Before Li Ru set out, he discussed two questions with Jia Xu: Should we establish an ally with Sun Ce? If so, what conditions can we agree to and how to form an alliance?

The reason for the previous problem is that Jia Xu has always been skeptical of Sun Ce's strategy. The situation of being attacked from three sides is too dangerous. In this case, Sun Ce still divided his troops and attacked from two groups, which was really contrary to the way of using troops, which was very different from the previous stability of Sun Ce. Zhou Yu and Huang Zhong's advance were blocked and he was unable to make substantial progress for a long time, which also confirmed Jia Xu's concerns. He had to consider that Sun Ce had the possibility of collapse.

Things are impermanent, and things on the battlefield are even more so. There are countless cases of sudden capsizing along the way. The most famous one is of course the real overlord Xiang Yu, who has already destroyed Qin and enfeoffed the world. Because of a major strategic mistake, he finally defeated Gaixia and died in Wujiang. The arrogant army will be defeated. Who can guarantee that Sun Ce will not be proud of the moment and repeat Xiang Yu's mistakes?

In contrast, Li Ru lived in Nanyang and Runan for a while and had a lot of contact with Sun Ce. He had a personal experience of Sun Ce's new policy and was more confident in Sun Ce. Therefore, under his strong advocacy, there was a second question: If we want to establish an ally with Sun Ce, what conditions can we agree to and how to form an alliance?

Accepting qualifying is an option, and marriage is also an option. Dong Yue has decided to marry his daughter Dong Qing to Jiang Gan, but Jia Xu couldn't stop him and could only go with the flow. Jia Xu has children, and they are all adults, so he can also marry, but Jia Xu does not want to marry Sun Ce. He only agreed to accept qualifying and sent his second son Jia Fang to Sun Ce as a qualifying. In addition, Jia Xu is also willing to recommend a group of Liangzhou teenagers to Sun Ce to serve under Sun Ce, such as Zhang Xiu.

Compared with marriage, the quality of taking advantage of the qualities is of course much inferior, but Jia Xu insisted on this and left some way out for himself, Li Ru could only do it.

Sun Ce was prepared for Jia Xu's attitude. It took Li Ru more than a month to get from Hedong to Xiangyang, and he stopped and stopped halfway. Naturally, it was not just because he was old and weak and had limited energy, but wanted to see his strength with his own eyes and see if he had a chance to win. Since Li Ru had come here, he naturally had made a decision, and the rest was bargaining.

Jia Xu's first condition was the 30,000 stone sea salt. He hoped that Sun Ce could hand over the 30,000 stone sea salt directly to him and deal with it, or simply exchange it for other materials, such as grain and weapons. The 30,000 stone sea salt entered Hongnong, and Hedong had too much influence on him, even if the 30,000 stone sea salt was controlled by Dong Yue. Dong Yue had a brain, but his brain was limited, so it was difficult to ask him to keep rational when he saw so much salt.

Sun Ce did not immediately agree to Li Ru, saying that he would discuss with Dong Yue and gain Dong Yue's approval. The gift list has been given, and it would be unkind to go back on his word. It is even more impossible to hand it over to Jia Xu. This is a huge sum of nearly 30 million yuan. Why should I give it to you? It's because you sent your son to be a hostage? Sun Ce disagreed with this. Hostages are usually unreliable. With Jia Xu's personality, if the situation really changes significantly, he won't care about his son's life or death. As for others, such as Zhang Xiu, he doesn't care about him. In history, Zhang Xiu was forced to commit suicide by Cao Pi, but Jia Xu had no reaction. In the end, he helped Cao Pi ascend the throne and was rewarded for the position of Taiwei.

The bargaining matter was discussed slowly, and Sun Ce was not in a hurry. He never expected Jia Xu to take the initiative to help. As long as Jia Xu could not make trouble, don't stab him when he was most nervous. Jia Xu could not count on his character, so he could only cut off the firewood from the bottom of the pot and break up his team. Jia Xu was proficient in military tactics, but he was not Dong Zhuo after all, and he was able to kill the enemy in person. So far, he had no experience in commanding the battle and winning. Dong Yue and others just regarded him as a counselor, and it was not difficult to separate them.

In front of the 30,000-stone sea salt, Dong Yue's performance fully exposed Jia Xu's weakness in control. If it weren't for Liangzhou, his influence on Dong Yue and others might be worse than that of Li Ru. Li Ru was a serious scholar with a good knowledge and was once recruited as a doctor by the court. Dong Zhuo and his subordinates were rude and cruel. They recognized limited characters, but they admired scholars. Therefore, when Dong Zhuo entered the capital, Jia Xu, who had followed Dong Zhuo for many years, only became a Taiwei officer. Li Ru, who had just defected to Dong Zhuo, suddenly became a doctor and ranked as the Nine Ministers.

Sun Ce was not in a hurry, but Li Ru was a little anxious, especially after he learned that Huang Zhong and Zhou Yu had made breakthrough progress. If Sun Ce successfully took over Yizhou, the situation in the world would be clear. Considering the bad reputation of Liangzhou people in Nanyang, Jia Xu's fate could be imagined. However, Li Ru couldn't figure out the truth and asked Sun Ce about the situation related to the battle, but Sun Ce was vague and refused to tell the specific situation. Li Ru was worried that Sun Ce would make a bluff and forced Jia Xu to submit, so hesitated and did not dare to make a decision easily.

The negotiations were dragged undyingly, and the days passed day by day, and it was the end of October in a blink of an eye, and the year was about to end again.

