After sending Zhang Yan away, Dian Wei sent Li Yi a piece of information from the Central Plains.

In the past year or so, too many changes have taken place in the Central Plains.

First of all, Yuan Shu and Yuan Shao turned against each other again, and the result was that Yuan Shao sent troops to defeat Yuan Shu, seized most of the territory of Nanyang County, Yingchuan County and Runan County in the hands of Yuan Shu, and completely drove Yuan Shu out of Yuzhou, and now Yuan Shu only has the territory of Jiujiang County and Lujiang County in Huainan in his hands. After obtaining the three essence territories of the Central Plains in Nanyang, Yingchuan and Runan, plus the Yin and Hanoi counties in Henan that he originally occupied, the population under Yuan Shao's rule reached more than 4 million, and the number of soldiers reached more than 200,000, rising again in the Central Plains.

Also rising last year were Cao Cao and Gongsun Zhan.

Cao Cao originally occupied the three places of Chen, Liang and Pei in Yuzhou, and in the third year of the first peace, he took advantage of the opportunity of Yuan Shao's war with Li Yi to seize the western part of Yanzhou and the western part of Chenliu County, Jiyin County, Shanyang County, Renchengguo and Dongjun in the south, with a population of nearly three million, which was second only to Yuan Shao.

And Gongsun Zhan, who occupies the eastern part of Yanzhou, sent troops to defeat the Beihai State that occupied the eastern part of Qingzhou and Kong Rong of Donglai County in the fourth year of the first peace, and the territory has almost the area of a whole state, and the population under his rule is nearly two million, and the strength is not weak.

After more than a year of chaotic warfare, only a few forces remained in the Central Plains, such as Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Cao Cao, Gongsun Zhan, Liu Bei, Liu Yu and Tao Qian.

But it is clear that the situation will not be deadlocked, it will only take one moment for the balance to be broken.

This opportunity soon came, that is, Cao Cao's old son Cao Song, died on the territory of Xuzhou in the fourth year of Chuping. Cao Cao, who was already eyeing Xuzhou, naturally would not let go of this opportunity, and under the pretext of avenging his father, he led an army of 50,000 to attack Xuzhou.

Half a year has passed since the war broke out last fall.

According to the intelligence, Cao Cao withdrew his troops from Xuzhou in early March, presumably because of the lack of food and grass.

Li Yi smiled and said to several staff members around him: "I think Cao Cao withdrew his troops not because of a shortage of food and grass, but because someone forced him to withdraw his troops. ”

"Does the lord mean Yuan Shao?" Xun You said, "I think the lord's speculation is very accurate. When Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou, Yuan Shao did not explicitly express support or opposition. However, as far as I know, part of the grain and grass of the Yanzhou army was provided by Yuzhou, which shows that Yuan Shao privately supported Cao Cao to fight Xuzhou. ”

Xu Maogong also interjected at this time: "It is rumored that Yuan Shao is very dissatisfied with Tao Qian. Tao Qian has always ignored Yuan Shao's so-called 'inheritance', and has many contradictions with Yuan Shao in many things, especially in recent times, Tao Qian simply tore his face and worked against Yuan Shao. Tao Qian first helped Yuan Shu occupy Yangzhou, and then publicly expressed his respect for the Son of Heaven and the imperial court, and paid tribute to the imperial court. I heard that he also scolded Yuan Shao, saying that after Yuan Shao occupied the Kanto region in the third year of Chuping, not only did he not try his best to enter the king of Qin, but instead attacked the city and plundered the land, plotting for the cause of the king's hegemony, with ill intentions. ”

Cao Cao received the secret support of Yuan Shao, and the lord decided to recuperate, and had no intention of crossing the river to the south, so he boldly launched an attack on Xuzhou. In the name of avenging his father, Cao Cao raised a state army to attack Xuzhou, what is he? Where is the Son of Heaven and the Law of the Han Dynasty in his eyes? Xun You said with a little anger, "Cao Cao obviously did not fight Xuzhou to avenge his father, but to occupy Xuzhou, like Yuan Shao, in an attempt to dominate the industry." ”

