Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

After Cao Cao's words came out, Cao Hong was moved beyond words and kowtowed with sobs.

"I dare not talk about my merits, but I regret that I cannot protect Dongchaojin for the king."

Cao Cao looked at the extremely excited Cao Hong, but there was actually no emotion in his heart.

Should Cao Hong die?
Should!
The loss of Dongchaojin put Qingzhou's situation into an absolute passive position.

When Cao Cao heard the news, he wished he could chop Cao Hong to pieces on the spot.

But what Cao Cao knew better was that Cao Hong must not be killed.

The fall of Dongchaojin has caused signs of panic among the civil and military officials of Wei State.

Moreover, Cao Hong's status in the Wei State may not be as high as that of Cao Ren, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan and others, but his seniority is extremely long. If Cao Hong is really executed according to military law.

Although Cao Hong's death made military law stricter, it also made everyone in Wei understand how important Dongchaojin was, so much so that even Cao Hong would have lost his head if he had lost Dongchaojin.

On the contrary, the more lightly Cao Cao, who usually disciplined his army, covered up the matter and allowed Cao Hong to continue living, the more he could stabilize people's hearts.

At the time of the great war, stabilizing people's hearts was more important than anything else. Otherwise, once people's hearts were scattered, the Wei State would be unable to stop Li Ji's aggressive northern expedition.

Taking the overall situation into consideration, Cao Cao slowly stood up, went down the stairs, helped Cao Hong, who was still kneeling, up, then glanced at the civil and military officials present and spoke loudly.

"Dongchaojin is certainly important, but it is only a matter of a city or a place. Losing it is not good, but I am more pleased that Zilian is willing to fight to the death for the State of Wei."

"If everyone is like Zi Lian, what do the Five Tiger Generals have to fear? What does Li Zi Kun have to fear?"

When Cao Cao made these unique and domineering words, all the civil and military officials in the hall were impressed. This made Cao Hong, who was already loyal to Cao Cao, even more willing to die for Cao Cao on the spot.

Cao Cao sneered and spoke instead.

"Furthermore, the failure of Dongchaojin was not the fault of Zilian, but of me and you gentlemen."

When the civil and military officials heard this, they were mostly puzzled.

Cao Cao raised his finger and pointed to the south, saying.

"Who is Li Zikun? He first used a treacherous scheme to deceive me, and deceived the world with the so-called Shouchun Rebellion. He deliberately took advantage of my unpreparedness to launch the Northern Expedition. How could he not use some conspiracy and trickery?"

"But I and you were completely unaware of his arrangements. Could it be that you are not as good as Li Zikun?"

"No!"

Cao Cao continued speaking in a tone neither happy nor angry.

"I'm afraid you all underestimated Li Zikun. You think that Qingzhou has been operating for many years and has deployed more than 100,000 strong soldiers. No matter how many ingenious plans Li Zikun has, you can definitely stop him for a year or two, right?"

This undoubtedly reveals the thoughts of many people.

Cao Cao was nervous about Li Ji personally leading the army to the Northern Expedition. Most of the Cao and Xiahou families were also very nervous. However, the Wei ministers were not necessarily as nervous as they seemed.

The Northern Expedition will not be ended in one day, and Qingzhou cannot be lost in a short time.

After all, the Wei Kingdom had just been established, and many people missed the Han Dynasty and felt that they were Han people.

In particular, many people who came from Jizhou's aristocratic families felt that even if the Wei Kingdom was defeated, the biggest loss for the Jizhou families would be the loss of land and grain due to the "taxation per acre".

The civil and military officials who came from aristocratic families in Jizhou would often become representatives that the Han Dynasty was eager to win over in order to stabilize the local area.

After the Wei Kingdom was destroyed, they simply returned to the embrace of the Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao was well aware of this. He knew clearly that even at this moment when the war in Qingzhou had already broken out, many people were still singing and dancing in the mansion, reveling every night, and were not affected at all.

It is even possible that many of the ministers in this hall have been secretly colluding with Liu Dal'er.

