"Say it again!"

Cao Ying picked up the book from the ground and patted the dust on it, at least his expression still looked calm.

Cheng Yu took a deep breath and repeated: "Prime Minister, the urgent report that Guanzhong just sent that Liu Bei had captured Hanzhong ten days ago. Zhang Lu fled to Xicheng County and submitted a petition to the imperial court, asking for submission. ”

Cao Yingteng stood up, pacing back and forth in the tent, and the color of anxiety gradually came to his face, and he muttered: "Isn't Hanzhong known as a natural danger, why did it take less than a month for Liu Bei to take it, and when he captured Yizhou, it was also so fast, what strange people did Liu Bei help under this account?" Lonely don't understand, lonely don't understand! ”

Obviously, Hanzhong fell into the hands of Liu Bei so quickly, this news made Cao Ying incomprehensible, and at this moment he had faintly felt that the current Liu Bei was no longer the Liu Bei who was expelled by him at will.

Cheng Yu said: "Prime Minister, Liu Bei is a hero, first won the land of two states, and now he has captured Hanzhong, which is unstoppable. For today's trend, it is obvious that Sun Quan is no longer our biggest threat, Prime Minister, quickly withdraw the army to the west to aid Guanzhong, if Liu Bei is given troops out of Qinchuan and united with Ma Chao and others, then the west of Tongguan is in danger. ”

Cheng Yu's reminder shocked Cao Ying's heart, he suddenly remembered Xun Yu's advice, and regretted it, if he hadn't hurriedly sent troops to attack Jiangdong, how could he make the Liu and Sun families quickly reconcile, and now he was at odds with Sun Quan on the Yangtze River, but gave Liu Bei the opportunity to take the opportunity to capture Hanzhong.

"I made a mistake, I really made a mistake, I should have followed Wen Ruo's advice a long time ago, and let Sun Liu and the others kill you to the death. It's a pity, if you leave like this, I shouldn't be so ruthless, I shouldn't ......"

Cheng Yu saw that Cao Ying was still hesitant, and his anxiety was not even heavier, so he hurriedly persuaded again: "Prime Minister, Sun Quan's defeat in Jingzhou has been a big injury, and Hefei can't afford to toss a big move for a while, and now Liu Bei has been a problem for our henchmen, if we don't return to the west to help at this time, if Liu Bei steals Guan Long and occupies the momentum of the upstream attack, then the prime minister's hard work for more than ten years will be in vain." ”

Cao Ying pondered for a long time, gritted his teeth and said: "Liu Bei, a mat weaver and shoe seller, should have been eliminated back then, and there would be no disaster today." The matter has come to this point, I can only let go of Sun Quan's kid first, and quickly go to spread the word to the whole army, and prepare to withdraw the troops. ”

At this time, Zhang Liao, who had not left, said: "Prime Minister, with all due respect, now that we have only suffered a setback in the first battle of Jiangxinzhou, and the Wu people are in full swing, if they suddenly retreat westward this time, Sun Quan will take advantage of the situation to kill Hefei, and then the east and west sides will be enemy." ”

Cao Ying thought for a moment and said: "What Wen Yuan said is extremely true, he wants to withdraw his troops alone, but he must also force Sun Quan's kid to show weakness first." Well, pass the order, make the whole army bluff, make the whole army prepare to cross the river, and scare Sun Quan, this kid, first. ”

Three days later, the camp of Dongwu Water Village.

Sun Quan was discussing with the generals the next step in the use of troops, at this time, an envoy from Jingzhou hurriedly entered, and after meeting with Wu Hou, he conveyed a shocking news brought by Lu Su, Liu Bei had captured Hanzhong.

From Sun Quan downwards, all the generals were amazed.

"Less than three months have passed since the Lukou Agreement, Liu Bei actually captured Hanzhong? That's a little too fast! Sun Yu was amazed for the first time.

