Yang Changshi, who is omnipotent and has repeatedly created miracles, finally missed once, and fell on Zhuge Liang's deathbed plan of exchanging his life for Liu Biao's wait-and-see judgment.

In order to prevent self-defeating, the Xuzhou secret envoy followed Yang Changshi's instructions, and after arriving in Jingzhou, he carefully inquired about the reason for Uncle Liu Huang's imprisonment, and confirmed that Uncle Liu had not completely cleared the suspicion of rebellion. But it's a pity that in this way, it also fell into Zhuge Liang's deathbed calculation, which in turn proved Uncle Liu's innocence, and also proved that Deputy Director Tao really wanted to put Uncle Liu Huang to death as soon as possible.

In this way, Liu Biao naturally will not immediately kill Uncle Liu Huang, who has been carried by Zhuge Liang, and Zhang Xiu, who joined forces with the Xuzhou army to frame Uncle Liu Huang, has also become the target of Liu Biao's suspicion, and then Liu Biao listened to Liu Xian's suggestion not to drive him, and pretended to summon Zhang Xiu to Xiangyang to discuss matters, so as to test whether Zhang Xiu was really secretly colluding with the Xuzhou army. And Zhang Xiu, who had a ghost in his heart, really fell into the plan, and framed Uncle Liu Huang without killing him, he was already worried, and received Liu Biao's summoning order, Zhang Xiu immediately understood that Liu Biao was already suspicious of himself, and Xiangyang's line was destined to be more auspicious.

Of course, if Zhang Xiu can be bold and really be summoned to Xiangyang to meet Liu Biao, then with the relationship between Zhang Xiu and Liu Qi, as well as the secret help of the Kuailiang brothers, in the absence of conclusive evidence, Zhang Xiu may not be able to explain that he was used by the Xuzhou army and turned the big thing into a small one. It's a trivial. It's a pity that Zhang Xiu is also a suspicious and cautious person, and the rebellion against Cao Boss in history is also because he suspects that Cao Boss buys his henchman Hu Che'er, and he is not very happy under the fence in Jingzhou, and finally considering his special relationship with Jia Lao Poison, he is always suspicious, so Zhang Xiu and several henchmen After a little discussion, he gritted his teeth and simply reversed, and left the city with more than 5,000 teams under his command, and went north directly to vote for Deputy Director Tao.

Zhang Xiu's breakthrough was relatively smooth, and although the Jingzhou Army Chen Zhi's department, which was stationed in Anzhong to monitor Zhang Xiu's team, was prepared, it could not stop Zhang Xiu's team from breaking through with all their might. Later, Zhang Xiu's team bypassed Wancheng again. Passing through Shangye County, West Hubei Province, the Jingzhou army pursued and blocked it with all its might, but it only wiped out most of Zhang Xiu's team and failed to hurt the core strength of Zhang Xiu's team. And when Zhang Xiu's team fled to Bowang. The receiving soldiers and horses of the Xuzhou army also rushed to the battlefield to join Zhang Xiu. After receiving the remnants of Zhang Xiu and retreating all the way to Yexian, Chen and Deng Long's troops were insufficient, and they did not dare to continue the pursuit. Guarding Bowang and reporting to Liu Biao.

In this way, although Deputy Director Tao's dream of killing people with a knife to get rid of Uncle Liu Huang was completely shattered, he also unexpectedly gained Zhang Xiu, a general, but it could not be regarded as nothing. Therefore, Deputy Director Tao was still very happy to go out of the city to welcome Zhang Xiu to surrender, introduced Zhang Xiu to Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, and played as the general of Yangwu and the Marquis of Wancheng, and slapped the swollen face and became a fat man's public declaration, saying that Zhang Xiu was forced to surrender by Liu Biao's suspicion for no reason, and falsely declared that he would pardon Zhang Xiu's crime of killing and offering books, in a vain attempt to continue to create the illusion that Uncle Liu Huang had surrendered to him, and continue to make Liu Biao suspicious, even if he didn't kill Uncle Liu, Uncle Liu Huang would be imprisoned for a lifetime.

