Late November.

Yuan Shao sent an envoy from Youzhou, along with Liu Zheng's fleet, to meet Liu Zheng and try to persuade Liu Zheng to trade grain.

During this period of time, the people in charge of trade have always been Yuan Zhou, the left-arm and right-hand strategist under Liu Zheng, and Mi Fang of the Mi family.

Mi Fang was in charge of trade, and Yuan Zhou was in charge of contacting the leaders of the major Karasuma tribes, and Yuan Zhou went to wherever there was a need to negotiate.

However, because Yuan Zhou was arranged by Liu Zheng for many things, Yuan Zhou was usually very busy, although he was fully responsible for the relevant affairs of the caravan, but he rarely went to Youzhou, but it happened that the number of trade this time was relatively large, and the stakes were very high, so Yuan Zhou went to Youzhou a few months ago.

After Yuan Shao's men and horses knew about it, they sent an envoy to return to Wu County with Yuan Zhou.

After they returned to Wu County, they did not come to meet Liu Zheng directly, but now that Wu County had rested for two days, they asked Yuan Zhou to come over first to ask Liu Zheng for advice, and then arrange for Yuan Shao's envoy to meet Liu Zheng after reporting the news.

"Mr. Yuan Zhou, you have come back from Youzhou, how is the situation this time, you should not have encountered any trouble."

"Back to the lord, this trip to Youzhou was quite smooth, and there were no twists and turns in Youzhou, the grain and grass we transported over were all sold to the major tribes very easily, and we also sold more than a thousand war horses from Youzhou again relying on those boats of grain and grass."

Now Liu Zheng's grain and grass are no longer scarce, and he has reclaimed wasteland in Jiaozhou, and he has already hoarded a lot of grain and grass. Later, after occupying Jingzhou and Yangzhou, the source of grain and grass for his subordinates greatly increased.

Jingzhou and Yangzhou are both water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. There are water systems such as the Yangtze River, Dongting Lake, and Poyang Lake. It is very suitable for growing crops, and it produces much more food than in ordinary places. In a year, he was able to accumulate more grain from other places, which made Liu Zheng's subordinates not only begin to have abundant people, but also never worry about the food and grass problems of the soldiers and horses under his command.

Of course, the most important of them is that Liu Zheng has always paid attention to the strategy of elite soldiers.

One of the ten people under the other princes was a soldier, and then he used the grain paid by the ten people to support the soldier.

Under Liu Zheng, the three states and counties he now occupies have a total of more than 6 million people.

But when the soldiers and horses under his command were full, there were less than 200,000 people.

In addition to the soldiers and horses of the six battalions and the 20,000 naval troops, the remaining 100,000 people are reserve troops, scattered in the counties of the three prefectures and counties.

Serve as a county soldier in the county to maintain law and order.

Even so, these people are not many together, and in other words, Liu Zheng's subordinates can support one soldier for every thirty people.

In this way, there is naturally a lot of food, and it is completely possible to take out a lot of it for sale.

"More than a thousand war horses, very good, with these war horses, the horses needed by the scouts of the major battalions have finally been found."

"That's right, my lord, this time I went to Youzhou, and there is another thing that needs to be reported to you."

"What's the matter?"

"When I was in Youzhou, Yuan Shao once sent someone to find me and said that he wanted to make a deal with us."

"Yuan Shao?"

When Liu Zheng heard this, he immediately became interested, and asked Yuan Zhou carefully, Yuan Zhou was not in a hurry, and slowly told Liu Zheng what he had encountered in Youzhou, and told Liu Zheng the news that Yuan Shao's envoy had come to Wu County.

After some description, Liu Zheng finally understood.

"What is the name of Yuan Shao's envoy?"

"Guo Tu."

Liu Zheng asked Yuan Zhou, Yuan Zhou had already talked to Guo Tu along the way, and he was familiar with it, so when Liu Zheng asked, he immediately answered.

When Liu Zheng heard the words Guo Tu, he was taken aback, and his face involuntarily showed some mixed colors.

Guo Tu, Guo Tu, it's actually him.

Liu Zheng never thought that Yuan Shao would actually send Guo Tu out.

If you want to say that Liu Zheng understands Yuan Shao, there is no shortage of strategists under him, and there are even a few strategists under him, who can be regarded as a very strategic person in the Three Kingdoms.

For example, Tian Feng and the two of them.

For another example, Xun Yu and Guo Jia were all talents under Yuan Shao at the beginning, but unfortunately they were not reused later and took refuge in Cao Cao.

Even Xu You, who was under Liu Zheng, took refuge in Yuan Shao in his early years and served under Yuan Shao's account.

No matter how bad it is, there are also judges, Ji Feng and others.

They are all talented people, although they are not first-class strategists, but they are also able to play an important position in the army, and it is still useful to give advice.

But Guo Tu, Liu Zheng could only laugh, Guo Tu can also be regarded as a-stirring stick under Yuan Shao.

It is said that the sleeping dragon and phoenix chicks can win the world by one person.

There is still another saying, Wu has Daorong, Wen has Guo Tu, and one person can lose the world.

There is Guo Tu in this article, but it is Guo Tu, the strategist under Yuan Shao.

It can be said that whoever Guo Tu assists will have to be cool.

Yuan Shao's failure was partly due to Yuan Shao's own reasons, and the bigger reason was also indirectly caused by Guo Tu.

For example, when Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty fled, Yuan Shao's subordinates suggested to Yuan Shao to welcome the Emperor of Han, so that he could coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes.

But Guo Tu immediately jumped out and must not, once he welcomed the Han Emperor, Yuan Shao's great foundation would become the Han Emperor's, and he would have to listen to the words of the Han Xian Emperor when the time came. Yuan Shao thought about it right, so he gave up and let Cao Cao pick up a bargain.

Later, Yuan Shao eliminated Gongsun Zhan, and his advisers said that they would take the opportunity to cultivate and slowly figure it out. Guo Tu immediately jumped out and said that he wanted to strangle Cao Cao in the cradle while Cao Cao's soldiers and horses were few, and then tricked Yuan Shao into sending troops to deal with Cao Cao.

Yuan Shao believed Guo Tu's nonsense, and really raised the soldiers and horses of Sanzhou to attack Xuchang. was hacked by a wave of frustration, so that the frustrated military power was divided and not trusted by Yuan Shao, and the consequence was naturally that Yuan Shao was destroyed by Cao Cao.

And among them, the reason why Yuan Shao lost so quickly, Guo Tu also made a lot of efforts.

After Xu You voted for Cao Cao, he said the plan to attack the black nest, this plan was not so perfect fact, Zhang He and others once said that they wanted to return to the black nest granary, but Guo Tu tried his best to oppose public opinion, and insisted that he would attack Cao Ying, but Zhang He and others could not attack Cao Ying, Guo Tu was worried that he would blame himself for the failure of the plan.

Miraculously, he deducted the charge to Zhang Heyi, saying that Zhang He's attack was unfavorable, and forced Zhang Heyi to surrender directly to Cao Cao in anger.

Yuan Shao, who was already in a bad situation, directly lost a fierce general and tens of thousands of elite soldiers.

In the end, Cao Cao, a hero, won more with less, and turned defeat into victory, which established Cao Cao's position as the overlord of the north.