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The morning mist slowly lifted, and the morning glow sprinkled the sky.

The forests in the north are dyed, and the scenery in the south of the Yangtze River is picturesque.

Koto. Rebel general, Wucheng Marquis Mansion.

In the lobby, as an attendant hurriedly approached Sun Ce's side, he whispered in a low voice. After hearing the news, Sun Ce immediately got up and left the main hall, which caused the ongoing routine deliberations to be forced to be terminated.

Without waiting for all the civil and military forces in the hall to retreat, Zhang Zhao quickly caught up and followed Sun Ce into the inner hall. He was accompanied by four veterans such as Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang and Zhu Zhi, as well as Wu Jing, Sun Jing and Sun Ben and other Sun relatives.

This kind of phenomenon of sudden interruption of military and political deliberations is probably not common under the rule of other princes, but it is not uncommon here in Jiangdong Sun Ce, and it happens from time to time. In this regard, Jiangdong Qunxian has long been surprised and accustomed to it.

"Is the news reliable, did the Xiliang Army really attack Xichuan?" As soon as he walked into the inner hall, Sun Ce asked Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai, who were already waiting in the hall.

Seeing Sun Ce striding in, Jiang Qin and Zhou Tai hurriedly got up and saluted, and then Jiang Qin said respectfully: "My lord, after careful investigation, it has been confirmed that the Xiliang army has indeed invaded Yizhou in a big way. In addition, judging from the recent signs of frequent movements of the Jingzhou naval army, Liu Biao has also learned the news, so he mobilized a large army to deter the Xiliang army in order to make a foolish plan. ”

"Oh?" Sun Ce was shocked when he heard this, so he walked straight to the main seat and sat down slowly, and said in a deep voice: "I said that Liu Jingsheng mobilized the army of water and land to start a war with my Jiangdong, and I don't admit that he really wanted to guard against the Xiliang army this time. From this point of view, Liu Biao was worried that the Xiliang army would attack Jingzhou after attacking Xichuan. This old puppet finally can't sit still! ”

Before the words fell, Zhang Zhao, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai and others arrived one after another. After bowing and saluting, they sat down under Sun Ce's wave of hands.

Zhang Zhao, who was walking in the front, happened to hear Sun Ce's words. Without thinking, he continued: "Don't be careless, lord. As far as I know, the large-scale mobilization of the Jingzhou Navy is quite strange, and on the surface, it seems that it is aimed at the Xiliang Army, but in fact, there is another mystery. Last year, the lord led the army to defeat the Jiangxia naval army, resulting in the tens of thousands of sailors under Huang Zu's account almost completely wiped out, and the soldiers and horses were lost as many as 30,000 people, and Huang Zu escaped alone after the war; In one fell swoop, our Jiangdong Army captured more than 6,000 warships. Almost completely annihilated the Jiangxia Sailor Division and won a complete victory. This is a unique victory in the previous confrontations between the two armies, on the other hand, after suffering such a heavy defeat, how can Liu Biao give up? ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Zhao paused, took a sip of tea to clear his throat, and then continued: "The Jiangxia Navy Division has been newly defeated, but Liu Biao has once again mobilized a large army to march westward, and the Navy is the mainstay. but there were not many infantry and war horses. As we all know, the Xiliang army is brave and good at fighting, and is known to be dominant on land, and Xiliang Li Li is even more experienced in a hundred battles. is famous, because he will never fight with the Jingzhou army, even if he intends to enter Jingzhou. It is also mainly based on land warfare. We all know that the Jingzhou army wants to fight the Xiliang army. Infantry is the most important thing, and the role of the navy is extremely limited. But more than half of the soldiers and horses mobilized by Liu Biao this time were naval troops. Don't you think Liu Biao's move is very suspicious? ”

Cheng Pu, who was at the head of the generals, was shocked when he heard this, and lost his voice: "The meaning of Changshi is ??????"

