A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 459: Return to the old capital and reward for merit, the Navy prepares to send troops to attack Wu

The eleventh year of Xuanwu

The fifth day of the first lunar month
Zhuge Liang led the southern expedition army and returned to the court smoothly, along with the barbarian leaders from Yizhou who came to Luoyang, including Meng Huo, Gao Dingyuan and others.

In the six months since Zhuge Liang's expedition, Luoyang was successfully built. Liu Chan officially announced the move of the capital in December of the 10th year of Xuanwu.

Now the ministers and official offices have all moved to Luoyang, and the rest of the people who came to Luoyang, and the families of the ministers are still on the way, coming to Luoyang in batches.

At Luoyang City Gate, Liu Chan personally rode in a car with Zhuge Liang with extremely high treatment to show his favor.

Then at the banquet, the Jin Dynasty ordered Zhuge Liang to be granted the title of Marquis of Shu.

Nowadays, the titles of the Han Dynasty generally follow the 20th rank of the previous Han Dynasty, except that the last two ranks of the 20th rank, Guannai Marquis and Liehou, are unified into marquises.

The marquises are divided from low to high, into pavilion marquis, rural marquis, county marquis, and lie marquis, and then the symbolic duke is added.

As for the king, in addition to conferring rewards on the prince, there was only Wang Baiwang with a different surname, and his rights system was the same as that of the previous Han Dynasty.

After the banquet, Liu Chan consecrated Gao Dingyuan as Tinghou and officially appointed him as the prefect of Yuexun.

The other barbarian leaders received rewards, so the next day, these barbarian leaders returned to their tribes with satisfaction after a large purchase in Luoyang.

The Nanman incident came to an end, and Zhuge Liang returned to his post of handling political affairs.

But compared to before the Southern Expedition, it seems that because of the great increase in prestige, the government orders are much more clear, which can be regarded as an unexpected blessing.

May
When Sikong and Zhongshu Ling Chen Qun passed away, Liu Chan appointed Situ Sima Yi to concurrently serve as Zhongshu Ling.

Nowadays, in the court, except for the transcendent Bai Yi, the rest are roughly divided into two factions. One faction is headed by Zhuge Liang, mainly in Jingzhou, Yizhou, and Guanlong areas. Most of them are officials from small families or poor families.

Because of the support of Emperor Zhaolie and Liu Chan, most of this sect was after Yuanrong, so it is the strongest sect in the court today, occupying an absolute advantage at the local and central levels.

One faction is the Chen Qun faction inherited by Sima Yi. They are mainly from Yanzhou, Xuzhou, and Sizhou, and most of them are from aristocratic families.

They gathered together because of common interests, but due to the constant interference of many surrendered ministers and unknown forces, they have been suppressed.

Xuanwu thirteen years

New Year
Yang Hu, the governor of Yizhou, said that the Jiangzhou navy has been trained and the ships are fully supervised and ready for combat at any time.

Zhuge Liang wrote a "Departure Form" overnight and immediately went to the palace to hand the form to Liu Chan.

Liu Chan was very moved after reading "Chu Shi Biao" and repeatedly praised him for his good deeds. He then handed over full authority to Zhuge Liang to conquer Wu.

Because the general Bai Xing died of illness, Liu Chan replaced Zhuge Liang as the general. As a general, he acted as prime minister and was fully responsible for the southern expedition.

Just as Zhuge Liang continued to mobilize his troops and summoned generals.

Zhuge Liang's strategy, marching direction, purpose, troop deployment, etc. were all placed on the cases of Wu Lord Sun Quan.

After carefully reading this information, Sun Quan did not feel happy at all. Instead, he frowned and had to rub his temples with his hands.

Prime Minister Bu Zhi of the State of Wu, General Zhuge Jin, General Lu Dai, Great Sima Quancong, General Zhu Ran of the Northern Expedition and other important ministers of Sun Wu were all sitting respectfully in the hall.

"Although someone in the north of the Yangtze River has sent me such detailed information, the strength of its military power cannot be stopped by the Wu Kingdom."

Sun Quan looked at the intelligence that Zhuge Liang had mobilized an army of 200,000 for this expedition. Generals Yang Hu, Jiang Wei, Zhang Liao, Ma Dai, Zhang Bao, Guan Ping and Zhao Han were all among them.

