Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 204 Diverging Opinions
Sun Ce heard Zhou Yu praise Mrs. Wu, waved his hands and said, "Let's not talk about it, today is a matter between us men!"

He knew that his grandmother was very virtuous and capable, and quite knowledgeable. It can be said that women do not give up to men, and Mrs. Wu devoted herself to raising the children, especially after Sun Jian died, she took the lead of the Sun family. Said the performance was perfect.

But for Sun Ce, who respects his father very much, he has a heart problem.

He knew the truth about his father forcing his mother to marry him.

When Sun Ce was drinking with Sun Jian, Sun Jian got very drunk and proudly talked about what happened back then.

He talked about how he killed several Wu family children, which made the Wu family panic and forced Mrs. Wu to marry him.

Sun Jian proudly said: "Your father was a melon farmer, if you don't do this, how can you make the Wu family bow their heads to me?"

"Since then, I have come to understand that these gentry are all vicious creatures, no different from wild dogs on the side of the road. If you kick him a few times, he will be honest!"

"Look, I killed Wang Rui, the governor of Jingzhou, and Zhang Zi, the governor of Nanyang. These are all nobles. If I kill them all the way, who in the world would dare to fart?"

"Even if people like us make a fortune, the gentry will not think highly of us. In this case, we will kill them until they are frightened and kneel down like dogs!"

Sun Ce was speechless, and since then, he felt that something from his father had spread into his heart, igniting a raging fire.

From then on, he began to imitate his father, especially after Sun Jian's death, he intensified and killed the nobles at will to get satisfaction from it.

But every time Sun Jian saw his mother, he felt more guilty, so when Mrs. Wu advised him to stop killing, Sun Ce would reluctantly obey.

It can be said that only Mrs. Wu can persuade Sun Ce, otherwise Sun Ce would have become the second Sun Jian.

Everyone didn't know Sun Ce's thoughts, but felt that it was rude to talk about Sun Ce's mother face to face, so they hurriedly confessed.

The crowd was boisterously drinking, and after drinking for three rounds, Sun Ce said drunkenly, "Speaking of this time, we took down Tancheng, the administrative center of Xiapi, and I just realized that Xuzhou is a good place."

"Not to mention gold and silver everywhere, even women are not inferior to Yangzhou."

"Speaking of which, Liu Bei and Kong Rong's wife and children were also captured this time. I heard that beauty is the best choice. I hurried back to stab Liu Bei's butt, but I didn't have time to put her in the house."

"I have already ordered someone to escort him to Guangling, and it will arrive in a few days, when the time comes, we will divide it together!"

After hearing this, Zhou Yu said, "This is too bad, I'm afraid the gentry will complain."

Sun Ce waved his hand: "Gong Jin is pedantic, what are you afraid of!"

"If you don't want it, I want it all!"

Zhou Yu smiled wryly after hearing this. In his eyes, Sun Ce was good at everything, but he was quite hostile to the gentry. The key point was that Zhou Yu was also a gentry, which made him quite embarrassed sometimes.

Everyone was laughing and chatting, but a spy rushed in and delivered an urgent report.

Sun Ce tore it open, his expression changed drastically, he jumped up, and shouted angrily, "The Cao thief is deceiving me so much!"

When everyone saw the urgent report, they were all shocked. Cao Cao actually sent troops to approach Tancheng!

Originally, the two sides had agreed that after defeating Liu Bei, each would take half of Xuzhou. Now that the battle is not over, why did Cao Cao start?

If Xiapi is lost, Sun Ce will only have Guangling alone, with Liu Bei in the north, Cao Cao in the west, and Liu Yao in the south. This is a situation that is surrounded by enemies!

Sun Ce jumped up suddenly, pointed at Zhang Xun and said, "You and I will lead all the cavalry back to Tancheng to drive out Cao's army!"

"Gongjin and Qiaogong stay in Guangling to defend the city!"

Zhang Xunqiaorui quickly agreed, but Zhou Yu hesitated and said, "Cao Jun is not easy to deal with, should I ask Mrs. Tai for her opinion first?"

When Sun Ce heard this, he was displeased and said, "Don't ask Mom everything, I have my own ideas!"

Seeing that Zhou Yu couldn't persuade him, he had to watch Sun Ce get on his horse and leave.

He thought about it, Liu Yao didn't see that he was able to cross the river to attack, and Liu Bei was exhausted in the north, and within a year or so, he couldn't pull up troops at all. Even if Sun Ce couldn't defend Xiapi, it should be no problem to return to Guangling.

These forces are in the way, even if Liu Bei asks Yuan for help, it should be a long time before the troops are dispatched.

What's more, in Zhou Yu's view, the Yuan family may not care about Liu Bei.

It should be because I think too much, the enemy can't fall from the sky, right?

Inside Haixi City, Liu Bei sat watching his subordinate officials arguing endlessly, feeling rather anxious.

He has already sent someone to Yuan's for help, but Yuan Shao has not expressed his opinion so far.

Chen Deng came up with an idea and went to Yuan Xi to find a solution, but Liu Bei heard that Yuan Xi had already adopted him, so he was not in Yuan's inner circle, so what effect could it have?
What's more, I heard that the relationship between him and Yuan Shang is very tense, maybe it will have a counterproductive effect!

Looking at the dozen or so officials left, he felt even more uncomfortable when he thought of his wife falling into Sun Ce's hands.

Sun Ce is a lunatic, who knows what will happen to his wife and concubines?
The only thing to be thankful for is that Mrs. Gan, whom he valued the most, did not fall into Xiapi, but escaped with her.

But his regular wife probably couldn't run away with his daughter. Thinking of how many of his wives either died young or had accidents, Liu Bei wondered if he could overthrow his wife?
Forget it, the big deal is that I won't marry a wife in the future, and it's fine to take a concubine.

