Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1167 Breaking the situation
Yuan Xi did not realize how much impact his thoughts had on Empress Fu, because he had too many things to consider at the moment and only treated it as an insignificant and unexpected conversation.

The three of them rode in a carriage back to the mansion. In the carriage, Yuan Xi said to Mi Zhen, "The boatman's use of drugs is also a warning to me. It shows that as my power grows, I have become more and more arrogant and careless, and I have begun to lose touch with the people."

"Although I have not yet conquered the world, there are many things that do not need to be done after sitting in the court. Otherwise, even if I conquer the world, I will lose the support of the people, and it will be too late to make up for it."

"After that, you will rearrange the cargo distribution of the Mi family caravan. The quality of the herbs can be a little worse, but the price must be lowered so that even the poorest people can afford them."

"It doesn't matter if we lose some money in the early stages. If we only talk about money in this kind of livelihood issue, it will lose its original meaning."

"As for the good herbs, we can raise the price and let the wealthy nobles subsidize part of the cost, and then we can regard it as them helping the poor."

Mi Zhen smiled upon hearing this and said, "My husband is indeed a man of ingenuity. It's amazing that he could come up with such a balanced approach."

"Don't worry, my husband. I will definitely get it done."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "Also, will the Mi family caravan have a ship heading to Changsha County tomorrow?"

"Bring me a letter to Lord Xuande."

Mi Zhen heard this and said, "I will arrange it right away. Is my husband going to take action again?"

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "That's right. If Jizhou is the main battlefield and Yuzhou is the second battlefield that was accidentally opened, I want to open up a third battlefield immediately."

"A few months ago, during my confrontation with Cao Cao, I found that Cao Cao was not that easy to defeat. Jizhou was in such a state that neither side could break the deadlock, and Yuzhou couldn't find a good breakthrough either."

"Both sides are trying to find ways to undermine the other side's rear. I am harassing Yuzhou, while Wu's actions are definitely related to Cao Cao."

"Although it is difficult for Wu to defeat me, it would be very troublesome for me to deal with them if they stab me in the back."

"So I plan to join hands with Lord Xuande and try to break through from the farthest point. Maybe there will be unexpected results."

Lu Lingqi asked curiously, "Attacking Wu at this time?"

"Although Wu is weak, with the troops you have in Jianghuai, I'm afraid it will be difficult to completely destroy it, right?"

"Furthermore, after Liu Biao's death, Lord Xuande and Liu Cong fell out and clashed in Jingzhou. This allowed the State of Wu to take advantage of the opportunity to invade and occupy the territory, putting China in a dilemma."

"Cao's army is still coveting the northern part of Jingzhou. I'm afraid Lord Xuande doesn't have the strength to attack Wu at the same time, right?"

Yuan Xi said, "Yes, so what I have to do is to help him defeat Liu Cong and pacify Jingzhou first!"

"In order to fight a decisive battle with me, Cao Cao transferred Yu Jin to Jizhou. He no longer has the power to intervene in Jingnan. He probably didn't expect that I would go to Jingzhou to take action at this time. This is the best opportunity for Lord Xuande. If I can help him seize it, he can at least lay a stable foundation."

"After we pacify Jingzhou, if we turn around and destroy Wu, Cao Cao will be unable to stand alone."

"The worst-case scenario is that Lord Xuande and the State of Wu will hold each other back, and I can focus on attacking Yuzhou."

"The battle situation in Jizhou has become a mess, and the answer to this difficult problem may be outside of Jizhou's chess game."

"Tomorrow I will send troops to Jiangxia to prepare to join forces with Lord Xuande. There are still two or three months left before winter. Success or failure will depend on this one move."

Mi Zhen said in vain: "My husband is helping my foster father so much, of course it's not just because of me."

"I'm afraid it's not because my husband is thinking that it will be difficult to place the emperor after defeating Cao Cao, so he wants to send him to his adoptive father?"

Yuan Xi was surprised and asked, "You can even think of this?"

"How did you guess that?"

Mi Zhen smiled and said, "Although a woman like Empress Fu is very talented, I think my husband would not be interested in her."

"My husband would not do useless things. He said so much to the queen, probably because he thought that she might tell the emperor in the future."

"This has a prerequisite, that is, the emperor and the queen can still meet, and the husband has already established his own family and will not follow Cao Cao's actions. If this is the case, then the husband will not take the emperor in. Isn't it just a matter of finding a place for him to stay?"

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "I underestimated you. Although there are some deviations in the middle, the inference result is correct."

"It is easy to win the world, but difficult to win the hearts of the people. How to arrange the emperor's fate is also very particular."

"The emperor is in my hands. If there is any mistake, the whole world will suspect me. It is meaningless for me to command the princes under the emperor's command. It is better to send him away openly."

"Everyone should implement their own policies. The good and the bad will be judged by heaven."

A few days later, Liu Bei, who was fighting Liu Cong's army in the northern part of Changsha County, received an urgent letter from Shouchun. The reason why it was so fast was that Shouchun used the fastest steamship to rush to the battle site of Liu Bei along the Han River.

After reading the letter, Liu Bei was overjoyed and quickly found Pang Tong and said, "Military Advisor, the King of Jin sent a letter saying that he would send troops to help me!"

Pang Tong quickly took the letter, and after reading it, he smiled bitterly and said, "The King of Jin would not get up early without benefit. I am afraid that he has gained some benefits. It is only because I am incompetent in commanding troops that I failed to help the lord defeat the Jingzhou army. I am really ashamed."

It is said that Pang Tong was also depressed. He felt that he was well prepared at the beginning, so he ambitiously led the army and personally attacked Liu Cong with Liu Bei.

