Chapter 160: Beginning to Plan, Liu Xun Sends Out Troops It was because Kou Cai and others followed Liu Xun's orders to go north to meet Mei Cheng. He thought this matter was of great importance and did not dare to slack off. He traveled for several days until he reached the outskirts of Huoshan Village. However, as he did not know the details, he could not be sure that Mei Cheng was there. So he first found a village and stayed there for two days, asking for details and making sure that this was indeed Qin Zhen's camp before coming here. Unexpectedly, as soon as they reached the forest behind the camp, they were surrounded by patrolling soldiers. When Kou Cai saw this, he was terrified and dared not speak. On the contrary, the clerk who was accompanying him was quite calm and said: "We are old friends of General Mei Cheng. We have come to meet him at his invitation." "Please inform everyone and let us in to see you." After his explanation, the scouts looked at each other and did not dare to release the enemy privately, so they sent someone to report to Zhao Yun, who was in charge of the investigation. When Zhao Yun heard that it was Mei Cheng's old friend, he knew that it was Liu Xun's men who came. Following Qin Zhen's instructions, he immediately sent a messenger to deliver the message: "Go and pick him up, and tell him that you are Mei Cheng's trusted confidant. Send him into the camp and listen to what he is talking about in secret. Report to me immediately!"

Upon hearing this, his confidant walked out of the camp, led the two men into the camp, and informed Mei Cheng. Mei Cheng was overjoyed when he heard this, and he invited the two of them to meet him. When you entered the camp, he took a closer look and saw that it was the enemy who had just arrived. He hurriedly said: "Brother Kou, why are you so late? I have been waiting for you for a long time!" Kou Cai was quite resentful about his trip north this time, thinking that all the credit went to Mei Cheng, while he only got the credit of delivering the message. But when he saw Mei Cheng sitting beside the couch with a pale face, he couldn't help but think of their past friendship, so he stepped forward and said with concern: "My dear brother, why are you so desperate? How come you can't even get off the bed?" As soon as he said this, Mei Cheng's smile faded. He wanted to say something but didn't. He sighed first and said: "Don't mention this, I'm already half dead!" "If you don't come, my life might be in danger!" Seeing Mei Cheng like this, Kou Cai quickly comforted him: "Don't worry, my dear brother. How can you say such a thing?" The clerk beside him frowned and said: "I heard that the general's brother Mei Qian is still in the camp. He has his brothers to take care of him. He shouldn't be here!" Mei Cheng heard this, looked up at the clerk, and asked: "I still don't know what to call you, sir?" Upon seeing this, the clerk immediately bowed and said: "My surname is Zhou, my given name is Tiao, and my courtesy name is Wenli." Mei Cheng heard this, nodded, and sighed again: "Sir, you don't know that my brother has always been hostile to me. He scolded me a lot in Xiang County before!" "Now that I've been through this disaster, he hasn't said a word. I've already considered him gone!" "This is a family scandal, I don't want to say more, I hope Mr. Zhou will forgive me!"

When Zhou Tiao heard this, he looked at Kou Cai without saying a word, and saw Kou Cai nod slightly. He had known for a long time that there was a conflict between the brothers Mei Cheng and Mei Qian. Moreover, Mei Qian is a more cunning person. It is understandable that he is afraid of being implicated and is unwilling to help Mei Cheng. His nod instantly dispelled Zhou Tiao's doubts, and he simply asked directly: "In that case, I will not hide it from you, General. Actually, the reason we came here this time is because Brother Kou received a letter saying that the General sent someone to deliver it. Is this true?" Seeing that he had brought up the subject, Mei Cheng nodded and said: "It is true. The letter was written by me myself!" Seeing this, Zhou Tiao narrowed his eyes and smiled: "My Lord has read this letter, but I don't know what the General is talking about." Mei Cheng looked at Zhou Tiao like this and thought to himself that he did not specify the location in his letter. But if Liu Xun is interested, he should at least give some benefits! Was this man trying to test him by asking such a direct question? Thinking about it, Mei Cheng said in a deep voice: "If you want me to tell you where, you should first tell me what Mr. Liu thinks!" "Does the general have any objection to my surrender?" Seeing this, Kou Cai wanted to speak, but Zhou Tiao sneered first: "If the general is sincere in surrendering, why would my lord promise him any benefits first?" "You should say it first, and then reward me after my Lord confirms it!" Mei Cheng heard this and said coldly: "If there is no benefit, it will be hard for me to speak!" It was Qin Zhen's order to ask for benefits first, because he sent the letter in order to play hard to get and let Liu Xun take the bait himself! On this basis, Liu Xun would have to pay a certain price before he would believe their false news. Otherwise, the ancients were not stupid, and they would always be suspicious of something that fell from the sky. Mei Cheng's reaction dispelled Zhou Tiao's last doubts, and his face immediately turned happy and he said: "I am joking with you, General. Please don't be angry!" "In fact, my master was very pleased to receive the general's letter, so he ordered me to take up the post of the general's Pingjiang lieutenant first!" "The seal is here, but I have no intention of deceiving the general!" As he spoke, he took out a small square seal from his sleeve. When Mei Cheng saw this, he was overjoyed, thinking that Liu Xun was indeed generous. He had served under Yuan Shu for many years, but had never led an army independently. Now, Liu Xun was promoted to the position of colonel as soon as he took action! Although this seal is not genuine, Liu Xun has appointed him as a colonel now. After Liu Xun is defeated in the future, he can use this seal to ask Qin Zhen for the position of colonel! It can't be that Liu Xun appointed him as a captain, but Qin Zhen was so stingy that he refused to give him any credit, right? In his joy, he stretched out his hand to take the seal, but saw Zhou Tiao retract his hand and said with a grin: "General, please don't worry. Now that we have given you the benefits, why don't you first tell me where the letter is written?" Mei Cheng frowned when he saw him like this:

