While Zhang Song and Dian Wei rushed to Jiangling City, he did not forget to split several cavalry from his entourage's guards and went north to Xiangyang to inform Li Su of the latest military situation.

In this way, when Zhang Song entered Jiangling City the next day, the early morning of October 18th, preparing to transport important supplies, Li Su could almost get the latest news.

Zhang Song spent two nights and one day during the journey, and they were all sleeping on the boat while rushing down the road. It was so fast that the soldiers were very powerful.

When his messenger returned to Xiangyang, he could not be so convenient, so he could only change horses and horses all the way to report the news. Because on the way back, whether it was the Hanshui section or the Jushui section, he was sailing against the current, which was far less than a fast horse.

Cai Mao gathered private soldiers and servants from Yicheng in the early morning of the 17th, but he walked on the Xiashui River which was not visible and was not exposed. He could arrive in Jiangling at least 19th, and Zhang Song had at least one more day to transport supplies.

Even if Cai Mao arrived, because he had not yet officially broken up, Zhang Song might be able to get a group of people away.

The actual operation was true. Before Cai Mao arrived, the Nanjun magistrate had no doubt about Zhang Song's orders at all. He first brought together at least three or four thousand large trucks in the city, as well as a considerable number of ships.

There are also three to four thousand county soldiers in the city. Strictly speaking, if Zhang Song immediately announced that the city would be closed and defended, he would have been able to hold on for a few days to resist the enemy outside the city. But at first he didn't know how many local county soldiers were bribed by Cai Mao. He was an outside civil servant who was airborne, and with Dian Wei, he could not control the troops in one day.

So it's better to roll it up and remove it softly. Otherwise, if someone secretly opens the city gate when Cai Mao comes, everyone will be ruined. Moreover, if they plan to do so, they can't bear to leave the child and can't trap the wolf, and Sun Ce will not see the opportunity to take Jiangling, how can they lure Sun Ce to be held back and complete a larger encirclement net?

Of course, Zhang Song would not even leave the boat for Cai Mao. He quickly filled all the boats and even issued a reward order to give each dock a high wage of "loading and unloading ten stones and pumping a bucket of grain" on the same day.

That is, the wage is equivalent to one percent of the loading and unloading weight, and there is an extra meal to eat on the day of work. The transportation distance is just to move from the dock stack to the ship to the ship to place it. This labor intensity and remuneration amount are definitely enough to make dock workers jealous of working frantically in the late Han Dynasty.

In the end, a dock worker moved far more than 100 stones, so he carried more than 200 kilograms of grain home to his daily wage.

Doing so will give more grains that cannot be transported to the people, so that the people can think of Li Su's goodness, just treat it as meat rotten in the pot. After Sun Ce comes, if he dares to scrape the people and grab the grains that Li Su sent back, the people in Jiangling City will definitely be devastated, which will facilitate a comprehensive counterattack after Li Su's trap is improved.

With this hand, Zhang Song transported away all the precious military equipment in Jiangling City, and the extra transportation capacity was to transport property and food.

Zhang Song did not pay much attention to the selection of specific rush-shipping materials, because Zhang Song knew that even if Cai Mao stole Jiangling and met Sun Ce, Sun Ce would have no place to spend these copper coins. As long as Sun Ce was annihilated, all these hard currency could come back.

As for silk and Shu brocade, there is a little risk. I have to worry about whether Sun Ce will be angry and angry when he loses the city in the future and burns all the silk. But now I don’t care about this extreme situation and at most I can take away the gold and silver inventory as much as possible.

In addition to equipment and valuables, the final transportation capacity was still much more, so Zhang Song loaded at least seven or eight hundred small boats of grain and rice, each carrying hundreds of stones, and at least more than 400,000 stones were transported away.

According to the consumption rate of a soldier who eclipsed one stone of rice during the war, more than 400,000 stones of grain would not be enough for a hundred thousand troops to eat for three months.

