In fact, as far as the current situation of the world is concerned, most governors and governors still have a wait-and-see attitude towards the battle between Yuan and Dong.
The Han Dynasty had more than a hundred counties and counties, which meant that there were more than a hundred prefects and ministers, and there were more than ten governors and governors combined.
Most of these people who responded to Yuan Shao were groups representing the interests of the high-ranking gentry.
However, other local governors and governors did not dare to act rashly and were hesitant.
After all, compared to Yuan Shao and this group of people, most of the other people are just crawlers. They can challenge Dong Zhuo, who represents the highest power of the Han Dynasty. They can just watch Yuan Shao and others make trouble and do this. Most of the people
Still don't dare to participate.
Because this water is too turbid and too deep, I don’t dare to step in and mix it directly.
But if you support it secretly, you can't tell.
Due to the influence of the Yuan family in Runan among the gentry in Guandong, the prefects and ministers from the gentry group in various states and counties in the Han Dynasty, even if they did not dare to openly support Yuan Shao, they would definitely support them secretly. As for the method of funding,
, that’s a lot.
You can get money, food, weapons, or other resources, as long as they don't involve the frontal battlefield.
But the opposite is true for Dong Zhuo.
Dong Zhuo's power in Guandong is definitely incomparable to that of the gentry group headed by the Runan Yuan family, but he is not fighting alone.
Zhang Rang, Cao Jie, Wang Fu and others took advantage of the Party's control period to install many forces belonging to them in various states and counties. Although these eunuch forces either defected or were exterminated after the eunuchs in Luoyang were collectively wiped out, they are still there today.
Save part of it.
Most of these people were the close relatives left behind by the eunuchs. They wanted to join the gentry, but they would not accept it at all.
If Dong Zhuo had not come to power and Yuan Wei was still in charge, these people would have been ruined by the nobles long ago.
Therefore, even if it is to save their own lives, these people will secretly support Dong Zhuo.
Therefore, from the current point of view, the essence of the war between Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo is that a dozen Guandong pastoral guards headed by Yuan Shao fight against a group of Liangzhou warlords headed by Dong Zhuo.
Behind the two forces, there may be dozens of prefects and ministers who provide resources to Yuan Shao.
The people behind Dong Zhuo who were responsible for delivering resources to him were more than a dozen of the prefects and prime ministers left over from the eunuchs back then.
On the surface, it seemed that not many people were involved, but in fact, it involved the political power of dozens of local governors from various states in the Han Dynasty.
On the 11th day of April in the third year of Chuping, twenty-two local governors and pastors headed by Yuan Shao prepared to gather together in Suanzao, make blood alliances, worship the sky, and attack Dong Zhuo.
Yuan Shu, who is the shepherd of Beiyangzhou, will also lead his troops from Shouchun and head north.
But he never thought that as soon as his troops arrived at Xia Cai, someone reported that they were the envoys of Liu Jian, the shepherd of Jizhou, who had been ordered to come to see him and said they had important matters to discuss with Yuan Shu.
Although Yuan Shu was arrogant and arrogant, he had some friendship with Liu Jian when he was in Luoyang, and in Yuan Shu's eyes, Liu Jian was a pretty good person, so he didn't have too much resentment towards him.
"Let Liu Jian's envoy come to see you."
After Yuan Shu gave the order, he ordered the three armies to suspend their march and rest where they were.
He himself drove the horses to the side under a big tree and sat on the ground.
His attendants immediately brought Yuan Shu his favorite honey water.
Yuan Shu sat under the tree and drank slowly. Then he saw Liu Jian's envoy led by the Yangzhou sergeant and came to him.
"Meet Mr. Yuan!"
After hearing the envoy's greetings, Yuan Shu asked arrogantly without even raising his eyelids: "Are you the envoy from Jizhou?"
"Exactly."
"Thousands of miles away, why did Liu Deran send you here?"
