Chapter 339 You become king and I succeed you. Chu, Qin and Wei are three kingdoms! To unify the world, should we attack Qin or Wei?

Liu was stunned at first, but then she suddenly understood.

Yuan Shao is in a coma and unable to take charge of the overall situation. Shen Pei and his gang of important officials from Hebei are going to take advantage of the situation to support Yuan Shang as king!
This is why Yuan Shang was not present.

At this time, Yuan Shang must have been sitting in the outer hall, waiting for Shen Pei and others to come and persuade him to ascend the throne with Yuan Shao's edict of succession.

After a moment of surprise, Liu was secretly delighted.

She was Yuan Shao's second wife. The two brothers Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi were not her biological sons. Only Yuan Shang was her biological son.

It has always been her long-cherished wish to help Yuan Shang become the crown prince and the heir to the Yuan family.

Now that Yuan Shang has skipped the crown prince and directly ascended the throne of the King of Wei, doesn’t that exceed her expectations?

After understanding the pros and cons, Liu suppressed the curve of her lips and leaned over to Yuan Shao's mouth again.

"Your Majesty, I think you must have heard what Shen Zhengnan said."

"They want the king to consider the overall situation and pass the throne to Shang'er. I wonder if the king will grant their approval?"

Liu pretended to be serious and asked.

Yuan Shao, who was in a coma, seemed to be stimulated by something. The corners of his mouth moved slightly, but no sound came out.

At that moment, Liu was really frightened, thinking that Yuan Shao was suddenly waking up.

When she looked carefully again and confirmed that Yuan Shao was still unconscious and showed no signs of waking up, she secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Then he raised his head, faced the ministers, and said solemnly:

"The king has just said that he has graciously approved your request and has decided to pass the throne to Shang'er, allowing him to inherit the throne of the Wei Kingdom!"

Everyone felt relieved and was secretly ecstatic.

"Great King Shengming!"

"We, the ministers, will definitely assist the Third Prince in revitalizing our Great Wei. One day, we will recover the Central Plains and wash away the shame of our defeat at the hands of the Pseudo-Chu!"

Shen Pei immediately bowed deeply and expressed his opinion.

All the ministers followed suit and bowed down, shouting in unison, "Your Majesty is wise."

In the outer hall.

Yuan Shang, who was pacing with his hands behind his back and a frown on his face, suddenly stopped when he heard the faint voice of "Your Majesty is wise" coming from the inner hall.

"Congratulations, young master. This must be because the king has graciously granted the request of all the ministers and agreed to pass the throne to the third young master."

A young strategist beside him reacted very quickly and was the first to bow and congratulate Yuan Shang.

Yuan Shang came back to his senses, the corners of his mouth curled up, and unprecedented ecstasy gradually welled up in his eyes.

A long-cherished wish has come true!
He could hardly suppress his delight and burst out laughing.

But when the laugh came to his lips, he suppressed it and replaced it with a sigh.

"Shen Zhengnan and his men are determined to place the burden of the Wei state on my shoulders."

Yuan Shang shook his head and sighed, looking helpless.

The young counselor rolled his eyes and hurriedly bowed and said:
"You are a man of great talent, wisdom, bravery and strategy. You have the qualities of a wise ruler. Otherwise, the king would not have passed the throne to you."

"At this time when the Great Wei is in danger, only you can shoulder the heavy responsibility of revitalizing the Great Wei and protecting the people of Hebei."

"My lord, you will inherit the throne and rule the four states of Hebei. This is the will of heaven and the will of the people. Please do not refuse!"

Yuan Shang felt extremely comfortable listening to the young scholar's compliments and flattery, and a sense of mission that was destined for him arose spontaneously.

Yuan Shang's face turned into a resolute and heroic one, and he said resolutely:
"In this case, for the sake of the people of Hebei and the country of Wei, even if the road ahead is unpredictable, I, Yuan Shang, will shoulder this heavy responsibility without hesitation!"

The young scholar was overjoyed and started to flatter and praise him again.

"But if my father passes the throne to me, I'm afraid my eldest brother won't agree, let alone acknowledge it~~"

After Yuan Shang's generosity, he got a headache again.

"This is easy. You can spread the word to the public and say that the king has woken up, but is too weak to take care of things, so he passed the throne to you and I will step back and support him."

"As long as the king is still here, even if the eldest son is dissatisfied in many ways, he would not dare to openly question him, let alone openly break with the young master and raise troops to cause trouble."

"At the same time, you can also appoint him as General of Chariots and Cavalry as some compensation for him."

"And the ruin of Qingzhou does not give the eldest son the confidence to raise an army and become an enemy of you."

"Most of Liyang's food and grass need to be supplied by Yecheng. As long as we cut off the food and grass, his soldiers will run out of food within ten days and collapse without a fight."

"With all these factors, I believe the eldest son will be able to weigh the pros and cons. Even if he is unwilling, he can only helplessly accept the fact that the third son will succeed to the throne!"

The young scholar was calm and composed, and slowly analyzed the public opinion situation to Yuan Shang.

Yuan Shang suddenly became enlightened, the worry in his eyes disappeared, and the corners of his mouth rose again.

"I wasn't wrong about you. I really wasn't wrong about you. Haha——"

Yuan Shang laughed and looked at the young scholar, his eyes showing undisguised admiration and praise.

The young scholar bowed his head to show his humility.

However, when he lowered his head, the corners of his mouth quietly rose at a moment that Yuan Shang could not see.

...

Xuchang, Chu Palace.

Inside the main hall, a huge sand table of thirteen states stretched across the center of the hall. Liu Bei, Xiao Fang, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and other officials of the Great Chu were looking at the newly built sand table.

