Discovering that both women were cheating, Ma Su calmly brought two large bowls.
"Crack" twice, it was placed in front of them.
Then he raised the corners of his mouth and smiled secretly.
The two girls looked over with resentment, but had no choice but to continue the drinking fight.
There was no way to secretly pour wine into my clothes this time.
If the bowl is too big, the secret will be exposed if you cheat again. The intensity of the sound produced when pouring a glass of wine is different from that of pouring a bowl of wine.
The drinking fight continues.
This time it's for real.
After a while, the winner was decided.
Lu Meng was the first to tilt his head and fell on the table, unconscious.
Lu Yusheng glanced over proudly, and just as he was about to declare victory, he suddenly swayed twice and fell straight down.
…
Ma Su is a gentleman who stays calm and never takes advantage of others' danger.
His goal is to help the Shu Han pacify the world and enjoy the blessings of the Qi people.
But he never goes against a woman's wishes.
So, after he put Lu Meng and Lu Yusheng on the bed side by side, and covered them, he turned around decisively and went to rest on the maid's bed, which was only separated by a screen.
Of course, there is no maid in this bed, she was sent away by him from the beginning.
Smelling the rich aroma of wine and two other sultry but completely different fragrances in the room, Ma Su rested his hands on his hands, widened his eyes, and was not sleepy at all.
He should be next door.
Not here.
Thinking about it, he sighed, pushed out the door, went up to the roof, and thought about the situation he was facing.
The first thing he has to face is the upcoming war. However, he has clearly arranged this war and it is foolproof.
If Lu Dai still carries out the sneak attack on Guiping as planned, I believe he will be ambushed from all sides and will inevitably be defeated.
Therefore, Ma Su's focus shifted to the next strategy.
Is it feasible to drive north from Jiaozhou?
Throughout the five thousand years of history, there are no such successful cases, and there are almost no cases of fighting northward based on Jiaozhou.
Except for the Republic of China, wars in the era of thermal weapons and steam engines are not of reference.
In this era, it was very difficult to travel north from Jiaozhou.
There are three main difficulties.
First of all, Jiaozhou is too far away from the Central Plains, and there is Nanling (Nanling refers to the general name of a series of mountain ranges between Jingzhou, Yangzhou and Jiaozhou, including but not limited to: Yuecheng Ridge, Dupang Ridge, Mengzhu Ridge
, Qitianling and Dayuling and other representative mountain ranges) block the road and the road is not smooth.
The terrain going north from the Jiaozhou area is extremely complex and the roads are steep, which is not conducive to marching troops and logistical supplies.
Secondly, the population is too small, the war potential is too low, and the soldiers' combat effectiveness and willingness to fight are seriously insufficient.
Finally, conditions in all aspects lag far behind those of the Central Plains.
As we all know, the foundation of a country is money and soldiers. If there is only money but no soldiers, the country will become a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered; if there are only soldiers but no money, it is no different from the Yellow Turban Uprising.
In fact, both Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had the idea of "occupying Jiaozhou and using it as a base to attack Yizhou in the west and Jiangzuo in the north." However, in the end they failed due to various difficulties.
Of course, when he first occupied Jiaozhou (in 210), Sun Quan also had the idea of sending troops from Jiaozhou to Yizhou. Later, due to various reasons such as the Wu-Shu alliance entering the honeymoon period, Liu Bei leading his army into Sichuan, and Zhou Yu's death due to illness, Sun Quan temporarily gave up the attack.
Thoughts of Shu.
Especially after the Nanjun was lent out, the only way to attack Shu was to march from Jiaozhou, and the cost of attacking Shu from Jiaozhou was so high that even Soochow could not afford it.
The most important thing is that if Sun Quan really wanted to attack Shu, there was a closer and more convenient way - to capture Jingzhou and go up the river.
Conversely, this road is also suitable for the Shu Han to attack Soochow, just go down the river, and there is no need to detour to Jiaozhou and then detour thousands of miles to attack Jiangdong.
Looking at the entire Three Kingdoms era, it was only when Jin defeated Wu that it casually sent a group of troops led by Huo Ge to attack Jiaozhou to contain the forces of Soochow. In the remaining decades, even if the relationship between Shu Han and Soochow broke down, they would attack each other.
For several years, Jiaozhou was not used as a military base.
But Ma Su decided to do the opposite and choose Jiaozhou, the place where Sun Quan's control was weakest, to attack.
Although Jiaozhou is very poor and backward compared to the Central Plains, and the travel distance is far and extremely inconvenient. But this does not mean that Jiaozhou has no strategic value.
