August 28, cold dew.

In Ganling City, the autumn wind is bleak and the lingering fragrance of osmanthus fills the city.

There was no Mid-Autumn Festival in the Han Dynasty. The three major festivals were the Spring Festival, the Cold Food Festival and the Double Ninth Festival.

There are still eleven days to go until September 9th, and people inside and outside the city have already begun to prepare dogwood, harvest festivals and next year's chrysanthemum wine.

Chrysanthemum wine was brewed during the Double Ninth Festival of the first year and then drank out of it the next year. This was one of the customs at that time.

In addition, there are activities such as wearing dogwood, celebrating the harvest, worshiping ancestors, etc. The Han people attach great importance to it far more than other festivals, second only to the Spring Festival.

In the prefect's mansion, Yuan Shao and several close advisors had a private banquet. The fragrance of chrysanthemums filled the entire hall, mixed with the smell of wine.

"Come on, everyone, have a drink."

Yuan Shao raised his wine glass and toasted to everyone.

Xu You, Shen Pei, Geng Wu, Xun Chen, Xin Ping, Liu Hui, Li Li and others all raised their glasses and drank it all.

"Ming Gong, Gongsun Zan, has fallen into the trap."

Liu Hui wiped the wine stained from his beard, turned around and said to Yuan Shao with a smile: "And Chen Zigui has also happily agreed to stop the army."

"Um."

Yuan Shao nodded: "This delaying strategy needs to be done with great fanfare and let everyone know about it."

"It would be better to go to the imperial court and send troops southward at the same time."

Xu You rolled his eyes and proposed a plan.

"Sending troops south?"

Yuan Shao frowned: "Am I really going to help Yuan Gongli?"

"Of course not."

Xu You said with a smile: "Sending troops south can be described as a strategy to dispel the enemy's doubts and divert their attention. This is the Marquis of Huaiyin who built the plank road openly and secretly attacked Chen Cang."

"Can you elaborate?"

When Yuan Shao heard this plan, he stuck his head out and looked at him with interest.

Xu You smiled slightly: "Think about it, now that we are negotiating peace with Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei, we are trying to make them relax their vigilance. If we follow Liu Bei's example and divide our troops and go south, pretending to help Yuan Shu mediate the war situation, they will be even more convinced.

"

"Yes, Qingzhou is recruiting troops aggressively now. In fact, because we are afraid that Liu Bei will lead his army south, our troops have surpassed Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei by far."

Shen Pei took over the conversation and said: "If we also pretend to divide our troops, Qingzhou will inevitably relax its defenses."

Xu You is from the Nanyang sect and Shen Pei is from the Jizhou sect. Xu You is not surprised at all that Shen Pei speaks for him, because Shen Pei is a relatively upright person and often takes the wrong approach to the situation.

If you make an opinion that he thinks is good, he will agree with it even if you are from a different faction. If you make an opinion that he thinks is not good, he will oppose it even if you are from the same faction.

Xun Chen of the Yingchuan faction remained silent, while Liu Hui nodded secretly, seeming to think that this strategy was not bad, and it was a rare moment of unity of opinion.

"Okay, what Ziyuan means is exactly what I want."

Seeing that everyone seemed to think this strategy was okay, Yuan Shao's narrow eyes flashed with light: "Gao Dao is also my "blood brother" after all. How can I watch him die? Although I can't ask the court to forgive his sins.

, but we can’t watch him go astray, right?”

"Ming Gong is wise."

Everyone stood up and saluted.

Yuan Shao laughed heartily while sitting at the table.

As he deposed the false emperor and declared himself a vassal to the imperial court, the benefits soon became apparent. Liu Bei expressed his goodwill and withdrew from the Qinghe Kingdom. At the same time, the number of troops in Luoyang and Qingzhou was greatly reduced, and he went south to conquer Yuan Shu.

But Gongsun Zan was still guarding him. At the same time, he also knew that Chen Mu had been recruiting troops in Qingzhou with great fanfare recently, and he could tell with his toes what he was planning.

Therefore, even if he has declared himself a vassal and has eased the conflicts among the surrounding hostile forces, he will still be on guard and will not relax his vigilance too much.

So how can we continue to convince the surrounding hostile forces that Yuan Shao has no ambitions in the north at all?

Naturally, we sent troops south.

Separate some troops and horses, and report to the court that Yuan Shu rebelled against the court, but was deceived by his subordinates, and begged the court for forgiveness. In the name of going south to mediate the war, he sent troops and horses to the border of Yanzhou, as if he was going south to negotiate.

Express his desire to save Yuan Shu.

