Guan Yu saw that Liu Bei's expression was different, so he raised his hand and pointed at himself: "Big brother, is there anything wrong with my face?" ”

"I see that the second brother's eyes are happy, and I appreciate Wen Zhongye quite a lot for you." Liu Bei's words came to an abrupt end at the end.

Guan Yu then understood, so he pointed to the departing fleet and explained: "I am lamenting that it is really convenient to use ships to carry goods, and in the past, whether in the plains or Xuzhou, it seems that I rarely used ships with my eldest brother. ”

Liu Bei responded with his head: "The so-called south ship and north horse, the south does not produce horses, and the river is denser than the north, so the boat is used to carry the load, which is adapted to local conditions, and the people follow the path with wisdom."

"I'm thinking" Guan Yu pondered for a moment and continued: "The entire Nanyang is as flat as the sea, there is no danger to defend, if Cao Cao really uses troops against this, in addition to defending the city, can he make use of these rivers?" ”

Liu Bei exclaimed: "Second brother is talking about the water army? ”

Guan Yu nodded affirmatively: "Since it is difficult to obtain horses in the south, it is inevitable to replace them with naval warships, I heard that half of the soldiers and horses in Jingzhou are naval troops, since we have come to Jingzhou to settle down, do we have to consider it in advance?" ”

"Forming a water army?" Liu Bei hesitated and shook his head slightly: "First of all, shipbuilding costs a lot of money and food, and in addition, you also need generals who are familiar with water warfare, if you find Jingzhou generals to train, Brother Jingsheng will definitely suspect me, it's not appropriate, it's not appropriate."

Next to Liu Ye heard the conversation between the two brothers, he stepped forward to Liu Bei and said: "I have a nephew named Liu Fu, who is good at boating and wading rivers, and is good at water, and is currently serving as Quhou in the Hefei Cavalry Battalion, commanding a fleet of 100 ships, responsible for exploring intelligence in Chaohu Lake and the Yangtze River, so that if you want to form a naval army, I can ask General Long to ask him to come." ”

"No need to"

Liu Bei resolutely refused: "Although Yun Chang's suggestion is good, but at this time Wancheng has nothing, it is useless to invite Ling nephew, it is better to stay in Hefei to help Yunqi do things, presumably Jianghuai is more important for water war talents, and when the conditions in Wancheng are ripe in the future, it is not too late to find and cultivate water war talents." ”

"It's fine."

Liu Ye also made sense when he heard it, and said that he always had to eat one bite at a time.

At this moment, Guan Yu, who was listening, stroked his beautiful hair, looked at the fleet with phoenix eyes, and confided proud words in his mouth.

"Water war? Why do you need to fake someone? Guan may not be impossible"

"Hmm."

Liu Bei heard that Guan Yu was arrogant, and smiled at him without refutation, because he heard that the other party was interested, in short, whether it works or not, there is no condition to test it now.

Liu Ye lowered his head and stroked his beard in contemplation, and said in his heart that General Guan is a good person in Hedong, this northern man probably doesn't know water, but his self-confidence is really beyond the reach of ordinary people.

Liu Bei sent Wenpin away and completely took over Wancheng and Western Hubei.

Liu Ye asked the scribe to find the household registers of the two counties to check, and found that the people of the two counties added one piece, and the total number of people was less than 20,000.

Due to perennial wars, forced migrations and other reasons, the two counties did not leave a single so-called local family, so the hidden fields and hidden households no longer existed.

A blank piece of paper is easy to paint, the people have less land and more land without worrying about farming, and there are many empty houses in the two counties.

After Liu Bei settled in with the people, he immediately divided the land and houses for the subordinates to prepare for next year's spring ploughing, and divided the Wenwu under his command into two counties, so that everyone had something to do.

Straighten out military and government affairs, Liu Bei also adopted Liu Ye's strategy and sent scouts to neighboring Pheasant County and Bowang to understand the population distribution of the two counties and prepare for the future raiding of the people.

