Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 216 Outside Guangling City
Wang Junlou's boat went down to Yizhou, and Jinling's royal spirit was sadly taken away.Chihiro's iron locks sank to the bottom of the river, and stones came out from the streamers.

This is "Mount Xisai Nostalgia" written by Liu Yuxi in the Tang Dynasty.

In the Battle of Chibi in later generations, Yuan Xi couldn't be sure whether the Soochow Wu really blocked the mouth of the Yangtze River with iron chains as said in this poem.

Because the Yangtze River Estuary, which can't be seen at a glance, is at least five kilometers wide according to the data of later generations. It is really unimaginable that a large iron chain with a length of several hundred feet can be made.

You know, the iron chains of this era are all hammered out by blacksmiths.

In the place where the rushing river meets the sea, even at night, ships of all sizes coming and going are scattered like stars on the river. It is obvious that water transportation was already extremely developed at that time.

Large and small piers along the coast, because there are too many ships, although it is already dark, people light torches and are busy loading and unloading goods all night long.

Yuan Xi suddenly realized that he was a little wrong.

It is along the Yangtze River, where hundreds of cavalry landed quietly without concealing people's eyes and ears!
Since ancient times, places with water systems have been places where people gather.

The reason is that in this era when only human and animal power can be used, having water resources means that it is suitable for people to live in, and the most convenient transportation method in ancient times was water transportation, so it is necessary to form a place suitable for living, even a city, and surrounding borders. There must be abundant water.

Even the roads are built along the rivers, just to get water in time, which is especially important when marching and fighting.

In the war of this era, it is actually relatively easy to predict the enemy's movements. You just need to take out a map and deploy guards along the rivers and streams to make a good guess.

A few days ago, Guo Jia predicted the route of the Heishan army's escape from Beixincheng, and asked Zhao Yun and Tai Shici to intercept them separately, which was based on this method.

Of course, there are also those who do not follow common sense and march from deep mountain trails to make a surprise attack, but the relative risk is that if they cannot find the water source, they will never return.

Next to rivers and streams, there are mostly villages and small towns, and next to big rivers, there are often big cities.

Now Yuan Xi ordered the fleet to take advantage of the night to go up the river, seeing the constant traffic of ships on both sides of the river, he felt a headache, and he also ignored another thing.

After Sun Ce fought from Jiujiang to Guangling, he was able to transport soldiers and supplies with Yuan Shu's army in Lujiang through the Yangtze River. Therefore, there were many more ships on both sides of the Yangtze River.

On the Yangtze River at this moment, his fleet of dozens of large ships is really too conspicuous.

Yuan Xi quickly discussed with Guo Jia, ordered all the ships to lower their flags, and gradually distanced themselves from each other to deceive others.

Guangling City in the Han Dynasty was roughly located somewhere in Yangzhou in later generations, surrounded by not only the Yangtze River, but also several other water systems.

The most recent one is the Hangou, which was dug by Fu Shi, the king of Wu. This was an important part of the later Sui Dynasty when the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was dug. canal.

Although Hangou has been excavated for nearly a thousand years, due to the chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, its coast was ravaged by war and the population was sparse, so it was more convenient than going up the Yangtze River.

In the dark night, fighting against the damage of the ship, the fleet forcibly approached the bank of Hangou, and put the cavalry company on it down.

After working hard for most of the night, hundreds of cavalry finally came ashore from the river with a radius of tens of miles, and then disappeared into the dense forest.

Tai Shici got off the boat with the last batch of cavalry, and he wanted to gather these cavalry again in the dense forest, and then within a day, he would lurk a dozen miles outside Guangling without being discovered by the enemy.

On Yuan Xi's side, he concentrated the remaining six or seven hundred soldiers on five or six boats, and did two things before attacking the city.

One is to send a few people to sneak into Guangling City during the day, and then launch an attack that night to take the opportunity to open the city gate.

Second, the remaining people stayed at Guangling Wharf to meet them, and prevented the people in Guangling City from escaping by water.

Seeing Guo Jia and Tian Yu carefully discussing every detail, Yuan Xi wondered if things would really go so smoothly?
But his apprehension could not be shown. He was the commander of an army, and if he showed a lack of faith, his soldiers would be demoralized.

He thought for a while, then went to the cabin below.

He walked down the wooden ladder, and in the cabin on the bottom floor, Sun Li was sitting on the ground talking with the soldiers.

Most of the hundreds of soldiers looked calm, and a few of them were not very good-looking. These people were all soldiers from the north, and some of them had obvious seasickness.

Sun Li was laughing at them, "Look at you, you are usually better than me, but you can get so dizzy in a boat, is it embarrassing?"

Someone laughed and cursed: "Boy Sun, if you follow the envoy, you won't take us seriously."

Sun Li patted his chest, triumphantly: "You don't have to be weird. Back then you laughed at me for not being married. Now that I have children, I see what you have to say!"

Everyone burst into laughter, "Yes, yes, Sun Boy is very capable."

At this time Yuan Xi came down, and when everyone saw it, they stood up quickly,

"Son!"

"Your Majesty!"

Most of these soldiers are veterans of Beixincheng, and they have followed Yuan Xi since the beginning when he went to Beixincheng.

Yuan Xi saw that everyone looked a little cautious, and suddenly realized that he is now the lord of a state, and the distance from them may become more and more distant in the future.

Thinking of this, he took a few steps forward, patted the shoulder of the person in front and said, "I won't say anything else."

"I can't promise you all will come back."