No matter how much Deputy Director Tao is self-inflicted, it is useless, after the news of Zhang Xiu's rebellion reached Xiangyang, in order to further combat Liu Qi's rapid expansion in Jingzhou, the Cai Mao brothers have begun to speak directly at Liu Huangshu's innocence, Zhang Xiu is the real traitor who colluded with the Xuzhou Army, and demanded the release of Liu Huangshu and Cai Zhong, and tracked down Zhang Xiu's comrades, plus Sun Gan, Jian Yong, and Yi Yuan, who were not arrested, ran around to rescue them, and Liu Biao, who knew that he had wronged Uncle Liu, hesitated again and again. In the end, he released Uncle Liu and his brothers, who were suspected of collaborating with the enemy, just to give an explanation to the soldiers in Jingzhou, and did not leave Uncle Liu Huang in Jingzhou to command the troops, and announced that Uncle Liu Huang and others would be expelled from Jingzhou, and Uncle Liu would never be allowed to set foot in Jingzhou for half a step.

At the same time, the pro-Tao faction in Jingzhou also suffered a heavy blow, Liu Qi, who came forward to rescue Jiang Gan and Uncle Liu Huang, was severely reprimanded by Liu Biao, and the Kuailiang brothers, who saw the unknown matter, were also implicated.

The anti-Tao faction in Jingzhou took the opportunity to raise their heads, and Huang Zu, a general whose son had a deep relationship with Deputy Director Tao, took over the Nanyang Defense Area, which directly threatened the security of the southern front of Xuchang, the new base camp of the Xuzhou Army, and Cai Zhong, who was implicated by Uncle Liu Huang, was also released and regained military power, and the anti-Tao faction in Jingzhou's decision-making level occupied the absolute upper hand, and the relationship between the Xuzhou Army and the Jingzhou Army also took a sharp turn for the worse, and they were enemies of each other. The unlucky Mr. Jiang Gan and General Li Lang were also innocently implicated, and Liu Biao refused to release them, and continued to be locked in prison waiting for Deputy Director Tao's conscience to be found before coming to the rescue.

Such a big thing happened between the Xuzhou army and the Jingzhou army, of course, it was impossible to hide it from the eyes and ears of other princes, in this regard, Deputy Director Tao's good neighbors were naturally almost all gloating, hoping that Deputy Director Tao and Liu Biao would immediately start a heated fight, the more fierce the fight, the better, the more opportunities they had to reap the benefits. Only Boss Cao, who had fled to Chang'an to join the old department, scoffed at this, and after getting the news, he hummed on the spot: "Liu Biao'er, really strong and inward-looking, he was bullied and played like this by the pottery thief, and he didn't have the courage to send troops to retaliate, if it were me, I would have caught the head and sent troops to Jiangdong, and used a strong naval army to attack the pottery thief's relatively weak southern front." ”

"Liu Biao is incompetent so far, and the rising momentum of Tao Ying's thief seems to be unstoppable." Guo Jia also coughed and sighed: "If Liu Biao can muster up the courage to fight against Tao Ying's thieves to the end with Jingzhou's abundant foundation of money and food, then Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang brothers will inevitably take the opportunity to fish in troubled waters, and Yuan Shu and Xu Gong and others in Jiangdong will definitely fall to Liu Biao and join forces to make it difficult for Tao Biao, even if Tao Ying thieves cannot be destroyed at that time, they will definitely be able to drag down the pace of Tao Thief's expansion and buy time for us to capture Hanzhong and Yizhou." It's a pity that Liu Biao doesn't have the courage and courage. ”

"Back then, the princes begged for Dong, but they lost in front of each of them!" Boss Cao said hatefully: "If the princes of more than a dozen roads can be united. Kill Dong with all your heart, Dong Zhuo's body has already been broken into thousands of pieces, and the matter of Situ Wang Yun later? It's the same now, don't even think about these people who don't hope to unite with the scheming people and work together to fight against the pottery thief! ”

"It is certainly impossible to expect these princes to work together." The mastermind Xun Yu opened his mouth and said slowly: "But if such an alliance can appear, even if it is a reputation for anti-Tao alliance, it will be very beneficial to our army." Or. How about the lord trying to form such an alliance? ”

"Mr. Wen Ruo is joking, right? The lord came forward to form an anti-pottery alliance. Don't you attract the full revenge of the pottery thief? Cheng Yu asked in surprise. - By the way, during the Yexian War, although the treacherous Cheng Yu was separated from Boss Cao for a while, he ended up with Cao Xiu, who was the most capable of escaping from Boss Cao's relatives. fled back to Boss Cao's side. Continue to be a cow and a horse for Boss Cao. Sleeping with the enemy.

