After the autumn drill, another half a month passed peacefully.

Seeing that the autumn harvest season had just passed and the new grain in the army had just been put into storage, Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi were pondering whether to continue to increase the training volume of the battalion sergeants..... The lord Liu Bei asked all the generals to go to the meeting.

What is the reason for the meeting...... After the autumn harvest, Wancheng Cao Ren was strong and had the possibility of going south.

In these years, there are basically certain rules for fighting.

Although it is not excluded that the kind of combat that is taken by surprise under extreme circumstances, most military operations have a certain time pattern.

For example, during spring ploughing, the people's land and land resources cannot be wasted, and most of them are truces, and after autumn, there is enough grain and grass, which is the time to use the troops.

Therefore, just after the end of the autumn harvest, there was a change in the direction of Cao Jun in Wancheng, and Liu Bei immediately strengthened his vigilance, thinking that Cao Ren might go south, and convened a meeting of generals and strategists to discuss countermeasures.

Originally, only generals and strategists participated in this meeting, and there were only a few generals in Liu Bei's army, none other than Guan Zhang Zhao, and there were only a few strategists, Xu Shu, Mi Zhu, Jian Yong, and Sun Qian.

Zhang Xi, as the second-in-command of Zhang Fei's army, was originally not qualified to participate in this meeting, and his duty should be to arrange the military affairs of the whole battalion during Zhang Fei's meeting.

But Liu Bei specifically instructed Zhang Fei to bring Zhang Xi with him, so that Zhang Xi also attended the meeting.

This meeting is different from the banquet, that is, everyone sits down according to the order of seats, Liu Bei takes out a map and hangs it on the wall, and then everyone speaks one by one according to the size of their official positions.

Zhang Xi's position is behind Zhang Fei's side, not the main seat, but just an observer, so Zhang Xi came to listen with his ears.

There is no need to discuss the question of whether Cao Ren will go south.

Except for Zhang Xi and Xu Shu, all of them are veterans, even Mi Zhu Jian Yong and others have experienced several battles.

At this time, regardless of whether Cao Ren will really come or not, it is necessary to take strict precautions and prepare according to the standards of Cao Ren's southward departure.

The key question is how Cao Ren will come, how many people will come, what is the purpose, and what kind of way he will use to fight the enemy.

The first question was that Xu Shu thought that it was impossible for Cao Ren to lead a large army.

After all, the focus of Cao Cao's strategy is still in the north, and before he hears the latest report on the end of the war in the north, he can only acquiesce that Cao Cao is still preparing for the Northern Expedition.

In this way, Cao Cao's focus is still in the north, and on the southern side, even if Cao Ren goes south, it is estimated that it will only be a tentative attack, and it is impossible for the whole army to be dispatched.

And if it's just a tentative attack, then sending 10,000 troops is already the limit.

But these 10,000 soldiers and horses, for Liu Bei, also need to be taken seriously.

First of all, Liu Bei only had more than 3,000 soldiers and horses, which was only one-third of Cao Ren's troops.

Secondly, although Liu Bei was authorized by Liu Biao to command the defenders of Fancheng when the Cao soldiers of Wancheng went south, it also depended on whether the defenders of Fancheng bought it or not, and Liu Bei knew very little about the real combat effectiveness of the soldiers of Fancheng.

In the end, if Cao Ren attacked Fancheng, then Xinye Liu Bei had to go to the rescue, but if Cao Ren attacked Xinye, the defenders of Fancheng might not send troops to help.

These issues are the focus of today's discussion.

The geographical location of this place in Fancheng is very special, it is not only the gateway to the north of Xiangyang, but also located in the southwest of Xinye, which belongs to the rear of Xinye.

And Cao's army actually had two options to go south from Wancheng, one was to choose to attack Xinye in the southeast, and the other was to go directly to the southwest, bypassing Xinye and directly attacking Fancheng and threatening Xiangyang.

Guan Yu meant to send him or General Zilong to Fancheng now, control the defenders of Fancheng in the name of assisting in defense, and then try to lure Cao Ren to fight a defensive battle in Fancheng.

After all, defending the city can offset the difference in strength to the greatest extent.

I have to say that Guan Yu's idea is very reasonable, but Liu Bei thought about it for a while, but still didn't agree.

Sending troops to take the initiative to attack behind him, but the purpose is to control the defenders of Fancheng who are allies, which is already a seizure of power.

If Cao Ren is successfully repelled, there can be an explanation for this matter in front of Liu Biao, in case Cao Ren is not repelled and Cao Ren occupies Fancheng, I am afraid that Liu Biao will turn against Liu Bei.

Now Liu Bei is not ready to turn his face with Liu Biao.

So what Liu Bei meant was to warn the defenders of Fancheng, and then determine Cao Ren's movements, if Cao Ren directly attacked Fancheng, Liu Bei would harass behind Cao Ren, and if there was a chance, he would find a way to cut off Cao Ren's army and force Cao Ren to retreat. And if Cao Ren led the army to attack Xinye, then he would fight and retreat, retreat to Fancheng and use the advantage of city defense to fight a war of attrition with Cao Ren.

