Cao Zhi once again came up with his grand plan, and even changed his title to Liu Bei to show his closeness. What was different from Cao Cao's reaction was that Liu Bei did not treat Cao Zhi as a lunatic. But he was still shocked and said doubtfully: "Mr. Cao
, how can you be sure that Dong Zhuo will move to Xiwu? How can you know that Lu Bu will rebel against Dong Zhuo?"
"There is no doubt about Xuande. Whether Dong Zhuo moved to Xiwu will be confirmed in a short time. As for Lu Bu, Cao has already made arrangements for him." Cao Zhi made this up completely, and he had no inside information on Lu Bu.
However, in order to appease Liu Bei, I could only make it up like this, otherwise how could I convince Liu Bei?
The current Liu Bei may be useful to Cao Zhi. At least Cao Zhi has no allies now. It will definitely be useless to find any rebel princes. How desperate those people are! They would rather rob civilians and defraud "big money" than kidnap
Dong Zhuo's tiger beard. Only a "slick commander" like Liu Bei who was in the early stages of his career would be willing to take risks.
Cao Zhi is short of manpower, and Liu Bei at least has some. The most important thing is that Liu Bei is now attached to Gongsun Zan. Gongsun Zan has a lot of troops, but Gongsun Zan is old and conservative, and he will definitely not lend him troops to do such a risky thing. And Gongsun Zan
He was surrounded by either his disciples or his sworn brothers. It was difficult to persuade these people, and only Liu Bei could take advantage of them.
Since Liu Bei has great ambitions, he must be tempted by military rations and wealth. This is one. Second, since Liu Bei wants to make a difference in the future, he does not really want to join Gongsun Zan. History has also proved that Liu Bei is a person who can tolerate peace.
He is a person who is particularly easy to change hands. He has always taken refuge in one person or another. He first took refuge with Gongsun Zan, then with Qian Qian, then with Cao Cao, and finally with Yuan Shao. He was famous in history for taking refuge with others.
, I don’t know how many times he has changed, so it is impossible for him to sincerely seek refuge with Gongsun Zan, he just wants to build his own reputation and status.
Cao Zhi guessed that Liu Bei's main purpose was to win over some troops from Gongsun Zan. General, if this was the case, he should have made some moves by now. Cao Zhi could just use him and his connections and troops, as long as Cao Zhi gave
With Chongnuo, opportunists like Liu Bei are willing to take some extraordinary risks.
Liu Bei still couldn't completely believe what Cao Zhi said, but he was too embarrassed to contradict him on the spot, so he could only hold back his interest and continue to ask: "According to Duke Cao's wishes, these things will happen. How many rebel generals are Duke Cao prepared to persuade?"
Woolen cloth?"
"How many troops do you have now?"
Liu Bei was stunned for a moment, and said with a hint of embarrassment: "Xuande is incompetent and only has two or three hundred men at his disposal."
After Liu Bei said this number, he felt embarrassed and waited for Cao Zhi's disdainful expression. Unexpectedly, Cao Zhi had no special expression and continued to ask without changing his expression: "How much can you get from Uncle Gongsun?"
"
Liu Bei was shocked. Cao Zhi knew too much. He was giving favors to some of Gongsun Zan's subordinates and trying to slowly win over some people. But he was doing it very secretly. How did he know?
Liu Bei pondered for a moment and looked deeply into Cao Zhi's eyes. Don't say that his current strength is too small to kill Cao Zhi and silence him. Even if he did, he still had to weigh the strength of this Cao Zhi. Besides, this man looked sincere and spoke with sincerity.
He told the truth frankly, and it didn't sound like he was trying to trick his old background. After thinking about it, Liu Bei felt relieved and said calmly: "I can get some, but not a lot, and I can't be sure of its level of loyalty."
Cao Zhi stood up and took two steps, touched his chin and thought for a while, then called Cao An in and asked him to carry two boxes of "heavy objects" to Xu Zhu. This was the code word between Cao Zhi, Xu Zhu and others, calling money "
heavy objects".
