Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 177 Take Xu Du as bait and the world as chess

In the winter and October of the sixth year of Jian'an, Yecheng, Jizhou.

After recuperating for a year, Yuan Shao finally regained his strength and decided to attack Cao Cao again.

This time Tian Feng did not die, although Yuan Shao resented Tian Feng for making him lose face, but under Ju Shou's hard persuasion, he made him give up killing Tian Feng.

And this time to attack Cao, he also planned to follow the plan taught by Tian Fengju, step by step, not rushing to attack, but slowly.

In November, Yuan Shao's army stationed troops in Pingqiu at Duhe, and Cao Cao took the initiative to attack again northward, with a total of [-] troops. The two sides faced each other across the river in Jishui, just like the battle of Guandu.

It's just that Yuan Shao's troops were much smaller this time. During the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao used 1 infantry and more than [-] cavalry, plus the harassment troops attacking from Qingzhou and Sili, the total strength reached thirteen. forty thousand.

Now most of the troops have been lost in the First World War. Even after the reorganization, there are only more than 8 people now.In this way, coupled with the tens of thousands of horses left behind, Yuan Shao had more than 20 troops at the beginning, but now there are only less than 15 left.

On the other hand, although Cao Cao's current total strength is only more than [-] people, he can squeeze out [-] elite troops to go north to confront him. Therefore, the overall strength of the two sides in this battle is actually not much different. The north is no longer Yuan Weak and Cao Qiang. The number of the two is close to five or five.

Yuan Jun stationed troops in Pingqiu, while Cao Cao stationed troops in Cangting.Now it is actually no longer Yuan Shao who is eager for success, but Cao Cao.

Because Liu Biao was also actively preparing to attack Cao Cao, Yuan Shao was in no hurry at all. No matter how Cao Cao sent people to provoke him outside the camp, he would stand still and just spend his time.Just wait until Liu Biao makes a move, that is when he destroys Cao Cao.

At this moment in Yuan Jun's camp in Pingqiu, Yuan Shao had recovered from his illness, and his energy and spirit were quite different. He sat down with many civil and military generals and counselors, the eldest son Yuan Tan and his nephew Gao Gan were on the left and right.

"Minggong."

General Meng Dai came in and knelt down on one knee and said, "Cao Cao is provoking outside the stronghold again."

"Ignore it."

Yuan Shao returned to his original calmness, looked around the crowd and said with a smile: "Liu Jingsheng has raised an army of more than [-], and is now preparing for the Northern Expedition. Cao Cao may be dying of anxiety now."

"Minggong is right."

Ju Shou cupped his hands and said: "Our army has plenty of food and grass, and we just need to wait for work. When Liu Biao goes north, Cao Cao will surely go south to meet him. We can attack back and forth and destroy Cao Cao."

"Hahahahaha."

After Yuan Shao laughed, Shu Er's face became extremely fierce again, he slapped the table and said: "The shame of last year must be wiped away today!"

At the same time, inside Cao Jun's camp, Cao Cao walked back and forth quite restlessly in the camp.

Since Yuan Shao was defeated at Guandu last year and returned to Xudu, although the foundation of Xudu has not been lost, the food and grass are stored in the palace, and Shen Chen also distributes food to the people, indirectly helping him relieve his urgent needs.

However, his overall strength is still far inferior to that of Yuan Shao. The population under Yuan Shao's rule is close to ten million, and the grain is tens of millions of stones a year, while the population under his rule is only more than three million. Large-scale invasion cannot collect food and grass, and the recovery speed is too slow.

However, after the Battle of Guandu, he regained the control of Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and Xuzhou. Zang Ba also led his troops to vote. In May of this year, the wheat was harvested, and the farm households and the grain and grass paid by various places helped him solve the problem. this crisis.

So the current Cao Cao is not actually short of food, what he lacks is fighter opportunities.Liu Biao stared at the south, and Yuan Shao made a comeback in the north. Even if the soldiers and horses were feared to be elite, it would be difficult to stop hundreds of thousands of troops from both sides.

