Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 971 Solving hidden dangers
When Yuan Xi's fleet arrived in Shouchun, news of Jiangdong's dispatch of troops came. He immediately disembarked and took Zhuge Liang to his official residence in the city to meet with Guo Jia and Lu Xun, who was handling urgent military affairs, to discuss the next step.

He received detailed information from Lu Xun, saying that Jiangdong's army set out from Wu County to attack Jiangxia. A steady stream of fleets stretched for hundreds of miles, and the leading troops had passed through Wancheng.

In other words, if Yuan Xi broke up with Jiangdong at this time and immediately sent troops southward, if he moved quickly, he could cut off Jiangdong's fleet and make his plot to Jingzhou fail.

In fact, from Yuan Xi's perspective, it is difficult to understand Jiangdong's intention of sending troops at this time. After all, Sun Quan's brain circuit is not understandable by normal people. Why did he swagger through the entrance of Anhui without fear of Yuan Xi falling out? Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun also gave Several explanations were given.

First, Jiangdong was extremely eager for Jingzhou. Sun Quan wanted to make a desperate bet and take Jiangxia first, and he couldn't care about the rest.

Second, Sun Quan used this to lure Yuan Xi into action, so that he could break up with Yuan Xi openly and justly, and then completely fall to Cao Cao.

Of course, both of these speculations may be true. In any case, Huang Zu's situation was already in danger, and Liu Biao and Huang Zu sent urgent letters to Shouchun at the same time asking for help.

It was normal for Liu Biao to ask for help, but the urgent letter from Huang Zu was a bit puzzling. After all, Huang Zu's immediate superior was Liu Biao. What did he mean by asking Yuan Xi for help directly?
Huang Zu's letter for help was also mixed with this other letter, which solved everyone's questions, because this was actually written by Huang Chengyan to Zhuge Liang.

Considering that Zhuge Liang was still in Qingzhou when this letter was sent, and Huang Chengyan did not have the ability to predict the future, it was a coincidence that this letter was delivered to Zhuge Liang early.

Zhuge Liang remained silent after reading the letter. After a long time, he spoke out: "The situation in Jingzhou is worse than I imagined."

"And Mr. Shui Jing has joined Cao Cao."

Lu Xun next to him was startled, "Mr. Shui Jing, Sima Decao?"

"I heard that this man is proficient in astronomy and has extensive knowledge. He is a very famous hermit in Jingzhou?"

Zhuge Liang sighed: "Not only that, Yuan Zhi Shi Yuan and I have both consulted him for knowledge, and can barely be regarded as half of his disciples."

Lu Xun was speechless. Zhuge Liang was so powerful as a disciple. How difficult should Mr. Shui Jing be to deal with him?

But Yuan Xi was even more surprised, "It's enough for Xu Shu to serve under Duke Xuande. Could it be that Pang Tong also joined Cao Cao?"

Zhuge Liang was a little surprised, "My lord also knows about Pang Shiyuan?"

"The letter said that Shi Yuan had lived in seclusion in Lumen Mountain with Pang Degong, and Xuande Gong personally visited him and asked him to come out of the mountain. Now he has become a military advisor."

After Yuan Xi heard that Pang Tong had defected to Liu Bei, he was relieved and said with a smile: "It's not just that he defected to Cao Cao, otherwise Cao Cao would be too difficult to deal with."

"But why Mr. Shui Jing would vote for Cao Cao is something I can't figure out."

"Didn't Jingzhou suffer greatly from Cao Cao?"

Guo Jia leisurely said: "In my opinion, this is not difficult to guess."

"Sima Hui is originally from Yingchuan. The Yingchuan scholars have completely turned to Cao Cao and are becoming more and more prosperous. The Yingchuan scholars in other forces have more or less begun to think about it."

Everyone knows that Guo Jia is laughing at himself, because Guo Jia is from Yingchuan, but he doesn't pay much attention to family relationships.

Guo Jia continued: "Moreover, the Yingchuan Sima clan is related to the Hanoi Sima clan. Hanoi Sima Fang is the leader of Cao Cao, so in my opinion, it is natural for Sima Hui to seek refuge with Cao Cao."

Yuan Xi was shocked again, "Sima Sima in Hanoi also defected to Cao Cao, including Sima Fang's eight sons?"

Lu Xun spoke up: "Master, are you talking about Sima Bada?"

"My subordinate prosecutor's office reported this matter, and it is true that they have all become officials under Cao Cao."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said to everyone: "Ignoring others, you must beware of that man named Sima Yi in the future."

"If you encounter him, you must not hold back and use all your strength to destroy him."

Everyone didn't know why, but they still nodded in agreement.

Yuan Xi said: "I can't care about Cao Cao's affairs for the time being. Xuande has Pang Tong and Xu Shu to help him, and with Liu Jingsheng as his back, Xiangyang should not be lost for a while."

"But if Jiangdong takes Jiangxia, goes up the river, and attacks Xiangyang from the south, Duke Xuande will be in danger."

"So what I want to do now is to destroy Jiangdong's offensive against Jiangxia."

His face immediately turned cold, "Jiangdong is so blatantly attacking, are you sure that I won't take action first?"

Lu Xun said aloud: "I have some news here."

"Jiang Dong sent a letter before, saying that the dispute with the lord was all a misunderstanding, so he sent Lu Su to explain, and at the same time he was willing to join forces with the lord to divide Jingzhou equally." Guo Jia sneered: "It's a good idea to treat us as fools. It is obvious that he wants to delay time. If we had negotiated with him, he would have defeated Huang Zu and occupied Jingzhou! "

Yuan Xi nodded and said: "Yes, he has occupied Jiangxia. Will he join forces with me to attack Liu Xuande then?"

