Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 66 Guo Jia
From Mr. Pang De, Shen Chen actually gained a lot.

The analysis of the social structure of the Han Dynasty, the thoughts of the powerful families, and the consideration of the class as a whole.

This allowed him to see more clearly the truth of those so-called aristocratic families.

For him, it is as good as enlightenment.

Time flies, and it is the end of the year in a blink of an eye.

Deng Hong took Shen Chen north to Huangmen Pavilion and returned to his hometown for the New Year.

For Cao Cao, there are many things to be busy in this new year, and there is no time to have a good year.

The first is the problem of food and grass. In history, Cao Cao defeated the Yellow Turban in Runan, Yingchuan, at the beginning of the first year of Jian'an, before he welcomed the Han emperor, and obtained a large number of cattle, farm tools and labor.

At that time, Cao Cao had two generals, one named Zaozhi and the other Han Hao. They suggested to Cao Cao that they could solve the food problem by garrisoning fields in Yingchuan.

The result is that in the first year of Jian'an, Cao Cao used the Yingchuan Runan Yellow Turban, that is, the power of He Yi and Heman's gang, to farm in Yingchuan. After one year, he got grain and grass with millions of Dendrobium, which initially solved the food crisis.

But now the gang of He Yi and He Man were tricked to go to Nanyang, and they are still in Nanyang controlled by Liu Biao.Even the grain produced belongs to Liu Biao and has nothing to do with Cao Cao.

Therefore, although Cao Cao used the original million Qingzhou Yellow Turbans as his team, and still carried out farming work under the proposal of Zaozhi and Han Hao, the harvest was far less than expected.

The second is the issue of government affairs. Cao Cao has not yet fully controlled Liu Xie, and the power of the royalists is still very strong.

Now there are a group of veteran officials in the court, such as Yang Biao, Zhao Wen, Zhang Xi, Fu Wan, etc., and a large number of middle- and lower-level officials, such as Kong Rong, Wang Yi, Zhong Ji, Wu Shuo, Wang Zifu, Liu Bei, Wu Zilan, etc. They are all supporters of the Han Dynasty.

These people formed Liu Xie's loyal team, and many of them had military power. The current guards at the gate of the palace and a certain number of troops outside protected him.

For example, Liu Bei.

Yes, Liu Bei is now in Xudu.

At the end of this year, Liu Bei and Lu Bu fought again and were defeated by Lu Bu. Hearing that Liu Xie had arrived in Xuchang, he went west to Xudu to join the emperor.

Cao Cao then presented Liu Bei as the shepherd of Yuzhou, and asked him to take some troops to Runan to guard against Yuan Shu, and took the opportunity to transfer him away from the emperor.

But although Liu Bei was transferred away, the guards at the gate of the palace were still loyal to Liu Xie. There were not many of them, and Cao Cao didn't dare to do anything to Liu Xie. Too many threats to force.

On these two issues, Cao Cao still thought of some ways to solve them.

Forage problem.

At present, there is still a part of food and grass vacancy. Therefore, his choice is that since there are no prisoners of the Yellow Turban to farm the fields, he should find another way and send people to Runan, Chen Guo, Liang Guo and other places to relocate the people to Xudu, and turn these people into farmers. , Barely get through this crisis.

In fact, there are two advantages to doing so. One is that the areas of Chen and Liang in Runan have been occupied by Yuan Shu since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and later a large number of Yellow Turbans took over here, which made the Henan area very dilapidated and dilapidated, and Dingkou dropped sharply.

In this case, it belongs to sparsely populated land.Although Cao Cao currently occupies these places, it is almost difficult to manage the people here. It is better to move all the scattered people in this area to Yingchuan for unified production and solve the management problem.

The second is that Yuan Shu's strength is still there now. Facing the threat that Yuan Shu may come at any time, he does not dare to take it lightly, so he moved the people in Henan to Yingchuan and created a isolation zone in disguise. Not being replenished, thus lengthening his supply lines and making it difficult for him to march.

Therefore, although the process was more difficult, Cao Cao still solved the problem of food and grass very hard, at least so that his army no longer had to live a precarious life like before, and even the army rations were mixed with human dried meat.

As for the issue of government affairs, he transferred Liu Bei to Runan to weaken Liu Xie's foreign aid, and secretly stuffed his cronies into the guards at the palace gate in order to slowly infiltrate.

In the future, when his people become the leader of the palace guards, then Liu Xie will be completely reduced to a marionette in his hands, and he will hold it in his hands.

But these things can't be solved overnight, so he can only be patient and take it step by step.

At this moment, at the end of December of the first year of Jian'an, Sikong's mansion in Xudu.

Cao Cao is dealing with some official business in the study in the backyard. His complexion is very ugly. Last month, his important counselor Xi Zhicai died of illness, and he lost a person who could advise him. This made him feel like he was without a right hand a feeling of.

"Oh, Zhicai."

Thinking of this close comrade-in-arms, Cao Cao felt very painful. He threw the brush in his hand on the pen holder, and he didn't care about government affairs.

My fourth son has been extremely intelligent since he was a child. He has already read scriptures at the age of five, and he can even write articles by himself. With such agility, at least I don't have to worry about having no successors in the future.

Just as he was thinking about it, Xiao Cao Zhi skipped and ran across the yard. A young man about 20 years old walked out of the stone arch on the right. In front of the study, he said, "Father."

"It's Zixiu."