"Duke Ming, Yuan Jun held up his exemption card, even though he kept yelling and scolding, he still couldn't get out of the camp."

After a while, Zhang Liao and Xu Huang, who had been sent to provoke him, came back.

Cao Cao sighed and said, "Gu knows, let the soldiers go and rest first."

"only."

The two stepped back.

Cao Cao frowned.

During the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao was eager to attack, but he found a loophole to counterattack.

As a result, he is eager to attack now instead. I have to say that this is a kind of irony, and it is also the sin of killing too much in the early years.

"Minggong."

At this time, Guo Jia entered the tent. He saw Cao Cao walking slowly in the tent, seemingly calm and steady, but the serious expression on his face still betrayed him, so he cupped his hands and said, "Ming Gong is still worried. ?"

Seeing Guo Jia approaching, Cao Cao smiled wryly and said, "Those who know me are filial piety, and don't worry about Yuan Benchu. He is now a wounded soldier, and he is definitely not my opponent. It's just that Liu Biao is behind, and he is alone and worried."

"The current situation is like last year when we had a decisive battle with Yuan Shao at Guandu, and Shen Chen was harassing from behind. But I heard that Liu Biao has not recruited Shen Chen at this time, so Ming Gong can be at ease."

Guo Jia comforted with a smile.

Cao Cao shook his head: "Although there is no Shen Chen, but Liu Biao's army of hundreds of thousands is more powerful than Shen Chen's."

"Ming Gong's words are wrong. Last year, our rear was empty. Shen Chen had [-] elite soldiers, who traveled hundreds of miles a day, and traveled around the counties of Yingchuan. The soldiers in my rear were exhausted and could not ask for it."

Guo Jia said: "But now Liu Biao has many people, but they are mobs, such as chickens and wags. What's the matter? What's more, Liu Jingsheng doesn't practice martial arts, and he has more than [-] people to attack Zhang Xian in Jingnan. After fighting for a year, are we not as good as Zhang Xian?"

"Forehead"

Cao Cao was also amused by Guo Jia for a while, and said happily, "That's true. Liu Biao attacked Zhang Xian but had to wait until Zhang Xian died of illness. He is really incompetent."

Both laughed.

In fact, they all know that this is just a topic of relaxation, and they should not be too anxious, and the challenges to be faced are still severe, but in many cases, relaxing the body and mind in this way may have better results.

This is what is called despising the enemy strategically and paying attention to the enemy tactically.

After laughing for a while, Guo Jia still said seriously: "It's just that Jingnan has mountains and rivers, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it can last long. Yingchuan can be seen at a glance, and only the city can be defended. If Liu Biao attacks on a large scale, we will be attacked from the north and the south. Not to be taken lightly."

"Ah."

Cao Cao nodded, and said, "What's the best way to honor filial piety?"

Guo Jia thought for a while and said, "At present, Liu Biao has not sent troops yet, and we don't know the details about him. It's useless to formulate a strategy hastily. Let's wait and see. After he sends troops, we can see who his generals are. How about the deployment of soldiers and horses, and then deal with it."

"Feng Xiao's words are justified."

Cao Cao sighed and sat down on his seat: "Then I'd better wait and see what Liu Biao does."

In history, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao fought in Cangting, and this battle was considered a big victory, but Yuan Shao did not hurt the root, and calmly withdrew to Hebei.Until the next year, when Cao Cao died of illness and went north, Yuan Tan, Yuan Shang and others still had the strength to deal with Cao Cao for several years. It can be seen that Yuan Shao did not lose much in the battle of Cangting.

But the history is different now, Jushou Tian Feng is not dead, Yuan Shao is slow to plan, Cao Cao will not fall into the trap if he wants to lure the enemy into the family.Coupled with the menacing Liu Biao behind him, if Xu Du was attacked during the battle between the two sides, the consequences would be disastrous.

