Chapter 266 New Strategy
"Joining Liu Bei?"
Cao's eyes opened in an instant, as if he had heard the most impossible thing in the world.
That person is Liu Bei.
Since the Xuzhou era, he has been fighting with himself to his current old enemy.
In Cao's opinion, there is no problem for him to reconcile with any enemy in this world, except for Liu Bei.
What's more, he took the initiative to propose a settlement."No, absolutely not. How can I reconcile with the weaver who has no faith?"
Jia Xu's strategy came out, and Cao Jian brushed his sleeves and categorically denied it.
As if he had expected that Cao Yan would veto his plan, Jia Xu no longer say a word more, even if he closed his mouth and stopped talking.
In the big tent, it soon fell into a dead silence.
Cao's anger gradually calmed down. He looked around at the counselors and asked with a straight face, "Is there no other strategy except to unite with Liu Bei?"
Cao Yan's tone softened a lot. Listening to his words, it seemed that there were signs of softening and flexible.
At this time, Liu Ye said cautiously, "His Prime Minister, in fact, I think that the temporary alliance with Liu Bei is also a good plan."
Cao Shen frowned, but this time, he did not categorically veto it as he did when he treated Jia Xu just now.
He paused for a moment and said reluctantly, "Then tell me how can it be the best of both worlds."
Liu Ye was secretly relieved and said slowly, "The hinterland of the two rivers is the root of the country. If Liu Feng sent troops from Nanyang and Xuzhou at the same time, the hinterland of our two rivers will face its front. As for Liu Bei, we have the danger of Hangu Pass. In fact, it does not pose a real threat to the Central Plains. Therefore, Liu Feng is the problem of the heart at present, and Liu Bei is just a skin disease.
In Liu Ye's analysis, Cao Yan did not make a statement on the surface, but he had to agree in private.
In those years, he and Yuan Shao fought to the death. Isn't it the land of the Central Plains of the two rivers?
Now, whether in political or economic terms, he must swear to defend his Central Plains.
"Go on." Cao's expression has become much calmer at this time.
Liu Ye's spirit was slightly refreshed, and then said, "Liu Feng killed Guan Yu, attacked Jingzhou, and seized Xichuan. He has a feud with Liu Bei. He must not want to see Liu Feng sitting. With Liu Bei's wisdom, he should know very well that if he blindly targets us again, it will only benefit Liu Fengyu. Therefore, now Liu Bei may have thought of turning enemies into friends and fighting against Liu Feng before us.
"Hmm." Cao Wei nodded slightly, "Liu Bei is in charge of raising tigers. With his anniction, he must be able to foresee what will happen if he continues to indulge Liu Feng."
Liu Ye took the opportunity and said, "So, if we can temporarily unite with Liu Bei now and let Liu Bei contain part of Liu Feng's troops, in this way, the Prime Minister can concentrate his superior forces, defeat Liu Feng in one fell swoop, and then turn around to clean up Liu Bei. Isn't it the best of both worlds?"
Liu Ye is like a teacher, patiently weighing all the pros and cons for Cao Yan's analysis.
In fact, with Cao's knowledge, he can't distinguish between the interests.
However, although he knew it in his heart, he was sorry, so he couldn't accept the reconciliation with Liu Bei, his old enemy, for a while.
After Liu Ye's words, Cao Qian gradually stepped down the steps. He meditated for a long time and sighed, "If so, then act according to Wen and Ziyang's plan."
########## Three days later, a Cao Yan's handwritten repair book was sent to Tongguan.
Before this, in order to show friendly sincerity to Liu Bei, Cao Yan took the initiative to withdraw the soldiers of Tongguan to the front line of Hongnong.
At this time, Liu Bei, as Liu Ye said, his mood was not much better than that of Cao Qian.
Although he has taken all the customs and occupied Hanzhong, his strength is much stronger than Zhuge Liang's idea of crossing Jingyi at the beginning.
But when it came to the problem, Liu Feng's rapid rise has completely disrupted his plan, making his current strength appear so insignificant in front of Liu's cover.
Therefore, when Cao Yan took the initiative to reconcile and withdrew his troops first, Liu Bei also led the army back to Chang'an, leaving only Zhang Fei to lead more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to guard Tongguan.
On the day he returned to Chang'an, Liu Bei summoned Zhuge Liang, Fa Zheng and other confidants in his military palace.
"Kong Ming, filial piety, and now Cao Jian promised to recognize my possession of Yongliang Erzhou in the name of the court. He wants to turn the enemy into a friend with me and deal with Liu Feng together. What do you think of this?
Fa Zheng sneered and said disdainfully, "Cao, this is a fire in the Central Plains, and it is difficult to take care of both ends, so I want to use us to contain Liu Feng, but I have a good calculation."
Zhuge Liang also shook his face and said, "It's really difficult for Cao to pull down his face and take the initiative to propose reconciliation with the master. In my opinion, the master might as well consider agreeing to him."
Hearing Zhuge Liang's words, Liu Bei's expression immediately changed.
It should be known that since the time of Xuzhou, Liu Bei, no matter how depressed he is, has been firmly under the banner of anti-Cao. It is precisely because of this flag that he has become the spiritual idol of anti-Cao people in the world.
Now, if he wants to give up the political concept of his life and change the crusade against "Han thief Cao Jian" to make peace with "Cao Prime Minister" to discuss Liu Feng, the influence of his reputation, Liu Bei has to consider.
