Liu Bei took the letter of appointment given by Liu Qi and left the barracks directly, and then went straight to the mansion.

However, when Liu Bei came to the mansion, he was told by the people in the mansion that Liu Biao refused to see guests.

Liu Bei ate a closed door, thinking that this must have been arranged by Liu Qi, since Liu Biao, Liu Qi's father and son treated him like this, why did he have to stay in Jingzhou with a dead face?

At this moment, Liu Bei had a plan to leave Jingzhou and wanted to go somewhere else to seize a territory that truly belonged to him. However, today's situation has basically been finalized, Zhang Yanhu is in the north, Sun Quan is entrenched in Jiangdong, Liu Biao is in Jingzhou, Liu Zhang is in Yizhou, Zhang Lu is in Hanzhong, and Shixie in Jiaozhou has basically divided the world.

Either Liu Bei chooses a powerful force from among these warlords who divide one side to serve him, or he must build a foundation by himself.

Judging from the current form, Zhang Yan's power is undoubtedly the greatest, and being an official under him is also the safest. If it is replaced by other forces, sooner or later it will be eaten by the weak and the strong, and it will be swallowed up by Zhang Yan.

However, if Liu Bei really wanted to take refuge in Zhang Yan, he would have taken refuge in Xuzhou as early as possible, so why wait until now. And in his heart, he has always been unwilling to be subordinated to others, he does not believe in his fate, and this is it for the rest of his life.

Now Liu Bei has been adrift for most of his life, and he thought that he would gain a firm foothold in Jingzhou, but who would have thought that such a thing would happen again. If he goes to work according to the letter of appointment, Liu Bei's power will be completely dispersed, and it will be even more difficult to get together again.

However, if you do not follow the letter of appointment, you will be disobedient. Even if he is kind to Liu Biao and Liu Qi's father and son. Nor can they tolerate disobedience. Moreover, Cai Mao's matter has only passed for a short time, and Cai's henchmen are still being investigated, if he has disobedience at this time, it is very likely that people will misunderstand his motives.

For a while, Liu Bei fell into an unprecedented crisis, and he didn't know what to do. If he doesn't come up with an idea today, then he will lead his army out of Xiangyang tomorrow, even if he doesn't leave. will also be forced to leave.

After thinking about it, Liu Bei couldn't come up with an idea, and any idea, after going through it in his mind, was quickly overturned.

In the end, Liu Bei had no choice but to ask to see Sima Yi, a henchman beside Liu Qi.

Because Liu Bei often listens to others, Liu Qi can be said to be obedient to Sima Yi, and he wants to find a breakthrough from Sima Yi to see if he can change the predicament he is about to face.

But. What Liu Bei didn't know was the person who suggested Liu Qi to do this. It was Sima Yi.

Liu Bei was not able to enter Liu Biao's mansion, and after some inquiry, he learned that Sima Yi had gone to the schoolyard, so he rode a fast horse and rushed to the schoolyard.

But as he walked, he thought that something was wrong, he was going to ask someone to do something, so empty-handed, is it a little unreasonable? But in broad daylight, he couldn't go to see Sima Yi with a gift, it seemed that everything had to wait until the evening.

After Liu Bei decided, he bought some gifts, took them with him, and prepared to give gifts to Sima Yi in the evening, and let Sima Yi say his hardships, and see if he could let Sima Yi help him say a few words and cancel the order to appoint Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as county commanders.

After Liu Bei finished buying the gifts, he returned to the post house, and then began to wait for a long time. It was only noon at this time, and there were still more than two hours before it got dark, and in his anxious waiting, time was also passing minute by minute, but for Liu Bei, the time of more than two hours was as long as two centuries.

finally survived until dark, Liu Bei took the gift, alone, out of the post house, and when he was at the door, he happened to meet Zhang Fei who walked in from outside.

"Big brother, it's so late, where are you going?" Zhang Fei looked at Liu Bei curiously and asked puzzled.

Liu Bei said: "If you have something, I'll tell you when I come back!" I may come back late, so don't wait for me, go to bed by yourself. ”

Zhang Fei said: "Big brother, I have something to look for you......"

"If there's anything, I'll talk about it when I get back." Liu Bei said.

As soon as the words fell, Liu Bei went straight out of the door of the post house, Zhang Fei saw that Liu Bei was still carrying some gift boxes in his hands, and he didn't know what was in it, and Liu Bei was sneaky, there seemed to be something. Zhang Fei was afraid that Liu Bei would have some accidents, so he quietly followed, for fear of being discovered by Liu Bei, Zhang Fei didn't dare to follow too close, and he was afraid of losing it, so he didn't dare to follow too far, and always kept a stable distance from Liu Bei.

Liu Bei was so anxious that he didn't care that anyone would follow him, he had already inquired clearly during the day, and Sima Yi lived in Cai Mao's mansion in the past. Liu Qi overtook Cai Mao's home and smashed the plaque of Cai's mansion, all the valuable things in Cai's mansion were confiscated, and even the people in Cai's mansion were killed and killed, men, women and children, not a single one was left. In addition, as long as there is a blood relationship with Cai Mao, they are all implicated, and within a day, no less than a thousand Cai people were killed.

Of course, Liu Bei didn't catch up with such a spectacular scene, he protected Liu Biao and returned to Xiangyang three days after Liu Qi's bloodbath of the Cai family, but just listening to the people in the city talk about this matter, it is not difficult to imagine how spectacular it was when the Cai family was killed.

