I am not an ant thief in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 556, the dangerous Cao Cao
Now Cao Cao's power is in danger, no matter how they look at it, they have no possibility of driving away the Dagan Army. What everyone thinks is not how to help Cao Cao in the war, but how to keep their own family under the attack of the Dagan Army , Keep your own life, and further keep your own glory and wealth.

Fighting is definitely impossible to win. The continuous failures these years have made them lose hope of winning the big army. Judging from the current situation, their old nest will be copied by the big army. Now they have There are hundreds of thousands of troops, but as long as the big army captures Beihai County, within half a month, their army will be cut off from food and grass, and they will fall apart.

Apparently the only way out for them now is to surrender.

But if they surrender, Lei Gong is not a good lord. If they are ordinary princes, at worst they will sell Cao Cao, sing and dance, and happily change to a new owner to continue the prosperity of their family. Anyway, there is no thousand-year dynasty, only A thousand-year-old family, the big man has survived for 400 years, and now his death is considered to be the end of his life.

But Lei Gong wants to uproot their former disciples, knock their families into the dust, and turn them into slaves with a lower status than common people (in the eyes of these people, it is impossible to join the army or become an official to change the fate of their families. are no different from slaves), this is something they cannot accept.

And if they want to escape to the south of the Yangtze River, Xuzhou is also being attacked by Dagan. If they go to Xuzhou, they may be directly slaughtered by Dagan's cavalry.

For a moment, the generals who were born in the noble clan also felt a little hopeless, this Lei Gong really didn't give people any way to survive.

At this time, they finally felt the feelings of those people who were forced to starve to death by them back then. If they had known that they would force out such a demon as Lei Gong, they should have treated the people better back then.

After a long time, Cao Cao calmed down and said, "Now what can everyone do to save Qingzhou? As long as it is feasible, he must be entrusted with a heavy responsibility."

"Can you ask the general for help? Dagan launched an army of 50 to attack us. Now we in Qingzhou need reinforcements!" Zang Ba said desperately.

Cao Cao looked at Zang Ba coldly and said: "Now the general is also facing the siege of more than 20 cadres, do you think he still has the ability to rescue us now!"

Obviously it is impossible, Cao Cao feels a little hopeless now, the strength of Dagan army is too strong, Lei Gong, in order to deal with him and Liu Bei at the same time, there are more than 80 troops on the battlefield.

This is really very respectful of him and Liu Bei. When the first emperor attacked Chu, he only mobilized an army of 60, counting the 3000-year history of China. Lei Gong’s army may be the strongest, but The number of people is definitely the largest. Just to maintain the logistics of this army will need two to three million. Didn't Lei Gong mobilize all the young and strong in Dagan?

Yu Jin thought for a while and said: "Master, you can leave a general to station on the south bank of the Yellow River to resist Wang Lei's attack. You can take the main force to fight back against the army that invaded Qingzhou. As long as you drive this army out, we will be able to defend against Wang Lei's attack." The possibility of turning defeat into victory.”

Yu Jin was captured by Lei Gong last time. Logically speaking, it is impossible for Cao Cao to reuse him with such a stain.

But Cao Cao didn't care about the taint of Yu Jin. After he came back, he continued to take heavy responsibility on the ban committee, so now Yu Jin is very grateful to Cao Cao. The army took a step into Qingzhou.

But Guo Jia shook his head and said: "The army that invaded our Qingzhou this time is said to have exceeded 10, and our army here is only 15. There are still 30 Jizhou troops on the north bank of the Yellow River. Even if we fight defensively, But at the very least, we have to keep 5 troops, and our army only has 10 troops to support Qingzhou, which may not even be able to defeat the big army that invaded Qingzhou. If we are defeated on both sides, it will really be over!"

Yu Jin's strategy of defending from the south and attacking from the east is really too difficult. The fighting power of the Dagan army is stronger than them, and now the number of troops is more than twice that of theirs. Fighting against each other, unless there is a miracle, they have no possibility of winning at all.According to their past record against the main army, the possibility of failure is even greater.

Most of Lei Gong's generals are mediocre, but what they are best at is fighting stupidly. There is no basic condition for them to win by surprise. It is difficult for the generals who fight stupidly to let their enemies catch their weaknesses. It's very hard to beat them.Unless the enemy's hard power is stronger than them, but this is something Cao Cao can't do.

