The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

Lu Zhi sighed, and he did have a complicated look towards Liu Zheng, his opponent.

Chapter 445 Finding a Way

"General Lu Zhi, what should we do now? Liu Zheng's strength is terrifying. We have just settled the battle in Xiliang, and the soldiers will rush to the Jizhou battlefield without a moment's rest. The remnants of the Yellow Turban are causing trouble, there are simply not so many soldiers and horses to deal with Liu Zheng."

After seeing this memorial, He Miao seemed a little at a loss. He Miao was very clear about Liu Zheng's strength.

When He Miao was Henan Yin, he and Lu Zhi had fought against Liu Zheng's army at Hulao Pass.

At that time, Liu Zheng relied on only [-] soldiers and horses, and he held Hulao Pass for a month. The coalition forces of He Miao, Lu Zhi and others had no way to break through.

Later, Liu Zheng couldn't escape all the way, and even captured Jiaozhou, which made He Miao feel a little scared, but after all, Jiaozhou was far away from the emperor, and He Miao couldn't care about where to go for the time being. If the court was stable and had enough troops, He Miao might consider sending troops against Liu Zheng again.

But today's imperial court is full of devastation and rebels are everywhere. They can't spare any troops to deal with Liu Zheng. They can only watch Liu Zheng live freely in Jiaozhou and become his own emperor.

Even if Liu Zheng proclaimed himself emperor in Jiaozhou, Luoyang would only scold at most a few times, but nothing happened.

However, Liu Zheng was restless. After taking down Jiaozhou, at this critical moment of the court, he actually sent troops to harass Yangzhou.

Of course, this is not the first time that Liu Zheng has attacked Yangzhou. A year ago, he led his troops to fight Liu Yao, the shepherd of Yangzhou, and occupied Kuaiji County.

But at that time, before the court's attention, he thought Liu Zheng was just playing tricks.

But now, Liu Zheng and Yuan Shu joined forces to take down Huainan directly, and Yuan Shu even killed Yangzhou Shepherd Liu Yao and became the governor of Yangzhou on his own.

This move has already attracted He Miao's attention. Yangzhou is not a place far away from the Central Plains, but a land of prosperity. A large part of the grain in the Central Plains is transported from Yangzhou. If something happens to Yangzhou, it will cause great damage to the court. big impact.

"Liu Yao, this trash, was defeated by Liu Zheng's men so quickly. I heard last year that he was no match for Liu Zheng. Now most of Yuzhang is in the hands of Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and other rebels. If we don't get it I'm afraid it will be difficult to suppress these people regarding the matter in Jizhou."

Lu Zhi was also helpless at this time, there were too many battlefields that he needed to take action, and the other troops did not have this ability at all.

"The situation in Yangzhou is very bad. Then Liu Zheng is very ambitious, so he will definitely not let it go like this. His goal will definitely be more ambitious, so in order to temporarily contain Liu Zheng, we must find a way."

Although He Miao was worried at this time, worried about the situation in Yangzhou, but he couldn't think of a solution for a while, and it happened that Lu Zhi was here, so he could only believe that Lu Zhi was capable of solving Liu Zheng.

"General, for the current plan, we can only temporarily stabilize those prefects who are still neutral, quell their internal strife, let them stand on our side, and at the same time increase the pressure on other state priests and order them to send troops to fight Liu Zheng."

"What method does General Lu Zhi have?"

"Although Zhang Miao and Cao Cao from Yanzhou participated in the battle of slandering the general before, these people are not really against the big man. Why don't you send someone to talk to them and see if you can appease them and let them It will be used again by the big man."

"Is this method feasible?"

As soon as Lu Zhi's words were uttered, He Miao was interested, but He Miao had some doubts about this method. Of course, his doubts mainly came from Cao Cao, because Cao Cao joined forces with Yuan Shao to initiate the side of the Qing Dynasty to wipe out He Miao The battle of the generals.

Cao Cao, like Yuan Shao, is the best friend of his eldest brother He Jin. When Lu Zhi mentioned Cao Cao, He Miao was still a little reluctant, but now there is no other way, so it can only be like this.

