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The next day, Zhou Yu led the reorganized 50,000 Yizhou troops back to Ba County and sat in Jiangzhou.

Also accompanying him to Ba County this time were three generals, Lu Meng, Deng Xian, Wu Lan and Yan Yan. After the discussion last night, Li Li officially sent the three of them to Zhou Yu's tent to listen to them, among which Lu Meng and Deng Xian were the two generals and marquis, although they were miscellaneous generals and did not have the title of Shiyi, but they were ranked higher than Jiuqing. In addition to the two of them, Wu Lan was promoted to Zhonglang General and was subordinate to Zhou Yu's subordinate generals.

Yan Yan is quite prominent, and he is deeply appreciated by Li Li, not only promoted to general, but also leads Bajun Taishou, serving as Zhou Yu's deputy general, which can be called a success.

Not only that, Yan Yan was also the first "demoted general" among the generals in Yizhou to be entrusted with a heavy task, which made many generals envious, and secretly sighed, "Yan Yan finally got the master!" ”

What few people know is that the reason why Yan Yan was able to stand out this time was because of Zhang Fei. To be precise, it was Zhang Fei who fought with him for more than 20 rounds, which invisibly helped him and brought him into Li Li's sight, which was appreciated by Li Li and entrusted him with important tasks.

Therefore, Yan Yan can have today's status thanks to Zhang Feicheng. If there was no mercy from Meng Zhang Fei's subordinates, and he didn't kill him after defeating him, I was afraid that he would have been dead for a long time now.

But who knows, Yan Yan didn't appreciate this, but was angry, depressed for half a month, and was ashamed and indignant. If Liu Zhang hadn't come forward to persuade him in time, he would have committed suicide in the mansion ten days ago.

Speaking of the battle of Jiangzhou, Yan Yan was indeed very innocent and tragic.

When Liu Zhang decided to form the Dongzhou Army, Huang Quan recommended Yan Yan to be the chief general of the Dongzhou Army. It was up to him to recruit new troops. Unexpectedly, Zhang Song's proposal to form a new army had ulterior motives, so he categorically would not sit idly by and watch the errand of recruiting a new army fall on Yan Yan's head. So he took the initiative to invite Ying and Wu Yi to recruit new soldiers to form the Dongzhou Army. Move. At that time, it did not arouse the alarm of Liu Zhang and the Yizhou officials, but Liu Zhang readily agreed, granted Zhang Song's request, and then sent Yan Yan to Ba County, in a vain attempt to disturb Jiangzhou, the foundation of Zhao Wei, and give him a fatal blow.

However, Ba County is the rear of Zhao Wei's rebel army, and it is not easy for Yan Yan to infiltrate Ba County and take over the soldiers and horses of Ba County, which is tantamount to an impossible mission. However, Liu Zhang's order, even though Yan Yan knew that the task was arduous. But he didn't dare to disobey the order, so he could only take the more than 1,000 parts of his department to Dongchuan.

Along the way. Yan Yan hid with more than a thousand parts, tried to avoid the eyes of the rebels, did not confront them head-on, and often walked day and night, moving forward in a roundabout way. Since then, the march has been extremely slow, marching at most twenty or thirty miles a day, and even not an inch for many days in a row. Can't hide. Therefore, a lot of time was delayed, so that when Yan Yan rushed to the city of Jiangzhou with more than 1,000 people, Zhou Yu's army had already besieged Jiangzhou City. And for the first time, he found the "reinforcements" he led.

The most blind thing is that Yan Yan didn't know that the Xiliang Army was already under the city of Jiangzhou, so he crashed into the arms of the Xiliang Army in a daze. It was immediately surrounded by the Xiliang army. The sudden encounter lasted less than a quarter of an hour, and Yan Yan's more than 1,000 subordinates were all killed. He was left with only a "light pole". Just as Yan Yan was preparing to fight to the end and be loyal to Liu Zhang. But he met a tough opponent "Zhang Butcher" (Zhang Fei) who he had only seen in his life. In just twenty-six rounds, he was defeated, and his sword was picked up by Zhang Fei's Zhangba snake spear, and he was knocked off his horse.

At that moment, Yan Yan was hit hard, unarmed, and surrounded by the Xiliang Legion, with no hope of escaping, because his heart was like ashes, and he had already made up his mind to die. Unexpectedly, Zhang Fei did not kill him, but captured him alive, and then escorted him to Li Xian, and interceded for him, so he saved his life.

This encounter was regarded as a great shame by Yan Yan, and he would rather die on the battlefield than be defeated and captured, and become a prisoner of the ranks. Therefore, instead of appreciating Zhang Fei at that time, he hated him to the core; For this reason, he insulted Zhang Fei and Li Xian in public, trying to provoke the two, and then ended up happy and saved humiliation.

But he didn't know that as early as when Li Xian led the army to attack Ba County, Zhou Yu had an explanation, mentioning that Li Li had mentioned a person who was loyal and brave, and he was of great use, and this person was precisely his Yan Yan. Because of this, Yan Yan was able to save his life, so much so that he deliberately provoked Li Xian and Zhang Fei, but it still didn't help.

After that, the situation changed abruptly, Liu Zhang surrendered without a fight, and surrendered Yizhou to Li Li, so that all the civil and military forces in Yizhou became generals and ministers in an instant, and Yan Yan was no exception.

And Li Li's way of dealing with Yizhou's generals and Wenchen is quite special, he did not persuade Yizhou Wenwu to surrender to him one by one, but directly put them aside, and ignored them for more than half a month. After the situation in Yizhou stabilized, all the civil servants who could be looked at by him were directly appointed to official positions without persuasion, and the rest of them were automatically relieved of their positions. This is the way Yizhou civil officials deal with it, simple and crude, but effective and extremely efficient.

