The sacred and unbreakable alliance between Deputy Director Tao and his third brother-in-law Yuan Shang finally had a crack, and a huge crack that was difficult to repair. The culprit was no one else, Deputy Director Tao and Yuan Shang, this good uncle who was so close that he almost wore a pair of pants!

The cause of course was the joint efforts to kill Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu’s main force on the northern front. After the Second Guandu War, Yuan Tan, who was defeated by Xuzhou’s army, was basically wiped out by the main force on the southern front and was unable to compete with the main force of Xuzhou led by Deputy Director Tao. He had no choice but to lead the remaining defeated generals to flee to Hanoi and go to Bingzhou to plan a comeback. At the same time, he ordered Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu to give up Puyang, Li Yang and others, who were actually isolated from Yanzhou, to give priority to preserving the army to retreat to Hanoi to meet with him. ※※

As mentioned earlier, when Yuan Tan gave up Guandu and retreated to Hanoi, the main force of the Yuan Tan army led by Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu was being tied to the north and south by the Jizhou team led by Prince Yuan Shang and Chen Dao of Xuzhou Army. At that time, Chen Dao's team was stationed in Lihu, forty miles south of Puyang, and the team of Yuan Shang's team was stationed in Dangyin, 80 miles away from Liyang. If the two armies could really work together, even if they could not completely wipe out the main force of the Yuan Tan army led by Prince Jiang Yiqu, they could at least take advantage of the opportunity of Yuan Tan's retreat in the last battle to severely damage and weaken the most capable team under Yuan Tan's command. The situation was quite beneficial to the Tao Yuan coalition.

The bad thing is that it is working together. Deputy Director Tao ordered Chen Dao to lead 30,000 partial divisions to station Lihu, and to support Yuan Shang in reputation. The actual purpose was to monitor the main force of the Yuan Tan army and prevent them from returning to the Guandu battlefield with confidence. He never thought of being cannon fodder for Mr. Yuan Shang. Unfortunately, Mr. Yuan Shang always hoped that his brother-in-law's team would be cannon fodder for him, hoping that his brother-in-law would fight him and others would die. He took advantage of him, but in the end, the matter would naturally be shattered.

When the high-ranking officials and Jiang Yiqiu's team evacuated the last Yanzhou-controlled area, they took the road from Chaoge to Huai County. Geographically, Yuan Shangjun should have undertaken the main pursuit task. The Chendao team, located south of the Yellow River, was only a supporter at most. However, in order to preserve their strength, Yuan Shang ordered Chendao to lead his army to pursue with letters, and he also ordered Chendao to seize Ji County at any cost and cut off Yuan Tan's army's return. However, Chendao was neither Yuan Shang's subordinate. He also received the secret order from Deputy Director Tao to preserve his strength. Naturally, he did not miss the order from Prince Yuan Shang, but he immediately led his army north and took down the important Puyang town abandoned by Yuan Tan's army.

It was not enough to take Puyang, but Yang Yan, the general under Chen Dao, was ordered to monitor Yuan Tan's army to retreat across the Yellow River. When he followed the Yellow River Ferry in Liyang, he found that Yuan Tan's army stationed in Liyang City also abandoned the city. The team of Yuan Shang, who was too far away, had not yet arrived in Liyang and took over this military important place. Yang Yan, who was eager to make a contribution, simply crossed the Yellow River and took over Liyang City, and won the bridgehead for the Xuzhou army to directly penetrate Yecheng.

The importance of Liyang to Jizhou is only occasionally mentioned in the previous article. Here we will introduce it in detail. From a strategic perspective, the Liyang small city with a population of only a few thousand is definitely the first strategic location of the southern Jizhou line, because next to this city is not only the Baima Ferry, but also less than 300 miles away from Yecheng, the base camp of Yuan Shangjun, which is the only place for Xuzhou troops to attack Yecheng. What's more, the Baigou water under Liyang City is still the northward entrance to the hinterland of Jizhou. After controlling the Baigou water entrance of Liyang, the Xuzhou army can pass through the canal and natural rivers. The grain and grass can be sent directly to the city of Yejun and the hinterland of Jizhou, and even to Youzhou, and sent to the Jimen City, the heart of Youzhou, which was called Jimen at that time, now Beijing! In history, Cao Lao Da defeated the Yuan brothers and took down the two states of Jiyou, and the grain and grass were all transported northward from this Baigou water!

