Chapter 276: The Southern Expedition
Liu Xie was very angry, and the consequences were serious. Wei Yan, Hu Che'er, Wen Ping, Gan Ning and other generals died one after another, which made Liu Xie lose his mind a little. In order to show his attitude, Liu Xie ordered the army to prepare to move south. Fortunately, when recovering Hebei, there was no real war of attrition, and after allocating a large amount of grain to relieve the people of Hebei and appease the people, there was still a batch of grain and grass left enough to support the campaign of Zhengnan.
The Son of Heaven was furious, and the blood flowed. Today's Liu Xie is no longer the precarious time of the past, his will is the will of the Han, with his order, the war machine of the Han Dynasty immediately began to operate, the soldiers are gathered, and the grain and grass are constantly being transported to the south.
The people of the world thought that Liu Xie would stop for a period of time after recovering Hebei, but they didn't want Liu Xie to raise troops again, and intended to complete the goal of reunification in one fell swoop, leading 200,000 horses to rush to the south, and after crossing the Yellow River, the troops were divided into two routes, one led by Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Pang Tong, and Fa Zheng, and went to Shouchun to support Zhang Ren, and the other was led by Liu Xie himself, and went straight to Wancheng.
The news of the southward movement of the imperial army soon reached the ears of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, and when they learned that Liu Xie finally waved his army south, Sun Quan and Liu Bei were nervous and secretly relieved at the same time, and they were busy for so long a day, and finally forced Liu Xie to go south. In order to achieve this goal, Sun Quan and Liu Bei can be said to be at a heavy price, and the arrangements that they wanted to use as backhands had to be exposed in advance.
Sun Quan and Liu Bei did not go crazy, and took the initiative to provoke the court when they knew that they were invincible to the imperial court. The reason why he chose to attack Liu Xie's Han at this time was also a helpless choice as a last resort. Liu Xie recovered Hebei, and it is one step away from completing the unification of the world, if Liu Xie is allowed to let the Han army rest, within three years, the world will be unified.
The lesser of two evils, a decisive battle with the Han army at this time has a better chance of victory than a decisive battle with the Han army three years later. After all, at this time, the Han army's repeated fierce battles had not yet been recuperated in time, and there were more flaws that could be found under the lack of people and horses. If they can make the vitality of the Han army suffer a big loss in one fell swoop, then Sun Quan and Liu Bei will be able to survive for a few more years, and with these extra years, Sun Quan and Liu Bei may be able to find a good way to "live in peace" with the imperial court. But the most important thing at the moment is to defeat the Han army and kill the spirit of the Han army.
In order to defeat the Han army, Sun Quan and Liu Bei cooperated completely and sincerely this time, and both of them knew that if Liu Xie's confidant was not solved, no one would have a good time. Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, LΓΌ Meng, Zhou Tai, Ding Feng, Ling Tong, Li Yan...... These two Wenchen generals who can handle it are also gearing up this time, and they want to compete with Liu Xie's Han army.
In order to avoid Liu Xie's discordant plan, the way Sun and Liu chose the commander of the coalition army this time was a bit of a child's play, and finally determined that the commander of the coalition army was Lu Meng and the mastermind was Zhuge Liang. The rest of the generals Zhang Fei, Ding Feng, Ling Tong, Li Yan and others must obey the order, but anyone who dares to disobey the general's order will be immediately killed.
The common enemy made the Sun and Liu families let go of their old grudges, and the effect of this is also obvious, the sharing of resources, so that the originally inconspicuous two fine works suddenly became stronger, forming a complementary, and hit the imperial court's fine work by surprise, resulting in the interruption of the intelligence chain in various places.
When Jiangling City was broken, it was precisely because of the cooperation between Sun and Liu's two families that the rescue of the Han'an Army was delayed, and when the Han'an Army arrived, Jiangling City had already called Liu Bei to complete the disaster, and Liu Bei himself had patted his ass and left, leaving only the ravaged Jiangling City.
Zhao Yun and Sima Yi, the commanders of the Han'an army, were furious, and wanted to catch up with Liu Bei to avenge Jiangling, but they didn't want Liu Bei to slip like a loach, and disappeared in a blink of an eye, and they didn't know what corner he hid in with Liu Beijun.
Liu Xie will not blame the two, not to excuse the two of them, but to seek truth from facts. The two are the main generals of the Han'an Army, but they are not the Jiangling County Guards and the main generals, the main responsibility for the loss of Jiangling City is not the two of them, and Xu Shu, who was forcibly sent away by Hu Che'er, must be responsible for the loss of Jiangling City.
