Liu Xie issued an edict not because his head was kicked by a donkey, but because he wanted to add fuel to the fire in this war.

He did this for two reasons.

First, he saw that Liu Bei's control over the Xuzhou family had weakened somewhat after he lost his status as imperial uncle.

In order to give Liu Bei some confidence, Liu Xie issued an edict to add fire to the world's famous families.

Lest Liu Bei realize that he has been unable to control the situation, and run away in advance.

Liu Xie didn't have time to continue playing cat and mouse with Liu Bei.

This Liu Bei is like a shit stirrer, no matter where he goes, he will not be able to live in peace.

In this case, in order to prevent Liu Bei from fleeing, it is better to let him stay in Xuzhou.

The second aspect is to test those aristocratic families, especially those in the areas controlled by the Han Dynasty.

Liu Xie promulgated the edict in advance in order to prepare to deal with all the opposing families at once. This would prevent him from promulgating a new policy after defeating the princes, and these families would jump out to oppose him again.

Liu Xie's idea is very simple. There must be a battle between him and the princes. Then he has the final say on how to fight this battle and how big it will be.

He didn't expect that the princes had just been defeated here, and the people were able to recuperate and prepare to promulgate a new policy.

As a result, those aristocratic families that had relied on him before jumped out to oppose him, and then he was inflamed and fought again.

If you can fight once and solve all problems, why do you have to fight twice?

Don't say that Liu Xie's actions will arouse resistance from the aristocratic families in the area he controls, and he will dig a hole for himself.

In fact, Liu Xie really didn’t think he would lose.

He has already calculated that, including Boss Cao and Lu Bu, the area actually controlled by the Han Dynasty is no smaller than that of the coalition of princes.

Moreover, Liu Xie's territory is basically connected together, except for Lu Bu who is separated by Liu Bei.

This means that what Liu Xie actually needs to deal with is just a few directions, his own internal territory, and he doesn't have to worry about being attacked.

The mobilization of troops is also much more convenient than that of the princes.

On the other hand, on the princes' side, Yuan Shao was isolated in Hebei, and there was Lu Bu between him and Liu Bei.

Although Liu Bei is across the river from Jiangdong Sun Ce, there is indeed a river in the middle. It is still difficult to transport troops.

What's more, now Sun Ce is just waiting and watching, and has not chosen to join the coalition of princes.

As for Bijingzhou, he and Liu Zhang were connected together, occupying the south and southwest of the Han Dynasty.

But the problem is that they are not connected with Liu Bei and Yuan Shao. Even if Sun Ce is included, there is still no way to connect them together.

Because, after Yuan Shu's defeat, Yangzhou where he was located was divided into three parts. Boss Cao occupied Shouchun, directly cutting off Liu Bei and Liu Biao.

In this way, the coalition of princes was actually divided into two major sections by Liu Xie. If they wanted to send troops to support each other, they could not do it in the short term.

This is good news for Liu Xie, but not so beautiful for the princes.

Therefore, Liu Xie had an absolute advantage in taking the initiative, and he was not a coalition of princes at all.

Under such circumstances, Liu Xie was gradually strengthening the strength of the princes.

Anyway, Liu Xie just had one idea. Since he wanted to fight, he would fight a big one and beat up the princes and noble families together!

After the beating, I began to recuperate, develop myself, and be ready to expand to the outside world at any time.

The princes were not fools either, so they naturally saw what Liu Xie was thinking.

But at this time, they have no good solution at all. First of all, they themselves are not ready for war.

The soldiers' training, ordnance, and food and grass are not all ready. In addition, at this time, the food has just been planted. If you want to wait for the autumn harvest, there are still several months.

Even if the princes no longer treat their soldiers as human beings, they cannot let them go to war hungry.

If you do this, it won’t matter whether you can win or not.

I guess as soon as you forced the soldiers to come forward, they dared to surrender directly.

Therefore, the princes could only take the opportunity to win over those neutral princes, such as Sun Ce.

On this day, Sun Ce sat on the main seat and looked at the two envoys in the hall.

One of these two men, named Jian Yong, was a close confidant of Liu Bei. He had followed Liu Bei since he launched his army to fight against the Yellow Turbans.

The other person is Xu You, who was Yuan Shao's childhood playmate and is now Yuan Shao's number one adviser and a close confidant.

These two people came to Jianye together, which shows that Yuan Shao and Liu Bei attach great importance to Sun Ce.

"Mr. Ziyuan, Mr. Xianhe, I am very happy that you can come to Jianye. I will have a drink with you tonight." Sun Ce looked at Xu You and Jian Yong and said.

"Thank you, Lord Marquis." Xu You and Jian Yong bowed their hands to Sun Ce.

Then the two looked at each other, and they instantly understood what the other meant.

Drinking or whatnot is not important. What is important now is to be able to win Sun Ce, the lord of Jiangdong, into his own camp.

"Master Marquis, we can talk about the banquet later. I came here this time to deliver a message to the Marquis for my lord." Xu You said to Sun Ce, and then he took out the

A letter was handed to the soldier on the side.

Sun Ce received the silk book from his own soldiers and began to read it in front of Xu You.

Sun Ce's originally smiling face was stunned for a moment after reading the letter, and then a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

Xu You has been observing Sun Ce's expression, and he is not surprised at all by Sun Ce's reaction.

Xu You already knew the content of this letter. He originally wrote this letter. How could he not know?

The content of Yuan Shao's letter to Sun Ce is very simple. He hopes that Sun Ce can join his side, raise troops together, and clear the emperor's side.

After Sun Ce read the letter, he didn't say anything. He just folded the silk book again and placed it on the table in front of him.

Seeing that Sun Ce had finished examining Yuan Shao's letter, Jian Yong also said to Sun Ce: "Master Marquis, my lord Liu Bei also asked someone to bring a letter to Master Marquis."

With that said, Jian Yong also took out the letter and handed it into the hands of the soldiers.

Sun Ce, who sent the message in a group, still didn't say anything. He directly took Liu Bei's letter, glanced at it quickly, and put it down.

At the same time, Sun Ce's heart was full of helplessness at this time.

In fact, since the last time the princes made a big fuss in Luoyang and were expelled by the emperor, Sun Ce felt something was wrong.

Therefore, during this period of time, he ordered Huang Gai and others to step up their training.

However, Sun Ce asked people to intensify training not to join Yuan Shao's alliance, nor to quell the chaos for Liu Xie. What he wanted was to protect himself.

Let's put it this way, Sun Ce has not yet made up his mind to break up with either of them.

All he wants is to protect the land in Jiangdong.

It's not that Sun Ce didn't have ambitions, otherwise he wouldn't have traded jade seals for soldiers to conquer Jiangdong.

He just wasn't sure, he didn't think he could defeat the imperial court.

He also participated in the previous Battle of Shouchun, although he did not directly face how the new imperial army attacked the city.
Chapter completed!