When Liu Bei marched to Pingyu County, the armies of the other seven counties were not idle.

Nanyang County Shouyang continued to hate Yuan Shu's arrogance, and after getting the imperial court's order to march, he rushed into the battlefield of Runan County with the 5,000 troops that had just been formed, and successfully broke through Wufang County in the first battle, making a good start.

The second battle was somewhat difficult, the resistance of Cangyang County was fierce, and Yang Xu led the troops to surround the county seat, cut off the internal and external water sources, and forced the defenders in the city to surrender.

In this way, the defenders in the city held out for three or five days, and they couldn't hold on anymore, so they killed the county commander from Yuan's protégé, and Kaecheng surrendered.

The third battle was more difficult, Shangcai County had Yuan's troops led by Qiao Rui to guard 5,000 soldiers, the goal was to cover the flank of Pingyu County, Yang Xu led the troops and Qiao Rui collided, the two sides launched a fierce battle in Shangcai County, Yang Xu could not achieve victory, so the pace of the attack was delayed.

On the other side, the armies of Jiujiang County and Lujiang County united together, gathered 10,000 troops, with Lujiang County Shou Lu Kang as the main commander, and in accordance with the orders of the imperial court, followed the Yingshui north to attack Shen County, successfully broke through Shen County, and then launched an attack on Ruyin County.

Ruyin County is a relatively important county, stationed in Ruyin County is Yuan Shu's subordinate general Liang Gang, Liang Gang led 5,000 troops who had just been forcibly recruited and did not even have complete weapons and equipment to defend Ruyin County, facing the 10,000 troops gathered in Lujiang County and Jiujiang County, it was somewhat difficult.

Therefore, he could only defend the city and refuse to fight, while urgently asking Yuan Shu for reinforcements, he resisted desperately to buy time.

In the other direction, the combined forces of Xiapi and Pengchengguo 10,000 people attacked Peiguo from two directions, and fought with Yuan Shu's generals Zhang Xun and Ji Ling.

But on the whole, Yuan Shu's department is not dominant.

Because they did not govern well after conquering Peiguo, but continued to plunder Peiguo's materials and property, and plundered many of the locals, the Peiguo people were unwilling to support Yuan Shu's rule.

So when the official army attacked, they mostly provided support for the armies of Peng Chengguo and Xiapi State, and even formed a team of Xiangyong to help the official army destroy the logistics route of Yuan Shu's army, so that Yuan Shu's army lacked military supplies.

Zhang Xun and Ji Ling saw that the army lacked supplies and could not fight for a long time, they were very worried, and wanted to retreat, and the retreat was also very dangerous, so they could only keep sending people to Yuan Shu for help, hoping to get reinforcements.

Otherwise, they would not even have the confidence to escape.

On several major battlefields, Yuan Shu's army was in a state of being pressed and beaten, only on the battlefield of Chen State, Yuan Shu's army was rarely supported, and the two sides were actually evenly matched.

The reason is very simple, the person who dominated the military on the battlefield of Chen Guo was Sun Jian.

And his opponent is Cheng Pu.

He was once a subordinate.

But now, the two are on equal footing.

Before the soldiers left Luoyang, Cheng Pu was still a captain of Wuyang, and after the military reform in Luoyang, Liu Bei promoted Cheng Pu to the position of Tianxing Zhonglang General.

And Sun Jian is now also a Zhonglang general - a Zhonglang general.

The battlefield where the two lieutenants will face each other, the situation is still quite interesting.

Cheng Pu was still participating in military training in Luoyang, and he was very busy, but after suddenly receiving the appointment, because the army had not been reorganized, he could only go to Chenliu County with a battalion that had been reorganized to help Zhang Miao, who was not accustomed to military affairs.

This time, the armies of Chen Liujun and Liang Guo had a task, that is, to recover the fallen Chen State, so when Liang Guoxiang saw that Cheng Pu was coming, he simply handed over his army to Cheng Pu to command, hoping that Cheng Pu could complete this task.

