After about a year of rectification, Liu Bei, under the pacification of Huang Quan, Li Yan and Fa Zheng, who were familiar with Yizhou, most of the forces in various places surrendered.

At the same time, Zhuge Liang quickly restored the livelihood of Yizhou with his outstanding political skills.

When the news of Cao Cao's southern expedition to Sun Quan again reached Yizhou, Liu Bei, who had been preparing to go north to seize the northern barrier of Yizhou in Hanzhong, immediately sought the suggestions of Zhuge Liang and Fa Zheng and other advisers, and wanted to lead his troops north.

However, what he did not expect was that Cao Cao's powerful southern expedition, Sun Quan, had suddenly withdrawn his troops under the favorable situation of defeating Han Dang, seizing Jiangdong, and watching Jiangdong. Such an abnormality forced Liu Bei to start hesitating.

Zhuge Liang, who had a very keen sense of politics, saw some unnaturalness from this strange news. He even began to doubt whether Cao and Sun had reached any secret agreement in secret, and the agreement was likely targeted by Liu Bei.

After careful consideration, Zhuge Liang decided to keep a silent attitude on whether he should go north at this time.

At this time, Fa Zhengshi strongly advised Liu Bei to seize this excellent fighter:

"Lord, I see Cao Cao's army hundreds of thousands of troops mobilized the troops to fight against Sun Quan in the south. Even if there is no major damage, Jiangdong and Hanzhong must be thousands of miles apart. The Cao army soldiers must be exhausted after a long journey. Even if they reinforce Hanzhong later, they will be at the end of their strength. Although Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He who guarded Hanzhong are famous generals in the world, their troops are insufficient after all. As the commander, Xiahou Yuan is a strategy but is prone to emotional action. You can use this to defeat him."

The strategic analysis of Fajing has made Liu Bei lean towards the side that immediately headed north, but he still failed to make up his mind.

Seeing that Liu Bei was still hesitating, Fa Zheng advised Liu Bei again and said:

"Hanzhong is a must-fight for the lord. In the overall sense, seizing Hanzhong can increase his prestige in the name of "strike Cao Cao and respect the Han Dynasty"; in the offensive sense, Hanzhong governs the land adjacent to Yongliang, and the lord can use this as the foundation to expand the country; in the defensive sense, Hanzhong is a natural barrier in the north of Yizhou. If Hanzhong is not in Yizhou, there will never be complete peace and stability. If Hanzhong is not in hand, there will be no Bashu..."

After hearing Fa Zheng's words, Liu Bei made up his mind completely. He ordered Zhang Fei and Ma Chao to cooperate with Wu Lan and Lei Tong to lead the vanguard army to attack Wudu. According to the plan of the magic circle, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei's troops were just attacking Hanzhong. The real purpose was to let Xiahou Yuan and Zhang He, who were in charge of Nanzheng, lead troops to reinforce. At that time, Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong, who were ambushing in the Nanshan area, quickly seized them while Nanzheng was empty, and then joined forces with Zhang Fei and Ma Chao to encircle and annihilate Cao Hong.

At the end of September in 217 AD (the 22nd year of Jian'an), in order to avoid being attacked by Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong, Zhang Fei's army first detoured Yinping, and then crossed Baishui and officially launched an attack on the defense of Wudu County.

Because the incident happened suddenly, Cao Hong, who was unprepared, seemed a little caught off guard. Fortunately, Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu were very calm. Cao Zhen analyzed that if Liu Bei really wanted to attack Hanzhong, the first thing he could be to be the heart of Hanzhong, Nan Zheng would definitely not fight Wudu first. Zhang Fei annexed and stationed on the south bank of the Xishui River. He was in a fierce manner but he was delayed in sending troops. It can be seen that there must be a mystery in it.

"The defenders in Hanzhong are limited. Before leaving, the King of Wei specially stationed the main force in Nanzheng, and Wudu had even fewer troops. If Zhang Fei really wanted to seize Wudu, he would have crossed the river and attacked long ago. Now he is camping on the spot. I think their real purpose should be to induce Nanzheng to reinforce, and then..."

After analyzing this, Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu both understood what Liu Bei and Fa Zheng's intentions were, so Cao Zhen immediately sent someone to send a message to Xiahou Yuan in Nanzheng, asking him to strictly guard against Nanzheng and Dingjun Mountain and not to be trapped in the plan of luring the enemy.

Because Xiahou Yuan was tempted to rescue Xia Bian, the strategy of taking advantage of the situation was discovered by Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu. Fa Zheng's plan to quickly seize Hanzhong was forced to change, and the battle for Hanzhong was about to fall into a long tug-of-war.

The military situation in Hanzhong soon reached Cao Cao, who had just arrived in Yecheng. He was very satisfied after seeing the handling plan of Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu. However, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji and others still urged Cao Cao to pay attention to the situation in Hanzhong.

