After Zhao Yun and Cao Chun entered Jiangling, they began to divide their troops to suppress bandits.

The bandits in the southern part of Nanjun and the bandits in Wuling County colluded and formed an alliance to fight against the officials and armies of each county.

When Liu Biao was alive, the suppression of the Wuling bandits was not very effective, which caused them to develop and grow, and the people were miserable and fled one after another.

Hearing that Jiang Sheng had sent a large army to suppress the bandits, many people spontaneously returned to Wuling to collect intelligence and assist the officers and soldiers in the battle.

Cao Chun has followed Cao Cao for many years, and has been the commander of Cao Cao's descendant troops, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and has seen the people's support for Cao Cao, but he never thought that he would be so popular with the people when he supported him like this.

Zhao Yun stayed in Nanjun, Cao Chun became the main force to suppress bandits, and within a few months, more than 50 battles of all sizes completely eliminated the bandits in the south of Nanjun, and then waved the army south to deal with the bandits in Wuling.

On the Changsha side, the Lü Meng army advanced in many ways, and those county towns that had fallen to the wind fell into the hands of the Wu army again.

The Battle of Huang Zhong had just ended, and he was organizing rest and rebuilding the city, and he could not effectively deal with Lü Meng's fierce offensive, so he could only defend Changsha City.

Just when Lu Meng's army came, hundreds of boats on the Xiangjiang River competed for the stream, and the banner of the word "Cai" on the top of the flagship was waving in the wind.

It turned out to be Cai Mao who hid in the Xiangjiang River to avoid a water battle with Zhou Tai!

The Jingzhou Navy also used to run rampant on the Yangtze River, but in recent years, Sun Quan has vigorously developed the Navy and surpassed Jingzhou.

The boats used by Lü Meng to cross the river were all civilian ships, which were slow and carried a large capacity, and the thousands of infantry who had already boarded the ships became live targets in the river.

Cai Mao's army ship threw stones and launched crossbows intensively, and Lu Meng's ship to transport troops won the bid, sinking and turning over, and in a short time, only the corpses and wooden wreckage that floated up in the river remained.

Lü Meng hurriedly ordered the troops on the shore to set up catapults to attack Cai Mao's fleet in the middle of the river.

The trebuchet of Eastern Wu was too slow to arm, and Cai Mao adhered to Jiang Sheng's strategy of withdrawing as soon as he hit it, and after the first shot worked, he immediately turned the rudder, and when Lu Mengjun assembled the trebuchet, Cai Mao's army was already dozens of miles away.

Under the opportunity of Cai Mao to contain Lu Meng's army and unable to cross the river, Zhang Xiujun, who came from the north of the river, was coming quickly.

Zhou Tai returned in Jiangxia in vain, and Jiang Sheng arranged for the landing ship hidden in the Jiangbei shipbuilding base to come out and transport Zhang Xiu's army south.

Zhou Yu knew the news that Jiang Sheng's 500,000-strong army was about to march south, and had already planted spies in Jiangxia, and Zhang Xiu's army had already been found out about supporting Changsha by boat, so he sent Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin to lead a naval army to march west again.

This time, Jiang Sheng changed his attitude of avoiding but not fighting, and hundreds of fireboats had been arranged in the upper reaches of the Jiangxia section of the Yangtze River, filled with gunpowder, waiting for the Dongwu Navy to come.

Tai Shici, who was on standby at the mouth of the Yangtze River, began to tentatively enter the Yangtze River according to the original plan.

Half of the naval army of Eastern Wu went west, and the remaining half guarded Jianye, led by Ling Cao.

There were only a few patrol boats on the Songjiang side, and Tai Shici sent a few frigates to solve it easily.

Zhou Yu was so smart, he naturally thought that Tai Shi Ci would come out with a moth, and after the Songjiang patrol was defeated, Dongwu did not have any countermeasures.

Tai Shici felt strange in his heart, but he still had the courage to send an escort fleet up the Yangtze River.

Zhou Yu also used fireships to defend, and when he saw the slowly approaching Tai Shi Ci escort fleet, Ling Cao gave an order, and dozens of fireships rushed towards the escort fleet downstream.

