Chapter 29: South China Sea

While Sun Quan sent Bu Zhi and Sun Ben to deal with Liu Bei, he returned to Luling. He wrote a handwritten letter, asking Cao Chong to take Shi Yi to Linxiang City and ask Cao Chong for Lujiang County and Jiujiang County, which originally belonged to Yangzhou. Of course, his original intention was not in these two counties. He knew that Cao Chong could not give him these two counties. His purpose was to show Cao Chong that you can not give me the Yangzhou Mujiu and Lujiang, which originally belonged to Yangzhou. Of course, I can not give Liu Bei, the Jiaozhou Mu Nanhai, Hepu and other counties. You can pretend to be deaf and dumb, but you cannot have obvious partiality. Liu Bei is your father-in-law, and I am also your eldest brother-in-law, let alone my sister is about to give birth to you. Maybe she is your first son. Although there are two Liu family, at least there is no sign that they are pregnant yet.

Cao Chong also did not show up, so the negotiations were handed over to Jiang Gan. Jiang Gan is now fighting locally, and Cao Chong's instructions - Sun Quan did not give him a coupon, and nothing could be done, so he dragged him. As for their fight for Nanhai County, I just pretended that they didn't know and asked them to fight. The more intense the fight, the better. It would be better that both sides would fight and I could go and pick up the fruit.

Therefore, Jiang Gan felt very comfortable. At first, he showed off several sides, but he could not see others at all. He was just a nonsense to accompany him by his subordinates. He was not in a hurry. Sun Quan's intention was to delay time, and he did not really intend to reach any result. Both sides had no sincerity in negotiations, so naturally they had no intention of staying on the negotiation table. The two of them started to travel around and enjoy the mountains and rivers in a sympathetic manner, and called it a change of environment.

At the end of September and early October, news came from Xiangyang that Sun Shangxiang gave birth to a daughter weighing more than ten kilograms (a kilogram of kilogram is about 250 grams). Cao Chong was overjoyed and held a big banquet in Linxiang City. Shi Yi was a little disappointed and immediately passed the news back to Luling. After hearing this, Sun Quan sighed and sent someone to send a gift, and then took care of Shi Yi continuing to work there, and turned his attention to the South China Sea.

Nanhai County has been fighting hard.

Liu Bei led an army of 10,000, starting from Guangxin City, the capital of Cangwu County, and descending along the Yu River. After resting for a few days in Gaoyao City (now Zhaoqing City), at the junction of Cangwu County and Nanhai County, he crossed the county border and met Bu Zhi, who came to fight outside Sihui City. The two sides fought fiercely. As a result, Liu Bei won the first battle and was a great victory.

Bu Zhi underestimated the enemy, and always felt that Liu Bei had never won any battle in his life, but he was just older. He relied on his 10,000 elite soldiers to familiarize himself with the terrain, and first launched an offensive to attack Liu Bei. Unexpectedly, although Liu Bei was not a famous general, he was a veteran who had been a long-standing war. He unexpectedly let Huo Jun, who was good at defending, fight against the aggressive Bu Zhi. As a result, Huo Jun set up a turtle-back formation in Wuyang, and two thousand people resisted the strong attack of Bu Zhi's five thousand men. Just when Bu Zhi's first battle was frustrated, Liu Bei personally led 8,000 men to encircle Bu Zhi's wings, and swallowed Bu Zhi's five thousand troops at the cost of two thousand men.

Bu Zhi was defeated in the first battle, and the entire five thousand front-line troops were destroyed. After that, his morale fell sharply. Facing the eight thousand troops who took advantage of the victory, he retreated step by step, retreated all the time, and at the same time asked Sun Quan for emergency.

Liu Bei was very satisfied with his achievements and asked Sun Qian to return his achievements to Cao Chong in Linxiang, responding to his concerns. At the same time, Guan Yu successfully conquered the southern and the nine-zhen counties, gathered a lot of grain and returned to Yulin. With the food and Guan Yu was in charge of the rear, Liu Bei was even more confident. He let go of his steps and directed his troops to press forward step by step. However, he did not take advantage of the victory to chase Wushui, but stopped by the Wushui and sent troops to sweep the area west of Wushui, and first took this large area of ​​land connected to Cangwu and Guiyang.

Bu Zhi took this opportunity to take a breath, put away his contempt for Liu Bei, and set up a blocking formation on the east bank of the Qinshui River. Liu Bei forced his way through several times, but failed. He felt a little anxious and sent a scout to reconnaissance along the river to find a place where the water was shallow and easy to cross.

