"King, how do you arrange those captives?" Guo Chongtao then asked.

"Those captives, for the time being, let them be taken care of by the navy! Presumably, there should be no problem in keeping care of some of the captives who have been completely frightened. After some time, Liu Xin will be transferred over to guard Jiangling, and those prisoners will not have to worry! Yang Wu said in a deep voice.

Guo Chongtao frowned after hearing this, and said, "It's okay for the king to arrange it like this, but the minister thinks that there is one thing that is a little inappropriate!" ”

"Huh? What the hell is going on, you tell me about it! ”

"The king, the minister thinks that the matter of guarding Jiangling should not be handed over to Sima Fu, and the king should be replaced!"

Why is that? Do you think Sima Fu can't do this well? Yang Wu frowned and asked.

"The king is too worried, the minister is not worried that he will not be able to do this well, but since the king has decided to attack Xiangzhou this time, then Xiangzhou City is okay, but when attacking Fancheng, it may be necessary to use water troops!"

Yang Wu suddenly realized that he was indeed inconsiderate.

Xiangyang and Fancheng, these two cities are separated by the Han River, and there are bridges on the Han River, and the city is extremely strong.

It can be said that in order to break through Xiangju, it is first necessary to find a way to cut off the Han River and block the mutual support between the two cities.

You must know that Xiangyang is a famous strategic place in history, the city is extremely strong, and I don't know how many wars broke out in history in order to fight for Xiangyang.

Now if Wu Guo wants to seize Xiangzhou, even if he takes the opportunity of this big victory, if he doesn't even bring the navy, he is afraid that he may not be able to take Xiangzhou.

"In the end, I'm still a little anxious because of Wang Maozhang!" Yang Wu thought in his heart.

"In that case, let Li Zhang stay and be in charge of guarding Jiangling for the time being, and send an order to Sima Fu, so that he can board the ship and go north to Xiangzhou after handing over the matter to Li Zhang! This time, Lone is determined to defeat Xiangzhou! Yang Wu said solemnly.

"The last general obeys!" The generals answered.

This time more than 100,000 coalition troops were defeated, in addition to the captured and killed in battle, as well as those who successfully escaped, there must be many routs nearby, and these routs need to be wiped out by Li Zhang and others who stayed behind.

An hour later, the main force of the army was ready to begin to pull out the camp and march north, while Lü Shizhou led an army of 10,000 to attack Xiazhou in the west.

This time he went north to Xiangzhou, and the route Yang Wu chose was not the route Kou Yanqing chose when he went south before, but took the western route to Dangyang.

The reason why he chose this road is because Kou Yanqing fled back to Xiangzhou from this road.

Wu Jun must follow closely behind Kou Yanqing, maintain strong pressure on him, and not give him any chance to rest.

Only in this way can it be guaranteed that Kou Yanqing's army is still in a state of low morale when the Wu army arrives in Xiangzhou.

Otherwise, if he is given time to recuperate, I am afraid that it will not be long before the Liang army recovers its morale, and the plan to capture Xiangzhou may not succeed at that time.

In the afternoon of that day, Yang Wu led the army to the place where Wang Maozhang was injured.

Because it was not completely on the way, Yang Wu ordered Qin Pei to be the commander to lead the army to continue advancing, while he himself left the army with his guards and met Wang Maozhang, who was seriously wounded, at a farmer's house.

Wang Maozhang's condition is very bad, and he is still in a coma.

But fortunately, when the arrow came, Wang Maozhang deflected his head, and as a result, the arrow pierced his face, although he shed a lot of blood, but it did not hurt the back of his head.

Otherwise, Wang Maozhang was afraid that he would have died a long time ago, and he would not have been in a coma until now.

Of course, although Wang Maozhang is not dead at this time, the situation will not be good.

Before this, Yang Wu had already sent an imperial doctor to treat him, but unfortunately although the imperial doctor's methods were good, it was difficult to say whether Wang Maozhang could wake up.

This made Yang Wu's mood extremely bad, and the joy brought by the big victory before was gone.

Wang Maozhang is not very old, he is only forty years old this year.

Although the average life expectancy of people in this era is not high, they are generally able to live to be in their fifties, and even those who live long can live to be seventy or eighty years old.

For example, Wu Guo's generals Tai Meng, Li Shenfu, Zhang Xun, etc., as well as Yang Xingmi, the core figure who created the foundation of Wu State, all died of illness in their fifties.

According to this standard, Wang Maozhang should still be able to lead troops to fight when Wu officially went on the Northern Expedition.

It's a pity that in today's difficulties, Wang Maozhang doesn't know if he can survive it.

After shaking his head, Yang Wu stopped thinking about these things.

Wang Maozhang was seriously injured at this time and could not move, so he could only continue to stay here to recuperate for a period of time.

