Two days later, Liu Biao followed the suggestion of his father-in-law Cai Xi and held a banquet for celebrities in Xiangyang.
Pang Degong, Huang Chengyan and others naturally attended the banquet, as well as Wang Can, Song Zhong and other young talents.
The process of the banquet is naturally not the focus and there is no need to elaborate.
It is nothing more than a group of celebrities debating classics, exchanging knowledge, and talking about the general trend of the world.
After three rounds of wine, the conversation gradually became more intense. Suddenly someone announced that there was a young and talented Zhuge Liang, the nephew of Zhuge Xuan, the prefect of Yuzhang, and he had something important to ask the envoy.
Everyone didn't react for a while, and they didn't know whether they should persuade Liu Biao to meet him.
However, Huang Chengyan reacted first and found an excuse to propose a meeting - I don't know if Huang Chengyan did this spontaneously or if he had been pestered by his daughter in the past few days and had other agendas.
"In that case, let's meet." Liu Biao followed suit and followed his brother-in-law's suggestion.
After Zhuge Liang entered, there was no need to mention any etiquette, and then he asked Liu Biao as planned. Finally, he took out a piece of silk, offered it with both hands, and said sincerely:
"...Ze Rong, because his uncle was canonized by the imperial court, was afraid that his uncle would lose his foothold and suffer long nights and dreams, so he eagerly raised his troops to attack. Sun Ce of Danyang also made moves to reconcile with his ancestors, and Zi Dangtu went upstream with his evil intentions.
Sun Ce had been raising troops for several months since he completely pacified Wu Commandery and conquered Xu Gong when winter entered. There were rumors all over Yangzhou that Sun Ce would first pursue Wang Lang in Kuaiji in the coming year, and then covet Yuzhang. I never wanted to be provoked by the imperial court's canonization, and I also wanted to eliminate future troubles while my uncle's footing was not stable, so I only asked you to investigate. "
Of course, Sun Ce has no intention of attacking Yuzhang now. His current plan is to most likely deal with Wang Lang first in the coming year.
But Zhuge Liang knew that he had to say this to stimulate Liu Biao's sense of crisis.
There is no grudge between Zuo Rong and Liu Biao. If it were just a threat from Zuo Rong, the priority would not be high enough.
Sun Ce and Liu Biao had the hatred of killing their father. Once Yuzhang County fell completely into Sun Ce's hands, he would be directly bordering Liu Biao's Jingzhou and would be in close combat with Huang Zu of Jiangxia.
As for the urgent document that Zhuge Liang handed over, of course the words on the silk were written by him just three days ago.
Zhuge Jin believed in his younger brother's IQ. He also knew that he was thousands of miles away and did not understand the first-line situation in Jingzhou, so he could not give his younger brother random advice.
You will be outside, and your orders will not be accepted.
The one who can control the general but does not control him will win. Remote micro-control will not end well.
Therefore, Zhuge Jin's family book only mentioned several possible escape plans to inspire his brother's thinking, for reference only.
The final details and implementation were all handled by Zhuge Liang himself based on the actual situation.
Zhuge Jin also fully trusted his brother, so he dared to give the blank silk with the big seal to Zhuge Liang to fill in, believing that Zhuge Liang could make good use of it.
…
At this moment, Liu Biao saw the distress document stamped with the seal of Yuzhang Prefect Hepinglu Xiaowei, and of course he did not doubt that it was fake.
Normally, he could care less about rescuing Zhuge Xuan, but when it came to Sun Ce, he had to let him go.
But Liu Biao's temperament is still hesitant after all. He is already in his fifties, and he is prone to hesitation as he gets older.
After hesitating for a moment, Liu Biao asked Zhuge Liang if he was sure and advised him not to hit an egg with an egg.
Only then did Zhuge Liang come up with a reassurance to Liu Biao and a new proposal:
"Your Majesty, I have some friendship with Gan Sima of Fancheng. Gan Sima is also a righteous man. He is willing to escort me to Jiangxia. I beg you to be accommodating! In addition, I have a heartless request. I beg you to write a letter to me. Lord Huangfu of Jiangxia is here to advise Lord Huangfu to send troops nearby to assist my uncle. This is also for the safety of Jingzhou and to prevent the thieves from staying away from the state."
This request made Liu Biao think about it for a long time.
He knew Huang Zu very well. Huang Zu was the local emperor in Jiangxia, and he couldn't even command him.
If Huang Zu was willing to aid Zhuge Xuan, he would have done so last year.
This time if he writes a book again, Huang Zu may not agree to send troops.
In this case, there is nothing wrong with writing a letter in vain to let the Zhuge family inherit a favor.
Anyway, if he didn't send troops in the end, the Zhuge family would think of him well, and hate Huang Zu for not saving him and not obeying the orders of the state pastor.
If Huang Zu sent troops, there would be no harm. After all, it would expand Jingzhou's overall power.
After considering many aspects, Liu Biao felt that all problems were not big, so he finally went with the flow and agreed to Zhuge Liang's request.
He wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang to bring to Huang Zu, and also allowed Gan Ning to be escorted all the way.