Compared with civilian officials, Li Li was very cautious in the appointment of military generals. About sixty percent of the Yizhou generals were incorporated into the Yizhou County Government Army under Li Xian's account, and all of them were demoted; About 20 percent of the generals were dismissed from their posts and demoted to concubines; The remaining two percent of the generals are the most important, and they are also the usable generals who can enter Li Lifa's eyes.

For these usable generals, Li Li himself did not come forward at all, and asked Liu Zhang to come forward to persuade them to submit; Among them, typical representatives are Zhang Ren, Yan Yan, Lei Tong and Deng Xian. At this point, many people suddenly understood that Li Li had always kept Liu Zhang in Yizhou, and his intention was this.

After being reused again, Yan Yan's feelings for Zhang Fei were quite complicated. Although he still dislikes Zhang Fei as always on the surface and does not appreciate it, he is full of gratitude to Zhang Fei in his heart, but because of his face, he does not dare to face it calmly, and he is unwilling to admit it in public.

Speaking of Yan Yan, I have to mention the reason why Zhou Yu was ordered to guard Jiangzhou this time.

More than 20 days ago, that is, after the fall of Jiangzhou, in order to conquer Chengdu as soon as possible, Zhou Yu transferred all his troops to Chengdu. As a result, the newly captured Ba County was empty, and the border passes and battlements along the river were neglected, so that the news of the fall of Yizhou was leaked out, and then it was transmitted to Jingzhou, which was only separated by a river. So half a month after Li Li occupied the entire territory of Yizhou, on the night of the secret discussion with Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang and others, Li Li received a secret report that the Jingzhou Navy Division was frequently mobilized, and tens of thousands of troops were gathering in the direction of Ba County, which seemed to have a trend of advancing westward.

After hearing the news, Li Li immediately made a decision and appointed Zhou Yu to continue to serve as the governor of Hanzhong, controlling the soldiers and horses of Hanzhong, Guanghan, and Bajun, and leading an army of 50,000 into Jiangzhou to resist the westward advance of the Jingzhou army.

At the same time, in the face of the Jingzhou army's eager westward advance, Li Libiao was extremely calm, categorically rejected the request of his generals to start a war with the Jingzhou army, and told Zhou Yu to try to restrain his feelings as much as possible, not to fight if he could, and to make a smooth transition for a while. If it is necessary to fight, Zhou Yu is fully responsible for the war in Ba County, and the battle and the plan are decided by him, without asking for instructions.

For this reason, Li Li privately told Zhou Yu that the hundreds of thousands of troops that went to Yizhou this time were all the troops that the Xiliang Army could mobilize at the moment, and Yizhou had just been recovered, and a smooth transition was the top priority, and each county must station a certain number of troops to maintain stability. It is because the more than 100,000 troops stationed in Yizhou cannot be mobilized at will and cannot support the war in Ba County, and the reorganized Yizhou army is also used for other purposes and cannot be used to resist the westward advance of the Jingzhou army. The implication is that Zhou Yu has only 50,000 troops available in his hands, and there are no other reinforcements available, so whether he can resist the western offensive of the Jingzhou army depends on how he uses his troops.

It can be seen that Li Li did not want to start a full-scale war with Liu Biao in Jingzhou at the moment, so Zhou Yu's real intention in Jiangzhou was to prevent the Jingzhou army from advancing westward, rather than taking the initiative to attack. This is a stopgap measure and a relatively conservative defensive strategy.

Comparatively speaking, in the current form, the time is not yet ripe for the Western Liang Army to go to war with the Jingzhou Army, and there are many unpredictable and unstable factors; Once the two armies go to war, Jizhou Cao Cao is bound to reap the benefits of the fisherman. This is not only clear to Li Li, but also Liu Biao in Jingzhou is also aware of this.

Therefore, it is very likely that the frequent mobilization of troops and horses by the Jingzhou army this time was a feint and bluff, trying to deter the Xiliang army, and it was not really intended to start a war with the Xiliang army. After all, Yizhou and Jingzhou are the only two remaining Han factional forces, although they have never been harmonious with each other, they are princely forces that rely on each other and coexist next to each other. Now Liu Zhang of Yizhou surrendered without a fight, and Li Li occupied Yizhou, which made Liu Biao of Jingzhou greatly shocked and had difficulty sleeping.

It is the so-called cold lips and teeth. After the fall of Yizhou, Li Li's power further expanded, and invisibly formed a three-sided attack on Jingzhou in the east, west, and north. In the face of such a grim situation, how could Liu Biao be indifferent, how could he still sit in Jingzhou?

It is no exaggeration to say that after Li Li occupied Yizhou, Liu Biao of Jingzhou was already forced into a corner. Whether he has the heart to fight for hegemony or not, whether he really just wants to sit in Jingzhou to spend his old age in peace, or whether he is coy, he has been forced to the edge of the cliff and has no way out. Now there are only two choices left for him, one is to follow Liu Zhang's example and surrender without a fight; Second, he vowed not to compromise and did his best to give it a go and compete with Li Li.

Other than that, there is no alternative.

However, if Liu Biao wanted to confront Li Li head-on just by virtue of Jingzhou, it would be tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg and bringing about his own destruction. Obviously, Liu Biao had long realized this, and he wanted to take advantage of Li Li's just occupation of Yizhou to make a feint of the army, creating a momentum of a large-scale westward advance, so as to put pressure on Li Li and deter him. Behind the shock, Liu Biao must have other plans, but what his intentions are are still unknown, and everything is quietly brewing.

It is foreseeable that there is a strange and strange fog shrouding the north and south of the river, and the moment the fog is cleared, it will once again change the existing pattern of the world.

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――――――――― (To be continued......