Not to mention Liu Pan's belated realization in the rear, Qin Tian's forces had already seized Luo County.
This was also because Liu Pan had not notified anyone when he marched south, leaving cities such as Yiyang and Luo County wholly unprepared.
It was understandable enough. After all, these people did not know that Qin Tian had already arrived.
In the eyes of the defending generals, Zhang Xian had now died of illness, while Liu Pan was fiercely attacking Linxiang in the south.
All this created a false impression among them: the enemy was still far away.
Thus, faced with Qin Tian's sudden assault, the Jing Province army had no time to react at all.
After Yiyang fell, Luo County fell in turn. Qin Tian spent half a day there hastily preparing dry rations before charging into the Dongting Lake naval stockade.
The ships Liu Pan had used to march south were all moored there, with only eight hundred soldiers guarding them.
Under Taishi Ci's command, the battle was settled in less than half an hour.
Though Qin Tian's troops were not naval forces, nearly all of them were natives of Yuzhang. Thanks to Peng Lake, almost every one of them could swim.
After seizing the ships, Qin Tian scuttled the small boats, placing forty men aboard each vessel.
He then combined the larger tower ships, with a hundred men aboard each, and sailed toward Wuling.
The seat of Wuling Commandery was called Linyuan, the site of Changde City in Hunan in later generations.
In later ages, because the Yangtze River changed course, this place became one of the river's main channels.
But in this era, there was only a tributary of the Yangtze here, called the Yuan River.
Leaving Dongting Lake and sailing westward downstream, one would first pass