After Guo Jia and Xun You finished shouting in the valley, they stopped talking and just stood quietly on the mountain with their eyes closed, as if they were feeling the cool wind blowing from the sky.
Xun You quietly looked at Guo Jia's pretentious behavior in the mountains in the distance for a while. He planned in his mind for a long time. Finally, he sighed and ordered to the captain Chen Zhong: "Withdraw the troops. We will withdraw the troops back to Yanzhou for the time being."
When Chen Zhong heard this, he was immediately shocked and said hurriedly: "Military advisor, are we... not going to rescue General Xiahou?"
Xun You was silent for a long time, then shook his head and said: "General Miaocai is very brave and good at using troops. Even if he is surrounded for a while, he may not be able to escape the disaster. But if we rush over blankly, we will really be hit if we don't protect everyone."
Guo Fengxiao’s plan!”
Speaking of this, Xun You once again took a deep look at Guo Jia in the distance, feeling a trace of inexplicable melancholy in his heart.
Xun You also knew that it would be a bit sad to give up on saving Xia Houyuan at this moment.
But in a battle of wits with an opponent like Guo Jia, it is easy to make the wrong move. Xia Houyuan has been surrounded by the Jinling Army. If the 10,000 soldiers behind him make mistakes again, Xun You will really have no way to explain to Cao Cao in the future.
.
He could gamble with Guo Jia now, but after weighing the pros and cons, Xun You found that he couldn't afford to gamble with Guo.
If the whole army was wiped out due to the gamble, would he have to return to Yanzhou to apologize to Cao Cao with death?
Forget it, let him do it this time.
Xun You once again gave Chen Zhong a stern order: "Retreat!"
"promise……"
Seeing that Xun You's troops began to retreat slowly, Guo Jia, who had always been calm and smiling, slowly put away his smiling face, let out a long sigh of relief, and looked relaxed.
In fact, there was really no ambush in the valley. There were only a hundred fast horses behind him, just in case, to protect the swift Guo Jia from escaping at the critical moment.
In order to encircle and annihilate Xiahou Yuan's group, Tao Shang had already dispatched all the elite troops of Jinling Army, and there were no spare troops to stop Xun You.
The 20,000 Cao soldiers under Xia Houyuan's command were relatively high in combat effectiveness and had many cavalry. They could not deal with him unless the Jinling army deployed all its strength.
Therefore, Guo Jia adopted such bets and strategies only when he had no other choice.
Seeing Xun You's soldiers and horses gradually disappear from his sight, Guo Jia felt somewhat lucky in his heart.
Everyone has their own personality. This time, I can count myself lucky to some extent. Among all the friends in Yingchuan, I met Xun You, who has a relatively calm and gentle personality and thoughts.
Although Xun You was good at making uncanny plans, once he failed, he was also a man of great courage who could take things up and let them go.
If the person who came today was Cheng Yu, who had a ruthless personality and refused to accept weakness, or Xi Zhicai, who was better at figuring out people's hearts than Guo Jia, then there might not have been such a result.
…
Xun You's troops retreated slowly and evacuated to Yanzhou, while Tao Shang captured Xiahou Yuan and defeated 20,000 Cao soldiers.
Cao's army under Xiahou Yuan was surrounded by Jinling troops from three sides and suffered many casualties, and the rest were completely routed.
Tao Shang did not kill Xia Houyuan. Although Xia Houyuan was a general and an opponent of the Jinling Army, he was also a direct descendant of Cao Cao. Killing him now would accelerate the radical change in the relationship between the two parties and make the situation develop in a direction that is not good for Xuzhou.
.
Therefore, it would be more advantageous for Quan to detain him temporarily and use him as a condition for future negotiations with Cao Cao.
After the victory of the Tao merchants, the Jinling army immediately turned its troops and quickly captured Suiyang City, where Liang Guozhi had no troops stationed.
After entering Suiyang City, they ordered people to carefully inventory the materials in the city. The pottery merchant and Guo Jia were surprised to find that all the money warehouses, grain warehouses, and arsenals in the city had been moved away by Xun You, and there was not even a scrap left.
As for the remaining items that could not be moved, Xun You burned them directly without destroying any of them, leaving nothing behind for the Jinling Army.
Faced with Xun You's vigorous, decisive and decisive approach, Tao Shang fully affirmed and commented on him in front of all his subordinates. The man named Xun is really a waste of money. You must not imitate him.
But there is one thing that is more troublesome right now.
After capturing the Liang Kingdom's seat of government, what should be the next step? This is an urgent matter of delay.
Not to mention the pottery merchant, even Guo Jia was a little undecided.
