On the official road in Shu, a long row of troops was winding. It was Zhao Yun's troops of the Shu army. At this time, Zhao Yun found that the troops were moving southeast and asked Zhuge Liang: "Military advisor, are we going back to Chengdu? Then where are we going?"

Zhuge Liang said with a serious face: "We go to Jiangzhou, Chengdu and Shuzhong Plain are not where we fight Lu Bu decisively. I have sent a fast horse to notify the lord. Let him leave a small number of troops to hold Chengdu, and then evacuate from Chengdu to join us."

After hearing this, Zhao Yun said with doubt, "But, the lord's righteous brother General Yide was captured by Lu Bu. Will he retreat to Jiangzhou just now?"

Zhao Yun's words made Zhuge Liang stunned for a moment. He strangled the horse. After two seconds, he slapped his forehead and shouted to himself: "Kongming, Kongming, why are you so anxious that you forgot about this." After that, he turned to Zhao Yun and said, "Zilong, thanks to you who reminded me. Now you lead your troops to the Jiangzhou garrison, and I will bring a small group of personal soldiers back to Chengdu. I have to go and persuade me personally to let the lord retreat to the southeast of Bashu."

"Be careful with military advisor..." Before Zhao Yun finished speaking, Zhuge Liang had already led more than a hundred personal soldiers to turn west.

...

Cheng Du, Liu Bei received news from Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei's defeat in the West Camp of Fucheng three days ago, and was shocked and angry. Just as he was about to lead his troops to rescue him, news of Fucheng being captured by Lu Bu came. At this time, Zhuge Liang had sent someone to send him news, suggesting that he stick to Cheng Du.

At this time, Chengdu had only 20,000 defenders. With such a small amount of troops to defeat Lu Bu, Liu Bei himself knew it was unlikely. So he waited patiently for news from Dongdaying and Zhao Yun's army. He hoped that Zhuge Liang and Zhao Yun would break the enemy of Dongdaying, return to Chengdu, and then head north to Fucheng to fight Lu Bu in decisive battle. If he could capture a general in the other camp, he could also save his third brother Zhang Fei.

But a few days later, Zhuge Liang sent another letter saying that he wanted Liu Bei to move his main force south to Jiangzhou. This made Liu Bei difficult to understand. Now Zhang Fei was captured by Lu Bu, and the two east and west camps were locked by the other party, and then he gave half of Bashu to Lu Bu for vain?

A series of defeats made Liu Bei begin to doubt Zhuge Liang's ability. He once had the idea of ​​taking back Zhuge Liang's command. Just when he was hesitant, Zhuge Liang came back. Just as he had too many words to ask Zhuge Liang clearly.

When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Liang, he said kindly: "Thank you for your hard work in the military advisor."

"Liang suffered consecutive defeats and felt ashamed of his trust in the lord." Zhuge Liang said respectfully and gave Liu Bei a big gift.

"Military advisor quickly, how can you blame you? The reason why our army suffered such a great defeat was that Lu Bu was cunning and resourceful by nature, and that his third brother did not obey the military orders and acted recklessly. But..." Liu Bei said this, and stopped for a second or two. Finally, he said what he said in his heart.

"But the military advisor's strategy of garrisoning camps, strengthening the walls and clearing the fields, and leading the enemy to fight in the hinterland seems to have little effect on Lu Bu."

Zhuge Liang had already responded to this and immediately replied: "What the lord said is very true. Liang did not expect that Lu Bu had such powerful engineering capabilities. In just over half a month, he could build such solid fortifications under the harassment of our army and lock our two camps. This is Liang's fault."

Zhuge Liang paused for a moment and continued: "It's just that the camp is built, the walls are firm and the fields are clear, and the strategy of leading the enemy to fight decisively in the hinterland is no choice, because the two northern gates of Shu, Jiange and Langzhong, are controlled by Lu Bu. Our Shu army has no danger to defend. If we fight against Lu Bu's army in the plains of Shu, there is no possibility of victory. Therefore, we can only sacrifice our depth to lengthen the opponent's front line, and then let the two camps behind the enemy cut off their supply of food and grass. But I didn't expect that Lu Bu could lock the two camps with 20,000 troops."

After hearing this, Liu Bei felt that something was reasonable, but his unhappiness was still there. He continued to ask Zhuge Liang: "So what plan will the military advisor do next? What will happen to the move to Jiangzhou? What should Gu's third brother do? Back then, Yide and Yunchang could not have been born in the same year and the same month, but I ask for the sworn brothers who died on the same day of the same year. If Yide has any three shortcomings, how should I deal with it?"

"Lord, although our strategy was temporarily frustrated, we still have to continue to implement it firmly. Unless we plan to give up Yizhou, the main force of the transfer to the eastern hilly areas of Bashu with Jiangzhou as the center is still a continuation of this strategy. Now the northwest of the Shuzhong Plain has been ordered to abandon the fields, so after the Lu Bu army occupied it, it still cannot obtain supplies on the spot. It still needs to transport supplies from Hanzhong to cross mountains and ridges. Even if they have strange ships that can travel in the mountains and rivers, it cannot completely alleviate this difficulty."

Zhuge Liang observed Liu Bei's expression and thought that he had digested the preface before continuing:

"And we have already stocked up a lot of food and grass in the city of Chengdu and other cities, and we can defend it for a long time with a small number of soldiers. In this way, Lu Bu will either venture deep into Jiangzhou to fight me in the decisive battle, or can only stop in the northwest of Bashu for a long time. If it is the former, his supply line is so long and there is no city to rely on. In this case, Liang is confident that he will annihilate the main force of Lu Bu who invades Yizhou in the hilly areas around Jiangzhou. If it is the latter, the situation in the world will be changing, and no one can guarantee the safety of Lu Bu's other border lines for such a long time. We will seize the opportunity to fight back. As for General Yide, Liang believes that Lu Bu will not harm him, and after we capture one or two of his generals, we can exchange it."

When Liu Bei heard this, he thought it seriously and thought that this was the only way to do it. Unless he completely gave up Yizhou as Zhuge Liang said, he could not think of any other more feasible solution.

On the second day, Liu Bei selected 3,000 elite troops from 20,000 defenders to stay in Chengdu, and served as the former Bashu officials who believed most, Li Yan was Chengdu Order. Then he and Zhuge Liang took the remaining infantry and cavalry and Yizhou officials and aides to Jiangzhou to retreat east. At this time, Lu Bu had ordered the Hu Ben Iron Cavalry to join the two thousand infantrymen who sailed south on a boat to occupy Chongguo County, south of the east camp of the Shu army.

However, the main force of Lu Bu who was stationed in Fucheng has not been moving towards Chengdu for a long time because Lu Bu is building some special siege equipment in Fucheng - a counterweight catapult. This is a catapult that uses gravity potential energy to accumulate energy. The lever short arm is hung with a heavy object for storage, and the long arm on the other end is hung with an emitter. The operator first lifts the heavy object stored in the short arm high, buckles the main arm with the machine, and loosens the buckle when launching. Under the action of the potential energy of the lever short arm, throws the emitter on the long arm at a high speed.
Chapter completed!