"But Liu Bei wanted to attack Jiangling but was defeated by Zhongda?" Liu Jing asked with a smile.

Sima Yi nodded, but shook his head again, "Liu Bei did want to attack the water camp and return in a crushing defeat, but the gift I mentioned was not this, but we caught Guan Yu."

"Catch Guan Yu!" Liu Jing was shocked and happy. Guan Yu was the number one general under Liu Bei. He was very powerful. After capturing him, he was even more important than Liu Chan. Liu Bei could not refuse his son, but he could not refuse his brothers.

"How did it happen?" Liu Jing asked again.

"The key is that Guan Ping was the pioneer, but the ship was smashed and fell into the water. Guan Yu refused to leave his brother and retreat. In the end, his ship was also broken and was captured by a military marquis named Zhou Xin."

Liu Jing nodded, "This person has made great contributions and really needs to be rewarded. Where is Guan Yu's father now?"

"They are now being detained in Jiangling and treat their fathers with courtesy."

Guan Yu's arrest was indeed good news for Liu Jing. Of course, Liu Jing did not expect Guan Yu to surrender, but would have a great effect. This news came very promptly, which made Liu Jing's thoughts suddenly clear.

After temporarily letting go of Guan Yu, Liu Jing smiled at Sima Yi and said, "Please sit down! I happened to send someone to invite you, wanting to talk about the issue of Bashu."

Sima Yi's biggest wish is to dominate the Yizhou strategy, but he never had a good talk with Liu Jing, so that Jia Xu used Meng Da, the key chess, to gain an advantage in the big strategy, which made his wish to dominate the Yizhou fail, which made Sima Yi feel a little depressed and anxious.

Fortunately, Jia Xu used the Hanzhong strategy, which made Sima Yi see another glimmer of hope. He was eager to convince Liu Jing that the subsequent Yizhou strategy would be led by him, which would establish his position in Jingzhou.

Sima Yi sat down, but Liu Jing did not rush to talk about Bashu, and asked with concern: "How is the situation at home?"

Sima Yi's wife died of postpartum weakness last year and suffered from puerperal fever, leaving behind a son who was just over a month old. So far, Sima Yi has not had a chance to meet him. In fact, his son should be one year old. He felt sad and said in his heart: "The child is by my father's side. It's okay now. My father will bring the child to Xiangyang next year."

Liu Jing nodded and smiled, "Lingzun is a great scholar in Hanoi and has long been famous. If he is willing to come to Xiangyang, I will definitely hire him to Jingzhou Academy."

"Thank you for your concern to the provincial governor. I will also persuade my father to serve the provincial governor."

After a few greetings from the two, the topic turned to Bashu. Liu Jing pondered for a moment and said, "The so-called reputation is not justified. Even if Cao Cao attacks Jingzhou, he will find an excuse to seek rebellion and get the God's Decree. If I rashly attack Yizhou, I may not be able to stand firm in the law, so I have been thinking about how to take Yizhou? I want to hear your thoughts."

Sima Yi thought for a while and said, "The way Liu Bei thought was to guard the households for Liu Zhang and assign Badong County to him. In return, he promised to return Jianping County and Yidu County to Yizhou, and put his son Liu Chan in Chengdu as a stamina. After Zhang Song's repeated persuasion, Liu Zhang was moved. As long as Liu Bei entered Bashu, he could provoke civil strife in Bashu and annex Bashu with the excuse of quelling the chaos."

Liu Jing frowned, "Zhongda won't suggest me put my son in Chengdu!"

"No! No!" Sima Yi shook his head and smiled, "The reason why Liu Bei dared to agree like this was because his son Liu Chan was in Cao Cao's hands. Now he is back. Of course he would not agree. Even if he gave it away, it would be a real lady. Therefore, it is not desirable for quality. I am talking about the latter one, so we can also make this idea."

"You mean the civil strife in Bashu?"

Sima Yi nodded slowly, "The key is Liu Zhang. If this person dies, Bashu will be a land without a master. At this time, we will provoke the rebellion in Shu again, and then enter Bashu on the pretext of suppressing the rebellion and establish Liu Zhangyou as the lord of Yizhou. When we firmly sit in Bashu, the governor of the prefecture will be able to establish himself."

