Yuan Shao of Hebei, Cao Cao of the Central Plains, Sun Ce of Jiangdong, Liu Biao of Jingzhou...... The current situation seems to have suddenly returned to the history that Liu Xie is familiar with. However, Liu Xie knew that Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were sharpening their knives and Huo Huo was about to attack him, and maybe someone else would also come to get involved.

Whether to preemptively take the Tiger Prison or to preemptively occupy the moral high ground seems to be a question. According to Liu Xie's idea, it is natural to choose the former, take the Tiger Prison Pass, plus Meng Jindu, who was already in control, even if Yuan Shao and Cao Cao join forces, it is nothing more than a reproduction of the old things when the princes begged for Dong. And even if the Huns went south this time, Liu Xie would not have to give up the Tiger Prison Pass because he was worried about a fire in the backyard.

However, Cai Yong, Lu Zhi and others opposed Liu Xie's proposal, thinking that the teacher was unknown. Originally, Yuan Shao's excuse for wanting to attack the court was that the court had powerful ministers, and the government was controlled by villains.

With Liu Xie's current strength, in fact, Cai Yong and Lu Zhi can not help Liu Xie much. Now Liu Xie, who wants people and money, is no longer the time when he had internal and external troubles. But Liu Xie is a nostalgic person, and the considerations of Cai Yong, Lu Zhi and others are indeed reasonable.

Reason is all over the world, and it is difficult to move an inch without reason. Occupying the Tiger Prison Pass could indeed ensure that the four counties of Sizhou controlled by the imperial court would not be affected by the war to a greater extent, but that also gave the princes of all walks of life a reason to unite against the imperial court.

The meal should be eaten one bite at a time, the road should be walked step by step, it is easy to choke when you are in a hurry, and it is easy to pull the egg when you take a big step. After thinking about it, Liu Xie finally agreed to Cai Yong and Lu Zhi's suggestions, and actively prepared, but never preemptively took the lead.

gave up the preemptive strike, but that does not mean that Liu Xie is ready to give up the four counties of Pingyang, Hedong, Henan, and Hongnong that he controls. Not to mention the population, but the food accumulated in the past few years, Liu Xie is not ready to be cheap Yuan Shao or Cao Cao. The official warehouses placed in various places, taking advantage of Cao Cao's attack on the Central Plains for more than half a year, have basically emptied the grain in the official warehouses, and the places near Tongguan are also ready to receive and resettle the people because they have received orders from the imperial court in advance. In order to buy time for the people to move, the imperial court secretly deployed heavy troops in Xingyang, Mengjin and other places, just waiting for Yuan Shao and Cao Cao to attack the imperial court.

However, at this time, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were not in a hurry to challenge the imperial court, but were discussing the distribution of Qingxu and Xu Prefectures with each other. Cao Cao won Xuzhou and the submission of Lu Bu, a general, which made Yuan Shao, who only won Qingzhou and tens of thousands of elite soldiers, extremely unbalanced. Tens of thousands of elite soldiers are really not worth mentioning to Yuan Shao, who has millions of soldiers, and the granary of Xuzhou is comparable to Lu Bu, who is ugly and ugly, and that is what can make Yuan Shao tempted.

Cao Cao took advantage of the opportunity when he led his troops to drag Lu Bu's main force, and obtained Xuzhou without much effort, which made Yuan Shao extremely dissatisfied with Cao Cao's move of cutting off Hu halfway. If he hadn't been thinking about joining forces with Cao Cao to attack the imperial court, Yuan Shao might have turned his face with Cao Cao now.

In order to appease Yuan Shao's anger, Cao Cao promised the two families to form an alliance with Yuan Shao as the main body, and Guanzhong would be owned by Yuan Shao after the war. It was under such conditions that the friendship boat between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao did not capsize immediately.

"Fengxiao, why did you give Guanzhong to Yuan Shao?" Back to his own territory, Cao Cao asked Guo Jiadao very puzzled. Guo Jia smiled when he heard this, and asked Cao Cao rhetorically: "Ming Gong, can Yuan Shao take Guanzhong?" Now the imperial court is no longer what it used to be, although there are not as many people as Yuan Shao, but it is not without a fight. To be honest, it is a question whether Yuan Shao can enter the customs. ”

"Are you saying that joining forces with Yuan Shao this time may not necessarily lead to a steady victory?" Cao Cao frowned and asked.

"Ming Gong, it doesn't matter if he Yuan Shao can win or not, the key is that we can't turn against Yuan Shao at the moment, otherwise we will become the court if we pick up the cheapest."

“…… How does the imperial court pick up the cheap? ”

"If Yuan Shao doesn't find trouble with the imperial court, won't he have to trouble us? Ming Gong, you can remember not to pay attention to the four counties of Sizhou this time, especially the two counties of Hongnong and Hedong. ”

"Why?"

