Liu Bei was right. Cao Cao would definitely not make matters worse when Yuan Shu attacked Yuzhou. But what he didn't expect was that Cao Cao would dig a hole for him.

In troubled times, strength is everything. Just as Liu Bei did not believe that Cao Cao would not be afraid of Yuan Shu, Cao Cao did not believe that Liu Bei would easily lose to Yuan Shu, let alone that Liu Bei would choose to die with him.

This is a psychological game. As long as Liu Bei has hope in his heart that he can defend Yuzhou, he will definitely not surrender to Yuan Shu or run away.

As a prince, Liu Bei would definitely not choose to die with Cao Cao and hand over Yuzhou to others just for the sake of temporary anger. No matter how much Liu Bei hated himself, he had to defend Yuzhou first.

Depending on the war situation, Cao Cao can choose to sit back and reap the benefits, or go to help.

If Liu Bei is really defeated by Yuan Shu, Cao Cao can pull Tao Qian forward to help. But if Liu Bei is only at a disadvantage and is not in danger of destruction, Cao Cao can continue to sit on the mountain and watch the fight between tigers. Cao Cao will not suffer no matter what.

.

That is to say, Yuan Shu did not have many troops, so Cao Cao dared to do this. After all, Yuan Shu had newly acquired Jingzhou. If he wanted to stabilize Jingzhou and Yangzhou, he would have to have at least nearly 100,000 troops.

Yuan Shu had only more than 200,000 soldiers under his command, and counting the nearly 100,000 naval troops, the maximum army that could be used to attack Yuzhou was no more than 100,000.

Even if Yuan Shu took the route of elite soldiers and his troops were powerful, Liu Bei's Guan and Zhang were not easy to deal with.

As long as Liu Bei does not advance rashly and defends Yuzhou, it will be difficult for Yuan Shu to capture Yuzhou with only 100,000 elite soldiers.

This is also the reason why Cao Cao is so confident.

The offensive and defensive positions in battles among the princes are extremely important. Just like Yuan Shu, he has more than 200,000 troops under his command, but he can only use more than 100,000 for attack.

Liu Bei only needs to consider defensive issues, and he only needs to focus on defending Yuan Shu. After all, as long as Cao Cao and Tao Qian are not stupid, they will never attack Liu Bei. All their 200,000 troops can be devoted to defense.

No matter how elite the soldiers under Yuan Shu were, they would still be helpless against Liu Bei who had twice the force of his own and was defending the city.

Xi Zhicai now plans to have Yuan Shu attack Liu Bei with all his strength, and then both sides will be weakened when Liu Bei has to defend, and Yuan Shu, as a powerful party, will not easily capture Yuzhou.

Chen Qun naturally understood that Cao Cao might have this idea, but he did not know that Yuan Shu's only legitimate son was under Zhou Yu's command.

In his opinion, even if he swallowed Zhou Yu's troops, Yuan Shu could not do anything. The most he could do was break his teeth and swallow them into his stomach.

After all, both sides are not on a stable footing now, so it is not a good time to start a war. Moreover, the target of both sides is not the other side. If Yuan Shu raises his troops just because of this matter, it can only be said that Yuan Shu is too stupid.

Chen Qun just doesn't believe in Yuan Shu's IQ, nor does he believe in Guo Jiaxunyou's IQ. What the opponent needs to do now is to stabilize Jingzhou, and wait until chaos breaks out in the Central Plains before he can wait for an opportunity for the Northern Expedition. Attacking Yuzhou now is tantamount to asking for trouble and will only lead to trouble.

Plunge yourself deeply into the quagmire of the Central Plains.

No one with a little foresight would choose to attack Yuzhou at this time. That's why Chen Qun felt relieved and joined forces with Cao Cao and Tao Qian to teach Yuan Shu a lesson.

"Lord, we can completely wipe out Yuan Shu's army this time and let him understand that Yuzhou is no longer the Yuzhou under Kong Nian's rule!"

Liu Bei nodded solemnly: "Yuan Gongdao often plunders our people in Yuzhou without any reason. He is a Han traitor. As a descendant of the Han Dynasty, Bei should attack him!"

"Pass my military order to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to each lead 30,000 elite troops to attack Yuan Shu's army from both front and rear. We must annihilate all of Yuan Shu's army!"

The asymmetry of information made Chen Qun's originally seemingly correct judgment very foolish. If he had known that Yuan Yao was in Zhou Yu's army, he would not have let Liu Bei issue such a military order so hastily.

