The situation is changing so quickly that it is dizzying.

In May of the 19th year of Jian'an, Sun Quan sent troops to attack Jingnan.

In June, when Liu Bei heard the news, he led his troops into Yufu and joined Zhang Xi, Zhang Fei and others to rescue Jingnan together.

In July, Sun Quan and Liu Bei each led a large army and confronted Xiangtan and Gong'an in Jingnan, which lasted for almost a month.

At the same time, Cao Cao led his troops out of Yecheng and entered Chang'an in early August.

In late August, Liu Bei and Sun Quan redrew the border, concluded an alliance agreement, and both sides withdrew their troops.

In mid-September, Liu Bei led his army back to Yufu, and in the same month, Cao Cao sent Xiahou Yuan to officially march into Hanzhong.

Liu Bei received the news of Cao Cao's attack on Hanzhong in Yufu, on the one hand, he ordered Huo Jun to strictly guard Jiameng Pass, and on the other hand, he wrote a letter to Zhang Lu personally, asking him to retreat south of Hanzhong if he was not defeated, with his back to Yizhou, and continue to hold on.

Liu Bei also quickly led the army on the march, and in late October, he returned to Chengdu.

At this time, Zhang Lu had already lost all the important checkpoints and cities, including Yangping Pass, and let Xiahou Yuan lead his army to besiege Nanzheng like a zongzi.

Liu Bei wrote to Zhang Lu twice, asking Zhang Lu to rely on Nanzheng to hold on, at least until the beginning of spring next year, so that Liu Bei would personally lead the army to Hanzhong to meet Zhang Lu and fight Cao Cao.

After all, in Liu Bei's opinion, his army had just returned from Jingnan, so he couldn't take his troops north without taking any rest.

Even if Liu Bei is in a hurry and uses the army like this, the army will mutiny.

Moreover, with the city defense of Nanzheng, Zhang Lu's popularity in Hanzhong, the opponent was not Cao Cao's personal visit, and the Liangzhou army led by Xiahou Yuan was mainly cavalry, and was not good at attacking cities. Sticking to it for about half a year is completely possible in Liu Bei's opinion.

Therefore, Liu Bei had to be patient, rest and recuperate in Chengdu, and prepare strategic materials for the northward campaign.

But after Zhang Lu received Liu Bei's letter, he immediately felt that Liu Bei was treacherous, and threw him alone in Nanzheng to resist Cao Cao, while Liu Bei sat in the back to reap the benefits of the fisherman.

Zhang Lu didn't look down on Liu Bei in the first place, thinking that he was a villain with better luck.

In addition, Liu Bei's previous incident of taking Yizhou was indeed not authentic enough, Zhang Lu has always been worried that Liu Bei's so-called support for himself is actually an excuse to enter Hanzhong, and then he will repeat Liu Zhang's mistakes.

Therefore, Zhang Lu thought about it, and did not even have the idea of retreating to Hannan, in December of the nineteenth year of Jian'an, Zhang Lu, who had held on for less than two months, surrendered to Cao Cao under the persuasion of his subordinates Yang Song and Yan Pu.

This time, Liu Bei was caught off guard, and he could only watch Cao Cao march from Chang'an to Hanzhong without hindrance, and quickly occupied the entire territory of Hanzhong.

At this moment, Liu Bei suddenly became anxious, and convened several major strategists in Chengdu to discuss the coping strategy.

Zhuge Liang's suggestion is to let all localities guard the pass and wait and see what happens.

The reason is that Zhuge Liang always feels that Cao Cao is unlikely to really lead the troops into Yizhou, and the bad debts of his ass after he called "Gong" have not been resolved, and if he leaves Yecheng for too long, it will definitely break out in a concentrated manner.

And those who hold the same suggestion are also Fa Zheng.

Fa Zheng also believes that Cao Cao's internal instability, and this attack on Hanzhong is more to strive for military achievements and make a name for himself, not to plan to attack Liu Bei with all his might.

And Pang Tong, in fact, Pang Tong also recognized the analysis of Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng.

But it was precisely because Pang Tong recognized the analysis of Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng that he judged that Cao Cao could not stay in Hanzhong for a long time, and he would not easily lead the army into Sichuan, so he should decisively send troops at this time, taking advantage of Cao Cao's incomplete and effective control of Hanzhong, to grasp some foothold in Hannan and prepare for the future attack on Hanzhong.

There is no need for Liu Bei to personally lead the army north to Hanzhong, only a general, leading more than 10,000 people, to operate north of Jiameng Pass and occupy part of the county.

Not to mention, Liu Bei was a little moved by Pang Tong's suggestion.

But neither Zhuge Liang nor Fa Zheng agreed.

Let's obediently don't mess with Cao Cao now, maybe Cao Cao will return with merit, but if he really goes north to attack Hanzhong, maybe Cao Cao really won't leave.

It's not that Cao Cao hasn't done this kind of thing that he has to enter the army at the end of the crossbow, not to mention that in this battle of Hanzhong, Zhang Lu didn't cause Cao Cao any trouble.

Again, now in Chengdu, Liu Bei has just been beaten down for less than a year, and the people's hearts are not attached, although the treasury is temporarily filled because of the matter of 100 yuan, but there is an undercurrent under the table.

