Yecheng.
Yuan Shao received a letter sent by Yuan Shu, which analyzed the situation in the world, said that the destiny of the Han Dynasty was broken, Yuan Shu was willing to give the destiny to Yuan Shao, and asked for Yuan Shao's support, etc.
At this time, Yuan Shao won a great victory against Gongsun Zan.
Gongsun Zan was defeated by him and fled. It would be easy to defeat him and capture Youzhou. As long as he sent more troops northward, Gongsun Zan would die.
After receiving Yuan Shu's letter, Yuan Shao thought that his opportunity might have come. Once he wanted to accept Yuan Shu's destiny, he would inevitably have to fight against Cao Cao and the others.
So Yuan Shao gathered his troops and gathered in Yecheng, and then sent his counselors to discuss what should be done.
Should it be right? Yuan Shu took the initiative to give up the imperial title next.
"No!"
After hearing the question raised by Yuan Shao, Ju Shou was the first to object and said loudly: "Now the orthodoxy in the world is still in Xudu. Yuan Jiujiu proclaimed himself emperor, which led to enemies on all sides. If the lord accepts the title of emperor of Yuan Jiujiu, not only will his reputation be damaged, , he will follow in the footsteps of Yuan Jiujiu and become a great man and even a public enemy of the world."
"Ju Jianjun is saying that my lord is afraid of Cao Cao, Liu Bei and the like?"
As soon as Jushou's words came out of his mouth, he was immediately opposed by Guo Tu.
The reason why Guo Tu and others have been opposing Ju Shou is because they represent different interest groups.
The Yuan family has a great cause, and there are many factions under Yuan Shao. Not to mention the generals, as for the counselors, they are obviously divided into two major factions.
One is the Ruying faction that started following Yuan Shao, such as Xun Chen of the Xun family, Xu You of Nanyang, Feng Ji, Shen Pei, Guo Tu, etc.
They were all Yuan Shao's original team. They followed Yuan Shao in his quest to conquer Jizhou and have developed all the way to this day.
The second one was the scribes Jushou and Tian Feng who were originally under Han Fu. They were the talents that Yuan Shao later recruited in order to stabilize his rule in Jizhou.
The former has a distinguished family background, and the latter has outstanding abilities.
Relatively speaking, Jushuo and Tianfeng were more capable than Guo Tu and others.
However, Guo Tu and others, as Yuan Shao's original family members, were highly regarded, and they knew how to cater to Yuan Shao's interests and hobbies. Their status was higher than that of Ju Shuo and their words, and their words were more decisive.
Just like now, Guo Tu's sentence "Yuan Shao will be afraid of Cao Cao and Liu Bei" directly spoke into Yuan Shao's heart.
Yuan Shao had a high self-esteem and thought that everyone except himself was scum and arrogant. After hearing what Guo Tu said and thinking about what Ju Shou said, he suddenly felt unhappy.
"Yuan Jiujiu can claim the title of emperor, why can't our lord?" Feng Ji also said at this time.
One mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.
Of the two major counselor factions, only one can exist.
Whatever Ju Shou and Tian Feng agreed with, they had to oppose it at any time, and they had to do it to suit Yuan Shao's wishes.
Jushou: "..."
"Lord!"
Tian Feng couldn't help but said: "Cao Cao has been developing too fast recently and should not be underestimated! In addition, Yuan Gongdao proclaimed himself emperor and sought death. The time has not come yet, so the lord cannot follow suit!"
Shen Pei also spoke, and said slowly: "Tian Biejia is saying that the lord who occupies the northern part of the Han Dynasty is not even qualified to be emperor? He is not even as good as Yuan Jiujiao?"
"enough!"
Yuan Shao suddenly shouted and stood up again.
Their words were harsh and made Yuan Shao very unhappy. However, the source of his unhappiness was not Shen Pei and others, but Ju Shou and Tian Feng. How dare he suggest that he was afraid of Cao Cao and inferior to Yuan Shu?
