Daqin arrests alchemists, what does it matter to me as a qi refiner?

Chapter 220 Sun and Liu unite, Zhuge Liang is a bully

Putting yourself in Zhuge Liang's shoes, I'm afraid he would do the same thing if he were in this position.

I am weak and cannot blame others.

But then it’s time to show off your strength.

"The general is well-informed and should know about Changbanpo."

Sun Quan nodded slightly: "Hearing Zhang Yide's roar, one man chased five thousand cavalry and fled in haste. It is really brave!"

Having said this, even Sun Quan couldn't help but sigh in admiration.

There was more than one person who saw that scene that day, and there was no room for fraud in such a thing.

Even Sun Quan couldn't help but praise what a fierce general he is.

In comparison, Cao Cao became the person who was laughed at in the world.

Five thousand people are being chased by one person and are running away in a hurry. Don't care about what happened. People in the world only care about the outcome of the matter.

The result is that you have 5,000 people jumping up and down while being chased by one person.

The battle at Changbanpo indeed showed that Liu Bei's strength was still unclear.

You can call him strong, but he was chased all the way south by Cao Cao, which was a shame.

But you may say that he is weak, but Liu Bei was able to protect hundreds of thousands of people all the way south.

According to Sun Quan's rough estimate, the number of people Liu Bei brought with him was at least 150,000.

With so many people, he was able to survive Cao Cao's pursuit without any injuries. This ability is definitely something that ordinary people can achieve.

So Sun Quan didn't understand how Liu Bei became what he is now.

If you have the ability to move south with hundreds of thousands of people safe and sound, how can you not defend a few cities?

Zhuge didn't have much explanation for this.

To be honest, this must be attributed to Qin Tian.

If it weren't for Qin Tian's unintentional move last year, I'm afraid Liu Bei would have been embarrassed a lot that day.

Not to mention the common people, he might not even be able to save his own wife and children.

Fortunately, Cao Jun was frightened by the sudden and inexplicable reinforcements, which allowed Liu Bei to leave Changbanpo unscathed and finally settled down.

"Although we lost Jingzhou and other places, our strength has not been greatly damaged."

Zhuge Liang didn't hide anything: "The soldiers who are returning now plus Guan Yu's navy have 28,000 elite soldiers."

"In addition, Liu Qi from Jiangxia County also has more than 10,000 people."

Speaking of this, Zhuge Liang also felt a little emotional.

They both have the same father, but the two sons they gave birth to are completely different.

Liu Cong and Liu Qi...forget it, there is no comparison at all.

Speaking of which, Zhuge Liang did not expect that his previous unintentional actions actually left him the last glimmer of hope.

Last year, he gave Liu Qi advice to leave as soon as possible, so Liu Qi left Jingzhou and went to Jiangxia not long after.

If it weren't for Liu Qi and Jiangxia's 10,000 elite soldiers, I'm afraid Liu Bei would be in a very difficult situation now.

After hearing this, Sun Quan shook his head decisively: "Not enough, far from enough!"

Marching and fighting is not about comparing numbers, but even so, the gap in strength between the two sides is huge.

Although Sun Quan claimed to have 100,000 elite soldiers in Jiangdong, only he himself knew how much water there was.

And these 100,000 elite soldiers will not just stay in this one place. In fact, the number of troops near Chibi is much smaller than this number.

In fact, if there were to be a fight, Sun Quan estimated that he would only have 30,000 to 40,000 men at his disposal.

If the war situation is urgent and there is no time to mobilize the army, I am afraid that this number will be even lower.

Including Liu Bei's 40,000 troops, it is only about 100,000.

But what about Cao Cao?

Just going south, he brought at least 150,000 troops.

These 150,000 people are all elite soldiers capable of fighting.

And since Cao Cao basically took over Jingzhou, Jiangling and other places without any effort, plus the soldiers in these places, Cao Cao now has at least 200,000 troops!

This is at least, God knows how many people Cao Cao has!

The strength gap between the two sides is extremely obvious.

It is impossible to fight with all the troops. According to the least optimistic scenario, the combined forces of Sun and Liu may only have 60,000 to 70,000 people.

Once Cao Cao launches his campaign, he will bring at least 200,000 troops.

Even if the war is not simply a competition of numbers, this contrast in military power is enough to make people despair.

Sun Quan indeed did not want to bow down to Cao Cao, but such a gap in strength...

Zhuge Liang was not discouraged.

First of all, Cao Cao's army came from afar and was exhausted.

When chasing Liu Bei, they sent light cavalry to gallop more than 300 miles a day and night.

If Cao Cao's military strength was really strong, why would he only exclude 5,000 light cavalry from chasing him?

It can be seen that Cao Cao's army was exhausted after many days of marching.

