The scribe saved the soldier and wanted to say goodbye and leave, but Liu Bei was willing to let the man go, so he held a banquet to thank him.

The scribe also wanted to see what kind of person Liu Bei was, and what the purpose of this army was, so he agreed!

Since the scribe was willing to stay, Liu Bei ordered someone to prepare the dinner, although it was on the march, but it was no problem to prepare some meat!

However, to Liu Bei's surprise, as soon as he ordered to prepare the dinner, Xun You said to Liu Bei: "Lord, I am afraid that it is impossible to prepare a dinner, not that there is no food, but that there is no water, and the soldiers have been eating dry food since this morning!" ”

When Liu Bei heard this, his face couldn't help showing a trace of embarrassment, and he was about to speak, but the scribe beside him was the first to speak:

"The hussar general has no worries, he can order the sergeant to go to the lake to fetch water, and at the same time harvest this jagged herb from the lake, and then soak the herb in boiling water for tea time, and the water can be drunk!"

"Oh, that's the case?" After speaking, Liu Bei didn't wait for the scribe to answer, and then ordered Xi Zhong to take charge of the matter! However, there was no mention of recalling Zhao Yun at all!

Xi Zhong understood, so he took the order and left. Xi Zhong left the camp tent and found Chen Zhi, and then accompanied Chen Zhi to lead more than 3,000 soldiers to the lake to fetch water, and also brought a pot!

But Xi Zhong knew that although Liu Bei didn't say it, the reason why Zhao Yun was recalled was just in case, in case the scribes cheated, the army led by Zhao Yun could also bring back edible water!

According to Xi Zhong's request, Chen Zhi ordered the soldiers to take a pot of water first, boil it, and then put in the zigzag herbs harvested by the lake. In the end, Chen Zhi didn't let the soldiers drink, but personally scooped up a sip of water and drank it!

After a long time, Chen Zhi didn't feel the slightest abnormality, so he ordered the army to drink water and boil water!

In Liu Bei's big tent, Liu Bei was chatting with the scribes!

"I haven't consulted Mr. yet, who is it? Why in the mountains? Liu Bei asked.

The scribe didn't put on a show, and after Liu Bei asked, he made a gesture, and then said slowly: "I am from Pingyu County, Runan County. The surname is Xu Mingjing, and the word is Xiu. Because of the rebellion of Li Yu and Guo Yan, he lived in seclusion in the mountains and forests of Jiaozhou. ”

Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard this, and he had no doubt about Xu Jing's previous method of fetching water, because Liu Bei still had some understanding of Xu Jing.

Xu Jing was an important minister, celebrity, and critic from the late Han Dynasty to the Shu Han period of the Three Kingdoms.

Xu Jing is famous for his younger brother Xu Shao as a critic. Later, he was recommended by Liu Yi as filial piety and served as Shang Shulang. He had successively defected to Kong Ling, Chen Yi, Xu Gong, Wang Lang and others, and took refuge with his family in Jiaozhou before Sun Ce's attack on Wang Lang, and was treated with courtesy by Jiaozhi Taishou Shixie.

Later, he was invited by Liu Zhang, the governor of the state, and successively served as the Taishou of Ba County, Guanghan County, and Shu County. When Liu Bei surrounded Chengdu, he wanted to defect over the wall, but Liu Bei was captured. Liu Bei wanted to abandon it after he settled in Shu, and made it the long history of the left general under Fazheng's suggestion.

Liu Bei, who was overjoyed, asked again: "How did Wen Xiu know the method of taking water?" ”

"So that the hussar general knows that I have lived here for several years, so I still have a certain understanding of the Ten Thousand Worms Lake, there are some tiny insects in the Ten Thousand Worms Lake, but the medicinal herbs on the shore are indeed their nemesis, which is also what the local villagers told me!"

"In this way, my army will have no need to drink water!" Liu Bei was naturally happy when he heard this, but Xun Yu on the side also said excitedly!

Looking at the excited two, Xu Jing asked again: "Jing previously learned from his family that Jiaozhou was in a big war, and what was the intention of the hussar general to lead the army so far?" ”

"Wen Xiu didn't know, Jiaozhou was besieged by Zhu Fu, Liu Biao and Yuan Shu, and lost the land of the four counties of Nanhai, Cangwu, Hepu and Yulin, and now our army is stationed in Jiaozhi County to guard against Liu Biao and Yuan Shu!

