Among the princes, the big fish eat the small fish, and the small fish eat the shrimp. After years of war, there are not many princes who can still make their own decisions, and there are only a handful of "muscles" that Liu Xin can use. Liu Xin now has two choices, one is to continue south from the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River to annex the entire Jiaozhou, and the other is to go north to eat Liu Xuan.

Compared with the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River, the seven counties of Jiaozhou are more sparsely populated, with a total population of no more than one million, and a few counties have a population of less than 100,000. Therefore, in history, it was not valued by the princes, and it did not become the center of the struggle for hegemony in the world.

Liu Miao was the nominal pastor of Yangzhou, but he only controlled the two counties of Jiujiang and Danyang, and under the watchful eye of strong enemies, life was quite difficult. Even under such circumstances, Liu Xin never gave up his efforts to unify Yangzhou, and at the end of last year, he even sent several envoys to Xiangyang to ask Liu Xin for the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River. Of course, it was not unconditional for Liu Miao to ask for the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River, and he took the initiative to propose that the entire Yangzhou would obey Liu Xin's orders in the future.

Of course, Liu Xin could not accept Liu Miao's request, and Liu Xin also saw Liu Miao's wishful thinking. Liu Miao is now surrounded by strong enemies, and others don't say it for the time being, Yuan Shu alone will have a big battle with him sooner or later. If he nominally took refuge in Liu Xin, Yuan Shu would have to weigh it up if he made another move against him. In other words, Liu Xian's request for the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River is fake, and he wants to have a relationship with Liu Xin, and it is true to bring Liu Xin's banner to fill the tiger skin.

Of course, Liu Xin will not fall for him, even if Liu Xin can't see through it himself, so many resourceful people under him will remind him in time. Therefore, Liu Xin did not hesitate to expel the envoy sent by Liu Miao from Xiangyang. Not only that, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and others also suggested that Liu Xin should first use troops against Liu Xian, put on a posture that he was about to sweep the world, and put pressure on Cao Cao and Yuan Shao to force them to move.

For their suggestions, Liu Xin naturally adopted them. However, Liu Xin still has his own plans, he wants to use troops in both the two directions of Liu Miao and Jiaozhou, which is a decision made by Liu Xin after carefully studying the territory map of the Han Dynasty. Because Liu Xin found that Jiaozhou on this map of the territory of the Han Dynasty included Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and a large area of northern and central Vietnam in later generations, and Liu Xin took a fancy to this land that later belonged to northern and central Vietnam. Only by controlling this area, the entire Beibu Gulf will become the inland sea of the Han Dynasty, and for Liu Xin, who comes from later generations and has a strong sense of the sea, taking Jiaozhou is even more tempting than taking Liu Xuan.

Whether it is to use troops against Liu Xiang or Jiaozhou, the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River will be at the forefront, so Liu Xin's trip to the three counties of the south of the Yangtze River this time is not to enjoy the mountains and rivers, nor is it just to observe the people's feelings, but to sit there and command these two important battles.

The first stop of Liu Xin's trip to the three counties in the south of the Yangtze River was Jiangxia. Jiangxia City is the gateway to the east of Jingzhou, and has been painstakingly run since Liu Xin took back control of Jiangxia from Huang Zu, and has grown to become the third largest city in Jingzhou after Xiangyang and Wancheng. In the military camps around the city, the regular army of the Han Dynasty is stationed all year round. However, the garrison of the Han Legion was often rotated, and now it was the 20,000 foot soldiers of the Fourth Army Corps stationed in Jiangxia, led by the partial general Lei Tong.

Lei Tong did not appear in the team to greet Liu Xin. Liu Xin had already begun to implement the separation of military and political affairs, and without his orders, the generals in the major legions would not dare to leave their posts without permission. Those who came to greet Liu Xin were Jiangxia Taishou Han Song, Jiangxia Commander Wang Wei and Navy Captain Su Fei.

Today's Taishou is no longer in charge of the army, but government affairs are equally important, especially in front-line cities like Jiangxia, which need a stable situation even more, so after Liu Xin returned to Xiangyang from Guanzhong, he transferred Han Song to Jiangxia.

The reorganization of the local army has been completed, and the county has set up a capital lieutenant and a county lieutenant, whose rank is half a level lower than that of the Taishou and the county order, but it is under the jurisdiction of the military department, and it is not subordinate to the Taishou and the county order. The number of local armies in various counties is also more or less, and in an important town like Jiangxia, the establishment will naturally be larger, reaching 3,000 people.

As a result of this reorganization, not only has the equipment of the local army been upgraded, but also its mental outlook and training level have also taken on a new look, because many of the middle- and lower-ranking officers of these local armies are from regular regiments, and Wang Wei, the commander of Jiangxia, was transferred from the Second Army Corps. The strength of the local army increased, and the regular army was liberated.

Jiangxia was originally the base camp of the Jingzhou Navy, but now the Jingzhou Navy, which has been renamed the Han Navy, and the main bases of the Navy's forces have also been moved to Changsha and Wu County. Changsha has Yunmeng Daze, Wu County has Taihu Lake, and it is closer to the sea, Liu Xin feels that only these places can train a real water army. Therefore, under normal circumstances, Jiangxia's water village is basically empty, with only dozens of sergeants in charge of guarding and three or five small rowers patrolling the river. Su Fei appeared here because he was ordered to bring a few big boats to take Liu Xin and them across the river.

