Ling Tong's invitation to field battle was ignored by Zhang Xi.

Just kidding, even if you count the reinforcements, I'm only a quarter of your Jiangdong Army, and I'm full enough to go out of the city with you to fight?!

Of course, this kind of thing is refused.

Although Chen Zhi and Wei Yan felt very angry and dissatisfied with Zhang Xi's decision.

In these years, although there are no generals to fight alone, if one side requires both sides to lead troops in a field battle in accordance with the rules of the Spring and Autumn Period, a military general with a little self-esteem will not and cannot refuse if conditions permit.

Because refusal means that you are afraid of the other party's generals, and if you don't talk about it, your reputation will not be good, and it will also affect the morale of the army.

And according to the rules of this era, once it is decided that it is a field battle between the two sides, no one else can interfere. The Jiangdong Army could not rely on a large number of people to help in the war, let alone take the opportunity to attack the city.

So, this is a battle about dignity and morale, and it is easy not to refuse.

But Zhang Xi refused, and he is the main general, he really has the right to refuse. Wei Yan and Chen Zhi could only sulk angrily, and there was really no way.

Zhang Xi really didn't know at first, there were still such ancient rules left on the battlefield in this era, and he thought that this was Zhou Yu's strategy, taking advantage of the field battle between the two armies, whether it was attacking the city or rushing up, he would destroy the defenders of Exian County who went out of the city to fight in the field.

But even if he knew, Zhang Xi would still choose not to agree.

"Even if our army wins, it will also have losses, and the other army is numerous, and it will never retreat because of this." Zhang Xi said to the two sulking generals, "But if the other army wins, we will inevitably suffer huge losses, and it will affect the harmful and unprofitable matter of defending the city in the future, why bother doing it?!" ”

Zhang Xi is very practical, this kind of thing that boosts morale at most if you win, and if you lose, you will lose your troops, why do you want to do it?!

But the two generals were still unconvinced, and even the little good impression that Wei Yan had accumulated towards Zhang Xi over the past few days was all gone.

After Ling Tong called for a long time to no avail, he triumphantly retreated to the barracks.

Zhou Yu was also very satisfied with this, and he got the information he wanted - although Jiangxia reinforcements arrived, there would not be many, so he did not dare to go out of the city to fight.

Since this is the case, he will continue to attack the city, strive to capture Echeng before the Jiangxia army comes to help, and then march to Yixian and control the eastern counties of Jiangxia.

It's not a wasted trip.

Therefore, in the next few days, the siege of the Jiangdong Army continued, and it did not slow down because of the arrival of reinforcements led by Chen Zhi, and it was a siege for five consecutive days.

However, the effect of the Jiangdong Army's siege of the city was far less than that of the previous days.

A few days ago, although the defenders of Exian County were still able to stubbornly repel the Jiangdong army that climbed the city wall, everyone could see that they could no longer support it.

But now, the Jiangdong Army can't take advantage of it at all.

Because the opponent is different.

Zhang Xi originally commanded the 2,000 people left over from the Jiangxia Naval Army, and when the Naval Army went ashore to fight, its own combat effectiveness would be reduced, and the opponent was the Jiangdong Army, which was also weak in land warfare, otherwise it would not have been able to hold it for a long time.

And what Chen Zhi brought was the Jiangxia Army, or the Jiangxia Army after two months of training.

Although the combat effectiveness is still not outstanding, the Jiangxia Army, which has initially mastered the tactics of the Mandarin Duck Formation, is still in the battle of defending the city, and it is not a problem to clean up the Jiangdong Naval Army.

Zhou Yu really has a headache now.

Originally, Zhou Yu thought that although the enemy came to help, there were not many troops, and the city wall of Exian County had been attacked and defended for such a long time, and it was already dilapidated, which was nothing more than a matter of a few more days.

But now, the city wall of Exian County is indeed dilapidated, so that the Jiangdong army can climb the city wall more easily than before, but every time it climbs, it will not take a while to be driven down, and the casualties each time are still greater than when the city was attacked for the first time.

What does this mean?!

It shows that the army that came to the aid of Exian County must be the elite of the Jiangxia army, and its combat effectiveness exceeds that of ordinary Jiangdong soldiers.

But the problem is that Zhou Yu asked several subordinate generals, whether it was Gan Ning, Ling Tong, Lu Meng, or Chen Wu, to lead their elite troops to attack the city, and everyone didn't get anything good, it was just that the loss was a little smaller than that of ordinary soldiers.

This is a bit unacceptable to Zhou Yu. They are all elites, why are the elites of the Jiangxia Army stronger than the elites of the Jiangdong Army?!

If this is the case, Zhou Yu really doesn't know how long it will take to spend in the city of Exian to exhaust this group of Jiangxia elites.

Yes, Zhou Yu was not sure to capture Echeng, but he himself couldn't grasp the time of capture, and he couldn't grasp when the reinforcements from the rear would come.

Although the messenger sent to Jiangdong has not yet turned back again, there has been no response so far, which also explains the problem itself, and it seems that the dispute between the lord Sun Quan and the Jiangdong family has not yet had a result.

Zhou Yu was hesitating now.

If you wait until the Xiangyang side has assembled a large army, go down the river from the direction of Nanjun, cut off your own back road, and then attack Xiapheasant and Qichun on land. Although he was sure that he would be able to retreat, the strategic purpose of this dispatch of troops was in vain.

Do you want to take the opportunity to accept it when you see it, anyway, you have defeated the Jiangxia Navy and forced the Navy to sink the ship and intercept the river, it is unlikely that Jiangxia will restore the combat strength of the Navy in the short term, and it is better to attack Jiangxia when the time is right in the future.

