Yangdu County, Zhuge Liang’s hometown.

Although the Langya Zhuge family is not a big family in the entire Han Dynasty, it is still a famous family in Langya country.

Chen Mu's army came to the city, and it was easy to break open the city gate. A letter was sent into the city, and several wealthy families in the city obediently tied up the county magistrate, opened the city gate, and surrendered to the Qingzhou Army.

Compared to Ju County, which still has thousands of county soldiers, other counties in Langya have almost no military strength.

The county soldiers in the city, the chiefs of the pavilions in each township, the stalwarts, the thieves in the county government, and the supervisors of thieves, that is, the village government officials who catch thieves, the county government officials, and the county magistrate's private soldiers, add up to less than three or four hundred people.

With such a weak strength, as long as the powerful families do not gather their private soldiers to resist. If they directly attack by force, it is estimated that it will be over in less than half an hour.

So when Le Yi defeated Qi and conquered seventy cities in half a month, he actually did not spend his time destroying the cities, but spent his time on the road. After all, not every city of Qi's seventy cities was heavily guarded.

It was a smooth ride all the way, which is normal.

After Yangdu is defeated, the next places are Dongguan, Linyi and Haiqu.

It is relatively simple to attack Haiqu. Use Xiao Jian's official seal as the prefect, forge a document, and dispatch 500 Haiqu County soldiers to defend Ju County.

Haiqu Ling was indeed fooled and concentrated all the forces in the city and asked the county lieutenant to lead the team. As a result, the brigade was ambushed by the Qingzhou Army just after leaving the city. The county lieutenant made a prompt decision, knelt down and begged for mercy, and captured Haiqu County.

Dongguan and Linyi are more troublesome because they have to cross mountains and ridges, but the trouble is just traveling.

Having time to play a tailwind game is also a hassle. The time spent on the road is more than the time spent on group play. Chen Mu only sent a thousand people to climb mountains and wading rivers to reach Dongguan and Linyi City. The magistrates of the two counties

He opened the city gates and surrendered, almost without incident.

Immediately followed were Zanguo, Jiqiu, Zhuqi, Ganyu, and Licheng. There was no suspense. The county soldiers were all concentrated in Juxian. Each city did not have much strength to defend. Chen Mu made a small plan and took it.

The entire Langya Kingdom.

There were thirteen cities in the Langya Kingdom, and all of them fell in just half a month. The Qingzhou army was like a tiger rushing into a flock of sheep, and they could even divide one or two thousand troops into each city, and they could defeat them easily.

For a time, the whole Xuzhou was shaken.

Faced with the Qingzhou Army's menacing attack, and the fact that Cao Cao had already entered Fuyang and Wuyuan, his troops entered Tan County and were attacked from two sides. Tao Qian was miserable and could only huddle his troops in Tan County and prepare all defenses.

City equipment, planning to fight to the death with the Qingzhou Yanzhou Army.

Wuyuan County is located to the north of Pi County in later generations. It is only more than 150 miles away from Tan County. It crosses the Yishui River and can be reached within two days when the army is marching normally. It is the hottest month in July.

At that time, Cao Cao was stationed on the banks of the Surabaya River.

In history, when Cao Cao first conquered Xuzhou, he massacred three cities on his return journey, and the harm was not great.

But the second expedition to Xuzhou was much more brutal. In order to avenge his father, Cao Cao, in a rage, conquered more than ten cities all the way, including Liuxian, Pengcheng, Luxian, Fuyang, Wuyuan, Lanling, Xiangbi, etc. in the west of Xuzhou.

Tan County and other places were all slaughtered, at least two to three hundred thousand people were killed, and the Surabaya River stopped flowing.

But at this moment, it has not reached that point, so Cao Cao only captured the county town along the way and did not kill the people. In the summer evening, when the sun was not so strong, soldiers and horses were coming and going in an endless stream along the Sishui River, and fighting was carried out in the camp.

The training was a bustling crowd.

Cao Cao currently arranges for Xiahou Dun to be the prefect of Dongjun, Xia Houyuan to be the prefect of Chenliu, and Xi Xian to be the prefect of Jiyin, letting them stay in their hometowns. He leads Guo Jiacheng, Yu Chengong, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and Jin to conquer Tao Qian, and the whole journey is like breaking bamboo.

Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Yu Jin and others were training their soldiers every day. This kind of training was indispensable even in battle. Cao Cao and three counselors, Guo Jia, Xi Xian and Chen Gong, were walking by the Sishui River.

The river is rolling with waves, its banks are green, and there are undulating mountains in the distance. The scenery is picturesque, but no one knows that this river was filled with corpses at this time in history.

"Then Chen Zigui is a good strategist. If he sends troops at this time, he is not afraid of dying."

Guo Jia crumpled the letter in his hand into a ball and threw it into the river. He was always informal and would not care whether this was an uncivilized act of littering or not.

