Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1184 Breaking the situation
Mrs. Cai's behavior confused Yuan Xi, and he was unable to react for a while.

His only thought now was how to kill Xiahou Yuan as quickly as possible, and then attack from Yiling towards Yuzhou to cut off Cao Cao's retreat, because there were too many casualties in the Wei-Jin War in Jizhou, and he could no longer wait.

He cooperated with Liu Bei to take Jingnan in order to allow the other party to have enough power to contain Cao Cao and Sun Quan at the same time. Moreover, Liu Bei had already chosen the candidate to be supported, that is, Liu Biao's eldest son Liu Qi, who was now staying in Wuling waiting for Liu Bei to arrive.

Therefore, Yuan Xi's idea of ​​using Liu Cong as a tool to recruit Wen Pin was that he would surrender. Moreover, Wen Pin had already surrendered, so Yuan Xi naturally had to send Liu Cong away as soon as possible, and send him far away, to prevent the Jingzhou gentry from using Liu Cong to cause trouble.

However, his simple and direct behavior caused Mrs. Cai to misunderstand that Yuan Xi wanted to kill Liu Cong to eliminate future troubles.

From Mrs. Cai's perspective, for heroes like Yuan Xi and Cao Cao, it would be the most reasonable choice to get rid of those people who were of no use and posed hidden dangers. So in order to save herself and Liu Cong, Mrs. Cai decisively used her only remaining bargaining chip.

When Yuan Xi saw Mrs. Cai taking off her clothes, he thought about it for a moment and figured out the connection.

He had to admit that Mrs. Cai had a very decisive character. Although her idea was wrong, it was already the best solution under the current circumstances. No wonder she was able to suppress Liu Qi and the Jingzhou gentry behind him over the years.

While Yuan Xi was stunned, Mrs. Cai had already taken off her underwear. She was a famous beauty in Jingzhou, with fair skin, a well-proportioned figure, and she was well-maintained. She looked like a young woman in her early twenties, so much so that when Yuan Xi stared at the exquisite curves of her chest, his gaze paused for a moment.

Mrs. Cai bit her lip. The cold autumn wind made her skin tremble. What made her even more ashamed and angry was that the ferocious tiger sitting at the top did not move, but stared at her with a look as if examining a piece of goods.

She couldn't help but feel a trace of despair in her heart. She was already so old and ugly that she had even lost her appeal to men?

Just as she gritted her teeth and was about to take off the last piece of clothing, Yuan Xi said, "Madam may have misunderstood something."

"Put on your clothes first."

Madam Cai was stunned. She crossed her arms subconsciously and said in a hoarse voice, "Does the king really want to kill us all?"

Yuan Xi sighed, stood up and walked to Madam Cai, picked up the robe from the ground and put it on her, "I don't know how Madam has been in Jingzhou all these years, but my style of doing things here may be different from what Madam thinks."

"If I wanted to kill you, I would let you know the truth and I would never deceive you."

"Besides, I have no such intention at all. Liu Cong and Madam are just my promise to Lord Jing Sheng. How could I do such a thing as killing them all?"

Mrs. Cai was even more confused, but she also knew that she was probably wrong, so she hurriedly tied her robe, or asked, "What does the king mean?"

Yuan Xi told Liu Biao about the letter agreement between him and Liu Biao, and finally said: "Although I said it casually at the time, and Lord Jingsheng may have agreed casually, but since the agreement has been established, I must fulfill my promise."

"With Madam and Liu Cong's abilities, they are unable to defend Jingzhou now. If war breaks out, they will surely be crushed into dust by this millstone. So it is better to withdraw early. Saving your life is better than anything else, isn't it?"

Mrs. Cai's face suddenly felt hot. She thought to herself that she had been thinking too much for a long time. She took off her clothes without asking any questions and let people see everything!
But after hearing Yuan Xi's words, she finally felt relieved. After all, she was very afraid of death. The fear of death was more terrifying to her than anything else. And since the other party had no interest in her, she was spared the torture that followed.

She suddenly felt confused and subconsciously tightened the belt of her clothes. She took a long breath and whispered, "It's my fault."

"I have heard some rumors about the king before, saying that Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shu, Sun Jian and even Cao Cao's wife..."

This time it was Yuan Xi's turn to be embarrassed. He touched his nose and said, "The story about Cao Cao's wife is fake."

Mrs. Cai was about to nod, but then she came to her senses. Are the wives of Gongsun Zan and those guys real?
She figured out the whole story and said self-deprecatingly, "It turns out that the king has no intention of plotting against Jingzhou. I'm afraid he wants to give Jingnan to Liu Bei, right?"

"Otherwise, the king will...

Yuan Xi raised his eyelids in surprise. Madam Cai was very quick-witted. When he married Madam Hou and Mrs. Feng, he had similar considerations in mind.

He suddenly discovered that Mrs. Cai had an extraordinary political sense. If she were given a bigger platform, she would probably become a figure similar to Empress Lü. No wonder the situation in Jingzhou remained generally stable despite Liu Biao's poor health in recent years. It seemed that Mrs. Cai played a crucial role in this.

He turned around and slowly walked back to the table, thinking in his heart. He originally thought that Madam Cai and Liu Cong's loss of Jingzhou would not cause much trouble, but regardless of Liu Cong's young age, if Madam Cai was unwilling to accept it, she might really cause some trouble.

He said, "Madam is very smart, but in some ways too smart, so smart that I feel a little threatened by her."

