The two troops in Xiangyang City headed straight for Nanyang County and Jiangxia County respectively. The troops heading north of Jingzhou used Cai Mao as the gubernatorial commander, and the Governor-General's Northern Expedition Army directly took Nanyang County.

Liu Qi led more than 20,000 soldiers from the Nanman Camp to Jiangxia County and sent them to Runan County with Huang Zu's troops.

Before Liu Qi's troops were sent to Jiangxia County, he sent envoys to Xiangyang and Fancheng respectively, asking Jia Long to send troops according to the original plan. At the same time, he asked Liu Biao to supply his own and Cai Mao's food and grass, and also Jia Long also provided food and grass to help him advance to Hanzhong.

According to Liu Qi's idea, in this chaotic moment, it was a great opportunity for Jia Long to send troops to occupy eastern Han.

Although Jia Long's military strength was insufficient, Liu Qi and Liu Biao had already made plans. They found a powerful ally for Jia Long to help him succeed.

Liu Qi's messenger arrived in Fancheng and told Jia Long that Liu Qi's intention.

Jia Long made a quick decision and immediately ordered the generals of Qi to lead Yan Yan and Zhao Wei to send troops, leading three thousand Shu troops to Fangling County.

Jingzhou used Xiangyang as the rear war zone command center, and sent troops in three groups, and began to launch a strong offensive against all the princes and county magistrates.

...

At the same time, Liu Yu from Youzhou sent Liu Bei to Yuyang County, and sent Zhao Yun as the Zhonghou military supervisor, and ordered Liu, Guan and Zhang to lead Yuyang troops to line up at Jieqiao, which echoed the north and south with Liu Biao in Jingzhou.

After Yuan Shao took over Jizhou, his power also increased greatly. He joined forces with Cao Cao, the governor of Dongjun, Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, Bao Xin, the governor of Jinan, Wang Kuang, the governor of Hedong, and others to challenge Yuan Shu and the Alliance of Gujun.

Yuan Shu joined forces with the new Yanzhou Governor Jin Shang, Xuzhou Governor Tao Qian, Wucheng Marquis Sun Jian, Qingzhou Governor Jiao He and others.

Yuan Shu himself stationed all the soldiers and generals under his command in Nanyang County, Runan County, Jiujiang County and other places to fight against Yuan Shao and the Hujun.

In order to increase the chance of victory, Yuan Shu also sent an envoy to Youbeiping and invited the cavalry king of Youzhou, Gongsun Zan, the Marquis of Ji, to join his alliance, intending to use Gongsun Zan to pinch Yuan Shao's main soldiers in the north.

The policies implemented by Liu Yu in Youzhou have long cut off the promotion paths for many military generals such as Gongsun Zan. Gongsun Zan has long been dissatisfied with Liu Yu. Since Liu Bei, the younger brother of the same clan, was pulled into his camp by Liu Yu, Gongsun Zan has been even more resentful to Liu Qi. He has long wanted to establish his own business and no longer be controlled by Liu Yu.

After some trade-offs, Gongsun Zan decisively responded to Yuan Shu's call and joined forces with him!

In order to show sincerity, Gongsun Zan sent his clan brother Gongsun Yue to lead more than a thousand elite Youzhou cavalry to go south to Qingzhou and cross Xuzhou to assist Yuan Shu.

After Liu Yu learned that Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu were united, he was furious!

He immediately sent an envoy to Youbeiping to scold Gongsun Zan and ordered Gongsun Zan to immediately summon Gongsun Yue who had gone south to return to Youzhou, and the Youbeiping army was stationed on the spot. Without his military order, he was not allowed to move without his order.

But at this time, Gongsun Zan had already made up his mind to fight for Hebei and would not even linger on Liu Yu's pot.

Not only did he send Gongsun Yue to support Yuan Shu, he even led his troops to Jieqiao with the intention of invading Jizhou.

Seeing that Gongsun Zan dared not respect his orders, Liu Yu immediately sent someone to urge Liu Bei to find an opportunity to attack the rebel Gongsun Zan.

This matter is really hard to die. Liu Bei.

