In the seventh year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, on the first day of the sixth month, it was three o'clock in the morning.

The sky is so blue that it is almost transparent, and the auspicious clouds dot on it, it is as beautiful as a fairyland, it is a cloud with a peculiar shape, from north to south, pulled into a long white line, somewhat similar to the current airplane clouds, and it seems that some living creature is hiding behind the clouds to hide its head and tail, trying to hide its whereabouts, but it has revealed a huge tail.

Looking at this strange cloud image, Liu Biao's heart is seven up and eight down, his mind is complicated, at noon will be held to swear the blood of the anti-Tao alliance ceremony, covering an area of 100 zhang high three-story alliance altar has already been built, ready to participate in the alliance of the princes envoys have also arrived in Xiangyang, including the Jingzhou army has not invited the envoy of Xiliang Ma Teng, everything is complete, only owe worship heaven and earth and blood for the alliance, but there is such a vision in the sky of Xiangyang, Liu Biao Liu Jingzhou, who was completely brainwashed by feudal superstition toxins, is inevitably a little uneasy, Jump the track.

The sound of silk and bamboo in the room gradually subsided, the door was opened, and Jingzhou, who was wearing a divination and a vermilion texture costume, drove Liu Xian, with a body of sandalwood smoke, and held the tortoise shell that had been roasted with fire with both hands, and respectfully sent it to Liu Mian, who was waiting in the courtyard, and said solemnly and happily: "Congratulations to the lord, congratulations to the lord, it is a shock hexagram, the earthquake is the avenue, and the matter of today's alliance should be great." ”

"Oh, it turned out to be Daji." Liu Biao, who was worried, showed some joy, first took the tortoise shell and carefully took the clues, and then couldn't wait to ask: "The first sect is proficient in yin and yang, according to your opinion, what is the sign of this strange cloud in the sky?" ”

"Your Lordship. It is also an auspicious omen. Liu Xian smiled and said: "Although the white rainbow is a big murderer, but this white rainbow gas has not passed through the sun, but like a python white Jiao from the north, the image of the python Jiao, is a sign of great wealth and nobility, the lord will lead the princes of the world today to ally the Tao, and the auspicious omen will come from the north, it must be the Lord of Heaven is about to lead the righteous master to break through Xuchang, capture the pottery thief, so the blessing of the auspicious omen." Bless my lord to come to the position of a very human minister. Zhongxing Dahan. ”

Speaking of this, Liu first paused, then peeked at Liu Biao's expression, and saw that Liu Biao nodded slightly and was quite satisfied. Only then did he lower his voice and added, "My lord." Forgive your boldness. There is another solution to this omen, Jiao, and the dragon. The dragon, the lord of Dingding, the omen of the Son of Heaven, today the lord will lead the princes to fight the thief, the breath of the Son of Heaven comes from the north, and it seems to indicate that the lord is about to ascend to the great treasure ....... ”

"Shizong, is that what you should say?" Liu Biao scolded a little unhappily: "I led the princes to fight Tao, for the country, not for myself, these disobedient words, Hugh has to mention." ”

"No." Liu Xian seemed to be a little timid and lowered his head, but he was not half afraid in his heart, because Liu Xian could see that Liu Biao's displeasure was obviously pretending. Sure enough, after scolding Liu Success, Liu Biao immediately changed his smiling expression and ordered: "Okay, since it is a good omen, then I can rest assured, Shizong can go to change clothes quickly, and prepare to go out of the city with me to hold the alliance ceremony." ”

Liu Xian respectfully agreed, and hurriedly went down to change his official uniform, leaving Liu Biao in the courtyard to continue to look at the strange clouds, muttering with a smile, "Jiao, Longye, Dragon, the Lord of Dingding, the omen of the Son of Heaven, this omen of the Son of Heaven does not descend sooner or later, why do you want to descend today?" …… My ancestor, Liu She, King Lu Gong, was the half-brother of Emperor Wu. ”

Liu Biao, who has always liked self-preservation, has actually begun to be ambitious a long time ago, but this can't be blamed for Liu Biao taking the wrong medicine and suddenly inflating himself, the key is that some things that have happened recently have fueled Liu Biao's ambitions.

In Liu Biao's initial analysis, it was estimated that only Boss Cao, who had a good reputation in the alliance, could join forces with the Jingzhou army; Yuan Tan, who has already suffered a loss, may not be fooled again, even if he agrees to form an alliance on the surface, he will definitely not accept his orders afterwards; On the Jiangdong side, Xiao Yuan Sangong, Yan Baihu, Xu Gong and others, who were being bullied by the Lusu Department of the Xuzhou Army, were likely to agree to form an alliance, but Yuan Sangong, who was arrogant to the peak, was not necessarily willing to admit himself as the leader of the alliance, so the Jiangnan alliance agreement may not be very smooth; As for Yuan Shanggongzi, who had almost been with Deputy Director Tao, Liu Biao didn't dare to have the slightest hope, and for the sake of prudence, he didn't even dare to write a letter asking for an alliance, but only sent Deng Yi to test it verbally.