Cheng Pu also took over the command of the army.

Sun Jian has not left since he defeated the state of Chen, and has always been stationed here, plundering resources to meet the needs of himself and Yuan Shu.

He didn't have any greedy thoughts, it was purely to obtain more resources to strengthen the army under his command and make himself a more powerful and powerful faction.

Yuan Shu promised to take down Chen Guo, he would be Chen Guoxiang, and after winning a few more battles, he would promote Sun Jian to the assassin of Yuzhou and make him the governor of a state.

So Sun Jian worked very hard.

This time he went to his hometown and Huaisi to recruit troops, he recruited a lot of soldiers again, and brought some trustworthy clansmen with him - after Han Dang and Cheng Pu left, Sun Jian became more and more untrustworthy to outsiders, and he felt that only his own people and his hometown people were trustworthy.

He brought his younger brother Sun Jing and eldest son Sun Ce to serve in the army.

This time, there were more than 10,000 troops under Sun Jian's command, in addition to the troops originally given to him by Yuan Shu, there were also troops recruited by himself, as well as soldiers who were captured and surrendered after the Chen State was broken, and local soldiers of the Chen State who were forcibly recruited.

Sun Jian didn't think there was anything bad about killing a rebel king, anyway, there were so many kings in the Han Empire, it was not a big deal to die one or two, plus his hatred for Liu Bei, he killed Liu Zhong as soon as his brain twitched.

After killing Liu Chong, he immediately began to expand his armaments, but he only felt that from a military point of view, this would definitely attract attacks from the imperial court and other places, so he needed to take precautions in advance, and it would not work if he didn't have enough troops on hand.

And among the troops of more than 10,000 people, the most elite and trustworthy are the soldiers of Huaisi and Jiangdong.

This group of people was not very numerous, less than 2,000 people, but they were given the best equipment and food treatment, and were personally led by Sun Jing and his son Sun Ce, as the absolute elite and elite soldiers under his command, and the other troops were inferior to his own soldiers in terms of equipment and treatment.

And this time the main force against Cheng Pu is his subordinate soldiers.

To be honest, Cheng Pu had imagined a reunion with Sun Jian countless times, but he never thought that he would be able to fully and face-to-face with Sun Jian on the battlefield so soon.

Chen Liujun Shou and Liang Guoxiang both handed over the army to Cheng Pu's command, and they themselves retreated to the second line to ensure logistics for Cheng Pu, and did not interfere in the military at all, nor did they want to bear any military responsibility.

Before, Cheng Pu had worried about whether he could deal with Sun Jian, because he knew better about Sun Jian's old master's military ability, but this time, Liu Bei seemed to have deliberately given him this task, and did not send him more soldiers.

He knew that this was Liu Bei's test for him.

In the past, his future will inevitably be a general, and if he can't get by, he may have to stop at the identity of a lieutenant general.

Sun Jian, the person he once admired and trusted, but in the end made him feel disillusioned and hated, he had to cross the past no matter what, if he couldn't cross it, he would have no future.

This is the task assigned to him by Liu Bei, and it is also the task he himself has assigned to himself.

After the launch of the joint military operation of the eight counties, Cheng Pu's troops crossed the county boundary of Chenliu County and entered the border of Chen State, where they confronted the army sent by Sun Jian across the waves.

Opposite the wave is Yangxia County, which is the northern barrier of Chen County and Sun Jian's command headquarters.

Breaking through here, Cheng Pu can lead troops directly to Yangxia County, and Langshui itself does not have any strong obstruction ability, so Cheng Pu is not so worried about the existence of Langshui.

He knew that Sun Jian grew up in Jiangdong and was good at water warfare, but he had also heard Sun Jian say that the water in Jiangbei was very different from the water in Jiangnan, and the water in Jiangbei was not as abundant and easy to carry people as the water in Jiangnan, so Sun Jian always felt that his water warfare skills could not be displayed in Jiangbei.