"Ming Gong, occupy Hongnong and Hedong, then it can be replaced by us and the imperial court, once Yuan Shao withdraws his troops, the object of the imperial court's revenge will be replaced by us, we don't do this kind of stupid thing to do for others."

"Listening to Fengxiao's meaning, you seem to think that Yuan Shao is definitely not the opponent of the imperial court this time?" Cao Cao looked at Guo Jia suspiciously and asked.

"Ming Gong, in fact, this is thanks to Luo Net. It was through the net that Jia knew that the imperial court might have already known Yuan Shao's plans. Guo Jia explained softly.

"What message did Luo Wang receive?" Cao Cao knows that this is nonsense! Luo Net is an intelligence agency formed by Cao Cao instructing Guo Jia to select the elites in the army, and its nature is similar to the Tianyan in Liu Xie's hands.

"Ming Gong Rongyu, three months ago, Luo Wang sent back the news that the grain in the official warehouse in Luoyang, Henan Province was emptied, Jia felt that there was a problem here, so he ordered Luo Wang to investigate whether there was any difference in the official warehouse in other counties. The results of the return really surprised Jiada, and the official warehouses in the counties were basically emptied. If the imperial court wants to be the first to make trouble, it should be to enrich the official warehouse, how can it empty the official warehouse to create pressure on logistics. Unless the imperial court knew in advance that someone wanted to commit misdeeds, in order to avoid the enemy, it began to empty the official warehouse. ”

"Fengxiao, this is just your guess, and there is no real evidence." Cao Cao shook his head and said.

"Ming Gong, the emptying of the official warehouse is only one thing, in addition, Jia also ordered Luo Wang to pay attention to the situation in Guanzhong, and found that all the counties and counties adjacent to Tongguan were building houses, which seemed to be preparing for the reception of displaced people. However, since the stabilization of Guanzhong, there are very few displaced people, and there is no need for such fanfare, unless a large number of displaced people will flow into Guanzhong in the near future, and the government needs to prepare in advance. ”

“…… So Feng Xiao thinks that the imperial court will be the first to attack? ”

"Probably not, after all, it's easy to give someone a handle when sending troops for no reason." Guo Jia shook his head and replied after thinking about it.

"Then if I stand on the side of the court this time......"

"Ming Gong, Jia thinks it can't be."

"Why?"

"The heart of the Ming Duke is to the imperial court, so Yuan Shao will remove the hidden danger of the Ming Duke before attacking the imperial court, but the imperial court will not necessarily understand the feelings of the Ming Duke. Ming Gong, Jia and the son of today have met, although they dare not say that they know the temperament of the Son of Heaven, they also know a little bit about it. ”

"Hmm...... Do you mean to say that the court wants me to fight to the death with Yuan Shao? ”

"Cranes and mussels compete, fishermen profit."

……

There is a lot of help for the righteous, but little help for the unjust, Yuan Shao still understands this truth. After carving up Qingxu Erzhou with Cao Cao, Yuan Shao had already vaguely felt Cao Cao's ambition to fight against him. However, at present, the great enemy of Hebei is still the imperial court, in order to avoid pushing Cao Cao to the side of the imperial court, Yuan Shao agreed to Cao Cao's "compromise conditions".

The top priority is to solve the imperial court, and when the threat of the Son of Heaven to him is lifted, Cao Cao will naturally be the next to clean up. It's not that he didn't report it, the time has not come, and when that time comes, Cao Cao will have to spit out all the advantages he has taken here.

Realizing that Cao Cao was not as reliable as he expected, Yuan Shao naturally had to look for new allies. And Liu Zhang and Liu Biao, who are not bordering Yuan Shao's forces, naturally entered Yuan Shao's sight. In order to persuade these two princes surnamed Liu to support him, Yuan Shao successively sent envoys to lobby.

On this day, the frustrated professor who was responsible for lobbying Liu Biao arrived in Xiangyang. Knowing that Yuan Shao had sent an envoy here, Liu Biao ordered Kuai Yue to greet him on his behalf. For the frustration of this Hebei celebrity, Kuai Yue expressed his attitude with a grand ceremony.

The two major families in Jingzhou are the Cai Kui family, of which Kuai Yue was born in the Kuai family, and assisted Liu Biao together with his brother Kuai Liang. After Liu Biao was crowned king, the Kuai family also followed, and the civil officials in Jingzhou were headed by the Kuai brothers, and the military attache was headed by Cai Mao.

After being received by Kuai Yue, Fu Zhu naturally expressed his satisfaction and accepted Kuai Yue's invitation, and Fu Zhu was admitted to Kuai's house to live temporarily, waiting for the summons of King Jing Liu Biao.