"I want to surrender, how can I know but not say it?" "But this matter is top secret and cannot be told to outsiders. Come closer and listen!" When Zhou Tiao came closer, he repeated everything Qin Zhen had instructed him to say. Zhou Tiao's eyes lit up when he heard this, and when Mei Cheng finished speaking, he said happily: "How did the general learn about this?" Mei Cheng heard this and smiled slightly: "This matter is top secret to you, but it is not difficult to know among our army." "I knew about this when I was in Shouchun, but I didn't want to tell anyone. If Qin Zhen hadn't said this, I wouldn't have told you!" After hearing this, Zhou Tiao thought about it carefully and realized that it made sense, so he nodded in agreement. Then he agreed with Mei Cheng to surrender. Mei Cheng directly responded as Qin Zhen instructed: "I am recovering from my injuries, so it is not a good time for me to go south. Qin Zhen is now attacking Chen Ce, and there will be many killings. The bandits are all afraid of him!" "Wait a few more days for me. If I can convince one of them, maybe we can go south together!" Seeing that Mei Cheng was still willing to help Liu Xun recruit a group of people, Zhou Tiao was delighted and said: "The general is indeed a good general, but it's a pity that Qin Zhen didn't recognize him and made the general so tired!" "Now that you have joined our army and have made such a great contribution, you will definitely be valued by my lord!" So he gave them a few more words of encouragement, and Mei Cheng responded one by one. After some discussion, he finally sent the two away. As soon as he sent the man away, Zhao Yun's trusted men outside the camp heard the whole story and returned to the tent to inform Zhao Yun of the news. At this time, Qin Zhen had already arrived at Zhao Yun's military tent after receiving Zhao Yun's notification. After hearing the soldier's story, he smiled and said to Zhao Yun: "I have already told you this, and I will keep it for a good use!" "Now it seems that this villain is more helpful than Bill and others in this matter!" Zhao Yun heard this and said with a smile: "I really admire the military advisor's way of employing people, but now that it has been accomplished, what should we do?" To be honest, in his opinion, Qin Zhen's use of Mei Cheng was indeed brilliant. It is by making full use of everything that Meicheng’s full value is brought into play. But now that Liu Xun's envoy has returned, they should prepare to close the net and consider the next tactic. After all, Liu Xun is not Chen Ce, so he needs to make arrangements in advance. Qin Zhen was prepared. When he heard this, he smiled and said: "There's no rush for this, I've already had my concerns!" "According to the information released by our army, Liu Xun will definitely advance by land and sea, bypassing Lu'an, Hefei and other places to go straight to Chaohu Lake and launch a surprise attack on Jundao!"

