All the officials in the imperial court were asking Cao Cao what he thought of Hebei!
In their opinion, Yuan Shao has an army of 300,000, Cao Cao has an army of 200,000, plus the imperial court also has a Central Army of 300,000, and a combined army of 800,000, this should be the most powerful force in the world and should be able to deal with Lei Gong!
It can be said that Yuan Shao's "exemplary teaching" ignited the nostalgia for Luoyang City among all the civil and military officials in Xiangyang. Everyone wanted to return to Luoyang City again and restore the days when they talked and laughed, had scholars and scholars, but no white men!
If they want to return to Luoyang City, Lei Gong is the biggest obstacle. They dare not return to Luoyang City unless they kill Lei Gong!
Cao Cao knew what these people were thinking, but he emphasized to all the civil and military officials in the court that Lei Gong was powerful and could not be defeated easily. He was even more cautious about forming the Northern Expeditionary Army and would not speak easily!
However, Yuan Shao's memorial said: "Your Majesty can return to Luoyang City first. Firstly, it can boost the morale of the army. Secondly, it also means that you can personally conquer the army. During the crusade against Hebei, if Your Majesty appears in Luoyang, it will be detrimental to the Northern Expedition."
Estimated impact.
From Liu Bei's military operations in the past few years, Yuan Shao saw that the Liu family still had extremely strong influence, which was not comparable to that of his Yuan family. Just like the crusade against Yuan Shu, if Liu Bei did not have a court behind him, he could still defeat Yuan Shu.
But it is impossible to do it so easily. There is also the battle against Yizhou. If Liu Bei does not have the name of the imperial court and Yizhou is naturally dangerous, Liu Bei may not be able to enter Yizhou even after three or four years of fighting!
So Yuan Shao's idea was simple, that is, to win Emperor Xian to his side, he wouldn't worry about Liu Bei not being able to contribute.
As soon as Yuan Shao said these words, Yang Biao and Zhang Wen stopped him: "Absolutely not!"
Yang Biao said: "The emperor is so noble, how can he leave the capital so easily!"
Yuan Shao laughed and said: "Luoyang City is also the capital of the Han Dynasty!"
Zhang Wen also followed up and said: "Now that the Han Dynasty has moved its capital to Xiangyang City, how can it give up Xiangyang so easily? This will be very detrimental to your majesty's prestige!"
Wang Yun also said: "Such frequent capital moves will make the people confused. Even if your Majesty wants to return to Luoyang, he should only go back after defeating the rebellious Lei Gong!"
Other civil and military officials also stopped Yuan Shao from trying to let Emperor Xian return to Luoyang City! Firstly, they understood Yuan Shao's ambition, and secondly, Luoyang City was not a safe place, otherwise they would not have wanted to move the capital to Xiangyang in the first place.
The city is coming! Civil and military officials like them don’t want to put themselves in a dangerous place!
Yuan Shao saw the commotion among everyone, laughed it off, stopped urging, and said instead: "The attack on Hebei is related to the integrity of our Han Dynasty. Only by defeating Lei Gong can we truly revive our Han Dynasty! I also ask all the ministers to support me!"
Hundreds of officials in the imperial court expressed their opinions in various ways, but most of them decided that now is the time to defeat Lei Gong, the greatest treason of the Han Dynasty!
Of course, everyone knows that the real decision on whether these coalition forces can be established depends on the opinions of Liu Bei and Cao Cao!
So after the meeting is over!
Liu Bei invited Yuan Shao and Cao Cao to his general's palace to discuss matters!
After the host and guest were seated separately, Liu Bei said bluntly: "Brother Benchu, please tell me why you want to attack Hebei when the Central Plains has suffered three consecutive years of disasters. Rest and recuperation is what we should do at this time! If brother Benchu doesn't tell the truth, Bei
It is impossible to send a large army to the Central Plains to fight against Thunder Lord!"
Cao Cao looked at Yuan Shao playfully. He and Yuan Shao had been playing together since childhood, and he naturally knew Yuan Shao's pride. If Liu Bei had been asked like this before, he would have been furious!
But now it seems that although Yuan Shao was a little angry, he held it back. After Yuan Shao sank for a long time, he had no choice but to smile and said: "The Central Plains can't bear it anymore, and I can't support an army of 300,000. If I don't fight Lei Gong this year, I will just
We can reduce our troops to protect ourselves! However, disasters in the Central Plains have continued year after year, but the land of Hebei has been harvested year after year under the rule of Lei Gong. Now Lei Gong’s accumulation of grain and grass is enough for a million troops. If Hebei has another good harvest this summer, I am afraid that Lei Gong will have another bumper harvest in July.
The army will invade the Central Plains! So I plan to strike first to gain strength!"
Liu Bei had no doubts about Lei Gong's ability to farm. Back then, in the barbaric land of Mayi, Lei Gong forced Lei Gong to find the Pearl on the Fortress. Not to mention that Hebei was already a fertile land. Even if it suffered from drought, Lei Gong's ability would definitely be able to do it.
