Inside Qiao Mansion, Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi didn't have much luggage. They quickly packed their things and put them into the carriage, waiting to set off after dinner.
Seeing that the weather was cool, Yuan Xi asked someone to bring two pairs of bamboo chairs, set up a clay stove in the yard, and cooked tea in a copper pot.
Lu Lingqi was lying on the bamboo chair, looking up at the sycamore tree covering most of the courtyard. A little bit of sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves and fell on her smooth and handsome forehead.
She said softly: "These days in the mansion are really the rare peaceful days in the past few years."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi said: "If you are tired, why not go back to Haixi first to keep company with Mrs. Du?"
Lu Lingqi shook her head. She took out a ball of silk gauze from her ear and said, "With this thing, my condition has improved a lot."
"The terrain in Hefei is difficult to attack. I wouldn't worry if my husband was left alone."
She had another reason that she didn't say. When she left Jicheng, Zhen Mi entrusted Yuan Xi to her. If she just went back like this, how could she have the face to see anyone?
After hearing this, Yuan Xi sighed: "Since you have made up your mind, I won't say any more."
"We, husband and wife, work together to fight from Hefei to Shouchun!"
Lu Lingqi felt sweet in her heart, but thinking of Yuan Shu in Shouchun, she couldn't help but joke: "I heard that Yuan Gongli has many concubines, and the queen is even more beautiful. My husband, don't miss it when the time comes."
Yuan Xi sweated profusely, "Don't tell me, it's like I'm fighting for women!"
Lu Lingqi laughed, "Isn't it?"
"My husband doesn't mean what he says."
She lowered her voice and said, "Won't your husband take these two people with you?"
Yuan Xi shook his head and said: "I really have nothing to do with them. Besides, Lujiang is still in the rear and is far safer than the north. You can't take them to Shouchun to fight, right?"
"Although Qiao Gong is likely to be in Shouchun, it is more reliable to find him after capturing Shouchun and then send him back to Wancheng."
Lu Lingqi was silent for a while, "Husband, have you ever thought that Sun Ce, who is behind us, might fall out with him?"
"He wants to attack Jiangxia, but he doesn't control Wancheng, which is the key to the lower reaches. If it were me, I wouldn't be worried, right?"
Yuan Xi was silent, he had to admit that what Lu Lingqi said was right.
However, with Yuan Xi's current strength, if he treats everyone around him as an imaginary enemy and sends a considerable number of troops to station in each city, the remaining soldiers will not be enough to support his expansion and war.
And to be honest, Yuan Xi also has doubts about whether he can hold Lujiang County in the future.
After all, Lujiang County belongs to Yangzhou and is a county along the Yangtze River. If you want to maintain defense, you not only need a huge naval force, but also need to maintain relationships with surrounding forces.
Not to mention Sun Ce in the south, after he occupied Hefei in the north, the situation in Jiujiang County where he was located was as complicated as Xuzhou.
It was already very complicated to go there. Yuan Xi was doing well in Xuzhou and everything was on the right track, but Yuan Tan had shown his ambition and wanted to interfere.
It would be fine if Yuan Tan only wanted some territory, but what made Yuan Xi unbearable the most was that some of Yuan Tan's actions had exceeded Yuan Xi's psychological bottom line.
It is suspected that Cao Cao has colluded.
Thinking that later Yuan Tan would also seek refuge with Cao Cao, Yuan Xi had an intuition that sooner or later Yuan Tan would cause great trouble to the Yuan family and even himself.
Yuan Xi felt that as the eldest son, Yuan Tan had been squeezed out of the position of heir by Yuan Shang. It would be unpleasant for anyone else to do this, but this was not the reason for his crooked elbow.
Moreover, Yuan Tan actually had other better choices. However, after the failure of the Battle of Guandu, the Yuan family first fell out with Yuan Shang and then took refuge with Yuan Shang when he was attacked by Cao Cao. He fell out and killed Pang Ji, and finally defected to Cao Cao. During this period, he and Yuan Shang repeatedly attacked each other, which led to civil strife in Jizhou, and Cao Cao took advantage of it.
But even so, after the Battle of Guandu, it took Cao Cao five or six years to capture Yecheng. During this period, he was even beaten back to Yanzhou by the Yuan family several times.
During this period, Cao Cao suddenly turned his back and went to war with Yuan Tan, who was married to him, and killed him. Two years later, the Gongsun family killed Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang, and finally wiped out the Yuan family's descendants.
Every time Yuan Xi thinks about it, he can't help but sigh that the process of history is so wonderful. If Yuan Shao had died a few years later, Yuan Tan might not have dared to rebel. If Shen Rong had not surrendered, Yecheng might not have fallen. .
But history does not have so many ifs. It is as indifferent as ever, only looking at the results and not the process.
And now, how much can my intervention change this result?
Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao were sitting in front of the window. Spread out in front of them was the original long silk of the peacock flying to the southeast. Xiao Qiao muttered: "Sister, I will see it for two more days, and I will frame it and seal it, otherwise it will be turned over." It’s been turned over so many times and it’s almost broken, I feel so distressed!”
Da Qiao said helplessly: "Okay, okay, I will give it back to you after reading it again today."
She looked out the window into the yard, where Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi were making tea and chatting. She couldn't help but feel a little complicated, and whispered to Xiao Qiao: "What do you think, sister?"
Xiao Qiao didn't respond, "What do you mean?"
Da Qiao sighed, "Didn't the envoy give you a title?"
Xiao Qiao looked confused, "What's your title?"
She gradually came to her senses, "Why did the Commander-in-Chief give me a title? Isn't it even more strange that he didn't give a title to my sister?"
Da Qiao was stunned, "What did my sister say? What does my relationship have to do with the envoy?"
