Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 108 Jingxiang's Shocking Change
The loss of Runan, Ruyin, Chenjun, Xiangcheng, and Liangjun is also the biggest loss Liu Bei has ever suffered.More than [-] sergeants surrendered to the enemy, and more than half of the entire land in Yuzhou was lost. Guan Yu, the shepherd of Yuzhou, is already quite unworthy of his name.

A few years ago, Zhao Feng and Guan Yu pacified Yuzhou. After several years of governance by Guan Yu and Li Yan, Yuzhou finally gradually prospered.When Yuzhou was captured that day, the entire population of Yuzhou was only 80. After several years of development, especially the shelter of the victims of the plague and the migration of the Shanyue tribe, Yuzhou now has a population of 130 million, but more than 80 of them is in the lost five counties.After several years of painstaking efforts, Cao Cao was finally all in vain.After conquering Yuzhou, Cao Cao immediately sent Cao Ren to guard Ruyin and Chenjun to resist Guan Yu, and to guard Runan and Xiangcheng.By the time Guan Yu and Zhao Feng's army turned around, the overall situation had already been decided.

More than that, the loss of Runan cut off the land passage between Yuzhou and Nanyang.Although Liu Bei's westward expansion path was blocked, even Li Yan, who was in Nanyang, became an out-and-out solitary army.Although Liu Biao has no intention of turning against Liu Bei now, Li Yan's situation is not optimistic.

All of this was only caused by Mi Fang's rebellion.After learning that his brother had defected to the enemy, Mi Zhu vomited blood and fainted on the spot. After waking up, he tied himself up and pleaded guilty.Although Liu Bei did not punish him, it is absolutely impossible in his heart not to mind at all.The reason why Mi Fang defected to the enemy was finally figured out later.This guy was caught and severely punished by Guan Yu and Xu Shu for smuggling military food, and he has held a grudge ever since.In addition, Cao Cao sent people to lobby him, promising high officials and rich salary.Under these temptations, Mi Fang betrayed Liu Bei without hesitation for too long.

"Brother, I would like to lead the army to kill that little Cao Ren and take back the city!" Guan Yu asked Liu Bei almost non-stop when he returned to Shouchun.Liu Bei looked at Guan Yu, and said helplessly after a long time: "This year, Xuzhou's money and food have been spent on building Jiangdong. If you want to march, you may have to wait until next year."

"It's cheaper for him!" Guan Yu was a little helpless when he heard the words, so he had to say bitterly. "If Yuanzhi and Youping hadn't defended Qiaojun, we would have suffered a heavy loss this time!" Liu Bei also sighed.Originally, Qiao County was relatively dangerous, but thanks to the [-] Mountain Yue Army and Zhou Tai who had just been trained there, Xu Shu used ingenious tricks to defeat Cao Ren and Xu Huang, thus saving Qiao County.At the same time, Wei Yan and Gao Shun took advantage of the emptiness behind Cao Cao and suddenly attacked and captured Shanyang County, finally finding some ground for Liu Bei.Of course, this is really a drop in the bucket compared to Liu Bei's loss.

"My lord, the purpose of Cao Cao's troubles this time is to seize my Yuzhou. Now the road to the west has been blocked, and at best, he can only take the land of Qingzhou and Henan in the north. Cao Cao has clamped us in the southeast corner. Good intentions!" Zhao Feng also sighed after carefully looking at the map.

"Bo Tao, what can I do?" Liu Bei was also a little anxious when he heard this.Zhao Feng looked at the map, and then he could only say in an uncertain tone: "It seems that if you want to continue marching, you can only seize Jingxiang."

"Jingxiang?" Liu Bei was stunned when he heard the words, and then he said firmly: "Liu Jingsheng and I are both clansmen of the Han family. He has been in Jingxiang for many years and has been benevolent and won the hearts of the people. How can I seek to seize his foundation for no reason ?”

"This?" Zhao Feng smiled wryly when he heard the words. He knew that with Liu Bei's character, unless Liu Biao took the initiative to provoke, it would be difficult to make up his mind to attack Jingzhou.It's just that Liu Chao is staying in Jingzhou as usual, and even Cai Mao, the Yangzhou Mu, is staying in Yuzhang County honestly, without any intention of provocation, so that Zhao Feng has nowhere to look for opportunities to deal with him.

