The offensive and defensive battle in Youzhou ended with Yuan Xi, Yuan Shang being attacked by Jiao Chu, Zhang Nan and Wang Ling in the north and south.

At this point, Yuan Xi completely lost the five counties of Youzhou that he had run for many years. It can be said that he had been ruined for several years. Although he escaped by chance, he couldn't help but burst into tears when he looked at the direction of Jicheng where he might never go back.

After Wang Ling led his army into Jicheng, Jiao Chu, who claimed to be the governor of Youzhou, officially handed over the city defense seal of Jicheng to Wang Ling.

Xian Yufu, who was also dormant in Youzhou, used his people to persuade Shanggu and surrendered to Cao Cao on behalf of the two counties. In order to commend his merits, Cao Cao ordered Xian Yufu to command all the troops and horses of the five counties of Youzhou, and Jiao Chu and Zhang Nan were also granted the title of Marquis for their merits.

In less than two years, Cao Cao defeated the three Yuan brothers and completely controlled the entire territory of Jizhou and the five counties of Youzhou. He took most of the territory of Hebei. Therefore, Cao Cao sent Xin Pi back to Xudu, and while reporting the victory, he submitted a letter to the emperor to take the initiative to return the seal to the governor of Yanzhou, and said that the remnants of the Yuan family had not been destroyed. For the safety of the court, he requested to be appointed as the governor of Jizhou in order to ensure the stability of the northern border.

Liu Xie, who was sitting in the hall, looked at the memorial written by himself, glanced at the officials standing in the two rows, and then pondered for a moment, slowly put down the memorial and said to Xinpi:

"Mr. Sikong has made great contributions to the great man. I really can't bear to work so hard for the country again. Why don't you ask Lord. Sikong to rest for a while? Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang have lost their land and military power, and I believe there will be no storm for a while."

When he heard Liu Xie say this, all the officials present whispered and sighed. Cheng Yu, who was on the list, stood up and said to Liu Xie:

"I told Your Majesty that although the Yuan brothers were greatly damaged, Yuan Shao had always had good friends with the Wuhuan of the three northern counties during his lifetime and had in-laws. Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang would definitely make a comeback after they were able to breathe. I think it is not allowed to be ignored in the future, otherwise it will cause endless harm."

Xun Yu also deeply agrees with Cheng Yu's suggestions:

"I have agreed that at this time, there will be danger of all previous efforts being wasted. Please think twice."

Liu Xie knew that Xun Yu and Cheng Yu were both Cao Cao’s confidants, and that the people in the court were very proud, not to mention that he had no reason to refute them, so he had to agree: “Okay, I have to ask Lord Sikong to work hard again.”

Everyone present, whether it was Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, Kong Rong, Fu Wan and others, deeply understood that the decision-making power of Cao Cao as the governor of Jizhou was not in Liu Xie's hands. He was just a person who was responsible for stamping and promulgating the imperial edict.

After the scattering, Kong Rong and Fu Wan walked together, showing resentment towards Cao Cao's behavior when he was not in power:

"Everyone said that the dead Dong Zhongying was a thief in the country. I think this Cao Mengde is also a traitor in troubled times with disagreement."

Fu Wan did not rush to speak, but looked around to see if anyone was staring at him, and instead said to Kong Rong in a low voice:

"The Taizhong Doctor should pay more attention to his words and deeds. Do you want to imitate Mr. Dong?"

Kong Rong gritted his teeth. He thought Fu Wan was just a villain who was greedy for life and feared death. So his words instantly became cold and contempt: "That's right, no matter how you say it is, the current emperor's father-in-law, and you have to follow Cao Cao's orders and follow him to the endless wealth and honor. How could he say bad things behind his back like I, Kong Wenju?"

After saying that, Kong Rong shook his sleeves and stopped paying attention, and left alone angrily.

