The cold wind was cold, and the whizzing wind blade was filled with snowflakes like flying catkins. The first snow in the second year of Jian'an quietly arrived. ()

Snowflakes flutter in the morning, flying all over the sky at noon, and heavy snow comes over the sky in the afternoon.

The biting cold wind danced with snowflakes, swept across the northern land, covered the wilderness with holy velvet flowers, and enveloped the entire Youzhou in the cold wind of ice and snow.

After a night, heavy snow closed the road and everything was silent. Shanggu County, which was originally sharpened, then stopped. Everything was covered by ice and snow, and everything ended because of this sudden heavy snow. Shanggu County and even the entire Youzhou were immersed in a short and peaceful calm. The swords and swords disappeared, the golden swords and iron horses disappeared, and the fire of wars and battles stopped. Everything was brewing under the snowflakes, everything broke out in a waiting manner, and everything was advancing in an orderly and steadily manner in silence.

Snowflakes fall, washing the dust in the world, slowly piled up into a thick snow-white carpet, recording the footprints in tranquility, silently telling the story of winter: It was a snowy winter, snowflakes floated, floating, floating

When the sky of Youzhou is covered with heavy snow, the sky in Huainan is covered with clouds, the war is still raging, and the fire is still storing blood and fire.

After Yuan Shu became emperor in Shouchun, he made the emperor despise the princes and became the target of public criticism. Liu Biao of Jingzhou took the lead in sending troops to attack, and then Sun Ce from Jiangdong left Yuan Shu and became independent. He sent troops to attack Lujiang and officially joined the alliance to attack Yuan Shu.

When the war was in a stalemate, Sun Ce from Jiangdong had already left the Lujiang camp and quietly returned to Jiangdong. The war in Huainan was not going well, which made Sun Ce realize that the battle to attack Yuan Shu was not a matter of one day or another. Liu Biao in Jingzhou seemed to be eager to eliminate Yuan Shu. Instead, he planned to plan Yuzhou under Yuan Shu, waiting for an opportunity to expand his territory and strengthen his strength. In view of this, Sun Ce was not a mediocre person. Although he was very envious of the two counties of Jiujiang and Lujiang under Yuan Shu, he knew that his foundation was in Jiangdong and the rear had not yet been pacified. He was unable to plan Huainan counties. And Liu Biao in Jingzhou's plan to Yuzhou reminded him that it was imperative to make peace first for foreign resistance and quickly pacifying Jiangdong.

So Sun Ce left some of his troops to continue to attack Lujiang. He took another part back to Jiangdong and captured Danyang County, trying to take all the four counties of Jiangdong. In late autumn, Sun Ce suddenly led his troops back to Jiangdong. He rushed to Danyang County on a starry night and drove away Yuan Yin, the prefect of Danyang appointed by Yuan Shu, and completely occupied all the county of Danyang. Then he continued to work hard and sent troops to sweep away the remnants of Yuan Shu's troops stationed in Jiangdong, and took all about 80% of the counties and counties in Jiangdong under his command.

In the middle of winter, Sun Ce sent a secret envoy to Guangling, secretly conspired with Guangling prefect Wu Jing (that is, his uncle), and joined forces with Guangling's garrison Sun Ben (cousin), to betray Yuan Shu. After receiving the secret letter, the two of them immediately took Guangling's troops and horses and money to Sun Ce, which greatly increased Sun Ce's strength. They truly had the strength to dominate Jiangdong.

As one goes up and down, Yuan Shu in Huainan lost large areas of land such as Danyang and Guangling in just a few months. In addition, Sun Ce's betrayal in Jiangdong was like stabbing him in the back, causing Yuan Shu's strength to plummet and his power to set aside. At the same time, with Liu Biao increasing his army again, Yuan Shu's pressure doubled, and the situation was very unoptimistic. But he didn't know that Liu Biao mobilized heavy troops to siege Jiujiang, but in fact he was surrounding the points and attacking aid. He was explicitly threatening Shouchun, but in fact he was waiting for an opportunity to annex Yuzhou, gradually eroding Yuan Shu's territory, forcing him to hide in Jiujiang County, but he didn't know that his territory was shrinking rapidly and his living space was getting smaller and smaller.

