Cao Cao saw this situation, sighed slightly, he knew that this time he went, he must cooperate with Cao Pi in one place, and even if Nanyang can be preserved, Cao Pi's expedition is difficult to say successful, in the struggle with Cao Zhi, finally completely at a disadvantage, in this situation, naturally no one is willing to cooperate with Cao Pi.

Finally, after waiting for a while, Cao Cao looked at Cao Zhi again in desperation, and asked: "Zijian thinks that who can be up to this great task, Zhuge Liang and Lu Meng's coalition army, its momentum and strategy must be very difficult to deal with, but fortunately, our army is very sufficient." If you plan it properly, you can fight. ”

Seeing that Cao Cao threw this problem to himself again, Cao Zhi had to glance at the people in the court, this question, in fact, Cao Zhi didn't want to answer it very much, no matter who he recommended to go, once he couldn't get the desired result, it would make the person he recommended hold a grudge.

But since Cao Cao asked, this is a situation that has to be answered, Cao Zhi knows that he will never lead the army forward, although he can compete with Cao Pi in strategy and not fall behind, but it is not his own strength to really lead the troops in person, so he glanced at Cao Cao again, and he was already confident.

"Father also knows that there are also a lot of strong people on my brother's side to help this time, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong is one of the few generals in my array, and Sima Yi is also quite talented, and often gives advice to his brother, so my brother can still persist until now under the attack of Zhuge Liang and Lu Meng, according to Zhizhi's opinion, it is indeed when a powerful general is sent, and then go south with tens of thousands of soldiers to Yingchuan, and then to Chen County, after repairing and echoing with his brother in Nanyang, and then break them one by one, when Zhuge Liang and Lu Meng can be repelled, At least you can ensure that the land of Nanyang is worry-free. ”

Cao Zhi did not immediately say the recommended person, but briefly analyzed the current situation, in Cao Zhi's heart, although Zhuge Liang and Sun Quan were temporarily able to form an alliance, but the two must have their own plans in their hearts, once they did not capture Nanyang, they each lost their troops and generals, then this alliance that was not sincere must be vulnerable, once the alliance was broken, the situation returned to the previous level, then not only Nanyang can be preserved, if the command is appropriate, it is not impossible to capture Runan in one go.

"Zijian's words are quite popular with me, since this is the case, I think Zijian has already chosen someone in his heart, in front of everyone, don't care about him!"

Obviously, Cao Cao is still very familiar with Cao Zhi's temperament, so Cao Zhi bowed slightly and said: "Erchen has the courage to recommend General Zhang Liao as the main general to lead the army south, which will definitely help my brother to repel Zhuge Liang and Lü Meng." ”

"Why?" Obviously, Cao Cao would not let Cao Zhi recommend a person at will, although the name Zhang Liao had a little more smile on Cao Cao's face as soon as he came out, obviously this suggestion was still very consistent with what he wanted in his heart.

"General Zhang Liao has been in our army for more than ten years to go around, and he has made a lot of achievements, and he has personally persuaded Chang Xian, and when he broke Yuan Shao, he also made great achievements, and also led the vanguard to kill Wuhuan Shan Yu in the White Wolf Mountain, and more importantly, when our army and Zhou Yu fought in Hefei before, General Zhang Liao almost single-handedly defeated the dozen generals under Zhou Yu, and the powerful Sun Quan army, Erchen has already heard that the people of Jiangdong are the most fearful, it is General Zhang Liao in our army, so if General Zhang Liao leads the army to go this time, It's going to work wonders. ”

Cao Zhi's words not only said all the great military exploits that Zhang Liao had made over the years under Cao Cao, but also pointed out why Zhang Liao was the right person to support Cao Pi this time.

Seeing this, Cao Zhi secretly breathed a sigh of relief, the reason why he recommended Zhang Liao, in addition to the points he said, there was another more important reason, that is, Zhang Liao was not one of the Cao Cao clan relatives who were deeply rooted in the Cao army.

In the early days of Cao Cao's uprising, it was almost entirely thanks to the help of Cao Cao's clan brothers, mainly those brothers of the Cao family and the Xiahou family, that he gradually gained a firm foothold in the Central Plains. Cao Hong, Cao Ren and others saved Cao Cao's life in his early years.

So at this time, these two forces were deeply rooted in the Cao army, and they were very arrogant and domineering, Cao Zhi was quite dislike about this matter, and those clan relatives were mostly close to Cao Pi, thinking that Cao Pi had a bit of Cao Cao's early style, and strongly recommended Cao Pi as Cao Cao's heir to cultivate.

In this case, Cao Zhi can only retreat to the next best, and try his best to get closer to those generals under Cao Cao who are not Cao clansmen, in this process, Cao Zhi has already found that people like Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Yu Ban, Li Dian, Le Jin and others, their talents are even deeper than those powerful Cao clan relatives, so over the years, Cao Zhi has gradually established a deep relationship with these people, and Zhang Liao is one of them who is quite close to Cao Zhi, but the two of them are trying their best to hide this layer of relationship on weekdays, Even Cao Cao didn't know about the deep friendship between the two.

Under such circumstances, sending Zhang Liao to Cao Pi's front, Cao Zhi was able to ensure that Zhang Liao would not form an alliance with Cao Pi through this time, and with Zhang Liao's ability, if he could defeat Zhuge Liang and Lü Meng and take all the credit on himself, he would be able to further attack Cao Pi.

Cao Zhi and Zhang Liao naturally tacitly understood this relationship, but Cao Cao didn't notice it, and immediately looked at Zhang Liao, who was standing in the middle of the queue, with a calm look on his face, and asked: "Can Wen Yuan dare to lead the army to help Zihuan retreat Zhuge Liang and Lu Meng?" ”

Zhang Liao was already nearly fifty years old at this time, but he still looked like he was in his prime, and when he heard this, he just stroked his short beard lightly, stepped forward and hugged his fists and said: "The general of the 20,000 defeated army in Jiangdong, how dare Liao shirk it, since the lord has orders this time, Liao must do his best to help General Zihuan recapture the land lost by our army in Runan!" ”

Cao Cao knew that with Zhang Liao's person, he would not shirk the war under any circumstances, so he waved his hand and said to Zhang Liao: "Wenyuan will rest today, and then lead an army of 30,000 people, and choose five accompanying generals, and set off tomorrow, according to Zijian's words, go straight to Chen County!" Echoing Zihuan from afar, Zhuge Liang and Lu Meng were defeated one by one! ”