Tiger Guards

Chapter 753 Mengde's New Book
In Fanyang, the scorching sun hangs high, baking the earth.

In order to defend Fanyang, Ju Shou, the commander of the vanguard responsible for defending Fanyang, not only mobilized the elite troops of Ji Province, but also began to mobilize Cao Cao's old troops.

How can the local Ji Province troops fight desperately while the Cao army, who are residing in Ji Province, live a peaceful life?

If things continue like this, most of the men in Jizhou will die, which would only benefit these wandering travelers from the Central Plains.
However, the composition of Cao Cao's various units differed, with different generals and different detachments, leading to different evaluations in Ju Shou's eyes.

For example, Cao Ren, Xiahou Yuan, and Yue Jin, who were deeply favored by Yuan Shao, were not taken seriously by Ju Shou.

Ju Shou valued people with families more, such as the brothers Li Zheng and Li Dian, as well as Lü Qian and Lü Zhao.

In particular, Lü Zhao, during the Battle of Bian River in Chenliu, when Xu Chu was forced to surrender, took Lü Zhao's remaining troops with him and surrendered as well, thus taking credit for it.

Lu Zhao was forced to surrender, but escaped under cover of night while wounded. He swam across the icy Bian River and rejoined Cao Cao's army.

Faced with such a loyal minister, Cao Cao naturally took Lü Zhao as an example and immediately replenished Lü Zhao's army.

However, the supplies that were provided to Lü Zhao were from Qingzhou. After Cao Cao was killed, the Qingzhou troops were in great disarray and killed Xiahou Dun, who came to suppress them. What merit or ability did Lü Zhao have to control his Qingzhou troops?
Therefore, unlike Li Zheng and Lü Qian who brought their own clans and followers, Ju Shou valued Lü Zhao's ruthless drive to achieve great things.

If Lü Zhao had surrendered under duress instead of returning to Cao Cao's camp, given Zhao Ji's talent for recognizing and utilizing talent, Lü Zhao's status at that time might have been no less than that of Han Meng and Zhu Ling.

Such a person should not be overlooked. Ju Shou recommended him several times before Yuan Shao reluctantly granted Lü Zhao a thousand soldiers.

Under the blazing sun, the thousand men under Lü Zhao's command followed a grain transport team northward, finally arriving at the southern suburbs of Fanyang City after crossing the river.

There were two camps in the southern suburbs, one to the east and one to the west. Lü Zhao saw that they were two different battle flags. One was Li Zhaoyi, the Colonel, and the other was Li Liyi, the General of the Righteous Army.

The former is Li Dian, and the latter is Li Dian's cousin, Li Zheng.

The once-powerful Li clan of Shanyang was divided in two by the Hebei authorities.

The Li clan of Shanyang Township has more than 5,000 households, and who in Hebei is not envious?
Even Yuan Shao wouldn't dare to easily annex these five thousand households of retainers; if you can swallow up the powerful families of Yanzhou who have led their troops to surrender today, then who among the powerful families of other provinces would dare to come?

If you can swallow up the troops of outsiders, are you also thinking of swallowing up the troops of the powerful families in Ji Province?

This is no longer a matter of regional factional strife, but a matter of social class and social status.

In this respect, the prominent families of Hebei were farsighted, considering the Li family of Shanyang as almost one of their own, even more trustworthy than Yuan Shao.

The Li family of Shanyang reduced their own threat by splitting themselves in two, but at this moment, they are still being pulled over by the major families of Hebei to be used as expendable resources on the outer layer.

Even if they are of the same social class, they are from different regions. In a battle that is destined to result in many deaths, it is still necessary to arrange for outsiders to die first.

Since their families were all settled near Ye City, the troops of Li Zheng and Li Dian had no way out and had no choice but to fight to the death.

If they surrender to the Zhao family, the only way to save the Li family's troops and their families is for the Zhao family to quickly break through Fanyang, march straight to Yecheng, and rescue them.

Otherwise, before the defeat in Ye City, they would have certainly taken severe revenge on the families of Li's troops, letting them know the true ferocity of humanity.

Lu Zhao didn't have time to greet the Li brothers, Li Zheng and Li Dian... If it wasn't necessary, these outsiders should minimize their interactions.

Li Zheng was enjoying the breeze on the lookout tower in the camp, squinting at Lü Zhao's battle flag, which read 'Fenwei Xiaowei Lü'.

After watching for a moment, Li Zheng coughed twice and spat out a mouthful of phlegm towards the outside of the railing below the tower.

