Cao Cao since Jian'an eight years of Youzhou, after the destruction of the Yuan family, that is, temporarily rest the army and raise horses, focus on the construction of internal affairs, after nearly two years, the Central Plains is rough, the people are a little peaceful, then think of leading the army to the south, drinking the Yangtze River. The first target of attack was Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao.

Soon after Dingyou the year before last, Cao Cao sent envoys Jing and Yang in the name of the imperial court, and Zhang Xiu, Liu Biao, Sun Quan and others sent protons to Xu to show their submission to the imperial court. Zhang Xiu obediently sent his son Zhang Quan, but Liu Biao and Sun Quan were perfunctory and refused to obey their orders. So at the beginning of the tenth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao officially submitted an ultimatum to Liu Biao - since you don't plan to send your son to the capital, then forget it, you can come by yourself.

Of course, Liu Biao will not obey his fate, he knows that as long as he goes to Xudu, even if he does not become a prisoner, he will be placed under house arrest, and the eight counties of Jingzhou will fall into the hands of Cao Cao. Kong Rong was in Jingzhou and had various disagreements with Liu Biao, but in the face of this matter, he also tried his best to dissuade Liu Biao from falling into Cao Cao's trap. Kong Rong also built Liu Biaodong and Sun Quan, and Liu Bei in the west to oppose Cao Cao.

Liu Biaozhi and Sun Quan have a grudge against their father, and Jiangdong has sent troops to attack Jiangxia Huangzu many times, so it is still quite difficult to want Sun and Liu to unite. Kong Rongnai invited himself to Wu to lobby, but unfortunately Liu Biao refused to let him go. However, Liu Bei, who had already entered Shu, was deeply afraid that Liu Biao would make an agreement with Liu Zhang, and sent troops to copy his back road, so he sent Sun Qian, Jian Yong and others back to Xiangyang many times to contact the feelings of the two families.

Naturally, Cao Cao couldn't hide this kind of thing, so Cao Cao hoped to launch a thunderous blow to Liu Biao's regime before the Sun and Liu families had released their previous suspicions, and Liu Bei had not yet occupied the entire Yizhou. The specific plan is to send troops into Wanwan in the middle of summer. Mentor with Zhang Xiu. immediately swept the whole county of Nanyang. Wait for the autumn. That is, to supply the army with the grain of Nanyang, Chen Bing on the east bank of the Han River, forced Liu Biao's main force to come to the decisive battle. If Liu Biao does not come out, he will take the opportunity to advance with Tai Shici and Lu Su to attack Jiangxia and collect Huang Zu's army for his own use.

What if Liu Biao's main force is dispatched? It would be easier to do, east of the Han River, north of the Green Forest Mountain, and a large plain. It is conducive to the Cao family's cavalry to destroy Liu Biao, and it is not embarrassing. Immediately, he crossed the river and attacked Xiangyang with the momentum of victory. Xiangyang is under the city, the next target is Jiangling, a large number of materials and equipment in Jingzhou are stored in Jiangling, so that the water division can be strengthened, Liu Bei in the west, and Jiangdong in the east. To this end, Cao Cao also communicated with Guò Shixun's introduction and sent people to contact Changsha Huanjie and others. Make it an internal response.

After Zhang Xian's death, his son Zhang Yi was defeated soon after. In order to stabilize the hearts of the people in the four counties south of the Yangtze River, Liu Biao temporarily appointed Zhang Xian's younger brother Zhang Ji and Zhang Zhongjing as Changsha Taishou and made an excess. But not long after, he kicked Zhang Zhongjing away, and reappointed him as a close confidant Han Xuan, so that Huang Zhong assisted him. Huan Jie's was Zhang Xian's confidant, after the fall of Zhang's regime, he resigned and went into hiding, Liu Biao wanted to call him to engage in sacrificial wine, Huan Jiejian refused to obey, and wanted to be his wife Cai's wife, but he was still politely refused.

