The Jingzhou soldiers were all shocked when they heard this, Huo Jun and the others clenched the weapons in their hands, looked at Liu Ze with hostile eyes, and were on guard.

Wen Ping drank the sergeants and bowed his hand to Liu Ze and said: "I have heard of the name of King Jing, and I have admired it for a long time. ”

Liu Ze smiled slightly: "On the battlefield, we are enemies, lay down our weapons, and we can't be friends." General Wen, the matter has come to this point, and it still doesn't come down? ”

Wen Ping said awe-inspiringly: "As a minister but can't protect the territory for his lord, he is really sad, and he dares to steal his life?" ”

Liu Ze laughed and said: "Zhongye's words are wrong, under the whole world, it is not the king's land, the people of the land, it is not the king's minister, a certain is the king of Han Jing, Liu Biao does not obey the emperor's orders, and colludes with the rebellious minister and thief Yuan Shu, a certain is on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and the public is a subject of the Han Dynasty, and he can only protect the territory and the people for the Han Dynasty, why is he loyal to Liu Biao's death?" What's more, there are flattering villains like Cai Mao in Jingzhou, and General Wen has no way to repay him, even if he sacrifices his life on the battlefield, it is just to make his relatives and enemies happy. ”

Cai Mao's name has become an eternal pain in Wen Ping's heart, he glanced at Huo Jun Xianglang on the left and right, both of them were slightly bowed, both of them had the intention of descending Xu, so Wen Ping stepped forward to pay respects, and said: "Wen Ping Yudun, now I heard the words of His Royal Highness King Jing, such as Daigo empowerment, and suddenly realized, and I am willing to surrender to the account, in order to follow the work of dogs and horses." ”

Liu Ze was overjoyed, got off the horse and helped Wen Ping up, and said: "Today, I have Zhongye, and I am like a tiger with wings." Then Liu Ze and Wen Ping went back to Xinye together. Most of the defenders of Xinye were poisoned, unable to fight, and after the city was broken, they all became prisoners of the Xu army. With the rank of general, Huo Jun Xianglang was awarded the rank of deputy chief soldier and the rank of general. For the time being, Xinye's army was not reorganized, so Wen was not given a number, and Liu Ze's plan was to reorganize Jingzhou's army on a large scale after taking Jingzhou.

The next offensive target is already to lock on Xiangyang.

If you want to attack Xiangyang, you must first cross the Han River, Liu Ze has no water army in his hands at all, but the 80,000 water army led by Cai Mao is waiting for the Han River. wants to break through the defense line of the Jingzhou naval army. It seems to be the biggest problem facing the Xuzhou army.

All the generals are worried, no matter how brave Xuzhou's foot riding is, it can only be on land, once it is on the water. That's useless. Discussion comes and goes. No one can come up with a good solution.

Liu Ze is calm and relaxed, and he looks confident, and the Han River is not too wide in the Xiangyang section. Liu Ze ordered the Zhouqiao troops to build a pontoon bridge and prepare to force the Han River.

Zhao Yun said to Liu Ze with a worried face: "Hanshui has been tightly sealed by the Jingzhou Navy, our army has no warships, even if the pontoon bridge is erected, it will definitely not be able to withstand the attack of the Jingzhou Navy, and the last general thinks that it is not a good strategy to build a bridge to cross the river." Zhao Yun's worries are naturally very reasonable, and it is not easy to cross the river without the right to control water.

Liu Ze smiled but did not say a word, led everyone to the riverside, and ordered the Zhouqiao troops to immediately operate on the river and erect a pontoon bridge.

The Xuzhou Army had a Zhouqiao battalion in the logistics support unit at the first level of the corps, and the three regiments had three Zhouqiao battalions.

In the Han River, the patrol boats of the Jingzhou Navy cruised back and forth, and the fanfare of the Xuzhou Army naturally alarmed these patrol boats, and the Xuzhou Army gathered on the north bank of the Han River and set up a pontoon bridge on the Han River.

The melancholy on Zhao Yun's face has never dissipated, and he said to Liu Ze: "The Jingzhou Navy is coming, the pontoon bridge is erected on the river, if there is no effective protection, it will definitely be destroyed by the Jingzhou Navy lightly, can the lord have a good way to deal with it?" ”

Liu Ze smiled, and another military order was quickly conveyed, and the two catapult battalions and two bed crossbow battalions of the first and second corps were transferred to the river embankment and lined up.

Zhao Yun suddenly realized, it turned out that Liu Ze wanted to use catapults and bed crossbows to cover the boat bridge camp to erect a pontoon bridge, when there was no water force to support, this is undoubtedly a good choice, bed crossbows can fire giant arrows, catapults can fire stone bullets, these powerful weapons can destroy the strong city wall, once the wooden ships of the Jingzhou Navy are hit, they must be destroyed and killed. However, the city wall is a fixed target, the target is larger, the catapult does not need to aim, as long as the distance of the fire can be controlled, it can hit the target, and on the river, the ship is a moving target, and the target is small, the shooting accuracy of the catapult has extremely high requirements, if the shooting is not accurate, most of the stone bullets will fall in the river, in vain.

