In troubled times, it has always been the norm for business to benefit each other and to communicate with each other.

Fine porcelain, pottery, and lacquerware will be unsalable, extravagant pearls, tortoiseshells, and luster will tend to fade, and the most prosperous cities of the past will be reduced to ruins, and the north-south thoroughfare will be full of thieves······

The world is divided into dozens of closed, narrow, and self-sufficient areas, and the roads between the regions have been built with roadblocks, beacons, and gates, and highly vigilant and aggressive soldiers have been stationed.

For the seven counties under Yan Xing's rule, the trade routes to the Central Plains, Hebei, Jingxiang, Bashu, and Longyou were almost cut off, but the roads leading to Shangjun and Xihe became unimpeded.

There are also horse thieves who come and go like the wind on the grassland, but it is not an enclosed space.

On these smooth trade routes, grain, cloth, pig iron, salt, war horses, furs, tendons, and cattle were constantly transported back and forth between the two sides of the trade, and Yan Xing's forces were also able to contact the Qiang, Hu, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, and even Zhang Yan of the Montenegrin Army through Liu Qiao's caravan.

Zhang Yan's Montenegrin army forces, in addition to the various commanders who gathered in the mountains and forests in the Taihang Mountains, there were also some Tugehu people and Wuhuan people who were attached to him.

Therefore, Zhang Yan had contacts with the Tu tribes and the Wuhuan tribe in Yanmen, while Yan Xing was able to contact him through the Xiongnu network in Xihe County.

It's just that this method of communication is not stable, the Xiongnu people in Xihe are no longer the co-masters of the grassland, they will also fight against the Tu tribes and Wuhuan people in Yanmen, and sometimes even have to resist the plunder of the more barbaric Xianbei people from the north.

Some of the pig iron, armor, and arrow clusters sold to the Montenegrin army also flowed back to the hands of the Tu tribes and Wuhuan people in Yanmen, including the Qianghu tribe that fought against Hu Chuquan and Xu Kun.

Hearing Zhou Liang's inquiry at this time, Yan Xing shook his head and said:

"Don't use it for the time being, let's see if Zhang Yan and Gongsun Chan can resist Yuan Shao for a while, if they can't even carry it for ten days and a half months, then no matter how much pig iron and armor they give, it's in vain!"

Zhou Liang nodded and stopped talking. Yan Xing saw that Xi Zhicai on the side seemed to have something to say, and also asked:

"Zhicai, is there something else going on in the imperial court?"

Xi Zhicai bowed his head, his face showed a trace of solemnity, and he said in a deep voice:

"The imperial court pressed down the upper table of the new Yong and Liang prefectures, and the reason given by Shang Shutai was that the change of number was restructured, and it was a major matter, and it needed to be decided after the discussion of the ministers and hundreds of officials, and this matter could not be rushed."

"In a hurry?" Hearing Shang Shutai's evasive words, Yan Xing couldn't help laughing, and he said to Xi Zhicai with a smile:

"Cao Mengde's Sikong Mansion is now like the imperial court, and Cao Pengshi's history is like a hundred ministers and officials, and all political affairs are agreed by the Sikong Mansion, and Shangshutai promulgates it, he asked us to wait for the great court to discuss it, that is, we don't want to allow Lone's table!"

The above table mentioned by Yan Xing and Xi Zhicai refers to a letter from Yan Xing to the Xudu Imperial Court after returning to Hedong, requesting that the two states of Yong and Liang be replaced.

The content is written by Peng Shi Lexiang and others, roughly expounding that the setting of Yongzhou in ancient Kyushu is different from the current Yongzhou setting, in order to facilitate the jurisdiction of the imperial court, the four counties of Hexi that are now called Yongzhou should be changed to Liangzhou, and the current Liangzhou and the previous Sanfu land were merged into Yongzhou, and Sanhe and Hongnong County were independent as Sizhou.

The content of this letter seems to be just for the purpose of changing the number and restructuring the system, and the power of Yan Xing in the three prefectures of Governor, Yong, and Liang has not changed.

