Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 232
At the beginning of February in the 13th year of Jian'an, the entire Jingzhou seemed to have fallen into a deadly silence.

Xiangyang was closed as a city, airtight.

All news was blocked, only couriers along the line kept coming and going, reporting Liu Qi's current news and location.

Then.

On the second day of February, the day when the dragon raised its head, Cai Mao Kuaiyue and the others got the news that Liu Qi had escaped!
On the night Kuai Qi went to Jingling, Liu Qi returned to Jiangxia.

"boom!"

At the Taiwei's mansion in Xiangyang, Cai Mao was furious and roared, "What's going on?"

The messenger said with a look of panic, "We waited for several days along the route in Zhangshan, Lankou, Linting and other places, but we still didn't see the long prince's boat, so we went to Jingling to inquire. Unexpectedly."

"go out!"

Seeing that Cai Mao was on the verge of fury, Kuai waved his hand to signal the messenger to leave.

The messenger ran out in a panic, rolling and crawling.

After the messenger left, Zhang Yun hurriedly said: "Could it be that the news was leaked? The eldest prince returned to Jiangxia overnight, what should I do?"

Kuai Yue looked at Cai Mao with a suspicious expression on his face: "Taiwei, it can't be your son-in-law Deng Hong."

"Impossible, absolutely impossible."

Cai Mao stood up and packed the ticket and said: "Deng Hong's mansion is mostly my servant's servants, all over my eyeliner, if there is any change, he will come to report to me at any time. These days he stays in the mansion all day, and there is no one in the mansion. been out."

"Who would that be?"

Kuai Yue frowned, and suddenly his eyes drifted to the south: "I'm afraid they are not from Xianshan Academy, but when the city was closed, they forgot about Xianshan."

"Forget it, don't think about who leaked the news. There are many aristocratic families in Jingzhou who are at odds with us, and after His Majesty's death, we have not closed the city for at least two or three hours. Many people inside and outside the city know about it."

Cai Hao waved his hand, and the remaining anger still said: "The most urgent task now is to find a way to deal with the matter of the eldest prince. Although the second prince has ascended the throne, Huang Zu, Liu Pan, and Wenpin have a difficult attitude. The imperial edict went over to test it out?"

After the two major defeats, Jingzhou's current army still has about 20 troops, of which about [-] people are actually in the Cai Mao Kuaiyue Zhang Yun Group.They came from the [-] Xiangyang defenders controlled by Zhang Yun, and the [-] remnant soldiers who fled back from the failed attack on Xichuan controlled by Cai Mao.

There are more than 3 troops scattered outside. Apart from the more than 2 in the hands of Huangzu in Jiangxia and the [-] in Liu Pan's hands in Changsha, there are Lai Gong, the governor of Jiaozhou, Wu Ju, the prefect of Cangwu, and those who are distributed in various parts of Jingzhou. Lin scattered [-] to [-] local county soldiers.

The last is to guard Nanyang and resist Cao Cao's 5 horses in the north.They belonged to generals Wenpin, Han Xi, Lu Jie and Gan Ning.Among them, General Wenpin was in charge of the most, with about 2 troops in his hands.

The rest of Han Xi, Lu Jie, and Gan Ning ranged from seven to eight thousand to ten thousand, but if you had to count them, there was still a duplicity, and Zhang Xiu, who was capricious, had such a strength of seven to eight thousand.

In history, Zhang Xiu died of illness while following Cao Cao's Northern Expedition to Wuhuan.

But that was because of the bad weather in that battle, coupled with a series of factors such as acclimatization, extreme climate and so on.

Including Guo Jia and Zhang Xiu, all may have died of pneumonia caused by cold and wind.

But now because Cao Cao did not have the Northern Expedition, Zhang Xiu and Guo Jia did not encounter extremely bad weather, so naturally they both survived in the world.

In this way, in terms of total military strength, Liu Biao still left a huge fortune to his successors.

It's just that once Liu Biao died, there were some problems with the ownership of this property.

Liu Cong was established by Cai Mao Kuaiyue and others. Many people supported Liu Qi. Now that Liu Cong is in power, they may not obey orders.