Basically, this method is the safest choice for Liu Bei and the least loss.

Xu Shu also has no objection to this, so the most important thing now is to pay attention to Cao Renjun's movements.

Of course, advance combat preparations still have to be done.

For example, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei will now return to the barracks for war mobilization, while Mi Zhu will be responsible for starting to prepare the military supplies for the expedition, and so on.

After the meeting, Liu Bei also specially asked Xu Shu and Zhang Xi to stay and discuss the details of the battle with each other.

In fact, the big plan has been settled, and the rest of the matter is to improvise the implementation and discuss the details, but just make some more complete preparations.

These include the way coach Cao Ren used his troops, which route he might take, and how Liu Beifang should deal with the corresponding line if he took the corresponding line.

And Xu Shu raised a possibility - Cao Ren may attack the west.

That is, on the surface, troops were sent from Wancheng, and the army came to Xinye, forcing Liu Bei not to dare to act rashly in Xinye, but he sent a small elite to raid Fancheng, which was defenseless in the rear.

Once Fancheng is captured, then Cao Ren can flank Xinye in front and back, and when the time comes, with Xinye's city defense facilities, then he can really only fight a flat field battle with Cao Ren.

In this way, even if you can win, you can't minimize your losses.

Zhang Xi's surprised ...... Isn't Xu Shumo also able to predict the prophet?!

Of course, Cao Ren in history didn't do this, but that's what Cao Ren did in Romance, and he also came down with a "Eight Gates Golden Lock Array" in Xinye City.

Then he was cracked by Xu Shu and fled back to Wancheng in disgrace.

Liu Bei also felt that if Cao Ren did this, he would be very passive, but he still didn't believe that Cao Ren could take Fancheng with a small force sneak attack.

As the gateway to Xiangyang, Fancheng itself is a place that Liu Biao painstakingly managed, and now it can basically be said to be a strategic fortress.

This place is so important, coupled with his own warning in advance, Liu Bei doesn't think that Fan Cheng Shou will take it seriously, after all, although losing Fan Cheng will harm Liu Bei, Fan Cheng Shou will also be asked for his head by the angry Liu Biao.

Xu Shu is right when he thinks about it, no matter how stupid a person is, he will not get along with his head.

Although some preparations will be made, the main direction of response is Cao Ren leading the army to approach the road of Xinye.

And just after September, Liu Bei of Xinye received a detailed report that Cao Ren led an army of 10,000 to go east out of Wancheng and come in the direction of Xinye County.

After Liu Bei learned of this news, he sent Zhao Yun out to reconnoiter the enemy's situation, and on the other hand, he began to mobilize, and if necessary, he might abandon Xinye and go to Fancheng to continue to meet the enemy.

But within a few days, Liu Bei found out that something was wrong.

Liu Bei sent the rangers under Zhao Yun's tent to meet the enemy tentatively, and found that Cao Ren's army was not moved at all, and still led the army in the direction of Xinye unhurriedly, neither pursuing Zhao Yun's rangers, nor speeding up to Xinye, as if he was not afraid of Liu Bei running away at all.

Just when Liu Bei was about to send someone to Xiangyang in the rear to report the news and wanted Liu Biao to send troops to respond, the rear scouts came to report that Fancheng was lost, and Cao's army approached Xinye from the rear.

In fact, Liu Bei was mistaken, Cao Ren sent troops this time, not 10,000, but 15,000.

Among them, the elite of 5,000 people, led by Cao Ren himself, went out day and night, and raided Fancheng all the way.

Although the defender of Fancheng received Liu Bei's warning, he always thought that Liu Bei was in front, and when Liu Bei couldn't stand it in front, it was not too late for him to prepare.

Then he was attacked by Cao Ren at night.

In these days, it is not ordinary people who can carry out night raids, because of various factors, eight out of ten people in this era are night blind, and they can't see clearly at night.

The soldiers led by Cao Ren can attack at night, which shows that those who come are all soldiers who can fight at night, and this kind of soldiers must be the elite of the elite.

And the defenders of Fancheng were obviously not such elites, they had rested as soon as it was dark, and they were attacked by the night, and they couldn't see where the enemy was...... The camp was bombed on the spot.

Therefore, Cao Ren captured Fancheng almost effortlessly, and then counted the men and horses, and killed Xinye.

Cao Ren, who has been with Cao Cao for a long time, knows very well that in the entire Jingzhou, there is only one person who really worries Cao Cao - Liu Bei.

And Liu Bei, who was attacked from the front and back, did not panic.

Although there are many enemies coming from the north, they are only a cover, and it does not matter what the actual combat strength is.

The key is the elite led by Cao Ren in the south.

As long as Cao Ren's elite troops can be quickly defeated, then even if Xinye is small, it may not be able to defend it.

It's just that how to defeat Cao Ren quickly.

This is the crux of the matter.

And it was at this time that our Mr. Xu Shu made his debut.