"And our army in Liyang and other places has few troops and it is difficult to annihilate Liu Xun's troops!" "So I want you, Zilong, to lead an army of 10,000 to march north from here, hiding during the day and moving out at night, and ambush south of Chaohu Lake and north of Xiang'an!" "There are three more letters. One is given to Qin Yi, asking him to stop Liu Xun's way;" "A letter was given to Zi Jing, telling him to prepare to attack the navy;" "Send a letter to Taishi Ci, and have him send troops to Chungu to ambush by the river and block Liu Xun's retreat to the south!" "So, Zilong, wait for Liu Xun to be defeated, then stop his troops. I will personally lead the army to capture Wanxian and Juchao. This will ensure that Liu Xun has no way to escape, and Lujiang will fall into our hands!" With such a short arrangement, he had set up a big net for Liu Xun, just waiting for Liu Xun to fall into the net. Zhao Yun was overjoyed after hearing the details, and said hurriedly: "Military advisor, please write the letter yourself, and I will send a message to him!" Seeing this, Qin Zhen smiled and took out three letters from his bosom and said: "But there is no need to write anymore, I have prepared everything!" "Just send it out everywhere!" When Zhao Yun saw this, he hurriedly took the letter and sent it to various places. At this time, Kou Cai and Zhou Tiao went to the big village and then returned towards Wan County. After two days of walking, they entered the city of Wan County. When they met Liu Xun, they talked about everything. Then they bowed and said: "We have received the general's order and have already found out the places Mei Cheng mentioned are Chaohu and Jundao!" "According to Mei Cheng, after Liu Bei conquered Jianghuai, he wanted to go south to Jiangdong, so he used Zheng Bao's troops to train a navy!" "At present, the money and grain used to purchase ships and the navy are all stored in the Jundao treasury!" "As for the Chaohu Water Fort, there are a lot of food and grass that Liu Bei bought from Jingzhou. These are all for Liu Bei to use for disaster relief. There are hundreds of thousands of stones of food!" "Because Liu Bei was afraid of Cao Cao and Lu Bu's invasion, he stored money and grain in this hinterland." “But now Mei Cheng is determined to surrender, so he told this to our army in order to seek a step forward!” Having said this, he did not elaborate further. But when Liu Xun heard the news, his eyes lit up and he said: "Little Liu Bei only knows the might of Cao Cao and Lu Bu's army, but does he not know the might of our army?" "Now our army's treasury is short of money. If we can get the money and food here, even if Liu Bei leads his troops south, what will I be afraid of?" He had long heard that Liu Bei had obtained hundreds of millions of dollars from Yuan Shu's treasury. If he obtained all these things, he would be able to hold on to the city even if Liu Bei went south. At worst, I can take these things south to Yuzhang and establish my own territory! After making up his mind, he no longer hesitated and called all his subjects to announce: "Now our army is short of money and food. I have heard a secret report that Jundao and Chaohu have money and food, and they intend to send troops to attack and seize these two places. What do you think?" Everyone heard this decision and had no opinion for a while, except Dong Qian who stepped out and said: "May I ask, General, is this letter from Mei Cheng himself?"

Seeing this, Liu Xun nodded and said: "That's exactly what Mei Cheng said!" "I wonder where he is? Would you please come and see me?" Liu Xun then summoned Zhou Tiao to meet Dong Qian. Dong Qian asked about each matter in turn, and Zhou Tiao responded one by one, without any mistakes in his words. After Dong Qian confirmed this, he stroked his beard and nodded: "If you look at it this way, this news may not be false!" "But now the enemy's money and food are divided into two places. If our army wants to take them, how should we advance?" Liu Xun didn't even think about it and replied: "This is easy. Right now, this dredging road is far from our army, but it is close to Chaohu Lake!" "So I intend to attack both by land and water, and advance in two directions at the same time!" "Use the navy to attack Chaohu Lake, and I will lead the troops to attack Jundao." "After obtaining money and food in this way, we can return by water to avoid pursuit. Even if the enemy finds us, there is no way to stop us!" Dong Qian listened to the details and no longer had any doubts. He just stroked his beard and said: "But after the general leaves, you must leave a capable person to guard Wan County in case Qin Zhen finds out something is wrong and launches a surprise attack!" When Liu Xun saw this, he smiled and said: "I have also considered this matter. Now that we are about to attack Jundao, there is no need to garrison Juchao and other places for the time being. I want to transfer my brother back to Wanxian to guard the city!" "With him defending this place, Qin Zhen will have a hard time capturing the city in an instant!" After he made all these arrangements, Dong Qian couldn't find any loopholes and stopped talking. Therefore, Liu Xun immediately mobilized a total of 20,000 naval troops and headed towards Jiujiang. But as his navy moved, it was soon discovered by the Jiangdong navy, and the news of Liu Xun's mobilization was also sent through Jiangdong. (End of this chapter)