Tao Qian coughed twice and looked slightly pale. After listening carefully to Shen Chen's opinion, he seemed to think it made sense.
But after thinking about it for a while, he still thought that Shen Chen's plan was too idealistic. He said: "I want to kill two soldiers with one peach from Xuzhou, but Cao Cao can't tolerate me, and Yuan Shu has also turned against me. How can I sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight?" Woolen cloth?"
At the beginning, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao broke up, Tao Qian, Gongsun Zan, and Yuan Shu formed an alliance, while Yuan Shao formed an alliance with Cao Cao and Liu Biao. The two sides had several large-scale battles in Yanzhou, Yuzhou and other places.
Yuan Shu went north to attack Yanzhou, and Tao Qian sent troops to capture Rencheng State, Taishan County and other places under Cao Cao's jurisdiction.
Later, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shu, the Black Mountain Army, and the Southern Xiongnu at Kuangting. He then turned to attack Tao Qian and drove Tao Qian back to Xuzhou, and the alliance collapsed.
So now Tao Qian not only has a hostile relationship with Cao Cao, but also has a not very good relationship with Yuan Shu.
It was well known that Yuan Shu wanted to annex Xuzhou, and Tao Qian was afraid of inviting Yuan Shu in. Yuan Shu and Cao Cao would not fight, but would join forces to eliminate him first.
The prerequisite for the fisherman to benefit from the fight between the snipe and the clam is that the fisherman is stronger than the snipe and the clam. If the person standing next to the snipe and clam is not the fisherman but an earthworm, then the final result will be nothing more than a fight between the boss and the second, and the death of the third .
Shen Chen had naturally considered this issue, so he said sternly: "So Mr. Tao has to shrink his strength to protect himself. And he also needs one or two reliable external allies as reinforcements to turn the danger into safety."
Tao Qian asked: "Who can help me?"
"Didn't I hear that Mr. Tao has already gone to ask Beihai Prime Minister to be the Duke?"
Shen Chen said: "It is impossible to completely defeat Cao Cao now, but Tao Gong can still go north to defeat Zang Ba and Xiao Jian first, with Langya State as the rear, Donghai State as the barrier, and Beihai Xiangwen as the main force. Taking the lead, using Pingyuan Prime Minister Xuande Gong as the general, and then bringing Yuan Shu here, we may be able to slow down the plan."
"Pingyuan Prime Minister Liu Bei?"
Tao Qian was confused: "What does this have to do with Liu Bei?"
Shen Chen explained: "I once heard from people who fled from Qingzhou to Xuzhou that Beihai was besieged by the Yellow Turbans last year. Governor Kong invited Duke Xuande to rescue the siege. Now Xuande is in Beihai."
"Well, I understand."
Tao Qian sighed and said, "It's a pity. Two months ago, the childish plan might have worked, but now that Xuzhou is in dilapidated condition, if we invite Yuan Shu here again, wouldn't we be asking for death?"
Shen Chen said: "Yes, but it's not impossible."
"Child, please tell me."
"Cao Cao is cruel and unkind. I heard that he killed many famous people in Yanzhou. All the wealthy families in Yanzhou are dissatisfied with him. This time he leads the army on an expedition. I predict that there will be chaos in his rear."
"oh?"
Tao Qian opened his eyes wide and said, "Is this really going to happen?"
Shen Chen said: "Young Master, please take this as Chen's prophecy. If the future is as expected by Chen, then Tao Gong will first stick to the city, wait for the right time, and then regain the lost territory. After getting Liu Bei's help, he will stabilize the East China Sea and Langya, and the north and Wenzhou." If we form an alliance and lead Yuan Shu southward to Pei State's Xiapi, there will be a three-party struggle, and Xuzhou should have no worries in a short time."
This is a scaled-down version of the Three Kingdoms, with three-party checks and balances. Although Tao Qian is the weakest, as long as he can integrate the teams of Zang Ba and Xiao Jian, and then form an alliance with Kong Rong, he can always gather 20,000 to 30,000 troops, which is barely enough. Confronted Cao Cao and Yuan Shu in Xuzhou.
