Time is like an arrow, and in a blink of an eye, another year has passed, in this year, the entire war situation has undergone earth-shaking changes, since the death of Lu Xun, the internal affairs of the Wind Country have completely fallen, Liu Xuande spent half a year, Sun Quan was completely hollowed out, and became the acting lord of the Wind Country, and now, the Wind Country has changed its name to the Dragon and Phoenix Kingdom, which is completely attached to the Dragon Kingdom.

On the other hand, the most prosperous land country can no longer resist the iron cavalry of the dragon country at this time, and retreats step by step, although it is hard to support, but it is also useless, and it is a matter of time before it is completely conquered.

In this year, Zhuge Liang wanted to help Sun Quan regain power all the time, but Liu Xuande continued to implement benevolent government after getting the power of Fengguo, and the people were full of praise, in their eyes, it doesn't matter who is the lord of the country, and his life has become better, which is the king's way, so even if Zhuge Liang does more, he can't change the attitude of the people of the whole country, and in the end he just saved Sun Quan's life.

Originally, Liu Xuande wanted to design and directly take Sun Quan's life, but Zhuge Liang admonished: "At this time, the country has not yet stabilized, and the land country is still in great trouble, so it is not appropriate to kill the king directly." Liu Xuande felt that it was indeed reasonable, so he spared Sun Quan's life and made him the official position of a county marquis, and since then it has been hopeless.

On this day, Zhuge Liang was working in the mansion, and suddenly a soldier came in and reported: "Report to the prime minister, the lord of the country is invited." ”

Zhuge Liang nodded and got up and went to the palace with him, at this time, the capital of the Dragon Kingdom had been moved to Suchuanzhou, which was closer to the front line, so when Liu Xuande took the Wind Country, he directly moved the capital here.

When he came to the imperial study, Zhuge Liang bowed down and said, "Weichen see Your Majesty." ”

Liu Xuande put down the book in his hand, raised his hand and said, "No courtesy, come here, give the prime minister a seat." After saying that, the servants outside moved an embroidered dragon pier.

Zhuge Liang sat down and asked, "I don't know what is important for Your Majesty to summon his ministers into the palace?"

Liu Xuande said with a smile: "The prime minister doesn't know, I just received the news, and Cao Mengde is in the Thorn City not far from here at this time. ”

Zhuge Liang sighed in his heart and asked, "Your Majesty, is this news accurate?"

Liu Xuande handed the envelope in his hand to Zhuge Liang and said, "Take a look for yourself, this is what the spies just sent back." ”

Zhuge Liang opened the envelope, took out the letter inside, and began to read it, which wrote that at this time, Cao Mengde was preparing a plan to assassinate Liu Xuande in the City of Thorns. After Zhuge Liang read it, he returned the envelope to Liu Xuande and said: "Your Majesty, this matter is a great threat to Your Majesty, and the minister is willing to lead troops to go and explore the truth first." ”

Liu Xuande nodded and said: "I also mean this, but Prime Minister, you are too old to travel long distances, I have already ordered Ma Chao and Yide to go, and I just want you to come to see if you and I have the same thoughts." ”

Zhuge Liang lowered his head and pondered: "If Cao Mengde is really in this Thorn City, it will be an excellent opportunity to capture the Land Kingdom in one fell swoop. ”

Liu Xuande said: "Sure enough, the prime minister and I think the same, you go back and help me calculate a hexagram to see if this campaign goes well." ”

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he called his apprentice Xia Huai, and said to him: "Huai'er, you are proficient in divination and geography, hurry up and take a shortcut to the city of thorns, see if your master Sima Yi is in the city, if you find a letter to help the master, if you don't find it, set a fire, disguise the enemy attack and let the people of the land country hurry away, and then burn the letter." After speaking, he walked back to the study with Xia Huai, wrote a letter with a brush, and handed it to Xia Huai.

Xia Huai took the letter in his arms, went to the backyard to lead a horse, and galloped to Thorn City. Zhuge Liang watched Xia Huai go away, his heart calmed down, and then he returned to the courtyard, and calculated the fortunes of the Lu Kingdom, there are three years at most, and after three years, the Dragon Kingdom will dominate the world, and it will begin to slaughter all loyal ministers and righteous people, and finally the country will be ruined.

At this time, in the City of Thorns, Cao Mengde was indeed there, he brought three hundred warriors, and was planning with Sima Yi on the square in the city how to assassinate.

