Yuan Shu is arrogant, brave and indecisive, not the master of chaos.

However, the Yuan family has been in business for several generations, and the protégés and former officials are all over the world, providing financial and human resources for the rise of the two brothers Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao.

However, after his uncle was killed, he lost his wise guidance, and the two brothers lost their position and did not develop as expected.

Originally, Yuan Shu's development in Yangzhou was smooth, but under Gao Shun's secret prompting, the imperial court sent Liu Miao as the pastor of Yangzhou, which directly interrupted his development process.

Liu Miao first received the support of Xuzhou Thorn Shi Taoqian's human and financial resources, and successfully crossed the river to take office; It also received the support of the wealthy families in Jiangdong and successfully gained a firm foothold in Jiangdong; Later, with the support of Liu Biao and the assistance of a large army, Liu Miao successfully recovered the four counties of Jiangdong and expelled Yuan Shu's forces from the Jiangdong region.

Yuan Shu hated Liu Biao, Liu Xuan and the Hao clan even more, and had an insoluble enmity with Liu Biao before, and a war with Jingzhou was inevitable.

He raised nearly 100,000 troops, which could not be borne by the financial resources of the two counties alone, which was also the reason why he was forced to send troops to Jingzhou as soon as possible.

However, the outside must first be settled inside, plus there is a precedent for the rebellion of the Hao family, and there are thieves such as the Yellow Turbans inside, for this reason, Yuan Shu spent more than a year to stabilize the interior under the advice of Yang Hong.

First of all, let his younger brother Yuan Yin replace Sun Jian as the Taishou of Lujiang County and strengthen the management of the place; Yuan Shu from the town of Jiujiang County.

In order to appease Sun Jian, Yuan Shute applied to the imperial court for the position of general of the captive for him, so that he could train his troops with peace of mind and prepare for the attack on Jingzhou.

He also ordered Ji Ling to continue to guard Zhongli County, not only to guard against Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan in Yuzhou, but also to guard against Guangling County in Xuzhou, to protect the security of the north and east of the two counties, and he didn't want to have a fire in his back when he went out to Jingzhou.

Because of the competition for family resources, after the death of his uncle, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao brothers were on the same page, but their territory was across the Huai River, and he had to be cautious; Xuzhou has a large number of soldiers and horses stationed in Guangling County, and anyone with a discerning eye can see that the only way to use troops is Jiujiang County, and the original war hatred has not been eliminated, and Yuan Shu does not dare to be careless.

Ji Ling is a retainer of Yuan Shu, loyal to him, and is second only to Sun Jian's right-hand man, Yuan Shu trusts him, if he defends the northeast, he will have peace of mind; And Zhongli County is not far from Shouchun City, if there is a war, the two places can support each other.

Secondly, actively expand the water army.

Yuan Shu realized that if there was no strong navy, the war with Jingzhou would be nothing, and the four counties of Jiangdong were obtained by Liu Xuan, because the navy was too poor and was defeated by the Jingzhou navy.

Even if there is enough money and food, it is not a day's work to build warships and train sailors.

Fortunately, on both sides of the Yangtze River, the water network is dense, and there are many people who are accustomed to water, so that local water thieves and water bandits emerge in endlessly, even those who support the army and respect themselves also have some water armies more or less, which makes the military advisor Yang Hong find an opportunity, that is, to recruit thieves and form a water army.

In the chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, most of the scholars in Yangzhou were light and cunning, and Zheng Bao, Zhang Duo, Xu Qian and others had their subordinates and stood on their own feet; Among them, Zheng Bao is the most powerful, occupying Chaohu, with more than 10,000 people, and the land where he is located is rich.

Military advisor Yang Hong believes that Zheng Bao is brave and resolute, with outstanding talent and force, and the Chaohu Lake he occupies is an ideal place to form and train a naval army.

Yuan Shu felt that Zheng Bao's navy had a certain foundation and scale, and he had lived in Chaohu Lake for a long time and was familiar with water nature and water warfare.

So Yuan Shu adopted the advice of the military advisor Yang Hong, sent someone to meet Zheng Bao, and promised to make him the governor of the navy, assist Yuan Shu in the formation, and manage the navy.

With Yuan Shu's suspicious nature, he would not have had such an appointment, but with the imminent attack on Jingzhou, he had no other choice but to retreat.

This was a great temptation for Zheng Bao, weighing the pros and cons, he finally decided to accept Zhao'an.

Subsequently, Yuan Shu established a new Chaohu County at the exit of Chaohu Lake to house Zheng Bao's thieves, and appointed Zheng Bao as the commander of Chaohu Lake, and also the governor of the navy, fully responsible for the formation of the navy.

