzhou will send troops, it will take a while after all, so You asserted, Someone under Yuan Shu's command must have suggested that Yuan Shu should use all the troops from Jiujiang to fight the lord before Jingzhou's troops arrived. In this way, Yuan Shu's chance of winning should be more than [-]% by virtue of his geographical advantage and numerical advantage. Defeat, Jingzhou's partial division is naturally not a threat, but ah"

Xun You pointed at the sand table mockingly, and said, "Yuan Shu gave up the Huaibei town to gather his forces, not only did he not join forces for a decisive battle, but instead divided his troops to resist defending. From this we can see that Yuan Shu was timid before the Lord, so he surrendered his superiority. It can be seen that Stupid, that's why You laughed at Yuan Shu and it's still that Yuan Shu."

After Xun You finished speaking, everyone also laughed, feeling that what he said was quite reasonable, and the dignified atmosphere in the tent also dissipated a lot.

However, Li Yi's heart was as bright as a mirror. Xun You's ridicule towards Yuan Shu was only true to three points, because before going into battle, Li Yi had considered the situation of Yuan Shu directly sending troops for a decisive battle.

As long as Yuan Shu goes out in full force, he must seek a quick battle and a quick decision, then Li Yi can use the method of the enemy advancing and retreating, and the enemy retreating and pursuing him. Even if he retreats to Xiapi and sticks to Huailing, Li Yi will never follow Yuan Shu's decisive battle, anyway, is to drag Yuan Shu's main force, and fight him in a war of attrition with not bad money.

During this time, Zhang Liao would send troops from Jiangxia, passing through Yuzhang, copying Yuan Shu's route, so that he could not look at each other from head to tail. Once this situation formed, Yuan Shu's battle would have already been half lost.

So, don't look at what Xun You said just now about how bad it is for Yuan Shu to go at every step. In fact, this is the safest method. After all, Li Yi is alone. Yuan Shu can consume Li Yi's troops through every city, and Li Yi's progress As long as there is a city in the direction that cannot be pulled down, then Li Yi's plan to conquer Yangzhou will come to an end.

It is impossible for Xun You not to understand this truth, but he still insists on "converting black and white", so Xun You's purpose can only be to cheer up these generals and build their confidence.

Because Li Yi is just a grassroots in the end, but Yuan Shu is a son of a famous family. Before Li Yi pressed Yuan Shu to the ground and rubbed it, it was inevitable that some people would be afraid of Yuan Shu.

Seeing that everyone's spirits were obviously better after listening to Xun You's words, Li Yi smiled in his heart, and then said seriously: "Ji Ling has 5000 people stationed in Zhongli, and our army is [-]. Although we can take it down, But there are still many casualties, and the next battle will inevitably be exhausting. Therefore, I intend to divide my troops into three groups. One way is stationed in Zhongli, restraining Ji Ling, and guarding the grain road. The other two groups are divided into Dangtu, Maqiuju and Yinling. What do you think? ?”

Chapter 511

After listening to Li Yi's speech, Kuai Yue and Xun You glanced at each other, and they showed a look that was so true, and then Kuai Yue, as a military adviser, cupped his hands and said: "The subordinates also agree to divide the troops, but I don't know what the lord intends to do. What about the division of troops?"

Kuai Yue and the others have been with Li Yi for so long, so they can naturally guess that it is unlikely that Li Yi will directly attack Zhongli County. Then, under the current situation, in order to win at the least cost, Li Yi is most likely to attack Zhongli County. The only choice is to divide the troops.

Li Yi shook his head and said: "I am far behind you in terms of military strategy. The so-called division of troops is just an introduction. However, since the military adviser asked a question, I will give you a general opinion, and then you can add."

Li Yi is very humble, but for him, this kind of modesty will not damage his prestige at all, let alone make people look down on him, but will make people think that he is modest and generous.

Li Yi walked to the edge of the sand table, took a small wooden stick in his hand, squinted his eyes, pointed, and said: "There are 5000 defenders in Zhongli, and the defender Ji Ling is very brave. He is good, but he is not a stupid person, and Yuan Shu is obviously defending the city this time. Therefore, if there is no accident, if you want to lure him out of the city to fight, ordinary methods may not work, but if you attack by force, you will be fair. How much damage will you lead the army to attack the city?"

Xu Huang got up and said: "I walked around the city yesterday evening. Although Zhongli County was not a big city, after learning that the Lord is going south, some people in the city began to raise the city wall. The difficulty of storming is far beyond ordinary county towns. After so much time, there are still a lot of defensive equipment in the city, so if we really want to attack by force, the casualties are probably around four thousand."

Li Yi nodded and said: "Actually, if soldiers from Yangzhou were used as the vanguard, the casualties might be less, but in front of the army is not only Zhongli, but also Yinling, Xiquyang, etc. After such a few battles, the morale of the army will inevitably dissipate. The army is exhausted, no matter how difficult it is to attack the strong city, and the purpose of our trip is to capture Shouchun, so before arriving at Shouchun, it is not advisable to attack by force."

With that said, Li Yi pointed at Yinling and Dangtu with the small wooden stick in his hand, and said: "According to what the sentry said, these two places, especially Maqiuju near Dangtu, are far away from the city. It is not as good as Zhongli, so I want to leave some soldiers and horses to guard and agree to besiege Zhongli, and then divide a part of the army to attack these two places, but whether to take both places or choose one of the two places, if If it succeeds, but disrupting Ji Ling's formation will also scare Yuan Shu's other generals, but I don't have a clue how to attack and how to arrange it, so I can only rely on you."

After Li Yi finished speaking, he put down the wooden stick in his hand, stood with hands tied, and waited for others to speak.

Xun You took a step forward and said with a smile: "My lord's words of gold and jade have already pointed out the key points, so the specific plan is naturally a matter of mine, otherwise how will we get the lord's salary?"

Li Yi laughed, he knew very well that the strategy of dividing the troops was not very clever, and other people must have thought of it, but Xun You just praised him.

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "Okay, now everyone expresses their opinions, but if you have ideas, feel free to speak up."