"Mr. Zhongmou is joking." Xun Yu smiled and said: "To say something that the lord definitely doesn't like to hear, this time is different from the past, with the lord's current strength and status." Even if he comes forward to organize this anti-pottery thief alliance, I am afraid that no prince of the world will pay attention to it. ”

Boss Cao's face darkened for a moment, but he quickly regained his strength, and said with a smile: "Although Mr. Youruo's words are harsh, they are also true, with the current situation of our army, what I said, there is indeed no prince who will pay too much attention to it now." But Mr. Youruo, in that case, why do you suggest trying to form an anti-pottery thief alliance? ”

"Yu doesn't want to ask the lord to come forward to form an anti-pottery thief alliance, but he wants to ask the lord to take action and encourage Liu Biao to come forward to form an anti-pottery thief alliance." Xun Yu replied with a smile.

"Encourage Liu Biao to come forward and form this anti-pottery thief alliance?" Boss Cao, who had actually become the unlucky old man of Deputy Director Tao, was first stunned, and then after a little calculation, he quickly said: "What is the benefit of our army to let Liu Biao come forward to form such an anti-pottery thief alliance?" ”

"There are two benefits." Xun Yu replied calmly: "First, set up the number one hostile target of the pottery thief and divert the attention of the pottery thief, so that the pottery thief will be even more powerless to prevent our army from regrouping and making a comeback for a long time. The second is to use the hand of the pottery thief to contain Liu Biao, so that Liu Biao is powerless to prevent the re-emergence of our army. ”

"My lord, please don't forget, Guanzhong is difficult to raise an army, our primary strategic goal in the next step is to take Hanzhong, a grain producing area, and then plot the fertile country of Yizhou Tianfu, and once our army is sent to Hanzhong, Zhang Lu, who has a grudge against Liu Zhang's mother, is the only object that can ask for help, that is, Liu Biao, who can enter Hanzhong from the Shangyong army - if we don't hurry up and find something to do for Liu Biao, in case Liu Biao really agrees to rescue Zhang Lu, then we will have some trouble taking Hanzhong, right?"

Boss Cao laughed, smiled and said: "The investment is small but the return is big, it seems that I have to give it a try, in Mr. Youruo's opinion, our army came forward to encourage Liu Biao to form an anti-pottery thief alliance, how sure can we be?" ”

"Six or seven percent sure." Xun Yu replied: "Although Liu Biao is vain, he is fierce and inward-looking, similar to a dog guarding the door, but now he has turned his face against the pottery thief, and he must be afraid that the pottery thief will send troops to retaliate, and the formation of such an alliance can at least benefit him on the surface, so Liu Biao is very likely to be tempted." ”

"If Liu Biao can have some enterprising heart, then it would be better, among the surrounding princes of the pottery thief, he has been counted as the most powerful, ascending to the heights, the princes will inevitably respond in order to protect themselves, and serve Liu Biao as the leader of the alliance to fight against the pottery thief, and then deal with it properly, Liu Biao may not have the opportunity to become the lord of the world. With this in mind, Liu Biao will definitely be even more excited. ”

"That's it!" Boss Cao slapped his thigh and said: "I immediately made a book to talk to Liu Biaochen and persuaded him to come forward to form an anti-Tao alliance, but this matter still needs to be sent to Jingzhou, who can be the envoy?" ”

"It's a matter of being full of favors and full of Berning." Xun Yu suggested: "Although Man Boning was escorted back to Xuchang by Liu Biao in a prisoner car because of his anger at Liu Biao before, it was also because of the instigation of Yang Hong, the lackey of the pottery thief. Moreover, Man Boning is on good terms with Cai Mao, Huang Zu, Zhang Yun and other important ministers of Jingzhou, and it is easy for him to win the support of these important ministers of Jingzhou. ”

"Okay, Cai Mao is greedy for money, you can let Man Pet bring more expensive gifts to him." Boss Cao immediately nodded, and then ordered: "Quickly spread the word to Man Bunning to see you." ”

