Wanjie supporting role system

Chapter 28 Two birds with one stone

Shu Road is difficult, and it is difficult to ascend to the sky.

This sentence is familiar to everyone.

It was also like this that Liu Bei was as excited as a child at this time.

That night, Liu Bei impatiently begged Zheng Rui to go back to Jingzhou with them, and lead Liu Bei's army in Jingzhou to start the crusade against the Nanman.

Zheng Rui was speechless, but agreed anyway.

He really wanted to see if the rattan armored soldiers of the Nanman were invulnerable.

However, Zheng Rui did not plan to fight this war.

Ok.

With a group of people whose strength is far inferior to his own, it would be too boring to crush them with force.

However, Zheng Rui found a good idea, he can lead the troops to fight the Nanman.

It doesn't have to be by force.

After Xingye rushed back to Jingzhou City, Zheng Rui asked about Liu Beijun's internal affairs for the first time.

"Zhuge Liang, how many soldiers and horses does our Liu Bei army have now, and what is the internal affairs like?"

Zheng Rui pulled Zhuge Liang over and asked.

Seeing that Zheng Rui was concerned about the situation of Liu Bei's army, Zhuge Liang also truthfully said: "Mr. Report, our army currently has 15 troops and 150 million civilians."

15 people?

Zheng Rui was a little puzzled.

Doesn't that mean that apart from the 5 people in Qingzhou, Liu Bei's army who controls a territory far larger than Qingzhou has only [-] people.

Sure enough, Liu Bei's family background has always been the worst among the powers of the Three Kingdoms.

If it weren't for Liu Bei's background as Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun and other civil servants and advisers, ordinary people would have been wiped out by Sun Quan and Cao Cao many times.

People are more popular than people, it is from this time.

Zheng Rui asked again: "Didn't I bring back 25 prisoners from Jiangdong last time? Why are our soldiers still so small?"

"Sir, I don't know. We didn't use the 25 captives we brought back from Jiangdong last time. Instead, we eliminated more than half of them and selected peasants to avoid damage to the reputation of Liu Beijun's military discipline."

Zhuge Liang explained.

But Zhuge Liang only explained part of it, and Zheng Rui understood what he meant.

What Zhuge Liang meant was that although 25 prisoners of Cao Cao's army were brought back from Jiangdong, many of these prisoners had poor military discipline.

Furthermore, Liu Beijun's military discipline reputation has always been very good, otherwise the common people would not support it.

Unlike Liu Bei's army, although Cao's army stationed in Qingzhou has a good military discipline, in general, the reputation of Cao Cao's army's military discipline is very different from that of Liu Bei's army.

After all, Cao Cao's soldiers did not fail to slaughter cities.

At that time, Cao Cao's father, Cao Song, was killed by the rebels of Xuzhou State Mu Taoqian at that time. Cao Cao brought soldiers and horses to Xuzhou, not to mention, after the city of Xuzhou was broken, he even slaughtered the whole Xuzhou.

It can be seen that the military discipline of Cao Cao's army is only aimed at their foundation, such as Qingzhou, which is a first-class base camp that gives them money and people.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang didn't want to use those captives. It is very likely that those captives who were removed by Zhuge Liang were working in the farmland, or those who committed serious crimes were directly beheaded.

Thinking of this, Zheng Rui couldn't help asking: "Then how many troops are there in this Southern Barbarian invasion?"

"Sir, this time the Nanban invasion, the number of the Nanban army has this number."

Zhuge Liang stretched out his finger and made a gesture of three.

Zheng Rui also smiled when he heard it: "30, it seems that this Nanban invasion has been planned for a long time."

"Yes, sir. Meng Huo, the leader of the Nanban, has been accumulating strength in Yunnan. It was the previous Battle of Chibi that left our defenses in the Central Plains empty. He saw this opportunity. He first sent troops to occupy the plains, and then occupied Chengdu in the west. Liu Yan defeated, and this threatens our Jingzhou."

Zhuge Liang agreed.

