"Alas, a little vanity, what a word. I am here to congratulate the general. ”

The uninvited guest was Pang Tong, who had recently refuted Zhang Song in Xiangyang City and then gained fame, and he obviously disdained that false name, and congratulated Liu Bei in turn.

Liu Bei was a little stunned, and then a trace of shame flashed on his face, and he said gloomily:

"The general of the defeated army, under the fence, can be taken in by Liu Jingzhou, and it is a fluke to live in troubled times, but I don't know where the joy comes from?"

"The dragon escaped from the abyss and soared above the nine heavens, I don't know if it is worth celebrating?"

As soon as he heard Pang Tong's words, Liu Bei's heart was shocked, and he hurriedly asked:

"What do you mean, sir?"

"The general should know about Yizhou Zhang Song's envoy to Xiangyang, right?"

"Know a thing or two."

"Tong learned from Zhang Song's mouth that Yan Yan in Guanxi and Cao Cao in the Central Plains both sent envoys to Shu, and Liu Zhang's head rat at both ends, wanting to meet the source left and right and make profits from it, so he sent two envoys and was ordered to go to Chang'an and Xiangyang. Does the general know the meaning of this? ”

"Be stupid, please give me advice!"

Liu Bei's attitude was humble, he did not pretend to be smart, but sincerely asked Pang Tong for advice, Pang Tong was not arrogant, he nodded, and immediately said:

"This is a combination of vertical and horizontal strategies. The Yuan brothers in the north are fighting among themselves, and their defeat is imminent, and I expect that those who share the Yuan family's soup will be Yan and Cao. It's just that Yan is strong and Cao is weak, so Cao Cao pretended to be in the name of the imperial court and united with Er Liu, wanting to carry out a strategy of cooperation and indulgence to fight against the aggressive Guanxi soldiers; And Yan Yan of Guanxi wanted to use Hanzhong to connect Hengyizhou, subdue Liu Zhang, and destroy Cao Cao's alliance. ”

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and Zhang Song, the envoy of Yizhou, intends to choose another master, so the general can take advantage of the convenience and seek a foothold. The general intended to introduce Zhang Song to the general, so that he could be used by the general, and Yin was the master, and persuaded Liu Zhang to break off the friendship between the western part of the country and form an alliance with Liu Biao and Cao Cao. ”

Pang Tong saw that Liu Bei still had doubts on his face, and continued to explain:

"Liu Zhang is weak, and Zhang Lu can't control it, let alone the soldiers and horses in Kansai. Now that Hanzhong is obtained by Yan Yan, once Yizhou breaks off diplomatic relations with Guanxi, he will definitely be frightened that Guanxi will send troops to retaliate, so he can only seek foreign aid, hoping to recover Hanzhong and protect the land of Bashu. ”

"When the time comes, it's time for the general's chance. Yizhou is dangerous, fertile for thousands of miles, Gaozu has become an emperor because of it, and now its master can not be guarded, and the wise man thinks of Mingjun, this is so a general, how can the general care? ”

Liu Bei seemed to be moved, but after thinking about it, he hesitated a little, and asked again:

"Mr. Gaojian, it's just that Liu Jingzhou has a lot of talents, and if he has a foreign general, he may not be able to lead the army to help the Shu soldiers recover Hanzhong."

Pang Tong shook his head and said with a sneer:

"Otherwise, Liu Biao is a person who has nothing to show for himself. Heavy generals are afraid that they can't be controlled, and light generals are not useful, and their people rely on Cai Mao and Kuai Yue as the masterminds, and Huang Zu, Liu Pan and others are their minions, and now Cai, Huang and others have their own uses, and Jing Xiang and Cao Cao are relieved of the army and made peace, so the general can only live in Xiangyang. If Liu Zhang sent an envoy to ask for help, and looked at the generals of Jingxiang, only the general would turn to the Central Plains, recover Nanyang, and repeatedly resist the strong troops in Beizhou, wouldn't he be the best candidate to lead troops to aid Shu and recover Hanzhong. ”

Speaking of this, Pang Tong was afraid that Liu Bei would hesitate, and unfolded his future plans one by one.

