The locust plague in the Central Plains broke out in May, and about a dozen counties in Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Qingzhou and Jizhou were ravaged by the locust plague. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoXuzhou and Qingzhou were less affected, while Jizhou and Yanzhou were severely affected.

In order to prevent the locust plague from spreading to the northern counties and harming Hebei, Jizhou simply burned the crops that had not had time to be harvested on the ground, and evacuated nearly two million people to the northern counties of Jizhou.

Yanzhou was not so lucky, with a locust plague lasting more than a month and a drought lasting for half a year, which caused nearly one million victims in Yanzhou.

But the great luck in the misfortune is that at this time, the Northern Expedition began, and all the victims were conscripted as civil husbands, and a small number of old, weak, women and children were concentrated in a few grain and grass transfer camps to do what they could.

The war temporarily freed these victims from the threat of starvation and death, and also temporarily freed Yanzhou from the danger of collapse, and the Yellow Turban Army operating in Taishan and other places was unable to rise again and regain its momentum of sweeping through the Central Plains due to the lack of these disaster victims.

Cao Cao couldn't wait to launch the Northern Expedition when the locust plague in the Central Plains was at its worst, and now it seems that he did the right thing. He successfully used the re-establishment of the imperial system to expand Yanzhou's power, and the war to disperse and circumvent the crises facing Yanzhou. At the same time, he also gained great prestige among the major princes, which Cao Cao probably did not expect.

In the past, the military discussions were dominated by Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao said the same, but this time the Qinting military discussion, Cao Cao's prestige completely overshadowed Yuan Shao.

This time, Cao Cao not only successfully solved the threat of the disaster victims and the Yellow Turban Army to the Central Plains, but also took the lead in capturing several cities in Hebei and completed the goals set before the war.

At present, the greatest impact on the war is the ongoing drought.

Although the terrible locust plague is nearing its end, the drought continues, no one knows when it will rain, and more and more counties are suffering from drought from north to south.

The drought has caused the crops in the fields to wither, and the land of the Central Plains has been full of hunger.

On the contrary, except for some counties along the Yellow River, Hebei's other northern counties were not affected, and as long as Hebei supported it until the autumn harvest and autumn planting, there would be a bumper grain harvest, and they would be able to drag on the war all the time, even until next year.

But the Northern Expedition could not afford to delay.

As the war continues, the various fronts are gradually lengthened, and the consumption of grain, grass and ordnance will become greater and greater.

Once the drought lasts until October, when the affected counties in the Central Plains cannot even complete the autumn planting, the war will have to face a cruel reality, it may be lost. Or to put it nicely, this northern expedition returned in vain.

Therefore, before the end of September, whether or not the Northern Frontier Army can inflict heavy losses and occupy the city of Xindu will become the key to determining the victory or defeat of this great victory.

The capture of Xindu City, the whole army advanced to the south of the Zhangshui River, which was equivalent to occupying half of Jizhou, which was a very big blow to Hebei, and if the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army suffered heavy losses at this time, Jizhou would be at your fingertips.

After taking Jizhou, no matter how long the drought in the Central Plains continues, the Northern Expedition army can solve the money and grain on the spot, so that the rebellion can be destroyed, and the world can be determined in the near future.

Long before the attack, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others discussed this issue, and Yuan Shao's opinion at that time was that if the drought lasted until September, and the Northern Expeditionary Army failed to destroy the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army, the whole line would retreat in order to preserve its strength, and Xu Tu would attack again.

After all, after Hebei was hit by this heavy blow, it would not be able to recover its strength in the short term, and it was even more impossible to attack southward.

Now, Cao Cao has postponed this until the end of October. Cao Cao believed that it would be too difficult to defeat the Northern Xinjiang Army within four months, and that retreating before Hebei's autumn harvest and autumn planting would be tantamount to giving the Northern Xinjiang Army an early recovery of its strength, so in any case, it was necessary to drag out this battle until the end of October, so that the southern counties of Jizhou could not harvest and plant in autumn, and Hebei would bear a heavy burden of disaster victims.

There are many people in Hebei, and they have suffered heavy losses, and the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army has been greatly damaged, and a riot may break out in Jizhou. Hebei is in chaos, Li Yi is too busy to take care of himself, where does he have the energy to fight in the east and west? And his strength will be even weaker, then we will have a chance to capture Jizhou again.

In addition, Li Yi will be very anxious when he sees that we are going to drag the war until October, for the safety of Hebei, he is bound to fight a decisive battle with us, and what we need is this decisive battle.

As long as we hit the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army, Jizhou can be lowered. Even if we and the Northern Xinjiang Army are evenly divided, the Northern Xinjiang Army will inevitably encounter chaos because it has lost the time for autumn harvest and autumn planting, and its strength has been greatly damaged.

Cao Cao's suggestion was successfully passed, and Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Biao had no opinions. Everyone happily parted and went to the battlefield.

………………

Yuan Shu returned to Changyi and urgently summoned Li Ye and Yang Hong to discuss matters.

