In this regard, Yuan Shao had no choice.
He also clearly realized that he could no longer find any help from within. If he did not want to collapse quickly, he could only adopt Tian Feng's suggestion.
So he sent envoys to the north of Bingzhou and the north of Youzhou to contact the Huns, Xianbei and Wuhuan people, and strive to reach an alliance with them and let them lead their troops south.
Dong Zhuo and Gongsun Zan are both threats to him from the rear. If these two threats are not eliminated, he will not be able to deal with Liu Bei wholeheartedly.
Among them, Gongsun Zan is definitely the easiest to deal with, because he has the shallowest foundation and is the easiest to be shaken. Dong Zhuo is an old gunner, full of tricks, and has a large army. He has his own basic base and is difficult to deal with.
In order to win over the Huns, Xianbei and Wuhuan people, Yuan Shao was even ready to cede parts of Youzhou and Bingzhou to let them move inland.
He knew that these people had always been eager to move south and live in warmer and more fertile places.
Some people under Yuan Shao's command were opposed to this, such as Xin Ping. He believed that the barbarians on the grasslands were rude and rude. They only knew how to destroy but not to build. Just give them money. There was no need to give them land. If they gave them land, it would be easy to pray to the gods. It’s a difficult situation to send God off.
By then Yuan Shao will have to deal with Liu Bei and many of their unreasonable demands. Wouldn't he be asking for trouble?
Shen Pei and Xin Ping had never been on good terms, and now I felt that Xin Ping was very indifferent and not like a man.
"If you want to give it, you must give it in place. Only when it is given can they really help us deal with Gongsun Zan. Now is the time to think about surviving no matter what, not the time to think about the future. If you can't survive, there will be no future, so what? Is it something you can be concerned about?”
The words "Shen Pei" touched Yuan Shao's heart.
I can't survive, why should I care about this?
He immediately reprimanded Xin Ping for being weak and incompetent, praised Xin Ping for his determination in judging the match, and then gritted his teeth and said that even if he could not survive, he would let the Xianbei, Huns, and Wuhuan people disturb Liu Bei's life.
"He destroyed my clan, and I will destroy his clan as well, and make him miserable for the rest of his life!"
Yuan Shao set his target on Youzhou and planned to completely destroy Youzhou. Not only that, he also planned to personally lead troops to attack Zhuoxian County, so that the Liu family in Zhuoxian County would become a piece of history before Liu Bei became famous. The family was completely destroyed.
One for one, this is a fair deal.
In September and October of the sixth year of Zhongping, especially in October, Yuan Shao made many big moves.
He spent a lot of money, recruited soldiers and horses on a large scale, and even increased the army by recruiting young men, expanding the army to 70,000 to 80,000 in a short period of time.
Of course, there are risks in doing this, such as a large number of strong men absconding and hiding, resisting arrest, and powerful local clans forming strongholds to defend themselves against Yuan Shao's rule. In some places, small-scale battles against Yuan Shao were launched, which made Yuan Shao I have a terrible headache.
In the end, he himself couldn't count how many of the old, weak, sick and disabled in his army were captured and used as weapons to make up for their numbers.
But this doesn't matter anymore. Yuan Shao doesn't have much time anymore, and he can't care about it anymore.
He arranged three troops in Wei County and Qinghe State to guard Dong Zhuo, Qiao Mao and Liu Yu respectively, and then organized the main army of about 40,000 people, preparing to eliminate Gongsun Zan in the shortest possible time, destroy Zhuo County, and make Liu Bei regret it. .
Of course, he must resolve this battle in a short time and obtain Youzhou's resources. Otherwise, with his current resource volume and mobilization level, this main force of 40,000 people will not last for less than three months. Will inevitably collapse.
In other words, this war must be resolved before the end of the sixth year of Zhongping. Whether victory or defeat, life or death depends on this time.
Between the choice of life and death, Yuan Shao did not hesitate at all.
Around October 21, the sixth year of Zhongping, Yuan Shao, who was well prepared, received news from the southern Xiongnu, eastern Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes.
Regarding his intention to seek cooperation, only the southern Xiongnu, Yufuluo, did not accept it, while the two major leaders of the eastern Xianbei, Suli and Mika, and the leader of the Wuhuan tribe, Qiu Liju, expressed acceptance.
In addition to money and goods, Yuan Shao also planned to transfer Xuantu County, Liaodong County and the Liaodong vassal state to the Wuhuan tribe, transfer Liaoxi County and Youbeiping County to Suli, and transfer Yuyang County to Suli. and Guangyang County were placed under the ownership of Mika.
In short, give money, give land, give population, give everything, as long as they send troops to help deal with Gongsun Zan and deal with the resistance forces in Youzhou, then everything will be theirs.