A gentle southerly wind blew, and the spit landed on the sharp corner of the fence post. Li Zheng muttered under his breath, "Traitor!"

Uncle Li Jin, who was reading at the foot of the tower, heard this and tapped the ladder with his bamboo slips. Li Zheng looked down and met Li Jin's gaze, then remained silent and turned to look elsewhere.

Li Jin spread out the bamboo slips and continued to study this fragment of the 'New Book of Mengde'.

This is Cao Cao's unfinished military treatise, which can also be understood as a summary of Cao Cao's experiences during his military campaigns.

With Cao Cao's army routed, numerous confidential documents were leaked. The Li family's retainers, however, remained united; when Cao Cao's army collapsed, they didn't loot much weaponry or valuables, but instead took the most inconspicuous documents.

Li Zheng had read Cao Cao's confidential notes, and Cao Cao believed that Lü Zhao was a spy sent by Zhao Ji.

As a result, when the Qingzhou soldiers under Lü Zhao mutinied, Xiahou Dun came to suppress the rebellion, but he died at the hands of Lü Zhao's Qingzhou soldiers.

This might just be Cao Cao's paranoia; he deliberately recorded it so that he could restrict Lü Zhao's use in the future.

Xiahou Dun's death could have been either accidental or murder.

Anyway, Xiahou Dun is dead, and his head was cut off by the chaotic army... It's not impossible that Xiahou Dun, who faked his death, will reappear later.

Li Jin could think so much, while Li Zheng thought it was simple. He believed Cao Cao's notes and thought that Lü Zhao was a spy sent by the Zhao family; he also thought that Xiahou Dun died from a mutiny instigated and induced by Lü Zhao.

The Li family knew about this matter themselves; there was no need for them to inform the Hebei authorities.

No one likes someone who likes to snitch on others and betray their fellow villagers.

With such a large family as the Li family, if they want to maintain cohesion, they must set an example and refrain from doing things that damage their character.

Furthermore, if this matter were investigated further, it would be revealed that the Li family had taken advantage of the chaos to steal confidential documents from Cao Cao's army, which made Yuan Shao even more wary, as this was news that could lead to deaths.

When Li Zheng turned to observe the north, he suddenly saw dust rising from the north and immediately shouted, "Uncle, enemy cavalry is coming from the north!"

"coming?"

Li Jin carefully put the bamboo slips into a leather bag, tied the bag shut, and then leisurely climbed the wooden ladder. When he arrived on the platform, he saw dust billowing to the north.

Li Jin subconsciously turned his head to look in the northeast direction, and sure enough, there was similar smoke and dust in the distance.

There were no visible traces of human or horse movement on the ground; all that could be seen were billowing clouds of dust.

Li Jin, holding onto the railing with one hand and gripping the canopy pillar with the other, observed for a few moments and said, "As expected, it's the Northern Cavalry. They don't move until they've moved, and now they've mobilized over ten thousand cavalry. They're after the summer wheat. The Yishui military garrison has two million shi of new wheat, which is about to fall into enemy hands!"

Li Zheng was surprised to hear this: "Yiyin City on the south bank is separated from the Yi River. Wouldn't they rush to harvest the summer wheat?"

Even if the summer wheat is harvested now and used as horse feed, it would be excellent.

Li Jin thought for a moment and said, "Difficult, too difficult."

Whether to risk death or desperately destroy Xiamai outside the city, it was actually an easy choice to make.

This is not something that can be accomplished by the garrison commander simply by being aware of the situation.

Wheat cultivation is not easy, and harvesting and damaging it is not easy either... After all, it is a crop with tenacious vitality.

If you ride your horse and trample the seedlings before the wheat ripens, how many can you kill? Even if you organize an army to cut them with sickles, how many can you harvest?
Besides, if you cut them too early, the seedlings can still regenerate.

Only after the wheat turns yellow can a fire be set, and the power of wind and fire be used to quickly destroy large areas of new wheat.

But whoever makes this decision will be subject to the extermination of their entire clan by the Zhao family.

This decision has crossed the line of civil war and is no different from a massacre.

Although former generals of Cao Cao's army did not shy away from massacring cities, Zhao Ji, Lü Bu, and Liu Bei had no experience in doing so. Based on this alone, they could crush Cao Cao's former generals in terms of moral integrity.

Especially after the Jin army achieves final victory, they will certainly not let go of such a moral weapon.

Really, there's no need to burn the newly harvested wheat outside the city for Yuan Shao's grand cause.

(End of this chapter)