This stay lasted for ten days, and during these ten days, Fu Zhu was not idle, except for asking Kuai Yue when he could meet Liu Biao, the rest of the time was used by Fu Zhu to visit various families in Jingzhou.

This time he went south, and he had two purposes, one was to persuade Liu Biao to agree to send troops together to find trouble with the imperial court, and the other was to take the opportunity to find out the truth of Jingzhou. Hebei must be, and those strategists under Yuan Shao also began to set their sights on the Central Plains and Jingzhou. As Yuan Shao's mastermind, Fu Zhi naturally has to take a more long-term view than others.

After these few days of visits, Fu Zhu has a certain understanding of Jingzhou's cultural governance, due to the war in the Central Plains, a large number of celebrities went south to avoid trouble, it just so happens that Liu Biao is a good talker, these celebrities have been warmly welcomed by Liu Biao after arriving in Jingzhou. After the stability of Guanzhong in recent years, some celebrities left Jingzhou, but there are still a large number of celebrities who remain in Jingzhou.

However, these people only surprised Fu Zhi a little, and the peace of troubled times relied on real swords and guns, not lip service. No matter how many celebrities there are in Jingzhou, they can't resist the millions of soldiers in Hebei. Therefore, the military affairs in Jingzhou are even more interesting to Fu Zhi. Through understanding, Fu Zhi had a general understanding of the current situation of Jingzhou's soldiers and horses.

The soldiers and horses of Jingzhou are basically in the hands of Cai Mao and Wen Ping, of which Cai Mao is in charge of the water army, and Wen Ping is in charge of the second army of Ma Bu. However, since Cai Mao is the governor of Jingzhou, Wenpin also belongs to Cai Mao's subordinates. In terms of body, Jingzhou's soldiers and horses are not very strong. The navy army in charge of Cai Mao lost more than he won against Sun Ce's men in Jiangdong, and the second army of Mabu in charge of Wen Ping was also more than enough than the top. Especially in terms of generals, I heard that there was a Huang Zhong in Jingzhou who could be called a general before, but this person was ordered to go to Guanzhong to obey orders in the early years, but he was left behind by the imperial court, and now he has become the chief general of the Han'an army of the imperial court.

Except for Huang Zhong, Fu Zhu didn't know who else could resist his two generals, Yan Liangwen and Chou. However, because of listening to the military affairs in Jingzhou, he learned that Liu Bei is now living in Jingzhou.

is no stranger to Liu Bei, but he doesn't value it much. What really caught the attention of Frustration was actually Zhang Fei under Liu Bei's account, I heard that this person was brave, but he could fight with Yan Liangwen Chou.

Fu Zhu was not interested in Liu Bei, but Liu Bei seemed to have a relationship with Fu Zhu, and when Fu Zhu visited Mr. Shuijing, he happened to meet Liu Bei, who also came to visit Mr. Shuijing, Sima Hui.

Frustration to visit Sima Hui is just out of courtesy, Sima Hui and Pang Degong are both Jingzhou celebrities, and visiting others without visiting them is equivalent to losing courtesy. And Liu Bei's visit to Sima Hui was not for the sake of courtesy. Since settling down in Wancheng, Liu Bei was honest for a while at the beginning, and after gaining a firm foothold, Liu Bei began to expand his strength. First, he secretly sent people to inform Liu Pi and Gong Du to lead soldiers and horses to come and re-recruit them in the name of recruiting soldiers, and then they vigorously tapped talents from all over the world to enrich their teams. Not to mention, Liu Bei really got two talents in Wancheng, one is Li Yan and the other is Lou Gui. Li Yan is both civil and military, while Lou Gui is quite proficient in internal affairs.

Liu Bei, who had won these two people, was more confident, and after finding that there were no talents to dig in Wancheng, Liu Bei set his sights on the interior of Jingxiang. In the name of visiting Liu Biao, it was not the first time that Liu Bei had come to Shuijing Academy. And the reason why Liu Bei came back here was also because of the fame of Shuijing Academy in Jingxiang, and Liu Bei hoped to recruit talents here. It's just that for Liu Bei's purpose of coming here, Mr. Shui Jing pretended to be deaf and dumb, and neither opposed nor supported it.

In Shuijing Academy, the top few people are Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Pang Tong, and Xu Shu. However, except for Zhuge Liang who gave Liu Bei a good face, the other three didn't seem to be very interested in Liu Bei. In fact, this can't be blamed on Pang Tong and the three of them, the reason is still the third brother Zhang Fei next to Liu Bei.

Thinking that at the beginning, Liu Bei came to visit Mr. Shuijing, Zhang Fei was worried about Liu Bei's safety and insisted on following. As a result, the two met Pang Tong at the gate. Pang Tong is not very good-looking, although he met friends such as Sima Yi and Xu Shu who didn't care about his appearance, but his psychology was still a little sensitive.