But as long as you understand the specific situation in the two prefectures of Yongliang now, you can easily understand why Yan Xing suddenly wanted to do this.

Last year, Han Sui fought for Guanzhong and fled in a big battle, only a few dozen horsemen remained, and the power of the Han family in Jincheng was declining, and Li Piao, who preserved his strength during the war and took the lead in returning to Longxi, set off a new battle for the deer.

Li Piao, Li Yue and other Li family members, united Lintao Chengyi, Caohan Song Jian, Heguan group of bandits and other Longxi forces, wantonly attacked the Han family in Jincheng, the strength of the Han family, Han Sui, who had not yet recovered, could not resist, and had already taken some clansmen and Cheng Gongying and other henchmen to retreat to the big and small elm valleys, and defected to the Qiang tribe that had formed a good knot.

And Li Piao, who annexed Jincheng, was busy dividing up and digesting the inheritance left by the Han family in Jincheng with the other families in the coalition army. The various forces in Jincheng, Longxi, and Wudu that were originally strongly pinched together by Han Sui once again fell apart, forming a new situation in which Li Biao was temporarily headed and each family stood side by side.

Han Sui, the largest force in Liangzhou, is no longer worried, and the big surnames such as Yang Qiu and the Fu family in Niyang in the north have also been attached one after another, so if Yan Xing, who wants to take over the land of Longyou and Hexi, after the next autumn, he will set his sights on Wei Duan, who was promoted to Liangzhou Mu, and Yongzhou Thorn Shi Handan Shang, Wuwei Taishou Zhang Meng.

Although there are still many powerful surnames in Yongliang that divide the counties, these characters are not enough to restrain Yan Xing from marching into Yongliang, and the only ones who can compete with Yan Xing at the moment are Wei Duan, Handan Shang, and Zhang Meng, who are also appointed by the imperial court and quite prestigious.

If according to Yan Xing's request, the imperial court changed the two states of Yongzhou and Liangzhou, then the station of the stronger Liangzhou Mu Wei Duan had to change, Liangzhou was incorporated into the new Yongzhou, Wei Duan wanted to serve as the Yongzhou pastor, he had to move to Guanzhong, this is undoubtedly a sheep into the tiger's mouth, do not want to continue to serve as the Yongzhou pastor, then it is very good, Yan Xing will immediately recommend the new Yongzhou Assassin History, and then the new Yongzhou Assassin will lead the troops, and rightfully receive Hanyang, Nan'an and other counties.

If he does not step down, Yan Xing will not let Handan Shang turn into Liangzhou Assassin History, and he will definitely take the lead in recommending a new Liangzhou Assassin History, and send troops to the four counties of Hexi with great fanfare to defeat the rebel Handan Shang who does not obey the king's orders.

The court of Xudu saw this clearly, or Cao Cao understood Yan Xing's purpose, he suppressed Yan Xing's upper table, and did not say anything, intending to delay it in this cold way.

The current Yan Xing can help the Xudu court crusade against rebellion and stabilize Guanxi, and can support Cao Cao and restrain Yuan Shao, which is enough, and neither the court nor Cao Cao wants him to continue to sit big, and then there will be a "Yuan Shao" who dominates Guanxi.

It's just that this troubled world has gone through the initial chaos and disorder, and its situation will gradually become clear and clear in the future, the strong will become stronger, the weak will become weaker, and then there will be a fierce struggle among the remaining strong until the last strong man left alive.

And in this stage where the strong are getting stronger and the weak are getting weaker, no one can interrupt Yan Xing's march to Yongliang, which occupied the original Sili area, not the imperial court, nor can Cao Cao.

Since the tiger on the surface is not feasible from the mountain, it can only secretly provoke the tiger and wolf to fight each other.

Yan Xing planned to send his henchmen to contact Wuwei Taishou Zhang Meng, because according to the Yongliang intelligence at hand, the Yongzhou Assassin Shi Handan Shang, who was with Wuwei, was at odds with Wuwei Taishou.

