As New Year's Eve approaches, the beacons in Shouchun City have dissipated and become lively again.

Recently, a lot of things have happened in the city, but most of them are good things, at least for the people in the city.

Three days ago, Lu Bu led the Xuzhou army to leave Shouchun, exit the city through the east gate, and return to Xuzhou.

The next day, Sun Ce from Jiangdong followed closely, and asked the leader Li Li in a manner, and also led his troops to evacuate Shouchun.

Unlike Lu Bu, Sun Ce did not return to Jiangdong after leading his army out of the city, but instead stationed his troops in Lujiang County, camped along the river, and leaned against Jiangdong.

Perhaps, compared with the people in the city who were tragically damaged by war, the evacuation of Lu Bu and Sun Ce from Shouchun City is definitely a great thing. However, for Li Li, who is in charge of the provincial and ministerial palace, these two groups may not be a good thing to leave Shouchun.

Not only that, Li Li paid a considerable price for it in order to appease Lu Bu and Sun Ce.

In order to calm Lu Bu's anger, Li Li made a huge concession in allocating the seized money, grain and supplies after the war, and rewarded Lu Bu with 100,000 stones of grain and grass, plus 30,000 gold and 2,500 pieces of silk. At dawn the next day after Lu Bu received the reward, he did not even say hello, and led the Xuzhou army to pull up the village, headed straight to the east gate, and returned to Xuzhou.

Also rewarded with Lu Bu was Sun Ce from Jiangdong. In view of the heavy losses of the troops under Sun Ce's tent, Li Li gave Sun Ce 30,000 stones of food and grass, 10,000 gold and 1,000 silk and satin, and handed over more than 4,000 bandits captured by the bandits to Sun Ce.

Unexpectedly, Lu Bu left without saying goodbye, and Sun Ce then asked for an order to lead his army back to Lujiang. At that time, Li Li did not agree to lead his army to leave. However, Sun Ce still led his army out of the city early the next morning and headed straight for Lujiang.

In this way, as Lu Bu and Sun Ce evacuated Shouchun one after another, the allied troops of the princes who fought against Yuan Shu were disbanded and fell apart, and each led his troops back to his garrison.

At this point, the Anti-Yuan Alliance was in name only, and only the soldiers of the princes of Li Li and Cao Cao were left in the alliance. At the same time, the war in Hebei that had been stalemate for two years was still unresolved, and Yuan Shao, Jizhou, was still under the siege of Cao Cao in Yanzhou, Zhou Yu in Henoi and Zhang Liao in Youzhou. It was as dangerous as a burden.

According to the southern expedition plan formulated by Li Li in advance, there were two strategic intentions to lead the army south this time. First, to wipe out Yuan Shu in Huainan and capture Yuzhou and Yangzhou. Second, while destroying Yuan Shu, he would take advantage of the situation to remove Sun Ce from Jiangdong and Lu Bu in Xuzhou. No matter how bad it is, he would choose one of them and eliminate one of Sun Ce and Lu Bu.

It’s a pity that the plan cannot keep up with the changes.

In the battle to attack Yuan Shu in Huainan, Li Li successfully weakened the strength of Lu Bu and Sun Ce, causing heavy casualties and more than half of his troops to be damaged. The only drawback is that Li used his power too hard and caused the loss of troops under Lu Bu and Sun Ce too early, so that he became suspicious of Li Li and was always on guard against Li Li and his Western Liang army, fearing that Li Li would attack him unexpectedly.

It is precisely because Lu Bu and Sun Ce are always on guard against Li Li and are cautious everywhere that Li Li has no excuses or the opportunity to take the lead.

During the half month when the three men and horses were stationed in Shouchun City, the three forces guarded each other and suspected each other. They looked at each other and were separated from each other, and were in vain.

After Li Li distributed all the battles that had been hoarded in Shouchun City since the southern expedition, including Shouchun City, Lu Bu and Sun Ce led their troops to leave without hesitation, and it seemed to be a great success. It goes without saying that Sun Ce and Lu Bu were both afraid of Li Li and his Xiliang army. Therefore, after they got the seized materials they deserved, they did not dare to stay for a moment, and immediately led their troops out of the city, for fear that Li Li would unload and kill the donkey and wait for an opportunity to attack.

In this way, Li Li tried to temporarily stabilize the two of them and then attacked them separately. The plan of defeating them was completely lost. So much so that only half of the entire Nanzheng plan was completed, and the remaining half was still in the womb and was left to waste.

Not only that, the strategic intention of extermination of Yuan Shu did not achieve the expected goal. Because until Lu Bu and Sun Ce left, Yuan Shu was still missing, and there was no news of him.

Shouchun City, the prefecture of the Palace.

On the jade steps outside the main hall gate, Li Li, wearing a brocade robe, stood under the corridor with his hands behind his back, raising his eyes to the southeast, looking at the southeast, with a calm expression and deep eyes, as if he was thinking.

Not far behind him, Guo Jia, Lu Su and Xun You gathered together, stood beside the cylinder and whispered, looking at Li Li's back from time to time.

"You are filial to me. This time, the lord's actions really made us confused and puzzled." While speaking, Xun You looked up at Li Li standing in contemplatively, and said with a puzzled look: "To be honest, the princes who are likely to be enemies of us like this are not as good as the lord's actions, nor are they in line with the lord's usual style of doing things!"

Guo Jia was immediately happy when he heard this and said in a silence: "I don't know what Brother Gongda said about the lord's usual style of dealing with things? This is the first time I heard that since the lord has an inherent style of dealing with things, I always thought that the lord was unconventional and as if he was wild and empty. Unexpectedly, Brother Gongda had already summarized his lord's habits. Hahaha!"

