Jiang Wan agreed first, sent the messenger to the library to rest, and told him to treat him well.
As soon as the messenger left, Jiang Wan opened the brocade bag left by Kong Ming, and there was indeed a secret message inside.
After Jiang Wan read the secret message carefully, his expression suddenly showed admiration, and he couldn't help but sigh: "Advisor Kong Ming really knows things like a god. It's hard for me to start. It's hard for me to start."
Early the next morning, Jiang Wan sent the messenger on the road, asking him to quickly report to Meng Da who was on his way to Wu County. He said that he was ready to fight Liu Feng's army and asked Meng Da to speed up the defeated army. The two men joined forces to increase the garrison strength of Jianping County.
At this time, Mengda's troops had entered Jianping County and were on the official road to Wu County.
After receiving the reply from the courier, confirming that Jiang Wan was unaware of the situation, Meng Da felt very happy. While sending someone to deliver the message to Liu Feng who followed up, he also urged his five thousand troops to speed up the march.
Jianping County is distributed in a long and narrow terrain along the Yangtze River. Wu County is located at the westernmost end of Jianping County, and there are Xinling and Zigui counties at the east end.
Mengda pretended to be a defeated army, deceived the city gates of the two counties, and seized the two counties with lightning speed. After leaving Liu Feng's army to occupy, some of the 5,000 soldiers and horses disguised themselves as fleeing civilians, and marched along the Following the mountain road along the river, we rushed towards Wu County day and night.
Two days later, Meng Da and his mixed "military and civilian" team arrived in Wu County.
Mengda will lead with one thousand soldiers and horses, followed by the remaining four thousand soldiers disguised as civilians. Once he can successfully trick him into the city gate, the entire army will rise up and rush into the county town in one fell swoop.
Urging the horses forward, a thousand soldiers and horses arrived in front of the city in an instant.
"We are the troops of General Meng of Yidu. Open the door quickly and let us enter the city." The soldiers shouted to the defenders at the top of the city across the moat.
At this moment, Jiang Wan was waiting at the top of the city with his armor and sword in hand. Hearing the shouts of the soldiers, he shouted loudly: "Where are General Meng's soldiers?"
Jiang Wan is a cautious person, and of course he will not open the door without seeing him.
Mengda then drove his horse forward, reached the river, raised his head and shouted: "Gong Yan, it's me, open the city gate quickly."
Jiang Wan put his hands on the canopy and scanned carefully for a long time, then he recognized that the general under the city was indeed Meng Da.
He did not order the city to be opened, but continued to ask: "Zi Du, the terrain of Yi Dao is dangerous and the city is strong. How can you let Liu Feng attack the city?"
Meng Da looked helpless and sighed: "I'm ashamed to say that Liu Feng attacked the city very fiercely. It was my negligence and he broke a city wall. Tens of thousands of troops poured in. I couldn't resist, so the Yi Dao was defeated." Lost. Gong Yan, quickly open the city gate and let me in. Liu Feng's army is chasing after me."
Jiang Wan curled up his lips slightly and sneered: "Okay, Zidu, please wait for a moment, and I will order the city to be opened and let you in."
After Jiang Wan finished speaking, he disappeared.
Meng Da thought that Jiang Wan had descended to the city, and was about to open the city to welcome him in. He accidentally touched his waist sword and sword. When he was about to meet, he suddenly attacked and killed Jiang Wan in one fell swoop, forcing him to surrender without any bloodshed. All the troops took Wu County.
While he was making his calculations, suddenly, a cannon shot was heard from the top of the city.
When I raised my head hurriedly, I suddenly saw the plain city head. Suddenly, countless soldiers appeared. Arrows with cold light were aimed at the army below the city with eager eyes.
Mengda was shocked by the sudden change.
Jiang Wan did what he did following Zhuge Liang¡¯s secret plan.
Zhuge Liang made it very clear that Yidao City was the key to defending Shu. This city was located among the mountains, and the area exposed to the enemy's attack was only a few hundred feet wide. Even if the enemy numbered 100,000, it would be difficult to defeat them. Spread out in front of the city, three thousand soldiers guarded the city, and even the enemy with thousands of troops and horses could not conquer it.
Meng Da possesses generals and talents. As long as he is willing to stick to it wholeheartedly, Yidao City will be impregnable.
Zhuge Liang is absolutely assured of Meng Da's generals, but he is not assured of his character and conduct. If Liu Bei had not placed great importance on Meng Da and appointed him as the governor of Yidu, Zhuge Liang would have wanted to transfer him away from this important place.
It¡¯s just that now that Jingzhou has been lost and Yizhou has not yet been conquered, people within Liu Bei¡¯s group are shaken. At such a special moment, if Meng Da is transferred from Yidu, it is very likely that he will become suspicious and rebel.
Therefore, due to various scruples, Zhuge Liang did not persuade Liu Bei to replace Liu Bei and return to guard Yidu, but Zhuge Liang wanted to prevent it.As a result, Jiang Wan was ordered to garrison troops in Wu County, not only as a second line of defense, but also to monitor Meng Da.
Zhuge Liang made it clear in his plan that as long as Meng Da defends the city loyally and with his ability, Yidu will be as stable as Mount Tai. If Yidu County falls, it will be Meng Da who rebels and surrenders to Liu Feng. At the time of the introduction, Meng Da would definitely come up with a plan to defraud Jianping, thinking that Liu Feng would be surrendering as a gift.
It is precisely for this reason that Jiang Wan made this arrangement.
"Jiang Gongyan, why are you doing this?" Meng Da knew that the plot had been discovered, but still had a glimmer of hope and asked sternly, pretending to be innocent.
