Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 947 Xudu is in turmoil
Yuan Xi couldn't bear to see Yang Feng's appearance. He wanted to capture Jinyang at the minimum cost, and at the same time try to eradicate the roots of the die-hard factions such as the Southern Xiongnu and Bingzhou Shang clan. He could not fight hard, but relied on Yang Feng's infiltration and sabotage activities in Jinyang City.

Yang Feng had been lurking in the city with spies from the prosecutor's office for several months. During this period, they could only live underground. In order to avoid exposing their whereabouts, they were not allowed to make fires. They could only eat dried meat and fried rice mixed with well water.

And Yang Feng would personally lurk out of the city every month, report the situation in the city to Yuan Xi, and rush back at dawn, bringing back dried meat rations at the same time. Although there were also secret agents with open identities in the city, Yang Feng's line never started. In the end, they only received the other party's information unilaterally to avoid being exposed.

After Yang Feng finished scooping the porridge and vegetables in the bowl, she stood up, wiped her mouth with her sleeves, put a bag full of dried meat on her back, and said, "I'm leaving."

Yuan Xi stood up, hesitated to speak, and finally said: "Be careful."

Yang Feng waved her hand and left the camp, quickly disappearing into the night.

Yuan Xi stood there when a gust of autumn wind blew. He looked up at the bright starry sky and thought that Jinyang, which should have been conquered long ago, might be delayed until the end of the year.

According to Yang Feng's intelligence, the Southern Huns in Jinyang City were already on the verge of collapse. However, after Cao Jun's reinforcements entered the city, they seemed to have aroused their ferocity and reorganized their defenses. Yuan Xi's plan to wait for their own collapse failed. It is meaningless for Yuan Xi to launch another siege and it will only increase the damage.

However, this was also the last act of madness by the Southern Huns. The holes in Gao Gan's defense had been filled, and Jinyang had completely turned into an isolated city. It would be destroyed sooner or later, and even Cao's army could not escape.

However, I was afraid that I would not be able to defeat Jinyang years ago, and naturally I would not be able to return to Jicheng. Moreover, there is another thing that worries Yuan Xi, that is, Lu Lingqi is about to give birth.

Under Yuan Xi's persuasion, Lu Lingqi now did not follow Yuan Xi, but returned to Wuyuan to raise the baby. The birth was only a month or two away.

Yuan Xi sighed. Just delay it for half a year. It is better than creating tens of thousands of orphans and widows. Moreover, Liu Bei's performance was beyond his expectation. He was able to persist until now. Otherwise, Yuan Xi would be under much greater pressure. .

Yuan Xi did not reject this. Hu and Han people lived together in the north of Bingzhou, and their beliefs were mixed. Even if the Han people did not believe in Taiping Taoism, they would still believe in shamanism. In this case, it was better to fool them first.

But Yuan Xi also knew that this was impossible.

Yuan Xi sometimes thought that if Liu Bei had been willing to put down his dignity and defect to him, he might have attacked Bingzhou and even Sili from both sides. By then, if he occupied the two states, wouldn't he be better than guarding the gate of Jingzhou for Liu Biao now?

To attack a place like Jinyang, the only way to attack a place like Jinyang is to continuously fill the front with lives. However, after five battles last year, Yuan Xi would never waste precious soldiers' lives in such a waste.

The relationship between him and Liu Bei is actually very awkward now. Liu Bei and Yuan Shao are not superiors and subordinates, but relatively equal guests. After Yuan Shao's death, Liu Bei couldn't bear to be attached to his junior Yuan Xi, so he would rather join his peer Liu Biao. .

And Yuan Xi was not idle either. Taking advantage of the siege of Jinyang, he asked Zhang He, Gao Lan and others to lead troops to wipe out all the surrounding cities, large and small, and at the same time dig ditches and rivers near the Fen River. This was done to prepare for future water conservancy projects. , the second is to make Jinyang think that Yuan Xi will use water attack, thus reducing morale.

