At the end of the Han Dynasty: a stingy husband from his hometown

Chapter 350 Crossing the border to grab food

Seeing the embarrassment on Zhou Qi's face, Zhou Yu immediately said: "It has not yet been decided whether Yuan Benchu ​​wants to pursue Xuzhou, so it is better to wait and see first."

Zhou Yu knew that Liu Bei's move to tear up the alliance not only angered His Royal Highness the King of Chu, but also dissatisfied many civil and military officials in the Chu state.

If you rush to remind Liu Bei before the matter is clear, if Yuan Shao fails to attack Xuzhou, it will make Chu unable to step down, and the generals will not feel good about it.

Hearing this, Zhou Qi nodded and said, "Gong Jin's words are very good, let's wait and see."

Xuzhou, Tan County, Prince Qi's Mansion.

Liu Bei frowned slightly when he looked at the edict sent by Yuan Shao.

Now Liu Bei has nominally belonged to the State of Zhao after accepting Yuan Shao's canonization, so it is in line with etiquette for Yuan Shao to issue an edict to Liu Bei.

But anyone with a discerning eye knows that although Liu Bei nominally submitted to the State of Zhao, in fact he still belonged to an independent prince.

Yuan Shao was obviously a little arrogant when he issued an edict to Liu Bei at this time.

Chen Gong asked: "I wonder what Yuan Benchu ​​said in this edict?"

Regarding Yuan Shao's request, Liu Bei naturally declined politely on the grounds that the grain had not yet been harvested.

"Yuan Benchu ​​was unwilling to deploy troops on the Xiangfan battlefield, so he hoped that Gu Neng would send troops to relieve the siege of Ruyang."

Liu Bei looked at Zhang Fei who was filled with anger and comforted him: "Third brother, don't be impatient. Please listen to what you gentlemen say."

Chen Gong thought for a moment, and then said: "Logically speaking, the war between Zhao and Chu is in full swing at this time. Yuan Benchu ​​should not turn against Xuzhou. If Xuzhou is really forced to fight with him, Zhao will be attacked on both sides."

Liu Bei's eyes scanned the generals, and finally passed over Zhang Fei, who was trying his best to wink at him, and then stopped at Zhao Yun.

Fortunately, Zhang Liao and Xu Huang were both famous generals in the world. They quickly discovered Yuan Jun's intentions and immediately did not dare to neglect and hurriedly led their troops back to the county.

"A certain person invited five thousand troops to garrison the country of Pei. If the Yuan army dares to continue to plunder the crops of the country of Pei, a certain person will kill them and return with a great defeat!"

Only Liu Bei received the title of King of Qi but stood aside and watched. Yuan Shao was naturally angry.

Next, Yuan Shao stopped paying attention to Liu Bei and instead sent a steady stream of troops into Runan County. He originally planned to outflank and besiege Zhang Liao and others.

Peiguo was previously given to Liu Bei by Zhou Qi, and Liu Bei also managed it well.

The two looked at each other and said in unison: "Great kindness!"

Peiguo was Yuan Shao's territory before, but Zhou Qi later captured it and gave it to Liu Bei. At this time, Yuan Jun was harvesting crops in Peiguo, probably to express his dissatisfaction with Liu Bei's inaction.

If Zhang Fei is really allowed to lead troops into the state of Pei, Zhao and Qi will inevitably be at odds with each other, and a war may even break out.

"In addition, on the battlefield in Runan, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhou Cheng besieged Ruyang for a long time. There was not much food and grass left in the city and it was already crumbling."

When the officials of Pei State learned that a large number of Yuan troops had crossed the border to collect grain, they rushed to report to Liu Bei.

The strength of the Zhao State is obvious to all, and it is definitely not invincible to be close to the Qi State.

Liu Bei turned his attention to Chen Gong and asked, "How does Gongtai view this matter?"

Yuan Shao smiled slightly, and then issued another edict and sent someone to deliver it to Liu Bei.

The other generals were not as reckless as Zhang Fei.

Liu Bei asked: "What's strange?"

"Zilong, if you lead two thousand cavalry to the state of Pei, you must find out the true intentions of Yuan Jun. Don't start a conflict with Yuan Jun unless you have no choice."

"With the strength of Yuan's army, it is not difficult to break the siege of Ruyang, but he has to ask the king to send troops to help. He wants to completely push Xuzhou to the opposite side of Chu, so that he can reap the benefits."

As soon as he told the reason for the incident, Zhang Fei immediately jumped out and said, "Yuan Shao is bullying people too much. How dare he cross the border to harvest the crops of Pei State and bully me, Xuzhou, where there is no one?"

Liu Bei looked at Chen Gong and Chen Deng and asked, "What do you think of Tzuyu's plan?"

Chen Deng also said: "This matter is indeed like smoke and mirrors. Could it be that Yuan Benchu ​​is really short of food?"

Zhuge Jin said: "Since this matter is quite strange, why don't your Majesty send a solemn general to lead troops to Pei State? This way, we can not only explore the cause of the matter, but also prepare for Yuan Benchu ​​in advance."

