Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 98 92. Decisive Battle Plan
Zhao Fan was the prefect of Guiyang at that time.

In the 13th year of Jian'an, when Liu Bei was on a southern expedition to the four counties of Jingnan, Zhao Fan was very smart and was ready to surrender when he heard the news that Liu Bei was coming.

But this time it was his men's turn to be unhappy.

Chen Ying and Bao Long, two captains under Zhao Fan, believed themselves to be highly skilled in martial arts and could fight Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun on equal terms even if they came in person.

Unfortunately, this was just a thought. When they actually fought, they found that they were no match for Zhao Yun at all. Zhao Yun defeated them easily as if he was bullying a child.

Now the two had no reason to stop Zhao Fan from surrendering, so they simply surrendered with Zhao Fan.

However, Zhao Fan was timid and suspicious by nature, and was afraid that Liu Bei would harm him. When he saw that it was Zhao Yun who came to Guiyang County, he simply wanted to establish a good relationship with Zhao Yun and take care of him.

Zhao Fan invited Zhao Yun to a banquet, and during the meal, he became sworn brothers with Zhao Yun on the grounds that they had the same surname, and even addressed Zhao Yun as his brother. Zhao Yun was embarrassed and could not refuse, so he had to accept.

Seeing that Zhao Yun was so easy to talk to, Zhao Fan decided to take his share of the spoils and take their relationship to the next level.

During the banquet, Zhao Fan learned that Zhao Yun was not married at the time, so he simply suggested that Zhao Yun marry his sister-in-law Fan Shi, who had been widowed for many years.

Before, Zhao Yun could not refuse the sworn brotherhood, but when it came to such a serious matter, Zhao Yun naturally disagreed. No matter how much Zhao Fan tried to persuade him, Zhao Yun just wouldn't agree.

"Since you and I have the same surname and are brothers, your brother is my brother, so how can I marry my eldest sister-in-law?"

Because Zhao Yun was determined not to give in, Zhao Fan found many people to persuade Zhao Yun, but Zhao Yun refused them one by one.

Later, Zhao Yun's generals came to ask Zhao Yun why he was unwilling, and Zhao Yun said:
"Zhao Fan surrendered under duress, and his true intentions are unknown. There are so many women in the world, why didn't he marry Fan Shi?"

Zhao Yun was a man of meticulous mind, and had long discovered that Zhao Fan's flattery was excessive, so he was even a little disgusted.

Seeing Zhao Yun so determined, Zhao Fan became suspicious, fearing that Zhao Yun had heard some order from Liu Bei and was preparing to get rid of him.

As it happened, Chen Ying and Bao Long were not easy to deal with either. After hearing about Zhao Fan's situation, they took the initiative to come forward and help Zhao Fan:
"Don't panic, sir. Zhao Yun is just a warrior. We pretended to surrender to him and leaked false information to let him come alone. We ambushed more than a hundred swordsmen and axemen. Even if Zhao Yun was Lu Bu in the world, he would not be able to escape!"

When Zhao Fan heard this, he thought it made sense. Instead of living in such fear, it would be easier to just rebel and abandon Liu Bei and join the Eastern Wu. So he agreed to Chen Ying and Bao Long's plan.

On this day, Chen Ying and Bao Long came before Zhao Yun, knelt down and denounced Zhao Fan for his stupidity and his intention to do something wrong. They were deeply moved by Liu Shijun's righteousness and were willing to report and expose Zhao Fan.

"Such a clumsy trick, do you really think I am a fool?"

Zhao Yun simply couldn't bear to look at these two people. Before, they were yelling and wanted to compete with him, but in just two days, they suddenly turned into loyal people?

It happened that Zhao Yun had just seen the false surrender plan of Lingling General Xing Daorong before the troops were divided. He did not expect the same thing to happen again in Guiyang, which made Zhao Yun speechless.

"Come here, drag him away and behead him. Gather the troops, there are people in the city who are plotting something bad."

After a little thought, Zhao Yun guessed that it must be Zhao Fan who was behind this, so he ignored Chen Ying and Bao Long's excuses and killed them directly. He then led his troops personally to suppress Zhao Fan's rebellion.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Fan was even more ruthless. After hearing about the commotion in the city, he simply abandoned his family and fled alone. He has been missing since then.

