As an excellent demolition office staff, meeting to listen to the voice of the people is just a means, respect for the opinions of nail households can be said to be beautiful, how to do it is another thing, let the nail households get out of the way is our ultimate goal, the means can vary from person to person, the priority can not be reversed, the goal can not be confused, otherwise the work will only be half the result. -- The words of an excellent public servant.

"Congratulations to my lord, congratulations to my lord, our plan to delay the army has succeeded again. Mr. Zhong Ming sent a fast horse to pass the letter, saying that Xin Ping had already made concessions in the negotiations, and it was certain that Yuan Tan had been forced to give up a quick battle with Yuan Shang. ”

Because of the long-term stay with Deputy Director Tao and Yang Changshi, the two big sycophants, Liu Ye, who was already very sleek, also learned a lot of flattering skills, and after receiving the news sent by Yang Changshi, Liu Ye immediately ran to Deputy Director Tao with good news, flattering with a smile on his face, and said: "Mr. Zhongming also wants to ask the lord, what position will our army take in the next negotiations between the Yuan brothers?" Should this negotiation be concluded as soon as possible and a temporary reconciliation between the two Yuans will be achieved? Or do you want to delay it for a while, wait until the Yuan brothers promise more benefits to our army, and then let the two brothers reconcile? ”

Saying that, Liu Ye hurriedly added, "By the way, Mr. Zhong Ming also said in the letter that Yuan Tan has already secretly agreed the entire territory of Qingzhou and the second county of Chenliang in Yanzhou and our army, and Yuan Shang has simply agreed to the entire territory of Qingzhou and Yanzhou, so Mr. Zhong Ming suggested that we should not rush to end this negotiation first, and should take advantage of this opportunity to get some more benefits from the Yuan brothers and give us Xuzhou." ”

"Promise us more benefits? Is it to give him more benefits to Yang Hong? Deputy Director Tao smiled and said: "This time the envoy is really cheap Yang Zhongming, after eating, he eats the upper house and eats the next house, and he takes the benefits at both ends and bribes at both ends, I heard that this guy's brother-in-law Guo Fu has already pledged a boatload of gold, silver and jewelry back to Xuzhou, and he hasn't made enough money?" Want to get some more? ”

In addition to the officials who were honest and honest, Jia Lao Poison and Chen Deng and the others all laughed, all of them admired Yang Changshi's money-eating methods. However, looking at Yang Changshi's previous achievements, Deputy Director Tao, who is not a good thing in itself, is of course impossible to care about such a trivial matter, and after laughing, he ordered: "Yuan Fang, write back to Yang Hong and tell him that as long as the negotiations do not break down and can be finally reached, he can make his own decisions in terms of time details, as for the conditions for the reconciliation of Er Yuan, as long as we don't suffer losses, we can let Er Yuan discuss it on his behalf." ”

Chen Ying agreed, and when he was about to pick up the pen to make a book, Yi next to him spoke, and said: "Wait, lord, before promoting the temporary reconciliation of the two Yuans, Yi wants to ask the lord a question, what kind of enemy is the lord willing to face in the future?" Is he willing to face a restless Yuan Tan in the rear, a Yuan Shang who is internally stable? Or is it a carefree Yuan Tan in the rear, and an internally unstable Yuan Shang? ”

"What does Mr. Ziyu mean by this?" Deputy Director Tao replied: "Do you still need to ask, of course I hope that my enemy's rear is restless and internally unstable." ”

"If that's the case, then it's best for the lord not to facilitate a temporary reconciliation between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang." Shi Yi said solemnly: "In fact, as early as Mr. Wenhe and Mr. Yuanlong proposed the timing of the delay, Yi wanted to remind the lord not to make the negotiation of Eryuan successful, but the time did not come, so he did not speak, and now that the time has come, there are some words that have to be said." ”

Shi Yi is good at breaking through the trick and turning the cumbersome into simple, and Deputy Director Tao still appreciates his unique opinions, so Deputy Director Tao quickly nodded and said, "Okay, please Ziyu elaborate." ”

"It's actually quite simple." Shi Yi replied: "If the negotiations between the two Yuan are quickly reached and the Yuan brothers divide the northern land equally, then Yuan Tan will definitely go all out to wipe out the remnants of Cao's army entrenched in the hinterland of Runan and remove the threat from the rear, and at the same time, he will definitely seek an alliance with Liu Biao to deal with the threat of our army joining forces with Yuan Shang in the future." At that time, once Yuan Tan stabilized the rear of the southern front and made every effort to deal with the attack of our army, it would naturally not be so easy for our army to destroy Tan. ”