Liu Bei's defection from Runan to Jingzhou was like throwing a stone on the surface of a calm lake, and the violent shaking caused splashes and ripples, but when the stone completely sank to the bottom of the lake, the original lake surface returned to calm again.

By November, few officials in Xiangyang had discussed Liu Bei, and everyone had returned to the old days, while Cai Mao, who was the most hostile to Liu Bei, was hiding in the dark and waiting for the opportunity.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, the prosperity of the thieves in the south was essentially armed landlords who supported the government and won the trust of the local officials, such as the Cai Kuai Pang Huang and other families in Jingzhou, which became the legitimate existence recognized by the government, while the rest of the unrecognized landlords were named thieves.

The essence of politics is the distribution of interests, and the powerful who have obtained the status of the non-wealthy have annexed or encroached on the land wealth of others for the sake of interests, and those who were originally landlords and powerful people, but now they are in the name of thieves, some want to defect but stand in line late and lose the opportunity, because the interest group is a radish and a pit, and their end can only wait to be eliminated, and the wealth and land accumulated by the family are divided.

Where there is cunning, there will be resistance, and where there is resistance, war will break out.

There are rebellions in the counties of Jingzhou almost every year, and Cai Mao is giving Liu Bei time to rest at this time, and he will be busy until next year.

In Jingzhou in November, it was already bitterly cold outside, and snow began to fall on some mountains.

Cai Mao, as the second-in-command of Jingzhou, also knows how to enjoy it in winter, he spends most of his time in the house, feeling the warmth brought by charcoal burning, and accompanying wine and beauty all day long, regardless of the wind, frost, rain and snow outside.

Suddenly, one day, a guest from the city came to visit Cai's mansion and sent a letter to Cai Mao.

Cai Mao's face changed greatly after reading the letter, and he immediately left the warm and gentle place of his house, and ran to Kuai Yue Mansion in the cold wind.

Kuai Yue was very surprised by Cai Mao's visit, and when he saw that the other party looked solemn and estimated that there was something important, he introduced him into the study and closed the door to talk secretly.

"Deju, what's the matter?"

"I just received the news, Liu Bei left Runan two months ago, he used a clever trick to deceive Cao Sikong's army, and finally the golden cicada escaped to Jingzhou, it should be Liu Ye's plan, this person was rated as the talent of the world by Xu Shao, and his wisdom is well known, I am worried that with him by Liu Bei's side, it may be difficult for us to weaken Liu Bei's scheme, we have to find a way to crack it, otherwise it will be a problem to raise tigers"

Kuai Yue was stunned when he heard this, and hurriedly asked: "Continuous clever plan?" Still all succeeded? There is no shortage of think tanks under Cao Sikong's command, so no one can see it? ”

Cai Mao shook his head lightly: "Because the front and rear layout is too exquisite, Sikong's advisors can only see part of it, does the different degrees have a map of Runan?" Find out and I'll show you."

"Yes, yes." Kuai Yue responded, and hurriedly turned around to search.

When the map of Runan was spread out on the table, Cai Mao gave a rough explanation of Liu Bei's use of troops according to the tactics introduced in Cao Cao's letter.

Kuai Yue was amazed when he heard it, and couldn't help muttering: "It's really interlocking, it's hard for ordinary people to guess, Liu Bei didn't have this kind of tactic before, it seems that it was really Liu Ye who offered advice, I didn't want this person to be so resourceful, I underestimated him before."

Cai Mao reminded in a deep voice: "Xeno, you are the number one thinker in Jingzhou, you can't lose to this young junior, you have to find a way to separate him from Liu Bei."

"I don't want to use soldiers to plot, I don't want to ask myself." Kuai Yue frowned slightly, and replied while thinking: "But if you want to transfer Liu Ye away from Liu Bei's side, there is still a way to do it." ”

(End of chapter)