After returning home, Fu Wan had just taken off his crown, and only heard the servant quickly walk into the inner hall and say to him:

"Report to Master, Liu Biao of Jingzhou just paid tribute to Yichang tangerines the day before yesterday. The Empress invites you to enter the palace to taste them tomorrow."

After hearing this, Fu Wan just said lightly: "I understand."

The next day, the tray on the table in Changqiu Palace where Fushou lived was filled with tangerines.

Two young princes surrounded Fu Shou, and Fu Shou personally peeled oranges for them to eat.

Fu Ruoxin, who was sitting upright on the pudding pad, was not interested in the big and yellow oranges built in the tray next to him, but focused on holding the pen in his hand and writing something on the white brocade.

Fu Shou noticed his sister's actions and gave a wink at the palace servant beside him. The palace servant came up and carried the two princes aside. Fu Shou stood up and quietly walked behind Fu Ruoxin, lowering his head to see what she was writing.

When she saw the content on Jinbu clearly, she couldn't help but start to be surprised:

There is no word on the brocade, but a portrait of a young man in his twenties.

Soon Fu Ruoxin noticed the sister behind her. In a panic, she quickly rolled up Jinbu randomly, then put down her pen and turned her head to show a dissatisfaction expression to Fu Shou:

"Sister, how can you peek?"

Obviously, Fu Shou was not concerned about her sister's blame, she was more concerned about another issue:

"Who is this man? Why does he look familiar?"

Facing Fu Shou's question, Fu Ruoxin didn't know how to answer for a moment, but she felt her cheeks get hot. She was embarrassed and took it seriously. In desperation, she picked up Jinbu and stood up and ran quickly towards the door.

She had just run to the door and almost ran into Fu Wan who had just entered the door. Fu Wan looked at her with a serious face:

"As a daughter's family, she doesn't even look like a lady from a family, how can she behave?"

Fu Ruoxin quickly took two steps back and saluted respectfully: "My daughter has met her father."

As soon as she finished speaking, she quickly walked out of the palace gate. Fu Wan was about to reach out to stop her but found that she had already run away...

After seeing Fu Wan coming, Fu Shou winked at the palace servants and other servants holding his two sons. They retreated one after another. Before leaving, they gently closed the palace gate. Only Fu Wan and Fu Shou were in the room.

"Father, please sit down."

Fu Shou reached out to point at the seat collapse and signaled Fu Wan to take his seat. Fu Wan looked at her and then looked at the seat collapse and slowly walked to the front of the seat collapse and sat down. He still had a facial expression and seemed a little cold tone to Fu Wan's tone:

"I wonder what is the important thing about the Empress Xuan Weichen entering the palace?"

Seeing that Fu Wan's attitude seemed to be prepared for him, Fu Shou lowered his head and picked up the orange on the tray and rubbed it gently with his hands: "The father seems to be particularly apart from his daughter. There are only two of us here, so there is no need to do this, right?"

Fu Wan's cheek did not move too much. He moved his eyes slightly to look at Fu Shou, who was also staring at him:

"I am afraid that I will be difficult to call you the Queen in the future."

Now Fu Shou completely believed that his father had fully understood his intentions, so she stood up and walked to Fu Wan. Her expression, which was only apart from Fu Wan, began to become serious:

"In the past, Cao Cao brutally killed Dong Guiren, who had a dragon-seeded species, regardless of the way of the ruler and his subjects. At that time, I could see Cao Cao's wolfish ambitions, but I was not able to fight him at that time. Now, although he defeated Yuan, he transferred important officials from Xu Du to Yecheng in batches. Yesterday, Cheng Yu, Xin Pi and others also left. If it weren't for Xun Yu, Kong Rong and others insisted on keeping Xu Du, it would have completely become a nameless empty shell. Cao Cao was so obscene, wouldn't his father still sit idly?"

He shook his head slightly as he listened to his daughter's generous speech, not being infected by his daughter's words:

"Is this what Your Majesty mean?"

