Historically, Liu Bei was driven to Jingzhou by Cao Cao, and eventually his strategy was transferred to Sichuan, where he pacified Bashu and established Jihan.

Chen Mu obviously meant the same thing and wanted to drive Cao Cao south.

There are several advantages to doing this. First, it is a steady attack and it is difficult to fail. Second, it is to defeat the enemy without fighting and force Cao Cao to death.

Moreover, this will not lead to a large-scale war with Cao's army. No matter whether he kills many people or kills many enemies, he will give out countless titles and rewards, which will increase the burden on the court.

Therefore, driving Cao Cao south is the best way.

Save money and effort.

The most important thing is that as long as he dares to follow Liu Bei's example and go to the south, he is seeking death and there is absolutely no way to survive.

This is not conjecture.

The reason why Liu Bei was able to survive in Jingzhou was because he had a good reputation for benevolence and righteousness. In addition, his surname was Liu and he was a member of the clan. Due to these two points, Liu Biao was worried that killing him would affect his reputation, so he did not

A way to kill Liu Bei completely.

But even so, Cai Mao and Kuai Yue almost killed him in history. In the end, they could only pretend to go to the toilet and jump over Tanxi to barely escape with their lives. It can be seen that even Liu Bei had a narrow escape in Jingzhou.

What about Cao Cao?

Firstly, his surname is not Liu, and secondly, he does not have the good reputation of Liu Bei.

He had stabbed Liu Biao in the back once before. If he dared to go to Jingzhou, he would definitely die.

Can I go to Koto?

Just as cool.

There is no room for two tigers in one mountain. Sun and Cao were both tycoons who aspired to the world. Sun Ce wanted to seize Jiangdong, how could he allow Cao Cao to seize his territory?

Therefore, no matter whether Cao Cao goes to Jingzhou or Yangzhou, there is only one ending - death.

Even if we take a step back, even if he went to Jingzhou and Liu Biao did not kill him, Cao Cao would never be able to capture Jingzhou, or follow Liu Bei's example and enter Shu to capture Sichuan.

Liu Bei had a high reputation and prestige in Jingzhou in history, and even though he had the support of many powerful families, he only managed to win the four counties of Jingnan, and he was very reluctant to fight, let alone a person like Cao Cao who had no foundation or reputation.

Once Liu Biao died of illness and Liu Cong came to power with the support of Madam Cai, Cai Mao and others, Liu Bei's army went south and Jingzhou surrendered, and if Cao Cao dared to take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble, what awaited him would be a counterattack by Cai Mao, Zhang Yun and other men with military power.

It was even more impossible to enter Shu. Liu Bei was able to enter Shu because Cao Cao himself despised Zhang Song. Zhang Song then persuaded Liu Zhang to welcome Liu Bei to Shu and let Liu Bei attack Zhang Lu to achieve the purpose of driving away wolves and devouring tigers.

But in fact, Zhang Song wanted to help Liu Bei capture Sichuan. Not to mention that Cao Cao was lucky enough not to be killed by Liu Biao and captured the four counties of Jingnan just like Liu Bei did in history. Will Zhang Song help him enter Shu?

Taking a step back, Liu Bei and Chen Mu made the mistake of Cao Cao in history and underestimated Zhang Song. Zhang Song planned to welcome Cao Cao to Shu. What reasons could be used to persuade Liu Zhang?

You must know that Zhang Song's reason for persuading Liu Zhang in history was: "Liu Yuzhou makes the king's heart and soul easy to communicate with." It means that Liu Yuzhou and you are clan brothers, and you can form an alliance with him. This is how he convinced Liu Zhang.

Are Cao Cao and Liu Zhang clan brothers?

One was named Cao and the other was Liu, and they couldn't be beaten. Cao Cao didn't have as good a reputation as Liu Bei, so why did Liu Zhang let down his guard and let him enter Shu?

Therefore, for the imperial court, considering all factors, forcing Cao Cao southward was the best choice.

The reason why Guo Jia believed that Cao Cao went south was not because he knew history like Chen Mu, but he came to this conclusion through his analysis of the personalities of Liu Biao, Sun Ce, Liu Zhang and others.

Cao Cao had tricked Liu Biao once, and he only had a fragile alliance with Sun Ce. He was not friendly with Sun and Liu, so how could he not know that going south was a dead end?

Guo Jia made it clear. No wonder Chen Mu did not gather his troops for a large-scale decisive battle with him, but instead dispersed his attacks. The purpose was actually to hold him back.

