Chapter 46 Yangtze River
After entering Chaohu Lake, the sky gradually darkened.

Liu Fu's governance of Huainan was very effective, and the officials and people in nearby counties and prefectures also admired him.

A good reputation is the most powerful weapon to assist in conquering people’s hearts.

Therefore, between Jiang and Huai, it was Liu Fu, who was devoted to governing Huainan, who maintained the offensive against Sun Quan in Jiangdong.

That is, he encouraged the people of Lianghuai who had migrated to Jiangdong for refuge to return home, and also contacted the officials in Jiangdong through his fellow villagers.

Jiangdong and Liu Biao and Huang Zu upstream were mortal enemies. Sun Quan now did not want to fight on two fronts, so he adopted a tolerant attitude.

As a result, since the fleet left Chaoshui and entered the Yangtze River, no Jiangdong army strongholds or patrol fleets have been seen on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Therefore, the fleet went upstream along the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Under the strong southeast wind, the waves were turbulent and the boat was even more bumpy.

After sailing all night, Xuan Liang came to take over when it was light.

The black bear looked towards the south bank. The river was covered with mist in the morning and even the outline of the other side could not be seen clearly.

Xuanliang also looked at the south bank. The fleet had just left Dongpu, so the south bank was the territory of Danyang County, and his wives, concubines, and servants were also on the south bank.

But he had fought for twenty years across the country, and his wives and concubines had not been able to have children.

The home on the South Bank had little appeal to him.

This time when he passed through Xia Pi to recruit sailors, he recruited several young men from the same clan. If the opportunity was right, he could adopt them as his adopted sons so that he could give an explanation to his ancestors in the underworld.

Thinking that Black Bear was worried, Xuan Liang asked, "Are you thinking about Doctor Li?"

"No, his thoughts are not worth my attention."

Black Bear looked out over the vast river and said, "After I leave this time, I don't know when I will be able to come back. Xuzhou, Huai, Wuyue, and other wealthy places are now in ruins. I heard that Jingzhou and Yizhou are very wealthy, but I don't know how many years they will be peaceful."

The situation in the world is closely linked. Once Cao Cao unifies Hebei, the snowball will start rolling and Jingzhou will be the first to be affected.

There is a lack of suitable waterways in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. If one wants to destroy Jiangdong, the best and most labor-saving way is to train sailors in Jingzhou; with Jingzhou as the main force and Huainan as the flank, Jiangdong can be defeated.

He said with emotion: "If Sun Bofu were still alive, would he allow Cao Cao to attack Hebei with all his strength?"

Xuan Liang thought for a moment and said, "General, the troops in Hebei are strong, and Cao Gong cannot defeat them quickly. With Hebei to contain Cao Gong, Sun Kuaiji may have a chance. Attacking Huang Zu is a personal revenge, but it is also beneficial to Jiangdong."

"Sun Kuaiji can use Jiangxia as a barrier to send troops out to Lianghuai, and then the Central Plains will be within his reach. If he advances, he can welcome the emperor to Xudu, and if he retreats, he can take Xuhuai and become Yuan Shu's opponent."

"You overestimate Sun Quan. If Sun Bofu marches north to the Central Plains, he can go west from Huainan and attack Xudu, and then take Pi and Pengcheng along the way through Huaipu. In this way, he can occupy both ends of the Central Plains, and Cao Cao's troops in Qiaopei will become fish in the net!"

Black Bear couldn't help but sneer: "Give Sun Quan ten times the courage, would he dare to split his troops and plunder the land after passing Hefei and taking Shouchun?"

It’s not that they look down on Sun Quan, but the Jiangdong Army is now increasingly relying on boats and naval forces.

During the reign of Sun Ce, boats were just tools and wars were fought with the help of infantry.

But elite infantry cannot be trained through strict training.

You eat as much as you can. Elite infantrymen undergo hard training, and after they are fully trained, they must have a status that matches their strength.

This concerns the right to distribute spoils of war, daily treatment and the promotion system. During the time of Sun Ce, military priority was certainly given to everything; but Sun Ce was assassinated, and it was Sun Quan who succeeded him, not Sun Yi or Sun Hao, so the tradition of military priority had to be broken.

This tradition cannot continue. Do you still expect soldiers to bring their own food and fight desperately for your grandson's cause?

Black Bear looked down on Sun Quan, but Xuan Liang frowned, feeling that his own commander underestimated the heroes of Jiangdong.

He was afraid that his words would anger the black bear, so he thought for a moment and changed his direction, saying, "Although Lord Bofu is gone, General Pinglu and the governor of Yuzhang are both here, and there are heroes like Zhou Gongjin leading the military. I think that the elite troops in Jiangdong are still the same. Once we defeat Huang Zu and take Jiangxia, it will not be difficult to take Jingzhou."

