"The last general, Liu Bei, see General Zuo."

"Eh, Xuande doesn't have to be polite. I really didn't expect that it was you who led the troops to come to the rescue of Chen Cang, and the battle in Liangzhou made His Majesty and the general worried. ”

After hastily cleaning up the battlefield, Liu Bei met with Huangfu Song and Dong Zhuo, and Liu Bei immediately rolled off the saddle and immediately stepped forward to salute, extremely humble to Huangfu Song.

Huangfu Song was also very satisfied with his attitude, as kind as he was to his nephew in his later life: "Xuande, you are now the general of Zhenxi, you and I can be commensurate with each other, even if it is a New Year's friend." ”

Liu Bei couldn't refuse, so he changed his words: "Mengyi Zhengong loves him." ”

Even so, he added the word "gong" to the end of the table to show respect.

Huangfu Song patted him on the shoulder and asked about the military situation, only then did he know that Liu Bei did not come to help him, but in order to go to the pass to eliminate the thief Zhang Lu, Han Sui just blocked Liu Bei's way.

Huangfu Song then ordered: "In this case, I will not delay your mission, and it is enough for me and Zhong Ying to lead the headquarters to pursue Han Sui." In today's battle, Li Shen and other troops in the east of the city, except for those who escaped from crossing Wei, most of them were annihilated, and at least 20,000 enemies were destroyed. Han Sui suffered a heavy setback, and his morale must have become more and more depressed in the future. ”

"May you respect General Zuo's command! Take a little rest tonight, and tomorrow I will pursue with General Zuo! Dong Zhuo, who had been beside him and had no sense of presence, hurriedly answered.

Dong Zhuo has always opposed the pursuit in history, but at this moment, because he saw that Liu Bei and Huangfu Song had joined forces to win a big victory, it seemed that it was easier to make money, how could Dong Zhuo not pick up the cheap ones for nothing.

Seeing this, Liu Bei also hurriedly said some polite words to Dong Zhuo, wishing him a victory.

Li Su, who has been watching from the sidelines, also felt quite strange when he saw this scene: Liu Bei now still regards Dong Zhuo as a big man Zhongliang, and the two of them are also talking about how to kill the enemy and serve the country......

But it can't be helped, there are some things that he can't explain, so let it be.

Now leave a good impression and make a good relationship temporarily, which is just to prevent Dong Zhuo from taking power in the future and before the princes discuss Dong in the next few months, Dong Zhuo will use the name of the central government to target Liu Bei.

The two sides counted their respective captures and war booties, summarized the results of the battle, and reported them to the imperial court by Huangfu Song, and after a night of feasting, Huangfu Song and Dong Zhuo led their troops out of the city.

Only thousands of soldiers of the Huangfu Song army were left in the city to be responsible for logistics and ensuring the grain route, and the rest of the defense was temporarily handed over to Liu Bei.

Because it was impossible for Liu Bei's large army to rush in to attack Hanzhong, there was no room for so many troops in the valley. Therefore, in the next half a month to a month, Chen Canghui will temporarily be the base and base camp of Liu Bei's troops.

At the same time, although there was no food in Chencang City, it was eaten by Huangfu Songjun for nearly half a year, and the granary was almost bottomed out.

Because his troops had a lot of concealed and excessive soldiers, the scale was far beyond what the imperial court knew, so the food allocated by the government was definitely not enough to eat. If we don't do a good job in these tasks, it is impossible to go to Hanzhong recklessly.

Liu Bei had no choice but to send civil officials to have a good relationship with Fa Yan and Fa Zheng's family, and let the Fa family, the No. 1 Wang family in Yixian County, help contact and raise food.

In this kind of spring famine season, as long as Fa Zheng can help Liu Bei buy grain at a normal price, it is already a big favor, and if you don't get it right, you have to add extra money.

In just a few days, Liu Bei spent 20 or 30 million yuan to prepare for the battle and store grain, which was really like a flowing spending.

The total amount of grain and grass raised was more than 100,000 stones, of which 50,000 or 60,000 stones were allocated by the imperial court and 780,000 stones bought with their own money, which could feed 40,000 people for two months.