Mrs. Cai's face turned pale, and she listened to Yuan Xi continue: "But on the one hand, Madam is not smart enough. The truly smart people are all wise but appear foolish."

"But this is no wonder. After all, judging from Madam's expression, the real person in charge of Jingzhou in recent years is Madam, so she doesn't need to think so much before speaking, right?"

Mrs. Cai heard this and said in a hoarse voice, "Your Majesty is right, but now Jingzhou is gone, and all my efforts have gone to waste. There is no point in saying this anymore."

Yuan Xi comforted him, "If you stay in a high position for a long time but cannot control the overall situation, you may be killed. So sometimes it is not necessarily a bad thing to get out of the vortex of power."

"Madam, rest assured. I asked you and your son to leave Jingzhou just to make some of the nobles in Jingzhou stop having such thoughts."

"After Gongsun Zan died, there were Gongsun Zan forces that wanted to hold the Marquis hostage and use Gongsun Zan's name to gain benefits. At that time, I was not strong enough to conquer Youzhou, so I simply married the Marquis and put an end to those people's ideas."

"Now that I am strong enough, I will no longer be forced to resort to these methods. Madam, you can rest assured and go to Shouchun to stay with Liu Cong. I can swear that I will not murder you and your son."

Mrs. Cai then felt relieved and quickly knelt down to express her gratitude. Yuan Xi nodded and walked out of the hall.

Mrs. Cai stood there in a daze, and suddenly an idea came to her mind.

If I had met him earlier, would he have treated me the same way he treated the Marquis' wife?
Yuan Xi now has no time to think about Madam Cai's affairs. After all, there are already enough women around him. Moreover, after going through so many things, he has now focused all his attention on competing with Cao Cao for supremacy and has no spare time at all.

Now the situation between him and Cao Cao for the world is like a tangled mess. The key issues involved are complicated and dozens or even hundreds of things are entangled together. What Yuan Xi has to do is to find a key thread and then untangle the mess.

The confrontation between the two sides in Jizhou has turned into a pure war of attrition. The battlefield in Jizhou is like a gold-eating beast with a wide mouth, swallowing up a large number of lives and food and supplies every day.

At this time, the logistics of both sides played a decisive role. So while ensuring the stability of their own rear territories, Cao Cao and Yuan Xi both began to target each other's hinterland. Cao Cao chose Xuzhou and Qingzhou, and Yuan Xi chose Jingzhou and Yuzhou.

Now the deadlock in Jingzhou has reached a critical period to be untied. Madam Cai and Liu Cong are already out. What remains to be done is a decisive battle with Xiahou Yuan and drive the Wei forces out of Jingzhou completely!
Yuan Xi returned to his room and fell asleep immediately. He had already agreed with Liu Bei that as soon as Guan Yu's injury got better in the next few days, they would immediately launch a general attack. Liu Bei would be on the south bank of the river, and Yuan Xi would be on the north bank of the river, encircling Xiahou Yuan from both sides and completely eliminating him!
At the same time, Xiahou Yuan could not sleep because he knew that he was at a critical moment of life and death.

Originally, he wanted to fight Liu Bei, and Xiahou Yuan was very confident about this. After all, Liu Bei had basically never won against Cao's army, which was also the reason for Xiahou Yuan's confidence.

But now with the addition of Yuan Xi, the situation has become quite bad. Not to mention that Xiahou Yuan has never gotten the upper hand over Yuan Xi, even if Cao Cao himself came, he wouldn't dare to guarantee victory, right?
So Xiahou Yuan hesitated whether to retreat back to Xichuan and let go, but if he did so, the gateway from Xichuan to Jingzhou would be blocked, and it would be difficult for him to get out again.

Moreover, if Xiahou Yuan's army was trapped in Xichuan, they could only watch the battle of Jizhou. If he wanted to leave Yizhou again, he could only go from Chengdu to Hanzhong and then return to Xu Du. This was equivalent to going around in a big circle. Maybe the battle of Jizhou would have been decided by then!
So Xiahou Yuan made a decision after discussing with his advisers.

Don’t retreat but advance!

He decided to break out with all his might, bypass Yiling from the north bank, and then head towards Xiangyang. This way he could reach Yuzhou in time to help Cao Xiu. After all, Yuzhou could not be lost, as it was Cao's base camp!
As for whether the Yuan-Liu coalition would take the opportunity to seize Yizhou, Xiahou Yuan had already taken precautions and sent soldiers to guard the checkpoints along the way. The terrain was dangerous and it would be impossible for the fierce tiger to reach Chengdu within one or two years!

However, if Xiahou Yuan wanted to break out from the direction of Yiling, he would inevitably encounter the main force of Yuan Xi's army. Although in Xiahou Yuan's view, Yuan Xi's army was more difficult to defeat than Liu Bei's army, there was also a problem, which was the lack of major generals.

The generals of the Jin army who once brought defeat to Cao's camp are now in Yuzhou, and Xiahou Yuan has received news that Xionghu now has only a few Jingzhou generals under his command. Xiahou Yuan has some understanding of the kind of people these Jingzhou generals are. Is there anyone among them who can fight against him?

So Xiahou Yuan and his advisers made a plan, and after two days of reorganizing the army, they decisively and proactively launched an attack, letting Cai Mao's more than 10,000 navy troops to contain the enemy on the river, while he led tens of thousands of Yizhou soldiers and headed straight for the northbound passage north of Yiling!

(End of this chapter)