Sima Yi said: "Lord of the country, Weichen suggested that the soldiers should be divided into three routes, enter Suchuanzhou at night, and point directly at the palace in three directions, and take down Liu Xuande's head. ”

Cao Mengde twisted his beard and said, "What are the chances of winning this plan?"

Sima Yi replied: "Less than forty percent." ”

Cao Mengde let out a long sigh and said, "Isn't that just to let these three hundred brothers die, this plan is not appropriate." ”

The two of them kept thinking about how to break into Suchuan Zhou, but they didn't know that at this time, the periphery of Thorn City had been surrounded by the Dragon Army, Ma Chao sent ten spies to sneak into Thorn City to find out information, and he and Yide were camped ten miles outside Thorn City, as long as the spies were sure that Cao Mengde was in the city, they would rush up and take it down.

At this tense and dangerous moment, Xia Huai rushed to Thorn City, and as soon as he entered the city, he asked the doorman if there was a large force coming to Thorn City today, and the doorman thought for a while and said: "There is no large force coming, only a team of 100 guards arrived, saying that they wanted to train the troops and stationed down, and now they are on the side of the Chengwei Square." ”

When Xia Huai heard this, he pinched his fingers and counted them, nodded his head and thanked him, and led the horse to Chengwei Square, along the way he saw several sneaky figures, all of which were constantly approaching Chengwei Square, it was estimated that they should be spies, and he had to find some way to delay them.

After thinking about it, he took out the copper coins from his purse, marked them into several parts, and quietly approached the spies, and while they were not paying attention, he put his copper coins into their clothes, and when he was ready, he shouted, "Someone, there is a thief, my money is gone." A lot of people were called to watch the excitement for a while, and more than a dozen spies were immediately surrounded by the crowd, and they had to continue to pretend to watch the excitement in order to disguise.

After a while, a few soldiers came and asked Xia Huai what happened, Xia Huai told the original story of the incident, grabbed a spy in the crowd and said, "It's him, who stole my money." ”

The spy scolded anxiously: "Little bastard, who stole your money, uncle, I have money, I need to steal you." ”

The soldier came over and asked, "Are you sure he stole your money?"

Xia Huai stretched out his hand and touched the spies, and after a while, he found a few copper coins and said, "Uncle Bing, please see, this is my money, I have made marks on it, and engraved a Xia character." ”

As soon as the soldier saw that the evidence was conclusive, he took out the chain and locked the spy, Xia Huai continued: "Uncle Bing, he must have accomplices, and my money is more than that." After speaking, he continued to look for people in the crowd, and after a while, he found all a dozen spies, and the leader of the soldiers scratched his head and wondered: "Is there a meeting with thieves today? Why are there so many?"

The spies were all shouting, saying that they were not thieves, but it had no practical effect, Xia Huai saw that the matter was done, and continued to rush to Chengwei Square.

When he came to Chengwei Square, Xia Huai saw that there was someone guarding the door, so he stepped forward and said, "This soldier uncle, I want to ask, was there a team of 100 soldiers who came here to train before?"

The guard glanced at Xia Huai and said, "Why are you asking this?"

Xia Huai took a step forward and whispered, "This soldier master, I want to find Sima Junshi." ”

When the guard heard this, he raised his weapon and said, "There is no Sima military master here, who sent you?" As soon as the words fell, he was about to use force.

Xia Huai hurriedly stepped back and said: "Sima Junshi is my uncle, I came to look for Sima Junshi on the order of the family teacher, if you don't believe that I have a handwritten letter from the family teacher here, you can hand it over to Sima Junshi and take a look." ”

The guard hesitated a little after hearing this, stretched out his hand to take the letter in Xia Huai's hand, turned back to the square, and after half a ring, Sima Yi came out with the guard, saw Xia Huai and said, "You are my junior brother's disciple?"

Xia Huai knelt down with his hands in fists and kowtowed three times and said, "The disciple's name is Xia Huai, and he is a great disciple of Wolong. ”

Sima Yi stepped forward to help Xia Huai and said, "Good boy, come in with me." After speaking, he pulled Xia Huai into the square camp.

The two of them came to a tent, and Sima Yi said softly: "This matter is very important, you and I go to see the lord of the country, and tell the lord of the country all about your master's guess, and I will deal with the rest." ”

Xia Huai nodded, and the two of them entered the camp together and met Cao Mengde......