Above the river, at this time, the river breeze is in full swing, and above the battleship, the Cao Zi flag is facing the exhibition.

A wave hit, and the huge hull shook a few times, Cao Cao on the deck stood unsteadily, staggered and almost fell, and Cai Mao beside him reached out to help him, but only after the wave passed.

"There are big waves on the river, so the prime minister should sit down." Cai Mao said with concern.

Cao Cao nodded, and with the support of his left and right, he sat back on the couch specially designed for him.

Cao Cao looked at the waves on the river, and couldn't help but sigh: "The lonely horse galloped wildly, just like walking on the ground, I didn't want to stand on this seemingly flat deck, but I was almost shaken by a few waves, it seems that the northerners rode horses, and the southerners took boats really worthy of the name." ”

Cai Mao hurriedly said: "If the prime minister can't sit on the boat, then Mao will immediately order the boat to dock, and the prime minister will go ashore and ride a horse." ”

Cao Cao waved his hand and said proudly: "Alone in the world, there is nothing that cannot be controlled alone!" Although the waves of this river are prosperous, how can there be a lonely time when he wore the desert and went north to conquer Wuhuan, and he had to know the difficulties and advance. ”

Cai Mao praised: "The prime minister's ambition is extremely admired, but it won't take many days for us to approach Xiakou, when the south bank is open, and the infantry can be unimpeded along the Xianpu corridor, so the prime minister doesn't need to work so hard." ”

"With the help of this naval army, it will not be far from unifying the world alone." Cao Cao made this bold statement, and most of the left and right echoed it, but only one member of the Confucian scholar in Tsing Yi kept silent, and this person was Jia Xu.

Cao Cao saw that he didn't say a word, so he said: "Wenhe is worried, but there is something on his mind. ”

Jia Xu arched his hand and said: "Since the prime minister asked, Xu didn't dare to hide it." Xu actually felt that the prime minister was only here for Jingzhou this time, and now that Jingzhou has been obtained, why rush to attack Wu. It is better to return the army to the north, leaving only the general to guard Jingxiang, while calming the hearts of the people, while training the navy, when the time is ripe, you might as well wave the army eastward again, and it is not too late to destroy Sun Wu. ”

Cao Cao smiled when he heard this, and said, "Wen He is too cautious. Lonely now the soldiers are not bloody and get Jingzhou, Liu Bei is even more determined by a battle, our army's morale is booming, and we have the help of Deqi sailors, do not take this opportunity to pacify Jiangnan, but when. ”

Jia Xu was even more worried, and said: "I am afraid that the army is in such a hurry, so Liu Bei and Sun Ce will unite against our army under heavy pressure." The Sun clan has been based in Jiangdong for a long time and is good at water warfare, but he is afraid that it will be difficult to defeat in a hurry. ”

Jia Xu said here, but Cai Mao said there: "Mr. Wenhe is too worried, his Sun family is good at water warfare, and my Jingzhou Navy is not incompetent, and the tiger of Jiangdong in the past did not die under Xiakou City." Now that the prime minister is advancing by land and water, the danger of Sun's Yangtze River no longer exists, and it is the right time to attack it. ”

Cao Cao approving: "De Jue's words are deeply lonely. Besides, Lone has sent a handwritten letter to Sun Ce, although Sun Ce is a general, but he is far away from the comfortable place of Jiangdong, how have he ever heard of Lone's military might, and he must be thinking about Nadi as a vassal now! Ha ha!. ”

While he was talking, someone suddenly came to report that the people who had made Jianye had returned, but more than 30 people, including the envoys, were killed by the Wu people, and only escaped by luck with two or three alive, saying that Sun Ce refused to surrender and had decided to fight side by side with Liu Bei's alliance. He also sent Wu Hou Shizi to kill him.

When Cao Cao heard the news, he couldn't help but change color, took the case, and scolded angrily: "Sun Ce'er deceives people too much, and he spreads the life of the orphan, and whoever gets Sun Ce's head will be rewarded with thousands of gold and sealed by the marquis of ten thousand households."

Cao Cao was furious, and the momentum of fighting for many years was suddenly released, and everyone was moved.

Jia Xu was unmoved, and said: "Prime Minister is angry, now that Sun Liu has been allied, his strength should not be underestimated. Fang is getting cold today, the forage is getting thinner, and the main force of our army is all northerners, I heard that some people in the army have begun to disobey the water and soil, infected with diseases, this time may not be conducive to continuing the march, it is better to follow the previous plan, first retreat to the north to rest and then make plans. ”

Cao Cao's anger could not be extinguished, he waved his hand violently, and said categorically: "Even if our army is a little inconvenient, it is expected that the general situation will be fine. Now that hundreds of thousands of troops are heading south, there is no reason to retreat without a fight. Wen He didn't need to persuade again, he had already made up his mind, and ordered the whole army to speed up the advance, and take the heads of Liu Bei and Sun Ce to dominate the world."

