Zhong Xuan bumped all the way south, he was really tired, he had just burned his feet and was about to go to bed, at this time, an entourage walked quickly to the door to report: "Qi Qi military division, Sima Gong asks to see!" ”

Zhong Xuan was puzzled, what was Sima Yi doing when he came to him so late? But he thought that Zhuge Liang had just visited Sima Yi, and there must be some reason for this, so he said: "Please ask him to wait in the guest hall, and I will come immediately." ”

Zhong Miao put on shoes and socks, and put on a robe, and then slowly came to the guest hall, Sima Yi was sitting in the guest hall drinking tea, and when he saw Zhong Miao coming in, he quickly got up and said apologetically: "I disturbed Zhong Junshi to rest." ”

"It's okay, I can't sleep so early, Zhongda, please take a seat!"

The two sat down, Sima Yi took out a letter, smiled and handed it to Zhong Xuan, "This is a letter written by His Royal Highness the King of Han to Zhong Junshi." ”

Zhong Xuan was stunned, Liu Jing actually wrote a letter to himself, he took the letter and opened it and read it, Liu Jing praised himself in the letter for governing Guanzhong and restoring the livelihood of Chang'an, which laid a solid foundation for the Han State to move the capital to Chang'an, which made Zhong Xiang smile bitterly in his heart, he did not govern Guanzhong for the Han State to move the capital, and finally made a wedding dress for the Han State.

However, Liu Jing's words in the letter were very sincere, seeing the back, Zhong Xuan was also moved, he felt that Liu Jing was sincerely grateful to himself, at the end of the letter, but Zhong Xuan was stunned, the letter said that the Han State Zhongshu Order has been vacant, that is, for him to wait for him, I hope he can go to the Han State to serve as the Zhongshu Order, become the head of the Han State of the hundred officials.

Liu Jing's last words made Zhong Xuan's heart very confused, not disgusted, but he was a little difficult to accept for a while, and actually asked himself to do the Zhongshu Order, at this time, Sima Yi said sincerely on the side: "Duke Wei is only a year or two at most, now Cao Pi's ascension to the throne is a foregone conclusion, Cao Cao acquiesced to his initiation of the Jian'an Seven Sons Case, just don't want Cao Wei to have another mess in the future, once Cao Pi ascends the throne, I believe that the first person he wants to clean up is Zhong Gong, who will be deposed at least and imprisoned at worst, and Cao Pi's wolf ambition is very likely to abolish Han Liwei and become Han Chen, How can you watch the Han Dynasty perish, the Han King has the ambition to revive the Han Dynasty, and also has the strength to rebuild the Han Dynasty, whether Zhong Gong is for the country or the world, he should devote himself to the great cause of the revival of the Han Dynasty. ”

After a long time, Zhong Xuan let out a long sigh, "His Royal Highness the King of Han attaches so much importance to me, which is beyond my expectations, and I am deeply moved, but I am now Cao Envoy, and I am entrusted by the Duke of Wei, so it is against my principles of life to abandon Wei and join Han at this time, and it will also make the world laugh, I can only be very sorry." ”

Sima Yi said with a smile: "His Royal Highness the King of Han did not ask Zhong Gong to abandon Wei and join Han at this time, but only hoped that Zhong Gong would think that there was still a bright place when his life was at a low ebb. ”

Zhong Xuan reacted very quickly, and he immediately asked tentatively, "What does Zhong Da mean is that His Royal Highness the King of Han has already prepared?" ”

Sima Yi nodded, "The King of Han is already waiting in Chang'an, and it is impossible for Zhong Gong to return from the same way, but His Royal Highness the King of Han will never force Zhong Gong, but just let Zhong Gong have an explanation to Cao Cao, if Zhong Gong is unwilling to go to Chang'an, then I will immediately send an order to Jingzhou, cancel the interception, and let Zhong Gong decide, not hide from Zhong Gong, this is also one of the real purposes of my mission to Jiaozhou, we are not actually in Cao Cao and Liu Bei's alliance at all." ”

