Kuai Yue was doubting himself, doubting his loyalty to Liu Biao as the governor of Jiangxia, and doubting Yan Liang's "unruly" writing in his letters.
They were both members of the Jingxiang clan, and they were also important ministers under Zhou Mu. How could Kuai Yue not make Huang Zu angry with his actions?
"Bie Jia, Kuai, are you suspecting that Huang colluded with Yan Liang to rebel?" Huang Zu asked in a rough voice.
Kuai Yue only smiled faintly and said, "Prefect Huang is loyal to the lord. Kuai is convinced of this, but the gossip outside is very annoying. The more he does this, he just wants to clarify for Prefect Huang to avoid those things."
The villain criticizes."
Kuai Yue's excuse was high-sounding, but it made Huang Zu unable to reply. After all, as a military general, he was not as sharp as a scholar like Kuai Yue.
Seeing that Huang Zu was hesitant, Kuai Yue asked: "Since Huang Zu has a clear conscience, why doesn't he dare to let me see it?"
Facing Kuai Yue's aggressive approach, Huang Zu secretly gritted his teeth, but could only choose to endure it.
After all, Kuai Yue was Zhou Mu's most trusted adviser. Although he had made many meritorious deeds and was powerful, he was still inferior to Kuai Yue.
At that moment, Huang Zu snorted coldly, took out the letter and threw it on the case, "Here is the letter, Kuai, please don't do it alone."
After saying that, he turned around, stood with his hands behind his back, and turned his back to Kuai Yue.
Kuai Yue didn't think it was strange. He just smiled and picked up the letter from the case, opened it and read it carefully. He was so focused that he seemed to read every word thoroughly.
As Huang Zu said, there was no sign of collusion in the letter. Kuai Yue's expression gradually softened.
"It seems that Huang Taishou..."
Just when he was about to return the letter intact and say some compliments and polite words to ease the tense atmosphere just now, Kuai Yue's eyes suddenly focused.
In that letter, he saw something fishy.
Kuai Yue's face turned solemn in an instant, and he asked coldly: "Prefect Huang, why are there any alterations in this letter?"
Huang Zu turned around and glanced at the letter. "That's how it was originally. Naturally, Yan Liang made a mistake and altered it casually."
Huang Zu's explanation failed to dispel Kuai Yue's doubts. On the contrary, the doubts on the brows of the first counselor of Jing and Xiang became more and more serious.
"Yan Liang regarded himself as a junior in the letter, so how could he make a mistake and only correct it? Isn't this a great disrespect for Huang Taishou?"
Huang Zu was startled for a moment and said impatiently: "How do I know? Maybe it's because he has a rough face and doesn't know etiquette."
Kuai Yue sneered, his laughter full of sarcasm and suspicion.
This laughter was extremely harsh to Huang Zu's ears.
He quickly thought that the question asked by Quin Yue was because he suspected that he had deliberately altered the letter in order to erase the ulterior motives in it.
Huang Zu became angry, and his eyes suddenly focused. He said sternly: "Kuai Jiajia, that's what I believe. Huang, I have a clear conscience. If you have any doubts, you can tell the lord. How can Huang be afraid?"
After getting angry, Huang Zu snorted coldly and walked away, leaving Kuai Yue in the hall.
Among Jingxiang, who dared to yell at Kuai Yue like this? Even Liu Biao would have to respect him. But Huang Zu's attitude now made Kuai Yue suddenly unhappy.
Seeing Huang Zu fluttering his sleeves and angrily walking away, Kuai Yue stood there looking quite embarrassed.
After frowning for a long time, Kuai Yue suppressed his anger, put the letter in his sleeve, turned around and walked away.
######
Xiangyang, General You's Mansion.
In the study, Yan Liang sat at the head, Xu Shu and Xu You sat on the left and right.
In front of the hall, the servant with a dusty face was respectfully making a report to Yan Liang.
This servant's mission this time was to go to Jiangxia on Yan Liang's order to offer Yan Liang's favor to the No. 1 general in Jingzhou.
After the report was completed, Yan Liang nodded with satisfaction, waved his hand and said: "Well done, go down and receive the reward."
The servant was overjoyed, kowtowed in thanks, and left in excitement.
Yan Liang immediately retreated, leaving only him and those two wise minds in the study.
"What do you think of Yuan Zhi, Ziyuan, and Tian Yuanhao's plan to alienate each other?" Yan Liang asked with a smile.
Xu Shu coughed a few times and said first: "Now that the Kuai and Cai families have lost their foundation in Xiangyang, their power has become weak, and Huang Zu has a heavy army, and the Huang family has become the largest family in Jingxiang. The Kuai and Cai families are afraid of the Huang family."
If he is replaced, he will definitely be wary of Huang Zu, but this is also a good time for us to resort to alienation tactics."
Yan Liang nodded slightly, and what Xu Shu said was exactly the strategy proposed by Tian Feng.
If you want to take Xiakou, you must first defeat Huang Zu. Since Huang Zu's navy is too powerful to defeat, he has no choice but to capture it wisely.
Tian Feng's strategy was to use alienation tactics to make Huang Zu, Kuai Yue and Cai Mao suspicious of each other and fight each other. It would be best if they met each other in arms.
And by that time, wouldn't it be the time for Yan Liang to make a profit?
Previously, the two tribes of Kuai and Cai were united and controlled the two armies of Xiangyang and Jiangling. Although the Jiangxia army commanded by Huang Zu was strong, it was inferior to the combined troops and horses of Xiangyang and Jiangling.