The gap between Jiaozhou and the Central Plains region was not that big at first, and its strategic value to the Jiangnan region was also very important.
However, since the Qiang Rebellion that lasted for hundreds of years broke out a hundred years ago, the Eastern Han Dynasty court has been busy solving the chaos in the northwest, and has been unable to strengthen the rule of Jiaozhou and maintain the evolution of Jiaozhou. Therefore, Jiaozhou's economy, culture, construction, transportation, etc.
All aspects came to a standstill, and they quickly lost touch with the Central Plains region, thus losing their strategic value in competing for the world.
Although Shixie once dominated Jiaozhou for more than 30 years, he never dared to expand outward. Shixie was self-aware and knew that with the strength of Jiaozhou, it was difficult to even protect himself. He could only rely on the long distance to temporarily separate one side, and even more
Forget about competing for supremacy in the world.
In addition, Shi Xie was a ruler who liked literature but not martial arts. During the decades of controlling Jiaozhou, he only improved and changed the backward cultural level of Jiaozhou area, but did not significantly improve Jiaozhou's comprehensive competitiveness.
According to the census in the late Eastern Han Dynasty (140 AD), Jiaozhou, which had not experienced any major wars for two to three hundred years, had a population of only over two million. Considering the vast area of Jiaozhou, this population was too sparse and scattered.
In areas with such low economic and population strength, it is difficult to support large-scale military operations. Even if the local area is captured, it will be difficult to maintain the daily expenses of the army with local logistics forces, and we can only rely on the finances of the central areas of the country to carry out long-distance operations.
Support, this move consumes too much national and financial resources. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the princes were separatist, all the princes were afraid of Jiaozhou.
Later, when the Three Kingdoms were established and the world was divided up, Soochow turned its attention to Jiaozhou, which was no one cared about. With the help of its developed navy, after several years of preparation, Soochow successfully took control of Jiaozhou in name only.
Zhuge Liang once made Jiaozhou one of the strategic goals in "Longzhong Dui": "Jingzhou occupied the Han Dynasty in the north, Mian, benefited from the South China Sea, connected Wuhui in the east, and connected Bashu in the west."
Taking full advantage of the South China Sea means that after separatizing Jingzhou, taking Jiaozhou in the south, directly connecting to the South China Sea, and controlling the Pearl River Basin. However, Zhuge Liang's plan did not work after gaining Nanjun.
Because Liu Bei only occupied a few counties in Jingzhou at that time, he was unable to send a large number of expeditionary troops to attack Jiaozhou, and the army was too small to control the vast Jiaozhou.
While Sun Quan lent Nanjun to Liu Bei, he ordered his troops to enter Jiaozhou, occupying half of the eastern half of Jiaozhou, and divided Guangzhou from Jiaozhou, and established the state government in Panyu County, Nanhai County.
In fact, if the world had not been divided up and the Soochow navy was relatively developed, Sun Quan probably would not have wanted to control Jiaozhou.
This is one of the two main reasons why Liu Bei, after occupying Jingzhou, would rather fight for Yizhou with Liu Zhang than go south to occupy the unowned Jiaozhou (the other reason is that Sun Quan is interested in Jiaozhou).
Now, Ma Di is also interested in Jiaozhou.
Unlike Sun Quan who only used Jiaozhou as his back garden, where he only grew vegetables and collected taxes, Ma Di wanted to use Jiaozhou as a strategic base and springboard to attack Soochow, or in other words, turn Jiaozhou into the main battlefield to contain Soochow's energy.
Attacking Jiaozhou alone is Ma Su's best way to break the delicate balance of the three pillars - that is, turning the Three Kingdoms into four countries or even more countries, letting each country fall into a chaotic mode, and then attacking far and near, cannibalizing the entire country one by one.
The world.
The night passed quickly.
When the sky in the east turned white, Ma Su gathered his thoughts, jumped off the roof, and found a room to catch up on his sleep.
When Lu Yusheng woke up, it was already morning, the discomfort of hangover still lingered in his head, and his whole person seemed a little dull.
But when she saw that she was sleeping on the bed of the rough prefect and she was the only one in the room, she covered her face in sadness and began to sob.
Although nothing happened last night, to her, it actually amounted to something happening.
If she didn't marry that rough and disliked prefect as soon as possible, her reputation would be lost.
Lu Meng pushed the door in from outside and silently looked at Lu Yusheng who was wearing pear blossoms and raining rain. She wanted to comfort her, but she felt that she was the one who needed comfort most, so she put down a brand new red wedding dress and phoenix crown and stood silently.
aside.
