Soldiers come to the world

In the study, Liu Min placed more than a dozen bamboo slips on the table, and said to Ma Teng, "All the problems with the manor are here."

Ma Teng recognized Liu Min all of a sudden, and was extremely shocked. He immediately glanced at the maidservants standing at the door, and told them: "You all step back!"

The reason why Ma Teng allowed the servant girl to enter the study was because he knew that if he did not do so, he would be under stricter surveillance. In short, only when people knew what he was doing all the time, Cao Cao would not Suspicious.

But today is different. Ma Teng knew that Ma Dai must have something important to do, and the maids retreated, leaving only the three of them in the room. Then Liu Min took out Ma Chao's letter from his bosom, and presented it to Ma Teng, saying: "This It's a letter from the Eldest Young Master to the General, please read it over."

Ma Teng glanced at Liu Min vigilantly. Compared with his son's letter, he was more concerned about Liu Min's identity. Liu Jing's staff in Jingzhou joined the army, and the eldest son actually asked him to deliver the letter. He trusted him to such an extent. What is this? mean?The eldest son wants to tell himself, has he reached some kind of tacit agreement with Jingzhou?

Although he was very puzzled, Ma Teng didn't ask any more questions, but opened the letter from his eldest son Ma Chao, saying that it was difficult for him to command several lieutenants in the army, and he asked his father to formally hand over the army to him, not just as a trustee. .

Ma Teng couldn't help but sneered, handing over the general power, would he still be alive?

In fact, the contradiction between Ma Teng and his son was extremely great, mainly due to the struggle for military power. The military power of the Xiliang Army was always firmly in the hands of Ma Teng, which made Ma Chao, who had gradually longed for power, dissatisfied.

The conflict between the father and son also gradually increased. Although it was not to the point of turning their faces, the senior officials of the Xiliang Army knew that the father and son were at odds with each other. [

The reason why Ma Teng refused to give up the army completely when he arrived in Yedu was because he was afraid that Ma Chao would rebel and he would not be able to survive in Yedu.

In fact, this is also Cao Cao's brilliance. He saw the contradiction between Ma's father and son, let Ma Teng continue to control the army remotely, and he controlled Ma Teng, so he indirectly controlled the Xiliang Army. As for giving Ma Dai freedom, that is also In order to make it easier for Ma Teng to control the Xiliang army.

Ma Teng paced back and forth in the study with his hands behind his back. He wanted to find out the real intention of the eldest son, but Ma Dai beside him felt a little strange. Since the eldest brother wanted military power, why did he let Jingzhou's staff come forward for him? Isn't this even more important? Let uncle be vigilant, let alone military power?

Ma Dai didn't understand, but Ma Teng understood a little bit. This was actually a kind of openness from the eldest son to himself. He Ma Chao wanted military power and an alliance with Jingzhou. He laid everything on the table, told himself clearly, and finally let himself choose.

If he did not choose, or refused to agree, then the eldest son Ma Chao would have no moral responsibility. At this time, Ma Teng was sure that Ma Chao was going to make a move. Only then will I directly challenge myself.

Ma Teng felt a pain in his heart, is his son really going to abandon him?

At this moment, Ma Teng stared at Liu Min sharply, and his anger was transferred to Liu Min, "You are so brave, you provoke our father-son relationship, aren't you afraid of being hacked into pieces? Come!"

Ma Teng yelled sharply, and several personal guards appeared at the door. Ma Dai was shocked, and quickly persuaded: "This matter has nothing to do with Mr. Liu. He is just a messenger. Uncle, don't blame him."

Liu Min seemed to know that Ma Teng was coming to vent his anger on him. He said calmly, "I am the special envoy of Jingzhou. Ma Gong killed me. Do you know the consequences?"

"Kill you, and my son will no longer collude with Jingzhou!" Ma Teng said viciously.

"Magong is wrong!"

Liu Min remained unhurried, "Kill me, and Meng Qi will completely break the bond between father and son and rebel against Cao. Can Ma Gong stay in Yedu?"

