The edict of the king of Wei was handed down, and 10,000 iron horsemen immediately killed and ran south. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

On land, the potters took Xiang Yu as the vanguard, commanding 10,000 light horsemen to go south along the land route, the terrain of this road is relatively rugged, and several cities need to be passed along the way, which is not conducive to the surprise attack of the cavalry, and this road of soldiers and horses can only be used as an auxiliary road.

The key to this battle lies in the water road.

Huang Zu's main forces were all west of Xiakou, and Wu Zixu, who defended the landing port, had only 3,000 defenders in Jiangxia County, and most of them were concentrated in Xiakou City, and the southward movement along the Han River was almost unimpeded.

The potter marched his 20,000-foot army to a ferry twenty miles away, where he had prepared a large number of improvised bamboo rafts.

Although these rafts were not as strong as warships, they were not used for water warfare, but only to transport his soldiers and horses by water.

And before that, the caravan disguised by Xu Sheng had already set off in advance.

As long as Xu Sheng's soldiers and horses can successfully uproot those beacon towers north of Xiakou, his army can take a bamboo raft to reach Xiakou City, kill the defenders by surprise, and directly enter the city.

That's the potter's plan!

……

A day later, above the Han River.

It was almost dusk, the remnant sun was like blood, and the Han water was a piece of golden waves.

Xu Sheng stood on the bow of the ship, dressed in a merchant's outfit, and behind him, nearly twenty merchant ships followed.

Although Jingzhou was at war, the sale and purchase between merchants was never interrupted, and many merchant ships came and went every day, passing between Xiangyang and Xiakou.

For this kind of non-governmental commercial exchanges, whether it is the side of Wei or the state of Chu and Wu, they are all acquiesced.

On the one hand, this is because by virtue of this kind of people-to-people trade, each other can obtain goods that they do not have, and on the other hand, both sides have to use these merchant ships to transport fine crops and exchange news and information in the name of merchants.

If one side refuses to trade with merchants, then the other side will inevitably return the corresponding means, and in this case, the exchange of information will be cut off, so that weighing the pros and cons, neither side really blocks the trade exchanges.

Therefore, there is nothing unusual about Xu Sheng's merchant fleet appearing here.

From the outside, each merchant ship looked like a few shipwrights rocking and sailing, but in the cabin, there were dozens of elite soldiers.

It was almost evening, Xu Sheng's twenty ships finally traveled to the waters north of Xiakou, and dozens of miles to the south was where Xiakou City was located.

When they arrived in this water, the patrol boats of the Xia Shui Army of the Hanshui River increased, because there were only more than 20 small boats, which were not enough to pose a threat to Xiakou City, so they were easily overshadowed by the patrol boats.

After traveling more than five miles, on the east coast side, Xu Sheng finally saw the shadow of the beacon tower, and his eyes immediately flashed with excitement.

His merchant fleet could have crossed these beacons and headed straight for Xiakou City, but the army of potters dozens of miles away behind him could not ignore the beacons.

Therefore, the task of Xu Sheng's trip was to take the beacon tower and clear the obstacles for the follow-up army of the potters.

The guards on the beacon tower saw that a ship was approaching, and immediately became vigilant, and the officer at the head immediately ordered his subordinates to prepare a fire, and he himself brought more than ten people to the shore, shouting that merchant ships should not approach the shore.

"If it's getting late today, I don't dare to continue sailing, I just want to stop here for a night, and I hope that the military master will have a convenient trip." Xu Sheng laughed, jumped down, and waded ashore in a few steps.

The officer shook the handle of the knife and said coldly: "General Huang has an order, idle people are not allowed to approach the beacon tower, you better find another place to rest on the shore, don't embarrass this official." ”

"It's a big night, where to find a place to dock, it's convenient for the military master, this is a little thought, and I hope the military master will accept it." Xu Sheng stepped forward with a smile, skillfully took out a money bag and stuffed it into the officer's hand.

Xu Sheng has been a pirate for so many years, and he has long been familiar with doing this kind of thing, and he knows that being a soldier is just to make money, not to mention Huang Zu's soldiers, even the soldiers of Great Wei, and he still sees money, this is human nature.

Sure enough, as soon as the official army saw the money, his face immediately turned from yin to money, and he waved his hand and said generously: "What you said is also reasonable, the boat at night is really dangerous, how can our army ignore the safety of the people, so let's let you stop here for a night for the time being, and you will have to leave immediately at dawn tomorrow." ”

Xu Sheng thanked him again and again, and hurriedly called the rest of the merchant ships to dock, and ordered to take out the wine and food prepared on the ship to reward the soldiers on the beacon tower.

The officers took the money, and the soldiers had wine and meat to eat, and the defenders of the beacon tower were naturally completely lax, only caring about drinking wine and eating meat, and did not guard against it at all.

Unconscious of the night,

Xu Sheng saw that the time had come, so he whistled, and dozens of soldiers hiding in the cabin quietly went ashore in the dark, and took advantage of the cover of night to go straight to the beacon tower.

Syllable!

Xu Sheng flew up with a kick, kicked the firewood under the beacon tower away, and the war knife appeared in his hand, and he rushed into it with one arrow step.

