In April, Yingchuan County, Yangzhai City.

When the Xiliang army saw Ji Ling coming to help, they hurriedly withdrew their troops and left.

Ji Ling happily entered Yangzhai City. That night, he sang and laughed with Kong Ling and other officials, and he was drunk and rested.

When I got up the next morning, I saw that there was a large army under the black and oppressive ground under Yangzhai City, and it was surrounded again. But this time Zhang Xiu gave up the West Gate. Ji Ling did not hesitate at all, and led the army to protect Kong Ling and break through from the West Gate.

Zhang Xiu captured Yangzhai City.

………………

In April, Nanyang County, Wancheng.

Yuan Shu roared like thunder.

Yuan Shu thought that with his status as a descendant and a general, it should be beyond reproach and a matter of course for him to inherit the head of the family after the death of his eldest brother Yuan Ji, but the real situation was much more than he expected, and the clan, including several ancestors and uncles, were silent, and most of Yuan Valve's relatives, disciples, protégés, and friends did not clearly express their support.

In the final analysis, it was because Yuan Shu did not have enough prestige and merits, let alone the talent that could make Yuan Valve carry forward.

The inheritance of the head of the family is directly related to the rise and fall of the family's honor and disgrace, so the head of the family of many gate lords is not necessarily the heir, more often it depends on the talent, and the sage is also an important choice for the inheritance of the head of the family.

Now Yuan Shao is stronger than Yuan Shu in every aspect, this is an indisputable fact.

After Yuan Feng faded out of the court in old age, he gave up the position of head of the family to Yuan Kui, which obviously meant that he was not optimistic about his two sons. Who will inherit the head of the family is a headache, so let Yuan Kui deal with it.

Yuan Kui understood Yuan Feng's thoughts, the second brother passed Yuan Shao to the eldest brother who died early as his heir, and he really belonged in his heart, but he couldn't say it because of family affection.

Yuan Kui focused on cultivating Yuan Shao. In front of his clan friends, he spared no effort to praise him, and even said in public many times that the prosperity of the Yuan family would depend on Yuan Shao, the meaning was very clear, and Yuan Shao had vaguely become the natural candidate for the next generation of Yuan Shao's family head.

This time, when Yuan Kui secretly planned to raise troops against Dong. In the letters to all relatives and friends, it was specifically stated that they should obey Yuan Shao's orders, and Yuan Shao should take the lead. The implication is that if I die, Yuan Shao will be the head of the Yuan family.

But Yuan Kui missed one thing, Yuan Shu left Beijing.

After Yuan Shu left Beijing, Yuan Kui immediately lost the best opportunity to make Yuan Shao the head of the family, and it was too late for him to make amends. If the two brothers make trouble over this matter, the matter of discussing Dong will inevitably be greatly affected, so Yuan Kui never mentioned the inheritance of the head of the family. As a result, he is now dead. Inevitably, the two brothers got into a fight.

The head of the Yuan Valve family must be inherited immediately. Now the matter of asking for Dong is mainly based on the power of Yuan Valve, and the head of the Yuan Valve family is gone, and the matter of asking for Dong has lost the command and support behind it. Therefore, this matter seems to be very urgent, but the people of Yuan Valve's family can't open their mouths in the face of the two male tigers Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, and this choice is too difficult.

The choice of Yuan Shao is the best result, which is not only in line with the wishes of the previous generation of Yuan Valve, but also in line with the needs of the current situation. It is also of great benefit to the future of Yuan Valve, but there are many people who support Yuan Shu. It occupies a large part of the Yuan valve's power. Choosing anyone now can cause a split within the Yuan Valve, and the direct consequence of the split of the Yuan Valve is that the Yuan Valve will fail to fight against Dong, and the Yuan Valve will be completely eradicated by Dong Zhuo.