Ma Teng was stunned for a moment, he stared at Liu Min for a while, waved to several guards, the guards retreated, Ma Teng then asked coldly: "What do you mean?"

Liu Min smiled and said: "Let me be frank! Meng Qi assured my lord that I would be safe. If I was killed, he would immediately join forces with Han Sui to attack Guanzhong, and my lord would set off from Xiangyang to attack Guanzhong." In Nanyang, the army is attacking the Central Plains, and Cao Cao is facing the enemy, in this case, will Cao Cao use the head of Ma Gong to apologize to my lord?"

Ma Teng is a suspicious person, he heard that Liu Min's words made some sense, and seeing that Liu Min was calm and unhurried, without any fear, he couldn't help thinking to himself, "This person must have someone behind him, so don't be careless." '[

Thinking of this, Ma Teng held back the anger in his heart, and said slowly: "I won't write any more letters, you go back and tell Meng Qi, let him think about how to be a son and a brother!"

Speaking of this, he said to Ma Dai again: "You and Mr. Liu go back together and help Meng Qi manage the soldiers well."

Ma Dai sighed in his heart, is uncle going to put himself on the fire?

At the same moment when Ma Teng was facing his son Ma Chao's forced palace, in the study of the Prime Minister's Mansion, Cao Cao was urgently discussing the next strategic deployment with Xun You and Cheng Yu.

Just half an hour ago, Cao Cao met with Zhang Wen, the emissary of Jiangdong. Zhang Wen put forward new requirements for increasing kerosene assistance or teaching kerosene technology to Jiangdong. Cao Cao just laughed off these two requests.

However, Cao Cao immediately got another important piece of information that Jiang Xia's army had wiped out Cheng Pu's [-] troops in Lujiang County, which made Cao Cao very nervous.

In the room, Cheng Yu sighed slightly: "Since Cheng Pu was defeated in Lujiang, Jiangdong has already lost this battle. In this way, Liu Jing will not have the restraint of Dongfang, and he will definitely go west to Bashu with all his strength. In fact, in a certain In a way, we gave him a hand."

Xun You's face next to him was very ugly. What Cheng Yu meant was to imply that his Jiangdong policy was a huge mistake, which caused Liu Jing to defeat Jiangdong and stabilize the Eastern Front.

Cao Cao saw Xun You's embarrassment, and quickly smoothed things over: "The battlefield is always unpredictable. No one knows whether to win or lose in advance. The key is that the Jiangdong Army is too disappointing. I thought it and Jingzhou were rivals for decades. , and also have a strong navy, at least they can lose both sides, I didn't expect this to be my prediction error."

Although Cao Cao explained for Xun You, Xun You did not deny that he had made a mistake in his judgment. He was silent for a moment and said, "Prime Minister, this matter is indeed due to my lack of consideration. I did not think of the impact of kerosene on water warfare. Lord, it is no longer Liu Biao who only sweeps the snow in front of the door, but Liu Jing who has the world in his heart, I underestimated him and is willing to take all responsibilities."

Although Cheng Yu somewhat looked down on Xun You's four strategies and uttered sarcasm, he immediately realized that he not only slapped Xun You, but also cut the Prime Minister's face, and provoking the Prime Minister's displeasure would only be detrimental to himself.

Cheng Yu immediately apologized: "Prime Minister is right. This is indeed not Gongda's responsibility. The strategy itself is not wrong, and it is very clever. I can only say that Sun Quan is too disappointing. In fact, Gongda's strategy also has great gains."

"What harvest?" Cao Cao asked hastily.

Cheng Yu smiled and said: "At least the Sun-Liu alliance was destroyed. It was not easy to achieve the Sun-Liu alliance at the beginning, but now that it was destroyed by Sun Quan, it will be difficult to achieve the anti-North alliance again, so this is Sun Quan's biggest mistake! "

"well said!"

