Three days after the feast, Liu Bei convened the civil and military ministers to discuss the plan for Hanzhong.

After everyone gathered, Liu Bei circulated a letter sent by Zhang Lu's envoy to everyone, and said: "Everyone take a look, Zhang Lu sent someone to ask me for half of the land in Brazil County, I don't know what you think." ”

Because of Fang Shao's plan before, Pang Xi, who was too shou of Brazil, was afraid of Zhang Lu's offensive, and returned the whole county to obedience, Liu Bei took the opportunity to order Zhang Fei, Wu Lan and others to lead 10,000 soldiers and horses to take over Brazil, and Zhang Lu spent half a day, but only got a few counties in Bazhong, he was unhappy, but sent people to come, and wanted to divide Brazil County according to the secret agreement in advance.

After reading Zhang Lu's letter, Pang Tong smiled disdainfully: "This Zhang Lu is really interesting, he fell for our plan, not only is he still in the dark, but he also sent someone to ask for it, it's really funny." ”

Fa Zheng also smiled and said: "Since Zhang Lu is not satisfied, then the lord will ask for his surname to give him a big gift, a letter of declaration of war is very suitable." ”

Fa Zheng's attitude showed that he was ready to send troops to capture Hanzhong, or rather, for him, this day had been long-awaited.

At that time, Fa Zheng and other Guan Longshi people were very popular in Shu, but Zhang Lu's betrayal cut off the passage for Guan Longshi people to enter Yizhou in the south, and they could not get the supplement of talents from their hometowns, which is also the reason why the status of Guan Longshi people in Shu is declining.

Now that Liu Bei has entered Shu, he has greatly promoted and reused them, and the Guanlongshi people have been in the limelight for a while, but Fa Zheng knows very well that only by capturing Hanzhong as soon as possible, opening up the road to the north, and then returning to his Guanlong hometown, in this way, can they, the Guanlongshi people, really get a base of their own, and can they compete with the Jingxiangshi people in Liu Bei's group.

This is also the main reason why Fa Zheng did not approve of Liu Bei's dispatch of troops to Jingzhou before, but fortunately, the battle in Jingzhou did not drag on for too long, as it has come today, it is an excellent moment to capture Hanzhong and realize his first strategic idea of fighting back to his hometown.

Therefore, without Zhuge Liang and others doing work, the Guan Longshi led by Fa Zheng took the brunt of actively promoting the battle of Hanzhong, and even Li Yan, who was far away in Nanzhong, also wrote to Liu Bei not long ago to persuade him to attack Hanzhong as soon as possible.

Seeing that Fa Zheng had taken the lead in expressing his position, Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "It seems that you are all bound to win Hanzhong, then the lord, we might as well plan and take advantage of the fact that Zhang Lu has no embankment to quickly raise troops to take Hanzhong in the north." ”

Liu Bei is still on the verge of victory in the battle of Jingzhou at the moment, and in his eyes, he has long been gearing up, waiting to take this person to the knife, so he said: "Okay, since you all have no objections, then the matter of attacking Hanzhong is so decided, but the specific details of how to enter the army should be discussed carefully." ”

Before Liu Bei's words fell, Fa Zheng said proudly: "Since the lord has made up his mind, how to capture Hanzhong is not a problem, and he has already drawn up a set of safe strategies for the lord to enter the army." ”

Fa Zheng has lived in Shu for a long time, and he used troops in a dangerous place like Shudi, even if Pang Tong and others had a strategy, but they also had to give way to Fa Zheng, who was familiar with geography. Liu Bei said excitedly: "It turns out that Xiaozhi has long been confident, why not come quickly." ”

Fa Zheng then ordered the guards to take a long scroll from outside the hall, and the exhibition will be displayed on the wall, it turned out to be a map drawn in detail, Fa Zheng pointed to the map and said: "This map of the topography of Hanzhong is drawn by the work of several years, and it is drawn in detail all kinds of dangers in Hanzhong, and it has been hidden for many years, and now it is finally useful." ”

Then, Fa Zheng then told the geography of Hanzhong.

