I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 783 Cao Cao gathers all his strength
Zhang Fei actually didn't want to kill Ji Ling.

In Zhang Fei's view, a general like Ji Ling, regardless of his ability, could still maintain his loyalty to Yuan Shao at such a critical moment, angrily cursing himself and Liu Jian, even though his behavior made him Zhang Fei felt very dissatisfied...but he was still a hero.

From Zhang Fei's point of view, he still wants to keep this person.

Now Zhang Fei is not only a general on the battlefield, but also a builder who assisted Liu Jian in creating the great Han Dynasty. His perspective is no longer just about conquering Jiangdong and Jingzhou.

From the perspective of people like Zhang Fei, the conquest of Jingzhou and Jiangdong is only a matter of time, but what happens after the conquest of Jingzhou and Jiangdong may be the biggest challenge in his life.

To build a great empire, it is not enough to just rely on Liu Jian and Zhang Fei, Guan Yu, Liu Bei and others.

The rise of a great dynasty will inevitably require more talents.

Whether it is talents in power, military talents, or according to Liu Jian's words, talents in agriculture, medicine, planting, construction, etc., the Han Dynasty needs them all, and they need a lot of them!
Therefore, in this southern expedition with almost no suspense, what worried Zhang Fei the most were the talents who were tied to Yuan Shao's death chariot.

Ji Ling is one of them. Zhang Fei feels that such a character can still be preserved. The more that can be preserved, the better.

However, unfortunately, many things do not go as expected.

Zhang Fei shook his head and said: "I'm not familiar with him, I just heard about his reputation."

Seeing Ji Ling charging toward him like crazy, Zhang Fei could only helplessly raise one of his hands, and then said to his sergeants: "Fire the arrow!"

Although Ji Ling was one of the few talents in the Han Dynasty, it was a pity that he did not have the same ambition as Zhang Fei, Liu Jian, Liu Bei and others.

When Ji Ling led Su Fei and the remaining defeated generals to charge towards Zhang Fei, Zhang Fei knew in his heart that he could not keep this man.

He pondered for a moment, then smiled and said: "However, no matter what, this person's head is ultimately the result of you and me!"

"If that's the case, why is it so sad?"

Ji Ling and his deputy general Su Fei were taken away by a wave of arrows.

Zhang Fei came to the body of Ji Ling, who had been hit by fifteen arrows. Looking at Ji Ling, who was still staring with eyes before he died, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of arrows breaking through bodies was heard in everyone's eardrums.

At this stage, Ji Ling's thoughts are still conservative. He is still trapped within the old system of the dual monarchy, and is eager to be attached to the fourth generation and the third prince like Yuan Shao.

Zhang Fei didn't say much, but just ordered another captain: "Find a place for Ji Ling to be buried."

Lu Bu followed Zhang Fei behind him and came to Zhang Fei's side. Looking at Zhang Fei with a sad face, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Did the Protector of the Capital know this person well in the past?"

The powerful crossbows that the northern sergeants had prepared long ago shot towards Ji Ling, Su Fei and others like migratory locusts!

After a hail of arrows, Lu Bu's wolf cavalry began to charge towards the Jingzhou troops who had lost their will to fight...

The captain raised his hands and said, "Defender, don't you want to behead him?"

Lu Bu didn't expect Zhang Fei to say such words.

Looking at the oncoming flying arrows, Ji Ling's pupils instantly became larger.

For such people, Zhang Fei can only say yes, it is really hopeless!

"This man used to be a rare strong general among the Han generation. Unfortunately, his bravery and ability were only used in civil wars and conquests, which was of no benefit to the country. Now, he is lost here... Sigh , Apart from this person, in the past twenty years, the big man did not know how many people he had died from internal friction!"

Zhang Fei sighed: "Why not be sad?"

After a while, only blood and corpses were left in the field, as were the living creatures who had just followed Ji Ling.

"Buza!"

"Here!"

……

It was a very simple matter for Liu Jian to eliminate Ji Ling's sneak attack army.

He didn't even pay attention to this war, but left it to Zhang Fei and Lu Bu. His main focus now is on Cao Cao.

Yuan Shaotun stationed heavy troops in Jiangling. Although it was strong, it was impossible not to defeat it.

Now Liu Jian's main concern is Cao Cao's movements.

Moreover, Cao Cao's current behavior really interests him.

Cao Cao and Zhou Yu abandoned Jianghuai and moved to Jiangdong in the name of countering the rebellion.

In this battle, Zhou Yu eliminated the main force of the Shanyue rebels in Danyang County, Jiangdong, and the lost county was returned to the control of Cao's army.

Cao Cao took this opportunity to order a search in Danyang and Kuaiji counties for powerful gentry who participated in the resistance to Cao Cao's regime.

In order to severely punish these local powerful men who secretly supported Shanyue and at the same time boost the morale of the army, Cao Cao took cruel measures.

He allowed the generals to lead their respective armies to raid the manors that supported the power of the Shanyue people after the war, as a reward for the soldiers. As long as they could take it, they could raid and take away the property.

Only land and population cannot be robbed.

To put it simply, the land and population belong to Cao Cao, and the property belongs to the victorious soldiers, so as to inspire people, boost morale, and make the soldiers dare to fight.

This kind of reward method is very radical, but it can win the support of the soldiers. On the one hand, they can get military pay, and on the other hand, they can also get looted property, which increases the motivation for fighting.

So a very tragic post-war looting began.

For ten days, the powerful people in Kuaiji County and Danyang County were in bad luck.

