Late Han Zhao Tang

In late March, Xu Chu besieged Zhongshan for three days without success. He retrieved a wooden plaque from the river, sent by Guo Huai upstream, revealing that Cao Cao was returning to reinforce Jiangdong. He then changed his strategy. He created a great show of force, intending to break through Zhongshan and capture Cao Ang. He left Jia Qu in Jiangnan while he led his elite troops back to Dantu, crossing the Yangtze River under cover of darkness.

Xiahou Shang originally had 5,000 troops stationed in Guangling City. When Wen Ji was defeated at Sheyang, he led 3,000 defeated soldiers to retreat to Guangling, leaving him with 8,000 troops, more than enough to hold the city. When Wen Ji crossed the Yangtze River south to Dantu, Xiahou Shang gave him 2,000 elite troops, leaving only 3,000 old and weak soldiers to defend Guangling.

In the Battle of Dantu, Wen Ji was defeated and surrendered. Xiahou Shang, seeing that he was attacked from both the north and the south, had no choice but to send a thousand men to guard Jiangdu, while he himself led two thousand troops to garrison Guangling.

Xu Chu led 5,000 elite troops across the river to attack Jiangdu. Jiangdu's garrison commander, Meng Kang, refused to leave the city and urgently reported to Xiahou Shang. Xu Chu, clad in armor, led the charge and captured Jiangdu in the time it takes to eat a meal, beheading the garrison commander, Meng Kang.

After the fall of Jiangdu, fearing the arrival time of Cao Cao's navy, Xu Chu did not linger but headed straight for Guangling that same day. When he arrived at Guangling, exhausted from the journey, Xu Chu had only about a thousand men on each side, with the main force following behind.

Seeing this, Xiahou Shang realized that the Tang army was exhausted, so he led his troops out to attack, intending to defeat Xu Chu and blunt the enemy's advance.

When Xiahou Shang lined up to meet the enemy, Wen Ji, eager to make a contribution, spurred his horse forward and addressed the soldiers.

"I have surrendered to Tang, and none of you think I can win?"

Wen Ji held considerable prestige in the army, and many soldiers had heard of his name. Moreover, many of Cao Cao's soldiers had been forcibly conscripted by Cao Cao, and now that the Tang army had reached Jiangdong, they knew that Cao Cao's rule was about to collapse. Therefore, under Wen Ji's persuasion, the soldiers defected to the Tang army instead of Xiahou Shang.

Xu Chu launched a surprise attack, and Xiahou Shang was defeated and fled, where he was captured alive by Tang soldiers. Perhaps knowing that the situation was hopeless, Xiahou Shang was surprisingly docile and cooperative, telling Xu Chu everything he knew.

In a day and a night, Xu Chu, relying on his own bravery, captured two cities in succession, defeated and subdued Xiahou Shang, and his prestige soared in both the south and north of the Yangtze River. Elders from all walks of life came to pay homage to the general.

On March 24th, Jia Qu withdrew his troops from the flank of Zhongshan to Dantu, where he, along with generals Li Shu and Meng Ning, gathered 10,000 surrendered soldiers and fortified Beigushan and the city. Xu Chu and Wen Ji collected the surrendered soldiers and garrisoned 7,000 troops in Jiangdu, while urgently sending a letter to Xu Huang requesting reinforcements.

On March 25th, after three days and nights of travel, Cao Cao arrived in Jinling by boat and reassured Xun Yu, Cao Ang, and officials in the capital region, which calmed the hearts of the people and officials.

On the 26th, Cao Cao investigated the situation and found that Dantu was a strategically important and difficult-to-break city, and that Jia Qu's camp was well-organized. Therefore, he abandoned his plan to attack Dantu first and prepared to take advantage of Xu Chu's initial siege of the city before Xu Huang arrived to take reinforcements, so as to lead his troops to recapture Jiangdu and cut off the Tang army's passage from the Han Canal into the Yangtze River.

Moreover, with the Jiangbei passage cut off, Jiaqu in Jiangnan has been without external assistance for a long time, and may be able to be defeated without a fight.

Faced with Cao Cao's siege, Xu Chu took the lead and fought on the front lines. In order to quickly break through the city walls, Cao Cao promised Wen Ji that he would not hold any grudges against him after surrendering.

