On the south bank of the Yangtze River, 20,000 Jingnan troops were lined up, waiting for ships from the other side to arrive. More than an hour had passed, and there was no movement on the dark river. Liu Bei became a little anxious. He kept pacing back and forth on the shore with his hands behind his back.

step.

Next to him, Zhang Fei couldn't help but ask: "Brother, will you encounter any accidents or be unable to cross the river?"

Liu Bei sighed, "I don't know either, but if we can't cross the river, someone will swim back. It seems that they should have crossed the river."

At this moment, there was a slight commotion from the shore, and someone shouted: "There is a boat coming on the river!"

Liu Bei cheered up and walked forward quickly. He saw the shadows of two ships appearing on the dark river. Zhang Fei shouted in surprise: "What's going on? There are only two ships?"

Liu Bei was very confused as to why there were only two ships. "Third brother, have you seen clearly? There are indeed only two ships?"

"I can see clearly. There are only two ships. It seems that there is no one on board. The river brought the ships here. What's going on?" Zhang Fei's voice was very nervous, as if he had seen a ghost ship.

Two ships ran aground on the water's edge. Dozens of soldiers rushed up. After a moment, the soldiers turned their backs on the two men. A sergeant nervously reported to Liu Bei: "Several brothers on the ship were killed by arrows. Only these two brothers seemed to be alive."

Take a breath."

Liu Bei's heart seemed to sink into an abyss. No matter what the reason was, tonight's plan to cross the river would probably not succeed. Pang Tong next to him also looked very pale. He also realized that his plan had failed.

"Wake up!"

The soldiers shouted, and Liu Bei quickly stepped forward. He saw a soldier with an arrow in his abdomen slowly regaining consciousness. Liu Bei quickly asked: "What happened?"

"Reporting to the emperor, when I came back... I met Cao Jun... fleet, there were hundreds of ships..."

Before he finished speaking, the soldier fainted again. Liu Bei quickly ordered: "Hurry up and get the military doctor to treat him!"

He sighed, put his hands behind his hands and walked slowly to the water's edge, staring at the dark river. There was no boat to cross the river. It seemed that he really had no chance. This was God's will!

Pang Tong also slowly stepped forward and said with shame: "Uncle Emperor, this is my responsibility."

Liu Bei shook his head, "This matter has nothing to do with you. You didn't expect that Cao Jun's army would come. This is God's will. But I'm a little strange. What should be coming back is an empty ship. How could it be Cao Jun's army?"

Liu Bei looked back at Pang Tong, "What do you think of this?"

Pang Tong hesitated and said, "Can I let the minister speak his mind?"

"Of course, of course I want to hear your true words?"

"I think the results should have appeared on Chibi."

Liu Bei was surprised, "You mean, the Battle of Chibi is over?"

Pang Tong nodded lightly, "It should be over. Only when the war is over will Cao's army return. But I don't know who will win and who will lose. Cao's army will return no matter whether they win or lose. We cannot tell this."

At this moment, the chief secretary, Ma Su, rushed over and shouted from afar: "I am reporting to the emperor, the military advisor has sent an urgent report!"

Liu Bei stepped forward to take the letter. Under the light of the soldiers' torches, it turned out to be an urgent red-brown envelope. Liu Bei opened the letter and read it. He was a little stunned, with an expression of surprise and joy on his face.

"Lord, what's the news about Chibi?" Pang Tong asked.

Liu Bei nodded, "There are flying pigeons on the other side of Chibi carrying a message. The war is over. Cao Cao was defeated miserably, and his entire army of more than 200,000 people was wiped out."

Pang Tong was also stunned. He didn't know whether he was feeling happy or sad. Jiang Xia's army defeated 200,000 Cao's troops. What does this mean? It means that the world's power structure is about to change drastically.

Liu Bei was also flustered. Of course he knew what it meant for Jiangxia's army to defeat Cao's army. First, he saved his last bit of power. This was his luck. Then, what should he do?