If Yuan Yao is killed, I'm afraid Yuan Shu will really fight against Liu Bei.

And this matter is also a great opportunity. If Yuan Yao can be captured alive, then Yuan Shu will use a rat weapon against Liu Bei, and Liu Bei will be able to take some of the initiative and no longer be passive.

Although there is no guarantee that Yuan Shu will not attack him, it will at least reduce his danger.

Xun You was very aware of Liu Bei's current situation. Yuan Shu was threatening him in the past, and Cao Cao was eyeing him in the back. If he stopped moving forward, he would be waiting for death.

The south is isolated by the Yangtze River, so there is nothing he and others can do against Yuan Shu. The only way out is to unify the Central Plains, and the most important thing now is to capture Xuzhou.

Cao Cao is not someone Liu Bei can easily defeat, but the old Tao Qian is a soft persimmon suitable to be manipulated.

As long as Xuzhou is captured and Liu Bei holds two big states, he will have enough soldiers to resist the attacks from Cao Cao and Yuan Shu.

After that, he can conquer the Central Plains and form a tripartite force. This idea coincides with the ambition of the play, and basically even a first-rate strategist can see it.

The key to the battle between Cao Cao and Liu Bei lies in Xuzhou.

If Cao Cao captures Xuzhou, he can form a line and block the connection between Liu Bei and Qingzhou, giving him enough time to capture Qingzhou. Once all three states are captured by Cao Cao, he will not be far away from unifying the Central Plains.

And if Liu Bei captures Xuzhou, he will form a double-team on Cao Cao. Even if Cao Cao captures Qingzhou, the strength of Qingzhou and Yanzhou cannot be compared with that of Henan and Xuzhou, and Liu Bei will still have the upper hand.

Chen Qun fell into Xi Zhicai's scheme so easily just because he was too impatient!

They are eager to weaken Yuan Shu to reduce the pressure on the south, so that they can free up their hands to capture Xuzhou. After all, if Xuzhou is lost, it will be really difficult for Liu Bei to make a comeback.

"My lord, weakening Yuan Shu is not our goal. My lord's top priority is to control Yuzhou as soon as possible, and we must strive to capture Xuzhou before Cao Mengde. Even if we cannot capture Xuzhou, we must suppress Yanzhou and prevent Cao Mengde from capturing Xuzhou!"

"

Liu Bei nodded: "Chang Wen, now Yanzhou has been occupied by Cao Mengde, it's time for us to take control of Yuzhou. Now that all the heroes from the Central Plains have joined forces, even Yuan Shao can't reach Yuzhou no matter how long his hands are. But how can we gather the aristocratic families?

What good ideas do you have for this long article?"

Chen Qun said: "If you want to win over the Yuzhou family, the lord has to convince only two families. One is the Yuan family, and the other is the Xun family. If the Yuan family has a master, they will definitely not be willing to succumb to each other, so the only ones that the lord can consider are the Xun family.

.”

"If my lord is recognized by the Xun family, and with the help of my Chen family, it will be very simple to control Yuzhou. After all, the Yuan family has retired, and now it is just relying on its remaining power to frighten the Yuzhou family."

"There is a man in the Xun family, his name is Xun Yue. He is a man of great talent, good at internal affairs, and especially proficient in law and farming. My lord can go and visit in person, and he will surely come to surrender."

Birds of a feather flock together, and people flock together. None of these top counselors is alone. They all appear together, or at least in pairs. Think about how many people Xun Yu recommended in history?

As one of the three top aristocratic families in Yuzhou, the relationship between the Chen family and the Xun family is very good. Chen Qun is also very familiar with the alien Xun Yue.

Why is Xun Yue said to be an anomaly? As a member of an aristocratic family, it doesn't matter if he is as stupid and loyal to the Han Dynasty as Xun Yu. This guy is also very opposed to the exclusive territories of princes and private ownership of land, especially land annexation, which is simply a weird thing.

Although the Xun family is famous far and wide, they themselves are just like other aristocratic families, they are all shit. Not to mention the hidden illegal household registration and land, even the land they occupy on the surface is extremely terrifying. For someone like Xun Yue,

The descendants who opposed land annexation were also drunk.

Although Xun Yue's ideas are somewhat similar to Yuan Shu's, and both are very idealistic, he is indeed an out-and-out internal affairs talent.

As a member of Liu Bei's Han clan, he went to the Qing Dynasty in person, so the other party would certainly not refuse. As for whether Liu Bei had any identity issues in doing so, Chen Qun never considered it at all.
Chapter completed!