When he heard that his lord Li Li seemed to know Yuan Shu quite well. Li Ru, who was responsible for detailed information, said respectfully: "What the lord said is very good. According to detailed investigations, Yuan Shu has recruited soldiers in the past two years, and now has more than 100,000 troops. He has long been planning to plot against Xuzhou. Xuzhou has sufficient soldiers and horses, and it is also a place that military strategists must fight for since ancient times. Yuan Shu is extremely ambitious and occupies Nanyang, Runan and other places. He wants to capture Xuzhou, attack Jingxiang, and destroy the ally relationship between Yuan Shao, Jizhou and Cao Cao of Yanzhou. It’s a pity that Xuzhou governor Tao Qian and Jingzhou Liu Biao are not good roles. Yuan Shu is afraid it will be difficult for him to get what he wants, and may even suffer a severe defeat!"

Li Li smiled and said, "Let's put aside this matter for the time being, and I will discuss it later. Yuan Zhong, what are the reactions of the other princes except the princes you mentioned before?"

Li Xuan said happily: "In February this year, Gongsun Du from Liaodong sent people to send 500 Liaodong war horses, 500 gold and 300 silk to congratulate the lord for being promoted to General Wei and the third duke.

In March, Cao Cao, the prefect of Dongjun, sent people to send 5,000 taels of gold, 3,000 pieces of silk and a hundred beautiful women to pay tribute to the court. He did not express his congratulations to the Lord, nor did he clearly ask for official positions. He just wrote a memorial to the court, Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, the court, died a month ago by the Yellow Turban Army. At present, Yanzhou is in chaos and the Yellow Turban Army is rampant, and he asked the court to allow him to lead troops to destroy the remnants of the Yellow Turbans in Yanzhou. Obviously, Cao Cao's tribute was to let the court entrust him to the governor of Yanzhou and take charge of the military and political affairs of Yanzhou. Shortly after Cao Cao paid tribute in Dongjun, Chenliu Zhang Miao, Chen Gong and others who lived in Chenliu, also sent people to send gold, silver, fine and soft and two thousand stones of food and grass to express his congratulations to the Lord.

In addition to the above-mentioned princes, the county magistrates who were in charge of the other county in the Central Plains also paid tribute to the court one after another. However, the food, grass, gold, silver and cloth sent by these county magistrates were not much, ranging from three to five hundred to about one thousand. However, the accumulation was a lot, and the total was not much smaller than the tributes paid by Liu Biao, Yuan Shao and others. In addition, the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River did not send tribute. Obviously, they believed that the mountains were high and the emperor was far away, so we could not take care of them, so they did not come to pay tribute."

After hearing Li Xuan's return, Li Li couldn't help but frowned slightly and asked in a deep voice: "Hanoi Zhang Yang, Hanzhong Zhang Lu, Yizhou Liu Yan and others did not pay tribute? They are very brave. They are neighbors with me, Xiliang, and they dare not pay tribute to me!"

"Uh! Please calm down your anger. They also paid tribute, but the amount is wrong. My subordinates are hesitating whether to report this to the lord." Li Xuan said respectfully quickly.

"Oh?" Li Li pondered and asked, "Yuanzhong doesn't have to be restrained. Let's talk about it, why are the amount of tribute they paid is wrong?"

Li Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and reported: "Report to lord, this is the thing. During the period when the Prime Minister Dong was in charge of the dynasty, Zhang Yang from Henoi offered 10,000 stones of food and grass, 5,000 gold, and 3,000 pieces of cloth every six months. After a year, he had to give 20,000 stones of food and grass, 10,000 gold and no less than 5,000 pieces of cloth to the court. However, in the turmoil last year in Xiliang, Zhang Yang did not pay the food and wages to the court in the first half of the year, and he shied the delay in the second half of the year. It was not until the beginning of this year that he sent people to send the tribute money and grain from last year. And it was only half a year's investment. Not only that, Zhang Yang also sent people to ask the court for the position of the governor of Bingzhou and General Zhenbei.

