In addition, Cao heard that Liu Bei has not been awarded the title of the Son of Heaven so far, or that Li Thief did not give him the position of Xuzhou Mu, but instead issued an edict to bury Tao Qian and reward Tao Qian's two sons, but he did not mention anything about Liu Bei. In other words, although Liu Bei has now taken over the six counties of Xuzhou, he is still the plain order appointed by Gongsun Zhan, and he has no official position or title other than that.

As the saying goes: if the name is not right, it is not good.

For the princes like Liu Bei who took over the land of a state, it was difficult to get the recognition and support of the people of Xuzhou without the edict of the Son of Heaven. At the same time, without the edict of the Son of Heaven, it means that Xuzhou is still a terra nullius, and the princes from all walks of life do not need to make excuses at all, as long as they have the strength, they can lead the army to attack Xuzhou. After all, Liu Bei can occupy Xuzhou without a name or a point, why can't other princes in the world occupy Xuzhou? ”

Speaking of this, Cao Cao smiled knowingly: "Now, Liu Bei is leading the six counties of Xuzhou, and Tao Qian is recommended by the table before he dies, maybe in his mind, Li Li will definitely give him the edict of Xuzhou." It's a pity that he underestimated Li Thief, and also despised Li Thief's hegemony and strong self-confidence as the first prince in the world. When he took over Xuzhou, he did not pay tribute to Li Thief, and wanted to wait for Li Thief to give him the edict of the Son of Heaven, which was simply arrogant and delusional!

Li Thief is not the Dong Zhuo of the past!

Earlier, when Dong Zhuo was in power, he was dedicated to enjoying wealth and spending his old age in peace, but whenever the princes of each town were invited, in the spirit of calming things down, Dong Zhuo always complied with it, and rarely rejected the princes of each town. However, Li Thief ruled the prefectures and counties of Xiliang at a young age. firmly controlled the hundreds of thousands of Xiliang troops, and did not take the princes of the towns in the world in their eyes at all. But when a prince asks for an official position, he must pay enough money and food. Otherwise, don't want to get any edict from Li Thief, even if it's a small county order, don't think about getting it for nothing.

Therefore, from Cao's point of view, Liu Bei took the initiative to come to the alliance this time, not so much to form an alliance with us to fight against Li Thief, but to take the opportunity to ask Li Thief for an edict under the pretense of the powerful military might of the ally! ”

"Huh?" Yuan Shao was stunned when he heard this. After thinking for a while, he nodded thoughtfully: "What Meng De said is extremely true. Li Thief has always been stingy and bullying. has never taken the princes of the world into account. What happened to Liu Bei today, I and other princes of various towns have also encountered it, if you want to ask for an official position from Li Thief, no matter who you are, you must pay a lot of money and food. Otherwise, don't even think about it. Yes. Liu Bei's move is also reasonable, but he is deliberately using our allies to build momentum, and I am afraid that he may not really help us defeat Li Thief. I wonder what Mende thinks about this? ”

"The alliance leader needs not worry. If Liu Bei doesn't come, we naturally can't help him; But now that he's here, he can't help it. What's more, how can Li Thief be an easy person, who in the world can threaten him to obey? Therefore, Liu Bei led his troops to come this time. But it was a stupid move to offend the Li thief by mistake! Cao is determined. As long as the Son of Heaven is still in the hands of Li Thief, Liu Bei will never think of getting the edict of Xuzhou Mu in his life. Maybe Liu Bei still wants to let Li Thief see how powerful he is, so he obediently gave him an edict and sealed Xuzhou to him! Hehehe???"

As he spoke, Cao Cao couldn't help laughing, and Yuan Shao also laughed happily, obviously agreeing with Cao Cao's words.

In fact, when Cao Cao said Liu Bei's true intention of this meeting, Yuan Shao already understood it in his heart, and he didn't need Cao Cao's detailed explanation at all. But he enjoyed Cao Cao's respectful demeanor when he spoke, and the more detailed Cao Cao said, the more loyal Cao Cao was to him. This is undoubtedly a good thing for him, so why not do it!

