Cao Cao's three armies made rapid progress, and the success of the Northern Expedition exceeded everyone's expectations, including Cao Cao and Yuan Shao himself.
Yuan Shao never dreamed that just over a year after the war, Cao Cao would raise more than 100,000 troops. What made him even more unexpected was that he ordered high officials to deal with Zhang Yan, but he actually forced Zhang Yan directly
Secretly seeking refuge with Cao Cao... Yuan Shao felt regretful and almost turned green.
But it's too late to regret.
Cao Cao, Lu Bu, and Zhang Yan were coming with such force that Yuan Shao had no choice but to issue an urgent order, ordering Yuan Xi of Youzhou to lead an army of 50,000, and sent an envoy to Wuhuan, the three counties, to request them to send troops to reinforce Yecheng.
As for Yuan Tan from Pingyuan County and the senior officials from Hanoi County... Yuan Shao himself has too much to take care of himself, so there is no way he can take care of them. He just leaves it to fate.
When Youzhou was resisting Wuhuan, Yuan Shao ordered Yuan Xi to review and take away tens of thousands of people.
Later, Yuan Shao felt displeased with the Black Mountain Army and ordered the senior officials who guarded Bingzhou and half of Hanoi County to beat Zhang Yan.
As a result, Zhang Yan surrendered to Cao Cao in anger, and Cao Cao took advantage of the situation and mobilized the three armies to attack Jizhou.
Yuan Shao's troops in Jizhou were dispersed, and the soldiers and horses in Bingzhou were dragged in Hanoi. Before he could mobilize the soldiers and horses in Youzhou to defend, Cao Cao's army invaded Jizhou.
In just over half a month, important towns such as Liyang, Chaoge, Neihuang, and Dangyin in Jizhou fell one after another. Yuan's army retreated steadily, while Cao's army became stronger as the war progressed.
But as the battle line deepened, Cao Cao also became cautious.
You must know that the deeper the battle line is, the longer our supply line will be, and the easier it will be to be harassed by the enemy.
In the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao burned the grain and grass that Yuan Shao had brought from Yanjin and the grain and grass that he had stored in Wuchao.
In the end, Yuan Shao was forced to take a risk and fight with his back against the enemy, and finally defeated Yuan Shao in a narrow and narrow way.
If Yuan Shao had sufficient food and grass, it would be very difficult for Cao Cao to defeat Yuan Shao.
Cao Cao was definitely unwilling to make the same mistake, and his counselors would never allow Cao Cao to make such a fatal mistake. After arriving in Jizhou, every time Cao Cao occupied a place, he rewarded his soldiers lavishly, and then moved the city to
He stocked up grain and distributed the surrounding fields to the people, and exempted and exempted taxes and corvees, in order to win the name of benevolence and righteousness and win the recognition of the people.
This is much more clever than Yuan Shao's method of forcing local people to work for him after he invaded Yanzhou.
Although this would offend a large number of noble families, with the recognition and help of these common people, at least their rear and food routes would be much more stable.
Moreover, Lao Cao already had a bad reputation. He had so many lice on his body that he was not afraid of being bitten.
There are many wealthy families in Hebei, such as the Hua family of Pingyuan, the Lu family of Fanyang, the Cui family of Qinghe, the Wang family of Taiyuan, etc., there are simply too many to count.
Along the way, Lao Cao may not have touched the core interests of these people, but with Boss Cao's current behavior, they will eventually come into conflict with Lao Cao.
If it were in the past, if these people raised their arms and shouted, the officials and scholars would definitely attack in groups and scold Lao Cao so bloody that he would never be able to stand up again.
But now the largest public opinion organization in the Han Dynasty is in Chenliu and Xuchang. In terms of understanding of the war of public opinion, these people are probably not even qualified to carry Lu Yan's shoes. Do you know washing powder? I said it is a weapon of mass destruction.
Then it is! Since you have weapons of mass destruction, you are committing a crime, and I will beat you! You are both responsible and independent. This is the power of modern public opinion in later generations.
Moreover, Cao Cao now has the Taiyuan Academy and the imperial examination system that is being improved. He will not worry about the lack of talents in the future, so the aristocratic family is now almost unafraid of the constraints and threats to Cao Cao.
And in the current situation, the military feud between Cao Ao, Yuan Shao and the Hebei family can no longer be resolved.
