The Victory was attacked while it was carrying cargo to Waterfall, both in the location and in the enemies it faced. After thinking about it, I still think that the black hand behind this matter is very likely to be the underworld army that threatened to crusade against the Underworld.

However, before I get the real evidence, I can only guess like this, whether this is the case or not, for the time being, is still inconclusive. Either way, until I find out what the Mighty Falls are trying to do, I'll have to temporarily cut off the business between the two places. To be more cautious, cargo ships sent to other Yin Cities should also be notified to return to Hong Kong as soon as possible.

In addition, I had arranged some eyes and ears along the river before, in order to be the first to know the news of the attack of the Yin army. Perhaps there is other relevant information from them.

Sandao said to me: "Hong Kong master, I have already thought of this on the return trip. After the Victory shook off its pursuers, I approached our outposts along the way to inquire about the situation, but none of them knew anything about it. So, I quietly sent two speedboats and asked a few of my more clever men to pretend to be nearby fishermen and sail back to the Mighty Falls to find out the news. Their ship is fast, and it is estimated that more detailed information will come back in a few days. ”

I nodded and said, "That's good." All we can do now is to send the Victory to the shipyard for repairs and try to fix it before the enemy attacks! ”

"Yes, Lord!"

Ten days later, the spies sent by the Three Knives really returned. They got accurate information from the Giant Waterfall City: the underworld had decided to crusade against the Stygian Harbor, but because of the long distance, and the Yin army was chasing the remnants of the ghost handsome elsewhere at the same time, there was no time to directly send troops to attack the Stygian Harbor. The king of Yama sent a batch of weapons and equipment and Yin Yuan to the city of the Mighty Waterfall, and authorized the city to send troops to destroy the harbor!

Perhaps the king of Yama thinks that we are just a small harbor that has just been established, and it is not worth the Yin army to send troops on an expedition to attack. Or maybe the Yin army thinks that the expedition to Hades Harbor is to kill chickens with a knife, and make a big fuss, it is better to fake hands and punish people a little.

After weighing the pros and cons, the lord of Mighty Waterfall City decided to follow the will of the underworld and send troops to attack the harbor. Of course, there must be his own selfish considerations: if he can occupy the Harbor, he can ask the underworld for the management of the Harbor, and then the Mighty Waterfall City will naturally have a second harbor and increase the population by thousands. This is definitely a great improvement for the strength of Giant Waterfall City!

It's just that I didn't think that the details of the negotiations between the underworld and the giant waterfall city had not yet been finalized, and the Victory was sent to the door by itself a few days ago, so there was a hasty interception operation, and it failed. This also bought Stygian some time to prepare, otherwise we would have been kept in the dark by the time the troops of Mighty Falls approached the city, and then it would have been too late.

According to the summary and analysis of the intelligence collected by the spies, I believe that the Great Waterfall City is likely to have completed its army at this time and is on its way to the Stygian Harbor. Twenty days as fast as possible, no more than a month as slow as possible, and the enemy army will arrive.

Without further ado, I'll immediately convene a meeting of the heads of the Harbor to discuss the next preparations. If the series of work in the first half of the year is only in the preparatory stage, then it will officially turn into a state of imminent war!

At the mobilization meeting, Liu Han and Sandao formed two completely different opinions on the battle plan.

Liu Han said: "The construction of the Stygian Harbor has just begun, the number of troops is small, and the ships are definitely not as many as the Giant Waterfall City, so we can't take the initiative to attack, we can only continue to step up the construction of fortifications and defend the city!" ”

Sandao advised: "The harbor is different from other Yin cities, the sea is wide here, and the harbor area is not dangerous to defend. The city of Giant Waterfall has many soldiers and ships, and only the narrow water can limit their attack. We might as well send an army of sailors, ambush in the river in advance, and fight a decisive battle! ”

"The harbor is still a day's journey from the river, and if the battle site is far from the port, then we will lose the advantage of being backed by the base camp. It's so adventurous! Liu Han still disagreed.

But speaking of which, after all, Sandao has been the second master of water thieves for several years, and his experience in water warfare is still far better than Liu Han's. It explained: "It's good to be close to Hong Kong, but if we miss the best ambush spots, we will be very passive and will have no room for manoeuvre." I'd suggest ambushing them first, giving them a blow to the head, and if that doesn't work, we'll retreat to Stygian to defend it. ”

"The first battle is an encounter, and it's very critical to the whole battle, so you can only win and not lose. Once the ambush fails, a hasty escape back to Hong Kong will greatly damage the morale of the troops. I still think it's too risky to let the trolls strike early! ”

"It is indeed a bit risky for the navy to attack early, but at the same time, it can also prevent the enemy from taking the land route. My army is smaller in number, and if we retreat to Hong Kong and hold out, we may face a dilemma of being flanked from both sides! ”

"That's better than all or nothing!"

In the end, neither of them could convince anyone, so they set their sights on me. As the owner of Hong Kong, I naturally have to bear the greatest pressure to make a choice on this dilemma.

I had already compared the two options back and forth in my mind before I spoke: "You both have a point, but there is one more variable that needs to be considered. If this variable becomes our help, I think the three-knife plan may be able to give it a try. ”

"What variables?"

