The heavy rain that lasted for several days finally stopped. Cao Cao returned to Liaocheng, summoned Cheng Yu, discussed with Guo Jiaxi Zhicai and others, and finally decided to accept Qingzhou's conditions.
Tao Qian can send troops with Qingzhou to attack, but the reward they need must be increased on the original basis.
In addition to food, grass, salt and luggage, some money and a batch of new weapons, armor and equipment are also needed.
This request is not too much.
After all, how can I work for you without getting some benefits?
What's more, Cao Cao also has more important things to deal with now, that is, once Qingzhou's assistance is in place, he will immediately start to expand his army, with at least 30,000 soldiers, and slowly eat away the entire Yanzhou.
Only by truly gaining a state's territory, with a population, food, grass, and soldiers, can it develop steadily, gain the attention of the court, slowly grow bigger and stronger, and create greater glory.
And just when Cao Cao was in the Liaocheng area and heading south to return to Puyang, Puyang County at this time was already in a state of turmoil.
Wang Fen of Jizhou suddenly ordered his new adopted son Lu Bu to lead 5,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry, a total of 25,000 people, from the Fanyang and Yin'an areas of Wei County to attack Dongjun and fight against Fanyang and Yin'an.
Dunqiu was so close that Weiguo fell in an instant.
When the news reached Puyang, Chen Gong, who was staying at the base camp, urgently sent someone to contact Zhang Miao of Chenliu County and Wu Zi of Jiyin County. He was convinced with reason and emotion, and asked them to help send troops to resist Lu Bu's attack.
Historically, Chen Gong united with these two men to rebel against Cao Cao and welcome Lu Bu to Yanzhou.
But what was the reason for Chen Gong to betray Cao Cao?
It was Cao Cao who killed many famous people in Yanzhou.
Chen Gong himself was a famous person in Yanzhou, and he was good friends with these famous people, like Bian Rang, who had a close relationship with him.
This point is clearly recorded in Chen Lin's "An Advocate Against Cao Cao".
My friend was killed by Cao Cao, is that okay?
Chen Gong then angrily united with the governors of the two counties who had always been dissatisfied with Cao Cao to betray him, which directly plunged Cao Cao into the biggest crisis in his life.
But it's different now.
Cao Cao now had Zheng Xuan help memorize the book, and his reputation became completely different.
The literati circle of the Eastern Han Dynasty was actually divided very broadly, but it can be roughly divided into several stages: students, celebrities, and Confucian scholars.
Needless to say, students, all scholars start from students, and the key are the two classes of celebrities and Confucian scholars.
The celebrity class is very prestigious. If you are famous in a county, you can be called a celebrity. If you are famous in a state, you can also be called a celebrity.
But the level of a great scholar is not something that ordinary people can achieve. It must be well-known at home. People like Lu Zhi, Cai Yong, He Xiu, and Ren An are all world-famous great scholars.
As for Zheng Xuan, he reached another level - established a sect, founded the Zheng family theory, and became the founder of a school.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Song Zhong, who was at the same level as him, founded the Jingzhou School.
In terms of status, people like Zheng Xuan, Song Zhong and other top Confucian scholars are actually the same as Ma Rong, the most famous Confucian scholar in the Eastern Han Dynasty. They can be called great masters.
However, Song Zhong was far inferior to Zheng Xuan in terms of academic status and the time he founded his sect. Therefore, Zheng Xuan is actually the leader and the only top representative in the Eastern Han literati circle today.
What he said is not necessarily golden rule, but Zheng Xuan and Cai Yong jointly wrote "Chasing Dong Ji", which recognized the righteous actions of Liu Bei, Gong Sun Zan, Cao Cao, Sun Jian, and Bao Xin. If other celebrities stood up to oppose it, they would obviously be doing it.
Slap Zheng Xuan in the face and not give Zheng Xuan face.
Bian Rang was an arrogant person, so he might not necessarily respect such a famous Confucian as the general literati circle.
But he was good friends with people like Wang Lang, Kong Rong, Tao Qiuhong, and Hua Xin. He looked at the Buddha without looking at the monk. No matter how crazy Bian Rang was, he had to think about whether it would be invisible if he offended Zheng Xuan for no reason.
Did he offend his friends?
So after Cao Cao arrived in Yanzhou, although Bian Rang had already resigned and returned to his hometown and stayed at his home in Junyi County, Chenliu County, Yanzhou, he did not insult Cao Cao every day. Instead, he said some nice things for Zheng Xuan's sake.
In this way, Chen Gong will naturally not betray Cao Cao, and Cao Cao himself intends to deliberately use sidelines. For a time, the relationship between everyone was quite harmonious, and it did not reach the point of life-and-death tension like in history.
Under the wings of Chen Mu, a little butterfly, the biggest crisis in Cao Cao's life was resolved invisibly, which is a miracle.
But compared to Cao Cao in history, Cao Cao now is indeed much weaker.
Because in history, after Cao Cao defeated the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou, his troops were greatly replenished, so places like Chenliu and Jiyin also expressed their submission, and they were not as obedient as they are now.