Xuan Liang followed General Xu Kun, who was in charge of suppressing the Lu. In his eyes, this nephew of Sun Jian was the greatest general of a different family.

"Sun Quan has made peace with the Jiangdong clan. How many days do you think Xu Kun can still live? How many days can Sun Ben have a good life?"

Black Bear asked back. Xuan Liang frowned and wanted to argue. Black Bear raised his hand and patted his shoulder: "Don't you think that Sun Bofu's death is a bit too coincidental?"

Xuanliang Petrochemical, this is a topic that Jiangdong cannot even mention.

The two of them said no more words.

The black bear patiently looked at the riverside scenery at sunrise, and when he was in the mood, he sang loudly: "At sunrise, the river flowers are redder than fire, and in spring, the river water is as green as blue!"

Xuan Liang didn't understand. He didn't know much about poetry and prose, nor did he understand this, but he thought it sounded nice.

At this time, Liu Ye walked out of the bird room and stretched lazily, the southeast wind blew his clothes fluttering.

Liu Ye took a long breath, raised his hand to hold the guardrail and looked at the vast river and the south bank, then turned back and shouted to Queshitai: "General Qu is in a good mood!"

Then he opened his eyes and looked around, and everything within his sight seemed to be summarized by the fourteen words "Black Bear".

As long as you close your eyes, the scene before you and this long poem will appear.

If it's not a fu, it can only be a varied poem.

Liu Ye did some warm-up exercises and went up to the wooden platform, then asked Xuan Liang, "How many days will it take to get to Chaisang?"

"It has always taken three days to get from Hengjiang to Chaisang."

Xuan Liang turned his head to look at the bulging sails: "The southeast wind is strong now, we can pass Chaisangkou in two days and nights."

Chaisangkou, where Xu Kun stationed his troops, is also the current front line of the Jiangdong Army.

The year before last, Sun Ce defeated Huang Zu and set up a large camp directly at Ba Qiu at the mouth of Dongting Lake, with Zhou Yu as the garrison commander of Ba Qiu.

The four counties in southern Jing were alienated from Liu Biao and more inclined towards the imperial court; Jiangdong was obviously cooperating with the imperial court, so before Sun Ce was assassinated, the Sun family had already begun to encroach on southern Jing.

After all, when Sun Jian was the governor of Changsha County, he helped Lingling County to quell a rebellion. Both of these counties have a population of millions, and there are still people who remember Sun Jian's old friendship.

Liu Ye then looked behind the fleet and saw eight transport ships following with full sails, barely keeping up. Looking at the flagship, three sails were also full, and he couldn't help but smile and said, "Fortunately, more than a hundred people from Hefei are on board."

Then he was puzzled: "We traveled day and night, and we should be able to pass Chaisangkou tomorrow evening. Why does it take another night?" Xuan Liang replied: "The river is vast, the wind is changeable at night, and the waves are fast. We can't sail too fast at night. We have to slow down and maintain the formation. Otherwise, the traffic will be blocked and the ship will inevitably get lost and fall behind."

"Also, General Pinglu stationed at Chaisangkou has gathered his troops. Since the beginning of spring, General Zhou Gongjin has also been inspecting military affairs at Chaisangkou. It would be best if we could cross Chaisangkou at night."

Xuan Liang also stretched out his right palm to gesture and said: "From here to Chaisangkou, we can take advantage of the southeast wind, because the Yangtze River runs from northeast to southwest; but from Chaisangkou to Jiangxia Jushuikou, it runs from southeast, so we can rely on the wind!"

Leaving time for Liu Ye to think, Xuan Liang said: "Not far after Jukou is Xiakou. The general will go straight to Xiangyang from Xiakou."

Xiakou is Hankou. The Han River flows directly into Hanzhong and has four main tributaries.

From the mouth of the Han River upwards, the first is the Xia Shui River, which leads directly to the Yunmeng Lake. The water network in the lake is connected and connects to the Jiangling moat.

Going further up to the bend of the Han River in Xiangyang, the Baihe River originates from Nanyang and flows into the Han River.

Further upstream, the Dan River flows into the Han River from the north, and the Zhu River flows into the Han River from the south.

After listening to Xuan Liang and Hei Xiong's sailing plan, Liu Ye asked, "Why go straight to Xiangyang to meet Liu Jingsheng?"

"I am Sun Qian, the lieutenant of Henghai appointed by the Shogun's office. How can I not see Liu Jingsheng when I hold an official document from the Shogun's office?"

Black Bear asked back with a smile, it was normal for him to carry a letter written by Yuan Shang to Liu Biao.

In terms of official status, when Cao Cao welcomed the emperor to Xudu, he gave Yuan Shao the power and position of General and Recorder of the Secretariat; from then on, the letter of appointment issued by the General's Office was equivalent to the effectiveness of the Secretariat.