But despite this, Cheng Pu also knew that even if Sun Jian didn't fight a water war, he would still be capable in field battles and city offensive and defensive battles, and he would fight one after another, quite bravely.

Therefore, he planned the battle plan for crossing the water very carefully, reconnoitred from all sides, and after making sure that there were no ambushes, he ordered the commando team composed of soldiers who were familiar with the nature of the water to carry out the river crossing operation and engage the enemy troops on the south bank of the Langshui on the water.

The two sides fought fiercely, and after a fight, Cheng Pu's troops had the upper hand because of their large numbers.

On the other side, his opponent Sun Jing retreated slightly due to lack of troops, let go of this meaningless water defense line, and instead entered the city of Yangxia County for city defense operations.

More than half a month ago, after Sun Jian learned that an army from Chenliu County had arrived at the border, he began to plan defensive operations, vigorously operated Yangxia County, and strengthened the county city wall.

After Cheng Pu led his troops through the waves, he found that although Yangxia County was not a big city, it was not easy to break through easily.

Fortunately, before leaving, Liu Bei equipped Cheng Pu with three trebuchet units, so Cheng Pu set up three trebuchets outside the city, and bombarded the city wall with fierce fire oil cans and stones, which caused a certain blow and deterrence to the defenders in the city.

However, because the elite main force has only one battalion, and most of the troops are county soldiers temporarily recruited by Chenliu County and Liang State, they are far inferior to Liu Bei's carefully organized Central Han Army in terms of combat effectiveness and quality in all aspects, so the siege efficiency is relatively low.

Moreover, in terms of specific military operations, because of insufficient training, there was no general mutual trust between the upper and lower levels within the Central Han Army, so that after Cheng Pu was accustomed to the command system within the Central Han Army, he was still strongly unaccustomed to the command of this new army.

After an order was issued, the anxiety and uncertainty of not being sure whether the army would be able to carry out the order immediately swept through Cheng Pu's mind and made him uneasy.

All kinds of awkwardness and unaccustomed made him deeply feel the huge difference between Liu Bei's army and other armies, and also made him, who was used to playing high-end games, realize the gap in the world.

Not all armies are Central Han Army, and not all commanders are willing to invest so many resources in the army.

However, with the good military qualities cultivated by further study within Liu Bei's group, Cheng Pu, a half-way monk, still barely controlled this temporarily formed ragtag army, took them to the battlefield, and defeated Sun Jing.

The method is also very simple - scatter coins.

Anyway, there is only one good way to deal with these soldiers who have little organization and discipline, and if you want them to obey orders and serve without sufficient training, that is, to give money.

After a few back-and-forth between promises made before the war, deposits paid, promises fulfilled after the war, and rewards given, the basic mutual trust between the top and bottom was established, and the soldiers' sense of belonging to the officers was initially established.

Everyone is a layman in the world of flowers, don't mention those elegant things, talk about money first, the money is in place, and then talk about others, if the money is not in place, there is no need to talk about the rest, we don't care.

The money is not in place, the crossbowmen put three arrows in battle, and there is no fourth arrow, and even shouts three times with the current, and then when the enemy army rushes over, they turn around and run, such an army is also widespread.

This is true for the technical troops, and the same is true for the hand-to-hand combat troops, if the money is not enough, in the face of a tough enemy, they really turn their heads and run, and in the end, the general will have to race with them, and compete to see who is faster and can survive better.

The survival wisdom of the big-headed soldiers is sometimes the death omen of the generals, which is more important than the other, and Cheng Pu, who grew up from the bottom, can distinguish clearly.

So in the city of Yangxia County, Cheng Pu basically pressed Sun Jing to fight, Sun Jing, who was a fledgling and had little combat experience, was not Cheng Pu's opponent, and he faced danger several times, but he didn't want to die and took his cronies to save the Jiangdong soldiers.

After a few days of fighting, Sun Jing was injured in three places, half of the Jiangdong soldiers were killed, and the rest were also wounded.

Fortunately, after five days of hard work, Sun Jian finally arrived with reinforcements.

(End of chapter)