The current situation in Qingzhou made Cao Cao feel a little regretful, and Guo Jia was right. Even if Liu Bei took the initiative to attack Yuzhou, Lei Gong's main attack direction was still himself, and Qingzhou was still the main battlefield.This time he lost the bet, and it was a mess.

Cao Cao clearly understood that his power was about to collapse, and as Lei Gong continued to win, people with two hearts in him would seek refuge with Lei Gong one after another, and gain Lei Gong's appreciation by betraying him as a stepping stone.

At that time, his power will fall apart, and his family will also suffer a devastating blow from Lei Gong, so Cao Cao needs a way to stabilize the current situation at this time.

At this time, a messenger broke in and said: "Report! General, the Dagan Army has launched an attack. Now the Yellow River is full of soldiers from the Dagan Army. They are attacking our camp!"

"Boom boom boom!" The sound of artillery bombardment startled the generals around Cao Cao, and these people stood up one after another. Fortunately, they heard that the artillery was still very far away from their position, and they were safe in a short time, so they did it again. went back.

But they know that Qingzhou has reached the most critical moment.If they can't repel the attack of the whole army, Qingzhou will be annexed by Lei Gong, and everything in their family will be completely destroyed by Lei Gong.

At the first moment, both civil servants and generals looked at Cao Cao. Whether they surrendered or continued to fight, they all needed Cao Cao to make an idea.

At this time, Cao Cao knew that now was not the time to hesitate, and the more he hesitated, the more people wanted to surrender.

He solemnly said to Jin: "I also ask the general to help Cao, defend the south bank of the Yellow River for a month. After one month, Cao's reinforcements have not yet arrived at the general, even if he takes refuge in Lei Gong, Cao has no complaints."

Yu Jin said excitedly: "This subordinate will definitely be the lord, and return the shrouded body of horse leather! We must not let the big army set foot in Qingzhou within this month!"

After speaking, Yu Jin entered and exited the big tent, and went to the front to command the army to resist the attack of the big army.

Then Cao Cao said to Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Li Dianlejin and other generals: "Go back to your respective camps, gather your soldiers, and wait for the order to support Beihai County!"

Cao Ren, Cao Honghong, and Li Dianle entered into his voice and said, "Promise!"

"Others return to their posts and act in peace!"

Everyone said: "No!"

After the meeting, Cao Cao stayed, and Guo Jia said: "Representative Feng Xiao, please go to Ji County, Youzhou, to discuss peace talks, and tell Lei Gong that Cao Cao is willing to give up the land of Qingzhou and Xuzhou. Just leave a shelter for Cao Cao in the wilderness!"

Even if Cao Cao wanted to continue to resist, at this moment, he had to find a way out for himself.

After all, he still represents the Cao family and Xiahou's family, and he doesn't want to see the Cao family and Xiahou's family become like the Yuan family and decline.Going overseas to become a local king, at least the power of the family has been preserved, and it has not become an ordinary citizen like other powerful families in the Han Dynasty.

Achieving a class leap these days is similar to winning the lottery, but it is very easy to lower one’s family’s class to that of ordinary people, and it is basically a miracle to rise up. In China’s 3000-year history, there are countless families that have declined. , but there are very few people who can climb to the top again. Cao Cao can't guarantee that his family can do this.

Guo Jia also said solemnly: "Subordinates will not disappoint Duke Ming?"

In fact, he was also very desperate in his heart. After working hard for more than 10 years, he was finally defeated. It is said that his classmate Xi Zhong has become a prefect, and he can even become a state shepherd. It can be said that the fate of the two of them is from After Youzhou broke up, he completely changed, but he was the one who became worse.

At the same time, on the north bank of the Yellow River, Dagan soldiers, under the command of Wang Lei, continued to attack Cao Cao's camp on the south bank of the Yellow River.

A lot of preparations have been made for this war, not only specially made winter combat uniforms so that soldiers can fight in winter to ensure combat effectiveness, but also specially made sleds for sledges, so that soldiers can quickly move in this icy and snowy field. move.

"There are capable people around Cao Cao, who actually thought of a way to use snow to cast city walls!" Wang Lei looked at the camp on the south bank of the Yellow River with a telescope.He found that the results of his army were not as good as he expected.

