It was just a small accident to meet Xiao Lukaz in Guangzhou Port, and the purpose of Liu Ze's trip was not only to tour Guangzhou and Erzhou in the south, although the importance of the Maritime Silk Road was self-evident, but for Liu Ze, he had something more important than this, that is, westward to Bashu.

The dust settled on the eastern front, and as Zhuge Liang had predicted, Cao Cao was furious when he heard that Liu Ze had ceded Xuzhou to Sun Quan in Pengcheng, and immediately sent troops southward to surround Xiapicheng. Liu Ze evacuated the people of Xuzhou, and also withdrew the city defense of Xuzhou, and there was not a single red-clothed cannon left that frightened Cao Cao. Without the threat of red-clothed cannons, no matter how strong the walls of Xiapi City were, Cao Cao did not pay attention to it. This is almost a strong attack and hard battle without any wit contest, Zhou Yu defended Cao Cao's onslaught, and the fierce battle of Xiapi City entered the white-hot Cheng Dù, the battle situation was unprecedentedly tragic, Cao Cao used hundreds of giant trebuchets, and bombarded Xiapi City in turn day and night, once a gap was blasted, Cao soldiers swarmed in. Zhou Yu led his troops to resist desperately, not giving an inch, and the two sides fell into a stalemate.

But Cao Cao was stronger than the Jiangdong soldiers after all, and the two sides were in a stalemate in Xiapi City for a month, and Cao Cao, who had the advantage in comprehensive strength, broke through Xiapi City after paying the price of tens of thousands of casualties, and Zhou Yu had to break through and retreat to Guangling. After Cao Cao took Xiapi, he immediately took advantage of the victory to pursue and launched an attack on Guangling, Cao Cao's intention was very obvious, that is, he wanted to swallow the entire Jiangdong in one fell swoop.

The loss of Xiapi City caused the Eastern Wu side to suffer considerable losses, and the troops that retreated to Guangling were stretched, and Guangling City was already in danger, and Sun Quan had to ask his brother-in-law Liu Ze for help.

Since Sun and Liu formed an alliance, Liu Ze had no reason to stand idly by, and immediately ordered Zhang Liao to lead his army into Xuyi. Plagiarized Cao Cao's back road. Xuyi is an important town in Huainan, originally under the Pi State, Liu Ze annexed Xuyi to Jiujiang County after annexing Huainan, this time abandoned Xuzhou, Xuyi is not among them.

Xuyi from a geographical point of view. Like a nail, it penetrated deeply into the territory of Xuzhou, cutting off Xiapi and Guangling, and after Zhang Liao led his army into Xuyi, it posed a fatal threat to Cao Cao's long supply line. In view of this, Cao Cao had to send troops to guard against Zhang Liao, and the situation on the Guangling side improved slightly.

Just when the war in Xuzhou was in a stalemate, Cao Cao received an urgent report from Youzhou, and Liu Bei, the Taishou of Beiping County, and Gongsun, the Taishou of Liaoxi County, continued to rebel. Killed Youzhou Assassin Shi Tianchou, and successively captured Yuyang, Guangyang, Shanggu and other counties, with great momentum. Cao Cao was shocked when he heard this, the four states of Hebei are Cao Cao's rear, once the turmoil, the consequences are unimaginable, Cao Cao had to strike troops in the southeast, so that Che Zhou is the history of Xuzhou. The garrison guarded Xuzhou and led the army back to Hebei. The rebellion in Youzhou was pacified.

The war in Xuzhou came to an end, and Dongwu lost Xiapi to defend Guangling, and Cao Cao took the Huai River as the boundary and divided the land of southern Xu equally, which finally did not disgrace Zhou Yu, but Dongwu suffered heavy losses this time. Although Cao Cao withdrew his troops, he no longer had the ability to counterattack Xiapi, and the two sides stationed troops on the front line of the Huai River, and they were at peace for the time being.

Liu Ze, who stayed out of the matter, also completed the strategic redeployment during this time, except for Guan Yu's Second Army, Zhang Liao's Fourth Army, and Tai Shici's Fifth Army Corps, which were still stationed in Xiangyang, Huainan, and Huaibei respectively. Zhang He's Sixth Army Corps was transferred to Wuchang to take charge of the defense of Jiangxia and the entire four counties of Jingnan, Ganning's naval army was stationed in Baqiu and Chaisang, the First, Third, and Eighth Army Corps were moved to Jiangling, and the 21st Infantry Division under the Eighth Army was under the command of Wei Yan, the deputy governor, and arrived at Yiling.

Liu Ze's three heavy army corps moved westward, and I am afraid that anyone with a discerning eye can know Liu Ze's strategic intentions. Liu Ze also made no secret of this, after all, it was almost impossible for such a large-scale military transfer to hide from Yizhou's ears and eyes. The difficulty of the Shu Road, it is difficult to go to the blue sky, from Jingzhou to Yizhou to attack, in addition to taking the Xiajiang waterway and the land route from Yiling to Baidi, there is almost no third way to choose, Liu Ze wants to attack Yizhou, naturally it can only be Chen Bing Jiangling. At the same time, Liu Ze sent an envoy to Chengdu to meet Liu Zhang, Chen said that he wanted to raise troops to crusade against the national thief Cao Cao, and wanted to take advantage of the Yizhou army to take Guanzhong, and asked Liu Zhang to cooperate with the action.

