(Thanks: Book friend z**cjm, Mis Lee 1 Book friend’s monthly ticket support, thank you!)

—————

Jizhou mobilized troops and horses in a large-scale mobilization immediately aroused the alertness of Gongsun Zan of Youzhou, forcing him to mobilize troops and horses to be on guard against Yuan Shao taking advantage of the civil turmoil in Youzhou.

Over the past three years, Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao have fought several times, each with their own victory and defeat, and no one has taken advantage of it.

However, Gongsun Zan suffered heavy losses in the Battle of Jieqiao, and the most elite white horse under his command had suffered casualties. After the war, only a few hundred cavalry remained, and he was defeated.

However, Baima Yicong was just a cavalry that Gongsun Zan started his career in his early years. The number of people was limited, with only a few thousand cavalry, so it would not be damaged or slumped.

What's more, in October last year, Gongsun Zan received a secret report from Liu Yu's tent, and Liu Yu raised a 100,000 army to try to wipe out him. So, due to the situation, Gongsun Zan took the lead in the situation, and successfully kidnapped Liu Yu and his family, forcing Liu Yu's army to throw themselves into a harassment and defeat him without fighting.

Afterwards, Gongsun Zan killed Liu Yu and his family, annexed most of the troops under Liu Yu, occupied most of the Youzhou area in one fell swoop, separating and establishing a vassal of his own.

At this point, Gongsun Zan led the governor of Youzhou, with more than 100,000 troops, and sent trusted generals to serve as county magistrates in various counties and launched a large-scale removal of the remnants of Liu Yu's troops.

However, after Gongsun Zan killed Liu Yu, everything was not good, but it was in trouble. This was because Liu Yu served as the governor of Youzhou for many years and was generous in his governance. He always advocated the use of gentle education strategies for the Wuhuan, Xianbei and surrounding foreign countries. He had helped the surrounding barbarians several times, and was respected by the Wuhuan and Xianbei leaders, which was quite popular. In addition, Liu Yu had a group of trusted generals stationed on the border during his lifetime. His strength should not be underestimated.

Therefore, when they learned that Liu Yu was killed, these generals did not surrender to Gongsun Zan, but instead were eager to avenge Liu Yu and resisted everywhere. The leaders of tribes such as Wuhuan and Xianbei were also dissatisfied with Gongsun Zan. They fought each other for many years and had a long resentment, and had become incompatible. As a result, the barbarian tribes not only did not take advantage of Liu Yu's death to capture the border counties, but instead had an ambiguous relationship with Liu Yu's border guard generals, and seemed to have the opportunity to unite to resist Gongsun Zan.

After Liu Yu's death, Gongsun Zan wanted to send his head to Chang'an to seek merit. He claimed that Liu Yu and Yuan Shao and others in Jizhou had a slew together, conspired to rebel, attempting to establish themselves in the court and usurp the throne and become emperor. Unexpectedly, the guards escorted Liu Yu's head were robbed and killed on the way, but the head was robbed by Liu Yu's personal army, Wei Dun, and then secretly buried the body. As a result, Gongsun Zan has not been granted the imperial edict to the emperor so far, and can only take over the governor of Youzhou and most of the Qingzhou, and become a prince of his own.

It’s a pity that Gongsun Zan’s position as a governor was not justified and unsatisfactory, which led to civil turmoil in Youzhou. As a result, the rebellion and fighting in Youzhou for more than a year have been endless, which has made Gongsun Zan busy and exhausted to deal with it.

Although Gongsun Zan had nominal soldiers and horses after he had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, and his strength was not weak, it would be an exaggeration to call him strong. However, Youzhou, like Xiliang, is a border prefecture and county, bordering many barbarian countries, and there are also a large number of barbarian tribes entrenched in the territory, forcing Gongsun Zan to send troops to the border. Always beware of the large-scale invasion of barbarians.

