Cao Cao went south, and Liu Bei fled south. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 A fire attack in Wancheng caused heavy losses to Cao Cao's army, which thought he was strong, and Cao Cao had to reorganize his troops and horses in Yexian, a temporary base camp. This gave Liu Bei a chance to breathe, and Liu Bei led the troops to escort the people to drag them along, and now they are almost to Xiangyang. Feeling Liu Bei's call, the people in Xiangyang and the surrounding areas of Xiangyang have been constantly joining Liu Bei's army, which made Liu Beijun, who was already bloated and slow, even more sluggish, and the march was only twenty or thirty miles a day.

"Hey...... History is stubborn. Li Sheng, who was far away in Changsha, looked at the latest battle report about the north that Luo Zhao had sorted out, and couldn't help but sigh lightly, rubbed the corner of his forehead that was faintly painful, and said with a frown.

He spoke very quietly, and even Luo Zhao, who was standing not far behind him, could not hear what he was saying. As the person in charge of intelligence work under Li Sheng, he clearly knew how much his lord attached importance to the situation in the north and east. Especially in the north, the lord even wants to achieve the kind of "instant report as soon as there is a situation", but it seems impossible to think about it, at least in the current world.

"Go and invite Kong Ming and Shi Yuan to this study. Things have reached a very critical point, and it seems that we are also looking for an appropriate time to announce our position. After some inexplicable sad sighs in his heart, Li Sheng quickly changed his mood and instructed Luo Zhao with a smile.

"Is the lord ready to make it public?" Luo Zhao listened to Li Sheng's words, and his eyes lit up involuntarily. The so-called "openness" means self-reliance, which means that from now on, Li Shengjun will join this competition with the ultimate goal of dominating the world as an independent force. That was something that Li Sheng had said a long time ago, and it was also what Li Sheng and his courtiers had been preparing for the past few years.

No one can say how much their group of people have done for today's arrival, and now when they hear that the long effort can finally have a phased result, even Luo Zhao, who has been calm, can't help but show obvious joy on his face. After seeing Li Sheng's heavy nod, the smile on his face deepened. He ran out as fast as he could, still muttering, "It's finally going to begin, it's finally going to begin." ”

Soon, Kong Ming and Shi Yuan came to Li Sheng's study. Maybe it was because I heard Luo Zhao talk about Li Sheng's decision to be independent, whether it was the calm Kong Ming or the clever Shi Yuan, there was a little excitement on their faces. As Li Sheng's subordinates, they and Luo Zhao have generally been looking forward to this day for a long time.

Saluted each other and sat down, and the four of them sat around in a small group, and listened to Li Sheng talk about the situation between Cao Cao and Liu Bei: "Cao Cao has set off from Ye County. Although he didn't deliberately let his team speed up, it was still much faster than Liu Bei, who was procrastinating. It is estimated that Liu Bei has arrived in Xiangyang at present, and Cao Cao has also arrived in Xinye, and the distance between the two sides is constantly shrinking. The speed of Cao Cao's march was about thirty miles a day, while Liu Bei's speed was only ten miles a day. It is foreseeable that if Liu Bei does not abandon the people who followed him, it is estimated that Cao Cao's army will be able to catch up with Liu Bei in a few days. ”

"A few days? It won't be that fast, will it? The distance between Cao Cao and Liu Bei is more than five hundred miles, to say the least. Pang Tong shook his head, not believing the facts Li Sheng said.

"What do you think of Kong Ming?" Li Sheng did not directly refute Pang Tong's words, but turned his head to Zhuge Liang, who was smiling on the side, and asked him softly.

