My game can make money starting from the Three Kingdoms period.

"Students pay respects to their esteemed teachers!"

Lu Congtian could not contain his excitement and kowtowed in respect.

Zhuge Liang tolerated him, and after kowtowing three times, he helped Lu Congtian up.

"Come, let's deduce together how the battle will unfold."

Zhuge Liang, holding a candle, led Lu Congtian to a square map of Jingzhou.

Lu Congtian did not mince words and immediately expressed his opinion: "Now that Lü Meng has succeeded in his surprise attack, I believe that Lü Meng will certainly not choose to attack Xiangfan at this time."

"Oh? Tell me why. Why didn't Lü Meng strike while the iron was hot?"

Lu Congtian said, "Because of Cao Cao."

Zhuge Liang lightly raised his feather fan, signaling Lu Congtian to continue.

"Lu Meng certainly didn't want Cao Cao's army to reap the benefits, so he wouldn't attack Xiangfan and give Cao Cao's army an opportunity. And Cao Cao's army also didn't want Lu Meng to benefit, so they wouldn't launch a strong attack on General Guan."

"So what will Lü Meng do?"

"They must be heading south to attack our two prefectures of Lingling and Wuling!"

Zhuge Liang nodded in agreement, "Indeed, news has come from the south that Lü Meng is stationed in Jiangling and has taken two more counties from our Jingzhou. At this point, we only have Xiangyang and a small part of Nanyang County left."

Zhuge Liang tapped his feather fan a few times on the map markings of Xiangyang, asking, "Does Cong Tian have a strategy to defeat the enemy?"

Lu Congtian shook his head, "This student is foolish, please enlighten me, my esteemed teacher."

Lu Congtian was adept at analyzing the situation, but it would be a bit difficult for this military general to come up with a plan to break the encirclement and suppression by Cao Cao and Sun Quan.

"Only a feigned surrender."

"A feigned surrender?"

Do you remember Huang Gongfu from the Battle of Red Cliffs?

Lu Congtian instantly understood Zhuge Liang's meaning, "This student is willing to go!"

"Do you know that this journey is fraught with peril, with nine out of ten chances of survival?"

"What does it matter if I die ten times over?" Lu Congtian was already prepared to die.

Although Lu Congtian had a real option of surrendering to Jiangdong.

But this went against the instructions of his ancestors, and given the notorious reputation of the Jiangdong rats, Lu Congtian couldn't get past his own conscience, neither in his heart nor on the surface.

"Good! With Tian so determined, breaking this deadlock is bound to succeed!"

"Please give the order, Master!"

"No rush, we need to wait."

Lu Congtian asked, puzzled, "Wait? Wait for what?"

"Wait for our lord."

Waiting for Liu Bei? Lu Congtian belatedly realized that the key to breaking the deadlock lay not with himself, but with Liu Bei.

If Liu Bei captures Hanzhong, Cao Cao's army will inevitably suffer a blow to morale, and Sun Quan's army will certainly worry that Liu Bei will send troops to support Xiangyang.

Thus, either a strong attack or a retreat will break the deadlock.

That will be the time to break the deadlock!

For now, this stalemate is actually quite good.

As long as we can stabilize the morale of our soldiers and civilians and eliminate internal troubles, there will be no major problems.

It seems that because of this major epidemic, the three parties suddenly pressed the pause button in Jingzhou.

Only the Hanzhong battlefield remained, with the fighting raging on.

When Liu Bei received news of the defeat in Jingzhou and the surprise attack by Eastern Wu, he was furious.

They insisted on halting the attack on Hanzhong and transferring troops to Jingzhou to support Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang.

Fa Zheng knew that Liu Bei's motivation was more about venting his anger by attacking Jiangdong.

So hateful.

Even Fa Zheng wanted to support Liu Bei's decision.

However, Fa Zheng still offered the most rational advice: "My lord, if our army withdraws from Hanzhong and marches east, what if Cao Cao's army takes the opportunity to advance?"

"What does it matter if we lose some land?" Compared to Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang being besieged and in mortal danger, Liu Bei would rather lose some land.

"But has my lord considered that the officials of Yizhou, seeing you withdraw your troops and head towards Jingzhou, will they be able to defend firmly? At that time, they might even change their allegiance and take the surname Cao!"

Liu Bei hesitated.

Providing support is easy, but losing Yizhou is even easier.

