Liu Bei knew that if the naval army from Yizhou also had equipment, then there would be no need to fight this battle, and his own naval army would not be enough.

Now it's relying on Yiling's stone throwers and barrage iron cables to block it!

Liu Bei secretly scolded Lu Bu, and the persimmon picked a soft pinch.

This kind of war with a huge disparity in strength makes the demons like Pang Tong, and there is nothing to be done.

The above information about Lu Bu was shared by Wei and Wu.

Liu Bei heard that Wei and Wu had been equipped with grenades used by the central army, but they kept a hand for themselves, and the grenades were not shared with themselves.

It's a pity that Jingzhou's strength is too weak, and it is difficult to get the gunpowder formula, but there are not many raw materials to make gunpowder.

Especially saltpeter, Jingzhou does not have a natural saltpeter mine, and they can't do it with the nitrate field method, so they can only rely on other methods to collect, and only a small amount of saltpeter is obtained.

The explosives they had made before had been almost used when Yizhou framed Ma Dai last time, and they hadn't made many new explosives in the past two years.

He is now stuck in Gangneung City, and he can also hear the whispers of many people below.

He didn't know how many of these civil servants and military generals under him were worthy of his trust, and how many of them had been corrupted and co-opted by Lu Bu's intelligence department.

After dealing with him for all these years, he has deeply understood the power of the Central Army Intelligence Department.

Chen Gong had already gone to Wei again to ask Cao Cao to send reinforcements.

After Xu Shu commanded the army to easily take Badong, he began to wait patiently for Jiangbei's movements.

Because there are many large cities along the Yangtze River, such as Zigui and Yiling, all of which are in the north of the Yangtze River.

He was not idle, and sent Zhang Yan to lead the 16th Division to the southwest, and most of Nanjun and Wuling County were also the same as the southern part of Yizhou, and the population was mainly southwestern barbarians.

And Zhang Yan's 16th Division had many barbarian soldiers, and even Meng Huo, the son of the barbarian king, served in the army.

Zhang Yan could use the influence and status of Meng Huo's father and son among the barbarians to subdue these barbarians.

Anyway, Liu Bei was busy shrinking his troops, and in remote areas like Wuling County, most areas had already been abandoned by Liu Bei, and Zhang Yan's strength in one division was enough.

In addition, there were two local garrison brigades that followed Zhang Yan on the expedition, responsible for pacifying the subdued areas and maintaining law and order.

The Central Army is not just going to leave after the battle, but it is going to be managed with the same care for a long time as other regions.

Xu Shu didn't wait long, and the first cavalry division to which Zhang Liao, who advanced quickly, conquered Zigui, and it was almost bloodless.

Only the 2nd Division, when attacking Yiling, encountered a certain degree of resistance.

Liu Pan led 3,000 Jingzhou troops to hold the city, but the mortars and snipers of the Central Army quickly discouraged them.

After the Second Division blew open the city gate with explosives, they surrendered one after another, and Liu Pan was captured alive.

After receiving the news, Xu Shu immediately advanced along the river to the opposite bank of Yiling, and they had already received the latest information from the Ministry of Intelligence and determined the specific location of the barrage and the stone thrower.

The barrage is located on the Yangtze River waterway between Jingmen Mountain and Huya Mountain, and there are huge winches on both banks.

At the same time, fifteen counterweight stone throwers were installed on the halfway slopes of these two mountains, all of which were given to Liu Bei by the Central Army that year.

The Jingzhou Army fantasized about relying on these two magic weapons to block the advance of the Central Army and the Naval Army.

Liu Bei did not attach great importance to this place, and 5,000 Jingzhou infantry were stationed under each of the two mountains.

However, Liu Bei's troops are stretched thin, and there is really no more.

Wei Yan led the army to garrison on the north bank, and Han Song was in charge of the south bank.

Xu Shu and Zhang Liao corresponded through the Meng Chong of the naval army, and agreed to launch an attack at the same time.

Dealing with this kind of infantry garrison position, the Central Army is very handy.

The 3rd Division was responsible for attacking Jingmen Mountain, while on Zhang Liao's side, the 1st Rong Division was attacking Huya Mountain.

The 3rd Division was originally a mountain infantry division, with heavy infantry and musketeers cooperating, under the cover of mortars, feinting on the front.

Secretly, Wei Xu sent a reconnaissance battalion to climb the rock from the side of the cliff of Jingmen Mountain, and then used ropes to climb the whole battalion to the top of the mountain.

Giving full play to the expertise of the mountain infantry, he suddenly attacked from behind Han Song's defense line, and a grenade blew Han Song's Chinese army tent into ruins.

Then the cluster grenade was used to blow up the stone thrower, and the officers and men of the 3rd Division in front also took the opportunity to charge, flanking the front and rear, and completely annihilated the 5,000 Jingzhou troops.

Han Song had already been killed by a grenade in the big tent, and the winch under the mountain was also completely captured by the Central Army.

The battle in Jiangbei was more fierce than in Jingmen Mountain, and Wei Yan's subordinates significantly exceeded the Jingzhou army on the other side of the river, and they were more flexible and changeable when fighting.

They unexpectedly took the initiative to attack the Rong 1st Brigade, which had just arrived and was not ready to attack, and the two sides were in a mess.

Broadswords and spears are still better in hand-to-hand combat than muskets with bayonets, and mortars are not usable because they are mixed with friends and enemies.

Fortunately, the Rong 1st Brigade was a musket unit converted from an infantry unit, and it still retained 1,500 hoplites, who used large shields and horizontal knives to isolate the Jingzhou army from their own musketeers.

After all, fighting bayonets and white-knuckle combat is only a daily training subject, and the Central Army has not yet fought bayonets in actual combat.

Wei Yan is not stupid, he clearly knows that with only his five thousand men and horses, he will not be able to defend this Huya Mountain at all.

He just tried to delay the battle until the evening, and then took advantage of the darkness to escape with his men.

Although the Rong 1st Division finally occupied Huya Mountain and successfully captured the winch, the stone thrower had been destroyed by Wei Yan himself.

In the end, the Rong First Division failed to completely annihilate Wei Yan's subordinates, let alone capture Wei Yan alive, and Wei Yan successfully broke through with more than 2,000 subordinates.

After the two hills were successfully taken, the barrage was lowered, and the Yangtze River Fleet of the Central Navy could continue to advance.

The Yangtze River Fleet has 12 renovated building ships, 30 fighting ships, and 40 Mengchong ships, they are also newborn calves, and they are not afraid of the Jingzhou Navy at all, and they will not stop, all the way to the east to kill Jiangling.

Xu Shu and Zhang Liao's armies also marched along the river bank separately, anyway, they already knew that Liu Bei had gathered all the troops to Jiangling, so they didn't have to attack the county towns, just concentrate their forces to solve Liu Bei in a battle.

The Yangtze River Fleet did not encounter any enemy along the way, so it swaggered forward to Zhijiang, which was not far from Jiangling.

They sent Meng Chongqian to reconnoitre, and the news they got was that all the Jingzhou naval troops were huddled in their Jinxiang naval army and closed their doors.

As the experienced commander of the Yangtze River fleet, Li Meng thought about it again and again, but still thought that his artillery was extremely powerful, and the Jingzhou naval army was not an opponent anyway, and he should still take the initiative to attack.

(End of chapter)