Facing Cao Cao's question, Cheng Yu hesitated. He knew that his opinion would affect Cao Cao's decision and determine the final outcome on the battlefield.
He felt that he was no better than Xun You in terms of battlefield strategy, but Xun You failed to gain any advantage in several battles with Fierce Tiger, let alone himself.
So this time Cao Cao simply brought the two of them over, with Cheng Yu assisting Cao Cao and Xun You assisting Cao Ren, in order to maximize all their power and defeat Yuan Xi in one fell swoop!
Xun You thought for a while and then slowly said: "As long as Fierce Tiger is not stupid, the possibility of him appearing in such a complicated and unknown situation is less than half."
After hearing this, Cao Cao nodded slightly, with a look of regret on his face.
For him, Yuan Xi has grown too fast and is a descendant of the Yuan family. The most important thing is that this person is very ambitious and will never be attracted to join him, so sooner or later the two of them will meet each other in arms.
Among the Yuan family's children, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, who have a higher status than Yuan Xi, have very obvious tricks and shortcomings, and they have been mastered by Cao Cao and can be used for unexpected purposes in the future.
Only Yuan Xi was not only ambitious, but also extremely clear-minded and knew what he wanted. He was much more dangerous than the other two. Cao Cao seemed to see his own shadow in him.
So it must not be allowed to grow!
Cheng Yu saw that Cao Cao looked unhappy and said quickly: "But Yu believes that if the fierce tiger cannot be killed in this battle, it is also good to cut off its two claws."
"It is said that what he brought from Youzhou this time is the direct descendant of his painstaking efforts. Everyone among these thousands of people is proficient in arithmetic and command. This is an ability only possessed by positions above centurion!"
"The Fierce Tiger probably brought these people to Guangling in order to conquer Yuan Shu, and expanded the army into tens of thousands of people on the spot!"
"With only one or two months of training, you can go into battle against Yuan Shu, and your combat effectiveness is not low. When the soldiers die, you can replenish them on the spot. The advantage is to save food and grass. As long as these mid-level officers don't die, you can continue to expand your troops!"
"I have to say that Xiuhu is a talented person, but at this time, he also has a flaw!"
"Guo Jia, the counselor he relied on most, did not come with him!"
After saying this, Cheng Yu also paused for a moment, thinking of the initial quarrel with Xun Yu and feeling quite embarrassed.
During the negotiations in Dongwuyang that day, Yuan Xi named Guo Jia, who had a grudge against the Yuan family, to be replaced. Guo Jia was not yet famous at that time. Cheng Yu thought that it would be a sure profit to exchange the lives of Guo Jia and his family in exchange for Cao Pi and Cao Zhi not being used as hostages.
After buying and selling, he took the initiative to arrest Guo Jia's family and handed them over to Yuan Xi.
However, what happened in the next two years was a slap in the face to Cheng Yu. During this period, Yuan Xi helped the Yuan family defeat several powerful enemies and won several battles. While becoming famous all over the world, everyone discovered that the mastermind behind it was also
The only counselor is Guo Jia!
Every time Xun Yu mentioned this matter, he would get angry and angry, which made Cheng Yu quite frustrated.
Cheng Yu also knew that he had made a loss-making business, so he had to find a way to clear his reputation and defeat or even eliminate Yuan Xi, which became his goal.
Now that Guo Jia is not in Xuzhou, this is a great opportunity!
Cao Cao said: "There is also Jushou."
Cheng Yu hurriedly said: "Indeed, but Jushu is a steady leader and is not used to making surprise attacks. Therefore, his strategy is probably to attack steadily and to make a move step by step."
"At this time, Fierce Tiger only has two or three thousand men at most. As long as we gather all our forces and kill them all with one thunder strike, even if Fierce Tiger survives, he will no longer have the ability to dominate the world within five years!"
Cao Cao nodded and said: "Zhongde's words are exactly what I want."
"But we still need an opportunity to draw out its troops."
Cheng Yu smiled and said, "Now this opportunity has come."
"At this time, Houqiu City may have learned that Tancheng was besieged and Liu Bei's troops heading north were defeated."
