After hearing Cao Ren's inquiry, Bao Tao's first reply was: "General, now you should guard the city carefully and protect the city for the prime minister. At present, the prime minister's army has rushed back from Luoyang City. Chenliu is the outpost battlefield. Chenliu is the outpost battlefield."
Liu's influence on the morale of the three armies and the future trend of the war are crucial. As long as the general can defend Chen Liu for the Prime Minister, it is equivalent to ensuring that half of the Central Plains is preserved!"
After hearing Bao Tao's words, Cao Ren couldn't help but feel relieved.
If Bao Tao had just persuaded Cao Ren to lead his troops out of the city and attack the pottery merchant's army with Cao Cao, then Cao Ren would have been suspicious of Bao Tao and felt that he had a conspiracy in his heart, at least not with any good intentions.
But when Bao Tao opened his mouth, he told Cao Ren to guard the city, protect Chen Liu, and not let him go into battle easily. This made Cao Ren feel that Bao Tao had no selfish motives.
As a result, Cao Ren felt a little less wary.
He raised the wine cup and gestured towards Bao Tao: "Cao must remember Brother Bao's kind words! Cao is very lucky to be able to talk honestly with Brother Bao today. Come on, let's drink this cup!"
"Dry!"
…
After Cao Ren left, Bao Tao and Bao Zhong met with Guo Jia in the middle of the night and told Guo Jia what happened with Cao Ren today in detail.
After hearing this, Guo Jia asked for some details carefully, and finally nodded with satisfaction: "It's not bad. I don't know that you guys are quite good at acting. It's really beyond Guo's expectation."
Bao Zhong asked Guo Jiadao with some emotion: "Mr. Guo, I really don't understand why you only let my brother take the credit for the good relationship with Cao Ren, but let me be the bystander? It's so unfair.
!”
Guo Jia said lightly: "It is enough for one person to win Cao Ren's trust. Two people would be redundant and would show cowardice."
Bao Zhong seemed a little aggrieved. He turned to look at Bao Tao and said, "Then why does Mr. Guo use my brother but not me? Is it possible that my brother is smarter than me?"
Guo Jia looked straight at him.
"To be honest? He is indeed a little more dexterous than you."
The muscles on Bao Zhong's face twitched back and forth.
If he hadn't been worried about the pottery merchant behind him, Bao Zhong would have gone up to beat him.
Bao Tao also asked Guo Jia: "Mr. Guo, although I have followed Mr. Guo's request, there is still something I don't understand. I would like to ask Mr. Guo for advice."
Guo Jia raised his eyebrows and puffed up his chest proudly: "Go ahead! Just say it! Guo knows everything he knows."
"Sir asked me to persuade Cao Ren to defend the city, but wouldn't this make it more difficult for the prime minister to take the city? Logically speaking, I should have advised Cao Ren to send troops."
Bao Zhong also hurriedly said: "That said, I am also very confused about this matter."
Guo Jia rolled his eyes: "Cao Ren is one of the few generals under Cao Cao. He is good at military, strategy, and formations. Such a person is very independent! How to fight this battle is naturally in his mind.
You know, how can your opinions influence him? If you talk nonsense, not only will he not obey you, but he will also be wary of you."
Bao Tao was stunned when he heard this.
It seems that this is the truth!
Guo Jia said slowly: "You and Cao Ren haven't reached that level of trust yet. Now that you are persuading him to leave the city, he has become suspicious of you. So what should we do in the future?"
Bao Tao said hurriedly: "Then how will the general handle the future?"
"From now on, you just need to persuade him to guard the city, and you don't have to worry about anything else for the time being. That's all."
…
When Cao Cao's army arrived, the pottery merchant's troops had already arrived near Chenliu.
Zhang Yan, Bai Rao, Cao Bao and others who were responsible for the siege here went to meet him.
After meeting, Zhang Yan directly handed the potter a letter of battle written by Cao Cao himself.