Why does Liu Biao look up to Huan rank so much? That's because Huan Boxu is the biggest local powerful and powerful figure in Changsha County after the defeat of the Zhang family, Han Xuan and Huang Zhong are both outsiders, if they can't win over or suppress this kind of powerful landlords, local governance will be hindered. It's just that Huanjie's posture is: I can not mess with you for the time being, but if I want to turn my back on the old master and follow Liu Biao's old thief, it is really a fool's dream!

Therefore, Cao Cao secretly contacted Huanjie, so that Huanjie lobbied Wuling Taishou Liu Rui, Guiyang Taishou Zhao Fan, Lingling Taishou Liu Du, etc., and demanded that once the imperial court army marched south, you and others would all watch from the wall, and not send a single soldier to Jiangbei. These three guards were originally Zhang Xian's allies, and Zhang's father and son were forced to obey Liu Biao after their defeat, but in fact, Enwei was not written, and the two hearts were still there, so they expressed their willingness to obey the order of the imperial court.

So Cao Cao is full of confidence in defeating Liu Biao. After the plan was formulated, he also sent someone to Youzhou secretly to inquire about Shixun's opinion. Shixun only replied to Cao Cao with eight words, that is, "Jingzhou is undecided, don't go to Jiangdong." ”

In the original history, Cao Cao did not march south to Liu Biao until four years later, and then he walked halfway, Liu Biao hung up, and his two sons Liu Qi and Liu Cong competed, and Jingzhou was divided. So Liu Cong faced Cao Cao's army and was forced to surrender, and Cao Cao took Xiangyang and Jiangling almost bloodlessly, and nominally subdued the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River. In the entire Jingzhou, only Jiangxia is still in the hands of Liu Bei and Liu Qi. If Cao Cao took advantage of the momentum of victory at this time and conquered Jiangxia with the momentum of thunder, the 20,000 or 30,000 people under Liu Bei would not be able to bear it at all.

But Cao Cao was carried away by the victory, and he was still chasing Liu Bei here, so he sent someone to Jiangdong to say surrender, and said: "Those who are close to him are punished for their crimes, and Liu Cong is restrained." There are 800,000 people in the Imabari water army, and Fang and the general will hunt in Wu. "That means, have you seen the fate of Cousin Liu's father and son? If you don't surrender quickly, when?

When Cao Cao beat Liu Biao, only Lu Su advocated going to wait and see if he could get the opportunity to jointly resist Cao, Zhou Yu had not yet expressed his opinion, and Zhang Zhao and others were all interested in the imperial court. If Cao Cao didn't deliberately provoke them, the surrendering faction would definitely be able to find all kinds of excuses to prevent Sun Quan from sending troops, and then there would be no such thing as Sun Liu uniting and Chibi to fight the army. However, Cao Cao threatened with such a threat, and Jiangdong had to quickly put the matter of how to deal with Cao Bing on the agenda, so the main battle faction barely gained the upper hand.

But even in this case, except for Lu Su, including Zhou Yu, no one really thought of joining forces with Liu Bei. In terms of Zhou Yu's attitude, he clearly felt that Liu Bei was weak and could be caught as cannon fodder, and after he was defeated, it would not be too late to swallow him in one bite. It is conceivable that if the opposite side is not the poor Liu Bei but the justifiable lord of Jingzhou, Liu Biao, Zhou Yu is likely to be reluctant to agree to the alliance, and even if he agrees, this alliance is only a superficial article.

Cao Cao is still fighting Jingzhou, my Dongwu will help you drive Cao Cao away, and you Liu Biao still occupy the eight counties of Jingzhou, is it good for us? Everyone understands this truth, but when it comes to facing it, how many people are willing to take the fire for their allies, and don't want to take the opportunity to stab them in the back?

Therefore, it is Xun who advised Cao Cao that you have to wait until Jingzhou is basically pacified, and after you firmly hold the Jingzhou naval army in your hands, it is not too late to provoke Jiangdong.