The two looked at each other in confusion, and then they gradually came to their senses, and said in a voiceless voice: "Nothing happened at all between my sister and the envoy?"
They suddenly realized that they seemed to have misunderstood something!
Both of them had a little heat on their faces, because there were some things that even the closest sisters would not be able to talk about.
Da Qiao thought to himself that he accidentally touched something he shouldn't have touched. He couldn't blame himself, right?
Xiao Qiao thought to herself that she just accidentally fell on Shi Jun. She couldn't blame herself, right?
The two sisters each had their own secrets, but as a result, they were embarrassed to bring up the idea of leaving Wancheng.
I made a mistake. I thought that my sister and Shijun had an agreement and that I could go with them to see my father in Shouchun!
Soon the sun was at its peak. Xiao Qiao and her maidservant cooked together and made a simple meal. At this time, Ju Shou, Hua Tuo and others came. They all sat together, each with different moods and thoughts, and finished the meal. Breakup meal.
Yuan Xi stood up, pulled Lu Lingqi and bowed to Xiao Qiao: "Thank you for taking care of me these two ladies."
Big and small Qiao stood up quickly and returned the courtesy with their crotch folded.
Yuan Xi laughed, "The mountains are high and the rivers are long. If we are destined, we will meet again in the future."
"Farewell!"
When the big and small Qiao arrived at the door, Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi both got on their horses, bowed their hands to the two women, and then rode away to the pier outside the city. Behind them were cavalry and infantry in full armor and ready to go, forming a regular queue. , filing past on the long street.
When the team disappeared at the end of the long street, the two women looked at each other speechlessly, returned to the house, and gently closed the door.
Qiao Mansion soon returned to its previous deserted state, as if no one had ever been there.
Outside Hefei City, Zhang Fei roared and thrust out his spear, knocking off Yuan Shu's army who was coming to reinforce him.
Seeing the chaos, the rest of Yuan Shu's army retreated in disorder. Zhang Fei took advantage of the situation to cover up the attack, killed Yuan Shu's army and fled.
Yuan Shu's defeated army, led by another general, desperately broke out to the north. He might as well stab a green-robed and long-bearded general who rushed out. It was Guan Yu. He flipped up the Yanyue Sword in his hand and cut off the general in the middle. .
At this time, Yuan Shu's army lost the courage to escape, and they all knelt down and surrendered. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei ordered the sergeants to collect the surrendered troops. After counting, they found that there were two to three thousand people.
But the faces of the two men were not as happy as in the previous battles. They called for reinforcements at the encirclement point of Hefei City, defeated several Yuan Shu armies who wanted to enter Hefei for support, and captured them. Now the number of Liu Guan and Zhang's soldiers has increased sharply. To 20,000.
Regardless of whether the soldiers are good or bad, the increase in number has actually enhanced their strength, but now it is impossible to continue to expand the army.
For Liu Bei's army, which did not have much territory, the source of food limited the speed of their military expansion. Their military strength doubled, and their food consumption also increased relatively.
Zhang Fei looked at the prisoners all over the ground and frowned: "That fierce tiger is really cunning. He has conquered such a huge territory in the rear, but let us hold it back from the front!"
Guan Yu smoothed his long beard under his chin and said, "Third brother, haven't you understood it yet?"
"With our strength and position, we were beaten several times and almost lost all our territory. If the fierce tiger hadn't pulled us out, we might have become bandits."
"The conditions he offered us are already the best at the moment!"
"Besides, how many friends do we have now?"
"Everyone wants to eat us!"
Zhang Fei muttered: "Isn't that the fierce tiger?"
"I think they have no good intentions towards us at all. Maybe they just want us three brothers to be used by him!"
Guan Yu shook his head, disapproving of Zhang Fei's words. The fierce tiger was said to be very accurate in seeing people, and he made great efforts to win over Zhao Yun, Guo Jia, Tai Shici and others who were still unknown at the time.
Guan Yu thought to himself that he was no less than Zhao Yuntai Shi Ci, but the fierce tiger showed no signs of recruiting him, and even kept a distance from him like Ruoyouruowu. How could this look like he wanted to win over him?
Of course, Guan Yu is still a little dissatisfied. In the eyes of the other party, he is really not as good as Zhao Yuntai Shici and others, right?
Or is it really like what he once said to himself, because the other party felt that the friendship between the three brothers was behind him, so he simply gave up?
The two led the troops back to the camp, and Liu Bei greeted them. He heard that they had captured thousands of surrendered soldiers today. Liu Bei was very happy. He said to the two of them: "These soldiers will be put to use soon. In the two battles in Hefei and Shouchun, In a big war, the more troops the better.”
Zhang Fei muttered: "No matter how many soldiers we have, it's useless if we can't defeat Hefei City."
Before Yuan Xi left, he promised Liu Bei that he would be able to control the situation in Hefei by himself. The three of them were still holding their breath, thinking that if they could capture the city, they could take the opportunity to recruit the surrendered troops in the city and greatly enhance their own strength. However, they fought several times. After coming down, the three of them discovered that Hefei City was not that easy to fight.
The terrain of Hefei is really suitable for letting go. Liu Bei's army does not have large-scale siege equipment, so he can fight in the field. However, his siege has been repeatedly frustrated. He can only encircle the points to send reinforcements and wait for opportunities to annihilate Yuan Shu's army who came to support him.
The two sides have been facing off for nearly a month, and food has begun to run out. Now both sides are struggling to hold on and see who collapses first.
While the three of them were talking, the spy rushed in and delivered a letter. Liu Bei opened it and immediately smiled and said: "Okay!"
"Yuan Shijun will return to Hefei soon and prepare to join forces with us to defeat it in one fell swoop!"
(End of chapter)
