On the day when the Jingzhou fleet set off for Yizhou to transport grain, Liu Cong came to Jiangling Wharf early and set up a banquet in the warehouse behind the wharf to see Gan Ning off.

He Kang, the captain of the Navy Academy who went west at the same time as Gan Ning, Cui Jin, the head of the Yizhou Sericulture Department, and Yuan Ying, the head of the Jingzhou Sericulture Department, were present at the same time.

Liu Congzhong announced the appointment of Gan Ning and appointed Gan Ning as the chief lieutenant of the Jingzhou Shipping Department.

Then he instructed He Kang to strictly discipline along the way, strictly control the 200 soldiers, and obey Gan Ning's command in all actions.

He Kangwei only received the order,

Liu Cong ordered the soldiers to sift the wine, first sifted a full bowl for Gan Ning, and then Liu Cong followed the full, Liu Cong raised the wine bowl and said to Gan Ning: "Captain Gan, I wish you a smooth journey and return with grain as soon as possible. ”

After speaking, they raised their glasses and touched each other, and drank them all,

Gan Ning returned a bowl of wine, picked up the wine bowl and said to Liu Cong: "I want Gan Ning to wander the rivers and lakes, many years without the appreciation of the master, today I am fortunate to devote myself to the lord's door, the lord does not think that Gan Ning was born recklessly, and he was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, Gan Ning is liver and brain, and he must live up to the high expectations of the lord, Gan Ning drank this cup of wine and talked about his heartfelt feelings to the lord." ”

Gan Ning said, drank it all, put down the wine bowl, stood with his hands down, and waited for Liu Cong's instructions,

Liu Cong filled another bowl, turned his face to Cui Jin, Yuan Ying, He Kang and others, and said: "You go west, shoulder the heavy responsibility of the yamen, Liu Cong will not respect each other one by one, Liu Cong drank this cup of wine, hehe, I wish everyone all the best." "Say and drink it all,

At this time, I heard three horns on the wharf outside the door, and when Liu Cong led everyone out to see, he saw 22 cargo ships swinging out, and the sailors of each ship were busy working, untying the cable and pulling the sails, waiting to set off.

When Gan Ning and the others saw it, they all bowed goodbye to Liu Cong and boarded the boat.

At this time, Liu Cong only cared about Yuan Ying, worried that she had lived in the north since she was a child, did not know the nature of water, and was afraid that she would suffer along the way.

At this time, Cui Jin had already boarded the twenty-first ship.

Yuan Ying wore a scarlet cloak, a sword on her waist, and deerskin soft-soled boots, heroic, leading four Jingzhou female soldiers who were familiar with water, and boarded the twenty-second ship with agile steps.

After Yuan Ying boarded the ship, she didn't even look back, standing steadily on the deck and looking westward.

Liu Cong felt a little sad in his heart when he saw it, but it was inconvenient to reveal it.

At this time, Gan Ning stood on the deck with the officers and soldiers on the twenty-one ships, clenching their fists to say goodbye to Liu Cong.

Liu Cong raised his hand and waved a loud order: "Start the boat." ”

I saw twenty-two ships pull up their sails at the same time, and sail out of the dock to the river.

At this time, the weather was clear, and the sun shining on the middle of the sky was shining on the surface of the river, and a slight northwest wind blew, which actually encouraged the sails to swell up and slowly go against the water.

Liu Cong stared closely at Yuan Ying's ship here, only to see Yuan Ying get up and salute Liu Cong with his fists, and then bow his head and enter the cabin, without any expression.

Liu Cong saw it and understood Yuan Ying's intentions,

After Liu Cong saw the fleet go away, he lowered his head and walked back, but he was unhappy in his heart, not for anything else, but just remembered Yuan Ying, and thought: "Yuan Ying, my wife, after returning from Yizhou safely this time, no matter what happens, the sky is falling, and I, Liu Cong, can no longer rely on your temperament, no matter how strong you are, are you messing around, in case there is a mistake, how can I regret it in my life." ”

When Liu Cong thought of this, he was worried again, and thought to himself, such a young beauty, if she falls in love with Gan Ning, won't I lose money?

This comes and goes, there is time to fall in love, and Gan Ning is a veteran in the love field, my God, isn't this me asking for bad luck,

Since ancient times, beauties love heroes, this Gan Ning is not an ordinary hero, and he will fight on the love field, it doesn't take a few times to take the initiative, Yuan Ying, can Yuan Ying resist his attack,

Oops, why didn't I think about this beforehand?

Liu Cong thought about walking like this, and suddenly reflected, recalling that when he saw Yuan Ying and Deng Bao working together a few days ago, he also had this kind of worry in his heart, but wasn't Yuan Ying intact?

Is it that he has too much heart, thinking of this, Liu Cong laughed secretly in a low voice, looked around, and saw that no one was paying attention, so he slapped himself twice in the face, and scolded: "No breath, is it so easy, Yuan Ying is not such a person, if such a person, what kind of heroes have not been seen in Jinjiang Spring Restaurant back then, can you still stay until now." ”

The dock official next to him heard the slap, turned his face to look at Liu Cong, and asked suspiciously: "Lord, is there anything wrong on the dock?" ”

Liu Cong was clever, and immediately said: "No, but there is one thing I want to ask, a few days ago, I ordered to prepare twenty cargo ships, why did I add two more ships today, two more." ”

"Hey,,, lord, Captain Gan didn't report to you." The official thought for a moment when he said this, and then said: "Oh, it may be that Captain Gan forgot to report, so after Captain Gan came, he seized the time to select sailors and inspect the cargo ship, and suddenly heard that the head of the Sericulture Department Yuan was a woman, so he was very embarrassed.