So this is the problem that the Cai Mao Kuai Yue gang needs to solve.

Kuai Yue heard Cai Mao's suggestion to issue an imperial edict in the name of Liu Cong to test it out, waved his hands and said, "No, you must not act rashly. If they refuse, Jingzhou may be the enemy of the whole world."

"How is that good?"

Cai Mao asked, "Should we wait for them to present themselves?"

Kuai Yue murmured: "Easy ones should come first and then difficult ones. At present, the army under our control only has tens of thousands of troops in Nanjun, and the rest of the counties, as well as Jingnan and Jiaozhou, have not joined us. We should send envoys to tell them that His Majesty passed away, and that the second prince obeyed the edict and ascended the throne. God's news, ordered them to obey."

"Ah."

Cai Mao nodded slightly: "That's right. In the whole Jingzhou, there are only 5 people in Nanyang, and more than 2 people in Jiangxia. The [-] people in Liu Pan's hands in Jingnan are not in our hands."

Kuai Yue continued to analyze: "Many of Nanyang's 5 horses are mostly in the hands of Wenpin, and the remaining Han Xi, Lu Jie, and Gan Ning each have about 1 people. Don't worry about Wenpin for now, and don't worry about the deep friendship between Gan Ning and Shen Chen. First, win over Han Xi and Lu Jie, and get their men and horses."

"Alien is a good strategy."

Cai Mao heard Kuai Yue's analysis, thought carefully, and immediately after thinking clearly, he couldn't help but praise: "Jiaozhou and the counties and counties in southern Jing will definitely follow the order, and Han Xi and Lu Jie will be friends with us. Most of Huang Zu, Liu Pan, Wen Pin, and Gan Ning's troops will fall into our hands!"

"However, Huang Zu, Wen Pin, Liu Pan, and Gan Ning have the most elite soldiers in their hands."

Zhang Yun said: "If these soldiers and horses cannot be obtained, it may be difficult to control the situation."

Kuai Yue's analysis is indeed penetrating and penetrating.

The 20 troops in Jingzhou originally only had [-] in their hands, but there are many neutral soldiers and horses. These soldiers and horses are easily controlled by Xiangyang. Once the edict is issued, they will immediately be under their control.

In this way, their military strength will skyrocket to 12. Only Huang Zu and others have 8 troops, which is still an undetermined factor.

But it is these 8 horses that are the key.

Huang Zu is in charge of the Jiangxia navy, which is not strong in land warfare, but is first-class in water warfare.

The Gan Ning army is even more difficult. Although it is not as good as the Huangmenting soldiers who are out of production and training all day long, they are actual combat soldiers who have fought against Cao Cao's army head-on. They are also considered to be among the top infantry in the north. Other armies are much stronger.

As for Wenpin and Liu Pan, one general is good at defense, the army is well-organized, and orders are prohibited.The other general is good at attacking and is very brave in battle. He is one of the best troops in the Jingzhou Army.

Even though Cai Mao Kuaiyue and the others had more soldiers and horses in their hands, in terms of combat effectiveness, if all the 12 people fought against the 8 people, they would definitely lose.

Therefore, the 12 soldiers and horses that Cai Mao and the others have are not the key. Huang Zuwen's employment of Liu Pan Ganning and their army is the most important.

Kuai Yue thought about it and said: "Huang Zu has a rough temperament and is stubborn. If there is no order from the late emperor, I'm afraid he would not agree. It's hard to say what Gan Ning said. Although he has a close friendship with Shen Chen, if he promises to lure him, he may be able to win him over. As for Wenpin and Liu Pan, they are easy to deal with."

"Oh?"

Cai Mao hurriedly said, "What's the best strategy for the different degrees?"

Kuai Yue laughed and said: "Wen Pin has always been loyal, and he should be able to impress him with reason and emotion. Liu Pan has a strong and unscrupulous temperament. Now we are secretive, and Jingnan is remote. He must have not heard the news. All you need is to send a general to Jingnan with the forged late emperor's secret edict, and you can easily gain his military power."

