My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 305 Yuan Benchu’s son, dolphin ears

Given Cao Cao's status, he had heard a lot of flattery.

The sycophantic ministers under him always compared him to Yi Yin and Duke Zhou.

Who dares to say that Xiang Liang's support for Emperor Yi and Shen Shang's magic are not good people in the eyes of the Han people. Under the Confucian values, Shen Shang is a beast of the Legalists.

Although Sun Quan's words were a bit treasonous, they were just flattery done behind closed doors with no outsiders around.

Moreover, Sun Quan's words were pertinent, and they came from a young man who had just come of age, not from a sophisticated flatterer. Cao Cao thought about it and felt that he was indeed such a person.

If he was really an enhanced version of Xiang Liang, and in addition to the overall vision of holding the emperor hostage, he also had magic and strange strategies, then he would indeed have the greatest chance of conquering the world, and even if Liu Bang were to be reborn, he would have no chance of competing with him.

Following Sun Quan's metaphorical line of thought, Sun Quan compared Sun Ce to Xiang Yu, Liu Bei to Liu Bang, and Yuan Shu to Chen Sheng, all of which are appropriate.

It seems that no matter what other talents Sun Quan has, he at least has good political insight.

……

After letting go of his worries about the military situation, Cao Cao realized that there was no point in being nervous at the moment.

Whether Yuan Shao will eventually fall into the trap is no longer a decision he makes. It depends on whether Yuan Tan reacts slowly enough in the last few days.

Cao Cao was a man who could let go of things easily. He no longer worried about things he could not control. Instead, he became open-minded and asked Sun Quan in a playful manner:
"You compare me to Xiang Liang and your brother to Xiang Yu. So you think that when your brother was still alive, he should have treated me as his uncle? Doesn't that mean Wen Tai is my brother? I remember that Wen Tai and I are the same age. I don't know how many years have passed since then?"

Sun Quan quickly told Cao Cao his father's date of birth. When Cao Cao heard that Sun Jian was older than him and they were both born in the first year of Yongshou during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, he didn't care about it anymore.

Cao Cao was aroused by Sun Quan's interest in talking, and he chatted with Sun Quan about the orthodox academic theory and the virtue of "the virtuous shall occupy the throne" that Zhuge Jin had advocated to Emperor Liu Xie.

I found that Sun Quan was indeed quite insightful about these things, and had a good understanding of the sources of power stability. He was not the kind of reckless man who believed that "he who has the strongest soldiers and horses will rule the country." He must have studied Zhuge Jin's political theories hard.

Cao Cao couldn't help but sigh that his sons all had their own strengths in literary talent and martial arts, but they seemed not very interested in these moral conducts and the source of legitimacy of their rule.

The one who performed best in this regard was Cao Pi, who was now fifteen years old, but his understanding was less than that of Sun Quan.

As for the ten-year-old Cao Zhi, we can only see that his literary talent and conversation are far superior to his peers. The thirteen-year-old Cao Zhang is already strong and has practiced martial arts, but he knows nothing else.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that they are too young. Maybe things will change in the future. Cao Cao is still very much looking forward to his sons.

It would be nice if Sun Quan could become a teacher and friend to his sons in the future and influence them to develop awareness in this regard.

Cao Cao then sighed, "If I had a son, I would want him to be like Sun Zhongmou. Of all my sons, except for Zixiu who died in the battle of Wancheng, none of them are as wise as Sun Lang. Would you like to be my son-in-law... Never mind. I have a daughter who will soon come of age. Your brother has made great contributions to the country. Would you like to be my son-in-law?"

Cao Cao did not act on impulse. He thought more deeply about it. Knowing that Sun Ce had worked so hard for the court, he must reward Sun Ce's brother handsomely as a role model. Only then would other people from remote areas such as Ma Teng, Han Sui, Shi Xie and others continue to work hard for the court.

Sun Quan was under Cao Cao's command, so naturally he could not refuse. However, he did not dare to be arrogant and only expressed his gratitude in private. This also left room for Cao Cao to regret - otherwise, if he ruined Cao Cao's plans and still forced Cao Cao to fulfill his promise, wouldn't that be like asking himself to live too long?