Considering the position and attitude of these wolf cubs and their personalities, Liu Biao didn't have much illusion about this anti-Tao alliance at the beginning, but just held the attitude of success or failure, and secretly tried a little, and his greatest wish was only to be able to conclude an alliance of two or three princes, and warn Deputy Director Tao, who had already turned his face with the Jingzhou army, so that the Xuzhou army did not dare to attack Jingzhou's idea casually - there are many friends in this state, and the pottery thief dares to come to Jingzhou, be careful that you are stabbed in the back!

To Liu Biao's surprise, Yuan Tan Gongzi, who had suffered too much loss, not only agreed to form an alliance to destroy Tao, but also sent his own son as a hostage, expressing his willingness to serve Liu Biao as the leader of the alliance and accept Liu Biao's order; Then Boss Cao also happily handed over a son as a hostage to show his sincerity; And the attitude of the little Yuan Sangong also surprised Liu Biao, the arrogant little Yuan Sangong, who was almost crazy, although he did not dare to let his only son Yuan Yao leave his side because of old age and illness, he happily handed over his grandson Yuan Wang as a hostage and promised to serve himself as the leader of the alliance! As for the small forces of Yan Baihu and Xu Gong, who were in danger, in order to win the aid of the Jingzhou army, which is unparalleled in the world in terms of surface strength, they did not hesitate to hand over their son as a hostage, and were willing to obey all the dispatches of Liu Biao!

What surprised and pleased Liu Biao the most was the attitude of Yuan Shanggongzi, who not only immediately agreed to join the anti-Tao alliance, but also was the first to hand over the hostages to show his sincerity, which led other princes to follow suit. In addition, Xiliang Ma Teng, who was not among the invitations of the alliance, also took the initiative to send his son Ma Xiu as an envoy after learning the news from Boss Cao, and voluntarily asked to join the Tao Alliance to crusade against Deputy Director Tao who refused to return the power of the court to Emperor Han Xian!

Where the hearts of the people want, what everyone wants. In the face of such a situation, Liu Biao, of course, has to shout, there is more help for the righteous, and little help for the unjust! The Jingzhou civil and military forces, who had previously resolutely opposed the formation of this alliance, also changed their positions, and the Kuailiang brothers, the big landlords of Jingzhou, not only changed their positions, but also gave Liu Biao a good idea, suggesting that Liu Biao do two things immediately after the alliance, one is to solve the Youzhou dispute between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang brothers, and integrate the forces of Jiyou and the three states to the greatest extent, threatening the north of the Xuzhou army; The second is to dispatch the sailors to Jiangdong to clean up the weak Xuzhou sailors. Take your own strengths. The attack on the enemy was short, forcing the main force of the Xuzhou army to go south to save Jiangdong, as long as the Xuzhou army showed flaws on the northern front, then there was no need for Liu Biao's order. The princes of the alliance will naturally take advantage of the fire to rob one by one! Alliance events. It is also expected to help!

He personally led the civil and military officials of Jingzhou out of the city to the south. When I arrived at the Huimeng platform on the bank of the Hanshui River, the Huimeng platform was already full of flags from all over the five parties, and it was full of white and yellow Yue. There are more than 10,000 onlookers, it is really a sea of people, bustling, the scene is extremely spectacular, the representative of Cao Boss is full of favors, Yuan Tanjun represents Xin Bi, Yuan Shangjun represents Li Fu, Yuan Shujun represents Shu Shao and Ma Tengjun represents Ma Xiu and other princes' representatives, each holding their own military holiday festival under the altar, welcoming the arrival of Liu Biao, Liu Biao, who once had no princes to pay attention to, is also extremely beautiful at this moment, reaching the highest point of life.

