In the middle of October of the third year of the Han Dynasty, Yuzhou, Peiguo Qicheng. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

When Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's army was fighting with Huang Zu in Jiangxia, Yuan Shu decisively requisitioned nearly 10,000 troops from the Yangtze River to Qicheng. He gathered an army of 30,000 and took advantage of Cao Cao's mistakes in coordination with Liu Bei to take the initiative to attack in early October, inflicting heavy losses on Cao Cao's army and killing Cao Cao's generals Xu Xi and Mao Hui.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei retreated fifty miles, and the troops were stationed in Suishui to discuss countermeasures. At this time, it was late autumn and winter was coming, so Liu Bei suggested withdrawing the army.

Cao Cao considered that the army had been fighting for too long, and that he had recently lost another battle and lost two generals, and the morale of the generals was low, so he immediately agreed to Liu Bei's suggestion and planned to withdraw his troops back to Yanzhou.

At this moment, Yuan Shao sent someone to come.

This time, Yuan Shao did not ask Cao Cao to send the Son of Heaven to Luoyang, but proposed a compromise solution. Yuan Shao suggested that Cao Cao send the Son of Heaven to Yingchuan, with Xuchang in Yingchuan as the temporary capital.

Yingchuan County in Yuzhou and Chenliu County in Yanzhou are at the junction, and Xuchang City is about 300 miles away from Chenliu City in Chenliu County and about 500 miles away from Luoyang.

Yuan Shao's suggestion was obvious, putting the Son of Heaven in a place where neither of them could hold him hostage, so that although he could not dominate the imperial power, it also made Cao Cao lose his strong support.

This is the first time that Yuan Shao has publicly expressed his attitude since Yuan Shu re-established the imperial system. Yuan Shao not only admitted that Cao Cao had established the imperial system, but also generously took a step back, which made Cao Cao suspicious.

Yuan Shao suddenly expressed his attitude at this time, which obviously had a lot to do with Yuan Shu's defeat of Cao Cao and Liu Bei, and the two planned to withdraw their troops. Yuan Shao didn't want the two to withdraw their troops, but the question was, did Yuan Shao categorically decide to abandon Yuan Shu just because he wanted the two of them to continue fighting? Is there some conspiracy here?

Yuan Shao recognized the imperial system established by Cao Cao, and the next step was to separate the line with Yuan Shu, announce to the world that Yuan Shu was a rebellion of the Han Dynasty, and support Cao Cao and Liu Bei to attack Yuan Shu. Yuan Shao forced Yuan Shu to a dead end, and Yuan Shu must fight back and fight to the death with Cao Cao and Liu Bei. When the two sides fight to the death, Yuan Shao may have to attack the Central Plains.

If Yuan Shao wanted to take the Central Plains immediately, then Yuan Shao might have taken control of Jingzhou at this moment.

Cao Cao was puzzled. Liu Biao was so vulnerable after the Battle of Yizhou? Liu Zhang, Sun Ce, and Zhou Yu attacked Jingzhou one after another, inadvertently forming a east-west flank attack, but in this way, Liu Biao was defeated?

If Yuan Shao controls Jingzhou, and then designs to force Yuan Shu to a dead end at this time, and let him entangle himself and fight with him, then the Central Plains may really change hands in an instant.

Cao Cao then decided to withdraw his troops, intending to ignore Yuan Shao's suggestion.

Cheng Yu, Xi Zhicai and others tried their best to dissuade them.

