Over the years, Jiao Zhongqing still often dreamed that he was hanging on the southeast branch.

The number of times he dreamed about this dream also made him start to study some of the details in addition to doubts.

He found that he was very busy in the dream, and since he married Liu Lanzhi, he has not been at home all day. His wife, Liu Lanzhi, once complained: "Since the gentleman is a government official, he keeps his temperament unswervingly, and the concubines leave empty rooms, and they often see each other rarely." ”

But the dream did not show what he was busy with every day, and every time he went out, it would take at least ten and a half days and a half to come back, and he couldn't stay at home for a day or two, so he left in a hurry.

So Jiao Zhongqing reverted to his daily work in the dream from these few complaints and the result of the final assassination of Sun Ce. First, he is a small official, and Lujiang Mansion is busy with official business, so he rarely goes home; Second, he is a person who "keeps festivals and loves unswervingly", as a government official, in addition to being busy with work, he also has to avenge the old lord and go from place to place, to contact every enemy of Sun Ce, form an alliance, and deal with Sun Ce together.

In this era, the word "observance" refers more to men's loyalty and steadfastness than to commend women from the beginning to the end (in this era, second and third marriages are encouraged, and the "moral standards" from the first to the end have not risen to the level of imprisoning women's minds).

In the dream, when Jiao Zhongqing married Liu Lanzhi as his wife, Lu Kang was dead, and to observe the festival for the dead lord, there are only two ways to martyrdom and revenge, Jiao Zhongqing chose the second way, that is, to avenge the old master, he often sighs at home on weekdays, and expressed his inner ambition to his wife Liu Lanzhi, so Liu Lanzhi knows his thoughts, so he will say that he "keeps the festival and is unswerving".

In reality, Jiao Zhongqing, when Lujiang City was about to break four years ago, he wanted to choose the first way - to live and die with Anhui City heroically, but was stopped by Lu Kang.

So Jiao Zhongqing had no choice but to choose the second option, waiting for an opportunity to avenge the old master.

At the same time, he also wanted to figure out how he ended up hanging on the southeast branch.

He suspected that he was not committing suicide, but that he had been killed by someone else.

This person is likely to be Lujiang Taishou Li Shu.

But he has no evidence.

Now, Li Shu has finally come to office.

All doubts are about to be solved!!

Jiao Zhongqing saw Li Shu with anticipation and vigilance.

Over the years, he has intentionally or unintentionally hidden his true strength and wings, in order to wait for Li Shu to arrive.

Li Shu is a native of Runan, more than 50 years old this year, and has five sons under his knees. In the dream, after Jiao Zhongqing divorced his wife, the person who finally married Liu Lanzhi was Li Shu's fifth son, Li Gang.

After Sun Ce broke the Lujiang River, he ordered Li Shu to guard the Lujiang River and give 3,000 soldiers to defend Anhui.

Li Shu has an elegant appearance, a kind face, and a demeanor and demeanor of an elder. Smiling all day long, he doesn't do things in a hurry, and he looks like a very good officer.

However, after the two met, the first words Li Shu said almost scared Jiao Zhongqing so much that he ejected on the spot.

"Zhongqing, the old man knows that you are Lu Kang's former official, and he is indignant that Sun Ce forced the old master to die, and he often has the intention of revenge, yes or no?"

Facing Li Shu's gaze that seemed to be able to see through people's hearts, Jiao Zhongqing categorically denied it: "The prince of the mansion said this today, does he want to kill me?" is just a small official, how dare he be rude to Wu Hou? ”

Li Shu laughed, didn't delve into the topic, and instead went to talk to other officials.

Soon, Jiao Zhongqing finally knew what he was busy with every day.

………

When the news of Sun Cequan's annexation of Jiangdong and his defeat of Huang Zu and the breakthrough of the Lujiang River reached Xudu, Cao Cao's forces and the forces of Liu Xie, the son of heaven, were surprised. The officials of the Son of Heaven camp saw this as a good opportunity to counterbalance Cao Cao, while Cao Cao's aides believed that Sun Ce's existence would be a great threat. Under the wrestling of these two forces, Yangzhou assassin Yan Xiang went to Lujiang and sat in the southeast to guard/co-opt/appease Sun Ce.

Cao Cao named Sun Ce as Wu Hou in the name of the imperial court, recruited Sun Ce's younger brothers Sun Quan and Sun Yi into the court as officials, and ordered Yangzhou Assassin Yan Xiang to promote Sun Quan as Maocai, and tried his best to win over Sun.

At this time, Sun Quan was only filial piety and belonged to the county-level reserve officials; Maocai is a state-level reserve official. However, both Sun Quan and Sun Yi refused to accept the imperial court's conquest and recommendation.

At the same time, Cao Cao proposed that the two families of Cao and Sun should marry.

First, Cao Cao married his niece to Sun Ce's younger brother, Sun Kuang. Sun Kuang is Sun Ce's half-brother. The reason why Sun Kuang was chosen to marry was because Sun Ce had his own marriage match, and Sun Quan and Sun Yi rejected Cao Cao's conquest, so Cao Cao had to find another way to find a breakthrough from Sun Kuang.

