Chapter 122: We want both the Gate God and the Ten Thousand Enemies! Next stop is Xiakou! Sun Ce: I can’t even eat shit while it’s hot?
"What are the three things? Military Advisor, please tell me clearly?"

Liu Bei withdrew his gaze from the rolling Yangtze River and looked back at Xiao Fang.

"The first thing is naturally to calm people's hearts."

"Jiangling City is the second largest city in Jingzhou, with a population that even exceeds Xiangyang. Now that the city has been conquered, you must naturally appease the people."

"In addition to the common people, there are also many noble families in Jiangling City and the surrounding counties, and there are many talented people among them."

"Now that Liu Biao is dead, these people will naturally have no more worries and will flock to join the lord."

"My lord, you should appease them and select the wise ones among them and employ them according to their abilities."

"I have drawn up a list for you. The people on it are the ones you should focus on training and employing."

As he spoke, Xiao Fang took a list from Zhuge Liang and handed it to Lao Liu.

Old Liu took the list with a surprised look on his face.

This list was obviously prepared by Xiao Fang before he conquered Jiangling.

"The city hasn't been conquered yet, but he has already planned which talents to recruit. The military advisor is still as far-sighted as ever..."

Liu Bei was amazed in his heart and opened the list.

Huo Jun.

The first place is Huo Jun, a descendant of the Huo family from Zhijiang, Nanjun.

"I have heard of this Huo Zhongmiao before."

Liu Bei nodded slightly, but then asked curiously:
"But the military advisor ranked this person as the number one talent. I wonder what is so special about Huo Zhongmiao?"

Wen Pin, Xu Shu and others behind him also looked curious and wanted to hear Xiao Fang's evaluation of Huo Jun.

After all, although they had lived in Jingzhou for a long time, their understanding of Huo Jun was limited to his name.

"Huo Jun is extremely talented in defending a city. My lord, you can train him in this area."

"One day, this man's ability to defend a city will be of great use."

Xiao Fang calmly pointed out Huo Jun's qualifications.

In history, Liu Bang and Liu Zhang fell out and went to war. Liu Zhang sent an army of more than 10,000 to capture Jiameng Pass guarded by Huo Jun, intending to cut off Liu Bang's retreat.

As a result, Huo Jun, with only a few hundred men, held the city for a whole year.

During this period, he even took the initiative to attack, defeated Liu Zhang's army and killed his main general.

With this battle alone, Huo Jun became famous in Jingyi, and it was not an exaggeration to call him the door god.

Everyone desires a general who is good at attacking, but one who is good at defending is even more precious.

Otherwise, if we capture countless cities and plunder key areas, but lose key cities and strategic passes, we will lose everything and have to give up all the territory we have conquered.

Isn’t the fall of Jingzhou that year a bloody example?

Therefore, in Xiao Fang's opinion, Huo Jun's importance is even greater than that of a military general of Wen Pin's level, so he naturally has to rank him first and recommend him to Lao Liu.

"A general who is good at defending?"

"If it is true as the military advisor said, Huo Zhongmiao is indeed a rare military talent. If he surrenders, we will make good use of him and cultivate him!"

Old Liu showed surprise, and obviously knew how rare it was to have a general who was good at defense.

So after looking through the list, Old Liu said:

"The people recommended by the military advisor are naturally correct. If they come to submit, we will employ them all."

After handing the list to Chen Daoshou, Liu Bei asked Xiao Fang what the second thing was.

"Kuai Yue abandoned Liu Biao and fled. He would definitely take Liu Cong with him to Jiangxia to surrender to Huang Zu and establish him as the so-called new ruler of Jingzhou, hoping to rely on Huang Zu's Jiangxia army to resist stubbornly."

"The time that Fang's plan of blocking the river with iron chains can stop Sun Ce is limited. We must go down the river as quickly as possible and capture Xiakou before Sun Ce does."

"So the second thing my lord should do is to immediately transfer half of the navy from Xiashui to the Yangtze River and come to Jiangling to join our infantry."

"After the two armies have rested for a while, they will immediately advance by land and sea, go down the river to the east, and attack Xiakou directly!"

Xiao Fang raised his hand and pointed to the east.

Hearing this, Liu Bei looked towards the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and his eyes immediately became alert.

The Little Overlord of Jiangdong...

