Liu Biao of Jingzhou is suspicious and indecisive, determined to be self-controlled, and has no ambition of the Quartet; Its self-defense strategy is in line with the interests of the local scholars, and they can naturally use each other and coexist peacefully; In the face of Yuan Shu's attack, unite and resist the enemy.

Jiangxia County Taishou Huang Zu sent his son Huang Jie to lead part of the naval army to station in Chaisang to monitor Yuan Shu; Yangzhou Mu Liu Miao lacks a water army, so he is happy.

Huang Zu is a member of the Lu Huang clan of Jiangxia An, and the Huang clan of Jiangxia is a famous scholar family, that is, the famous minister Huang Xiang family; Liu Biao arrived in Jingzhou and reused the power of local wealthy clans, and Huang Zu served as the Taishou of Jiangxia County.

Relying on his powerful family and Liu Biao's strong support, Huang Zu was confident in resisting Yuan Shu's attack and was a typical hawk in Jingzhou.

With Huang Zu guarding Jiangxia County, Liu Biao can sit back and relax.

For the safety of his son Huang Shot, and for the sake of not losing Chaisang City, Huang Zu sent Zhang Shuo to lead the infantry to garrison Chaisang, and sent the young general Chen to lead the Chaisang army; The general Deng Long was stationed in Xia Pheasant County to be responsible for responding; The partial general Su Fei led 10,000 people to garrison Qichun City in Jiangbei and sniped the attack of Yuan Shu's army from the land.

Sun Jian's army was stationed in Xunyang County, training troops while waiting for the best fighters; Sun Ben and Sun Xiang led the vanguard army to approach Qichun City, Jiangxia County.

Qichun City is the first county town encountered by the southern line from Lujiang County into Jiangxia County, north of Dabie Mountain, south of the Yangtze River, guarding the narrow flat passage, through the management of Huang Zu, the city is high and strong, there are wide moats and moats outside, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

However, the first thing that broke out was a water war, and Yuan Shu hoped to eliminate the naval army arranged by Huang Zu in Chaisang in one fell swoop, or force his naval army to withdraw to Jiangxia, otherwise Sun Jian's army would advance westward and be cut off by the Jingzhou naval army, which would lead to the annihilation of the entire army.

Zheng Bao, the governor of the navy, was brilliant in his resourcefulness, knowing that the warships were limited and the sailor training was not perfect, so he could not fight the Jingzhou navy, so he could only outwit him, and took the battle with the Chaisang navy as actual combat training.

Zheng Bao was born as a thief, so naturally he will not confront him head-on, he has always been in line with the spirit of fighting, if he can't fight, he will escape, if he can't escape, he will fight to the death, he is also in line with this purpose to train his water army.

For this reason, when making the battleship, he only chose three ship types, one is the Mengchong warship, one is the walker, and the other is the scout.

Mengchong warship: the hull is narrow and long, powered by oars, with fast sailing performance, strong maneuverability, and convenient for conflict with enemy ships; The boat is covered with raw cowhide, which has good defensive performance; The two compartments are opened, and there are crossbow windows and spear holes on the left and right, so that the enemy cannot enter, and the arrows and stones cannot be defeated, and it has the combat ability to attack and return fire to the enemy ship.

Walking: warship, heavy on the board, many soldiers, few soldiers, all choose warriors, elite people to fill the husband, back and forth like flying, take people unprepared to launch a quick sneak attack, at the critical moment, the husband should also be put into battle, or for emergency use.

Scout: A reconnaissance ship, more than 500 hus, surrounded by a hut called a scout, to see the enemy's advance and retreat.

According to his ideas, regardless of whether he can win the opponent or not, he must escape the opponent, and self-protection is the best policy; If the navy army he had worked so hard to train was annihilated, for Yuan Shu, he would lose his usefulness.

According to Zheng Bao's configuration, the Mengchong warships were the main warships, and each Mengchong was equipped with five walkers as escorts, and ten reconnaissance ships were equipped as a battle group.

In order to facilitate supplies and escape, Zheng Bao built six small water villages on the north bank of the Yangtze River, from Xunyang to Zongyang County, taking advantage of the favorable terrain of rivers or harbors, each of which was garrisoned by 500 people, with at least two battle groups of warships.

According to Zheng Bao's request, each combat group took turns to go out on patrol, and the officers and men of the navy resolutely carried out his orders, and if they had been beaten, they would fight, and if they could not fight, they would run; as long as they were not surrounded, these warships would easily escape, and if they could not escape back to their own water village, they would flee down the river to the next water village.

