After the strategy meeting ended, it was natural for everyone to go back to their respective homes.
Everyone has their own preparations to make. Out-of-town governors like Zhang Xi also need to go back as soon as possible to arrange for soldiers to train and prepare food, grass and weapons. After all, Zhuge Liang has already decided to gather in Luoyang after the spring of next year to prepare for the invasion. Northern Expedition.
Therefore, after Zhang Xi returned to his home in Chang'an, he immediately began to prepare to pack his bags and return to Jingzhou.
But before that, three people took turns visiting Zhang Xi's mansion.
In fact, they are not strangers, but they are certainly not acquaintances.
Two of them, one named Zhao Tong and the other Zhao Guang, are the two young masters of the Zhao Yun family. These two people are true. After being admonished by their old man without knowing anything, they packed up their bedding. , kicked out from home.
The two of them were in a state of confusion and had no idea what was going on. They didn't even hear Zhao Yun's instructions to go find Zhang Xi directly after leaving home.
These two silly kids thought they had done something wrong and were kicked out of the house by their old man.
If their mother hadn't looked angry and distressed, and secretly sent a message to the two of them, these two stupid children would still be chasing each other at the door of their own house, who did the bad thing and made the old man so angry.
Then, the two of them went directly to Zhang Xi's door.
There were two of us. To be honest, I felt uneasy and excited at the same time.
The exciting part is that the two brothers finally got their father's permission to go into battle to kill the enemy. As Zhao Yun's sons, how could the two brothers not have expectations about going into battle to kill the enemy.
The uneasy part is that these two brothers have been scolded by Zhao Yun since they were young, and he has never allowed them to join the army, saying that they are useless. Over time, these two brothers really think that they are the best among all the second-generation meritorious generals. Bad two.
Other second-generation martial artists are either like the Zhang family, where Zhang Bao directly serves as a civil servant and does not go into battle to kill the enemy, or they are like the Guan family, where even Guan Yinping can go into battle to kill the enemy, and Guan Ping even temporarily replaces Guan Yu in commanding the army. .
Just the two of them are not even qualified to go to the battlefield.
To be honest, the two brothers are not afraid of embarrassing themselves, but if they fail to meet Zhang Qiaoqi's requirements and embarrass their father, then they will really lose face.
Really, I have to say that under Zhao Yun's education, although these two brothers were a little distorted and lacked self-confidence, in terms of tutoring, is it true that they did not have a rebellious period? !
Anyway, Zhang Xi admires him very much.
As for the abilities of the two brothers, well, Zhang Xi doesn't know much about commanding troops, so it's hard to evaluate them at the moment, but in terms of this strength value, he can definitely beat Zhang Xi.
Although it is quite easy to defeat Zhang Xi, at least Zhang Xi does not have to worry. When the two of them arrive on the battlefield, they will not be able to protect themselves enough.
Now that they are all here, let’s accept them first. Zhang Xi asked these two brothers to take charge of his personal guards. Although there are only 500 people, it is still a small army. It happens that he is returning to Jingzhou on the way, so he can inspect the two brothers. The ability to command troops.
In this way, the two brothers temporarily settled in Zhang Xi's mansion.
And on the second day after the two brothers came to visit, Zhang Xi welcomed a unfamiliar stranger-Li Yan.
To be honest, Zhang Xi never expected that Li Yan would come to visit him.
The two of them really have no friendship.
As for Li Yan, in fact, Li Yan came here not entirely for himself, but also for his friends.
In fact, Li Yan also knew that Zhang Xi had always been biased against him and disliked him very much. In this regard, Li Yan knew clearly through Fa Zheng channels more than ten years ago.
But Li Yan actually doesn't care about this.
On the one hand, Li Yan's official career path had nothing to do with Zhang Xi's. Li Yan lived in Shu all year round, while Zhang Xi had been working abroad in various places. There was no direct conflict of interest between the two.
On the other hand, Li Yan knew that although Zhang Xi didn't like him, he acted fairly and would not target him just because he didn't like him. In addition, the status gap between the two was too big, so there was no need for Li Yan to take the initiative. If you offend Zhang Xi, the worst thing you can do is hide away.
But not anymore.
On the one hand, Li Yan is a minister and is considered a powerful figure in the court. The intersection between him and Zhang Xi will inevitably increase.
Now Li Yan is also thinking about whether to get close to Zhang Xi and improve the relationship between the two parties.
On the other hand, my good friend had no choice but to seek help from me, and I was helpless.
This friend was none other than Meng Da, the governor of Shangyong County.
Meng Da in his early years can be said to be one of the representatives of the Dongzhou faction. After all, the Dongzhou faction was under Liu Zhang at that time and could not be reused. Fa Zheng was a county official, and Li Yan was just a county magistrate. The only one who had mastered The person with little military power is just Meng Da.
Therefore, in the early years when the First Lord came to Sichuan, Meng Da was considered a highly valued person under the First Lord.
However, no one expected what would happen next.
Fa Zheng has always been highly valued by the First Master and often stayed by his side to make suggestions. Although Li Yan went through a period of trough dormancy, in the end, with Fa Zheng's support, he reached his current position as Shangshu Ling.
Only Meng Da is still just a prefect of a county.
Logically speaking, the official position of a prefect of a county is not considered low. If Meng Da had not worked hard during the first Northern Expedition and made considerable achievements, the things he did back then would have been nothing compared to what he had done. His status in the heart of the First Lord is not necessarily determined by whether he can still be the governor now.
But Mengda is still a big-hearted person.
Seeing that his former friends had all become ministers, and he was still the prefect of a county, Meng Da felt miserable.
