"Why are you so flustered?" Xiahou Yuan's tone was a little displeased.

He has always prided himself on being in danger, and he has always demanded this from his subordinates.

Guo Huai wiped the cold sweat on his forehead and said this news tremblingly, which shocked everyone present.

The enemy general Ma Dai rode with 5,000 steps and raided Tongguan.

The enemy general Zhang Fei, with more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, traveled west along Weishui and captured Yicheng.

The earth-shattering news, like a muffled thunder falling from the sky, hit everyone's tired hearts hard.

At that moment, Xiahou Yuan only felt that his five organs were like being whipped by a whip stained with water, and he actually had the illusion of pain.

"How is that possible? How could so many enemy troops suddenly appear in Guanzhong? ”

Xiahou Yuan shouted at Guo Huai, this information was so shocking that he couldn't accept it for a while.

Guo Huai's face was like ashes, and he replied in a trembling voice: "These enemy troops have stolen into the Guanzhong Plain from the Meridian Valley, and we have no defense at all. ”

Meridian Valley?

In his mind, countless thoughts flashed like lightning, and suddenly, Xiahou Yuan figured everything out.

The plan that Cao Ying told him earlier was to use the sound to attack the west, let Liu Feng gather all the soldiers and horses on the line of Xiangyang and Jiange, and then raid Wuxian with surprise troops to cut off the passage between Jingyi and the two states.

Then, the army that went south one after another, all the way to the east to resist the counterattack of the Jingzhou army, all the way along the west of the west, taking advantage of the emptiness of Yizhou and the panic of the people, with lightning speed, to conquer Xichuan in one fell swoop.

At this time, Liu Bei's army on the southern line had been attracted to the golden line, and the defense around Jiameng was empty.

At this time, the army that captured Yizhou could take advantage of the weakness to march north, attack Hanzhong from the south, plus Xiahou Yuan's army in the west, and Cao Ying's army in the east, and annihilate Liu Bei in Hanzhong in one fell swoop.

Then, after all Yizhou was taken, the army of Shuzhong attacked Jiangling along the east of the river, and Cao Hong of Xinye and Yu Bansu attacked Xiangyang in the south, so that Liu Feng could not take care of each other, and recaptured Jingzhou in one fell swoop.

This is what Jia Xu dedicated to Cao Ying, sweeping away Er Liu's serial plan.

Therefore, since the beginning of the war, Xiahou Yuan has been well aware of the positioning of his soldiers and horses.

It is precisely for this reason that when Liu Bei's Jiameng's army was transferred to the east, Xiahou Yuan naturally thought that this army was transferred by Liu Bei to the Golden Garrison to resist the attack of the three eastern counties.

But Xiahou Yuan never expected that Zhuge Liang had seen through Cao Ying's final plan and came up with a plan.

Meridian Valley, the valley road that runs through the Qinling Mountains, is the most difficult of the three valley roads, and it is also the closest one to Chang'an.

The Hanzhong exit of this valley road is located near the eastern golden fortress.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Bei was able to transfer the army to the east in a grand manner, but it did not make Xiahou Yuan suspicious.

Despite this, Xiahou Yuan was not unguarded, and when he went south to Hanzhong, there were still 5,000 elites left in Chang'an City.

Xiahou Yuan believed that with the strength of Chang'an City, even if there was some kind of accident, these five thousand elites would be enough to resist until his army returned to help.

However, what he thought of, his enemies could guess.

Therefore, Ma Dai's vanguard cavalry, after leaving the north entrance of the Meridian Valley, did not kill Chang'an, but went east to take the defenseless Tongguan, so that the passage for the Kwantung reinforcements to enter the pass was cut off in one fell swoop.

At the same time, Zhang Fei's soldiers and horses seized Yicheng to the west.

This city is located on the north bank of Weishui, near the exit of the north end of the valley, and occupying this city is equivalent to cutting off the road of Xiahou Yuan's army out of the valley.

Zhuge Liang's move was planned, not only to capture Guanlong in one fell swoop, but also to trap Xiahou Yuan's 50,000 Guanzhong troops in the Qinling Valley.

What a vicious stratagem!

Tongguan was lost, the way back was cut off, how could Xiahou Yuan not know the seriousness of the situation.

He could only swallow his resentment and remorse into his stomach temporarily, and he didn't have time to think about it, so he immediately ordered the whole army to retreat north.

……………………………… East of Wu County.

This is the eighteenth day of Liu Feng's westward march.

His army of 30,000 was blocked by Cao Xiu's less than 4,000 men for 18 days in the narrow strip of the Three Gorges.

These days, the fine work that crossed the mountain and returned from the trail kept sending back news, saying that a large number of Cao troops were entering Jianping from the Fangling trail.

