Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

In fact, there were many princes who were preparing to leave Luoyang as soon as possible.

After all, the later you leave Luoyang, the greater the risk.

It's not just the local risks. The last batch of princes leaving Luoyang also need to be wary of Lu Bu turning the table over and forcing them to stay.

Therefore, after Sun Jian led his army away in a hurry that day and returned directly to Changsha County in Jingzhou, the other princes, both big and small, who received the news, began to think about leaving.

On the same night that Sun Jian led his army to leave Luoyang, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu almost simultaneously noticed the problem with the sealing of the imperial edict.

As a family with three dukes for four generations, the Yuan family has preserved so many imperial edicts issued by successive emperors that they could easily cover an entire wall.

The seal on the edict is not the imperial seal!
This sense of absurdity is like a national bank issuing counterfeit currency.

After Yuan Shao urgently summoned his staff to discuss the matter, they quickly came to the conclusion that the imperial seal had been lost.

As for who got the imperial seal, Sun Jian was undoubtedly the most suspicious person.

Especially Sun Jian's hasty departure, which further highlighted his guilty conscience.

For a time, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu made almost the same choice, which was to send cavalry to chase Sun Jian and try to verify the matter.

In fact, it was not just Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu who were suspicious. After Sun Jian was the first to leave Luoyang in a hurry, Chen Gong also suspected Sun Jian.

However, before the allied forces left Luoyang, the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry was almost unable to move. Even if Chen Gong wanted to try to recover the imperial seal, he was powerless.

That night, Chen Gong stood on a high place inside the imperial palace, looking out at the night sky where a lot of soldiers seemed to be constantly being mobilized. His gaze was deep and far-reaching, yet revealed a sense of helplessness.

All the knowledgeable people of the time have understood that the Han Dynasty is almost in name only!
Chen Gong wanted to support the Han Dynasty, but the fact was that Lu Bu was not a loyal and patriotic person. Coordinating the relationship between the emperor and Lu Bu took Chen Gong all his efforts.

Moreover, the remnants of Dong's bandits behind Hangu Pass made Chen Gong feel like a thorn in his side.

Therefore, whether it is to preserve the Han Dynasty or to gain an opportunity for Lu Bu to dominate, the unity of the Guandong princes is completely not in the interests of the emperor and Lu Bu.

Lu Bu could not completely break off relations with the princes of Guandong, otherwise the result would be that the fisherman would benefit from the quarrel between the snipe and the clam.

"Your Majesty, Fengxian wants to rebuild the world and pacify the troubled times..."

"The only way is to lead the princes of Guandong to fight among themselves, borrow Ma Teng and Liu Yan to deal with the remnants of Dong's bandits, and then wait for an opportunity to seize Hangu Pass as a barrier, then go east to sweep across Yanzhou, use Sili as a base, and Yanzhou as a stepping stone to seize the Central Plains..."

"After that, we will go north to pacify Ji, Bing, and You states and seize all the places where horses are raised. Only then can we conquer the world."

Chen Gong murmured.

This was also the blueprint that Chen Gong had come up with for the emperor and Lu Bu after many days of consideration.

In Chen Gong's view, the key lies in speed!
It is necessary to occupy most of the Central Plains before the foreseeable melee north of the Yellow River is completely decided, and then take advantage of the situation to move north to reap the benefits.

Otherwise, once the fertile Jizhou and the horse-breeding areas of Bingzhou and Youzhou are all in the hands of one person, it will probably be too late and difficult to resist.

In addition, the person that Chen Gong was most worried about was Liu Xuande.

Liu Xuande has the national scholar Li Zikun under his command, and the powerful warriors Zhao Yun, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. It would be difficult for him to find an opponent to rival him as he sweeps through Yangzhou.

I just hope that Liu Xuande will be burdened by his reputation for benevolence and will not be willing to attack Xuzhou and Jingzhou after occupying Yangzhou. Otherwise, once Liu Xuande occupies the entire south, he will also be a formidable enemy.

As he thought about it, Chen Gong couldn't help but be distracted, and then a question came to his mind...

'Has Li Zikun seen through my plan? Am I really a match for Li Zikun?'

'No! Even if it is seen through, so what? Borrowing the name of the emperor to enfeoff the princes is an open conspiracy. This is also the most suitable chessboard that Fengxian can get! '

"Yangzhou is a vast land with few people. It also includes Lujiang, Jiujiang, Danyang and Yuzhang counties. All of them were appointed by the traitor Dong Zhe before. Those county magistrates will definitely not easily submit to Liu Xuande."

"Even though Li Zikun is extremely intelligent and Zhao Yun and his men are all powerful generals, it would take them at least two or three months to march back to Wujun from Luoyang. And then it would take another year or two to pacify each county one by one..."

"It will probably take two years for Liu Xuande to completely control Yangzhou."

Two years later...

This time estimate made Chen Gong feel much more at ease.

Moreover, this was already Chen Gong's prediction that Liu Bei's troops would be invincible wherever they went, capturing cities and strongholds.

However, in Chen Gong's opinion, Liu Bei only controlled Wu County and Kuaiji County at this moment, and he swallowed up the six counties of Yangzhou with these two counties.