The scouts did not disappoint Liu Bei's expectations. They found a place called Lu Bao forty miles upstream of the Qinshui River. The water surface was very wide, the flow rate was very slow, and the water was not deep, so they could almost wading through the water, which was very suitable for the army to cross the river. Liu Bei was overjoyed and immediately ordered Huo Jun to stay in the camp with 3,000 people, and acted as the main force. He took five thousand men and horses and secretly rushed upstream at night. He was afraid that he would be discovered by the scout who was too close to the river, so he deliberately circled around to avoid the river bank.

Everything went smoothly. When he arrived at Lu Bao, Huo Jun sent news that Bu Zhi did not show any abnormality in the camp and was still on the other side of the Qinshui River. In order to paralyze Bu Zhi, he specially organized troops to attack once. Judging from Bu Zhi's reaction, he did not realize that Liu Bei had left the camp.

After Liu Bei rested for a day and a night in Liuhetun, twenty miles by the river, he arrived at Lu Bao at dawn on the third day. Lu Bao was quiet. The early farmers were stunned when they saw the sudden appearance of the army, and their faces looked like earth. Liu Bei had no time to pay attention to them and ordered the soldiers to wade through the river immediately.

The river water was indeed very shallow, and the deepest part reached the soldiers' chests. At Liu Bei's order, two thousand soldiers in front of him took off their armor and walked into the water naked. It was early winter in October, and even though they were in the south, it was still a little cool. Looking at the soldiers in the water, Liu Bei felt a little cool, but he had a way. He brought some good wine that his son-in-law brought him from Linxiang to him, so he could drink a little to get rid of the cold.

Two thousand soldiers crossed the river with armor and were busy dressing on the other side of the river. Just as Liu Bei was about to order the people behind to follow, a bunch of people came from the north. First, two hundred cavalrymen passed by easily through the formation of two thousand messy soldiers, leaving behind a bloody journey. Then five thousand soldiers appeared from the horizon, rolling like a craze, and in a blink of an eye, all the two thousand soldiers crossing the river were swallowed up.

Liu Bei was furious. He couldn't figure out who was coming, and he had no preparation at all. When he saw clearly that the person came was Sun Ben, who had fought with him in the bloody battle in the Tiger Leaping Gorge, he suddenly realized that Sun Ben, who had not appeared, was waiting for him here.

Yes, after receiving Bu Zhi's emergency document, Sun Ben quickly left Yuzhang County. While Liu Bei sent people to sweep the area west of Qinshui, he entered Kuangpu Pass in Hainan County and sent a large number of scouts to reconnaissance on both sides of Qinshui. When he learned that Liu Bei's scoundrels appeared in Lu Bao, he probably had Liu Bei's intention and immediately set up an ambush on the east bank of Lu Bao, and at the same time sent people to notify Bu Zhi. As soon as Liu Bei crossed the river, he immediately killed him. The timing was just right. Liu Bei's two thousand frontiers didn't even have time to organize effective resistance. He swallowed it in one bite.

Liu Bei suffered a great loss. He wanted to take the remaining 3,000 people across the river, but was stopped by Yin Guan beside him. Yin Guan said that Sun Ben had an army of 8,000. Even if he wanted to stay at one or two thousand to guard the city at Kuangpu Pass, he could bring at least six or seven thousand people out. Now only 5,000 people out, which means he still had ambush. Even if he did not have ambush, he would be sure to win with 5,000 people against 3,000 people, not to mention that he had to cross the river. Although the river was not deep, it was wide enough that he could not use bows and arrows to cover the soldiers crossing the river on the other side of the river, but Sun Ben could steadily use the soldiers crossing the river as targets for arrow training on the other side.

While Liu Bei was still hesitating, Yin Guan raised another question. Since Sun Ben was prepared, how could he not inform Bu Zhi? Bu Zhi did not move his defense. It seems that he did not know at all, but pretended to be confused. He was afraid that he had already targeted Huo Jun's three thousand people, and used five thousand to three thousand, and was determined without intention. If Huo Jun was not careful, he might be subjected to Bu Zhi's will. The current plan should be withdrawn immediately and Huo Jun would return, and perhaps he would have time to save the camp.