The safest approach is to agree verbally first but not publicize it, and then give the subsequent initiative to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao then verbally promised his daughter, who was later named Princess Qinghe, to Sun Quan - the one who later married Xiahou Mao in history.

Princess Qinghe and Cao Ang had the same mother, so she was older and would soon be old enough to get married. Historically, Cao Cao first discussed marriage with the family of Ding Chong, the lieutenant of the imperial court, and wanted to marry his daughter to Ding Chong's son Ding Yi.

But Ding Yi was Cao Zhi's party member, and Cao Pi did not want Ding Yi to become his brother-in-law, so he persuaded Cao Cao to make other plans. It happened that Ding Chong died of gastric perforation due to drinking in the fourth year of Jian'an, and Zhong Yao took over as the Inspector of the Imperial Guards, which led to a series of cases involving Zhang Yang and Yang Chou, and triggered the Battle of Guandu between Yuan and Cao.

Because of Ding Chong's death, Ding Yi had to observe mourning for three years. Fortunately, at that time, Ding Yi had just started discussing marriage with Cao Cao's daughter and had not yet accepted the betrothal gift. Cao Cao did not want his daughter to wait for three years, so historically he listened to Cao Pi's advice and chose Xiahou Mao instead.

Cao Pi was only fourteen years old when he questioned his sister's marriage. At such a young age, he knew how to attack Ding Yi and was also wary of his younger brother Cao Zhi, who was only nine years old at the time. His intentions were so far-reaching that no one could compare to him.

But now, this window of opportunity has been seized by Sun Quan.

Cao Pi's vigilance against the Ding family and the conditions he created for Xiahou Mao just happened to benefit Sun Quan.

Cao Cao's first meeting with Sun Quan went smoothly amid Sun Quan's skillful and appropriate flattery.

Starting from the next day, Cao Cao no longer cared about Sun Quan's affairs. He did not publicize Sun Quan's surrender and continued to keep a low profile on the matter.

He has more important things to worry about.

After waiting for another three or four days in inevitable anxiety, it was not until the ninth day of April that Cao Cao finally received news that Dong'a and Fan counties in the northeast were attacked by Yuan's army crossing the river from Cangtingjin.

The news was sent by Cheng Yu before the city was besieged. Only after seeing this confirmed fact did Cao Cao feel completely relieved.

It was not until this moment that the suspicion in his feelings towards Sun Quan completely dissipated.

Afterwards, he carried out the encirclement designed by Xun You according to the plan, making a detour on three sides to outflank Yuan's army that was crossing the river!

……

Soon after Cao's army began to encircle Yuan's army, about half a month after Sun Quan passed through the Yuan-controlled area of Langya County, Zhuge Jun, the messenger sent by Liu Bei to warn Yuan Tan, finally arrived in Zhu County.

Coincidentally, the road Zhuge Jun took was only a few dozen miles away from the one Sun Quan took.

It can only be said that the local geographical environment determined that if one wanted to go from Xuzhou to Linzi, the capital of Qingzhou, one would most likely pass through various counties.

For Zhuge Jun, Zhu County was the fiefdom bestowed by Emperor Liu Xie on his elder brother Zhuge Jin. Even if the originally planned route did not need to pass through Zhu County, he made a special detour and no one could say anything.

If you don't return to your hometown when you are rich and powerful, it's like walking in the night in brocade clothes. Zhuge Jin was made a vassal by the emperor, but he never returned to his fiefdom. What's wrong with asking his brother to come and inspect it? This is reasonable. When he heard that Liu Shu had sent someone, Yuan Tan certainly took it very seriously, much more seriously than when he heard that Han Dang had come to surrender.

He did not even wait in Linzi City, but traveled more than a hundred miles east with his guards and staff to meet Zhuge Jun in Pingshou County, the capital of Beihai County bordering Qi County.

When Zhuge Liang visited him four years ago, he helped him so much that Yuan Tan had too high expectations, thinking that as long as someone with the surname Zhuge came, he would definitely be of great benefit to him.

Zhuge Jun was only eighteen years old. He had never seen such a scene before. It was also his first time to go on a mission, and he was almost scared by Yuan Tan.

