The sound of rapid footsteps suddenly came from the quiet corridor of the Governor's Mansion.
It was this chaotic sound of footsteps that upset Yizhou Shepherd Liu Zhang, who was closing his eyes to rest at this moment.
Wow——
After the door was knocked hard, Liu Zhang finally responded impatiently:
"What happened so early in the morning? It's so noisy!"
"Big...something bad is going to happen!"
The door was opened by the guards, who crawled into the room. The city gatekeeper, who knelt in front of Liu Zhang with a look of panic on his face, trembled and shouted.
"Um?"
Liu Zhang twirled his beard and subconsciously thought that there was another bandit attack outside the city... He was just about to fool him, but he heard the other party say the following words that he did not expect:
"If it's a bandit, just ask Zhang Song to lead an army to attack it... Don't come..."
"No! Sir! Nan Zheng!"
"Nan Zheng?"
"Nanzheng City is surrounded by 20,000 soldiers and horses led by Shangyong's Shen brothers! It won't take long before Nanzheng City will be destroyed!"
"The key is…"
The city gatekeeper could not even breathe as he recounted the urgent military information that had come from Pang Xi, the governor of Brazil in the north:
"The key is... According to what General Pang Xi said, the Shen brothers seemed to have mobilized tens of thousands of people in Hanzhong to attack Nanzheng City with them in the name of dedicating Hanzhong to Cao Cao. Nanzheng is really
It's about to be broken! Sir, Hanzhong is in danger!"
With a snap, Liu Zhang's pen hanging in the air fell weakly to the table. From his eyes, it could be seen that Liu Zhang was really panicked this time.
——
At this moment, Liu Bei and his men, who were stationed in Jiangling, seemed to be facing less pressure than imagined because they occupied the five counties of Jingzhou.
Since Jiangdong released Jiangling to Liu Bei, not much news has come from it.
Zhuge Liang couldn't help but suspect that their alliance was about to run out of gas.
As for Xiangyang in the north, although there have been some battles of varying scales in the past few months, in the final analysis, they are all painless battles.
After occupying several counties in Jingnan and capturing countless talented soldiers and horses, Liu Bei is now really high-spirited and feels like he is not afraid of anything.
But... Zhuge Liang told Liu Bei that their journey is far from over. Now they just need to wait for good news... and wait for Liu Zhang to "invite" them from Jingzhou to Yizhou. The strategy he planned for Liu Bei at that time can be considered completed.
Small achievements.
However...the waiting time is also quite tiring.
During such a time when grass was growing, Liu Bei even became a moon elder in his spare time——
Yes, Liu Bei has a family and a son. He has no worries about food and clothing. Of course, he has no intention of continuing to take concubines for the time being. Moreover... having a handsome guy like Zhuge Liang by his side makes Liu Bei quite satisfied.
Of course... Zhuge Liang was so repulsive to this that Liu Bei would never see Zhuge Liang unless he was discussing strategy.
If you can’t see Zhuge Liang, why don’t you go find someone else?
So...it just so happened that Zhao Yun was the youngest among the powerful generals around him, so Liu Bei became the Yue Lao for him.
The reason... naturally was when Liu Bei led his army to capture the four counties in Jingnan, the battle of Guiyang was handed over to Zhao Yun. As a result, Zhao Yun seemed to have stayed in Guiyang for a long time, so much so that he almost delayed the military plane.
.
Liu Bei asked and found out that it turned out that in Guiyang, the prefect Zhao Fan and Zhao Yun worshiped each other. Not only did he give Zhao Yun this and that, he even gave his sister-in-law to Zhao Yun...
Yes... I heard that the beautiful woman named Fan was Zhao Fan's widowed sister-in-law. When Zhao Fan introduced his sister-in-law to Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun refused in every possible way.
Deeply impressed by Zhao Yun's loyalty, Liu Bei was so moved that he decided to be the matchmaker himself.
So during the general's free time, Liu Bei would talk to Zhao Yun about his marriage whenever he had something to do.
Today...Similarly, Liu Bei went to look for Zhao Yun again, but Zhao Yun also learned Zhuge Liang's trick and disappeared from the world.
Liu Bei, who returned without success, finally returned to his home...
But at this moment... the news... finally came.
"Kong Ming! Why are you here! I miss you so much! Hug me quickly! Hurry..."
As soon as Liu Bei returned to his house, he saw Zhuge Liang, who was tall and straight with a handsome face.
Zhuge Liang didn't seem to notice Liu Bei at first. Liu Bei approached quietly, intending to make a surprise attack.
It's just that... after saying these words, Zhuge Liang instinctively ducked and Liu Bei fell to the ground.
Zhuge Liang, who didn't feel any guilt at all, shook his shoulders, recalled the nausea in his heart, forced himself to calm down, and reported to Liu Bei who had fallen to pieces:
"My lord, there is no time to delay. Liu Zhang has finally agreed to form an alliance with us. Please send someone to inform the generals in the city to come to the palace to discuss matters!"
He took out a letter from his arms. This letter was so brand new that even Liu Bei could smell the fresh scent of ink on the ink. When Zhuge Liang said this, Liu Bei's eyes suddenly shone with light.
"That is to say..."
Liu Bei got up immediately and hurried to take the letter, scanning the contents of the letter word by word.
"Kong Ming!"
"Yes...Lord...it's time!"
Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan gently, with a touch of confidence in his smile - Yizhou is finally about to usher in change.
——
Back in Chang'an, Cao Cao, who had been in Chang'an for a few days, temporarily stayed at Zhong Yao's house.
For several days, Cao Cao was exhausted every day...
What did he do?
In fact, the content is very simple, it is just about ordering horseshoes that Yi Xiaotian had agreed on long ago.
The production of iron horse stirrups has long been overproduced. Although Cao Cao was very willing to give Yi Xiaotian some money, but in the next battle in Hanzhong and under the pressure of a large amount of military pay, Cao Cao had to withhold the money.
Under such circumstances, the new demand for horseshoes suddenly hit Cao Cao and made him feel a little painful.
"Brother Yi...at your price, my brother and I are actually not easy to talk to the Prime Minister!"
"Just...can't it be a little cheaper?"
"If possible, after the Battle of Hanzhong is over, Brother Wei will propose to the Prime Minister that all the cavalry in the army be equipped with this thing... But now... The Prime Minister is really having some difficulties now."
Cao Cao sat opposite Yi Xiaotian with a non-smiling smile. Looking at Yi Xiaotian with a faint smile, a few more drops of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Oh... I'm quite heartbroken when you say that... It's not that we don't take care of the court... You see, the expenses for our big family are really huge, not to mention the rooms outside Chang'an City and Xiangyang City.
The villa is still under construction..."
"We who run a small business, if we make less money, we may suffer huge losses..."
"Since you have something to hide from me... I can only put this matter aside for the time being... Let the soldiers attack Hanzhong City with their bare feet... It doesn't matter. After all, the generals are here, I believe they can do it.
.”
With that said, Yi Xiaotian stood up and left. Before leaving, he sighed to express his regret.
And finally... Cao Cao couldn't stand Yi Xiaotian's teasing... After Zhang Liao demonstrated the effect of horseshoes that day, he is still clamoring for it... If horses don't have horseshoes in the future, he will definitely not ride them.
Many generals in the First Company Army are like this...
Cao Cao... really has no choice but to argue.
"Brother Yi! Wait! We have something to discuss!"
After hearing this, Yi Xiaotian, who had just stood up and planned to leave with Cai Zhaoji and others, quickly sat back in his seat - no matter what, he had already known that he would be like this...
Cao Cao looked at the other party's sly smile and had to worry about his small treasury.