In the current Han Empire, he is the legal commander of Henghai.

Since he had a legal official position to lead troops and was carrying official documents from Yuan Shang, he must be an envoy from Hebei.

Seeing Liu Ye's stunned look, Black Bear said, "I am the lieutenant of Henghai, you are the chief secretary of the lieutenant, Xu Lin is the military officer, Xuan Liang, Zhang Ding, and Chen Yang are all military marquises. The crew list is in the cabin, I will trouble the chief secretary to sort out the list for me later."

Unexpectedly, Black Bear really wanted to set up the Henghai School Lieutenant Department. Liu Ye immediately agreed and suggested, "There are many experienced people in Hefei. I will go there to lobby them."

"Yes, we are in need of clerks. I have roughly sorted out the list and have already drawn up the official positions. I would mainly like to trouble you to copy it into a book so that we can manage it later."

Black Bear turned his head and looked at Xuan Liang again: "I'm going back to the cabin to rest. The situation in the river is changing rapidly. If there is any enemy situation, please inform me."

"Yes."

Xuan Liang agreed and watched Black Bear and Liu Ye return to the cabin.

Xuan Liang did not expect that Black Bear had quietly completed the reorganization work and made detailed organization for the soldiers and sailors on the ship.

This is a bit unexpected. I thought they would be authorized to build their own team.

In fact, during the time when Huang Ze was resting, Black Bear came into contact with and got to know most of the soldiers and sailors, and marked those who could take on responsibilities.

Inside the cabin, Black Bear took out three scrolls of bamboo slips and handed them to Liu Ye, giving him detailed instructions.

Liu Ye also opened the bamboo slips and saw that each bamboo slip contained information about a person. At the end of the bamboo slips there were Black Bear's comments, which included six levels: inferior, average, five, ten, team, and team A.

If they are inferior, they probably have various personality and ability shortcomings; currently they can still be used as sailors and armored soldiers, but if they lack improvement in the future, they will be eliminated.

The last team member is the team officer, who also represents the captain of the ship.

Black Bear appointed eleven team officers for the flagship and eight transport ships, eight of whom were captains and team leaders of the transport ships; three were A-team captains, one of whom was the captain of the flagship and two were captains of the armored soldiers.

The three volumes of bamboo slips are of varying lengths, one volume for sailors, one volume for soldiers, and one volume for people from Huangze.

Only the information of males is recorded, and the information of family members is attached; these three volumes are equivalent to the household registration of the fleet.

Liu Ye asked for the details before turning around and leaving.

All he had to do was to re-transcribe the information and recompile it in the form of military books and rosters.

The information on the military register will be more concise, but it will also correspond to the household registration list; if there are any changes in the future, these two registers will influence and change each other.

Liu Ye had done this kind of thing before, so he naturally knew some general principles when organizing the team, such as trying to bring together the local party members as much as possible... or doing the opposite.

The former can quickly enhance grassroots organizational strength, but is not conducive to large-scale integration; the latter requires time to run in, and there are many benefits after running in.

Black Bear has given clear instructions, so Liu Ye can only disband and reorganize the group.

Separating people from their hometown and their friends is naturally an offensive task.

After Liu Ye left, Black Bear returned to Zhen Mi's room.

The Yangtze River had big waves, and Zhen Mi had been woken up by the waves and was wiping her arms with a wet wipe.

Over the past few days, she had become familiar with the black bear. After she finished washing and cleaning, she asked, "My dear, where are we now?"

"It's about 40 to 50 miles out of Dongpu, and we're probably almost past the Rushu River."

Black Bear took off his helmet and took the wet wipes that Zhen Mi had washed and wrung out to wipe his face, then handed it back to her: "Next we have to pass two levels, the first is Zhou Yu at Chaisangkou, the second is Liu Biao at Xiangyang."

Zhou Yu is also a famous person in Hebei. Zhen Mi was worried: "Mr. Zhou has a well-organized army. Do you have any countermeasures?"

"On a night boat trip, that's all."

Black Bear said with a smile: "Even if he has a thousand abilities, he didn't know me before, and I crossed Chaisangkou at night. What can he do? Even if we encounter patrol boats, they are on guard against people from Jingzhou upstream, not people from Yangzhou downstream."

"If you plan carefully, it won't be difficult to get through."

The speed of traveling day and night is very fast, and there is a shortage of horses in the Jiangdong direction.

Zhou Yu, who was stationed at Chaisangkou upstream, also relied on cheap and convenient boats rather than expensive horses to communicate with the rear.

There are many swamps on both sides of the Yangtze River, the roads are blocked and there are few bridges, so there are many inconveniences for horse messengers.

No matter how capable Zhou Yu is, he wouldn't tell fortunes on a whim, right?

(End of this chapter)