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Just as the Di Hu cavalry on Qishan Road was annihilated, Liu Jing finally got the news from the scout that 20,000 Di Hu cavalry, led by Di Wang Yang Qianwan, entered Tianshui County, stationed ten miles west of Ji County, and supported each other with the 50,000 Cao troops in Ji County, preparing to fight against the Han army heading north.

This news was beyond Liu Jing's expectations. Everything he prepared was to fight against the Cao army in Ji County, but Liu Jing also knew that the arrival of 20,000 Hu people disrupted his plan, and even made him feel more stressed than Cao's army heading south to Jingxiang.

In the big tent, Liu Jing paced back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his hands, thinking about countermeasures. At this time, Pang Tong next to him smiled at Liu Jing and said, "I think the arrival of the Dihu cavalry at this time is not a bad thing, at least we can get warning in advance. Otherwise, when we are fighting fiercely with the Cao army, the Dihu cavalry will come from the side, and the consequences will be unimaginable. In fact, I think this is a mistake by the Cao army. They can use tricks to lead us to Ji County and then send troops. They exposed the flanking reinforcements too early."

Liu Jing shook his head, "Cao army cannot be a mistake. I cannot make the mistake of last year again and go north in a hurry. In fact, when the Dihu cavalry appeared in Baishui, I knew that the Dihu was going to send troops, and I would not take risks in this situation."

Huang Zhong also smiled and said, "The enemy is now 70,000, and we only have 10,000. We are indeed at a disadvantage from the perspective of military strength, but the enemy also has weaknesses, that is, they are two armies, and they will not cooperate tacitly, and they even have their own thoughts. So it is certain that they will not take the initiative to attack south, but they will still focus on defense."

Liu Jing nodded and asked Ma Chao who was silent on the side, saying, "Do you have any suggestions?"

Ma Chao had just arrived from Wudu County. He had been dealing with Dihu for many years and knew them very well. Liu Jing hoped to get some strategy to deal with Dihu from Ma Chao. Ma Chao pondered for a moment: "The Longyou area has always been the saying of the northern Qiang and southern Di. The two major tribes of the Di and the King Song Jian of the King of the Qinghan formed an alliance to jointly deal with the threat of the Qiang people. In fact, they each had their own thoughts. Although they would not take advantage of the situation to annex the other party, they would not save them. It would be easy to let the Di people retreat. As long as the Qiang soldiers suppress Longxi, the governor of the Zhou Dynasty said that he knew the Qiang King Nangong, asking him to send troops to Longxi, Yang Qianwan would naturally withdraw his troops."

"Does Meng Qi think Nangong agree to send troops without fear of Cao Cao?" Liu Jing asked again.

Ma Chao laughed, "Nangong is the man who is profit-oriented. As long as he gives him enough benefits, he will definitely send troops."

"Then what benefits will he want?"

Ma Chao thought for a while and said, "Like the Qiang people and Di people, what they need most is pig iron and food, and there is no need for the provincial governor to give him anything. As long as the pig iron and food trade is relaxed, I think he will definitely agree."

"no"

Pang Tong flatly denied Ma Chao's suggestion, and he politely bowed to Liu Jing: "The Qiang and Di aliens must not be allowed to become a big shot. Although the imperial court sent envoys to appease the Qiang people for several years, it has never been willing to let go of the pig iron trade, which is to worry that its strength would attack the border. When Dong Zhuo entered Beijing, his Qiang soldiers were in trouble with the Central Plains. This shows that although the Western Qiang soldiers could help, it would not break the precedent of the pig iron embargo. Although it gained temporary benefits, it would cause endless harm. Please ask the governor of the state to "

Liu Jing pondered for a moment and smiled at Ma Chao and said, "What do you think Meng Qi thinks?"

