Chapter 397 The advantage is mine
The news that the war in Xiliang was settled quickly spread throughout the world.
The various princes and people all over the world were not surprised by this.
If Gongsun Zan could win, the princes in the Central Plains would not have fought so hard.
Millions of troops are deployed on the border, risking their lives to fight. This was the scene when the six countries dealt with the Qin State during the Warring States Period.
What made the princes feel relieved but also felt was expected was that after taking Xiliang, Tian Ze did not immediately lead the army eastward to relieve the difficulties in the Central Plains, but instead stayed on the spot to rest and stabilize Xiliang.
Especially Liu Fan of Yizhou.
Now he has stationed tens of thousands of troops in Wudu, and contacted some barbarians and Qiang people in the surrounding areas, causing trouble for Tian Ze.
Knowing the overall situation, he had even contacted Zhang Lu and was ready to send more troops to Wudu to contain Tian Ze.
Fortunately, Tian Ze was still so "arrogant" that he actually only sent a small group of cavalry to the east.
The remaining main forces all remained in Xiliang, and even Ma Teng's troops, who were originally stationed on the west side of Sili to guard against Liu Bei and Liu Fan, did not withdraw.
However, he did not know that Zhang Lu, who was in Hanzhong at this time, was looking at the letter he sent with great interest.
"This Liu Boyu is indeed better than that Liu Yan. It's a pity that he was born at the wrong time. It's too late now."
Liu Fan was not as stupid as Liu Zhang. He did not take action against Zhang Lu's mother and family. Instead, he used both kindness and force to try to control him.
Zhang Lu seemed to be obeying his orders, but in fact he had already established contact with Jia Xu.
The survival of Yizhou? What is that? Compared with his own Taoist heritage, it is worthless.
With the lesson of Zhang Jiao, Zhang Lu never thought of making too many plans. He just wanted to sell Hanzhong for a good price and pass on the Zhengyi Sect (Wudoumi Sect) safely.
Tian Ze reopened the Jixia Academy and promoted the development of hundreds of schools of thought, which led to the rise of Taoism. The Zhengyi School also benefited from it and even began to preach under Tian Ze's rule.
Although Tian Ze had strict control over the religious beliefs of his subordinates, he did not ban them all at once, but instead combined control and support.
After all, the people of this era believe this. If you don't let them believe it, there will always be some wild fox Zen that takes the opportunity to spread.
Instead of suppressing everywhere and giving those messy beliefs room to survive, it is better to support some relatively moderate and orthodox religions to appease the people.
Zhang Lu's Zhengyi Dao was undoubtedly one of the lucky ones.
Although the location of Hanzhong was considered, the orthodox identity of Zhengyi Taoism and its doctrines that benefit the common people are indeed good.
With the identity of an official sect in Da Qi, Tian Ze immediately became the one destined by Zhang Lu.
No one can stop me from spreading the word... Helping the emperor to cleanse the world!
As for the one with the surname Liu, I’m sorry, we’re not familiar with him.
The Zhang family and the Liu family have been at odds with each other for a long time.
Liu Fan could see Zhang Lu's wavering, but he could do nothing about it. He also didn't know how much Zhang Lu leaned towards Tian Ze, and thought he could win him over.
In fact, this was all a drama staged by Jia Xu in secret collusion with Zhang Lu.
"Master, will we be able to go north to preach soon?" the believer in front of him said excitedly.
"No hurry, wait a little longer." Zhang Lu was calm at this time.
Now that Liangzhou was taken by Tian Ze, Zhang Lu was completely relieved.
Don't worry about anything, just wait for news from Jia Xu and prepare to be recruited.
The play that needs to be performed must be performed so as not to cause trouble to the emperor.
Fortunately, Zhang Lu has mastered this aspect to perfection.
Apart from the few trusted followers around him, even the most important civil and military officials under his command were not aware that he had completely sided with Tian Ze.
At this moment, Zhang Lu felt an inexplicable sense of pleasure as if he was the only one sober while everyone else was drunk.
Thinking of the letter from his uncle Zhang Shun, the leader of the younger generation of Taoism, Zhang Lu felt extremely excited.
There really is spiritual energy in this world! No one can stop the Taoist from cultivating immortals and preaching!
After another year of waiting for the royal army to return to the north, it is finally about to return to your Majesty's rule.
Liu Fan had no idea that Zhang Lu had completely defected.
In Liu Fan's eyes, Zhang Lu was determined to be independent. He had never been shaken by the attempts of Dong Zhuo or the imperial court to win him over, and he devoted himself to preaching.
Although they won't help him too much, they are still able to deal with him on the surface and will definitely not side with Tian Ze.
At this time, he was planning with Zhang Song and others on how they should support Tian Ze if he attacked Hanzhong next year and how to take the opportunity to regain control of Hanzhong.
……
In the Central Plains, the wars were extremely fierce, even beyond Cheng Yu's imagination.
There were battles at Wugu Pass, Guangcheng Pass and Xuanmen Pass around Sili.
Liu Bei seemed to be crazy. He deployed an army of no less than 200,000 to attack in turns. A large number of catapults continuously fired stone bombs. The fierce attack made Zhang He unable to provide support.
After all, Liu Bei had many powerful generals under his command. Huang Zhong and Zhang Fei each led an army, and they were assisted by Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue.
Liu Bei even led a force himself, with Pang Tong as his military advisor and Chen Dao and Huang Zu as his generals, to launch an attack with all his might.
Cai Mao and Zhang Yun led the navy to continuously transport various supplies.
Liu Bei planned for this battle for a year and spent almost half of his available assets in Jingzhou.
You know, in order to plunder the population in the past few years, Tian Ze spent a huge amount of money and grain in the southern states.
Although most of the money went into the pockets of local powerful families, Liu Bei had already leveraged a lot of resources with the assistance of Pang Tong, Huang Zu, Cai Mao and others during the years he had been here.
I have to say that Liu Bei’s personal charm is really not to be underestimated.
Liu Biao treated Huang Zu, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun well and valued them for so many years, but still failed to completely subdue them. However, Liu Bei took less than a year to completely conquer them.
Today's Jingzhou cannot be said to be a solid block, but it is basically under Liu Bei's control.
Therefore, the resources Liu Bei could mobilize were the largest among all the princes in the world, except for Tian Ze.
In this state, Liu Bei could not afford to allow Zhang He to be careless.
After all, Sili is as important as Jizhou, and Cao Cao is next to it.
Zhang He didn't dare to guarantee that Cao Cao would not attack Sili. What if the other party was just feinting to attack southern Hebei and then turned around and headed for Sili?
Once something happens in Sili, Liangzhou will be in even greater trouble.
After arriving in Sili, Zhao Yun's troops sent by Tian Ze were unable to break out of Liu Bei's encirclement and could only stay and garrison with Zhang He.
After all, the current situation in Sili is indeed not optimistic, and it takes too long to go north through Bingzhou and then support the south of the Yellow River.
At this point, the princes of the Central Plains finally achieved their goal.
Taking the Battle of Xiliang as an opportunity, with the help of Liu Bei and Liu Fan, nearly half of Tian Ze's main forces were intercepted west of Sili.
Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Sun Ce, with nearly 800,000 troops, deployed south of the Yellow River and began their final frenzy.
At this time, the Tianze army on both sides of the Yellow River had no more than 400,000 troops.
Even if Zang Ba's troops were included, there were only 500,000 of them.
The advantage is mine!
Yuan Shao and others said firmly in their hearts.
(End of this chapter)