In this way, Gongsun Zan had more than 100,000 troops, but he was scattered in various places. The mobile troops he had were very limited, with only 30,000 to 40,000 troops, and could not wipe out the rebels in a short time.

Now, the former Youzhou under the Youzhou tent, the Xianyufu, the Xianyuyin brothers, Qi Zhou, and Wei Dun, who seized Liu Yu's head and buried him, secretly colluded with each other and was fighting with each other. They are now fighting fiercely with the army under Gongsun Zan. In addition, the leader of the Wuhuan and the Xianbei tribe elected Yan Rou, the former general under Liu Yu, as the Sima of Wuhuan, and were willing to send troops to help, kill Gongsun Zan, and avenge Liu Yu.

Until now, Gongsun Zan had been fighting with the rebels for more than a year, but he had little effect. Not only did he fail to destroy the rebels of Xianyufu as soon as possible, the situation became increasingly unfavorable. Xianyufu brothers and others secretly discussed with the Wuhuan Sima Yan Rou, and there was a tendency to unite to counterattack Gongsun Zan. Such a bad situation made Gongsun Zan so busy that he was busy, regardless of his head and tail, busy and exhausted.

It was raining all night long. Just as Gongsun Zan was in a dilemma, Yuan of Jizhou was also dispatching troops and generals, and it was very likely that he would take advantage of the civil turmoil in Youzhou to attack Youzhou.

In the past two days, Gongsun Zan was busy dispatching troops to deploy defenses, beware of Yuan Shao's troops to attack Youzhou. However, today he received a detailed report that Yuan Shao recruited more than 100,000 infantry and cavalry but did not go to the border of Hebei and You. Instead, he hid in the daytime and went south secretly. He is currently stationed in Zhao County and does not move his troops. In this way, as long as he is not a fool, it is naturally possible to see that Yuan Shao mobilized heavy troops this time not to attack Youzhou, but to have other intentions. Therefore, Gongsun Zan urgently summoned a few confidants to discuss matters and discuss what Yuan Shao intended.

————————————

Jixian Prefecture, the main hall.

The majestic Gongsun Zan sat upright in the main seat and savored tea without rushing. This is the biggest difference between him and his civil servants and military generals.

Because the climate in Youzhou is cold, most people in the area love drinking but do not like tea. When the Central Plains states are still in midsummer, Ji County has already started to get cold. At this time, you don’t need to heat up your alcohol, just drink it directly. Therefore, everyone else in the hall is drinking, and only Gongsun Zan drinks tea, which is a habit he developed when he studied under Lu Zhi in his early years.

However, as his status continued to rise in recent years, Gongsun Zan gradually gave up his habit of drinking tea and usually drank. But today is different, because Yuan Shao's move in Jizhou is strange and suspicious. Therefore, before the discussion, Gongsun Zan specially ordered his attendants to cook tea, which would help him think clearly about problems so as to avoid greed and misleading things.

At this moment, there were not many people sitting in the hall, only four of them were: Gongsun Zan's cousin Gongsun Fan, eldest son Gongsun Xu, Changshi Guan Jing and Gongsun Ji.

These four people are all close ministers of Gongsun Zan. Except for Changshi Guan Jing, the other three are all relatives of Gongsun Zan. Among them, Gongsun Ji was the biggest contributor to Gongsun Zan occupying Youzhou and killing Liu Yu.

"You have read the investigation report. Yuan Shao mobilized 120,000 troops south within half a month, and all of them were hiding in the morning and night. His travels were very suspicious. The people who stayed on the border of Jiyou are still the general of Jizhou Ju Yi, and the famous Hebei Four Courtyards were all transferred to Zhao State to station, waiting for an opportunity to move." In the main seat, after the four people in the hall saw the investigation report, Gongsun Zan gently put down the teacup and said in a deep voice.

