As soon as Yuan Ji went to court, the housekeeper reported to him that someone was coming from his hometown! Yuan Ji asked the housekeeper to take the person to the hall!
"Big Father, hundreds of thousands of troops from Hebei Province are attacking Yuzhou again. Now the Yuan family is in danger. Only Big Father can save the Yuan family!" Yuan Shang cried as soon as he saw Yuan Ji.
Yuan Shao was captured by Xu Wei in advance. The only good news for the Yuan family is that they no longer have to go through the process of raising children. Yuan Shang is only thirteen years old this year and cannot compete with Yuan Tan.
Of course, no one in the Yuan family wants to fight in this situation. Just seeing that Yuan Tan can hand over the entire Sili to his second brother, it can be seen that for all the forces in the Yuan family, saving lives is the most important thing at this stage.
matter.
Yuzhou is the real home base of Yuan Shao's power. Yuan clan's family is here, Guo Tu's family is here, Xun Kan's family is also here. Five of Yuan Shao's eight great counselors are from Yuzhou. If Yuzhou is lost, these people will really be together.
Home is gone.
It can be said that their war with Lei Gong is not a war between upper-level princes competing for hegemony. Even if their lord is defeated, their family or even individuals will not be implicated. If the lord changes their lord, they will still be reused.
But the war between them and Lei Gong is a life-and-death war with no retreat. The loser will never recover.
What makes them even more helpless is that this time they are the weaker side. Even if they want to surrender to Lei Gong, Lei Gong will not accept it! So now the forces of the Yuan Clan are extremely united!
Yuan Ji was surprised and said: "What's going on? The summer harvest has just ended, and Duke Lei actually sent troops. Why didn't the court receive any news?"
At this time, Yuan Pang, who was following Yuan Shang, began to say: "Hebei has a bumper grain harvest this year. Hebei's summer harvest grain output has more than doubled. I'm afraid it's because of this that Lei Gong doesn't want to give us a chance to breathe. He wants to take advantage of Yuzhou's return."
Destroy us before we recover our strength!"
Then Yuan Pang told Yuan Ji the news that they had explored Hebei!
After hearing this, Yuan Ji thought for a long time and said: "Hundreds of thousands of troops are going to fight, and the logistics are not easy to solve. If Lei Gong really had such an idea during the summer harvest, I am afraid that this war may not be fought this year. You can stay here first."
In my mansion, I will discuss with the general before making a decision!"
Then Yuan Ji went to the General's Mansion to find Liu Bei and told Liu Bei the situation that Yuzhou was currently facing.
Liu Bei was shocked and said: "Hebei has recovered so quickly? The Central Plains War has only passed for more than half a year, and Lei Gong has the strength to launch another war that will not lose to the Central Plains War?"
The frequency of wars in this era was very slow. Cao Cao won the Battle of Guandu, but it still took eight years to completely eliminate Yuan Shao's power!
Jizhou alone was fought for several years. In the end, Cao Cao massacred the city and flooded the city, and then he completely occupied Jizhou. But now Hebei's actions obviously broke the rules of war in this era.
Yuan Jidao: "No matter how powerful Hebei is, it is impossible to launch another war on the scale of the Central Plains in half a year. My subordinates feel that this is Lei Gong preparing to consume Yuzhou's strength so that he can launch a war next year. Hebei has a bumper summer grain harvest this year.
Presumably there will also be a bumper harvest in autumn.
These two good harvests obviously made Lei Gong speed up the pace of attacking the Han Dynasty. If Lei Gong spends half a year preparing food, grass, weapons and equipment, then after the spring plowing next year it will be the time for Lei Gong to attack Yuzhou. And Lei Gong's current actions are not only to prepare for war, but also to
Consume our strength!"
"Yuzhou and Sili now only have a population of four million, but they have recruited 300,000 troops. The ratio of soldiers to civilians is almost 10:1. This will definitely affect the autumn harvests of Yuzhou and Sili."
Liu Bei thought about it and thought it made sense. Hebei had 30 million tribesmen and tens of millions of large animals to help with farming. Hebei's financial resources could sustain the consumption of these hundreds of thousands of troops.
But Yuan Tan will never be able to maintain the consumption of 300,000 troops. If this confrontation situation lasts for a year and a half, Yuan Tan's rule in Yuzhou will definitely fall apart!
Thinking of this, Liu Bei had a headache. This was Lei Gong's conspiracy, and there was no way to resolve it. They could only fight with Lei Gong. Hebei's financial resources were several times theirs, and they couldn't compete with them.
Liu Bei could only summon his confidants to discuss the current trends in Hebei, and told them his speculations.
Zhang Fei and the others felt helpless after hearing this. If this was really Lei Gong's idea, they really couldn't fight. The three major princes of the Han Dynasty were not as large as Hebei in terms of population, food or money. They even couldn't defeat him with their own armies.
This is truly a desperate opponent that makes people want to surrender.
If Lei Gong hadn't accepted their surrender at all, I'm afraid there wouldn't be many people in the Xiangyang court who would be willing to stand on Liu Bei's side and resist the millions of lions in Hebei.
"Brother, our army's strength has not been restored yet, and we don't even have cavalry. We rushed to the Central Plains to support Yuan Tan. I am afraid that the entire army will be annihilated. Although it is a bit unloyal, I feel that the Central Plains are not capable at all.
It is suitable for fighting against the Thunder Lord, so we can only rely on the geographical advantages of Jiangnan to resist the Thunder Lord."
"As for the current Yuan Tan, he should give up the territory suitable for cavalry in the Central Plains, arrange his army in Funiu Mountain and Sili Yiyi, and rely on the advantage of the terrain to consume Lei Gong's strength. In this way, Yuan Tan's army will also be close to us.
Jingzhou, it is convenient for us to support them!"
"Yuzhou gave up all its land in the plains, and the people moved to our Jingzhou. There is no shortage of wasteland in Jingzhou, enough to feed these millions of people. We gave up the land in the plains, and the advantage of the Hebei cavalry was abolished. Only in this way can we have
The possibility of defeating Hebei! The Yuan family has been deeply favored by the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years, and now it is their turn to pay."
Zhang Fei wanted to trick Yuan Tan into helping them guard the gate of Jingzhou!
But Jian Yong and others nodded in agreement with Zhang Fei's proposal. At this stage, this opinion is the most suitable for the current big man.
Move Yuan Tan's hundreds of thousands of troops to Funiu Mountain. If Jingzhou can afford to raise these soldiers, Yuan Tan and the others can delay it for a few more years, and their strength in Jingzhou will be stronger. Now a large number of Nanman descend from the mountain every day to become the army of the Han Dynasty.
People. If Hebei attacks Jingzhou one day later, their strength will be one point stronger.
The advantage of the Daqian Cavalry Field Army is too great. Fighting with Lei Gong in the Central Plains is simply asking for death. This year's Central Plains War has caused them to lose hundreds of thousands of troops, and their strength has not yet been restored.
This is an elite veteran they have accumulated for several years. They followed Liu Bei in most of the Southern Kingdom's campaigns, but in the end they died in vain on the land of the Central Plains. Zhang Fei and the others no longer want to continue fighting against Lei Gong's cavalry in the Central Plains!