Three Kingdoms, at the beginning of the game, recognize the thief as the father, hit the spectacle,

They and Zhang Yan already knew the basics, so it would definitely be better to hand over the elite soldiers they brought under their command to Zhang Yan than to hand over to that unreliable "Leader" to take command.

……

As for the division of troops, there is no need to join the alliance to choose the leader?

Not really.

It's just that after the division of troops, the leader of this alliance has become a pure tool to earn "fame" for himself, rather than a position with real power.

In this way, the intensity of the competition for the leader of the alliance immediately became much weaker.

……

"Since that's the case, how about we select a colleague to respect as the leader today, and then use the leader to adjudicate various affairs in the coalition army?"

"Even the arrangements for the various military forces when discussing the chairman will be arranged after the leader of the alliance is elected."

At the meeting attended by dozens of princes, Cao Cao announced this to everyone.

It is worth mentioning that, unlike in the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Liu Bei failed to participate in this matter in an official capacity, this time, he successfully mixed in as a clan member of the Han Dynasty.

It's just a pity that among the vassals, there are eight if not ten relatives like him.

Therefore, Liu Bei did not attract too many people's attention.

……

When everyone heard what Cao Cao said, the scene suddenly became a little chaotic.

That's right, even if it is a nominal leader, it is still a leader.

After all, it has to be chosen.

After discussing softly with their friends beside them, many princes gradually calmed down.

And their eyes gradually focused on the five most powerful among these princes.

……

The first to bear the brunt was Yuan Shao, the prefect of Bohai.

In the Romance, this person is praised as the first town among the princes of the eighteen towns, so there is naturally some gold content.

Known as "Four Generations and Three Dukes" and "Multiple Old Officials", Qi Xianghou and Bohai Governor Yuan Shao did not disappoint everyone this time.

As a son of a family, especially the son of the Yuan family, what Yuan Shao did has always been regarded as a model by the world.

This time, he marched [-] elite soldiers all the way down from the Bohai Sea, so he was naturally one of the most powerful candidates for the alliance leader among them.

……

Besides Yuan Shao, the others are not vegetarians either.

For example, Yuan Shao's younger brother, Yuan Shu, is not only not weaker than Yuan Shao in terms of competitiveness among the princes this time, on the contrary, he is even more competitive.

Yuan Shu, who was the prefect of Runan, was even stronger than himself when he was the prefect of Nanyang.

Runan was extremely rich, so in order to overwhelm Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu directly marched [-] troops from Runan, and the strength of the troops ranked among the top three in the entire coalition of princes.

In addition, Yuan Shu's personality is good at making friends with heroes from all walks of life, so his popularity among the princes is not bad, and it can even be said to be very good.

Now that Cao Cao proposed to elect a leader among the princes, Yuan Shu naturally became a very popular candidate.

……

After Eryuan, Cao Cao followed closely.

As the initiator of the coalition, Cao Cao naturally had a certain status among the princes.

It is also a suitable choice for him to serve as the commander and leader of the coalition of princes.

At least, from Zhang Yan's point of view, the person he most hopes to be the leader of the alliance is undoubtedly his good brother Cao Cao.

This has nothing to do with personal relationships, but as we all know, Cao Cao is a fierce man who is born to command 98. If it is said that among the princes, who can be the leader can maximize the benefits... then there must be no other choice except Cao Cao .

……

It's just a pity that Cao Cao is different from Er Yuan.

As the leader, he has certain flaws.

First of all, Cao Cao was born as an eunuch, which was an out-and-out debuff in the last years of the Han Dynasty.

Even though many people responded to Cao Cao this time, among the princes, there are still some people who look down on Cao Cao's background and status.

If Cao Cao were to be the leader of the alliance, everyone would not dare to speak out, but between each other, things that would listen to the tune and not listen to the announcement would definitely happen occasionally.

This is not a good thing for the entire coalition.

……

Not to mention...Compared with top leaders such as Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, Cao Cao's trilogy is just like those used for playing house, only "in the early [-]s", which is barely enough to enjoy the exclusive "one town" treatment.

The rest of the soldiers were only entrusted to Cao Cao to command by the prefects and governors who could not come to the alliance in person.

For example, Zhang Miao, the prefect of Chenliu, in addition to the troops he personally led, he also assigned a 3000-man army to Cao Cao, under the command of Chenliu's local rich man Wei Zi, who obeyed Cao Cao's orders.

Cao Cao has many troops like him under his command.

As long as it is not his own, Cao Cao can't fully trust him after all.

If something happened before the battle, who else could he blame Cao Cao?

I can only blame myself for not being careful.

……

It is precisely because of this that although there are many parts under Cao Cao's command, they seem quite chaotic, and it is even more difficult to belong to each other. There are often stupid things like 3000 school lieutenants and 500 generals.

