Lü Bu knew that his cavalry was not strong in attacking the fortifications, and he was afraid that Cao Cao would transfer troops to cut off his back route, so he led his troops to retreat, stationed in Fengqiu, and confronted Cao's army. During this period, Lü Bu took advantage of the new defeat of Cao's army and sent troops to capture Yanxian, Kuangcheng, and Pucheng, and pointed directly at Changyuan.

Although he missed the opportunity to eliminate Cao Cao, he annihilated more than 10,000 Cao troops, beheaded Cao Ren and Cao Hong, seriously injured Xiahou Dun, and occupied six counties of Cao Jun, which can be called a brilliant victory. Lü Bu basically stabilized the situation in the east, and couldn't help but be overjoyed, and after leaving Cao Xing to sit in the six counties, he returned to Luoyang.

When Lü Bu returned to Luoyang, Emperor Xian personally led the Manchu Dynasty civil and military out of the city for ten miles to greet him, and when the city canonized Lü Bu as the champion marquis, and entered the position of general. Lu Bu was overjoyed and held a banquet to entertain the ministers that day.

Unlike Lu Bu's complacent, Cao Cao's army was gloomy. The death of Cao Ren and Cao Hong, the wounding of Xiahoudun, and the loss of the six counties of Yucheng all seriously hit the morale of Cao's army. In the month that followed, from time to time, there were sporadic routs returning to Cao Cao's possessions. In the end, only 16,000 of the 30,000 troops returned, and the rest were either dead, captured, or scattered.

Soon after Lü Bu returned to Luoyang, Cao Cao, who had no intention of fighting again for the time being, or was unable to fight again, led his troops to be stationed in Junyi County and Xiahou Yuan in Changyuan to prevent Lü Bu from attacking his hinterland, and then returned to Xu County in disappointment.

Soon after, Liu Zhang learned about the battle between Cao Cao and Lü Bu. Originally, this should be an excellent time for him to attack Xu County and invade Yanzhou, and the troops he arranged in Wan County were not difficult to realize his idea in terms of numbers. But the reality is that about half of these troops surrendered to Jingzhou, and the army was unstable and had no fighting spirit, so Liu Zhang took such a force to face a generation of heroes Cao Cao, he really had no confidence, even if Cao Cao was weak at this time. After all, the name of the person, the shadow of the tree, if Liu Zhang was not sure of nine times out of ten, he would not easily start a war with Cao Cao. What's more, he still has to guard against Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, if the main force goes to attack Xu County, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not have any thoughts about Nanyang!

Thinking that he had a good relationship with Cao Cao when he was courting Dong, and even cooperated, Liu Zhang sent someone to visit Cao Cao in Xu County, indicating that the two families were friends, and everyone had the same goal, both for the revival of the Han Dynasty, and they should work together to revive the Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao is in a period of weakness, and it is difficult for him to feel at ease when there is a tiger sleeping next to him, especially this tiger with sharp teeth and claws, he does not have the strength to fight the tiger for the time being, so the two sides hit it off and verbally formed an ally, and the two sides opened the state border and communicated with each other.

Some people are very puzzled by Liu Zhang's approach, because in their opinion, after capturing Jingzhou, Liu Zhang sat on the two states of Yi and Jing, and his strength was almost unmatched, and the new defeat of Cao's army was an excellent opportunity for Yizhou to expand its power to the Central Plains.

No one knows that since Liu Bei was killed by Liu Zhang's design, Cao Cao has become the biggest enemy in Liu Zhang's heart, after the eunuchs, even the people who have changed their surnames have swept away all the princes in the north and set the foundation of the Wei State. It can be said that the person who wants to suppress Cao Cao the most, and even defeat Cao Cao in one fell swoop, is Liu Zhang......

But thinking about Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu, Liu Zhang had to give up, if he and Cao Cao fought to lose both, wouldn't he make wedding clothes for others? Besides, now the Yizhou army is in hostility with almost all the surrounding princes, once the war is lost, Yizhou is facing definitely not only Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu's falling into the ground, rather than making dangerous moves at this time, it is better to sell Cao Cao one, multiple friends and multiple roads, and wait until the Jingnan affairs are completely solved, and then send troops to Guanzhong, after sweeping away all the troubles, and then concentrate on attacking Cao Cao is not the best choice?

