When Guo Jia mentioned the name Lu Bu, Yuan Xi's head grew three points bigger.
He deceived and used a vest, and finally managed to use Lu Bu to change the situation. After that, even if he wanted to use Lu Bu to occupy Hejian County, he had no intention of openly cooperating with Lu Bu.
Firstly, Lu Bu is a fickle person and he doesn't want to be stabbed in the back. Secondly, Lu Bu has a temper and it is probably difficult to accept being deceived.
It was hard for Yuan Xi to imagine that Lu Bu would tear him alive after his identity was revealed.
Guo Jia didn't know about Yuan Xi's hidden tiger vest and asked curiously: "What's wrong with Lu Bu?"
"There are more abnormal people than Lu Bu. What are you afraid of?"
Yuan Xi smiled bitterly and said, "But I can't figure out Lu Bu."
Guo Jia sneered: "It's easy to figure out Bingliang Wuren's thoughts."
"They were looked down upon by the nobles, so they tried to outdo the nobles."
"The only one who can do this is to rely on the emperor."
"Bingliang Wuren, even if they are as crazy as Dong Zhuo, will not betray the Han Emperor."
Yuan Xi said: "Didn't Dong Zhuo depose the emperor?"
Guo Jia sneered: "Dong Zhuo was just taken advantage of. He seemed reckless, but in fact he was very scheming, but in the end he still didn't break out of that circle."
"He was willing to be used by others, but he didn't understand that when he was so crazy that he didn't leave himself a way out, he was destined to have a bad end."
"In Luoyang at that time, standing on the side of the weak Han Dynasty would never end well. This is how Wang Yun died."
"Lu Bu was very smart. He took the opportunity to escape and saved his life."
Yuan Xi pondered, so Guo Jia also had this idea?
What Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu faced was the entire class of gentry, eunuchs and warriors who wanted to control the emperor. The harder they tried to be loyal to the Han emperor, the more isolated they became in the end, and then they were abandoned.
Guo Jia took the wine bottle, raised his head and took a big sip of wine. Just as he was about to open his mouth to speak, he coughed and the wine spurted out again, all over his clothes.
Guo Jia's concubine quickly came up and slapped her on the back. It took Guo Jia a while to calm down and waved her hand to let her go.
Yuan Xi frowned and said, "What's wrong with your body?"
Guo Jia waved his hand nonchalantly, "I played most of the night last night and drank some cold wine. I might have caught a cold. It's okay."
Yuan Xi said: "How can you be so selfless?"
"If you keep doing this, your daily drink will be gone, and I will take you, my concubine, away with you."
"How dare you!" Guo Jia jumped three feet high: "It's enough to take Concubine Ji away, but you still want to deduct my wine?"
"Believe it or not, I hit my head against the door and died?"
"Okay, okay," Yuan Xi said helplessly, "I've convinced you, just take it easy."
He didn't understand Guo Jia at all. What's so good about drinking wine? He didn't say that he felt dizzy and queasy after drinking it. He just said that he drank and never encountered good things!
Yuan Xi thought about it for several days after returning, but could not figure out how to use Lu Bu to fight the Black Mountain bandits. He asked Guo Jia again and found that he was also vague. Then he realized that no matter how powerful Guo Jia was, he was just one person. Rather than God, he cannot solve all problems for himself.
Moreover, Guo Jia is also a clever woman who can't make a meal without rice. Although Yuan Xi's starting point is not low, he is just a county guard at present. He is incomparable with other princes. How can he compete with Lu Bu?
Although Lu Bu was in decline, he was the highest-ranking county prince in terms of rank. Looking at the world now, except for a few people, he was already at the top, and he was already inferior to the vast majority of the nobles based on their status.
At that time, the highest title in the Han Dynasty was divided into three levels: county, township and pavilion, in descending order. Liu Bei and Guan Yu in later generations were just pavilion marquises, but Guan Yu had been allowed to call himself Tinghou for the rest of his life. He added Han Shoutinghou before his name, which shows that value.
While Yuan Xi and Guo Jia were arguing, Youzhou received an uninvited guest. He found Zhao Yun, left a letter and a carriage, saying it was a gift from Yanzhou, and left.
Zhao Yun pulled the carriage and looked at it, shook his head helplessly, and came to see Yuan Xi.
Yuan Xi came to the car and took a look. There were two beautiful concubines inside. He asked aloud. The two women said that they were both from poor backgrounds and had been bought and sent over by Cao Cao.
Yuan Xi opened the letter again and saw that it was Cao Cao who had handed over his letter.
He knew that he had done a lot of things to hinder Cao Cao in Yecheng, both overtly and secretly. Cao Cao must have known the inside story, but now Cao Cao actually condescended to befriend a bastard like him. This kind of courtesy for nothing is either adultery or theft.
Yuan Xi felt a sense of urgency in his heart. Cao Cao obviously wanted to stabilize himself. He was afraid that in the next six months, the whole world would not be peaceful!
As the days passed, it was time to harvest part of the spring wheat.
Compared with winter wheat, which takes more than 200 days to mature, spring wheat only takes about 100 days from sowing to harvesting, and is generally grown north of the Great Wall.
Although spring wheat generally has poorer yields and taste, the time saved is extremely valuable during times of war.
When Yuan Xi was urging the three cities to harvest wheat, news came one after another.
Because Chang'an was far away, it took some time for the news to spread, but when it reached Youzhou, it still shocked many people.
Li Jue and Guo Si attacked each other. One side detained Han Emperor Liu Xie, and the other side detained hundreds of civil and military officials. The order of the Han court almost collapsed, let alone the order to the world.
Today's Han Court has almost ceased to exist in name only.
