In August of the twenty-sixth year of Jian'an, Liu Bei ascended the throne as the emperor, announcing to the world, causing violent turmoil in the north and south.

The first is the war of public opinion.

In legal theory, Cao Wei claimed that Cao Pi's throne came from Liu Xiechan's concession and was a legitimate successor to the Han family, and Liu Bei was an arrogance and a thief.

However, Liu Bei claimed that Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty, which can be described as a contemporary Wang Mang, and the people of the world should discuss it. He imitated Emperor Guangwu to inherit the unification in the south, that is, he had to be ordered by the heavens, and he could not tolerate any doubts.

The two sides issued edicts to each other and disseminated public opinion, causing all kinds of news and gossip to accuse each other of being a puppet dynasty.

From the perspective of later generations, during the Three Kingdoms period in history, Cao Wei was undoubtedly orthodox.

The main reason is that Cao Wei was usurped by the Western Jin Dynasty, and the Western Jin Dynasty eventually unified the whole country, so if the Sima family wants to legitimize the throne, they must legalize the process of Cao Wei's usurpation of the Han Dynasty, so as to whitewash the process of the Sima family's usurpation of Wei.

Therefore, Chen Shou, the author of the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms", can only regard the Wei State as orthodox, including the official official history of later generations, and there is no record of this period of the Three Kingdoms.

The order of the orthodox dynasties of the Central Plains and China has always been the division of the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Ji and Han dynasties and the Eastern Wu are not in the orthodox dynastic order.

However, it is different now.

Because it has not yet reached the Western Jin Dynasty, who will become the winner of the Han, Wei, Southern and Northern Dynasties, who knows?

What's more, the Han Dynasty has gone through two dynasties so far, and the influence of the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty for 400 years is by no means that Cao Cao's control of the northern region for more than 20 years can be dissipated.

In addition, the plot of Cao Pi's usurpation of the Han Dynasty and Liu Bei's succession to the throne in the south makes many people look familiar, and people can't help but think of Wang Mang's usurpation of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Guangwu's succession to the throne in Hebei, and then ride the dust and open the road to reviving the Han family.

Comparing the two, some people will naturally think that I have seen this scene, so they will instinctively associate Cao Pi with Wang Mang, and Liu Xiu with Liu Bei, so as to deepen their empathy for the Southern Han Dynasty.

The result was a public opinion war between the two sides, and Cao Wei was very uncomfortable.

Many people in the north who were exploited, oppressed, oppressed, and rebelled by families, magnates, and the imperial court launched rebellions under the banner of responding to the Han Dynasty in the south, which led to rebellions in the north.

If it weren't for the fact that Cao Pi had completely controlled the imperial court, and used the Jiupin Zhongzheng system to greatly alleviate the contradictions between the Cao Wei group and the small and medium-sized families and the poor landlord class, the northern families were all Wei ministers, and I am afraid that the entire north would have been in turmoil now.

And after the war of public opinion is the military.

Both sides are stationed on the border, except for Guanzhong and Huainan, which are sparsely populated, and Cao Wei only sent a small number of people, Henan Nanyang and other places, both sides can be said to be heavily guarded.

History has proven that it is difficult for the south to succeed in the Northern Expedition, and except for one Zhu Yuanzhang, no one can succeed.

But that was after the Sui and Tang dynasties.

During the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Northern Expedition of Zu Ti, the Northern Expedition of Huan Wen, and the Northern Expedition of Liu Yu all achieved great results, especially Liu Yu, who recovered Luoyang, Chang'an, if it wasn't for the fire in the backyard, he almost dominated the world.

Therefore, although only Zhu Yuanzhang succeeded in the Northern Expedition in later dynasties, it does not mean that it is not possible now.

At this moment, Liu Bei has mastered the entire south, and with Xiliang in hand, his strength is not strong, much stronger than Liu Yudu in history, and he may not be able to become the first successful person in the Northern Expedition.

Therefore, after Liu Bei became emperor, he set the capital in Xiangyang, and he personally sat on the front line, and the army Chen soldiers were on the border of Nanyang, confronting hundreds of thousands of Wei troops.

At present, Nanyang, Henan Province is the most likely place to have a war, and there are more than 100,000 soldiers in the Han and Wei dynasties.

The two sides fought a war of words for several months, and they set up more troops and horses on the border, but the atmosphere was full of excitement, but there was no fighting.

Cao Pi is bluffing, why isn't Liu Bei seizing the time to recuperate?

The two sides now rely on the Nanyang Basin and the Henan Plain to feed the grain and grass on the front line. Liu Beijun's main force was stationed in Yecheng, Lixian, Luyang, Duyang, Juancheng, Wuyin and Biyang.