Without waiting for Cheng Pu to finish speaking, Zhang Zhao nodded and interjected: "Just as the general thought, I think that the Jingzhou army's mobilization of troops and horses this time is nominally westward, but in fact it is a feint. Even?????? I suspect that Liu Biao's move has ulterior motives, and it is likely that he is suspicious, but in fact, he is secretly plotting against my Jiangdong heart! ”

The words are not shocking, and they are endless. Zhang Zhao's words instantly shifted the minds of everyone in the hall to Jingzhou Army and Liu Biao, so that they no longer paid attention to whether the Xiliang Army had already invaded Yizhou. Obviously, in their opinion, Jiangdong and Yizhou are far away, and the life or death of Liu Zhang in Yizhou has nothing to do with them, and what they really care about is the old enemy who is only one river away - Liu Biao of Jingzhou.

Or, the reason why Zhang Zhao avoided talking about Li Li and the Xiliang Army was not that he was indifferent to the movements of the Xiliang Army, but that he was afraid and deliberately avoided the important and trivial. In addition, he also knew that the lord Sun Ce had been paying attention to every move of the Xiliang army, and regarded Li Li as the greatest rival in his life, but despised Liu Biao in Jingzhou. It was Zhang Zhao who felt that it was necessary to remind Sun Ce that although the Xiliang army was strong and Li Li was worthy of attention, the enemy in front of Jiangdong was still Liu Biao of Jingzhou. Therefore, it is imperative to always pay attention to the movements of the Jingzhou army, and other things are trivial and do not need to be too concerned.

Which of the two is more important, Zhang Zhao knows which is better, but he knows that Sun Ce doesn't think so. All along, Sun Ce always stared at Li Li and Xiliangjun from near and far, which made Zhang Zhao feel deeply relieved and helpless. In his opinion, Sun Ce is not wrong to have great ambitions, and it is also commendable to see the sages and thinkers, but this qiē has a premise, that is, to do the things in front of him in a down-to-earth manner; Only when the strength is strong enough can he challenge the overlord of the world like Xiliang Li Li, otherwise it will be too ambitious and unrealistic.

Because of this, Zhang Zhaoqing would not mention the name of Xiliang Li Li in front of Sun Ce, nor did he want to discuss matters related to the Xiliang army, after all, Xiliang and Jiangdong were separated by thousands of miles, as long as Li Li did not mobilize a large army to come to Lujiang, he would not have to worry about him. Therefore, Zhang Zhao didn't care about the movements of the Xiliang Army, and what really worried him was Liu Jingsheng of Jingzhou on the other side of the river.

In terms of the current situation in Jiangdong alone, under Sun Ce's almost iron-blooded tough rule, the current foundation tends to be stable, and the four counties of Jiangdong have been pacified, and Yuzhang County has been divided into two, and Luling County has been set up, making the land of the four counties become the five counties of Jiangdong, and on the basis of the original territory of Jiangdong, one-third of the territory has been expanded to the south, spanning Jiangdong and Nanyue (now Fujian), with a relatively broad strategic depth, with nearly 100,000 troops, and the strength is becoming more and more powerful.

However, although the strength of the Jiangdong Army continued to increase, it was still dwarfed by the strength possessed by Liu Biao in Jingzhou. At present, Liu Biao of Jingzhou has 160,000 naval troops, 150,000 infantry troops and 50,000 war cavalry, a total of 360,000 troops, and this is only the number of soldiers and horses on the surface, that is, the number of troops that can be found under the accounts of the princes of each town. It is not difficult to imagine that behind these more than 300,000 troops there must be unknown soldiers and horses, and the number is not small, at least 350,000 horses. The number of troops under Liu Biao is nearly four times that of the Jiangdong Army, and the strength is by no means something that the Jiangdong Army can shake.

The reason why the disparity in strength between Jingzhou and Jiangdong is so great is because of the population. Jingzhou is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and has been a densely populated prefecture and county since ancient times, coupled with the endless wars in various prefectures and counties in recent years, causing a large number of people from the Central Plains prefectures to flee to Jingzhou for refuge, so that the population of Jingzhou's nine counties is increasing day by day. By the beginning of the establishment of the Yuan Alliance, the population of the nine counties of Jingzhou had exceeded 5 million, and the latecomers had surpassed the population of Jizhou, becoming the most populous state and county among the Central Plains states.

