The news of Xun's harassment of Huiji's coastal area did not reach Wu County at this time - on the one hand, Chun Yushi and others did not know the enemy's situation, and they did not dare to bother Sun Quan, who was still on the south bank of the Yangtze River to attract Caojia Huainan's troops, and on the other hand, it was also destined by the low traffic situation and communication technology. If this is still the case between Wu and Hui, then Jingzhou and Yangzhou are thousands of miles apart, and they are even more like a world apart, and the three battlefields of Caojia Jingxiang, Huainan and Donghai cannot cope with each other at all.

In fact, at this time, Cao Cao had just received the news that Liu Bei had already entered Chengdu City, and Liu Zhang's army was defeated and surrendered. Let's say that Liu Beijun is surrounded on all sides, and it has been half a year since he besieged Chengdu, Liu Zhang couldn't bear it for a long time, crying and clamoring to open the city and surrender, but was stopped by his son Liu Xun, as well as the generals Zhang Ren and Liu Bi, Wang Lei, Liu Ba and others, saying that there are still 30,000 soldiers and horses in the city, enough food and grass for a year, how can it be reasonable to bow down? I heard that Prime Minister Cao Cheng had led the army south to attack Jingxiang, so why not send an envoy to ask for help, so that the prime minister sent a partial division from Nanyang to the west to take Xicheng and Shangyong, with the back of Bo Liu Bei and Zhang Lu, then Liu Bei would inevitably lead the army to retreat.

It's just that judging from the traffic situation in these years, even if Liu Zhang's envoy can go out of the city and go to Nanyang, Cao Cao really sends reinforcements to come, it will be a few months later. Moreover, Cao Cao is in the midst of a confrontation with Liu Biao, Huang Zu, and Zhou Yu, but he doesn't have enough soldiers and food, so how can he have the spirit to reinforce Liu Zhang at this time? Therefore, he just politely appeased the envoy, asking him to go back to tell Liu Zhang, defend the city well, and when I pacify Jingzhou, I will definitely go to the rescue.

The blank check was issued to Chengdu, and Liu Zhang wanted to cry without tears. In the battle to defend the city exactly a few days later, Liu Xun stood at the head of the city to supervise. Unfortunately, he was killed by a stray arrow. Liu Zhang was stupid on the spot. So at the instigation of Fei Guan, Wu Yi, Huang Quan, Li Yan and others from the surrender faction, they finally opened the city gate and bound themselves to surrender.

Liu Bei triumphantly beat his horse into Chengdu, whipped his finger and pointed at a person, and said to a person beside him: "I have this Xiongcheng, and I have Shu land, but I can fight against Cao thieves." The man arched his hand: "Xuande, why don't you just get up and go east with the victorious division." Destroy the Cao army and enter the dynasty to defend the Son of Heaven? ”

This person who hurriedly asked Liu Bei to send troops to Jingzhou was not a bystander, but a famous man in the world, Kong Rong and Kong Wenju. Previously, Kong Rong was in Jingzhou, persuading Liu Biao and Liu Bei to eliminate their suspicions and join forces to fight Cao - Kong Rong is not used to Liu Biao, but he hates Cao Cao even more, and always feels that if your Liu family is determined to set the world, it will definitely not be like Cao Mou. Liu Biao didn't pay much attention to Kong Rong at first, but was later forced by Cao Cao to be anxious. So he had to pinch his nose and send Kong Rong to make Shu.

Although Kong Rong and Liu Bei are new acquaintances, they have been famous for a long time - I think it was Tai Shi Ci and Shi Xun who asked Liu Bei for help. sent Guan Yu to relieve the siege of Duchang and save Kong Rong's life. Therefore, the dignified Kong Wenju had a trace of gratitude for Liu Bei, who was from a humble background, and asked first when he met: "After hearing that Xuande is the king of Zhongshan, yes, yes?" ”

Of course, Liu Bei will not deny this kind of rumor, and he will show Kong Rong on the spot the family tree that has only been newly sorted out in the past few years - it is not a forgery, but he has been in a state of despair for a long time, and the original text that proves his dragon son and phoenix grandson has long been lost. However, Kong Rong waved his hand and said that there is no need for me to believe you, then I hope you will quickly send troops to help Liu Biao and expel Cao Cao's forces.

