On the fifth day of October in the fifth year of Chuping, the puppet emperor Yuan Shu and the six-party coalition army fought a decisive battle in Shouchun, and it took half a month for the six-party coalition army to break through Shouchun City. On the same day, Yuan Shu, the emperor who had been on the throne for less than half a year, set himself on fire in the Shouchun Palace, and the princes of the six parties heard the news and gathered outside the Shouchun Palace, preparing to take the opportunity to seize the jade seal of the country. However, in the devastated Shouchun Palace, everyone did not find the jade seal that represented the heavenly gift. Lu Bu was angry and killed the full door of the Zhong family's civil and military ministers.

After all, the jade seal of the country was lost in his hands, which is not only related to the orthodox status of Taiyuan, but also involves the accountability of everyone, sure enough, at the beginning of November, when Lu Bu planned to return to the court, the rest of the five princes were connected to Lu Bu to force the palace, and in the face of the other party's nearly 300,000 coalition troops, Lu Bu was eager to kill a few people on the spot.

But at this moment, Chen Gong stood up, pointed to the five people in the tent and said coldly, "The orthodoxy of the world should be in Your Majesty, if Your Majesty is unwilling to return Luoyang, what will we do?" Are you trying to rebel against each other? Moreover, before Luoyang City back then, you were a prince, but you let Dong Zhuo's thieves take away Your Majesty, and now you dare to let Your Majesty return the capital without shame. ”

In the face of Chen Gong's ridicule, everyone's faces were blue and white, especially Cao Cao was eager to drink his blood and eat his flesh, after the defeat of Yuan Shu's army, Yanzhou could collect Yingchuan counties in a righteous and bright manner, and now because of the intervention of the state army, Yingchuan, Runan, and Chen Guo have all become Lu Bu's sphere of influence. So Cao Cao sneered, "I have different understandings of what happened back then, but the old man teamed up with the Marquis of Zhenbei to stop Dong Zhuo's team to escort the people. Therefore, you Chen Gongtai don't have to threaten us with the past, today you must give us an explanation and give the world an explanation. ”

Listening to Cao Cao's explanation on the left and the explanation on the right, Lu Bu was furious, got up angrily and walked in front of everyone, dragged Chen Gong behind him, stared at a few people, and said in a cold voice, "Don't talk to me about anything and don't confess, the jade seal of the country was lost in Shouchun Palace, and you all have unshirkable responsibilities." Even Ben Jiang wondered if any of you had hidden it in private, intending to learn that Yuan Shu, establish yourself as the king, and plot against my Han world. ”

Without waiting for a few people to refute it, Chen Gong, who had just been brought to the back by Lu Bu, his eyes lit up, and he continued with Lu Bu's words, "On the day of the city break, although you and our army arrived at the Shouchun Palace at the same time, before and after the fire, you all secretly sent people into the fire, don't think we don't know about this matter." As for what you really have in mind, you know in your hearts. However, I would like to advise you below, the jade seal of the country is the property of the Son of Heaven, and the accomplice of the matter is hidden without authorization, and at that time, you will ask yourself, you can be compared to Dong Zhuo or the dead Yuan Shu, who can resist the coalition forces of all sides. ”

After Chen Gong finished speaking, several people's faces changed abruptly, they glanced at each other, and the more suspicious they became, not to mention that Lu Bu would not return the capital, and the jade seal of the country was the most important thing. Previously, they thought that only they had sent a team into the palace, but they didn't expect the rest of the parties to do the same. Thinking of this, Cao Cao snorted coldly and took the lead in leaving Lu Bu's tent, and then the remaining few people also left after taking a deep look at Lu Bu.

The thunder and rain were forced into the palace, and they were resolved by Lu Bu and Chen Gong in this way, but even so, the two of them couldn't help but worry in their hearts. The jade seal of the country is very important, no worse than Long Jun's opening of the inner court of Weiyang Palace, they only suppressed Long Jun's ambition a few days ago, and the jade seal of the country disappeared without a trace. At this moment, if the jade seal of the country is in the hands of the princes of a certain party, then Taiyuan will also lose its political advantage.