Bu Zhao asked to read the information, and Sun Quan passed the cloth on for the generals to refer to.

"Your Majesty, although the Han army is powerful, our army has the advantage of intelligence and can use its maximum strength to deploy maximum defenses by relying on the favorable weather and favorable terrain.

Even if Zhuge Liang has an army of 200,000, there is nothing he can do against our country. Bu Zhao said with confidence.

The State of Wu hated Zhao Han's southern expedition very much, and everyone worked together to prevent them from surrendering.

Because Zhuge Liang's matters of sorting out land and examining hidden populations in the north of the Yangtze River have spread to the south of the Yangtze River.

As the country with the largest number of aristocratic families and the deepest slave-army system, Wu State naturally could not accept Zhao Han's harsh laws.

If Zhao Han wins and Jiangnan is included in Zhao Han, he and others will be forced to hand over their slaves and acres of land. How can they evade taxes?

So although Wu seemed to be easily pacified, the reality was not that simple.

"Your Majesty, according to Zhao Han's strategy, they want to go down the river from Yizhou and fight our army in Jingzhou. Then Zhang Liao raided our Wu County and seized Jianye.

Without this information, our army might fall into the trap, but now that we know it, how can we take advantage of the enemy's wishes? Why not just use the trap and send a general to defend Jiangling City and block the river.

Zhang Liao waited until Zhang Liao made a sneak attack, lured the enemy deep, gathered a large number of troops, and kept his army in the south of the Yangtze River, and then took advantage of the situation to attack the Lujiang River and even seize the Jianghuai River.

After finishing Zhang Liao's troops, the army quickly arrived at Jiangling by boat to rescue the Jiangling defenders. Zhuge Liang saw that the strategy was not feasible and would definitely retreat. Our army can win a great victory. "

Grand Sima Quancong looked at the map and told Sun Quan his plan.

The other generals also made suggestions, but they were generally the same as Quan Cong.

Since all the generals are so confident, Sun Quan will naturally not hold back.

He immediately ordered Zhu Ran to lead 30,000 troops and defend Jiangling. He must not let the Han army go south.

He also sent Quan Cong with 10,000 troops to garrison the public security and blockade the Yangtze River. He led Bu Zhao, Zhuge Jin, Lu Dai and others with 70,000 troops to deal with Zhang Liao.

April
Zhuge Liang did not know that the military information had been leaked, so he made all preparations as before. Finally, he was ready and swore an oath to go out for battle outside Luoyang City. Liu Chan personally reviewed the troops and then sent them off. April 20

Zhuge Liang's main army of 100,000 troops marched into Xiangyang.

After careful consideration, he sent people into Jiangling City to persuade him to surrender. The results speak for themselves.

Seeing that persuading him to surrender failed, Zhuge Liang ordered Jiang Wei, Ma Dai, Zhang Bao and other generals to lead 70,000 troops to attack Jiangling in the south. He took the remaining army to garrison Xiangyang as support for the other army.

April 27
Jiang Wei and other generals began to attack the city and built several military camps to besiege the city.

The siege lasted for several days, but Zhu Ran's command was successful and the Han army did not take advantage.

Then the Han army began a long siege, building mountains, digging tunnels, and building towers and oars to approach the city wall. The Han army's arrows rained down like rain, and the Wu army turned pale with fear. However, Zhu Ranyan was fearless and motivated his soldiers, so that Jiangling remained unbroken.

Not only that, Zhu Ran also took advantage of the Han army's continuous attacks and found tactical loopholes to send people to attack the two military camps outside the Han army's city, which greatly boosted the morale of the Wu army.

May 6
Yang Hu, the governor of Yizhou, led 30,000 troops and thousands of large and small warships. They set out from Jiangzhou, passed through Wu County, and went straight down the river, blocking out the sky and the sun.

However, in Yiling, they were ambushed by the Soochow Navy. General Ling Tong of the State of Wu personally led hundreds of fireships to ram the Han warships under the cover of night.

The navy of Wu Kingdom, which was hiding in the tributary rivers, took advantage of the situation to attack.

The Han army did not expect Wu to ambush here without any warning, and why they knew the time and location of their navy passing Yiling, but they had no time to think about it.

Because the warships were on fire, nearby ships wanted to stay away. Some ships could move, but others could not. Hundreds of warships were spinning around like headless flies, constantly causing warships to collide with each other.

