(It¡¯s the fourth update, and I¡¯m relieved. I finally keep my word. Haha, I beg you to subscribe.)
At this moment, the entire tent was in a mess, with broken pieces of wood everywhere, and all the desks and documents were smashed to pieces.
Liu Bei, with his hair disheveled, supported his body with his sword and lowered his head, sitting there like a breathing statue.
He was panting like an ox, his face was pale, and tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was extremely lost, as if he had experienced a serious illness.
Never has a generation of heroes ever been in such a bad state.
Zhuge Liang sighed softly and said softly: "My lord, people cannot be resurrected after death. I hope that my lord will put the great cause first and express my condolences in passing."
After waving his sword wildly, Liu Bei's grief and anger seemed to be vented, and he was no longer as violent as before. However, how could such unforgettable pain disappear like this?
"It was me who raised the tiger, and I was sorry for Yunchang. It's all my fault." Liu Bei blamed himself in a trembling voice, with a bit of sobs in his tone.
He remembered the past incident when he wanted to adopt Liu Feng as his adopted son, Guan Yu had strongly opposed it, but he refused to listen.
¡°If I had listened to Guan Yu¡¯s advice, would I still be in the tragic situation today?
"My lord, there is no need to blame yourself. Everything has its own destiny. How can everything be expected? Perhaps, this is Yunchang's destiny."
Zhuge Liang used the so-called destiny to comfort Liu Bei. Although he himself did not believe it, for Liu Bei, it might be able to alleviate the self-blame in his heart.
Liu Bei is also not a person who believes in fate. If he believed in fate, after the failure of Xuzhou, he should have gone home and farmed in peace.
However, after listening to Zhuge Liang's persuasion, Liu Bei seemed to feel calmer. He sheathed his sword, straightened his messy hair a little, and his expression gradually recovered.
After wiping away the tears from his eyes, Liu Bei said in a deep voice: "Military advisor, Yunchang's revenge must be avenged. I plan to withdraw from the siege of Luocheng and personally lead the army back east to avenge Yunchang's blood. What do you think?" "
Hearing this, Zhuge Liang frowned slightly. What Liu Bei said was exactly the reason why he rushed to Luocheng in a hurry.
"Yun Chang's revenge must be avenged, and Jingzhou must be taken back. However, I would like to ask my lord to put the overall situation first and think twice before acting." Zhuge Liang reminded him with clasped fists.
Liu Bei snorted coldly and said disdainfully: "The beast Liu Feng just defrauded Jingzhou, so why should we be afraid? Once our army returns eastward, we will definitely wipe it out in one fell swoop."
"Although Liu Feng was deceiving, he was able to completely defeat Yun Chang's army, and finally killed Yun Chang. This shows that his strength is no longer the same as before, not to mention that he now has the families of all the soldiers in the army. This This is absolutely not something to be taken lightly.¡±
Zhuge Liang's persuasion made Liu Bei fall into deep thought.
Zhuge Liang then said: "Furthermore, now that Luocheng is in danger, once the army withdraws and returns eastward, it will give Liu Zhang a chance to breathe. If Liu Zhang joins forces with Liu Feng to attack our army from east to west, the situation will be dangerous. At such a critical moment, the Lord must not withdraw from the siege of Luocheng."
Liu Bei originally had a determined expression, but soon became hesitant, as if he had listened to Zhuge Liang's advice, and it seemed that this was what he had thought.
"However, Yun Chang and I are brothers, and Yun Chang died. If I don't avenge him, everyone in the world will laugh at me as a dishonest person." Liu Bei said with an embarrassed look.
"Things have priorities. Liang said before that Yunchang's revenge must be avenged, but Liang asked the lord to put the great cause of reviving the Han Dynasty first and concentrate his forces to capture Yizhou first, and then use it as a backing. If we gather all our troops and advance eastward, we will be invincible when the time comes, and we can also kill Liu Feng to avenge him."
After these words, Liu Bei's hesitant expression faded a lot.
"Liang Xiang thought that Yunchang had always been loyal and righteous, and he also took it as his own duty to help the Han Dynasty. If he had a spirit in heaven, I would not want my lord to ignore the great cause of reviving the Han Dynasty in order to avenge him."
Having said this, Liu Bei could say nothing more, so he could only sigh and said: "The military advisor is right, but I was too emotional for a while and almost missed the great cause of reviving the Han Dynasty."
As soon as these words came out, Zhuge Liang breathed a sigh of relief.
But there was a new worry on Liu Bei's face, "Yun Chang's revenge can be suppressed for the time being, but you must know that most of our army, from civil servants and generals to soldiers, are borrowed from Jingzhou, and now our hometown has fallen. Having lost all their relatives, they must be very anxious and want to take back their hometown. What should I do if these people strongly demand that I lead my army back eastward?"
Perhaps, this is Liu Bei¡¯s real concern.
This is not Zhuge Liang's concern, but as of now, even with his clever calculations, he can't return Jingzhou to Liu Bei's hands.
After pondering for a moment, Zhuge Liang could only say: "At this point, if my lord wants to stabilize the hearts of the soldiers, he can only offset the impact of the fall of Jingzhou by making serious promises and tempting them with benefits."
"A promise?" Liu Bei's spirits were lifted a bit.