Liu Bei was originally an outsider, and the Yizhou faction, including Li Yan and Huang Quan, believed that changing leaders would not change their mindset.

As long as Liu Bei's military prestige is gone, they'll be loyal to whoever they choose.

Changing bosses is fine, as they can still retain their current power, and may even be promoted.

"If Yizhou is lost and the situation in Jingzhou cannot be resolved soon, our lord's great cause will be in grave danger."

Fa Zheng spoke directly, laying out the advantages and disadvantages to Liu Bei.

"At this time, our lord should focus all his efforts on capturing Hanzhong. Only after securing the shield of Yizhou can he advance swiftly to the Mian River to support Jingzhou."

Liu Bei sighed, realizing that this was the only way.

He already gritted his teeth at the shameless scoundrel, and if they met again in battle, he wouldn't be so ruthless!

The more flustered Liu Bei became, the more determined he was to seize Hanzhong.

The slower the progress, or even the greater the losses, the more counterproductive it becomes.

In order to capture Hanzhong as soon as possible, Liu Bei risked everything and transferred Pang Tong, who was in charge of coordinating food and supplies in the rear, to the front line.

In winter, Pang Tong arrived and, together with Fa Zheng, explored the terrain, reached a consensus, and offered suggestions.

By stationing troops at Dingjun Mountain, the pressure from both Zhang He and Xiahou Yuan was reduced to a single factor.

Upon hearing this, Xiahou Yuan led his army to fight, built deer antlers, and occupied Liu Bei's territory.

Immediately following, the historically famous scene of Huang Zhong beheading Xiahou Dun at Dingjun unfolded ahead of schedule.

Xiahou Yuan was a general in Cao Cao's army, and his death in battle was a fatal blow to the morale of Cao Cao's army.

Upon hearing that Xiahou Yuan had been beheaded, Cao Cao immediately led his troops to Hanzhong to provide support.

Cao Cao also knew the importance of Hanzhong to Liu Bei; whoever controlled Hanzhong would control Liu Bei's throat.

As for the situation in Nanyang, Cao Cao certainly did not believe that Sun Quan had truly surrendered.

What he wanted was for the alliance between Sun Quan and Liu Bei to break down; that would be enough.

What does it matter if we don't take Jingzhou once the alliance breaks down? We can defeat them one by one in the future!

Therefore, Cao Cao focused his efforts on Hanzhong, and had Cao Ren, Yu Jin and others garrison Wancheng to contain Guan Yu.

Therefore, the stalemate in Nanyang was something Cao Cao was happy to see.

As for Sun Quan, he hoped that the situation in Nanyang would remain deadlocked so that he could take over a large area of ​​Jingzhou, which would be a win-win situation for him.

Then they tried to please Cao Cao, putting on a show of genuine submission.

Cao Cao would not accuse Sun Quan of being disloyal at this time, and would not launch another attack against Sun Quan.

Furthermore, Cao Cao, in his capacity as King of Wei, appointed Sun Quan as General of Chariots and Cavalry, concurrently serving as Governor of Jingzhou and Governor of Yangzhou, and granting him the authority to act on behalf of the emperor.

From a legal and ritual perspective, Sun Quan became an official who submitted to the rule of the Han Dynasty.

What Sun Quan had to do was send people to pay tribute to the imperial court to express his sincerity.

Meanwhile, after Lü Meng had taken control of all the counties and prefectures in Jingzhou except for Nanyang County.

He suggested to Sun Quan that they should leave Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang alone for now, then advance westward into Shu and deliver a fatal blow to Liu Bei, thus completely cutting off Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang's retreat.

Sun Quan agreed to this move, and Lü Meng then imposed heavy corvée labor and conscripted soldiers in Jingzhou in preparation for attacking Shu.

Now that Lu Su has died, Lü Meng has promoted someone to assist him.

This man's name was Lu Xun, and his courtesy name was Boyan.

Firstly, Lu Xun was a member of the Lu family in Wu Commandery, and he was quite talented, so they intended to promote him.

Secondly, Lü Meng believed that once he marched into Shu, Lu Xun, with his official position, would be able to better utilize Lu Congtian as a covert agent.

After giving instructions to Lu Xun, Lü Meng led 30,000 troops to advance on Yizhou by water.

The year is now 218.

This truly illustrates what it means for plans to fall short of reality.

Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong were just discussing how to divide Wu, but now the situation has turned into Sun Quan and Cao Cao starting to divide Shu...