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At the same time, there is a huge water army above the river, which is swimming against the current. Hundreds of giant ships, the sheng flag is displayed, on the top of the Chinese army, the words of the general Zhou of the metropolitan governor are clearly written, and there are two flags next to them, which are the words of the right capital governor and general Lu and the military general, in addition to the words Gan, Xu, Sun, Ling, Dong and so on, all of which are Jiangdong Huchen.

And Zhuge Liang, who originally sent an envoy to Eastern Wu, was among Zhou Yu's flagships, Zhuge Liang was on Lusu's boat when he came, and now he is still short of ships in Eastern Wu, how can he waste a ship to send Zhuge Liang, so Zhuge Liang had to go with the Jiangdong Army. Now, it is the troops gathered by Jianye and all over Jiangdong to Xiakou, and Zhou Yu still has 50,000 troops in Xiakou, plus these troops, there are 80,000. Far from the time of Chibi in later generations, the pitiful 30,000 troops can be compared, and Liu Bei's army has also changed from 5,000 in history to 20,000 today. Sun Liu allied 100,000 troops to resist Cao Cao.

There are many boats and boats in Wudi, so the army does not need to travel by land, and Jianye's navy does not need to guard against Xuzhou on the north bank, so Sun Ce waved his hand, and Jianye's 10,000 sailors directly carried Qiao Rendu to escort 30,000 people from the waterway to Xiakou.

It's the middle of October in a blink of an eye, the autumn is getting stronger and the winter is approaching, on the bank of the river at dusk, the river wind is very urgent, Liu Bei stands on the dock messily in the wind, and Baba looks eastward, until the sun is about to sink in the west, still does not sail to come, can't help but sigh slightly, and there is a look of disappointment.

"Lord, it's not early, let's go back to the camp." Xu Shu beside him persuaded.

"It's early, let's wait a little longer." Liu Bei was still unwilling, and wanted to mess around in the wind for a while to see if he could wait for the naval army of Eastern Wu.

This is the fifth day that Zhuge Liang has gone, in the past few days, Liu Bei's heart has been at ease every day, restless day and night, as long as there is nothing to do, he will come to the riverside, looking forward to Zhuge Liang to bring back good news, and even directly see the fleet of Dongwu coming down the river.

It's just that I look forward to people being haggard every day, but I don't even look forward to a ghost.

At this moment, a horse galloped over and sent an urgent express from Fankou Guan Yu, Liu Bei had a premonition, opened the letter and looked at it, and couldn't help but change his expression.

"Lord, what did General Guan say?" Xu Shu's expression on the side was also alert.

"Cao Cao's land and water army has passed the mouth of Dongting Lake, Yuan Zhi will see for himself." Liu Bei handed over a letter to Xu Shu, and the expression on his face became more and more worried.

Xu Shu picked up the letter, studied it carefully, and said, "This Cao Cao is so slow!" ”

The speed of Cao Jun's new army frightened Liu Bei's little liver, but Xu Shu was still too slow, Liu Bei was puzzled: "Cao Jun is less than five hundred miles away from Xiakou, how can Yuan Zhi still say that it is slow." ”

Xu Shu only smiled faintly and said: "According to Shu's opinion, Cao Cao has three strategies, upper, middle and lower, and this best strategy is to take advantage of the fact that my alliance with the Sun family has not been completed, and the light army will go down and attack Fankou, and after destroying me, he will further threaten Sun Ce and force him to surrender." This middle strategy is to retreat to the north, leave the civil and military ministers in Jingzhou to pacify the people, train the navy, and then go south after pacifying Guanzhong, and then have enough confidence to pacify the south of the Yangtze River. ”

Liu Bei felt justified when he heard this, and joked: "Yuan Zhi is a good plan for Cao Cao, but it seems that Cao Cao didn't choose the two strategies, I don't know what this strategy is." ”

Xu Shu said: "The next policy is naturally the current situation, Cao Cao can come early, or come late, but he chose this time that is not too late or too early, just to promote our two alliances, if this battle is lost, then its encroachment on the world will be gone." Moreover, Jiangdong Sun Ce is an ambitious person, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Lu Meng and even Qiao Ren are all the best in the world, if Cao Cao loses this battle, not only can he not swallow the world's ambition fail, I am afraid that Huainan and Jingzhou will also be lost."

"Oh" Liu Bei looked at Jiang Shui and said, "In this way, isn't my alliance with Sun Ce seeking the skin of the tiger?" ”

Xu Shu said: "No. If Cao Cao defeats Jingzhou, he will not be able to protect it, and then it will not only be Sun Ce's opportunity, but also the opportunity for our army. ”