Chapter 237: Qin's Joy, Business Gains In 198 AD, that is, August of the third year of Jian'an, under the imperial edict, Liu Biao and Liu Bei joined forces to attack Jiangdong. That month, Sun Ce learned the news and followed Zhou Yu's plan to march into Danyang, hoping to use the natural barrier of the Yangtze River to stop Liu Bei's troops. Zhou Yu, then commander-in-chief of the Jiangdong navy, brazenly marched westward, entered Jingzhou and defeated the Jingzhou navy. Although this move allowed the Jiangdong navy to gain an early advantage, it made Liu Biao see the navy's shortcomings. He replaced the generals before the battle, with Huang She taking over the position of chief general and Cai Mao in charge of commanding the Jingzhou navy. This operation directly saved the declining status of the Jingzhou navy and successfully pushed the battle line to the border of Jingzhou. The two armies confronted each other at Pengli Lake for more than ten days. In mid-September, in order to break the deadlock, the Jiangdong Army took the initiative to open the Chungu defense line and lure Lu Su, the naval commander under Liu Bei, to attack. However, under the joint planning of Zhuge Liang and Lu Su, Zhou Yu fell into the trap and sent troops, which resulted in his retreat being attacked by the navy of Jingzhou. In this battle, the allied forces of Liu Bei and Liu Biao exceeded 20,000 men, while Zhou Yu had only over 8,000 men. In the end, the two families paid a total of over 5,000 men and almost wiped out the Jiangdong navy. Among them, the Jingzhou army lost more than 4,000 soldiers, Liu Bei's army lost more than 1,000 soldiers, and Jiangdong lost more than 7,000 soldiers. Only a few hundred remnants of Zhou Yu escaped.

In addition, the allied general Chen Ju was captured, Huo Du was killed in battle, Deng Long was seriously injured, and Liu Bei's generals Hu Si and Geng Qi were both injured. The Jiangdong army was not in a good situation either. Generals Ling Cao, Dong Xi and Chen Bao were killed in battle one after another. Only Han Dang, Lu Meng, Deng Dang and others led Zhou Yu to fight their way out and retreat all the way to the eastern front. At this point, Jiangdong's first line of defense completely collapsed, and Liu Bei's army successfully opened a passage to the south. After the victory, the Jingzhou army and Liu Bei's navy finally joined forces. At Qin Zhen's invitation, they went to Tongyang and had a three-day banquet. At the same time, they sent the victory report to Shouchun. At this time, in Shouchun City and Qin Zhen's mansion, a battle was also going on in full swing - to put it simply, Cai Yan was about to give birth. Because Cai Yan was already pregnant a year ago, when Qin Zhen set out, she was already nearly eight months pregnant. Although pregnancy lasts ten months, the fetus is fully developed at thirty-seven weeks. As soon as September began, Hua Tuo concluded that Cai Yan would give birth in the middle of the month at the latest. As a result, the entire Qin family immediately felt like they were facing a formidable enemy, and they lined up to prepare for the attack half a month in advance. Even though Cai Yan had given birth once, the chance of death from dystocia was very high in that era. She was also afraid that she would be separated from Qin Zhen forever if she was not careful, and she was very anxious. This incident even alarmed Liu Bei. When he heard that Cai Yan's due date had arrived, he asked his two wives, Gan and Mi, to go to the Qin Mansion for several days to comfort Cai Yan. When all the ministers under his command heard this, they all secretly sighed at how high Qin Zhen's status was in Liu Bei's heart. Even though it was the busy season of autumn harvest, Liu Bei still took time to pay attention to such matters. Therefore, many people took this opportunity to send a lot of tonics to Qin Zhen's home. Seeing this, the housekeeper Zhong Bo ordered the kitchen to give Cai Yan tonic every day. This made Hua Tuo very angry, and he said directly to Zhong Bo: "Giving birth is the way of nature. As long as you are healthy, you can give birth naturally."

