Pang Tong's words made Liu Ba speechless.

Liu Feng was deeply touched by Pang Tong's words, and he was not wrong at all.

For the weak Liu Feng, Cao Ying is the strong, Sun Quan is the strong, Liu Bei is the strong, and even Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu's generation are much stronger than themselves.

Liu Feng also wants to develop his strength smoothly without offending the princes, but in fact, can Liu Feng do it?

No way!

Stuck in that place in Changsha, he had no choice but to seize Jingzhou. And Jingzhou is the land of four wars, as long as he does something to Jingzhou, it will inevitably violate the interests of the powerful from all walks of life.

Fang today, the north has been occupied by Cao Ying, half of the south of the Yangtze River has also been swallowed by Sun Quan, the strong are non-stop swallowing the only remaining weak, the whole world is about to be carved up by the strong, and now this era is not like more than ten years ago, when the princes were fighting, so that Liu Feng had enough time to expand.

As the weakest of the princes, Liu Feng has no time to slow down his development, he must take advantage of this God-given opportunity to make a qualitative leap in his strength as much as possible, in order to achieve this goal, even if he is facing the current unfavorable situation, he will not hesitate.

"Shi Yuan is right, if you don't take this opportunity to take Xiangyang, it will be a hundred times more difficult to take it in the future, and I have never regretted this decision at the beginning."

Liu Feng's expression was flat, and his tone was calm to show his attitude, although he would feel embarrassed by saying this, but in such a critical period, Liu Feng must firmly establish his authority as a leader, and he will not allow anyone to question his decision-making ability.

As soon as these words came out, Liu Ba's face suddenly changed slightly, and there was a little embarrassment and displeasure in his expression, but Liu Feng's words were already like this, so he naturally didn't dare to say anything about this matter.

"That being the case, then we should calm down now and think about some countermeasures, how to deal with the pressure of the two armies."

Liu Ba still understands the general situation after all, Liu Feng has already expressed his position, and he immediately turned his mind to the overall situation.

Pang Tong originally had a somewhat cold expression, but because of the change in Liu Ba's attitude, he became calm and light at this time, and he stroked his short beard and said: "Although Cao Ying and Sun Quan both have the potential to overwhelm the realm with a large army, the essence of these two people is still very different. As far as Sun Quan is concerned, Cao Ying is still his number one enemy after all, and I think that Sun Quan still has a chance to reconcile on this side. ”

Pang Tong's analysis, Liu Feng also deeply agreed, he knew very well that Sun Quan was easy to be tempted by the small profits in front of him, so as to easily change the major policies and national policies.

Liu Feng hated Sun Quan very much, and destroying Sun Quan was the middle and last part of his grand cause, but now, the policy of Donghe Sun Wu is still extremely necessary.

"Cao Ying previously let Jingzhou not attack, but he was afraid that the attack would become more urgent, but urged us to join forces to resist Xiangyang, and now although Xiangyang is lost, I think that he will only raise troops to the south to take advantage of the fire when he sees that we and Sun Quan have the intention of going to war. I think it's better to send Guan Yu's head, as well as Cao Ren, to Sun Quan, so that Cao Ying will think that everything we do is under Sun Quan's instructions, and Sun Quan's army is also supporting us when it comes west. ”

A word woke up Liu Feng, and he said happily: "Sir's strategy, if we can deceive Cao Ying and not dare to act rashly, as long as we can buy enough time, we can concentrate on resolving the entanglement with Sun Quan and 'break each of these two threats'." ”

On the same day, Liu Feng used Pang Tong's strategy to put Guan Yu's head in a wooden box, and together with Cao Ren, who had his tongue cut, down the river and sent it to Sun Quan.

……………… Xu Du.

A day earlier, Cao Ying's army had arrived in the empire's capital.

Although most of the power of the empire had been transferred to Yecheng in Jizhou, the political significance of Xudu as the nominal capital of the Han Dynasty could not be ignored.

Cao Ying planned to stay in Xudu for a few days, so that the soldiers who had worked hard in Huainan for nearly half a year could relax and recuperate, and wait until after receiving the news of Cao Ren's return to Xiangyang, and then watch the development of the situation in Jingzhou in Xudu before making plans.

In the Prime Minister's Mansion, Cao Ying was a group of ministers.

Although the battle of Huainan was in vain, Cao Ying's good mood was not affected.

The breaking of the balance in Jingzhou made him see the signs of cannibalism among the heroes of Jiangnan.

On the right side of Long, Xia Yuanyuan's good news was spread frequently, he not only broke Ma Chao and forced him to surrender to Zhang Lu in the south, but also exterminated the anti-king Song Jian, who was entrenched in Xiliang and had been divided for more than 30 years.

All kinds of good news are enough to offset Huainan's futility. On the banquet, Cao Ying, who was very interested, even wrote a poem and a song, which pushed the atmosphere of the whole banquet to the **.

In the cheers of the ministers, an old minister with white hair walked to the room and bowed his hand to Cao Ying, who was seated, and said: "The prime minister is a martial artist, and his merits have never been seen before, and there is no one who has come after. ”

Cao Ying, who was drunk for three points, heard this, looked down, and saw that the person who spoke at the bottom of the stairs was the servant Zhonghuaxin.

