Along the banks of the river, a long wind blew across the land, leaving the land desolate.
There was a carriage parked on the official road not far from the river. In addition to the driver, there were several soldiers standing aside, as if they were waiting for someone.
A fast horse came from the north. When it arrived in front of the chariot, it slowly slowed down. Riding on the horse was a rather majestic soldier. He got off the horse and asked the people beside the chariot in a low voice.
sentence, then raised his head and looked towards the bank of the river.
"...Bai Hong is the sun, and he will suffer first. The traitor officials hold the power of the country and kill the master and destroy Yu Jing..."
The howling of the wind was mixed with the sound of poetry reciting. He shook his head, sighed, and walked in the direction of the sound. He could not understand the deep meaning of the poems, but he could feel the meaning from the recitation.
It has a sad and desolate meaning, and I can understand the poet's mood very well.
Standing on the bank of the river, the one who was expressing his feelings in poetry was a middle-aged man with extraordinary bearing. When the soldier arrived, he seemed to have disappeared, but there were faint traces of tears on his face. Seeing this, the soldier quickly stepped forward to admonish him: "My Lord,
, you have been out for a long time, it’s very windy here, you’d better get in the car to take shelter, don’t hurt yourself.”
"The country is ruined and our reputation is ruined. What can we do no matter how strong our body is? Zi Lian, do you know that I feel sorry for you?"
"My lord, why are you so harsh on yourself? Although the battle of Chenggao was defeated, who has taken advantage of Xu Rong since he went to war? You have finally fought hard, and it is better than Liu Gongshan and Zhang Mengzhuo who fled after hearing the news.
Is it strong?"
Cao Hong looked around and lowered his voice a little lower: "On that day, Jugong and Xu Rong saw through the weakness of Xu Rong's lack of food and came up with a plan to take advantage of Xu Rong's surprise attack on Hulao Pass to seize food, and jointly merged with the state army to attack Luoyang. The success rate was not even eight or nine points.
, it was also above five points! Thief Dong was already frightened at that time, Xu Rong had no food and grass, and it was difficult to survive. Who would have thought that Yuan Bohai would be so timid..."
He sighed alone: "I regret that Yuan Rang came back too late. My lord, you had no soldiers at that time. Otherwise, with your prestige and following the plan, you will be able to reverse the decline, and maybe you can take advantage of the situation to subdue Lu Fengxian and revive the army."
The momentum is there!”
"The dead cannot be traced, and the coming ones are still unknown. What is the matter of the past, why should we bring it up now?"
Cao Hong looked regretful, but Cao Cao's expression didn't change at all. The past events were only suitable for summarizing experiences and lessons, rather than dwelling on them. If the current situation hadn't been complicated, Cao Cao would have been unable to regroup after his new defeat.
I’m not in the mood to come to the river to write poems and express my emotions.
"Where is Yuan Rang now?"
Cao Hong replied: "We have arrived at Dongjun. We will almost arrive tomorrow and the day after tomorrow."
"That's good. As soon as Yuan Rang arrives, no, today, let Miaocai set off immediately. Liu Gongshan killed Qiao Yuanwei and was being criticized by famous people in Yanzhou. Let Miaocai go to find him on behalf of someone. It can be regarded as a timely help. Liu Gongshan
He should be generous and let Miaocai go to Danyang again..."
"Lord..." Cao Hong looked embarrassed and became hesitant.
"What?" Cao Cao felt nervous.
"Yuan Rang's messenger also said one thing. After Wang Peng raised his troops and went north, Sun Wentai also sent troops out of Nanyang, captured Kunyang City in one fell swoop, and then marched eastward. It was unstoppable! All counties and counties in Yuzhou are now discussing the issue of surrender.
Hesitating and arguing endlessly, the Yellow Turban Eyes from all over the country took advantage of the situation to cause chaos. Now Yuzhou is in chaos. The path to Danyang has been cut off, unless you go through Xuzhou, but..."
It was indeed bad news, and Cao Cao sighed sadly.
