To put it simply, what Old Cao gleaned from Jia Xu's words was the question of who came first in name and principle.
Before this, because Xun Yu, Guo Jia, and the others had acted far too uprightly,
Old Cao had fallen into a logical trap: the Son of Heaven and Liu Bei were family.
Without realizing it, he had placed himself on the opposing side of Liu Bei and the Han Dynasty.
Under such circumstances, Yuan Shao wanted to deal with him, and Liu Bei might want to deal with him as well.
This made him overlook one thing: righteousness had an order of precedence, and the same was true for Liu Bei.
Why had Qin Tian been able to assist Liu Bei in rising and growing stronger back then?
Aside from Qin Tian's own judgment of the situation, there was also Yuan Shu's proclamation of himself as emperor serving as a passport.
Because Yuan Shu stood out front and proclaimed himself emperor, launching a campaign against Yuan Shu became political correctness.
When Liu Bei joined in with the tide, Old Cao had no choice but to spare him for the sake of preserving the Han Dynasty's dignity.
And the situation he now faced was a similar one!
He was not afraid of Yuan Shao. What he feared was Liu Bei, Liu Biao, and the rest tripping him up from behind.
Since that was the case, why could he not imitate Qin Tian and turn the campaign against Yuan Shao into political correctness?
For instance, if Yuan Shao now proclaimed himself emperor, then Old Cao's campaign against Yuan Shao would be service to the state.
Wearing that gilded signboard, would Liu Bei still dare stab him in the back?
The moment Liu Bei dared to do so, the banner