Ji Han Liu Zhang

Chang'an, official residence.

After receiving the news, Liu Zhang sighed softly: "Lü Bu is in danger!!!" Yes, Lü Bu, Marquis Wen of the Han Dynasty, is afraid that he will hardly survive this year, which is the third year of Jian'an.

As for the reason, it was because Cao Cao, just like in history, intended to send troops to attack Xuzhou, clear out the threats on the coast of the East China Sea, and get rid of Lu Bu, the capricious traitor.

As for the time when Cao Cao would send his troops, Liu Zhang got an approximate time through an insider lurking in Xu Du. It was probably after the summer harvest that Cao Cao would send troops to Xuzhou to attack Lu Bu.

Liu Zhang was not optimistic about whether Lu Bu could escape his historical fate, and he personally thought it was difficult for him to escape.

After all, Lu Bu had a bad reputation and was a profit-oriented person. He did not have the support of Xuzhou aristocratic families such as Chen Gui and Chen Deng, and he could not unite the Taishan bandits and Huainan Yuan Shu. It was really difficult for Lu Bu to fight against Cao Cao alone.

Leaving Lu Bu aside, Liu Zhang read the news coming from Jingzhou. According to spies, Sun Ce would lead his troops to attack Jiangxia in the near future under the pretext of avenging his father's death. Huang Zu, the prefect of Jiangxia, was very worried and sent envoys to Xiangyang several times to ask for reinforcements.

"Huang Zuwei!!!"

Liu Zhang was aware of the combat effectiveness of Huang Zu's troops, and history had also provided clear evidence that Huang Zu's troops were probably no match for the Little Overlord Sun Ce, and this time they would probably be slaughtered by Sun Ce and a river of blood would flow.

Liu Zhang was not worried about whether Sun Ce would take advantage of the victory to pursue and control Jingzhou. On the one hand, there were many clan bandits in Jiangdong and the Shanyue people rebelled frequently, which would take up most of Sun Ce's energy and prevent him from fighting outside for a long time. On the other hand, although Liu Biao in Jingzhou was just a guest, he could stay in Jingxiang for more than ten years, so he was also an extraordinary man and would not be destroyed by Sun Ce.

Thirdly, compared with Jingzhou and Jiangdong, Jingzhou has a larger population than Jiangdong, Jingzhou's level of development also exceeds Jiangdong, and Jingzhou's cultural situation is also better than Jiangdong. Jingzhou is located in the upper reaches of Jiangdong, with smooth sailing and convenient terrain, which is incomparable to Jiangdong.

With these three things, Liu Zhang could predict that, although the world was in chaos, the people of Wu, Yue, Jing and Chu would not have the opportunity to compete for hegemony over the world, and could only secede and usurp power in one state.

"This year is indeed a bit chaotic, or rather, the world has been in such a mess since the end of Emperor Ling's reign." Thinking of the conflict between Cao Cao and Lu Bu, the fight between Liu Biao and Sun Ce, Yuan Shao's attack on Gongsun Zan from Yi County, and now he also has to manage Hedong, the situation in the world is so chaotic, and the princes are constantly attacking each other. Liu Zhang couldn't help but sigh, feeling emotional about the current situation.

At this time, the chief clerk Xun You came in with several documents. After sitting down, he reported to Liu Zhang: "Mingsir, Liu Jingzhou sent a letter requesting to buy horses."

"Buying horses?" Liu Zhang chuckled when he heard this. The South is short of horses, especially in the current chaotic situation where business and travel are blocked. No matter how much money one has, one cannot buy horses. The horse shortage in the South is particularly serious.

Earlier, Liu Zhang wanted to conclude an alliance with Liu Biao, and Liu Biao nodded in agreement. The most important thing was that he gave Liu Biao fifty horses from Liangzhou and two hundred horses from Nanzhong, and expressed his willingness to maintain trade with Jingzhou in the future and not cut off the passage for horses to go to Jingzhou.

