Chapter 163 Double Happiness
After the banquet, Dong Xi, Bu Zhi, Wei Jing and others were persuaded by Liu Feng to stay in Guangling for a while.
The reason Liu Feng gave was that he was about to return north to Tancheng soon, so he happened to be returning north together.
In fact, Liu Feng happened to discover that these three people could be used as tool men.
The Zhuge family has now crossed the Donghai Kingdom and entered the Xiapi Kingdom. After a while, they will be able to enter Guangling County.
While Liu Feng was peacefully waiting for the arrival of the Zhuge family, the envoy fleet from Jingzhou also arrived at Niuzhu, Yangzhou.
Not long after disembarking, Liu Xian and Xun You heard about Sun and Liu's Battle of Xiangxiang River. They learned that Liu Yao had asked Zhang Ying to pick up the remaining soldiers in Jurong and hold on to the city, while he himself was retreating to Niuzhu. en route.
Both of them were very surprised. Neither of them expected Liu Yao to be defeated so quickly and so miserably.
Fortunately, Liu Yao still had Niuzhu's elite troops, which were enough to stabilize the northern part of Danyang.
But this disastrous defeat will definitely shake the powerful Danyang noble clan, and the situation will definitely be much worse.
However, this could be an opportunity to persuade Liu Yao to form an alliance with Jingzhou.
Xu Shao dragged his sick body to receive Liu Xian and Xun You on behalf of Liu Yao, who had not yet rushed back to Niuzhu.
After the two sides introduced themselves, Xu Shao learned that Liu Xian was the envoy, while Xun You wanted to go north to Xuzhou.
As for a warrior like Gan Ning, he is only qualified to wait outside the hall, how can he deserve to talk with the famous people in the hall?
Liu opened his mouth and praised Xu Shao first, and then explained his purpose: "My lord was also deceived by General Zuo in the past. It is Liu Yangzhou who is in a similar situation. He relied on the knowledgeable people in Jingzhou to destroy his family. To relieve the difficulties, Cai Degui and Huang Chengze fought bloody battles for our country, sacrificing their lives for the country, and finally killed Sun Jian, defeated General Zuo, and drove him away from Nanyang."
"This time, Sun Jian's son is wreaking havoc on Wu County and poisoning Jiangdong. It is similar to what happened in Jingzhou in the past. I, the whole Jingzhou people, feel the same way. My Lord respects Liu Yangzhou as the same clan and is willing to help Liu Yangzhou."
Liu Xian first expressed his attitude and tested the opinions of Xu Shao and other Yangzhou senior officials.
If they are too wary of Jingzhou, they are likely to refuse.
After Xu Shao and others listened to Liu Xian’s words, they fell silent for a moment.
The people here are all famous and capable scholars, and no one is a fool.
They could actually guess Liu Biao's intentions.
Leaving aside everything else, if Jingzhou soldiers arrive and help recover the land and cities, if the other party attacked them, how should Yangzhou claim them?
Not to mention whether introducing foreign troops into Jiangdong would arouse the resentment of the powerful local nobles in Jiangdong.
Xu Shao and the others did not give feedback, so Liu Xian could not continue to test. He wanted to maintain the demeanor of a celebrity, but he was also worried about irritating Yangzhou's senior officials too much and causing unnecessary trouble.
For a moment, the whole hall fell into silence at the same time. It was very quiet.
On the other hand, Xun You saw many signs.
He is very smart and a clear observer. In his opinion, Mr. Liu should continue his efforts at this time and show Jingzhou's strength.
If the Yangzhou high-level officials were more afraid of Jingzhou than Yuan Shu, they would have rejected him outright.
The silence at this time is probably due to not knowing how to delve deeper into this topic.
After all, they are the weak side, and they are more worried about Jingzhou's intentions, sincerity, and whether it has enough strength to help Yangzhou.
Xun You was silent for a moment, and decided to help Kuai Yue and Liu Xian. He took the initiative and said, "You have been forced to stay in Xiangyang for two years because of the dangerous roads and banditry."
