Ma Hong also wanted to return to Xiangyang, but when he heard rumors, Sun Cetun soldiers Zhang Duhu had an enterprising heart of envy. Huang Jie asked Ma Hong to stay in the army and help him garrison Jiangxia, Ma Hong also had his own plans, he wanted to abduct Gan Ning to Xiangyang, so he agreed.

Speaking of Gan Ning, in recent days, Gan Ning's reputation has started in Jiangdong. Cut Cheng Pu Zhou Tai in a battle, Jiang Qin in one move, captured Sun Quan, cut off Wu Jing's ears, and scolded Zhou Yu, which was popular among Sun Ce's army for a while. Sun Ce even directly ordered a reward of 500 for killing Gan Ning, ordinary soldiers could be directly promoted to Yamen generals, and generals could be promoted to one level if they killed Gan Ning. also ordered a reward of 300 for the killing of Ma Hong, but did not mention anything about Huang Jie. You must know that Huang Jie, as the leading general this time, is engaged in as a soldier of Jiangxia County, and is higher than Gan Ning, a miscellaneous thief captain. [Gan Ning's miscellaneous captain is no better than the five captains under the command of the general. And Ma Hong and Gan Ning are their subordinates, how can any of their subordinates have higher merits than the main general, Ma Hong is also counted, and Huang Shot supports Liu Qi, in Huang Shot's eyes, Ma Hong is only a minister, but Gan Ning is a military general with Huang Shot, and he was a thief at first. Huang Jie's father Huang Zu was already dissatisfied with Gan Ning, Huang Zhu was not as dissatisfied with Gan Ning as Huang Zu, although this time Gan Ning also saved Huang Jie, but now when he heard the rumors in Sun Cejun's army, Huang Zhu was still quite uncomfortable in his heart.

Of course, Ma Hong knew that Sun Ce passed on the news, which was nothing more than a wedge between Huang Zhu and Ma Hong Ganning. But Ma Hong did not remind Huang Jian that if Huang Jian was dissatisfied with Gan Ning and did not report according to his military merits, Gan Ning would definitely be dissatisfied, and then Ma Hong could find a reason to let Liu Qi transfer Ma Hong back to Xiangyang, and he could also abduct Gan Ning by the way, and it was not better.

Su Fei set up a banquet to entertain everyone, but Huang Zhu kept drinking stuffy wine at the banquet, and his face was not very good.

Ma Hong understands Huang Jie's mood very well, Huang Jie asked his father for help to rescue Liu Xun, although he also defeated Sun Ce, but there are only 500 soldiers left, and even his younger brother Huang Yao has sunk into the Yangtze River, not knowing life and death.

"General, in my opinion, now is not the time for the general to drink sullenly." Ma Hong put his finger into the wine bowl, dipped it in rice wine, wiped his eyebrows, and said.

"Now what shame do I have to go back to my father? My younger brother Huang Yao was abandoned by me. Huang Jie poured himself full of wine, and then poured it into his mouth, apparently the blow was too big for him.

"According to Hong's opinion, Sun Ce will definitely raise a large army to invade my Jiangxia in the near future, and Sha Xian will definitely bear the brunt." Ma Hong had a headache. Although he also knew that Huang Zhu was in a bad mood at the moment, there were some things that should be said as soon as possible.

"That's right, Sun Ce's army will attack Jiangxia, and it will definitely go up the Yangtze River, and Shaxian is our first line of defense."

Su Fei saw that Huang Zhu was sluggish and persuaded him, Su Fei was the governor of Jiangxia at the time, and his status in Jiangxia was second only to Huang Zu.

"Therefore, Hong suggested that the governor and the general ask Taishou to lead the army to Jiangxia to prevent Sun Ce's attack, and also need to ask Xiangyang for reinforcements, and at the same time urgently recruit people to build defenses, strengthen the city wall and camp along the river, we are running out of time." Ma Hong Road.

"Ma Hong, what you said is extremely true." Huang Jie listened to Ma Hong and Su Fei's words and put down the wine bowl.

Su Fei sent 800 soldiers to build defenses outside the city in Ganning and Ma Hong. Huang Jie personally went to Jiangxia to deliver a message to Huang Zu, asking Huang Zu to send troops to Sha Xian, while Su Fei recruited people to build the city wall.

Shaxian is surrounded by the Yangtze River to the west and north, and is bordered by Liangzi Lake in the south and Liangzi Lake in the east. The city was not strong, and if you blindly fought a defensive battle, you would only be surrounded by enemies crossing the river from the west, north, and east. If the Jingzhou army wanted to hold Shaxian, it had to wage a water battle with the enemy on the Yangtze River. Ma Hong believes that at this moment, it is necessary to mobilize a large number of Jingzhou troops to fight a war of attrition with Sun Ce on the manpower and material resources accumulated in Jingzhou over the years. Liu Biao ruled Jingzhou for many years, Jingzhou was not affected by major wars, and the accumulated capital far exceeded that of Sun Ce, who had just established himself in Jiangdong, and Sun Ce fought for many years, and the quality of his generals and soldiers was higher than that of the Jingzhou army. Both sides have their own strengths, and it is best to be able to attack the enemy's weaknesses with their own strengths, but the strategy is limited by the terrain, and at the moment, there is no danger to defend this Shaxian City, and it is almost impossible to fight a defensive battle with Sun Ce.