After understanding this, Cao Cao felt horrified and broke into a cold sweat. Even the occasional headache seemed to have disappeared. He said in shock: "Chen Zigui is going to kill me."

Guo Jia said bitterly: "Who would have thought that when he attacked Henan, he did not want to eliminate us at all, but to drive us south. If my prediction is correct, I am afraid that Sun Ce went to Jiangdong without Chen Zigui instigating him behind his back.

"

"You mean, Sun Ce going to Jiangdong was also his plan?"

Cao Cao was stunned.

Guo Jia shook his head and said: "Think about it, Duke Ming, if Sun Ce stays in Yuzhou, we and Sun Ce will combine more than 100,000 people, and with Liu Biao as reinforcement, the combined strength may not be able to fight against the imperial court. But why did Sun Ce suddenly go to Jiangdong?

?As soon as he leaves, the strength will be dispersed, won’t he be defeated one by one?”

Cao Cao's face suddenly became very ugly. Although they had ruled out the possibility of Sun Ce surrendering to the imperial court at the beginning, because he could completely outflank him from Yuzhou, and going to Jiangdong was unnecessary, but from a grand strategic point of view, his departure was completely unnecessary.

Betrayed Cao Cao.

As soon as Sun Ce left, Henan's power was weakened, resulting in Cao Cao having only 50,000 to 60,000 troops to deal with the imperial court's more than 100,000 troops. Even Sun Ce also sent troops, but only 20,000 to 30,000 were sent to Huaibei to help resist Xuzhou.

It's just the soldiers and horses of the imperial court.

It can be said that it was Sun Ce's choice of going to Jiangdong that made Cao Cao almost powerless to fight back against the imperial court. Now the imperial court wanted to drive him south. According to Guo Jia and Cao Cao's own analysis, he went to Sun Ce and Liu Biao and narrowly escaped death.

From this point of view, the imperial court undoubtedly planned to use Liu Biao and Sun Ce's help to get rid of Cao Cao.

Cao Cao put his hands behind his back, walked slowly along the city wall, and asked softly: "Fengxiao, do you think I still have a chance?"

Guo Jia followed him step by step and encouraged: "Chen Zigui is forcing Ming Gong to a dead end. He will be considered dead at all costs. It will be very difficult to find a way out. But it depends on manpower. If Ming Gong doesn't do anything,

If you do it, there will be no chance. Only by fighting hard can you turn defeat into victory."

"Um."

Cao Cao pondered for a moment and asked: "Then where can we find a breakthrough?"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Guo Jia said: "Chen Zi returned to Zhencheng in order to eliminate Ming Gong's existing power. Ming Gong must find a way to lift the siege of Zhen City, and then he can go south to cooperate with Sun Ce.

Defeat the enemy from Xuzhou in Huaibei. Liu Bei's army is bloated and marching slowly. Our army may take this opportunity to deal with Liu Bei."

"Dingtao..."

Cao Cao hesitated.

The reason why we did not choose to gather forces and attack all the way was because if we chose this way, large areas of territory such as Dongjun, Chenliu, Jiyin, Shanyang, etc. would be lost.

His military strength was originally smaller than that of the imperial court. If he defeated them one by one, for example, by gathering all the forces to attack Xuzhou first, there would be no guarantee for the rear.

You can throw it away elsewhere, but Dingtao is his home base, and a large amount of supplies are stored there.

If Dingtao is breached, Cao Cao will be completely destitute and unable to make a comeback.

Guo Jia smiled bitterly and said: "Ming Gong, we were so concerned about Henan that we ended up in the current situation. If we had learned from Sun Ce and led all the troops directly to attack Nanyang and attack Sichuan and Shu from the Nanyang Han River waterway, maybe we wouldn't have

It’s been like this until now.”

Cao Cao sighed: "But if you do that, your future will be uncertain."

Everyone was silent for a moment.

They all just feel that the road ahead is difficult and they don’t know the future direction.

Sun Ce had a way out. First, because there was no owner in Jiangdong, he could invade and seize the opportunity.

Second, he was originally from Wujun, Jiangdong. Not only did he have the support of local wealthy families, but he also had favorable conditions such as being familiar with the terrain and relying on the people.

The time, place, and people were favorable, and Sun Ce took advantage of the people, people, and place.

But Cao Cao stayed alone in Henan to fight against the imperial army, and he was unable to advance or retreat.