In troubled times, reputation, strategy, and connections are all important, but the most basic thing is the army! Only with the army can we complete various strategies and achieve goals. Although the Cao family is wealthy, the five thousand troops and horses previously have already reduced the family wealth.
After spending most of it, even the ancestral home was sold, so that his father Cao Song had to move to Langye.
Although this relocation was also intended to avoid the war in Chenliu, it was ultimately for the purpose of recruiting troops.
As a result, there were thousands of soldiers and many years of strategic planning, but they only achieved Xu Rong's reputation on the bank of the valley. So Cao Mengde could only rely on others and be depressed all day long. How could he be embarrassed?
If Xia Houchun hadn't delayed recruiting troops in Danyang for some time and failed to arrive before the war, he would have had to wait until he wanted to turn over. But the good times did not last long. Sun Jian's Yuzhou strategy gave him another heavy blow.
hit.
"How many remaining soldiers has Wen Qian collected?"
"There are already three thousand, but many of them are not our soldiers, but Zhang Mengzhuo and Liu Gongshan... In the Battle of Chenggao, the soldiers and horses of the Zhang and Liu families retreated the earliest and fastest, so..."
"Hmm..." Cao Cao pondered for a moment and said decisively: "Select Liu Gongshan's soldiers and send Miaocai to Dongjun, and Zhang Mengzhuo's soldiers will be reorganized and enlisted on the spot!"
"Are we going back to Chenliu?" Cao Hong's eyes lit up, he rubbed his hands and said excitedly: "It should have been like this a long time ago. In this world, everything is fake, but there is still a piece of land that is the most solid! Brother Zhang Mengzhuo went to Jiyin
, now Chen Liu is empty, just right..."
"Without the name of the imperial court, you are going to compete with Zhang Mengzhuo for territory? Zilian, what are you thinking!"
Cao Cao sneered and said: "Even Wang Pengju can see the problem, but you, like Sun Wentai, can't see through it at all. You only know how to show off brute force. Haven't you seen Sun Wentai's current situation? Jiangdong Tiger? According to Yi,
It's more like a ferocious dog. Besides biting people for Yuan Gugliu, what else can he do?"
In fact, Wang Yu only realized this truth after arriving in Nanyang, getting to know Sun Jian, and receiving some advice from Jia Xu and Hu Muban. It turned out that his understanding of this aspect was similar to that of Cao Hong.
In troubled times, those with big fists can rule the roost.
This principle is not wrong. As long as he has the ability to capture a city, he can use cruel means such as massacre to shock people's hearts, and he can seize whatever territory he wants.
However, the efficiency of this approach is obviously not as good as Yuan Shu's method of relying on propaganda, and it will also take a long time to stabilize the base and win the hearts of the people.
Cao Cao's understanding of this aspect is stronger than that of Wang Yu and Sun Jian combined, so of course he would not resort to this tactic.
What's more, there is nothing left to rob in the Chenliu area now. Suizao's 100,000-strong army failed to harm Dong Zhuo, but they caused a mess in the Chenliu area. They worked hard to rob the place so quickly with a bad reputation.
Isn't that stupid?
"If you want to take it, you have to take the best one!" Cao Cao raised his eyes and looked eastward, a smile overflowing from the corner of his mouth.
"...Dongjun?" Cao Hong's eyes widened, "But..."
The seat of Yanzhou is in Dongjun, which is one of the reasons why Liu Dai and Qiao Mao had a bad relationship. After Qiao Mao's death, Liu Dai appointed Wang Gong as the prefect of Dongjun. Dongjun has completely become Liu Dai's territory.
.
After handling the defeated troops, it was a foregone conclusion that Cao Cao and Zhang Miao would become enemies. He showed goodwill to Liu Dai, but in the end, he focused on Liu Dai's territory... Cao Hong thought that he was not too stupid, but the relationship between
It was still a bit too complicated and confused him.
"Zilian, if you're not good at this, don't think too much about it."