At the same time, in order to win over Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao also handed over the seal of his former magistrate of Bohai County to Gongsun Fan of the Gongsun clan in the Liaoxi who was an official in Jizhou, and hoped that Gongsun Fan could persuade his subordinate Gongsun Zan to abandon Yuan Shu and turn to him to help him achieve great things.

But the problem is that Yuan Shao underestimated Gongsun Zan's ambition.

The alliance with Yuan Shu is just because this alliance can meet Gongsun Zan's current interests and needs, which does not mean that Gongsun Zan is really convinced by Yuan Shu.

What Gongsun Zan thought was to take advantage of the name and political energy of Yuan Shu's fourth generation and three kings to bring the boundary north of the Yellow River into his own control.

Based on this purpose, Gongsun Zan agreed to Yuan Shu's invitation just to follow the flow.

Yuan Shao and Liu Yu were both obstacles to Gongsun Zan.

Therefore, no matter what tricks Yuan Shao uses, Gongsun Zan cannot join forces with him, unless Yuan Shao is willing to stay under Gongsun Zan!

Faced with the benefits of taking Yuan Shao and helping him convince his cousin Gongsun Fan, Gongsun Zan sneered.

He asked Gongsun Fan a question: For the Gongsun family in western Liaoning, is it just one Bohai county important, or is the entire Jizhou Youzhou important?

As a prominent family in Youzhou, the Gongsun family in western Liaoning is a prominent family... Could it be that the children of the Gongsun family are willing to submit to Liu Yu and Yuan Shao in Hebei?

At this time, with the background of Gongsun in Youzhou, why can't he do something big on his own, but he just wants to vassalize those so-called aristocratic families or Han clan relatives?

In the end, Gongsun Fan, who represented Yuan Shao to persuade Gongsun Zan, was persuaded by his subordinates, and instead joined Gongsun Zan's camp to help his subordinates fight against Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao won't lose any rice if he steals the chicken.

Seeing that the relationship with Gongsun Zan was irreconcilable, he no longer had any illusions about him.

Yuan Shao used Yan Liang and Wen Chou as generals under his command, gathered troops from Jizhou and Hebei, and spread his troops to Guang'an, confronting Gongsun Zan and Liu Yu's families.

Therefore, the Hebei battlefield was centered on Jieqiao, bringing together the three families of Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan and Liu Yu as the main members.

...

The situation on the battlefield in the south seems to be even more complicated.

Cai Mao and Zhang Yun led the Jingzhou army north and headed straight for Wancheng, intending to seize Yuan Shu's old nest, Nanyang County.

Yuan Shu was furious when he learned that Cai Mao had sent troops to attack him.

He took Liu Xun, the chief of Jianping of Pei State, who had just defected to him, as the general and Ji Ling as the vanguard, and gathered heavy troops in Wancheng to confront Cai Mao.

Cai Mao was originally full of confidence when he went on a war, because he knew that although Yuan Shu had many troops, he had divided a lot of them into confronting Yuan Shao's vassal Zhou Ang and Zhou Xin in Runan County and Danyang County. Even Sun Jian's army, who was the most accustomed to fighting, had been sent to Wu County.

In Cai Mao's opinion, Wancheng should be empty at this moment. If he faces a head-on battle, he will definitely be able to break through.

But Cai Mao obviously underestimated Yuan Shu's ability.

Pei Jiancheng Liu Xun and general Ji Ling secretly mobilized three heavy troops from Huainan to support the battlefield in Wancheng. After Cai Mao's army headed north into Nanyang County, they immediately took the initiative to fight. With the benefits of terrain and military equipment, they fought with Cai Mao in Rang County south of Wancheng for two consecutive battles with Cai Mao's army in Rang County, south of Wancheng.

Cai Mao's army was at a disadvantage in these two battles and was suppressed by Yuan Shu's army.

Cai Mao's confidence was shaken a little.

Next, Yuan Shu wanted to make a contribution to the battle and use all the combat power of Nanyang County to completely defeat Cai Mao back to Xiangyang, but he never thought that Yuan Shao's number one younger brother, Cao Cao, the governor of Dongjun, led his army to Nanyang County to kill him.

Previously, because the Yanzhou Governor Liu Dai participated in the alliance to fight against Dong, Dong Zhuo changed his ranks and appointed Jingzhao people with the will of the emperor. Jin Shang, who was named "Three Happiness", recruited people from Jingzhao locally and went to Yanzhou to replace Liu Dai as the governor.