Zhang Fei's strange scream of shouting and screaming immediately made Pang Tong remember it. Sima Yi didn't want to see Liu Bei because he thought that Liu Bei was suspected of digging Liu Xie's corner, while Xu Shu didn't want to see Liu Bei because his two friends didn't want to see Liu Bei.

Three of the top four people in the Water Mirror Academy did not want to see Liu Bei, and the treatment that Liu Bei could get in the Water Mirror Academy can be imagined. Although Zhuge Liang was polite to Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang politely declined Liu Bei's tentative solicitation.

Today's general trend has become slightly different from history due to the rise of Liu Xie, the son of heaven. Liu Xie did not become a puppet in Cao Cao's hands, so a wise man like Zhuge Liang naturally did not need to find another way out for the Han family. Although he did not agree with Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang's loyalty to the Han Dynasty did not change at all. In particular, Liu Xie, the son of heaven, managed Guanzhong and conquered the Western Regions, which made Zhuge Liang secretly agree in his heart. The pattern of troubled times has been formed, rather than rashly acting and falling into chaos, it is better to accumulate strength and settle the situation in one fell swoop.

……

There are two flowers, one on each branch

Fu Zhu was active in Jingzhou, while Xin Bi, who was also sent as an envoy, was trying to lobby Liu Zhang, the king of Shu, in Chengdu, Yizhou. Compared with Frustration, Xinbi's trip to Yizhou was much smoother, and he saw the main owner Liu Zhang not long after arriving in Yizhou, unlike Frustration, who has not seen Liu Biao yet.

However, it is easy to see Liu Zhang, but it is not easy to convince Liu Zhang at all. In fact, Liu Zhang can't be blamed for being timid, he really scared Liu Xie a few years ago. Of course, there are also reasons why Zhang Song and other people who are interested in the court are obstructing it.

Liu Zhang is the lord of Yizhou, and he refuses to find trouble with Yuan Shao, the son of heaven, Liu Xie, and Xin Bi, the messenger, is also in trouble. But let him return to Hebei in such a gloomy manner, Xin Bi was a little unwilling. In the final analysis, this envoy was also a test for Yuan Shao to Xinbi. Since Tian Feng was kicked out of the Six Schemers by Yuan Shao, Fu Zhu has pleaded with Yuan Shao more than once for Tian Feng, but the same thing has been said many times, and Yuan Shao has also become disgusted with Fu Zhu. And Xin Ping, who is a newcomer to the Six Schemes, is also very dissatisfied with the frustration, Tian Feng is back, so what should he do?

Xin Bi is Xin Ping's younger brother, Xin Bi was able to send an envoy this time, and it was also Xin Ping's strong recommendation, if Xin Bi returned in vain, it would also lower Yuan Shao's evaluation of his brother. Whether it was to prove his ability or his brother's status in Yuan Shao's mind, it was necessary for Xin Bi to negotiate this alliance.

But Liu Zhang didn't nod, and Xin Bi didn't either. In order for Liu Zhang to nod his head, Xin Bi had to ask outsiders for advice. As the saying goes, money makes the devil grind. After spending a lot of money, Xin Bi finally got a useful news, saying that Liu Zhang's most trusted person at present is no longer Zhao Wei at the beginning, but Wang Shang today, as long as he can ask Wang Shang to help him, he will definitely be able to make Liu Zhang nod.

Xin Bi rushed to find Wang Shang and presented a gift to explain his intentions. Wang Shang did not directly refuse Xin Bi's request, but he did not agree, but only pointed out a clear way for Xin Bi.

If there is a father, there must be a son, this is really the right way to describe Liu Zhang. I think that Liu Zhang couldn't get used to seeing his father Liu Yan infatuated with Zhang Lu's mother Lu, but now that he has become the lord of Yizhou, he is also infatuated with a witch. Although this behavior caused dissatisfaction among most officials in Yizhou, Liu Zhang went his own way and ignored the opinions of the officials.

Xin Pi received the guidance of Wang Shang, and in order to achieve the purpose of this trip, with a wave of his hand, countless gold and silver treasures were placed in front of the witch. And most women are actually like dragons who love gold, silver and jewelry, and they can't walk when they see shiny objects. Just a few kind words can get these heart-warming items in front of you, how can a young witch refuse this temptation.

……

In the summer of the fifth year of Jian'an, Yuan Shao, the overlord of Hebei, spread the world, in the name of the Qing monarch's side, united with Yanzhou Cao Cao, Yizhou Liu Zhang to the imperial court, and asked the Son of Heaven to kill Xun Yu, the powerful minister of the court, Liu Xie, the son of heaven, was unmoved, and reprimanded Yuan Shao's wolf ambitions, and the war between the two sides was about to break out.