In this regard, because of the previous transaction between Yang Feng and Lu Lingqi, he began to ask the alchemists of Taiping Dao to spread rumors that the future king of the grassland would be born in Wuyuan, which was obviously to build momentum for Lu Lingqi's child.

No matter how we fight in the city right now, we can only hold on for a few more months, but we are just short of the last point, and Jinyang is indeed extremely difficult to defeat.

Liu Bei understood this, and he knew that if he worked under Yuan Xi, he would be annexed by Yuan Xi sooner or later. After all, Yuan Xi was not a harmless ally, and from Mi Zhen's relationship, Yuan Xi Xi still has some possible inheritance rights, which is the most important thing for Liu Bei.

Moreover, Yuan Xi understood Liu Bei's thoughts. Liu Bei looked at Corporal Li Xian and treated others with humility. In fact, he was very proud in his heart and had his own goals and ideals. This ideal was undoubtedly in conflict with Yuan Xi's path.

It is surrounded by mountains on three sides to the northwest and east, with valley plains in the middle and south, Black Mountain on the left but no road, Luliang Mountain on the right, Yunzhong Xizhou Mountains behind, and Taiyuan Plain in front. The highest point is nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, which is most suitable for frontal layout. The gap in the formation's attack was the Taiyuan Plain, but the high-ranking cadres there were not strong enough. It was already exhausting their efforts just to hold the line of defense, let alone attack the city.

In this situation, if Liu Bei relies on Yuan Xi, I am afraid that many of his subordinates will secretly defect to Yuan Xi. Then Liu Bei's efforts will be made into Yuan Xi's wedding dress, so Liu Bei will not be able to do anything for Yuan Xi anyway.

Although it is a pity, everyone has his own ambitions and cannot force it. The current situation in the world is still chaotic, so he just needs to take one step at a time.

Now in Jinyang City there are the Southern Xiongnu, Cao Cao's forces, the Bingzhou Shang clan, and the Han clan who have long been dissatisfied with the three parties. I will slowly wait for the forces to be reshuffled. The day when the situation becomes clear, that will be fine. The situation in the world will gradually change and become clearer. The days passed day by day, entering late autumn, and winter was about to begin. Information from various places continued to come in. The change Yuan Xi was waiting for finally came, but it was not Jinyang, but Liangzhou.

The internal conflicts in Liangzhou finally broke out, and Ma Teng and Han Sui broke up and split into two major forces to attack each other. The inducement was the seeds of distrust that Yuan Xi had planted in the meeting between the two, but the most direct one was It was because after Cao Cao captured Hanzhong, the conflicts among the princes of Liangzhou were completely detonated.

Originally, Liangzhou was the private territory of dozens of princes and princes in the Maha-Korean coalition. It was profitable to cooperate with Cao Cao, and Cao Cao did give up half of the Sili to plunder.

The horse-Korean coalition forces were also extremely satisfied. They were promised to ensure the security of Liangzhou's rear area, and they had Sili as a buffer between them and Cao Cao's territory. Even if there was a conflict with Cao Cao, the other party would not be able to attack their hometown.

But after Cao Cao captured Hanzhong, everything changed. Cao Cao's army could go directly north from Hanzhong and enter the hinterland of Liangzhou, which immediately threatened the Xiliang princes.

Cao Cao also miscalculated this. He thought that Ma Teng and Han Sui could deal with the Xiliang generals, so this autumn, Cao Cao mainly focused on attacking Liu Bei and other important matters.

He also sent several troops to harass Yuan Xi's territory and stumble Yuan Xi. The reinforcements from Huaicheng to Jinyang were one of them. However, except for this one, the other routes suffered setbacks and went to the upper reaches of the Huai River. The army that harassed Shouchun was blocked by Taishi Ci's army and had to retreat to Xudu.

