Chapter 249 Crossing the river in white clothes, Fazheng sees through it
"In this case, I hope the general will win as soon as possible."
Zhang Song finally suppressed his thoughts and did not present the map in his arms.
This map was prepared for Cao Cao when he went to Chendu.
It's a pity that Cao Cao's arrogance is disgusting.
However, Cao Cao was arrogant and arrogant. Apart from Sun Quan, who had never met him in the south, perhaps Liu Bei was the only one who knew him.
But now that Liu Bei is going to Jingzhou, even if he offers a picture, people may not have time to take care of it.
If Liu Bei doesn't pay attention to it at that time, it will appear that he is being sentimental.
Therefore, Zhang Song felt that it would be better to wait for Liu Bei to return from Jingzhou before dedicating Yizhou to him.
Also the most important point.
Such a big matter cannot be decided hastily, it still needs to be carefully considered.
His good friend Fa Zhengfa Xiaozhi has always been good at strategizing, so Zhang Song thought that he could discuss it with him.
Therefore, considering various factors, Zhang Song did not raise the matter immediately.
However, after meeting Liu Bei and seeing that the Jiangzhou he governed was still in good order, unlike the chaos of Zhang Lu's time, Zhang Song was quite fond of him.
Liu Bei was a virtuous corporal, and he had been fighting in the north and south for many years. He fought with Cao Cao, Lu Bu and others in the Central Plains. He was by no means as cowardly as Liu Zhang.
If there is anyone in the south who can become the lord of Yizhou, perhaps Liu Bei is the most suitable one.
"Lord."
At this moment, Xu Shu suddenly raised his hands to Liu Bei and said.
Liu Bei asked: "What's wrong with Yuan Zhi?"
Xu Shu then said: "Although we will set off to return to Jingzhou tomorrow, we cannot ignore the friendship between Yizhou's pastoral clan. It happens that there are many Xichuan people in our army."
Liu Bei was surprised and said: "What does Yuan Zhi mean?"
Xu Shu smiled and said: "My lord, why don't you leave some troops to contain Zhang Lu's army? If things change and Liu Yizhou cannot resist it, it will be bad for Chengdu to fall."
"Hmm."
Liu Bei pondered for a moment, nodded slightly and said: "Yuan Zhi's words are very reasonable. How about I ask Zhao Yun and you to lead ten thousand people to stay?"
"only!"
Xu Shu handed over his hand.
Liu Bei looked at Zhang Song again and said: "Biejia will stay in the mansion today, and we will have a discussion. Now I am not sure about Zhang Lu's offensive, so I would like to ask Biejia to give us a detailed answer."
"I am willing."
Zhang Song quickly responded with his hands.
"please."
Liu Bei invited him to the villa in the backyard.
After that, he went to greet Zhou Lin in the name of ordering a banquet. After seeing off Zhou Lin, he returned to Xiaozhu and had a chat with Zhang Song.
Soon the next day, Zhang Song and Liu Bei had a very happy conversation.
After a night of talking by candlelight, the two got to know each other better, which made Zhang Song more certain that Liu Bei was the Ming Lord of Yizhou, so he left with satisfaction.
After seeing off Zhang Song, Liu Bei led his army to board the ship in the afternoon without displaying any flags. Thousands of ships, all merchant ships, sailed down the river in a mighty manner under the banners of Zhou Lin and other major families in Ba County.
, heading towards Jingzhou.
When Zhang Song went south, he took the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which was called Dajiangshui in the Han Dynasty and Minjiang River in later generations. He went down the river to Jiangzhou very fast, but when he returned, his speed was much slower, so we won't mention it for now.
.
Liu Bei's ship sailed very fast, and it took less than a day to reach Baidi City. At this time, Baidi City was still in his hands, but after passing Baidi City and arriving at Zigui, it was Cai Mao's territory.