This must have been something Meng Huo had planned for a long time.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for Meng Huo to dispatch an army of 30 at once and spend all his capital to attack the Central Plains.

Of course, Zheng Rui also noticed that there must be someone pushing the flames.

Can't help having some guesses, smiled and said to Zhuge Liang: "I'm afraid Meng Huo's invasion is not only planned for a long time, but there are people behind it who are fueling the flames?"

Zhuge Liangliang nodded and said, "Mr. is a good fortune teller. Liang was also puzzled before, and then sent someone to investigate, and it turned out that someone secretly instigated Meng Huo to attack our Xiangyang after taking Chengdu."

"You don't have to go on, how about this, I will say a person's name, you just need to tell me if he did it."

Zheng Rui said with a smile.

When Zhuge Liang heard the words, he immediately responded, "Okay, sir."

"It's Cao Cao."

Zheng Rui said the name of this person, and Zhuge Liang nodded immediately.

Zheng Rui couldn't help laughing, this Cao Cao is really cunning and cunning to a certain extent.

It is probably because he saw at a glance that Meng Huo was unwilling to be lonely and wanted to come to the Central Plains to join him, so he sent someone to persuade Meng Huo to attack Liu Bei.

Well one kills two birds with one stone.

Zheng Rui could tell at a glance that Cao Cao had done a good job, and it was not for nothing.

First of all, after Meng Huo took Chengdu, he abnormally called Jingzhou in the east, which may be a normal thing in the eyes of others.

After all, Liu Bei's army only has 5 people in Jingzhou.

But the more normal things are, the more abnormal they are.

Meng Huo obviously captured Chengdu, so he could completely capture Shangyong and mix with Xiliang Ma Teng and Chang'an Cao Cao, taking this as an opportunity to gain a foothold in the Central Plains.

After all, Cao Cao in Chang'an, Tianshui, has no military strength to deal with Ma Teng in Xiliang and Meng Huo, who has 30 soldiers and horses, after the recent Chibi War.

But Meng Huo gave up this good opportunity, as if he was going to eat Jingzhou in one go, which made Zheng Rui feel funny.

It can be said that the reason why Cao Cao was able to persuade Meng Huo to become his pawn was that he regularly borrowed the name of the Xuchang court, and promised Meng Huo that as long as he took Jingzhou, he could give Meng Huo an official position.

Canonized by the Eastern Han Dynasty, although everyone knows that the Eastern Han Dynasty has long existed in name only, and Han Xiandi in Xuchang is just a pawn in Cao Cao's hands.

But up to now, no one has dared to ascend the throne and become emperor. It can be seen that although the Eastern Han Dynasty survived in name only, no one dared to take half a step in the righteousness.

Don't you see Yuan Shao's stupid younger brother, who was beaten to death by his subordinates after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor?
Therefore, only a mentally retarded person like Yuan Shu would choose to proclaim himself emperor at this time.

Even those who want to be emperor again, they still need to endure at this time.

Otherwise, why didn't Cao Cao proclaim the emperor directly, instead his son Cao Pi would proclaim the emperor in the future.

After all, the Eastern Han Dynasty has ruled for more than two hundred years, and it cannot be eliminated in a few decades.

There are still loyal Han people in the whole world.

For example, Cao Cao's counselors, Xun Yu is one of them.

After knowing Cao Cao's intention to become emperor, he bluntly parted ways with Cao Cao and didn't want to play with Cao Cao anymore.

"Where is Meng Huo now?"

Zheng Rui asked.

When he came back with Zhuge Liang and the others, he had already seen that the situation might be critical, otherwise Liu Bei would not have come to Qingzhou just to tell himself that Meng Huo was crazy.

The situation must have gotten out of hand before Liu Bei and the others dared to ask themselves to act.

Otherwise, Liu Bei would dare to bother himself casually.

Seeing Zheng Rui asking about the situation of the Nanman, Zhuge Liang also looked nervous and said: "Sir, the scouts ahead report that Meng Huo will arrive at the city of Xiangyang in a day with 25 Nanman soldiers."

(End of this chapter)