Then he paused a little and said suspiciously: "What exactly does Yuan Shao want to do? Could he want to capture Yanzhou? But Yanzhou has been captured by Lu Bu, and the Bingzhou army is a victorious army, and the army is in full swing. Yuan Shao is not wise to attack Lu Bu at this time. Even if Yuan Shao can't understand such a simple truth, the many strategists under his command must see clearly and will definitely remind him. Therefore, I thought that Yuan Shao's mobilization of troops this time should not be an attack on Lu Bu. Then what did he mean?"

"Since Yuan Shao mobilized the army to attack us, why should he be troubled by his brother?" Before Gongsun Zan finished speaking, his companion Gongsun Fan immediately answered and analyzed: "The purpose of Yuan Shao's army going south is nothing more than two possibilities. First, as the brother said, he wanted to take advantage of the war in Yanzhou to send troops to help Cao Cao defeat Lu Bu and capture Yanzhou. The second was to wait for an opportunity to capture Sili or Bingzhou. Apart from this, there was no third possibility."

"What the three generals said is very true." Guan Jing, the chief secretary, nodded and agreed: "A few months ago, Yuan Shao had led his troops to wipe out the Black Mountain bandits. Although he had not won a complete victory, he had initially achieved results. He was severely injured by the Black Mountain bandits. Naturally, there was no need to send troops to suppress the bandits again in the short term. Therefore, except for our Youzhou, only Yanzhou, Sili and Bingzhou were left behind in front of Jizhou. As the lord said, the battle of Yanzhou was coming to an end, and Lu Bu won a complete victory, making Cao Cao huddle in three small counties. It was already a perseverance and was about to destroy. At this time, Yuan Shao had missed the best attack opportunity to send troops to Yanzhou. It was very unwise to mobilize a large army to attack Yanzhou. It can be seen that the real purpose of Yuan Shao's secret troops this time must not be Yanzhou, but Sili or Bingzhou."

Guan Jing talked happily, and his meaning was generally consistent with what Gongsun Fan said, which was equivalent to not saying it. However, after hearing this, Gongsun Zan smiled slightly, which was obviously quite useful. Because the theme of Guan Jing's words was to take the opportunity to flatter Gongsun Zan, but these flatteries were reasonable and just, and they were stern, so that people could not tell that he was flattering Gongsun Zan. This made Gongsun Zan happy without belittling his identity. This was Guan Jing's real intention and the key reason why he had always been valued by Gongsun Zan.

In terms of talent alone, Guan Jing is not very talented, he is a completely mediocre person. In terms of martial arts, he is less than seven feet or eight inches tall, and is as thin as a weak scholar. However, such a person who is not good at martial arts is trusted and appreciated by Gongsun Zan and promoted to the chief minister of the state and the governor's office. He is as high as one person and has a very respected status. All of this was exchanged for Guan Jing's mouth, because he is a flattering, timid and timid snob.

At the same time, Guan Jing is also the person who knows Gongsun Zan's personality and temper best. Every time he speaks, he will definitely flatter Gongsun Zan without any trace, which makes Gongsun Zan very useful and happy. It is precisely because Guan Jing has always been very clever and speaks very well, which makes Gongsun Zan particularly appreciate him. He then has entrusted him with an important task and is highly regarded as the chief minister.

After Guan Jing finished speaking, Gongsun Zan's eldest son Gongsun Xu nodded slightly and said simply: "The third uncle and the Changshi are right, and the child thinks so too."

At this time, Gongsun Ji, who betrayed Liu Yu's military plan last year, said, "I think so too. However, Bingzhou is now rampant, and many black mountain bandits are stranded in Bingzhou, so the time for Yuan Shao to attack Bingzhou is not yet ripe."

At this point, Gongsun Ji's face suddenly changed drastically and he exclaimed: "Does Yuan Shao want to lead his troops to attack Sili? This is the territory of General Li Li. Nearly 100,000 Xiliang troops are stationed along the river. Could it be that Yuan Shao is so arrogant that he can defeat the Xiliang army?"

—————————————— (To be continued)

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket for the last four hours of May, thank you!

Please give me a monthly ticket! Please give me a monthly ticket!

Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
Chapter completed!