Big Joe, Little Joe loves me

Chapter 208 Xuzhou's Kindness and Resentment

The news of Li Shu's assassination was so sudden that Liu Gan did not expect it.

However, it is undeniable that Li Shu's death will benefit Liu Gan enormously.

Xuzhou officials, big and small, approached Liu Gan one after another. Guangling County surrendered, and Xiapi Kingdom and Donghai County also had powerful prefects who attached themselves to Liu Gan.

However, these people together cannot compare with the two brothers Cao Hong and Cao Bao who have lived in Xuzhou for a long time.

Back then, when Tao Qian was in office, the two brothers Cao Hong and Cao Bao were already one of the top figures in Xuzhou.

This can be said to echo the Cao brothers in Xuzhou. Their influence is intertwined in various counties in Xuzhou, especially the influence of Pengcheng Kingdom, which is deeply rooted and popular.

The Cao family brothers successively served as Tao Qian, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, and Li Shu, a total of four masters. Every time Xuzhou changed masters, they would vote for which side.

Now, Liu Gan is here.

Relying on his large army and reputation, Liu Gan thought he could easily subdue the Cao brothers, but he was blocked by the Cao brothers' army in the territory of Xiapi.

This made Liu Gan very upset!

Of the four masters of the Cao family brothers, which one is better than Liu Gan?
Why did those people voluntarily surrender as soon as they arrived in Xuzhou, and he, Liu Gan, would desperately resist when he came to Xuzhou?

Liu Gan was very angry. He decided to send troops to Pengcheng to capture the Cao brothers alive and ask them clearly.

"Ji Bi, why do brothers from the Cao family refuse to submit to this king? Do you know the reason?"

Liu Gan picked a time to ask Chen Jiao specifically. After all, Chen Jiao was born and bred in Xuzhou, and he may know some inside stories that other people don't know.

Chen Jiao pondered for a moment, then respectfully said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, His Majesty must also know that the Cao family is the largest family in Xuzhou, but does Your Majesty know who is the second largest family in Xuzhou?"

This question is embarrassing for Liu Gan. He really doesn't know the second largest family in Xuzhou. Although he has sent spies to inquire about information in many places, but the "bad people" have not yet perfected the system, and the information that ordinary people can find out is very small. limited.

Therefore, generally speaking, the information that Liu Gan can obtain is one-sided information, and when a little confidential matter is involved, the clues are cut off abruptly.

"But the Chen family?"

Liu Gan made a bold guess, and his guess was not completely unreasonable.

Because in the original historical process, after Xuzhou changed hands several times, the peach pickers who finally benefited were from the Chen family.

Chen Deng of the Chen family is even more young, and he is the prefect of one side, and he is also the prefect of Guangling.

You must know that Guangling at that time was on the border with Sun Quan's forces, and it was always facing the impact of Sun Quan's army.

Chen Deng's ability to win such an important prefect position shows Cao Cao's reliance on the Chen family, and it also highlights from the side that the Chen family has a pivotal position in Xuzhou.

"That's right, it's the Chen family. Over the years, the Cao family has been the dominant family in Xuzhou. Many families have tried to overthrow the Cao family, but they all failed without exception."

Chen Jiao nodded, and said eloquently: "When Liu Bei became Xuzhou Mu, the Cao family tried to compete with Liu Bei for power and profit. It was the Chen family who stood up to support Liu Bei at a critical moment. At that time, the Cao family and the Chen family stood on the opposite side. superior!"

"So that's the case. From this point of view, the reason why the Cao family refused to accept the surrender was because of the Chen family?" Liu Gan understood.

Because Xu Xuan succeeded in persuading Chen Deng to surrender, Chen Deng was the son of the Chen family, and his surrender was equivalent to the surrender of the Chen family to Liu Gan. As the mortal enemy of the Chen family, it was naturally impossible for the Cao family to submit to Liu Gan together with the Chen family.

It's no wonder that the Cao family, which has always been sloppy, raised troops to resist Liu Gan's invasion of Xuzhou. It turns out that the problem lies here!
The Cao family's influence in Xuzhou is intricate, and the Cao family brothers hold a heavy army. With these two obstacles standing in the way, it is already impossible for Liu Gan to take Xuzhou easily.

