Approaching Chinese New Year's Eve, the smoke in Shouchun City dissipated and became lively again.

A lot has happened in the city in recent days, but mostly good, at least for the people of the city.

Three days earlier, Lü Bu led the Xuzhou army to leave Shouchun, go out of the city through the east gate, and return to Xuzhou.

The next day, Jiangdong Sun Ce followed, and after courtesyally asking Li Li, the leader of the alliance, he also led his troops and horses to evacuate Shouchun.

Unlike Lü Bu, Sun Ce did not return to Jiangdong after leading his army out of the city, but camped in Lujiang County, camping along the river with his back to Jiangdong.

Perhaps, compared to the people in the city who were devastated by the war, the evacuation of Lu Bu and Sun Ce from Shouchun City was definitely a gratifying and congratulatory thing. But for Li Li, who is sitting in the state pastor's mansion, the departure of these two people from Shouchun may not be a good thing.

Not only that, in order to appease Lu Bu and Sun Ce, Li Li paid a lot of price for this.

In order to appease Lü Bu's anger, Li Li made a huge concession on the distribution of the captured money and grain after the war, and rewarded Lü Bu with 100,000 stones of grain and grass at one time, plus 30,000 gold and 2,500 horses of silk. At dawn the next day after Lü Bu received the reward, he didn't even say hello, led the Xuzhou army to pull out the village, went straight to the east gate, and returned to Xuzhou.

Along with Lu Bu, he was also rewarded by Jiangdong Sun Ce. In view of the heavy losses of Sun Ce's soldiers and horses, Li Li gave Sun Ce 30,000 stone grain and grass, 10,000 gold, and 1,000 silk horses, and handed over to Sun Ce more than 4,000 bandits captured by the bandits.

Without admitting it, Lu Bu said goodbye without saying goodbye to his front foot, and Sun Ce then came to ask Ling to lead the army back to Lujiang. At that time, Li Li did not allow him to lead his army away. However, Sun Ce still led his army out of the city early the next morning and went straight to the Lujiang River.

In this way, with Lu Bu and Sun Ce, the soldiers and horses withdrew from Shouchun one after another. The allied forces of the princes who had conquered Yuan Shu then disbanded, fell apart, and each led his army back to his station.

At this point, the alliance of Yuan existed in name only, and only Li Li and Cao Cao were left in the alliance. At the same time, the two-year stalemate in Hebei was still unresolved, and Yuan Shao of Jizhou was still under siege by Cao Cao of Yanzhou, Zhou Yu of Hanoi and Zhang Liao of Youzhou. At stake.

According to Li Li's plan for the southern expedition drawn up in advance, there were two strategic intentions for leading the army southward this time. First, exterminate Huainan Yuanshu. Capture Yuzhou and Yangzhou. second, while exterminating Yuan Shu, he took advantage of the situation to cut off Jiangdong Sun Ce and Xuzhou Lu Bu; No matter how bad it is, you have to choose one of the two and get rid of one of Sun Ce and Lu Bu.

It's a pity. Plans can't keep up with the changes.

In the battle against Huainan Yuanshu. Li Li was extremely successful in weakening the strength of Lü Bu and Sun Ce, causing them to suffer heavy casualties and lose more than half of their soldiers and horses. The fly in the ointment was that Li used too much force and prematurely let Lu Bu and Sun Ce lose too many soldiers and horses, so that the two of them became suspicious of Li Li, and always watched out for Li Li and his Xiliang army, lest Li Li attack him by surprise.

It is precisely because of Lu Bu and Sun Ce that they are always wary of Li Li. Caution everywhere made Li Li have no excuse or opportunity to take the lead.

In the half month that the three people were stationed together in Shouchun City. The three forces are wary of each other, suspicious of each other, and detached from each other.

After Li Li distributed all the combat captures that had been hoarded in Shouchun City since the Southern Expedition, Lu Bu and Sun Ce led their troops away without hesitation, as if they had slipped away. It goes without saying that Sun Ce and Lu Bu were very jealous of Li Li and the Xiliang army under his command, and after they got the captured materials they deserved, they did not dare to stay for a moment, and immediately led their troops out of the city, lest Li Li unload the mill and kill the donkey, waiting for an opportunity to make trouble.

In this way, Li Li's plan to try to stabilize the two of them for the time being, and then split them and break them apart, completely failed. As a result, only half of the entire southern expedition plan was completed, and the remaining half was stillborn and wasted.

Not only that, but the strategic intention of exterminating Yuan Shu did not achieve the expected goal. Because until Lu Bu and Sun Ce led their troops to leave, Yuan Shu's whereabouts were still unknown, no one was born, no one died, no corpse was heard.

?????? Shouchun City, the state pastoral house.

On the jade steps outside the main hall, Li Li, dressed in a brocade robe, stood under the corridor with his hands behind his back, raising his eyes to look at the southeast, his expression was calm, his eyes were profound, and he seemed to be thoughtful.

Not far behind him, Guo Jia, Lu Su and Xun You gathered together, standing beside the column and talking in a low voice, looking at Li Li's back from time to time.

"Fengxiao, what the lord did this time really made me a little confused and quite incomprehensible." While speaking, Xun You looked up at Li Li, who was standing and contemplative, and said with a puzzled expression: "To tell the truth, such a big reward is very likely to be an enemy of us, it is really not like what the lord does, and it is not in line with the lord's consistent style of doing things!" ”

Guo Jia was immediately happy when he heard this, and said with a dumb smile: "I don't know what Brother Gongda said about the consistent style of the lord?" This is the first time I've heard that the lord still has an inherent style of doing things, and I always thought that the lord acted in an eclectic way, like a whimsical trace, but I didn't expect that Brother Gongda had summed up the lord's habits of doing things. Hehehe! ”

Xun You smiled, and blinked and signaled Guo Jia and Lu Su to keep it secret for themselves, and they must not let the lord know. Guo Jia and Lu Su happily understood, smiled and nodded, indicating that they were absolutely tight-lipped and would not leak half a sentence.