"I think it's quite possible. After all, Cao Cao's tiger and leopard ride is not a vegetarian. After Wancheng suffered such a defeat, I am afraid that the whole army of tigers and leopards is resentful of Liu Bei. I think that should make them a little more motivated. Although the tiger and leopard riders who have traveled a long way here are also very tired, it is still possible to spend a few days catching up with Liu Beijun on the premise of wanting revenge. Kong Ming smiled and narrowed his eyes, and the feather fan shook lightly to express his opinion. Because there is also a Luo Zhao who doesn't know much about this among the people, so he explained his analysis in great detail.

"Are you saying that you can use cavalry to deal with Liu Bei? No way! Liu Beijun has nearly 60,000 people. No matter how elite Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry is, there are only 10,000, and this time he has lost so much in Wancheng, and it is too late to replenish. How could they use this team of less than 10,000 to deal with Liu Beijun. Cao Cao couldn't have been so stupid. Pang Tong shook his head vigorously. He didn't believe Zhuge Liang's explanation.

"Shiyuan, you seem to have forgotten a little bit all along. That is, Liu Beijun still has hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. Although I admit that Liu Bei is indeed much better than Cao Cao in treating the people, as far as the current situation is concerned, his kindness to the people does not bring him the corresponding strength, and it is very likely that his army and the people will suffer a disaster. You can fully imagine how much of a collapse it would have caused when Cao Cao's tiger and leopard riders were overwhelming. Kong Ming smiled faintly, his face changed but he said with a sad face.

"Ah......" Pang Tong heard Zhuge Liang say, and suddenly seemed to remember something, and the expression on his face changed a few times. He asked with trembling words, "Would Cao Cao really give such an order?" Although this can cause a very serious blow to Liu Beijun, it will also cause great harm to the people. What's more, once such an order is executed, it will undoubtedly make all the people think that Cao Cao is going to carry out another massacre. ”

"You're right. There's a good chance that this is how things will turn out. Cao Cao would definitely take this into account, but he wouldn't care about it. Cao Cao is a man who believes in absolute strength, and he will not waste his own plans for the life and death of some ordinary people. In his opinion, letting Liu Bei continue to take Jiangling south was a very terrible thing, and he absolutely did not want such a thing to happen. Kong Ming shook his head and said. Although he and Cao Cao did not really meet, his understanding of Cao Cao was much deeper than that of most people here. Perhaps this is the result of his usual hard work.

"To give such an order for his own will, this Cao Cao is too much, right?" Pang Tong shook his head and said with a little disgust. Although as a strategist, he is still a strategist who likes to use some dangerous schemes, and he will inevitably sacrifice the interests of some people at some point, but that is not what he wants in his heart, to be honest, he still hates the kind of people who will do whatever it takes for the sake of the end.

"Too much? For us, perhaps, yes. But for the monarch, sometimes a hard-hearted heart is necessary. After all, as a monarch, a decision can always affect a lot of people. Zhuge Liang didn't say anything, just raised the smile on his face, and said this plainly, which was somewhat exhortational.

"Do you want the lord to do the same?" Pang Tong glanced at Li Sheng, and then looked straight at Kong Ming. Because it was just a small meeting between the four of them, everyone who knew each other was always very open, and there would always be some unscrupulous words when talking and laughing.

"Intellectually it's the best. But emotionally speaking......" Kong Ming's elongated voice attracted everyone's attention, although his original intention was like this, but he still looked a little embarrassed under the gathering of several eyes, and involuntarily touched his nose, and smiled to reveal the mystery: "It's better now." He looked at Li Sheng.

"Hah...... Ha! Hearing Kong Ming say this, everyone burst into laughter.

