After Sun and Liu reconciled, Liu Bei led his army back to Bashu. However, the situation in Hanzhong was firmly under Cao Cao's hands. Even if Liu Bei rushed back to Bashu, he could not control the situation. Therefore, this matter did not attract Cao Cao's attention, but Sima Yi believed that demarcation of Xiang River alone was not enough to be a reason to persuade Sun Quan to withdraw his troops, and he was puzzled by this.

At this moment, Sima Yi suddenly thought of Hefei, where Sun Quan attacked repeatedly but failed, so he boldly speculated whether Liu Bei had reached some kind of agreement with Sun Quan, such as:

Advance east and west, and heading north to attack Hanzhong and Hefei together...<

Sima Yi thought that if his guess was correct, Cao Cao would definitely be passive because he was attacked from both sides. At this moment, Cao Cao's main force was in Hanzhong. Although Zhang Liao, who was stationed in Hefei, was a famous general in a hundred battles, he only had more than 7,000 defenders. If Sun Quan brought a large army to attack, he would have great pressure. It is not impossible for Hefei to fall.

After careful consideration, Sima Yi told Cao Cao this concern and reminded him to be careful. Cao Cao thought that Sima Yi's concern was reasonable, but he did not send any capable generals to support Zhang Liao, Li Dian and Le Jin. Instead, he wrote the letter and put it into the secret letter, and wrote the four words "Thief will be sent to the cover of the secret letter."

At first, Sima Yi did not understand Cao Cao's intention to do this. After Cao Cao sent Xue Ti to Hefei alone, he explained to Sima Yi: "Now my main force is in Hanzhong, even if I want to help him, there is no way. Besides, I can trust Wenyuan, and with Li Dian and Le Jin, I think Hefei should be fine."

This gambler-style strategy surprised Sima Yi, and he also realized Cao Cao's unusualness again:

"It seems that Mr. Wei is very confident in the guards of Hefei?"

Seeing that Sima Yi also put down his nervousness and joked with him, Cao Cao asked with a smile:

"Do Zhongda have the courage to see me?"<

Sima Yi asked back: "Can Hefei bet bet on hold?"<

Cao Cao shook his head and said, "Betting that Zhang Liao can kill Sun Quan..."<

The army stationed in front of Yangping Pass for several days, but Zhang Wei chose to hang high and avoid fighting cards and refused to fight. Cao Cao ordered the attack several times but failed. At this time, Liu Bei had returned to Shu County CD and began to actively prepare for war, which made many generals under Cao Cao feel suspicious, and they were worried that Liu Bei would likely join the battle situation in Hanzhong.

In August of 215 AD (the 20th year of Jian'an), bad news came one after another. Sun Quan really led a 100,000 army north to attack Hefei. However, at this time, Zhang Liao's defenders were less than one-tenth of Sun Quan, so many people concluded that Hefei would lose.

The long-term failure of Yangpingguan to capture the war in Hanzhong has caused the stalemate. Liu Ye and others believed that if Hefei was captured, it would mean that the southern gate of Yuzhou was completely opened. Sun Quan would definitely take this opportunity to seize Yuzhou and threaten Xu Du. Therefore, they all urged Cao Cao to withdraw his troops and focus on dealing with Sun Quan's northward journey.

Facing everyone's doubts, Cao Cao actually agreed to withdraw his troops and return to Hefei after thinking for a whole night.

Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He and other generals expressed their discomfort in this regard. Xiahou Yuan broke into Cao Cao's central army tent and questioned the reason for retreating. As a result, Cao Cao ordered him to be removed from his military post and punished him with two hundred military sticks.

Seeing that Xiahou Yuan was treated like this by the generals who were close to Cao Cao, many generals were dissatisfied with him, thinking that Cao Cao was mean and ungrateful, and was not a good monarch. Just then, Sima Yi heard their conversation when he passed by the military tent, so he opened the curtain and walked in: "Since that's the case, why don't you go to Zhang Wei?"

After that, nearly hundreds of generals and soldiers secretly left Cao's camp to surrender to Zhang Wei. They told Zhang Wei that they were the old subordinate of Ma Chao in Longshang and surrendered to Xiahou Yuan because Ma Chao was defeated. Now they saw that Cao Cao was an unreliable lord and were afraid that they would be abandoned or killed in the future because of Cao Cao's suspicious nature, so they came to surrender to Zhang Lu, hoping to find a way out.

Zhang Wei was not a person with a weak ear. He secretly sent people to investigate the background of the surrendered soldiers and found that they were all from Longshang, so he took them in, but he still did not dare to reuse them. The troops in the pass where they were all gathered were monitored by soldiers.

Three days later, Cao Cao saw that there were continuous surrendered soldiers to surrender Zhang Wei, and he declared to the outside world that he would avoid the turmoil of the army, so he would immediately withdraw his troops. Soon, the 100,000 troops evacuated the front line of Yangping Pass.