As for why Liu Biao was so eager for horses, the reason was very simple. Horses were a powerful weapon for the military. Those who had horses were much stronger than those who did not. After all, riding a horse was as fast as the wind, and one could seize opportunities more accurately and win the battle.

Thinking of this, Liu Zhang asked, "Last year, we released a thousand horses to Jingzhou. How many horses does Liu Jingsheng want this year?"

"Three thousand horses." Xun You replied. As the chief clerk and Liu Zhang's trusted adviser, he could open and read ordinary documents directly, so he had read the contents of Liu Biao's documents.

When Liu Zhang heard this number, he was confused and asked in surprise, "Three thousand horses?"

"Yes, Liu Jingzhou wants to purchase 3,000 good horses." Xun You replied affirmatively.

Liu Zhang sighed, then said with emotion: "Jingzhou is truly rich." Liu Zhang was greatly impressed by the generosity of Liu Biao in purchasing so many horses at one time.

"What do you think?" After a sigh, Liu Zhang asked Xun You for his opinion. The counselors were counselors, and the suggestions were just right to answer Liu Zhang's question on how to deal with the matter.

Xun You thought about it and said, "Three thousand horses are too many. It is better to sell 1,800 horses. In addition, the items for buying horses are not limited to gold, silver, jade and other things. Food and grass should be the most important."

"Yes." Liu Zhang nodded. After settling Nanzhong, he was not short of gold and silver. After all, Nanzhong had not been developed on a large scale. There were plenty of gold and silver, and a lot of them could be supplied every year. What he lacked was food and fodder, especially now that the treasury was empty, and there was a big gap in food and fodder.

"I'll leave this matter to you." Liu Zhang handed over the matter of purchasing horses in Jingzhou to Xun You, and asked Xun You to negotiate with Liu Biao at the negotiation table.

"Yes." Xun You responded respectfully.

From beginning to end, Liu Zhang never talked to Xun You about the purpose of Liu Biao's purchase of horses, because he and Xun You both knew that Liu Biao purchased the horses only to deal with Sun Ce of Jiangdong.

Although Jiangdong and Jingzhou mostly used boats in their battles, if they wanted to capture counties and cities, they still had to fight on land, and tall horses could give them a lot of advantages in land battles.

That is why Liu Biao made such a lavish purchase of horses and spent so much gold and silver. Even if the money was gone, the people were still there, so the money could be earned back. But if the money was still there but the people were gone, then everything would be gone. Liu Biao must have understood this principle.

Within a few days, Liu Zhang received a piece of news, and this news was that someone wanted to buy horses. As for the buyer of the horses, it was Cao Cao, the prime minister who was in charge of the government.

"No, are you all so short of horses?" When Liu Zhang heard this news from Xun You, he could not help but secretly complain. Liu Biao bought horses, and Cao Cao also came to buy horses. They were both big horse owners.

Xun You analyzed the news: "When Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were connected before, Cao Cao could buy horses from Yuan Shao. However, this time Cao Cao came to Xu to welcome the emperor and made himself a general, which aroused Yuan Shao's suspicion. Cao Cao's way to buy horses from Hebei was cut off... In addition, Shangdang and other counties were in Yuan Shao's hands, so Cao Cao's way to buy horses from Bingzhou was also cut off. So Cao Cao was short of horses and had to buy them from you, sir."

Liu Zhang nodded. He knew about Cao Cao's lack of horses. After all, there was such an event in history. Zhong Yao, who was stationed in Chang'an, sent 2,000 horses to Cao Cao. Cao Cao wrote to Zhong Yao: "The horses sent are very urgent. Guanyou is pacified and the court has no worries about the west. This is your honor. In the past, Xiao He guarded Guanzhong and had enough food to form an army. It was also appropriate." In the letter, Cao Cao praised Zhong Yao greatly and even compared Zhong Yao to Xiao He. It can be seen that Cao Cao, whose sphere of influence was in the Central Plains, was short of horses.