When Cao An paid the bill, he glanced at Liu Bei and murmured in his heart: "Oh! This guy looks like a monkey. Why does the second master value him so much? Now he asked me to pick up the money. It seems that he wants to give it to him.
I really don’t understand why the second young master likes him."
Two boxes of "heavy items" were quickly brought in. While Cao An was away, Liu Bei was very uneasy. He was afraid that Cao Zhi would turn against him immediately, so he tied him up and sent him to Gongsun Zan. He was afraid that he would not be able to eat and carry him around.
Now that I saw that I actually brought two boxes of things, I became confused again.
Cao Zhi kicked open one of the boxes, which was filled with money. Cao Zhi pointed to the whole box of money and said to Liu Bei, whose eyes were filled with gleaming lights: "Under heavy rewards, there must be brave men. Brother Xuande, these can
In exchange for more people and loyalty, right?"
Liu Bei, with gleaming eyes, nodded repeatedly and kept saying: "Yes, yes!"
Cao Zhi chuckled and said, "Including my three thousand troops, I estimate we can have about four thousand, right?"
"Yes, huh?" Liu Bei was startled by the money at first. He didn't hear Cao Zhi's words clearly for a while. With his keenness, he immediately realized the hidden meaning of Cao Zhi's words.
"Dong Cao, are you going to take us with you?" Liu Bei asked cautiously, fearing that he had heard wrongly just now.
"Yes, this kind of thing is inappropriate when there are too many people."
Of course Liu Bei also knew that robbery was not suitable for large numbers of people, but this was to rob Dong Zhuo with only three or four thousand men. Liu Bei couldn't believe it and confirmed again: "Cao Gong plans to attack Yiwu with just a few men?"
Cao Zhi smiled mysteriously and said softly: "Who said we were going to attack Xiwu? We were going to pay tribute."
"Pay tribute?" Liu Bei was confused again.
Cao Zhi suddenly said righteously: "We go to Chang'an to pay tribute to the emperor in the name of Lu Kang, the governor of Lujiang."
There was no need for Liu Bei to ask this time. Cao Zhi continued to explain: "When I was working in Yangzhou, I knew that Lu Kang, the governor of Lujiang, paid tribute to the emperor every year. No matter whether the royal family was in trouble or not, Lu Kang still paid tribute every year. We can take advantage of it.
, I will contact you for details.”
Liu Bei rubbed his chin while ohing and nodded silently.
Cao Zhi pointed back to the map and said: "The rebels retreated to Jujube. Dong Zhuo must divide his troops to guard the dangerous fortresses, and Chang'an's defense must be relaxed. We took advantage of Dong Zhuo's lack of defensiveness to pay tribute in the name of paying tribute."
The road entered Mei County via Taibai to Wuguan, pretended to enter Chang'an, passed Wuguan and changed the road to go straight to Yiwu. After successfully succeeding, it crossed the Yellow River from Mengjin and returned to Danyang."
Cao Zhi told all the plans he had conceived. Cao Zhi firmly believed in the principle of trusting those who are employed and those who are not used. Cao Zhi was not afraid of Liu Bei's rebellious intentions. This plan was based on the premise of various future events, which are still happening now.
If it hadn't happened, if Liu Bei had second thoughts and betrayed him, few people would believe him if he told him, and they would probably just treat him as a lunatic. Cao Zhi happily told the whole story.
When Liu Bei heard that Cao Zhi was planning to send out the troops to Yiwu to attack Dong Zhuo with such a small number of troops, his interest was greatly reduced. Although wealth and wealth can be found in danger, he could not joke with his life. Then Liu Bei could only treat it as a possibility.
Wu Zai was listening, but the more he listened, the more frightened he became. Not only did this man seem to have a well-thought-out plan, but his plan was also detailed and complete. If these conditions are complete according to what Cao Zhi said, this matter would be very promising.