If we really want to talk about reliable combat power, it has to be the iron army of more than [-] people recruited by Cao Cao himself, led by his brothers Cao Ren, Cao Hong and others, with the two brothers Xiahoudun and Xiahouyuan who belong to the clan as the vanguard. .

……

Chapter 27 Recommendation is a Chinese tradition, you have to taste it

Among the four dandies in Luoyang in the past, the second Yuan and the first Cao were already on the list, and Zhang Yan, as the lowest-status among the dandies, but the one with the hardest backstage, naturally occupied a seat among the five.

It's a little different from Cao Cao. Zhang Yan, who had been preparing for two and a half years in advance, faced other princes in terms of military strength.

……

Counting the troops brought by Zhang Yan this time, just one first soldier, Ma Si, has [-] cavalry, [-] elite fully equipped soldiers, and [-] seem to be ordinary soldiers, but in fact they are the most exaggerated arms. In the eyes of Zhang Yan, the artillery and a total of [-] soldiers with swords and shields were no different from the most elite soldiers in the eyes of other princes.

In this day and age, not all armies can afford swords and shields...

The grassroots soldiers or "material officers" in those places often used simple iron-tipped wooden spears, and they had no armor or half armor, and no helmets.

This is similar to the city defense officers and soldiers in those cities under Zhang Yan's command, such as Wancheng and Shuxian.

In Zhang Yan's conception, these people can only be regarded as the second-line state violence institutions, that is, the "police" rather than the "army".

……

It is precisely because of this that it has to be said that not everyone in the world can have exactly the same conditions and backgrounds.

In the eyes of Zhang Yan, the number one army commander, it was definitely not enough.

But in the eyes of those princes... you say that Zhang Yan wants to rely on this army to plot a rebellion and completely overthrow Liu's rule, and a lot of people will believe it.

As for such an army, Zhang Yan has three under his command...

Even in terms of horses, the Lujiang owned by Zhang Yan still has certain restrictions, but in terms of armor, weapons and even artillery that steel can solve, he has already realized the freedom of equipment early.

At this point, the influence of "Made in Huainan" has even seriously affected the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and even the arms market in central and southern Jingzhou.

……

All of the above are Zhang Yan's most powerful trump cards as a person who participated in the feudal lords' meeting with the board.

Only on this basis can he have the capital to compete with Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and others on the same stage.

The problems that existed in Cao Cao also existed in Zhang Yan.

That is, Zhang Yannai is the son of the eunuch who is serious about the Eight Classics, and even has a closer relationship with the eunuch system than Cao Cao.

At least Cao Cao's father accepted a eunuch as his godfather, so he is relatively innocent.

Zhang Yan simply "tested the law with his own body", insisting on challenging the aggressiveness of the entire Eastern Han Dynasty family.

To publicly recognize the thief as the father, or to recognize the worst reputation among the thieves as the foster father...

Among the three masters who recognized their fathers at the end of the Han Dynasty, even Qin Lang, who recognized Cao Cao's father, and Lu Bu, who was called a slave of the three surnames, had to give way to Zhang Yan and be honored as Zhang Yan "Big Brother".

If it wasn't for the change in his reputation through the support of the school lords and some benevolent government measures, I am afraid that Zhang Yan would not even have the qualifications to directly participate in the princes' election for the board of directors, let alone win the status of a candidate for the leader of the board of directors. up.

Being able to play an important role in the alliance now, it can be said that Zhang Yan has lived up to his hard work in the past two and a half years, and finally obtained a status that he deserves.

Another point is that Zhang Yan has an advantage over Cao Cao...

At the end of last year, Zhang Yan once held an alliance in Lujiang.

For that meeting, Zhang Yan was looking for some well-known good people, or people who could watch each other with Lujiang where he was.

More importantly, these people are all people who will participate in the eighteenth princes' bid for Dong in the future.

Just like the gang of Zhang Chao, Yuan Yi, Tao Qian, Kong Rong...

Now, standing in the big tent, he quietly winked at Zhang Yan.

In the past six months, they have tasted the benefits of following Zhang Yan's ass.

Not only did Sun Jian raise troops three times, he went to Qingzhou in rotation to suppress bandits... More importantly, the economic development speed of their counties and counties took off by more than one level compared to before they formed an alliance with Zhang Yan.

Prior to this, due to the collapse of the Han Dynasty, the circulation between the various places under Huaxia had been restricted to a considerable extent.

And Zhang Yan's move is equivalent to taking the initiative to open up the market among the seven counties in the southeast of China.

Oh, Changsha doesn’t count. Zhang Yan and others don’t need Changsha’s market. What they need is Changsha prefect Sun Jian’s battlefield experience and combat ability, which can be called crushing in this era.

……

All in all, these previous preparations have turned into the foundation for Zhang Yan to gain a firm foothold in the alliance at this moment, and it has also made him one of the few dozens of princes present who has the right to be the leader of the alliance. Certainly competitive people.

But even so...

Zhang Yan is still not the one with the greatest chance among these candidates.