"Yuan Shang is the same, if the negotiation is reached, he legally controls Jizhou and even Youzhou, Yuan Shang will inevitably make every effort to stabilize the internal army and prepare for war, eliminate dissidents to buy people's hearts, and consolidate his control over Jizhou and Youzhou, and Jizhou has a lot of grain and people, and the people are still above my Xuzhou, and there is a stable source of war horses, so if Yuan Shang is given time to stabilize the interior of Jizhou, even if our army is not afraid in the future, it will be much more difficult to annex Jizhou again."

"Therefore, Yi believes that our army can use persuasion and peace to gain time to prepare for war, and it is impossible for the Yuan brothers to truly reach a reconciliation, even if it is a temporary reconciliation." Shi Yi concluded: "Our army sent troops too early, our army is not well prepared, even if the troops win, it is difficult to quickly expand the results, if the time is too late, it will give the Yuan brothers a chance to rectify the interior and clear the hidden dangers in the rear, only when Yuan has not yet rectified the interior, Yuan Tan has not yet leveled the hidden dangers in the rear, so that the situation in the Central Plains can be stirred up to the most chaotic, our army to the whole attack zero, in order to stabilize the chaos, that is the real big win is difficult." ”

"That being the case, if the lord wants to maintain his image of a promise, he must not promote the conclusion of peace talks between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, otherwise, it will only make the second Yuan win a chance to breathe, and our army will miss the opportunity to send troops, and give up the initiative to start a war, and can only wait for the second Yuan to make a move, in order to find an excuse to send troops. If the negotiations break down and the two sides break up unhappily, our army will take the initiative in the war in the Central Plains, and it will be much easier to find a pretext for going to war. ”

After listening to Shi Yi's analysis, Deputy Director Tao was rarely indecisive once, hesitated, and said: "Mr. Ziyu's words, although they are reasonable, but Mr. Wenhe's words are also reasonable, help Yuan Shang take a breath, and then help him increase some strength by the way, the more the Yuan brothers kill each other in the future, it will also be very beneficial to our army." Such a contradiction tells me how to choose. ”

"My lord, Xu and Mr. Ziyu's opinions are not contradictory, they are all to put our army in a favorable position and let the enemy fall into passivity." Jia Lao Poison said: "The only difference is the timing of the shot, it is recommended that the lord balance the strength of the two Yuans, and then sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, and the timing of the attack is late, facing two stronger opponents." Mr. Ziyu suggested that the lord should strike early, take advantage of the chaos of the Central Plains before he has time to clarify, and face a group of weaker enemies. Different paths lead to the same end, and how to choose, the lord can decide for himself. ”

Deputy Director Tao nodded slowly, and after thinking for a long time, Deputy Director Tao asked Chen Deng and the others present: "Does our army strike earlier or later, do you have a high opinion?" ”

Liu Ye and Xun Chen looked embarrassed, and did not dare to draw conclusions, and Chen Deng, who was also first-class in strategy and tactics, also showed some embarrassment, and said: "From the perspective of money and grain, of course I agree with Mr. Wen He's suggestion, save more money and food and make a later move." However, from the perspective of the situation in the Central Plains, I very much agree with Mr. Ziyu's suggestion, do not give the Yuan brothers a chance to breathe, as long as we temporarily ease the breath of money, food and recruit training, we will immediately take action to chase the Central Plains, with a whole blow to zero, to stabilize the chaos, it is easy to win, but also easy to win the hearts of the people. ”

Speaking of this, Chen Deng paused for a moment, and added: "If I have to choose, I agree with Mr. Ziyu's opinion, and if I act earlier, I can avoid long nights and dreams, especially after the Yuan brothers stabilize the interior and rear, they will conclude an alliance to fight our army." ”

"The Yuan brothers made an alliance?" Deputy Director Tao smiled dumbly, and said in his heart that if Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang could turn hostility into jade silk and work together, they would not have been beaten so badly by Boss Cao in history. But after thinking about it, Deputy Director Tao felt that such a situation might not be impossible - after all, because of the influence of Deputy Director Tao's demon moth wings, the great Yuan Sangong who was located in Yuan Shang in history, passed the throne to Yuan Tan this time.

