On October 27, the 11th year of Jian'an, Man Chong led his army to evacuate Nanxiang and simply withdrew from Shangyong.

Wen Pin, who was pressing step by step, took advantage of the situation to enter Nanxiang and retake this Shangyong's portal.

Man Chong is wise. Although Nanxiangcheng can be regarded as a fortress mountain city, and the city defense is extremely strong, I deliberately changed it to a structure of "defending the north but not the south" when expanding it. When defending against the attack of the northern Cao army, Nanxiangcheng can become a nightmare existence (in fact, before Shen Yi and Shen Danxian City were unmoved, Nanxiangcheng fought against the Cao army for more than 20 days without moving); and when defending against attacks from the south, the role of this mountain city fortress will be greatly reduced.

Therefore, even if Man Chong wants to occupy this city as a springboard for future attacks on Shangyong, he will definitely not be able to do so.

What makes me feel a pity is that Shen Dan, another culprit who caused the Jingzhou crisis, failed to be captured and killed and had already fled to Nanyang first.

He is lucky, but I hope he can live long and at least live until the day I catch him.

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With Man Chong's retreat, the wars in the four states of Xu, Yan, Jing and Yi (referring to the battlefield in Hanzhong) completely subsided.

According to known information, Xu Shu initially estimated that the total loss of troops from both sides in this comprehensive confrontation between Liu and Cao may exceed 120,000. The number of casualties of Cao's army is expected to reach about 70,000, and the casualties of our army will exceed 50,000.

Although our army had some advantages in terms of the loss and shattered Cao Cao's trick to plot against Jingzhou, from the overall strategic perspective of the entire battlefield, it was our army that lost. Because, the key strategic location———Hanzhong.

In the end, it fell into Cao Cao's hands. With the geographical location of Hanzhong, Cao Cao could attack Xichuan in the south and harass Jingzhou in the east, which was really a headache.

However, Cao Cao is not a real winner.

For him, the land losses caused by the death of the emperor must be greater than the compensation brought by most of Hanzhong (Bazhong, Badong is still in the hands of Zhang Lu). I believe that if Cao Cao could make his own choice, he would rather give up Hanzhong.

We must also avoid civil strife in Xuchang and the death of the emperor.

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Just as Man Chong retreated and withdrew from Shangyong, the third letter from his elder brother within six days came from Shouchun.

In the letter, the elder brother asked me about the progress of the war in Jingzhou, and on the other hand, he also told me that once the war was over, he would immediately return to Shouchun with Xu Shu, Kuai Yue and others to strive to participate in the emperor's grand ceremony.

Give Xiangyang a day to celebrate the joy of Cao's army's repelling and the peace of the homeland was restored. On October 28th, I ordered the four counties in Jingbei to enter the national mourning period and ban the festive events within one month.

After summoning the ministers in Jingzhou to arrange relevant military and political affairs, I took more than ten important civil and military officials, including Xu Shu, Kuai Yue, Zhao Yun, Han Song, Wang Can, and Fu Gan, and others, to Shouchun.

In terms of government affairs in Jingzhou, Ma Liang, Pang Shanmin and others are temporarily in charge; in terms of military affairs, Huang Zhong is responsible for leading the entire army. Pang Tong is also on his way back to Xiangyang. As long as he can return to Xiangyang, he can coordinate the overall situation.

Before leaving, I specifically instructed Huang Zhong to keep a high degree of vigilance against Cao's army. Logically speaking, Cao Cao should not have the heart to pay attention to Jingzhou at the moment.

But this prime minister cannot be regarded as a common person. Who dares to say that he will not be in danger and will make another raid?

If he was really successful in the raid and I was in Shouchun again, the situation of the battle would be unpredictable.

…………………………………………………………..

At midnight on the 29th, Xu Shu and I, along with us, rushed to Shouchun on naval fast ships. Thanks to the strong west wind these days, we arrived so quickly.

When I was welcomed into the city by Bu Zhi, I was slightly surprised to find that although it was late at night, the city was still busy, with bright lights on the streets, and many people even transported some sacrificial items to the outside of the city one after another.

"General, you will be buried for Your Majesty tomorrow at the first day. At noon, the lord will preside over the grand ceremony for Your Majesty. You must seize the time to complete the final preparation!" I saw my doubts. Bu Zhi explained in a low voice.

"Brother, have you rested?" I nodded and asked immediately.

"The lord has not yet rested, and he is discussing with the lord and military advisor Zhuge in the governor's mansion about the burial and grand sacrifice tomorrow!" Bu Zhi shook his head and replied. "However, the subordinate has sent someone to report to the lord that the general has arrived in Shouchun!"

…………

As Bu Zhi said, the eldest brother and second brother who learned that I had returned to Shouchun had already been waiting outside the governor's mansion.

"Brother, second brother, I'm back!" I jumped off the black horse and threw the reins to the personal soldiers behind me. I rushed forward a few steps.

"It's good to come back..." The eldest brother held my hand and smiled with relief. The second brother on the side also nodded to me with a rare smile that he saw on weekdays.

Under the light, my elder brother was obviously much thinner than when he parted in Jingzhou two months ago. He felt that it was similar to when he just escaped from Yuan Shao, Hebei.

It can be seen that first there was the civil strife in Yangzhou, followed by the crisis on the battlefield in Jingzhou, and then the shocking event occurred. In this series of events, the elder brother spent a lot of effort.

"Brother, Yuan Zhi and the others are all behind..." I turned sideways and pointed behind me.

"Well..." The elder brother nodded slightly, then put down my hand, walked towards Xu Shu and others who were dismounting, and smiled and greeted, "Yuan Zhi, Yidu, Zilong..."

