Since Cao Ying's army, what he lacks most is money and food, if there is no Weizi's help, it would have been impossible to survive today, in all kinds of helplessness, Cao Ying even secretly sent troops to pretend to be thieves, in Qing, Yan Erzhou wantonly robbed and excavated the tombs of princes, and took its gold treasure to fill the military salary, suddenly heard these remarks, Cao Ying couldn't help but look up, and saw that the person who spoke was Xun Yu's nephew Xun You, the uncle and nephew were both good at scheming, and Cao Ying was leaning on as his right-hand man, listening to Xun You's words, Cao Yingqi said: "Gongda, if you don't cultivate and plant, where do you get the military funds." ”

Xun You said with a smile: "The development of agriculture is of course needed, but far water can't quench the thirst of the near, and now there is a piece of big fat meat sent to the mouth of the lord, why don't the lord take a bite." ”

Chen Qun, who was standing on the side, immediately understood, and arched his hand and said, "What Gongda said is none other than Jingzhou. ”

Xun Yu clapped his hands again and again, and said: "Yes, Liu Xin went to Sanguan to supervise the battle, proving that the war there was not going well, and Dong Zhuo sent Zhang Ji out of Wuguan, Jingzhou's soldiers and horses will definitely go to the enemy, Xiangyang must be empty, and the lord can make a general to lead the fine cavalry to take Xiangyang directly." ”

Xun You further said: "Xiangyang is rich in the world, if you can attack it, the money and grain in the city are piled up, even if you can't hold it, these money and grain can also meet the military needs of five or six years, and the three courtyards of Xiangyang are famous all over the world, Xiangyang paper, white porcelain are all specialties there, at this time, it is a godsend." ”

Cao Ying's vision is still relatively long-term, he has always paid attention to the development of production and the recovery of the economy, but compared with Liu Xin and Ma Yun, he has less than thousands of years of knowledge, and he has not occupied Qing and Yan'er Prefecture for a long time, not as good as Liu Xin who has been operating in Jingzhou for many years, and has a deep foundation, so he is always stretched thin in terms of money and grain.

Listening to the suggestions of Xun You and others, Cao Ying couldn't help but get up, Xiangyang is a treasure land, not only the money and grain in the treasury are sufficient, but also the rich gathered, when the time comes, just find a reason to copy, copy him hundreds of families, not to mention five years of military supplies, even ten or twenty years are enough, in addition to these, Liu Xin's three wives, Ma Yun, Bian Yu, Cai Yan also let him love for a long time, if they can capture Xiangyang, don't they all have to fall into their own pockets,

Cao Ying immediately made a decision, took the case, and said to everyone: "Okay, according to what you say, send troops to capture Xiangyang." ”

Xun Yu got up and said: "Lord Qi, his subordinates still have a plan, which can make Liu Xin uncomfortable, since Wang Yun sent a letter to escort the emperor to Luoyang, why don't you ask the emperor for a few edicts." ”

Cao Ying asked suspiciously, "Oh, what Wen Ruo means." ”

Xun Yu continued: "Lord, my plan is to send a decree to the Son of Heaven not to subordinate, and to transfer the princes of the world to Liu Xin's plan, you can send an edict to Yuan Shu, so that he can send troops to Jiangxia, and an edict to Yan Baihu of Yuzhang, doesn't he call himself the king of Eastern Wude, then make him a Marquis of Wu, and let him send troops to attack Changsha, so that Liu Xin and Dong Zhuo are holding each other in Sanguan and Wuguan, and they are attacked by me on three sides, so why worry about him being undefeated." ”

Cao Ying laughed and said: "Mr. Wenruo really has a clever plan, if he can break Liu Xin, Mr. should take the first credit." ”

Xun You arched his hand and said: "The lord is slow, and he needs to write another edict to Yuan Shao in Hebei, confer his position as a general, and let his generals recruit Gongsun Zhan, so that Yuan Shao is famous, and he will inevitably go all out to deal with Gongsun Zhan, and we don't have to worry that Yuan Shao will stab us in the back, so as to avoid the worry of suffering from the enemy." ”

Cao Ying looked at these capable ministers who tried their best to give advice to him, and then looked at those generals who were gearing up, it was with the help of these people that he was able to rise to the throne of two states and dominate one side of the princes in just a few years. ”

However, the big strategy is determined, there are still many details to deal with if it is really implemented, Liu Xie is not under Cao Ying's control now, and it still needs to pass through Wang Yun's hands to ask him to issue an edict, and it will inevitably take a lot of time to dispel the doubts of Wang Yun and others, and it will take some time for these edicts to be transferred to the hands of the princes, and the princes from all walks of life must communicate with each other in order to choose the best time to send troops. But Cao Ying must also come up with a plan for his intention first, so as to better persuade the princes to stand in the same camp with him.

In the past few days, Xiangyang has been more lively than in the past, because in a few more days, Liu Xin's first imperial examination will begin, this date has long been decided, the reason why it was chosen to be carried out in the summer is to consider that the weather is hot at this time, people's clothing is relatively thin, it is not easy to carry out private collection, the imperial examination has not been affected in any way because of the ongoing war against Dong, scholars from Jing and Yi have gathered in Xiangyang, and there are many people who rely on their talents, and they are hurrying from other places after getting the newsOf course, this news was deliberately disseminated by Liu Xin through the newspaper, and his goal of recruiting talents is not only limited to Jing and Yi, but to the whole world.

