When the news reached Xiakou, Huang Zu was shocked, as if facing a great enemy, hurriedly shrunk his forces, closed the city gate, and ordered Zhang Shuochen, the general of the Yamen, to strictly defend it, and ordered the commander Su Fei to command the naval army and hold Hanshuikou tightly, in case the Jiangdong army bypassed Hankou and launched an attack on the flank of Xiakou, and at the same time sent an urgent document to Liu Biao in Xiangyang.

The generals listened to the order and obeyed their orders, and only one person in the hall sneered: "The soldiers will block, the water will come to cover the earth, a certain Jiangdong soldiers and horses are just some local chickens and dogs, why should Huang Taishou be afraid?" ”

Everyone regarded it, and the next person in the hall, dressed in brocade clothes, with a tiger's back and a bee's waist, and a look of emotion, was quite cold and arrogant, it was Gan Ning Gan Xingba, a native of Ba County.

When Gan Ning was in Shudi, he made a living by robbing passing merchant ships, and did the work of water thieves on the Yangtze River. However, Gan Ning is different from those obscene and despicable water thieves, Gan Ning robbed above board, paid great attention to his own image, often used the silk he stole to make clothes and sails, very ostentatious, across the river you can see the bright and dazzling ships with copper bells, then no need to ask, it must be Gan Ning's pirate ship. And he and his men were dressed in splendid clothes, and wherever they went, they were brilliant. When staying, it is often used to maintain the boat with splendid splendor, and when leaving, it is necessary to cut off and abandon it to show that it is rich in luxury, so it is called the brocade sail copper bell thief. Gan Ning's martial arts are superb, proficient in water, especially good at archery, 100 steps through Yang, the example is not in vain, the government has repeatedly conscripted and suppressed, but Gan Ning's ship is as fast as flying, and the officers and soldiers can't help him at all, so Ganning is famous in Shudi.

Gan Ning is bold and generous, light and willful, and anyone who has sincere fellowship with him, Gan Ning can go to the soup for him, and stick a knife in both sides. If someone dares to insult him, no matter what the identity of that person is, Gan Ning will dare to take his life.

In this way, Gan Ning lived a few years of happy life on the Yangtze River, and as he grew older, he felt that there was no way to go on like this, so he gave up this promising profession, and took hundreds of people under his command to Jingzhou to join Liu Biao. But Liu Biao and Gan Ning are not all the way at all, Liu Biao likes to make friends with celebrities. Set the world to rights. The vassal is elegant, and he doesn't want to see a handsome man like Gan Ning who was born recklessly, and Gan Ning also saw that Liu Biao was not accustomed to military mediocrity and self-defense, and he was not a brilliant master at all. The Tao is different, and it is not conspiratory. An upright person like Gan Ning can stand this kind of wretchedness. I heard that Sun Ce of Jiangdong recruited Yan Junxiu. Corporal Lixian, Jiang Qin and Zhoutai, who had been water thieves like Gan Ning between Jiang and Yang, were reused after defecting to Sun Ce, which couldn't help but make Gan Ning quite excited. So he led the crowd to join Jiangdong.

When he arrived at Xiakou, Huang Zu blocked the Yangtze River waterway in order to prevent an attack from Jiangdong, and Gan Ning's fleet could not pass. It just so happened that Su Fei, the commander of Huang Zu's account, and Gan Ning were fellow villagers, and they had a friendship before, and they knew Gan Ning's ability and strongly recommended him to Huang Zu. Huang Zu didn't look down on Gan Ning, who was born as a water thief, but because of Su Fei's face, he appointed Gan Ning as a military marquis of the water army. Gan Ning has not been reused, and he is also depressed.

Originally, Huang Zu was giving orders, but it was not Gan Ning's turn to speak, and Gan Ning was a straightforward person by nature, and when he saw that Huang Zu and his subordinates were afraid of Jiangdong soldiers like tigers, they couldn't help but ask for battle.

Huang Zu saw that the person who opened his mouth was Gan Ning, he was quite unhappy in his heart, snorted coldly, and said: "The generation of chickens and dogs and thieves also knows how to use soldiers, it's really a joke." "A thief for one day, a thief for life, in the eyes of Huang Zu, Gan Ning is a thief who will never be able to turn over.

Gan Ning was born as a thief, but he couldn't allow others to call him a thief, his face sank at that time, and he was about to ridicule him, but when he saw that something was wrong, Su Fei hurriedly pulled Gan Ning away. Gan Ning's personality and temper Su Fei knows too well, and Huang Zu is notoriously violent, Mi Heng was cut off by Huang Zu because he spoke a little straighter, Su Fei was afraid that Gan Ning and Huang Zu would argue, Huang Zu was angry, but the six relatives did not recognize it.

After retreating to Shuizhai, Gan Ning was unhappy, Su Fei persuaded him: "Don't worry, Xingba Xian brother, when you first came to the lord's account, you didn't get an inch of merit, so it is naturally difficult to reuse. ”

Although Gan Ning was depressed, he was very reasonable when he thought about Su Fei's words, so he didn't care about anything.

Huang Zu's order to Su Fei was to hold the mouth of the Han River, which made Su Fei very embarrassed, the Jiangdong Navy had 50,000 people, thousands of large and small warships, and its momentum was huge, and the thousands of sailors in his hands did not have the strength to compete with others at all.

