Now, according to Zhu Wei's investigation of the strength of Yuan Shu's side, Yuan Shu has 40,000 or 50,000 troops in Liu Xun's department in Lujiang County, and the troops left in the old base camp Shouchun are at least nearly 30,000, plus the Yinling, Zhongli, and Quyang generations are also stationed in the direction of Guangling County.

It can be said that it is precisely because Yuan Shu has to raise so many troops that the family heritage accumulated by the fourth and third princes of the Yuan family cannot withstand consumption.

But it is precisely because of such an army that Yuan Shu dared to be the emperor, and Cao Cao was jealous of Cao Cao with his strength, so that Lu Bu hooked up with Yuan Shu several times.

However, now Yuan Shu has indeed reached the most dangerous time, even if Yuan Shu's troops are more, he has to face the siege of Zhu Wei, Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu's four coalition forces, and this time the situation is worse than the situation faced by Yuan Shu in the original history.

In the original history, Cao Cao's eastern expedition to Yuan Shu actually united Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and Sun Ce.

Then Yuan Shu knew that Cao Cao was coming with his troops, so he withdrew his troops directly from Chen State, and returned to Shouchun to enjoy himself, and only sent his generals Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun with 20,000 or 30,000 troops, and stayed in Huaibei to resist the army of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu.

Maybe Yuan Shu thought that Cao Cao beat him because he attacked Chen State and threatened Xu Du, so now that he directly withdrew from Chen State and no longer threatened Xu Du, then Cao Cao should also pretend to withdraw his troops.

But Yuan Shu was wrong, this time Cao Cao took it seriously.

Therefore, the combined forces of Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Lü Bu first defeated the armies of Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun in Huaibei, and then added Sun Ce's army, which also responded to the need to send troops, preparing to attack Shouchun City, Yuan Shu's base camp together.

And Yuan Shu was scared again, he ordered his subordinates Li Feng, Le Kuo, Liang Gang, and Chen Ji to lead an army of 100,000 to guard Shouchun, and he himself packed up the treasury and led the rest of the troops to cross the Huai to flee Runan.

During this period, Yuan Shu also sent people to encourage Jiangdong Zulang and other Shanyue to rebel in Jiangdong, so that Sun Ce had to focus on Jiangdong to quell the rebellion, which was regarded as removing a group of soldiers and horses that attacked him.

But Cao Cao was really determined to get Yuan Shu, so Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu still besieged Shouchun ruthlessly.

But Shouchun has 100,000 defenders, so the siege of the city lasted for more than a month, and Cao Cao's food was almost insufficient.

Fortunately, Cao Cao borrowed 100,000 yuan of grain and rice from Sun Ce, which alleviated the food crisis, so with the morale brought by the grain, Cao's army finally broke through Shouchun City, and Li Feng, Le Zhuo, Liang Gang, and Chen Ji, who defended the city, were all captured alive and executed in public.

At this point, Yuan Shu, who had lost his base camp, finally entered a state of despair, and his soldiers betrayed their relatives, and some even fled to the mountains as bandits.

However, in the original history, Yuan Shu still did not perish immediately after this battle, and he secretly contacted Lü Bu, who had returned to Xuzhou, and then Lü Bu rebelled against the imperial court again and formed an alliance with Yuan Shu, sending Gao Shun and Zhang Liao to attack Peicheng and defeat Liu Bei.

Cao Cao sent Xiahou Dun to rescue Liu Bei, but he was also defeated by Gao Shun, it seems that Xiahou Dun's eyes became one-eyed at this time, and then Gao Shun and others broke through Peicheng, captured Liu Bei's wife and children, and Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao.

Cao Cao personally led his troops to attack Lü Bu, and finally besieged Lü Bu in Xiapi City, and with Lü Bu's subordinates Hou Cheng, Song Xian, and Wei Xu rebelled, bound Chen Gong to surrender, and Lü Bu was hanged in Baimen Tower.

It can be said that in the original history, Cao Cao's eastward expedition to Yuan Shu also opened the beginning of the subsequent battle situation of Cao Cao's unification of the Central Plains.

It's just that the current situation is different, Sun Ce, who originally besieged Yuan Shu, was forced to retreat by Yuan Shu's instigation of Jiangdong Shanyue rebellion, mainly because he had just occupied Jiangdong and had just separated from Yuan Shu, and Jiangdong was still very unstable, so Yuan Shu found an opportunity.