"Bayoutown!"

Liu Han and Sandao suddenly realized. That's right, don't forget that there is an old neighbor near the Stygian Harbor, which is just stuck at the mouth of the sea between the river and the Styx, which can be attacked and defended. In this war between Stygian Harbor and Mighty Waterfall, Estuary Town's position is crucial!

Three Blades' river ambush plan completely misses the attitude of the estuary town. If Estuary joins the side of Mighty Falls, and our fleet rashly takes the initiative to attack, it will be equivalent to handing over the entire rear to Estuary Town. Once the estuary town and the giant waterfall city are flanked back and forth, the main force of the Stygian Harbor Navy will become sandwich biscuits. After the naval army was annihilated, the harbor almost lost its ability to resist.

Not the other way around. If Estuale Town is willing to form an alliance with Stygian Harbor to fight against Mighty Waterfall City together, then Stygian Harbor's naval army can merge with Estuary Town's Naval Army, and choose to ambush Mighty Waterfall City outside Estuary Town like the previous joint efforts to stop the water thieves, and the odds of victory will be twice as great as if we sent our own troops!

"Do you think Estuary will be willing to help us?" Liu Han asked.

I smiled reluctantly and said, "The mayor of Hekou Town still owes me a big favor!" ”

The next day, I sent Wang Shou in the name of the deputy port lord to hold a handwritten letter written to me by Lin Miao, the mayor of Hekou Town three years ago, to try to persuade Hekou Town to form an alliance with Hades Harbor to jointly block the Giant Waterfall City.

Of course, I'm not such a naïve person, and I completely pin my hopes on the other party's promise. Before leaving, I also gave a detailed explanation to Wang Shou and fully authorized him to negotiate with Hekou Town.

The conditions that can be given by the Stygian Harbor side are, firstly, the promise of courtesy and exchange, after the two small Yin Cities form an alliance, they can help each other, and the Stygian Harbor will also come to the aid again when the Estuary Town encounters a crisis. The second is that in terms of commercial trade in peacetime, the Harbor can give greater preferential treatment to the Estuary Town, including the shipyard of the Harbor that can help the Estuary Town build large ships and provide technical assistance.

Although the town of Estuary was founded decades earlier than the Stygian Harbor, it has always been limited by the small size of the ships in the harbor and did not dare to go deep into the Stygian Sea to fish, so the fishery income is not as fast as the Stygian Harbor. Now Stygian Harbor offers to help them build a big ship that can go to the open sea, which is definitely an irresistible temptation for Bayoutown.

However, no matter how loud my wishful thinking is, it will not help. It took five days for Wang Shou to come and go, but what he brought back in the end was not the result I wanted.

It turned out that Lin Miao, the mayor of Hekou Town, avoided Wang Shou from the beginning, and only sent a deputy mayor of the same level to receive him, and then had a secret conversation with Wang Shou in the post house.

From the mouth of the deputy mayor, Wang Shou learned that in fact, the Giant Waterfall City also sent an envoy to be a lobbyist, and also wanted to persuade Hekou Town to join the side of the Giant Waterfall City and jointly send troops to destroy the Stygian Harbor. Therefore, in those few days, in fact, the envoys of Stygian Harbor and Giant Waterfall City were stranded in Estuary Town at the same time, and secretly tried every means to win over Estuary Town.

This is actually completely consistent with my previous judgment. Hekou Town has always had a good relationship with Hadesgang, and the mayor of the town, Lin Miao, still owes me a favor, and he definitely can't do that kind of treacherous thing. However, he still had great doubts about the strength of the Stygian Harbor, and he was not sure whether the two small Yin Cities of Hekou Town and Stygian Harbor would be able to withstand the attack of the Giant Waterfall City after the alliance, not to mention that the Giant Waterfall City had the support of the underworld behind it.

So, after hesitating and hesitating for three days, Lin Miao sent someone to inform the envoys of Stygian Harbor and Giant Waterfall City respectively: Hekou Town has decided to remain neutral in this war!

This result is actually very satisfactory for Giant Waterfall City. Wooing Estuary Town was just a strategy for them, and even if it didn't succeed, as long as Estuary Town agreed to open the river and didn't prevent the Mighty Waterfall fleet from going to Stygian Harbor to conquer it, it would already be considered a benefit.

And after losing the only potential ally on the Stygian side, the powerful Mighty Waterfall City is completely on its own.

I took the handwritten letter from Lin Miao that Wang Shou brought back intact, and I couldn't help but feel on fire, and I tore it to pieces and threw it into the candle flame and burned it to ashes.

"We have no choice but to hold on to Hong Kong." With a grim face, I issued a series of orders to several subordinates: "Tonight, I will issue a notice in the name of the Hong Kong Lord's Mansion: inform all the people of the city that the Giant Waterfall City is about to send troops to invade the Stygian Harbor. From that moment on, Hades Harbor began to enter a state of national combat readiness, and a curfew was imposed at night and at night! At the same time, the ships leaving the port are strictly checked, and only foreign ships and foreign personnel can leave the port! In addition, put up notices in the city to recruit new soldiers and fight against foreign enemies! ”

"Yes, Lord of the Harbor!"