Soldiers come to the world

Winter went to spring, and in the blink of an eye, it was the early spring of the 13th year of Jian'an. In the past few months, the situation in Jingzhou was calm. Neither Jiangxia's army attacked Jiangling, nor Jiangxia's army and Cao's fierce battle.

However, under the calm situation, the undercurrent is still raging, and all forces are actively preparing for war. Cao Jun has successively increased troops to Nanyang and Fancheng since November, bringing the total strength of Cao Jun on the line from Nanyang to Fancheng to [-].

The gathering of materials from all over the world in Nanyang also began in November. Cao Cao ordered millions of people to be transferred from the Central Plains and twelve counties in Hebei to transport a large amount of food, tents, ordnance, kerosene, wood and other military supplies to Nanyang. The second-largest transportation continued until January of the following year, and the Xuchang warehouse, which was originally well stocked, was almost emptied.

At the same time, Jiangxia is also actively preparing for the battle. Since November last year, Xiangyang City, Xiakou City, and Wuchang City have been heightened and reinforced at the same time, and an auxiliary city has been built on each side of Xiakou City to strengthen the protection of Xiakou City. defense of the city.

In order to support Jiangxia's army, the Tao family transported nearly 30 shi of grain from nine warehouses in Jiangdong to Jiangxia as military rations, and used half of their family property as military expenses to support Jiangxia's army in fighting against Cao Cao.

On the Jiangdong side, Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu as the governor of the navy, Cheng Jin as the deputy governor, and Lu Su as the chief historian. A total of 5 troops and [-] warships were dispatched. Starting from November, Zhou Yu led the army to train in Poyang Lake .

At the same time that the army was sent west, Jiangdong also began to transport various military supplies and large quantities of food westward. It is less than a hundred miles away from Wuchang County. Qichun County on the east bank of the Yangtze River is an important logistics center for the Jiangdong Army. There are more than 1 warehouses and [-] troops stationed under the command of Cheng Jin.

As the wheels of war continue to roll forward, almost everyone realizes that a North-South War related to the fate of China is about to kick off in the 13th year of Jian'an.

Xudu, since Cao Cao moved his capital to Yecheng a few years ago, Xuchang City has been used as an accompanying capital, and just two months ago, in the middle of the first lunar month, Cao Cao moved the emperor and all civil and military officials to Xuchang in order to conquer Jingzhou. Xuchang gathers soldiers from all over the world, and hundreds of thousands of troops gather in Xuchang.

In Xuchang City in early March, it should be the season when warblers are flying, grasses are growing and flowers are blooming like brocades. But at this time, a major event happened in Xuchang. , To be killed for the crime of "planning misconduct", the case shocked the government and the public, and caused an uproar in the world.

Soldiers patrolling and standing guard are everywhere in Xuchang City. Three people are not allowed to go together, and people are not allowed to gather for discussion. All public places such as taverns, hotels, gambling halls, and brothels are closed. Even the old farmers who sell vegetables at the gate of the city must be separated by ten steps.

The city of Xuchang was shrouded in terror, everyone was in danger, every house was closed, and after dark, the streets were dead silent.

The front of the prime minister's mansion was even more heavily guarded, with three steps for one post and five steps for one sentry, anyone who tried to approach the prime minister's mansion would be killed.

In the study, Cao Cao is changing the court uniform. Beside him, Sima Yi is reporting the situation of the Taixue scholars. Sima Yi is 30 years old this year. He took up the post of Literary Officer last month and is responsible for managing the official school. The Taixue is also within his scope of authority. .

"I would like to report to Xiangguo that the troubles caused by the imperial scholars have basically subsided, but it's not that they have died down, but that they have all returned to their hometowns. Seventy percent of them have left in the past few days, and the imperial dormitory is empty... .”

"enough!"

Cao Cao interrupted Sima Yi's report in displeasure, and Sima Yi immediately kept silent. Cao Cao glanced at him again, and asked coldly, "Zhongda, from your tone, it seems that you are also a little bit dissatisfied!"

"I don't dare, but I can't stop the student from returning home, and I feel ashamed!"

"If you want to leave, let them go. There is no pity. The noble students are gone, just to make way for the Han students. Zhongda, I hope you can use this opportunity to change the rules of recruiting apprentices in the Taixue, and give more students to the Han students." If you have an opportunity, you might as well learn from Jiang Xia Liu Jing, no matter the scholar or commoner, only talents should be promoted, so as to cultivate truly talented scholars."

Sima Yi bowed his head and remained silent for a while, Cao Cao felt a little strange, and asked again: "Do you disagree with me?"

"No! No!"

Sima Yi hurriedly shook his head, "It's just...it's just that I don't really want to..."

His hesitation made Cao Cao feel even more suspicious, "What exactly do you want to say?"

"I don't want...to take care of the affairs of Taixue anymore, and I would like to handle military affairs for the prime minister." Sima Yi finally expressed his thoughts.

Cao Cao laughed, "I see, that Zilian asked you to be his staff member, why didn't you go?"

Zi Lian is Cao Hong. Cao Hong asked Sima Yi to be his adviser several times, but Sima Yi refused to agree. Now he wants to go to the army again. Of course Cao Cao understands Sima Yi's thoughts. Sima Yi does not want to offend the nobles at this time. Going to the army is actually to avoid disaster.

However, because of Guo Jia's death, Cao Cao surrendered Jia Xu and lacked advisers. This Sima Yi is a capable person. He refused to let him go to the army several times. It is rare for him to bring it up today. This is not a bad thing. Cao Cao pondered for a moment and said : "Let's do this! I'm going to hold a meeting for the Southern Expedition, so you should join in too!"