Spend it!
Liu Bei looked at Cao Cao and asked: "Brother Meng De is approaching Hebei. Didn't he hear any news about Lei Gong?"
Cao Cao looked at Guo Jia. Collecting intelligence about Hebei has always been Guo Jia's main job!
Guo Jia organized his thoughts and said: "In the land of Hebei, there have not been many military mobilizations in recent years. That is to say, this year Lei Gong mobilized 50,000 troops from Bingzhou to attack Xiliang. At the same time, he allocated 5 million shi of grain relief from Bingzhou. The entire Xiliang
The people of Hu and Han in Liang, and Lei Gong can pacify Xiliang so easily, these grains play a vital role!"
"The natural disasters in the Central Plains not only exhausted us, but also the Qiang people in Xiliang. Facing Lei Gong's food offensive, many Qiang tribes even voluntarily surrendered to Lei Gong, just to get a full meal!"
Liu Bei said seriously: "In other words, Lei Gong has no plans to attack the Central Plains this year?"
Guo Jia shook his head and said: "I can't say for sure. Daqian implemented a standing army and a recruitment system. The standing army is Lei Gong's officers. Lei Gong only has a standing army of 50,000 in Hebei, but it can be expanded to 500,000 in a month, or even more.
Jizhou now has a population of about 6 million, and the entire Jizhou can recruit 600,000-700,000 young people!"
Zhang Fei sneered: "How dare you brag about an army of 600,000 to 700,000 people! What do so many people eat? How do you transport food and grass?"
Guo Jia said solemnly: "Lei Gong implemented a food stamp system. The people did not have much food in their hands. Most of the food was in Lei Gong's hands. The entire Jizhou alone has 30 million shi of military rations. If the civilian food is also added
, I am afraid that the grain reserves in Jizhou alone exceed 100 million dan.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The three counties of Wei, Qinghe, and Bohai in Jizhou have piles of food. These are Thunder Gods, prepared to be used in the Central Plains War. Do you think Thunder Gods can be mobilized?
600,000-700,000 troops!”
Zhang Fei and others were shocked when they heard this. Liu Bei has done well in farming over the years, but the food in his hands is only ten million stones in front of him. According to Guo Jia, their food reserves are even one-tenth of Lei Gong's. Even worse, the gap is too big!
At this time, Xu You also said: "The situation we got is similar. This is why my lord does not dare to reduce the army, because Lei Gong may cross the Yellow River at any time and his horse will trample on the Central Plains!"
Yuan Ji hesitated and said: "Lei Gong has so much food in his hands. Logically speaking, he does not lack the food to attack the Central Plains? The Central Plains has been in drought for three years. This should be the best opportunity for Daqian. Why doesn't Lei Gong attack? Central Plains?”
This is actually what makes Yuan Shao and the others strange. If they were Thunder Lords, not to mention having hundreds of millions of stones of food in their hands, even if they had millions of stones of food, they would launch a large army and take the opportunity to attack the Central Plains!
Guo Jia said with a wry smile: "The three-year drought not only caused the Central Plains to wail all over the place, but also made Hebei miserable, and even affected Lei Gong. He was worried that the drought would continue to expand, and formulated a three-year grain storage plan, that is, the people in Hebei must save Enough food for three years. Only in this way can Lei Gong dare to expand his territory.
But now Lei Gong could not even save enough food for a year, and he was worried that if he continued to use troops in the disaster year, a large number of people would starve to death, and the food in his hands was not enough to help the people, so Lei Gong stayed in Hebei for three years! This time, if Ma Teng, Han Sui and others hadn't attacked Bingzhou, killed and set fire to anger Duke Lei, I'm afraid that Duke Lei would not even be willing to attack Xiliang!"
Liu Bei and others were stunned for a while. They knew that there were about 20 million people in Hebei. According to a common person eating 20 shi of food a year, it would be 60 shi in three years. Multiplied by the huge number of 20 million, what Lei Gong wanted The food reserve is actually 1.2 billion stones!
Zhang Fei couldn't laugh or cry and said: "I admit that Lei Gong is very capable in farming, but I'm afraid it won't be possible for Lei Gong to accumulate such a huge amount of grain in less than 10 years. We don't have to worry about what Lei Gong will do. Lei Gong will not go south for at least 10 years." Central Plains!"
Xu You saw Zhang Fei and mocked: "If we really think like this, we will die without a burial place!"
"Lei Gong made this plan because he knew that the Central Plains was difficult to capture, and the battle between millions of armies on both sides would not be over in a short while, so he had to hoard more food. But if the Central Plains is fragile, like Xiliang, Lei Gong just wants to It can be captured with an army of tens of thousands, and Lei Gong will definitely change his plan and capture the Central Plains in advance!"
