Cao Cao ran away after all, although he ran very embarrassed, but he finally returned to Xuchang without danger, and naturally returned with him 30,000 elite soldiers of Jiangling Cao Ren and 10,000 horses of Xiangyang Xiahoudun. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info dignified Chinese 500,000 troops in the southern expedition actually got such a result, Xuchang is the people's hearts are floating, and even some ministers proposed to let Cao Cao move the capital to avoid the power of the coalition army.

"This is the right way." They said in a panic: "Xuchang is not like other places, but it is on the plain, and there is no danger to defend at all." Now that the coalition is strong, why don't the prime minister avoid it first. ”

"Avoid? Why avoid? We haven't hurt much. Although we have gone to hundreds of thousands of people, we still have the land of seven states, and there are still a million soldiers who can fight well, and their strength is still not to be underestimated. If the coalition forces go north, they will be cut off under the iron cavalry of our army, just as our army is going south. You know, there aren't many cavalry in the south. Cao Cao, who returned to Xuchang, unceremoniously refuted the panic of those people, and immediately appointed Xiahoudun as the assassin of Yuzhou, and Xiahou Yuan as Jingzhao Yin led 150,000 horses to guard Xuchang to calm the people's hearts, and at the same time ordered the construction of Tongquetai to begin.

"Why did the lord build the bronze bird platform at this time?" Xun Yu, who had just experienced the southern expedition, was puzzled after hearing Cao Cao's order, and found his nephew Xun You, who had been guarding in Xuchang, and asked him helplessly about what happened. Because he heard that this matter was actually from Xun You's suggestion.

"Because it's good for us." Xun You said calmly. Xuchang is now the imperial capital of the Han Dynasty, although Cao Cao really controlled here, but in the dark the relationship between various characters is really troublesome. Xun You was ordered to guard Xuchang for a long time, and naturally he had a lot of dealings with these people, and he matured rapidly. Right now, in front of this uncle, who is actually about the same age as him, he is much more sophisticated, and his dusty face really looks several years older than Xun Yu.

"How?" Xun Yu asked. The two of them are really not much different in age, they have been playing together since they were children, and their relationship with each other is not like that of uncles and nephews.

"The defeat of the lord's southern expedition made those young people in the world doubt the strength of the lord. Under such circumstances, the lord should take action to prove his strength, and the act of building Tongquetai is undoubtedly such a proof. Everyone knows that building such a palace costs a lot, and the lord doing this at this time undoubtedly proves that his loss in Chibi is not big, otherwise where would he have the energy and money to do such a thing? This is enough to deter the people around you and make them settle down. At the same time, it also allowed the army in the south to weigh whether it had the strength to continue to go north. Facing his uncle's questioning, Xun You explained with a smile.

"Do we really have the strength to do such a thing now? I've heard that the situation in the Central Plains is also very unstable. Especially in the area of Yuzhou. Xun Yu frowned, still cautious.

"It's been a bad year. The harvest in Yuzhou is over - the chaos in the Runan area has caused turmoil in the whole of Yuzhou, and it is said that some people have raised the banner of the Yellow Turban Army. It's a nuisance. Therefore, the lord will immediately order Xiahoudun to assassinate Yuzhou to solve this trouble. Xun You honestly admitted this.

"Then you still ......" Xun Yu's eyes narrowed.

"The trouble in Yuzhou is just a fresh habit. It's nothing to us as a whole. You know that these so-called Yellow Turbans are just thieves, not enough to pose a threat to us. Not to mention the land of the four states of Hebei. At the beginning, Yuan Shao was stupid and didn't know how to use people, but now that the lord has collected it, the situation there has changed a lot. This year's taxes have been collected, and the revenues of these four states alone are enough to build two Tongque Towers. So we don't have to worry about the impact on our side after building Tongque Terrace. "Xun You is in charge of grain and grass, and he has an abnormal understanding of the tax situation in various places within Cao Cao's territory. Therefore, he suggested that Cao Cao use the method of building the bronze bird platform to show his strength, deter the enemies around him, and make them not start a war against him. This is a very important thing, otherwise the enemies around will be mobilized, and it will be Xuzhou and Wancheng, and Cao Cao's army, no matter how strong, will be exhausted to death.

