One day in late April, after pretending to prepare for the uprising and the march that crossed the Sanguan Road for seven or eight consecutive days, the five thousand soldiers and horses led by Zhang Fei, who were originally stationed in Wudu County, finally entered Sanguan and arrived at the city of Chencang.

Li Su did not hesitate to work hard, crossing mountains and wading through the rivers, and walked with the army.

Liu Bei was afraid that Zhang Fei was not good at official negotiations and could not squeeze Huangfu Song. So he asked Brother Boya to be fully responsible for his verbal work, and the third brother just led his troops to act.

For Zhang Fei, the last time Chen Cang was fifteen months ago, when he was carried away on a stretcher because he was injured in the battle with the fierce general of Xiliang, Yan Xing. Therefore, the impression of Chen Cang gave Zhang Fei was quite disappointed. He always recalled the injury and could also make his lesson learnt and he could have a longer shelf life.

As soon as the troops left the Qinling Mountain Road, the south gate of Chencang City in front of him opened. A small team of elite cavalry responded quickly and left the city to unfold their formation and blocked their way.

The head officer is probably the Sima level of a certain department. Today, the patrol was on duty. When he saw the soldiers, he came over to ask the supervisor: "Who are you waiting for? In order to cross the boundary, he will not retreat quickly! The land of the three auxiliary personnel is fully guarded by the generals of chariots and cavalry, and foreign soldiers are not allowed to enter without any entry!"

Zhang Fei was in charge of yelling first: "We are the generals of the Western Expedition, under the command of the governor of Yizhou Xuande Gong, and the prefect of Wudu Zhang Yide! Who are you? I heard that Dong Zhuo killed the deposed emperor, and my elder brother wanted to respond to the righteousness of the world. I quickly asked the general of Cheqi to come and meet him. If we did not see the general of Cheqi, we would go east by ourselves to eliminate the thieves for the country, and we only asked you to borrow tens of thousands of stones of grain to use."

The officer was shouted loudly by Zhang Fei. The horse was frightened and took several steps back. He then held the horse back to rest. "Since it was a friendly army who saw Lilly, if you have something to say, why are you yelling? I am the Sima Zheng Hun of the army. You are here to wait a moment, so don't act rashly."

Zheng Hun was the younger brother of the Minister of Shangshu Zheng Tai. He was in his early thirties and served as an official in Chang'an, so he was transferred to Huangfu Song as a deputy general. After Zheng Hun returned to the city to report, Huangfu Song came on a horse less than a quarter of an hour.

"See General of the Carriage!" Zhang Fei and Li Su both rolled off their saddles and met with courtesy.

Huangfu Song was stunned and then noticed that Li Su was also there.

He had met Li Su many times, of course he was familiar with him. More than a year ago, Li Su escorted Princess Wannian back to her fiefdom and handed over the princess's escort matters with Huangfu Song, and also uttered a few words of care from the now-deceased Queen Mother He. Huangfu Song regarded himself as a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty, and had to give face to hear about Li Su's negotiations.

Li Su said Liu Bei's position on Dong without being humble or arrogant.

He did not say how proactive Liu Bei was to cause trouble with Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Bao Xin and others, but emphasized that "Liu Bei got the news late, so when he got the news, he learned at the same time that not only were there princes in Guandong who were fighting against Dong, but he also knew that Dong Zhuo had just killed the deposed emperor. It was because Dong Zhuo committed new evil and punished multiple crimes that Liu Bei could no longer bear it and wanted to work hard to eliminate traitors for the country."

After the statement, Li Su concluded: "General of the Car and Cavalry, you should know that Su Su said, "The way to govern the destiny of heaven will be condemned by the first initiative, and there will be blessings for the prosperity of the palace."

Although Zhuo was unrighteous, when Zhuo was in Beijing, the world was peaceful and the people still had no trouble of war. Therefore, when I led the generals of the Western Expedition to leave Beijing, I was unwilling to conflict with him, and I never thought of starting a war lightly since then.

But now the princes have already attacked Dong, and the world is in chaos. Dong Zhuo killed the deposed emperor again. The crime is serious, and the world is bound to fall apart. The generals in the western expedition were forced to take up weapons to quell the chaos in order to fight quickly and regain the court, asking the generals of chariots and cavalry to investigate and participate in the righteous act, or at least not obstruct us and provide us with some military rations. Shu Road is difficult. Although there is food in Hanzhong, it cannot be transported out by the Sanguan Road and mountain road. We must borrow Chang'an to store grain."