Cheng Yu thought: "Chen Zigui saw that we were attacking Xuzhou, and it seemed that we were plowing the streets and sweeping holes, destroying the dead. He was afraid that we would capture Xuzhou with lightning speed, so he immediately sent troops to attack from the north. He also wrote to us, saying that we would serve him.

The imperial edict is to punish the thieves and give Yanzhou a helping hand. It is called to lead an alliance, but in reality it is to share the spoils, and the intention is to punish them."

Chen Gong also said: "Now that Xuzhou's army is stationed on the west side, Langya Kingdom has almost no defenders. The Qingzhou Army broke through the entire county in less than half a month. In fact, it was just a large army rushing on its way without any resistance. This is false.

The power of our Yanzhou will strengthen the power of Qingzhou."

"snort."

Cao Cao is a little unhappy. The reason why he is attacking Xuzhou now is that he has a well-known division. Tao Qian attacked him the year before last. Secondly, he wants to take advantage of the competition between Jizhou, Youzhou and Qingzhou to find a way to strengthen himself so that he can join the first-class princes.

within the strength.

Unexpectedly, Liu Bei actually forced out 20,000 troops at the key point of the confrontation with Yuan Shao, and came down from Langya Kingdom to attack Xuzhou. In name, he wanted to join forces with Cao Cao to punish his colleagues who wantonly attacked and disobeyed.

Tao Qian, who was ordered by the Luoyang court, actually everyone present knew that Qingzhou was afraid that Cao Cao would swallow up Xuzhou, so he hurriedly came to grab food.

Qingzhou and Xuzhou were originally connected as one. Unlike Yanzhou, transportation was inconvenient because it was blocked by Mount Tai. It was necessary to take a detour from Pingyuan State to connect with Yanzhou. However, Langya State to the north of Xuzhou had no obstacle to Qingzhou.

In addition, most of Xuzhou's troops were attracted by Cao Cao, which allowed Chen Mu to take advantage and easily win a county.

Breaking thirteen cities in half a month still sounds very bluffing. But in fact, only Cao Cao and Tao Qian know the inner reason. It's a bit like I'm fighting life and death here, and you are taking advantage of it over there, but in the end, all your reputation has been gained by you.

It would be strange if Cao Cao was not angry.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! However, although he wanted to scold Shuzi for being a hero, he still endured it. After a while, he asked everyone about the plan: "Chen Zigui has entered the country of Zang, and he said

Immediately go south to Lanling and march into Xiangbi. He invites me to meet with him in Xiangbi to attack Tao Qian. Everyone knows what he thinks. Why don't you guys tell me what to do?"

Several people fell into deep thought. After a while, Chen Gong took the lead and said: "Tao Qian has stationed his troops in Tan County. The city has many soldiers and good food. It will not be conquered in a short time. It would be better if Ming Gong led 5,000 men and horses east to fight with Xiangbi.

A general can go south and capture Pi and Guangling. If Xuzhou is divided equally with Qingzhou, it can still accomplish something."

Xuzhou is a long vertical strip, with Yanzhou and Yuzhou on the west and the Yellow Sea on the east. Taishan County and Qingzhou and Beihai Kingdom on the wide north side, and Jiujiang, Wujun, Danyang and other places on the south.

Among them, the population is mainly concentrated in Donghai County, with a population of 500,000 to 600,000, and Langya Kingdom also has a population of more than 400,000. However, the territory in the south is larger. The three counties combined, Dingkou also has a population of 13.44 million.

Therefore, Chen Gong's strategy was to stop his losses in time and seize the two counties of Xiapi and Guangling in the south first, plus Pengcheng, to seize the land of the three counties of Xuzhou.

From a strategic point of view, this can block Qingzhou's southward movement and prevent them from reaching Henan, and secondly, it can replenish the territory's population and expand its power, which can be regarded as barely achieving the original goal.

However, after hearing this strategy, Cao Cao remained silent. According to his original idea, he wanted to annex the entire Xuzhou, so that most of Henan would belong to him. His strength would be comparable to that of Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan, and Liu Bei. Now he only has half of Xuzhou.

It was hard for him to accept.

Seeing his appearance, Guo Jia knew what Cao Cao was thinking, so he said: "Langya Kingdom has been occupied by Chen Zigui, and it is difficult to take it back. Moreover, the land in Guangling area of ​​Xiapi is too big. Even if it is occupied, it will be difficult to divide the troops.

Our troops are very limited to guard it. Yanzhou has only just been pacified. If these newly acquired places rebel, we will be unable to do anything and shake the foundation. This strategy will not work."

This involves a digestion problem. Cao Cao has just pacified Yanzhou and has not yet had time to fully digest it. Now the main purpose of attacking Xuzhou is to knock down the mountain and shake the tiger, and plan for it step by step. Unexpectedly, Qingzhou also sent troops.

