On the fourth day of the fourth month of April, late at night, on the surface of the Jialing River, dozens of light fighting ships flew down the river, like arrows from the string, flying south.

The tributaries of the Yangtze River in the land of Bashu, because of the steep mountains and the large difference between the river flows, are very fast to sail along the river.

Li Baizhi's poem "A Thousand Miles of Jiangling in One Day" is certainly about the dangers of the Three Gorges, but the boat going up the Jialing River is not much slower than the Three Gorges, and it can still be done at full speed for 3,500 miles a day.

Yan Yan's expression was solemn, he stood on the bow of the boat, carefully scanned the river, and as Langzhong County gradually moved away, he breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but complain to himself:

"We must not let Hu Chuquan live to see the Nanchong Barbarian Chief Pu Hu! Otherwise, the big thing will go. Hmph, he is also the younger brother of Shan Yu of the Southern Huns, and he was actually reduced to being willing to run for Liu Bei and Guan Yu, which is really a loss of face for his ancestors. ”

A henchman colonel next to him was already a little frightened, and couldn't help asking: "County lieutenant, won't Guan Yu chase after you?" What if the enemy army is prepared? ”

Yan Yan waved his hand, signaling that there was no need to worry: "Even if Guan Yu dares to chase, I heard that Liu Bei Zhu will fight for a long time, and the ships are narrower than our army if they are not accustomed to water warfare, and outsiders are not familiar with the hydrology of the Jialing River, so why be afraid!" ”

Encouraged by this, the officers under his command were highly motivated and in a relaxed mood.

It turned out that the county lieutenant had already calculated Guan Yu's response, so he dared to pursue Hu Chuquan, so he was not afraid.

It's a pity that Guan Yu didn't plan to wait for Yan Yan to chase Chu Quan too far. Yan Yanbu had just left the water gate on the west side of Langzhong County less than twenty miles when he saw the fire rising to the sky in the dark night.

"What's going on? Has Guan Yu been secretly staring and knowing that I personally led the troops out of the city to chase after me? As soon as I get out of the city, he will attack the city? There were still seven or eight hundred soldiers in the city, and thousands of young and strong people who were helping to defend it, and he was counting on it to be broken through in one night? Yan Yan's pupils contracted violently a few times, and he suddenly felt a little panicked in his heart.

He didn't care about chasing after the kitchen spring anymore, so he hurriedly returned to the boat and let the soldiers desperately rock the oars against the current, exhausting all the strength of the milk, and rowing back for more than an hour, and many soldiers were tired like dogs.

After arriving, he found that Guan Yu actually used several fireboats, which were full of firewood and grass, and set fire to the West Water Gate in Langzhong.

The bow of the ship should have iron-clad sharp stakes, probably similar to the hammer head of the battering ram, and before the attack, the ship should be rammed at full speed towards the water gate, and the sharp iron should be inserted into the wooden gate to set fire to a fixed position.

Of course, the wood of the city gate is not ordinary wood, and it will not be destroyed by fire so quickly, but continuous arson will eventually destroy it, and it will prevent access from this gate.

When Yan Yan rescued the nearby river, he found that Guan Yu had already occupied the upper reaches of the warship, blocking the possibility of returning to Langzhong City by water. Yan Yan still wanted to impact, and there were a few cheap small fireboats down the river, which was difficult to dodge, and there were enemy ships approaching to release arrows and slash and kill, and after a few strokes, several warships in Yan Yan's army were ignited, and Yan Yan was forced to abandon the ship and land, wanting to shout from the south gate to open the city gate and return to the town to guard.

As a native of Ba County, Yan Yan knows some water nature and can also fight water battles, but after all, he can't compare with the generals of the naval army in Jingzhou or Jiangdong, and the reason why he was big before was completely because he thought that Guan Yu didn't understand water warfare at all.

At this moment, seeing Guan Yu's decent scheduling, it was obvious that the ability of water warfare was at least not under Yan Yan, and Yan Yan panicked.

Soon after he landed on the shore and made a detour, he encountered hundreds of Youzhou cavalry outside the south gate to wait for work to intercept, the cavalry in Guan Yu's army had not been opened since the Battle of Ba County, and they had long been suffocated, and finally forced out a chance to fight outside the city, and rushed up frantically without roaring.