Gan Ning smiled and said: "Xiakou is facing water on both sides, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if Sun Ce wants to capture Xiakou, he must first enter from the Hankou waterway, outflank Xiakou, and cut off the internal and external transportation of Xiakou before he has a chance to take Xiakou." ”

Su Fei said worriedly: "What the virtuous brother said is extremely true, but my navy army has thousands of people, how can it withstand the Jiangdong Tiger and Wolf Sailors?" ”

Gan Ning said: "Brother Su don't worry, the Yangtze River is wide, the Han River is narrow, although the Jiangdong warships are numerous, they want to enter Hankou, but they can't be used, Brother Su can use the strategy of deception to lure the enemy deeper, the younger brother is secretly ambushing the fast boat on the left bank, blocking the waist and intercepting it, the Jiangdong fleet will be chaotic, if you can capture and kill the enemy chief in one fell swoop, the Jiangdong soldiers will be defeated!" ”

Su Fei was overjoyed, so he used Gan Ning's strategy to go down to arrange.

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"Lord, Huang Zu is firmly in Xiakou City, refusing to fight, intending to use the strong city to defend it, if our army wants to take Xiakou City, it must first take Hanshuikou. As long as Hankou is taken, Xiakou will be a lonely city, and it can be broken overnight. In the Jiangdong army water village, Zhou Yu discussed the military situation with Sun Ce at the flagship, pointing to the map.

Sun Ce nodded and said, "What Gong Jin said is extremely true, the Hankou waterway is extremely important, and our army is bound to win it." ”

Zhou Yu said with a little worry: "Now that Huang Zu's navy has completely retreated to Hankou, the Hankou waterway is narrow, and a large fleet cannot be deployed, if our army wants to win Hankou, it will not be easy. ”

Sun Ce said disappreciatively: "Huang Zu's army is only a few thousand, more than a hundred and ten boats, and our army is ten times larger than him, so why be afraid?" Huang Zu Lao'er, he has long been mourned, but he does not dare to fight in Xiakou, and when I go down to Hankou to take Xiakou with a drum tomorrow, I will definitely behead Huang Zu! ”

During the discussion, the Chinese army came to report: "Lord Qiqi, Liu Ze, the king of Jing, has led his troops out of Lu'an, captured Xiyang, and the soldiers pointed directly at Xiakou." ”

Sun Ce was shocked and said to Zhou Yu: "Huang Zu I regard it as a mustard, which can be broken overnight, but today Liu Ze is out of Lu'an, intending to get involved in Xiakou, this is a danger for his henchmen, and he must not be prevented!" ”

Zhou Yu also felt that the situation was more strict, Jiangdong was under the banner of raising troops and revenge, but in fact, there was only one purpose, to annex Jingzhou, and Liu Ze's intention could not be more obvious, which was completely consistent with Jiangdong's purpose. In this way, it is not so easy for Jiangdong to take Jingzhou again, in Huainan, Jiangdong has maintained restraint and has not made a big move on the Hefei issue, is it necessary to tolerate it on the Jingzhou issue this time?

"Lord, if Jingzhou is obtained by Liu Ze, the situation will not be conducive to my Jiangdong, and this battle of Xiakou must not be allowed to be touched by Liu Ze!"

Sun Ce frowned and said, "Since Liu Ze has already left Lu'an and is aiming to Jingzhou, how can he stop?" ”

Zhou Yu said: "Although there is some small friction between my Jiangdong and Liu Ze, but I did not openly turn against him, why didn't the lord send a messenger to Xiyang to explain to Liu Ze that our army's attack on Xiakou this time is just for revenge, and the lord wants to get the head of Huang Zu to comfort his father's soul in the sky, and please Liu Ze can see the lord's revenge and filial piety, and fulfill one or two." As long as our army takes Xiakou along the way, it will not be so easy for Liu Ze to get his hands on Jiangxia again. ”

Sun Ce nodded and said, "It seems that this matter has to fall on Zijing." So he ordered someone to pass Lu Su on. Lu Su rushed over immediately after receiving the order, and Sun Ce explained the details to him and ordered him to immediately send an envoy to Xiyang to meet Liu Ze.

Lu Su resigned from Sun Ce and went to Xiyang.

Xiyang is the northernmost county seat in Jiangxia, and it is also an important pass in the north of Jiangxia County, from Xiyang to the south, it is the unobstructed Handong Plain, it turns out that Huang Zu also sent troops to garrison here, only because Jiangdong Sun Ce came to attack, Xiakou's defense was tight, and the army stationed in Xiyang was transferred south to Xiakou, so Xiyang's defense was empty. Xuzhou, with the First Army Corps as the vanguard force, took Xiyang without bloodshed, and opened up the key passes of Xiakou in the south and Xiangyang in the west. Only the First Army entered Xiyang in the early stage, and the subsequent Second and Third Army Corps remained in Lu'an at the moment.

Liu Ze had already set up the camp at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain south of Xiyang, and when Lu Su saw Liu Ze's military camp, he couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, it seemed that Liu Ze was fully prepared to attack Xiakou.

As soon as he arrived at the gate of the camp, a sentry soldier stopped Lu Su and asked him what he meant. Lu Su claimed that he was a messenger sent by Jiangdong and asked to see His Royal Highness King Jing. The patrol reported in, and soon the Chinese army came out to welcome Lu Su in.

When he arrived at the big tent, Lu Su saw Liu Ze and said, "Jiangdong envoy Lu Su sees the king." ”

Liu Ze smiled and said, "Zijing and I are old friends, so let's avoid these red tape." Although Liu Ze was crowned king, he was not used to being called the king, so most of his subordinates were still called the lord as before, and Liu Ze also felt that he was still called the lord and the princess. According to the convention, the princes and kings call themselves lonely or widowed, Liu Ze thinks that being lonely and widowed is not good, so he didn't change his words, and still called himself me or something like that as always, but he used less humble titles in the lower districts.

"His Royal Highness King Xie Jing." Lu Su is not Liu Ze's subordinate, although Liu Ze has spoken first, but these etiquette is still unavoidable.

After the ceremony, the two sides sat down, and Liu Ze said: "I don't know what happened when Zijing came here?" (To be continued......)