Fu Shou did not directly answer his question, but asked Fu Wan that he did not answer his own question:

"When did my father become so afraid of things? Are you no longer a great man or a minister of His Majesty?"

Seeing that Fu Shou said something that was not like it was said based on his intuition, but was carefully prepared, he smiled and said, "I don't know when my daughter became so cliché..."

In fact, there was only a layer of window paper between the two. Seeing that things had reached this point, Fu Shou did not intend to continue to go around with his father, so she simply said straight to the point:

"Your Majesty and I are both monitored in the deep palace, so I hope my father will secretly contact Liu Huangshu from Jingzhou and Sun Quan from Jiangdong on behalf of us, and order them to send troops to serve the king while Cao Cao was trapped in Hebei."

At this time, Fu Wan reached out and held an orange in his hand, gently slammed it in his palm twice before starting to peel the golden skin:

"When Concubine Dong was executed by Cao Cao, you wrote me a secret letter to ask me to try to get rid of Cao Cao. What a big tone. Cao Cao has already taken root in the court. You have no soldiers and no power in your hands, but you dare to let me do such stupid things, but your courage is beyond my reach."

Fu Shou retorted: "Liu Bei has defected to Liu Biao and is always training troops in Xinye to prepare for a counterattack. Sun Quan from Jiangdong is very strong. As long as they send troops together, Cao Cao will definitely be caught off guard. By then..."

"The world will be in chaos by then!"

Fu Wan interrupted Fu Shou's words loudly, and he stood up and held the orange in his hand heavily on the table, and stood up angrily:

"When Cao Cao did not support His Majesty, you suffered all the bullying from Dong Zhuo, Li Jue, and Guo Si. At that time, you only care about saving your life, and you still care about the power of heaven. Now you have no worries about food and clothing. Now you are starting to worry about power again. If Cao Cao really returns all the power to you, what will happen then? Will Liu Bei and Sun Quan still obey you?"

Unexpectedly Fu Wan would say that Fu Shou, he was stunned for a moment, and Fu Wan walked up gently and accused her sternly:

"That person who gave you this idea later is really afraid that the world will not be in chaos. Be more sober!"

Although Fu Wan, who was gentle in character, gave Fu Shou a warning with explicit words, he knew what his daughter's personality looked like. Once she decided to do, no one could stop her, so everything was already destined.

Sima Yi, who followed Yuan Xi in a panic, escaped from the danger of Cao's pursuit, but after he settled down, he began to reflect on why he lost to Cao Pi, or the person behind Cao Pi.

The Yuan brothers were also upset about this. Yuan Xi knew that Sima Yi could not blame Sima Yi for this matter. Seeing Sima Yi sitting alone on the mountain in a daze, he stepped forward and handed Sima Yi the bag containing water:

"It's useless to think so much now. You can see that Xian Yufu's rebellion and Cao's army's feints are already very powerful."

Sima Yi knew that Yuan Xi was comforting him, so he shook his head:

"Someone once told me that failure is failure. Even if you have the advantage all the way, you will still lose."

Yuan Xi also sat next to Sima Yi and looked at him sideways: "Your person is right..."

However, the development of the matter was not entirely unfavorable to Yuan Xi. After he fled to Cao Cao's sphere of influence, Zhao Du, a Gu'an native who was once treated well by him, contacted Huo Nu, the governor of Zhuo County who was also from Gu'an, who suddenly rose up. He killed the prefect of Zhuo County and then led the recruitment of more than 20,000 people who had not been completely subdued by Cao Cao, and sent troops to attack Jicheng.

Jiao Chu, who had just served as the governor of Youzhou, did not expect that there would be a mutiny so soon. Jicheng, which had empty defense, was besieged by two men from Zhao Du and Huo Nu. Soon, the army sent by Xian Yufu was captured before it could reach the city.

After breaking the city, Zhao Du killed Jiao Chu and announced that Youzhou would return to the control of the Yuan family.