But now Zhu Wei's control over Jiangdong and Jingzhou is very stable, so it is naturally impossible for Yuan Shu to find an opportunity to make a move, so it is impossible for Zhu Wei to withdraw his troops easily.

So Yuan Shu might have been able to escape to Runan, and after Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Lu Bu's combined forces broke through Shouchun's retreat, he would return to Shouchun to continue to survive, but now that he has a strong army from Zhu Wei's side, he will definitely not give Yuan Shu this opportunity.

In this way, whether Cao Cao can still conquer Lu Bu and unify the Central Plains is naturally two words.

In fact, in the past half a year, Zhu Wei has also reached a certain alliance with Lu Bu, so it is impossible for Zhu Wei to sit back and watch Lu Bu be exterminated by Cao Cao.

At the beginning, after negotiating terms with the Sun family in Guangling County, he went to Xuzhou Pengcheng where Lu Bu was.

Of course, Yi Ji got a lesson from Zhu Wei's side, so after arriving in Pengcheng, he immediately went to visit Chen Deng and Chen Qi, expressed Zhu Wei's greetings to them, and then expressed Zhu Wei's hope to be friendly with Lu Bu, and asked what they meant.

Although Chen Qi and Chen Deng's father and son were originally dissatisfied with Lu Bu and were already somewhat inclined to throw themselves to Cao Cao, but now Zhu Wei has risen strongly in the south, especially Zhu Wei occupies the root of the Chen family in Guangling County.

Therefore, at this moment, they also felt that it was not a bad thing to secretly befriend Zhu Wei, and as for the idea that Lu Bu and Zhu Wei's friendship would make Lu Bu's position in Xuzhou more stable, it was different at this moment.

Chen Qi, Chen Deng's father and son still took into account the possible development of the situation in the future, no matter what, now that Guangling County is in the hands of Zhu Wei, even if they help Cao Cao solve Lu Bu, it is impossible for them to get the land of Guangling County from Cao Cao's side.

For the sake of their family, they naturally wanted to make friends with Zhu Wei, who actually controlled Guangling County.

In this way, after receiving support from Chen Qi and Chen Deng's father and son, he officially went to meet Lu Bu as Zhu Wei's envoy, and then proposed Zhu Wei's friendship to Lu Bu, expressing Zhu Wei's willingness to trade grain and war horses with Lu Bu and other alliances.

Although Xuzhou is also a rich place, after Cao Cao launched the campaign against Xuzhou, Xuzhou was also in a situation of war for many years.

After that, although Liu Bei inherited Xuzhou from Tao Qian's side, he was still unable to restore the livelihood of Xuzhou in a short period of time.

Then Lu Bu seized Xuzhou from Liu Bei, and then Lu Bu and Yuan Shu went to war again because of the marriage, it can be said that Xuzhou has been at war for almost no time over the years, so how can there be a chance to restore people's livelihood, so as to provide grain and grass taxes to the rulers of Xuzhou.

In this way, Lu Bu really couldn't save much food to meet his needs for raising troops, and in the original history, when Lu Bu first captured Xuzhou, he was attracted by Yuan Shu's empty check with 200,000 grains, so he took Liu Bei into his hands.

betraying his benefactor for the sake of food and grass, although this can only be done by a character like Lu Bu, it also shows that Lu Bu was really in need of food supplies at that time, but it is a pity that Yuan Shu did not give these grains later.

In the Han Dynasty, Emperor Xian returned from Chang'an to the east, passing through Hedong, and also issued an edict ordering Lü Bu to welcome him, but because the army did not have enough food reserves, Lü Bu could not send troops to Qin Wang, so he could only send a messenger to apologize.

Otherwise, with such a good opportunity to assist the Son of Heaven, Lu Bu would have to mix it up, so Lu Bu should have really lacked food at that time.

Even if when Lu Bu defeated Yuan Shu's Seventh Route Army before, he plundered a large amount of grain and grass in the land of Huaibei to alleviate some of Lu Bu's predicament, but the food problem was still a big problem on Lu Bu's side.

Now Zhu Wei put forward the condition of exchanging grain and grass for horses, expressing his intention to be friendly with Lu Bu, and Lu Bu was naturally moved......