Seemingly overnight, Cao Cao began to take action one after another.
The major forces put in detailed operations under Cao Cao's rule, and continuously handed over the detected intelligence back to their masters. Cao Cao's soldiers, horses, and food from all over the country continued to converge towards the White Horse. Within half a month, the White Horse line came one after another.
A hundred and fifty thousand troops were gathered!
What's even more terrible is that this does not include the troops left behind by Cao Ren Zhang Yan in Hanoi, Cao Hong in Xuchang, Li Tong in Wancheng, as well as Xia Houdun in Shouchun and Liu Xun in Guangling. If they are all counted together, wouldn't it mean that Cao Cao's military strength
Already more than 200,000 to 300,000?!
You know, except for the field soldiers, Cao Cao has always pursued a policy of elite troops. His regular troops are all elites wearing iron armor!
It was more than a year after the battles of Guandu and Cangting. Cao Cao recovered so quickly, and his strength not only did not weaken but was even steadily increasing.
Thinking back to the beginning, even the Xiliang Army under Dong Zhuo, the strongest army in the world, had an armor coverage rate of only about 50%, and most of them were leather or cloth armor. The actual iron armor was less than 10%.
Based on Dong Zhuo's army of 500,000, Dong Zhuo's most elite Flying Bear Army should be all wearing iron armor and number around 20,000 to 30,000.
This is already a very terrifying force.
But now look at Cao Cao. All his men and horses are wearing iron armor, not counting Lu Yan's group of monsters wearing heavy armor...
Cao Cao is actually so well-equipped with troops and supplies. If Yuan Shao loses, who else in the world will be his opponent?
This is so fatal!
It's almost like killing someone!
Most of the soldiers from other princes still wore cloth and leather armor. When you compare the difference, an overwhelming feeling arises from the bottom of your heart.
The moment the princes of the Han Dynasty received these pieces of information, their hearts fell into an ice cellar, and they were extremely shocked by Cao Cao's strength.
In May, the fifth year of Jian'an.
The emperor issued an edict, ordering Cao Cao to raise troops to attack the traitor Yuan Shao, and at the same time called on all the princes in the world to assist Cao Cao in his attack on Yuan Shao!
As the edict spread throughout the world, Qingzhou Mu and Wenhou Lu Bu immediately responded to the call and joined forces with Cao Cao to attack Yuan Shao, but only Lu Bu responded to the emperor's call.
All the elite troops from Chenliu Commandery were sent out. With Lu Yan as the commander, he led 20,000 elite cavalry and 30,000 elite infantry, a total of 50,000 troops, and went north to attack Yuan Shao.
Cao Cao's subordinates, led by generals such as Xia Houyuan, Zhang Liao, Yue Jin, and Yu Jin, led an army of 100,000 to the north to attack Yuan Shao. When the army of 150,000 was assembled, it was already mid-May.
A series of generals who surrendered from Yuan Shao, such as Zhang He and Gao Lan, did not want to meet the old masters in battle and chose to stay in Xuchang and other places. Xun Yu and Cheng Yu also stayed in Xuchang this time to take charge of the rear area to ensure the army's food and grass supply.
Ordnance should be supplied.
In the last battle of Cangting, after Cao Cao retreated to Henan, Liyang on the north bank of the Yellow River was reoccupied by Yuan's army.
Currently, the general stationed in Liyang is Jiang Qi, but there are less than 30,000 soldiers stationed in Liyang.
Seeing that Cao's army on the opposite side had exceeded 100,000, Jiang Qi was greatly shocked. At the same time, letters asking for help floated like snowflakes to Yuan Shao in Yecheng.
But Yuan Shao could not send more soldiers to reinforce Jiang Qi at this moment, because he also received requests for help from senior officials in Hanoi and Yuan Tan from Pingyuan County.
In June, the fifth year of Jian'an,
Cao Cao from Yanzhou, Cao Ren from Hanoi, Zhang Yan, and Lu Bu from Qingzhou all marched out to point their swords at Yuan Shao's base camp, Yecheng in Jizhou!
In the general's palace, Yuan Shao was venting his full anger.