Cao Wei's army was stationed in Kunyang, Wuyang, Xiping, Dingling, Wufang, Langling, Yang'an and other places, and the frontline was only more than 30 kilometers apart.

In addition, Liu Beijun also controlled Wuguan, posing a threat to Chang'an from both sides.

This is the current military situation of the confrontation between the two sides.

To sum up, the war of words has never stopped. However, due to the unstable internal situation of Cao Wei, Liu Bei had just settled in the south, the territory was difficult to manage, and he needed to recuperate, so both sides had no idea of going to war now, and temporarily entered a truce.

During this period, after Liu Bei ascended the throne, he immediately started a series of internal stability measures, such as announcing that the first imperial examination system would begin next year, and a large number of loose officials and honorable officials would be rewarded.

At the same time, many children of powerful families were recruited into the office, and Yangzhou officials were sent to Shu, so that Shu officials were in Jingzhou, and Jingzhou officials went to Jiangdong.

There is also Liangzhou.

Now the situation in Liangzhou is actually not as good as imagined.

Because Liu Bei only got a few counties in Longyou, the population of Beidi County and Anding County was migrated by Cao Cao and became sparsely populated.

Therefore, Liu Bei's actual control area is Jincheng County, Longxi County, Hanyang County, Wudu County and part of Wuwei County, which is roughly from Xining City in Qinghai in the west, Baiyin City in Gansu Province in the north, Tianshui City in Gansu Province in the east, and Longnan City in Gansu Province in the south.

Including Jincheng County in the Han Dynasty, Lanzhou City in later generations was also under his control, and the traditional Longyou region was basically obtained by Liu Bei, and now only Wuwei County in the north has not been taken by him.

Although Ma Chao is there, there are hundreds of Qiang tribes in Liangzhou, some people worship Ma Chao as a god, and some people are not interested in Ma Chao, so they don't get it so quickly.

However, Zhang Feijie's reports were frequent, and he broke through a large number of rebellious Qiang people, Hubu Guanlong, and Weizhen Liangzhou, so that gradually the officials in the south were able to smoothly enter Xiliang to control the counties and counties, and began to march to Wuwei County in the north, and there was a great tendency to recover the entire Xiliang.

By the end of the first year of Zhangwu, a light snow fell in Xiangyang, and the snowflakes dyed the streets and alleys white, but they soon melted into wet water in the lively commercial market.

The people of Xiangyang are accustomed to humidity, so there is a great demand for charcoal fires in winter.

The government has repeatedly ordered that the windows must be opened for ventilation when burning charcoal, and there should be many fewer people who died of charcoal poisoning this year.

Shen Chen's carriage was entered into the Prime Minister's Mansion at three o'clock in the morning, and today he wore civilian clothes, got off the carriage and entered the backyard under the leadership of a hired servant.

The servants in Zhuge Liang's mansion were all hired and there were no slaves.

But even though many people around Shen Chen set an example and hired servants instead of enslaving them, for the Southern Family, they still couldn't do this.

What the Song Dynasty was able to do was that its commodity economy was extremely developed, and the city was active in commercial trade, so that many people did not go to farming and chose to work in the city, which was somewhat similar to the situation after the reform and opening up in later generations.

It is difficult for landlords to retain the population through the slavery system, the slavery system itself was illegal in the Song Dynasty, and people were forced to become slaves, so that people could run away and sue officials.

Therefore, the landlord class in the Song Dynasty could only complete the cultivation of the land through employment, which was the emergence of hired farmers.

However, at this time, the Ji Han created by Liu Bei had just stabilized, business had just recovered, and although monetary policy had been issued, there were too many remote mountainous areas, and the situation of bartering still existed.

Even if a large amount of cultivated land is uncultivated, for the people at the bottom, if they are mixed with the big families, even in a disaster year, they will have something to eat, plus they don't have to serve forced labor and pay taxes, so they are slightly more stable in terms of survival.

Therefore, in order to survive, there are still many people who voluntarily become hidden households under the protection of the landlord class of the family, even if the government divides the land to them, it may not attract these people.

However, Shen Chen knew that this situation would gradually dissipate as productivity increased, price stability and economic prosperity gradually dissipated.

After all, no one is born to want to be someone else's slave.

As long as Liu Bei's group stabilizes, reduces taxes with light forced labor, and distributes land, there will still be a large number of Qiantou who are willing to come out of the hidden household and become naturalized people.

For example, since last year, Liu Bei has sent envoys to communicate with the Shanyue people, appease the Shanyue people, and invite them to join the Ji Han camp.