The Tai Shi Ci convoy had already had a plan to deal with the attack of the fireship, and when the upstream fireship was attacking, the sailors on the deck of the frigate immediately threw the grappling hook at the deck of the ship next to it.

After the ship was connected, the iron plates reserved on the inner sides of the ships on both sides were taken out, and the sailors tied the iron plates with iron chains, and put the iron plates on the bow of the ship, and set up them, and fifteen frigates were lined up on the river, and these iron plates formed an iron wall in the bow of the frigate.

The captain of the fleet stood on the deck of the flagship, watching the speed and course of the fireship, waiting for an opportunity.

The marine engineers at the bottom of the cabin also pricked up their ears.

There was not much time, and the captain of the fleet gave an order, and three rapid gongs sounded, and the engineers quickly turned the axles, and the propellers spun rapidly.

Fifteen frigates marched in unison to counter the force of the fireship's impact.

"Knock knock" violently hit wave after wave, and the frigates trembled violently.

The fireship was on fire, but the attack on the convoy was limited to the impact of the fireship, and no matter how the fire burned, it was isolated by iron plates, and the frigate could not be burned at all.

Finally, the fireship burned smaller and smaller, and slowly sank, but the escort fleet was unharmed, Zhou Yu could not see it really on the river bank, he thought that the fireship attack would be effective, but Zhou Yu saw the intact escort fleet on the river after a while.

He was secretly frightened, and ordered Ling Cao to restrain his troops and make every effort to defend the waters near Jianye to prevent Tai Shici from landing.

Zhou Tai and the others also found the fireship, and in the same way, they also prepared, each bow had two long iron rods, waiting for the fireship to attack, and not to let the fireboat get close to the ship.

When I got closer, I found that these "fire ships" were not burning at all, only some black smoke came out of the cabin.

Zhou Tai was about to laugh, but he realized that something was wrong.

Although the sailors held the fireship against it with iron rods, the fireship was not burned, but exploded!

The fireboat deployed by Zhou Yu was loaded with sulfur firewood and grass, which was burning while impacting the enemy ship, while the fireboat deployed by Jiang Sheng was loaded with gunpowder, and the lead was in the cabin, and the sappers calculated the speed of the lead burning to ensure that it exploded again when it reached the target.

"Boom—" The fireships exploded, and the blast of the explosion swept away the soldiers on the deck, overturning the ships, and large pieces of stubble flew around, smashing the surrounding cabins with holes.

Zhou Tai, who was on the flagship of the second echelon, saw it really, and the huge waves caused by the explosion were rushing towards his second echelon.

This scene can be described as a flat ground and a huge wave, Zhou Tai's fleet was caught off guard, the ship splashed, the crew fell into the water, and Zhou Tai was also swept into the river.

Fortunately, Jiang Sheng only wanted to protect Zhang Xiu from crossing the river, not to send it to the water war, and Zhou Tai and the others were rescued by Jiang Qin's fleet that came later.

After such a toss, the fleet carrying Zhang Xiujun successfully entered the Xiangjiang River and advanced to the periphery of Changsha.

Under the suppression of Cai Mao's fleet of dense stone bullets and crossbow arrows, Lü Meng's riverbank position had no chance to fight back.

Zhang Xiujun took the opportunity to land, and a few days later the 50,000 troops came to Changsha, Huang Zhong was overjoyed, and took the civil and military officials in Changsha out of the city to greet him.

Zhang Xiu and Huang Zhong are not familiar with each other, but they have been friends for a long time, and they hit it off at first sight after meeting. Zhang Xiu, known as the king of guns in the north, is the top master of using guns, and Huang Zhong is good at archery and is also a master.

The most important thing is that Zhang Xiu's army arrived in time, and the defense of Changsha, which Huang Zhong was worried about, was no longer a difficult matter, which was the basis for the two armies to quickly get acquainted.

Cai Mao completed the task and could return to Jiangxia, and Lu Mengjun had the opportunity to go west, but what was waiting for him was definitely not a good thing!