“Bang!!”
"A roar!"
Yuan Shao, whose beard and hair were all white, threw out everything he could touch, and roared with red eyes: "Damn Cao A'ao, damn the Black Mountain Army, damn Lu Bu! One day, I will kill you all, thousands of people."
Cut to pieces!!
The three armies came out together, and Yuan Shao was caught off guard, unable to look at each other.
Gaogan, located in Hanoi County, could barely withstand the attacks of Cao Ren and Zhang Yan with the help of checkpoints and fortified cities; Yuan Tan, who was in Pingyuan County, found it very difficult to deal with Lu Bu, but under Xin Ping's suggestion, he defended Pingyuan County and defended Pingyuan County for the time being.
Lü Bu could not advance even an inch. Only Jiang Qi in the middle was unable to stop Cao's army from crossing the river.
After crossing the Yellow River, Cao's army began to use trebuchets to bombard Liyang City indiscriminately. Within three days, Jiang Qi led his army to abandon the city and flee.
After Cao Cao's army occupied Liyang City, they separated from the Jin Dynasty and marched towards Chaoge with an army of 30,000 people, intending to join forces with Cao Ren and Zhang Yan to attack the high-ranking cadres who occupied the northern part of Hanoi County.
The remaining 120,000 troops went all the way north, aiming directly at Yecheng, the heart of the Yuan Group.
Two years ago, Yuan Shao led an army of nearly 500,000 people to the south to attack Cao Cao. Two years later, it was Cao Cao who led an army of over 100,000 people to the north to attack Yuan Shao... This is exactly what he said: The tide will turn, and you will come to my house the year after tomorrow.
Along the way, Cao Cao adopted Lu Yan's strategy and strictly ordered his soldiers not to disturb the people. Anyone who disobeyed the order would be beheaded directly to scare the monkeys. Moreover, every time Cao Cao's army captured a city, they would also distribute the land of the original wealthy gentry to the local people.
This series of actions made the people of Hebei no longer resist Cao Cao's arrival. People in some places even looked forward to the early arrival of Cao Cao's army because they also wanted to conquer the landlords and divide their fields.
Cao Cao had a bad relationship with the Hebei aristocratic family, so he felt no guilt in punishing them.
Not only the fields, but also their belongings, Cao Cao simply gave them all to reward the generals. Whether they were his own soldiers, Zhang Yan's Black Mountain Army, or even some of Yuan Shao's surrender troops who were willing to participate in the Northern Expedition, they were all treated equally.
Now Cao Cao was not only highly respected by the local people, but many of Yuan's defeated troops also joined Cao's army.
After all, the vast majority of Yuan's soldiers were ordinary people. After Cao's army entered Jizhou, not only did they not disturb the people, they also gave land to the people and property to the soldiers. They were vested interests, so of course they would become active and hard-working.
When did Yuan Shao, a leader of a noble family like Yuan Shao, ever care about the interests of ordinary people and soldiers? In their view, being able to provide crops for ordinary people and food for soldiers was considered a profound kindness.
But as soon as Cao Cao came, the gap between the two was immediately apparent.
The people of Hebei suddenly realized that the rumors from the south were true, and that there really was such a good ruler in the world! After Cao Cao's military order was issued, Zhang Yan of the Black Mountain Army also consciously obeyed it. He was also a native of Hebei.
There are also hundreds of thousands of ordinary people. If he had acted recklessly, he might not be able to gain the support of so many people.
What is a bit surprising is Qingzhou Lu Bu.
Pingyuan County could not be captured for a while, so Lu Bu followed Chen Gong's suggestion and divided his troops to occupy other counties.
Originally, they were still acting with the cruelty and tyranny of the past, but after seeing the effects of Cao Cao's series of policies, Lu Bu also issued the same decree against all opinions.
Sure enough, this trick worked quickly,
The people of Pingyuan County gradually became less hostile to Lu Bu's army.
The people in some counties even took the initiative to open the city gates to welcome Lu Bu's army into the city, which greatly accelerated the speed of Lu Bu's army to occupy Pingyuan County.