Of course, he couldn't say that he was going to help Yuan Shu fight Liu Bei. The banner should be that Yuan Shu had taken the wrong path, but it was still a member of the Yuan family. He, Yuan Shao, could not watch Yuan Shu die, so he sent troops south to assist Yuan Shu in negotiating peace with Liu Bei.

Once Yuan Shu is stubborn, he must fight Liu Bei decisively. If he loses, he must at least save Yuan Shu's life and bring him to the north.

This will give different people different feelings.

In the eyes of the world, Yuan Shao still cares about the reputation of the Four Generations and Three Dukes, so he tries his best to save Yuan Shu, which will win favor in the eyes of the noble family and powerful people.

In the eyes of the enemy, Yuan Shao was obviously more concerned about the south and had no intention of dominating the north by raising troops and mobilizing troops like this.

After all, a normal person would think that if Yuan Shao wanted to take Liu Bei by surprise when his troops were severely reduced, he would definitely have to gather his troops and attack him fiercely while his illness was killing him. How could there be any reason to divide his troops and go south?

But people would never have thought that all this was a smoke bomb arranged by Yuan Shao. It was clear that he wanted to send troops south to mediate the war situation in the south, but in fact he had other intentions.

This is similar to Xun You's strategy of seducing the east and attacking the west against Yan Liangyong in the Battle of Guandu.

"Ming Gong, in addition to dividing our troops and heading south, I think we should also withdraw our troops."

At this moment, Liu Hui suddenly made another suggestion.

Yuan Shao asked: "Why retreat?"

Liu Hui explained: "We have been facing each other for almost two years. Both our troops and those of Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan are tired and in a state of mental stress all day long. If we withdraw our troops, then the soldiers of both sides will

It will be easier, and the enemy's soldiers and horses will be more likely to slack off. If we attack suddenly at this time, we can win the battle in one battle."

"Um."

Yuan Shao nodded: "This is a very clever plan."

"Ming Gong can also send envoys to pay tribute to the imperial court, and at the same time send envoys to Cao Cao and Liu Bei to send 20,000 troops, pretending to be 80,000, and march south to Yanzhou, pretending to be uncertain."

Xun Chen also offered a plan.

His strategy was to make Liu Bei and Cao Cao unable to figure out Yuan Shao's attitude and make them think that Yuan Shao really wanted to help Yuan Shu.

Because in their view, two Yuans, one in the south and one in the north, are powerful.

If Yuan Shu is in trouble and Yuan Shao refuses to save him, then Yuan Shao may be the next one to be besieged.

Regardless of whether it was a matter of grief or ulterior motives, Yuan Shao should not sit idly by and ignore it.

So this move is also a strategy to make people suspicious.

"good."

Yuan Shao stood up, looked at everyone and said, "Everyone, let's do this."

"only."

Many counselors stood up and saluted at the same time.

During the headwind period, Yuan Shao's team of counselors did not have much conflict with each other. They all worked together to come up with a perfect solution.

At that moment, Yuan Shao did not hesitate and took action immediately, sending various envoys to the court, to Runan, and to the plains.

At the same time, the Bohai front line began to withdraw troops on a large scale, and all Jizhou troops retreated into the city.

After sending the envoy, he also sent 20,000 troops southward and arrived at Yanzhou.

A series of operations immediately attracted the attention of the world.

All the princes in the south, including all the princes in the south, noticed Yuan Shao's actions. Liu Bei's side had just concluded a battle.

The Battle of Linyang.

After Guan Yu went south, he joined Cao Cao and solved Sun Ce's siege of Linyang.

Zhang Xun was defeated and retreated, leading the remaining soldiers back to Gushi.

Although there is no winner yet in Pengcheng, Xiapi, Liu Bei's army clearly has a big advantage and can attack Yuan Shu in one fell swoop.

As a result, when they were preparing to attack, news from Yuan Shao had already arrived, which surprised Liu Bei.

At this juncture, Yuan Shao actually sent troops south, which is by no means good news.

Liu Bei immediately summoned Jushou Tian Feng to discuss the matter.

Inside the camp, three people were sitting in rows.

At present, the situation in Gushi is relatively clear. Yuan Shu has stationed his troops on the hillock, and Liu Bei has stationed his troops outside the city of Gushi. They are at odds with Zhu Zhi inside the city.

Originally, Guan Yu, Cao Cao, and Sun Ce's army would arrive in one day to attack Yuan Shu together.

Unexpectedly, bad news came at this time.

Although the envoy from Yuan Shao said that it was to mediate their war, and said that he would persuade Yuan Shu to surrender to the imperial court.

But who can know what Yuan Shao thinks?

What if he comes to take advantage of the situation and wants to open up the situation from the south?
To be continued...