"The general is the emperor's family, and the letter is written in the four seas, so after entering Shu, as long as he recovers Hanzhong, establishes his fame, and then submits himself to the corporal and takes over the heroes, the Shu people will be able to be used by the general, as for Liu Zhang, a useless person, soft and hard, you can easily chase it."

"Yizhou is established, and Jingzhou can be plotted. Liu Biao is old, the knees are out of order, this is the source of civil strife, I expect Liu Biao to die, Liu Qi and Liu Cong will definitely set off infighting, and the general can take advantage of the chaos to send a general to lead the soldiers and horses to return to Jingxiang. ”

"If there are thorns and benefits, then the foundation can be achieved. The general protects its rock resistance, the west and Zhurong, the south Fu Yiyue, the outer Sun family, and the internal political theory; No matter who wins Yan and Cao, as long as there is a change in the north, then a general will be ordered to take the army of Jingzhou to Xiang Wan and Luo, and the general will lead the people of Yizhou out of Qinchuan. If this is the case, then the hegemony can be achieved, and the Han family can be prosperous. ”

After listening to Pang Tong's spilled a plan, Liu Bei, who was imprisoned in Jingxiang and difficult to achieve, suddenly seemed like a cloud, his heart was agitated, and he was so excited that he walked back and forth in the secret room, and only reacted after a while, and immediately ignored his identity, bowed down to Pang Tong and said:

"The Han family is declining, traitors steal their lives, and their wisdom is shallow, so they are rampant, as for today. Mr. Meng does not give up, and gives the policy of reviving the Han Dynasty, if you can get rid of the shackles and use your life to do the king's affairs, all of which are Mr. Meng's merits, please be prepared! ”

When Pang Tong heard this, he was proud in his heart, but he hurriedly avoided it humbly, and said to Liu Bei:

"The general quickly invited the ,,, general to move Zhang Song to see him, that is, it has been a day or two, and the general can prepare early. Well, tonight's matter is over, in order to avoid suspicion, the commander also needs to leave as soon as possible, take care, general! ”

"Remember, take care, sir!"

This time, Liu Bei personally sent Pang Tong quietly out of the house. Pang Tong seemed to be quite familiar with Xiangyang City, and after going out of the secret door, he turned left and right, and his figure quickly disappeared into the alleyway.

At this time, the curfew in the city, all the sounds were silent, and Pang Tong, who was walking in the dark, suddenly raised his head, it turned out that he didn't know when, the sparse stars on his head became extraordinarily dazzling again, Pang Tong pinched his fingers and calculated, and couldn't help grinning.

"The stars are splendid, the heroes are strife, so good, this Han family's Ji Shi, I should come to Pang Shiyuan!"

···

The victory and defeat of this battle between all parties around Yizhou have not yet been decided, but the golden drum of the northern country can't wait to sound again.

Faced with the situation of Yuan Shang and Cao Cao joining forces to attack Yuan Tan in Qingzhou, Yan Xing finally agreed to the request of Qingzhou's envoy Xin Bi to send troops to help.

Subsequently, the feather and the military book were frequently transmitted. Yan Xing led his troops to Hanoi in person, and ordered Cao Yuan, Xu Huang, and Zhang Liaosan to lead cavalry and horses to attack Hebei along Jingcheng, Fukou, and Yiguan, Xu Kun, Pei Xuan, Xie Jun and other generals led the Xiongnu and Xianbei soldiers to attack Daijun, Shanggu and other places, and Wei Xuan of Henan led his troops out of Yuyuan Pass to attack Yingchuan, Chenliu and other places.

