Chapter 351: Wen Pin captured alive, Jiangxia captured However, Wen Pin had been dealing with the fierce attacks of Liu Bei's army for several days and was exhausted. So he asked Huang She to take over and returned to his mansion to rest. He had not doubted Huang She at first, thinking that although Huang She had no talent, Liu Bei's troops were also tired and should be able to do nothing at night. So after he returned to the mansion, he didn't think much about it. He burned incense, took a bath, and fell into a deep sleep. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, he heard a commotion outside the mansion. Wen Pin tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. Just as he was about to stand up and yell, he saw Yi Ji walk in quickly with a clang and said to him directly: "General, why are you still sleeping here? Don't you know that Huang She has rebelled and welcomed Liu Bei into the city?" When Wen Pin heard this, he felt confused. When he came to his senses, he stood up and shouted: "How dare you do this, you thief? You said you would help defend the city, but you were just trying to trick me, right?" Before he finished speaking, Yi Ji had already hurried forward to take out the clothes for him and said: "General, you have already imprisoned him, why did you release him again, leading to the current disaster?" "The enemy has entered the city. General, please change your clothes quickly and lead your troops to leave!" After hearing this, Wen Pin had no time to get angry. He quickly put on his armor and went out of the house with Yi Ji.

But as soon as they walked out of the house, they saw a fire at the front door and a lot of noise, obviously the enemy had arrived. Wen Pin saw this and knew that it was difficult to escape from the front door, so he hurriedly pulled Yi Ji and said: "The front door has been blocked by the enemy. We must retreat and escape through the back door!" As they talked, the two of them headed towards the back door again, but because Huang She was leading the way, both the front and back doors were blocked. Seeing this, Wen Pin looked at the hay standing under the wall in the distance, and climbed up the wall in one quick step. As for the wall, Liu Bei's army was seen attacking the gate of the courtyard fiercely, but there was no one guarding the alley beside the mansion. After seeing the situation clearly, he turned around and wanted to take Yi Ji over the wall, but he shouted and called out, but Yi Ji did not move. "The enemy is about to break through the gate. If you don't leave now, when will you leave?" When Yi Ji heard this, he shook his head and waved his hands at Wen Pin, saying: "I am powerless, and now there is chaos and turmoil. It is impossible to escape from this place." "General, you are in good health, so go ahead. Don't worry about me. Liu Zhengdong is kind and righteous, and he will not kill me." If he had not come specially to report the news, Wen Pin would almost think that Yi Ji had defected to the enemy based on just these words. But he also knew that what Yi Ji said was the truth, and taking Yi Ji with him would only make it impossible for both of them to escape. But if Yi Ji is left behind, not only will Yi Ji be safe, but he can also escape from the city alone! After thinking it through, he no longer hesitated, bowed to Yi Ji, and climbed over the wall. As for the alley, he knew that his armor would get in the way, so he took it off and sneaked along the way. In this way, he arrived at the city gate, but found that the city gate was guarded by Liu Bei's army. Just then, a knight passed by, and he lay in wait in the alley. When the knight was approaching, he suddenly rushed forward and knocked the knight off his horse. After succeeding, he had no time to kill anyone, so he quickly mounted his horse and headed towards the city gate. Before he reached the city gate, the soldiers shouted at him, but he didn't answer and rode out at full speed.

