When Taishi Ci received the news from Liu Ji, he felt that the burden on his heart was slightly relieved, but the current situation did not make him happy.
He had done his best regarding the Wujun issue, but it was too late to applaud. The situation on Sun Ce's side was already established, and Taishi Ci alone could not resist it.
Taishi Ci could not be blamed for the crime that Yuan Xi had not committed, but the thought that Yuan Xi had put him here while he had accomplished nothing made Taishi Ci, who was so proud and arrogant, feel quite aggrieved.
It would be great if Sun Ce and I were evenly matched!
Zhao Yun, who had a similar status to himself before, is now becoming more and more successful. Not only has he pacified several counties in Youzhou, he has also participated in the military campaign to capture Black Mountain, leading an army alone. It is said that the progress is quite smooth.
Taishi Ci thought that if he continued like this, he would be left far behind. His goal was to carry the seven-foot sword and ascend to the emperor's throne, but now he was trapped in Jiangdong and saw no opportunity to make any great achievements.
Especially when the news of Qu Yi's death in battle came, Taishi Ci felt a sense of grief. Qu Yi was the most famous person under Yuan Xi. He led the Qiandeng death squad in dozens of battles and was famous in the north. The reputation of Zhao Yun, Taishi Ci and others combined was not as great as Qu Yi alone.
However, even such a famous general ended up dying, which made Taishi Ci feel sad and even more anxious.
Because Taishi Ci knew that he didn't have much time left.
The secret breathing method he used was a secret of the Taiping Dao, which was extremely damaging to the body. Later, after Taishi Ci improved it, its power increased, but the damage to the body also increased.
Taishi Ci estimated that it would be good enough if he could live to the age of forty. Before his death, he must achieve great things and leave his name in history!
Thinking of this, he stood up suddenly. Since Liu Yao allowed him to bring the gentry back to Guangling, he would not be polite. His first goal was to persuade Lu Xun!
In Xia Pi, Xuzhou, the three brothers Liu, Guan and Zhang were sitting around drinking.
Liu Bei has been in a good mood recently. As he implemented benevolent policies and won the hearts of the people, the Xuzhou gentry began to slowly turn to Liu Bei, and his reputation among the people was rising.
Xuzhou has fertile land and developed commerce. As long as it does not suffer from war, it is a prosperous place. Since the last time Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi joined forces to drive away Sun Ce and Cao Cao, Sun Ce saw that Xuzhou was difficult to capture, so he turned his focus to Yangzhou. Cao Cao did the same. In order to welcome the emperor, he transferred most of his troops to Sili and western Yanzhou.
In this way, Liu Bei's pressure was greatly reduced. At the same time, he occupied the Donghai Kingdom, whose counties already had several outlets to the sea. He relied on the Mi family to run maritime trade and traded with the Yuan family in Guangling. In a short period of time, he accumulated a lot of wealth.
He used the wealth to recruit soldiers and put together a new army of more than 10,000 people. This number was not small, so Liu Bei instantly felt that he was able to do it again.
The only thing that worried him was that Yuan Shao asked him to attack Dongwuyang. Liu Bei was naturally no fool, and was trying every means to delay the dispatch of troops to avoid too great a loss.
He was now slightly drunk, and said to Guan Zhang: "What did I say? We just had bad luck!"
"Now that we have the opportunity, can't we make a comeback?"
Zhang Fei also laughed and said, "Brother!"
"Now that we are rich, I should find a wife!"
"Brother, you see I'm not bad looking. Is there anyone in Xuzhou who likes me? Please help me be a matchmaker!"
Liu Bei's wine glass trembled and the wine almost spilled out. He said, "I'll remember it. I'll ask for you in a few days."
Zhang Fei was overjoyed when he heard this, and raised his cup and said, "Brother, you are so straightforward!"
"Third brother, let me toast to eldest brother!"
The two drank a cup together. Liu Bei looked at Guan Yu and saw that he lowered his head and remained silent. He said, "Is there anything on your mind, my second brother?"
Guan Yu listened and sighed, "Brother, I do have some troubles."
"My wife and I have been married for quite a while, but we have never had any children. Now that we are settling down, I have some ideas."
Liu Bei heard this and laughed, "Isn't it just taking a concubine?"
"I think there are some good girls from good families. Tomorrow I will help my second brother to visit them and make suggestions!"
Just as Guan Yu was about to thank him, he heard Zhang Fei mutter, "Brother, you are biased!"
"Just now, my eldest brother told me about my matter a few days ago. Why is it that my second brother wants to take a concubine, and my eldest brother is in a hurry to do it tomorrow?"
"Big brother, do you think I am not as good-looking as the second brother?"
Liu Bei heard this and raised his glass awkwardly, "No way, third brother, don't think too much."
"Drink, drink!"
Zhang Fei heard this and shouted, "Okay, drink, drink, drink!"
Liu Bei saw that he had fooled Zhang Fei and just breathed a sigh of relief, but he heard Guan Yu say: "The world is changing a lot now. Brother, have you ever thought about what we should do next?"
Liu Bei was stunned, "What do you mean, second brother?"
Guan Yu said: "We are now caught between the two Yuans and Cao Cao. If a war breaks out, we will be the first to be affected."
"Brother, do you think we will be able to protect ourselves by then?"
"We are trapped in Xuzhou. Are we going to live like this forever?"
Liu Bei was shocked when he heard this. He put down his wine cup and said, "My second brother is right. I really have lost my ambition."
