Chapter 230 Yuan Shao Picks Peaches After hearing this, Xi Zhicai groaned for a moment and gritted his teeth and said, "My lord, rest assured. I will solve Liu Bei's problem at the critical moment." Although he wanted to retain his strength as much as possible, under the current circumstances, if he waited any longer, Cao Cao's development space would be occupied by other princes, and he could not afford to do so. Looking at Xi Zhicai with a little bit of reluctance, Xun Yu sighed secretly, and suddenly found that Mao Jie beside him had a strange expression. "Xiaoxian, what are you thinking about?" Xun Yu asked. Mao Jie frowned and kept looking at the information in his hand: "I always feel that this matter is too coincidental, a little weird." In this matter, both Cao Song and Tao Qian seemed to behave very strangely. Not to mention Tao Qian, what's the difference between letting a surrendered Yellow Turban remnant escort Cao Song who is carrying a large amount of gold, silver and other valuables and letting a cat guard a fish tank? Even Cao Song's reaction was a little off. Being able to stay in the court for so many years and sit on the fence between the eunuchs and the aristocratic families without falling, such a shrewd person actually didn't notice the problem. The Cao family was not without guards, and there were even many elite private soldiers among them. The purpose of this group of thieves was money, but under the heavy protection, Cao Song did not escape. "Tao Qian's general Zhang Kai has now defected to Yuan Shu," said Xun Yu.
"It can't be Yuan Shu." Mao Jie said without hesitation. This matter was of no benefit to Yuan Shu, and most importantly, this was not Yuan Shu's style. With Yuan Shu's pride, he would not do such a despicable thing. "The most likely person should be Liu Bei." Xi Zhicai said in a deep voice. "Once we attack Tao Qian, Tao Qian will certainly ask Liu Bei for help, and then Liu Bei may be able to obtain Xuzhou." Mao Jie heard this with a frown on his face: "I always feel something is strange, as if I have overlooked something." Xun Yu seemed to have thought of something, and his expression changed drastically: "Yuan Benchu!" "Not good!" Xi Zhicai also reacted and was horrified. "My Lord, I'm afraid we have been tricked by Yuan Benchu." …… In Xuzhou, after respectfully seeing Xun Chen off, Tao Qian breathed a long sigh of relief. After learning that Zhang Kai had killed Cao Song, he fainted immediately, then fell seriously ill and almost died. After going through the gates of hell, he completely understood that Xuzhou had to be given up. Cao Cao will not let him go. Originally, he planned to give Xuzhou to Liu Bei, but Yuan Shao's envoy Xun Chen happened to come to negotiate an alliance, and they had a chat. Later, during their conversation, he suddenly had an idea. Giving Xuzhou to Yuan Shao seems to be a good choice. If Xuzhou were given to Liu Bei, he might not be able to hold on to it, so this favor would probably be of little value. If we give it to Yuan Shao, who is very powerful, we don't have to worry about the safety of Xuzhou. We can also leave a good reputation and it can also be regarded as a timely help. It has to be said that Xun Chen's talent and eloquence are definitely at the level of a big liar.
Just as he had tricked Han Fu into giving up Jizhou, he was now tricking Tao Qian in the same way. Cao Cao wants to attack Xuzhou, what should we do? Liu Bei has no ability, Yuan Shu has bad character, the one you can rely on most is my lord Yuan Shao. My lord Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are allies with a close relationship. They can turn hostility into friendship by just writing a letter. Isn't that wonderful! This way, we can protect the people of Xuzhou from suffering from war and at the same time enhance your good reputation of giving way to others. Isn't that wonderful? As for the worry that my lord Yuan Shao will settle the score with me later, my lord can swear to the Yellow River that he will treat your family and descendants well. He has even thought of a way out for you. You will have to retreat no matter who you give it to, so you might as well go directly to the Jixia Academy. Lord Yuan will promise to treat your family well. It was as if he was considering the issue completely from Tao Qian's perspective. His words, which were half true and half false, moved Tao Qian so much that he was stunned and nodded repeatedly. The elderly Tao Qian was a person who was partial to one-sided opinions and valued children of aristocratic families. He naturally had a good impression of Xun Chen and gradually fell in love with him. When they learned that Tao Qian wanted to give Xuzhou to Yuan Shao, his civil and military officials were in an uproar, but there was not much objection. Because news had also spread that Cao Cao was preparing to mobilize his troops, and Yuan Shao's control of Xuzhou seemed to be the best option for them. In this way, Xuzhou was strangely and smoothly picked by Yuan Shao without sending a single soldier. When Cao Cao, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu heard the news, they almost bit their teeth off. At this point, how could they not see that this matter was Yuan Shao's plan from beginning to end. But they had no evidence. And the matter was already settled. By the time they learned the news, Yuan Shao had already sent Gao Lan to lead an army of 100,000 to enter Xuzhou almost seamlessly, and sent diplomatic envoys to them. When it comes to planning and making moves, Director Yuan's skills are unique in the world. Faced with the envoy's earnest analysis of the pros and cons and the weighty "Tian Ze Threat Theory", they had no choice but to swallow their anger. Especially for the victim Cao Cao, Yuan Shao's envoy sincerely offered to give up half of the county around Yecheng as compensation. Cao Cao just smiled coldly and declined the offer. Are you kidding! The area around Yecheng has been cleared out long ago. Now I am asked to take over and resist Tian Ze. I really think I am a sucker! Cao Cao knew very well what price Yuan Shao paid for supporting the logistics of such a large-scale army in the battle of Hebei. Half of Jizhou had already been destroyed, and most of the local noble families and common people had been relocated to Qingzhou before the war. Those who were unwilling to leave were directly treated as abandoned by Yuan Shao. During the attack, he directly extorted money and food, showing the full force of the army. It not only solved the logistics problem, but also caused trouble for Tianze who later occupied this place. It was really killing two birds with one stone. Taishi Ci, who was sent out to harass the locals, not only did not rob anything, but he even gave some food to the local people out of pity. His original purpose of harassing the locals turned out to be robbing officials to save the people. The only drawback is that Yuan Shao's local people's support is basically gone. However, this is not a loss for Yuan Shao, because he has no chance of fighting back in the short term anyway. Although Yuan Shao still had some conscience, or perhaps he was worried about pushing Tian Ze too far, he still left a small population in the area. But these people are so poor that they don’t even have two stone of grain at home. Anyone who wants can take it. The people under Cao Cao's command could not even afford to eat, so how could he have the time to accept these refugees? According to Yuan Shao's strategic deployment, Jizhou was basically abandoned. He even hoped that Cao Cao would go there to serve as his shield. This is the same idea as Liu Biao's placing Zhang Xiu in Nanyang and Liu Bei in Xinye, finding thugs to guard the gates. Cao Cao is not stupid, how could he agree to such a thing?
As for the revenge for Cao Cao's father's murder, Yuan Shao directly put the blame on Tian Ze and Yuan Shu. Tao Qian went to the Jixia Academy to retire, so if he wanted to seek revenge he could only go to Youzhou. After all, the Jixia Academy was heavily guarded and not everyone could enter, let alone assassinate Tao Qian. As for Zhang Kai, he is now a general under Yuan Shu. You can take him for yourself. (End of this chapter)