Even if there will be no major battles in Wancheng for the time being, there is no point for Liu Zhang to stay here any longer, and he plans to lead the army back to Chengdu. However, before leaving Wanxian, there are still many things to deal with, such as the Nanyang Taishou, the candidates for the Jingzhou Assassin History, the composition of the Nanyang Defenders, and so on.

After discussing with a group of civil and military forces for a long time, Liu Zhang finally proposed to remove Huang Zhong from the post of chief general of the Yingwu Army, and reappointed Huang Zhong as the Taishou of Nanyang, in charge of the Jingbei War, and took Fa Zheng as the army to assist Huang Zhong. The Nanyang garrison is dominated by the British army, considering that Nanyang is adjacent to the Central Plains, the terrain is flat, and the cavalry is mobile, so the cavalry of Huaxiong's department selected 300 elites, all of them stayed in Nanyang, with such a small number of troops is obviously no way to hold Nanyang, Liu Zhang left 10,000 Yizhou infantry troops, 10,000 surrendered troops, Li Yan, Lei Tong, Gong Du, Pei Yuanshao, Guan Hai and other generals also stayed in Nanyang, waiting for Huang Zhong's dispatch.

Liu Zhang thought about the position of Jingzhou Assassin for a long time, and finally Liu Zhang appointed Kuai Liang, the Kuai brothers were the ministers of Jingzhou, and they were reused, and everyone was quite surprised, and they were worried about the loyalty of the two. However, Liu Zhang took into account that Jingzhou was newly attached and the people's hearts had not returned, and the appointment of local people to important positions would help the people to recognize, and the Kuai brothers in history were also considered to be dedicated, if it were not for Liu Cong, who succeeded to the throne, it would be difficult to achieve great things, and Kuai Yue would not necessarily persuade him to surrender. Now Liu Zhang's power can be said to be in full swing, looking at the world, how many can match it? What better place to do more than Liu Zhang? Since this is the case, Liu Zhang naturally does not worry about their loyalty. What's more, the two of them are newly descended, they are so trusted, and they are in important positions, they must be grateful to Liu Zhang, the so-called confidant dies, how can the two rebel and be scolded by the world? More importantly, the talents of the Kuai brothers are enough to be qualified for these two positions, and the Kuai family has great prestige in Jingzhou, with them, presumably Jingzhou will soon be able to restore stability and become another important source of troops and food base for Liu Zhang.

The three hundred elite horsemen selected by Huaxiong's department returned to Hanzhong together with the newly trapped camp of Gao Shun's department and were subordinate to Wei Yan. They were accompanied by 20,000 mixed troops composed of the Yizhou Army and the Jingzhou Army, as well as 10,300 horses captured in the First Battle of Jingzhou, including 8,600 war horses and 1,700 pack horses. After the 300 elite cavalry arrived in Hanzhong, they had to start selecting soldiers in Hanzhong to form and train new cavalry units. The candidate for the commander of the newly formed cavalry unit, Liu Zhang's most hope is Changshan Zhao Zilong with a white horse and a silver gun, but Zhang Ren's letter has an echo, Zhao Yun has already voted under Gongsun Zhan, Liu Zhang knows that Zhao Yun, who is loyal and courageous, will never turn his back on the master, he has thought about it for a long time (Zhang Xiu also replied to decline Liu Zhang's recruitment, after all, his uncle is now in the Xiliang army), and finally, he has to transfer Zhang Liao to Hanzhong and take full charge of the newly formed cavalry unit. The vacancy he placed was transferred by Wu Yi, a famous Yizhou general stationed in Jiangling.

Then, Liu Zhang led 37,000 people to leave Wancheng.

However, Liu Zhang did not return to Chengdu directly, he planned to go to Xiangyang first, and then go to Jiangxia to worship the ancestors of the past dynasties (when Jiangxia was conquered, Liu Zhang only learned from other people's ears that his ancestral home was Jiangxia, and most of the ancestors of all dynasties since Liu Yu were buried here), and finally returned to Chengdu.

After Liu Zhang met with Kuai Liang and other Jingzhou ministers in Xiangyang, he did not stop long, and he and Xun You and others entered Jiangxia a few days later by boat under the protection of the Qinwei battalion.