"They saw that I was weaker than Cao Cao and felt that I still needed to rely on them, but I refused to let him get his wish!"

Everyone couldn't help but smile when they heard Yuan Xi's words with a hint of anger. They naturally knew that falling out with Jiang Dong at this time was naturally irrational, but if Jiang Dong got his wish, there would be more trouble in the future.

Moreover, Jiang Dong really thought too well. He probably felt that Yuan Xi's continuous wars in the past two years had emptied his family fortune, and he would not dare to risk being attacked by Cao Cao and fall out with Jiang Dong.

Another reason why Jiangdong felt confident was that even though Yuan Xi could mobilize a considerable number of soldiers, he was far behind Jiangdong in terms of generals.

Because if he wants to go to war with Jiangdong, he will inevitably compete with the navy on the Yangtze River. Apart from the injured Taishi Ci, Yuan Xi seems to have no more navy generals who can fight against Jiangdong.

Jiangdong is also aware of this, and may even be ready to abandon the city on the north bank of the Yangtze River. At worst, it will compete with Yuan Xi's navy. Jiangdong's supply troops are dominant on both sides of the Yangtze River, so it is a sure profit.

In the last battle of Chaohu, Yuan Xi's army was able to win because it almost completely gave up the navy duel and relied purely on foot and cavalry, which caused Jiangdong's army to suffer a heavy loss. Jiangdong has now come to his senses. Since he can't win on foot, he won't win. After fighting, abandon the north bank of the Yangtze River and wait for Yuan Xi's army to enter the Yangtze River before fighting.

Lu Xun and others also knew their own shortcomings and knew that Yuan Xi's decision was unwise, but for some reason, they had some inexplicable trust in Yuan Xi. This was the confidence brought by Yuan Xi's army's dozens of victories in recent years.

But having said that, Lu Xun still said: "If you want to attack Jiangdong Army and assist Xiakou, water battles are unavoidable."

"But the water warfare generals on our side are relatively short of resources."

"And the Youzhou soldiers and Jizhou soldiers brought by my lord this time are not skilled in water warfare, right?"

Yuan Xi nodded and said: "That's right. If we let them board the boat to fight in the water, I'm afraid it will kill them. They want to be delivered to the enemy's territory to fight on the premise that we control the waterway."

"When the military advisor and I came here, we thought of some strategies, but they were not perfect yet. Let's brainstorm and see if there are any flaws."

He waved to Zhuge Liang, who understood and explained the next strategy to Guo Jia and Lu Xun.

After he stated all the dozen possibilities as briefly as possible, Guo Jia and Lu Xun fell into deep thought. This was no longer a simple one or two strategies, but a huge deduction composed of a series of strategies!

Of course, the development of the situation may not necessarily follow this deduction, so Zhuge Liang also made corresponding countermeasures for every disagreement that emerged. The ultimate goal is to prevent Jingzhou from falling into the hands of Cao Cao and Jiangdong. At the very least, Jiangdong cannot be allowed to occupy Jingzhou.

Yuan Xi did not specifically explain to everyone why the highest priority target of this strategy was to target Jiangdong, but in his words, he had already set the premise of limited dealing with Jiangdong.

Only he knew that the Jiangdong that was occupied by Jingzhou in later generations was actually more troublesome than Shu, dragging the Three Kingdoms into a protracted war. Although Shu blocked most of Wei's frontal offensives, and Wu's threat was not as great as Shu's, but If it were allowed to occupy Jingzhou, there really would be no other good solution except attacking from the upper reaches of the Han River in Yizhou.

In that case, it's better to cut off this possibility now.

Yuan Xi said flatly: "Jiangdong thinks that all my generals are in Shouchun, so they are confident. It is not enough for me to deal with it before. Fighting with generals on foot is enough."

"But the lack of navy generals is a problem that we have to face. I have some thoughts on this."

He spoke briefly, and finally said: "Now I will send people to negotiate terms of exchange with Huang Zu. If he can agree, we will have naval officers and generals to help us for the time being."

Guo Jia and Lu Xun heard this and knew that Yuan Xi knew what he was doing and was determined.

Yuan Xi said: "As for the navy, General Taishi is still the main general, and Boyan is responsible for supervising the army from the rear."

"As for the land, I will leave it to Kong Ming and Mr. Fengxiao to look for any omissions."

Everyone accepted the order, and Yuan Xi added: "Bo Yan's water battle strategy is no less than that of the Jiangdong generals, but he is not a military general after all. It would be bad if he encounters him fighting to the death. I hope Boyan will save his life and not rush forward."

Lu Xun quickly agreed, and suddenly remembered something, so he said: "General Wenyuan of Heishan, after getting married at the order of the lord, wrote a letter to the lord. At that time, the lord had already left Youzhou, and the letter was sent to Shouchun. Please take a look at it."

Yuan Xi took the bamboo slip handed over by Lu Xun, and while tearing off the paint, he smiled at everyone: "Wen Yuan is finally married, and it is not in vain for me to be a matchmaker."

He took a brief look at the letter and found that the letter was very simple. The front part was Zhang Liao's words of thanks, and the back part was that it was not convenient for his wife Yang to live in Heishan, and he wanted her to go to Jicheng, hoping that Yuan Xi would agree.

At a glance, it seems that Zhang Liao was worried that his wife would suffer in Montenegro, so he sent his wife to Jicheng where conditions were better, but of course Yuan Xi knew that this was not true.

This involves an unwritten tacit understanding among the generals and officials of the princes, that is, where is the most suitable place to place the family members.

(End of this chapter)