Liu Xin suddenly heard the news, he really didn't know whether he should be happy or sad, he was still thinking about what needs to be done to stabilize the rear just now, one of which is how to settle Liu Mao and Liu Zhang's brothers, now there are many Yizhou soldiers in the army, and five counties are taken from Liu Yan's hands, everyone is smiling in peacetime, who knows if once the army goes north, there will be any restless officials who want to stab him in the back, and if these people want to do it, they will definitely hold Liu Yan's banner, Although Liu Yan is dead, Liu Mao and Liu Zhang are still there,

Hearing the news of Liu Mao's death, Liu Xin suddenly regretted a little, he should have followed Cheng Yu's suggestion to take Wu Amaranth as a concubine, at least he could tie Wu Yi firmly to his chariot, and now not only did he harm Wu Amaranth, a little girl, for life, and made her a widow early, but also could not guarantee that Liu Yan's old department would definitely be loyal to him, Liu Xin was stunned for a long time, and then asked: "Zhongde, how did he die." ”

Cheng Yu bowed and said: "Back to the lord, Liu Mao has been crazy, even Mr. Zhang can't diagnose what is wrong with him, and his subordinates are a little suspicious, so they send someone to secretly watch him, and when they find that he is not there, he will secretly cry." ”

Liu Xin interrupted Cheng Yu and said, "Could it be that he is pretending to be crazy." ”

Cheng Yu continued: "His subordinates also have this doubt, today, the person sent to find that he had signs of escaping, stepped forward to stop him, he jumped out of the window in a hurry, but fell on the stone, and died on the spot, until now I can't figure out whether he is really crazy or fake crazy, but it is also a good thing that Liu Mao died." ”

Liu Xin was stunned, he even had some suspicions, Liu Mao was killed by Cheng Yu at all, but, thinking about it, it doesn't look like it, what's the use of killing a Liu Mao, Liu Zhang is still there, and he has two brothers above him under Dong Zhuo, closed his eyes and thought for a while, Liu Xin sighed and said: "Forget it, the person is dead, whether he is really crazy or false, verify his body, and bury it." ”

Cheng Yu promised, and was just about to turn around and go out, when he heard Liu Xin say: "Wait, let Wu Yi take his sister back and let her remarry, and send Liu Zhang to Changsha and hand it over to Gan Ning for strict care, you can do it." ”

Liu Xin knew that the five major armies had no garrisons in Changsha, and it had been completely handed over to the navy to guard, so there were neither soldiers of state nationality nor officials of state nationality, plus Cheng Pu and Huang Gai were eager to make meritorious contributions, Liu Zhang had no foundation, and even if he wanted to rebel, he would not succeed.

Dealt with Liu Mao and Liu Zhang's affairs, Liu Xin called Dian Wei and Xu Chu again, and asked them to rectify the Flying Tiger guards a year ago, Sun Ce's matter reminded him that if someone pretended to be a guard, it would be easy to mix into Dongcheng District, and maybe even into the Prefecture Pastoral Mansion, after his army went out, the defense of the entire Xiangyang would fall on the Flying Tiger guards, which could not be prevented, not only that, Liu Xin also ordered a secret review of all the guards to prevent the penetration of the fine, In addition, it is stipulated that in the future, the selection of personal guards shall be registered and examined by the immediate family members within three generations.

Solving these two things, plus ambushing Sun Ce some time ago, Liu Xin's worries were mostly gone, and he just returned to the backyard, but saw Zhu Qian waiting there with a red face, and said with a smile: "Master, I have something I want to discuss with you." ”

Liu Xin knew that Zhu Qian would never take the initiative to make any requests, if there was anything, it must be about Liu Rui, so she walked over and gently hugged her shoulders and said, "It's Rui'er's business, it's all a family, just say it." ”

Zhu Qian looked up at Liu Xin and asked in surprise: "Master, you know everything, then do you agree to such a family affair?" ”

Liu Xin was confused, and asked in surprise: "Family, what family." ”

At this time, Ma Yun walked over and said, "It's Rui'er and Sun Ce's family affair, I think the two of them are quite compatible." ”

Liu Xin saw Ma Yun coming over, and quickly let go of Zhu Qian, but between the words, he was even more surprised: "Rui'er and Sun Ce's relationship, Sun Jian mentioned it to me, but the situation at that time was special, I didn't agree, why do I think of it now." ”

Ma Yun said with a smile: "That day in the study, didn't you see Sun Ce's appearance, I feel that he is worried about Shangrui'er, Sun Ce is also a young hero, and he is also very filial to his mother, and he works under you, they can be regarded as the best of both worlds together." ”

Liu Xin understood what Ma Yun meant, and used marriage to completely tie Sun Ce, which was also a kind of political marriage, which was the most commonly used means in that era, but Liu Xin was unwilling to be so utilitarian, remembering Liu Rui's attitude towards Sun Ce in the study that day, and couldn't help but groan: "Qian'er, what do you mean, will Rui'er agree." ”

Zhu Qian replied very simply this time: "This kid looks pretty good, the slave family has no opinion, and in the end, it depends on the master." ”

Ma Yun also said on the side: "You don't have to think about Rui'er, this girl is also big, I think she is eighty percent willing, otherwise how could she repeatedly make things difficult for Sun Ce." ”

Actually, Liu Xin didn't have much opinion on this family matter, but he didn't want to make it too utilitarian, so after thinking about it, he said: "You go and ask Rui'er herself, if she has no opinion, this matter will be settled first, and I will talk to Sun Ce and his mother when I come back from Chang'an." ”

Liu Xin still has a selfish heart, this time he attacked Dong Zhuo, he did his best, and he also wanted to take Sun Ce with him, but on the battlefield, there are no eyes for knives and guns, in case Sun Ce has a good one, wouldn't it be a mistake for Liu Rui's life,