On the north side of the sand table, there is a small flag with the words "Pseudo-Wei" written on it.

On the west side of the sand table, there is also a small flag with the words "Pseudo-Qin" written on it.

Not long ago, information from Guanzhong and Hebei was transmitted back to Xuchang one after another.

Shortly after Cao Cao returned to Chang'an, the emperor issued an edict to confer the title of "King of Qin" on Cao Cao.

It was natural for Cao Cao to establish a country and proclaim himself king. With Guanzhong, Xiliang and Hanzhong as his bases, he officially established the Qin Kingdom and proclaimed himself the King of Qin.

This is also to be expected.

After all, both he and Yuan Shao became kings. As Cao Cao, who was holding the emperor hostage, how could he not be jealous and not want to make progress?

When he had just retreated to Guanzhong and his foundation was unstable, Cao Cao naturally had to endure.

Now that Guanzhong has been firmly established and Liangzhou is basically under control, Hanzhong has just been captured. Not only has he gained the credit of expanding the territory, but his strength has also been further enhanced.

Under such circumstances, it was expected that the emperor would be forced to issue an edict to make him king.

Intelligence from Hebei claimed that Yuan Shao was unable to handle government affairs due to illness and passed the throne to his third son Yuan Shang.

The throne of Wei State thus changed its owner, and Yuan Shang was declared the successor to the throne as King of Wei.

This news surprised Liu Bei, but after Xiao Fang's analysis, he immediately understood.

With the fall of Henan, Yuan Tan and his Ruying faction suffered the heaviest blow. Heavyweight backbones such as Xu You, Xin Ping, Xin Pi, and Xun Chen all died one after another.

The only important ministers available to Yuan Tan were Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong.

The influence of the Ruying faction also shrank back to a corner of Qingzhou.

On the contrary, Yuan Shang's faction in Hebei suffered almost no losses, except for a few people such as Feng Ji and Gao Lan.

Yecheng was under the control of the Hebei faction. Most of the Wei army was from Hebei. The core Jizhou was also under the control of Yuan Shang. Even Yuan Shao's life and death depended on the Hebei faction.

Under this situation, it no longer matters whether Yuan Shao is alive or dead, or whether he passed on the throne willingly or was forced to do so.

What’s important is that the Hebei faction already has an overwhelming advantage over the Ruying faction.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural that Yuan Shang, the spokesperson of the Hebei faction, ascended to the throne.

At this moment, Liu Bei was standing in front of the sand table, looking down at the land of Wei and Qin, with a grand blueprint brewing in his mind.

It has been nearly three months since the end of the Central Plains War, and more than two months since the capital was moved to Xuchang.

Hongnong County, which borders the Pseudo-Qin on the western front, has basically been under control, and strategic passes such as Hangu Pass are also guarded by elite soldiers and generals.

On the eastern front, Gan Ning, Chen Deng and others also achieved great results, recovering Beihai, Le'an and other counties in the southeast of Qingzhou, further compressing Wei's front line in Qingzhou to the Jishui line.

As for the central route, all the counties and kingdoms south of the Yellow River have been taken under control, and trustworthy county officials have been appointed to take charge.

The important towns and passes along the river, such as Baima, Puyang, and Gaotang, were all occupied by Chu troops.

Recruiting refugees, restoring farming, implementing military farming, etc. are also being carried out in an orderly manner in various counties and states. People's hearts are gradually at peace, and the economy is recovering rapidly.

In addition, a large number of surrendered soldiers, especially those from Henan who surrendered from the State of Wei, were also being reorganized and incorporated into the Chu army.

The people in the Central Plains have gradually settled down, and agriculture and sericulture have gradually recovered. It is almost time to prepare for the unification of the country.

Today, Liu Bei summoned all his ministers to discuss the next direction of military deployment.

"Everyone, it is imperative to defeat the fake Qin and fake Wei and unify the world."

"I summoned you here today to discuss whether to attack the fake Qin or the fake Wei first."

"Whatever opinions you have, please feel free to speak up."

Liu Bei asked, pointing at the sand table.

Xiao Fang gently waved his feather fan and stared at the sand table. He had made up his mind, but did not express his opinion immediately.

We need to give talented people opportunities to demonstrate their overall vision and give young people the chance to take on leading responsibilities.

"Your Majesty, I think we should first attack the fake Qin!"

"Although Cao Cao has taken Hanzhong, his Pseudo-Qin is still the weakest compared to the Pseudo-Wei."

"Our army will unify the world, and we should follow the steps of starting with the easy and then moving on to the difficult."

"After destroying the pseudo-Qin, we will be able to incorporate Liang Province into our territory, and we will have a place to produce horses, thus solving our weakness of insufficient cavalry once and for all."

"And the advantage of the Pseudo-Wei is that it has the Youyan cavalry available. Then we can use the Xiliang cavalry to confront them head-on and offset their cavalry advantage!"

Pang Tong gave his views on the situation and analyzed the pros and cons eloquently.

Pang Tong's strategy was supported and agreed upon by Zhang Xiu and other generals from Xiliang.

After all, for cavalry generals like Zhang Xiu, building a powerful cavalry has always been their dream.

Besides, who wouldn’t want to return to his hometown in Guanlong with wealth and glory?

Liu Bei stroked his thin beard and nodded slightly, seeming to approve of Pang Tong's strategy.

"Your Majesty, I think we should first destroy the pseudo-Wei!"

A decisively confident voice raised an objection.

The person who spoke was Zhuge Liang.

(End of this chapter)