Liu Cong had secretly surrendered to Cao Cao a long time ago. After he got the news, he sent several generals to fight Liu Bei. The Jingzhou army had the advantage of being upstream, and with the help of Cao's army on the north bank of Han River, they actually stopped Liu Bei. This was beyond Liu Bei's expectation. He brought many veterans with him, but did not bring Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, because the two were defending Wu and Nanman respectively, and in Liu Bei's mind, Liu Cong should be easy to defeat.

But to his surprise, several generals under Liu Cong were very brave. Although Liu Bei's army had the advantage under Pang Tong's command, it was unable to convert the advantage into victory.

At this time, Yuan and Cao were fighting each other in Jizhou. Liu Bei saw that several months had passed without any progress on his side, and he became anxious, so he transferred Guan Yu, who was defending the direction of Wu, over.

As a result, when the State of Wu saw that Guan Yu was not there, they immediately launched a counterattack and encroached on Liu Bei's territory. Liu Bei was extremely depressed and had to transfer Guan Yu back.

In the end, he transferred Zhang Fei from the Nanman direction. After all, the Nanman soldiers there only knew how to plunder and posed a relatively small threat.

After Zhang Fei arrived, Yu Jin happened to be transferred to Jizhou. Liu Bei saw it as a great opportunity and immediately launched a fierce attack, defeating Liu Biao's army. However, the general of Cao's army who replaced Yu Jin supported the attack from the side, making it difficult for Liu Bei to achieve further results.

Only then did Liu Bei realize that Liu Cong was no pushover and that the Cao army's cooperation was excellent. But now he was in a dilemma and was thinking that he might return empty-handed before the end of the year. At this moment, he received a letter from Yuan Xi.

The letter said that Yuan Xi would send troops to the Yangtze River to contain the State of Wu, and he would personally lead troops to support. He hoped that Liu Bei would mobilize as much force as possible, and that the two sides would join forces to destroy Liu Cong and capture Jingzhou as quickly as possible.

Liu Bei did not doubt him. Pang Tong expressed his opinion after reading it, saying: "If what the King of Jin said is true, it will be very good for the lord."

"But I am afraid that the King of Jin will secretly join forces with the State of Wu, and while the Lord is attacking Liu Cong with all his strength, they will attack the Lord's rear, repeating the incident in Xuzhou."

This does not mean that Pang Tong had a prejudice against Yuan Xi. As Liu Bei's military advisor, he naturally had to take into account all possibilities and unexpected events.

Liu Bei said, "That shouldn't be the case. The King of Jin has never deceived me before, and this time will be the same."

Pang Tong said: "I hope so, but there are rumors that Xiong Huna married the King of Wu's biological mother. I'm afraid it's difficult to determine the relationship between the two sides."

Liu Bei hesitated for a while before speaking out, "No, the King of Wu is not a man who cares about old feelings. Besides, if we are talking about marriage, isn't my adopted daughter also the wife of the King of Jin?"

"I still choose to trust King Jin this time. Besides, the reputation he has built now does not allow him to cheat outside the battlefield."

"Write back to King Jin and tell him that I am waiting for him to lead his army."

Seeing that Liu Bei had made up his mind, Pang Tong replied, "Okay, I'll write the letter right away."

He sighed and said, "It's really strange. The generals of Cao's army and Liu Cong's army are so difficult to deal with. Even General Zhang can't be defeated. It's really unexpected."

Liu Bei also had a bitter taste in his mouth, wondering if he was too weak, or the opponent was too strong?

Why can't I beat anyone?

At the same time, Yuan Xi had already arrived in Jiangxia and met up with Lu Xun who had returned from Yuzhang.

The news that Lu Xun brought back was that Gan Ning, as the Left General, attacked the border of Wu State and tied down the Wu army, allowing Guan Yu to escape and return to Changsha to deal with Liu Cong's army.

Now Lu Xun said: "General Gan is the best general in Jianghuai. If he is not in the army, the lord will have no general to use."

"Then Liu Cong was able to resist Pang Tong and Zhang Fei, which clearly shows that there are capable people in the army. Now that the Jin army has no generals, can it change the situation?"

Yuan Xi sighed: "It's difficult."

"It should be said that Lord Xuande had bad luck. The generals he met this time were actually quite capable, but they were not well-known, so I'm afraid he underestimated the enemy, which led to such a setback."

“Although the generals of Liu Cong’s army and Cao’s army are not as good as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, they are actually not the same as the two in some aspects.”

After hearing this, Lu Xun quickly picked up the military intelligence report and read it carefully. He was surprised and said, "Can they compete with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei?"

"The other party actually has such a talent?"

The names of the two armies' garrison commanders were written on the urgent report.

Liu Cong was hired as a military officer.

Hao Zhao of Cao Cao's army.

Lu Xun was indeed unfamiliar with these two names, because in the famous battles he had heard of before, these two generals seemed to have rarely participated, so even Lu Xun could not see the mystery. Only Yuan Xi, who knew later history, knew how unlucky Liu Bei was to meet these two people at the same time.

Lu Xun still believed in Yuan Xi's stargazing skills. He knew that Yuan Xi said it so seriously, so these two generals should at least be regarded as the main generals. So he said, "I'm afraid there are no generals in the lord's army who can fight against them, right?"

"Although Xun can command the troops, Pang Tong under Lord Xuande is no less capable than Xun. Even with Zhang Fei around, they still cannot win. Xun..."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Don't worry, Boyan, we don't have it, but Huang Zu does."

"I asked you to come to Jiangxia to join forces, so I naturally took the opportunity to borrow a general from Huang Zu."

"I have sent the letter. Let's go see him together tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)