……

Every day the troops rested, they had to eat hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food, and of course this pressure also made Liu Bei dare not rest longer.

Early the next morning, after Huangfu Song and Dong Zhuo led the troops to the battle, it was still early, Liu Bei couldn't sleep, got up and exercised for a while, and stepped into Li Su's bedroom next door, intending to talk about when and how to enter the army alone.

Li Su was dragged up from the bed in a daze, and he was depressed in his heart: Do you think you have insomnia like your twenty-nine-year-old middle-aged man? My brother is only seventeen years old and still has to make up for his sleep development!

Li Su yawned, listened to Liu Bei's question, and waved his hand to signal a little calm: "Why should my brother be anxious?" It is a rare opportunity for General Zuo to hand over the defense of Chen Cangcheng to his brother, why not take the opportunity to contribute to General Zuo and let the idle soldiers strengthen the city defense? ”

Liu Bei hurriedly said: "Now it's not the situation when we ate Qingzhou, the people here are all people of the imperial court, and every mouthful of supernumerary military food is paid by ourselves." ”

Li Su smiled: "It's useless to be anxious, the Sanguan Road is narrow, and it can't accommodate too many large armies to advance together, so in the first ten days and half a month, the main force of the rear army must be stranded in Chencang, I will find something to do for them, so as not to eat rice, why don't you listen to me." ”

Liu Bei shook his head helplessly, and waved his hand: "Okay, just listen to the virtuous brother, let's talk about the rear first, how to strengthen the city defense?" ”

Li Su actually had already thought about it when he heard that Huangfu Song temporarily handed over the defense to Liu Bei yesterday, and he had a showdown at this moment: "I see that General Zuo has been besieged for half a year, and Han Sui has also attacked many times, although it has not been breached, the city is also extremely dilapidated.

Especially on the northwest side facing the mouth of the Longgu Valley, the gap in the city wall is everywhere, the outer bluestone and strip stone near the city gate have also fallen off, and the city tower has also collapsed. Why don't you raise some stone and rebuild the towers and gates? ”

Liu Bei hurriedly said: "Brother Bo Yaxian, what are you kidding, it's good to give some manpower, why do you have to spend money to raise stones?" The stone for repairing the city is expensive and cumbersome, and it has to go to Qinling to mine, and it is too expensive to transport dozens of miles here! ”

Li Su Zhizhu smiled: "I didn't let my brother quarry another stone, isn't there a ready-made one - I see that on the southeast side of the city wall, there are also a lot of residual stones, and the surrounding rammed earth erosion is not stable, it is better to dig up the loose stones on the southeast side and use them for the west gate and the north gate and the corresponding city tower." After the southeast stone is removed, just dig some rammed earth, and the surface will be flattened. ”

"Isn't this better than tearing down the east wall and repairing the west wall? No, it doesn't take an analogy, it's just! Liu Bei couldn't help but be curious, if he hadn't known that Li Su was scheming, he would almost have thought it was a joke, "What does this mean by Brother Xian?" ”

Li Su whispered in his ear: "Brother, think about it, where is the northwest side of this Chencang City facing you?" It is the Longgu Valley Road, which is Han Sui, and on the southeast side, it is the Qinling Valley Road, and it is the Hanzhong Road that is guarded, and it is Zhang Lu.

For the imperial court, Han Sui is a long-lasting disaster, and it must be prevented all the time. And Zhang Lu is already a grasshopper after the autumn, with us to ask Zhang Lu and completely exterminate it, from now on, the imperial court will not need Chen Cangcheng to defend the enemy on the southern side, I am here to save money for the imperial court. ”

Li Su embellished his true thoughts, and did not say, "We have entered Sichuan and will leave Sichuan in the future."

But even if it is a modified idea, Liu Bei feels very reasonable.

That's right, I, Liu Xuande, am the No. 1 Han loyal minister in Tianzi, and the southeast of Chencang City is to prevent the enemy from Hanzhong, and Hanzhong is mine, and no one can oppose Han.

