It is not unreasonable for Yongzhou to be designated as the capital by the former Han Dynasty.
Yongzhou is close to Liangzhou to the west, which can effectively deter the barbarians north of Liangzhou. It was here that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set out to conquer the Huns in the north, drink from the vast sea of horses, and at the same time hollow out the Western Region and establish the Silk Road.
But as Emperor Guangwu regained his old lands and established his capital in Luoyang, Yongliang's status gradually became less important.
Liangzhou, in particular, was once semi-publicly abandoned by the Han court due to the weakening of its national power in the later period of the court.
If Liu Bei's group only attacks Yongzhou and ignores Liangzhou, God knows what the reaction of Liangzhou's powerful forces will be.
Yes, due to the strategic problems of the Han Dynasty in the previous hundred years, Liangzhou was in a semi-abandoned state, which caused the people and powerful people of Liangzhou to become alienated from the central court. There is a high probability that they would not help Cao Pi attack Liu Bei's army.
But what if? !
In the past few years, Guo Huai, the governor of Liangzhou, has done a really good job in Liangzhou. He not only roughly regained the hearts and minds of Liangzhou people, but also made the barbarians around Liangzhou respect him as a god. Basically, he was the same as Ma Chao back then. Prestige among the barbarians.
If Guo Huai leads an army to sneak attack on the flank of Liu Bei's army and coordinate the defenders in Guanzhong, then Liu Bei will not be able to attack Yongzhou with peace of mind unless he solves Guo Huai's situation in Liangzhou.
Furthermore, the north of Yongzhou is Bingzhou, and the east is the Sili area. One of these two places is very close to the current Cao Wei's hometown of Yecheng, and the other is the place where Cao Cao started his career. Cao Wei's rule over these two places is very Stable.
Even if Guan Yu can send troops to attack Nanyang or Xudu and contain Cao Jun in the Sili area in the east, what about Cao Jun in Bingzhou in the north? !
On the one hand, Cao's army in Bingzhou could cross the Yellow River and directly support Chang'an in Guanzhong; on the other hand, it could also bypass Liangzhou and raid Liu Bei's rear.
To sum up, directly attacking Yongzhou is a very risky plan for Liu Bei. He may even capture Chang'an, but he may not be able to hold it.
Zhuge Liang could not let Liu Bei take this risk, so Zhuge Liang insisted that if he wanted to conquer Yongzhou, he must first solve Liangzhou to avoid a two-front war.
The most practical way to solve Liangzhou is to send troops along the Qishan Road to cut off Long.
The main road from Guanzhong to Liangzhou is in the middle of Longshan. You only need to occupy the cities near Longyou and control the Longyou area, then you can separate Guanzhong and Liangzhou.
At that time, Liu Bei led his army to attack Longyou and left enough men to control the Long Road. Based on the attitude of Liangzhou's powerful people and the people towards the central court, as long as he could turn around and defeat Liangzhou Governor Guo Huai, it would be possible to decide in one battle. Liangzhou.
After taking Liangzhou, on the one hand, they can rely on Liangzhou to obtain important strategic materials and war horses, on the other hand, they can also prevent Bingzhou Cao's army from crossing the Yellow River and entering Liangzhou, laying a solid foundation for the next attack on Yongzhou.
This set of strategies is actually the strategy used by Zhuge Liang during his first Northern Expedition in history.
Yes, Zhuge Liang in history never thought of capturing Chang'an during his first Northern Expedition. His goal was to cut off Long, first seize Liangzhou, and then Xu Tuyongzhou.
So to a certain extent, Wei Laopifu's Ziwu Valley conspiracy is actually contrary to Zhuge Liang's strategic purpose.
This is the reason why Zhuge Liang is really unwilling to adopt it.
Not to mention that Wei Laopifu's Ziwu Valley conspiracy only exists in ideals, and there is no possibility of actual operation at all.
Well, that's a bit too far.
In short, Zhuge Liang's strategy was like this, but Liu Bei was really a little anxious. Cao Cao's death stimulated him a lot.
Therefore, Liu Bei was not willing to adopt Zhuge Liang's strategy. He still wanted to take a risk and learn from Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin in the former Han Dynasty, and directly take the Chencang Road to march to Yongzhou.
