In Xin Pi's view, with Cao Zhi's strength and prestige, he led elite troops to attack Yuan's tired enemies, just like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
Looking around now, only the Yuan family in Hebei is considered the most powerful. If Cao Zhi can completely pacify Hebei, the power of the world will basically be determined.
Xin Pi's words made Cao Zhi very happy, because in terms of Xin Pi's suggestions, he showed his sincerity to Cao Zhi. Not only did he tell the Yuan family's internal military intelligence frankly, but he also planned a plan for Cao Zhi.
Offensive Blueprint.
After seeing off Xinpi and Cao Zhi's screen, Xu You's figure appeared again. As the military advisor of his predecessor Yuan Shao, Xu You was very familiar with the internal situation of the Yuan family and Ye City. This time, Cao Zhi's expedition
Jizhou naturally wanted to bring him here and entrust him with important responsibilities as the second military advisor in the army.
But before, Xu You had a lot of dissatisfaction with Cao Zhi's reward after he settled the political situation in the rear. He Xu You thought that he played a huge role in Cao Zhi's Guandu War and the suppression of the rebellion in the rear. Although he is now a minister, he is not a member of Cao Zhi's army.
Xu You still believed that Cao Zhi did not reward him enough for his meritorious service. With his merits, talents, and level of political performance, Xu You should be able to hold a higher and larger official position.
Judging from Xu You's performance in defecting to Cao Zhi to offer advice, he must be a smart person. However, such a smart person may have strong "business ability", but he has insurmountable flaws in "understanding human affairs".
Xu You is not an ignorant person. It can be seen from his abandonment of Yuan Shao and his pursuit of Cao Zhi that he is not a pedantic person. For a counselor, he will never take credit for his contribution to a plan. Xu You also understands this. But
He has an insurmountable trait of treachery and greed, but he is by no means an arrogant person. Therefore, Xu You still does not dare to show any dissatisfaction with Cao Zhi in front of Cao Zhi, so he keeps it in his heart.
Secretly criticizing.
As an absolute know-it-all in Jizhou, Cao Zhi was naturally the first person to consult regarding Xin Pi's betrayal and suggestions.
In fact, Xu You was placed behind a screen by Cao Zhi and listened to the conversation between Cao Zhi and Xin Pi for the whole time.
Xu You has always been very eager and impatient for Cao Zhi to send troops to Jizhou and capture Yecheng. After Cao Zhi put down the internal rebellion, Xu You has always strongly advised Cao Zhi to advance troops quickly and capture Jizhou and Yecheng quickly.
Yuan Shao's hasty escape, Yuan Shao's death, and his family still waiting in Yecheng were all reasons for Xu You to propose a plan to attack Yecheng quickly.
But Cao Zhi had not adopted his advice before and adopted a quick and decisive approach to invade Jizhou. Cao Zhi had always advocated and listened to Guo Jia and other advisers to adopt a steady strategy and advance steadily to embezzle the Yuan family's power.
This made Xu You very angry, but in Cao Zhi's team, Xu You's prestige and foundation were indeed too weak, so it was reasonable for Xu You's strategy not to be adopted. Besides, for now, facts have proved that Guo Jia and others
People's strategies and implementation policies are all correct, which leaves Xu You with nothing to find fault with.
But today the opportunity for him to perform came again. Xu You, who knew very well about Yuan Shao's old ministry, Jizhou's internal affairs, and the situation in Yecheng, once again gained Cao Zhi's attention.
Xu You did not give up this opportunity. While he was very sure of the situation described by Xin Pi, he once again strongly suggested that Cao Zhi's troops besieged and captured Ye City in eight groups, and even thought of a thunderous method to prevent the Zhang River from flooding Ye City.
This time, Cao Zhi adopted Xu You's overall battle plan. One month later, in November of the fifth year of Jian'an, his troops returned to the outskirts of Ye City and made a strong gesture to capture Ye City.
As soon as Yuan Shang heard the news in Pingyuan, he was shocked and immediately ordered the three armies to withdraw from the stronghold and quickly return to Baoye City.
Yuan Tan, who had been relieved from the siege, became more active after half a month. He first thought of sending people and belongings to Cao's army as the eldest son of the Yuan family, and secretly met with Yuan Shang's old general Lu Kuang, who had recently surrendered.
Brother Lu Xiang.
Yuan Tan promised "General Zhenwu and General Fenwu" to the two brothers Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang, with the purpose of getting them to betray Cao Ying again, defect to Cao Ying, join Yuan's side again, and surrender to Yuan Tan's account.
In Yuan Tan, these old officials of the Yuan family still care about their clan, and committing themselves to Cao Zhi is just a temporary measure. However, with the death of Yuan Shao, a group of civil servants and generals who were loyal to the Yuan family have already had their hearts wandering, and they have no intention of Yuan Shao.
The future of the clan is no longer so promising and optimistic.
As soon as Yuan Tan's counselor Xiao Yang left the camp of the Lu brothers, Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang presented the golden seal ribbon sent by Yuan Tan to Cao Zhi.
"It turns out that this little thief's intention of attachment is really not genuine, huh..." Cao Zhi said this statement to Xu You and Xin Pi. He was approving their inferences and contributions.
"You two did a great job! Now I have something I want you to do..."
"The last general will only obey the Lord's orders!"
Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang originally thought that what Cao Zhi assigned them must be extremely dangerous, but unexpectedly it turned out to be an easy task - to give Yuan Tan's two-year-old daughter Cao Zheng (born by Sun Shangxiang) to Cao Zhi's newly born son.
