Tao Qian coughed twice, his face was slightly pale, and after listening carefully to Shen Chen's opinion, he seemed to feel that there was some truth.

But after thinking about it for a while, he still thought that Shen Chen's strategy was too idealistic, and he said: "The childish man wants to use a peach in Xuzhou to kill two soldiers, but Cao Cao can't tolerate me, and Yuan Shu is also at odds with me, how can I sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight?" ”

At the beginning, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao broke up, Tao Qian and Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu had an alliance, while Yuan Shao had an alliance with Cao Cao and Liu Biao, and the two sides had several large-scale battles in Yanzhou, Yuzhou and other places.

Yuan Shu went north to attack Yanzhou, and Tao Qian once sent troops to capture Renchengguo, Taishan County and other places under Cao Cao's jurisdiction.

Later, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shu, the Black Mountain Army, and the Southern Xiongnu at Kuangting, and then turned to attack Tao Qian, and beat Tao Qian back to Xuzhou, and the alliance collapsed.

Therefore, Tao Qian is not only in a hostile relationship with Cao Cao now, but also has a very good relationship with Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu's desire to annex Xuzhou was well known, and Tao Qian was afraid of luring Yuan Shu in, so Yuan Shu and Cao Cao would not fight first, but would join forces to eliminate him first.

The prerequisite for the snipe and the clam to compete for the benefit of the fisherman is that the strength of the fisherman is stronger than that of the snipe and the clam. If it is not a fisherman who stands next to the sandpiper clam but an earthworm, then the final result is nothing more than a fight between the eldest and the second and the death of the third.

Shen Chen naturally thought about this problem, so he said, "So Tao Gong has to shrink his strength and protect himself." And one or two reliable external allies are needed as reinforcements to save the day. ”

Tao Qian asked, "Who can help me?" ”

"I heard that Gong Tao has already gone to invite the Minister of Beihai?"

Shen Chen said: "It is impossible to defeat Cao Cao in an all-round way now, but Tao Gong can still go north to level Zang Ba and Xiao Jian first, with Langya State as the rear and the East China Sea Kingdom as the barrier, and Beihai Xiangwen Jugong soldiers and horses, with the Plains Xiangxuande Gong as the general, and then lead Yuan Shu to come, maybe he can slowly figure it out." ”

"Plain Prime Minister Liu Bei?"

Tao Qian was confused: "What's the matter with Liu Bei?" ”

Shen Chen explained: "I once heard from people who fled from Qingzhou to Xuzhou that Beihai was besieged by the Yellow Turban last year, and Kong Taishou invited Xuande Gong to relieve the siege, and now Xuande is just in Beihai." ”

"yes, I see."

Tao Qian sighed and said: "It's a pity, if it was two months ago, the child's plan might indeed work, but now that Xuzhou is in dilapidation, wouldn't it be self-defeating to bring Yuan Shu here?" ”

Shen Chen said: "Yes, but it's not impossible. ”

"Child, please speak."

"Cao Cao is brutal and unkind, I heard that he killed many famous people in Yanzhou, and the wealthy families in Yanzhou are dissatisfied with him, this time he led the army to the expedition, I expect that his rear will be chaotic."

"Oh?"

Tao Qian's eyes widened and said, "Is this really the case?" ”

Shen Chen said: "Gong should be Chen's prophecy, if the future is really as Chen expected, then Tao Gong will stick to the city first, wait for the time, and then regain the lost land, after Liu Bei's help, and then stabilize the East China Sea and Langya, the north and Wenju Convention Alliance, and the south to lead Yuan Shu into Peiguo Xiapi, then the tripartite wrestling, Xuzhou should be worry-free in a short time." ”

This is a miniature version of the Three Kingdoms, tripartite checks and balances, although Tao Qian's strength is the weakest, as long as he can integrate the teams of Zang Ba and Xiao Jian, and then form an alliance with Kong Rong, he can always gather 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers and horses, and he can barely compete with Cao Cao and Yuan Shu in Xuzhou.

