Chapter 52: The war is rising again (2)

Jiashi is located in the boundary of Linju County, and the terrain is dangerously located in a low-mountain and hilly area. There is a small road surrounded by two mountains, which is Jiashi Road. In the past, Guan Yu retreated from Jiashi to the middle of the river in an attempt to cross from Jiashi to the middle of the river, and was finally captured and killed by the Wu army. This is a place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack and is easy to set up. Wang Chang, the general of Wei cavalry, led a large army to garrison here, and his intention was self-evident.

If the Eastern Wu went north to attack Xiangyang, it would be impossible to ignore the Wei army stationed in Jiashi. But if he really wanted to attack this Wei army, he would face extremely unfavorable terrain and combat environment. Even if the Wu army had twice the strength of the Wei army, it would be very difficult to eat Wang Chang's army. If he ignored this Wei army and directly attacked Xiangyang, the entire Wu army would be cut off by this Wei army, and thus fell into the difficult situation of fighting alone. Even if the defenders of Jiangling were slightly weak, this Wei army might attack suddenly. Wang Chang's troops could attack and retreat or defend, just like a nail that nailed the Wu army in Jingzhou firmly in Jiangling, and he could not move. Shi Ji was extremely frustrated, so he had to send scouts to keep a close eye on the movements of the Wei army in Jiashi, and on the other hand, he sent someone to report the situation here to Sun Jing.

Sun Chi's army gathered from the Eastern Wu country and entered the Huai River from the southeast of Shouchun. Zhu Yi, as the pioneer of the Wu army, used to capture Sun Yi in Xiakou, so he marched from Xiakou from the southwest of Shouchun into the Huai River. Although both men and horses were commanded by Sun Chi, they were actually divided into two places. Sun Chi's army on the east route stopped after crossing the Yangtze River and adopted a conservative wait-and-see attitude. Zhu Yi's western army had to rush to Shouchun to rescue the siege.

As a result, the seemingly grand Northern Expedition of the Eastern Wu evolved into the situation where Zhu Yi led 30,000 Wu troops alone. After Sima Zhao was in a good mood after getting the military situation, he summoned Zhonghui and Pei Xiu to discuss. Pei Xiu's courtesy name was Ji Yan and came from a family of officials. His grandfather Pei Mao was the Shangshu Ling during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and his father Pei Qian was the Shangshu Ling during the reign of Emperor Ming of Wei. Pei Xiu was talented since childhood and was very interested in current affairs. He was similar to the so-called child prodigy in later generations. Many guests who came to the Pei family would talk to Pei Xiu after visiting Pei Xiu's father and listen to Pei Xiu's discussions before leaving. Pei Xiu was only in his teens at that time.

"Sun Chen's wisdom is short, so this is a way to cause trouble. General, don't hesitate, you can attack the Wu army head-on, and Sun Chen will not dare to move!" Zhong Hui said.

"What Shi Ji said is exactly that Sun Feng has no intention of fighting, and is arrogant and arrogant and unable to listen to other people's suggestions. He will definitely lose this battle!" Pei Xiu also agreed with Zhong Hui's view.

Seeing that the two think tanks had the same views, Sima Zhao smiled and said, "This is what the scholar Ji and Ji Yan's plan!" So he ordered the Yanzhou governor Zhoutai, who was outside Shouchun, General Fenwu Shi Bao, and the Taishan prefect Hu Lie, to resist Zhu Yi's vanguard army.

After receiving the order from Sima Zhao, Zhoutai summoned Shi Bao and Hu Lie to discuss it. After several people made some decisions, they all felt that Sun Qian's army would not dare to attack easily. So they decided to mainly include General Fenwu Shi Bao, and Taishan Prefect Hu Lie, as the auxiliary, took more than 10,000 Wei troops as suspicious soldiers. They guarded the dangerous places in the southeast of Shouchun to protect the main force of the Wei army besieging Shouchun. Zhoutai himself led more than 30,000 Wei troops to the southwest of Shouchun to meet the Wu army.

Zhu Yi is the son of Zhu Huan, a famous general in Eastern Wu, and is one of the best generals in Jiangdong. Sun Quan once discussed the attack with Zhu Yi and praised Zhu Yi's father Zhu, saying: "I know Zhu Yi's skills. When I see you today, I am better than the rumors."

Zhu Yi was very reluctant to go to the expedition. Sima Zhao and others could see that Sun Chi was unintentional to fight, so they could not see the reason. It was just because of military orders. The departure of Quan Yi and others was a big blow to the Eastern Wu court and also had a great impact on the army. In the domestic situation, Sun Chi had to deal with Princess Quan Sun Luban, which caused a lot of shock. The people and the army may not have any say in these matters, but morale and psychological blows are immeasurable. After all, the Eastern Wu has been in turmoil for many years, and the turmoil in people is not conducive to the war.

Since Sun Chen had no intention of fighting this battle and just wanted to deal with domestic public opinion, he didn't need to sacrifice his life. He just needed to act and have contact with the Wei people. In this way, he not only preserved his strength, but also completed the military order. Sun Chen was only over 20 years old, and there was no one beside him who knew how to fight. Although he had more than 100,000 troops in the southeast, he could have restrained many Wei troops and Zhu Yi. There were only 30,000 Wu troops on the west side, and the Wei army under Shouchun City had a real 200,000. It was a joke to tear open the defense line of the Wei army with this little man.

Zhu Yi thought this way, and many of the generals below also thought the same. If the Eastern Route Army was a commander with rich experience, it would inevitably put great pressure on the Wei army, and the Western Route was only meaningful. But Sun Yan was just a nobleman, without the experience of leading troops and lacked strategic vision. The fatal disadvantage was that he could not allow others to make suggestions. It would be easier for a cunning and powerful person like Sima Zhao to see through Sun Yan. Therefore, Zhu Yi ordered the army to advance slowly, and to protect his strength when encountering the enemy, and beware of falling into the siege of the Wei army.