At noon, the representatives of the princes asked Liu Biao to ascend to the altar to establish an alliance, Liu Biao promised, in the sound of drums and swords, he went up, burned incense and worshipped, and recited the league text in public: "The Han family is unfortunate, and the emperor is out of control." The thief Tao Ying, taking advantage of the provocation and indulgence, the supreme disaster, and the abuse of the people. Fearing the loss of the society, he entangled the volunteers and went to the country. Whoever is allied with me and works together to make the ministers have no two aspirations. There is this alliance of Chongqing, and it is impossible to lose its life, and there is no legacy. The emperor and the queen of heaven, the ancestors and the spirits, are all learned! ’

After reading the text of the alliance, Liu Biao ordered the soldiers to slaughter the white horse, take blood and wipe his face to show his oath, when Liu Biao wiped the horse's blood on his face at the same time, the slogan of the alliance also sounded on the platform of the alliance I don't know how many times I had rehearsed beforehand, "Work together, swear to destroy Tao Ying!" Work together to destroy Tao Ying! Work together and swear to destroy Tao Ying! Immediately afterwards, the representatives of the princes went to the altar in turn and swore an oath, with generous speeches, all of them sobbing and sobbing to the extreme.

After completing these procedures, the anti-Tao alliance between the princes of the Seven Roads and Yan Baihu's righteous army was finally officially reached, and it was the turn of the princes' representatives to help Liu Biao go down to the altar and return to the city for a banquet. But just when Liu Biaozhi was full of pride, there was a boom, and a loud bang suddenly sounded among the crowd of onlookers, like thunder, which shocked everyone present to open their mouths, and when they turned their heads to look, they saw thick smoke billowing next to a tree in the crowd, branches and leaves shaking, and the people nearby screamed and ran away, and suddenly became a mess.

"What's wrong?" Hearing this loud noise, Liu Biao, who was in a state of pride, suddenly lowered his face and glared at Cai Zhong, who was in charge of the safety of the Huimeng scene, Cai Zhong was at a loss, not knowing what was going on, Liu Biao secretly scolded a waste, and then ordered Wang Wei to take someone over to check the situation.

"It's a pottery thief!" Cao Jun's representative stood up, and analyzed with a blue face: "During the battle of Xuchang, the pottery thief used a weapon that could make a loud noise, and I think it was the pottery thief who found out that we were going to meet here today, so he used this weapon to disturb the people and intimidate us. ”

After listening to Manzhong's analysis, of course, the representatives of the princes were full of anger, scolding the pottery thief for being bold and reckless, and daring to be so arrogant! Liu Biao also snorted loudly and said: "The more the pottery thief behaves so recklessly, it proves that the more he is afraid in his heart that our princes will join forces to attack him!" Don't worry, I will immediately order the capture of the pottery thief and the shredding of thousands of corpses to cure him for the crime of disturbing the alliance! ”

Looking at the people of Jingzhou who were running around in a mess, Man Pet was basically dead and was able to hold the heart of Xuzhou carefully, so he just bowed his hand to Liu Biao and said: "Alliance leader, three or two thieves and clowns jump off the beam, it doesn't matter if you can hold it, the most important thing at the moment is how to take advantage of the opportunity of the morale of the princes to take action as soon as possible to combat the arrogance of the pottery thieves and encourage the hearts of the military and people in the world to fight the thieves." ”

"yes." Shu Shao, the representative of Xiao Yuan Sangong, hurriedly chimed in: "Among the alliance leader's army, the water division is the most powerful, and he should immediately send troops to Poyang Lake to crusade against the pottery thief water division, as long as he can achieve a big victory on the water surface and open the gap, the future will be easy to handle." ”

"Selfishness is selfishness, but strategically correct." Man Zhong smiled slightly, and also nodded and said, "Alliance leader, what Mr. Zhong Ying said is reasonable. If the alliance leader can dispatch the Jingzhou Sailor as soon as possible to conquer the Pottery Thief Sailor, not only can he easily win, but also force the main force of the Pottery Thief to return to the southern line of the division, and receive the effect of four taels of thousands of catties. ”

Liu Biao smiled and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, please rest assured, wait until the table will finish a big thing." Jingzhou sailors will make some moves. Xin sacrificial wine. Li Zhubo. ”

Just wanted to call Xin Bi and Li Fu to the front to mediate the Youzhou dispute between the Yuan brothers in person, and let the Yuan brothers each lead half of Youzhou in order to integrate their forces, Xin Bi and Li Fu also just agreed. Wang Wei had already hurried back to the platform of the alliance. Present a small bright yellow package to Liu's surface with both hands. He said, "My lord, I found it on the tree that made a loud noise, and the enemy tied this package to the tree. It is written that the lord and father-in-law will receive it. ――To give you a general introduction, Xuzhou Xizuo buried the gunpowder jar under the roots of the tree and detonated it, so the package was not injured after the explosion.

"What? For me? After taking the package, he found that there was no hard object in the softness, so he opened the package with peace of mind and found that it contained four letter bags, three of which had been opened, and only one was sealed with fire paint.

"How can it be four letters?" Liu Biao was confused and first picked up an envelope that had been opened, and when he took out the silk in the letter and looked at it, he only glanced up, Liu Biao's face changed, and when he looked at the contents carefully, Liu Biao trembled with anger. -- By the way, this letter is a copy of Yuan Shanggongzi's whistleblower letter to Deputy Director Tao.

