The sun is thin, the remnant sun is like blood, and the scenery on the horizon is like Yuan Shu who fled in a hurry after the war.

Zhao Yun attacked halfway, Lu Bu pursued with victory, and Liu Bei led the army to follow. Under the front and rear attacks, Yuan's army collapsed on all fronts, and as many as 10,000 people surrendered, seized grain and grass, and countless ordnance.

However, Liu Bei looked at this loot that could not be seen, and muttered in his heart.

With the current situation, he can take advantage of the situation and go straight into the pocket of the rich Nanyang. With the unstoppable military might of the state army, Liu Biao would never dare to compete with him.

But in this way, his territory will be in an even more awkward situation.

From Bingzhou to Sili, and then to Nanyang, it is like a cliff in the valley, with unclimbable peaks on both sides.

Dong Zhuo in the west, Liu Biao in the south, Cao Cao in the east, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan in the north, this is an embattled realm.

Liu Ye seemed to see his hesitation, and said: "Lord, if you keep interrupting, you will suffer from it." ”

Jia Xu closed his eyes expressionlessly, and with his character, he would never speak when the monarch was in a dilemma. Because this is a choice that needs to be made as a monarch, if Liu Bei can't see through it, it is useless for him to persuade him.

It's just that...... He will never pay for the mistake of the lord, once Liu Bei makes a big mistake because of greed, he will leave without hesitation.

Liu Bei smiled bitterly: "I understand, but I am inevitably a little reluctant in my heart." ”

He didn't understand this truth, although taking Nanyang could increase his strength in a short period of time, he would fall into the predicament of enemies on all sides, and there would be endless troubles in the future.

Even if the army under his command is invincible, he can't hold on to these many gaps, and the tigers can't stand the wolves!

"Big brother, this Nanyang is unacceptable." Zhang Fei is abnormal, showing a sober side of the world.

Judging from the map, if Nanyang is taken over, Liu Bei's territory will run through the entire Central Plains, and the enemies of the Quartet can attack him from any direction.

At that time, they will be caught in the difficult choice of whether to defend or not to keep.

Defending, on the other hand, is due to the fact that the battle line is too long and there is a shortage of troops.

If you don't keep it, it will lose its meaning to take Nanyang.

What's more, his next step is to enter Guanzhong, which also requires a large number of troops.

All the generals didn't say a word, quietly waiting for him to make a choice.

After a long time, Liu Bei breathed a long sigh of relief, and his face became solemn.

"Return all the pawns to Yuan Shu, but ...... The armor had to stay. ”

Yuan Shu is wealthy, not to mention that this battle was initiated by the other party, and these ordnance should be regarded as compensation for defeat.

Liu Bei looked at Jian Yong again: "Xianhe, I'm sorry for you to take a trip and tell Yuan Shu that this battle is over, and the two families will never attack each other." ”

"Yes, my lord."

After Jian Yong received the order to leave, Zhang Fei was puzzled: "Big brother, why do you want to return these pawns to Yuan Shu, we are already merciful if we don't hunt him down." ”

Liu Bei smiled: "Without soldiers in his hands, how can Yuan Shu be able to stop Liu Biao's offensive?" ”

Zhang Fei immediately understood: "Big brother is wise." After this battle, Yuan Shu's strength was greatly reduced, and the soldiers and horses were also scattered.

If these soldiers are not returned, Yuan Shu is afraid that he will have to go back with thousands of defeated soldiers to fight Liu Biao. At this time, although Liu Biao had not completely controlled Jingzhou, he also brought 40,000 soldiers and horses.

Everyone also bowed their hands and said, "The lord is wise." ”

At this moment, Zhao Yun rode his horse and arrived.

"My lord, I have captured a batch of ordnance."

"What ordnance?"

"Hook sickle guns, up to tens of thousands."

Everyone looked at each other, if memory serves, the hook and sickle spear is the nemesis of the cavalry, especially for Zhang Fei's Tiefutu.

Men and horses are armored, but the horse's legs can't put on armor, if it is in a specific narrow terrain, the hook and sickle gun can definitely make the Iron Floating Slaughter suffer heavy casualties, or even wipe out the entire army.

Zhang Fei slapped his thigh violently: "Okay, you Yuan Shu, you actually created such a large number of ordnance for Tiefutu." ”

Liu Bei looked to the south and said with a smile: "Thank you Brother Highway for the gift." ”

The generals laughed, and then responded one after another, and the sound of blood spread for miles.

……

Under the moon, in the woods.

Yuan Shu sneezed inexplicably, but he only thought it was the cool evening breeze after the autumn and didn't think much about it.

He looked around, and the soldiers under his command were listless, like defeated roosters.

"Yang Hong, do you think Liu Bei will be wiped out?" Yuan Shu has already accepted his fate at this time, with his current situation, even if he returns to Nanyang, how can he fight Liu Biao, who is waiting for work?

