Many of Liu Bei's staff groups went out of the camp gate, and each of them bowed to each other, so they divided into several teams and left together.

Although they were all in the same camp, Liu Bei's advisors were also divided into several small groups. For example, Ma Liang, Yang Yi, Jiang Wan and others belong to the Jingzhou faction, because they are all from Jingzhou, and most of them are from Jingzhou families.

And Dong He, Huang Quan, Zheng Du and others are the Yizhou faction, and Huang Quan and Zheng Du needless to say, they are all from Yizhou.

Although Dong He is a native of Nanjun County, Jingzhou, his family moved west in the late Han Dynasty, and his ancestors were from Jiangzhou, Ba County, so under Liu Bei, it was naturally a Yizhou family group.

As for Zhuge Jin and Lu Xun, they are undoubtedly the Jiangdong faction. Even if Zhuge Jin is from Shandong, it can't change the fact that he migrated to Yangzhou.

Therefore, under such a geographical division, Liu Bei's staff group has probably formed such a group size.

At this moment, the Jingzhou faction still has the highest status, and Ma Liang has won Liu Bei's trust, as if he is the sixth person under the five major strategists in addition to Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, Pang Tong, Fa Zheng, and Jia Xu, and the most powerful contender for the three high-ranking officials in recent years.

After coming out of the main camp, Ma Liang, Yang Yi, and Jiang Wan walked towards the rear camp under their jurisdiction, there was still a light rain in the sky, and the three of them did not have umbrellas, and the raindrops soaked their clothes.

"If it is not expected, when Cao Pi gets the news of the loss of Guanzhong, I am afraid that he will be in a hurry to fight and start a head-on confrontation with His Majesty." Ma Liang raised his head and looked at the sky where there were still dark clouds, and said with a deep sigh.

Yang Yi nodded slightly: "Yes, Cao Pi is indeed in a hurry, so we can only persuade Your Majesty, I hope Your Majesty will not be impatient." Ma Liang looked back at Jiang Wan and said: "Gongyan said before that when the governor of the capital recovers and merges the state, the general will seize Huainan, but he didn't tell His Majesty, it will take a long time." Jiang Wan said in a deep voice: "Bingzhou and Tongguan are both continuous mountains, and most of them supervise the protracted transportation of grain, even if they change to transport grain from Nanyang later, they must be well prepared." And even if the general breaks through Huainan, Cao Wei will also build a defensive line north of the Huai River, these things will naturally not happen overnight. ”

"By the time the Han Dynasty and Cao Wei reached the size of the Han Dynasty and Cao Wei, it was no longer the time when the princes of all sizes annexed each other during the rebellion of the princes in the early years, and at that time, a big victory or defeat was related to the ownership of a certain state and a certain county. Yang Yi shook his head and said: "But now that the north and the south have formed two countries, with a population of more than 10 million under their rule, it is definitely not a big war that can determine the outcome of the victory, Your Majesty can't be in a hurry if you want to unify it." ”

"I'm afraid that Your Majesty's body ......" Ma Liang looked at the cloudy sky and sighed, with a sad look on his face.

What they need most now is time, and what they lack the most is time. Liu Bei is the backbone of the Southern Imperial Court, but he is old, once he falls, I am afraid that the current good situation will be ruined, so time is too important for them.

Jiang Wan said softly: "I hope that Your Majesty can continue to live a long life, and I also hope that the general and the governor can plough the court and sweep the cave and take Luoyang directly." However, the current situation is like this, and we still need to continue to seek stability, and we probably don't have to worry about the front line. ”

"Hmm." Ma Liang nodded and said: "Your Majesty has promised to delay the plan, although the general of the Che Cavalry is belligerent, but with His Majesty's instructions, plus the auxiliary left of the two deputy ministers, he will not fight...... We just have to wait, keep waiting, and one day, the Great General and the Grand Governor will not let Your Majesty down. They all looked up at the sky.

