When Fa Zheng came to Jingzhou, he only served as a military lieutenant with Liu Zhang, and because of his close relationship with Zhang Song, who served as a special driver, he was recommended to Jingzhou to meet Liu Bei and serve as an envoy to invite Liu Bei into Sichuan.

Because of my own level, I was not present when Zhang Song presented the picture, but I knew that these two people had been plotting to support Liu Bei as the lord of Yizhou since Zhang Song returned to Shu from Jingzhou.

Fa Zheng is good at intrigue in history, and once offered a plan to kill Xiahou Yuan, and Liu Bei has always trusted and respected him after entering Shu. However, just because his talents were not reused, he and Zhang Song sold the lord who gave them a family of money, which I don't think so.

Of course, Liu Bei will not alienate Fazheng because of my attitude, and Shu is an important foundation for him to dominate the world. So in the sixteenth year of Jian'an, in the winter of 211 AD, Liu Bei listened to Zhuge Liang's suggestion, left Kong Ming, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others to guard Jingzhou, and took Pang Tong, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Chen to me and 15,000 soldiers from the four counties who had been trained in Nanjun for a long time, plus 500 of my own soldiers and 4,000 recruits trained by me, a total of more than 20,000 people, in fact, 20,000 and marched towards Shu.

Before leaving, he couldn't help but be reluctant to Qing'er, and went to Kong Ming's residence to say goodbye to Huang Yueying. Mrs. Zhuge said a lot of caring words to me, and complained a little that Kong Ming let me take risks again at such a "young" age.

A few days after the departure of the army, the army arrived at Yiling to rest for a while, and I privately asked Pang Tong about one of my doubts about this trip: that is, since ancient times, the army has been 50,000 to say 100,000, and 100,000 to say 200,000, why did our army only say that there were 30,000 people on this expedition, and not say more to strengthen our momentum?

Pang Tong replied with a smile: "Liu Jiyu ignored the opposition of the ministers this time to invite the lord to enter Shu, one is the work of Zhang Song and Fa Zheng, and the other is that there is indeed Cao Cao and Zhang Lu. At this time, although the lord was able to enter Shu, but the meaning of vigilance in Shu is very deep, although Liu Zhang pretended to be sincere, but he may not suspect the lord, and there are not many soldiers, at this time, if we claim to have 50,000 troops into Shu, Liu Zhang is uneasy not to say, Cao Cao and Sun Quan will also think that Jingzhou is empty and fight our idea. 20,000 people, no more, no less, just right, can not only dispel Liu Zhang's doubts and make him think that we are all under his control, but also make Cao Cao and Sun Quan think that we still have heavy troops in Jingzhou and dare not act rashly! ”

Although I know that in history, it is best to rely on the second wave of Jingzhou soldiers to attack from outside, and only then did the two cooperate to take Shudi, but that is also because after the situation of Pang Tong's death deteriorated, this time with me, I will not let Pang Tong be shot to death on Luofeng Slope, so after listening to Pang Tong's words, I still think it makes sense.

Yiling is still far away from the White Emperor and not close to Nanjun, and Liu Biao has never had the ambition to conquer Shu, so it has not been a place to settle heavy troops since Liu Biao's time.

Although this place is now nominally within our territory, only a few hundred of our soldiers in Yiling City play the symbolic role of guarding the frontier.

However, because I personally knew the importance of Yiling in the history of the Three Kingdoms, after listening to Pang Tong's words, I still encouraged him to invite Liu Bei to go to the city wall with me.

Since our army had already marched all day before arriving at Yiling, the soldiers, including Liu Bei, were exhausted. However, Pang Tong's invitation to Liu Bei is still very face-saving, and now there is still a period of time before the sun sets, and the three of us stand on the small city head of Yiling, looking at the layers of mountains and dense forests in the direction of Shu, and we can't help but feel that it is difficult to enter Shu.

Yiling is one of the birthplaces of Bachu culture, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is the Xisai important place of Chu State, when the Qin general broke the Chu soldiers, there was a fire to Yiling. At this time, we introduced to the direction of the army that Yiling is located in the boundary between the middle reaches and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, and belongs to the transition zone of the mountains of Shu to the Jianghan Plain. And the meaning of the water is here, and the mountain is here, that is, from Shu to here, the mountain will become a small hill here, and the water will turn the danger here.

