In the second year of Zhangwu, spring, Hefei.

In the early spring, the warm sun is first revealed, mixed with the cold, which makes people cold and warm indescribably.

In the early morning, Huo Jun was dressed in a strong suit, dancing lightly with a sword in the pavilion, picking, stabbing, and flirting in turn, with skillful sword skills and a vigorous posture.

In recent years, as he grew older, Huo Jun felt that his physical energy was not good, so he began to practice swords. Not to improve swordsmanship, but to exercise the body, hoping to prolong one's life.

After half a ring, Huo Jun played a sword flower, put the Han sword into the sheath, took a deep breath, and ended today's sword dance.

Seeing that Huo Jun had finished dancing the sword, Huo Xiong handed over the soaked towel, and Huo Fan reached out to take the Han sword.

Huo Jun wiped the sweat from his face and asked, "Shizai, why don't you rest more today?" ”

Since Liu Bei ordered Bashu and Hanzhong to withdraw their troops, Huo Fan led his troops to retreat south, and only returned to Hefei yesterday.

Huo Fan put the sword on the sword grid and said with a smile: "It's customary to get up early to fight with the army. ”

Huo Jun put the towel in the copper basin and said with a smile: "When I was a soldier at the beginning, I had such energy. In the past, I went to Jiangdong, thinking about it night and night, lest I make mistakes. Now the generals are overseer, but they have a lot of time. ”

Saying that, Huo Jun looked at Huo Fan and said, "You don't govern the army in the army, how can you be a father?" ”

Huo Fan put on his robe and said with a smile: "Don't hide it from my father, I am here today, not for other things, but to ask about the method of breaking Shouchun?" ”

Huo Jun raised his eyebrows slightly and asked, "Shi Zai wants to break Shouchun, but I don't know what I think?" ”

Huo Fan pondered for a while and said: "Father, Shouchun has the danger of the country, and the summer and autumn rain are heavy, and the city can only be besieged in winter." Winter turns to spring, it rains repeatedly, the land is muddy, and it is difficult to garrison troops outside. If the city is flooded with fertilizer, it will be easily detected by thieves. ”

"And Shouchun is close to the Central Plains, and all reinforcements can arrive in ten days. Our army surrounded Shouchun, the thief army went south in a few days, and the two armies faced each other in the city. Er led his troops north to Shouchun, inspected the landscape and terrain, and felt the hardships and dangers of Shouchun. ”

Huo Jun put on his robe, sat down on his seat, and said: "The soldiers said: 'Go to the army to attack and plan, then attack the enemy, then attack the army, and attack the city. 'Wanting to break Shouchun is not inside, but outside. As Shizai said, the thief army can help Shouchun in ten days, so if it can overturn its reinforcements, Shouchun is isolated and helpless, then it can be light! ”

Huo Jun took off the tea stove on the fire rack, poured it into the tea cup, and said: "People and the land, people are often the most important, and the land is secondary. Especially in Shouchun Jiancheng, it is difficult for China to go down if it is not weak, so if it wants to go down its city, it is only to destroy its army, kill its people, and lose its heart. ”

As the pillar of the Central Plains, Shouchun is important because it is located in the necessary place for the passage of the north and the south, so once the Southern Han attacks it will be supported by the entire north.

Although the second city of Xiangfan is located on the north-south road like Shouchun, in terms of its topography, because Xiangyang is in the Han Dynasty, it is conducive to the Southern Han Dynasty and not to the Northern Wei Dynasty. Shouchun is different, because Huaishui is not enough to become a natural hazard, its terrain is low-lying, perennial rain and waterlogging, and it is almost fair to treat both the north and the south.

After experiencing the unsuccess of the last Northern Expedition, Huo Jun often thought about how to break Shouchun. After several deductions, Huo Jun believed that only by fighting a battle of annihilation in Shouchun and defeating Cao Wei's army could he have any hope of taking Shouchun, otherwise there was little hope of breaking Shouchun.

