Liu Feng was deeply touched by Pang Tong's words, and he was absolutely right.
For the weak Liu Feng, Cao Cao is the strong one, Sun Quan is the strong one, Liu Bei is the strong one, and even the likes of Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu are much stronger than themselves.
Liu Feng also wanted to develop his own strength smoothly without offending the princes, but in fact, could Liu Feng do it?
Absolutely impossible
Being stuck in Changsha, he had no choice but to capture Jingzhou. And Jingzhou is the place of the Four Wars. As long as he takes action against Jingzhou, he will inevitably offend the interests of powerful people from all walks of life.
Today, the north has been occupied by Cao Cao, and half of the south of the Yangtze River has been swallowed up by Sun Quan. The strong ones are non-stop annexing the remaining weak ones. The entire world is about to be divided up by the strong ones. In this era , it is no longer like it was more than ten years ago, when the princes were fighting, giving Liu Feng enough time to expand.
As the weakest among the various princes, Liu Feng has no time to develop slowly. He must use this God-given opportunity to make a qualitative leap in his strength as much as possible. In order to achieve this goal, even if he faces No matter the current unfavorable situation, he will not hesitate.
"Shi Yuan is right. If we don't take advantage of this opportunity to take Xiangyang, it will be a hundred times more difficult to take Xiangyang in the future. I have never regretted my original decision."
Liu Feng expressed his attitude calmly and calmly. Although Liu Ba would be embarrassed by what he said, at such a critical period, Liu Feng must firmly establish his authority as a leader. He will not allow any People question their decision-making abilities.
As soon as these words came out, Liu Ba's face suddenly changed slightly, and he looked a bit embarrassed and unhappy, but since Liu Feng had said this, he naturally did not dare to criticize the matter anymore.
"In this case, we should calm down now and think about some countermeasures, how to deal with the pressure of the two armies."
Liu Ba finally understood the general situation. Liu Feng had already expressed his stance, and he immediately turned his mind to the overall situation.
Pang Tong's originally somewhat stern expression became calm due to Liu Ba's change of attitude. He stroked his short beard and said: "Although Cao Cao and Sun Quan both have the potential to suppress the enemy with large armies, the essence of these two people is There is a big difference. As far as Sun Quan is concerned, Cao Cao is still his number one enemy after all. I think there is still a chance for reconciliation on Sun Quan's part."
Liu Feng also deeply agreed with Pang Tong's analysis. He knew very well that Sun Quan could easily be tempted by the small profits in front of him, and thus easily change major and national policies.
Liu Feng hates Sun Quan very much, and destroying Sun Quan is a middle and later part of his grand plan, but now, the policy of Donghe Sun Wu is still extremely necessary.
"Cao Cao previously left Jingzhou unattacked because he was afraid that the attack would become more urgent, so he urged us to join forces to resist Cao Cao. Although Xiangyang has been lost now, I think he would only raise troops to take advantage of the situation when he saw that we and Sun Quan had the intention to go to war. . I think it would be better to send all Guan Yu's heads and Cao Ren's heads to Sun Quan. This would make Cao Cao think that everything we did was under Sun Quan's instructions, and Sun Quan's army went west. Come and support us."
Liu Feng woke up with these words, and he said happily: "Sir, what a wonderful idea. If we can deceive Cao Cao into not taking any rash actions, as long as we can buy enough time, we can concentrate on resolving the dispute with Sun Quan and put this matter aside." The threats from both directions were 'defeated one by one'."
On that day, Liu Feng used Pang Tong's strategy and put Guan Yu's head in a wooden box, together with Cao Ren whose tongue had been cut out, and sent them down the river to Sun Quan.
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Xu Du.
One day ago, Cao Cao's army arrived at the capital of the empire.
Although most of the power of the empire has been transferred to Yecheng in Jizhou, as the nominal capital of the Han Dynasty, the political significance of Xudu cannot be ignored.
Cao Cao planned to stay in Xudu for a few days to let his soldiers who had worked hard in Huainan for nearly half a year relax and recuperate. After receiving the news that Cao Ren had returned to Xiangyang, he would wait and see the development of the situation in Jingzhou in Xudu before making any plans.
In the Prime Minister's Mansion, Cao Cao gathered his ministers.
Although the Battle of Huainan failed, Cao Cao's good mood was not affected.
The break in the balance in Jingzhou allowed him to see signs that the heroes in the south of the Yangtze River were fighting each other.
On the Longyou side, Xia Yuanyuan's good news came frequently. He not only defeated Ma Chao and forced him to surrender to Zhang Lu, but also wiped out the rebel king Song Jian who had occupied Xiliang and had ruled for more than 30 years.
All kinds of good news are enough to offset Huainan¡¯s ineffectiveness.Return. During the banquet, Cao Cao was in great interest and even composed a poem and song, which pushed the atmosphere of the banquet to a climax.
Amidst the applause of the ministers, an old minister with white hair and beard walked into the room confidently, raised his hands to Cao Cao who was sitting in the seat, and said: "Prime Minister, he is a powerful and powerful man. His achievements are unprecedented and unparalleled. I think that the prime minister will succeed to the throne and serve the country." My lord, otherwise, I cannot match the Prime Minister¡¯s unparalleled achievements.¡±
When Cao Cao, who was three points drunk, heard this, he lowered his head and saw that the person who made the comment at the foot of the stairs was none other than Shi Zhonghua Xin.