"Liu You" Riding into Jingzhou alone, he used kindness and power internally, and he was good at luring him externally. He defeated Sun Jian externally and expelled Yuan Shu. Now the people in Jingzhou were well-equipped, the generals were brave, and the soldiers were willing to serve. "
"Jingzhou and Yangzhou, just across the river, have always been friendly neighbors and supported each other."
"What General Zuo did in Nanyang in the past actually made Jingzhou ascend from Liu Jingzhou. , down to the people of Li, they are all heartbroken and do not want this to happen again in Jiangdong."
"Liu Yangzhou's sincerity should not be doubted."
Xun You's words not only showed the sympathy of Liu Biao and the people of Jingzhou for Yangzhou, but also hinted that Liu Biao was capable of sending troops to Yangzhou.
Sure enough, after listening to Xun You's words, Xu Shao and others reacted.
“It’s true.”
Tengzhou said: “We have already discussed it earlier and are about to send envoys to Jiangbei to ask for help from Xuzhou Mu Liu Shijun.”
Hearing Liu Bei's name, Liu Xian and Xun You's expressions changed slightly.
Liu Xian suddenly heard Xun You coughing next to him. He suddenly realized that Xu Shao, Tengzhou and others were observing his reaction, and immediately said: "This is what heroes see in common."
Tengzhou asked in confusion: "What do you mean by your honor?"
Liu Xian laughed and said: "You guys don't know something. I am here first. In addition to the mission of the alliance with Yangzhou, I also have I want to go to Xuzhou once to pay homage to Liu Xuzhou to express my wish for peace.”
“I, Jing, Yang, and Xuzhou are all members of the Han clan, and it is time for us to support each other and support the Han clan together. "
Liu Xian's attitude was sincere and his words were sincere: "If Liu Shijun of Xuzhou is also willing to send troops to help, then major events in Yangzhou can be decided, which is in line with my lord's wishes."
Only then did Xu Shao, Teng Zhou and others suddenly realize.
Liu Xian secretly thanked Xun You for the reminder. If he had been stunned for too long just now, he might have caused doubts among the celebrities in Yangzhou.
That night, Xu Shao held a banquet in honor of Liu Xian and Xun You.
Two days later, Liu Yao rushed back to Niuzhu and held secret talks with Xu Shao, Tengzhou and others overnight.
Subsequently, another six thousand soldiers and horses were drawn out from Xue Li and Zuo Rong.
It's just that this time, Liu Yao also paid some benefits when he asked for troops.
Agreed to hand over Danyang County to Xue Li and Jurong County to Zuo Rong.
Although Liu Yao's move clearly surpassed Zhou Shang, the prefect of Danyang.
But at this time Liu Yao no longer cared about Zhou Shang, or he was quite afraid of Zhou Shang.
Zhou Shang and Liu Yao originally had a cooperative relationship. Liu Yao was eager to control the place and obtain goods, food and soldiers, while Zhou Shang had the ability to control the place, but suffered from the lack of a name.
So Liu Yao and Zhou Shang hit it off immediately. Liu Yao petitioned Zhou Shang to serve as the governor of Danyang. Zhou Shang helped Liu Yao quickly pacify Danyang and raise food and soldiers.
The relationship between the two parties is reciprocal. Liu Yao is the leader and Zhou Shang is the important shareholder.
But now Liu Yao is obviously declining, and there are faint signs of losing to Yuan Shu's heroic general Sun Ce.
Zhou Shang began to become dangerous.
After all, the Zhou family is a big family in Lujiang, and most of the family's foundations are in Lujiang, that is, under Yuan Shu's command.
Yuan Shu is about to sweep across Jiangdong. If Zhou Shang wants to sell Liu Yao at a good price, then now is the best time.
What's more, Liu Yao also learned from Liu Bei's letter that Zhou Yu and Sun Ce, direct descendants of the Zhou family, had been friends since childhood, and the two sides had long been in love with their mothers.