Ma Chao knew that the Qiang people needed the most was good pig iron, but if Liu Jing really didn't want to give it to him, he had no choice but to smile bitterly, "In fact, the Qiang people can also smelm, but the iron they refined is of low quality and cannot build good weapons. They have always wanted the steel from the Central Plains. If the Zhou Mu felt that the steel was not good, then he would agree to let go of the grain trade, maybe it could also motivate them."

"Then try the grain." Liu Jing also felt that it would not be possible to relax the trade in fine iron, and the grain could be agreed temporarily. More importantly, it would not be too late to argue with the Qiang and Di people after conquering Longyou.

At this time, Ma Chao suggested again: "If the provincial governor does not have a suitable candidate, Weichen recommends my brother Ma Dai to serve as an envoy. He has a good relationship with the Qiang people and should not let down the provincial governor's entrustment."

Liu Jing nodded and said, "Please ask General Ma Dai to come and see me."

Cao Cao's 100,000 troops had arrived in Fancheng for nearly twenty days and were stationed on the north bank of the Han River. At this time, Fancheng, Deng County, Xinye and other Jiangbei counties were all razed to the ground by Cao's army. The Cao army was very powerful and completely suppressed Xiangyang City on the south bank of the Han River.

The Han army reinforcements also arrived in Xiangyang City one after another. The five thousand navy troops from Ganning and the 15,000 Jiangling troops arrived in Xiangyang one after another, so that the Han army in Xiangyang reached 10,000. Pin also ordered Cai Jin to lead thousands of troops to Fangling County and join Pang De's army to prevent Cao's army from crossing the river from Fangling County.

Although the Cao army overwhelmed the Han army in terms of momentum, the Han navy always controlled the Han River, making it impossible for the Cao army to cross the river. However, after the confrontation took place for a long time, loopholes in the Han army's defense would naturally appear.

That night, a baggage team composed of thousands of ox carts marched southeast along the north shore of the Han River. There were thousands of Cao soldiers guarding each side of the ox cart, and 20,000 Cao troops were followed by 20,000 Cao troops several miles away. This was a special baggage team, each ox cart was covered with oil cloth, which seemed very mysterious. The ox cart was not carrying food or grass or weapons, but a whole six small boats.

The boat was secretly made in Nanyang County. It took a year. When Cao Cao went south, he did not rush to take out this secret weapon. Instead, he stayed in the army for 20 days. After the defense of the Han army in Xiangyang was a little relaxed, he took out this secret weapon.

Because Cao's army controlled Bishui, the fleet went south along the Qingshui and Bishui. It was dragged ashore when it was still twenty miles away from the Hanshui River and was carried on a ox cart. Cao Cao did not intend to cross the river in Xiangyang. He knew that the Han army's warships would not give him a chance, but the Han army did not have a navy in Yicheng County, so he could use these six small boats to build a floating bridge in Yicheng County so that the army could cross the river.

This is a loophole in the defense of the Han army. Although the Han army warships blocked the mouth of Bishui River, the Han army never dreamed that the Cao army would transport ships on land. Although the Han army warships patrol the Han River, because Cao's troops suppressed Fancheng, most of the Han River patrol warships were transferred to Fancheng, which weakened the patrol force on the south side of the Han River accordingly.

Originally, a patrol fleet was responsible for the Lijiang River surface, but now the patrol ship was insufficient, so it was changed to a fleet of ships responsible for the Lijiang River surface. The distance between the river surfaces of the sentry ships patrolled was too long, and there would be about an hour of patrol time on the river surface outside Yicheng County.

In this way, the Cao army seized the loophole and took advantage of this time to avoid the Han army's patrols on the water and crossed the river from the middle section of the Han River.

More importantly, Cao's warships had to enter the Han River through Bishui, and Gan Ning also knew that the patrol was insufficient, so he sent heavy troops to block the mouth of Bishui River to ensure that Cao Cao's ships could not enter the Han River.

But the Han army never expected that Cao Cao would transport ships from land to Han River. In fact, in the Battle of Chibi that year, Cao's army did the same thing, transporting ships from Yunmengze to the Yangtze River, and this time Cao Cao did it even more hidden.