The rain in the sky is getting smaller and smaller, and now it is the rainy season in the south, and the heavy rain in Jingzhou, Yangzhou and other places is continuous, and the impact on Henan is there, but it is not so serious that the heavy rain throughout the day makes it impossible for the two sides to fight, so the front line is still a small battle.

However, these things are not a big deal for Cao Pi. Even if in the recent period, the two sides have scouted and explored the horses back and forth, and everyone has won and lost, but it can't affect the overall situation.

Now the opportunity to really change the situation in one fell swoop, and to allow Cao Pi to defeat Liu Bei in one fell swoop and seize the whole world, is to continue to delay.

Cao Wei's volume is placed here. Although the south is not weak, the confrontation between the north and the south, coupled with Liu Bei's northern expedition, is a long-distance attack, and delaying it will only benefit Cao Pi, and the Liu Bei group will continue to be consumed, to see who can consume whom.

It's just that in the past six months, Shen Chen and Guan Yu have been constantly attacking Chang'an and Hefei, and the two cities are like boats in the wind and rain, which also makes Cao Pi feel uneasy.

Today, I don't know why, Cao Pi felt very uncomfortable, so he gathered the strategists around him to discuss some things together.

Chenliu County, Chenliu County. The Chen capital of the previous Han Dynasty, due to the relocation of the capital to the Song Dynasty and Cao Pi's usurpation of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty was destroyed and no longer became the imperial capital.

However, the original palace is still there, and it has now become Cao Pi's palace, allowing him to supervise the war in the rear. At this time, in a side hall in the backyard of Chen Liu's palace, Cao Pi sat on the main seat, and was a little restless and flipped through the official documents in various places, rummaging through his hands, but he was absent-minded.

Because these official documents have been read, Huainan and Guanzhong are thousands of miles away from this side after all, and the battle reports are many days ago, and the latest news is that Guan Yu and Cao Xiu are fighting in the Chengde area, and the two sides are fighting fiercely, and they have won and lost each other.

After a while, Sima Yi, Chen Qun, Dong Zhao, Jiang Ji, Liu Ye and others entered the hall one after another, bowed to Cao Pi, and then sat down separately under Cao Pi's nod.

"Your Majesty, I don't know what happened to summoning the ministers and others today?" Sima Yi asked first. Cao Pi frowned and said, "I don't know why, I've been bored these days, and occasionally I'll be woken up by nightmares in the middle of the night, which makes me always feel that something bad might happen," Chen Qun smiled: "Your Majesty, this is caused by worrying in my heart and thinking too much, and my mother has to think about some messy things." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Dong Zhao also said: "As the old saying goes, there are clouds, and there are thoughts and dreams at night. It's a good thing to think often, but if you think too much every day, you will be anxious by miscellaneous things, and you will lose your calm thinking. ”

"Well, maybe it is." Cao Pi nodded, thought for a while and said, "But even if I may be thinking too much, it's good to convene everyone to discuss the matter." As the so-called brainstorming, now that the war is deadlocked, we may be able to think of a way to break this situation and let us win. ”

"That's just as well." Sima Yi said: "It is not realistic to pin the hope of victory entirely on Liu Bei's old age, illness and death, but it is more beneficial for us to drag it out at present, and if we can find another way, we may be able to win as soon as possible." Jiang Ji thought for a while and said: "What Zhong Da said is very true, the minister originally thought that Liu Bei was in poor health and would die soon, so it was also a common sense thought. However, if he can live another year or two, the long confrontation will cost us a lot, and even if he wins, it will not be good if he does not have the ability to go south in a big way. Dong Zhao smiled: "Didn't the Taiwei sacrifice stirrups and saddles before?" These things are all good things, we have far more cavalry than Liu Bei, and large-scale equipment can greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the cavalry, so that we can add another chance of winning. Cao Pi said: "Well, I have already ordered the general to be built on a large scale, but it will take time to build tens of thousands of stirrups and saddles in a short period of time, and then equip them to the whole army, I want to know if there is any way to break this deadlock as soon as possible." "Cao Wei's cavalry is indeed more than Liu Bei, at present, there are 150,000 soldiers in Cao Wei, Henan, and there are 40,000 or 50,000 horses in cavalry alone.