"Now that they have lost all courage, they can use the method of surrounding three and missing one to make them abandon the city and flee."
"After they escaped, they had no other choice. The other directions were either swamps or lakes. They had no choice but to return the same way and fled to Qucheng or Haixi."
"Originally, the fleeing teams from Houqiu and Xiapi south were far away from each other, and both sides were looking forward to Tancheng's rescue. But now that all the troops we attacked in the Tancheng direction have been lost, Mi Fang should have fled to Guangling after getting the news."
"The direction of its escape is also easy to predict. It can only go around Dahu (the name of ancient Taihu Lake), which is also towards the Haixi direction!"
"If we drive well from behind, the hundreds of thousands of defeated soldiers and civilians on both sides will meet up more than a hundred miles west of Haixi."
"When the time comes, Fierce Tiger will relax its vigilance and come out to meet Liu Bei and Mi Fang's retreat. At this time, three groups of our troops will pursue them and fight them decisively!"
"With our dozens of fierce generals and 30,000 Qingzhou soldiers, even if we can't annihilate them all, we can still severely damage their vitality!"
"Of course the best case scenario is to kill the ferocious tiger, so that our serious problem will be eliminated!"
Cao Cao nodded and said, "Having Zhongde help me makes me feel relieved."
"Let's take action. The name is to destroy Liu Bei's army. If we can kill Fierce Tiger, we will have to shirk it afterwards, saying that Fierce Tiger entered the battlefield without permission and could not be distinguished. Killing him was really an accident."
"Then find a general with a foreign surname who is not very honest, behead him, and give his head to Yuan Shao. This should calm down a lot of his anger."
"But this matter is still taking advantage of the conflicts between the Yuan family's children."
"The fierce tiger has posed a great threat to Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang. If we promise benefits, they should defend us."
"Besides, Xiu Hu has been adopted and is no longer Yuan Shao's son strictly speaking. Moreover, Xiu Hu will be of no use to the Yuan family after his death. Yuan Shao should not take action against me at this juncture."
"When we secretly drive a wedge between the Yuan family's children and eliminate Yuan Shu at the same time, our strength will greatly increase and we can compete with the Yuan family!"
After hearing this, Cheng Yu praised him and said: "It's hard for me to guess the wonders of people's hearts, but it's hard for my subordinates to do it!"
"When you go to war and attack, what you fight in the end is the people's hearts. The fierce tiger has already found a way to kill you!"
Cao Cao nodded and said: "Okay, this time we will go all out to gamble!"
"Give Xia Houyuan, who is besieging Houqiu, an order to open the gap and drive out Mi Fang and tens of thousands of people in the city!"
If you can overlook the earth from a high place in Xuzhou, you can see a spectacular and cruel scene.
Long queues of soldiers meandered between the cities, and large groups of ant-like people fled in all directions. From time to time, they were nibbled by the long dragons swimming over, leaving a piece missing.
These dozen long dragons were not in a hurry to nibble on the pieces of delicious food, but followed them slowly, taking a bite every once in a while, so that the ants swarming in front became even more panicked and kept changing.
He took shape and fled in panic among the mountains and fields.
After two days and two nights, the long dragon behind them turned into straight arrows, like a herdsman's precise whip, falling on the grazing sheep, causing them to slowly converge in a certain direction.
Mi Fang rode on the horse in embarrassment, and said to Mi Zhen, who was also riding a horse: "Little sister, if the enemy attacks later, I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on any longer, so I'd better run away quickly!"
Mi Zhen bit her lip, "Brother, don't you think we should have died long ago?"
"These enemy forces behind are not pursuing us with all their strength!"
Mi Fang shouted: "Don't worry about so much!"
"Liu Yuzhou has been defeated, I just want to survive!"
"We are two hundred miles away from the Haixi Sea. Yuan Shijun will definitely come to save us!"
Mi Fang wanted to continue talking, but she saw many dense black spots appearing on the horizon far ahead. She was immediately frightened. Could it be that Cao Jun had surrounded her?
He subconsciously wanted to flee, but found that the other party did not seem to have any intention of approaching, but was also turning around in a panic. Mi Fang thought about it and sent a spy to check.