Wen Ji knew Cao Cao's temperament and that the current predicament was only temporary, and that everything would improve once Xu Huang's reinforcements arrived. Therefore, in order to prove himself and gain more merit, he took the initiative to inform Xu Chu.

Xu Chu, seeing through Cao Cao's scheme, deliberately made an agreement with him to light a fire at the West Gate at midnight as a signal. Although Cao Cao had his doubts, he agreed to the terms in order to quickly capture Jiangdu.

At midnight, as expected, a fire was lit at the west gate. Cao Cao sent Zhou Tai as the vanguard, leading five hundred men into the city first. Xu Chu dared not let too many of Cao's soldiers out. Seeing that a Cao general had entered the city first, he led his troops out to attack, locked the gates, and killed Zhou Tai and his five hundred elite soldiers.

Upon witnessing Zhou Tai's massacre, Cao Cao was enraged. He launched a relentless attack on the city and ordered the capture of Wen Ji's family, bringing them to the city walls and executing them all. Only Wen Ji's young son, Wen Qin, was hidden by the villagers. Wen Ji wept bitterly atop the city walls, his teeth clenched until they bled, vowing to kill Cao Cao to avenge his family.

On the 27th, when Cao Cao besieged Jiangdu, Xu Huang received a message from Xu Chu requesting reinforcements. After learning about the previous battles, he learned that Xu Chu had captured Wu County, Piling, Wujin and other counties, and controlled the two cities of Dantu and Jiangdu, north and south of the Han Canal. Therefore, he requested military support from Li Song.

To prevent Cao Cao from capturing Jiangdu, Xu Huang left Zang Ba to besiege Huaiyin, while he himself led 10,000 elite infantry and cavalry southward along the Han Canal.

On the 29th, Li Song received the news and dispatched Ma Chao as general, leading 10,000 elite troops from Huaiyin to Jiangdu. He also appointed Qu Yi as commander, leading troops to take over the Huaiyin forces and continue the strong attack on Huaiyin city.

On April 1st, Cao Cao launched a six-day siege, suffering heavy casualties but failing to breach the city. Seeing Xu Huang's troops arrive at Guangling, he realized he could not take the city and thus retreated in resentment to Jiangzhou to garrison his troops. He used boats to patrol daily, preventing troops from the north of the river from crossing to Dantu.

Although there were patrol boats, they could not stop people from crossing the river at night. That night, more than ten scouts swam across the Yangtze River and told Jia Qu that Xu Huang had arrived on the north bank of the river and relieved the siege of Jiangdu, which reassured the people who were left to guard the south bank.

As the war situation in Jiangnan changed, Zhang Yu, far away in Chang'an, was overjoyed by the military reports of victories and shared the results with his ministers every day.

Chang'an Palace, Zichen Hall. "Your Majesty, I congratulate you. General Zhongkang has secretly crossed the Yangtze River, repeatedly defeated the southern bandits, subdued various counties, and forced Cao Cao to abandon Jingzhou and defend Yangzhou." Xun You bowed and congratulated him, and said with a smile, "And the situation in Jingzhou is very good. Yidao has been breached, Cao Ren has been defeated and killed, and the remnants of his army have fled to the mountains and forests."

Previously, Jia Xu believed that Cao Ren should be lured to escape while Cao's army was withdrawing, and then captured and killed.

After discussing with Gao Shun, Wen Ping relaxed the city's defenses slightly, deliberately letting the news into the city, and arranged for someone to ambush Cao Ren on his escape route.

When Cao Ren learned that Cao Cao was returning to Jiangdong, he knew that Cao Cao was going to abandon Jingzhou. So he discussed the matter of escaping with Jiang Qin and Yue Jin.

When Cao Cao besieged Jiangdu, Cao Ren, Jiang Qin, and Yue Jin broke through the encirclement and fled. Cao Ren and Jiang Qin were ambushed and killed by Tang troops. Yue Jin sensed something was wrong and led more than two hundred of his men south to Guiyang County.