But again, in the era when there were no stirrups and saddles, the infantry confronted the cavalry in formation on the plain, and the cavalry came to die one by one, and one pair died with a pair.

The battle between Gongsun Chan and Yuan Shao is the best example of this. In his heyday, Gongsun Chan had tens of thousands of cavalry, 70,000 or 80,000 foot soldiers, and a total strength of more than 100,000.

Yuan Shao, on the other hand, only had tens of thousands of foot soldiers and thousands of cavalry, and his total strength was far lower than that of Gongsun Zhan. As a result, in the battle of Jieqiao, Ju Yi's 800 foot soldiers defeated Gongsun Zhan's tens of thousands of cavalry, which shows that in front of the bow and crossbow, everyone is equal in the foot cavalry.

But now with stirrups and saddles are different. It turned out that cavalry could not shoot arrows on horses, and with these things they could train them to shoot on horseback, shoot while running, and consume the foot soldiers alive.

In this way, their victory rate against the Han army's infantry on the plains will be greatly improved. It's just that although Cao Wei's national strength is not weak, it is not the era of industrialization, and it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to build so many stirrups and saddles by hand, how can the whole army be equipped so quickly?

So Cao Pi still hopes to find a faster way. Liu Ye pondered: "Although our army is now 20,000 or 30,000 more horses than Liu Bei in Henan, the total number of soldiers and horses on both sides is nearly 300,000, and it is difficult to defeat Liu Bei in a battle." Unless there can be a large-scale rebellion in Liu Bei's rear, resulting in a major defeat along the way, we will have extra troops to deal with Liu Bei's main force. ”

"A large-scale rebellion?" Jiang Ji shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's very difficult, Liu Bei has been stabilizing the situation in the rear for the past few years. Jingnan's Wuxi Man was all co-opted by him and used by him. The Nanzhong rebellion was put down by Zhuge Liang last year, and only Jiaozhi may still have a rebellion, but what can that affect him? And they bowed their heads and pondered.

Liu Bei's group recuperated for several years, unlike Cao Wei, which mainly oppressed the people, causing constant rebellions in the rear.

Therefore, the people's livelihood is very good, even the Shanyue people who have never been obedient to Wang Hua have surrendered to him, and it is even more unlikely that there will be a rebellion among the people.

Therefore, if you want to launch a rebellion in the rear of Liu Bei's group, it is obviously difficult to reach the sky. But after a while, Sima Yi suddenly raised his head and said, "Maybe this matter ...... It's not impossible. ”

"Oh?" Cao Pi hurriedly looked at him and said, "Zhongda has a clever plan? Sima Yi said with a smile: "Your Majesty, Liu Bei suppressed the wealthy family and supported the people at the bottom, it is indeed difficult for the people to set off a rebellion. But it is possible for him to suppress the wealthy family and fan the rebellion of the wealthy family, isn't it? Chen Qun said: "I'm afraid it's also difficult, what kind of imperial examination system has Liu Bei engaged in in recent years, meritocracy, it sounds beneficial to the people, but in fact, how many people at the bottom can afford to read?" Isn't the person who joins the family still a wealthy family? The worst is also the son of a poor family, so that most of his subordinates are from families, and a large number of wealthy families have indeed been deprived of their fields, but they can become officials, which can reduce their hatred for Liu Bei too much. ”

"What Changwen said is very true, the imperial examination system did ease the problems between Liu Bei and the family, but Changwen ignored one point." Sima Yi said with a smile.

Chen Qun asked, "Oh? What am I overlooking? ”

"Koto!"

"Koto?"

"Not bad." Sima Yi looked around at everyone and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Liu Bei started in Jingzhou, and most of the people he relied on were mainly the powerful people of the Jingzhou family. The Yizhou family was second, because Liu Zhang lost his state, and Fazheng Zhang Song and others donated the land of Bashu, so the Yizhou family soon fell to Liu Bei. ”

"That's right, now Liu Bei's so-called four phases are mostly from Yizhou, Jingzhou." Everyone nodded.