Considering this, and considering that Hebei has a huge war potential after all, it is still above Xuzhou, Deputy Director Tao still nodded, "Then it is better to send troops as soon as possible, write back to Yang Hong, and ask him to find a way to delay the negotiations for a period of time first, and then find a way to break down the negotiations between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, withdraw from this negotiation, and let the Yuan brothers eat dogs!" ”

…………………… Not only can the negotiations break down immediately, but after a period of time, they have to promote the breakdown of the negotiations, such a thing may be difficult for others to do, but for our Yang Changshi, it is much easier than eating and drinking. No, after Deputy Director Tao's letter arrived at Dingtao, although the bargaining between Xin Ping and Feng Ji was almost over, after Yang Changshi met Feng Ji once overnight, Feng Ji immediately changed his mind and never made the slightest concession in the bargaining, dragging the negotiations that were about to be reached back into an impasse.

Yang Changshi said to Feng Ji, "Mr. Yuantu, how can you promise to only pay half of Youzhou and 400,000 grains?" Youzhou had already cut off contact with Yuan Tan Pifu, and it should belong to you, what a pity it would be to send out 400,000 Hu grain for nothing? Don't forget, with our Xuzhou to support you, you don't have to make the slightest concession, you can still force Yuan Tan to agree. ”

It was precisely because of Yang Changshi's instigation that Feng Ji, who had already relented and given in, was also stern, insisted on asking for the entire Youzhou for Yuan Shang, only paying 200,000 grains a year, and also rejected Xin Ping's request to send grain immediately, insisting on giving Yuan Tan grain and grass after the autumn harvest. Xin Ping had no choice but to send a messenger back to Xuchang to ask for Yuan Tan's order, which delayed a lot of precious time, and when Yuan Tan gave instructions to allow for another concession, Yang Changshi persuaded Feng Ji to send someone to contact Yuan Shang to ask Yuan Shang's opinion before making a decision, wasting a lot of time.

Just a few times tossed down, more than a month passed quickly, the time entered the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and the winter wheat in the five counties of Xuzhou, which had once again been ripe, was harvested and put into storage, and Yang Changshi, who had been instructed, finally showed his fangs, and took the opportunity of Xin Ping and Feng Ji to quarrel with him, and shouted at the case: "Do you talk or not?" It's been two months, and I'm still arguing over tens of thousands of grains and grain transportation time. If you don't want to talk, we in Xuzhou are too lazy to persuade peace, don't want to talk and leave, go back and fight yourself! We don't bother to care! ”

"Mr. Zhongming, what do you mean? Or does it mean Tao Zhijun? Xin Ping asked with a straight face.

"It's what I mean, and it's what my lord means!" Yang Changshi was furious and said: "My father-in-law is only the son-in-law of the Yuan family, not the brother of the Yuan family. Since you have no intention of talking about peace, then you can leave now, our lord is too lazy to care! In the future, when Cao Thief and Liu Biao take advantage of the fire to rob, don't think about asking us for help! Our army is about to send troops to Jiangdong, and I don't have time to care about you, so if you want to fight, just fight! ”

Xin Ping secretly showed his joy, and quickly bowed his hand to Yang Changshi and said: "Thank you, Mr. Zhong Ming, and ask Mr. Zhong Ming to return to Tao Envoy, it's not that my lord is unwilling to accept his persuasion, it's really Yuan Shang who deceives people too much, and I hope that your army will keep its promise and don't interfere in our army's counterinsurgency war!" ”

After finishing speaking, Mr. Xin Ping, whose backstage strength is still above Yuan Shang, brushed his sleeves and left, but Mr. Feng Ji was in a hurry, and quickly grabbed Yang Changshi's sleeve and said, "Mr. Zhong Ming, is it really Tao Envoyjun's order to stop negotiating?" My father-in-law would love to come to a negotiating deal. ”

Poked his head out to see how far Xin Ping had gone, Yang Changshi attached to Feng Ji's ear and whispered: "Mr. Yuantu, don't worry, my lord is determined to give up persuasion and peace, and of course he is ready to send troops, so Mr. Yuantu, you can rest assured to go back and give an errand to the third son, and tell the third prince what to do, just do it." My father-in-law, when it's time to make a move, he will naturally make a move. ”

Feng Ji was overjoyed, and hurriedly thanked Yang Changshi for his kindness, but Yang Changshi added: "Also, remember to announce to the world, I insist that it was Yuan Tan Pifu who deliberately made things difficult for you, which led to the breakdown of this peace talks, and put the responsibility on Yuan Tan Pifu, so that our army will have an excuse to send troops in the future." And remember, the Qingyan Erzhou that promised us, don't forget it. Feng Ji nodded his head again and again, and then returned to Jizhou to hand over to Yuan Shang.