With the fall of Gong'an City, Gao Shun divided his forces to persuade the four prefectures of Changsha, Wuling, Guiyang, and Lingling to surrender, and took charge of reorganizing Jingzhou. Meanwhile, Wen Ping, as the naval commander, advanced all the way and joined Zhang Liao at Xiakou.

Guo Huai pursued Zhou Yu's navy all the way to Xunyang on the north bank of the Yangtze River, where he set up camp and confronted Zhou Yu, who was stationed in Chaisang, across the river, while waiting for Zhang Liao to lead his army south.

The above military intelligence has just emerged and has not yet reached Chang'an due to distance, but the news of Cao Ren's death has been clearly reported to Chang'an.

Zhang Yu stroked his beard and smiled, saying with emotion, "The war to conquer the southeast began last October, and now it has been half a year in April. Our army has defeated the enemy all the way, and now we have finally driven Cao Cao to Jiangdong. Now Xu Chu has seized the Hangou Pass, and Xu Huang is leading troops to rush to the rescue. Cao Cao is helpless, and he will be attacked from the east and west. Before autumn, our army will surely destroy the southeast."

Given the current state of the war, if Zhang Liao leads the Yi and Jing naval forces south and defeats Zhou Yu stationed at Chaisang, Cao Cao will be attacked from both sides, and the fall of his kingdom will not be far off.

If Cao Cao wanted to surrender, and instead raised an army to do so, Zhang Yu might grant him a fiefdom of a few thousand households, considering that Cao Cao still had tens of thousands of elite troops. However, if Cao Cao stubbornly resisted, Zhang Yu would eliminate him completely.

To be honest, Zhang Yu was hoping Cao Cao would put up a stubborn resistance. After all, he had fought so far that, apart from Yuan Shao's forces whom he was deliberately pursuing, all the other warlords had surrendered. Therefore, if Cao Cao refused to surrender, Zhang Yu might admire Cao Cao's courage.

"May Your Majesty hold a grand banquet for the generals and officers of the southern expedition in Chang'an on New Year's Day next year!" Zhong Yao said.

"Not urgent!"

Zhang Yu suppressed his smile and said, "Cao Cao's elite troops are still intact. Do not urge Zhang Liao to use his troops. Let him proceed cautiously. If he falls into Cao Cao's trap, the situation in Jiangdong will become turbulent again."

"promise!"

As he spoke, Zhang Yu urged, "Prime Minister, Jingzhou will surrender soon. Have the new governor, the prefects, and the magistrates been properly arranged?"

“Your Majesty, the position of Governor of Jingzhou could be filled by Zhuge Liang, the Commissioner of the Grand Canal in Hebei. Although he is from Shandong, he spent much of his life in Xiangyang. He has made great contributions to the management of the Grand Canal in Hebei. Your Majesty may be able to appoint Zhuge Liang to the post of Governor of Jingzhou,” Zhong Yao said.

Zhang Yu hesitated slightly and said, "Zhuge Liang is still young, only twenty-five years old. If he is appointed as the governor of Jingzhou, I'm afraid there will be objections!"

Although Zhang Yu intended to give Zhuge Liang an important position, Zhuge Liang's rapid promotion was not what he had hoped for. It was rare for someone to rise from a commoner to the governor of a prefecture within five years.

Zhong Yao said, “How can a hero be compared with an ordinary person? Zhuge Liang supervised the grain transport in Hebei for two years, and the grain transport was already well-organized, the laws and regulations were orderly, and the prices were stable and under control. The people of all the prefectures benefited from his kindness. How can we not give him important responsibilities now because of his age?”

"Moreover, Zhuge Liang spent his youth in Xiangyang and was very familiar with the local customs and conditions of Jingzhou. After the chaos of war was quelled, only someone familiar with the local customs could bring peace to the people of Jingzhou."

Zhong Yao's recommendation of Zhuge Liang was not without reason. Zhuge Liang's performance in the previous disaster relief efforts had impressed Zhong Yao. In addition, Zhong Yao realized that Zhang Yu intended to promote Zhuge Liang, so he went along with it and recommended Zhuge Liang to serve as the governor of Jingzhou.

"What you say makes sense. Then let's transfer Zhuge Liang to Jingzhou!"

"Yes, sir!" (End of Chapter)