However, the scale of grain storage in Jiangling City and the scale of hoarding during Liu Biao's reign were calculated based on the "support to the main force of Liu Biao's army for three or four years."

Even if Liu Biao had only 50,000 or 60,000 backbone forces at that time, roughly estimated that the total savings in the city's treasury were still as huge as three million stones! This data was similar to the grain that Gongsun Zan had plundered Youzhou and concentrated in Yijinglou.

However, Youzhou was poor and had plundered all the surrounding counties to make up so much for Gongsun Zan to ruin it. The Jianghan Plain was rich, and basically it was only based on the Jianghan local output.

After reading the accounts, Zhang Song felt a little unwilling: "There is actually three million stones of grain in the city! 400,000 are transported away, and there are still two and six million! Tomorrow will be the last hammer sale.

Even if other valuables are shipped tomorrow, all the ox carts and ships will transport grain at most, and at most more than 700,000 yuan will be left for Sun Ce. At least more than 1.8 million yuan will be left for Sun Ce. Sun Ce will definitely not be able to eat the day after he finishes his food, and Sikong would not allow Sun Ce to occupy Jiangling for so long.

I just want Sun Ce to have a little human nature. When the matter is about to withdraw, don’t burn the things that cannot be eaten or lucky in the city… If he dares to set the fire, Sikong will never spare his life. If he does not set the fire, perhaps it can be determined by his kindness and will eventually save his life."

Zhang Song thought this way, and the goods on the first day were basically loaded and all set off. Jiangling went to Dangyang for one hundred miles, and the round trip was 200 miles. Zhang Song rewarded all the coachmen and escort soldiers. He must go to Dangyang one day, and rushed back overnight tonight, and load the second batch the next day.

However, just when Zhang Song was busy like this, a senior official who could talk to Jiangling City weakly questioned Zhang Song's actions.

This person is Liu Qi, the official prefect of Nanjun, the court.

Liu Qi looked really cowardly. He heard that Li Su wanted to recruit Jiangling's supplies to fight the Northern Front, but he did not dare to resist directly. But later he saw that Zhang Song even started moving gold and silver and valuables, so he was suspicious that he couldn't hold it in.

After all, Li Su is going to fight, so what's the matter if you move all the gold in the treasury?

When Liu Qi invited him to lunch and asked about this, Zhang Song didn't have much to say. He could only rely on Li Su's power, and then thought about Li Su's position, and said toughly, "Sikong has to discuss matters about logistics and military supplies with Liu Fujun and ask Liu Fujun to go to Xiangyang today."

Liu Qi was slightly scared, but he thought that he had been to Xiangyang once two months ago to welcome Li Su, who had just taken office. Now that nothing major happened, he might not be held hostage if he went there again.

Besides, the entire Jingzhou is controlled by Li Su now, and he has no chance to resist, so he has to follow Zhang Song dejectedly.

The purpose of Zhang Song's arrangement was also because Li Su told him, and with Zhang Song's own observation, he found that Liu Qi was indeed cowardly and without any threat.

If Cai Mao caused trouble but harmed Liu Qi, it would be unreasonable. Some people would think that Liu Bei would kill the donkey and gradually eliminate dissidents from the princes who surrendered to him.

It’s better to keep Liu Qi, at least a few more years of life. Maybe he will die of illness slowly with Liu Qi’s weakness and lust. As long as the death time is not too close to Liu Biao’s surrender to Liu Bei, if there are a few more years, no one will think about it. Or if someone really uses Liu Qi’s name to make trouble, it’s not too late to get rid of it (although no one is so stupid to beat Liu Qi’s name, Liu Bei is the founding monarch)

That night, Liu Qi followed the transportation team to retreat to Dangyang safely. Zhang Song gave instructions in advance, but did not ask the guards who escorted Liu Qi to continue to take Liu Qi north to Xiangyang, but guarded Dangyang City.

Before leaving, Zhang Song advised Liu Qi to open another warehouse to release a wave of grain in his own name. Liu Qi was afraid that Zhang Song would frame him, but he did not dare to refuse, so he made a coincidence to send a lot of grain to the people inside and outside the city.