"Is Liu Zhang so easy to die?"

"If you want him to die, it's actually easy."

Liu Jing knew that Sima Yi dared to say this, so he must have a basis. He walked a few steps behind his back and asked, "Who is Liu Zhangyou?"

"It was him a concubine, who was only six years old this year. He made him the governor of Yizhou. The governor of the state can establish himself as a general, take charge of power, and then abolish him in a few years."

"inappropriate!"

Liu Jing shook his head and denied this suggestion, "The establishment of Liu Zhang will cause troubles, and make me the second place in Cao Cao. I am suspected of bullying the young master. I will never admit that Liu Zhang is the governor of Yizhou again."

"This is OK, but I'm afraid that the court will appoint a new provincial governor."

Liu Jing laughed, "Zhongda, although you were Cao Cao's army, I know Cao Cao better than you. He will do everything possible to prevent me from taking Bashu, but once I take Bashu, he will face the reality, because he knows that if he dares to appoint the new Yizhou governor, he will pay a heavy price."

Sima Yi nodded silently. He had to admit that Liu Jing's statement made sense. Making Liu Zhang the governor of Yizhou would cause trouble. Although the problem can be solved in front of him, it is not conducive to the long-term.

He pondered for a moment and said, "In this way, the timing must be grasped very accurately. If you don't enter Bashu, you will have to take over Bashu. Once you take action, you must conquer Bashu with a destruction and destruction. You cannot delay it for a long time and give the court officials enough time to decide."

"You are right, this is the key. First, let Liu Zhang fall into injustice, then Liu Zhang's death, and Bashu's chaos arises. I find excuses to quell the chaos, and it is linked together. This is necessary to seize the opportunity."

At this time, Sima Yi felt a little excited. Although Liu Jing had different ideas from his in terms of details, Liu Jing obviously leaned towards his suggestions in general, which inspired Sima Yi. He continued: "With our strength, it is not difficult to win Bashu. The key is to control Bashu. This involves the struggle between the Dongzhou Shishi and the local Bashu system, which is the focus we need to consider."

Sima Yi's words reached Liu Jing's heart. What he was most worried about was the struggle between these two major factions. For him, Bashu was the most important source of money, grain and soldiers in the future. Without the support of the local Bashu faction, Bashu would be in chaos for a long time and completely contrary to his intentions. This is an important factor that Liu Jing must consider. He needs to balance the two major factions within Bashu.

Liu Jing was excited, sat upright, listened to Sima Yi's suggestion, Sima Yi sorted out his thoughts for a while, and then slowly said: "The conflict between the Dongzhou scholars and Bashu has been around for a long time. During the Zhao Qi Rebellion, the two factions formed blood feuds, making it almost impossible for him to reconcile. It was precisely because the Dongzhou scholars supported us to take Bashu that the local Bashu faction's suspicion and opposition to us. My plan is to let the Dongzhou scholar faction withdraw from Bashu."

Liu Jing understood Sima Yi's meaning, and he frowned slightly and said, "You mean to ask Dong He to return to Jingzhou and Pang Xi to Guanzhong. Is that what do you mean?"

Sima Yi nodded, "The scholars of Dongzhou are an alliance between Jingzhou and Guanzhong. If they transfer Jingzhou factions back to Jingzhou and Guanzhong factions back to Guanzhong, the conflicts within Bashu will naturally disappear. In this way, the local Bashu faction can support the provincial governors to take over Bashu."

Liu Jing looked at the tent with his hands behind his back and said for a while: "I originally planned to use the conflict between the Bashu faction and the Dongzhou faction to control Bashu. If the Dongzhou faction disappears in Bashu, will the local Bashu faction be promoted?"

Sima Yi smiled and said, "In fact, there are also great internal conflicts in the local Bashu. Wu Yi and Zhang Ren, Wang Lei and Huang Quan, they each form factions. They will be temporarily united because of dealing with the Dongzhou scholars. Once the power of the Dongzhou scholars disappears in Bashu, there will inevitably be conflicts within the local Bashu. The provincial governor can then use their internal conflicts to achieve power balance."

