Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2891 Burning grain, burning warehouses and starving his body, it is difficult to distinguish between loyalty and treachery, and punish his heart

Chapter 2887: Burning grain, burning warehouses and starving his body, it is difficult to distinguish between loyalty and treachery, and punish his heart

"Your Majesty, you will know after seeing it."

After saying this, Guo Jia handed over the letter.

Ying Hao took it with a suspicious look on his face. After reading it, he suddenly showed a look of surprise. It turned out that the new channel Guo Jia mentioned was referring to the food and grass in Chenliu City.

Chenliu is also a large granary for Cao's army. According to the information provided by the surrendered generals, the grain stored in the city is enough to support an army of 100,000 for three months.

If this batch of grain and grass can be seized, it will indeed enable the Qin army to respond to emergencies, but the problem is that this batch of grain and grass is still in the hands of Cao Jun.

Although Chenliu is an isolated city, and the 100,000 Cao troops in the city are already the meat of the Qin army, it does not mean that the food in the city will definitely fall into the hands of the Qin army. After all, Cao Jun burns food before the city is broken. It's not the first time.

In order to force Cao Ren to surrender as soon as possible, Bai Qi's first step was to compress Cao Ren's activity space and completely turn Chenliu into an isolated city. The second step was to activate the spies lurking in the city and burn Chenliu's grain depot.

Once Chen Liu's food and grass were burned, Cao Jun would have no reinforcements outside and no food and grass inside. Even if Cao Ren didn't want to surrender, his men would definitely force Cao Ren out and surrender as long as they didn't want to starve to death.

Bai Qi didn't know that firewood, rice, oil and salt were expensive when he was not a leader. In order to force Cao Ren and Cao's 100,000 troops to surrender, he didn't care about the food and grass in Chenliu City, but the leader Ying Hao did.

"There are many ways to force Cao Ren to surrender. For our army who is short of food, burning food is undoubtedly the last one."

After saying this, Ying Hao immediately ordered: "Immediately send an order to Bai Qi, asking him to seize Chenliu grain and grass as much as possible, and do not burn the grain unless absolutely necessary."

Guo Jia said helplessly: "Your Majesty, you also know Bai Qi's resolute personality. I'm afraid it's too late to give orders now."

"..."

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Outside Chenliu City, inside the Qin Army camp;

When Bai Qi proposed to launch secret agents and burn down the grain depots in the city, most of the Qin generals present expressed support for three reasons:

First, they did not know that the Qin army was about to face a food shortage;

Second, the food being cooked is not home-grown, so naturally there is nothing to feel bad about;

The third is to push Cao Jun into a desperate situation as quickly and easily as possible;

Although the envoys Bai Qi sent into the city before came back alive, it was obvious from his observations along the way that even if Chenliu had completely become an isolated city, Cao Ren was still prepared to fight until the last moment.

Cao Ren originally planned to kill the envoy to show his determination not to surrender, but he was opposed by many of his generals, so he did not kill the envoy.

It can also be seen from this point that the Cao army is not monolithic, at least not everyone wants to fight to the end, and it is naturally wise for Cao Ren to take the initiative to give in, otherwise it will only intensify internal conflicts.

From the current point of view, only General Cao raised objections to beheading the envoys, but no one dared to surrender, which shows that Cao Ren still has a strong control over Cao's army. No one dares to surrender in front of Cao Ren, because whoever proposes surrender will die. .

Therefore, what Bai Qi had to do was to deepen the estrangement within Cao's army and force those generals who intended to surrender to express their attitude, and burning food was undoubtedly the simplest and most direct method.

The Qin army is about to face a food shortage dilemma. It is naturally impossible for ordinary generals to know, but how could Bai Qi, Zhang Liao, Zhao Yun and other high-level officials not know?

Bai Qi knew but he didn't care, so after the meeting, Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun went to Bai Qi to persuade him to take back his life, but unexpectedly, he was persuaded by Bai Qi instead.

"General, although there is not much food and grass in Chenliu City, it is not too little. Our army is currently in short supply of food and grass. It would be a pity to burn it like this. In my opinion, it is better not to burn it." Zhao Yun Experience said with a serious face.

When Bai Qi heard this, he looked to Zhang Liao aside and asked with a smile: "Wen Yuan, do you think so too?"