Yan Yan's subordinates were all chasing by boat and had just landed on the shore, and they didn't have horses except for Yan Yan himself, so Yan Yan had no choice but to kill them.

In the end, the only thing he relied on was his reasonable martial arts. At least the martial arts of the generals under Zhang Lu's account must be far inferior to Yan Yan (Gan Ning is not a general under Zhang Lu's account)

Even among the many generals under Liu Yan's account, Yan Yan's current martial arts value should be the first - ten years later, Zhang Ren's martial arts may be able to surpass Yan Yan. But now Zhang Ren is still just a young man in his early twenties from a poor background, who has just defected to Liu Yan and has not yet mixed up with any official positions, so he has been able to slowly climb up as a grassroots officer, and his martial arts have not yet become successful. Compared with the thirty-seven or eighteen-year-old Yan Yan, that can't be beaten.

Yan Yan knew that breaking through in the dark night, low-key was the most important, so he didn't shout anything, he didn't say anything, he didn't make a sound and rushed to kill, and soon he slashed three or five Youzhou elite horsemen with a knife, and slightly rushed out of a gap.

But with the breakthrough here, Guan Yujun's attention was also attracted, and Guan Yu, who had been watching coldly from behind the battle, finally discovered the key point on this chaotic battlefield.

"He's a knife maker too, good! It's a good time today! Guan Yu's eyes narrowed, and he was a little excited.

Yan Yan heard a rhythmic sound of horses' hooves coming from afar in the dark, obviously heading straight for him, and he was immediately on high alert, and the general's intuition made him realize that danger was approaching.

"Bell!" There was a loud bang, and both sides were swinging with a tentative, high-difficulty one-handed knife.

Guan Yu is dragging the knife, while Yan Yan is just plainly using his shoulders as the axis to borrow his strength. This is also a common trick to keep a distance from the opponent when the vision of the night battle is poor, so as not to get too close all of a sudden, and there is no room for maneuver, and you will be plotted by some unexpected tricks.

And the result of this knife is that one of the two has a solemn mentality, and the other is more and more excited.

Although Guan Yu used a dragging knife, he didn't exert all his strength in terms of strength, because he didn't want to kill Yan Yan directly.

So far, Yan Yan has scrupulously guarded the Han City and has not been guilty of colluding with Zhang Luming, so he can only be said to have acted on orders to prevent Guan Yu from passing. Since Liu Bei is here to recruit Zhang Lu and investigate the inside story of Zhang Lu and Liu Yan, he must win over those officials under Liu Yan who are loyal to the imperial court.

Anti-thieves, sect thieves, and handsome people can be killed if necessary, and the military attaché of the imperial court cannot be killed indiscriminately, after all, Emperor Ling is not dead, and he must abide by the rules of officialdom (in fact, he will die this month, and there are less than ten days, but Guan Yu doesn't know. ）

For people like Yan Yan, the best way is to be able to directly reason and surrender after being captured. Otherwise, they will be imprisoned, and after Li Su clears up the evidence of Liu Yan's collusion with Zhang Lu, he will tell Yan Yan with ironclad evidence: You trust your loyal boss, Yizhou Mu Liu Yan, who is the one who colludes with the thieves.

At that point, there is a ninety percent probability that you can surrender, if you don't surrender like that, then you don't have to say it, it belongs to stubbornness, and it's not too late to be punished again.

Guan Yu left the first knife in his hand because of this, but since Yan Yan blocked it, the second knife could almost be used with all his strength, and he knew that it would not fall in seconds.

"Whew-" The sound of this knife did not seem to be the sound of sharp weapons such as knives and guns, but rather a dull whistling of axes and hammers.

Yan Yan is also a person who has practiced sword techniques for more than 20 years, and when he heard the sound of this knife, he felt that something was wrong, and the subconscious block in the dark was already a little out of shape.

After a few moves, Yan Yan's knife technique became more and more scattered, and he was slightly stunned.