If Chen Gong's strategy is followed and Pi Guangling is captured in the south, it will be difficult to digest quickly because the area is too big. If Tao Qian is not dead, he will still be the nominal lord of Xuzhou, unpopular and difficult to surrender.

Just like in the early days of the new era, the Japanese occupied a large area of ​​our territory, but they rebelled because they were unpopular with the people.

Therefore, this strategy is not impossible, but it cannot solve the problem as soon as possible. Even if Guangling Xiapi is occupied, these territories will not bring benefits to Cao Cao in a short period of time. On the contrary, it is easy for rebellions to continue, and troops need to be divided to suppress them.

Only by joining forces with Chen Mu's coalition forces to break through Tan County, kill Tao Qian, and replace all the local chief officials with their own people by imperial edict, would it be possible to completely digest it.

In fact, this kind of problem has appeared in front of Cao Cao countless times in history. After the massacre of Xuzhou, it had a great impact on him.

Including Liu Bei's flight south from Xinye, the people were afraid of Cao Cao's massacre, so they spontaneously followed him. There were also a large number of people in Xiapi and Guangling who fled to the Jianghuai area. Later, they occupied Hebei and massacred Yecheng. The whole country was shocked, and everyone was afraid and could not protect their land and protect their land.

The soldiers and more than 100,000 Hebei people fled to Wuhuan.

Therefore, although massacring the city was a last resort to scare the enemy, Cao Cao was indeed somewhat unpopular at the time.

The same is true now. Although Tao Qian did not do any good things in Xuzhou and his governance was relatively poor, which made Xuzhou currently in chaos, he was still very generous to the powerful families during his tenure, and all the county officials were also his confidants.

If Tao Qian is not dealt with first, but the territory is occupied first, and the powerful family causes chaos, it will be a difficult problem for Cao Cao.

After hearing Guo Jia's words, Chen Gong lowered his head and began to think hard.

Cheng Yu looked at the mountains and rivers in the distance and said calmly: "Only by defeating Tao Qian as soon as possible and forcing him to surrender can we legitimately take over Xuzhou."

"Um."

Guo Jia nodded in agreement and said, "How to force him to surrender?"

Cheng Yu suddenly stopped, looked at Cao Cao seriously, bowed his hands and said: "Ming Gong, Yu has a plan, it may work, but this method will cause serious harm, so it should be used with caution."

"oh?"

Cao Cao became interested and asked: "What is a good strategy?"

Cheng Yu's eyes flashed with a fierce look, and he whispered: "In the Battle of Changping, Lord Wu'an killed Zhao's 400,000 surrendered soldiers. The whole world was frightened. From then on, Zhao fell into despair and feared Qin like a tiger. Until the death of the First Emperor

At that time, the war to destroy Zhao was launched, with overwhelming momentum and no obstacles."

Cao Cao frowned and asked, "What does Zhongde mean?"

Cheng Yu said: "When facing the enemy, if you cannot attack it with force, you should also force it with force. Chen Zigui raised his troops to go south and wanted to share Xuzhou with us. At this time, we should attack Xiangbi with lightning speed and advance to Tan.

County. If Tan County cannot be defeated in a short time, the people of Tan County and Xiangben will be captured and slaughtered outside the city to frighten Tao Qian."

Kill them all?

Guo Jia frowned slightly.

Chen Gong's face was full of horror.

The massacre of a city in ancient times did not mean the massacre of the people in the city.

In fact, according to historical records at that time, there were not many people in the county town. Most of the people lived in the countryside outside the city and were scattered in villages.

For example, if there are 100,000 people in a county, at least 70,000 to 80,000 of them live in villages outside the county, and only 20,000 to 30,000 live in the county town.

So to put it bluntly, Cao Cao massacred more than a dozen cities in Xuzhou and only killed more than 200,000 people. This is actually a relatively reasonable figure because the people living in the wild were too scattered and were not massacred by him.

But what does Cheng Yu mean?

If Tao Qian does not surrender, then the people of Tan County and Xiangben will be captured and killed outside the city in front of Tao Qian.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This is not just a massacre of the city, but a massacre of the county.

He is worthy of being a ruthless person who uses people as meat, and he has no moral bottom line. Cheng Yu's methods are indeed extremely bloody.

If Liu Bei were here, he would probably be tempted to scold Cheng Yu loudly and scold him.

But what is shocking is that after hearing Cheng Yu's words, Cao Cao, instead of being dissatisfied, fell into deep thought and seemed to be quite moved.

"Ming Gong, you can't do that."

Chen Gong quickly dissuaded him: "In the past, Xiang Yu slaughtered Qi, which caused the Qi people to rebel. If Xuzhou is massacred today, it will be even more difficult for the people to surrender."

Massacre of a city as a means of frightening the enemy is not completely useless.

If used properly, it can indeed speed up the enemy's surrender. But if used incorrectly, like Xiang Yu did, it will cause endless troubles.
To be continued...