Kong Rong said, Liu Jingsheng has no ambitions, and he also has a history of arrogating the honor guard of the Son of Heaven, I didn't want to save him, but I was afraid that after Cao Cao annexed Jingzhou, it would be even more difficult to control, or do Wang Mang's things. Since Xuande is also a member of the Han family, and there has never been any evil deeds, then I hope you can stand up and declare war on Cao Cao on behalf of the clansmen. In the future, if you help the Son of Heaven and revive the foundation of the Han family, you can be the Marquis of Zhu Xu!

Liu Bei seemed to be very excited by Kong Rong's lobbying, but then he frowned, saying that I am now attacking Chengdu, if I can't take it, the rear will not be stable, let alone rescue Liu Biao and fight against Cao Cao, even my own safety is difficult to protect - "I want to get all Shu first, and then take Hanzhong, this Gaozu's ......" I want to talk about Gaozu's foundation, but fortunately, he is not too careless, so he quickly swallowed it raw-"The former Gaozu sent Han Xin to break Chu, and he was based on this. "It's so hanging, I can only compare myself to Han Xin, not to Gao Zu, otherwise Kong Rong will have to throw up his sleeves and leave.

Therefore, Liu Bei sent Guan Yu as the main general, Xiahou Su and Chen Zhiyan Yan as deputy generals, Xu Shu and Jian Yong as staff officers, and led 7,000 soldiers and horses down the river to rescue Jingxiang. When we finally won Chengdu, Kong Rong said Let's go east in a big way, right? Liu Bei smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Although Chengdu has been won, the people's hearts are undecided, and the soldiers are tired, and the grain and grass are not continued, so Anke will go to the army?" Kong Gong should not be in a hurry. ”

So at this time, Cao Cao was facing the combined forces of Liu Biao, Zhou Yu and Guan Yu, with a total of about 80,000. However, Liu Biao did not trust these guest troops, and he shrank the main force back to Xiangyang, but let Zhou Yu and Guan Yutun be stationed near Yicheng in the south.

Zhou Yu proposed to build a yì, abandon Xiangyang and retreat south to Jiangling, and then fight a decisive battle with Cao Cao. Because Xiangyang uses the Han River as a barrier, and the Han River waterway is narrow, the sailors of Jiangdong and Jiangxia cannot be arranged at all, so they can only build a fortress on the river bank and defend passively. After a long time, the two counties of Nanjun and Jiangxia had to supply the grain and grass of the 80,000 army, which was simply overstretched, and Cao Cao could also try to cross from the upper reaches of the Han River and go around to the rear of Xiangyang - you can't block all the Han Water for such a long time.

Jiangling is different, it was originally an important town in Jingzhou, Liu Biao in order to force the Zhang family of the four counties in the south of the Yangtze River, for many years to use Jiangling as a base to repair the city, accumulate grass and store grain, in terms of its own defense capability, it is not under Xiangyang. Moreover, Jiangling is close to the Yangtze River, Yunmengze to the east, and Jiangxia to the east, not only can a solid defense line be built by virtue of natural hazards, but the sailors of Jiangdong and Jiangxia can also go up and down at will, find a suitable wedge point at any time to land on the north bank, and deal a heavy blow to Cao's army.

It's useless for us to just defend, I'm afraid that before Cao Cao is consumed, we will have to exhaust it first. It is necessary to rely on the Yangtze River and Jiangling to play defensive counterattacks in order to have the possibility of victory.