However, in fact, this is the current judgment, because Cao Cao is about to go back to Yanzhou to fight with Lu Bu, and the fight is two years, Cao Cao has no time to look east, and at this time, leading Yuan Shu into Xuzhou is really luring the wolf into the room.

The problem is that even if Tao Qian is not introduced, Yuan Shu himself still intends to annex Xuzhou while Cao Cao and Lu Bu are fighting.

Therefore, no matter what strategy Shen Chen came up with, he couldn't change the existing facts, but because his judgment was extremely accurate, it would leave people with the impression that he had no last resort.

This was the result that Shen Chen wanted.

Tao Qian sighed with emotion: "If I had been a child, how could I get to such a point? Is the child willing to be born? ”

Cao Hong hurriedly said: "Ming Gong, let an eight-year-old child come out, I am afraid that the world will laugh at you." ”

Shen Chen also refused and said: "What I said is extremely true, the kid is only eight years old this year, and he will not be nine years old until October, if he becomes an official, how can he serve the public?" And Ming Gong is afraid that he still doesn't trust me very much, so please allow me to flee with my family to Mount Tai to hide first, and then Ming Gong will make a decision when things are as I expected. ”

"Hmm......."

Tao Qian pondered for a moment, and finally thought that he was too hasty, so he agreed to Shen Chen's statement.

The main reason is that he is now being forced too hard by Cao Cao, and he is already a little sick and rushed to the doctor.

After talking a little more about other things, Tao Qian closed his eyes, he felt that his energy was very tired, and his body was gradually unable to bear it.

Shen Chen said goodbye and left, and someone from the Deng Shen Er clan outside the state capital was waiting for him, and after seeing him come out, he immediately escorted him back to Xiangben, and the family began to flee north.

On the fourth day of the fourth month of April, Cao Cao's other army, led by Cao Ren, went north to attack Kaiyang County, Qiu County, Feiguo County and other places in Langya State.

Tao Qian was greatly shocked, because this was already his rear, so he hurriedly sent people to rescue the northern counties.

This army was only a small force, which was used to attract Tao Qian's attention, and after conquering the counties, he immediately went south to join Cao Cao again.

On the eighth day of the first month of April, a large force of Cao's army began to storm many county towns such as Xiapi.

The army pulled out the horses, the tombs, and the summer hills, and slaughtered them wherever they passed. Where hundreds of thousands of men and women are killed, there are no chickens and dogs, and Surabaya does not flow, and it is the five county county protection, and there is no trace of repetition.

Shen Chen had already fled into Niqiu Mountain at this time, Niqiu Mountain is the southern foot of Yishan Mountain, the mountains are tight, and the mountains are stacked, and Cao Jun is not so idle to search the mountains and kill people, so he escaped a catastrophe and did not suffer a disaster.

On April 24, Liu Bei and Kong Rong's reinforcements finally arrived in Xuzhou, where they joined Tao Qian's soldiers and horses on the periphery of Xuzhou and fought a battle with Cao Cao's troops and horses on the periphery.

Cao Cao's main force was still in Xiapi at this time, and when he learned that Tao Qian and the reinforcements had converged, he immediately led the main force north to prepare to completely exterminate Tao Qian.

The two sides confronted each other in Xiangben, and because Cao Cao was powerful, Tao Qian ordered Liu Bei and Cao Bao to guard Yan County and not to go out of the city for a decisive battle.

By the beginning of May, the villagers of Huangmenting could no longer bear it and clamored to return to their hometowns, because the ancient productive forces were insufficient, and the peasants worked hard to cultivate, but after collecting taxes in a year, they were only barely trying to make ends meet.

Now they have fled into Niqiu Mountain for more than a month, sitting on the mountain every day, and most of the millet seedlings in the township may be lost due to no one taking care of them, and the harvest is gone in the second half of this year, how can they survive?

Faced with this problem, Shen Chen had no choice but to discuss with Deng Mao and his own Shen clan elders, first send someone over to inquire about the situation, and after confirming the safety, he would lead the clan back.

So on the third day of the fifth month, under the consultation of the elders of the Deng Shen and the second clan, the horses of the whole clan were concentrated, a total of sixteen, all of which were cheap horses, and they found a good rider in the clan, and first returned to Xiangben County to see how the situation was there.

