More than ten days later, Huang Zucai led less than 40,000 troops to the west of Xiling City, the west bank of the Jushui River, but the bridge on the river had already been destroyed at that time, and it was impossible to cross the river, so he had to temporarily retreat for five miles and set up camp.

Reinforcements arrived, but could not cross the river, the defenders in the city were excited, some people were like being poured a scoop of cold water, and their hearts were cold; However, the patriarch of the Huang family was very excited, the reinforcements finally came, their Huang family did not lose their trust to everyone, and they were more confident in their hearts, he believed that Huang Zu would have a way to cross the river, either defeat Sun Jian, or enter the city smoothly, and he would never return in vain.

Huang Zu was very helpless, Sun Jian's army on the other side was ready for battle, if he wanted to force his way across the river at this time, his army would become a lamb to the slaughter, and there was no chance of victory, not to mention that Sun Jian still had so many cavalry, even if he reached the other bank, he would not be able to enter the city.

What made him happy was that Xiling City was still there, it had not been conquered yet, and he was not late.

Huang Zu's family is local, he grew up in the local area, he knows the local terrain well, and after a little thought, he had an idea, that is, to go north, cross the river from the narrow part of the mountain river, and in the mountainous area, Sun Jian's cavalry could not give full play to the advantage, and Sun Jian's infantry did not dare to follow up the mountainous area.

Just do what he said, rest during the day, and that night Huang Zu ordered the troops to go north and choose an opportunity to cross the river.

In fact, Huang Zu's worries were unnecessary, Sun Jian's cavalry had withdrawn to the east of Jushui, and the bridge on the Jushui River was damaged, and Sun Jian's troops could not cross the river to pursue in a short time.

As long as they didn't risk their lives to forcibly cross the river, the soldiers were still very happy to obey the command, after all, under Huang Zu's tactics, they marched a lot easier, and they were no longer harassed by the Yangzhou cavalry.

Sun Jian had to report to the scout, Huang Zu led the troops along the river to the north, he knew that Huang Zu was looking for an opportunity to cross the river, Sun Jian did not send a large army to the north to snipe, but only sent scouts to closely monitor the movements of Huang Zu's army, he hoped to wait outside Xiling City to wait for Huang Zu to arrive and then fight a decisive battle.

According to Huang Gai's report, the combat effectiveness of the Jingzhou infantry was very low; After discussion, everyone decided to let them go and hold a decisive battle, defeat the Jingzhou reinforcements in one fell swoop, collect these officers and soldiers, and at the same time recruit the defenders in Xiling City, which not only replenished the dead and wounded soldiers, but also obtained rich materials in the city; After that, he could stick to Xiling City and wait for Yuan Shu's arrival.

To this end, Sun Jian's troops dug two deep trenches along the periphery of Xiling City and filled them with river water to prevent the defenders of the city from leaving the city to cause chaos during their decisive battle with Huang Zu's army.

The location of Xiling City is very special, the east and west sides are rivers, to the south is the Yangtze River, to the north is the remaining veins of Dabie Mountain.

Sun Jian and others believed that if Huang Zu's infantry were defeated in such terrain, they had no choice but to accept surrender and be absorbed.

To this end, Sun Jian moved the camp to the north of Xiling City, so as to meet the Jingzhou reinforcements head-on.

Huang Zu's troops crossed the upper reaches of the Jushui River without being harassed, and Huang Zu did not rush south, but chose a dangerous place in the valley to camp, ordered the soldiers to rest for two days, and sent scouts to reconnoiter Sun Jian's movements.

He has been thinking about how to defeat the Yangzhou cavalry and enter Xiling City smoothly; What Xiling City lacks now is not food, but military defense materials such as arrows and officers and soldiers.

If they attack with 20,000 officers and soldiers of Nanjun, they will be a burden, and they will have to send people to protect them, which will greatly reduce the combat effectiveness of the troops.

After even consideration, Huang Zu decided to let 20,000 Nanjun soldiers wait in the mountain camp, and he only led 20,000 regular troops into the city, and gave up food and other baggage, and only carried military supplies such as bows and arrows, so as not to slow down the march.

If the 20,000 regular troops successfully enter the city, the 20,000 soldiers of Nanjun can make a detour back to Nanjun; In this regard, both the soldiers of Nanjun and the 20,000 regular soldiers agreed with Huang Zu's decision.

Huang Zu firmly believed that as long as the 20,000 regular troops entered the city, they would definitely protect Xiling City.

