"In more than a month, Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, Cao Cao, and Liu Bei quickly joined forces, and while they stubbornly resisted our attack, they actively adjusted their tactics and transported the troops, money and food of the princes to the Central Plains battlefield in a steady stream. www.biquge.info On the contrary, because of the continuous battles of our army, all units have suffered losses of varying degrees, and the physical strength of the soldiers has reached the limit, and they are exhausted from top to bottom. In the face of the strong defense of the rebels, if we continue to fight, the losses can be imagined. ”

"Secondly, the supply of food and grass for the army began to be tight. In the early stage of the operation, we used all the troops in Hebei. The Central Plains Battlefield, Guanzhong, Guanxi Battlefield, Hanoi Battlefield, Henan Battlefield, and Xuzhou Battlefield all had to lose grain, grass and ordnance, and the imperial court's financial expenditure was too large to support. ”

"Fortunately, we achieved the predetermined goal in the shortest possible time, hit the border of Henan and occupied Yanzhou, formed a decisive battle with the rebels, and quickly turned into a stalemate on the battlefield. This has won us a valuable victory in the decisive battle. ”

"It has been more than two months since Zhang Fei led the army to attack Pinggao City in Hanoi and crossed the Yellow River in the south, and we have successfully completed the first two goals of the Central Plains War."

"The first goal was to quickly advance to the line between Dingtao and Changyi, so that the army could gain a foothold in the Central Plains and continue to engage the rebels. The second goal is to attack and advance to the line of Junyi and Chenliu, so as to quickly form a decisive battle situation and consolidate and stabilize Yanzhou. ”

"Now that both of these goals have been accomplished, the next step is the decisive battle. The purpose of the decisive battle is the only purpose of this Central Plains War, which is to inflict heavy losses on the rebels, eliminate the rebels' strength as much as possible, and prepare for the pacification of the world. ”

"From the formation of a decisive battle situation to the beginning of a decisive battle, both sides need a period of time to accumulate troops and accumulate grain, grass and ordnance, and both need to achieve a clear advantage before the decisive battle. The number of troops and the amount of food and grass are crucial to the success of the war. The reason why we were able to achieve amazing results in the early stage of the battle was because we had absolute superiority in terms of troops and food and grass, but now we are losing these two crucial advantages. ”

"The shortage of our decisive forces is obvious to all, and we and the rebels also know this, and this is the main reason why the rebels dare to fight us in Henan. But there is one thing that the rebels would never have thought of, we still have reinforcements, and our reinforcements are the cavalry of the Hu tribes on the desert. ”

"When this cavalry will go south and how many troops will go south will depend on two aspects, one is whether the imperial court can agree to requisition a large number of Hu cavalry south to the Central Plains, and the other is when the rainy season on the desert will end."

"Generally speaking, when July falls, the desert rainy season should end, if Hu Qi wants to return to the desert before the heavy snowfall, that is, in November, then they will only go south to the Central Plains for three months, except for the two months on the road, Hu Qi really participates in the war for only one month, that is, the time of September."

"If the decisive battle is set for September, then we are almost four months away from the decisive battle. In four months, we have to continue to fight the rebels, and the consumption of food and grass for more than 200,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of people is a huge number. ”

"According to our original plan, part of the money and grain in the decisive stage of the Central Plains came from the accumulation of the imperial court, part of it came from the wealth collected by the imperial court after the spring harvest in May, and part of it came from the allocation of counties and counties in Yanzhou and Qingzhou."

"Qingzhou's affairs are a little easier, after all, its strength has been greatly restored with the help of Hebei in the past two years, but Yanzhou has just experienced the war, and it will take a while from appeasing the people to collecting taxes and servitude. One of the important reasons why we are anxious to quickly form a decisive battle and confront the rebels in the Central Plains battlefield for a long time is that we want to win enough stable Yanzhou to obtain a part of its wealth. ”

"Since Cao Cao took control of the whole territory of Yanzhou, under the rebellious governance of Cao Cao and others, a series of restoration measures have been implemented. For example, the organization of displaced people to settle fields, the digging of ditches, the encouragement of business, the monopoly of salt and iron, and the revision of the military system to the scholar family system in conjunction with the military tun last year, these methods have greatly stabilized the counties and counties and increased their financial revenues. ”

"It has been five years since Cao Cao took control of Yanzhou, and Yanzhou has hardly suffered much disaster. In order to prevent the Yellow River from bursting, Cao Cao ordered the Yellow River to be dug up to flood Jizhou and protect Yanzhou. ”

When he went north to attack Hebei with the princes, he took advantage of the opportunity of the alliance with Liu Bei and Gongsun Zhan, and under the pretext of Yanzhou's poverty, Gongsun Chan and Liu Bei provided him with most of the grain and grass, and Yuan Shu also provided him with some grain and grass when he sent troops to Hebei in the early days. After Yuan Shu turned against Yanzhou with one blow, because of the limited number of troops, he only occupied a few large cities, and did not deal a fatal blow to Yanzhou. ”

Subsequently, Cao Cao and Liu Bei were defeated from Jizhou and returned to the Central Plains and joined forces to attack Yuan Shu. At that time, Yuan Shu occupied many counties in Xuzhou, and Liu Bei asked Cao Cao, of course, it was incumbent on him to bear all the grain and grass burden of the Yanzhou army. ”

"In the past five years, although Cao Cao has repeatedly sent troops, he skillfully took advantage of the situation at that time and used various means and methods to effectively protect Yanzhou counties and save Yanzhou's wealth."