"How many horses does Cao Cao want to buy?" Liu Zhang asked. With Yuan Shao's power, he and Cao Cao were suspicious of each other, but they also needed to get along well. So Liu Zhang planned to sell Cao Cao some horses. "Three thousand horses," Xun You replied.

Liu Zhang frowned and wondered, "Cao Cao only controls Yanyu and part of Yangzhou. He has been engaged in wars for years and has to support the emperor, ministers, officials and scholars. How can he have so much gold..."

Liu Zhang was puzzled at first and uttered words of confusion when Cao Cao purchased 3,000 horses at one time, showing his unusual financial strength. But suddenly he stopped talking, as if he understood something.

"Mingsir." Seeing Liu Zhang suddenly stop, Xun You said with concern when encountering such a rare situation.

"Nothing." Liu Zhang shook his head, and then he said, "Three thousand horses are too many for Cao Cao to buy. I will sell one thousand horses to Cao Cao first, and take food and grass first, and gold and silver second."

"Yes." Xun You didn't care. He had already made up his mind about Liu Zhang agreeing to Cao Cao's purchase. Under the current circumstances, they had to be in harmony with Cao Cao's side. Besides, Guanzhong was not short of gold and silver, but was short of food and fodder, and the treasury was empty. It was very reasonable to let Cao Cao's side buy horses in exchange for food and fodder.

However, although Xun You was smart, he did not guess what Liu Zhang was thinking. The reason why Liu Zhang gave priority to collecting food and fodder in exchange for horses was because he remembered a book he had read before - "Ghost Blowing Out the Light".

There is a mention of the tomb-robbing lieutenant and the general of the tomb-robbing school in "Ghost Blows Out the Light". Mr. Cao Mengde can be said to be the founder of the tomb-robbing school.

This is indeed the case. In history, Chen Lin wrote a letter of conquest for Yuan Shao to attack Cao Cao. In the letter of conquest, it said, "Cao Cao specially appointed General of the Household to Find the Gold and Lieutenant to Find the Gold. Wherever they go, no body is left unexposed." It can be seen that Cao Cao's finding the gold and finding the gold has historical basis.

It is possible that the tomb-robbing activities were not Cao Cao's original intention, but Cao Cao's subordinates must have done a lot of tomb-robbing, otherwise Chen Lin would not have mentioned Cao Cao's tomb-robbing activities out of thin air in his manifesto.

Therefore, Liu Zhang secretly guessed that the reason why Cao Cao could be so generous as to purchase 3,000 horses at one time was probably because he had excavated many Han tombs and obtained a lot of gold, silver and jade artifacts, which enabled him to be so wealthy.

It is also known that people in the Han Dynasty treated the dead as if they were alive. As Xunzi said in "On Rites": "Funeral rites are to decorate the dead with the living, and to send off the dead with the image of the living. Therefore, they are like living and like dying, like dead and like living. They are consistent from beginning to end." Therefore, the burial objects in Han Dynasty tombs were particularly luxurious and varied, and were loved by tomb robbers.

For example, Liu Zhang was disgusted with the gold, silver and jade items that Cao Cao used to buy horses. He did not want to make money from the dead, especially these gold, silver and jade items. Who knew if they were placed close to the dead body and contaminated with corpse oil?
After dealing with the matter of Cao Cao purchasing horses, Liu Zhang, accompanied by his personal guards and cavalry, came to the fields outside Chang'an City. Looking at the wheat fields swaying in the wind, like a yellow ocean, he was delighted. The summer harvest was approaching, and he would send troops to Hedong after the grain and grass were stored in the warehouse.

Currently in Hedong, the former Hedong governor Wang Yi and the new Hedong governor Gao Gan are fighting fiercely for the control of Hedong, like water and fire colliding with each other.

