After Cao Cao entered Thorn Yang, he also breathed a sigh of relief. He has experienced many defeats and many times his life has been threatened. When he was cutting down Dong back then, he almost didn't kill him; When attacking Lu Bu, he also fought a head-on battle with Lu Bu; Wancheng was defeated and almost died at the hands of Zhang Xiu.

So Cao Cao recovered quickly, and the defeat in this battle was not great, but the loss was still great. There are less than 20,000 soldiers left, and the rest of the soldiers should have either been killed and captured or fled. And the weapons and baggage also lost a lot, because Cao Cao and the others all returned empty-handed, and they threw everything they could.

However, Cao Cao was also very pleased, because this time Yu Ban's performance was very good, if it weren't for the last Yu Ban Palace, Cao Cao would not have escaped to Jianyang so easily.

Cao Cao was impressed by the ban, and Li Jing also praised the ban.

"Who will be the enemy of the last palace?" Gao Changgong said: "The four of us tried several times, but he repelled them. ”

"Forbidden!" Master Shang said: "Yu Ban is a person who is very much praised by the lord, the lord has fought with him many times, and said that few people can defeat Yu Ban in the duel of the dignified array. ”

"So strong?" Wang Yanzhang also said suspiciously: "But Yu Ban is not a hundred battles!" ”

Li Jing explained: "When the lord was talking about this dignified array, he said that with the same strength and the same soldiers, under the same conditions, few people could defeat Yu Ban. However, Yu Ban has never fought in the same situation, and his soldiers' ability to fight with us is too poor. Yesterday's battle, if it wasn't for his timely command, he would not have brought you in the first place, and several times it was a dangerous situation, and he mobilized archers to shoot you back. ”

Qin Qiong said: "That's true, if Cao Cao is forbidden to stay in Nanyang, wouldn't it be very difficult for us to take Wancheng?" ”

Li Jing said with a smile: "It's not easy. In fact, there is still a gap between our current strength and Cao Cao. ”

"Is there a gap?" The four of them all looked at Li Jing blankly, and they all said: You said something wrong, right?

"There is indeed a gap!" Li Jing said: "Let's take a look at the place we occupy, although Jingyang Prefecture is vast, it is sparsely populated. Even if you add some places in Xuzhou, the population is limited. Look at Cao Cao again, Sili, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Jizhou, Qingyou and Sanzhou are also in his bag, the land of eight states! Isn't it scary? ”

The four of them couldn't help but fight a cold war, it was terrible! It's really scary! Yashu! Moreover, it is also the eight states in the north, and the population of a state is usually larger than that of Jingzhou and Yangzhou. There is no need to say any other reasons, just this one reason!

Li Jing said: "Just because you know that our soldiers are stronger than Cao Cao, you think that we are stronger than Cao Cao. In fact, this is all the illusion that the lord gave you! Every step designed by the lord in the past few years has weakened Cao Cao, do you think about how many people the lord plundered in Xuzhou, and how many people in Jizhou? ”

Everyone thought about it, although they didn't know the specific number, but it was indeed a lot, not a million, but hundreds of thousands.

According to his previous thoughts, Cao Cao appointed Yu Ban as the Taishou of Nanyang, but now Nanyang's side is too dangerous, so Cao Cao naturally has to give Yu Ban a higher official position in order to deal with Nanyang's affairs with full authority. Later, he left Li Dian and Li Tong to Yu Ban, and left 15,000 soldiers and horses to Yu Ban. Cao Cao himself returned to Xuchang, and he wanted to go back to give Xiahoudun a decent funeral.

This time, Cao Cao's support for Nanyang can be said to be a loss, a real loss! Not only did he not rescue Xiangyang, but he also did not take any land in Jingzhou, but also killed the general Xiahoudun, lost more than 10,000 soldiers, and countless heavy weapons.

After Yu Ban stayed in Nanyang, he took a defensive position, ordered Li Dian to guard Nieyang and Li Tong to say Thornyang, each with 3,000 people, and gave a lot of materials, so that the two of them could strengthen the two cities, and complete the momentum of the trip to help each other.

Li Jing was not idle, he sat in Xinye, and ordered Qin Qiong to take 3,000 people to guard Yuyang. Ling Shang apprenticed Huyang, Xiangxiang, Zhangling, and Suixian, and then went north to Biyang, plundering Wuyin and blocking Yang Bowang. ordered Gao Changgong and Wang Yanzhang to march westward, and Wang Yanzhang attacked Qixian, Champion, Shunyang, Nanxiang, and Danshui, and then plundered Xixian and Liguo; Gao Changgong went to Chaoyang, Dengxian, Shandu, Zhuyang, Yinxian, Yuxian, and Wudang.

Gao Changgong was stationed in Wudang, looking for a way into Hanzhong, and then waiting for an opportunity to be like Hanzhong.

Zhang Yi plans to attack Sichuan in two ways, or even three ways. All the way along the river and Shuiba County, all the way along the Han River such as Hanzhong, if possible, there is another road from Jiaozhou such as Nanzhong. However, none of these three roads are easy to walk, and both roads on the north side are mountain roads, which are difficult to walk. The south road is deep in the mountains and old forests, the road is difficult to find, and it is full of miasma, which is even more difficult to walk.

Li Jing and Yu Ban carved up Nanyang County under an unknown tacit understanding. It can also be said that Zhang Yi and Cao Cao have a tacit understanding, one person gives a step, and no one wants to fight anymore. Cao Cao wanted to recuperate, and then pacify the north as soon as possible, and then fight Zhang Yi. And Zhang Yi has too many battlefields here, Nanyang is fighting here, Nanjun is also fighting, and the four counties of Jingnan are also fighting, if Zhang Yi hadn't accumulated enough in the past few years, how could he support seven or eight battlefields?

Therefore, Zhang Yi also hopes to pacify Jingzhou as soon as possible, and then digest it well.

The first thing to stop was not the tacit Nanyang battlefield, but Nanjun. There are not many county seats in Nanjun, Zhang Yi has taken most of the counties when he goes north and Li Jing goes west, and when Zhang Yi besieges Xiangyang, he also takes a lot. There are only Huarong County in the north of Yunmengze, as well as Wuxian County and Sheshan in the west of Zigui.

Huarong County is easy to recover, as long as it goes down the Han River, while Wu County is too remote. But fortunately, Zigui has been taken, Liu Heimin arrived in Zigui, and then went to Wu County, so that the last county of Nanjun could be taken down. If you take Wuxian, you will take the road into Yizhou, because it is not far from Wuxian, which is Yufu County in Ba County. She Shan asked Li Bao to go up along the tributaries of the river and take down She Mountain.

Zhang Yi left Pang Tong to Di Qing, and assigned Pang Ji, Pang Shanmin, and Ma Liang to Di Qing, transferred Li Shanchang to Li Jing, and sent Li Jing, Xu Shu, and Li Yan. He also appointed Hua Xin as the Taishou of Changsha County, Lü Dai as the Taishou of Wuling, Lü Fan as the Taishou of Lingling, Quan Rou as the Taishou of Guiyang, and Yu Fu as the Taishou of Cangwu. Lu Su was the history of the Jingzhou Thorn, Wang Shouren was the Huiji Taishou, Di Renjie was the Lujiang Taishou, and Zhang Yi transferred Mi Zhu, Xu Xiake, Wang Xuanmo, Lu Meng, Lu Xun, Fei Lan, Dai Yuan and others to Lu Su to form the Assassin History Mansion.

And these talents in Jingzhou, he plans to wait until Shouchun, and then release them after some training, and he doesn't know that there is no way to govern.