I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 205 Departure! To the Stars and the Sea!
Liu Miao suppressed the matter, only allowing Lu Su to temporarily return to Jiangdong with the pointed-bottom ships. He also told the generals of Jingzhou that Lu Su was only allowed to return because there were political matters to attend to in Jiangdong.

The generals did not take this matter to heart and continued to focus on attacking Jingzhou.

After Taishi Ci and Xu Huang arrived at the city of Jiangling, they besieged the city.

The governor of Jiangling was Cai Zan, a cousin of Cai Mao. Seeing that Taishi Ci and Xu Huang were coming with great force, he only dared to say a few harsh words in a show of bravado, and then shut himself in and did not come out.

Taishi Ci and Xu Huang built an earthen wall outside the city and ordered soldiers to stand on it and shoot at the city. Cai Zan was afraid of being injured by stray arrows, so he eventually stopped climbing the city wall and hid in the city to enjoy himself.

At this time, Li Yan, the magistrate of Zigui County, came to seek refuge and offered advice to Taishi Ci and Xu Huang—

"A general should share weal and woe with his soldiers to inspire their fighting spirit. Now that Cai Zan is unwilling to climb the city wall, the morale of Jiangling is low. If you offer him a great reward, people will naturally respond!"

Taishi Ci and Xu Huang both thought Li Yan's words made sense, so they immediately ordered their soldiers to shoot arrows carrying letters of surrender into the city, promising them wealth and honor.

Sure enough, soldiers in Jiangling responded! That very night, several messengers were lowered down from the city wall to arrange a time with Taishi Ci and Xu Huang.

Three days later, Xu Huang ambushed the east side of Jiangling. When he saw the city gate open as promised, he immediately led his troops to attack and break through the city gate!

Cai Zan was terrified and tried to escape the city, but his own soldiers caught up with him, killed him, and cut off his head to give to Xu Huang.

"Thus, the Southern Commandery is entirely in our hands!"

Meanwhile, Huang Gai and his men, who were attacking the three prefectures of Wuling, Lingling, and Guiyang, were also unstoppable. In addition, Huang Gai himself was from Lingling, and these three prefectures were quickly occupied by Jiangdong.

Huang Zhong was already well-known in Changsha. After he assured the soldiers in the city that he would not implicate them because of Liu Pan's crimes, Changsha quickly surrendered.

Thus, Nan Commandery and the four commanderies of Jingnan fell completely into Liu Miao's hands. Only Xiangfan, thanks to the timely reinforcements of Wen Ping, was putting up a difficult resistance and was still struggling to hold on for the time being.

Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, Gan Ning, and Jiang Qin have all joined forces and arrived at Yicheng, south of Xiangyang.

Just as Zhou Yu was devising a plan to launch a general offensive against Xiangfan, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun also led their naval forces to confront Zhou Yu.

Seeing that Liu Miao's main force had not moved, Cai Mao was extremely anxious and sent a messenger to Zhou Yu's camp to shout: "Why are you still here? Don't you know that Lord Yuan has already sent Yuan Tan and Lü Bu to attack Jiangdong?"

Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, and the others were all greatly alarmed!
The remaining Jiangdong soldiers were also terrified and did not know what to do.

Upon hearing of this, Liu Miao finally set off from Xiakou and arrived at the Yicheng camp.

When Liu Miao's banner appeared here, the soldiers of Jiangdong suddenly cheered!

If Jiangdong had truly been attacked by Lü Bu and Yuan Tan, how could Liu Miao possibly still be here?
Only Zhou Yu doubted this matter and went privately to Liu Miao's camp: "My lord, have Lü Bu and Yuan Tan really attacked Jiangdong?"

"no!"

Liu Miao's answer was resolute!
Zhou Yu then asked, "Zijing's sudden return to Jiangdong, is it really just about political matters?"

"real!"

Zhou Yu still didn't believe it: "My lord isn't lying to me, is he?"

"Definitely not!"

Liu Miao raised his finger and made a solemn oath—

"If I'm lying to you, I'm a dog!"

Seeing that Liu Miao could even swear such a solemn oath, Zhou Yu finally stopped doubting him.

"I have a feeling that something is amiss. My lord, it would be best to have Jiangdong take precautions."

"no problem!"

After Zhou Yu left, Liu Miao, in a high-pitched voice, softly called out—

"Wang!"

------

Lu Su returned to Jiangdong and immediately met with Zhang Zhao and others.

"Our lord actually intends to set out by sea to cut off Yuan Tan's retreat?"

Zhang Zhao and the others found it all unbelievable.

Having experienced the Jiangxia naval battle, Lu Su had no doubt about the ability of the pointed-bottom ships to navigate at sea. What he needed now was simply soldiers familiar with the terrain of Qingzhou.

"This shouldn't be hard to find."

Gu Yong was in charge of organizing the household registration of displaced people. It can be said that if Gu Yong claimed to be second in understanding the people of Jiangdong, then no one could claim to be first.

"During the previous wars, many people from Qingzhou and Xuzhou went to Jiangdong to seek refuge. Many of them even became military households and served as soldiers in the government."

"Alright! Then I'll trouble Yuan Tan to gather these soldiers as soon as possible. Also, prepare provisions and fresh water, and get ready!"

The supplies weren't difficult to obtain, but getting fresh water took some effort.