Yu Fuluo was originally promised benefits to the three counties of Yunzhong, Yanmen and Dingxiang in Bingzhou, but Yuan Shao did not understand that the Southern Xiongnu did not want the cold lands in the north at all, and wanted the Hedong County further south.
They wanted warmer and more fertile land to survive.
But Hedong County was not under his control, so he said that if the Southern Xiongnu had the ability, he would attack Hedong County himself. He didn't care anyway. If the Southern Xiongnu really wanted to attack Hedong County, he would be even happier if they could help him contain Liu Bei.
However, Yu Fuluo often dealt with the Luoyang court, and he had many worries. He thought of Zhang Yan and Dong Zhuo, so Yu Fuluo simply gave up and didn't think about it anymore. He lay down and died.
He had experienced the strength of the Han army and knew that the Han army was difficult to deal with. If he really annoyed the Luoyang court, he would not get any good results.
So he chose to sit back and watch.
People like Qiu Liju, Suli and Mika lived far away from the core area of the Han Empire. They also heard that the Han Empire had just died of its emperor, so they felt that they must be busy dealing with the emperor's funeral and had no time to deal with border troubles, so Be more ambitious and dare to put it into practice.
After the cooperation intention was reached, Yuan Shao was very happy and agreed with them that the date of launching the army was November 5th. However, before that, he could not bear it anymore and felt that waiting for one more day would be torture.
Around October 28th, Yuan Shao's troops' preparations for the expedition were completed, the elite troops were fully armed, and the cannon fodder men were tamed. Yuan Shao felt that he could no longer bear it.
So he boldly ordered to send troops without waiting for the Xianbei and Wuhuan people.
No matter how you fight, it will be a sneak attack. As long as you are fast, Gongsun Zan will definitely not be able to react.
But he was wrong.
Gongsun Zan did not react, but at the same time he did not need to react.
Because Gongsun Zan fought before him.
In fact, Gongsun Zan's start in this wave is really Tianhu's start.
There was a teacher who served as a lieutenant in the court, and a junior brother who served as an auxiliary general in the court. In Youzhou, few people were willing to object to Gongsun Zan's appointment as the governor of Youzhou at the beginning.
In contrast, many people within the Luoyang court opposed Gongsun Zan's appointment as the governor of Youzhou based on the principle of three mutual laws. However, Liu Bei believed that the matter was urgent and that exterminating Yuan Shao was the most important thing now, and Youzhou did not have enough. Let people whom the court trusts serve as officers.
Gongsun Zan and his relationship with Lu Zhi are trustworthy, and there are many achievements in the Liaodong vassal state to prove it, so he is temporarily appointed as the governor of Youzhou, and the position will be arranged after Yuan Shao is wiped out.
Liu Bei's statement was supported by many people, and relying on his own prestige, the appointment was passed.
So the entire Youzhou knew that Liu Bei and Lu Zhi, the masters and apprentices of Youzhou, were now prosperous, and they were all looking forward to going to Luoyang to get a position and start an era for the people of Youzhou. Therefore, Gongsun Zan, the spokesperson of Liu Bei and Lu Zhi, They are very willing to obey.
Even the Gongsun family in Liaoxi County looked at Gongsun Zan with admiration because of this incident. They fawned over him a lot, gave him all kinds of gifts to please him, and talked about nonsense like being proud of Gongsun Zan.
As a result, he accidentally made Gongsun Zan happy.
In short, Gongsun Zan lost himself and drifted away in the sound of handsome boys.
When he first served as the governor of Youzhou, he was quite cautious and kind to other officials. But soon, this cautiousness disappeared. He began to become aloof, and began to treat the prefects of various counties and local powerful people. Yi commanded.
In the process of building an army, he demanded a lot from local officials and powerful families. When he lacked money, food, and steel for weapons, he would ask for it from them, taking it for granted without giving anything in return.
After the army was formed, due to the lack of control and military discipline, his army often went out to rob merchants and goods, extortion, robbery and other evil things often happened.
Gongsun Zan didn't react much to this, he just blindly increased the number of troops and wanted to form a strong army as soon as possible to attack Yuan Shao, so his popularity gradually declined.
Wen Shu, the governor of Zhuo County, was concerned about Gongsun Zan's social connections and tried to persuade him. He hoped that Gongsun Zan could restrain the army, spread kindness and restore people's reputation. He was also somewhat concerned about the reputation of Liu Bei and Lu Zhi.
Who knew that Gongsun Zan didn't care about these things at all.
"They are all here for my teacher and Xuande, not for me. I know what they want, and they also know what they want. In this case, they should pay some price, isn't it? ?"
Wen Shu did not expect Gongsun Zan to be so unreasonable and was very disappointed with him. He was also intimidated by the power of Liu Bei and Lu Zhi and did not dare to resist. So he could only keep a distance from him and no longer made any suggestions to him or made any plans for him. .
(End of chapter)
