Three Kingdoms

At this time, a grand banquet was being held in Runan, far south of Yuzhou.

The candles are brightly lit, and the waiters coming and going are like fish swimming in an endless stream. Yuan Shu stood in the lobby, raised his wine cup, and shouted for victory. Then Yuan Shu and his subordinates, generals and civil servants, responded one after another, raising their glasses and drinking.

At this time, Yuan Shu was at the peak of his powers!

While Yuan Shao was still struggling with Gongsun Zan, Cao Cao was still busy pacifying Dongjun, and Liu Bei was still trapped in the plains, Yuan Shu had completed the general strategic layout and became the biggest beneficiary of this stage.

At the beginning, Yuan Shu controlled only a small area south of Yuzhou and north of Jingzhou. At that time, Yuan Shu had the Shandong Allied Forces in Chenliu to the northeast, Liu Biao and Huang Zu to the south, and Dong Zhuo's sphere of influence to the northwest. , almost surrounded by everyone, and Sun Jian died unexpectedly during the crusade against Xiangyang, which made Yuan Shu even worse.

At that time, Yuan Shao wanted to elect Liu Yu as emperor and wrote a letter hoping to get Yuan Shu's support. But how could Yuan Shu agree? So it was rejected in the name of justice. However, this approach led to the rupture of the little warm bond between Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu.

However, Yuan Shao relied on his reputation as the leader of the alliance to gain support from the nobles including Jizhou and even Yuzhou. This made Yuan Shu very angry and declared: "If you don't follow me, you will be a slave to my family!"

This sentence reached the ears of Yuan Shao in Jizhou in the north. Yuan Shao, who was most taboo in his life about being dragged out of his family background, was so angry that he immediately contacted Liu Biao in Jingzhou and sent Cao Cao south to fight for Yanzhou. On the other hand, he also wanted to attack Yuan Shu with Liu Biao from the north and the south.

Under this situation, Yuan Shu, who only had such a narrow area in the north of Jingzhou and the south of Yuzhou, without strategic depth, instead of fighting with the surrounding princes, immediately launched a series of clever maneuvers.

First, he declared a truce with Liu Biao and withdrew from the battle in the northern part of Jingzhou. Then he quickly made good friends with Tao Qian and Gongsun Zan, and implemented a strategy of distant relations and close attacks. He even bribed the Yellow Turban bandits in Qingzhou, the Black Mountain Army, and the Wuhuan people in northern Jizhou, to give Yuan Shao continued to add firewood to his backyard, which also relieved himself of the huge pressure from the north.

This strategy immediately relieved Yuan Shu's original battlefield pressure, freeing up Yuan Shu to reserve grain and grass, recruit soldiers, and replenish the lost troops. Now Yuan Shao is fighting Gongsun Zan, Cao Cao is entangled with the Black Mountain Army, and Yanzhou is defeated by Qingzhou The Yellow Turban turned everything upside down, but Yuan Shu, who had been on hiatus for almost a year, got a rare time to fully repair.

As for the next move, Yuan Shu is naturally keeping an eye on Yanzhou. However, there is also a young eunuch in Yanzhou, but this is not a big problem. This Cao Cao is also a figure like Zhao Kuo, and even Dong Zhuo's subordinates Xu Rong couldn't fight, so how could he resist Yuan's army?

Therefore, at today's banquet, Yuan Shu celebrated the smooth start of spring plowing on the one hand, expressed his favor to the civil servants and military generals on the other, and at the same time gathered people's hearts and prepared for the next conquest.

But not everyone in the banquet hall was as happy as Yuan Shu...

Sun Ce was sitting in a corner of the lobby. Seeing everyone celebrating, he didn't have much to think about, so he left the lobby on the pretext of changing clothes and walked slowly along the path in the courtyard.

The person who was most dissatisfied with Yuan Shu's year of recuperation and recuperation was none other than Sun Ce.

It's simple, Sun Ce wants revenge.

Although from a general perspective, Yuan Shu's current strategy is excellent and has achieved good results, for Sun Ce personally, he doesn't care about anything else. He just wants to kill Liu Biao and Liu Biao with his own hands as soon as possible. Huang Zu's head was chopped off.