In the beacon tower, the guards were warming themselves around the fireplace, they were all full of wine, dozing off, and Xu Sheng kicked in the door without realizing it.

As soon as Xu Sheng entered the door, he met the officer, staggering out, and unbuttoned his pants, probably wanting to relieve himself.

Xu Sheng sneered, raised the knife in his hand, and cut off the officer's head.

Immediately afterwards, a large group of Wei soldiers outside rushed in, pounced like tigers and wolves on those guards who had just been surprised.

In a moment, more than a dozen guards were killed, and Xu Sheng easily took the beacon tower.

After taking one, Xu Sheng didn't stop, went south along the Han River, went straight to the next one, and used the same means to take down dozens of beacon towers one after another.

Without the watchful eye of the beacon tower, the tens of thousands of troops of the potters sat on bamboo rafts and went all the way south.

As for those patrol boats on the river, although they found the Wei army, they rushed to the beacon tower to report the news, and wanted to light the beacon fire, but as soon as they docked, they were immediately left on the shore by Xu Sheng, and the soldiers who pretended to be guards were killed.

Therefore, the army of potters went all the way south, and Xiakou did not notice it at all.

When the sky was about to dawn, in the southeast direction, the outline of Xiakou City was already in view.

The potter standing at the head of the raft, although he had not slept all night, could not see the slightest tiredness on his face, and when Xiakou City appeared in his eyes, he was instantly excited.

The war knife in his hand pointed forward, and the potter shouted wildly: "Xiakou City is in front of you, give this king a drum and kill it!" ”

Under the order, the flag moves like the wind.

Hundreds of bamboo rafts sped up, carrying the soldiers who were eager to make meritorious contributions, and frantically rushed towards Xiakou City.

In the mist, the impregnable Xiakou City was like a sleeping baby, unaware that death was approaching, and most of the people and soldiers were still in the warm bed, and they were reluctant to get up.

At the head of the city, the guards who had been messy all night in the river breeze at night, tired, frozen, and sleepy, were huddled in a pile of three people by the brazier with unfinished smoke, waiting for someone to come and change their guards.

In the water camp in the west of the city, there are only a few dozen small warships left, and there are more than 700 soldiers who are not elite, and most of the soldiers of the warships here, like the Yangtze River water camp in the south of the city, were taken away by Huang Zu and went to the front line of Lushan to garrison to guard against Wu Zixu in the direction of Lukou.

As usual, Song Zhong stayed behind in the water camp, and before the soldiers woke up, they began to inspect the camps according to the usual practice, and did not find anything particularly unusual.

If there is anything suspicious, it is that among the ships that went to patrol the upper reaches of the Han River yesterday, several of them did not return on time.

This made Song Zhong a little worried, and he couldn't help but raise his head and glanced a few times in the direction of the beacon tower on the shore.

There is no half-column wolf smoke, which means that the north side is safe.

Song Zhong thought that most of the patrol boats that had not returned were too late to come back and were just resting near the shore, so he was no longer suspicious and continued to patrol.

At dawn, Song Zhong stood at the end of the trestle bridge, which was already the outermost end of the water village, and as far as the eye could see, the vast Han water reflected the scales of the waves under the illumination of the morning sun, and the river fog that would disperse set off each other, and it was a bit dreamlike.

"The pottery thief has finally retreated north, and our Jiangxia has finally turned the corner......

When Song Zhong was admiring the scenery, suddenly, his ears pricked up, and he felt a trace of abnormality.

The movement, the sound, came from the river.

It was the sound of paddling, coming from upstream, getting closer and closer, getting louder and louder, and in the blink of an eye, it seemed to be rolling angry waves.

Song Zhong instinctively looked towards the upper reaches of the Han River, looking far away, through the gradually dissipating river mist, there seemed to be clusters of black shadows approaching rapidly.

Song Zhong wasn't too suspicious, he guessed that it might just be a returning patrol ship, or a merchant ship heading south to do business.

Soon, his spirit became nervous, for the sound was all too familiar, the sound of hundreds of boats and thousands of streams rushing towards the water.

Song Zhong was startled in his heart, and he hurriedly raised his eyes to look, only to see that above the river, the shadow like a black giant wall was rapidly approaching, and suddenly, his face was distorted and deformed, frozen in a moment of horror and stunned, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Wei Jun! It's Wei Jun! ”

Song Zhong was so shocked that his body shook, and even his voice was dumb, and in his field of vision, he saw countless bamboo rafts, like dark clouds covering the ground, rolling overwhelmingly in the direction of Shuiying.

On the bow of the ship, the heavily armed Wei soldiers, with their eyes wide open, stared at this side as if they had seen prey, all of them murderous.

Song Zhong hurriedly went to the direction of the beacon tower, and was surprised to find that there was no fireworks along the line of the river, as if the soldiers of the beacon tower had become blind, and they could not see the Wei army that was coming from under their noses.

Song Zhong's brain buzzed instantly, his body staggered, and he was so startled that he took three steps back.

Left and right, those Chu soldiers and soldiers were also stunned, and they fell into panic and chaos in an instant.