In fact, the same is true.

Guo Peng had already seen Chang'an's stable situation and had the idea of ​​returning to Yecheng.

He thought of returning to Yecheng, summarizing the gains and losses he had made during this Western Expedition, summarizing the experience and lessons, and then starting a public opinion war to lay the groundwork for his own proclaim.

Sun Ce is already dead, and the biggest obstacle no longer exists. Jiangdong's own civil strife can kill him, and Guo Peng is no longer threatened.

Now that the public opinion war has begun, and the trouble has been made for a while, the next thing will be very interesting.

But just as I was about to set out to arrange a retreat, news of a political struggle in Hanzhong suddenly came.

The secret spies lurking in Hanzhong sent the news out, letting Guo Peng know about the fierce political struggle between the Dongzhou faction and the Yizhou faction under Liu Zhang.

Guo Peng himself is a veteran of political struggle and is very interested in it. He wants to see if Liu Zhang's political struggle can leave some room for himself to gain Hanzhong.

After staying in Guanzhong for a while, I accumulated some food and fodder and restored the combat effectiveness of some troops. The reconstruction of Guanzhong is also underway and the situation is becoming more stable.

The Wei army already had the ability to fight again in a certain sense, but Guo Peng was not very willing.

But if the political struggle within Yizhou gives him the opportunity to take advantage of loopholes, this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity cannot be missed.

Guo Peng then stopped in Chang'an for the time being. While continuing to pay attention to the news in this regard, he handed over some government and military affairs to Guo Jin to handle, so that he could cultivate a tacit understanding between him and his subordinates.

While cultivating successors and paying attention to changes in the situation, Guo Peng stared at Hanzhong tightly. At the same time, the news of Sun Ce's death came, and the news of Wang Shang's death also came.

Guo Peng immediately determined that the political struggle in Hanzhong was not over yet and would be pushed to another peak. There will be huge rifts between the Dongzhou faction and the Yizhou faction, and it may even be dead.

The enemy's civil strife is his opportunity.

Isn’t this his chance to advance to Hanzhong?

Guo Peng immediately ordered the rectification of an army of 25,000 people, and ordered the five generals Zhao Yun, Zhang He, Zhu Ling, Gao Lan and Yan Liang to lead a 5,000 troops to garrison the south of Chang'an.

Order Xu Chu and Dian Wei to rectify the Tiger Guards.

He ordered Chen Gong, Xun You, Lu Su, Cao Xiu, Cao Chun and Cao Hong to accompany him.

Then he ordered Guo Jin, Lu Yi, Xiahou Shang and Cao Zhen to follow him, thinking that he was a counselor.

When he saw Guo Peng doing this, all the subordinates and generals under his command immediately understood that Guo Peng was about to make any movement again.

That's right, Guo Peng is indeed going to make a move again, but he did not explain the reason at the beginning. This was just a preparation. He did not really want to send troops. Once the situation changes, the order to go to the expedition will become an order to withdraw troops.

Let's go back to Yecheng together.

If there is no problem in Hanzhong, he will not have to waste time in Guanzhong. He needs to return to Hebei to prepare.

If there is any change in Hanzhong, he must seize this opportunity.

He waited and waited, and let him wait for the opportunity.

On February 11, the sixth year of Xingping, the county magistrate of Lantian escorted several people with disheveled faces, saying that they had jumped out of the Luogu Road entrance. They had unknown identity. They shouted to see Duke Wei when they saw someone, saying that they were General Pang's messenger and asked to see Duke Wei if they had something to do.

Seeing that the leader was very talkative and did not dare to mislead the matter, the magistrate of Lantian County took the people to Chang'an to report the news.

When Zhang Zhao learned about this, he informed Guo Peng. When Guo Peng heard about it, he thought of who General Pang was. Suddenly he thought of Pang Xi, and was shocked and immediately sent someone to bring these people to him.

The Tiger Guards rushed to Guo Peng with a group of five people. When the leader saw Guo Peng, he immediately took out a roll of bamboo slips from his arms and presented them to Guo Peng with both hands.

"General Pang's messenger, Deng Zhibomiao, a native of Xinye County, Nanyang County, Jingzhou, came to write a letter to Duke Wei! Please help me!"

Deng Zhi shouted loudly, Guo Peng frowned and signaled Xu Chu to come forward to get the letter. Xu Chu walked forward in armor, took the bamboo slips with one hand, threw away the cloth bag, unfolded the bamboo slips, looked at them, smelled them, trembled, and confirmed that there was no problem, so he gave them to Guo Peng.

Guo Peng took the bamboo slips and looked at them carefully. The more he looked, the more he became more shocked, and the more he looked, the more he became more happy. In the end, he almost didn't laugh out loud.

"Deng Zhi, is this serious?"

"It's true! If there is any false statement, Zhi will not be allowed to enter the ancestral tomb after her death!"

Deng Zhi was afraid that Guo Peng would not believe it, so he immediately made a poisonous oath.

Guo Peng calmly handed the letter to Chen Gong beside him and asked Chen Gong to circulate it to others.

Chen Gong, Xun You, Lu Su and others saw it, their faces changed drastically, and then they all showed deep thought expressions.

"Why did Liu Jiyu kill Pang Xi?"

