Summoning the Peak of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 2924: Zhu Di abandons the three counties of southern Qing and takes over Qingzhou without bloodshed (Part )

Chapter 2920: Zhu Di abandons the three counties of southern Qing and takes over Qingzhou without bloodshed (Part )

Zhu Di was worried that after the Wei army in Yanxi was destroyed, the Qin army would advance recklessly, and then take the opportunity to join forces with the Qin army in southern Qingnan to threaten the Ming-Song coalition forces in southern Qingnan, so he was in a hurry to withdraw his troops from southern Qingnan.

In order to prevent being blocked by Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang during the withdrawal, Zhu Di deliberately pretended to be offensive in order to confuse and paralyze Zhuge Liang, and also took the initiative to abandon a large amount of food and supplies that he could not take away.

But what Zhu Di did not expect was that after Cao Ren was forced to surrender, Cao Cao actually burned food and grass, turning the people of the entire Jiyin County into starvation people. Through this alternative scorched earth tactic to consume the Qin army's food and grass, he forced the Yanxi Qin army to stop in Changyi and temporarily suspend its advance.

"hiss……"

Zhu Di couldn't help but gasp and exclaimed: "Is Cao Cao crazy? Why is he so reckless?"

It was not just Zhu Di who thought so. In fact, in the eyes of many people, there was no need for Cao Cao to fight so hard.

Among the three kingdoms in the Central Plains, the relationship between Wei and Qin was the best, because not only were the two countries related by marriage, but Cao Cao and Ying Wen were also sworn brothers.

The relationship between Ming and Qin was the worst, only because Zhu Di and Ying Hao had a feud over murdering their fathers.

Although it is said that the world will eventually unite after a long period of division and divide after a long period of unity, no matter who will ultimately achieve unification, it will never be Cao Wei, which borders many countries.

Even if Cao Wei was not destroyed by Qin, it would have been destroyed by other forces sooner or later. In fact, being destroyed by Qin would have been the best outcome for Cao Wei. After all, given the relationship between the Ying and Cao families, only being destroyed by Qin would have given Cao Wei the best treatment after the country was destroyed.

Therefore, it is understandable that Cao Cao resisted Qin. After all, before the dust settled, all self-preservation behaviors were human nature.

But Cao Cao was so reckless and unscrupulous in his actions that it was a bit confusing, because apart from completely angering the Qin Dynasty, it would not bring any benefit to the Cao family.

Could it be that Cao Cao really had no way out? Zhu Di wondered in confusion.

"My lord, can't you see that Cao Cao is a suspicious and power-hungry person? Coupled with the lives of his close relatives like Xiahou Dun, he has now lost his mind, so he will give it his all. But it's a good thing for the Three Kingdoms Alliance." Fan Zeng said, stroking his beard.

"Indeed, with Cao Cao's disturbance, our army can not only retreat calmly, but also preserve more food and supplies."

According to Zhu Di's original retreat plan, he would have to abandon at least two-thirds of the food and grass in southern Qing and three-quarters of the strategic materials before he could safely withdraw his army under Zhuge Liang's nose.

But because of Cao Cao's commotion, the Qin army in Yanxi could not be threatened in the short term, so there was no need to withdraw urgently. They could just prepare slowly before leaving, which would naturally allow them to preserve more food and supplies.

As for the threat from the Qin army in Yanxi, it was obvious that it no longer existed, but why did Zhu Di still decide to give up the three counties in Qingnan?

The reason is very simple. Just because the Qin army doesn't come now doesn't mean they won't come in the future. Zhu Ming's western front is relatively empty, and the Qingnan front is too long, making it impossible to return to the rear in time for support. If they don't leave now, they won't be able to leave when the Qin army arrives.

Moreover, although Zhu Di gave up Qingnan, it did not mean that he would let the Qin army digest Qingnan. Before leaving, he would naturally set up many obstacles for the Qin army, at least to prevent the Qin army from using Qingnan to deal with the coalition forces in the short term.

"My lord, since Cao Cao can use burning grain and hundreds of thousands of hungry people to delay the Qin army, we can naturally follow suit." Yao Guangxiao said in a deep voice.

As soon as these words came out, Zhu Di was shocked, and then fell into deep thought. After a long time, he said, "No, Cao Cao can do it, but our army can't."

Hearing Zhu Di say this, Fan Zeng and Yao Guangxiao became anxious. Fan Zeng advised: "My lord, the danger of national destruction is imminent. You must not be soft-hearted."

"Yes, my lord. If our army follows Cao Cao's strategy, the people in the three counties of Qingnan will all starve to death. But as long as the Qin army still wants to win the hearts of the people, they will definitely spend food and grass on disaster relief, and the people will not be harmed." Yao Guangxiao also advised.

