Zhuge Jin listened to Gan Ning's results, and was pleasantly surprised in his heart, but he was worried that it would be a little difficult to reward him. Fortunately, after listening to it, he found that they were all feats of burning and plundering, and it seemed that there was no clear mention of the enemy's battle damage and casualties.

Out of prudence, Zhuge Jin asked a special question.

Gan Ning put away his initial excitement at this time, and seemed to be a little "which pot is not opened and which pot is not mentioned", and vaguely coped:

"I guess I also killed and wounded one or two thousand enemy soldiers...... On the river, the sky is not yet dark, and the enemy cannot capture the ship and cut the ranks, so it is difficult to count. ”

Zhuge Jin didn't pour cold water, but nodded secretly, knowing that most of them had only killed and injured a thousand people.

However, this is in line with the situation, it was originally a sneak attack before dawn, and most of the enemy sailors did not live on ships.

If the burning of ships and water and the robbery of grain can go so smoothly, it must be that the number of front-line soldiers of the enemy army is scarce, and it is not normal to kill a large number of people.

Of course, it is also a great credit to be able to burn so many large ships and intercept military rations. But the grain robbery is not required by Zhuge Jin's plan, Zhuge Jin can solve it by discounting rewards and property, and when the Lujiang Battle is completely over, he has accumulated enough credit in all aspects, and then consider promoting Gan Ning.

After Zhuge Jin figured out how to reward it, he clapped his hand and said:

"Xingba in this battle, it is really meritorious, and it deserves a heavy reward. However, thanks to the planning and effective sentinel detection, this kind of opportunity to take advantage of the enemy's lack of knowledge to start a war and sneak attack, the whole war was just like that.

Qiao Rui made up a set of reasons and excuses for the development, which made political sense, and decided to confess like this after going back.

After we go back, we will report to the top like this, whether to forgive the Zhuge family, that is His Majesty's judgment, it has nothing to do with us, we are only responsible for the war! Maybe Zhuge Xuanken sent Tai Shici's head to His Majesty to apologize, and His Majesty would not consider pardoning the Zhuge family. ”

Therefore, the pattern of subsequent engagements is mostly that our soldiers are small and the ships are large, and the enemy soldiers are many and the ships are small. I specially pondered a few simple modifications, which are very suitable for dealing with a large number of small boats. ”

After dealing with the internal problems, Zhuge Jin ordered: "Although this battle is won, it should not be taken lightly. Our army burned ships and robbed a lot of food, but did not kill many people, Liu Xun and Qiao Rui still had the strength to fight.

Qiao Rui's face couldn't help but become more and more ugly, he had just come to the mouth of the beard, and he didn't have an in-depth understanding of the surroundings, but he generally knew that there were friendly forces around him.

Today, the sailors and soldiers who are chasing the enemy army, and a small half of them are the subordinates of the original Xu Gan, Qiao Rui knew that these people were familiar with the surrounding situation, so he summoned Xu San and secretly discussed:

After listening to this inventory, he secretly thought that Zulang was a thief in Shanyue, and it was impossible for him to have such a strong Yangtze River water war force, and his soldiers did not even have big ships. And Sun Ce is even more unlikely to come to attack him, although Zhuge Xuan and Sun Ce are both considered "Yuan Shu's former officials", Sun Ce's loyalty should be relatively higher.

Of course, the follow-up daily military expenses of the Jinfan Battalion are still paid by the public middle school. The half that was allocated, Xingba is willing to keep it for the part to add food, or to immediately replace it with copper coins, but for the time being, it can only be purchased at half price and unlimited quantities.

"General Liu is angry! On the eve of dawn today, there were enemy troops disguised as your banner to deceive the camp, and then set fire to loot, our army received the news you were going to arrive in advance, so we neglected to take precautions, and we were in a plan for a while! But General Qiao has personally led his troops to chase and kill, and it is estimated that he will be able to come back soon! ”

"The last general will obey Jun's orders!" Gan Ning has become accustomed to executing what he is told, and this kind of inspiration crosses the brain, directly mobilizes the muscles to execute, and the silkiness of the execution without leaving a trace is really exciting.

