Jia Xu didn't seem surprised, adjusted his breathing slightly, and said with a smile: "It seems that the lord sent Huang Zu's head to Exian County to determine Sun Ce's death, and the lord expected it to be the same, Sun Ce died yesterday on the fourth day of the fourth month of April, and the whole army in Jiangdong mourned, and the city was full of vegetarians." ”

Liu Ze smiled indifferently and said: "If you want to blame him, you can only blame him Sun Ce for his narrow-minded temperament, and he has no grace to tolerate people, I am an old friend with Sun Jian, and it is human nature to take the head of the enemy and send it to the grave of the deceased as a sacrifice, it is human nature, Sun Ce doesn't appreciate it, it doesn't matter, can't he get angry and get out of the old disease, can he complain about me?" ”

This is a high-sounding statement, but Jia Xu smiled and said: "The lord's plan to kill with a knife is impeccable in the eyes of others, but the lord is like a minister, the lord knows that Sun Ce has been hit by a poisonous arrow, and he has old sores again, so he can't be angry, so he uses Huang Zu's head to provoke him, and the lord knows better that Sun Ce's personality is extreme, and when he sees Huang Zu's head, he will be angry, and he will be angry when he induces the old sores to burst out in a fit of anger, and naturally loses his life." And the people of the world, including the people of Jiangdong, will only praise the righteousness of the lord, and sigh that Sun Ce is narrow, but they don't know that this is the most brilliant place of the lord, and the soldiers are not bloody, which has removed a big trouble for my Xuzhou. ”

Liu Ze restrained his smile and said, "Sun Ce can be called a hero in the world, but it's a pity that he chose to be an opponent with me instead of a friend, since he is an opponent, why should I be merciful?" Of course, swords can hurt people, but it is not necessary to use swords to hurt people, a sentence and a page can also take people's lives, and a human head is exchanged for the life of Jiangdong's first handsome man, and this transaction can be regarded as a profit. ”

Jia Xu smiled and said: "The lord is like a god, and he kills people invisibly. It's a high segment indeed. ”

"Now that Sun Ce is dead, what is the movement in Jiangdong?" Liu Ze asked.

Jia Xu said: "Jiangdong has been honored by Sun Ce's younger brother Sun Quan as the lord of Jiangdong, the whole army mourns, Sun Quan has helped Sun Ce's coffin to return to Wuhui, and the children of the Sun clan and Zhang Zhao and others also returned with the coffin, but the Jiangdong army has no signs of retreating, Zhou Yu Cheng Pu and others are still stationed in Exian, I am afraid there is still a heart to covet Jingzhou." ”

Liu Ze nodded slightly, "The matter of Sun Quan sitting in Jiangdong was not unexpected by him at all, if something else happened, it would surprise Liu Ze." "It seems that Sun Quan really got his wish this time."

Jia Xu was slightly stunned. Liu Ze's words seem to have a deep meaning. Nai said: "Why did the lord say this? Although Sun Ce still has children, his sons are young, and if he is supported as the Lord, it is the way to control chaos. Brother to brother. It's also humane. The lord seems to mean something else? ”

Liu Ze didn't answer him directly, but asked, "How did Wen He see about Sun Ce being ambushed by the assassins?" ”

Jia Xu's expression was awe-inspiring. Said: "The lord is alluding to ......"

Liu Zedao: "This matter is said to be owned by Xu Gong's disciples on the surface, but there are many suspicions, Xu Gong ambushed and punished, and the three clans were prolonged, Sun Ce will definitely wantonly capture the rest of the party, even if there are a few fish that slip through the net, they are also panicked and cannot stand on their own, it is a great luck to be able to escape with their lives, how can they still have the spare strength to set up an ambush to assassinate Sun Ce, this is one of them." Second, even if Sun Ce is brave and the guards around him are lax, how can Sun Ce's itinerary be known to outsiders, let alone a few Xu Gongyu who are still wanted. Sun Ce went out hunting, and there would inevitably be soldiers around the hunting ground, how could these doormen disguise themselves, mix into the field, and set up an ambush on Sun Ce's inevitable road, and hit with one hit, so many coincidences, is it really that coincidental? ”

Jia Xu muttered: "There is indeed something strange about this matter, according to the lord's words, these disciples must have been protected by people to avoid being wanted and captured." The news of Sun Ce's hunting must have been reported to these assassins, and even arranged for them to enter the enclosure in advance, and even Sun Ce's single appearance was probably deliberately arranged by someone, otherwise these assassins would have no chance of success. In this way, Sun Quan's suspicion is undoubtedly the greatest, but killing his brother and seizing the throne is by no means a trivial matter, once it is leaked, it will be ruined, does Sun Quan really have the courage to do this? ”

Liu Ze sneered and said: "Wealth has always been in danger, a person with ambition and a dark belly, he will never consider the consequences when he does things. I have received a secret report from the Jinying Guard, who have detected that the three assassins who assassinated Sun Ce had had had several secret contacts with Sun Quan's confidant Kan Ze, and that Sun Quan had raised dead soldiers, for which he had been reprimanded by Sun Ce. Therefore, Sun Quan's attempt to usurp the throne and stand on his own feet has never stopped, and Xu Gong's killing undoubtedly gave Sun Quan a chance, so he took the risk and secretly provided shelter to those Xu Gong disciples, secretly revealed the news to them and provided convenience for them to set up an ambush, as for the details of Sun Ce's ambush alone, we don't know, but it is absolutely inseparable from Sun Quan, Sun Ce probably would never have dreamed that it was his own brother who plotted against him. The greed for power is sometimes terrifying, and family affection may not even be worth anything in front of it. ”

