Lu Bu's sudden withdrawal saved Yuan Shu's life and gave Yuan Shu time to breathe. However, due to Yuan Shu's failure in Chen State, the food he brought back was limited. This year, the Huainan River Basin suffered a disaster and the harvest was not high. Yuan Shu fought on several sides and ran out of money and food. The few remaining troops were defeated and all retreated. In Shouchun, the food and grass brought back by Yuan Shu from Chen State became a drop in the bucket.
Yuan Shu's first reaction was naturally to send people to Lujiang to ask for food from his old subordinate Liu Xun. However, Lujiang was also short of food now, so how could Liu Xun get extra food and grass? Ever since Yuan Shu ascended the throne, to be precise, ever since Feng Fangnu's death, Yuan Shu's temper has become very irritable. Liu Xun couldn't provide food, which was completely excusable, but Yuan Shu directly ordered Liu Xun to do nothing. In what way, food and grass must be provided, otherwise Liu Xun would ask.
Therefore, due to a strange combination of circumstances, Yuan Shu's unreasonable move pushed Liu Xun to go out to Lujiang to look for food.
In addition to Yuan Shu, another reason that made Liu Xun feel relieved to leave the city was, coincidentally, also because of Sun Quan. Like Lu Bu, many people in the world at this time, including Liu Xun, believed that Sun Ce's western expansion was a cover and that Xuzhou, which Sun Quan was attacking, was the next real target of Jiangdong Army.
Sun Ce never fought a tough battle in his expansion to the west this time. Liu Yao's death gave Sun Ce an advantage in vain and made the world unable to see Sun Ce's military strength at all. In other words, Sun Ce's side may look mighty on the surface, but in fact it may be a false formation. The main core of Jiangdong Army may secretly follow Sun Quan and settle in Guangling!
This should be the so-called attacking in the east and attacking in the west. Don't the descendants of his Sun family love to use these false and true tactics of war?
Since Sun Ce is just a cover, then Liu Xun has nothing to worry about. Even if Sun Ce did still have many soldiers and horses, the focus was still on his old rival Jiangxia Huangzu. Liu Xun secretly left the city. By the time Sun Ce reacted, he might have already grabbed the food and returned. A combination of various reasons made Liu Xun make a decision quickly. Although Qiao Xuan also contributed to the situation, his actual role was very small.
in addition,
Sun Quan's capture of Guangling affected not only Lu Bu, not only Yuan Shu, not only Liu Xun, but also Cao Cao, and naturally Liu Biao. Liu Biao, who was originally extremely nervous, was somewhat relieved by the news. Of course, the one who had the greatest impact was Cao Cao. At that time, only Cao Cao knew that Chen Deng was actually his. Sun Quan captured Chen Deng, occupied Guangling, and directly Ruined Cao Cao's plan to steal Xuzhou in the future. Without Chen Deng's cooperation, it would be a tough battle to attack Xuzhou and face Lu Bu!
Xudu,
Cao Cao convened a meeting of advisers. To be honest, looking at the world today, the biggest headache is not those forces in danger, but Cao Cao. First of all, Cao Cao is located in the core area of the Central Plains. He can be regarded as his enemies in the four directions. Although the friction in some directions is not great for the time being, once a fight actually breaks out and there is no room for action, the surrounding areas will add insult to injury and take advantage of others. There are probably many people in danger. Secondly, Cao Cao holds the card of Xian Di. In a sense, like Yuan Shu, he has become the target of public criticism. All princes who are aspiring to the world but are not willing to bear the infamy of proclaiming Emperor will want to snatch Xian Di from his hands. Intend.
These are just external troubles, Cao Cao also has many internal worries. Also on the issue of Emperor Xian, Cao Cao's purpose of welcoming Emperor Xian to Xudu was to coerce the emperor to order the princes. From a certain point of view, Emperor Xian was a tool of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao was doing things in the name of Emperor Xian. So, as an emperor, Emperor Xian would feel comfortable being this puppet?
Regardless of whether Cao Cao has the intention to usurp the throne, the current Emperor Xian is completely locked in a cage. From the perspective of Emperor Xian, he cannot see the general trend of the world and the chaos among the princes. All Emperor Xian can see is that there is only one disobedient and disobedient person. Cao Cao, who was under his discipline and became extremely powerful! Therefore, secretly, Emperor Xian was also secretly contacting people with lofty ideals, trying to assassinate Cao Cao and regain power!
"In the north, Yuan Shao has been making plans since he defeated Gongsun Zan. He asked me several times to move Emperor Xian to Yecheng. I keep refusing like this. It won't be long before he will use this as an excuse to raise his troops to attack." Cao Cao said. Frowning, he had been having more and more headaches recently, "In the south, the rise of the Sun family has been unstoppable. Sun Ce and Sun Quan are not easy to deal with. Now, one of them is heading west to attack Jiangxia and try to occupy Jingzhou. , one has occupied Guangling, and plans to plot Xuzhou. The Sun family is playing with the art of war, making false claims and false claims, and they don’t know whether their goal is Jingzhou or Xuzhou." Cao Cao said in a deep voice.
"Lord, we don't need to guess, and it's useless to guess. The art of war is always switching between fiction and reality. Today, the Sun family actually has the advantage of striking back. When everyone thought they would attack Xuzhou, they They will attack Jingzhou, and conversely, when everyone believes that they will attack Jingzhou, they will attack Xuzhou." Guo Jia, who was at the head, said.
"Yes, Yuan Shao is getting stronger day by day, and the Sun family is also rising step by step. The top priority is not to think about what others will do, but to consider what we should do." Xun Yu said.
Cao Cao frowned and said,
"According to our original plan, since Zhang Xiu has surrendered, the next step is to plot Xuzhou. As long as we occupy Xuzhou, we will have no worries in a short time. Only in this way can we let go and fight Yuan Shao decisively. But now, Sun Quan has occupied Xuzhou. Guangling has directly planted a chess piece in Xuzhou. Once we really capture Xuzhou, we will face the Sun family directly. Even if they will not fight us for a while, when we fight Yuan Shao, how can they do it with the cunning of the Sun family? Will you take advantage of others' danger?" Cao Cao paused and continued, "Besides, without Chen Deng, the situation in Xuzhou is no longer clear. It won't be that easy to defeat Lu Bu in a short time."
"Lord, I have a plan."
At the very beginning, someone suddenly spoke. Everyone turned around and saw that this person was Jia Xu. Jia Xu was originally a staff officer under Dong Zhuo. After Dong Zhuo's death, he incited Li Jue and Guo Si to kill Wang Yun and Lu Bu, and then defected to Zhang Xiu. This time, Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao at the most critical moment, giving Cao Cao a glimmer of hope in his predicament. It was Zhang Xiu who was persuaded by Jia Xu.
While Cao Cao treated Zhang Xiu kindly, he also knew better who was behind this incident. Therefore, Jia Xu entered the inner circle of Cao Cao's advisers when he first arrived.
At this time, after listening to Jia Xu's words, many people wanted to see for themselves whether this famous poisoner was really the real deal.
"Sir, please tell me!" Cao Cao said excitedly. He believed that Jia Xu would never make a mistake.
Jia Xu smiled softly and said,
"Lord, in fact, the Sun family's so-called truth and truth are, in the final analysis, nothing more than pretense. We don't need to guess whether they want to attack Xuzhou or Jingzhou, we can completely push them to make a decision."
"Oh? How to push it?" Cao Cao quickly asked for advice.