When he left Zigui for Xichuan, Cai Mao immediately sent troops to Zigui, Yiling, Yidao and other places, and set up beacon towers on both sides of the river. Although he did not send anyone to Xichuan to confirm whether Liu Bei had joined the war, these basic military arrangements were still there
of.
At this moment, on the upper floor of Zigui County, Huo Jun looked north. Behind him, his younger brother was complaining endlessly: "When the eldest brother made great achievements in attacking Cao Cao, he was only promoted from Sima to captain. After the eldest brother died of illness, he could not be reused. Now
Being sent to this Zigui city again, you really are a coward."
"Yes, now that Cai Taiwei and Kuai Situ have taken control of the Jingzhou government, we old generals should be reused. But I heard that many brothers don't want to fight with the eldest prince, so those who don't want to
All those fighting the war have been transferred to remote places."
"We don't want to fight, so don't we end up being transferred to Zigui? There is also General Wenpin, but General Wen is fine. He has an army of 20,000 men, and Taiwei and Situ don't dare to touch him. Unlike us,
In the end, it’s just a false name.”
Huo Jun's troops came from his elder brother Huo Du, and Huo Du's tribe was a clan private army. At the beginning, there were only three to four hundred people. Later, due to Zhang Yun's expansion, it increased to more than a thousand people. Since then, there has been no increase.
Passing people and horses.
Therefore, after Huo Du died of illness and Huo Jun inherited Huo Du's army, this army, which was originally composed of the clan's private soldiers, followed Huo Jun in groups and became the Huo family's private tribe.
The characteristic of this army is that the upper-level officers are all relatives of the same clan of the Huo family, and several personal guards are Huo Jun's brothers, so naturally they don't have so many scruples in speaking.
Huo Jun listened to everyone's complaints and did not stop him, because even he felt it was unfair, not to mention that everyone here was his own people, and they would not spread gossip to Cai Mao's ears. It would be easier for everyone to speak out their complaints and always hold them back.
Sulking is strong.
"Hey, Colonel, look quickly."
At this moment, someone next to Huo Jun suddenly pointed to the north and said: "There are ships on the river."
Huo Jun looked over and saw hundreds of merchant ships moving southward along the Yangtze River. The beacon towers along the coast did not light up the smoke. He wondered for a moment: "What kind of ship is this?"
"It seems to be a merchant ship."
Some soldiers looked up and said, "This should be a ship from Jiangzhou."
"Come with me and have a look."
Huo Jun waved his hand, and hundreds of soldiers in the city immediately dispatched, came to the river, and sailed two stern boats across the river.
The merchant ships on the Yangtze River in the distance naturally saw them and began to stop their ships one after another.
It was not easy to stop a ship on the Yangtze River in ancient times, but the wisdom of the ancients should not be underestimated. There were anchors at that time. Those with stones were called "anchors", and those with hooks were called claw anchors.
And the stone and the claw anchor are not small objects. The stone weighs several tons, and it takes dozens of people to pull it into the river to stop the ship. The claw anchor is slightly lighter, but it is also more than two feet long and hundreds of kilograms.
Use your claws to reach the bottom of the river to stop the boat.
As for retracting the anchor, it is also simple. The stone anchor is pulled back purely with human leverage. The claw anchor is rowed backward when starting the ship. After the grapple is loose and falls off, the claw anchor is retracted with the winch, and then the ship can continue to move forward.
Therefore, although stopping the ship was a little troublesome, since these ships were relatively advanced ships that Shen Chen helped Zhou Lin transform, they could still stop and lift anchor easily.
After the boat stopped, a small boat came over soon, and they went to the stern on the riverside to meet Huo Jun.
That person was a merchant ship master sent by Zhou Lin to deal with the questioning along the way. After boarding the ship, he saw Huo Jun and said quickly: "I pay my respects to the general."
"Who are you?"
Huo Jun asked.
