Three Kingdoms: Cao Ying's mastermind, from nine to five

Chapter 339 If You Have Aspirations, You Can Achieve It
Yizhou's soldiers and horses retreated, even if the soldiers, horses, soldiers and people of the two borders were unwilling to confront each other, the situation stabilized and no wars were started.

Xu Zhen moved to Hanzhong, repaired the government office, and hoarded heavily.

The people in Hanzhong originally planned to make trouble and refuse to accept them, but Xu Zhen directly brought 50 people with him. These people were still refugees more than a decade ago, and they all lived without a fixed place and their homes had already been destroyed.

The predecessors were the family members of the Yellow Turbans who came to Yanzhou from Qingxu, and many of them were retired bandit soldiers.

When these people arrived in Hanzhong, they simply occupied the magpie's nest. They didn't regard themselves as outsiders at all.

Soon they got along in harmony, and redistributed the land of the government office for farming rewards.

Although Xu Zhen's method of farming is to take these refugees with him, he selects a group of them with annual rewards so that they can settle down proudly.

Of course not many, there are still millions of people who belong to Xu Zhen's hoarders every year. After these people farm, they can harvest enough to survive within a year.

……

Yecheng.

Cao Cao moved to Yecheng, Wei County, which is where the fiefdom is now. After the defeat, he entered the stage of defense and internal governance. With Cao's current forces, soldiers, civil and military forces, even if it is not enough to send troops to seize the world, but still occupy a great advantage.

There will be no gains or losses if you defend for a long time, and the army will be easily dispatched to defend. Even Xu Zhen dare not do it, and the Sun Liu Alliance will stop in Hefei.

After stabilizing the situation in this way, we will naturally no longer panic, and we can continue to carry out internal affairs, so that the territory will be rich and prosperous, and we will have a reserve of troops and horses to prepare for the future.

At this time, although Cao Cao said that he could sit back and relax, he also understood the truth that people have immediate worries without long-term thinking.

Cao Cao knew that if Chibi was defeated, his desire to rule the world in his prime would be in vain, and for the sake of Chibi's victory, he gave up Bowen.

For him, this is the biggest loss. If he had followed Xu Zhen's strategy, he would not have forced a rush, but would have slowly garrisoned troops and hoarded food.

Not only can it gradually erode the waiting opportunities, but it can also keep Xu Zhen close by and won't stay away. Although he can't do anything to him, at least it won't make him feel cold.

To this day, Cao Cao still can't figure it out, Xu Bowen has come to this point, either he has changed, or there was a mistake in the link when Cao Zhen showed up.

The relationship between the two has reached an irretrievable point, and now Xu Zhen's family background is no longer the same, so naturally they can no longer fight against each other.

Not long after, Guo Jia came back from outside with a letter in his hand. This year, Guo Jia has experienced a lot of vicissitudes, and he is far less glorious and relaxed than Xun Yu, who gradually let go of his insignificant responsibilities in Yecheng.

He sent a letter from Xu Zhen, and he has been communicating with him during this period of time, telling whether there is something, but it is not low-key. With Cao Cao's character, at most he will tell Xu Zhen in a very dark way, hoping that he will be transferred to Jizhou Come and be with him.

But Xu Zhen has been using Xiliang's borders as uneven, and his title is in Wuwei, so he can't go back rashly, wait a few years and make some political achievements.

This kind of rhetoric is actually a refusal, and Cao Cao can't rashly issue orders in the name of the emperor. If this is the case, then he has reached the last road. As long as Xu Zhen refuses, then the fact of self-reliance will be confirmed.

And this road still belonged to Mr. Cao, so it was difficult for the two of them to come to this point. They were just testing each other. Cao Cao had lost the confidence that he could control Xu Zhen.

Raising tigers is a problem, which is the best way to describe this matter.

"Still not agreeing?"

"That's right," Guo Jia said with a wry smile, and after cupping his hands, he revealed some other news, "Bowen has now set his sights on Yizhou, and he sent [-] troops to Hanzhong to help Liu Zhang wipe out the Taoism of Wudou Zhang Lu, and it seems that the result has already been reached."

"The news is far away, and it will arrive in a few days. I have sent people out to intensify the investigation. The number of people we have placed in Xiliang has decreased a lot."

"Berwen really..."

Guo Jia shook his head helplessly, "Very thorough."

"How thorough?"

Cao Cao looked puzzled, he knew what Guo Jia meant, but he still wanted to understand what the so-called thoroughness meant.

He still wanted to hear Feng Xiao say it himself.

"There are still some spies in Xiliang, but in Yizhou, there are basically none. If he enters Yizhou, based on this, we will have to spend a lot of time to inquire about the news in the future. , armament, battle formation and even his new civil and military skills, we don't know."