Zhang Liao frowned slightly and said: "Cao Cao intends to use the people to bring down our army's food supply. Now we have just captured Jiyin County, and there are more than 200,000 people as a burden. Cao Wei still has seven counties.

Next, our army will be under great logistical pressure, so it is better to try not to miss any opportunity to seize food and grass. "

Hearing what Zhang Liao said, Bai Dian nodded and then asked the two of them: "Then how do you think our army can get the grain and grass captured in Chenliu?"

"Just force Cao Jun to surrender." Zhao Yun replied.

"How to force surrender?" Bai Qi continued to ask.

"Forehead……"

Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao also reacted at this time. The Qin army had captured all the cities around Chenliu. Even though Chenliu was now an isolated city, Cao Ren never thought of surrendering, and he also planned to burn food once the city was broken. Prepare.

Chen Liu's grain reserves are enough to feed the city's defenders for three months. It is impossible for the Qin army to delay for three months, but if they attack by force, the casualties will definitely be huge.

After much thought, Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao found that burning grain was indeed the simplest and most direct way to force Cao's army to surrender.

"No wonder Taifu Jia didn't come together to persuade Bai Qi. It turns out that he knew from the beginning that Chen Liu's food and grass could not be demanded by the Qin army. They could only choose between food and grass and the surrender of the army." Zhang Liao thought to himself.

Zhao Yun hesitated for a moment and then said, "Should I ask His Majesty for instructions? After all, Chen Liu's food and grass is not a small number."

Bai Qi, however, didn't take it seriously and said: "If you don't accept your order from the king outside and ask for instructions on everything, how can you seize the fleeting opportunity? This matter is settled like this. If anything happens, I will Bai Qi." bear the responsibility.”

Bai Qi had already talked about this, Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao couldn't say anything more and could only obey their orders.

Bai Qi naturally knew that both Ying Hao and Guo Jia definitely wanted to preserve the grain and grass, and there was more than one way to preserve the grain and grass, but the price was that it would take longer, and Bai Qi didn't want to delay Chen Liu for too long. Another point is that it is the duty of civil servants to provide food and grass for the front line. Now that the civil servants want to give all this trouble to Bai Qi, Bai Qi is naturally unwilling. Burning food is to facilitate the army and leave the trouble to those thieving civil servants. .

In a word, Bai Qi is only responsible for fighting the war. As for food and logistics, that is the work of the civil servants and is not under his control. He is only responsible for doing the best things within his scope of authority. Everything else is included. whether.

Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun had just left the camp when they saw Jia Xu looking at them outside the camp, as if he had been waiting here for a long time.

"Military advisor, did you guess that the general would have his own way?" Zhang Liao asked.

Jia Xu laughed dumbly when he heard this and said: "What does it mean to have your own way? The general has fulfilled all his duties, and he should be loyal to his duties.

As for the issue of food and grass? Your Majesty and the ministers in the court have to worry about it. What are you two doing with your free time? Our Great Qin will not be troubled by a mere few million stones and grains. "

"We are just worried that the general will be impeached by the ministers at home." Zhao Yun sighed.

When Jia Xu heard this, he looked helpless: "Is the general afraid of impeachment? He is eager for more people to impeach him."

Bai Qi committed suicide because of Jia Xu's advice, but now Jia Xu regrets it. After all, with the achievements, prestige and ambition of the founding emperor Ying Hao, no matter how great his achievements are, he will not be superior to his master, but Bai Qi is committing suicide. On this road, he became more and more self-indulgent, which also made Jia Xu wonder if he had said it before.

After bidding farewell to Zhang Liao and Zhao Yun, Jia Xu went to his account alone to report to Bai Qi: "General, our army has a total of 214 spies in Chenliu City. This is the list of spies in the city. Mrs. A Qing and Huang Mr. Shang has also sneaked into the city and can start the operation tonight."

Although there are 100,000 Cao troops in Chenliu City and the defense is extremely tight, if the Grand Master sneaks into the city, he will definitely not be able to prevent it.

In order to ensure the success of this food burning, Jia Xu not only activated all the spies, but also sent two great masters, including Bai Qi's wife, A Qing.