"After the Northern Xinjiang Army crossed the river and went south, it was very fast. Attacking the city all the way, roaring down, and did not unscrupulously burn and loot in Yanzhou, which protected most of the counties and counties of Yanzhou to a certain extent, and did not cause huge damage to the people of Yanzhou. In many places, because they are too far away from Chidao and the city, the local people have not even occupied Yanzhou with the Northern Frontier Army. ”

"According to the speculation of Zhang Miao, Liu Yi, Chen Gong and other former Yanzhou officials, if the Northern Xinjiang Army can quickly occupy and stabilize Yanzhou, and let the people in Yanzhou can plough and harvest in spring as usual, then Yanzhou's financial endowment this year can at least protect itself, and it can save a large amount of relief money and grain that Hebei is preparing to allocate in order to stabilize Yanzhou."

"In this way, whether the army's grain and grass can support the decisive battle, the imperial court will be able to give us a clear answer at the end of June. If nothing else, it should not be a problem for us to hold out until October on the battlefield in the Central Plains. After October, when the autumn harvest is over and the wealth of the counties and counties in Hebei is in the treasury, no matter whether the decisive battle is over or not, as long as we do not lose, even if it is a draw, we can firmly control Yanzhou. ”

"At present, although we have contributed to the formation of a decisive battle on the battlefield in the Central Plains, we do not have enough troops and money for a decisive battle, so our current offensive strategy is to replace defense with offense and confront the rebels for a long time."

Zhuge Liang looked at everyone and continued: "With the continuation, the rebels will have a clear advantage in terms of strength and wealth, but because no matter what the victory or defeat of this battle, the pattern of the Central Plains will undergo major changes, and this change will be directly related to the life and death of the rebels, therefore, the rebels' top priority now is how to ensure the strength of survival in the process of joining forces to defeat us." ”

This mentality of the rebels has been very prominent in the three battlefields of the north, the south and the central in recent times. They have no determination to resist to the death, and often retreat in a hurry. If the rebels maintain this mentality, then the power of their counterattack will be greatly reduced, and if we find an opportunity to break through each one, they may collapse on all fronts. ”

"From this point of view, I think that the possibility of the rebels counterattacking in the near future is very small, and their countermeasure is probably to implement the technique of defensive delay, take advantage of our weakness in terms of insufficient troops, food and grass as much as possible, expand our disadvantage to the limit, and then launch a decisive battle in order to give us a fatal blow at the minimum cost."

"We will take advantage of the opportunity of the rebels' passive defense to gather superior forces on local battlefields and greatly deplete the enemy's vital forces, so as to expand the superiority of the army and create conditions for the transition to a decisive battle in September."

"In addition, our protracted attack is also a suppressive and discouraged blow to the enemy's morale, which can make the rebels unable to form a unified opinion on the choice of counteroffensive, and lose a good opportunity for counteroffensive in vain."

After Zhuge Liang finished speaking, the generals then discussed the deployment of troops and the focus of the attack, and then left one after another.

………………

Xu You rushed to the front line of Kaifeng, shot a book in the northern Xinjiang military camp, and asked to meet the general.

Li Yi didn't want to see him, and he didn't have the slightest interest in his proposal, so he ordered the front-line generals to refuse directly.

"My lord, I think I can see it." Sima Yi persuaded, "Maybe we can get something out of his mouth." ”

Li Yi waved his hand and smiled: "Then you go and see what he says." I heard that this man is arrogant and conceited, has no one in his eyes, and is also bitter, so you must hold back and kill him in a fit of rage. ”

Sima Yi bowed down to receive the order.

………………

Xu Yu entered the camp of the Northern Xinjiang Army alone, and when he saw that he was receiving a young man in his twenties, he made a disrespectful remark at that time: "Are the people of Hebei dead?" ”

Sima Yi smiled slightly and said, "I heard that a dying person came to Luoyang, and the Hebei people in the camp were worried about getting bad luck, so they dispersed in a hurry. My father-in-law had no choice but to let me, the groom, receive him. ”

Xu You glared at Sima Yi "Hehe" and sneered: "A barbarian, no matter how many years he has been in the Han Dynasty, he is still a barbarian, except for feeding the horses, he can't even say a word. ”

"If what the Sima family in Hanoi says is not human language, then Xu Ziyuan, I'm afraid what comes out of your mouth is beast language." Sima Yi immediately sneered at each other without showing weakness.

Xu You was stunned for a moment, looked Sima Yi up and down, and asked, "How old are you in the Sima family?" ”

Sima Yi said lightly: "Old 2, Sima Yi." ”

Xu You glanced at him in surprise, shook his head and sighed: "It's been ten years, it's been ten years in the blink of an eye." Is your father okay? ”

"My father and father are in good health." Sima Yi immediately put on a respectful smile, "My father often mentions my uncle, and I miss my uncle a lot. How is my uncle doing? (To be continued.) )