With a deep groan, Chen Gong persuaded Lu Bu, "My lord, since the jade seal of the country has disappeared, we might as well wait here for a few more days to see if we can unite one party to suppress the other." Compared with the other five-way princes, our most significant advantage is that if we get the jade seal, we don't have to hide it at all, because Your Majesty is in Jinyang Palace, on the contrary, if any of them gets it, then it will definitely not be made public, so during this time, the lord may wish to let his subordinates go down to explore the truth of all parties, and have prepared the next action goals of our army. ”

Hearing this, Lu Bu bowed his head slightly and agreed with Chen Gong's arrangement. Indeed, if the jade seal of the country is really hidden by one of these people, then politically Taiyuan will lose its absolute advantage. In the same way, once the two sides succeed in uniting, no matter who they merge with, they will have a choice, and even in the next action of merging states, they can gain an absolute advantage.

So Lu Bu walked to the door of the handsome tent, turned his back to Chen Gong and said in a deep voice, "It is our last resort to unite with Guanzhong, but in the next alliance, Gongtai must choose to understand and confirm that the jade seal of the country is not in the hands of this person, otherwise our army is very likely to raise tigers and make wedding dresses for others." ”

"Please also rest assured that your subordinates will live up to your expectations and do their best to find out this matter for the lord." Shen Sheng responded to Lu Bu's entrustment, and then Chen Gong strode out of the tent and walked towards the military camp in Jingzhou. Compared with the other princes of the Four Roads, this crusade against Yuan Shu, only Jingzhou came not the lord, which can also be determined that Jingzhou definitely does not have the jade seal of the country in his hands, otherwise they will definitely be the first team to leave Shouchun.

In fact, Jingzhou didn't care much about the desire to pass on the jade seal. At present, the world is in chaos, the royal family is covered with dust, and the emperor on the dragon throne of Jinyang Palace is just pushed up by Dong Zhuo, and the edict of the first emperor is not credible. Anyone in the royal family can take the opportunity to stand on their own, thinking about it, didn't Yuan Shao plan to elect Liu Yu as the emperor at the beginning? So for Jingzhou, the little emperor of Jinyang Palace only needs to die, so who else is qualified to sit in that position besides Liu Biao.

At the same time, just as Chen Gong was walking towards the Jingzhou camp, Liu Bei and Tao Qian also gathered together to plot this matter. Looking at Liu Bei, who looked solemn, Tao Qian, a good old man, couldn't help but comfort: "Why is Xuande worried about this matter? At this moment, the world is in turmoil, Xuande is doing his best for the Han, not to mention Liu Zhang in Yizhou, even Liu Jingsheng in Jingzhou can't compare to your efforts. As long as Xuande does not forget his original intention, if the Son of Heaven is killed by a traitor in the future, the old man will fully support you to ascend to the throne. ”

For Tao Qian's persuasion, Liu Bei chuckled, don't look at him showing a dignified expression, in fact, Liu Bei was thinking about whether to take this opportunity to join forces with Lu Bu and kill Cao Cao in Shouchun to prevent the other party from leaving Xuzhou. Now that the coalition army has ended to fight against Yuan, Yuan Shao's soldiers in Jizhou are strong and strong, and in the spring of next year, Jizhou will inevitably make a move on Qingzhou, if Cao Cao is allowed to leave, it is impossible to say that Cao Cao will cooperate with Yuan Shao to attack Xuzhou, and then the Qingxu Alliance will stop these two people.