"I can only guarantee that if any of you have come back, as long as you have family members, I will support them for the rest of your life."

"If you don't have family members, I don't know what you want, so you can just tell me."

"At that time, I will go to battle with you."

After everyone listened, someone said: "In the past few years, my son has never been short of food and salary, and it is not a problem to support more people."

Everyone took a closer look and found that the man's surname was Hu, and he was originally a hunter.

At the beginning of the chaos in Zhuojun, his family was killed by the rebels, and he was the only one who fled to Beixin City, and later became Yuan Xi's scout.

Lao Hu continued: "Because of the abundance of food, I begged a wife and gave birth to a boy."

"My son gave me my life. You just got married and have no children. You can kill the enemy with us. What else can I say?"

"Young master, don't worry, I, Hu, will cut down as many enemies as there are in front!"

After hearing this, everyone shouted, "Okay!"

"Old Hu is refreshing!"

"I want to say that too!"

"Willing to die for the son!"

"Willing to die for the son!"

Seeing the excitement of the crowd, Yuan Xi nodded slightly, clasped his fists and said, "Then I'll thank you all!"

However, he felt a little heavy in his heart. After all, after tonight, he didn't know how many people in front of him would be able to come back.

Especially the dozens of people who need to enter the city ahead of time are selected by the most elite scouts. In order to dress up as ordinary people, they cannot wear weapons and armor, and can only find their own way to face the heavily armed defenders. Lost life.

Yuan Xi boarded the deck, and saw the outline of the big city faintly appearing tens of miles away, and the goal of this trip was Guangling over there.

He returned to the cabin and said to Zhen Mi: "Today and tomorrow, you will stay in the cabin, no matter what happens, you can't come out."

After hearing this, Zhen Mi said, "Husband, are you afraid that I will be in danger?"

Yuan Xi said: "There is such a reason, the key is that we came to Guangling this time in the name of the Zhen family caravan."

"Your appearance is too outstanding. If you are seen by others, it will be easy for others to guess the details, and then our previous efforts will be in vain."

After Zhen Mi heard this, she nodded quickly, and said worriedly: "I heard that my husband is going to fight in person, please be careful."

Yuan Xi said with a smile: "Don't worry, I know it well."

In the morning light, the big ship slowly docked at Guangling Wharf.

Even in Guangling, it is rare to see such a large ship. Seeing it docked, everyone exclaimed and rushed over to see what happened.

The gangway of the big ship was lowered, and soldiers dressed as servants were pushing carts full of mahogany boxes, and were about to push off the gangway. As a result, there were too many people at the dock, and the road was blocked.

At this time, Tian Yu stood up with an iron sword on his shoulder, and he shouted: "The Zhen family caravan transports goods, do you really want to live?"

He took out his iron sword and tapped on the side of the boat, "Everyone is messing around, if my master's business is ruined, I will definitely report to the prefect and give my Zhen family an explanation!"

"However, when you go out to do business, you want to be safe and peaceful. This is the first prize to meet you. Please make way for everyone, so as not to turn your face!"

He asked someone to take a basket of copper coins and sprinkle them on the pier. The copper coins fell like raindrops amidst the cheers of the crowd. There are endless calls.

Yuan Xi and Guo Jia stood behind, Guo Jia said with a smile: "Guorang actually pretends to be a slave."

"That's fine, the bigger the movement, the less likely the other party will become suspicious."

Seeing the crowd scrambling, the pier was in disarray. Seeing this, dozens of soldiers guarding the pier surrounded them with shouts and dispersed the crowd.

The leader Shi Zhang raised his spear, pointed at Tian Yu and shouted angrily: "How dare you make trouble here, come down!"

Tian Yu listened, sneered, turned over from the side of the boat and jumped down, amidst the exclamation of everyone, went straight down a distance of two feet, and landed heavily on the pier.

Shi Shiran walked up to Shi Chang, clasped his fists and said, "Master, this is the Zhen family caravan. They have been to Guangling for business several times, and they are not here to cause trouble."

Shi Chang said angrily: "What Zhen family, I haven't heard of it!"

Tian Yu sneered and said, "Jizhou Zhen's family, the military master doesn't know about it, does he?"

Na Shichang heard it, and then realized that these are the four richest businessmen in the world, how could he not have heard of it?
Tian Yu said with a smile: "But these military masters, why don't villains know each other, look a little embarrassed?"

He knew that these people were Sun Ce's subordinates, they had just occupied Guangling City for a month, and they were not familiar with the caravans of all parties, but they happened to be used by him in reverse.

After hearing this, Na Shichang shouted: "Now this city belongs to Mr. Yuan Shijun!"

"I'm going to board the ship for inspection now!"

After Tian Yu heard this, he sneered and said, "Why didn't you have this rule before?"

"Is this how Guangling treats guests?"

"Who is the current Guangling prefect?"

When Shi Chang heard this, his face turned cold, and he shouted: "Why, do you still want to sue?"

Tian Yu heard this, laughed, and said, "Where, I heard that Guangling City has changed its owner. My Zhen family has prepared a small gift, and I want to pay a visit to the pier."

He ordered a box to be carried over.The lid of the box was opened, and there were more than a dozen bolts of silk cloth inside.

Seeing him, Shi Chang said with a sneer, "Just this little thing, do you still want to see our general?"

Tian Yu shook his finger and said, "This is for Lord Jun."

He pointed to the dozen or so boxes behind him, "Those are for the prefect."

(End of this chapter)