Zhuge Liang was relieved.
In fact, if he just wants to leave Xiangyang, he doesn't have to go to so much trouble, because the guards around Xiangyang are not tight.
Historically, Gan Ning wanted to go to Jiangdong, and there was no one on the road from Fancheng to Jiangxia.
The area that is really strictly controlled is exactly where Jiangxia County crosses Xiakou. There is the junction of Jing and Yang states, and Huang Zu's river patrol patrols the river day and night.
After getting Liu Biao's letter, he and Gan Ning can pass through Jiangxia smoothly without being blocked. This is the key to this trip.
As for Huang Zu not sending additional troops to assist in the battle, Zhuge Liang didn't take it seriously at all, and he didn't count on Huang Zu's troops.
Huang Zu and Zhuge Xuan were close at hand, but they still refused to save him. If he even found an excuse to disobey Liu Biao's order and refused to save him, it would give the Zhuge family an excuse to resent Huang Zu in the future. .
…
Zhuge Liang completed all the procedures in Xiangyang and finally set off on the dangerous journey.
He also deceived Gan Ning, who was eager to do meritorious service, and other people who had fled from Yizhou with him, and escorted Zhuge's family to Jiangxia.
When Gan Ning fled from Bajun the year before last, he brought nearly a thousand men with him, but he had lost more than a hundred men, and now he barely has seven or eight hundred left.
Those lost troops were all lost during the battle with Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu earlier this year.
When Gan Ning fled to Jingzhou, two other Yizhou generals of similar rank, Shen Mi and Lou Fa, fled with him. And Lou Fa had been killed in the battle of Zhang Ji in the autumn, and Shen Mi still had two to three hundred chapters left.
Gan, Ning and Shen Mi added together, the total force barely exceeded a thousand, and they sailed down the river in more than 30 large and small warships.
Gan Ning's troops obviously paid more attention to the speed of coming and going like the wind, so the whole army did not even have a large fighting ship, let alone a building ship.
They are all long and narrow streamlined stern boats that can only carry about fifty people. They have very low freeboards and oar holes on the sides. When the sails and oars are used together, the speed is as fast as flying.
Although the group experienced some twists and turns before setting off, Zhuge Liang soon discovered that Gan Ning was very good at sailing, and his speed advantage could make up for the lost time.
Nothing happened along the way, so Zhuge Liang spent every day on the boat thinking about the new secret book given to him by his elder brother.
And a few days before Tin Tin left, Huang Yueying gave him the box of triangles.
Use a ruler to measure the length of the hypotenuse of the triangular plate piece by piece, and then record the measured trigonometric function values and the values of the root of common integers in a number table for direct query and transcription when needed in the future.
If Zhuge Jin were here, he would be stunned to see his second brother's learning method -
This is so pragmatic. The number table is not calculated by calculation, but measured with a ruler.
Mathematics classes can actually rely on experiments to obtain data, which is really eclectic.
In just three days, Gan Ning traveled eight hundred miles down the Han River from Xiangyang to Jiangxia.
And Zhuge Liang also after three days of quiet study, he also combined the last bits of knowledge in the third grade of junior high school mathematics, plus the "Junior High School Physics and Optics Part - Part 2" given by his elder brother (of course, the original text of Zhuge Jin's Secret Volume was not named that way), I’ve finished learning everything.
Next, he planned to take out the scroll "Preliminary Application of Optical Geometry in Water Conservancy Survey" and read it through the journey from Jiangxia to Chaisang.
However, the fleet was still slightly delayed when passing through Jiangxia.
Huang Zu's troops blocked the fleet, and it took a long time for Zhuge Liang to meet Huang Zu himself with the letter asking for help from Liu Biao.
Huang Zu was a rough military general in his late fifties, with a face full of steel needles and a short beard.
After seeing Liu Biao's letter asking him to send troops to help Zhuge Xuan, Huang Zu did not dare to openly disobey the order without any reason, but he still found various excuses to delay.
This does not mean that the enemy situation is not serious, or that there are false alarms, and further exploration is needed. That is to say, in a hurry, the Jiangxia Navy was unprepared and was not allowed to leave at the moment.
Strictly speaking, Huang Zu's first excuse was actually a false one - because the enemy situation in Yuzhang was indeed not serious.
It is true that Sun Ce has not spread his ambitions to the direction of Yuzhang. He is still thinking about attacking Wang Lang after the spring.
These so-called "serious military conditions" were originally made up by Zhuge Liang.
So Zhuge Liang didn't bother much, he just pretended to beg to no avail, and then with a bitter face, he resigned and asked Huang Zu to at least let him and Gan Ning go to Yuzhang for reinforcements.
After advancing two steps and retreating one step, Huang Zu had no excuse to refuse and had no choice but to let him go.
…
The fleet sailed down the river for another two days.
When Zhuge Liang finished reading and re-rolling the secret volume "The Preliminary Application of Optical Geometry in Hydraulic Survey", the fleet had already sailed into Poyang Lake.
