In July of the fifth year of Emperor Liu Bei Zhangwu of the Han Dynasty, Taiwei Pang Tong personally led 7,000 elite infantry soldiers from Nanzheng, first followed the water to the east, transferred from Shiquan to the Meridian Valley, and traveled day and night to attack Guanzhong.

The reason why Pang Shiyuan made this risky plan was completely forced.

It is said that Liu Bei was called emperor shortly after Cao Wei Dynasty Han Dynasty, which was different from the original history, and did not set up the post of prime minister, but built three dukes according to the old system, with Pang Tong as the Taiwei, Xu Jing as the Situ, and Fa Zheng as the Sikong, and took this opportunity to rise and descend secretly, basically depriving Pang and Fa of their real power - the real administrative power is in the hands of Shang Shuling.

Because the Jingzhou faction headed by Pang Tong and the Dongzhou faction led by Fa Zheng attacked each other and competed for power, which caused Liu Xuande a lot of headaches - Qin Mi had a plan at the beginning, but unfortunately the symptoms were not cured. As Qin Mi said: "For example, there are many beasts in the forest, and it is possible to be embarrassed and seek to eat together; but when they eat little, they will fight with each other...... Today, the Ming Dynasty wants to defend itself, waiting for Wei Zhi to attack, defend and the people's hearts are afraid of chaos, and the people's hearts are chaotic and internal strife will arise. If the army is sent out from the outside, so that everyone has his own desires and each has his own take, and the internal strife will be settled. "When a force temporarily lacks the momentum of external expansion, it is difficult to contain internal strife.

Liu Bei did not want to "send troops outside", so that the ministers "each has his own desires, each has his own take", the problem is to make friends, make friends widely, and lose widely, and the south is not yet able to consolidate the situation for the country, and wants to join Lu Bu, but Lu Fengxian was fooled to the Western Regions...... He didn't have the strength to go on a large-scale Northern Expedition or an Eastern Expedition for the time being, so how could he dare to easily move troops against Cao Wei?

That's why he took the opportunity to become the emperor and put all the heads of the two factions in the high position of the three princes, but deprived him of real power, and put this contradiction down for the time being.

But Cao Wei has both friends and wide. Restoration of Liangzhou. It has formed a three-sided encirclement of Shuzhong. Sooner or later, troops will be sent to attack, and in this regard, the monarchs and ministers of Shu Han did not covet comfort and relaxed their vigilance. In particular, Cao Wei's time to win the country was still short, and there were still many scholars in the Central Plains who were inclined to Yan Liu, so the spies sent by Shu Han were like fish in water, and they were extremely active. Naturally, I also felt some clues.

When the news reached Chengdu, Liu Bei immediately summoned the ministers to discuss. Although Pang Tong and Fa Zheng lost control over specific affairs, they still had the right to speak on the country's major policies, and immediately launched a fierce debate in the court.

Fa Zheng's suggestion was to stick to Hanzhong, so that Cao's army could take advantage of the gaps and take the initiative to retreat, and then wait for the general trend of the world to change - or wait for Cao Cao to hang up. He said: "Yi Yun: 'Hit the door with a heavy door, wait for the mob, and cover all the plans. 'Now you can build a fortress on the mountain in Hanzhong. Seal the roads and wait for the enemy to come. Yu Wudu can order the hussar general (Ma Chao) to contact Qianghu. Flanking it may avoid the catastrophe of the coming day. ”

Pang Tongyi pouted: "Filial piety is straightforward, can you break the enemy?" ”

Turning around, he raised his wat to Liu Bei: "Your Majesty has entered Shu, he is ten years old, and the treasury is not yet full, there is hunger in the wilderness, and the department is not Nanyi and Qingqiang, but it is only 100,000 in number. If each is separated, how can Hanzhong 'reopen'? ”

The financial situation of Liu Bei's group is relatively bad, the reason is that in the past, Liu Zhang's rule of Shu was weak, which made the local wealthy and the central government hostile to each other, which in turn led to a long-term rebellion by Zhao Yun and others. In the original history, Liu Bei was able to send out more than 100,000 troops to crusade against Eastern Wu, and it came to an end, thanks to the accumulation of Jingzhou before entering Shu. But on this timeline, Liu Bei was basically a rootless grass before he entered Shu, and the little output of Shu alone was really not enough for him to consume.

