Zhuge Liang saw that everyone no longer spoke tentatively, so he no longer spoke to stimulate everyone, but analyzed the political conspiracy behind the "snowflake salt" dumping incident in the Jin Kingdom with reasonable evidence.

Kong Ming said: "As we all know, the profits of salt and iron are huge, and they have always been controlled by the central court, and any local forces and private individuals are not allowed to sell them for profit. This time, Zhao Guochang has been planning for a long time, and suddenly through the Sihai trading warehouse controlled by him, he not only openly sold his own salt in the Jin Kingdom, but also sold it in large quantities to Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou and Sili regions, and now there are also private salt sellers named Xianyang Snow Salt in Yuzhou and Yangzhou in the far south, which shows the fierceness of the situation. ”

After listening to Kong Ming's words, Cheng Yu said very truthfully: "Yanzhou does not produce salt, so I don't care whether the imperial court controls the sale of salt or the Jin State steals the market. And as far as I know, the Jinguo snowflake salt sold on the market is not only higher in quality than that produced in Hedong Yanchi, but also the price is 30% lower, and it is understandable that people are scrambling to buy it. ”

Cheng Yu's words don't sound harsh, but what he actually wants to express is: Anyway, the money is earned by the imperial court or Zhao Xing, and it has nothing to do with us, so what good is it for you to mention this matter?

After Cheng Yu said this, Zhuge Liang didn't feel surprised, but patiently explained. Zhuge Liang said: "What Zhong Degong said is not unreasonable, on the surface, the matter of snowflake salt in the Jin Kingdom is just a game between the imperial court and the Jin State, and the fight is just a good word, and it seems to have nothing to do with the states in the world. But I would like to remind you that the Jin Kingdom will increase its income from snowflake salt, and in the future, when the army goes south, it may bring a few more arrows or a thunderbolt. In exchange for an extra income for the imperial court, it will not threaten the states that originally belonged to the Han Dynasty, but it is necessary to find a way to accumulate strength to cut off the fledgling Zhao Xing as soon as possible. ”

Hearing that Zhuge Liang said that the imperial court was still trying to find a way to cut off Zhao Xing, Cao Cao said: "The reason what Kong Ming's envoy said just now, we have already understood. To this day, empty talk is useless, I don't know what strategy the imperial court has for dealing with Zhao Xing of the Jin Kingdom?"

"Now that the Jin State is powerful, it is difficult to check and balance both militarily and internally with the power of the central court or a state alone. For the sake of today's plan, only by taking the opportunity of the imperial court's intention to punish the Jin State by taking advantage of the snowflake salt incident to secretly unite all forces to advance and retreat together, and the scale and result of the final development of the matter exceed Zhao Xing's expectations, so that it will suffer heavy losses due to lack of preparation, so as to curb the development momentum of the Jin State and buy time for everyone to breathe and grow. Zhuge Liang answered Cao Cao's question in a deep voice, and the words he said surprised everyone in the audience after hearing it.

The meaning of Zhuge Liang's words turned out to be to make things bigger completely like the last crusade against Zhao Xing, concentrate the forces of various states and the imperial court, and deal a heavy blow to Zhao Xing's forces.

Everyone still had some predictions in their hearts about Kong Ming's intentions, but everyone only thought that the imperial court would at most put forward a request that the states prohibit the sale of snowflake salt in the Jin Kingdom, but they did not expect Kong Ming to propose a plan to comprehensively resist and attack the Jin Kingdom.

Cao Cao saw that Zhuge Liang's words had reached the critical point, so he nodded silently and motioned for Kong Ming to continue.