After laughing, Li Sheng stretched out his hand and pressed it in the void, signaling them to focus their attention, and then calmly said the reason why he summoned them over: "Cao Cao will enter Xiangyang soon." I think the fact that the people in Xiangyang want to surrender will be exposed soon, and we will definitely need to make a choice at that time. Of course, what exactly our decision will be is something that needs no thought. But before and after this, we all have a lot of problems to solve. We still have some interests in Xiangyang, and we must ensure the safety of these existences. And, we're going to have to do it to other parts of Jingnan soon. Although it can be expected that there will not be any big problems in the war to unify Jingnan, the development after the unification of Jingnan will require a large number of people to do it. I think we should also have our own attitude towards Cao Cao's attack on the people. ”

After Li Sheng finished speaking, there was a sudden silence between the four of them. Both Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang thought silently, carefully calculating the three questions contained in Li Sheng's words: how to escort those who supported him in Xiangyang City and the people he arranged to Changsha; How to deal with Cao Cao's attack on Liu Bei's army is very likely to ensure that the people who have been brought to the south by Liu Bei will not be taken by Cao Cao; How to solve Jingnan's problem as quickly as possible.

Time passed silently, and I don't know how long it took, Zhuge Liang raised it and threw it, and there was a confident smile on his face again: "I thought I had a plan." As he spoke, he then asked his subordinates to take a map of Jingzhou and hang it squarely in the middle of the lobby, and began to explain his plan: "There are three problems mentioned in the lord's words, but in fact, there are only two points, that is, the so-called problems of Jiangbei and Jiangnan. Jiangbei's problem: The main thing is how to target Cao Cao's light cavalry to ensure that Xiangyang to Jiangxia is smooth for a while. The problem in Jiangnan is how to attack the land of the three counties of Jingnan. Although these problems are a bit complicated, they are specifically related to the dispatch of troops and horses in various places. Compared with the Jingnan problem, which is relatively easy to solve, the Xiangyang problem is more difficult. After all, our forces in Jiangbei are too small, and the armed forces we have are only Zhao Yun's 2,000 cavalry. ”

Seeing that Kong Ming had already made a plan, everyone couldn't help but raise their heads. They listened attentively to Kong Ming's explanation, and while listening, they verified their original ideas. When Kong Ming's words came to an end a little, Pang Tong, who was witty and parallel to Kong Ming here, quickly put forward his different opinions: "We all know what you said. For the Jiangbei side, we have too few cards, and it is unlikely that we can successfully complete the trust of the lord. How elite Cao Cao's tiger and leopard ride is, we can judge from the rumors alone. Fighting with such an elite, I'm afraid that Zilong's 2,000 cavalry is not enough at all. ”

"Uh...... That one...... Is it necessary for us to have a head-to-head with Cao Jun's elite? It's not yet time for a decisive battle. Kong Ming looked at Pang Tong strangely, waved his hand lightly and said.

"And what do you want to do?" Hearing that Kong Ming seemed to have other means, Pang Tong immediately became interested in it.

"Just let Zhao Yun's cavalry see the opportunity to attack, in short, don't face Cao Cao's army." Kong Ming pondered for a moment and explained in belief: "Liu Beijun may be mixed with the people now. It was difficult for Cao Cao's army to distinguish who were Liu Bei's soldiers and who were the fleeing people. In the face of the crowd as wide as the sea, what is the tiger and leopard cavalry chasing Liu Beijun? I'm afraid they'll be overwhelmed by this. They would definitely follow Cao Cao's orders and rush into the people to hunt down Liu Beijun, and once they entered the state of pursuit, they would definitely be scattered by the people. As soon as this happens, our opportunity comes. Let General Zhao Yun break the enemy's cavalry one by one in a squad situation. In the case of mental arithmetic and unintentional, even the tiger and leopard riding will suffer a big loss. ”

"Wouldn't that cause the people to suffer a lot of harm first?" Pang Tongyi suddenly collapsed when he heard the smile on his face, and he couldn't bear it.

"There's no way around that, we can save some of it. We are not immortals, and the extent of our strength is like that. Kong Ming said solemnly. This was the right reason, but after he said it, he felt that he was a little weak: is that the level of strength that can be achieved? That's naturally not true, if you only have 2,000 soldiers on your side, then you don't have to say anything about dominating the world. However, it is undoubtedly more correct to use more forces to prepare for the upcoming war than to save the people who were not under his rule, and to capture the other three counties of Jingnan with the autumn wind sweeping away the leaves. What Pang Tong said was of course kind, but such kindness did not benefit his side, so he could only give up. As I said before, being cold-blooded as a superior is necessary at some point.

