Zhou Yu realized that it would take about a few months for Cao Cao to gather troops and gather grain and grass, and then he was about to launch a thunderous blow against the coalition forces. The time was urgent, so he immediately left his soldiers and horses, left Yicheng with Xu Shu, and went straight to Longzhong west of Xiangyang.

He went to Longzhong, of course, not to find Zhuge Liang - Zhuge Liang had long stopped living there - but to visit Zhuge Liang's father-in-law, Huang Chengyan. Xu Shu had not yet been appointed to Liu Bei, and when he lived in seclusion in Jingzhou, he had many contacts with local scholars, and was often a guest of Pang Degong, Huang Chengyan and others, so he could help Zhou Yu match.

Soon to the grass house, Huang Zhu opened the door and entered, Zhou Yu also pointed to his nose and said, "I, the friend of Huangjiang Xia." "I'm a friend of Huang Zu.

Huang Zu and Huang Zhu are from the Anlu Huang clan together, and they are cousins within the five suits, so Zhou Yu wants to say this to bring the relationship between the two closer. Of course, in fact, he didn't have any special friendship with Huang Zu, and even fought and fought before, but before he led the army to rescue Jiangxia, the two got along barely well, and they just took it out to talk about it.

Although Zhou Gongjin is proud in his bones, he is not exposed, he is gentle and modest, quite good at getting along with others, and everyone who is familiar with him is also fond of it, as the saying goes: "Friendship with Zhou Gongjin, if you drink mellow mash, you don't feel drunk." This is different from Guan Yu, Guan Yunchang's pride is all written on his face, and he is "kind to the soldiers and proud of the scholars", except for Liu Bei's inner circle, everyone tries to avoid him. However, the reviews of these two people in Jingxiang are very different: Zhou Yu is from Jiangdong, and he is an enemy country of Jingzhou, and everyone is suspicious of him. Especially Cai Mao. Naturally, Zhou Yu said East. He must speak West; And Guan Yu once followed Liu Bei to station in Xinye, and the scholars often projected their kindness to Liu Bei onto him, thinking that General Guan was loyal and brave, and Liu Mu should rely on him.

Let's say that Huang Zhu, Zhou Yu, and Xu Shu sat down as guests and hosts, and first exchanged pleasantries and friendships with each other. Zhou Yu glanced at it, and saw the Huang woman pacing out of the inner room and serving hot water to the guests—men and women in these years are not as perverted as in later generations. In addition, the Huang family is poor and has no servants, so this kind of work has to be done by the eldest lady herself. When I saw this woman with black face and yellow hair, thick skirt and hair, Zhou Gongjin was still a maid, and when she heard that she was Huang Chengyan's daughter, she couldn't help but be startled, and couldn't help sighing: "Huang Gong is a real hermit!" casually asked: "Is the son-in-law a character?" ”

Huang Chengyan was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then shook his head: "Not yet." "Actually, the daughter of the Huang family has already been married to Zhuge Liang, just waiting for that kid to marry, but who would have thought that Zhuge Kongming would return to his hometown for burial since he helped his uncle's coffin. He never returned, and it was rumored that his brothers had all been in Xudu. Huang Chengyan sometimes pondered. My daughter can't stay for a long time when she's older, should I simply regret the marriage and choose another son-in-law? For example, the boy from the Pang family, it's pretty good to look at.

But he was still hesitating, but Pang Tong also left Jingzhou and followed Liu Bei to Shuzhong, and then pondered about others, the children of scholars of the right age inside and outside Xiangyang City, except for the dragon and the phoenix, there was nothing he could see - the marriage of the Huang family was delayed like this, and she was almost twenty years old in a blink of an eye, and she had not been able to get married. Old man Huang was annoyed when he thought of this, and he was afraid that Zhou Yu and Xu Du would be enemies, and he heard that his prospective son-in-law was in the north, which would cause some unnecessary entanglements, so he simply said that his daughter had not yet allowed anyone.

