The gentle young man standing behind Cao Cao is Cao Cao's eldest son, Cao Ang.
After listening to Cao Cao's words, he smiled bitterly and said: "The Yuan family is known as a ferocious tiger. He is both civil and military, but he is indeed far inferior to him."
Among the counselors present, Xun Yu spoke up and said: "Everyone has his or her own strengths. The young master treats others with sincerity. He is a man of great magnanimity and broad-mindedness. There is no need to belittle oneself."
After hearing this, Cao Cao nodded silently and shook his head slightly.
What Xun Yu said was correct. Cao Ang was a kind, gentle and fair man, and was highly respected by his subordinates.
But this is what Cao Cao is worried about. With Cao Ang's character, if it were a peaceful and prosperous time, it would be more than enough to maintain the status quo. But now that the world is in chaos and he does extraordinary things in extraordinary times, this kind of character will suffer big losses.
What Cao Cao envies now is Yuan Xi, who is known as the ferocious tiger of the Yuan family. In his opinion, Yuan Xi will become a serious problem for him sooner or later!
Because Yuan Xi is so similar to herself!
None of the three sons of the Yuan family are easy to deal with. Yuan Tan is brave and good at fighting, and Yuan Shang is powerful and good at planning. But what Cao Cao least expected now is Yuan Xi, who was unknown in Beixin City for three years but has become a blockbuster in the past two years.
He opened his mouth and said: "I called you here because there are three directions at the moment. Where should we fight?"
To the west was Lu Bu of Hanoi, to the south was Yuan Shu of Yuzhou, and to the east was Liu Bei of Xuzhou.
Xun Yu, Cheng Yu and others all spoke out to discuss, but the last few people slowly lowered their voices.
When Cao Cao saw this, he felt a little annoyed and said: "Why, without ambition, you can't come up with ideas?"
Xun Yu and Cheng Yu looked strange, but their thoughts were really like this. This was the first time they participated in a discussion among counselors without Xi Zhicai present. As a result, there was no backbone present and no one could be convinced.
Cao Cao sighed: "Zhicai is seriously ill and you are busy with your affairs. I wonder if it is time to recruit talented people from all over the world."
"If you know anyone well, feel free to recommend them. If you are really talented, I will definitely use them."
After hearing this, Xun Yu said: "I heard that Guo Jia and Guo Fengxiao have given a lot of ideas to Yuan Xi recently."
"The Battle of Yijing lured Gongsun Zan, and now the open attack on Yuyang and the covert attack on Guangling are most likely all done by him."
"This man is a great talent, but it's a pity that he missed it."
Cheng Yu felt unhappy after hearing this. Xun Yu's secret poke was obviously aimed at himself!
He understood what was going on. Xun Yu had a moral obsession and was very unhappy with himself for making dried meat, so from then on, he intentionally or unintentionally worked against him.
Xun Yu probably admired Guo Jia very much in private, but in the end Guo Jia was arrested by himself as a bargaining chip in exchange with Yuan Xi. Xun Yu said this at this time, still secretly mocking himself.
Cheng Yu sneered in his heart. Everything he did was to take the blame for Ming Gong. You, Xun Yu, didn't stand up to oppose you at the time. Why are you pretending to be a hypocrite now?
He opened his mouth and felt a little unmotivated. Forget it, it was like this anyway. He was almost the only remaining Yanzhou faction and could not fight against the growing Yingchuan faction.
Cao Cao said: "Now I have Chang Wen, whose talent is no less than that of Guo Jia, so don't mention the past anymore."
"I heard that Changwen met Yuan Xi in Xuzhou a few days ago?"
Among the counselors, Chen Qun stood up and cupped his hands and said, "Mr. Bingming, Qun did meet Yuan Xi once when he was on his mission to Xuzhou."
When Zhang Fei abandoned Pitan City, Chen Qun felt that he was not taken seriously by Liu Bei, so he did not follow him to Haixi. Instead, he defected to Cao Cao angrily and is now highly regarded.