Cao's army is strong, plus Jingzhou's surrender, why did it lose so badly in Chibi? The most important reason is that Cao Jun is proud of his quick victory, and the Jingzhou Navy is suspicious. If Cao Cao could stabilize Jiangdong first, and could have a period of rest and rectification in Jingzhou, he might not have suffered such a big defeat.

At this time, the general trend of the world was not exactly the same as before the Battle of Chibi in the original history, but it was impossible for Xun to warn Cao Cao to beware of the southeast wind and Huang Gai's fraudulent surrender, so he could only rely on the analysis of the reasons for Cao Cao's defeat by later generations, and gave such a proposal. As for whether Cao Cao listens to it or not, he can't decide this matter, as for whether Jiangdong will have any other strongmen without Lu Zijing, whether he will really be willing to take advantage of Liu Biao's anger and reject Cao Cao, there is no way to judge whether it is Xun - anyway, my ability is so great, and I will fulfill my responsibility.

Because it was Xun who put all his energy on the affairs of the Eastern Expedition to the Liaodong Gongsun Clan.

Because Cao Cao had no generals under Xun, he immediately sent Xiahou Yuan to help - in that place in Liaodong, there were many cavalry, and there were large plains to gallop on, and it was a place where the best talents could be used. As for the battle in the Han River valley, it is impossible to discharge too many cavalry after all - there are no horses in the local area, and no one knows whether the northern and southern horses will be unsuitable for water and soil - and the infantry battle will still be the mainstay, so you should not go for now.

Xiahou Yuan pondered, Gongsun Du is also the governor of a state, Liu Biao is also the governor of a state, which is not Ping, of course, I have to pick the most suitable battlefield for me to fight, so I gladly accepted the order. But who would have expected that he hurried to Shoushan, and heard that Xiangping City had been taken, and the Gongsun clan had fled—I had run for nothing, and I couldn't catch anything!

So Xiahou Miaocai came to see Shixun with a black face. Shi Xun understood his thoughts, and hurriedly comforted: "Although Liaodong is peaceful, the war has not ended, I will rest for a while, and I will take Lelang in the south, and there is no shortage of wonderful talents." Xiahou Yuan shook his head: "The prime minister has a life, so he doesn't have to go to Lelang." ”

On that day, Xun had just sent troops, and when the news reached Lelang, Liu Yi wrote to ask for reinforcements, but was rejected by Gongsun Kang - Yang Yi was afraid that Liu Zi would just come back to seize his power, so he did everything possible to stop him. After Liu Yi got the news, he was angry and disappointed - but he had just been fighting with Shixun recently by relying on business, and he had no intention of helping, just to find out, so since you don't accept my affection, then forget it, I will withdraw from your broken ship as soon as possible!

Liu Yi sent people to Dengzhou by sea, and then rushed to Xudu by land, expressing his willingness to break away from the camp of the Gongsun clan and return to the imperial court, on the condition that he was officially worshiped as Lelang Taishou, and promised that it would not be easier to commit no major crimes. Liu Yi's meaning, anyway, the place is remote, and the court has no heart to win, it is better to let me be the emperor of Lelang, I will not be like Gongsun Du, arrogant the honor guard of the Son of Heaven, I have no son, I will not pass on the descendants, and when I die, or after I am tired of playing, the court can take back the power.

Cao Cao was busy planning the southern expedition to Liu Biao, and he was originally not very satisfied with Shi Xun's sudden attack on Liao at this juncture. However, taking advantage of the death of Gongsun Du to take Pingzhou, it is not a chance to be lost, so Cao Cao does not blame in writing, but just hopes that Xun will not expand the war anymore - if it is protracted, I will not have the soldiers and horses and the strength to reinforce you. Therefore, Xiahou Yuan sent a message, saying that the imperial court agreed with Liu Yi's surrender in principle, and you don't need to play Lelang anymore.

Shi Xun couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this--this time he sent troops for both public and private purposes, and the place for private affairs was not in Liaodong, but in Lelang. How can this be done without playing music? It's just that after a long silence, he suddenly twisted his beard and smiled: "I want to do it without levy, and Le Lang can not go down." (To be continued......)