As for Jizhou, the troops sent by Xiahou Dun in Yecheng were even worse. Zhuge Liang led the army from Qingzhou to Anping. He only used the old generals of the Jizhou army to defeat all Xiahou Dun's troops, leaving them without any chance. Didn't take advantage of it.

This was mostly the case in other directions. The only flaw was in the southern part of the Jianghuai River. Jiangdong took advantage of the opportunity to attack and occupy Jiangxia and occupied several cities north of the Yangtze River. It was obviously under Sun Quan's instructions. However, Jiangdong's army did not take the opportunity to go north to Chaohu. After all, the last big war Soon after their defeat, they did not dare to make too many mistakes.

When Yuan Xi saw this information, he almost laughed angrily. He thought that Sun Quan was really cheap. He didn't dare to attack directly and always made such small moves in private.

However, Jiangdong will not have good days for a few more years. If Yuan Xi can continue to build ports and shipyards in the four states around the Bohai Sea, develop trade at the same time, and raise ships through commerce, he will be able to build a huge fleet in less than five years. At that time, Jiangdong's defense along the Yangtze River will be useless.

Cao Cao's plan to harass Yuan Xi was thwarted, and he didn't pay too much attention to it. Instead, he focused on another matter, which was to appoint an heir.

However, as Cao Cao's status as a general, it was a bit unethical to openly appoint an heir, so Cao Cao's subordinates stood up and submitted a letter, suggesting that the emperor make Cao Cao the Duke of Wei.

This incident caused an uproar among the emperor's officials, because the emperor's officials said that they were the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, but it was just a general title, because there was no duke in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Previously, Cao Cao had received the treatment of not being in court in front of the emperor, that is, he did not follow the court, praised and worshiped without fame, and went to the palace with swords and shoes. He was already inferior to one person and superior to ten thousand people. It seemed natural that he was given the title of Duke, but in In the eyes of a caring person, this is an extremely obvious sign of trouble!

Because the Eastern Han Dynasty did not ennoble a duke but only a marquis, it is because of the lessons learned from the Western Han Dynasty. The biggest difference between the ennoblement of a duke and the ennoblement of a marquis is that after being granted the title of a marquis, you only get more land and food, but if you are granted the title of a gong, you can build a community and an ancestral temple!

She Ji, the God of Society and Ji, represents the scepter of rule, while the ancestral temple is the place where ancestors are worshiped. The establishment of the ancestral temple means that the right to rule has been recognized by the emperor and can be inherited through generations.

To put it bluntly, the State Council and the Ancestral Temple represent the independent sovereignty of the country. In the Western Han Dynasty, only princes and kings could build ancestral temples and establish a country. Cao Cao's promotion to Duke was to establish a feudal state and build his own State Council and Ancestral Temple.

Moreover, after three failures to meet the emperor and being granted a title of nobility by a person of a different surname, the person closest to Cao Cao was Wang Mang, who replaced the Western Han Dynasty and established the Xin Dynasty. At this point, who didn't know what Cao Cao was thinking?
Xu Du also fell into chaos. Of course, Ma Teng and Han Sui attacked each other and threatened Xu Du at any time. Moreover, many people did not know about the confederation in advance.

This is the case with Xun Yu.

He is now in extreme anger and uneasiness, because two of the civil and military officials who wrote to the emperor suggested that Cao Cao be granted the title of Duke.

Dong Zhao, Xun You!
Xun Yu knew that he and Xun You were already inseparable. Xun You was more in tune with Cao Cao than he was. However, as the elder, Xun Yu could still control the Xun family's decisions. In the dispute over the successor, he supported Cao Zhi and Xun Yu's opinions. It also played a decisive role.

However, what Xun Yu didn't expect was that Xun You, the heir, didn't say anything on the matter and seemed to give in. As a result, he hid himself from himself on the matter of becoming a prince, and suddenly made a big deal!

(End of this chapter)