"Alas......" Pang Tong sighed but stopped talking. For those insincere words in Kong Ming's words, how could he not hear them. He understands, understands everything clearly. Regarding this matter, he can't say that Kong Ming is wrong, because the whole situation is there, even if he is allowed to make his own choice, his choice is the same as Kong Ming. “…… This damn troubled times. He had no choice but to complain.

It's best that way. There was no doubt that everyone acquiesced to this. They left everything to Zhao Yun to be responsible, and apart from the above points, they didn't plan to add any restrictions to Zhao Yun at all. Soon this became a line of orders that could be issued downwards and quickly written on yellow papyrus.

In this way, a difficult problem was solved, and everyone smiled in unison. They breathed a sigh of relief, and then started the discussion on the next topic: "How to solve the remaining three counties in Jingnan?" ”

"Lingling has 1,000 soldiers, Guiyang has 2,000 soldiers, and Wuling has 5,000 soldiers. There are not many soldiers and horses in this place, and if there is time for us to solve it, it will naturally be very easy, but what we lack most now is time. We must give these places in the next month or two, and then quickly settle down and prepare for a decisive battle with Cao Cao. Li Sheng frowned and said what he was embarrassed about: "I have thought of many methods, but none of them can occupy these three places smoothly and quickly. I don't know what you guys think about this? ”

"It's easy." Hearing Li Sheng's question, Pang Tong suddenly laughed confidently.

"How so?" Li Sheng was puzzled, Kong Ming was smiling, Luo Zhao was curious, and the three of them all gathered their eyes on Pang Tong and listened carefully to his next speech.

"I don't know if there is any reason for Xiangyang to inform the lord of their decision?" In response to everyone's questions, Pang Tong did not answer directly, but opened his mouth to ask another question that did not seem to be very related.

"Over there in Xiangyang? I've heard that it's been a lot of trouble these days. The news of Liu Beijun's southward movement scared them...... Luo Zhao's elongated voice, the kind of mockery in his words, made it clear to several people present. Although most of the officials in Jingzhou now think that Li Sheng's side and Cai Mao and Zhang Yun's side have some distant relatives, and they must be very close, no one knows that there are people on Li Sheng's side who really look down on Cai Mao and Zhang Yun.

"So you haven't sent the messenger who told us yet? That's a bit of a problem. Pang Tong frowned slightly: "My plan can only play the best result with the arrival of those messengers." ”

"Oh?" Li Sheng squinted at Pang Tong's eyes, and asked with a smile, "What's going on?" Tell me about it. ”

"With the arrival of the envoy, the lord should justifiably ignore Jingzhou's orders, so as to capture the three counties of Jingnan with strong strength." As he spoke, Pang Tonggao stood up with a smile, stretched out his hand and twisted the short beard under his chin and said, "With the strength of the lord, as long as you send 10,000 troops, capturing these three places is not a matter at all. It's just that because of the urgency of time, we have to speed up our actions. Among the four counties in Jingnan, in addition to us, the most powerful one is Wuling Taishou Liu Qi, but Liu Qi is good with the main bus, and a few years ago, the lord sent Mr. Zhang Ji to help cure the stubborn disease on his body, and his heart can be said to be extremely oriented to the lord. As long as the lord can give him a reason to say the past, this Wuling county is not enough; As for the remaining two counties of Guiyang and Lingling, the lord could order General Huang Zhong to lead an army to camp in Qiyu County and falsely claim to attack Lingling. At this time, the lord could order General Zheng Ping to lead a naval army to pretend to be a merchant fleet to land in Bin County along the water injection and attack Bin County. Bin County is the county of Guiyang, and the soldiers and horses are subordinate to it. As long as Bin County is directly captured, then Guiyang will be in hand. In the end, he slowly walked towards Lingling with strong pressure, and Liu Du of Lingling would naturally be frightened and submitted. After all, he's not one to see the situation clearly. In this way, the three counties will naturally be decided. ”