As the head of the Ministry of Rites and Xiangyang Academy, and Liu Xin's father-in-law, with many titles of everyone, university scholar, and great calligrapher, Cai Yong became a well-deserved first examiner, exiled twice, and finally made Cai Yong, who was surrounded by family disciples, who had never thought that he would also have the scenery he has today, all of which benefited him and finally chose to stand with Liu Xin, thinking of the suspicion of Liu Xin in the past, Cai Yong couldn't help but feel ashamed, and put all his thoughts on this imperial examination, Determined to make this exam the first event in history,

For this imperial examination, Cai Yong mobilized the officials of the Ministry of Rites and the gentlemen of the academy to prepare for more than a year, and also built a special building for this purpose, Ma Yun named it "Gongyuan" here, and Cai Yong wrote the plaque by himself, all the candidates in the three-day examination time, eating, drinking, Lazar and sleeping will all be solved in the Gongyuan, and they are not allowed to go out of the Gongyuan before handing in the papers.

Different from the imperial examination system of later dynasties, this imperial examination is divided into three subjects: civil, martial arts, and engineering, and the two subjects of civil and military affairs are easier to understand, and those who participate in the engineering examination are varied, as long as there are people with a skill who have passed the selection at the county and county levels, they can participate, and finally they can come to the Gongyuan to participate in the engineering examination, and there are all kinds of people, including carpenters, plasterers, blacksmiths, and stonemasons, as well as traditional craftsmen such as carpenters, plasterers, blacksmiths, and stonemasons, as well as those who can grow flowers, domesticate animals, and even those who are good at fishing, weaving, and farming, all of which have been selected, sent to Xiangyang, many of these people have not even read the book, and do not know how to read, Cai Yong also specially arranged for some scribes to make some records of their dictation,

Just when Xiangyang City was busy for the imperial examination, Lu Bu led the cavalry team of 13,000 people and quietly passed through the gap between Zhao Yun and Zhang He's defense area, in the era of cold weapons, it was impossible to divide the troops into several squads to arrange defense, so it was easy for the enemy to seize the opportunity to eat them one by one, so the gap between the defense areas was not the fault of Zhao Yun and Zhang He.

Lu Bu always chooses to act when there are few people along the way, and when there are many people, he camps in a remote place, but he has now gone deep into the hinterland of Jingzhou, and in the face of the highly developed Jingxiang area, it is almost an impossible task to completely hide people's eyes and ears, Lu Bu also thought of countermeasures, he played the banner of Xu Huang of the First Army, and when someone asked him on the road, he claimed that he was transferred back to Xiangyang from the front line of Sanguan to rest.

Although Lu Bu tried every means to avoid the crowded places to march, but it didn't take long for these Xiliang troops who pretended to be Xu Huang's army to show their stuffing, and the reason why they showed their stuffing was not that these soldiers of the Xiliang Army who took looting and oppressing the people as a common thing did something illegal and attracted the attention of the local people, but for another reason, Lu Bu also knew that Liu Xin's army was strictly disciplined, and he wanted to pretend to be Liu Xin's army, so naturally he had to behave more friendly to the people, so before leaving, Lu Bu repeatedly affirmed discipline, Don't disturb the people along the road, and these soldiers also understand that Xiangyang is extremely rich, as long as they capture Xiangyang, a little bit is enough for their half of their life's expenses, who cares about this little property on the way,

But Lu Bu didn't expect that in Jingzhou, the relationship between the military and the people has been so harmonious that he can't understand it, in other places, if the army doesn't find trouble with the people, it will be regarded as burning high incense, but in Jingzhou, the people will take the initiative to greet their own army when they see it, since Lu Bu is playing the banner of Xu Huang, along the way, there are often people who send eggs, cold water and other items to comfort the soldiers, which makes these soldiers of the Xiliang Army at a loss, and it is inevitable that there will be horses and feet between responses, plus these people don't speak with many accents, The weapons used by the young general with a scar on his face are also very rare, and it is very rare for Liu Xin's army to have such a large group of cavalry running, these phenomena soon aroused the suspicion of the local people, and quickly made a report to the government.

There is an army of unknown origin quietly infiltrated the territory of Jingzhou, and the target is directly aimed at Xiangyang, such news is absolutely amazing, no one who learned the report dared to slack off, that night this information was placed in front of Fu Zhi, as the supreme commander of the phantom secret spy, in front of him was not only the information sent by the local government, but also the clues found by the secret spy, all the evidence pointed to the poor arrival of Lu Bu's army,

When he learned the news, he didn't dare to delay in the slightest, and on the one hand, he sent someone to inform Dian Wei and Xu Chu to strengthen their vigilance, and on the other hand, he rushed to the state pastor's mansion overnight to report to Ma Yun.

After listening to the report, Ma Yun immediately concluded: "This cavalry is Dong Zhuo's troops, and it is Lu Bu who leads them." ”

According to the eyewitness descriptions, Ma Yun could be sure that the young general used the Fang Tian Painting Halberd, and in Ma Yun's impression, in addition to Lu Bu in the early Three Kingdoms, there was no second person who used the Fang Tian Painting Halberd as a weapon, and there was no need for other reasons, based on this alone, Ma Yun was sure that this person must be Lu Bu.

Fu Zhu was still very calm, but when he heard that it was Lu Bu who came, he couldn't help but be surprised, and hurriedly said: "Mrs. Qiqi Ma, Lu Bu is menacing, and the troops in Xiangyang City are weak, and it is difficult to fight the enemy, please lead the family to move to the southwest mountains to avoid each other." ”