Sun Quan stretched his brows a little, and said: "Liu Xuande finally did something that made Gu happy, now in Hanzhong, Guan Long is in danger, Cao Ying will inevitably withdraw his troops to the west, and I will be safe in Jiangdong." ”

As he was talking, suddenly Lu Meng strode in and said: "Lord, Cao Jun's behavior is very strange, it was said that Jiang Xinzhou was defeated before, not only did it not seem to be frustrated, but all battalions came out together, and there were signs of forcibly crossing the river with the whole army." ”

Sun Quan's brows furrowed again, and he muttered: "No, something big happened, there is no reason for Cao Ying to attack my Jiangdong with all his might." ”

Lu Meng was puzzled: "Lord, what happened?" ”

Sun Quan then told Lü Meng about Liu Bei's capture of Hanzhong, and after Lü Meng was surprised, he said: "I see, then this makes sense." Cao Ying was afraid that we would take advantage of his withdrawal to raise troops across the river to attack Hefei, and wanted to advance as a retreat and force us to show weakness first. ”

Sun Quan suddenly realized, snorted coldly, and said: "Old thief Cao is really cunning, and he is in danger in the west, but he still wants to take advantage of me when he retreats, hmph, it's not that easy." Lone will carry it with him to the end, to see how long his bluff can last. ”

Lu Meng listened and said: "Lord, in Meng's opinion, it is better to give that Cao Ying a favor, so that he can withdraw his troops to deal with Liu Bei with peace of mind." ”

Sun Quan thought for a while and said, "What do you mean, could it be that after Cao Ying withdraws his troops, we will take advantage of the situation to attack Hefei?" ”

Lu Meng shook his head and said: "Meng is still the original opinion, Hefei is strong, Qingxu is flat, which is conducive to cavalry and not conducive to water warfare. ”

Don't mention Jingzhou, as soon as he mentioned it, Sun Quan was full of fire, and he complained euphemistically: "Ziming, the last time you advocated Lone to attack Jingzhou, but ended up losing your army and losing your land, this time you persuaded Lone to attack Jingzhou again, and the lesson of the last time has not been forgotten." ”

Lu Meng's face was ashamed, coughed a few times, and said: "The last defeat of the army, Meng thought that it was not defeated on our strategy, but because of the defeat of the enemy, I did not expect that Liu Bei specially made that kind of divine power cannon to deal with our naval army. And when the enemy was lightly attacked, the timing was also a little inappropriate, so that Liu Bei could calmly lead the army east by Yizhou. This time Hanzhong is lost, Cao Ying will inevitably go forward to fight with all his strength, so Liu Bei will inevitably be dragged on the Western Front and unable to withdraw, such a God-given opportunity, isn't it a good time for me to capture Jingzhou. ”

Lu Meng's words made Sun Quan see the sweetness again, and he couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Lu Meng took the opportunity to say: "Now that the world has been divided into three points, first Cao Qiang and the lord and Liu Bei are weak, and now Liu Bei is sitting on the land of two states, and the new Hanzhong, its strength has increased rapidly, as if it can compete with Cao Ying, and now the trend has become Cao and Liu, and I am weak, no matter which one is strong, I have the strength to annex my Jiangdong." And Liu Bei, according to the upstream trend, his threat to our Jiangdong has far surpassed Cao Ying. At this time, the lord must find ways to take the opportunity to weaken Liu Bei and reduce his strength to the same level as my Jiangdong again, so as to ensure the full momentum, and then he can plan the world again. ”

Lu Meng's words flickered Sun Quan's mind to the west, and he was itchy to hear it, and his heart was very red at Liu Bei, so he made up his mind, I can't do Cao Ying, don't think about majesty, if you want to be weak, let's be weak together, don't want to leave the poor brother.

Sun Quan nodded and praised: "Yes, Liu Bei is expanding so rapidly, it should be suppressed." Then I'll fix a book, explain the benefits and disadvantages to Cao Ying, let this old thief have a step down, and hurry back to Guanzhong. ”

When the war on the Western Front was still stalemate, Liu Bei, who had just captured Hanzhong, was methodically pacifying the Han sergeants, except for some insignificant positions, important positions in various places were held by cronies, so a large number of officials set out from Yizhou and were transferred to various places in Hanzhong.