Not long after, the spies brought back a person. After Mi Fang inquired, she found out that he was a commoner who had fled from Xiapi!
The other party cried out that after Liu Bei led them to escape from Xiapi, they were attacked by Cao's army overnight. The other party rushed into the crowd of people and killed them, causing hundreds of thousands of people to trample on each other. Instead, they attacked Liu Bei's main formation at the rear, and Cao's army took advantage of the opportunity to cover up and kill them.
, Liu Bei's army was defeated.
After these people fled desperately all night, it was discovered at dawn that Liu Bei's army was completely defeated and disappeared. Tens of thousands of people were killed or injured overnight, and the remaining people had to flee desperately towards Guangling.
But Cao Jun is still chasing after him, and it has been several days now!
After hearing this, Mi Fang's eyes darkened. The night battle was defeated and it was a disaster. Liu Bei wouldn't have been killed, right?
If this is the case, where will you go?
Thinking of this, he quickly said to Mi Zhen: "Let's go quickly!"
Mi Zhen asked the people: "The families of Liu Yuzhou's soldiers are all separated?"
The common people hesitated for a moment and said, "I heard that the envoy's wife is still here."
Yuan Xi looked at the dozen wooden barrels in front of him. There were still several barrels of white stuff that had not been processed, but it was already too late.
Next to the barrels, there are hundreds of bamboo tubes arranged neatly.
He stood up and said to everyone: "We can't wait any longer."
"Nearly half of the hundreds of thousands of people who escaped from the two cities have been killed or injured along the way. If I don't send troops, how can I still have the dignity to use the name Xuzhou Mu?"
"According to the previous arrangements, prepare to send troops!"
Yuan Xi's personal guards filed in, silently picked up a bamboo tube and hung it on their waist, and then walked out.
The rewards of conquering Montenegro are actually far beyond the imagination of people of this era.
Although in Jizhou's eyes, the grain harvest of Heishan, which is located in Bingzhou and has complex terrain, is much worse than that of the plains, it has two resources that will be extremely useful for future generations.
One is the coal mine.
An inevitable problem brought about by population growth is energy consumption. Without energy, even if there is food, the population will not be able to grow rapidly due to fuel shortages. After all, forests that can be used as fuel are consumed extremely quickly.
Studies have shown that after the Tang Dynasty, in the densely populated Kanto region, due to excessive logging, the forest coverage rate has been less than 10%, and even reached 5% in some areas, which is worse than the worst time in modern times.
This later seriously affected the development of the local population. It is not unreasonable for the ancients to say that firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, and firewood are placed in front of the rice.
Therefore, if coal mines close to the surface can be mined as soon as possible and coal is used to replace firewood, it will also be a great progress for society.
The second is that in the Heishan area of Bingzhou, there is Shanxi Lake Salt that is rich in nitrate in later generations.
The by-products of denitrified salt are sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, etc., which is the source of saltpeter.
If you want to get saltpeter, besides collecting it from toilets or old houses, this is the most effective source in ancient China.
From this point of view, China's invention of gunpowder was a historical necessity, because the raw materials were naturally produced.
Without raw materials, technology will not progress and related products will not appear.
Just like China invented glass during the Warring States Period, it lacked the necessary natural raw material of sodium carbonate, which was called trona in ancient times. There was a lot of it in the arid desert areas of the Middle East, but there was very little in China with abundant rainfall, so China had to use its output.
Rich clay was used to fire porcelain instead.
At the same time, since steel-making blast furnaces appeared in the Han Dynasty, which can increase the temperature to 1400 degrees, firing porcelain at 1100 degrees is not a problem.
Until the Middle Ages, the West did not have a blast furnace that could reach the temperature for firing porcelain, so they could only use soda-lime glass with a melting point of about 600 degrees as a substitute.
Therefore, the emergence of products has an extremely complex logical relationship with technology, and they are not born without reason.
Now what Yuan Xi relies on this time is gunpowder made by separating the saltpeter produced from the salt of Heishan Lake.
Of course, because the workmanship is rough and there are many impurities, it is unknown how effective these bamboo tubes can be.