Xun Yu obviously agreed with his nephew Xun Yu's opinion, and said: "Revenge for your father? This excuse is ridiculous. To avenge his father, can he afford to attack Xuzhou with an army of 50,000? Is it necessary to slaughter tens of thousands of innocent people in the city after the great victory in Pengcheng? Is it necessary to command the Yanzhou army to massacre hundreds of thousands of unarmed displaced people in Pengcheng, Donghai, and Xiapi after more than a dozen cities in Lianke? ”

Xun Yujian raised his eyebrows and scolded angrily: "Cao Cao, this traitor, is not a human at all, he is a murderous animal. He was worried that there would be too many dead people and that the corpses would not have time to be buried, and that the plague would break out after the beginning of spring, so he ordered the Yanzhou soldiers to drive hundreds of thousands of displaced people into the Surabaya River, which for a time became a grave pit for burying the corpses. Throughout the winter, floating corpses can be seen everywhere on the nearly thousands of miles of the Surabaya River and the Huaishui River, and countless unjust souls cry out in the cold winter wind. All this is the masterpiece of Cao Cao, the butcher. ”

Listening to the denunciation of Cao Cao by Xun Yu and Xun You, who were Cao Cao's right-hand men in another time and space, Li Yi felt a little strange. However, for what happened in the Central Plains in the first half a year, Li Yi's heart was also very painful.

The inertia of the wheel of history is too strong, even if Li Yi has changed this time and space a lot, but Cao Cao's attack on Xuzhou still happened. And the fuse of its outbreak is still Cao Cao's father Cao Song's death in Xuzhou.

But all discerning people knew that Cao Cao's attack on Xuzhou was inevitable, and his father's death was just an excuse for him to send troops. Originally, Cao Cao wanted to occupy Xuzhou smoothly, but he didn't expect things to be as he expected, Tao Qian and the people of Xuzhou were extremely tenacious and resolutely resisted his invasion.

In order to deter Tao Qian and the people of Xuzhou, Cao Cao gave the order for a massacre.

Cao Cao thought that by slaughtering the city continuously, he could shock the rest of the counties in Xuzhou and force them to surrender early. Cao Cao thought that by killing all the displaced people in Xuzhou, he could save food and avoid the riots of the displaced people.

But he looked down on the people of Xuzhou too much. The counties and people of Xuzhou were enraged by Cao Cao's bloody massacre, and they refused to surrender, preferring to be slaughtered rather than surrender. Tao Qian stubbornly defended the city of Donghai County, and Cao Cao's army did not capture it for five months.

When Cao Cao attacked the three cities of Pi County, Suiling, and Xiaqiu, he was hit hard by the soldiers and civilians of Xuzhou, and Cao Cao was furious and killed the three cities.

Xuzhou was almost in ruins under Cao Cao's attacks for five months. Wherever the army passed, there was little life left. Except for Langya County and Guangling County, which were not poisoned for the time being due to geographical location, the rest of the three counties of Pengcheng, Donghai and Xiapi were almost all occupied by Cao Cao.

Yuan Shu was in Jiujiang County, Yangzhou, which was close to Xiapi County at this time, and he knew that Cao Cao's next target after conquering Xuzhou was himself, so he hurriedly sent people to contact Yuan Wei, the assassin of Yuzhou, Yuan Zhong, Yingchuan Taishou, Nanyang Taishou Gaogan and others, and told Cao Cao what he had done in Xuzhou.

