"Is there any news from Zhang Hong?" There is no better way for Jizhou and Wang Xiu, in Guan Yu's words, no matter what the final result is, no matter what Yuan Shao's plan is, we will plan for the worst, Liu Lan has nothing to say about this, Guan Yu is right, think for the best, but make the worst plan, no matter when it comes, there will be no mistake.

And the next thing is to see what Zhang Hong has gained from Xu Du, but there has been no news back since Zhang Hong left, when Xu Shu asked at the moment, he knew from Liu Lan's mouth that Zhang Hong went directly to Xu Du, no wonder there is no news, Cao Cao is now on the front line of Shouchun, how can Zhang Hong go to Xu Du and have news back.

Of course, Xu Shu knew that Liu Lan knew where Cao Cao was now, but why didn't he let Zhang Hong go directly to meet Cao Cao, but went to Xu Du, the lord's plan Xu Shu sometimes really couldn't guess, what was the lord thinking in his heart, he hesitated and said: "Do you want to send a message to Zhang Hong now, let him go directly to Cao Cao's camp to find him." ”

Liu Lan thought about it, and finally rejected Xu Shu's suggestion, he had his own ideas, not to mention that there was no point in going to see Cao Cao now, before Shouchun did not have a clear belonging, Cao Cao would not give him a perfect answer, so Liu Lan asked Zhang Hong to go directly to Xu Du has carefully considered, and when Zhang Hong meets Cao Cao in Xudu, Shouchun will also have a belonging, whether it belongs to Cao Cao or belongs to him, it will be directly related to how the negotiations between Zhang Hong and Cao Cao unfold, if it is in his hands, Then it is a direct union, if it is in the hands of Cao Cao, then it is another rhetoric, his lips are cold, he believes that Zhang Hong will know how to persuade Cao Cao.

After discussing some follow-up things with a few of them, several people left one after another, and Liu Lan kept staring at the map in the house thinking about things, the battle of Shouchun will end soon, he believes in Zhang Liao's ability, it is only a matter of time to defeat Shouchun, but what about after the battle of Shouchun?

The next step, the next development direction is what Liu Lan really cares about now, where is the sword, Xuzhou and Qingzhou to regain lost territory, is now the most vocal, but Liu Lan knows that it is too difficult to recapture Qingxu from Yuan Shao's mouth, with their current strength, if Yuan Shao really wants to start a war in Guangling, as long as he wins, then he is fully capable of recapturing Qingxu, but once Yuan Shao does not send troops to Guangling, but attacks Yanzhou, then does he really want to intervene?

This is what Liu Lan is really worried about, in his plan, once the battle of Guandu happens as in history, then it will provide him with a rare opportunity to develop, and he can do some things that he could not do before, such as completely leveling Jiangdong and Yuzhang and Jiujiang.

Before this, because it has been threatened by the major forces, Liu Lan's main force has never dared to go south, even if it is to Jiujiang, it is a great risk, if it is not timely to withdraw the troops and return to Xuzhou, the result will be extremely bad, it is with this experience, Liu Lan deeply understands that whether it is Cao Cao or Yuan Shao, they will not sit back and watch themselves develop strong and give themselves the opportunity to be full-fledged.

Then the opportunity for him to develop can only appear when the two are at war, at this time the normal will fall into the ground, but he will not, no matter who wins Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, it will be his biggest threat, but maintaining the status quo is the situation that Liu Lan is most happy to see now, if the two of them can be consumed all the time, then the pressure on Liu Lan's north will plummet, and then he can completely expand the speed of power and the vigorous development of internal affairs, now he and Cao Cao, the sphere of influence is too small, and Yuan Shao, the population under his rule is sparse, It can be said that in addition to accumulating good military strength over the years, it is impossible to really compete with the two at all, and the most critical point is that the forces he now controls do not allow too large-scale battles at all.

So if you want to develop, you must develop the economy and increase the population, and the best time is the battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and this is also the key to why Liu Lan gave up Qingzhou, although Yuan Shao finally betrayed his promise, and can even be described as falling into the well, but the soldier is treacherous, he understands that this kind of agreement is completely unconstrained, but under the circumstances, only by ceding Qingzhou, it is possible to make Cao Cao and Yuan Shao go to war, although such an opportunity did not appear at that time, but with the passage of time, This one is likely to get bigger and bigger.