"Then Cao Cao, although we have some disputes, but this person has worked with me in the past. I know his embarrassment. He is not a person with a heart of rebellion. On the contrary, he knows people and uses them well. He is a good general. If With him sending troops to deal with Liu Zheng, although it is impossible to defeat Liu Zheng, it is still no problem to contain Liu Zheng. The reason why I say this is because I know that Cao Cao had some problems with Liu Zheng when he was still a Yellow Turban thief. "

"So as long as we use Liu Zheng to persuade Cao Cao, Cao Cao will definitely let go of his care and stand on the same boat as us."

"And as long as Cao Cao rests, Liu Dai, Yanzhou Shepherd who fought against Cao Cao, will definitely target Liu Zheng and Yuan Shu."

In order to persuade He Miao, Lu Zhi further explained a few words to He Miao.

"The Liu Yao who was killed by Yuan Shu and others was Liu Dai's own younger brother. After his younger brother was killed, Liu Dai will definitely not be able to sit still. As long as Cao Cao ceases his troops, Liu Dai will definitely lead the army to attack Yuan Shu in person. .”

"With Liu Dai holding Yuan Shu in check, Cao Cao and others dealing with Liu Zheng, this will buy us some time to settle matters in Jizhou and Youzhou."

After Lu Zhi finished his words, He Miao also changed from being uncertain at the beginning to calm. This method is indeed the best way now. He doesn't need to make any effort, as long as he uses the emperor's The name drives the wolf away.

"Okay, General Lu Zhi, I'm going to meet the emperor right now, and tell the emperor what we discussed."

It was not too late for He Miao to get up and go to the palace immediately, and talked about these things with the emperor.

In fact, with He Miao's current power, he can decide these things by himself, because the little emperor Liu Xie is only eleven or twelve years old now, and he doesn't understand anything at all.

It is also impossible to be in charge of the government. Most of the things are handled by the Regent Queen Mother He and General He Miao.

Not long after, the imperial court issued a notice and sent envoys to Yanzhou to meet Cao Cao, Zhang Miao and others.

In order to win over Cao Cao, He Miao directly stated that he and Cao Cao and others would ignore the past, and canonized Cao Cao and Danyang prefect, and Zhang Miao as Yuzhang prefect, hoping that the two could send troops to contain Liu Zheng.

In order to show his sincerity, He Miao also sent some money and food to the two to fund their military preparations.

At the same time, Lu Zhi was asked to privately send someone to reminisce with Cao Cao and others, so as to win over the relationship.

People like Cao Cao naturally knew that there was nothing the court could do. In order to fight against Liu Zheng, they ignored the previous incidents, but Cao Cao really agreed, because there was no good end for the urgent need to fight against the court.

This is also an opportunity to re-establish a good relationship with the imperial court.

4Chapter 16 Settlement

After Cao Cao and Zhang Miao received the order, they immediately called a truce with Liu Dai.

Although Liu Dai himself is very strong, he has no other capable people under his command, and cannot withstand the siege of Cao Cao, Zhang Miao and others. In fact, he has always been at a disadvantage in the battle with Cao Cao and others.

Now Cao Cao's strike is exactly in line with Liu Dai's wishes.He can finally let go of his heart.

However, although Cao Cao can temporarily suspend his troops here, on the other hand, the Yangzhou incident also caused Liu Dai to be very anxious.

His younger brother Liu Yao died.

Regarding Liu Yao's affairs, in fact, he had already sent Liu Dai a message. After being defeated by Liu Zheng in Yangzhou a year ago, Liu Yao retired to Huainan. At that time, Liu Yao asked Liu Dai for help and wanted Liu Dai to borrow troops. Let's deal with Liu Zheng together.

But at that time, Liu Dai was besieging Zhang Miao, Cao Cao and others with the main force, and there was no extra force to help Liu Yao.

So at that time Liu Dai did not lend troops to Liu Yao, but now that Liu Yao has died like this, this incident left Liu Dai with some pain. He has always had a good relationship with his younger brother Liu Yao, and now he regrets it very much. Why didn't he lend troops to his younger brother at the beginning.

In order to avenge his younger brother, Liu Dai decided to personally lead [-] troops to Huainan to attack Yuan Shu.

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Liu Dai's army, together with Cao Cao's and others' troops, set off from Yanzhou at the same time.

Liu Dai's goal is Yuan Shu, and Cao Cao and others are naturally Liu Zheng.