When the battle in Huainan was in a state of vain and darkness, the battle for Qingzhou thousands of miles away was in a fierce stage. Cao Cao's army and Jizhou army fought fiercely under the city of Linzi. For several months of battle, Cao Cao led the lead and occupied most of the counties and counties in Qingzhou, while Yuan Tan only had Pingyuan County, Qi State and Jinan State some cities, and the remaining counties fell into Cao Cao's hands.

Not only that, Cao Cao's army now has an absolute advantage. Since the war, Cao Cao has mobilized 110,000 troops to participate, which is almost all the troops he can mobilize, leaving only 40,000 troops to stay in the counties of Yanzhou. It can be said that Cao Cao's expedition to Qingzhou this time was almost a desperate bet, completely throwing his rear to the Xiliang army. Once the Xiliang army suddenly attacked, he could capture Yanzhou in one fell swoop without any effort.

This was another big gamble. Cao Cao bet that Li Li would not betray the alliance and suddenly attacked him. This big gamble was not the first time for Cao Cao, but to be precise, it should be the third time. The first time was that his Yanzhou foundation was taken away by Lu Bu. When he was in a desperate situation, he resolutely decided to participate in the Central Plains Alliance and join forces with Yuan Shao and other princes to attack Li Li of Xiliang.

The second gamble was the Battle of Loudiyuan. At that time, Cao Cao suffered a heavy blow, and the foundation of Yanzhou was occupied by Lu Bu. All the soldiers available in his hands were less than 50,000, and there was a shortage of money and food, and the weapons were scarce, and almost nothing was left. He was truly at the end of his life. Once the Sili War was over, there would be no more princes in the world. Apart from being defeated or dependent on others, he had no way out. As a result, Cao Cao brazenly decided to form a secret alliance with his enemy Li Li, and at the cost of betraying the information of the allied army and the lords and allies, he sought survival space and waited for an opportunity to develop and strengthen his own strength. Fortunately, he won the bet in the end. Not only did his strength recover as before, he also obtained a large amount of food and supplies, allowing him to quickly counterattack Lu Bu and retake Yanzhou.

After three years, Cao Cao once again made a bold decision and made a desperate attempt to win Qingzhou. This was his third gamble. This did not mean that he liked to take risks, but that the situation forced him to do so. Without the heroic spirit of gamble, he would not be able to gain the opportunity to expand his territory and strengthen his strength.

The situation in the world has developed to this day. The Han Dynasty collapsed and Liu Xie died suddenly. Since then, the imperial rule has been cut off. Since then, it has been the world of various princes. Cao Cao is located between the two lords of Yuan Shao in Jizhou and Li Li in Xiliang. No matter who wants to dominate the Central Plains, he will definitely attack him. He has only two choices, either surrender or perish, and there is no other choice.

In addition, the prefectures and counties around Yanzhou are also extremely limited, and their situation is worrying. To the north is Yuan Shao of Jizhou, Xiliang Lili to the west. To the south is Yuzhou occupied by Lu Bu and Yuan Shu of Xuzhou, and to the east is Qingzhou under Yuan Shao's rule. Originally, Cao Cao planned to attack Xuzhou, eliminate Lu Bu, and then plot against Yuzhou. Taking Huainan, he could compete with Li Li of Xiliang and have the strength to fight against the Xiliang army head-on. However, this long-term strategy faces great risks. The princes who directly threatened him were Yuan Shao of Jizhou and Li Li of Xiliang, who occupied the heartland of the Central Plains. As long as any of these two people were mixed in, his strategic intention would be declared failure and would face a catastrophe.

It is precisely based on this concern that Cao Cao was reluctant to move lightly after he took back Yanzhou, and hesitated, and never dared to take the pace of expansion easily.