Because of this, Yuan Shao listened to Cao Cao's long compilation while drinking, and accidentally caught a glimpse that the sun was already in the west, and it would be dark in another hour. So he got up slowly, waved his hand to signal his soldiers to clean up the case and wine cups, and chuckled at Cao Cao: "Meng De has seen Liu Bei's real intentions for this trip very thoroughly, so there must be a good way to deal with it?" Hehehe! ”

While slowly walking down the mountain with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao smiled and nodded: "That's true." However, the leader of the alliance has already become a bamboo in his chest, how dare Cao be ugly? ”

Meng De humbled himself. If you have any opinions, you might as well say it bluntly, and see if you and I coincide? ”

"It's not a high opinion. Before the decisive battle between our allies and Li Thief, the strategy previously decided by the alliance leader did not need to be changed, and Liu Bei was still allowed to stay in Hedong and make plans when the decisive battle came. Under the first battle, even if Liu Bei wanted to retreat with his whole body, he couldn't help him, until we completely defeated Li Thief, he didn't want to escape from the allies and lead his troops alone! ”

"Hehehe!" Yuan Shao smiled when he heard this, and nodded happily: "Okay, according to what Meng De said, you and I brothers really have a good heart, and they coincide!" In this case, we have the right to temporarily leave the princes of the Ninth Town, and tomorrow the army will knock on the pass, probe the defense of Hangu Pass, and by the way, see with our own eyes whether the generals under the command of Li Thief are as rumored to be gathered, strong and invincible? ”

"Hahaha!" After speaking, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao looked at each other and smiled, then turned on their horses, stepped on the afterglow of the setting sun, and returned to the camp along the mountain path.

――――――――――――――

The next day, the sky was overcast and the wind was howling.

At three o'clock in the morning, the sun rose in front of Hangu Pass, but it ushered in an army of 300,000 princes led by Yuan Shao.

Standing at the head of the city, looking around.

But as far as the eye can see, in addition to the towering mountains and rivers, there are hundreds of thousands of dense swords, guns, swords, halberds, forest iron armor, and the long neighing of war horses that resounded in the sky.

Three hundred paces away in front of the pass, tens of thousands of Allied foot soldiers carried hundreds of ladders, pushed well railings, erected catapults, and prepared for longbows and crossbows. On the rushing car, there is a huge crash wood about ten zhang long and four feet thick wrapped in iron sheets, facing the main gate of the thick and simple Hangu Pass, the momentum is violent, the sword is tense, and it is ready to move.

"I haven't seen such a majestic scene for many years, it's really shocking!"

In the middle of the city tower, Li Li, who was dressed in armor, looked high and far away, and saw the sea of princes and alliances, with soldiers standing in a forest, and hunting with flags. The soldiers are as powerful as prisons, magnificent, and murderous soaring into the sky. This was the first time since he was reborn in the late Han Dynasty to witness such a spectacular war scene. Facing the 300,000 siege army, the faces and expressions of the allied soldiers could not be seen clearly as far as the eye could see, and the eyes were full of murderous ironclad soldiers, which made people dizzy and shocked.

Guo Jia and Jia Xu stood behind Li Li on the left and right, and after hearing Li Li's exclamation, Jia Xu said softly with deep feelings: "What the lord said is extremely true. This was the third major war in the Eastern Han Dynasty in more than 100 years.

Ten years ago, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and the Yellow Turban Army, which numbered as many as one million people, swept the world. In the past few months, the eight states of Dahan have been full of beacons. Although the imperial army quickly suppressed the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Yellow Turban Army shook the whole world, shook the foundation of the Liu dynasty, and opened the prelude to the troubled times. Hoodwink the public. This is why there is the chaotic situation of today's princes.

