Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3417 No Otherwise
Chen Bin easily defeated the horse bandits who occupied Ji County, and the whole battle was almost free of suspense.

The horse thieves have no order or sense of honor, and they all flee when disaster strikes.

When Cao Chun heard the soldiers report that Ji County had been reoccupied, he could not help but be greatly surprised. He originally just wanted Chen Bin to investigate the truth, but he did not expect that the Changping defender seemed to be so capable?
But after Cao Chun and his men excitedly arrived in Ji County, he was left with only anger and disappointment.

The reason for the anger was that the outer city defenses of Ji County and the fortifications on the city walls were intact!

There is no need to explain what this means...

The disappointment is that there is nothing left in Ji County.

When Xiahou Heng left, he looted a lot and burned a lot. After Xiahou Heng left, the local wealthy people also took advantage of the chaos to rob a lot and took a lot away. Then the bandits came and destroyed the last bit of things...

Ji County is in a mess right now, and there are not many supplies.

Cao Chun asked his soldiers to collect as much supplies as possible.

As for how to collect it and where to collect it, Cao Chun had no intention of caring.

After all, there is an old saying in Shandong, "Those who achieve great things do not pay attention to trivial matters."

This is what classmate Cao did, and the generals of the Cao and Xiahou families naturally followed suit.

Cao Chun climbed up the city gate tower and looked towards the north. He knew that although it seemed peaceful now, the pursuers of the cavalry would arrive soon. Zhao Yun would definitely need to gather and appease the people around Yuyang, gather and place the prisoners of Cao's army, and all these would take time, but it would not take too long, and it might even be faster than Cao Chun expected.

The fierce offensive of the Northern Region Cavalry Army made Cao Chun and other Youzhou soldiers suffer terribly.

Gubeikou fell.

Yuyang fell.

Escape from Jixian.

Most of Luxian also fled...

According to Chen Bin, Juyong was also attacked and is probably no longer safe.

This is Youzhou, which I have worked so hard to build!

This feeling is like a stone blocking my chest, making it painful to even breathe.

Before the war, I prepared so many things and made so many plans, one by one, but until now, few of them can be implemented smoothly.

Just like the fortifications on the walls of Ji County, they have become just for show...

Cao Chun sighed, and suddenly something moved in his heart.

If……

"Someone, go and ask Captain Chen to come over!"

Cao Chun suddenly came up with a new plan.

Chen Bin came, feeling a little nervous.

He instinctively felt that something was not right, but he had no better solution. Chen Bin's premonition came true.

Cao Chun felt that the defensive fortifications of Ji County were wasted here, so it would be better to use them as much as possible!

"Let's burn Ji County!" Cao Chun said excitedly, even gritting his teeth, "We will secretly place kerosene at the four doors of the houses in Ji County, dig holes, hide soldiers, and set fire to the city at night! This will definitely give the cavalry a good beating!"

Although setting fire to Ji County would make Cao Chun heartbroken, it was better than giving it to the Hussars for nothing.

This plan sounds good, just like Chen Bin's parents named him "Bin" in the hope that he would be good at both literature and martial arts, but in the end he was neither. The wishes of the elders are wishes, and the details still depend on personal efforts.

Now Cao Chun's wish seems to be just a wish...

Chen Bin swallowed his saliva and asked nervously: "General... Then, who, who will stay in the city to light the fire?"

Cao Chun seemed surprised that Chen Bin would ask this question. He stared at Chen Bin and asked after a while: "Why, you don't want to?"

Cao Chun frowned, "You don't think that war is just about going into battle, wielding swords and guns, and then you can win everything... No way?"

Chen Bin was speechless.

……

……

Just when Cao Chun said "No way", Liu Ye was almost in Yijing.

For some reason, the closer Liu Ye got to Yijing, the more uneasy he felt. Looking at the endless yellow dust on the road ahead, he suddenly stopped the convoy.

This is a rare behavior of Liu Ye, because he has been shouting all the way here, more often than not, "Go faster, faster..."

"Sir, what's wrong?" the deputy came up from behind and asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"

Liu Ye was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "We can't go to Yijing."

The deputy was a little surprised, "Why?"

"We met some refugees these two days..." Liu Ye said in a low voice.

The deputy nodded.