At the same time, he rewarded and wooed the leaders of Shanyue, gave them official positions, exempted them from taxes and forced labor, helped them increase their productivity, and so on.

The government exists to maintain order and stability.

The Yue people also live a precarious life.

It is not easy to beg for a bite to eat in the mountains of the southeast.

Sometimes, Shanyue and Shanyue will also attack each other, fighting each other for a water source and a piece of land that can be cultivated, and fighting each other to the death.

Moreover, the internal tilting is also relatively serious, and the leaders of the upper Shanyue can easily decide the life and death of the bottom.

Therefore, the desire for order, peace, and stability has become the desire of the people at the bottom of Shanyue.

Liu Bei was able to bring them these things, and naturally made them willing to join.

When Shen Chen entered the study in the back hall of the Prime Minister's Mansion, the first thing he saw was not Zhuge Liang who was reading the official document by the table, but the sword hanging on the wall behind him.

The sword was three feet and six inches, the system was simple, the color of the scabbard was white, and the hilt was hung with tassels, which fluttered gently in the breeze.

"Your Majesty is eccentric, brother's sword is better than mine."

Shen Chen said when he came in.

Zhuge Liang put down the official document in his hand, raised his head with a smile and said, "If Xiaoqing likes it, take it yourself, and exchange it for yours." ”

"That's not going to work."

Shen Chen dragged over a stool and sat on the edge of his desk: "My sword is black, and when I kill someone, it will be stained with blood, and it will be stained with a good wash." Your scabbard is wrapped in Shu brocade and white satin, and it is not easy to clean after killing. ”

This sword was given by Liu Bei at the end of last year, mining gold and ox mountain iron, and refining steel into steel by filling steel, so that the famous craftsman Pu Yuan created nine divine weapons.

Nine soldiers Liu Bei brought one by himself, Liu Chan gave one, the rest Shen Chen one, Zhuge Liang one, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao, Zhao Yun each one, called Zhang Wu Jiujian.

In addition to the Nine Swords, Liu Bei also gave some other things to Pang Tong, Fa Zheng, Jia Xu, Xu Shu and other senior staff members to achieve fairness and justice.

In the area of emotional intelligence, Liu Bei still managed it, at least he didn't make the people around him dissatisfied with the unfair reward because of the problem of the Nine Swords.

Zhuge Liang waited for him to sit down, reached out to take the brush, originally wanted to give instructions to the official document, but suddenly found that he had read the official document before, and the tip of the pen froze, so he washed the brush again, turned his head and asked Shen Chen: "What is the matter with coming over today?" ”

"Your Majesty summoned me yesterday."

Shen Chen said.

Zhuge Liang's posture of washing the pen froze for a moment, and then sighed: "Your Majesty is too anxious. ”

"Don't be in a hurry, Your Majesty is already sixty-two years old"

Shen Chen shook his head.

Liu Bei's age is indeed very old, he remembers that in history, he should have died of illness in the year after tomorrow, but he doesn't know if he can live longer without Guan Yu being attacked and the fiasco of the Battle of Yiling.

"Xiaoqing thinks that if we go on the Northern Expedition, where should we start?"

Zhuge Liang asked.

Shen Chen smiled: "Why don't you guess?" ”

"Okay."

Zhuge Liang nodded.

This is a little game between him and Shen Chen.

The two of them wrote on the paper with a brush and spread them out at the same time.

The same place name is written on it - Chang'an!

The two looked at each other and smiled, but soon Zhuge Liang's face sank again, and he shook his head with a wry smile: "Even Chang'an is not easy to attack." ”

"yes."

Shen Chen said: "Henan is a place heavily guarded by Cao Wei's troops, like an iron wall, difficult to attack. Huainan and Chang'an both have a situation that is thousands of miles of barren people, and it will be more difficult to transport grain. Huainan is better, take the waterway, Chang'an has to take the land route, but compared to Huainan, you can only attack Chang'an first. ”

"Hmm."

Zhuge Liang nodded.

Chang'an is indeed difficult to fight, and the biggest problem is grain transportation.

At the beginning, Liu Bei fought a battle in Guanzhong, which only lasted for two or three months, and almost hollowed out Yizhou.

Transporting grain from Bashu to the outside of Chang'an City, later generations may not imagine how difficult it is.

And even if it is attacked from both sides of Wuguan, it will consume a lot of grain.

So even Chang'an is not easy to fight.

However, compared with Henan and Huainan, among the three options of ordinary, difficult, and hell, Chang'an can be regarded as playable.

Because the problem of transporting grain in Huainan will be stopped by Hefei.

In the north, only the Yellow River is barely considered a natural danger, and then it is flat and unhindered.

