Cao Cao, Jiangdong, Liu Biao, Liu Bei, and Gongsun Zan were all afraid of when Jiang Siming would make his move against them.
Although Gongsun Zan was allied with Jiang Siming, he also understood that an ally who was too powerful was a potential ticking time bomb.
The five warlords had secretly begun forming an alliance, hoping to find a suitable opportunity to strike Jiang Siming the heaviest blow possible.
Unfortunately, two years passed without Jiang Siming making any move. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to developing his territory.
Meanwhile, Cao Cao and the others' alliance lacked the most crucial strategic talent, so their confidence in the alliance was insufficient.
Strategic talent meant advisers. Cao Cao had once possessed an excellent adviser—Xi Zhicai—but unfortunately, Xi Zhicai had died of illness the previous year.
As a result, Cao Cao now had no top-tier strategist of any real caliber by his side.
Xun Yu, Xun You, and Guo Jia had long since defected to Jiang Siming. Now, the only adviser under Cao Cao was someone like Cheng Yu.
Although Cheng Yu could be considered a first-rate strategist, he was still a level below Guo Jia and Xun Yu.
Recently, Cao Cao had heard that the Poison Strategist Jia Xu was near his territory, and he was currently sending people to search for him.
Among the others, only Zhou Yu of Jiangdong could be considered noteworthy. However, Cao Cao and the others believed Zhou Yu was a commander rather than a strategist, and that he could not match Guo Jia in terms of schemes. Thus, they did not take him into consideration.
Apart from that, the advisers under Liu Bei, Liu Biao, and Gongsun Zan were not even first-rate.
Liu Bei had been searching for the Sleeping Dragon and Young Phoenix all this time.