Although his soldiers are brave, the generals on Cao Cao's side are also guarding watertightly, and although the severe cold weather is beneficial to the big party, it is also conducive to the defense of Cao Cao's side.

As early as after the snow fell, it was a simple and effective method to melt snow and create an ice wall, but now the south bank of the Yellow River is full of tall and short ice walls, and the places on the south bank of the Yellow River that are easy to land are all blocked by obstacles made of ice walls. It is very difficult for them to attack, and the strength of these ice walls is not even lost to the masonry walls.

At this time, it was difficult for the artillery of the Dagan army to be used on the ice. Only a few artillery went up the sledge, came to the land on the bank of the Yellow River, and launched an attack on Cao Cao's army, but there were too few places suitable for artillery shooting. It was difficult to exert the power of the artillery, and the shells hit the ice wall without causing much damage.

Xiongba beside Wang Lei said with a smile: "Winter is our best weapon, and the weak Han people won't last long! My subordinates will definitely help the general make the first contribution!"

After Wang Lei finished speaking, he saw a group of soldiers rushing to the front with outstanding maces.

Even if their companions were shot and killed by crossbow arrows, they continued to charge forward without fear.

After coming under the ice wall, they quickly built a simple human ladder, rushed to the top of the ice wall, and quickly slaughtered Cao Cao's soldiers.

Wang Lei was pleasantly surprised by this scene. The fighting power of these savages is really strong. He brought the Xiongba troops to the battlefield this time, and he really did the right thing.

Xiongba is a member of the savage tribe located north of the North Sea, after Dagan occupied the entire desert.Internally, Xu Wei divided the grasslands to resolve the internal disputes of the tribes, and at the same time increase productivity. He used the method of captive silage to improve the production efficiency of the grassland's live cattle and sheep. In addition, the open border allowed the herdsmen to freely enter and exit the Dagan. Selling their own livestock in the borderlands to reduce the price difference between middlemen. Even though natural disasters have continued in the desert in recent years, due to the improvement of the system and productivity, the living conditions of the herdsmen in the desert have improved rapidly.

Every winter there are hundreds of desert tribe herders.They went south to Bingzhou Youzhou and other places to spend the winter. The textile industry brought great development of animal husbandry, and the canned food industry solved the dilemma of having thousands of households with hair. They even brought a winter boom to Dagan's economy.

But occupying the desert does not bring all the benefits. The problems Tan Shihuai encountered back then, Xu Wei still has a headache now.

The climate in the north became worse during the Little Ice Age. Barbarians from the north continued to go south for the winter. They seized the local pastures and killed the local herdsmen, just like the Dingling people back then.

Facing these savages, Wang Lei naturally let them feel the iron fist of big money, killed these people and killed the captives, and then took these people to the mine to mine.

But even if the desert is in and out, it is still difficult to stop these barbarians who want to survive and continue to move south.

Wang Lei wanted to keep the enemy out of the country, and continued to expand the northern border of the desert. In Daquan, the northern border almost reached the Arctic Circle. Wang Lei even saw the white bear, which is extremely precious in Daquan. In winter, Wang Lei frequently Send out troops, and the sled army sweeps up the tribes with a radius of thousands of miles.

But the effect was still not great. Even in the places he swept in winter, the barbarians still popped up like mushrooms after summer, and the arctic climate was so cold that sometimes even his well-prepared sled soldiers would freeze to death.

In an extremely cold winter, an unprecedented cold wave swept across the entire desert. Two or three thousand of Wang Lei's sled soldiers froze to death, and escaped with heavy casualties. This made Wang Lei understand that his sled battle could only go so far.

But even if Wang Lei arrived at the North Pole, he still couldn't stop the northern tribes from migrating southward. The pressure of survival could make these northern barbarians explode into extremely powerful fighting power. Wang Lei didn't want to continue fighting with these barbarians in winter. .

In the end, Wang Lei came up with the idea of ​​incorporating these tribes of northern barbarians. After all, these northern barbarians are sparsely populated, and it would not cause much trouble to integrate into the local herdsmen. Moreover, more and more livestock are needed for large-scale work these years, and cattle and sheep are also There are more and more grasslands in the desert, although there are still surplus grasslands, but there are not enough people to graze them. As long as the grasslands are well divided, the barbarians and local herdsmen can resolve most of the conflicts.

(End of this chapter)