Just a day ago, Liu Feng got the latest information that a Cao army of about 5,000 people had captured the White Emperor City, the seat of Badong County, not far from Wu County, and was advancing west along the Yangtze River to Jiangzhou, the seat of Ba County.

As for Yizhou, because the road is cut off, he has never received any news from Chengdu since the loss of Wuxian.

The entire Yizhou has lost contact with him.

The only consolation is that Wei Yan of Fancheng, with 30,000 people, withstood the onslaught of 100,000 Cao troops. In Xiangyang City, Pang Tong and the others also successfully quelled the rebellion launched by the Cai clan.

The situation in Jingzhou is still as stable as Mount Tai.

It's just that it's not enough.

If Yizhou falls into the hands of Cao Ying, how can Jingzhou be alone, if it can't survive this crisis, Liu Feng knows very well that what awaits him is the fate of destruction.

In the Chinese military tent, Liu Feng stared at the word Nawu County on the map, and his handsome face was occupied by anxiety and melancholy.

There was silence for a long time, and suddenly, he drew his sword and smashed the screen and the map to pieces.

The soldiers on the left and right were not without shock, and they didn't even dare to take a breath of the atmosphere.

Just when Liu Feng was resentful, one person lifted the curtain and entered, it was Meng Da.

Meng Da, who entered the tent, had a somewhat happy smile on his face, which seemed a little out of place with the atmosphere in the big tent.

"My lord, there is good news, I am afraid you will never think of it."

"Good news? If there is any good news, it should not be that Cao Xiu's guy retreated without a fight. ”

Liu Feng was a little unimpressed, and said casually.

Meng Da smiled slightly: "That's right, Cao Xiu's soldiers and horses have really retreated." ”

Liu Feng was taken aback, he didn't believe that there would be such a thing, and he hurriedly sent scouts to reconnoitre, and sure enough, he reported that Cao Xiu's army was pulling out the camp and was slowly retreating in the direction of Wuxian.

The information that followed made Liu Feng even more puzzled.

The tens of thousands of troops who originally went deep into Jianping and prepared to attack Shu unbelievably followed the original road and returned to the direction of Fangling.

It seems that Cao's army is rapidly withdrawing its troops to the north.

It is really incomprehensible that the Cao army, which has the advantage, would suddenly withdraw so inexplicably.

At first, Liu Feng thought that this was another suspicious plan by Cao Ying, but a few days later, when his army re-entered the empty Wuxian County and confirmed that all Cao troops had returned to the three eastern counties along the same route, Liu Feng really accepted this fact.

Thinking about Cao Ying, he tried his best to use this series of tactics to cut off Jingyi Erzhou like a divine soldier descending from the sky, how could he give up so incredibly easily?

A few days later, the information sent by Jing Xiang surprised Liu Feng even more.

It was more than 100,000 Cao troops besieging Fancheng, almost at the same time as the enemy army in Jianping withdrew, the same retreated the siege of Fancheng, except for Wen Ping who stayed in Xinye, the rest of the **10,000 army, all of them retreated in the direction of Nanyang.

Cao Ying's abnormal behavior made Liu Feng gradually realize that something must have happened in the north that forced Cao Ying to withdraw his troops and return to the north.

At the beginning, Liu Feng was still speculating that perhaps it was a coup d'état in Xudu, or a civilian uprising in Hebei, which shook the hinterland of the Central Plains, forcing Cao Ying to withdraw his troops and go back to fight the fire.

But a few days later, a huge urgent letter made Liu Feng really suddenly realize.

In the letter, Pang Tong claimed that Liu Bei had raided the first line of Tongguan, and that Xiahou Yuan's army attacking Hanzhong was cut off in the sloping valley and was about to be destroyed, and it was only a matter of time before Liu Bei captured Guanlong.

The overall situation in the world has changed drastically, so Pang Tong urged Liu Feng to return to Xiangyang immediately and make new deployments as soon as possible.

On the second day after receiving Pang Tongxin, Liu Feng immediately led the whole army east to Xiangyang, but ordered the Ma Tan army, which arrived from Jiangzhou, to garrison Jianping to prevent Cao Ying from changing again.

When Liu Feng led an army of 30,000 to return to Xiangyang, Cao's army on the other side had already withdrawn for more than ten days.

New intelligence shows that Cao Yingzheng led an army of nearly 1560,000 to return to Luoyang in a hurry, and it seems that he planned to attack Tongguan from Luoyang to the west and open up this main road into the pass.

The Cao army on the Nanyang side quickly went to the empty building, except for the 30,000 foot cavalry of Cao Hong, who guarded Wancheng, there were only 10,000 foot troops left in the Xinye Wenpin Division.