Next to him, Zhang Fei seemed to understand his brother's panic and reminded him: "Brother, look at the military advisor's letter again. What else did he say after that?"

This sentence reminded Liu Bei, and he continued to read. At the end of the letter, Zhuge Liang indeed made a suggestion, sending 5,000 troops to reinforce Jianping County, and another 15,000 troops deployed on the south bank of the Yangtze River to watch the Jiangling incident.

Finally, Zhuge Liang said that he was about to set off and come to join Liu Bei.

Liu Bei suddenly felt relieved and smiled at everyone: "The military advisor will be arriving soon. Don't worry too much."

Pang Tong felt a little unhappy. At this critical moment, the lord still listened to Zhuge Liang's arrangement and did not ask what he thought at all. This showed that the lord still did not take him to heart.

Pang Tong suddenly felt an indescribable feeling of disappointment, and thought to himself, 'It's better to leave first, so as not to see Kong Ming's face.'

Thinking of this, Pang Tong bowed to Liu Bei and said: "I would like to lead five thousand troops to Jianping County to assist the eldest son. Please give me your permission."

Liu Bei understood what Pang Tong meant. He couldn't help feeling a little guilty in his heart, so he took out a command arrow and handed it to Pang Tong and said: "I will hand over the five thousand troops to Shi Yuan. I hope Shi Yuan can assist Feng'er well. If he is unable to do anything,

You can report it to me secretly."

"Wei Chen understands, thank you for your love, Lord!"

That night, Pang Tong led 5,000 troops to leave the camp and headed west along the south bank of the Yangtze River.

........

It wasn't until he returned to Jiangling City that Cao Cao finally let go of his heart. At this time, he thought about the demise of more than 200,000 troops, and couldn't help but feel sad. He beat his chest and cried, "Alas, Chibi was defeated miserably. It's my fault!

"

In the lobby, everyone was silent, and Cheng Yu was even more ashamed. After all, he was the one who finally prompted the Prime Minister to send troops. Although he thought he was only 50% sure at the time, in that case, even if he was only 40% sure, he still advocated the implementation.

.

The key is that he was too catered to the prime minister's idea of ​​sending troops and did not disclose all the dangers. At least he had thought that Jiangdong Army might attack from land.

But just this thought caused him to regret his whole life, causing him to feel the pain of being unable to survive at the end of his life. He stood aside silently without saying a word.

At this time, Cao Cao returned to normal slightly. He looked at Chen Qun and said apologetically: "Chang Wen, I am ashamed of you this time, and I apologize to you!"

Chen Qun quickly walked out of the queue, bowed and saluted and said: "The situation is like this, and sometimes the Prime Minister can't help himself."

Cao Cao nodded, "You are right. I exhausted half of the country's strength, but in the end I hurriedly withdrew without fighting a single battle. Needless to say, I have a reputation for myself. It is hard for me to explain to the world just this huge waste."

Everyone was silent. Although the prime minister was right, no one had the intention to respond. At this time, Cao Cao looked at the generals and saw that there was an empty seat next to Xiahou Dun. He felt sad, even though he knew that there would be an empty seat.

A general fell, but he never wanted it to be Xia Houyuan.

It seemed that in the future, we could only negotiate with Liu Jing and find a way to exchange Xia Houyuan back. At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside, and a guard reported, "General Zhang is back."

This is Zhang Liao's return. Zhang Liao disembarked from the ship halfway to collect Yun Mengze's defeated troops. This is also something that Cao Cao is extremely concerned about. Cao Cao suddenly became energetic and said quickly: "Send him in!"

After a moment, Zhang Liao hurriedly walked in, bowed and saluted: "See you, Prime Minister!"

"Tell me, how many defeated troops have you recruited?" Cao Cao asked impatiently.