Seeing that Cao Cao's army had indeed retreated, Zhang Wei couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He wrote a letter that night and sent someone to Nanzheng to report his victory to Zhang Lu. However, before he could finish his letter, there were suddenly a shocking shout of killing outside Yangping Pass.

He personally climbed the pass and found that Xiahou Yuan, who was supposed to have been removed from office and investigated by Cao Cao, actually led 8,000 troops to attack Yangping Pass. Soon there were also killing sounds in the pass. The so-called surrendered soldiers who had defected to Zhang Wei before actually took advantage of the fact that the defenders were gathered in front of the pass to resist the enemy, secretly burned all Zhang Wei's food and grass and launched an attack on Zhang Wei from within.

Without food and grass, there is no chance of winning, Zhang Wei had no choice but to surrender.

Afterwards, Xiahou Yuan explained to everyone that he wanted to break into the tent to prevent Cao Cao from withdrawing his troops, but Sima Yi and Cao Cao proposed to stage such a bitter plan to paralyze Zhang Wei, so there were scenes such as dismissal and military warfare.

Soon another scout came from news:

"Report to Duke Wei! General Zhang He has crossed the Mian River to capture Ju County, and has now surrounded Mianyang City!"

It turned out that what Cao Cao said before was just to let Zhang He divide his troops to attack Juxian, and then detour through Mianyang to completely capture the last barrier of Nanzheng. Now everything is as Sima Yi and Cao Cao expected, and Zhang Lu has no bargaining chips anymore.

After hearing the news that Yangping Pass was broken and Mianyang was surrounded, Zhang Lu had all lost the determination to resist to the end. He wanted to open the Nanzheng gate to Cao Cao directly and surrender, but Yan Pu persuaded Zhang Lu to resist for a while, so that he would not lose the integrity of a prince in this way, and would also make Cao Cao look at him differently.

So Zhang Lu ordered all the treasures in the city to be kept safe, which was also the sincerity expressed to Cao Cao. Then he left Nanzheng with a few horses to Bazhong.

After Cao Cao entered Nanzheng, he saw that all the property was preserved and realized Zhang Lu's sincerity, stopped all military operations against Hanzhong, and sent a special person to Bazhong to express his condolences to Zhang Lu's heart.

In September of the same year, Sima Yi suggested that Cao Cao continue to give a gentle policy to treat Bazhong, and at the same time, he used Zhang Lu to persuade the chief of the Bazhong real tribe to surrender voluntarily. In this way, he could take advantage of the situation to include the "Three Ba" land, and then send a general to the garrison of Ba County to strategically cut off all the connections and supplies between Jingzhou and Yizhou, completely put Liu Bei in a dilemma of being in a dilemma.

Cao Cao, who followed the plan, soon received the surrender of the three real chiefs, Park Hu, Du Shu and Ren Yue, that month. Cao Cao divided Ba County into three, and the three were divided into prefects.

That month, the battlefield of Hefei thousands of miles away also spread frequently. With the assistance of Li Dian and Le Jin, Zhang Liao defeated Sun Quan's 100,000 troops with his courageous command and bravery, with only 7,000 defenders, and defeated famous generals of the Eastern Wu in the subsequent Xiaoyaojin raid. If it weren't for the three armies' desperate protection, Sun Quan would have almost forced Sun Quan to death in this battle.

At this point, Sun Quan's second large-scale attack on Hefei was also declared a failure. The two defeats given to Sun Quan by Jiang Ji and Zhang Liao made him no longer dare to face Hefei in the next ten years, ensuring long-term peace in southeast China.

In November, Zhang Lu officially took all his family to Nanzheng to surrender to Cao Cao, and Hanzhong had all fallen into Cao Cao's hands.

However, Cao Cao was hesitant about how to deal with Zhang Lu. He thought that Zhang Lu had a very high hope for many years in Hanzhong. If he still kept him, he could stabilize the local military and civilian hearts to a certain extent. However, he was afraid that Zhang Lu would have the possibility of rebellion after he led his army to leave.

He told Sima Yi this idea and sought his opinions. Sima Yi had heard the intention of retreating from Cao Cao, so he advised Cao Cao: "Duke Wei, the situation is very beneficial to us now. Liu Bei had just occupied Shu and had not yet established a foothold. Ba County also looked for you to surrender. The situation in Shu will inevitably fall into turmoil. You should take this opportunity to seize Shu in one fell swoop. Liu Bei, who had no food, grass and supplies to rush to help in Jingzhou, would definitely fall into an isolated situation. At that time, only Xu Huang and Zhang He, two generals, guarded Fuling and Badong respectively, prevent Guan Yu from advancing west, and captured Liu Bei alive. It is only a matter of time."