In history, Liu Bei and Cao Ying fought hard for more than a year, and after paying a heavy price, they got Hanzhong, but when Cao Ying left, he moved all the nearly 300,000 people of Hanzhong to Guanzhong, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to Liu Bei.

And now, in addition to the treasury money was swept away by Zhang Lu, the Hanzhong households basically all fell into the hands of Liu Bei, this wealth is undoubtedly huge, Liu Bei's army of more than 100,000 before, thanks to the supply of grain and grass transferred from Yizhou, now with 300,000 people in Hanzhong, enough to support 70,000 or 80,000 troops, which greatly reduces the disadvantage of transporting grain and grass, as well as the burden of Yizhou's grain supply.

In May of that year, Meng Da led the army from Zigui to the north, Liankefangling and Shangyong two counties, and killed his Taishou Kuaiyi, and then besieged Xicheng County with Wei Yanzhi's Eastern Expeditionary Army. In the same month, Zhang Lu saw that he was invincible, and the reinforcements did not arrive, so he surrendered in Kaicheng.

When the news came back to Hanzhong, Liu Bei was overjoyed, so he ordered Zhang Lu and other subordinates to be moved back to Nanzheng, and promoted Wei Yan to Shangyong Taishou and Meng Da to Fangling Taishou, and the town of Handong was in the east.

Just when the good news flew like snowflakes, in the early morning of this day, Zhuge Liang rushed to Hanzhong from Chengdu, accompanied by an urgent report sent by Guan Yu from Jingzhou, saying that the battle of Hefei was over, Cao Ying had already withdrawn from the army, and now he had returned to Xudu in the starry night, and it seemed that he had a great tendency to advance into Guanzhong.

This news, for Liu Bei, who was in the midst of excitement, was tantamount to pouring cold water on his head.

And on the day Zhuge Liang arrived in Chengdu, another bad news also followed, Xiliang Ma Chao defeated Jicheng, and now he is leading more than 1,000 troops to Hanzhong.

The most surprising person for this news is, of course, Fang Shao, according to the history he knows, Ma Chao's soldiers besieged Jicheng until August, Xiahou Yuan's reinforcements did not arrive, and Liangzhou Assassin Shi Weikang only opened the city and surrendered. Later, because Ma Chao killed Wei Kang, it caused the dissatisfaction of the local scholars and wealthy families, so Jiang Xu, Yang Fu and others conspired to rebel, and Ma Chao was defeated in Hanzhong.

However, it seems that Liu Bei's capture of Hanzhong was ahead of schedule, causing Xiahou Yuan to avoid Liu Bei from uniting with Ma Chao, so he changed his strategy and rushed thousands of miles to attack Jicheng, and he defeated Ma Chao's army in a combination of inside and outside.

"Ma Meng was defeated and surrendered, I don't know what you think?" Liu Bei solicited the opinions of the civil and military forces in the meeting that day.

Fa Zheng was the first to say: "Ma Mengqi is a hero, if he can receive his command, the lord will have one more general." Moreover, Ma Mengqi has always had prestige in Xiliang, and now although the army is defeated, as long as he entrusts one of his troops out of Liangzhou, with his prestige, Longyou can decide without a fight. ”

The reason why Fa Zheng is so active in welcoming Ma Chao is that he wants to use Ma Chao's prestige and force is only one of them, and the most important thing is that Ma Chao and Fa Zheng belong to the same Guanlong people, and their reputation is even more famous all over the world, if Ma Chao can be introduced into Liu Bei Group, it will undoubtedly add a huge force to their Guanlong Shiren Group.

Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong had not yet spoken, but Liu Bei's face showed hesitation, and Fang Shao knew what he was worried about.

(To be continued)