At the end of October of the second year of Han Zhangwu, the wealthy clan of Yizhou County Yonghong killed Taishou Zhengang in Dianchi, and raised troops to occupy Yizhou County in the name of "Qingjun side".

The county's marshal Meng Huo also gathered his troops to join Yonghong's rebellion.

And just the next month, a larger-scale rebellion was staged in the south of Yizhou.

In November of the second year of Zhangwu of the Han Dynasty, Zhu Bao, the Taishou of Qike County, ordered the closure of all the main transportation routes in the county, and wantonly hunted down and killed the subordinates loyal to the Han Dynasty in the territory.

In the same month, Gao Ding, the king of Yuewang County, led his troops to attack the county government, killed the county general Jiao Huang, and captured the Taishou Zhang Yi, responding to Yonghong's rebellion with practical actions.

By mid-November of the second year of Zhangwu, three of the four counties in Nanzhong had clearly raised the flag of rebellion.

Only the situation in Yeongchang County is still unclear, and the rebellion in these three counties is gradually coming together.

In just one month, there was such a large-scale rebellion in Nanzhong, because after Yonghong got the news of Zhuge Liang's southern expedition, he immediately sent his cronies to contact those traitors in the counties of Nanzhong.

In the past, the four counties of Nanzhong were often regarded as a whole, because of the close ties between the local wealthy families in the four counties.

Even as early as the beginning of Liu Bei's entry into Yizhou, Yonghong and the local tycoons of other counties secretly reached a kind of political alliance.

And under this situation of rebellion in full swing, in just one month, almost the entire southern border of Yizhou was out of the control of the Han court.

When the rebellion in the southern and central counties broke out, all kinds of critical news continued to be sent to Zhuge Liang who was leading the army south.

And after receiving the many urgent military information, Zhuge Liang, who had just led the army to Nan'an, immediately ordered to convene the generals for discussion.

Nan'an is a county in Qianwei County, which is a county in the northern part of Yizhou.

During the 400 years of the Han Dynasty, because the area under the jurisdiction of Yizhou and Jingzhou was generally too large, whether it was to facilitate political management or according to the division of customs, Yizhou and Jingzhou were generally divided into two parts: north and south.

The northern part of Yizhou is where the rich territory of Yizhou is located, and the southern part of Yizhou usually refers to the four counties of Nanzhong.

As one of the counties in the northern part of Yizhou, which is closest to the four counties in Nanzhong, the officials and soldiers often used Qianwei County as a base to quell the turmoil in Nanzhong when the four counties of Nanzhong occurred in the past.

And Nan'an is a county where land and water meet in Qianwei County.

Therefore, when Nanzhong was unstable at the beginning, Liu Bei let Zhao Yun lead the army to be stationed here.

After Zhuge Liang led 5,000 Liangzhou troops into Qianwei County, he immediately went south to join Zhao Yun's army outside Nan'an County.

But what Zhuge Liang didn't expect was that those rebellious ministers and thieves in Nanzhong would move so fast.

As soon as he arrived in Nan'an County, he learned that the three counties of Nanzhong had all rebelled.

According to the time calculation, this shows that not long after his army left Chengdu, the traitors in Nanzhong got the exact news that he led his army south.

Otherwise, it is not enough to explain why Nanzhong would be so coincidental that the three counties all rebelled.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang felt a little cold in his heart - it seems that his clean-up activities in Chengdu are not thorough enough.

But now is not the time to think about this, in the face of the reality that almost all the entire territory of Nanzhong rebelled, Zhuge Liang, as the commander of the Great Han Southern Expedition, must come up with a coping strategy as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if the rebellion in the four counties of Nanzhong is not contained, it will not be long before the rebellion of the four counties of Nanzhong will spread to the northern counties of Yizhou.

This is the last thing Zhuge Liang wants to see.

Under Zhuge Liang's convocation, all the civil and military generals who were currently gathered in Nan'an came to Zhuge Liang's main tent.

And after everyone arrived, Zhuge Liang ordered Ma Tan, who was with the army, to read out the military information he received in front of everyone.

Among the civil and military generals in the main tent, some of them received some news in advance.

But most of the people had just followed Zhuge Liang to the south, so after they had just finished listening to Ma Yan's military situation, almost everyone present had a grim look on their faces.

From the intelligence, it can be seen that only Yongchang County has not yet received clear news of rebellion in the four counties of Nanzhong.

One of the four counties did not participate in the rebellion, which sounds okay, but those who can follow Zhuge Liang's southern expedition have a certain understanding of the four counties in Nanzhong.

Among the four counties in Nanzhong, no matter what aspect it is, Yongchang County is the bottom of the four counties.

And his bottom is not to say that he is a little bit worse than other counties, the gap between them is actually very large.

It can be said that if the three counties such as Yizhou are barren, then Yongchang County can almost be called a place where birds don't.

Therefore, whether Yongchang County participated in the rebellion is not a matter of consolation at all.