Liu Bei had no choice but to follow Yin Guan's advice and withdraw back to the camp. As Yin Guan expected, Bu Zhi had known about Liu Bei's army's movements for a long time. Almost while Liu Bei crossed the river, he launched an attack on the west bank. Fortunately, Huo Jun was cautious and guarded the riverside tightly, leaving no chance for him, so he saved the camp.

After the battle, Liu Bei's original advantage was completely lost, but instead he was at a disadvantage. He only had more than 5,000 people left. After Sun Ben and Bu Zhi joined forces, the troops reached 8,000 and had a good geographical advantage. It was a fantasy that Liu Bei wanted to cross the river.

The two sides were in a stalemate for several days, and Liu Bei did not find an effective solution. The food encountered problems. He could not imagine, so he had to ask Yin Guan again. Yin Guan talked about two methods, one was to transfer Guan Yu to help. Guan Yu had 13,000 troops, leaving half of them to guard Yulin County. He could bring six or seven thousand people. With Guan Yu's ability and the superior troops, it should not be difficult to defeat Bu Zhi and Sun Ben, but in this way, Yulin's side would be in a tight position. Deng Ai had five thousand people in his hands, and Liu Pan had three thousand people not far from Shi'an North, which was more than 100 miles away, and it would take two days to arrive. Once Guan Yu left Yulin, Deng Ai would take advantage of the situation and take Yulin. If Yulin was lost, then the newly obtained three counties would become Deng Ai's pocket, and even Hepu County was in danger.

Before Yin Guan could finish his words, this method was rejected by Liu Bei. The troubles were too great when he transferred Guan Yu. Deng Ai's baby tiger was in Shi'an, so he could not rest assured no matter what.

Seeing that Liu Bei disagreed, Yin Guan proposed a second plan and transferred Zhao Yun to support him. From Guiyang County, he could directly attack Kuangpu Pass. After taking Kuangpu Pass, he could directly take Zengcheng, the capital of Panyu East in Nanhai County, and in turn, he took action from behind Bu Zhi to take Panyu. In this way, Bu Zhi had to give up on Fengshui when he retreated. If he did not retreat, he would face two attacks and a dilemma.

Liu Bei pondered for a long time, and looked at Yin Guan without saying a word. If we were to say it purely from the point of view, of course, it would be more appropriate to transfer Zhao Yun. He was close to this place, a journey of 300 miles can be reached in ten days, and Guiyang also has food, so he can solve his own food problem after he comes. But the problem is that if Zhao Yun leaves Guiyang, Guiyang County may not be his own. Zhang Ren was watching in Quanling City, and Cao Chong himself was waiting in Linxiang. He asked Guiyang County more than once. Could it be that he could give Guiyang County to Cao Chong so easily?

"Kong Lin, is there any other way?" Liu Bei thought for a long time, but he still couldn't bear to let it go. One Guiyang County can match the population of two Nanhai County. If he gave up Guiyang County, it would not be cost-effective even if he defeated Nanhai County. This kind of suffering would be in vain. Cao Chong took all the advantage. How could he be willing to let it go?

Yin Guan sighed secretly and continued, "There is another way, which is to mobilize troops from General Guan, but if he does not transfer him, he will still be in Yulin. With him in Yulin, Deng Ai does not have enough advantages and will not launch an offensive on his own initiative. However, in this way, although we can get five or six thousand people, we still have no major advantages. It is still difficult to get through the water."

Yin Guan thought for a long time and endured a sentence. He felt that Guan Yu had been holding the navy for a long time, and his familiarity with water wars and his ability to lead troops to capture fighters was obviously not comparable to Liu Bei. It was said that the three armies were easy to obtain, but it was difficult to find a general. Just because Liu Bei wanted to take over Nanhai County by himself, it was obviously too high. Although Huo Jun could fight, his strength was defense rather than attack, which might not play a great role in this case.

Liu Bei was still a little hesitant, and he also thought that if Guan Yu and Zhao Yun didn't come, he would be a little mysterious. At this moment, Yin Guan proposed another supplementary measure, asking Huo Jun to go to Guiyang and switch Zhao Yun here. Huo Jun was always guarding, and with him in Guiyang, it would not be worse than Zhao Yun's guarding Guiyang, but Zhao Yun came here, but he played a much greater role than Guiyang Energy.

When Liu Bei heard this, he was overjoyed and thought about it, he would do the same thing. He immediately called Huo Jun and asked him to go to Guiyang to replace Zhao Yun. Huo Jun immediately took his troops to set off. In early November, Zhao Yun arrived in Sihui City to meet Liu Bei. At the same time, Guan Yu sent his son Guan Ping to bring 6,000 troops to the west bank of the Qinshui River.

