Gushu lay more than five hundred li from Jingkou. Warships sailing downriver could reach it in two days.
Jingkou was the gateway to Jiankang, with the great river to its north and steep ridges guarding its south. Its strategic terrain made it a place of military importance. Since the Yongjia Southern Migration, large numbers of displaced people from You, Ji, Qing, Xu, Bing, and Yan provinces had settled there. Chancellor Wang Dao had established expatriate provinces and commanderies to administer these refugees from the Northern Lands, and Jingkou had become the administrative seat of Qiaoxu Province and the Expatriate Eastern Sea Commandery. With refugees gathering there and calls for a northern expedition running high, the Eastern Jin had also established the headquarters of the General of the Household of the North, the Residence of the General Who Pacifies the North, the Residence of the General Who Pacifies the North, and the Residence of the General Who Pacifies the North in Jingkou. This was how Jingkou's "Northern Headquarters" had acquired its name.
On this appointment to Jingkou, Huan Xi served as Inspector of Si Province while concurrently holding the posts of General Who Pacifies the North and Acting Imperial Commissioner, supervising all military affairs in Si, Qing, and You provinces and wielding overall military and civil authority. Xi Yin, who had succeeded Yu Xi as Inspector of Xu and Yan provinces, moved his headquarters to Huaiyin to make way for Huan Xi. Jingkou was now Huan Xi's domain.
On the afternoon of the nineteenth day of the second month, Huan Xi, Chen Caozhi, and their party landed near Beigu Mountain in Jingkou, entering the city that evening. They found low walls and lax defenses, quite at odds with its reputation as a major military stronghold. Most cities in Jiangzuo were like