.

After entering the conference hall for a while, my elder brother arranged for Bu Zhi to lead Han Song and others to the inn to rest, leaving me and Xu Shu, Kuai Yue and Zhao Yun.

In addition, there are Zhuge Liang, Lu Su and Wei Yan, who was less than half a day from Guangling to Shouchun.

After listening to my detailed introduction to the battle between Hanzhong and Jingzhou, Wei Yan sighed with regret: "It's a pity that Cao Cao set up a traitor, otherwise the general would have taken down Hanzhong long ago.

Junhou and Mo Jiang paid the price of nearly 30,000 casualties, but Zhang Yi was disturbed by himself. Unfortunately, he was killed by the assassin, otherwise I would really want to punch him in person!”

It is obvious that Wei Yan still does not know the truth about the "Yangzhou Civil strife" incident. He does not know Zhang Yi's true identity.

But, to be honest.

Even when I heard the news, I was slightly surprised - "Zhang Yi" was really Sima Yi! I asked Xu Shu to conduct such a careful investigation before, and then Xu Shu stared at Sima Yi for nearly three years, but he didn't find any doubts, which made me have to dispel my suspicion of him.

The ability to not contact Cao Cao for three years shows Sima Yi's ability to endure. However, what is even more amazing is Cao Cao. He was able to not use this important secret for three years and made such a perfect concealment for Sima Yi.

As a result, if this secret boy doesn't move, he will almost turn the world upside down when he moves.

I saw that my elder brother turned his eyes to me, as if he was asking me if I had told Kuai Yue and Zhao Yun about Sima Yi, so I shook my head slightly. Especially this matter is important. In the whole of Jingzhou, I was the only one who knew the truth, Xu Shu and Pang Tong.

The eldest brother nodded slightly. He turned his eyes to Kuai Yue, Zhao Yun, Wei Yan and others, and said slowly: "Yi Du, Zi Long, Wen Chang..., I have something to tell you!"

Seeing the elder brother's expression and tone, Zhao Yun and others also knew that things might be very important, so they concentrated and calmed down and sounded, but Kuai Yue seemed to have vaguely guessed something.

When he heard Sima Yi's secret identity, Rao Zhao Yun and Wei Yan were both long-time generals on the battlefield. He was still shocked.

"This picture... Sima Yi is actually Cao Jiedi secretly??!!!!" Wei Yan whispered, "Lord, then isn't he assassinated by Cao Jiedi assassin..." Wei Yan's mind was also very flexible, and soon thought of Sima Yi's public death news.

"He is not dead, he is currently in Lujiang..." The eldest brother shook his head and said slowly, "I specially spread the news of death to deceive Cao Cao's land!"

"This person is a spy sent by Cao Cao. Why didn't the lord kill him?" Wei Yan asked in surprise.

"Although he was very harmful this time, there are reasons why he couldn't help it, so..." the eldest brother sighed lightly and said, "I want to give him another chance!"

"The Sima family is a prominent family. From Sima Fang (the father of Sima Yi) to Sima Lang, they are all famous scholars in Henoi. If the lord wants to attack Hebei in the future, the Sima family can indeed become a supporter.

From this perspective, it is impossible to keep Sima Yi. And this person is indeed outstanding ingenuity." Kuai Yue stroked his chin and lowered his whisper. He said in a deep voice, "But.

In Yue's opinion, even if the lord wants to use him secretly before conquering the Sima family, it is best not to let him hold real power.

The clans often regard the family as more important than the country. Yue himself comes from the Jingzhou clan, and he has a lot of feelings about this! I guess Sima Yi will be no exception. Although he was intimidated by his lord, it is difficult to guarantee that the lord will not turn against him once he touches his family's interests in the future!"

Although Kuai Yue himself is the head of the Kuai clan, one of the five major tribes in Jingzhou, he did not shy away from the clan issue when talking about clan issues.

"Brother, what Kuai Gong said is very true!" I nodded and echoed. Although I knew that history had changed greatly, I was still a little concerned about Sima Yi in my heart.

"Well..." The elder brother pondered for a moment and nodded slightly: "Put this aside in advance, let's discuss the death of Your Majesty. Kong Ming, please introduce the story of this matter to Yide and others in detail!"

Zhuge Liang responded, then gently waved the feather fan, and gave a detailed explanation of the previous situation.

Of course, I already knew very well about the civil strife in Xuchang (from planning for civil strife to escaping, which was directly controlled by Xu Shu. He naturally knew very well and gave me a detailed introduction.

After the death of the emperor, Zhuge Liang was mainly taken over, and Xu Shu had to be distracted from dealing with the crisis in Jingzhou, so he also knew that Zhuge Liang's words were relatively concise.

"... Although Cao Cao tried his best to clear the charge of killing the emperor, because we had already spread this news to all prefectures, counties and counties, most of the scholars and people were convinced of Cao Cao's murder of the emperor.

The rumors that Cao Cao was the second-generation "Wang Mang" were also booming. It is said that many officials from prefectures and counties have resigned and returned home, and the same is true in the court. After the Great Honglu Kong Rong was released from the Heavenly Prison by Cao Cao, he immediately resigned.

"Zhuge Liang said slowly with a faint smile.

"How did Military Advisor Zhuge know so much about the situation under Cao Cao's rule?" Zhao Yun said in surprise.

"Cao Cao's rule is in chaos, and it is very convenient to find out the news. Some local officials and gentry even took the initiative to contact us!" Zhuge Liang said with a chuckle, "Cao Cao seems to be preparing to bury the emperor tomorrow, just like one day in the evening in Shouchun.

”

Needless to say, this day must have been calculated by Zhuge Liang.
Chapter completed!