Both Ruyin and Liang Jun in Runan were lost, and Qiao Jun, Guan Yu's government, became the front line of confrontation with Cao Cao.As a state herdsman, it is naturally inappropriate to guard the border in person. Now Guan Yu simply moved his government to Peiguo, which is only one step away from Shouchun.A few days later, another imperial decree was issued to Shouchun, but it was to reprimand Yuzhou Mu Guan Yu for "negligence of duty, neglecting political affairs, dismissing his post of Yuzhou Mu, and moving him to be the prefect of Qiao County." This is simply blatant molestation.Yuzhou Mu was awarded by Cao Cao to his clan brother Cao Ren, who seemed to have become Guan Yu's immediate boss!
"Cao Cao is really powerful!" When Zhao Feng and Pang Tong analyzed afterwards, they had to admit that Cao Cao's move was really ruthless. First, he found Mi Fang, a soft bone, and then he spared no expense to attack Qingzhou to attract Liu Bei's main force to go north. .Pang Tong has always been conceited of his resourcefulness, but he couldn't bear this kind of cruelty when he asked himself, using more than 6 lives to lay out this situation.

"Shi Yuan, if our army wants to take Jing Xiang, where should we start?" Zhao Feng pondered while looking at the map hanging on the wall.

"Jiangxia, Jingnan." Pang Tong said concisely, and then explained in detail: "The four counties of Jingnan border Jiangdong. Although Liu Pan is in Luling, it is not difficult to obtain; Jiangxia is guarded by Huang Zu. This person is a Stupid pig."

"But even if the four counties in Southern Jing and Jiang Xia can be taken lightly, it will be useless if they can't defeat Jingbei!" Zhao Feng sighed.Jingzhou has a population of 300 million, and the four Jingnan counties + Jiangxia have a total of just over 100 million. The rest are mainly concentrated in the four Jingbei counties of Zhangling, Xiangyang, Nanyang and Nanjun.In history, both Liu Bei and Sun Quan once occupied Jingnan successively, but these few counties with large land and sparse population really prevented them from developing anything famous.

"Li Zhengfang is in Fancheng, and he still has tens of thousands of soldiers under his command. As long as we take down Jiangxia and control the Jingxiang navy, General Gan's navy can go to Xiangshui to support Zhengfang, and attack Jingbei from both sides." Pang Tong Confidently authentic.With Li Yan's talent and the strong city of Fancheng, he never believed that Li Yan would be played to death by the people of Jingzhou.

"The key is the hearts of the people!" Zhao Feng was most uncertain about this.Historically, Liu Bei was fairly popular in Jingzhou, but that was because of the contacts he created after seven years in Xinye.Even if the Jingxiang scholars have a good image of him now, they probably won't be too good either.Especially the two wealthy families of the Kuai family and the Cai family, their attitude towards Liu Bei is obviously very unwelcome.But there is no way to do this now, so I can only make do with it and take it one step at a time.

The time came to mid-December, and it was snowing on the Lujiang River that day.Looking at the snowflakes falling all over the sky at his home, Zhao Feng recalled the heavy snowfall at the beginning of spring this year, which made Zhou Gongjin's last glory.Right now it's snowing heavily again, but I don't know what will happen to the battle between Runan and Ruyin after the beginning of spring.

"Brother-in-law, when will sister come back?" A coquettish voice sounded from behind Zhao Feng, and looking back, it was the little girl Zhen Mi. "Hurry up, if there's still boats on the river, I'll be home this afternoon!" Zhao Feng said dotingly.Looking at the thin clothes on the little girl, Zhao Feng said again: "It's snowing, wear more clothes."

"It's okay, the snow is much smaller than that in Hebei!" Zhen Mi shook her head nonchalantly, but she still pulled the fur coat she was wearing.After a pause, Zhen Mi smiled: "Brother-in-law, I really admire you, you actually expected Yuan Shao's defeat so early on, and now it really is a crushing defeat."

"Yes!" Zhao Feng was also a little emotional, and then he thought about something and asked quickly: "Then how is your grandpa and the Yuan family doing now?"

