……

When the news that Lü Bu ceded the five counties of Xuzhou to Yuan Shu reached Xuchang, it was already January of the fourth year of Jian'an (199).

Although Cao Cao was surprised that Yuan Shu had been connected with Yuan Shao since then, he was quite unimpressed.

Huainan Skeleton King has a few catties and a few taels, he knows too well.

Even Lu Bu, the world's No. 1 general, had to avoid him and hide in Lujiang to develop, how dare Yuan Shu take over Xuzhou?

Isn't this guy really afraid of being beaten?

However, at that time, due to the shortage of food and grass at present, and the cold weather in the middle of winter, it was not suitable to send troops, so Cao Cao temporarily pressed the mind of resisting the violent beating of Yuan Shu, and only ordered Cao Ren and others to stick to Xiaopei and ignore Yuan Shu's attack.

In his heart, he was secretly ruthless: just wait for the spring to begin, and the three armies will come out together, so that Yuan Shu will know who is the boss in the Central Plains!

But the idea is good, the situation in the world will not be set in stone because of Cao Cao's will.

Bad news comes one after another.

At the end of February of the fourth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao had just raised the grain and grass for the requisition, and the news that Lu Bu occupied the five counties of Jingnan spread to Xudu.

Cao Cao was taken aback, and hurriedly gathered the strategists and generals to discuss countermeasures.

"Lu Bu has newly acquired the five counties of Jingnan, and its land is connected, spanning Jingzhou in the west, Tujiang in the east, and Jiaozhou in the south, I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to compete with him."

Cao Cao's gaze swept over the faces of Xun Or, Xun You, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and other strategists, and said in a deep voice:

"Today, the weather is getting warmer, the grain and grass have gathered, I want to personally recruit Yuan Shu, I don't know what you think?"

When he said this, Cao Cao looked calm and calm, Zhizhu was in his hand, but he was secretly sighing in his heart.

Sigh bad luck.

He thought that after taking the Son of Heaven to Xudu, relying on the justice of "serving the Son of Heaven to order not to be subordinate", he could quickly sweep the Central Plains and unify Hebei.

Unexpectedly, it was unfavorable to be out of the school several times.

The year before last, Zhang Xiu went west to conquer Zhang Xiu, Zhang Xiu suddenly rebelled, hit him hard, and killed his eldest son and nephew;

Last year's southern expedition to Yuan Shu, Lu Bu was eyeing Yuan Shu from the side, and Yuan Shao in the north always wanted to intervene in the rescue, which made him tremble and dare not kill Yuan Shu;

Last year's expedition to Lu Bu, Lu Bu was obviously about to be defeated, but he would rather die than surrender, and finally he didn't know where to get a "terrible" method, which caused him to be suspicious and suspicious, and finally returned home.

In the past few years, the operation has been like a tiger.

Looking back, the Son of Heaven has been in Xudu for three years, and his Cao Cao's territory is still only one Yanzhou, half Yuzhou and half Sili.

The land is not wide, the people are sparse, the people are poor and the treasury is empty, and the basic situation is weak.

On the other hand, Yuan Shao has basically annexed the rich northern four continents at this moment, blocking Gongsun Zan in Yijing, depending on the situation, five months... No, at most, you can wipe out Gongsun Chan in two or three months, and then free up your hands to go south.

Its momentum is so great that you don't dare to compete with it.

On the other hand, after Lu Bu left Xuzhou, in just ten months, he quickly occupied the rich land south of the Yangtze River, and he saw that the general trend was about to come true.

The two fierce rivals in the south and the north developed so fast that Cao Cao was extremely big, and he didn't know where to start.

If you want to go and beat Zhang Xiu, Yuan Shu is attacking Yanzhou at the moment, so he has no time to distract him.

Go and beat Yuan Shu, and I'm afraid that Yuan Shao will interfere.

Go and pound Yuan Shao...... Forget it, this guy really can't beat it at this stage.

It's hard to be human.

Cao Cao thought about it and felt that it was better to attack Yuan Shu first and let Er Yuan disconnect was the key to solving the current dilemma.

Seeing that Cao Cao was preparing to personally march south to Yuan Shu, the generals were all worried.

Yu Bandao: "Sikong, it is Yuan Shao who is competing with you for the world." Now Yuan Shao is about to go south, but we are going to the south to conquer Yuan Shu, in case Yuan Shao attacks us from behind, everything will be stopped. ”

Cao Cao shook his head and said: "Otherwise, the hope of the Yuan clan is extremely prosperous in the world, and now the two Yuan are connected, if you don't take advantage of the opportunity for Yuan Shao to attack Gongsun Zan to eliminate Yuan Shu, there will be endless troubles." ”

Xun Or, Xun You, Cheng Yu, and Guo Jia's four major masterminds have made suggestions: persuade Cao Cao to conquer Yuan Shu in the south, seize Xuzhou, and cut off the trend of collusion between the two Yuans, so that there is a glimmer of life. Otherwise, once Yuan Shao eliminated Gongsun Zan and waved his army south, there would be no more chance.

