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The full moon banquet in the tavern continued, but the lights were on in Liu Jing's outer study. In the room, Jia Xu and Xu Shu had arrived one after another, and even the veteran Huang Zhong was sitting aside, and everyone was waiting for Liu Jing to come back silently.

At this time, the yard was filled with fast footsteps, and Liu Jing quickly walked into the study, "I just got the latest information." He was holding several pigeon letters in his hand, and he had not had time to copy the reputation.

Liu Jing handed a few pigeon letters to others and asked them to pass them on to each other. He said: "Xu Huang led 10,000 troops to attack Jingling County. The defenders of Jingling County have retreated. In addition, Cao Cao's 200,000 main forces entered Yunmengze from Huarong County. They should have opened up a road in Yunmengze."

At this time, Xu Shu asked: "Is this Yunmengze's way the Huarong Road where the refugees fled to Jiangxia?"

"It should be this one"

Liu Jing walked to the map beside the wall and lit a candle. The map on the wall suddenly became clear. Huarong Road and Jingling Road had been clearly marked on the map. In the past month, Cao's army has been continuously opening roads in Yunmengze, and Jiangxia has already received news.

Liu Jing picked up a wooden pole and pointed to Jingling Road first and said to everyone: "From the current situation, it is unlikely that Cao's army will walk Jingling Road. First, they did not take Jingling County in advance, and second, Jingling Road is far away, and one needs to open a mountain and build a bridge, but Cao's army did not take any action in advance, so we can rule out Jingling Road."

Liu Jing pointed the wooden pole at Huarong Road and said, "But even if you walk on Huarong Road, there are two forks. One is to walk on the Wulin of Chibi and the other is to walk on the Wulin of Puqi. What we need to be clear is here, which Wulin of Cao's army is planning to cross the river."

At this time, Huang Zhong said, "If you were to cross the river in Puqi Wulin, they would go east from the official road of Puqi County. If I walked by this, the queen of heaven could directly kill to Yangxin County and arrive in Chaisang in five days. I think Cao Cao should be very clear about this."

Liu Jing nodded, and looked at Jia Xu who had been thinking, "What about Mr. Jia's opinion?"

Jia Xu smiled and said, "Maybe I know Prime Minister Cao better. He never only walks one thing in his work, real and real, real and false, and it makes people unable to understand his true intentions. I think he will not only go to the Wulin of Chibi, but also go to the Wulin of Puqi. This is his style, but I am afraid he doesn't even know where his real goal is."

Jia Xu's last sentence stunned everyone else. Even Cao Cao didn't know his own goal. After a moment of silence, Xu Shu first reacted, "Harm means warships in the Yangtze River."

Jia Xu stroked his beard and smiled, "That's exactly what it means"

Liu Jing also realized that Puqi is the junction of Changsha County and Jiangxia County. After passing Puqi, he entered Jiangxia County and entered the core area of ​​the Jiangxia Navy. If Cao Cao's warship could enter Jiangxia, he would of course choose the Chibi Wulin. If he could not enter Jiangxia, he could only settle for the second best and cross the river from Puqi.

Huang Zhong was the last one to react. He smiled and said, "If I were Cao Cao, I would not have chosen Puqi. Entering Jiangxia from Puqi east requires crossing mountains and ridges. The baggage is difficult to move. You can't let Cao Cao's main force carry dry food into Jiangxia."

Liu Jing walked a few steps behind his back, and there was a question involved. Whether Cao Cao crossed the Wulin River in Puqi or Wulin River in Chibi, it seemed that it was decided by the Jiangxia army. He intercepted Cao's warships outside Jiangxia, and even used the advantage of the navy to annihilate all Cao Cao's warships, which would prevent Cao's army from crossing the river and thus he would withdraw his troops to the north in disgrace.

But is this what he wanted? Liu Jing. He has been planning for nearly a year, and even the layout of Hebei and the alliance with Jiangdong. It is all about annihilation of Cao's army in Jiangxia, repeating a scene in history, and ultimately giving him a chance to rise.

But if Cao's army escaped unscrupulously, it would prevent him from developing to the north and finally compete with Jiangdong for the south, which was not in line with his overall situation.

"What do you think?" Liu Jing turned around and asked everyone: "Do you need to annihilate all Cao's warships in the Yangtze River?"

Jia Xu was silent. On this matter, he could only talk to Liu Jing in private, and was not suitable to express his opinion in front of everyone.

Huang Zhong didn't say anything. Although he originally wanted to wipe out the entire Cao army's warships, he had rich life experience after all. Liu Jing still had to ask questions about such a natural thing, which means he didn't want to do this.

Perhaps Liu Jing has a deeper idea, and this is not known to him, the person who has just been transferred to Jiangxia. It is better for him not to express his opinions.

At this time, Xu Shu smiled and said, "It seems that I have to express my opinion. I have never understood. In Xiangyang, the provincial governor sent a naval army to sweep the warships of Cao's army in the Han River, without giving Cao's army any chance. Then why did the Jiangxia naval army never go to Jiangling on the Yangtze River? The Cao Cao naval army made progress, or the provincial governor had another idea."

Xu Shu's meaning is already very clear. Since he did not go to Jiangling to sweep the Cao army's warships, why did he intercept the Cao army's warships outside Jiangxia? Liu Jing's goal was to wipe out the main force of the Cao army, rather than just a few warships.

"Zhou Mu's thoughts, only my subordinates understand today." Jia Xu looked suddenly, with a bitter smile hidden on his face. He shook his head and said, "This is a bit unexpected."