Chen Qun added: "This man has a sharp tongue. He was able to talk to everyone that day without falling behind. He single-handedly promoted Yuan and Liu to join forces. He is not a simple person."
After hearing this, Cao Cao sighed: "This man has a long-term vision. If Benchu had listened to him and fully supported Liu Bei, I would really not be able to attack Xuzhou."
He said to Xun Yu: "The Yuan family is very powerful, and I am in urgent need of virtuous help. I don't need to be acquainted with the internal affairs. I heard Wen Ruo tell me, are there any talented people among my nephews?"
Cao Cao also regrets now that he killed the local nobles in Yanzhou too much, resulting in no one defecting to him for a period of time, and the same was true in Xuzhou.
After he massacred Xuzhou twice, he found that the local resistance seemed to have become more intense, and the massacre of the city was counterproductive.
After Xun Yu heard this, he hurriedly said: "You have a nephew in the Yu family, Xun You and Xun Gongda. He is a great talent in managing the world, no less than the eight brothers of Yu. He is also good at coming up with strange strategies, even as far as Yu."
"He is currently staying in Jingzhou temporarily. If the Duke of Ming Dynasty invites you, he will definitely agree."
After hearing this, Cao Cao was overjoyed and said: "In that case, I will write a letter and send it to Jingzhou!"
Cheng Yu thought that he was better now, Xi Zhicai was ill, and Chen Qun, Xun You, and Xun Yu were here, and these Yingchuan counselors were here, so he had no say.
The counselors discussed for a long time, but in the end they still couldn't decide which direction to attack.
After Lu Bu entered Hanoi, he had Zhang Yang's support and his army grew a lot. Cao Cao went to attack him at this time. Even if he entered Hanoi, he would only be forced to the north and could not completely eliminate him.
Moreover, in order to defeat Hanoi, they must cross the Yellow River. For Cao Jun, logistics was a huge problem.
As for Yuan Shu in the south, he occupies a part of Jingzhou, Yuzhou and Yangzhou, and has many fierce generals under his command. He is very powerful. These territories are not easy to conquer.
In comparison, Xuzhou's Liu Bei is the best weak persimmon at the moment.
Originally, the rebellion in Xiapi was Cao Cao's best opportunity. At that time, there was only one Sun Ce army in the city. If Cao Cao marched with all his strength, he could kill Sun Ce and then defeat Liu Bei, then he could occupy Xuzhou. However, Yuan Xi disrupted the situation and caused Xuzhou to be in chaos.
Unbearable.
Although Sun Ce ran back to Guangling to attack Yuan Xi, Cao Jun naturally did not give up this opportunity. However, under the leadership of Cao Ren and others, they attacked Tancheng several times, but were blocked.
Later, Cao Jun learned that a counselor named Zhou Yu was guarding the city in place of Sun Ce. His command was strict and watertight, allowing Cao Jun to return without success several times under the city.
Obviously this Zhou Yu is also an extremely difficult person to deal with!
Seeing that everyone was undecided, Cao Cao felt irritated and said, "Since you guys can't make a decision, just do what I want."
After hearing this, all the counselors breathed a sigh of relief and said one after another: "I will obey Duke Ming's order."
Cao Cao said: "I am going to mobilize the army and attack Xiapi with all my strength!"
"If Xuzhou cannot be defeated, return to attack Chenliu County and kill Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao!"
After everyone heard this, they felt that this was the best choice under the current situation, and they all accepted the order.
When everyone left, Cheng Yu was walking at the end and hesitated to speak. Cao Cao saw him and kept him. After everyone left, he said to Cheng Yu: "Zhongde, do you have anything to say?"
Cheng Yu heard this and said: "If Ming Gong plots against Chenliu's Zhang Miao brothers, I'm afraid Zang Hong, the governor of Dongjun, will object."
Juancheng, where the Cao family is located, is the administrative seat of Yanzhou, but it is located in Dongjun.
