My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 518 Who will win the flower?
Historically, Guan Ping was able to marry a woman from the Huang family because the Huang family had placed their bets on Liu Bei. Liu Bei and Zhang Fei's sons were too young to arrange a marriage, so they had no choice but to choose Guan Ping.

Let alone Liu Shan, even if Zhang Fei's son were older, it wouldn't be Guan Ping's turn to marry Lady Huang.

This is not to say that the Second Master's status was inferior to that of the Third Master; it was purely due to their different attitudes toward the gentry.

"Sun Ben's daughter?"

Liu Bei was somewhat tempted. Back when Sun Jian was promoted to a rank of 2,000 shi and enfeoffed as the Marquis of Wucheng, he was only a county commandant with a rank of 400 shi. At that time, he was quite envious of Sun Jian.

It should be noted that the Marquis of Wucheng was a county marquis, the highest rank in the Eastern Han Dynasty's nobility system. Above that, the only difference was the number of households in the fief.

Liu Bei couldn't help but ask, "Would Sun Zhenglu's family be willing?"

When Sun Ben was under Yuan Shu's command, Yuan Shu recommended him to be the General Who Conquers the Barbarians. Liu Bei was kind and benevolent, so this is a respectful title.

"I haven't asked yet."

Liu Feng was not lying, and Liu Bei naturally frowned upon hearing this.

However, Liu Feng quickly added, "But I don't think it's a big problem."

Sun Ben's ambition was far less than Sun Ce's; on the contrary, he could be considered a decent person, and he was not even as ruthless as Xu Kun or Wu Jing.

"Speaking of which, has Father made any plans regarding Third Uncle's situation?"

As Liu Feng spoke, he mentioned Zhang Fei.

Guan Yu at least got married in his hometown and even had a son named Guan Ping, while Zhang Fei has remained single to this day. Although he has had concubines in recent years, Zhang Fei is not lustful and has not had any children.

Now that they have completely parted ways with the original timeline, it is unlikely that Zhang Fei would go to Qiao County to fight a guerrilla war and kidnap Xiahou Yuan's niece.

Therefore, Liu Feng thought of his Uncle Zhang and wanted to find out what was going on.

Liu Bei was somewhat surprised by Liu Feng's sudden change of thought, but Zhang Fei's marriage was indeed a matter of great concern to him, so he couldn't help but ask, "Do you have any good plans?"

No one knows a brother better than his brother. Liu Bei understood Zhang Fei's thoughts all too well. Zhang Fei wanted to marry a woman from a noble family, especially one of high social standing.

However, there are no suitable candidates in Xuzhou and Yuzhou at present, since this is not something that can be done by force.

Liu Bei's guess was correct. The reason Liu Feng asked that question was because he already had some plans in mind.

"Father, you may not know this, but among the four great clans of Jingzhou, the Pang family and the Huang family both have daughters of marriageable age who wish to marry me."

Liu Feng recalled the situations of Pang Degong, Huang Chengyan, Huang Zu, and others, and introduced them: "Among them, Pang Jigong's daughter has just come of age, and Huang Zu has a younger sister who is in the prime of her life. If Father thinks it is suitable, I am willing to act as matchmaker."

Liu Feng's status is now quite different. Although he has just come of age, his literary and military talents are unparalleled, surpassing those of the past. What is even more commendable is that Liu Feng is also a man of both literary and military talents. He can serve as a commander or a prime minister, cracking down on powerful clans, pacifying the people, developing water conservancy, promoting agriculture and sericulture, governing the country internally, and strengthening the army externally.

Since his debut, he has been undefeated in every battle, and his opponents have been powerful warlords such as Yuan Shu, Liu Yao, Sun Ce, and Liu Biao.

What's most frightening is Liu Feng's age; he's only sixteen. Especially since Liu Feng's surname is Liu, and he's a relative of the emperor.

Those who were bolder and more quick-witted began to ponder the story from two hundred years ago.

As a newly surrendered prefecture, Jingzhou saw the most active efforts from local gentry and powerful clans to curry favor with it.

They didn't have much of a grudge against Liu Feng to begin with, and now that they want to get closer to him, their attitude is naturally very good.

But if you want to rise to the top, besides attitude, you also need to have leverage.

Especially for those who enter the market later, it is naturally best to have leverage that is not available elsewhere.

Unfortunately, most of the generals under Liu Bei and his son Liu Feng did not have wives, which created a lot of room for cooperation.

Marriage alliances with the Sun family and the four major clans can stabilize Wu County; marriage alliances with the Jiao family and the Yu family can stabilize Kuaiji.

Of course, marriage alliances have both advantages and disadvantages. People are emotional beings, and once a marriage alliance is formed, it often leads to collusion between subordinate generals and local forces.

This collusion was beneficial for Liu Feng's control over the region, but it could also lead to collusion between superiors and subordinates.

How to expand the beneficial aspects and suppress and limit the harmful aspects depends on the skill of those in power.