Chen Gong nodded and said, "Of course not."

Liu Bei was also shocked when he received the news, and hurriedly summoned his subordinates Wenwu to discuss the matter.

Liu Bei asked: "Does Gongtai mean not to send troops to help Yuan Benchu?"

The reason why Liu Bei refused to give up anything was because he knew that Xuzhou could not always be at peace with Zhao State, and the two sides would inevitably have a war sooner or later.

Looking at Yuan Shao's appearance, Jushu smiled and said, "Your Majesty, there is no need to do this. Isn't this already expected?"

Liu Bei sighed softly and said with some helplessness: "Now Zhao and Chu are at war. Although Yuan Jun is on the offensive in Xiangfan battlefield, Chu State has a favorable geographical location, which makes Yuan Benchu ​​unable to attack for a long time."

When Yuan Shao saw Liu Bei's letter, he couldn't help but sneer again and again, then looked at Ju Shou and said, "Ai Qing is indeed right. Liu Bei really intends to do nothing but gain benefits!"

The most terrible thing is that the Qi State has offended the Chu State by breaking the alliance before. If a conflict breaks out with the Zhao State for some food at this time, the consequences will be unpredictable.

When Chen Gong heard this, he sneered and said, "This Yuan Benchu ​​is quite scheming."

Yuan Jun entered Runan, but failed. Then he turned to Pei State with a sickle and began to harvest the grain there.

The content of the edict is roughly as follows: Since Xuande cannot relieve the siege of Ruyang, he has to send troops to Ruyang himself. However, the army has been fighting for such a long time, resulting in not much food and grass in the army. Xuzhou is close to Ruyang, and I hope to temporarily borrow some grain and grass from Liu Bei. After the war is over, I will definitely return double the amount.

After Cao Cao and Shi Xie were canonized, they both used troops against Chu. Even if Cao Cao was defeated and returned to Guanzhong, he at least contributed.

Liu Bei thought the same thing. He immediately wrote a letter and sent it to Yuan Shao, telling him tactfully that it was autumn and the soldiers had been sent home to harvest food, and there were really no troops available.

Chen Gong frowned slightly and said, "This matter is quite strange."

Sending food to the other party at this time would not only completely offend the Chu State, but also strengthen the enemy. How could Liu Bei do this?

"only!"

Zhao Yun took the order and left.

However, it is said that after Zhao Yun arrived in Pei State with two thousand cavalry, he found an opportunity to secretly capture several soldiers of Yuan's army. After interrogation, he immediately wrote a letter to Liu Bei, saying that the reason why Yuan's army crossed the border to harvest grain and grass was because General Wen Chou came to help Yuan's army in Ruyang. , dissatisfied with Xuzhou's observation, so he privately ordered the soldiers to do so.

He did this not only to grab some food, but also to disgust Liu Bei.

After Zhao Yun sent away the letter, he was still not sure whether the interrogation results were accurate, so he looked for an opportunity to capture a Yuan military captain alive.

Such generals always know more than soldiers. as expected.

Zhao Yun finally got a gruesome result. After being unable to attack Fancheng for a long time, Yuan Shao's men were now divided into two factions. One faction still insisted on continuing the war with Chu.

As for the other faction, they advocate taking Xuzhou first and then looking for opportunities to overthrow the Chu State.

Of course, most people, including Yuan Shao, advocated destroying Chu first.

After all, Chu State is a powerful opponent, and it was difficult to appease Xuzhou, allowing Zhao State to attack Chu State without any distractions.

Once there is a war with Xuzhou at this time, Chu State may take advantage of the opportunity and enter the war. When the time comes, fighting on two fronts will not be beneficial to Zhao State.

It is precisely because of this consideration that the vast majority of people are opposed to antagonizing Xuzhou.

As for the other faction, it was some Hebei generals headed by Wen Chou. Because Yan Liang was killed by Ma Chao in front of the battle, many Hebei generals were a little afraid of the Chu army, so they wanted to change the battlefield.

It's just that without Yuan Shao's support, they can't do anything.

This time Yuan Shao sent Wen Chou to help Ruyang. After Wen Chou learned that Liu Bei first refused to send troops to relieve the siege of Ruyang, and then refused to provide food and grass, he began to make his own decisions and deliberately sent people across the border into Pei State to let them harvest crops.

Of course, Wen Chou did not dare to go too far, so he did not rob the people or attack the city.

Since Yuan Shao was dissatisfied with Liu Bei before, he acquiesced in Wen Chou's attitude.

Yuan Shao didn't know that Wen Chou wanted to take advantage of crossing the border to harvest crops, forcing Liu Bei to take the lead.

At that time, the deal was done, and even if Yuan Shao no longer wanted to go to war with Xuzhou, it would not help.

After Zhao Yuntan heard the news, he did not dare to neglect and hurriedly ordered people to rush to Xuzhou.