The north bank of the Han River is a rolling hilly area with sparsely populated areas and endless forests. The Cao army's convoy can only walk through the narrow area along the river, and once it sets up a bridge to open a road, it advances towards the Yicheng County Ferry Internal and Outside.

At the fourth update, the team finally arrived at the ferry on the other side of Yicheng County. There was a dark shore, no one was seen on the pier, and the river was empty, without a single ship. Under the dark moonlight, the outline of the county town on the other side could be vaguely seen.

At this time, a soldier rushed to the main general Zhang Liao behind. Zhang Liao rushed to the dock with his personal guards. He carefully observed the situation on the other side. Everything was as expected by the Prime Minister. The Han army's patrol ship was still inside and outside the south and would not come back after at least an hour. This was indeed a defensive loophole of the Han army.

Zhang Liao waved his hand and said, "Build a floating bridge immediately."

Teams of fortification soldiers quickly untied the boat from the ox cart. The boat was specially built to build a pontoon bridge. There were iron chains on the left and right sides and on the bow and sterns. As long as the iron chains were locked tightly, the boats could be quickly arranged in the water.

Six warships quickly arranged in the river, and special wooden boards were built on the boat. Two straight and wide floating bridges gradually formed on the river surface and reached the opposite bank.

Thousands of fortification soldiers were busy in an orderly manner. They had trained many times in Nanyang. Generally, it took two hours to build a floating bridge, but they could complete the construction in just one hour.

Zhang Liao watched with complex eyes as the floating bridge gradually formed. In order to prepare these two floating bridges, he spent a full year and poured all his efforts into preparing them. Today, when the two floating bridges finally played a role, Zhang Liao felt an indescribable excitement in his heart.

He sighed softly, hoping that this Nanzheng will succeed

An hour later, the fortification lieutenant rushed to Zhang Liao and reported to the report: "Report to General, the floating bridge has been completed."

Zhang Liao was overjoyed and walked quickly to the dock. He saw two long floating bridges lying across the river. The Han River, which Jingzhou had always regarded as a natural barrier, was finally conquered by them.

Zhang Liao turned around and shouted loudly: "Transfer my order, and the whole army began to line up to cross the river."

The Wan Cao army had already lined up and began to cross the Han River and headed towards the south bank of the Han River.

At this moment, the beacon suddenly lit at the head of Yicheng County, and the defenders of Yicheng County finally discovered that Cao's army was crossing the river in a large scale.

............

At the head of Xiangyang City, Jia Xu was a little uneasy tonight. He came to the head of the city alone and stared at Cao's camp on the other side of the Han River with his hands behind his back. Twenty days have passed, but Cao Cao has always stopped moving. This confused Jia Xu. He had been with Cao Cao for many years, and he knew that Cao Cao's character would never do meaningless things.

The Cao army now camped in the north of the city, destroying Fancheng and Dengxian, but unable to cross the river. What's the point? Is it so naive that Liu Jing would give up on the northern expedition because of this?

However, with Cao Cao's strategy and style of doing things, he could not do such a bluff. Jia Xu secretly thought about whether Cao Cao had other arrangements this time.

"What is the military advisor thinking?" At some point, Pin appeared beside Jia Xu.

Jia Xu sighed and said, "I feel uneasy. Maybe we underestimate Cao Cao."

"Why does a military advisor feel this way?"

"I can't explain it clearly, but it's been twenty days since Cao Cao's movement. If he tore up the armistice agreement just to scare us on the other side of the strait, Cao Cao's decision was a hasty one, and it was far from worth the loss. This is by no means his style. He is very clear about the serious consequences of tearing down the agreement."

Pin pondered for a while and asked, "The military advisor said that he had other intentions."

Jia Xu nodded, "It must be so, otherwise he would not be Cao Cao."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier pointed to the east and shouted: "General Fenghuo, there was a warning fire in the east."
Chapter completed!