Although Cao Cao was very careful, the Jingzhou cavalry was unable to defend against it. Cao Jun focused his preparedness on transportation lines. The cavalry led by Liu Pan and Huang Zhong, Mei Mei, appeared like a ghost after dark, sometimes in the camp of Cao's army close to Fancheng, and sometimes close to Xinye City.

This went on for almost ten days. Until the main force of Cao's army was all assembled to the north of Fancheng.

At this time, it has entered October, Dong Zhao has also returned from Shaxian, although Cai Mao received Dong Zhao very politely, but did not clearly express his support for Cao Cao, especially Cao Cao asked Cai Mao to raise troops to counterattack Liu Cong. After all, so far, Liu Cong has not broken with Cai Mao, and the Cai family has not transferred in Xiangyang, and Cai Mao cannot take risks.

Cao Cao was also mentally prepared for such a result, after all, Cai Mao was not stupid, he could sit on the wall and watch in Jiangxia, and choosing to stand aside too early would only make him fall into the passivity of morality and war.

Because Ma Liang had also returned from Jiangdong, when passing through Jiangxia, he informed Cai Mao of Sun Quan's attitude, and Sun Quan was willing to abandon his previous suspicions and fight against the strong enemy Cao Cao with Liu Cong.

At this time, if Cai Mao sends troops, then the back road will be possible by Sun Quan's sneak attack.

Regarding Ma Liang's return, Liu Cong is also very concerned.

After Ma Liang arrived in Xiangyang, he rushed to Fancheng to report to Liu Cong.

"Ji Chang, this time I went to Jiangdong, the road is far away, and I have worked hard!"

"Congratulations to the lord, fortunately not dishonored, the new lord of Jiangdong also expressed his indignation at Cao Cao's southern expedition to Jingzhou, and personally said to his subordinates that Jing Yang is the same as the branch, he will never sit idly by and watch Cao Cao annex Jingzhou, and will later send Lu Zijing to fight against Cao Cao's plan with the lord and the public!"

"So good, so good!" Liu Cong was still a little worried about marrying Jiangdong, originally thinking that Sun Quan would definitely hate himself if he defeated Sun Quan's Chaisang army in Jiangxia last year. Now it seems that there are still many people of insight in Jiangdong.

The current situation is obvious, Cao Cao pacified Hebei and ruled the Central Plains, and if Jingzhou is annexed again, then Jiangdong will also lose their greatest advantage: the Yangtze River!

Sun Quan can dominate Jiangdong, the navy is the most important force, if Cao Cao has Jingzhou, then he can train the navy in a big way, and even less than a year can go down the river to swallow the army of Eastern Wu.

Now not only has Sun Quan met with Ma Liang, but he is also about to send Lu Su to discuss the alliance, which shows that Sun Quan realizes the importance of forming an alliance with Jingzhou!

"But there is one more thing, please decide as soon as possible!" Seeing Liu Cong's joy, Ma Liang really couldn't bear to disturb him, but this matter was really important.

"What?"

"When General Sun left Liang, he expressed his willingness to send 20,000 sailors to Chaisang to station, and if the lord agreed, he would let Zhou Gongjin lead his army to Jiangxia and even Xiangyang to support our army."

"Huh?" Liu Cong really didn't expect Sun Quan to have this trick, on the surface, it seems that Sun Quan is ready to support him at any time, but if you think about it carefully, maybe Sun Quan is not optimistic about himself.

On the one hand, sending Lu Su to negotiate an alliance was based on the premise that Liu Cong could hold Cao Cao.

Sending Zhou Yu to lead troops to garrison Chaisang is the second preparation, once Liu Cong is defeated and retreats to Jiangling or even Jingnan, Zhou Yu's navy can take the opportunity to drive straight in and take the opportunity to carve up Jingzhou in order to maximize benefits!

This move can be described as shrewd, in the name of the alliance, along the Yangtze River can occupy Jiangxia and even Nanjun, even if Cao Cao can defeat Liu Cong's Jingzhou land and water alliance, but he may not have a chance of winning when facing Zhou Yu's army. If Zhou Yu took control of Jiangxia, Sun Quan would be able to send a steady stream of reinforcements to fight Cao Cao again on the Han River and the Yangtze River.

Of course, Liu Cong couldn't let Sun Quan enter his own territory, no matter how powerful Cao Cao was, he and Sun Quan were not good enough to allow Zhou Yu to lead his troops to protect his chrysanthemum.

He now has 20,000 sailors in Xiangyang, Sun Quan said that Zhou Yu led 20,000 troops, who knows if he is 30,000 or 40,000?

But he showed favor first, and Sun Quan's move was also a kind response, how should he reject Sun Quan?

"Lord ......"

"Well, Ji Chang, you go back to Xiangyang to rest for the time being, if Lu Zijing comes, you still need to come forward to receive you."

