Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 976 Jiangxia Collapse
Cao Ying's counselors discussed for a long time and finally came up with a satisfactory solution.

Divide the troops into two groups, one to contain Liu Bei and the other to support Yuzhou. After repelling Yuan Xi's army, they will then outflank Liu Bei depending on the battle situation and coordinate with Jiangdong to capture Jiangxia.

If this strategy succeeds, it will be able to block Yuan Xi's army's westward advance route and isolate it from Liu Bei. By then, Fancheng and Xiangyang, where Liu Bei is located, will be isolated and helpless. As long as Cao Cao's army and Jiangdong can block Yuan Xi's army for a month, they will surely Can attack from both sides and defeat Liu Bei!
Xun You went to see Cao Cao with everyone's ideas and explained the details. Cao Cao rubbed his forehead and said, "Okay, you will take charge of this matter."

"If there are any changes, come to me at any time. When my headache gets better in the next few days, I will be able to mobilize the troops myself."

Xun You advised him to pay attention to his health and then retreated. Cao Cao waited for him to leave and then collapsed on the couch. The pain from his head hit him hard like a tide. Cao Cao pressed his temples hard, feeling that his whole head was about to burst. Come.

He couldn't help but wanted to scream, but in the end he bit the corner of the quilt to suppress the sound. Finally he couldn't help it anymore, so he poured a bowl of wine into his mouth with trembling hands because his hands were too trembling. , most of the wine was spilled on his clothes.

The wine seemed to have had its effect. After a long time, the pain from the series of shocks gradually eased. Cao Cao was sweating profusely, as if he was exhausted.

Recently, Cao Cao's headaches have become more frequent and more severe. As a result, he has very poor sleep, and poor rest makes the headaches more severe, forming a vicious cycle.

Cao Cao found many doctors, but in the end no one could tell the reason. When Cao Cao was in unbearable pain, he could only use fine wine and candied fruit to temporarily relieve it, but it could only last for a while.

If Yuan Xi understands Cao Cao's situation, he can judge that this is probably a headache complication caused by diabetes. In this case, alcohol and sweets should be avoided. However, doctors of this era did not have such experience, so Cao Cao's situation is... It gets worse every day.

Cao Cao stood up slowly. At this time, his mind gradually cleared up and he was slowly able to think normally. He thought about Xun You's previous suggestions. The idea was indeed quite satisfactory, and it was far from satisfactory to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao remembered that Jiangdong had sent a secret message earlier, saying that there was someone around Liu Bei who could be exploited. He had asked Cheng Yu to send spies to verify it, and it was confirmed that this was indeed the case. A high-status official around Liu Bei could be tapped. !
Cao Cao has handed over the specific operation to Cheng Yu, asking him to cooperate with Jiangdong. If successful, not to mention Xiangyang, at least Fancheng will be able to take it!

Cao Cao didn't care about Jiangxia or even Yuzhou. He was eager for Yuan Xi's army to invest heavily there. He was now focused on Liu Bei from beginning to end. As long as he got rid of Liu Bei, his biggest enemy, and captured Jingzhou, he would have the potential to conquer the world!
The only thing that makes Cao Cao regretful is that Cheng Yu's health is deteriorating. Otherwise, he can find out more about Fancheng's situation in more detail, but now Cao Cao can't care anymore. He wants to capture Fancheng as quickly as possible!

The next day, Cao Cao appeared in front of everyone. To everyone's surprise, Cao Cao actually adjusted the direction of sending troops!

It is true that two groups of soldiers and horses went all the way to support Yuzhou, but the group that attacked Fancheng was sent by Cao Cao to attack Shouchun. This Yuan Xi's army went to its base camp in Jianghuai!

Although everyone was full of suspicion, they accepted the decision. They guessed that Cao Cao felt that Fancheng could not be defeated for the time being, so he wanted to shorten the route of the Fierce Tiger Army's troops, and then come back to deal with Liu Bei after the siege of Yuzhou was resolved.