"If you keep replenishing your body like this, it will mess up the Qi and blood in your body and harm your health!" "As long as you follow my method of nourishing the body, I will ensure that Madam can have a safe delivery." As he spoke, he taught Cai Yan a set of breathing techniques and asked her to have her pulse checked every day. Before the birth, Liu Bei not only sent the wives of the two men, but also personally came to Qin Zhen's mansion to stabilize the morale of the troops. Before the child was born, Liu Ye brought Wang Can to the mansion to pay a visit, expressed Qin Zhen's concerns, and told Liu Bei to prepare to send troops. After a year of stability, Huainan finally produced a large amount of grain. According to Liu Fu's estimation, in addition to the military rations that they needed to retain in various places, there were about 400,000 hu of military rations that could be used to march south to Jiangdong. Of the 400,000 hu of grain and fodder, the maximum that could be transported to Jiangdong was 300,000 hu, minus the losses caused by carriages, horses, and laborers along the way. This amount of military rations was only enough for Liu Bei to dispatch tens of thousands of troops to the south for half a year. Although half a year's worth of military rations was a lot, it was already nearly October. Given the cold and damp weather in the south, it was unsuitable for combat for at least a month and a half. Therefore, we give them no more than five months. The sooner they start the war, the greater the advantage they will have. After hearing what Liu Ye said, Liu Bei comforted Wang Can for a while, and then said with some concern: "Although we should mobilize the troops right now, the military advisor is not here, and Zhao Ji is about to give birth. How can I not help take care of her?" He naturally knew that Liu Ye was anxious, but Qin Zhen went to Jingzhou for the sake of his great cause and missed the birth of his child. No matter how anxious Old Liu is, he must help Qin Zhen take care of things at home! When Liu Ye saw this, he frowned and hurriedly advised: "My Lord, the military advisor is an extraordinary person, and now he has left home for public affairs." "I know that my lord is kind, but the affairs of state are at the forefront. How can I sacrifice the public interest for personal gain?" "With the divine doctor Hua here, Madam won't have any difficulty giving birth. What's the point of the lord staying here?" After hearing this, Liu Bei was silent for a moment and then shook his head and said: "I am not the kind of person who forgets his loyalty when he sees profit. Even though the country is in trouble, I should not abandon my brotherhood!" "When I lived in Pei County, Zixuan did not follow me even though I was humble." "With the help of Zixuan, our army has reached the current strength. He is my teacher and also my brother." "Now that I am busy with state affairs, as your brother, you should take care of your sister-in-law's childbirth. If you lose this small duty, how can you do great things in the future?" Liu Ye wanted to persuade him again, but Wang Can gave Liu Bei a thumbs up and said: "Liu Yuzhou is truly a benevolent ruler. My brother has met a wise ruler and will definitely live up to his life's ambitions!" He then expressed his position to Liu Bei that it would be no problem for Qin Zhen to take care of the affairs of the south, as there was nothing in the world that his senior brother could not handle. Liu Ye was stunned by his words. He thought, we are here to persuade Liu Bei to send troops. How can you betray us in the middle of a battle? But he was a tactful man after all. Seeing that Liu Bei was so determined, he stopped trying to persuade him for fear of offending Qin Zhen. Fortunately, Hua Tuo’s words were reliable. If he said the baby would be born in the middle of the month, then it was born in the middle of the month. Just in the middle of the month, Cai Yan gave birth to a son. When Liu Bei heard the news, he was overjoyed and said to his attendants: "Now Zixuan has a son, he can be the son-in-law of our Liu family!"

Then he sent another 100,000 coins and dozens of pieces of silk as a reward. When everyone saw this, they envied Qin Zhen for being so highly valued. Only Liu Ye saw that Qin Zhen's son was born, and he said to Liu Bei, "You old man now have a son-in-law, isn't it time to send troops?" Liu Bei was not a man who would procrastinate, so he immediately ordered his troops to move forward upon hearing this. Because before this he had ordered Zhao Yun and Xu Sheng to march south with more than 8,000 soldiers and horses, there were still more than 20,000 soldiers and horses left in Shouchun. In order to end the battle as soon as possible, he directly mobilized 15,000 people, with Liu Ye and Jian Yong as military advisors, and Zhang Fei, Chen Dao, Chen Ce and others as generals, and rushed towards the south. According to Liu Ye's suggestion, they would draw 30,000 troops from Lujiang, Jiujiang and other places for this battle, and combine them with their own 20,000 troops to form a total of 50,000 troops to march south. Therefore, after sending out his troops, Liu Bei ordered Qiao Rui and Qin Yi to prepare the troops, and as soon as his main force arrived, they would march south to Jiangdong. Unexpectedly, as soon as the troops reached Lu'an, they heard the victory report from Qin Zhen, saying that the Jiangdong navy had been defeated and their way south to Jiangdong had been opened. Upon receiving this news, Liu Bei was delighted and said to Liu Ye: "So, it's just the right time for us to go south. If we had arrived a few days earlier, we would have to worry about how to go south!" When Liu Ye heard this, he was surprised and wondered if Qin Zhen was really so efficient? In fact, he did not hold out much hope of completely defeating the Jiangdong navy. After all, the Jiangdong navy had been active on the