Zhang Meng is the son of Zhang Huan, a famous general of this dynasty, because his father used to be famous in Liangdi, and he was quite popular in Wuwei as the Taishou of Wuwei, and in many ways he had to overpower the Yongzhou Assassin Shi Handan Shang.

This phenomenon of "the branch is greater than the root, and the shin is greater than the share" is bound to not be sustainable, and one of the two people, Handan Shang and Zhang Meng, will eventually be removed.

Although Yan Xing, who was in charge of the three states, could not arbitrarily dismiss the local assassins and county governors appointed by the imperial court, he was now able to support those who had the ability to seize power to succeed in ascending to the throne.

Zhang Meng is one of the people chosen by Yan Xing.

These things can be handed over to Peng Shi in Kansai to do, and Xi Zhicai, Zhou Liang and others can help them take care of the situation in Kanto.

Yan Xing didn't say anything more, he said:

"It's okay, then let Cao Mengde press the table first. If the battle on the Hanoi side can't be fought, Yuan Shao must first go north to sweep away Gongsun Zan and Zhang Yan, and then turn west to deal with Sanhe, Nagu will also return to the east of the river, cross the river to Guanzhong, and strive to solve the chaos in Yongliang in one fell swoop. ”

This is the strategy of "first west and then east" that Yan Xing's camp has always had, although the process will fluctuate and twist, but the general direction has not changed, Xi Zhicai and Zhou Liang are all old people who have followed Yan Xing for many years, and they all know that they will naturally not put their beaks at will.

As usual, the three of them talked about the situation in Kanto Prefecture and County, and at the beginning of spring this year, in addition to the rebellion in Hebei, many major events occurred in the Central Plains, Huainan, and Jiangdong regions.

The first is the competition between Cao Cao and Liu Biao for Nanyang, although the Cao army won victory in Nanyang County on the battlefield of the bright side, but Liu Biao was strong, although he could not do his best because of many internal problems, but as long as he saw for a long time, consumed, and competed, it was enough for the Cao army to be well fed on all sides.

Cao Cao's scramble for Nanyang, from a certain point of view, can be regarded as an accident that helped Yan Xing a great favor.

At first, he planned to take advantage of the chaos in Guanzhong and Liu Biao, who had entered Wuguan, to extinguish his desire to get a piece of the pie from Guanzhong early when Lou Gui was defeated and fled and Nanyang was threatened, thus avoiding a premature conflict between Yan Xing and Liu Biao.

The second is Huainan Yuan Shu called the emperor, although the Yuan Shu who fled to Huainan has recovered rapidly in recent years, and even surpassed the time when he was in Nanyang, but Yan Xing's advisers were not optimistic about his emperor, thinking that this was the way to self-destruction.

Of course, they are also happy to see Cao Cao, who welcomed the Son of Heaven and set the capital Xuchang, had a headache.

Finally, there is the situation of small forces such as Sun Ce, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu, whose complicated and bumpy life experiences also make Yan Xing, Xi Zhicai and others sigh.

The initial disorderly and chaotic stage of troubled times is like this, full of all kinds of wonderful opportunities.

Who would have thought that Liu Bei, who had only gained the land of Yizhou after years of hard work, would suddenly fall back into the difficult situation under the fence, and he was increasingly embarrassed to survive between Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, and Lu Bu.

And originally because of his father's death in battle, Sun Ce, who had been sending people under the fence, was unusually outstanding in his performance and opportunities after crossing the river, and he quickly counterattacked and rose at the beginning of the setback, and he was like a bamboo, and even Liu Xuan, who was much stronger in power and reputation than him, was driven to Yuzhang County by him.

As for Lu Bu, this Wenhou with superior military strength came from Bingzhou, and traveled to the Central Plains, Guanxi, Hebei, Nanyang, and Xuzhou many places, from north to south, and then from west to east.

For some people, this is really a great irony given to him by this troubled time.