An imperceptible smile flashed across Cao Cao's face, but then he laughed and said, "Shizhong Hua, I think you drank too much, why did you suddenly start talking nonsense?"
As soon as he finished speaking, another person followed and stood side by side with Hua Yun. He also raised his hands and said: "What Hua Shizhong said is exactly what we and other ministers want. The Prime Minister conquered the east and west for the Han Dynasty and wiped out countless rebellious thieves. , the merit of ZTE is comparable to that of Guangwu, the ministers in the government and the public, and all the people in the world all hope that the prime minister can ascend the throne and become a public official, so as to appease the hearts of Li Shu."
The person who spoke at this time was the admonishing official Wang Lang.
These two people are world-famous celebrities with high moral standards in the government and the public. When they stood up and persuaded people to come in, all the officials at the table immediately followed suit and tried to persuade them to come in. It was as if a pot had exploded.
Cao Cao stroked his short beard with his hand and looked proud, but his eagle eyes were secretly scanning the officials at the banquet.
The ministers attending this banquet are all the confidants promoted by Cao Cao, or from a political point of view, they have always been firmly on Cao Cao's side. To be precise, they are all "ones" in Cao Cao's eyes.
Almost all of the ministers at the banquet were rushing to persuade them to come in, but there was only one person who sat quietly, just lowering his head and drinking in silence.
That person is Xun Yu.
A hint of gloom suddenly flashed across his originally proud face.
Although Cao Cao had great power, he could not make his own decisions when it came to persuading him to advance. When he was about to make a humble refusal to show that he did not dare to occupy such a high position because of his merits, suddenly, an eunuch hurriedly entered the house and asked Xiangyang to do so. The latest news was reported to Cao Cao in front of the ministers.
?A piece of news that shocked everyone.
General Cao Ren was defeated and captured, and Xiangyang fell to Liu Feng.
Originally, he was persuaded by the ministers to advance to a large banquet, and fell into a deathly silence for an instant.
Many people thought they had drunk too much and their ears were blurred and they did not hear clearly. That was Cao Zixiao, the general who conquered the south. He was known as the general of ghosts and gods. How could he be captured by a second-rate petty prince like Liu Feng? This is a huge joke. Even more ridiculous.
However, when the chamberlain trembled and repeated the bad news loudly, everyone was really shocked this time.
"Okay, I understand, let's go down."
Cao Cao dismissed the servants, his face still full of spring breeze, as if nothing had happened, he raised his glass and said with a smile: "Come on, come on, let's continue drinking and writing poems. Could it be that a small thing ruined the fun?"
Xiangyang fell and the first general of the Cao family was captured. In the eyes of many people, this was a major event that the sky was falling, but they did not expect that Cao Cao could handle it so calmly.
After sighing with emotion, the ministers could only continue to drink with smiling faces, but after all, they had something on their minds, so no one mentioned the matter of persuading him to join.
A banquet ended in a subtle "joyful" atmosphere.
The next day, Cao Cao ordered the army to set off immediately, marching towards Xiangyang day and night.
According to Jia Xu¡¯s original plan, Cao Cao originally wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the fight between tigers, watch Liu Feng and Sun Quan fight for Jingzhou, and then take advantage of it.
But Jia Xu¡¯s strategy is based on the premise that Cao Ren retreats and Xiangyang, the southward base that can eye Jingzhou, is in his hands.
Now such a shocking change has occurred. The fall of Xiangyang not only means that Cao Cao has lost a stronghold that can go south to Jiangling at any time, but Nanyang and Xudu are also exposed to Liu Feng's military front. This is something Cao Cao cannot tolerate. .
No matter what, Xiangyang must be recaptured.
Hundreds of thousands of infantry and cavalry troops marched day and night. In March of that year, the army arrived in Xinye.
Prior to this, Wenpin of Jiangxia heard that Cao Ren was defeated and Xiangyang fell. He was afraid that his return route would be cut off, so he had to abandon the Anlu front line and led his army to retreat to Xinye. After Wenpin withdrew his troops, the Wu people took the opportunity to advance northward and took over the entire Jiangxia County.
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Xiakou.
In the afternoon, Soochow¡¯s 40,000 troops arrived at Xiakou.
In the large tent of the Chinese army in Shuizhai, Sun Quan summoned the people stationed on the front line of Jingzhou, includingThe generals on the western front, including Su Su, announced to them their decision to go to war with Liu Feng and seize Jingzhou by force.
"My lord, I recently heard that Cao Cao has personally led his army to Xinye, and is likely to move south again. If the Liu and Sun families fight with each other at this time, Su will probably let Cao Cao reap the benefits."
As a staunch anti-Cao faction, Lu Su's thoughts changed quickly. Whether Liu Bei or Liu Feng was in charge of Jingzhou, in short, in his opinion, the basic policies of the Sun-Liu alliance could not be changed.
Furthermore, knowing that Sun Quan was dissatisfied with his previous help to Liu Feng, he decided to unswervingly advocate an alliance with Liu Feng. Otherwise, if he changed to the main battle, it would be equivalent to negating his previous approach.
Lu Su couldn¡¯t slap himself in the face, he had no choice. .