For a question like mine, not only Pang Tong was shocked, but Liu Bei also seemed to have not expected it at all.

However, Pang Tong is worthy of being called Wolong and Phoenix Chick with Kong Ming, he just looked at the distant terrain and thought for a while, and then said to me: "The previous topographic map of Xishu, thanks to the trust of the lord, also understood it after reading it. According to the unified view, Yiling is extremely important for both Jingzhou and Yizhou. From Yiling to the east, it is the unobstructed Jianghan Plain, and from Yiling to the west, it enters the mountains and mountains, without support, which can be said to be an important supply place for attacking Shu. Of course, this time the lord entered Shu, it was Liu Jiyu who invited him to go, since it was unimpeded along the way, after taking Shu, Jingzhou and Yizhou were all owned by the lord, and Yiling was just an inner city, so there was no need to guard it with heavy troops.

However, when Pang Tong said this, he went straight to the main question I just asked, "If you have to enter Jing from the middle of the river, this Yiling City can be said to be the first fortress in Jingxi!" Needless to say, the importance is overstated! According to the opinion of the unification, if the heavy troops are stationed here, it is easy for the Jing soldiers to attack this place, but on the contrary, the Shu soldiers will attack Jing, but it is difficult to reach the sky! ”

"Could it be that if the enemy army is based here, then the soldiers in Shu will not come out?" When I saw Pang Tong say the same, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in my heart.

"Definitely! Definitely! Pang Tong pointed to the river in the distance and said: "Since ancient times, down the river, the momentum is like a broken bamboo, if the Shuzhong naval army is stronger than Jingzhou, it can go down the river and reach Jiangling, if Jiangling is broken, then the soldiers of Yiling will be surrendered!" ”

Such an assertion is undoubtedly admirable to me, who already knows how history evolves, and the Western Jin Dynasty relied on this to conquer the state of Wu. However, Liu Bei said with disbelief: "Shuzhong is full of mountains, how can the naval army be stronger than Jingzhou?" "I think this is also one of the important reasons why Liu Bei was defeated by Lu Xun in Yiling later, the army must not advance quickly, and the naval army is very different, is it not defeated?

Of course, this discussion in Yiling, for Liu Bei or Pang Tong, may not be taken to heart, after all, their minds are now on how to benefit the state, although Jingzhou is watched by Sun Quan, but in their hearts, whether it is Cao Cao or Sun Quan, Jingzhou is basically incapacitated.

In the following process of entering Sichuan, Liu Zhang can be said to show the greatest sincerity he can give, and he strictly ordered all places along the way to provide support for Liu Bei, so that Liu Bei's entry into Yizhou was like going home, and hundreds of millions of materials were given to Liu Bei before and after.

When I came to Ba County with Liu Bei, I heard that Ba County Taishou Yan Yan commented on Liu Zhang's invitation to Liu Bei to enter Shu and said: "This is sitting alone on a poor mountain and letting the tiger defend itself!" ”

Of course, no matter how dissatisfied Liu Zhang's military generals were, and no matter how much they didn't want Liu Bei to enter Shu, Liu Bei and I still arrived in Fu County smoothly, and Liu Zhang even personally led more than 30,000 infantry cavalry to greet him. Zhang Song secretly asked Fa Zheng to tell Liu Bei to let Liu Bei attack Liu Zhang when he met Liu Zhang, and Mr. Feng Xiao and Pang Tong agreed with this suggestion.

However, Liu Bei said that when he first arrived in a different place, his kindness and reputation were not known to others, and the time was not yet ripe, so it was not possible to do so. And I also agree with Liu Bei's opinion, although our army has been considered elite after a long period of training, but now after all, it is on other people's land, and Liu Zhang brought more than 30,000 people to greet him, which seems to be grand on the surface, but in fact, it also shows that he is still a little wary of us. Pang Tong saw that Liu Bei and I both advocated this, so he didn't say anything more, and the truth was indeed to wait.

In this way, Liu Bei and Liu Zhang's first meeting was actually very happy.

