The most critical reason is that the Central Army is unable to invest more troops to expand the scale of the war, on the contrary, it needs the combat effectiveness of the Special Operations Division and the Rongyi Division.

Lu Bu has already decided that Jingzhou will accept it when he sees a good situation, anyway, he will occupy an extra piece of land and will not suffer.

Liu Bei was in a weak position, if the central army did not want to continue fighting, it would be impossible for them to confront the Cao-Wu coalition army, and they could only look forward to the central army.

The next thing is to go back and forth, the division of territory and spheres of influence.

Naturally, the Central Army would not give up the places it had already occupied, and Cao Cao would not give up Xiangyang City.

In the end, the result of the negotiations was that the counties of Nanyang to the west, including Yuxian, Suixian, Wanxian, Bowang, Yexian, Luyang, and other areas actually controlled by the Central Army, were all under the ownership of the Central Army, with the line of Xiangyang, Xinye, and Wuyin as the boundary.

The five counties of Nanjun, Changsha, Wuling, Guiyang, and Lingling are owned by Liu Qi, and they are still the five counties of Jingnan, and there is no loss.

Cao Cao controlled the counties of Nanyang east of the line of control, including Xiangyang City, including Fuyang, Suixian, Zhangling, Caiyang, and Xinyang and Xiyang counties in the northernmost part of Jiangxia County.

The rest of the entire Jiangxia County was owned by the Sun clan of Eastern Wu, which was equivalent to the Central Army, Cao Jun, and Dongwu dividing up Nanyang and Jiangxia, the two richest counties in Jingzhou.

Liu Qi inherited the rest of the five counties of Jingzhou, and of course the actual control was in Liu Bei's hands.

The advantage of Lü Bu's occupation of Nanyang was that the southernmost defense line of the Central Army was pushed south from Hongnong's Wuguan and Hanzhong's Fangling to the front line of Xiangyang and Xinye, which added a lot of strategic depth and of course also gained a large number of people in the Nanyang area.

It also harvested a large number of Jingzhou celebrities and wealthy families such as the Kuai brothers and Li Yan, as well as tens of thousands of Jingzhou military soldiers.

Of course, the Quad armistice agreement stipulates that the two sides are not allowed to garrison troops within 10 miles on each side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as a buffer zone, and both sides are happy to accept this approach.

Zhang Liao generously gave the thirty counterweight stone throwers to Liu Bei, anyway, this is not too advanced technology, as long as you have seen the real thing, you can imitate it sooner or later, it is better to give it to Liu Bei, it is more generous.

Of course, it was not completely given for nothing, Zhuge Liang exchanged some shipbuilders in Jingzhou and some sailors who were willing to join the Central Army from Liu Qi.

Liu Bei and Pang Tong still don't have a long-term vision, they only see the embarrassing situation in Jingzhou at this stage, and think that they can't develop a naval army at all.

I am happy to use these people who are not needed to exchange for the thirty counterweight stone throwers that even Cao Jun does not have, and in the battle of Tiger Prison Pass, Liu Bei has personally felt its power.

Zhang Liao was concurrently served as the Assassin of Jingzhou by Lieutenant Si Li, and he was responsible for the defense of Nanyang County, but Lü Bu transferred both the Special Operations Division and the Rong First Division back to Chang'an, leaving him only the number of the Third Division and the 14th Division of the Central Army.

This 14th Division will be changed from Li Yan's Jingzhou Army, the survival of the fittest, the elite will be organized into the 14th Division, and the eliminated will be incorporated into the local garrison brigade, and the division commander will be the veteran Fan Choulai.

After the Special Operations Division and the Rong 1st Division returned to Chang'an, they would take a short rest and replenishment, and then rush to the Western Regions to participate in a battle of what might be a grand scale thousands of miles away.

The casualties of the Rong 1st Division will be resolved by temporarily transferring personnel internally, and the original strengthened establishment will be restored to normal; after all, the replenishment of new personnel will not be able to form combat effectiveness for a while and a half.

Originally, Lu Bu's plan was to stop waging war in the direction of the Western Regions before unifying the whole country, and to stick to the existing territory and interests.

But it will never come true, and many things will come when they should come, and you can't stop them if you want to.

The source of what happened, according to the letter sent by Fazheng, was Ma Chao.

Ma Chao's third cavalry division was stationed in Dawan Kingdom, which is now the Dawan Governor's Palace, and the entire territory of Dawan was under the control of the Central Army.

Personnel of the Ministry of Intelligence entered the Central Asian countries one after another as businessmen, and infiltrated the surrounding areas, inquiring about the customs and customs of each country, military deployment, the geography of mountains and rivers, and drawing maps.

Because the Han Dynasty and the Kangju Kingdom formed an alliance, the merchants of the Han Dynasty often traveled in company with the Kangju merchants, and the personnel of the Ministry of Intelligence were naturally able to enter Central Asian countries under the cover of the Kangju merchants.

Especially at that time, the awareness of guarding against espionage had not yet been formed, especially this kind of transnational espionage.

The Han caravans soon became the most popular caravans in Central Asia, as the Han produced many products not found in other countries, such as tea, paper, metal products, and especially silk.

At that time, the technology of sericulture and silk manufacturing was monopolized by China, and the government strictly banned the export of related technology and silkworm seeds.

At that time, China's neighboring areas such as Korea, the Western Regions, and India, although some areas had begun to raise silkworms, but the technology of silk weaving was still far behind China.

Therefore, the quality of Chinese silk is still the best in the world, especially the emergence of silk and brocade, which represents the highest technical level of Chinese silk.

However, as the Chinese merchants and the Kangju merchants made huge profits and their incomes increased day by day, it was natural that some unscrupulous people were eyeing the businessmen of the two countries.

At that time, both the west and south of Dawan and Kangju were controlled by a large empire, which was the famous Kushan Empire in history.

Those who are not right-hearted, can be called horse thieves, and they are active in the border areas with the Dawan, Kangju and Kushan Empires.

On one side of the Kushan Empire were its two major provinces, Khorezm and Sogdia.

As soon as the army of the Great Han and Kangju went after these horse thieves, they fled into the territory of the Kushan Empire.

The Kangju army feared the strength of the Kushan Empire, after all, they were once vassals of the Kushan Empire a few decades ago, just like Khorezm now.

It was only in recent decades that the Kushan Empire began to decline, and they took the opportunity to become independent.

They clearly knew what kind of behemoth the Kushan Empire was, and they didn't dare to provoke it.

The army of the Han Dynasty, especially the Central Army, has always been the eldest of the heavens, the second of Lu Bu, and no one else is convinced.

Sometimes when you chase across the border, you will encounter the army of the Kushan Empire, which is obviously protecting the horse thieves, and the two countries have not yet been at war with each other, so the Han army can still maintain restraint, and the two sides only have a verbal conflict, and they have never really done it.

The Guishan army also knew that the Han army from the far east was quite capable of fighting, Dawan had been destroyed, Kangju was so powerful, he was also subdued, and he also formed an alliance with the Han people.

Therefore, although they favored horse thieves, they could not really fight with the Han army.

Although the background of these horse thieves is very special, and the status of the leader of the horse thieves is also different, the power of the big man behind him is too powerful.

Although these horse thieves cannot be eradicated, Pang De, Sima Yi, Ma Chao and others are still very concerned about them.