In August of the fourth year of Jian'an, Sun Ce sent his younger brother Sun Quan and Huang Gai to lead 10,000 troops to attack Guangling, Sun Quan's troops were ten times that of Chen Deng, Chen Deng personally commanded the troops out of the city to meet Sun Quan, Sun Quan's army was killed and wounded more than half, and finally lost Chen Deng and evacuated Guangling.

On the seventh day of October in the fourth year of Jian'an, Huang Zu led 30,000 sailors and 1,000 warships to Shaxian, and Liu Biao sent his nephews Liu Hu and Han Xi to lead 5,000 pikemen from Hanshui to Shaxian.

Huang Zu looked towards the river bank, this glance made him moved, the river bank stretched for ten miles to build about 50 arrow towers, these arrow towers are about three zhang high, the top is round, the building body is square, the bottom is one zhang three feet long, one zhang wide. The wall is built with green bricks, adopts a shun and a ding masonry method, the top floor of the arrow tower is built with pine planks to make a circular board surface that can prevent arrow rain, the ladder is located in the arrow tower, the soldiers need to climb to the top of the building from the inside of the arrow tower, each arrow tower can stand six to eight soldiers at the same time. These arrow towers are arranged in an arc along the bank of the Yangtze River, and there is an arrow tower every sixty steps. There are three trenches in front of the arrow tower, the first ditch is about 90 steps away from the arrow tower, three zhang wide and one zhang deep, the trench is buried with a sharp knife to cut hard wood branches, these hardwood branches are the thickness of an adult's arm, the top skin is cut off and roasted hard with fire. The second ditch is about sixty paces away from the arrow tower, the ditch is four zhang wide and one zhang three feet deep, the ditch is filled with water, and the back of the ditch is a guard about one zhang high, and there is a chest wall three feet high above the guard. The third trench is thirty paces from the arrow tower and is of the same structure as the second trench.

Huang Zu stroked his beard and smiled at Ma Hong, who was standing aside, "You did a good job." ”

Ma Hong said: "It's too much of a prize, this is all the efforts of the soldiers and the people, and Captain Gan is just a reasonable allocation of manpower." ”

Huang Zu smiled slightly and said secretly: As Kuai Yue said, this Confucian is really good at building defenses, although he is young, his heart is also mature, he knows how to be modest and pushing, and he does not take credit alone, coupled with his unique friendship with my nephew Liu Qi, he will definitely become Liu Qi's right-hand man in time.

Huang Zudao: "A few days ago, Bo Yuan (Liu Qi, the word Bo Yuan) wrote to me, in which he was still worried about your safety? ”

Ma Hong smiled and said, "It really worries the son." ”

Huang Zu patted Ma Hong on the shoulder and said: "According to the report from the spies, Sun Ce attacked Guangling in August, but was beaten by Chen Deng, and more than half of the soldiers were injured. ”

Ma Hong smiled and said to Huang Zu: "If Sun Ce attacks Shaxian, then the main battlefield must be on the Yangtze River. ”

Huang Zu touched his beard and smiled leisurely: "Whether it is a water battle or a land battle, I am not afraid of that kid, that kid is a person with more courage and less resourcefulness like his father." That kid dared to fight with Cao Cao and me Jingzhou at the same time before he gained a firm foothold in Jiangdong, I really don't know where he got the courage. ”

Ma Hong nodded, the corners of his mouth trembled slightly, and said secretly: This Huang Zu doesn't take Sun Ce too seriously, although Sun Ce is fighting a group of rabble in Jiangdong, but Huang Zu is too light on the enemy. A few months ago, Ma Hong had fought with Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, and the shadow of Zhou Yu's calculations had been hanging over his heart.

On the seventh day of October in the fourth year of Jian'an, Ma Hong offered advice to Huang Zu to incite the Shanyue people of Lujiang and Danyang to harass and attack Sun Ce's territory.

In December of the fourth year of Jian'an, Sun Ce marched into Shaxian and confronted the Jingzhou army led by Huang Zu on the Yangtze River. Sun Ce led Tai Shici, Zhou Yu, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Lü Fan, Sun Quan and other generals to attack Shaxian directly by water at the same time, and at the same time sent Sun Ben and Sun Fu to lead an army of 9,000 to attack Shaxian from the northern land.

Huang Zu led Huang Zhu, Gan Ning, Su Fei and other generals Yi Ma Hong as the army division to meet Sun Ce along the Yangtze River, and sent Han Xi and Liu Hu to lead 5,000 pikemen to meet Sun Ben and Sun Fu.

There is not much record of the Battle of Shaxian in the history books, and most of the later generations know about the Battle of Chibi in the Three Kingdoms, but the Battle of Shaxian, which is also a water war, is rarely mentioned. Ma Hong also knows very little about this battle in history, he only knows that there are records in history, Huang Zu has faced Eastern Wu many times in Jiangxia, as for the details of this battle in history, Ma Hong does not know much, he only knows that Huang Zu was defeated, but he does not know what tactics Sun Ce used to defeat Huang Zu. At this moment, Ma Hong stood on the warship, his heart was beating, anyone would be extremely excited for the first time in such a scene, hundreds of warships were lined up all over the river, hundreds of drums were beaten, the drums shook the sky, looking back, the warships on the river could not be seen at a glance, this was so spectacular.