The order to pursue and intercept was rejected by the Xuzhou army, and the important southern front Liyang City was also robbed by the Xuzhou army. The anger in Mr. Yuan Shang's heart could naturally be imagined. If it weren't for Feng Ji and Li Fu's tight pulling, Mr. Yuan Shang would have even thought of giving up pursuing Yuan Tan's army and pulling the army to regain Liyang City by force! And after listening to Feng Ji and Li Fu's persuasion, Mr. Yuan Shang, who had been hiding too far during the war, would have been too late. After pursuing, Mr. Yuan Shang only destroyed a few hundred Yuan Tan's rear teams, and he also paid a basically equal price. He watched the main force of Yuan Tan's army retreat through Qingshui and penetrated into the hinterland of Hanoi.

After ending the severely prepared pursuit, Mr. Yuan Shang's first thing was to take back Li Yang. Feng Ji and Li Fu died and persuaded him again. Shen Pei, who was left in Yecheng, also sent a letter to dissuade him, which showed that Yuan Tan had not been destroyed and he would never turn against the prosperous Xuzhou army. He suggested that Mr. Yuan Shang ask Deputy Director Tao to return the important land of Li Yang through diplomatic means, and concluded a alliance to destroy Tan, and join forces to annihilate the Yuan Tan team that had already been withdrawn to Bingzhou as soon as possible, so as not to give Yuan Tan a chance to breathe. Mr. Yuan Shang could still hear Shen Pei's words, and soon sent Li Fu as an envoy to Xuchang to negotiate with Deputy Director Tao in person.

Because he had never been to Li Yang, when Li Fu arrived in Xuchang to submit a letter to Deputy Director Tao, Deputy Director Tao, who was not familiar with Li Yang's situation, complained: "This Chen Dao took the wrong medicine, why did he also take away the city of Jizhou? Yuan Fang gave Chen Dao a letter and asked him..."

"Cough! Cough!" Xun Chen, who had been with Jizhou for many years, started coughing first. Then Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye, who also thought they had been infected with a cold, coughed loudly. Deputy Director Tao looked at several accomplices and lackeys in surprise. Seeing that several accomplices and lackeys were all killing chickens and wiping their necks, Deputy Director Tao quickly changed his words and said, "Mr. Zixian has come far away and can go to the inn to rest first. Let me discuss with everyone carefully. Don't worry, Mr. Zixian is my wife and brother-in-law. I will naturally not refuse his request."

Although he knew that Xun Chen was not happy about coughing on purpose, but the situation was not as good as others, Li Fu had to pretend not to know. He thanked Deputy Director Tao and followed the guard to rest. As soon as Li Fu left, Xun Chen immediately took the map of Jizhou from the bookshelf next to the wall, spread it out in front of Deputy Director Tao, and said with a wry smile: "Lord, take a closer look at the location of Liyang, especially paying attention to the Baigou water shipping under Liyang City, where can you navigate to Jizhou and Youzhou?"

After carefully looking at the map of Jizhou that I had seen before, and then gestured with my fingers to the northbound connection of Baigou Water Shipping. Deputy Director Tao, who had absolutely no unsightly eyes, quickly screamed, "My God! I didn't expect that Baigou Water is related to so many rivers, and can connect almost all the important towns in Jizhou, and can also transport grain and grass directly to Youzhou by ship! Why have I never paid attention to such a good place?!"

"It's not just a grain ship." Xun Chen snorted: "Most of the river sections, about 200 soldiers can also be navigated! It's easy to return Li Yang to Yuan Shang, but it's difficult to get it back! If we turn against Yuan Shang to start a war, Li Yang will definitely be the number one important town that Yuan Shangjun has to stick to!"