"This is Lei Gong's poisonous plan. He wants us to compete with him. He only arranged 100,000 troops on the border (50,000 Bingzhou Army, 50,000 Jizhou Army). We have to arrange 200,000 or even 300,000 troops to defend against Lei Gong. Armed with such a large army, how can we recuperate? If this situation continues, the gap between us and Thunder Lord will widen even further. I am afraid that when Thunder Lord's army attacks the Central Plains, we will not be able to withstand Thunder Lord's cavalry even if we want to!"
Liu Bei looked at Cao Cao and asked: "Brother Meng De, do you think now is the best time to attack Lei Gong?"
Cao Cao smiled bitterly for a long time and said: "I don't know if it's true or not, but I know that time is on Lei Gong's side. The longer we delay, the stronger Lei Gong will be. We can't compete with Lei Gong in terms of consumption! On the contrary, we are the most powerful now.
After this year, the gap between us and Hebei will become wider and wider!"
Liu Bei said seriously: "In that case, I have plans to attack Thunder Lord. I wonder if Brother Meng De is willing to join us?"
A moment after Cao Cao sank, he said solemnly: "Our Qingzhou Army is willing to fully cooperate with the general!"
Attacking Lei Gong now is also good for him in Qingzhou. After all, they are the ones facing Lei Gong directly. Now that Liu Bei is willing to support them, Cao Cao certainly wants to delay the development of Hebei! Anyway, this war will not break out in Qingzhou.
Youzhou, Jixian!
Yuan Shao's guess was correct. Drought broke out in the Central Plains again. This made Wang Ge and others extremely happy. When Xu Wei returned to Jixian, he immediately handed Xu Wei his plan to fight southward!
Xu Wei looked at it casually and said in surprise: "Do you want to attack the Central Plains after the summer harvest and eliminate Yuan Shao?"
Wang Ge's plan was extremely grand. He recruited 100,000 troops from Bingzhou to join 50,000 Xiliang troops to attack Guanzhong, Taiyuan County recruited 50,000 troops to attack Hedong, Shangdang County recruited 50,000 troops to attack Hanoi County, and Jizhou launched 15
Ten thousand troops, including 100,000 troops to attack Yanzhou and 50,000 troops to attack Qingzhou, delay Cao Cao's support for Yuan Shao!
Then the two armies struck like two fists, and the other two armies wanted to hit Luoyang City with two heavy blows, smashing the outer defenses of Luoyang City. By then, 300,000 troops would surround Luoyang City, and all at once
Destroy Yuan Shao's 300,000-strong army and seize the lands of Sili and Yanzhou!
Wang Ge smiled and said: "Yuan Shao has been so unlucky in the past few years. The three-year drought in the Central Plains was either in Guanzhong or Yanzhou, which are his core territories. However, he wanted to prevent us from attacking the Central Plains. Faced with such a drought, he did not think about it.
Instead of building canals to survive the disaster, we mobilized the people to build forts to resist our march southward!"
"Yuan Shao can't hold it anymore now. This is when he is at his weakest. If we don't find a way to defeat Yuan Shao now, and wait for Yuan Shao to recover, it will be several times more difficult for us to go south to the Central Plains!"
Li Gang also said: "In power, Yuan Shao has already started to take action. A spy from Xiangyang came to report that Yuan Shao is mobilizing connections in Xiangyang and wants to mobilize the power of the entire Han Dynasty and want to expedition to the north! If we don't take the initiative to attack the Central Plains now, what else?
How many times Yuan Shao and the others will form a coalition to attack Hebei, this battle is inevitable!"
Xu Wei said suspiciously: "You all said just now that Yuan Shao is about to be overwhelmed by the huge military expenditure. He still wants to form a coalition to attack us. He is not afraid of starving his army to death!"
Wang Ge said with a smile: "Yuan Shao is learning from Cao Cao's old wisdom. When Cao Cao first occupied Qingzhou, his strength was low and he didn't have much money and food. So he used the excuse to help Tao Qian attack Yuan Shu and sent 50,000 new soldiers of his own to form an army with the Xuzhou army.
The allied forces attacked Yuan Shu's territory, so Tao Qian was able to support his 50,000-strong army for several months!"
"Now Yuan Shao obviously thinks the same way. Yuan Shao has no food, but Liu Bei has food. Liu Bei has reclaimed tens of millions of acres of land in Jingzhou and Yangzhou in recent years. With the hot climate in the south, it can be done two seasons a year.
Even though Liu Bei has continued to fight in recent years, Xiangyang still has a large amount of food reserves!"
"Now Yuan Shao is interested in the food in Liu Bei's hands. He wants to use Xiangyang's food to feed his 300,000-strong army in the Central Plains. If we and Liu Bei end up losing both sides, maybe this is what Yuan Shao wants to see the most! Anyway,
As far as Yuan Shao is concerned, Liu Bei cannot maintain the army in his hands, and if the Han Dynasty forms a coalition, it will not consume the strength of his family. This is a good thing for Yuan Shao and both sides, so he is like this.
They are actively going to Xiangyang and want to attack us!"
Xu Wei was speechless! What a thing! He had been avoiding the war, but he didn't expect that the war would follow him like a shadow!