At the end of December of the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Nanyang County, Jingzhou.

When Sun Quan and Lu Su were making new plans, Liu Bei was confronting Cao Cao in the Xinye and Yuyang areas.

At the end of November, Cao Cao secretly went south to Chenliu, dispatched a large army, and raided Nanyang in early December, occupying Kunyang, Yexian, Duyang, Wancheng and other important cities in Nanyang.

Liu Bei was attacking Zhang Yun at the time, and after learning of this, he left Guan Yu and Xu Shu about 30,000 people to continue to surround Xiangyang, and led 20,000 people to the north himself.

Cao Cao's army was about 50,000, and he arranged about 60,000 to 70,000 people in the south.

The subordinate generals Cao Hong, Li Tong, Zhu Ling, Li Dian, Lu Zhao, Feng Kai and other soldiers and horses gathered, and in addition to the strategist Xun You, there were also Dong Zhao, Mao Ji, Hua Xin and other slightly inferior but capable strategists.

It can be said that in addition to Guo Jia, there is also the Xuzhou Zang Babu who wants to guard the southeast, and the soldiers and horses who stayed behind in Chen to guard Liu Xie, and most of the rest of the troops in the south have been brought over by him.

And Liu Bei's side has 20,000 people, and only Zhang Fei and Wu Yi are the generals under his command, and only Zhuge Liang can take on the big task in terms of strategists.

Because Zhao Yun and Tai Shici are now on Guan Yu and Xu Shu's side respectively, there are fewer generals.

There are some middle and lower-level officers whose names have been left in history, such as Fei Guan, Zhang Yi, Deng Xian, Wu Lan, Wei Yan, Dong Ju, Feng Xi, Zhang Nan, Gao Xiang, Kou Feng, etc.

But except for Wei Yan, it is basically the level of middle and senior captains and generals, and the gap between him and Cao Cao's subordinates is still very large, plus the number of soldiers and horses on both sides is not equal, it stands to reason that it should be Cao Cao's crushing game.

But Wen Ping voted.

Liu Qi wrote a letter to Wenpin, and Wenpin saw that Liu Cong's general trend had gone, so he immediately chose to vote for Liu Qi.

He has 20,000 people, plus about eight or nine thousand under Gan Ning's command, and three thousand elites in Huangmen Pavilion, in terms of total strength, Liu Bei actually has one or two thousand more than Cao Cao.

It's just that it seems that they have more people than Cao Cao, but there are also many hidden dangers.

The first is the issue of subordination and scheduling.

The more than 50,000 people were divided into three forces, one was Liu Bei's 20,000 people, then Wenpin's 20,000 people, and finally Gan Ning and Huangmenting's 12,000 people.

Gan Ning and the soldiers of Huangmenting said that Shen Chen had greeted them early and asked them to obey Zhuge Liang's dispatch.

Ke Wenpin himself is a general under Liu Biao, and he has his own opinions, and when Liu Cong and Liu Qi are fighting for Jingzhou, he remains neutral, and even Cai Mao and Kuai Yue's orders are in disobedience, so they may not fully cooperate.

Fortunately, Liu Qi wrote a letter to him, understood it with reason, moved it with emotion, and persuaded Wen Ping to obey Liu Bei's orders.

Moreover, Wen Ping fought side by side with Liu Bei in his early years, and they attacked Cao Cao's Xu Capital together, and they had a certain understanding of each other, which barely solved the problem of subordination and scheduling.

Then there is the question of the confrontation between the enemy and the enemy.

Cao Cao was very cunning, secretly went south, and suddenly launched an attack, coupled with the troops of Nanyang at that time, Wen Ping and Gan Ning and others were in the Xinye area, and there was no one to defend in the north, so that Cao Cao occupied many county towns north of Wancheng.

Wancheng is the Nanyang governance office, the city is high and the wall is thick, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to attack head-on. Therefore, Liu Bei could only station troops in Xinye, Yuyang, and Jianyang to confront Cao's army.

It's just that Cao Cao will take some action no matter whether he can get Nanyang or not, so in the past month, he forcibly relocated the people north of Wancheng and ordered the people to move to Runan, which made a lot of complaints, and the people were not happy, which made Liu Bei angry.

It's a pity that the forces of the two sides are equal, Cao Cao occupies the city and does not fight with him in the field, and Liu Bei does not dare to take the initiative to attack, so during this time he can only watch Cao Cao move a large number of people north.

He consulted with Zhuge Liang several times, and Zhuge Liang smiled and told him that the time had not come, and Zhuge Liang also said that it was easy to stop Cao Cao from moving the people, and it was not difficult to even defeat him.

The problem is that just knocking him back, not hurting him. If Cao Cao stretched out his claws and coveted Nanyang, and broke his claws with a knife, then he would send people over at any time in the future, and when the time came, they would be exhausted and arrange heavy troops to defend Nanyang like Liu Biao.