"It's not that bad. I heard from my sister that after Yuan Shao was defeated, he was busy recruiting soldiers and buying horses to take revenge. He often went to grandpa for money, but he didn't force the marriage." Zhen Mi replied.

"That's natural, you need someone to ask for something." Zhao Feng said noncommittally, and took a look at his sister-in-law by the way.It is said that women's university has undergone eighteen changes, and this little girl is indeed becoming more and more beautiful.After a few years, she is now more and more upside down, but Zhao Feng subconsciously still treats her as that little lolita, and only loves her.This situation is somewhat similar to Da Qiao and Sun Quan.It's just that it was Zhao Feng who was ignorant this time.And Zhen Mi was not as scary as Sun Quan.

"General!" Feng Xi, who had been promoted to military commander, rushed over and said. "What's the matter?" Zhao Feng asked with some surprise.

"Just now I came to report, Yangzhou Mu Cai Mao suddenly returned to Jingzhou, and now Yuzhang and Luling are taken over by Liu Pan!" Feng Xi replied.Zhao Feng was a little stunned when he heard the words: Cai Mao and Liu Pan have always been at odds, how could he be allowed to take over Luling and Yuzhang?

To say that there are no major events in Jingzhou recently, there are many minor events.Last month, Huang Zu, the prefect of Jiangxia, died of illness suddenly, and Liu Biao sent his eldest son Liu Qi to take over.Half a month ago, as Pang Tong expected, Kuai Liang, the patriarch of the Kuai clan, died of hemoptysis at home. However, Cai Mao returned to Jingzhou now.
"Probably go home for the New Year!" Zhao Feng guessed, and immediately sent an order to all departments to be careful and take precautions.Although Liu Qi and Liu Pan, as Liu Biao's direct descendants, have a decent relationship with the Xuzhou Army, they should be guarded against.

Zhao Feng absolutely did not expect that this time Cai Mao suddenly returned to Jingzhou, what happened.On the night of returning to Jingzhou, Cai Mao secretly conspired with Kuai Yue for most of the night under the pretext of going to Kuai's house to mourn the funeral.

"Alien, do you really want to do this?" Cai Mao asked hesitantly. This plan was really too crazy, and he had to think carefully.

"I'm afraid it has to be like this!" Kuai Yue said with a gloomy face, "Don't think that Liu Biao is really foolish, this time Huang Zu's death is too strange, and Huang Zu's successor after his death turned out to be Liu Qi, a good-for-nothing. It seems that he has become wary of us and is cultivating his own power."

"Since that's the case, why not just kill it and save trouble?" Cai Mao said again.

"It's inappropriate. After all, this person has been in Jingzhou for many years, and he still has some reputation. If he is killed rashly, it will be bad if there is a civil uprising. What's more, Liu Pan and Liu Qi still have tens of thousands of horses in their hands. Once they are killed, they will be killed." Meet us with swordsmen. Liu Qi is okay, but Liu Pan has been running Jingnan for many years, and he is not an idler. We just need to control Liu Biao, use his orders to let Liu Pan march into Jiangdong, and compete with the two tigers of the Xuzhou army. I will reap the benefits of being a fisherman. Then go north to sweep Li Yan, and go east to flatten Yangzhou. When the time comes, brother Degui, you will sit in Jingyang and Yangzhou, how can Prime Minister Cao treat you badly?" Kuai Yue talked eloquently.Kuai Yue is really arrogant enough to call Liu Biao directly.

"That's good!" Cai Mao was also cruel.Half a month later, an astonishing news spread throughout Jingyang and Yangzhou and even the whole world. Jingzhou don't drive Kuai Yue and Yangzhou Mu Caimao suddenly launched a coup at the New Year's Eve feast, and put Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao under house arrest. He marched into Jiangdong with Liu Pan of Yuzhang.

In Jiangxia City, "Ji Chang, what do you think I should do?" A young man who was only in his twenties and looked a bit cowardly asked for advice from a Confucian scholar who was younger than him.This Confucian scholar named Ji Chang looked only sixteen or seventeen years old, but the most striking thing was his pair of eyebrows, which turned out to be white.

The man pondered for a long time before he sighed: "My lord, I can't make up my mind on this matter for a while. But my brother Zhuge Kongming is now in Jiangxia, this talent is ten times better than me, why don't you ask him for advice?"

(End of this chapter)