Because of this, the Kuai and Cai families were able to let Huang Zu sit in Jiangxia and defend them against the Sun family in Jiangdong.
Now that Xiangyang has been lost, the foundation of the Cai and Kuai families has been greatly damaged, and the Jiangling navy is the weakest among the three naval forces in terms of number of soldiers and horses and combat effectiveness.
This means that the Jiangxia navy controlled by Huang Zu has become the decisive force in the entire Jingzhou.
Faced with this change in the situation of strength and weakness, the Kuai and Cai families could not help but become wary of Huang Zu.
Tian Feng's plan was to use means to create discord and make Liu Biao's subordinates fall into their own fights.
"My lord, your plan of erasing the letter is really brilliant. I think in this situation, if Kuai Yue or Liu Biao were to see the letter, they would not be suspicious."
Xu You greatly admired Yan Liang.
In fact, Tian Feng just suggested this alienation plan. As for the letter plan, it was Yan Liang who came up with an idea.
Yan Liang smiled and said nothing.
At this time, Xu Shu said again: "My lord's plan is indeed clever, but I think this letter alone is not enough to make Liu Biao suspicious of Huang Zu. We need to add fuel to the fire and use another poisonous plan."
That’s it.”
Xu You also said: "Yuan Zhi is right. Liu Biao has trusted Huang Zu for many years. It's not just because Kuai Yue and Cai Mao said a few slanderous words that they aroused suspicion. We have to make a bigger noise so that Liu Biao has no choice but to become suspicious."
The advice of these two wise men reminded Yan Liang, and he frowned and gradually fell into deep thought again.
"Adding fuel to the fire, making big noise, poisonous plot..."
The two wise men on the left and right were also thinking hard.
After a moment, Xu Shu's eyes lit up for the first time.
"If you want to make a big noise, sending troops is the best way. My lord might as well give the signal to march into Xiakou and march south with great fanfare. Huang Zu will definitely lead his army north to attack. At that time, my lord will follow the example of the letter just now.
It's a plan, a few letters were exchanged like this, and then the army retreated without a fight. It's strange that Liu Biao didn't suspect anything at the time."
He raised his troops and marched south, exchanged letters, and retreated without a fight.
After three sets of combined punches, anyone would be suspicious, let alone Liu Biao.
Yan Liang became energetic and couldn't help but snap the case and said: "Yuan Zhi's plan is very clever. It's settled. You go and prepare it quickly. We will put on a good show for Liu this time."
######
The day's plan had been decided, and Xu You's Si Wencao was the first to make an effort. He deployed detailed operations in the Jiangxia area and spread the news that General Yan Liang had mobilized all the troops in Xiangyang and came south along the Han River to capture Xiakou.
Rumors spread among the secretaries stationed in Jiangling that Huang Zu secretly communicated with Yan Liang and planned to surrender Jiangxia County and the entire Xiakou navy to Yan Liang.
While spreading the rumors wantonly, Yan Liang was not idle either. In order to make the scene realistic enough, he did "come out in full force" this time.
Soldiers and horses from all walks of life were quickly assembled. Yan Liangqin unified 17,000 land and water troops, went south along the Han River, and rushed towards Jiangxia.
When news of Yan Liang's troops came back to Jiangxia, Huang Zu was naturally surprised. Unexpectedly, Yan Liang sent him a letter to express his goodwill, and then launched a large-scale invasion.
In anger, Huang Zu, in order to show his loyalty to Liu Biao, did not hesitate at all. He immediately mobilized 20,000 naval troops and entered the Han River north to stop Yan Liang's army from going south.
Yan Liang's army moved south, and in a few days it approached the waters of Shicheng. After passing the city, the terrain to the south would become more open, which would be beneficial to Yan Liang's cavalry operations.
Just as Yan Liang expected, Huang Zu's navy had arrived first and built a land and water defense line at Shicheng.
Knowing that Huang Zu's army had arrived first, Yan Liang ordered the army to stop going south and set up a land and water camp in Qiucheng, more than 20 miles away from Shicheng, forming a north-south confrontation with Huang Zu's navy.
Huang Zu, who arrived early, had already built a complete land and water defense line, and planned to use his powerful navy to fight a beautiful blocking battle, allowing Yan Liang to taste the power of his Jiangxia navy.
In the blink of an eye, ten days have passed.
What puzzled Huang Zu was that during these ten days, Yan Liang's army stood still and did not take any action, not even an attack by light cavalry.
Yan Liang and his army of nearly 20,000 people came with great fanfare. When the two armies were seeing each other, they suddenly stopped.
Dusk, Shicheng Water Village, Chinese Army tent.
Huang Zu sat at the top with his eyes closed, expressionlessly listening to the latest reports from the scouts.
Just like the report ten days ago, Yan Liang's army still stood still, neither retreating nor fighting. It was unknown what his plans were.
boom!
Huang Zu's fist hit the case hard, "Yan Liang, what kind of trick are you playing!"
The commander was angry, and all the generals on the left and right looked horrified, but Kuai Yue had a normal expression.
He glanced at Huang Zu, and a strange look flashed in his eyes.
There was some suspicion hidden in that look.
The atmosphere in the big tent was as silent as an abyss for a while.
Kuai Yue secretly observed Huang Zu, as if he wanted to see some flaws in his expression.
The sound of hurried footsteps disturbed the silence, the curtain was lifted, and a pro-soldier stepped in.
"General, Yan Liang sent an envoy to write a letter and asked the general to meet alone on the banks of the Han River tomorrow afternoon."