The land of Hanzhong is located between Guanzhong and Shudi, Qinling is the southern barrier of Guanzhong, and the Daba Mountain Range is the northern barrier of Sichuan, and Hanzhong is sandwiched between Qinling and Daba Mountain.

In terms of terrain, Guanzhong is the upper reaches of the north, while Shu is the upper reaches of the south, as the middle ground between the two upstream regions, the temporary gains and losses of the Hanzhong region are enough to have a decisive impact on the overall situation.

Between the Qinling Mountains, there are three valley roads connecting Hanzhong and Guanzhong.

One of them is the Bao slope road, its south mouth is the Bao Valley, the north is the slope valley, the total length from the road is nearly 500 miles, mainly along the Bao Shui and the inclined water river valley, the river valley is deep and dangerous and unfathomable, the walls on both sides stand ten thousand blades, it is extremely difficult to pass, so the plank road in the past dynasties is in the Bao slope.

The second road is called Fu Luo Road, the south entrance is Fu Valley, the north mouth is Luo Valley, the total length is more than 400 li, which crosses a section of the main peak of the Qinling Mountains, the winding mountain road twists and turns for nearly 80 miles, known as 84 plates, and the march is very easy to be blocked.

This third road is the famous "Meridian Road" in history, its south entrance is called Wugu, the north entrance is called Zigu, located in the south of Chang'an City 100 miles, the valley road is nearly 700 miles long.

Between Hanzhong and Yizhou, there are two passages. One of them is the Golden Bull Road, this road starts from Mianxian County in the north, reaches the Sword Pavilion Xiongguan in the south, and crosses the highest Bee Chaotian Ridge in the middle. Micang Road is named after the Rice Cang Mountain, which follows the mountain range zigzag from Nanzheng to the south, and can enter Bazhong.

These five roads connect the north and south of Hanzhong, and the east and west ends of the Hanzhong Basin have Yangping Pass in the west and Jinshu in the east, all of which are famous dangerous passes in the world, which are extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack.

There is also a road, called Chencang Road, this road from Chang'an along the Weishui west to Chencang, over the west end of the Qinling Mountains, to the southwest through the Sanguan, along the north section of the Jialing River down, through Hechi, Wuxing, Yangping Pass, Baishui Pass, to Jiameng Pass and Jinniu Road confluence into Shu.

Fa Zheng pointed to the west end of the map and said: "My lord, please see, these golden bulls and rice warehouses are two roads, twists and turns, if these two roads are used as the main direction of attack, it is extremely difficult to transport grain, Zhang Lu only needs to set up layers of passes along the way, and sit back and watch our army's food run out." Therefore, when our army captured Hanzhong this time, it should take the old road of Chencang, go out from Baishui Pass, and go straight to Yangping Pass in the west of Hanzhong. As soon as Yangping Pass is broken, Hanzhong can be defended again, and our army can go deep into the hinterland of Hanzhong and go straight to Nanzheng, and Zhang Lu will only have one way to choose from lifting the city and descending. ”

Fa Zheng sprinkled his words, and only convinced everyone present, even Pang Tong couldn't help but say: "Xiaozhi can plan all the key terrains in Hanzhong in such detail, it really makes me ashamed." The lord and the lord all thought that the plan of filial piety was feasible. ”

"Not bad, not bad, filial piety is feasible." Zhuge Liang didn't make any lofty comments, but just smiled and shook his fan in agreement.

Obviously, in terms of the strategy of using troops, Pang Tong has more right to speak, and now even Pang Tong is so agreed, Liu Bei said: "Since you all think it is feasible, then this time we will enter the army, let's put the main direction of attack in this Yangping Pass." ”

When everyone was hotly discussed, Fang Shao was silent, staring at the three words "Yangping Pass" on the map and pondering.

