Li Sheng's army set off, with 10 battalions of 40,000 horses, and in late December of the 16th year of Jian'an, he swore troops from Changsha and embarked on the beginning of the strategy against Shu. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Originally, Li Sheng originally wanted to wait until after the Chinese New Year to send troops, but when he thought that Cao Cao was likely to attack Hanzhong after the New Year, Li Sheng felt that time was pressing, but he couldn't wait any longer.

Different from the strategy adopted by Liu Bei in his memory, Li Sheng's plan was to take Hanzhong first, and then use Hanzhong as a base to attack Yizhou. Since Hanzhong and Yizhou are both mountainous areas, Li Sheng's soldiers in the mountains and horses this time accounted for a large proportion, and other troops, such as the integrated infantry battalion and the mixed infantry battalion, also received a certain amount of training in mountain combat. Li Sheng believed that with the current combat level of these people under his command, even compared with the most elite local troops in Shu, they were not inferior, and even the combat power of the mountain battalion was far superior to those in Shu. After all, they are the mountain soldiers who have lived in the mountains and forests since childhood.

Li Sheng's army set out from Yiling, and did not take the water route to Zigui to Badong, but took the mountain route to Yanshan and Shachao and entered Fuling. Liu Zhang received Li Sheng in Fuling. At this moment, it is the third day after New Year's Day, and the atmosphere of the festival in Fuling City is still very strong, and even the officers and soldiers of Li Shengjun who have come with a long journey have happy smiles on their faces. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at this point. They were so tired that their lord Li Sheng asked them to go quickly, to cross the city without entering, so that they spent the entire New Year's Day of the seventeenth year of Jian'an in the wilderness until now.

Of course, this hall of 40,000 horses is difficult for the small Fuling City to accommodate. Li Sheng and Liu Zhang discussed and built this military camp outside Fuling City, while Li Sheng himself brought a battalion of soldiers and a thousand horsemen directly under him into the city to attend the welcome banquet held by Liu Zhang.

The banquet was held in the lobby of the Taishou Mansion in Fuling City. Liu Zhang is a native of the Central Plains, and most of Liu Zhang's subordinates are Shu people, and the entire Yizhou regime can be said to be a combination of the Central Plains and the natives of Shuzhong. Although Liu Yan's relationship with the locals was not very good when Liu Zhang's father Liu Yan was in power, the mutual influence and integration between the two were still there. This atmosphere of integration naturally also affected the singing and dancing. The song and dance that was displayed in front of Li Sheng's eyes not only had the subtle flavor of the Central Plains, but also the bold and hot taste of the ethnic minorities in Shuzhong, as well as the trace of witchcraft hidden in the connotation of song and dance. Such a wonderful and strange dance, Li Sheng has never seen before. Of course, he is not a person who likes pleasure.

The atmosphere at the banquet was very warm. Liu Zhang started from Liu Bei's relationship, and treated Li Sheng with the loving face of an elder, calling Li Sheng his nephew, but treating Li Sheng as a family. Such a situation is undoubtedly what Li Sheng likes to see. Although his subordinates all felt that Liu Zhang was looking at his lord as a younger generation, and he was a little unhappy, but for Li Sheng, this was a very idle thing: first, he was really young, and there was no need to play deep to fool others; secondly, he also deliberately wanted to make a harmless appearance to alleviate the dissatisfaction of some people in Shu with him; Again, he also hoped to gain Liu Zhang's favor for him through his closeness to Liu Zhang. After all, he just wanted to get the land of Shu, and he didn't have the idea of destroying Liu Zhang.

"It's a meeting of warlords and warlords." Seeing that the singing and dancing had dispersed and the banquet had entered the link of exchanging titles, Li Sheng had such a thought in his heart. Although this is a very correct cognition, although Li Sheng has long known that he is indeed a warlord in some respects, he has never had such a strong understanding of this term as he does now.

