Liu Feng saw that Ma Chao didn't know much about the situation his side was in, so he immediately signaled Zhou Yu to stop his explanation first, and then summoned Zhao Yun, Pang Tong and other generals and ministers he brought to Nanyang to his mansion.

Now, although Liu Feng's side has just won a very morale-boosting victory, Liu Feng knows that such a victory is not enough to reverse the gap between himself and Cao Zhi, sitting on the fertile land of the Central Plains and the north, Cao Zhi, who is in a prosperous city, is still far ahead of Liu Feng in all aspects, and Cao Zhi is only a few capable people like Zhou Yu and Pang Tong who can take charge alone.

But such a big gap is naturally not something that one or two capable people can make up, so in the next struggle with Cao Zhi, Liu Feng still can't make any mistakes, and the loss of any city may become a breakthrough for the Wei army to drive straight in, so Liu Feng thinks that it is necessary for him to talk about the situation of this matter with the generals under his command, not to mention that for the next step of his own development, a clear routine has already been formed in his mind.

Everyone arrived, Liu Feng knew that with the wisdom of most of them, they could guess the situation they were going to face next, so he didn't hide it, and said straight to the point: "This time Yang Xiu was defeated and returned, and the Cao army lost no less than tens of thousands, which was the largest loss of the Cao family since Chibi, and the soldiers of our army were indeed extremely brave in this battle. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Feng raised his eyes and looked at the generals sitting in his mansion, and saw that most of them still had a calm look on their faces, so he nodded with satisfaction and continued: "But this matter is not something worthy of our complacency, although Yang Xiu was frustrated and returned, but there is only one Central Plains in China, but there are three different forces, as long as such a situation exists for a day, there will be an endless situation between me and Cao Zhi and Zhuge Liang, so this defeat, with the strength of Wei, Cao Zhi will not only not retreat, After discussing with Gong Jin and Mr. Shi Yuan, they all thought that within March, Cao Zhi would entrust Sima Yi with important tasks again, and hand over the military power to Sima Yi, and attack my Jingzhou again, and at that time, it will be the real test for our army. ”

As soon as Liu Feng's words came out, some of the generals in front of him couldn't sit still, Sima Yi's reputation, they had more or less heard of it, and from Liu Feng's mouth, the four words of the real test were enough to see how much Liu Feng attached importance to Sima Yi.

But after a moment of shock, these generals under Liu Feng regained their former self-confidence, in their minds, even if Sima Yi has some talent for leading troops to fight, what can it be compared to Zhuge Liang, even if Zhuge Liang is a great talent known as Wolong, in the past few years of open and secret fighting with Liu Feng, he can only retreat to Jiangdong to temporarily avoid the disaster, and has already lost the opportunity to compete with Cao Zhi for the Central Plains region head-on, not to mention a mere Sima Yi.

Obviously, under the leadership of Liu Feng, they rarely suffer from defeat, even if there is really a next time, then no matter who the opponent is, they are still confident that they will win.

To everyone's surprise, after making it clear that Cao Zhi would definitely send people to capture Jingzhou again, Liu Feng ordered that except for Zhao Yun with 50,000 elite soldiers who were still guarding Nanyang in Wancheng, the rest of the people followed Liu Feng to return to Xiangyang temporarily.

When Liu Feng led the army back to Xiangyang a few days later, Yang Xiu and others also brought hundreds of thousands of remnants back to Luoyang, although he knew that he would only bring endless disappointment to Cao Zhi, who was looking forward to it in Luoyang City, but what he should face was that he couldn't hide after all, Yang Xiu could only take the lead in Luoyang City, and all he could choose was to arrange the time to enter the city in the middle of the night, so as not to let the people who came in and out of Luoyang City see them defeated.

Even though he was defeated, Cao Zhi, who got the news in advance, was still standing outside the Luoyang City Gate, wearing a black cloak, standing in the wind to greet the person he trusted the most, after getting the news, Cao Zhi was disappointed but also clearly realized that this failure could only prove that Yang Xiu was not suitable for controlling the military power, as for Yang Xiu and others' loyalty to the Cao clan of Wei State, there was no doubt.

After seeing Yang Xiu's much thinner face than before the expedition, and his pale and almost bloodless complexion, the last bit of resentment in Cao Zhi's heart towards Yang Xiu suddenly disappeared, he knew that this person who was loyal to himself, his eldest brother when he was a child, who generally took his own poems to fight against, and drank for fun, belonged to the eloquent court, but did not belong to the bloody battlefield, he had done his best......

That night, Cao Zhi ordered Yang Xiu to station the army outside Luoyang City for repair, then Yang Xiu and Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, Xu Huang and others were all let into the city to rest, the next day, Cao Zhi set up a banquet for them in his own mansion in Luoyang Palace, not a word about the defeat, but even so, these battle-hardened generals are still a little difficult to receive, a banquet, the generals eat depressed, but Cao Zhi has become the one who speaks the most.

After resting in Luoyang for a few days, Cao Zhi still left Xu Chu in Luoyang to guard, and he took Yang Xiu and others all the way back to Yecheng, and this expedition, Cao Zhi never mentioned it again, just as there was no such thing happened in Wei, what can prove the real existence of this matter is just the news and silver money and food sent to the wives and children and parents of the soldiers who died in battle.

On the way back to Yecheng, Cao Zhi did not alienate him because Yang Xiu led the army to lose the battle, but still like the two of them in the past, drinking and talking in one place from time to time, and when they were about to return to Yecheng, Yang Xiu had a slight smile on his face, Cao Zhi's performance made his heart a lot more stable, as Zhang Liao said to him in the military camp before, he has a pivotal role for Cao Zhi.

Finally, Cao Zhi's guard of honor entered the city of Yecheng, and all the ministers lined up at the city gate to greet them, and Sima Yi and Sima Fu were among them, but now they all appeared in an inconspicuous position, when Sima Yi lowered his head to welcome Cao Zhi and others back from Luoyang, Sima Fu beside him clearly saw that his brother's eyes were like a flame, burning boiling.