Those who took the initiative to join the rebels naturally had nothing to say, but those powerful people who had never joined the rebels were also robbed by Cao's army. They tried to resist, but Cao's soldiers rushed into the manor with red eyes and robbed them. They lost both their lives and property, and nothing. Can be saved.

Several relatively wealthy counties were also looted by Cao's army. Cao Cao did not stop them and was unable to stop them. This was what he had promised.

For Cao Cao, this is the safest method now. Only by doing this can we fight against Liu Jian.

But Cao Cao still had some scruples after all.

Xia Houyuan, Cao Ren and other men also tried to rob the gentry's home and almost succeeded. If Cao Cao hadn't stopped it in time, the famous gentry in Kuaiji County would also have been robbed.

The nobles still received preferential treatment. The powerful were robbed actively and by force, while the nobles were blackmailed.

The nobles needed to hand over their weapons, pay heavy taxes, and even hand over their legitimate daughters to marry important core figures of Cao Cao's regime in exchange for peace. This was Cao Cao's way of coping.

Let’s see who among you still wants to surrender to Liu Jian at this time!

I want all of you to be stained, I want all of you to be relatives of my Cao family, I don’t see how you can still seek refuge with Liu Jian!

For this reason, Cao Cao himself also took in two concubines, both of whom were women from the fourth family of Wu.

Cao Ren, Xia Houyuan, Cao Chun and other Cao clans successively married each other.

It felt good to let myself go, but in the dead of night, when Cao Cao looked through the war records recorded by his subordinates, he still felt deeply uneasy in his heart.

In this way, Cao Cao is really a conqueror through and through. He can only survive by staying strong and maintaining military deterrence. Once he encounters military instability, his operations in Jiangdong will be completely uprooted.

It is necessary to maintain the military strength of Cao's army in Jiangdong.

However, the northern army is eyeing Jiangbei and may launch a surprise attack on Jiangdong at any time. When the time comes, can Cao's army really resist them?
Did Cao's army, which had just experienced a victory in the counter-rebellion war, really have enough courage to resist the Han army's attack?

Cao Cao was not sure, but the war had to continue.

For Cao Cao, this was already a life and death battle.

The rebellion was put down, which was certainly a good thing for Cao Cao, but there was not much joy on the faces of the generals and counselors of the Cao army.

Cao Cao looked at everyone and said:
"Gentlemen, although the morale of the three armies is still high, it is not the time to be happy. After suppressing the Shanyue rebellion, there are still external enemies around. Liu Bei and Guan Yu stationed troops in Jianghuai, eyeing Jiangdong, and are ready to cross the river at any time."

Gu Yong's face suddenly changed.

"Mr. Cao, the Northern Army is powerful and cannot be underestimated."

Cao Cao said: "There is nothing more worrying than that. Their army is better at field battles than water battles. Our army only needs to use its boat divisions to guard the dangerous places on the river to prevent the Northern Army from advancing to the east of the Yangtze River."

And at this time, news came from the spies that Yuan Shao sent Ji Ling to intercept and kill Liu Jian, but the success fell short. Ji Ling died in the battle, losing all his vigor.

In this regard, Cao Cao was extremely helpless.

"Short-sighted! Who gave the advice and Yuan Benchu ​​actually adopted it?"

"Who is Liu Jian? How can we not guard against a sneak attack?"

"Absolutely ridiculous!"

"You can quickly send someone to see Benchu ​​and tell him that the top priority is not to defend Jiangling. You must use the Han River as a barrier and use warships to stop the Northern Army. Only by using both water warfare and city defense can you have a chance of victory!"

"Never sacrifice your strengths!"

"Here!"

After the envoy was sent out, Cao Cao was still meditating.

Although I heard that Liu Jian has been training his soldiers' water combat capabilities for a long time and is constantly building warships, but how to train, can he really conquer the navy in the south?
Cao Cao ordered Zhou Yu to deploy troops and horses at various important naval camps along the river, increase weapons, and strengthen security.

Zhou Yu also planned to rely on the Yangtze River defense line to fight a life-or-death battle with the enemy, so that the Northern Army could fully appreciate the Southern Army's superiority in the navy.

I was careless in Jianghuai before and didn't know the advantages of the Northern Army's soldiers, horses and equipment, but this time it was different.

Zhou Yu was prepared in advance. He would never take the initiative and would only defend. Did he want to see how the Northern Army would attack him and use a ship to attack in a way they were not good at?

In that case, Zhou Yu would be more confident.

This time, Cao Jun prepared many fast-moving boats. The fast maneuvers of these boats were enough to render the Northern Army's trebuchets useless.

That thing needs to be aimed and fired, and the gap between each two shots is very long. This is the weakness of the trebuchet.

Cao Cao and Zhou Yu were very observant. In response to possible trebuchet attacks, they used small warships that could maneuver at high speeds. They designed a large number of high-speed maneuvering small warships tactics, intending to make the Northern Army at a loss what to do.

All generals were transferred to the northern front.

Cao Cao appointed himself the commander-in-chief, and Zhou Yu was his guardian.

The clan generals Xia Houyuan and Cao Ren were his right-hand men.

Cao Hong is the front camp of the navy.

Generals Yue Jin, Xu Chu, and Dian Wei fought on the front line.

Yu Jin, Dong Xi, and Cao Chun patrolled along the river.

It can be said that this is the essence of Cao's army, which was all concentrated on the bank of the Yangtze River by Cao Cao.

In addition, 50,000 troops have been gathered, which is the force that Jiangdong is currently concentrating on reserve.

It can be said that it is all Cao Cao's vitality.

However, as a large number of troops began to move towards the Yangtze River, the defense of inland ports was relatively weak.

At this moment, Taishi Ci set out from the port in the East China Sea.

(End of this chapter)