However, Liu Gan was eager to win Xuzhou as soon as possible, because Cao Cao had already defeated Zhang Xiu, and the battle between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan was almost over. Win more and bigger sites at the fastest speed.

As long as there is a territory, there will be a population. As long as there is a population, under Liu Gan's law of farming, there must be soldiers and food.

Then, come an extreme violent soldier, wipe out the enemy army in one wave, take advantage of the situation to overthrow the enemy base in one fell swoop, destroy it, nothing to worry about!
"Is there a way to win over the Cao brothers?"

Liu Gan asked in a deep voice, he didn't want to procrastinate on the battlefield, because the longer the time was delayed, the more unfavorable it would be for him to unify the world.

If possible, he is more willing to throw out a tempting profit cake for these warlords to divide up one by one, while he sits aside to reap the benefits of the fisherman, just sitting on the biggest cake.

Back then, Han Gaozu Liu Bang won the world in this way.

In the world at that time, there were many generals and kings who were good at fighting. Compared with those people, Liu Bang was far behind by a star and a half?
Xiang Yu, Overlord of Western Chu, Han Xin, King of Military Sage, Yingbu, King of Jiujiang, Peng Yue, King of Liang...

No matter which one of these people can fight better than Liu Bang, but the final result of fighting back and forth is still a crushing defeat. Liu Bang, who started as a local ruffian, was cheap for nothing. Why is this?

Because they can only see the small profits in front of them, a small piece of cake can make them flock to it.

Liu Gan is sometimes bewildered by petty profits. After all, he is also an ordinary person. As long as he is an ordinary person, he will have an ordinary heart and make various impulsive or decisive decisions for his own benefit.

Knowing this very well, Liu Gan would ignite all kinds of invisible gunpowder outside the battlefield, such as assassinating Sun Ce, such as wooing all possible enemies for his own use.

Liu Gan deeply knows that sometimes the two armies confront each other, and a head-on confrontation is not the best solution.

Why is it better to get straight than straight, Liu Gan never believes in this kind of self-deception, as long as the goal can be achieved, sometimes it is nothing to use some meandering tricks?
Those who make big things, don't stick to the little things!

Liu Gan knows this well.

"It's extremely difficult to win over the Cao family brothers, but there are no absolutes in the world..."

In the middle of Chen Jiao's speech, Liu Gan couldn't help giving him a blank look.

I saw Liu Gan flicking his long sleeves, and snorted coldly: "I don't want to waste time listening to nonsense. Is there anything I can do? Tell me quickly!"

Chen Jiao hesitated for a while, then said in a deep voice: "As far as I know, when Liu Bei came to rule Xuzhou, Cao Hong once sent someone to set up a grand banquet, and Liu Bei almost died at the banquet."

Liu Gan became interested, his eyes flickered and said: "This Cao Hong is so bold that he even dared to kill Xuzhou Mu, so why didn't he do it in the end?"

"Because someone stopped Cao Hong." Chen Jiao said slowly, "Your Majesty should also know this person. I heard that he went south to Lujiang not long ago. At this time, he has become a popular person around His Majesty."

Liu Gan asked without hesitation, "You mean Mi Zhu?"

Chen Jiao nodded and said, "Exactly, thanks to Mi Zhu's timely dissuasion, Liu Bei's life was saved!"

After a pause, he continued: "Mi Zhu is the richest man in Xuzhou. He has been in Xuzhou for many years. He has a deep relationship with the Cao family. If the king wants to win over the Cao family, it must be Mi Zhu!"

Hearing this, Liu Gan couldn't help but fell into deep thought. If Mi Zhu really has such great ability, Liu Gan would be more than happy to write a letter and invite him to help.

It's just the thought of owing Mi Zhu a big favor because of this, plus the matter of Mi Zhen...

Thousands of thoughts, finally turned into a light sigh: "There is no escape from evil fate!"

The next moment, Liu Gan ordered people to bring paper and pens, wrote vigorously, and then ordered his subordinates to send them to Lujiang.

(End of this chapter)