On the Guandu front line, on the mountain at the south gate of Cao Ying, Cao Cao, Xun You, Guo Jia and others fell into extreme silence at this moment.
After a long time, Cao Cao slowly walked to the wooden pillar at the bottom of the earth mountain wall, held on to the wooden pillar, lowered his head and panted.
"Boda."
He was mumbling to himself, but now he felt dizzy, broke out in a cold sweat, his head was buzzing, and there seemed to be many insects buzzing in his ears, which made him extremely annoyed.
Ren Jun was not only one of the cornerstones of his rear, he was also his brother-in-law, and they were very close. Hearing the bad news was as heartbreaking as when Dian Wei, Cao Ang, Cao Ren and others died, which made Cao Cao heartbroken.
"Ming Gong."
Xun You and Guo Jia looked at each other, and they hurriedly stepped forward, raised their hands to persuade, "Please cheer up, Lord Ming."
"I know, I just have a headache."
Cao Cao gasped for air, kept rubbing his temples, and waved his hands: "Fengxiao, Gongda, what do you think we should do with those prisoners? Now our top priority is to go south and return to defend Xudu. We cannot kill all the prisoners in a short time."
This is not the time to be sad about Ren Jun's death. Cao Cao must consider returning to defend Xudu as soon as possible. Otherwise, it is easy to say that the noble ministers of common people and noble families were killed.
The most important ones are Xu Du's Culiang and Liu Xie.
Now Cao Cao himself does not have much food and grass in Guandu, and must return to Xudu to replenish it. If Shen Chen and Liu Bei attack Xudu, burn the food and grass and rob Liu Xie, then even if he defeats Yuan Shao, his power will collapse instantly.
.
Therefore, the first task at this time is to return to Xudu immediately to repel the invading enemies. Then, whether to kill or release the prisoner in his hand, he must weigh the pros and cons and choose the one that is most beneficial to him.
Xun You sighed and said, "Ming Gong, please let me go."
"Let it go?"
Cao Cao turned around. At this time, his eyes had turned scarlet, and his whole face was distorted: "I went through life and death before I defeated Yuan Shao, captured these 80,000 troops, and let Gu Quan be released? Yuan Shao's foundation has not been touched, then Gu Quan is released?"
Isn’t this battle in vain?”
Guo Jia pondered: "That's not necessarily the case. There are benefits to letting it go."
"you say."
Cao Cao stared at Guo Jia, wondering what would be the benefit of letting the tiger return to the mountain.
Guo Jiakan spoke eloquently: "Nearly a month has passed since Yuan Shao was burned down in Wuchao. Why has no new food and baggage arrived? It can only mean that Yuan Shao's food reserves have been used up, and there is not much left in Yecheng.
It needs to be transferred from various places. And the transfer takes time, and it will definitely be difficult to allocate a large amount of grain and grass in a short period of time."
"At this moment, 80,000 Yuan's troops are starving. Henan and other places were plundered and ruined by Yuan's army. They are already withered. What's more, they dare not stay in Henan for a long time. You can send them away and force them to go to Hebei. Guandu is the nearest city to Liyang in Hebei.
There are more than five to six hundred miles in total, and it will take at least seven or eight days to travel."
"And on the way back, 80,000 people were short of food and clothing, and it was the dead of winter. Countless people probably died from freezing and starvation. Even if they didn't die and struggled to escape back, they would definitely take up arms just for a bite to eat.
Robbery the people of Jizhou."
"At that time, the defeated soldiers will form a military disaster, sweeping through the entire Wei County. Yuan Shao will lose all his troops and horses. He will not be able to appease the defeated soldiers in a short time. Amid internal and external troubles, Yuan Shao will not be able to recover for at least ten years."
"Therefore, Jia thought that letting Yuan Jun go back would have better consequences for Jizhou than killing him."
Better than trapping?
Guo Jia's words instantly calmed down Cao Cao. He lowered his head and looked at the rammed earth on the ground, and quickly began to think about whether his words were right.
At present, there are almost no people left along the Yellow River in Henan.
