Chapter 2 The Call of Lao Liu

"You Chang, what's the matter?" Zhao Feng looked at Ma Yan, who was rubbing his hands in front of him, and asked strangely. Although Ma Yan's surname is much calmer, as the saying goes, it is difficult to change his surname. There are still some flying and frivolous, and he has always been straightforward. It's a little rare for him to stop talking now.

"Hey hey, general, I'm here this time, not for business, but for personal matters!" Ma said with a flattering smile. Zhao Feng was used to Ma Yan's arrogant appearance. Now looking at the smile he squeezed out, he couldn't help but feel a chill. What the hell is there?" Zhao Feng reluctantly suppressed his numb scalp and asked.

"Actually, it's nothing, but I, Ma Youchang, have just been preparing to be hired. I want to invite the general to cheer together!" The horse pretended to be calm. After listening to this, Zhao Feng almost spit out a mouthful of tea, "Are you going to get married?" Zhao Feng was a little unbelievable.

"Why not? I, Ma Youchang, am 18 years old during the Spring Festival, and Brother Kong Ming has already got a family at the age of 17!" The horse is of course. Zhao Feng looked at the brilliant horse in front of him, frowned and asked, "What's wrong with the cheer you said?" Speaking of this, Zhao Feng also feels strange. This is not a fight or something. Why use the word cheering?

After Ma Yan's explanation, Zhao Feng understood. It turned out that the so-called cheering was to let Zhao Feng go with him when he was hired, so as to give him a long face. People have a good face. At present, the people in Yizhou have the highest official position of Zhao Feng. If they are hired with him, it will be very awesome.

"It's not impossible for me to go with you. I don't know which daughter you are seducing?" Zhao Feng was a little strange after saying that. There seems to be nothing wrong with this horse recently. Why has he hooked up with one so soon?

"It's nothing, it's Qin Zi's sister. She is fascinated by my talent, so she has already secretly promised me!" The growth rate of Ma's face is really amazing. In a blink of an eye, it has evolved from a blushing state to a self-bragging state. Zhao Feng looked at the excited horse in front of him, and knew that Ma Liang was not good at split up in Ba County, so he had to nod and agreed.

After a few days, he picked a good day and said, and Zhao Feng arranged this matter for Ma Yu. However, according to the etiquette, Ma Qian will have to wait for another half a year to marry his sama. At this time, it was already early winter, so the horse was eager to wear it. He wished that he could come to summer immediately, so that he could immediately hug the beauty back.

Day by day, the cold winter passed, spring is warm and the flowers are blooming, but Ma Yu still can't marry his bride this year. At the beginning of spring, Liu Bei, who was in Shouchun, issued an emergency edict, requiring Zhao Feng and Zhuge Liang to immediately hand over the affairs to Zhao Yun and Ma Liang, and go to Shouchun as soon as possible to discuss something important. Zhao Feng and Zhuge Liang, who received the news, suddenly felt bright in their hearts: Liu Bei is going to do it!

Think about it. If it hadn't been for the flood last year, Liu Bei might have been sent to the north at that time. In the past year after the disaster, Liu Bei's five prefectures and Yizhou, which had just been settled, were smooth. Among them, Jingzhou, Yangzhou and Jiaozhou had a great harvest, and the grain was Fengdeng. In addition, in order to crack down on Liu Bei, Cao Jian did not hesitate to destroy the Xiangjiang embankment and flood the people. This move also made the soldiers and civilians of the prefectures under Liu Bei's rule extremely indignant, and their morale and people's hearts reached a peak. If you don't catch this fighter, then Liu Bei won't muddle along.

In contrast, although Cao Wei's seven northern states have also got a certain chance to breathe, the grain output is quite limited. According to Chen Qun and Zhang Zhao's conservative calculation, even if Yizhou and Xuzhou are not included, the total grain output of Jingyang's three prefectures last year is more than twice the total grain output of the seven prefectures under Cao's rule. Under this premise, the number of troops that Cao can use is actually quite limited. In addition, Xun Yu has just passed away, and Guo Jia is seriously ill and dying in bed. Cao Yan's current situation is not very good.