As for Zhang Song himself, because he will have to ship a final batch tomorrow and deal with Cai Mao who may appear, he will live in Jiangling City tonight to maintain taxes.

By the way, let’s think about how to make some damage to urban defense facilities without any expense, with high temporary effects and low repair costs in the future. In this way, even if Jiangling temporarily falls into Sun Ce’s hands, it will be more convenient to get it back next time, and repair it after taking it back is cheaper.

Liu Qi did not come with Zhang Song to accompany him, and he walked to Dangyang and stopped leaving. He couldn't help but feel panic, but he had no choice.

Fortunately, Liu Qi was only nervous in Dangyang City until midnight, and finally couldn't resist the fatigue and fell asleep in a daze. The next morning, I woke up at the end of the morning. After lunch, I don't know how long it took, but Liu Qi was told that there was another team of fast horse scouts in the north, led by a new captain, and showed a letter to go to the city to take over the city defense.

The patrol officer Zhang Song stayed in Dangyang checked the seal and immediately sent the general to the city. In accordance with the order of Sikong Mansion, he handed over the defense of Dangyang County to the visitor.

Liu Qi was nervous and invited someone to meet and talk, but then he realized that it was the old man he knew, Huang Zhong, the general of his cousin Liu Pan!

Before Liu Biao surrendered to Liu Bei, Huang Zhong was just a captain, and was on par with Cai Mao. However, after Liu Bei ascended the throne, he felt that the promising generals were generally promoted, so Huang Zhong is now a captain.

A guy who has not made new contributions and has become a lieutenant only by universal promotion.

Huang Zhong only brought dozens of personal soldiers, which were very small. Li Su obviously deployed and dealt with them in such an emergency after hearing Zhang Song's return at noon on the 18th. The reason for sending Huang Zhong was obviously because he had a certain prestige among the soldiers of the Nanjun County. With Huang Zhong there, the soldiers might not necessarily follow Cai Mao, so he tried to pull out more innocent people to avoid being thieves.

On the other hand, Huang Zhong was able to take office with only a few dozen people, and his reaction speed was faster than Zhao Yun, almost as fast as the Pegasus messenger. He ran for more than 300 miles in most of the day, and even a few horses changed several times, and some people still ran to death.

Although Zhao Yun's men and horses were also cavalry, a large army of thousands of people had to take care of their horsepower in marching. It was impossible for them to arrive overnight. At least one or two days later than Huang Zhong.

...

When Liu Qi felt a little relieved because of Huang Zhong's arrival and no longer thought about Li Su's intention to harm him.

Cai Mao's vanguard had already arrived in Jiangling City before noon that day.

The first one was the private soldiers under Cai Mao's army. These soldiers were nominally the county soldiers of Nanjun, but were only screened and maintained by the Cai family, which was equivalent to the famous county soldiers, which were actually private soldiers.

As for Cai Mao's genuine servant, it will take two hours to arrive. These people are not justified and appear later is to avoid commotion.

When Cai Mao was surrounded by private soldiers and entered the city, he met Zhang Song protected by Dian Wei. Cai Mao felt really cold and dared not to tear his face forward.

He knew that he had many soldiers, but if Dian Wei's terrifying force was approached within a few dozen steps and he would easily have an accident if he didn't fight with you in groups.

So, even though he knew that Sun Ce might have sneaked across Hanyang City from the Yangtze River last night, Zhou Tai, who was in the direction of Hanyang, had begun to repay the enemy's situation with Pegasus, and knew that it was imminent that he had launched an army to seize the city, he still did not dare to directly confront Dian Wei.

He felt that he could still wait in one or two hours. While figuring out the situation, he waited for his three or four thousand men to arrive and join forces to join forces. By the way, he took advantage of this time to further bribe the county soldiers and officers who had originally served in Jiangling City.