After all, it was the first time for the people of Jiangdong to get married, and they didn't know how fast the sea voyage was, how long it would take to reach Qingzhou, or how much food, clothing and other necessities they should prepare on the ship. So they argued for several days before they finally got everything ready.

The journey began in Zhenjiang.

At the same time, this is also the end point of the mighty Yangtze River.

Even the usually composed Lu Su was no longer calm and collected in the face of the vast and mysterious sea.

Just then, Liu Ye, to make matters worse, shouted from behind, "Zijing, be careful! Head north! Make sure you can see land to the west at any time, and don't go any further east! Otherwise, even a god can't save you!"

"I know!"

Lu Su turned around and cursed in an annoyed tone, while also beginning to complain about Liu Miao.

Attack Qingzhou from the sea, cutting off Yuan Tan's retreat...

It sounded like a good plan, but once Lu Su boarded the ship bound for the sea, a sense of unease began to creep in. What if the ship capsized?
What if you get lost?
What if you encounter a sea monster or mythical beast?
……

All the unknowns of stepping from land into the sea surged up from the jolts beneath his feet, making Lu Su feel nauseous. He could only hold on tightly to the railing to keep his body from shaking.

“Registrar Lu, this won’t do.”

At this moment, a young Sima came to Lu Su's side and taught Lu Su to assume a horse stance while swaying his waist to control his body.

"Although the sea is rough, once you get used to it, it is actually more comfortable than sitting in a carriage."

"And this ship is really good; it's much more stable than other ships!"

Lu Su followed the other man's example and assumed a stable horse stance, which indeed made him feel a bit better.

He looked at the magistrate and felt he looked familiar: "You seem to be called...Xu Sheng?"

"Exactly!"

Xu Sheng and Lu Su exchanged greetings.

“My hometown is in Ju County, which is right next to Qingzhou. I am very familiar with Qingzhou, which is why I was chosen to go there.”

Lu Su nodded slightly: "Ju County? Isn't that under the jurisdiction of Langya? Are you and the lord from the same hometown?"

"I dare not curry favor with my lord."

Xu Sheng was neither humble nor arrogant.

"When I came to Jiangdong with my family to seek refuge, I thought I would probably end up as a tenant farmer or servant. But I didn't expect that I would first be able to get the lord to distribute land equally, and then I would be able to get the position of Sima."

"My lord may never have seen me, but he has already done me a great service! I dare not flatter you as a fellow townsman, but only wish to serve you faithfully. That is why I was summoned here to defeat Yuan Tan and take Qingzhou for you!"

Lu Su greatly admired Xu Sheng and recognized his extraordinary talent: "If you can achieve merit in this battle, I will definitely recommend you to the lord."

Xu Sheng exclaimed with delight, "Thank you so much, Registrar Lu!"

"Small things."

Lu Su looked worriedly at the boundless and completely unknown sea before him: "But the most urgent task right now is to find Qingzhou!"

The ship sailed on the sea, calm and lonely.

Not only Lu Su was worried about the journey, but the other soldiers on board were also constantly worried and kept looking out of the ship.

Even though the Yangtze River is vast enough, when you are sailing on the river and look to both sides, you can still see the houses on both banks and hear the chirping of swallows and sparrows.

But the ocean is different.

It stretched as far as the eye could see, so deep it was despairing.

Farmers have a natural sense of alienation from the sea.

Even though the ship was relatively stable, it was still unsettling.

Especially after sailing for several days, Lu Su realized that he had underestimated the demand for fresh water at sea, so he had to reduce the amount of fresh water each person was given to drink again.

Gradually, some soldiers could no longer bear the oppressive atmosphere on the ship and repeatedly expressed their desire to go ashore.

Lu Su initially ignored it, but when the situation escalated to the point that even Xu Sheng came to Lu Su for advice, Lu Su finally realized the seriousness of the matter.

But going ashore now is clearly not an option.

According to Lu Su's estimation, they have now reached the territory of Ganyu, but have not yet arrived at Qingzhou.

If we land at this time and accidentally run into Yuan Tan's army, it will undoubtedly result in the annihilation of the entire army!
In fact, Lu Su was just as apprehensive at sea these past few days.

However, Lu Su was well-versed in the classics and could recite these principles to calm himself down.

However, it was clear that these soldiers could not remain calm using Lu Su's methods. After thinking for a moment, Lu Su came up with an idea.

"Prepare some fishing hooks and distribute them to the soldiers so they can fish."

"fishing?"

Xu Sheng thought he had misheard.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing. Are we supposed to expect these soldiers to study on the ship now?"

Fishing hooks and lines were distributed one by one.

Although the soldiers were also puzzled, they still followed Lu Su's orders and began fishing in the sea.

At first, no one had any hope.

After all, according to everyone's understanding, the water in the ocean is generated by the irrigation of rivers.

Consequently, the catch here is inevitably not as plentiful as that in the major rivers and lakes on land.

It wasn't until one of the soldiers felt a tremendous force, and the soldiers on either side rushed forward to help, that they managed to fish out a fish half the length of a person from the sea. Only then did the fear in everyone's hearts gradually fade away, and they became excited instead!

Such large fish are always very valuable, I never thought I could catch one in the sea.
And this is not an isolated case.

Soon, more soldiers caught big fish, the largest of which was even taller than a person, causing everyone on the boat to exclaim in surprise!

The way everyone looked at them changed.

The sea is still the same sea.

But now it looks delicious...

(End of this chapter)