Coupled with the war in the cold weapon era, the military advantage was mainly reflected in the number and quality of the army, and the ancient north was the population and economic center, so it was possible to quickly assemble and arm a large army.

For example, when the Sui Dynasty launched the Unification War, it was able to dispatch the Fifth Route Army, with a strength of about 500,000 troops, so that Nanchen could not defend against it and could only accept the fate of destruction.

At the same time, due to the abundance of pastures in the north, it was possible to form large cavalry corps.

Later, after the stirrups, horseshoes, and Takahashi saddles, the combat effectiveness of the cavalry skyrocketed, and the appearance of heavy cavalry began to crush the infantry. For example, the war between the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin and Mongolian countries is a typical example.

Even if these things have not come out now, the mobility that the cavalry has is still something that the southern army cannot reach.

Therefore, Cao Pi can have the confidence to only deploy a small number of soldiers and horses in Guanzhong and Huainan.

Because once the war starts.

Guanzhong and Huainan were uninhabited for thousands of miles, and Liu Beijun could not replenish food on the spot, so he could only travel long distances to transport supplies.

The Cao armies of Hefei and Chang'an only needed to hold out for a while before they could quickly get cavalry reinforcements.

However, compared with Huainan, the Cao army in Chang'an City had to hold on for a longer time.

After all, there are only two ways to go from Kanto to Guanzhong, one is to take the first line of Luoyang Hangu Pass and Qinling, and the other is to take the first line of Shanxi Taihang Bacheng into Hedong County.

Both roads had a large amount of mountainous terrain, and the cavalry did not rush so fast, giving Liu Bei's group time to conquer Chang'an.

It's a pity that Cao Pi obviously knows this too.

Therefore, for the defense center of gravity in three directions, Cao Pi's arrangement was very simple, and Huainan arranged the smallest number of people, only 7,000 people. Chang'an is a little more, there are 40,000. Henan has 150,000 or 60,000 people.

In this way, the 40,000 Cao troops in Chang'an City only need to hold on for about a month, and Cao Pi's reinforcements in Luoyang can quickly rush to the aid and push Liu Bei's army back.

So that's the way it is.

The three offensive directions were not easy to attack, but Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang had their targets in Chang'an.

Zhuge Liang pondered: "The problem in Chang'an is to transport grain, I talked to Yuan Zhi about this matter, and he told me that when he was in Hanzhong before, he had been building roads, and if the roads could be repaired, even if they could speed up the transportation of grain in a few days, it would be good." ”

"Now Your Majesty is still in a hurry to go on the Northern Expedition, and this matter still has to be persuaded."

Shen Chen said: "But Guanzhong must be taken back, the Han Dynasty must be restored, and the old capital must be returned, Chang'an City must be taken, brother, what do you think?" ”

】

"Well, it's nature."

Zhuge Liang agreed.

Shen Chen continued: "Transporting grain is indeed a problem, but we have to take our time, not only to build roads, but also to build granaries. Just like ants moving, it is the best policy to continuously transport grain and grass to Hanzhong, and then transport the grain and grass to Chencang from Hanzhong. ”

Zhuge Liang said with a smile: "Xiaoqing is the same as I thought, I have written a letter to Han Shenggong, asking him to expand the road of Chencang Road, and at the same time, he will also build granaries along the road to hoard grain in Chencang City. ”

"Chencang Road is the best road in Hanzhong, although it is a little farther away, but it is better than being spacious and stable, and after the grain and grass are hoarded, you can officially send troops."

Shen Chen said.

Zhuge Liang looked at him and said: "Cao Wei has many cavalry, according to Xiaoqing, it is fast mobility, how to deal with it?" ”

"That's why I came to my brother."

Shen Chen sighed: "I want to go to Hanzhong next year and start the formal large-scale formation of cavalry, using stirrups, horseshoes, and Gaoqiao saddles widely used in cavalry, and the formation of well-trained cavalry is certainly not a matter of one or two years, so I need my brother and I to meet Your Majesty together, persuade Your Majesty to be patient and patient, and at the same time officially start preparations for the Northern Expedition." ”

"How long are you planning to go on the Northern Expedition?"

Zhuge Liang asked.

"Three years."

"Three years?"

"Not bad."

Shen Chen nodded, looked at the north with a deep gaze and said: "Three years of recuperation, there are Jiaozhi Zhancheng rice and manure techniques, with water conservancy, reclamation of barren land, and more absorption of ethnic minority populations in the southern mountainous areas, it should be able to quickly enrich the southern heritage, so that the people will be rich and the country will be strong." At that time, the cavalry has also been formed, and it will be able to officially go on a northern expedition. ”