Liu Ze highly praised Zhuge Liang's achievements in the southern expedition, and immediately named Zhuge Liang as Shang Shuling, military advisor, and Xuancheng Pavilion Marquis, and also rewarded Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Xu Rong, Wei Yan and other soldiers of the southern expedition.

Different from the previous military division sacrificial wine, it is only two words less than before, but the military division sacrificial wine is only an official at the level of a strategist, and the position is still under the army, while the military advisor has the right to open the government and govern affairs, and the position is already above the army. If the military advisor is a senior staff officer, the military advisor has really become the chief of staff and has the right to speak and command in the army. Originally, the post of Shang Shuling was represented by Liu Ze himself, Jia Xu and Zhuge Liang were the deputies of the left and right servants, and that was already from the rank of the second grade, this time Zhuge Liang was promoted to Shang Shuling, and the second product, under the rule of King Jing, was already under one person and above tens of millions of people. What's more, there is also the title of a third-class marquis, Zhuge Liang has crossed three levels in a row and jumped to the top rank of the current title, which shows Liu Ze's affirmation of his merits and recognition of his ability.

Regarding Zhuge Liang's arrangement for Wu Ju to temporarily act as the agent of Jiaozhou's assassination history, Liu Ze also fully agreed, Wu Ju has been in Cangwu for many years, and he is still very familiar with the geography of Jiaozhou, and Liu Ze is also very relieved that he is in charge of Jiaozhou. With Zhuge Liang's power, he could only arrange Wu Ju to be the assassin of Jiaozhou, and after returning to Liu Ze, Liu Ze immediately issued a letter to officially appoint Wu Ju as the assassin of Jiaozhou, and at the same time approved the recruitment of the seven counties of Jiaozhou nominated by Zhuge Liang, namely Nanhai County, Hepu County, Yulin County, Cangwu County, Jiaozhi County, Jiuzhen County, and Rinan County.

Liu Zenan's biggest purpose in taking Jiaozhou is to open a commercial port. Open up the Maritime Silk Road and carry out trade with Persia and Rome, but the shape of the Central Plains made him have to slow down this matter first, and the top priority is to deal with Cao Cao's all-out attack, which is the most important thing.

Liu Ze concisely introduced the military situation on the front line to Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao Chen had 300,000 soldiers, and formed an offensive posture against Xiangyang, Runan, and Xuzhou. Gather heavy troops at the mouth of the water. Prepare to commit Hefei again.

At the same time, Liu Ze also told Zhuge Liang his analysis of the current situation, Cao Cao's three-way army will definitely choose one place as the main target. The other two complement each other. Now the difficulty is. How to distinguish Cao Cao's main direction of attack. In order to confuse the other party, Cao Cao lined up the three armies in parallel, and also sent two top-level generals. It was also 100,000 soldiers and horses, and on the surface, it was impossible to tell where Cao Cao's main attack direction was. Moreover, Cao Cao himself is now in Qian County, and he did not rush to the front line, with Cao Cao's consistent pro-conquest style, wherever Cao Cao appears, it will definitely become the main direction of Cao Cao's army. But now Cao Cao is deliberately playing tricks, starting from Qian County, the nearest point is Runan, but it does not mean that Cao Cao will come to Runan in person, whether it is to Xiangyang or Xuzhou, it is only two or three days away, after the battle starts, it is not too late for Cao Cao to go to the front line, so Cao Cao's attitude will be decided.

In addition, Liu Ze also explained his analysis of Cao Cao's idea that he could attack Runan first or Xiangyang first, and he wanted to hear Zhuge Liang's opinion.

Zhuge Liang groaned for a while, and said: "Liang has some different ideas, Cao Cao's main attack is probably not Runan, nor Xiangyang, but Xuzhou." ”

Liu Ze was slightly stunned, this analysis was the unanimous consensus between him and Jia Xu, and Zhuge Liang overturned it as soon as he came up, which made Liu Ze very curious and wanted to hear Zhuge Liang's explanation.

"The military advisor thinks Cao Cao will attack Xuzhou?"