And Liu Zheng at this time has just pacified the entire Yangzhou.

Two months ago, after he ordered Zu Lang to persuade Pan Lin to surrender, the entire Poyang County had no opponents. It took only two days for this Poyang County to fall into the hands of Liu Zheng.

With Panyang County in hand, Liu Zheng opened up the connection with Huainan. At this time, Yuan Shu, who withdrew from Lujiang and marched to Huainan with the whole army, also rushed to the border of Huainan with his troops. At this time, Liu Zheng sent people to fight with Yuan Shu. Contact, you can help contain Liu Yao's main force.

In this way, it happened that Yuan Shu led people to attack Huainan, and Liu Yao, who was fighting, was retreating steadily. After hearing the news of Liu Zheng, he felt that Liu Zheng had not lied to him, and immediately increased the attack. In just one month, Yuan Shu raised himself With all the troops, Huainan County was occupied, Shouchun City was broken, and Liu Yao was captured alive.

Liu Yao would not have been defeated by Yuan Shu, but who told him that when his generals dealt with Liu Zheng before, they were killed, injured, and the loss of troops was serious, and he was short-sighted. Sending help, resulting in loss of hearts.

When Liu Yao was attacked by Yuan Shu, none of the soldiers and horses could rescue him. Lu Kang, the prefect of Lujiang, had never recovered his own strength, and he was angry, so it was impossible to go to support Liu Yao.

The soldiers and horses of the prefect of Danyang could have gone to support Liu Yao, but unfortunately, after Liu Zheng took down Poyang, in order not to let Liu Yao have too much breathing time, he directly Chen Bing was near Danyang County.

At this time, the prefect of Danyang County did not dare to act rashly, and could only stay in the city of his own county honestly.

The remaining soldiers and horses of Wu County must guard against Yan Baihu who is in Kuaiji, and there are not many troops in Wu County that can be dispatched to support Liu Yao.

This caused Liu Yao to have no other manpower except for the [-] elite soldiers in Huainan.

And the 3 people in Huainan did not stay together completely. Liu Yao sent 1 people to deploy in other places in Huainan County. The real force that could be used was only 2.

In this way, Liu Yao was easily broken by Yuan Shu without having enough troops and powerful generals to guard him.

Then who is Yuan Shu? An ambitious man, he killed Liu Yao directly and made himself the governor of Yangzhou.

And send someone to thank Liu Zheng.

First of all, thanks to Liu Zheng for helping him contain Liu Yao's army, so that he could really conquer Huainan County and expand his strength smoothly.

Secondly, Yuan Shu brought a piece of news to Liu Zheng.

He wants to proclaim himself emperor!

Yuan Shu already had ambitions, especially after his elder brother Yuan Shao directly found Liu Yu and established a court by himself, Yuan Shu's desire to be strong became even more obvious.

The reason why he didn't agree with his elder brother to support Liu Yu as emperor was because once Yuan Shao did this, his elder brother would be better than Yuan Shu, which Yuan Shu didn't want to see.

Yuan Shu always wanted to surpass the person, but he couldn't surpass him all the time. The aggrieved energy in his heart made Yuan Shu unable to breathe.

Especially after Yuan Shao really did this recently, Yuan Shu became even more depressed. After thinking about it, the only one who can beat this elder brother is to call himself emperor.

Just proclaiming himself emperor, with the current strength of Yuan Shu, naturally he does not have this ability. He only occupied Runan, Nanyang, two counties and counties at the beginning. .

But it's different now, because of Liu Zheng's help, he won Huainan County in one fell swoop. At the same time, when he attacked Huainan before, he took advantage of the situation and took Ruyin County and a small part of Wu County's territory.

All of a sudden, Yuan Shu had four or five counties in his hands, which was equivalent to the territory of half a state.

His thoughts of proclaiming himself emperor became active.

"Hehe, Yuan Shu, Yuan Shu, this guy really made me laugh."

"It's really the same as his brother Yuan Shao, I don't know what it means. If you want me to say that these are two fools."

When Liu Zheng heard the report from the subordinates next to him, he drew three fours from his hand, and then played out with a single card in between.

"Three belts and one."

"I'm sorry."

"I want, pressure you!"