But the problem is that Cao Wei is not a fool.
When he first attacked Hanzhong, Cao Cao left a large army on Chencang Road. Now Chencang Road is defended by Cao Zhen, a general of Cao Wei's relatives.
In the direction of Chang'an, Cao Hong led 50,000 soldiers to guard the area, and there were also many of them.
Let's not talk about how difficult Chencang Road is to fight. Even if Liu Bei can break through Chencang Road and enter the Guanzhong area, he will not be sure of victory when facing Cao Hong's 50,000 army.
Therefore, Liu Bei was not sure whether his strategy would work.
Under this situation, Zhuge Liang knew that he could not persuade Liu Bei to change his mind for a while, so it was better to hold a military meeting and listen to everyone's opinions while Liu Bei was still hesitant and worried.
Zhuge Liang believed that as long as a military meeting was held, everyone would choose to support his plan.
After all, Liu Bei's plan was a little too risky.
After all, Liu Bei has not reached the age of old fool, and no one in this time and space can give Liu Bei two consecutive swords. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are both alive and well.
Therefore, Liu Bei finally decided to hold a military meeting.
This time was related to the country's future strategy, so Liu Bei sent people everywhere and invited military generals to come to Chengdu to discuss the matter.
Not only did they send people to Xiangyang to invite Guan Yu to Chengdu to discuss matters, they also sent people to Didao to invite Ma Chao, to Bajun to invite Zhang Fei and Chen Dao, to Jiangzhou to invite Zhao Yun, to Wuling to invite Xu Shu, and to Nanzhong to invite Zhang. Xi. Everyone gathered in Chengdu in April to discuss important matters.
In Xiangyang, after receiving Liu Bei's invitation, Guan Yu asked Guan Ping to garrison Fancheng. In Xiangyang City, Ma Liang was the leader, assisted by Fei Yi to handle important matters, and he rushed to Chengdu.
Generals from other places also suspended their work and went to Chengdu.
Zhang Xi also set off immediately after receiving the summons. After more than 20 days of hurrying and hurrying, he finally arrived in Chengdu in early April.
This time when Zhang Xi returns to Chengdu, she doesn't have to stay at Zhuge Liang's house.
After all, Zhang Xi is now the Commander-in-Chief, and will basically live in Yizhou from now on. Moreover, even Sun Shangxiang has come to Chengdu, so it is impossible for Liu Bei to begrudge a mansion.
After Zhang Xi went south to put down the rebellion, Liu Bei arranged a separate mansion for Sun Shangxiang and others, and let Zhang Xi's wife live in it.
When Zhang Xi arrived in Chengdu, he wanted to go home first to see his wife and children, and to identify his new home and see where the door opened. But he didn't even see the door, so he was dragged by Pang Tong to follow Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng. Xu Shu and others went to have a small meeting together.
This is not some clique.
The main reason is that these people who have returned to Chengdu from other places may not be very clear about the current situation. Therefore, the people in Chengdu will be responsible for explaining the generals and counselors to these generals and counselors who have returned to Chengdu from other places. Otherwise, when Liu Bei talks about the plan during the military meeting, the people from other places will The generals who returned to Chengdu had dark eyes. How could they make suggestions? !
On the civilian side, Zhuge Liang, Fazheng, Pang Tong and others were in charge; on the military general side, Huang Quan, Wu Yi and others were in charge.
After figuring out the current situation and Liu Bei's own thoughts, Zhang Xi and Xu Shu fell into deep thought.
To be honest, both Zhang Xi and Xu Shu preferred Zhuge Liang's plan because Zhuge Liang's plan was more feasible, while Liu Bei's plan required a combination of risk and luck.
As counselors, they don't like to see the uncontrollable side of things. Even when marching and fighting, counselors hope to control the situation more within their control.
When you need to rely on God's will to decide everything, it is better to be as little as possible.
But then again, both Zhang Xi and Xu Shu could understand Liu Bei's eagerness.
Some things can easily make people miserable, and Liu Bei really doesn't have much time.
This troubled world has lasted for too long.
As for Liu Bei, he has been wasting his time since he started fighting against the Yellow Turban Army at the age of 24. Now he is 60 years old, and the world is still divided into three parts, with no chance of change in the short term.