On the banks of the Qinshui River, the war smoke rose again. With Zhao Yun and the 6,000 new forces participating in the battle, Liu Bei's army recovered its combat effectiveness. Three days later, Zhao Yun led his troops to cross the river from Lu Bao again, defeated the Sun Ben's troops who came to intercept them in one fell swoop, and then rushed north to capture Kuangpu Pass, connecting Nanhai County and Guiyang County. He then turned around and went south, fought three battles and three victories. Bu Zhi's front that had been defending for two months was broken, and retreated back to Panyu in a mess.

Panyu City is the capital of Nanhai County. Bu Zhi has been operating here for five or six years. He has sufficient grain reserves and strong city walls. In addition, he and Sun Ben still have 6,000 troops. Although Liu Bei had the upper hand, he still was a little helpless to win Panyu City with the remaining 10,000 people. He used Yin Guan's strategy to give up the plan of attacking, leaving 5,000 people to watch Bu Zhi, and asked Zhao Yun to lead 5,000 people to east to take Boluo and Zengcheng. At this point, except for Panyu City, four of the six cities in Nanhai County fell into Liu Bei's hands, and Panyu City could not escape his palms no matter how you look.

This time, Liu Bei learned his lesson and no longer plundered food everywhere like he did in Jike County last time, which made him very famous. He sent people to comfort the cities he captured and told the great clans that he was the genuine Jiaozhou governor personally appointed by the emperor. It is legitimate to conquer Jiaozhou now, so don’t worry. I am the emperor’s uncle of the Han Dynasty, and my son-in-law is Cao Chong, the beloved son of the prime minister. You should have heard of his new policy in Xiangyang, right? You should have heard of the Xiangyang Expo, right? Don’t worry, I became the Jiaozhou governor, and of course he would not treat me, the old Taishan, the benefits that the Xiangyang clans enjoyed, can you have. In short, following me is more promising than following Sun Quan.

As a result, the big families in Jiaozhou were relieved. Anyway, who was the governor of Jiaozhou was just a change to the person who paid the tax. There was no big relationship between them, and there was no need to fight to the death. Jiaozhou was preparing to welcome the New Year in a peaceful atmosphere. Even Longchuan, which Liu Bei had not yet taken down, and Jieyang and the other cities sent people to contact him secretly, with the words and words warmly welcomed Liu Bei to be the top leader of Jiaozhou.

Liu Bei was in a good mood and sent people to the city to persuade him to surrender. Although Bu Zhi was a little depressed, he did not give up. He believed that Sun Quan would not give up Jiaozhou easily. As long as he guarded Panyu and sent someone to rescue Sun Quan, he would be a great achievement, and all the previous failures could be ignored. If he gave up Panyu, he would never be able to raise his head in front of Sun Quan. Even if he could give up his family and surrender to Liu Bei, he would not have lived a few more days. He looked down on an imperial uncle like Liu Bei from the bottom of his heart and did not feel that he had any future with him. As for Sun Ben, a member of the Sun family, of course, he would not have plans to surrender.

Sun Quan was shocked when he received the news from Bu Zhi. He did not expect that Jiaozhou would be defeated so quickly. Hepu and Jiaokou were lost to his expectations. After all, there were no heavy generals there. Moreover, these counties were a narrow area along the sea. It was obviously impossible for Bu Zhi to pass by Cangwu to manage those counties. But he did not expect that Nanhai County would be lost so quickly. Bu Zhi and Sun Ben had a 18,000 army, but they were defeated in more than two months and trapped in Panyu, which was beyond his expectations. He did not think much and immediately sent people to summon Lu Meng, Lu Xun, Hu Zong and others to discuss the matters and discuss how to deal with the matter in Jiaokou.

Lu Meng was recently promoted to the Grand Commander and fought several battles with Wei Yan and others, and they were very frustrated. It was not that he was not capable, but that the strength gap between the two sides was too big. Although the troops were not much different, he still had some advantage. However, Cao's army had good military equipment, good food, and the individual quality of soldiers and comprehensive quality were better than him. Even if he tried to find a fighter opportunity, he could not take advantage. The best result was to kill a fair share and let the other party escape. Once he was seized by Wei Yan and others, then But it's a troublesome thing. Good luck means small defeat, bad luck means big defeat. Wei Yan is fine. This person doesn't like to fight with others. Once he finds that there is no advantage, he immediately floats away, cruising around you like a wolf, waiting for the next chance. And Le Chi and Huang Zhong's deputy general Liu Feng are different. These two people are crazy people. Once they bite, they will pull off a piece of meat no matter what. Even if they don't have the advantage of their troops, they will kill them with great momentum, feeling like they saw treasures.

