Han Xiang

Chapter 596: One out of two out of three
"Can you help?"

Lu Su showed a questioning expression and clapped his fingers to settle the score for Long Xiang.

"At present, we have [-] naval troops and [-] warships. Although the infantry and cavalry have been expanded to [-] or [-], the Sun family in Guangling and Yuzhang are adjacent, and Kuaiji, Danyang, Dantu, and Ruxuwu must remain in these places. The garrison can use [-] troops at full strength. Is this something that Cao Jun can't do?"

"Ant bites also hurt."

After Long Xiang made the analogy, he smiled knowingly and comforted Lu Su, saying: "Besides, Cao Cao definitely does not have a million soldiers. If he dares to look down on us, don't blame me for 'acting wildly' in Yingchuan and cutting off the rations of his millions of people."

"Cao Cao will definitely take care of it, but Xudu must be heavily guarded. I'm worried that if we can't attack by force, we won't be able to affect Cao Cao's army on the front line at all."

Seeing that Lu Su's words were quite pessimistic, Long Xiang showed an open-minded smile again.

"It doesn't matter if we can't attack by force. Our warships can come and go freely. We will definitely turn the Central Plains upside down. I promise to surprise Cao Cao."

"Yes, we have a naval army, no, Sun Quan was there."

Lu Su stopped abruptly in the middle of his words, and suddenly remembered that he also gave Sun Quan advice, but the other party was incompetent and failed to capture Shouchun, let alone use warships to stir up trouble in the Central Plains.

Lu Su lamented that no matter how good the strategy was, it still needed the ability to execute it, and Long Xiang was obviously better than Sun Quan in this regard.

The two immediately planned the Northern Expedition, planning to join forces to attack Jiangdong like two years ago, and once again join forces to attack the Central Plains by land and water.

Jiangdong's original "big brother" Zhang Zhao, whose son Zhang Cheng worked hard on shipbuilding in Huainan, has been appointed by Long Xiang as the captain and is highly valued.

Zhang Hong, Qin Song and other nephews and nephews of important Huaisi ministers all served as officials in Lujiang and Jiujiang counties and had a bright future.

Zhu Huan, Lu Xun, Gu Yong, Yu Fan and other Jiangdong nobles all received more respect and rights under Long Xiang, and compared with Sun Quan and Sun Ce, they made judgments.

Long Xiang believed that neither he nor Lu Su was around, and it was unlikely that these people would betray him and join the Sun family.

After all, Sun Quan's current reputation has fallen to the bottom of the sewage ditch, and Sun Kuang's personal abilities are relatively mediocre, and the resources he has obtained can only protect himself in Guangling.

The day after sending the congratulatory gifts, several messengers quickly left Wu County.

Zhu Huan, Lu Xun, and Lu Dai quickly received military orders. Long Xiang asked them to mobilize excess garrison troops and secretly send them to Hefei in batches to assemble.

Long Xiang did not explain that he was dealing with Cao Cao, and Huainan's shipbuilding was not a secret to everyone, so everyone thought he was preparing for a decisive battle with Sun Quan, while Lu Su actively prepared for the expedition to collect money and food.

Time soon came to August. On the eve of Long Xiang and Lu Su completing their war preparations, Xu Du's urgent military information reached Hefei, and the result was not what the two expected.

Cao Cao, who had just become the prime minister, declared Cao Ren as the general who conquered the south. The governors Xu Huang, Zhang Xiu, Lu Xiang, Ma Yan, Zhang Wei and other dozens of generals commanded a horse infantry of [-] as the vanguard, from Bingzhou, Hongnong and Yecheng. and other places, and went to Kunyang to gather to prepare for the conquest of Guan Yu.

Cao Cao did not personally lead his army south. First of all, there was a problem of food and fodder for hundreds of thousands of troops. Millions of civilians needed to be recruited to transport food. This would be a disaster for Hebei and Henan, which had just ended the war;
The second reason was psychological factors. Cao Cao believed that he led 10 people to 'bully' Guan Yu, and Cai Mao, Sun Quan and others were helping to restrain him. This was an insult to Cao Cao, who was good at using troops;
Finally, Xia Houyuan, Zhang Liao and other main forces attacked Qingzhou but did not return. At the same time, they also had to prevent Liu Bei's troops from leaving Tongguan.

In addition, the political environment in Xudu at this time was very delicate.

Cao Cao paid too much attention to Wei County, especially when Cao Pi married Zhen Mi, which aroused the vigilance of the Henan nobles, and secretly instigated Kong Rong to ridicule and beat him.