Even if Yongchang County was loyal to the Han Dynasty, no matter how many loyal ministers there were in Yongchang County, they would not be able to provide the slightest help to the imperial court's southern expeditionary army.

From a practical point of view, the rebellion of the three counties of Yizhou is tantamount to announcing that the entire territory of Nanzhong has rebelled.

The expedition to the south is not easy, and now that we have to face such a difficult situation, there is no one present who will not feel worried.

After Zhuge Liang saw the worried looks on everyone's faces, he didn't say anything to comfort everyone.

The current situation in Nanzhong is indeed quite tricky, and it is gradually changing to the situation that he least wants to see, and in this case, it is normal for everyone to be worried.

Worry will be cautious, prudent will not let go of big mistakes, the war is imminent, Zhuge Liang feels that this is very important.

It's just that Zhuge Liang still looked at a white-robed heroic general present, and then he asked:

"Zilong has led the army to defend Nan'an for a long time, and he must have a good understanding of the various forces in Nanzhong, and now the traitors in Nanzhong are powerful, can Zilong have a strategy to defeat the enemy?"

The person Zhuge Liang asked was none other than Zhao Yun, the general of Zhengnan who had been stationed in Nan'an for nearly a year.

And after Zhao Yun heard Zhuge Liang's inquiry, a look of thought immediately appeared on his face.

But after thinking about it for a long time, Zhao Yun finally just straightened his body, bowed to Zhuge Liang and replied: "The minister has no good plan for a while. ”

Hearing Zhao Yun's answer, Zhuge Liang just waved his hand and continued to let Zhao Yun sit down.

Although Zhuge Liang was quite expecting Zhao Yun to give him some good ideas, Zhao Yun would not let him down too much if he had nothing to do.

Everyone has strengths, Zhao Yun has followed Liu Bei for many years, and he was appreciated by Liu Bei with the words "qualitative and calm".

With such a personality, Zhao Yun, defense is his strength, and offense is not his forte after all.

After seeing that Zhao Yun had no good plan, Zhuge Liang looked around at the generals in the main tent again.

Although he did not bring too many soldiers and horses to the south during this southern expedition, he did bring a lot of talents.

Li Hui, Zhang Yi, Ma Zhong, Ma Yan, Yang Yi, etc., are all famous heroes of today's Han Dynasty.

But after these junjie saw Zhuge Liang's expectant gaze, they couldn't help but dodge Zhuge Liang's gaze.

It's not that they have ghosts in their hearts, it's that they don't have a good response to the current thorny situation in South and Central China for a while.

After seeing the knee-jerk reactions of all the junjies, Zhuge Liang was not angry, and he continued to say to everyone present:

"I intend to lead the army to continue southward and enter the Yandao, I wonder what you think of this move?"

Hearing Zhuge Liang's intention, the faces of the generals present immediately appeared with a sense of dissuasion.

The first to come out to dissuade Zhuge Liang was the new governor Li Hui.

Li Huizi Deang, a native of Yuyuan County, Yizhou County.

When Liu Bei conquered Yizhou in the eighteenth year of Jian'an, Li Hui heard the news and thought that Liu Zhang would be defeated, so he took the initiative to abandon everything and go north to Liu Bei.

Li Hui's initiative to defect made Liu Bei appreciate him very much.

At the beginning, Ma Chao was willing to submit to Liu Bei, but it was Li Hui who said it as a lobbyist.

Later, after Liu Bei won Yizhou, because of Li Hui's contributions, he promoted Li Hui to Yizhou.

At the beginning, after Liu Bei became the ruler of Yizhou, due to Longzhong's strategy of "southern Fu Yiyue", he set up the post of governor of Yu, responsible for managing all important military and political affairs in Nanzhong.

But at the beginning of this year, Deng Fang, the first governor of the city, was seriously ill, and Liu Bei was interested in choosing a new candidate for the governor of the city, so he asked Li Hui for his opinion on this matter.

After hearing Liu Bei's inquiry, Li Huimao recommended himself and was willing to replace Deng Fang as the governor of the capital.

Faced with Li Hui's self-recommendation, Liu Bei agreed with a smile.

However, due to the movement in Nanzhong this year, Liu Bei was suspicious, so although Liu Bei gave Li Hui the status of Fujie and the governor of Yu, he never let Li Hui go to take office.

He just asked Zhao Yun to lead the army south to garrison Nan'an to deter Nanzhong.

And this time when Zhuge Liang went on a southern expedition, considering Li Hui's identity, he took him with him in the southern expeditionary army.

And because of Li Huiyu's status as the governor, he is currently the fourth person in the account after Zhuge Liang, Yu Ban, and Zhao Yun.

When Li Hui came out, the eyes of everyone in the tent were on him.

And Li Hui's next words also represent the voices of most of the people in the tent.

"I heard that all the ancient sages who led the army to fight, all of them first considered the retreat of the army before deciding on the strategy of attacking, which is the truth of being invincible.