"Berwen will show up, but it doesn't matter what he says, so it's hard to find out."

Guo Jia's expression was troubled, his originally handsome face was full of sorrow, thinking of these arrangements made his scalp tingle.

At that time, Xun Yu's resignation was used to push hundreds of school officials into Jizhou to monitor Xu Zhen and hibernate in secret, like winter insects, without revealing his feet, in order to prevent future changes.

Who knew that Xu Zhen was directly transferred to Youzhou, and then traveled all the way. Soon after arriving in Bingzhou, he entered Liangzhou to live.

No matter how far it is from Jizhou, the hand of the school affairs can't reach him at all, and now he wants to seize Hanzhong and then enter Yizhou.

That Yizhou is a land of abundance, rich in products, and there are lofty mountains and rolling mountains, blocking the intersection of the surrounding marching roads, if you rush to send troops, you will be hit hard.

The spies sent out would probably be checked out as soon as they entered Yizhou, and to put it bluntly, Guo Jia suspected that Xu Zhen himself still had a trustworthy intelligence agency.

After all, this school office was trained by him at the beginning, and many people are still grateful for Xu Zhen's kindness in teaching. The kindness of teaching in this era is very important, and it gives people a way to survive.

Since he was able to train the school affairs, then he was in Yizhou or Xiliang, where there were a lot of warriors, so he must have other institutions.

On the other hand, for the spies on Xudu's side, it must be a fierce battle. It will not be that simple to get information in the future, but without information, you can't know the inside story, and you can't mess with it with rumors.

Of course, they dare not attack rashly, but Xu Zhen is young and the prime minister is old. After ten or decades, the situation may change greatly.

"Tsk, this kid really has vicious eyes, but what else can he not think of?"

On the contrary, Cao Cao laughed, as if he didn't take it seriously, but Guo Jia didn't have such a big heart, and he already felt that the future was even more gloomy.

It's impossible to reconcile with him.

After all, this is not a matter between the prime minister and Che Qi, these are already two factions.

And Xu Zhen's faction grew stronger in the flames of war. There is no need to take chances for his loyalty. They are all old foxes. It can be seen at a glance that he has nearly 50 people under his command, and 30 can sacrifice himself at any time.

The other 20 will be like this sooner or later.

Xu Zhen's ability to calm down is no less than that of the prime minister.

"Prime Minister, the only plan now is not to fight with Bo Wen, but to keep on good terms with him, and always draw the boundary between us and him. The Taihang Mountains are exactly the boundary."

"That's right," Cao Cao nodded approvingly, "I only care about the Central Plains, and he wants his Yizhou, but I still want to see where Bowen's talent is now."

"Tell Yuan Rang to withdraw."

"Order Zixiao to defend Nanyang, withdraw the troops, and defend Nanyang and Hefei to the death. No more troops against Liu Bei, let him go."

Cao Cao's complexion has turned dark, and it is no longer the time when he would feel sorry for Xu Zhen when he mentioned it, and he would never say a bad word about him.

Guo Jia was deeply in the dark about the situation, and this one glance was enough to see that the prime minister was thinking about the layout, and he suddenly realized that he had been paying attention to the general situation and did not let Xu Zhen go because of guilt.

On the surface, the summation of sending letters is just an illusion.

Otherwise, how could his eyes be so vicious.

Release Liu Bei.

What a plan.

As long as the pressure on Jingzhou is loosened, Liu Bei will no longer devote all his energy to the garrison of Jingzhou, but will turn to other places. Naturally, he can't take Jiangdong, so the only place he can go is Yizhou.

"Liu Zhang in Yizhou is Liu Bei's clan relative. Just like when he first entered Jingzhou to seek Liu Biao's help, Liu Bei will definitely plot Yizhou."

"Conspiracy... don't have to put it so harshly. Liu Jiyu has always been weak, bad at governing, kind-hearted and caring for the people. He is not a king who strives hard to govern." Cao Cao waved his hands with a smile, and said, "But Liu Bei is."

"Liu Xuande not only knows how to become rich and powerful, but also knows how to fight. He will definitely fight for Jingzhou. I want to see that Liu Bei can get at least half of Jingzhou. So what should Bowen do!"

Guo Jia was silent for a long time, frowning all the time as if thinking, and when he relaxed, he still asked a question, "Then, which one of them wins, we can benefit?"

"Whoever wins wins, we all gain."

Cao Cao answered him directly, and smiled again, "Because I will send troops to capture Jingzhou at the most critical moment!"

"I see……"

Guo Jia took a deep breath and folded his hands.

"The thoughts of the prime minister make me dazzled, and I am extremely admirable."