"My lord, at the moment Liu Bei has a great possibility to seize Guanlong, once it is done, the overall situation of the world will have a fundamental change, at this time, we must have a new national policy to deal with this new situation."

In the state capital, Pang Tong said in an excited, but dignified tone to Liu Feng and a group of heavy officials.

Pang Tong was right, although they were the princes of the south before, although they fought to the death with Cao Ying, they were always on the disadvantaged side because they were located in the south.

But if Liu Bei captured Guanlong, it would not only mean that he had seized the land of Liangzhou to produce horses, but also formed a downward attack on the Central Plains ruled by Cao Ying from west to east.

The former situation of three weak against one strong, attacking from the south to the north, will never return.

How can the situation in the world not undergo qualitative changes?

"This Liu Bei will really take advantage of the situation, if it weren't for Cao Ying's own cleverness, I'm afraid that Liu Bei would not have encountered such a God-given opportunity among the old and dead men."

In Liu Feng's tone, he vaguely praised Liu Bei, after all, such dangerous tricks as smuggling across the Meridian Valley and attacking Tongguan by surprise are not something that anyone dares to use.

Only a gambler like Liu Bei would break the kettle and gamble desperately on this life-and-death decision.

At this time, Kuai Liang said: "Now that Liu Bei has invaded Guanzhong, Cao Ying will inevitably go all out to deal with Liu Bei, and the pressure on Jing Xiang will be swept away." My lord, I think that we should do our best to fight the troops of the two states and take the opportunity to capture Hanzhong. ”

Cao Liu competed in Guanzhong, the soldiers in Hanzhong were empty, and Kuai Liang's strategy was understandable.

However, in Liu Feng's heart, he didn't agree with Kuai Liang's seemingly reasonable strategy.

Hanzhong is so easy to attack, only one Yangping Pass, as long as Liu Bei can defend this pass with more than 10,000 people, even if he pours troops from Erzhou forward, he may not be able to capture this pass.

Previously, because he mistakenly thought that he was being attacked by Cao Ying on three sides, the situation was in crisis, so Liu Feng had an attempt to capture Hanzhong.

But now, Liu Bei's soldiers are out of the customs, and Xiahou Yuan's fall is imminent, and the situation has turned 180 degrees.

When Liu Bei's morale was greatly boosted, Liu Feng raised his army to attack Hanzhong, which was obviously not in line with the art of war.

Moreover, if he went to fight Hanzhong and copied Liu Bei's nest, in the battle for Guanzhong, it would indirectly lead to Liu Bei's defeat.

At that time, Cao Ying regained control of Guanlong, and the situation in the world would still be a confrontation between the north and the south, and the initiative would still be in Cao Ying's hands.

Therefore, attacking Hanzhong now, just like the Eastern Wu attack on Jingzhou in history, it seems that it has gained small profits in the present, but in fact it has lost long-term benefits.

"Mr. Shiyuan, what do you think?" Liu Feng turned his gaze to Pang Tong.

Pang Tong sneered and said categorically: "When this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, instead of taking the opportunity to attack the Central Plains, but instead taking what Hanzhong, which one will benefit more, does this still need to be discussed?" ”

Pang Tong resolutely expressed his attitude, and obviously, Liu Feng and his chief strategist thought of another piece.

"Take the Central Plains?"

Kuai Liang was taken aback, frowned, and said: "Although Cao Ying's army was pinned down in Tongguan, there are still more than 40,000 Cao troops on the front line of Wancheng Xinye, and I heard that Cao Ying also left Cao Hong with 5,000 tigers and leopards to ride, it is obviously to guard against our Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, and the opponent has long been on guard, how can he easily enter the Central Plains?" ”

If you take the Central Plains, you must first take Nanyang.

If Liu Feng used Jing Yi's troops to attack Nanyang, in this local battlefield, the number of troops could certainly be superior, but fighting in the plains of the north, Cao Hong's five thousand iron cavalry had a power that could not be underestimated.

If you want to capture Nanyang, you must first break the enemy's cavalry.

Kuai Liang didn't know how much benefit he had from taking the Central Plains, but he didn't have the confidence to defeat the five thousand tigers and leopards.

However, when Kuai Liang mentioned the benefits of Cao's cavalry, Liu Feng and Pang Tong looked at each other and smiled.

"Cao thief cavalry don't need to worry, I already have a plan to crack it, but what I need to worry about now is how to transfer Cao Hong out of Wancheng's lair."

Previously, in order to deal with Cao Ying's cavalry, Liu Feng had been secretly making corresponding preparations, which was why he dared to make a northern expedition to the Central Plains.

