This time Cao Cao galloped with light cavalry and caught up with Guan Yu who was in front. Gushi, Guo Jia and Xiahou Yuan, who were galloping all the way, were in charge of leading the troops and Cao Hong was not here.
The group of people entered the camp in a hurry. Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei had not seen each other for a long time.
Although they communicated frequently, Guan Yu would also go south to Qingzhou during the Chinese New Year. But last time it was the Chinese New Year the year before last, and the three brothers missed him very much. However, the military situation was urgent, so they had to put down this feeling of missing him first.
Several people sat in rows, Guan Yu and Cao Cao sat on the left and right of Liu Bei, followed by Zhang Fei, Ju Shi, Tian Feng, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others. It was already early September, and the Double Ninth Festival was approaching on September 9th.
Originally, last month Liu Bei sent Tian Feng and Dian Wei north to assist Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun in resisting Liu Xun and Ji Ling. The two sides are currently in the confrontation stage. Tian Feng took advantage of the opportunity of Linyang's victory and rode south quickly, planning to formulate temporary tactics to attack Yuan Shu. blow.
In addition to Chen Mu, there are currently two highly intelligent counselors under Liu Bei, Jushou and Tian Feng, who have different focuses. Jushou is good at general strategy. In history, the strategic levels of Jia Xu, Jushou, and Xun Yu are quite close.
Tian Feng was good at tactics. During the Battle of Guandu, he laid out detailed ways to fight the enemy to deal with Cao Cao's tactical layout. It's a pity that Yuan Shao didn't listen to him, otherwise he might have been able to compete with Xun You.
So the decisive battle is about to begin, and Liu Bei really needs Tian Feng to come over and make tactical planning to ensure that this battle can eliminate Yuan Shu, the biggest troublemaker in the south.
Unfortunately, Yuan Shao's sudden move caught them off guard and they had to temporarily terminate the plan and discuss countermeasures against Yuan Shao.
Liu Bei sat behind the desk, looked at Cao Cao and said: "Meng De, you came just in time. Yuan Shao is going south this time, and his approach is fierce. We think that he is trying to persuade Yuan Shu, but in fact he is colluding with Yuan Shu. It is very likely that he will attack us suddenly. What do you think?"
"I think so too."
Cao Cao touched the long beard that he was most proud of, and suddenly saw Guan Yu's beautiful beard. He put his hand down unconsciously, shook his head and said: "Last month in Dongjun, we captured an envoy sent by Yuan Shu to Hebei. This person has already I confess that in June, Yuan Shao had already sent envoys to form an alliance with him, but he was afraid of Xuande and did not send troops."
Liu Bei pondered: "It seems that the troops I led south this time led to too few troops in the front, which made Yuan Shao no longer so afraid. This time I was ordered by the emperor to punish the thieves. I thought that after he declared himself a minister, he no longer dared to go back. To oppose the imperial court, you didn't expect Yuan Benchu to be so courageous?"
After dominating Qingzhou and dominating the world, Liu Bei already had a certain demeanor. In other words, he had the air of a hegemon. Even Yuan Shao, who was now very powerful, he had the courage to strategically defy him.
Jushou said: "As the saying goes, a fox will be sad when a rabbit dies. Yuan Shu is not a rabbit, and Yuan Shao is not a fox. But the principle is the same. Today, bandits are plundering, dragons and snakes are rising together. The Ming Dynasty serves the emperor to rectify the country, and the beasts and horses cannot be punished. Ting. Sooner or later, the Han Dynasty will return to the Liu family. Two Yuans, one in the south and one in the north, are clearly disobedient. However, the court moves from south to north, so Yuan Shao is naturally afraid."
"Um."
Liu Bei nodded.
Cao Cao's eyes flickered, but he sneered in his heart.
Serving the emperor to rectify the country, and beasts and horses to seek justice?
What bullshit.
It's just an excuse for you to use Liu Yu to attack the Quartet.
And the Han Dynasty will return to the Liu family?
It belongs to you Liu Bei?
But of course Cao Cao couldn't say these words clearly, he just thought about it and said: "No matter what Yuan Shao wants to do when he goes south, we can't just wait. There are only three ways before us now. One is to destroy Yuan Shu immediately before Yuan Shao's army comes.
