Linxiang County is today's Changsha. It is adjacent to the Xiang River in the west and Liu River in the north. The two rivers are protected by the north and the west, which greatly reduces the defensive pressure of Linxiang County. It only needs to face the enemy in the south and east. Moreover, the city walls are tall and strong, easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is precisely because of some superior conditions that Bu Zhi sent 5,000 troops to rescue Hengyang County, leaving only a thousand elite troops to defend the city.

Bu Zhi also thought in his mind that even if Xu Sheng could not save Hengyang and was defeated by the Jiaozhou army, some of the troops would flee back. In addition, some civilians should be able to defend Linxiang County and wait until the reinforcements of the Jiangdong Army arrived.

But Bu Zhi was a literati after all, and he had no combat experience. He could not have imagined many things. First of all, the people of Changsha didn't buy his account at all. He sent people to mobilize the people to defend the city, but in the end he spent a high price to recruit more than a thousand people.

Secondly, he did not consider the possibility of Xu Sheng's army being wiped out. If he could have thought of these consequences, he would not have sent troops south, but instead defended Linxiang City with 6,000 troops. It was Bu Zhi's decision-making mistakes on key issues that led him to a great passiveness.

On the top of the city, Bu Zhi stared at the south with great worries. At this time, he had already received news that Zhang Fei led an army to Mishui Town, ten miles away, were nervously manufacturing siege weapons. This made him extremely worried about the situation of Xu Sheng's army. He knew that this was the division of the troops of the Jiaozhou army. If Xu Sheng was in trouble, the Jiaozhou army would definitely attack. Bu Zhi sighed and regretted in his heart. Why did he send Xu Sheng to save Hengyang County? Can Hengyang County save his little force?

At this time, the county magistrate Lu Li stepped forward and advised: "The prefect should go and rest! The Jiaozhou army should make siege weapons overnight. There will be no trouble tonight. We will launch a large-scale attack tomorrow. Let's have a good rest tonight."

Bu Zhi nodded, Lu Li made a point. He ordered several generals around him: "Just leave a hundred people to patrol the city. All the soldiers will go back to sleep, keep their energy and prepare for the battle tomorrow."

Several generals agreed and led the soldiers back to the barracks to sleep. Bu Zhi patrols the city walls and went down to rest. There were only a hundred soldiers left on the top of the city, divided into five teams to patrol the city.

As time gradually came, an army appeared outside the North City, about 3,000 people. They gradually approached the moat outside the North City and lie behind a private house about 300 steps away from the moat. Under the night sky, no movement outside the city could be seen at this distance.

After a moment, a spy hurriedly ran forward and reported: "General, the patrols on the city are concentrated in the south and west cities, and there is a team of soldiers in the north city, with only about twenty people."

Chen Lei was overjoyed and waved his hand, "Go!"

Three thousand soldiers rushed up like a tide. They carried long wooden boards and siege ladders. They carried the ten siege ladders themselves and were ready. Zhang Fei built siege weapons in Mishui Town just to confuse the other party and cover Chen Lei's night attack.

The wooden boards were placed on the moat, and three thousand Jiaozhou soldiers rushed across the moat, erected a siege ladder, and the soldiers climbed up the city. At this moment, the twenty sentries patrolling the north city discovered countless black shadows climbing up the city. They were so shocked that they screamed, "There is an enemy situation! There is an enemy situation!"

"Dang! Dang! Dang!" The alarm bell sounded loudly on the top of the city, and it was very far away at night. At this time, a rapid alarm bell sounded from the south city, and countless enemy troops were found outside the south city.

Bu Zhi had just fallen asleep and was awakened by a violent knock on the door. The soldiers shouted nervously outside the door: "Prince, the enemy has entered the city."

Bu Zhi was shocked, turned over and sat up, put on a piece of clothing and hurriedly shot the door and asked, "What happened?"

"The enemy troops appeared at the same time as the North City and the South City, but the enemy troops in the North City have attacked the city and entered the city. The prefect has quickly left!"

Bu Zhi was shocked and at a loss. At this time, the city was full of shouts of killing. Fires surged into the sky at the far end of the city. In a critical situation, several of his followers brought war horses. Regardless of whether Bu Zhi wanted to obtain confidential documents or not, he pushed him onto the war horses. More than a hundred soldiers rushed towards the east gate. Only the East City could walk in front of him, and no enemy troops could enter.

At this time, the city was already in chaos, and thousands of Jiaozhou soldiers rushed into the city and fought fiercely with more than a thousand Jiangdong soldiers. The soldiers guarding Bu Zhi killed dozens of enemy troops in succession, and fought a bloody path to protect Bu Zhi to the east gate. The east gate slowly opened, and everyone rushed out of the city gate in one breath.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they rushed to the city gate, fire was lit up around them, and more than a thousand soldiers surrounded them, with swords tense and murderous intent. In the fire, a general held a snake spear in his hand, and his voice was like a bell. It was Zhang Fei. He laughed and said, "Do you really think I, Zhang Yide, are foolish people?"

Bu Zhi was stunned and fled left and right without any way. Seeing the enemy rushing forward, he had to turn over and dismount and capture him.

At noon the next day, Zhuge Liang led a large army to Linxiang City slowly. Zhang Fei led dozens of generals to welcome out of the city. "Zhang Fei met with the military advisor and fulfilled his instructions to seize Linxiang City, and captured Bu Zhi and Lu Li alive."