But now that the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou are gone, Cao Cao's troops are seriously insufficient. In addition, Yanzhou has been in chaos in the past two years, and there have been many natural and man-made disasters. Both food and population have been greatly reduced, making it difficult for Cao Cao to just maintain Dongjun.
It is difficult to have spare time to take care of other places.
This caused Zhang Miao and Wu Zi to submit to Cao Cao on the surface. In fact, when Cao Cao asked them to send troops to help resist Yuan Shu and Tao Qian's coalition forces, each one had better excuses than the other.
But now Cao Cao's main army is in the east, and the troops in the hinterland of Dongjun are extremely empty. Chen Gong thought that the rabbit was dead and the fox was sad. Zhang Miao and Wu Zi should understand the meaning of death. So he contacted them, hoping that they would help defend Lu Bu's troops.
However, Chen Gong never expected that Zhang Miao and Wu Zi had colluded with Wang Fen a long time ago, and they promised well on the surface. However, as soon as their troops arrived in Puyang, they joined forces with Lu Bu to attack and easily broke through the city.
Under the protection, he took hundreds of remaining soldiers and fled by boat across the Yellow River to his hometown in Dongwuyang, where he reorganized soldiers and horses to resist.
At this time, Cao Cao also got the news, and immediately sent his troops south to garrison Dong'a, Dongwuyang, and Yangping areas. Dongjun is a long strip, and this area only accounts for a quarter of Dongjun's area, because it relies on the Japanese plains.
country, so the Jizhou soldiers in the Jizhou Pottery Hall and Yuancheng areas did not attack, giving Cao Cao a chance to breathe.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Now the situation in Yanzhou has changed instantly. Wang Fen suddenly went south to attack Dongjun and occupied three-quarters of Dongjun's territory. Cao Cao backed Qingzhou, and there were still
In Jibei Kingdom and a small area northeast of Dongjun, there are only seven or eight cities, which are not far behind those in history.
Under such a severe situation, Cao Cao led an army to stalemate with Lu Bu's army in the area of Wuyang and Weiguo in the East. Lu Bu's cavalry came and went like the wind. The only good news was that May and June were the flood season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the land was soft.
Not suitable for cavalry attacks.
Therefore, Lu Bu slowed down his offensive and decided to wait until the rainy season in July and August passed and the weather became hot and dry before considering attacking Cao Cao and completely annihilating him.
Dongwuyang, the county government residence.
Chen Gong frowned so hard that he was almost sweating. His face was full of sorrow. He bowed his hands to Cao Cao with a look of shame and apologized: "Ming Gong, I lost Puyang. This is the crime of this palace. Please punish me."
Cao Cao was generous and waved his hand and said: "This is not Gongtai's fault. Puyang only has less than a thousand guards, so how can it resist Wang Fen's tens of thousands of tigers and wolves? You can escape and come back alive.
That’s already a blessing.”
"Gongtai does not need to blame itself. Who would have thought that Zhang Miao and Wu Zi would actually collude with Wang Fen? What's more, Wang Fen has mobilized a large army. It seems that he is bound to occupy the entire Yanzhou, and he is definitely no match for Gongtai."
Xi Zhicai sighed.
This matter really has nothing to do with Chen Gong, he has tried his best.
Not to mention Zhang Miao and Wu Zi's betrayal, just talking about Lu Bu's 20,000 troops, Chen Gong was not able to compete.
If it weren't for the Yellow River to the north of Puyang, and when Zhang Miao and Wu Zi were attacking the city in the south and Lu Bu had not yet crossed the river, he immediately abandoned the city and escaped by boat from the Yellow River to the north of Puyang, perhaps the current Chen Palace would have become
Lu Bu's prisoner.
The comfort from Cao Cao and Xi Zhicai made Chen Gong finally feel better. He had been thinking about a lot of things these days, so he said to Cao Cao: "Ming Gong, Wang Fen suddenly attacked Yanzhou and colluded with Zhang Miao and Wu Zi. I'm afraid it's...
If we want to cut off the connection between Qingzhou and Luoyang, Liu Bei will definitely not give up. At this time, we should contact Liu Bei immediately and ask for assistance."
"Ok, I know."
Cao Cao nodded, feeling very heavy. Zhang Miao and Wu Zi's betrayal was something he had not expected.
But if you think about it carefully, maybe this is reasonable, because Zhang Miao is one of the eight chefs, and he and Wang Fen have been acquaintances for many years, but no one thought about this issue before.
In fact, this is indeed the case. In March, Wang Fen listened to Liu Hui's advice and adopted a plan to cut off the firepower. In order to achieve the strategic purpose of cutting off the connection between Qingzhou and Luoyang, he decided to attack Yanzhou and eliminate Cao Cao. It has been more than a month now.
No action has been taken until now.
This is because Wang Fen, in addition to purchasing a batch of war horses from the Xianbei people in Bingzhou for Lu Bu to form a new Bingzhou cavalry, is also contacting old acquaintances like Zhang Miao, hoping that they can provide internal support so that he can capture the entire Yanzhou more easily.
