With 80,000 Ming troops and 40,000 Yu troops, Zhu Yuanzhang's strength was enough to defend the two Huaihe areas.
Facing the 120,000 Ming army, with the strength of Zhao Kuangyin's family alone, even if all the Henan troops in Yuzhou were dispatched, it would still not be enough to seize food from the tiger's mouth.
At this point, even if Zhao Kuangyin was reluctant, he could only accept the result for the time being. After all, staying here would only be a waste of money and food.
But Zhao Kuangyin couldn't bear the bad breath of abandoning the Jianghuai granary, so he ostensibly withdrew his troops and returned to Yuzhou, but secretly he was actively contacting Cao Cao of Yanzhou and Sun Jian of Jiangdong to see if he could form a coalition of princes to jointly attack Zhu Yuanzhang.
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At this point, the battle for Jianghuai came to an end for the time being, and Zhu Yuanzhang became the biggest winner in this battle.
After this battle, Zhu Yuanzhang not only occupied the Lianghuai granary, but also recruited 40,000 Yu troops, becoming the most powerful prince in the Central Plains.
As for Zhao Kuangyin and Cao Cao, they both benefited more or less from this battle.
For Zhao Kuangyin, Lian Po was the biggest gain of his trip. In addition, he also recruited 10,000 Yu troops.
Cao Cao's gains were relatively small. He only surrendered three to four thousand Yu troops. Of course, Cao Cao didn't care about this. After all, he didn't have much ambition for the two Huaihe Rivers. He sent troops to help Yuan Shu just because he didn't want Zhu Yuanzhang to occupy the Jianghuai River.
Although Cao Cao and Zhao Kuangyin both helped Yuan Shu, Yuan Shu was still easily destroyed by Zhu Yuanzhang. For this, it can only be said that Yuan Shu died from heaven.
With the defeat of Yuan Shu, the Central Plains region has also entered a situation where four parties are competing for supremacy and a three-legged confrontation.
Zhu Yuanzhang, Cao Mengde, and Zhao Kuangyin each occupied three corners of the Central Plains. Among them, Zhu Yuanzhang had the strongest overall strength, and this naturally caused Zhao Kuangyin and Cao Cao to share the same hatred.
Zhao Kuangyin's idea of allied forces to defeat the Ming Dynasty is not wrong. After all, considering Zhu Yuanzhang's current threat level, it is inevitable that the Wei and Song Dynasties will unite to fight against the Ming Dynasty. As for whether Sun Wu from Jiangdong will also join in, it depends on the Song and Wei Dynasties.
How much profit are you willing to share?
However, at this critical moment of joint discussion, wise men such as Zhao Kuangyin also did stupid things.
Zhao Kuangyin knew very well how powerful Lian Po was. He was almost forced to death by Lian Po back then. Now that Lian Po was under his command, he naturally wanted to make full use of Lian Po's talents.
Zhao Kuangyin also knew that although Lian Po had turned to him, he was actually unwilling to do so. He chose him because there was no one else to turn to.
His conspiracy against Lian Po had already caused Lian Po to have a grudge against him, so if Zhao Kuangyin wanted to completely conquer Lian Po, he had to resolve Lian Po's resentment against him.
Zhao Kuangyin gave Lian Po a very high reward, various treasures, and a small banquet every three days and a big banquet every five days.
Under Zhao Kuangyin's series of favors, Lian Po's view of him has indeed changed a lot. If things go on like this, it will only be a matter of time before Lian Po completely returns to his heart.
But at this time, Zhao Kuangyin did the same stupid thing as Cao Cao, that is, he slept with Yuan Shu's widow, Yuan Yao's mother, Feng.
At the beginning, Cao Cao had completely offended Li Yan and Li Guo by coercing Gao Lanying and Hong Niangzi, forcing them to defect to Zhu Yuanzhang. Cao Cao regretted it afterwards.
The situation between Zhao Kuangyin and Cao Cao is somewhat different. He and Yuan Shu met Mrs. Feng many years ago and fell in love with the beautiful Mrs. Feng at first sight.