So, just like that, a peace talk that could have been successfully reached broke up in such a mess. Immediately afterwards, the Xuzhou army seized the time to prepare for war, and at the same time spread the word to the world, claiming that the brothers Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang were unwilling to continue peace talks, and the self-army mediation was ineffective, and they would no longer interfere in the dispute between the Yuan brothers. And Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang accused each other of refusing peace talks, and they all pointed the finger at each other, but they did not dare to provoke the fierce and vicious Deputy Director Tao, and they were tense with each other, and they could fight at any time, and the shadow of war once again shrouded the land of the Central Plains.

Although he missed the opportunity to counter-insurgency because of Deputy Director Tao's obstruction, Yuan Tan Gongzi was not completely useless during this period, and there were small achievements in military and diplomacy, first, he took Chen Di, which basically cut off the connection between the remnants of the Cao army and Liang Di, making the already isolated Cao Boss even more isolated; The second is to ask Liu Biao for an alliance successfully, Liu Biao, who was instigated by Cai Mao, Huang Zu and Uncle Liu Huang, chose to conclude an alliance with Yuan Tan for the stability of the northern front, but Yuan Tan Gongzi did not dare to conclude a covenant of mutual advancement in order to avoid angering Deputy Director Tao, and took the initiative to only enter into a mutual insurance covenant.

It was also at this time that Deputy Director Tao began to rejoice that he had listened to Shi Yi's suggestion, because although the Liangdi controlled by the remnants of the Cao army had been completely isolated and surrounded by the Xuzhou army, but due to the restrictions of the promise, when the Cao army did not dare to take the initiative to provoke trouble, Deputy Director Tao said that he could not order troops to annex it, and could only watch this bone with a little meat star dangling in his mouth, and he couldn't bite it - and so on, if the Yuan brothers also reached a temporary reconciliation, The Xuzhou army was even more unable to advance half a step into the hinterland of the Central Plains. But fortunately, Deputy Director Tao was lucky to listen to Shi Yi's suggestion, and did not let the Yuan brothers reach a reconciliation that was even temporary, and they could patiently wait for the opportunity to send troops.

The opportunity soon came, at the end of May, because of the news of the breakdown of the peace talks between the Yuan brothers, the nephew of the old stubborn Wang Yun, Xiao stubborn, loyal to the third prince of Jizhou Zhongshan Wang Ling was furious, not only refused the official canonization of Yuan Shanggongzi, refused to recognize Yuan Shanggongzi as the master, but also simply threw himself into the arms of Yuan Tan, raised the flag against Yuan Shang's team, and also spread the message to all counties in Jizhou, intending to call on all counties in Jizhou to attack Yuan Shanggongzi who forged a will to establish himself as the lord.

In this way, in order to prevent the Taishou generals of the counties of Jizhou from following Wang Ling's example, Yuan Shanggongzi couldn't think of putting down the rebellion, and the chain reaction was that after Yuan Shang's 20,000 army went north, Yuan Tan Gongzi also didn't want to attack Yuan Shang without troops - you can't watch the loyal ministers die, right? As a result, the brotherly war between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang finally kicked off, the north was Yuan Shang's army attacking Wang Ling, and the south was Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu waving their troops to attack Yecheng, Yuan Shang Gongzi personally led the army to resist the enemy, and at the same time sent an envoy to ask his brother-in-law for help, and the war quickly burned all over the north and south ends of Jizhou.

When the news reached Xuzhou, Deputy Director Tao was not in a hurry to order the troops, and smiled at the Xuzhou generals who came to him to ask for battle: "Don't worry, wait a little longer, wait for Yuan Tan's main force to invest some more in the Jizhou battlefield, I have already prepared the excuse for sending troops, and it is still a justifiable excuse for sending troops." ”

(To be continued)