Kuai Liang did not leave. As Liu Biao's mastermind, he naturally wanted to stay and discuss with Liu Biao.
When Liu Biao asked him, Kuai Liang cupped his hands and said, "I think it is not appropriate to destroy Cao Cao at this time. If Cao Cao is destroyed, Yuan Shao will probably unify the north."
"Um."
Liu Biao nodded and said: "I thought so too, that's why I rejected Youshuo and didn't send troops to attack Wuyin. I just lost Zhangxiu. I don't know what will happen?"
Kuai Liang smiled and said: "Don't worry, Mr. Ming. Cao Cao is not incompetent. Zhang Xiu has few soldiers. Without the support of our army, he should not be able to capture it."
"That's good."
Liu Biao said in a deep voice: "Zirou, what do you think our situation will be in the future? If Cao Cao or Yuan Shao unify the north, what will happen to the emperor?"
"The emperor may be in trouble."
"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about too."
"Ming Gong."
Kuai Liang said: "The news came from Shouchun a few days ago that Yuan Shu has proclaimed himself emperor. Does the public know now?"
"nature."
Liu Biao said: "I have sent people to Shouchun to write a letter to reprimand him, and also ordered Huang Zu to deploy Jiang defense in Jiangxia. If he raises troops to invade, Yuan Shu will return with a broken head and blood."
Kuai Liang couldn't laugh or cry and said: "Ming Gong, when I talked about Yuan Shu proclaiming himself emperor, I didn't mean that he might come to Jingzhou."
"That is?"
"Don't you think, Duke Ming, that there have been too many people who have proclaimed themselves emperors over the years?"
"you mean?"
Liu Biao frowned. This sentence actually made him feel a little uncomfortable.
Two reasons.
First, as a descendant of the Han Dynasty, he was naturally dissatisfied when he saw that everyone in the world wanted to overthrow the Han Dynasty.
Second, he actually had this thought himself.
A few years later, he would not pay tribute, practice blasphemy, worship heaven and earth in the suburbs, and plan to denounce the public.
A few years ago, because of these things, Liu Biao impeached Liu Yan in Yizhou for "similar to Zixia's theory of doubting saints in Xihe", but later it became his own fault.
However, Liu Biao did not have the courage to proclaim himself emperor. He only dared to do things that the emperor could do. When he came to proclaim himself emperor, he became timid again.
So to a certain extent, Liu Biao is the kind of person who has a treacherous heart but no courage. He is envious and jealous when he sees others becoming emperors, but he doesn't dare to do it when he wants to.
Kuai Liang said: "In today's world, those who claim to be emperor are like crucian carps crossing the river. Yuan Shu is not the first, and he will definitely not be the last. Now that Cao Cao has become the emperor, although his strength is not as good as Yuan Shao, he has won the hearts of the people with his orthodox attack on unsubordinates.
It will definitely grow stronger day by day.”
"Then I am not letting the tiger go back to the mountain today?"
Liu Biao asked: "When Cao Cao becomes stronger in the future, he may be disadvantageous to the emperor."
Kuai Liang said: "Whether he will be detrimental to the emperor is not yet known, but it is inevitable that there will be a fierce battle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao."
"Yeah, I think so too." Liu Biao nodded.
"Yuan Shao has not broken with Cao Cao yet because Gongsun Zan in the north is still there. Once Gongsun Zan is destroyed, a battle between the two will be inevitable. Whoever wins by then will be able to take possession of the entire north."
Kuai Liang said: "Ming Gong thinks that if Yuan Shao wins, he will seize the entire north and raise millions of troops. Will he keep the emperor?"
Liu Biao frowned and said, "I'm afraid Yuan has some evil intentions."
"Yes."
Kuai Liang added: "If Cao Cao wins, I'm afraid the emperor will not have an easy time. Even if he is not deposed, he will still be like a puppet at the mercy of Cao Cao. Therefore, there are actually only two ways before Duke Ming."
Two roads?
Liu Biao hurriedly asked: "Which two?"
Kuai Liang said: "The first is to be self-reliant, and the second is to seek dependence on one of Cao Cao and Yuan Shao."
"Self-reliance?"
Liu Biao thought about this sentence, licked his lips with his tongue, and tasted it.
"There are too many people proclaiming themselves emperors, and the power of the Han Dynasty is gradually declining. Liu Yan of Yizhou had plans to proclaim himself emperor six years ago. It can be seen that no one among the princes of the world serves the emperor anymore."
Kuai Liang said: "Now it seems that Cao Cao's intention is just to use the emperor's reputation to win over the world. If not, how could he attack Nanyang? He is just to guard against us. In the future, there will be a decisive battle between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.
You should make plans in advance."
"Um"
Liu Biao nodded in agreement and said, "I understand, let me think about it again, think about it again."
He rubbed his temples, his mind was already in a state of mush.
In fact, Kuai Liang's purpose of persuading him today is very simple, which is to let him make a decision between establishing himself as king and finding someone to take refuge with.
It's not that Kuai Liang had foresight, but the wise men at the time could see that after Cao Cao coerced the emperor to order the princes, the talents became more powerful and Henan and other places would inevitably be controlled by him.