Under Yuan Jun's invasion, most of the area in East County of Yanzhou was empty, with bones exposed in the wild and no roosters crowing for thousands of miles.
And how far is Zhongmu County, where Guandu is located, from Liyang County, the nearest county in Jizhou?
There are five to six hundred miles.
In other words, in the winter of November, Yuan Shao's 80,000 defeated soldiers will march through more than 200 kilometers of uninhabited areas without any discipline, heading towards Liyang.
Not to mention their state of hunger, it would be almost impossible for them to march hundreds of miles in a day like Xia Houyuan did.
Even if we could hit this speed, it would still take five or six days.
Cao Cao knew better than anyone what would happen to a person after walking hungry and cold for five or six days.
Even this is a conservative estimate.
If we really had to leave, it might take more than ten days. Therefore, at that time, there were very few people who could actually return to Hebei. At most, they had to rely on the breasts of people who had died of starvation to make it back.
And even if the hardship reaches Jizhou, it does not mean safety. In order to have a bite to eat, they will inevitably go to extremes.
When a person is starving and crazy, he can do anything.
After Yuan's army is defeated and reaches Liyang, I am afraid that the entire Liyang County will be like locusts passing through and be devastated to the extreme.
And the county town of Liyang will definitely not be able to satisfy these hungry soldiers. Their next target must be Neihuang, Fanyang, Yin'an and other places.
The most important thing is that this is only after they successfully cross the river and return to Jizhou.
It is conceivable that at least half of the 80,000 defeated soldiers had to die on the road, not only from hunger and cold, but also from crossing the river!
The turbulent Yellow River is like a natural chasm.
The dilemma faced by the soldiers is that there is no food for hundreds of square kilometers around. In winter, there is not much grass roots and bark left, so they have to eat insects and wild animals. Even if they survive to the Yellow River, the river has become a roadblock.
In order to cross the river, these scattered soldiers would inevitably seize the boats and fight, which would further aggravate their internal strife. By the time they actually returned to Jizhou, they would probably be less than one-third.
Thinking of this, Cao Cao narrowed his eyes slightly, with a flash of murderous intention, nodded and said: "Well, the words of filial piety are justified. Send an order to release Yuan Jun and return to Xudu immediately!"
At that moment, Cao Cao's army no longer continued to prepare to trap and kill the prisoners. Instead, under Cao Cao's order, he divided his troops to do their own things.
Cao Cao himself led more than 10,000 cavalrymen back to Xudu in the south, and appointed Xiahou Dun as the chief general and Yu Jin as the deputy general to command the remaining Cao army in Guandu.
These people will be responsible for driving Yuan Jun back to the north, and at the same time escorting all captured Yuan Jun baggage, weapons and equipment, military equipment and other non-grain materials back to Xudu.
The reason why we did not choose to go south with only cavalry at night like the first time Shen Chen came to Xudu was because Weishi and Yanling fell.
He already had very few supplies on the front line in Guandu and could not afford fine feed for his horses. After the fall of Weishi and Yanling, Cao Cao was unable to replenish supplies along the line.
Historically, his tiger and leopard cavalry did have a record of galloping three hundred miles a day and night to catch up with Liu Bei. However, the logistical supplies of the tiger and leopard cavalry were extremely sufficient. One person and two horses also carried a large amount of beans and other fine feed to ensure the physical strength of the horses.
Therefore, now that he can't even feed his own troops, Cao Cao can basically only ensure that his horses eat grass every day. It is impossible for them to have soybeans for their horses, so they will naturally not be able to carry out long-distance raids.
And when Cao Cao officially set off southward on October 28, Xudu and Xun Yu also felt a headache.
In the residence of Shangshu Ling, Chen Qun looked at Xun Yu's white hair intertwined with black hair, which was much more than yesterday, and said with some distress: "Your Majesty, please take care of yourself."
Xun Yu had been running around all night in the past few days, borrowing private soldiers and grain and grass to stabilize prices and prevent panic. He only slept very briefly every day.