Xu Shu is now in Xiangyang, and after getting Liu Xie's will, Pang Lin did not dare to slack off, and immediately ordered someone to send Xu Shu to Wancheng, where Liu Xie wanted to see Xu Shu.
Xu Shu is a filial son, and since ancient times, most loyal ministers have been filial piety, and Xu Shu is no exception. After waking up, he had a plan to die and apologize, but fortunately, the people around him stopped it in time, otherwise Liu Xie could only go to Lord Yan to ask for someone. And after his mood stabilized, Xu Shu didn't do anything else these days, but just asked people to get a lot of information about Jiangdong and Jingnan, and locked him in the room and couldn't get a single step. Even on the way to Wancheng, Xu Shu spent it in a carriage.
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"Yuan Zhi, how are you?" Liu Xie saw Xu Shu and never mentioned the matter of Jiangling, but only asked about Xu Shu's current situation with concern.
"Holy Lord, Xu Shu has been entrusted by the Holy Lord, capital crime, capital crime." Xu Shu saw Liu Xie, and his previous strength suddenly collapsed under Liu Xie's care, and he knelt on the ground and cried.
"Yuan Zhi, why do you want to be such a child. People cannot be resurrected after death, and since they are still alive, then do not be busy repenting, but think about how to avenge the deceased. Seeing this, Liu Xie did not support Xu Shu, but shouted at Xu Shu.
ββ¦β¦ Holy, that's right. Xu Shu wiped the corners of his eyes, got up and stood still, and said to Liu Xie.
"Okay." Seeing this, Liu Xie nodded, "This is the Xu Shu I know." Yuan Zhi, seeing that you look confident, you must have a clever plan for the next battle with Sun Liu's coalition army. β
"I don't dare to do it, I just have a little idea." Xu Shu replied respectfully.
"Come, talk and ...... Come on, quickly go and find Guo Fengxiao, Jia Wen and the two. Liu Xie was halfway through his words, and suddenly ordered outside the door.
Jia Xu and Guo Jia arrived in a short time. This time the army went south, Pang Tong and Fa Zheng were arranged by Liu Xie in the Eastern Route Army, while Guo Jia and Jia Xu were left by Liu Xie's side. Regarding Sun Quan and Liu Bei's intention to send troops at this time, Liu Xie had actually guessed seven or eight points after discussing with Jia Xu and Guo Jia. For Sun Liu's decisiveness, aside from the hostile position, Liu Xie also admires the courage to die and be reborn, not everyone can have. But admiration is admiration, blood debt needs blood to pay, and whoever kills me must pay with his life.
Liu Xie will repay the report, and he will never be polite to those who oppose him. Even if it is polite, it is because Liu Xie has the idea of recruiting the other party, but the solicitation person also depends on the object, such as the current Sun Quan and Liu Bei, these two are tough and black-faced heroes, and it is very difficult to subdue this kind of person, and Liu Xie doesn't want to bother with that god. Anyway, now that the Han is about to complete the unification, since Sun and Liu don't know the current affairs and still want to resist to the end, then why should Liu Xie leave a way for the two of them to live.
The goal of the battle was clear, that is, to kill Sun and Liu, but Liu Xie did not want to use assassination. Because that will cause panic, and if you do too much of this kind of thing, you will become corrupt, and you will not be willing to solve the problem from the right path when you encounter trouble.
If you really want to assassinate Sun Quan and Liu Bei, it is not impossible to succeed, even if the guards around the two of them are tight, as long as Liu Xie is willing to pay the price, Sun Quan and Liu Bei will not escape death, but Liu Xie does not want to and can't do that, if Liu Xie uses this method to solve the trouble of his henchmen, then others can also use this method to act in the future, so that everyone is in danger, and the big man who has just settled down will also be in chaos. What Sun Quan and Liu Bei dreamed of doing was finally done by Liu Xie, and Liu Xie would not be so stupid.
Since Sun Quan and Liu Bei want to fight with the Han army, then Liu Xie will fulfill the two of them. Don't look at Sun Quan and Liu Bei before for a while, and let Liu Xie lose several generals, but tigers have time to nap, let alone people. Now that Sun Quan and Liu Bei had successfully attracted Liu Xie's attention, the elites of the imperial court, who had previously focused on Hebei, also rushed to the south.
The soldiers and horses went first before the grain and grass were moved, but Liu Xie felt that the collection of intelligence was earlier than the grain and grass, and only accurate and timely intelligence was the key to determining the outcome of a war. Lv Meng and Zhuge Liang, who had the same idea as Liu Xie, faced the counterattack of the imperial court in terms of intelligence, although they tried their best, but in the end their strength was not good, and the resources available to the imperial court were several times that of the alliance of Jiangdong and Jingnan, when Liu Xie arrived in Wancheng, the intelligence network of the coalition army was compressed back to the south of the Yangtze River, and it was already the limit of what Lu Meng and Zhuge Liang could do to keep the basic situation intact.