Yuan Shao's advisers, such as Ju Shou Tian Feng, once suggested that Yuan Shao should strike first and kill Cao Cao, otherwise there would be endless troubles when Cao Cao becomes stronger in the future.
It's a pity that Yuan Shaose was timid and timid, and he was always scheming. He cherished his life when doing big things, forgot about his life when he saw small profits, and didn't listen to Tian Feng's advice, so he missed a good opportunity.
Yuan Shao is waiting to eliminate Gongsun Zan. As long as Gongsun Zan dies, Yuan Shao will seize Youzhou and Qingzhou, plus Bingzhou and Jizhou. After obtaining the four northern states, it will be a matter of time for Yuan Shao to go south to attack Cao Cao.
Not to mention Kuai Liang, even Liu Biao's subordinates Han Song and Liu Xian knew about this, so later they also persuaded Liu Biao to make plans early and let him surrender to Cao Cao.
In the final analysis, it was because the Han Dynasty was unstable and the authority of the country had dropped to a certain level.
It's just that Liu Biao has always been indecisive and couldn't make up his mind on this matter. He delayed it for many years until he dragged himself to death, but there was no result.
He neither surrendered to Cao Cao nor proclaimed himself king. When Cao Cao's army went south and the Battle of Chibi, Liu Biao's power collapsed in an instant.
In the end, Liu Qi died of illness in Jingnan, Liu Cong surrendered to Cao Cao, and Jingzhou was taken away by Jiangdong.
Procrastination kills people.
．
．
Just when Kuai Liang had analyzed the current situation to Liu Biao and Liu Biao continued to delay, Cao Cao, far away in Wuyin County, Nanyang, had received news that Zhang Xiu was invading.
Liu Biao's reason for not attacking him is simple. If Cao Cao dies, his power will collapse immediately, and Yuan Shao will take advantage of it and seize Henan.
By then the entire north will belong to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao's strength will reach a very terrifying level, and he will not be far away from becoming emperor by then.
This was a huge threat to Han clan clan members like Liu Biao, so he allowed Cao Cao to grow.
But Zhang Xiu doesn't care about this.
Cao Cao cheated on his aunt and plotted to kill her. He also rebelled against Cao Cao. Since he and Cao Cao were sworn in, he would naturally choose to take advantage of the victory and pursue her.
It's a pity that he misjudged his own strength and underestimated Cao Cao's ability.
The defeat of Wancheng was not a military defeat, but a tragic defeat caused by Cao Cao's own personal moral problems. Therefore, once the two sides eliminate those unexpected factors and confront each other head-on, the strength gap will be reflected.
Zhang Xiu currently has more than 8,000 soldiers and horses. At this time, he has led a great victory over Wancheng and his morale is high. Cao Cao has 4,000 or 5,000 soldiers from Yujin Department, Cao Hong Department and the main camp, totaling more than 15,000 soldiers and horses.
Zhang Xiu was definitely at a disadvantage in terms of the number of troops, but Zhang Xiu felt that since he had defeated Cao Cao a few days ago and the morale of his troops was so high, the morale of Cao Cao's army must be low.
Therefore, taking this opportunity, you should be able to bully Cao Cao.
In Wuyin County, the news of Cao Ren and Le Jin has not yet reached Cao Cao's ears, but the news of Zhang Xiu's attack has already reached Cao Cao's ears.
He was furious and said: "Zhang Xiu, you dare to attack me. Where is Zi Lian?"
"The end will be here."
Cao Hong stood up and said.
"Order all the famous horses and ask you to go out of the city to fight."
"only."
"Where is Yu Jin?"
"The end will be here."
"You go out from the north gate and attack from the flank."
"only."
"Han Hao, Shi Huan, and Zao Zhi, each of you three will lead 500 men to guard the east, west, north, and west gates. The rest of you, follow me to the top of the south city."
"only."
All the generals, big and small, responded accordingly.
Soon Cao Cao personally led the generals to the south gate.
When he came to Nanyang, Cao Cao had 30,000 elite troops. Le Jin and Cao Ren each led 4,000 to 5,000 troops to attack Huyang and Anzhong, but they have not returned yet.
Cao Hong and Yu Jin also each led four to five thousand men and horses to garrison outside, so Cao Cao's base camp at that time had about more than 10,000 men and horses.
Zhang Xiu made a sneak attack on the base camp, causing a large number of casualties. Later, Gan Ning's reinforcements arrived and killed many of Cao's troops.
This resulted in the remaining 10,000 soldiers in Cao's main camp being reduced to 4,000 to 5,000, who were gathered up by Cao Hong and fled to Wuyin with Cao Cao.
At this time, the morale of Cao's army was actually very low. Normally, it would not be appropriate to leave the city for a decisive battle under such circumstances.
But Cao Cao needed a victory to boost his army's morale, so he decided to leave the city.
When everyone arrived at the gate of the southern city, they could see from a distance the densely packed Xiliang army emerging on the distant horizon.
After about an hour, they finally arrived outside Wuyin City, and at this time Cao Hong was also forming an array outside the city.
