With such a gain, Yuan Shao was naturally happy and became closer to Liu Bei. He frequently praised Liu Bei in public and took the initiative to make Liu Bei famous.
And this is naturally one of the purposes of Liu Bei's advice for Yuan Shao.
For Liu Bei, because he knew that troubled times were coming, the scholar-type route that had accumulated a lot of experience would not work in the future. He only had nine years, so he needed a more direct way to break the situation.
Yuan Shao is the breaking point.
The fact that he planned and personally participated in the debate conference held in Yuan Shao's mansion was a clear signal in itself - Liu Bei and Yuan Shao had a very good relationship.
Naturally, it's not a clear affiliation, it's not like being someone's retainer or anything like that, but it also means the friendship between the two parties, the friendship between the two parties, and the needs of both parties.
Liu Bei, a member of the Han clan who was born as a border tycoon and a scholar who became a monk halfway, could become the guest of Yuan Shao, a descendant of the Yuan family, the fourth and third prince, and participate in the planning of events hosted by Yuan Shao. It was a very honorable thing in itself.
Regardless of whether Yuan Shao is one of the representative figures of the Yue family of the Jinwen school, his political energy is indeed not small. The fact that you, Liu Bei, can become Yuan Shao's friend and drink with him also proves your ability from the side. .
This incident itself can bring about an increase in Liu Bei's reputation and improve his social status.
This is not even the biggest benefit of Liu Bei's actions.
His biggest benefit is that establishing a good relationship with Yuan Shao allows him to build up his own small power group.
As troubled times are approaching, Liu Bei realizes very clearly that if he wants to survive in troubled times, he needs to form gangs. There are so-called three gangs for a good man. If Liu Xuande wants to gain a foothold in troubled times, only Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, two ten thousand enemies, can not enough.
He needs followers on the political level. He needs people with culture, knowledge, and cultivation to govern the place for him, collect taxes, and mobilize people to form an army.
Previously, what he could achieve as a disciple of Lu Zhi and a debater was to have a relatively large voice and a higher status in a social circle. Everyone was equal and friends. There is no relationship where you order me and I order you.
It's different now.
Now through Yuan Shao's platform and appreciation, what Liu Bei can pull up is a small power group headed by him and located under Yuan Shao's large power gang.
This is a quasi-political alliance, just like Yuan Shao's power group.
Yuan Shao's power group is a quasi-political alliance headed by Yuan Shao. The core value orientation that unites people's hearts is to unite scholars and oppose eunuchs.
The reason why it is "accurate" is because Yuan Shao currently does not have any official position. Once Yuan Shao has an official position and controls political power, this quasi-political alliance will immediately be upgraded to a formal political alliance.
Serving Yuan Shao's personal political interests and the general goal of opposing the eunuchs.
Although Liu Bei had an official position, he had little power, so the small group he formed was a quasi-political alliance.
A small quasi-political alliance under the protection of Yuan Shao's powerful gang.
It is really not an easy task for Liu Bei to build this small quasi-political alliance. If Liu Bei does not associate with Yuan Shao, does not rely on Yuan Shao's reputation and energy, and only relies on Liu Bei himself, then it will have to be pushed back.
But things are different now.
Liu Bei and Yuan Shao have a good relationship and are appreciated by Yuan Shao. Even his friends around him are favored and praised by Yuan Shao. This shows that Liu Bei has a high status in Yuan Shao's heart.
So much so that Yuan Shao was even willing to reward Liu Bei's friends.
what does that mean?
This means that although it is not easy to hang out with the eldest brother Yuan Shao, but hanging with the eldest brother Liu Bei, you might be able to gain his appreciation and be introduced to Yuan Shao by him, thereby getting praise from Yuan Shao, and then get some political support. Benefit.
Hasn't this been fulfilled by Liu Bei's friend Zhen Yan?
After Zhen Yan's term as official ended, he had been looking for the possibility of staying in the central government, but he had not been able to succeed, so Liu Bei took the opportunity to introduce him to Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shao was also very polite about this.
He once praised Zhen Yan in public, who was from an ordinary background, saying that he was quite "ancestral", which gave Zhen Yan a certain reputation at his banquet and gave Liu Bei enough face.
Everyone knows that Yuan Shao praised Liu Bei for his sake, but it was enough for Zhen Yan, who was born in the same place.
Soon after that, Zhen Yan, who was praised by Yuan Shao, successfully stayed in Luoyang with Liu Bei's efforts.
So Zhen Yan was filled with gratitude to Liu Bei and felt that her future was bright, so Zhen Yan became the first member of Liu Bei's new small power group.
Many people in Liu Bei's circle of friends came back after learning the specific news. Seeing that Liu Bei had become a face fruit user, they began to get ready to take action. They visited Liu Bei one after another, hoping to get Liu Bei's recognition and recommendation, so that they could participate in Yuan Shao's mission. banquet.
This was Liu Bei's second idea for Yuan Shao. He limited the number of participants to his banquet and debate conference, and only those recognized by Yuan Shao could bring friends who had not participated. In principle, no outsiders were allowed.
In fact, it is a disguised form of a membership system and setting up an entry threshold. From the perspective of outsiders, it is confidential, but from the perspective of insiders, it adds a layer of superiority to outsiders, and there is a sense of mutual respect between each other. A special connection and a sense of belonging to Yuan Shao.
Scholars who are eager for fame are lured with the big pie of getting official positions, but only a very small number of people can actually get official positions because their political energy is indeed not great.
But what does this mean?
For the pie, it doesn’t matter how many pieces there are, but what is most important is how many pieces there are.
This method is called a membership system in Liu Bei's words, but in the eyes of Yuan Shao and others, this is actually a disguised form of clique, so Xu You still expressed concerns.
"It's okay if it's just in private, but if it's publicized and people know that we are friends, it may cause trouble."
But Yuan Shao was not worried or afraid. Rather, it was something he had dreamed of, but he had suffered from the lack of anyone to help him plan or organize it before.
Yuan Shao is a person who is not favored in the Yuan family. He cannot easily obtain what the legitimate son of the family can obtain. He needs to do it himself to build his own power.
Liu Bei's joining and his planning and organizational skills gave Yuan Shao the possibility to achieve his goals, which made Yuan Shao very happy.
"As a eunuch, I can plan for his own selfish interests and cliques. Am I not allowed to do that?"
Out of desire for his own power, Yuan Shao decided to accept Liu Bei's suggestion and adopt such a system.
He only allowed Liu Bei and a dozen other people he trusted to bring people they trusted and were good friends with to attend the banquet, and selected outstanding and reliable people to gradually develop into "members".
They controlled the number of people at the banquet to a certain extent, but they also bought a lot of money from the outside world to build momentum and made Yuan Shao's banquet look like a press conference, which was very eye-catching.
Liu Bei acted as the spokesperson. Every time he attended Yuan Shao's banquet, he would announce the important issues of the banquet.
For example, what classics were debated on what issues, what kind of golden sayings someone said, or what clever words Liu Xuande had, how many consecutive victories he had, including what brand new poems Liu Xuande wrote.
So it didn't take long for Yuan Shao's banquet to have considerable influence among the scholar circles in Luoyang City.
After every banquet, many people inquired about the specific news of the banquet. Through the news spread by Liu Bei, they found out what happened at the banquet, who shined at the banquet, etc., and expressed that they also wanted to participate in such a banquet. banquet.
At this point, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others began to invite people in, leading more interested friends to attend the banquet, and participate in the debate conference after the banquet.
