Yuan Shao was generous on the outside and was a person with great suspicion. He did not believe what the undressed palace maid in front of him said. He needed a credible person to confirm the authenticity of the jade seal, but no one around him had seen the real imperial seal. Just when Yuan Shao had no choice, the guards of the palace chanted: "The Huangmen Minister Xun You asked for a meeting!"

Xun You planned to assassinate Dong Zhuo with He Yong, the chief of the Northern Army, the Shizhong Zhongji, and the Yueqin Captain Wu Qiong. Wu Qiong failed to assassinate, and Zhong Ji escaped. He Yong and Xun You were arrested and imprisoned. He Yong was worried and afraid of suicide. Xun You spoke and politely. After a few months, Dong Zhuo was killed by Yan Xing, and Xun You was able to avoid death. Xun You originally wanted to find an official position in the court under Wang Yun's command, but in a blink of an eye, Lu Bu's Central Army entered the city. Xun You had always despised Lu Bu's background and was unwilling to serve Lu Bu, so he escaped from Luoyang City in the chaos.

After Xun You escaped from Luoyang City, he thought about the fact that Huang Gai and other bandits were in rebellion in Yingchuan County where his family was. Cao Cao, who had been with him before, relied on Lu Bu's development. Xun You thought about it and had to go to Yuan Shao, the governor of Jingzhou.

Xun You is smart inside, but looks dull and cowardly on the outside. He is a typical wise man. Yuan Shao looks down on him very much. However, Xun You is the grandson of Xun Shuang, a famous scholar of a generation, and is also the nephew of Yuan Shao's confidant adviser Xun Chen. Yuan Shao reluctantly accepted Xun You for the sake of Xun Shuang and Xun Chen.

Xun You offered advice to Yuan Shao as soon as he arrived: "Lu Bu has newly acquired Luoyang and has not yet established a stable foothold. Ming Gong can take the opportunity to send troops to attack him, and he can win Luoyang in one battle!"

Before Yuan Shao received detailed information from the detailed work that Guo Tu had planted in Luoyang, he always thought that Lu Bu was not true to take Luoyang by tricks. He shook his head gently and said, "Wenruo, there is no hurry to do this. You can help me first. Is this jade seal the imperial seal?"

Because Xun You was the Minister of the Yellow Sect and was with the Emperor, he did see the true appearance of the imperial seal when Emperor Ling of Han was alive.

Xun You felt a sudden heart. He had already seen from the series of actions of the Yuan family in Runan during the Ten Etiquette Rebellion. Dong Zhuo entered Beijing and the heroes beating Dong Shi, that the Yuan family was very ambitious. Now that Yuan Shao has obtained the imperial seal again, how much his ambition can reach? I am afraid he is unwilling to be a minister anymore. Xun You's heart trembled, but his face was very calm. He stared at the jade seal in front of him, looked at it for a while, and solemnly replied: "Reply to Ming Gong's words, it is indeed the imperial seal."

Yuan Shao was overjoyed. This jade seal of the kingdom was indeed given to me by God. The "Those who replaced the Han Dynasty should be Dang Tu Gao" should be on me, not the younger brother Yuan Shu who was very ambitious and talented. It seems that "the Han family fell and the Yuan family rose" is not a rumor, but a conclusive fact.

Yuan Shao had an unstoppable impulse, so he wanted to ascend the throne immediately, but his calmness and restraint from the Party and Prison period made him feel happy and angry. He also suppressed his impulse to ascend to the great treasure. He understood that if he did not defeat Lu Bu, he would be pulled down by Lu Bu even if he wanted to be an emperor. Even if he wanted to be an emperor, he would have to go to the palace in Luoyang to the south and north.

Yuan Shao put away the imperial seal, put on a high-sounding expression, bowed to the north of Yecheng: "The Japanese Duke must go to Yecheng and present this imperial seal to my emperor."

Yuan Shao said that the day would change, but he had to decide when this day would change. The counselors under Yuan Shao, Feng Ji, Guo Tu, Xu You, Shen Pei, and Xun Chen all knew the ambitions of their lords and smiled at each other.