Fortunately, Zhou Gongjin asked casually, did not delve into it, and then changed the topic. The three of them chatted and talked about it, and gradually got to the point, Zhou Yu talked about the current shape of the northern and southern armies, and then talked about his own strategy of abandoning Xiangyang and shrinking the defense line, and asked Huang Zhu: "What does Huang Gong think?" ”

Huang Chengyan is very knowledgeable, but he really doesn't know much about fighting, and he is somewhat tired of the snail competition of this separatist force, so he casually perfunctory: "It's a good strategy." I saw Zhou Gongjin suddenly frown, and sighed lightly: "It's a pity that Qi obstructed it, and Liu Mu didn't accept it." ”

When he said "Ling Qi", of course, he was referring to Huang Zhu's brother-in-law Cai Mao. To say that the relationship between the brother-in-law and the brother-in-law is not very good, Cai Mao asked Huang to help his eldest brother-in-law Liu Biao many times, but Huang gave him a polite refusal, and the two gradually became sparse. Moreover, Cai Mao has a heavy army in Jingzhou, and Weifu is self-dedicated, which also makes Huang Zhi look down, thinking that although this brother-in-law has the talent to help the world and the people, but he has the temperament of a gentleman's son, Cai's unfortunate family will inevitably fall if he gets this son.

Therefore, this time Zhou Yu said that I planned well, but unfortunately I was stopped by your brother-in-law, and of course Huang Chengyan would not say anything good about Cai Mao, but said bluntly: "They are all in love with their hometowns and goods, and they have no long-term plans." Zhou Yu said that this is not good, according to their approach, this Jingxiang will be lost sooner or later, and if Jingxiang is lost, Yangzhou and Yizhou will be difficult to preserve. Then he lowered his voice and said, "I have a plan today, if I get Huang Gong's help, I can be in Sanzhou." ”

immediately euphemistically put out his thoughts, and Xu Shu also interjected beside him. Huang Chengyan pondered for a while, shook his head slightly, and said: "Gong Jin, although Qing is wise, but Li Lu is heavy-hearted, I am afraid that he will be mistaken by wisdom." "He said I could help you, but I don't think I'm optimistic about your plan, or it may be a temporary benefit, but it won't be a long-term solution.

Zhou Yuxin said that there is no long-term plan at this time? Seeing that Cao Cao was about to fight, he carried this round first, and it was easy to say anything, otherwise it would be impossible to get it for a long time. Hurry up and thank you repeatedly. Huang Chengyan immediately wrote a letter, handed it to Zhou Yu and Xu Shu, and asked them to take it away.

As soon as the two of them went out, the Huang daughter stepped out from behind and asked her father puzzledly: "Although the daughter Guan Zhou Gongjin has a beautiful face and humble words, her heart is unfathomable. Besides, this plan may hurt my uncle, why did my father help him? Huang Chengyan closed his eyes and replied slowly: "In this way, it may be possible to avoid the disaster of Xiangyang's soldiers...... Besides, if Duke Cao takes Xiangyang, Kong Ming may have to marry Yu ......"

The letter written by Huang Zhu according to Zhou Yu's instructions was delivered to Cai Mao's house in a few days, Cai Mao opened it and took a look, and the main thing in it was to say one thing - "Is the nephew okay?" Xiangyang may be a soldier, he is a child, if he does not shy away from it, how can he regret it. Moving to Gangneung? ”

The "nephew" mentioned in the letter refers to Liu Cong, the nephew of Huang Zhi and Cai Mao, and the second son of Liu Biao. Liu Biao's ex-wife once gave birth to a son Liu Qi, and after entering Jing, his wife died and continued to marry, and then married the daughter-in-law of the Cai family, that is, Cai Mao's eldest sister, and gave birth to the second son Liu Cong, who is now only thirteen years old and has not yet reached the crown. Huang Zhu said that our nephew is still young, and he is still placed in Xiangyang, a place like Xiangyang that is about to encounter war, if there is a mistake, you and I will regret it, it is better to send him to Jiangling in the rear.

