Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 852 Everyone takes their own path

In the letter, Cao Cao said that he had learned that Yuan Tan's army was flooded under the city of Ye. He said that the purpose of digging rivers to flood the city was to deal with Yuan Shang. Cao Cao did not know about Yuan Tan's affairs under the city. Then he asked Yuan Tan why he did not inform him. Cao Cao rushed to Yecheng, causing accidental injuries?

The letter also said that the two sides were allies and should communicate openly and honestly about the attack on Jizhou. Yuan Tan must bear full responsibility for this situation.

But now that the enemy is facing the enemy, Cao Cao will not pursue the matter, but Yuan Tan no longer has the ability to control the situation. In order to ensure the capture of Jizhou, Yuan Tan's soldiers and horses now need to listen to Cao Cao's dispatch in order to capture Jizhou together.

Of course, even though Cao Cao slapped him, he did not forget to give him a sweet date, saying that as long as the two brothers Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang were killed this time, Cao Cao would immediately declare Yuan Tan as the shepherd of Jizhou, the Marquis of Ye, and the commander-in-chief of the military affairs of Jizhou and Bingzhou.

After reading this letter, everyone present looked very excited. In fact, most people did not believe even half of the nonsense in it, but some people could not help but believe it, or some people chose to believe it.

Guo Tu said: "It seems that this is a good way."

"When two tigers fight, one of them will be injured. What's more, there is a fierce tiger. It will definitely help Yuan Shang. It is difficult for us to fight against it alone. Therefore, taking refuge in Cao Cao and receiving his protection at this time is the best choice at the moment. "

Xin Ping spoke up: "I'm afraid that after I surrender to you, I won't be able to mobilize my troops and generals on my own."

"And there is no mention of Qingzhou in this letter. This is a tacit admission that no matter what, we will lose Qingzhou in the end, right?"

Guo Tu said disapprovingly: "It's just Qingzhou, and one county in Jizhou is worth several Qingzhous!"

"And if we don't vote for Cao Cao, is it possible that we will vote for Yuan Shang, or even the fierce tiger?"

Xin Ping said: "But what Cao Cao meant in this letter is that he wants us to be the vanguard to fight against the two Yuans. I'm afraid that after the war, even if we can help Cao Cao defeat the two Yuans, we won't have many soldiers left at all!"

He made it very clear that no one can trust Cao Cao, otherwise he doesn't know how he will be tricked to death in the future!

Yuan Tan saw that everyone was in agreement, and even Guo Tu didn't object, so he nodded and said: "Okay!"

Yuan Xi was already more than a hundred miles away from Yuan Tan. After he got Yuan Tan's letter, he said to Zhuge Liang: "He has a good plan, as long as Cao Cao won't let him get his way, right?"

"We then retreated to the vicinity of Julu, and at the same time wrote letters to Cao Cao and Xiu Hu to make peace with each other, so we can deal with this period first!"

"On the one hand, this place is close to Yecheng City in Qingzhou. No matter what happens, we can deal with it immediately, and we can pretend to be in Cao Cao's name in the name of blocking the fierce tiger."

Yuan Tan sighed: "But in this case, it's better for me not to agree to him. After all, I made him anxious. Let him turn around and deal with me, which will give Cao Cao an advantage."

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said, "How about we go north first."

"But if there is a truce with him, and he is on my marching route, I will definitely go around it. What if he suddenly turns against me?"

"This flooding is evidence that he has turned against him and has no regard for morality. How can we trust him so easily?"

"Yuan Shang is already dead. Sooner or later, Yecheng will be vacant after his death. It will not be too late to make a choice then."

"As long as we retain our territory and defend our important cities, no one can easily eat us."

Yuan Xi's eyes flashed, "The military advisor wants me to occupy Jizhou's territory at this time?"

"In this case, we can't defend Yecheng even if we are given it, let alone whether Cao Cao will regret it?"

Xin Ping said without hesitation: "Qinghe is a good choice."

"If we can't stop it, just let the ferocious tiger pass. Cao Cao can't do anything to us."

Yuan Tan was slightly moved, "Sir, where do you think it would be better to occupy?"

Zhuge Liang nodded and said: "In this case, if you don't stand in line, you are the enemy. If the lord can let him go, Cao Cao will not let him go."

After hearing this, Guo Tu sneered: "Then what do you think we should do now?"

"In this way, we can bypass the right and wrong land of Qinghe Country and at the same time open up the passage from Anping County to Hejian County and all the way to Yijing."

"What we have to do now is to gather the remaining soldiers as soon as possible, retreat into the big city to defend, and avoid being eaten by other forces."

Xin Ping said solemnly: "Even if you don't take refuge in Yuan Xi, you should wait and see what happens."

"Won't this lead to criticism?"

Zhuge Liang said: "It is not to occupy territory, but in the name of helping Yuan Shang, to prevent Yuan Tan from occupying Jizhou and turning against us."

"Now, its road to the north has been cut off by us, so it can only plot the Qinghe Julu and Weijun areas. These are places that Cao Cao must win. Sooner or later, the two sides will conflict."

"Yuan Tan is capricious and will not be willing to be subordinate to others. Cao Cao has also lost trust in him. Within a few months, the two sides will inevitably have a dispute."

Yuan Xi's eyes flashed, "The military advisor is saying that during the autumn harvest, when there is a shortage of food?" Zhuge Liang nodded heavily, "Yes, maybe both sides will be unable to hold on before then, and there will definitely be a good show by then."