river for several years, and Zhou Yu was an excellent military commander, so it was difficult to just confront them, let alone defeat them. According to his original idea, he would first use the navy to open the passage, at least to open the passage from Lujiang South to Yuzhang. Then he went south along the Lu River and contacted Taishi Ci's troops, who advanced eastward and captured Jiangdong by land. But I didn't expect Qin Zhen and others to be so powerful. They defeated the Jiangdong navy in one battle! In this way, it is not just the passage on the river that is opened. Once the navy is destroyed, the hundreds of miles of river bank from Danyang to Wujun can become their target of attack. The pressure of the long battle line would instantly shift from Liu Bei to Sun Ce, forcing Sun Ce to continue to shrink the battle line. After thinking about it for a while, he suggested to Liu Bei: "Since the navy has been defeated, our army may be able to split up and march south, but if we want to split up, we will need warships." "Now that Cai Mao and the others are still here, the lord may personally go south and discuss with you to leave the captured warships behind to strengthen our navy!" When Liu Bei heard this proposal, he nodded in agreement and immediately wrote another letter to Qin Zhen. The letter first wrote the good news that Cai Yan had given birth to a son, and then asked Qin Zhen to keep Cai Mao in Lujiang first. After sending the letter, his troops accelerated southward, heading towards Tongyang. After three days' journey, the letter was delivered to Qin Zhen before the troops arrived. Qin Zhen was very happy when he saw the letter saying that his wife had given birth to a son. But then he started to have a headache when he read the content of the letter. To be honest, how could he not think of what Liu Ye could think of! In fact, he had been coveting these warships of the Jiangdong navy for a long time. But this time the problem was not that simple. After all, the main force that defeated the Jiangdong navy was not them, but the Jingzhou navy. In order to defeat Zhou Yu, the Jingzhou army paid the price of more than 4,000 naval forces and lost hundreds of ships. In this situation, not only they were keeping an eye on these gains, but Cai Mao and Huang She were also keeping an eye on these gains.

The two had a personal relationship with him on the one hand and official business on the other. Now that we have won, we will take the gifts to report to Liu Biao. If all the ships were left here, Liu Biao would be furious, and Huang She and Cai Mao would probably not be able to get through. It is true that he wanted a boat, but he also didn't want to make things difficult for Cai Mao and others and affect their future interactions. However, no matter how difficult the matter was, it still had to be discussed. So after thinking for a moment, he called Cai Mao and Huang She over. The first thing he said, naturally, was to share with the two of them the good news that his wife had given birth to a child. When Cai Mao and Huang She heard this, they immediately congratulated Qin Zhen. Cai Mao relied on Cai Yan's relationship to deal with Qin Zhen, but Huang She was purely happy for Qin Zhen. But after telling the good news, Qin Zhen told the two that he had received a letter from Liu Bei, saying that he wanted to keep the spoils of the navy in this battle. Huang She frowned when he heard this, while Cai Mao stroked his beard and said in a deep voice: "Zixuan, what do you mean by that? Our army won this battle. Although your army stopped Zhou Yu, it was our army that made the greatest contribution after all." "It is reasonable for your army to ask for some spoils, but if you ask for too much, how can we report it?" Seeing their reactions, Qin Zhen quickly tried to appease them, saying that Liu Bei didn't know what was happening in the south and had no ill intentions. Then he smiled and said to the two of them: "I also know that you two have to report to Liu Mu, and I don't want to embarrass you." "But the captured soldiers and horses this time are only two to three thousand, and they are all from Jiangdong. How will Liu Mu place them in Jingzhou?" "Furthermore, half of the Jiangdong navy's ships were destroyed in this battle, and now there are only a thousand ships left." "Your army has thousands of warships in Jingzhou, but the navy is much less. What's the point of taking them back?" "There is no need for you two to plead with Liu Mu, just report our army's request." "We don't want these spoils for nothing. We are willing to pay 500 coins per prisoner, and the total amount for all prisoners is 10 million coins." "As for Jiangdong's ships, our army is willing to pay a thousand coins for a small boat, a hundred thousand coins for a large warship, and a million coins for a tower ship!" "According to this calculation, we must at least give your army 300 to 400 million yuan in compensation. With such sincerity, how can you two not return the favor?" After hearing this, the two men looked much better. To be honest, thirty or forty million yuan is not a lot of money. After all, a large ship like a building ship is not cheap. Iron, wood, and labor all cost money. But Jingzhou has its own shipyard, so building a ship does not require much real money. Qin Zhen was willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to buy ships and prisoners, so there was no doubt about his sincerity. Similarly, Qin Zhen did not ask them to beg for mercy, but asked them to report it. Although this was troublesome, it would not let them be caught in the middle and suffer. After thinking for a while, Cai Mao agreed to Qin Zhen's request and sent a letter back to Jingzhou to ask Liu Biao for his opinion. After this letter was sent, both sides were waiting for Liu Bei's arrival. But just two days later, a sudden news reached Lujiang - Cao Cao sent troops to Nanyang! (End of this chapter)