Xianxia version of Water Margin

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Jiang Hongfei killed two dragons, left Gongyi, and personally led an expedition to Huaixi.

Jiang Hongfei led an army of 500,000, and marched to the southwest without stopping.

Soon, the Yuan army approached Luzhou and Xiangzhou.

It was almost July, and the weather was hot, especially in the south, where the heat was unbearable.

The Yuan army braved the heat and galloped all the way from Su County and Sishui to the border of Yangdizhou.

Upon learning that Jiang Hongfei had personally led the Yuan army, the Chu army in Luzhou and Xiangzhou all abandoned the city and left.

Strategic locations can be divided into the following types: strategic locations with rich resources; important transportation routes; strategic locations with strategic risks.

Throughout the wars in history, the focus of the struggle has always been around several places: the Lianghuai region, the Qinluo region, the Hanzhong region, the Xiangfan region, etc.

The competition for the Xiangfan area has always been the focus of ancient military research. Looking back at the 5,000-year history of Chinese culture, we will find that no matter which dynasty it is, the competition for Jingzhou has always been the most intense. To seize Jingzhou, it is necessary to seize Xiangyang. Once Xiangyang is lost, the entire regime will be in danger of collapse.

Like the battle of the Western Jin Dynasty to destroy Wu, in the early period when the Eastern Wu and Shu Han were interdependent, they could still protect themselves. With the demise of Shu Han, only the Eastern Wu in the southeastern half could not stop the Western Jin Dynasty.

Like the battle of the Yuan Dynasty to destroy the Song Dynasty in history, when Liu Zheng, a surrendered general of the Southern Song Dynasty, proposed the battle to capture Xiangfan to the Yuan court, the demise of the Song Dynasty was already doomed.

So from this, we can see how important the actual strategic position of Xiangyang is.

Why is the strategic position of Xiangyang so important? It is mainly reflected in several aspects:

First, the main transportation route.

To illustrate the problem, we can use Zhuge Liang's "Longzhong Strategy" to explain: "Jingzhou is located in the north of Han and Mianyang, with benefits all over the South China Sea, connected to Wuhui in the east, and connected to Ba and Shu in the west. This is a country that can be used for military purposes, but its lord cannot defend it. This is probably why God has given it to the general. Do you have any interest in it?"

It is not difficult to see that Xiangyang's geographical location is extremely important. No matter which direction you advance in the world, Xiangyang is a military town that must be captured:

First of all, it is located in the most dangerous place in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River. It can be said that it directly overlooks the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Once the situation changes suddenly, it can directly go downstream to threaten Jiankang, the capital of the southeastern regime. Xiangyang's unique geographical location makes the Yangtze River natural barrier meaningless. Therefore, for the stability of the southeastern regime, a solid military defense system must be established around Xiangyang to protect Jiangnan. Once Xiangyang fails, the entire southeast will be in danger. In fact, it can be seen from the war of Jin's conquest of Wu and the war of Yuan's conquest of Song.

Secondly, Xiangyang is also the most important forward base for the Northern Expedition. From the previous Northern Expeditions, it can be seen that when the Jiangnan regime in the south launched the Northern Expedition, Xiangyang would also send troops to threaten the enemy from the flank to contain part of the enemy's main force or serve as the main force itself.

Thirdly, as Zhuge Liang said, Xiangyang is also adjacent to Yizhou in the west, and sending troops from here can also directly threaten the heartland of Yizhou.

So from the actual geographical location of Xiangyang, it is indeed an extremely important transportation hub, and opening up Jingzhou means directly dividing the Jiangnan regime in the south into two, directly cutting off the connection between Yizhou and Yangzhou.

Second, an extremely dangerous military town.

Another point about Xiangyang's unique geographical location is also extremely important. After Xiangyang, there are not many places in the heartland of Jingzhou that can be called dangerous.

Xiangyang is surrounded by mountains on one side, which can be used as a barrier, and by water on the other side, which directly solves the possibility of threats from the side. It is backed by Jiangling, so this provides a good convenience for the defense of Xiangyang City:

First of all, this reduces the threat of enemies from the side. You must know that in a siege, the enemy's attack direction is not just from one city gate, but from multiple city gates in a way of blooming from all sides. This is indeed aggravated for the defending party, because it has to face the possibility of dealing with threats from all sides, and the dangerous terrain of Xiangyang City makes up for this defect.

