On the second day of the outbreak of the Battle of Yanzhou, Gongsun Zan of Youzhou sent troops to attack Qingzhou, forcing Yuan Shao to send troops to support.

Since then, the battle for Qingzhou has also begun.

At the same time, Jiujiang Yuan Shu took advantage of the Central Plains War to send troops to attack the city and conquer the city, attacking Yangzhou and Yuzhou. In a few months, Yuan Shu occupied almost the entire territory of Yuzhou, while Yangzhou Liu Miao was defeated and retreated, making all the counties in Yangzhou fall into the hands of Yuan Shu.

However, just when Yuan Shuzhi was complacent, a third force was killed in Yuzhang County.

As soon as this force emerged, it showed a strong offensive development momentum, capturing more than ten cities in ten days, and almost occupying the entire Yuzhang County.

Obviously, the third force that has sprung up is Sun Ce and Sun Bofu, who have just returned to Jiangdong.

However, Sun Ce, who had just entered Jiangdong, did not take a clear stand with Yuan Shu, and still regarded himself as a general under Yuan Shu, falsely claiming that he had no intention of supporting the army and standing on his own, and led his troops to Jiangdong just to pursue the remnants of Liu Shu and recover the counties and counties in Jiangdong for Yuan Shu.

Although Yuan Shu didn't believe Sun Ce's words, he finally gave him a step down and saved a lot of face for him. Yes, at present, Yuan Shu and Sun Ce have not officially become enemies, and nominally Sun Ce is still his subordinate general, but what the actual situation is, who can not understand it with a discerning eye.

Fortunately, Yuan Shu now fell in love with a piece of fat again, and he had no time to take care of the land of Jiangdong, so he let Sun Ce attack the city and conquer the land, so as to weaken Liu Xuan's strength. And this piece of fat that made Yuan Shu salivate was the six counties of Xuzhou under Liu Bei's rule.

I have to say that Liu Bei in Xuzhou is also happy and sad now. The passing year was unfavorable, and a series of troubles followed. I think that at the beginning, he took over the six counties of Xuzhou from Tao Qian without blood. It was so high-spirited, and it is not an exaggeration to describe his mood at that time as ecstatic. However, since he withdrew Xuzhou, there has been no peaceful day, first of all, Tao Qian's two sons blocked him everywhere, and then Xiliang Li Li put pressure on him, and he refused to give him any edict for most of the year. Until now, he is still in charge of Xuzhou with the official title of Pingyuan Order.

If Liu Bei does not claim to be a relative of the Han family and a descendant of the royal family, he can completely lead the Xuzhou pastor, and it doesn't matter whether there is a son of heaven or not. Anyway, among the states in the world, there are not a few princes who lead the state pastors, and there are not many of him Liu Bei, and he is not conspicuous. However, it was precisely his claim that he was a descendant of the royal family who made him miserable. It's tantamount to digging a pit and jumping by yourself. In the end, he made himself miserable. Looking at all the states and counties in the world, but whoever was born in the Liu clan and is a relative of the Han family, which one is not the official title of the Son of Heaven, and who is the state pastor?

For the descendants of the royal family, taking the title of official is tantamount to a blatant rebellion, which is a great crime of rebellion that defies the condemnation of the world, and no one can afford it. Even if it is self-reliant. That can't be put on the surface and made public, you can only accumulate strength in private. In the name of the Han family, he is self-reliant. Just like the current Liu Biao of Jingzhou and Liu Zhang of Yizhou, they still nominally follow the will of the imperial court, regularly pay tribute to Chang'an, pay money and grain, and show their loyalty. However, in fact, they have long been self-reliant, occupying huge states and counties to enjoy wealth and wealth, commanding and commanding, and not being subject to anyone's control, as if they were separating themselves and standing on their own, and dividing the land as kings.