The so-called "land of abundance" actually refers to a small area in the Chengdu Basin, where the soil is still fertile; Although it once attacked Jiaojiao and Guangzhou, the problem was that the place was too remote and barren, and it really did not produce much benefit to the central tax revenue.

Originally, after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Kongming ruled Shu alone with his genius ability, accumulated for several years under the premise that Cao Wei completely ignored him, and went down to Nanzhong, and finally got together 50,000 or 60,000 people to get out of Qishan - that had to rely on the flanks to have an ally Dongwu, and Meng Dazai, who secretly communicated with him, could not be defended without heavy troops. Now that Shu Han is surrounded by enemies on three sides, as Pang Tong said, it is impossible for you not to divide your troops to defend it, so how many people are left who can participate in the battle of Hanzhong? Can you stop Cao Wei from attacking in a big way?

There are also some words that Pang Tong did not say explicitly, that is, the current Taishou of Hanzhong and the governor of the north are Li Yan, who is the descendant of Fazheng. In terms of selfishness, he could not suppress the whole army in Hanzhong, thus greatly expanding the military power of the Dongzhou Party; On the public, he really doesn't look down on Li Yan. Li Zhengfang thinks too highly of himself, and he has a temperament with Fa Zheng, he is not good at interacting with people, and there are many contradictions with his colleagues - his subordinate general Wang Chong defected to Cao Wei because of this - although it is unlikely that Li Yan will be the main general in the battle of Hanzhong, but he is the head snake after all, the guest will enter the Han Dynasty, and what should I do if he is angry again?

Therefore, Pang Tong's suggestion was to attack Cao Wei first, in order to disrupt the rhythm of Cao's attack, and then have the opportunity to greatly kill and injure the enemy, so that Cao Wei would not dare to look at Shu Han for three or five years.

Pang Tong proposed to send troops on two routes, one by Ma beyond Wudu and in contact with Qianghu, in order to tie up the military forces of Cao Wei and Liangzhou, and the other by self-praise and oblique to take Guanzhong.

Fa Zheng immediately raised an objection, saying that it was okay to attack instead of defending, but I am afraid that it would not have much effect - "The slope is narrow, it is difficult for the army to move, and the enemy has ordered Tunyi County to take over, so I am afraid it will be difficult to get trouble." ”

Xu Shu, the general of the military division, proposed: "If you are worried that the road is narrow and difficult, you can go out of Qishan and follow the open road in Shanxi, and it is easy to transport." ”

Fa Zheng pouted: "If you come out of Qishan, it is to Tianshui, what is the difference between it and the hussars attacking Liangzhou?" "You can still only contain the strength of the other party's Liangzhou side, and you can still only defend the Yongzhou side - on the contrary, it weakens the forces that hold Hanzhong. So he turned to Liu Bei: "If you want to attack and defend, the only one who can come out is Liangzhou, please still take the right plan, so that the hussars can contact Qianghu, and the main force will stick to Hanzhong." ”

As a result, the two factions insisted on their own words in the court, argued endlessly, and discussed until dark but failed to come up with a plan acceptable to all parties. Liu Bei was forced to retreat from the court and return to the inner court, and was about to send someone to summon Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to return to the capital-to fight this kind of big battle, I should discuss it more with the old brothers--suddenly the eunuch came to report: "Taiwei asks to see." ”

Liu Bei hurriedly straightened out his clothes and greeted Pang Tong in person. When Pang Tong met, he asked, in today's controversy in the court, which side are you leaning into, Your Majesty? Liu Bei was silent - you yourself failed to convince Fa Xiaozhi, and now you are coming to force me to express your position, how can I tell you what is in my heart directly?

