cite Han

Chapter 387 Xiakou

"What do you guys think about this?"

After Han Song withdrew, Cao Cao looked at his confidants, and finally locked his eyes on Xun You and Jia Xu.

After Dong Zhuo's death, Xun You once asked to be the prefect of Shu County because "Bashu is dangerous and solid, and the people are prosperous". However, because of Liu Yan and Liu Biao's feud, the road was cut off, so he stayed in Jingzhou for several years.

But Jia Xu was attached to Nanyang Zhangxiu before, and had many contacts with Liu Biao.When it comes to the understanding of Liu Biao, there is no one better than the two.

Xun You is 46 years old this year. As Cao Cao's mastermind, his appearance is honest and simple, and there is nothing unusual about it. Cao Cao commented on him: "Outside is foolish and inside is wise, outside is cowardly and inside is courageous, outside is weak and inside is strong, wisdom can be achieved, but stupidity cannot."

Jia Xu is ten years older than Xun You. He is 56 years old this year. His face is pale and narrow, and his eyes are long and narrow. Perhaps it is a common problem of wise men. His beard under his chin is mostly gray.

Xun You took the lead in saying: "Liu Biao never had the strategy of being king and hegemony. He has been in charge of Jingzhou for more than ten years. He only knows how to protect the river and Han, but has no ambitions for the four directions. Now Liu Jing is rising inside, Sun Quan covets outside, and Liu Biao protects himself." It is difficult, and it is difficult to compete with Minggong. Those who build great things should not avoid small grievances. Now that Liu Biao is poor, Minggong might as well accept it to show the world."

Jia Xu also nodded in agreement and said, "The military advisor's words are reasonable. Duke Ming wants to spread virtue throughout the world, so it is beneficial and harmless to agree to Liu Biao's request. Moreover, Liu Biao is facing enemies at the moment, and he is in danger. If Duke Ming launches a large-scale attack, Liu Biao will reject it with Liu Bei." In short, it is hard to escape the end of defeat. It's just that this may not be beneficial to Minggong."

"Why?" Cao Cao asked.

Jia Xu replied: "Although Yuan Shao was defeated, he still occupied the land of the four prefectures, with [-] armies. Now that the north has not been settled, the Duke of Ming sent his troops to the south. Maybe he could take all the land in Nanyang, but he could not occupy the south of Hanmian. Sun Quan Not long after succeeding to the throne, the interior has not been cleared up, and the army is out on the march, Jiangdong will soon be in chaos. The winners in the end are Liu Bei and Liu Jing."

When talking about Liu Jing, Jia Xu frowned subconsciously. Compared with Sun Quan in Jiangdong, they were even more unfamiliar with Liu Jing in Jingnan. My understanding all came from rumors, or the kind of rumors that have been passed around many times.

Jia Xu continued: "Liu Bei is an old enemy of the Duke of Ming. He has great talent and won the hearts of the people. If he repeats the old story of Xuzhou, it will be a serious problem for the Duke of Ming. But what is more worrying is Liu Jing. This man started from a city. , Destroy Liu Biao in its heyday, and Jingnan is all there. It is rumored that this person is a dragon, a phoenix, divine wisdom, a hundred schools of thought, political affairs and literary debate, and military strategy. From Yuan Shao, the south will no longer be owned by the state."

Jia Xu's remarks made everyone in the room fall into deep thought.

"Last year, Zhang (Jin) Jiaozhou sent an envoy to Xudu to sue Liu Jing for sending troops to invade Jiaozhou and occupy Yulin. From this point of view, Liu Jing is by no means loyal to the country as he said, but has a different ambition. The public must guard against it."

The person who spoke was Guo Jia, the military sacrificial wine. He was the youngest of Cao Cao's confidants and advisers. He was only 33 years old this year.His facial features are handsome, his temperament is refined, and his style is very good, but his body is slightly thin.