Seeing this, Xun You looked at Li Li's back again and said in a low voice: "As Feng Xiao said, the lord has always acted informally, unconventionally, and maverickly, making people elusive and untraceable. However, the lord had an inherent style of acting in terms of money, food, weapons, and ordnance. You might as well imagine that before this, did the lord do anything like spending money and rewarding the princes? In other words, have you ever seen your lord make a loss-making transaction?

A few days ago, when I went to Lu Bu's camp to negotiate with him, Lu Bu said, 'The Lord has always eaten more and occupied more, and likes to eat alone, when have you seen him generous to the princes of the world?' Then I thought about it, Lu Bu did have some truth in what he said, throughout the time when the lord brought up Xiliang, it has always been the princes from all walks of life who have given money and grain to the lord, but the lord has rarely given a large amount of money and grain to other princes, as of three days ago, there is no precedent. I have to say that Xun You is really a caring person, delicate, observant, and in just a few months of getting along day and night, he has figured out Li Li's disposition of never suffering.

Guo Jia and Lu Su looked at each other, looked at each other and smiled, and then Lu Su nodded and smiled: "Brother Jinggongda said this, looking back on the past, it is really true. However, has Gongda ever thought about what Xiliang was like seven years ago, what was the situation, and whether the money and food were sufficient? At that time, the lord led the two states of Xiliang at the age of a weak crown, and was in charge of more than 200,000 Xiliang troops, and faced the customs clearance blockade of the Xiliang border by princes from all walks of life.

It is said that at that time, in order to raise food, grass and military salaries, the lord locked himself in his study for a whole month and did not go out. At the same time, the lord's family and clansmen all tightened their food and clothing, and spent sparingly, and all the money and food saved were used as military salaries. And this is just a drop in the bucket, and it is difficult to solve the urgent need. For this reason, the chariot general Li Dao went to the palace to expel the eunuchs and concubines and maids, and took out a large number of royal artifacts and handed them over to the caravans, and secretly went to the states and counties to exchange for food. Even so, it was still unable to alleviate the grain and grass crisis, let alone relieve the many hungry people under the rule of Xiliang.

In view of this, the lord made a painful decision to take out all the millions of stones, grains and grass hoarded in Yiwuzhong and distribute them to the people, and reduce the taxes of the prefectures and counties under the rule of Xiliang for two years. Then the more than 200,000 Xiliang troops were divided into pieces and all of them were sent to the border garrison, so that they could raise their own food and salary, be self-reliant, and seek development on their own. In addition, the lord personally set up workshops, encouraged major merchants to trade with the states and counties of the Central Plains through various channels, and opened up trade routes in the Western Regions, sending caravans to trade with the countries of the Western Regions. This is the strategy of recuperation and recuperation formulated by the lord, for which the Xiliang army was silent for two years, while the two states of Xiliang were given an extremely valuable three-year period of peaceful development. ”

Speaking of this, Lu Su's voice stopped abruptly and looked at Guo Jia with a smile.

Guo Jia immediately understood, and then said: "At that time, the strategy of self-cultivation and recuperation was also a last resort, and it was the only way for Xiliang Erzhou to get out of the predicament. The reason why this decree was able to be carried out smoothly was indeed due to the great courage and strong implementation of the lord. At the beginning, many people were worried about this, and they were not optimistic about this important decision, and even suspected that the Xiliang Army was very likely to be destroyed in the hands of the lord. However, the decision proved to be a far-sighted and wise move. If there is no great courage to break the cauldron and sink the boat, there is no two years of hard work, and there is no two years of tempering on the border, there will be no Xiliang today's strength, let alone the current Xiliang iron cavalry that dominates the world. ”

Speaking of this, Guo Jia's tone was stunned, and his words changed sharply: "Gongda just said that the lord has never done loss-making business, in fact, this is just a nice saying, in fact, many princes are talking about the lord's cunning and stinginess behind their backs, and there are even more unbearable words. However, there are a few princes in the world who are not stingy, if they don't want to try to make money and food, how to recruit troops and horses, how to increase their strength, such as how to conquer other princes?

But now, the number of prefectures and counties under the rule of the lord is increasing day by day, and there is abundant money and food, and there are enough baggage, plus a large amount of materials captured in the war. It is that the lord is fully qualified and has the strength to spend money and reward the princes who have joined the alliance, but everything the lord has done has a deep meaning. Lu Bu was greedy and profitable, so the lord rewarded a large amount of gold, silver and jade silk to calm his heart; Sun Ce was ambitious, so the lord gave him troops and asked him to replenish his troops and horses to strengthen his courage. Since then, Lu Bu has been satisfied and stable, and our army has no worries, and he will wave his army to Lujiang and encircle and suppress Sun Ce. ”

Xun You suddenly realized when he heard this, and immediately asked, "Why Sun Ce and not Lu Bu?" Didn't the lord always target Lu Bu before? ”

At this time, Li Li, who had been standing and pondering, suddenly looked back and said: "Jiangdong Sun Ce has the ambition of a wolf son, knowing the whereabouts of Yuan Shu's father and son, but concealing it and not reporting it, trying to recapture the jade seal of the country. This son is so bold and reckless, if he is not punished, will Jiangbei have a peaceful day? ”

??????

—————— to be continued———————————— (To be continued......