Chapter 169 Miscalculation
The meeting took place more than ten days later. Li Yuanhui brought his guards, the Wuwei Battalion, and the navy, and went up the river with Zhou Ben's Lujiang Left Battalion. Zhou Ben led his troops to station in Xunyang and Xinchun, while Li Yuanhui brought his troops and the navy to Chaisang.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, Chaisang was an important town on the eastern frontier of the Chu State. Not far away was the territory of the Wu State, known as the head of Wu and the tail of Chu. Chaisang was actually established as an administrative unit in 201 BC, the sixth year of Emperor Gaozu of Han, when Chaisang County was established and was affiliated to Yuzhang County, whose seat was in Nanchang.

After Sun Quan established control over Jiangdong, Chaisang's strategic position became prominent, because Chaisang was close to Jingzhou controlled by Liu Biao. Once Chaisang was occupied by the enemy, Sun Quan's "Six Counties and Eighty-one States in Jiangdong" would have to change owners.

Just like the novel, the real place where Zhuge Liang met Sun Quan was in Chaisang. Zhou Yu also stationed troops and recuperated here.

But now, it has become the place where Li Yuanhui meets with Yuzhang County Prefect Murong Jing and Hengye General Shen Shangxing.

Murong Jing was a member of the royal family, while General Hengye Shen Shangxing was from the Wujun Shen family, a prominent family in Jiangzuo.

As the saying goes, the Shen family in the world originated from Wuxing. The Shen family's influence in the Three Wus is not much less than that of Gu, Lu, Zhu, and Zhang. Moreover, the Shen family has produced many powerful generals.

Now the attitudes of these two people are somewhat ambiguous, so Li Yuanhui wanted to meet them and did not choose to let them go to Hefei, because Yuzhang could become a battlefield at any time.

During the time that Li Yuanhui was on the road, the war in Hebei, You and Ji states made new progress.

Zhao Yi led an army of 30,000 and more than 10,000 "volunteers" and fought fiercely for several days, and recaptured Julu City.

He expelled Shi Bi's son Shi Bo Xin, but the Turks did not suffer many casualties, only about 2,000. However, they lost what they had looted in Julu and Qinghe.

Under the unified deployment of Li Shenfu, the Youji Yan army, including the Wagang Army and various volunteers, built beacon towers along Handan, Guantao, Qinghe, Pingyuan, and up to Nanpi in Bohai County in order to curb the looting Turks. Each unit set up camps along the city lines and sent out cavalry to patrol. Once they saw any trace of the Turks, they would light the beacon.

Then the cavalry was dispatched to entangle the Turkic troops, and the surrounding infantry immediately went out of the camp to support and block the road.

The method was not clever, but it was effective. The Turks found that the area they could plunder was getting smaller and smaller, and was gradually compressed to the areas of Julu, Changshan and Anping.

The Turkic cavalry in Qinghe, Zhaojun, Pingyuan, Weijun and other places have been basically eliminated, leaving only a few small teams of dozens of people. They may have lost contact with the Turkic army and are still active in the heartland of the Yan army.

But these people certainly can't cause any trouble. Once their tracks are exposed, they will surely be strangled, and their heads will be exchanged for military merits.

The battlefield envisioned by both sides for the decisive battle was pointed to one place - Xiangguo.

Li Yuanhui has always been very concerned about the situation in Hebei. For this reason, he even wrote a letter to his eldest brother in Luoyang, asking him to forward military reports from various places as soon as possible.

He didn't want to be attacked by Turkic scimitars and arrows behind him while he was fighting a fierce battle with the Cao bandits from Eastern Wei and Western Wei.

Although there are four states of Xu, Yu, Yan and Qing in the north, and the strategic depth is wide enough, there are also examples of disastrous defeats.

Once the winning party loses the battle for a key strategic node, it will often be unstoppable and advance triumphantly.

So he has always had a strong sense of crisis.

The purpose of this meeting with Murong Jing and Shen Shangxing was to reach a consensus and let these two people follow his arrangements and be under the same command.

If no consensus could be reached and the talks broke down, Li Yuanhui would definitely not care about the situation in Yuzhang, whether Murong Jing and Shen Fasheng surrendered or not, and would just defend the three counties in northern Jiangbei. The most important thing was to hold on to the basic base.

A few days later, the two of them boarded the Wuya ship and, under the escort of large and small boats, left Poyang Lake and arrived in Chaisang.

The three met at a pavilion by the river. Both were in their thirties. Murong Jing was older and had inherited the good genes of the Murong family. He was considered a handsome man. General Hengbo Shen Shangxing was a few years younger than the Murong family. He was also over thirty years old. He was tall and strong, with a majestic appearance and a military demeanor.

Li Yuanhui personally greeted them outside the pavilion, giving face to the two of them.

Seeing this, Murong Jing and Shen Shangxing also put on a perfunctory face and bowed as subordinates.

"Lord Murong and General Shen, please take a seat. I have long wanted to meet you two, and today I finally get my wish."

"General, you are too polite. You are in charge of the military affairs in Yangzhou. We should have gone to Hefei to meet you, but the war in Jiangdong has not stopped, and Cao Cao is gathering troops in the valley. We really have no control over the situation."

Murong Jing explained with a smile, and Shen Shangxing nodded in agreement.

The three of them sat down in the pavilion. Li Yuanhui sighed and said, "What Lord Murong said is very true. After Duke Yuwen died in the war, the situation in Jiangdong became devastating. Since I was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the military in Yangzhou, I have been worried day and night. Now, the remnants of the former Wei are causing chaos in Jingchu and Jiangdong, and the Liang rebels have seized Chang'an and are claiming to be the ruler. In Hebei, the Turks are wreaking havoc. The country is in danger and needs us to work together to overcome the difficulties."

Murong Jing and Shen Shangxing cursed in their hearts when they heard this. This kid spoke better than he sang, but he had to agree with the words out loud.

"The General said"

"The general is loyal to his country and truly a role model for us."

Li Yuanhui naturally understood what was going on in the minds of these two people.

The world is in chaos right now, and they are now in Yuzhang County, which is also considered a force. Although they are subordinate to the Jianghuai Army established by Li Yuanhui in Jiangbei, this relationship is no longer so important at the moment.

While the Great Yan court was gradually losing control over local prefectures and counties, local governors and commanders-in-chief, without strong support, were unable to fully control the territories and armies under their nominal control.

Murong Jingzi has served as the prefect of Yuzhang County for several years. Shen Shangxing has great prestige and deep roots in the Poyang Navy.

Therefore, these two people were not very convinced of Li Yuanhui, the airborne governor of Yangzhou Military and General Zhennan.

They all thought that this boy was only a teenager, about the same age as their son. But now he has become their immediate superior. Why?

If the late emperor were still alive, or if Dayan did not have so many internal strife and foreign enemies, they would naturally not dare to have any disloyal thoughts.

But now, the two have reached a consensus.

He wanted to firmly grasp Yuzhang County and his more than 10,000 elite naval and land troops and hundreds of warships.

After all, official positions and titles are just empty titles nowadays.

How many troops can be mobilized, how much territory is owned, how many weapons and food are available, these are the real things.

As for how much it can be sold for, naturally it goes to the highest bidder.

However, before coming here, Li Yuanhui had never expected that Yuzhang Prefect Murong Jing, a prince of the Murong family, would actually defect to the Eastern Wei.

(End of this chapter)