As early as the beginning of Liu Wei's succession, the precautions against the Yuan family had already begun.

Not to mention that in the original history, the two brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu set up a separate court and established themselves as emperors, which had already exposed the wolf ambitions of this family. The Yuan family's influence in the court alone made Liu Wei feel like he was not allowed to snore by the side of the couch.

Of course, with Liu Wei's current strength in Luoyang, it is not impossible to sweep away the Yuan clan's power in the imperial court by violent means, but Liu Wei has to be careful about the political impact of doing so.

As early as Yuan Kui's father Yuan Tang, the Yuan family has consciously cultivated party members in the imperial court, through the efforts of his brother Yuan Ping and Yuan Feng, to Yuan Kui's generation, the Yuan family has become the fourth generation, the third duke, the protégé of the court all over the world.

Because of this, most of the scholars in the court respect the Yuan family, and the people in the world also look up to the Yuan family. If drastic measures are taken against the Yuan clan, it will inevitably cause opposition from the court and the chaos of the government. The people of the world will also sympathize with the side of the Yuan family, and it will also have a very bad impact on the reputation of the empire and Liu Wei.

Liu Wei had just succeeded to the throne not long ago, and he was fledgling, and he urgently needed the stability of the court to accumulate strength a little bit. Therefore, for the Yuan family, which has been deeply rooted in the court, it has always been a method of trying to curb it and slowly trying to do it.

After experiencing the incident of opposing the law school and He Hao's tainted suicide, Yuan Kui, who lost the first confrontation, was silent for a long time, and every day he just handled official affairs from top to bottom, did not cause trouble, and put on a "good boy" appearance. He even took the initiative to go to the table to argue to Liu that the power of some prefectures and county guards was too great and they were not very respectful to the imperial court, and suggested that the imperial court withdraw the rights of these people. and also publicly reprimanded Yuan Shu, who ignored the imperial edict in Nanyang, and took the initiative to recommend Han Fu to serve as the pastor of Jizhou to curb Yuan Shao's development in Jizhou.

These behaviors of Yuan Kui gave people a feeling of loyalty to the Han Dynasty, and many courtiers rallied around Yuan Kui, and the people of the world also admired his behavior. It's just that Liu Wei knew in his heart that the imperial court at this time had not yet recovered the strength of the local warlords, and Yuan Kui rashly put forward this idea openly in the court, just trying to intensify the contradictions between the court and the local government and create chaos.

However, Yuan Kui put on such a posture of being loyal to the country, as if he had retracted into a turtle shell, so that Liu Wei had nowhere to put his mouth. This had to make Liu Wei sigh that Jiang was still old and spicy, and there was still a big gap between his own skills and an old fox like Yuan Kui.

However, Liu Wei was not completely unresponsive to Yuan Kui's tricks. He first issued an edict praising Yuan Kui's loyalty to the country, and even affirmed the contributions of the two brothers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu to the pastoral side. and publicly stated that the current Han Empire is still unstable, and the local Yellow Turban remnants have not been completely purged, and they still need the efforts of local governors and county guards, and the imperial court has no intention of taking power at this time.

Liu Wei's actions made the crisis deliberately created by Yuan Kui disappear invisibly. Although Yuan Kui didn't say anything afterwards, he looked like he was obedient to the holy order. However, Liu Wei also saw that the Yuan family had begun to gradually give up the struggle for power in the court, and shifted their energy to the local area.

The Yuan clan has been serving in the court since Yuan An, and all political actions are based on the competition in the court. However, the fifth generation of the Yuan family starting from Yuan Shao, in addition to Yuan Feng's eldest son Yuan Ji still serving in the imperial court, Yuan Ping's son Yuan Yu served as the Shanyang Taishou, Yuan Shao is now the Bohai County Taishou, and Yuan Shu is the Nanyang Taishou. In addition to Yuan Yu's inaction in Shanyang's Taishou position, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu are doing well in the north and in the south.