After a pause, Sima Yi said again: "If the provincial governor feels that the factional struggle within Yizhou is not easy to grasp, in fact, he can also take advantage of the opportunity of Liu Zhang and his two sons fighting for the position of the provincial governor, perhaps this is easier."

"You mean Liu Xun and Liu Wei?"

Sima Yi nodded, "It is these two brothers that Liu Zhang has not yet established himself. The reason is that these two brothers are in conflict and are secretly competing for the throne."

"It seems that Yuan Shao is second again!"

Liu Jing laughed, he nodded and said, "Zhongda said a lot today, my mind is a little confused. Let me think about it carefully. This matter can be discussed for a long time."

Sima Yi felt happy and stopped talking about Bashu. He smiled easily and said, "If I was not wrong, the governor of the state intends to use this opportunity to drive Liu Bei out of Bashu at one time."

"Zhongda guessed well, otherwise I would have taken ten thousand troops to reinforce, wouldn't it be unnecessary?"

The two looked at each other and laughed together

Although Zigui County is close to the Yangtze River, its main wharf is two miles away from the county town. After leaving Bashu, Zigui is the first stop to cross the Yangtze River, so the wharf appears to be important.

Zigui Wharf is not only a military important place, but also a place where trade is concentrated. Due to the prosperity of commerce, a small town was formed, called Ping'an Town, and the wharf was also called Ping'an Wharf.

Ping'an Town is a small town with various shops and warehouses on both sides of a main street, with dense shops and prosperous business. However, due to the competition between the Jingzhou army and the Liu Bei army for Zigui, Ping'an Town suffered a catastrophe.

On the south of Ping'an Town, a solid castle was built on a high ground next to the pier. The castle is made of large stones, with a circumference of about a thousand miles, and can be garrisoned up to five troops.

The castle itself is tall, and it is built on a high place. From the low-lying part of Ping'an Town, it looks like a castle standing in the air, overlooking the boats and boatmen on the pier.

And this castle became the focus of competition between the two sides.

The war has been going on. Many houses and shops in Ping'an Town have been burned to white ground by fire. Under the castle, corpses are piled up everywhere. Blood has gathered into ponds in the low-lying areas. Charred corpses can be seen everywhere among the broken walls of Ping'an Town.

Although Liu Bei's army had only a thousand troops in Zigui Town, they repelled the attacks of Jingzhou Army again and again with their advantageous city and Gubao. The Jingzhou Army had already killed more than a thousand people and died, but Zigui City and Ping'an Fortress were still unable to be captured.

The Jingzhou army took Xinling County as its foundation and invested more than 7,000 people to counterattack Zigui. After the first attack failed, Li Yan immediately adjusted his offensive strategy and temporarily stopped the attack on Zigui County. Instead, he concentrated his troops to attack Ping'an Fort. He took Ping'an Fort and could cut off Liu Bei's army's aid from the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Li Yan divided his troops, and the commander Huo Jun led a thousand people to attack Zigui County, while Li Yan personally led more than 4,000 troops to attack Ping'an Fort.

Li Yan hasn't gone to bed for two days, his eyes are covered with bloodshot, and the guilt of dereliction of duty is pressing on his heart like a mountain.

It was indeed his negligence to create such a passive situation today. The Yangtze River natural danger and the usual weakness of Liu Bei's army blinded him, so he never dreamed that Liu Bei's army had built fifty ferries in the Gong'an County. It was these fifty ferries that caused the serious situation today.

Li Yan knew very well that if Liu Bei could not take down Zigui City or Ping'an Fort before the arrival of reinforcements, the entire Bashu strategy would be destroyed.

At this time, a soldier rushed over and reported loudly: "The governor of the state has led tens of reinforcements to Xiling County and is heading towards us. He will arrive at Zigui County tomorrow at the latest."

This news made Li Yan both happy and worried. It was because his reinforcements finally arrived, but how did he explain to the provincial governor?

In any case, he had to take the Ping'an Fort before the arrival of the governor of the state. Thinking of this, Li Yan was even more worried. He whispered: "Tell me my order, the first person to attack Ping'an Fort will be rewarded with a thousand taels."
Chapter completed!