Tiger Guards

Chapter 497 The Unfaithful
After Guo Tu returned to Ye City and quickly relayed the message to the front lines, Yuan Shao also began to withdraw his troops from the Yellow River basin.

Sun Ce pursued, and Sun Ben also led his naval warships from the mouth of the Yellow River to Gaotangjin.

On the north bank, Yuan Shao left Yuan Tan and Feng Ji to cover the rear.

Sun Ce sailed to the north bank to observe and saw that Yuan Tan, Feng Ji, and the allied forces of the Qingzhou strongholds who had retreated north numbered about 20,000, and had set up a camp in Pingyuan City.

The camp was well-fortified, and the plains were also a large city.

Moreover, since a truce has already been reached with Yuan Shao, sending troops to besiege Pingyuan would delay the unification of Qingzhou.

A road runs northwest through the plains, passing through Anping Kingdom and Julu County, and reaching Zhen Ding of Changshan Kingdom, where it intersects with the north-south road in the eastern part of Taihang Mountain.

Therefore, Yuan Shao could not abandon Pingyuan. Losing Pingyuan would mean that the vast area south of the Qingshui River would be indefensible, and he would have no choice but to retreat to the Guangzong Jieqiao.

The Central Plains has a complex water system, with swamps and marshes everywhere, making it impossible to navigate by boat or build roads.

Hebei is similar; it looks like a vast plain, but a lot of it is rotten.

It is only after the Yellow River changes course and floods several times, becoming the Yellow River floodplain, that the silt settles and raises the overall terrain, allowing those swampy and rotten lands to disappear.

Nowadays, the larger the scale of a military operation, the more it relies on river transport or imperial roads.

Sun Ce was eager to cross the river and launch a probing attack. If he couldn't take Pingyuan City this year, it would be extremely difficult to take it again once Yuan Shao recovered.

He stood on the ship gazing northward and said to Sun Ben beside him with emotion, "Now it will be easy to turn the army around and pacify Qingzhou. The only difficult thing is to take Pingyuan."

Sun Ben pondered for a moment and advised, "Now that we have crossed the river and broken through Pingyuan, Yuan Shao is at a loss. If he is defeated by Gongsun Zan, who also controls You and Ji provinces, he will surely send troops to attack Pingyuan. If the Grand General and Grand Marshal are slow to come to our aid, our army will be in grave danger."

If the major clans of Hebei were to collectively surrender to Gongsun Zan, our side would have no chance of holding Pingyuan. The more troops we commit, the more passive we become.

Rather than inviting trouble upon ourselves, we should honestly divide our forces to seize territory and stabilize Qingzhou first.

Upon hearing this, Sun Ce still said, "If I give up now, I fear I will regret it in the future."

However, if we forcefully attack the plains and create a hegemon in Hebei, we might not even have a chance to regret it.

Sun Ce composed himself and said to Sun Ben, "Let's go back to the south bank."

"Here."

Sun Ben immediately turned around and gave the order to the bow of the ship. The warship he was on hoisted its sails, and with a strong north wind blowing, the warship sped away to the south.

Sun Ce, wrapped in a cloak, stood on the deck gazing at the scenery on the north bank, feeling melancholy.

Ji Province lacks a naval force, but You Province does!
In the north, which is the Yellow River basin, northerly winds prevail most of the year.

If the future hegemon of Hebei were to assemble a large naval fleet of 20,000 men, Qingzhou would likely be at a disadvantage in terms of wind direction during a decisive battle.

His intuition told him that he shouldn't worry about the gains and losses in Qingzhou now, but should chase after them, hold back Yuan Shao's main force, and let Gongsun Zan break through Jizhou.

It would be best to join forces with Gongsun Zan to eliminate Yuan Shao in one fell swoop.

In this way, regardless of whether it is Lü Bu, Zhao Ji, Gongsun Zan, himself, or Liu Bei in the court, they will all lose their biggest restraining force.

Everyone fears that Yuan Shao might instigate them to kill him, thus shattering the cohesion of the scholars and making them easier to deal with.

People should not be swayed by immediate gains... Sun Ce pondered as his body moved closer to the south bank of the boat, his thoughts carrying his emotions as he approached the Qingzhou land on the south bank.

At the northern end of the imperial road within the territory of Pingyuan Kingdom, after crossing the border, one enters Xiu County of Bohai Commandery in Ji Province, where the road forks. One path leads northwest to Zhen Ding, and the other leads to Nanpi in Bohai.

The road leading to Nanpi could only be considered an official road, and its scale was far smaller than that of a royal road.

As for the area north of Bohai County, although there are roads leading to Zhuo County in Youzhou, many rivers flow into the Hai River, creating numerous swamps and wastelands.

Therefore, only after the winter snowfall, when the swamps and marshes freeze over and more than a dozen rivers flowing northeast also freeze over, can Gongsun Zan march his troops without restriction.

Otherwise, these rotten lands would infuriate him, or he would have to rely on the canals of the Hutuo and Qingshui Rivers for transport. Gongsun Zan used to wage war in this way, but after he killed Liu Yu, he fell out with the powerful clans of Youzhou.

In the summer, Gongsun Zan dares not send troops out alone from the military settlements in Yijing and the Yishui River basin. Only in the winter, when he can use food as a bargaining chip to attract the Han and Hu powerful armed forces to form a coalition army, will he dare to leave his base camp.