Nanyang County has a total of 27 cities, 500,000 households, and a population of 2.1 million, and the agriculture and handicraft industries in the territory are extremely developed, making it the largest county in the Han Empire. Yuan Shu, who has this Xiongjun, can be said to be like a fish in water, using the name of the fourth generation and the third prince of his family to constantly recruit celebrities and celebrities to serve and expand his power.

Not only did he not respect the edicts of the imperial court, but he also hyped the proverb that "those who represent the Han should be high" in his jurisdiction, and there was a great momentum of self-reliance.

Regarding Yuan Shu's performance in Nanyang, a member of the Unified Investigation Society had already reported his actions to Liu Wei. It's just that Liu Wei is not very worried about this. In his opinion, Yuan Shu seems to be invincible in Nanyang, but in fact, it is just a blind toss.

Yuan Shu is arrogant and arrogant, and thinks very highly of himself. In his heart, he felt that just by virtue of his name as the third prince of the fourth world, others would bow down to him and take the initiative to serve. In fact, only brave men like Ji Ling and Zhang Xun worked before defecting to his account. And Nanyang is located in Jingxiang, and adjacent to Yangzhou, Jingzhou celebrities and Jiangdong heroes Yuan Shu did not get any of them, which shows that they are just relying on the momentum of the moment to rampantly achieve ambition, and there is no hard power at all. No wonder Kong Rong's evaluation of him in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is "Dry bones in the grave, why mind?" ”。

And in the same place, Yuan Shao's performance is much stronger than Yuan Shu. Not only did he develop the people and develop production in Bohai County, but he was also willing to break the corporal and not rely on the name of the fourth and third princes of his family. For a time, such as Guo Tu, Tian Feng, Yan Liang, Wen Chou and other military generals in Hebei who had lost confidence in the Han Empire, were like-minded. Yuan Shao's strength gradually increased, and he already had the momentum of leading Jizhou.

Ambitious and willing to work hard, compared with Yuan Shu's lack of fear, Liu Wei felt that the enterprising Yuan Shao was the real henchman of the Han Empire.

To curb Yuan Shao's strength in Jizhou, he had already calculated in Liu Wei's heart, but before he could think of a way to implement it, Yuan Kui took the initiative to go to the imperial court, thinking that the strength of individual local county guards was too great, and the imperial court should find a way to curb it, and expressed the imperial historian Han Fu as the pastor of Jizhou to contain Yuan Shao in Jizhou.

Leaving aside Yuan Kui's hidden evil intentions, Han Fu is not a good candidate for Jizhou pastor in Liu Wei's mind, but he is a helpless candidate who has to be used.

In Liu Wei's mind, Lu Zhi is the best candidate to serve as the pastor of Jizhou and contain Yuan Shao. Lu Zhi himself is a great Confucian in the world, with a high reputation, and his family is also a prominent family in Zhuo County, Youzhou, and he will also have a lot of support for Lu Zhi, who is adjacent to Jizhou. And with Lu Zhi's ability and loyalty to Liu Wei, he will not worry that Lu Zhi will be self-reliant.

However, Liu Wei also needs Lu Zhi to sit in Luoyang, help him deal with the government affairs, and contain Yuan Kui and others, and it is impossible for him to serve as Jizhou. Other ministers as famous as Lu Zhi, such as Zhu Jun and Liu Wei, required him to guard Yuzhou and monitor against Yuan Shu, while Huangfu Song fought against the Western Liang army in Chang'an. Therefore, Liu Wei had no choice but to agree with Yuan Kui's opinion and let Han Fu serve as the pastor of Jizhou.

Although Han Fu was not Yuan Shao's opponent in history, and was finally driven out of Jizhou, he could still help Liu Wei block Yuan Shao's development in a short time. Moreover, the reason why Han Fu was taken away by Yuan Shao in the end was because Yuan Shao used a plan to lure Gongsun Zan to attack Jizhou, and he was sending people to scare Han Fu to give Jizhou to himself. And now Gongsun Zhan's teacher Lu Zhi sits in the court, for Liu Bian's arm, Gongsun Chan can also be strictly restrained, if there is no fuse for Gongsun Chan to attack Jizhou, Yuan Shao will have to work hard to capture Jizhou in other ways.

