Chapter 375 Twenty-one Princes (4)

Author: The guy with the razor blade

Chapter 375 Twenty-one Princes (4)

Chu Xiong has his own little calculations, and Li Ji also has his own considerations.

Jingzhou has an extremely important position in the past dynasties. When Liu Bei visited the thatched cottage three times, Zhuge Liang said this: "Jingzhou controls Han Mian in the north, takes full advantage of the South China Sea, and can connect Wuhui to the east and Ba and Shu to the west."

Lu Su, the second governor of Soochow, also told Sun Quan that Jingzhou and Soochow are geographically connected. The Yangtze River flows east from Jingzhou into Wu, taking Jianghan with it. Jingzhou is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and is the western part of Soochow.

The online portal must be controlled by Soochow so that their power can be safe.

The struggle between the three forces of Wei, Shu and Wu in Jingzhou can be said to be a microcosm of the struggle for the Central Plains.

If Li Ji takes over the entire Yangzhou, his power will be equivalent to that of Soochow back then. Then the next step will be to take over Jingzhou on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

As long as Jingzhou is captured, Li Ji can take a radical approach and march north from Xiangyang to the Central Plains. Conservatively, he can control Jingzhou and Yangzhou and separat the south based on the danger of the Yangtze River.

Although Chu Xiong is one of the top lords in Jingzhou and has also become the prefect of Lingling, among all the players in Jingzhou, he is the most promising to win Jingzhou.

But in front of Liu Biao, who rode into Jingzhou alone, Chu Xiong's team seemed not to be impressed enough. Let's not talk about the generals. The outstanding children of the Kuai family and Cai family in Jingzhou alone could make Chu Xiong spit in his mouth.

The ground drowned.

Liu Biao in history had hundreds of thousands of troops, and there was no shortage of fierce generals and counselors. Sitting on the wealthy land of Jingzhou, he had unlimited war potential.

Liu Bei, who wandered around for the first half of his life, came to the precious land of Jingzhou and transformed into a prince in the true sense.

In Li Ji's view, the more chaotic the treasure land of Jingzhou, the better. It is best to launch a war at every moment. In this case, whether Liu Biao or Chu Xiong capture Jingzhou, they will also lose the most valuable period of development.

At that time, Li Ji had already integrated the resources of Yangzhou, and with the power of a tiger, he swept away all the forces in Jingzhou and controlled the entire Yangtze River.

Since Chu Xiong wanted to have a fight with Liu Biao, Li Ji simply went with the flow and tried to pull him out when necessary to trick Liu Biao.

"Oh, you were asked to send troops to help, and you agreed directly. I sold you so many horses, but your troops haven't shown up yet."

Ding Xia gave Li Ji a slap in the face, her eyes filled with dissatisfaction.

"I also spent money to buy your war horses, okay? Look at where there are big dogs in the south, buying so many war horses from you every year. The money I spent with you is enough for you to build a well-equipped army."

Li Ji rubbed his swollen shoulders. He didn't expect that Ding Xia's blows would hurt so much and she was so strong.

"The little money you have is not as good as my appropriation from Liu Yu." Ding Xia said with her arms crossed.

"I know, I know, Liu Yu's most capable general, if he doesn't count on you, who else can he count on to help him fight Gongsun Zan?"

Ding Xia is very lucky. She has Yang Miaozhen and She Saihua in military, Qin Liangyu in Tong, Song Xiance in wisdom, and Liu Yu is a big mountain behind her.

On the other hand, Gongsun Zan, although he had the help of the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang, it was difficult to take advantage of Liu Yu who had the help of Ding Xia and a group of female generals. The speed of conquering Youzhou was much slower than in history.

When Chu Xiong and Sun Wei heard that Ding Xia was selling war horses, they immediately started gearing up and asked Ding Xia about the price of the war horses.

For young horses in the south, especially Chu Xiong in Jingnan and Sun Wei in Jiaozhou, war horses are extremely rare strategic resources. Now that there are channels to purchase war horses, they can't help but get excited.

These three princes began to ignore Li Ji and start doing business. Li Ji was also happy to have some leisure time and directly scanned the other princes with his eyes.

