As Han Sui said, the news of Gongsun Du's march into the Western Regions soon spread in the Han Dynasty.

Liu Bei was naturally no exception, he didn't lose his mind in shock, he groaned for a while, and recruited Xu Shu, Zhuge Liang, and Fa Zheng.

"Meet the King!"

Liu Bei didn't delay at all, and said straightforwardly: "The latest news, after Gongsun Du expanded his army on a large scale, he led troops to attack the Western Regions, and now several countries have been destroyed. ”

Because of Zhuge Liang's arrival, Fa Zheng felt the crisis, and he raised his voice first: "The king doesn't have to worry! ”

"The previous expansion of the Ming army originally increased our pressure, but this time the Ming army moved west into the Western Regions, which is not only harmless, but beneficial to us."

"What do you mean by that?" Liu Bei was surprised.

"Although the countries of the Western Regions are small, they are not soft persimmons that can be kneaded at will. Moreover, Gongsun Du has always been domineering, presumably not just to make the thirty-six countries of the Western Regions surrender, but to completely take them down. In this way, the countries of the Western Regions will never agree, and they will inevitably rise up to resist, and no matter how many casualties can be inflicted on the Ming army, it will always be good. In addition, after taking the Western Regions, you must send a large army to defend it, otherwise the people of the Western Regions will inevitably rebel and the gains outweigh the losses. ”

Liu Bei suddenly realized, and asked again: "How many people does Xiaozhi think the Ming army will damage, and how many people will be sent to guard the Western Regions?" ”

"The loss should be no less than 50,000!" Fa Zheng said loudly, "The town guard army is between 100,000 and 200,000. ”

Xu Shu and Zhuge Liang both nodded in agreement, and Liu Bei also breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this, and said, "So, the Ming army we are going to face will be at least 150,000 less?" ”

Zhuge Liang said: "What the king said is true! ”

"If what Gongsun Du said is true, the states and counties under his control are actually no longer as big and small as they once were, so the Ming army we actually faced was not as many as we imagined, so it was incomparable."

"What do you say?" Liu Bei came interested and said.

"It is not known how many troops the Ming army originally had, but judging from the places under its control, it should be around one million, no more than fifty percent, and no more than two percent. With so many armies, why raise millions? You must know that the princes of all walks of life do not have a million army combined, so why is this? ”

Liu Bei nodded when he heard this, and then looked at Xu Shu and Fa Zheng.

Xu Shu didn't have anything, just nodded and thought about it. Fa Zheng was different, I saw that his face changed, and he arched his hand towards Zhuge Liang and said, "I've been taught!" ”

Zhuge Liang also responded with a bow: "The law book is heavy!" ”

He immediately explained: "Gongsun Du did this, there are only two possibilities, one is to know that the emperor will lead to an alliance between the king and Cao Chengxiang and others, and take the first step to respond; The other is that there is another reason, as for what the reason, the minister thinks it should be related to the envoy of the Western Regions. ”

"Envoy of the Western Regions?" Liu Bei recalled the news he got last year and said, "Is that the envoy of the Western Regions who was robbed all the way?" ”

"That's right!"

Zhuge Liang said slowly: "Since Dong Zhuo's cholera regime, the Western Regions and the imperial court have long been out of contact, but last year, they suddenly came, and the scale was very large, which is enough to show that there is a problem in the Western Regions and is in urgent need of assistance." ”

"Well, that's true!"

Liu Bei Fu Xu agreed, but doubts immediately hit his heart, and said, "It's just that what will happen in the Western Regions?" ”

Xu Shu was born in poverty, although he had traveled to the Central Plains for many years, he didn't know much, and shook his head to say that he didn't know.

Zhuge Liang was originally from Langya and was born in a scholarly family, but he was born in troubled times, and moved to Xiangyang Longzhong when he was young.

"I've heard of it!"

Fa Zheng was born in a family of celebrities, and is the grandson of Fa Zhen, who has a collection of thousands of books at home, so it is also appropriate to know something.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, Fa Zheng didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly said: "Grandfather once said that the west of the Western Regions is called the extreme west, and there is the extreme western empire, which is not weaker than the Han Dynasty!" There is also the Yue Clan's Da Yue Clan, and there are no less than tens of thousands of people who control the strings. ”

After listening, Zhuge Liang said categorically: "It must be one of them, or both, to mobilize troops against the Western Regions." The countries of the Western Regions were defeated, so they asked the Central Plains for help. ”

"The minister seconded the proposal!"

After Xu Shu spoke, Fa Zheng also agreed.

Liu Bei said: "So the Ming army still has to beware of the Great Moon Clan and the Extreme Western Empire? Wouldn't that be able to draw even fewer Ming troops? Can you contact the Great Moon Clan and the Extreme Western Empire and ask them to join forces, or one of them, to send troops to the Western Regions? ”

Zhuge Liang and the three of them were silent when they heard this, and they didn't dare to answer casually.

Liu Bei also came back to his senses, knowing that there was something wrong with his words, so he also closed his mouth, thinking about how to change the topic.