, let the matter settle. The second is to stay and wait and see, waiting for Yuan Shao's army to arrive, and then discuss it. The third is to let Yuan Shu go and go north to meet the enemy."
"Well, these three strategies also have great hidden dangers."
Jushu analyzed: "If we fail to eliminate Yuan Shu in a short period of time and Yuan Shao's army arrives, attacking from the north and south will not be good. If we stay and wait and see, Yuan Shao suddenly attacks and attacks together with Yuan Shu, we will be equally passive. As for heading north to meet the enemy,
And I’m afraid that the court will blame me.”
"Everything has its drawbacks. We just need to find the best way to solve them."
Cao Cao said.
Liu Bei pondered: "If we divide our forces, my second brother and I will go north to intercept Yuan Shao's army, while Meng De and Bo Fu's nephew fight against Yuan Shu. Now Yuan Shu has lost one of his troops, and he will not be able to hold on for long on the other. With Meng De and Bo Fu
With my nephew’s talent, he should be able to defeat Yuan Shu.”
Ask questions, make bold assumptions, and solve problems.
Yuan Shao went south, which caused the beginning of the problem. Cao Cao hypothesized and based on the direction given by the problem, Liu Bei finally proposed a solution.
This method was not Liu Bei's decision. After all, he had been fighting in the north and south for many years, and he often had Chen Mu's help around him. His intelligence and commanding skills had improved a little, and his way of looking at the problem was naturally different.
He believed that Yuan Shao's attitude was unclear when he went south. Since his attitude was unclear, he could have gone north to intercept Yuan Shao's army first, delaying his progress, and buying time for Cao Cao and Sun Ce to eliminate Yuan Shu.
In this way, the original goal can be achieved - not only to complete the task given by the imperial court to eliminate Yuan Shu, but also to weaken the power of the two Yuans, making them unable to connect the north and the south.
After Yuan Shu's demise and the dust settles, even if Yuan Shao wants to send troops south, he will probably be drowned in the vast ocean that overthrows Yuan's alliance.
"If that's the case, we still have to worry about Lu Bu."
Jushou offered his opinion.
"Indeed, Lu Bu is a problem."
Liu Bei fell into deep thought.
The current situation in the south has turned into a mess with the addition of Yuan Shao.
Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Ce fought with Yuan Shu in various places in Runan, and in the Xiapi Peiguo area, there were also Dianwei, Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, Liu Xun, Ji Ling, and others who fought against each other.
Lu Bu's army has entered the Chen and Liang areas, and Sun Jian started his career here. Fortunately, Sun Jian's family has already gone to Qingzhou, so there is no need to worry about Sun Jian's safety.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The problem is that if Lu Bu takes advantage of this moment to go south and join forces with Yuan Shu, it will be another big trouble for Cao Cao and Sun Ce.
The problem now is that the situation in the south is corrupt, Yuan and Yuan are tyrannical, and they no longer have many troops at their disposal.
Liu Bei and Guan Yu led their 40,000 troops northward, which was already their limit.
If Lu Bu intervenes and joins Yuan Shu, Cao Cao and Sun Ce may not be able to defeat them.
"Xuande."
Cao Cao suddenly said.
Liu Bei said: "Well, Meng De, please tell me."
"Yuan Shu is only ambitious and incompetent."
Cao Cao continued: "Leave him to me, and leave Lu Bu to Bo Fu's nephew. What do you think?"
Liu Bei worriedly said: "Mengde only has 20,000 troops, but Yuan Shu has 50,000 or 60,000 troops."
"It doesn't matter, aren't there 20,000 people from Zhu Zhi here?"
Cao Cao waved his hand.
Liu Bei thought about it and said: "That's true, but we have to discuss this matter with nephew Bo Fu."
In terms of military strength, Liu Bei who went north was the least powerful.
Because Dian Wei took away 10,000 people, even if Guan Yu was included, he only had 40,000 people.
Cao Cao had 20,000 troops, Sun Ce had 20,000 troops, and Zhu Zhi had 20,000 troops. The total force was 60,000 troops. Due to Zhang Xun's defeat and the loss of many men, Yuan Shu's strength was damaged.
Now Lu Bu and Yuan Shu combined only have 60,000 to 70,000 people. I just heard that Yuan Shu's defenders in Huainan are marching north for reinforcements. Maybe their strength will exceed that of Sun Ce and Cao Cao, but it will only exceed tens of thousands of people at most. If the tactics are used properly,
You won't necessarily lose.