Logically speaking, dying on the battlefield is actually the fate of every soldier. There is nothing to complain about and nothing to hold grudges. Sun Jian also killed a lot of people. Could it be that those who were killed had no parents, wives and children? Could it be that only Sun Jian was allowed to kill people and not others were allowed to kill Sun Jian?

But Sun Ce didn't care about this. He only accepted death and wanted to attack Jingzhou.

Although there are rumors that Sun Jian did not actually die at the hands of Liu Biao, but Fei Qian, the guarding general who had circulated a "revelation to the Yinshan Mountain" some time ago, Sun Ce believes that this was actually the result of the cowardly and incompetent Liu Biao. Avoiding guilt.

Fei Qian, the general who protected the Huns, was clearly in the north of Bingzhou. Bingzhou was more than a thousand miles away, so how did he get to Jingzhou to defeat and kill Sun Jian?

Moreover, Sun Ce also asked in detail about this matter several generals who had experienced this battle at that time. These generals who were brothers and sisters with his father, although it was said that the vanguard of the Jingzhou soldiers at that time was not Huang Zu, but another unknown person. General Huang, but Sun Jian was indeed caught in an ambush because he was chasing Liu Biao's car hood...

So, does this matter need any other proof?

But Sun Ce was helpless. After Sun Jian's death, the status of the Sun family in Yuan Shu's army dropped sharply, and even the soldiers were taken back by Yuan Shu. If Yuan Shu had not had some chivalry, he would not have attacked Sun Ce. But if he can continue to lead the personal guards of the Sun family and generals such as Cheng Pu and Huang Gai, then he really has nothing...

However, Sun Ce also has a good friend who has been accompanying him and encouraging him. Of course, this person is Zhou Yu.

For example, at this moment, when he saw Sun Ce leaving the lobby, Zhou Yu followed him silently, "Bo Fu, why are you here?"

"...I felt a little dull, so I came out for some air..." Sun Ce saw that it was Zhou Yu and said without any concealment, "...Gong Jin, when do you think we can take Jingzhou and cut off Liu Biao's head?"

Zhou Yu could also understand Sun Ce's disrespect for Liu Biao, but based on the current situation, it was still somewhat difficult. Zhou Yu looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to the two of them. He moved closer to Sun Ce and motioned to go out a little further. Then he whispered: "Mr. Yuan is now focused on competing with Yuan Cheqi. How can he have time to care about it?" ?This matter must be considered in the long term..."

"Alas!" Sun Ce shook his fist violently in the air, but sighed helplessly.

Zhou Yu patted Sun Ce on the shoulder, and then whispered: "...But you don't need to wait too long..."

Sun Ce's eyes suddenly lit up, he turned around, then looked at Zhou Yu with wide eyes and said, "Why? Why? Gong Jin, tell me quickly!"

Zhou Yu smiled, with a hint of cunning at the corner of his mouth, and gestured slightly: "...Look inside the lobby...They are people from Yuzhou over there, right...Bo Fu still remembers that there was such a feast some time ago. Compared with it, Yuzhou is now Are there more or less nobles?"

During this period, because they were dissatisfied with the close relationship between Yuan Shu and the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans, Black Mountain Bandits and others, many of the nobles who maintained traditional concepts left.

"..." Sun Ce frowned, then counted and twirled his fingers.

"Okay, okay, stop counting..." Zhou Yu interrupted Sun Ce's count helplessly and said, "...compared to the number of people before, there are already many more people left now, Bo Fu, do you know what this means? What?"

Sun Ce still maintained his finger-wrenching posture, and without thinking, he turned to Zhou Yu and asked, "What does it mean?"

"Mr. Yuan is a chivalrous man, but he doesn't know that now everyone knows the truth... If one or two people from Yuzhou defect to Yuan Cheqi or Caodong County, it may be difficult for Mr. Yuan to go north to Yanzhou this time..." Zhou Yu shook his head slightly, Sun Ce He actually has a good mind, but why is he always reluctant to move when he is with him? However, he did not hide anything and continued to whisper, "...However, now that Mr. Yuan is in high spirits, he may bring trouble to himself if he speaks eagerly, so... …However, Mr. Yuan’s family has a great cause, so a small defeat will not hurt...and if Mr. Yuan fails in his northward advance, he will definitely turn south. In this case, Bo Fu’s opportunity will come..."