The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 227 Volume Mission to Jingzhou
Liu Xie took Liu Wansheng from Dong Zhuo, held him in his arms, and gently tapped Liu Wansheng's face with his fingers a few times.

Now Liu Wansheng has gotten rid of the wrinkled state he had when he was just born. Instead, he has become fair and tender, with a pair of big eyes as bright as black grapes.

When Liu Wansheng saw Liu Xie coming to hug him, he did not struggle at all, but laughed happily.

"Good boy."

Liu Xie held Liu Wansheng in his arms and strolled slowly with Dong Zhuo in the courtyard of the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

"Grand Master should know about the situation in Shu. Although the process was dangerous, the emperor's uncle finally conquered Shu."

Dong Zhuo was somewhat fond of Liu Bei when he heard him mention him: "Although Xuande is a member of the royal family, he is still from a humble family. It is not easy for him to have come this far on his own."

"But what kind of trouble did Xuande encounter in Shu that made him come to the court for help?"

Dong Zhuo's first reaction was to the noble families in Shu——

He immediately sneered and said, "If Xuande doesn't dare to take action, let Fengxian or Liangbi go! I want to see what methods those people have!"

Liu Xie held Liu Wansheng in his arms and did not dare to speak loudly: "Grandmaster, you misunderstood."

"The emperor's uncle came from humble beginnings, so he will never be merciful. He will take care of those powerful people in Shu one by one."

"What I am really worried about is Jingzhou."

"Jingzhou?"

Liu Xie told Dong Zhuo what Xun Yu and Sima Yi had just said. Dong Zhuo was thinking about something, but he couldn't help tripping and stumbling.

"Master!"

Liu Xie didn't expect such a sudden change to happen, and hurried forward to help.

Perhaps because the movement was a little too big, Liu Wansheng in his arms felt a little uncomfortable and immediately burst into tears.

"fine."

Dong Zhuo was huge in stature, and although he did not trip, his crown was still a little askew.

However, Dong Zhuo did not bother to straighten his crown, but instead came over to coax Liu Wansheng.

After Liu Wansheng stopped crying, he was handed over to the wet nurse and taken away to be fed.

"Is the Grand Master really alright?"

Liu Xie helped Dong Zhuo brush the dust off his body, while Dong Zhuo kept waving his hands, a little out of breath.

Liu Xie helped him to sit down on a stone staircase in the courtyard. Dong Zhuo let go of his hands, supported his back, and gasped for breath before he gradually recovered.

"I am fine, but I am old and have some problems."

"Sometimes I often forget things, and my legs and feet become weak after walking for a long time, causing me to stumble like I did just now..."

Only then did Liu Xie realize that after not seeing each other for just over ten days, Dong Zhuo looked much older.

The wrinkles became deeper, and the two pieces of flesh under the eyelids seemed to have fallen down and piled together at some point.

The white hair that was originally only on the temples has now covered the entire top of the head. Even though the hair has been carefully groomed, it is still dull and has no oiliness at all.

"I hope the Grand Master will take care of himself."

Liu Xie grabbed Dong Zhuo's somewhat rough right hand.

"Now that we have conquered Shu, as long as the time is right, it will be time for the Grand Tutor to conquer Yan and establish the Marquisate. Grand Tutor, please do not abandon me and the Han Dynasty at this time."

Liu Xie discovered that since Dong Bai married him, Dong Zhuo seemed to have completely fulfilled all his wishes. He just accompanied Liu Wansheng on weekdays and no longer cared about other things.

The purpose of saying this was to encourage Dong Zhuo and remind him not to forget his dream of becoming the Duke of Zhou.

Dong Zhuo turned to look at Liu Xie, looked him up and down, as if he wanted to say something.

But Dong Zhuo didn't say anything in the end. He just nodded in agreement.

"Your Majesty just mentioned the matter of Jingzhou?"

Dong Zhuo's way of dealing with such matters has always been simple and crude.

"When I was in my hometown of Lintao, I raised many fierce dogs."

"If this fierce dog obeys me, I will give it meat to eat; if it does not obey me, I will kill it and share its flesh and blood with the other dogs."

"Your Majesty also knows that I am not good at politics and I don't know who to ally with and who to be enemies with."

"I only know that as long as I am strong and I am still the master, the dog will always be a dog! It can never be a human!"

……

Liu Xie was somewhat uncomfortable with Dong Zhuo's logic of the survival of the fittest.

But when I think about it carefully, I find that this is indeed the case.

Jingzhou's location is extremely critical, but its size is not large enough, so it is destined to rely on Liu Xie or Yuan Shao.

If he wants to take action against the imperial court in the future, he can just hand Jingzhou over to another fierce dog to share.

And this other fierce dog is naturally Yuan Shu.

Before this, Liu Xie had always been worried that once Jingzhou joined forces with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao to attack the imperial court, it would cause great losses.

But in fact, the ones who should be really worried are the scholars in Jingzhou.

Today, Jingzhou is located between the imperial court, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu. Among them, Jingzhou is a mortal enemy and has to withstand attacks from the east.

If Jingzhou really surrendered to Yuan Shao, wouldn't it be worried about being attacked from both sides by the imperial court and Yuan Shu?

Moreover, the imperial court and Yuan Shu are always closer to Jingzhou.

Once a conflict occurs, I am afraid Yuan Shao will be out of reach.

