He appointed Pang Tong as the left army division and the assassin of Jingzhou. Chen Gong was appointed as the right army division, and Nanjun Taishou, Wei Yan was appointed as the middle guard, and Guan Yu was appointed as the general of Fenwei, and the two of them led the Jingzhou army.

He heeded Pang Tong's advice and sent envoys to make friends with the Chang'an court against Cao Cao's alliance with Sun Quan, while at the same time advancing southward to develop the counties of Jingnan.

At the same time, he also intervened in the affairs of Jiaozhou, fighting with the local gate lords of Jiaozhou for control of Jiaozhou, and the Shi family did not show weakness, and they turned to unite the forces of the Sun family of Eastern Wu to fight against Liu Bei's invasion.

While fighting for Jiaozhou in the south, Liu Bei, Pang Tong and others also turned their attention to Yizhou, because there were Lu Bu in the north and Cao Cao and Sun Quan in the east, and Jingzhou could only develop west and south if it wanted to expand its living space.

Jiaozhou to the south and Yizhou to the west.

Liu Zhang, the lord of Yizhou, took over his Laozi Liu Yan's class, and was recommended as his successor by the Sichuan sergeant clan because of his weakness and incompetence and the advantages of being relatively easy to control.

As he took charge of Yizhou for a long time, he became more and more conservative and weak, and many Sichuan sergeants separated from him.

When Liu Biao was alive, he often instigated the generals and officials of Lieutenant Sichuan to oppose Liu Zhang, and even launched a rebellion.

In 200, Zhao Wei, the general of central Sichuan, won the support of the people in central Sichuan, so he took the opportunity to launch a rebellion, taking advantage of the fact that the people in central Sichuan did not like Liu Zhang, and wanted to replace him and seize power alone.

As a result, he was defeated by the "Dongzhou Soldiers" formed by Liu Zhang's father, Liu Yan, who was still living to contain the displaced people in the Nanyang and Sanfu regions, and the rebellion was quelled.

However, after this battle, the sergeants of Sichuan, and even the scholars of Dongzhou also thought that Liu Zhang was not suitable to be the lord of Yizhou, and they were more optimistic about Liu Bei, who had a better reputation and a better reputation, and was known for his benevolence, righteousness and love for the people.

Zhang Song and others persuaded Liu Zhang to form an alliance with Liu Bei to resist Lü Bu, because they were all brothers of the same clan, and Liu Bei had always been known for being gentle and benevolent and unambitious.

Liu Zhang's ears are soft, and after listening to it a lot, he is also a little moved.

The Ministry of Intelligence has long developed a lot of eyeliner in Sichuan, and the news quickly spread back to Chang'an.

Lu Bu attaches great importance to this information, because Liu Bei in history did start plotting against Yizhou after getting Jingzhou, and finally succeeded, relying on this to divide the world.

Lu Bu was determined to put the use of troops against Yizhou on the agenda.

Due to the increasing number of Han people nomadic herding in the grasslands, after so many years of nomadic policy, more and more Han people can ride and shoot since childhood.

In particular, those warriors who followed Lu Bu at the earliest, and then the first batch of nomadic soldiers to the grassland, all became the leaders of small tribes, and their children began to grow up one by one, many of them were Han and Xiongnu, Han and Wuhuan, and even a mixture of Han and Xianbei.

Each of them grew up on horseback, skilled in horsemanship, and outstanding in archery, Lu Bu recruited them into an army, formed the 11th Cavalry Division, and selected Ma Chao to be their division commander, which was most in line with their temper.

Later, the 11th Cavalry Division was known for its boldness, bravery, fearlessness, and unruliness.

The 15th Infantry Division was formed with the strong sons of Tuntian's army, and the division commander was Zhang Xiu.

After the formation of these two divisions, they stayed in the Baling camp for training, especially for the terrain of central Sichuan, and especially for the cavalry in the mountains and forests, which was unprecedented.