"The villain is a merchant from Jiangzhou. Because Zhang Lu blocked the trade route a year ago and the river was impassable, the merchants like me accumulated a large amount of goods that could not be sold and were about to be smashed into our hands."
The chief clapped his hands and said, "Fortunately, after General Zuo went to Jiangzhou, business contacts were resumed. We quickly organized a fleet to trade east of the Jingzhou River."
"Don't you know that there is also a war in Jingzhou now?"
Huo Jun asked.
The boss smiled bitterly and said: "Of course I know, but what can we do? If we can't sell the goods, I don't know how many people in Jiangzhou will lose their families and lose their lives. We have so many workers who have lost their livelihoods, and we have no way."
There is a way."
"Hmm."
Huo Jun pondered.
In fact, he stopped the fleet not because he suspected there was something wrong with the fleet, but because he didn't want them to go south to Yunmengze.
The Yangtze River was connected to Yunmengze at that time. As far as he knew, Cai Mao had begun to launch an all-out war. The Yangtze River Navy and Jiangxia Navy were currently facing off at the Yangtze River port downstream of Yunmengze.
Now that the caravan is passing through the war zone, isn't it looking for death? So Huo Jun is not actually harming these merchants, but trying to save them.
But what the boss said was right.
The essence of commercial exchanges is to revitalize the livelihood of local people.
For example, Jiangzhou is the trading center of Bashu. Medicinal materials, tea, silk, and salt from Bashu must be sold to Jingzhou and Jiangdong, and other items must be purchased back.
If commercial exchanges were completely cut off, herb pickers, tea pickers, silkworm raisers, and salt diggers would all have no way of living.
So if we don't care about it, I don't know how many families will be destroyed.
Thinking of this, Huo Jun warned the chief: "It's just that there is a war in Jingzhou now. The Dajiang Navy and the Jiangxia Navy are confronting each other in the Yunmengze area. If you walk across the battlefield, won't you risk your death?"
The boss quickly said: "It doesn't matter, we are doing business along the river, not only in Jiangdong, but also in Jingzhou. At worst, we can stop the ship in Jiangling and sell the goods to Nanjun and Nanyang. Although the profit is less, at least we can manage it.
We can keep the people fed and clothed."
"I see."
Huo Jun thought for a while, then turned to his guards and said, "Go get two flags."
"only."
The bodyguard went to get the flag.
Huo Jun said to the chief: "If you put these two flags on the bow of the ship, there will be fewer interrogations. Remember, never go to Yunmengze!"
"Thank you, general, thank you, general!"
The chief took the flag and left with great gratitude.
This kind of flag is actually not a military flag, but a trade flag.
In the Han Dynasty, merchants had to pay commercial taxes, especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when caravans from various places passed through the territories of various princes, they would definitely be exploited.
But everyone also understands the principle of sustainable fishing, so princes often set up tax inspection points on transportation thoroughfares. After checking the taxes, they would register them and give them customs clearance documents, customs clearance flags, etc.
Now is a special period, so Huo Jun didn't give me any documents or a flag, which was just a small favor.
Soon the fleet set off again, heading in the direction of Jiangling.
After planting flags along the way, no one asked any more questions, and the caravan went straight to Jiangling almost without any hindrance.
And when Liu Bei went straight to Jiangling, Zhang Song had already arrived at Bodao.
The Yangtze River is fast going down the river, but slow going upstream. Especially in the upper reaches, the water flow is very fast. So at that time, it only took two days to get to Jiangzhou from Chengdu, but more than ten days to go back.
When Zhang Song arrived at Bodao, Wei Fazheng, the military council commander with no soldiers or authority, was already waiting for him at the Bodao County Government Office.
On this mission, although Fazheng was not appointed as the envoy, he was good friends with Zhang Song. Anyway, he was not reused, so he came with Zhang Song.
However, when they arrived at Bodao, because Zhang Lu's army had already controlled the Jiangyang area, ships could not pass on the river, so it was difficult for the large group of people to pass, so Zhang Song separated from Fazheng.