Cao Cao could understand his brother's troubles, but he didn't mean to explain more. After all, strategy requires talent. Explaining politics to a pure military commander like Cao Hong is tantamount to playing the harp to an ox: "If Wang Yu hadn't attracted Xu Rong's attention,
This plan is not yet certain to work. By the way, is there any new news from Luoyang?"
"Uh, yes..." Cao Hong sorted out his thoughts and reported: "The Taishan soldiers went north ten days ago, with great fanfare, announcing that they would fight back to Luoyang. This slogan attracted many ignorant people, who followed them one after another. Now the team has
It expanded to more than 50,000 people. However, most of them are civilians with no fighting ability at all. I don’t know what his plan is..."
Cao Hong expressed confusion about this, and Cao Cao thought for a moment, but he was also puzzled. He muttered: "This boy is different from the ordinary people. He should not do meaningless things. Maybe he learned some unknown secrets when he was in Luoyang.
.However, in this case, his marching speed will definitely not be very fast, right?"
"Exactly." Cao Hong shook his head and put away those things that he couldn't figure out. He continued: "The Taishan Army only travels twenty miles a day, and it takes ten days to send troops. Now they have arrived at Liang County. The defenders of Liang County heard the news and
Escape did not delay the Taishan Army's journey..."
"What about Luoyang?"
"Xu Gongqing led his army southward three days ago, with Hu Zhen as his deputy general. There is sufficient food and grass. Now they have reached Yique Pass. If the two armies keep approaching each other at the current speed, the decisive battle should be from Yangren to Xincheng!"
Cao Cao asked: "Where is the time?"
"About ten days from now!"
"Ten days... Well, I should be able to make it in time. Zi Lian, let's go to Ji County to see Brother Benchu." Cao Cao flicked his sleeves, turned around and left.
"What are you doing seeing Yuan Bohai?" Cao Hong was stunned.
"Please fight!" Cao Cao replied without looking back.
"Going to Luoyang?" Cao Hong asked again.
"Of course not, I'm going to Chaoge!"
"Chaoge? Fighting the Black Mountain Bandits?" Cao Hong fainted again. He was completely confused about the connection between taking Dongjun, Wang Yu's battle with Xu Rong, and the Black Mountain Bandits?
Cao Cao didn't explain. Of course, these things are related. However, if someone can't figure it out, even if it is explained to him, he still won't be able to figure it out next time. Why waste that energy?
The peak showdown between Wang Yu and Xu Rong touched the hearts of the entire Central Plains. Isn't this an opportunity to make trouble amidst the chaos?
Yuan Shu and Sun Jian were fighting each other in Yuzhou, and there was news that Liu Biao in Nanjun was also planning something.
On the Hedong side, Lu Bu seemed to have made a lot of progress. He did not immediately start a fierce battle with the Baibo Army. Instead, he was negotiating with the other party and trying to coexist peacefully. I think he had to wait and see until the outcome of the battle between Wang and Xu was decided.
, and then decide where to go.
And Yuan Shao was busy colluding with Han Fu and Liu Yu. His intention was nothing more than to promote a new emperor and secretly plot against Jizhou. Unfortunately, Han Fu was also a figure, but he was colluded by Yuan Shao and the celebrities in Jizhou.
Together, we played with each other.
What about you? You must seize the opportunity and occupy a piece of territory legitimately. You can't get too close to Luoyang, lest you be targeted by the winner of that battle!
To go to Dongjun, you have to borrow external power, and now, is there any external power that is easier to borrow than the Black Mountain Bandits?
Cao Cao sneered slightly. Speaking of which, he learned this move from Wang Pengju. The other party borrowed Baibo, while he borrowed Heishan. But relatively speaking, his gains were real, unlike Wang Pengju's.
If the other party wants to seize the victory, they must first overcome the natural danger of Xu Rong!
It's a pity that once my plan is launched, I won't have time to pay attention to this shocking battle. Even if I successfully capture Dongjun, it will be difficult to fully make up for this regret.
Cao Cao looked back at the river for the last time, sighed, and then boarded the car and left without looking back.