Cheng Yu said: "Now that the troops are withdrawn, this year's battle will be in vain." If the lord agreed to Yuan Shao's request and sent the Son of Heaven to Xuchang, then Yuan Shu would be abandoned by Yuan Shao. Without Yuan Shao's support, Yuan Shu would inevitably fall into a desperate situation, and internal divisions were inevitable. Yuan Shu was in turmoil, and defeating Yuan Shu was a breeze. ”

"After taking the two counties of Jiangbei in Yangzhou, we will connect the Central Plains and Jianghuai together, and we will be able to advance and retreat freely on the battlefield in the future. Even if we lose the Central Plains and let Yuan Shao rob the Central Plains, with the alliance between Jiang Zhun and Cao, Liu, Sun Zhou, we can still compete with Li Yi and Yuan Shao for hegemony. ”

"Now Yuan Shao is powerful, Hebei is unable to go south in the short term because of the rebellion of the Hu people in northern Xinjiang, and if Yuan Shao occupies the Central Plains at this time, it is very likely to usurp. Once Yuan Shao usurped it, a big war between us and Yuan Shao was inevitable. After Hebei stabilized the northern Xinjiang, it could take advantage of the fishermen's advantage and go south. Therefore, in order to prevent Yuan Shao from usurping, we still promised Yuan Shao as soon as possible to send the Son of Heaven to Xuchang, so that we can effectively slow down the pace of Yuan Shao's usurpation and buy enough time for us to seize Yangzhou and consolidate the Central Plains. ”

Xi Zhicai also hypothesized another possibility, he said: "If Yuan Shao controls Jingzhou now, his strength has skyrocketed, and we can't stop him from capturing the Central Plains." What should we do if we lose the Central Plains? ”

"Secret alliance with Hebei! If we are forced by Yuan Shao's threat to send the Son of Heaven to Xuchang, and we have no Son of Heaven in our hands, we can send people to secretly go north, form an alliance with Hebei, and use the power of Hebei to attack Yuan Shao. When Hebei and Yuan Shao were inseparable, we gathered heavy troops to attack. In this way, we can not only get back the Central Plains, but also Yuzhou. ”

"The lord's strength increased suddenly, but Yuan Shao's strength was greatly damaged, and he had to bow his head to the lord and return the emperor. In addition, at that time, he had to look at the face of the lord to barely survive in the Guan and Luo areas. In this way, the lord can base half of the country, and in time, the lord can lead the army, cross the river to the north to pacify Hebei, and dominate the world. ”

After Cao Cao carefully weighed the pros and cons, he listened to the opinions of Cheng Yu and others. In order to ensure that this matter was foolproof, Cao Cao deliberately asked Mao Jue to go to Luoyang to talk.

………………

In early November, news of the Jingzhou battlefield reached Cao Cao's camp.

Liu Biao defeated Liu Zhang's Yizhou army in mid-October. Sun Ce and Zhou Yu joined forces to attack Jiangxia, but were stubbornly blocked by Jiangxia Taishou Huang Zu, and the Jiangdong land and water armies fought for more than two months, but they gained nothing and had no choice but to withdraw.

Yuan Shao wanted to wait until the Jingzhou army was difficult to support before helping out, so as to quickly control Jingzhou, but who expected it to backfire, and the Jingzhou army won on both battlefields. Yuan Shao failed to take control of Jingzhou.

Cao Cao was overjoyed, and immediately wrote to Mao Jue, asking him to talk slowly with Yuan Shao, don't be in a hurry, and delay it if you can.

However, he had decided to send the Son of Heaven to Xuchang and delay it, just to get more benefits from Yuan Shao.

At the same time, Cao Cao wrote to Sun Ce and Zhou Yu, asking them to reorganize their army and threaten Yuan Shu from the Yangtze River as much as possible, so as to prepare for their own attack from the front.

………………

In early November, Jizhou, Guangzong City.

After receiving the urgent order of the general Li Yi, the commanders of the major army corps stationed in Jizhou rushed to Guangzong City day and night to meet the general Li Yi.

After Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhang He, Chang Yuchun, Li Jing, Tai Shici and others saw Li Yi, they hurriedly asked about the situation in northern Xinjiang. The generals didn't know that the news sent by the imperial court was fake, and they were all anxious, eager to know the specific battle situation.