Directly said that it was the pot of the Zhuge family, in case he made a mistake and wronged the good person in the end, he would not be able to explain, but it would be no problem to pull Tai Shici into it.

Qiao Rui finally hesitated, and was worried that he had wronged a good person, but in the end he really had no choice, in order to have an explanation, he commanded:

The lookout hand was beaten so that his eyes were full of stars, and he was dizzy for a long time, and he didn't realize why he was obviously not derelict in his duty and not wrong, but he had to be beaten.

In order to give military orders, it is impossible to give promotions to unplanned emergency responses, but can only give shares of seizures and rewards of money, which is the way to govern the army.

Fortunately, after listening to Zhuge Jin's reward decision, Gan Ning didn't feel inappropriate.

The price offered by Qiao Rui is also higher than that offered by Liu Xun last year. On the one hand, he knew that Xu Qian was more unruly than Zhang Duo, and people would not come if the price was low, otherwise he would have followed Liu Xun directly last year, so why wait until now.

As mentioned earlier, before Liu Xun sent troops to Guangling last year, he recruited Zhang Duo, one of the three major water thieves in the Lujiang River, through Liu Ye.

When Qiao Rui was anxious, he suddenly noticed the Qu Junhou who helped him control the field just now.

However, Xu San didn't know who Yuan Shu had offended or what hostile forces he had, so he could only analyze it according to the surrounding geographical environment, thought about it, and said:

Zhuge Jin used half price to buy the extra grain distributed to Gan Ning's department, and Gan Ning didn't feel that the price was lowered, after all, it was an unlimited amount of money, and it must be far lower than the market price.

The nearest is the handsome Zulang of Jing County, and a little farther is Sun Ce from Wuhu and Niuzhu. There are also Zhuge Xuan of Chaisang and Peng Ze upstream, but I heard that in recent days, Zhuge Xuan seems to have a conflict with Shanyue Zulang, and it seems that the Spring Valley has also seen a change in flags, but the details are not clear. ”

After all, the two places are separated by hundreds of miles, and Liu Xun rarely comes to the mouth of the water, so it is easy to misunderstand the terrain.

It's like getting a gauze bandage ready and then getting hurt.

However, although the physical wounds are easy to heal, the mental anxiety is difficult to heal, because Qiao Rui soon realizes that there is a problem - he does not know the identity of the enemy until the moment when he is defeated and gives up the pursuit!

……

Then it can only be Zhuge Xuan.

Liu Xun hurriedly pushed away Qiao Rui's subordinates, personally rushed to the guard tower to look, and saw that Qiao Rui's banner had indeed returned from the downstream, so he suppressed his anger and prepared to wait for Qiao Rui himself to arrive and then settle the general account in person.

"General, according to the voyage, it should be almost there, there is an estuary in front of it, and most of it is wet water. Coming all the way, there should be no other river, it can be thirty or fifty zhang wide......"

Gan Ning nodded, and also agreed with Zhuge Jin's statement, but he was not worried: "The enemy's big ships have lost too much, and relying on small boats to fight will definitely not be the elite opponent of our army." When fighting on a river, whether the warship is good or not is more important than the number of people. ”

The promotion of official positions will be completed after the Lujiang Campaign, and the meritorious services of each department will be approved, and then they will be disposed of in a unified manner. ”

Qiao Rui was also very cooperative, Xu Qian's side was just stabilizing Liu Xun, and on the only remaining wooden watchtower in the water village that had not been burned, several sentries of the Qiao Rui army shouted: "General Qiao is back from pursuing the enemy!" ”

In the Chaohu Lake basin of Lujiang County, there are three major water thieves Zheng Bao, Zhang Duo, and Xu Qian, who are wreaking havoc on Chaohu Lake, Weishui, and the Yangtze River. After Zheng Bao was killed by Liu Ye's sneak attack, his subordinates were divided into two, some of them followed Liu Xun last year, and some of them followed Xu Qian to continue to be thieves, and they were just recruited by Qiao Rui this year.

