Three Caos fighting for a bride? Zhen Ji, I, Cao Zhi, will take her!

"Hehe, please rest assured, my lord, everything is going according to plan!"

Xu Shu smiled.

Hearing Xu Shu say this, Liu Bei finally let go of his worries.

Then, the two of them went over the plan again to make sure there were no omissions...

In fact.

The reason why Xu Shu imitated Xun You's handwriting to write a letter to Xun Yu.

The purpose was not to make the Yingchuan gentry stand idly by in the struggle between Liu Bei and Cao Cao.

Nor did he want to exchange these 200,000 shi of grain from Xun Yu.

Although, Liu Bei is indeed short of food at the moment.

But the main purpose of writing to Xun Yu was not for food.

According to Xu Shu.

Two such important places, Xuzhou and Qingzhou, were seized by himself and others.

If I were Cao Cao, I would have sent people to attack me long ago.

But the fact is.

He and his men have occupied Xuzhou and Qingzhou for nearly a month.

There was no reaction from Cao Cao.

Is this reasonable?

This is unreasonable!

Therefore, Xu Shu thought of testing Cao Cao's reaction by writing a letter.

If Cao Cao agreed to give him food.

That means Cao Cao's army was tied up with other things and could not be mobilized for the time being, so he had no choice but to agree to it.

But if Cao Cao doesn't agree, he will decisively reject me.

That proves that Cao Cao's army is about to attack.

As for Xun You’s life safety.

This nominal bargaining chip.

It was not a bargaining chip in the first place.

Because no one would think that Liu Bei would kill Xun You, including Liu Bei himself.

"My Lord, I have been thinking about this for the past few days..."

"With our current strength, can we be a match for Cao Cao?"

Xu Shu murmured softly.

It seemed like he was asking Liu Bei, but also seemed like he was asking himself.

"Not an opponent!"

Liu Bei said seriously.

Seeing Xu Shu looking over, Liu Bei continued:

"Through the large-scale conscription in Xuzhou and Qingzhou during this period, we now have 32,000 men!"

"Of these 32,000 men, 2,000 were brought by us from Xinye. They are considered our core, but they have never experienced real combat, and their combat effectiveness is only slightly better than that of ordinary soldiers!"

"Among the remaining 30,000 soldiers, Yu Jin and his 10,000 men are considered veterans and can fight!"

"As for the remaining 20,000 soldiers, to put it bluntly, they are just a group of ordinary people who chose to join the army just to have enough food to eat. They can't form combat effectiveness in the short term!"

"On the other hand, Cao Cao has elite troops at his command and the support of the entire Henan gentry!"

"If Cao's army arrives, I can only defend the city. Even with this, my chances of winning are only 40% at most!"

Speaking of it.

Liu Bei couldn't help but reveal a look of grief and anger on his face.

Liu Bei was a member of the Han Dynasty royal family and the uncle of the Han emperor.

My biggest dream is to support the Han Dynasty and bring peace and prosperity to the people of the world.

But the reality is that since his debut, he has been defeated time and time again, but he keeps fighting.

From the original Zhuo County, he fled to Xinye.

It can be said that he struggled from having nothing to being heavily in debt.

If it weren't for Xu Shu's help.

The three Liu Bei brothers are still living in a small county in Xinye, wasting their time.

But even if he got Xu Shu, Qingzhou and Xuzhou at this time.

However, Liu Bei knew clearly that he was still no match for Cao Cao.

"What if Liu Biao is included?" Xu Shu asked.

"impossible!"

Liu Bei shook his head and said with a wry smile:

"Brother Jingsheng (Liu Biao, courtesy name Jingsheng) is the Lord of Jingzhou in name only, but in reality, all power in Jingzhou is controlled by the four major families. Even if Brother Jingsheng is willing, he is powerless!"

"What's more, Brother Jingsheng only has his eyes on the small piece of land in Jingzhou!"

"What if we add Liu Jiyu (Liu Zhang, courtesy name Jiyu)? He is also a relative of the Han royal family!" Xu Shu said again.

"Haha, even Liu Biao is unusable, let alone Liu Zhang?"

Liu Bei laughed and said:

"Just say what you want to say. I, Liu Bei, have wasted half my life. I may not have any other abilities, but I do have the ability to endure. There's no need to test me with indirect attacks!"

"Hehe...Since my lord says so, I seem petty!"

Xu Shu laughed.

"The reason I just asked you about Liu Biao and Liu Zhang is to tell you that if you want to fight against Cao Cao, you can't trust anyone else. The only one we can rely on is ourselves!"

"Of course, with our current strength, we can't rely on ourselves!"

"My next plan, my lord, please listen if you want to. If you don't want to, just treat it as my dream talk. In fact, this plan is something I just thought of..."

"My plan is—"

At this point, Xu Shu stared intently into Liu Bei's eyes and said word by word:

"Using the excuse of food and fodder to attract Cao Cao's attention!"

"In fact, send cavalry to raid Xudu over a thousand miles and snatch the emperor from Cao Cao!"

"Bang..."

Xu Shu had just finished speaking.

Liu Bei stood up suddenly because of excitement

Because his movement was so large, Liu Bei directly hit the table in front of the two men.

The bamboo slips, teacups, inkstones and other objects on the table fell to the ground with a crackling sound.

But at this time, neither Liu Bei nor Xu Shu had the energy to take care of it.

“When will we start?

What are the chances of success?

After we have recaptured the Emperor, how do we keep him?"

Liu asked the three questions that concerned him most.

"The sooner we act, the better!"

"If we can catch them by surprise, there's a 60% chance of success!"

"After recaptured the emperor, we will immediately abandon Qingzhou and Xuzhou, march south, and head straight for Xiangyang!"

"After arriving in Xiangyang, we will issue an order in the name of the Son of Heaven for all the princes in the world to unite and defeat Cao Cao!"

Xu Shu said in a deep voice.

See Xu Shu's plan.

Include Liu Biao and the emperor in the count.

In the past, Liu Bei might have hesitated or even refused.

But Liu Bei also knew.

Xu Shu's plan can be said to be a race against time.

The longer you hesitate, the further your plan will be from success.

Then Liu Bei said in a deep voice:

"Everything will be as Yuanzhi said!"

Having said this, Liu Bei immediately straightened his clothes, bowed deeply to Xu Shu, and said seriously:

"If this is accomplished, Yuanzhi's contribution will be no less than that of Zhang Liang of the Early Han Dynasty and Deng Yu of the Later Han Dynasty!"