An imperceptible smile flashed on Cao Ying's face, but then he laughed and said, "Hua Shizhong, I see that you have drunk too much wine, why did you suddenly start talking nonsense." ”

As soon as the words fell, another person followed, standing side by side with Hua Yun, and also arched his hand: "Hua Shizhong's words are exactly the intentions of our ministers. The prime minister fought for the Han Dynasty to conquer the east and west, swept away countless rebellious thieves, and the merit of Zhongxing was comparable to Guangwu, the ministers of the government and the opposition, and all the people in the world all hoped that the prime minister could be promoted to the public in order to appease Li Shu's heart. ”

At this time, the person who spoke was Wang Lang, the counselor.

These two people are famous people all over the world, and they are highly respected in the government and the opposition, and the two of them stood up like this and persuaded them to enter, and the ministers at the banquet immediately seemed to explode into a pot, and they followed suit and persuaded one after another.

Cao Ying stroked his short beard in his hand, his expression was proud, but a pair of eagle eyes were secretly scanning the ministers in the banquet.

The ministers of this banquet are all Cao Ying's confidants, or from a political point of view, they have always stood firmly on Cao Ying's side, to be precise, they are all "their own people" in Cao Ying's eyes.

Almost all of the ministers at the banquet were scrambling to persuade them, but only one person sat still, only bowing his head and drinking silently.

That person is Xun Yu.

On the face that was originally proud, a trace of gloom immediately flashed.

Although Cao Ying has a monopoly on power, but when he encounters such a thing as persuasion, he can't make his own opinions, and is about to make a modest resignation to show that his merits dare not occupy this big position, when suddenly, an inner servant hurriedly entered and reported the latest news from Xiangyang to Cao Ying in front of the ministers.

A piece of news that shocked everyone.

Cao Ren, the general of Zhengnan, was defeated and captured, and Xiangyang had fallen into the hands of Liu Feng.

was persuaded by the ministers to advance to a big ** wine banquet, and fell into a death-like silence in an instant.

Many people thought that they had drunk too much, and their ears were confused and they didn't hear clearly, it was Cao Zixiao, the general of Zhengnan, known as the general of ghosts and gods, how could he be captured by a second-rate small prince like Liu Feng, this is even more ridiculous than a big joke.

However, when the chamberlain trembled and repeated the bad news loudly again, everyone was really stunned this time.

"Alright, I know, let's go down."

Cao Yingping retired from the chamberlain, his expression was still full of spring breeze, as if nothing had happened, he raised his glass and smiled: "Come on, come on, let's continue to drink and compose poems, it must have been ruined by a trivial matter." ”

Xiangyang fell, the first general of the Cao family was captured, in the eyes of many people, this is already a big event when the sky falls, but they didn't expect that Cao Ying could handle it so calmly.

In addition to sighing, the ministers could only accompany the smiling faces and continue to drink, but after all, there was something in their hearts, and no one mentioned this persuasion again.

A feast, ending in a subtle "cheerful" atmosphere.

The next day, Cao Ying ordered the army to march immediately and march towards Xiangyang day and night.

According to Jia Xu's original strategy, Cao Ying originally wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, watch Liu Feng and Sun Quan tear their faces for Jingzhou, and then sit on the profit of the fisherman.

But Jia Xu's strategy was based on the premise that Cao Ren withdrew his troops and Xiangyang, the southward base that could overlook Jingzhou, was in his own hands.

Now that such an astonishing change has occurred, the fall of Xiangyang not only means that Cao Ying has lost his stronghold that can go south to Jiangling at any time, but also Nanyang and Xudu, in turn, are also exposed to Liu Feng's troops, which Cao Ying cannot tolerate.

In any case, Xiangyang must be recaptured.

An army of more than 100,000 foot cavalry marched day and night, and in March of that year, the army arrived in the territory of Xinye.

Prior to this, Jiangxia's Wenpin heard that Cao Ren's army was defeated and Xiangyang fell, and he was afraid that the way back would be cut off, so he had to give up the Anlu line and lead the army to retreat to Xinye. After Wen Ping retired from the army, the Wu people took the opportunity to march north and pocket the entire Jiangxia County.

………… Xiakou.

In the afternoon, the 40,000-strong army of Eastern Wu arrived at Xiakou.

In the big tent of the Chinese army in Shuizhai, Sun Quan summoned the generals of the western front, including Lu Su, who were stationed on the front line of Jingzhou, and announced to them the decision to prepare for war against Liu Feng and seize Jingzhou by force.

"Lord, I recently heard that Cao Ying has personally led the army to Xinye, and there is a great tendency to go south again, Liu and Sun's two families, if they fight each other at this time, Su is afraid that Cao Ying will sit and reap the benefits."

As a staunch anti-Cao faction, Lu Su's thinking is still changing rapidly, whether Liu Bei is in charge of Jingzhou or Liu Feng is in charge, in short, in his opinion, the basic policy of the Sun-Liu alliance cannot be changed.

Moreover, knowing that Sun Quan was unhappy with his previous help to Liu Feng, the more he had to unswervingly advocate an alliance with Liu Feng, otherwise, if he changed to the main battle, it would be tantamount to denying his previous practice.

Lu Su couldn't slap himself in the face, he had no choice.

(To be continued)