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Since Zhuge Liang went to Jingzhou, seizing Bashu has become Liu Bei's dream goal. He could not tolerate the remoteness and sparse population of Jingnan, and could not accept the reality that he was gradually marginalized.

He was once the Emperor Liu, who was as famous as Cao Cao, and everyone in the world knew it, but his reputation gradually faded over the years, and he never had the chance to become the protagonist in the Central Plains.

On the contrary, Liu Jing rose strongly. After the Battle of Chibi, his reputation became even more famous all over the world, from Old Man Bai to Young Children, everyone knew Jingzhou Jinggong.

Many Central Plains gentry regarded Liu Jing as the hope for the revival of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Bei was like an old rooster, who could only squat in the chicken coop to recall the scenery of the past.

What made Liu Bei even more unbearable was that he knew that Liu Jing was a fake royal family and that Liu Jing was not Liu Biao's nephew, but when he told this to others, no one believed him and even looked at him with a sympathetic look, as if he was slandering Liu Jing out of jealousy.

Liu Bei finally understood one truth: the authenticity of Liu Jing's identity is actually not important. What matters is his strength, that is, he is false, but people in the world would rather take him as true, and even Cao Cao would not want to use Liu Jing's identity to make a seal anymore.

Although Liu Bei admitted that Liu Jing was far ahead of him, he was not willing to accept that he wanted to regain his own glory and fame, and he wanted to rise again, and he had only one opportunity to seize Bashu and establish the Shu Han regime.

Long before the Battle of Chibi, Liu Bei adopted Zhuge Liang's strategy, seized Jianping County, built Wucheng, and made friends with Liu Zhang to prepare for the capture of Bashu. However, Liu Bei never expected that Liu Jing's promise to exchange Bashu for Zhao Yun was a scam.

Just when he was about to meet and form an alliance with Liu Zhang, Liu Jing unexpectedly seized Zigui and cut off his ties with Wucheng. Not only that, Sima Yi's activities in Chengdu killed Zhang Song, Liu Zhang canceled his trust in him, causing Liu Bei's strategy to seize Bashu to suffer serious setbacks.

Just when Liu Bei was already desperate and was about to accept the position of governor of Jiaozhou granted by Cao Cao and was in Anling South, Zhuge Liang, who was even more unwilling to do so, planned to build a plan to secretly cross Chen Cang, and finally regained Zigui City in one fell swoop, which made Liu Bei see another glimmer of hope in despair.

At this time, Liu Bei was mobilizing troops in Gong'an County, preparing to transfer the army to Wucheng to attack Bashu.

On the city wall, Liu Bei was wearing armor and helmet and pressing the hilt of the sword in his hand, looking particularly energetic. Looking at the neatly lined up in the army, he felt ambition that had disappeared for many years.

"Uncle the Emperor" a personal guard ran to report: "The military advisor asked the Emperor the Emperor to discuss."

Liu Bei nodded and walked quickly down the city.

In the room, Zhuge Liang was standing in front of a map and meditating. They did not have the sand table like Jingzhou. It would cost a lot to make such a sand table. It was hard for a good cook to cook without rice. Although Zhuge Liang had enough wisdom, they did not have that strength, at least they could not make it in the short term.

However, Zhuge Liang took a beautiful move. He took advantage of Liu Jing's chance to marry in Jiangdong. On the surface, he sent troops to station on the other side of Zigui, but in fact he secretly crossed Chencang and used a lot of money to buy the Luoting garrison generals opposite Yidu County. He sent five elite troops to cross the Yangtze River in Yidu County at night, took a small detour to Zigui County, and succeeded in attacking Ping'an Fortress, and drove away the men and women to pretend to be fugitives and deceived Zigui City.

This series of victory was Zhuge Liang who seized the loopholes in the Jingzhou army's defense of the outside but not the inside, and took the risk. Although he regained Zigui County and opened up the connection with Wucheng, Zhuge Liang was still very worried. They lacked enough troops. If they could not capture Bashu in time, they would lose all their battles.

Zhuge Liang paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, thinking about the strategy of seizing Bashu. In his initial plan, he took advantage of Liu Zhang's fear of Liu Jing. The two sides formed an alliance in Badong County. Liu Zhang had already agreed to come to Badong County to meet and form an alliance with Liu Bei. At that time, they could capture Liu Zhang and with Zhang Song's internal response, they could seize Bashu without bloodshed.

But the plan is not as good as change. Liu Jing sent Sima Yi to Shu. With the assistance of the Dongzhou Group, Liu Zhang turned against him and Zhang Song was killed, which completely destroyed his plan. Zhuge Liang knew that his plan to seize Bashu without bloodshed was dashed. If he wanted to seize Bashu again, it would be a bloody battle.

"Is there anything wrong with the military advisor looking for me?" Liu Bei quickly walked into the room and interrupted Zhuge Liang's thoughts.

Zhuge Liang nodded, "I just got the information from Wucheng. Liu Zhang ordered Ba County Governor Yan Yan to lead 10,000 troops to Badong County to assist Pang Xi in defending Wucheng. In this way, the troops in Badong County increased to 20,000, and the situation was worrying."

Liu Bei's face suddenly became solemn. The news was really beyond his expectations. They originally knew that Badong County had 10,000 troops, and they had 6,000 troops in Wucheng. If they had 10,000 troops, they could take Badong County with 16,000 troops and march into Ba County. But if Badong County had 20,000 troops, the situation suddenly became serious.