Considering the large area of ​​Yangzhou, even sending troops to make a circle would take considerable time, not to mention that after swallowing up the six counties of Yangzhou, it would take enough time to completely digest it.

Therefore, Chen Gong made this judgment after constantly overestimating Li Ji's military and political capabilities.

In Chen Gong's opinion, two years might be enough time for Lu Bu to recover completely, go east through Hulao Pass to occupy Yanzhou, and start to dominate the Central Plains. After thinking for a long time, Chen Gong looked in the direction of Li Ji's mansion and thought secretly.

"No problem, this game... I have the advantage!"

But unlike Chen Gong's sense of urgency, Li Ji was discussing the marching route back to Wujun with Liu Bei in a leisurely manner.

Since the ship needed to carry more than a hundred carts of bamboo slips back to Wujun, this also made Liu Bei want to return to Wujun.

Or, go directly by land;

Or, they could wait for the ship to transport the bamboo slips back to Wujun, and then come to pick up the troops led by Liu Bei and return to Wujun by sea.

However, after experiencing the convenience of the sea route, even Liu Bei did not want to travel all the way back to Wujun by land.

Otherwise, the journey would be so long that who knows how many soldiers would be wasted along the way.

Therefore, after some discussion, the marching route planned was to go east through Hulao Pass, cross Yanzhou, go to the port of Qingzhou, and then take the connecting ship back to Wujun. This was basically the opposite direction of the route from Wujun to the Suanzao League.

After the marching route was determined, Li Ji made a proposal.

"My lord, it will take quite some time for the ships to reach the port of Qingzhou. By then, we may be able to stay in Yingchuan for a while, and perhaps find one or two great sages to help you with your great cause."

"Yingchuan?"

Liu Bei also felt that this place name was somewhat familiar to him.

Before the establishment of Rende Academy, Yingchuan was a gathering place for scholars and sages from all over the world. Over the past 400 years of the Han Dynasty, Yingchuan has produced countless talented and outstanding people.

Starting from Zhang Liang and Chao Cuo, seven of the "Twenty-Eight Generals of Yuntai" who assisted Emperor Guangwu were from Yingchuan, which also established Yingchuan's status in the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, Liu Bei was also quite tempted by Li Ji's proposal.

Although Ren De Academy was also continuously cultivating talents, how could Liu Bei, who had ambitions to rule the world, be dissatisfied with having too many talents?

More importantly, with Li Ji's assistance, Liu Bei gradually developed enough confidence.

He felt that he was no longer the same person he used to be. He was no longer the shoe peddler or mat weaver despised by the scholars. With his current status, he thought that he could recruit one or two talented people to assist him.

"Zikun, it has been nearly half a year since we led our troops away from Wujun. If we don't return to Wujun early, something might happen." Liu Bei said with some concern.

Of course, what Liu Bei was worried about was not the civil unrest in Wujun and Kuaiji counties.

With Liu Bei's popularity and influence in Wujun and Kuaiji counties, and the implementation of the military household system, Liu Bei always had a firm control over the people's hearts and military power.

Not to mention others, even Li Ji could not shake Liu Bei's rule in Wujun and Kuaiji counties.

That is a rule that is truly firmly controlled from the bottom up, and it cannot be shaken by one or two important officials or aristocratic families.

What Liu Bei was worried about was the hidden dangers in the other four counties of Yangzhou.

Before that, after Dong Zhuo took control of the government, he used powerful official positions in various places to win over scholars. Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu both obtained the positions of county governors in this way.

In Yangzhou, the four counties of Danyang, Jiujiang, Lujiang and Yuzhang also had new county governors, and it seemed that in order to contain Liu Bei, the new county governors were all ambitious people.

Therefore, what Liu Bei was worried about was that if he led his elite troops away from Wujun for too long, they might be attacked.

However, facing the concerns raised by Liu Bei, Li Ji showed a meaningful smile on his face and said.

"My lord, you are right to worry. The new governors of Danyang, Jiujiang, Lujiang, and Yuzhang are all fierce and ruthless. Even when my lord was in Wu County, they were still eyeing him covetously."

"Now that the lord has led his army away from Wujun for a long time, it is not surprising that he has taken some actions..."

Suddenly, Liu Bei's expression changed almost visibly.

It's not that Liu Bei hadn't had similar concerns before, but he had absolute trust in Li Ji. He thought that since Li Ji didn't raise it, Li Ji probably thought that the four counties didn't dare to covet Wu County, so he didn't care too much.

What Liu Bei never expected was that Li Ji also believed that the four counties were likely to attack Wu County. How could this not make Liu Bei anxious?

If you lead your troops out to fight in the wild and your house is robbed, what will happen?
If even Wujun is gone, wouldn't Liu Bei, the governor of Yangzhou, become a joke?
Without waiting for Li Ji to finish, Liu Bei spoke quickly.

"I will order Zilong and Yide to lead the cavalry to gallop day and night and rush back to Wujun to be on guard first."

Li Ji quickly grabbed Liu Bei who wanted to get up and spoke.

"My lord, don't worry. Even if Zilong and Yide travel at full speed day and night, it will probably take about a month to return to Wujun."

"More importantly, I did this on purpose to lure the snake out of its hole. Otherwise, would you really be planning to return to Wu County and attack the cities and strongholds one by one?" (End of this chapter)