Chapter 495: Lu Yi's Madness
In the blink of an eye, it was mid-spring of the tenth year of Jian'an.

Last year, all parties had a peaceful year, and the Grand Marshal of Guanzhong finally had a quiet winter.

In the winters of the past few years, the other side has always been pushing for war. It is no exaggeration to say that the fields are filled with killings and the territory has been expanded by thousands of miles.

Mid-spring, the camp at Baqiu, Dongting Lake.

The water level of Dongting Lake rose, and warships were anchored in the water fort of Baqiu Camp.

Lu Yi was standing in the mountains near Ba Qiu, and at the foot of the mountain was the vast Dongting Ocean. He faced southwest and could not see the end.

In the distance, the water surface shimmers, smoke rises, and the vision is distorted and blurred.

A strong spring breeze blew, and the cloak fluttered diagonally. Lu Yi held the hilt of the sword with his left hand, put his right hand on his waist, and stared.

After a moment, he turned around and said to Lu Su who was following him: "Liu Zichu's life and death are unknown, and the people of Jingnan are increasingly determined to fight. Since Pei Qian took office in Jiangling, he has wanted to rebuild Jiangling. When the new city of Jiangling is built, it will be difficult for us to do anything. After the spring plowing is completed, I want to send troops to besiege Jiangling. What do you think?"

"What does the court say?"

"The court has appointed me as the commander-in-chief of Jingzhou's military affairs. I have the power to make decisions in battle."

Lu Yi looked disdainful and said stubbornly, "If we don't fight now, do we have to wait until the new city of Jiangling is built? By then, the armies will be scared by the sight of the strong city, and Liu Zichu will have died in vain."

Lu Su remained silent, as he also knew the specific situation in Jiangling City.

Jiangling is the old capital of Chu and has a long history.

The city wall alone is more than 40 miles long, so Jiangling is prosperous and densely populated, making it an excellent military base.

If it is the capital of a country, the whole country must be mobilized to defend it, so that there will be enough troops and manpower to fill the city wall defense line, or to keep the enemy out of the capital.

You don’t need to see the city wall in person to clearly understand what it will look like after being repaired by local military and civilians.

Unlike the relatively dry and rainy north, the south is rainy. Jiangling is close to the Yangtze River, with Tuojiang River to the west and Xiashui River to the east.

So the city wall of Jiangling does exist, but due to the high cost of maintenance, the wall has been barely maintained from collapsing over the years.

Therefore, Jiangling is definitely not a good stronghold. It can serve as a base for attacking Jingnan, but it definitely does not have the strength to defend itself.

If we wait until the new city of Jiangling is built, who among the Jiangdong and Jingnan armies will be willing to go and attack and die?

Lu Su did not ask this question. From the moment Pei Qian took office, he planned to build a new city in Jiangling, which was obviously an attempt to force and compress Lu Yi and Jingnan.

Lu Su's concerns were other: "If the governor takes the initiative to advance, it may break the tacit agreement between your majesty and the Grand Marshal. Regardless of whether we win or lose this battle, if we attract the Grand Marshal, wouldn't that be like welcoming thieves?"

"Choose the lesser of two evils."

Lu Yi turned to face Lu Su and said, "If you can win, then win. If you can't win, losing early is also a way out. Look at the people in Guanlong, Jing and Yi. Some of them were defeated or surrendered, but they also joined the shogunate. When they planned to divide the world, they were full of vigor and enthusiasm, and they no longer looked defeated."

"We are still able to accept the consequences of our defeat. If Hebei and the Central Plains are successively owned by the Grand Marshal, and we are defeated in the future, I am afraid that our descendants will only be slaves, no different from the slaves of the Hu people."

Lu Yi said in a serious tone: "This battle must be launched quickly and cannot be postponed any further."

Lu Su nodded slowly and wanted to say something, but felt powerless.

The loss of Yizhou was what made Lu Su feel most powerless and speechless.

After taking a few deep breaths, Lu Su asked, "What about Pang Tong?"

"You and I have no way out, and neither does he. Only by fighting can he still have hope of restoring his family. If we don't fight and let Guanzhong be divided, we will get nothing and nothing will be left. We will be left with nothing."

Lu Yi spoke calmly, his eyes turning to look at the water stronghold in the distance: "Huang Zu has also built two huge ships. With the advantage of the huge ships, he is confident that he can blockade Hankou. The summer water is not convenient for warships to travel. Without warships to escort them, no matter how elite the troops in Guanzhong are, they cannot fight me on transport ships or bamboo rafts."