Pang Tong said: "It is difficult for His Majesty to choose. Today's trend, sitting on the guard will be overturned, to attack or can be safe, such as bears, raccoon dogs, bear power is twice as strong as raccoons, but it is not as good as skill, but it should be broken by skill, purely by strength, and there is a chance of winning? ”

Liu Bei said that I also want to play Hanzhong. However, although our army endured hard fighting, and the terrain in Hanzhong was good, after all, as you said, the treasury was not full enough, if Cao Wei had accumulated enough to fight for a whole year, we estimated that we would go bankrupt in five months, how could we defend for a long time without counterattacking? It's just that what Xiaozhi said also makes sense, sending troops to Wudu, but disrupting the deployment of the other party's Liangzhou side, and its main force is in Yongzhou - but people guard Yongzhou like an iron bucket, we can't fight at all? What can I do?

Pang Tong replied: "There is no invincible city in the world, and it is rare to guard without gaps. I don't know if Your Majesty will listen? ”

When Liu Bei heard this, his eyes couldn't help but light up, and he said, Have you found a weakness in the opponent's defense? Hurry up and listen to me.

Pang Tong lowered his voice and said: "From Hanzhong to Yong, many ways are feasible, although they are all dangerous and narrow, they must be highlighted, or they can make contributions." Now I heard that the thief made the road to guard the county, and if he would have ears, I could cover thousands of elite soldiers out of the meridian to destroy it. And Xiahou Tang returned to Luo due to illness, and Chang'an left only his son Xiahou Nan. Xiahou Nan's son-in-law, mediocre and cowardly, when he hears that our army is coming, even if he does not abandon the city and leave, he will not dare to go out. The food of the Hengmen Mansion and the scattered people is enough for the Zhou army, Xu Huang, Zhang He, etc. will also abandon the base to save the east, and then the scattered pass, Bao Xie, and Fu Luo can all run rampant! ”

The basic idea is the same as the "Meridian Valley Strategy" in the original history.

The history books commented that Pang Tong was "elegant and good, and he studied and thought about it", and said that he was "seeing success or failure, and having strange paintings and calculations", and also said that "Wei Chen is proposed, and Uncle Zhong of Xun Yu is unified, and Zheng Qi Cheng and Guo Zhi are evil?" In fact, the evaluation is not precise enough, because Xun Yu has never led soldiers, but Pang Tong has fought, and the two are incomparable. And according to Pang Tong's persuasion of Liu Bei to capture Liu Zhang during the banquet, and after Liu Bei and Liu Zhang officially turned their faces, he proposed three strategies for Liu Bei to choose, the best strategy is to "select elite soldiers, day and night, and attack Chengdu", it can be seen that this person's "strange painting strategy" is not under the law, and he dares to take risks - just he died without getting the opportunity to use it.

Therefore, it is not surprising that he secretly proposed to Liu Bei today that he would go out of the Meridian Valley and raid Chang'an. At the moment, he analyzed his detailed plans to Liu Bei one by one, and said, there is no surprise now, it is a hundred deaths, and it is possible to have a glimmer of vitality only if you are willing to take risks, depending on whether Your Majesty is willing to take risks.

Liu Xuande is also a gambler-and he has been doing it all his life, not taking risks, not working hard, so he can't come out at all-when he hears Pang Tong say everything, and he can't help but bow his head. But such a big matter, it's not easy to decide in a private room, Liu Bei said, you let me think about it again, and give you an answer tomorrow.

Before Pang Tong said goodbye, he took care of Liu Bei first, saying that such a strange plan should not be conspired with the public, so as not to leak - once it is leaked, so that the other party is on guard, it will be completely ineffective. The implication is that you may want to discuss with the Fazheng, but don't mind!

Pang Tong went out here, Liu Bei was still checking the map, carefully considering, and suddenly the eunuch reported again: "Sikong asks to see you." ”

Fa Zheng and Pang Tong came in front and back, and asked: "I heard that Pang Shiyuan begged Your Majesty, do you have to send troops to Yongzhou?" Liu Beixin said that filial piety is really sensitive, and he was wondering whether to reveal Pang Tong's plan to him, Fa Zhengyi lowered his head, saw the map on Liu's record, and couldn't help sneering: "I expect Shiyuan to say Your Majesty, you can make the strange soldiers out of the Meridian Valley to force Chang'an." Lu Zhao generals, Xiahou Nan Yongcai, or can smash the heart of the thief, so that Zhang He and Xu Huang can respond in panic, then praise and Fu Luo, all can be passed! (To be continued.) )