Ji Han Grand Commander

Chapter 171 165. The Will of Marriage
Just as Liu Bei had said to Zhuge Liang before, although Jingzhou is of great importance, Feng Xi currently has too many troops under his command.

Originally, Liu Bei's main force in the Eastern Expedition was close to 80,000. Later, Zhao Yun came and took away 30,000, leaving 50,000 under the command of Feng Xi.

During this time in Jingzhou, Feng Xi recruited Guan Yu's former subordinates and absorbed the Jingzhou troops hiding among the people. The actual number of people was far more than 100,000.

In this case, there seems to be no need for all the Eastern Expedition troops to stay here with Feng Xi. Sichuan is also in urgent need of manpower to deal with the Northern Expedition and suppress the Southern Barbarians... Naturally, the more soldiers the better.

But mentioning this to Feng Xi now was tantamount to nakedly dividing power from him. Zhuge Liang knew that ordinary generals would not look at him favorably if they knew about this, let alone the governor of three states with a large army?
"Military affairs? What do you think, Prime Minister?"

Feng Xi obviously didn't think of this. He took a sip of tea and asked Zhuge Liang what he thought.

"Now Jiangdong has been badly defeated, and only one out of ten elite soldiers are left. Wancheng Cao Ren was also destroyed by the general, and I am afraid they will not be able to move south in a short time. The Eastern Expedition Army has been fighting for half a year, and the soldiers are exhausted. Most of the soldiers in Sichuan miss their hometown. I hope the Grand Commander can understand and dispatch some soldiers of the Eastern Expedition Army back home."

Zhuge Liang's words sounded very common sense, but Feng Xi was no fool. He naturally heard the deep meaning behind them and couldn't help but smile.

"So, Prime Minister Zhuge wants to take someone from me?"

Feng Xi looked at Zhuge Liang with a smile on his face, but Zhuge Liang didn't know what Feng Xi's mood was, but he still had to say what he had to say and would not change his mind because of Feng Xi's attitude.

"That's true. In addition, the Sichuan region is exhausted and has already reached its limit of recruiting soldiers. If we recruit more soldiers from the Sichuan region, it may affect the foundation of our Han Dynasty."

Zhuge Liang confirmed Feng Xi's problem and showed no intention of backing down.

Feng Xi nodded and asked Zhuge Liang:
"I wonder how many the Prime Minister wants to transfer back?"

"Only about 20,000 troops will be left in Jingzhou, and the rest will return to Sichuan."

Zhuge Liang had already prepared a plan for this and answered Feng Xi without any hesitation.

Feng Xi lowered his head and thought for a moment. Ever since he attacked Jingzhou at lightning speed, with the assistance of former Jingzhou generals such as Wang Fu and Zhao Lei, he has gathered a lot of remnant soldiers and defeated generals. The number of people has snowballed, more than doubling from the 50,000 after the Battle of Yiling.

It was actually nothing for him to transfer back 30,000 to 40,000 people. As long as he kept some foundation, he could also break up the veterans of the Eastern Expedition Army and use them as the benchmark for each unit to retrain the Jingzhou troops.

"Of course, except for my Shenwu Battalion, we can leave the army under General Wu Ban's command and the remaining 15,000 veterans as the base."

As the headquarters' troops, the Shenwu Camp is definitely not included in the calculation, and the Shenwu Camp is also the one that is most convenient for him to use.

As for the part that Wu Ban was in charge of, theoretically they were also his people. However, during the Battle of Yiling, he had to manage the entire camp of the Eastern Expedition Army and naturally had no time to take care of other things, so he gave it to Wu Ban. There is nothing wrong with it returning to him now.

In addition to these, Feng Xi only needs more than 10,000 veteran soldiers to lay a good foundation for the Jingzhou army that has experienced a major defeat and fled.

"In this case, Xiu Yuan must also pay great attention to the defense of Jingzhou, and don't let the incident of Yun Chang happen again."

