From Jingzhou to Jiangdong, it is extremely inconvenient by land. Most of the areas are rarely visited and are blocked by mountains and forests. Only a section of official roads appear near the city. Moreover, most of the cities in the south are built by water and travel by water.

Countless rivers and lakes gather together and finally form a wide and large artery of waterways that run through the east and west, which is the Yangtze River.

Due to the war in Jingzhou, ships on the Yangtze River were rare, but after passing through Chaisang, the number of ships on the river increased significantly. Fleets of cargo ships lined up everywhere on the river, and three-masted passenger ships carrying people and traveling far away were countless small boats near the river.

It was early August, and a fleet of more than a dozen warships were shaking waves on the river surface and heading eastward. This fleet was Liu Bei's ship from Jiangling. At the invitation of Sun Quan, Liu Bei came to attend the birthday of Mrs. Sun.

Mrs. Sun was the sister of Sun Quan's mother and also married Sun Jian. She was first called Mrs. Sun Er in Jiangdong. In the seventh year of Jian'an, Sun Quan's mother unfortunately died of illness. She ordered Sun Quan to regard her concubine as her mother. Sun Quan remembered the last words of her deceased mother and respected Mrs. Sun Er as the mother of the country. From then on, she was called Mrs. Sun.

This year marks the 47th birthday of Mrs. Sun. According to the customs of Jiangdong, you will celebrate your birthday at the age of 60 and 10.

Although Sun Quan was extremely filial to his mother, on the other hand, he was thrifty, so under normal circumstances, he would not specially celebrate his mother's birthday. However, this time, in order to give Liu Bei an excuse to come to Jiangdong, Sun Quan made an exception to raise his birthday for his mother.

Liu Bei's fleet had already passed Wuhu and was sailing towards Dantu. During the Three Kingdoms period, Jiangnan had not been fully developed, so naturally there was no waterway for the Grand Canal. Therefore, when you go to Dongwu, you could only get off the boat in Dantu, and go through land through Qu'a, Piling and Wuxi to the Jiangdong capital Dongwu.

In fact, there is also a waterway, which is to enter Lishui in Wuhu, pass through Liyang, and Yangxian enters Taihu Lake and crosses Taihu Lake to reach Dongwu. However, Lishui can only travel a ship of 500 stone in the end, and the thousand-stone warship Liu Bei was riding could not pass, so their group had to go to Dantu to take the land.

In the cabin on the second floor, Liu Bei sat in front of the window to enjoy the scenery along the way. Pang Tong sat opposite him, while the Jiangdong envoy was walking on a boat behind him.

During this trip to the east, Liu Bei handed over all the military and political power to Zhuge Liang, but not to Guan Yu, which surprised the whole army. It was less than a month since Zhuge Liang was loyal to Liu Bei, so Liu Bei handed over the military and political power to him, which made many people dissatisfied, and even Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had quite a complaint.

Pang Tong was also one of the dissatisfied people. Although he was named the deputy military advisor, he had no real power and was far less valuable than Zhuge Liang being valued by Liu Bei. He was actually just an aide.

Pang Tong knew very well that the main purpose of Liu Bei did not take Zhuge Liang to Jiangdong was to give him a chance to take power alone and build prestige, but he did not have such an opportunity, which made Pang Tong both jealous and dissatisfied.

He kept reminding Liu Bei that Zhuge Liang was inexperienced. If the Xiangyang army launched a large-scale attack on the south, Zhuge Liang might not be able to take on the heavy responsibility of counterattack. He hoped that Liu Bei could change his mind and turn Guan Yu into the main general. Liu Bei would just laugh it off when he kept reminding him of "kindness".

"This trip to Jiangdong is called birthday celebrations. In fact, we want to win the support of Jiangdong and establish an alliance with Jiangdong. If we advance, we will prosper together, and if we lose, we will lose together. The first step is to make Jiangdong recognize Mr. Qi as the governor of Jingzhou."

Liu Bei slowly discussed the purpose of this trip with Pang Tong. This was the second negotiation. Pang Tong had already made a clear conviction. He pondered: "This time Sun Quan invited us to the Eastern Wu, which was largely a struggle for the Zhang Zhao faction. They obviously wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of Liu Jingsheng's death to seek the interests of Jingzhou, which was quite a bit like a distance and attacking nearby. I feel that Jiangdong wanted to deal with Liu Jing with us, so Changsha County was the first to be affected."