Huo Fan frowned and thought, and said: "According to my father's words, the soldiers and horses he needs should be the soldiers of my Han Dynasty." There are not many soldiers enough to surround his army, and the soldiers are not good enough to break his army. ”

"Yes!"

Huo Jun took a sip of tea and said: "If there are not many troops, it will be difficult to overcome Shouchun for a while, or you can transfer Xuzhou, Kexia Pi, and the troops will arrive at Mount Tai, and then look for an opportunity to go west and wait and see Henan." ”

During these times, Huo Jun was also thinking about the direction of the Northern Expedition from Jianghuai. If he has a lot of soldiers, he can try Shouchun; If you have few soldiers on hand, you can consider attacking Xuzhou.

Most of Xuzhou's territory was still in the hands of Cao Wei, and the Southern Han Dynasty had only a corner of Guangling County and Xiapi County. If you can defeat Xiapi, take the two counties of Donghai and Xiapi, and build a defense line, you can deeply govern Huaidong, and then find an opportunity to encroach on Qingxu.

Hearing this, Huo Fan sighed and said, "If you can't go to Shouchun, it is hopeless to revive the Han family." My father said that it was a good idea, but it was difficult to do it if there were few soldiers. The wider the territory, the more troops will be divided and entrenched. ”

"Huh!"

Huo Jun poured a cup of tea for Huo Fan and said with a smile: "Reviving the Han Dynasty is a long road, and it is difficult to look at Wu Chuyi in the Central Plains, and it is difficult to look at the Central Plains with Wu Chu. However, everything is impermanent, make every effort to govern, and there will always be a time to drink the horse river. ”

During the peak period of Liu and Song dynasties in history, he almost took the area south of the Yellow River, but due to his own problems, coupled with the Xianbei soldiers, the supply of grain and grass was difficult, and finally it ended hastily and retreated to the Huai River Valley.

Regardless of Liu Song, and then look at the Eastern Jin Dynasty, its territory is not smaller than that of the Southern Han Dynasty, and it is larger than the Southern Han Dynasty. However, due to internal problems and the failure of the battle, the Northern Expedition was hopeless.

At that time, the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Liu Song Dynasty were still facing the bulk north, and now the Southern Han Dynasty is facing the formed Cao Wei, and it is not easy to achieve outstanding results repeatedly. Especially in this battle of Xiangfan, if there is no help from Han Shui, it is likely to be like the battle of Shouchun, with a small victory and a hasty end.

That being said, Huo Jun had the confidence that the Northern Expedition would succeed.

As long as the Southern Han Dynasty does not fight among itself and maintains stable development, with Cao Wei's domestic situation, the Southern Han Dynasty will have a chance to succeed sooner or later. Not to mention the oath of Luoshui decades later, and looking at Cao Cao's heir Cao Pi, and Nalongyou's Thanos Ma Chao, Huo Jun always had a hunch that if the Southern Han Dynasty could succeed in the Northern Expedition, most of them would have to pin their hopes.

Of course, Huo Jun knew that if he and Zhuge Liang's generation could not succeed in the Northern Expedition, the successors would most likely abandon the Northern Expedition and turn to political internal friction. will even use the Northern Expedition to make profits and do bad things.

Seeing that Huo Fan was still a little confused and low, Huo Jun said confidently: "My father has forty years, and he has been fighting for more than ten years, going down to Jiangdong, taking Jianghuai, breaking Jinkou, and setting Hanzhong, and hundreds of cities under him. Why can't you go down hundreds of cities and Kuangding Han Dynasty? ”

Looking at the soldiers before the Three Kingdoms, there were no more people who won the land except Han Xin, and even if he killed the god Bai Qi, he only got more than 70 cities.

After all, the Battle of Chrysostom restored most of Jingzhou; The second battle of Jianghuai, almost all of them went to Jianghuai; Jiangdong has several battles, and there is one of the three cities. If Jiaoling City is counted, even Han Xin does not have as much as Huo Jun. Huo Jun just disdained to count Jiaoling City, after all, he had never been to the front line of Jiaoling.