Lu Meng himself was also a militant. He was not afraid of Le Jin and Liu Feng. If Wei Yan hadn't been staring at him like a ghost, he really wanted to have a good fight with these two guys, but he was worried about Wei Yan and was worried that he was fighting happily when Wei Yan came out from the side and bit him.

This feeling made him very unhappy and he couldn't let go of his hands and feet and was able to do something big. As a result, Le Jin and Liu Feng had the upper hand, which made him, a man in his thirties, and acne appeared on his face again.

Lu Xun was very comfortable. He fought against Shanyue people on the shore of Poyang Lake and won consecutive victories. Now he has four or five thousand elite soldiers, rich and powerful, and lives a comfortable life. Everyone is smiling when he saw him. So when Sun Quan first saw him, he felt a sense of jealousy. He was only one year older than Lu Xun and his official position was several levels older than Lu Xun. But why does it seem that Lu Xun lives much more freely and younger than him?

"Boyan, are you doing well recently?" Sun Quan asked with a smile, suppressing the sourness in his heart.

"Thank you, I'm pretty good," Lu Xun replied easily.

Lu Meng saw Sun Quan's unhappiness, and he himself was not happy either. Although he was the commander-in-chief of Jiangdong and Lu Xun was a captain, Lu Xun did not listen to his orders and had no interest in participating in the contest with Cao's army. He just managed his one-acre and three-point land in Poyang Lake. Even this time, Lu Xun did not come to see him, the commander-in-chief. He was too shameless.

"Boyan, you're probably okay?" Lu Meng smiled on his face, but his voice was as sinister as a poisonous snake: "The thousands of elite soldiers in his hand, but he watched the envoy worry about his troops every day. This seems to be a minister, right?"

Lu Xun was a little confused, so he said: "Worry about the military force? No, the governor fought against Cao's army in Luling, but it was evenly matched. Besides, I haven't heard of any major war, it's just a few minor disputes. With the 20,000 heroic soldiers under the governor, how could it be that the Cao army is less than 10,000, so how could it be that the troops were insufficient?"

Sun Quan lowered his face and said unhappily: "Boyan, what you are asking you to talk about today is not the war in Luling. There is indeed nothing major here, but there are major events in Jiaozhou and Jiaozhou."

Lu Xun heard about Liu Bei's incident of Jiaozhou, but he didn't know it. After hearing what Sun Quan said, he knew that the situation in Jiaozhou seemed to be unoptimistic. He quickly closed the smile on his face and said, "I dare to ask the envoy, what happened in Jiaozhou?"

Seeing that Lu Xun stopped smiling, Sun Quan felt a little more relieved. He told the situation in Jiaozhou, then looked at Lu Xun for consultation and said, "What should I do if I have a Bo's opinion?"

Lu Xun looked at the map spread in front of Sun Quan and pondered for a long time before he raised his head and said to Sun Quan: "Eunuch, do you really want Jiaozhou?"

Nonsense, why don’t I do this hard work for Jiaozhou? Sun Quan was very annoyed. His mood just now disappeared. Although he didn’t say anything, his gloomy face revealed his bad mood.

"In the opinion of the minister, it's better not to fight in Jiaozhou." Lu Xun said softly, his face very serious.

Seeing that he pondered for a long time, Sun Quan thought he had been thinking about how to retake Jiaozhou, so he waited for him to come up with a good idea and immediately lifted the siege of Panyu, and it would be best to take back those counties together. Unexpectedly, as soon as he spoke, he advised himself to give up Jiaozhou. He immediately lowered his face, staring at Lu Xun with green eyes without blinking: "Why did Bo Yan say this?"

Lu Xun smiled, he bowed slightly, and bowed: "Eunuch, if it is only this war, it is not difficult to defeat Liu Bei and retake Nanhai County. The difficulty lies in this war."

When Sun Quan and Lu Meng heard this, they seemed to understand something. They looked at each other and said in unison: "Please tell me in detail, Bo Yan."
Chapter completed!