The big man is on the run

Chapter 181 Three Years of Chaos in Jian'an

In the third year of Jian'an, under the auspices of Liu Yi, the four princes surnamed Liu, Liu Biao of Jingzhou, Liu Zhang of Yizhou, Liu Yao of Yangzhou, and Liu Bei of Xuzhou, officially obtained the festival-holding power granted by the imperial court.

The full name is "Fake Festival Yue, the governor of a certain state's military forces", and the certain state here is their respective states.

The "false Festival Yue" literally represents the emperor's trip as a courtier. In fact, all envoys who hold festivals represent the emperor's visit, symbolize the emperor and the country, and can exercise corresponding powers.

In exchange, the four state shepherds also formally clarified their obligations with the Guanzhong imperial court. Economically, they will transfer [-]% of the tax from the territory to the imperial court every year (Liu Bei delayed this obligation due to road impassability); The imperial court maintains a high level of consistency, and the enemies identified by the imperial court are their enemies; in terms of military affairs, the four state shepherds must accept the imperial court's conscripts when the court sends troops to fight, and they are obliged to send troops ranging from [-] to [-], and they will arrive with their own weapons and food. Designate a rendezvous place to assist the imperial court in the battle to share the military pressure of the imperial court.

At the same time, due to the surrender of Hanzhong and Longxi, the imperial court completely wiped out the hidden dangers around them, and once again sang the tune of crusade against the national traitor Yuan Shao in the caliber of public opinion.

In order to prepare for the war, Yuan Shao began to recruit troops and train soldiers on a large scale. The people in Jizhou and Qingzhou were miserable. Just two years after recovering from the Yellow Turban Rebellion, they fell into trouble again.

On the other hand, after more than two years of renovations in Guanzhong and Bingzhou, under Liu Yi's policy of garrisoning land, building water conservancy projects, and not using people's power on a large scale, not only the fleeing population gradually returned, but the local population also became more comfortable. Both the city and the fields have returned to life.

With population and food, Liu Yi was not in a hurry.

Now the general trend of the world has gone through four years of ebb and flow, and has reached a critical inflection point, and this inflection point, whether it is for Liu Yi or Yuan Shao, must be treated with caution.

At the beginning, in the second year of Xingping, Yuan Shao drove away Han Fu and held Jizhou in his hand, and cooperated with Lu Bu to force back the Black Mountain Army. He defeated Gongsun Zan in a decisive battle and annexed Qingzhou. The appearance of the overlord of the Northland in Yousizhou, coupled with Yuan Shao's own reputation after the war against Dong, is really in full swing.

At that time, Liu Yi was just a prisoner in Nanwu.

No one expected that Liu Yi, in the name of crusade against the national traitor Yuan Shao, joined forces on the way to the Kanto, successfully defeated Guo Si and Li Jue, and took control of the court.

But even so, as long as Yuan Shao wins Bingzhou, his momentum of overwhelming the North is still unmatched.Unfortunately, due to Jushou's excessive caution, the support of the imperial court, and the cooperation of local forces in Bingzhou, Yuan Shao did not get his wish in the first Battle of Hedong.

The key turning point occurred in the Second Battle of Hedong. The imperial court, which was at an absolute disadvantage, successfully turned the tables after Liu Yiqianli's surprise attack on Yecheng, and then incorporated the Baibo Army and Heishan Army, defeated Xianbei, and linked up with Gongsun Zan's territory.

Since then, Yuan Shao's strategic situation has become extremely bad. He has no danger of defending the hinterland of Jizhou, which is full of plains. Yuan Shao could not easily handle Jingxing's imperial court army, or Gongsun Zan, who had regrouped and was ready to lead the cavalry across Yishui at any time.

In order to break this predicament, Yuan Shao single-handedly planned the siege of the white horse without attacking, trying to use public opinion to force the officers and soldiers to leave the familiar terrain and travel thousands of miles to the Henan Plain for a decisive battle.

However, this time Yuan Shao was severely slapped in the face by Liu Yi. Liu Yi did not ride Luoyang to Guandu on foot as he imagined, but broke Yuan Shao's face with a pure navy and various new warfare technologies. The siege of the city, successfully picked up the people of a city, making Yuan Shao lose face in front of the world.