"Time, that's what we need now." Xun You understands this very well. He knew that his lord's team, from the general to the soldiers, needed a time to recover. This does not need to be too long, about half a year is enough, and the demonstration of the construction of Tongque Terrace can achieve just that.

"Then I'll be relieved." Xun Yu let out a long sigh of relief, and said with a little feeling: "We really need time." Having time not only allows us to restore the morale of our troops, but more importantly, it allows us to understand our opponents in more detail. The failure of this southern expedition was largely due to our ignorance of the enemy: we did not know what the climate was like in the south of the Yangtze River; I don't know what the flow of the Yangtze River is like; I don't understand that Liu Bei already has his own military advisor; It is not clear the true abilities of Zhou Yu and Lu Su, the two important ministers of Jiangdong; What's more, we completely ignore another opponent who has been eyeing us for years. The Changsha named Li Sheng is too guarded and terrible, he completely set up a bureau in Jingzhou for us to drill, but unfortunately we have never seen this, otherwise we would not have lost Xiangyang and Jiangling one after another, so far we have completely lost the base to the south. By now, we may be back to the beginning of the war with the south. ”

"That one named Li Sheng is so terrible?" Xun You doesn't know much about the Southern Expedition, he has been busy with Cao Cao's Tongquetai these days, and he has not heard of the prestige of Li Sheng, the new lord of the south side, but there are too many exaggerated words from hearsay, and it involves all kinds of things about his lord, so it is not easy for him to directly verify with Cao Cao. After all, Cao Cao is now a dignified prime minister, far from being as eloquent as he was when he first started.

"Yes, it does. He seemed to have thought about what would happen to us a few years ago, and from the very beginning of the lord's pursuit of Liu Bei, he guided us step by step into the plan he had booked, and all this was without us knowing it at the time. Wen has the eloquence of Zhuge , Pang Tong's planning, Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong's martial arts, and he has already built an elite army of soldiers and horses that are not under our side in the past few years, so that the difference between the enemy and us on the red cliff with a very serious contrast between strength and weakness has become less obvious. Li Shengjun also had a naval army, although there were not many warships, but the combat power under the same force was still above Jiangdong, which made people feel daunting, not to mention the series of dazzling methods he made at the end of the Battle of Chibi. That calculated all the stratagems and the speed of the lightning march made the small gap we exposed in Xiangyang and Gangneung a great failure. I think we were neither defeated by Liu Bei nor by Zhou Yu this time, but by this cultivator Taishou who had never shown the slightest rumor before. Xun Yu nodded and said worriedly: "Now he has basically captured Jingzhou and become the lord of Jingzhou." And you and I don't know the key points of Jingzhou, if such a person occupies Jingzhou, I am afraid that the great cause of the lord in the future will be greatly affected. ”

"It's not that powerful." Xun Yu shook his head lightly when he heard Xun Yu say this. He had not experienced the baptism of the Southern Expedition, so he was able to look at the things in front of him from an outsider's perspective. Just like now, as soon as he heard Xun Yu's description of the enemy, he quickly realized: "Actually, like us, the enemy also needs a lot of time. In the short term, Jingzhou will still be a mess. ”

"How?" Xun Yu was puzzled.

