I am not an ant thief in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 388, Ambition for Xuzhou

Cao Cao also looked envious when he heard Liu Bei's battle report. It is good to have the righteousness of the court. When the crusade against Yuan Shu, the entire Yangzhou officials surrendered. , It takes less than half a year to cross the entire Yangzhou, and it only takes two months for Liu Bei to go to war.

His 5 army really went on a parade, and did not exert any force. Liu Bei alone smashed Yuan Shu's forces to pieces.

If he was to fight, even if he fought for a year or so, he might not be able to defeat Yuan Shu. If he wanted to annex Yuan Shu's forces, the price he would spend would be quite high. Vision is completely swallowed up.

Now Liu Zhang occupies the natural danger of Yizhou, with 10 soldiers, but he can't stop Liu Bei's army. In less than a month, the entire Berkshire fell. Liu Bei's army is almost hitting Chengdu. It's only a few months away. Time, the natural dangers in Shu, the strong soldiers and strong horses, all of which are useless in the face of the righteousness of the court. Cao Cao thinks that I can do it. If his territory is far away from Sili, he must have gone to Guanzhong Qinwang back then. Liu Bei picked up such a big man for nothing. cheap!
At this time, the brand of the big man is still somewhat useful. Although the current Liu Bei looks like a more powerful version, in fact Liu Bei is still the same Liu Bei. He is now invincible, and the momentum of invincibility is a bonus given to him by the big man.

Cao Cao in history is also the same as Liu Bei. Before there was no narrow emperor to order the princes, Cao Cao only occupied Yanzhou, and thought that he would fight Tao Qian and Lu Bu. The whole Yanzhou was almost turned into a piece of white land. The relationship with him fell apart, and Cao Cao even found it difficult to maintain his power in Yanzhou, which made Cao Cao even seek refuge with Yuan Shao.

At that time, Cao Cao was just an inconspicuous vassal force in the Central Plains, and there were many vassals stronger than Cao Cao.

And after he went to Luoyang City to serve as the king, he almost got a land of Sili for nothing. Although Luoyang City was smashed at that time, the land in Hedong and Hanoi could barely maintain, and Yuzhou was easily occupied by Cao Cao because of his court's righteousness.

With the righteousness of the court, there is no shortage of talents. The talents of the great Han Guanxi, Guandong, and Yingchuan have turned to Cao Cao one after another. His old opponent Yuan Shu was even summoned by him in the name of the court. This is complete defeat.

Cao Cao was qualified to compete for world hegemony only by borrowing the shell of the listed company Dahan.

It can be said that with the righteousness of the court, Cao Cao jumped from a middle-level prince to a top prince who could wrestle with Yuan Shao. If Cao Cao was not unlucky, the entire Central Plains would not be free from natural and man-made disasters during the years of his rule, so that he occupied A wealthy Central Plains is actually inferior to Yuan Shao who has only one Jizhou in terms of food, grass and military strength.

To a certain extent, Yuan Shao's early launch of the Battle of Guandu can't be wrong, because from the background, Yuan Shao, who only occupies a land in Hebei, is no match for Cao Cao, who occupies Xuzhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou. The longer it took, the faster the Central Plains would recover, and Cao Cao's strength would become stronger, but Yuan Shao didn't expect that he had the advantage in military strength, but in the end he was beaten by Cao Cao, making his power decline from prosperity to prosperity!

But now that Cao Cao's destiny has been transferred to Liu Bei, Cao Cao can only envy, envy and hate, watching Liu Bei be invincible and invincible.

But Xun Yu didn't notice Cao Cao's jealousy, and continued: "Liu Bei is about to unify the south, and Yuan Shao also occupies the three states of the Central Plains. The only area left for us to expand is Xuzhou. If we can't take advantage of Liu Beiyuan When Yizhou occupies Xuzhou, Xuzhou will definitely be occupied by Yuan Shao or Liu Bei, and then we will have no room for development at all!"

Guo Jiadao: "Except for Lei Gong, the biggest rebel and the Xiliang rebellion in the world, the remaining princes are Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, the Lord and Tao Qian. The first two occupy the land of the three states. .We and Tao Qian are allied with each other to barely maintain our power!"

"So Xuzhou is very important to us. With Xuzhou, we can also join forces with Liu Bei and Yuan Shao to resist Lei Gong. Without Xuzhou, we are just fish in the net, dying.

Cao Cao has two states and can resist Liu Bei and Yuan Shao, who own three states. Liu Bei or Yuan Shao's annexation, it can be said that Cao Cao is now at the moment of life and death!
Cao Cao knew his situation, and said seriously: "This is the only chance to get Xuzhou!"

Now that Liu Bei led the army to attack Liu Zhang in Yizhou, he had no time to pay attention to the affairs of Qingzhou and Xuzhou, and Yuan Shao agreed to be exhausted by a drought in the Central Plains, and at the same time he also focused on the war in Yizhou.

What Cao Cao can think of, he also can think of. This is that if Yizhou is captured by Liu Bei, the entire southern part of the Han Dynasty will be occupied by Liu Bei. Liu Bei far exceeds Yuan Shao in terms of territory and population. With the righteousness of the court, Yuan Shao's strength is far inferior to Liu Bei's. This is something Yuan Shao cannot tolerate.

So Yuan Shao was trying his best to support Liu Zhang during this period, not wanting Liu Bei to easily occupy half of the Han Dynasty.

Now Yuan Shao has no time to pay attention to the situation in Qingzhou and Xuzhou. When the two princes of the Han Dynasty are focusing on Yizhou, Cao Cao wants to occupy Xuzhou. Now is the best time!

Cao Cao muttered to himself: "The only difficulty now is how to completely occupy Xuzhou in a short period of time, and prevent Liu Bei, Yuan Shao and Lei Gong from stopping our actions!"

In terms of military strength, Cao Cao is very confident that he can beat Tao Qian violently, but if he wants to occupy Xuzhou, it is useless to rely on military strength alone, or it is useless to rely on his stronger military strength than Tao Qian.

Although Tao Qian's army is not as large as Cao Cao's, because of the rampage of the Yellow Turban Army, the entire Xuzhou Army still has 5 troops, and all of them are elites with rich experience in defending the city. At the beginning, the million Yellow Turban Army did not conquer Xuzhou. It is still difficult for the large army to conquer Xuzhou.

Cao Cao knew that it would be impossible for him to conquer Xuzhou in less than a year and a half, and such a long time was enough for Liu Bei, Yuan Shao and even Lei Gong in Hebei to react.

Any one of them, sending a little force at will, could easily make his plan fail.It is even possible that the battle between him and Tao Qian will turn into a praying mantis catching a cicada, with an oriole behind him, especially his praying mantis, with three orioles behind him.

Xun Yu thought for a while and said: "The operation to occupy Xuzhou should be based on political means, supplemented by military means. If we have to use troops as a last resort, we must deal with the Xuzhou army within half a month, otherwise our army will be in danger."

(End of this chapter)