The Special Operations Division and the Rongyi Division, which had returned triumphantly from the expedition to Central Asia, also stayed in Chang'an for training, and these two divisions had become the standing mobile forces of the Central Army and must be used in every battle.

The special operations division has even been equipped with flintlock pistols, and the matching bayonets have also been successfully developed and fully distributed, so that they will not be helpless in hand-to-hand combat.

However, because the opponents were still in the era of cold weapons, and the breech guns could not shoot in a lying position, their armor was retained, and they still retained their dual-use characteristics of foot and horse.

Bayonets replaced halberds and horizontal knives, and sharpshooters replaced their bows and crossbows with rifled guns, turning them into snipers.

In addition, the 1st Honor Division has also begun to receive musket adaptation training, and all three brigades of the 1st Honor Division have been converted into infantry brigades, and the cavalry establishment of the 2nd Brigade has been abolished.

All hoplites were retained, spearmen and crossbowmen were to be reequipped with flintlock muskets, bayonets were issued, and cross-knives and throwing spears and repeaters were abolished.

The 3rd and 6th Divisions had already been stationed in Hanzhong and Shangyong, ready to fight in Sichuan.

The engineers of the Central Army have already begun to repair several post roads and plank roads from Hanzhong to Sichuan, and Lu Bu still remembers the difficulty of the Shu Road, so he will take precautions.

In particular, the Central Army, which relies heavily on logistical supplies, needs to do a good job of material reserves in advance.

Several logistics and supply centers in Hanzhong began to hoard large quantities of war materials, grain and grass.

And Fang Yue's Fifth Division, which was originally stationed in Hanzhong, had moved forward and entered Hanchang and Xuanhan.

When he wanted to recover Hanzhong, Lü Buli overrode public opinion and retained the two county towns of Hanchang and Xuanhan in the north of Ba County as bridgeheads, which now reflects the benefits.

Going down the river from Hanchang, you can directly take the eastern town of Yizhou, the gateway to the east of Sichuan, and the county of Ba County to govern Jiangzhou.

And from the Wudu of Liangzhou, you can also enter Guanghan County along the Yinping Trail.

From Hanzhong, you can also enter Jiameng, and then, along Zitong, Mianzhu straight to Chengdu.

Therefore, although the Shu Road is dangerous and there are many passes in Sichuan, the effectiveness is greatly reduced due to the existence of this stronghold in Ba County, and the central army has many options to enter Sichuan.

The Ministry of Intelligence also secretly had contacts with many Sichuan sergeant clans, and even some of the Sichuan sergeant clans had their hearts toward the Chang'an Imperial Court and the central government, and naturally obtained news from them that many people had close contacts with Liu Bei.

In January 203, Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty issued an edict for the second time, and Jin named Lu Bu as the "King of Liang".

Because the popularization of flintlock pistols has become the focus of the Central Army's work at the present stage, the production capacity of flintlock pistols has been greatly increased, and the three major military industrial bases combined can produce 5,000 flintlock pistols a month, and a brigade can be reequipped in a month.

The production capacity of rifled guns is also gradually increasing, and the military factories of the Central Army can already use water energy to drive machine tools and engrave rifling.

Now it is further developing more advanced rear-loading rifled guns, and supporting the development of copper-shelled bullets.

However, it is either limited by the energy supply method or the production technology, and it is impossible to completely get rid of manual manufacturing and use machine tools on a large scale.

However, in any case, the Rongyi Division also completed the refitting of flintlock pistols, and the heavy infantry and armor were retained. The next thing to be redressed is Dian Wei's 1st Garrison Division and 2nd Garrison Division, and then all the infantry divisions will go to the nearest state to change their outfits in the order of numbers.

The production of gunpowder is also becoming more and more prominent, and bullets, shells, grenades, and explosives all need to be loaded with gunpowder, and the demand is huge.

Many places in Guanzhong, Bingzhou, and Qingzhou have built a large number of nitrate fields to ensure the manufacture of gunpowder.

Jiameng

(End of chapter)