When the first rays of sunlight in the morning penetrated the window and hit the house where Liu Bei lived, Liu Bei suddenly woke up from his dream, looked around, looked around, and felt a little lost as if he had slept last night.

"It turns out that it was just a dream...... Liu Bei realized that he had a dream, and suddenly remembered something, hurriedly jumped off the bed, opened the door, and said to the guard standing in front of the door: "Is Chen Zhi back?" ”

The guard shook his head.

Liu Bei strode out of the threshold of the room, walked to the courtyard outside and glanced at the rising sun, and couldn't help frowning, it was already late in time, Chen Zhi should have come back, could it be that he was delayed by something on the road?

Liu Bei comforted himself: "It must be like this, Chen Zhi must have been delayed by something, otherwise he would definitely not have come back until now......"

While comforting himself, Liu Bei began to pretend to be calm, and then began his long wait, and all the plans that were ready for Lu did not dare to act rashly until Chen Zhi did not come back.

At the same time, Hu Che'er, who escaped from Liu Bei overnight, returned to Xinye County as fast as possible and reported to Zhang Xiuyu what he had overheard Liu Bei.

After Zhang Xiu heard this, he was shocked and asked, "What you said is true?" ”

Hu Che'er said: "My subordinates heard it with their own ears, and they also saw it with their own eyes, Liu Bei did tie up the prison army sent by Liu Qi to Wuhuada, and it was Liu Bei who said it to the prison army himself." ”

Zhang Xiu's fists couldn't help but clench, and he said slowly: "I really didn't expect that Liu Bei would be such an ungrateful person." Usually looks at him on the surface, but he is a humble gentleman. I didn't expect it to be such a sinister villain. In vain I still befriended him back then, and when he was a character, I was really blind. ”

Yang Xiu was beside Zhang Xiu, and then said: "Perhaps, this is what people often say, knowing people and knowing faces, not knowing their hearts!" ”

Zhang Xiu said: "Liu Bei is so unkind and unjust, no wonder His Royal Highness King Yan wants to change the place quickly, if it is me, such a person should also be killed." Military Division. Liu Bei's mind is all on Jingzhou, and it is estimated that he will not be interested in the bitter plan I have set, what should we do next, and I hope that the military advisor will give him an idea. ”

Yang Xiu thought for a moment, and then said, "Since things have come to this point, why don't we make public the matter of Liu Bei instructing someone to assassinate Liu Qi?" Let the world know what Liu Bei is like, let them see the most real Liu Bei, tear the mask on his face, and let Liu Bei fall into disrepute. In addition, regardless of whether Liu Bei's assassination of Liu Qi will be successful. Once the Jingzhou side learns that Liu Bei instructed the assassins to assassinate Liu Qi, then what kind of movement do you think will happen in Jingzhou? ”

Zhang Xiu said: "It must be an army." Sending troops to crusade and not putting Liu Beizhi to death, he will definitely not give up. ”

Yang Xiu said: "That's right, what we have to do is to wait and see what happens, first let Jingzhou fall into the battle with Liu Bei, let's sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and then ask King Yan for instructions to see if we can send troops." After all, the order given to us by King Yan was to eliminate Liu Bei, not to attack Jingzhou, and there was a big difference between the two, and if we acted rashly, there would be great consequences. ”

Zhang Xiu frowned, and thought to himself: "If I let the enemy fight in the nest, then wouldn't I have no credit?" This is the best time to eliminate Liu Bei, if you miss it, then my credit will be equivalent to flying. Although Yang Xiu's strategy is a foolproof strategy, without losing a single soldier, and can eliminate Liu Bei, it is a major loss for me......"

As soon as he thought of this, Zhang Xiu said to Yang Xiu: "Military advisor, your strategy is too conservative, Liu Bei only has 10,000 people in Chaoyang County, my troops are more than him, and if you use a strategy, it will be too long-delayed, if the assassin is caught, saying that someone else instructed him, it will lead the disaster to the east, then we have no evidence to show that Liu Bei did it, and Jingzhou may not send troops to attack Liu Bei." ”

Yang Xiu pondered for a moment and said, "What you said also makes sense, so what is the general's plan?" ”

"Directly attack Chaoyang County, and send people to spread rumors, saying that Liu Bei wants to rebel and send someone to assassinate Liu Qi, whether it is true or not, the soldiers and civilians in the city will definitely look at Liu Bei differently. And Hu Che'er also said that Liu Bei's two sworn brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, are not in Chaoyang County, which is undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our army. Zhang Xiu said.

Yang Xiu nodded slightly and said, "It's not bad that General Zhang arranged it like this. Well, then take General Zhang's intentions as the main thing and directly send troops to attack Liu Bei. ”

Zhang Xiu's face showed a smile, and he immediately said to Hu Che'er: "Pass the order, immediately gather soldiers and horses, and the whole army will set off!" ”

Hu Che'er was also elated, "snort", turned around and went out, he didn't rest all night, he didn't feel the slightest tiredness, but when he heard that he was going to send troops, he was even more excited.