Zheng Bao lived up to expectations, using his personal prestige and the financial resources provided by Yuan Shu, actively recruiting boatmen and sailors, more than a year, the navy has begun to take shape, although it is not capable of the Jingzhou Liu Biao naval army and Lu Su's naval army, but has made Jiangxia Taishou Huangzu fearful, his naval army has not dared to run rampant on the water east of Chaisang.

Thirdly, by sending the general Liu Xun and others to clear the Yellow Turban thieves in the area under their jurisdiction and stabilize the place, they can recruit the people, recruit soldiers from them, strengthen their strength, and train the troops to prepare for the expedition to Jingzhou.

Many of these Yellow Turban thieves are from Nanyang County, Yuzhou, who have fought for many years, have rich experience, and are extremely cunning, and the difficulty of clearing them is beyond the imagination of Yuan Shu and Yang Hong.

In the end, under the pretext of killing many small and medium-sized tyrants in the two counties, the property was returned to the public, and the family members were rewarded to the soldiers as slaves. This not only allowed him to obtain a large amount of money and food, but also stabilized the place, and confiscated a large amount of land for the resettlement of the displaced people and the Yellow Turban thieves, and released a large number of hidden people, increased the tax revenue of the government, and more importantly, won the loyalty of the soldiers.

Yuan Shu didn't dare to do anything to the Shi family and the big local tyrants, and only chose those small and medium-sized local tyrants who had no background, and most of them did it secretly, or in the name of the bandits, and strived to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, leaving no future troubles, and minimizing the impact.

In any era, the wealthy occupy a large amount of arable land, occupy a large number of people, and evade official taxes, all of which are naturally opposed to the rulers. In order to strengthen their own rule, increase taxes, and exterminate these big clans is the desire of all rulers, but because of the strong strength of the powerful clans united, if they are forcibly exterminated, the consequences are unpredictable, so that some rulers are powerless, and can only make peace with each other and use each other to achieve a balance.

Coupled with the precedent of the Yuan family crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, the clans of the two counties avoided Yuan Shu, and the internal situation was stable on the surface, but there was a dark tide surging underneath.

At this time, Yuan Shu was anxious for a big victory to alleviate internal contradictions; After more than a year of preparation, the arrow has been wound, and it is time to send it; However, Yuan Shu did not dare to leave the nest without permission, so he had to send Sun Jian to lead the army to Jingzhou alone.

He planned very well, as long as Sun Jian on the front line won a big victory, so that the big clans in the county saw hope, they would definitely increase their investment in him and support him in foreign expeditions, at that time, he would personally go out to destroy Liu Biao in one fell swoop, occupy Jingzhou, and achieve prestige, and everyone was happy.

There were two routes to choose from to attack Jingzhou from Lujiang County, the first was the inland northern route, and the second was the southern route westward along the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Between Jingzhou and Lujiang County, there is Tongbai Mountain-Dabie Mountain, which hinders road traffic between the two places, and water traffic depends on the Yangtze River.

If you take the northern route, it is very easy to clash with Yuan Shao of Runan County or Dong Zhuo of Nanyang County, and you have to pass through high mountains and valleys, and the road is rugged and difficult, which is not conducive to the movement of the army.

Military advisor Yang Hong intends to take the northern line, without passing through Yuan Shao's territory, on the premise of first occupying Xiyang County, Yuguo County and other Jiangxia County counties in the eastern part of Dabie Mountain, and then snatch Wuyang Pass (Wusheng Pass or Yiyang Sanguan), through the mountain path, into the north of Jiangxia County, around the back of Huang Zu, you can attack Xiangfan in the west, and you can go south to surround Huang Zu, and the northern part of Jiangxia County is located in the Tongbai Mountain-Dabie Mountain Mountains, which is easy to defend after occupation, even if Liu Biao and Huang Zu join forces to attack, it is difficult to make a profit, and even if you attack from the southern front, It is also necessary to send a surprise army to the northern part of Jiangxia County to contain Liu Biao and Huang Zu's army, which will make them jealous and have to divide their troops to defend.

And Yuan Shu was unwilling to make extraneous branches, making Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo unhappy, and he had a certain confidence in Zheng Bao's army, even if he couldn't beat Liu Biao's army, he would definitely be able to clean up Huang Zu's army, he did not take the advice of the military advisor Yang Hong, but chose to take the southern route.

Yuan Shu's wrong choice left a foreshadowing for his eventual defeat.