Only then did Zhong Xuan know that the purpose of Sima Yi's real mission to Jiaozhou was for himself, not to intercept him halfway, but to let himself continue to complete the mission, although it was only one of the reasons, but it was enough to move him, Liu Jing's sincerity made him unable to refuse, he pondered for a moment, and finally nodded, "Since His Royal Highness the King of Han is so kindly invited, I am willing to go to Chang'an by a different route." ”

Sima Yi was overjoyed, "Then it's a word, we will intercept Zhong Gong in Xiangyang and ask Zhong Gong to go to Chang'an." ”

Sima Yi's mission to Jiaozhou was not to undermine the alliance between Liu Bei and Cao Cao, in fact, the alliance between Liu Bei and Cao Cao had no impact on the strategy of the Han State, and it was impossible for Cao Cao to transport supplies to Jiaozhou, nor could he send troops from the north to respond to Jiaozhou when the Han army and the Jiaozhou army were fighting fiercely, in the final analysis, Cao Cao was just using Liu Bei and Jiaozhou to contain the Han army.

Therefore, Sima Yi sent an envoy to Jiaozhou for two purposes, one was to impress Zhong Xuan with sincerity and ask him to go to Chang'an, and the other was to confuse Jiaozhou and make Liu Bei think that the Han army was not in a hurry to attack Jiaozhou.

Therefore, he wanted to sign a border treaty with Jiaozhou, and early the next morning, Sima Yi personally visited the representatives of the Cham and barbarians in Panyu.

The Zhan and the barbarians are the two largest tribes in Jiaozhi, they support the Shixie family, hate Liu Bei, when Liu Bei occupied Jiaozhi and destroyed the Shijia, although the Zhan and barbarians resisted Liu Bei's recruitment, but on the other hand, they did not want to fight with Liu Bei's army, as a compromise between the two sides, the two major tribes also sent representatives to Panyu for a long time, which was reluctantly recognized as the lord of Jiaozhou, and they remained self-reliant, so that the two sides were at peace.

Just when Sima Yi went to visit the representatives of the Zhan and barbarians in Panyu, Liu Bei also officially received Zhong Xuan in the palace of the Yue king.

Zhong Miao was still bathing and changing clothes, making ceremonial preparations for the formal reception, while Liu Bei took advantage of this gap to talk with Zhuge Liang again to learn about Zhuge Liang's meeting with Sima Yi last night.

Liu Bei scoffed at Liu Jing's so-called goodwill, these are all official words, just listen to it, you can't take it seriously, he is more concerned about some practical interests, such as pig iron trade and so on.

Zhuge Liang said to Liu Bei: "Although Sima Yi expressed it very tactfully and found a lot of reasons, I understand what he meant, he is actually telling us that the Han Kingdom will not sell us pig iron again." ”

Liu Bei's face was extremely ugly, and he snorted heavily for a while, "What else did he say?" ”

"He also warned us not to seek Jian'an County, and he came to Jiaozhou this time to determine the border between the two countries with us."

"It's shameless, Jian'an County has always been directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, and it was forcibly occupied by Jiangdong, and the imperial court didn't admit it at all, and now that he has annexed Jiaozhou, is Jian'an County going to be annexed by him?"

Jian'an County is now Fujian Province, the territory is vast, covering almost the entire Fujian Province, due to the vast and sparsely populated area, Jian'an County has no Jiangdong garrison, Liu Bei sent troops to Jian'an County several times to try, and then withdrew, Jiangdong also sent a messenger at the beginning of the year to negotiate this matter.

Just when Liu Bei decided to send troops to occupy Jian'an County, the news of Jiangdong's demise came, which meant that Jian'an County already belonged to the Han State, so Liu Bei did not dare to act rashly.

At this time, Liu Bei's heart was angry and remorseful, Jiangdong had already proposed at the beginning of the year that he was willing to sell Jian'an County to Jiangdong with 200,000 stones and 10,000 taels of gold, but Liu Bei felt that there was no need to give so much grain and gold, and he could bargain with Jiangdong again, but the delay was too long, but they lost the only chance to get Jian'an County.