At this time, the layout of the southern coalition army was in the form of a long snake, with the head in Xiangyang and the tail in Jiangxia, and its snake body was the long and tortuous Han water. If Cao Cao's forces are not sufficient, not only will he attack the head and move the tail, and the tail will move the head, and it will be difficult to defeat the Jiangdong and Jiangxia joint naval divisions that have an absolute advantage in attacking the central part of the country, but they will also be coiled up by this snake and locked firmly, and it will be very difficult to retreat. However, recently received news that Cao Cao successively transferred troops from the north to the south, claiming to be 400,000 - even if it was discounted, it would be nearly three times the number of the coalition army. The waterway between Xiangyang and Jiangxia is nearly 1,000 miles apart, and no matter how sophisticated the naval division is, the operation and mobilization of troops will not be the work of three or two days. To put it bluntly, the snake body is too long, so the nerves are also large, and the efficiency of looking at each other is much lower.

Zhou Yu could already guess the strategy that Cao Cao might adopt, and eighty percent of them were to gather half of the soldiers and horses first, and march east and west with Tai Shici and Lu Su to seek Jiangxia. Jiangxia's troops are relatively thin, and the county rule Xiling is still some distance away from the Yangtze River and Hanshui, so it will be difficult to defend for a long time, and not only the naval army, but even the army in Xiangyang may be forced to send a part of the past to rescue. After Cao Cao got the news, he could personally lead the remaining main force to Xiangyang - it was easy for the sailors to go down the river, but it was more difficult to go back against the water, and he had a lot of opportunities to break through the Hanshui defense line and even break through Xiangyang.

The coalition's way of arming is not so much a long snake as a dumbbell, with large ends and small middles, and the bell bar in the middle is too long, and it will be unbalanced if you are not careful.

So what if you abandon Yangyang and shrink to Gangneung? First, the length of the middle bell bar can be shortened by one-third, and second, the Yangtze River is vast, which is convenient for boats to travel.

Zhou Yu wrote to Liu Biao, proposing this construction, Liu Biao asked the generals, Guan Yu agreed with Zhou Yu's proposition, Huang Zu also said that this plan can be adopted, but the Kuai family and the Cai family, which are based in Nanjun, are resolutely opposed - if you really want to retreat to Jiangling, that is, you will throw away most of the Nanjun for nothing, and our family and relatives are here, if it falls into the hands of Cao Cao, then how can we fight?

Cai Mao ran directly to Liu Biao and said: "Zhou Yu's heart is unpredictable, and he wants to annex our army. The Sun family has a grudge against me for killing my father, and now I have no choice but to save it, it will not be sincere, and the lord should not listen to it. Liu Biao himself did not have the courage to break the jars, so he immediately rejected Zhou Yu's construction.

Zhou Yu had no choice but to go directly to Guan Yu to discuss, Guan Yu stiffened his neck, and said Since Liu Jingsheng doesn't trust us, then why are we still staying here? "It's better to retreat, Jun will guard Jiangxia as the Jiangdong barrier, and I will retreat to curb Zigui and Wuxian, and close the door to Shu."

Zhou Yu smiled bitterly and said I want to too, if it weren't for the righteousness of the cold lips and teeth, I Jiangdong would have a grudge against Liu Jingzhou, who would be impatient to come to save him? "However, if Jingzhou is lost, then Cao Thief East can attack Jiangdong, and West can covet Bashu, and we will die forever."

Guan Yu is an invincible general in front of the two armies, but when it comes to strategic planning and political struggle, he is far inferior to Zhou Yu, so he has no choice but to spread his hands at the moment: "What can I do?" "I'm just complaining, my lord has no order to retreat, how dare I really give up Jingzhou? But now, although it is known as a coalition army, it is actually still a plate of scattered sand, so how can you engage Cao Cao in this way? Gong Jin, do you have any ideas?

Zhou Yu said that there was no clever strategy, but there was a helpless plan, so he immediately approached Guan Yu, and said so, asking Guan Yu to assist in the implementation. Guan Yu nodded again and again, and immediately summoned Xu Shu in: "Yuan Zhike will immediately lead Gongjin to Longzhong." (To be continued......)