At this moment, news came from Guanzhong that the emperor was about to read it.

The emperor took the initiative to attack Nanyang, and was within the planning of the military advisor, but it was a very unlikely option. Sun Ce himself, including him, felt that unless the war between the two wings was stalemate, the troops were dispersed, and there were flaws in the middle, the emperor could take risks in order to kill with one blow. In Jiaozhou, there was almost no movement, Yuan Tan left with one blow, and Cao Cao was forced to bet by Huang Zhong and Zhou Yu. His central army did not need to leave Xiangyang at all, the emperor was bluffing and encouraged Cao Cao and Yuan Tan, or wanted to take a gamble, which became a question that Sun Ce could not determine.

The Military Advisory Department responded urgently, analyzed the emperor's intentions, and deduced the situation. Guo Jia personally presided over and did not dare to be careless at all.

Sun Ce was very calm. Although this result was a bit unexpected, it was not completely unpredictable. The emperor was not a weak person who left fate. He could hold on for twenty years while Cao Cao monopolized the power, but he died of Cao Cao. Now that the relevant Zhong was in hand, how could he be tied up? Under his step by step, the emperor's reaction was the most normal.

For him, defeating the emperor is not a problem. The problem is how to defeat the emperor. After defeating the emperor, he will not give others a chance. He doesn't care about killing the regicide, but if he is likely to find someone to take the blame, he will not refuse, especially the old turtle who is determined to cheat and cheat. Li Ru killed his brother and Jia Xu killed his younger brother. This is a perfect match for the old CP.

When Sun Ce thought of Jia Xu's reaction, he felt an evil pleasure in his heart and couldn't help but want to laugh.

Jia Wenhe, the time has come to test you.

Sun Ce immediately found Guo Jia and told him his thoughts. Guo Jia touched his chin and pondered for a long time, slightly slightly. "King, this idea is interesting, I like it."

“Can it be done?”

"Yes, it may not look good."

"What's the meaning?"

"Jia Xu is full of wisdom and is the most slippery in life. If you want to be smart, you will inevitably have concerns. If you spend too much effort, you may get a chance. If you deal with such people, you should do the opposite. If you don't drink water, you will force yourself to press your head. No matter what tricks he uses, I will defeat him with strength."

Sun Ce couldn't help laughing. "Playing a rogue?"

"No, one force will bring down ten times." Guo Jia laughed silently, his eyes cunning.

——

Jia Xu suddenly shuddered and his eyelids jumped twice.

He put down the book in his hand, stood up and went out of the door, held the railing, and looked at the undulating mountains in the distance, feeling a burst of uneasiness in his heart.

When counting the date, Li Ru should have arrived in Xiangyang, and I don’t know if he saw Sun Ce. After so long, what is Sun Ce’s attitude, whether he will meet Li Ru, and whether he can agree to his conditions, he has no confidence in the negotiations. He is not strong enough and has too few chips in his hand. One of the only chips, Yan, is still facing Sun Ce’s threat, and he really has no confidence in the negotiations.

As his eyes turned, he seemed to see two figures in the corridor of the front yard, and he couldn't help but stayed a little divine. He looked carefully and recognized that one of the two was the thief Cao Lie, who had just joined the prefect's office, and the other was Hu Cheer, the Qiang slave, beside him. Hu Cheer was very strong and came to Bingzhou with Zhang Xiu. Jia Xu felt that he could be used, so he kept him by his side as a guard.

Why did these two people get together? Jia Xu was very curious. He went downstairs quietly, came to the hall, and waited quietly. After a while, Hu Cheer walked in quietly, holding a roll of paper in his hand. Seeing Jia Xu sitting in the hall, Hu Cheer was a little surprised, stopped, looked upstairs, and then looked at Jia Xu, and quietly stuffed the paper in his hand into his sleeves.

"Mr. Jun. Why don't I know when you went downstairs?" Hu Che'er grinned with a big mouth and smiled silly.

"It'll be down for a while." Jia Xu looked at Hu Cheer lightly. "What's Wu Qiu Xing looking for you?"

Hearing the three words "王如无无", Hu Cheer was a little nervous and subconsciously touched his sleeves. Jia Xu saw it carefully and said slowly. "Have he given you money again and asked you to pick up the newspapers of the previous period for him?"

Hu Cheer opened his eyes wide and licked his lips. "Jun... Junhou, do you... know everything?"

Jia Xu snorted. The Qiang people were poor and had difficulty in making a living. Stealing was never a shameful thing for them, but a natural habit of living. After Hu Cheer followed him, although he was not worried about food, he could not change his habit of greed for money and thieving. Fortunately, he knew the importance and knew what he could steal and what he could not steal. Jia Xu did not blame him. Recently, he found out that he had read a few fewer newspapers, and found them again two days later. When he saw Hu Cheer's expression again, it was probably because he had secretly used it to sell favors.

These newspapers are from Jingzhou and Yuzhou, and there are a lot of news about products. Hedong merchants are more concerned about them and often come to inquire. But I don’t know why Qi Qiu Xing was interested in this, maybe he was inquiring for others.

"What did you say after a long time?"

"I didn't say anything. He wanted to find news about the war in Hanzhong. I didn't know which newspaper it was. I just found a copy for him. He said I took the wrong one and asked me to look for it again."

Jia Xu pondered for a moment, got up and walked upstairs. After a while, he came down again and handed a roll of paper to Hu Cheer. "You are looking for the wrong thing, what he wants is this."
Chapter completed!