Three Kingdoms: I, the eldest son of Cao, a loving father of a great man!

Yuan Tan is a sinister and cunning man. I'm afraid he has other plans. We must be on guard against him." Zhuge Liang said hurriedly.

"Are you saying that Yuan Tan deliberately condoned the Xuzhou noble families' reckless behavior in order to lure me into dealing with them?" Cao Ang narrowed his eyes.

"That's right!" Zhuge Liang said firmly.

Cao Ang fell silent. He suddenly realized that he had underestimated Yuan Tan.

Cao Ang felt that although Yuan Tan was not as cowardly and useless as he was in history, his personality had not changed much.

Yuan Tan now doesn't care and just lets the Xuzhou nobles hold back Cao Ang to give Cao Cao a chance to catch his breath.

"My lord, I suggest that we wait and see what happens. No matter how much the Xuzhou noble families try to jump around, they won't be able to do anything," Zhuge Liang advised.

"Okay. Let's do as Kong Ming said for now." Cao Ang decided to wait for a while. After he eliminated Cao Cao, he would deal with Yuan Shao and the Xuzhou families.

Zhuge Liang said gratefully: "Thank you, my lord, for understanding my difficulties. I will take my leave now."

"Yeah." Cao Ang nodded in agreement.

After Zhuge Liang left the palace, he sought out Ju Su to discuss matters.

Ju Shou knew that Cao Ang would definitely discuss something with Zhuge Liang tonight, so he specially brought information about the Xuzhou family and his opinions.

Ju Shou and Zhuge Liang sat at the table, reading the information about the Xuzhou family together.

"My Lord, we cannot give up the Xuzhou family. But since the Xuzhou family and Yuan Shao are united, we cannot attack Xuzhou rashly.

Otherwise, we will be attacked from both sides by Yuan Shao and the Xuzhou family. This will be extremely disadvantageous to our army." Ju Su analyzed.

Zhuge Liang sighed and said, "Yuan Hao is right. But Yuan Shao has already intervened in Xuzhou's affairs.

If our army attacks Xuzhou, Yuan Shao will definitely send troops.

Yuan Shao's army is much larger than ours."

"My lord, although Yuan Shao has an army of 50,000 elite soldiers.

However, our army has several times more troops than Yuan Shao. As long as we concentrate our superior forces, we will defeat Yuan Shao's army.

Yuan Shao will definitely lose." Ju Su said confidently.

Zhuge Liang said bitterly: "That is true, but Yuan Shao has Xu You, Tian Feng and Xun Yu to assist him.

In addition, Yuan Shao himself is a martial arts expert, so it is not easy to deal with him.

Moreover, Yuan Shao’s civil and military officials are all talented. If they all defect to Yuan Shao, our army will be in even greater danger.”

Ju Su was silent.

Zhuge Liang's concerns were justified, as the advisers and generals around Yuan Shao were indeed talented.

Ju Su also knew Zhuge Liang's concerns.

Many of Yuan Shao's advisers were from Yingchuan or Yanzhou.

They had no good feelings towards Zhuge Liang, and they also believed that Yuan Shao would replace Liu Biao as the new overlord.

Zhuge Liang also had many advisers on his side, but their attitude towards Zhuge Liang was not so friendly.

Because Yuan Shao was Liu Biao's son and Zhuge Liang was Cao Ang's minister, the two were naturally on opposite sides.

"My lord, our army can only occupy Xuzhou as soon as possible, otherwise there will be endless troubles." Ju Su said.

"Xuzhou is rich, has sufficient food and grass, and countless weapons. It would be difficult to completely occupy Xuzhou in a short period of time," said Zhuge Liang.

Just as Zhuge Liang finished saying this, a report from a soldier came from outside the door.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister, Lu Bu has sent an envoy to request a meeting!" the soldier reported.

Zhuge Liang was stunned for a moment, then he said with a smile: "My lord, look, I haven't even left yet, and you have a guest."

"Haha!" Cao Ang laughed, and then said: "Kong Ming, you go and entertain him. I also want to know what Lu Bu wants to do."

Zhuge Liang agreed and took Ju Su with him to meet Lu Bu.