Jin Shang was famous and was quite kind to the Yuan family in Runan and had many interactions. After Yuan Shu learned that he was appointed as the governor, he sent people to join forces with Jin Shang and expressed his willingness to send troops to support him in Yanzhou to take over Liu Dai.

Yuan Shu's intention was to use Jin Shang as a knife and axe to deal with Yuan Shao's younger brothers in Yanzhou.

But unfortunately, although Jin Shang is a famous scholar in Jingzhao and has a family background as support, his military level is not good.

After he went to Yanzhou, he was killed by Cao Cao who had sent troops from the East County to the south. He defeated his people in one battle, and almost lost his life.

In desperation, Jin Shang could only lead his remnants and head south to Nanyang County to rely on Yuan Shu.

When he heard that Jin Shang led Cao Cao's troops to Nanyang County, Yuan Shu did not dare to be careless. He no longer used excessive strength to Cai Mao's army, but adopted a conservative attitude and divided the troops into two parts, one against Cai Mao and the other against Cao Cao who led his troops into Nanyang County.

In this way, in Nanyang County, the army of Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and Cai Mao began a battle to compete for the city and land.

Just as Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and others were fighting each other around Wancheng, Jia Long from Fancheng also gathered his old subordinates in Sichuan and Shu, took Yan Yan as the pioneer, and went straight from Xiangyang to Fangling County to kill him according to the original plan.

Fangling County, as a buffer zone between Hanzhong and Jingzhou, has always had few troops. After Jia Long sent troops, he captured Fangling County at almost no speed.

In the past six months, Liu Yan has been under control because his eldest son Liu Fan is in Jingzhou and his second son Liu Dan is in Chang'an. He is in a poor health and has been in a sub-health state.

Ren Qi, the governor of Jianwei, took the opportunity to gather local tyrants in Sichuan and Shu to rebel, and fought against the Dongzhou soldiers and Qingqiang soldiers under Liu Yan's command, but unfortunately he was always at a disadvantage.

Liu Yan's body had just improved. He wanted to gather strength to eliminate Ren Qi's rear, but who would have thought that Jia Long suddenly sent troops to Fangling and Bingfeng pointed directly at Hanzhong.

Hanzhong has a vast territory, rich households, and is also a gateway to Sichuan and Sichuan. If Jia Long takes Hanzhong and joins Ren Qi in the middle and outside, Yizhou will be in danger.

Liu Yan did not dare to neglect. He no longer concentrated his troops to attack Ren Qi. Instead, he sent the Tianshi Sect and Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu of the Five Dogs of Rice. At the same time, he led his sects to gather troops to go north to capture Su Gu, the prefect of Hanzhong, so that they must quickly take down Hanzhong and defend the city. They must not let Jia Long take the lead.

The Shu army that Jia Long brought out of Yizhou now has only 3,000 left. If these troops were to fight against the Hanzhong County Governor Su Gu and the leader of the Shuzhong Second Sect, it would be like hitting a stone with an egg.

But in advance, Liu Qi had asked Liu Biao to send a letter to someone, asking him to go south to meet Jia Long, and help him gain a foothold in the counties east of Hanzhong.

This person is Liu Chong, the 60-year-old crown prince who is currently in Luoyang.

Liu Chong had tens of thousands of soldiers, most of whom were archers, and he was very good at shooting. Looking at the world, there were few bow and crossbow camps that could compete with him.

The evidence of Liu Yan's rebellion has been confirmed by the court. Liu Chong, as a prince and a crown prince, sent troops to help Jia Long attack Hanzhong in this Central Plains war, is reasonable and will not cause criticism.

King Chen was also a little bit thoughtful... Instead of going to Nanyang County to fight against the Yuan family in Runan, he would rather help Jia Long seize the labor-saving situation from Hanzhong.

So Liu Chong followed suit and agreed to Liu Biao's request.

As a result, a multi-party melee broke out in various counties in the eastern and western Hanzhong, including Jia Long, Liu Chong, Zhang Lu, Zhang Xiu, Hanzhong Prefect Su Gu and others.
Chapter completed!