In early February of the third year of Wude (27 AD), Cen Peng's southern expedition army had arrived dozens of miles north of Deng County, only separated by the dense Deng forest. The three armies did not rush to pass through the forest, but instead stationed here to receive the last batch of grain transported from Wancheng, and then move forward. Unless they were fighting to the Han River, they could rely on water supply.

In Cen Peng's tent, General Zhennan and Zhang Yu, the embroidered commander of the embroidered clothes, read a letter from Xiangyang. The handwriting on the letter was very beautiful. When the writer wrote, he must have been filled with pride.

"This is Feng Jingtong."

After reading it, Zhang Yu couldn't help but complain: "It was originally enough to have the Embroidered Guard to assist the general, but his order had to establish a 'Jingxiang Yamen'. Feng Yan even asked for an edict from His Majesty and came here to participate in the battle in a hurry."

To put it bluntly, it is just a snatch of merit.

The Great Bank ordered the government to manage diplomacy and set up several doors. After Feng Yan achieved results in Shuzhong, he became addicted again. He also heard that his old opponent, Wang Wang, went to various countries to organize "Hezong", so he was more active and "Lianheng" the Internet.

As the intelligence leader, Zhang Yu cooperated most of the time, but he also felt that Feng Yan was too greedy and wanted to interfere no matter whoever was on the side.

Especially in the south, after the Embroidered Yiwei pacified the Red Eyebrows a year ago, he began to organize inquiries and did a lot of early work: bribing the confidants of King Li of Chu, contacting local tyrants who wanted to serve the great country, using some small favors to ask the people of Jingzhou to help with their work, and painting local maps.

According to the Fifth Relationship idea, a place where military strategists must fight can be fought against, and if they cannot, they can lay a solid foundation for military conquest.

However, the Embroidered Guard did not have time to achieve results, and Feng Yan made a fuss. He was brave and had a good time to choose the right time. He chose Han and Cheng to send troops. When King Li of Chu was most desperate, he stretched out his hand. Couldn't the other party have to hold it?

"Now, Feng Yan said with a bad tongue that the King of Chu surrendered and the first contribution of the Southern Expedition was probably his!"

Zhang Yu was dissatisfied with Feng Yanxin and was merciless, and also observed Cen Peng's expression.

However, General Cen did not care and said with a smile: "As soon as the order of the Great Revolution was issued, he could convince Qin Feng to surrender and make great contributions. Isn't it better for Jing Xiang to go south without fighting and continue to advance south to Xiangyang, and then wait for the opportunity to deal with Feng Yi and the Han army?"

The Southern Expedition Army did not stop due to the progress made in diplomacy. Cen Peng made full use of Feng Yan's creative opportunities and led his army through Deng Lin in one fell swoop a few days later.

The so-called Deng Lin is said to be the story of the cane after Kuafu fell to death and was transformed into a vast forest of 300 miles. It has been revitalized in early spring. Only a road across the forest leads to the south. There is little maintenance in the troubled times and the reduction in business travel, so naturally it began to counterattack violently. After a spring rain, the originally hard road surface was covered with grass. The three armies must be divided into several teams and pulled into a long snake formation to pass through.

After entering Denglin Center, the cavalry on the outpost even found many huge footprints across the avenue, as well as fresh manure piles with feet and knees...

The soldiers from the north were quite surprised. After Cen Peng and others arrived, they heard them talking about this, and there were another huge roar of wild beasts in the forest, which made the generals and officials pale.

"It's an elephant." Cen Peng sighed: "I heard that a thousand years ago, Zhou Gong drove tigers, leopards, rhinestones and elephants away, and the world was very happy. From then on, there were no more elephants in the Central Plains. But some people say that there are still traces in the Deng forest. Giant elephants hide in the forest and occasionally come out to eat people's crops. As expected."

Deng Lin happened to be stuck on the north-south dividing line, not only the climate, but also the population. From then on, even the wealthy Nanjun is far inferior to Nanyang's giant county with more than 2 million people.

Relying on the peace talks, 30,000 soldiers of the Southern Expedition passed through Denglin without any danger. The place next to the river was much wider. There were many villages in the villages, and you could hear the raging sound of the Han River from afar. Cen Peng raised the "Thousand Mile Mile Mile" sent by the fifth reunion, and even saw the outline of Deng County dozens of miles away.