The purpose of Lu Bu's personal visit this time was to win over Zhuge Liang, hoping that Zhuge Liang would follow him.

When Ju Shou saw Lu Bu, he guessed Lu Bu's purpose of winning over Zhuge Liang.

Lu Bu glanced at Ju Shou who was beside Zhuge Liang, then bowed and said, "I greet you two brothers first."

Ju Shou also smiled in return, he also wanted to see what Lu Bu was up to. "My two brothers, I didn't know Fengxian was visiting today. I apologize for not welcoming you!" Lu Bu said.

"No, no, you are too polite." Zhuge Liang said with a smile: "Please take a seat, my two wise brothers!"

Lu Bu and Ju Shou took their seats.

Zhuge Liang took out a teapot and prepared to pour tea for the two men. Lu Bu quickly refused: "My dear brother, you and I are both men, we should drink it with wine."

Lu Bu took out some fine wine from his arms and handed a jar to Zhuge Liang.

"Good!" Zhuge Liang took the wine jar and had a very good impression of Lu Bu.

Zhuge Liang and Lu Bu were drinking and chatting. Lu Bu said, "My dear brother, I came here to form an alliance."

Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "Fengxian is right. I also intend to form an alliance with Fengxian.

I just don’t know what conditions Fengxian has.”

"As for the conditions, of course I have them. But I need to know your sincerity," Lu Bu said calmly.

Zhuge Liang and Ju Shou looked at each other. They both understood what Lu Bu meant. Zhuge Liang said, "Fengxian, your appetite is too big."

"It's not too big. After all, we only have 6,000 soldiers." Lu Bu said with a smile.

Zhuge Liang's face was gloomy. Lu Bu's proposal was indeed a bit too much. You have to know that they only have 6,000 soldiers.

If Lu Bu asked for too much, Zhuge Liang would have no way to refuse.

"My two dear brothers, please take your time to think about this." Lu Bu seemed to know Zhuge Liang's dilemma. He left after leaving a few words.

After seeing Lü Bu leave, Ju Su asked, "Kong Ming, how should we deal with this matter?"

Zhuge Liang sighed, "Alas, we should not get involved in this matter.

It is obvious that Fengxian wants to win us over. If we agree, we will be cursed by the world and our reputation will be ruined. "

"So you mean to refuse?" Ju Su asked with a frown.

Zhuge Liang nodded and said, "Yes. Since we have chosen the Lord, we must stick to it."

"But." Ju Su wanted to refute.

"Don't worry. We just need to obey the orders of our lord." Zhuge Liang said.

Ju Shou thought about it and could only nod and agree.

Zhuge Liang's idea was very simple, he was unwilling to betray Cao Ang.

Cao Ang trained Zhuge Liang to be what he is today, and Zhuge Liang thought that he would not do such an ungrateful thing.

Besides, there must have been a reason why Cao Ang asked Zhuge Liang to be the governor of Yanzhou.

If Zhuge Liang disobeyed the order, he would have let Cao Ang down.

Zhuge Liang would rather offend Lu Bu than offend Cao Ang. This is Zhuge Liang's bottom line.

Ju Shou figured out the key point and could only follow Zhuge Liang's idea.

Lu Bu left Zhuge Liang's mansion and went straight to Cao Ang's residence.

When Lü Bu arrived at the gate of Cao Ang's residence, the guard immediately informed Cao Ang, who was playing with Cai Yan in the room.

"My lord, there is an envoy from Cao Mengde seeking to see you." Dian Wei came up to Cao Ang and said respectfully.

Cao Ang was a little confused as to why Cao Cao suddenly sent an envoy. Cao Ang was still wary of Cao Cao and did not want to have any communication with him.

"Call him in." Cao Ang ordered.

A moment later, Cao Cao arrived in the hall.

"Cao Mengde came to see me. What's the matter?" Cao Ang pretended to be nonchalant, but he was actually very nervous.

"Your Majesty of Han, I am here to ask for a few things from you." Cao Cao did not beat around the bush and went straight to the point.

Cao Ang felt relieved, it seemed that Cao Cao wanted what belonged to him.

"Oh? What is it?" (End of this chapter)