Jia Xu said suspiciously: "Can Sun Quan really be seamless?" Since the Jin Yingwei can detect some clues, Sun Ce is really completely kept in the dark and doesn't know at all? ”

Liu Ze said: "Sun Ce may know something, or he may not know anything, but it is certain that Sun Ce still has high hopes for Sun Quan, otherwise he would not have entrusted him with a great cause on his deathbed, in Sun Ce's mind, Jiangdong is the foundation of the Sun family, and he must not fall apart because of his fall." Sun Quan may not be a good hand at marching and fighting to conquer cities, but he is an expert in playing with power and calculation, maybe Sun Ce took a fancy to Sun Quan's ability to govern the country and chose Sun Quan as the heir, otherwise Sun Yi, who is brave and good at fighting, is the best choice. Once the Sun clan is caught in the scuffle for power, then the foundation that Sun Jian and Sun Ce have worked so hard to build will be wiped out in an instant, which is probably unacceptable to Sun Ce no matter what. Even if Sun Ce had doubts about Sun Quan at this time, he didn't dare to make a decision in vain, one is that Sun Quan has cultivated a large number of private forces, and the other is that even if Sun Shao or Sun Yi succeeds to the throne, Sun Quan will not be willing to lose power, and will plot to seize it, rather than Jiangdong falling into endless civil strife, it is better to let Sun Quan succeed to the throne and let Jiangdong power transition smoothly. ”

Jia Xu said thoughtfully: "If Jiangdong is in civil strife, it is a good time for us to take advantage of the situation from Jiangxia to take Jiangdong, but now that Sun Quan is in charge of Jiangdong, I have to say that the chance is slim." ”

Liu Ze smiled and said: "Sun Ce's death was an accident, not to mention that it has always been our strategic arrangement to level Jingzhou first and then take Jiangdong, even if there is an unexpected situation of Sun Ce's death, it should not disrupt our established deployment." Moreover, since Sun Ce is dead, with the current situation in Jiangdong, the possibility of competing with us in Jingzhou is very low, even if Zhou Yu is currently stationed in Exian County, he may not be able to invade Jingzhou in a big way. Therefore, we should coerce the victorious army, take Xiangyang directly, enter the nine counties of the Han Dynasty, and Jingzhou has it, why should we suffer from the injustice of Jiangdong? ”

Jia Xu nodded yes, and left Guishan with Liu Zexiang and returned to Xiakou City.

After a few days of rest, Liu Ze ordered the Third Infantry Division led by Zang Ba to defend Xiakou, and the rest of the troops were divided into two routes, one was led by Xu Rong to lead the First and Tenth Infantry Divisions and Gan Ning's Naval Division to advance west along the Yangtze River from Xiakou to Jiangling City, and the other was led by Liu Ze himself, under the jurisdiction of the First Army Corps, the First and Seventh Cavalry Divisions, the Fifth and Twelfth Infantry Divisions and the Second Cavalry Division of the Second Army Corps, and the Third and Fourth Cavalry Divisions of the Third Army Corps.

According to intelligence, Liu Pan's 50,000 cavalry was wiped out after Anlu, and Cai Mao's 100,000 land and water army had been stationed in Jingling, not daring to cross the Lei Chi for half a step, and watched Xiakou fall and Huang Zu was crowned. Since Jiangxia is lost, Cai Mao's army is already meaningless in Jingling, and if he stays there, he is likely to be attacked by the Xuzhou army first. And after the army set out, the defense of Xiangyang was empty, which made Liu Biao restless, since Jiangxia had been lost, and he could not take it back for a while, the top priority now was how to hold Xiangyang, so Liu Biao ordered Cai Mao to lead the army to retreat to Xiangyang immediately, and prepare to defend Xiangyang.

Now Xiangyang has almost concentrated most of Liu Biao's troops, but Jiangling, an important town in Jingzhou, is weakly garrisoned, so Liu Ze only sent Xu Rong to lead 20,000 infantry troops and 5,000 naval troops to attack Jiangling, and he led the main force of three army corps to attack Xiangyang with all his might. As for Zhou Yu in Exian County, although Sun Ce was newly dead, it was impossible for Jiangdong to have a major military move, but just in case, Liu Ze still sent Zang Ba to lead the Third Infantry Division to guard Yuxiakou to guard against Jiangdong's attack.

Liu Ze knew the truth of the speed of the soldiers, and once the deployment was completed, he immediately sent troops, Xu Rong led the troops to the west to take Nanjun, and Liu Ze waved his army north to Xiyang. Liu Ze initially sent troops to Huainan, and the first city he took was Xiyang, and at this time he marched from Xiyang, aiming at Zhangling.

Zhangling was originally a county belonging to Nanyang County, after Liu Biao arrived in Jingzhou, the five counties east of Nanyang County were divided into Zhangling County, and the governance office was in Zhangling County. After the news of Huang Zu's death reached Zhang Ling, Huang Zhu hated Liu Ze to the core, and often wanted to take revenge, but before he could entangle his troops and horses, Liu Ze had already led the army from Xiyang to kill Zhang Ling.

New hatred and old hatred, Huang Shot's two eyes were blood-red, and he immediately recruited his subordinates to prepare for a battle and fight Liu Ze to the death. The subordinates persuaded Huang Jie that Zhang Ling now has less than 10,000 soldiers and horses, but the Xuzhou army has 100,000 people, Liu Pan's 50,000 cavalry is so strong, but it was also wiped out once, and now Zhang Ling's soldiers and horses are fighting, undoubtedly hitting the stone with eggs, and his subordinates built yì Huang Shot to defend the city and ask Liu Biao for help. Huang Jie kept admonishing, insisted on going his own way, and led the army out of the city. (To be continued......)