In fact, Liu Ze has long thought about this problem, on the river, the ships of the Jingzhou Navy must be scattered everywhere, and it is naturally much more difficult to deal with these ships with catapults than against the fixed city walls, but the catapults used by the Xuzhou Army are the most advanced counterweight catapults, and the shooting accuracy is much higher than that of the trebuchets drawn by manpower.

Zhao Yun nodded secretly, but he quickly thought about another problem, that is, the problem of range. The maximum effective range of the bed crossbow is 500 steps, beyond this distance, it is the end of the strong crossbow, isn't there a saying, the end of the strong crossbow, the force can not wear Lu Min? As for the catapult, it was equipped with two kinds of stone bullets, one weighing 100 catties and a range of 350 steps, and the other being a light bullet weighing 30 catties with a range of 600 steps. Although the Han River is not as wide as the Yangtze River, it is several miles away from the north bank to the south bank, and the catapult can only project light bullets to the center of the river at the farthest. But if you want to cross the river successfully, the pontoon bridge must be erected to the south bank, how to protect the pontoon bridge near the south bank from the attack of the Jingzhou navy, Zhao Yun does not seem to have thought of a good strategy.

However, when he saw Liu Ze's confident gaze, he understood that Liu Ze must have a strange move.

Liu Ze did not speak, but pulled Zhao Yun to the position of the catapult, picked up a stone bullet from the cannon rack with one hand and handed it to Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun also saw this strange "stone bullet" for the first time, about the size of a ball of Keju, the weight is very light, Zhao Yun checked it in his hand, only about four or five catties, and Zhao Yun found that this "stone bullet" is not made of stone at all but pottery, and it seems to be hollow.

Zhao Yun was very puzzled, the catapult fired the stone projectile, it all depends on the weight of the stone bullet, the heavier the stone bullet, the greater the power of destruction, such a light and fluttering pottery bullet, the range can be greatly increased, but the power is really not flattering, it is estimated that after hitting the ship, at best, it can only leave a small pit on the ship, and there will be no damage to the hull at all.

"Lord, can this kind of stone bullet hit the sinking Jingzhou warship?" Zhao Yun picked up the pottery bullet and asked suspiciously.

Liu Ze smiled mysteriously, took the pottery bomb back, still put it on the artillery rack, and said: "This thing is Ma Jun's latest secret weapon, as for the power, you can see it immediately." ”

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Liu Qi angrily boarded the flagship of Cai Mao, the governor of the navy, who was leisurely sipping tea in the cabin, looking at ease. Liu Qi is Liu Biao's eldest son, this year just and weak crown, Liu Qi's appearance and Liu Biao look very similar, living is Liu Biao's appearance when he was young, Liu Biao loves him deeply, and has the intention to plant Liu Qi to take over his position in the future, this time Liu Qi was specially appointed to serve as a counselor in the navy, which is intended to let him contact military affairs. However, Liu Biao's stepwife Cai likes the second son Liu Cong, and she is very disgusted with Liu Qi.

"Oh, it turned out to be the eldest prince, I don't know why the eldest prince is panicking? Sit down and drink a cup of tea to suppress the shock. Cai Mao looked at Liu Qi's unkind face, but she didn't think it was angry, and said with a smile.

The military situation ahead is urgent, but Cai Mao is leisurely, and the nameless fire in Liu Qi's heart can't help but rise up, but Cai Mao has a heavy army, not to mention his elders, Liu Qi can only suppress the fire in his heart, and said: "The Xuzhou army has set up a pontoon bridge in Niushoudu, preparing to force the crossing of the Han River, Cai Dudu should also have a strategy to deal with the enemy, right?" ”

Cai Mao obviously got the report a long time ago, and was not surprised by the news at all, and smiled lightly: "The eldest prince is too worried, Liu Ze set up a pontoon bridge to forcibly cross the Han River, I think he is a dog jumping over the wall in a hurry, above the Han River, there are 80,000 ships of my Jingzhou 80,000 naval army, forgive him for building a small pontoon bridge, and if he commands it, it will be in ashes." Without the ability to control the Han water, Liu Ze wants to cross the Han water, he is a fool's dream, wishful thinking! ”

Liu Qi said: "But Liu Ze is already erecting a pontoon bridge and increasing troops on the north bank, and he may attack the south bank at any time, how can Cai Dudu sit back and watch it?" ”

Cai Mao smiled and said: "Don't worry, the old man has already mobilized the navy, and is ready to attack Xu Jun by surprise when the pontoon bridge is halfway through, which will definitely be destroyed in one fell swoop, and it will also cut off Liu Ze's heart to cross to the south." If you don't believe it, you might as well go to the water village to take a look, more than 100 warships are ready to go. ”

"Okay, I'll see for myself." Liu Qi turned around, left Cai Mao's flagship, and came to the water village. Sure enough, in the water village, more than 100 warships were already in good order, just waiting for a military order, out of the village to meet the enemy.

Cai Mao stood on the side and said, "Eldest prince, see it, there are 100 strong ships, and the enemy can only be broken in a moment." ”

Liu Qi boarded one of the Mengchong ships and shouted at Cai Mao: "Cai Dudu, when Shaoqing set out on the expedition, I will go with the first ship, how about it?" (To be continued......)