Liu Feng's choice was more clever. He and Liu Bei were now in a dual system. If he were to marry a powerful clan in his own territory, it would be a completely different story.

However, Liu Feng himself hoped that his generals, such as Taishi Ci, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and Xu Huang, would have simpler marriages. Even if they were to form alliances, he did not want them to choose powerful and wealthy families.

"Oh? Is that so?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei immediately became interested: "In your opinion, which woman from the Pang or Huang families would be more suitable?"

"There were also many marriage alliances between Huang and Pang."

After thinking for a moment, Liu Feng suggested, "Wealthy and powerful families value etiquette. In my opinion, Huang Zu's sister could be a good match for my third uncle, and Pang Ji's daughter could be a good match for Tan's brother."

After listening, Liu Bei thought about it for a moment and nodded in agreement, saying, "I understand, but whether this matter is feasible or not still needs to be discussed with your second and third uncles."

Liu Feng quickly reminded him, "If it's feasible, then we can start discussing the matter between my elder sister and Kongming."

Liu Bei glanced at Liu Feng and thought to himself that his son was quite concerned about this matter.

Let's discuss this matter later.

Liu Bei didn't give him a definite answer. In his heart, Liu Bei not only didn't object to the marriage alliance with Guan Yu, but even quite supported it. If it weren't for the compelling reasons given by his son, he might not have been swayed.

With the matter concluded, Liu Bei and his son Liu Feng washed up and went to pay their respects to Lady Wu and Lady Tian respectively. They were then invited to stay and have breakfast together.

Immediately afterwards, Liu Bei led Liu Feng to the hall.

At this moment, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Xun You, Guo Jia, and others were all present, clearly indicating that they were going to discuss serious matters today.

Shortly after they were seated, the first thing they discussed was the strategy offered by Xun You.

Calling it a discussion is not quite right; it should be called a discussion about the extent to which this strategy is implemented.

Guan Yu's return this time was mainly for communication, reporting, troop assembly, and resource mobilization. The departure time was tentatively set for next spring.

According to intelligence reports from the north, Yuan Shao was clearly very wary of the alliance between Liu Bei and Cao Cao, especially since Liu Biao of Jingzhou was destroyed by Liu Feng and Jingzhou was divided between Liu Feng and Cao Cao, which undoubtedly shocked Yuan Shao greatly.

Yuan Shao had many personality problems: he was outwardly generous but inwardly suspicious, ambitious, jealous of the talented, and so on. Moreover, his personal abilities were actually quite average, only a B-level in history.

However, one point must be mentioned: their performance when facing adversity. Many historical figures only excelled when things were going well; once they lost, they would never recover.

Yuan Shao, on the contrary, performed better when he was in a losing situation than when he was in a winning situation.

Putting everything else aside, just looking at the Battle of Jieqiao, Yuan Shao's performance at that time was truly outstanding and unparalleled.

First, he knew how to recognize and utilize talent, with Qu Yi as his vanguard and strong crossbows as his backup. He had keen insight and appointed people based on merit.

Secondly, after the great victory at Jieqiao, Yuan Shao, who was advancing slowly with his troops, was surrounded by the White Horse Cavalry, and his life was in grave danger.

At this moment, Yuan Shao could shout, "A true man should fight to the death," instead of fleeing to the walls?
Inspired by him, his soldiers fought valiantly and ultimately turned defeat into victory.

Judging from these two passages alone, Yuan Shao's performance can be described as brilliant and valiant, in no way inferior to his opponent Cao Cao, and perhaps even surpassing him.

Although Yuan Shao is currently selecting elite troops in Hebei to form his own army, his southward expansion strategy is all talk and no action, with no concrete progress in sight.

What surprised Liu Bei and Liu Feng even more was that Yuan Shao had sent several groups of envoys to Xuzhou, trying to win Liu Bei over to betray Cao Cao and share his territory.

Although Liu Feng did not know, he suspected that Yuan Shao must have also sent people to win over Cao Cao.

Although Cao Cao had repeatedly annoyed Yuan Shao in the past two years, there were even instances where he directly wrote letters to denounce Yuan Shao.

If Yuan Shao had been clear-headed, he would have realized that if he wanted to lead his army across the Yellow River and control the Central Plains, the prerequisite was that he had to break up the Cao-Liu alliance.

Qingzhou has a fairly typical topography, which can be described as mountains in the south, sea in the north, and plains in the east and west.

Starting from the Northern Sea Kingdom, the road westward is a plain, but from the southwest to the due south, it becomes a mountain range. The same is true in the east-west direction; the westward route is flat, but the eastern Laizhou Peninsula is mountainous with numerous peaks and forests.

Therefore, when Liu Bei's army launched an attack from Qingzhou, Yuan Shao's army had nowhere to resist unless a large army came to meet them.

Qingzhou is currently under the administration of Yuan Tan, who has been appointed as the governor of Qingzhou. After taking office, for some unknown reason, he has greatly angered the few remaining gentry families in Qingzhou.