Just when Liu Xin was intensively planning to crusade against Dong Zhuo, a shocking news suddenly came from the north, Gongsun Chan was defeated by Yuan Shao and had retreated to Yijing, so that Yuan Shao would soon further annex Youzhou after occupying Jizhou, Liu Xin knew that due to his arrival, many histories had deviated from its original track, which had long been expected by him, but Liu Xin did not expect that Gongsun Chan would be defeated so quickly, and he had the impression that the war between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Chan should have lasted five or six years before it ended, and now, Not only is the war between the two advanced, but Gongsun Chan retreated to Yijing so quickly, according to Liu Xin's assumption, after he defeats Dong Zhuo, the north should be Cao Ying, Yuan Shao, and Gongsun Chan three-legged, and the three of them are still fighting, the south is the world of Yuan Shu, Tao Qian, Liu Xuan, Yan Baihu, of course, and Liu Bei may take the opportunity to occupy one or two pieces of territory, at that time, he can completely break them one by one,

In fact, the reason why such a situation occurred is really related to Liu Xin, in history, the reason why Gongsun Chan and Yuan Shao have been holding each other for so long is that there is Zhao Yun, a fierce general, who saved Gongsun Chan in danger several times, and secondly, with the help of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, they have turned the danger into a disaster many times, and now, Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei were poached by Liu Xin early, and Liu Bei ran to Xuzhou with Guan Yu, so that Gongsun Chan did not have external help, and his territory was originally snatched from Liu Yu's hands. Liu Yu's old ministry still didn't accept him, so his collapse was reasonable.

In Layue, there was more shocking news that Cao Ying occupied Luoyang, Cao Ying was also the vanguard of the opposition to Dong Zhuo, but after the princes failed to fight against Dong Zhuo, Cao Ying received a paper from Dong Zhuo, and immediately turned the spearhead to the Yellow Turban Yu Party in Shandong.

Cao Ying also has his high-sounding reasons, he obeyed the order of Emperor Liu Xie, not Dong Zhuo's order, in fact, he saw the opportunity, to vigorously develop his own power in the process of crusading against the Shandong Yellow Turban, to be honest, Cao Ying is indeed a brave and resourceful generation of heroes, after he left Luoyang, quietly occupied Dongjun, concentrated on the development of his own forces, recruited talents, and gradually had some weather, there were strategists under his hands, and there were fierce generals,

These so-called Yellow Turban remnants are actually authentic peasants, mainly from Qingxu and Xuzhou, these Yellow Turban Army is different from the Yellow Turban Army when Zhang Jiao rebelled, they are just using the banner of the Yellow Turban Army, these people do not fight according to the team, and drag their families with their mouths, but also with livestock, furniture, if you untie the Yellow Turban on the head, it is no different from ordinary farmers,

The Yellow Turban Army attacked the city and plundered the land at the beginning, and it was still very imposing, and even Bao Xin, the prime minister of Jibei, died in their hands, but when Cao Ying led the army to attack, how could such an army be able to defeat the elite soldiers under Cao Ying, and soon it became another scene.

After this battle, Cao Ying's strength increased greatly, recruiting more than 300,000 thieves, millions of men and women, Qing and Yan Erzhou quietly, it fell into Cao Ying's grasp, even Yanzhou assassin Liu Dai, can only tremble under Cao Ying's account to obey orders, but, the population also brings a lot of trouble, many of these surrendered yellow turbans are from Xuzhou, there is no land and houses in Qing and Yan Erzhou, food, clothing and housing have become a problem, and Cao Ying himself is very short of food and grass, and it was not until the end of Yuan Cao's hegemony in history that he completely solved this problem，

It is in this situation that Cao Ying took a fancy to Luoyang, now Luoyang is an empty city, but the houses are basically still there, and there are large tracts of barren land outside the city, Cao Ying selected the elite from these surrendered yellow turbans and incorporated them into the army, and the others were all ordered to transfer to Luoyang to farm, which not only placed these yellow turban soldiers, but also increased the supply of military grain and grass, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Among all the princes, Liu Xin was most worried about Cao Ying and Liu Bei, now Cao Ying has risen in advance, the situation has changed abruptly, Liu Xin has to step up his actions and start a war against Dong Zhuo in advance.

In fact, Guo Jia, Chen Gong, Tian Feng and others did not approve of Liu Xin's use of troops against Dong Zhuo now, they all suggested that Liu Xin first collect the four counties in Nanzhong, and then capture the land of Jiangdong, gradually increase his strength, and finally fight to the death with Dong Zhuo, however, Liu Xin also has his own considerations, Dong Zhuo is now like a tiger, the princes everywhere are busy fighting for power and profit, killing each other, but no one dares to touch Dong Zhuo's tiger whiskers, and at this time, Dong Zhuo's vigilance is the worst, his army is also the most scattered, and the combat effectiveness is also at the lowest. When Dong Zhuo foresees that someone is going to do something to him, if he wants to take him down, he will have to pay several times more effort.

There is another reason why Liu Xin took action against Dong Zhuo first, that is, Cai Yan took it upon himself to get Minchan to Xiangyang, so that Wang Yun's serial plan lost the most critical link, the relationship between Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu was unbreakable, and it was impossible to hope that the Xiliang Army would be dumped internally.

Fortunately, Liu Xin has been preparing for this war for a year and a half, and the deployment of grain, grass, ordnance, and soldiers and horses has been prepared.

Liu Xin carefully calculated every link in the study, this time, he pressed almost all his net worth and surname, and there was no room for the slightest mistake, suddenly, Liu Xin remembered one thing,