However, this is actually a current judgment, because Cao Cao is about to return to Yanzhou to fight with Lu Bu, and the war will last for two years. Cao Cao has no time to go back east. At this time, inviting Yuan Shu into Xuzhou will really lead the wolf into the house.
The problem is that even if Tao Qian doesn't bring him in, Yuan Shu himself still plans to annex Xuzhou while Cao Cao and Lu Bu are fighting.
Therefore, no matter what strategy Shen Chen comes up with, it cannot change the existing facts, but because his judgment is extremely accurate, it will leave the impression that he has no plans left.
This is the result Shen Chen wants.
Tao Qian sighed: "If I had been born a child early, why would I have reached such a state? Would a child be willing to be born?"
Cao Hong said hurriedly: "Ming Gong, if you let an eight-year-old child serve as an official, you may be laughed at by the world."
Shen Chen also refused and said: "What I said is true. I am only eight years old this year and will not turn nine until October. If I become an official, how will I convince the public? And I am afraid that Duke Ming doesn't trust me very much now, so Please allow me to flee with my family and hide in Mount Tai. I will make a decision later when things go as I expected."
"Well"
Tao Qian pondered for a moment, and finally thought that he had been too hasty, so he agreed to Shen Chen's statement.
The main reason is that he is being forced too hard by Cao Cao, and he is already a little sick and wants to seek medical treatment.
After talking about other things, Tao Qian closed his eyes. He felt that his energy was very tired and his body was gradually unable to bear it.
Shen Chen said goodbye and left. Outside the state capital, someone from the Deng and Shen clansmen was waiting for him. When they saw him coming out, they immediately escorted him back to Xiangbi, and his family began to flee north.
On the fourth day of April, Cao Cao's other army, led by Cao Ren, went north to attack Kaiyang County, Qiu County, Feiguo County and other places in Langya Kingdom.
Tao Qian was greatly shocked because this was already his rear, so he quickly sent people to rescue the northern counties.
Clinker's army was just a small force, used to attract Tao Qian's attention. If he could not conquer the counties, he would immediately go south to join Cao Cao again.
On the eighth day of April, large groups of Cao's troops began to storm Xiapi and many other counties.
The army captured Lu, Juling, Xiaqiu, and wherever they passed, they slaughtered them all. Hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed, and no chickens or dogs were left. The Si River was not allowed to flow, so it was the protection of the five counties and there was no trace of them again.
Shen Chen had already fled into Niqiu Mountain. Niqiu Mountain is the southern foot of Yishan Mountain. It is a dense mountain with many mountains. Cao Jun did not have time to search the mountains and kill people, so he escaped and did not suffer any disaster.
On April 24, Liu Bei and Kong Rong's reinforcements finally arrived in Xuzhou, joined Tao Qian's troops on the outskirts of Xuzhou, and fought with Cao Cao's troops on the outskirts.
At this time, Cao Cao's main force was still in Xiapi. When he learned that Tao Qian had joined the reinforcements, he immediately led his main force northward to prepare to completely annihilate Tao Qian.
The two sides faced off in Xiangben. Because Cao Cao was powerful, Tao Qian ordered Liu Bei and Cao Bao to guard Yan County and not to leave the city for a decisive battle.
By the beginning of May, the villagers in Huangmenting couldn't bear it anymore and clamored to return to their hometowns. Because productivity was insufficient in ancient times, farmers worked hard to cultivate, but after paying taxes on the annual harvest, they could barely make ends meet.
It has been more than a month since they fled into Niqiu Mountain, and they are living on a daily basis. I am afraid that most of the millet seedlings in the village have been lost due to lack of care. The harvest in the second half of this year will be gone. How can they survive?
Faced with this problem, Shen Chen had no choice but to discuss with Deng Mao and the elders of his Shen clan, and send people there to investigate the situation first, and then lead the clan members back after making sure it was safe.
So on the third day of May, with the consultation of the elders of the two clans of Deng and Shen, they gathered the horses of the entire clan, sixteen in total, all of which were cheap horses. They found the good riders in the clan and returned to Xiangben County to see them first. See how things are going there.