Xun or proposed to send an envoy to canonize Sun Quan as the Marquis of Wu, comprehend Ji Taishou, and ask him to fight Yuan Shu together.

Guo Jia proposed to send troops east to attack Xuzhou first, lead Yuan Shu to rescue, intercept in the middle of the road, and then return to the army to capture Xiaopei, the sword pointed at Huainan and Shouchun, and within three months, the Central Plains can be determined.

Cao Cao then followed the plan of the two, while sending an envoy to Jiangdong to contact Sun Quan, and at the same time transferred the three armies to prepare for another attack on Xuzhou.

……

Huainan,

Shou Chun,

The Imperial Palace of the Great Chung Kingdom.

Yuan Shuzhengzhi, the emperor of the Great Zhongguo, was full of ambition and dreamed of the Yuan family's domination of the world.

He thinks that way for no other reason.

The advantage is in the Yuan family!

Previously, he wrote a letter to his brother Yuan Shao, promising that once Yuan Shaoken sent troops south to help him, he would give him the national seal. So Yuan Shao sent his son Yuan Tan to welcome Yuan Shu into Qingzhou and make a gesture of response.

At this time, Lu Bu gave him the five counties of Xuzhou.

At this moment, Shuangyuan was able to merge and his power increased greatly.

Judging from the current situation, he and his brother Yuan Shao have already occupied half of the world's five continents, and the advantage has reached a terrifying point in terms of influence and strength.

With such a powerful force, who in the world can stop it?

Can Cao Cao stop it?

No!

Although the Great Zhong Kingdom was now abolished, and he was forced to become a prince again after only two years as emperor, Yuan Shu was not depressed at all.

In his opinion, Cao Cao, who is currently trapped in Yanzhou, is like a dry bone in a grave, and as long as his brother Yuan Shao waves his army south, he can beat Cao Cao down in an instant, control Liu Xie, the son of heaven, and then seize the whole world.

At that time, as long as he gives the jade seal to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao can justifiably ascend the throne.

Yuan Shu raised his hand and picked up the jade seal of the country on a few eucalyptus, and looked at it carefully, with indescribable joy in his heart.

The jade seal is here, which means that the mandate of heaven belongs to his Yuan family.

That's pretty good.

Looking at the jade seal of the country, Yuan Shu's thinking diverged and remembered all kinds of deeds in the past.

In the past, when Dong Zhuo plundered the capital Luoyang, the national seal, which symbolized the monarchy, was lost. As the vanguard of the coalition against Dong, Sun Jian accidentally found the heirloom seal in the ruins of Luoyang and kept it. Sun Jian was his subordinate at the time, and after learning that Sun Jian had obtained the Chuan Guo Seal, Yuan Shu kidnapped Sun Jian's wife and forced Sun Jian to hand over the Chuan Guo Seal.

After that, he conquered Huainan and established the Dazhong Kingdom.

This move was seen as a traitor by Cao Cao's court, which caused Sun Ce to break with him and gave other warlords a reason to attack him. The Han court under Cao Cao's control issued an edict to Sun Ce and Lü Bu, urging them to launch an offensive against Huainan.

The situation was dire.

At the most dangerous time, he was once besieged by Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and Sun Ce, and was beaten so that he did not dare to return to Shouchun City.

But now, that's all in the past

He Yuan Shu has risen again!

Lu Bu, the opponent of the day, has now become an ally;

Sun Ce, who opposed him that day, has also died, and the newly appointed Sun Quan expressed his willingness to return to his command and obey his orders.

Even Cao Cao, who attacked him at every turn, was a little too busy to take care of himself at this stage.

Most crucially, he reconciled with his brother Yuan Shao, and the two brothers now saw Cao Cao as a common enemy.

This made Yuan Shu feel that he had the opportunity to report his resentment of being beaten by Cao thieves over the years.

So as soon as he got Xuzhou, he ordered Ji Ling to lead an army of 30,000 to attack Xiaopei and give Cao Cao a little color.

Yuan Shu felt that Cao Cao would definitely not dare to fight back at this moment.

Moreover, Cao Cao has been fighting for many years, and the treasury is empty, and he has only fought with Lu Bu in Xuzhou for a few months not long ago, and I am afraid that there is no grain and grass to support a war.

Therefore, Yuan Shu is in a very good mood at the moment.

As long as it takes a while, when his eldest brother Yuan Shao waves his army south, everything will be over.