Youzhou is now caught up in the chaos of war. Those who were able to escape have already fled. Most of the remaining refugees have no other choice but to flee to Jizhou with their families, as they are afraid of being caught up in the war.

I won’t mention those “fortified walls and cleared fields”…

Mainly other refugees.

Liu Ye traveled northward and encountered many such refugees.

"Yesterday, some refugees said that Yijing was occupied by the Hussars..." Liu Ye said, "So we can't go to Yijing."

"No..." The deputy was a little confused.

Isn't it better that Yijing was occupied by the cavalry? They don't have to go to Yuyang, which is even farther away? After all, they are the cavalry. Once they arrive, they can just give the imperial edict and that's it, right?
But Liu Ye had different ideas from his deputy.

As a strategist of at least second-rate level, Liu Ye has his own understanding and analysis of the war situation in Youzhou.

It was obvious that Cao's army could not hold on any longer.

The loss of Youzhou was a surprising but seemingly inevitable result.

Now Yijing was attacked by the Hussars. If the news is true, then the Hussars' control over Youzhou and their pre-war planning will far exceed the expectations of everyone in Shandong.

Well, since the Cavalry Army has made such a far-reaching plan, would they abandon the entire plan just because of a mere imperial edict?

Liu Ye thought it was unlikely, especially the lower-level officers of the Hussar Army, who were completely different from the officers of the Shandong faction.

The king of hell is easy to meet, but the devil is difficult to deal with.

Although this sentence was not summarized or popularized in the Han Dynasty, it did not prevent Liu Ye from understanding that the imperial edict must be submitted to the top leaders of the cavalry in order to achieve the greatest and best effect.

Especially this imperial edict, which was originally intended to target the Northern Region Cavalry Army and Zhao Yun...

If it fell into the hands of someone else, even if it was finally handed over to Zhao Yun, it was possible that it did not pass through Zhao Yun's hands at all, but was directly handed over to the General of Cavalry Fei Qian. Wouldn't that mean the plan would fail again?

Therefore, Liu Ye felt that if he arrived in Yijing, it would be equivalent to giving all the initiative to the cavalry generals in Yijing. At that time, even if they noticed something wrong, they would not be able to make any changes.

"We can't go to Yijing." Liu Ye glanced at his deputy, "But that doesn't mean we won't go... You take half of the people, walk slowly, to Yijing, and I'll take the other half and find another way..."

"Ah?" The deputy's eyes widened in surprise, "I... I'm going to Yijing?"

"What else?" Liu Ye asked.

……

……

Late at night, in the Zhongtiaoshan camp, Cao Cao strode into the central army tent.

All the generals stood up to greet him.

"How was the attack of the Tongguan Cavalry today?" Cao Cao smiled as he faced his generals and advisers. He asked the three men to sit down and asked with a smile, "How were our casualties?"

"Today, the land at Tongguan is still clearing the debris, but the navy is still attacking once a day." Lu Chang reported, "It seems that the people at Tongguan are not in a hurry to attack. They probably want to wait until we cross the river and are in the danger of the Qiaohan Pass before attacking with all their strength."

The Tongguan Slope Road is only a small part of the defenses of the Qiao-Han Pass.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, countless soldiers lost their lives here.

Cao Cao nodded slightly.

"There haven't been many casualties in the past two days... However, since we haven't been able to get supplies, the food shortage is getting worse." Dong Zhao said, "Now the Guanzhong navy, although there are not many ships, it poses a great threat to our army's crossing the river... It's okay to break the pontoon bridge, but if it threatens Shaanxi and Tianjin..."

After hearing this, Cao Cao nodded slightly.

The rest of the generals and advisers spoke one by one, and Cao Cao did not interrupt them.

After they had finished talking, Cao Cao ordered the guards to hang up the map and also asked them to prepare some food and drinks. After all, it was late at night and everyone was a little hungry.

Lu Chang and Dong Zhao were in Zhongtiao Mountain. After the meeting, they returned to their tents to rest. However, the deputy general of the Tongguan camp needed to rush back overnight, so they also needed to eat something and could not travel on an empty stomach. It would be very unfortunate if they ran out of strength and fell into the river halfway.

"Reinforcements and supplies are all here," Cao Cao said with a smile. "They are all here."