Fazheng stayed in Bodao to lead the envoy, while he himself only took two followers, disguised himself, took the overland route around Fujie, and then rushed to Jiangzhou.
Later, Liu Bei collected a large number of ships, sent troops to attack Jiangyang, and dispersed Zhang Lu's defenders there. Zhang Song naturally felt much more relaxed when he returned, and he arrived at Bodao in two days.
Returning to the Bodao County government residence, Zhang Song saw a young scholar in his thirties waiting for him. He went up and said, "Xiao Zhi."
"Zi Qiao."
"Go back and talk first."
"good."
That person was Fazheng, who returned to the courtyard with Zhang Song.
It has been raining lightly in Bodao these days, and the floor tiles are wet. The gray bluestone slabs and black wooden pillars and tiles give the yard a cold color.
The only bright spot is a small bamboo forest in the courtyard, which is lush and green, with water drops dripping from it.
Zhang Song and Fazheng were sitting cross-legged on the porch, looking at the bamboo forest in front of them. Fazheng asked: "Ziqiao, have you seen General Zuo?"
"Saw it."
"how?"
"It can be said that he is a man of great talent and great strategy."
Zhang Song gave a thumbs up and praised: "General Zuo has fought many battles in the south and north. He has extraordinary bearing, good appearance, and courtesy to the corporal, which is admirable."
Fazheng smiled and said: "Brother Ziqiao, like me, feels that Liu Jiyu is cowardly and incompetent, and he is definitely not the wise leader of Yizhou. Since General Zuo is a talented and ambitious man, must he have agreed to send troops to Chengdu?"
"No."
Zhang Song shook his head and said: "There is civil strife in Jingzhou, and General Zuo led his troops south to Jingzhou."
"Going to Jingzhou?"
Fazheng was surprised for a moment and asked about the specific situation.
Zhang Song told him that after Liu Bei sent troops to Bashu, Cai Mao immediately launched a war to defeat Liu Qi and unify Jingzhou.
He also said that Liu Bei had asked Jiangzhou merchants to transport a large number of merchant ships to transport troops, and he thought he had arrived in Jiangling by now.
"That's it, that's it"
After Zhang Song informed Fazheng of the situation, Fazheng murmured to himself, then also gave a thumbs up and laughed: "General Zuo is indeed a hero."
"Forehead"
Zhang Song was puzzled and said: "Now that General Zuo has gone to Jingzhou and cannot unite with us to plot Yizhou, why is Xiaozhi still laughing?"
Fa Zheng smiled and said: "I am laughing at General Zuo's rough strategy. I am afraid that going to Jingzhou this time was a ruse."
"Plot?"
Zhang Song was even more puzzled: "What's the plan?"
Fazheng said: "Brother Ziqiao, think about it, why did Cai Mao take action immediately as General Zuo left? Why did General Zuo get the news just after Cai Mao took action? Why did General Zuo come overland and be able to raise so much money so quickly?
How many merchant ships are there?”
"you mean?"
Zhang Song's eyes widened.
Fazheng nodded and said, "Yes, this must be General Zuo's plan to seize Jingzhou."
After saying that, he looked eastward with deep eyes.
Although Liu Zhang is besieged now, Chengdu will probably not be conquered for another year and a half. General Zuo will return to Yizhou after he takes Jingzhou.
Perhaps Liu Zhang would have been defeated by Zhang Lu by then. By then, if General Zuo destroyed Zhang Lu and captured Xichuan, he would no longer have to bear the notoriety of seizing the same clan's inheritance. It could be said that he killed two birds with one stone.
Today is the chapter. I feel like my yang has returned. I was yang 10 days ago and it has been four or five days since I recovered. But today I started to feel very uncomfortable again. It may be a cold. I hope it is a cold. I am still conscious.
It’s really hard to code a chapter without knowing it, and then go to sleep.