After Liu Jing took Xiangyang, he ordered Wenpeng to lead 8,000 troops to guard Xiangyang, but he did not return to Jiangxia immediately, but instead turned to Yidu County, which is located west of Nanjun, which is Yichang and its vicinity in later generations. It was the first open area after the Yangtze River broke out of the Three Gorges.

Yidu County was originally Liu Qi's fiefdom and was always led by the Nanjun Army. After Cao Cao went south, the 5,000 garrisons of Yidu County also retreated south. The Cao army did not deploy large-scale troops in Yidu County, and only more than a thousand people symbolically occupied it.

Yidu County has a small population, and the entire county has a population of only more than 5,000 households. It is mainly concentrated in two county towns, one is Yidao County and the other is Xiling County. Among them, Yidao County, located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, is the capital of Yidu County, and it is also the most concentrated area of ​​Yidu County. There are nearly 3,000 households. The strategic position here is very important and is known as the "throat of Chu and Shu". It is now occupied by Liu Bei. General Zhou Cang leads 3,000 people to station here.

The area north of the Yangtze River surrendered to Liu Jing, with Xiling County as the center, which is Yiling County, guarded at the mouth of Xilingxia Gorge, and its strategic position is equally important. The famous Battle of Yiling broke out here in history.

The more than 1,000 people deployed by Cao's army in Yidu County were also stationed in Xiling County. From Xiling County to the west, they entered the gorge. If they walked more than a hundred miles west, they would enter Jianping County. It was Liu Bei's territory. Liu Feng and deputy military advisor Pang Tong led 8,000 people to station Jianping County, laying an excellent foundation for Liu Bei's army to enter Bashu.

At this time, Liu Jing was still in the early stage of seeking Bashu, and Xiling County was the first seed planted at this stage. Therefore, after Liu Jing took over Xiangyang, despite the critical situation in Jiangxia, he still specially transferred to Yidu County and came to inspect Xiling County.

Xiling County is temporarily under the jurisdiction of Nanjun. When Liu Jing led his army to Xiling County, he happened to meet Nanjun Prefect Li Yan, who was also inspecting Xiling County. Li Yan once served as the county magistrate of Xiling County, and the current county magistrate Feng Yi was the county magistrate of the original county magistrate and had a very good relationship with Li Yan.

When he heard that Liu Jing was coming, Li Yan and county magistrate Feng Yi welcomed out of the county town together. Afar, an army of about 5,000 people was coming to the county town along the winding official road. The army flags were waving and gradually approaching. The general led by the leader was riding on a majestic white horse. It was Liu Jing, the governor of Jingzhou and the Marquis of Chu.

Li Yan hurriedly took Feng Yi forward and saluted deeply, "See the governor of the state!"

Liu Jing turned over and dismounted and asked with a smile: "How could Envoy Li be in Xiling County?"

"I am here to inspect the people's conditions."

Liu Jing nodded and looked at the county magistrate Feng Yi again, "You are the county magistrate Feng, I have heard Mr. Kuai mention you more than once."

Feng Yi's wife is also the daughter of the Kuai family. He is also a student of Kuai Liang. He is about thirty years old and looks very smart and capable. Feng Yi hurriedly saluted: "I have always been loyal to the provincial governor, and I am loyal to the duties, and I dare not slackew on the slightest."

Seeing that he was quite nervous, Liu Jing was worried about being implicated by Kuai Yue surrendering Cao, so he smiled and comforted him a few words, and ordered the army to station outside the city. Then he entered the county town. Xiling County was not big and had a circumference of only ten miles, but the city walls were tall and strong, all made of bluestone. This is also the common feature of the counties in the Three Gorges, and they focus on defense.

In the county yamen, Liu Jing took a sip of tea slowly and asked with a smile: "Have there any movement in Jianping County recently?"

Feng Yi hurriedly bowed and said, "Report to the provincial governor, just after the Battle of Chibi, I heard that a Liu Bei army was reinforced by Wucheng. They passed by from the other side and crossed the river in Zigui. The data of the people was about 5,000."