After learning that Sun Quan and Cao Cao had secretly concluded an alliance, Sima Yi immediately advised Cao Cao to personally supervise the army to Nanzheng to command the battle, otherwise the situation in Hanzhong, with huge disparity in troops, would fall into a situation of unpredictable misfortunes and misfortunes.

However, Cao Cao believed that the situation in Hanzhong was completely under his control, so he did not adopt Sima Yi's suggestion.

At this time, Cao Cao often fought in the east and west, and was old, which made the head wind dysfunction worse and his health was already worse than before. Therefore, he had to consider the matter of establishing an heir before.

Cao Cao usually explained to Cao Pi and Cao Zhi separately, asking them to encourage themselves, cultivate themselves and study military and government affairs more. In fact, this sentence was mainly said to Cao Zhi, because Cao Cao knew that his son was extremely talented, but he was just willful and arrogant in his work. He often disrespects those officials who did not take the initiative to get close to him or were obviously unwilling to stand on his side. Even if someone like Yang Xiu secretly assisted him, Cao Cao almost made him the crown prince several times, but because of his poor behavior, Cao Cao repeatedly reconsidered him.

When he was staying in the village in the south, Cao Cao secretly sent several people to sneak into Cao Pi and Cao Zhi for surveillance without telling anyone. The meticulous Wu Zhi and Jia Kui quickly noticed it and reminded Cao Pi in time.

In contrast, Cao Zhi still did his own thing. Sima Yi saw his unruly personality and secretly instructed Xun Yun and Sima Fu to instigate the drunk Cao Zhi to open the Sima Gate, the gate of the palace, and ordered people to drive a carriage to gallop on the forbidden path that only the emperor could hold a sacrificial ceremony. Yang Xiu and others stopped him at Kinmen.

After this incident reached Cao Cao, who was in the village, it made Cao Cao furious and was deeply disappointed with Cao Zhi.

Although Cao Pi had already gained a favorable advantage at this time, he was still not sure, so he secretly asked Sima Yi and Wu Zhi how to win steadily.

At this time, Sima Yi noticed Jia Xu, who had been highly valued by Cao Cao but was hardly involved in the dispute over establishing his heirs. He thought that Jia Xu might be able to help him, so he recommended that he secretly get close to Jia Xu.

In fact, after learning Sima Yi's position, Jia Xu had already secretly stood on Cao Pi's side. After Cao Pi came to ask for advice in person, he replied to Cao Pi indifferently:

"It is not a wise act to use tricks in front of the King of Wei. The young master just needs to promote morality, cultivate one's character as usual, and earnestly complete all the affairs entrusted to you by the King of Wei, and do his duty as a child."

This suggestion seems very perfunctory, but after Cao Pi returned home and thought about it carefully, he found that Jia Xu's words actually had other profound meanings.

Indeed, Cao Cao is a person who uses power and tricks. Whether it is Cao Pi or Cao Zhi, it is very unlikely that he wants to play tricks without any flaws in front of him. If he is noticed, he will be disgusted by Cao Cao.

After that, Cao Pi always adhered to Jia Xu's teachings and lived in simplicity and rarely dealed with high-ranking officials. In addition to the tasks assigned by Cao Cao, he also often cared about Cao Cao's health and visited famous doctors to diagnose and treat the head-on disease that had been difficult to cure for many years. This made Cao Cao very pleased, and many officials praised Cao Pi in private.

Seeing that the wind direction was very unfavorable to Cao Zhi, Yang Xiu used his sufficient understanding of Cao Cao to tell Cao Zhi what Cao Cao wanted to do in recent days in advance, and helped him write down his political comments and send them to Cao Cao.

With the help of Yang Xiu, Cao Zhi gradually quit drinking and other habits that made Cao Cao become evil in order to win the position of prince, and began to try his best to participate in political affairs. At first, such actions made Cao Cao look at him with admiration, especially when Cao Cao found that Cao Zhi could actually imagine what he was about to do and gave proper advice, which made him pay attention to Cao Zhi again.

After the news reached the General's Mansion of the Five-Secret General, Cao Pi seemed very nervous about this. He said to Wu Zhi, Xin Pi and others with sad expressions on their faces: "It seems that as long as Yang Dezu is here, I'm afraid I can't beat Cao Zhi."

However, Wu Zhi believes that such a situation is not entirely a bad thing:

"The King of Wei has always been suspicious, and now his suspicion is even more serious than his prime. As long as there are a little rumors reaching his ears, it will be enough to make him suspicious of Cao Zhi and Yang Xiu. Next, we just need to watch the fun."

Later, Wu Zhi sent some people to spread such rumors in the prime minister's mansion:

Yang Xiu used his guess to Cao Cao's psychology to secretly help Cao Zhi win Cao Cao's favor.