Therefore, considering the problem from the perspective of defense can also indirectly reflect the danger of Xiangyang City.

3. Strategic location with rich resources

During the Three Kingdoms period, the struggle for Jingzhou was particularly fierce. For Jingzhou, the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan broke down. For Sun Quan, seizing Jingzhou not only meant expanding his territory, but also had many problems:

First, it reduced the threat of Liu Bei's group to the Jiangdong regime. After Liu Bei occupied Jingzhou, he directly occupied the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. For Sun Quan, it was equivalent to directly controlling the key to his own home and entrusting his own safety to Liu Bei. Therefore, this was tantamount to impossible. With this relationship, the Sun-Liu alliance could not last long.

Secondly, among the Jiangdong regime at that time, the only truly prosperous area was the Three Wus, and many places actually controlled by Sun Quan were still in remote and wild areas at that time, and had not been developed on a large scale. Therefore, in order to take the initiative in the economy, the Jingzhou area was bound to fall into Sun Quan's hands.

Comprehensively speaking, from these aspects, Xiangyang must be a place that military strategists must fight for.

Jiang Hongfei never expected that Wang Qing would give Xiangyang, a strategically important strategic location, to him before he even fought a battle.

Is there a conspiracy?

Jiang Hongfei called Liu Huiniang, Madam Jia, Xu Qingniang, Wu Yong, Xiao Jiasui, Gongsun Sheng, Qiao Daoqing, Chen Xizhen and others to discuss countermeasures.

Everyone felt that it was strange that the Chu army gave up Xiangyang City, but they couldn't find the problem.

Mrs. Jia said, "We have 500,000 troops. If he wants to achieve a great victory that will turn the tide, he can only rely on water and fire. Otherwise, he will not be able to achieve complete success."

Qiao Daoqing said, "This place has both water and fire attacks. Both possibilities are possible."

Xiao Jiasui said, "It doesn't matter. We have a large number of troops and can defend against them."

Chen Xizhen said, "We will station the troops separately and take charge of each area. Your Majesty, do not enter the city when you go to the palace. You should first station in a flat and open place without water or fire. No matter how many tricks he has, he can't do anything without the Great Yuan."

After discussion, everyone decided to let Xiao Jiasui and Chen Xizhen station in Xiangyang City instead of Jiang Hongfei. They only led 50,000 troops into the city, and Jiang Hongfei led the guards to station on a small hill surrounded by a plain.

The rest of the army was scattered and stationed in the shade of the dense forests on Fangcheng Mountain to avoid the summer heat.

Because the soldiers of the Yuan army had traveled thousands of miles and many of them were exhausted from heat stroke, An Daoquan, Kong Hou, Mou Jie and others were asked to lead the doctors of the Imperial Medical Camp to buy medicines and treat the soldiers of the Yuan army; Huangfu Duan was asked to lead people to build a pavilion, settle the horses, treat them, and cut their manes; and the soldiers were asked to build a small mountain shed with bamboo and thatch under the cool and shady trees on the high hills of the mountain.

This was the plan proposed by Liu Hui Niang, which was to lure the snake out of the hole.

According to Liu Hui Niang's original words, "There are only thieves who can be thieves for a thousand days, but there is no way to guard against thieves for a thousand days. It is better to lure the snake out of the hole."

So Liu Hui Niang decided on this strategy to lure the Chu army to set fire to the Yuan army.

For this reason, Qiao Daoqing volunteered to sit in the mountain shed.

Jiang Hongfei asked Zhang Jun to lead his troops to ambush at the eastern foot of the mountain; and ordered Liu Guangshi to lead his troops to ambush at the western foot of the mountain.

All the food and grass were piled up at the foot of the mountain, and Lin Chong and Guan Sheng led their troops to guard it.

After the Yuan army was ready, Gongsun Sheng said: "It's so hot and humid, and the soldiers are tired and sick from traveling. If the enemy suddenly arrives with elite troops, even if our troops are ten times more than the enemy, we will not be able to win. Let me use a little trick to get rid of the irritability of the people, and the soldiers and horses will be cool and strong naturally."

After that, Gongsun Sheng used his sword to perform magic, stepped on the three words Kuigang, with his left hand holding the thunder seal and his right hand holding the sword formula, concentrating his mind and visualization, taking a breath of vitality from the Xun direction, and chanting a spell.

