(ps: Today is still two shifts, and the second shift is still at night.) ）

Time is like an arrow, just in a blink of an eye, the Junzi Army moved to Wuxian under the leadership of Tao Ying and Tao Ji, more than three months have passed, and in the past three months, the situation in the five counties of Xuzhou and the surrounding areas of Xuzhou has also undergone a lot of changes.

The war temporarily stopped, and the five counties of Xuzhou, which had experienced the rebellion of the Cao army, of course, began to recover, but because of the large decrease in population, the lack of manpower and material resources together, the recovery speed of the economy and people's livelihood was very slow, and then the main force of the Xuzhou army was hit hard by the Cao army, resulting in the reconstruction process of the main force of the Xuzhou army being difficult, and the planned reconstruction scale was repeatedly reduced, and it was impossible to know when it would be to return to the peak state before the war.

The strength of Xuzhou's official army has decreased sharply, and the large and small warlords and robbers in Xuzhou naturally took the opportunity to sit big, and the Zang Ba team entrenched in the Kaiyang area took advantage of Tao Qian's inability to suppress the great opportunity, and took the opportunity to expand the size of the team to more than 15,000 people, and the strength in turn overpowered the main force of Xuzhou; On the Guangling side, the number one traitor of the Xuzhou Army, Zhenrong, also took the opportunity to recruit the rebels, strengthened his strength, gathered more than 10,000 rabbles to make a fortune in the Guangling area, and also shouted out the slogan of entering Pengcheng to capture Tao Qian and dedicating it to Cao Yingbao Xuzhou, Tao Qian hated this traitor to the bone, but his vitality was greatly injured and his strength was insufficient, so he had to suppress his anger and pretend to be deaf and dumb.

However, compared with Zang Ba, who is a little rich and peaceful, and Zhen Rong, who is strong and middle-class, the person who really makes the Tao family father and son sleep uncomfortably in Xuzhou is our Liu Bei and Uncle Liu Huang! As written in the book, our Uncle Liu Huang in Xiaopei can be said to be diligent and loving the people, widely spreading kindness, and Minqiu did not do anything wrong, but also lightly paid taxes for servitude, and tried to give the people of Xiaopei a chance to recuperate, and soon won the hearts of the people of Xiaopei, so that the homeless refugees and displaced people in the five counties of Xuzhou flocked to Xiaopei, and the officers and soldiers of Xuzhou Shimin all turned their hearts to Uncle Liu Huang, and the voice of singing praises and virtues was contained in the boat road.

In contrast, the shameless behavior of Tao Qian's father and son who had just experienced the Cao Bing Rebellion and had to collect grain and tax from the people of Xuzhou naturally made the gentry of the people of Xuzhou very dissatisfied.

People look good-looking, Tao Qian's father and son have suffering, in fact, our Uncle Liu Huang said that his son is no better than there, because to buy people's hearts and show kindness, the first premise is to have money and food, although Uncle Liu Huang's team has Tao Qian, the unjust head to pay, but it is only barely enough to maintain food and clothing, and then want to further strengthen the strength, the economic foundation is definitely far from enough. In order to buy the hearts of the people, Uncle Liu Huang just wanted to do something to pay taxes lightly, but the people's hearts were bought, and the money and food that Uncle Liu Huang could collect in Xiaopei was pitiful, and there was no way to storm a large number of soldiers without money and food, so in Xiaopei in April, Uncle Liu Huang only expanded the army to 5,000, which was far from meeting Uncle Liu's expectations.

There are two big problems that make Uncle Liu Huang unable to sleep, the first is the threat of Boss Cao, the reason why Tao Qian left Uncle Liu Huang in Xiaopei, and raised Uncle Liu Huang under extremely difficult circumstances, is to let Uncle Liu Huang block Boss Cao's going and return for Xuzhou, and raise a guard dog for Xuzhou. Uncle Liu Huang, who was well aware of this matter, was not only reluctant to abandon Tao Qian, the unjust leader, but also worried that Boss Cao would enter Xuzhou again, and would be pushed to the forefront by Tao Qian and join Cao Boss in vain, consuming not much capital in vain.

Fortunately, Uncle Liu Huang learned from the detailed investigation report that Lu Wenhou, who had been beaten by Taoyuan Sanlianxing, was very competitive, relying on Chen Gong's advice, defeated Cao Jun in the Puyang area, and almost cut off Cao Boss's black head, so for a while, Cao Boss should not be able to spare his hand to find trouble with Uncle Liu and Tao Qian.