Fortunately, he was basically rude in dealing with people. Seeing that Yuan Tan took it so seriously, he solemnly reported to Yuan Tan the unusual movements of Cao's army that Liu Bei's army had discovered in the direction of Pengcheng-Xia Pi in Xuzhou, which were "much ado about nothing", as well as the news of peace between Liu Biao and Cao Cao that he had learned from the front line of Nanyang County in Jingzhou. He explained everything to Yuan Tan as quickly as possible without reservation.

Yuan Tan was shocked after hearing this: "What? Not only is Cao Cao's gathering of troops in Pengcheng and exerting pressure on Xiapi a feint, but Cao's army in Wancheng has also negotiated peace with Liu Biao?

Doesn't that mean Cao Cao's troops on the northern front are not empty at all? Why is his defense in Dong'e and Fanxian so lax? Is there a trick?"

Yuan Tan finally realized something was wrong when he thought about it, and quickly ordered an aide beside him, "Not good! Xin Pi, you must hurry to Cangting and warn my father that Cao Cao is showing weakness in Dong'e and Fan County, so there must be something fishy going on! Also take the letter from the General of Chariots and Cavalry with you!"

"I obey my orders!"

Xin Pi received the order and set off immediately that day, heading east from Pingshou County, galloping straight to Cangting.

Pingshou is in today's Weifang, Shandong, and Cangting is Shen County, Liaocheng, Shandong, with a straight-line distance of more than 600 miles. After all, Xin Pi was not a professional courier who could deliver 600 miles urgently. In addition, there were some mountainous areas around Pingshou County, so he had to take a detour and could not run in a straight line.

So no matter how hard Xin Pi hurried, the flesh in his thighs was worn out. He changed horses along the way, and it still took him two days and two nights to reach Cangting.

Yuan Shao had already crossed the river for five or six days, and had been sieging Dong'a and Fanxian for three or four days.

Cao Cao's army had already circled back to its position, Cheng Yu held the city firmly, and the center was in full swing.

Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan each brought Zhang He and Gao Lan as their deputy generals, and Xun You and Jia Xu as their military advisers, forming the two wings of an iron pincer attack. They penetrated directly into the banks of the Yellow River from the east and west, and surrounded Yuan Shao's army that had crossed the river to the south on three sides on the battlefield on the banks of the Yellow River.

When Yuan Shao realized that he had fallen into a trap, he quickly withdrew his troops, leaving Jiang Qi and Han Meng to resist Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan outside, while he himself led the central army and attempted to cross the Yellow River to the north again to escape.

Yuan Shao managed to escape despite the fact that his subordinates fought desperately to protect the landing site/ferry. However, a considerable number of troops who stayed behind to cover the retreat of friendly forces were eventually pursued and killed by Cao's army on the south bank.

Especially when they tried to seize the boat to cross the river, there was chaos and trampling on each other. The soldiers who got on the boat first were afraid that the boat would be overturned by the people behind them, so they drew their swords and chopped the hands of those who were climbing on the boat, leaving "fingers in the boat" chopped off.

Cao's army attacked from behind, and Han Meng and Jiang Qi were either killed in battle or captured and surrendered.

Yuan Shao spent several months to regroup his troops in Cangting, but they were defeated again and more than half of them were killed, and at least 20,000 to 30,000 of them surrendered to Cao Cao.

After Cao Cao severely weakened Yuan Shao's strength on the south bank of the Yellow River, he pursued the victory, crossed the Yellow River, and then fought another battle with Yuan Shao at Cangting.

This time, Yuan Shao was defending the camp while Cao's army was attacking. Yuan Shao could have taken advantage of the terrain, but the previous failure had made his troops lose their will to fight, and their troops were in a state of panic and lack of manpower.

Finally, Yuan Shao was defeated for the third time in late April to early May, and fled back to Yecheng with his cavalry. He was so angry that he fell ill.

Originally in history, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao in two battles, the Battle of Guandu and the Battle of Cangting, and drove him to despair.

Now because of the butterfly effect, three battles were fought. The second battle of Dong'a Fan County and the third battle of Cangting were almost connected. The first half was defense, and the second half was counterattack and pursuit.