Subsequently, Zhuge Liang prepared the imperial court to unite all the states in the world to completely seal off the activities of the Jin Kingdom's four seas trading warehouses in the Han Dynasty by means of snowflake salt, and from then on carried out a comprehensive economic blockade of the Jin State, and was ready to prevent the Jin State from being invaded by force, and did not hesitate to meet with Zhao Xing's soldiers. What interested Cao Cao the most was that Zhuge Liang hinted in his words that the imperial court was very dissatisfied with the secret collusion between Kong Rong in Qingzhou and Tao Qian in Xuzhou and Zhao Xing in the Jin State, but because there were Yanzhou, Jizhou and Yuzhou in the middle, it was inconvenient to send troops to fight, so he had to temporarily endure the Qingxu and Xuzhou states to continue to be at ease in the eastern part of the Han Dynasty.

When Kong Ming talked about this year, he had actually revealed the requirements of the imperial court for Yanzhou and the price code offered. If Cao Cao agreed to cooperate with the imperial court to act in unison against Zhao Xing, then the imperial court would acquiesce to Cao Cao, who had already made plans against Qingxu and Xuzhou, under the pretext of attacking Kong Rong and Tao Qian.

The price offered by the imperial court is really not low. In order to deal with Zhao Xing, he could even acquiesce in the development and growth of forces willing to cooperate with the imperial court, this kind of practice that obviously belongs to drinking water to quench thirst, if it was not forced into a corner by the Jin State, it would not be allowed.

Cao Cao was a decisive man, and he immediately seized this fleeting opportunity. Cao Cao said: "Since he took charge of Yanzhou, he has always been respectful to the central court, and he has never dared to slack off, and he has never had the idea of self-reliance on behalf of the Han Dynasty. Now that the court has a summons, I dare not die here!"

Seeing that Cao Cao finally spit out and agreed to the connival, Zhuge Liang took out the secret edict of the Son of Heaven and asked Cao Cao to personally look at it. This edict detailed the time of the initiation of the joint overthrow of Zhao, the specific steps of action, and the clear signal of the beginning of the operation to all the states under the heavens.

Cao Cao looked at the contents of the secret edict, and his originally somewhat dark face first turned slightly red because of excitement, then turned iron blue because of worry, and finally became dignified because of determination.

The expression on Cao Cao's face fell into the eyes of several strategists, and everyone was very curious about what kind of edict could make so many changes on the face of the lord who had always been unfazed.

After reading the secret edict, Cao Cao looked at Zhuge Liang with admiration, and asked in a deep voice: "Dare to ask Mr. Wolong, how many of the strategies in the edict come from the king's plan?"

Zhuge Liang smiled slightly, and replied lightly: "Eight out of ten/nine, the carving insect is a small skill, not enough to worry about." ”

Cao Cao got up and saluted Kong Ming, and then said with emotion: "If this matter can be successful, you should be the first hero to save the Han!"

Successfully persuaded Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang did not stay in Yanzhou for long, but immediately turned south and went to Yangzhou to meet his brother Zhuge Jin and Yuan Shu's eldest son Yuan Yao. Why didn't Kong Ming go north to meet with Yuan Shao? It was only because he was very sure that Yuan Shao, who was in danger in Jizhou, did not need to do any ideological work at all, and as long as he did not want to be annexed by Zhao Xing, he would follow the steps of the imperial court with all his heart. Since it doesn't matter whether he goes or not, in the case of tight time, Kong Ming naturally wants to go south to negotiate with Yuan Shu and Sun Jian's forces, and pull the princes of these two sides into the gang.

Since ancient times, it is not uncommon to see the strategy of combining vertical and horizontal lines, just like a battlefield without gunsmoke, although the situation of confrontation between the large armies cannot be seen, but the effect achieved is far greater than that of two armies against each other. Confrontations on the battlefield are at most tactical or campaign-level, and the means of combining vertical and horizontal are always related to strategy.

Zhuge Kongming in the history books was first and foremost an excellent strategist, otherwise how could he put forward the world-famous "Longzhong Pair"? Zhuge Liang in this life has not yet shown his military command ability, but his strategic vision and judgment still seem to be so sharp and unique.