When Chen Mu offered to help Cao Cao speak in front of the emperor, Cao Cao, who didn't want to offend either party and just wanted to quietly cultivate one-third of an acre of land, was overjoyed and was about to agree.

Unexpectedly, Guo Jia interrupted him at this time, and promised the matter on behalf of Cao Cao, expressing his willingness to send troops to help.

This made Cao Cao confused.

For Cao Cao, it is reasonable and reasonable that he hopes not to get involved in this matter.

In history, during the worst battle with Lu Bu, he almost defected to Yuan Shao. He was also wavering on the eve of the Battle of Guandu. Many times, he relied on his advisers to analyze and dissuade him before he made up his mind.

This shows that he himself is not a person who dares to take a risk, and needs his counselor to give him more confidence before he has the courage to do so.

The same is true now. Faced with a war between two giants, with his size and strength, he is naturally unwilling to get involved. Choosing to protect himself wisely and not helping each other is the most suitable way to survive.

After all, everyone must have heard of this joke. When the boss fights with the second child, the third, fourth and fifth child usually die.

There are also such examples in ancient China. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the State of Zhao and the State of Wei fought, and then the State of Zhongshan disappeared. The State of Qin and the State of Jin fought for hegemony, and then the States of Liang, Rui, Guo, Yu, and Zhai disappeared. The State of Chu and

The states of Qi fought with each other, and then the states of Lu, Song, Chen, Cai and other states caught in the middle suffered great misfortune.

When gods fight, mortals suffer, and this has been the case since ancient times. If you are not capable enough and participate in fights in areas that are too much beyond your own strength, the result is often that you are easily defeated by others, and ultimately end up with your body and country destroyed.

Cao Cao is not a fool. He knows very well that whether it is Qingzhou or Jizhou, they have the strength to destroy him at any time. The only difference is whether Yuan Shao and Liu Bei are willing to deal with him seriously.

His original strategy was to survive in the cracks and take advantage of the confrontation between the two to develop southward and plan a way out.

As a result, Lu Bu appeared halfway and not only took advantage of his Yanzhou while he was conquering Xuzhou, but even most of Xuzhou that he had already obtained fell into Lu Bu's hands. This made Cao Cao's hatred for Lu Bu reach an extreme.

To a high degree, the blood pressure will rise instantly.

It's just that Lu Bu didn't know what method he used to get the court to recognize his position as Xuzhou Mu. Coupled with many years of conquests, fighting in various places, and attacking each other with Tao Qian, Lu Bu, Yuan Shu and others, Cao Cao's soldiers and horses were exhausted and had to rest and recuperate.

That's all.

Now that Qingzhou is about to start a decisive battle with Jizhou, Yanzhou can at best get a chance to breathe. Instead of fishing in troubled waters, at least it can stay out and develop slowly to see if it can think of other ways to plot elsewhere.

But what Cao Cao didn't expect was that Guo Jia actually agreed to Chen Mu's proposal to invite him to join forces to attack Yuan. This made him puzzled as to why Guo Jia would do this.

But at the same time, Cao Cao also knew that Guo Jia was by no means a person who overstepped his authority. Since he chose to agree, he had his reasons. The only thing Cao Cao could do now was to keep his mouth shut and choose to unconditionally believe in his closest friend Guo Jia.

After a short silence, Chen Mu laughed loudly and said: "Brother Meng De is indeed a wise man, so let's agree on this matter. Please also ask Brother Meng De to organize the troops, horses and food first. Then, as my eldest brother

First of all, when the imperial court needs my brother's help to attack Yuan Shao, don't be stingy."

A trace of doubt flashed through Cao Cao's narrow eyes, and he looked at Guo Jia.

Guo Jia said with a smile: "Serving the imperial court is a matter of course. It is natural to send troops. It's just that Brother Gui, who is good at teaching his son, knows that Yanzhou has been fighting for many years. First it was Tao Qian, then Yuan Shu, and the year before last it was occupied by Lu Bu.