After reading the news from Zhao Yun, Liu Bei couldn't help but sigh to himself: "Fortunately, I didn't act rashly and sent Yide to Pei State. Otherwise, I'm afraid I would have followed Wen Chou's wishes."

After learning the news, Xuzhou civil and military officials were all sweating secretly.

Liu Bei looked around at the crowd and said, "Now that we know this is Wen Chou's plan, how should we deal with it?"

Everyone was silent when they heard this.

This matter is indeed difficult to handle.

If Yuan Shao is determined to attack Xuzhou, Liu Bei has no choice and will naturally devote all his strength to fighting him.

But now, Yuan Shao obviously does not want to fight Xuzhou, but his generals are good at making decisions. In addition, Liu Bei's two previous refusals have angered Yuan Shao, so he just let Wen Chou go.

If Liu Bei ignores Wen Chou's soldiers, then Pei's harvest this year will belong to Yuan Jun.

If troops are sent to stop it, a conflict will most likely break out between the two sides, leading to a war between the two countries.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Mi Zhu stood up and said, "It is not the best idea to fight Zhao at this time."

"In my opinion, since Na Wen Chou did not dare to go too far and only dared to send troops to harvest crops, the king might as well issue an edict to ask the people in Pei State to harvest crops quickly, and at the same time send troops to Pei State to help."

"We don't need to stop Wen Chou, we just need to harvest the crops faster than they can!"

"For those people whose food was robbed by Wen Chou's soldiers, the government would fund their losses. This would avoid conflicts and minimize losses."

Following his words, Liu Bei immediately sent troops to Pei State to help the people harvest food.

as predicted.

With the addition of soldiers, the people harvested food much faster.

Yuan Jun came to Xuzhou Army many times to provoke, but the other party never took the initiative to attack, and they did not dare to provoke a war rashly.

After the news came back to Xuzhou, Liu Bei couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.

It is the best news that Wen Chou's soldiers can restrain themselves from conflict with the Xuzhou Army. It at least shows that the possibility of a war breaking out between the two at this stage is very small.

But what Liu Bei didn't expect was that when Wen Chou saw that Pei's grain harvesting speed was not as fast as that of Pei's soldiers and civilians, Wen Chou actually changed the direction and sent troops across Pei to go directly to Xiapi and began to rob Xiapi's grain.

After Zhang Fei heard the news about you, he couldn't help but flew into a rage and said: "That guy Wen Chou is really bullying me. He is afraid of Ma Mengqi, but he is not afraid of me, Zhang Yide? I have invited 30,000 troops and am willing to issue a military order. Wen Chou is necessary." That guy’s head is dedicated to his brother!”

Liu Bei's face didn't look good either.

He is not the kind of good old guy in the novel, and he is not someone who is willing to suffer losses.

But the more aggressive Wen Chou became, the more Liu Bei had to calm down and not fall into the opponent's tricks and drag the entire Xuzhou into the quagmire of war.

Today's Xuzhou is still too weak, and it is not as dangerous as Chu State.

If a war really breaks out with Zhao State, without foreign aid, the probability of Qi State's destruction is at least 80%.

He took a deep breath, tried to calm down the anger in his heart, and then asked Mi Zhu: "Ever since Wen Chou sent troops to rob the country of Pei, Gu has ordered the officials of various counties and counties to urge the people to harvest crops as soon as possible. I don't know where Xia Pi County is now." How is the harvest progress?"

Mi Zhu replied: "Most of the crops in Xiapi County have been harvested, but the food just harvested has not been processed yet, and a lot of it is piled in front of the people's homes."

"I'm worried that those Yuan troops will take advantage of the situation and directly steal the harvested food from the people."

Liu Bei hurriedly said: "I'm telling you to go down and the grain that has just been harvested in Xiapi County is not allowed to be piled outside. I don't believe that Wen Chou dares to send people to people's homes to rob grain!"

The reason why Liu Bei has this kind of confidence is because when Wen Chou's soldiers were in Pei State, although they repeatedly provoked Zhao Yun, they also maintained due restraint.

They neither dared to take the lead nor break into people's homes. They would only harvest the crops that were already mature in the fields.

It was precisely because of what Pei Guo Yuan Jun did that Liu Bei had this idea.

Guan Yu was also filled with anger and stepped forward and said: "Allowing Yuan Jun to act recklessly in Xiapi County will eventually lead to great hidden dangers. Please lead five thousand troops to guard Xiapi County."

"In this way, if there is an emergency, we can still deal with it."

When Liu Bei heard this, he looked at Guan Yu with a little worry.

He had known Guan Yu for a long time, but he knew that the other party was proud and proud, and there was no way he could rub it in his eyes. If Guan Yu was sent to Xiapi and saw what Wen Chou's soldiers did, he might become angry and do something irreversible. matter.

After thinking about it, he finally set his sights on Taishi Ci and said, "Yun Chang will stay here for the time being. Let Ziyi lead five thousand troops to Xiapi."

"Ziyi must remember not to provoke a dispute unless the other party takes the lead!"

(End of this chapter)