Tens of thousands of troops have been scattered, and now there are only a few thousand remnants of the defeated army left, and their morale is completely gone, and their combat power is almost negligible.

"No!" Yang Hong's tone was full of confidence, and his old face was firm: "Although Nanyang is rich, for Liu Bei, it is tasteless and a pity to abandon it." ”

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

Because of the repeated failures, Yuan Shu has begun to doubt the abilities of the people around him, and it seems that their rhetoric is the opposite in the end.

"Report ...... Lord, here, here......"

The subordinate general Lei Bo came on horseback, and there were words on his lips.

Yuan Shu glanced at Yang Hong mockingly, and subconsciously got up and was about to get on his horse and run away, and the soldiers around him were also like frightened birds, and they were about to flee.

Strategist Yang Hong is already old, and now his beard is white, hearing this, his heart completely fell to the bottom.

He can't run anymore, so it's better to kill him by the neck, it's better than to die of exhaustion.

But I heard Lei Bo continue: "Liu Bei has put our soldiers back. ”

？？？

The air was suddenly eerily quiet, as if frozen by the extreme cold.

The soldiers looked at each other, their eyes dazed, as if they were asking their comrades beside them: Are you still running?

Yuan Shu was holding the reins and preparing to mount his horse, but when he heard this, he quickly let go, and reached out to calm the horse's back, as if he had only intended to appease the restless war horse from the beginning.

As a nobleman of the Han Dynasty, the Yuan family must always maintain elegance...... That was to ignore his messy hair, dirty armor and cloak.

Yuan Shu pretended to be casual and asked, "Liu Bei must have brought something, right?" ”

Yang Hong guessed correctly, Liu Bei didn't plan to kill them all, so he could directly send cavalry to chase and kill. In their current state of fatigue, there is no way to escape.

Since he didn't kill, he must have other plans.

Lei Bo arched his hand and said: "The lord is wise, Liu Bei sent a messenger to come." ”

The Lord is wise.

If it was before, Yuan Shu would like to hear these four words very much. However, in this situation, this statement is really not a scene, not like a compliment, but like a subtle ridicule.

Laughing at his defeat, embarrassed.

"Let him come to me."

"Yes!"

Yuan Shu immediately patted the dust on his body, took water from the kettle, washed his face, straightened his clothes, and instantly returned to his aristocratic demeanor.

As soon as he saw Jian Yong, he was the first to speak, and his tone was not happy or angry.

"Did Liu Bei send you to humiliate me on purpose?"

"No, no, the prime minister sent me here to rebuild the two families."

As an excellent debater, Jian Yong has already cultivated a three-inch tongue, and at the same time knows when and where, and what kind of words to use.

The reason for doing this is to repair the relationship between the two families, so the posture should not be too high.

Yuan Shu looked at the soldiers who had been stripped of their armor and weapons not far away, and only one was left trembling in their clothes, and sneered: "This is Prime Minister Liu Cheng's sincerity?" ”

There was a bit of gnashing of teeth in his words, where is this still an army, not even a militia, does Liu Bei want him to take a group of soldiers without weapons and armor to fight with Liu Biao?

Jian Yong's face did not change: "The prime minister knows that Yuan Gong is bewitched, but after all, he has to give an explanation to the Son of Heaven." And Nanyang is rich, and after Yuan Gong returns to the office, there must be no shortage of grain, grass and ordnance,"

Hand over?

The Son of Heaven is just a puppet in the hands of your Liu Bei, why do you need to explain anything to him. It's clear that you are insatiable, not to mention robbing me of my food, grass and armament, and you don't even want to let go of what the soldiers are wearing and what they are holding in their hands!

It is true that Nanyang is rich, but it is still a huge expense to lose tens of thousands of troops' grain, grass and ordnance at one time.

However, Yuan Shu also knew that now that the wood was completed, Liu Bei's willingness to let him go back was already benevolent and righteous.

"I'm curious, why is Liu Bei willing to let the tiger return to the mountain?"

As he spoke, Yuan Shu himself felt a little ashamed, he didn't seem to be a tiger.

Jian Yong said with a smile: "Because the prime minister still remembers the time when he fought side by side with Yuan Gong and discussed the Yellow Turban, he doesn't want to kill the old man." ”

That's rhetoric.

Jian Yong understood.

Yuan Shu also understood at this time.

Liu Bei didn't want to see Liu Biao sitting big, so he deliberately kept him. To put it mildly, Liu Bei was confident that he could suppress him all the time, so he let him live.

"The Prime Minister's words have been conveyed below, if Duke Yuan is fine, he will leave below." Jian Yong immediately submitted his resignation.

"Wait"

Yuan Shu opened his mouth to stop him.

Jian Yong paused, turned to look at the other party. He wasn't worried that Yuan Shu would keep him, which was tantamount to challenging Liu Bei's bottom line.

"Go back and tell Liu Bei that we will come to Japan for a long time."

"I have written it down below, and I will definitely tell the prime minister on my behalf."