The second problem that made Uncle Liu Huang worry came from Tao Qian's father and son, to be precise, from Tao Yingtao, deputy director, before Tao Ying took the shit luck to snatch the work of retiring Cao, which made the hearts of the military and people of Xuzhou turn to Taomen, which has greatly disrupted Uncle Liu's benevolent and righteous plan, and now Tao Ying has created a descendant gentlemen's army that is not controlled by others, and its drunkard meaning can be imagined. And judging from Tao Qian's full support for Tao Ying to establish the Gentleman's Army, this immortal old slippery head must be preparing for things after his death, and Uncle Liu Huang has seen a glimmer of hope for the hegemony, and it is possible that he will be nipped in the bud.

At the very least, if Tao Ying shows a talent that is enough to satisfy Tao Ying, Uncle Liu Huang said that he would not want to expect Tao Qiansan to let Xuzhou - to be precise, Uncle Liu Huang said that he would not want to get Xuzhou by gentle means.

In mid-July, Uncle Liu Huang once again welcomed his old friend Mi Fang in Xiaopei City, and Mi Fang sent Uncle Liu Huang the number of acres of farmland and the estimated grain output of the five counties of Xuzhou this year according to the request of his brother Mi Zhu, so that Uncle Liu Huang could open his mouth to Tao Qian according to the amount of money and grain in Xuzhou, and get as much money and grain as possible from Tao Qian, the wronged boss. However, due to the impact of the war and the sharp decline in population, the autumn grain harvest in Xuzhou this year is definitely not optimistic, so the Mi Zhu brothers privately estimated that even if Uncle Liu Huang forced Tao Qian to jump off the Yellow River, he probably wouldn't be able to knock out many bamboo poles.

To Mi Fang's surprise, Liu Bei's attention was not on the top-secret information sent by their brother, and finally shook off the two obstructive rectums of Gong Yu and Zhang Fei, and just got the opportunity to talk secretly, Liu Bei immediately asked Mi Fang straight to the point: "How is the situation on Tao Yinggongzi's side?" Have there been any unusual movements lately? ”

"Back to Xuande Gong, Tao Ying Xiao'er is still like that, he has been hiding in Wuxian County for military training, and he has never returned to Xuzhou once." Mi Fang replied respectfully: "Tao Ying Xiao'er divided the twenty miles around Wuxian County into a forbidden area, prohibiting the people from entering and leaving at will, in order not to cause trouble to Xuande Gong, Mi Fang and his brother did not dare to send someone to risk sneaking into Wuxian, so they didn't know much about the situation in Wuxian, and only noticed an abnormal situation, that is, Tao Ying's training consumed a lot of arrows, and Cao Hong's dog thieves sent Tao Ying fifty arrow-making craftsmen, as well as a large number of arrow-making materials. ”

"Consume a lot of arrows?" Liu Bei frowned, and said in his heart What kind of reputation is Tao Ying'er doing, do you want to build an army of horse archers? But on the battlefield, without the cooperation of the infantry, the horse archer team cannot play a decisive role?

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Bei asked Mi Fang again: "How is Tao Yinggongzi's governance in Wu County?" Is there a benevolent government imposed on the people of Wu County? ”

"Xuande Gong, please rest assured, Tao Ying'er is not as good as his father in terms of governance." Mi Fang replied with a smile: "Judging from the information collected by the Mi Fang brothers, Tao Yingxiao'er can only be regarded as a good thing in terms of governance, neither letting a large number of people defect like Xuande Gong, nor reclaiming wasteland and developing people's livelihood like Xuande Gong, but not like Cao Bao and Cao Hong, the two dog thieves, conniving at the sergeants to disturb the people, so there are no people from Wuxian County who went to Pengcheng to complain and embarrass Tao Qian's father and son." However, Mi Zhu believes that this is also because the population of Wuxian County has been greatly reduced, and there are less than 150 households left in the entire city, so it is easier for Tao Yingxiao to restrain the soldiers from disturbing the people. ”

Liu Bei remained silent, and secretly scolded Mi Fang in his heart for being as stupid as a pig, and said that Tao Yingxiaoer only took over Wuxian County in early April, imagining that he would reclaim wasteland and develop people's livelihood like me, would he have time? And Tao Ying's governance is not lost, which just shows that he is cautious and pragmatic, not greedy for merit, not rash and not making mistakes, in Tao Qian's eyes, I am afraid that such a son is the most suitable successor, right?