When he went south to Jiangdong, Sun Ce competed with him and wanted to capture Jingzhou. Liu Biao was not a vegetarian, so going to Sichuan seemed to be a good choice.

The Sichuan Basin is a land of abundance for 800 miles, a land of plenty under Dujiangyan, with outstanding people and rich products.

The most important thing is that Liu Zhang is incompetent and knows nothing about governing the country. There are often civil strife in Sichuan and Shu, so he can take advantage of it.

However, the terrain of the Sichuan Basin is so good that there are only a few routes into Sichuan.

Several of them are in Guanzhong, followed by Jingzhou.

There are two routes in Jingzhou, one is to go north from the Han River to Hanzhong, and the other is to go north along the Yangtze River and cross the Three Gorges to enter Bajun. This route is also the route Liu Bei entered Sichuan in history.

But the problem is that Jingzhou is now in the hands of Liu Biao, so the only option available to Cao Cao is to go north from the Han River into Hanzhong.

After all, although there was Zhang Xiu in Nanyang, Cao Cao believed that Zhang Xiu was no match for him.

But there is Zhang Lu in Hanzhong. Even if Zhang Lu is defeated, it will be difficult to go south and enter Bajun. There are many passes along the Han River. Cao Cao has no insiders to respond and no backup support. Once the 50,000-strong army is blocked somewhere along the Han River,

In front of a pass, in the desolate land of Bashan and Shushui, once the food and grass carried by the army are exhausted, where can we find food for fifty or sixty thousand people?

Therefore, Cao Cao has no other choice but to fight to the death.

After analyzing the court's plan, Cao Cao had to start preparing to withdraw his troops. He ordered Yu Jin to lead 5,000 people to stay in Fengqiu and continue to pretend to be the main force of Cao's army, while he led the remaining 20,000 people to evacuate at night.

After five or six days, Liu Bei's army was fully prepared and carried a large number of siege equipment, and began to attack Fengqiu. After the first tentative attack almost hit the city walls, everyone noticed something strange.

Jia Xu speculated that the city must be empty of troops and Cao Cao had fled.

Only then did everyone realize that Cao Cao had made such a decisive decision and chose to cut off the tail of the gecko and let the dead man cut off the tail before running away.

Liu Bei and Xun You combined their forces, with a total force of nearly 50,000, and ordered Zhang Liao to lead Wan Sheng's army to continue the siege of Fengqiu, while he pressed forward step by step and continued eastward to Dingtao.

But what he didn't know was that after Cao Cao returned to Dingtao, he immediately ordered to abandon Dingtao, took supplies with him, and then quickly went north to Zhencheng with the army and horses left behind by Xi Zhicai and his family, hoping to break the siege of Zhencheng.

At this moment, Cheng Yu had abandoned Qiuqiu and joined forces with Xiahou Yuan. Less than 20,000 people were barely guarding Zhencheng.

Previously, Chen Mu passed by Dingtao in a swaggering way and rushed north to Zhencheng. Xi Zhicai naturally also wrote to Xiahou Yuan and Cheng Yu informed him that the messenger was galloping and arrived one day earlier than Chen Mu's infantry, so that Xia Houyuan

Cheng Yu avoided the embarrassment of being defeated one by one.

After Chen Mu arrived in Dingtao, he joined forces with Huang Zhong and Xu Rong's troops, and nearly 60,000 troops surrounded Zhen City.

Huang Zhong and Xu Rong's troops had a large number of siege equipment. Every day, catapults, rams, chariots, wells, and cloud towers were used in turn, which made Xia Houyuan and Cheng Yu miserable.

They were all used, so the city was not destroyed.

At the same time, after Cao Cao met Xi Zhicai in Dingtao, he immediately sent people to inquire about the news in Zhencheng.

Knowing that Zhen City was in danger, Cao Cao ordered 30,000 men to march north quickly. They crossed Chengyang in one day and arrived at Leize Pavilion, less than thirty miles away from Zhen City, in the afternoon of the next day.

It was getting late, and Chen Mu was still writing a book in the camp at this time. He has never changed this habit.

There are still countless dragon-slaying skills in his mind that he wants to pass on to future generations. After the world is pacified in the future, these books will become the guiding direction for the future Han Dynasty for at least three hundred years.

In the future, the chief ministers of the cabinet and the emperor only need to read his book and govern according to the arrangements in his book step by step.
To be continued...