Good fortifications should be used on the blade, so it was decided, tear down the east wall and make up the west wall!

He immediately ordered to help Huangfu Song repair the city defense, remove all the stones on the southeast side, and prepare for a new repair in the northwest.

In fact, when it came to the implementation level, Li Su, who "deceived the superiors and concealed the subordinates", was even more immoral than Liu Bei expected.

Li Su didn't even use any reliable rammed earth to repair the gap in the southeast wall, but secretly dredged out some silt from the moat, and stuffed it directly into the cavity formed by the weathering and loss of the city wall like a tofu slag project, filling the inside and covering the outside with a layer of rammed earth to pretend to be.

Anyway, as long as the enemy does not come to attack the city, it is impossible for this tofu scum project to be discovered within a year or two.

……

After arranging the conscription during the period when the main force was stationed in Chencang, Liu Bei asked again about the strategy of marching into the army: "Brother Xian, what is the key to going to Hanzhong?" How should our army march into the army? ”

This question is quite simple, Xiaobai who has watched "Romance" a little bit can answer it, and Li Su also blurted out: "The key to entering Hanzhong is, of course, Yangping Pass, where its portal is located." I thought that the Shu Road was difficult, and the Yangping Pass was steep.

We should not rely on the elite soldiers, but also try to outwit them, or sneak attack, or lure the enemy, and so on. I have only heard the name of Yangpingguan, but I don't know the details of its geography. ”

Liu Bei thought for a while: "Then what should we do now?" ”

Li Su asked people to take the map, looked at it roughly, and said: "I think it is better to take two steps, first, the army stayed in Chencang, it is indeed too far from the front line, and it is too late to reinforce at any time." You can first use the main force to go out of the pass, and enter the area of Hechi County in Wudu County along the valley.

The river pool is close to the West Han River, from the river pool to the south of the river can go to Wuxing, walk 50 miles by land to the Fu County along the water line, Fu County can reach Yangping Pass then along the water.

And if you trace the Western Han River from the river pond to the upstream, you can go to Wudu County to distinguish, to the west are all Qishan valleys, directly to the middle of the river, the water and grass are abundant. Our army came here for two purposes, one is to level Zhang Lu, and the other is to find a horse farm for Yu Fu Luoshan to settle and let him govern the local government.

That being said, we can disguise the first with the second. This time I went south, first under the pretense of just settling in Fuluo, and blocking the news along the way, caught the people and merchants who crossed the mountains and valleys and ran into the army, and all of them were detained, so that the thieves in Hanzhong would not know my movements for the time being.

Then under the pretense of placing Yu Fuluo, he pretended to continue to help General Zuo attack Tianshui and attack Han Sui from Wudu and Zhongzhong on the south side, so that even if Zhang Lu found out that there was a small army marching in Chencang Road, he was expected to deceive him and make him temporarily think that he was going to fight Han Sui and not to fight him.

As long as our army does not move south from the river for a day, it will not alarm Zhang Lu for a day. There is also a little advantage of this plan, that is, Yuvro's cavalry is useless when attacking the pass, so he will be sent away for the time being, and it will also reduce the logistics consumption of our army. ”

Liu Bei pondered for a while, this is indeed the truth.

Then first walk a short and half way from Chencang, rush to Hechi, and transport most of the military rations to Hechi one by one. Then, while sending Yu Fuluo to the suspicious formation, he sent a small group of scouts south from Hechi to Yangping Pass to check the terrain. After having a detailed topographical map, a military meeting was held in Hechi to discuss how to fight.

Li Su was also a little apprehensive in his heart, this was a tough battle with no way to play tricks, and he couldn't even count on the trick of cutting off food at the checkpoint, so he could only fight hard.

However, because he had not had a stable base before, Li Su did not have the opportunity to climb science and technology in a state of secrecy, and now there is neither black powder blasting nor other epoch-making siege weapons, but how can it be better to take Yangpingguan?

In history, when Cao Cao attacked Zhang Lu for the first time, he was unable to break through Yangping Pass.

You can only take one step at a time.