Liu Bei was quite emotional after hearing Xun You's initiative.
"So that's it. Then it seems that the Xun family can't be blamed too much for this matter. After all, no one could have predicted what would happen next, and no one would have thought that the Yuan family would really rebel."
Xun You nodded.
"About His Majesty's edict, I will never tell Mr. Xun in advance, but I hope you can consider the issue of Mr. Xun's ignorance. Under the current situation, if Mr. Xun can really make a decision to completely join forces with you
, I was really surprised.”
Liu Bei smiled and patted Xun You on the shoulder.
"Gongda, you don't have to think too much. I have my considerations, and Xunshi has Xunshi's concerns. I won't blame them. You just need to do what you should do."
"only!"
Xun You bowed to Liu Bei with a heavy heart and then left.
After walking a few steps, Liu Bei suddenly called out to Xun You.
"Gongda."
"Um?"
Xun You turned his head and looked at Liu Bei doubtfully.
Liu Bei smiled at him.
"I trust you."
Liu Bei's smile and words were like a warm wind blowing through Xun You's heart. At that moment, Xun You's mood blossomed, just like the spring breeze blowing over Lugu Lake and the autumn rain soaking into Jiuzhaigou.
Xun You was no longer anxious.
Liu Bei doesn't feel worried or impatient now.
Firstly, he knew that the power of his pressure was far inferior to that of Emperor Huan Liu Zhi. Secondly, it was profitable for him to pull Xun You away from the family and towards him.
There are many things that Mr. Xun doesn't know. If he withstands the pressure and really surrenders to him at this time, it is estimated that he will have to give back a lot in the future, and he may not be willing to give it up.
Therefore, Liu Bei changed his mind and no longer sought Xun's full support and help.
On the other hand, Liu Bei's guess was correct. Yuan Wei did not trust Zhang Rang very much, but his distrust stemmed from arrogance and felt that it was unsafe to rely on Zhang Rang. It was not because he doubted Zhang Rang's ability to join forces with Liu Bei.
In his opinion, there may be scholars who cooperate with eunuchs for the sake of glory and wealth, but how can there be scholars and eunuchs planning life and death?
So in addition to Zhang Rang, he also arranged an absolutely reliable assassination team composed of disciples of the Yuan family, preparing to add an insurance. If Zhang Rang fails to succeed, they can immediately take over and step forward to hit the target.
Liu Bei's fatal blow.
It is not an easy task to assassinate Liu Bei.
At that time, he heard that the Yang family was planning to organize people to assassinate Liu Bei because of Yang Ci's humiliation. However, after learning about Liu Bei's wild past, he hoped that the Yang family could offer them a slightly higher price.
In short, someone found out Liu Bei's past and found out that Liu Bei was a street fighter. He started participating in multi-player street sports when he was twelve or thirteen years old. He was physically strong and could fight very well.
So the people summoned by the Yang family were a little scared. They felt that if they killed Liu Bei, they might lose a lot of manpower and they would not be able to sustain it, so they hoped that the Yang family could give them more benefits.
Need to add money.
But the Yang family was reluctant to offer a higher price, or they believed that Liu Bei's life was not worth the price, so the deal was not negotiated, making the Yang family the laughing stock of everyone.
This time, Yuan Wei learned from Yang's experience and lessons and decided not to do anything fake, but only to play with the truth.
As long as you disciples are willing to work for me to assassinate Liu Bei, after the deed is accomplished, those who are alive will be promoted to disciples of the Yuan family, and those who are dead will be directly accepted as disciples by their descendants.
Are you satisfied with this price?
Need more money?
The answer is of course satisfying to Yuan Wei.
No disciple of the Yuan family could refuse the temptation of this price, so an absolutely elite iron-blooded assassination team was formed. They seized the time to polish their skills and continued to refine their existing skills, ready to give Liu Bei a fatal blow.
hit.
In addition to the assassination team in the city, outside the city, He Jin and Yuan Wei also made a division of labor. Yuan Wei was responsible for getting rid of Liu Bei inside the city, while He Jin was responsible for launching sneak attacks on Liu Bei's army outside the city, striving to defeat the leaderless army in one go.
Liangzhou soldiers.
He Jin was confident about this sneak attack.