The exchange of titles was originally a kind of elegance. But this kind of elegance and vulgarity, at present, has become a somewhat embarrassing thing for Li Sheng. Have you ever seen an official position in the imperial court as a title and give it to each other? Although he is not a bird of Cao Cao, he has to admit that the court is still in Cao Cao's hands, and he and Liu Zhang gave each other this official title, but it can't be recognized by the court, it can be said that there is no legitimacy at all, and it is completely pirated.

"Is this kind of piracy interesting?" Li Sheng didn't know. He only understood that Liu Zhang pressed a big hat on himself, so that he must also give Liu Zhang a considerable hat.

"General Zhenxi, Yizhou Mu." This is the title that Li Sheng gave back to Liu Zhang. Compared with the so-called title of "Great Sima and Sili Captain" given to Li Sheng by Liu Zhang, this one given by Li Sheng to Liu Zhang seems to be more realistic. Yizhou was originally Liu Zhang's territory, and Yizhou was in the western part of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Zhang guarded this place, so it was not too much to say that it was the general of Zhenxi. And Li Sheng's lieutenant Si Li, I'm afraid it will take several years to do it.

But, no matter what, the official positions that Liu Zhang and Li Sheng gave each other are very great. If it is placed in normal times, I am afraid that it can be regarded as a kind of rebellion and rebellion, but at the moment, in the eyes of the two people who have decided to be right with Cao Cao, this can only be regarded as a kind of contempt for Cao Cao at most, with a little bit of obscenity, and of course they are not convinced. After all, Cao Cao is already the prime minister, so he can't be a head lower than Cao Cao if he is right with Cao Cao.

Halfway through the feast, there was a lot of stock in the bellies. Zhang Song, who was Liu Zhang's other driver, got up and confessed after secretly throwing a glance at the phoenix pangtong who was sitting opposite him. He relieved himself, and after he went out, Pang Tong also confessed to Li Sheng. These two people went one after the other, but they staggered the time very much, but they did not arouse the suspicion of others at all.

In this context, which did not arouse the suspicion of others, Zhang Song and Pang Tong met. He who had already regarded Li Sheng as his lord and worked hard for Li Sheng, suggested to Pang Tong: "Liu Zhang is not prepared, only 30,000 troops are here, all of them are stationed at the West Gate, and there are only more than 1,000 people in the city. Compared with the elite of the lord, it is much inferior. This is a good opportunity that cannot be missed. If Liu Zhang can be captured and killed, then the dragons of Xishu will be leaderless, and they can go down with one drum. Mr. Wang, don't take a good chance. ”

"This ......" To be honest, when he heard Zhang Song introduce the current situation inside and outside Fuling, Pang Tong was really a little moved. He is a military advisor, a military advisor who is trusted by Li Sheng and has the right to act cheaply. Putting such a good opportunity in front of him made him really not want to give up. However, just after he thought about the idea of "just doing this" in his mind, and compared it with the strategy set by himself and Li Sheng, he finally shook his head: "You can't do this. Killing Liu Zhang like this and taking Yizhou will cause us to lose the hearts of the people in Shu and will plunge Shu into chaos. Cao Cao had already tackled Ma Chao last year, and it was foreseeable that he would sweep Hanzhong this year. If we can't get everything done before Cao Cao sends out his troops, I'm afraid that tens of thousands of us will die in Shu. ”

"What does the lord mean?" Zhang Song didn't know Li Sheng's final plan to seize Yizhou, so he was somewhat confused about what to do next.

"First take Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, then rely on the checkpoint in Hanzhong to resist Cao Cao's attack, and quickly send troops to solve Liu Zhang. This is the strategy set by the lord and me to enter Shu. Under this strategy, we should use soft means for Shudi, that is, to seize people's hearts. As before, Yongnian should vigorously win over the scholars of Yizhou so that they will have a good impression of our army. Pang Tong said with a smile.

"I'll do it. But ......" Zhang Song hesitated slightly, but still expressed the worry in his heart: "The lord wants to take Hanzhong first, but this Hanzhong has many passes, and the people believe in the five buckets of rice, but it is much more difficult to deal with than this Yizhou." I'm afraid that the lord can't go down to Hanzhong in a hurry, so that he will be broken by Cao Cao. ”

"This matter, Yongnian said very reasonably. I thought so at first, but my lord had a different opinion. After some arguments, even I was persuaded by the lord. Pang Tong said with a smile.

