Chapter 273: At the End of the Road

After capturing this assassin, Su Fan sealed all of his abilities and then sent Dian Wei to pacify the camp outside.

Looking at this person, Su Fan remained silent.

There was no need to ask; Su Fan already knew whose handiwork this assassin was. Besides Yuan Shao, there was no one else.

It was the same tactic as Yuan Shu's from the year before last.

In the ninth year of Chuping, Su Fan intercepted Yuan Shu at the Yangtze River, crushing his million-strong army. That same year, Su Fan directly dispatched troops to the gates of Yuzhou.

In a mere half-year, he had beaten Yuan Shu's forces into a rout, leaving him with only the single commandery of Runan. A month later, he breached Runan City, forcing his opponent to commit suicide by fire.

Of course, this battle was not easy. After all, Yuan Shu still possessed strength, and Liu Biao of Jingzhou, fearing that if the lips were gone the teeth would be cold, had dispatched Liu Bei to support him with an army of one hundred thousand.

Unfortunately, Taishi Ci and Chen Dao blocked his advance, and the rest of the million-strong army achieved victory after victory.

Upon seeing Runan fall, Liu Biao hurriedly recalled Liu Bei, focusing all his efforts on defending against Su Fan's army.

By the tenth year of Chuping, with the exception of Liu Biao, the entire south had fallen into Su Fan's hands. Combined with Yuzhou and half of Yan Province, Su Fan could be said to occupy one-third of the world.

His strength was undoubtedly the greatest in the world.

At this, the entire world was shaken.

It was truly earth-shattering; no one had expected Su Fan's strength to be so formidable. He had remained silent until he finally shocked everyone.

Even the powerful Yuan Shu had not lasted a year before being crushed and dying in defeat.

Consequently, the remaining warlords of the world were thrown into a panic. If the powerful Yuan Shu had been defeated so quickly, they feared they would be unable to resist him if they fought alone.

Liu Biao, in particular, was the most panicked.

After all, he was the closest to Su Fan. With Yuzhou taken, the gates to Nanyang Commandery had also been knocked open.

For this reason, he had no choice but to continuously grant Liu Bei more authority.

Previously, he had always been wary of Liu Bei and had suppressed him.

After all, during the great battle at Hulao Pass, Liu Bei had demonstrated the terrifying strength of his two brothers. If he were given too much military power, it was very likely he would become uncontrollable.

Therefore, back then, after letting him hold off Sun Jian, he had immediately banished him to Wuling Commandery.

Wuling Commandery was considered a backwater; even if he gave him the title of Prefect, he believed Liu Bei would be unable to develop to any significant degree.

In fact, that was the case; for those few years, his opponent had barely managed to build an army of less than one hundred thousand.

Originally, according to his plan, he would have continued to suppress him.

But Yuan Shu's sudden collapse had scared Liu Biao into a state of illness. With no other choice, he had to reactivate Liu Bei.

Because without those two brothers, he did not know if Jingzhou could withstand the spearhead of Xuzhou.

So he had no choice but to reactivate Liu Bei, though even so, Jingzhou's strength was at most limited to passive defense.

To launch an offensive was impossible.

Thus, in the world, only Yuan Shao and the Imperial Court remained.

After Yuan Shu was annihilated, Yuan Shao also felt the crisis and immediately sought out the Yang clan and others at the Imperial Court.

Although those at the Imperial Court loved to fight for power and profit, they were not fools and could naturally feel the aggressive pressure of the Xuzhou forces.

If they did not unite, relying on one side alone would likely make it difficult to resist Xuzhou.

Therefore, after the tenth year of Chuping, Yuan Shao and the Imperial Court joined forces to dispatch troops, and even Liu Biao of Jingzhou had Liu Bei send a portion of his troops to attack Nanyang.

It was also this year that the world once again recognized the power of Xuzhou and the power of Su Fan.

Since the campaign against Dong, there had been dozens of warlords in the world. They had not expected Su Fan to eventually possess such powerful strength, having previously remained holed up in Donghai without moving.

Even the capture of Xuzhou had only occurred in the fifth or sixth year of Chuping.

This year, the Xuzhou forces, fighting one against three, did not fall into a disadvantage at all. One must know that the existing warlords were all powerful figures occupying one or two provinces.

Especially the Imperial Court, which, in the name of righteousness, had also subdued the Ma clan of Liangzhou, making the Imperial Court's strength even greater.

But in the great battle of this year, the three great warlords were unable to stop the Imperial Court's army, which was firmly blocked outside Chenliu by a single force from Xuzhou, unable to advance a single step further.

Lv Bu, the peerless warrior invincible in the world, also met his lifelong opponent, Huang Zhong.

Liu Bei of Jingzhou, just after leaving Nanyang, suffered a fierce attack that forced them to retreat repeatedly.

Yuan Shao fared even worse, as Jizhou was on passive defense.

Su Fan's million-strong army, bringing Guan Hai and a portion of the Taihang Mountains Yellow Turban army—totaling three million—invaded Jizhou.

For the previous two years, the Yellow Turban army in Taihang Mountains, with Su Fan's support, had been constantly causing trouble for Yuan Shao.

This had caused Yuan Shao to lose quite a few troops, though later Yuan Shao utilized his family's foundation to launch a sneak attack on the Zhang Bao brothers, killing one and severely wounding the other.

Furthermore, he used a scheme to incite infighting within Taihang Mountains, suddenly disintegrating a large portion of the Taihang Yellow Turbans.

But that delay of a year or two caused Yuan Shao to miss the best opportunity for development.

When Su Fan's army moved out, his opponent could only resist with a desperate, scorched-earth approach.

In a year of great battles, both sides experienced countless skirmishes. Su Fan, relying on his powerful productivity and logistical support capabilities,

began to continuously nibble away at the territory of Jizhou.

Even fighting on three fronts, with a powerful industrial base, Su Fan lacked neither troops nor weapons and equipment, and as for talent, he lacked that even less.

As his territory grew larger, the talent flocking to his banner increased; after all, anyone with eyes could see that Su Fan's strength was the greatest.

If one didn't go to serve such a person, would they go to serve Yuan Shao instead?

Although the Yuan clan's reputation was high, with Yuan Shu annihilated and Yuan Shao now being beaten into retreat, their halo was gone.

Only the Imperial Court could still rely on righteousness to attract some forces, but compared to Su Fan's governance, it was incomparable.

First of all, within the Imperial Court, aristocratic families were as numerous as crucian carp in a river, and many interests were controlled by a few families.

Newcomers found it difficult to obtain any good positions.

But under Su Fan's governance, it was different; a single Edict for Seeking Talent caused the humble scholars of the world to flock to Xuzhou.

Therefore, in every aspect, Su Fan was stronger than these few remaining warlords.

The great battle lasted for a year and a half. Jingzhou could no longer endure it and had long since stopped, retreating to Nanjun to defend it to the death.

And the Imperial Court, because of the blocking of Huang Zhong's army in Chenliu, was unable to advance and had to stop as well.

After all, fighting a war consumed a great deal of money and grain. The Imperial Court now only controlled Sili and Liangzhou.

Liangzhou was a bitter, cold place with no revenue, and while Sili was wealthy, unfortunately, most of it had been swallowed by aristocratic families, and the Imperial Court could not obtain much money or grain.

Without money or grain, how could they fight a war?

Even if Lv Bu were divine and brave, it was impossible.

So after a year and a half of great battles, Yuan Shao gradually fell into the position of fighting alone.

At present, he was at the end of his rope, so he thought of taking the final step: sending someone to assassinate him.

Su Fan sneered incessantly. ===== CHAPTER 274 =====