At this time, Sun Ce occupied the northern part of Wu County and defeated Liu Yao. Is there any need to ask which side Zhou Yu, who was in Wanling at this time, would lean towards?
After discussing with Xu Shao and others, Liu Yao and others made several important decisions.
The first one was to use Danyang and Jurong counties to continue to use Xue Li and Zuo Rong. Exchange soldiers here, the other side urgently needs a foothold, so it shouldn't be a big problem.
The second item is to ask Xu Shao to go to Tancheng with Liu Xian to meet Liu Bei and ask for assistance.
The third item is to send someone to warn Zhou Shang and inform him of the envoy from Jingzhou and his request for help from Xuzhou. At this time, Liu Yao did not expect this news to be of much use, even if it just made Zhou Shang hesitate for one more day, it would be good.
Liu Yao didn't know that Wanling was also having a heated discussion about the current situation between Zhou Shang and Zhou Yu's uncle and nephew.
After Sun Ce made a surprise attack on Dan Tu and captured Ah Shi, Zhou Yu urged Zhou Shang to immediately change his banner, pounce on Niuzhu from behind, break the river defense, and seize the great achievement of Yuan Shu's army crossing the river.
Zhou Shang was hesitant. He had previously agreed to his nephew Zhou Yu's plan, but was delayed because of Liu Feng's letter.
Now Zhou Shang's hesitation also originated from Xuzhou.
There is no other reason. Xuzhou is too capable.
Sun Ce attacked Dantu with 6,000 troops, went to Qu'a, and used his uncle Wu Jing's 6,000 troops to defeat Piling and Wuxi counties, and swept across the northern part of Wu County. How powerful is this?
But just a month ago, Sun's army, together with Sun Bi's troops, plus Qiao Rui's 10,000 Yuan Shu's personal troops, and 30,000 elite troops were defeated by a mere 6,000 Xuzhou army at the foot of Guangling City. They were defeated in one battle. Qiao Rui's troops were completely disabled.
Earlier, Sun Ce fought fiercely all night in Guangling City, but was eventually forced to abandon the city and leave.
In just over a month, the most elite members of Yuan Shu's army had been defeated twice in a row by Xuzhou's army, which was outnumbered and outnumbered.
Zhou Shang was a little worried. Despite Sun Ce's overwhelming power, the Xuzhou Army was just north of the Yangtze River, just across the river. Moreover, both Liu Bei and Liu Yao belong to the clan, and Liu Bei has a reputation for being kind. Whenever Liu Yao asks for help, Liu Bei will most likely not refuse.
Zhou Shang thought that he could sit back and watch the Xuzhou army and Sun Ce decide the outcome before making a decision.
Zhou Yu felt that although Guangling was close to Jiangbei, the center of Xuzhou was far away in Tancheng.
By the time Tancheng reacts, the matter in Jiangdong has already been decided.
As long as Zhou Shang contacts Sun Ce and directly changes his banner when Sun Ce advances westward, Liu Yao will be destroyed in a matter of seconds. Even if Liu Bei wants to rescue him, he will be beyond his reach.
By that time, General Zuo will have Jiangdong and Jiangbei covered, and he will definitely go north again.
It is a blessing for Xuzhou to keep Guangling without losing it. How can it still threaten Jiangdong.
The two sides were in a stalemate, but the military power was in Zhou Shang's hands. Zhou Yu could only act in a hurry and couldn't use his strength.
All the officials and officers in Danyang City were Zhou Shang's direct subordinates, so even if Zhou Yu wanted to fake the imperial edict, it would be difficult for him to do so.
Over the past few days, the front line has stabilized.
Sun Ce made up his mind to capture Wu County first.
After Zuo Rong got the benefit, he happily handed over three thousand troops again, and then headed to Jurong with tens of thousands of troops.
Xue Li also handed over 3,000 troops, and then sent his confidant Jiang Neng to station in Danyang with 2,000 soldiers.