Shen Chen was also among them, he had to observe the situation and make a judgment.
After coming out of Niqiu Mountain, we arrived at the official road east of Yishui River, which is the road from Jiqiu to Xiangben in the south. It was midsummer in May, and the mountains on both sides were towering, and the villages along the way were in ruins.
This was later known as Linyi City, with Niqiu Mountain to the west, Kaiyang County of Langya Kingdom to the north, Lanling County and Xiangben County to the southwest, and Shan County to the south.
At this moment, there were a lot of people migrating on the official road, and there were scattered carriages and pedestrians heading south with difficulty.
The late Han Dynasty was actually a bad era. Because of Tao Qian's incompetence in his later years, Xuzhou, which was originally prosperous, gradually became chaotic. The governors from various places gathered their troops and separated their regimes, and no longer obeyed the command of Xuzhou Mu.
Qingzhou was in even more chaos. Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao fought for Qingzhou, Kong Rong struggled to protect himself, yellow turban bandits continued to plague various places, and the people were displaced.
Therefore, even if Xuzhou is already in chaos, many people will still choose to flee south to Xuzhou in order to find stability.
Little did they know, they just went from a wolf's den to a tiger's den.
At this time, the news of Cao Cao's massacre had not yet spread, and among the people accompanying him, a convoy was also slowly heading south.
It was obviously a large family of the bureaucratic class, with a few knights clearing the way and guards wearing armor and holding weapons protecting them.
This team is the migrating force of the Zhuge family in Langya led by Zhuge Xuan.
A few years ago, Liu Biao sent Zhuge Xuan to Chang'an to pay tribute to the emperor. At that time, he sent a team of several hundred people to escort him there.
Later, Zhuge Xuan went to Shandong to take care of his cousin's orphan, but Liu Biao still asked his soldiers to protect him before he went.
In the troubled times of the late Han Dynasty, there were countless bandits and bandits. Even the regular army rarely had armor. Yuan Shao only had 10,000 armors at his peak, and Cao Cao now only has a few hundred armors.
Liu Biao was able to send hundreds of soldiers in armor to protect them, which shows that he still valued Zhuge Xuan very much.
At this moment, Zhuge Xuan was sitting on horseback and following the team. There were several carriages behind him. In one of them, Zhuge Liang, who was thirteen years old, was sitting in the carriage with awe.
There were many types of carriages in the Han Dynasty. The carriage he was riding in was called a Zhen carriage, which had no roof and was like a pickup truck with a sun umbrella on the carriage.
Zhuge Liang and his younger brother Zhuge Jun were riding in the same car. The car was not moving very fast. He looked around and looked at the fleeing people around him in a daze.
At this moment, more than a dozen riders and horses came out of the mountain road on the right side of the post road, causing panic among the people around them.
Fortunately, everyone saw clearly that the person who came was not wearing military uniforms, but ordinary civilian clothes, and the storm quickly subsided.
After the group of people came out of the mountain road, they followed the flow of people and joined the migrating troops, but the speed slowed down.
Firstly, the horses cannot run for a long time, and secondly, there are many people fleeing on the post road, so it would be bad if they collide with the people.
Shen Chen was sitting on horseback, protected by an uncle who was good at riding horses. This uncle was once called to guard the border in northern Xinjiang, so he was good at riding and sat on the horse smoothly.
He looked at this migrating team curiously and found that most of these people were rich peasants with a small fortune, from poor families to even powerful landlords.
Because only these people had the money to escape, ordinary people either joined the Yellow Turbans during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, or were plundered, bankrupted, and starved to death in the wilderness, without the ability to travel long distances.
When he passed by a team that was obviously officials and escorted by armored guards, he saw a young man of twelve or thirteen years old sitting in the carriage.
The man was very good-looking, with fair skin and handsome appearance. He was also looking at him curiously.
The eyes of the two people met, and they never met again.
Their carriage was a little faster than the convoy, and the tribesmen were rushing back to Xiangbi to check the situation, so they kept weaving in and out of the crowd and slowly moved forward.