He was the son of Sun Jian. His military ability and the counselors and generals under his command were far superior to those of Liu Biao.

Under his command were nearly 40,000 naval forces in Jiangdong.

This is a giant crocodile that is more difficult to deal with than Liu Biao!
"Military Advisor is right. Only if we capture Xiakou first can we take the initiative."

Liu Bei agreed with this and immediately ordered Xu Sheng to lead half of the navy to meet him in Jiangling.

"I wonder what the third thing the military advisor is referring to is?"

After Liu Bei gave the order, he hurriedly asked again.

Xiao Fang raised his hand and pointed towards the south bank of the Yangtze River:
"For the third thing, my lord, please ask Mr. Huang to come to Jiangling immediately, cross the river to Youjiang City, and persuade Huang Zhong to surrender!"

Liu Bei's expression changed and he looked towards the other side.

"Fang said that although Huang Zhong is old, he has the courage to fight against ten thousand enemies and can rival General Yide."

"How can the lord miss such a brave general? He must be recruited to serve the lord."

"Moreover, most of the troops from the counties in southern Jing were destroyed in Jiangling. Only Huang Zhong and his 4,000 Changsha troops were left south of the Yangtze River."

"My lord, if you can recruit these troops, there will be no more soldiers left in the four counties of southern Jing, and we can conquer them with a proclamation."

Xiao Fang explained one by one the various benefits of recruiting Huang Zhong.

A gleam of light flashed in Liu Bei's eyes.

Not only can we recruit a powerful general who can defeat ten thousand enemies, but we can also issue an order to conquer the four counties in southern Jing. This is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone.

"Okay, I'll do as the military advisor says. I'll immediately ask Mr. Huang to come south!"

Liu Bei naturally accepted it without hesitation.

After the three things were settled, Liu Bei immediately began to pacify the people and comfort the soldiers, and rest the troops. As soon as the navy arrived, he advanced both by land and sea and headed straight for Xiakou.

...

East of Xiakou.

On the south bank of the Yangtze River, the Jiangxia army formation at Xise Mountain.

The sound of killing shook the sky and arrows rained down like rain.

Countless Jiangdong soldiers were frantically launching round after round of fierce attacks on the Jiangxia military camp. In the middle of the army, Sun Ce frowned, his face as gloomy as iron.

The navy tried every possible means but failed to break the three iron locks on the river, and the army was blocked there.

As a last resort, Sun Ce had to place his hope on breaking through the Jiangxia army’s dry camp on the south bank.

Only by breaking the dry camp could he cut off the iron chain, and his thousand warships could continue to move westward and directly attack Xiakou.

"Huang Zu has limited troops after all. He must guard against Liu Bei and resist the fierce attack of our 40,000-man army."

"I think he is already out of his depth and his defense is not as strong as it was a few days ago. We will be able to break into the camp in five days at most."

Zhou Yu pointed at the situation in the enemy camp from afar, with a confident sneer on his face.

Sun Ce's expression improved slightly, and he gritted his teeth and said angrily:

"Huang Zu is such a scoundrel. After I conquer Xiakou, I will wipe out his entire clan and massacre Xiakou with blood!"

Zhou Yu was slightly startled.

His lord and good friend was angry about being blocked by Huang Zu's iron lock formation, and he was addicted to bloodshed, so he wanted to kill Xiakou to vent his anger.

"Ahem, Bofu, actually..."

"Report - urgent news from Jiangling!"

Pan Zhang came running over and interrupted Zhou Yu's advice.

"My lord, urgent news from Jiangling."

"Liu Bei captured Jiangling three days ago. The Jingzhou army was completely annihilated, Liu Biao was killed, and Kuai Yue took Liu Cong with him and fled to Xiakou to seek refuge with Huang Zu."

"Jiangling City has been taken over by Liu Bei!"

A loud thunderclap sounded.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were shocked and their faces changed drastically.

"Jiangling City has fallen? Is Liu Biao dead?"

"This is impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Sun Ce's face turned pale, he shouted in excitement and anger, and snatched the information from Pan Zhang's hand.

"Although Liu Biao lost many soldiers and generals, Jiangling City was still strong and well-fed. He also mobilized 10,000 Jingnan troops to defend the city."

"No matter how incompetent he is, no matter how strong Liu Bei is, how could Jiangling fall so quickly?"

