The retreat of the Northern Xinjiang Army made Cao Cao and others face a difficult choice, whether to continue to pursue northward?

It is too dangerous to continue the pursuit north. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

From the beginning of the war in mid-May to the present, the Northern Xinjiang Army has used cities and rivers to block it, and has not fought a major battle with the coalition forces face-to-face, and the losses are so small that they can almost be omitted.

Especially the strong Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry, except for a sneak attack on the Jingzhou Army in Pengting, I haven't even seen a shadow so far. The purpose of the Northern Frontier Army is obvious, Li Yi is unwilling to fight a decisive battle with the coalition army, and he is still patiently looking for opportunities. The tiger was hiding itself in the dark woods, ready to strike a thunderous blow.

It is impossible to give up and continue north. At present, the armies of all walks of life have just reached the south of Jizhou, and there is not much loss, and the goal of going north to crusade against Li Yi and occupying Jizhou has not been achieved, and it must be fought.

The battle situation has developed to this point, and the best way is to urge Yuan Shao to rush to Ganling City to join the coalition army, and then gather 370,000 troops to attack the central part of Jizhou, but there are more than 100,000 elite northern Xinjiang troops in the direction of Yecheng, although Yuan Shao restrained them, but they also restrained Yuan Shao, and no one on either side could move.

At this time, a shocking news was sent to the coalition camp: Ma Chao was in rebellion, and he was attacking Chang'an with Han Sui and Zhang Liao.

The news was sent by Cheng Yu, who stayed in Yanzhou. Cheng Yu said in the letter that the news had reached Kanto as early as the beginning of this month, but the reliability was low. Because if Ma Chao rebelled, his father Ma Teng and Xiliang Tieqi would be wiped out, Ma Chao was not an idiot, and he would not dare to do such a disobedient thing no matter what. Cheng Yu thought that this was Hebei's discord plan, and the reason why Yuan Shao concealed it was obviously Ma Teng, worried that Cao Cao and others would be unfavorable to Ma Teng.

It can be seen from this incident that Hebei has done everything in order to defeat the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Hebei's not clever discord plan doesn't seem to have any effect, but it gives us a chance to hit Yuan Shao hard, and we can use another discord plan on the basis of this discord meter.

We first secretly leaked this news to Ma Chao, made Ma Chao suspicious, and became wary of Yuan Tan, and then killed Ma Teng at the right time, forced Ma Chao to rebel, and made Guanzhong chaotic, forcing Yuan Shao to be unable to enter the Central Plains.

In this way, we don't have to worry about the Yuan brothers.

The reason why we don't dare to boldly enter Jizhou now is that we are worried that the Yuan brothers may take advantage of the decisive battle between us and the Northern Xinjiang Army to attack the Central Plains. If Yuan Shao falls into the Guanzhong rebellion, then it is purely self-defeating to fight with us for hegemony in the Central Plains with Yuan Shu's strength.

Isn't that exactly what we need?

Under the protection of this double discord plan, the lord can put down all his burdens and do his best to attack Jizhou. If Jizhou can be conquered, the lord will own both Hebei and the Central Plains, so the hegemony can be achieved.

After Cao Cao read Cheng Yu's letter, he thought for a long time.

For him, the primary purpose of the Northern Expedition was not to occupy Jizhou, but to severely damage Li Yi and consume the strength of Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Yuan Shu and others. Only after the strength of all parties is weakened can they survive and develop.

Yuan Shao has developed too fast in recent years, if he didn't have the intention to be self-reliant, if he didn't fight with Yuan Shuming, he would have already bowed down.

But it is precisely because Yuan Shao, like Li Yi, actually tried to usurp the Han Sheji, wanted to dominate the world, and even wanted to destroy all opponents, so he had to fight hard.

However, the Han Dynasty has come to this day, and the prestige of the Son of Heaven and the imperial court has disappeared, and it is impossible to turn the tide by relying on the power of one person. At this time, whether it is for the sake of the common people in the world or for their own survival, we must choose a correct path.

But Cao Cao knows very well that according to his current strength, it is undoubtedly a fool's dream to assist the Son of Heaven Zhongxing Dahan, and the most realistic thing is to divide one side, first build "Huan and Wenzhigong", and then map the cause of the king.

Cao Cao's power was located in the Central Plains in the land of the four wars, and all around him were eyed by other princes. In such an environment, it is difficult to survive, let alone develop.

The reason why Cao Cao wanted to unite Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei to establish a three-family alliance was to confront Li Yi and Yuan Shao and give himself time for development, but his real purpose was to change the three into one. Whether it is Gongsun Zan or Liu Bei, in Cao Cao's opinion, sooner or later he will become a victim of his hegemony.

Today's Northern Expedition is Cao Cao's first step towards hegemony.

In Cao Cao's heart, the ideal outcome of the Northern Expedition was that Li Yi suffered a heavy blow and was unable to cross the river to the south within a few years; Yuan Shao's strength was greatly damaged, and he was unable to enter the Central Plains eastward within a few years; Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei were beaten to the point of dying, and they could only bow down to him.

As for Yuan Shu, he hoped that this fierce ghost in the road would not change his sex, but would intensify his efforts and lead the army to attack the Central Plains. As long as Yuan Shu launched a surprise attack on his back at the right time, not only did he not hate Yuan Shu, but he also thanked Yuan Shu for helping him. Because without Yuan Shu's attack, how could he Cao Cao preserve his strength? How can you complete the hegemony in a short period of time?