The left and right guards agreed, and immediately went down to give the order. Xun Yu reminded again: "Lord, please be sure to arrange for Man Boning to secretly go to Jingzhou to act, one is to prevent the pottery thief from noticing, and send Man Boning's nemesis Yang Hong to come forward to cause trouble and destruction, and the other is to prevent the pottery thief from angering our army and preemptively attack our army before the matter is completed." ”

Boss Cao nodded in kindness, and sighed again: "The tiger fell in Pingyang and was bullied by dogs, and the dragon was played by shrimp in shallow water. If you don't break this traitor into pieces in the future. It's hard to snow my shame today. ”

After sighing, Boss Cao immediately acted according to the plan and ordered Man Chong to rush to Xiangyang with a book to meet Liu Biao. After arriving in Xiangyang, Man Chong disguised himself as a salt merchant (Boss Cao's current control area has Yuncheng salt) and arrived in Xiangyang, he also carefully investigated the situation first. Until it was confirmed that his nemesis Yang Changshi was not in Xiangyang. Nor is it coming to Xiangyang. Man Zhong breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly carried the expensive gifts dug up by Boss Cao in the ancient tomb of Chang'an, and quietly touched Cai Mao's house to ask to see him. begged Cai Mao to introduce himself secretly to Liu Biao, and also stated his interests to Cai Mao by the way, and asked Cai Mao to persuade Liu Biao to come forward to form an anti-Tao alliance.

As Xun Yu described, General Cai Mao is indeed a good general who sees money, and he accepted bribes from Manchu and did not take money and do nothing like many corrupt officials in modern society, but was very moralistic and secretly introduced Manchu to Liu Mian. After finally meeting, Man Chong also immediately agitated like a spring, first declared that the Cao and Liu families had no enmity, only because of Tao Ying traitor and his lackey Zhang Ji's uncle and nephew, resulting in a provocation, his own Cao Boss is also very remorseful about this, and said that the Tao thief is now powerful, and sooner or later he will come to invade Jingzhou, and strongly persuade Liu Biao to spread the world, call on the princes of the world to crusade against Tao Ying traitors, and come forward to form an anti-Tao alliance, Cao Boss will also willingly serve Liu Biao as the leader of the alliance, and obey Liu Biao's dispatch.

After listening to Manzhong's words, after Liu Biao calculated, he naturally had to ask why Boss Cao didn't come forward to form an anti-pottery alliance? Man Chong replied truthfully: "Don't hide it from the king, my lord doesn't want to spread the word to the world, and call on the princes of the world to rise up to resist Tao, but after my lord suffered a crushing defeat in Cangting and Xuchang, he is now seriously injured, and there is a shortage of soldiers and food, and he is unable to bear such a heavy responsibility." The prince of the palace is different, the public is both loyal to the Han family, the nobles of Tianhuang, the nine counties of Jingzhou are the soldiers and the food is sufficient, the soldiers under the command of tens of thousands, the fierce generals are like clouds, and the strategists are drizzling, if the public can ascend to the heights and shout, the servants will inevitably gather, and the world will respond, so my lord is presumptuous, and the special envoy came to ask the prince to act in accordance with the sky, and form an alliance to discuss the national thief Tao Ying. ”

is still the same sentence, if such an alliance can really be formed to work together to crusade against Deputy Director Tao, it will indeed be beneficial to Liu Biao, who is currently at odds with Deputy Director Tao, so after thinking about it again and again, although he did not agree immediately, he did not refuse on the spot, but he just arranged for Manzhong to rest in the pavilion, wait for news, and then gather a group of confidants and important ministers to show Boss Cao's letter to discuss the matter.

The strategic short-sightedness of the Jingzhou decision-making level is well-known in history, so after Liu Biao showed the letter, no one in the Jingzhou decision-making level saw that Boss Cao's real purpose was to prepare for the Jingzhou army to have no time to go west to Hanzhong. After careful discussion, the vast majority of the decision-makers in Jingzhou also felt that Boss Cao's words were reasonable, and among the surrounding princes of the Xuzhou Army, only Liu Biao was indeed the only one who could provoke the formation of an anti-Tao alliance and take on the important task, and the Jingzhou Army was already at odds with the Xuzhou Army, and was inferior to the Xuzhou Army in terms of overall strength, rather than waiting for Deputy Director Tao to do it first in the future, it was better to do it now, and unite with the good neighbors of Deputy Director Tao who was still alive, and together they killed this Tao Ying traitor who was more brutal than Dong Boss and more vicious than Cao Boss!