Zu Lang shook his head, he couldn't afford the cards in Liu Zheng's hand, Zhou Cang immediately beamed and threw three sevens.

Who knew, Liu Zheng smiled brightly and threw three spikes again.

"Burst order."

"Damn! Lost, lost."

When Liu Zheng came up with the word "explosive single", Zhou Cang was stunned instantly.

These are cards that Liu Zheng fiddled with wooden cards. After returning to the Han Dynasty, Liu Zheng was too boring. When he was free, he could only play cards and go about his day. Zhou Cang Zulang and the others knew how to play Dou Di Zhu, and it was all given to him by Liu Zheng. taught.

"My lord, you are still ruthless. We can't beat you in the Landlord fight."

"Haha, if you can beat me, you will be the master."

"But speaking of Doudizhu, the Yuan brothers are really similar to Doudizhu."

"How to say?"

Zhou Cang looked at Liu Zheng suspiciously.

"Yuan Shao has a good hand, but his playing is poor. Yuan Shu has a bad hand, and he insists on robbing the landlord!"

4Chapter 17 Supporting Yuan Shu

"My lord, if you explain it like this, it seems to be true."

"But now Yuan Shu has sent someone over and brought him a big gift. Are we just ignoring him and leaving him here?"

Zu Lang still felt a little embarrassed, after all, the gift Yuan Shu sent was very attractive.

Yuan Shu, in order to thank Liu Zheng and at the same time want to win Liu Zheng over, not only sent a generous three thousand gold.He heard that Liu Zheng hadn't married yet.They actually sent ten beauties, which stunned Zhou Cang, Zu Lang and others.

These women were in Liu Zheng's mansion at this time, but he temporarily put them on hold and did not go to receive them.

If Liu Zheng didn't receive the envoy sent by Yuan Shu, it would be difficult for the envoy to leave. The two sides were at a stalemate here, waiting for Liu Zheng to have a whim one day, and maybe meet him.

"Of course we can't just leave him alone like this. How can we not want something sent for no reason?"

"The reason why we didn't meet the envoys sent by Yuan Shu immediately is mainly because we want to give these envoys a signal. We can't immediately agree to Yuan Shu's request, otherwise it will appear that we are too easy to be manipulated by Yuan Shu. We will leave him alone for a few days and pretend to be out Put on a deliberate look before agreeing to these requests from Yuan Shu."

"In this way, Yuan Shu will know that we agreed to support him as emperor after careful consideration."

"My lord, do you really want to support that Yuan Shu as emperor? Why don't we just proclaim ourselves emperors? Our strength is much stronger than that of Yuan Shu. If someone like him can be emperor, then you too, my lord." sure."

After Liu Zheng made his decision to agree to support Yuan Shu as emperor, Zu Lang and Zhou Cang immediately cast suspicious glances at Liu Zheng.

In their view, people like Yuan Shu don't have the strength to claim the title of emperor at all, and their territory is only a few counties, not even half of Liu Zheng's, and if Liu Zheng wants to attack Yuan Shu, it is simply It's an easy thing, if Yuan Shu's strength can be the emperor, then Liu Zheng can do it at any time.

Thinking of becoming emperor, Zhou Cang, Zu Lang and others felt an inexplicable excitement.

Because once Liu Zheng became the emperor, these military generals who followed Liu Zheng to fight in the north and south, and conquered the city everywhere, will have a new identity. Well deserved.

Unlike now, Liu Zheng is not the emperor, and he cannot confer the title of famous general to Zhou Cang, Xu Huang and others. He can only use the title of several battalion commanders instead.

Although Liu Zheng himself didn't mind this, those generals who followed him still hoped to have a famous name. After all, this is a matter of honoring the ancestors. People live for a lifetime, isn't it just to seal their wives and sons, and honor their ancestors.

The reason why the Three Kingdoms became the Three Kingdoms instead of continuing the rule of the Han Dynasty is because even if the leaders don’t want to be emperor, they have too many followers, and these people will make you become emperor.

There are many things that you can only do in order not to chill everyone.

Cao Cao did not proclaim himself emperor in his life, and he has been dissatisfied by many people. It is not that Cao Cao has no ambitions, but he knows that once he proclaims himself emperor, he will inevitably offend many people. But in the same way, after Cao Pi proclaims himself emperor, he has more followers.