These princes did not take the initiative to say hello to Li Ji, and basically had no relationship with them. Li Ji did not like to be hot-faced and cold-butt, so he only looked at them with his eyes and pretended to be familiar with them.

Noticing Li Ji's gaze, many princes also nodded to Li Ji, but when Li Ji saw Liu Dai, the shepherd of Yanzhou, he found that he was looking at him with a dark face.

At first, Li Ji thought that he had some grudge against him, but when he thought about the relationship between Liu Dai and Liu Yao, he suddenly understood.

Liu Dai and Liu Yao were born from the same father, and they were on the same side most of the time. Li Ji had always bullied Liu Yao in Yangzhou, so Liu Dai, as a brother, would naturally not look good on Li Ji.

look.

But Li Ji didn't care, since he had offended Liu Yao a long time ago, and it didn't matter if he offended Liu Dai again. As the saying goes, if you have too many debts, you won't be burdened by them.

Besides, Li Ji remembered very clearly that after the war against Dong was over, he, Liu Dai, would not have long to live.

To establish a good relationship with Liu Dai, Li Ji might as well develop a relationship with Cao Cao, the future shepherd of Yanzhou.

"Li Ji, the alliance is the most important thing, but you came so slowly that all the princes in the world are waiting for you. Judging from your troops, it doesn't seem to be too many."

Suddenly a drake voice sounded. Li Ji looked towards the source of the sound, and the figure of Skeleton King Yuan Shu suddenly appeared in his sight.

Li Ji raised his eyebrows. He did not expect that Yuan Shu would actually cause trouble for him at this time. It seemed that Yuan Shu was still thinking about the unpleasant quarrel he had with him in the general's mansion.

However, Li Ji would not tolerate the other party. He coughed twice and said a little tiredly: "I accidentally contracted the cold before and was unable to handle the affairs of the county. Please forgive me for being late."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter."

The other princes shook their heads and said.

Even though others were infected with the cold, they still insisted on leading troops to attack Dong. This shows how the other party had the best interests of the Han in mind, and ordinary princes would not trouble Li Ji on this small issue.

"Is Anmin's body recovering? There are many doctors and craftsmen in our army accompanying him." Sun Jian asked with concern.

Li Ji waved his hand and replied: "No need to worry, Governor Yuan sent someone to send some miraculous medicine a few days ago. With the miraculous medicine from the Governor, my body has been cured."

Panacea?

The other princes present looked at each other one after another, and they always felt that this panacea seemed to have other meanings.

Yuan Shao, who was next to Yuan Shu, suddenly turned dark. He originally wanted to see how Yuan Shu would make Li Ji lose face, but as a result, Li Ji's magical elixir instantly made him the focus of everyone.

He, Yuan Shao, wants to be noticed by everyone, but not in this way...

Yuan Shao took a small step forward, and when he was about to explain, Li Ji suddenly winked at him, and then said loudly:

"Everyone, please listen to what Ji has to say. Nowadays, the 21st princes of Suizhao have gathered together, and there are millions of soldiers. But if there is no one to unified and control, the princes will only fight on their own. How can they be the opponent of Thief Dong? According to

In my opinion, how about electing an alliance leader to lead all the princes to fight together?"

"The governor of Bohai, Yuan Benchu, not only came from the Yuan family in Runan and has a prominent position, but he was also the first prince to write a petition against Dong. He has a great reputation. He also often cares about us and other minor princes. He is undoubtedly a man of both political integrity and talent.

I think the leader of the alliance should be Yuan Taishou!"

After hearing Li Ji's words, Yuan Shao's eyes lit up. Just as his counselor Cui Hao said, blood relatives are worse than inducements. Yuan Shu had been competing with him everywhere before, but Li Ji's words directly lifted him out. , trying to help him become the leader of the alliance, which is comparable to a divine assist.

It is such a majestic thing to become the leader of the alliance of princes and command millions of troops. Moreover, as the leader of the alliance, he can suppress Yuan Shu firmly.

As for the panacea Li Ji talked about, he had long forgotten about it. No panacea was more important than the leaders of the princes and alliances.

"That makes sense!"

Jizhou Mu Han Fu, a protégé of the Yuan family, was the first to speak out in support, "The Bohai Prefect is the best candidate to serve as the leader of the alliance, both in terms of talent and moral character."