Liu Lan is waiting for that day, waiting for the showdown between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, as long as the two start a war, Liu Lan is bound to make a choice between Wu County and Jiujiang, Sun Ce and Xu Gong are his real henchmen now, only by ensuring the stability of the rear, he can in turn compete with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao for hegemony.

In fact, Liu Lan's selectivity is very large now, as long as the battle of Shouchun ends, then it doesn't matter whether Yuan Shao fights Lujiang or not, it doesn't matter, if he fights Cao Cao, that's the best, if he doesn't fight Lujiang, it's a big deal Liu Lan retreats directly to Jiujiang, at that time Yuan Shao dares to cross the river, he dares, Liu Lan has countless ways to wipe out his main force on the Yangtze River, so he is convinced that Yuan Shao doesn't have that guts, and his most likely choice is to compete with Cao Cao for the Central Plains, it can be said that Liu Lan is now invincible, and once they start a war, Liu Lan wants to recapture Guangling or even Shouchun, and it will become extremely clear that after ensuring the safety of the Yangtze River at that time, he will take advantage of the situation of the two fighting to make the decision to recapture Xuzhou or seize the Central Plains, anyway, there is only one purpose for him, and he will help whoever is at a disadvantage.

This situation is a three-legged stand, anyway, it is to ensure the balance of the three parties, to ensure that one of them will not be defeated, this is the game of chess that Liu Lan now hopes to play, of course, this is also playing with fire and self-immolation, after all, this grasp is very difficult to grasp, and the requirements for the player are also very high, a small mistake, may lead to failure, will make the situation change, but Liu Lan has studied the chess game for a long time, although I dare not guarantee that it will be perfectly executed, but at least, He believes that his move is the most beautiful move in many years, a game of chess that has laid the foundation, when the strength of the two of them is declining in the attrition, when they react, Liu Lan may have the ability to level the two in one fell swoop.

The reason why he made such an absolute decision was completely Liu Lan's own decision through his current strength, at first Liu Lan's mind was completely only one and that was to unconditionally contain Cao Cao, but later he found out that Cao Cao was not much of a threat to him in the current situation, with his current strength, the stranger was himself, even Yuan Shao did not have much chance of winning.

Only then did he react, this is all because of history, because of history Cao Cao is the winner, so he will be more jealous of Cao Cao, but he ignores one point, the battle of Guandu was Cao Cao's victory over the strong with the weak, and he established his position as the overlord after defeating Yuan Shao, but before that, Cao Cao was not favored by anyone at all, his strength was too weak, and he could not compete with Yuan Shao at all.

So at this time, if he fights against Cao Cao, then in the battle of Guandu, the probability of him losing to Yuan Shao is far greater than defeating Yuan Shao, so when half of the thirteen states in the world are returned to Yuan Shao at that time, does he still have the ability to defeat Yuan Shao, who is not dangerous at all in his eyes?

It is difficult, it is at this moment that Liu Lan realized that it is wrong and even biased to regard Cao Cao as his biggest enemy, Cao Cao has no threat to him at this time, and there is only one enemy who threatens him, and that is Yuan Shao, on the contrary, Cao Cao also understands this truth, so Yuan Shao should be the common enemy of the two of them, but because of historical reasons, the alliance between the two seems to be hopeless, but because of the Battle of Shouchun, their next alliance may undoubtedly become very large.

The next alliance between the two of them, if they want to deal with Yuan Shao, this is a choice that must be made, but all this requires Cao Cao to make a decision, once Yuan Shao comes to fight him, Cao Cao will not stand by and watch, this is very critical, although he knows that this possibility is very small, but if Yuan Shao goes to fight Cao Cao, Liu Lan will help, and will definitely not be a bystander, let alone a two-to-one situation, a two-to-one situation, only now when Yuan Shao has the advantage, or even after Cao Cao has the advantage.

At this time, Xu Shu, who had gone and returned, entered the council hall again with a bamboo tube, he smiled and handed the bamboo tube into Liu Lan's hand, and said: "Lord, I just received the news that Wen Chou has sent Ma Yan to Shouchun, it seems that Yuan Shu is going to run away." ”

"Mayen?" Liu Lan thought about it, he didn't have much impression of this person, he should belong to that kind of nameless person, but his understanding of the generals of the Three Kingdoms is more from the Legend of the Three Kingdoms and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and he is generally unable to go to ninety, then he can say the name, and above eighty, he also has a deep impression, at least such generals can be used in the game, but under eighty, then there is not much understanding, after all, there are too many such generals, not to mention the generals under Yuan Shao's account, There are only three or four really powerful people who can make him look at it in the game, so this Mayan barely knows anything.

