After Yuan Shao pacified Youzhou, because the mountains were high and the road was far away, he listened to Tian Feng's opinions, and did not make enemies with Gongsun Du, who helped Gongsun Zhan, but turned to form an alliance.

Of course, Gongsun Du was not willing to make an enemy like Yuan Shao for the sake of a dead man, so he agreed to form an alliance, and Yuan Shao was also relieved of his worries.

In order to stabilize the situation in Youzhou, Yuan Shao promoted and reused many generals who defected from Gongsun Zhan's subordinates, as well as Liu Yu's subordinates, all of whom were appointed as Taishou and county commanders.

However, Yuan Shao eliminated Gongsun Chan this time, but he gave Lu Bu an excuse to break off diplomatic relations with him, and Lu Bu called Gongsun Chan his sworn brother.

Yuan Shao did not have an edict from the imperial court, so he wantonly attacked and killed a state assassin and killed the court officials in vain.

He warned Yuan Shao that he, Lu Bu, would definitely avenge Gongsun Zhan, which made Yuan Shao not nervous.

Yuan Shao stepped up reconnaissance and infiltration in the direction of Bingzhou, Duliao, Jizhou, and even Chang'an, hoping to grasp Lü Bu's movements in advance and prevent Lü Bu from using force against him.

In fact, this is just Lu Bu's bluff, because the combat operations in the Western Regions and Liangzhou, including the battle of Hanzhong a while ago, have greatly depleted the money and grain reserves of the Central Army, and according to the frustration of opening up a new battlefield, the Chang'an Imperial Court will go bankrupt.

Moreover, the war in the Western Regions clearly showed that Fazheng would continue for a while, so that Lu Bu couldn't help but sigh again about the importance of "fighting outside must first secure inside".

Recently, there has been no peace on the prairie, and Hou Dahou, who has become the head of the intelligence department in the direction of the prairie, has returned the latest information, and he was assassinated in the course of a hunt a few months ago.

Although Kebi refused to admit it, everyone agreed that it was his black hand.

Helian's youngest son was still young and unable to take over power, and the Golden Family fell apart, and Kebineng and Budugen took the opportunity to enter and divide and subdue Helian's tribe.

Only a part of the die-hard people fled north with Helian's young son, evading the pursuit of Kebineng and Budugen, and hiding.

Kebi was able to gain most of the benefits in this partition, and the strength of the tribe faintly overwhelmed Budugen.

However, these years of tempering have also made Bu Dugen a lot more stable, and he was willing to give up the position of the leader of the Xianbei people to Kebineng, and the two temporarily joined forces to stop the infighting.

It's just that the grassland at this time is no longer the world of the Xianbei people, and in the past few years, the Han people have encroached on many places, and many grasslands have fallen into the hands of the nomadic troops of the Han army.

The nomadic army of the Han army has reached the scale of 9,000 people, and the number of civilians involved in the nomadic herding is as many as 20,000.

Because there are many people who have tasted the sweetness of nomadism, grazing in their leisure time on weekdays, fighting slaves in wartime, and winning more and losing less in foreign wars of the Han army, and harvesting a lot.

There were also a number of slave privateer detachments that often recruited helpers from among civilians and veterans.

Therefore, many people wrote letters to their brothers and sisters, relatives and friends in their hometowns, asking them to follow them to graze, and the scale was naturally getting bigger and bigger, and 30,000 herdsmen had caught up with the big tribe of Xianbei people.

Kebineng and Budugen both have the heart to drive the Han people away, but they can't absolutely trust each other.

Although the main force of the Han army has rarely participated in the disputes on the grassland, there are not many cavalry troops who come to the grassland to fight in turns.

However, there is still a cavalry unit stationed in the grassland to remind the Xianbei people not to act rashly.

This is the Xiongnu servant army under the command of Jin Rigang, and the servant army has long been expanded to four cavalry brigades and a scale of 20,000 people.

They are becoming more and more like professional soldiers, who do not produce and are only responsible for fighting.

All Han strongholds and slave privateers on the steppe could ask the servant army for help when they were in danger.

These servant armies not only maintained the traditional ability of the Huns to be good at riding and shooting, but also equipped with the same sophisticated equipment as the Han army.

Most of the middle- and lower-level officers are Han Chinese or Huns who have studied in military academies, and their combat effectiveness is getting stronger and stronger, and they are no longer equal to the main cavalry of the Central Army.

Although there have been no wars in the past two years, small frictions have continued, and these small battles have also tempered the combat effectiveness of the nomadic Han peoples, and in a few years, they have become as proficient in riding and archery as the steppe peoples.

The children of the first batch of nomadic troops have grown into half-grown children, and they can even fight with their parents, and many of them have joined the Central Army.

In order to prevent the Xianbei people's movements, Lu Bu deployed Zhao Yun's 6th Cavalry Division, which had fewer opportunities for actual combat, to the Duliao area, and Cao Xing's 5th Cavalry Division to Bingzhou, so that he could put pressure on the grassland and Yuan Shao at the same time.

February 194, Chang'an

Emperor Xian issued an edict and promoted Lu Bu to the rank of Great Sima, ranking above the three dukes. This year, Lu Bu was the year of his establishment, and he truly achieved "under one person, above ten thousand people".

As soon as the news came out, the world was in turmoil, especially the reaction of the Kwantung princes was mixed.

After Yuan Shu, who had already set himself up as the emperor, and after killing Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao, who had been in discord with the Chang'an court, had the intention to unite the Kwantung princes to fight against Lü Bu.

Yuan Shao's adviser Xu You even fabricated a fake jade belt edict, falsely claiming that Emperor Liu Xie was humiliated in Chang'an, and the power was in the hands of Lu Bu alone, and the emperor had become a tool in his hands.

As for the authenticity of the jade belt edict, does it matter?

Yuan Shao assigned several of his advisers to lobby the princes of various parts of the Kwantung region, and finally Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Liu Biao, Sun Ce, Tang Zhou, Gongsun Du and other eight princes gathered in Puyang to join the alliance.

Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Cao Cao all wanted to compete for the position of the leader of the alliance, but in the end, Cao Cao took the initiative to withdraw from the competition, and Yuan Shu was obviously not strong and prestige enough, so the leader of the Kwantung Coalition Army of the second alliance was still Yuan Shao.

Although the number of the eight Kwantung princes this time was not as large as when they first met the alliance, they were all lords of a state, and the worst one also owned several counties.

This time, the coalition forces were no longer divided into several routes, but all gathered in Puyang.

The composition of the force is as follows, Yuan Shao sent 60,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry; Cao Cao had 50,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry; Gongsun Du's cavalry was 20,000; Liu Bei's infantry was 40,000; 50,000 Tang and Zhou infantry; Liu Biao had 40,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry; 50,000 Yuan Shu infantry; Sun Ce's infantry was 20,000.

There were 310,000 infantry, 70,000 cavalry, and a total of 380,000 troops, known as 500,000 troops.

The news reached Chang'an as soon as possible, after all, the Qingzhou Army is its own people!

Lu Bu was not surprised by the appearance of the edict, although it must not have been written by Liu Xie, but the people around the emperor, including his empress dowager Dong, may not have such thoughts.

Lu Bu was surprised that these Kwantung princes, who were originally intolerant of parallel goods, saw each other with swords and soldiers, and even confessed to the Chang'an court, reached a reconciliation so quickly, and gathered under the banner of the anti-Lu Bu alliance.

It seems that it is the expansion of their own strength that has brought them a huge threat, and in the face of external pressure, they will turn their hostilities into jade silk, but fortunately they have the foreshadowing of the Qingzhou Army.