Chapter 162 Dilemma
Jiangling is an important waterway along the Yangtze River, the seat of Nanjun, and a key town in Jingchu.

After the fall of Nanjun, the Western Wei army could attack Xiangfan to the north, and could also attack Jiangxia downstream along the river.

Sima Xiuye, the governor of Jingzhou who was in Xiangyang, did not expect that he would be facing such a difficult situation.

Xinye and Rangxian in the north had been captured by Huang Niujiao, and Nanjun in the south fell into the hands of Cao Xuan, the king of Western Wei. What was even more worrying was that the court had now transferred almost all of its mobile forces from various places to Hebei to resist hundreds of thousands of Turkic cavalry.

The only two directions that can support Jingzhou are Shuzhong and Jianghuai.

However, Shu now has to guard against Western Yan's invasion of Long, and Jianghuai has to guard against Eastern Wei's northward advance. Li Yuan and his son are unable to send enough reinforcements to support Jingzhou during this period of time.

So Sima Xiuye ​​knew very well that there were only three situations at the moment.

Abandon the city and run away.

Surrender to Cao Xuan in the south.

Surrender to the Yellow Ox Horn in the north.

Sima Xiuye ​​chose the first path without much hesitation.

Xiangyang could be abandoned, at worst Huang Niu Jiao and Cao Xuan could fight for it. He decided to take the officials of the governor's office to avoid the sharp edge and go to Shangyong County.

Shangyong was one of the three counties together with Fangling and Xicheng at the end of the Han Dynasty. In the first year of Huangchu of Cao Pi, Meng Da surrendered to Wei and attacked Liu Feng. Liu Feng fled back to Shu. Wei merged Fangling, Shangyong and Xicheng counties into Xincheng County.

In the second year of Taihe, Wei divided Shangyong, Wuling and Beiwu counties in Xincheng into Shangyong County, with its capital in Shangyong.

In terms of geographical location, Shangyong is connected to Jingzhou in the east and Hanzhong in the west. If Sima Xiuye ​​could not defend it, he could retreat from Hanzhong to Shuzhong.

If Huang Niu Jiao and Cao Xuan were both defeated, he might be able to use the troops of Yizhou to march east and recapture Xiangfan.

If the late Emperor Murong Ying were still alive, he would not dare to abandon the city and flee even after killing Sima Xiuye. But now that the world is in such chaos, he doesn't care so much anymore.

After Sima Xiuye ​​withdrew with more than 2,000 soldiers and a group of his subordinates, Xiangfan was immediately occupied by Huang Niu Jiao.

"Hahahaha, I never thought that there would be a day when we could enter Xiangyang like this, hahahaha"

Huang Niu Jiao is a young man. Although he has a beard and looks very mature, he is actually only nineteen years old. In order to look mighty, he wears a Ming Guang armor that was captured some time ago and was worn by a captain who died in battle.

"In my hometown of Donghai, I was chased by officials like a rabbit every day. It was not easy to get to Xinye, and who would have thought that I could get to Xiangyang."

Walking side by side with him was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his early thirties, of medium build, and dressed in cloth but very neatly groomed.

He has an average appearance, and doesn't look like a brave military general, nor does he have the bookish air of a scholar. Instead, he looks like a businessman, with some shrewdness in his eyes.

This man was called Xu Tianzuo, he was originally a private salt dealer, and he was from the same hometown as Huang Niujiao, both of them were from Donghai, Xuzhou. In order to avoid being caught by the government, he wandered around and became a bandit.

The two had been active in Jianghuai for a while, but after Murong Ying's army arrived in Huainan last year, the two led their troops from Geyang and Yiyang, crossed Fangcheng Mountain, and moved to Nanyang County.

After arriving in Nanyang County, things started to get very good.

Although Jingzhou Governor Murong Deyu sent troops several times in succession, he was unable to wipe them out.

Once Murong Deyu left, Xiangfan was invincible. The snowball kept rolling, and now he had tens of thousands of people under his command, most of whom were able-bodied men.

Huang Niujiao thought about what had happened in the past few months and felt a sense of heroism in his heart.

"Brother Xu, you said that we have now taken Xiangyang and Fancheng, as well as Xinye and Rangxian. After we have secured Xiangyang in a few days, we will also take Wancheng. With such a large area, is it enough for the two of us brothers to change to a bigger title and become kings?"