Gan Ning asked people to look at it carefully, and Zhuge Liang rarely went up to the lookout to enjoy the endless scenery of Poyang Lake, which made him feel quite majestic.
After watching for a while, Zhuge Liang suddenly saw several ships appearing on the horizon in the distance, as small as mustard seeds.
Zhuge Liang recalled the knowledge he had just learned in the secret scroll and asked Gan Ning casually: "Xingba, can you tell the shape of the ship opposite? What is the average length of this kind of ship?"
Gan Ning also built a pavilion with his hands and squinted his eyes for a while: "The largest one should be a fighting ship that can carry three hundred people. It should be twelve feet long."
Zhuge Liang took out a ruler, stretched out his arm to compare, and then asked: "In your estimation, how far away is this ship from us?"
Gan Ning made a rough estimate based on experience and said casually: "It must be six or seven miles, right?"
Zhuge Liang: "My arm is three and a half feet long. A twelve-foot-long cockroach is only two cents shorter on this foot, which is 6,000 times shorter. The ship that is far away from us cannot be 6,000 times as long as the arm, that is 20,000 It's more than nine and a half miles away."
"Can you tell the size of such a small amount accurately? Maybe it's just a hair away."
Gan Ning rolled his eyes and didn't bother to care about this unverifiable nonsense. He felt that even if Zhuge Liang's method was right, the error would be huge.
He was about to find another excuse to talk Zhuge Liang back.
But as the fleet on the other side got closer and his sight became clearer and clearer, Gan Ning suddenly shouted and changed the subject:
"The fleet is flying the flag of Yuan Shu! Let's turn around and go upwind to avoid any accidents!"
Zhuge Liang's eyesight was indeed not as sharp as Gan Ning's. He quickly lay down on the side wall of the lookout box and stared into the distance.
After a while, the two fleets adjusted their courses from opposite to sideways, and Zhuge Liang could roughly see all the types of ships on the opposite side.
Zhuge Liang's heart moved and he quickly told Gan Ning: "It may be my eldest brother's fleet! He may have raised Yuan Shu's flag just to paralyze the enemy and make it easier to sail along the way! Light up the pile of red smoke I asked you to lay out in advance!"
Gan Ning was stunned, and then he remembered that early this morning, Zhuge Liang had given him a box of fire starters and asked him to spread them on a stone platform high at the stern of the ship.
It is said that this thing ignites very quickly and produces red smoke after burning, which is very eye-catching. It was a token sent by his eldest brother from Guangling last time to facilitate the meeting.
At that time, Gan Ning thought that this thing was too troublesome to use. If he burned something on a wooden boat, he would accidentally burn the boat as well.
So before he weighed anchor from Jiangxia, he followed Zhuge Liang's instructions and built several stone horse drinking troughs on the shore, and poured the fuel that would cause fire and smoke into the stone troughs to prevent the fire from spreading.
Fortunately, Gan Ning was very efficient in doing things and would execute them even if he didn't understand.
Not long after, Zhuge Liang's boat finally started burning with red smoke, and almost at the same time, red smoke also started burning on the fighting ship opposite.
Zhuge Liang no longer had any doubts and asked Gan Ning to come over immediately.
Gan Ning looked suspicious: "Does this make you sure?"
Zhuge Liang spread his hands and said: "Have you ever seen anyone who can burn smoke of this specific color? This is of course the secret recipe that my elder brother concocted with great skill!"
Gan Ning was right when he thought about it, so he had to admire him.
It seems that the Zhuge brothers are people with endless imagination. If you follow them, as long as you listen to the instructions well, you should be able to make achievements.
You only need to be responsible for operating the knife.
The two fleets quickly approached. Zhuge Liang searched for a while and finally found himself on the rear cabin deck of the opposite fighting ship.
He saw a man who was more than eight feet tall, wearing a bright red brocade robe and a seven-ring jade belt around his waist.
"Brother! I'm here! I'm A Liang!"
Following Zhuge Liang's greeting, Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan, also wearing gauze curtains and hats, quietly came out of the cabin and squeezed to Zhuge Liang's side.
Following the direction of his wave, he found the location of his eldest brother.
"Brother is really successful and famous. With this pomp of leading troops, some people would believe him even if he was a general." Zhuge Zhi and Zhuge Lan both looked at him with admiration.
Zhuge Jin on the opposite side also saw the greetings of his brothers and sisters, and secretly said he was lucky:
When he and his second brother separated, he was just fourteen years old, and now he is sixteen and a half and about to turn seventeen.
The young man has not seen each other for nearly three years, and the changes have been huge. If he admits his mistake, won't he arouse the suspicion of his second brother?
On the other hand, his own appearance should not have changed much. From the age of nineteen to twenty-one and a half, his appearance stopped changing.
Zhuge Jin quickly stared at Zhuge Liang, and quickly recognized it clearly, so as not to reveal any flaws when the two ships connected later.
Fortunately, it only took him a few seconds to calm down:
It doesn’t matter, I won’t admit my mistake!
As expected, the most handsome man on the ship was Zhuge Liang, who was very different from the others next to him.
