With Liu Bian's approval, Cao Cao immediately began to plan.

First, he sent people to contact Tao Qian and Chen Deng, temporarily ceased the battle, kept the front line unmoved, and no longer had large-scale conflicts. Then he returned home to worship his ancestors and prepared for the New Year. Qiao County is in Pei County and belonged to Yuzhou. He wanted to go home, but Yuan Shu couldn't do anything to him, but after he returned home, he did not stay in Pei County with his own composure. His subordinates visited relatives and friends, and many people entered Chen County and Runan.

As a result, Yuan Shu couldn't sit still. Is Cao Cao going to rob? Yuan Shu immediately sent someone to intercept him. He originally wanted to tell Cao Cao that Yuzhou is my territory. You can go back to your hometown to worship your ancestors, but you can't go too far. However, Cao Cao was interested in causing trouble. Before Yuan Shu could react, the two sides had already had a conflict and fought and it was out of control.

Yuan Shu was furious and sent Ji Ling to command 10,000 troops to confront Cao Cao, demanding Cao Cao to return to the entire Yuzhou within a limited time, otherwise it would be regarded as a declaration of war.

Cao Cao was right in his mind and immediately reported to Yuan Shao to ask for reinforcements. If there were no reinforcements, he would also send some horses. I was short of troops. If there were cavalry to help, it might be better.

Yuan Shao occupied Jizhou and was adjacent to Bingzhou and Youzhou. Although he could not get official horses on the surface, he could still buy some war horses in private. In comparison, Yuan Shao had more cavalry than Cao Cao and Yuan Shu. However, he was planning to compete with the north for Youzhou to fight against the elite cavalry of Youzhou, especially the white horse general Gongsun Zan. There were many cavalrymen, so how could he allocate them to Cao Cao? He just expressed his support for Cao Cao verbally, and symbolically gave two horses, and Cao Cao had to raise the others.

While sending letters to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao cried poorly. He also sent someone to contact Liu Bian. After some private consultations, Liu Bian instructed Liu Ba to sell more than a thousand middle- and low-class war horses to Cao Cao through smuggling, and exchanged them for a large amount of silk fabrics and grain.

Cao Cao used more than a thousand war horses to form a cavalry and handed it over to his clan brothers Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan to lead him. In a battle with Chengfu, when Cao Cao personally led the infantry to fight with Ji Ling, Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan led a thousand cavalry to attack from the diagonal formation and rushed straight to Ji Ling's rear formation, and immediately killed Ji Ling and defeated him.

Yuan Shu received the war report and was furious. Despite the dissuasion of everyone, he personally led a large army to Runan to fight to the death with Cao Cao.

The situation between the Jianghuai River and Huai River changes suddenly.

Just when Yuan Shu was determined to cut off Cao Cao's head, Liu Biao suddenly took action and sent general Kuai Yue and Wenpin to Nanyang County to capture Kunyang. Yuan Shu was shocked and immediately planned to lead his army back to aid. Before he could return to Nanyang, Xu Huang from Zhuyuan Pass led his army to break into Yingchuan. Within five days, he broke through several cities, joined forces with Liu Biao, and firmly blocked Yuan Shu's way westward.

Less than a month ago, Yuan Shu lost the important town of Nanyang County and was surrounded by all sides. He was trapped in Runan County by Cao Cao, Xu Huang and Liu Biao. Only then did Yuan Shu react and scolded Cao Cao for being despicable and shameless. He sent someone to question Yuan Shao, saying that Cao Cao had colluded with the court, would you still care?

Yuan Shao ignored it.

...

Nanyang is the hometown of the Emperor's hometown and the hometown of the He family of Liu Bian's mother. Liu Biao regained Nanyang, of course, it is worth celebrating it.

The victory was delivered to Chang'an, but Liu Bian was not happy at all.

Liu Bei had just returned from Yizhou and was in a very embarrassing state. In order to avoid the pursuers sent by Liu Yan, Liu Bei did not go to Hanzhong, but went north to the Han River, went to Wudu County, and returned from Longyou after a long circle.

The road was difficult to walk, and Konoero was quick and climbing mountains and ridges was not a problem, but the war horses were not used to the mountain road. They broke their horse's hooves and fell off the cliff. In addition, they were killed to satisfy their hunger, and only one-third of the more than one hundred war horses returned to Guanzhong.

Liu Bei was covered in dust. After entering Chang'an, he heard that Xu Huang defeated Sun Ce with hundreds of cavalry and broke the siege of Lujiang, and he felt even more ashamed. Standing in front of Liu Bian, Liu Bei wanted to find a crack in the ground to get in.

After listening to Liu Bei's report, Liu Bian was amused and crying.

It is said that Liu Bei was a defeated general of the Three Kingdoms and fought countless defeats in his life. Now it seems that he was not wronged. Zhang Ren has already said so clearly that he didn't hear any words. He even said wildly, insisting on forcing Liu Yan to kill him. Isn't this unhappy for himself? It sounds very powerful to be happy with his grudges, but you have to have that strength.

"It's good that people are fine." Liu Bian suppressed his displeasure and comforted Liu Bei a few words, allowing him to go down and rest.

Liu Bei left in a bad mood. When he passed by Zhou Yu, he stopped and was stunned for a moment: "New?"

Zhou Yu bowed and bowed: "Zhou Yu from Lujiang, I have met General Liu."

"What a young man." Liu Bei praised, "I know how to return after a lost journey, and I can be happy and congratulate you."