So Cao Cao didn't dare to rush to win, but when Yuan Shao stood still and just stayed in the camp, and in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes and perfectly protect the grain road, he had nothing to do with the opponent.

After all, when Wuchao was burned, there was Xu You who was the second or fifth child.

Now Yuan Shao divides the food and grass into several parts, spreads them all over Kuangcheng Pucheng and other places, and guards them according to the city. It is impossible for him to burn Wuchao again.

The two sides continued to stall for time.

More than three months later, in the spring of the seventh year of Jian'an, that is, in February 202 AD, Liu Biao finally started the Northern Expedition after more than half a year of preparation.

He made Zhang Yun a general with an army of [-], and Wen Pin as a general with an army of [-].

Under the command of the second general, there are dozens of generals at all levels.

There is also the uncle of the emperor of the Han Dynasty, the left general Liu Bei, as his assistant, with a force of about 12, with a total force of 50, known as [-].

Liu Biao didn't go by himself.

Yes.

Not even his son.

So they sent a nephew Zhang Yun and a nephew Liu Hu, and even the other nephew Liu Pan was not mobilized, and they were arranged in Jingnan to guard against Sun Quan.

It's not that Liu Biao doesn't want to go, it's just that he's too old.

If he was ten years younger, he would definitely choose to fight in person, to fight on the battlefield for the revival of the Han Dynasty.

However, he is old, already sixty years old, and he can't stand the toss.

At this age, even a little running around might kill him, not to mention that since Kuai Liang died of illness, Liu Biao was also very sad, and after crying bitterly, his health also deteriorated a lot.

So for the past year, Liu Biao has been recuperating in Xiangyang, and he can only send nephew Zhang Yun, general Wenpin, and nephew Liu Hu to the war.

In terms of the status of the Jingzhou army, Huang Zu must be the veritable No. [-] general in Jingzhou, who has always been relied on by Liu Biao.

But there are two reasons for not sending Huang Zu.

One is that Huang Zu is good at navy, and sits in Jiangxia to guard against Jiangdong.

The second is that Huang Zu has a foreign surname, so Liu Biao naturally dare not hand over more than [-] soldiers and horses to the foreign surname.

And Zhang Yun is his nephew, who is over 40 years old and is currently the second general in Jingzhou. Since he can't recruit himself, the eldest son doesn't like him, and the second son has no ability to lead the army, he can only choose Zhang Yun. allow.

However, although Zhang Yun's ability is not as good as Huang Zu's, Liu Biao is still full of confidence in this attack.

Because the strength of the opponent is too weak.

Coupled with Yuan Shao and his north-south attack, Cao Cao must be exhausted and waiting to die.

So in Liu Biao's mind, even if his ineffective nephew is a bit mediocre and overwhelms others with more than [-] troops, it should be fine.

Therefore, in the seventh year of Jian'an, in January, Zhang Yun and Wenpin led an army of tens of thousands to the north. In February, Zhang Yun left Nanyang and marched to the area of ​​Dingling, facing Cao Cao's left-behind general Xiahou Dun across Rushui. .

Wenpin went north to Xiangcheng, went to Fenqiu, and confronted Cao Hong, the general of Cao Cao's department, across Yingshui.

Cao Cao left only 3 horses in the rear. Facing Liu Biao's army of more than [-], he was obviously powerless. He had to burn a lot of bridges and use the two large rivers, Rushui and Yingshui, to temporarily block the enemy.

Taking advantage of this time, Liu Bei made a detour to Yuzhou and occupied Runan. For a while, the old Yuan family that remained for a while responded one after another, and soon gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the momentum was huge.

A few days later, Cao Cao got the news on the front line of Chenliucang Pavilion. At this time, he and Yuan Shao had confronted each other for more than 100 days, and the two sides have not yet started fighting.