"Reporting to the Prime Minister, I have recruited more than 15,000 people for my humble position. I heard that Gongming has also recruited thousands of people, about 20,000 people. The Prime Minister is disappointed."

"I'm not disappointed. It's very good. Wenyuan worked hard this time."

Although he comforted Zhang Liao in this way, Cao Cao sighed in his heart. Although there were only 20,000 people, which was already very good, only 10% were recruited, so the number of captured soldiers was at least 100,000.

At this time, Cao Cao felt lost and felt bored, so he said to everyone: "Everyone has worked hard all the way, let's go and rest!"

Everyone bowed and retreated, but Cao Cao secretly ordered the guards to leave Cao Ren, Cheng Yu and Chen Jiao behind, and he got up and went back to the back hall.

After changing his clothes, Cao Cao walked back to the back hall, where Cao Ren, Cheng Yu and Chen Jiao were already waiting.

"You three, please take a seat!"

Cao Cao asked the three of them to sit down. He stopped mentioning the defeat and said to the three of them: "I want to discuss the future arrangements with the three of you. I plan to set off north tomorrow and return to Yedu, so I have to finalize some things tonight.

Come down."

Cao Ren said with concern: "The prime minister just arrived tonight and will leave tomorrow. Isn't he a little too eager?"

Cao Cao sighed, "I also want to rest for a few days, but there is no other way. The situation is pressing!"

Cao Cao had just received news that Yan Rou, the commander-in-chief of Youzhou, led an elite army of 10,000 to surrender to Yuan Mai, which greatly increased the strength of the remaining members of the Yuan family, which made him even more urgent to go back.

Cao Ren was speechless. He knew that the prime minister clearly wanted to entrust Jingzhou to him, which made him feel an invisible pressure.

Cao Cao said to Cheng Yu again: "Zhongde, tell me! I want to hear your opinion."

Cheng Yu didn't want to say anything at first, but Cao Cao insisted, so he had to say: "Actually, I am worried that the Jiangxia army will seize Xiangyang first and cut off the Jiangling army's retreat. I suggest that it is better to give Jiangling to Liu Bei and let Liu Bei contain Liu Jing.

"

As soon as he said this, Cao Ren immediately objected, "That's inappropriate! Nanjun is one of the three main counties in Jingzhou. If Nanjun is lost, Xiangyang will not be safe. In short, I will never give it to Liu Bei in Jiangling for one day."

In the past, Cheng Yu would definitely argue with Cao Ren, but now he has no intention of arguing. Since Cao Ren firmly opposed it, he said calmly: "General Zixiao is right, so let's stick to it!"

Cao Cao was slightly dissatisfied, but he couldn't say anything. He estimated that Cheng Yu's depression was related to the defeat of Chibi, so he stopped asking Cheng Yu and turned to Chen Jiao, "What is Ji Bi's opinion?"

Chen Jiao was the one who stayed with Cao Cao to assist Cao Ren for a long time. If Cao Ren was asked to guard Jingzhou, Chen Jiao would naturally stay, and he knew this well.

Chen Jiao leaned forward and said: "Wei Chen means to observe first. If Liu Jing launches a large-scale attack on Jiangling, then there is no harm in giving up Jiangling to Liu Bei and we defend Xiangyang with all our strength. If Liu Jing has no intention of rushing westward, then we can simply take it easy."

Deployment, Weichen means, don’t make a decision in a hurry, consider it based on the actual situation.”

Chen Jiao's plan touched Cao Cao's heart. He nodded and said: "Ji Bi said it very well. We really cannot make a hasty decision. After the war is over, Jiangxia, Jiangdong and Jingnan will inevitably compete for their interests. We must make full use of this opportunity."

Try to get the maximum benefit out of the conflicts between the three families."

Cao Cao said to Cao Ren again: "At least Liu Bei must be destroyed for me."

Cao Ren immediately stood up and knelt down, "I will never let down the prime minister's trust in my humble position!"

"good!"
Chapter completed!