Jiang Wan appeared on the city again and shouted at Meng Da: "Meng Da, you thief, you betrayed the lord and intended to defraud my city. Your treacherous plot has long been seen through by Kong Ming's military commander, so why do you have the shame to show off here?"
Hearing this, Meng Da was frightened, and suddenly he understood Jiang Wan's intention of stationing troops here. It turned out that Kong Ming had been worried about him for a long time, and specially arranged for this group of soldiers to take precautions.
Shocked, Mengda didn¡¯t think much, turned around, reined in his horse and ran away. As soon as the general moved, a thousand soldiers and horses were also panicked, and then dispersed.
"Shoot an arrow to kill these traitors"
Jiang Wan gave the order, and arrows rained down from the city.
At this time, most of the thousand Mengda troops were crowded together by the moat. At such a close range, it was not easy to form a formation to resist the arrow attack, not to mention the chaotic situation during the retreat.
For the soldiers running away from the city, the vital points behind them were completely exposed to the sight of the enemy archers. More than a thousand people became the enemy's practice targets. Under the rain of arrows as dense as locusts, they felt as if they were washed away by the flood. Like a colony of ants, they fell to the ground one after another.
Meng Da ran away quickly, but at such a close range, how could he be spared? He could only hear the whistling of arrows in his ears, and just after running for more than ten steps, he felt severe pain in his shoulder, and a sharp arrow had already penetrated him. Enter the bone.
Meng Da was in so much pain that he gritted his teeth, but in this thin line between life and death, he didn't care about his injuries. Instead, he leaned his body against the horse's belly and escaped at all costs with his excellent riding skills.
After a while, he finally escaped from the enemy city's arrow rain range.
Mengda climbed onto the horse's back with difficulty, lowered his head and looked back. He saw a thin trail of blood extending from the city to his feet, all of which was his own blood.
Looking behind us, almost half of the more than a thousand soldiers were killed by the enemy's arrows. The surviving defeated soldiers were all in dire straits, running away like rats crossing the street.
Meng Da's eyes were like blades, shooting out the angry flames of hunting. He stared at the top of the city and gnashed his teeth and cursed: "You Jiang Wan, I, Meng Da, will definitely repay the revenge of this arrow in the future."
Xinling County.
Just one day after Meng Da's troops left, Liu Feng's army followed and took over the easternmost county town of Jianping County.
After the army was stationed, it temporarily stopped advancing westward.
Since the Battle of Jingxiang consumed countless money and food, Liu Feng was theoretically not suitable to launch the Western Expedition at this time. However, once the God-given opportunity is missed, if Liu Bei is allowed to capture Yizhou, it will be difficult to conquer the west if he wants to do so again.
In order not to miss this unique opportunity, Liu Feng could only rush to the west when there was insufficient food and grass and the war was about to end.
Under such circumstances, the supply of food and grass for the Western Expeditionary Army naturally became a problem, so Liu Feng did not dare to extend the supply line too long in a short period of time. After entering Xinling, he could only wait for the latest batch of food and grass raised by Jiangling Only after delivering it did I dare to continue advancing westward.
On the other hand, Liu Feng was also waiting for news about Mengda's capture of Wu County, and at the same time collected grain and grass from the surrounding villagers on the spot.
In the early morning of this day, it is estimated that Meng Da's troops and horses should have arrived in Wu County. If everything goes well, it won't take long for Meng Da's good news to come back.
However, until the afternoon, Liu Feng did not wait for Meng Da's good news, but waited for another urgent letter.
"My lord, Mr. Shi Yuan has a letter delivered to him." Ma Di presented the letter to Liu Feng in person.
Liu Feng wrote detailed letters about Meng Da's surrender, Yidu's success, and Meng Da's plan to defraud Jianping and sent them to Jiangling at night. As the number one counselor in the Zhennan General's Mansion, although Pang Tong was unable to follow Liu Feng in his western expedition because he had to stay in Jingzhou, Liu Feng still needed to listen to his opinions at any time whenever important matters came up.
This letter from Pang Tong was about Meng Da's proposal, but the content of the letter surprised Liu Feng.
Pang Tong made it very clear in his letter that Yidu is so important. Jiang Wan's three thousand troops should be stationed in Yidu and guard this place together with Meng Da. However, they went against the norm and stationed troops in Jianping. This shows that , Liu Bei was wary of Meng Da.
Mengda defended Yidu for several months and could not leave. Now Liu FengDuring the Western Expedition, Mengda was defeated and fled westward. Such an unusual move would probably arouse suspicion.
Therefore, Pang Tong speculated that Meng Da's so-called plan to defraud Jianping would probably fail at the gate of Wu County.
Since Liu Feng and Pang Tong got acquainted, this Fengxiao has been full of ideas. As for what he speculated in his letter, Liu Feng thought about it carefully, and it made sense.
After the letter was shown to Ma Su, Ma Su looked a little suspicious: "Mr. Shiyuan's speculation does make some sense, but I think it seems a bit too much"
Before he finished speaking, the soldiers hurried in and reported a shocking news.
Meng Da lost.
And he was defeated miserably. Not only did he lose his troops, but he was also seriously injured.
After hearing the news, Ma Su had to swallow the words that were already on his lips. What surprise and sigh appeared on his face.
"Lord, I didn't expectI didn't expect that Mr. Shiyuan really guessed it right. Now that Mengda has been defeated, Wu County has been on guard. It is impossible to take Yidu as easily as we did. It seems that we There are tough battles to be fought.¡±
Ma Su's concerns cast a shadow in Liu Feng's heart, but after he read Pang Tong's letter, the shadow suddenly disappeared, and a trace of deceitful pride quietly emerged between his eyebrows. .