After resting for two days, the soldiers recovered their physical strength and were full of energy, and on the morning of the third day, Huang Zu set off with 20,000 soldiers.

Sun Jian was rewarded by the scouts and ordered the soldiers to be fed and fed, the cavalry to feed the horses and drink water, and all the officers and soldiers to prepare for battle.

At noon, the scouts reported that Huang Zu's army would arrive immediately, Sun Jian ordered the wounded and Zhu Ran's 4,000 infantry to defend the camp, and the remaining officers and soldiers were all ready to meet the enemy and lined up in advance to meet the enemy; More than a dozen existing scout boats also went upstream, patrolling the water to prevent Jingzhou soldiers who knew the water from escaping from the river.

The place where the formation was lined up was two miles away from the camp, after all, it was flat, wide, and suitable for fighting, which was a battlefield that Sun Jian had chosen in advance.

The scout reported that Sun Jian had lined up, but Huang Zu did not dare to be careless, lined up in advance, and moved slowly, for fear of being assaulted by the cavalry.

Giant shieldmen and pikemen in front, archers in the rear, and sword and shield men in the rear, ready to charge.

When the two armies were one mile apart, Sun Jian ordered Zu Mao to lead the infantry to fight, and he personally led the cavalry and began to charge with Huang Gai and others.

Huang Zu ordered the troops to stop advancing and prepare for battle.

The will of the regular army was much stronger than that of the soldiers who had been improvised and organized, and although they were worried, no one retreated; The shield was in front, the spear was poking out at intervals, the back rod of the gun was firmly inserted into the earth, and the archers were ready to shoot.

Before the cavalry approached, the archers began to shoot, Sun Jian had been on the battlefield for a long time, although he fought bravely, but he did not dare to lead the cavalry to attack the infantry formation, seeing that the enemy was well defended, he had to lead the cavalry to the east, ready to flank Huang Zu's army, and the flanks also had a similar military formation protection, so that Sun Jian had no way to start, so he had to return to his own position.

Sun Ben suggested that he lead 3,000 Danyang soldiers to open the gap and create an opportunity for the cavalry to charge into battle, and Sun Jian approved this suggestion.

The equipment of the Danyang soldiers is better and more courageous than the Jingzhou soldiers, and Sun Ben is also a fierce general, so he doesn't take the Jingzhou soldiers in his eyes at all; The two armies had not yet come closer, and the archers had begun to fire at each other; The Danyang soldiers were covered in iron armor, and the damage of bows and arrows was relatively light, but the Jingzhou soldiers were mostly equipped with leather armor and suffered considerable damage.

The Danyang soldiers were very bloodthirsty, shouting the trumpet that shook the sky, and launched a fierce charge in the rain of arrows, which had overwhelmed the Jingzhou soldiers in momentum; In an instant, it collided with the Jingzhou military array; The huge impact force hit the giant shield of the Jingzhou soldiers, and the Jingzhou soldiers behind them fell to the ground, and the Danyang soldiers quickly followed up and rushed into the enemy's formation to expand the results.

The two armies were close to each other, and the Jingzhou pikemen and giant shield soldiers had lost their power.

The ferocity of the Danyang soldiers was fully exerted at this time, they not only had great personal strength, did not avoid life and death, but also cooperated with each other skillfully, killing Jingzhou flesh and blood, and had no power to parry.

Sun Jian saw that the Danyang soldiers had opened the gap and rushed into the enemy formation, fearing that there would be fewer people and being bullied, so he hurriedly ordered the remaining more than 10,000 infantry to join the attack at the same time.

Seeing that the more than 10,000 infantry felt that the Jingzhou soldiers were easy to bully, they immediately charged forward with momentum.

Sun Jian sat on the back of a high horse, looked at the situation on the battlefield, felt that the victory was decided, and immediately asked all the cavalry to shout: "Surrender and don't kill, surrender and don't kill!" ”

Thousands of people shouted at the same time, and the huge shouts overshadowed the shouts of killing on the battlefield.

At the same time, the Huang family, who was watching the battle at the head of the city, was shocked, if the reinforcements were defeated, they would definitely be defeated, and he was weighing whether to support.

And many of the officers and soldiers on the city walls were so frightened that their faces were bloodless.

No matter what the situation of the battle was, it was necessary to be prepared to respond, so the old patriarch of the Huang family ordered to open the east, south and west gates, demolish the houses in the city, and use those building materials to fill in the passage in and out of the city on the two trenches, so as to be prepared.