After Cai Mao sent Zhang Song away, he thought about it and thought that he would make preparations immediately. He first tried every means to send a letter to Dongwu and let them secretly mobilize their troops to prepare.

Although the imperial examinations have not been taken yet and the result has not been released, it is impossible to see how much the interests of the Jingzhou family members will actually be damaged by Li Su in this year's exam, and it is also impossible to estimate how many other aristocratic families are determined to rebel with Cai Mao.

But Cai Mao knew very well that this time window period was only more than twenty days in total. After the fifth day of October, the situation in Changke gradually became clear. He contacted the Eastern Wu again, and the Eastern Wu began to mobilize troops to prepare warships and supplies, and then he would definitely not be able to catch up with the end of October window period.

By then, Li Su would have done everything about Bin Gongke and would not go into seclusion. With Li Su's IQ and skills, if he would re-invest his main energy to return to money, grain and military affairs, Cai Mao would just want to collude with foreign enemies and have no chance.

Therefore, he decided to secretly send someone to show his favor to Dong Wu without exposing himself.

After receiving the news from Dongwu, there is no need to make any promises or cross-border reactions immediately. Just keep Xiakou City, block the river surface, and prevent information from being circulated in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and then secretly assemble troops in the lower reaches of Xiakou, so that they will not offend Liu Bei's camp in advance.

If there is a chance in the future, Sun Ce will be dispatched. If he doesn't have the chance or finds it unreliable, he will secretly dismiss the troops back to his original garrison, and he will pretend that nothing has happened and will not offend Liu Bei. At most, he will only lose a sum of food and supplies for the gathering of troops.

Anyway, the Jingzhou family in this life had no grievances and no grudges with Sun Ce, and Sun Jian did not die in Jingzhou, so it is possible for both sides to cooperate.

Everyone knows on the surface that although Sun Ce and Liu Bei have made peace for the time being, Sun Ce wants to take advantage of the years of Liu Bei and Yuan Shao’s battle, slowly develop his own territory, capture more Shanyue people and cultivate Shanyue’s land into familiar land for Han people to settle down.

However, everyone knows that this is just a mutual delaying strategy. As long as the emperor Sun Ce admits is still Liu He, one day after Yuan Shao is severely injured, Liu Bei will turn his gun around sooner or later. If he has the opportunity to be cruel to Jingzhou's heart and gain enough benefits, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu will still be very likely to be moved.

With this thought, on September 27th, Cai Mao bid farewell to his nephew Zhang Yun on the Hanshui Wharf east of Yicheng City, and asked Zhang Yun to take a small clutch and mix in a merchant fleet of a vassal of the Cai family, and go downstream to Chaisang, Yuzhang County to do business.

The navy of Liu Bei's camp will of course set up checkpoints at the Yangtze River and Han River outlets to intercept passing merchant ships to see if there is any smuggling, detailed operations or other violations. However, the large families of Jingzhou have always been unable to deal with business dealings with the downstream occupied areas.

Especially now that Sun Ce and Liu Bei's camp are actually maintaining peace, it is not easy to do too much to avoid making the situation tense.

In addition, Yuzhang is now Huang Zu's territory, and Jiangxia was originally Huang Zu's territory. The newly built outpost city of Liu Bei's army was also cut off from the territory of Jiangxia County. Therefore, the local people and powerful clans had various old subordinates of Huang Zu. Cai Mao maintained business dealings with Huang Zu, and some were to bypass supervision.

Before sending Zhang Yun on the road, Cai Mao personally cared for a few words on the dock: "Now Li Su arranged the garrison in Hanyang County, Zhou Tai, who is famous for his water battles and good guards. I heard that although this person does not study and does not know the art of war, he is still diligent and careful.

When you really encounter official investigations, please pay attention to concealing your identity and never expose your official position. At worst, you can accept the private goods and evade taxes. Pay more money and avoid the most important things.

The reason I sent you to walk from Yicheng instead of Jiangling this time is to avoid the Yangtze River by walking through the Han River. If you go down from Jiangling along the Yangtze River, you have to pass through Baqiu at the mouth of Yunmeng Lake.