I looked at the mountains in the distance, and then looked at the city wall under my feet, thinking that a long, long time later, in history, Liu Bei would be blocked here because of avenging Guan Yu, and he couldn't advance, and he was unwilling to retreat, so that Lu Xun burned all the chips for hegemony in the world. At this time, Liu Bei and Pang Tong, who boasted of his superior wisdom, were completely ignorant.

Once upon a time, I fantasized countless times in modern times that if Pang Tong did not die in Luofengpo, but went out with the army, he would never have fallen for Lu Xun's fire plan. But there are many things without ifs, if Pang Tong really doesn't die, Jingzhou has Zhuge Liang in charge, and it is estimated that it will not be lost, and there will be no so-called battle of Yiling.

However, even though I had already made up my mind in my heart that I would definitely avoid Pang Tong's death, inexplicably, I still wanted to say something to Liu Bei here.

Thinking of this, I waved my hand to the guide and asked him to go down, convinced that there were only me, Liu Bei, and Pang Tong around at this time, and the guards were not as far away from here as they could hear our words, so I arched my hand to Liu Bei: "Lord, Song'er has a question, I want to ask you!" ”

Liu Bei was in a good mood at this time because he was about to enter Shu, and asked me with a smile: "What do you want to ask?" Pine? ”

I carefully thought about the wording in my heart, and said to him: "Lord, you also heard the words of the guide just now, since this place is so important, according to Song'er's opinion, you should keep more people to garrison, when I entered the city, I noticed that there are only a few hundred people guarding here, which is completely incompatible with the importance of this city's residence, according to Song'er's opinion, how can you send a loyal general to guard it with 3,000 soldiers!" ”

Liu Bei listened to my words and did not express his position directly, but kicked the ball to Pang Tong: "Master Pang, what do you think of Song'er's words?" ”

Pang Tong said such a sentence almost without thinking: "If the lord is trapped and guarding Jingxiang, then there must be 3,000 people here, and if the lord is determined to be in the world, then there are more than 300 people in this city!" After speaking, he and Liu Bei looked at each other and laughed.

Although Liu Bei still didn't say anything about my proposal, he patted me on the shoulder and said to me with a smile: "Song'er, do you think I still want to leave 3,000 soldiers here?" ”

At this time, I couldn't be stupid enough to insist that Liu Bei strengthen his armament here, I sighed secretly in my heart, my mind raced, and I decided to say something to him in another way. I first pretended to be enlightened, and said to Liu Bei: "In this way, there are enough soldiers in this city with 300 soldiers!" Then I turned the conversation to ask Pang Tong for advice, and I pointed to the mountains to the west and said to Pang Tong: "Master Pang, my husband has something to tell me before I leave. ”

"What does Kong Ming tell you?" As soon as I heard what Kong Ming told me, I found that Liu Bei and Pang Tong both suddenly restrained their smiles and became serious. I remembered that when Pang Tong visited me for the first time, he told me that Kong Ming might have sent me to take credit for him and him, and I couldn't help but laugh secretly, thinking that Liu Bei and Pang Tong must be thinking about this aspect at this time. However, what I wanted to say to Pang Tong had nothing to do with it at all, and I pointed to the mountains and dense forests in the distance in a very humble tone and said to Pang Tong: "Before leaving, my husband instructed me to think carefully about every place where I used troops during the days when I was with the army, and I should think carefully about it as a place where our army and the enemy fought according to the topography of this place, and ask you for advice!" ”

Liu Bei was very surprised when he heard this, while Pang Tong had a stunned expression for a moment, and he looked at me with a strange expression, as if I had become Kong Ming in an instant. For a long time, it was not until I was uncomfortably avoiding his gaze and wanted to run away that he sighed and said to me, "All right! In that case, what do you want to ask me for now? However, if there is an enemy army in front of you to hold the danger, how can our army attack Shuzhong with a force that is not stronger than the enemy? ”

Pang Tong's words are very relevant to the general environment of our current entry into Shu, Liu Bei also looked at me with a very expectant expression, obviously he also wanted to hear me ask if at this time we do not use the internal and external strategies, but to attack Shu, what will Pang Tong do.

It's a pity that for a person who has always been obsessed with the battle of Yiling, I am not interested in the strategy of how to storm Shu, what I said to Pang Tong is: "No, no, what Song'er wants to know is that if the two sides are equal in strength, and the enemy uses Yiling City as the central support area, and builds an extremely strong camp in the mountains and dense forests in front, our army marches from Shuzhong to Jingxiang, how to break through here and reach Nanjun?" ”