Deng Feng, the governor of Deng County, had received news that King Li of Chu surrendered to the Great Wei, and also cooperated to send envoys to see Cen Peng. His attitude was neither humble nor arrogant: "Deng Feng had a responsibility to defend the territory before, and was a condemnation of the general's envoy, which was a death sentence! But at that time, he had to serve the king with loyalty. Now, since Wei and Chu have become a family, Feng should do his best to assist the general."

Deng Feng sent people early to collect 10,000 stones of grain at the wharf near Deng County, and prepared a lot of boats to facilitate Cen Peng's crossing the river.

But he refused to open Deng County, just using the excuse that he was afraid that the people in the city would be frightened and in chaos.

This reason certainly made Zhang Yu quite dissatisfied, so he secretly said to Cen Peng: "General Zhennan, Deng Feng has changed the three lords first, abandoned Liu Bosheng and then Liu Xuan. Although he is now the son-in-law of Qin Feng, he is still independent. He is mostly a remnant of the powerful private soldiers of the Nanjun county. He hates His Majesty's division of land in Nanyang, and is hard to tame. Qin Feng may have surrendered, but Deng Feng cannot believe it! Now he refuses to open the city, he is mostly a false surrender."

"According to the inside report, Deng Feng's troops were 6,700 in Deng County, and 2,300 were led by his deputy general Zhao Xi. In Shandu County in the northwest, the two of them were supporting each other and had a good morale. If Deng Feng took advantage of our army's halfway and suddenly attacked him, it would be a big problem."

Cen Peng praised Zhang Yu's judgment, but smiled and said, "So what if it's a fraud? I have my own concerns."

The two of them discussed for a long time, and when they came out of the tent, Zhang Yu pretended to be a shady face and arrogantly tried to be domineering at the envoy sent by Deng Feng.

"Deng Feng first cut off one ear of the general envoy, which is one crime; when the general of the superior country comes here, Deng Feng will not leave the city to greet him, which is two crimes."

"The two crimes should be killed. However, it is considered that Deng Feng can still correct his mistakes and the military situation is urgent. However, the boats are insufficient. Deng County sent 5,000 people to assist the army in building the floating bridge."

"The food is not enough, Deng County needs to pay another 20,000 shi! Delivery ten thousand shi every half a month!"

...

"Take another 20,000 stones? Send 5,000 people to serve as the people? Cen Peng will come directly to attack the city!"

Cen Peng's request indeed caused a stir in Deng Feng's general's mansion. Several of Deng Feng's loyal confidants thought it was impossible. This was equivalent to sending out all the grain and labor force in the city. How to do it?

However, Deng Feng thought in silence and finally sighed: "This is the situation, I can only give it to him."

"The bend of the zi till is to seek faith; the hibernation of the dragon and the snake is to maintain one's body. This is the only way to make Cen Peng go south with peace of mind."

But some people are worried that in the process of transporting food and manpower, the city defense is useless, and Cen Peng may suddenly attack and capture Deng County, and all Deng Feng's plans will be in vain.

"The grain and human hands do not come out of the city. Not only that, no self-instruction is required, and everyone must be banned from entering and leaving Deng County." Deng Feng's words made everyone feel cold on their backs.

"Send five hundred people to lead the Wei army to Liluzhong, the north bank of the Han River, and capture the people! Then let the people carry the food to the wharf and assist the Wei army in building the floating bridge."

Deng Feng glanced at everyone: "This move is enough to make the locals in Deng County hate it deeply. Remember, you can not restrain the soldiers, but all evil deeds must be done under the banner of the Wei army!"

...

Zhang Yu saw Deng Feng’s response and also reminded Cen Peng, but General Cen just replied lightly, “I understand.”

Then I focused on looking through the map, refine the mountains and rivers on both sides of the Han River little by little, and then clicked on a place above and said: "Send 5,000 people to carry some food to occupy Fanxiang."

Fan Township is located between Deng County and Xiangyang, next to the Han River. The city walls are often destroyed by torrents and are regarded as a terrain by the locals. It was not until King Xuan of Zhou granted this place to his minister Zhongshanfu, who built a long dike on the south bank of the Han River, named Laolong Dike. With this dike, the city in the north of the Yangtze River was built. The history of Fancheng was even longer than Xiangyang, which originated in the Spring and Autumn Period.

However, Fancheng has now declined, and it is only a township affiliated to Deng County. The city walls have been disrepair and are in dilapidated. They can be easily taken down by hundreds of people and exist only as ferries that communicate with the two places.