Xun You smiled embarrassedly and blinked his eyes to signal Guo Jia and Lu Su to keep it a secret for him and not let the lord know. Guo Jia and Lu Su readily understood, smiled and nodded, indicating that they would definitely keep their mouths tight and would not reveal a word.

Seeing this, Xun You looked at Li Li's back again and whispered: "As Fengxiao said, the lord has been acting in a vain and unconventional manner, unconventional and unique manners, which is elusive and unpredictable. However, the lord has an inherent style of acting in terms of money, food, weapons, and weapons. You might as well imagine, before this, did the lord have done money and rewarded the princes? Or, have you ever seen the lord do business at a loss?

When I went to Lu Bu's camp to negotiate with him a few days ago, Lu Bu said, 'My lord has been eating more and eating more, and likes to eat alone. When did he see him generous to the princes in the world?' Then I thought, Lu Bu said something really makes sense. Looking at the lord's leadership of Xiliang, all kinds of princes have always contributed money and food to the lord, but the lord rarely gave a large amount of money and food to other princes. As of three days ago, there was no precedent." I have to say that Xun You is really a person with a heart, delicate mind, and observing in detail. In just a few months, he has figured out Li Li's nature of never suffering losses.

Guo Jia and Lu Su looked at each other, then smiled, and then Lu Su nodded and smiled, "Brother Jing Gongda said this, looking back, this is true. However, did Gongda think about what Xiliang was like seven years ago, what was in the situation, and whether there was enough money and food? At that time, the lord led the two prefectures of Xiliang at the age of twentieth crown, commanded more than 200,000 Xiliang troops, and faced the clearance and blockade of the Xiliang border by various princes. The difficulty of the situation and the shortage of food and grass are beyond imagination.

It is said that in order to raise food and grass and military pay, the lord locked himself in the study room for a whole month without going out. At the same time, the lord's family and tribe all frugal and frugal expenses were all frugal, and all the money and food saved were used as military pay. This was just a drop in the bucket and it was difficult to solve the urgent problem. For this reason, General Li Jue of the chariot and cavalry went to the palace to expel the eunuchs and concubines and maids, and took out a large amount of royal utensils and handed them to the caravans, secretly going to various prefectures and counties to exchange for food. Even so, it was still unable to alleviate the food and grass crisis, and it was even more unable to save the many hungry people under the rule of Xiliang.

In view of this, the lord made up his mind to take out all the millions of stones of grain and grass stored in Meiwu to the people, and reduce tax exemptions from the Xiazhou and counties under Xiliang for two years. He then divided more than 200,000 Xiliang troops into pieces and sent them to the border to guard the border, so that they could raise food and money on their own, rely on themselves, and seek development. In addition, the lord personally opened workshops to encourage major merchants to trade with the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains through various channels, and opened up business roads in the Western Regions, and sent caravans to trade with the countries of the Western Regions. This was the strategy of cultivation and rest and rest. For this reason, the Xiliang army was silent for two years, while the two prefectures of Xiliang received an extremely valuable three-year peaceful development time."

Speaking of this, Lu Su's speech suddenly stopped and he looked at Guo Jia with a smile.

Guo Jia immediately understood and continued, saying, "At that time, the strategy of cultivating and resting was forced to do it, and it was the only way for Xiliang Prefecture to get out of the predicament. The reason why this decree was successfully implemented was due to the lord's great courage and tough implementation. Many people were worried about this, were not optimistic about this major decision, and even suspected that the Xiliang army would be very likely to be destroyed by the lord. However, the facts proved that the lord's decision was a very visionary and wise move. Without the great courage to burn the boat, two years of hard work, two years of border guarding and tempering, there would be no Xiliang today's strength, and there would be no Xiliang's iron cavalry that is now."

Speaking of this, Guo Jia paused and the tone changed: "Gongda just said that the lord did not do business at a loss in the Gregorian calendar. In fact, this is just a nice statement. In fact, many princes are talking about the lord's cunning and stingy, and even even more unpleasant words. However, there are a few of the princes in the world who are not stingy. If they don't try to get money and grain, how to recruit soldiers and horses, how to strengthen their strength, and how to conquer other princes?

But now, the lord's rule is increasing, with abundant money and food, sufficient supplies, and a large amount of materials seized from the war. Therefore, the lord is fully qualified and capable of spending money like soil, and rewarding the princes to join the alliance. However, everything the lord does has profound meaning. Lu Bu is greedy and profitable, so the lord rewards a large amount of gold, silver, jade and silk to calm his heart; Sun Ce is ambitious, so the lord surrenders to him, let him replenish his troops and strengthen his courage. In this way, Lu Bu is content and stable, and our army has no worries, and then he will lead his troops to Lujiang to encircle Sun Ce."

Xun You suddenly realized when he heard this and asked: "Why is it Sun Ce instead of Lu Bu? Didn't the lord target Lu Bu all the time before?"

At this time, Li Li, who had been standing in thought, suddenly looked back and said, "Sun Ce of Jiangdong is a wolfish boy who knows where Yuan Shu and his son are, but he hides the whereabouts of Yuan Shu and his son, and tries to regain the imperial seal. This son is so bold and reckless, if he does not punish him, how can there be peace in Jiangbei?"

————To be continued—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————To be continued———————————To be continued——————————To be continued—————————To be continued————————To be continued————————To be continued————————To be continued———————To be continued———————To be continued————
Chapter completed!