Of course, Cao Cao knew that he couldn't expose the truth, so he could only hint at Li Ji by saying that the whole room of civil and military officials looked down on Li Ji and thought that Qingzhou was safe. The next moment, Cao Cao's voice became higher and he said.

"But where are the three dukes and nine ministers of the previous emperor now? Have they ever been in Liu Da'er's court?"

"In the court, only Li Zikun holds the power and arbitrarily tampers with the ancestral system. Today, there is the 'tax distribution based on the land', but don't you know that tomorrow there will be a law that prohibits the sons of noble families from becoming officials?"

"How can you underestimate a person who is so reckless and does not follow common sense? How can you underestimate him? Do you think he only knows how to attack head-on but has no tricks to cut off the source of the trouble?"

This question made many people look a little unhappy.

What Cao Cao talked about was not only military, but also far more than military. In the ears of more people, it was politics.

Everyone naturally understands the principle that a new emperor appoints his own ministers.

Among the three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty today, except for Liu Yu, Lu Zhi and Cai Yong, the rest are all from Liu Bei's original team.

To put it nicely, Li Ji holds all the power, but to put it bluntly, he has power over the government and the country.

What's more important is that Li Ji is young enough. He is only thirty years old. If he is a bit tougher, he might even outlive all the officials in the world.

Moreover, Li Ji's attitude towards the aristocratic families and powerful people over the years has not been friendly.

Of course, Cao Cao fully approved of Li Ji's policies, and all those reforms greatly enhanced Liu Bei's national strength.

If possible, Cao Cao would like to use Li Ji to govern Cao Wei for him.

But Cao Cao knew better that the people he was using now were many people from the aristocratic families in Jizhou. He had to make them understand that he, Cao Cao, could not surrender or be defeated, and they also could not surrender or be defeated.

Seeing this, Xi Zhicai, who already knew Cao Cao's intention, quickly spoke up to cooperate and said.

"Your Majesty is right. We must not underestimate Li Zikun. He is very ruthless and rarely seen in the world. He is definitely not a gentleman. We must be careful that after he succeeds in getting Dongchaojin, he will continue to plot viciously."

With such cooperation, all the civil and military scholars in the room can be said to have understood, and those who did not understand no longer need to understand.

However, people's hearts were just as Cao Cao had wished. Instead of dispersing, they were greatly united.

In the final analysis, the fall of Dongchaojin did put the situation in a very unfavorable direction for Cao Wei, but it did not mean that Qingzhou was completely lost.

There are still a large number of Cao's troops guarding Qingzhou, and Cao Ren is still in charge of Qingzhou.

Even if Li Ji led an army of 200,000 or 300,000 to attack, Cao Ren's defense of the camp step by step would be enough to delay the enemy for a considerable amount of time.

Especially as winter is approaching, there will inevitably be a truce for a period of time to avoid large numbers of non-combat casualties due to the severe cold.

As long as Cao Ren could buy enough time, relying on the gradually recovering support from the rear and taking advantage of the defenders' advantages, he might be able to defeat Li Ji's Northern Expedition Army.

Of course, this is the most ideal idea. Cao Cao was not confident that Cao Ren alone could absolutely safely defend Qingzhou, so he asked.

"Qingzhou is in trouble now. Do you have any good ideas to offer? It will also help to defeat Li Ji and bring him back."

……

at the same time.

Qingzhou is within the territory of Qi State.

Except for leaving a small number of troops in Zhuxu City, Wei Yan led nearly 26,000 available troops, changed into the armor and clothes of Cao's army, and carried the flag of Cao's army, and marched in the direction of Linzi City in a swaggering manner.

The straight-line distance between Zhuxu and Linzi is nearly two hundred miles, and the actual march requires bypassing many cities, which is even farther.

Such a large-scale military crossing the border, even if they pretended to be Cao's army in an attempt to conceal their true identity, still aroused considerable suspicion.

But Wei Yan knew better that he could not stop. He had to arrive before Cao Ren learned that Zhuxu City had fallen and tried to strengthen the defense of Linzi. Otherwise, all his efforts would be wasted. (End of this chapter)