Afterwards, Cao Cao took advantage of the fifth month of the lunar calendar in the north, which happened to be the harvest season for winter wheat planted in the previous winter, and marched northward from Cangting, plundering Qinghe County, Pingyuan County, and Anping County in central Jizhou, and at one point approached Hejian County.

The wheat-producing areas in the central part of the entire North China Plain were harvested and plundered, and the war was used to support the war, which completely alleviated the food shortage problem that Cao's army had suffered since the year before.

Most of the winter wheat planted by Yuan Shao in at least three counties on the Hebei Plain last year was planted for Cao Cao, and the food and logistics situation of both sides was directly reversed.

What’s even more terrible is that after Yuan Shao suffered a series of disastrous defeats and became ill, he lay on the hospital bed, still resentful of why he did not see through Cao Cao’s strategy of luring the enemy.

He quickly realized that it was the annoying Tian Feng who told him to launch the attack this time "while Cao Cao was at a disadvantage and the opportunity cannot be missed"!

Tian Feng himself was honest and did not intend to shirk his responsibility.

However, Shen Pei, who was from the same Jizhou faction as Tian Feng, could not sit idly by and watch Tian Feng sit there and wait for death, ruining the collective reputation of the Jizhou faction's advisers.

So Shen Pei found Tian Feng and told him that "the situation is urgent", which made Tian Feng nervous and try to find a way to make a living.

At the same time, he quickly handed a pillow to Tian Feng who was sleeping: "Mr. Yuan Hao! The lord was deceived and lost, this is not your fault! Although you persuaded the lord to send troops, you can't just sit there and wait for death! You should defend yourself!
I found out later that several days before my lord crossed the river, the eldest son of Qingzhou had already intercepted Sun Quan, the young master of the Jiangdong Sun family, who had fled north from Yangzhou. He brought the news that Sun Ce had been killed by Liu Bei!
But Sun Quan pretended to be Han Dang's servant, deceived the eldest son, sneaked through the land of Yidong in Langya County, and fled to Cao Cao's territory! It can be seen that the eldest son is not serious about governing the local area! Why didn't he immediately check the generals and soldiers around Han Dang when Han Dang surrendered?
If we ask a few more people, even if Han Dang deliberately concealed it, it would definitely reveal its flaws. It is impossible for even the grassroots officers to know to keep it secret! Moreover, after the eldest son accepted Han Dang's surrender, he actually took Han Dang as his own private troops and did not report it to the lord immediately. What is the difference between this and raising private soldiers? If he reported it immediately, the lord would hear about Han Dang in person and might pay more attention to it.

Later, Liu Bei also sent an envoy Zhuge Jun to warn the eldest son, but the eldest son was slow to take it seriously and failed to warn the lord in time! When Xin Pi arrived at Cangting, the lord's vanguard had been defeated and surrounded by Cao's army.

Before you offered your advice, sir, you also advised the lord to pay attention to scouting and reconnaissance. If the eldest son had noticed one of the two unusual movements in advance and paid enough attention to it, the lord would have had time to withdraw his troops!
Therefore, the main reason for our army's repeated defeats this time lies with the eldest son! What is his intention in delaying the report and watching his father fall into trouble? How can such an unfilial and rebellious person unite all the officials of the Yuan family when the lord is seriously ill? We should persuade the lord to formally make the third son the heir! "

When Tian Feng heard Shen Pei's sincere words to save his life, he was dumbfounded.

Of course he realized that if he continued to shirk responsibility in the way Shen Pei taught, Yuan Shao would most likely not kill him.

But isn't this deliberately putting the blame on the eldest son and creating more brotherly discord among the lord's sons?

"I... caused the defeat of my lord's army, it is my fault. I cannot frame the eldest son just to save my life. Just deal with him as he should." Tian Feng still has his dignity to save, he can't afford to lose face.

Shen Pei stamped his feet in hatred, thinking to himself that this guy wanted to save his life and save his dignity. How could such a good thing happen in the world?
It was obviously to help Tian Feng save his life, but he had to come forward and say these words to the seriously ill Yuan Shao. He was really unlucky.

(End of this chapter)