Kuai Liang didn't know where Liu Feng's plan was, but he still worried: "Even so, the order that Cao Ying gave to Cao Hong must be to stick to Nanyang and not fight with me." If you can't annihilate the Nanyang Cao army in the field, how can you take the Central Plains in the north. ”

Pang Tong smiled and said: "I have my own plan for this matter, but I still need to rely on another external force." ”

"Another external force?" Kuai Liang's face was suspicious.

"Exactly."

Pang Tongyi's chest was like a bamboo, and his smiling eyes were unconsciously cast to the east.

………………………… Thousands of miles away, Moling.

"Ahem—"

In the main hall, the elegant and handsome man was contemplating his eyebrows and coughing lightly, and his complexion was as calm as water, faintly showing a little sickly.

"Governor Zhou, wait a while, the lord will arrive later." The maid said as she served her tea.

Zhou Yu nodded slightly, took a drink of tea, and the warm tea in his mouth, the discomfort in his lungs gradually subsided.

More than half a year has passed since I came out of the mountain again last year.

At that time, Zhou Yu thought that after several years of recuperation, his body had recovered as before.

However, after experiencing the First Battle of Hefei and being physically and mentally exhausted, his seemingly healed body began to feel unwell again.

Zhou Yu vaguely remembered that when Zhang Zhongjing treated him, he once said that his illness was rooted in his heart, and only by calming down and recuperating his body and mind could he gradually exhaust the virus.

Zhang Zhongjing means that from now on, he Zhou Yu should return to the wild countryside and never ask about the world.

It's just that he has the world in his heart, if he can really be willing to retire to retirement, he will not be the Jiangdong Mei Zhoulang.

Therefore, when the opportunity came, he did not hesitate to forget Zhang Zhongjing's advice.

Although the victory of Hefei once again achieved Zhou Lang's prestige, it also made the disease that almost killed him resurrected again.

"Gong Jin, why did you come in such a hurry, and I didn't report in advance, so I could go to meet you in person?"

With a kind and kind voice, the blue-eyed and purple-haired Sun Quan walked out of the inner room with a smile.

Zhou Yu hurriedly got up and arched his hand: "How dare Yu work on the lord." ”

Sun Quan sat down with Zhou Yu's hand, and said with a face full of relief: "Gongjin has worked hard for my great cause in Jiangdong, I will take a few more steps and personally go to greet you, a hero, where will there be any fatigue." ”

The two ministers exchanged a few polite words, and Sun Quan asked: "Gong Jin, you suddenly returned to Moling this time, could it be that there is something important that cannot be done?" ”

"Lord, you must already know about the war between Guanlong and Xiangyang, right?" Zhou Yu asked.

Sun Quan nodded slightly, and said with emotion: "I didn't expect that Cao Thief was clever and made himself into the current situation." I heard that Liu Fengmu is besieging Xinye with a large army, and someone persuaded me to take the opportunity to ask him for Jingzhou, and I just want to hear what Gongjin means? ”

Previously, Liu Feng had promised Sun Quan that as long as he obtained Yizhou, he would return Jingzhou to Eastern Wu.

Sun Quan, who has always been staring at Jingzhou, how can he forget this.

Zhou Yu snorted coldly and said disdainfully: "Those who say this to the lord are all people who are short-sighted, and their words, the lord doesn't need to pay attention to them at all." ”

In fact, Sun Quan himself also had the intention of asking for Jingzhou, but it was difficult to say it clearly, so it was inferred that it was someone else's opinion.

At this time, Zhou Yu was so sarcastic, and he felt embarrassed in his heart, but he said calmly on his face: "Then according to Gongjin's meaning, how can we profit from this current chaos?" ”

"Needless to say, of course, it is to do the best of Jiangdong's troops, go out of Hefei, capture Hefei, and include the land of Qingxu into the territory in one fell swoop."

Zhou Yu's words were generous and murderous.

Sun Quan was not infected by Zhou Yu's passion, and said calmly: "Although Hefei won the previous time, it was largely because of the small number of enemy soldiers. At present, Cao Ying has learned the lesson of Hefei's defeat, and there are as many as 50,000 soldiers and horses left in Shouchun. ”

Zhou Yu immediately said: "If the lord can give me 70,000 soldiers and horses, I will be able to take Shouchun within a month." ”

Sun Quan knows very well that Zhou Yu has never been the kind of person who makes bold statements, since he dares to be so confident, he must have a perfect plan in his chest.

At that moment, Sun Quan's spirits perked up, and he hurriedly asked: "Could it be that Gongjin has any clever plan?" ”

The corners of Zhou Yu's mouth were slanted, and a strange sneer was on display.

(To be continued)