Yang Wu didn't have much time to wait here, after all, the military situation was urgent, and there was such a major event as the capture of Xiangzhou, so Yang Wu naturally didn't want to stay here for too long.

After instructing the imperial doctor to do their best to treat Wang Maozhang, Yang Wu had no choice but to continue to march north.

In the land of Jingxiang, the focus is on the two states of Jingzhou (Jiangling) and Xiangzhou, although the other states are also important, but if they are compared with Jingxiang and the two places, it will be too far behind.

Therefore, after capturing Jingzhou, in addition to dividing his troops to attack Xiazhou, Yang Wu did not divide his troops to capture other cities, but concentrated his forces to capture Xiangzhou.

The reason why the troops were divided to attack Xiazhou was to completely block the road for the Shu army to go east, so as not to jump out of the Shu army again in the future to find trouble.

In addition, in the future, if it is a westward expedition to Shuzhong, Xiazhou can also be used as a base for advancement.

When Yang Wu led the army to pass Dangyang, the next day after Yang Wu passed the army, Lu Shizhou, who went to attack Xiazhou, had good news: Xiazhou City had surrendered without a fight!

This is good news, which shows that after defeating the main force of the coalition army, the defenders in Jingxiang are now panicked and have no heart to fight.

It would be great if this was the case in Xiangzhou.

Another day later, there was good news: Liu Jun, the general of the Liang army, gathered his rout more than a hundred miles ahead, tried to recuperate, restore morale, and then rely on the rugged terrain near Jingshan to block the Wu army, and buy time for the Xiangzhou side to defend the city.

As a result, Hou Zan led the cavalry to a horse joint camp, and it took half an hour to defeat Liu Jun's temporarily concentrated forces.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of May, the advance of the Wu army arrived at the city of Xiangzhou.

A day later, Yang Wu led the main army to arrive, and for a time the flags under the city of Xiangzhou were covered with flags, and the Wu army camps were everywhere.

The atmosphere in the city was tense, and the streets were filled with an atmosphere of slaughter.

Especially when Yang Wu's royal flag was raised, the soldiers in the city were in an uproar, obviously not expecting Yang Wu to personally lead the troops here.

If Yang Wu's prestige has weakened because he has been staying in Jinling City in the past few years, then after the big battle a few days ago, his prestige has risen again, even more than back then.

After all, when Yang Wu was on the first Northern Expedition, although the Liang army was defeated, the Liang country was great at that time, and the morale of the soldiers was enough, even if there was a big defeat, but it did not shake the foundation of the Liang country.

Even soon after, Zhu Wen was proclaimed emperor, which made the morale of the Liang State high, and the soldiers regarded themselves as orthodox in the Central Plains.

But now, after the successive defeats of the Jin army in the north, the Liang State has long lost the pride of the orthodox state of the past, and some are only confused and fearful about the future.

And after this defeat, in addition to the Jin army, the soldiers of the Liang army were afraid of another Wu army.

As a result, the city gate, which had already been blocked by boulders, was immediately strengthened several times after receiving the news of Yang Wu's personal arrival.

There was even a reinforcement army of 3,000 people who was originally going to cross the river from Fancheng to reinforce Xiangzhou City, but after hearing the news that Yang Wu had personally arrived in Xiangzhou, the support army immediately withdrew back.

Kou Yanqing, who was the envoy of Shannan Dongdao, was angry and scolded after learning the news, but he was helpless.

People are terrified, this is the reality in the city.

To be honest, if Kou Yanqing was not the envoy of Shannan Dongdao, even he would think of running away.

As for Gao Jichang, another Jingnan Jiedu envoy who fled with him, his mood was even more depressed at this time.

"I originally thought that I would have time to rest after escaping to Xiangzhou, and relying on the army in my hand would not be too bad in the Liang Kingdom in the future, I didn't expect King Wu to arrive so soon!"

The Liang army that successfully escaped back to Xiangzhou this time was only more than 10,000 people, in addition to more than 2,000 Jingnan troops, even if you added the 5,000 people who stayed in Xiangzhou, the total strength was less than 20,000.

Relying on this little strength alone, and after the defeat that had just been experienced, it was naturally impossible for the army with panic and low morale to resist the attack of the Wu army, unless a large army was temporarily drawn from elsewhere to come for reinforcements.

But at this time, is it still possible to send reinforcements?

Gao Jichang found it difficult.

Although he was associated with Shu some time ago, his current identity in Liang was very embarrassing, but after all, he had also been an official in Liang for a period of time, so he naturally had some news of his own.

Now Zhu Wen is very sick, except for a few people such as Jing Xiang, the thoughts of the whole court are on the heir to the throne, and no one will remember Xiangzhou at all.

In addition, even if the ministers of the court and the central government have the intention to reinforce Xiangzhou, they are afraid that they are powerless.

