All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 364: Forgetting the greater good for the sake of small gains, cherishing one's life when doing great things

On the south bank of the Zhang River, Yuan Shao’s tent.

Tian Feng said urgently, "My lord, the situation is urgent, we should withdraw our troops immediately!"

Shen Pei immediately retorted, "Nonsense! Hundreds of thousands of troops can't even cross the Zhang River in ten days!"

Ju Su followed and said, "We can first send people across the river to the vicinity of Handan to collect food, which will be enough to support us for more than half a month. By then, the reinforcements will have arrived."

When he said he was going to raise grain, he was actually robbing local grain.

The people were definitely out of food, so they simply robbed the stored grain from the local tyrants in Handan.

The food they robbed would be enough to sustain them until the arrival of reinforcements, which would certainly bring a large amount of food.

Xu You was even more radical and shouted, "My Lord! In this difficult situation, we must fight tooth and nail, forge ahead bravely, defeat the Chen bandits in one fell swoop, and seize their military supplies for military use!"

Tian Feng angrily retorted, "Do you think Chen's soldiers are all pigs? Even if they are pigs, it will take ten days to kill them all!"

"Then what do you think we should do!" Xu You jumped up and down and yelled, "We only have ten days' worth of food left. If we withdraw, the news will get out and the army will lose morale and everything will be ruined! The only way now is for the whole army to attack and have a chance of survival!"

"We should withdraw our troops and take our time. As long as the troops are still there, Hebei will still belong to you, my lord."

When the news came that Chunyu Qiong's grain team had been robbed, Yuan Shao's advisers went crazy.

Some expressed the need to withdraw troops quickly to preserve their strength.

There were also those who said that if they retreated, they would surely fail, and that they must fight to the death while the soldiers were still unaware of the food shortage.

We also need to find a way to get food to hold on for the time being while waiting for reinforcements.

What everyone said made sense, and they all insisted that their own views were correct.

The result is that they argue endlessly and try their best to convince the other party to accept their own ideas.

Yuan Shao sat there with a gloomy face and said nothing.

He just couldn't understand why. He was the head of the Yuan family, with three generations of officials being officials for four generations, the leader of all the princes in the world, and the future king with the aura of a tiger!
But why, why couldn’t they defeat Chen Zihou, who came from a bandit family?

The quarreling sounds in his ears gave Yuan Shao a splitting headache.

He took a deep breath and yelled "Shut up!"

With a roar under the accumulated power, everyone fell silent, not daring to make a sound.

"I have made up my mind." Yuan Shao, with a gloomy face, made the final decision: "Reward the soldiers generously and send them to fight a decisive battle!"

As the saying goes, a big reward will always bring a brave man. As long as the benefits are in place, what does it matter if you sell your life? Selling your ass is fine.

"Lord!"

Tian Feng was very anxious and shouted, "No! How can we win in such a hurry? Once we are defeated,

This is because you don't have a good grasp of the ways of the world. The leader has made the decision, and you still can't stay here. Isn't this a slap in the face of the leader in public?
How do you get your leader to step down?

"Shut up!" As expected, Yuan Shao, who was humiliated on the spot, shouted angrily, "Lock him up!"

Tian Feng was also very loyal. Even when he was dragged away by the soldiers, he was still shouting "As long as the green mountains remain, there will be no shortage of firewood~~~"

In fact, after the food supply was cut off, the best option was to retreat.

Although there will be great losses, the troops left behind will definitely not be able to escape.

But as long as they successfully cross the river to the north, go to Handan to collect food and grass, and wait for the arrival of reinforcements, they will still be able to fight.

The problem was that Yuan Shao, who was very concerned about his reputation, could not bear the loss of prestige brought about by failure, and was even more unwilling to give up Yecheng.

Obsession is sometimes a good thing and can provide motivation.

But sometimes, obsession can be fatal.

Yuan Shao ignored the current military morale and strategic situation and insisted on launching a decisive battle under obviously unfavorable circumstances. This kind of paranoia is somewhat similar to that of the diary-writing maniac.

He took out a large amount of money and goods to reward the soldiers to boost their morale and went out of the camp to fight against Chen Ran's troops.

The Hebei soldiers are very strong and are willing to fight if they are rewarded heavily.

The soldiers on Chen Ran's side have stronger fighting spirit than Yuan Shao's army!
The reason is very simple. They have been allocated land here. If they are defeated, then the land they have been allocated will be gone~~~
Compared with money, this is a more motivating reward.

Both sides fought desperately, there were no fancy tricks used, it was just a head-on fight.

On the battlefield that stretches for dozens of miles, fierce battles break out from time to time.

Chen Ran, who had just returned from a food shortage, saw this scene and immediately took out all kinds of meat from the storage space and distributed them to the combat soldiers without hesitation.

In a life-and-death fight, you must at least eat some meat.

Take out all the roasted camels, roasted crocodiles, roasted elephants, and roasted rhinos, so you can have meat for three meals a day!
After eating the meat, the soldiers not only felt stronger, but their morale was also significantly boosted.

"The general allows us to eat meat every day, so I will repay him with my death!"

The morale of Chen Ran's troops was high, but the soldiers on Yuan Shao's side were very jealous.

The camps on both sides were very close to each other. The wind from the Zhang River brought the aroma of meat over, making Yuan Shao's army, who were eating corn rice or even bean rice, suddenly feel that the food in their hands no longer smelled good.

More importantly, even the portions of corn rice and bean rice are restricted, and people eat less and less.

I can’t even fill my stomach, but the other side has plenty of meat every day.

Anyone who finds themselves in such an environment will have some thoughts.

Naturally, there was meat in Yuan Shao’s army.

However, only those above the rank of Colonel and General are qualified to enjoy these meats.