.......

Cao Cao's killing of Kong Rong was by no means a whim, but his far-sighted decision, and it was also the inevitable result of killing Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao's political ambition is to promote legalism from a poor family. He wants to take advantage of the troubled times at the end of the Han Dynasty to break the trend of the famous families that have gradually formed since the middle of the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, it is also necessary to break the situation of Confucian dominance formed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty who only respected Confucianism, and rebuild the Legalist thought of governing the country.

So in the third year of Chuping, Cao Cao's killing of the great Confucianism was just a test, but today after killing his powerful enemy Yuan Shao, killing the [-]th descendant of Confucius is the real declaration of war on Confucianism, so that he later killed Yang Xiu, so it was not his father Yang Biao. one hit.

Holding the emperor to order the princes was just a means for him to realize his political ambitions. In fact, the people who opposed the emperor to order the princes were mainly royal nobles, so there was the "clothes edict incident". Pianjun Wangfu and others, including Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Ma Teng, were Cao Cao's political enemies.

As for Kong Rong, Bian Rang, Mi Heng, Yang Biao and other great Confucian scholars, he is not opposed to coercing the emperor to order the princes. If Yuan Shao coerced the emperor to order the princes, they might still strongly support it.

What they resolutely opposed was the ideology of Cao Cao's poor family of legalists. They wanted to maintain the orthodox status of the Confucian gentry and spare no effort to destroy the legitimacy of Cao Cao's power. They were Cao Cao's ideological enemies.

When Cao Cao broke Lu Bu, destroyed Yuan Shao, expelled Liu Bei, and eliminated many political enemies through the clothes and belts incident, he no longer tolerated ideological enemies, and it became logical to kill Kong Rong, the leader of the seven sons of Jian'an.

At the same time, this also made preparations for the legitimacy of the upcoming Southern Expedition. The so-called legitimacy means that anyone who dares to accuse him of being illegal will be executed. If no one objects, he will naturally be legal.

Dozens of important counselors and generals have gathered above the lobby. This is a typical situation where the power of the prime minister is greater than that of the monarch. The court is just a decoration, and the emperor and civil and military officials are also vases. The real military plan comes from the prime minister's mansion.

"The prime minister is here!"

Following the shout of the guards, Cao Cao, who was dressed in court uniform, was surrounded by sixteen guards with knives, and quickly walked up the hall from the side. Everyone stood up and bowed together, "See the prime minister!"

Sima Yi also came in quietly through the side door, and stood on the last seat with Mao Jie next to him. Mao Jie smiled at him, but he felt a little strange that Sima Yi came here anyway.

"Exemption, gentlemen!"

Cao Cao sat down in his seat, but quickly glanced at Xun Yu, wondering if Xun Yu would come after he killed Kong Rong?

As expected by Cao Cao, Xun Yu was indeed in power, with a calm expression, as if he was not affected by the Kong Rong case at all.

This shows that Xun Yu is just a royalist, not in the same class as Kong Rong, Yang Biao and others.

Cao Cao's eyes turned to Cheng Yu again, and he nodded to him, meaning to ask Cheng Yu to say first that Cheng Yu has been presiding over the battle preparations in Fancheng and Nanyang, and arrived in Xuchang three days ago.

He understood what Cao Cao meant, so he stood up and said to everyone: "Emissaries and generals, let me briefly talk about the war preparations of Wancheng and Fancheng. Since September last year, the prime minister has used the power of the whole country to build warships. , and now more than [-] large and small warships have been moored on Bishui, guarded by [-] troops, and have repelled more than ten raids by the Jiangxia army."

There were whispers in the lobby immediately. No one thought that in just half a year, Cheng Yu had already built more than [-] ships. This is not impossible, but how much manpower and material resources does it need to mobilize?

And many people don't know that most of the ships in Fancheng come from the Yellow River and other rivers. They are only dismantled and transported to Fancheng for reassembly, so it is possible to build more than 2000 large and small warships within half a year.

The generals didn't care about the process, and the results of the shipbuilding made them all look happy. They knew very well the embarrassment of being suppressed by the Jiangxia navy in Fancheng last year. Cao Ren was forced to withdraw his troops from Xiangyang because they had no navy and warships.

Cheng Yu and the others calmed down their discussion, and continued: "More than 100 large warehouses have been built in Wancheng, and they have been filled with food, ordnance and other supplies, enough to deal with a big battle of tens of thousands of people. In addition, from Wancheng The official road to Fancheng has also been widened and flattened to make the delivery of materials smoother."

Cheng Yu introduced the combat readiness of Fancheng and Wancheng in detail, and Cao Cao smiled again at this moment: "Tell me about the shortcomings! Are there any other difficulties?"

Cheng Yu nodded and said, "The biggest problem now is the shortage of boatmen. Northerners are not good at sailing, so it is extremely difficult to recruit boatmen. We need [-] boatmen, but we only recruited more than [-]."

Cao Cao thought for a while and said, "Let's talk about this problem! Anyway, there will be a way to solve it."

He took another look at the generals sitting there, Xia Houdun, Cao Ren, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and others. In fact, the purpose of letting them participate in the discussion was to let them understand the situation of combat readiness, and to discuss the strategy of the battle, it was up to the advisers to decide.

Cao Cao smiled at the generals and said, "Everyone who is brave and brave, leave the field first! I will call another party to discuss the specific battle."

All the generals stood up and retreated, and there were only seven or eight people left in the hall, Cao Cao then said slowly to the advisers: "This matter is related to the overall situation, I hope you can speak freely."