At most, Cao Cao is his little brother. As for Yuan Shu, if he hadn't been the legitimate son of the Yuan family, he wouldn't know where he would be now.
Ju Shou and Tian Feng immediately shut up, thinking in their hearts that Yuan Shao would be defeated by Cao Cao sooner or later.
Feng Ji and others stopped talking and stood quietly aside.
Yuan Shao said again: "Xiansi, go and tell Yuan Jiujiu that you want me to help him, yes! But you must hand over the imperial seal."
The imperial seal is a symbol of imperial power.
If you don't do this when you are an emperor, then your name is not justified.
Yuan Shu wanted to be the emperor so eagerly precisely because he received the imperial seal and believed that he was the orthodox and the chosen one.
"Father, don't worry, I can definitely do it."
Yuan Tanqi, the eldest son of Yuan Shao, said solemnly.
Seeing this, Ju and Shou gave up their persuasion completely.
Yuan Shao had made up his mind, and they felt helpless. They should not have accepted the recruitment in the first place, because Yuan Shao was too good of a man to be worthy of their help.
Not the Ming Lord.
——
Just when Yuan Shao decided to send Yuan Tan to contact Yuan Shu, Cao Cao had already captured Hefei.
Jia Xu and others crossed the Huai River and advanced directly to Huainan.
Sun Ce and Liu Biao squeezed Yuan Shu's territory to the maximum. Those aristocratic families who supported Yuan Shu defected one after another. Yuan Shu used the advantages accumulated by half of the Yuan family to collapse at this time.
All is gone.
Yuan Shu truly understood what it felt like to be betrayed and separated from relatives.
"We have just received news that all the people who previously supported Yuan Jiujiu have rebelled. They are either defecting to Sun Ce or preparing to defect to us."
"Yuan Shu learned that we were going to attack Hefei. He immediately left Shouchun and wanted to join Chen Lan and others, but was rejected. Now he has fled to Jiangting."
"Sun Ce is approaching Jiangting."
"Yuan Shu is now betrayed and separated from his relatives!"
Guo Jia looked at the military information that came back and said slowly.
Half of the Yuan family was just gone.
Before meeting Chen Zhou, Cao Cao thought that the two Yuans were giants and unattainable. After meeting Chen Zhou, he realized that the Yuan family, the fourth generation and the third prince, was nothing more than that.
Regarding the decline of the Yuan family, Chen Zhou's predictions were all right.
"Watazhi is right. The Yuan family may seem huge, but in fact it's not that great."
Cao Cao remembered what Chen Zhou once said and felt inspired.
Chen Zhou said: "It's just Yuan Shu who wants to destroy himself!"
Liu Bei, who was standing nearby, asked in surprise: "So Du Zhi had already guessed that Yuan Shu would end up like this?"
As he said this, he was thinking again, Chen Zhou is really awesome!
Unfortunately, I can't help myself.
It's a pity that such a capable man turned to Cao Cao, a Han traitor with disloyal intentions. But if he can't use it for himself, what else can he do?
In such a troubled environment, there is not much benevolence and righteousness to speak of.
Even though Liu Bei appears to be unparalleled in benevolence and righteousness, secretly his thoughts can still be cruel.
Since I can't get it, others can't get it either. This is the thinking of many princes. Once others get it, they will become their own strong enemies and would rather destroy it.
Liu Bei, who is benevolent and righteous, also had such thoughts at this time.
Chen Zhou said: "It's just a coincidence."
Cao Cao said: "What do you think Yuan Shu can do next?"
Guo Jia first analyzed: "He has only two ways to go, one is to wait for death, and the other is to ask Yuan Shao for help."
"Yuan Shu can still ask for help from Yuan Shao?"
Liu Bei asked without understanding.
According to his knowledge, Yuan and Yuan had always been at odds with each other, and there was a deep conflict between them.
When he first attacked Dong Zhuo, Liu Bei saw with his own eyes the various conflicts between the two Yuan Dynasties. Especially when choosing the leader of the alliance, they almost got into trouble.
Yuan Shu directly scolded Yuan Shao for giving birth to a concubine.