Now that Sima Yi arrived, he directly warned them not to seek Jian'an County, which made Liu Bei feel calm in his heart, Liu Bei paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, and it was difficult to hide the annoyance and anger in his heart.

Zhuge Liang also thought about this all night, he thought more deeply than Liu Bei, "Lord, please listen to Weichen's words, Sima Yi's envoy to Jiaozhou is not as simple as Jian'an County, if Liu Jing is really for Jian'an County, he directly sent troops to Jian'an County is the best warning, Weichen thinks that Sima Yi is just to paralyze us, let us think that the Han State is going to fight for the border with us, and think that the Han army will not attack us, so that we take it lightly, this is the real purpose of Sima Yi's envoy to Jiaozhou." ”

Zhuge Liang's words were like a basin of cold water poured on Liu Bei's head, which made him suddenly sober up, he was indeed a little confused, forgetting the threat that the Han army was going to attack Jiaozhou, but he went to worry about the belonging of Jian'an County.

"The military advisor is right, I'm really a little confused."

As soon as Liu Bei's voice fell, a guard reported outside the door, "Uncle Qi, Lin Juncheng has something important to report." ”

Lin Juncheng is called Lin Zhan, is a group of local literati promoted by Liu Bei in Jiaozhou, Lin Zhan is the eldest son of the Lin family in Nanhai County, only more than thirty years old, was appointed by Liu Bei as Nanhai County Cheng, he is responsible for accompanying Sima Yi this time, and is also monitoring Sima Yi, he has an urgent report, it must be related to Sima Yi, Liu Bei immediately ordered: "Let him in!" ”

After a while, Jun Cheng Lin Zhan walked in quickly, bowed down and saluted: "See the state pastor!" ”

"Is there anything wrong with Sima Yi?" Liu Bei asked.

"Back to Yuzhoumu, early this morning, Sima Yi went to visit the people of the Cham and barbarians."

"What?" Liu Bei was taken aback, Sima Yi actually went to visit the Cham and barbarians, what does this mean?

Zhuge Liang next to him asked unhurriedly: "What did they talk about, and how long did they talk about it?" ”

"I don't know what Weichen talked about, they talked in secret, and they talked for about half an hour."

As soon as Lin Zhan finished speaking, there was a report from the guards outside: "Uncle Qiqi, the people of the Zhan and barbarian tribes have hurriedly left the city and returned to the tribe." ”

"Bastard!"

Liu Bei gritted his teeth and scolded: "Liu Jing, is this trying to make an enemy for me?" ”

Zhuge Liang gave Lin Zhan a look and asked him to retreat first, and then Zhuge Liang said to Liu Bei: "Lord, this just proves that Weichen's inference is not wrong, Liu Jing is confusing us, making enemies for us, and making us think that Liu Jing wants to support the Zhan and barbarians to contain us, this is all a ploy, so that we are not prepared for war, and then the war will come suddenly." ”

Zhuge Liang's explanation this time did not make Liu Bei convinced, Liu Bei frowned and said: "The military division should think of this, it is not easy to attack Jiaozhou, the army is easy to be trapped in Jiaozhou, I believe Liu Jing also understands this, if I am Liu Jing, I will make enemies in Jiaozhou, in the past, it was the Shi family, and now there is no Shi family, then the Zhan and barbarians who are dissatisfied with us are the best candidates, there is an enemy inside, we dare not go north lightly, Liu Jing has no worries, and can go all out to attack Cao Cao, the military division, this is a good policy." ”

Zhuge Liang saw that Liu Bei was shaken, and he hurriedly said: "The lord underestimates Liu Jing too much, he will never put his fate in the hands of others"

Without waiting for Zhuge Liang to finish speaking, Liu Bei waved his hand, "This matter is very important, let's not rush to conclusions, let me think about it again." ”