Li Yan put down the letter, supported his forehead with his hand, and kneaded his sore eyebrows with his fingers.

Wei Ba's suggestion made his heart pound.

Li Yan himself knew very well that the Battle of Xiangyang was not so much a battle for merit, but more of an excuse, an excuse for not allowing Zhuge Liang to make meritorious contributions. With the 20,000 or 30,000 people under Meng Da and others, it is impossible to conquer Xiangyang, let alone shake Wancheng. If he can contain a part of the Wei army and turn the main battlefield of Guanzhong into a bystander, his goal will be achieved.

That's why he didn't lead the troops to fight himself, but left the opportunity to Meng Da.

But Wei Ba's suggestion gave him another choice.

If he personally sent troops to Xiangyang, he could take another 20,000 people from Chengdu and Yong'an, plus the garrison in Xincheng, there would be nearly 50,000 people. Wei Ba assisted from the side, without too much, sending 10,000 people, plus sufficient grain and grass, it was entirely possible for him to conquer Xiangyang, go straight to Wancheng, turn the virtual into reality, and a real big battle.

This is undoubtedly more influential than the impact that Meng Da can have by sending troops.

"Is Wei Ba sincere?" Li Yan asked again.

"I think it's real." Fox Zhong replied patiently. Wei Ba was very unoptimistic about the battle of Xiangyang, and he thought that Meng Da and others were extremely risky. In order to allow Zhao Tong to go deep into Nanjun and support the army, he made very big concessions to Sun Quan, and even transferred the jishu of the thunderbolt and the ballista. Despite this, I don't think he is optimistic about the future of the war, and it is reasonable to make this suggestion. If the hussar general goes out in person, he can mobilize Wei Ba to respond, and the number of troops will increase. The supply of food and wages will also be more abundant, and the odds of victory will be greatly increased. ”

Li Yan's eyes flickered, he knew what Hu Zhong said, otherwise he wouldn't be moved. But he was also worried that Wei Ba had ulterior motives for doing this, he returned to Chengdu so easily, if the foundation was not stable and he had to leave, what if Zhuge Liang suddenly came back?

"Yinjun, what do you see?"

Yin Fan smiled: "The plan is indeed a good plan. This Zhennan general became famous as a young man. The limelight is too strong. If he participates in the war, his undefeated record will have another great victory in Xiangyang. The last time he teamed up with Lu Xun, he almost conquered Xiangyang, and this time he joined forces with the hussar general, and Xiangyang was not captured. ”

Li Yan's eyebrows twitched. I heard something else. The last time Wei Ba attacked Xiangyang, it was the Prime Minister's Mansion who joined the army. But he became the biggest hero of the Battle of Xiangyang. Now that Wei Ba is already a Zhennan general with great achievements, wouldn't he want to steal the limelight from him?

And the siege of Xiangyang mentioned by Yinbo made him even more vigilant. In order to conquer Xiangyang City. Lu Xun was put on the side by Wei Ba, and as a result, Soochow suffered heavy losses. If Wei Ba put him together again this time, wouldn't he be as unlucky as Lu Xun? If this is the case, Wei Ba's suggestion is ill-intentioned, and he may be instructed by others.

However, without Wei Ba's help, Li Yan really had no certainty of victory.

The temptation is great, the risk is also great, and Li Yan is very entangled. After discussing with Yinbo and Huzhong for a long time, he decided to start preparations first, and while asking people to write to Bixia, asking him to personally lead the troops to the battle, he also sent someone to inform Meng Da, asking him to step up his efforts to spy on the movements of the Wei army in Nanyang to see how many troops the Wei army had. If the strength of the Wei army is insufficient, there is no need for Wei Ba to have a great chance of success, which is undoubtedly the best choice.

Just when Li Yan was struggling with whether to go out in person, Zhuge Liang's military report arrived again. Chen Shi was surrounded by Zhang He in Xiao Pass, if he did not ask for help in time, Xiao Pass was in danger of being lost, and the 10,000 elites led by Chen Shi may also be wiped out because of the lack of food, I hope Li Yan can allocate grain and grass as soon as possible to ensure that Guanzhong is safe.

Li Yan didn't hesitate too much and immediately agreed to Zhuge Liang's request. He himself is also very aware of the importance of Guanzhong, once Guanzhong is lost, even if Zhuge Liang carries this responsibility, he can't forgive himself.

Of course, Li Yan is very measured, the grain and grass he allocated is only enough for Zhuge Liang to relieve the siege of Xiaoguan, if he wants to take the opportunity to get out of Longyou, it will definitely not be enough. He also wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang, and now the Zhennan general Wei Ba has proposed a new strategy, which I think makes sense, and specially asked the prime minister to discuss it.

In order to show his attention to this matter, Li Yan sent Hu Zhong, who joined the army, to Guanzhong in person and discussed with Zhuge Liang in person.

……

Xinye, Sima Yi stood on a dirt slope, looking at the gradually yellowing crops in the field, his brows furrowed. The autumn harvest will be more than a month away, and the autumn harvest means that there will be grain, and with grain, it means that the war is about to start again. Guanzhong has been in a stalemate for almost a year, and because of Cao Zhi's life-threatening blow, the situation in Guanzhong is now favorable to Cao Wei. Zhang He surrounded Xiao Pass, waiting for Zhuge Liang to come to the rescue, with Zhuge Liang's current strength, the two sides may have a tragic fight, and the result of the fight will make Shu Han's forces in Guanzhong even weaker, and even more unable to cope with the next attack of Wei.

However, Sima Yi was not happy about this.

