Liu Xin had long expected that Bei Gong Boyu would be angry with Bei Gong Yan because of what happened today, and it was inevitable that she would be beaten, scolded and punished. However, she did not expect that Bei Gong Boyu would do so thoroughly and simply deny her daughter. , couldn't help but said angrily: "You actually dare not even listen to my greetings. Do you really want to rebel?"
Diao Chan advised from the side: "Master, it's better to keep her. Lanier is injured, and I'm afraid she will have to be taken care of for a while. The slave family is in need of a useful person."
Seeing the hesitation on Liu Xin's face, Diao Chan added: "Sir, Bei Gongyan is actually not bad in nature. She was deceived by Ke Muji..."
Liu Xin hesitated for a moment and said: "She can't have anything to do with Lan Nier's injury. Let's wait until Lan Nier wakes up and ask her opinion on this matter."
Being able to safely rescue the hostages is the most difficult thing. In Liu Xin's eyes, Lanier's contribution today is no less than winning a war. Liu Xin's attitude towards Lanier has also quietly changed, no longer Treating her as an ordinary slave, but with a bit more respect, Liu Xin wanted to seek Lanier's opinion on this matter. Lanier had just fallen asleep, and she had suffered such a serious injury. He was injured and might not be able to wake up for a while, so Liu Xin simply delayed her planned departure in the afternoon by one day.[
The next morning, Lanier finally woke up. When she heard Diaochan say that she wanted to keep Bei Gongyan, her eyes were obviously unhappy. But in Lanier's mind, Diaochan was her master. How could she object to what her master said? Although she was not happy, Lanier nodded vigorously.
Beigong Qian was also brought here. She was originally from a noble family and was familiar with Han Chinese etiquette. She said a deep blessing as soon as she entered the door. Yesterday, Liu Xin gave her a whole day to consider whether to stay or go. When she said this, Liu Xin felt a little embarrassed, as if she wanted to eat it all up. However, Beigongqian did not hesitate at all. She made the decision yesterday and would follow Liu Xin for the rest of her life. Liu Xin Xin Ye stopped being pretentious and allowed her and Bei Gongyan, her aunt and nephew, to temporarily become Diao Chan's personal maids.
With the lessons learned from the Komuji incident, Liu Xin did not wait for Lanier to recover from her injuries, and started to select candidates for "personal bodyguards" yesterday. Liu Xin limited the bodyguard candidates to women from other ethnic groups such as barbarians, Qiang and Xiongnu. Although There are also some martial arts practitioners among the daughters of the Han family, but they are only rare. Most Han women are still too weak. Because of Zhu Rong, the loyalty of barbarian women is not a problem, and they should be the best candidates for bodyguards. Of course, in Liang Apart from Qiang women, Liu Xin really had no other choice among the prefectures and territories.
However, the beauties sent by the leaders of the Qiang tribes were in the backyard of the prefecture. Liu Xin easily selected some of the qualified ones, and eliminated the women belonging to the Shaodang and Xianling tribes to form a team. The twelve-member female bodyguard team is named the Female Guards.
Liu Xin stayed in Wuwei for another two days, personally organized some basic training for the female guards, taught them some close combat skills, and then divided them into four groups of three, each group taking turns to protect Diao Chan and Yan The safety of Rui's mother and daughter. After careful treatment by the accompanying medical officer, Lanier's injury has improved a lot. Although she can't practice martial arts with those women, Liu Xin still appointed her as the leader of these women and became the leader of the Han Dynasty. The first female general to hold an official official position.
Just when Liu Xin was about to leave, an urgent military message from Xiangyang brought the news that Liu Xin had always wanted. Cao Cao and Yuan Shao went to war. However, to Liu Xin's surprise, it was not Yuan Shao who initiated the war. But it was Cao Cao! Cao Cao secretly deployed a surprise force and captured Liyang, an important town in Hebei Province.
According to Liu Xin's original estimation, Yuan Shao should have been the first to cause trouble. Historically, it was Yuan Shao who took the initiative to send troops to attack Cao Cao. At that time, Yuan Shao had so many advisers and generals, and only Tian Feng and Ju Shou actually stood up to dissuade him. Now , these two have become Liu Xin's right-hand men. It stands to reason that the remaining people should support Yuan Shao's use of troops.
In fact, it is not the case. Although Yuan Shao has many capable men, there are many factions, fighting overtly and secretly among them, and the internal strife is very serious. Tian Feng and Jushou's opposition to Yuan Shao's use of troops was purely out of public interest, but other people often have their own private thoughts. However, Yuan Shao himself He is an indecisive character, and it is always difficult to make decisions on such major matters. Ever since Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou last year, the debate on whether to take the opportunity to attack Cao Cao has already begun, and there has been no result until now.
In fact, Shopkeeper Song had a share of credit for this. Originally, in Yuan Shao's camp, the main peace faction headed by Xu You and Xun Chen were at a disadvantage. As a result, after Shopkeeper Song failed to kidnap Chen Qun, Xu You were afraid that his secret communication with Cao Cao would be exposed, so he turned into a militant faction. Feng Ji, Shen Pei, Xin Ping and others, who had been leading the battle in the beginning, adhered to the principle of "I support whatever the enemy opposes, and I support whatever the enemy supports." On the principle of "just oppose", he immediately changed direction and became a peace faction, which made Yuan Shao, who was already having difficulty making a decision, even more comfortable.