He didn't even burn incense today like in the past. Instead, after listening to Chen Qun's words, he asked him, "Don't the people in the city know about it?"
"No people have ever fled."
Chen Qun said: "It's just that those aristocratic families are in constant contact secretly and gather together every day for fear of having some evil intentions."
"Don't worry about them."
Xun Yu closed his eyes, rubbed his temples, and said softly: "Gong Cao will go south soon, and they will not be able to make waves."
Although he wanted to block the news, it was impossible to completely isolate such a big thing. He could only try to reduce the impact as much as possible to avoid causing panic among the people.
It is not easy for Xu Du to see such a scene now. It is impossible for him to turn the security situation he created into chaos.
But I can barely hide it from the people at the bottom, but I can't hide it from the wealthy and powerful families.
It was just the news of Cao Cao's victory in Guandu that made these people dare not make any big moves.
In fact, even when Yuan Shao was at his most powerful, these powerful families did not launch a rebellion in Xudu.
The reason is that the powerful Yingchuan family supported Cao Cao, but the powerful families from other places lacked private soldiers and had no actual troops in Xudu.
There are also many reasons why Yuan Shu was defeated repeatedly by Cao Cao, and Yang Biao was imprisoned and tortured by Cao Cao.
The two most elite families in the world, the Yuan family of Runan and the Yang family of Hongnong, Yuan Shu was pressed down and beaten by Cao Cao. As soon as Yang Biao arrived in Xudu, he was used by Cao Cao to establish his power and was imprisoned and tortured.
Even Yuan Shu and Yang Biao were ignored by Cao Cao, let alone others.
Moreover, Cao Cao's murderousness and cruelty were very high, and the famous families were very frightened, and they did not dare to rebel at this time.
"Um."
Chen Qun nodded slightly and said: "Now Xu Du is guarding the void. I'm afraid that before Cao Gong goes south, Shen Chen and the emperor's uncle will attack Xu Du."
Xun Yu said: "Don't worry, I have already had all the grain stored in Taicang transported to the palace. As long as the grain stored in Xudu is not destroyed, everything will be fine."
"Report!"
At this moment, the scout suddenly rushed into the hall and shouted: "Guan Yu and Liu Bei's army have just left camp, and we don't know where they are going."
"Explore again!"
Xun Yu said immediately.
About an hour later, the scout came back and said: "Report, Guan Yu and Liu Bei's army are heading towards Jiele Township."
Just enjoy your hometown?
Xun Yu's expression changed greatly. That was the direction to the east of Xudu City.
At that time, the inner city of Xudu was the imperial palace, and the outer city expanded in circles, but the main expansion direction was to the west.
Therefore, the outer cities on the southeast, north, and south sides of Xudu will be relatively weak. Among them, the east city is closest to the palace. It is only one street away from the east gate of the palace.
The most important thing is that the layout of the palace at that time was relatively close. The location of the palace warehouse was generally in the northeast corner, just like Taicang in Luoyang was in the northeast corner, because the Dongcheng Grain Market in Luoyang was close at that time, which facilitated storage and transportation.
The layout of the Xudu Palace is mostly reduced and built according to the layout of the Luoyang Palace. If Liu Bei and Shen Chen's coalition forces attack the east city, it will most likely threaten Xudu's food reserves, and then Cao Cao's power will be really in danger.
"Immediately order Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong to return to defend Xudu, and then send people to move the grain stored in the palace to Chengguang Hall and Yongshi Terrace."
Xun Yu gave the order without hesitation, and at the same time he pondered for a moment and then said: "Send a letter to Li Tong and ask him to attack Wuyang Kunyang to surround Wei and save Zhao."
"only."
The ministers and historians on duty today immediately went to spread the instructions.
After they leave.
Xun Yu then looked into the distance with sad eyes and said softly: "Shen Chen really has the talent of a tiger and a fox, but it's a pity that he can't be used by Duke Cao."
Good news, from the 7th to the 8th, I will hit 40,000 in two days. I will transform into a coding machine and write hard.