The King of Wei was passed down, and ten thousand iron cavalrymen rushed south immediately.

On land, the Taoist merchants took Xiang Yu as their vanguard and led 10,000 light cavalry to head south along the land route. The terrain of this route was relatively rugged and several cities were required to pass through, which was not conducive to the surprise attacks of cavalry. This route of troops could only serve as an auxiliary route.

The key to this battle is the way on the water.

Huang Zu's main forces were all west of Xiakou. Wu Zixu, who was defending Lukou, had only 3,000 defenders in Jiangxia County, and most of them were concentrated in Xiakou City. They moved south along the Han River almost unobstructed.

The pottery merchant would personally command 20,000 infantry troops and rushed to a ferry twenty miles away, where he had already made people prepare a large number of temporary bamboo rafts in advance.

Although these bamboo rafts are not as strong as warships, they are not used for water warfare, but are just to transport their troops from the water.

Before this, the caravan disguised as Xu Sheng had set out in advance.

As long as Xu Sheng's troops and horses were able to successfully remove the beacon towers north of Xiakou, his army could take bamboo rafts to the city of Xiakou, catch the defenders off guard and go directly into the city.

This is the plan of the potter!

...

One day later, above the Han River.

It was almost dusk, the setting sun was like blood, and there were golden waves on the Han River.

Xu Sheng stood on the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back, wearing a merchant's outfit, and nearly twenty merchant ships followed behind him.

Although Jingzhou is in a state of war, the sales and purchases among merchants have never been interrupted. Every day, many merchant ships come and go, traveling between Xiangyang and Xiakou.

For commercial exchanges among the people, both on the Wei State and on the Chu State and Wu State, they all have defaulted on them.

On the one hand, it is because relying on this kind of private trade, each other can get goods that they do not have. On the other hand, both sides have to use these merchant ships to transport detailed works and communication information in the name of merchants.

If one party refuses businessmen's contact, the other party will inevitably respond with the corresponding means. In this way, the exchange of information will be cut off. Therefore, weighing the pros and cons, neither party will really block business dealings.

Therefore, there is nothing unusual about Xu Sheng's merchant fleet appearing here.

From the outside, each merchant ship was just rowing and sailing several boatmen, but there were dozens of elite soldiers hidden in the cabin.

It was almost evening, and Xu Sheng’s twenty ships finally entered the waters north of Xiakou. A few dozen miles southwards were where Xiakou City was located.

When we arrived in this water area, there were more patrol ships from the Han River and Xia Navy Army. Since there were only more than twenty small boats, which were not enough to pose a threat to Xiakou City, we easily checked the patrol ships.

After traveling for more than five miles, Xu Sheng finally saw the shadow of the beacon tower on the east bank. His eyes immediately flashed with excitement. He immediately called the order and the ships began to approach the beacon tower.

His merchant fleet could cross these beacon towers and head straight for Xiakou City, but the army of pottery merchants dozens of miles behind him could not ignore the beacon tower.

Therefore, Xu Sheng’s mission on this trip was to take down the beacon tower and clear obstacles for the subsequent army of the pottery merchants.

The guards on the beacon tower immediately became alert when they saw a ship approaching. The officer in charge immediately ordered his subordinates to prepare for fire. He brought more than ten people to the shore and scolded that merchant ships were not allowed to approach the shore.

"If it's too late today, I dare not continue sailing. I just want to stop here for a night and hope Jun Ye can make it convenient." Xu Sheng laughed, jumped down, and waded a few steps to the water and landed on the shore.

The officer grabbed the handle of the knife and said coldly: "General Huang has an order, and idle people cannot wait to get close to the beacon tower. You should find another place to rest, don't let this official make a dilemma."

"It's a big night, where can I find the docking place? Jun Ye is just there. This is a little bit of ambition, and I hope Jun Ye will accept it with a smile." Xu Sheng smiled and took out a purse skillfully and stuffed it into the officer's hand.

Xu Sheng has been a pirate for so many years and has long been familiar with such things. He knows that joining the army is just for money. Not to mention Huang Zu's soldiers, even the soldiers of the Great Wei Dynasty are still jealous of money. This is human nature.

Sure enough, when the official army saw the money, his face immediately changed from Yin to Money, and he waved his hand and said generously: "What you said is reasonable. The boating at night is really dangerous. How can our army ignore the safety of the people? Let's dock here for a while and leave immediately at dawn tomorrow."

Xu Sheng thanked repeatedly and hurriedly called on the other merchant ships to dock, and asked them to take out the wine and food they prepared on the ship to reward the soldiers on the beacon tower.

The officers took the money and the soldiers had wine and meat to eat. The defenders on the beacon tower naturally relaxed completely and only cared about drinking and eating meat, without any warning.

It's not dawning.

Seeing that the time had come, Xu Sheng whistled, and dozens of soldiers hiding in the cabin quietly walked down the shore in the darkness, and took advantage of the night to head straight for the beacon tower.

Bang!