"Fortunately I didn't finish my words." Deputy Director Tao almost broke out in a cold sweat. Fortunately, "Fortunately, Mr. Youruo and his masters reminded each other in time, otherwise we would have suffered a big loss this time."

"Li Yang must not return." Yi also said firmly, "Li Yang is in the hands of our army. Our army can attack and retreat. Not only can we occupy the strategic initiative of the northern line of Yanzhou, but we can also prevent Yuan Shang from acting recklessly when our southern line changes!"

"It's impossible to return it." Liu Ye nodded, and suggested: "Lord, you might as well use the excuse of Yuan Tan's remaining party, Jiang Qi, and say that we plan to assist Yuan Shang in destroying Jiang Qi, transporting grain to help him need Li Yang, the waterway entrance, and refuse to return Li Yang on this grounds. At least he will not return it for the time being, so he borrowed it from him for a few years."

"Is this too much? No matter what, Yuan Shang is also our ally." Deputy Director Tao rarely hesitates about the thickness of his skin.

"Su Ye said bluntly. The close alliance between the lord and Yuan Shang may have come to an end." Liu Ye replied: "From Uncle Chen to the report on military situation, the purpose of Yuan Shang's alliance with our army is very obvious. It is to use our army to eliminate Yuan Tan. Help him unify Ji You and the three states, and hope that our army will destroy Yuan Tan. He has achieved results, is so greedy and so greedy, and it will be only a matter of time before he cooperates with such allies."

"Of course I know this." Deputy Director Tao nodded and said, "The only thing I am worried about now is that we will occupy the strategic important position of Liyang and not return. Yuan Shang and Shen Pei will definitely understand that our army will attack him sooner or later and indirectly force them to Yuan Tan's side. If Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang brothers join forces to fight our army, it will be a bit difficult for us to annex Ji You and merge the three states."

"The lord must not worry about this." The old traitor and slim old Jia Lao poison finally spoke and said with a smile: "Although Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang are half-brothers, named flesh and blood, they are actually enemies. They have their own parties and fight with each other. The conflicts are definitely unreconciled. Not to mention that the joining forces may be minimal. Even if we really force Yuan Shang to Yuan Tan's side, the Yuan brothers will definitely not abandon their past grudges and work together. Not only that, after the Yuan brothers formed an alliance, they will definitely take the opportunity to annex the other party! Therefore, the lord can feel at ease to refuse to hand over to Li Yang. While taking the opportunity to digest the newly occupied land in Yanzhou, they sit and watch the movements of the Yuan brothers, wait for the change, and wait for it to become a decision in one fell swoop!"

Deputy Director Tao calculated for a while, and finally nodded and said, "Okay, just do it like this. It is an excuse that Yuan Shang needs a water entrance to attack and destroy Jiang Qi, so he refuses to return it to Li Yang! By the way, I will give Yuan Shang an official position as a minister of Ji You and the three prefectures, which is to give him Yuan Shang compensation."

By the way, friends may have noticed that Deputy Director Tao, Jia Lao Poison and others seemed to have forgotten to consider a question. What if Yuan Shang took back Li Yang by force? The answer is very simple. Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison and others were eager for Yuan Shang to do this, because in this way, Deputy Director Tao, who was once extremely close to Mr. Yuan Shang, had a legitimate excuse to start a war with his third brother-in-law, right?

………………………………………

Li Fu returned to Yecheng with the reply from Deputy Director Tao and the will of Emperor Xian of Han to enthrone Prince Yuan Shang as the governor of Ji You and the three prefectures. Prince Yuan Shang, who had previously proclaimed himself as the governor of Jing You and the five prefectures of Qing Yan, was also furious. Regardless of the dissuasion of everyone, he tore up the imperial edict of Emperor Xian of Han and the letter of Deputy Director Tao on the spot, and roared and scolded: "Thief! Dog thief! I have received a lot of great kindness from my Yuan family. Now that I have a hard wing, I want to ride on my head and scatter and pee! I will immediately gather troops and horses. I will personally take back the important land of Liyang!"