And now Yuan Shu has two counties of Nanhai and Cangwu; Liu Biao occupies the two counties of Hepu and Yulin, and although the two of them strike the war, they are always local.

And if I attack Liu Biao, although I can win, I can't stop Yuan Shu, so the three of us are also deadlocked!

However, it is naturally not enough for the three counties of Jiaozhi, Rinan and Jiuzhen to support my hundreds of thousands of troops, so I personally led the army to the north, but I wanted to seize the land in the south! ”

Liu Bei's words were also frank. Liu Yan is the Yizhou Mu of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, and Nanzhong is under the rule of Yizhou, but now the lord of Yizhou is Liu Zhang, so Liu Bei doesn't feel wrong about it!

However, in Xu Jing's eyes, this is not the case, although Liu Zhang, the lord of Yizhou, is weak and incompetent, but the position of the state pastor is orthodox. Liu Bei said so frankly about seizing the foundation of others, it can be seen that Liu Bei is ready to seize the world, and he has already appeared as a hero!

Therefore, Liu Bei became more and more curious! As the saying goes, curiosity kills cats is not false at all, all hermits in the Eastern Han Dynasty actually have a heart to be a master, but they have not found the master in their hearts!

"Since Ming Gong has the intention of taking Nanzhong, there should be more than 20,000 troops here, right?" Xu Jing was a little puzzled!

"Naturally, the second time I led an army of 100,000, and there are still nearly 100,000 reinforcements behind, a total of about 200,000 troops!" When Liu Bei talks about troops, he still has some pride!

However, Xu Jing frowned slightly when he heard this, and then said, "Duke Ming, is it too hasty to attack Yizhou with a mere 200,000 army?"

Not to mention the troops under the command of Liu Zhang, who currently occupies Yizhou, just the barbarians in Nanzhong, and now the barbarians have elected Meng Huo as the king of the Nanban.

And in the entire Nanzhong, the Southern Barbarian King Meng Shu has thirty-six and seventy-two cave masters, and each cave master has three or two thousand barbarian soldiers, most of them are tens of thousands, and there are forty or fifty thousand barbarians under Meng Shu's command.

In this way, in the entire Nanzhong region, not counting the tens of thousands of soldiers placed by Liu Zhang in Nanzhong, there are four or five hundred thousand people under Meng Shu!

If Ming Gong only used 200,000 troops to meet 500,000 barbarians, it was a bit too big, Jing Shen thought that Ming Gong should think long-term! ”

Liu Bei nodded when he heard this, Liu Bei still has a certain understanding of the troops under Meng Shu's rule, not to mention anything else, but in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang led the troops to quell the chaos and mobilized an army of 500,000.

What's more, Xi Zhong has not been idle in Jiaozhou in the past few years, and although his understanding of the strength of the various cave masters in Nanzhong is not necessarily as detailed as Xu Jing, it will not be too different.

Therefore, Liu Bei's attack on Nanzhong had certain considerations, so Liu Bei continued: "What Wen Xiu said is very true, although I don't know the situation that Yu Nanzhong is satisfied, but I have heard of it somewhat, but Yuan Shu and Liu Biao's invasion has contained part of my troops, so I can't gather more soldiers in the short term."

However, reinforcements continued to arrive after a long time. Besides, not all of the seventy-two cave masters surrendered to Meng Shu, and I didn't want to finish the battle.

After all, Nanzhong is a vast land, and a lot of work needs to be done to realize the governance of Nanzhong by the Han Dynasty, and more importantly, as long as you can gain a firm foothold in Nanzhong, you will be able to imperceptibly sinicize the Nanzhong barbarians and seize Nanzhong! ”

"I see, Ming Gong originally wanted to govern while fighting and seize Nanzhong with strong national strength!" However, Liu Bei only briefly mentioned some of them, but Xu Jing completely understood Liu Bei's thoughts, and then said, but just after speaking, without Liu Bei answering, he shook his head and said in confusion:

"It's just that something is unclear, and it's a little difficult for three small counties to support hundreds of thousands of troops for several years of war, right?"

Liu Bei smiled at each other when he heard this, and then asked all the soldiers to open the map with the army!