"Even if we can recruit enough recruits, we don't have the weapons or armor to arm them!" Lu Bu voiced his concerns.

At this time, Hao Meng suddenly said, "General, can we ask Liu Zhang for help?" ”

"Liu Zhang?" Lu Bu scolded without thinking: "You idiot, it is a blessing in misfortune that Liu Zhang does not come to attack us, do you think he may be an enemy?" ”

Hao Meng defended: "General, the last general thinks like this, now Yuan Shao is aggressive, our army is in a disadvantageous situation, once our army loses, Yuan Shao, who owns the land of four states, will inevitably have a battle with Liu Zhang, and now Liu Zhang is carrying out changes within the Shu State, causing great chaos in the Shu State, if Yuan Shao uses Liu Zhang's chaotic time to attack Liu Zhang, Liu Zhang will definitely be very troublesome, he will definitely try to avoid fighting with Yuan Shao before the Shu State stabilizes, if he wants to realize this wish, he needs us to block Yuan Shao for him, Therefore, the last general thought that if Liu Zhang knew that our army would be difficult to resist Yuan Shao's invasion, for his own interests, he would most likely agree to support us with some weapons and equipment. ”

Wang Yun listened to Hao Meng's analysis and immediately said: "Fengxian, Hao Meng's words are reasonable, didn't we give up Hongnong?" Send someone to Chang'an and tell Liu Zhang that we will exchange Hongnong for a batch of weapons and armor from him, I believe that Liu Zhang will not refuse, and after he defeated Dong Zhuo, he captured a large number of weapons and equipment from Dong Zhuo's army, and there is no problem in supporting us! ”

Lu Bu also thought that Hao Meng's words were reasonable, but he still had some doubts, and said: "But since our army withdrew from Hongnong, Guan Yu's gang has occupied Hongnong with the front and back feet, and Hongnong has actually fallen into the hands of Liu Zhang, will he be willing to exchange?" ”

"Yes, this exchange is equivalent to Liu Zhang's use of a batch of weapons and equipment to hire our army to block Yuan Shao for him, in fact, whether there is Hongnong or not, it has nothing to do with the overall situation, handing over Hongnong to Liu Zhang is just an addition to the exchange, after all, with the will of the saint, Liu Zhang's rule over Hongnong is justified, which is also a good thing for Liu Zhang!"

Lu Bu nodded, agreeing with Hao Meng's strategy.

Wang Yun said again: "Fengxian, in my opinion, it is better to give Wuyuan and Xihe to Liu Zhang!" ”

Lu Bu turned his head to look at Wang Yun angrily, if someone else said this, he must have already scolded, even if it was Wang Yun, his tone was a little unkind: "What does Situ Gong mean by this?" "You must know that Xihe is not Shuofang and Shangjun are comparable, which is second only to Taiyuan and Shangdang, and will provide a large amount of food and military salaries to Lu Bu every month, once it is handed over to Liu Zhang, then Lu Bu will lose at least 20% of his income, how can this make him happy; As for Wuyuan, although it is as sparsely populated as Shuofang, Shangjun and other places, and there are often Xiongnu invasions, it has always been only nominally in Lu Bu's sphere of influence, but Lu Bu does not have a garrison in the county, and it is said that there is no problem with giving it to Liu Zhang, but Jiuyuan County, Wuyuan County is Lu Bu's hometown, and he still thinks about when he will return to his hometown after settling down and give it to Liu Zhang? Then where will he have the face to go back to his hometown to see his fathers in the future?

