Everything seems to be calm. Everything is going according to plan again.

After the beginning of the year, Liu Xie, the king of Xiangyang who had just been crowned last year, came to Xiangyang with great momentum under the escort of Zhang Fei's heavy troops, but Liu Biao blocked Xinye on the grounds that the palace was being built in Xiangyang City, and there were too many spies in the city.

Liu Biao did not do anything desperately, but let people buy a big mansion in Xinye City in advance, and also sent dozens of maidservants, servants and housekeepers to temporarily place the king of Xiangyang in Xinye. For Liu Xie, who has been confined in a claustrophobic deep palace, he has already lived a well-off life.

Xinye is thirty miles away from Caiyang, an acropolis heavily garrisoned on the outskirts of Xiangyang, and thirty-five miles away from Deng County. This is the bottom line drawn by Liu Biao in the north of Xiangyang, if Zhang Fei insists on sending Liu Xie into Xiangyang, he will first have to face the defensive forces of these two acropolis.

A lot of times, a lot of things are tacit. If you have to tear your face and make trouble, it will actually not be beneficial to both parties. Zhang Fei restrained his emotions well, threw Liu Xie, a somewhat hot "strange goods", in Xinye, and returned to Luoyang to hand over to Liu Bei with some depression.

According to common sense, Liu Biao doesn't have to be so arrogant and idle the king of Xiangyang in Xinye. He could politely welcome Liu Xie into Xiangyang City, wait until the limelight has passed, and then find a way to control Liu Xie, and then continue to deal with all forces. Liu Biao did this, it was really easy to give people a handle, leaving Sun Jian of Eastern Wu and Sima Yi of Yizhou to attack Jingzhou.

In fact, Liu Biao did this on purpose.

Since Lu Meng came to Jingzhou, after half a year of adjustment and deployment, coupled with Zhao Xing's commitment to aid Jingzhou, Liu Biao's waist has hardened. Since he knew that Heng and Zhu had to face the invasion of Soochow and Yizhou, Liu Biao simply held the initiative in his own hands. Isn't there a saying that goes, "If you are not afraid of thieves stealing, you are afraid of thieves worrying", since you are ready to start a war, then Jingzhou will lead the development of the whole situation.

First of all, Jiangdong Sun Quan accused Liu Biao of wanting to stand on his own feet in Jingzhou, ignoring the imperial court's edict and refusing the king of Xiangyang outside the city, which was really a great rebellion; then Sima Yi of Yizhou also raised his voice, reprimanding Liu Biao for daring to do such disobedient things without the imperial court; as if he had made an appointment, Yuan Shu, the king of Huainan, actually jumped out and helped the king of Xiangyang to speak, and it was not Liu Biao's fault.

A few side drums had just stopped, and the two super bosses, Cao Cao and Liu Bei, also questioned Liu Biao's behavior. Although the way they spoke and their tone was not as fierce as the previous ones, they also unmistakably sent a signal to the outside world, that is, the imperial court was very dissatisfied with Liu Biao, and the consequences could be serious.

Entering March, the situation in Jingzhou suddenly became tense.

First of all, Soochow attacked again, claiming that the bandits in Changsha County crossed the border into Yuzhang County, bringing great damage and damage to the people of Wuzhou, and soon a Wuzhou army followed the trail of Changsha bandits into Changsha. Liu Biao was very depressed at the time, even if you Dongwu wants to beat me Jingzhou, you can still find this kind of reason and excuse, it seems that this world is really "big fist" It makes sense.

Just when Changsha was in the midst of a rumor, an urgent report suddenly came back from Wuxian County in the southwest of Jingzhou, and a large number of barbarian troops suddenly poured out of Yufu City in Yizhou, attacking Wuxian without saying a word. By the time Liu Biao, who was sitting in Xiangyang, received this military information, the Nanban army led by Wu Yi, the governor of the South Sichuan Road, had already captured Zigui County, and Huo Ran was the Yiling garrisoned by Huang Zhong.

