After Zhuge Liang released Meng Huo, the army crossed Lushui, went deep into the barren land, and fought with Meng Huo. Meng was tricked several times, and successively invited the vulture bones, the elephant soldiers of Duosi, the vine armor soldiers of Mulu, and the cave master to help.

Meng Huo was not Zhuge Liang's opponent after all, he was captured by Zhuge Liang seven times, Meng Huo and other indigenous leaders were finally completely convinced by Zhuge Liang and refused to leave. ”

Meng Shu then led the Shu Han army to Dianchi and swore an oath with Zhuge Liang, and Zhuge Liang ordered Meng Shu and other barbarian leaders to guard the southwest for the Han Dynasty for generations. Since then, the Shu army has successfully pacified Nanzhong.

Zhuge Liang remembered that Liu Du had a prophecy earlier, saying that he would capture seven times and capture seven Meng Yuan, and he couldn't help but respect and fear himself, the lord. After Zhuge Liang led the generals to the temple of General Ma Yuan of Han Fubo to worship, Ma Chao has always claimed that he is Ma Yuan, and this time he came to worship, and he was respected by the local people.

After dealing with the post-war affairs, Zhuge Liang returned to the court. However, when the army reached Lushui, suddenly there were clouds, strong winds, and huge waves, and the army could not cross the river.

Rao is Zhuge Liang, who is proficient in astronomy, and he is also puzzled by this sudden change. Zhuge Liang was busy consulting Meng Huo, who came to see him off and was very familiar with the geography and climate of this area.

Meng Shu said: "In the past few years, there have been more wars here, many soldiers have died here, and these souls who have died in a foreign land often come out to make trouble, and those who want to cross the water must make sacrifices." ”

Zhuge Liang nodded and said: "The soldiers threw their corpses away for the country, and now the war is peaceful, and the soldiers of our army will return to the dynasty victoriously, but they will always become lonely souls in a foreign land, and they should be sacrificed." But what is it to be sacrificed? ”

Meng Shu said: "It is necessary to sacrifice 7749 human heads to be safe and sound, and there will be a good harvest in the coming year." ”

When Zhuge Liang heard this, his heart sank: Since these troublemakers are unjust souls, if you use forty-nine more heads to pay tribute, wouldn't it be to add forty-nine unjust souls for no reason? In this way, the cycle repeats, the more and more unjust souls accumulate, and the water will never be peaceful. Besides, the sacrifice uses human heads, which is too costly.

Zhuge Liang decided not to sacrifice Lushui with a human head. When he came to the edge of the water, he saw that the yin qi was rising, the evil waves were surging, and the soldiers and war horses were also in a panic.

The local people said to Zhuge Liang: "After the prime minister crossed the Lushui last time, the ghost cried God at the water's edge every night. From dusk to dawn, never again. ”

Zhuge Liang thought to himself, it seems that the sin is on me, how can I implicate innocent soldiers and civilians, so he decided to make sacrifices in person. Zhuge Liang pondered and meditated, muttering in his heart: Head ...... Head......

"There it is!" Zhuge Liang ordered the soldiers to kill the cattle and slaughter the sheep, chop the beef and mutton into meat sauce, mix it into meat filling, flour it on the bread, and make it look like a human head, and steam it in the cage drawer. This offering is called "manjushou".

Zhuge Liang took the steamed bun made of meat and flour to the edge of Lushui, personally placed it on the offering table, worshipped it, and then threw it into Lushui one by one. After receiving the sacrifice, the clouds and fog suddenly dispersed, the wind and waves were calm, and the army crossed smoothly.

Ma Tan and others were full of praise for Zhuge Liang's worship with steamed buns, only Ma Chao seemed to remember something: "Steamed buns? When our army fought with Han Xuan's army before, I saw that most of his soldiers used this thing as military rations......"

After the Shu army returned, Zhuge Liang showed Liu Du, Liu Du was overjoyed, and rewarded the generals. Zhuge Liang reversed the practice of ruling officials and sending troops to guard since the Han Dynasty and the Han Dynasty, and adopted the policy of "not leaving troops and not transporting grain", reusing local forces to protect their interests, and appointing Wang Yan, Lu Kai and others to adopt the Huairou policy to govern the south, and employing a large number of local minority upper-class elements, and there was no large-scale rebellion in Nanzhong after that.

The rear was decided, and Liu Du sent an envoy to Jianye to invite Han Xuan to discuss the merger of the two countries and the Northern Expedition.

