Chapter 44: Two Operational Meetings

Last time, Liu Hou wanted to lead the troops to attack, everyone objected, Liu Hou only said one sentence, everyone was stunned when they heard this sentence, yes, trapped in the lonely city, don't expect to break through, nonsense, unless you can fly, how can thousands of people break through the encirclement of 100,000 troops? Waiting for reinforcements? Where are the reinforcements? Liu Bei wants to gather enough troops from Yizhou to fight 100,000 people to rush to Jingzhou to rescue, that is the Year of the Monkey?

Therefore, defending the city here, although there is a strong city, it is not so safe to think about it. On the contrary, in the field outside, if you can get through the battle, you will fight, but the battle is not too big to walk away. Isn't there still 500 cavalry? As long as the scouts are scattered, be vigilant, don't rush too forward, don't get into the enemy's encirclement, you can still run if you want to, as long as you run to the river and get on the Jingzhou, the king of heaven and Lao Tzu don't have to be afraid.

After discussing for a while, everyone finally reluctantly agreed that Liu Hou would lead the team to the expedition, but they would bring Guo Youzhi as a military advisor and Zhang Bao and Guan Xing as deputy generals. Everyone told Wan Dingning that Liu Hou must not be too far forward, so as not to accidentally be dumped by Wei Jun.

Liu Hou reassured everyone, and said that with a resourceful military advisor like Guo Youzhi, what else could go wrong? The people were relieved. If Liu Hou knew who his opponent was, he wouldn't have said that, and he wouldn't have been so confident in Guo Youzhi, of course, maybe he would be so scared that he wouldn't dare to go out of the city at all.

Time back to half a month ago, Cao Cao convened his ministers to discuss state affairs. In the main hall, a middle-aged official about 40 years old was talking. This person is Sima Yi, the prime minister's army and the prince's concubine.

What Sima Yi was reporting to Cao Cao was impressively what the Shu army had done during this time: the prince Liu Chan designed to capture 30,000 soldiers and horses and 7 generals of Eastern Wu; used sophistry to refute Lü Meng, the governor of Eastern Wu, and finally got so angry that Lü Meng vomited blood and had to retreat; led a single ship to defeat the entire Soochow fleet; rescued Guan Gong and repelled Sun Jiao's 30,000 pursuers, causing Sun Jiao to be seriously injured, and his life and death are currently unknown; Dig a moat in Jingzhou City and build an urn city......

One by one, one by one, it was said in detail, as if he had seen it with his own eyes. It can be seen from this that Wei's intelligence work is much better than Shu's, and Liu Hou's CIA is simply the difference between Cao Cao's secret intelligence organization.

Cao Cao's face was very bad, gray and gloomy, the whole person leaned on the couch instead of sitting upright, which was incompatible with such a solemn and solemn scene, and from time to time there were a few coughs, his brows were furrowed, and one hand was still supporting his head, as if he was enduring great pain.

It was clear that Cao Cao was very ill, and the ministers knew this, and were accustomed to his rude sitting posture. Although he was very sick, he still insisted on handling political affairs, and at this time, he was quietly listening to Sima Yi's report.

"Liu Da'er has given birth to a child." Finally, when Sima Yi finished speaking, Cao Cao's hoarse voice sounded. He did not make comments such as "giving birth to a son should be like Sun Zhongmou", but praised Liu Hou directly.

"What does Zhongda think of this Liu Adou." Cao Cao then asked Sima Yi.

"Returning to the king, Liu Chan's son is said to have been intelligent since he was a child, capable of literature and martial arts, and even worshiped Zuo Ci, Zhao Yun and others as teachers, and learned a lot of karma. Judging from the fact that he designed to capture 30,000 generals and 7 generals of the Pillar Kingdom in one fell swoop, this son is strategic, and what is even more rare is that his calmness and courage are not comparable to ordinary people;

From the point of view of Lu Meng, this son is also unparalleled in eloquence, and he is calm and steady, and he is unmoved by Lu Meng's various verbal teasing, threats, and deception.

However, what worries Wechen the most is not these, there are two things that worry Wechen the most:

First, how did he know exactly that Dongwu was going to attack Jingzhou City and set a trap in advance? Legend has it that Zuo Ci knows astronomy and geography, and can know the past and the future. Can they really figure out what will happen in the future? ”

Hearing this, Cao Cao and some wise people in the palace, such as Jia Xu and Cheng Yu, heard a different meaning. If Zuo Ci could really predict the future, then he still ran to Liu Bei and hugged Liu Bei's thigh, what does this mean? Combined with the legend of Zuo Ci's search for the true dragon son that has been circulating in recent years...... Thinking of this, everyone couldn't help but shudder.