If someone else said this, Cai Mao would inevitably have to make a few detours in her heart first, pondering what her true intentions were. Because Cai Mao has been instigating Liu Biao to abolish Chang Liyu and depose Liu Qi all these years, and pass on the position of the head of the family and the land of Jingzhou to Liu Cong in the future. For this reason, Jing Xiang gradually formed the two parties of Liu Qi and Liu Cong, fighting openly and secretly, and the undercurrent was turbulent. Therefore, as soon as it is related to Liu Cong, it is inevitable that Cai Mao will pay more attention. But the problem is that this letter was written by Huang Zhu, he is also Liu Cong's uncle, and he has never been involved in political affairs, so Cai Mao was careless for a while, and he fell into the trap.

It can't be said that he is not brainy at all, on the contrary, the more he thinks about it, the more he falls into the ditch directly according to Zhou Yu's arrangement. Cai Mao pondered, can this Xiangyang be defended? What Huang Chengyan said is yes, it seems to be safer to send his sister and nephew out of Xiangyang City first. Jingzhou's prosperous land and solid city, except for Xiangyang is Jiangling, theoretically send out Xiangyang, must go to Jiangling, but Jiangling is Liu Pan's territory, although the kid did not clearly express his support for Liu Qi, but obviously did not approve of the abolition of Chang Liyoung, the nephew can leave the danger and enter the tiger's mouth......

No, I can't fake this, I have to run by myself. Liu Pan's main forces have been transferred to Xiangyang one after another to help defend it, and I will take a group of troops to go, and with my own prestige and authority, I can easily suppress the whole city...... Well, this is a good idea, if you can take this opportunity to control Jiangling, then you can attack and retreat, even if Xiangyang is lost, even if Liu Pan officially joins Liu Qi's party, I have nothing to fear!

So I hurriedly went to visit my sister Mrs. Cai and shared my thoughts with her. Mrs. Cai said that of course it would be good to send Cong'er to Jiangling, but the problem is that now that you have the power of the soldiers and horses, and you leave Xiangyang, what if Cao Cao calls? Cai Mao said that I estimated that it would take a month or two for Cao Cao to launch a full-scale attack after reorganizing his army and horses, and I just took this opportunity to run to Jiangling—no matter how late it was, I really couldn't leave. Mrs. Cai is shallow, and has always listened to this brother the most, and she was worried about her own son, so she immediately agreed, so she helped persuade Liu Biao.

This matter is not a big deal, and it is not the same as the abolition of Chang Liyu, I believe that my sister's pillow wind will definitely work, so Cai Mao turned her face and hurriedly summoned Zhang Yun, a deputy from home, and said that I have something to leave Xiangyang for more than ten days, and all the soldiers and horses in the city will be handed over to you, and you will give me a little jail.

Zhang Yun is Cai Mao's deputy, but in fact, his qualifications and prestige are 108,000 miles behind, but it is better to say that he is a dog raised by Cai Mao, and he immediately obeyed his orders. So on the third day, Cai Mao protected his sister and nephew, and led more than 300 cavalry troops to leave Xiangyang.

Liu Pan is Liu Biao's nephew and one of the top generals in Jingzhou, Zhang Yun couldn't help but be flattered when he received the invitation, and hurriedly straightened his clothes, and brought a few boxes of gifts to Liu Pan's mansion to pay a visit. When I got to the place, I took a look, hey, there were really a lot of people coming, most of the civil and military forces in Xiangyang City were here, and the first guest was the former Zhangling Taishou and Fan Ting Hou Kuai Yue Kuo.

Zhang Yun stepped forward one by one to salute, and then honestly ran down to his seat - only at the top of Wen Ping and Wang Wei. The time was not long, and seeing all the guests gathered, the host Liu Pan finally stepped out from behind the screen. Zhang Yun hurriedly got up and looked up, hey, Liu Pan seemed to be following a person...... (To be continued......)