Li Su's words were not only spoken to Huangfu Song, but also just rightly made some of Huangfu Song's confidant civil servants, generals, and personal soldiers hear them, in order to win people's hearts and have a testimony that everyone knows Liu Bei's benevolence and righteousness, creating that "others take the initiative to pick up weapons, while Liu Bei is forced to pick up weapons." If they cannot get troops in the future, they will push the blame to Huangfu Song, and so many people will witness them.

Li Su glanced at a glance and noticed several important characters who spoke and testified: Sima Zheng Hun of the Austrian Army, Dong Cheng, and Wang Zifu... Obviously, the civil and military aides under Huangfu Song are basically loyal ministers of the Han Dynasty in later generations. Even if they join Dong Zhuo's camp in the middle, they were still being brought in because Dong Zhuo's name was in the name of the court.

These people can be used as seeds to remain at the center of the court in the future to testify, and will not betray Huangfu Song, which is indeed very suitable.

Unfortunately, no matter how scattered Li Su said, Huangfu Song refused.

"Rareless! Could it be that Liu Bei was so proud that he was the general of the court to conquer the West, and was responsible for Liu Yan's openly resisting the imperial dispatch and pacifying Liu Yan after he was separatist and independent, so he should do his duty. He was also inquired about the rest?

At that time, Dong Zhuo was ordered by the court to fight against the thieves of Xiliang. What did he do? The Qiang rebellion could not be settled, so he raised the enemy and respected himself, and used the opportunity to enter the capital to compete for his own interests. If Liu Bei abandoned Liu Yan and entered the capital, what would he differ from Dong Zhuo? If my Huangfu Song abandoned Han Sui and entered the capital, and lost the Han territory and fought for personal rights, what would he differ from Dong Zhuo?

My Huangfu Song was a general for the rest of my life. My Huangfu family was loyal to the Han Dynasty for generations. They only knew how to pacify the barbarians and guard the Han territory, but they did not know the conciliation of the government! If Liu Bei could repent and establish himself as a country to resist foreign aggression, I would still have an old friend with him. If I wanted to get involved in the government, I would only step over my body, but I would step over my body!"

Li Su sighed when she heard this.

Although he knew Huangfu Song would refuse, he was still a little respectful when he heard such words.

Huangfu Song has a kind of personality, which is a bit like the German military tradition: soldiers do not care about internal affairs, do not take risks for politicians, only fight for nationalism, and fight only to resist foreign enemies.

He has a sense of moral superiority of being proud of soldiers and looking down on politicians.

Shocked by such righteous words, Li Su suddenly felt that it seemed that if he didn't want Dong, there was no weaker moral commanding height than the person who wanted Dong.

The key is why you don’t ask for Dong and whether the reason is loud. It’s as loud as Huangfu Song’s purely military values ​​that don’t ask for Dong. If it’s because of cowardice and fear, it’s shameful.

"Since that's the case, I believe General Cheqi and Cavalry would definitely not want to borrow our army's rations and go east." Li Su sighed.

Huangfu Song: "I said that unless I step over my body, no foreign soldier who cannot be transferred by the court can surpass Chen Cangcheng!"

Li Su dismounted respectfully, Zhang Fei quickly dismounted, then walked to Huangfu Song and bowed deeply. Li Su announced with a very graceful voice: "The court rules, when the general is vacant, the general of the chariot and cavalry control the generals. Moreover, the general of the chariot and cavalry were the great masters of the great Han Dynasty and had the merit of saving the nation.

Although the General of the Western Expedition has made outstanding achievements and was promoted in recent years, he did not dare to forget General Cheqi and Duke Lu's grace. Since General Cheqi and Cavalry made such a statement, we dare not offend him and immediately led our troops back to Wudu, but we hoped to pacify Liu Yan's rebels as soon as possible and then go to the court to report the victory. However, he also asked General Cheqi and Cavalry to provide our army with food for ten days so that our army could retreat south of the Qinling Mountains."

Of course, Li Su was not short of this bite. When he came, he actually brought enough dry food with him, and he would not starve to death if he went back directly. But if he wanted to make this matter bigger and more formal, he had to borrow food.