Zhao Yun had reported this matter before, so Zhang Fei had also heard of it. Unexpectedly, he heard the name Zhao Fan again from Gong Zhi today.

"In other words, Zhao Fan actually fled to Eastern Wu, and now he has returned to Guiyang County with the support of Eastern Wu?"

Zhang Fei stroked his beard and asked uncertainly. "That's right, General. No matter who these people are, they will never surrender easily, so General, you must also be prepared."

Gong Zhi nodded, then filled Zhang Fei's cup. Zhang Fei drank it without saying a word.

"Bao'er, ask the military messenger Yin Ye to inform Feng Xiuyuan of the situation in the four counties of Jingnan and see if our commander-in-chief has anything to arrange."

Zhang Fei's throat rolled a few times, and he drank the wine in the cup. Then he wiped his mouth and asked Zhang Bao to go to work.

Zhang Bao nodded, and naturally went out to arrange the task without mentioning it.

After Zhang Fei conquered Wuling, his soldiers also needed to rest. At the same time, there were also many of Gan Ning's surrendered troops who needed to be settled, so they could not set off for a while.

"Is this the case with the four counties in southern Jing... Liu Xian, Han Teng, Zhao Fan... Interesting, how come Sun Quan is just like the devils supporting puppet troops..."

Feng Xi took the information that Zhang Fei had sent to him at full speed, thought about it for a long time, compared it with the map on the table, and made a decision.

If Zhang Fei's Wuling County was heading south to attack Jiaozhou, Lingling was the only way. Going south from Jingzhou was just a matter of going through Guiyang or Lingling. In comparison, going through Guiyang would require passing through the borders of Changsha County and Lingling County, which was much more troublesome.

"The three generals can abandon Changsha and Guiyang counties, and let our central army deal with them. The three generals can personally lead the army to capture Lingling, and then attack Yulin County from the southwest of Lingling along the Xiang River and Li River."

Feng Xi glanced at the map and continued to reply to Zhang Fei.

"And the three generals need to be prepared to prevent heatstroke and mosquitoes. Jiaozhou is full of miasma and is hot, and the soldiers may not be able to support it for a long time; and if they wear ordinary cloth shoes for a long time, it is very easy to cause ulcers on their feet, so they can wear straw shoes instead... The three generals can look for Zhang Ji's disciples of the miracle doctor in Wuling and bring them to Jiaozhou. With their help, they will definitely get twice the result with half the effort..."

Feng Xi wrote a lot of content in a very eloquent manner. Apart from arranging the strategic layout, the rest was almost all about reminding Zhang Fei to pay attention to the weather in Jiaozhou. After all, medical care and transportation were extremely inconvenient during the Eastern Han Dynasty. The difficulties in war lay in how to travel and how to raise logistics.

After writing the letter, Feng Xi picked it up and looked at it. He blew on it with satisfaction to dry the ink, and asked the guard to hand it to the messenger, asking him to rest and then send the letter back quickly so as not to delay Zhang Fei's march.

After dealing with these, Feng Xi asked the guards to call his good friend Zhang Nan.

"Xiu Yuan, what's wrong?"

Zhang Nan pushed the door open hurriedly.

"Where has the Wu army advanced to?"

Feng Xi pointed at the map on the table and asked Zhang Nan. Zhang Nan looked carefully at Feng Xi's high-precision hand-drawn map and pointed to a black dot on the map.

"The Wu army has moved downstream from Jiangxia and should be near Shaxian."

Shaxian, one of the fourteen counties of Jiangxia, belongs to Jiangxia District in modern Wuhan City, not far from Wuchang. Of course, none of this is important now.

"We have reached Shaxian? Then we cannot just sit and wait for them to attack us. We must take the initiative to fight them, follow the river southwards to conquer Gong'an and other counties, and then have a decisive battle with the Wu army here."

Feng Xi pressed his finger on the map. Zhang Nan leaned over to take a look. There were three big words written on that place:

"Dongting Lake"

(End of this chapter)