Liu Xin didn't like to be sent there, so he didn't let Han Song inform the gentry and officials of Jiangxia City, and only Han Song, Wang Wei, and Su Fei each brought a few personal soldiers to wait there outside the city gate. Liu Xin was very satisfied with this arrangement, he turned around and gave two orders, took Fu Zhu, Xu Chu, and more than a dozen guards escorted the carriage into the city, and the rest of the guards went to camp by the river.

As the gateway to the east of Jingzhou, Jiangxia City was built very strongly. Similarly, because this is the front line, Jiangxia, which used to play a pivotal role in Jingzhou, is now not to mention that it is more prosperous than Xiangyang, and even cities like Zhangling can no longer be compared. Despite this, Lu Qiling still clamored to go to the street to play.

Along the way, Liu Xin passed through the county and did not enter, and now he entered Jiangxia City not to rest and sharpen, but to take this opportunity to learn about Yuan Shu's recent movements. It's still early, and if you're not in a hurry, the child will definitely not be able to sit still. And Minchan is not as interested in government affairs as Ma Yun and Bian Yu. So, Liu Xin waved his hand very generously and "released" them all. Within the reach of Liu Xin's influence, the security in various places is not bad, and there are several guards following, so there is no need to worry about any danger.

Minchan and the others happily walked out of the post house, Liu Xin and the others sat down, and Han Song handed over a few documents, which recorded the living conditions of the people in the area under the jurisdiction of Yuan Shu in Lujiang and Runan, which Liu Xin specially asked them to collect. In fact, these contents are also involved in the intelligence collected by the Phantom Secret Spy, but Liu Xin wants to verify it through the information provided by Han Song.

Putting down the paperwork in his hand, Liu Xin frowned and said, "Yuan Shu is really expanding his army, what does he want to do?" With his financial resources, I am afraid that he cannot afford such a large army. ”

Han Song arched his hand and said: "Back to the lord, as far as my subordinates know, the big families in Lujiang, Runan, and Qianjun have given Yuan Shu a lot of support. ”

Liu Xin turned his head to look at Fu Zhu, only to see Fu Zhu nodding silently, proving that what Han Song said was true.

Han Song was born in poverty, although he was successful in learning, he couldn't go out for a long time, and later became disheartened and escaped into the mountains. If it weren't for Liu Xin's several invitations, he would still be in the company of birds and beasts in the mountains.

Han Song did not have a good impression of these scholar families. He glanced at Liu Xin quietly, and saw that Liu Xin did not have the slightest expression on his face, hesitated slightly, and continued: "It is precisely because of the support of these big families that Yuan Shu was able to fight his army, but it made the people of these three counties miserable. As the governor of the four states and the regent of the court, how can the lord ignore it? ”

Frustrated on the side, he scolded: "Bold, how can you speak to the lord like this!" ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "Degao, you also know that Yuan Shu will not obey Liu's orders, according to your opinion, how should Liu deal with it?" ”

Han Song arched his hand and said: "The lord has a heavy army, and for Yuan Shu, who only cares about his own interests and does not care about the suffering of the people, he should try his best to get rid of it!" ”

Liu Xin said quietly: "This is what you mean?" ”

Han Song was stunned for a moment and said: "If the lord can solve the suffering of the people of the three counties, it is not only the expectation of his subordinates, but also the expectation of the people of Jiangxia. ”

Over the years, the three counties of Xiangyang, Nanjun and Nanyang in Jingbei have developed rapidly, while Jiangxia and Nanxiang counties are relatively lagging behind, and they can't even catch up with the development momentum of the four counties in Jingnan. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for Han Song to say that the people of Jiangxia expect him to defeat Yuan Shu and take the three counties of Lujiang and Runan.

Liu Xin smiled and said, "As soon as the war starts, how many lives will be destroyed. As a last resort, Liu will not use swords and soldiers. Yuan Highway has not shown its evil deeds, and if Liu rashly raises troops, the division will be nameless, and this matter will be discussed later. Degao, you should go back to the yamen to handle official business first. ”

Although Han Song didn't like those rich people, he still respected Liu Xin very much. Because Liu Xin is unassuming, he doesn't have any shelves. When Liu Xin came to Jiangxia this time, not only did he not want everyone to line up to welcome him, but he even politely rejected Han Song's proposal to give them a temporary residence in the Taishou Mansion and insisted on living in the post house. Now that Liu Xin has already said it, let him go back to deal with official business first, no matter how much he still wants to say, he doesn't want to go against Liu Xin's intentions. Han Song hurriedly bowed and retreated.

Frustrated Zhu looked at Han Song's back, and said with a smile: "If it is really as Han Song said, the lord is now expected by everyone, he might as well make a move on Yuan Shu." ”

Liu Xin glanced at Fu Zhi in surprise, and muttered: "Mo Fei Gonghe also thinks that the time is ripe to attack Yuan Shu now?" ”

Frustrated and asked rhetorically: "The lord ordered his subordinates to hurry up and collect the information of the family families who funded Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and others, isn't there some plan?" ”

Liu Xin laughed and said, "Okay, you are a princess, I can't hide anything from you." It's just that the time is not ripe yet, what I have to wait for is that Yuan Shu will provoke me first! ”