When Taishi Ci received the news from Liu Ji, he felt that the heavy burden on his heart was slightly relieved, but the current situation really made him unhappy.
He had tried his best to deal with Wu Jun, but it was difficult to applaud. Sun Ce was already in a strong position, and Tai Shici alone could not resist it.
Taishi Ci could not be blamed for non-war crimes, but Taishi Ci felt aggrieved when he thought that Yuan Xi had put him here and he had accomplished nothing.
It would be great if I and Sun Ce were evenly matched!
Zhao Yun, who had a similar status to himself before, is now more and more prosperous. He not only pacified several counties in Youzhou, but also participated in the military campaign to capture Heishan and led the army alone. It is said that the progress was quite smooth.
Taishi Ci thought that if this continues, he will be far behind. His goal is to carry a seven-foot sword and ascend to the emperor's temple, but now he is trapped in Jiangdong, without any opportunity to make great achievements.
In particular, the news of Qu Yi's death in battle made Taishi Ci feel sad. Speaking of Yuan Xi's subordinates, the most famous one was Qu Yi. He led the dead soldiers in dozens of battles and was well-known in the north.
Zhao Yuntai, Shi Ci and others were not as famous as Qu Yi alone.
However, even such a famous general ended up dead in the end, which made Taishi Ci feel sad and anxious at the same time.
Because Taishi Ci knew that there was not much time left for him.
The secret breathing method he used was from the Taiping Dao secret method, which was extremely harmful to the body. Later, Tai Shici improved it and increased its power, but the damage to the body also became greater.
Taishi Ci estimated that it would be good if he could live to be forty years old. Before he died, he must make great achievements and leave his name in history!
Thinking of this, he stood up suddenly. Since Liu Yao allowed him to take the nobles back to Guangling, he was not polite. The first goal was to convince Lu Xun!
In Xiapi, Xuzhou, the three brothers Liu, Guan, and Zhang were sitting around drinking.
Liu Bei has been in a good mood recently. With his extensive benevolent policies and winning over people's hearts, the Xuzhou nobles began to slowly turn to Liu Bei, and his reputation among the people increased.
Xuzhou has fertile land and developed commerce. As long as it does not suffer from military disasters, it will be a prosperous place. Since the last time Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi teamed up to defeat Sun Ce and Cao Cao, Sun Ce saw that Xuzhou was difficult to obtain, so he focused his strategy on Yangzhou and Cao Cao.
In the same way, in order to please the emperor, most of the troops were transferred to Sili and the western part of Yanzhou.
In this way, Liu Bei's pressure was greatly reduced. At the same time, he occupied the East China Sea Kingdom, which already had several outlets to the sea. He relied on the Mi family to operate maritime trade and did business with the Yuan family in Guangling. In a short period of time, he accumulated
Make a lot of wealth.
He used the wealth to recruit troops and build a new team of more than 10,000 people. These numbers were not small, so Liu Bei instantly felt that he was capable again.
The only thing that worried him was that Yuan Shao asked him to attack Dongwuyang. Liu Bei was certainly not stupid and was trying every means to delay sending troops to avoid too much loss.
He was slightly drunk now and said to Guan Zhang: "What am I talking about? We are just a bit unlucky!"
"Now that we have the opportunity, shouldn't we make a comeback?"
Zhang Fei also laughed loudly and said: "Brother!"
"We are now prosperous, so it's time for me to find a wife!"
"Brother, look at me, I'm not bad looking either. Is there anyone in Xuzhou who likes my third brother? Brother, please help me be a matchmaker!"
Liu Bei shook the wine glass in his hand and almost spilled the wine. He said, "I remember it. I will ask my third brother in a few days."
Zhang Fei was overjoyed when he heard this. He raised his wine cup and said, "Brother, that's great!"
"Third brother, let me give you a toast to the eldest brother!"
The two of them had a drink together. Liu Bei looked at Guan Yu, saw that he lowered his head and remained silent, and said, "Second brother, is there something on your mind?"
After hearing this, Guan Yu sighed, "Brother, I am indeed a little troubled."
"My wife and I have been married for a few years, but we have never had any children. Seeing that we have settled down, we have some thoughts."
Liu Bei heard this and smiled: "Isn't it just taking a concubine?"
"I think there are some good girls from good families. Tomorrow I will help my second brother to visit you as a lobbyist!"
Just as Guan Yu was about to thank him, he heard Zhang Fei mutter: "Brother is partial!"
"My eldest brother just said something about me a few days ago. Why is my second brother taking a concubine? My eldest brother is in a hurry to do it tomorrow?"
"Does the eldest brother think that my appearance is not as good as that of the second brother?"
After hearing this, Liu Bei raised his glass awkwardly, "No way, third brother, don't think too much."
"Drink, drink!"
Zhang Fei heard this and shouted: "Okay, drink, drink, drink!"
Seeing that he had fooled Zhang Fei, Liu Bei was relieved when he heard Guan Yu say: "The world has changed a lot now. Brother, have you ever thought about what we will do next?"
Liu Bei was startled, "What does the second brother mean?"
Guan Yu said: "Now we are between the forces of Yuan Yuan and Cao Cao. If there is a fight between the two parties, we will be the first to be affected."
"Brother, do you think we will be able to protect ourselves by then?"
"We are trapped in Xuzhou, are we going to live like this for the rest of our lives?"
When Liu Bei heard this, he was horrified. He put down the wine baron and said, "What my second brother said is that I really don't want to make progress."
"But my second brother wants to understand my difficulties. I don't want to, but I can't."
