After Yang Ren and Yang Ang retreated into Chenggu City, they disappeared, and Liu Bei led his troops to search many times but could not find out the whereabouts of the two.

A failure on a rainy night, Ma Hong's army was annihilated, Zhang Fei was injured, and he fell asleep after returning to the Ganning military camp and was bandaged by the military doctor, Ma Hong also suffered some minor injuries, his nose was blue and his face was swollen, Zhao Yun and Li Mo were fine.

This defeat made Ma Hong lose confidence suddenly, the people were so brave, even if there were two tiger generals Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei, they were also wiped out, how to march next, Ma Hong had no idea for a while, so he drank sullen wine in the camp tent. This time to attack Hanzhong, Ma Hong boasted that he would definitely be able to take Hanzhong, if he fell short, how should he deal with him when he went back, Liu Qi failed this step, what will happen next? Ma Hong didn't dare to think about it. If this step fails, won't all the previous efforts be in vain?

Gan Ning originally came to ask Ma Hong to go out to discuss matters, but when he saw Ma Hong's appearance, he didn't know how to speak for a while, so he sat next to Ma Hong and looked at Ma Hong. Liu Bei didn't see Ma Hong for a long time, so he entered Ma Hong's camp, and when he arrived at Ma Hong's camp, he saw Ma Hong drinking stuffy wine, his face changed, he walked straight to Ma Hong, and said: "Why is the military advisor drinking stuffy wine here, now shouldn't be the time to drink stuffy wine!" ”

Ma Hong straightened his head and glanced at Liu Bei, his eyes were confused, he was already drunk, and said, "Uncle Huang, you are back, and you are thinking about it." ”

Liu Bei stretched out his finger and knocked on the food table in front of Ma Hong and said: "Military Division, last night the troops led by the two generals Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei were all reduced, this is not the responsibility of the military division, whoever goes will have the same result." Now we have won a battle and lost another battle. Now what we need to do is to appease the morale of the army, build defenses, and seize the time to defend before we find a way to deal with them. ”

Ma Hong listened to Liu Bei's words, listened to some of them, but didn't seem to listen. Liu Bei saw Ma Hong's appearance, turned around and walked out of the tent, Ma Hong slowly lay on the food table with his head in his hand, and then he seemed to feel that there were footsteps again, but he was too lazy to look up, he was too sleepy.

Suddenly felt a chill on the top of his head, Ma Hong instantly sobered up, it turned out that Liu Bei carried a bucket of cold water from outside the camp gate and poured it on Ma Hong's head. Ma Hong suddenly sobered up, Ma Hong looked at Liu Bei with a long mouth, not knowing what to say.

Liu Bei sighed and sat down next to Ma Hong, stretched out his hand and patted Ma Hong's shoulder and said, "Ma Hong, I thought you were a talent, but I didn't expect it to be so useless." Do you know that I Liu Bei started at the age of twenty-three, and now it has been seventeen years, how many ups and downs have I experienced in these seventeen years? If I had been like you, I would not have become a dry bone long ago. Now that you are a military advisor, you are not burdened with your own life, but the lives of the whole army, and last night 6,000 soldiers died under the sword of the people, don't you go and take back their corpses? Don't you avenge them? My third brother tried his best to protect you from last night, he was injured and unconscious, and now you are drinking here and drinking, do you think it is right to do this? ”

Ma Hong was scolded by Liu Bei at this time, stood with his head down, and did not say a word, until Liu Bei finished speaking, Ma Hong raised his head and looked at Liu Bei, but did not speak.

Liu Bei looked at Ma Hong's eyes, and he saw confidence in Ma Hong's eyes, and there was something hot in that confidence, like fire and sword.

Ma Hong subconsciously grabbed the sword on his waist, but found that the sword was no longer there, he saluted Liu Bei respectfully, and then said: "Listen to Uncle Huang's words, Hong knows that he is wrong." ”

"Young people, knowing your mistakes can improve a lot, go with me to the meeting."

Liu Bei patted Ma Hong on the shoulder, and was about to pull Ma Hong out of the camp.

Ma Hong stopped and said, "Uncle Huang, I look like this, if I go, I'm afraid it will be ......."

Liu Bei immediately understood, Ma Hong was now covered in water, and his face was earthy. Liu Bei asked Ma Hong to wash his face and change his clothes, put on light armor and followed him to Liu Qishuai's camp.

When Ma Hong rushed to Liu Qi's main account with Liu Bei, in addition to the injured Zhang Fei, even Li Yan, who was originally responsible for escorting grain and grass, also came, and Li Yan handed over the affairs of escorting grain and grass to Huang Yan (Huang Zu's nephew) and came to reinforce Liu Qi.

After an hour of deliberation, the generals finally decided that Li Yan would lead a thousand soldiers to garrison Chenggu, Zhang Fei would also stay in Chenggu to recuperate, and Liu Qi would lead the army to march towards Hanzhong.

The army led by Liu Qi marched slowly under Ma Hong's strategy, with Liu Bei as the vanguard, and Zhao Yun advanced forward with a mobile knife wall formed by a hundred knife carts. After several battles with the Eren people, Ma Hong found that the Eren were marching alone, and there was no Zhang Lu army involved, and he was also familiar with the fighting style of the Eren people, and the chances of victory in his heart were a little more.