Yuan Shu said in his letter: "If you don't stop Cao Cao, with his tyranny that is a hundred times and a thousand times that of Dong Zhuo, it will be our Yuan Lord who will be killed in the future." The descendant of this eunuch is a madman, a murderer, and while he is now in his fledgling, kill him quickly, or we will not be far from death. ”

Although Yuan Shu killed Yuan Yi, defeated Yuan Zhong, and turned against Yuan Shao again, after all, Yuan Shao's children have a deep blood relationship with each other, and they have inseparable interests and needs with each other, plus Yuan Shao seized most of Yuan Shu's territory and population, which can be regarded as dissipating the anger in his heart, therefore, at this critical moment, Yuan Shao's attitude immediately changed.

If Cao Cao is just a disobedient dog, Yuan Shao can accept it, but if Cao Cao is a mad dog that bites, Yuan Shao will be a killer.

Now Cao Cao not only occupies half of Yuzhou, but also half of Yanzhou, and now even occupies half of Xuzhou, and his territory has surpassed him Yuan Shao, which Yuan Shao cannot tolerate.

At the beginning, the reason why Yuan Shao acquiesced to Cao Cao's attack on Xuzhou was that he knew that Tao Qian, an old guy, was not to be regarded as a good man, but in fact he was also a hard bone. When Cao Cao went to attack Xuzhou, he would definitely have a blue nose and swollen face and heavy losses. This not only shows the importance he attaches to brotherhood, after all, he promised to let Cao Cao take revenge, but also achieved the goal of consuming Cao Cao's strength.

But Yuan Shao made a lot of calculations, but he never calculated that Cao Cao would use such bloody means in order to quickly occupy Xuzhou. He immediately ordered the suspension of grain and grass support for Cao Cao, and wrote to Zhang Miao urgently.

Yuan Shao sent a letter to Zhang Miao, firstly, to restore the old goodness, and secondly, to test his mind to see if he was willing to overthrow Cao Cao.

Between Cao Cao and Zhang Miao, Yuan Shao would rather choose Zhang Miao as the pastor of Yanzhou and be his friend. Cao Cao, the descendant of the eunuch, now seems to be not only extremely ambitious, but also very bloody and cruel, and it is really not suitable to conspire with great things.

Zhang Miao and many of Yanzhou's officials were also horrified by Cao Cao's atrocities. At the beginning, Zhang Miao thought that Cao Cao was a trustworthy person, so he dedicated Chen Liujun to Cao Cao, and also contacted a group of people to promote Cao Cao to the position of Yanzhou pastor.

But Zhang Miao also never thought that Cao Cao would be such a person.

If a person kills hundreds of thousands of innocent people to bury his father just to avenge his father, such a person is not human at all. Throughout the ages, except for a few famous tyrants, no courtier has done such a thing that people and gods are angry with.

Taking a step back, even if Cao Cao is trying to dominate the cause, can he kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people just to occupy a Xuzhou? Is there anyone who has built a hegemony like this?

Zhang Miao did not reply, he asked Zang Hong, the Taishou of Dongjun, to secretly rush to Luoyang.

At this time, Fu Zhu and Xu You and others put forward different opinions.

Fu Zhu said: "Cao Cao has an army and is ruthless, compared with Cao Cao, Zhang Miao and other Yanzhou officials can engage in conspiracies and tricks, but they can't fight." If Yanzhou County betrayed Cao Cao and Zhang Miao served as the pastor of Yanzhou, it is estimated that Cao Cao would return to the horse pistol, and Yanzhou would be taken by him again. If we send troops to support Zhang Miao or simply take Yanzhou, then we must take into account the threat from Hebei. ”

Xu You immediately said: "Yanzhou is in turmoil, if the Northern Xinjiang Army in Hebei takes advantage of the situation, Yanzhou is equivalent to giving it to Li Yi, which is absolutely impossible." Therefore, Yanzhou needs a strong warrior, a warrior who can defeat Cao Cao and prevent the northern Xinjiang army from moving south, and now there is such a warrior, which cannot but be said to be a godsend. This warrior is Gongsun Zhan. (To be continued.) )