The Three Kingdoms: Zhaolie, the strategist, and the rise of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 67: The Concept of a Three-Part Power

"If Cao and Lu fight among themselves, there will be no worries in the west. Once we have enough strength, we can go south to attack Yuan Shu."

"First send an envoy to befriend Liu Yao, then join forces with Liu Biao and surround him from three sides. How can Yuan Shu stop us?"

"When the time comes, we will have taken over the Huai and Si rivers. How can Liu Yao be a match for our army?"

"In this way, you can control Xuzhou and Yangzhou. If you retreat, you can protect the country and the people, and control the southeast. If you advance, you will not lose the opportunity to compete for the world."

"At that time, Yuan Shao occupied Hebei, Cao Cao occupied Yanyu, and our army occupied Xuyang."

"With three-point strength, it can be accomplished."

Li Yi planned a strategic plan for Lao Liu to divide the world into three parts in advance.

Even though people often say that Jiangdong is a group of rats, he did survive to the end.

There is no other reason, it’s just the danger of the river.

Sun Quan was a decent king who could maintain the status quo, but he lacked the courage to conquer the world.

If Big Ear Brother were to take over, he would never be able to achieve such a shameful result as the Battle of Hefei.

After all, you and I are the heroes of the world, and we fought at the Battle of Yiling and Chibi.

Sun Quan is not suitable for playing this kind of high-end game, but Lao Liu can try.

Besides, he now has Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, two powerful enemies, Chen Deng, Tian Yu, Qian Zhao and other hexagonal warriors. The logistics team also has the wealthy Mi Zhu and Lu Su, and the special forces soldier Zhao Yun.

The foundation is still very good.

"...Well, this is a long-term idea that cannot be accomplished overnight."

Liu Bei appeared to be very calm.

Although Li Yi didn't say many words, each of his words was very troublesome and time-consuming to put into practice.

I don’t know what will go wrong in the middle.

“Although the road is long, if you keep walking you will reach your destination.”

"Now that Lü Bu and Cao Cao are at war, we might as well free up some surplus food from the treasury and secretly provide Lü Bu with money and food."

"But you can't use the name of Xuzhou. Just let Mi Biejia and his men send a caravan."

After all, Cao Cao was Yuan Shao's younger brother, and Yuan Shao personally came out to protect him, so if Liu Bei was in trouble, he would also suffer the consequences.

Otherwise, he would fall out with Yuan Shao.

During the period from 194 to 197, you can only offend one of Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, and never offend both of them at the same time.

Now both Cao and Lu are actually quite short of food.

However, Cao had Cheng Yu to support him, and in the summer of 195, he even robbed the people's wheat, so he barely managed to survive.

But Lu Bu was not so lucky.

Relying on fleecing the two big families of Zhang Miao and Chen Gong, they had eaten up all the food in the mountains and could not sustain it for long.

Liu Bei thought again and again:

"There is not much food in the state. I am afraid that even if Lu Bu gets the money and food, he may not be able to defeat Cao Cao."

Li Yi replied:

"There is no need for Lü Bu to defeat Cao Cao. As long as he can hold his own against Cao Cao in Yanzhou, Xuzhou will benefit."

“Overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.”

After driving out Lu Bu and pacifying Yanzhou, Cao Cao expanded his territory rapidly.

As soon as they pacified Yanzhou, they immediately attacked Yuzhou.

At that time, there was only Guo Gong in Yuzhou, who had weak control over the province, so anyone could get a piece of the pie.

It took Cao Cao only two or three years to swallow up all of Yuzhou.

According to the "Book of the Later Han", there were a total of 616 million people in Yuzhou at that time.

If Liu Bei took advantage of the stalemate between Cao Cao and Lu Bu, he might be able to fish in troubled waters and take over Lu and Pei, which are closest to Xuzhou.

What's more, Chen Gui had previously served as the prime minister of Pei and had a great influence on the State of Pei.

It is relatively easy to collect it.

The State of Lu had a special geographical location, directly in the heart of Yanzhou.

Confucius said, "When you climb the Eastern Hill, you will feel that Lu looks down on you; when you climb Mount Tai, you will feel that the whole world looks down on you."