Before Liu Bei could speak, Zhuge Liang then said, "Liang knows what the lord is worried about, but the matter has eased. Doesn't the lord think that there is nothing more important than stopping Liu Feng from seizing the Central Plains in the current situation?"
A few words easily dispelled Liu Bei's concerns.
Since he captured Hanzhong by capture Zhang Lu, he seems to have put down a lot of fetters and looked down on "benevolence and righteousness" a lot.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang only gave a little advice, and Liu Bei immediately put down the concerns of the previous layer.
At the moment, he nodded and said, "The military commander's words are reasonable."
At this time, Fa Zheng said, "That being said, Cao Jian's purpose is clearly to borrow our hand to help him deal with Liu Feng. And when we deal with Liu Feng, we are nothing more than attacking the Sword Pavilion from Hanzhong or Wuguan from Chang'an. These two dangerous barriers are not easy to attack. At that time, if we lose money and grain, but there is no gain. On the contrary, if Cao Qian gets a bargain, the gains will not outweigh the losses.
Liu Bei's expression soon became dignified again, and his eyes turned to Zhuge Liang again: "Military division, what Xiaozhi said is not unreasonable."
Zhuge Liang's handsome face showed a cunning smile and said mysteriously, "Cao Hen's wishful calculation, how can Liang not know?"
Zhuge Liang's words seemed to have another plan.
Liu Bei's spirit suddenly cheered up and hurriedly asked, "Doesn't the military division have a good plan?"
Zhuge Liang strode to the map in front of the screen, and the feather fan pointed to the map and said faithfully, "Lord, please take a look. Assuming that we reconcile with Cao Qian and let him rest assured to fight with Liu Feng, then the main force of Cao's army will be transferred to Yanzhou and Yingchuan to prevent Liu Feng from attacking from Xuzhou and Nanyang."
Liu Bei and Fa Zheng walked to the map together and quietly listened to Zhuge Liang's analysis.
"We can pretend to attack Nanyang from Wuguan. At that time, when Cao's main force moved eastward, we suddenly moved troops to the east, and we can take advantage of the fisherman."
Going around, Kong Ming's strategy still seems to be to seize the Central Plains in front of Liu Feng.
Fa Zheng shook his head and said, "Kong Ming, your idea is good, but with Cao's annihi, even if you deal with Liu Feng with the main force, you will not be on any precautions against us. As long as he has a few soldiers on the front line of the Hangu Pass and relies on the dangerous customs, even if we suddenly advance east with a large army, we may not be able to seize Luoyang first.
"Xiaozhi, when did I say I was going to attack Luoyang?" Zhuge Liang asked a rhetorical question with a smile.
Liu Bei and Fa Zheng were surprised at the same time, and they didn't figure out what Zhuge Liang meant for a while.
The feather fan in Zhuge Liang's hand moved slightly up from Luoyang and pointed to the east of the river.
"Our army advanced eastward, but not to attack Luoyang, but by Pubanjin to capture Hedong, go north to capture Bingzhou, and then go east to Jingxingkou and take a detour into the Hebei Plain. At this time, Cao's main force is all in Henan, and the prefectures in Hebei are already empty. If our army has passed, we can easily seize the two prefectures of Youji..."
Zhuge Liang's new strategy, like the lights in the night, instantly made the two people who fell into the mindset suddenly open up.
Before Zhuge Liang finished speaking, Fa Zheng said, "In the introduction, even if Liu Feng captured the Central Plains, we seized Hebei. At that time, Guanzhong and Jizhou sent troops from north to south and from west to east. With the benefit of the cavalry, we can ** and wipe out Liu Feng in one fell swoop."
When Fa Zheng said the excitement, he spit and splashed Liu Bei's face.
At this time, Liu Bei was unaware that the blood of his whole body was ignited by Zhuge Liang's new strategic idea.
His eyes flashed with excitement. He thought about the map for a long time and suddenly laughed loudly.
"Liu Feng, Liu Feng, haha~~"
########## Liu Feng, who surrendered Zhou Yu's old army, temporarily moved his former general's mansion to Shouchun in order to consolidate the rule of the southeast.
This core town of the two Huaihuai can control Xuzhou to the north and deter the east of the river to the south, which is the key to controlling the two prefectures of Xuyang.
In Jiangdong, although Liu Feng temporarily acted as the governor of Yangzhou with Pang Tong, he imitated the old affairs of the state. A large number of indigenous scholars such as Gu Yong and Yu Fan were reused. Except for the governors of several important counties, the rest of the civil servants used indigenous scholars as the key.
Although this is the case, Liu Feng ordered Shu general Yan to lead 10,000 troops to station in the strategic place of Ruxukou as a military guarantee to control Jiangdong.
After completing a series of personnel transfers, Liu Feng followed Cao's example and moved a large number of Dingkou to the north to Lianghuai, with Shouchun as the core, and built a larger-scale farmland to provide food and grass guarantee for his future Northern Expedition.
However, at the time when Liu Feng nourished his energy and was ready to realize his great cause of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains and unify the world.
An information from Wei Yan from Nanyang added some worry to Liu Fengping.
Wei Yan claimed in the intelligence that he sent a detailed message to Guanzhong that Liu Bei was gathering troops in Shangluo, and there seemed to be signs of soldiers leaving Wuguan to attack Nanyang.
(to be continued)