With the southward movement of Tianyan, the imperial intelligence agency, a large number of moths that had secretly reported to the Sun-Liu coalition army had nothing to hide, and they were pulled out of the crowd one after another. Liu Xie didn't pay too much attention to these guys who ate inside and out, traitors will always be more hated than invaders, and the only attitude towards these people is to make an example of them, so that people know what the fate of traitors is.
It was useless for Liu Xie, a major crime that implicated the Nine Clans, but none of the immediate family members of those traitors escaped. The main offender was beheaded, and his family members were enslaved in the sect. Since the establishment of the women's camp by the Minister of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period, the profession of prostitutes has begun to appear, and the purpose of the Department of Teaching is not much different from that of brothels, the difference is that the women in the Department of Teaching are the families of convicts. The reason why Liu Xie did not abolish the Department of Education is to deter those officials who want to do bad things, think twice before doing anything, even if they don't think about the country, they must also think about the people closest to them. From the current point of view, the role of the Department of Education is still there, and there are very few corrupt officials under Liu Xie's rule, one is Liu Xie's attention to the rule of officials, the attitude towards corrupt officials, and the other is that the deterrence of the Department of Education is working. The officials did not dare to mess around, and the life of the common people was better, and their sense of identity with the court was strengthened.
No one sympathizes with the people who have been sent to the Church Division, at least so far, but there have been no unjust, false and wrongful convictions of the women who have been sent to the Church Division. Of course, Liu Xie's previous work of picking up customers has been stopped, and it has been changed to engage in manual labor that is not heavy, but it is not good to say, everyone knows what the place of the Teaching Workshop Division is, even if it is different from the past, but it is not a good place after all.
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Chaisang
The Han army went south, Sun Quan and Liu Bei's original goal had been achieved, and all that remained was to see how the next war would develop. At this critical moment, Sun Quan and Liu Bei, as the last two princes of the Han Dynasty, could only huddle together to keep warm at this time.
Sun Quan and Liu Bei, who have suffered losses more than once from Liu Xie, are very aware of Liu Xie's methods, and in order to deal with Liu Xie's unsightly sowing discord, Sun and Liu made a high-profile appearance in Chaisang, trying to give people a feeling that the two families are like a family. Under the strong pressure of the Han army, those who chose to fight Liu Xie to the end also knew at this time that only unity could lead to victory.
Letting go of the filth accumulated by the two families over the years does not mean that everyone has forgotten the past. It was only because of Liu Xie, a powerful and invincible existence, that the two families came together. In Chaisang, Sun Quan and Liu Bei frequently appeared in front of people, because Liu Bei married Sun Quan's sister, the two can be regarded as the relationship between the eldest brother and brother-in-law. It's just that Liu Bei and Sun Quan's father are the same generation, and his age is enough to be Sun Quan's father, but now he has become Sun Quan's brother-in-law, a good old brother-in-law......
Sun Quan didn't care about Liu Bei's age, what he cared about was whether Liu Bei could help him defeat Liu Xie and keep the foundation of Jiangdong. But Sun Quan's mother, Mrs. Wu, did not think about it as much as Sun Quan, and the old man was old, so he naturally cared about whether his children were happy.
The old lady had never seen Liu Bei before, and when she learned that she could see her in Chaisang, she also brought someone to Chaisang, but after seeing Liu Bei, the old lady fell ill. Externally, it was said that it was caused by the old lady's unadaptability, but those who knew the inside story knew that the old lady was angry with Sun Quan when she was sick. You must know that Sun Quan planned to marry his own sister Sun Shangxiang to Liu Bei, and when he thought that his only biological daughter almost married such a bad old man, the old lady was angry.
Back then, Sun Quan voluntarily went to the court as a hostage for the Sun family, which made the old lady feel guilty about Sun Quan, which is also the main reason why the old lady remained silent when Sun Quan plotted against her brother Sun Ce.
But after seeing that Liu Bei, who almost became her son-in-law, was so virtuous, the old lady was disappointed in Sun Quan, this child was really blinded by authority, and he could do whatever it took to achieve the goal of wooing. The old lady was helpless, and insisted on leaving Chaisang despite her illness, but her age was finally old, and her condition worsened after returning to Moling, and when she talked nonsense, she often called her daughter Sun Shangxiang's milk name, but at this time, Sun Shangxiang was in Chang'an, and it was difficult to see each other.