Moreover, the number of people who hate the Cai family is tens of thousands, and on the day the Cai family was killed, thousands of people in Xiangyang City were empty, and they all ran outside the city to watch the scene of the killing of the Cai family. Even now, the day when the Cai family was killed is still a talking point in the mouths of the people.

Cai's family was beheaded all over the house, and Cai Mao's mansion was also confiscated, and the reason why Liu Qi was able to wipe out Cai's family was mainly due to Sima Yi, because Sima Yi arranged it properly, and he was only able to achieve something by following Sima Yi's strategy.

Therefore, in order to thank Sima Yi and highlight Sima Yi's merits, Liu Qi rewarded Cai Mao's mansion to Sima Yi. At first, Sima Yi resolutely refused, but Liu Qi insisted again and again, and Sima Yi had no choice but to accept the gift that Liu Qi gave him.

When Liu Bei came to the door of Cai Mao's mansion again, it had lost its former vigor, and Cai's mansion occupied a huge area. The two nearby streets are the residences of other members of the Cai clan. Ever since the Cai family was beheaded all over the house. It became very cold and lifeless, like a ghost street.

You must know that these two streets are the most prosperous and lively streets in the entire Xiangyang City in the past, and there is a lot of traffic in front of Cai's Mansion every day, as long as officials from all over the world arrive in Xiangyang City, the first place to go is not Liu Biao's mansion. It's Cai Mao's mansion.

It can be seen from this that Cai Mao's power was so powerful that it even overshadowed Liu Biao.

It's just that Liu Biao didn't know about all this at that time, because he lived in a simple house and didn't know much about the outside world, and he was often surrounded by some of Cai's henchmen, in such an environment, it was no wonder that he would be blinded.

Liu Bei walked on the deserted street and barely touched a person. All around was black, if not for the white light reflected by the snow on the ground. This will be the place where you can't see your fingers.

Liu Bei came to the front of the mansion gate, there were two lanterns hanging at the door, there were no guards, but the gate was closed, Liu Bei walked forward, raised his hand, pulled up the knocker on the door, and knocked three times.

For a long time, there was no sound in it, a deathly silence.

"Knock Knock Knock ......"

Liu Bei knocked again, Liu Bei knocked again, because he knew that Cai's Mansion was very big, and this knock on the door couldn't reach it at all.

However, after waiting for a while, no one opened the door and no one responded.

Liu Bei knocked on the door and shouted loudly: "Is there anyone inside?" ”

This time, there was a sound of footsteps inside, and then a doorway only the size of a palm on the door was opened, and a white-haired old man carried a lantern, illuminated Liu Bei, who was standing at the door, and asked, "Who are you looking for?" ”

"Uncle, I'm looking for General Sima, is he at home?" Liu Bei asked.

"The people who came here are all here to find General Sima, I am asking, who are you, and what is the matter with looking for our general?" The old man asked.

"I am Liu Bei, the governor of Jingnan, and I have come to General Sima for something important, as for what it is, please forgive me for not being able to tell you. You can go in and report it to me, and say that I have something urgent to find General Sima, and General Sima will definitely see me. Liu Bei said.

The old man who was guarding the door said expressionlessly: "Liu Bei, the governor of Jingnan, I remember, when our general comes back, I will definitely tell him." So, please leave Liu Dudu back now. Tomorrow, our general will definitely go to you in person. ”

"So, your general is not in the mansion?" Liu Bei heard the meaning of the old man's words, so he asked.

"Well, the general of my family is now in the mansion, talking about things with the eldest prince, and he will always talk about coming back very late, and sometimes, he simply lives in the mansion directly."

Liu Bei frowned, only feeling that his hope of seeing Sima Yi was very slim. He can't go to the government to find Sima Yi in person now, in that case, he should simply find Liu Qi.

However, according to his guess, even if he arrived at the mansion, the people at the door would not let him in, and it would be even more difficult to see Liu Qi. Could it be that we can only wait until tomorrow and lead the army to Xinye?

Liu Bei was suddenly disheartened, shook his head helplessly, turned around and left here, looking lonely.

When the old man guarding the gate also closed the small doorway, and walked straight towards the mansion, when he came to the hall of the mansion, Sima Yi was sitting there reading Sun Tzu's Art of War, and when he saw the old man coming back, he asked, "How is it?" Is Liu Bei gone? ”

The old man was originally a hunchback, but when he walked into the hall, he straightened his waist, and even his walking posture was much lighter, and he did not look like a stumbling figure at all, not at all like the posture of an old man.

"Sure enough, as expected by the adults, Liu Bei really came, but when he heard that the adults were in the mansion, he didn't say anything more, turned around and left, and threw away the gifts he brought, which shows how bad his mood is." The old man said.

"If we can squeeze Liu Bei out, then our plan is equivalent to half of the success, and I will use five years to make Jingzhou undergo earth-shaking changes. These days, I've worked hard for you, always bothering you to run between places, and pretending to be such an old dragon clock. ”

"My lord has seen the outside, you and I are doing things for King Yan, my life was originally given by King Yan, even if I go to the soup for King Yan, I will not give up. Also, it's my duty to protect adults. ”

Sima Yiha laughed and said to the old man: "Okay, when King Yan takes Jingzhou without bloodshed, there will be half of your credit in it." ”

The man smiled and said, "Half is too much, I just need to work as soon as I succeed." (To be continued......)