"Kong Ming, it seems that the flood last year was really hurt!" On this day, the boat went to the vicinity of Bachu. Zhao Feng remembered that there used to be some residential houses on both sides of the river, but now they are gone. It seems that they have been washed away by the flood.

"Wuchang and Huangzhou are both rich places in Jingxiang, but you can't see that they are a little rich now. The Huangzhou Order and the Chaohu Order have been demoted to a long time." Zhuge Liang also sighed when he looked at the desolate look. In the official system of the Han Dynasty, if a county has more than 10,000 households, they will be the county magistrate, but if there are 10,000 households, they will be the county magistrate. Unexpectedly, this flood has sharply reduced the population of Huangzhou, Chaohu Wuchang and other places by more than 70%.

In the sigh of the two, the ship said that it was already Shouchun. Not only them, Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin in Jingzhou, Wei Yan and Chen Gong in Qingzhou, Zhang Liao and Xu Shu in Yuzhou, Zhang Zhao and Gaolan in Yangzhou, and Shi Guangyuan and Gan Ning in Jiaozhou all arrived. These core figures in the major states under Liu Bei's rule were all called, which can only explain one thing: Liu Bei wanted to make a big move.

With the arrival of Shi Guangyuan and Gan Ning, who were farthest away, Liu Bei also officially gathered everyone for discussion. Of course, senior officials from Xuzhou and Shouchun were also present. Everyone spent more than a cup of tea to talk about the past.

"Gentlemen, gather everyone here today, just for one thing. Since last year, I have discussed with Zijing, Shiyuan and Yide, and they all feel that this year is a good opportunity for the Northern Expedition. Therefore, it is decided to wield the Northern Expedition this year!" Liu Bei announced his decision in an unprecedented loud voice.

Although everyone had expected it, why did Liu Bei gather everyone to come? But when this really came out of Liu Bei's mouth, everyone still felt a burst of excitement from the bottom of their hearts. What is the concept of the Northern Expedition? The scale of this battle will never be comparable to any previous battle I have experienced. The human and material resources and the consumption of food and fodder will be an astronomical figure. Once successful, the big man's Zhongxing and even the world are waiting to come. On the contrary, once it fails, there will be no place to die, and the light can only retreat to a corner of the south of the Yangtze River. As long as you think about such an exciting thing, you can't help but feel excited.

"Brother, my 160,000 troops in Jingzhou have been skilled. As long as the eldest brother orders, he can go north or directly to Luoyang to plot Sizhou, or forcibly attack Tongguan to enter the customs, to ensure that there is no mistake!" With a little excitement, Guan Yu asked for help first.

"Ha ha, don't worry, you need to have a good discussion on how to march!" Liu Bei waved his hand to everyone not to be too excited, while signaling Lu Su to explain the general situation to everyone. Lu Su nodded, then pointed to the huge map of the thirteen states of the Han Dynasty hanging on the wall and began to tell the military situation in detail.

"Cao Yan was originally in Yanzhou, but with the relocation of the court to Ye City by him, most of the troops and horses have also been moved to Hebei by him. Even so, Cao Yan still deployed no less than 200,000 troops in Yanzhou to prevent our Northern Expedition, of which Xu Chang's heavy garrison was nearly 100,000. In addition, Xia Houyuan in Guanzhong also has no less than 100,000 troops. Cao Qian annexed Yuan Shao's subordinates, ruled more than 10 million people, and his army was not more than one million. Except for 100,000 in Youzhou to prevent Yuan Tan, and 100,000 to the border to prevent aliens, the remaining Cao Can at least mobilize another 300,000 troops to cross the Yellow River and fight with us. Lu Su said in detail.

As soon as they said this, everyone felt a little heavy. Cao Wei, who unified the whole north, was really strong. Zhao Feng estimated that it was a little unrealistic to rely on this war to determine the universe. I just don't know how many troops Liu Bei wants to move this time, and what is his strategic goal?

Lu Su saw that everyone was a little shocked by Cao's strength, so he continued to smile and said, "Don't worry, although there are many Cao's army horses, our army is not without an advantage!"

(to be continued)