From then on, everyone knew that the righteous men who opposed the national traitor Yuan Shao, no matter how far away they were, could get help from the court.Therefore, in Yuan Shao's Jizhou and Qingzhou, the opposition forces of the people also began to move around.

Yuan Shao is not a waste, he clearly recognized his own strategic dilemma, so Yuan Shao started the next round of planning, this time he must not be led by the nose by the court.

Yuan Shao's actions were so obvious that Liu Yi, who had received a lot of information, had to carefully discuss and judge Yuan Shao's next attack direction with his officials.

And when Yuan Shao and Liu Yi were preparing and testing each other, and the situation in the whole north was undercurrent, the world became more and more chaotic.

The Jian'an three-year war started without any accidents, just like the previous two years, it was Yuan Shu who started it.

The Skeleton King had already stepped halfway into the coffin, and he was still ruthless. With Yuan Shu's current strength, he couldn't even deal with Lu Bu and Liu Bei, let alone against Cao Cao.

Therefore, Yuan Shu focused on the "traitor" Sun Ce who made him gnash his teeth with hatred.

Yuan Shu felt that Sun Ce should still be able to touch him. After all, there is only one river across, and the three counties in Sun Ce's hands, Danyang County, Wu County, and Kuaiji County, are all unpopular, so there is no chance.

In April, Yuan Shu sent envoys to privately grant seals to Zongshuai Zulang of Danyang and others, and asked them to join forces with Shanyue to attack Sun Ce.Zu Lang was stationed in Wuhu Mountain, united with Shanyue, and his power was very strong. After Sun Ce completely quelled the rebellion of Yan Baihu in Kuaiji County, he raised his troops to attack.Soon, the bandit commander east of Xuancheng was put down, and Sun Ce personally led an army to attack Zu Lang, defeated his army in Lingyang, and captured Zu Lang alive.So Sun Ce put down the rebellion in Danyang County.

Anyway, he has already completely torn his face, Sun Ce doesn't care whether he has betrayed his master or not. Doesn't Lu Bu, who has betrayed his master so many times, live well?So Sun Ce ordered Zhou Yu to stay in Jiangdong, and personally crossed the river to Jiujiang County to beat up Yuan Shujun. Of course, he did not dare to stay for long, and withdrew to Jiangdong before Yuan Shujun from Lujiang County supported him.

At this time, Yuan Shu was facing new troubles, and he was not in the mood to talk to Sun Ce anymore.

——Lv Bu, who backstabbed him before, is planning to form an alliance with Yuan Shu again.

It's not that Lu Bu just likes to jump around repeatedly. In fact, Liu Yi can be blamed for this incident.

It is precisely because the "Five-Liu Alliance" led by Liu Yi landed and formed a huge and integrated political, economic and military alliance across Guanzhong, Bingzhou, Yizhou, Jingzhou, Yangzhou, and Xuzhou, which made the other princes feel a huge sense of shock. Sense of urgency and crisis.

Lu Bu's reaction was the most direct. Although he and Liu Bei cooperated once, they were essentially forced to compromise in the face of huge pressure from Yuan Shu. Now the situation has reversed. Liu Bei has the court as his backer. Cao Cao is also with Yuan Shao. Right thinking, who can he ally with?

It is nothing more than three choices. First, completely surrender to the imperial court and join the Liu family camp.Lu Fengxian, a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty, felt that this matter could be considered, but now the court is too far away, and Cao Cao is too close. The court will not give him Lu Bu's help, even Liu Bei will not get any real assistance.

Second, since Cao Cao is his main enemy and has the hatred of seizing Yanzhou, he must not go to the side of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. Another protagonist in the dispute between the two Yuans, Yuan Shu, whom he just backstabbed, once again formed an alliance. It is not a question that cannot be considered.

The third, of course, is to form an alliance with Jiangdong Sun Ce to attack Yuan Shu together. The two sides carve up Yuan Shu's territory in Jiangbei, that is, Lujiang County and Jiujiang County.

Lu Bu once wanted to choose the third option. He planned to join forces with Sun Ce, who had a very good momentum, to kill Yuan Shu first, develop his territory south, and then turn around to deal with Cao Cao or Liu Bei.

However, Cao Cao did not give him this chance.

After Cao Cao learned of Lu Bu's change, he acted first.

(End of this chapter)