There was a lot of discussion among the people, and Sun Qian Jianyong suggested to go to Qingzhou to ask Yuan Tan for help, but between Qingzhou and Xuzhou, there are mountains and dense forests, and there are Zang Ba's Taishan bandits in the middle, and Yuan Tan can't take them down. Even if Qingzhou sends troops, it will be difficult to reach Xuzhou .

However, the Yuzhou faction was in panic. Once they lost their xiapi, the connection with Yuzhou was completely cut off, and there was news that Chen Qun was not arrested when Tancheng was captured, but ran to Yanzhou to join Cao Cao!
This dealt a great blow to Liu Bei's morale. Everyone knew that Chen Qun did not agree to take over Xuzhou at the time, and the facts now seem to confirm his thoughts.

Chen Deng and Mi Zhu's faction were even more shameless. It seemed that they were not as good as Chen Qun's prophets, but in fact they were suffering and could not tell.

Who would have guessed that Zhang Fei was sitting in Tancheng, the safest place, but there was internal strife, and he lost the most important Xuzhou government?

Chen Deng was so angry that he couldn't eat for several days. Fortunately, he prescribed a few medicines with Hua Tuo who escaped together, and after taking it, he was relieved.

Most of the day passed, and everyone still hadn't reached a consensus. The current predicament was that Liu Bei was short of soldiers and food, so he couldn't counterattack Sun Ce, who was gaining momentum.

The most affluent Xiapi Guangling is now lost, and the remaining Langya Donghai has been slaughtered by Cao Cao in the past two years. No matter in terms of money, food or population, it is difficult to support Liu Bei's conscription.

Finally, everyone dispersed at night, and Mi Zhu came in again when he saw that everyone had left. Liu Bei was quite surprised and said, "What's the matter with Zi Zhong?"

Mi Zhu hesitated for a moment, and said: "My lord, this is the autumn of life and death. Zhu is willing to marry his sister-in-law to the lord, and marry two thousand slaves as a dowry, with tens of millions of money, to help the lord."

Liu Bei was moved immediately after hearing this.

He thought for a while, wondering: "Now I have killed several regular wives, I really don't want to marry again."

Mi Zhu was startled, what does this mean?
In Yecheng, Guo Jia was talking with Yuan Xi at this time, but there was a rare unhappiness between the two.

After Guo Jia came in, he asked Yuan Xi directly: "Young Master, can you bring your family with you when you visit Youzhou?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi raised his head and said, "It's only natural, I will take Madam away."

Guo Jia said seriously: "Shu Jia said bluntly, the young master should keep him in Yecheng."

"No!" Yuan Xi said decisively, "Mr. Feng Xiao understands the situation in Yecheng much better than I do."

"If I keep it, won't it be controlled by others?"

"Xi doesn't understand, please give me some guidance."

Guo Jia said: "If you are an heir, the son can take more concubines, this is not a problem."

"And if Mrs. Zun doesn't stay in Yecheng, the young master is afraid that Yuan will suspect him, and he has the heart to stand on his own."

"No matter what the young master thinks, it is the most suitable choice to keep Mrs. Zun in Yecheng."

"If you really want to be threatened by others, at worst, you can just change to a regular wife."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said coldly, "Like Cao Cao's family members?"

Guo Jia nodded and said, "Same."

The atmosphere between the two began to freeze.

Yuan Xi said shyly, "Does Mr. Feng Xiao have the heart to keep his wife and children here?"

Guo Jia didn't even think about it, and said decisively: "That's natural, I didn't intend to let them go."

Yuan Xi was choked and speechless.

After a long time, he said with difficulty: "I can't even protect my wife, how can I stand between heaven and earth?"

"Isn't this a violation of the oath between husband and wife when they got married?"

Guo Jia said coldly: "As the official wife of one of the princes, Mrs. Zun must pay the necessary price now if she wants to obtain possible benefits in the future."

"I believe Mrs. Zun should accept it, and she should have thought about it before getting married."

Yuan Xi thought of the troubled times at this time, with the feudal lords fighting each other, and after the death of the lord, his wife and children often end up miserable.

It's better to have a woman with a noble background behind her, after all, she has to take some face into consideration, but if the two parties have deep hatred, or the woman's status is not high, then the situation is worrying, and she is often rewarded to the general as a concubine.

Just like Gongsun Zan's wife Hou, if Yuan Xibao hadn't kept her, it would be hard to say what would happen.

Yuan Xi thought to himself that if he died, what would happen to Zhen Mi Zhaoji and the others?

He said, "Is there no other way?"

Guo Jia said: "The former Gaozu kicked his wife and children out of the carriage when he fled. Could it be that the carriage couldn't go fast because there were a few more people?"

"He made it for his subordinates to see!"

"The purpose is to tell the subordinates that no matter what time it is, the lord must absolutely guarantee his own safety, instead of making his family a burden!"

"Only such a lord can go to the end, and his subordinates will follow him wholeheartedly!"

Yuan Xi was silent. He knew that every word Guo Jia said was absolutely correct and maximized the benefits for a qualified protagonist.

But he couldn't do it.

He said: "Since I have already promised, I don't want to break my promise to her."

"If you can't even protect your own wife, how can you protect the families of the soldiers?"

"If one person's faith cannot be fulfilled, how can he make a promise to the world?"

After hearing this, Guo Jia stopped talking, bowed his head and left.

Yuan Xi sat in a daze. He knew that he might never become a person like Guo Jia.

But for the sake of his personal relationship, it is possible to shake the hearts of his subordinates, is he a qualified lord?

(End of this chapter)