According to the previous statement, Chen Gui asked the pottery merchants to take advantage of the war to find a way to welcome the emperor from Puyang to Fan County and peel off Cao Cao's political influence.
The idea is good, but how to operate it now is a problem for the pottery merchant.
After all, Cao Cao's current movements are still relatively unpredictable. If the Jinling Army really goes to attack Puyang, and if it is really counterattacked by Cao Army's own troops and falls in Yanzhou, it will be a loss that outweighs the gain.
Just when Tao Shang and Guo Jia were hesitant, Chen Deng, who had been lobbying Chen Gong and Zhang Miao in Yanzhou, rushed to Suiyang City.
Chen Deng was surprised by the Tao merchants' move to send troops to capture Suiyang City. He didn't understand why the Xuzhou Army, which was supposed to be on the defensive at this time, counterattacked and defeated the Liang Kingdom in one fell swoop.
Are those ten soldiers and horses that Cao Cao had in Liang Guo all trash?
With doubts in his heart, Chen Deng came to Liang State after a long journey. As soon as he met the pottery merchant, he hurriedly reported to the pottery merchant as if he wanted to take credit.
"Master Fu, the matter is settled! Chen in Dongjun has already convinced Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, the leaders of the Yanzhou gentry. The two of them have now contacted the various gentry leaders in Yanzhou who were dissatisfied with Cao Cao's killing of Bianzang, and passed
Through the help of the school affairs office, we contacted Li Jue, Guo Si, Lu Bu, Zhang Ji and other Xiliang generals. As soon as Cao Cao himself leaves Yanzhou, he will rebel in Yanzhou and overthrow his government!"
After Chen Deng happily reported to the pottery merchant, he found that the pottery merchant's face was expressionless and showed no signs of excitement.
The pottery merchant's expression of having no desires and demands immediately confused Chen Deng.
That's not right. I have accomplished such a great feat, but why does the Lord not show any sign of it?
Let alone a reward, why didn't you even say a word of praise?
This is too disrespectful of people.
Thinking of this, Chen Deng couldn't help but pout.
The prodigal son gently hit the pottery merchant next to him with his elbow, and whispered: "See, I'm a little unhappy. Please comfort me."
The pottery merchant finally came to his senses. He waved his hand and motioned for Chen Deng to sit down. Then he stood up and filled the glass in front of Chen Deng with water.
"It was not easy for Yuan Long to go to Yanzhou to convince the nobles. He worked hard and achieved great results. Tao is very grateful for his hard work."
Chen Deng looked at the pottery merchant's face and said: "You don't mean what you said. You clearly have a more sad look on your face, and there is no trace of happiness at all... Also, our soldiers and horses will not stick to their guns."
Peijun, why did you take down Suiyang instead? What happened during Chen's absence?"
Tao Shang sighed and said helplessly: "It's a long story... Actually, someone told Tao that Cao Cao's eastward expedition was not in Xuzhou, but that he wanted to take advantage of this incident in Xuzhou.
, completely eliminate the latent rebel forces in Yanzhou, led by Chen Gong, Zhang Miao and others, so in order to test Cao Bing, I made a plan with Guo Jia to capture Suiyang City..."
After that, the pottery merchant told Chen Deng roughly what Chen Gui said to him that day.
The more Chen Deng listened, the angrier he became.
Whose advice was this?
It’s really deceiving to the extreme!
Isn't this clearly telling the pottery merchant that his trip to Yanzhou was useless and purely redundant?
Thinking of this, Chen Deng couldn't help but said indignantly: "Who can tell the prince such nonsense! It's simply deception! Anyone who talks like this should cut off the streets and abandon the market, and destroy the three tribes!"
Tao Shang and Guo Jia looked at each other in surprise.
Chen Deng was so angry that he couldn't calm down, and his chest heaved together and said: "Master Fu, which bastard came up with this policy that harmed the country?"
The pottery merchant stared at him and said quietly: "Your father is a bastard."
"What?" Chen Deng was stunned at first, and then said a little unhappy: "Master Fu, why are you scolding me!"
There was an awkward silence for a while.
After a while, Chen Deng finally came to his senses.
"Did it come from my father?"
Tao Shang and Guo Jia nodded vigorously together.
Chen Deng's face suddenly turned red and white, like a chameleon, becoming extremely beautiful in an instant.
After a while, I heard him say:
"Well...actually, if you think about it carefully, what the person who gave the advice is quite reasonable, it is indeed a high-level argument."
Tao Shang sighed quietly, raised his hand and tapped Chen Deng's face from afar, saying: "You are such a hypocrite."