However, it is said that after Liu Qi and his entourage left Xiangyang, they went directly south along the Han River, and then went to Pengze through the Guò River.

Long before leaving Xiangyang, Liu Qi had already written a letter to Xu Shu, ordering him to quickly lead his army to Pengze and supervise Wei Yan's army to defend Sun Ce's Lingyang army. He also wrote letters to Lü Meng of Yuzhang and Yu Ban of Shu County of Lujiang respectively, asking them to lead their respective armies to aid Liu Ye, and personally appointed Liu Ye as the main general's military advisor, ordering him to listen to Liu Ye's orders and not to go to war in vain.

Later, in order to prevent Sun Ce from leading the army to sneak attack, Liu Qi wrote a letter to Gan Ning in Zongyang Port, ordering him to closely monitor Sun Ce's army and be ready to go to Lingyang at any time.

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Liu Qi appointed Pang Tong as Gan Ning's military advisor, and ordered him to refer to the opinions of the military advisor, be careful of Zhou Yu's tricks, and never take it lightly.

When Liu Qi's fleet came to the territory of Jiangxia, he suddenly saw a big boat rushing in front of him, under the banner of the Jiangxia Navy. Liu Qi ordered the boat to stop, and then asked Liu Shi to ask what the other party was doing.

I heard the person on the boat opposite say expressionlessly: "I am on the orders of Lord Huang of Jiangxia Taishou and advise the merchants, now that the waterways in the Spring Valley have been blocked, no merchants can pass through, and the guests on the opposite side should retreat quickly." ”

Liu Qi ordered someone to reply: "We just rushed to Pengze, not Spring Valley." ”

I only heard a shout from the other side: "Now Peng Ze is under martial law, and those who come need to be checked by Guò before they are allowed to go." ”

Liu Qi smiled when he heard this, and said loudly: "My family is in Pengze, and I am often too guarded, so I don't need to check it, right?" ”

But he still smiled when he heard it: "The military situation is heavy, I have to check, I hope you will forgive me." ”

Liu Qi then ordered the boat to come forward.

At this time, Zhang Tong said nervously: "My lord, let's say that we don't know whether the big ship on the other side is the person who is too guarded by Jiangxia, even if it is, we shouldn't just come forward with peace of mind, the other party is a big ship, once we have bad intentions, I'm afraid the safety of the adult will not be guaranteed." ”

Liu Qi said with a smile: "Ziyang (Zhang Tong's words) don't have to be nervous, the person on the opposite boat is his own person, the conversation I had with the other party just now was actually a code, just now I said, 'My home is in Pengze, and I am often too guarded', I am actually telling the other party my identity, of course, this sentence is only known to Huang Zu's henchmen, and the other party said, 'The military situation is heavy, I have to check', it is telling me that this time they saw me that I had a heavy military situation, so I had to go to see them." ”

Zhang Tong was relieved when he saw Liu Qi say this, but as a pro-soldier general, his professional instinct still made him dare not slack off in the slightest, and carefully protected Liu Qi.

Liu Qi came to the big ship, entered the cabin, and saw a general greet him, repulsed his entourage, and then respectfully bowed: "The last general, Huang You, the eldest prince." ”

Liu Qi nodded, asked him to get up, and then asked in a low voice, "Huang Taishou asked you to see me, what's the matter?" ”

But he saw Huang You take out a letter from his sleeve and said: "Lord Taishou wrote all the qiē in the letter, and asked the eldest prince to look at it." ”

Liu Qi took the letter and began to read it.

It was only at this time that Liu Qi learned that Cai Mao had actually arranged to enter the city of Sui County to defend it, instead of arming it outside the city, and Zhang Xiu was in a rough position to break Cao Cao together, this unconventional method can only prove that there is a conspiracy brewing in it, and this conspiracy can also be imagined, it is obvious that he wants to take the opportunity to take the county as his own, so that he Cai Mao can completely control the entire Jingbei forces.

Although he believed that Jia Xu would definitely be able to see through Cai Mao's conspiracy, Liu Qi was also worried that Cai Mao would cooperate with Cao Cao to jointly carve up the county, and even give the county to Cao Cao, so that he could fully control Jingbei and relieve his worries.

And once Cai Mao and Cao Cao cooperate, with the huge advantage of 60,000 or 70,000 people on both sides, even if they lead the army to attack, it is estimated that Sui County will not last long, especially Cai Mao's counterattack on Yu County, which will definitely deal a heavy blow to the morale of the city, so that Yu County will be lost, and at this time Liu Qi will have to find a way out for Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu.

Although after the battle of Anzhong, Jia Xu had hinted that once the army was defeated, it would be possible to surrender to him, and later Zhang Xiu listened to his own construction and promised to unite with Yuan Shao to jointly attack Cao Cao, which caused Cao Cao to be uneasy, so he led the army to conquer Sui County under the pretext of uniting with Sun Ce, but now he does not dare to guarantee that these hints still work.

So Liu Qi thought about it, and decided to write a letter to Zhang Xiu, first telling him of Cai Mao's conspiracy, and suing him, the two sides were strong, so let him find a way out as soon as possible, and said that he had ordered someone to respond in advance, and asked him to make up earlier and go south to Yuzhang.