In this regard, Zhou Shang was very indifferent and indifferent, as if he didn't know about it.
After Liu Yao stabilized the front line, he met with Liu Xian and Xun You several times, and the two sides established a preliminary alliance. The premise was that Liu Biao needed to immediately assist Yangzhou with a batch of ordnance and food.
After intense discussions, Jingzhou agreed to deliver 600 sets of leather armor, 3,000 long knives, 3,000 wooden shields, 200 bows, and 80,000 feather arrows within a month. Plus five thousand stones of grain and grass.
Liu Yao stated that after defeating Sun Ce, he was willing to send troops to attack Yuan Shu in Jiangbei together with Liu Biao.
When the two sides talked about this, Liu Yao actually already knew Liu Biao's demands for Yangzhou Jiangbei.
But how to divide them at that time depends on the performance of both armies.
If the Jingzhou army is indeed powerful and sweeps across Jiangbei, then Liu Yao is willing to consolidate the four counties in Jiangdong first.
If the Jingzhou Army does not perform well, the Yangzhou Army may not have a chance to regain the two counties in Jiangbei.
Three days later, Liu Yao held a special banquet to see off Liu Xian, Xun You, Xu Shao and Tengzhou.
A clipper had been dispatched to notify Guangling before. Therefore, when Liu Xian and the four arrived in Guangling, Liu Feng and everyone waited at the dock for a long time.
Originally, Liu Feng planned to only bring two scribes, Bu Zhi and Wei Jing, because he knew that Xu Shao and his gang still looked down on Wu Fu deep down. Even Tai Shi Ci could not get into their eyes, let alone the others. .
You must know that Tai Shici can be regarded as half a scholar in essence, and his composition is slightly worse than Liu Bei. After all, he was not able to worship the great Confucian.
But even so, Liu Yao still resolutely refused the recommendation of Taishi Ci from his close confidants. The reason was that he was afraid of being laughed at by Xu Shao because Taishi Ci was a martial artist.
To be fair, Liu Feng didn't believe that Liu Yao was really stupid and rigid to this extent. He probably had no way to place Tai Shici at that time.
Unlike scribes such as Tengzhou, Shiyi, and the Teng brothers, Taishi Ci was a military general who had to lead troops.
But the soldiers and horses under Liu Yao were all contributed by the powerful nobles in Jiangdong. They were all private soldiers of other people. How could they be deprived of them?
And even if he was forcibly deprived of it and given to Taishi Ci, he wouldn’t be able to take it with him.
Besides, these powerful Jiangdong nobles have contributed both their efforts and money to you, Liu Yao, aren’t they just trying to repay you?
Taishici didn't do anything. Even Liu Yao couldn't promote him to a general with just one sentence.
But Liu Yao could obviously find other reasons to decline, or even openly talk to Taishi Ci directly, using Taishi Ci to control his own direct bodyguards, and then look for opportunities to promote and strengthen them step by step.
But Liu Yao simply said that he was afraid of being laughed at by Xu Shao, which also showed that Liu Yao still looked down on Tai Shici in his heart.
At least it is true that the other party does not regard the other party as a class united with itself, and it is not worth the effort to support the other party.
In this case, why did Liu Feng let Zhao Yun, Tai Shici and others have a warm face and a cold butt?
If the other party really treated Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci, etc. coldly, Liu Feng would rather turn over the table than let the other party bully his cronies.
Rather than causing a huge fuss, Liu Feng simply wanted Zhao Yun, Tai Shici and others not to come.
Similarly, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, and even Dong Xi were arranged to rest by Liu Feng and did not have to attend the reception.
But Bu Zhi and Wei Jing were scribes, so they could be brought along by Liu Feng to support the scene, and the two Li brothers came to the dock to join them.
Zhao Yun, Tai Shici and others did not understand Liu Feng's painstaking efforts at first. Liu Feng was worried about misunderstanding, so he simply told the truth directly.