"Second, it is said that there is a kind of thunderbolt in the Shu army, which is very sharp, the small one can kill the one in the middle of the person immediately, and the big one is said to be able to blow up and sink a building ship."

"Hum ......" Hearing this, the ministers blew up the pot, and they all whispered, the whole hall was full of buzzing sounds, Sima Yi just talked about Liu Chan's several deeds are legendary enough, and now they are talking about the two shocking things of predicting the future and high-power weapons of destruction, how can they not be frightened, how can they not talk about it.

"Ahem." Sima Yi coughed loudly twice, reminded everyone not to make noise, and after the buzz was a little quieter, he continued:

"It has now been ascertained that this thunderbolt is Zuo Ci's handwriting, and it is said that it is a strange thing that he inadvertently refined when he was alchemizing, called gunpowder, which ignites when it is touched, burns fiercely, and even explodes, which can emit bright fire and loud sounds, and smell like thunder rumbling, and emit black smoke."

If Liu Hou heard Sima Yi's words, he would definitely be shocked, could it be that the secrets of gunpowder and firearms had been leaked out? Is there a fine work mixed into their own ranks?

"This gunpowder can be made into a thunderbolt the size of a grapefruit, ignited and thrown into the enemy's ranks, killing and injuring people and horses within a radius of two or three feet, which is extremely powerful. It can also be poured into an iron pipe to make a kind of lead shot, the lead shot can be seized 100 steps, and the middle one will die.

It can also be poured into such a large iron pipe, and such a large iron ball can be emitted, which can even penetrate the building ship, which is very terrifying. As he spoke, Sima Yi drew a circle the size of a watermelon with his hand to refer to the size of the barrel, and then a circle the size of a melon to refer to the size of the shell.

After hearing this, the ministers made another "buzzing" discussion, and this time the discussion was louder than the last time.

"Oh, there are such artifacts?" When Cao Cao heard this, he was also interested, and he actually tried his best to support his body, sat up a little straighter, and made a deferential appearance.

"Yes, it is true, in the Hanzhong War and the Jingzhou War, the Shu army used these weapons, and their power is indeed very great. According to the thunderbolts used by the Shu army in the Hanzhong War, as well as the iron tubular weapons used by Liu Chan against the Eastern Wu army in the Battle of Jingzhou, combined with the news obtained by our spies in Chengdu, Yi speculated that the key to these firearms of the Shu army was gunpowder. Unfortunately, Liu Chan kept the formula of gunpowder very secretive, and we have no way of knowing how this gunpowder was made. ”

is not a wise man who can be compared to Zhuge Liang, and he actually guessed the essence of firearms.

"Send more spies to infiltrate the gunpowder manufacturing workshop of the Shu army, no matter what the price is, you must get the gunpowder formula back for Gu, cough cough cough cough ......" Cao Cao said, excited, coughing again.

"No!" Sima Yi replied simply.

"Then Zhongda thinks, how to deal with this prince of Hanzhong?" Cao Cao then asked.

"The minister believes that the elite army should be gathered and the thunder blow. This son is extremely shrewd, and full of mysteries, if he grows up, he will become a fierce rival of the king, it is better to take advantage of his young age and eradicate it as soon as possible. Just like a tree, the seedlings can be broken with one hand, and if they grow into a towering tree, even if they are cut with an axe, they will have to be cut for half a day to be broken. ”

"Wechen disagrees with Zhongda's statement." Cheng Yu jumped out and put forward a different opinion.

"To say that Liu Chan can know in advance about the sneak attack of the Dongwu people, it may be that their spies are powerful, and the Dongwu people's secrecy work is not in place, and the rumors of leakage. Even if you really rely on speculation to know the movements of Dongwu, it may be the credit of Zhuge Liang, you must know that Zhuge Liang was right in Longzhong back then, and his analysis of the general trend of the world was very accurate and in place. Perhaps, he speculated that the Eastern Wu people were going to plot against Jingzhou according to the shape shì, and made arrangements in advance.

