After Lu Meng flickered away Liu Qi and Wen Ping in a few words, he called Huo Jun, who stayed in Xiangyang, to eat and drink together, and directly overturned Huo Jun with the "Changhe Special Offering" of the height, and it was estimated that he would not be able to wake up in three days.

Lu Meng knew that Zhao Xing was a person who loved talents, he had the opportunity to get along with Huo Jun very happily in Jingzhou for more than two years, and knew that Huo Jun was an extremely loyal person, and he was also a member of Liu Biao's extremely capable generals, who was not inferior to Wen Ping, and was superior to Li Yan, so he didn't want to harm Huo Jun's life, so he had to get drunk Huo Jun first and seize the military power in his hands, and then slowly explain afterwards.

Now the only threat around Xiangyang is Jiangxia, and Liu Qi and Wen Ping sent troops to attack Jiangxia Huangzu, so there are no security concerns, so Huo Jun, who has always been rigorous, couldn't withstand Lu Meng's warm invitation to come to the banquet, and as a result, he encountered Lu Meng's shameless method of "low irrigation height" that Lu Meng learned from Zhao Xing, so he was naturally drunk and unconscious.

After getting drunk on Huo Jun, Lu Meng asked people to invite Li Yan, who was idle in the mansion, to come over and talk openly and honestly.

Li Yan was defeated and captured by Zhang Ren because he was in the defense of Huya Mountain, and later Tianyi's army attacked the west to break the fish and restore the city, rescued Li Yan from the dungeon in the city, and took him to Chengdu all the time. As a prisoner, Li Yan was beaten all over his body by Zhang Ren's Hundred Birds Chaofeng Gun at that time, although he received basic medical treatment, how much better could he be. After being rescued by the Tianyi army, Lu Xun attached great importance to Li Yan's injuries and sent the best military doctor in the army to treat and recover Li Yan's accumulated dark injuries, which naturally made Li Yan grateful.

Later, when Huang Zhong led the team back to Xiangyang from Chengdu, he took Li Yan, who was a little aggrieved, with him, but after returning to Xiangyang, Liu Biao only comforted Li Yan verbally, and then put him aside. Liu Biao didn't even trust Huang Zhong, who had made great contributions, how could he trust Li Yan, who had been a prisoner of the Sima family for nearly a year and had eaten half a year's standard military rations in the Jin army?

When Li Yan learned the news of Liu Biao's murder on Phoenix Mountain from Lu Meng's mouth, his face was very calm, and he didn't ask a word, just waited for Lu Meng's next words.

Seeing Li Yan's expression, Lu Meng greatly discounted his character in his heart, and felt that Li Yan was really a person who was very happy and had a cold nature, even if he had some talents, he could not be reused in the future.

Now that it is the time to employ people, Lu Meng didn't think about it, and said solemnly to Li Yan: "On the positive side, the murder of Liu Zhoumu is definitely not our doing, it is someone who intends to mess up Jingzhou and divide the alliance between the Jin State and Jingzhou, and at the same time pour a basin of sewage on the head of the King of Pingxi. Now Liu Qi and Wen Ping have been sent to Jiangxia to defeat Huang Zu, Huo Jun is also controlled by me, there are still 30,000 defenders in Xiangyang City, and now there is no leader, but it is the time for you to make great contributions to serve the King of Pingxi!"

Since Li Yan was rescued by Tianyijun and then snubbed by Liu Biao, he had the idea of defecting to Zhao Xing in his heart, and now that Lu Meng has sent a big opportunity to him, he will naturally seize it and refuse to let go. Li Yancai didn't care whether Liu Biao was killed by Yin, even if Zhao Xing sent someone to do it, Li Yan still followed Lu Meng this time. Therefore, Lu Meng's explanation just now was purely based on the belly of a gentleman and the heart of a villain.

Li Yan took the tiger talisman that Huo Jun carried with him from Lu Meng, and without saying a word, he came to the camp of the Xiangyang defenders, and soon controlled the generals above the middle and high levels, so Xiangyang City fell smoothly into the hands of Lu Meng.

The reason why Li Yan was able to control the 30,000 defenders so cleanly was mainly because of his background as the first general under Liu Biao, and many middle-level generals in the army were promoted by him. Li Yan told his brothers that the reason was also very interesting, he said: "General Huo was entrusted by Liu Zhoumu to secretly go to Crouching Tiger City to learn the use of Jin artillery and artillery training methods, and in the future, we in Xiangyang will also be supported by Jin Shenwei artillery!"

Many of the officers and soldiers who stayed in Jingzhou had seen with their own eyes the scene of the Tianyi Army blowing up Cao Jun's aunt and mother with Shenwei cannons outside the west gate of Xiangyang, and they had long been blind to this kind of big killing weapon. Liu Zhoumu and Pingxi Wang Na are "comrades and brothers", and now they send Huo Jun to the Jin Kingdom for "further study", which does not make people feel suspicious at all.

Li Yan didn't say a word about joining the Jin Kingdom, and he fooled 30,000 brothers to join him to serve the Jin Kingdom. The most powerful thing is that he promoted Huo Jun for free so much, and when he woke up and found that he had been tied up and went to the Jin Kingdom, what should he do?

After completely controlling the overall situation of Xiangyang, Lu Meng immediately contacted the Nanyang Guan Yu Department and the Langling Taishi Ci Department not far from Xiangyang, and explained the situation here in detail. After Tai Shici got the news, he had no worries and immediately led the army towards Ruyang City, an important barrier in the southeast of Xuchang. After Guan Yu got the news, he was also very happy, so he led the three-way army that had been rested and stopped out of Wancheng and headed towards Luyang, the barrier in the southwest of Xuchang.

The main general who led the army to defend Ruyang City was Liu Bei's brother Gao Lan, the deputy general was Chen Dao, the military division was Yang Yi, and there were 40,000 defenders, all of whom were white-eared elite soldiers, and their combat power was not inferior to the 40,000 Donglai army led by Gao Shun.

Tai Shi Ci is a veteran of commanding the army, when he led the army to the south of Ruyang City thirty miles away, he ordered 50,000 troops to camp on the spot, and then sent a large number of secret agents to Ruyang City for an in-depth investigation, until he was sure to find out the details of the defenders in the city, then he summoned the generals above the middle level to discuss the military situation, and formulated a specific plan for attacking Ruyang City.

In the simple operational command room, everyone expressed their own opinions, but the opinions and opinions expressed were clearly divided into two views. One view is that Cao Liu has reached the end of the crossbow, and Liu Bei's army defending Ruyang City is just a paper tiger, as long as he launches a large army to attack, it will inevitably frighten the troops in the city to abandon the city and flee to Xuchang.

Diametrically opposed to this "quick victory" view is the "bitter battle theory" that has a smaller voice. A handful of experienced generals felt that Ruyang, as the last strong barrier southeast of Xuchang, was definitely not as simple as it seemed on the surface, and if they commanded the battle with arrogance, it was very likely that the Marine Corps would suffer its first major defeat since the formation of the army.

As the commander of the army, when facing two completely different mentalities of his subordinates, Tai Shici's final tone is very important.

Tai Shi Ci pondered for a long time, and then said in a deep voice: "Now there are three troops on the periphery of Xuchang, the East Route Army, the Northwest Route Army, and our Southeast Route Army competing for speed, but this is not a reason for us to take the plunge! Pass on my commander's order, three days later, Guan Ping personally led 5,000 soldiers to launch a tentative attack to see the reality of Ruyang City!"