"Good...... What a plan. Li Sheng stroked his palms and laughed, "I have Shiyuan, and the world has no worries!" Ha ha! After getting along with Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang for so long, Li Sheng has a deep understanding of the personalities of his two military advisors: for Zhuge Liang, he is so familiar with him that he can't be familiar with it, so he can say it when he should say it, and scold when he should scold; As for Pang Tong, perhaps because Pang Tong's own appearance is often sickly, his temperament is a little extreme and arrogant, so Li Sheng praises him most of the time, and uses Wanzhuan words to mention him, so that he must feel that he also respects him very much. Applying different attitudes to different people is indeed something that a monarch must master.

In a few words, he solved the two big problems in his heart, and Li Sheng had to admire the wisdom of Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong even more: "The dragon and the phoenix are the dragon and the phoenix, and this agility is much stronger than me, a person who even knows it to future generations." I didn't even think about anything, and it was actually solved in their mouths. The gap between this person and people is really so big. With a slight sigh, Li Sheng quickly regained his mood, and then asked Luo Zhao to copy the plan to capture the three counties and put it away on paper, and was ready to wait for the next time when it could be made public.

*****

At this time, Xiangyang was in a panic, and Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were all worried about the news that Liu Bei did not fight with Cao ** but sent troops south. At the moment, he didn't dare to be careless, but he urgently dispatched Wen Ping, the general who was still guarding Jiangling, to lead 3,000 people to ride into Xiangyang to rescue. Originally, it was said that 3,000 reinforcements were nothing compared to Liu Bei's 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers and horses, but when Wen Ping arrived at the entire Xiangyang garrison, he slightly packed up the increasingly panicked people in the city and unified the city defense of Xiangyang.

At this moment, Liu Bei's army was less than forty miles away from Xiangyang, and although the city of Xiangyang knew that Liu Bei was marching very slowly with the people, and he could only travel more than ten miles a day, he did not dare to have the slightest idea of going out of the city to meet the attack. Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, who established Liu Cong and actually held the real power in Jingzhou, may have a ghost in their hearts, and Liu Beijun, who was forced in the face, just ordered the city gate to be closed and defended the city. They even took back the reprimands they were supposed to send out to the city. Every day, he just stood at the head of the city and looked north, one to observe whether Liu Beijun had arrived in the city, and the other was eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Cao Cao's army.

Since there was no reprimand, they naturally didn't think that in one night, a group of several horsemen bypassed Xiangyang City and headed north, and went straight to the northwest.

This is the men and horses sent by Li Sheng in Changsha, who reported information to Wudang, and they rode more than ten times all the way, led by Zhou Rui and Ma Liang, all of whom were people with the main order, and all of them wanted to join Zhao Yun's command and contribute to Zhao Yun's mission. Li Sheng had already made this clear to them before they set off.

Everyone went all the way north, riding horses and whips and running for more than 500 miles day and night, but there was a person who was sleepy and haggard. Fortunately, there are only less than thirty miles left from Wudang, and everyone can finally breathe a sigh of relief, slow down the speed of progress, slowly breathe their bodies, and restore their spirits.