It is difficult to say how much the soldiers' combat effectiveness has been maintained.

After all, Cao Cao just finished conquering Liaodong last year and started attacking Jiangdong again this year. Does he have the support of his country? What about the resistance of the soldiers?

These are all factors that interfere with the combat effectiveness of the army.

Besides, even if the soldiers from Jingzhou, Jiangling and other places are included, there is nothing to fear.

After all, they are surrendered soldiers. How much combat effectiveness can they have?

And even if Cao Cao goes south to attack Jiangdong, he still has to leave people to guard Jiangling and other places, right?

Of these more than 200,000 troops, if they really go south, they may not even have 150,000.

Of course, the premise of all this is to set the battlefield for the decisive battle in a place that is favorable to them.

If Cao Cao had been patient, then all the plans would be useless and everyone would just wait to die together.

"You also said that if Cao Cao can endure it and station troops in Jiangling, what will happen to us?" Sun Quan frowned.

Zhuge Liang smiled slightly: "It must be impossible!"

"Why?"

Zhuge Liang whispered two names: "Ma Chao, Han Sui."

Sun Quan suddenly understood.

Cao Cao seemed to have pacified the north, but in fact he still had many worries.

Ma Chao and Han Sui have always been at odds with Cao Cao. If time goes on too long and the rear is empty, I'm afraid these two will take action soon.

"Besides, the general probably doesn't know that Cao Cao's number one counselor, the genius Guo Jia, died of illness last year."

Sun Quan frowned, seeming to realize something.

"No wonder I think Cao Cao is so eager to march. Logically speaking, he shouldn't be so greedy for success. It turns out that Guo Fengxiao died."

If Guo Jia were still alive, he would definitely stop Cao Cao from being so greedy for credit.

But now that Guo Jia is gone, no one can stop Cao Cao. No wonder he is so eager.

If Guo Jia was still alive, this battle would never have happened!

Therefore, Cao Cao will definitely be eager to go south to start a war. His eagerness for success is his biggest weakness!

"The most important thing is that northerners are not good at water fighting."

Zhuge Liang had a wise idea: "Cao Cao wants to go south, and there is only one way to get to Jiangdong, and that is to rely on the navy in Jingzhou." This is also the reason why Cao Cao's first goal is Liu Bei.

Without Jingzhou's navy, Cao Cao would not have thought of conquering Jiangdong.

Does he have to rely on a group of infantry to fight the navy?

And this will lead to another problem.

"Jingzhou Navy surrendered to Cao Cao, but it was under the coercion of his army, not because of its sincerity."

After all, they are a group of descended soldiers. How much combat effectiveness can they exert without time digestion?

It stands to reason that the most correct thing for Cao Cao to do now is to station troops in Jiangling and wait for the opportunity.

But this will give Ma Chao and Han Sui an opportunity behind him.

Therefore, Cao Cao must make a quick decision, or simply abandon Jingzhou and retreat directly, but this is impossible.

So Cao Cao is now in a dilemma.

If you want to rely on the Jingzhou Navy, it will definitely be unreliable. Among the 200,000 troops, there are at most 60,000 to 70,000 naval forces.

In this way, the combat effectiveness of both sides was almost brought to the same level.

Although Sun Quan and Liu Bei are not very strong, there is no problem in pulling out a navy of thirty to fifty thousand.

So the strength comparison changed from 80,000 to 200,000 to 40,000 to 60,000, so the gap was very small.

As long as the strategy is right, it does not mean that there is no chance of victory.

Moreover, since the opponent has surrendered his pawn, he will definitely not be able to exert much strength, and the victory can be said to be certain!

And if the navy can't take Jiangdong, what can Cao Cao do if he has an army of 200,000?

Facing 50,000 naval troops, 200,000 infantrymen could only look away and sigh, and were even treated as living targets by the navy.

If Cao Cao loses his mind and lets these soldiers who are not good at water warfare board the warship, then I am afraid that both Sun Quan and Liu Bei will smile crookedly.

What would happen if the infantry who were not good at water warfare forced themselves onto the ship to fight with the navy?

The result is something everyone can imagine.

At this moment, Zhuge Liang threw out the most critical bait: "Now, with the general commanding tens of thousands of troops, and working together with Liu Bei, they will surely defeat Cao's army easily.

"When Cao Cao fails, he will inevitably retreat to the north. He will not have the strength or opportunity to go south for at least five years."

"In this way, Jingzhou and Soochow have gained great time and space for development. The world has been divided into three parts. Whether it succeeds or fails depends entirely on the general's thoughts!"

Everything else is empty. Zhuge Liang's key bait is in Jingzhou.