Then Ma Su opened the door and walked in. He stood three steps away, looked at Lu Yusheng who was lying on the bed and crying with a smile, and said warmly:
"Miss Third, no one wants this to happen..."
No, you think!
You are such a bad person!
Lu Yusheng suddenly cried even more sadly.
Ma Su continued to persuade: "Actually, as the head of a county, I am completely worthy of you..."
Not worthy, not worthy!
You are so ugly.
I don’t want to marry you!... Lu Yusheng screamed in his heart, twitching his shoulders and crying even louder.
Ma Su spread his hands to Lu Meng: "Madam, please advise her carefully and don't let her think about committing suicide. After all, she is still so young and she still has a long life ahead of her."
To Lu Yusheng, this last sentence meant, "The days of suffering will be long in the future."
So, I twitched twice and fainted from crying.
March of the 10th year of Jianxing.
Although the season is still early spring, the hot breath has spread across Jiaozhou early. The entire Guiping City is shrouded in the scorching sun, and there is a burning smell on the ground of the city wall.
As neat footsteps sounded from far to near, three thousand Wu troops, led by Lu Dai, appeared in Ma Di's sight and slowly marched towards the south gate of Guiping City.
Looking from a distance, the Wu army is divided into three teams. The front team is composed of spearmen. Rows of spears are raised forward. The soldiers move forward steadily and uniformly. Every time they advance a few steps, they shout "ho!"
, ho ho!”
The momentum is majestic and sweeping.
Ma Su did not wait for the Wu army to reach the city. With a wave of his hand, he led the eight hundred warriors out of the city and charged forward.
At this time, there is no point in talking too much, the only way is to see the truth behind the scenes.
The horns on the city tower urged the battle and the flags sounded; below the city, Ma Di took the lead and ran into the Wu army's formation, waving his long sword and sweeping away.
Amidst the loud shouts of killing, three thousand Wu troops and eight hundred Lu troops fought hand to hand, fighting to the death.
Two torrents of soldiers collided head-on and melted into each other.
The Wu army's army was well-organized, advanced and retreated in a measured manner, and well-equipped; the Lu army's generals were fierce and brave, with a rainbow-like momentum.
The scene was incomprehensible for a while.
Seeing Ma Su's incomparable bravery, Lu Dai and the three eunuchs looked at each other, secretly shocked.
In the wild land of Jiaozhou, there are actually such ferocious and tiger generals?
Is this reasonable?
At the position of the central army, Lu Dai's expression was particularly solemn. He watched for a long time and suddenly said: "Gentlemen, looking at this man's demeanor, he seems to have the courage of Sun Bofu in the past. Our soldiers are invincible. What can I do?!"
Hearing this, the three chief eunuchs remained silent.
The opponent's general's ability to fight was beyond their expectations.
Originally, the opponent did not have this general, and the battle loss ratio between the Wu army and the rebels was one to two, or even one to three.
However, thanks to the opponent's leader being as brave as a tiger, the battle losses between the two sides were evened out.
This person's performance further verified that sentence,
An army of thousands is easy to obtain, but a general is difficult to find.
Chen Shi suddenly pointed to the front of the formation and said urgently: "Lv Gong, look quickly!"
I saw Ma Su leading the way, leading forty or fifty soldiers, charging straight forward, his murderous aura filling the sky, and he went straight to the center of the army to attack.
Judging from the situation, it seems that they intend to penetrate the Wu army's formation and kill Lu Dai and the three prefects.
At this time, they were already a hundred steps away and were clearing away the Wu troops blocking the way one by one.
As the saying goes, a soldier is the courage of a general and the soul of an army. Ma Su was so brave that the morale of his subordinates was greatly boosted. The momentum of 800 men actually suppressed the 3,000 Wu army.
Seeing this, Lu Dai's expression changed and he couldn't help but curse angrily: "This man is so arrogant. If I were thirty years younger, you would have to taste my power!"
While he was talking, he suddenly heard a rapid killing cry coming from the left flank.
Lu Dai turned around and saw a dense group of enemy troops rushing over quickly. He was shocked: "No, I've fallen into a trap!"
Before he finished speaking, there was a loud shout from the right side.
An enemy army of about a thousand men came out of nowhere, roaring and killing them.
This was not over yet, there were also shouts from the rear of Wu Jun.
An enemy force of approximately 200 men came over from behind.
At the same time, an enemy army of about four to five hundred men, led by a heroic female general, rushed out of the thorn and approached the Wu army at high speed.
Five armies came from five directions.
Lu Dai and the three chief eunuchs looked at each other, alarm bells ringing in their hearts.
Today, I'm afraid it will be difficult to be kind.