It's a great shame, the ship was burned, the food was robbed, the pursuit was beaten badly, and I suffered losses three times in a row, and I didn't know whose loss it was after eating.

After Qiao Rui caught people's hearts, he spread out the words and said them clearly, but the volume was still very low to ensure that others could not hear: "It's really ashamed to say that I chased for a long time today, and I returned with injuries, and I didn't even know which way the enemy army was. Could it be Liu Bei's attack? ”

Gan Ning had just come before, and if he wanted to go from a military Sima to a lieutenant, he should give some sweetness. But further up is the captain, Guan Yu is only a captain now, Zhuge Jin can almost imagine that at the end of the Lujiang Campaign, Gan Ning's official position may temporarily be higher than Zhao Yun or even Zhang Fei-

"The enemy of this sneak attack is Liu Xuan, who was contained by the Zhuge family, such as Tai Shici and others. I heard that two months ago, Liu Miao lost his Dantu and tried to seek refuge in Yuzhang, and then fell ill and died.

After Gan Ning left the battlefield, the defeated Qiaorui Department also returned to the mouth of the wet beard in embarrassment.

On the other hand, when Qiao Rui made a recruitment, although it was still more than a month before Yuan Shu became emperor, at that time, within the high-level of Yuan Jun, "the lord is about to become emperor" has long been an open secret. Qiao Rui also knew that once the lord was proclaimed emperor, he would be transferred to Lujiang to support Liu Xun and strengthen the front-line combat power of the Yangtze River.

The lookout hand repeatedly observed, but did not see the terrain of the marker, and finally relied on the river to confirm, but his heart was still unsteady, so he had to report it like this.

"Where is the bridge! Let him come out and see me! Liu Xun was furious, and as soon as he landed on the shore, he roared hysterically.

When Liu Xun heard this, his eyes couldn't help but darken, and he almost wanted to steal the knife and hack the lookout hand who was talking nonsense, but he couldn't help but squint his eyes carefully for a while before confirming that what he said was true.

The fleet went forward for another three or four miles, and the lookout hand was finally able to confirm that he was not derelict in his duties, and hurriedly called: "That's right, it's indeed the mouth of the water, look at the smoke there, it must be that the water village has been burned!" ”

……

The wall of the water village and the opening and closing gate of the wall were also burned off by the fire, leaving only some rammed earth and stone wall remains, no wonder the old man looked over and could not see the water village.

When Liu Xun heard these ambiguous words, he was originally angry, and he personally boarded Wangdou to observe, and then he was also suspicious.

Qiao Rui pursued Gan Ning, and only returned after the sky was about to dawn, and the return journey was against the wind and water, and the speed of the voyage was naturally much slower, and it was estimated that he could return to the camp at noon.

"Xu San, today's performance is good, very heroic, I will promote you to the military Sima when I go back - below the rank of captain, I can be independent, I don't need to play."

And this is a windfall for Gan Ning, his mentality is like "selling dirty", how can there be a thief in the world who expects to sell it at the original price when he sells dirty.

And Qiao Rui was very familiar with Sun Ce when he just crossed the river three years ago, when Sun Ce's status was low, and Qiao Rui was still his boss.

According to the original agreement, it was obviously impossible to meet the arrival of Liu Xun's main force.

The impact of the lack of food is not something that can be shown in a moment or three, Liu Xun can at least fight with us for half a month, as for the lack of big ships, they will change a large number of boats to fight. We must make a big show to let the enemy know that we are in Spring Valley, seduce them to a decisive battle, and only after we have been in pain again can we ensure complete peace on the Yangtze River. ”

This is also helpless, because in this life, Liu Bei started in Jianghuai, there are many water wars in the south, and strong generals on the water are easier to make meritorious contributions, and the promotion speed in the short term is faster. And Zhang Fei mainly lost the pot that Pi lost last year, and he didn't have the opportunity to be alone for a long time, and he will definitely be at a temporary trough.

Xu San couldn't help but feel a trace of contempt in his heart, secretly wondering how this person became a general? was beaten so badly that he didn't even see who the enemy was.