"Yuan Benchu, Yuan Gongli, Sun Boxu, Cao Mengde, among these forces, which one can we deal with?"
"These days, I am always worried, but unfortunately no one can give me guidance. It really makes me feel uncomfortable."
Guan Yu was silent after hearing this. Liu Bei's men lacked good counselors. In contrast, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's men were full of talents and even competed with each other. Compared with Liu Bei's shabbyness, it was a world of difference.
He could only say: "I heard that Sun Ce is very anxious to attack Jiangdong. If Wu County is captured, many nobles will definitely flee north to Xuzhou because they are afraid of Sun Ce."
"Maybe there's someone available inside."
After hearing this, Liu Bei was overjoyed and said: "What my second brother said is that I will prepare ships, carriages and horses by the river to see if any Jiangdong nobles defect to me."
Guan Yu and Liu Bei had a tacit understanding, but what they did not say was that if Liu Bei recruited Jiangdong nobles as officials, he would be able to contain and suppress the local nobles in Xuzhou, thus preventing them from being emptied of power by the local nobles.
Liu Bei's idea is the most common method used by princes today to use strategies and tactics to control their subordinates.
Yuan Shao is using it, Cao Cao is using it, Yuan Xi is using it, and even Liu Xie is using it now.
Liu Xie took out a huge piece of silk, and Ming's attendants filled in the vacant official positions one by one on it. There were several names below, which were the candidates for this official position.
Then every time he wrote one, he asked ten ministers, including Yang Biao and Kong Rong, to express their opinions. If everyone objected, the name of the person would be crossed out.
If there are many people who agree, the person's name will be ranked at the top. If someone else nominates, the name will be added.
In view of the fact that there are not many vacant official positions, and the number of candidates is several times that number, it is really a waste of time and energy for ten ministers to express their opinions on each one.
But Liu Xie had already spoken in advance, and no one could leave until the matter was settled.
Therefore, after summoning Cao Cao, Zhao Yun and others, the ministers discussed until late at night, without rest for several hours, and only less than half of the candidates for the official positions on the cloth were decided.
This is still uncontroversial. Controversies are left behind and may take several times more time to discuss.
Liu Xie saw that all the ministers looked tired, so he asked them to rest for a while. The maid brought honey water to quench their thirst. After everyone drank it, they calmed down a little.
But Liu Xie had a rough idea.
Through this process, he understood the views of his close ministers on the various forces, and understood who stood with whom.
Kong Rong was the most anti-Cao Cao, but he seemed to have a bad opinion of Yuan Xi.
Zhong Yao and Ding Chong unabashedly sided with Cao Cao.
Dong Zhao seemed to be on Cao Cao's side.
Yang Biao was the most loyal to himself and seemed to be very wary of Cao Cao, but he did not support other forces.
Dong Cheng still didn't dare to express his position easily, fearing that he was scared out of his wits, but he faintly sided with Lu Bu.
The remaining few have their own biases, and some even speak for Yuan Shao.
Liu Xie's idea is really interesting. The ten ministers were divided into several factions. This is the way to serve as a minister?
Just at this moment, an urgent message came, about Li Le, the general of the Baibo Army who led his troops out of the city to stop the Southern Huns in the north.
The letter said that the Southern Xiongnu did not come. He had been deceived and was ashamed of the emperor. Now he would return his title and seal and return to the territory of Baibo Army.
When Liu Xie saw it, he showed the letter to everyone and said, "General Li is too serious and left for this reason. How can I blame him?"
"Is this because he was disappointed in me after receiving the news that the Baibo Army was attacked?"
"Or is this letter originally a fake, and something unexpected has happened to General Li Le?"
All the ministers looked at each other and were speechless for a moment. Liu Xie walked up to the silk fabric, wrote the name of General Li Le Zhengdong on it, and said: "Now, another official position will be awarded."
Everyone discussed it until a hint of fish belly white appeared on the horizon, and then they matched the names on the silk one by one, and the dust settled.
But everyone including Zhong Yao and Dong Zhao couldn't help but be secretly frightened when they looked at the names on the silk.
Because the final result on the silk screen was so different from their previous expectations, and after discussions between all parties, it changed beyond recognition.
They believed that after the results on this piece of silk came out, the forces waiting outside must not have expected that if they were announced, it would cause an uproar, because the results took advantage of the conflicts between the various princes and even led them to
The situation of mutual restraint and fighting escalates.
Yang Biao stood in front of Silk Silk, his beard trembling slightly. He couldn't imagine how Liu Xie could accept everyone's ideas on the surface, but secretly lead the result to the ending in front of him.
Was it planned in advance or was it an unintentional move?
If it's the former, given Liu Xie's age, his character is terrible!
Liu Xie asked his attendants to copy down the results on the silk, and then asked Zhong Yao to draft the edict.
Zhong Yao's calligraphy is the best among all the officials, so he, the Huangmenling, is responsible for drafting and announcing the edict. But now he showed a rare hesitation and said: "Your Majesty, if it were not before the edict was announced,
Let outsiders know and let them defend themselves if they have other ideas?"
Liu Xie said calmly: "No need."
"If they are unwilling to accept the order, I will not force it."
Zhong Yao heard this and knew that Liu Xie had made up his mind. He quickly drafted a decree and Liu Xie posted it.
As expected, this caused an uproar. Yuan Xi, who was in Anyi, also received an urgent letter from Jushou two days later and learned the content of the decree.
He looked at the content of the letter and thought that this was beyond his expectation. Now, the general trend of the world was about to change again.