【】

Chengdu in Shuzhong

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang sat together and listened carefully to Liu Feng's report, next to a veteran with white hair and hair, who went north shirtless in the winter and carried thorns, but his expression was depressed and his face was full of frustration

There is no doubt that this veteran is Huang Zhong, who returned from the defeat in Hanzhong, and as for Fa Zheng, he is now recuperating in the mansion

I only listened to Liu Feng's chatter, and finally concluded: "...... The battle situation in Hanzhong was like this, and when the child returned, he heard that Zhang Liao had captured Nanzheng, and Zhang Lu had asked the Han thief Zhang Liao to surrender."

Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang looked at each other with gloomy faces, and after listening to each other, they didn't know what to say, and the surrounding atmosphere was unusually depressed

Huang Zhong looked guilty, he was afraid that the narrative would not be clear, so he asked Liu Feng to state the battle situation on his behalf, and when Liu Feng finished reporting the situation, Huang Zhong knelt down in shame and said: "The lord and the army will be guilty, and the lord and the army will entrust this expedition to Hanzhong, and the loss of the army will be the general, and the defeat of Hanzhong will all be on one of the guilty, please ask the lord to deal with the guilty general in accordance with military law."

Huang Zhong said this, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang woke up, Liu Bei hurriedly stepped forward to help Huang Zhong, and said comfortingly: "What to deal with, the old general has done his best, what is there to deal with, Zhang Liao's ability to deal with the thief is lonely, and he doesn't know that Mo said that you are alone, and you may not be able to please it in person," said a sigh, and after dealing with Wen Yuan for so many years, Liu Bei was completely frightened by Wen Yuan

Zhuge Liang also shook his head and sighed: "This is the time of the day, the human ......."

Liu Bei said: "The old general will go back and take care of his body, and he will have to rely on the old general in the future."

Sending Huang Zhong away, Liu Feng sent Liu Feng out again, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang didn't speak for a long time, sighed, looked at each other for a while, and occasionally let out a reluctant wry smile

Finally, Zhuge Liang broke the silence and said: "The lord Hanzhong has now all the things for Zhang Liao, and the next move of this thief must be in the direction of our Xichuan, we must step up preparations......"

Liu Bei's body shook and he lifted his spirit and said: "The military advisor said directly, how should we deal with Zhang Liao next?"

Zhuge Liang had forgotten the signature action of shaking the folding fan, nodded with a wry smile: "Zhang Liao has Hanzhong, and then he must be plotting against my Xichuan land, he is now gathering more than 200,000 male soldiers and Hanzhong is unwilling to retreat, just to take advantage of the situation to attack Xichuan in one go."

"Xichuan is already the foundation of an isolated body...... How could he easily take away the lonely ...... I just fight for this old life, and I will never let Zhang Liao's husband take away Xichuan," Liu Bei slapped the table and said angrily, Xichuan is the country of abundance, it is a rare place in the late Han Dynasty that has not been devastated by war, with a population of more than one million, and thousands of miles of fertile fields, and what is even more rare is that the agricultural production here can already be harvested in two seasons a year, such a strong foundation is richer than Jingzhou after several wars, Liu Bei did not hesitate to regard this place as the foundation for the achievement of Huangtu hegemony as soon as he came here

It's just that Liu Bei's words are obviously a little unconfident, Zhang Liao seems to be a natural nemesis in his heart, Xuzhou, Nanyang, Hanzhong...... Pieces of territory coveted by Liu Bei were forcibly taken from his mouth by Wen Yuan again and again, and every time Liu Bei hated it, his teeth itched, but he was helpless and powerless

Thinking of the frustration, Liu Bei sighed helplessly again, and set his eyes on Zhuge Liang, he had no idea at all now, and he could only rely on Zhuge Liang's wisdom

Zhuge Liang felt the heavy pressure on his shoulders and said solemnly: "The lord doesn't have to worry about it for the time being, it is already winter, Zhang Liao wants to raise troops again, and it is also after the spring of the next year, in between, we still have a few months to prepare, this time Zhang Liao went out to fight in Hanzhong, there are more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, and now Zhang Lu's troops will be at least more than 300,000 by then, and our army Huang Zhongxin has lost a lot of soldiers and horses, leaving only 1230,000, although we are on the defensive, only need to be in Jiameng Pass, Sword Pavilion is just hoarding heavy troops in these dangerous places, but according to the advantages of the Jin army's combat power, as well as those powerful siege weapons, we want to make Zhang Liao return in vain, and the strength will be at least more than 200,000."