Five years ago, the princes of the Eighteen Towns crusaded against Dong Xiangguo, and successively gathered nearly 500,000 troops, which was huge and earth-shattering. Yes, the allied forces of the princes fought fiercely with our Xiliang army for a year, and in the end, although the allies won, it was in vain. In fact, it did not shake the foundation of our Western Liang Army, but prompted Dong Xiangguo to loot the eastern capital Luoyang. Wrapped in the accumulation of hundreds of years in the Eastern Han Dynasty and hundreds of thousands of people in Luoyang moved the capital to Chang'an. Therefore, the alliance of the princes of the Eighteen Towns was called a crusade against Dong Zhuo, but in fact, it trampled on the imperial power of the Son of Heaven and pushed the Liu family to the brink of destruction.

Five years later, the princes of the Central Plains made a comeback, once again united to form an allied army, and gathered more than 400,000 allied troops to crusade against us under the banner of 'crusading against the lord and the Qing monarch'. This time, the army of princes was nominally to crusade against the lord and rescue the Son of Heaven, but in fact, it was to destroy our Xiliang army, trying to dominate the Central Plains and win the world.

In just ten years, three unprecedented wars with great momentum completely ignored the imperial power of the Son of Heaven, and since then, the face of the Liu royal family has disappeared, and the world will become more and more chaotic after that. Yes, the Son of Heaven??? The Son of Heaven is no longer of much use, and it is useless. ”

After a little hesitation, Jia Xu finally said his true thoughts, and this last sentence was actually a warning to Li Li, faintly revealing the meaning of persuasion.

It is true that Jia Xu didn't pay attention to the hundreds of thousands of princes' army in front of him at all, thinking that this victory was in his hands. For him, after experiencing the great battle of the princes of the Eighteen Towns against Dong Zhuo five years ago, looking back at the army of the princes in front of him, it was like a group of clowns scratching their heads and making gestures, and it was difficult to get into the hall of elegance, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

At the same time, Jia Xu also knew that the army of more than 300,000 princes in front of him did not seem to have an advantage in numbers, far less than the many soldiers and horses when Chen Liuhui was in the past, but at this time and that time. Now the princes and allies in front of Chen Bingguan are well-trained and tempered by war, the sharpness of the armor, the elite of combat power, although the number of soldiers and horses is not as good as the former allies, but the combat effectiveness is far stronger than the former Eighteen Routes Princes Alliance.

Therefore, although Jia Xu despised the princes' allies on the surface, and kept saying that the princes' armies were not to be feared, in fact, his true thoughts in his heart were just the opposite. In this battle, instead of slacking off, he cautiously prepared for a big battle, and attached much more importance to the success or failure of this battle than any previous battle.

"Hmm." When Jia Xu finished speaking, Li Li turned his head to look at him, bowed his head slightly, turned his head to look straight ahead, and looked intently at the army of princes in front of the array.

"Weichen agrees with what Wenhe said by the military advisor." Seeing that Li Li was silent, Guo Jia echoed in a low voice: "With the prominent position of the lord today, the Son of Heaven is not very practical, not only can he not help the lord achieve great causes, but he is hindered everywhere, which invisibly weakens the prestige and prestige of the lord. But??? Since ancient times, the princes and princes have been defeated and thieves, and the most important thing at the moment is to win this battle. If this battle is won, the entanglement will naturally be solved, and the lord will become the overlord of the Central Plains; In the event of defeat, it is better to maintain the status quo than to act rashly. ”

Feng Xiao's words are very pertinent. Our top priority is to do everything we can to win this battle, and as for other things, we will discuss them later! Li Li said with an immovable chin.

―――――――――――― (To be continued......)

PS: When I finished this chapter, I learned that today is the birthday of my friend Tearful Heart Dragon, and I added this chapter in the early morning of the 16th, chatting about birthday wishes.

There are no gifts, no happy birthday songs, and the readership of this book is not large, so it is impossible for more book friends to wish their friends a happy birthday, but Hu Ben sincerely wishes his friends a happy birthday, smiles always, everything goes well, and is happy every day!