Anyway, it is impossible for Jiangxia to intercept the river all the time, and when he retires, Jiangxia himself will take the initiative to dredge the Yangtze River waterway, and when he comes back next time, Jiangxia will not have so many ships to sink.

The only pity is that if you withdraw from the army like this, it doesn't seem to have much benefit, and it's not enough to go back to prevaricate so Jiangdong family. When I retreated last time, I robbed Xia Pheasant and Qi Chun a little hard, and now there is nothing in these two counties.

But what Zhou Yu needs to consider is not only the present, but also the overall interests of Jiangdong, Sun Quan's interests, and his own interests. Therefore, Zhou Yu was indeed very entangled in whether to withdraw from the army.

At this time, Zhou Yu received an urgent report from the rear, saying that the Jiangxia army came from the land and rushed straight to Xiapheasant and Qichun counties, and the leader of the troops was Jiangxia's chief bookkeeper.

A yellow shot was not enough to make Zhou Yu feel threatened, and he was also very well prepared for the defensive measures of Xia Pheasant and Qi Chun counties, and deliberately left Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng to garrison, Zhou Yu did not feel that a son of Huang Zu could threaten his rear.

But Huang Jie raided his back road at this time, which somewhat made Zhou Yu feel that things were not quite right.

It has been almost two months since he sent troops to attack the pheasant, anyway, Xiangyang should already know, and it is even possible that Xiangyang has sent troops to rescue Jiangxia.

After all, the current Jiangxia Taishou is Liu Biao's son, not Huang Zu's thorn, Zhou Yu didn't believe that Liu Biao would watch his son being besieged but not send troops to rescue.

Therefore, is the arrival of this yellow shot an act of self-help by the Jiangxia Army to understand the siege of Echeng, or is it the front army of the Jingzhou Army that came to the aid on a large scale? !

If it was just Jiang Xiajun's self-help behavior, Zhou Yu was not afraid at all.

One is to have confidence in his rear army, Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng, and the other is that the boats of the Jiangxia Navy are all in the center of the river, without a boat, the Jiangxia Navy can block their back road with whatever they want, and they can go whenever they want.

But if it is the Jingzhou army to come to help, this requires Zhou Yu to think carefully. Although the combat effectiveness of the naval armies of Nanjun and Xiangyang is average, it is still possible to intercept the back road, and if the Jingzhou army comes to help, it is really possible that the back road will be cut off.

Zhou Yu thought about it and felt that he still couldn't be careless.

On the one hand, he ordered Jiang Qin and Xu Sheng to stick to the two counties of Xia Pheasant and Qichun, and ensure that the back road was unobstructed.

On the other hand, Zhou Yu intends to make a final attempt.

He ordered the whole army to pack up the ordnance and supplies, dismantle the camp, and prepare to retreat.

There are more than 10,000 people in the Jiangdong Army, and there are 16,700 wounded and sick people who can still move, and such a large-scale camp has to be demolished and the troops have to be withdrawn, how can Exian not notice it.

Chen Zhi and Wei Yan, who received the report from the sentry, immediately asked Zhang Xi to fight.

Especially Chen Dao, he calculated the days, this should be the time when Huang Jian has crossed the Yangtze River and launched an attack on Xiapheasant and Qichun counties, at this time, the Jiangdong Army must have had to retreat because of the attack on the rear road.

If you go out of the city at this time to chase and kill, you may be able to get a big victory.

Originally, Zhang Xi also felt that the retreat of the Jiangdong Army was not fake, after all, even the camp had been demolished, so he couldn't let the army sleep in the wild. In these days, there are no sleeping bags, and the wild is full of wild wolves and other wild animals, and it is very dangerous to have no camp to protect them.

But Chen Zhiyi said that this might be a pheasant under the attack of the yellow shot, and Zhang Xi was suddenly not in a hurry.

With just those two shots, can you break through the two counties so quickly and threaten the back of the Jiangdong Army? !

Besides, without the cooperation of the navy, do you threaten a yarn and stand by the river to watch the parade of other people's big boats?!

Therefore, Zhang Xi judged that this was Zhou Yu's plan to lure the enemy.

Reason?!

There is no reason, Zhou Dudu is such a good person.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people that Zhou Yu's brilliance can't be covered up even if Luo Guanzhong desperately blacks. Anyway, Zhang Xi felt that with Zhou Yu's IQ, it was normal to pretend to withdraw the army and then set up an ambush.

He Zhou Yu wants to learn from Liu Bei, but Zhang Xi doesn't want to be Xiahoudun.

Besides, Zhang Xi's main purpose was to defend Echeng, not to break the Jiangdong army. Be careful, just guard the city.

The Jiangdong Army dismantled the camp and dismantled for three days, and on the fourth day, the whole army boarded the ship and retreated, completely evacuating Zhang Xi's field of vision.

It was not until this time that Zhang Xi cautiously sent a sentry to explore the dynamics of the Jiangdong Army, and the sentry reported that it was not until the junction of Exian and Xia Pheasant that he could barely see the figure of the Jiangdong warship in the distance. This time it was a real retreat.

Even so, Zhang Xi still did not dare to be careless, and sent a sentry to continue the investigation, and at the same time sent people to Yi County in Jiangbei to inform the defenders of Yi County to strengthen their vigilance and prevent the Jiangdong Army from retreating with suspicious tactics.

Although this possibility is really not big, it is equivalent to crashing into the center of the Jiangxia defenders, and there is a possibility of being surrounded, but what if Zhou Yu wants to come to a "center flowering" or something? !

In this way, he still guarded cautiously for more than ten days, Zhang Xi did not wait for Zhou Yu's army, but waited for his son Liu Qi.

(End of chapter)