Xu Sheng flew up and kicked the firewood from under the beacon tower. A battle knife appeared in his hand, and rushed in with one step.

In the beacon tower, the guards were surrounding the fire to keep warm. They were all drinking enough to drink and dozing. Xu Sheng kicked the door and was unaware of it.

As soon as Xu Sheng entered the door, he met the officer, shaking out, undressing his pants, probably trying to get rid of his hands.

Xu Sheng sneered, raised his sword and cut off the officer's head.

Immediately afterwards, a large group of Wei soldiers rushed in and rushed towards the guards who had just been surprised like tigers and wolves.

In a moment, more than a dozen guards were killed, and Xu Sheng easily took down the beacon tower.

After taking down one, Xu Sheng went south along the Han River and headed straight to the next one. With the same means, he took down dozens of beacon towers one after another.

Without the police gaze of the beacon tower, the tens of thousands of soldiers of the pottery were on bamboo rafts and heading south along the way.

As for the patrol boats on the river, although they found the Wei army and rushed to the beacon tower to report the news, they wanted to ignite the beacon fire, but as soon as they reached the dock, they were immediately left by Xu Sheng on the shore, pretending to be guards and killed all the soldiers.

Therefore, the army of Tao merchants headed south, and Xiakou was not aware of it.

When the sky was about to be bright, the outline of Xiakou City was already in sight in the southeast direction of the front.

The pottery merchant standing on the raft head had not been asleep for a night, but he could not see any tiredness on his face. When Xiakoucheng appeared in his eyes, he was instantly excited.

He pointed the sword in his hand forward, and Tao Shang shouted wildly: "Xiakou City is right in front of me, I will kill you in one go!"

When the order is issued, the flag moves like the wind.

Hundreds of bamboo rafts accelerated, and rushed towards Xiakou City with the soldiers who were eager to make contributions.

In the mist, Xiakou City, which was as solid as a sleeping baby, was like a sleeping baby, and without realizing it, the god of death was approaching, and most of the people and soldiers were still cat in the warm bed, and were confused and unwilling to get up.

At the top of the city, the soldiers on duty who were in the middle of the night were tired and frozen, and sleepy. They were crowded with three people, huddled around the brazier where the smoke was not over, waiting for someone to change their defense.

There were only dozens of small warships left in the water camp in the west of the city, and more than 700 soldiers who were not considered elite. Most of the soldiers of the warships here, like the Yangtze River Camp in the south of the city, were taken away by Huang Zu and headed to the Lushan line to garrison to prevent Wu Zixu from Lukou.

As usual, Song Zhong, the remaining guard of the water camp, got up. Before the soldiers woke up, they began to inspect the camps in various places as usual, and did not find anything particularly unusual.

If there is something suspicious, several of the ships patrolling the Han River yesterday did not come back according to time.

This made Song Zhong a little worried, and he couldn't help but look up and look at the beacon tower on the shore.

There is no half-column of wolf smoke, which means that the north is safe.

Song Zhong thought that those patrol ships that had not returned were mostly too late to come back and were just resting near the shore, so he no longer had suspicions and continued to patrol.

At dawn, Song Zhong stood at the end of the trestle, which was already the outermost end of the water village. Looking around, the vast Han River reflected scales of waves under the morning glory, which contrasted with the scattered river fog, and it was a bit like a dream.

"The pottery thieves finally retreated north, and our Jiangxia finally turned the risk into safety..."

When Song Zhong was enjoying the scenery, his ears suddenly stood up and felt a trace of abnormality.

The abnormal movement and the sound came from the river.

It was the sound of paddlings coming from the upstream, getting closer and closer, and louder, and in the blink of an eye it was like a rolling wave.

Song Zhong instinctively looked upstream of the Han River and looked into the distance. Through the dispersed river fog, clusters of black shadows seemed to be approaching rapidly.

Song Zhong was not too suspicious. He guessed that it might be just a patrol ship that returned or a merchant ship that went south to do business.

Soon, his spirit became nervous because the sound was very familiar, it was the sound of hundreds of boats rushing towards the water.

Song Zhong was shocked and looked up quickly. He saw a shadow like a huge black wall on the river surface, rushing towards him at a rapid speed. Suddenly, his face twisted and deformed, solidifying in a moment of horror and shock, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Wei Army! It's Wei Army!"

Song Zhong was so shocked that his body shook, and even his voice became hoarse. In his vision, countless bamboo rafts were seen rolling in the direction of the water camp like dark clouds covering the ground.

On the bow of the ship, the fully armed Wei soldiers were opening their eyes with ferocious eyes, staring at this side as if they saw prey, all of them were murderous.

Song Zhong was anxious to turn to the beacon tower again and was surprised to find that there was no fireworks along the river line. It seemed that the soldiers on the beacon tower had become blind people and could not see the Wei army rushing under their noses.

Song Zhong's mind buzzed in an instant, and his body shaking, so shocked that he took three steps back.
Chapter completed!