"Cao Cao was suspicious after all, and he didn't believe that after he surrendered, I would spare his whole family's life. Well, a person's trust in others might have been formed when he was young.

Cao Cao had been suspicious for most of his life, and now he is forty-eight years old. It is too difficult to ask him to suddenly believe the other party’s sincerity.”

Liu Bei was also deeply moved when he heard that Cao Cao was afraid of the breakdown of the negotiations and finally chose to withdraw his troops and contract.

He knew that Cao Cao's suspicion had been engraved into his bones.

Can't change it, it's born.

The problem was quickly thrown to Liu Bei: Cao Cao gave up Chen County, gave up the area without any dangers, and kept retreating eastward, not chasing? How to chase it?

"What do you think about this matter?" Liu Bei didn't take it seriously, humbly accepted advice, and summoned all the ministers to discuss it.

Fa Zheng was the first to jump out and pointed out directly: "Your Majesty, Cao Cao is probably seducing the enemy! He is so deceitful, and Guo Jia is also a strange person.

Previously, the only county was under the rule of Cao's army in Chen County, west of Honggou, was the only one who was under the jurisdiction of Chen County. In the remaining sections, the enemy and our army were mainly confronted across Honggou. Since there was no danger to defend between Ruyang and Chen County, the scouts of the two armies also had many confrontations.

Now Cao Cao abandoned Chen County, which is equivalent to completely giving up the defense line of Honggou. Maybe Cao Cao's recent expansion of his army was short of food and grass. It was the middle of winter and his army was attacked by our army again, so he had to retreat."

Liu Bei also felt that Cao Cao had the possibility of seducing the enemy. But he also felt that once Cao's army loosened, it was indeed a good opportunity to pursue Cao's army. What was Cao Cao's seducing the enemy so much?

After being scanned by Liu Bei, Xu Shu, who is more skilled in tactics among the strategists, spoke up and analyzed: "Your Majesty, Cao Cao is luring the enemy, but he really luring the enemy so much, and the price he paid is quite high.

First of all, the enemy and our army began a tug-of-war between Ruyang and Chen County from July and August. The stronghold of Chen County is an important guarantee for ensuring the Cao army transporting grain along the Honggou.

So after four months, both sides have more or less built and deep grooves, making it easier to defend and difficult to attack. In this case, either side will suffer a lot of additional losses and setbacks.

The current situation is similar to that of Emperor Gaozu and Xiang Yu in Xingyang. Emperor Gaozu and Xiang Yu had been fighting for two years. Now, His Majesty's army is far superior to Emperor Gaozu, but Cao Cao is weaker than Xiang Yu.

But Your Majesty is not as powerful as the "Peng Yue and Chu" that restrained Cao Cao's flanks. This is the timely situation where Emperor Gaozu was not as good as Emperor Gaozu. At least it will take until the beginning of next spring, the Prime Minister goes north from Shouchun, and the Secretary of Zhuge attacks Pengcheng from Sishui, and Langya, which will be considered as the power of Peng Yue.

Now that Cao Cao gave up Chen County, it was equivalent to giving up the three or four months of operation of the Honggu defense line and indulging our army to cross the Honggu. This gave up the entire eastern Henan. Once our army catches up with Cao's army, it will fight the Cao Cao army in the central Henan plain.

The battlefield may be Liang County, or Cao Cao's hometown Qiao County. In short, Cao Cao will become more and more unsafe to defend. This is not bad, and Cao Cao will not be unaware of it.

What's more, war is a major matter of the country. We must be careful. Hundreds of thousands of troops will fight, and the morale of the army is the most important. Attacking the heart is the best. Anyone who reads a brief history of literature and military affairs will learn from the lessons of the ancients when they are in the battle.

When Xiang Yu agreed to be the boundary of the Great Gun, he withdrew his troops and retreated across the Great Gun. He was instantly killed by Emperor Gaozu's destruction of the alliance and destroyed it in a flash. Will the civil and military officials in Cao's camp not know this lesson?