The people of the Fuchun Sun clan are relatively prosperous. Sun Jian's brothers and nephews were numerous, and they occupied confidential positions in the Jiangdong regime. However, Cao Cao's marriage partner was obviously investigated and very targeted, and he only married the "potential heir" of the Sun group.

Secondly, Cao Cao married Sun Ben's daughter for Cao Zhang.

Sun Ben is a side branch of the Sun family, and his father Sun Qiang is Sun Jian's half-brother. After Sun Jian's death (191), Sun Ben "led the remnants" and once became the suzerainty of the Sun group.

At the same time, Sun Ben was also the Yuzhou Assassin Shi, Danyang Commander, and General of the Conquest signed by Yuan Shu, and his status was extremely high; In Sun Ce's group, Sun Ben and his half-brother Sun Fu served as Yuzhang Taishou and Luling Taishou respectively, and they were the strongest forces outside Sun Ce's line.

Therefore, Cao Cao's conquest of Sun Quan and Sun Yi, and his marriage to Sun Ben and Sun Kuang, were actually aimed at the potential successors and real power figures of the Sun group, and the meaning of differentiation and co-optation was very obvious.

This kind of clever political method made Sun Ce very angry, but he couldn't say anything on the surface, and it was not easy to object.

It is impossible for him to win Wu Hou by himself, but he clearly prevents his brothers and relatives from going further in status.

Although it is not good to oppose the marriage of the two families on the surface, Sun Ce has never been a person who can suffer secret losses.

Never!

Although he can't play Cao Cao's clever political methods, this matter is not over!

Therefore, when Cao Cao sent an endless stream of emissaries to Jiangdong to marry the Sun family......

Sun Ce finally couldn't bear it anymore and instructed Li Shu, the Taishou of Lujiang, to attack Jiujiang and kill Yan Xiang, the assassin of Yangzhou appointed by Cao Cao, in order to express his position and anger.

The in-laws between the Sun family and Cao Cao are still knotted, but he will also kill Cao Cao's people!

After Yan Xiang was killed. Mei Gan, Lei Xu, Chen Lan and others took advantage of the chaos and gathered tens of thousands of people each to occupy the Huainan region captured by Cao Cao after defeating Yuan, excluding the Lujiang County controlled by Sun Ce.

As a result, the Jianghuai region was shattered and plunged into chaos.

Although Yan Xiang was appointed by Cao Cao to be the assassin of Yangzhou, he was recommended by Xun Yu to Cao Cao.

Xun Yu was a staunch royalist, and it is difficult to say whether the Yan Xiang he recommended represented Cao Cao's position to proclaim Jiangdong, or whether he was carrying the secret edict of the Son of Heaven or Dong Cheng's entrustment to find external forces that could confront Cao Cao.

But the angry Sun Ce did not give Yan Xiang a chance to take a stand, so he instructed Li Shu to kill him.

Although Yan Xiang died, before he died, he successfully established an underground communication channel in the Lujiang River controlled by Sun Ce, and built a bridge between Liu Xie, the son of heaven, Dong Cheng, the uncle of the country, Yan Xiang, the connector sent by Yan Xiang, and the connector sent by Sun Ce.

A bridge that can hide from Cao Cao's perception.

It was used to plan Sun Ce's big operation to attack Xu Du.

It was only then that Sun Ce realized that he had killed the wrong person.

Yan Xiang is his own person,

People who are not Cao thieves,

How fast he sent the knife, Yan Xiang was slaughtered by him before he could identify himself.

Fortunately, this underground communication line was not cut off with the death of Yan Xiang.

Although Yan Xiang died, he arranged for a new intermediary to contact the connector he had sent.

As a result, this communication channel between the Son of Heaven Liu Xie, the uncle Dong Cheng, the X person, the connector sent by Yan Xiang, the connector sent by Sun Ce, and Sun Ce, is still operating normally.

And Jiao Zhongqing, who was the connector sent by Yan Xiang, was busy meeting with the connector sent by Sun Ce at the moment to discuss the timing and steps of the sneak attack on Xu Du.

Previously, Yan Xiang secretly inspected Lujiang, and developed Jiao Zhongqing, who was Sun Ce's confidant, into a small official who was too protective of Li Shu in Lujiang, and made it a medium to transmit information to Liu Xie, the son of heaven, and Sun Ce.

But Yan Xiang didn't know.

Li Shu already had the intention of self-reliance at this time, Jiao Zhongqing was his Yan Xiang's downline on the surface, but in fact he was Li Shu's downline, specifically responsible for sabotaging the plan between the Son of Heaven Liu Xie and Sun Ce, and at the same time secretly plotting to assassinate Sun Ce in order to stand on his own.

Yan Xiang didn't have a chance to know.

At this moment, under the instruction of Li Shu, Jiao Zhongqing was busy connecting with the connector sent by Sun Ce under the identity of "Son of Heaven's Eyeliner".

This connector is a beautiful woman with a beautiful national color.