Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 104 98. Jiangling Dungeon
Zhang Fei quickly settled Lingling County and prepared to attack Jiaozhou from Lingling County to the south. Sun Quan's troops in Jiaozhou to suppress the local natives and intimidate the Shi family had all been transferred back to Jiangdong, so Jiaozhou was now almost empty, with only a few scattered soldiers in each county barely maintaining local order.

As the Jiangdong Army withdrew, restless forces such as indigenous peoples, bandits, and roving robbers became active again, and Jiaozhou is now in an extremely chaotic state.

Zhang Fei was ready to rush into Jiaozhou for a big fight.

Turn your attention back to Feng Xi.

While Zhang Fei was still marching along the mountain roads of Wuling, Feng Xi had already reorganized his troops and advanced by water, starting from Jiangling and heading south along the river to the outskirts of Gong'an City.

Gong'an City was originally called Chanling. Later, because Liu Bei once stationed troops here when he was in Jingzhou, it was renamed Gong'an City by local people. This shows how profound Liu Bei's influence on Jingzhou was.

The geographical location of Gong'an City is also extremely dangerous. It controls the Yangtze River waterway. If one goes upstream to attack Jiangling, Gong'an City is an unavoidable roadblock.

When Lu Meng crossed the river in white clothes two years ago, the commander of Gong'an was the drunkard Fu Shiren. He was ambushed by Lu Meng without any investigation and the city of Gong'an, which served as the outpost of Jiangling's base camp, was directly lost, resulting in Jiangling not receiving any news at all.

Later, Fu Shiren appeared again to tell his story and persuaded Mi Fang to surrender, which resulted in Jiangling falling into the hands of Lu Meng without bloodshed. The morale of Guan Yu's front line plummeted and eventually collapsed.

Gong'an City was completely defenseless at this time. Before, only the Jingxiang Navy was stationed in Gong'an City. As the Jingxiang Navy was transferred to the Jiangling front, Gong'an City became extremely empty, with only a thousand county soldiers stationed there to maintain order in the city.

Not only Gong'an City, but most cities in Jingzhou were in a similar situation. Because of the defeat in Yiling, the main force led by Lu Xun was annihilated, and the Eastern Wu had to draw troops from all over to defend Jiangling, the gateway to Jingzhou from Sichuan.

Who would have thought that Jiangling fell even faster than the Battle of Yiling, and most of the former soldiers of the Jingzhou Army surrendered to Feng Xi.

Originally, Feng Xi only had a little over 40,000 troops left after Lao Liu led the Eastern Expedition Army of 30,000 plus Zhao Yun's 20,000 troops left. However, with a war in Jiangling, and with the stragglers that Zhao Lei had contacted before joining him on the road, the number of troops under Feng Xi's command snowballed to nearly 80,000.

Regarding the important place of Jiangling, Feng Xi asked Xiang Chong and Chen Shi, who were calm and careful, to stay behind to prevent Cao Wei from a surprise attack on Huang Quan in Xiangyang in the north, and to reorganize and train the surrendered troops at the same time.

Wang Fu, Liao Hua and other civil officials familiar with Jingzhou affairs stayed behind to help restore Jingzhou's production, while Feng Xi himself and Zhang Nan advanced by water. 50,000 troops went south along the river, preparing to recapture cities and important places all the way to Dongting Lake and fight a decisive battle with the last remaining forces of the Wu army.

And Gong'an City is the first stop of Feng Xi's army.

"Grand Commander, please don't attack the city. We are willing to surrender. We are the people under your majesty's rule. We were coerced by Fu Shiren and had no choice but to surrender. I hope the Grand Commander will calm down his wrath and not harm the people in the city!"

By the time the army arrived at the city of Gong'an, the Han army flag had already been raised on the city wall. The county magistrate and the captain both knelt on the side of the road begging Feng Xi for forgiveness.

"Since you are willing to return to the right path, I have no reason to harm you. Get up and wait for the envoys from Jiangling to come. You should also comfort the people and resume production."

Feng Xi naturally knew that these ordinary counties had no ability to resist the general trend and could only sway in the wind like rootless duckweed, so he appeased the officials in the city with a few words and stationed the troops and public security with peace of mind.

"Xiu Yuan, what did you find in the Jiangling dungeon? Who was that person?"

Since Gong'an City opened the gates and surrendered, Zhang Nan naturally went ashore to have a drink and eat something. He remembered that Feng Xi seemed to have made some discoveries in the dungeon in Jiangling, so he took the opportunity to ask.

After conquering Jiangling City that day, Feng Xi personally inspected important places in the city, such as the granary, armory, silver vault, and of course the dungeon and cells.

Many loyal people who were concerned about the Han Dynasty were imprisoned in the prison during the reign of the Eastern Wu. Pan Jun had planned to execute them in a few days, but he did not expect that the world would be turned upside down and Pan Jun would instantly become a prisoner. "Wow, it's really smelly... So even in the prison, we have to pay attention to hygiene. The environment is so bad that sooner or later there will be plague or infectious diseases..."

As soon as he stepped into the dungeon, Feng Xi was almost knocked unconscious by the strong stench mixed with feces, urine and decay. Feng Xi pinched his nose and spoke to the dungeon manager about the importance of hygiene, and then entered the dungeon.

The dungeon was surprisingly empty, as a place where serious criminals and important criminals were imprisoned. After asking the jailer, I learned that many of the prisoners were released after the arrival of the Eastern Wu and fought as vassal soldiers of the Eastern Wu.

Of course, these vassal troops had basically been slaughtered by the Han army in the previous street fighting in Jiangling, which could be regarded as a form of legal execution in another sense.

"Who else is in this prison? Is it empty?"

Since all the prisoners have been released, doesn't that mean the dungeon is empty? Feng Xi simply asked, but he didn't expect the jailer to shake his head.

"No, Grand Commander, some of Cao's surrendered soldiers are still imprisoned there."

The jailer gave an answer that surprised Feng Xi.

"Cao's surrendered soldiers? Why are they here?"

Feng Xi was subconsciously surprised for a moment, but then he reacted. At that time, Guan Yu flooded the seven armies and approached Fancheng, so naturally there were many Cao army prisoners.

It was impossible for Guan Yu to keep them locked up and consume food, so he inevitably had to send them to the rear for unified detention.

At that time, Xiangyang had been unstable due to the war, and Cao Cao had occupied Xiangyang for a long time. The people's acceptance of Liu Bei was not as high as in other places. Guan Yu naturally would not choose this place, but chose Jiangling, his base camp not too far away.

"Take me to see the situation of these surrendered soldiers."

Feng Xi followed the jailer inside while thinking about these details that would not be mentioned in history. It is estimated that the Eastern Wu had time to stabilize Jingzhou only after the Battle of Yiling, for example, Pan Jun began to liquidate officials loyal to Liu Bei and wipe out the Wuling barbarians.

It is estimated that these Cao troops will trade with Cao Wei in the future in exchange for some benefits.

As everyone went deeper into the dungeon, the smell became even worse, and the air was even filled with the stench of corpses.

"what 's wrong?"

Feng Xi looked at the cells where many Cao army soldiers had starved to death, and frowned as he asked the jailer.

"Well... ever since Jiangling fell, the prison affairs in Jiangling have been in a state of no man's land, and the supply of food and grass has been intermittent, so many people died alive, and some even ate corpses to satisfy their hunger..."

The jailer blushed and spoke in a low voice.

(End of this chapter)