"Oh? What does the lord think about this? Zhang Song was slightly stunned, and then his eyes lit up.

The lord believes that Zhang Lu is very strong in front of Liu Zhang, but in front of people who are stronger than him, it is not enough to talk about. This can be seen from the fact that he has not expanded his territory in Hanzhong all along. Therefore, to deal with Zhang Lu, we must use two hands, one hard and one soft, to deal with him. On the hard side, we must fight a few battles with Zhang Lu and completely make Zhang Lu afraid of our army. On the soft side, this is to maintain Zhang Lu's position to a certain extent. Zhang Lu can continue to be the leader of his Wudou Mi Sect, and the lord also intends to openly support the development of the Wudou Mi Sect, a Taoist sect. But this Dao Sect must be controlled under the hands of the Lord. He can make amends to the hearts of the people, but he must not use the faith of the people to impact secular politics. Pang Tong said to Zhang Song with a serious face: "To put it simply, religion can become a god, but religion cannot become an emperor. There are people who rule, and God cannot interfere in people's lives. ”

"This ...... This is unheard of. Zhang Song was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and the impact on his heart was extremely violent. Fortunately, he had been with Li Sheng for a period of time, and under Li Sheng's influence, he had also heard a lot of strange ideas, so after listening to Pang Tong say these things at this moment, he could still maintain his calm on the surface, and think about what Pang Tong said as much as possible. This thinking, of course, makes sense, with Zhang Song's cleverness, he quickly understood some of Li Sheng's purposes for doing this: "Could it be that the lord wants all the people to ......" He looked at Pang Tong, and there was a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"The people without faith are the most confused—that's what the Lord told me." Pang Tong smiled faintly, and his gaze towards the sky was deep and distant.

"Then the lord is not afraid of that Zhang Lu ......" Zhang Song's words were only half asked, and he was stuck. He saw Pang Tong shake his hand gently.

"The lord said that there are two main points for a regime to survive: the armed forces who are loyal to the regime and the people who can survive under the regime. As long as the people survive, they will not be in turmoil; And the armed forces are firmly in the hands of the regime, then the regime, then the regime can use it to threaten others. Moreover, in order to deal with Zhang Lu, the lord is also preparing to establish another religion. It's just that the head of this religion is still young and can't come out to do things for the time being. Pang Tong said a little mysteriously: "It's good that you know these things." It will take several years for the whole set of countries to be established. It's not too late for us to deal with these trivial matters. For Zhang Lu's worries, we don't need to be so intense at all. ”

"I understand." Zhang Song nodded heavily: "Say hello to me like a lord." After understanding everything, Zhang Song bowed his hand to Pang Tong, and then walked out first and returned to the banquet.

Pang Tong also returned to the banquet, and when the song and dance came up again, he whispered to Li Sheng about Zhang Song's coming to him through the hustle and bustle of the song and dance.

"Well, Shiyuan, it's good that you're doing this. We really can't clash with Liu Zhang here. At present, we have just entered Shuzhong, the letter has not been established, and there is almost no place to stand, in the treatment of Liu Zhang, we should focus on slowing down and attacking the heart. And now that we have signed an agreement with Liu Zhang to determine the alliance, we must not destroy this alliance by ourselves. Li Sheng nodded in affirmation of Pang Tong's actions.

Under the opposition of Li Sheng and Pang Tong, Li Shengjun finally did not directly launch a surprise attack on Liu Zhang in Fuling, but broke up with Liu Zhang in a very friendly atmosphere, and with Liu Zhang's order, set foot on the city to enter the city to Jiameng Pass. At this moment, Zhang Lu did not threaten Jia Mengguan, it is said that Li Sheng should not be so anxious, but Li Sheng really knows that he is not in a hurry. It is already the first month of the first month, and perhaps others do not know anything about what is going to happen next, but he Li Sheng clearly understands that Cao Cao will march into Eastern Wu in October this year: he will send troops in October and return in March of the following year - under the strong naval army in Jiangdong, Cao Cao will not be able to swallow Eastern Wu, and he will not be able to conquer other places for a while, and only in the twentieth year of Jian'an, that is, three years later, he will raise troops to destroy Zhang Lu and take Hanzhong.