The chain reaction soon appeared, and the prefect of Shanggu began to sway and had the intention to leave Cao Cao.

After learning about the chaos in Youzhou, Cao Cao immediately asked Xun You and Cheng Yu who had just arrived in Nanpi. Cheng Yu analyzed:

"The reason why we stabilize Nanpi and even Jidong is that Yuan Tanli is so obsessed with the desire to stabilize the people's hearts. After occupying a large area of ​​territory, he only cared about expanding the army significantly, but did not stabilize the people's livelihood in the true sense, so the people did not really submit to him. However, Yuan Xi was different from him. Although he was in Youzhou for several years, he did a good job in stabilizing the people, expanding the army and preparing for war, and connecting with foreign races, so the people still miss him."

Cheng Yu's analysis was incisive, and Cao Cao and Xun You fully agreed. Thinking of this, Cao Cao sighed softly: "It's a pity that Wen Ruo and Fengxiao are not here, otherwise I would have nothing to worry about if you four of you were giving me advice at the same time."

Xun You, who knows Xun Yu very well, said: "Uncle, he is determined to restore the Han Dynasty. I have written a letter before to persuade him to come to Nanpi to meet you, but he replied that most of Xudu officials have left. If he left too, it would be a violation of his ministers."

As soon as Xun You finished speaking, he immediately realized his mistake, and Cao Cao also reacted at the same time, but he was not angry but laughed and said, "Gongda, if Wen wants to stay in Xu Du, let him stay there. What he said is right. The emperor will definitely not have a loyal minister around him."

At this time, Xun You felt a chill behind him, and he secretly blamed himself for making such a low-level mistake.

The person who took the initiative to open up this embarrassing topic was Cao Cao, and he turned to Cheng Yu:

"Zhongde, Youzhou is now in chaos. I think it would be better to let Xianyu Fu, Zhang Xiu and Pier send troops to quell the chaos recently, otherwise the situation will continue to deteriorate, and it will be even more difficult to deal with."

The soldiers are very fast. Cao Cao ordered Xianyufu from Yuyang and Zhang Xiu from Dongpingshu, and Cao Pi to send troops to Jicheng.

After receiving the order, Xian Yufu immediately ordered Tian Yu to advance westward, and at the same time he led the rear team to prepare for advance. Dongpingshu also used Zhang Xiu as the front team and Cao Pi as the rear team should immediately mobilize his troops to go north along Quanzhou.

What made Tian Yu feel strange was that he did not encounter any resistance along the way. It was not until his commander arrived at the foot of Jixian City that Zhao Du and Huo Nu had already abandoned the city and fled. When Tian Yu came to his senses, he finally understood the true purpose of Zhao Du and Huo Nu. For this reason, he immediately said to the deputy general beside him: "Hurry! Tell General Zhang Xiu immediately, don't go to Jicheng."

Before Tian Yu's news was conveyed to Zhang Xiu, he was violently ambushed by Zhao Du and Huo Nu in Anci. Zhang Xiu, who was unprepared, suffered heavy losses, but he still calmly commanded in order to wait for Cao Pi's rescue.

However, he was surrounded for a whole day and night and never saw Cao Pi's troops arrive. The front team led by Zhang Xiu was only 4,000, and there was no possibility of winning.

Almost desperate, Zhang Xiu sent Hu Cheer to ask Cao Pi for help. When Hu Cheer, who was seriously injured, encountered Cao Pi's team, when Cao Pi saw a small group of people rushing towards him, he immediately pulled out the iron bow on the saddle and pointed it at Hu Cheer who was waving his whip at him, and shot out feather arrows without hesitation.

Hu Cheer was caught in an arrow and fell off his horse. Seeing this, the soldiers around him quickly tied the reins and stopped moving forward, and shouted together:

"Why did the young master suddenly shoot a cold arrow!"
To be continued...