"Yes, it was this person who was ordered to go to Shouchun, but he had left Xuzhou for many days, if it weren't for the recent assembly of the Shouchun army, to come to Gaoyou, our internal guards would not have found out at all, and the lowly post is now a little worried, afraid that Wenyuan and they will not be able to rush over, do you want them to prepare, or we will send a partial army to cut off Yuan Shu's return to Xuzhou route early?"

"The idea is a good idea, but if we take Yuan Shu, what should we do with him?" Liu Lan looked at Xu Shu and asked him rhetorically, of course Liu Lan wanted to catch Yuan Shu, and the jade seal in his hand was enough to attract him, but when Wang Xiu brought back Yuan Shao gave the order for the Jizhou army to assemble in Gaoyou, he hesitated.

Won Yuan Shu, this is not the same as forcing Yuan Shao to fight Guangling, not to say that Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao are brothers, just say that the heirloom jade seal in his hand, Yuan Shao can not care, if he doesn't care, then he will not turn against Sun Jian, let alone let Liu Biao intercept him halfway.

Liu Lan sighed slightly, this matter is a little difficult to do, he thought for a moment, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and said: "If we leak such news to Cao Cao, how about Cao Cao arrest Yuan Shu?" ”

"The lord wants to borrow a knife to kill someone? Although this plan is good, doesn't the lord who passed through the jade seal in Yuan Shu's hand have some ideas? I feel that instead of cheapening Yuan Shu, this matter should be used by us to maximize the benefits. ”

"Oh?" Liu Lan was a little puzzled, how can he maximize his benefits? He looked at Xu Shu and said, "Yuan Zhi, tell me what you think." Liu Lan asked a little impatiently, he was eager to know what better way he had to resolve the current unfavorable situation.

"It's not easy to deal with Yuan Shu if we catch it, but what if we catch Yuan Shu and hand him over to Cao Cao and let Cao Cao deal with Yuan Shu? At that time, whether he killed Yuan Shu or released Yuan Shu, it didn't matter to us, the key is that we not only got the jade seal of the country, but also threw out the hot potato of Yuan Shu, and Cao Cao definitely wanted to give the Han family an explanation to the Son of Heaven, so he probably had to dispose of Yuan Shu, would Yuan Shao let Cao Cao go at that time?

That's a revenge for killing my brother.

Liu Lan instantly understood Xu Shu's thoughts, thought about it and said: "Actually, I really don't have much interest in the jade seal of the country, I think it's better to pass the news of Ma Yan to Cao Cao immediately and let Cao Cao intercept it, and we good people might as well do it to the end, let Yuan Shu go, let Cao Cao and Yuan Shao fight for the jade seal of the country, then do you say that Yuan Shao is still likely to attack our Guangling?" ”

"With the heirloom jade seal, coupled with the revenge of killing my brother, I am afraid that Yuan Shao will not let Cao Cao go no matter what, and our Guangling may be truly safe, but the lord does this, and the sacrifice is a bit big, after all, it is the heirloom jade seal, not the jade seal of the Son of Heaven." Xu Shu still felt that it was a pity, since he wanted to take the blame, he naturally wanted to take the benefits, but the lord gave away all the benefits directly, which really made him feel pity.

"For me now, it's true that Yuan Shu is a hot potato, but the same is true of the jade seal of the country, with it in our hands, then we don't want to have a peaceful life in the future, so let's let Yuan Shao and Cao Cao fight, for us, the biggest thing now is Sun Ce in Jiujiang and Xu Gong in Wujun, only to completely control the entire south, and then think about other things."

Xu Shu nodded heavily, since the lord had already made a decision, then he naturally had to implement it unconditionally, and immediately took his leave, saying: "Then the humble post will pass the book to Zhang Liao and the three now, let them act according to the plan, if Yuan Shu escapes, there is no need to pursue, if Yuan Shu still stays in Shouchun, then find an opportunity to let Yuan Shu go." ”

"Okay, let's just give the order."

"No."