To be honest, Cao Cao never thought of occupying Jizhou. With Hebei's strong army and strong potential in terms of population and resources, even if he occupies Jizhou, he will not be able to gain a foothold.

What is particularly serious is that after occupying Jizhou, several forces are bound to have a fierce struggle in order to carve up the interests of Jizhou, and when the time comes, without Li Yi's counterattack, the Northern Expeditionary Army will be crushed for thousands of miles.

Now all forces can form a Northern Expeditionary Army to attack Jizhou because they have their own goals. Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu wanted to annex the Central Plains and secede one side; Gongsun Chan wanted to hit Li Yi the one hand, to take revenge on Li Yi's attack on him, and on the other hand, to temporarily eliminate the existential crisis faced by Qingzhou; Liu Biao and Liu Bei were ministers of the clan, and they were nominally for the crusade against the rebellion, but in fact it was also for their survival. After all, Li Yi and Yuan Shao's strength is too strong, if they don't take advantage of this opportunity to hit hard, they will all be wiped out in the future.

However, after two months of attacking, the situation did not develop as envisaged due to the continuous retreat of the Northern Frontier Army.

Now that the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army still exists, Yuan Shao hesitated in Yecheng, and the battle situation has temporarily fallen into a stalemate.

According to Cheng Yu's method, Yuan Shaodong can be dragged into the Central Plains, and when Ma Chao rebels, Yue Fei in Hedong will not turn a blind eye, and Li Yi may focus on Guanzhong and compete with Yuan Shao for Chang'an.

But how can the current stalemate be broken? If the stalemate cannot be broken, Cheng Yu's plan of discord cannot be implemented, and Yuan Shu will not attack the Central Plains when needed.

Cao Cao summoned Xi Zhicai, Mao Jue, and Man Chong to discuss the matter.

If it had been in another time and space, Xi Zhi would have died at this time. I don't know if it's because Li Yi dug up Cao Cao's corner and poached several of the main strategists who should have defected to him, and God wanted to compensate Cao Cao, so Xi Zhi survived. Although his health was getting worse and worse, there was no sign of death.

As Cao Cao's number one strategist and the most trusted person by Cao Cao, Xi Zhicai was the first to stand up. He said: "Lord, this kind of divisive plan that can be seen through at a glance just illustrates Li Yi's intention to cover up. His main force must be on the front line of Xindu City. ”

Cao Cao, Man Chong and the others looked at each other, not knowing what this drama Zhicai wanted to say.

Xi Zhicai said: "Li Yi lured the enemy deeper, and the situation seemed to be getting more and more unfavorable for him, but let's take a look back, don't we also feel that the situation is getting more and more sinister?" This time, we finally formed a decisive battle situation, but Li Yi avoided it without fighting, which made us fall into great passivity. Now, if we are to accomplish the goals set before the war, we must quickly break the current impasse. ”

Cao Cao nodded appreciatively.

"I don't think it's a stalemate at the moment, on the contrary, it's the best opportunity to capture Jizhou." Man Zhong picked up Cheng Yu's letter and said, "Isn't that what Zhong De said in his letter? ”

"Zhongde doesn't know much about the situation on the front." Xi Zhicai hesitated, looked at Cao Cao again, and continued, "Lord, with our current strength, it is difficult for us to occupy Jizhou. We are not strong enough, so it is better to accomplish the goals set before the war. ”

"But then we're going to split our forces and head north." Cao Cao frowned and said, "Once we divide our troops, there will be three situations. First, the army attacking Nanpi was attacked by the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army, although this is what we would like to see, but if Yuan Shu does not take the opportunity to attack the Central Plains, we will not be able to get out quickly, and we may be hit hard by the Northern Xinjiang Army because of insufficient troops.

Second, if the Northern Xinjiang Army concentrates its main forces on the Xindu line, we will be the first to be attacked, which we do not want to see. Third, if we can't get out quickly, it will be difficult for the Northern Xinjiang Army to free up its hands to hit Yuan Shao hard. Yuan Shao's strength has not been damaged, even if this discord plan can be successful, it will be difficult for us to stop the Yuan brothers from joining forces to capture the Central Plains. ”

Cao Cao's words seemed to be negative to Xi Zhicai's suggestion, and he seemed to be more supportive of Cheng Yu, Man Chong, and Mao Jue's suggestion to quickly capture Jizhou.

As a result, Man Zhong and Mao Jue were greatly confident, and they tried their best to explain the feasibility of this strategy. The two believed that if the army could take Xindu and the army advanced to the front line of the Zhangshui River, then Yuan Shu was very likely to launch an attack on the Central Plains, but with the troops we were secretly staying in Yanzhou and Xuzhou at present, Yuan Shu could be completely blocked.

In addition, after we killed Ma Teng and forced Ma Chao to oppose Ma Chao, Guanzhong was bound to be in chaos, and Yuan Shao was unable to take care of the Central Plains at all, at this time he not only could not cooperate with Yuan Shu to capture the Central Plains, but also had to attack Jizhou with us with all his might, lest we retreat on all fronts, so that Li Yi could free up his hands to capture Guanzhong.

Of course, in order to prevent Yuan Shu from taking advantage of the opportunity, the army he left in Yuzhou will also help us fight Yuan Shu together.

As a result, the armies of the Northern Expedition Coalition had no choice but to attack with all their might. As for how to preserve strength in the follow-up attack, consume other opponents, and occupy Jizhou alone, it will be necessary to make adjustments at any time according to the development of the battle situation. (To be continued.) )