There are gentlemen in the Three Kingdoms

Liu Bei said: "This is the deceitfulness of the potters. They seem to be recuperating, but they are actually waiting for the opportunity to go south at any time. I am afraid that Jingzhou has already become his target. If we do not take any action, I am afraid it will not work." gone."

Speaking of this, Liu Bei paused, and said: "But in this situation, Bei can't think well about how to act."

Just when Liu Bei sighed and didn't know what to do, he heard a servant say at the door: "General, Pang Situ asks to see you."

Liu Bei was refreshed when he heard the words, and hurriedly said: "Please."

When he was young, Pang Tong walked in, saw that Liu Qi was there, and said with a smile, "Where is Da Sima?"

Da Sima refers to Liu Qi, who inherited Liu Biao's position and currently ranks as the top military officer in the court.

"Pang Situ, didn't you go to inspect the four southern counties? You came back so soon?" Liu Qi asked curiously.

Pang Tong said helplessly: "Such a big incident happened in the Central Plains, and I have no intention of patrolling, so I have to hurry back."

Speaking of this, Pang Tong looked at Liu Bei and said, "General Hussars, the current situation is urgent, but we can't delay any longer."

Liu Bei lifted the quilt and said, "What did Shi Yuan mean?"

"Nowadays the pottery merchants are sitting in Xuchang, and the name is to govern Zhongzhou, but in fact they want to plan for Jingxiang. Our army can't just sit and wait, we must take action."

Liu Bei said: "How to act?"

Pang Tong stretched out his finger and said, "According to the current situation, I probably have two moves. The first is to fight first."

"Rise up first?" Liu Bei looked at him puzzled, "How to start first?"

"Not long after the potters conquered the Central Plains, it can be regarded as not having a stable foothold. When Cao Cao and our army confronted each other in the Central Plains, they occupied Fancheng as the throat. Now we should take advantage of the fact that the potters are not yet ready, and lead our troops to conquer Fancheng first. To gain a firm foothold in Beiyuan and change the offensive and defensive positions, this can alleviate Jingzhou's emergency."

Liu Bei breathed a sigh of relief, and said: "Your words are reasonable, but even if you take down Fancheng for a while and change the offensive and defensive positions, how can you last for a long time?"

Pang Tong said: "So, I have a second plan, which is to rebuild Jiangling to strengthen it."

"How to rebuild?"

Pang Tong took out his blueprint from his sleeve, handed it to Liu Bei, and said, "Look at this, General."

A few days later, the potters in Xuchang had just drawn up the official changes in the counties of Yanzhou, and then received the military report from the front.

Liu Bei raised troops in Jingzhou, and took Xiangyang as a springboard to march into Fancheng.

"Crack!" The pottery merchant folded the slips in his hand heavily: "Is Liu Bei looking for death?"

Guo Jia smiled and said: "No, on the contrary, he is doing this to survive, in order to be able to switch positions offensively and defensively, and take the initiative."

The potter frowned and said, "Who is the pioneer?"

"The front vanguard is Guan Yu, and the deputy vanguard is Chen Dao."

The potter turned to look at Guo Jia and said, "Is Fancheng in our territory?"

Guo Jiadao: "Yes, Fancheng was originally Cao Cao's city, and now it can be said to belong to us, but we are not familiar with the nature of the city guard. We need to send capable people to replace it as soon as possible."

"Look for Xu Rong and Xu Huang." The pottery merchant ordered immediately.

When I was young, two generals surnamed Xu came to the potter.

"Liu Bei raised his troops to attack Fancheng, planning to do something wrong. My side has just settled down, so I can't pack up the troops immediately. Take your own troops and defend Fancheng for me. It doesn't take much. You can last for [-] days. After [-] days, I will After making arrangements, naturally lead the troops to deal with Liu Bei."

Xu Huang glanced at Xu Rong, hesitated for a moment, and said: "May I ask the prime minister, who is the general and who is the deputy general?"

