"Report——"
"Your Majesty, there is someone outside who claims to be the messenger of Lord Zhang Lu of Hanzhong. He said he has a secret letter handwritten by Lord Zhang Lu and wants to present it to the lord in person. I just said that the lord is ill, so he said he would deliver it to you personally. "
"You see?"
Liu Zhang was handling government affairs when a guard came in to deliver a message.
Now Liu Yan's health is getting worse and worse, and even the medical officer in the mansion says that his time is running out.
When he woke up before, I heard that he did not raise troops to invade Chang'an to avenge Liu Fan and Liu Dan. He was so angry that he fell into a coma again.
He had been so worried these past two days that his hair had turned a lot of gray.
"Zhang Lu has always only respected his father and did not take me as the heir in his eyes. Now the messengers sent are so arrogant. In the future, I will make amends for this situation."
"Quartz, go and bring this messenger."
"Zhang Lu is sending a messenger at this time. Don't let anything big happen."
he said casually.
However, when the messenger came in and handed the letter to him, he wanted to slap himself twice.
He was really in need of a draw.
"What? Yuan Ke's army entered Hanzhong from Chencang. Hanzhong is in danger? Damn it, Yuan Ke finally took action."
"Go back and tell Zhang Lu that I will send troops to help Hanzhong immediately and ask him to hold on first."
Although Liu Zhang hated Zhang Lu for being disrespectful to him, he also understood that Hanzhong was the gateway to Yizhou. If anything happened to Hanzhong, it would bring disaster to Yizhou.
This time Yuan Ke came with a large army, Hanzhong was just the appetizer, and his real plan must be Yizhou.
"promise!"
After hearing this, the messenger immediately left the Prefecture Mufu, and he quickly returned to Hanzhong to resume his duties.
"Here comes, with my prince's order, summon Wu Yi, Li Yan, Huang Quan and Li Hui to enter the mansion."
Half an hour later, the four people arrived after a long journey.
"Meet the Crown Prince!"
The four of them saluted.
"Okay, I have asked you to come here to discuss important matters. This is a letter sent by Zhang Lu, the governor of Hanzhong County. The letter mentioned that the traitor Yuan Ke led his army to invade Hanzhong."
"Now, Yuan Ke's army entered Hanzhong from Chencang Road, broke through several military towns, and invaded Yangping Pass."
"Zhang Lu sent people to ask for help from Yizhou. Please tell me, what should we do?"
Liu Zhang handed the letter in his hand to Wu Yi.
"What? Yuan Kejun has already invaded Yangping Pass? Your Majesty, I wonder if Zhang Luce has detected Yuan Kejun's whereabouts at other checkpoints? Yuan Ke is a hundred times more cunning than a fox. This time he carefully planned to invade Hanzhong. It is impossible for him to have only one group of troops. There must be a conspiracy among them."
"I speculate that Yuan Ke's army on this road is just a cover. There will definitely be wars on Baoxie Road, Ziwu Road and Tangluo Road."
"Please Fei Ge immediately send a message to Zhang Lu and ask him to send people to guard these three passes to prevent Yuan Ke from dividing his troops and making a surprise attack."
After Li Hui heard the news, he immediately raised his hands and said.
He has always been an extremely cautious person.
After seeing Yuan Ke kill two princes and frame Liu Yan before, he concluded that Yuan Ke must invade Yizhou, and to invade Yizhou, he must first take Hanzhong. To this end, he carefully studied the terrain of Hanzhong and deduced dozens of Yuan Ke's army. The possibility of attacking Hanzhong included the strategy of dividing the troops into several routes and attacking Hanzhong from different ancient roads.
This inference is based on the analysis of the actual situation in Hanzhong. Zhang Lu had just taken over Hanzhong not long ago. Furthermore, how many soldiers and horses could there be in one county in Hanzhong.
If he were Yuan Ke, he would also divide his troops to attack. Firstly, he could disperse Hanzhong's troops and make Zhang Lu tired of dealing with them. Secondly, he could successfully steal the house.
As long as the four ancient roads are successful, the situation of the war can be reversed immediately.
Since ancient times, the most difficult thing to defeat Shu is to enter Shu.
Once the Central Plains army enters Shu, Bashu will be defeated. This is common sense.
"What? Li Hui, are you saying that Yuan Ke might divide his troops into four groups to invade Hanzhong?"
"Is this possible?"
Liu Zhang was questioning the feasibility of this speculation again.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Li's speculation just now is not unreasonable. Although Yuan Ke is an unkind and unjust villain, it cannot be denied that he is very smart and good at using soldiers. It is impossible for a person like him to put eggs on the ground. in a basket because it's dangerous."