But he was still angry in his heart, and gave the lookout a big fight with his backhand: "What are you doing shouting so loudly!" I want to mess with the hearts of our army! Next time, I will shout direct military law engagement! ”

Don't be idle these days, any warship that has not been dispatched can be slightly modified and equipped with some weapons - before this battle, I expected that most of the fire attacks would be able to severely damage the enemy's ships.

"It can't be Liu Bei, right? Liu Bei is afraid that there are not 400 miles of waterway from here, or he is going up the Yangtze River, how can he get so far? If you want to say that this is the other side of the river, it was nothing more than two forces.

Because it is still at least seven or eight miles apart, it is really impossible to see clearly, and he can't be blamed for this.

The robbery of grain was not planned, so it should not be rewarded with official positions, otherwise the people will inevitably be greedy for merit in the future. But the harvest of the grain robbery cannot be unrewarded. So then, take half of the rations of the army that has been cut off, and allocate it to your department, and the remaining half be turned over for the whole army.

Qiao Rui himself is not a general of the water army, he must strengthen the strength of water warfare, so he won over Xu Qian with a much higher official position than last year - fortunately, he also knows that the official position will definitely be fulfilled in the end, because once Yuan Shu becomes emperor, everyone's official position will rise, and Qiao Rui just promised it in advance.

Zhuge Jin: "Don't blindly hold it up, these days, Ziyi and Yun Chang will still do something to Wuhu, and you will have to delay it alone for at least three or five days, or even seven or eight days." Once Ziyi and Yun Chang can join forces with us, Liu Xun will naturally not have to worry about it at that time.

"Look at the width of the river, it should be wet with water...... But I remember that the mouth of the water is a water village! There is a dock market town on the riverbank outside, why does it look so flat? Leave it alone, and let the fleet close the sails and pull aside! ”

"A bunch of rubbish! It was so badly attacked! ”

In this way, the priority is clear, and it can also ensure that the general will be able to adapt to the opportunity in the future, and will also give priority to completing the main goal without being confused.

When Xu Sanyi heard that he was promoted, he hurriedly thanked him, and secretly thought in his heart: It was really a good deal to help the general cover up the truth of his injury just now, and he was promoted.

Liu Xun was so anxious that he ordered the fleet to hurry up, and when he got closer, the scenery became more and more shocking, and countless large ships were burned black, stranded and sunk at the mouth of the river, blocking the channel in a mess. The berths of the wharf of a few civilian ships on the Yangtze River were even more badly damaged.

Qiao Rui was not injured in the whole process, but he picked up the enemy arrow and cut a wound himself, and his subordinates had already bandaged him on the way back.

It just so happened that Zhuge Jin had been opening the Poyang Copper Mine in the past few months, and it had already produced a lot, and the money for the previous melting copper statue could not be spent, so he took out thousands of dollars to buy back the part of Gan Ning's military rations.

Fortunately, Xu Qian, the captain of Qiaorui who stayed in the water village, immediately greeted him and helped explain the round:

The Zhuge family must have wanted to annex the last remnants of Liu Xuan's old department, so the two of them were using each other. Tai Shi Ci and the others had a grudge against His Majesty, so they made their own decisions and wanted to drag the Zhuge family into the water, so that's it. But no matter what, now the Zhuge family must have been dragged into the water by Tai Shici and did such a treacherous thing!

Liu Xun was very punctual, and when the time came, and when there were still the last ten miles from the mouth of the water, he asked the lookout to pay attention to the sentry, so as not to miss the slowing down of the sails.

It can be said that the Zhuge family really has ambitions, and they rebelled after swallowing the remnants of Liu Xuan, and retreating can be said to be Tai Shi Ci going alone, and both ends can be round.

If you go back, how will you explain it to General Liu? It's not even good to collude in confessions.

This person's name is Xu San, and he is the brother of Xu Gan, a Chaohu thief who was recruited by him just two months ago, and he is also the middleman responsible for helping Xu Qian contact Qiaorui.