"Fengxian, those who achieve great things are not informal!" Wang Yun persuaded: "Even if our army gets Liu Zhang's assistance and everything goes well, after three months, there will only be 50,000 people who can resist Yuan Shao, and 50,000 people may have no problem defending Taiyuan, but once Yuan Shao is blocked by Taiyuan and divides his troops to attack Xihe, what will we do to defend?" Since he knew that Xihe was not guaranteed, it was better to give it to Liu Zhang than to give it to Yuan Shao. As long as Liu Zhang's army is stationed in Xihe and Wuyuan, it will be adjacent to Yuan Shao's Yanmen and other places, and always threaten Yuan Shao's territory in Bingzhou, so that Yuan Shao must retain a huge number of troops to guard against Liu Zhang while attacking our army, which greatly relieves the pressure on our army, and even once Yuan Shao attacks Taiyuan, we can ask the Holy Majesty to order Liu Zhang to send troops from Xihe to Qinwang to provoke the battle between Liu Zhang and Yuan Shao, and we will reap the benefits. No matter how bad it is, Yuan Shao, Liu Zhang and our army wrestle with each other and contain each other, and they can also stabilize the situation of merging states! As long as the situation in the state is stabilized, we can use the name of the righteousness of the saint to stir up disputes among the princes of the world, and we will take advantage of the chaos, slowly develop into a big state, and finally achieve hegemony! ”

Zhang Miao, Cheng Lian, Hao Meng and others all expressed their support after listening to Wang Yun's words, and were willing to ask Lu Bu to agree to this plan. Lu Buzhi thought about it again and again, feeling that although giving up Xihe and Wuyuan would have a great impact on himself, he could stabilize the situation in Taiyuan, and the advantages still outweighed the disadvantages, so he nodded and agreed.

But said that Cao Cao of Xuxian County twice conquered Xuzhou to no avail, and in Wang Yun, Lu Bu's plan to lose the city and land, the loss of troops and generals, returned to Xuxian County to recuperate, and only now has he recovered, when he raised the arrow in high spirits and prepared to go out again, but found that Yizhou Liu Zhang actually broke Dong Zhuo like lightning, captured Liangzhou, Sanfu, and the strength is even more than before, I can't help but start worrying that once his army goes out, Liu Zhang, who is free, will order Nanyang 100,000 elite soldiers to attack Yingchuan, once Nanyang soldiers attack Yingchuan, The main expedition of Yingchuan will be lost, Cao Cao was forced to cancel the plan of the expedition, and the main force was all arranged in Yingchuan to guard against Liu Zhang.

During this period, Cao Cao also thought about whether the main force was exhausted and directly attacked Nanyang, once the enemy army in Nanyang was defeated, he could use Nanyang as a front-line stronghold to resist Liu Zhang and protect Xu County, but after counting the strength of both sides, Cao Cao found that with his current strength, even if he took out all the soldiers and horses in the territory, he might not be able to defeat Xu Huang and capture Nanyang. Just when Cao Cao's main force was trapped in Yingchuan and did nothing, the Shu Kingdom was established, and the Shu Kingdom began to vigorously implement reforms. Cao Cao decisively seized this rare opportunity to prepare for the expedition, he clearly knew that he had to strengthen himself before Liu Zhang freed up his hands, if he allowed the main force to be pinned down by the enemy of Nanyang and did nothing, when Liu Zhang stabilized the interior and raised troops for an expedition, he would be powerless to resist. Only before this development and growth, will we have the strength to fight with Liu Zhang in the future.