"Please send a letter to Zhang Lu immediately and ask him to immediately send troops to guard the remaining three ancient road checkpoints to prevent Yuan Ke from stealing his home."
"Once Yuan Ke's army enters Hanzhong from any of the three ancient roads, Hanzhong will be destroyed."
Huang Quan echoed Li Hui's reasoning just now.
This inference is very likely.
"good!"
"I will immediately tell Zhang Lu this inference and let him make plans early."
"It's just that, four dear friends, how many troops can we mobilize in Yizhou now?"
"We in Yizhou need to send troops to Hanzhong."
"If Hanzhong dies, we will be next."
Liu Zhang said.
"Your Majesty, now, we in Yizhou can assemble 60,000 troops in one day and 100,000 troops in three days. If this happens, Chengdu's defense will be greatly weakened."
"Nowadays, the 50,000 Dongzhou Army and the 60,000 to 70,000 to 70,000 soldiers and horses of the Yizhou local powerful have no choice but to guard against them."
"At least 50,000 troops are needed to be stationed in Chengdu. Therefore, the troops and horses we dispatched in Yizhou in a short period of time were only 60,000."
Wu Yi began to report on the current situation of the army and horses in Yizhou.
"Sixty thousand people? I'm afraid this number is too low. Is there no other way?"
Liu Zhang asked.
"Your Majesty, there is another way, that is to send 50,000 Dongzhou Army to Hanzhong. However, the Dongzhou Army has always only obeyed the Lord's words. In this situation, I don't know what General Zhang Ren means."
Li Hui whispered.
"This matter will be coordinated by this prince. However, the tens of thousands of troops and horses in General Zhao Wei's hands are also a problem."
"But I will appease him."
"Now, our first task is to fight against Yuan Ke's army's invasion."
"In this battle, my prince will initially propose that General Zhang Ren will be in command, with 50,000 Dongzhou troops as the front army, and Li Yan, Wu Yi, and Li Hui personally leading 60,000 horses as the middle army. The total number of the two armies is 110,000. For the time being, It should be enough.”
"As for the follow-up, General Zhang Ren previously proposed recruiting soldiers and horses, so he agreed."
"This matter will begin today."
"The specific matters will be handed over to the old general Yan Yan. Huang Quan, you will be the deputy and cooperate with the old general to recruit new troops, with hundreds of thousands of people."
At this time, Liu Zhang finally agreed to recruit troops.
After the matter was decided, various military orders were conveyed to all parts of Yizhou that day. Liu Zhang personally went to Zhang Ren's residence to appease Zhang Ren.
On the same day, General Zhang Ren personally took the order to send troops to Hanzhong.
The two armies set off and marched towards Hanzhong.
clatter!
clatter!
clatter!
After sending off the Northern Expedition army in person, Liu Zhang rode a carriage back to the Prefecture Mufu. There were large groups of soldiers and horses guarding both sides. Pang Xi, then Zhonglang General, served as an escort to protect Liu Zhang's safety.
"Your Majesty, do you really want to marry General Zhang Ren's daughter?"
"I just made inquiries and found out that General Zhang's daughter looks quite ordinary."
In the carriage, Pang Xi gave a friendly reminder.
Although the two are principal ministers, the two families are family friends and friends.
He didn't want Liu Zhang to wrong him.
"Pang Xi, everything is just for Yizhou. My father is seriously ill, so I gave him the order at the critical moment. But after all, I am a man of few words. I urgently need people like General Zhang Ren to help me."
"By the way, Pang Xi, you have been a Zhonglang general for some time. Do you want to continue to lead the army in the future, or become a local official?"
Liu Zhang asked.
He did this to cultivate his own people.
Today, the main officials in Yizhou are all his father's people.
He, the future State Shepherd, also needs his own team.
"Everything depends on Mr. Zhou Mu. Pang Xi will do whatever Mr. Zhou Mu tells Pang Xi to do."
When Pang Xi heard this, how could he not understand the meaning of Liu Zhang's words, which was clearly an attempt to win over him, so he immediately raised his hand and promised to be loyal to Liu Zhang, and would go through fire and water for him, no matter what.
"good!"
Liu Zhang was very satisfied with Pang Xi's reaction.
To win over Pang Xi, first of all, Pang Xi is his good friend and trustworthy. Secondly, Pang Xi was the Zhonglang General at the time and was responsible for commanding the three thousand guards of the Prefectural Mufu. With his support, at least he would be safe in Chengdu. Yu Ye.
"After the new year, you can go out and become a prefect."