Now he finally had such an opportunity. Although it was not the best time, Liu Bei still wanted to seize it and give it a try.
After all, Liu Bei didn't know what the future of history would be like, and whether God would give him a better chance. It's completely understandable that he wanted to take a chance.
Zhang Xi didn't know how to evaluate Liu Bei's idea. Sometimes Zhang Xi felt that Liu Bei spent too much time.
As far as Zhang Xi knows, among the founding monarchs of the past dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang had the longest period of thirty-five years from formally raising an army to unifying the country. But Zhu Yuanzhang's foundation was even worse than Liu Bei's. He was really At the beginning of the game, Liu Bei still had a big businessman sponsoring him.
So Liu Bei is anxious now, and Zhang Xi can really understand it.
Therefore, Zhang Xi first asked Zhuge Liang if there was a way to achieve both.
It is to try to avoid possible risks in Liu Bei's strategic planning and try to maximize the possibility of Liu Bei's strategic success.
Zhuge Liang thought about this for a long time and shook his head slightly, but he still couldn't think of a good way.
Liu Bei's strategy, the first step is to use Chen Cangdao, which is already a bit whimsical.
Han Xin was able to achieve miraculous results when he introduced Chen Cang Dao because no one was aware of the role of Chen Cang Dao at that time. Han Xin was the first to discover and utilize Chen Cang Dao, thus establishing an unparalleled feat.
But now, everyone knows that Shu can enter Guanzhong via Chencang Road. How could Cao Wei not defend this place? !
In addition, when Cao Cao withdrew from Hanzhong, he had asked Cao Zhen to lead the troops to guard Chencang Road, which shows that Cao Wei had long been aware of the risks of Chencang Road. Over the years, Cao Zhen must have built the Chencang Road fortress extremely strong. It's not that easy to break through.
And even if it can be easily broken through, it is actually not a good idea to take Chencang Road now.
Zhuge Liang, who had been thinking about the Northern Expedition for many years, had actually found someone to survey the terrain on the spot. The current Chencang Road is no longer the Chencang Road of the Pre-Han Dynasty.
Han Xin was able to take the Chencang Road because at the end of the Qin Dynasty, the Han River could be used to transport grain and grass from Hanzhong to Chencang Road. Four hundred years ago, the Chencang Road was close to the water, and there was a large lake behind it called Tianchi Lake. Ze.
This Tianchi Daze connects the Western Han River and the Jialing River. Because this lake plays a role in storing water and buffering the water flow. The water flow of the Han River and the Jialing River flowing through the Tianchi Daze is slow, so Han Xin can use the Han River to transport grain and grass upstream. .
However, the Wudu earthquake two hundred years ago caused the topography of Chencang Road to change, and the water flow direction changed. The Western Han Dynasty water changed its course and directly connected to the Jialing River, while Tianchi Daze slowly disappeared over time.
Now, if you want to transport grain from Hanzhong to Chencang Road by water, you have to transport it upstream from the turbulent Jialing River. Under such conditions, it is simply impossible to transport grain by water.
Therefore, when transporting grain from Hanzhong to Chencang Road, we can only transport grain on a narrow plank road. If we wait another year or two for the cement plant in Zangqi County to be built and we can use cement to build roads to transport grain, it may be better, but we need to send troops now. When attacking Chencang Road, transportation volume is a very big problem.
In other words, even if Liu Bei can lead his troops to break through Cao Zhen's defense and enter Guanzhong out of Chencang Road, the supply of food and grass will become very difficult, and it will be difficult to supply the needs of the army in the first time.
And what's even more frightening is that as long as Cao Zhen can hold on to Chencang Road for more than two months, that is, Liu Bei will lead the army to defeat Cao Zhen. After leaving Chencang Road and entering the Guanzhong Plain, it is very likely that he will immediately face Guo Huai of Liangzhou and Cao Hong of Chang'an. The army besieged him.
At that time, it will not be so easy to return to Chencang Road.
Unless Liu Bei can quickly break through Chencang Road in less than a month and directly attack Chang'an before Guo Huai and Cao Hong can react. Otherwise, he will probably end up in a disastrous defeat when he leaves Chencang Road this time.
(End of chapter)