Unable to find more information about Tao Ying from Mi Fang, Uncle Liu Huang had to shift his attention to Tao Qian and asked Mi Fang, "Zifang, how is Tao Fujun's physical condition recently?" Is it getting better? ”

"This ......." Mi Fang hesitated a little, and only said in a low voice after a while: "I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint Xuande Gong, Tao Fujun's condition has improved recently, my brother speculated that it may be related to the weather, the rain in Pengcheng has been normal recently, and the climate is relatively humid, so Tao Fujun's asthma has improved a lot, even if it has an attack, it is not as intense as in winter." ”

"Zifang is really good at laughing, Tao Fujun's condition is improving, Liu Bei is too late to rejoice, how can Zifang say that he disappointed Liu Bei?" Uncle Liu Huang snorted, but he was extremely depressed - this Tao Qian's old man, why did his condition improve? Sure enough, it's old and not dead, it's a thief!

"Mi Fang has said it, please forgive Xuandegong." Mi Fang also found that she was too gaffe, and quickly apologized. Then Mi Zhu also hesitated, and then looked at no one on the left and right, and then lowered his voice and said: "Xuande Gong, Mi Fang has always had a plan, I want to buy Tao Qian's most trusted Langzhong Zhang Hang, in this way, when Xuande Gong needs Tao Fujun to die, Tao Fujun can pass away." ”

Liu Bei's eyebrows moved slightly, and he began to think about the feasible surname of Mi Fang's idea, and said that if Tao Qian died suddenly, the dragons in Xuzhou would be leaderless, and he would inevitably be in chaos, and he would rely on the full support of the Mi Zhu family, the richest man in Xuzhou, and naturally he would have a great opportunity to fish in troubled waters. But this idea is also extremely risky, and once the plan is exposed, the good reputation of the company that he has worked hard for many years will be ruined!

Seeing Liu Bei's hesitation, Mi Fang hurriedly whispered: "Xuande Gong, Mi Fang thinks that this plan should be feasible, Xuande Gong can think about it, Tao Fujun has no son-in-law so far, and twice proposed to give Xuzhou to Xuande Gong, if Tao Fujun suddenly dies, Tao Shang and Tao Ying's two children succeed to the throne are not justifiable, Mi Fang and his brother forged a book again, and said that Tao Fujun gave Xuzhou to Xuande Gong before his death, wouldn't Xuande Gong be able to sit on the five counties of Xuzhou?" ”

Liu Bei still didn't speak, just nervously calculated, and Mi Fang said in a low voice: "Xuande Gong, please rest assured, Mi Fang has already thought carefully, as soon as Tao Qian dies, Mi Fang's brothers will naturally fully support Xuande Gong to take over Xuzhou; Chen Jue's father and son have always had an ambiguous attitude, even if they don't help Xuande Gong at that time, they will not stand on the side of the potters and Tao Ying; And Langya Zang Ba has no ambitions, only wants to divide one side, Xuande Gong has a good relationship with him, just a few words, promising Zang Ba Yongzhen Langya, Zang Ba will definitely support Xuande Gong to receive Xuzhou! In this way, the three major forces in Xuzhou are Chen Zang, the second is public, the Chen family is neutral, and the two children of Tao Shang and Tao Ying have great skills, and they can't afford to make any waves. ”

Liu Bei still didn't speak, and after a long time, he said, "What about Cao Bao?" Did Zifang miss him? ”

"Cao Bao is not a child." Mi Fang said with a smile: "Although Cao Bao is named the first general of Xuzhou, his ability is low, he is incompetent in using troops, and he is not effective in commanding the army, so can he be worthy of being the opponent of Xuande Gong?" Moreover, this person's surname is slippery, and he is good at riding on the wall, seeing that Xuande is powerful, for his glory and wealth, his wife and concubine, he will naturally make a wise choice. ”

Liu Bei began to be tempted, and his face continued to be silent, truly realizing that his joy and anger were invisible. Mi Fang waited for a long time and didn't see Liu Bei's decision, so she couldn't help but say in a hurry: "Xuande Gong, don't miss the opportunity, you won't come again!" Before Xuande Gong, you refused to accept Xuzhou twice, which was already a missed opportunity, and gave Tao Ying Xiao'er the opportunity to be famous all over the world and win the hearts of the people of Xuzhou, and now Tao Qian'er is obviously cultivating Tao Ying Xiao'er as a sister-in-law! If it is delayed for a long time, Tao Qian Lao'er suddenly establishes his son-in-law and passes Xuzhou to Tao Shang or Tao Ying'er, and Xuande Gong wants to take Xuzhou again, it will be difficult! ”