In a moment, the cool wind rustled, and the dark clouds slowly gushed out from the mountains and valleys, filling the Fangcheng Mountain. Hundreds of thousands of troops were in the cool breeze.

Except for this mountain, the sun was still as hot as melting gold and iron, cicadas were chirping, and birds were hiding.

Jiang Hongfei saw this and thought to himself, "Gongsun Sheng's strength has improved again."

The Yuan army waited in Xiangyang for six or seven days, but the Chu army remained silent.

During this period, after the treatment of An Daoquan and others, the Yuan army soldiers had completely recovered their combat effectiveness, and even the Yuan army's spirit horses gradually became stronger.

Li Kui, Liu Tang and others were inevitably a little anxious, thinking that it would not be a good idea to wait like this, and suggested to Jiang Hongfei to continue to go deeper?

But these suggestions were all rejected by Jiang Hongfei, who believed in his advisers.

Let's talk about the Chu army.

The person who presided over this battle was Liu Min, who was one of the few strategic people under Wang Qing, and was called "Liu Zhibo".

The fact that the Chu army in Luzhou and Xiangzhou all abandoned the city was actually something Liu Min did not expect.

However, Liu Min was not worried, because he was ready to use the same trick as Guan Yu and flood the seven armies.

But I don't know if God doesn't bless Wang Qing and Jiang Hongfei.

In this rainy season, there was not a drop of rain for six or seven days.

This made Liu Min very anxious.

If it was delayed any longer, when the Yuan army had arranged the Xiangfan area, it would be useless when the heavy rain came.

At this time, someone reported to Liu Min that the Yuan army was stationed in the dense forests to escape the heat.

Liu Min smiled and said, "This group of people are bandits from the water, and they don't know the art of war, so they can't accomplish anything big. I will use a little trick to discipline the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, and burn half of them!"

Then he ordered to select 5,000 light soldiers, each with rockets, artillery, and torches; and prepare 2,000 chariots, loaded with reeds, dry firewood, and sulfur and saltpeter to start fires; each car has one, and four people are ordered to push it.

It was the beginning of July, the weather was new autumn. Liu Min led four deputy generals, Lu Cheng, Zheng Jie, Kou Meng, and Gu Cen, and 10,000 cavalrymen, all dressed in soft war clothes and with their horses stripped of imperial bells, to support them from behind. He also left the lieutenant generals Han Fan, Ban Ze, etc. to guard the city.

Liu Min and his men left the city at dusk, and encountered a strong south wind.

Liu Min was overjoyed and said, "This group of people will be defeated. God helps our Chu!"

When the Chu army reached the third watch, they were two miles south of Fangcheng Mountain, and suddenly fog filled the valley.

Liu Min asked the Chu army soldiers to beat drums and cheer in the back; he ordered 5,000 soldiers to shoot rockets, artillery, and torches at the deep forests; he also asked Kou Meng and Bi Sheng to urge the soldiers who pushed the carts to set the trains on fire and burn the grain storage at the foot of the mountain.

The Chu army was setting fires, hoping to set the forest ablaze and burn all the Yuan army soldiers who were taking shelter from the heat there.

Suddenly!

They all cried out, "It's miserable!"

It turned out that the south wind was strong, but in an instant, it turned to the north wind!

There was another loud thunderclap on the mountain. Qiao Daoqing used the method of returning wind and fire. Those rockets and torches flew towards the Chu formation in the south, like thousands of golden snakes and fire dragons, flying towards the Chu army with blazing flames.

The Chu army soldiers could not avoid it and were all burned to death.

Liu Huiniang, who was commanding this battle, ordered people to light the signal cannon!

The cannon flew straight up and vibrated for a long time.

In the east, Zhang Jun led 50,000 troops to charge over.

At the first encounter, the Chu army was defeated.

Lu Cheng was cut into two pieces by Bao Xu's sword; Zheng Jie was knocked off his horse by Zhang Qing's stone and killed by another shot; Gu Cen was stabbed to death by Zhang Zigai; Kou Meng was killed by Zhai Xing's chaotic soldiers; 23,000 soldiers were killed by the fire, more than half of them were killed, and the rest fled in all directions, and 2,000 carts were burned to ashes; only Liu Min and 300 or 400 defeated soldiers fled forward to Wanzhou.