Liu Bei was really envious of the pure days of these two Han clan relatives, and he thought in his heart that he could follow them, divide Xuzhou, and enjoy wealth and wealth. To this day, the genealogy he worked so hard to find is still pressed under the pillow, and has not yet been recognized by the Zongzheng Mansion, nor has he had the opportunity to meet the Son of Heaven to recognize his ancestors and return to his ancestors, and his name has not been included in the royal family tree.

Therefore, Liu Bei, a descendant of the royal family, has always been an impostor with an unjustified name, claiming to be a royal prince, but in fact he is still a mud leg from a humble background. It is precisely because he is not a well-established member of the Han family that his own situation is so difficult, and he is now in a distressed and dangerous situation.

In the Central Plains War, Liu Bei didn't have the intention of getting involved at first, and made up his mind to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, to see what these Central Plains princes were capable of and what their strength was. However, when he inadvertently approached the subordinate officials several times, he was shocked to find that these officials were nominally his subordinates, but in fact they disobeyed his orders and did not really submit to him.

At that time, Liu Bei didn't know what was going on, and he couldn't understand why these officials were unwilling to be loyal to him on the surface. It wasn't until Mi Zhu privately reminded him to ask for an official position from the Chang'an Imperial Court that he suddenly realized that he finally knew what the problem was. It turns out that this qiē is the fault of the official, as a person of officialdom, it is natural to obey the superior leader, and it has been the same since ancient times. But although he raised Xuzhou, he did not have the corresponding official title, which was naturally difficult to convince his subordinates, so it was inevitable that there would be oral dissatisfaction, and then there would be a violation of yang and yin.

So, during the Great War in the Central Plains, Liu Bei sent troops to join the alliance halfway and crusaded against Xiliang Li Li with various princes. In his opinion, instead of asking Li Li in a low voice to give him the post of pastor of Xuzhou and pay a tribute of a batch of money and grain; It is better to directly wave troops to attack Xiliang and force Li Li to obey. In the past ten years of fighting on the battlefield, Liu Bei has not learned anything else, but he deeply understands the importance of strength, and thinks that as long as his own strength is strong enough, why worry about Li Li not obediently serving the edict.

However, the ideal is plump, and the reality is skinny. Even, it can't be described as skinny, it's all ribs without meat, and Liu Bei's row of front teeth collapsed, and he almost went and didn't return.

A full army of 50,000, which is almost half of the strength of the six counties of Xuzhou, Liu Bei led the troops with confidence, and also carried a large amount of grain and grass. Unexpectedly, in the first battle of Loudiyuan, the princes and allies completely collapsed, scattered and fled, and were defeated in a mess, so that they finally made a mess of scattered sand, and each fled for his life in a hurry. The 50,000 Xuzhou army led by Liu Bei was defeated even worse, it can be described as a complete defeat, and there were only a few thousand remnants left around him when he fled from Feiyundu, and the third brother Zhang Fei was still lying on a stretcher and running away.

Fortunately in misfortune, when escaping from Xingyang, Liu Bei met Zhao Yun, who led his troops to pursue. On the bank of the White Horse River, Liu Bei took Zhao Yun's hand and did not let go, as if he saw his relatives, a handful of snot and tears, and said something with emotion that made Zhao Yun's tiger eyes tearful, deeply moved, and then fell in love to the depths, and let Liu Bei and others go as soon as he raised his hand.

At this point, Liu Bei finally picked up a life, took Zhang Fei and other two or three thousand people day and night, and rushed back to Xuzhou within half a month, and hundreds of war horses were tired along the way. When he returned to Xuzhou, in addition to hundreds of personal soldiers and his third brother Zhang Fei, Liu Bei's side added up to less than 2,000 soldiers who fled back to Xuzhou with him.

After the defeat of Sili, Liu Bei immediately faced a grim situation, the existing troops of the six counties of Xuzhou were insufficient, the troops of each county were empty, the consumption of money and grain was extremely large, and the losses were heavy. The soldiers and horses of the six counties together were less than 50,000 people, and the shape was much worse than when Cao Cao attacked Xuzhou.