Liu Bei has just led the troops to Jingnan and returned, if he wants to forcibly use troops at this time, then Liu Bei is the real end of the strong crossbow.

Therefore, Fa Zheng and Zhuge Liang both persuaded Liu Bei to recuperate for a while, and after straightening out the situation in Yizhou, they would go north to Hanzhong.

As long as Cao Cao leaves Hanzhong, there is only one Xiahou Yuan to guard, so he really doesn't have to worry too much.

Liu Bei is unwilling in the end, especially the geographical location of Hanzhong, if Liu Bei is not in his hands, he will not be able to sleep steadily.

But now he is facing specific difficulties, Liu Bei also knows in his heart, and he also knows that now he is not as big as Cao Cao's family, and Chibi Lang can clean up the mess once he goes back.

Therefore, although he was unwilling, Liu Bei still issued an order to let all passes strictly prevent the Cao army from attacking and recuperate internally.

Of course, we can't forget to write a letter to Guan Yu and ask him to postpone the attack on Xiangyang.

Don't look back, your side won't attack Hanzhong, Guan Yu will attack Xiangyang instead, so Cao Cao will be alert, that's not good.

In fact, Cao Cao's purpose in attacking Hanzhong this time was really not aimed at Liu Bei.

Cao Cao didn't think about fighting a big battle when he entered the army this time, he just found a reason to leave Yecheng and see if there were any ghosts who jumped out to oppose him.

But the timing of Cao Cao's troops was too coincidental, and he received news before he left Yecheng, saying that the Sun and Liu families had nothing to do to confront each other in Jingnan.

Originally, Cao Cao's plan was to lead the army to Huainan for a walk, to see what the reaction was inside Yecheng, and if there was a problem, he would hurry back to clean up the restless guys.

But now that he found that Sun and Liu's families were not staying on their basic plates, Cao Cao changed his mind.

In front of Cao Cao, there are two paths.

One is to march into Huainan as originally planned.

At this time, Sun Quan's main forces are in Jingnan, and Huainan's garrison must be very empty, at this time, if you go to Huainan, you can capture a little place, not to mention completely driving Sun Quan's forces out of Jiangbei, at least you can occupy a big advantage.

But the Battle of Chibi and the First Battle of Wet Whiskers taught Cao Cao that even if he occupied the land north of the Yangtze River without a strong naval army, he would not be able to occupy the east of the river if he could not break through the Yangtze River.

The other is to change the plan and take advantage of Liu Bei's absence in Yizhou to take Hanzhong directly.

First, Hanzhong is the barrier to defend Chengdu, and once Hanzhong is obtained, there is a platform that can enter Yizhou at any time.

Second, Zhang Lu in Hanzhong has a set of things to talk about, and his governance level is okay, but his military level is really not good, and he is a relatively easy opponent.

Third, Hanzhong was hardly affected by any war, and many people from Yongliang and Erzhou fled to Hanzhong, and the land in Hanzhong was also very fertile and suitable for farming.

In such a standard place where there is food and someone has territory, the lord is still a weak chicken. Cao Cao still needs to think about it?!

Therefore, Cao Cao directly marched into Chang'an, peeked into Hanzhong, and even recalled Xiahou Yuan, who wanted to pacify the Qianghu around Xiliang, and attacked Hanzhong first.

As Cao Cao expected, Zhang Lu in Hanzhong only resisted for three months, and after Nanzheng was besieged, he did not think about retreating south to defend it, but directly surrendered the city.

And Cao Cao, after harvesting Hanzhong, did not continue to enter Xichuan, but led the army back to the division and returned to Yecheng.

The purpose of Cao Cao's departure from Yecheng this time was to fish, and this fish was quite effective - there were many people who did not accept his rule and jumped out to make waves again, and Cao Cao wanted to go back and clean up these people who didn't know what to do.

On the other hand, with this great victory over Zhang Lu and the capture of Hanzhong, Cao Cao planned to "go further".

He intends to reign.

If it was said that calling "Gong" before still meant temptation, this time calling "King" simply puts all your thoughts on the table.

It is not a meritorious, it is not Liu Buwang, this sentence has been completely broken by Cao Cao until now.

If it is said that in the fifteenth year of Jian'an, when Cao Cao wrote "Let the County Clarify the Original Order", he may not have such great ambitions, and he just wanted to be a general who conquered the west.

But in the first month of the twentieth year of Jian'an, from the moment Cao Cao officially ascended to the throne of Wei, Cao Cao was already a usurper and a traitor.

This can't be washed off.

As for Liu Bei?!

It's not that Cao Cao looks down on him, it's really that although Liu Bei has developed very smoothly over the years, there are also many hidden dangers, and Cao Cao sees these very clearly.

Again, Liu Bei has always been Cao Cao's defeated general, and Cao Cao has an absolute psychological advantage over Liu Bei.

In Cao Cao's eyes, what if Liu Bei occupied some states and counties, when Liu Bei occupied Xuzhou and was quite popular, it was not for him to fight.

Therefore, although Liu Bei occupied Yizhou, Cao Cao felt that as long as Hanzhong was in his hands, he could attack Liu Bei whenever he wanted to recapture Yizhou.

What is really important is the matter related to the foundation of the Cao family for hundreds of years to come-usurping the Han Dynasty and becoming self-reliant.

(End of chapter)