As he approached the territory of Anfeng, the horses in front of him were repatriating, and a Wei army appeared on the ground of Anfeng, heading towards the Wu army. Zhu Yi ordered the army to stop and set up a formation, but he was thinking about how to escape. It was a death penalty to escape before the battle, and his merits would not have done such a thing that would damage the reputation of the country. The real battle with the Wei people was meaningless. Even if he won, would his 30,000 people still advance to the enemy's hinterland and fight with the 200,000 Wei troops?

At this time, the explorer responded again, and the Wei army seemed to have discovered the Wu army here, and the number of people observed that the Wei army was probably about 50,000. When he heard that the Wei people were stronger than him, Zhu Yi was not hesitating. He was immediately ordered to turn the rear army into the front army, and the front army into the rear army immediately retreated.

The Wu people's quick reaction exceeded Zhou Tai's expectations, and hurriedly ordered the troops to attack the Wu army, and they led nearly 50,000 Wei troops to chase Zhu Yi at full speed. This time, the headquarters of Zhou Tai had 30,000 Wei troops, Sima Zhao, Wang Ji and Hu Fen, and then pulled out 20,000 from their respective troops and handed them over to Zhou Tai for command. In this way, there were nearly 100,000 Wei troops, 100,000 to fight 30,000, which was a comparison of the strength of winning.

Zhu Yi led the Wu army to retreat quickly, and the scouts kept reporting the movements of the Wei army behind him. Seeing the fierce pursuit of the Wei people, he had no intention of worrying about the Wu army's defeat. Zhu Yi was even more sure that the Wei army would have a huge military force, otherwise he would not have chased him so safely.

As expected, the Wu army walked only five miles away, and a Wei army of about 20,000 people came from the flank. Zhu Yi snorted coldly and said, "Is it not good for the dog thief to bully Zhu's sword?" He immediately waved his sword and led the Wu army to fight bravely. The Wei army seemed to be prepared for the Wu army's desperate efforts. The army resisted it with a stance of not retreating at all.

After fighting for a while, Zhu Yi smiled and the army suddenly changed direction to the east with a move in the Wu army. Zhu Yi's army came from Xiakou. The Wei army originally intended to cut off its way back, but the Wu people fled east instead. The subsequent men rushed to the air. Zhu Yi held a big sword and broke the back personally. The Wei generals rushed up to hold the Wu army's pace. However, Zhu Yi was very brave and rushed out a bloody road between the big swords and led more than a thousand people to flee east along with the Wu army brigade.

At this time, the people of Zhoutai were barely arrived. Seeing the people of Wu fled to the east, they couldn't help but sigh: "General Wu cannot be despised. He quickly ordered the battalions to communicate the movements of the Wu army at any time." Zhoutai's 100,000 troops were divided into three groups, and he led more than 50,000 people to fight head-on. After calculating the movements of the Wu army, the other two groups of people went on a long way to plagiarize the Wu army behind. As soon as the Wei army, which was plagiarized by the first route, the Wu army changed its destination of retreat. The 20,000 Wei army behind was equivalent to no use of its place.

As a long-standing general, Zhu Yi did not know that he had escaped, but he had to go east to change direction. The return of his 30,000 people to Xiakou is of no benefit to the current situation, so why would Sun Chen's army join? If he is lucky, he can encourage Sun Chen to launch a war and save face. After all, this battle alone is not enough to make the army return to the country to show off.

The Li family in Xi County was anxiously waiting for Wen Li to pronounce the verdict. His Majesty gave full power to Wen Li to deal with the case of Li Bo's corruption and abuse of power and deceiving the emperor. Given that the recent big bosses in the court have been confiscated and destroyed, the Li family was unable to compare with the power of the Chen family, Xu family, and Fei family, except for taking root in Shu earlier, they were all sad.

As long as Wen Li said a word, the Li family in Qi County would erase from the history of Shu Han. Thinking of this, everyone in the Li family regretted not expressing their attitude early and standing on Wen Li's side. Now everyone is locked in prison and can only wait for fate.

Li Bo also knew that he would die, but he was worried about his family not pulling him at a critical moment. Especially the old man Li Mao, who collected dirty silver and turned the blame. Before Wen Li could interrogate him, Li Bo first confessed Li Mao. The imperial court issued an edict to pay the money and rice to the people, and all the casualties in the tribe were subsidized by the Li family, and the excess was divided by several senior executives of the Li family. This kind of thing was not just this time, but a long time ago, even the dead Wang Jiong. Over time, everyone's courage gradually became stronger, and as long as they had a good relationship with the backing of the court, they could do it.

Other aristocratic families in Qi County also came to take advantage of the situation. The Wang family even organized the people to petition before the government office. This made Wen Li very disgusted. The Li family deserves to die, but without the Li family checks and balances, wouldn’t the Wang family make a fuss? Liu Shao and Fan En were sent to Chengdu by someone. After hearing about the deeds of the two, His Majesty now decided to meet these two young heroes and give them certain commendations.

The final result was somewhat unexpected. Compared with the big chops and killings in Chengdu, Li Bo and Li Mao were killed. The Li family in Qi County was able to survive, which made the major families who had previously taken advantage of the situation and were naturally moved by the Li family. The Li family provided double compensation for the money and rice that owed the people.

Chen Shu was appointed as the new county magistrate of Dongguanghan. Chen Shu was a man with high reputation and kept writing books. Chen Shu was of average family background, but his "Shibu" and "Yibu Jiji" recorded all the events in Yizhou, so he was respected.
Chapter completed!