Cai Mao was surprised: "So simple?"

"nature."

Kuai Yue smiled confidently: "I know Wenpin and Liu Pan's temperament well, so it must be so. Even if Wenpin hesitated for a while and didn't agree, at least he would remain neutral and wait and see the situation first."

Now the most important thing for Cai Mao Kuaiyue and the others is to hold the military power of the entire Jingzhou in their hands. Huang Zu is not very active. First, he has to guard against Jiangdong. Second, Huang Zu has a rough and stubborn personality. Except for Liu Biao and Liu Qi, other People don't pay much attention to it.

Therefore, it is still very difficult to win over Huang Zu, but Wenpin is different from Liu Pan. One is loyal to Liu Biao, and he may be able to persuade him with the reason of Jingzhou's foundation.

The other character is brave and staunch, without strategy, just use Liu Biao's name to remove his military power.

Moreover, Gan Ning and Kuai Yue also wanted to lure him over with profit.

In this way, if all goes well, all the soldiers and horses in Jingzhou except Huang Zu will belong to them. What Liu Qi can control is Jiangxia's more than 3 sailors.

At that time, even if Huang Zu supported Liu Qi, they could still instigate the other generals of Jiang Xia's navy and completely control the military power in Jingzhou.

Even if it doesn't go well, for example, if Gan Ning is not tempted, or Wenpin doesn't agree immediately, it doesn't matter.

Because in Kuai Yue's view, Liu Pan's side is sure to be sure, even if Wenpin refuses to agree immediately, he will most likely remain neutral.

So in the end, at most, Huang Zu and Gan Ning had less than 5 people against their army of more than [-], and the advantage was in their hands.

It's just that Zhang Yun has a different view.

He hesitated and said: "Since the eldest prince has already heard the news, I'm afraid he will tell Liu Pan. Although my cousin is fierce and ruthless, he has a deep friendship with the eldest prince. Once he learns the truth, he probably won't give up easily. "

Liu Pan is the son of cousin Liu's brother, and Zhang Yun is the son of cousin Liu's sister, so Liu Pan is actually Zhang Yun's cousin, but Liu Pan has a better relationship with Liu Qi. It is really possible that Pan will not surrender his military power.

Kuai Yue frowned and said, "I almost forgot that the eldest prince already knew the news. It is indeed necessary to guard against such a case, but it is to save time, so we must immediately send people to the south, before Liu Pan knows about it, and use the imperial edict to seize it." He has military power, maybe even if he knows about it, he may not be willing to help the eldest prince."

"Ah."

Cai Mao stroked his beard and nodded, "That's right, no matter what, I have to give it a try."

"Then do it first."

Kuai Yue made a decision and said: "We will immediately send people to notify Jin Xuan, Han Xuan, Zhao Fan, Liu Du and others in the four counties of Jingnan, as well as Lai Gong, the governor of Jiaozhou, and Wu Ju, the prefect of Cangwu, according to the will of your majesty and the late emperor. , and the others followed suit.”

"correct."

Cai Mao suddenly looked at Kuai Yue and said, "Alien, how should we deal with the eldest prince?"

The current situation is delicate.

They originally wanted to trick Liu Qi into Xiangyang and put him under house arrest first, and then let Liu Cong ascend the throne and take control of the entire Jingzhou.

But Liu Qi did not come back, and the relationship between Liu Qi and Liu Cong has gradually deteriorated over the years. Liu Qi was also worried that Liu Cong's forces would murder him, so he ran to Jiangxia early to avoid disaster. Huge conflict.

So before the conflict occurs, don't they have nothing to do?

Kuai Yue hesitated for a long time, looked to the southeast, and said softly: "The eldest prince has a high prestige in Jingzhou. If possible, I would try not to go to war. It would be too risky for us. Why don't we use the imperial edict Give him death, if he doesn't obey, you can lead an assassin to kill him."

This is to follow the example of Fusu.

Cai Mao and Zhang Yun looked at him, but today, is there still such a foolish, filial, loyal person as Fusu?
(End of this chapter)