Yuan Valve's clan relatives were arguing. Thinking of the terrible consequences of making the wrong choice, no one dares to make a decision at will. Yuan Valve's protégé disciple, so the official friend did not dare to speak. One by one, they watched coldly and were at a loss. Yuan valve fell. They will also fall, and it will be very difficult to have such glory and wealth as they have today.

There are too many such examples, former generals Liang Yi, He Jin, and Taifu Chen Fan. Former general Dou Wu. The Dou family has been a prominent family for hundreds of years in this dynasty, but overnight, it was almost wiped out by the eunuchs. Eunuchs are also examples. Now in the court, in the state and county capitals, are there still relatives and friends of eunuchs? Even Xu Valve has decayed to the slightest because of being implicated.

Yuan Shu knew his own affairs, and after he learned that all the people in the Jingzhong clan had been executed, he sent troops to attack with great fanfare on the one hand, and on the other hand, he sent his cronies to lobby in various places in order to get more support, and he was bound to win the position of the head of the family.

It happened that Yuan Shao's letter arrived. Yuan Shao's meaning is obvious, as long as Yuan Shu leads the way to Beijing and has the credit and prestige, he will unconditionally support Yuan Shu to succeed him as the head of the family.

It was with this letter that Yuan Shu hurriedly returned to Wancheng and summoned the Yuan clan forces in Runan, Yingchuan and Nanyang to discuss the matter of inheriting the head of the family.

Since Yuan Shao supports me, what else do you have to say.

However, the news that came one after another from all over the country hit Yuan Shu's self-confidence hard. Kong Ling was besieged, Ji Ling retreated, Sun Jian was defeated, Qiao Rui was ambushed, Lu Yang was robbed, Yang Zhai was lost, and then there was bad news, Sun Jian was trapped in Guangcheng Pass, and Han Yin was defeated and captured.

Losing the opportunity to take the lead in capturing Luoyang is equivalent to losing the possibility of inheriting the position of the head of the family. If Yuan Shao resolutely opposes his inheritance to the head of the family, and most of Yuan Shao's forces will switch to Yuan Shao, it is difficult to say whether he can continue to stay in Nanyang at that time.

Yuan Shu was in chaos. Tens of thousands of troops lost battles in a row, and Zhang Xiu not only occupied Yangzhai City, but also ransacked Luyang, which shows that he is not only unable to go north, but also may be defeated by Zhang Xiu and flee south.

But there was a rebellion in the south of Jingzhou at this time, and if he wanted to go south, there were many dangers.

After Sun Jian killed Wang Rui, the assassin of Jingzhou, and went north, Wen Yi, the criminal prosecutor of Guanglu, who was patrolling the southern counties of Jingzhou at that time, hurried to the Jingzhou Assassin's Mansion. On the one hand, he hurriedly played for the impeachment of Sun Jian by the imperial court, and on the other hand, he ordered his own engagement in the Su Dynasty to temporarily lead Changsha Taishou, and he temporarily led the Jingzhou Assassin History.

Guanglu doctor Wen Yi believed that Cao Yin, the Taishou of Wuling, connived at his soldiers to force Wang Rui to ask for food, which was the main reason why Sun Jian killed Wang Rui, so he also impeached Cao Yin.

Cao Yin was furious and instigated his subordinates to kill him in the name of Wen Yi looting money and accepting bribes. Su Dai wanted to avenge the old master, and immediately raised troops to attack Cao Yin, and the two sides fought.

Lord Bo Yang Hong was ordered by Yuan Shu to succeed the assassin of Jingzhou, he heard about it on the way to Jingzhou, and thought that it would be in vain for him to go, so he returned to Nanyang.

Yang Hong had just returned to Nanyang, and Yuan Shu received a report from the Taishou of Nanjun, saying that Bei Yu, the head of the Bei family in Huarong County, Nanjun, saw the chaos in Jingzhou and thought that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, so he immediately killed Huarong Chang and rebelled.