If this is the case, Liu Bei's victory will be difficult to care about, and Xu Zhen's victory will leave Liu Bei with nowhere to go.

Jingzhou will inevitably fall, but fortunately, in such a difficult situation, they can win another victory.

The prime minister is really broad-minded.

Now, it depends on how Bowen will break the situation.

There is only one possibility to break the situation.

fast!
As long as he is fast enough, everything will be too late for us, but can he really continue to continue with such rapid military power?
Hard to say.

……

One month later, General Jingzhou changed defenses, removed Xiahou Yuan, who was good at fighting and brave, and replaced Cao Ren, who was calm and magnanimous, to guard the border.

Liu Bei breathed a sigh of relief, and observed for more than ten days. There was no movement of Cao's army, and there were not many banners above the city gate, but the troops on duty changed more every day.

After deliberations between civil and military forces, it was decided that Cao Ren did not intend to fight them to the death, but only wanted to keep the southern part of Cao Cao's border.

At this time, Lu Su sent someone across the river, and sent another message across the river.

Only then did Liu Bei know that Hefei's defense was almost the same. Basically, he had no idea of ​​counterattacking, but retreated the soldiers and horses to the river bank.

Then Jiang Dong's meaning was too obvious.

Liu Bei realized what Lu Su meant on the spot, that there might be no more wars this year, and this was urging him to quickly find a new place to stay and give up Jingzhou.

But it was impossible for Liu Bei to go on the road immediately, he had to see what kind of medicine was sold in Cao Cao's gourd.

After thinking about it for a while, it was Xianhe who mentioned Xu Zhen again in the end, which made Liu Bei's heart sink and he understood the intention. Wisdom and judgment on the general trend instinct, Liu Bei can speculate that this is a matter between Cao Cao and Xu Zhen.

The gap between them is not small, so Cao Cao shrinks his troops and does not let go of an inch, which means that he is also forcing Liu Bei to find another place.

For him, the best place is Yizhou owned by Liu Zhang, who is also a relative of the Liu family. Liu Jiyu is an incompetent king, at least in troubled times.

Just like Liu Yu back then, he has benevolence and righteousness, loves the people and officials, but he has no talent to attack the world roughly, otherwise he was given 13 years to prepare, how could he still shrink in Yizhou.

After getting this conclusion, when Liu Bei summoned Guan Yu to tell the matter, he finally sighed and said sincerely: "I know that Cao Cao drove me to chase Xu Zhen in order to check and balance, but I have to go, Yun Chang knows Why."

"Eldest brother, you don't need to ask Yun Chang. You have followed him for twenty years in troubled times, so why ask about the way back? Where does elder brother go, that's where Yun Chang will go."

Guan Yu stroked his beard lightly, smiled calmly, but seemed to have guessed something, and continued: "However, to guard the land of Jingxiang, you still need a general to guard it, who else but me."

"Yide followed his elder brother to Yizhou. This is the place where elder brother can really take off, and it's not Jingzhou."

"Long Yun!"

Liu Bei was quite moved and held Guan Yu's hand, his face was full of excitement. He knew Yun Chang's temperament and would not say anything against it, but he did not expect to hear such a touching speech today.

"But I still want to say," Liu Bei sighed, "because we really need Yizhou to settle down, and if Xu Zhen gets Yizhou, he will be as stable as Mount Tai from now on."

"Yun Chang, Jingzhou will be handed over to you."

"It's all according to my elder brother's order. After this farewell, we will see you later. Even if Yun Chang dies, he should keep Jingzhou."

The two held hands tightly, and Liu Bei looked at him affectionately. No amount of words between brothers seemed superfluous at this time. The two words of benevolence and righteousness are in the heart, and they are qualities that make people never regret.

……

A few days later, a person in Yizhou sent a letter to Liu Bei.

His name was Liu Ba, he was a well-known scholar in Jingzhou, he had taught Zhou Buyi and many other young scholars.

I am a general who dared to go to the battlefield to fight, and secretly made friends with Liu Bei.

This was already the case in Xiangyang. Liu Bei visited many times in those years, and in the end only Liu Ba was willing to have long talks with him late at night, and exchanged ideals many times.

After the Cao family entered Jingzhou, Liu Ba first fled to Yizhou to seek refuge and was regarded as a guest of honor. Now he also has his own influence in Yizhou, and he is not alone.

After he received Liu Bei's letter, he replied immediately.

As stated in the letter, this skill may be feasible, and it is worth a try.

Receiving such a reply immediately boosted Liu Bei's confidence.

In the spring of this year, he started throwing stones at Yizhou to ask for directions, and the results he got at this moment are not too bad after all.

If it is still possible to succeed through hard work, then this matter is completely worth a try. After all, there is no other way out now.

(End of this chapter)