Huo Fan heard Huo Jun's words, and praised him: "Father said proudly, Fan should raise troops to follow." ”

"You should be reluctant!"

"No!"

During the conversation between father and son, the attendant came to report and said, "Huo Du, Jiang Taishou and Wang Xiaolian ask to see you." ”

"Let them in!"

"No!"

Seeing that Huo Jun had something to deal with, Huo Fan got up and said goodbye, saying, "Father has important matters, and Fan will return to the camp director first." ”

"Good!"

After a while, Jiang Ji led Wang Xiang to come, and on the way, he also greeted Huo Fan.

"Ji has seen Huo Du!"

"Meet Huo Du!"

"Sit down!"

Huo Jun looked kind, looked at Wang Xiang, a native of Langya, and saw that his face was thick, his clothes were simple, and his temperament was elegant, so he couldn't help nodding secretly.

Wang Xiang, the word Hugh Zheng, is a person who lies on the ice and asks for carp in history. It comes from the Langya Wang clan, and the Wang clan of the world is the same clan as the well-known Wang Ma of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in the future.

His grandfather Wang Renguan went to Qingzhou to assassinate the history, and his father Wang Rong refused to conquer the government. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xuzhou was in turmoil, and Wang Xiang took his mother and younger brother and fled to Jiangdong with many Xuzhou people. The difference is that Wang Xiang refused to leave his office and lived in seclusion in the mountains of Lujiang for 20 years.

Now that his mother has passed away, Wang Xiang has nothing to worry about. Under Jiang Ji's conquest and the persuasion of his younger brother Wang Lan, Wang Xiang decided to go out of office, and he was promoted as filial piety.

Beckoning Jiang Ji and Wang Xiang to take a seat, Huo Jun said: "Hugh Zheng is the first filial piety under my rule, and this time I should not fall into the name of Xuzhou." ”

There are places for filial piety in every county, and Jianghuai naturally has it, but considering that the people in Jianghuai are scarce and the talents are even more scarce, the counties in Jianghuai have never recommended filial piety to Wuhan. Now it is not easy to jump out of Wang Xiang from the deep mountains, if you don't promote him as filial piety, who else can you recommend?

As for the filial piety and honesty system of the Southern Han Dynasty?

It can only be said that because of Zhuge Liang's rule of the country, the implementation standards are far stricter than those of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Even most of the time, Zhuge Liang personally interviewed people who were promoted as filial piety, so the filial piety of the Southern Han Dynasty was very high.

As a result, most of the filial piety in the Southern Han Dynasty were scholars who had been recruited by Liu Bei, and people with real talents and learning, such as Xu Shu, Zhuge Jin, and Bu Qi in the early years; In recent years, such as Jiang Wan, Yang Yi, Fei Yi and other rising stars.

Wang Xiang looked humble, and arched his hand and said: "Xiang will live up to the grace of Huo Du and the king, and this time when you enter Beijing, you should go all out." ”

"Good!"

Jiang Ji stroked his beard and said: "According to the letter, it is reported that our army has won Xiangfan, Cao Cao and His Majesty have withdrawn their troops from Xinye, and the army will return to Wuhan in the near future. I wonder when Huo Du will return to Beijing this time? ”

After Liu Feng left the camp to provoke that day, because Sima Yi successfully relocated the people, Cao Cao led his troops to withdraw to Wancheng. Liu Bei noticed that Cao Wei had moved the people and wanted to send troops to fight for the people. However, it is a pity that it was half a beat slower, and most of the people of northern Han were moved away by Sima Yi, and there were 150,000 or 60,000 people.

In order to prevent the Northern Wei cavalry from plundering, the Southern Han Dynasty moved the remaining 20,000 to 30,000 people from the northern Han Dynasty south across the Han River and settled them in the two counties of Hannan and Xiangyang.

Huo Jun pondered for a while and said: "He Shiyuan led his troops back to Huai, and His Majesty passed on the edict, so he could return to Beijing." If I return to Beijing, there should be more labor in Jianghuai political affairs. ”

"No!"

(End of chapter)