As a lord, it is necessary to maintain a sense of mystery in front of subordinates. You cannot let subordinates see through their own thoughts. This is a taboo for those in power. For example, Yang Xiu in the Romance of the Kingdom just does not understand this power rule.

The same is true for Liu Jing. He doesn't want to expose any thoughts before the zodiac, and will only release them little by little if necessary.

He gave up a little idea today, but Xu Shu guessed it immediately, while Jia Xu, who was extremely smart, suddenly realized it, as if he had never thought of it at all.

Obviously, Jia Xu is well versed in the rules of power. Even if he guessed it a long time ago, he would show some surprise in the process, which is also a kind of respect for his lord.

Those who are good at being a soldier do not fight; those who are good at fighting do not get angry; those who are good at defeating enemies do not get along with them; those who are good at using others do what they do. This is Jia Xu's political wisdom.

Liu Jing was very happy that Jia Xu could keep up with him. He smiled and said, "It is easy for me to sweep the Cao army's warships, but destroying the Cao army's warships will not solve the problem. The Cao army will move south in large numbers next year. Even if it does not move south for a few years, he will deploy a large army to strictly prevent us from expanding north. Only by greatly weakening his strength will we have the opportunity to expand north."

Xu Shu pondered for a while and said, "If my subordinates guess is good, I'm afraid Prime Minister Cao will also see that the provincial governor has not sent a navy army to sweep Jiangling, so he dared to let the warship continue to advance eastward, and let the main force go to the land and refuse to follow the ship."

"It should be so"

Liu Jing sighed slightly and said to everyone: "The problem now is how should we deal with it?"

...........

Yunmengze is a wetland of tens of thousands of hectares gradually formed after tens of millions of years of evolution in the low-lying Jianghan Plain. There are lakes, dry lands, and islands in the middle.

For thousands of years, no one has lived in the wetlands, and there are countless calamus swelling, ranging from several acres to tens of thousands of acres. If you break in, you will die in the middle. Only experienced old fishermen can move forward and retreat freely in the wetlands.

In the early morning, a vast white mist covered the Yunmeng water. Although the fog was not thick, it was still impossible to see the situation dozens of steps away. At this time, a small boat sailed out of a piece of calamus water. There were five people on the boat. Except for an old fisherman who was raising the boat, the other four were scouts of the Jiangxia army. They were one of the fifty scout teams in Yunmengze.

The area they were patrolling was south of the central part of Yunmengze, only ten miles away from Puqi Wulin. The fog in the morning made them not far away. A young scout couldn't help but complain in a low voice: "I can't even see fifty steps, so why do you need to come out early?"

They had just rested last night and came out before dawn in the morning. They were very tired. Why did they whisper and scold their subordinates and complained, "The rewards of the scouts' food and salary are several times that of ordinary soldiers. Do you think it's so easy to make money if they let the enemy go because of a mistake, but they will lose their heads. Do you understand?"

Another veteran scout advised: "Wuro is still a new recruit and doesn't understand the rules. When we were just scouts, didn't we complain the same way?"

"It is because he is a recruit that he has to set rules for him, otherwise he will not know how he died."

Shi Chang glared at the young scout fiercely, "If you have any complaints, just get back to me."

The young scout was so scared that he didn't dare to say anything, but he was not convinced. At this time, the old boatman smiled and said, "I said, "Your way, Li Shichang is right. Why should you take advantage of the fog? It's easy to cover it because there is fog. Although you can't see Cao's army, Cao's army can't see you either. Otherwise, you will only have a few people, and once you are discovered by Cao Cao's forward, it will be difficult to escape."

The old fisherman smiled at Shi Chang again and said, "Li Shi Chang, am I right?"

Shi Chang nodded, "The father-in-law is right, that's it. If he didn't protect himself as a scout, he would have died several times."

The young scout was finally convinced and lowered his head in shame. Suddenly, the osprey on the bow of the boat started to scream, and everyone suddenly became nervous. The osprey's strength and hearing surpassed that of humans. It must have discovered something.

The old fisherman made a quick decision, and when the bamboo pole was supported, the boat slid into a dense calamus water. Through the dense calamus, everyone looked at the situation outside.

Soon, a black fleet appeared in the fog, all of which were small cargo ships of two to five stones, full of military rations. Each ship had four Cao army soldiers, holding spears and crossbows, and most of them gathered at the stern to chat or rest.

The scout team was willing to think it was just a patrol of Cao's army, but they did not expect to encounter Cao's army's transport fleet. The fleet was about twenty steps away and they could clearly hear the laughter of Cao's soldiers.

They were so nervous that they didn't dare to breathe for a moment. The old fisherman even stuffed his osprey into the bottom warehouse to prevent it from screaming and exposing their hiding place.

The transport fleet was continuous, and it took more than an hour to wait before the fleet finally finished. "What are the long, how many cargo ships are there?" asked a scout.

The scouts shook his head, "I'll be in trouble after I got to the two ships, and there were about fifty ships."

The young scout scratched his head and said in confusion: "It's strange. I heard that the main force of Cao's army went to Wulin in Chibi, but this is the water from Wulin in Puqi, what are they doing to go here?"

Scout Shi Chang quickly calculated in his mind that these cargo ships transported about five or six thousand stones of grain, which could be consumed by at least more than 10,000 troops, which means that there are about 10,000 to 20,000 Cao troops in Wulin, Puqi.
Chapter completed!