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Just as the southwest land was filled with smoke, the Central Plains states were immersed in a peaceful life that was rare in more than ten years.

This relatively stable situation is due to the separatist stalemate of the four major forces, which guard against each other and restrain each other, so that no one dares to act rashly, and can only stand stalemate and remain unmoved.

On the Central Plains, the power of Li Li of Xiliang was in the middle, occupying half of Sili, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, Yangzhou and Nanyang County, completely cutting off the ties between Hebei and Jingzhou.

In this way, Li Li's power divided the Central Plains states into three parts: Li Li's territory was in the middle, with Cao Cao in Jizhou to the north and Liu Biao in Jingzhou to the south.

Cao Cao, who occupied Hebei, owned the three prefectures of Jizhou, Qingzhou and Yanzhou, with nearly 500,000 troops. He was entrenched in Jizhou, surrounded by water on one side and adjacent to the territory of Li Li on the Xiliang side. Therefore, if he had any abnormal movement, he would stimulate the sensitive nerves of the Xiliang army and arouse the alertness of the Xiliang army, which would inspire conflicts between the two armies, and a war was about to begin. Therefore, Cao Cao in Jizhou did not dare to act without any action or provoke the Xiliang army, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

It is precisely because of this that Sili and Jizhou in the hinterland of the Central Plains were relatively calm. They had been in conflict with each other for a long time, and as long as they climbed the camp or the city tower, they could clearly see the other's camp and soldiers. They could be regarded as facing each other day, but they did not interact with each other. On the three borders of south, north and west, Cao Cao and Li Li, all the roads and passes were blocked by the Xiliang army, and there were no people all year round, so that the roads were abandoned and covered with weeds. Many roads were washed away by rain and were no longer accessible.

Compared with Cao Cao, Hebei, which is surrounded by siege, Jingzhou is a different scene. In Nanyang County, which connects Jingzhou and Sili, there are endless business trips from south to north. The border cities entering and leaving the two places have become distribution centers for goods, with extremely prosperous streets. There are many shops and a prosperous industry. Looking around, there is an inn or a restaurant in the city every fifty steps. The population is very dense, and tens of thousands of people flock to Nanyang County, resulting in the increase of nearly 100,000 people in Nanyang County within one year.

It is worth mentioning that about 70% of the people heading north from Jingzhou, and the remaining 30% are the people of other prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule.

From this we can see that although the prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule are not rich, they are in peace and tranquility. The reason why many people moved to Li Li's rule was to hope to live a peaceful life. Even if they lived a harder life, it would be okay, as long as they didn't fight. Therefore, many people moved to Nanyang County only the first step. After they were established, they would move to other prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule. Among them, the Three Auxiliary Land is the first choice for most people, followed by Liangzhou, Shuozhou and the grassland outside the border, and then Sili, Yuzhou and Xuzhou.

People who have experienced wars know that although Yuzhou and Xuzhou are relatively rich, they are not very stable. They are currently at the forefront of the outbreak of war. Once a war breaks out, these prefectures and counties will be the first to be blasted, far less than the peace in the hinterland of Xiliang and the Hetao grassland. Therefore, they came thousands of miles away, hoping to be able to live a safe and stable life.

Speaking of this, the importance of Nanyang County was naturally highlighted.

Nanyang is the hometown of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu and is known as the "Emperor's Township". Before the chaotic times came, Nanyang County was under the dual jurisdiction of Sili and Jingzhou, nominally under the rule of Jingzhou, and in fact, it has always been under the jurisdiction of Sili. The successive county magistrates were recommended by the Sili School Captain, and then the emperor was directly appointed. It has nothing to do with the governor of Jingzhou or the governor of the state, and it is almost impossible to get involved.

In the chaotic times, Nanyang County changed its ownership several times, and Yuan Shu occupied the longest time. With the abundant manpower and material resources of the 36 counties under Nanyang, Yuan Shu recruited nearly 100,000 troops in Nanyang County, causing Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou, to repeatedly seek to recover Nanyang, but he was left unresolved due to many concerns. Until the Sili War, Liu Biao seized the opportunity and unexpectedly sent troops to Nanyang, recovering the entire territory in one fell swoop, thus bringing him into the jurisdiction of Jingzhou.

This is the first time that Nanyang County has truly been under the jurisdiction of Jingzhou in more than two hundred years since the founding of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It is no longer superficial, but is actually taken into account by Liu Biao.

However, the good times did not last long. Shortly after the Wancheng dispute ended, with the establishment of the alliance against Yuan, Liu Biao initially thought it was a good opportunity to take the opportunity to expand his territory, so he happily sent troops to attack Yuan Shu. However, Yuan Shu in Huainan was not as easy as he thought, so he mobilized a large army of 100,000 water and land. After half a year of continuous battle, he was still futile. The gains were very limited, and it was quite thankless. Just as the rebellion broke out in Jingnan, Liu Biao quickly took advantage of the situation and immediately withdrew his troops without hesitation, escaped from the battle of Huainan. While sending troops to quell the rebellion, he was out of the matter and sat in the full swing of the battle against Yuan.

However, what Liu Biao never expected was that Li Li used the excuse of his withdrawal of troops without authorization to suddenly send troops to attack Wancheng and capture Nanyang in one fell swoop.

