Cao Cao's journey into Jingzhou was not easy, and although all this was easy in the eyes of Zhang Liao and Ma Chao, it was not easy for Cheng Lian's army to set up defenses above the river, and the forced rush brought the loss of three large ships to his army. This was the first time that Cao Cao realized the difference between water warfare and land warfare, even if the land war was defeated, a school captain's department would not be defeated, and the army would often be left with hundreds or thousands of troops, but if the water war was defeated, it would really be defeated.

A merchant ship carrying supplies was rammed and sunk on the river, and more than 200 Cao troops fell to the bottom of the river, and most of them were dead when they floated up again. And such a defeat, just to avoid Cheng Lian's obstruction, Cao Cao left three big ships, and nearly 700 soldiers disappeared without a trace.

Such a loss was enough to make Cao Cao heartbroken, but it was a pity that the test of the sky was not only like this?

In Jiangxia, there has been a group of water bandits recently, the leader's name is Xue Zhou, they did not play any princes' banner, but came and went without a trace to attack the granaries and arsenals along the coast of Jingnan counties, and even attacked the grain team of the state capital, which is unguardable. There are not many of them, and the trouble caused to Jingzhou is not big or small, and because Liu Biao really can't spare his hands to clean them up, he gives them the opportunity to grow, so that the people around them all hate the root of their teeth, and they all want to get rid of them quickly!

But where can ordinary people be able to defeat the well-armed pirates? It's just a matter of course.

It's just that how can the pirates be well-armed? Of course, they will not be as simple as Haikou, they are subordinate to the captaincy of the Yan clan Lou ship general Tian Yu, who was ordered to go west from Xuzhou to support the Jingzhou war, and once burned Cao Cao's Ruyin granary when passing through Yuzhou, but when they entered Jingzhou, the situation changed, making it difficult for them to go north.

In the situation that Tian Yu knew, Jiang Jin's Duliao Department was still fighting against Liu Biao and beating Jingzhou into a mess. But when Xue Zhou led the army to Jingzhou, Jiang Jin had already returned to Zhao to supervise the construction of the king's tomb, and now the general of Duliao is Zhang Jaw, and the two sides have entered a semi-armistice state with Yingshui as the boundary, and they are waiting for a new decisive battle. This gave Liu Biao the opportunity to clear the internal disaster, although Liu Biao knew that the situation was dangerous, and the main energy and troops were deployed in Xiangyang, south of Yingshui, but Yingshui, which runs through the north and south from Xiangyang, was the most important thing in Jingzhou.

Therefore, the Xuezhou Department was forced to stay near Jiangxia, and in the face of the shortage of grain and grass, they could only return to their old business and follow the various places in order to loot grain and grass.

There is no other reason why people in the world are short of food at this time, except that winter is coming. Seeing that winter was approaching in more than a month, Xue Zhou was anxious like ants on a hot pot, leading the fleet to run around Jingnan...... He wished Jing Nan was a hot pot, but unfortunately not.

Even if Liu Biao didn't leave any soldiers and horses in Jingnan, the counties were just recruiting troops to defend themselves, with more than 500 or more than 1,000 defenders, but with Xue Zhou's school captain's department, it was not enough to see at all.

They are a navy, even if they are well-equipped, they are just a thin piece of iron-clad armor, not to mention that most of the sailors only have a well-made ring knife and bow and crossbow, who dares to expect them to attack the city?

But without a city, they had to hide in the winter, and although the river froze in winter, the cold was enough to kill most of them. Not to mention, there will be enemies in Jingzhou at any time, and once the situation in Xiangyang changes again, they will be the first to be killed.

At this time, the scouts deployed by Xuezhou on the river in the direction of Yuzhou suddenly came over and told him that a fleet came from the east on the river, and the fleet was still under the banner of Cao?

There is no suspense, of course, Cao Jun will be attacked again, but this attack is much more difficult to deal with than Cheng Lian's encirclement and interception.

The first to appear on the river were four huge cargo ships, these merchant ships used to transport goods from Yuzhou to Yangzhou were actually no different from warships, the only difference was probably that in order to load more cargo, the cabins of merchant ships were deeper, as warships would obviously waste a lot of space, but Cao Jun did not use them as combat ships, but used the cargo hold as a load for carrying heavy cattle and horses. On the deck, a full ninety-six samurai wielding ninety-six crossbows and ninety-six pairs of armor were majestic, carefully observing the surface of the river, and below deck, the same ninety-six oarsmen drove the merchant ships to ride the wind and waves.

Huge merchant ships covered the small ships that were moving fast behind them, carrying sixty-four oarsmen and warriors, and such ships accounted for the vast majority of Cao's army, more than twenty ships; There were more walking boats in the middle of the warp, and in the middle was the only fighting ship of Cao Cao's army, which was also Cao Cao's command ship; On the two wings are three huge merchant ships running vertically, and at the end of the formation, the three merchant ships are also broken, forming a huge military formation on the river.

More than 6,000 horsemen, relying on boats to form a huge formation, with their baggage and war horses, quickly crossed the river, and headed towards their destination, Changsha County, Jingzhou.

Such an army is enough to be called a behemoth on the river, and it is relying on a huge fleet to break through Cheng Lian's pursuit blockade, and now it has entered the range of Jiangxia County in Jingzhou, and the pursuing fleet behind it has long been thrown away, which makes Cao Cao's heart relax...... The losses suffered by the fleet were much smaller than Cao Cao had imagined, and now he still had more than 6,000 troops, relying on these subordinates, enough to occupy a place in Changsha and survive the counterattack of the local forces of Changsha County, and wait until he negotiated with Liu Biao to borrow a county of land, and he could survive the winter unharmed.

As for the navy army of Jiangxia County, Cao Cao was not worried about it. On more than one occasion during their voyage to this point, they saw the enemy on the river from afar, but they all avoided their silhouettes like rats of cats, which made Cao Cao's heart full of pride.

Perhaps the rumors are right, since Huang Zu was killed by Liu Bei's subordinate general Guan Yu, and Wen Ping led Jiangxia to fight in the north to face Yanbei, Jiangxia County now has no capable officials and strong generals, not even decent warships left, and even dare not fight with their naval division composed of simple merchant ships and half of the warships. However, although this incident made Cao Cao feel relieved at the moment, he was also worried from another aspect.

Liu Biao was forced to such an extent, and there was no need to think about how bad the war between Nanyang and Xiangyang was.

Seeing the fleet march to the confluence of Yingshui and the river, Cao Cao shook his head and left the doubts in his heart, stood on the third deck of the fighting ship and looked into the distance, threw wine into the river to salute the river god, and smiled at the generals beside him: "If you go another two hundred miles, you can enter Dongting and Changsha!" ”

At this moment, dozens of clippers rushed out of the Yingshui estuary and rushed straight towards the middle of the formation of Cao's fleet!