"This Guan Yu uses a knife, and he is so unrestrained in his moves? Straight into the palace with a knife and a spear, or a straight back smash after the slash, like a chaotic cloak in the hammer method, it is really good. But how can this move kill me? Could it be that he still wants to stun me and injure me alive? Yan Yan blocked while also having some thoughts in his heart.

If he was to directly fight against an enemy general with a spear or a blunt soldier, of course he would know how to defend himself, but the strange thing is that everyone has a set of muscle memory and natural reactions in their hearts when dealing with each weapon. Once you encounter an enemy's weapon, you will be uncomfortable for a while.

Yan Yan had already admitted that Guan Yu's sword skills were more than one grade higher than him.

After barely supporting more than 20 rounds, although Guan Yu didn't want to hurt his life, he still managed to cut him off the horse with a knife.

"Yan Yan has been captured alive! The rest surrender and don't kill! We are the army of the imperial court under the command of General Zhenxi! There will be no pension if you die against the imperial court! It will also affect the family! ”

The only source of confidence for the defenders in Langzhong was Yan Yan's insistence on resistance and instilling in the soldiers to do business, so when Yan Yan was captured, seven or eight out of ten soldiers who fought with him tonight immediately laid down their arms and surrendered, and the rest of the sporadic resistance ended quickly.

Guan Yu also wanted to call open the city gate overnight, but in the dark night to no avail. But it doesn't matter, because the vision was clear after dawn the next day, and after tying Yan Yan and shaking his mouth for a while, Langzhong surrendered the city.

After Guan Yu entered the city, he rectified the people, collected the officers and soldiers, and then tied Yan Yan to the main hall of the county order.

"I have repeatedly persuaded you to surrender, but you still resist the imperial court, and now I will give you one last chance, and I am willing to surrender."

Yan Yan shook his head and sighed, and sat on the ground with compassion: "There are surrendered generals in my Shu, and there are no surrendered county lieutenants." I only know that the land of Guanghan has its own Guanghan officials to guard it, the land of Ba County has its own Ba County officials to guard it, and General Zhenxi has crossed the border! Now how can I be worthy of the brothers who died in battle, because I have not seen them without knowing and have been condemned to them? Unless my superiors tell me to surrender, I will kill if I want to. ”

Guan Yu also wanted to give a chance: "I can change my mistakes, I can still atone for my crimes, and the casualties in this battle are only hundreds." If you can surrender to the front, and surrender the counties along the Jialing River, so that they will not obstruct our army from transporting warships to the Dianjiang River and supporting the ditch, it will be regarded as a repayment, and the few people who will die in the following counties, not to mention these hundreds of people? ”

Yan Yan closed his eyes and stopped talking, and he didn't know if he was a little embarrassed.

Guan Yu waved his hand: "Contact Hu Chuquan, and in the past few days, I will first talk to the Pu Hu Manbu of Nanchong and Xichong about hiring for the imperial court." Then the front army marched to Anhan County. Wait for the messenger who contacted the eldest brother and Boya to come back, see if there is any evidence of anything related to Zhang Lu and Liu Yan's conspiracy in Nanzheng, and then recruit the generals. ”

The subordinates immediately went to arrange, so that some troops could prepare for the continued advance first, and Guan Yu took the troops of his descendants and escorted Yan Yan to repair and stand by - in fact, since the siege of Langzhong began, Guan Yu realized that he needed some ironclad evidence of Liu Yan and Zhang Lu's collusion to facilitate the surrender of those county military attaches who finally came to the imperial court, so he sent a messenger to contact Nanzheng, but the road was tossed, and it took so long to wait for a response.

In fact, Guan Yu didn't know what ironclad evidence he had directly found, if he had, Liu Bei would have taken it out and used it to hit the morale of the enemy army when he asked him to send troops.

But Guan Yu still has a trace of fantasy in his heart: as long as evidence is needed on the battlefield, I believe that Li Boya can forge it even if he doesn't have it.

Guan Yu's expectation was really not in vain.

Five days later, Hu Chuquan took a commission, and also gave tens of millions of money to the barbarian chief Pu Hu, and recruited thousands of barbarian soldiers surnamed Langzhong for Guan Yu's use.

At the same time, the messenger looking for Li Su also returned from Ma Mingge Road again.