When the potter saw the letter of challenge, he was somewhat frightened.
It wasn't that he was afraid of Cao Cao, but he knew with his toes that there must be nothing good in the letter.
No one wants to be scolded for no reason.
Especially not the kind where you scold someone in person and get angry for a while after reading it.
The potter reached out and caught the envelope like a mine, and then gently unfolded it.
After roughly reading the contents of the letter, Tao Shang wrinkled his nose and then thrust the letter back into Zhang Yan's hand.
Seeing the potter's disgusted expression, Zhang Yan couldn't help but wonder: "What does this letter say?"
"It's not a big deal." Tao Shang said calmly: "At most, it's like killing my whole family, slaughtering all the Tao family, digging up my ancestral graves, exterminating the people of Xuzhou, destroying the heaven and earth... and he wants to destroy my family.
The female relatives in the trap were caught, stripped naked, and then they were killed, and then they were captured and killed again."
When Zhang Yan heard this, she showed anger: "Cao Cao has gone too far! He just accidentally killed one of his sons. Can he be guilty of such humiliation and harm to the female members of the prime minister's family?"
The pottery merchant frowned and said: "Based on what I know about him, even if I didn't kill his son, I'm afraid there won't be a good end for the women in my family if they fall into his hands. At most, the killing step will be omitted.
.”
Zhang Yanruo said with enlightenment: "If you omit the killing step, then... just kill all the time?"
The pottery merchant was unhappy: "Look what you are saying. After all, you are also a general under my command. Can you speak more politely?"
Zhang Yan hurriedly lowered her head and said, "Prime Minister, I was wrong."
The potter sat down at the main table, touched his chin and thought for a while, then said, "Call Tian Feng over."
"promise!"
When he was young, Tian Feng came to the pottery merchant and asked, "The prime minister called me?"
The pottery merchant stretched out his hand to ask Tian Feng to sit down and said: "Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi are in the south, Lu Su is replacing Han Hao in Jinling City, Chen Deng is guarding Xuchang Town, and Guo Jia has been sent out by me to perform a top-secret mission... My five major subordinates
The masterminds are not here. Now Cao Cao is writing a letter of war to me. After much thought, the only people I can count on at the moment are you, Pang Ji, and Xin Ping. But among the surrendered ministers of Hebei, the one I trust the most is
Mr. Yuan Hao, you."
Tian Feng picked up the letter written by Cao Cao, which was full of filthy words and curses. After reading it for a while, he handed it to Tao Shang: "This letter is really vulgar... Prime Minister intends to agree to Cao Cao's invitation to war?"
The potter nodded and said: "Yes, both parties are new here. If I don't fight, it would be cowardly."
Speaking of this, Tao Shang paused and said: "It's just that Cao Cao is very cunning. Even if he comes for revenge this time, his anger will not easily make him lose his mind. Head-on fighting is not his style. He must have some skills."
What kind of plot, so I want sir to help me analyze it."
Tian Feng said calmly: "It's easy to say. Cao Cao has been fighting in the world for more than ten years. Tian has analyzed his tactics many times. He is an expert in military use. He is also the best at cutting off other people's food routes and using tactics to drain fuel from the bottom of the cauldron.
, What he has to do right now is just three things. One is to send troops to sneak attack our army's food road during the battle; the other is to send troops to attack Xuchang City; the third is to relieve Puyang and rescue his son Cao Ang. In addition to these three
For Cao Cao, there is nothing else important at the moment."
Tao Shang was stunned when he heard this, and said: "According to what Mr. Tao said, besides dealing with these three things about Cao Cao, what else does Tao have to do now?"
Tian Feng stroked his beard and said, "Is the Prime Minister sincerely asking me?"
"Of course I mean it."
"If he is sincere, then Tian will also sincerely tell the Prime Minister, asking the Prime Minister to reuse talents from Hebei."