"But second brother, please understand my difficulties. It's not that I don't want to, but I can't."
"Yuan Benchu, Yuan Gonglu, Sun Bofu, Cao Mengde, which of these forces can we deal with?"
"I have been worried these days, but unfortunately no one can give me any advice. It really makes me sad."
After hearing this, Guan Yu also remained silent. Liu Bei lacked good advisers. In contrast, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao had many talented people under their command, and they even competed with each other. Compared with Liu Bei's shabby status, there was a world of difference between them.
He could only say: "I heard that Sun Ce is attacking Jiangdong very urgently. If Wujun is conquered, many nobles will surely flee north to Xuzhou out of fear of Sun Ce."
"Maybe there's someone useful in there."
Liu Bei was overjoyed when he heard this and said, "Second brother, you are right. I will prepare boats and carriages by the river to see if there are any nobles from Jiangdong who would come and join us."
Guan Yu and Liu Bei had a tacit understanding, but what they did not say was that if Liu Bei recruited more Jiangdong gentry as officials, he would be able to restrain and suppress the local gentry in Xuzhou, thus preventing the local gentry from usurping his power.
Liu Bei's idea is the most common method used by the princes in the world today to use strategy and power to control their subordinates.
Yuan Shao is using it, Cao Cao is using it, Yuan Xi is using it, and even Liu Xie is using it now.
Liu Xie took out a huge piece of silk, and Ming's attendants filled in the vacant official positions on it one by one. There were several names below, which were the candidates for the positions.
Then, after writing each name, he asked ten ministers including Yang Biao and Kong Rong to express their opinions. If everyone opposed, he would cross out the name.
If more people agree, the name will be placed at the top. If someone else nominates, the name will be added.
Given that there were quite a few vacant official positions and the number of candidates was several times that, it was a very exhausting task for the ten ministers to express their opinions on each one.
But Liu Xie had already said in advance that no one could leave until the matter was settled.
So after the meeting with Cao Cao, Zhao Yun and others, the ministers discussed until late at night without rest for several hours, and only less than half of the candidates for the official positions on the cloth were decided.
This is still uncontroversial. The controversial issues have been put aside and may take several times longer to discuss.
Seeing that all the ministers looked tired, Liu Xie asked them to rest for a while. The maid brought them honey water to quench their thirst. After everyone drank it, they felt a little less tired.
However, Liu Xie had a rough idea in his mind.
Through this process, he understood the views of his trusted ministers on various forces and understood who was on the same side as whom.
Kong Rong was the most anti-Cao Cao, but he also seemed to have a bad impression of Yuan Xi.
Zhong Yao and Ding Chong openly stood on Cao Cao's side.
Dong Zhao seemed to side with Cao Cao.
Yang Biao was the most loyal to him and seemed to be very wary of Cao Cao, but he did not support any other forces.
Dong Cheng still didn't dare to express his opinion easily, perhaps because he was frightened, but he secretly stood on Lu Bu's side.
The remaining few each had their own biases, and some even spoke for Yuan Shao.
Liu Xie thought to himself, this is really interesting, the ten ministers are divided into several factions, is this the way to be a minister?
At this moment, an urgent letter arrived, which was about Li Le, the general of the Baibo Army who was leading his troops out of the city to the north to block the Southern Xiongnu.
The letter said that the Southern Xiongnu did not come, that he was deceived and felt ashamed of the emperor, so he returned the title and seal and went back to the Baibo Army territory.
When Liu Xie saw it, he showed the letter to everyone and said, "General Li is too serious. He actually left for this reason. How can I blame him?"
"Is this because he was disappointed with me after he got the news that the Baibo Army was attacked?"
"Or is this letter fake from the beginning, and General Li Le has met with an accident?"
The ministers looked at each other, speechless for a moment. Liu Xie walked to the silk and wrote Li Le's title of General Zhengdong on it, saying, "This time, we are going to grant you another official position."
They discussed until the sky began to pale, and finally matched the names on the silk one by one, and the matter was settled.
However, including Zhong Yao and Dong Zhao, they couldn't help but feel secretly shocked when they saw the names written on the silk.
Because the final result on the silk was so different from what they had expected, after discussions among all parties, it became completely unrecognizable.
They believed that when the result on this piece of silk came out, the various forces waiting outside would definitely not be able to anticipate it. If it were announced, it would definitely cause an uproar, because this result took advantage of the contradictions among the various princes and even led them into a situation of mutual restraint and struggle.
Yang Biao stood in front of the silk, his beard trembling slightly. He could not imagine how Liu Xie accepted everyone's ideas on the surface, but secretly led the results to the outcome before him.
Was it planned or an accident?
If it was the former, considering Liu Xie's age, his character was terrifying!
Liu Xie asked his attendants to copy the results on silk, and then asked Zhong Yao to draft the decree.
Zhong Yao's calligraphy was the best among all the officials, so as the eunuch in charge of drafting the imperial edict, he hesitated for the first time and said, "Your Majesty, why don't you let the people outside know before the summons, so that they can argue if they have other ideas?"
Liu Xie said calmly: "No need."
"If they are unwilling to accept my order, I will not force them."
After hearing this, Zhong Yao knew that Liu Xie had made up his mind, so he quickly drafted an edict, and Liu Xie asked someone to post it.
This indeed caused an uproar. Yuan Xi in Anyi also received an urgent letter from Ju Su two days later and learned the content of the decree.
He read the contents of the letter and thought to himself that this was truly beyond his expectations. This time, the world situation would change again.