Yuan Xi sighed: "The siege of Yecheng"

Zhuge Liang replied: "We can't rush this. Let's wait until we get through Anping County and then find a way to go south."

In the following days, as Zhuge Liang expected, Yuan Xi and Cao Cao also reached a tacit reconciliation, and Yuan Xi also took the opportunity to open up the roads between Zhuojun, Hejian, and Anping counties.

In fact, another reason why he did not take the opportunity to occupy the counties in Jizhou was that he did not have enough people at hand.

Because Yuan Tan completely gave up on Qingzhou, Yuan Xi sent his men to take over the cities in Qingzhou, and they looked for the wind wherever they went. This was reasonable, because most of the cities had no food.

But this is also the biggest problem Yuan Xi faces. His food does not come just as soon as he says it.

With the size of Youzhou and Xuzhou, it is still possible to supply two or three counties with excess grain, but for the newly captured Langya plus the entire territory of Qingzhou, it seems to be a drop in the bucket.

Moreover, Qingzhou has a vast territory, a large population, and chaotic management. If Yuan Xi wants to completely take it into his hands, he will need a large number of officials and soldiers to maintain local order and restore production. Even if Yuan Xi transfers people from other states, firstly, it will take time; secondly, It is not easy to find the right talents.

This is also the reason why during times of war, it was very difficult for many small princes to make big gains with small gains. The territory is there and the population is there. It doesn’t mean that you can sit back and relax after acquiring the territory. You also have to bring it into management and let it be managed. Just get on the right track.

Otherwise, if disasters occur frequently, the people do not have enough to eat, the government is unfair, and the people do not win the support of the people, it will not take long for rebellion to break out again.

Therefore, what Yuan Xi urgently needs now is to at least keep most people in Qingzhou alive in order to gain their support.

This included ordinary people and aristocratic families, and Yuan Xi had to strike a balance between the two. While giving certain benefits to the landlords and wealthy families to prevent them from rebelling, Yuan Xi also guaranteed the interests of the people at the minimum.

The first thing is to let the people have enough to eat.

During this period, the generals under Yuan Xi's command went out with their soldiers to hunt and fish, cut firewood and build houses, ensuring food and housing for the people under their rule, and at the same time dispatching craftsmen to create tools for the people to make a living.

Although these things were laborious and laborious, the results were immediate. Qingzhou, which had been brought to the verge of collapse by Yuan Tan and the war, gradually began to get back on track.

The Taiping Dao alchemists under Yang Feng were also doing similar things. First, they used the herbal knowledge of Taiping Dao to treat diseases and save people. Second, they organized people to help each other. Third, they took the opportunity to promote Yuan Xi's achievements.

The two-pronged approach has gradually stabilized people's hearts in Qingzhou. Although there are still cases of freezing and hunger, it is at least much better than when Yuan Tan was here.

During this period, Yuan Tan, who was stationed in Qinghe County, gathered the remnant soldiers and the plundered people, and now had 20,000 troops. He plundered the rich Jizhou and recovered some of his strength. Of course he had Qingzhou. He was not very determined to give up, but after several attempts, he was blocked by General Yuan Xijun at the border of Pingyuan, so he gave up the idea for the time being.

Yuan Xi knew that Yuan Tan was still fishing until he was still unrepentant, and it was already hopeless. When the water flooded, he felt sympathy, but now it seems that the flood is less. If Yuan Tan doesn't have enough troops, Damage, I don’t know what will happen to him.

Cao Cao himself also gave up attacking Qingzhou and Xuzhou, returned to Yanzhou, and redeployed troops to besiege Yecheng.

It is said that it is a siege, but it is actually waiting for when Yecheng can no longer bear it and Kaicheng surrenders. After all, the Zhanghe River is overflowing and the gates of Yecheng are submerged. A large amount of water has seeped into the city. The low-lying areas are more than ten feet deep, and most of them are Yecheng was soaked in water.

Under this situation, people in Yecheng are panicked and their morale is low. Shenpei and others are also struggling every day. Now they can only hope that after autumn, the water level of the Zhanghe River drops, and things will turn around. At this time, there is a huge flood around, and it is impossible to enter. Whether you can come or not, whoever comes will be helpless.

Therefore, the reason why the water attack was a desperate plan was because there was no way out. If Yuan Shang had not sent many old and young people out of the city in advance, Yecheng might have started to run out of food at this time.

But even with food, Yecheng was in a difficult situation because an extremely dangerous thing happened.

Disease.

The floods entered the city and completely polluted most of the water sources. Moreover, the water was extremely dirty, mixed with human and animal corpses and excrement, and was infested with mosquitoes. As long as there was an epidemic, it would spread on a large scale.

Yuan Xi had previously sent Yuan Shang the methods of preventing and treating epidemic diseases developed by Hua Tuo. Yuan Shang also asked the doctors in Jizhou to learn and try their best to prevent them. However, these methods were extremely difficult to implement in the case of flooding.

The first is the need for clean water, the second is to try not to drink raw water, and the third is to isolate patients. But now in Yecheng, there is not only sewage everywhere, but also firewood that has been soaked by floods. Most people are forced to eat raw food, and some That’s pretty good.

What's more serious is that as most of the houses were flooded, there was much less room to live. Yecheng was already densely populated. Although a group of people were sent away, there were still not many places left, and many sergeants were forced to be resettled. People, many people crowded together in one place to rest.

At this density, if someone gets sick, there is no place to isolate themselves.

As expected, a large-scale epidemic began in Yecheng.

In just a few days, the disease spread at an extremely terrifying speed.

(End of this chapter)