Guo Peng asked.

"The villain does not know the reason for this matter, but a villain has a fellow villager who is a guest in General Wu's mansion. The villain has a good relationship with him. He doesn't want to see the villain die innocently, so he came to warn the villain to let the villain go out to hide, but General Pang is kind to the villain, how can the villain survive by himself?"

Deng Zhi's face was desolate: "In the past, Fan Li wrote a letter to the ground, saying that the birds were gone, the good bow was hidden, the cunning rabbit died, and the lackeys were cooked. Now for Liu Jiyu, is this the situation? General Pang is determined to conquer Liangzhou for Liu Jiyu, but ends up like this. How can he not be disheartened?

Now General Pang is determined to fight to the death, thinking that he will survive, so he asked Duke Wei to provide help and send troops to help. General Pang is willing to offer Hanzhong to Duke Wei. If Duke Wei wants to gain Shu, General Pang is willing to be the pioneer and fight for Duke Wei’s bloody battle on the battlefield, and he will never regret it if he dies!"

Deng Zhi was crying and knelt on the ground.

"It is a lucky thing for General Pang to have a loyal subordinate like you. I know everything you said. I will send someone to find out the situation. If the situation is true, I will send troops to help you. Don't blame me for being cautious. We must be cautious in major military and national affairs."

Guo Peng nodded.

"Zhi doesn't dare. Zhi just hopes that Duke Wei will verify it as soon as possible. General Pang may not be able to hold on for a long time!"

Deng Zhi bows again.

"Okay, I promise you."

Guo Peng nodded, looked at Deng Zhi, who was crying in a desolate face, and suddenly became interested.

"Are you from Jingzhou?"

“That’s right.”

"Why go to Shuzhong?"

"I have poor family and no way to live in Jingzhou, so I can only go to Shu to find a way."

Deng Zhi wiped his tears and whispered.

"Deng Shinno... Are you the descendant of Gaomi Hou?"

Guo Peng asked.

Deng Zhi nodded.

"A villain has a humble status and has no prestige of ancestors, and does not dare to regard himself as his descendants."

The Deng family in Shinno was always quite brilliant throughout the Eastern Han Dynasty. There was a woman in the clan who had been the queen and a woman who had been the queen. The Deng family's relatives were also very powerful.

However, after Emperor Huan Liu Zhi deposed the throne of the second queen Deng Mengnu, the descendants of Deng's family were implicated and their property was confiscated. The Deng family was defeated and never recovered.

At that time, it was the eighth year of Emperor Huan of Han, which was the year when Guo Peng was born.

Deng Zhi and Deng Ai, who later destroyed Shu, both came from the Deng family in Shinye.

The Deng family of Shinno was also a clan with many talented people. Unfortunately, the Deng family was defeated. In the era when they were increasingly concerned about family background, they were ultimately unable to get to the forefront.

Even at present, although the Deng family has noble bloodline and is the hero of Deng Yu, the founding hero of the Eastern Han Dynasty, as the saying goes, county officials are not as good as current management. There are so many people. No matter how good your family background is, there is no ready-made power, no one will curry favor with you and care about you.

Deng Zhi actually couldn't find a position in his hometown and was forced to make a living in other places, which shows how serious the Deng family's decline was.

During this period, there were rules for scholars to join officials and become officials. The political unspoken rule of the Eastern Han Dynasty was that the administrative officials from other places were airborne and needed to use local people as county officials.

Except for the Henan Yin subordinates who can use other county officials, local people should be used as subordinates in other places according to the rules.

Therefore, if a scholar wants to go to another place to seek an official position, he must first pass the locals. This is the case with Zhuge Liang.

Although Zhuge Xuan worked very hard and used Zhuge Liang's two sisters to marry the Jingzhou clan, the eldest sister married the Kuai clan, and the second sister promised the Pang clan, both of whom were local wealthy clans in Jingzhou, so as to gain kinship in Jingzhou.

Before Zhuge Feng passed away, he also told Zhuge Liang about his marriage and promised the daughter of the famous scholar Huang Chengyan to Zhuge Liang. Huang Chengyan's wife and Liu Biao's wife were sisters, and Liu Biao and Huang Chengyan were brother-in-laws.

With these relationships, the Zhuge family, who belonged to Langya County, Xuzhou, gradually gained a foothold in Jingzhou. Zhuge Liang was also appreciated by his second sister's father-in-law, Pang Degong, a famous scholar in Jingzhou, and was called Wolong by another famous scholar Sima Hui.

Having said that, if Zhuge Liang entered Jingzhou because of this, he would confirm the fact that he would use the name of marriage to increase his reputation. His reputation was too bad. Zhuge Xuan built the road from Xuzhou to Jingzhou, but this road still had to be sunbathed before he could walk.

Of course, Zhuge Liang also has his own ideals. He is unwilling to go to the office for his own ideals. Seeing through the general trend of the world is not in Liu Biao, which may be one of the reasons.

But Deng Zhi is not Zhuge Liang, and he wants to find a way out, but he can't find anything to do locally, so he can only make a living in other places and try his luck. As a result, his luck is still very bad. He can't meet him, so he can only be a Pang Xi's disciple and make a living.
Chapter completed!