The Yuan army won the first battle with almost zero casualties.

Jiang Hongfei ordered to count the military merits and immediately promote and reward according to the merits.

Jiang Hongfei followed the plan that they had decided in advance, and ordered Guan Sheng, Qin Ming, Yang Zhi, Sun Li and others to lead 100,000 troops and horses to station in the east of Wanzhou to prevent the Chu army from coming to the south to rescue; Lin Chong, Hu Yanzhuo, Suo Chao, Mi Xian and others led 100,000 troops and horses to station in the west of Wanzhou to resist the Chu army from the north.

Jiang Hongfei also ordered Zhang Jun, Liu Guangshi, Zhai Xing, Zhai Jin, Zhang Qing and other troops, led by Madam Jia and Qiao Daoqing, to lead an army of more than 100,000 as the front and head straight for Wanzhou.

After receiving the order, Madam Jia and Qiao Daoqing led Zhang Jun and other troops to move out of the camp, leave Fangcheng Mountain, head south, and set up camp ten miles away from Wanzhou, surrounding Wanzhou tightly.

Let's talk about Liu Min.

That night, he fell into Liu Huiniang's trap and escaped alone. When he arrived in Wanzhou, he sent someone to report to Wang Qing of Nanfeng, and sent letters to neighboring counties and prefectures to ask for reinforcements.

Today, the Yuan army was approaching the city again, so he was ordered to hold the city and wait for reinforcements to arrive before attacking.

Coincidentally, Madam Jia, Qiao Daoqing and Zhang Jun and others discussed that in this situation, it would be best to use the strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao.

So, the Yuan army began to feint to attack Wanzhou City.

Wanzhou City is adjacent to Ruzhou City in the north. The Chu general Zhang Shou came with 20,000 reinforcements, but was killed by Yang Yizhong and others. The rest of the detachment officers and soldiers were all scattered.

On the same day, reinforcements from Anchang, Yiyang and other counties in the south of Wanzhou arrived. Guan Sheng and others defeated the Chu army, captured the Chu generals Bai Ren and Zhang Yi, and sent them to Jiang Hongfei's camp to ask for rewards.

Seeing that the Chu army should not be able to send reinforcements in a short time, Madam Jia and Qiao Daoqing ordered the Yuan army to pack soil and pile up on all sides to approach the city wall; they also selected brave and agile men, used flying bridges to turn the gate pulleys, crossed the trenches, crossed the moats, and the soldiers bravely climbed the city together, and then conquered Wanzhou, captured the defender Liu Min and other detachment officers and soldiers alive, and surrendered more than 30,000 Chu soldiers.

Soon, Jiang Hongfei left Xiao Jiasui and Chen Xizhen to guard Xiangyang, and personally led the main force to Wanzhou City.

The weather was too hot at this time, and it was not suitable for the Yuan army, which was mainly composed of northerners, to march and fight.

To be honest, Jiang Hongfei and his ministers made some mistakes on this point.

Of course, the reason why Jiang Hongfei and his ministers chose to go south to attack Wang Qing at this time was that they estimated that the Chu State would not expect that they could catch the Chu State off guard by sending troops at this time.

Facts have proved that Jiang Hongfei and his ministers did capture the crucial Xiangyang, so it is not entirely true that Jiang Hongfei and his ministers made some mistakes in choosing the timing.

In short, the actual weather conditions were worse than Jiang Hongfei and his ministers expected, and had seriously affected the Yuan army's attack on the Chu State.

After discussing, Jiang Hongfei and his ministers decided to suspend the march and wait for the weather to cool down before continuing to march south.

During this period, in addition to strengthening defense, the Yuan army was also discussing the next march plan.

Wu Yong said: "This place is south to Shannan Army, south to Hunan and Xiang, north to Guanluo, and is the throat of Chu and Shu. We should take this city first to divide the enemy's power."

Jiang Hongfei and his ministers all thought it made sense.

So Jiang Hongfei decided to leave Hua Rong and Lin Chong to lead 50,000 troops to guard Wanzhou; ordered Ruan Xiaoer and Ruan Xiaowu to lead the navy and drive the navy ships from the Bishui River to the Han River north of Shannan City; and divided the army into three teams.

On August 10, the weather was not so hot.

Jiang Hongfei personally led an army of 300,000, left Wanzhou, and rushed to Shannan Army...

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