However, judging from the battles experienced by Cao Cao to take Hanzhong, Zhang Lujun's resistance to Cao Cao was not fierce. Although there is also Zhang Lujun who does not have a capable general, and there is a villain named Yang Song by his side, but judging from Zhang Lu's performance, Zhang Lu does not have much idea of fighting for the world, the reason why he hates Shuzhong so much, always attacks Xichuan from time to time, I am afraid it is not to take Xichuan so that he can use it as a foundation to fight for the world, but simply to avenge his dead mother.

“…… Well, it should be smoother to solve Zhang Lu than to solve Liu Zhang. At present, Ma Chao has not yet taken refuge in Zhang Lu's side, and the only capable people in Zhang Lu's hands are his younger brother Zhang Wei, General Yang Bai and military advisor Yan Pu. Compared with the fact that there are many talents in Shuzhong, it seems that taking Hanzhong first seems to be the best choice. With such an idea, the first thing Li Sheng did after arriving at Jiameng Pass was to order Gao Pei and Yang Huai, the guards of Jiameng Pass, to quickly reorganize their troops and prepare to cooperate with him to attack Zhang Lu. This is the second day of the second month of the second month of the seventeenth year of Jian'an, and it is the day when the dragon raises its head. Li Sheng began to prepare to march north.

"Two years to go!" Li Sheng said to himself, and he secretly warned himself: "We must solve all this in three years." ”

Time does not shift by human will, it still passes. Although a butterfly in South America gently instigated its wings was likely to cause a heavy rain in North America, it was sunny or rainy for Li Sheng, and the division of the whole world's major events was still carried out according to his original appearance when he did not make great efforts to rectify and exert his influence.

In a hurry, Li Sheng's time was spent constantly training soldiers and searching for information about Yangping Pass, and when the time turned to October, Cao Cao's attack on Eastern Wu, to be precise, on Liu Bei of Huainan and Sun Quan of Jiangdong began. Cao Cao moved his soldiers and horses to Linhuai, and watched the movements in the west and south.

"Cao Cao dispatched his naval army." In front of Li Sheng, Pang Tong and the generals of the Western Expeditionary Army, Luo Zhao reported the latest news to them.

"Cao Cao's army? The troops he trained in Yecheng? How did he bring the navy to the Linhuai front? For this astonishing news, Li Sheng and Pang Tong both looked stunned.

"Cao Cao dug a canal from Pengcheng to Huai'an, linked Huaishui with Hongze, and directly transported the naval warships built by Rencheng on the edge of the Surabaya River to Hongze and sent them to Linhuai's back." Luo Zhao explained.

"How much manpower did Cao Cao use for this?" Pang Tong asked.

"There are more than 200,000 troops stationed in Xuzhou." Luo Zhao replied.

"Oh, that's a lot of money." Li Sheng was taken aback, although he had long known that the Central Plains under Cao Cao's possession was the most densely populated place in the world, Li Sheng was still frightened by Cao Cao's ability to mobilize so many people in one breath and build a section of canal. He knew that there was an emperor in later generations who died because of the construction of this canal. "It seems that Cao Cao's means are much higher than that man." Li Sheng muttered in a low voice, and then asked Luo Zhao another question: "Cao Cao repaired the canal, wasn't he afraid that Jiangdong's navy would go against the canal to copy his old nest?" ”

"I'm afraid. So Cao Cao used a trick. Luo Zhao seemed to have seen something funny, and almost replied with a smile.

"What's the trick?" Li Sheng and Pang Tong asked.

"Cao Cao had people deliberately dig the canal very shallow. Air ships that do not carry soldiers can still slow down on the canal. If it was a large naval warship like Jiangdong, it would not be able to enter the canal at all. Luo Zhao uncovered the mystery.