And the process of this battle is also beyond the expectations of all parties, Hebei officials are invincible, or flee or surrender, first there are Chaoge battalion soldiers self-defeated, Jiang Yiqu abandoned the city and fled, and then Han Fan, Liang Qi, Yin Kai and other cadres of the county guard county order without a fight, which makes Cao, Xu, Zhang three road soldiers and horses such as into no man's land, soldiers without blood to attack the hinterland of Hebei, the North Route Army Cao Yuan Xu Shu, Gongsun continued to recruit the remnants of Montenegro, Gongsun soldiers, divided troops to attack Changshan, Zhongshan, Julu and other places, the middle route army Xu Huang and the South Route Army Zhang Liao all the way to Yecheng City, The Yecheng regiments, which all the troops went out to attack Qingzhou, besieged them.

What's even more ironic is that Youzhou, which was not threatened by the Kansai soldiers, also had turmoil, and the state officials Zhang Nan, Jiao Touch and others rebelled and led troops to attack the state capital at night.

After this incident, except for some counties and counties who still insisted on being loyal to the Yuan family, other cities and towns under the call of Youzhou Haoqiang Xian Yufu, Yan Rou, Zhao Li, Huo Nu, Wang Song and others have supported their own troops and divided the counties, and the entire Youzhou seems to have fallen into a huge chaos.

Yuan Shang, who was shocked to hear these bad news in Pingyuan City, suddenly panicked, he never thought that the rivalry between his brothers would make the hearts of the entire Hebei people collapse so seriously, seeing that most of Jizhou and Youzhou were falling into chaos one after another, he was at a loss for a while, and he couldn't think of any countermeasures at all, so he could only rely on Feng Ji, Geng Bao and others to give him advice.

Fortunately, Feng Ji and the others were all Yuan Cong who had been following Yuan Shao's campaign for a long time, and they were not completely chaotic at the time of the crisis, so they hurriedly assisted Yuan Shang in presiding over the withdrawal of the army, and gave up the Pingyuan County that had just been defeated, and hurriedly returned to Yecheng to prepare to meet the trial and match men and horses in the city to resist this large-scale invasion of the Guanxi soldiers and horses.

The generals Zhang He and Gao Lan in the army were appointed as the forwards, and they were ordered to lead the Hebei soldiers to rush to Yecheng in advance, first, to form a corner to help defend Yecheng, and secondly, to buy time for Yuan Shang to recruit more soldiers and horses in the future.

Just in order to prevent the surrender of Han Fan, Liang Qi, Yin Kai and others from happening again, the suspicious Yuan Shang listened to Feng Ji's advice again, sent the chief bookkeeper Geng Bao as the supervisor of the army, granted him the right to kill and take it, and instructed Geng Bao to closely monitor Zhang and senior generals, once they found that the generals in the army had any signs of rebellion, they could act cheaply on the spot and get rid of future troubles.

In this way, the morale of the strikers was weak, they were afraid of the enemy like tigers outside, they were wary of each other internally, and they were not willing to go to Yecheng to meet the enemy at all. Helplessly, under the severe urging of the overseer Geng Bao, the soldiers could only speed up the march for several days, and finally arrived at Guantao in Wei County on the third day.

···

At night, Yuan Jun camped.

Gao Lan, who was inspecting the camp, saw that the morale of the battalion was deteriorating day by day, and the soldiers were getting closer to Yecheng, the more signs of collapse appeared, and he was worried, so he could only take the opportunity of the night to avoid the eyes of the overseer Geng Bao, and quietly rushed to Zhang He's military tent to find Zhang He to discuss countermeasures.

"Humble?"

Gao Ran held the sword in one hand and the pocket in the other, strode into Zhang He's tent, and saw Zhang He kneeling alone in front of the map frowning and thinking, and immediately asked.

"Hmm." Zhang He raised his eyes and glanced at Gao Ran, did not speak, beckoned, and signaled Gao Ran to approach.

The two have been in the army for a long time, they are brothers and sisters in common suffering, and the current situation is imminent, the two can be said to support each other, and they don't care about those vulgar etiquette, so they immediately got together.