Cen Peng took a fancy to this place and sent someone to Xiangyang to communicate with Qin Feng, saying that he respected King Li of Chu and could not enter Deng and Xiang, but he could not let the army sleep in the open, right? Fancheng must be given out, otherwise there would be no need to discuss this peace!

Qin Feng was indeed reluctant to give up the throne, and hesitated about surrendering to the fifth reunion and giving up his power and territory to be a marquis. So before the end of the war, he wanted to continue to maintain the army and the city walls to continue to wait and see. However, under the pressure of the Han Dynasty and the alliance, he could only bow his head. Fancheng could still be abandoned, and Feng Yanxiaozhi was given the advantage and disadvantage, so he soon gave up the city.

Just so happened that Wanshi of grain from Deng County was handed over, and Cen Peng was not polite, loading the grain onto a ship, and transporting it into Fancheng together with the five thousand men arrested from nearby villages.

From this day on, Cen Peng often stood on Fancheng, which was close to the river, and used a thousand-mile mirror to see the situation on the south bank. In addition to peeking at the defense of Xiangyang City, he mainly stared at the undulating mountains twenty miles west of Xiangyang.

A few days later, the floating bridge was basically repaired, but Cen Peng ordered the strong men to continue to repair the city walls of Fancheng, as if they had to live for a long time, without the intention of "going south quickly to attack the Han Dynasty" that Qin Feng and Deng Feng expected.

Even Feng Yan was surprised that he had paved the way south for Cen Peng, so why didn't he move? So he sent someone to ask.

Cen Peng did not reveal his true intentions at all, but only responded to it, "It's time to wait until the soldiers are resting, and soon they will lead the three armies south."

He moved to the Han River and came a small boat. After getting ashore in Fancheng, he reported to Cen Peng: "General, Wancheng's side troops have crossed the Han River, besieged Shandu, and cut off the connection between Shandu and Deng County and Xiangyang!"

"Great kindness." Cen Peng smiled and then he stroked his beard. The time was finally ripe.

He immediately arranged for his confidant to say, "Go to Xiangyang quickly and invite Duke Feng to Fancheng, and he said there was a matter of going south to discuss it. He must invite him out before the accident!"

After saying that, Cen Peng said meaningfully: "I am not Han Xin."

"Mr. Feng, there is no need to be Li Shiqi!"

Cen Peng talked about a case during the Chu-Han dispute. Li Shiqi, the civil minister of Liu Bang, was sent to Tian Qi, the country of Tian Heng, the fifth ancestor of Tian Heng, and others, successfully persuaded Tian Heng to surrender to Han and attack Chu.

However, Han Xin had gathered a large army from Hebei to prepare to attack Qi. Under the lobbying of his strategist Kuai Che, Han Xin fought undeclaredly and attacked Qi. This caused Tian Heng to be so angry that he thought Li Shiqi had deceived him and directly cooked him to death!

As soon as this statement was made, he really wanted to be "Kuai Che". He secretly persuaded Cen Peng to take action. Zhang Yu, who was cheating Feng Yan, lowered his head in shame, but was panicked, afraid that Cen Peng would report his little thoughts to the fifth relationship.

But Cen Peng had already begun to talk about the important matters and said to the captains under his command: "You guys."

"Since ancient times, the Jingchu land has been made with Yingru as the turtle, Jianghan as the pond, Denglin as the wall, and then the square city can be used to resist the powerful enemies in the north."

"Now, Ying Ru has the Hengye General guarding him, and the rear is stable; Fangcheng is in Wancheng, and there is no major problem with Yin Prefect."

"Deng Lin's danger was passed without fighting by Feng Jingtong's talent."

This is Cen Peng's pattern. Don't always think about others competing for merit with you, but you should flexibly and maneuverably use all favorable factors to realize your combat intentions.

Cen Peng pointed to the south: "Now, the last Jianghan has also built a floating bridge!"

"The huge Jingchu has no danger to defend."

Cen Peng raised a charge that had been discussed with Zhang Yu long ago: "After the Embroidered Commander, Qin Feng and Deng Feng were pretending to surrender. They wanted to collude with the Han army and attack my back. This general had no choice but to destroy him first."

He began to encourage everyone: "In the past, Bai Qi attacked Chu, and he also walked this way, slaughtered Deng in one battle, promoted Yan and Ying in two battles, and burned Yiling in three battles!"
Chapter completed!