Zhao Kuangyin originally wanted to pursue Mrs. Feng, but before he could take action, Yuan Shu relied on his power to rape Mrs. Feng. Zhao Kuangyin later married Yuan Shu's sister, and Mrs. Feng became his sister-in-law.
The marriage between Zhao Kuangyin and the daughter of the Yuan family was nothing more than a family marriage, and the person he liked the most in his heart had always been Mrs. Feng.
In addition, Zhao Kuangyin and Mrs. Yuan have been married for many years and have long since lost any passion. Touching her body feels like touching myself. But now that the lover of his dreams is right in front of him, how can Zhao Kuangyin be able to endure it.
When Zhao Pu saw that Mrs. Feng was also among the Yuan family, he had a bad premonition in his heart. He reminded Zhao Kuangyin many times in private, asking him not to care about the love between his children and to put the greatness first in everything.
Zhao Kuangyin naturally understood what Zhao Pu meant, and kept saying: This is my sister-in-law. But she said one thing with her mouth, but did another behind her back.
Zhao Kuangyin did not suppress his desire. One day he was very drunk, so he ignored Mrs. Feng's wishes and forced her to have sex with her under the influence of alcohol. However, Yuan Yao discovered her.
The Yuan family was very kind to Zhao Kuangyin, but he betrayed the Yuan family with ulterior motives. This made Yuan Yao hate Zhao Kuangyin. Now that even his biological mother was insulted, Yuan Yao wanted to eat Zhao Kuangyin alive.
The grief-stricken Yuan Yao directly drew his sword and wanted to kill Zhao Kuangyin, but Zhao Kuangyin was a military man after all. Although he was unarmed, he was not something that a young master like Yuan Yao could kill.
After a fight, Zhao Kuangyin was not injured at all, but Yuan Yao was beaten to the point where he was unable to fight back. However, the incident became a big deal and spread to Lian Po's ears. Fortunately, Zhao Kuangyin raped Mrs. Feng.
Lian Po had just changed his mind about Zhao Kuangyin, but when this happened so quickly, he was naturally disappointed with Zhao Kuangyin.
At this time, Yuan Shao from the north sent Yuan Tiangang to contact him, expressing his willingness to take in and protect Lian Po's remnant army and his brother's family.
In fact, for Lian Po, Yuan Shao is the best choice. After all, Yuan Shao is Yuan Shu's brother and a member of the Yuan family. Taking refuge with him is not considered betrayal.
But Lian Po didn't even consider Yuan Shao from the beginning, just because he was in Yuzhou, thousands of miles away from Jizhou. It would be okay if Lian Po was the only one, but with a large group of his men, it was impossible.
Take them together.
But Yuan Tiangang told Lian Po that as long as he was willing to go to Jizhou, Yuan Shao would take care of the princes along the way, and Cao Cao had agreed to let him use the way.
Lian Po was a little moved when he heard what Yuan Tiangang said. Zhao Kuangyin, who was so lustful and stupid, really disappointed him, but he did not abandon Zhao Kuangyin easily because of this. After all, it was not easy to leave, and what really made him
It was Yuan Shoucheng who Lian Po decided to leave.
Yuan Shoucheng was the guardian of the Yuan family and a master at the Grand Master level. When Yuan Shu was plotting a rebellion, Yuan Shoucheng attempted to assassinate Zhu Yuanzhang, but was seriously injured by Luo Shixin.
Yuan Shao sent Yuan Tiangang to win over Lian Po, which was actually to win over Yuan Shoucheng. If he was willing to join him, most of Yuan Shu's men would naturally have no objections, and Yuan Shao would become the new head of the Yuan family.
In the end, under the persuasion of his subordinates and the cry of his young master Yuan Yao, Lian Po took Yuan Yao, Yuan Yi, Yuan Xu, Yuan Yin, Yuan Shoucheng and other members of the Yuan family, as well as most of the Henan army including Ji Ling
The senior officials and their families secretly left Yuzhou to prepare to go north to join Yuan Shao.