Cao Cao originally didn't want to fall out with Yuan Shao now. He needed to accumulate strength, and his advisers such as Xun Yu, Xun You, Chen Qun, and Liu Ye also had the same opinion. However, Liu Xin used thunderous means to eliminate Liu Bei in one fell swoop. The powerful combat power displayed by the three princes, Yao and Yuan Shu, shocked Cao Cao too much. Cao Cao can be sure that Liu Xin's strength has increased a lot in the past year.
Time flies so fast, and one year has passed since the non-aggression agreement signed with Liu Xin. Cao Cao knew very well that in one more year, Liu Xin would have to take action against him. Rather than sit back and wait for death, it would be better to take action first. Strong. But Cao Cao also understands that with his current strength, it is impossible to confront Liu Xin head-on unless he can unite with Yuan Shao. However, this seems to be an impossible task. In this case, there are only two evils. He chose the lesser power and annexed Yuan Shao first, then had the opportunity to compete with Liu Xin.
Cao Cao's motive for taking the initiative to send troops was attached to the urgent military situation, which was analyzed by Jushou, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and other advisers after discussion.
When Liu Xin saw this, he understood in his heart, handed the document to Jia Xu, and asked: "Wen He, in your opinion, who between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao will win this war?"
This time when he went to the Western Regions, Liu Xin did not bring any other advisers with him, just because there was Jia Xu here, a poisonous man who had repeatedly made strange conspiracies in history. Liu Xin believed that as long as he did not encounter very difficult problems, Jia Xu could think of them. Come up with a solution.
Jia Xu did not answer immediately, but carefully read the document in his hand, thought for a long time, and then said: "The key to winning or losing this war lies in food!"
The classic battle in history that caused a fundamental turning point in the balance of power between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao - the Battle of Guandu. It was because Cao Cao burned the Wuchao where Yuan Shao had gathered food that Cao Cao finally defeated the greater number with less. , unified the north in one fell swoop. Could it be that Jia Xu also had the power of foresight and could predict the outcome of the war in advance? Liu Xin glanced at Jia Xu suspiciously.
But I heard Jia Xu continue to say: "Although Cao Cao has temporarily gained an advantage in the war, he lacks sufficient food supplies and cannot last long. If his subordinates' predictions are correct, the reason why Cao Cao chose this time to launch the war must be to take advantage of the upcoming war. The opportunity of the summer harvest allows the soldiers to cut wheat for food and alleviate the problem of food shortage. On the other hand, Yuan Shao has many soldiers and generals and sufficient food and grass. As long as he reacts, he can turn defeat into victory."
Liu Xin was surprised and said: "Do you think, sir, that Yuan Shao will be the winner in the end?"
Jia Xu smoothed three strands of his long beard and said with a smile: "It's hard for me to predict who will win between the two of them. However, one thing I can be sure of is that whichever one wins will bring the power of a new victory." Take Luoyang! Therefore, my subordinates believe that it is most beneficial to the lord if Cao Cao and Yuan Shao can maintain an undefeated situation! If the war is to continue in a stalemate, the lord must give Cao Cao some appropriate support." [
Liu Xin frowned and asked again: "How can Liu support me?"
Jia Xu raised his hands and said, "Food! My lord, you can provide some food to Cao Cao, so that he will not be full or hungry."
The states occupied by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao have always been the areas with the largest population in the Han Dynasty, and their military resources are not a problem. Yuan Shao has an army of 700,000, while Cao Cao can only maintain an army of about 300,000. The most important thing is The reason is that Cao Cao is short of food. The more soldiers there are, the more food is consumed. If there is enough food, Cao Cao can quickly form a huge army. With a huge army, Cao Cao can naturally fight against Yuan Shao for a long time.
But Liu Xin shook his head and said: "Cao Cao has many capable men. If Liu sends food to him for some reason, how can he not be suspicious? I'm afraid you can't hide this from him."
Jia Xu suddenly smiled evilly and said: "My lord is wrong, how can we give the grain to him? We sold it to him quietly."
When he mentioned the word "quietly", Jia Xu deliberately emphasized his tone. Liu Xin understood immediately, and they both nodded knowingly and laughed together.
The so-called selling grain quietly, to use a modern term, is smuggling grain. People die for money, and birds die for food. As long as something profitable is done, someone will do it. When the profit is large enough, even if it risks Some people will also risk beheading. Therefore, smuggling has been around since ancient times and is not new.
In order to ensure that the people could have enough to eat, Liu Xin implemented a grain price intervention mechanism in all urban areas under his influence, keeping the price of grain at about 20 yuan. In the area ruled by Yuan Shao, the price of grain had risen to One hundred coins, as for the area ruled by Cao Cao, the price is even higher than this price. Five times the profit is enough to be a reason for some lawless people to take risks.