"Because of Jingzhou's victory. Don't you think that the situation of Li Sheng, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan's joint confrontation against us is very similar to the situation when the princes of the Eighteenth Route crusaded against Dong Zhuo in the past? Li Sheng was not wrong to seize Xiangyang and Jiangling, but these two places were also very important to Liu Bei and Sun Quan: Liu Bei only had Jiangxia, which was too small for him to be ambitious; As for Jiangdong, I remember that when the Sun family was established, someone mentioned the matter of occupying Jingyang and Yizhou, and they were bound to win Jingzhou. If we are still maintaining a certain amount of pressure on them in Jingzhou now, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not join forces to fight against us again, but now. In the absence of our pressure, I'm afraid that these people will fight on their own. There is nothing wrong with Jingzhou being a big piece of fatty meat, but how to eat this piece of fatty meat, I think the three families in the south are now having a headache because of this. Hehe, they are noisy. Xun You analyzed the things in front of him with his own eyes, and the more he analyzed, the more relaxed he became, and in the end he came to a conclusion at all: "Jingzhou is a troublesome place, in this place, the three families in the south have their own interests, and they will inevitably fall out for their own interests at some point." As the self in the north, it seems that he should not meddle too much in the affairs of Jingzhou at the moment. You just need to stay in the north honestly, recover your strength, and watch the development of the south coldly. Just like in the past, Guo Jia's plan for the situation in Liaodong is the same. ”

"Well, that makes sense." Xun Yu nodded heavily: "Gongda, you have done the lord a great favor." We will go to the Lord tomorrow and tell him about it. Wenhe's secret camp should also move, I think he should be very interested in such a thing......" Xun Yu had a smile on his face, he looked at his nephew very excitedly, but was surprised to find that the face that was very similar to himself was looking out of the window in the south at the moment.

"Now...... What are those people in the south doing? Xun You wanted to know this.

*****

Winter hasn't passed yet, and it's still cold. But for the victorious coalition forces, the joy of driving out the enemy was enough to make them ignore the cold weather for a moment and get excited. They defeated Cao Cao, the greatest overlord in the world, and did so when they were far weaker than Cao Cao. Although "defeating the strong with the weak" is not the right way, and fighting the weak with the strong is the most orthodox battle, whether it is for the soldiers below or the bustling people, what they want to hear the most, and what sounds the most exciting, is the story of defeating the strong with the weak. Perhaps this has something to do with their position that they themselves are weakling.

However, the people and soldiers could rejoice and think that the world was peaceful, but people such as Li Sheng, Sun Quan, Liu Bei, Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang, and Ma Jian could not relax in the slightest. Although they were also happy about the victory of the war, as Xun Yu said to Xun Yu, because the three families had ambitions for Jingzhou, after solving Cao Cao's problem, how to divide the biggest spoils after the battle was over was placed in front of the three lords.

Xiangyang and Jiangling were both fought down by Li Sheng, and it stands to reason that they can only be owned by Li Sheng, but neither Sun Quan nor Liu Bei is very willing to do this. The first to take action was Zhou Yu, the governor of Jiangdong, after winning the victory of Chibi, he heard that Li Sheng had captured Jiangling and Xiangyang, so he unceremoniously drove his troops and horses directly to a place not far from Jiangling City, and put on a posture of attacking Jiangling.

"In the battle of Chibi, I Jiangdong contributed the most, where can there be no benefit? I'm going to decide on the land of Gangneung. When Zhao Yun, who was stationed in Jiangling, sent someone to ask what this Mei Zhoulang wanted to do, Zhou Yu said such impulsive words to the envoy very unceremoniously: "Let your lord give me Jiangling, otherwise I will attack the city." Zhou Yu put on a tough posture.

Zhou Yu had 40,000 soldiers and horses, while Zhao Yun only had 5,000 defenders in Jiangling, but Zhao Yun was not afraid of Zhou Yu. Regarding Zhou Yu's provocation, he just ordered someone to tell Zhou Yu: "My lord has already made a decision about Jingzhou. I still ask the governor of the capital to go to Changsha and discuss directly with the lord of my family, and do not do anything that makes Cao Cao happy under Jiangling. ”

"What makes Cao Cao happy?" Zhou Yu smiled bitterly, and then ordered to gather the soldiers and horses. Jiangling City can be fought, but that must be when the city is still in Cao Cao's hands. At present, it is Li Sheng's team that occupies Jiangling, so it is very necessary to be careful. Li Shengjun's strength Zhou Yu didn't see it, not to mention that Li Sheng was still his ally. If he attacks his allies just for the sake of Gangneung, the blame for himself and his lord will probably not be too small. And Zhou Yu clearly understood: although Cao Cao was defeated at Chibi, he had retreated to the north. With Cao Cao's strength in the north, it is not impossible to go south again. Under such circumstances, the alliance on one's side must not be broken. At the moment, he made it look like he wanted to attack Gangneung, but in fact, he was also trying to deceive the other party. I thought that the other party didn't have too many people in Jiangling, and there should be a certain chance of success, but I didn't want the handsome general on the other side to be so powerful, so he not only saw through his own intimidation, but also fought back against his own intimidation.