However, it is not good for him to bask Tao Qian like this, so Liu Bei muttered: "As long as the position of the emperor is done by the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty, I don't care who everyone supports and chooses, what I am thinking about now is, what if the jade seal of the country appears in Cao Cao or is secretly sent to Jizhou by Yuan Shu?" Yuan Shao's side did a good job, saying that Yuan Shu would be cleared of the Yuan ancestral hall, but Gong Zugong should not forget that at the beginning of Yuan Shu's claim to be emperor, there were rumors that Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao had reached an alliance. ”

"Isn't this the news released by Guanzhong?" Thinking of Liu Bei's comments on Guanzhong a few days ago, Tao Qian couldn't help but be puzzled, and according to Liu Bei's analysis. That letter from the alliance should have been addressed to Long Jun, how could this involve Yuan Shao again? So Tao Qian asked in a low voice: "Xuande is worried that Yuan Shao in Jizhou will take the opportunity to avenge Yuan Shu against you and me?" ”

"Anyway, Yuan Shu has been extinguished, Yuan Shao can use any reason, as long as the jade seal of the country is in Yuan Shao's hands. His heart will not die if he wants to annex my Qingxu and Xu Prefectures, so no matter what, we must prepare in advance to meet the storm in Jizhou. After a pause, Liu Bei got up and walked to the door of the tent, looked at the direction of Lu Bu's camp and continued, "Bingzhou now has Xuanyuan Pass in hand, and the Central Plains is just around the corner, I want to take this opportunity to unite with Lu Bu and resist Yuan Cao together." ”

"Cao Cao?" Hearing this, Tao Qian fell into deep thought, although he is a good man, how can he be an official for decades, and he understands such things as interests very well. As long as Yuan Shao dares to make a move against Qingzhou, Cao Cao will definitely take the opportunity to intervene, don't forget that he still has Sun Jian, an ally, and he is not afraid of Xuzhou attacking behind him, and even Cao Cao may not make a move against Qingzhou, but will target his Xuzhou. The more he thought about it, the more likely this was to come, Tao Qian said in a low voice, "If this is the case, we can only choose to unite and merge with the state." ”

"I'm afraid that Lu Bu will not unite with us, and this time the state army appeared in the Central Plains, didn't Gong Zugong feel strange? Although Guan Zhong returned Luoyang to Taiyuan, as far as I know, Long Jun of Sanguan in the south of Luoyang has always held it in his hands! So I feel that Lu Bu and Long Jun reached some kind of deal, which allowed the Bingzhou army to enter the Central Plains. At this point, Liu Bei turned his gaze to the northwest again, he had always felt that Long Jun's achievements today were nothing more than luck. From Lu Zhi to Huangfu Song to Liu Hong, Liu Bian and others, everyone trusted him extraordinarily.

But to this day, Liu Bei doesn't dare to think like this in his heart. Occupying the land of the three northwestern states, recovering the territory lost during the period of Emperor Huan, holding hundreds of thousands of people with armor, looking at the world except Yuan Shao in Jizhou, who would dare to provoke Guanzhong, otherwise Yilu Bu's character, I am afraid he would not choose to break through to the south.

"If Lu Bu and Long Jun reach an alliance, based on my relationship with Long Jun, do you think Lu Bu dares to choose me to wait? In other words, we are all under Lu Bu's suspicion now, and as long as the jade seal of the country is not seen for a day, it is impossible for Lu Bu to unite with us. Exhaling lightly, Liu Bei turned around with a smile, walked to Tao Qian's side, and said helplessly, "Now we can only hope that Lu Bu will choose to believe in me and wait, and we will have the opportunity to unite with Lu Bu." ”

Having said that, Tao Qian is not optimistic about Liu Bei's expectations at all, today everyone united together to coerce Lu Bu, according to Lu Bu's proud character, how could he not hold a grudge? If you want to unite with Bingzhou, unless the Chen Palace under Lu Bu's account can react, everything is a pipe dream.

Just when the two of them were thinking about each other, Chen Gong had already united with Jingzhou on behalf of Lu Bu, and then Jingzhou soldiers and horses moved to Shouchun North City according to Chen Gong's expectations, aiming directly at Sun Jian, the tiger in Jiangdong.