The edict proved so effective that even Li Jue and Guo Si were astonished. They had never imagined that the emperor in their hands could be so useful.
The establishment of the Three-League Alliance to Suppress the Rebels and the Three-League Alliance to Preserve the Han made people recall the distant age of the Zhou State, when the School of Diplomacy linked the various states into alliances that confronted one another.
The great war about to erupt in the Central Plains secretly alarmed all the surrounding states, which feared that blood might splash onto them.
Seeing this, Li Jue and Guo Si issued another imperial edict, ordering Gongsun Zan to attack Yuan Shao, intent on setting the Central Plains ablaze with war.
Gongsun Zan had been waiting for precisely this opportunity to march with a justifiable cause. As soon as the decree from the Court in Chang'an arrived, he summoned Youzhou's assembled officials.
"Yuan Shao, with his so-called Four Generations of Three Excellencies, has received imperial favor time and again, yet he brazenly sows disorder, disobeys the Court's decrees, and even denounces His Majesty.
As a high minister of this dynasty, could I possibly turn a blind eye to Yuan Shao's actions?
Now that the Court has issued its decree, it is clear that His Majesty can no longer tolerate the existence of a rebel like Yuan Shao. I can only carry out His Majesty's will with the utmost reverence.
Youzhou's civil and military officials can only carry out His Majesty's will with the utmost reverence, march against Yuan Shao, drive him out of Jizhou, and present his head to His Majesty."
Liu Yu watched Gongsun Zan with cold eyes. He understood Yuan Shao very well; besides, who under heaven did not know of Yuan Shao's deeds?
Gongsun Zan actually