By controlling Lu, one can radiate his sphere of influence into the Central Plains. "Yuzhou has a special geographical location, with both Yuan Shu and Cao Cao's forces in it. If I rashly advance, I'm afraid I'll offend both of them at the same time."

"It would be disadvantageous to Xuzhou."

Liu Bei analyzed calmly.

Although Yuzhou was in a state of chaos at the moment, both Yuan Shu and Cao Cao had influence over this area.

Yuan Shu's territory was originally in Yuzhou. He was defeated by Cao Cao and driven to Huainan, but he never gave up his control over Yuzhou.

For example, he appointed Sun Ben as the governor of Yuzhou and Yuan Si as the prime minister of Chen State.

As for Cao Cao, his family was in Yuzhou and his hometown was in Pei State.

The Cao and Xiahou families had a great influence on the local area.

Moreover, the family of his subordinate Xun Yu was in Yingchuan, and the Xun family was also the most prominent powerful family in Yingchuan.

So compared to Yanzhou, Cao Cao actually has a better mass base in Yuzhou.

Right now, Cao Cao and Yuan Shu are both unable to take care of Yuzhou due to their own problems.

Of course, Liu Bei could take advantage of the chaos to sweep over the two states of Lu and Pei, which were within his reach.

But once Cao Cao and Yuan Shu have time and discover that the crystal has been stolen, will they unite to attack Liu Bei?

This obviously did not conform to the strategy that Li Yi originally constructed for Liu Bei, which was to resist Yuan Shu in the south and make peace with Cao Cao in the west.

Li Yi methodically analyzed the feasibility of the strategy for Liu Bei:
"Our strategy of going south to seize Yangzhou will initially target Yuan Shu, and we will have to fight him sooner or later."

"Why should we fear attacking his Yuzhou? Besides, Yuzhou was not his to begin with."

"As for Cao Cao, if he can follow the plan and provide Lü Bu with money and food, Cao Cao will be too busy to take care of himself, so how can he have the time to attack Xuzhou?"

"Even if Lü Bu is defeated in the future, Cao Cao will be afraid to act rashly."

"Besides, I don't think Cao Cao will dare to attack Xuzhou in the short term!"

Li Yi's last sentence was spoken with certainty, indicating that Cao Cao did not dare to attack Xuzhou.

I'm not bragging, the people of Xuzhou do have a buff against Cao's army.

This is not a joke, it's true.

In Xun Yu’s original words, it is called:
——"When we attacked Xuzhou before, we used powerful punishments. The sons and daughters of Xuzhou remembered the shame of their fathers and brothers, so they would defend themselves and have no intention of surrendering. We could have defeated Xuzhou, but it is not possible."

Even the people in Xuzhou want to take revenge on you, Cao Cao, and can't wait to eat you alive.

If you really dare to attack us, we will all unite as never before to resist you, and no one will surrender.

Even if you really capture Xuzhou in the future, the people will not truly submit to you.

By then, it will be more difficult to rule than Yanzhou.

This is indeed the case. Later, Cao Cao conquered Xuzhou, but he did not directly rule it.

Instead, Zang Ba was entrusted with the management, and this management lasted for more than 20 years.

Until Cao Cao's death and Cao Pi's accession to the throne, Qingxu, where Zang Ba was located, was still in a semi-independent state.

Based on this, Li Yi dared to conclude that Cao Cao would not attack Xuzhou.

In other words, there was no need for Cao Cao to fall out with Liu Bei just for the sake of the interests of Lu and Pei.

After all, these two places did not touch Cao Cao's core interests.

What Cao Cao really wanted was the southern part of Chen State and Pei State, and the most important Yingchuan.

Cao Cao can be considered a great strategist, not as short-sighted as Yuan Shu.

According to his mentality, he would never give up Liu Bei, a potential ally.

Li Yi was just gambling, betting that in Cao Cao's heart, Liu Bei was more important than Lu and Pei.

And he believed that he would not lose the bet.

"good!"

Liu Bei suddenly felt heroic, "Sir, you have such courage, why shouldn't I follow you?"

it is good!
This is called a heroic leader.

……

　Brothers, please join the group! Just looking for a follow-up reading. Thank you for sticking with me for the last week!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)