"It's the same with Sun Quan..." Guo Jia said again, "In the past, Duke Ming only focused on the north and had no time to look south. Now that Duke Ming has defeated Yuan Shao and fought for the power of Dongxia, he can pay attention to the south. Liu Jing and Sun Quan both have brothers. Duke Ming might as well take this opportunity and ask the two to send their younger brother to Xudu as a hostage."

Zhong Yao, Dong Zhao, Xiahou Dun and others nodded in agreement.

Cao Cao also thought that Guo Jia's proposal was good, and that Liu Jing and Sun Quan sent their younger brothers with the best quality, so even if they refused, there would be no loss to him.

Cao Cao then discussed with his counselors for a long time, and finally made a decision, that is, to accept Liu Biao to surrender, and to order Liu Jing and Sun Quan to be hostages outside, and then Chen Bing stood between Ru (South) and Ying (Chuan) to watch Liu Biao, Liu Jing, Sun Quan fought in three parties, thus reaping the benefits of the fisherman.

…………

In March, Jiangxia County, Xiakou.

Xiakou, that is, the mouth of the Han River into the Yangtze River, is also called Hankou and Miankou because of the same origin of Han and Mian.

Xiakou is adjacent to high mountains in the south, blocked by water in three directions, easy to defend but difficult to attack.

At this time, more than ten miles northeast of Xiakou, there was a boat army composed of hundreds of large and small ships, one after another, crossing the river.

This fleet is exactly the Jiangdong army led by Sun Quan. It is similar to Zhuge Liang's partial division. Since entering Jiangxia, they have passed through Qichun, E County, and Zhu County with almost no resistance, and their progress has been very smooth.

However, Sun Quan knew that it was not that Huang Zu was afraid of the Jiangdong Army, but that he deliberately shrunk the line of defense. Not surprisingly, Xiakou was the place Huang Zu had chosen for the decisive battle.Because once passing through Xiakou, you can take a boat directly to Shaxian City, Huangzu's ruling place, so Huangzu will definitely set up heavy troops in Xiakou to block the Jiangdong army.

The reports from the scouts in front also confirmed Sun Quan's guess. Huang Zu used two huge ships to cut across the river and guard Xiakou.

Sun Quan immediately ordered Xu Kun, the general of Pinglu, to be the governor of the former army, and lead the former army boats to attack Xiakou, and he personally led the Chinese army to follow.

Xu Kun received Sun Quan's order and immediately commanded the front army to attack Xiakou more than ten miles away.

However, due to the narrow waterway in Xiakou, it is difficult to launch the boats. If they are crowded together, they are in danger of being attacked by the enemy.Therefore, Xu Kun did not attack on a large scale, but only sent a few warships and fighting ships to test first.

On the two gigantic ships guarding Miankou, thousands of soldiers from the Huang Zu Army were all wearing heavy armor and armed with strong crossbows. When the Jiangdong Army boat approached, they immediately pulled the crossbow triggers, and it rained arrows all at once.

The Jiangdong Army's first wave of tentative attacks ended in failure without even being able to get close to the huge ship of the Huangzu Army.

Xu Kun didn't get angry at all, he had intended to test it at first, but now that he had a general understanding of the enemy's situation, he immediately attacked with Ling Cao, the captain of the bandit-breaking school, as the vanguard.

Ling Cao is an old general of Sun Ce, a native of Yuhang, Wu County. When he was young, he was courageous. After Sun Ce rose up in Jiangdong, Ling Cao led hundreds of rangers to join him. Every time he fought, he often won the championship first. He is one of the few in Jiangdong. fierce general.

Ling fought bravely, did not dodge the arrows, and rushed to the forefront in his own boat.The soldiers of the Jiangdong Army were all courageous, everyone forged ahead, and dozens of boats and ships came to kill.

However, this time, not only the two gigantic warships shot arrows raining down the sky, but also stones and rockets fell from the cliffs on both sides at the same time.

It turned out that Huang Zu's army had heavy troops on the cliffs on both sides. In an instant, the Jiangdong army's boats were either destroyed by stones, or ignited by rockets. , also helpless, defeated.

(End of this chapter)