"Lord, no!" Shen Pei quickly dissuaded, saying: "The recapture of Liyang by force will inevitably lead to a full-scale war between our army and the Xuzhou army. At present, Tao Ying has already occupied the four states, with strong soldiers and strong horses. He has more than 400,000 armored men under his command. Our army is attacked from all sides, and rebellions are everywhere in Jizhou. He is at an absolute disadvantage in strength. At this time, the war with Tao Ying will only give Tao Ying the best excuse to take the opportunity to swallow Jizhou!"

"What should I do if Li Yang?" Yuan Shang shouted: "The Taoist thief occupied Li Yang and could send troops to attack Yecheng at any time, and transport grain from water to the north at any time, attacking major cities in Jizhou. Could it be that he just put his knife on my neck and he would do it whenever he wanted?"

"I have to tolerate it for the time being," Shen Pei replied dejectedly. He said with a strong spirit: "Fortunately, the Taoist thieves had just occupied the entire Yanzhou area and urgently needed time to stabilize the hearts of the people and to purge the remaining rebellious cities in various places. It is difficult to invade Jizhou in a short time. Therefore, as long as the lord is temporarily tolerant and acquiesce to occupy Liyang, he can gain time to prepare for the army. When the internal stability of Jizhou, he will give full play to the advantage of our Jizhou's capital in the world, so there is no need to be too afraid of the threat of the Taoist thieves."

"Lord, Mr. Shenpei said very well." Li Fu also advised: "My deputies went to Xuchang to go on a mission to Xuchang with their own eyes. The strength and morale are indeed far above our army. There are internal troubles between Wang Ling of Zhongshan and Zhang Yan of Heishan within our army, and internal troubles are not eliminated. Why not fight against foreign countries? It is better to be tolerant according to Mr. Shenpei's words, maintain friendly relations with Tao Ying for the time being, and strive for time to stabilize the internal situation, and then first defeat Yuan, Tan, Jiangqi, and then plan for revenge. Otherwise, once our army starts war with Tao Ying, Yuan Tan takes the opportunity to attack, how can we resist?"

After much persuasion, Mr. Yuan Shang finally gave up the idea of ​​regaining the important town of Liyang by force and asked what to do next, Shen Pei suggested: "Pei believes that at present, we should take advantage of the opportunity that Yuan Tan Guandu has not yet recovered his vitality, divide the troops into two groups, send troops to Zhongshan to pacify Wang Ling's rebellion, and take advantage of the opportunity to attack Huguanjin. As long as we take down Huguanjin, our army will take the initiative to fight against Yuan Tan, and we can attack Yuan Tan, and we can defend and be invincible!"

Mr. Yuan Shang nodded and said yes. At that moment, Yuan Shang immediately wrote a book to his bully brother-in-law and agreed to temporarily lend Li Yang to his brother-in-law, and divided his troops into two groups. One was led by his confidant general Yin Kai and sent troops westward to attack Huguan's throat. The other was led by Mr. Yuan Shang himself, and sent 20,000 troops to attack Wang Ling, the prefect of Zhongshan who initiated the rebellion. Shen Pei continued to stay in Yecheng. At the same time, Mr. Yuan Shang listened to Shen Pei's suggestion and sent envoys to Youzhou to contact Jiang Qi, and gave gold, silver and jewelry to comfort him. He recruited Jiang Qi as much as possible, and at least did not allow Jiang Qi to send troops to meet Wang Ling.

Jiang Qi, who had lost direct contact with Yuan Tan, was still well-behaved. Knowing that his prestige was not enough to raise troops to be independent, he simply put forward the banner of neutrality and refused everyone to win over Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang's bribery. He did not fight or say he would not help. Naturally, it was even more impossible to help the old stubborn Wang Yun's nephew, Xiao Wanru Wang Ling and Yuan Shang, resisted to the end, and flatly refused Wang Ling's repeated requests for help. In addition, Yuan Tan's son was injured after his defeat in Guandu, and was unable to provide strong support for Wang Ling, and even could not even surround Wei and rescue Zhao. Therefore, Mr. Yuan Shang went north to suppress the rebellion this time. It took only more than 20 days to capture Lu Nucheng. Wang Ling followed his uncle Wang Yun and refused Yuan Shang's surrender and scolded the thief and died. The whole family was also executed by Yuan Shang, and the internal strife in Zhongshan was quelled.

