After receiving Liu Qi's letter, the elder brother immediately replied to Ma Chao, hoping that he would put the overall situation of fighting Cao Cao first, give up the plan of helping the young and deposed the elders, and return the military and political power of Jingbei to Liu Qi.

The elder brother specifically mentioned that a stable Jingzhou can become a powerful arm to fight against Cao Cao. Therefore, whether to restore the country or to revenge, Ma Chao should not continue to maintain the situation of governing across the river, nor should he incite a civil war in Jingzhou.

This reply letter carries the last glimmer of hope for a peaceful resolution of the civil strife in Jingzhou, although this hope is slim! While sending away Ma Chao's messenger, our army's combat preparations are also in full swing.

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On February 13th, Quan Cong led tens of thousands of infantry soldiers to Shouchun, and the garrison in Shouchun also increased to more than 50,000.

In the past year, due to the migration of refugees and the people who moved in when the second brother led Runan, the population of Lujiang in Shouchun has reached its peak in the past five years.

According to careful statistics from Sun Gan, Zhang Yi and others, the population of Shouchun has reached 440,000, while in Lujiang has reached 370,000.

With more than 800,000 people in two counties as a guarantee, it is naturally much easier to recruit soldiers. In the past year, my second brother recruited a total of 20,000 new soldiers from Shouchun and Lujiang.

In addition, Zhao Yun's Fengqi Army was greatly expanded. Previously, in order to ask for help from his elder brother, Yuan Tan had provided us with more than 3,000 war horses.

Afterwards, after Yuan Tan lost most of Jizhou, he could no longer support the supply of food and grass for his own army by relying so he had to ask his elder brother for food.

Among the five counties under my original rule, except for Kuaiji, which has the sparse population, the other four counties are all major grain-producing counties. In addition, the Jingyang prefectures had a bumper harvest last year, so the food is quite abundant. Therefore, the elder brother also readily agreed to Yuan Tan's request.

After negotiations between Mi Zhu and Guo Tu, the two parties reached a transaction agreement to exchange grain with war horses.

Through sea routes, Mi Family Chamber of Commerce ships continuously transported grain to Youzhou, and transported important combat preparation materials such as war horses and bows back to Shouchun. The war horses were guaranteed, and Zhao Yun further expanded the Fengqi army with the support of his elder brother and second brother.

Although the Fengqi Army is still in three songs, each song has 2,000 cavalrymen under its command. In addition to these 6,000 cavalrymen, there are more than 3,000 new cavalry troops under their intensive training.

Zhao Yun, who is proficient in cavalry, formed a total of light cavalry, who fully inherited the training of the Fengqi Camp——it was as fast as the wind, emphasizing "flee thousands of miles away and retreat with one blow", striving to drag down, drag down, and kill the enemy with powerful power.

It can be imagined that the increasingly powerful wind cavalry army will definitely have the opportunity to display it in the future in the hands of Zhao Yun, a cavalry genius.

The Xiliang Iron Cavalry under Ma Chao's command may be the first important opponent of the expansion of Houfeng Cavalry!

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Just as Quan Cong arrived in Shouchun, Jiang Qin and Ding Feng led a group of Jinfan Navy Army to the north through Ruxushui-Chaohu-Fishhui. On February 14th, they arrived at the Huai River and officially took on the important task of patrolling the Huai River.

Although the Jinfan Navy went north this time, they were all small and medium-sized warships such as Mengchong and Zhuge, there were nearly 150 warships and more than 3,800 Jinfan soldiers who had been through hundreds of battles. In addition to Jiang Qin and Ding Feng, the two water dragons, were enough to build a solid water Great Wall.

On February 15, Wei Yan led more than ten personal guards to Shouchun.

Since then, Shouchun’s defense matters have been fully implemented. In this way, it can be guaranteed that even after the second brother led the army to attack Jingbei, Cao Cao would not dare to look down on Shouchun.

Early the next morning, I bid farewell to Rong'er and his two children. With the elder brother and second brother seeing him off, Pang Tong and I set off to return to Danyang to prepare for the Jingbei War.

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Two days later, I returned to Danyang and first listened to the reports of relevant military and political affairs of Zhang Zhao, Jian Yong, Chen Dao, Guan Ping and others.

In order to deal with the war in Jingbei, the mobilization orders for the three counties of Danyang, Wujun and Kuaiji have been issued for many days. Under the mutual coordination between Danyang Prefect Zhang Zhao, Wujun Prefect Quanfan, and Kuaiji Prefect Liao Hua, strategic materials were continuously transported to Danyang.

At the same time, after receiving my order, Liao Hua and Jin Cho, the general in charge of Wu County's military affairs, successively gathered in Danyang, leaving only 34,000 troops enough to deal with the rebellion and riots.

Today, Danyang's military strength has expanded to an unprecedented level, reaching nearly 50,000, which does not include 10,000 people led by Quan Cong to reinforce Shouchun, and 10,000 people led by Lu Xun to take over the three counties of Jiujiang, Yuzhang and Luling.

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The second day after returning to Danyang, Pang Tong began to send me some detailed operations to strengthen the infiltration of Jingbei under our instructions. He also used the Pang clan's connections in Jingbei to contact the local gentry so that he could reduce resistance when he advances in the future.

After learning that I had returned to Danyang to preside over military and political affairs, Liu Qi and Kuai Yue also frequently sent envoys to contact me and communicate with each other!

The land of Jingyang is already tense and war is about to break out!

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After receiving replies from Liu Qi and Liu Bei one after another, Ma Chao was furious.

Liu Qi clearly did not believe in Ma Chao's "good intentions" and was unwilling to cross the river easily.