Cao Cao pointed to a location on the map.

Everyone stretched their necks to look, and then saw some joy on each other's faces.

"However, these reinforcements will not come here..." Cao Cao and others digested the news before slowly saying, "When I studied military books in the early years, I was impressed by the Spring and Autumn Annals's strategy of vertical and horizontal operations, and the six countries' lack of unity... Now I know that the defeat of the six countries is due to the long period of worry... Qi Huan, Jin Wen, Qin Mu, Song Xiang, and Chu Zhuang are the five hegemons. In terms of number, Shandong has half of them, and Qin has only one. How can they unite the six countries? It's probably one order. "

"Now, what is the order for Shandong?"

Cao Cao looked at everyone and smiled, but it was unclear whether he was laughing at himself or at other people or things.

"The King of Qin issued an order to mobilize the fish and rice from Sichuan and Shu, to drive out the Hu cavalry from the western barbarians, and to resist the Qiang slaves from the northern desert. The officers, soldiers and common people all obey his orders. Now let's look at Shandong. Can the order of the emperor reach the counties?"

Everyone was speechless.

"Therefore, if we lose now, Shandong can hold on to one, and Shandong will eventually win. If we win now, but Shandong cannot hold on to one, it will only be a temporary victory, and we will eventually lose to Qin."

Although Shandong is not as scattered as it was during the time of Dong Zhuo, with the so-called eighteen princes, in reality, for Shandong, the superficial integration has not really formed a joint force.

Cao's army is now withdrawing from the Heluo area. As the strength of the two sides decreases, the Hussars will enter the Heluo area. Although they can occupy Luoyang, on the surface they can march to threaten Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Jizhou and other places, but in fact, just like Dong Zhuo back then, once the army goes deep into the enemy's territory alone, it will be attacked from multiple places...

Of course, the prerequisite is that Shandong must move in unison and form a unified cognition again.

this point is very important.

Although Shandong's strength will be greatly weakened after this defeat, it also reduces the difficulty for Cao Cao to unify various places!
Foreign enemies are powerful and danger is approaching. Shandong is facing the greatest crisis!

If they cannot unite together, Fei Qian will sweep across the states and counties, and the country will be in danger of collapse.

Just like the Qin Dynasty back then.

Cao Cao had considered these things in detail before the war, but he couldn't say them in advance. After all, at that time, most Shandong people were very proud of themselves, thinking that Shandong was a great place with vast land, rich products, outstanding people and so on...

After Fei Qian occupied Guanzhong, his power expanded rapidly. Cao Cao could no longer delay and had to fight, but he made preparations for both situations. If he won, everything would be fine, but if he lost, he still had one last trump card.

This is one of them...

The difficulty is, of course, great.

The human heart is very difficult to control, and desires are like a bottomless abyss.

If Shandong cannot unite, then even if Cao Cao has three heads and six arms, it will be of no use.

Therefore, winning is not necessarily a good thing, and losing is not necessarily a bad thing.

However, Lao Cao and Guo Xun and others did not expect that the Cao and Xiahou families would lose so many generals in this battle...

If the country is to be saved, the Shandong collective under Cao Cao must be strong enough.

If the Shandong collective wants to become strong, it is far from enough to rely solely on the taxes of Yuzhou and the strength of Qingzhou soldiers. It must also try every means to weaken the strength of its opponents.

If the Northern Territory Army, the Guanzhong gentry and the forces of other prefectures and counties could be allowed to check and balance each other under the rule of the Cavalry, or even fight each other, that would certainly be the best and most labor-saving method.

Cao Cao defeated the two Yuans and occupied Jizhou, Youzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou and other places. Later, he took over Jingzhou. He was secretly criticized, slandered and abused by many people, even his childhood friends, his relatives...

But what about now?
What would happen if Fei Qian occupied more space?
Cao Cao conquered Jizhou and Yuzhou by force, and he climbed up by stepping on the corpses of the two Yuans. Then the people of Shandong believed that Cao Cao came to power illegitimately!
Because according to Shandong rules, it means "recommendation"!
I recommend this thing. After all, it is three or four hundred years old. Even if it is a monster, it has become a spirit. It is parasitic inside the body of a big man. It will hurt if it is torn.

