After Sun Ce and Liu Bei understood Cao Cao's intentions,
They declined Cao Cao's invitation to "have a midnight snack before leaving" and hurried back to their camp overnight.
Without it, both of them had the idea of marching into Runan overnight to take Yuan Shu's head for the first time, so they were unwilling to waste even a second.
After Sun Ce and Liu Bei left in a hurry, Cao Cao asked the three military advisors in the tent: "Who do you think, Sun Ce or Liu Bei, will be our biggest threat in the future?"
Xun You and Cheng Yu glanced at each other's dark circles and said in unison: "Sun Ce!"
As for Jia Xu, he seemed to be sleeping with his eyes closed, but in fact his mind was running at high speed, thinking about how Lu Yan transmitted the information to the city.
Cao Cao has already learned the story of what happened between Lu Yan and the three of them last night.
At this moment, he glanced at the haggard Jia Xu and couldn't bear to ask him questions. Cao Cao even complained to Lu Yan in his heart: "Mr. Lu, you are committing evil!"
There is no doubt that both Xun You and Cheng Yu answered Sun Ce, and Jia Xu probably thought so too.
This is not because of their lack of intelligence, but because of the current development situation and the potential shown by individuals, it is indeed Sun Ce's side that has the upper hand.
In history, Liu Bei gradually rose to fame after he was recognized by the emperor and became the emperor's uncle. As for him now, in the eyes of many, there is probably nothing too noteworthy about him.
But Cao Cao firmly remembered Lu Yan's words. He firmly believed that Liu Bei was his biggest threat in the future!
After letting the three counselors go back to rest, Cao Cao had already made up his mind:
When Liu Bei sends troops to Runan, he will appoint a new Xuzhou Mu in the name of the Emperor and take advantage of the situation to take Guangling County into his own hands.
As for Liu Bei,
If Liu Bei and Sun Ce can successfully capture Yuan Shu in the end, he will promote Liu Bei to an official position in the name of the Emperor, but he should not go back to Guangling and stay in Xuchang.
If we fail to win, wouldn't it be easier to deal with Liu Bei...
...
The first year of Jian'an, the end of July.
Cao Cao instigated a rebellion against Lei Bo, attacked and occupied Shouchun City.
Cao Jun used this as a springboard to send troops to wipe out Yuan Shu's remaining forces in Huainan County. At this point, the rich Huainan County was completely captured by Cao Cao.
After Cao Cao's army left, Xiahou Dun and Le Jin were left behind in Shouchun City by Cao Cao.
Xiahou Dun was appointed as the governor of Huainan, responsible for governing this area that was almost destroyed by Yuan Shu.
As for Lu Yan, as soon as Shouchun City was destroyed, he bid farewell to Cao Cao and returned to Chenliu County.
This trip lasted only a few months,
Looking at Xuzhou, where people's livelihood is in decline, and then Huainan, where people are living in poverty... When he came back and saw the prosperous and bustling Chenliu, Lu Yan suddenly felt like he was in another world.
The world is not at peace yet, comrades still need to work hard!
Now under Cao Cao's rule, not to mention all, at least the people in most areas can live and work in peace and contentment.
There are fields to grow and food to eat. Occasionally, the government will recruit workers for infrastructure construction, and the people can take advantage of the slack time to earn some extra money to support their families.
Moreover, under Cao Cao's rule, farmers' taxes have been reduced from four out of ten taxes to two out of ten taxes, and the happiness of the people is almost over the top.
Compared with the huge tax revenue brought by business, in fact, farmers' grain tax really doesn't seem that important anymore.
It was precisely after seeing the huge amount of taxes brought by business that Cao Cao realized how stupid he was by exempting Chen Liu from commercial taxes for several years, and how good that guy Lu Yan was at deceiving...
It was precisely because of the huge profits brought by business that even the officials in the court only occasionally came out to talk about some of the dirty phenomena that did exist in business.
After all, no one doesn't want to live a good life. Although businessmen do have many problems, they are still looked down upon by many people.
But compared to the disdain and contempt in the early years, at least now everyone can maintain the most basic respect and politeness after meeting.
Lu Yan, Zhao Yun, Xia Houlan, and Huang Zhong led the cavalry trained by Chenliu County and returned to Chenliu together.
Wei Yan was officially pried away by Cao Cao, and he should form an army alone in the future.
There were two thousand cavalrymen when they went on the expedition, but when they returned there were only more than 1,700 and two hundred altars of ashes.
When they returned to Chenliu County, Lu Yan and others did not immediately return to the city to rest. Instead, regardless of their fatigue, they immediately came to the Zhongmartyuan Garden outside the city, which was specially built for the fallen soldiers.
Lu Yan stood at the front. In front of him was a table with sacrificial offerings, and a huge stone tablet over two meters high and one meter wide behind the table.
There is no one's name on this stone tablet yet, but before long, there will be hundreds more names on it...
Looking behind this wordless monument, there are several other stone monuments that are exactly the same as the current one. However, the names of the fallen soldiers have been engraved on those stone monuments, and two of them are even covered with densely packed inscriptions.
The name almost occupies both the front and back sides of the stone tablet.
Looking at the tall and solemn stone monuments, Lu Yan couldn't help but recall the unforgettable battles one by one, and the extremely tragic scenes. He would occasionally recall the war scenes in his dreams.
During the battle between Yingchuan County and Yuan Shu, Chenliu County showed its unique style to the world for the first time.
In that battle, since most of Chenliu's soldiers were on the battlefield for the first time, it was also the battle with the highest death rate among many battles.
The first battle of Chen Liu’s soldiers,
In order to win, the soldiers knew that the battlefield was dangerous, but they still did not hesitate at all and rushed to the battlefield without hesitation. No one flinched!
The names of more than 8,000 soldiers are engraved on the stone tablet representing this battle, but there are still a small number of people who cannot even leave their names...
Lu Yan looked back a little further, and what he saw was when Lu Bu invaded Yanzhou, Chen Liu's army supported Juancheng in the battle.
On it were the names of thousands of soldiers.
Then there is Sizhou, and finally there is this stone tablet representing the battle between Xuzhou and Huainan.
Now these two hundred people are just cavalry. When Taishi Ci returns, he will still have a list of three to four hundred people killed...
Lu Yan lit three sticks of incense, and Zhao Yun, Xia Houlan, and Huang Zhong followed suit.
Just when they were about to start the sacrificial process, an anxious shout suddenly came from the distance, "Immortal! You didn't call me for such a big thing as paying homage to the soldiers!"
Hear this sound,
Lu Yan and others all stopped what they were doing, and then looked back at Guo Jia, who was sweating profusely and running towards this direction.
Horseback riding is prohibited in the Zhonglie Garden. When Guo Jia arrived at the gate, he sprinted all the way over.
"Ha~~~Ha~~~" Guo Jia held up his legs and knees, stuck out his tongue and gasped, "It's... not bad... I caught up... I caught up!"
Facing his friend, Lu Yan said extremely seriously: "No noise is allowed in Zhonglie Garden!"
Guo Jia didn't refute, let alone raise any objections. He just nodded matter-of-factly and said, "I know. When the sacrifice is over, I will go to the military camp to get twenty military sticks."
Even though he knew he would be punished for this, Guo Jia did not want to miss the opportunity to pay homage to the fallen soldiers.
Lu Yan nodded, said nothing, and personally handed three sticks of incense to Guo Jia.
Guo Jia took the incense, stood behind Lu Yan, stood in a row with Zhao Yun and others and began to offer sacrifices.
What Guo Jia didn't notice was that the eyes of the soldiers standing behind him became softer when looking at his back.