The soldiers were unable to stop them and knew something was wrong, so they rode fast into the city to report. However, after Zhang Liao joined Liu Bei's army, he became a marginal figure. Although he fought against bandits everywhere in Xuzhou, he ultimately achieved nothing and his foothold was unstable. Therefore, when he followed Liu Bei into battle this time, he wanted to take this opportunity to achieve great achievements and stand out in front of Liu Bei. He was capturing the defeated soldiers in the city when he heard a soldier report that someone had escaped from the city. Zhang Liao was also bold and careful. Upon hearing this, he said to his trusted generals: "At present, the soldiers in the city have been defeated, but Wen Pin has not been seen. I heard that three generals are surrounding his mansion, and now one of them has left the city." "I guessed that Wen Pin had escaped and left the city through this gate. This was a blessing from heaven." "You all continue to search for the defeated soldiers here. I will capture this man and share the credit with you." After saying this, he led dozens of riders towards the west gate to track down Wen Pin. On the other side, after Wen Pinxing left the city, he headed west. On the way, he met many defeated soldiers, reported their names, and recruited them. It was also because this was a siege war that resulted in not many soldiers retreating or escaping. After marching for more than ten miles, he only had a hundred or so defeated soldiers under his command, and he felt sad. Considering that there are only a hundred people left out of his 30,000 troops, he has to return to Xiangyang. How should he explain this to Liu Biao? But before he could feel sad, he suddenly heard the sound of galloping horses from behind, and then heard a loud shout: "Don't run away, Wenpin, Zhang Wenyuan from Yanmen is here, do you dare to fight me?" When Wen Pin heard this, he was shocked and wanted to escape, but he saw that the fleeing soldiers had no horses. He was the only one with a horse. If he ran away, everyone else would be killed. Thinking that he would not be able to explain himself when he returned, he simply said to himself: If I die now, can I die with my country? While thinking, he took the spear from the soldier and walked towards Zhang Liao. The two men fought together, and the sound of golden bells could be heard continuously. Wen Pin stood up and was determined to fight with his life. Because he knew that he would most likely die today, and since he had been defeated, he might as well help Liu Biao one more time. But he obviously chose the wrong opponent, because the general in front of him was none other than Zhang Liao Zhang Wenyuan. Whether in the novel or in history, Zhang Liao is a general with both wisdom and courage. But compared to his ability to command troops, Zhang Liao's martial arts value is underestimated. It should be noted that in history, Cao Cao was trapped in Bailang Mountain. He had only a small number of soldiers and horses but encountered a large number of Wuhuan troops. It was Zhang Liao who, against all odds, led a small number of troops to kill Tadun in the midst of thousands of enemies and defeated tens of thousands of Wuhuan troops. Later in Huainan, Zhang Liao led 800 people to fight in the front line, repelled Sun Quan and killed dozens of generals. At this time, he came to capture Wen Pin, naturally wanting to get the complete credit and capture him alive to claim the credit. Seeing that Wen Pin was fighting for his life, he conserved his strength and took on Wen Pin's blows for dozens of times.

It was not until Wen Pin was exhausted that he used all his strength to fight the enemy, and his sword moves were extremely ferocious. Wen Pin thought Zhang Liao was not strong enough, but Zhang Liao had preserved his strength and was caught off guard. After capturing Wen Pin, Zhang Liao was overjoyed and returned to Xiling City with Wen Pin. At this time, the war in Xiling City had ended, and Liu Bei also led his people into the city. Due to Huang She's leadership and Wen Pin's failure to counterattack in time, the war was one-sided from the beginning. Under Huang She's persuasion, large numbers of soldiers gave up their resistance and surrendered to Liu Bei. Therefore, Liu Bei captured Xiling City in this battle at the cost of only more than 2,000 people. The number of surrendered soldiers and captives exceeded 30,000, including Yi Ji who remained in Wenpin's mansion. In fact, before this, Liu Bei had never heard of Yi Ji's name, but after meeting him, he realized that this was a talented person. Most of the brothers who love to play Romance of the Three Kingdoms know that there is a data in the game called compatibility. When the compatibility is incompatible, it is very difficult to recruit talents, but when the compatibility is compatible, the recruitment difficulty will be reduced. If Qin Zhen and Cao Cao are in conflict with each other, then Yi Ji and Liu Bei are compatible with each other. But after Liu Bei expressed his intention to recruit him, Yi Ji hurriedly shook his head and said to Liu Bei: "Although I admire your kindness and righteousness, I was taken care of by Liu Jingsheng when I was young." "I am grateful that you have not given up on my writing and are willing to accept my work. However, I dare not betray your kindness!" When Liu Bei heard his words, he was not annoyed, but took them more seriously. He immediately smiled and said to Yi Ji: "You are a gentleman, I should not force you. Since you don't want to surrender, I don't want to imprison you, so you can leave immediately!" When Yi Ji saw that Liu Bei was going to release him, he was deeply moved, but he refused to leave. "General, if you don't imprison me, it will be a benevolent act. If I leave now, it will be against benevolence." "It would be unjust to go against the general, and I will not do anything unkind or unjust if I continue!" Seeing his extraordinary bearing, Liu Bei became more and more delighted and decided to keep him in the army. After dealing with Yi Ji, he asked about the specific whereabouts of the commander Wen Pin. To be honest, he valued Wen Pin's performance in this battle and wanted to recruit him for his own use. But Zhang Fei, who was in charge of capturing Wen Pin, stepped out of the line and said with shame: "I surrounded him in the mansion, but he unexpectedly climbed over the wall and left, leaving Mr. Yi alone in the mansion." When Liu Bei heard that Wen Pin had left, he sighed deeply, thinking that if Wen Pin left, there would be a big battle in the future. Not only that, they will never have such an easy opportunity to catch Wen Pin again in the future. However, while he was sighing, he heard someone come to report that Zhang Liao had captured Wen Pin and brought him here. Upon hearing the letter, Liu Bei was overjoyed and quickly asked someone to invite Zhang Liao and Wen Pin to come in for a meeting. When Zhang Liao escorted Wen Pin into the camp, Liu Bei stepped forward, took Zhang Liao's hand and said with a smile:

"I besieged his mansion with my third brother, but he escaped. How can Wenyuan capture him again?" Zhang Liao hurriedly recounted what had happened before and explained: "Because he had already left the city, I was unable to report him in time, so I sent dozens of riders to chase him!" He originally didn't want Zhang Fei to misunderstand, but when Liu Bei heard that he brought dozens of riders to capture Wen Pin, he said happily: "In the past, Zixuan often told me that Wenyuan has the talent to be a great general. Today I can finally see it!" After a few words, he appointed Zhang Liao as General of the Yamen Army in recognition of his merits, and he was credited with the first merit in this battle. After conferring the reward, he asked Wen Pin if he was willing to surrender, but Wen Pin listened without saying a word. After persuading him in this way, seeing that Wen Pin had no intention of speaking, Liu Bei sighed again: "This is also a loyal and righteous general. Do not bully him. Take him away with me and treat him well!" After the soldiers dragged him away, Liu Bei called everyone together to ask for advice: "Wen Pin led a large army here to stop our army before, so our army could not advance." "Now that Wenpin has been broken and Xiling has fallen into the hands of our army, I wonder how we should advance?" This time when they went on the expedition, they did not make any pre-war plans like Qin Zhen had done in the past. Also, because the terrain of Jingzhou was not difficult to capture, there was no plan on how to attack after defeating Jiangxia. As soon as Jiang Xia opened the door, they were like robbers entering a house, and their future was bright. This made everyone at a loss for ideas, only Liu Ye stepped out and bowed, saying: "My lord, now that Jiangxia has been conquered, our navy should go first and block the Han River to prevent Liu Biao from retreating to Nanyang." "We can also split our troops into two groups. One group can go north to take Zhangling, and the other group can go west to attack Nanjun." "With this three-pronged attack strategy, if the governor can capture Jiangling, then Jingzhou can be taken." After hearing this plan, Liu Bei immediately followed it and divided 30,000 troops with Zhang Fei to send him north to Zhangling. He led the main force and marched directly towards Xiangyang, and then divided his troops to advance westward with Gan Ning. In order to thank Huang for his help this time, he let Huang She continue to serve as the prefect of Jiangxia, and asked his general Chen Dao and others to help Huang She train his troops. However, before Zhang Fei went north, he asked Pang Tong to be his military advisor. It is not known whether the two reached any deal on the way, but Pang Tong happily agreed. After making such arrangements, in mid-March of the sixth year of Jian'an, Liu Bei once again mobilized his troops and headed westward. After Wen Pin's defeat, the Jingzhou army basically had no power to resist along the way. Anlu, Nanxin and Yunshe fell one after another, and the naval commander Su Fei led his troops to surrender to Gan Ning. As for March 21st, Liu Bei's army seized control of the entire Jiangxia County and completely opened the door to Jingzhou. On March 23, Zhang Fei launched a surprise attack on Zhangling County in accordance with Pang Tong's plan. Within a few days, he successively captured Sui County, Fuyang, Xiangxiang and other places. At the same time, Gan Ning also led the navy to block the Han River, blocking Liu Biao's way to the north. In the more than two months since the troops were dispatched, nearly 70% of Jingzhou's land fell into Liu Bei's hands.

At this moment, a very special guest arrived outside Jiangling City in Nanjun. (End of this chapter)