Shen Chen was also among them, and he had to observe the situation and make a judgment.

After coming out of Niqiu Mountain, we arrived at the official road east of Yishui, which was the road from the hill to the south of Xiangben, it was the middle of summer in May, the mountains on both sides were towering, and the villages along the way were in ruins.

Here is Linyi City in later generations, Niqiu Mountain in the west, Kaiyang County in Langya Kingdom in the north, Lanling County and Xiangben County in the southwest, and Yan County in the south.

At this moment, there are a lot of people migrating on the official road, and the scattered carriages and pedestrians are struggling to go south.

The end of the Han Dynasty was actually a worse era, because Tao Qian was mediocre and incompetent in his later years, which caused the originally rich Xuzhou to gradually become chaotic.

And Qingzhou is even more chaotic, Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao compete for Qingzhou, Kong Rong is struggling to protect himself, yellow turban bandits continue to plague everywhere, and the people are displaced.

Therefore, even though Xuzhou is already in chaos, there are still many people who choose to flee south to Xuzhou for stability.

Unbeknownst to them, they just went from a wolf's den to a tiger's den.

At this time, the news of Cao Cao's massacre of the city had not yet spread, and among the people accompanying him, a convoy was also slowly moving south.

It was clearly a large family of the bureaucracy, with a few knights on the perimeter and guards in armor and weapons in their hands.

This team is the migration force of the Langya Zhuge family led by Zhuge Xuan.

A few years ago, Liu Biao sent Zhuge Xuan to Chang'an to pay tribute to the Son of Heaven, and sent a team of hundreds of people to escort him over.

Later, Zhuge Xuan wanted to go to Shandong to take care of the orphans left by his cousin, but Liu Biao still asked the soldiers to protect him.

There were countless bandits and bandits in the troubled times of the late Han Dynasty, even the regular army rarely had armor, Yuan Shao only had 10,000 armor at his peak, and Cao Cao's armor now is only hundreds.

Liu Biao was able to send hundreds of soldiers in armor to protect them, which shows that he still attaches great importance to Zhuge Xuan.

At this moment, Zhuge Xuan sat on horseback and followed the procession, there were several carriages behind him, and in one of them, Zhuge Liang, who was thirteen years old this year, was sitting in the carriage.

There were many types of horse-drawn carriages in the Han Dynasty, and the car he sat in was called a chariot, which was not capped, like a sun umbrella on the compartment of a pickup truck.

Zhuge Liang and his younger brother Zhuge were both in the same car, the speed of the vehicle was not fast, his eyes wandered around, looking at the fleeing Li people around him and was slightly distracted.

At this moment, more than a dozen horsemen and horses came out of the mountain road on the right side of the post road, causing the surrounding people to be frightened.

Fortunately, everyone saw clearly that the people who came were not wearing military uniforms, but also ordinary people's clothes, and the turmoil quickly subsided.

The group came out of the mountain road and joined the migrating troops along the flow of people, but the speed slowed down.

First, the horses could not run for a long time, and secondly, there were many people fleeing on the post road, and it would not be good if they collided with the people.

Shen Chen sat on horseback and was protected by a clan uncle who was good at riding horses, this clan uncle had been called to the northern frontier, so he was good at riding and sat on horseback steadily.

He looked curiously at the group of migrants, and found that most of these people were rich peasants, poor families, and even landlords and powerful people with small family resources.

Because only these people had the money to escape, ordinary people either joined the Yellow Turban team during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, or were looted and starved to death in the wilderness, and had no ability to travel long distances.

As he passed by a procession of officers who were clearly of the rank of officials, as well as the escort of the armored guards, he saw a young man of twelve or thirteen years old sitting in the carriage.

The man was good-looking, fair-skinned, handsome, and looked at him with curious eyes.

The eyes of the two people met, and they never crossed paths again.

Their carriage was a little faster than the convoy, and the people hurried back to Xiangben to see what was going on, so they kept shuttling through the flow of people, and slowly moved forward.