But even though Fan Zeng and Yao Guangxiao said so, Zhu Di still shook his head and said, "Father, Military Advisor, Cao Cao could do this because he was short of food and had confiscated the food rations from the people in advance, so a fire could turn the people of a county into starvation victims.

Our army did not forcibly confiscate the people's food supplies. Even if we burn the food supplies that cannot be taken away, the people of Qingnan will not starve. If we forcibly confiscate them at this time, it may provoke a civil uprising."

"My lord, these are not problems. I have my own way to make the people of Qingnan hand over the grain without provoking a civil uprising..."

Yao Guangxiao was interrupted by Zhu Di before he could finish his words.

"Even if I could ask the people to hand over their food and fodder, I would not do so."

Zhu Di's face was full of determination, and when he said this, the figure of Zhu Tianpeng appeared in his mind.

"Uncle Tianpeng handed over Qi to me out of trust. What he wanted was for Zhu Di to protect the country and the people, not to use the people to protect himself. If I really do what you said, how can I face Uncle Tianpeng after I die?"

Zhu Tianpeng was naturally not dead, but went west with Xuanzang. However, in the eyes of Zhu Di and the people of the Ming Dynasty, the sudden disappearance of Zhu Tianpeng must have been dead, and it can be basically concluded that he was assassinated by people sent by the Qin Dynasty.

It was precisely because of this that many of the generals in the Qi faction who were promoted by Zhu Tianpeng and who had received favors from Zhu Tianpeng hated the Qin Dynasty very much. That was why it was so difficult for Zhuge Liang to alienate the generals of the Qi faction that he even had to use a series of tricks to make it work.

Seeing that Zhu Di's expression was not fake, Fan Zeng and Yao Guangxiao became even more anxious. They wanted to persuade Zhu Di again, but before they could say anything, Zhu Di raised his hand to interrupt them. "You two military advisors, there is no need to persuade them anymore. The people of the Central Plains are so innocent. In just over 20 years, they have experienced five major wars in the Central Plains. Now it is me, Zhu Di, who cannot defend the three counties of Qingnan. I am also the one who wants to abandon the people of Qingnan. How can I use the people as a shield?"

After hearing Zhu Di's impassioned words, Fan Zeng and Yao Guangxiao were both relieved and helpless. They were relieved that Zhu Di cared about the people and had a bottom line in doing things, and was a truly benevolent and wise monarch. But they were helpless that under the current situation, benevolence and righteousness were of no use at all.

Zhu Di had already made up his mind. Fan Zeng and his advisers could no longer persuade him. They could only follow Zhu Di's orders. On the surface, they mobilized heavy troops to confront the Qin army, but secretly they were preparing to evacuate southern Qing.

At the same time, in southern Qing, in the Qin army camp, Zhuge Liang was discussing with his generals how to respond.

  Unlike Huo Qubing who liked to take risks, Zhuge Liang used his troops with a cautious mindset. Although he guessed that Zhu Di might retreat early, he did not think that Zhu Di would do so. There were three reasons for this:

First, the three counties in southern Qing were not only the defense line that Zhu Ming had built for a long time, but also had a large amount of food and supplies stored there. It was easy to evacuate people, but these things were not easy to move, so it was naturally impossible to just give up.

Second, there was more than a month of reaction time, which was enough for Zhu Di to resolve internal problems. Now that the internal hidden dangers of the Ming-Song coalition in southern Qinghai had been eliminated, they did have the confidence to take the initiative to start a war.

Third, the Qin army in western Yan had stopped in Changyi and would not pose a direct threat to southern Qing in the short term. Before all five counties in eastern Yan fell, Zhu Di actually had no need to retreat on his own initiative.

Not only Zhuge Liang, Su Dingfang also thought so. They did not think that Zhu Di had such courage, and in their opinion, Zhu Di's current actions were more like a chain of schemes.

On the surface, Zhu Di made a gesture of declaring war, but secretly transported supplies to the rear in order to mislead the Qin army and make them think that the Ming-Song coalition was going to abandon Qingnan, and then lure the enemy deep into their territory. This was obviously more convincing than Zhu Di directly giving up the three counties of Qingnan.

It has to be said that smart people think a lot, and both Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang are undoubtedly extremely smart people. But sometimes the truth is simple, and thinking too much will lead to missing the correct answer.

Although Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang were confident that they could win even if a direct war broke out, the Qin army was in a very good situation now, and the coalition forces should be anxious, so there was naturally no need to take risks. Therefore, Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang chose to wait and see, waiting for the coalition forces to expose bigger flaws.