Propose marriage.
This was a way for Cao Zhi to reassure Yuan Tan that he would not cause trouble to him during his attack on Yuan Shang. He could not be allowed to jump up and down to disrupt Cao Zhi's overall plan.
In fact, regardless of the age of the two children, the "Daxiang" period when Yuan Shao died less than two years ago, or Yuan Tan's current unsatisfactory situation of living alone, it is not easy for them to marry Cao Zhi and Yuan Tan, and they are not worthy of marrying Cao Zhi. But Cao Zhi
Zhi still sent people to do this on his own initiative, which is evident from the depth and depth of his layout.
In the first month of the sixth year of Jian'an, that is, two months after Cao Zhi and Yuan Tan got married and formed a perfect offensive and defensive alliance, Cao Jun's Li Dian tribe crossed the Yellow River and built a weir with large canopy trees where the Qishui River flows into the Yellow River, diverting the Qishui River.
Blocking the eastward flow into Baigou was necessary to open up Cao's army's food route, and was also an important military preparation to defeat Yuan Shang's group after pacifying Ye City.
Baigou was originally a small river. Its origin was close to Qishui River, and it flowed northeast, connecting Neihuang County and Guqing River. When Cao Jun captured Liyang last year, Cao Zhi sent Li Dian, Jiang Qin, Lu Qian and other generals to use boats.
Supervise the transportation of military rations here.
At that time, Yuan Shang also sent his general Gao Fan and his troops to attempt to cut off the waterway, but was defeated by Li Dian and others.
From then on, as the Yuan family's forces were completely defeated and withdrew from this area, the waterway remained open. Even when Cao Zhi led his troops to retreat and released control of this area, Yuan Shang did not dare to send troops to retrieve it.
This is a major mistake made by Yuan Shang and Shen Pei's lack of strategic vision. But this time Cao Jun came back with great fanfare. The daily expenses of Cao Zhi's 100,000 troops cannot be satisfied with this small water transportation.
Therefore, before Cao Zhi actually attacked Yecheng, he ordered Baigou to be opened so that their grain transport ships could go straight to the hinterland of Jizhou.
Cao Zhi, who has a deep understanding of "before the troops and horses are moved, food and grass go first" will never let the difficulty of providing military supplies prevent the great opportunity of annexing the Yuan family's power.
Although Yuan Shang was pressing hard for Cao's army, he did not pay much attention to the matter of opening up the river. Shen Pei, who also lacked strategic thinking, did not put forward his true insights to Yuan Shang on this matter.
After Cao Jun opened a direct channel for the supply line, it was very convenient for him to use ships to continuously transport grain, grass, ordnance, and soldiers to Yecheng in large quantities.
Cao Zhi's army soon arrived fifty miles away from Yecheng, and Cao Zhi's main camp was grandly set up on the bank of the Anyang River fifty miles southwest of Yecheng.
In February of the sixth year of Jian'an, war clouds pressed down on the top of Yecheng like nirvana.
On this day, Shen Pei and Su You, another newly promoted general from Yuan Shang's tent, patrolled the city together. They saw Cao Ying's tents outside the city lined up in rows, flags and flags covering the sky and the sun, and battles on the rivers far and near.
The boats were densely packed and the momentum was so huge.
When the loud drill sound of Cao's soldiers rolled over the city like thunder and floated into Su You's ears, Su You's face couldn't help but become as ugly as the brick wall in front of him.
It happened that Shen Pei called him for some reason at this time, but Su You was too focused on the momentum of Cao's army outside the city that he didn't hear it. He just stared blankly at Cao's army outside the city, wondering what he was thinking.
Su You's performance immediately aroused the vigilance and suspicion of Shen Pei. For a counselor like Shen Pei who is based on strategy and attacking people's hearts, he is very accurate and good at observing people's inner thoughts. In addition, recently
There were many Yecheng officials who defected and joined the enemy, so the judges had to pay special attention to Su You's actions to guard against Su You's possible defection.
Sure enough, that night, Su You led more than 400 of his trusted sergeants and generals to secretly open the west city gate, preparing to defect to Cao's camp.
However, Shenpei had been prepared for it. When Su You's command was lowering the suspension bridge, Shenpei suddenly appeared on the west city. He immediately ordered the eight hundred sergeants lying in ambush on the left and right to go out and rob and kill Su You's group.
Unprepared, Su You hurriedly fought with the soldiers and horses of Shenpai who rushed out from the left and right. Helplessly outnumbered, although Su You rushed out of the West City under the loyal protection of his close confidants, almost all of his accompanying subordinates fought.
die.
Su You, who escaped from Yecheng alone, came to Cao Jun's tent and was immediately received by Cao Zhi in person. However, Cao Zhi also knew that this man failed to act as an internal agent and cooperated with his army inside and outside. Now he just escaped alone, and his use is still the same.
Not so much. In the final conversation with Su You, Cao Zhi secretly hated the old members of the Yuan family who wanted to defect to him. He had no idea. Even if he wanted to defect, he didn't want to think about plotting the biggest contribution. How could he not get him?
Cao Zhi should be reused better. But if Su You escaped like this, apart from causing some internal disturbances in Yecheng, what other effect could it have.
But even if it is "waste", Cao Zhi still has to make use of it. Cao Zhi has never been in the habit of wasting. So, the first task Cao Zhi entrusted to Su You was to stand on a high place and shout into Ye City,
Even if you can't instigate a few generals and scholar-bureaucrats in the city to rebel, you can still shake the military morale of the soldiers in the city.