"Your Majesty retires!"

"After returning to Xiangyang, you go to meet Mr. Kong Ming, and let him deal with the matter of Zhou Yu leading his troops to support. However, our army and Cao's army were not divided, and Sun Quan's troops should not cross Xiakou at this time. How to refuse Sun Quan, you and Kong Ming discussed and came up with an idea. ”

This matter is really not easy to do, Ma Liang is more familiar with the situation in Eastern Wu, but Cao Cao is about to attack the city, and Liu Cong has no time to listen to Ma Liang's report by himself, so this task is handed over to Zhuge Liang.

After Ma Liang went down, Wei Yan immediately came to report: "Lord, the Cao army has gathered 100,000 troops in the north of the city, and it will attack the city at any time, how to deal with it next?" ”

"Such a situation is going to come sooner or later, we have successfully delayed the march of Cao's army, it has been more than three months since July, and the fortifications of Fancheng are almost done, it is time to surprise Cao Cao! Go and inform the three generals Shoshi, Hansheng and Gongyi that the harassment operation will be canceled tonight, and the three of them will also join the defensive battle today. ”

Wei Yan received the order, and Liu Cong, accompanied by Liu Yin and others, came to the north gate of Fancheng and climbed the city wall.

Wen Ping, Jiang Wan and others had been stationed at the city wall day and night since a few days ago to prevent Cao Jun from launching an attack at any time.

"My lord."

"Lord ......"

Seeing Liu Cong coming in person, the generals hurriedly greeted him. Liu Cong waved his hand to signal that the generals did not have to be polite.

At this time, Jiang Wan said with a little regret: "Lord, Cao Jun is very cautious, and the trap set up outside the city has almost no effect......

"I don't blame you for this, if Cao Cao had easily fallen into the trap, he wouldn't be where he is today. However, our army's three-year training in Jiangling was not a dry meal, and we had a wide moat, so Cao's army would definitely pay a huge price if it wanted to attack Fancheng. ”

"Lord, half of the 30,000 infantry in Fancheng have now been on the wall, of which nearly 10,000 are deployed near the north gate, you see what other instructions there are." Wen Ping, who was specifically responsible for the defense deployment of Fancheng, asked.

"All the passages to the wall should be kept clear, and the soldiers should be well rested. The men and logisticians should have a special route for transfer, retreat, and advance, and let the generals check the readiness of the various city walls and the various garrisons in the city. ”

Wen Ping nodded, and then took Huang Rui, Huang An's brothers, Wei Yan and others down to check.

The deployment of Wenpin is divided into two by three, and the rotation is implemented, and there are only 1,000 people in the other gates, and nearly 10,000 people are deployed on the wall of the north gate and the city wall of the urn city.

With the efforts of Zhang Yun and others, the moat of Fancheng has been nearly doubled according to Liu Cong's requirements compared with before the war, and it is even wider than most of the Baihe River. Moreover, the suspension bridges of the east and west gates have been abandoned, and the south gate leads directly to the Yangtze River. Therefore, the focus of Fancheng's defense is the north gate.

Liu Cong inspected the city wall, and to be honest, Liu Cong also lacked actual combat experience in this era, especially defensive battles. More than 150 newly made bed crossbows were placed on the newly built urn city wall at the north gate of Fancheng, and more than 30 catapults were parked in the urn city, and the stones almost filled the entire urn city.

The arrow towers between the city walls and the moat opened outward in an inverted figure-eight shape, and nearly a thousand crossbowmen were deployed on more than 100 arrow towers.

The open space between the front of the north gate and the moat was dug up vertically and horizontally. This is already the limit of the wisdom of Liu Cong, Jiang Wan, Wen Ping and others. Liu Cong knew that it was difficult to make any improvements. Next, the key to deciding the outcome is the morale of the soldiers.

At least for now, Liu Cong's successful ambush of Cao Ren and his continued to send cavalry to harass Cao's army kept the morale of the defenders in the city quite high.

All the soldiers believed that under Liu Cong's leadership, they would be able to defeat Cao Cao, because Liu Cong's previous combat experience had been proven, and the three years of special training had also made many soldiers eager to try. Especially those middle- and lower-level officials who have been personally trained by Liu Cong. These people had been more or less exposed to some combat before, but the changes that Liu Cong brought to them were something that they would use for the rest of their lives.

Of course, Liu Cong is counting on the Cao army to collapse on its own, not to say that in the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao was defeated, half of it was Zhou Lang's clever plan to attack, and most of it was because of a large number of diseases in Cao's army, now the medical officers of Xinye, Xiangyang and Fancheng are all concentrated in Fancheng by Liu Cong, Cao Cao is unlikely to have a large number of medical officers in the war, and it is close to the water, and the humidity of the air should soon make the Cao army unadaptable!