In history, Yuan Shao was preparing to abandon Emperor Xian and establish a new king after Dong Zhuo went west to Chang'an, so as to facilitate control. He selected the weak Han royal family, Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou. At that time, the Yuan brothers were not harmonious and Yuan Shu had the intention to be independent. He used the pretext of maintaining loyalty and righteousness to oppose Yuan Shao's establishment of Liu Yu as the emperor. However, Yuan Shao ignored Yuan Shu's opposition and sent Zhang Qi, the prefect of the former Lelang prefect to meet Liu Yu in the name of the generals of Guandong, to submit it to the public. Liu Yu flatly refused. Yuan Shao still did not give up and asked Liu Yu to take charge of the Shangshu, and accepted the title of the generals, but was also rejected by Liu Yu.

In this time and space, Lu Bu occupied Jizhou, which Yuan Shao liked, so Yuan Shao had to run to steal Han Fu's Jingzhou. Liu Yu, the governor of Youzhou, was far away from Yuan Shao. Seeing that Dong Zhuo held Liu Xie hostage to order the princes, Yuan Shao also saw that Lu Bu hostage Liu Bian hostage to order the princes, he also wanted to persuade Liu Biao, a relative of the Han Dynasty, to be the new king, and attempt to realize the political ambitions of the Yuan family by controlling Liu Biao. Although Liu Biao was not as strong as Yuan Shao, he was good at protecting himself, so he naturally did not want to be Yuan Shao's puppet. Yuan Shao did not want to lose this ally, so he had to give up.

Now, the legendary imperial seal arrived in Yuan Shao, making Yuan Shao develop new ambitions. He didn't have to find a puppet to act, so he went up to himself. Yuan Shao thought to himself that Wang Mang's failure in usurping the throne in the past was because Wang Mang's reforms were all against the powerful families with vested interests. How could he not defeat? As long as I, Yuan Benchu, acted according to the interests of the powerful families, I would definitely be able to ascend to great treasures. Moreover, all the aristocratic families in the world are following my leader, and I believe that I would naturally be accepted by them ascend to the throne and become emperor.

Obviously, the only one who blocked his ascension to the throne and emperor in front of Yuan Shao. As long as he defeated Lu Bu and captured Luoyang City, he could ascend the throne with justification.

Yuan Shao thought very well, but he could not help but think too simply about the people in the world. Now, as a banner of aristocratic families, he will fight against Lu Bu on behalf of the interests of the aristocratic families, but he can also win the support of most aristocratic families. But once he attempts to ascend the throne and become emperor, will the aristocratic figures who were originally driven by him still support him? Yuan Shao is full of confidence, but Lu Bu knows very well that Yuan Shao, a tragic guy, probably his end will not be much better than that of his younger brother Yuan Shu and descendant Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shao finally got the accurate news from Luoyang, which arrived in Xiangyang with Yan Xing.

After Yan Xing escaped from Luoyang City, he headed south and headed straight towards Wancheng, Nanyang County. Li Su and Wu Kuang sent troops to chase after him. When Yan Xing arrived at Wancheng, there were only less than two thousand soldiers under his command of the three thousand Jincheng soldiers.

The general under Yuan Shao was Chunyu Qiong, who was guarding Wancheng. Seeing the smoke and dust rising from the north, he thought Dong Zhuo was coming, so he hurriedly ordered people to take defensive measures.

When Yan Xing arrived at the city, Chunyu Qiong saw Yan Xing's embarrassing appearance of the two thousand men throwing away their armor and losing their armor. Chunyu Qiong was in a fog and hurriedly asked someone to ask what Yan Xing was here.

Yan Xing told the truth that he told Chunyu Qiong everything that happened in Luoyang City over the past two days, saying that he wanted to come and defect to Yuan Shao.

Chunyu Qiong suspected that this was a deceptive surrender strategy and did not dare to dedicate himself. He quickly sent someone to spread the word about Yuan Shao who was in Xiangyang.

Yuan Shao gathered all the civil and military officials, and everyone said they were waiting for news from Luoyang. It turned out that Yuan Shao ordered his adviser Guo Tu to install a detailed work in Luoyang. Half a day later, the detailed work in Luoyang came with accurate news. Lu Bu did take advantage of the internal changes in Luoyang and took advantage of the situation to control the Sili area. Only then did Yuan Shao confirm that the palace maid and Xun You said were not false. Yuan Shao did not reflect on the detailed work in Guo Tu's place to transmit the message so slowly. He just slapped the table and shouted: "Lu Bu cannot be controlled!"