Zhuge Liang said abruptly: "It's not impossible to do this, but we must not let them know our identity, otherwise once there is an accident, we will be stinking for 10,000 years." ”

"Don't let them know their identity? How does this work? ”

"Tempt them with profit!"

"Yes!"

After the four of them finished speaking, they all closed their mouths tightly, as if everything just now was just an illusion.

After being silent for a long time, Zhuge Liang said the previous words-

"Gongsun Du must have other enemies, otherwise he would not have directly recruited millions of soldiers, after all, the consumption of grain and grass in a million army is very huge, and most of the Ming army still has war horses, and the consumption is even greater. Therefore, the minister estimated that the Ming army we would face should be around 500,000. ”

"Half a million?" Liu Bei exclaimed, "So much? With the elite of the Ming army, can we win? ”

This is not only Liu Bei who thinks so, but also Xu Shu, Fa Zheng, Cao Cao and others.

Zhuge Liang and Cheng Yu's answers were: "The way to use soldiers lies in the right time, place and people!" Today, the people and the people are all in me, and the location is in the other, and the odds of winning have greatly increased. If you can't win, there are three in addition to the odd and positive, and the odd is in harmony, when you can make contributions, you can maintain undefeated even if you are not good. ”

There is a way that before the war starts, before you think about winning, you must first think about defeat!

The difference is that Zhuge Liang finally said: "Liang tasted and heard, in the past, the Qin perished, in fact, it was not Gaozu and the King of Chu who were brave, but in fact, the first emperor gave an order, otherwise the world would still be a surname." ”

"What do you mean?"

"I wonder if the king and the two colleagues still remember the Meng Jiajun, as well as Ren Huan and Zhao Tuo?"

"The famous Meng Tian, as well as the Meng family army under his command, no one knows, no one knows!" Xu Shu nodded.

Fa Zheng also said: "Zhao Tuo, the martial king of South Vietnam, although his reputation is not as good as Meng Tian and Meng Jiajun, he is also very famous. ”

Liu Bei also nodded.

Seeing this, Zhuge Liang said again: "The Mengjia army is the first-class elite in the world, with 300,000!" Zhao Tuo and Ren Huan led more troops, with 500,000 troops, and they were also elite. ”

"To put it mildly, with one of these two, whether it is Gaozu or the King of Chu, it is impossible to take Xianyang!"

"Hiss~"

The three of them suddenly gasped.

"But neither of these armies moved, why? Just because the first emperor had ordered before his death, even if the Qin State was destroyed, the Fanbang barbarians could not be allowed to invade the Central Plains. ”

"I see, I see!"

This sentence, four words, the three of them muttered for a long time before calming down the surging tide.

"In addition, the minister thinks that we should leave as soon as possible, otherwise I am afraid that we will not be able to reach the place until the middle of the year." At the end, Zhuge Liang admonished again.

"The minister seconded the proposal! Yizhou is no more than other places, far from the land of Yanyu, and it is advisable to set off as soon as possible. Xu Shu and Fa Zheng both agreed.

"Okay, herald—"

"Tomorrow!"

The next day, Liu Bei personally led an army of 100,000 from Yizhou to Jingzhou. Zhuge Liang, Chen Dao, Ma Liang, and Guan Ping should be accompanied by civil and military affairs.

When Fang arrived in Jingzhou, the holy decree was transmitted to Hanzhong, and Ma Chao's decree really stopped. Ma Teng also returned to Jincheng, got the news, and immediately asked Ma Chao to lead the troops to join him. Originally, he didn't want Ma Chao to get involved, but after the news of the Western Regions completely spread, he changed his mind.

In Jiangdong, Sun Ce, at the suggestion of Zhang Zhao, Lu Su and others, also sent troops on a large scale, with a total of 150,000 troops by land and water, and marched north side by side by water and land.

Cao Cao also reorganized his army in Dayozawa, Yangzhai, and Suozao, with no less than 300,000 troops, and intimidated Gao Shun, the governor of the southern army in the north.

Gongsun Du didn't react much when he received the news, he clearly knew that Cao Cao would never march first before the coalition was completed, just because he couldn't afford it. However, after consulting with the ministers, Gongsun Du still ordered the training of new recruits to be accelerated.

The recruitment of troops was completed not long after Gongsun Du set off for the Western Regions, and now he has been training for several months, so it can be said that he is almost complete, and under Cao Cao and others, he can go to the battlefield.

With a million-strong army, Gongsun Du originally planned to give priority to replenishing the naval army in addition to the Chinese army, and then divide the rest into the southeast, northwest, and northwest armies. However, in the first battle of the Western Regions, the northern army and the eastern army suffered considerable losses, and now the situation has changed sharply, and the pressure on the southern army has increased greatly, and it also needs to be replenished vigorously......

Gongsun Du thought about it for a long time and decided to give priority to supplementing the Western Army and the Southern Army, just because these two armies were more needed.

The Western Army originally had an army of 200,000, and Zhao Yun accompanied the army to the west, bringing 50,000 horses. After Shazhou was taken, Gongsun Du ordered to lead 150,000 troops into Shazhou, 80,000 troops from the headquarters of the Western Army, and 70,000 horses with the highest degree of training from the new training army, so that there were 150,000 people.