For this reason, the county guards and the clans in the territory complained a lot about Liu Bei, and even the Mi family brothers, who had always followed him closely, were consciously distancing themselves from him, and no longer went all out to support him as before. Even, originally Mi Zhu also intended to marry his little sister Mihuan to Liu Bei, in order to marry the marriage, but this time he did not mention it, it seemed that he had reached an agreement with the major scholars in Xuzhou, and did not dare to get too close to Liu Bei, so as not to offend the anger of the public.

At this time, Jiujiang Yuan Shu moved to the Zhizhi Office, moved the mansion to Shouchun, and then Chen soldiers on the border of Xuzhou, fierce soldiers and horses, eager to try, and had the potential to send troops to capture Xuzhou. Therefore, Liu Bei, who was defeated for the first time, faced a severe test, and it is still unknown whether he can keep the six counties of Xuzhou. For this reason, Liu Bei sighed that he should not be involved in the battle of Sili, this pool of muddy water is really harmful, and whoever mixes in it is unlucky.

It is true that Liu Bei's remorse after fleeing back to Xuzhou is not unreasonable.

After the Great War of the Central Plains more than a month ago, all the princes' forces involved in this war lost their troops and lost their generals, their strength plummeted, and their vitality was greatly damaged. If there is anyone who has the smallest loss, it is Yanzhou Cao Cao.

After the fiasco of Loudiyuan, the princes of all walks of life died and fled, and the soldiers and horses suffered huge losses, but Cao Cao reaped the profits in this battle, and successively annexed a part of the soldiers and horses of Hanoi Zhangyang, Jiangdong Sun Ce and Baibo Army, and replenished the huge losses of Feiyundu fiasco, and there were still 50,000 or 60,000 horses after the war. It's just that Cao Cao's existing soldiers and horses have extremely limited combat effectiveness, which is far from being comparable to the original Qingzhou soldiers. Therefore, his strength has still decreased, but compared to the other princes, he is already very lucky.

After this battle, the situation in the entire Central Plains changed.

Originally, there was a huge gap between the princes, and there was a huge difference in strength, but Yuan Shao's family in Jizhou was dominant, and he was the leader of the Central Plains states. However, after the Great War in the Central Plains, the gap in strength between the princes of all parties narrowed significantly. Now, the strength of Gongsun Zan of Youzhou is enough to compete with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao later came to the top and faintly overwhelmed Lu Bu, and Liu Bei of Xuzhou was originally strong and strong, but after the defeat, it was precarious.

In addition, the small princely forces of the states and counties of the Central Plains perished one after another. Zhang Miao, Zhang Yang and other generations died one after another, the main force of the White Wave thieves was lost, the Montenegrin Army changed course and joined Li Li, the Southern Xiongnu forces that had been mixed with the disputes in the Central Plains were completely destroyed, and the Xianbei tribes entrenched in the area of Yanmen and Youzhou Daijun also suffered heavy losses.

At the same time, the situation in the Central Plains has also had ups and downs. With the great loss of the power of the princes such as Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Lü Bu and Liu Bei, the strong strength of Yuan Shu in Yangzhou and Liu Biao in Jingzhou became more and more prominent.

When Yuan Shu captured Yuzhou and most of Yangzhou, when the Sili War was in full swing, Liu Biao sent troops to Nanyang in time to recapture Nanyang County, which had been lost for many years. In addition, Liu Biao also gathered heavy troops in Jiangxia and Nanjun, vigorously trained the naval army, and had the posture of crossing the Yangtze River to the east and occupying Jiangdong.

Just when the whole Central Plains was full of smoke, an edict came out of Chang'an, and was copied by thousands of people when it passed through Hangu Pass, and then it was brought into the states and counties of the world by caravans and fine works along the way, and was transmitted to the princes of all walks of life for the first time.

And the first person to receive the edict was Cao Cao, but when he read the content of the edict, he suddenly shouted in horror: "The Han family is in danger, and the dead Han family is also a thief!" ”

―――――――――――― (To be continued......)