After solving the problem of Jizhou Mu, Liu Wei thought that he could safely extinguish the Xiliang rebels, but he didn't expect Yuan Shu to take advantage of Liu Weixi's time to quell the rebellion, and make small moves behind his back. After Wang Rui was killed, Yuan Kui went to the court to raise Yuan Shu as the pastor of Jingzhou, which has exposed the subtle connection between the Jingzhou incident and Yuan Shu and the Yuan family.

Although Liu Wei doesn't know when and how Sun Jian and Yuan Shu got on the line, but judging from the fact that Sun Jian also drove Yuan Shu in history, the Jingzhou incident must have Yuan Shu behind it. Its purpose is to make chaos in Jingzhou, so that he can take advantage of the chaos to make trouble. After Wang Rui was killed, Yuan Shu stood up and publicly affirmed Sun Jian's behavior of "eliminating traitors for the country", and presented Sun Jian to the imperial court as a general who broke the captives, which shows the hook up between him and Sun Jian.

For Yuan Shu's tricks, Liu Wei had no choice but to see the tricks, using the words in Yuan Kui's seal, "The technique is fierce and strong, and the thieves have always been afraid of subduing, so they can shepherd one side for the Son of Heaven." Since Taifu said in the table that Yuan Shu was good at shepherding one side and deterring Xiaoxiao, he changed Yuan Shu to Runan Taishou, and then the general, to prevent the Yellow Turban Army that was about to resurrect in Runan.

General Hou is the important general of the imperial court, although the right to record Shang Shushi has been abolished now, and he has only become a simple military governor, but he is still extremely noble in the imperial court. Liu Wei did this to promote Yuan Shu's officials, but in fact, he was transferred out of Nanyang to get rid of his influence on Jingzhou.

Then he followed Huang Wan's suggestion to worship Zhang Zhi as the Taishou of Nanyang, and for the candidate of Jingzhou Mu, Liu Wei chose Liu Biao.

Liu Biaozi Jingsheng, a native of Gaoping, Shanyang. As a young man, he was well-known all over the world, and he was deeply influenced by Confucianism, and his appearance was also gentle. In the early days, he participated in the Tai Student Movement, and was known as the "Jiangxia Bajun" with Zhang Jian, Chen Xiang and others.

The reason why Liu Wei chose him as the pastor of Jingzhou has his own ideas. Although Liu Biao was also a prince of one side in the original history, he was so empty talk, and he only knew that he was sticking to Jingzhou, and he had no ambition to plot against the Central Plains. His personality is the same as Liu Yan in Yizhou, he just wants to be a soil emperor in Jingzhou. Moreover, his two sons were not angry, and were scolded by Cao Cao as pigs and dogs (Liu Jingsheng's son Ruoguine dog ears), and Cao Cao's army led the crowd to surrender as soon as it arrived. Therefore, compared with Yuan Shu, who was very ambitious, it was easier to choose Liu Biao as the pastor of Jingzhou and Liu Wei to take over Jingzhou in the future. And the most important thing is that in history, after Liu Biao served as the pastor of Jingzhou, he loved the people and raised the soldiers, calmly protected himself, resisted Yuan Shu outside, and quickly quelled the rebellion of the thieves at home, so that Jingzhou restored stability. These are the reasons why Liu Wei is willing to choose Liu Biao.

Yuan Shu, who was in Nanyang, was extremely angry after learning of the decision of the imperial court, openly resisted the edict, and stayed in Nanyang and refused to leave. and secretly instructed Sun Jian to create a second vicious political incident in Jingzhou that shocked the world.

At the end of November of the second year of Guangxi, Sun Jian attacked and killed Zhang Zhi in the name of colluding with the thieves in Nanyang. Yuan Shu also secretly sent troops to block Liu Biao's road to Jingzhou, preparing Liu Biao to take the result at any time.

The Jingzhou issue is once again in jeopardy.

(To be continued, stay tuned for the next chapter)