However, neither Zhuge Liang nor Su Dingfang had expected that under the tremendous pressure of the fall of the western front, Zhu Di would actually have such courage that he actually abandoned the Qingnan defense line and a large amount of supplies before the Qin army captured Yandong.

Of course, Zhu Di would not let the Qin army take advantage of the food and supplies that could not be transported. Instead, he would burn them directly. Those that could not be burned in time were distributed to local people. In short, all the food was left for the Qin army.

Zhu Di's move really surprised both Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang. They were both amazed in their hearts: Zhu Di made a really brilliant move.

On the surface, Zhu Di's abandonment of the three counties in southern Qing not only greatly reduced his strategic space, but also resulted in the loss of one million people and a huge amount of food and supplies. It was a bad move that could not have gone any further, but in fact it eliminated a huge hidden danger.

The defeat of Cao's army in the Yanzhou battlefield put the Song-Ming coalition forces in southern Qingzhou into a dangerous situation. It can be seen that although this Central Plains War was divided into three battlefields on the surface, it was actually a whole. The victory or defeat was by no means determined by the victory or defeat of any battle, or the gain or loss of a city or a place.

Therefore, from the overall perspective, Zhu Di's abandonment of the three counties of Qingnan was actually sacrificing the chariot to save the king, which was an extremely correct move.

In response to this, Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang did not choose to pursue, but allowed the Ming-Song coalition forces to withdraw from Qingnan. After all, they could occupy the entire three counties of Qingnan without losing a single soldier. Why would they refuse such a good thing?

Because for the Qin army, there is no substantial difference between the decisive battle in Qingnan and the decisive battle in Xubei, and the decisive battle in Xubei is even easier.

Xuzhou is flat and easy to attack but difficult to defend. Only Langya County to the north of Xuzhou has complex terrain and strong cities, but it is not as good as the Qingnan defense line that the Ming Dynasty built with great effort. Qingnan is obviously more difficult to attack than Xubei.

Although the more than 300,000 Song-Ming coalition forces had run far away, they could still be caught up if cavalry was dispatched. However, even if they were caught up, they could not be stopped by cavalry alone. After all, although the Qingnan coalition forces retreated, they were not defeated and still maintained their original combat effectiveness.

If the cavalry were sacrificed, perhaps the battle could be delayed until the main army arrived, but the price would be too high and not worth it.

But if we really pay such a high price to delay the coalition forces and prevent them from escaping, it will take a greater price to destroy them if they retreat into the defense line and hold on to their lives.

On the contrary, if the Song-Ming coalition forces were allowed to retreat to Xubei, the process of retreat alone would cause self-doubt and wavering confidence within the coalition forces, and then their morale would drop, making the decisive battle in the near future easier.

Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang were both smart men, so it was natural that they could not fail to see this point, so they watched the coalition forces retreat to Langya County, while slowly sending troops to take over those empty cities.

The three Qingnan counties totaled 43 counties. In the previous repeated tug-of-war, the Qin army captured one and a half counties, totaling 18 counties, at the cost of 35,000 casualties.

Later, due to the shift of focus and in cooperation with Zhuge Liang's strategy of sowing discord, the Qin army strategically gave up thirteen counties and only retained five cities that were easy to defend and difficult to attack in order to attract and contain the enemy.

Zhu Di did not want to divide his troops and did not send anyone to recapture the thirteen counties abandoned by the Qin army. As a result, neither Qin nor Ming wanted them, and the area was put in an awkward situation of no one to rule.

Now Zhu Di took the initiative to give up Qingnan, and gave up a total of 25 counties. The huge Qingnan had 38 counties, each waiting for the Qin army to take over. This was obviously a huge project.

Excluding Zhou Yu's navy, the two armies of Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang had a total strength of 250,000. The total casualties in the previous two and a half battles were 35,000, and now there are only 215,000 troops left.

It is natural that an army of 210,000 can take over the 38 counties quickly, but the Qin army's speed of taking over is not fast at all, but rather slow. The reason is naturally to be wary of the backup plan left by Zhu Di. After all, moving too fast can easily leave hidden dangers, and Zhuge Liang and Su Dingfang obviously would not make such a low-level mistake.

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed, and the Qin army had occupied three prefectures and forty-three counties in southern Qing, finally completing the unification of Qingzhou.

In order to prevent unrest in the rear, Zhuge Liang eliminated most of the backup plans left by Zhu Di, and deliberately left 35,000 troops to guard the rear before leading 180,000 troops to the Xubei front with Su Dingfang.

[Ding Dong, the host unified Qingzhou, reward: 1 gold summoning card, 1 free attribute point;]