Wudang County is located in the north of Wudang Mountain, leaning on the south of the water, it was placed in the five years of Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, it has been 402 years to this day, and it is basically the county seat of the same age as the Han Dynasty. Wudang was originally a small county, and under the rule of Nanyang County, which belonged to it, it should have obeyed the orders of Wancheng, but because the original Wancheng was not in the hands of Liu Biao, and then Liu Biao handed over another large county under Nanyang County to Liu Bei to take care of, so that counties such as Wudang, Yin County, Zhuyang, Shandu and other counties have some unclear responsibilities and powers, and finally Liu Biao directly appointed the county commanders of these small places. That was six or seven years ago, since that year Liu Biao appointed these county orders under Nanyang, he has not made any inquiries about this place, anyway, these places are also poor and remote for Jingzhou, Liu Biao doesn't pay much attention to it, as long as they don't make any big problems in their respective places, they basically forget that these places exist - this undoubtedly gives Li Sheng, a person with a heart, a great opportunity, he took the opportunity to leave his brother-in-law Zhao Yun here as a county commander, Its purpose is to take advantage of the remoteness and northward direction of Wudang to secretly train a cavalry in Wudang, which has also been around for about six or seven years.

The group walked into Wudang County, and what they saw was the heartfelt smiles on the faces of the people. Although Wudang City is small and the people are so thousand, Zhao Yun still has some ability to govern this place in an orderly manner, so that the people of Hexian County can live in this troubled world steadily. This is a very basic purpose, but it is such a purpose, not many people can achieve it in this troubled world, and Zhao Yun has achieved it, which shows that he does have some ability. Although, there are also many Li Sheng sent officials to contribute to this ability.

Everyone came to the gate of the county office, and someone went in to report, and after a while, they saw Zhao Yun walking out of the hall of the county government with a big smile: "Ah Rui, how can Ji Chang be you?" This was a surprise to me. I haven't seen Arrow for a few years, but he has grown a lot taller, and Ji Chang is also more stylish, I really don't know how many girls in Changsha want to be fallen for you! Perhaps because he suddenly saw an acquaintance, to Zhou Rui and Ma Liang's surprise, Zhao Yun's mouth also became flowery.

"Well said, well said." The older Ma Liang replied with a smile on his face. As a man and from a large family, he is not afraid of as many as three or five wives and concubines in his room, at least before he is about to get up and come to this Wudang, he has just accepted his fifth concubine.

Ma Liang's side was full of flowers, but Zhou Rui's side seemed a little restrained. Among the brothers who married Li Sheng when he was a child, he is the only one who has not yet married. Others, such as Song De, got married four years ago, and last year they took a new concubine, and his brother Zhou Li also married a wife two years ago. Only the youngest of his four brothers, and the most good-looking one, but he is about twenty-four years old and still single, becoming the hot "Diamond King Fifth Brother" in Changsha City. Originally, Li Sheng, Song De, Zhou Li and even Kong Ming and others were very enthusiastic to help him introduce a few ladies to him, but he was very shy, and when he talked about this matter, his face was always flushed, and he couldn't tell why. Even if he is asked by his "teacher" Zhao Yun right now, this is the case.

"Huh!" In the face of the different reactions of the two, Zhao Yun just smiled, but without saying much, he led them to the back of his lobby and to his study. Regarding the arrival of Zhou Rui and Ma Liang, Zhao Yun understood that his lord Li Sheng had an order to be issued. Although he knew that the order that Li Sheng was about to issue was to do something specific to him, but in connection with the recent events in Xiangyang, Zhao Yunbian guessed that his next task must be related to Cao Cao, who was carrying out the southern expedition.

"Are you going to let me go south?" When everyone sat down together, Zhao Yun couldn't wait to ask.

"Exactly." Ma Liang nodded affirmatively, stretched out his hand and took out a piece of letter from his arms and handed it to Zhao Yun: "The lord said that this battle is completely based on you, as long as you can achieve the goal in the end." As for the two of us, the lord has ordered the two of us to join you directly and obey your orders. ”

"Oh?" Zhao Yun raised his eyebrows slightly, and spread out the letter in his hand to read it. He watched very carefully, and even the expression on his face changed over time. When everything was finished and it was time to stop, Zhao Yun stood up from his position impulsively and ordered loudly: "Everyone, go to the county government to gather." ”