After a while, five soldiers and horses finally rushed forward and charged into the formation from the flanks and rear flanks.
Under attack from these five directions, Wu's army was in chaos and its soldiers were in panic.
This was the first time they encountered this kind of scene with enemy troops everywhere.
All the Wu soldiers were in panic. While they were forced to fight, they looked towards the direction of the Chinese army. Their morale was visibly declining.
A major defeat looked inevitable.
Lu Dai and the three chief eunuchs looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and squeezed out two words from between their teeth: "Breakout!"
Chen Shi quickly shouted loudly: "Break through, the whole army breaks out!"
On the tower of Guiping City, He Hong had a panoramic view of this scene. After hesitating for a moment, he drew his sword and shouted: "Soldiers, follow me into battle and help the prefect!"
He thought clearly that at this moment, helping Lu Dai was asking for death, because the outcome was already clear.
Since you can't stand by Lu Dai, you should be more ruthless against Lu Dai to gain military exploits, save your family, and gain a title.
…
Hanzhong, Nanzheng, Prime Minister's Mansion.
Zhuge Liang, who was wearing thick clothes, was busy writing in front of the case. From time to time, he stretched out his arms to heat them on the stove, hoping that his hands, which were numb from the cold, would be slightly warmer and his writing would be smoother.
"The late emperor was deeply concerned about the Han Dynasty. The thieves did not stand alone and the royal family was not in peace, so he asked his ministers to fight against the thieves. With the wisdom of the late emperor, he measured the talents of his ministers. Therefore, he knew that when his ministers attack the thieves, the enemy is weak and the enemy is strong. However, if he does not attack the thieves,
The king's career has also perished; if he just sits there and awaits his death, who will attack him? That's why he entrusts his ministers with no doubts..."
I was engrossed in writing when the door was suddenly pushed open, and then a middle-aged scribe wearing a long cloak and a turban walked into the room. He looked at Zhuge Liang who was still immersed in writing, cupped his hands, and said carefully:
"Prime Minister, I have information about Jiaozhou."
Only then did Zhuge Liang come to his senses, quickly put down his brush and looked up.
"Oh? Mr. Wei, tell me quickly!"
"According to intelligence, there was a turmoil in Jiaozhou two months ago. Shisan, the son of Shixie, captured Yulin, got help from the Lu family and Lu Kai, and annihilated the reinforcements of Jiaozhou Governor Lu Dai's 3,000 troops; half a month ago,
The two sides fought another battle at the gate of Yulin City, and Lu Dai's army was wiped out again. Lu Dai, Dai Liang, Xue Zong, and Chen Shi were all captured alive."
"How is the battle situation now?" Zhuge Liang deliberately suppressed his inner joy and asked with interest.
"According to reliable information, Sun Quan has ordered Ding Feng and four other generals to lead 50,000 troops to Jiaozhou to quell the rebellion. However, the journey is long and it will still take more than a month to reach Jiaozhou."
Saying that, Yang Yi looked at Zhuge Liang and asked hesitantly:
"Prime Minister, is this Shisan Ma Di?"
"Unknown." Zhuge Liang shook his head.
Yang Yi said "Oh" and said with regret on his face: "It's a pity. No matter how chaotic Jiaozhou is, I, the Shu Han, will not be able to get involved."
Zhuge Liang smiled and said nothing, his expression unfathomable.
Yang Yi realized that nothing could be gained by asking questions here, so she left the information and resigned.
"By the way..." After taking two steps, Yang Yi seemed to suddenly remember something, "Sun Quan has ordered Zhuge Jin to station in Jiangling. The name is to help Lu Xun, but in fact it is to monitor and decentralize power."
"Prime Minister, would you like to write a letter to incite rebellion against Lu Xun?"
Lu Xun, how can he be so easy to instigate rebellion?
Zhuge Liang waved his hand and said with a smile: "Wei Gong, please go ahead. Let me think twice about this matter."
Yang Yi opened the door and left.
After Zhuge Liang waited for him to leave, he sat back in front of the desk, spread out the brocade silk, pressed it with a long ruler, picked up the brush and breathed at the tip of the pen, and continued to write: "If a husband is difficult to rectify, the matter is also..."
As he wrote this, Zhuge Liang suddenly stopped writing. He felt that the article "Second Form of Departure", which had been in his heart for several years, seemed a bit too pessimistic and sad, and it was not suitable to describe the now powerful Ji Han.
After thinking about it, he put down the brush, took the brocade silk in his hand, looked at it, and threw away the brazier.
Then, looking at the open flame that suddenly broke out in the brazier, I was lost in thought.