Zi Bu said that the strange power was confused, what Zhong Da said before that he could predict the future through the number of Xuanmen techniques, it was pure nonsense, ill-intentioned, and asked the king to cure Zhong Da's evil words to confuse the public. ”

Cheng Yu has to fly, looking like an anti-feudal and anti-superstitious fighter in later generations.

"Hmm." Cao Cao nodded secretly after hearing this, Cheng Yu's explanation was really much better, and he was very appetizing to Cao Cao. This rhetoric effectively dispelled the rumors that Zuo Ci was looking for the true son of heaven, and was very helpful to break the theory of Liu's orthodox status, and played a positive role in maintaining his dominance.

"As for saying that this son is resourceful and designed to capture the generals of Eastern Wu, it is not necessarily his strategy, what ideas can a 13-year-old kid come up with. The minister heard that Liu Chan had two strategists by his side, Fei Yi and Guo Youzhi, both of whom were young talents in Yizhou, although they were young, their reputation had been demonstrated in Yizhou. If you want to say that you can come up with such a miracle, it must be these two people. ”

The Battle of Jingzhou probably took place at the end of 219, at this time it was already a few months before the Battle of Jingzhou, and the time had entered the twenty-fifth year of Jian'an (220 AD), and Liu Hou was already 13 years old, so Cheng Yu said this.

"Oh, that's right, that's right." Cao Cao nodded and motioned for Cheng Yu to continue.

"Let's talk about rescuing Guan Yunchang, according to the military report, it was a soldier led by Zhao Zilong. You also know Zhao Zilong, who ...... back then"

"Hmph, if it weren't for the king's love for talent back then, he ordered not to hurt him, how could he break out of the encirclement of the lonely army." Before Cheng Yu finished speaking, Cao Cao interrupted him, obviously still thinking about what happened to Changbanpo back then.

"Yes, my lord, I love talents, and everyone knows if I am thirsty for talent." Cheng Yu had no choice but to give a small ass to his words, and then wisely skipped the topic.

"As for the thunderbolt, it is only loud, and it needs to be thrown and used by a strong sergeant, and the distance it reaches is only one or twenty paces, far less than the range of bows and arrows, just send a team of archers and crossbowmen, and suppress it with strong bows and crossbows, this Rausch thunderbolt is just a joke."

Cheng Yu has a good idea of the weakness of the thunderbolt and the way to deal with the thunderbolt, but obviously, he intentionally or unintentionally ignored the power of the musket, especially the Zhang Fei troops they encountered in the Battle of Hanzhong still used old-fashioned muskets, with a range of only 50 steps, which was much worse than a bow and arrow, but he didn't know that Liu Hou's Hong army was now equipped with a new type of flintlock musket, and the range was far beyond the previous old-fashioned guns.

Therefore, the minister thinks that there is no need to go to the troubled waters of Jingzhou. Jingzhou is also the place of the four wars, Liu and Wu are eyeing each other, sharpening their knives all the time, Huo Huo wants to occupy more space. Especially now that Liu Chan has captured 30,000 soldiers and horses and 7 fierce generals of Eastern Wu, Sun Quan will not give up, and will raise troops to regain face soon. Obviously, he didn't know that Soochow had already rescued 7 generals.

"At that time, there will be a series of major battles in Jingzhou, and if we send troops at this time, we will definitely be mired in mud, and we will waste our military strength in vain. Why don't you wait for Sun and Liu to fight and lose both, and then we will reap the benefits of the fishermen.

Besides, the two cities of Xiangfan are far away, the roads are difficult and dangerous, it is not easy to transport grain and grass, and it is still difficult to defend themselves, let alone send a large army to attack Jingzhou City. If the grain road is intercepted, I am afraid it will be another battle of the nest. Hearing this, the faces of all the ministers changed color, and Yuan Shao's miserable appearance after Cao Cao burned the black nest in the battle of Guandu that year couldn't help but float to their hearts.

"Take 10,000 steps back, even if you want to send troops, why do you need to send 100,000 troops, according to the spies' report, there are less than 10,000 soldiers in Jingzhou City, and most of them are remnants of the defeated generals, Yu thinks that only 2 or 30,000 horses are enough to break through the city and capture Liu Chan alive. What is the intention of Zhong Dati yì to dispatch 100,000 troops and waste food? ”

Cheng Yu is aggressive, and alludes to Sima Yi's bad intentions everywhere. Sima Yi did not back down in the face of his accusations and launched a counterattack.

If you want to know what happened next, please listen to the later breakdown.