"Alas, it seems that this Li Sheng not only has a lot of soldiers, but also a general." Zhou Yu sighed.

When he went to Changsha by boat, Zhou Yu did not bring too many people, and in addition to the five hundred personal soldiers around him, there was only one escort named Zhou Tai and an entourage named Lu Su. As for the 40,000 army in his hands, this was handed over to the deputy governor Cheng Pu to lead, and he was still honestly guarding the city of Jiangling.

"It won't be a big problem to go to Changsha here. However, since we have set up such a posture in Gangneung, we naturally can't retreat without face. Our Jiangdong demeanor must still be maintained. Zhou Yu explained to Cheng Pu: "But you'd better prepare." Although the other party's words are very good, but at the moment, it seems that Gangneung City can't get it back. We must be ready to return to the East. In the near future, the lord will make some moves in the direction of Huainan, and I am afraid that his side will not have enough troops, so I must bring our sons and sons back. ”

"Understood, please rest assured." Cheng Pu arched his hand and said to Zhou Yu, who was much younger than him. After experiencing Chibi, Cheng Pu was completely convinced by the governor who had always been unpleasant to the eye before. He admitted that he was far inferior to Zhou Yu in the planning of the Great Battle.

There was nothing to do all the way, and naturally arrived safely. Zhou Yu and the others had already heard of the prosperity of Changsha, but they never imagined that the Changsha City that appeared in front of them was actually such a scene: twelve huge city gates opened their hearts to the west, and a large road completely made of cyan gravel stretched directly from the port area in the west of the city to the city. Just like Xiangyang City in the past, although Changsha City has been re-expanded, the increasing population still makes the city a little overwhelmed, the bustling crowd and the constant shouting and shouting of vendors along the road, so that Zhou Yu, who has just arrived here, is dumbfounded, "Is this really Changsha City?" Why are there so many people? I think Luoyang, the former eastern capital, is afraid that it doesn't have so much population. Not to mention the vendors along the road. ”

"How many people are there in Changsha now?" Zhou Yu was stunned for a moment, turned his head and asked Jiang Wan, who was in charge of receiving him in Changsha.

"Thirty three hundred and thirty-eight thousand five hundred and nineteen, and the mouth one hundred and seventy-four thousand six hundred and fifty." Jiang Wan sat next to Zhou Yu and quickly reported an accurate number.

"What? How many are there? At this time, not only Zhou Yu but also Lu Su was surprised, he said as if he remembered something: "I heard that Jingzhou has been recruiting displaced people from the north since Lord Liu Biao. ”

"That's right. This plan to recruit the northern refugees was proposed by my father-in-law. Jiang Wan smiled and nodded, with incomparable pride in his words.

"Oh?" Zhou Yu turned his head and looked at Lu Su as if he were looking at him, and then turned his head away again and said nothing.

The carriage and horse walked slowly, and after a while, Zhou Yu and Lu Su were sent to the post house in the city, which was the residence that Li Sheng used to entertain the officials of Changsha County. Zhou Yu and Lu Su took a look when they entered, and found that the environment here was good, although the place was not large, but it revealed a bit of elegance and delicacy in the orderly division, which made people not feel how narrow every small courtyard here was.

