"Youruo, I talked with my wife and children all night last night, but they didn't want to abandon me."

The next day, Cao Cao said after seeing Xun Chen.

Yesterday, he was still persuaded by Xun Yu and Xun You.

Although he agreed with Xun Chen yesterday, Cao Cao directly regretted it today.

Xun Chen and Xun Yu are both members of the Xun family.

But the people to whom they are loyal now are different, and their positions are all clear.

will not make a choice that is unfavorable to Cao Cao because of Xun Chen.

They were reluctant to defect to Yuan Shao, but persuading Cao Cao not to defect to Yuan Shao was also what Cao Cao thought.

Although Yuan Shao promised Cao Cao that he would make Cao Cao a pastor of Youzhou.

Youzhou is now Zhao Hui's base camp, even if Cao Cao and Yuan Shao join forces and want to take Youzhou, the difficulty is no less than Cao Cao's current recapture of Yanzhou.

Yuan Cao joined forces, and this time he might be able to defeat Zhao Hui, but even if Zhao Hui was defeated, he would be able to retreat to Youzhou.

At that time, Cao Cao Yanzhou was lost, and Youzhou could not be obtained, so he could only be attached to Yuan Shao all the time.

It is not easy for Cao Cao to break away from Yuan Shao again.

It's really better to continue to fight now, and after defeating Lu Bu, Yanzhou is still Cao Cao's.

If Cao Cao can recapture Yanzhou, after this turmoil, and purge some of the families, Cao Cao's control over Yanzhou will become even greater.

Yanzhou was enough to become Cao Cao's most solid backing and support Cao Cao's southern and northern wars.

Cao Cao temporarily dispelled the idea of defecting to Yuan Shao, which Zhao Hui wanted to see. Otherwise, they would not have sent people into Zhengcheng to spread rumors everywhere.

And Lu Bu is a pity.

Although he now has the upper hand, he is not willing to continue to fight Cao Cao.

There was a locust plague in Yanzhou this year, and almost 60 percent of the crops were eaten by locusts.

Cao Cao first attacked Xuzhou and took most of the grain with him.

Lu Bu came to harvest again.

Now the food in Yanzhou is pitiful.

The price of a stone of grain has risen to 2,000 yuan.

And most of the grain is in the hands of the family, and ordinary people can't afford it at such a price.

If it weren't for these families, if they chose Lu Bu now, Lu Bu would also not be able to raise tens of thousands of troops in his hands.

But the family will definitely not take out all the food to support Lu Bu.

Whether it is Lu Bu or Cao Cao, life is not easy now.

Both wanted to continue recruiting soldiers, but neither could afford to raise more troops.

Although Cao Cao took advantage of the lack of food for the people and the turmoil broke out, he recaptured several small cities, but it did not have much impact on the current predicament.

Yanzhou was originally under Cao Cao's governance, and its strength was still relatively high among several states.

But now after a series of turmoil, Yanzhou's current strength is weaker than Xuzhou's.

Because there is no food, among the people, there are already children who are easy to eat.

And those who eat corpses are countless.

Many people starved to death. And their corpses become food for the living.

The outside was ravaged by locusts, and there was no food to be found.

A lot of people are just staring, staring at other people's homes, seeing which family has someone who has died, and then going to grab the body.

Even if the body is buried, they dig it up in the middle of the night.

Yanzhou's population has almost halved.

Whether it is Cao Cao or Lu Bu, they don't have the energy to care about these ordinary people now.

Cao Cao and Lu Bu have temporarily truce, and the current situation is difficult for both of them to hold on.

At this time, Zhao Hui's soldiers and horses had already gathered at the border of Youzhou and Jizhou.

Just finished the autumn harvest, the grain and grass in Zhao Hui's hands are very sufficient, and during this time, it will not affect the spring ploughing.

Zhao Hui also knew that the Yanzhou locust plague had not affected Youzhou.

But Jizhou, where Yuan Shao is located, has still been affected to a certain extent.

This war, at least on the bright side, was still very beneficial to Zhao Hui.

Zhao Yun and Cheng Yuanzhi have also returned from Xianbei Karasuma.

The two men each brought back 10,000 cavalry.

Xianbei's cavalry, led by Tie Ye San and Xiong Bai respectively.

Karasuma's cavalry, and the leader of Karasuma's largest tribe, Kokoza, leads.

Zhao Hui did not ask for it, they must be incorporated into Youzhou's army.

They are still independent.

Changan!

Huayin!

Zhang Yan took Zhao Hui's letter and found Jia Xu.

He has been in Huayin for five days.

In the past five days, he has been inquiring about Jia Xu and Duan Xuan's character.

quietly followed Jia Xu, and Jia Xu's food, clothing, housing and transportation were all seen by Zhang Yan.

Jia Xu had to take him away, Zhang Yan didn't want to fail.

And in the past few days, the more Zhang Yan knows about Jia Xu, the more he understands why Zhao Hui values Jia Xu so much.

Zhang Yan can see that if Jia Xu goes to Youzhou, his future status will definitely be above him, and he will be able to rank alongside Xu Shu and Guo Jia.

Some people may be jealous because of this. Unwilling to see others of a higher status than oneself.

But Zhang Yan didn't think so.

His status in Youzhou is no longer the highest one.

And if he can invite Jia Xu, Jia Xu's status in Youzhou will become higher in the future, and he can also hold Jia Xu's thigh.

After five days of careful observation, Zhang Yan finally came to the outside of Jia Xu's mansion.

"Sir, there's someone out there asking to see you."

"Let him in."

Zhang Yan came to Jia Xu under the leadership of his subordinates.

Jia Xu said: "You have been following me for so many days, what is your purpose?" ”

With Jia Xu's carefulness, it is impossible to be followed for so many days, and he has not noticed it at all, but he doesn't know Zhang Yan's identity, and he hasn't been in contact with Zhang Yan for the time being, pretending not to know.

But now that Zhang Yan took the initiative to come to see her, Jia Xu immediately pointed it out.

Take the initiative.

If Zhang Yan has bad intentions, Jia Xu will take the lead, and it will be easy to see Zhang Yan's flaws.

However, Zhang Yan was just a little embarrassed.

He thought he was very hidden, but he didn't expect to be discovered by Jia Xu a long time ago, but he didn't know it yet.

"Under Zhang Yan. My father-in-law has a letter to send to Jia. A little embarrassed, but Zhang Yan still sent a secret letter.

Jia Xu took it apart and looked at it.

Zhang Yan kept looking at Jia Xu's expression, but with Jia Xu's city government, Zhang Yan couldn't see what Jia Xu was thinking at all.

On the contrary, Zhang Yan herself was seen through at a glance.

"You don't have to say more." Jia Xu put away the letter, and when he saw that Zhang Yan was about to speak, he stopped it directly.

Although he once commanded the 300,000 Montenegrin army, in front of Jia Xu, Zhang Yan was like a marionette.

Before coming, Zhang Yan prepared a lot, but when he really faced Jia Xu, he basically didn't need those preparations.

With Jia Xu's gaze, Zhang Yan could see it. Jia Xu's heart is like a mirror.

Zhang Yan's mouth opened, and Jia Xu immediately knew what he was going to say.

"Give me three days to prepare." Jia Xu said.

Zhang Yan was sent out, standing in front of Jia Xu's mansion, Zhang Yan looked confused.

Things went surprisingly well, and he just acted as a messenger.

(End of chapter)