Seeing the dense lines and patterns on the map, Gao Ran couldn't help but look at it patiently for a while, and gradually, his brows wrinkled along with Zhang He.

"Changshan, Zhongshan, Julu, Zhao Kingdom" Gao Ran pointed to the map and counted in a low voice, "Wei County, Zhuo County, Dai County, Shanggu, Yuyang, damn it, most of this Yan and Zhao land will either fall into the hands of the enemy, or be occupied by the rebels, the general still wants me to take this army of soldiers and horses, rush to Yecheng to relieve the siege, I am afraid that I have not yet reached Yecheng, as long as I meet the rangers of the Xiliang soldiers, these 20,000 horses will immediately disturb each other and disperse." ”

As soon as the conversation box opened, Gao Ran couldn't stop, from the incompetence of the judge, Jiang Yiqu, and Yuan Xi to the stupidity of the Yuan brothers, he had no scruples, and scolded them all over again, seeing that the situation in Hebei continued like this, everyone was dying, and the restless he could only continue to use all kinds of curses to vent and ease the uneasiness and fear in his heart.

"Hey, why don't you speak?"

Gao Ran scolded with a dry mouth, and suddenly found that Zhang He had been silent for a long time, which was completely different from his previous performance, and he suddenly became suspicious, looked at Zhang He and asked.

"Huh." Zhang He smiled bitterly, pointed to the map and began to say, "In fact, according to the previous situation, although the Xiliang soldiers are menacing, but Kansai and Sanhe are all year old without fighting, and it is difficult to hold on for a long time. ”

"But because of the disputes in Hebei and the panic of the people, the general Zuo Shou ordered that he had no intention of defending the land and resisting the enemy, or fleeing or surrendering, which allowed the Xiliang soldiers to attack the city and conquer the city, and the food was on the enemy, and they were invincible all the way, and they killed directly under the city of Yecheng. If I could have waited for the two of them to lead the troops at the beginning, waiting for the opportunity to break through the road first, and lose their courage, this Yecheng may not be able to break the siege, but now it is ,,, alas——"

Hearing Zhang He's words, Gao Ran was even more indignant, he raised his fist, and his voice became high-pitched.

"Every discipline villain, repeatedly slandering, making the general suspicious of our army lieutenant generals; Geng Bao was greedy for merit, only knew how to blindly urge, forcing us to rush to Yecheng, where did he know that all those who defend the city need to have soldiers who must be rescued outside, and there is a place that must be guarded inside. There is a well-founded advance and retreat, and there is a good supply. The generals use their lives, and they are united in their hearts. But you see, in Yecheng nowadays, where are these still these, this is obviously to drive the soldiers to Yecheng to die! ”

"Shhhh Silence, you just say these words in my account, you must not mention it again when you get out of this place, if you let people listen to it, it will be about to lose your head! ”

Zhang He's eyes flickered, as if he had thought of something, and suddenly became cautious again, Gao Ran heard this, his heart was shocked, and he hurriedly asked:

"Jun Yi, listen to what you mean, could it be that you have heard some secrets?"

"Hmm." Zhang He nodded, gritted his teeth and said:

"Just now, a military official secretly reported to me, saying that the supervising army was dissatisfied with the lieutenant general of the army who was afraid of the enemy like a tiger and could not advance without patrolling, and he wanted to take the opportunity to kill the general in the past two days to deter the army."

"What, there is such a !!" Gao Ran's face changed suddenly, and he jumped up in an instant, and he walked back and forth in the tent in shock and anger, and began to talk to himself.

"Such an important matter, why don't you tell me in advance,,,, it's bad, I have a lot of trouble with that Geng Bao on weekdays, and this time I'm afraid that guy is going to take my head through military law······"

The more I thought about it, the more scared Gao Ran walked around for a long time, and suddenly thought of something, his body was stunned, and he turned his head to look at Zhang He, who was calm and calm on the side, holding the hilt of the sword in his hand, and his eyes showed a fierce light.

"Junyi, the matter has come to this, I think, I might as well wait!"