Although Cao Zhi died, the Son of Heaven's willingness to reuse the clan was stronger, and from Cao Zhi's body, he saw Liliang of the same bloodline, and temporarily suppressed his vigilance against the clan. If Zhang He achieves another great victory, then the children of those generals will inevitably be reused, and the interests of the family in the army will be further squeezed.

In addition to the clan and the warriors, there are also discordant voices within the family. Wu Zhenwei, the general of Zhenwei who guarded Hebei, wrote to the Son of Heaven before his death, praising him that Sima Yi was a minister of the society, and Sikong Chen Qun, who was also an auxiliary minister with him, was just a calm person, not a talent of the state minister. This gave him a chance to re-enter the sight of the Son of Heaven, but it also estranged him from Chen Qun. Under the influence of Chen Qun, the Son of Heaven accepted Wu Zhen's suggestion and gave Wu Zhen the nickname of "ugly".

This made Wu Zhen's son Wu Ying unacceptable, refused to bury Wu Zhen, wrote a letter to defend himself, and asked him for help. This made Sima Yi very difficult. There is clearly Chen Qun's shadow behind this matter, but more importantly, the attitude of the Son of Heaven, if he writes to intercede for Wu Qian, he will not only turn his face with Chen Qun, but also cause the displeasure of the Son of Heaven. But if he doesn't intercede for Wu Qian, then the Wu family will definitely turn against him.

Sima Yi couldn't cry or laugh, knowing that he had fallen for the Son of Heaven. Obviously, the Son of Heaven was very unhappy about the matter between him and Wu Zhen, and took this opportunity to embarrass him.

For this matter, Sima Shi had a serious conflict with the Wu family in the past two days, and the Wu family denounced their father and son for being ungrateful, accepted the dowry of more than 2,000 elite tribes, and regained their strength, but at this time they refused to defend her father.

This gave Sima Yi a lot of headaches, and he also regretted his decision to marry Wu for Sima Shi in the first place. Wu Zhen is a scoundrel, and his daughter is also a, who doesn't have a door on her lips, and sooner or later she will cause trouble.

"Father!" Sima Shi galloped to the front of the slope, turned over and dismounted, and handed over a secret report: "Chengdu secret report." ”

"There's news from Yinbo?" Sima Yi was taken aback, hurriedly opened the secret report, read it carefully, and his eyes became solemn: "Is it possible for Wei Ba to participate in the war?" ”

"Well, it is said that he was worried about his brother Wei Feng, so he spared no expense and made a huge concession to Sun Quan." Sima Shi wiped the sweat from his forehead, and his face was a little ugly: "No wonder Sun Quan hasn't sent any news recently, I think he probably moved his heart to let Wei Ba enter Nanjun." ”

"If Wei Ba enters Nanjun, the strength of our army will be insufficient." Sima Yiqu flicked the secret report in his hand, and muttered: "Li Yan and Wei Ba join forces, and the total strength may reach 50,000 or even 60,000, not only Xiangyang City is dangerous, but Wancheng may not be protected." The war is probably three points more dangerous than Guanzhong. ”

Sima Shi pondered for a moment, and suddenly said, "It would be nice if the army led by Zhang He could be transferred over." ”

"How is that possible, Bixia has spent so much effort and is bent on recapturing Guanzhong, seeing that success is imminent, how can Zhang He be withdrawn?"

Sima Shi laughed and said loudly: "Father, Bixia trusted Zhang He at the beginning, but Zhang He himself is not angry." You see that he has been fighting for almost a year, and he has consumed countless amounts of food, but he has not yet been able to enter Guanzhong. I think Bixia is probably disappointed in him, but I'm just embarrassed to take back my words, and now I take advantage of the opportunity of Li Yan to send troops to Nanyang and give up Guanzhong, why not give Bixia a chance? ”

Sima Yi lowered his head, looked at the secret report in his hand, and then looked at Sima Shi: "Ziyuan, are you too eager for revenge?" ”

Sima Shi glanced at Sima Yi in surprise: "Father, what do you think?" ”

Sima Yi didn't speak, but Sima Zhao, who had just arrived, picked up: "Brother, don't you think so?" Wei Ba snatched your wife who didn't pass through the door, forced you to marry the shrew of the Wu family, and defeated you many times, aren't you in a hurry to take revenge? ”

"You know the." Sima Shi knocked Sima Zhao angrily and funny: "The gentleman takes revenge, ten years is not too late, am I such an anxious person?" The battle of Xiangyang may be my chance to defeat Wei Ba, but I will not mess up because of this. ”

Sima Zhao rubbed his head and retorted: "You say that you are not in a hurry, but in your heart you are as anxious as if you are in a hurry. ”

"I'm anxious because Wei Ba's strength is growing too fast, if we can't extinguish him while he is not yet full, we will not be opponents at that time." Sima Shi put away his smile, turned to Sima Yi, and said very seriously: "Father, pulling Wei Ba into the battlefield is beneficial to the country and the family. Now that the war is going on, there is Li Yan above him, and through Yinbo, we can indirectly control him. When he is the only army, what opportunity do we have? Do you really think that Yinbo can take root in Shu Han? ”

Sima Yi's eyes tightened, and he pondered for a moment: "Since this is the case, let's get rid of the Peng brothers and sisters first, it's not peaceful to stay by your side." ”

Sima Shi shook his head: "Otherwise, I know that Peng Heng has changed his mind, but he still has value." We can use him to send some information that is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and help Yinbo as a cover. He sneered: "Even if you can't fool Wei Ba, you can fool Li Yan." ”…… (To be continued......)