"In fact, here, it's not a big ...... to see the rigid things like the courtyard wall" Facing Zhou Yu and Lu Su's curious eyes, Jiang Wan smiled and uncovered the mystery: "Rockeries, woods, and streams are all used to divide the boundaries of the courtyard. ”

"I see." Zhou Yu suddenly laughed and nodded with satisfaction: "Your father-in-law is also an elegant person." "Zhou Yu was originally an elegant person, and he naturally understood the quality of this courtyard. Although there is no opulent decoration and no crowds of slaves surrounding, the staggered arrangement of the entire courtyard and the embellishment of landscapes and trees make this place look like a fairyland on earth, giving people a floating feeling.

"That's the real place." Zhou Yu thinks so.

The meeting with Li Sheng, or the three-way talks, began the day after Zhou Yu's arrival. Zhou Yu originally didn't expect that he would start negotiating so soon, but after hearing the news that Liu Bei's envoy from Jiangxia, that is, Liu Bei himself, had already come to Changsha four days ago, he also understood why things had started so quickly: the matter in Jingzhou was resolved one day earlier, which was very beneficial to the three parties here, and since he and Liu Bei had arrived, the matter could also begin. This is also a reasonable thing, of course, because Liu Bei came before him, coupled with the relationship between Liu Bei and Li Sheng, Zhou Yu can meet what kind of difficulties he encountered in this negotiation.

"Maybe we won't be able to get a piece of land." Zhou Yu smiled bitterly, he felt that it was not impossible, at least in the case of Li Sheng and Liu Bei joining forces.

The negotiations took place in the side hall of Li Shengtai's palace: nine tables in a triangular shape, 2,000 soldiers who had begun to guard from 200 paces away from the hall, and three small flags embroidered with the names of the commanders of the three parties. The negotiation hall is full of rigor and novelty.

As allies in the common resistance to Cao Cao, the three parties were nominally equal. In order not to give the other two sides a sense of bullying, the number of people attending the talks on Li Sheng's side was the same as that of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. Sun Quan came to Zhou Yu, Lu Su, and Zhou Tai; Liu Bei came to Liu Bei, Ma Yan, and Chen Dao; And Li Sheng's side entered the hall with Li Sheng, Zhuge Liang, and Zhao Yun - shortly after Zhou Yu's Jiangling left, Zhao Yun also received Li Sheng's order to return. Since Sun Quan and Liu Bei were accompanied by generals in their army, Li Sheng's side naturally had to send someone equally. At this moment, Huang Zhong is guarding Xiangyang in the north, so naturally he can only transfer Zhao Yun from Jiangling back. Although under Jiangling City, there are also Sun Quanjun who seem to be unfriendly to him, but everyone knows that Zhou Yu does not dare to attack Jiangling City at will.

Negotiations are inherently verbal. Among the three parties attending the meeting, Zhou Yu, Lu Su, Ma Tan, and Zhuge Liang are all wise and resourceful people who are good at discernment. It was because everyone thought that the negotiations would be delayed for several days before reaching a conclusion, but things were much more than everyone expected. It only took one day for the division of Jingzhou's forces to be formalized. At the negotiating table, after Li Shengjun's Zhuge Liang threw out the decision to dispose of the two places of Xiangyang and Jiangling, everyone had no opinion: most of Jiangxia County was given to Sun Quan; Liu Bei got Xiangyang City and the four counties north of Jiangxia that originally belonged to Li Sheng; Li Sheng obtained all the families in Jiangling City and Xiangyang City that had surrendered to Cao Cao.

For such a distribution plan, whether it is Li Sheng, Liu Bei, or Sun Quan, they are very disappointed, after all, none of the three of them can get the whole Jingzhou, but at this moment, this plan is acceptable to the three parties: Liu Bei got Xiangyang and Xiyang, although he lost the big clan in Jingzhou, but he reduced the opposition in the territory, and had a solid rear, Liu Bei said that he got "the time of heaven"; Although Sun Quan did not want to go to the city in the interior of Jingzhou, he also wanted to go to Jiangxia, a strategic place, which can be said to be reasonable, and it can be said that he has obtained "geographical advantages"; After getting Shuijingzhuang and the Pang family, the Kuai family, and the Huang family moved south, a large number of Jingzhou "insightful" people took refuge in Li Sheng, so that Li Sheng's "newly-acquired" three counties were completely plumped, and the "people's heart" was gradually consolidated, greatly enriching the power of Li Shengjun, who was originally weak in the generals' bureaucracy, and thus gaining "harmony".