In the past, people didn't think there was anything wrong with this rule.

But now, seeing that the ordinary soldiers on the opposite side only eat meat three times a day, how can I not have some thoughts!
The result was that Yuan Shao's army's morale and combat effectiveness plummeted.

When the captains urged the soldiers to attack, a straightforward person said, "The enemy eats meat, and we eat beans. Why can't we eat meat too?"

The captains responded with their swords! Questioning an officer before a battle is a big taboo.

Although he suppressed the voices of opposition with his butcher knife, naturally, the morale of Yuan Shao's army began to decline rapidly.

Several days of fighting resulted in a large number of casualties on both sides but no substantial breakthroughs were achieved.

At this point, Jia Xu finally said, "My lord, the time has come."

Chen Ran nodded and said, "Let's get started."

Hundreds of loud-voiced soldiers were organized and shouted to Yuan Shao's army camps one by one, "You have no food, the general has cut off your food supply, you are going to starve to death~~~"

When the news came out, coupled with the obvious reduction in food supply in recent days, there was an uproar in Yuan Shao's army.

Although the generals tried their best to suppress the rebellion, they were unable to do so.

In troubled times, the most feared thing is food shortage, because people can really starve to death.

In an age of great material abundance, it is hard to understand how horrible it is to starve to death.

But people living in troubled times have a deep understanding of this.

People can die in any way, but they can't die of starvation~~~
That's really too miserable.

When the morale of the army was in turmoil, Yuan Shao no longer had the decisiveness he had in previous days and had to seek help from his advisers.

Ju Su immediately suggested, "We can execute the grain official, saying that he embezzled military rations, to appease the public anger."

Shen Pei then said, "Tell the soldiers that reinforcements and food will arrive soon."

Xu You said again, "We can arrange for some people to transport a batch of food and fodder from Handan. No matter how much, at least let the soldiers see that there is food and fodder entering the camp!"

It has to be said that the advisers under Yuan Shao are still capable.

However, these are only temporary solutions and cannot address the root cause.

The reinforcements and follow-up food supplies are on the way, but they cannot arrive in time.

After all, there were no high-speed trains or airplanes back then, so people could only walk and use carts to transport food and fodder, and the speed was extremely slow.

Yuan Shao stopped getting angry and silently accepted the strategies and arrangements made by his advisers.

Then, he suddenly proposed, "Since there is no hope of advancing, why not cross the river to Handan first?"

"No!"

"Absolutely not!"

"Lord, no!"

The counselors who had been fighting to the death before were surprisingly unanimous this time, and all advised against it, "If we withdraw our troops now, there will be chaos immediately!"

Rumors spread in the army, and they even threatened to execute the grain officer to admit the food shortage.

If they retreated at this time, the morale of the army would collapse, and everyone would be eager to escape. If Chen Ran attacked again,
Yuan Shao was a stubborn and self-righteous person.

Forget the greater good when you see small profits, and cherish your life when doing great things.

Simply put, it means being extremely confident and believing that you are always right.

When I get angry, I don't care about anything.

But when they really need to fight, they hesitate and dare not make a decision.

This can be clearly seen from the coalition forces of various princes' attack on Dong Zhuo.

This time when he was confronting Chen Ran, he got so angry that he could leave and refused to leave no matter what. He insisted on fighting until the whole place was turned upside down and countless people were killed and injured.

But now that he couldn't leave, he was worried that he would be defeated and lose everything, so he turned around and wanted to run away first.

It’s not that I’m afraid of dying here, but I’m afraid of losing my capital of more than 200,000 yuan here.

Without these capitals, what can we use to resist Chen Ran’s invasion?
Seeing Yuan Shao's hesitation, the counselors wanted to persuade him again, but they received news that fighting had broken out outside the camp again, so everyone had to go out to command and arrange the battle.

After a fierce battle, it was already dark.

Chen Ran continued to send troops in order to delay Yuan Shao and exert enough pressure on him so as to deny him the opportunity to respond effectively.

Excessive pressure may even lead to wrong decisions.

Sure enough, the next morning, when the counselors got up yawning and went to discuss the war with Yuan Shao, they learned that their lord had already crossed the river!

Upon hearing this, Ju Shou collapsed to the ground, Shen Pei was stunned, and Xu You stamped his feet and cried, "It's over, it's over~~~"

As expected, after the news spread, Yuan Shao's military camps all collapsed and mutiny broke out in the camp.

Yuan Shao's original intention was to personally supervise the supply of food and grass in order to stabilize the morale of the army before withdrawing.

Since all the capable people under his command opposed it, he simply did it himself, not because he was afraid of death and wanted to run away.

However, they did not expect that the soldiers' psychological endurance had reached its limit.

A large number of defeated soldiers fled to the riverside, fighting for the few boats to cross the river, and even fighting each other with swords and guns for the fight.

The commotion here quickly alarmed Chen Ran, and he immediately made a decisive move to mobilize his entire army to attack.

Yuan Shao's army, having lost their morale and fighting spirit, soon had their camp breached.

A large number of soldiers chose to surrender, and those who refused to surrender tried to cross the river, but most of them drowned in the river, and only a few escaped.

Those who refused to surrender were basically private soldiers of powerful families, scions of aristocratic families, and so on.

They knew they would not survive even if they surrendered, so naturally they were unwilling to surrender.

In history, Cao Cao killed all the surrendered soldiers because he had no food and could not afford to feed so many people, who would still cause trouble, so it was better to end it all once and for all.

Chen Ran was different. He had enough food to feed them, so naturally he brought them all under his command.

Since then, Chen Ran, who gained a large number of surrendered soldiers, saw a rapid increase in military strength and became the leader in the world!
(End of this chapter)