Because the main force of the Liang army was originally placed in the north to deal with the Jin State, the Zhao State, etc., and the army that stayed in the hinterland of the Central Plains was almost transferred before.

After the almost total annihilation of these armies in the First Battle of Gangneung, there were not many defenders in various places, and it was impossible to draw troops at all.

It can be said that the Central Plains is empty, and it is simply powerless to rescue Xiangzhou.

In this case, Xiangzhou is almost like an isolated city, the internal soldiers are panicked, and there are no reinforcements from the outside.

At this time, in the Assassin's Mansion, the atmosphere was very solemn.

After hesitating for a long time, Gao Jichang still spoke: "General Kou, General Liu, Xiangzhou can't be held at all, in my opinion, why not just give up Xiangzhou?" As long as the army is still there, we will be able to recapture these territories in the future! ”

"Give up Xiangzhou, General Gao said lightly; However, if Xiangzhou gives up easily now, I am afraid that Fangzhou, Tangzhou, Dengzhou and other places will give up next, and the entire Central Plains will be captured by the Wu army! ”

Kou Yanqing's face darkened, and he was also worried that Xiangzhou would not be able to hold it.

However, just as Gao Jichang was reluctant to give up Jiangling no matter what, Kou Yanqing was also reluctant to give up Xiangzhou.

Because he worked hard in Liang State for so many years to become the position of the envoy of Shangshan South Dongdao, how could he be willing to give up so quickly?

And not only from the perspective of selfishness, but also from the perspective of the Liang State, Xiangzhou cannot be easily given up, because once the Wu army captures Xiangzhou, then many places in the hinterland of the Central Plains will be threatened by the Wu army.

So at this time, Kou Yanqing didn't want to fight, but he had to fight.

Liu Yan glanced at Gao Jichang indifferently and said, "General Gao, you can escape for a while, but you can't escape for a lifetime!" Although the Liang Kingdom is big, if you flee like General Gao, how long can you escape? ”

He was extremely uninterested in this Jingnan Jiedu envoy, who was no longer worthy of the name.

When fleeing along the way, if it weren't for Gao Jichang's bent desire to preserve his strength, he was afraid that Liang Jun would not have suffered such a big loss.

Now that he has arrived in Xiangzhou, this person still wants to encourage him to continue to escape, and this kind of person is naturally difficult to make Liu Cheng feel good.

Of course, Gao Jichang still has 3,000 troops in his hands after all, and the defense of Xiangzhou also needs the assistance of these 3,000 troops at this time, so Liu Cheng can hold back the disgust in his heart, but he is not so polite to Gao Jichang in his words.

After Gao Jichang heard this, even though his face was extremely thick, he couldn't help but blush.

"That's just the suggestion below, do you want to be trapped in the lonely city and sit still?" Gao Jichang retorted.

Liu Jun sneered: "Xiangzhou is a fortified city after all, and although the Wu army has won a big victory, their soldiers must be very tired, as long as we resolutely resist, we may not be able to stop the Wu army!" ”

"Moreover, although Your Majesty is seriously ill, Mr. Jing is still in charge of the government, and with him, the court will not ignore Xiangzhou!" Liu Yan's voice was loud, obviously full of confidence.

After hearing this, Kou Yanqing couldn't help but feel refreshed, and began to seriously think about the possibility of defending the city.

However, what few of them didn't know was that at this time, among the guards of the southern city of Xiangzhou, many people had begun to secretly plan the matter of dedicating the city to Wu State.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I don't need to say much about the current situation, I think everyone knows it. King Wu personally led the troops here, and everyone knows what the morale of the soldiers in the city is, and the ...... in Luoyang

The person who opened his mouth was a middle-aged general wearing black armor.

This person's name is Zhang Yi, and he is the guard of the Nancheng City Gate, with 3,000 troops in his hands.

Seeing him speak, the other generals listened carefully, obviously this Zhang Yi had a high prestige among the generals.

After a brief introduction to the situation, Zhang Yi said: "Now that the Liang State is in turmoil, the situation in the DPRK and China is unpredictable, coupled with the large-scale attack of King Wu, not to mention that Xiangzhou is difficult to defend, I am afraid that our Liang State may collapse this time!" ”

The generals changed color one after another and asked: "The situation is so critical, dare to ask the general, what should we do now?" Do you want to ......?"

"Not bad! Wealth and danger are sought! If we don't have a great achievement, I'm afraid that even if we go there, it will be difficult to be reused. So Ben decided to open the city gate tonight and let the Wu army enter the city! Although Zhang Yi's voice was not loud, it was firm and powerful, so that the generals couldn't help but feel awe-inspiring after listening to it.

(During the National Day, the author also has to rest and go out to play, so the update may be a little slower, but it is guaranteed to be updated)