The giant warships carefully built by Huang Zu were the confidence to go to war. By locking the mouth of the Han River, the soldiers from Guanzhong would not be able to go downstream and affect southern Jing.

While Jingnan was stable, Jiangling was large and difficult to defend.

If Jiangling is broken through and Nanjun is shaken, we can naturally attack Xiangyang directly.

If Xiangyang is really captured, it means that Jingzhou will be secure from then on, and the northern army can be blocked in the north of Han River by taking advantage of the Han River.

Seeing Lu Yi's wild demeanor, not afraid of the might of the Guanzhong soldiers at all, Lu Su raised his hand to stroke his beard, pondered for a moment, and said: "Then I will give up my life and accompany the governor to gamble."

"That's how it should be. Zijing is really a straightforward person."

Lu Yi turned his head to look north. He really wanted to see the military tactics of the Grand Marshal.

As analyzed, no matter how bad the situation is if we actively start a war, how bad can it be?
At this moment, Jiangling City was also mobilizing soldiers and civilians to build a new city day and night.

In the slanting wind and drizzle, Pei Qian was walking on the slippery mud wearing a straw raincoat and a hat.

These drizzles are nothing to the vast majority of working people.

Teams of militiamen and soldiers took soil from nearby, mixed it with lime, and boiled glutinous rice soup, and then began to build the boards, tamping the earth layer by layer.

It was originally thought that the old city wall of Jiangling could be demolished for the construction of the new city, but only some stones could be taken.

That’s all the benefits. There’s no need to go to distant mountains to mine stones, but it still takes manpower to dig out old walls and get stones.

As Lu Yi said, he built the new city of Jiangling in order to compress and force the Jiangdong army.

But Lu Yi's reaction has exceeded Pei Qian's expectations, and at this moment he can only continue to reduce the scale of Jiangling New City.

Even the thickness and height of the city walls were reduced again and again. As long as the general outline of the new city was built first, it would help stabilize the morale of the army.

At the very least, a city built in this way is stronger than a fortress.

Pei Qian inspected the construction camp in the rain and climbed up the city wall along the new wall steps. The height was only sixteen feet, including the five-foot-high parapet.

The new city wall was built with the help of the south wall of the old city. The south side of the old city faces the Yangtze River, with ships traveling on the river. This city wall is the face of Jiangling.

Therefore, it is repaired and maintained very well. Relying on this city wall, the construction period and workload of the new city can be greatly reduced.

There was no time to lay bricks on the surface of the newly built wall, so only a layer of wooden boards was laid.

Rainwater seeped under the wooden boards and flowed away along the reserved gutters.

Pei Qian took a few more glances at the drainage outlets in various places. Seeing the red water covered with mud, he knew that the wall would need to be reinforced and raised in the future.

He followed the newly built city wall to the tall old city wall, the ground of which was also built with boards and compacted repeatedly.

But the texture is solid, and the raindrops falling on the ground gradually gather together, just like falling on stone.

Arriving at the women's wall, Pei Qian looked out at the river surface which was obscured by mist.

It turned out that Liu Qi and Fu Xun were also very bold. They knew that Jiangling was large and difficult to defend. Lu Yi stationed tens of thousands of troops in Baqiu, but ended up leaving Jiangling unattended.

Pei Qian had no choice. Black Bear chose Jiangling as the seat of Jingzhou, so Pei Qian had no choice but to come here to take office.

He could not rely on the enemy for his safety, so he decided to build a new city.

Strategically, the completion of the new city will naturally compress Jiangdong and Jingnan.

But when he started building the city, he found that the enemy might be more sensitive than he expected, lacked strategic determination, was very restless, and could not stand provocation.

As his first order as the governor, he had to carry it out even if it was inappropriate.

He was just racing against time, building the general outline before Lu Yi sent out his troops, so that he would have the confidence to hold out against Lu Yi.

No matter how fast Lu Yi reacts, he has to inform Jiangdong, and Jiangdong also has to study and discuss the matter. All the time wasted is his opportunity.

Vice versa, the faster Lu Yi sends his troops, the more time he gains, and the more opportunities he has for himself.

So, above the drizzle and mist, the navy of Baqiu marched forward in the rain and headed straight for Jiangling.

There are always large and small boats that fall behind along the way, but Lu Yi will not stop and wait, he just wants to save time.

After persuading Lu Su, the military supervisor, Lu Yi immediately took action and gave it his all.

(End of this chapter)