The remaining powerful clans and gentry of Jinan, Le'an, and Qi have actually joined forces to resist Yuan Tan. Their target is Yuan Tan's officials. Unless they are accompanied by a large number of troops for protection, they often disappear shortly after crossing the Yellow River.

As for whether he was truly missing, neither Yuan Tan nor Liu Feng believed it.

"Nowadays, supplies and military rations are being delivered in a timely and plentiful manner, and troops can be mobilized immediately next spring."

After reporting on the progress of the preparations, Guan Yu changed the subject, and a hint of murderous intent appeared between his brows: "It's just that Lu Bu is too presumptuous."

Guan Yu's resentful remark immediately drew the attention of everyone in the hall.

Guan Yu, his face flushed and cold, muttered angrily, "This bastard actually asked for 300,000 shi of grain, 500 sets of fine iron armor, and 12,000 long and short weapons. What's worse, he also wants us to provide 800 warhorses, otherwise he can't send troops. It's utterly absurd."

Good heavens, Guan Yu's words were like a thunderbolt, stunning everyone in the hall. Even though Liu Feng knew Lü Bu's character well, he still felt he had underestimated him.

This doesn't sound like a price a normal person would ask for.

Unless Guan Yu has some weakness that you, Lü Bu, have in your hands, who would dare to agree to these conditions?

The main reason for bringing Lü Bu and others to conquer Qingzhou was to make use of their resources, and secondly, to use this opportunity to send troops to restrain Lü Bu and his men.

No one expected that Lü Bu would make such an outrageous demand. For a moment, no one could figure out what Lü Bu was thinking. They didn't know if he was really unwilling to send troops and was deliberately asking for a high price to scare Liu Bei away, or if he was really ignorant of his own limitations and arrogant enough to offer such a foolish condition.

After a moment's thought, Liu Bei first asked Guan Yu, "What are Meng Zhuo and Gongtai's opinions?"

A hint of disdain flashed in Guan Yu's eyes as he replied, "Although these two men are not very capable and have few soldiers and generals, they have both agreed to my request, brother. Together, they have several thousand soldiers and are willing to join my army to fight against Yuan Tan."

Zhang Miao was already at odds with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, especially Yuan Shao, who had tried to kill him several times. On the other hand, Cao Cao, although he also hated Zhang Miao to the core, had already shown some remorse for the sake of Liu Bei.

Moreover, Zhang Miao's younger brother, Zhang Chao, was saved by Liu Feng and owed Liu Feng his life.

Zhang Chao himself was a man of great loyalty. Over the years in Donglai, he would send Liu Feng a gift every year during festivals to express his gratitude.

Chen Gong was a native of Yanzhou, who looked down on Yuan Shao and had a complicated history of grudges with Cao Cao.

Therefore, Liu Bei and Liu Feng both felt that Zhang Miao and Chen Gong were trustworthy small warlords, because they would never join forces with Yuan Shao or Cao Cao.

However, the two of them are indeed running out of strength right now. Zhang Miao probably only has two or three thousand men, and Chen Gong has even fewer, only a little over a thousand.

Donglai is mountainous with few plains and is frequently near the sea. The land is eroded by the sea and cannot grow anything.

Zhang Miao and Chen Gong were forced to cut expenses, including those of their own troops.

"Zhang Miao and Chen Gong hope that our army can allocate some grain to them."

At this point, Guan Yu also took the opportunity to tell Zhang Miao and Chen Gong what they had asked for.

Liu Bei thought for a moment and then asked Liu Feng, "What do you think of this matter, my son?"

"I think it's appropriate to give it to him."

Liu Feng replied without hesitation, "Even with Lü Bu, as long as he is truly willing to help in the war, we can discuss food and weapons. Even if he wants warhorses, they can be allocated to him as long as he makes meritorious contributions."

"Oh?"

Liu Bei couldn't help but ask, "Why is that?"

Not only Liu Bei was concerned, but Guan Yu and Zhang Fei also showed their dissatisfaction.

They weren't dissatisfied with Liu Feng, but rather with Lü Bu.

Both Guan Yu and Zhang Fei looked down on Lü Bu, especially now that this incident has happened, their opinion of Lü Bu has plummeted.

Liu Feng glanced at the unassuming Xun You and thought to himself, "I don't think my thoughts can escape your notice, Xun Gongda."

"Father, please forgive me."

Liu Feng said to himself, "Although Lü Bu only has a few thousand men now, his cavalry has more than six hundred men, all of whom are elites from Liang and Bing. More importantly, Kong Beihai has praised Lü Bu a lot. This westward journey is all smooth road, which is exactly where Lü Bu's cavalry can make a name for themselves."

Liu Bei understood Liu Feng's meaning. Wasn't this a scheme to use Lü Bu as a vanguard to lure Yuan Tan into making a move, while he himself would hide behind and counter the attack, thus gaining the upper hand?

"Father, regarding Lü Bu's situation, why don't we try asking Kong Bei Hai to intervene and persuade him?"

Liu Feng earnestly suggested, "There might be an unexpected surprise."

(End of this chapter)