Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 99 93. Mount Tai Falls
Lingling County.

Zhang Fei's army rested for a few days and handed over the captives of Gan Ning's army to Gong Zhi, who was responsible for escorting them to Jiangling, where Feng Xi would deal with them on his own.

At the same time, Zhang Fei asked Shamoke to dismiss most of the barbarian soldiers who came to make up the numbers, and only retained more than 10,000 elite soldiers of Wuling barbarians.

Firstly, the barbarians did not obey orders and were extremely difficult to command on the battlefield. Secondly, the barbarians were naturally undisciplined and often caused a lot of trouble in the camp and in the city.

In addition, Liu Bei had asked Shamoke to gather so many barbarian soldiers just to facilitate Zhang Fei and to increase the momentum of the Eastern Expedition Army.

Now that the Battle of Yiling is over and Liu Bei has returned to Yong'an, both Feng Xi and Zhang Fei feel that so many barbarian soldiers are a burden, so they simply let Shamoke send them back to farming and fishing and continue their lives.

After solving his own problems, Zhang Fei also received a reply from Feng Xi, and made plans for the next step of the march according to the requirements in the letter.

Since Feng Xi said that Changsha and Guiyang counties would be handled by Feng Xi, Zhang Fei only had to consider Lingling County and the Jiaozhou area in the south.

General Zhang Fei led his troops southward into Changsha County, first captured Yiyang County, then went upstream along the Zishui River to Zhaoling, and finally from Zhaoling southward across the mountainous area with gentler terrain to reach Lingling City.

Marching in this way can bypass most of Changsha County's territory and just make an arc within Changsha County. In addition, it takes the water route, which is the best choice both in terms of marching and logistics.

Zhang Fei determined the marching route, and marched into Changsha County in a mighty manner and began to attack Yiyang County.

"Third General, we were just forced to surrender. Now that the Third General has arrived in person, how can we dare to resist the king's army?"

When the magistrate of Yiyang County heard that Zhang Fei was coming in person with an army of 30,000, he was so frightened that he and a group of important officials opened the city and surrendered without saying a word, and tremblingly bowed his head to welcome Zhang Fei.

What a joke! In a remote county like Yiyang, the county garrison consists of no more than a thousand soldiers and the city walls are only three or four feet high. How can they withstand Zhang Fei's attack?
In addition, the county magistrate himself was a person who lived during the time when Liu Bei ruled Jingzhou. He knew Zhang Fei's bad reputation. How could he possibly do such a thing as a mantis trying to stop a chariot?
"Well, quickly prepare food to entertain the troops, and then order people to gather boats. We will go south from Zishui."

As a veteran general on the battlefield, Zhang Fei was not surprised by the situation of ordinary county towns being fence-sitters, so he did not say anything bad, but just asked them to quickly prepare for the next march.

After all, due to the limitations of communication and transportation in this era, most princes could only firmly control those important cities. For these small counties that no one cared about, the county magistrate was generally responsible for the appointment and removal of county governors, deployment of personnel, etc.

A county town like this can usually only resist some bandits and robbers. It is a pipe dream to want to fight against the regular army, unless there is a genius in the city who can leave his name in history.

The county magistrate nodded repeatedly and asked his officials to prepare ships and food according to Zhang Fei's requirements.

The county magistrate was quite efficient. He collected all the boats Zhang Fei requested in less than three days. The Han army, ranging from a dozen to dozens of people, sailed up the Zishui River on large and small boats. In just two days, they arrived at Zhaoling County, which was very close to Lingling County.

The movements of Zhang Fei's army naturally could not be concealed from the scouts in Lingling. At the same time Zhang Fei arrived at Zhaoling, the scouts sent by Lingling County reported the news of Zhang Fei's arrival to Liu Xian.

Liu Xian himself must have been undecided, so he immediately ordered someone to call the Xi brothers over to discuss countermeasures.

"Sir, what happened?"

The Xi brothers entered the room, bowed and asked Liu Xian. In fact, the two were pretending to be ignorant. With the Xi family's infiltration of the local army, the Xi brothers even knew the news that Zhang Fei's army was heading to Lingling earlier than Liu Xian. At this moment, it was just a disguise. "Alas... My two brothers, to be honest, the scouts reported that Zhang Fei, the reckless man, has led an army of more than 30,000 from Wuling all the way south, heading straight for our Lingling County, and will arrive soon. How should we fight him?"

In order to win over the two of them, Liu Xian always called them "Xiandi" to show his closeness.

Xi Hong thought for a moment and answered:
"I wonder what effect you want to achieve, brother?"

Liu Xian suddenly became alert. He just wanted to ask for some advice, but he didn't expect that this person actually had so many plans?

"I wonder what path we can take?"

Liu Xian hurriedly asked. To be honest, he didn't know what to do now. He was like a headless fly. Hearing Xi Hong's words at this time was like finding a beacon of light.

"If you want to continue like this, to stay alone in Lingling County and become a local lord, I'm afraid we can't do anything about it.

Zhang Fei has been unstoppable all the way, and he is determined not to return until Lingling is conquered. We have summoned the county soldiers, but there are only 6,000 to 7,000 of them in total. How can we defend it?"

Xi Hong analyzed seriously, and Liu Xian gritted his teeth as he listened.

"Then, my dear brother, in your opinion, what other options do we have?"

"There are only two options. The first option is to abandon the city and flee back to Jiangdong, which will ensure your safety. But if you do this, I'm afraid the King of Wu will find it difficult to tolerate you..."

Xi Hong wanted to play hard to get, so he first denied Liu Xian the safest way to survive.

"After all, you should know that the King of Wu uses you not because you are a man of great talent, but because he wants to use you to stabilize Lingling.

If you retreat without fighting and abandon Lingling, I am afraid that the King of Wu will think that you are no longer useful... It is hard to say whether your life and property are safe."

Liu Xian could not help but nod his head after hearing this. Originally, he and Sun Quan were like-minded and each wanted to take what he wanted. Liu Xian wanted to return to Lingling to be his mountain king, and Sun Quan needed a person with great prestige in Lingling to be his puppet so that he would not have to work hard to govern Lingling. Therefore, the two sides hit it off.

If I lost Lingling... would Sun Quan still treat me as a human being?
"Then what other way out is there?"

Liu Xian asked quickly.

"I'm afraid my brother won't agree to the second option either. That is to open the city and accept surrender. Although Zhang Fei will despise my brother, considering the impact on the reputation of the Han emperor, he will definitely not harm my brother. At least my brother can save his life and property."

Xi Hong spoke eloquently and explained the situation of surrendering to Liu Bei to Liu Xian. After surrendering to Liu Bei, Liu Bei would definitely not kill Liu Xian, after all, Liu Xian actually had no deep hatred with Liu Bei, but he would not spoil Liu Xian too much, and he would probably just let him be a small official, or demoted to a commoner.

Liu Xian had a conflicted look on his face. He had betrayed Liu Bei and fled to Soochow just because he wanted to be the governor of Lingling. Now that he was surrendering to Liu Bei again, wouldn't all his efforts be in vain?

You didn't allow me to be the prefect of Lingling before I betrayed you, and now you still don't allow me to be the prefect after I betrayed you, so wasn't my betrayal in vain?
(End of this chapter)