Zhao Yun and Tai Shici were a little disappointed. After all, Xu Shao was the top class in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, a real top celebrity, and he was the kind of celebrity who was qualified to criticize other celebrities.
Even warriors such as Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci have been famous for Xu Shao for a long time. Naturally, they were still very disappointed when they heard such a result.
They also knew that Liu Feng had good intentions, so they couldn't watch them being humiliated, right?
But Liu Feng still underestimated Xu Shao's status in the hearts of today's powerful nobles.
Not only did Zhao Yun and Tai Shici express their desire to meet Xu Shao, even if they suffered some grievances, even a reckless man like Pan Zhang was as full of expectations as if he had met an idol.
There was no other way. In the end, Liu Feng had no choice but to change his decision and bring along the civil and military officials from Guangling, which gave Xu Shao and others a lot of trouble.
However, Liu Feng did not expect that among these envoys, there was a huge surprise hidden, and this surprise was not one, but a pair.
When Xun You introduced himself, Liu Feng was shocked.
Originally, he was already a little desperate because he had not been able to wait for news about Xun You, but he did not expect that the other party would suddenly appear in front of him.
This made Liu Feng overjoyed and complimented Xun You very much. His attitude was even more enthusiastic than when he just visited Xu Shao.
Everyone around was surprised. Even Xu Shao couldn't help but look askance at him, and Xun You, the person involved, was even flattered.
After visiting each other, Liu Feng was about to lead Xu Shao, Xun You and others into the city, but he suddenly saw a man seven feet tall standing on the boat behind them, wearing a brocade robe and a bird feather on his head. A big man wearing a bell.
Liu Feng was a little surprised, so he asked: "Who is this person?"
Liu Xian looked back and saw that it was Gan Ning, so he replied: "This person is my Sima Gan Ning from another department in Jingzhou. ."
Liu Feng was so happy that he left everyone and went straight to Gan Ning and bowed: "General, is this Gan Ning of Sichuan? He is known as the Lord of Jinfan?"
Gan Ning was pulling the cable and watching the people on the pier chatting with boredom. Seeing that everyone was about to leave and no one paid attention to him, he couldn't help but feel a little sad.
I think about the time when I was rampant in Shu, a light knight killing people, hiding in hiding and fleeing, going in and out, and had a great reputation.
Even the attendants are all dressed in brocade, coming in and out, looking gorgeous, who wouldn't praise them?
But now, has it fallen to the point where no one cares about it?
It’s a pity that there are so few people in the world. If there is a master who knows how to meet him, I will die for him even if I give up my body of one hundred and ten kilograms.
While Gan Ning was restless, a young man walked up to him and suddenly paid homage.
Gan Ning was shocked. He recognized at a glance that this young man was the man who was headed by Guang Ling on the dock. He heard that he was Liu Feng, the son of Xuzhou Mu Liu Bei.
He hurriedly rushed forward, helped Liu Feng up, and replied: "What a shameful name, I am Gan Ning."
Liu Feng was so happy that he held Gan Ning's hand with his backhand, his expression Huan Yue said: "General, I am Liu Feng. Every day I hear my father mention the name of the general and the name of Jinfan, which is like thunder in my ears. When I hear that the general walks on foot, he displays his chariots and horses, and when he walks on water, he connects to the light boat. He is said to be the best in both water and land. He also has a unique skill. Goddess, I just want to meet you. "
"Today the general came to Xuzhou, and Feng Bucai asked him to stay a little longer, so that he could relieve the pain of my father and son's lovesickness. "
Gan Ning's face turned red. This was not anger or shyness, but excitement.
This time when he went east along the river, he once imagined how Liu Bei and his son would treat him when they arrived in Xuzhou.
Gan Ning just imagined that if he didn't ask for the attention in the letter, even half of the courtesy, he would have to die for the Liu family and his son.
Who would have thought that this meeting would be such a surprise.
(End of this chapter)