At present, our army is located in Nan'an, where land and water meet, and can deter the rebels in Nanzhong and defend the northern counties of Yizhou when retreating, which is exactly the "invincible position" mentioned in the art of war.

The Yandao is located in the southern border of the county, and is only separated by a river from Nanzhong.

In addition, the waterway of the Yandao is not smooth in winter, and the distance between the Yandao and Nan'an is thousands of miles, so it is very inconvenient to transport grain and grass.

If our army has an offensive strategy, it will not hurt to be stationed in the Yandao.

However, now our army has no good way to calm the enemy, but it has to rush south and go deeper, and once our army has something unfavorable, it will be difficult for our army to retreat safely at that time.

Therefore, when our army is stationed in Yandao, I hope that the prime minister will think twice. ”

After listening to Li Hui's words, most of the people present showed a look of approval on their faces.

It's not that they are afraid of the enemy, but rather than rushing south, they are currently more inclined to stay in Nan'an to wait and see how things develop.

With static braking, the predecessors did this when they put down the rebellion in Nanzhong.

And after Zhuge Liang listened to Li Hui's dissuasion, he did not rush to veto Li Hui's dissuasion.

Li Hui is from Nanzhong, and he can be said to be the one who knows the most about the topography of Nanzhong among the generals present.

From the perspective of geographical factors alone, what Li Hui said is very reasonable.

But the reason why Zhuge Liang is in a hurry to lead the army into Yandao naturally has his reasons.

"Although De'ang is reasonable, if the rebels in the south and central do not stick to the border, but lead the army north, then there will be no large army to garrison the road, and I am afraid that the northern counties will be invaded by the flames of war."

Hearing Zhuge Liang's words, Li Hui was suddenly stunned.

Indeed, as he said, the Yandao is too close to Nanzhong, and it would be a very dangerous thing if the army rashly entered the Yandao.

But in the same way, because the Yandao is close to Nanzhong, as long as most of the Han army is stationed in the Yandao, then the Yandao will become a sharp sword hanging on the head of Nanzhong at all times.

Before this sharp sword was broken, the rebels in the south and central did not dare to rush north.

Why is Zhuge Liang so worried about the south-central rebels going north, it is because once the south-central rebels go north, then the northern counties of Yizhou will suffer.

The northern counties of Yizhou are the essence of Yizhou, and most of the military rations of the Han Dynasty in the past wars were obtained from the northern counties of Yizhou.

At present, it is the season when the northern counties of Yizhou have just finished sowing winter wheat, and if the rebels in the south and central go north to destroy the winter wheat that has just been sown, then the consequences will be very serious.

Perhaps with Zhuge Liang's understanding of Yonghong and others, they did not have this insight.

But Zhuge Liang knew that there was a shadow of anti-Wei behind this rebellion in Nanzhong.

Yonghong and other traitor leaders couldn't think of it, it didn't mean that the rebel Wei couldn't think of this, and not despise any enemy was the first creed of Zhuge Liang's army to fight.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang thought about entering the Yandao one day earlier.

But Zhuge Liang's worries are not understood by everyone.

Just like Li Hui.

After listening to Zhuge Liang's worries, Li Hui said incomprehensibly: "The rebels in Nanzhong have always valued the geographical advantages, how can they easily leave Nanzhong and go north?" ”

Not only did Li Hui not understand, but most of the people present also thought that Zhuge Liang was a little too cautious.

Looking at everyone's incomprehensible looks, Zhuge Liang was about to open his mouth to explain further, when a stammering voice suddenly sounded in the main tent:

"Thieves, the thief army will definitely go north."

When the stammering sound sounded, everyone immediately realized who the owner of the voice was.

Except for Deng Ai, the captain of Liyi, who else could there be?

Deng Ai, who led the army south in place of Mi Yang, attracted the attention of all forces from the day he arrived in Chengdu.

Deng Ai is not famous, but his lord is too famous.

Under the backdrop of Mi Yang's fame, many people thought that Deng Ai was also an extraordinary person at first, otherwise how could Mi Yang let him lead the army south?

But after they made friends with Deng Ai and found out that he was a stammer, many people were quite disappointed in Deng Ai.

Not judging people by their appearance is a truth that anyone understands, but how many people can do this?

What's more, Deng Ai is not bad looking, he is disabled.

But what everyone never expected was that when most people were quite disappointed with Deng Ai, Deng Ai took the initiative to speak in front of everyone today.

And what he said was still certain.

If there is not enough strategic support, I am afraid that General Zuo is here, and I dare not say the word "certainly" lightly in the war.

So everyone subconsciously focused their eyes on Deng Ai.

Even Zhuge Liang is the same.

So far, Deng Ai is the only general in the tent who can keep up with his train of thought.

But Zhuge Liang also wanted to hear if the generals sent by his good apprentices made him more worthy of attention.