A large number of merchant ships without escort force were hijacked back, and Zheng Bao took these merchant ships, goods and people on board as his trophies, and rewarded the officers and soldiers.

Xin'an County's Zhenrong is also helpless about this, although he has many ships, but mainly cargo ships and fishing boats, whether it is speed or defense, they are not Zheng Bao's opponents; The continuous losses made Zhen Rong have to blockade the river and prohibit the ships from going out, and he believed that Liu Biao must have a way to oppose Yuan Shu's naval army.

Huang Jie sent a small number of patrol boats, why was it the opponent of the Mengchong warship? And it is not numerically superior, as long as it is discovered by Zheng Bao's battle group, it will either be sunk or captured; However, the opponent is extremely cunning, if a large number of warships are sent, as long as they are observed in advance by Zheng Bao's warships, they will slip away, leaving Huang Jian with nothing, even if they are lucky by chance, they will only sink or capture a scout boat, which is extremely disproportionate to the effort.

In a month's time, the Yellow Shooting Naval Army suffered heavy losses, and no one dared to go out on patrol; Zheng Bao made a big profit, and there was jubilation up and down, which was much stronger than when he was a bandit in Chaohu.

The Yellow Shot sent warships were incapable of the enemy, and it was difficult to escape; If a large fleet is dispatched, the opponent will flee, so that Huang Jie has no choice but to let all the warships anchor in the water village in order to protect himself, and quickly report to Huang Zu.

He also wanted to attack the water village on the other bank, but the water village built by Zheng Bao was easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if the opponent only had a few hundred people to defend, if he did not invest thousands of troops and pay a heavy price, he would rest and conquer these water villages; Even if they conquer it, they won't gain much, and they can't send troops to garrison it, after they evacuate, Zheng Bao will continue to build the water village, and the situation will remain the same.

In February of the third year of the first peace, Zheng Bao built a water village on the north bank of the Yangtze River in Qichun County, not far from Sun Ben's military camp.

Zheng Bao's naval tactics were not complicated, and it was not difficult for Liu Biao, who had strong manpower and financial resources, and after receiving Huang Zu's report, he urgently ordered craftsmen to build more Mengchong warships and form similar battle groups.

By April, Liu Biao ordered Huang Zu to build similar small water villages on both sides of the Yangtze River from Xiakou to Qichun City, and strictly blocked Yuan Shu's army, which was stronger than Yuan Shu, built faster, and garrisoned more personnel, which made Zheng Bao's army dare not continue to advance westward.

With the arrival of the battleships, the yellow shot gradually changed the passive situation.

Zheng Bao was scheming, changed his strategy in time, concentrated the use of Mengchong's warships and boats, sent scouts, and after discovering the battle group sent by Huang Jie, he sent a fleet to encircle and annihilate it, or attracted Huang Cai's sailors into the encirclement and annihilated them.

In the case of absolute superiority in troops, Zheng Bao's sailors were still very brave in combat, and Zheng Bao gained a lot from several consecutive battles; However, he was also a man of great resourcefulness, and he was afraid that Huang Jie would set a trap because of this, so he changed his strategy and turned to plundering villages and towns along the river.

Fortunately, Xin'an County is vast and sparsely populated, and the local families live in forts and have a certain amount of armed force, so Zheng Bao can only rob some pedestrians in the wilderness or farmers working in the fields.

After Zhenrong set up warning points along the Yangtze River, it was difficult for Zheng Bao to gain gains, so he had to give up harassing the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Zheng Bao has gained a lot and is full of ambition, but Yuan Shu is very anxious, he can't afford to delay the time, he must grab the territory and population, otherwise, the money and food will be in a hurry.

Liu Biao got Huang Zu's report, and he was resentful in his heart, but he didn't expect that a noble scholar like Yuan Shu would play such hooligan tactics and dare not have an upright duel.

After careful consideration, Liu Biao appointed Cai Mao as his military advisor and the governor of the navy.

In Cai Mao's view, this kind of petty trick is a manifestation of Yuan Shu's weak heart, which cannot affect the battle situation at all, and does not endanger the safety of the main fleet of Jingzhou, and the Jingzhou naval army still has a huge advantage.

Cai Mao ordered Zhang Yun, the general of the navy, to garrison Xiakou to guard the places where Yuan Shu's navy must pass along the Yangtze River to the west or along the Han River to the north, and to support Huang Zu at any time; It was forbidden for Huang Zu and Huang Jie's ships to make small-scale sorties, and if they were patrolling, they must dispatch large fleets and intercept Yuan Shu's warships in sections.