They brought several kinds of "ironclad evidence" with a wide variety of patterns, and Guan Yu chose them at will.

Guan Yu unfolded a letter and saw that it seemed to be a secret letter written by Liu Yan to Zhang Lu, which should have been searched from the Taishou Mansion in Nanzheng when Zhang Lu had no time to take it away when he escaped.

"Why didn't you find it half a month ago? It can't be a forgery from Boya, but let's see the contents. ”

Guan Yu thought secretly in his heart, and read down.

The content of the letter is nothing more than Liu Yan making a wish to Zhang Lu and making Zhang Lu believe how good it is to follow him.

For example, "The reason why I asked Ren Yizhou to be the pastor is because Dong Fu told me that Yizhou has the spirit of a son of heaven";

The other is "I heard that Brother Wu Xian, who just entered Shu with me a few months ago, has seen his family before he came, and his daughter is indescribably expensive, and I have recently been hired according to the marriage ceremony of the Son of Heaven, and I have made an appointment to marry this daughter to Mao'er after a year." Therefore, my family is very expensive, and it is not a problem to continue to serve my family and become a prince in the future."

(Note: The marriage of nobles should be decided in advance, one year for the Son of Heaven, half a year for the princes, three months for the doctors, and one month for the scholars.) So you can't get married right after getting engaged. Those who read the book carefully should remember that Chen Qi and Chen Gong also mentioned this when they persuaded Lu Bu to marry their daughter to Yuan Shu's son)

Guan Yu saw a chill rise in his heart: This tone, why is it so similar to Liu Yan really said and thought so?

Could it be that Zhang Lu just burned the original, but Boya tortured the servants and maidservants that Zhang Lu didn't have time to take away, so he tortured the original words and copied and forged them again?

At most, Guan Yu only dared to doubt that the letter was not genuine, but no matter how you look at the content, it is true.

He didn't want to do much, so he took some evidence and threw it directly in front of Yan Yan.

"Hmph, this is what General Zhenxi searched out of the Hanzhong Taishou Mansion in Nanzheng, what else do you have to say! Do you still have to be loyal to people like Liu Yan! ”

Yan Yan looked at it for a long time, and he was also dumbfounded, embarrassed.

"I ...... I am willing to help the general persuade the counties along the way to reach the Dianjiang River. I didn't know what was going on, and I didn't dare to serve as a county lieutenant again, so I begged the general to demote me to the commander of the tun, and to kill the enemy in the army and make meritorious contributions, and fight with Zhang Lu! ”

Guan Yu ordered Yan Yan to be untied and watched his performance to see the after-effects.

In the next few days, Yan Yan led the way for the fleet, all the way down the river for more than 500 miles - it seems far, but in fact, because it is located in a mountainous area, there are only two counties along the 500-mile road, namely Anhan and Dianjiang, all under Yan Yan's persuasion, and in front of Guan Yu's latest forged evidence, he expressed his willingness to cooperate with Liu Bei and no longer be loyal to Liu Yan.

Subsequently, Guan Yu's army divided a certain amount of troops to defend Dianjiang County, where the Jialing River, Danqu and Fujiang rivers meet, to ensure that this water transport hub was stuck in Liu Beijun's hands and would not allow Gan Ning to sneak over. Then he took 2,000 Youzhou soldiers and 3,000 barbarian soldiers into the ditch and went north, intending to join Zhang Fei, and by the way, support some ships of Zhang Feijun, who lacked warships, to alleviate the difficulties in the transportation of logistics materials for the troops.

Guan Yu and Yan Yan have been tracing for one or two hundred miles, all of which are uninhabited mountainous areas, and there are no enemy troops to block them, until they arrived at a fork in the middle of the ditch and covered their heads and rocks, they were intercepted by the enemy's water division.

"That is Gan Ning, who is known as the brocade thief, his flagship is to use Shu brocade as a sail, coming and going like the wind, and it may not be easy to fight with him in the water." Yan Yan understood the local situation and immediately explained to Guan Yu.

Guan Yu nodded, thinking secretly in his heart: "I don't know where the third brother has hit, and how far away he can be with me and ......."