Liu Bei's official system has been slightly rectified, and the three provinces with lower grades have been promoted and have become important institutions for the auxiliary prime minister.

Therefore, the prime minister became the prime minister, and the chief officials of the three provinces, Shang Cheng, and the secretary of the door became the deputy prime minister. And these four, although Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu are not from Jingzhou, they have long been branded by Jingzhou Group, Pang Tong is a local wealthy family in Jingzhou, and Fa is the representative of the wealthy family of Yizhou, and the high-level power is naturally controlled by Jingyi and Yizhou.

Sima Yi continued: "The Jiangdong Shi clan supported Sun Quan and resisted Liu Bei. Nowadays, although there are also some big families who take refuge, there are still many big families who are unwilling to hand over their land and population, and they are not out of Liu Bei, and they are suppressed by Liu Bei. Moreover, even the big families who defected to Liu Bei had a very low status in the south, which was the root cause of their rebellion. Cao Pi frowned, and said after a moment: "Even so, the Jiangdong Shi clan supported Sun Quan to fight with Liu Bei a few years ago, and they were also exhausted, and I am afraid there are not many people. What's more, we can't connect so many wealthy families and send troops together to deal with Liu Bei. Sima Yi said with a smile: "Although they don't have many people, there are many Jiangdong scholars, and each family has a few hundred people, and it is not a problem to gather tens of thousands of troops." They don't need to do anything, as long as they can raid Guan Yu's grain road, cooperate with General Zhennan, and break through Guan Yu, then the pressure on the eastern front will be sharply reduced, and Huainan naturally doesn't need to worry, and they can even go straight down the Yangtze River to Jingzhou and attack Liu Bei's lair. ”

"Then how do you connect so many families?" Cao Pi asked rhetorically. Sima Yi smiled and slowly spit out a name.

"Sun Quan!" He said.

"Sun Quan?" Everyone was amazed.

"Exactly." Sima Yi tapped his chin and said: "Sun Quan is now imprisoned in Xiangyang, but the Sun family has been in Jiangdong for three generations after all, and he has been enviable for a long time, if he can contact Sun Quan and let him connect the Jiangdong family and set off a rebellion in the rear, then Huainan can be a big thing, if Guan Yu can be killed, Your Majesty may really be able to rule the world." ”

"Liu Bei and Guan Yu have a deep relationship, if Guan Yu dies, Liu Bei is already in poor health, and if he dies directly under his emaciated heart, the south will inevitably be in chaos." Jiang Ji thought about it for a moment and said approvingly: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Zhongda's plan is indeed feasible. ”

"Yes, anyway, just contacting Sun Quan, it doesn't seem to be a loss."

"It's the best, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't."

"That's a wonderful hand." Many of the strategists suddenly felt as if this was a good plan. Anyway, it's a layout move.

It's best if it can take effect, and even if it can't, it doesn't matter, after all, there's nothing to lose.

"Hmm." Cao Pi stroked his beard and nodded: "Okay, this plan is good, very wonderful." Zhongda, this matter will be left to you, if you can really set off a rebellion in Jiangdong, I will reward you greatly. Sima Yi hurriedly arched his hand and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty, this is also the credit of the ministers for their collective wisdom and efforts, not for the ministers alone." ”

"Hahahahaha Cao Pi laughed and said: "At that time, everyone will be rewarded, and I will never treat the meritorious people badly." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." And they all stood up and saluted. Cao Pi looked around at everyone, and said with a smile: "If you can kill Guan Yu, Liu Bei will definitely die, and I will eventually dominate the world and dominate the world, hahahahaha!" ”

"Report!" At this moment, a messenger hurriedly came in from outside the door, shouting in a mournful voice: "Shen Chen broke through Chang'an, General Anxi was beheaded, Taiwei was captured alive, and Guanzhong was lost!" The smile on Cao Pi's face suddenly froze.