It’s like when you are discussing a business, you can send the original business notice. You can take it with the negotiator yourself, but sometimes you still have to send a SF Express Express delivery - because the signing for the SF Express delivery is legally valid and can prove that you have been delivered "effectively". In the legal way, the "offer reply period and commitment period" are calculated from this.

What Li Su wanted was to leave a transfer record in Huangfu Song's logistics and financial system that "Liu Bei withdrew his troops because he listened to Huangfu Song's order."

Huangfu Song didn't have that much fun. When he heard that he had to eat on the road for ten days, he agreed and immediately asked the grain officer in charge of Chen Cang to distribute Li Su according to the number, and he also remembered it in the account. When Ma Riyi, who was in Chang'an, was asked to allocate him food in the future, why did the food be eaten very quickly and was overdue? He had to keep the account file.

Li Su not only showed his sincerity to send troops, declared Liu Bei's reasons and the number of layers he was in the world, but also sold Huangfu Song's favor.

...

After Zhang Fei returned to Wudu, Li Su rushed back to Nanzheng without stopping.

On the other hand, the envoy sent by the Hanzhong prefect Guan Yu to negotiate with Yuan Shu, and indeed returned in vain.

Yuan Shu did not refuse to give food directly, but first said some excuses about Tai Chi, saying, "There is currently insufficient food storage, and can only temporarily support it and issue it according to the ten-day period. As long as the army's offensive goes smoothly, it will be fully supplied after the autumn harvest, and the grain can also be used to the enemy."

But Liu Bei was given the care of Li Su and asked him to be careful that Yuan Shu "firstly trick the reinforcements over and control them, and then block your food and grass, so you have to completely obey him as cannon fodder and lose independent command." So Liu Bei of course had to make Guan Yu not show up without seeing the rabbit, and insisted that Yuan Shu deliver the food in place before sending troops to accept it. If there is little food for the time being, there is no problem, and you can send less troops.

Anyway, Guan Yu’s offer is that the amount of troops you give you enough food to eat at least half a year, and I will only send out a lot of troops.

With such a run, Yuan Shu's plan to control food and grass and indirectly control the command power of other princes is of course impossible to implement. Yuan Shu was too lazy to raise Guan Yu's soldiers and directly refused to give food, leaving the bad reputation of not wanting to support friendly forces to fight Dong.

When Li Su returned to Nanzheng, Liu Bei of course read the reply to him as soon as possible. Li Su thought for a while: "Since that's the case, let's prepare for both. First, didn't Yuan Shu say that the surplus grain will be paid in one lump sum after the autumn harvest? We can run it again after the autumn harvest.

Secondly, we must be prepared. Before the autumn harvest, we will try our best to conquer Diaoyu City and then take down Jiangzhou, so that we can open up the Yangtze River channel. At that time, we will decide whether to use the name of Cai Gong, the prefect of Ba County, to establish our army in the name of "logistics guaranteed, so we will raise an army to attack Dong."

Finally, we should find ways to collect and spread the letters of Yuan Shu that were rudely rejected, as well as other evidence of return. It is best to send a message to other generals under Sun Jian’s tent, such as Sun Jian and others, to remind them to secretly dismantle Yuan Shu’s prestige and expose his true face.”

Liu Bei nodded slightly, and had no objection to Li Su's plan. He just felt that Li Su's idea of ​​"catching Diaoyu City with autumn harvest" was a bit too optimistic.

"Brother, I heard that you used a new catapult to attack the city at Jianmen Pass, but even with this powerful weapon, Diaoyu City is not so easy to capture. We estimate that the military rations in Diaoyu City can be eaten for at least one or two years, and the siege will be very protracted."

Li Su opened the folding fan and said calmly: "I always have thoughts, what if it's done. Moreover, the siege of the city will cause the garrison to be exhausted and the rations will not necessarily surround until the siege is completely exhausted. The key is to let them see the trend and disintegrate the morale of the enemy.

Moreover, the princes from outside began to challenge Dong. Because Diaoyu City obstructed us, we could not serve the country. The great righteousness was added. Maybe we could further persuade the enemy to be disloyal. I would like to ask for my life and go to the front line of Diaoyu City. Maybe there is any good solution."
Chapter completed!