"Zifang, your last sentence is right." Uncle Liu Huang finally spoke, and said in a hoarse voice: "Tao Fujun has not established a son-in-law, but before you act, what should Tao Fujun suddenly establish a son-in-law?" Or is it that when Tao Fujun was dying, he designated a son to inherit Xuzhou - Tao Gongzu treated Liu Bei with courtesy, kindness and righteousness, and was prepared to take away his father's and son's inheritance? ”

"Xuande Gong, Xuzhou is the land of the Han Dynasty, the prince is the emperor, and he is rightfully receiving it, why should he give it to the Tao family?" Mi Fang was anxious, raised her voice and said: "Besides, Xuzhou is the land of four wars, and there are enemies in every eye, and you can't live in it unless you are the master of chaos!" Xuande Gong is a benevolent and righteous person, do you want to watch the five counties of Xuzhou fall into the hands of the potters and Tao Ying, so that the lives of the Xuzhou soldiers and the blood will flow like a river? ! ”

"It's a bad word." Uncle Liu Huang shook his head and said calmly: "In case of caution, the son of Tao Shang is surnamed Ren Xiao, erudite and knowledgeable, and has unparalleled talents and virtues, so he should be regarded as the heir of Tao Gonggong and inherit Xuzhou." Therefore, Bei believes that Zifang and Zizhong should go to the table as soon as possible, and ask Tao Fujun to establish the son of the pottery merchant as his heir, and Bei should also do his best to assist the son of the pottery merchant to inherit the great cause. ”

"Xuan Degong, are you kidding?" Mi Fang almost didn't jump up, "Let our brother persuade Tao Qian to set up a pottery merchant as his heir, then what should you do about Xuande Gong?" ”

"When you talk to stupid people, you are tired." Uncle Liu Huang complained in his heart, and saw that Mi Fang really didn't understand his good intentions, so he had to ask in a low voice: "Zifang, in your opinion, who is more difficult to deal with, pottery merchant or Tao Ying?" ”

"Of course, Tao Ying'er is difficult to deal with." Mi Fang replied without thinking about it: "Tao Ying'er is loyal on the outside, dangerous on the inside, deeper than the city, scheming, and ambitious, far more deceitful than his brother. And the potter is pedantic and stupid, stupid as a pig and a dog, and it is far easier to deal with than Tao Ying'er. ”

"In that case, why does Brother Zifang still obstruct Tao Fujun from establishing the son of Tao Shang as his heir?" Liu Bei said in a yin voice: "Since ancient times, the abolition of the long and the young, is the way to take chaos, Tao Mansion Jun set up the eldest son Tao Shang as the heir, Tao Ying Gongzi can also understand Tao Gongzu's painstaking efforts - if Tao Ying Gongzi is not satisfied, and intends to usurp the rebellion, Bei should also raise troops to fight and eradicate the rebel ministers for the Tao Shang Gongzi!" ”

After being stunned for a long time, Mi Fang's poor brain cells finally functioned in place, waved her hand excitedly, and said happily: "Understood!" Xuande Gong wanted the two little brothers of Tao Shang and Tao Ying to fight against each other, kill each other, and take the opportunity to reap the benefits! ”

"Idiot!" Liu Bei scolded in his heart again, then shook his head and said: "No, Bei has no such intention, Bei just thinks that Tao Yinggongzi is in charge of the military as a younger brother, and he seems to have the intention of bullying his brother, and the road is uneven, so he draws his sword to help." ”

"Xuande Gong's clever strategy, Mi Fang understands." Mi Fang was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Please rest assured that after Mi Fang returned to Xuzhou City, he immediately reported the matter to his brother and let him do what he planned." ”

Liu Bei nodded slightly, and said lightly: "Then there is Lao Mi Beijia and Zifang, Zifang can pull more Xuzhou civil and military officials to cheer, if Tao Fujun does not allow it, Zifang and Mi Beijia must also be persuaded by the difference between the elder and the young, and must not let Tao Fujun abolish the elder and young, and bring trouble on himself." ”

Mi Fang nodded with a smile, and agreed in understanding, and after Liu Bei paused, he added: "Zifang, you said that Zhang Hang Zhang Langzhong, who Tao Fujun trusts the most, since Tao Fujun's condition is gradually getting worse, Zifang still has to walk around more when he is free, and keep abreast of Tao Gongzu's condition at any time - at that time, if Tao Yinggongzi is dissatisfied with his brother being established as an heir by Tao Fujun and does something stupid, Tao Fujun's condition is likely to deteriorate." ”

Mi Fang was confused again, and asked in confusion: "What does Xuande Gong mean by this, can he teach clearly?" ”

"Zifang, bring this back to Zizhong." Liu Bei really rarely explained to Mi Fang again, but said calmly: "He can understand and grasp the opportunity." ”