In addition, Liu Qi also persuaded Zhang Xiu in the letter: "Cao Cao disregarded human ethics and raped the general's aunt, not to mention an insult to General Zhang Ji? is also a contempt for the general, the accident general rose up to resist, and killed Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, his son Cao Anmin, and the general Dian Wei, how could Cao Cao not resent the general? If the general takes refuge in Cao Cao, even if he is currently reusing the general because of the need to fight against Yuan Shao, once Yuan Shao is defeated, he will definitely retaliate against the general, so he will consider the general, and the general is better to return to the official, and the official must not forget the general's virtue, share the wealth with the general, and make the general rank as a prominent lord, and his wife and son, and his name will go down in history. ”

At the same time, Liu Qi also wrote a letter to Huang Zu, asking Huang Zu to secretly vehicles and ships, and be sure to meet Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu and others before Cao Cao retreated, and to ensure that nothing went wrong. and solemnly told Huang Zu that if Jia Xu was unwilling, he would be tied up even if he was tied, and if he was really forced to do so, he would rather kill him than leave it to Cao Cao.

However, he believes that with Jia Xu's wisdom, he will definitely be able to make the right choice.

In order to be able to force Zhang Xiu to surrender, Liu Qi also deliberately calculated the date, and waited until Cao Cao's army led the army to attack the city, and then let the letter be sent to Zhang Xiu, because according to Cao Cao's decree, if the enemy surrendered before the battle, it would be treated ceremoniously, and if the enemy surrendered after the war began, it would not be forgiven, and even if it accepted the surrender, it would not be treated very highly.

In addition, Liu Qi did not say in the letter that it was actually Huang Zu who responded to their retreat.

This time, Liu Qi actually made a dangerous move, in order to get Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu, he actually gave up the strategic location of Sui County, which opened the door to Jingbei from then on, and also allowed Cao Cao to remove the threat from the south from now on, so that he could focus on dealing with Yuan Shao.

But Liu Qi can't help it, because this time with the help of the inner ghost Cai Mao, the county guarded by Zhang Xiu will be lost no matter what, even if the control is in Cai Mao's hands, it will definitely be occupied by Cao Cao sooner or later in the future. Rather than this, it is better to directly hand over Sui County now, take advantage of the opportunity of Cai Mao and Cao Cao to compete for territory, and recruit Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu first.

In Liu Qi's view, the value of these two talents is far greater than that of a county!

After deploying this qiē, Liu Qi was a little relieved, but he was still not very sure of Jia Xu, after all, this person's wisdom far exceeded his own, if it was a matter of conspiracy, he dared to guarantee that no one under his command was his opponent, unless it was Pang Tong at his peak.

But no matter what, he has done his best now, and if Jia Xu still can't belong to himself, then he can only blame himself for his bad luck.

After Liu Qi handed over the letter to Huang Zu to Huang You, he solemnly told Huang You to deliver the letter to Huang Zu in person, and asked Huang Zu to follow the arrangement on the letter, and rewarded Huang You heavily, so he left the big ship, returned to his own small boat, and continued to set off to Peng Ze.

Before Liu Qi came to Pengze, Fanqin, Wang Cang, Liao Li, Yu Fu and other officials of the Assassin Academy, as well as Xu Shu, Wei Yan, Huo Jun and other generals, waited by the river early and welcomed Liu Qi over.

"Subordinates, see Lord Thorn." When these people saw Liu Qi, they all hurriedly saluted and said respectfully,

"You're welcome, Mr. Gennao, what is the current situation?" Liu Qi asked everyone to be exempt, and then immediately asked Xu Shudao.

Xu Shu shook his head and said ashamedly: "Lord Qiyu, the last general is incompetent, now Sun Ce has 70,000 bear soldiers under his command, and our army only has 50,000, which occupies a disadvantage in terms of numbers, and the rules are more than enough, and the attack is insufficient." This Zhou Yu is really a resourceful man, and there are many clever schemes, but fortunately, the general is cautious, so he did not succeed, otherwise our army will definitely suffer losses. Also, that Sun Ce is indeed brave, even if General Wenchang is against him, he can't take any advantage, and the Danyang soldiers under his command are worthy of being the best soldiers in the world, not only are they tall in individual soldiers, they are also proficient in the methods of battle formations, so at present, our two sides are still in a state of stalemate. The last general had no choice but to hold on to the city, wait until the enemy's morale was frustrated, and then find a way to counterattack. ”

Liu Qi nodded when he heard this, Xu Shu's strategy can be described as decent, although it is impossible to achieve a quick victory, but after a long time, the morale of the enemy army is frustrated, and too much grain and grass are consumed, and it will inevitably return in vain.

However, now that Jingyang and Yang are surrounded by enemies on all sides, it is best to quickly achieve a victory to boost morale, plus almost all of their base areas have fallen into mobilization, if the war is too long, not only Jiangdong Sun Ce can't afford to consume, but also can't afford to consume himself, in case the time lasts for half a year, it is estimated that the surplus food accumulated by the four counties of Jingnan in the past half a year will be exhausted, which is not only not conducive to the people's livelihood, but also not conducive to their next conquest.

But now Zhou Yu on Sun Ce's side can be said to be a last resort, even if he has some tricks, how can he hide it from the other party's eyes?

Therefore, Liu Qi didn't have any idea for a while, so he had to follow Xu Shu's strategy, temporarily hold on, and actively look for favorable fighters, hoping to seize the opportunity to break the enemy army.

But after half a month, Liu Qi tried several times, and sure enough, he found that his conspiracy could not be hidden from Zhou Yu, so he gradually extinguished his mind to fight a quick decisive battle, and had no choice but to hold on.

"It would be good if Jia Xu could get here, with his wisdom, he will definitely be able to come up with a strange plan to break the enemy, if you calculate according to time, Cao Cao and Cai Mao are also in the city, and I don't know how the battle situation is?" Liu Qi couldn't help but sigh secretly and thought silently.