Soon, Liu Zhang recommended Liu Bei to Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty as the acting Grand Sima and concurrently served as the lieutenant of the Sili School, and Liu Bei also recommended Liu Zhang to act as the general of Zhenxi and concurrently serve as the pastor of Yizhou. The subordinates of the two armies also mingled with each other and drank together for more than a hundred days. During this period, Liu Bei took the opportunity to make friends with Shu soldiers and buy the hearts of Shu soldiers.

After the feast, it's usually time to get down to business. The ridiculous Liu Zhang was afraid that Liu Bei had too few soldiers at this time, so he increased the source of troops and supplies to Liu Bei, and handed over the army stationed in Baishui to Liu Bei to command, and asked Liu Bei to crusade against Zhang Lu.

So I followed Liu Bei to the front line of the crusade against Zhang Lu, Jiameng Pass, but Liu Bei did not move, without the slightest intention of crusading against Zhang Lu, only in Jiameng Pass, to show kindness and buy people's hearts.

Historically, Liu Bei had to spend more than a year at Jiamengguan to accept Pang Tong's strategy, and use the middle of the upper, middle, and lower strategies to seize Yizhou. Although Yizhou could be successfully taken in history with Pang Tong's middle strategy, the price paid was that it would take more than a year to make Liu Bei occupy Shu not long ago, and Cao Cao also took Hanzhong. And in history, although Liu Bei finally won the battle for Hanzhong, Cao Cao calmly moved away 80,000 civilians in Hanzhong, so that Liu Bei actually only got a strategic place, but had no ability to produce.

And that's what I want to change! Therefore, not long after the army arrived at Jiameng Pass, I found Liu Bei and explained my point of view to him, the core of which is to take Hanzhong first, and then seize Shudi!

Hanzhong is also known as Nanzheng, has the name of Qinba Tianfu, has a long history, was the birthplace of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the king of the Han Dynasty, once took this as the birthplace, built an altar to worship the general, took Han Xin as the general, repaired the plank road in the Ming Dynasty and darkened Chen Cang, chased the Central Plains, pacified the three Qins, unified the world, and achieved the Han family for more than 400 years to continue the world to this day.

I am sure that the word Hanzhong must have a special attraction for Liu Bei. Otherwise, Liu Bei's eyes would not have lit up after hearing my proposal, but he still sighed and said to me: "Now that the whole army is hanging alone, and Shu is undecided, how can I have the strength to attack Lu?" ”

Liu Bei's mouth is naturally Zhang Lu, Hanzhong and Shu are separated by the Bashu Mountains, due to its special geographical location and north-south traffic arteries, for Liu Bei's future Northern Expedition to the Central Plains is tantamount to an extremely important base area.

Of course, I know that Liu Bei is now full of thoughts about how to seize Yizhou and take Xichuan, and he is not very interested in the affairs of Dongchuan. But I also know that Xichuan may not be so easy to take, if according to Liu Bei's intentions, he wants to establish kindness in Jiameng Pass, so that the people of the whole Shu are so moved that they are automatically willing to accept his rule, no matter how powerful Liu Bei's benevolent and righteous methods are, in the end, Kong Ming, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun will have to be transferred from Jingzhou to attack inside and outside, and it will take more than a year.

But since ancient times, the soldiers are fast, Cao Cao in the capture of Jingzhou, the selection of iron cavalry 5,000, day and night to chase Liu Bei to Dangyang, so that Liu Bei can not go to Jiangling, forced to go Hanjin into Jiangxia, and achieved the best strategic situation before the Battle of Chibi. Similarly, if I had just allowed Liu Bei to slowly incorporate Yizhou into his territory, Cao Cao would have completely expelled Ma Chao from Liangzhou and taken Hanzhong first!

My plan is that if Liu Bei takes Hanzhong first, Liu Zhang, who is overjoyed, will definitely take off his whole body of defense, and when the time comes, it will be much easier to bring him to Hanzhong to work in the army. If Liu Bei took Hanzhong first, the 80,000 households in Hanzhong would not be forcibly moved to Yongzhou by Cao Cao, so that Liu Bei could only passively immigrate from Shuzhong, and the important bridgehead of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains would not be completely dependent on transportation with Shuzhong, and even could be self-sufficient.

Of course, Liu Bei didn't expect my bold proposal at all, after all, he was only thinking about Yizhou before, and Hanzhong didn't think about it in his heart at all.