Kong Rong was famous and respected all over the world. Cao Cao had to tolerate it even if his teeth were broken, but he responded powerfully with practical actions and moved half of his family to Yecheng.

Seeing that Cao Cao went his own way, Kong Rong would make rude remarks when he found the opportunity, and sometimes even contradicted him in public. This cruelty made Cao Cao very embarrassed.

There was a big troll like Ni Heng before, but now he is replaced by Kong Rong.

Cao Cao believed that if he didn't resort to tricks, celebrities would dare to imitate him in the future, so he became murderous towards Kong Rong and stayed behind to resolve the matter.

After Long Xiang received Xu Du's military information, he immediately summoned Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, Zhuge Jin and others to Hefei. Since Lu Su was also going on an expedition, he needed someone to help coordinate logistics.Cao Ren's [-] troops marched to Jingzhou, and Lu Su couldn't help but worry about Guan Yu. At this time, Nanyang's total troops were less than [-], and he had to be wary of Cai Mao's Xiangyang navy.

Long Xiang, however, had full confidence in Guan Yu. The powerful man in China was too strong, and he believed that Cao Ren was no match for his many soldiers, let alone that Guanzhong and Hanzhong could support him at any time.

Before Cao Cao's main force was dispatched, Long Xiang had no intention of sending troops to Xudu.

His 5 men could not attack the front, so they could only make small moves to help contain Liu Bei. Even if Zhang Zhao and others were called, they would have to wait until the Xu capital was empty before sending troops.

In late August, Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, and Zhuge Jin went to Hefei together and gathered with Lu Su to destroy the general's mansion.

Before Long Xiang could pass on the military information, Liu Fu's scouts sent Chai Sang to report urgently, saying that Lu Meng was leading the main force of the navy to go westward against the current.

Lu Su's eyes widened and he reminded Long Xiang loudly.

"Yunqi, Lu Meng may want to go to Fancheng."

"Ah."

Long Xiang nodded seriously: "I think so too. This is in line with Sun Quan's character."

Lu Su asked: "What should we do?"

"how?"

Zhang Zhao saw Long Xiang frowning in thought and looking at Lu Su in surprise.

"Zijing and the general have been preparing for so long, don't they just want to attack Yuzhang? Now Lu Meng leads the navy to leave. No, the navy is Sun Zhongmou's last support, how can he take it to Fancheng for no reason? He is not afraid of us taking advantage of it. , this must be Lü Meng’s plan.”

Lu Su shook his head and sighed: "Cao Cao has ordered Cao Ren to be the vanguard and lead one hundred thousand troops to Nanyang to attack Guan Yunchang. Lu Meng may go to Fancheng to take advantage of the situation, or he may take advantage of the chaos to capture Jingzhou's territory. In short, it is unlikely to target us."

"Isn't that good?"

Zhang Zhao spread his hands in front of everyone, thinking that he was dozing off. Lu Meng sent him a pillow. Why don't you catch it with both hands?

But seeing that Long Xiang was still frowning, Zhang Zhao raised his hands and admonished him:
"General Yunqi, Danyang, Wujun, and Kuaiji are all secure now. Guangling will be fine with Lu Boyan on guard;

At this time, we should destroy Sun Zhongmou as soon as possible and take over Yangzhou, and then take advantage of the battle between Liu Bei and Cao Cao in Nanyang to send troops to seize the four counties of Jingnan and Jiaozhou, and then rely on the natural moat of the Yangtze River and the advantage of the navy to gain a foothold;
Maybe you can divide the world with Liu Bei and Cao Cao. If Liu Bei is eventually destroyed by Cao Cao, you can also rule across the river with Cao Cao and divide the world in half."

Long Xiang had been kind to Zhang Cheng in the past two years, and Zhang Zhao reciprocated the favor in order to plan the future for Long Xiang.

It's a pity that he didn't know Long Xiang's ambition and used his good intentions in the wrong place.

"Zibu, everyone."

Long Xiang solemnly saluted everyone with clasped fists and said with a serious face: "Long was born in a humble background and has no ambition to swallow the sky. At this time, he still has his heart towards the Han Dynasty, so he will not take advantage of the chaos to expand."

"Are you interested in the Han Dynasty?"

Zhang Zhao half-squinted his eyes and asked in a low voice: "The emperor is in Xu, does it mean that the general wants to surrender to Cao Cao?"

Long Xiang was startled at first, and then asked: "Cao Cao deceived the emperor and trusted the Han prime minister in the name, but he was actually a Han traitor, and I have a father's enmity with him? What do you think?"

(End of this chapter)