Li Su didn't know what he had arranged recently, so he transferred Gan Ning, who had participated in the Northern Expedition, back to Baqiu to guard the country. He hoped that there would be no conspiracy. No matter what, Gan Ning's method of patrolling the river and intercepting private businessmen was much more ruthless than Zhou Tai.

And I heard that Gan Ning had intercepted the river for many years, but no business traveler could steal from his nose. When we contacted Dongwu in the future, we must ensure that we bypass Gan Ning’s defense zone. Wherever Gan Ning is responsible, we will choose another way."

In this life, the Cai family did not marry Liu Biao, so they did not climb to the top of the military post in Jingzhou. However, the Cai family's background was there, and Cai Mao was quite talented in the war, so after seven years, he still became the "Nanjun Commander".

Zhang Yun is a Sima under his command. Other relatives of his family, such as Cai Xun and others, also have some Sima-level military positions, while Cai Zhong and Cai and those garbage can only be the marquis of Qu Jun's rank.

Zhang Yun bowed his hand to express his understanding: "Uncle, don't worry, I know how to deal with it. As long as I don't encounter Gan Ning, I will let me come and go on the Han River."

Then, Zhang Yun's fleet carried a batch of goods as concealment, including Shu brocade, cotton cloth, water hammer forged iron pots produced in Shu, and even dozens of jars of distilled white wine of about 40 degrees, sailing downstream from Yicheng.

The straight line distance from Yicheng to Xiakou is actually only 400 miles. However, because the downstream of the Han River is winding, the actual range has to double to 800 miles.

Fortunately, the boat was driving along the way, and the sailors of Zhang Yun and the Cai family lived on the shore of the Han River forever. They were so familiar with the waterway that they could drive the boat with their eyes closed, so they didn't have to stop when they traveled day and night. The sailors worked in two shifts and arrived at Xiakou in just two and a half days. On the way, they encountered a cross-check, and they all used money to open the road and sent some goods to the defenders to fool them.

When we arrived at the Xiakou River, it was midnight on September 29th. The Han River flowed into the Yangtze River. The river surface was extremely wide. Zhang Yun's fleet was not large in size. He was familiar with hydrology and did not need to carry a fire to sail. In addition, the fleet sailed on the side of the Eastern Wu sphere of influence on the north bank. Zhou Tai, located in Hanyang City, north of the Han River, naturally did not notice it, and was caught by Zhang Yun.

However, avoiding patrols on the south bank means that it is easier to be discovered by patrols on the north bank. Shortly after Zhang Yun passed Hanyang City, he was intercepted by Deng Dang, the commander of the Xiakou Commander of Sun Ce's army.

Deng Dang was a powerful man who came to join the Yangtze River after Sun Ce arrived in Jiangdong. He had little experience. His main contribution was established during the period when Sun Ce established his rule in Yangzhou and confiscated and plundered Shanyue.

This man has made no achievements in tough battles, but he is very good at catching slaves. In the past two or three years, he has been able to capture tens of thousands of slaves from the Shanyue territory in southern Jiangxi or southern Zhejiang every year, and naturalize it to the people, and has captured more than 100,000 people in total. He relied on this hand to capture slaves and was promoted to the Xiakou Duwei, guarding this border.

However, just as winter began this year, Deng Dang's cold wind became worse and he contracted other diseases and was temporarily bedridden. So it was not Deng Dang himself who caught Zhang Yun tonight, but Sima, a different subordinate under his command, and his brother-in-law Lu Meng.

Now Lu Meng is just in his early twenties and has been following his brother-in-law to seize slaves for three or four years. He is still a semi-illiterate and has hardly read. In history, he has learned a few years later, and it was during Sun Quan's rule.

Because Sun Ce was not dead in this life, the senior officials of the Eastern Wu generally did not advocate reading, so naturally no one would come to persuade Lu Meng to study, so he is now a purely rough man.

