Chapter 878 Cut Off From It

"Prime Minister, Liu Ye is marching south with great fanfare. It seems he intends to defeat Jingxiang in one big move. Now Cai Mao is defeated and his troops are pointing directly at Jingnan. If this happens, our army will be in danger."

Xi Zhicai looked serious and suggested to Cao Cao.

"Yes, if Liu Yuqing is really allowed to take Jingzhou, our army will be in a passive position and will be unable to defend itself." Cao Cao also frowned.

Jingzhou is today's Hunan and Hubei areas, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Liu Ye had conquered Bashu long ago. If he could capture Jingzhou again, it would be equivalent to occupying the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

Cao Cao occupied Yangzhou, which was located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. If Liu Ye raised troops from the upper reaches to attack, it would be as Sun Tzu said in The Art of War: Being condescending and powerful, it would be very disadvantageous for Cao's army.

You must know that in history, the Eastern Jin Dynasty occupied Jingzhou when it destroyed Wu. Jin general Wang Jun asked for orders to build warships in Bashu. Finally, he went south from Bashu and destroyed Dongwu in one go.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the Huan family of the powerful Huan Wen, who once said, "If you cannot be famous for a century, you will be infamy for thousands of years." The Huan family also occupied Jingzhou for a long time. However, the capital of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was in the lower reaches of Jingzhou. It can be said that Huan Wen could do it at any time if he wanted. He was able to lead his troops southward and flatten Jiangzuo in one fell swoop. This made the Sima royal family and a group of aristocratic families in fear all day long. Fortunately, there were many constraints, which made Huan Wen unable to get his wish in the end. Otherwise, the Eastern Jin Dynasty would have perished before Emperor Wu of the Song Dynasty Liu Yu was born.

Suddenly, Xi Zhicai coughed violently and covered his mouth. Cao Cao hurriedly supported Xi Zhicai: "Zhicai, how are you, are you okay?"

After coughing for a while, Xi Zhicai shook his head: "It doesn't matter, it's an old problem."

Before Cao Cao could frown, Xi Zhicai continued: "Prime Minister, our army must not just watch the Xiliang Army annex Jingzhou, otherwise our army will have to contend with the Xiliang Army alone in the future, and we must not remain indifferent."

Cao Cao nodded with a heavy face: "Well, Zhicai, according to what you said, what should our army do?"

"Prime Minister, now the Xiliang army has occupied the north of Jing and is preparing to take the south of Jing. Zhou Yu is Sun Ce's sworn brother, and he is also a civil and military strategist. He will definitely do his best to protect the Sun family, and he will definitely try his best to deal with the Xiliang army. However, the Jingnan nobles will definitely not help the Sun family wholeheartedly, so our army must send troops to contain the Xiliang army so that the Xiliang army and the Sun family in Jingnan are evenly matched."

Xi Zhicai gasped slightly: "I heard that the Xiliang Army has already launched Liu Ye's banner. It is difficult to guarantee that Liu Yuqing did not lead the troops in person this time. If this is the case, although there are many generals in our army, none of them can compete with Liu Yuqing. , this dispatch of troops must be led by the Prime Minister himself."

"Well, Jingzhou is of great importance and cannot just fall into the hands of the Xiliang Army. It seems that the Prime Minister has to lead the army himself this time."

Cao Cao sighed: "I originally thought that I could let Yuan Shao and Gongsun Du sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, but I didn't expect that the prime minister would lead the troops in person so soon."

"The Prime Minister can directly attack the Xiliang army and cut off the Xiliang army's food route. If so, victory will be sure."

After saying this, Xi Zhi coughed violently again, his face turned pale, and he fell to his knees directly, his body shaking violently.

"Well"

Xi Zhicai looked down and saw red blood droplets on his palm, the color was bright.

"Come quickly! Send Zhicai down for training and call the imperial physician in the palace!" Cao Cao shouted.

Among the many counselors in Cao Cao's army, the two most valued by Cao Cao were Xun Yu and Xi Zhicai. Xun Yu was good at political strategy, and he could handle all government affairs in an orderly manner in his hands, making him a talented king's assistant.

Xi Zhicai, on the other hand, was not good at government affairs but good at military strategy. He was always able to provide Cao Cao with clever strategies to defeat the enemy. Historically, it was not until Xi Zhicai's death that Xun You, Guo Jia and other talents stood out in Cao Cao's camp and were introduced by Xun Yu. come over.

"Go straight into the Xiliang army and cut off the food route?"

Cao Cao pondered Xi Zhicai's words, thoughtfully, and suddenly his eyes lit up: "Among the Xiliang army, isn't that Jiangling?"

Jiangling and Xiangyang are both in Nanjun, located south of Xiangyang. It is the most important town in Nanjun after Xiangyang, but it has fallen under the guard of Xiliang Army at this moment.

Jiangling is adjacent to the Yangtze River to the south. As an important town to the south of Jingbei, it has always been a place for the transportation of military supplies. In "Three Kingdoms", Liu Bei led his people to go south. Cao Cao had long heard that Liu Bei had hoarded a large amount of grain and utensils in Jiangling, so he sent General Cao Chun to lead five thousand tiger and leopard cavalry to go south day and night, and captured Jiangling before Liu Bei. A large amount of military food and supplies.

"Well, that is?"

The defenders on top of the city saw a large army of horses galloping towards them from a distance, and couldn't help shouting.

"The enemy is coming, the enemy is coming!"

Following this shout, the entire Jiangling City became panicked. The big drum on the top of the city was beaten, and thousands of soldiers poured into the top of the city with weapons in hand.

At this time, the army and horses that were rushing all the way finally showed their true colors. There was a banner with the word Cao on it. It was Cao Jun!

The leading general, with broad shoulders and draped all over his body, shouted: "I am Cao Ren, the prime minister's general in the north. Why don't the city guards open the city and surrender as soon as possible?"

Cao Ren is a general of Cao Cao's clan, together with Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan. His arrival as a forward at this moment is enough to show the great responsibility of this Cao army.

After a while of pushing and shoving on top of the city, a brave general walked out, eight feet tall and with a face as thick as a jujube.

"I am Wei Yan, the commander of the Military Academy, and I have been ordered to guard Jiangling City. How can I surrender to Cao Cao's thieves?"

Wei Yan shouted: "If you are not afraid of death, just attack us."

Cao Ren snorted coldly: "If you don't eat the toast, you will be fined with wine, and you are courting death."

"The whole army is ready to attack the city!"

"Here!"

Even though Cao Jun is only leading Cao Jun's forward troops, there are 20,000 troops in the forward troops alone. Looking at a large area of ​​darkness, surrounding the entire Jiangling City, there is really a kind of dark cloud over the city. The feeling that the city is about to be destroyed.

Under Cao Ren's order, the 20,000-strong army did not attack the city immediately. Instead, they dug trenches outside the city. At the same time, they cut down various trees outside Jiangling City and carved these trees into shapes such as ladder carts, crash logs, and ram carts. and other various siege weapons.

"Hurry up and bring up the rolling wood, stones, fire oil and gold juice, and prepare to defend against the enemy!" Wei Yan said with a solemn expression.

Cao Jun was preparing to attack the city, and the defenders on the city couldn't be idle. They carried all kinds of defensive items to the city. In addition to the regular rolling wood and stones, there was also vicious gold juice. , as well as kerosene specially used to burn siege engines and ladder trucks, etc.