Zhou Yu was also full of surprise and doubt, and hurried forward to read the urgent news.

The doubt on their faces gradually turned into surprise, their eyes widened and their mouths opened slightly.

Then they looked at each other and took a breath.

It was clearly written in black and white in the urgent report.

Liu Biao forced Huang Zhong and the Changsha soldiers to leave, how he desperately attacked Liu's grain camp, but was ambushed and annihilated, and then Liu Bei took advantage of the situation to break through Jiangling, and how Liu Biao was scolded to death by Xiao Fang...

Everything happened clearly.

"Why did Liu Biao, such a fool, force Huang Zhong to leave?"

"How could he have the guts to sneak out of the city and attack Liu Bei?"

"Is he senile or crazy?"

Sun Ce looked at Zhou Yu in disbelief, with an expression of bewilderment on his face.

Zhou Yu's thoughts were racing, and suddenly his heart was shocked.

"If my guess is correct, Liu Bei must have used a strategy to sow discord, causing Liu Biao to become suspicious of Huang Zhong and then forcing him to leave."

"Without the Changsha soldiers, Liu Bei knew that Jiangling could not be defended, so he had no choice but to attack Liu Bei's grain camp. However, Liu Bei had anticipated this and laid an ambush, waiting for the Jingzhou army to come and die!"

Zhou Yu was so wise that he figured out the mystery based only on the existing information.

Sun Ce suddenly realized, and his face was filled with even more surprise:
"How could Liu Bei have such a clever plan to play Liu Biao in the palm of his hand?"

Zhou Yu frowned and sighed:
"Although Liu Bei has great talent, he lacks a great strategy. All these things must be the masterpiece of Xiao Fang!"

Xiao Fang!

There's that name again.

Sun Ce suddenly realized and clenched the secret report in his hand:
"This man is so cunning and deceitful that I have never seen him before in my life. He will definitely be a great threat to Jiangdong in the future!"

After saying this, Sun Ce tore the secret report in his hand into pieces.

"Send the order, all troops, attack immediately, we must capture the enemy camp within three days!"

Sun Ce became anxious.

The fall of Jiangling disrupted his plan. Liu Bei was ready to go down the river to Xiakou at any time.

If he fails to break into the enemy camp and this iron chain formation, won't even Xiakou be taken by Liu Bei?
After all the hard work, Jingzhou finally belonged to Liu Bei. He spent a lot of money and food, but in the end, not to mention dividing Jingzhou, he couldn't even eat hot shit.

Isn’t this a huge loss?
"Bofu, the situation has changed. I thought we should suspend our offensive."

Zhou Yu, unexpectedly, sang a different tune from him.

Sun Ce was stunned and looked at Zhou Yu blankly.

"We attacked in a hurry to seize Xiakou before Liu Bei captured Jiangling. Only then could we enter the heart of Jingzhou and cut off the Yangtze River."

"But the current situation is that Liu Bei has unexpectedly conquered Jiangling, and the four counties in southern Jing have been conquered by issuing an edict. All the land west of Jiangxia is now his."

"Liu Bei could come down the river to attack Xiakou at any time. If our army is besieging Xiakou and Liu Bei suddenly attacks from upstream, how should we respond?"

After Zhou Yu's analysis, his face once again showed confidence:
"So, why don't we stop the attack for now, so that Huang Zu can free up his hands and block Liu Bei to the west."

"Given the strength of Jiangxia's navy, they should have an advantage in a naval battle, and at least be able to confront Liu Bei."

"At that time, we will take advantage of Xiakou's emptiness and suddenly send troops to attack again. We are afraid that we will not be able to break the iron chain formation by surprise and capture Xiakou in one fell swoop!"

"By then, with Xiakou in hand, with the strength of our Jiangdong navy, are we still worried about not being able to seize the Yangtze River water rights and defeat Liu Bei?"

Zhou Yu looked like he was in command of a plan and presented it with great enthusiasm.

The gloom on Sun Ce's face disappeared, and he said happily:

"Gong Jin's plan is a plan where the fisherman benefits from the quarrel between the crane and the clam!"

"Okay, let Huang Zu and Liu Bei fight each other, and I will reap the benefits!"

Sun Ce looked towards Jiangling with a sneer on his face.

(End of this chapter)