In addition to Zhang Yang in Hanoi, Zhang Lu from Hanzhong used to offer 50,000 stones of grain, 30,000 gold and 10,000 pieces of silk to the court every year. However, like Zhang Yang last year, he did not send half of the grain, grass, gold, silver and cloth until the end of the year, and also complained to the court, asking for the position of General Zhennan.

Liu Yan of Yizhou became even more frugal, and withdrew the food and wages that should be paid, which was sharply reduced. He looked at our army as if nothing had happened! Two years ago, when the Prime Minister Dong moved the capital to Chang'an, Liu Yan offered 100,000 stones of grain, 30,000 gold and 30,000 pieces of high-quality silk to the court. At the end of the same year, he was exposed by Liu Biao of Jingzhou and exposed a lot of money and grain to the court, which was equivalent to the amount of money and grain offered at the beginning of the year, which showed that he was sufficient and rich. However, last year he did not pay the food and wages, and he sent 30 people to send 30,000 stones of grain, 10,000 gold, 10,000 silk and 30 beautiful women in Xichuan.

In addition, Liu Yan also sent an envoy to advise His Majesty, sending his three sons and family back to Yizhou in order to reunite their father and son and let him, the emperor, enjoy the joy of family. At that time, His Majesty almost agreed, but the lord had already given orders to the matter and could not let Liu Yan's three sons return to Yizhou; so his subordinates, Li Jue and Wen You, and timely dissuade Liu Yan, which failed to get what he wanted.

During the period when the Prime Minister Dong was in charge of the dynasty, Zhang Yang, Zhang Lu and Yizhou Liu Yan all depended on the court and paid once every six months. The food and wages they paid were far above other princes. However, since last year, when they saw the turmoil in Xiliang, the lord took the army first, so he did not take our Xiliang army seriously and deducted the food and wages on a large scale. It was extremely hateful!"

After saying this in one breath, Li Xuan looked angry and looked indignant and couldn't calm down.

It is obvious that the reason why Zhang Lu, Zhang Yang, Liu Yan and others dared to cut the tribute money and grains a lot was clearly distinguishing Li Li and Dong Zhuo. They were afraid of Dong Zhuo, but they despised Li Li, thinking that Li Li was successful at a young age and first took charge of the Xiliang Army. His foundation was shallow, frivolous and immature, and his fame and strength were far less than that of Dong Zhuo before. Therefore, they dared to cut money and grain without authorization. The money and grain cloth he offered was less than half of the previous years, and they also complained a lot, and asked for a lot of things from the court. This move was clearly a provocation to Li Li, and it also meant to be tempted. They used the name of tribute money and grain to test Li Li's control over the Xiliang Army, and then figured out Li Li's bottom line of tolerance.

After hearing Li Xuan's words, Li Li thought without saying anything expressionlessly. Then he grew up and paced back and forth in the lobby.

After a while, Li Li stood in the middle of the lobby and pondered: "Hanoi Zhang Yang, the former leader of Ding Yuan was now just a minor official in a county. This guy dared to despise me!

Zhang Lu, Hanzhong pretended to be a ghost, relied on the beauty of his mother Bo Ji and committed herself to Liu Yan, so that he could earn the land of Hanzhong. Such a common man and a snob, dared to provoke me Li Li, and his heart would be punished!

Liu Yan, who is a relative of the Han Dynasty, is actually a white-faced scholar, a clan man, and a rat who is waiting to die! He Jin secretly summoned the Prime Minister of Dong to Beijing to serve the king. Cao Cao once said: He Jin must be He Jin. However, in my opinion, the person who is really troubled by the world is not He Jin, but Liu Yan! This man's red mouth and white teeth opened his mouth, he restored the state patriarch system. He had ulterior motives and was named the Han Dynasty, but was a thief in the Han Dynasty! After the establishment of the state patriarch, the heroes in the world were ready to move and their ambitions rose sharply. Then they were separated from the court, and the power of separatist princes was uncontrollable. However, Liu Yan is now an old man. Even if he is determined to be an emperor, he does not have the courage and courage to achieve the great cause of the emperor. This person is actually a dry bone in the tomb, which is not worthy of the truth!”

