Chapter 472: Being humble yet arrogant
The Soochow soldiers and horses in Yicheng suddenly marched into the city to fight Ma Su, which made him a little confused.
No matter how isolated Jingzhou is, don't you know what Ding Feng was like when I beat him? How many kilograms and taels do you dare to go out of the city to fight? Sima Yi didn't even have the guts.
But now that Ma Su had reacted, he was not immediately angry. Regarding Soochow's strange move, Ma Di immediately retreated with a few subordinates.
He wanted to see what kind of plane Soochow was doing, so people would dare to come out and charge back. If the opponent is trying to imitate Xiangyang to lure the enemy deeper, it would be bad to ambush a row of strong crossbowmen in the city.
There was no way, since the prince was in the army, Ma Su still didn't dare to take too many risks. At the very least, they must set aside enough troops to protect Liu Xuan, and then seek death.
After Ma Su led his troops to retreat, Gan Gui seemed extremely excited. Then he led two thousand Dongwu soldiers and horses to pursue Ma Di in turn. While chasing, he shouted excitedly,
"Old man Ma Su! Our coward Commander-in-Chief has blown you to the sky. I didn't expect you to be so cowardly! Don't run away if you can. I'll personally behead you and offer it to the Supreme Being!"
"Coward Governor? Are you talking about Lu Xun?" Ma Su keenly noticed the other party's attitude in addressing Lu Xun.
It was obvious that the descendant of Gan Ning looked down upon Lu Xun and called him a coward. This situation of inferiority overcoming superiority generally did not occur in the Three Kingdoms era, but it has appeared now.
Especially since the person opposite is Gan Ning's son, who should have a good relationship with Lu Xun. But looking at the current situation, I'm afraid things are not that simple.
But although it was a bit weird, Ma Su felt that it could be used.
In fact, if the Soochow generals already had this attitude, then he would have a better way to go south.
After figuring this out, Ma Su immediately took it into consideration. Then Ma Su did not respond to Gan Gui's provocation and ran straight back to his own army.
When Gan Gui arrived in front of the Han army, Ma Di had been waiting in the front army for a long time and pulled out more than a thousand soldiers and horses to fight Soochow. Gan Gui confidently rushed forward with his large troops, preparing to fight the Shu army head-on.
Gan Gui is the son of Gan Ning. In theory, he should be from Yizhou rather than Jiangdong. Because of this, Gan Gui inherited his father's reckless character. Even though Ma Di was famous, he was not afraid at all.
Of course, this is also because Lu Xun's reputation is getting worse and worse, and there are rumors everywhere that Lu Xun is actually a idiot with no ambition and weak talent.
In this way, Gan Gui confidently led 2,000 men to fight against Ma Di's 1,000 Han troops.
Then, Gan Gui received a blow.
After just one confrontation, he was almost knocked off his horse by Ma Su's gunshot, and his shoulder was almost stabbed through. The Wu army's front line behind them was retreating at a speed visible to the naked eye, and was almost completely unable to withstand the Han army's offensive.
"Kill these Wu dogs!" Ma Di defeated Gan Gui head-on, then moved his gun, and the Han army quickly attacked the Soochow troops.
The two sides were anxious for less than half an hour, and Soochow's side began to collapse. Gan Gui was forced to lead his troops and fled, trying to retreat to Yicheng and defend the city.
Now he knew how ruthless Ma Su was. According to the combat power of the Shu army, he would need at least 5,000 men to stop 1,000 men. If he wanted to defeat the opponent, Gan Gui estimated that he would need 7,000 people.
Therefore, under the pursuit of the Han army, Gan Gui was defeated all the way to the gate of Yicheng. But when Gan Gui shouted, only random arrows greeted him at the top of Yicheng!
"You Jiangdong barbarians, we have tolerated you for a long time! Now that General Ma is back, we have already surrendered to the big man!"
The Yicheng elders on the top of the city cursed at Gan Gui, making Gan Gui's head buzz with anger. However, faced with the current situation, he had to take the remaining defeated soldiers and escape to Dangyang, bypassing Yicheng.
In just half a day, Ma Di regained Yicheng.
This speed was already very fast, but after the battle, Ma Zhong couldn't help but ask,
"General! The other side has insulted you so much, why do you have to show mercy? If you hadn't kept suppressing me, Gan Gui wouldn't have survived two rounds!"
Obviously, Ma Su's release of water has become very obvious, almost releasing the Pacific Ocean. If Ma Su hadn't deliberately slowed down his offensive, Ma Zhong was sure that none of this group of Soochow soldiers would have been able to escape.
"You all just take it easy, don't scare these Soochow rats!" Ma Di said angrily, looked at the group of people and lectured them,
"If you scare them into hiding in the city and prevent them from coming out, do you want to go to Jiangling City built by General Elder Yun?"
"Originally, the people in Soochow were timid, but we finally met one or two bold ones. If we scare them so much that they dare not come out, then my burly soldiers will have no choice but to bleed in vain at the foot of Jiangling City."
Ma Su himself came here to test this time. Conquering cities and territories, killing enemies and making meritorious deeds were secondary. Ma Su's most urgent need now is how to defeat Jiangling in front of Lu Xun.
So far, Jingzhou has only two ruling cores, namely Jiangling in the north of Jingzhou and Gong'an in the south of Jingzhou. If these two places cannot be taken, recovering Jingzhou will become a dream.
The public security in Jingnan is not a problem. As a city built only during the Liu Bei era, its defensive performance is not very good. If they really fight hard, they don't need Jingbei's troops to support them. The people in Xiang Chong's hands are enough.
But Jiangling in northern Jingbei is a stronghold that even Ma Su must be formal. The scale of the city built by Guan Yu in Jingzhou was so large that Ma Su never forgot it after passing by it only once.
In particular, Soochow also stocked up massive amounts of food and grass and stationed tens of thousands of soldiers and horses here. If it were to be a forceful attack, Ma Su would probably have to drag the main force of the Han army over before he could conquer it.
But this is impossible, and the Han strategy will not use its main force to attack Soochow. Therefore, if Ma Di wanted to conquer Jiangling, he had to find a way to draw out the troops from Soochow.
Originally, if Lu Xun still had the same prestige as he did a few years ago, this plan would be basically out of the question. But when he discovered Gan Gui's attitude towards Lu Xun, Ma Su suddenly took it into consideration.
"What we need to do now is to be humble and arrogant, so that the young generals in Soochow will gradually look down on us. In the current situation, we must not let Soochow fear us."
Ma Su waved his hand and calmly explained his grand strategy to Ma Zhong. Finally a decision was made,
"Compared to the entire Jingzhou, Gan Gui's contribution to the battle is nothing. Since we are going to fish, the bigger the fish, the better!"
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After conquering Yicheng, three thousand Han troops, under the command of the prince's supervisory army, Ma Di, attacked southward again. The troops quickly entered Nanjun and began to fight against Soochow's garrison.
After encountering the Soochow troops, Ma Di also discovered that Lu Xun was already prepared.
Except for Yicheng, which was just conquered, all the other cities occupied by Soochow depended on the Han River. Soochow's navy has been wandering on the water, firmly controlling the water control rights in the lower reaches of the Han River.
Under this arrangement, the Jingxiang North Road was basically in Soochow's hands, and a series of defense lines were extremely strong.
"As expected of Sun Boyan, this defense line is indeed well designed!"