Cao Cao soon heard these rumors. He was suspicious when he thought of the "one box of crisps" incident, he felt that Yang Xiu was very annoying. This incident made him more suspicious of Yang Xiu. So he pretended to express his idea of ​​letting Cao Ren send troops south to retake Nanjun in front of Yang Xiu, with the purpose of verifying whether Yang Xiu had already been involved in party struggles.

The result was obvious. Soon Cao Zhi wrote a strategy for recapturing Nanjun and a gorgeous word. He thought he would receive Cao Cao's praise this time as before. Unexpectedly, Cao Cao's face turned pale after reading it, and he said nothing, but just asked indifferently:

"I have never wanted to conquer Jingzhou in the south. How could you suddenly write this thing?"

Seeing that Cao Zhi, who was standing in the hall, could not answer hesitantly, Cao Cao knew it, but he did not explain it for the stability of the situation. At this point, Yang Xiu worked hard to help Cao Pi recover the image in Cao Cao's mind, and instantly disappeared.

As a spectator, Sima Yi was already 80% sure of Cao Pi's successful succession to the throne, and the rest was Jia Xu, who was the most critical link. Thinking of this, he planned to visit Jia Xu directly.

With Jia Mu's help, Sima Yi secretly came to Jia Xu's home. He wanted to test it first, but he didn't expect that Jia Xu would tell the purpose of Sima Yi's trip straight to the point:

"This period of time is a critical moment to decide who can establish a successor. I really didn't expect that you still have time to come to me..."

Seeing that his purpose had been exposed, Sima Yi simply went straight to the point:

"Mr. Wenhe, I don't tell lies in front of the real person. I must have guessed my purpose in this trip with your wisdom. I just don't know how Mr. considers it?"

Jia Xu picked up the teacup in front of him and gently lifted it under his lips and took a sip, then gently put it back on the table:

"Before answering your question, I hope you can answer me a question first."

Sima Yi raised his hand and said, "Sir, it's okay."

"I really want to know what you plan to do after helping Cao Pi ascend to the throne of the Prince of Wei?"

This question made Sima Yi difficult to answer for a while. Jia Xu couldn't help but smile when he saw Sima Yi's face full of trouble:

"Well, since you don't want to say it, I won't force you. If I were to help Cao Pi, I might choose to reject you and stay out of it. But if letting Cao Pi ascend the throne is also part of your plan, then I am willing to do my best."

After saying that, Jia Xu asked Sima Yi: "People like you and me who have betrayed Cao Cao, who take the initiative to involve sensitive matters like Li Si may be suspected. So how should I help Cao Pi?"

Sima Yi analyzed: "At present, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the matter of establishing a heir has reached the most important juncture. I believe that those involved in party struggles will make suggestions to Cao Cao on behalf of Cao Pi and Cao Zhi. However, the suggestions of these people are not convincing to Cao Cao. Judging from Cao Cao's current mentality, those who do not involve party struggles will have weight instead of what they say..."

At this time, Sima Yi turned his gaze to Jia Xu's face:

"For example, sir..."

Jia Xu, who has been observing Sima Yi secretly for many years, found that he was no longer a genius boy with passion and strategy back then. Now his eyes emitted an indescribable brilliance, because after suffering a huge physical and mental damage, he has been reborn and is gradually becoming an existence that fears people in the world...

As expected, Cao Cao discovered that Jia Xu had never expressed his attitude on who could be the crown prince, so he asked Jia Xu for his opinion privately, while Jia Xu kept silent and deliberately kept silent.

Cao Cao thought Jia Xu had not heard clearly or could not understand his meaning, so he patted his arm:

"Hey, I'm talking to you, why don't you answer?"

Jia Xu, who was thinking, then turned his head and said to Cao Cao: "You have to report to the King of Wei, both young masters have talents that are incomparable to the world. Who can really serve as your successor throne? You need to consider it yourself."

When Cao Cao heard Jia Xu say this, he curled his lips:

"Isn't this the same as saying it?"

"However, when the King of Wei asked me this question, it reminded me of Yuan Benchu ​​and Liu Jingsheng before..."

Just as Cao Cao sneered at Jia Xu's seemingly perfunctory answer, Jia Xu's words attracted his special attention. He turned his head and stared at Jia Xu for a long time, and then suddenly patted Jia Xu's shoulder and laughed continuously.

Three days later, Cao Cao formally issued an edict, decreing the second prince Cao Pi as the crown prince of the King of Wei (also known as the crown prince).

At this point, in the struggle to establish his heir, Cao Pi first eliminated the general Cao Zhang, who had no competitive pressure, and defeated his greatest enemy Cao Zhi, and ascended the position of the heir of the King of Wei as he wished.
Chapter completed!