"Cao Cao was dizzy, thinking that after a few victories and a few cities, he would be invincible in the world, which was ridiculous." Yuan Shu then carefully explained the situation of the Qin Ting military discussion, and finally said, "Cao Cao's intention to drag the war until October is obvious, he wants to gamble, he wants to drive Li Yi away, and occupy Jizhou alone. It seems that this black-skinned dwarf has a lot of ambitions. ”

"In addition, the armies of all walks of life stayed on the battlefield in Hebei for an extra month, and the consumption of troops and money and food was very amazing. But this was of great benefit to Cao Cao's domination of the Central Plains, and he now had nothing but more than 100,000 horses. He is just a shameless bachelor, and his losses should be the least and the biggest advantage when he is beaten around. This kid is cunning! ”

"Since everyone knows Cao Cao's intentions in their hearts, this battle may not be able to drag on until the end of October as he wishes." Li Ye looked at Yuan Shu, and after a little hesitation, asked, "Cao Cao suddenly made this suggestion, is there any other purpose?" ”

"Other purposes?" Yuan Shu waved his hand disdainfully, "It doesn't matter what his purpose is, he beats him, we will do ours." Send someone to Yangzhou immediately and tell Qiao Rui, Zhang Xun and others to be ready to attack Xuzhou in July, and only wait for my order to arrive and launch an attack immediately. ”

"My lord, it's better to wait, don't rush to mobilize the army, and expose our intentions in advance." Yang Hong dissuaded, "If Cao Cao and Liu Bei can't reach Ganling City in July, they can return to the Central Plains at any time, and the Northern Xinjiang Army may not be able to stop their retreat." ”

"If in July, Cao Cao has not yet hit Ganling City, he can go to die, what is he still alive for?" Yuan Shu said with a smile, "Cao Cao wants to delay until October, but Li Yi is unwilling to delay, Li Yi will definitely fight him in advance, Cao Heipi is dead this time." ”

"And what about here?" Li Ye asked

"There's no hurry here...... Yuan Shu said quietly, "Don't look at Xi Zhicai, this guy is sick, in fact, he is better than ghosts, I have to find a way to drive him out of Changyi first." ”

………………

Yuan Shao returned to Puyang and hurriedly summoned the strategists who accompanied the army, such as Fu Zhu, Guo Tu, and Feng Ji, to discuss the relevant details of the Qin Ting military discussion.

"Cao Cao was so easy to fall for the scheme?" Frustrated, he pondered.

"We fought to the death in Liyang, Changshoujin, and Puyangjin, and were defeated in Neihuang and Pengting, these are all bloody facts, why shouldn't Cao Cao be fooled?" Yuan Shao said with a smile, "If it were me, I also believe that the other party has the sincerity to crusade against the rebels and attack Jizhou." ”

"What now?" Feng Ji asked, "Liu Biao and Ma Teng are gone, our troops have been reduced, and if we continue to attack, our losses will be even greater." ”

"Yes, if we can't quickly approach Yecheng, even if Cao Cao hits Ganling City, he will not fight alone, and continue to lead the army to kill the Qinghe River and attack Xindu City." Guo Tu pointed to the map and said, "Cao Cao can't stay away from Yanzhou, Yuan Shu won't dare to do it, and if Yuan Shu doesn't do it, we won't have a chance." ”

"Even if Yuan Shu does it, if Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Liu Biao can't suffer heavy losses, we still don't have a chance, the Central Plains can't get it, and Jingzhou can't get it." Fu Zhu shook his head and said, "Don't forget, our army is also in Jizhou now. And the opponents are still Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei, Lu Bu, Chang Yuchun and Li Jing, and their armies are the most powerful elite of the Northern Xinjiang Army. ”

"Our key is how to successfully reach Yecheng without avoiding losses, and at the same time allow Cao Cao's army in the middle to be completely annihilated or suffer heavy losses and collapse." Yuan Shao tapped his middle finger lightly, and said thoughtfully, "Do you have a clever plan?" ”

"If you want to achieve this goal, you must let Li Yi draw heavy troops from the West Road Battlefield to participate in the decisive battle of the Middle Road Battlefield. In this way, the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army on the western battlefield is less, they can only withdraw to Yecheng to hold on, we can immediately kill Yecheng and fulfill the promise to Cao Cao, and the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army on the middle battlefield has increased greatly, even if Cao Cao has 200,000 people, he can't beat Li Yi. Feng Ji said with a smile, "It's just that even if the lord tells Li Yi in person that I will help you fight Cao Cao, Li Yi will never have such a good thing in this world." ”

There was laughter in the tent.

"What method can be used to get Li Yi to draw troops from the battlefield on the West Road?" Yuan Shao asked with a smile.

The crowd was helpless.

Yuan Shao put more than 100,000 troops here, Li Yi is an idiot, and he will not rashly draw troops from the battlefield on the West Road. Only by blocking Yuan Shao can the Northern Xinjiang Army fight a decisive battle with Cao Cao with confidence.

After the decisive battle, even if the Northern Xinjiang Army won, it is still scarred, and the first task of the Northern Xinjiang Army at this time is to increase the troops on the West Road battlefield, in case Yuan Shao takes the opportunity to attack Jizhou, so there is nothing to be done here.

"Look, are we taking advantage of the publicity?" Yuan Shao asked.

Fu Zhi and the others looked at each other, but no one spoke.

"Don't get me wrong." Yuan Shao shook his hand, "Although Zhang Yang and Lu Bu have met, this does not affect my trust in Zhang Yang. I know Zhang Yang's character, and you also know his personality, even if Lu Bu has a life-saving grace for him, he will never betray me, and I still have this confidence. (To be continued.) )