So at present, Zhuge Liang thinks that he should be patient for the time being and wait until the time is ripe.

Liu Bei was anxious about this.

But Zhuge Liang strongly advised him to forbear, so Liu Bei could only put this anxious mood aside and wait patiently for the opportunity.

If it was Liu Bei from Xuzhou, he would definitely not listen to persuasion like Chen Qun did when he persuaded him.

However, Liu Bei is now much calmer, unless he encounters something like Guan Zhang being killed, he already has the ability to endure in other things.

And in this kind of forbearance and restraint, the thirteenth year of Jian'an came to an end, and the fourteenth year of Jian'an came.

But in the New Year, both the generals and the soldiers did not accompany their families at home, but fought in Nanyang, and there seemed to be no trace of New Year's celebration in the cruel war, only a feeling of homesickness spread in the army.

Wen Ping and Gan Ning's army is okay, basically recruited by Nanyang, although they are also outsiders, but after more than ten years, they have fled from the north and Guanzhong, and gradually settled in Nanyang.

Only at least half of Liu Bei's army was the Yizhou army that was captured at the beginning, even if most of them were Dongzhou soldiers, that is, Jiangxia soldiers, whose ancestral home was in Jiangxia, but after following Liu Yan to Yizhou, Yizhou gradually became his homeland, and his family members were also in the land of Bashu.

Therefore, Liu Beijun's homesickness is particularly strong.

In the thirtieth year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, Xinye County ordered Deng Mao to kill pigs and slaughter cattle and sheep, plus some bacon made in previous years, and send it to the army to open meat for the soldiers in the army.

In the past, although meat was indispensable in war, except for the three thousand elites of Huangmen Pavilion, it was impossible to supply meat for Dunton, and ordinary soldiers were only a few times a month, but now they were full of meat, which could be regarded as a reward for the three armies.

At the same time, Liu Bei also announced to the soldiers of the three armies and made a promise that as long as Cao Cao was defeated, he would immediately take them to Bashu and take them home, so the morale of the soldiers in Yizhou was high and the military spirit was available.

In Liu Bei's military camp, which is about 20 miles southeast of Jianyang and about 10 miles north of Jianyang County, the whole army is full of joy and is immersed in the happiness of eating meat.

In the tent of the main general, in the evening, Liu Bei walked in with a food box with a smile and opened the curtain, and there were two plates of meat and vegetables, two meals and three plates of green vegetables in the food box.

However, there are two plates of pickled pickles, and only one plate is a wild bracken that grows in the winter in the south, which is relatively cold-tolerant, and it is not fresh.

Even so, it is a very good part of the food, and only large families can afford it.

Zhuge Liang sat on the first seat under the right hand of the camp commander at this time to deal with official documents, and the table was full of war reports from all over the country, although Cao Liu had not yet fought a decisive battle, but the war between the scouts of the two sides never stopped.

Liu Bei saw that he was still buried in the table, so he happily put the food box on his table, took away the official document in his hand, and said with a smile: "Strategist, let's eat meat again at night, this time it is stewed meat." ”

Zhuge Liang helplessly glanced at the official document that had been taken away in Liu Bei's hand, and then smiled and said: "Xiaoqing is a big family now, rich and powerful, and he should eat his meat." ”

"Hahahaha."

Liu Bei laughed, sat down at the same table with Zhuge Liang, opened the food box and took out the food, and said while taking it: "Military division, it's another year and a year, and now the morale of the generals of the three armies is vigorous, and many middle and lower-level officers have come to ask me when I will fight Cao Cao to the death." ”

Zhuge Liang nodded with a smile and said, "Morale is available." ”

Liu Bei put the dishes and chopsticks in front of Zhuge Liang, and asked: "It's just that the ancients said, "One drum, then decline, three and exhaustion", I am afraid that if I spend time like this every day, my morale will decline. ”

"Thank you, Lord."

Zhuge Liang took the dishes and chopsticks, thanked Liu Bei first, and then said: "Lord, are the soldiers homesick?" ”

"yes."

Liu Bei sighed and said: "The soldiers in our army, there are many Bashu Yizhou soldiers who captured Liu Zhang, and I took them back once when I went to Ba County this year to relieve the pain of lovesickness, but if I don't go back, it's okay, if I go back once, wouldn't I miss it even more?" ”

Zhuge Liang said: "The Yizhou soldiers miss their hometown, and the lord promised them to take them back, and they have hope in their hearts." But Cao Cao took his soldiers out to fight at the end of the year, and he didn't know when the battle would be over, and there was no hope in his heart. ”

Liu Bei was pleasantly surprised: "Could it be that the military advisor was waiting for the New Year to arrive, and launched an attack when the Cao soldiers were homesick?" ”

Zhuge Liang smiled and shook his head: "Naturally not, although the soldiers of the Cao Army are homesick, they are mostly from Henan, Nanyang is close to Yuzhou, Yanzhou and other places, and no matter how homesick, it will not be without a fighting spirit." It's just that their morale won't be as high as the lord's army. ”

Liu Bei said disappointedly: "Now we have been confronting Cao Cao for nearly a month, but we can't fight a decisive battle all day long, and the people around Wancheng are mostly hijacked by Cao Cao. ”

"Please be patient and wait, the time should come soon."