After the order was issued, Zhang Xiu's army assembled outside the city as quickly as possible, with 18,000 soldiers, fully armed, neat and tidy, ready for battle.

As the so-called soldiers are fast, this time, Zhang Xiu did not let the soldiers carry too much baggage, and no one brought three days of dry food and water, and rushed directly to Chaoyang County.

In Zhang Xiu's view, Liu Bei was already like a turtle in an urn, and this time he acted quickly, not ready to give Liu Bei any respite, and was ready to surround Liu Bei with a large army.

However, before this, the scout team sent by Zhang Xiu had already hit the road first, and their task was very simple, that is, to spread rumors in Chaoyang County, so that everyone would know that Liu Bei was the mastermind of the assassination of Liu Qi, first disturbing his mind, and then attacking his city.

If you set out now, you can reach it in dark, and if it's just a cavalry team, it's even faster, and you can reach it in half a day.

In addition, Zhang Xiu sent the elite cavalry around him to clean up the enemy scouts on the road to Chaoyang County, blocking the news, so that Liu Bei could not get any military information, and when the city was in chaos, his army suddenly arrived and launched an attack, maybe he could attack Liu Bei by surprise.

……

In Xiangyang City, Sima Yi, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Wen Ping, Li Tong and others conducted a carpet search of the area where Sima Yi was located, but still did not find any suspicious people.

Sima Yi felt that he must have missed the best opportunity, and if he had searched this place last night, he might have been able to catch the assassin.

However, no one knows what the Assassin looked like, because everyone who has seen the Assassin is dead. No one knows who sent the assassins, but based on the turmoil in Jingzhou these days, it is likely that they are the remnants of the Cai family.

In this way, under all kinds of suspicion, Liu Qi, who was still guarding the spirit, issued a tragic order, he wanted to kill all the people surnamed Cai in Jingzhou, and leave no one behind.

Of course, Sima Yi didn't know what to do with this order, because there were only two brothers Kuai Yue and Kuai Liang beside Liu Qi, but these two brothers could not dissuade Liu Qi from issuing the order.

So, the order was quickly distributed, first starting from Xiangyang City, Xiangyang Ling, in accordance with Liu Qi's instructions, began to arrest all the people surnamed Cai in the city, regardless of whether they had anything to do with Cai Mao, all of them were arrested and beheaded on a certain day.

Sima Yi and the others pounced, Xiangyang City is so big, there are many places to hide, and the population is also very large, and Sima Yi and others are in the light, and the assassins are in the dark, even if they invest a lot of manpower and material resources, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

However, Sima Yi firmly believed that as long as the road in and out of Xiangyang was blocked, the Assassins could be trapped in the city forever. Assassins are also human beings, and they also have to eat, drink, sleep, poop, and pee, so if the Assassin is in a high state of tension, his body will definitely be dragged down.

However, the long-term blockade of Xiangyang is not a very favorable thing in itself, Xiangyang is the largest and most prosperous city in Jingzhou, and it is also a place with a high concentration of culture. Commercial activities are the main source of tax revenue in Xiangyang, and if Xiangyang is blocked for a long time, it will definitely damage tax payment, and there will be some damage to commercial activities.

To do this, Sima Yi had to come up with a strategy, a way to catch the assassins.

After Sima Yi returned to the mansion, he heard Liu Qi give a ridiculous order, and immediately went to Liu Qi and persuaded Liu Qi to take back his life. Liu Qi didn't listen and almost quarreled with Sima Yi.

However, Sima Yi asked people to revoke this order, and then asked Xiangyang Ling to find a death row prisoner, act as an assassin, and behead him, pushing the crime of the assassin Liu Biao onto Liu Biao's wife Cai, so that the death of Cai could be exchanged for the lives of other people surnamed Cai in the entire Xiangyang City.

Moreover, Sima Yi pondered for a while, and finally came up with a plan to lure the snake out of the hole. He used this incident as a trigger to announce the people of the city, posting a notice that the assassin had been caught, and then the blockade was lifted, but for the sake of safety, only one city gate was lifted, and everyone could enter and exit from that gate, subject to strict inspection, and if there were no ghosts in their hearts, there was no need to be afraid.

The purpose was to lure out the real Assassins, because the real Assassins would have to leave the city, or they would be trapped and die in the city.

All people who enter and leave the city are registered one by one, and they also need a household registration certificate issued by Xiangyang City, so that anyone who does not have a household registration certificate cannot enter or leave Xiangyang City.

Sima Yi asked Xiangyang Ling to help make a batch of household registration certificates, so that he could distribute them to the people according to their household registration, and as for the merchants who did business in Xiangyang City, they were issued with certificates unique to merchants, and the rest of the officials who came to Xiangyang to report on their work were also arranged in the post house, and the post house verified their identities one by one, and then issued certificates.

In this way, people who are undocumented will become suspects, and they must be arrested first, and then interrogated, and then released after confirming that there is no suspicion.

Then, the Assassins will not be able to escape! (To be continued......)