The moment he learned that Nanyang fell into the hands of the Xiliang army, Liu Biao was furious and cursed Li Li and the Xiliang army in anger. At that time, he wanted to send troops to take back Nanyang County and give Li Li a favor, so that Li Li could see the power of the Jingzhou army, so that he knew that Liu Jingsheng was not easy to bully. However, just as the army was assembled and about to set off, Liu Biao repented again. He was worried that he would not be able to defeat Li Li, which would lead to the Xiliang army's large-scale attack on Jingzhou, which would be more than worth the loss.

In this way, Liu Biao retreated. He swallowed his anger and sat down to watch Li Li occupy Nanyang, without saying a word, calming down the situation, acquiesced to this fact.

Little did he know that the negative impact of Liu Biao's move was so great that he could not have expected it, and his intestines were regretful.

During the three years when Li Li was elected as the leader of the Yuan alliance, at least more than 100,000 people in Jingzhou county and county under Liu Biao fled from Jingzhou, and more than half fled to Sili, Yuzhou and other prefectures under Li Li's rule. The remaining people fled to Xichuan. This was just the beginning. In more than a year after that, tens of thousands of people fled from Jingzhou and entered the prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule. Liu Biao had no choice but to sigh.

After all, Jingzhou and Nanyang County are no different from other places. There are no steep passes to defend, and the terrain is relatively flat. Therefore, border cities or checkpoints cannot stop the people who want to escape. As long as these people insist on leaving, no matter how Jingzhou troops stop them, they cannot stop their migration. Sooner or later, they can escape Jingzhou and go far away.

If Liu Biao was very distressed when a large number of people fled Jingzhou, then the endless business and travel commerce between Jingzhou and Li Li ruled the prefectures and counties made him feel heartbroken and unable to sleep day and night. Logically speaking, he was the governor of Jingzhou and was fully capable of ordering the blockade of the business roads to the north and Nanyang, and strictly prohibiting the passage of business travel. But in fact, it was not that simple. He could not stop the transaction circulation of merchants in the two places, because this involved the vital interests of major families and merchants and gentry in Jingzhou.

Nowadays, the Western Liang army not only formed a three-sided encirclement against Cao Cao in Jizhou, but also formed a siege against Jingzhou, blocking the business roads in the north and east of Jingzhou. Not only that, south of Jingzhou is the territory of Sun Ce in Jiangdong, and Liu Biao and Sun Ce were enemies. Sun Ce's father Sun Jian died at Liu Biao's hands, so they had long cut off contact with each other. Liu Zhang, Yizhou in the west, had always had a rift with Jingzhou. As early as when his father Liu Yan was alive, he had formed a grudge because Liu Biao exposed Liu Yan's hidden emperor's ambitions. From then on, although the forces of Jingzhou and Yizhou drank together, they did not interact with each other. They also gathered heavy troops on the border, and had a long-term confrontation.

In this way, if the aristocratic families and merchants in Jingzhou did not communicate with the business travelers under Li Li's rule, it would be like trapping their hands and feet and having nowhere to go. Once Liu Biao ordered the blockade of the checkpoints and strictly prohibited the business with the merchants under Li Li's rule in Xiliang, it would be equivalent to cutting off the financial paths of the major aristocratic families and merchants in Jingzhou, seriously damaging their vital interests. If this is true, it will inevitably cause strong dissatisfaction among the aristocratic families and merchants in Jingzhou. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a complaint, which will lead to immeasurable serious consequences and even directly endanger Liu Biao's foundation in Jingzhou.

It is precisely under this general environment that even though Liu Biao intended to resist the infiltration of the various counties and counties of Li Li of Xiliang, he was unable to do so and could only sit back and watch the people under his rule flee to Xiliang; he watched the Xiliang caravan enter Jingzhou in a swagger, calling brothers with the major families and merchants in Jingzhou, and making big deals, but he had no choice but to stop it.

In contrast, when Li Li implemented a comprehensive blockade of prefectures and counties under Jizhou Cao Cao, the major caravans and merchants under Li Li's rule were not affected. Apart from Jizhou, Qingzhou and Yanzhou, they could enter all prefectures and counties under Li Li's rule at will, and they could enter Jingzhou and Jiangdong, and even Yizhou relatively freely. No one dared to make things difficult for them in most of the world. In addition, under Li Li's rule, there were Western Regions Channels and foreign business roads, which could bring goods from the countries and grasslands of the Western Regions into the states, and vice versa. Over time, not only did the merchants make great profits themselves, but they could also promote the circulation of goods and benefit the people of various states.

It has to be mentioned that so far, the news that the Xiliang army was advancing to Yizhou has not spread, and the scope of transmission is still limited to both sides of the Yangtze River. In addition, only a very small number of people who really know this news, such as Liu Biao in Jingzhou and Sun Ce in Jiangdong, as well as important civil and military officials under the tent. That's all.

Pressure is motivation.

Faced with the increasingly severe situation, the three princes including Cao Cao in Jizhou, Liu Biao in Jingzhou and Sun Ce in Jiangdong could not remain unchanged. Therefore, under this seemingly calm situation, countless undercurrents are hidden. All princes are actively operating, showing their magical powers, and using their own extremes. However, the strategies they implemented are extremely obscure and their actions are extremely hidden, and they have not been exposed to the public's sight.

Sun Ce's performance in Jiangdong was undoubtedly the most eye-catching. Taking advantage of the relatively stable situation in the world, in order to consolidate his ruling position, he replaced more than 70% of the officials in various counties and counties, and carried out a comprehensive purge of the Jiangdong family and gentry. His methods were extremely tough, and he seemed to follow me and prosper those who would prosper and defy me. It was a big move.

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Chapter completed!