As for the object of the expedition, Cao Cao had already planned it. Yuan Shao? The strength is too great, it is difficult to be the enemy for the time being, and there is also the natural danger of the Yellow River, and it is even more slim to cross the river and defeat; Liu Zhang? Forget it, although the hundreds of thousands of people's army is unable to conquer others, if anyone dares to twist Liu Zhang's tiger whiskers at this time, Liu Zhang just uses this excuse to divert internal contradictions, and at that time he will definitely be attacked by Liu Zhang's hundreds of thousands of troops; Yuan Shu? At this time, Yuan Shu was strong, only inferior to Liu Zhang and Yuan Shao, and he was not a good opponent; The only ones left are Lu Bu and Xuzhou Tao Qian, Yuan Shao is storming Huguan, Lu Bu's main force is in Hebei, this is the perfect time to recover the six counties, but the recovery of the six counties can get nothing except a little pleasure of revenge, because according to the situation, the six counties are now thousands of miles away, and they will not be able to get benefits in the short term, but they will waste valuable resources, besides, attacking Lu Bu, the battlefield is too close to Liu Zhang, if Liu Zhang comes to a praying mantis to catch cicadas and yellow finches behind, wouldn't it be a great favor to Liu Zhang, If you're lucky, maybe Liu Zhang will solve the two big enemies in one battle? Absolutely not! In this way, Cao Cao had only one last choice, which was the Xuzhou Mu Taoqian who retreated to Guangling, who only had half of Xuzhou left! But it is not easy to conquer Tao Qian, the second time Xu had to retreat because of the turmoil in the rear, and Yuan Shu was cheapened, so that Yuan Shu went down to Peiguo, Gucheng State, and Taishan County without a fight, and the three places were completely separated from Cao Cao and Tao Qian like a separate belt, and half of the seam was not left to Cao Cao, and now if you want to cut down Xu again, you must go through Yuan Shu's territory, the question is whether Yuan Shu will agree to Cao Cao's borrowing? There are too many examples of false Dao Defeat, can Yuan Shu not worry about Cao Cao taking the opportunity to drive him out of Xuzhou? When Cao Cao gathered to discuss the matter, Han Hao, the captain of Tuntian, offered Cao Cao a advice, and Cao Cao readily agreed after hearing it, and personally retired Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was overjoyed after getting Cao Cao's letter, it turned out that Cao Cao said to Yuan Shu in the letter that he had attacked Xu twice before, both because Tao Qian killed his father, and the hatred of killing his father was not shared, as a son, he must slash Tao Qian to comfort the soul of his deceased father in the sky, and he did not covet the land of Xuzhou at all. Now, he plans to attack Xu for the third time, this time the purpose of the attack is the same as the previous two times, the purpose is to capture Tao Qian alive and pay tribute to his deceased father, he has no intention of taking an inch of land in Xuzhou, he hopes that Yuan Shu can look at his filial piety to avenge his father, and agree to his army to borrow the way. In his letter, he repeatedly assured Yuan Shu that he would withdraw his troops as soon as he captured Tao Qian alive, because he knew that he was only a eunuch, and he had a bad reputation, and he had no talent to guard Xuzhou at all, and only Yuan Shu, the son of the Yuan family, who was born with four clans and three dukes, was the master of a prosperous place like Xuzhou.

Although Cao Cao's guarantee impressed the somewhat short-sighted Yuan Shu, but the Yuan Shu group also had people who understood, and really let Cao Cao beat Xia Pi, Guangling and other places, and people would give it to Yuan Shu, I am afraid that Cao Cao will immediately turn his face when the time comes, and the east and west will attack Mount Tai, Peiguo, and Pengchengguo, Yuan Shu not only can't get the remaining half of Xuzhou, but even the two countries and one county in his hands may have to be given to Yuan Shu. However, their persuasion did not work, not because Yuan Shu trusted Cao Cao's character too much, but because Cao Cao's words in the second half of the letter immediately made Yuan Shu feel like he had been beaten with blood.

In the second half of the letter, Cao Cao told Yuan Shu that his own strength was low, and he was threatened by Liu Zhang and Lu Bu, and his troops were greatly constrained, he knew that this was not the time to attack Xu, but he felt guilty day and night because of his father's unavenged revenge, so he decided to do it knowing that he could not do it. In order to avenge his revenge as soon as possible, he hoped that Yuan Shu would send troops to attack Xuzhou with him, and every city would be taken over by Yuan Shu's troops, so that Yuan Shu would not have to be afraid that he would regret it afterwards. At the same time, he said that the front line was too far away from his territory and that it was difficult to supply food and grass, and he hoped that Yuan Shu would promise him that he would be able to replenish some supplies for his soldiers on the expedition during the battle against Taoqian. Most importantly, he told Yuan Shu that once he conquered Xuzhou, he would support Yuan Shu to become emperor, and after Yuan Shu became emperor, he would declare himself a vassal to Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu has long had the heart of being the emperor, and last time he was persuaded by a group of civil and military officers to die, which temporarily dispelled the act of being the emperor, and now Cao Cao has directly hit him in the softest place in his heart......

Yuan Shu couldn't help but begin to fantasize that after capturing Xuzhou, he would possess Xuzhou, Yuzhou, and northern Yangzhou, and his strength was on par with Liu Zhang and Yuan Shao...... The glory of the Yuan clan can only reach its peak in his hands.