Liu Jing also heard about this information. It is said that Pang led his army to support Wucheng, which was obviously trying to seek Bashu, and at the same time to prevent his army from advancing westward. But that was two months ago, and Liu Jing was more concerned about what had happened in recent days.

Li Yan knew Liu Jing's thoughts very well. He smiled and said, "We have also placed many spies on the south bank, opening hotels or mule and horse shops. Judging from the recent information, it is not discovered that Liu Bei's envoy went west. Only the messengers often went to Wucheng. However, it is also possible that Liu Bei's envoy went directly from Wucheng to Chengdu. In addition, Sun Gan from Yidao County went to Chengdu a few months ago, but he never came back. He was probably Liu Bei's envoy."

Feng Yi then understood what the governor of the county was. He thought for a while and added: "I also knew that Sima joined the army and went to Chengdu. A few days ago, the magistrate of Xin County was assigned to Badong County. News should be coming soon."

Liu Jing nodded, and he came to the map beside the wall again, staring at the map of the Three Gorges area, from Yidu County, Jianping County to Badong County, mainly the terrain distribution on both sides of the Yangtze River, but the map was rough and looked blurry.

At this time, Feng Yi picked up the wooden pole and pointed to a county town at the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River to the north of Jianping County: "This is Wucheng. A few years ago, Liu Bei built a city here. I have been to that city. It is very strong and tall, easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is a strong city."

Liu Jing couldn't help but frowned, "Isn't there Wu County?"

"Reporting to the state governor, Wucheng is Wu County. More than 20 years ago, the walls of Wu County collapsed and the population was lost, and almost became an abandoned county. Liu Bei's army rebuilt the city wall there and renamed it Wucheng, which is only thirty miles away from Yong'an County in Badong County."

‘Thirty miles!’

Liu Jing couldn't help but be surprised. If this is the case, then Liu Bei's army could completely rely on Wucheng as a logistics center to march towards Bashu. Even if Liu Zhang did not lead the wolf into the house in history, he could also conquer Bashu with Zhuge Liang's talent and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's bravery, which made Liu Jing feel a little worried.

He said to Li Yan again: "There are two things that need to be solved urgently. First, I need a sand table map. I will give you two months to complete. Second, I will add another 5,000 troops to Nanjun. I hope you can take down Xinling and Zigui counties, especially Zigui. Taking down Zigui will cut off the route of Liu Bei's army to reinforce Wucheng."

Speaking of this, Liu Jing glanced at the county magistrate Feng Yi, and Feng Yi hurriedly said, "That's true, Zigui is the last ferry in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River."

Li Yan understood Liu Jing's strategic intention, took down Zigui, blocked Liu Bei's army from increasing troops to Wucheng again, which can be said to be an extremely important step. He felt that the responsibility was heavy, but he still bowed without hesitation and said, "The subordinates will definitely not let down the expectations of the provincial governor."

Liu Jing praised him and patted him on the shoulder and returned to his seat. At this time, a personal guard quickly walked into the lobby and whispered a few words in Liu Jing's ear. Liu Jing was excited and immediately said to the county magistrate Feng Yi: "I want to go back to the military camp first. I hope that the county magistrate Feng will do his best in everything in Xiling County. I will give him a reward in the future."

"I will definitely do my best!"

Liu Jing winked at Li Yan and quickly returned to the military camp outside the city. Li Yan knew it and went to the military camp.

When he returned to the military camp, Liu Jing immediately asked, "Where are the people?"

The guard pointed to the deputy account and said, "Rest in the account!"

Liu Jing quickly stepped forward, opened the curtain and walked in. He saw two people sitting in the big tent, wearing octagonal hats and long gray gowns, all dressed in businessmen. One of them was Xin Zhi, a county magistrate who was ordered to enter Shu. When he saw Liu Jing coming in, he quickly stood up and saluted, "See the governor of the state!"

Another man was about thirty years old, tall, with deep eyebrows and a majestic appearance, but he knelt down to worship, "Sinye Deng Zhi, pay homage to Liu Zhoumu!"