After venting the evil fire, Li Li couldn't help laughing and said slowly: "I heard Yuan Zhong's words just now, which made people angry and I couldn't help but vent a few words. But calm down and think about it carefully. What Zhang Yang, Zhang Lu and Liu Yan did was undoubtedly a wise move after careful consideration. Bingzhou, Hanzhong, Yizhou and other places were all adjacent to our Xiliang. Xiliang had not been unified before, and the princes were separatist, and the situation was extremely chaotic. Therefore, they could pay food and pay without any scruples, so they could show goodwill to the Prime Minister Dong, and rely on the court in name.

However, the situation in Xiliang has changed drastically. Our Xiliang army dominated the two states of Xiliang, and its military strength was strong. At this time, all the princes in the world knew that our army was powerful, but they were not able to use large-scale troops to the outside world. Therefore, among the princes of Xuzhou, Jingzhou and other prefectures far away from us, they were willing to contribute money and grain to me Li Li and take the opportunity to show goodwill to me; while Jizhou, Yanzhou, Nanyang and Youzhou, which are closer to us, are willing to contribute money and grain to me; while Jizhou, Yanzhou, Nanyang and Youzhou, etc., which are closer to us, are willing to contribute money and grain to me.

The princes in the land would rather bear the pain of giving up gold, silver, money and silk cloth than give us food and grass directly. Because giving us food and grass, for them, it would be equivalent to supporting our Xiliang army to grow and grow. It would be like raising a tiger, and would endanger themselves. In addition, they would probably block the important border roads after they got their desired positions and strictly ordered merchants selling grain in the Central Plains not to sell grain to us.

Nowadays, the princes of Guandong are very afraid of our Xiliang army, and dare not fight against me, and they are even more reluctant to fight head-on with our army. Therefore, gold, silver, silk and beauty, they gave me Li Li without hesitation, but they did not send food or grass to me alone. I think not only did they not sell food to our army, but they were afraid that Bingzhou, Hanzhong and Yizhou and other neighboring prefectures and counties would not sell food to us; they would not buy food even if we had money, so they could only be self-sufficient and seek development.

The actions of Zhang Yang, Zhang Lu, Liu Yan and others have clearly shown their strategy towards our army and Li Li. That is, they don’t want to see me, Li Li, grow up day by day, don’t want to see my Xiliang army have the ability to raise troops to fight, and don’t want to see my Xiliang two prefectures regain their vitality and gradually become stronger. In fact, they feel guilty, afraid of my Xiliang army, for fear that I will suddenly attack their territory, and they are unable to resist the military front of our Xiliang army.

Although they were provoking me, Li Li, they were actually posing and bluffing, and a group of rats! Hahaha??????”

After hearing Li Li's words, Li Xuan and Li Ru laughed happily with consent and nodded in agreement.

While laughing, Li Xuan asked for instructions: "I don't know how the lord plans to respond to the tributes of the princes of all parties? This matter has been delayed for several months and cannot be delayed anymore. Otherwise, the princes of all parties will be extremely dissatisfied with us, and then they will be suspicious, and the consequences will be unimaginable."

After hearing this, Li Ru continued to say, "What Yuanzhong said is very much. Many princes have repeatedly urged them because they have not received imperial edicts from the court for a long time, and they seem very anxious. Therefore, the matter of imperial edicts is imminent, and if they are late, they will change."

Li Li nodded slightly and smiled and said, "Yes, it's impolite to come but not come, it's true since ancient times! Since we have collected other people's gold, silver, money, grain and cloth, we must naturally express it, otherwise they should resent me, Li Li, think that I am narrow-minded and attempt to dominate the court!"

——————(To be continued)

PS: Thank you to Yan Li’s book friends for your reward, thank you very much!
Chapter completed!