"What......?" Li Sheng's eyes widened when he heard this, "To do such flashy things, I'm afraid only he Cao Cao can do it." Admire, admire. Li Sheng arched his hand towards the north and made a look of "you are very good".

"But...... Is Cao Cao's head faint? Doesn't he know that no matter how powerful his navy is, it can't compare to Jiangdong's navy? After listening to Luo Zhao's explanation, Pang Tong first understood a little, and then continued to ask his doubts.

"This ...... I don't know. Maybe Cao Cao himself still has some secrets. Our side is far away from the Huainan battlefield, and we don't know the situation in Huainan at all. Luo Zhao shook his head and said: "Actually, this was already the information from a month ago, and now we don't know if the battle there is over or not." ”

"Does Kong Ming have any explanation for this?" Li Sheng asked again.

"The military advisor didn't have any orders, he just asked the lord to rest assured about the affairs in the east and concentrate on developing Hanzhong." Luo Zhao replied with a smile.

"That's right. But no matter how late it is, the news from the east must be reported in time. I'm curious to know exactly how Cao Cao used his water army. When Li Sheng said this, his face involuntarily showed a curious look. He knew that in history, Cao Cao's naval army had not developed at all, and the entire north and south of the river, and even the later Huanghuang Sea were the territory of the Eastern Wu Naval Division, and now I don't know if it was because of the appearance of Li Sheng, an outsider, Cao Cao actually built a naval army. This was too surprising, and Li Sheng knew very well that Cao Cao did not have any outstanding naval generals. "Does he know how to use the trolls?" Li Sheng was skeptical.

"Will Cao Cao use a water army?" This suspicion is not only Li Sheng, it can be said that all the princes in the world have it, and among them, Zhou Yu, who led the Jiangdong naval army to confront Cao Cao head-on. Four years had passed since the Battle of Chibi, and this Confucian general, who seemed to be a little weak, had once again occupied the front of his former enemy after resting for a while. He was a very strong man, so while he pursued a set of repressive policies against his ally Liu Bei, who "vilely occupied Huainan that should belong to Jiangdong", he also adopted a resolute attitude of resistance to Cao Cao in the north. Of course, his strong attitude comes from his confidence in his own talent and the strength of the Jiangdong Navy itself. At the same time that Luo Zhao brought the news of Cao Cao's naval army to Hongze Lake to Li Sheng, Zhou Yu, who had watched Cao Cao complete the defense of Linhuai City, finally took the Jiangdong naval army that had not moved, starting from the base of Chaohu Lake, from the Yangtze River into Hongze Lake, and drove directly to the opposite side of Cao Cao.

"Liu Bei attacked Cao Cao from the west with an army, while your army attacked ...... from the west with a naval army. If Cao Cao can be defeated here, Cao Cao will no longer have the strength to face the southeast. At that time, your army can go out of Hongze to plunder Qing and Xu, and our army can also go out of Wancheng and seize Yan and Yu, as long as your and our coalition forces can unite together, what is Cao Cao's old thief? Although Zhou Yu was confident that he would fight Cao Cao alone, the princes and ministers of Jiangdong were eager to enlist Liu Bei as their ally to resist Cao Cao, so Ma Jian came to Chaisang again and handed Sun Quan a plan to wipe out Cao Cao's power in Henan.

"Uh...... That's not a bad thing to say. After a slight hesitation, Sun Quan smiled. Although he was very annoyed by Liu Bei's sneak attack on Huainan, Sun Quan, who was young and bent on establishing greater feats than his father and brother, was still moved by the plan that Ma Tan submitted to him. His blood boiled, and what triggered his enthusiasm was that he received a piece of information from Jingzhou not long ago that was sent by Kong Ming: "Cao Cao poured out of the nest to attack Jiangdong!" ”

"Pouring out of the nest to attack Koto?" This was originally an early warning report, but this report, in conjunction with the plan sent by Ma Yan, couldn't help but make Sun Quan's heart moved: Cao Cao poured out of the nest, thinking that most of the military power in his hands was concentrated here. If we can defeat Cao Cao here in one go, then Cao Cao's hinterland will be completely exposed in front of him. Isn't Cao Cao still at the mercy of himself? Even if Cao Cao was lucky enough to escape smoothly, all his troops were gathered here, and Cao Cao, who was barely able to escape, could only rely on the Yellow River to fight us.