Although Yuan Shao was afraid of Lu Bu's military power in the past, he thought that Lu Bu was just showing off his power in Bingzhou and Jizhou, which was not worth worrying. Now it seems that Lu Bu not only controlled Bingzhou, Jizhou, Qingzhou and Shuozhou, but also controlled the Sili area. His power was so large that it was absolutely the greatest enemy of Yuan Shao's plan to seize the world. He had to raise his spirit to deal with it.

Feng Ji, a counselor under Yuan Shao, quickly picked up Xun You's Yahui just now: "Lord, Lu Bu has newly acquired Luoyang and has not yet established a firm foothold. We can take the opportunity to send troops to attack Luoyang, which will surely defeat Lu Bu's spirit!"

Other strategists also rarely reached an agreement and asked Yuan Shao to send troops to attack Luoyang.

When Yuan Shao was about to send troops, he urgently reported from the front: "The prefect of Jiangxia Huang Zu, urgently reported, Sun Ce from Jiangdong led his troops to attack Jiangxia. I hope the lord will send reinforcements as soon as possible!"

It turned out that Sun Ce borrowed 10,000 troops from Lu Bu, and received guidance and support from Lu Bu. He had sufficient soldiers and food, and had complete weapons and horses. He also found many good talents from Jiangdong. Sun Ce first got Zhang Zhao, Zhang Hong, and his good friend Zhou Yu to help him. Then he got civil officials Gu Yong, Zhang Wen, Wu Can, Yu Fan, and military generals Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, Zhu Huan, Ling Cao, He Qi, Chen Wu and others.

Sun Ce used Zhou Yu's plan to first take advantage of the disagreement between the prefect of Wu County Sheng Xian and the commander of Wu County Xu Gong, and defeated them one by one. Sheng Xian died in battle and Xu Gong temporarily surrendered. Sun Ce quickly pacified Yan Baihu, Zou Ta, Qian Tong, Xu Zhao and other forces in Wu County, and pacified Wu County.

Based on Wu County, Sun Ce defeated the pseudo-Governor Liu Yao, the prefect of Danyang who came to help Liu Yao, and took the opportunity to seize Danyang County. Now, in the entire Yangzhou area, except for Lujiang County occupied by Yuan Shu and the demobilized Kuaiji County ruled by Wang Lang, Sun Ce has occupied half of Jiangdong.

The reason why Sun Ce could do what he took three years to do in history was ultimately due to the strong support given by Lu Bu. Lu Bu gave him 10,000 troops far more than the three thousand troops he borrowed from Yuan Shu in history. Lu Bu also gave him sufficient weapons, armor, mounts, food, and guidance on the talents that Jiangdong could recruit. Only then did Sun Ce develop so quickly.

The prefect of Yuzhang County upstream of Danyang County was Zhu Jun's son Zhu Hao. Zhu Hao obeyed the orders of the Yecheng court. Sun Ce could not use troops to Zhu Hao for the time being, and could only join forces with Zhu Hao to deal with other enemies.

When Lu Bu was seeking Luoyang, he considered that Yuan Shao would take advantage of his just seizing Luoyang and not stably sending troops to attack, so he sent someone to convey military orders to Sun Ce and Zhu Hao in advance, asking them to attack Jiangxia County along the river.

Like in historical legends, the prefect of Jiangxia was still Huang Zu. The reason why Huang Zu was able to be the prefect of Jiangxia was because the Huang family in Jiangxia was the first family in Jiangxia. Not to mention that Huang Wan of the Huang family in Jiangxia is now the Shangshu Ling as one of the top ten auxiliary ministers. It is only said that Huang Zu did not talk about generals and only talked about reputation, and he once competed with Lu Bu as the position of Minister of War in Yecheng. In order to win over the Huang family in Jiangxia, Yuan Shao had to accept Huang Zu as the prefect of Jiangxia and let him guard Jiangxia with his son Huang She. (To be continued...)

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