"I will discuss this matter with him."
Cao Cao stood up and said, "This is the safest way."
"What do the two military advisors think?"
Liu Bei looked at Jushou and Tian Feng again.
Jushou and Tian Feng looked at each other and could see the confusion in each other's eyes.
It is indeed a bit strange that Cao Cao took the initiative to choose the side with fewer troops to fight Yuan Shu, who had more troops.
But since someone is willing to resist forcefully, let him do it. Anyway, the person who loses is not one of his own.
"This method works."
The two nodded.
Seeing that Ju Shou Tian Feng also agreed, Liu Bei looked around at the crowd and said: "Okay, in that case, my second brother will follow me north to resist Yuan Shao. Meng De will be here to fight Yuan Shu."
Cao Cao was not ambiguous, and immediately left the camp in a dusty atmosphere, preparing to return to his own base first and lead the army to Gushi.
Liu Bei began to pack his luggage and set off north the next day to join forces with Guan Yu to deal with Yuan Shao.
.......
.......
With Yuan Shao disrupting the situation, the battlefield in the south was in chaos, while the north was in a state of calm.
Yuan Shao released his goodwill and withdrew his troops from the Bohai front. They all retreated to Anping and Qinghe States, and even left most of the Hejian State, leaving a vast area.
In the governor's mansion in Nanpi County, Bohai County, Gongsun Zan was drinking chrysanthemum wine.
It is already early September, which is the Double Ninth Festival. Many people inside and outside the city are wearing dogwood to worship their ancestors.
The wine brewed during the Double Ninth Festival last year is now fragrant and is just in time to be taken out for drinking.
Tian Yu slowly walked into the mansion.
When Gongsun Zan saw him, he laughed and said, "Guo Rang has come at the right time. It's a great day for us. Let's have a banquet together."
"General, where is the happy news coming from?"
Tian Yu's face was neither sad nor happy, he raised his hands and asked in a deep voice.
Gongsun Zan smiled and said: "Yuan Shao is as timid as a rat and has withdrawn all his troops. Isn't this a great joy?"
Tian Yu frowned and said, "So the general sent Wang Men to occupy the Hejian Kingdom?"
"What does it have to do with me if he lets it go on his own?"
Gongsun Zan put down the wine glass and sneered: "Fan Li once said: If God doesn't take it, you will suffer the consequences. This time I captured the Hejian Kingdom, and it will be more convenient to connect with Youzhou. Once the war breaks out, we can go to the Zhongshan Kingdom.
, Changshan Kingdom went all the way south and took Wei County directly."
Tian Yu thought about it carefully, and it seemed that it was not unreasonable to say so.
Yuan Shao now divided his troops and went south, and withdrew his frontline soldiers. Instead, he exposed the original defense lines of the Hejian Kingdom and the Zhongshan Kingdom. If a full-scale war broke out, this part of the country would indeed be a big loophole.
But it must be clear that there are not only two forces here, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, but multiple forces entangled together. It is by no means as simple as imagined.
First of all, there are the Black Mountain bandits in the Taihang Mountains. They are entrenched in the Changshan Kingdom, Zhao Kingdom and other mountain ranges, with hundreds of thousands of people.
Although most of these hundreds of thousands are old, weak, women and children, there are relatively few elite soldiers with real combat effectiveness, and there are also internal differences. Zhang Yan is just the strongest group among them, with tens of thousands of elite soldiers. But if Yuan Shao wins over them, it will be a blow to Gongsun Zan.
It will be huge.
Next are the Xianbei and Wuhuan forces. The northern areas of Changshan and Zhongshan were the Datong and Zhangjiakou areas in later generations, close to the Inner Mongolia grassland. The central Xianbei was entrenched in the north of Bingzhou and the west of Youzhou, which was east and south of Hohhot in later generations.
At that time, the Changshan Kingdom and the Zhongshan Kingdom were not far apart, and they often invaded southward.
The Wuhuan tribe is in the Daijun, Shanggu, and Yuyang areas. The closest friends with Gongsun Zan are the eastern Xianbei people, followed by the Wuhuan tribe, and they are only on good terms with some of them, and with the other part.
For example, the Qiu Liju tribe was defeated by him, and the two sides often turned against each other.