Only the Kuailiang brothers resolutely objected, pointing out that if this was done, the Jingzhou army would inevitably incur the full retaliation of the Xuzhou army, and none of the surrounding neighbors of the Xuzhou army were good, even if they promised to form an alliance to resist Tao, when Deputy Director Tao sent troops to Jingzhou, no one would be willing to send troops to reinforce Jingzhou, or besiege Wei to rescue Zhao and relieve Jingzhou's danger. - Liu Biao also thinks so, because Liu Biao likes to do this the most.

Then again, if this alliance is formed, the allies may not be saved when the Jingzhou army is in danger, but if this alliance is not formed, when the Jingzhou army is in danger, these potential allies will definitely die and not be saved! Taking this into account, coupled with the real danger placed there after the bad relations with the Xuzhou army, Liu Biao hesitated again and again, and finally accepted Deng Yi's suggestion in Zhizhong, and decided to first agree to conclude a mutual protection alliance with Cao Laoda, and then send an envoy north to contact Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, pretending to mediate the dispute between the Yuan brothers, but in fact, testing the Yuan brothers' opinions on forming an alliance against Tao - if the Yuan brothers who sit in the land of Sanzhou can really work together to fight against the Xuzhou army, then the formation of this alliance is also of great significance.

Deng Yi's idea is simply a typical bad idea, Yuan Tan Gongzi, who is currently not wearing the same day with Deputy Director Tao, the most desperate thing is that someone helps him clean up Deputy Director Tao, and at the same time, Yuan Tanjun, who is greatly injured, is temporarily unable to recapture Jizhou, so when Deng Yi personally appointed the envoy to Taiyuan, Yuan Tan Gongzi not only agreed to Liu Biao's mediation, and his brother truce, but also offered to form an alliance with Liu Biao to destroy Tao, and finally implored Deng Yi to come forward to contact Yuan Shang and start armistice negotiations with the third brother. Deng Yi was overjoyed and agreed, and while writing a book to report Liu Biao's situation, he went to Yecheng to meet Yuan Shang in person and persuaded Yuan Shang to reconcile with Yuan Tan and join forces.

Yuan Shanggongzi's situation was a little more complicated, and he launched reconciliation negotiations with Yuan Tan, prompting Yuan Tan to acquiesce to Jizhou as his legal territory, which Yuan Shanggongzi was of course willing, so after Deng Yi met Yuan Shanggongzi, Yuan Shanggongzi also agreed to negotiate an armistice with his brother. However, in terms of persuading Yuan Shanggongzi and the princes to join forces to cut down pottery, Deng Yi had to be cautious, and it took a long time to vaguely say another layer of his intentions, and after hearing Deng Yi's hidden meaning, he did not hesitate to immediately persuade Yuan Shang to agree to form an alliance against Tao.

In the end, the resourceful judge also took the initiative to give Deng Yi a good idea to form an alliance to fight Tao, that is, to suggest that after Liu Biao formed an alliance, the princes involved in the alliance must hand over protons to Liu Biao to ensure that this alliance is faithfully and reliably implemented. At the same time, the trial also took the initiative to say on behalf of Yuan Shanggongzi, saying that although Yuan Shanggongzi does not have a son at the moment, he can take his youngest brother Yuan Mai as a proton and send it to Xiangyang to conclude an alliance. Deng Yi was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately sent a letter to report the good news, and after obtaining Liu Biao's consent, he concluded a pottery alliance with Yuan Tan, and then brought Yuan Mai back to Jingzhou as a hostage.

On the surface, he gave Liu Biao a rare good idea, but in private, Mr. Matching, who had an intelligence of more than ninety, sneered and said secretly: "You Liu Biao want to be the first bird, of course we can't ask for it, and when that Yuan Tan Pifu hands over the proton to you, we will have a good show." (To be continued......)