Zhuge Liang didn't stand on Pang Tong's side, but he didn't stand on Fazheng's side either, but made a compromise.

Liu Bei said: "How do you take one of them?" ”

Zhuge Liang Yao pointed to the east and said: "As Xiaozhi said, Sun Quan's attack on Jingzhou this time is nothing more than stealing chickens and becoming angry. But as Shiyuan said, the Eastern Wu army pressed the border, if the lord did not raise the troops of Yizhou to help the east, I am afraid that Yunchang will be difficult for them to resist, if Jingzhou is lost, then the lord has Jing Yi, and the strategy of taking Yongliang in the north will not be abandoned. ”

Zhuge Liang said this clearly, in the general strategy of taking the Central Plains, he still adhered to the original Longzhong policy, as for the so-called "two worlds" that arose when Pang was unified, Zhuge Liang did not take it seriously.

Liu Bei nodded slightly, and said: "According to the opinion of the military division, I still personally led the army to the east to aid Jingzhou, but the situation has reached such a point, although I don't want to fight to break the net, but Sun Quan may not, I am afraid that it will be difficult not to let Cao Ying make a profit." ”

Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "Didn't the lord forget what Zhongzheng analyzed before leaving?" ”

Liu Bei looked stunned, obviously forgetting it.

Zhuge Liang said slowly: "In fact, the lord led the army to Jingzhou, all he had to do was to defend the danger, avoid it without fighting, and confront Sun Quan without fighting." As long as it drags on for a few months, after Cao Ying quells the Hebei rebellion, he will inevitably seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go south. On the Yizhou side, Zhang Lu blocked it in the north, and Ma Chao in Liangzhou in the west was undecided, and Cao Ying could not attack. As for Nanjun, Cao Ying's navy was incompetent, so naturally he didn't dare to act rashly. Moreover, Jingzhou is a place of war, even if Cao Ying has a change, the lord can calmly and quickly deploy troops and horses from the front line to support. Therefore, Cao Ying's only chance was to take the opportunity to come out of Hefei, take advantage of Sun Quan's army to go to the country, attack Lujiang County in the south, and then forcibly cross the Yangtze River and take Jianye directly. ”

Zhuge Liang said a word, but he clearly analyzed the situation of Cao Ying's future troops, and only nodded his head again and again to show his admiration.

At this time, Pang Tong couldn't sit still, but he didn't want Zhuge Liang to steal the limelight alone, so he hurriedly said: "As soon as Jianye loses, Sun Quan will be cut off from his foundation, so once he hears the news of Cao Ying's southward departure, he will inevitably take the initiative to seek peace with the lord desperately." At that time, the lord can sit on the ground and raise the price, not only can write off the debt borrowed from Jingzhou, but also force Sun Quan to cede Hanchang and Nanjiang Xia County, so that the entire southern Jingzhou will be owned by the lord, and the eastern front will be able to sit back and relax. ”

After listening to Pang Tong's words, Liu Bei decided to score seven points, and said: "In this way, Shiyuan, you still agree with the original strategy of taking Yongliang from the north?" ”

The prospect that Zhuge Liang can analyze, Pang Tong can naturally deduce that the so-called "two worlds" plan before is just the result of his excitement, and he is just bold.

At that moment, Pang Tong smiled and said: "From east to west, it is natural to protect half of the Yangtze River, but the defense line of the Yangtze River for thousands of miles needs to be garrisoned everywhere, so it is not conducive to concentrating troops on the Northern Expedition. ”

Overall, Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang's strategies are still the same, and whether they can send troops smoothly and harmoniously in the next step depends on the right attitude.

"Xiaozhi, it seems that I have to send troops to Jingzhou this time, I don't know what Xiaozhi thinks?"

Liu Bei used such a combination of sentences to ask Fa Zheng, which is obviously to tell you first, whether you approve of Fa Zheng or not, this time I Liu Bei must send troops.

At this moment, Fazheng represents not only the Dongzhou scholars, but the interests of the Yizhou group relative to the Jingzhou scholars. Although a Yizhou army led by Huang Zhong went to Jingzhou before, after all, the number was limited, and they still went to fight for merit. But at present, Liu Bei is going to do his best in Yizhou, which has at least seventy or eighty thousand people, and this time it will undoubtedly affect the interests of more people, and Fa Zheng has to think more.

Fa Zheng pondered for a long time before he spoke: "If the overall situation is the most important, it is not impossible for the lord to start the Yizhou army to the east, but I just think that the premise of sending troops from himself can only be to force Sun Quan for the purpose, and the blood of the soldiers must not be wasted in fighting with the Wu people, even if these soldiers want to die in battle, they should die in the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains and restore the battlefield of the Han Dynasty." ”

Fa Zheng's attitude is also clear, that is, he is in favor of sending troops, but the condition is that it is okay to bluff, but he can't really use the lives of their Yizhou sons to fight for Jingzhou.

As soon as Fa Zheng's words came out, everyone made up their minds, and Liu Bei said: "The words of filial piety coincide with the plan of the two military advisors, and I will naturally keep it in mind." Since you are all in favor of sending troops, then without further ado, mobilize the whole state from today, and after ten days, I will personally lead the army to the east. ”

Ten days later, Liu Bei's army set off as scheduled, which was an army of 80,000 people with Fa Zheng and Pang Tong as the masterminds, Zhang Ren, Fei Guan and Liu Feng as generals. This is also the largest army that Liu Bei has commanded in his life, and after more than ten years of hard work, Liu Bei can finally enjoy the pleasure of appreciating his army walking in the sky.