He didn't know that Zhang Song on the opposite side was actually very nervous. If Jiangling City was not lost, Sun Ce would turn around and leave immediately after hearing the plan failed. If he wanted to lose, he could not close the city gate and block Cai Mao outside the city.

Now that Cai Mao has entered the city, Cai Mao has brought more private soldiers than those on duty in the city. No matter how brave Dian Wei is, he is just protecting Zhang Song to break through.

Therefore, in the face of tension between both sides, Zhang Song said that he was ordered by Li Suzhi and said: Liu Bei and Yuan Shao had fought again in Hedong on the northern front, and Yuan Shao's troops in the Yin area of ​​Henan also began to attack Wancheng. Zhao Yun's Nanyang War Zone needed great material support, so Jingxiang's strategic reserves must support a batch of North Transport.

Cai Mao was nervous and had no time to carefully distinguish the authenticity. He just saw the consequences: if Zhang Song transported this batch again, he would definitely lose control of a lot of materials. But if Zhang Song and Dian Wei and others were withdrawn, and the county soldiers who were definitely pro-Li Su's side would also transfer food protection, wouldn't he have a greater grasp of controlling Jiangling City?

At this time, Cai Mao also noticed that even Liu Qi was not in Jiangling City. Now he had no chance to have a puppet Liu Qi. He could only occupy Jiangling first, so as not to have too many dreams. Even if Zhang Song saw something, as long as he thought about running away at this moment, let him escape.

If Sun Ce came quickly and Zhang Song had not returned to Xiangyang yet, he would send troops to rob Zhang Song's goods halfway through the way! Eliminate his troops!

In a delicate balance, before noon on October 19th, Zhang Song scrambled out a large amount of supplies, and all the vehicles and ships were used. Before he could tear his face, he transported more than 700,000 stones of supplies as scheduled.

Cai Mao sat down and saw that the risk of resistance in the city had gone, and officially announced the flag that afternoon. He led about 8,000 people to recognise Liu He as the emperor - including six or seven thousand private soldiers, servants, and more than a thousand people were not very clear about the local garrison soldiers who decided to surrender to Cai Mao.

The reason why Cai Mao was able to fool them was that in the past few days, several local aristocratic families have raided the evil of the new imperial examination law, and will select corrupt officials with moral corruption. Many aristocratic families in the Nanjun, and the clan thieves do not support the new law.

On the other hand, it is to exaggerate the strength of one's own camp and tell the illiterate big-headed soldiers how crowded the three-way prince alliance opposite the illiterate big-headed soldiers. General Sun will come to pick us up soon, so standing on the side of Liu He and General Sun, you can become the winner.

It was also thrilling. When Cai Mao announced the uprising, Zhou Tai's report was already past Jingling, and one day he would be able to reach Jiangling and Xiangyang.

In fact, Sun Ce's troops had already sneaked across the Yangtze River and Han River near Hanyang on the night of the 18th, and then divided the troops into two groups. The Han River was fast, the Yangtze River was slow, and it rushed straight into Jiangling.

When Cai Mao occupied Jiangling City, Sun Ce's troops had already entered the country for nine hours. However, the information transmission was slow, which led to the Jiangling locals who did not know Sun Ce's location when Cai Mao took action.

The troops from Sun Ce North Line to Han River, Jingling, Dangyang to Jiangling will arrive one day and a half later, that is, on October 21st. The main force of the large ship who came from the Yangtze River will also arrive in the 24th day, and the error will not exceed the entire day.

At the same time, Sun Ce would certainly not be so stupid as to ignore the retreat, and the entire army rushed straight to Jiangling. Because along the way, except for the military fortresses like Hanyang, Zhou Tai was guarding heavily, many small counties also had no defensive forces.

Several counties in the southeast of other southern counties, as well as ferry key points such as Hanjin and Jiangjin, were managed by Cai Mao's family and other people from Yingshi family in Jingzhou, and could be easily taken down without any accidents. In this way, after Sun Ce's army entered the country, they could still obtain a certain strategic depth and strategic support point, and they could attack and retreat or defend.
Chapter completed!