Otherwise, if he marches south alone and Yijing is attacked, or the military settlements along the Yi River are destroyed, then Gongsun Zan will be in trouble.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Gongsun Zan's use of troops in winter was naturally a last resort, aimed at maximizing his strengths and minimizing his weaknesses. Yuan Shao was well aware of Gongsun Zan's advantages and disadvantages, which is why he didn't give Gongsun Zan the opportunity to weaken opposing forces through open field battles last year.

If a decisive battle is launched rashly, the Youzhou soldiers who are being expended are mostly those who came for food, and Gongsun Zan's main force will hardly suffer any damage.

It's pointless to deplete these peripheral Youzhou troops. In fact, the more they are depleted, the more blood feuds will accumulate between them, leading more Youzhou people to submit to Gongsun Zan and strengthening Gongsun Zan's core power.

After all, these were just cheap soldiers hired by Gongsun Zan with grain.

We need to find an opportunity to strike at Gongsun Zan's core strength. If we deliver a powerful blow, even if Gongsun Zan escapes back, he will find it difficult to maintain the Yishui military settlement and will not be able to intimidate the Han and Hu leaders in Youzhou. His military prestige and appeal will be further weakened, and then Gongsun Zan will be finished.

Wuqiao is located a dozen or so miles northwest of Xiuxian County.

After Yuan Shao's army retreated to this place, they rested and observed the changes in the situation on the plains. If Sun Ce dared to cross the river to attack the plains, then the whole army would march south. A hundred miles was nothing, enough to give Sun Ce a big surprise.

With the cavalry advantage of Hebei, they were able to block news of the main force.

They were stationed at Wuqiao while waiting for news from Zhao Ji and Gongsun Zan.

He was not afraid of Sun Ce crossing the river to attack Pingyuan, but he was afraid that Zhao Ji would take the opportunity to send troops to cause trouble in Changshan, Zhongshan and Zhao.

Zhao Ji has troops from the local area in these regions, which means he has the support of the locals; Zhang Yan is also not far away. If Zhao Ji makes a move, Zhang Yan will definitely join in, which will cause chaos in western Ji Province.

If left unchecked, it will greatly disrupt morale.

If Zhao Ji sends troops to Changshan, Yuan Shao will have no choice but to confront Zhao Ji first, because Zhao Ji's disruption of the western commanderies could directly threaten Ye City.

Thus, Zhao Ji worried that Yuan Shao would attack him, and Yuan Shao was also worried that Zhao Ji would attack him.

It wasn't until heavy snow blocked the roads and the Taihang Eight Passes were temporarily blocked that both sides felt relieved and turned to do other things.

As for the two-year ceasefire agreement that Zhao Ji and Guo Tu signed while chatting and laughing... surely no one would actually believe such a thing?

When Guo Tu left, he didn't even take a decent hostage from Zhao Ji. How could such an unequal ceasefire agreement be binding on both sides?

Moreover, from Zhao Ji's perspective, Guo Tu did not bring any additional hostages when he came. Taking the captured Yuan Xi and Gao Gan as hostages was obviously making use of waste and a sign of a lack of sincerity.

Fortunately, the fragile ceasefire agreement became resilient and credible due to the heavy snow blocking the roads.

Yuan Shao, who was stationed at Wuqiao in Xiu County, led his army toward Nanpi after confirming that Sun Ce had retreated to the south bank. At the same time, he sent Ju Shou as a separate force to garrison Xindu in Anping State to support the flank of the battlefield.

If the war in Bohai does not go well, Yuan Shao can hold out against Gongsun Zan and wait for further support.

Last year, Yuan Shao had no choice but to abandon Hejian and hold Xindu with his main force, stalemate with Gongsun Zan, allowing Gongsun Zan to divide his forces to attack Bohai.

This year, Yuan Shao devoured many of Cao Cao's former troops and the allied forces of Qingzhou, and did not engage in a war of attrition with Zhao Ji and Sun Ce.

Therefore, Yuan Shao had ample troops and no shortage of elite soldiers to wear down, so he changed his conservative tactics from the previous year and personally led a large army to garrison Bohai.

If Gongsun Zan dares to come, let Cao Ren, Xiahou Yuan, and others wear him down.

If Gongsun Zan dares to abandon Bohai to attack Xindu, attempting to break through the passage to Yecheng... then Yuan Shao will lead his troops north and strike directly at Yijing.

Therefore, Gongsun Zan had no choice this year and could only hold out against Yuan Shao at Bohai.

Gongsun Zan could not afford the risk of losing Yijing, which contained millions of bushels of grain.

If Yuan Shao were to obtain it, he would immediately become arrogant, and the Han-Hu coalition forces in Youzhou, which Gongsun Zan had gathered, would collapse due to the loss of food, and might even turn against him and join Yuan Shao's forces.

Therefore, in the Hebei war this winter, the initiative no longer lies with Gongsun Zan, but with Yuan Shao.

If he chooses Bohai, then Gongsun Zan can only come to Bohai.

Whether or not to engage in open field battles depended on whether Yuan Shao had such a strategic need.

Otherwise, if he had simply defended the city, Gongsun Zan would not have been able to, nor did he have the prestige to force the Han-Hu allied forces to launch a strong attack.

Let alone forcibly ordering the Han-Hu allied forces to attack, even ordering these people to dig through the frozen soil would not be very appealing to them; they would surely just do a perfunctory job.

Without the interference of young talents like Zhao Ji and Sun Ce, Yuan Shao immediately seized the initiative in the war.

(End of this chapter)