Chapter 340: Encircling the enemy and attacking the reinforcements, marching into Yiyang However, Liu Pan learned in advance that Qin Zhen was about to go north, so he wanted to stop Qin Zhen from going north. Unexpectedly, Linxiang was guarded by Huan Jie, and it was difficult for them to capture it through strategy. Just when Liu Pan was in despair, Pan Jun came up with a plan to defeat Qin Zhen. Liu Pan was really at a loss at this point, so he could only try his luck and said: "Sir, what good strategy do you have to defeat Qin Zhen? Why don't you tell me?" "If I can stop Qin Zhen, I will personally report my achievements to you one day!" When Pan Jun heard him asking, he immediately organized his words and bowed, saying: "I know that to the south of this place, west of southern Hunan, there is a mountainous area beside the Xiang River." "I think Qin Zhen will go north along the Xiang River and will definitely pass through this place." "If our army sets up an ambush here, we will surely defeat Qin Zhen's front troops first!" Liu Pan originally thought it was a brilliant plan, but when he heard it was an ambush, he shook his head; "Qin Zhen is a veteran of many battles. If we just set an ambush, it will definitely not work."

"Furthermore, if Qin Zhen arrives, he will definitely have a lot of troops. If the people in the city know about this, they will be attacked from both sides!" But before Liu Pan finished speaking, Pan Jun smiled confidently and said seriously: "If we simply set an ambush on the road, Qin Zhen will definitely not fall into the trap!" "But if he knew that the city was under fierce attack by our army, he would have to come with light cavalry." "In this case, he must have few soldiers and horses, and he is not familiar with the geography here, so how can he not be defeated?" Liu Pan listened and came to his senses for a moment. He narrowed his eyes and asked back: "Sir, do you mean that our army should first attack Linxiang fiercely and pretend to take it by force?" "Then send a false letter southward, asking Qin Zhen to abandon food and grass and rush northward?" If this is the strategy, then their success rate can be increased by several percent. After all, Qin Zhen's total military strength was probably much larger than theirs, making it difficult to ambush them. Although Qin Zhen had a large number of soldiers and horses, they had to carry a large amount of food and supplies. In this situation, if Qin Zhen knew that Linxiang was under fierce attack, he would most likely lead a group of troops to march north quickly. The forced march meant that Qin Zhen would not be able to bring too many troops north. Because there are too many soldiers and horses, there is no way to march quickly, which will only slow down the marching speed. In this way, their military strength will exceed that of Qin Zhen's hastily marching troops. Similarly, the fastest way to go from the south to Linxiang is to go north along the Xiang River. Otherwise, you have to cross Hengshan Mountain to go north, and southern Hunan can be said to be a must-pass place. No matter how smart Qin Zhen is, he still needs to pass through the road west of southern Hunan. This meant that their ambushed troops would definitely be able to block Qin Zhen's way north. Thinking of this, he smiled and said to Pan Jun: "Sir, this plan is good. If you can win, you will be the first to win this battle!"