It didn't take long for Han Xuan to quell the rebellion in various parts of the Chu State, and someone from the south reported: "Han Qi and his son fled to Shixie, but Shixie didn't dare to take him in, and secretly informed Bu Qi to lead his troops to attack." Han Qi was defeated and fled, and on the way he met Zhang Liao to return to the army, and Zhang Liao had already captured and beheaded Han Qi's father and son. ”

"Uncle, why are you doing this?" Han Xuan let out a long sigh.

Han Xuan summoned his ministers and told them about the merger of Chu and Shu. Gu Yong, Luo Tong, Yu Tuo and others strongly opposed it.

Yu Tuo took the lead and said: "No! If the lord descends to Shu, he will be subject to people, even after the world is decided, I am afraid that the lord of Shu will be jealous! I beg your lord to think twice! ”

"I have said again and again that this is the plan of the people of the two countries, and it is the best policy. Yu Zhongxiang, you want to disturb the public here! "Han Xuan couldn't bear Yu Xuan anymore.

"For the well-being of all the people of the world, so that the people of the two countries are not poisoned by the flames of war, the king's mind is comparable to the sea!" In addition to neutral ministers such as Zhong Xuan and Chen Qun, there are also people who take the opportunity to pat Han Xuan's ass, such as Zhang Zhao's eldest son Zhang Cheng.

"In the past, Cao Cao's 200,000 army of Chibi Chen soldiers, Ling Zun Zhang Zibu was the main descendant of Cao. Now you are also the Lord descended, and the family under your feet can be described as the Lord descending to the family! Yu turned and pointed at Zhang Cheng and scolded.

"Yu Flip! You ......" Zhang Cheng was furious and wanted to come to fight Yu.

Han Xuan stopped the two of them, looked at Yu Flip lightly and said, "Yu Flip, you have repeatedly contradicted Lonely, what is your intention?" Zhuyazhou is newly developed, and there is an urgent shortage of manpower, so let's go to Zhuyazhou......"

"Contrary to the word! Your Majesty! Yu turned away disappointed, Han Xuan advocated the merger of the two countries, and chilled the hearts of a group of old ministers who followed him.

The court meeting dispersed early, and everyone returned to their posts in disappointment. Han Xuan knew the helplessness of being ruthlessly defeated by reality in order to pursue his ideals, Yu Fu was banished to Zhu Yazhou, and the hearts of these ministers also went away with Yu.

Facing countless doubts in China, Han Xuan silently comforted himself in his heart. He remembered the agreement he made with Cai Yong when he first worshiped Cai Yong: to establish a heart for heaven and earth, to establish a life for the people, to continue to learn for the saints, and to open peace for all generations. Han Xuan smiled bitterly, and then stepped on the road to Wuchang.

When they arrived in Wuchang, Han Xuan, Liu Du, and Chen Wu held talks for three days. The meeting decided to formally merge the two countries into one country, because Liu Du was worried that removing the "Han" character from the country name would attract the opposition of Zhuge Liang, Liu Ba and other ministers, so he tentatively named the country name as "Xinhan".

Han Xuan couldn't help but complain, but finally accepted it, now the world has not been unified, everything is a wartime system.

"The two armies are united, and the banner, uniform, and system are unified, and the grain, grass, weapons, and baggage are exchanged...... Officials, military generals, etc., obeyed the transfer ...... Wuchang Joint Command, "Deng Zhi, as a clerk, recorded in detail the resolutions finally agreed upon by the three of them.

After the major military and political affairs were agreed, Han Xuan and Liu Du discussed continuing to settle the fields, accumulating grain and grass, and strengthening the defense of Cao Wei by the two countries.

Han Xuan unfolded a detailed map of China and overseas territories, and then said: "Northern Expedition plan, I propose to divide the army into five routes!" On the first road, Chen Wu and I led the army from Yangzhou, taking Hefei, Guangling and other places, and then taking Qing and Xu for two weeks. On the second road, His Majesty led an army of 140,000 to collect Nanyang, take Runan, Yingchuan, and then take Yuzhou. On the third route, Tian Yu led the Liaodong and Wadao armies from the East China Sea and land to attack the rear of Wei. On the fourth road, Prime Minister Zhuge Liang led the army from Yizhou, attacked Qishan through Hanzhong, took Tianshui, and then went west from Tianshui to Xipingguan, and then took Nan'an, Anding and other places. As for the fifth road, after Zhuge Liang took down Anding, Ma Chao led the army to send troops from Anding and entered the counties of Liangzhou. ”