When Shu and Liang were preparing for the rescue of Jiangling, Jingnan Jiedu made Gao Jichang, the main master, naturally not idle.

First of all, Gao Jichang successively built six strong acropolises outside Gangneung Fortress to surround Gangneung Fortress as a city barrier.

This is also the method learned from Xu Dexun's defense of Tanzhou.

Although Xu Dexun's defense of Tanzhou ultimately failed, his method of building a strong acropolis was very effective in resisting the attack of the Wu army.

For a period of time, the Wu army could only continue to invest troops to fight the Acropolis with the Chu army; It was not until later that the Wu army increased its troops on a large scale that it completely gained the upper hand and finally took the city.

And Jiangling, as a big city, is even stronger than Tanzhou, coupled with the defense of these acropolis, Gao Jichang believes that even if the Wu army comes to attack in a big way, they can hold out until the arrival of reinforcements.

In addition to building an acropolis, strengthening city defenses, and expanding the army, another thing Gao Jichang did was to hand over Guizhou and Xiazhou to Shu to defend.

The reason why Gao Jichang is like this is because he knows that his troops are insufficient, and it will be extremely difficult to hold a Jiangling, and he simply has no extra troops to defend Guizhou and Xiazhou.

What's more, if you want Shu to come thousands of miles to help, at least give them some benefits, right?

Since Guizhou and Xiazhou themselves do not have enough troops to defend, it is better to send them to Shu as a favor.

Of course, Gao Jichang in these two states did not all give up.

The location of Guizhou is far away from Jiangling, and it is difficult to manage it effectively in ordinary times, so Gao Jichang generously gave it to Shu; However, the distance between Xiazhou and Jiangling was relatively close, and Gao Jichang did not send it out, but "invited" Shu to come and assist him in defending the city.

In other words, nominally, Gao Jichang still has the jurisdiction of Xiazhou.

After the Shu army had Guizhou and Xiazhou as its advance base, it was much easier for the Shu army to go east to Jingxiang, and the logistics supply did not have to rely too much on transportation from the distant rear or support from the Liang State, and could hoard grain and grass in advance to Guizhou and Xiazhou for military use.

In addition to making various preparations for defense, Gao Jichang is also actively inquiring about the news, especially the news of the troops that the Wu army is about to use.

It's a pity that the information he can get is very vague, some say that Wu is about to use 60,000 troops, some say 80,000, and some say 120,000 troops, but there is no definite news.

It's a pity that Liu Chongjing, who he developed before, is still too low now, and many important news are difficult to obtain in advance; What's more, now Liu Chongjing is moving south to Qianzhou with Liu Xin's army, preparing to crusade against Li Qiu, and will not participate in the upcoming attack on Jiangling.

Such a long distance limit also determined that it was difficult for Gao Jichang to get any useful information from Liu Chongjing.

Of course, no matter whether the strength of the Wu army will be 60,000, 80,000, or 120,000, Gao Jichang is not as nervous as he was at the beginning.

After getting the joint rescue of Liang and Shu, Gao Jichang felt that the strength of the three coalition forces might be insufficient if it was used to take the initiative to attack Wu State, but if it was only used to defend Jiangling, Gao Jichang was still very confident, after all, the three coalition troops were more than 100,000, plus the Jiangling city was strong, if it could not be held, then the strength of the Wu army would be a bit against the sky.

In the first month of the fifth year of Wuyi, in early spring, the weather began to warm.

In Jinling City, after more than a month of busy work by officials from all parts of Wu State, all preparations for sending troops to Jiangling have been completed.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, after bidding farewell to his family, Yang Wu led his troops to Ezhou under the escort of the 3,000 Yulin Army.

This time, a total of 83,000 forbidden troops were dispatched to Jiangling, of which Wang Maozhang, Chai Zaiyong and Lü Shizhou had already led their troops to assemble in Ezhou, Langzhou, Yuezhou and other places; From Jinling were 20,000 Youtengxiang troops led by Qin Pei and 3,000 Xiao cavalry troops led by Hou Zhan.

If you add the Xiang troops stationed in Ezhou, Yuezhou and other places, as well as the 3,000 Yulin troops around Yang Wu, the total strength will be as high as more than 100,000.

Of course, the main task of those van troops is to transport grain, grass and baggage in the rear, and Yang Wu will not send them to the battlefield until there is an emergency.

However, the elite of the Forbidden Army and the Yulin Army alone amounted to 86,000 people, which was also the largest number of troops mobilized after the Second Northern Expedition.

The most important thing is that this time there are also 3,000 cavalry cavalry with the army, which is also a force that has not been used in previous expeditions.

Although Jiangling is also an area with many rivers, there are still many areas in the north of Jiangbei where cavalry can be brought into play; At the same time, in recent years, through the horse farms on Tamna Island, the number of horses in Wu has increased significantly, especially the cavalry war horses have been greatly improved.