"Exactly, for the civil and military officials, the lord can promise that as long as Yizhou is captured, not only will they be promoted to officials and nobles, but they will also be given all the land and property in Shu. As for the officers and soldiers of the three armies, they will be given all the rewards from the treasury. The middle-aged woman can be plundered and made into a wife. Under this heavy reward, I believe that I can stabilize my heart."
Zhuge Liang¡¯s move was quite cruel, but he also knew how to use power.
??Fundamentally speaking, the reason why scholars and soldiers follow Liu Bei is nothing more than profit.
With the fall of Jingzhou, what ordinary soldiers are worried about is nothing more than the loss of their wives and children. Well, I will let them plunder the women from Shu as they please, make them wives and have sons, and also take the money from the treasury to help you start a family.
As for the scholars who have land and industry in Jingzhou, then I will take away the powerful land estates of the Yizhou natives and reward them to you, so that you can live a high-class life with dignity and no worries about food and clothing like in Yizhou.
In this way, although it cannot completely offset the loss of interests caused by the fall of Jingzhou, it still gives them a visible and tangible promise, giving them reason to follow Liu Bei to fight again.
Most of the princes in the world have used this move, but it was extremely difficult for Liu Bei to use it.
Liu Bei's expression immediately became dilemma again.
The reason is very simple. Liu Bei came to conquer the world under the banner of benevolence and righteousness. Even if he captured Yizhou "unbenevolently and unjustly", he still tried his best to restrain military discipline among his subordinates and strictly prohibited them from disturbing the people.
But now, if he openly allows his subordinates to rob land and plunder women's money, wouldn't it be tantamount to betraying his own name of benevolence and slapping himself in the face?
Of course Zhuge Liang knew Liu Bei's difficulties, so when he saw Liu Bei's grimace, he immediately comforted him and said: "Now is the autumn of life and death. In order to revive the great cause of the Han Dynasty, my lord has done such an act against his will. That is also It is a helpless choice. For those soldiers and people of Shu who have been harmed, after the Lord rules the world in the future, he can compensate them in any way he wants. I believe they can also understand the Lord's difficulties."
Zhuge Liang is Zhuge Liang. Why can he make Liu Bei obey his advice? That's because he not only has a smart mind, but also has a sharp tongue. Whether it is an honest or a shameless strategy, he can always find it for Liu Bei. Come up with a high-sounding reason.
At this point, the ladder has been set up, so there is no reason why Liu Bei should not follow the ladder.
After letting out a long sigh, Liu Bei said helplessly: "As of now, it can only be like this. In order to revive the great cause of the Han Dynasty, I have only violated my conscience once. I hope that the soldiers and people of Shu can forgive me in the future."
After some persuasion from Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei seemed to have recovered from the grief of Guan Yu's death. At this moment, his dejected expression was no longer there, and his former majestic appearance seemed to be quickly returning to his former self.
Seeing this, Zhuge Liang said: "My lord, forgive Liang for speaking frankly. Although there is still a chance to save everything now, we must prepare for the worst."
"The worst plan, the military advisor means" Liu Bei frowned again.
"That means Yizhou cannot be conquered, Jingzhou cannot be returned, the soldiers are separated, and the morale of the army is shattered." Zhuge Liang reluctantly answered.
Liu Bei took a breath of cold air, a chill surged down his back, and asked silently: "What do you think the military advisor should do to prepare for the worst?"
Zhuge Liang came closer and whispered: "My lord can send people to Hanzhong to secretly befriend Zhang Lu. Once things go wrong, my lord can follow the plan of relying on Liu Jingsheng and go north to rely on Zhang Lu, and then find ways to make money in Hanzhong, and then If we go further north out of Guanzhong and forge ahead into the Central Plains, there will still be hope for the great cause of restoring the Han Dynasty to the Han Dynasty."
"Zhang Lu, Hanzhong"
¡¡¡¡
Xiangyang.
Niu Jin came to surrender with many heads, which was indeed a bit beyond Liu Feng's expectation.
Because Liu Feng knew that Cao Cao's army in Dangyang still had Man Chong, who had always been loyal to Cao Cao, and he did not have enough troops to block the road to Fangling, so he wrote a book and borrowed Cao Ren's name to persuade him to surrender. , but originally I didn¡¯t have much hope.
With more than ten thousand Cao's troops, plus almost all Guan Yu's troops, the Jingzhou surprise attack has been going on so far. Liu Feng has lost less than a thousand troops and horses. Not only is he unexpectedlyThe outsiders captured Xiangyang, and a sudden increase of nearly 30,000 surrendered troops, their strength greatly increased in a short period of time.
However, although the surrendered troops were large, Liu Feng naturally could not use them as direct troops as the people's hearts were still undecided. The current situation is that Liu Feng's territory has increased dramatically in a short period of time, and there are too few credible troops that can be used to occupy these newly occupied areas.
At this time, Pang Tong came up with a plan for Liu Feng.
There are currently 10,000 Changsha troops in Jiangbei, of which 5,000 are used to defend Jiangling and 5,000 are used to defend Xiangyang. Guan Yu's 10,000 surrendered troops were transferred to the north to cross the Han River and capture Fancheng, Xinye and other important places in northern Jing Dynasty. Cao Ren's 10,000 surrendered troops were transferred to the west to attack Yidu. Threatening family members can minimize the possibility of betrayal by surrendering troops.
As for the 10,000 barbarians in Samoko, Liu Feng ordered all of them to go to Jingbei. He had to get ahead of one person, seize the important area of ????Xinye, and cut off that person's return route to the north. .