Yuan Shao met the Shandong procedures and was recommended, but Cao Cao was not!
If you think about it, Cao Cao should actually be considered as an "underdog"!
So, if the General of the Cavalry also conquered the Shandong region by force, what would be the result? How would the people of the world view the General of the Cavalry? Would the General of the Cavalry be accused by the people of the world of being a traitor to the Han Dynasty and become the second Dong Zhuo of the Han Dynasty? If everyone in the world believed that the General of the Cavalry's capture of Heluo and the march into Youzhou was the beginning of the Han Dynasty's demise, would the various forces of the Han Dynasty join hands to deal with Fei Qian?
Cao Cao certainly couldn't predict what the future would be like, but he would try to spread this idea and let Fei Qian follow Dong Zhuo's path. At the same time, he would try his best to get rid of his position from the role of occupier and become the world's "recommendation" to replace Yuan Shao!
We need to make Cao Cao the only force in the world, and especially in the hearts of Shandong people, that can "save" the country!

By that time, all the counties and prefectures that had been against Cao Cao and pretended to obey him would be able to truly gather under Cao Cao's banner, hold high the banner of fighting against Dong... Oh, fighting against Fei and serving the king, continuously launch counterattacks against Guanzhong, and finally achieve a decisive victory!

We must let the people of the world know that now there is only Prime Minister Cao and Cao’s army still tenaciously and unyieldingly guarding the emperor and saving the country!

Then the reason why Cao Cao occupied Jizhou and monopolized power was because he wanted to punish King Fei Qin!
It was a forced and helpless act!

Now that Cao's army was defeated and retreated from Hedong and Heluo, it was not only because of the strength of the Cavalry Army, but also because of the rebellion within Shandong!
Cao's army has been exhausted and unable to hold on. The fault does not lie with Cao Cao, but with those Shandong rebels!
Of course, in this strategy, Xun Yu and Guo Jia also hid some tricks...

Cao Cao guessed some of it.

He was upset at first, but now...

Still unhappy, but not as intensely.

After Cao Cao finished explaining these plans to his generals, he looked around and checked everyone's expressions.

Everyone in the big tent was silent, carefully pondering the meaning behind Cao Cao's words.

War is a continuation of politics.

Cao's army, Cao Cao, Fei's army, Fei Qian, the two armies fought here, not just for the blood and casualties, but for the future route of the world and the ownership of power.

If Cao Cao wanted to show the people of Shandong his loyalty to the Han Dynasty and the Emperor, he could not leave the battlefield easily and evacuate Heluo, but had to be beaten back!

The more intact the Cao army is, the less nervous the Shandong people will be. On the contrary, if the Cao army is defeated, they will be beaten back and cry to the world with blood and wounds, "It's not that the Cao and Xiahou families don't want to save the country and protect the emperor, but the traitors in Shandong are causing trouble and holding them back! Now, except for Prime Minister Cao, there are rebels and traitors everywhere in the world!"

In this case, Cao Cao could kill those guys who jumped out and flirted with the cavalry without much hidden danger...

By taking the fat and fat accumulated by these guys, it might be possible to not only make up for Cao Cao's losses, but also make the Shandong court rich!
Cao Cao looked around and said, "Now the emperor has issued an edict to mediate... According to the calculation of time, it should be almost time... And if we are defeated by the Hussars at this moment... then how will the people of the world view the Hussars?"

Cao Cao didn't expect any imperial edict at all.

As for that thing, to be honest, people who care about the emperor will respect him without an imperial edict. What's the use of having so many imperial edicts if you don't respect the emperor?

Will Fei Qian respect the emperor?

Maybe, but his generals...

Therefore, conflicts are bound to arise!

The suffering and pain that Cao Cao had endured in the past, it is now Fei Qian's turn to suffer!

Cao Cao smiled slightly, appearing to be confident.

Everyone looked at each other, "My Lord, do you mean... that we are ready to retreat?"

Cao Cao nodded slowly, "Starting from tonight, we will increase the number of stoves and reduce the number of soldiers! Start retreating!"

As soon as Cao Cao finished speaking, he heard hurried footsteps outside the tent.

"Prime Minister! Suoyang Pass is lost!"

Cao Cao's heart skipped a beat and his face changed slightly, but soon returned to normal.