But Liu Bei shook his head and said, "Kong Ming doesn't think so."

Liu Bei spoke up and kept silent, which made Pang Tong deeply jealous. He just made a suggestion today, but Liu Bei rejected it because Kong Ming’s different opinions, which made Pang Tong hate it. But he did not dare to show it, so he had to laugh dryly and ask, "What does Kong Ming think?"

"Kong Ming believes that that was just Zhang Zhao's idea, not necessarily Sun Quan's meaning. We are actually just a piece of Sun Quan's pawn. Sun Quan used it to deal with Liu Jing. Sun Quan still wanted to form an alliance with Liu Jing, but he wanted to gain greater benefits, so he invited us to Dongwu. For us, we should take advantage of this opportunity to do everything possible to block Sun Quan and Liu Jing's alliance. As long as the negotiations between Liu Jing and Sun Quan broke down, our opportunity will come. Therefore, well-informed is the top priority for this trip to Dongwu."

Pang Tong was speechless, and after a while he turned around and smiled: "I heard that the emperor and Zhang Zhao have an old age. Is this true?"

Liu Bei nodded and smiled, "We met as early as Xuzhou. We did have friendship. Taozhou Mu passed away. I would like to ask Zhang Zibu to write an epitaph for Taozhou Mu. This time, Zhang Zibu supported Jiangling, perhaps because of a little nostalgia, but the key is still the interests. Jingzhou is three points, so that Jiangdong can see the interests in it."

Pang Tong was silent for a moment and said, "I am a little worried that Jiangdong will be unfavorable to the emperor. We are a bit risky in this trip."

Liu Bei smiled, "I, Liu Bei, are famous all over the world, how could Sun Quan harm me? Shi Yuan was too worried."

"Even so, I should also bring a powerful martial arts general. Actually, I think Zilong is good, why does the emperor refuse to take him?"

When talking about Zhao Yun, Liu Bei's face immediately sank. Not long ago, he heard that Liu Jing sent someone to Wuling to visit Zhao Yun and gave him a letter and some Xiangyang local products. Zhao Yun actually accepted it happily.

And after reading the letter, it burned it immediately. What exactly was the content in the letter? It was so shameful? What made Liu Bei even more annoyed was that Zhao Yun actually wrote back to Liu Jing, with two pages of letter paper.

Did he think he didn't know about it when he was in a remote Wuling? If Zhao Yun had a clear conscience, why didn't he give the letter to himself for a review?

Although Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang repeatedly advised themselves to reuse Zhao Yun, which was rare, they did not know that Zhao Yun and Liu Jing had an extraordinary relationship.

And Liu Bei knew very well that over the years, Zhao Yun had never been willing to break up his friendship with Liu Jing, and Liu Bei had long been extremely disappointed with Zhao Yun.

Although Pang Tong also knew that Zhao Yun and Liu Jing had a good relationship, he did not know the details. However, when he saw Liu Bei's face turned gloomy, he did not dare to ask Zhao Yun any more.

At this time, a soldier came to report: "Your Majesty, a large Jiangdong ship is coming in front of you. The people on the ship want to see the emperor Majesty!"

Liu Bei was slightly stunned. He stood up and quickly walked to the bow of the ship. The fleet had stopped. He saw a scholar in his thirties standing on a large ship opposite. He was tall, wearing a tall crown and a white Confucian robe. He looked graceful at the bow of the ship. He clasped his fists and smiled slightly, "I'm here to welcome the emperor's uncle on the order of the Marquis of Wu!"

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In the Eastern Wu, the Palace of Wu, Zhang Zhao walked hurriedly through a long corridor and walked towards the study of the Marquis of Wu Sun Quan. Zhang Zhao was about fifty years old and his beard was half white. He was tall and had a unique appearance. He was dressed in a high-crowned Confucian robe, which was quite a bit like a fairy-like appearance.

Zhang Zhao was a famous scholar in Xuzhou. He escaped from war and fled to Jiangdong. He was appointed by Sun Ce. He also made great contributions to Sun Quan's succession and was highly valued by Sun Quan.