Knowing that Liu Biao's army had finally marched north, Cao Cao immediately summoned his three advisers, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu, and Xun You, to discuss countermeasures.

In the tent of General Cao Jun, four people sat in rows.

Cao Cao looked around the crowd and said, "Last month, Liu Biao stationed troops in Kunyang. A few days ago, there was news that his generals Zhang Yun and Wenpin had entered Dingling and Xiangcheng. Responding, what do you guys think?"

Guo Jia was the first to analyze: "Liu Biao is over [-] years old, and he claims to be the Duke of Chu. I think he must have the ambition to become emperor, so he will definitely urge Zhang Yunwenpin to march as soon as possible and attack Xudu. I guess he is afraid to assassinate the emperor. "

"Well, Feng Xiao's words are very reasonable."

Cheng Yu and Xun You also nodded. In fact, the reason why Liu Biao proclaimed the Duke did not cause too much trouble was because he belonged to the clan with the surname Liu.

Now there are countless princes with the surname Liu in the world, and there are also countless princes. Gao Zu once made the White Horse Alliance. With this regulation, even if Liu Biao becomes king, as long as Liu Xie does not strongly oppose him, no one can blame him.

As for Liu Xie's opinion, what opinion can he have?Being controlled by Cao Cao, it is obviously difficult to speak out.

Cao Cao condemned Liu Biao in his name, but Liu Biao held up the official document of his belt and belt, saying that this was Cao Cao's false edict, so the reactions of the princes in the world were not as strong as when Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor.

After all, even if Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he would actually offend a few princes here.Liu Zhang in Yizhou, Yuan Shao in the north, Suimateng Han in Guanzhong, everyone is only busy with their own one-third of an acre of land, who cares whether you are called emperor or not.

So so far, except for Sun Quan's response to Cao Cao's call, and condemning Liu Biao, saying that he would launch an army to crusade, even Liu Zhang, the southwestern prince who has the same hatred as Liu Biao, has not done anything.

Because of Sun Quan's response to this situation, Cao Cao also issued an edict to canonize Sun Quan as the general of Zhennan, the prefect of Kuaiji, and inherit the title of Marquis of Wu from his elder brother Sun Ce.

However, Sun Quan had just inherited Jiangdong and was recuperating, and Huang Zu's troops had been supplemented, with tens of thousands of troops, which were almost equal to his troops. Therefore, Sun Quan went to the court and said that it would take time to prepare, but he had not sent troops yet. Bo Feng reward.

"I look at the north and the south. Yuan Shao is slow and Liu Biao is anxious. The southern troops are pressing and the northern troops are late. Maybe you can lead troops to go south to defeat Liu Biao, and then go north to compete with Yuan Shao."

Guo Jia put forward his own opinion.

He believed that Liu Biao was eager for success, so he must have many flaws. At that time, he could first lead his troops to the south, lure the enemy deep, break Liu Biao first, and then go north to fight Yuan Shao.

However, Xun You shook his head and said: "No, although the southern soldiers are numerous, they are not as strong as the northern soldiers. It is easy to defeat Liu Biao, but it is difficult to defeat Yuan Shao. Once we go south, Yuan Shao will definitely come after us. Even if we defeat Liu Biao, our backs will be too If it is attacked by Yuan Jun, it will be difficult to maintain."

"Well"

Guo Jia pondered. He is actually the best at analyzing the psychology of the enemy and the enemy, so every time he can encourage Cao Cao and formulate strategies by exploring the enemy's thinking, but in terms of tactical planning, he is indeed inferior to Xun You and Cheng Yu.

"Ming Gong, I have a plan."

At this moment, Cheng Yu said: "Between us and Yuan Shao, it's like two evenly matched tigers, circling and circling each other, looking for each other's flaws. Now that Liu Biao is attacking, if he goes south to break Liu Biao, Yuan Shao will definitely attack him. , so why don't we take advantage of this opportunity to intentionally expose our flaws and lure Yuan Shao to chase after him?"