But as soon as he finished speaking, Huang Zhong, who was listening at the side, frowned and said: "Although this plan is feasible, it may be difficult to fool Qin Zhen with a fake letter, and he will take advantage of the situation!" The reason why he failed in his attempt to deceive the city this time was probably because of this fake book. Now their fake book couldn't even fool Huan Jie, so how could they fool Qin Zhen? After his reminder, Liu Pan was stunned for a moment and then fell silent. But after hearing these words, Pan Jun shook his head and smiled slightly: "Our army does not need to use fake books. Now Zhang Xian is dead and Zhang Yi is incompetent." "There are only a few thousand soldiers in the city. We only need to attack fiercely for a while, and Zhang Yi will definitely go south to seek help." "Our army can first surround the city and pretend to attack it. When we see the envoys heading south, we can act." "So, our army's fierce attack is real, and Zhang Yi's request for help is real. How could Qin Zhenan find anything unusual?" "If he leads his troops north personally, our army may be able to capture and kill him in one battle." "If we can capture this man alive, his rear army will arrive soon, so there is no need to be afraid!" When Liu Pan and others heard this, they all reacted at once and quickly praised it. At that moment, Liu Pan brought his troops to the camp under Linxiang City and surrounded the entire city. The next day, after a little preparation, Liu Pan launched an all-out attack on Linxiang. At this time, Zhang Xian had just left, and the morale of the soldiers in the city was low. They were unable to resist Liu Pan's fierce attack. It was only after Huan Jie saw the situation and personally went to the city to command the battle that Liu Pan's troops were finally repelled. In this battle, two to three hundred people were killed in the city, and seven to eight hundred of Liu Pan's men were killed. But when Zhang Yi saw Liu Pan besieging the city from all sides, he was terrified and said to Huan Jie: "Liu Pan failed to capture the city and attacked from all sides. If the Qin King had not come here again, we would all have been prisoners!" "Sir, why don't you take this opportunity to ask Qin Jun for help and urge them to come quickly?" Huan Jie saw that he was seeking help, so he naturally did not doubt it. He hurriedly wrote a letter and asked someone to send it out of the city overnight. The messenger was a young general. He opened a small gap in the city gate under the cover of night and left the city. He was originally prepared to deal with interception, but he did not encounter any intercepting troops along the way. When the young general saw this, he was overjoyed and rode his horse quickly towards the south. But as soon as the young general set out, the scout informed Liu Pan of the news that the messenger had left the city. Liu Pan was overjoyed to see that his plan had succeeded, and he ordered Huang Zhong, Yang Ling and others to ambush southward. On the other hand, it is said that after Qin Zhen heard the news of Zhang Xian's death, he led his troops and marched north in a hurry.

The reason he did this was that he wanted to settle in Linxiang before Liu Pan could react. But unexpectedly, he was still a step too late. As soon as his troops arrived at Hengshan, they encountered troops from the city asking for help. After reading Huan Jie's letter asking for help, Qin Zhen sighed to Taishi Ci: "When I first heard that Lord Zhang had passed away, I hurried north with the general and wanted to enter the city to garrison." "I didn't expect that Liu Pan has already arrived in Linxiang. We are still a step too late!" Taishi Ci heard him sigh, stroked his beard and smiled, pointing at the letter and said proudly: "How can we expect perfection in everything? Although our army is a step late, they don't know that our army has arrived!" "I am willing to lead the troops to attack their rear and ensure that we can protect the governor and enter the city!" Taishi Ci could be considered the best general under Qin Zhen. As he won more and more battles, he became increasingly arrogant. Now, he and Qin Zhen easily took Jiaozhou, and he began to look down on everyone in the world. It was the same at this time. In his eyes, Liu Pan and Huang Zhong were all unknown people. Now that their troops have arrived here and the two of them are still unaware, they can kill them by surprise! However, after hearing what Taishi Ci said, Qin Zhen looked serious and said: "Don't they know our army has arrived? General, you underestimated the enemy." "You are probably setting up an ambush in the north, waiting for us to come and fall into your trap!" "The governor said they were setting an ambush? How can they set an ambush when the enemy is still attacking fiercely?" Seeing his serious face, Taishi Ci felt strange and asked him the reason. But Qin Zhen did not answer, and looked directly at the young general who delivered the message and asked: "Let me ask you, has the enemy really surrounded the city and is attacking it from all sides?" "Also, when you were leaving the city, did you encounter any enemy troops intercepting your troops?" When the young general heard this, he thought Qin Zhen didn't believe his identity, so he quickly replied: "General, the enemy has really surrounded Linxiang, but I haven't encountered any intercepting troops!" "I don't know why, but this is the truth and I dare not hide it!" However, after Qin Zhen heard this, he looked at Taishi Ci who was standing beside him and asked: "General, think about this. Liu Pan is now determined to take the city, so he should be surrounded on three sides and leave one side open!" "But this person did the opposite, attacking from all sides. Is this the way to take the city?" "Besides, since he surrounded the city, he certainly didn't want the soldiers inside the city to break out and ask for help." "In that case, we must send more scouts to patrol at night and intercept messengers along the way." "But the message was sent out from inside and outside the city, but no one even encountered any intercepting troops. What does this mean?" Taishi Ci was a veteran general who had fought in many battles. Upon hearing this, he immediately realized that something was wrong. Now that Liu Pan is under siege, envoys are sent from the city to ask for help. It seems there is no problem, but there are loopholes in the details. Just as Qin Zhen said, if you want to capture the city quickly, the best way is to surround it on three sides and leave one behind!