"If you are defeated, you will be honored."

Liu Bei blinked, smiled, waved his hand, walked down Jianzhangtai, his waist straightened unknowingly, and his steps became bigger.

Liu Bian was clearly a little surprised. Zhou Yu actually comforted Liu Bei, was it out of flattery towards Shangguan or his generous nature? Liu Bian was silent for a moment and called Zhou Yu over.

"Gongjin, Liu Yan is not a minister, what should we do?"

Zhou Yu bowed and said, "Yizhou is blocked by four blocks, and the plank road is thousands of miles away. It is inconvenient to march, and it is difficult to attack in urgent need of attacks. I am afraid we should slowly plan it."

"Don't you just sit back and see?"

"Not that." Zhou Yu pondered for a moment: "I think that first of all, we must send envoys to figure out the twists and turns of things, and then make a conclusion. Moreover, since General Liu can come back from Daowudu, there must be a Tao. It is better to send someone to explore and see if he can achieve a large army. In my opinion, although the mountain road is narrow, once he enters Wudu, he may be the same as a way to go through the water road."

Liu Bian thought for a while: "I have someone else to choose the messenger's affairs. I will leave it to you and Ma Chao. Do you dare to go?"

"Dare not obeying."

Liu Bian was very satisfied and immediately sent someone to find Ma Chao, asking him to take Zhou Yu and fifty guards to Wudu County to explore the road and prepare to march from Wudu to Yizhou. Then he sent someone to find Jian Yong, asking him to go to Chengdu again and question Liu Yan. At the same time, he asked Ai He to go back to Yizhou and contact Mrs. Lu from the inside of the Taoist sect.

Arranged properly, and all the people took action separately and rushed to Yizhou.

...

In the snow-capped mountains, in front of the tombstone, Xun Yu stood up solemnly.

Looking at the words on the tombstone, Xun Yu was in a heavy mood. The old man died in a hurry and failed to leave his successor according to the rules, so he took a lot of effort to find this place. Without a guide, he didn't know if he could find the right path just by relying on the map left by Dongfang Shuo in his hand.

The Confucian school has a big situation and cannot be accomplished by just a few people. Countless people are silently dedicating in secret, and they don’t even know what kind of goal they are dedicating to. They may not be able to truly perform their duties in their lifetime and consume their lives while waiting. This old man is lucky. He waited for Xi Zhicai. He is also unfortunate. The arrival of Xi Zhicai interrupted his peaceful life and let him die in the snow and ice. There is only a tombstone, and only the white mountains and black waters are with him.

Xun Yu's eyes swept over the tombstone again, and suddenly felt something strange. He squatted down and stroked his fingers across the cold stone.

The stone tablet is very smooth, as if it had been polished specially. But Xun Yu knew that in this mountain, there were few stonemasons coming to polish the tombstone for an unknown old man. When the old man died, Xi Zhicai was not familiar with the place, so it was even more impossible to find a stonemason.

So what's going on with this stone?

Xun Yu's eyes fell on the characters. The characters are carved in a dark way, which is the handwriting of Xi Zhicai, but the brushwork is more ostentatious. Each handwriting is almost the same deep, and the deepest part is in the middle of the strokes, as clear as new.

Xun Yu took a deep breath. He knew how this tombstone came from, and he also knew how these words were engraved.

Chixiao Sword.

Xi Zhicai actually used the Chixiao Sword to chop the tombstone, and actually used the Chixiao Sword to carve the characters? Xun Yu became angry. The Chixiao Sword is the sword of the emperor, and it is the sword worn by the emperor who was the Confucian scholar who had mastered the world. How noble is Xi Zhicai actually used such a sword to carve characters?

Xun Yu narrowed his eyes, glanced over the first handwriting, and the anger in his eyes slowly turned into surprise. He saw that the depth of the last stroke was the same as the depth of the first stroke, and the marks were still clear, and there was no sign of the blunt point of the sword.

Xun Yu understood something, but he was not happy at all, but he was a little more worried. After Xi Zhicai failed, the reason why he had to go to Xuanming Sea to kill the dragon was because his realm was higher than Xi Zhicai, and he could do what Xi Zhicai could not do. But after seeing this tombstone, he suddenly realized that at least when he was carving this tombstone, Xi Zhicai's realm had surpassed him.

If he had carved this tombstone, he would have asked himself that these words could not be so smooth or so freely.

How did the Ji Zhicai break through the realm?

If Xi Zhicai broke through the realm and was still no longer a match for Long, then what could he do when he arrived at Xuanming Sea?

Xun Yu sat in front of the tomb for a long time until the night fell and the roar of tigers in the forest shook the snow above his head and then raised his head and looked at the deep night sky. There were stars flashing, shining on the vast earth. Looking up at the stars and bathing in the dim starlight, Xun Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Some things, no matter how much hope they have, are necessary."

He stood up, walked to the tree beside him, cut off a piece of bark with a dagger at his waist, and carved a few words on the naked and exposed trunk.

"The Confucian descendants came to Xun Yu, admired his predecessors, and followed his heart and body."

Then, he bowed to the tombstone and took a few steps back. With a clear roar, he jumped up. The roar was still there, and his figure had already appeared on the hill opposite and disappeared into the night.

In the vast forest, a lonely figure rushed northward. He didn't know where the road was, how far he was, what he could do when he arrived at Xuanming Sea, and even if he could reach his destination, but he didn't stop or hesitate.
Chapter completed!