Now the area actually controlled by Gongsun Zan in Youzhou is only the three counties of Zhuojun, Guangyang and Yuyang. Further east, Youbeiping is Gongsundu's territory. The territory is not particularly large, but Zhuojun, Guangyang and Yuyang are the territories of Youzhou.
The most prosperous areas have the largest population and the best economy, so being able to control these places will not put great pressure on Gongsun Zan.
However, Gongsun Zan's military strength was not as large as expected. He only had about 40,000 to 50,000 troops, and there were another 20,000 to 30,000 Xianbei Wuhuan Hu cavalry hired from the north. These troops were a constant source of vitality.
Those who keep giving money, even if they have accumulated a lot of wealth over the years, still spend money like water.
In this way, when Gongsun Zan is not fighting, he will disband these mercenaries and then station his own troops in Bohai and Zhuojun. Among them, Bohai has the largest number of troops, with more than 30,000 people, and Zhuojun has less than 20,000.
.
The situation is not bad now, but that was before the River Kingdom was occupied.
The Hejian Kingdom has been obtained, but the territory is too large. Just one Bohai County and one Hejian Kingdom are already larger than Zhuo County, Guangyang and Yuyang. The pressure to divide the troops and station them will also increase.
At that time, having too much territory was a bad thing.
Thinking of this, Tian Yu immediately said: "General, although the geographical location of the Hejian Kingdom is important, our troops are too divided. If Yuan Shao suddenly attacks at this time, it will be difficult to immediately gather troops to counterattack."
Gongsun Zan suddenly laughed: "The governor is worried too much. Don't you know that Yuan Shao has sent an army southward. Now there are still soldiers and horses in Luoyang and Qingzhou. How dare he attack us? If he wants to attack us, he will not shrink his troops, but
We should gather our troops, are you right?"
"Well......"
Tian Yu didn't know what to say for a while, but it was indeed true.
Yuan Shao's set of combination punches is indeed very confusing.
The advance envoys made good friends with Gongsun Zan and Chen Mu, then withdrew their troops, and then moved the army southward.
On the surface, it looks like they are going to shrink their defense forces and focus entirely on the south.
After all, fighting is not just a game. Before the soldiers and horses are moved, food and grass go first. Before a big war begins, it takes a long time to prepare in advance.
Yuan Shao's troops withdrew from the Hejian Kingdom, which was two to three hundred miles away from the Bohai Sea. Even if he wanted to make a sudden attack, there were so many checkpoints and fortresses along the way that he would not be blind, and it would be impossible to give him a chance.
Therefore, neither Liu Bei, Cao Cao, or Tian Feng in the south nor Gongsun Zan in the north, could find any reason why Yuan Shao had other intentions.
This is also the reason why Gongsun Zan confidently and boldly conquered the Hejian Kingdom.
He did divide his troops in the Hejian Kingdom, but the number was not large, only ten thousand in total. Even if Yuan Shao attacked, these ten thousand people could delay for some time, enough for Gongsun Zan to immediately send an order to the north and continue to recruit troops from Xianbei and Wuhuan to go south to help.
Moreover, there were Qingzhou troops and horses to the south for reinforcements, and they were by no means inferior to Jizhou in terms of strategy. Gongsun Zan was not worried about any surprises at all.
"Guorang, do you have any more questions?"
Gongsun Zan asked.
Tian Yu had no choice but to bow his hands and salute: "General, I'm wise, please retire."
Looking at his leaving figure, Gongsun Zan smiled.
Tian Yu is indeed very smart, but sometimes thinking about problems is still too complicated.
When Yuan Shao retreated, he took one step back and took one step forward.
If you want to attack suddenly, how is that possible?
The Qingzhou Army was close at hand, and Luoyang soldiers and horses were also threatening Wei County. Even if the Hejian Kingdom lost all 10,000 men, he could react immediately and unite with the Xianbei Wuhuan and Qingzhou Army to resist.
Yuan Shao has sent 80,000 troops south to intervene in the Runan battlefield. Jizhou's troops only have more than 100,000 troops, which is not much different from Luoyang Qingzhou plus his own troops. What else is there to fear?
Thinking of this, Gongsun Zan shook his head. Now he only needs to wait until Xuande comes back from the south. There will be a battle between himself and Yuan Shao!