Xu Tianzuo smiled when he heard this and said, "If you want to be king, you can do so on the first day of our rebellion. It's not a big deal. Rebellion is a road that will lead to a dark end anyway. It doesn't matter whether you are king or not. But if you want others to recognize you as the king, then we have to defend Xiangyang, and then take down Wancheng as you said. Then the land we occupy will barely be qualified."

Xu Tianzuo was actually just talking nonsense. He was the second-in-command of the rebel army, but he didn't read much. Although Huang Niujiao was the number one in the rebel army, Huang Niujiao was mainly responsible for fighting. Xu Tianzuo was not very good at fighting, but he was good at business and had a quick mind. Therefore, he was good at managing money and materials, and was in charge of the logistics and other management of the rebel army, including recruiting soldiers, collecting food and grass, and other important matters.

Huang Niujiao laughed twice when he heard this, and then said firmly: "No matter whether others recognize me or not, I will definitely be the king."

Cao Xuan, Ding Jingzhen and others learned about it on their way north to Xiangfan.

A large army of more than 100,000 soldiers and hundreds of large and small ships marched northward along the Han River, following the same route that Guan Yu took when he led the Northern Expedition to Xiangfan.

But I didn’t expect that before I reached Xiangyang and only halfway through the journey, the city was gone.

To say that Huang Niujiao was the one who picked the fruit, right? Neither Cao Xuan nor Ding Jingzhen could open their mouths.

After all, the last main force of Jingzhou was killed by Huang Niujiao. Otherwise, it would not have been so smooth for them to start an uprising in the Dongting Lake area.

Firstly, Jingzhou had no more mobile troops that could be mobilized, as they had all been killed by Huang Niujiao.

Secondly, the Battle of Bowang directly destroyed the morale of the Yan army in Jingzhou.

Otherwise, Wuling, Changsha and Guiyang would not have been captured by them so quickly.

So in essence, they are just borrowing the light of yellow ox horns.

But after taking Jiangling, their eyes naturally turned to Xiangfan in the north, but they did not expect that the city was captured halfway through the journey.

So the urgent problem facing them is whether or not to go to war with Huangniu Jiao?
Xiakou and Xiling, which belonged to Jiangxia County in the east, had already been captured by the troops led by Ding Jingzhen and Lei Shimeng.

Given Jiangxia's current situation, the possibility of winning is very high, or it can basically be said that Jiangxia is already in the bag.

But the situation of Xiangfan in the hands of Yan army is completely different from that in the hands of Huang Niujiao.

They must have heard of Huang Niu Jiao. Being able to completely annihilate the final main force of Jingzhou is not something they can easily defeat.

Therefore, after discussing with Han Xiu, Kuai Wenxian and others, Cao Xuan decided that the army should still march north as usual and wait for an opportunity to act.

Be prepared.

If Huang Niu Jiao could be persuaded to defect to Western Wei, or if the two sides could form an alliance, and if the other party agreed, then everyone would be happy.

If not, then we have to mobilize troops and, relying on our military superiority, try to capture Xiangfan as much as possible.

After Cao Xuan sent out the messenger, he continued to march northward by land and sea.

When Li Yuanhui, who was in Jianghuai, learned of the great changes in Jingzhou, he immediately sent Yin Gong to lead his troops to take over the three passes between Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain.

Wusheng Pass, Pingjing Pass and Jiuli Pass together form the Three Passes of Yiyang. The three passes are located at the strategic point between the north and the south, bordering the south of the Yangtze River in the south and the Central Plains in the north. They are as important as the head and tail of Yiyang County City. Since ancient times, they have been the most important passes fought for by the soldiers from the north and the south.

It is an important passage between Yuzhou and Jingzhou.

Originally, these three passes had nothing to do with Li Yuanhui, the governor of Yangzhou, but as luck would have it, all the troops of Yuzhou were taken by the governor Fu Xiuzhi to defend the king, and then followed the general Li Shenfu across the river to the north to resist the cavalry of the Turks.

In other words, Yuzhou does not have enough troops to take care of the three passes at the moment.

If Li Yuanhui did not send people, these three passes would fall into the hands of the anti-Yan forces in Jingzhou, which would be a disaster for southern Yuzhou and Yangzhou.

Therefore, even if it was beyond the border and beyond the jurisdiction, Li Yuanhui would not care about it. In the current situation, those who did not declare themselves kings were all loyal ministers.

(End of this chapter)