The seat of Zang Hong, the prefect of Dongjun, is in Dongwuyang, not far from Juancheng. If he has different intentions, Juancheng will be very passive.
After hearing this, Cao Cao nodded and said, "What Zhongde said makes sense, I understand."
He added: "Zhongde, don't take Wen Ruo's words to heart, I know your difficulties."
Cheng Yu was moved and said goodbye and went out.
Seeing Cheng Yu leaving, Cao Ang hesitated and said, "Mr. Zhongde, do you mean to take action against Zang Hongxian?"
Cao Cao said: "Yes, Zhang Miao is the leader of Zang Hong. If we attack Zhang Miao, Zang Hong will definitely be dissatisfied and may even raise troops to attack me."
Cao Ang said: "But Zang Hong is the leader of the Jujube Alliance. If we deal with him, won't all the princes in the world unite to help?"
After hearing this, Cao Cao sneered and said: "The Suanzao people are all a bunch of slutty people!"
The reason why Cao Cao despised the jujube alliance so much was because he was not reused in this alliance and was ridiculed many times.
At that time, Cao Cao was just a passionate young man. He was not deeply involved in the politics of the top gentry and princes, and did not understand the darkness involved. It was not until he suffered many losses that he slowly began to change.
What changed Cao Cao's life was his experience when he participated in the Kwantung Allied Forces of the Jujube Alliance.
"Three Kingdoms·Wei Shu·Wudi Ji" records that in the first month of the first year of Chuping (190), eleven state and county chiefs launched troops to attack Dong Zhuo at the same time: Hou General Yuan Shu, Jizhou Mu Han Fu, Yuzhou Governor Kong Min, and Yanzhou Governor Liu
Dai, the prefect of Hanoi Wang Kuang, the prefect of Bohai Yuan Shao, the prefect of Chenliu Zhang Miao, the prefect of Guangling Zhang Chao, the prefect of Dongjun Qiao Mao, the prefect of Shanyang Yuan Yi, and the prime minister of Jibei Bao Xin.
These eleven people are the main force of the Kwantung Allied Forces. Everyone is a prince, and Cao Cao at this time is just a little thug.
At that time, Cao Cao still had some ideals about reviving the Han Dynasty, but his enthusiasm was soon extinguished by basins of cold water that came one after another.
Although the Guandong princes claimed to be a coalition, many of them were not present. At that time, Yuan Shao and Wang Kuang were in Hanoi, Yuan Shu was in Nanyang, Han Fu was in Yecheng, Kong Min was in Yingchuan, Zhang Miao, Liu Dai, Qiao Mao, Yuan Yi, etc.
People live in Jujube.
They jointly raised an army to attack Dong, but in fact they all had their own agenda. When Suanzao was taking the oath of alliance, the princes from all walks of life refused to go up to the altar to take the oath.
So everyone recommended Zang Hong, who was a county official at that time, to the altar. Zang Hong was a man of great integrity, filial and upright, and he was originally the meritorious officer of Zhang Chao, the prefect of Guangling. Zang Hong did not refuse, and he was promoted to the altar to take the blood oath.
But to put it bluntly, Zang Hong was pushed out to take the blame, but Zang Hong was very loyal, so he became the leader of the alliance with equal fame.
From the perspective of later generations, the oath Zang Hong swore for everyone was very effective.
"All our allies will work together... If you have this alliance with Chongqing, you will suffer the consequences of your fate, and you will not be able to inherit your legacy. The emperor, the empress, the land, the ancestors and the spirits, all learn from this fact!"
The general idea is that those who violate the oath will not die well.
A few years later, almost all the eleven princes who participated in the coalition but had no intention of fulfilling their promises and had their own agendas in attacking Dong Zhuo died unexpectedly.
Moreover, most of these eleven people died at the hands of their own allies.
The remaining people were almost killed by Cao Cao, a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty.
Of course, today's princes do not know their own fate, and Cao Cao does not know what he can achieve.
But Cao Cao has already begun to take action.
What Cao Cao wants to kill now is the important participant in the jujube coalition at that time.