cite Han

Chapter 218

Jingzhou navy boats, warships, fighting ships, and boats... meet end to end and roll down each other, and the boats almost cover the entire river.

As soon as the Jingzhou navy appeared in the waters of Hengshan Township, it immediately aroused the great shock of the villagers of Hengshan. The timid ones immediately hid at home, and the brave ones looked around the river. In everyone's impression, the Xiangjiang River It seems that such a large fleet has never been seen.

Cai Mao's ship is a tall building ship with three layers of buildings, parapets, battle grids, and flags, like a fortress.

For building ships, the Yangtze River is the most suitable battlefield for them to gallop freely. Floating on the Xiangjiang River inevitably gives people the feeling that they are overqualified and useless.

Cai Mao is known for his extravagance, so his warships and boats are carved and decorated with blue canopies and crimson curtains. Even the masts and oars are painted with patterns and colors, which can be viewed from a distance. , like a palace on the water.

It's just that the prestige is prestige, but once a battle occurs, it will immediately become the enemy's target and be besieged.There is an old saying: "The general dare not ride a white horse, because he is afraid that it will be easy to recognize." It is the same reason.

However, Cai Mao is obviously not worried about this. He believes that the navy under his command is the best in the world and no one can beat him.In the old days when the Changsha navy was still around, he treated it like fish and meat and let it be slaughtered, but now the Changsha navy has been wiped out by him, the Xiangjiang River is empty, there is no opponent, and it is even more impossible to worry.

The building boat docked at the ferry in Hengshan Township. When Cai Mao got off the boat, he saw more than a dozen township officials in black official uniforms, leading the township sergeants and civilians, leading oxen and holding wine, to welcome the laborers.

This can be regarded as an unspoken rule of military-civilian relationship that has been passed down from ancient times to the present, that is, one party pays for peace, and the other party benefits without disturbing the people.

Of course, this generally refers to the "teacher of benevolence and righteousness". As the saying goes, "Thieves pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a grate", is it a lie?

Cai Mao was the first to speak and said, "I am Cai Mao, Cai Degui, the military adviser of General Zhennan and the prefect of Nanjun. This time, I am ordered by the general to go south to attack the thieves in Lingling and Guiyang."

Liu Biao is a Confucian of the clan, a gentle gentleman, and he always considers himself generous, benevolent and righteous. This time he sent troops to Jingnan, aiming to unify Jingzhou.Before sending troops, Liu Biao repeatedly told Kuai Yue and Cai Mao to restrain the soldiers as much as possible and not to harm the people of Jingnan when they were attacking Zhang Xian.

Cai Mao has an arrogant and self-satisfied personality, but he will not deliberately go against the wishes of his "brother-in-law".

Seeing that Cai Mao's attitude was still kind, the stingy man from Hengshan Township couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief. He immediately led the officials and people, bowed down and said: "My servant...see Cai Nanjun..."

"You don't need to be too polite." Then Cai Mao asked casually: "I heard that Hengshan Township was previously occupied by Liu Zhongda? I wonder if this news is true or not?"

The village stingy man couldn't help "thumping" in his heart, and replied bravely: "Uh, there was chaos in the county last year, refugees were everywhere, and thieves were breeding. Hengshan Township belongs to the southern Hunan Marquis. nuisance.

The Ming court... Liu Jun... couldn't bear to see the people of Hengshan suffer so much, so they sent a warship to station here to drive out the thieves and protect the environment and the people. It is thanks to Liu Jun that we can survive the chaos. "

"Oh?" Cai Hao said with a half-smile on his face, "Hearing what you said, not only did Liu Zhongda have no faults, but he has meritorious deeds?"

How could the village coward fail to hear the irony in Cai Mao's tone, he couldn't help complaining in his heart, and forced himself to be calm and authentic: "This official, this official is just telling the truth."

Cai Mao snorted coldly, and asked again: "When did Liu Zhongda's warship stationed here leave?"

The village stingy man hesitated for a moment before replying, "It's noon today."

Cai Mao laughed anxiously and said, "That is to say, they didn't leave in a hurry until they found my fleet? What a shame."

How could the countryman dare to answer, so he could only pretend to be deaf and dumb.

Cai Mao then asked the villager a few more questions. His original intention was to get some information about Liu Jing, but it turned out that he was thinking too much. Three do not know.

Cai Mao felt impatient and sent him away casually.

Wu Ju didn't know when he came to Cai Mao's side. Looking at the figures of Hengshan officials and people going away, suspicion flashed in his eyes, and he reminded Cai Mao: "Cai Nan County, Liu Zhongda and Liu Boxi are by no means waiting to be killed. I have been occupying Hengshan Township for a long time, and the scholars and people are united, maybe there is an ambush hidden in the township. Be careful that they come to attack ships at night."

He once sent scouts to Ling County, but until he arrived in Hengshan Township, which is only a hundred miles away from Ling County, he still didn't come back. In all likelihood, he was captured or killed by Liu Jing. Liu Jing took such strict precautions, Does it mean that he has a plan?Maybe it's in Hengshan Township.

Wu Ju can think of this problem, Cai Mao naturally can't think of it, if Liu Jing really has "unreasonable thoughts" in his heart as Wu Ju said, Hengshan Township is his last chance.

In order to lure Liu Jing to take the bait, Cai Mao announced to the outside world that he would set up a banquet to reward the three armies with cattle and wine donated by the officials and people of Hengshan to comfort the hard journey.

That night, at the ferry in Hengshan Township, the boats and boats were brightly lit, and there were constant laughter and laughter. The feast lasted until midnight.

But in fact, Cai Mao personally led the soldiers, put on armor and held soldiers, and lay down in the boat, ready to fight.It's a pity that after guarding for a whole night, there was no trace of the enemy until dawn the next day.

When Cai Mao and Wu Ju reappeared, they each had dark circles under their eyes. They looked at each other for a while, not knowing what to say.

After a long while, Cai Mao laughed loudly and said, "Wu Duwei usually praises Liu Zhongda and Liu Boxi to the sky, which makes me really think that they are more courageous than others, but now it seems that it is nothing more than that."

Wu Ju felt a little embarrassed, and said: "It may be that our strength is too strong, so they can only flinch."

Cai Mao nodded and said: "This is human nature. They must be hiding in Ling County at this moment, and they are going to use the city wall to fight against me."

Wu Ju fell into silence. This was the last thing he wanted to see. Cai Mao had many sailors and few infantry, and he would definitely drive his troops to attack the city.

"Sun Tzu's Art of War" says: "The first is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the enemy, the second is to attack the army, and the next is to attack the city. ... If the ants are attached to them, killing one-third of the soldiers, but the city cannot be pulled out, this attack Disaster."

The soldiers had been exhausted for half a month, and they hadn't closed their eyes for another day and night, and they were so tired that they couldn't move at all. Cai Mao had to order another day to rest in Hengshan Township.

Although Cai Mao spoke dismissively of Liu Jing, he did not dare to relax his vigilance completely, and ordered the soldiers to rest in batches to ensure that there were people on duty.Fortunately, everything was uneventful.

The next day, the Jingzhou navy set off again to the south, and it was expected to arrive in Ling County in two days.

(End of this chapter)