Now that the mortal feud between them can no longer be resolved, facing these aristocratic families who still dare to go against him, Cao Ao has only one word in his heart, "Gang! Damn those stinky brothers!"
In early July of the fifth year of Jian'an, Lu Bu in Qingzhou captured Pingyuan County. Yuan Shao's eldest son, Yuan Tan, was unable to defend the city. He finally abandoned the city and fled, leading nearly 40,000 defeated troops to retreat towards Qinghe County.
At the end of July in the fifth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao fought all the way to Huanshui and captured Anyang; while Lu Yan led his army eastward, defeated the defenders of General Jiang Qi and captured Wei County.
At this point, most of Wei County has fallen into the hands of Boss Cao.
On August 15th of the third year of Jian'an, Hanoi's senior officials held out for more than a month under siege by Cao Ren, Xu Huang, Zhang Yan, Yu Jin and Le Jin.
In the end, because there were flowers on all sides, it was difficult to support a single tree. After several defeats, he was finally driven out of Hanoi County and returned to his own Bingzhou territory.
In early September of the third year of Jian'an, the three armies led by Cao Cao, Lu Yan, and Cao Ren successfully reunited in Yecheng!
The total number of the three armies exceeded 200,000.
Now, these more than 200,000 troops have surrounded Yecheng.
Yecheng is the capital of Yuan Shao's forces. The city is high and deep, and it is extremely strong. There are nearly 50,000 regular troops in the city, plus the guards donated by countless aristocratic families, that is, private soldiers, there are nearly 80,000 defenders, not counting There are countless civilians in the city who were forcibly recruited.
With the cold weapons of ancient times, if you want to conquer a strong city through conventional means, you can only use human lives to fill it.
But this is not the method Cao Cao hopes to use.
Cao Ying, in the Chinese army's tent.
Although Cao Jun has now besieged Yuan Shao in Ye City, there is no trace of relaxation or smile on the faces of Cao Cao, Xi Zhicai, Xun You and others.
After Cao Cao stared at the sand table placed in the center of the Chinese army's tent for a long time, he suddenly asked: "Although our army has surrounded Yuan Shao in Ye City, Ye City is strong and difficult to capture by force.
If we delay for a long time and wait for the reinforcements from Youzhou, Bingzhou and Hanoi County to arrive, our previous efforts will be in vain.
Everyone, do you have any strategies to destroy the city?" Not only that, the longer the delay, the greater the pressure on logistical supplies, and the damage to ourselves cannot be ignored.
At this time, Xu You, who was standing at the front of the counselors' queue, came out.
With a smile on his face, his chin slightly raised, he confidently said to Cao Cao: "Meng De, I have a plan, Yecheng can be defeated in a day or night!" Upon seeing this, Cao Cao was about to ask for a plan, but Lu Yan suddenly stopped him and said: " Mr. Cao, no!"
I haven’t even asked about this plan yet, what do you want me to do? The appearance of this stick spirit looks very much like those great figures in later generations who used keyboards to cultivate immortality.
Although Xu You was very dissatisfied and even a little angry, he dared not express his anger towards Lu Yan... because Lu Yan suppressed him to death, regardless of his official position or ability.
Moreover, there were a group of fierce generals standing behind Lu Yan. How could Xu You have the guts to stick his head out and chop it off?
Cao Cao looked at Lu Yan, and said with a dumb smile: "Zi Yuan's plan has not yet been revealed, Mr. Lu, what are you opposed to?" Lu Yan glanced at Cao Cao, then turned to Xu You, and said: "Zi Yuan wants to offer digging water. A strategy to spread the city?"
"Dig water to flood the city?" Not only Cao Cao, but also the three trainees behind Lu Yan were stunned.
"Digging for water?" Yang Xiu was still a little confused.
"Zhangshui!"
"Zhanghe!" After hearing Yang Xiu's doubts, Fazheng and Zhuge Liang answered softly for him.
Lu Yan heard the voices of the three people behind him and couldn't help but sigh in his heart:
“It was also because I was familiar with this period of history that I realized that Xu Youxian’s plan was to dig out the Zhang River and flood Yecheng.
As expected of Zhuge Liang and Fazheng, they guessed Zhangshui so quickly.
It seems that there is still a gap between wall-hanging and genius in some places."