As time went by, Wang Yi's side gradually fell into decline, because Gao Gan was in command of the troops from Shangdang County, mixed with the border troops from Bingzhou, and with the support of the Xiongnu Qubei troops, he was slightly superior to Wang Yi.

During this time, Liu Zhang heard about a story that Gao Gan, in order to win the hearts of the people in Hedong, rectified the military style, especially the looting and troublesome Xiongnu Qubei. Gao Gan relied on Yuan Shao's reputation and had twice the number of troops as Qubei, forcing Qubei to release the looted women and offer most of the property.

This incident made Liu Zhang see the current weakness of the barbarians. In today's powerful world where all the princes are strong, people like the Xiongnu, Qiang and Hu can only serve as henchmen at best, but they are not worthy of being on the stage and cannot be the protagonists.

After admiring the wheat fields in Guanzhong that were about to be harvested for a while, Liu Zhang rode back to Chang'an City. In his official residence, he summoned the officials who were close to the people in Chang'an and asked them to keep a close eye on the summer harvest.

After the meeting, Liu Zhang began to think about one thing, that is, the selection of generals for the expedition to Hedong. The current attacker of Hedong was Yuan Shao's nephew Gao Gan. He thought that he should not lower his status and go to Hedong in person, as that would lower his status. He should send a general instead.

King against king, general against general, bamboo door against bamboo door, wooden door against wooden door.

Liu Zhang thought about the candidates to go to Hedong on his behalf. The best candidates would be Huang Quan and Wu Yi. After all, both of them had served in relevant departments and had a close relationship with him, so they were the most suitable candidates.

However, Huang Quan was stationed in Hanzhong and Wu Yi was far away in Hexi. Both of them were ordered to defend Anping and could not leave easily. Therefore, Liu Zhang had to pick one of the currently idle generals to replace him and go to Hedong.

……

Yi County.

Gongsun Zan, who was in a high building in Yijing, looked haggard and looked very depressed. As for the reason, it was because Yuan Shao led his troops to attack this time, and his attack was like that of gods and ghosts. He could hear the drums and horns from below and see them rushing up the stairs from above, which made Gongsun Zan very worried. He was worried that the overthrow would happen in just ten days.

At this time, Guan Jing, the chief secretary of Gongsun Zan, ran to Gongsun Zan with a happy face and reported a good news to him: "General, the young master has asked for reinforcements from Black Mountain. The Black Mountain commander Zhang Yan has 100,000 regular troops, divided into three groups, to Yi County to rescue the general."

"Really?" Gongsun Zan's eyes lit up when he heard that, and he asked in disbelief.

"It's true. Here is a letter written by the young master himself." Guan Jing affirmed, and at the same time he reached out to Gongsun Zan and handed the letter sent by Gongsun Xu.

Gongsun Zan snatched the letter as if he had snatched it away, and after spreading it out, he began to read it at a glance. After a while, Gongsun Zan let out a long sigh of relief, and the depression and anxiety that had accumulated recently seemed to be swept away.

"With a son like this, what else could I ask for?" Gongsun Zan sighed. He had sent Gongsun Xu to Taihang Mountain to ask for help before. His original intention was to let Gongsun Xu go in order to prevent his family from becoming extinct. However, he did not expect that Gongsun Xu actually came here to ask for reinforcements and had a chance to save his family from trouble.

Gongsun Zan frowned and thought deeply for a while, then said, "Zhang Yan is coming. This is our chance. We should seize this opportunity and attack Yuan's army from both inside and outside."

"General, what you said is very true." Guan Jing agreed, and said, "The most important thing now is to get in touch with Zhang Yan and agree on a date and place for the uprising. Only in this way can we defeat Yuan's army in one fell swoop and get out of the current predicament."

"Yes, yes." Gongsun Zan nodded repeatedly, holding on tightly to the straw that saved his life. (End of this chapter)