The wars are endless and the people of the prefectures, counties and counties are in dire straits. Coupled with the severe drought this year, food, grass, soldiers and armor may not be enough."

This is indeed true. This year's drought has affected Henan and other places. The situation in Yuzhou and Yanzhou is not very good. Liu Yu was kind-hearted and allocated 6 million dendrobium grains to reluctantly provide disaster relief. Six million dendrobium is not six million catties, but

There are 700 million kilograms of grain, one dendrobium is equal to one stone, and one stone is one hundred and twenty kilograms.

Based on the total population of the disaster-stricken areas such as Yuzhou and Yanzhou, which now totals about two to three million, using the most economical method of 4-6 kilograms of rations per person per day, it can only last for two months, barely surviving this period.

This disaster allowed the people to continue farming in the coming spring.

After all, the drought only caused a large-scale reduction in food production, and the people still had some food to survive.

However, these six million dendrobium grains have indeed solved the food crisis in the two states to a great extent, but if it is used for fighting, that is another matter.

Because not only Cao Cao, but Sun Jian also got more than half of it, it is estimated that what Cao Cao got was only two to three million dendrobium. Then he had to provide disaster relief and organize people to produce, which was consumed every day. For this reason, Xi Zhicai

Others spent a lot of energy doing this.

If they are all embezzled and the people do not survive the next year, then Cao Cao will not have to fight for hegemony. This is called fishing in the lake and killing the chickens to get the eggs. Only when the people continue to cultivate can he replenish new food and continue to fight.

What's more, these old grains were allocated by Liu Yu for the people. All states, counties and counties have collected the relief grains and are organizing people in various places to distribute and receive them. The envoys sent by the imperial court will supervise and calculate the daily consumption costs. Finally,

All feedback will be reported to the imperial court, and Liu Yu will handle it personally.

If Cao Cao directly recruited him, the imperial envoys would know about this matter, and it would be difficult to explain it to Liu Yu.

So this reason is very legitimate, and no one can find anything wrong with it.

After hearing Guo Jia's words, Chen Mu began to think deeply.

Fighting the autumn breeze?

It's quite expected.

No matter whether Cao Cao still has strategic reserves of grain, grass, weapons and equipment for the army, if he wants him to participate in the war, he will definitely say that he has nothing.

Now there is a severe drought. This is a very good reason. If you want to get Cao Cao into the trap, it seems that you can't do it without some blood.

Thinking of this, Chen Mu looked around, suddenly laughed, and said: "In this case, I will report it to the emperor, and the imperial court will allocate food funds and distribute them from Qingzhou to help Brother Meng De."

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Cao Cao came back to his senses, nodded and said, "Thank you so much, Zigui."

Guo Jia glanced at Cao Cao, and then said: "I wonder how Duke Xuande plans to deal with Yuan Shao, and how he plans to let us cooperate in the attack?"

Chen Mu said with a smile: "The emperor has issued an order, and naturally my eldest brother has to obey it. Sili now mainly uses Hanoi County as the first line of defense, but the terrain in Hanoi is too flat and not suitable for the main attack, so we decided to attack from Qingzhou first, and then You

If Brother Zhou Bogui and Luoyang cooperate with each other, it will not be too late for Brother Meng De to send troops again."

Cao Cao and Guo Jia looked at each other and made silent calculations in their minds.

This sentence is said to be unsaid. Qingzhou's strategic layout, tactics, time, location, preparation direction of attack, and when to act are not mentioned. It is just a reminder that Qingzhou will take action first, without giving Cao Cao

A bit of useful information.

However, they also knew that with Chen Mu's ability, he was always good at Tai Chi and had a good command of official speech. It would be impossible to get something out of him.

So he simply stopped trying to make excuses. Cao Cao laughed and said: "In that case, I will just wait for the imperial edict at home. Zigui, you are passing by Yanzhou this time, and I have to show my kindness to the landlord. I won't do it today."

When discussing state affairs, we need to have a good time with a banquet! Come and have a banquet."

"It just so happened that I was reminiscing about old friendship with Brother Meng De for many years, so today I'll just get drunk and end it."