Chapter 825 Battle of Xiangfan

Xu Huang's words made the potter a little confused.

In fact, he originally wanted to send two generals to Fancheng to fight against the enemy. As for other things, the potter didn't think too much at once.

But Xu Huang's words did remind him.

These two generals are about the same level and military rank. In normal times, no one should be able to restrict the other.

But the current situation is special, so we have to consider it carefully.

Tao Shang even felt a little regretful, he didn't think so much just now, otherwise he would have sent someone else to fight.

But now that the words have been spoken, it is really difficult to take them back.

Tao Shang looked at the two of them back and forth, pondered for a long time, and finally said: "Then appoint Xu Rong as the general and Xu Huang as the deputy."

"promise!"

The two clasped their fists together and went out to prepare their soldiers and horses. When they reached the door, they were greeted by the pottery merchant and stopped Xu Huang.

"Gongming, wait a minute."

Xu Huang turned around and came back.

"Gongming, logically speaking, based on ability and use of troops, I should appoint you as the general. However, since Sun Ce's death, Xu Rong's temperament has become more sensitive. If I let you be the general, I'm afraid it will stimulate him. , I hope you can be more considerate."

Xu Huang smiled generously: "The Prime Minister is worrying too much, how can the general be dissatisfied with this? General Xu talked about his qualifications and methods of using troops, and even his popularity. In the army, he is above the general. Since it is common sense to appoint General Xu as the commander, the prime minister should not doubt it."

Xu Huang's grandeur and understanding made the potter feel very pleased.

But he was still a little worried, and told him: "Gongming, Liu Bei's vanguard general is Guan Yu, this man is not to be taken lightly, you need to be more careful."

"Prime Minister, don't worry."

Although Xu Huang said that he agreed with the potter, he didn't think so in his heart.

In his opinion, Guan Yu basically has no record.

Apart from defeating Hua Xiong single-handedly when the feudal lords were attacking Dong Zhuo, Hua Xiong was forced to commit suicide in the end, and he fought Lv Bu at Hulao Pass, other than that, I didn't think he was anything special.

The only thing that Xu Huang could pay attention to was that Guan Yu, like him, was from Hedong.

After Xu Huang left, Guo Jia immediately said to the potter: "The forces in the world today, besides Liu Bei in Jingzhou and Cao Cao in Guanzhong, there is also Liu Zhang in Yizhou. The first two are enemies with the prime minister, but Liu Zhang is different. To tell you the truth, from the bottom of my mind, Liu Zhang was tied to his chariot by Liu Biao purely because of his Han clan. Now that Liu Biao is dead and Liu Bei is in power in Jiangling, it stands to reason that Liu Zhang should treat him well. I’m not convinced, but I can take advantage of this matter.”

The pottery merchant shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's not as easy as you think."

Guo Jia was taken aback when he heard the words, and said, "What do you mean? The prime minister thinks this divorce plan is inappropriate?"

The potter stood up, looked out of the hall, and said: "If it were changed to the original, this estrangement plan might work, but I'm afraid it will be difficult now. You have been working in Chenliucheng for a while, so I don't know much about it. The government reported that the old Sun clan, headed by Zhou Yu, had gone to Xichuan and joined Liu Zhang."

For Guo Jia, this news was really too explosive.

He rubbed his brows, thought carefully for a while, and said, "So, if Zhou Yu is under Liu Zhang's command, then he will definitely make Liu Zhang support Liu Bei as our enemy, so it's not very good if he wants to force Liu Zhang to fall to us." Easy."

The pottery merchant nodded and said, "It's not easy, but it's not impossible. After all, Zhou Yu is an outsider, and Liu Zhang still has so many Yizhou native gentry. If Zhou Yu is appointed too high by Liu Zhang, with them From a different point of view, how does Feng Xiao feel, who is probably not willing?"