It turned out that Sima Yi secretly mobilized the southern barbarian army originally stationed in Kunze, Yizhou, to the north, and then entered the water from Yandao (now Yibin, Sichuan) and went down the Yangtze River by bamboo row, crossed Jiangyang (Luzhou), Fujie, Bajun (Chongqing) Pingdu, Linjiang, Quren and other places, and finally went ashore in Yufu and attacked Wuxian in Jingzhou by land.

Now that the Sima family has basically controlled the southern Baiban region, they asked Wu Yi to recruit tens of thousands of Nanban soldiers from the Pubu, Minpu, Jiu, and Suyue tribes in Yongchang County, and handed them over to the newly appointed Nanban generals Meng Shu and Wutugu and other generals to lead and go north with Wu Yi to participate in the war.

Originally, there were 60,000 soldiers on the South Sichuan Road under the command of Wu Yi, but now there are 30,000 barbarian soldiers, so Wu Yi left 20,000 people to return to Zhang Wei and let him continue to garrison the Kunze area, and he himself led an army of 70,000 to attack Jingzhou.

This time, in order to attack Jingzhou, Sima Yi ordered someone to send Wu Yi 30,000 sets of rattan armor that had only been prepared in the past two years, as well as a batch of high-quality weapons and arrows, and even an unknown amount of gunpowder.

When Liu Biao received the news of the fall of Zigui, the Southern Barbarian army led by Wu Yi had already engaged Huang Zhong, who was stationed in Yiling. Previously, the Southern Barbarian Army had almost no effort to capture Wuxian and Zigui, but it was because Huang Zhong gathered all the defensive forces in the Yiling area.

When Huang Zhong was under Liu Biao, he was always under Li Yan, Wen Ping, Cai Mao, Zhang Yun and Huang Zu, and was used by Liu Biao as a lieutenant general with outstanding personal force. After Lu Meng came to Jingzhou, he asked Liu Biao to release Huang Zhong and use it as a general on the Duzhen side, and now he finally has the opportunity to show his skills and talents.

Seeing that Huang Zhong only relied on 30,000 infantry to conquer Yiling, he was not afraid in the face of the menacing 70,000 southern barbarian army, he used the fortifications built on Jingmen Mountain and Huya Mountain to deal with Wu Yi, and on the other hand, he appointed the military division Ma Liang to go to the Wuling area to recruit Wuxi barbarians to help in the war.

After Ma Liang was instructed, he only took dozens of people to dare to enter the Wuxi area to meet the local tribal leader Shamoke, and then moved Shamoke with a three-inch tongue, and borrowed 20,000 Wuxi barbarians for Huang Zhong.

At this time, the Yiling area became lively. The barbarian general Meng Shu and the Wuxi leader Shamoke fought for three days in front of the battle, and it was difficult to distinguish the victory or defeat; the barbarians on both sides then entered the offensive and defensive battles, and after a desperate battle, the southern barbarian army wearing rattan armor did not pick up too much cheapness, because the Wuxi barbarians were wearing a batch of Jin standard armor that Liu Biao urgently sent to Huang Zhong!

All of a sudden, the fighting in the Yiling area fell into a phase of confrontation.

When the news that Huang Zhong's subordinate Wuxi barbarians were wearing the standard armor of the Jin State was transmitted back to Chengdu, Sima Yi sneered a few times after learning about it, and said to himself: "Can the Jin State sit still now? These armors must have been purchased by Liu Biao from Zhao Guochang!"

Sima Yi was not afraid of the secret intervention of the Jin State, and immediately ordered Zhang Yi and Lu Kai, deputy generals under Jia Long, the governor of the West Sichuan Road, to lead 40,000 Qiang soldiers to Yiling, as Wu Yi's strong backup, and to take Yiling, the gateway to Jingzhou, no matter what.

As a result, Yizhou invested as many as 110,000 troops in the Yiling area, while Jia Long, who was originally stationed on the West Sichuan Road, had only 20,000 troops left.