There are a lot of sects in Jingzhou, many of which are barbarians who belonged in the past, and there are thousands of them, and their power is very large. These people are ignorant of education and often pick quarrels and provoke trouble, which is a difficult problem that Jingzhou has been unable to solve for many years.

Yuan Shu was too busy to take care of himself, and he was unable to solve these things, so he immediately threw them aside and didn't ask.

Yuan Shu immediately ordered to block the news of the defeat in front of him to prevent the people of the gate lord clan gathered in Nanyang from hearing the news and leaving. At the same time, Changshi Li Ye, Sima Xunzheng, Yang Hong, and Bo Yanxiang were convened to discuss countermeasures.

Li Ye is in his forties and looks dignified. A black hair more than a foot long, with a loud voice, looks very loyal. He was a famous scholar in Runan and a disciple of Yuan Feng. He once served as Ge Yangling, Pei Guoxiang.

Li Ye was very angry at the hussar general's practice of sitting on the mountain in Xiangcheng to watch the tiger fight, and scolded: "When the tiger was in prison, he instigated the lord to withhold Sun Jian's grain and grass, which led to Sun Jian's defeat and divided the relationship between the lord and Sun Jian. Now with the grain and grass we have supplied, they are holding armed demonstrations in the Yingchuan area, but they sit back and watch us fight a bloody battle with the Xiliang army, and they do not contribute at all. It's black and white, it's an idiot at all. Liu Bowen of the Hussar General's Mansion once sent someone to tell the lord that he wanted to help the lord enter Luoyang, but we suspected that he was using a divisive strategy, so he sternly refused, and as a result, he came to take revenge on us today. Just a hundred miles away, sit back and watch the Xiliang army beat us so badly. Are we rebellious? ”

"In terms of time, Li Yi has already received a reply from the lord, of course he wants to take revenge on us." Yan Xiang said worriedly, "Now Zhang Xiu, Fan Chou, Xu Rong and others have joined forces to attack us, and the hussar general and Gongsun Zhan are close at hand, but they are sitting by and watching from the side, which shows that the hussar general and Dong Zhuo have reached a tacit understanding." Now that we are directly facing the Xiliang army, we have no chance of winning the battle. ”

Yuan Shu shook his head, with a hint of admiration on his face, and said: "According to the information we have received, the current situation in Northern Xinjiang is more critical than that in Jinggi, and with my understanding of Li Yi, he will never give up Northern Xinjiang and go south to Beijing. ”

"I rarely admire a person, but I admire Li Yi, he is a ......" Yuan Shu paused, frowned and said, "I can't tell, but I think he is a real martial artist." Do you know about his ladies? ”

Li Ye and the others looked at Yuan Shu suspiciously, not knowing what he meant by suddenly mentioning Li Yi's wives.

"Li Yi has a total of five wives, and the main room is Cai Yan, Cai Yong's daughter, who is now in charge of the Li Chamber of Commerce for Li Yi, which is the largest chamber of commerce in our Han Kingdom. The second lady, Zou, was a dancing girl in Luoyang City back then, and he had a fight with Zhang Ji in order to get this dancing girl. The third lady, Bian, used to be a singer and was taken in by Li Yi's mother. Now these two ladies are both assistants to Cai Yan in the main room, and together with Cai Yan, they manage the huge Li Chamber of Commerce. ”

The most unbelievable thing is his fourth wife, Mu Guiying, who is a heroine on the battlefield, who has accompanied Li Yi to the east and west over the years, and has made great achievements, and worships General Jianwei. This time, Li Yi led the iron cavalry south, and she took charge of the Hussar General's Mansion for Li Yi, managing all the affairs of the two states and two capitals of northern Xinjiang. ”

"Li Yi's fifth lady is called Li Ying, she used to be Li Yi's personal maid, and she rarely appeared in public, but according to the secret report I got, this fifth lady is also very powerful, and she is in charge of Li Yi's spy power, just like her name, she is Li Yi's shadow." (To be continued.) )