And Liu Bei's army in the east, whether it is a general or a soldier, is basically based on the Yizhou people, as for Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei, Wei Yan and other trusted generals, as well as many Jingzhou civil and military forces, they are mostly left in Yizhou to guard, obviously, Liu Bei does not trust those Yizhou scholars very much, and he is on an expedition, and his family still has to make the necessary arrangements.

At the beginning of October, Liu Bei's Eastern Expeditionary Army arrived in Jingzhou, and for a while, Jingxiang was shaken.

Liu Bei ordered Liu Feng to lead 10,000 horses to garrison Jiangling, strengthen the defense of Cao's army in Xiangyang, and led 70,000 troops down the river to Lukou, and ordered Guan Yu's army to be stationed in Xiakou and Liu Bei's main force on both sides of the Yangtze River.

On the Eastern Wu side, Sun Quan left 20,000 people to guard Chaisang, and led 50,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Shaxian, with Cheng Pu as the former enemy Zuodu Governor, and led the original more than 30,000 Western Front Army Corps to defend Fankou. As a result, the two sides totaled nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses, and a confrontation was formed on both sides of the Yangtze River east of Xiakou.

After relieving the danger of the three southern counties, Huang Zhong's advance Yizhou army was also subsumed into Liu Bei's main corps in Lukou, and Fang Shao naturally transferred to Lukou.

On the same day, Liu Bei set up a banquet in the army to commend the merits of Huang Zhong and others, and after the banquet, Liu Bei specially signaled Fang Shao to stay and met with his most trusted young strategist alone.

"Zhongzheng, Zhengfan our army can achieve such a big victory, you are indispensable, well, it seems that you really lived up to my expectations of you."

These words were said by Liu Bei patting Fang Shao's shoulder, and with Fang Shao's insight, he could naturally hear that these words were from the bottom of his heart.

However, Fang Shao didn't dare to take credit, but blamed himself: "In the battle of Xiangshui, it was Shao's miscalculation to let Lu Meng's 10,000 horses escape, and the lord didn't blame it, how could Shao dare to take credit." ”

Liu Bei smiled and said, "It's not worth mentioning that I got rid of just one Lu Meng, and it doesn't matter to the overall situation." It's just that now I and Sun Quan's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses are rejecting the Yangtze River, and I don't know what you think of the next strategy against the enemy. ”

Liu Bei really got to the point, and Fang Shao said: "Shao doesn't dare to hide it from the lord, in fact, Sun Quan will raise a national army to fight for Jingzhou, which is indeed a little unexpected before Shao. Now if the two families fight to the death, the final benefit can only be Cao Ying, which is extremely unfavorable to the great cause of the lord's revival of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Shao thought that since we had already taken the key points such as Baqiu and Lukou, and the defense of Jingzhou to the east had been consolidated, it was better to accept it when it was good, and hold peace talks with the Wu people at the appropriate opportunity, so that the two sides could reunite the old friendship. ”

Listening to Fang Shao's statement, Liu Bei couldn't help laughing.

Fang Shao was stunned for a moment, then smiled as well, and said, "Lord, if Shao's guess is good, whether Kong Ming's military advisors and others gave advice to the lord are also to negotiate peace with Dongwu." ”

Liu Bei took a sip of tea and said confidently: "Resourceful people, sure enough, they all see the same thing." Yes, I led the army to come this time, although the momentum was huge, but in fact I wanted to force Sun Quan, but now I am waiting for a critical opportunity. ”

Fang Shao's face was puzzled, and he said, "I don't know what kind of critical opportunity the lord is waiting for?" ”

Liu Bei stroked his beard and smiled, and said: "If you want to talk about this timing, Zhongzheng you have calculated earlier, but you don't remember it." ”

Fang Shao was at a loss for a while, his head turned rapidly, and he suddenly remembered the incident, and hurriedly said: "What the lord is referring to, could it be that Cao Yingnan attacked Jiangdong?" ”

Liu Bei said the previous analysis of Zhuge Liang and others, after Fang Shao listened to it, the restless heart of the past few days gradually fell, Zhuge Liang was far away in Yizhou, but he could analyze the things in the east so far-reaching, such a superior overall view is really commendable.

Since Liu Bei also secretly planned to make peace with Dongwu, Fang Shao let go of a worry in his heart, and then told Liu Bei about Sun Shangxiang, of course, he could never say that Sun Shangxiang ran to Baqiu for himself, only made up that the eldest lady was out for fun, and was unfortunately captured by chance.

Liu Bei didn't feel too surprised, but said: "Since this Miss Sun is in our hands, it can also be used as a bargaining chip for peace talks with Sun Quan in the future. ”

With Liu Bei's words, Fang Shao's hanging heart was completely put down.

And in the downstream Shaxian City, when Sun Yu told his cousin about Sun Shangxiang, Sun Quan was taken aback and said hurriedly: "Why did the little sister fall into the hands of Liu Bei, why didn't you report such a big matter to me earlier?" ”

In the face of Sun Quan's anger, Sun Yu said helplessly: "At that time, the little sister ran out to play, I planned to send her back to Jianye the next day, but who knew that Guan Yujun would be killed that day, and in the chaos of the army, I couldn't save the little sister in time." In fact, I wanted to report this to you for a long time, but I was afraid that it would affect your decision, so I didn't dare to say it. ”

"This girl, you spoiled her, and now she has finally broken into a catastrophe!" Sun Quan sat down and complained in annoyance.

Sun Yu said cautiously: "Zhongmou, now that the little sister is already in Liu Bei's hands, our next use of troops, shouldn't we have a little scruples, in case the little sister has a mistake, then ......"

Before Sun Yu finished speaking, Sun Quan slapped the case and said coldly: "The major affairs of the country, how can she be dragged down by a female streamer, this is all her own trouble, if something happens, it is also her own suffering, just as she sacrificed for the foundation of the Sun family." ”

(To be continued)