In contrast, although the land of Jiangdong has changed from four counties to five counties, the population is extremely limited, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is vast and sparsely populated. In particular, the newly conquered land of South Vietnam was even more sparsely populated, although it was a county land, but the population was less than 100,000, and it was impossible to recruit soldiers at all, almost negligible. In addition, there are also a large number of Nanyue tribes entrenched in Jiangdong, who have been enemies of Jiangdong Sun Ce for a long time, wantonly plundering the population, invisibly containing some of the soldiers and horses of the Jiangdong Army, and weakening the strength of the Jiangdong Army.

In this way, it is not difficult to imagine the difference in strength between Jingzhou and Jiangdong. Although the territory occupied by Sun Ce is not much smaller than that of Jingzhou, the difference in strength is worlds apart and cannot be compared.

The reason why the two armies can be peaceful and sound at present is that the Yangtze River moat is a barrier, otherwise Liu Biao would have already waved his army to attack Jiangdong and occupy the five counties of Jiangdong.

?????? The proceedings of the inner hall lasted for an hour. Under the strong advice of Zhang Zhao, Cheng Pu and others, Sun Ce had to put aside the movements of the Xiliang army for the time being, so as to deal with the movements of the Jingzhou army without distraction, transfer troops, and send additional troops and horses to consolidate the defense line along the river.

After the deliberations were over, seeing everyone leave one after another, the smile on Sun Ce's face quickly faded, and he stood in front of the window with a gloomy face, took out a stack of letters from his sleeve, and slowly spread it out.

But I saw that there were only a few lines written on the letter: "The rebellious general is personally enlightened, General Wen Bofu is newly merged with Jiangdong, and all the punishments are heroic and heroic, and those who can win the death force of people are also." Ran Qing is light and unprepared, although there are millions of people, it is tantamount to walking alone in the Central Plains. If the assassin rises, the enemy of one man. In my opinion, if the general does not notice it, he will die at the hands of the horseman. Entrusted by the general, Jia Zhong told him, and hoped that the general would be cautious and earnest. Guo Jia respectfully. ”

The date on the letter was March 7, a full six months after that date. After receiving this secret letter in mid-March, Sun Ce carried it on his body, kept it close to him, and read it almost every day. At first, he was quite attentive to what he said in the letter, and he thought it was true, after all, in order to consolidate the foundation and strengthen the rule, he did kill many Jiangdong families and scholars, among which there were many famous "celebrities" and many enemies, so there was indeed the possibility of being assassinated and attacked by the Xiaoxiao gangsters. To this end, Sun Ce intensified his efforts to investigate the fish that slipped through the net, and wantonly hunted down and killed his family and its remnants that might cause harm to him, striving to eliminate all evil and eliminate a potential threat.

Today, half a year has passed, and the counties under the jurisdiction of Jiangdong have thoroughly investigated, and indeed found many people who have resentment against him, so he did not hesitate to kill them, and wiped out the whole door, and more than 1,000 people died in Huangquan one after another.

"Wait until you go hunting with me." After putting away the letter, Sun Ce smiled contemptuously, and then took more than ten personal soldiers with a little preparation, rode out of the mansion gate, and went straight to the mountains and forests outside the east gate.

After holding back for half a year, Sun Ce finally couldn't help but go out of the city to hunt again. This is his biggest hobby in his spare time, he used to go out hunting every ten days and a half months, but this time he was intimidated by Guo Jia's secret letter, and he endured it for half a year. I didn't admit it, but today he was disturbed by the words of Zhang Zhao and others, and he suddenly felt irritable, so he made a temporary decision and went out of the city with more than a dozen personal soldiers. As everyone knows, he rode out of the house with his front foot, and was targeted by people on his back foot??????

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――――― (To be Continued......