Zhuge Liang comforted.

Liu Bei had no choice but to pick up the bowl and eat a big bowl with tears.

The two of them chatted about some trivial matters while eating.

Now the smell of food is spreading throughout the army, and everyone is eating.

At this moment, someone outside the door suddenly shouted: "Report! ”

"Come in."

Liu Bei greeted.

Coming in from outside was Liu Bei's chief of guard, Chen Dao, who came in and knelt down on one knee and said, "Report, lord, military advisor, Baqiu is in a hurry." ”

"Oh?"

Liu Bei's eyes lit up and said, "Take it." ”

Chen Zhi handed over the letter that the messenger had just handed him the letter, and it was indeed written on paper produced in the Yellow Gate Pavilion, not a bamboo slip made of bamboo.

"Xiaoqing's side has already decided the winner."

Zhuge Liang said with a smile.

After reading the letter, Liu Bei's face became more and more surprised, and said: "The military division is really clever, Xiaoqing took advantage of the southeast wind to attack Hongkou with fire, and defeated the Jiangdong army, even their main general Zhou Yu and general Huang Gai died, and he said in the letter that he would use the fleet to go north by the water, and he could reach Fancheng tomorrow at the latest." ”

"Congratulations, congratulations."

Zhuge Liang put down the dishes and chopsticks in his hand, stood up and saluted Liu Bei and said, "Our time has come, and we can launch an attack on Cao Cao." ”

"It turns out that the military advisor is waiting for Xiaoqing!"

Liu Bei said in surprise: "But Xiaoqing's side is obviously at a disadvantage, and I'm still worried about whether he can deal with Zhou Yu, why does the military advisor believe so much that Xiaoqing can defeat Zhou Yu and go north to help us?" ”

Zhuge Liang smiled slightly, looked at the south with a deep gaze, and said softly: "Xiaoqing told me that before the end of this year, Zhou Yu will be defeated." Although I don't know what method he will use, I believe Xiaoqing. As long as he thinks he can do it, he will definitely be able to do it, that's all! ”

Believe Xiaoqing?

Liu Bei was a little dazed for a while.

But in the blink of an eye, he suddenly thought of Shen Chen's countless miracles.

From more than ten years ago, Shen Chen once told him that Xuzhou was a place of four wars and could not stay for a long time.

In the future, it is better to go south.

At that time, he didn't believe it, but what happened later was as he expected, because he was attacked by Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Yuan Shu and others in turn, and finally Xuzhou was lost.

After several sinkings in the court, I have also seen Cao Cao arrogant and domineering, and he didn't even pay attention to the Son of Heaven, so he waited forbearantly and left after all.

After going around and around for many years, in the end, as Shen Chen said, the place he should go to the most is Jingzhou in the south.

Although there is no stable foundation now, at least there are tens of thousands of troops under his command, and the prospects are extremely bright, whether it is Jingnan or Bashu, it may become his foundation in the future, how can this not make Liu Bei happy.

And in addition to some things that Shen Chen used to judge the situation in the world when he was a child, it was even more terrible when he grew up, taking advantage of the confrontation between Cao Cao and Yuan Shaoguandu, and the three faces of Xu Du, which shocked the world.

Some people felt that these three attacks on Xu Du were meaningless, but in fact, they not only saved Yuan Shao's forces, which were almost on the verge of collapse, but also contained Cao Cao.

After Cao Cao moved the capital to Chenliu, and was almost defeated by Yuan Shao, and then it took many years, and now he has only captured most of the territory of Jizhou, and even Youzhou and Bingzhou have not been taken, which is enough to prove that every judgment of Shen Chen is right!

In the end, he has analyzed Jiangdong several times now, and there has been no mistake. and set up an ambush plan on all sides to take Cai Mao lightly. All kinds of magic, every time the opinions are put forward, there are almost no mistakes, and it is convincing.

"Yes."

Liu Bei's eyes also revealed a hint of a smile, and the appearance of the eight-year-old gentleman talking eloquently in front of him seemed to be vivid.

He said with a smile: "That's what Mr. Xiao told me back then, I didn't believe it at the time, but now it seems that the military advisor is also right, what Mr. Xiao said will definitely be realized, because as long as he thinks he can do something, he will definitely be able to do it, and from then on, I don't trust Mr. Xiao anymore." ”

The two people looked at each other and smiled, and an unconditional trust extended between the three of them. It's as if Liu Bei trusted his two brothers unconditionally after he married Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in Taoyuan back then, because they are his most important people!