Zhuge Liang said: "The lord's analysis is right, the land of Runan is close to Xudu, and Cao Cao's threat is the greatest, and Xiangyang is the gateway to Jingzhou, and now the central force of the lord has moved to Jingzhou, Cao Cao wants to achieve a decisive victory, and must take Jingzhou. But the lord still missed one point, that is, Cao Cao's character, Cao Cao is treacherous and very good at planning, and his use of troops is strange and dangerous, so that people can expect his plan then he is not Cao Cao. This time, Cao Cao set up a suspicious array, just to confuse us, so as to achieve his goal of winning by surprise. Since the lord can expect that he may attack Runan or Xiangyang, why does Cao Cao not know that the lord can calculate, since Cao Cao wants to attack Runan or Xiangyang, there is no need to go to such great lengths, and the direct army attack is, and now it is obvious that Cao Cao's drunkard does not mean to drink, so he is so mysterious, and there is one purpose, that is, to fight Xuzhou. ”

After some analysis, Liu Ze couldn't help but nodded, the previous analysis between him and Jia Xu was just an analysis based on the interests of the battlefield, and Zhuge Liang's analysis was to combine Cao Cao's psychology, so he would come to different conclusions, since Cao Cao was called a traitorous male, it was not easy to guess his mind all his life.

Liu Ze suddenly remembered something, slapped the table, and shouted: "It's not good! ”

Zhuge Liang said: "Why is the lord so alarmed? ”

Liu Ze frowned, and said: "Xiangyang, Runan, and Xuzhou, although each has a legion stationed, but Yunchang and Ziyi only defend one county, while Gao Shun has to guard six counties in Xuzhou, and Xu Xuan's division guarding Guangling has to guard against Eastern Wu and can't move at all, so it seems that Gao Shun wants 40,000 horses to block the main attack of Cao Cao's 100,000 army, which can be described as difficult." Cao Cao is really scheming, treacherous and vicious, he has seen the difficulties of Xuzhou's defense, so he set up a suspicious formation, openly attacked Runan and Xiangyang, and secretly took Xuzhou, which seems to be in danger. ”

Zhao Yun immediately stepped forward and said, "Please give the Lord an order, and Yun will immediately lead his troops to help Xuzhou." ”

Liu Ze shook his head gently, this time Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun came back in advance, the southern expedition army still has five or six days to reach Wuchang, and from Wuchang to Xuzhou, there must be at least half a month and ten days of travel, will Cao Cao give them this opportunity?

"It is difficult to solve the fire in the far water, Cao Cao planned and then moved this time, and the shot must be accurate and ruthless, how can he wait for us to send reinforcements to rescue. Gao Shun is resolute and resolute, his character is upright and unbending, he is brave and brave but not enough strategic, this time he encountered an opponent like Cao Cao, which should be his fate. Liu Ze sighed gloomily, with Gao Shun's ability, he may still have the possibility of encountering an opponent like Cao Ren Yu Ban, but he encountered Cao Cao, the most eloquent among the Three Kingdoms, Liu Ze can foresee that Gao Shun is not Cao Cao's opponent.

Zhao Yun was also silent, after all, his army was still hundreds of miles away, as Liu Ze said, it was difficult to solve the fire in the distance, even if it was at full speed at this time, it would be impossible to rush to Xuzhou overnight.

Zhuge Liang pondered for a moment and said, "Does the lord have a defense map of Xuzhou?" ”

The deployment map of the garrisons in various places will naturally be sent to Liu Ze for reporting, and Xuzhou is of course no exception, Liu Ze nodded at the moment, and ordered Pan Feng to take the Xuzhou defense map and spread it on the table.

Zhuge Liang carefully held the defense map, but Liu Ze didn't look at it, he was already familiar with the defense deployment of the Xuzhou army. In addition to Xu Xuan's fourth division defending in Guangling, the remaining four divisions of the Sixth Army were stationed on the northern front, Gao Shun commanded Cheng Lian's third division and Yin Li's eighth cavalry division stationed in Xiaopei to guard the northwest gate of Xuzhou, Zang Ba commanded Wei Xu's 17th division to garrison Langya and guard the northeast gate of Xuzhou, Chen Deng commanded Zhang Xu's 18th division to sit in Xiapi, and the rest of the counties were guarded by 3,000 county soldiers. The defense of the northern line is a zigzag layout, leaning on each other, can attack and retreat can be defended, when Gao Shun submitted the Xuzhou defense map, it was also highly praised by Liu Ze, saying that Xuzhou's defense is the strongest defensive formation, by Gao Shun and Zang Ba respectively to guard Xiaopei and Langya, enough to resist Cao Bing's two ways from Yanzhou and Qingzhou, it can be described as impregnable.

Seeing that Zhuge Liang didn't say a word, but just carefully compared the distance on the map with his own hands, with a solemn look on his face, Liu Ze also seemed to be infected by Zhuge Liang's solemnity, and asked cautiously: "What does the military advisor see?" (To be continued......)