Cao Cao gave up the defense line of the Great Gangou retreated east at this critical moment. If he fought again, he would probably feel that the next battle would be the decisive battle at Gaixia! Who is determined to die for Cao Cao?"

(Note: At the end of the Han Dynasty, the former site of Gaixia was in Fuli County, Qiao County, which was a county on the eastern border of Qiao County, bordering Xuzhou. Continue eastward to the Sui River, Xiang Yu's hometown Pengcheng County, Xiaxiang County)

After listening to Xu Shu's tactical analysis, Liu Bei also realized that Cao Cao's strategic retreat at this time, and the loopholes and losses left behind were also quite large.

The gap defense line is gone, the key is that morale and people's hearts are easily dissipated!

People can associate. The history that can be associated before the Han Dynasty was not too long, but it was definitely enough. Four hundred years ago, Xiang Yu gave up the squad and retreated, and was almost done. Who doesn’t murmur?

In fact, Cao Cao on the opposite side had thought of this a long time ago, but he had no choice. He knew there was a flaw here, but he couldn't block it, and he had no choice. The more obvious this flaw seemed, the more determined Liu Bei's determination to chase and kill, and the more he was full of confidence, the more underestimated the enemy.

Liu Bei was indeed tempted by such huge interests. He felt that if he didn't pursue this situation, would he still be a human being?

It’s not that I don’t know how to lure the enemy on the other side, but even if I lure the enemy, it’s still the one who lures the enemy “firstly cut oneself to show weakness”. I still give up on myself and even if I know it’s a lure, I can beat it!

Liu Bei was so excited that his adrenaline soared. He walked back and forth for more than ten steps, shook a finger and pointed at the country: "What Xiaozhi and Yuanzhi said make sense. Cao Cao may indeed be luring the enemy, but the price Cao Cao paid for luring the enemy is indeed high. I agree with these two points, so what if I do next step?"

Liu Bei wanted to ask directly "how to pursue", but in the end he endured it. He didn't want to limit his subordinates' ideas and hoped that everyone would speak freely.

If everyone analyzes the pros and cons clearly and advises him not to pursue him, then he will also consider accepting advice.

As long as the reasons are sufficient.

But everyone heard that His Majesty really wanted to chase after him.

Of course, it must be clarified here that the reason why Liu Bei wanted to pursue was also related to his inability to grasp Cao Cao's latest total military scale in real time.

This is not that Liu Bei did poorly in intelligence work, but that Cao's army's mob grew rapidly, and there was no accurate information at all, and it was changing. Moreover, this large-scale expansion of the army also had a problem of bluffing smoke bombs. Cao Cao even publicized to the outside world that he claimed that he had a million troops, so Liu Bei could not believe it.

Therefore, Liu Bei only knew that the number of Cao soldiers in front was growing, and they were growing more than him, but he really didn't know that there were already 560,000 or 70,000 people.

And this number is just reached in the middle of the twelfth lunar month, and the scale of the front line's aggregation has just exceeded 500,000 mark in the early twelfth lunar month.

Moreover, the concept of this "front line" is also vague. Many troops gathered in Qiao County behind Chen County from the beginning, staying away from the battlefield. When Cao's army gave up half of Chen County and entered Qiao County, the troops deployed in Qiao County were considered to have moved to the front line.

With such rapid changes, it is understandable that the information is inaccurate.

Everyone is aware of these issues, so Lu Su, who has the highest status and a more persistent attitude, thought about it and proposed a compromise plan:

"What Your Majesty sees makes sense. Cao Cao is luring the enemy. The scale of Cao's army must be greater than the unit that Your Majesty personally conquered, and our army should indeed pursue it.