Zhang Xiu reined up his horse and came out, pointed his gun at Cao Hong and shouted: "Cao Hong, did Cao Cao send you to die?"
Cao Hong said coldly: "You are such a capricious person, how dare you attack?"
Zhang Xiu said angrily: "The traitor Cao has raped my family members and plotted to kill me. Is this a human matter? I really want to surrender. How could I have rebelled if not forced by the traitor Cao?"
"snort."
Cao Hong sneered and said: "You are just barbarians from Xiliang. My eldest brother took your aunt as his concubine. He thought it was to honor your family, but he didn't expect you to be so ignorant."
Shine on the lintel of my house?
Zhang Xiu laughed angrily at that time. Did he still think highly of him despite cooperating with Cao Cao to rape his aunt?
Is it because he doesn't know what is good and what is evil, so he has to commit trouble?
Such a shameless, condescending and ugly face is simply disgusting.
Zhang Xiu didn't talk nonsense to him and shouted angrily: "Kill!"
"kill!"
The Xiliang army burst out with a shocking roar and began to charge.
Zhang Xiu took the lead and was the first to rush.
My uncle's body is still cold, and my aunt has been bullied. If I don't kill Cao Cao, how will I explain to him in the future?
Over there, Cao Hong watched indifferently as the Xiliang army launched a charge, with a contemptuous smile on his face.
He told the truth.
Cao Hong never felt there was anything wrong with his eldest brother having sex with his aunt.
It was as if he never thought there was anything wrong with massacring hundreds of thousands of people in Xuzhou.
They are from a noble family, how can they be the same as the common people?
What's more, Zhang Xiu's background is lower, he is just a barbarian from Xiliang, is he worthy of being compared with them?
So from the very beginning, no one in the Cao family, including Cao Hong, thought highly of Zhang Xiu.
It's as if they never look squarely at those lower-class people whose lives are as cheap as grass.
If Shen Chen had just traveled through time, he would probably be shocked by the world's outlook on life.
But now that I have been wandering for many years, there is only silence.
Because this world is like this, with strict hierarchies and solidified classes.
All the moral concepts of later generations cannot be applied to these people in the late Han Dynasty.
Zhang Fei came from a powerful family, so he whipped his soldiers arbitrarily and did not take their dignity seriously.
Gan Ning came from a local aristocratic family, so he used living people as targets for archery practice and never took human life seriously.
Cao Cao was from a wealthy family, so he massacred hundreds of thousands of people in Xuzhou and entraped and killed 80,000 of Yuan Shao's subordinates. "After slaughtering nine million, he became the hero among the heroes!".
Moreover, even a wealthy family like the Cao family can only be regarded as a relatively poor one among the noble families. Even Bianyi would call him "the eunuch".
Only people like Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, who were born in four generations and three noble families, were the top aristocratic families at that time.
Yuan Shao is relatively good, at least he still has some humanity.
Yuan Shu, on the other hand, directly plundered Yuzhou, Yangzhou, Xuzhou and other places, causing devastation for the people in Huainan and Huaibei. In order to become emperor, he even starved his own army into rebellion, without caring about the lives of his men.
If a later generation traveled to Cao Cao, pointed at his nose and scolded him, saying that he was cruel, had low moral character, took other people's families, and dug graves.
I guess Cao Cao himself was confused, because he was not the only one to do these things. Everyone did it, so why should he only be scolded?
Yes.
Everyone does this and it becomes the norm.
In the eyes of those high-ranking noble families, the common people are just a herd of cattle and horses, and a pile of means of production.
Even powerful people, aristocratic families, and powerful families are divided into three, six, and nine levels.
After Cao Cao later gained power, didn't he kill many famous families?
So as Mr. Lu Xun said.
The world of feudal society is a dark world of cannibalism.
The masses are just a bunch of lambs being eaten.
In the eyes of the powerful, they are nothing.
Cao Hong looked down upon the Xiliang army that was attacking him, as if he was looking at a group of uncivilized barbarian beasts.
After a moment, he raised the long knife in his hand and roared: "Kill!"
"kill!"
The trumpet sounded long and the war drums thumped.
Cao's army and Xiliang's army collided like two torrents and began to fight fiercely.
Cao Cao stood at the top of the city and looked out. There were actually not many defenders outside the city, only five thousand.
But Cao Hong was very organized and formed his formation on the spot without revealing any flaws.
After Zhang Xiu entered the formation, he went straight towards Cao Hong. The two sides fought hard together, and for the time being, there was no clear winner among the rebels.
At this moment, Yu Jin led his men and horses out of the north gate and moved towards the front battlefield.
After about half an hour, the armies of Zhang Xiu and Cao Hong were already crowded together and fighting fiercely. In a short period of time, they seemed to have merged together.
"Kill."
Yu Jin suddenly beat the drum, and Cao Cao's five thousand troops attacked from the flank.
Cao Cao on the top of the city immediately said: "Send the order, open the city gate, and the whole army will attack."
"only!"
All the soldiers responded with a roar, opened the city gate and attacked at the same time.
The Xiliang army was caught off guard and was besieged from three sides. There was chaos in the area for a while, and the sound of tinkling gold resounded throughout the battlefield.