It turned out that this person was Deng Zhi. Liu Jing quickly smiled and helped him up, "I heard about Deng Bomiao's name for a long time. When I saw him today, I was really angry."

Deng Zhi is a branch of the Zhongxinye branch of the Deng family in Nanyang. He is Deng Ai's brother-in-law. He is now the confidant aide of Badong Prefect Pang Xi. A few days ago, his brother-in-law Xin Zhi came to him and expressed his respect to him. Deng Zhi used the excuse of returning to his hometown to visit relatives and returned to Xiangyang with Xin Zhi. Unexpectedly, he met Liu Jing's army in Xiling County.

Deng Zhi looked at Liu Jing secretly. He had heard of Liu Jing's reputation for a long time. When he saw him today, he couldn't help but admire him. Feng Yi and Dragon Status are indeed the dragon among people. No wonder he was able to become Cao Cao's strong enemy. Liu Zhang is really far from that.

Neither Fa Zheng nor Deng Zhi were natives of Bashu. They were excluded by the local geniuses of Bashu. They never had a sense of belonging to Bashu and were not optimistic about Liu Zhang. It was precisely for this reason that Liu Jing's rise became their hope.

At this time, Li Yan and Deng Ai also entered the tent separately. When everyone saw the courtesy, they sat down with guests and hosts. Liu Jing asked about Bashu. Deng Zhi's expression became solemn and said slowly: "The territory of Bashu has been closed, which made the local gentry very xenophobic. At that time, tens of thousands of households in Sanfu, Nanyang and Jingzhou entered Shu to avoid chaos. Among them, the heroes formed the Dongzhou gentry clan, but the relationship with the Shu gentry clan has always been evil. More than ten years ago, when Zhao Wei was in power, he was even more oppressed. Later, Zhao Wei was destroyed, and the situation of the Dongzhou gentry clan improved slightly, but the situation was still difficult. The main reason was to take Badong Prefect Pang Xi and Shu County Prefect Dong He as the leader. If the prefect of the prefect of the prefect of Yizhou, he would definitely get the support of the Dongzhou gentry clan."

Liu Jing nodded and asked again: "Bomiao talks about the Bashu family again."

Deng Zhi snorted coldly, his tone was full of dissatisfaction with the Bashu family, and continued: "The Bashu family is relatively scattered and has no faction. The civil servants are represented by Zhang Song and Wang Lei, and the military generals are mainly led by Wu Yi, the Zhonglang Army. He and Liu Zhang are relatives and Liu Zhang are confidants. Secondly, Yan Yan, Ba County, Huang Quan, Brazil, etc. are all famous Shu family members. However, the Shu family did not form a faction of interest. For example, Huang Quan and Yan Yan have always been disagreement, so the officialdom of Bashu is relatively chaotic, and everyone has their own thoughts. They are far less loyal than Jiangdong and Cao Cao. To a large extent, it is caused by Liu Zhang's weakness and incompetence."

After Deng Zhi introduced it in detail, Liu Jing felt like he was clearing the sky and thought to himself, "I wonder if Sima Yi can go to Bashu?"

He couldn't help but feel a little worried and asked again: "How about this person Pang Xi?"

Deng Zhi smiled and said, "Pang Xi is the main leader of the Dongzhou Scholars. His daughter married Liu Zhang's eldest son Liu Xun. Although she was a relative, Liu Zhang was extremely suspicious of Pang Xi. He almost forced Pang Xi back a few years ago. I took heavy coins to Chengdu to manage Liu Zhang's confidants, so that Liu Zhang could temporarily let Pang Xi go. If the governor of the state enters Bashu, I would like to persuade Pang Xi to help."

Liu Jing bowed and thanked Deng Zhi for his enthusiasm. He smiled and said, "Can you ask Bo Miao to go to Chengdu again to assist the Sima I sent to join the army and use heavy coins to deal with Liu Zhang's left and right?"

Deng Zhi immediately stood up and said, "I am willing to serve the governor of the state!"

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Chapter completed!