Soon, intensive small-scale battles broke out on the north and south banks of the upper reaches of the Huai River. Both sides mainly used cavalry to harass the enemy, and the situation fell into a stalemate.

At this time, Jiangdong also took action. Sun Quan didn't care at all that Lu Su was still negotiating in Shouchun, and once again sent tens of thousands of troops to reinforce Jiangxia, hoping to achieve success in one fell swoop.

When they passed the Yangtze River, many of them were close to Yuan Xi's territory, but they had no taboo at all. Instead, they passed by with their sails swaggering, as if they were provoking Yuan Xi's army, and they were sure that the other party would not dare to attack them.

The leader of the reinforcements this time was Cheng Pu. When he saw that Yuan Xi's army was motionless across the river bank, he couldn't help but smile to Huang Gai beside him: "The name is fierce tiger, but in reality he is as timid as a mouse. It seems I still think highly of him. "

Huang Gai said in a deep voice: "The ferocious tiger is cunning, be careful of deceit."

"When I followed Wu Hou, I never saw such a formidable opponent. It's a pity that Wu Hou passed away early. I wish I could defeat the fierce tiger. I will take his head in the future to pay homage to Wu Hou's spirit in heaven!"

"But before that, let's use Huang Zu's head to pay homage to Ling Cao who died in the battle!"

Cheng Pu heard this and said with a smile: "Gongfu's temper is still so hot."

Huang Gai was a veteran general in Sun Jian's era and served as a commander in another department. He repeatedly made military exploits in the battles to pacify the three counties of Changsha and defeat Dong Zhuo. After Sun Jian's death, "Gai followed the strategy and took power, wielded his armor, went around, and slaughtered the city with swords." Among the Jiangdong generals, Huang Gai was the most ruthless. Whenever there was a rebellion in Shanyue, Huang Gai personally put down the rebellion, and he would kill hundreds of people in every battle.

By sending Huang Gai this time, it was clear that Sun Quan was no longer prepared to hold back, and wanted to defeat Huang Zu with the fastest and most ruthless means and completely occupy Jiangxia.

This was only on the surface. Jiangdong actually sent another infantry army, taking the land route of Yuzhang County, led by Sun Ben, Zhou Tai and others.

Han Dang and Lu Meng, who was attacking Huang Zu now, only waited for the two supporting armies to converge, then completely captured Jiangxia, followed the trend and went north, cooperating with Cao Cao to attack Xiangyang with thunderous momentum, and fully captured Nanyang and Nanjun.

This is not all of Sun Quan's methods. He has another plan behind him, which is aimed at Shouchun. As long as he releases it at that time, he may be able to comprehensively defeat Yuan Xi and occupy Jianghuai.

Counting these armies together, Sun Quan has mobilized more than 100,000 troops this time. It is the largest battle in Jiangdong so far. Jiangdong has been preparing for this since the failure of the last battle of Chaohu. It's time for revenge!

This was the plan discussed by Sun Quan and Cao Cao. Sun Quan never thought about negotiating with Yuan Xi sincerely from the beginning, because Jiangdong had already calculated that after Yuan Xi's battle with Bingzhou, most of his soldiers were recuperating and could not invest enough. force to stop such a large-scale offensive from Jiangdong!
Of course, Jiangdong's counselors believe that Yuan Xi will urgently mobilize troops, but it will take at least several months to mobilize tens of thousands of troops. By then Jiangdong has already occupied Jiangxia and is approaching Shouchun, and Yuan Xi will have to abandon Jianghuai and escape! Soon, a fierce battle broke out in Jiangxia. Under the desperate offensive of Jiangdong's army, Huang Zu finally lost Sha Xian, and his troops were scattered and fled into the mountains.