"Strategist, have you come up with a plan to fight with the people these days?" Liu Bei asked towards Ma Hong.

"Uncle Huang, I have already come up with a plan."

"Tell me about it." Liu Bei saw that Ma Hong was full of confidence, so he asked.

"Although the people are brave in battle, but they don't know how to plan, it is summer now, we are waiting to retreat five miles, and the people will definitely be stationed in the mountains and forests behind us, and we will leave dry firewood in the mountains and forests after the withdrawal of the army, and we will definitely be able to defeat the people at that time." Ma Hong said.

"Oh! Bei understands that the military division is going to attack by fire. ”

"Exactly, in the battle on a rainy night, our army was defeated, mainly because of the heavy rain from the sky, and now it has been many days, and the weather is dry, so we will return them with fire."

"Even if the person wins the scheme, he still needs the east wind to do it"

"Then wait for the wind to come!"

Ma Hong said that he is not like Zhuge Liang in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, who will cast spells to borrow the east wind, and now he can only wait, but he hopes that it will not rain again in the near future. If there is another rain, and the people attack again in the dark and night, I am afraid that it will be another bitter battle.

Under Ma Hong's strategy, Liu Qi's army retreated five miles, seven battalions, Ganning arranged many obstacles, and the first camp was guarded by Ganning Wei Yan. The leaders of the Yu tribe, Yuan Yue, Du Hao, and Pu Hu, led 3,000 soldiers to be stationed in the mountains and forests to escape the summer, and began to confront the Jingzhou army.

On July 16 of the sixth year of Jian'an, the secret letter of Han Sui Ma Teng's Xiliang Coalition Army was delivered to Liu Qi, and it turned out that Han Sui Ma Teng's Xiliang Coalition Army was led by Ma Chao and Yan Xing as the main generals, and a total of 10,000 people had passed the Xiegu Pass. Ma Chao and Yan Xing said in the letter that Zhang Lu sent someone to ask for help from Han Sui, and asked Han Sui to send troops to rescue Hanzhong, promising 100,000 stones of grain and grass. But Han Sui and Ma Teng still decided to take the opportunity to help Jingzhou take Hanzhong.

"Brother Hong, after the Xiliang army arrives, it will definitely be able to take Hanzhong. Liu Zhang's army is besieging Nanzheng, if the Xiliang army returns, we will attack on three sides, and Zhang Lu will fight against our three parties with a county, and it will inevitably fail. Liu Qi took the letter and said happily.

Ma Hong looked at the flag outside the tent, suddenly stood up and walked out of the tent, and said with great joy: "The wind is up, the wind is up, and my brother's plan will be completed." ”

When Liu Qi heard Ma Hong's words, he also hurriedly walked up and looked at the flag fluttering in the wind, laughing.

After the two laughed, Liu Qi asked again: "Brother Hong, in your opinion, how should we respond to Xiliangjun." ”

Ma Hong said: "Mention the matter of giving them grain and grass again, promising 150,000 stones of grain and grass, and promising to divide Hanzhong." ”

"Divide Hanzhong? Brother Hong, this ......" Liu Qi couldn't help but change his face.

"Brother, rest assured, the Xiliang Army can't reach Hanzhong, and we responded like this so that the letter would fall into Zhang Lu's hands."

Ma Hong said slowly.

Liu Qi was taken aback, pondered for a while and said: "If the letter falls into Zhang Lu's hands, Zhang Lu also believes that we will cooperate with Xiliang, and then only need to send a team of soldiers to ambush the Xiliang army on the road through which the Xiliang army passes, and the Xiliang army will ......."

"In that dangerous mountain road, if you are ambushed, most of them will be completely annihilated." Ma Hong continued.

"But the Xiliang army has been wiped out, what good will this do us?" Liu Qi asked puzzled.

"Brother, think about it, Xiliang Army obviously wants to cooperate with us, but if you go to Hanzhong. If Zhang Lu's conditions are more generous, if he cooperates with Zhang Lu, then what should we do? Since the two sides have half of the probability, now that the east wind has risen, Liu Zhang's army has gone out in two ways, and has already attacked Nanzheng all the way, and we no longer need the help of the Xiliang army. ”

After listening to Ma Hong's words, Liu Qi lowered his head again, and thought seriously for a long time before raising his head and saying: "I understand what you mean now, Brother Hong, you would have expected from the beginning that Zhang Lu would ask for help and Xiliang, if he offered rich conditions, the Xiliang army would definitely act, so you went to Xiliang to negotiate in advance, just to sabotage this plan, it is really a rainy day." ”

Ma Hong smiled slightly: "Brother praised, I told my brother about cooperating with Ma Chao, brother can there be a fixed number?" ”

Liu Qi said: "I think you are right, if you go to cooperate with the entire Xiliang, it is better to only cooperate with the Ma family." It's just that Ma Chao is also in the Xiliang Alliance, if he dies, how can he cooperate. ”

"Brother, don't worry, I will send someone to remind him." (To be continued.) )