When the envoy saw Yuan Shu's attitude and tone, he felt a little dissatisfied.
It is said that the fourth and third princes of the Yuan family were leaders of the gentry and respected by the world. But now that they have seen him, it is a bit exaggerated.
Although this Yuan Jiujiao has a majestic appearance and noble appearance, his posture is so high, and his words are full of arrogance and rudeness, which makes him somewhat unworthy of the word "famous family".
Although he thought so in his heart, the envoy could not argue with Yuan Shu on the surface.
He is not qualified to reason with others. He just wants to finish his own affairs quickly and don't worry about it later.
Later, the envoy came to Yuan Shu and said: "Returning to Mr. Yuan, I came across the mountains and rivers on the order of Liu Jizhou, just to respect Liu Jizhou's order and hand over something to Mr. Yuan."
Yuan Shu put down the water bottle in his hand and looked at him with raised eyebrows: "You came all the way across the Central Plains just to get something from me? Haha, when will Liu Deran do this?"
The messenger did not answer Yuan Shu's words, but stretched out his hand to take out something from his arms and bowed to present it.
On the side, Zhang Xun, who had been trusted by Yuan Shu the most, came to the envoy, reached out to take what was delivered, turned around and presented it to Yuan Shu.
It is a box sealed with fire paint.
However, when Yuan Shu saw the box, a surprised look suddenly appeared on his face.
He didn't recognize this exquisite box, but he did recognize the fire seal on the box.
There is no doubt that the fire seal belongs to his brother Yuan Ji!
Yuan Ji's lacquer seal had special markings, and only those in the Yuan family knew the details. Therefore, Yuan Shu knew very well that this box could not be imitated by others, even if Liu Jian and Yuan Ji were familiar with it, they definitely could not imitate it.
Yuan Shu looked at the envoy with doubts, but saw that the envoy said very calmly: "Don't worry, Mr. Yuan, this thing was delivered to me by Yuan Junhou personally when Tian Biejia from Jizhou went to Luoyang to congratulate the emperor on his wedding.
Tian Biejia gave it to Liu Jizhou and passed it on to Yuan Gong. Liu Jizhou has not opened it. After getting this thing, he specially ordered his subordinates to travel thousands of miles and deliver it to Yuan Gong personally!"
After hearing this, Yuan Shu felt a little guilty towards the envoy.
They have traveled thousands of miles to serve as your Yuan family's messenger, but you just put on airs in front of them. Even though Yuan Shu is so shameless, he feels very sorry.
He said to the envoy: "Thank you for your hard work, hard work! Come, please quickly prepare some water, as well as dry food and dried meat for the march, to satisfy the messenger's hunger... There is no good food in the army, so I feel wronged to you!"
"
The messenger hurriedly said: "Don't dare, thank you so much, Mr. Yuan for your kindness!"
Afterwards, the messenger, led by Yuan Jun soldiers, went to eat first, while Yuan Shu hurriedly opened the lacquer seal and took out Yuan Ji's letter from the box to read.
After reading two lines, Yuan Shu had some doubts in his heart. This letter had Yuan Ji's personal seal on it, and the font was undoubtedly Yuan Ji's. However, looking at the beginning of the letter, it was clearly written to his brother Yuan Yi.
, how did it get into my own hands?
Could it be that Yuan Ji didn't make it clear to Tian Feng?
However, Yuan Shu quickly gave up this idea.
With their identities as Yuan Ji and Tian Feng, how could they make such a low-level mistake?
Thinking about it, Liu Jian must have arranged for someone to send this letter to him on purpose.
I wonder what the little thief Liu Deran is planning?
Putting all the distracting thoughts behind him, Yuan Shu continued to read the letter.
But this time, he became more and more frightened.
The letter written by Yuan Ji to Yuan Yi was to ask Yuan Yi to use his own name to stop Yuan Shao from entangled with the local pastoral guards to attack Luoyang.