To put it bluntly, the key reason why Sun Quan is unwilling to join forces with Liu Bei is still not wanting to let the tiger go back to the mountain.

Even if Cao Cao is defeated, Cao Cao will have no strength to go south for many years, but the problem is that there is Liu Bei beside him?

Once Cao Cao leaves, Liu Bei will definitely become strong again, which is tantamount to letting the tiger return to the mountain.

Although Sun Quan didn't want to be controlled by Cao Cao, he also didn't want to create a trouble for himself around him.

But now that Zhuge Liang talks about Jingzhou, there will be no problems.

By capturing Jingzhou, Liu Bei's lifeline was basically in Sun Quan's hands.

From now on, he didn't need to worry about Liu Bei doing anything bad to him, because Jingzhou was in his hands, and if he wanted to attack him, he had to capture Jingzhou first.

Without Jingzhou, Liu Bei would be nothing.

This is equivalent to Zhuge Liang taking the initiative to hand over his life to Sun Quan.

In this way, Sun Quan no longer has anyone to worry about.

By joining forces now, not only can they defeat Cao Cao and solve their immediate needs, but they can also capture Jingzhou, a place that they have been coveting for a long time. There is no reason for Sun Quan to refuse.

In the end, Zhuge Liang still has a layer of insurance.

He didn't want to tear Qin Tian out and use it as a tiger skin, but now that the situation was critical, he had to use it.

"I wonder if the general knows that the white dragon appeared last year?"

Sun Quan's eyes moved slightly: "Of course I know, but I don't know why Kong Ming mentioned this matter."

"To be honest, Liang has seen the white dragon's true form."

"Oh?" Sun Quan suddenly became interested.

"Tell me more about it?"

So Zhuge Liang told what happened when he and Qin Tian met.

"Liang said that the man was talented and wise and well versed in world affairs. The general would definitely not believe it, but Liang did have physical evidence to prove it."

Then, Zhuge Liang told the story of Wei Yan's encounter with Qin Tian.

"The Immortal showed Wei Yan a clear path, and that's why we won the Changbanpo victory that day, otherwise..."

Zhuge Liang sighed. If Wei Yan hadn't come to the rescue, there's no telling what would have happened that day.

"Is there such a thing?"

Sun Quan suddenly became interested.

He himself is very interested in gods and ghosts, let alone anyone who has actually seen the god.

Zhuge Liang was full of confidence: "Of course Liang won't lie."

After that, Zhuge Liang asked people to present the gifts he had prepared long ago.

The gifts were naturally the rice, flour, sugar and other foods that Qin Tian had conjured before.

If rice and flour are only of good quality, then sugar and other condiments are nothing like ordinary food.

Especially the white sugar and refined salt, which are as fine as sand and as white as snow, which is rare in the world!

At least Sun Quan had never seen sugar as white as snow.

Sugar is rare, and all kinds of sucrose produced in this era also have other variegated colors. For example, the sugar that Qin Tian conjured is as white as snow, which has never been seen since ancient times.

If the detailed story before only made people doubtful, then the appearance of the white sugar left Sun Quan no longer in doubt.

This kind of item has never been refined by anyone in the world today.

The person who can get these things is not an immortal, not the white dragon, what else can he be?

Seeing that Sun Quan believed what he said, Zhuge Liang felt relieved.

"To be honest, I met the immortal in the tent a few days ago and discussed the future situation of the world."

"Oh? What did the immortal say?" Sun Quan's eyes lit up.

"Without the immortal's confirmation, how could I be in the general's tent now?" Zhuge Liang smiled slightly: "I'm afraid I would have followed my lord and fled south long ago."

Sun Quan burst out laughing.

Of course Qin Tian didn't tell Zhuge Liang this. He just knew history and the Sun-Liu coalition actually had advantages in all aspects.

Don't look at Cao Cao's menace, but he is actually just a paper tiger.

Of course, he didn't mind Zhuge Liang using his own name to deceive.

To say that it was pretentious and deceptive is a bit exaggerated. At best, it was just pulling on one's own skin.

Zhuge Liang is a counselor, not a pedantic person. He always has his own flexible moral bottom line for this kind of thing, not to mention Qin Tian himself doesn't mind it.

So at this time, Zhuge Liang didn't have the slightest pressure to pull Qin Tian out to endorse him.

He also knew that Sun Quan liked these strange things, so he finally brought this matter up to give himself a final layer of insurance.

At the same time, this is also a warning to Sun Quan to some extent.

Immortals and I have a history, so we'd better abide by our duties as gentlemen and not have any inexplicable ideas.

Otherwise, when the fish is dead and the net is broken...

If there were other ways, Zhuge Liang would never pull Qin Tian out as a shield, but who makes them weak now?

(End of this chapter)