Cao Cao smiled gratifiedly and said: "Zhongde is very accurate, it is true, well, let's not talk about this matter, let's talk about the next step! I invited you two here just to discuss what we should do To deal with Liu Jing's westward expansion."

A soldier walked to the wall and pulled up the bamboo curtain on the wall. A large wooden map appeared on the wall. This is a map of the world, which was just made by the craftsmen.

The current distribution of major forces is marked on the map, including the imperial court forces in the north, the Yuan family forces in Liaodong, the Ma Chao and Han Sui forces in Xiliang, the Zhanglu forces in Hanzhong, and the Liu Jing and Jingzhou forces in the south, the Jiangdong Sun Quan forces, and the Jingnan forces. Liu Bei's forces, and Liu Zhang's forces in Bashu.

It can be clearly seen from this map that although the imperial court is very powerful and occupies the most populous Central Plains, Hebei, Bingzhou, and Guanzhong, the separatism of the world is far from subsidized. Cao Cao specially used a red pennant to plant on Jingzhou.

Cao Cao picked up the wooden pole and pointed it at Liaodong, "I have ordered Cao Chun to lead [-] troops to station at Linyuguan, so that the Yuan family can be blocked in Liaodong, so that I don't have to worry about Hebei for the time being."

Cao Cao's wooden pole slid towards Bashu again, drew a circle on Bashu, and said: "What I am most worried about now is here. Once Liu Jing has no worries about Jiangdong, his next step will definitely be to take Bashu. I don't know what will happen." When is it, this year or next year, but no matter when, once Liu Jing captures Bashu, he will be even more powerful and will truly become my enemy, so no matter what, we must prevent Jiangxia's army from expanding westward."

Speaking of this, Cao Cao sighed slightly again, "But last night I saw Wen Ruo's grain newspaper, and now the military grain stocks in various places have reached the limit, and we have to use our troops again. At the latest, we will have to wait for the autumn harvest. Am I just watching Liu Jing helplessly?" Enter Xichuan, and then take the foundation?"

Cheng Yu next to him smiled and said, "I might as well make a bet with the Prime Minister that Liu Jing will not attack Bashu this year, at least until the spring of next year."

Cao Cao was overjoyed, "How do you say that?"

Cheng Yu smiled slightly and said, "There are five ropes holding Liu Jing back so that he can't conquer Bashu this year. First, if Jiangdong is defeated, he will need at least several months to deal with Jiangdong's funeral; It will take at least several months to move the state to Xiangyang, settle in Jiangxia, and restore Xiangyang. Third, he will compete with Liu Bei for the Yiling Road. If the road cannot be opened, how can he fight for Bashu? It will take several months. Fourth, his army has been fighting continuously for more than a year, and the people in Jingzhou are exhausted. He also needs to recuperate, which will take at least a year; Min, with such five ropes involved, if he can go to Bashu next spring, it will be very good."

Cao Cao nodded again and again, and Cheng Yu's analysis made him deeply agree. He thought for a moment and said, "What Zhong De means is that after the war with Jiangdong, Liu Jing will turn around and attack Fancheng Xinye, is that true?"

"I think it must be like this, otherwise he couldn't move the state government to Xiangyang, and"

Speaking of that, Cheng Yu hesitated and said: "I doubt that Liu Jing will continue to attack Nanyang to increase the defense depth of Xiangyang."

Cao Cao thought for a moment, paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, looked up at the roof for a moment, and said slowly: "Xu Gongming only has [-] troops, and he has the advantage of a navy army, while Nanyang has only [-] defenders. More importantly, Xia Houyuan and Cao Ren Still in Liu Jing's hands, I have to find a way to redeem them both."

Speaking of this, he glanced at Cheng Yu, Cheng Yu understood what Cao Cao meant, and said with a smile: "If the prime minister wants to sign a contract with Liu Jing, exchange Fancheng and Xinye for General Miaocai, and at the same time keep Nanyang, I think it's feasible."

Cao Cao nodded, and he glanced at Xun You again, he found that Xun You was surprisingly quiet.