Zhuge Liang had already known the detailed process of Zhang Fei's acquisition of Linxiang City, and he happily praised: "General Yide can also use tricks, which is the blessing of the lord!"

Zhang Fei was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Fei is willing to lead the army to continue the eastern expedition and capture Poyang County and Yuzhang County. Please ask the military advisor to accept it!"

At this time, Guan Yu next to him was stimulated by Zhang Fei's record and finally couldn't help saying: "Guan is also willing to fight east."

Zhuge Liang smiled, "Since there are two counties, the two generals will take one county each, so there is no need to argue."

Guan and Zhang draw lots, Guan Yu draws Yuzhang County, Zhang Fei draws Poyang County, and each leads 5,000 troops and immediately sets out to seize these two counties. They have discovered the information before, and both counties only have a few hundred county soldiers, which are vulnerable.

At this time, the chief clerk Yang Yi stepped forward and persuaded: "Are you too anxious to send troops to Poyang and Yuzhang immediately?"

"Why did Wei Gong say this?" Zhuge Liang asked with a smile.

"My subordinates are just worried that the Jingzhou army will send troops to intervene. We seized the four counties in Jingnan in one breath. How could Liu Jing tolerate it? It should be not too late to wait and see before sending troops. The military advisors have always been cautious. Why are they so anxious this time?"

Zhuge Liang smiled slightly, "If we stop our troops, the Jingzhou army will send troops to interfere. I will send troops to Poyang and Yuzhang, just follow Liu Jing's intentions. If he cannot ask for anything, how can he send troops to attack us?"

Yang Yi only realized a little at this time, "What the military advisor means is that Liu Jing hopes that we will fight Jiangdong?"

Zhuge Liang nodded, "Otherwise, how could he have assigned the four counties of Jingnan to Jiangdong? Sun Quan was insatiable and swallowed the bait. It would not be so easy to decouple."

"I understand, but what if Sun Quan gave up the four counties of Jingnan? Liu Jing would not allow us to occupy it."

Zhuge Liang has been carefully searching for and cultivating talented civil servants for Liu Bei. Wang Lei and Huang Quan who came to join Liu Bei, and Sun Jianmi who had always followed Liu Bei, as well as Chen Zhen, Ma Su, Yang Yi, Chen Zhi, Lu Yi, etc., so that Liu Bei would gather some talented people who admired his reputation.

So he also explained Yang Yi's questions carefully and let him understand the overall situation. Seeing that Yang Yi was quite smart and reacted very quickly, he smiled and said, "That's why I was eager to attack Yuzhang and Poyang. Sun Quan could give up the four counties of Jingnan, but he could not give up Yuzhang and Poyang. He would definitely send troops. It was like people were trapped in the quagmire. The more they struggled, the deeper they fell. As long as Sun Quan was deeply trapped in Jingnan, Liu Jing would definitely not interfere with us and let us weaken Jiangdong. Once Sun Quan decoupled, our Jingnan would attack in vain."

"But the Jiangdong Army has warships, but we don't. Will it be very passive?" Yang Yi said worriedly again.

"Don't worry, Mr. Wei! Liu Jing will solve the problem of ships for us. He doesn't want us to be defeated so soon."

Speaking of this, Zhuge Liang said to Yang Yi again: "I have a personal soldier letter to Liu Jing. Can Duke Wei go to Jiangling and hand it over to Gan Ning?"

"Is Gan Ning in Jiangling?" Yang Yi asked in surprise. Gan Ning, the navy commander, should be in Xia's omen.

Zhuge Liang smiled and nodded, "I think he should be there!"

After Liu Bei unified Jiaozhou, he began to consider going north and regaining Guiyang or Lingling County as his foundation for going north. However, Zhuge Liang firmly opposed it. He knew very well that Liu Jing hoped that they would develop Jiaozhou. In other words, as long as they did not have the will to go north, the Han army would not go south to Jiaozhou to attack them. At least for twenty or thirty years, they could be safe.

However, when Liu Jing assigned the four counties of Jingnan to Jiangdong, Zhuge Liang's voice against the Northern Expedition became weaker, and the situation changed. The Liu and Cao families stopped their troops and began to repair their internal affairs, preparing for development. However, Liu Jing did not want to give Jiangdong the same development opportunities. He wanted to use the hands of Jiaozhou to weaken Jiangdong, or hinder the development of Jiangdong.

Realizing this, Zhuge Liang no longer opposed Liu Bei's northern expedition. He knew that this northern expedition would inevitably have benefits, at least not to repay the grain borrowed back then. Judging from the current situation, they successively occupied the four counties in Jingnan, but the Han army remained unmoved. Zhuge Liang could see from this that his inference was completely correct.

However, out of caution, he wrote a handwritten letter and sent Yang Yi to Jiangling.

It is not far from Changsha to Nanjun, but it is difficult to land. Yang Yi took a boat west by water. At noon that day, he arrived at Jiangling Wharf. At this time, Jiangling quickly recovered its prosperity due to the peace of the past few years. More importantly, the unification of Jingzhou and Yizhou, and the various barriers were eliminated, which increased the trade between the two places rapidly. A large amount of Bashu cargo advanced east along the Yangtze River and was transiting in Jiangling. Jiangling Wharf also expanded three times, filling cargo ships of all sizes.

There were noisy people on the dock and crowds were everywhere. With the assistance of dozens of elephants, a cargo tower several meters high lifted the ships and cargoes ashore, and then the dock workers used wooden cattle to transport the goods to the warehouse. In the distance were dozens of huge warehouses.
Chapter completed!