As Li Li issued a proclamation to fight against the thieves, ordering the princes in various towns to attack the two Yuans. Cao Cao immediately realized that the opportunity he had been waiting for was finally here. Before that, he was facing great danger to lead his troops south to conquer Xuzhou, but the danger of going north to Jizhou or attacking Qingzhou was much smaller. Because this was a great opportunity for him to move away the two mountains pressing on him. As long as he defeated Yuan Shao of Jizhou, he would eliminate his worries and turn the mountains behind him down. Only then could he strengthen his own strength and thus have the strength to confront Li Li of Xiliang. Otherwise, he would have been sandwiched between the two princes and survive in the cracks, and would sooner or later perish. Only by turning down one prince could he have room for survival, the opportunity to grow and grow, and then compete with another prince.

So Cao Cao thought carefully and took a gamble. He fought hard and tried his best to attack Qingzhou. He tried to seize the land of a state from Yuan Shao. If possible, he was still looking forward to swallowing Yuan Shao's power in one bite. If this could be done, he would have the strength to confront Li Li head-on. Although Li Li is strong at the moment, if Cao Cao completely occupied the land of Qingzhou, Jizhou and Yanzhou, then it is still unknown who will eventually die.

The battle against Yuan has been for several months. At first, Cao Cao was worried that Li Li might betray the alliance and send troops to attack Yanzhou, but now he is gradually relieved. Now, Li Li stationed troops in Sili, and Zhang Liao led 200,000 troops to advance eastward through Bingzhou to assist Youzhou Gongsun Zan to attack Jizhou. In this way, Li Li didn't have many soldiers available. Although Li Li had 500,000 troops, he still needed to station troops in four states. After mobilizing 200,000 troops to fight eastward, Li Li's troops were too short and there were no more soldiers available. As a result, Cao Cao was safe and could let go of his hands and feet to attack Qingzhou, strive to capture the entire Qingzhou by the end of the year, and then plot against Jizhou.

In addition, the reason why Cao Cao was confident of taking Qingzhou by the end of the year was that Yuan Shao, who was in charge of Jizhou, was now being restrained by Zhou Yu's army stationed in Hanoi, leaving him with no time to take care of it. This created extremely favorable conditions for Cao Cao, allowing him to attack Qingzhou without any scruples, defeating Yuan Tan again and again, losing the city and land continuously.

The war in Qingzhou was in a hurry and was in danger, which made Yuan Shao, who was in Jizhou, unable to calm down. He was willing to send troops to aid Yuan Tan, but was worried about the sudden attack of the Xiliang army that stationed troops in Hanoi. For Yuan Shao, Hanoi County was indeed a deadly place. At that time, he tried every means to win over Hanoi Zhangyang, with the purpose of occupying the Yellow River chasm and resisting the Xiliang army. However, he was defeated in the Sili War. Not only did he not defeat Li Li, but he also lost Hanoi County. So, Zhou Yu's army stationed troops in Hanoi, although he still kept his troops, he still forced Yuan Shao to mobilize heavy troops to confront him and always guard against the Xiliang army to launch an attack.

The Xiliang army had to guard against it, but Yuan Shao could not sit idly by and watch Qingzhou fall and fall into Cao Cao's hands. Just when he was at a loss, Xu You offered him a plan to drive the tiger and swallow the wolf. Even if he could not save Qingzhou's defeat, he could seize Youzhou as soon as possible. Then Guo Tu proposed another plan, joined forces with Yuan Shu in Huainan to plan civil strife in Jingzhou, and forced Liu Biao to withdraw his troops, thus achieving the goal of splitting the alliance against Yuan.

At this time of life and death, Yuan Shao did not hesitate at all. He immediately agreed to the two of them and sent someone to implement them.

In the twelfth month of winter, more than ten Yuan Shao envoys brought a large sum of money to major tribes in Wuhuan to meet the tribe leaders. Yuan Shao issued an edict on behalf of the Han Dynasty, granting Wuhuan leaders Tadun, Nanlou, Su Puyan and Wuyan the titles and seals of the leaders of the Shanyu, and promised them a large sum of money, and the leaders of each tribe happily accepted it.

The envoy of Yuan Shao also disguised himself as he entered Bingzhou, and then entered Jingzhou through Sili. As a result, a conspiracy against the alliance against Yuan was quietly launched.

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