"My lord, we are not worried about Gongsun Zan. Although he has a superior military than others, his ambition is just that. He is by no means an enemy of my lord. However, Qingzhou, Yanzhou and Liaodong still need to be on guard." Shen Pei said.

.

With the experience of Baima Yicong who defeated Gongsun Zan last time, today's Shenpai does not take Gongsun Zan into consideration even more. The current Yuan Shao is not comparable to the time when he just established his foothold in Jizhou and relied on the strength of the family. Today's Yuan Shao is a plump man in Jizhou.

The land has been recuperating and the army has been working hard for several years. It can be said that the army is strong and the horses are strong. With nearly 300,000 capable warriors under his command, and sufficient money, food and weapons, Shenpei is very confident to win the next battle.

"The Central Plains has just experienced a war. Liu Xuande and Cao Mengde are both seriously injured. They don't dare to do this," Guo Tu said.

"Liu Xuande probably can't, but it's hard to say for Cao Mengde." Xu You said. Growing up, he knew Cao Mengde's character best. He has a majestic appearance, long-term vision, and ruthless military tactics. He can definitely do such a thing.

.

"If Cao Mengde lets us take Youzhou easily, our next target will definitely be Qingzhou. He won't be able to figure this out. Yuan Jiujiu, who is thousands of miles away, seems to want a piece of my pie, let alone Cao Mengde.

." Yuan Shao said with a gloomy expression.

His former younger brother now showed even more courage than himself. He conquered the Central Plains and became the overlord of one side. He also controlled the land of two states and had tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Yuan Shao was extremely afraid of this.

.

"Although Cao Cao's hometown Yanzhou was captured in the previous Battle of the Central Plains, he newly occupied Qingzhou, and his troops did not lose much when trying to capture Qingzhou. Liu Xuande can only protect himself now, but he still has some spare strength to go on an expedition.

It won’t be a problem to send out at least 30,000 to 50,000 troops.”

"But now that Yuan Shu is powerful, we and Cao Mengde are natural allies. Besides, our relationship has always been good before. How dare he do this?" Shen Pei asked puzzled. You must know that Cao Cao made his fortune under the banner of Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao instructed him to develop south of the Yellow River and disturb the situation in the Central Plains as a barrier to Hebei, so that Yuan Shao could fight Gongsun Zan with peace of mind without worrying about being attacked on both sides.

Yuan Shao had a good idea. He used a small chess piece like Cao Cao to turn the Central Plains into a mess, allowing him to successfully solve the Hebei issue, but he ignored Cao Cao's own ability. Cao Cao initially only occupied the east county of Yanzhou, but it was not short-lived.

In just six months, he recruited hundreds of thousands of troops and recruited countless good generals. In the end, he directly occupied Yanzhou without any help from Yuan Shao and became the overlord.

Although he did not have the support of aristocratic families and was short of money and food, Cao Cao relied on his tough tactics to stabilize this very unfavorable situation. He pretended to be a horse thief and went to other states to steal food, and organized gold-rich captains to rob tombs and reduce the number of soldiers.

The food supply was until the resentment of the soldiers under his command was aroused, and the heads of the grain transport officers were used to quell the people's complaints. When the soldiers' food was not enough, they resorted to cannibalism on Cheng Yu's suggestion.

The history of Cao Cao's fortune is completely a history of blood and tears. He lived in a lack of money and food every day. Whenever a war started, he would be short of food. Yuan Shao had expected this, so he initially put Cao Cao in the

Although Yanzhou seemed like a place where he could let the tiger go back to the mountain, he did not feel worried. In his opinion, Cao Cao's shallow background was not enough to support him in making a name for himself in the Central Plains and to save his life in Yanzhou.

That’s pretty good.

But he never thought that Cao Cao was so ruthless. Even if he had no money or food, he still gritted his teeth and forcibly recruited countless armies, and then attacked everywhere to grab food. In the end, he relied on this cruelty to slowly carve out a piece of the sky. Of course.

, the price was that Xuzhou, which was originally rich, was directly destroyed, and the people of the Central Plains were 10 to 10. Otherwise, with the foundation of the Central Plains, how could Cao Cao's troops and supplies in the subsequent Battle of Guandu be as inferior as Yuan Shao's?

You must know that before the Yellow Turbans, Yuzhou was the largest state in the world. Yanzhou and Xuzhou were also extremely wealthy. The Central Plains far surpassed Hebei in terms of population, money and food.

This is also the price that Cao Cao paid for being able to fight his way out of such an unfavorable situation. Cao Cao gained short-term combat power entirely at the expense of the foundation and future potential of his subordinates. In the end, he became the overlord of the Central Plains, but the Central Plains also

It is in dilapidated condition, with no population or material left. This is the price of being domineering. Taking the wrong direction is not a long-term solution. If you fail once in the process, you may fall permanently.

"Zhengnan, the Cao Cao of today is no longer the Cao Cao of the past." Xu You sighed lightly.

"It was my mistake to put Cao Cao into the Central Plains. I thought he was a vicious dog who could guard the sheep in the Central Plains for me and prevent them from causing trouble. But I didn't expect that he was a hungry wolf, killing people in the Central Plains.

He came out and has grown to where he is now. I was too careless at the time!" Yuan Shao said with some regret.

"This is not your Majesty's fault. After all, Cao Mengde had no soldiers, no food, no righteousness, and no support from his family. Who would have thought that he would be able to get to where he is today. Fortunately, Your Majesty insisted on his own opinion and did not give him money or food support. Otherwise, we would be here now

The Cao Mengde we face will probably be even more terrifying, even Yuan Jiujiu can't match him," Xun Chen said.

"Actually, Yuan Jiujiu also played a big role in Cao Mengde's success today. If he hadn't been trading grain all over the world, Cao Mengde's food chain would have collapsed long ago. I really don't understand why Yuan Jiujiu would do this.

It's a stupid move to support the enemy." Guo Tu said.

Xun Chen glanced at Guo Tu indifferently and said in a deep voice: "Gongze, you only saw Yuan Gongzi spreading grain everywhere and helping other princes. But you didn't see the development and population changes in Jiangdong over the years. There are more than two thousand people in Jiangdong.

A population of 10,000! Now the total population of the world is estimated to be less than 40 million, and our country, Zhao, has a population of less than 5 million. You must know that even before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the total population of the entire south was less than 1

Fifteen million. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, maybe only 10 million would be good. Where do you think the remaining population of more than 10 million comes from? The population that was not valued by us at the beginning has now become a success.

Without the strength of Yuan Jiujiu, the current strength of the south is probably difficult for us northern princes combined to match."

Xu You sighed softly when he heard this, and then looked at the map of the Thirteen States of the Han Dynasty on the other side: "Not only that, Yuan Jiujiu is so hostile, it means little to us, Tao Qian, Liu Yan and other wealthy princes with deep roots.

.Our need for money and food is not much, and at most it can only be regarded as icing on the cake. In the end, the poor princes such as Cao Cao, Lu Bu, and Gongsun Zan will benefit. But what is the result now?"

"In the Central Plains, Lu Bu and Cao Cao were fighting together with Liu Bei and Tao Qian, and had no time to care about anything else. In Hebei, Gongsun Zan's strength greatly increased due to lack of money and food, severely curbing the development of the lord. But Yuan Shu was all the way in the south.

By pushing aside, it easily occupied Jingzhou, Yizhou, and Jiaozhou, the weak places of the princes, and continued to grow in power until it became such a huge behemoth today."
Chapter completed!