At that time, the Huainan army lacked cavalry, and there was no problem when fighting with the southern forces, but when fighting with the northern forces, there would be a lack of cavalry; Later, Li Chengsi, Zhu Jin, and Shi Yan led their troops south to join Huainan, bringing 3,000 Shatuo elite cavalry to Huainan, which played a major role in the Battle of Qingkou soon after.

However, in the more than ten years since then, although Huainan has tried his best to collect horses, it is still difficult to make up for the loss of cavalry horses, and the remaining horses are even more old and unbearable.

It was only in the past few years, with the support of the ranches on Tamna Island, that the plight of the cavalry shortage of horses was alleviated.

At the same time, the elite cavalry who followed Li Chengsi south back then are now also dying, and many soldiers are either old or riddled with injuries and cannot continue to fight; So in recent years, while improving the cavalry war horses, the cavalry soldiers have also recruited a large number of new people.

The reason why I brought these 3,000 cavalry with me on this expedition to Gangneung was also to let these newly trained cavalry go to the battlefield to withstand the test of actual combat.

Because after arriving in Ezhou, the attack on Jiangling was to be launched, so this time the march did not take the land route, but chose to go against the Yangtze River by boat, although the speed will be a little slower, but it can save the physical strength of the soldiers.

After sailing slowly on the ship for more than 20 days, Yang Wu and his party finally arrived in Ezhou.

"The minister King Maozhang meets the king!" Before Yang Wu's boat docked at the Ezhou wharf, he heard a loud voice outside.

Yang Wu hurriedly walked out of the room and saw that Wang Maozhang had already boarded his boat in a small boat to meet him.

"It turned out to be General Wang, don't come to the general!" Yang Wu's face was full of joy.

Wang Maozhang looked at Yang Wu a little stunned, and only sighed after a while: "The king is becoming more and more prestigious, but the minister is dying!" ”

Yang Wu was a little surprised, but then he also sighed a little.

Yes, after seeing Wang Maozhang, he didn't expect that the fierce general on the battlefield back then now had a lot of gray hair on his head and a lot of twilight on his face, which made him very surprised.

In retrospect, it was exactly ten years since he came to this era, or strictly speaking, it was just over a month before it was ten years.

Ten years ago, in March of the second year of Tianfu (902), he traveled to this era, and now in the blink of an eye, it is February of the fifth year of Wuyi (912), and the next month will be a full decade.

He still remembered that when he first entered the barracks, it was Yang Xingmi who appointed him as the military envoy of the Yanei, who could command a thousand pro-troops.

At that time, Yang Xingmi arranged for him to select a thousand strong from Wang Maozhang's military camp; As a result, Wang Maozhang secretly used some means, and in the end, what was handed over to Yang Wu was only five hundred strong soldiers.

It can be said that Yang Wu first entered the barracks when he dealt with Wang Maozhang; Later, he conquered the king of Yue, Qian Biao, and he and Wang Maozhang cooperated with each other, he was responsible for containing the main force of the two Zhejiang armies, and Wang Maozhang was responsible for sweeping away other empty cities under Qian Biao.

As a result, Wang Maozhang successfully completed the task, and captured most of the cities in Zhejiang and Zhejiang in more than half a year, making great contributions to the complete elimination of Qian Biao.

At that time, Wang Maozhang first became famous in the battle of Qingzhou, and then consolidated his prestige through the war to pacify the two Zhejiang; How energetic was he at that time? However, ten years have passed in a blink of an eye, and now he is also old?

Yang Wu sighed a little in his heart, but said with a smile on his face: "General Wang is forty years old, how can he be said to be old?" ”

Wang Maozhang was stunned for a moment, and did not answer directly, but laughed and said: "Yes, the minister is only forty years old, and he is far from being old. ”

On the side, Qin Pei said with a smile: "There is a general, General Wang should follow the king to command, how can it be your turn to be the task of the vanguard?" ”

Wang Maozhang said angrily: "You stay in Jinling all the year round, I'm afraid you won't lead troops to fight, right?" I still want to be a pioneer general, and when someone can't lift the big knife in his hand, I will talk about it! ”

Yang Wu smiled dumbly: "The two generals don't fight anymore, both of you are the governors of the army, how can you two be allowed to do the position of vanguard general?" Let's give it to the young generals! ”

He couldn't laugh or cry, an army of nearly 100,000 people, it was obviously impossible for Yang Wu to command it alone, it had to be divided into several parts, and generals like Wang Maozhang and Qin Pei would inevitably take on the heavy responsibility of being the only party.

As for the remaining two governors, Chai Zaiyong and Lu Shi, their qualifications and prestige are far inferior to Qin Pei and Wang Maozhang, so naturally they can only be inferior to the two.

And the vanguard generals, at most, lead three or four thousand people to open the way in front, this is just a task that can be completed by an ordinary commander, and it is naturally impossible for generals like Qin Pei and Wang Maozhang to do it.

This attack on Gangneung was also an opportunity to train young generals, and Yang Wu would naturally hand over these tasks to those young generals to complete.