The formation of the Han navy was in chaos.

The Soochow Navy took advantage of the situation and advanced. Fortunately, Yang Hu stayed calm in the face of danger and commanded the warships behind to retreat in order, so that the entire army was not wiped out.

However, the Han navy also suffered heavy losses in this battle, losing seven-tenths of its warships, and could no longer compete with the Wu navy.

Yang Hu had no choice but to retreat to Zigui to garrison, and sent someone to report the battle in detail to Zhuge Liang, along with a letter requesting punishment.

After Ling Tong's victory here, there was no time to clean up the battlefield, leaving five thousand people to garrison Yiling, and then immediately returned to Jianye with two-thirds of the navy to participate in the next war.

Lujiang County, Wancheng
Since Liu Chan defeated Cao Han, Sun Quan wanted to support Cao Han, but Zhang Liao captured Lujiang instead and lost important strongholds in the north of the Yangtze River.

After receiving the news that the prime minister had begun to attack Jiangling, and knowing that the battle in Jingzhou must have begun, Zhang Liao began to mobilize his troops and generals to prepare for the southern attack.

May 10
Zhang Liao led an army of 30,000 men and entered Songyang with great momentum, intending to cross the river. As expected, the Wu army on the other side concentrated heavily on the south bank.

Seeing that the Wu army was almost gathered, Zhang Liao ordered Guan Ping to lead 20,000 troops from Guangling, take a large ship, cross the Yangtze River by force, and capture Wu Commandery.

May 16

Guan Ping's troops successfully crossed the Yangtze River and captured Dantu County of Wu County. They then headed west, only a hundred miles away from Jianye.

As Zhang Liao expected, upon hearing that the capital was in danger, most of the Wu army in the south of the Yangtze River was transferred back to Jianye.

Now that all the Soochow Navy is heading to Jingzhou, the Guangling Navy of the Han Army can cruise up the Yangtze River unscrupulously.

So Zhang Liao, with the help of Guangling Navy, successfully crossed the river and occupied Chaisang, an important town in the state of Wu.

May 23
Guan Ping's troops were blocked in Jurong by the Wu army. Zhang Liao went all the way east and captured Pengze, Lingyang and Jing counties one after another, occupying almost the entire Danyang County.

Wu Du Jianye fell into a dilemma of being attacked from the north and the south.

June 15

Just when Zhang Liao was full of confidence and thought he could pacify Jiangnan, he suddenly received a secret report from Zhuge Liang.

"There is a secret operation in the country, the military situation has been leaked, the Soochow Navy has returned to the division, withdraw quickly!"

Zhang Liao's expression changed greatly, and he immediately ordered the rear of the army to turn into the front, return to the original route, and withdraw from Danyang.

At this time, Zhang Liao's troops had arrived in Wuhu, which was only more than a hundred miles away from Jianye and surrounded by Wu's cities.

Just when Zhang Liao walked not far from Jingxian County, a meteor horse suddenly came to report that Jingxian County was captured by the Wu army, and our army's retreat was cut off.

Zhang Liao looked ugly, but he still calmed himself down and issued the most appropriate military order.

First, he sent people to bypass Jingxian County and rushed overnight to Chen Jie, the naval commander stationed in Chaisang, asking him to leave Chaisang quickly and come to Spring Valley to meet his army.

Then he ordered the entire army to march northwest, occupy the Spring Valley Ferry on the riverside, and set up a formation.

Not long after, a large army of Wu troops suddenly appeared in Spring Valley. After careful inspection, they found that their number was no less than 50,000.

Moreover, there was a steady stream of Wu troops coming to join them.

A large banner was placed at the head, with the word "Sun" written on it. It was obvious that Sun Quan was here in person.

Although he was surrounded by the Wu army, Zhang Liao relied on his prestige of guarding Jianghuai for many years and tried his best to maintain the formation and military morale.

Sun Quan knew that Zhang Liao was brave and resourceful, so he was not prepared to give him a chance and directly ordered the entire army to attack.

June 25
Zhang Liao stayed at Chungu for several days, but still did not see the navy coming. He understood that the Guangling navy was probably in danger.

And his remaining army only has more than 20,000 people, and the whole army may be wiped out right now.

(End of this chapter)