Cao Cao hurriedly asked, "What does Zhong De mean?"

Cheng Yu said with a smile: "We can withdraw our troops, and when Yuan Shao comes to pursue them, a decisive battle will be triggered in the field, and then we will use the plan of ambush on all sides, and suddenly the soldiers and horses will come out, then we can defeat him."

"It's not that simple."

Xun You shook his head: "Yuan Shaojing was defeated last time, and he was assisted by Tian Feng. He will not be so stupid that we retreat immediately, and he will come after him immediately. He will definitely find out the truth. He will not come until he is sure that we have gone south. Chase, so this plan cannot work.”

"That"

Cheng Yu scratched his head, there was nothing he could do.

Cao Cao looked at Xun You and said, "What tricks does Gongda have to teach me?"

Xun You thought for a while and said: "There is only one plan, to build the plank road in the open, and keep the warehouse in the dark."

"What is the solution to this plan, please explain in detail." Cao Cao asked hurriedly.

"Feng Xiao is right. Yuan Shao is slow to attack and will not rush to attack. However, the northern army is strong and the southern army is weak. How can there be a reason for the strong army to attack the weak army first? When the time comes for the long journey south, our army will be exhausted first. Even if we defeat Liu Biao and go north to compete with Yuan Shao, it will not last long."

Xun You talked eloquently: "So Liu Biao is eager to attack, so let's let him attack. Minggong can lead the army back at this time, and then let Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong pretend to be defeated, and the troops retreat to the surrounding area of ​​​​Xudu. At this time, Liu Biao must attack again Marching in, the army surrounded Xudu, making Xudu like a flat boat in the sea, ready to capsize at any time."

"Isn't Xu all in danger?"

Cao Cao frowned.

Xun You laughed and said: "It is to put Xu Du in danger. At this time, Duke Ming led 1 troops to the south, leaving 1 troops to confront Yuan Shao. When Yuan Shao heard about this and saw us retreating, he would definitely think that we were going south. Break the siege of Xudu, so that we can safely attack the [-] troops left behind, and when Yuan Shao pursues and retreats, we will lay in ambush and defeat them!"

This strategy is to show the enemy weakness first.Deliberately retreating troops created a situation where Liu Biao's army had already surrounded Xudu, and Xudu might be overthrown at any time.

But Yuan Shao got the news that Xudu was besieged by Liu Biao, and seeing that Cao Cao's main force had withdrawn and there were only 1 people left in Cangting, he would definitely think that Cao Cao was going to fight Liu Biao desperately, and went south to lift the siege of Xudu.

In order to add insult to injury, he would definitely choose to continue to attack and storm Cao Ying who was left behind.

At that time, the remaining Cao camp troops retreated, and Yuan Shao pursued. At this time, Cao Jun, who had no main force going south, suddenly rushed out, ambushed on all sides, and Yuan Shao could be defeated.

"This is a risky move."

After Cao Cao listened, he sighed.

This strategy is to use Xu Capital City as a bait and use the world as a chessboard.

Once Liu Biao misjudged Liu Biao's strength and let Liu Biao really attack Xu Capital City, even if he defeated Yuan Shao in Cangting, he would be slaughtered by the dragon and lose everything.

Xun You smiled wryly and said: "Ju taught Tian Fengdu to be a resourceful person. If you want to deceive them, it's not easy. Only by using Xu Du as bait can you lure Yingjie into the bait."

"Ah."

Cao Cao nodded: "Gongda is right. Since Gu went out to fight against Dong Zhuo with the Yellow Turban, and defeated Lu Bu and Yuan Shao, which time is it not dangerous? Even if the world is an enemy, it is not enough. Well, let's use filial piety It is said that Gongda's plan and Zhongde's plan are to go north first and then go south, using Xu Du as a bait to lure Yuan Shao into the bait, and laying ambushes on all sides, we must smash him!"

(End of this chapter)