"200,000" Liu Bei was shocked when he heard this, you must know that the total population of the entire Xichuan is only less than 1.5 million at this time, Liu Bei is not without experience in managing places, such a ratio of soldiers and civilians as 1:10 today is almost the limit that the government can bear, and Zhuge Liang wants to garrison 200,000 troops in Xichuan, this ratio is even more terrifyingly high

"Don't be surprised, my lord, I have carefully calculated, although Xichuan only has a population of 1.5 million, but it may not be able to support 200,000 soldiers, our Xichuan people, Yincheng is rich in Shu brocade, and can harvest two crops of rice a year, it is impossible to change it in any place today, only we Xichuan can."

Liu Bei's face softened a little when he heard this, as Zhuge Liang said, if it weren't for Xichuan's unique own conditions, in any place today, he would not want to use such a small population base to feed so many soldiers and horses

It's just that Liu Bei didn't take into account that even Zhuge Liang, who has always been good at using political wisdom and diplomatic skills as his signboard, had to propose to recruit more soldiers at this time, and what does this mean

can be regarded as agreeing with Zhuge Liang's statement, but immediately after Liu Bei's question, there are so many people registered in Sichuan, and the number of people who are recruiting seventy or eighty thousand enlisted people is not further reduced, you must know that these adult Dingkou are the main force engaged in production

For this, Zhuge Liang has already thought of countermeasures, this year has been pacifying the rebellion in Sichuan, Zhuge Liang has subdued many barbarian tribes, although the largest southern barbarian tribe has not been able to pacify, but it is enough to use the barbarians who have been surrendered to form a 50,000-strong army, and the name Zhuge Liang has already thought of it, so it is called "Wudang Flying Army"

Zhuge Liang hoped that this army could be as unpopular as his name, and of course it was best to block Zhang Liao's offensive

The expansion of armaments and warfare is only an internal adjustment and strengthening, Zhuge Liang is not a top military strategist, internal affairs and diplomacy are his strengths, since even the internal increase of troops has been thought of by him, and in terms of diplomacy, how can he not act

Therefore, Zhuge Liang followed up and proposed a second strategy, and asked Wu to send troops to contain Zhang Liao from the east

Zhuge Liang means: the capture of Hanzhong, Zhang Liao's momentum will inevitably be raised to a new intensity, although Liu Bei is the first to bear the brunt, Sun Quan is not without influence, now as long as you have a little knowledge, you can see that Zhang Liao's next step must be to take advantage of the situation to go south to conquer Xichuan, and if Xichuan is broken again, whether it is Jingzhou or Jiangdong, the geographical advantage will be in an irreversible disadvantage, when the Jin army will go south along the river, where it will be unstoppable!

Therefore, although the Sun and Liu families have always had some contradictions on the issue of Jingzhou, and some quarrels have broken out from time to time over the ownership of one or two counties, but great disaster is coming, Zhuge Liang believes that Sun Quan has the vision to see the current difficult situation

In fact, their opponent Zhang Liao moved too fast, and he didn't give a chance to let the hidden contradictions between the two families slowly ferment, and the current situation is that the Sun and Liu families have to hug each other tightly

Let Sun Quan share some of the pressure, this method is good, Liu Bei smiled with relief when he heard it, and he didn't know whether he really hoped that Sun Quan could make achievements on the Eastern Front, or wanted Sun Quan to also have some consumption, in short, Liu Bei immediately sent Deng Zhi to Jiangdong, and even did not bring these substantive negotiation conditions for a city and a place, but promised to give Sun Quan some cloth and military rations