It was easy to deal with the rebels of Wang Ling, who had only a few thousand local soldiers, but it was not so easy to attack Huguan. When the Yuan Shang army led by Yin Kai was stubbornly resisted by the defender of Yuan Tan's army, Xia Zhao, and the fierce attack lasted for nearly a month, and he suffered considerable casualties. The news arrived in front of Yuan Shang. Yuan Shang scolded Yin Kai for being incompetent, so he had to hurriedly return to help Yin Kai attack Huguan. However, when Prince Yuan Shang led his army to Huguan, the Huguan side finally welcomed Prince Yuan Tan's first support army. Although the reinforcement army had only 3,000 troops, the general who led the team was called Hao Zhao.

The Huguan city, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack, and the Hao Zhao, who was the best at defending in the late Han Dynasty, naturally the outcome of Mr. Yuan Shang's fierce attack on Huguan can be imagined. After three attacks, Yuan Shang's army killed more than 3,000 troops, but they were always helpless with the Huguan city. As a last resort, Mr. Yuan Shang could only accept Feng Ji's suggestion and temporarily retreated to Yecheng to reorganize his troops and horses, and had a chance to rest with the main force. The war between the Yuan brothers was temporarily quelled.

At this point, the Central Plains melee caused by the paralysis of the stroke of the Grand Yuan Sangong, came to an end. In this Central Plains melee that lasted more than half a year, Deputy Director Tao, Boss Cao, Yuan's brothers, Liu Huangshu and Liu Biao took turns to appear, and fought nearly a hundred battles around the control of the hinterland of the Central Plains. Our Deputy Director Tao also relied on the strongest strength and the most correct strategy and tactics to become the biggest winner of this big melee. Finally, he won the entire territory of Yanzhou, gained the political advantage of using the emperor to command the princes, and once again consolidated and increased the advantages over the princes in the world, becoming the well-deserved overlord of the Central Plains.

From a geographical point of view, if the territory of the late Han Dynasty is like a rooster with its head held high and now, then Deputy Director Tao's control land was to pound the fist of the rooster's breast, and the occupied territory was the northernmost to the Bohai Sea, facing Liaodong, the Korean Peninsula and the four islands of Japan across the sea. To the south, it crossed the Yangtze River to the Taihu Lake and to the west to the Songshan Mountains. In terms of population and economy, it has far exceeded any prince of the world, and has quickly developed towards a trend of surpassing the total strength of the princes of the world.

As for Deputy Director Tao's poor enemies, Boss Cao was the most miserable. He was completely driven out of the Yanzhou base camp that he had finally managed, and was forced to survive in the decayed Sili Guanzhong, dreaming of how to make a comeback and kill his son-in-law; Prince Yuan Tan was the second miserable. Before his butt was hot in Yanzhou and the Prime Minister, he had already been driven to Bingzhou by Deputy Director Tao. The control area was divided into two, and Youzhou, which was respectfully surrendered to him, was completely isolated. Prince Yuan Shang took some advantage and took advantage of his brother-in-law's opportunity to attack Yuan Tan. He still basically controlled the twelve counties of Jizhou while forging a will. He was able to take advantage of the situation and successfully take advantage of the situation. In the end, Liu Biao lost Liu Pan's team and only injured his fur. He took the opportunity to take back the entire territory of Nanyang. It could be considered as a greater gain than loss.

Still the same thing, whether it is the worst or the worst, or the small advantage or the gains or the loss, in front of Deputy Director Tao, who rapidly expanded into a giant, no one of the good neighbors of Deputy Director Tao can stand alone to compete with Deputy Director Tao's domineering and rape and invasion. Therefore, these good neighbors of Deputy Director Tao inevitably have this idea, "Since we have no chance of winning against the Tao thief alone? Then if we join forces, we may not be able to destroy this hypocritical and despicable traitor, right?"
Chapter completed!