But maybe we can wait a few days before the fast horses contacted Hebei from Chenliu, and wait for General Zhao to cross the Yellow River from the plains south, and drill through the Dayeze along Jibei. He did not attack the city, but only to disturb the rear of Cao's army and restrain his troops.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister was asked to go north from Shouchun, attack the hinterland of Qiao County along the Wo River, and attack His Majesty with His Majesty. He then ordered Zhuge Shangshu and General Zhou to strengthen the attack on the areas below Xiapi County in Xuzhou, and block the road to continue to retreat eastward on the battlefield in Qiao County.

In this way, our army, plus some cavalry of General Zhao, Huai and Si, will have a total strength of more than 350,000. No matter how many Cao's army is, it will be a mob, and if there is a fraud, it can defeat you! Avoid the war will last longer and the Cao bandits will resist step by step, and the people will suffer for one or two more years."

Lu Su's words were already quite serious, and he also interpreted Liu Bei's intention to pursue him as "to shorten the suffering of the people", which is indeed in line with Liu Bei's wishes.

Seeing this, Fa Zheng and Xu Shu felt that His Majesty had a tendency to accept Lu Su's plan.

Liu Bei looked around the field and found that Ju Su, who had a short period of surrender, remained, without saying a word, as if he was protecting himself for his shallow qualifications.

Liu Bei listened to both sides and was clear, and accepted advice humbly. He sincerely asked Ju Su to express some additional opinions.

Ju Su was persuaded and pointed out a problem straightforwardly: "Your Majesty, it is naturally a safe way to pursue and further gather troops.

However, Zhao Yun was too far away from the battlefield. Even if he forced himself to cross the Yellow River, did not attack the city, and came to meet us regardless of the grain road, he would have to pass through the two counties under Cao Cao's rule.

The soldiers and horses of Huai and Si were all mainly infantry, so they set off immediately and it would take more than ten days to reach the battlefield. Once Cao Cao retreated, he would be able to establish another line of defense.

Moreover, Cao Cao was originally going to retreat and fight. Judging from his tactics, his technique of strengthening walls and clearing the fields was extremely vicious, and all the retreats were scorched earth. However, those places behind Cao Cao that were not abandoned may have built camps, corridors, and fortifications in advance.

A few days apart, I am afraid that Cao Cao will prepare more and choose a battlefield environment that is more beneficial to him. It is better to chase him immediately and attack him to better damage the morale of the Cao army."

Liu Bei had to think about it. At this point of discussion of this strategy, he had already thought about it very comprehensively. He had considered all kinds of trade-offs and cons. The final key is to make choices.

If you want to chase, you cannot pursue it quickly, but you cannot give Cao Cao a breath... All three conditions are met, and it is difficult to design.

In the end, he still had no chance to show his performance, but in fact, Liu Bei followed his Huang Quan and expressed his opinion since April when he was in charge of the imperial army.

Huang Quan asked for an order and said, "Your Majesty, since you have to meet the conditions proposed by the Secretary of Fa, the Envoy of Lu and the Chief Ju Shizhong at the same time. You will pursue and slow down your pursuit, and you will not give Cao Cao a breath of rest to prepare for the battlefield.

Then, it is better to ask Your Majesty to send one or two powerful generals to lead the cavalry to pursue, bite Cao's army, and keep a distance so that Cao's army cannot deploy and move in an orderly manner.

If the Cao army turns around and fight, the cavalry will retreat immediately and not fight with the enemy. The Cao army has hundreds of thousands of deployments and is deployed for a hundred miles, and there are always those who are left alone behind the palace. I am willing to follow this cavalry to pursue the military aircraft and avoid advancing.

Once Cao's army encounters a full counterattack, I can also assist the entire division in retreating and joining His Majesty's main force. Your Majesty can also get a few more days of preparation. If you find that Cao's army is indeed powerful, you can turn to the ground and not fight with Cao's army in the field, and drag the 80,000 reinforcements from the Prime Minister and Zhuge Shangshu to the battlefield."
Chapter completed!