Chapter 372: Beat the dog behind closed doors
Ma Su marched southward. Who was his target?
Naturally, it is Sun Huan who is confronting Fei Yi, the general of Shu Han Zhenxi in Zigui, and the 50,000 Soochow army under his command!
Ma Su had deployed such a big game, and he had to hold it back in the inner city for half a month, and let Soochow suffer for so long, so he naturally had an appetite for more than just Lu Xun's 30,000 people.
What he wants is to eat up most of Soochow's military power in one go. If the battle is over, Sun Quan will be beaten until he looks to the west with fear. He will be as scared as he is Zhang Liao in his lifetime.
If you want to do this, you have to give Sun Quan a large amount of blood. Among them, Sun Huan and the Wu army under his command are the focus of Ma Di's plan.
Ma Di and Xiang Chong reached an agreement, and then Xiangyang was replaced by General Xiang Chong, who led troops to defend Xiangyang, and together with Wu Ban who was stationed in Xinye, blocked the Han River channel. In this way, the Zhu Ran tribe upstream who is still trying to attack Danshui can be completely blocked in Nanyang, making it impossible to advance or retreat.
Lu Xun was now defeated and returned to Jiangling. He had suffered such huge losses and was unable to threaten Xiangfan in the short term.
The entire rear area of Nanyang was quickly consolidated again, and Xiang Chong's defenses were watertight. Then Ma Su led 500 cavalry and 5,000 infantry and marched southward, heading straight for the Yi Road.
It is worth mentioning that there is no direct expressway from Xiangyang to Yidao. If Ma Di wanted to march quickly to Yidao, he had to first take the Jingxiang North Road to Jiangling, and then quickly go west along the Yangtze River.
Among them, the road is long and there are layers of defenses in Soochow, which is very unfavorable for the advance.
However, such a huge disadvantage could not withstand the strength of Soochow's military. So far Soochow has been under Sun Quan's rule for thirty years, and the powerful tribal system has penetrated into every corner of Soochow's army.
With the army highly fragmented and with few veteran generals who were good at fighting, the combat effectiveness of Soochow's army was severely reduced. Ma Su led thousands of soldiers and horses all the way south, and encountered the passes of Soochow in Yicheng, Dangyang, Qingni and other places.
In more than ten battles of this size, Ma Su defeated them all, and all of them ended quickly.
Ma Su relied on the convenience of Jingxiang North Road to fight back to Nanjun in just a few days and marched to Jiangling City.
When the generals guarding the city saw that the Shu army had few soldiers, they felt contempt and wanted to go out to fight. Fortunately, his bodyguard caught him, pointed to the white-robed general leading the Han army and said,
"This is the general who conquered the north of Western Shu!"
After being reminded by the people below, the guard general was so frightened that he was too frightened to say anything about the city's fight.
Jiangling stood firm and did not dare to move forward. He watched helplessly as the Han army bypassed Jiangling and then quickly marched westward along the Jiangling Chi Road. In the end, with Ma Su seemingly sprinting, thousands of people rushed to the foot of Xie Dong City in just a dozen days.
This city was built by the former prime minister, but in order to lure the snakes out, he deliberately allowed Soochow to capture it. At this moment, Ma Di came all the way to take back this place before Sun Huan withdrew his troops and block Sun Huan's tens of thousands of troops in the Three Gorges!
It was already dusk when Ma Su's army reached the city, and the soldiers were already exhausted from the high-intensity march.
Under such circumstances, Lieutenant General Ma Zhong suggested to Ma Su to rest for the night and launch a fierce attack on the city head the next day. We’ve all hit here, and it seems like this night is not enough.
But Ma Di pondered for a while and refused directly.
"Our troops are small and we are naturally at a disadvantage against the Wu army. We have no time to rest at all!" Ma Di looked serious, with a look of determination in his eyes.
"We marched in a hurry and came in suddenly, and now we have just caught Soochow off guard. If we rest for a night and let the Wu army be on guard, it will be even more difficult for our troops!"
"What's more, if reinforcements arrive from Yiling in time, we won't be able to block Sun Huan's army in Yiling!"
"So today we must attack with all our troops! We must fight to the death to capture Xie Dongcheng!"
After saying that, Ma Su personally jumped off his horse, held a sword and personally led the troops to attack the city.
Ma Su's timing was indeed good. The Han army raided all the way so fast that there was no time to report. The Wu army at the top of the city saw a large group of Han troops coming from the east, like magic soldiers descending from the sky, and the army was in chaos.
Especially seeing Ma Su's flag flying at the front, the soldiers of Soochow were all frightened. Some soldiers even began to speculate whether Jiangling had fallen and the main force of Shu Han came south to deal with them?
Under such hesitation, Ma Su led the Han soldiers to use flying ladders as siege tools to attack the city. Ma Su took the lead, threw away his helmet, and climbed to the top of the city first with a steel knife in his mouth.
If the prime minister knew about this scene, he would have to be whipped twice more. But it is undeniable that Ma Su ascended so early and allowed such exhausted Han soldiers to rise. Even though they were extremely tired, they still pushed forward hard, each showing the bravest momentum of a strong man.
This crazy fighting style completely scared the Soochow defenders. After Ma Di personally climbed to the top of the city and killed dozens of people, the Soochow defenders were defeated and no one dared to resist.
The two sides fought fiercely until late at night. The Han army successfully captured the city and successfully recaptured Xiedong City.
But what surprised Ma Su was that Xie Dongcheng's defender was extremely tenacious. After most of Soochow was defeated by Ma Di, the guard insisted on fighting to the death with dozens of personal guards and entourage.
However, under the attack of Ma Su who defeated the ten societies with one force, it was meaningless for the mantis to act as a chariot. The guard general died in the battle with his personal guards, and was captured alive by the Han army after exhaustion.
Since then, Ma Di was once again connected to the Yidao on the other side of the river, and Sun Huan's tens of thousands of people were completely blocked in the Yiling area.
At dawn, a large number of Soochow soldiers and horses appeared in the west of Xiedong City, and reinforcements from the direction of Yiling arrived. But seeing the Han army's flag flying above the city, the Wu army was in panic.
Sun Huan made a large-scale westward march because Zhuge Liang's newly built Xiedong City was located here. The Shu army in the direction of Wuling was unable to cut off its retreat, and the water and food routes were extremely smooth.
Now Xie Dongcheng has fallen inexplicably, and the Han army has connected Yi Dao to Xie Dong. Even if Soochow's naval forces were powerful, they would never be able to forcefully cross the flanking attack between the two cities to rush to the aid of Sun Huan!
This also means that Sun Huan was locked up and beaten!
After a period of confusion among Yiling's reinforcements, the general led his troops back to Yiling to report to Sun Huan.
At this moment, Ma Su in the city also figured out the name of the Soochow young general who resisted tenaciously.
"Zhu Ji? Are you Zhu Ran's son?" Ma Su asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at the young general who was being pushed to the ground but still refused to kneel down.
"General Soochow, if you don't surrender to the small country of Western Shu! Kill me quickly!" Compared with his father, Zhu Ji was a little less tactful and a little more upright. He stared at Ma Su who was sitting on top and said proudly.
Ma Su frowned slightly, glanced at Zhu Ji, and began to think deeply.
This seems to be a general from the late Soochow period in history. Why did he appear under Sun Huan?
I remember Zhu Ran and Sun Huan didn't deal with each other, right?