Zhang Zhao became the chief secretary of Jiangdong and was in charge of government affairs. In fact, he performed the position of prime minister. He was recognized as the second most recognized figure in Jiangdong and the leader of the Jiangdong North Sect.

During this civil strife in Jingzhou, Zhang Zhao advocated support for Jiangling Liu Qi. On the one hand, he believed that Cao Cao would find it difficult to go south within several years and should take the opportunity to unify the south.

On the other hand, Liu Qi was weak and could use him to annex Jingzhou as a puppet. As for Liu Bei's old friend, in Zhang Zhao's heart, he had long been replaced by the interests of Jiangdong.

In Sun Quan's study, Sun Quan was also discussing military affairs with Zhou Yu and Cheng Jin. Zhou Yu advocated supporting Liu Jing among the three families in Jingzhou. Although they were defeated in Chaisang three years ago and formed an alliance with Liu Jing again, Zhou Yu was also quite humiliated as the number one figure in the military. However, from the overall situation, Zhou Yu still strongly advocated forming an alliance with Liu Jing.

Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao were both ministers who were entrusted with orphans. In terms of reputation and official connections, Zhou Yu was not inferior to Zhang Zhao, but Zhou Yu was subjected to the elbow of the veteran military general led by Cheng Jin, which made him ranked third in Jiangdong.

Among the Jiangdong faction, Zhou Yu was the leader of the young and strong faction, and a large number of young talents from Jiangdong gathered around him.

Their starting points for the Jingzhou dispute between Zhou Yu and Zhang Zhao were the same, and they were all for the interests of Jiangdong.

However, the two had differences in specific plans. Zhang Zhao advocated unification of the south first and then fighting against Cao with all his might. Zhou Yu believed that Cao's army was about to move south, and they had no time to unify the south. Now they could only join forces with Liu Jing to fight against Cao, and the great cause of unification of the south could only be discussed later.

Although Zhou Yu's idea was more realistic, it was firmly opposed by veterans such as Cheng Pu and Han Dang in the military. They could not forget the shame of Chaisang back then and were unwilling to join Liu Jing.

As early as when Sun Quan and Liu Jing reconciled, Cheng Pu and others strongly opposed it. Now when talking about alliances, their attitude was even stronger.

However, within Jiangdong, Zhang Zhao's plan received widespread support, which made Sun Quan, who was biased towards Zhou Yu, feel very embarrassed. Today he brought Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu to unify the opinions of the two.

"Please give me a frank word!"

Cheng Pu said with a firm attitude: "If there is no choice, for the sake of Jiangdong's interests, I can forget the shame of Chaisang and support the alliance with Liu Jing. But now we have choices. We can completely join forces with Jiangling to destroy Jiangxia and Xiangyang together, support Liu Qi as a puppet in Jingzhou, and turn to resist Cao. When defeating Cao's army, Jingzhou will also be our own belongings. Then, conquering Bashu in the river, the Jiangdong Emperor has already achieved the establishment of the Emperor."

"Mr. Cheng thought things too simple!"

Zhou Yu suppressed his disgust towards Cheng Pu and reluctantly smiled: "It's not that General Cheng, the combat effectiveness of Jiangxia Army, has never been seen. I heard that they have trained a powerful cavalry in recent years. Cheng Gong thought they were so easy to defeat?"

Cheng Puke did not have Zhou Yu's modesty. He was a veteran of the three dynasties, a founding hero, and had the highest qualifications in Jiangdong. In addition to expressing his attitude as a minister in front of Sun Quan, he did not take anyone seriously. Zhou Yu was his junior, and his tone of speaking to Zhou Yu was also very arrogant.

"General Zhou, don't forget that we are not the same now. We have a hundred thousand elite army, thousands of warships, and three years of preparation for three years. I don't believe that Jiangxia will be our opponent. And last time it was because of the accident of tinder oil, and we despised Liu Jing. If we do our best this time, we will never repeat the same mistakes. General Zhou is too arrogant."

Zhou Yu also sneered: "I'm afraid that the great cause will not be achieved, but both sides will be injured, and Cao's army will get a bargain for nothing."

"Haha! Zhou Hujun is thinking too much."
Chapter completed!