Among the detained civil and military officials, there was Taiwei Zhu Jun, who had a strong character and fell ill and died.
A few months later, Huangfu Song died of an unknown illness.
Together with Lu Zhi, who died of illness before, the lives of these three heroes of the late Han Dynasty came to an end quietly.
Unlike their vigorous and magnificent deeds during their lifetimes, which could leave a strong mark on the history of the late Han Dynasty, the death of the three of them was like ripples in the water, being mercilessly swallowed up by the chaos of the world without causing any waves.
After Qu Yi learned about Huangfu Song's death, he got very drunk. Yuan Xi went to inquire and found out that Huangfu Song was a fellow villager of Qu Yi and the leader.
Yuan Xi knew that the deaths of Zhu Jun and Huangfu Song were very strange, but it was no longer possible to explore anything further.
After Li Jue and Guo Si fought for more than a hundred days, the people died and fled. They took refuge in Jingzhou and Yizhou. Guanzhong was almost depopulated. It is said that there were only a few thousand households left in Chang'an.
At this time, Zhang Ji returned from Hongnong to persuade peace, and finally the parties reached an agreement. Li Jue remained stationed in Chang'an. Guo Si, Zhang Ji, Yang Feng and Dong Cheng and others took Han Emperor Liu Xie out of Chang'an and returned to Luoyang.
So in July of the second year of Xingping, Liu Xie set out on his return home again after staying in Chang'an for six years.
When Youzhou received the news, many people, including Zhao Yun, felt that things seemed to be developing in a good direction. If they could return to Luoyang, Hanting would rule the world again.
Only Yuan Xi knew that Liu Xie's long and arduous journey home had just begun.
The distance from Chang'an to Luoyang is about 800 miles. If Yuan Xi rode lightly, it would only take ten days and a half at the earliest.
However, Emperor Xian had to leave for more than a year.
He will encounter six major disasters on the way, and finally get through them one by one with his judgment and mediation ability.
Yuan Xi thought to himself that if he replaced himself, he might not be able to do better than Liu Xie, and Liu Xie was only fourteen years old at this time.
He stood at the top of the city and looked to the west as the sunset was about to set. Liu Xie, thousands of miles away, should be being chased by soldiers under the same sunset, desperately trying to survive.
Yuan Xi stretched out and decided to hurry up. This was a time of great competition, where opportunities and dangers coexisted. It was up to him to see if he could get ahead.
At present, there is still peace in Zhuo County. It seems that the killing of Liu Bao is not a big deal to the Southern Xiongnu. Moreover, as Yuan Shao's son, the Southern Xiongnu have to consider the pros and cons.
The Montenegrin Army has never sent anyone since that attack.
Yuan Xi guessed that although the Black Mountain Army had hundreds of thousands of people, most of them should be women, children, old and young. They were hiding in the Taihang Mountains to farm. This period coincided with the autumn harvest, so they might not be able to free up their troops.
The spring wheat harvest on Yuan Xi's side is in June and July, two months earlier than the autumn harvest. This is a window of opportunity specially set aside by Yuan Xi, so that he can prepare his army two months earlier than others.
But what puzzles Yuan Xi is why there is no news of Yecheng attacking Yi Jing so far. Could it be that there is a side issue?
He felt a little uneasy, and after discussing with Guo Jia, he sent a letter to Yecheng.
Yuan Xi's hunch was correct. Yecheng had been arguing about attacking Yi Jing for several months. Every time he was about to reach a consensus, he was interrupted by sudden accidents.
Either during the conscription in Yecheng, news came that Cao Cao coveted Xuzhou and wanted to attack Liu Bei.
Or there are rumors that Cao Cao has joined forces with Yuan Shu to cross the Yellow River at any time.
There are even rumors that Lu Bu has recruited troops from the Hejian Army and is preparing to attack Jizhou.
I don’t know where these rumors came from. They seemed to appear in Yecheng overnight. Within a few days, they spread throughout Yecheng, causing people to panic.
A group of counselors were also arguing about this. Is there a rift, or does Cao Cao really want to betray the Yuan family?
What shocked everyone even more was the rapid rise of such rumors, which reminded them of the lessons learned from the Yellow Turban Army's uprising and spreading rumors.
How many people have disloyal intentions in Yecheng?
In this case, what if all Jizhou's troops are mobilized and Yecheng is empty, and someone really takes advantage of it?
No one is sure whether the Yecheng Rebellion will happen again!
Now seeing a group of counselors arguing endlessly, Yuan Shao stopped everyone and said to Yuan Shang: "Xianfu, what do you think?"
As soon as these words came out, the counselors of Yuan Tan's faction sighed. Now Yuan Shao values Yuan Shang far more than Yuan Tan!
Yuan Shang said respectfully: "Shang thinks that it is not suitable to attack Yi Jing now."
"After previous planning, attacking Yi Jing will require one hundred thousand soldiers and at least tens of thousands of cavalry."
"This requires all-out efforts to collect grain and grass in Qingzhou, Jizhou, plus luggage and other supplies. The requirements are huge. If Yijing cannot be captured within three months, Jizhou's grain reserves in the past three years will be exhausted."
"Not to mention that Cao Cao's movements in the south are unknown. My eldest brother has forced conquests in Qingzhou, causing several civil uprisings. If we continue to recruit troops and collect food, I'm afraid there will be chaos in Qingzhou."
Yuan Tan's counselors knew that Yuan Shang would not miss this opportunity. The key was that Yuan Tan was good at fighting, but internal affairs was not his strong point. He would be torturing himself by leaving an excuse for this.
Yuan Shao was noncommittal and held up a silk book, "This is a letter from Xian Yi. It has some different opinions from Xianfu. You can listen to it."
(End of chapter)