Chen Mu also said with a smile.

Platefuls of wine and banquets were put on the table. Cao Cao, Chen Mu, Guo Jia, Ju Yi, Lejin and others quickly got into the mood. Everyone changed glasses and chatted about romance. They no longer kept silent about the battle between Qingzhou and Jizhou.

Soon the atmosphere reached a climax, the guests and hosts were having a great time, and everyone was very drunk.

Time passed like this minute by minute, the sky gradually darkened, and the sun set.

After nightfall, Chen Mu stayed overnight in Zhencheng again, as did Cao Cao and Guo Jia. Everyone went to bed early because they drank too much. At midnight, Cao Cao woke up from the wine and shouted for water in a daze.

With a creak, the door opened. Le Jin lit the oil lamp, handed Cao Cao water and said, "Mr. Fengxiao has also woken up and is waiting for Mr. Ming in the front hall."

Today's guests are Cao Cao and Chen Mu. They drank the most and were naturally the most drunk.

Cao Cao got up from the bed and took the water from Le Jin. After drinking the water, he felt a little more comfortable and recovered. He took off the silk blanket from his body, put on his brocade nightgown, and sat on the edge of the bed for more than ten years.

For a few seconds, his mind went blank, like a void, and then he slowly resumed thinking.

He was thinking about the actions between Chen Mu and Guo Jia today. Why did Chen Mu agree to form an alliance to attack Yuan Shao? He originally wanted to refuse, but why did Feng Xiao agree? This question lingered for a long time, leaving him unable to

Its solution.

But the answer would soon be revealed. He got off the edge of the bed, put on his clogs, casually took a cloak from the hanger and put it on his body. He walked out of the backyard house, walked through the corridor, and came to the main hall of the backyard.

An oil lamp was lit in the hall, and Guo Jia was sitting on his knees on the ground alone, holding a book in his hand and reading it with relish - this book was made of paper.

Cao Cao walked over and called softly: "Fengxiao."

"Ming Gong."

Guo Jia raised his head, quickly put the book on the table, stood up and bowed his hands.

Cao Cao waved his hands repeatedly, walked to the main seat, sat down, breathed a long sigh of relief, and said to Guo Jia: "Fengxiao, sit down first, Wen Qian, and then get some water."

Le Jin went to get water.

Guo Jia sat down and said with a smile: "Ming Gong drank a lot of wine today, so you should pay more attention to your health."

Cao Cao said happily: "It's really interesting that this sentence came from Fengxiao's mouth."

"hehe."

Guo Jia smiled sheepishly. Indeed, even he himself didn't believe it when he said people should pay attention to their health.

Le Jin came in and poured water for the two of them, then went out to guard the door.

After Cao Cao took another sip of water, he wiped his mouth and then began to get down to business and said to Guo Jia: "Fengxiao, why are you today?"

"Why did you agree to alliance with Qingzhou?"

"yes."

Cao Cao sighed and said: "Liu Xuande is not easy to mess with, and Yuan Benchu ​​is not easy to mess with either. The two of them have enough troops, horses, food and grass, and there will be a battle sooner or later. Compared with them, how can we, the crickets and the big trees, participate in it? I'm afraid Yuan Shao will send his army south.

You can easily destroy me."

Guo Jia put down the water that was originally brought to his mouth and said with a solemn expression: "Ming Gong, even if the nest is overturned, there will be no intact eggs. Our Yanzhou is sandwiched between Jizhou and Qingzhou, and it can be said that we stand on three legs. However, Jizhou and Qingzhou are strong, and Qingzhou is strong.

We are weak in Yanzhou, and the war between them will inevitably affect us. If we remain neutral, it will be extremely difficult, and we may even offend both sides, so it is better to get involved."

"Um......."

Cao Cao nodded slowly and muttered: "The words of filial piety are not unreasonable. However, I have been friends with Yuan Benchu ​​since childhood, and later became brothers with Liu Xuande. If I remain neutral, neither of them will attack me.

It’s only right to break this face.”
To be continued...