"Who is here? You dare to cross Xiakou at night and tie them all up! Don't resist, otherwise you will be shot and killed by arrows!" Lu Meng, who was vulgar in his state, certainly would not talk nonsense to Zhang Yun, so he came up with a man.

"But the Duwei Deng faces us? My secret envoy of the Duwei Cai of Nain County came to report to the Duke of Wu with important matters, and there was no other malice." Zhang Yun explained and temporarily comforted Lu Meng.

After Lu Meng asked a few questions, he knew that his level was too low, so he took Zhang Yun to see Deng Dang first. He didn't know what he had talked to Deng Dang, and then Deng Dang called Lu Meng in.

"Brother-in-law, what are the instructions?" Lu Meng was careless and did not call him a military position, which showed that he was vulgar and unwilling.

Deng Dang breathed a few times: "The matter that Duwei Cai wants to discuss seems to be quite small, and I can't ask about it. It is naturally impossible for them to meet Duke Wu, and it is too late. However, I have already told him that I will go to Chaisang to meet General Zhou first.

Governor Zhou and his lord are sympathetic to their brothers, so they should be able to make a decision. Take a few boats, take my talisman and escort them to Chaisang."

Zhang Yun seemed to have accepted this condition. After all, Sun Ce himself was in Danyang, so far away, and he was still in a hurry to go back and report his life, which would not take so many days. Zhou Yu was much closer to Chaisang.

The gap between the two is equivalent to the later generations from Wuhan to Nanjing, while the latter is only from Wuhan to Jiujiang.

The group walked under Lu Meng's escort for two more days. On the first day of October, they arrived in Chaisang and met Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu first listened to Lu Meng's report, roughly understood the purpose of the visit, and then brought Zhang Yun to find out the situation.

Zhang Yun reported: "I reported to the governor of Zhou, and my commander Cai Wei of Nanjun reported to the Marquis of Wu: Since Liu Bei advocated the imperial examination and appointed Governor Li Su to the military affairs of Dianzhou, the oppression of our Jingxiang scholars has become increasingly fierce.

The imperial examination method has weakened the way for outstanding people and famous scholars to be officials in the north. Fortunately, the northern part of the country also allowed the siege of prefectures and counties to survive. Unexpectedly, Li Su Langzi's ambition seemed to be getting stronger and stronger after he arrived in Xiangyang to preside over the South Court.

Before, he turned a blind eye and secretly promised the benefits of the aristocratic family through the Tingwei Zhengfa Zheng, but he did not fully realize them. He also encouraged the poor, despicable and untrustworthy people to destroy the world and use their extreme official positions.

If the governor of Zhou did not believe it, it was the first day of the October 2018. I believe that in Xiangyang, Liu Bei's Autumn Examination South Court exam has already started. How many children of aristocratic families will be successfully elected as officials in the future, and how many positions will be seized by despicable villains, the governor will be able to see at a glance."

Zhou Yu pretended to be profound and did not express his opinion. He watched Zhang Yun perform quietly. After he finished all these words, he took the Tianqingci tea bowl and took a sip of brown sugar milk tea:

"Cai Mao is so calculating. With these few words, he wants to lure us to take the initiative to betray the alliance, create an excuse for Li Su, and invade our Yangzhou. Since ancient times, the strong and the weak have used fake books, and the weak have used fake surrender. Now Liu Bei is strong and Jiangdong is weak, and he is still here to surrender. He underestimates me, Zhou Yu. The person who came out and killed the rats and sent the head to Li Su, so that he could not speak of his suffering."

The left and right warriors rushed out immediately and pressed Zhang Yun to the ground. Zhang Yun struggled to beg for mercy: "Governor Zhou, wait! My Master Cai didn't ask you to send troops immediately. What are you worried about being caught by Li Su? This time Master Cai sent me here, just asking you to gather troops first and wait for the subsequent opportunity, so as not to come. You are not ready to take him back. I am wronged!"

Zhou Yu shook the ribbon on his hair and asked coldly:
Chapter completed!