This is a war letter issued by Yuan Shu, but the time of the war may be delayed to a few years, but it will be ten years later.

Because after today, there will be no conflict of interest between the two in the short term.

Seeing Jian Yong disappear from sight, Yang Hong spoke: "Liu Bei is a broad-minded person who should be the fierce rival of the lord. ”

This is a pertinent evaluation of the enemy, and Yuan Shu naturally will not blame him for this, and even agrees with this sentence in his heart.

Letting go of the defeated enemy and returning the captured pawns, this overall situation and mentality, Yuan Shu asked himself if he could do it.

Yuan Shu sighed: "I only hope that Dong Zhuo and Liu Yan can last a few more years, otherwise we are afraid that we will not be able to stop his military might." ”

He suddenly had a premonition that when Liu Bei took Guanzhong and Bashu, the troubled times would come to an end.

At this time, Sun Jian came back with the Jiangdong army.

"The last general failed to protect Yuan Gong's thoughtfulness, please ask Yuan Gong to give him his guilt."

Yuan Shu stared at him for a long time, and said with a smile: "After this great defeat of our army, I am afraid that the next battle with Liu Biao will depend on Brother Wentai." ”

"I am willing to saddle the front and back for Yuan Gong."

Subsequently, Yuan Shu led this strange-looking army to Nanyang, gathered the routs along the way, and soon regathered 30,000 soldiers and horses.

After Yuan Shao, who was far away in Bingzhou, learned that Yuan Shu and Cao Cao had withdrawn from the army, he decisively withdrew his camp to Bohai overnight and began his plan to enter Jizhou.

Liu Bei won the victory in this war, and his prestige almost reached its peak, and it was nearly known to everyone in all corners of the world.

……

Before you know it, months later, the autumn wind has dispersed and the cold winter has quietly arrived.

The Central Plains is full of war, but the south is peaceful.

Outside the city of Xiangyang, in a paradise where mountains and rivers are intertwined, many bamboo houses are connected. In the bamboo house, a group of students are discussing the general trend of the world.

"In my opinion, those who win the world will be Liu Bei! It sits on the division and merges with the state, with more than 100,000 armor, only need to enter Guanzhong, Liangzhou, Yizhou, you can follow the example of the former strong Qin, lead millions of heroes to the east, sweep Liuhe, and then cast the world! ”

"This statement is also fallacious, although Liu Bei has the capital and the state, but the Shu Road is difficult, how easy is it to take it?"

"Although the Shu Road is difficult, it is not unbreakable, how can Gaozu establish this Han world?"

……

The students vary in age, but most of them are teenagers, the youngest of whom is less than 10 years old.

And the object of their discussion has always been inseparable from Liu Bei, who has been in the limelight in recent years.

Rising in just a few years, from a commoner to the position of prime minister under one person, if he can dominate the world, the Son of Heaven may be the inevitable end.

In the small pavilion by the lake, an old man was quietly making tea, as if he was not interested in what the teenagers were talking about.

This old man is the teacher of Guo Jia, Xun Yu and others, and Sima Decao is also!

Sima Hui seemed to be born a good teacher, and after a few years, he pulled up a new team in Jingzhou. Maybe in a few years, these students of his, like Guo Jia and others, will become the most influential figures in the troubled times and hold the world's chess.

At this time, another old man walked out of the bamboo hut and went straight to Sima Hui's side, without asking the master's opinion, picking up the hot tea and drinking it all.

This old man has been a friend of Sima Hui for many years, his name is Pang Degong, and his words are still long.

Pang Degong said with a smile: "Brother Decao has a good way to teach his disciples, Guo Fengxiao, Xun Wenruo are all outstanding people for a while, if Liu Bei can help the Han family, the two of them will go down in history." ”

Sima Hui didn't see joy on his face, but sighed: "If they win, future generations will remember their names, but how many people can remember the losers who died with hatred?" ”

In his opinion, it is gratifying that Guo Jia and Xun Yu have become famous, but on the other hand, Xi Zhong, Chen Qun and others in the other camp are sad and lamentable losers.

It's just cannibalism among students!

Pang De said fairly: "Brother Decao, you are in love, this is their own choice." ”

Sima Hui was stunned, and then smiled bitterly: "Senior Brother Shang has learned a lesson. ”

At this time, the proud voice of a young man came to his ears.

"How many people can predict until the dust settles?"

"If Liu Bei can't get the assistance of my Pang Tong, even if he has the power to strengthen Qin, he will inevitably fall short in the end."

This young man is obviously very ugly, but he is full of confidence in his words and deeds. Because his wisdom has transcended the limitations of appearance, how many people can see the beautiful jade hidden under the ugly stone before the hammer falls?

"Ryo, what do you think?"

"Yes, yes, all the wise men in the world are the playthings of your Pang Tong's palm, even if Guo Fengxiao and Xun Wenruo join forces, they are definitely not your opponents."

"You're talking too much......"

(End of chapter)