Not to mention, the actual controller of the Central Plains was still Cao Cao.

Cao Cao had previously defeated Yuan Shu and annexed most of the Central Plains, and his power was enough to compete with Yuan Shao, who had lost Bingzhou.

I guess Yuan Shao wouldn't sit idly by and watch Cao Cao capture Jingzhou and continue to expand his power.

Otherwise, it would be hard to say what the Hebei court will be built for in the future.

After thinking about this, Liu Xie had already figured it out.

"The Grand Master has taught me another lesson today." "As long as you ensure that you are strong, the master is the master after all."

"We can take precautions against Jingzhou, but there is no need to be too wary."

As long as Jingzhou dares to show any sign of colluding with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, the imperial court will immediately send troops from Wuguan and contact Yuan Shu to attack Jingzhou!

And this idea could not just be Liu Xie's own, more importantly, it was to let the people in Jingzhou know that they should be more obedient.

"It seems I have to send an envoy to Jingzhou."

Liu Xie thought for a moment and quickly decided on the candidate.

"It's you! Sima Zhongda!"

……

"what?"

When Sima Yi received the order, he pointed at himself blankly and said, "Your Majesty wants me to go on a diplomatic mission to Jingzhou?"

"Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that I will ruin this matter?"

Sima Yi was the most enthusiastic person in the war against Jingzhou. If he was sent to Jingzhou, he would probably want to give the ruler and his subjects of Jingzhou a slap in the face, so that they would take the initiative to attack the imperial court and start a war with the imperial court with justification...

"you dare!"

Liu Xie glared at Sima Yi.

"I have talked with the Grand Tutor before, and I think what he said makes sense."

"We have to guard against Jingzhou, but we can't guard too hard, or we'll become distant from them."

"Zhongda, it is important to release the goodwill of the court, but it is more important to whip those Jingzhou noble families on my behalf and tell them not to flirt with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao all the time."

"Otherwise, they could have thought about whether they could deal with attacks from both the east and west at the same time! See whether the imperial court's Xiliang cavalry is faster, or Yuan Shao's Hebei halberd soldiers are faster!"

Sima Yi's originally reluctant mind suddenly became hot!
It seems that Your Majesty does not want to go to Jingzhou to be a punching bag, but to go to Jingzhou to threaten people!

Sima Yi immediately accepted the task: "May I ask, Your Majesty, to what extent do you want to achieve this?"

To what extent?

Liu Xie was in deep thought.

"Ba County is the gateway to Shu. Jingzhou must be returned. This is the bottom line."

"Especially Yong'an, which controls the gateway to Bashu. As long as we cannot take this place, the people of Bashu will not be safe."

Fa Zheng and Liu Bei wanted to obtain what they wanted through military means, but Liu Xie wanted to get it through the negotiation table.

Sima Yi was a little confused: "After all, it is a county of Yizhou. How can Jingzhou be willing to give it back obediently?"

Liu Xie: “Well said!”

"Zhongda also said that what I want is Ba County in Yizhou, not Jiangling and Jiangxia in Jingzhou."

"Since you are from Jingzhou, you should just stay in Jingzhou. Why are you interfering with Yizhou?"

"From a legal perspective, there is no reason for them to refuse to return it!"

"If you don't want to return it, please trouble Zhongda to go somewhere else."

Sima Yi: "Where?"

"Shouchun!"

……

at the same time.

Jizhou, Yecheng.

Only Yuan Shao and Xu You were sitting in the bright palace room.

"News came from Jingzhou that the imperial court suddenly sent troops to Yizhou and has already captured Chengdu!"

Yuan Shao handed the military intelligence in his hand to Xu You and immediately fell silent.

When Xu You heard the word "imperial court", he was actually a little scared.

He had previously accepted two boxes of gold from Zhong Yao and secretly helped Li Ru escape. Although he did it cleanly, it still aroused Yuan Shao's suspicion.

Recently, Xu You has clearly sensed that Yuan Shao would intentionally or unintentionally avoid him on some matters, and instead discuss matters with Guo Tu, Tian Feng and others.

Although Xu You became one of the Three Dukes of the Pseudo-dynasty, after realizing that he had been excluded from the core decision-making circle by Yuan Shao, he was always worried that Yuan Shao would turn against him one day and kill him directly.

Seeing Yuan Shao summoned him alone and handed him such military information, Xu You immediately understood.

"Does Lord Yuan want me to contact Liu Biao and ask him to serve Liu He as the emperor as well?"

"Exactly."

Xu You was a native of Jingzhou and had many friends in the area.

By sending Xu You, Yuan Shao also hoped to use Xu You's local connections to force Liu Biao to surrender!

"The imperial court has now revived and even conquered Shu. We can't let it continue to grow and become a force to be reckoned with."

"Therefore, Jingzhou is actually very important."

"If I say so, maybe Ziyuan (Xu You's courtesy name) will understand?"

"I understand!"

Yuan Shao saw that Xu You was understanding, so he patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "In this case, I'll leave it to Ziyuan!"

Xu You was about to laugh as well, but Yuan Shao's next words made him shudder.

"If this is accomplished, everything Ziyuan did before will be written off!"

Yuan Shao really knew what he had done before!

Xu You was sweating profusely and quickly fell to the ground: "I will not fail in my mission! I will definitely complete Lord Yuan's plan!"

(End of this chapter)