Liu Bei saw that he seemed to have something on his mind, so he asked: "Zhongzheng, seeing that you are preoccupied, could it be that you have objections to the strategy of filial piety?" ”

Fang Shao said: "Attacking Yangping Pass is certainly a shortcut to Hanzhong, and Shao also thinks deeply that it is a strategy of filial piety. However, Shao had heard that the terrain around the Yangping Pass was treacherous, and the mountains in the north and south of the pass were unattainable, and the distance between them was less than ten miles. In such a narrow area, although our army is numerous, it cannot be deployed, and Zhang Lu only needs to send a general, more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and build a stone city between the mountains, but I am afraid that our army will be difficult to overcome. ”

Fang Shao's worries are not unreasonable, in the history of that year, when Cao Ying captured Hanzhong, he also chose to take the Chencang Road to attack Yangping Pass, and as a result, more than 100,000 troops could not help Zhang Wei District 10,000 people, if it were not for the final withdrawal of the army, an army strayed into the enemy village, so that the enemy army abandoned the pass in panic, only afraid that with Cao Ying's wisdom, facing Yangping Xiongguan can only sigh.

Later, when Liu Bei captured Hanzhong, he also chose Yangping Pass, and the result was that he lost countless soldiers in front of the pass and could not be defeated, although if it was not a surprise plan to kill Xiahou Yuan, the number of victories and defeats is not known.

But Fa Zheng smiled and said: "Although Yangping Pass is dangerous, but Zhongzheng, have you forgotten the Shenwei Cannon you invented?" With this cannon to help the war, it will not be a problem to capture the fortress. ”

The reason for Fa Zheng's self-confidence turned out to be in the divine power cannon invented by Fang Shao.

However, the Shenwei cannon invented by Fang Shao at the beginning was only used for water warfare, so the model was light, and this kind of cannon could attack wooden warships, if it was easy to break through the stone city built of solid stones, this power was only a little worse.

In this case, it is necessary to change the Shenwei cannon to a heavy one, and it is really not easy for such a behemoth to be dragged over the mountains and mountains to the bottom of Yangping Pass, and it is also more time-consuming to manufacture this heavy Shenwei cannon, and the terrain in front of Yangping Pass is narrow, why is such a behemoth densely placed...... In short, the Shenwei Cannon is certainly a heavy firepower weapon, but how useful it can be in the battle to capture Hanzhong, Fang Shao is not very optimistic.

It's just that now that everyone is full of confidence, Fang Shao can't say much, so as not to sweep away everyone's interest, and the specific treatment should be used, only when the battle is coming.

So, on this day, Liu Bei set a strategy to capture Hanzhong, on this day in early October, Liu Bei personally led an army of 80,000 people, with Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Liu Feng as generals, with Fa Zheng, Fang Shao as strategists, set off from Chengdu, quietly north.

At the same time, Pang Tong also led a force of 5,000 troops and horses to Pasir County to join Zhang Fei, and assisted Zhang Fei to attack Bazhong as a partial division, attacking the southern part of Hanzhong through Micang Road to contain Zhang Lu's army.

And just one day before Liu Bei's army sent out, an envoy sent by Chengdu had just arrived in Nanzheng and presented the letter that Liu Bei had used to confuse Zhang Lu.

In Liu Bei's letter, he said nothing more than some compliments and admiration for Zhang Lu, and expressed his willingness to divide Brazil County with him equally according to the previous agreement.

Zhang Lu was happy in his heart, so he showed the letter to the ministers, and said proudly: "You all said that Liu Xuande would break his promise, look at it, the letters have made it very clear that Brazil County is still divided equally with me." ”

Most of the civil and military ministers were complacent about finding another piece of land, but only one of them frowned and said: "The lord is not too happy, I thought that there must be fraud in Liu Bei's letter!" ”

(To be continued)