Meng Da is now in his forties, almost fifty. If he doesn't take any action, he may have to live a life of mediocrity for the rest of his life.
Meng Da definitely doesn't want this.
In terms of talents and abilities, Meng Da thinks that he is not inferior to Li Yan and Fazheng, but now he can only live below an ordinary man, but he does not have enough opportunities to show himself.
As the Han pushed the front to Heluo, Mengda, who had been staying in Shangyong, became less and less likely to have the opportunity to show his abilities.
As for Kou Feng, the garrison general of Dongsan County, he is just a reckless man who has no access to oil and salt. Whenever there is an opportunity to go out to fight, he will lead the troops himself, leaving the task of staying behind to himself and the Shen brothers. Score points to give yourself a chance to perform.
Meng Da had no choice but to write to Li Yan for help.
Meng Da hopes that Li Yan can help him, intercede for him, and get a chance to show his abilities just like Fazheng did when he supported him.
Li Yan had no choice but to visit Zhang Xi personally.
Now that the strategy has been decided, the Han actually has three lines of troops that can attack.
Along the way, there is the largest army attacking Yingchuan.
This regiment has the largest number of people, and the relationship between Li Yan and Xu Shu is also good. It is not a big problem to let Xu Shu take Meng Da to the expedition.
But there is another Kou Feng in Xu Shu's regiment. As Kou Feng's subordinate, Meng Da once enters this regiment to lead troops in battle, the command power is still in Kou Feng's hands. What great achievements can Meng Da make? Show yourself? !
I'm afraid Meng Da fought hard, but in the end, the biggest credit was given to Kou Feng.
Therefore, Mengda cannot go to this place.
There is also a reserve army led by Wei Yan.
This is a place where great achievements can be made, but there are also some limitations.
One is that Wei Yan has his own group, why should he give you Meng Dateng a position? !
On the other hand, the army led by Wei Yan, whose main force was the Northern Han Army led by Jiang Wei and Guan Qiujian, would be too difficult to compete with these people to achieve meritorious deeds.
In addition, the last and most important thing is that Wei Yan did not come to the Chang'an military meeting. His responsibilities were all arranged by Zhuge Liang, so what else can be done? !
Li Yan can't go to Zhuge Liang and discuss with him whether to re-enable Meng Da? !
Meng Da's biggest mistake was not that he was incompetent or that he didn't obey military orders. His biggest mistake was that he was abandoned by the First Lord.
Will Zhuge Liang go against the First Lord's decision? !
Don’t even think about it!
Therefore, after much deliberation, Li Yan concluded that only Zhang Xi's troops might be able to use Meng Da.
On the one hand, Zhang Xi's troops have the heaviest and most difficult tasks. Zhang Xi definitely needs a capable subordinate to help him share the pressure.
Li Yan believes that Meng Da's ability is still competent enough.
On the other hand, Li Yan also wanted to take the opportunity to explore Zhang Xi's tone and see if there was a chance for him to improve his relationship with Zhang Xi again.
It just so happened that I took this opportunity to intercede for my friend and visited Zhang Xi in person.
Praying on behalf of a friend, regardless of success or failure, can leave a good impression on others, especially for someone like Mengda who was abandoned by the First Lord. If he, as a friend, does not give up, doesn't it reflect his own character?
This is Li Yan's little idea.
But put it here with Zhang Xi. To be honest, Zhang Xi doesn't want a general like Meng Da who ignores the overall situation and retreats in the face of danger.
But Zhang Xi is actually worried.
Do you want to use 50,000 soldiers? Against the 100,000 Cao Wei army, it is impossible to say that there is no pressure.
And more importantly, of Zhang Xi's 50,000 troops, there are actually 20,000 Qiang and Hu cavalry led by Ma Dai and serious county infantry, and only 30,000.
There is no way, the Yingchuan side is the main attack force, the Liangzhou cavalry must go there to help in the battle, and the Hedong County side, with Bingzhou as its back, it is not impossible for the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry to go south, so there must be some cavalry Preparing for a war with rangers is better than having no cavalry at all.
But since then, comparing the county soldiers and infantry, Zhang Xi actually wants to use 30,000 people to fight against Cao Wei's 70,000 to 80,000 people.
Even if it is a feint, the pressure is still great.
Zhang Xi really needs some generals who are good at fighting, wise and brave, to help him share the pressure.
Originally, Zhang Xi wanted to recruit Liu Yin to help in the battle. Together with Zhang Yi and Xiang Chong, these were the only people he could think of.
However, I am still somewhat lacking in confidence.
Liu Yin is good at defense, but not good at offense. Zhang Yi and Xiang Chong are very average in ability. Maybe the average ability means that there is nothing too outstanding.
Apart from anything else, Zhang Xi really didn't think any of them had a good chance of winning against Sima Shi.
Therefore, if possible, Zhang Xi really wants to recruit someone like Deng Ai or Jiang Wei to help him.
But unfortunately, they couldn't draw, and Zhuge Liang, the two men, were all stuffed into Wei Yan's partial army. After all, if that partial army was really used well, the strategic effect would be great.
Really, Zhang Xi was still thinking about moving Shi Bao who was in Jingnan northward and letting Pan Jun take charge of the defense in Jingnan. At this time, Li Yan came to the door.
Meng Da? !
This person has poor character and is capricious. It is indeed a risk to have him under his control.
But on the other hand, there is no doubt about Meng Da's ability. Although he can't defeat Lu Xun, Sima Yi and others, he should be able to bully Sima Shi.
Do you want to accept it? !
(End of chapter)