"What should we do then?" Liu Bei asked worriedly.

"Actually, I am not worried about the military strength of Badong County. We can take advantage of the conflict between the Dongzhou Group and the local Bashu Group to defeat Pang Xi and Yan Yan one by one. What I am really worried about is Jingzhou. Even if Liu Jing is not there, Jia Xu, Xu Shu and others can make decisions together. If I am not mistaken, Jingzhou already has a solution to it."

Liu Bei quickly asked: "What kind of response should the military advisor think they will be."

Zhuge Liang knocked on Zigui County on the map hard, "They will definitely regain Zigui County at all costs."

“It’s true”

Liu Bei nodded, "Then I will lead my army to support Zigui immediately."

Seeing that Zhuge Liang did not express his opinion, he couldn't help but ask strangely: "Isn't it appropriate?"

Zhuge Liang pondered for a long time and said, "It takes at least four days from Gong'an County to Zigui County. I am afraid that it will take too long to go up. It takes only two days from Wucheng to Zigui. It is better to go through two-pronged approaches. On the one hand, we support Zigui from the public security, and on the other hand, we order Wucheng to increase troops. As long as Zigui's troops increase to 6,000 people, it will be difficult for Jingzhou to regain Zigui."

Liu Bei made a quick decision and said, "Then I will immediately order Feng'er to increase his troops and return."

In fact, Zhuge Liang was still a little worried because it would take two days to get to Wucheng. Even if Liu Feng immediately increased his troops to Zigui, it would take four days. Whether Zigui County can hold on to the sky will succeed or fail in this way.

Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang said again: "In order to reduce the pressure on the garrison of Zigui, I suggest that we use the strategy of surrounding Wei to save Zhao, attack Jiangling, and delay the troops in Jingzhou."

Liu Bei was a little hesitant about this plan. They secretly built fifty ferries. If they crossed the river and attacked Jiangling, if they could not do it well, fifty ferries would be unsafe, and the army heading north could not come back. The loss would be great. He pondered for a while and didn't speak.

Zhuge Liang understood Liu Bei's concerns and advised him: "We can only bet once, bet that Nanjun's troops will be transferred to attack Zigui. Jiangling has not many troops. If Jiangling can be captured, he will take the opportunity to recover Nanjun, and at the same time, he can also capture 10,000 Jingzhou troops in the entire Nanjun. Our unfavorable situation will be completely changed. Moreover, Liu Jing is not in Jingzhou, and Jia Xu and others cannot transfer troops on a large scale. This is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Although Liu Bei also understood that this was their opportunity, he was really afraid of Liu Jing. So what if Liu Jing returned and led a large army to kill him, they would be wiped out. It would be meaningless to take down Nanjun, but they were afraid that they would have no chance to retreat to Jiaozhou in the south.

In any case, Liu Bei will not compete with Liu Jing for Jingzhou anymore. He pondered for a long time and finally sighed: "Military advisor, let's give up attacking Jiangling."

Zhuge Liang was about to persuade him again, but Liu Bei shook his head firmly, "I have decided, don't say anything more in the military advisor."

Zhuge Liang sighed secretly. At the critical moment, Liu Bei lost his courage and did not dare to retake Nanjun. After all, it was Liu Bei who lost the confidence to compete with Liu Jing for Jingzhou. With his mentality, how could he compete with Liu Jing for Bashu.

Zhuge Liang was also very disappointed, but his face did not show. He pondered: "If the emperor's uncle is unwilling to attack Jiangling, he can retreat second, and cross the river from Yidu County to attack Xiling County. I thought it only takes two thousand troops to capture Xiling County and cut off the Jingzhou army. After attacking Zigui, the Jingzhou army that attacked Zigui will inevitably be in chaos, which won us time."

Liu Bei was able to accept this plan, and he said happily: "It depends on the military advisor's words."

In fact, Liu Bei's failure to adopt Zhuge Liang's strategy to seize Jiangling would be his biggest strategic mistake. In order to win the trust of Liu Zhang, Jingzhou only stationed 10,000 troops in Nanjun.

In order to regain Zigui County, Li Yan had transferred most of the troops to participate in the war. At this time, there were only one thousand Jingzhou troops guarding Jiangling City. If Liu Bei adopted Zhuge Liang's strategy, seized Jiangling, swept across Nanjun, and attacked him from front to back, Li Yan's army would inevitably be wiped out, and the entire situation would change drastically.

But Liu Bei was afraid of Liu Jing's counterattack and did not dare to take Nanjun again. He wanted to enter Bashu, so he lost a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Just in the county north of the southern county, Sima Yi was leading two thousand troops to march southward. At this time, it started to rain lightly. In late autumn, it seemed particularly cold, muddy, and it was very difficult to march.

But Sima Yi was very worried about the situation in Nanjun. Although they had seen the county wall, he did not want the soldiers to rest, but ordered to continue to move south. At this time, a cavalry rushed over and reported loudly: "You reported to the deputy military advisor, there was a fork in front of him, one was to Yidu County, one was to Jiangling, and the other was to Jiangxia. General Wu asked the military advisor to go which one to go."

Sima Yi said without hesitation: "Go to Jiangling"
Chapter completed!