Han Fu deserves to be the loyal younger brother of the Yuan family in Runan, and he stated his position straightforwardly.

"Being the leader of the alliance is indeed a good choice..."

Cao Cao muttered softly, but Yuan Shu never heard him clearly.

At this time, Yuan Shu was extremely emotionally unstable. He looked at Li Ji as if he were looking at the enemy who killed his father. If he had the power, Li Ji would have been cut to pieces by a thousand cuts.

From Yuan Shu's point of view, he had suppressed Li Ji before and never wanted to directly push Li Ji to Yuan Shao's side. The other party did not hesitate to give up the fight for the position of alliance leader and wanted to push Yuan Shao up to retaliate against him.

He hates Li Ji, but he hates Yuan Shao even more.

At this time, Yuan Shao had become a key figure in various princes, and his popularity was unprecedented.

Yuan Shu looked up at Sun Jian and motioned to the Jiangdong Tiger who was forced to tie up his chariot to speak out for him.

Sun Jian gritted his teeth and said bravely: "Actually, Yuan Jiujiu is also from the Yuan family in Runan, and he is the candidate to be the leader of the alliance."

But his words did not create waves in the discussion among the princes, and were instantly covered by the voices of other princes.

Yuan Shu's face instantly turned livid.

Except for the generals under Yuan Shu, no one cared about Yuan Shu's feelings.

Yuan Shu's generals wanted to comfort him, but Yuan Shu was exuding murderous intent, which made them afraid to speak out, for fear that if they did anything wrong, they might be killed.

Li Ji, who had raised his head, had quietly retreated, looking coldly at Yuan Shao, who was deeply trapped in the center of public opinion, but remained indifferent.

According to Chinese tradition, once someone assumes a position such as alliance leader, the person with the loudest voice will definitely decline. Three invitations and three concessions are the most basic operations.

Yuan Shao smiled knowingly, cleared his throat and said: "Everyone, Shao is just a prefect of a county, and among the princes present there are many state shepherds and governors. And compared to the Yuan family in Runan, the Han clan clan is more

He is qualified to serve as the leader of the alliance. In Shao’s opinion, Yanzhou Mu should be the leader.”

Among the princes present, only Liu Dai, Tao Qian, Kong Niao, Kong Rong and Liu Zhang who attended on Liu Yan's behalf were state pastors and governors. Among them, Liu Dai and Liu Zhang were clan members of the Han Dynasty.

After all, Liu Zhang was attending on behalf of Liu Yan and was inferior to Liu Dai in terms of seniority and age. According to Yuan Shao, Yanzhou Shepherd Liu Dai was naturally the best candidate to serve as the leader of the alliance.

It's just that the princes like Cao Cao, Li Ji and others who had brains or advisors around them could see at a glance that Yuan Shao's words were just a refusal.

Although Liu Dai was a clan member of the Han Dynasty and a state shepherd, Liu Dai's Yanzhou army was far less numerous than Yuan Shao's and their military level was not good enough.

If it were just a matter of blood, then Liu Bei, who had taken refuge with Gongsun Zan, would also be eligible to run for the position of alliance leader.

Liu Dai easily understood Yuan Shao's little thoughts and said nonchalantly: "The alliance leader requires overall planning, but my ability is average. On the other hand, Benchu's talents are superior, and I cannot compare. This alliance leader is still the original leader."

most."

He knew how much he weighed, and he also understood how important the alliance leader was to the coalition of princes. Liu Dai did not dare to take over the job, so he had to hand over the alliance leader to Yuan Shao, who was more suitable.

Liu Dai's words undoubtedly firmly pinned Yuan Shao to the position of alliance leader. Unless someone more qualified than Yuan Shao appears to be the alliance leader, Yuan Shao's appointment as alliance leader is already a certainty.

Seeing Yuan Shao's expression of wanting to laugh but not wanting to laugh, Li Ji suddenly became a little happy.

Although in terms of ability, among the twenty-one princes, there is indeed a candidate who is more suitable to be the leader of the alliance than Yuan Shao, but with both ability and qualifications, there is really no one who can compare with Yuan Shao.
To be continued...