Seeing that Jia Xu's arrangements were indeed flawless, Bai Qi had nothing to add and asked, "Burning food is not the point. The real purpose of our army is to use this operation to deepen the rifts within Cao's army and frame up after burning food." Setting the blame is the most important thing, I wonder how you arranged it, military advisor?"

Hearing Bai Qi's words, Jia Xu immediately took out a document from his sleeve, handed it over and said at the same time: "General, this is a plan to alienate Cao's generals after burning the food."

Bai Qi's eyes suddenly brightened up after he saw it, and he thought to himself: He is indeed a poisonous man, he is so ruthless and poisonous. Once this plan comes out, Cao Ren will not be able to resist, and Cao Jun will definitely be in internal strife.

What Jia Xu came up with this time was not a clever plan, but now the internal divisions in Cao's army were serious and the conflicts were gradually intensifying. Cao Ren did not trust anyone except Cao Hong, so as long as he found the right direction, even a general strategy would have miraculous effects.

After Jia Xu left, Bai Qi looked at Chenliu's city wall and said to himself: "Burn grain, burn warehouses and starve his body. It's hard to distinguish between loyalty and treachery, and kill his heart. Cao Ren, I hope you will like this great gift I gave you."

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At night, Chen Liu and Cao Ren were still handling military affairs in the prefect's mansion.

Although the Qin army trapped Cao Jun in Chenliu City, the walls of Chenliu City were high and thick, the food and grass could last for three months, and there were sufficient supplies to defend the city. In addition, the Qin army only besieged the city but did not attack it, so the defenders in the city were Although morale is low, it is not at the point of collapse.

Compared with external threats, Cao Ren is now more worried about internal instability.

During the day, Cao Ren ostensibly wanted to kill the envoy Mingzhi, but in fact he didn't really want to kill him at all. After all, the two countries were at war without killing the envoy.

The battle between Qin and Wei was bloody on the front line. Even if Xiahou Dun and many other clan members were killed in the battle, Cao Cao had not killed a single Qin soldier. Because the nature of killing envoys became so, Qin would also use more cruel methods to retaliate. Meet Cao Wei.

Cao Cao didn't kill the envoy, so Cao Ren naturally wouldn't do it. The reason why he pretended to do it was just a test, but the result was far beyond his expectation.

Under Cao Ren's temptation, more than 20 generals of Cao's army were divided into three factions:

Half of the generals, led by Cao Hong and Cao Yun, Cao Can's grandson, supported Cao Ren;

A quarter of the generals, led by brothers Cao Zhen and Cao Bing, clearly expressed their opposition;

The other quarter of the generals, led by brothers Cao Youwen and Cao Youwan, expressed neutrality.

There must be many people in the neutral faction who oppose it, but they just don't dare to stand up openly. In other words, the generals who oppose it account for at least one-third.

This scared Cao Ren. After all, if there were only a few people, he could control them and deprive them of their military power. But now there are too many people. If they all deprive them of their military power, Cao Ren will be in chaos first. How to fight against the Qin army?

In this regard, Cao Ren could only compromise first to stabilize everyone, and then find a way to gradually succeed.

Cao Ren already had a specific plan in mind, which was to shoot the first bird, kill the chicken first to scare the monkeys, and then find a way to divide it and resolve the internal conflicts internally as much as possible.

But what Cao Ren never expected was that before he had time to take action, Bai Qi had already made a move, and it was a killing move, making him unable to recruit at all.

"Oops, there's a fire in the grain depot, hurry up and put out the fire..."

Cao Ren, who was about to go to bed, immediately broke out in a cold sweat when he heard the shouts of putting out the fire. He ran out barefoot without even taking his clothes to change. Then he saw flames blazing into the sky in the direction of the grain depot, and his expression changed instantly. Became pale.

"General, I ordered that everyone except the four defenders should go and put out the fire for me..."

Cao Ren shouted with a broken face. Originally, he wanted to rely on the fact that the Qin army felt sorry for the casualties but could not encircle him, and tried his best to help Cao Cao escape to the east for one to one and a half months. But if all the granaries were burned, it would be ten The sky is so bad.

"Chenliu's granary is built underground and is extremely tightly guarded. The passwords are changed every day."

Cao Hong looked at the soaring fire and said to Cao Ren through gritted teeth: "Brother, there must be a traitor who leaked the secret, otherwise the Qin army would not have been able to get in so easily."