The request he made did not give Ma Chao any room for "motoring"——Once he sent Liu Cong across the river and returned the seal and ribbon of the governor of Jingzhou, it would mean that Liu Qi would completely become the lord of Jingzhou.

At that time, Liu Qi only needs to raise his arms and shout, and the more than 70,000 troops under Ma Chao's command are already unstable, the soldiers in Jingzhou will scatter. The officials and gentry in various counties and counties in Jingbei will definitely not rely on Ma Chao, even Shangyong may be the same.

Ma Chao was able to suppress it for a while with his power, but not for a lifetime.

Liu Qi's other condition - transferring military strength, made Ma Chao even more unacceptable. Once the army is lost, what else can Ma Chao be left?

Although Fa Zheng is an experienced hunter, Kuai Yue is not a prey who can surrender. A very simple and direct method is that Kuai Yue resolves Fa Zheng's plan to lure Liu Qi across the river invisibly.

What made Ma Chao even more angry was Liu Bei!

Ma Chao believed that he had put aside his aura of a famous general of the past generations and "condescends" to marry Liu Bei with his younger generations, but hoped that he could acknowledge his current situation in charge of Jingbei.

Unexpectedly, Liu Bei still supported Liu Qi and continued to persuade Ma Chao to return to Jingbei.

Ma Chao was so angry that he cursed, throwing Liu Bei's handwritten handwritten book into the brazier like throwing garbage. Although Fa Zheng was a little disappointed, he calmly asked the messenger about the journey to Shouchun.

When he heard that Liu Bei gave a reply two days after receiving Ma Chao's letter, Fa Zheng keenly grasped the key point inside. He guessed that Liu Bei and Liu Qi were probably already angrily following the matter of Ma Chao's letter.

If so, Liu Bei could naturally see Ma Chao’s true intention...

Based on the existing information, Fa Zheng further speculated that Liu Qi may have requested help from Liu Bei to attack Jingbei. Liu Bei's two handwritten letters in a row were probably just "being polite first and then army". Once Ma Chao refused to return to Jingbei, Liu Bei's day of sending troops may not be far away.

Ma Chao, who was extremely angry, immediately hated his words. As long as Liu Bei dared to send troops to invade, he would cut off Liu Bei's head as his drowning weapon.

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At this moment, Pang De urgently reported to Ma Chao about something——Liu Qi's army was gathering in Wuling, as if it was like crossing the river to the north.

Ma Chao was furious and beat the table in front of him and vowed to kill Liu Qi, Kuai Yue and others. He immediately ordered Fa Zheng to declare Liu Qi rebelliously in the name of the governor of Jingzhou and the general of Zhennan Liu Cong.

He also offered a reward of Liu Qi, Kuai Yue and others at the head, but who could capture and kill Liu Qi and Kuai Yue, and beheaded one of them. Those who became officials and generals were promoted to third level, those who were soldiers and civilians were rewarded with tens of thousands of gold.

Although he knew that once this order was conveyed, the war in Jingzhou would be eliminated, Fa Zheng did not dare to say anything more when facing Ma Chao in anger, so he had to follow the order.

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As Fa Zheng expected, Ma Chao's announcement immediately caused a huge wave of excitement——

Jingbei is a voice of lamenting despair. Originally, the military and civilians of the Jingbei gentry also took Ma Chao's killing of Cai Mao as an opportunity, hoping to avoid the outbreak of a full-scale civil war.

But now all hope has become a vague one. In addition to being disappointed, the gentry people also hated Ma Chao, the bloodthirsty "usurper" (the title of Ma Chao in some rumors).

Jingnan's reaction was even stronger. After hearing the news, Kuai Yue immediately drafted a manifesto on behalf of Liu Qi, which spread it widely to the nine counties of Jingxiang.

In the manifesto, Kuai Yue denounced Ma Chao as not caring for Liu Biao's favor, but instead plotted to murder Liu Biao's legitimate son and conspired to usurp Jingzhou. He directly called Ma Chao an unfaithful, unfilial, unkind and unrighteous person, and a wolf-hearted and heartless person.

In the name of Liu Qi, Kuai Yue called on the military and civilians of Jingbei to see through Ma Chao's true face and echoed Liu Qi's northern expedition.

Once the manifesto was issued, Kuai Yue urgently ordered the envoys to go to Shouchun and Moling. At the same time, Liu Pan, Huang Zhong, Wen Pin and others were ordered to go to Goddan and prepare to cross the river and expedition the north at any time.

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On February 24, I received an urgent letter from Kuai Yue, knowing that the war in Jingbei was imminent, so I ordered Zhang Zhao, Jian Yong and others to step up the recruitment of transport ships for the purpose of transporting troops.

On February 26, the eldest brother sent an edict to Xiangyang, Zhangling, Nanjun, and Shangyong, proclaiming that he supported Liu Qi's restoration of Jingbei and would send troops to support him. He hoped that the soldiers and civilians in Jingbei would understand the right and wrong and not help the evil.

At the end of the manifesto, the elder brother also expressed his hope that Ma Chao could stop his horse and not blind his eyes or get lost for profit.

On the 27th, the elder brother sent troops to attack Jingbei and arrived in Moling.

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At noon on the first day of March, I commanded the water and had more than 40,000 infantry troops. Pang Tong was appointed as the staff officer of the army, and was in charge of the generals of Chen Dao, Guan Ping, Li Yan, Hao Zhao, Lu Meng, and Zhu Huan. The troops left Danyang, passed through the Yangtze River waterway, and went straight to Nanjun.

At the same time (the agreed time), the second brother led the cavalry and the army of 30,000. Zhuge Liang was appointed as the staff officer of the army, and the generals Zhao Yun, Li Tong, Quan Cong, Xu Sheng, Pan Zhang, and the troops went out of Hefei and attacked Zhangling County to the west.
Chapter completed!