Finally, near May, the purchased war horses finally arrived in Jizhou. Zhang Miao and Wu Zi had long been dissatisfied with Cao Cao, so the two sides quickly united together, leading to the current situation.
Now that Wang Fen suddenly attacks, Liu Bei must also respond. After all, Cao Cao is not unclear about his strategic intentions.
It's just that this is his own territory after all. Being occupied by others made Cao Cao feel very bad.
However, just when everyone was feeling depressed, Guo Jia laughed.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
He was so happy that he almost laughed from ear to ear, as if he had encountered something extremely happy.
Everyone looked at him confused.
Now that Cao Jun has fallen to this point, what else is there to do? Could Guo Jia be able to turn the situation around in an instant?
Cao Cao also looked puzzled. He looked around and saw that everyone was confused, so he asked: "Why is Fengxiao laughing?"
Guo Jia did not hide the joy on his face at all. His young face bloomed as brightly as a flower. He raised his hands and said to Cao Cao: "Ming Gong, I am laughing at Liu Xuande's lack of plans and Wang Wenzu's lack of wisdom."
"oh?"
Cao Cao asked: "Why?"
Guo Jia said: "Think about it, Ming Gong, what does Liu Xuande want us to do now?"
"Attack Xuzhou?"
"Yes, but now what?"
"Now that I can't even protect Yanzhou, how can I send troops?"
"Isn't it exactly right?"
Guo Jia laughed: "Now Wang Fen only occupies five cities in Fan County, Baima Dunqiu, Weiguo, Puyang. Half of the cities in Dongjun are still in our hands. Our strength has not been damaged. At this time, we can send troops to one side.
I went to Liu Bei to ask for food and supplies, and at the same time urged him to send troops. In this way, I can not only supplement and strengthen myself, but also refuse to go to Xuzhou."
"Um......"
Cao Cao stroked his beard, narrowed his eyes, nodded, and said, "Fengxiao is right. It's just a crisis in Yanzhou. How can we resolve it?"
"That's exactly what I'm talking about."
Guo Jia was sitting on the banquet, taking some time to relax, and said slowly: "Actually, from the beginning, we only occupied Dongjun in Yanzhou. Zhang Miao and Wu Zi have never obeyed Duke Ming's orders. This betrayal can just make it logical for them to be killed."
Disposal. Now that we have Qingzhou at our back, if Wang Fen's army in Qinghe Kingdom moves, Liu Bei's army will inevitably move as well. Then they will fight with each other, which is when we, the fishermen, will benefit."
"Think about it, gentlemen, Tao Qian has been defeated by us at this time, and Dongping Kingdom and Jibei Kingdom have fallen into our hands again. If we go south from Dongping Kingdom at this time, occupy Rencheng Kingdom and Shanyang County, and come to Jiyin County
He then took advantage of the situation and defeated Wu Zi. At this time, he joined forces with Liu Bei and sent troops with Luoyang to drive Lu Bu out of Yanzhou, and the entire Yanzhou generals returned to Duke Ming."
"At that time, the crisis will turn into an opportunity. Originally, we were reluctant to attack Zhang Miao and Wu Zi due to human feelings. But now that they have rebelled, we can justifiably deal with them. In this way, Ming Gong is sitting on a state and reorganizing
Soldiers and horses, garrisoning the fields and accumulating grain, waiting in a strict manner, first observing the situation in the world, and waiting for changes in current events, this is also a period of time."
In fact, the relationship between Zhang Miao and Cao Cao was good at first, but later they had problems because Zhang Miao broke with Yuan Shao when he was challenging Dong. Because Cao Cao had a very good relationship with Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao was challenging Dong.
He also encouraged Cao Cao to kill Zhang Miao, causing Zhang Miao to be wary of Cao Cao.
There was some gap between the two. Now Zhang Miao accepted Wang Fen's call without hesitation and rebelled. As a result, Cao Cao was now very passive. However, what Guo Jia said was not unreasonable. The relationship between the two was superficial before.
, Cao Cao couldn't find any reason to deal with Zhang Miao.
But now that Zhang Miao openly rebelled, went against the Luoyang court, and chose to cater to Wang Fen, the puppet emperor of Jizhou, then Cao Cao could certainly write to the court, asking the court to send Liu Bei to support him, and at the same time legitimately take back Chenliu, Jiyin and other places.
So why Guo Jia said it was both a crisis and an opportunity? It was because in the past, Cao Cao was hindered by the relationship between the two parties, and Zhang Miao had not betrayed the court, so it was difficult to take action against him. Now that he can take action, Yanzhou can be fully recovered.
certainly.
This prerequisite is that Cao Cao can defeat Lu Bu, otherwise, everything is empty talk.
After hearing what Guo Jia said, everyone nodded secretly.
This is indeed the only way it can be done now.
At that moment, Cao Cao said: "Okay, then as Feng Xiao said, we will first write to the court and then ask Qingzhou for help. We must get Yanzhou back within this year!"
"only!"
Everyone bowed their hands and went to do their own thing.