Although Cao Cao also wanted to completely eliminate the hidden danger of Liu Bei, he was worried that Shu County would be covered with mountains and terrain would be dangerous and complicated, and it would be difficult to completely seize the CD in a short period of time. Now Sun Quan and Liu Bei have resumed their alliance. If they take advantage of their presence in the battlefield in Yizhou, the situation would probably be unfavorable to him.

At the same time, Liu Bei, who was in the CD, learned that Cao Cao had completely occupied the battlefields of Hanzhong and Hefei, began to worry whether Cao Cao, who was in power, would take advantage of Sun Quan's serious injury to divide Jingzhou and Yizhou and carry out military strangulation on the CD.

Zhuge Liang believed that Cao Cao would not have the risk of going south in large numbers. He saw through Cao Cao's suspicious nature:<

"Cao Cao's war in recent years will not stay for too long, whether it is victorious or defeated. The reason is that he is afraid of chaos in the rear. At this time, Cao Cao did not immediately take advantage of the victory and went south. As long as there is any disturbance in Xudu or Yecheng, he will go back immediately. In this way, we can not only relieve the danger of Shu County, but also take advantage of this to retake Ba County."

Later, Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng sent a number of rumors to Xudu and Yecheng. For a time, a large amount of information gathered in Cao Cao, who was in Nanzheng. Among them, what Cao Cao cared about the most was the situation of the base camp:<

Cao Pi, who was in charge of Yecheng, had frequent contact with the generals guarding Hebei since Cao Cao went to Hanzhong.

This alone is enough to make Cao Cao, who is suspicious by nature, hurry back to Yecheng, but Sima Yi can see at a glance that this is Liu Bei's trick, so he will stop Cao Cao from training:

"The saints should not violate the times, but they should not miss the times. This is an excellent opportunity to seize the entire Yizhou and even destroy Liu Bei. If we give up halfway, we may never have the opportunity to destroy Shu. The second young master is your son, so he will definitely not betray you, and there will be no unfair intentions. Please do not doubt it."<

However, Cao Cao was more concerned about the stability of the rear at this time, and decided to temporarily shelve Sima Yi's third step of eagerness to advance the strategy of westward: "Zhongda, your strategy of westward is indeed the most suitable for me at the moment. Now we have completed the strategy of westward advancement 'Still Yongliang' and 'Put Hanzhong'. People should not be too greedy. If they are determined to look forward to Shu, they may lose all Long Shu."

Finally, Cao Cao conveyed the order of the entire army to Yecheng, leaving Xiahou Yuan, Zhang He and Xu Huang to guard Hanzhong to prevent Liu Bei from going north. In addition, he also ordered Zhang He to lead his troops south, and with the support of Park Hu and others, he completely captured Badong and Brazil, and gradually eroded the territory of Yizhou.

Sima Yi believed that if Cao Cao wanted to seize Bashu, he had to face it with a decisive attitude. It was impossible for Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei to gradually encroach on it, but instead put Zhang He in a dangerous place.

For this reason, Sima Yi also looked for Zhang He to discuss this matter before the army. Although Zhang He also felt that the chance of attacking Ba County in this way was not very good, and he also supported Sima Yi's quick battle to destroy Shu, after all, the general's duty was to obey the command of the commander and do his best to complete the commander's command, and he could only express helplessness in this regard.

After Cao Cao, who thought he was both involved, deployed the matter of good Hanzhong, he hurried back to Yecheng. Before leaving, Zhang He and Xiahou Yuan, who had a good personal relationship with Sima Yi, held a banquet for him on Dingjun Mountain.

After Sima Yi stood on the mountain and looked down at the terrain of Dingjun Mountain, he expected that this place would inevitably be an important battlefield for Liu Bei to go north to Hanzhong. For this reason, he instructed Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He to say:

"The two generals, as the strategic barrier to the north of Yizhou, will soon lead the army to attack Hanzhong. If the two generals attack General Zhang He in Ba County cannot maintain the situation, then it will be not far from Liu Bei's northward period."

Xiahou Yuan put down the wine jar and sighed, "Brother Zhongda, to be honest, Zhang He and I agree with your strategy in our hearts, but Wei Gong's nature is unpredictable, so we generals can only obey orders."

After saying that, he stood up and hooked Sima Yi's shoulder, leaving Sima Yi completely unprepared:<

"But don't worry, I have me in charge of Hanzhong. I wish he, Liu Bei, doesn't have the ability to take away a city and a place from me!"

For some reason, Sima Yi always had an ominous premonition. He knew that Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He had few opponents in the world, but what he cared more was that Fa Zheng, a new counselor around Liu Bei, was very familiar with Zhuge Liang, so he could roughly understand his routine. However, he had never contacted this Fa Zheng in any form, and he didn't know what role it would play in the future.

Comprehensive the terrain of Dingjun Mountain, Sima Yi gave Xiahou Yuan a suggestion:

"If the enemy attacks, they will definitely hold on; if the enemy captures it, they cannot take it away."<
Chapter completed!