Among the armies under his command, the Northern Army, Yulin Army and Huben Army are all elites who have been on the battlefield, and have relatively strong combat effectiveness and rich combat experience.
Although he could not legitimately mobilize these three troops without the emperor's order, the leaders of these three troops were basically his people and Yuan Wei's people. At the critical moment, the emperor's order would no longer be absolutely necessary.
, but a dispensable existence.
Therefore, these three troops have combat effectiveness and are relatively reliable.
As for the foreign soldiers who have not left before, although their combat effectiveness is not very strong, their officers are basically related to the Yuan family, so they are relatively reliable and can serve as second-line troops.
The soldiers recruited later from the Sanhe area, Chenliu, Yingchuan and other places lacked combat effectiveness and training and could only serve as cannon fodder, but their numbers were still good. Together with the foreign soldiers, they amounted to about 30,000.
The Northern Army, the Yulin Army and the Huben Army combined totaled more than 14,000 people, which was nearly 45,000 soldiers and horses. While they had a certain combat effectiveness, they could also serve as a very good cannon fodder.
As for the main force that was actually used to attack and win the decisive victory, it was this group of Bingzhou soldiers who went south one after another, and the Bingzhou soldiers who came to Luoyang before.
The number of this group of people is not very large, less than 4,000 so far, but their combat effectiveness is very strong. The generals who followed are also relatively strong, very brave, and have high overall quality. The strongest guy named Lu Bu has already
He is He Jin's personal guard general.
He Jin calculated the military strength of about 50,000 at his disposal and felt that as long as Yuan Wei could successfully assassinate Liu Bei, he would be sure of victory.
Although Liu Bei also has a good military force, such as his 20,000 Liangzhou soldiers, plus about 30,000 Xiyuan Army and Luoyang City soldiers and horses controlled by Dong Zhong, the total number of people on Liu Bei's side is
Basically the number of people on He Jin's side is the same.
One hundred thousand troops gathered in Luoyang. For the entire Luoyang area, it was definitely a scene where dark clouds were overwhelming the city and it was about to be destroyed.
In March of the sixth year of Zhongping, everyone could barely maintain a balance and did not enter the final stage of the decisive battle.
But in April, Liu Bei decided to take action because Liu Hong's condition suddenly worsened, and He Jin and Yuan Wei also decided to take action as soon as possible.
The reasons for their decision to act are more realistic and urgent.
There are two main reasons.
One is the problem of food and fodder.
He Jin and Yuan Wei needed private money to maintain the large number of troops. They raised food and grass in various ways, and coerced and lured the people who followed them to cut their flesh and pay for it. They barely managed to survive for more than a month.
Now, they have entered a state where everyone hates dogs, and their subordinates basically have a lot of resentment.
Of course it doesn't mean that their subordinates are almost unable to pay the price and are about to go bankrupt. No, it is relatively simple for these guys to gather their money and efforts to support an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people.
But they were unwilling to pay so much money, and Yuan Wei and He Jin themselves were not willing to pay so much money. We barely managed to survive for more than a month. They couldn't stand it anymore, so they made repeated suggestions
Yuan Wei and He Jin quickly decided to win.
If we don't win decisively, we will withdraw our investment!
So Yuan Wei and He Jin were faced with the dilemma of a collective rebellion among their subordinates.
But this can only be described as a predicament. After some discussion and delaying tactics, they still managed to maintain it for a few months.
But the second reason made them unable to wait.
Since the beginning of April, Liu Hong has not summoned ministers for seven or eight days in a row.
Although he had only summoned ministers once every three to five days before, this time the time interval was relatively long, and they felt something was wrong.
Queen He also had the eldest complaint, telling them that her movements were restricted and she could not meet Liu Hong. Not only she, but also Prince Bian could not meet his father.
When Liu Hong was ill, he stayed in the palace of Empress Dowager Dong. Now under the care of Empress Dowager Dong, he must get along with Liu Xie who lives at Empress Dowager Dong's side every day.
Empress He knew very well how much Empress Dowager Dong wanted to push Liu Xie to the throne, so she had been very anxious, worried that Empress Dowager Dong would do her best to persuade Liu Hong and make Liu Hong change his mind and let Liu Xie inherit the throne.