In the letter, Liu Ze, as the king of Jing, naturally instructed Liu Zhang, the pastor of Yizhou, to discuss the matter of Yizhou not with Liu Zhang, but directly ordered Liu Zhang to carry it out in the tone of his subordinates, not only asking Liu Zhang to give way to him, but also asking Liu Zhang to provide grain, straw, baggage, and logistics support.

After Liu Zhang, who was cowardly by nature, saw this letter, he was trembling all over, where is this excuse, it is clearly a fake way, I am afraid that as soon as Liu Ze's army enters Sichuan, Bashan Shushui will have to change his surname to someone else. Oh, the lord of Yizhou will still be surnamed Liu, but this Liu is not Liu.

Liu Zhang's face was pale and at a loss, so he urgently summoned the ministers to discuss.

Don't drive Yang Song to take the lead and said: "King Jing's soldiers are powerful, and the land of Yizhou is not enough to compete with it, not to mention that King Jing's crusade against the national thief Cao Cao is the righteousness of the court, if the lord does not obey his orders, I am afraid that he will anger King Jing, and when the time comes, Yizhou will be a disaster." ”

Lord Bo Huangquan got up and said angrily: "Liu Ze wants to attack Cao Cao, from Xiangyang, from Runan can enter the army, all the way to Pingchuan, you can go straight to the city of Xuchang, why do you have to give up the near and seek far, give up the easy and seek the difficult, it is clearly a plan to hide evil intentions and want to do a false way to destroy the enemy." Yang Song sells the lord for glory, with ill intentions, the lord can behead this person first! ”

Yang Song was furious and said: "Erection! You don't know when the time comes, how dare you instigate the lord to resist the power of heaven, in the future, Bashu will be in danger, you can afford to take responsibility? ”

Liu Zhang had no idea, and was upset by the quarrel between the two of them, so he had to wave the two away. Chengdu Ling Li Yan advised: "Liu Ze is here, he must have other plans, and the lord must be cautious." The Shu Road is difficult and difficult to attack, if Liu Ze comes, he can only take the Xiajiang Waterway and the Yiling Ancient Road, and the lord only needs to set up heavy troops in the White Emperor City to take precautions, so why trouble Liu Ze. ”

Liu Zhang was overjoyed, so he adopted Li Yan's construction and appointed Li Yan as the protector, and commanded 50,000 troops with Bajun Taishou Yan Yan to defend the White Emperor City. In addition, Huang Quan was sent to guard Brazil, and Pang Xi was guarded by Jiameng Pass, thinking that he had a plan, so he was not prepared.

When the news came back to Jiangling, all the generals under King Jing's account were indignant, Zhang Fei was even more furious, and said angrily: "This Liu Zhang is so ignorant, my eldest brother wants to borrow him to come to the Northern Expedition to Cao Cao, he actually dares to refuse, since he is so dead, then don't blame him Grandpa Zhang for breaking Chengdu and asking for his dog's life!" ”

Liu Ze had a calm face, pacified the generals, and ordered all regiments to be stationed in place to maintain combat readiness, and no one was allowed to act without military orders. Then Liu Ze and Zhuge Liang left Jiangling and returned to Wuchang, and then toured all the way south, with only a few retinues, through Changsha and Guiyang, looking at the newly built Guangzhou.

In the eyes of everyone, Liu Ze's actions are almost unbelievable, since he is already a soldier who has to send an arrow on the line, Liu Ze has no reason to refuse at this moment, and he also ran to Guangzhou thousands of miles away, could it be that Liu Ze saw that Yizhou had already taken precautions and retreated? But this is not in line with Liu Ze's consistent style!

Rao is so smart Zhuge Liang can't figure out what kind of medicine Liu Ze sells in the gourd, and the plan to delay the army? Want to get away with it? But none of this can be touched, after all, Guangzhou and Yizhou are farther apart, and Zhuge Liang can't guess Liu Ze's true intention to come to Guangzhou.

Even Zhuge Liang, who is known as the first wise man of the Three Kingdoms, has concealed it, Liu Ze can't help but secretly feel smug, it seems that his plan is really unreasonable if it is not successful.

When he returned to the Assassin's Mansion, as soon as he entered the mansion, he was greeted by a white-robed general who was heroic and striding up to him, and bowed to Liu Ze: "Lord, the last general Zhao Yun has been ordered to arrive!" ”

Seeing Zhao Yun who suddenly appeared, Zhuge Liang seemed to have an understanding. Liu Ze smiled, no longer hidden, and revealed his plan and territory. (To be continued......)