Liu Bei's side has begun to welcome the arrival of "spring", with construction as the main goal, strengthening the surrounding fortifications, and planning to temporarily stop launching large-scale attacks in the next few years.

But the rest of the princes, after calming down, waited for Liu Bei's move with fear, and they were worried that after Yuan Shao was resolved, they would be the next to be shot.

And Yuan Shu, who was in Runan, also because after Liu Bei defeated Yuan Shao, the Yuan family had only the last force left for him, so he had to rein in some of his temper, listen to the advice of his staff, fight steadily, and use the advantages of the Yuan family to gain a firm foothold in Yuzhou.

And Sun Jian has almost reorganized his troops at this time, and plans to counterattack Liu Biao once.

He still remembers the last time he was attacked by Liu Biao, which caused most of his family to lose most of his money.

Sun Jian and Yuan Shu formed an alliance, but Boss Cao was Tao Qian's guest at this time.

Why?

Because except for the territory bordering Qingzhou in the north of Xuzhou, the other borders of Xuzhou are now under the control of Boss Cao.

This Lao Cao is also a wonderful person, and he is really a talent, and he was able to take the northern border of Yangzhou and the eastern border of Yuzhou and Yanzhou without making a sound.

However, Lao Cao is an understanding person, he has a deep understanding of the current situation in Xuzhou, Tao Qian is old, even if he has the heart to continue to fight for hegemony, his body does not allow him to continue to fight, not to mention that now the north of Xuzhou is Qingzhou, and the surrounding is wrapped up by Cao Mengde, the performance of the two sons of the Tao family seems to be unsatisfactory, so the inheritance of Xuzhou will become a big problem.

Cao Cao has that ambition and that courage.

He planned to talk to Tao Qian, let himself take Xuzhou, and protect him in exchange for the safety of his Tao family.

It has to be said that historical processes are sometimes strikingly similar, and the only difference may be the people involved in these processes.

Tao Qian actually didn't have much choice.

Today's Xuzhou, although the development in his hands is not bad, with his strong hand, the family in Xuzhou has no way to make any waves, but if he falls, there is no way to guarantee that these families will not do it and fight for power.

You must know that the lord of this side is different from the emperor of the Han Dynasty, and the rule of the Han Dynasty for many years is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but the lord of a state is not necessarily.

Even if Tao Qian was the history of Xuzhou Thorn back then, and now he is Xuzhou Mu, but which of those families has not been in business for longer than him? It's just that now Tao Qian has power, military power, and skill in his hands, and these families are not sure enough to fight Tao Qian.

This humble gentleman can make the three families of Xuzhou attack each other between the banquet and laughter, and when the banquet is over, the three worlds are also surrounded by Cao Bao with the Xuzhou army, and they are eradicated in the name of rebellion.

Since then, where does anyone dare to underestimate Tao Qian's ruthlessness?

When this old guy was young, he was also a ruthless man with good means, how could you despise others when they looked like they were maintaining their health when they were old?

But if Tao Qian is gone, there is no doubt that those families who have suffered Tao Qian's losses hidden in the depths of Xuzhou will extend their hands to the Tao brothers.

So Cao Cao planned to seize Tao Qian's point to make a blatant land transaction.

But the people who aim at Xuzhou's fat are definitely not the only Cao Cao's family, after all, Xuzhou is also considered to be an economically developed place in the southeast, and it is also one of the transportation hubs in the east.

The reliability of this news is very high, and the spies lurking in Jizhou and Qingzhou through various camps have obtained this result through the policies and material mobilization of Liu Bei's camp.

If you can take Xuzhou now, with the economic support of the Xuzhou family, then the development time of these three or five years may not be able to unify the southern border and fight with Liu Xuande.

Compared with Jingzhou, which has Liu Biao sitting firmly, Yizhou, where Liu Yan encloses his own land, Jiaozhou, where the Shi family is stationed in deep cultivation, and Yangzhou, which has a complex family and many waterways, and is difficult to unify, compared with the Sili area occupied by the Xiliang Army, the first force other than Liu Bei, and Liangzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and Yanzhou are all fat, but Yuzhou and Yanzhou are now mostly occupied by Yuan Shu, and a small part is divided by Cao Cao.

These two are now also ruthless characters.

Yuan Shu has a cluster of Yuan family's protégés, some of Yuan Shao's subordinates also went to Yuzhou to defect to Yuan Shu after the defeat, and his business in Yuzhou is also thriving, plus Yuzhou itself is a populous state, with a large labor force, the vigorous development of production and the development of armaments, so that Yuan Shu has 100,000 soldiers, and it can almost be said that he is the third largest prince on the surface.

At this time, some people must be curious, why Yuan Highway has been able to defeat Liu Yan and Liu Biao, ranking behind Liu Bei and Lu Bu, and becoming the third largest prince?

Because, Yizhou is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but the people of Bashu are brave, Liu Yan is not unintentional to fight for hegemony, but if he is not a member of the Han Dynasty, he probably does not have the capital to gain a foothold in Yizhou at the beginning, but fortunately, now he also holds the main power in Yizhou, and there are tens of thousands of armored people in his hands.

And Jingzhou is vast and sparsely populated, with many families, Liu Biao seems to be as stable as an old dog, but in fact, he is walking on thin ice, step by step, and if he is not careful, he will lose everything.

After all, riding into the thorn alone sounds very handsome, but it is really difficult to do.

In the absence of any complete henchman assistance, Liu Biao can twist Jingzhou into a rope is already very good, but unfortunately there is more than enough to defend the family, and the hegemony is insufficient.

And before Cao Cao swallowed Xuzhou, he was just rubbing next to Yuan Shu, and he didn't dare to go deep into a head-to-head duel with Yuan Shu.

Cao Cao still understands very well, his base at this time is very scattered, and there is no really stable rear, if he goes to touch Yuan Shu at this time, then he must be the one who suffers, and then there will not be enough deterrence to eat Xuzhou.

In addition to these princes who seem to be relatively big-named, they have several big cities, more than a dozen small cities, tens of thousands of soldiers, and a huge momentum.

There are many more who raise their banners and set up their own land in the land of a county and a city.

These guys are not too arrogant, and they are just using the name of some general, so-and-so, Taishou, to do the work of land division and self-government.

But that's all.

Since the Qing Dynasty and the south of Hebei, the Han Dynasty began to fall into a long-term chaotic dispute, and the emergence of this dispute was completely based on the Xiliang and Northern Realms, Lu Bu and Liu Bei, the two giants did not have any movement.

When there was no way to snatch food from the tiger's mouth in front of Xiliang and the northern border, the rest of the rich land of the Han Dynasty naturally became fat.

Was the fat taken by the mighty tigers, or was it snatched up by the hungry wolves?

Moreover, these disputes and wars in the southern land of the Han Dynasty seem to be not only their independent behavior, but also in the smoke of the beacon fire, which is completely different from the peace and tranquility of the north, there seem to be more hidden figures, unknown, silently promoting the development of all this.

However, no matter how chaotic and noisy the south is, it has nothing to do with Liu Bei Group now.

They only need to take care of the Hebei and Qingqing defense lines now, and basically no one dares to move the state, so the rest of the energy can be completely invested in infrastructure construction.

Chen Chen walked out of the government affairs hall, looked at the heavy snow falling in the sky in the courtyard, checked the height of the snow in several wooden basins he had placed in the courtyard, and frowned.

This year's snow seems to be more than a little bigger.