Feng Xi's straightforwardness surprised Zhuge Liang. More than 30,000 people were released just like that. His attitude inevitably became better.

However, in this way, Sichuan can still maintain nearly 100,000 troops. Together with Feng Xi's Jingzhou army, Ji Han has more than 200,000 mobile troops, which is already considered a strong force.

"Then there is the military generals. A lot of generals have been transferred from Sichuan to participate in the Eastern Expedition, so..." Zhuge Liang looked at Feng Xi and knew that he had indeed gone too far today. But there was nothing he could do. Sichuan also needed military generals. He couldn't let Zhao Yun continue to go to the battlefield at his age, right?
Feng Xi looked at Zhuge Liang in surprise. Today, Zhuge Liang was like a debt collector, and his words were filled with an indescribable meaning.

But what Zhuge Liang said made sense. Although he had a strong army, he only had young generals like Zhang Yi, Zhang Yi and Ma Zhong available in Sichuan, which was not up to the standard.

Feng Xi went over the generals under his command in his mind and finalized a few candidates.

"In this case, Prime Minister, you can let Anguo return to Sichuan with his mother, brother and sister, and Xingguo return to Sichuan with the three generals. General Chen Shi is quite capable of commanding the army, so he can also be used."

Feng Xi waved his hand and sent Guan Xing, Zhang Bao and Chen Shi back. As for Wu Ban, he would definitely go back to Sichuan. After all, he was originally a big family in Sichuan, so it would be more comfortable for him to go back to Sichuan.

In this way, Zhuge Liang's side includes himself, Liu Ba, Jiang Wan, Fei Yi and others in terms of civil affairs, and Guan Xing, Zhang Bao, Wang Ping, Zhang Yi, Zhang Yi and other new generation generals and Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei, Wei Yan and other previous generation generals in terms of military affairs. It can be said to be extremely luxurious, even better than the original timeline.

After all, in the original timeline, Liu Bei defeated the Eastern Expedition Army and had very few people in Sichuan. He had to use all his strength to defeat the Southern Barbarians, and he had to capture and release them seven times to win their hearts and minds.

"Xiu Yuan, speaking of An Guo, there is something I must tell you in advance."

Zhuge Liang rarely looked embarrassed, which made Feng Xi particularly curious about what major event could make this Prime Minister Zhuge, who was said to be a great and influential person in later generations, behave like this.

"Prime Minister, please tell me what is the important matter?"

"Xiu Yuan, you will get married after the late emperor's funeral."

Zhuge Liang's face was solemn as he spoke word by word.

"I thought it was something big...it's just a marriage...who?"

Feng Xi didn't take it seriously at first, thinking it was just a marriage, why did he treat it like the Northern Expedition? But Feng Xi thought about it carefully and found that the subject was not right, so his expression changed immediately.

"Prime Minister Zhuge, why didn't I know I was getting married?"

As the person involved, Feng Xi didn't know when or whom he would marry.

"The late emperor left a will ordering Your Majesty to marry the daughter of the third general as your empress, and at the same time ordering you, Xiu Yuan, to be engaged to the daughter of General Guan."

Zhuge Liang took out a scroll of book from his sleeve with a strange look on his face and handed it to Feng Xi. Feng Xi took it and looked at it carefully. It was indeed Old Liu's handwriting. Although it was not Old Liu's own handwriting, the big seal on it was definitely correct.

"How does this make..."

Feng Xi was caught off guard by this sudden news and stood there in a daze, not knowing what to say.

Zhuge Liang saw that the great commander in front of him showed a rare look of confusion. Even when he discussed military affairs and internal affairs with him before, he seemed calm and at ease. But now that they were talking about marriage, he looked distraught.

"The late emperor considered that Your Majesty was left unattended and might be bewitched by eunuchs, so he designated the daughter of the three generals as the empress. As for you, Xiu Yuan... The late emperor knew that you had been in contact with Miss Guan, and considering that you, Xiu Yuan, had not yet married, he specially arranged a marriage for you."

(End of this chapter)