"World War I...... As long as you can win this battle, you can do it. Sun Quan thought about it, the fire in his heart burned more and more violently, and he finally decided: "Take a gamble." ”

As a result, Zhou Yu's army left Chaohu. So, Liu Bei's soldiers and horses all marched to Linhuai. A battle of "Red Cliffs" on the shores of Hongze Lake seemed to be about to repeat itself, except for the location of the battle and the number of troops on both sides, the timing, the generals, and the arrangements used by both sides seemed to be the same as four years ago - Cao Cao still put his sailors in the posture of fighting in boats.

Isn't Cao Cao afraid of a repeat of the fiasco four years ago? Of course not, with Cao Cao's cleverness, he would never make a mistake a second time. This time, he still put on the posture of fighting with ships, but he actually had his own plan, and this plan was aimed at the Jiangdong naval army.

"You can't eat Dongwu and Liu Bei in one breath. Therefore, we can only take it slowly and continue to weaken Liu Bei and Sun Quan in various ways. Last year's discord was a plan, and now it is also a plan to gather troops in the southeast. The Jiangdong Navy is too strong, and I really don't want to let him be stronger any longer, so the battle we are doing is to destroy the Jiangdong Navy as much as possible. Long before sending out the troops, Cao Cao said this to the generals and strategists who accompanied him on the expedition.

"Destroy the Jiangdong Naval Army? It's a great idea. But what can we do against Jiangdong's naval army? The sailors all run on the water, and we are all landlubbers. "Everyone agrees with Cao Cao's combat goal, but if they want to get this combat goal by themselves, except for a few people who have already discussed with Cao Cao, most of the rest are really not sure about it. After all, the fiasco four years ago was still in front of them, and they didn't have much confidence to fight a water war with the Jiangdong Army and win it.

Of course, there is no confidence that can only be kept quietly in the bottom of the heart. In the face of the lord who is full of confidence to lead himself to win this battle, they can't put this lack of self-confidence in the open, so they are for what Cao Cao said earlier. Everyone stood solemnly and bowed their hands to Cao Cao to receive the order: "Obey the Prime Minister's order." ”

The army set off from this, and while still halfway through, a small news came: "Sun Quan built a new city in Moling, named Jianye!" ”

"Jianye!? Is it the meaning of meritorious service? Zhongmou is really ambitious. Cao Cao smiled and waved his horsewhip on his horse: "The whole army is fast." Let's see what kind of work Sun Quan wants this guy to do. After that, Cao Cao rode his horse and rode away, running at the forefront of the team.

Cao Cao sent troops in early October, arrived in Linhuai at the end of October, and stationed there, waiting for the arrival of the navy. In mid-November, the navy arrived in Hongze, and Cao Cao stood in a boat, dividing the entire navy into two parts: north and south. At the beginning of December, Zhou Yu's navy and Liu Bei's army both arrived at their respective positions, forming a flanking attack from the east and west. However, Cao Cao still put on a steady posture of unchanged against all changes. Although he provoked the war, he was in no hurry to continue it. It seems that his preparations are not ready, and there has been a large convoy on the road from Xuchang to Linhuai, and then to Cao Cao's camp to deliver supplies. Cao Cao sent 50,000 soldiers and horses to escort these convoys to and fro, lest they be robbed by others.

In mid-December of the seventeenth year of Jian'an, transportation finally stopped. Cao Cao's fleet of ships and sailors finally began to act, frequently challenging Jiangdong. At this moment, the north wind was still blowing, and Zhou Yu frowned tightly. [bookid=3676858,bookname="The Legend of the Otherworld"]