Cao Cao, Lu Bu, Sun Quan, Liu Biao, and even all the princes in the world...

If you follow Yuan, you will live, and if you go against Yuan, you will die!

In order to achieve this goal, after laughing at Sun Quan's defection, he casually rejected the latter's proposal to "flank Lu Bu" on the grounds that he was "at war with Cao Cao".

In private, Yuan Shu expressed his attitude to Sun Quan's envoy Zhang Zhao: support all military actions of Sun Quan!

Of course, just mentally supportive.

In terms of concrete actions, there is nothing that can be helped.

……

Jingzhou, Jiangxia.

Yuan Shu's wishful thinking, Lu Bu didn't know.

He is planning to seize Jiangdong at the moment.

That's right, it's the capture of Koto!

Instead of attacking Liu Biao in Jingzhou, as Zhou Yu expected, he was still breathing.

Lu Bu's whole strategy is as follows:

First of all, Chen Bing Lujiang, Jiangxia, and Changsha counties made preparations to attack Jiangdong.

At the same time, Zhang Xiunan attacked Liu Biao and made preparations to stage the posture of "striking the east and attacking the west" again.

Then, he created the illusion of "quietly" withdrawing the soldiers and horses of the three counties to attack Jingzhou, and led Sun Quan and Zhou Yu to take the bait.

Since the previous time was "Chen Bing Lujiang, Mingtu Jiangdong, and actual attack Jiangxia", this time, Lu Bu thought that Jiangdong would definitely think that he was going to repeat his old tricks, and once again staged the strategy of "Mingtu Jiangdong and Jingzhou", and then paralyzed or moved.

And he, like the most cunning hunter, waited for Jiangdong to make a move, revealing flaws, and then killed the river in one fell swoop, destroyed Sun Quan, and took Jiangdong completely.

The whole strategy can be called "sounding the east and striking the west and hitting the east".

Even, in order to deepen the misjudgment of Jiangdong, Lu Bu simulated three consecutive "sound east and west" in the simulation scene, that is, the three counties of Chen Bing, and then quietly transferred soldiers and horses to attack Liu Biao in Jingzhou.

Because of the imprint effect of the simulated scene, Sun Quan and Zhou Yu will definitely be convinced of his plan of "striking the east and attacking the west", and then expose the flaws.

This is the core of the success of the whole strategy.

Considering Sun Quanai's characteristics of sneaking up on others, he would 100% come to attack Lujiang.

On the one hand, Lu Bu ordered Chen Gong, Chen Qun, Lu Su, and Zhuge Jin to take charge of the internal affairs of each county. stabilize the overall situation; On the one hand, he quietly "transferred" the soldiers and horses of the three counties, so that the spies sent by Jiangdong could "see" that the troops of the three counties were empty.

At the same time, he ordered Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, Hou Cheng and other generals to lead the army to quietly sneak back to Lujiang and ambush in the dangdao;

ordered Gan Ning, Su Fei, Lü Meng, and Lu Xun to quietly lead the army back to Jiangxia, preparing to go down the river and take Wu County directly;

Ling Yan Ji, Bu Qi, Wei Jing, Xu Sheng and others will secretly settle in Yuzhang County and prepare to launch a thunderous offensive against Yuzhang and Danyang.

Everything is in order.

At this moment, everything is ready, just waiting for Dongwu to attack.

……

When the news of Lu Bu's quiet "withdrawal" of the soldiers and horses of the three counties reached Jiangdong, Sun Quan was overjoyed when he heard it, and he hurriedly gathered everyone to discuss.

"As Gong Jin expected, the soldiers and horses of the three counties are gone! I don't know where I should start? ”

Zhou Yu said with a smile: "Lu Bu's plotter, Jingzhou also." Now it is expected that my Jiangdong is busy with internal worries, and has no time to take care of him, so he transferred the soldiers and horses to the upper reaches of the map. ”

Sun Quanxi said: "Gong Jin's words are exactly what I want, and the matter of attacking Lujiang will be entrusted to Gong Jin." ”

"Yu will live up to the trust of the lord."

Zhou Yu gave up his hand to receive the order, turned around and looked around at the generals, and gave orders one by one.

Cheng Pu was ordered to be the middle road and led 5,000 people to attack Jiangxia

If you encounter an enemy soldier, do not attack hard;

Order Huang Gai to the left side, lead 5,000 sheep to attack Changsha, if there is resistance, slowly retreat.

Zhou Yu led other generals to lead 30,000 people to attack the Lujiang River.

The distribution is complete.

In the rumbling of war drums, flags were unfurled, swords and guns were like forests, and tens of thousands of Jiangdong soldiers boarded the boat to cross the river, looking at the Lujiang Mansion to kill.