Although Xu Huang tried his best to save him, his thousands of cavalry were of little use in front of the Jiangdong Army, which was several times his size. He had to take some of the defeated remnants of Huang Zu's army who had escaped, and fought and retreated all the way back to Shouchun. Come and apologize to Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi met with Xu Huang and after learning the causes and consequences of the war, he sighed: "Jiangdong took the lead. I didn't expect him to invest so many people regardless of the cost. Sun Quan's courage this time is really not small."

Xu Huang wanted to apologize, but Yuan Xi waved his hand and said, "It's not your fault, it's my fault. I didn't expect Jiangxia to fall so quickly."

Yuan Xi indeed miscalculated, but the miscalculation was from Huang Zu's side. He got the news that there was Jiangdong Neiying in Shaxian City, and Neiying Waihe opened the city gate, otherwise Huang Zu would not have been defeated so quickly.

He said to Xu Huang: "Zhuge Military Advisor has already rushed back. You should go back and have a good rest. The Military Advisor and I will meet the next day to discuss countermeasures before we deal with it."

Xu Huang agreed and asked: "How should Huang Zu's generals be placed?"

Yuan Xi said: "Look for a few houses." He immediately responded, "Is there a list? Let me take a look."

Xu Huang hurriedly presented the roster. Yuan Xi glanced at it and saw a name that he wanted to see among the dozen names.

He felt happy. Now this man was in an awkward situation. If Huang Zu was defeated, it seemed that he was the only one who could take him in. This was a good opportunity.

He immediately ordered someone to summon this person to the hall. After a while, he saw an extremely tall and powerful young general striding up the hall.

Yuan Xi stood up and said, "Are you Gan Ning Gan Xing Ba?"

That general was none other than Gan Ning. He said uneasily, "I've just met the envoy."

There is a reason for his awkward behavior, because he is now not being used in any important role under Huang Zu. Even though he shot Ling Cao before, he was not promoted, so he has long thought of leaving, and he has also considered who to defect to.

If he left Jiangxia, he actually had no choice. He could either go to Yizhou in the west to join Liu Zhang, or go to the east to join Yuan Xi. Other forces were too far away.

But Gan Ning had been ordered by Liu Biao to attack Liu Zhang. Naturally, the first option was not easy to use, but he also had concerns about defecting to Yuan Xi.

Because he had found out that the territory under Yuan Xi's rule had strict laws and regulations. The newly worshiped military advisor Zhuge Liang even enforced law in Qingzhou and severely punished rangers and lawless nobles. Gan Ning made a living by looting when he was young and was called a Jinfan thief. He was also not sure whether Yuan Xi hated himself extremely.

Yuan Xi looked at Gan Ning's expression and said with a smile: "I heard that Xingba shot and killed Jiangdong general Ling Cao the day before yesterday and defeated the Jiangdong army. He lived up to his reputation for bravery."

Gan Ning quickly replied: "It's just a fluke that I received the compliment from you."

Yuan Xi changed the topic, "Xi also heard that Xingba was a young man who was a knight, but then his personality suddenly changed drastically and he was familiar with hundreds of schools of thought. Is this possible?"

Gan Ning's expression changed, and he quickly replied, "It is true."

"Ning Ning was absurd when he was young. Later, he suddenly realized something and started to read a lot of books. Only then did he gradually realize that his previous path was wrong."

"So Ning changed his past and vowed to do something for the world. But the past mistakes have been made. Now every time I think about it, I regret it. I am really ashamed."

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "A prodigal son will never be replaced by gold. I admire Xingba very much."

"No one is a saint. No one in this world has done anything wrong. But if you know your mistakes and can correct them, that is a great good thing."

"I heard that Xingba is both civil and military. I admire Xingba's strategic decision-making more than his military force."

"I still have the position of commander of the navy here. If Xingba doesn't give up, can you come and help me? I will appoint him as the Zuo Commander. If Xingba is dissatisfied with me in the future, he can leave at any time. "

Gan Ning was overjoyed and bowed down without hesitation: "I would rather follow my lord and do my best!"

(End of this chapter)