Lujiang, Songzi.
"Kill!!!"
Amid the cries of battle, the two armies charged at each other.
Jiang Ban rode his warhorse at the head of the charge. He had originally been a fierce general under Zhuge Dan and had earned a promotion by slaying the Wu Kingdom's formidable general Liu Zan.
Now, serving under Wen Qin, he had earned still more merit.
Wen Qin used him like his own son, always putting him in command of the vanguard to slay enemy generals and be first over the walls.
Wen Qin's main army was still confronting Shi Ji's army near Xunyang, yet despite his numerical disadvantage, Wen Qin had blithely detached a force and ordered Jiang Ban to take a roundabout route to attack Songzi.
Songzi occupied an extremely crucial position, far more important even than Qichun.
Taking Qichun would open the way to capturing Wuchang, but taking Songzi would allow them to attack Jianye.
Songzi was a flat corridor through which cavalry could ride straight into Jiangdong and fight all the way to Jianye.
Precisely because of its crucial position, this had always been one of the Wu Kingdom's most heavily defended areas. Ding Feng had originally been stationed here rather than at the administrative seat.
Now, however, Shi Ji and Ding Feng had been torn apart, one at Qichun and the other at Tangyi, leaving Songzi's defenses severely weakened.
When Jiang Ban suddenly struck, he encountered a counterattack from a force of fewer than ten thousand men.
Jiang Ban had only a little over four thousand soldiers under his command, far fewer than his opponents.
Of the three generals, Wen Qin had the fewest troops, only a little over forty thousand, considerably fewer than Guanqiu Jian's sixty thousand elite troops from Huainan or Hu Zun's seventy thousand elite troops from