Later, Captain Gan remembered that our cargo ship might not go directly to Yizhou, and might have to return to Ba County, so Captain Gan decided to add two more ships, one for Yizhou official Cui Jin, and one for Chief Manager Yuan.

Captain Gan also selected ten daughters of Xiangjiang fishermen who were familiar with water to operate the boats and rudder, so he called 22 ships. ”

When Liu Cong heard this, he admired Gan Ning even more, and thought: "Where can I find such a caring and capable leader of the navy, and when I come back, I will definitely be entrusted with a heavy responsibility." ”

The official whispered to Liu Cong again: "My lord, Captain Gan Ning also gave a death order beforehand, instructing these ten fishermen's daughters, without their own orders, that any man who boarded the ship under the head of Yuan Ying without authorization should be hacked to death. ”

Liu Cong's eyes widened when he heard this, but he couldn't reply.

The official said: "Lord, I heard that these ten fishermen's daughters were originally from Gan Ning's group, and their water kung fu is very good, amazing." ”

Liu Cong listened, but he didn't worry about anything anymore, so he stepped up his steps to leave the dock, turned over his horse, and rushed back to Xiangyang.

Along the way, a gust of cold wind blew, Liu Cong felt the coolness, his mind cleared up a little, and muttered: "The fleet that sent Yizhou is gone, this piece of mind is put down, well, but you can't wait at home, you have to go out immediately tomorrow, go to the river first, and see what Wei Yan has built the manhole house, according to the time calculation, the project should be over, hehe." ”

After dinner the next day, Liu Cong took Liang Zhu'er and Lai Fatzi out of the Xiangyang City Gate and ran to the bank of the Xiangjiang River.

In front of the south bank of the Xiangjiang River, looking from a distance, although the dense mulberry forest is bare and has no leaves, it can still cover people's eyes, so there is no human figure activity, but I see bursts of green smoke coming out of the mulberry forest and being blown away by the wind.

When Liu Cong saw this, he felt relieved: "The refugees have started to make breakfast. ”

The war horses gradually approached the mulberry forest, and the shacks of the refugees living in the mulberry forest showed more than a dozen.

At this time, I saw a man setting up a stove in a sheltered place in front of the hut to cook on a fire.

Liu Cong stood up and instructed Liang Zhu'er behind him: "Get off the horse and go to the refugee's house to have a look." ”

After that, he turned over and dismounted, handed over the horse to Lai Fatzi, and Liu Cong took the beams and pillars through the gap of the mulberry tree and came to the front of a refugee shack nearby.

The refugee woman was pouting her butt and blowing the wind under the stove to help the fire, and the man was collecting firewood next to the shack, and when she heard the sound of footsteps and looked up, she saw Liu Cong and others all dressed neatly, with swords at their waists, and horses parked in the distance.

Liu Cong lowered his face and asked gently, "Isn't it cold at night when you live in this shack?" ”

The man stammered, "It's not cold, it's not cold, it's warm." ”

Liu Cong took a closer look, and saw that the husband and wife were disgraced, the tattered clothes on their bodies were almost about to fall off, their waists were tied with straw ropes, and they were wearing tattered linen shoes under their feet.

Liu Cong sighed in his heart: "This is also a person, this is also called life, how can you be so hard, born in this world, it is better not to be born." ”

Liu Cong walked up to the stove while thinking about it, and said kindly, "I want to see what you cook." ”

The woman rubbed her hands together, nodded in horror and said, "Look, look." ”

Liu Cong opened the lid of the pot, only to see half a pot of water in the big pot of the basin, a few handfuls of wheat grains in the water sank to the bottom of the pot, and the water in the pot was just steaming. Thinking of this, he asked, "Is it enough for you two to eat these handfuls of wheat?" ”

Liu Cong said and put down the lid of the pot, but he felt that the lid was very light, and looked closely, where is the lid of the pot, it turned out to be a broken reed mat covering the pot,

The refugee couple hurriedly replied when they saw Liu Cong's questioning: "Enough, enough." ”

Liu Cong scolded in his heart: "Don't tell the truth, damn, it's enough of a fart." When he saw that they were frightened like this, he took pity on them and said, "We are the servants of the Jingzhou Yamen, and we have come here to see your life, and do not be afraid." ”

The refugee couple nodded and pretended again, and said again and again: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, the military master just watch." ”

Liu Cong looked at the shack behind him, only to see that the shack was high from the ground, the east, west and north sides were blocked by earthen walls, and there were doors and windows on the south side.

The thatch on the head-high roof is quite thick, and it is also very smooth and neat, and it seems that it will not leak when it rains.

Liu Cong asked, "Can I go into the house and have a look?" When the refugee couple heard this, they hurriedly came over to look at the reed mats blocking the door, and muttered, "It's too dirty inside??????

When Liu Cong poked his head in, he saw that in the dim light, there was a thick pile of dead grass on the shack floor, and some rags and rags were piled up there, and there was nothing else except these two things.

A musty smell came out, Liu Cong felt nauseous, and was about to turn around, only to see the dry grass pile stirring up, and when he looked at it through the faint light at the door, it turned out that there were two children sleeping in the dry grass pile,

The two children, hearing the sound, raised their heads from the haystack, stared in horror with their eyes,

Liu Cong saw it and thought: "Alas, this child can sleep, isn't it the same as a kennel." ”059