"Alliance leader, what's wrong?" The representatives of the princes were all surprised, and hurried over to look at them together, but they only looked at it a few times, and Xin Bi immediately grabbed Li Fu in anger, and scolded while punching and kicking, "Shameless traitor!" It turns out that you are a pottery thief, and you came to listen to the news of our alliance for the pottery thief! Traitor! Traitor! ”

"Wronged!" Li Fu shouted loudly and said, "That's not my lord's handwriting, it's the pottery thief who forged the letter to divide our alliance!" ”

Tie Qing threw the copy of Yuan Shang's letter to Wang Wei with a blushing face, and Liu Biao quickly picked up the second envelope, opened and took out Cao Ang's whistle-blowing letter to Deputy Director Tao - on the reverse side of this letter, Deputy Director Tao also wrote a sentence in his crooked handwriting, "Jing Shenggong, do you believe that with Cao Thief's treachery, he will inadvertently leak his mouth?" ”

Man Chong's face began to change, and the representatives of the princes next to him also began to look at Man Chong angrily, and Liu Biao slammed the letter on Man Chong's face, and roared: "Man Boning, how do you explain this?" ”

"It's ......, it's the eldest prince's private business." Full of pets and quibbles.

"Fart!" Liu Biao yelled, and then quickly picked up the third envelope, took out the letter and watched, this is Yuan Tan Gongzi's whistleblower letter to Deputy Director Tao, on this letter, Yuan Tan Gongzi directly told Deputy Director Tao the date and place of the anti-Tao Alliance, as well as the names of the participating princes, and emphasized that Yuan Shang also joined the Anti-Tao Alliance. On the back of the letter, Deputy Director Tao wrote crookedly: "Jingsheng Gong, I received this letter on April 18, Yuan Tan used this letter in exchange for me to put back his father, but I am very strange, Ben Chu Gong is my father-in-law, if Yuan Tan wants to take him back to live in the old age, I will definitely agree to open my mouth directly, why do I want to use this letter in exchange?" ”

"Traitor, it turns out that you betrayed the Anti-Tao Alliance!"

Li Fu began to fight back, and he scuffled with Xin Bi on the altar of the alliance, and the civil and military soldiers of Jingzhou under the altar were in an uproar, and the people of Jingzhou who were watching were also amazed, and they couldn't understand why the representatives of the princes who had just concluded the alliance oath would fight immediately. But Liu Biao was so angry that he almost fainted, and he couldn't say a word for a long time, and after finally relieving his breath, Liu Biao first threw the third whistleblower letter on the face of Yuan Tanjun's representative Xin Bi, and then hysterically shouted out the strongest voice in his life............

"This time! It doesn't count!! It doesn't count!! ”

Hearing this hysterical roar, Jingzhou Wenwu, who didn't see the letter under the altar, all opened their mouths, saying that they didn't expect such a ridiculous thing to happen, and the blood on their faces was not dry, so they would be united immediately? Li Fu, Xin Bi and Man Zhong and other parties looked embarrassed, eager to find a crack in the ground to get into, but the more honest Shu Shao and Ma Xiu, the representatives of the princes, were very anxious, and hurriedly opened their mouths to persuade Liu Biao to calm down, don't make a farce of breaking the alliance immediately after the alliance, but unfortunately Liu Biao was already dizzy and couldn't listen to anything.

"My lord, there is a fourth letter."

Fortunately, Wang Wei reminded Liu Biao in time that there was a fourth letter, which made Liu Biao calm down a little, and after picking up the fourth letter sealed by fire paint, Liu Biao first glanced at the remaining princes' representatives viciously, and stared at the remaining four princes' representatives' hearts, so that he slowly opened the envelope, and took a few steps back to stop looking at everyone, and then took out the last letter. But seeing that this letter was still in Deputy Director Tao's own handwriting, he wrote crookedly:

"Jingsheng Gong, don't be unpredictable, since you want to find death, be a substitute for other traitors, I will fulfill you! I now officially inform you, at the same time that you read this letter, I also swore in Xuchang City and set off, personally leading an army of 120,000 to the south to crusade against Jingzhou! Wash your neck and get ready to die! Dahan Taiwei, Xu Yanqing Yangyu Wuzhou State Pastor, Tao Ying respects! ”

After reading Deputy Director Tao's handwritten declaration of war, and standing for a long time, Liu Biao finally came back to his senses, first looked at the uneasy representatives of the princes, and then finally managed to squeeze out a little smile, and said: "Princess, our alliance will continue to be effective." (To be continued......)