Cao Cao was even more satisfied when he saw Cao Ang. He stroked his beard and said, "What's the matter?"

Cao Ang said, "Mr. Wen Ruo, please see me."

"Is he alone?"

"And another gentleman."

"Let them in."

Cao Cao turned around and went back to the study, where he sat on the table and waited for Xun Yu.

His relationship with Xun Yu is actually more like a cooperative relationship than a superior-subordinate relationship. For example, Xun Yu's address to Cao Cao is more official, and he would never call him "Ming Gong" as a subordinate official responds to his superiors.

Therefore, it would be more formal for Xun Yu to enter Cao Cao's mansion. He had to report first, and then he would enter after Cao Cao's consent.

On the other hand, Xi Zhicai used to go in directly without anyone stopping him.

When Xun Yu came in, he brought a young man in his 20s with him. After entering the study, he bowed to Cao Cao first: "Sikong."

"Ah."

Cao Cao nodded and said, "Sit down."

Xun Yu and the young man sat on a seat next to Cao Cao.

After they sat down, Cao Cao asked, "Wen Ruo, the new year is coming soon, what can you do with me?"

Xun Yu said: "After Zhicai died of illness, Sikong wrote to me, asking me to recommend a person who can succeed Zhicai. Didn't I just bring it?"

The young man smiled and bowed to Cao Cao, "Guo Jia pays homage to Sikong."

"Oh?"

Cao Cao looked at Guo Jia in amazement, and saw that he was about 25 or [-] years old, with a thin face and a good appearance, and he liked him very much.

But in this era, there are countless people who have nothing but good looks, and being handsome does not necessarily mean being talented, so Cao Cao pondered for a moment and asked, "Since it is recommended by Wen Ruo, he must be a great talent. I wonder if he can handle the important affairs of the country?"

Guo Jia laughed and said, "What does Sikong mean?"

Cao Cao thought for a while and said, "Nowadays the world is in chaos, and I'm going to use troops everywhere. What should I do with this?"

Guo Jia pondered for a moment, then replied: "Sikong is serving the emperor to win over his ministers, so he should use troops from all directions. However, Yuan Shao in the north is powerful, so it is not appropriate to make enemies with him for the time being, but to make friends with him. Therefore, Sikong's main use of troops should be to occupy Henan first. Look around again."

Cao Cao said, "What do you mean?"

Guo Jia said: "Sikong must first deal with all the enemies who can threaten Xudu, such as Zhang Xiu in Nanyang, Lu Bu in Xuzhou, and Yuan Shu in Huainan. After obtaining the land of Henan and accumulating strength, he can go north to meet Yuan Shao .”

Cao Cao was overjoyed and said: "This is the great talent I am looking for. You have the same idea as me. I also plan to defeat Zhang Xiu in Nanyang first, and then conquer Lu Bu Yuan Shu and others."

Xun Yu asked in surprise, "Is Sikong going to send troops again so soon? Frequent battles may be detrimental to the country."

Cao Cao sighed and said, "Time waits for me. How could I not know that years of wars will destabilize the morale of the army and the people. But there are many thieves and bandits in all directions, and they all have disobedience. If they want to help the Han Dynasty, they can only send troops to fight against them. I will go to Zhangxiu in the next year, and I will rely on you in the rear."

In fact, he had already considered the matter of going to Zhang Xiu as early as last month. Nanyang was too close to Yingchuan. If Zhang Xiu was not dealt with first, once he attacked Xuzhou east, his hometown would be at risk of being stolen.

Therefore, adopting the principle of long-distance and short-term attack, he must eliminate the forces around the old nest one by one.

He's done it historically.

Zhang Xiu was the closest, so he attacked Zhang Xiu first and wiped out the forces entrenched in Nanyang.

Then Yuan Shu from Huainan suddenly went north and killed Chen Wang Liu Chong, occupied Chen State, and threatened Yingchuan. He immediately conquered Yuan Shu himself and beat Yuan Shu back to Shouchun.

Later, Lu Bu's power bordered him, so he conquered Lu Bu himself.

Anyway, Cao Cao would beat anyone who was close to him.

It is necessary to deal with those who can threaten him around him one by one, so that after occupying the whole Henan, he will have a decisive battle with Yuan Shao who occupies Hebei.

It seems that there is nothing new in the strategy, isn't it just the remaining long-distance and short-range attacks in the Warring States Period?

But this was already the best way at that time.

After all, you can't ignore the threats around you, and attack the enemies far away from you first.

So at this point, Cao Cao's mind is very clear, and he is very clear about what he should do and what he should not do at this stage.

And Guo Jia was able to have the same insight as him, which made Cao Cao feel like meeting a confidant.

Then Cao Cao talked with Guo Jia about many important national affairs. Both of them were very happy. One felt that he had found someone who could help him achieve his great cause, and the other believed that he had met the Lord of the Ming Dynasty.

However, although the two talked happily when they first met, Cao Cao did not immediately include him in the core circle of advisers at first.

It will take until next year in 197 AD, because Cao Cao was defeated in Nanyang, Yuan Shao wrote to humiliate him, Guo Jia put forward the theory of ten victories and ten defeats against Yuan Shao, which gave Cao Cao great confidence, and was promoted by Cao Cao to be a military officer. , officially entered the core layer.

Therefore, Cao Cao did not immediately appoint Guo Jia to take up a high position, but asked him to be Sikong Cao Cao first, and wait to see if he has actual ability in the future.

(End of this chapter)