Because there was a gap on three sides of the siege, the defenders in the city could find a way to break out and avoid a life-and-death battle. There is only one possibility for attacking from all sides, that is, Liu Pan does not want to let the troops in the city escape. This is obviously contradictory to Liu Pan's current strategic intention of actively attacking Linxiang! Because now is not the best time to send troops, Liu Pan is probably in a hurry. If we are in a hurry, there is no need to attack so fiercely, but we should also not let the enemy's troops go south for help. Thinking of this, the pride on Taishi Ci's face faded a lot: "Then according to the commander-in-chief, what exactly is the enemy's intention now?" Qin Zhen narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at the mountains ahead and said in a deep voice: "They are besieging the city from all sides, hoping to force the city to ask for help. Their intention is not to capture the city, but to attack our army!" "This is a strategy of encircling a point and attacking its reinforcements. If our army goes there, it will surely suffer!" In fact, besieging a point and attacking its reinforcements is not a military strategy, but a tactic evolved from the "attack the enemy who must come to the rescue" tactic in "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. In this era, this kind of tactical thinking had not yet been formed, and Qin Zhen did not expect that the enemy would use this method. The reason why he was so alert was because they had now violated a taboo. That is, he directly ordered troops to send out troops without having any understanding of the enemy. As the Art of War says: Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle; know yourself but not the enemy, and you will win or lose! So he wanted to arrive in Linxiang in advance to understand the enemy's situation. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived here, he found that Liu Pan had already arrived in Linxiang in advance. This created a fog of war, and he didn't know what Liu Pan had done in Linxiang. But he seemed to be able to see that just a few dozen miles away in southern Hunan, the enemy might have set a trap for him to fall into. Years of fighting made him extremely sensitive to the war situation. If only Taishi Ci came to reinforce them, they would most likely be defeated. As he spoke, Taishi Ci no longer had the arrogance he had just shown. "I didn't expect that Jingzhou is also a place full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. It really shouldn't be underestimated." "Commander-in-chief, now that the enemy is like this, how should our army respond?" Having said this, he began to think about how to resolve this situation. But after thinking about it for a while, he found that this trick was difficult to crack! Because the enemy was lying in ambush on the road they had to take, if they wanted to go to Linxiang now, they had to pass through the enemy's ambush area. Even if they knew that the enemy might have an ambush, they would suffer a loss because the enemy was in secret and they were in the open. What’s more crucial is that they don’t have enough troops, only enough to reinforce Linxiang. It is obviously unrealistic to defeat Liu Pan's troops. It can be said that the enemy's move just hit their weak spot. Either you bite the bullet and head north, or you stay here and wait for the troops in the rear.

Even though Taishi Ci was an experienced warrior, his brows were furrowed for a moment. But as soon as he asked the question, Qin Zhen looked at the young general and said: "What's your name? Are you familiar with the terrain of the surrounding mountains?" The young general also heard the conversation between the two and said to Qin Zhen: "My name is Li Yi. I was originally a hunter in the mountains. Because I have some strength, I was appreciated by the Lord of the Mansion and appointed as a garrison commander." “I may not know other places, but I am familiar with this area of ​​Hengyang.” Hearing Li Yi's words, Qin Zhen's eyes showed surprise. He seemed to know the name Li Yi. It seems that he later joined Sun Quan's army and became a general of the Eastern Wu. But these are not important now. Seeing that Li Yi knew the terrain, he pointed to the west and said: "Do you know if there is a road to the west of Hengshan Mountain? Where does it lead to?" Li Yi listened, thought for a while, then pointed to the northwest and said: "From here there is a small path to the west, which leads to a wide area between two mountains." "From there, you can go northwest through Xiangxiang to Yiyang. If you go northeast, you have to go through southern Hunan!" "However, Yiyang is a remote place near Wuling, so it is difficult to return." But as soon as he finished speaking, he saw Qin Zhen climb onto his horse and said decisively; "Go and lead the way. We will go to Yiyang. We will take Yiyang first and then discuss the way forward!" Their top priority now is not to go to Linxiang, but to gain a foothold first. Only after they have figured out Liu Pan's background can they think of countermeasures. Having said this, he sent a letter to Xu Sheng and others, and then took Taishi Ci all the way westward. (End of this chapter)