"That news is fake." Li Yi said lightly, "The purpose is to deceive the Central Plains into rebellion and make them temporarily lose their vigilance against Hebei." ”

The generals looked at each other, crying and laughing. Zhang Fei was angry, and scolded as soon as he opened his mouth: "Those people in the court are really full, and they have nothing to do to make us poor." ”

Zhang He came to Li Yi's side and asked in a low voice, "Lord, are you going to fight the Central Plains?" ”

Li Yi nodded and said: "Yes, I didn't return to Jicheng directly, but went to Jizhou to see you first, just to start the spring and fight the Central Plains." ”

"Okay......" Zhang Fei was overjoyed, excitedly picked up his fist, and slapped the case a few times or twice, "Big brother, if you hit the Central Plains, let me be the first to cross the Yellow River." ”

Li Yi smiled and said: "The first battle of the Central Plains War was not to cross the Yellow River, but to attack Luoyang from the direction of Hanoi. ”

The generals also set their sights on Tai Shi Ci, whose army was stationed in Hanoi.

"Fighting Luoyang is just to contain Yuan Shao's troops, there is no battle, it's boring." Zhang Fei pouted dissatisfiedly, "Big brother, when will you cross the Yellow River?" ”

Li Yi said: "When Yuan Shu asked for help, it was the day we killed the Yellow River. “

Sima Xu Shu of the General's Mansion gave an explanation of the situation of quelling the rebellion of the five tribes.

Xu Shu said: "The lord first captured seven verticals, subdued Ding Lingren, and then successfully appeased the Jiankun people, and used the iron cavalry of Ding Lingren and Jiankun people to defeat the rebellion of the Hu people such as the Jinwei people, the Huns, and the Hujie people, and stabilized the desert in the shortest time at the lowest cost, saving a lot of manpower and material resources for the imperial court, so that the imperial court could launch an attack on the Central Plains within the scheduled time to become a reality. ”

"In the past year, the conquests between various forces in the Central Plains have come and gone, far more intense and complicated than the imperial court originally expected, especially the sudden rise of the four new forces of Yizhou Liu Zhang, Jiangdong Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, and Ma Chao in Western Xinjiang, which has added great difficulty to the imperial court to pacify the world as soon as possible."

"In view of the unpredictable and complex situation in the world, the imperial court decided that next year's Central Plains War will not only be launched as scheduled, but can only be won and not defeated. The slower the pace of the imperial court to pacify the world, the longer the time dragged on, the greater the strength of rebellion in various places, which was very unfavorable to the great cause of the Han Dynasty. ”

"Judging from the situation we have so far, the rebellious Yuan Shao, who hindered the great cause of Zhongxing the most, quickly resolved the Guanzhong Chaos this year due to Ma Chao's troubles in Western Xinjiang, and then because of Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's reverse blows, Yuan Shu lost in the Central Plains battlefield, forcing him to quickly shift his attention to Jianghuai, so that he did not fight a battle this year, and his strength was quickly restored."

"Many of the new policies implemented by Yuan Shao in the Guan, Luo, and Henan areas have begun to take effect in recent years. The Guan, Luo, and Henan areas were full of high-ranking scholars, and many of Yuan Shao's policies were deeply supported by the gate lord clan, which made him have enough strength to implement and promote the new policy. Yuan Shao's recovery was very fast, exceeding our original expectations. It is said that he recruited a large number of troops to replenish the army this year, and the amount of grain requisition and ordnance production was also huge, and the Luoyang arsenal and grain depot were already full of all kinds of materials. ”

"In addition, according to the latest news we have received, Yuan Shao has decided to target next year's attack on the Central Plains after learning that the Hu tribes in northern Xinjiang had rebelled, the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army had gone north to conquer, and the threat north of Guanluo had been greatly reduced."

According to Yuan Shao's goal, it is very likely that he will abandon Yuan Shu in the near future, force Yuan Shu to a dead end, and then force Yuan Shu to launch a crazy counterattack, and fight to the death with Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Ce. Yuan Shu was defeated, Cao Cao and Liu Bei lost their troops and generals, at this time Yuan Shao could take the opportunity to attack the Central Plains and suppress Cao Cao and Liu Bei to the Jianghuai and Xu lines, so as to occupy an absolute advantage in strength and become the overlord of all forces again. (To be continued.) )