The negotiations ended quickly, and Zhou Yu left first, followed by Ma Jian and returned to Liu Beijun's station, Xiakou. Only Liu Bei and Chen Zhi were invited by Li Sheng to stay, on the grounds that they were discussing the establishment of Xiyang County. This is a matter between Li Sheng and Liu Bei, and it has nothing to do with Zhou Yu, so there is no need to discuss it with Zhou Yu.

Of course, Zhou Yu understood that this was only a superficial reason, and Li Sheng's purpose in leaving Liu Bei behind must be to discuss something with Liu Bei, not just to merge the four counties of Xiyang into one Xiyang County. Zhou Yu also wanted to know what kind of "conspiracy" existed, so he left Lu Su behind, on the grounds that he wanted to hand over the issue of Jiangxia with Liu Bei.

Zhou Yu is reasonable, and Li Sheng is not easy to object. On the one hand, he arranged Lu Su next to Liu Bei's courtyard as before, in order to show fairness and openness, and on the other hand, he found a reason for Liu Bei to meet him alone—it was in a small room in the inner courtyard of Li Sheng's Taishou Mansion, which was not big and about four abbots, and there was only one case note, two regimental gardens, and a bright oil lamp. It was already dark, the lights were lit, and Liu Bei and Li Sheng sat on opposite sides of the desk, their faces red in front of the boiling meat. Snowflakes were floating outside the door, and Chen Zhi and Zhao Yun both stood at the door with a calm expression, holding their hands to prevent others from approaching. Although it was very cold, they also hoped for a little heat, but they all knew that the matter was important here, and there was no room for sloppiness.

After eating and drinking for a while, after the slightly stiff body slowly became warmer, Liu Beiba looked at Li Sheng and slowly opened his mouth: "Zixu has helped me a lot this time." If it weren't for Zixu Ken to take over those people, I don't know how much time it would take to solve the problems of those people after taking over Xiangyang. As you know, I'm still nominally the eldest son. I am also very difficult for people that the eldest son doesn't like. Saying that, Liu Bei sighed, "Actually, I also hope to get those people's refuge." What a pity! People don't look down on me. His words were full of loneliness, and he rushed to Li Sheng's gaze with full sincerity: "But fortunately, those people are still in your hands." ”

"It's really good." Li Sheng squinted with a smile, playing with the wine glass that had just been drunk by himself: "However, Uncle Xuande, are you only satisfied with the moment?" Or do you just want to sit in Xiangyang and Xiyang? ”

"Of course not!" Liu Bei shook his head heavily: "I may want to hide my ambitions in front of others, but in front of you, I don't think I need to." Now that you've made it so clear, I think you're familiar with some things about me. The oath of Taoyuan in the past, reporting to the country, and going down to Lishu, this is what I have worked hard for all my life. I have never forgotten this ideal even in the most dangerous times, let alone now. ”

"In that case." The smile on Li Sheng's face became even bigger, he took out a scroll from under the desk and gently handed it to Liu Bei: "Since Uncle Xuande still has such determination, then I will entrust this thing to you." I've been in business there for years, but it's all just about keeping the thieves at bay. Now that the south side of it is owned by Uncle Xuande, and the focus is not the same as my current focus, and Uncle Xuande and I have the same wishes, so it is a good thing to leave the affairs here to my uncle. In order to realize my uncle's ideals, what my uncle needs should be a more solid rear and a broader territory, and here is a little bit of my heart for my uncle, and I ask my uncle to accept it. ”

"Oh?" Liu Bei suspiciously took the scroll handed over by Li Sheng, and slowly opened it, only to see that little by little the landscape depicted with fine brushes gradually appeared in his eyes. "This is ......" Liu Bei was surprised.

"That's right, this is the land of Runan that my uncle once owned." Li Sheng nodded with a smile.