Yuan Ji did not mention himself, but he bluntly said that if Yuan Shao once raised troops in Luoyang, Yuan Wei's life would definitely be at stake!
As a junior, Yuan Shao ignored Yuan Wei's life and death and insisted on confronting Dong Zhuo. What was his intention?
Could it be that the Yuan family in Runan owed him something?
Although Yuan Ji did not directly state that Yuan Shao wanted to kill them intentionally, the meaning behind his words in his letter was not far from this.
In fact, Yuan Shu sent troops to attack Dong Zhuo. Didn't Yuan Shu think about the deeper meaning?
Of course he also thought about it to some extent.
The problem is that Yuan Shao gathered people too quickly, and received almost unanimous response from many prominent families in Guandong. It can be said that he took the lead.
Yuan Shu really didn't have time to make more plans, so he could only respond to Yuan Shao's participation in this army raising.
Yuan Shao has gained countless reputations and gained support from scholars. If Yuan Shu doesn't follow suit quickly, he may not even get any reputation back.
Although Yuan Shu didn't say anything, he was actually deeply wary and defensive about Yuan Shao.
That would be fine if it was Yuan Ji. Yuan Shu was convinced. After all, he was the head of the family and the legitimate heir to the Yuan family.
What does Yuan Shaoping do? Why is his reputation so great now that he can almost be said to have the favor and support of nobles all over the world?
But now, this letter was "accidentally" delivered to Yuan Shu by Liu Jian, and Yuan Shu began to feel bad.
If it was Yuan Yi, after he saw the letter, he would definitely go back and stop Yuan Shao. Although he would not succeed, he would definitely try to stop Yuan Shao.
But Yuan Shu was different, he decided not to mention this matter for the time being.
A sly smile appeared on Yuan Shu's face, and then he folded the envelope, carefully put it back into the lacquer box, and put it in his arms, obviously for safekeeping.
Then, he shouted to Zhang Xun: "Zizhu!"
Zhang Xun, who was not far away, heard the words and hurriedly came to Yuan Shu and said to him: "Your Majesty, are you going to urge the three armies to continue marching north?"
Yuan Shu fluttered his clothes, stood up and said: "Urge the soldiers to march, but we are not going north, let's go back!"
"ah?"
Zhang Xun was stunned when he heard this.
How far is it from Shouchun? It seems like it was just over a hundred miles ago. Are you going back now? Where are you going to play?
"Your Majesty, are we going to raise troops to go north now? Are we going to Suizao to join forces with the heroes? Why...?"
Yuan Shu waved his hand and said: "We will not form an alliance! Hui Shouchun! This matter has nothing to do with us!"
Zhang Xun really didn't understand why Yuan Shu suddenly changed his mind...
Just because Jizhou Shepherd Liu Jian wrote him a letter?
But what did Liu Jian write that was so powerful that it could persuade his own stubborn and proud envoy?
This is not something ordinary people can do!
"Your Majesty, as for Yuan Jingzhou, your Majesty has agreed to go with him to the Jujube Alliance. If he goes back on his promise at this time, I'm afraid his reputation will be damaged..."
Yuan Shu narrowed his eyes, thought carefully for a while, and then said: "Take Yang Changshi over here!"
"Here!"
Not long after, Yang Hong, Yuan Shu's chief historian, came to him.
"Your Majesty called me?"
"As an envoy, you will go to Suanzao and his party on my behalf to meet Yuan Shao. I will tell you that I may not be able to attend this meeting with Dong."
Yang Hong was stunned when he heard this: "Why did the envoy suddenly stop going to the alliance?"
Yuan Shu said: "This matter can be discussed later. You just need to go to Suanzao on my behalf and say... Just say that before I sent out the army, I suffered from typhoid fever. I fell off my horse for a while and was bedridden! I need to take good care of myself."
Although Yang Hong didn't understand Yuan Shu's true intention, he still accepted the order.