Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 310: The 19th Year of Jian'an, Cao Cao's Movement
Attack Han Sui and Ma Chao, unite with Sun Quan, and pacify Jingzhou?

Cao Cao pondered for a long time.

He is a smart man, so he naturally knew what Guo Jia meant.

Don't look at Sun Quan and Liu Bei getting married, even his younger sister married Liu Bei.

But Sun Quan still secretly pleaded his respect to Cao Cao, and his words were extremely flattering.

All fools know that Sun Quan offered his sister to Liu Bei and colluded with Cao Cao at the same time, in order to bet on both sides.

Therefore, judging from the advisers on both sides, they all think that Sun Quan is just a fencer who wins and helps.

You can, but you don't have to.

Because beating Sun Quan will only force him to the enemy camp and help the enemy increase their strength.

So just keep wooing and prevent Sun Quan from surrendering to the enemy.

Guo Jia's meaning is very simple.

If Cao Cao sent troops to Xiliang Pass to attack Han Sui and Ma Chao, Liu Bei would definitely not sit idly by.

If he sends out troops, Liu Bei will also send out troops, and if he sends out more troops, Liu Bei will also send out more troops.

At that time, Liu Bei's main force will be transferred to Guanzhong, and the rear of Jingzhou will be empty. At this time, we will join forces with Sun Quan to raid Jingzhou and cut off Liu Bei's arm.

But in Cao Cao's view, Sun Quan is not reliable.

I suffered a loss last time.

For Cao Cao, he doesn't care about Han Sui, Ma Chao, and Sun Quan.

The only thing he fears is always Liu Bei.

At the beginning, I tried my best to put Er Yuan on hold and attacked Nanyang in order to eliminate today's hidden dangers and prevent Liu Bei from becoming bigger.

As a result, Sun Quan was really weak. The battle of Hongkou was burned miserably by others, and Zhou Yu and Huang Gai were killed, so that Shen Chen led his army to the north, and Nanyang returned home in a disastrous defeat.

After that battle, Cao Cao completely lost the ability to curb Liu Bei's development, and it also made him recover the north at least a year late.

The reason for this series is the fiasco of Sun Quan Hongkou.

So Cao Cao doubted Sun Quan's ability very much. He even thought that if he did what Guo Jia said, Sun Quan might sell him backhandedly.

For example, when he sent troops to Xiliang Guanzhong, Sun Quan suddenly joined forces with Liu Bei to go north to raid Xuzhou, Yuzhou and other places.

After all, Liu Bei transferred the main force to Guanzhong and Jingzhou to be empty, and he transferred the main force to Guanzhong, and the different forces in Runan, Huainan and other places are empty?

If Sun Quan is at both ends of the snake, wouldn't he be in danger?

So Cao Cao pondered for a long time, stroked his beard and said: "Fengxiao's strategy is indeed a dangerous strategy. Fengxiao thinks this strategy can be achieved?"

"Jia thinks that although it is a risky plan, it can be done."

Guo Jia replied firmly.

Can it be done?

Cao Cao opened his eyes wide, and then asked, "Why did it work?"

Guo Jia murmured: "Because of uniting with us, Sun Quan has hope. Otherwise, he will definitely die."

"Details."

Cao Cao said immediately.

Guo Jiaying said: "The war in the south requires more water warfare. Our navy is disadvantaged and cannot annex Jiangdong, so the north is not a threat to Jiangdong."

This sentence awakened Cao Cao in an instant, and he suddenly realized as if he had attained enlightenment.

Yes.

The northern soldiers are not good at water warfare, and they have no threat to Sun Quan who is trapped in Jiangdong.

Only Liu Bei, who occupies Jingyi, has a huge navy and can go down the Yangtze River and take Jianye directly.

This also means that Sun Quan is facing the only pressure to survive, which comes from Liu Bei.

If he doesn't unite with himself, when Liu Bei further expands his navy in the future, it may be the time when Jiangdong will be destroyed.

As long as Sun Quan wants to live, even wants to annex Jingzhou and achieve a hegemony, he will never let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At that moment Cao Cao's mind turned countless thoughts, and then he began to think.

There was silence.

Guo Jia coughed twice, raised his head to see that the charcoal fire around him was about to go out, and sighed. He had a concubine to help him before, but now he had to use tongs to take a few pieces of charcoal from the iron bucket next to him and put them into the stove.

The three and a half sides of the small building in the lake are surrounded by wooden boards, only a gap like a window is deliberately left on the right side of the main seat, and a fine gauze curtain is hung, so that people can look at the scenery from inside.

After adding charcoal fire with tongs, Guo Jia took a jug of wine, leaned against the wooden wall behind him, took a sip of hot wine, and then turned his head to look at the snowflakes still drifting outside. Wearing a fluffy fox fur, it doesn't feel cold.

In the small building, except for the sound of the howling wind blowing the curtains, only the door was guarding the door in the snow, and Xu Chu, who stood like an iron tower, made a thick and rough sound.

Cao Cao was quickly thinking about the feasibility of this plan.

The current situation is a stalemate.

Han Sui and Ma Chao are not easy to fight, Sun Quan can't fight, and Liu Bei can't move lightly.

At their size, it is already difficult for the two sides to win or lose through local wars. Instead, they must start to fight for national strength and fight an overall war.

However, Cao Cao was not sure of victory.

The second is to fight an overall war, and the ones who benefit are the other princes who watch the excitement.

Once Cao Liu goes to war, Sun Quan, Han Sui, Ma Chao and the others are expected to have a lot of fun and watch the show by the side.

If Cao and Liu are two fierce tigers, then the others are a pack of wild wolves.

If both sides suffer, maybe this group of wild wolves can tear off a piece of flesh from the two tigers.

So it's not convenient to hit anyone.

It's just that Guo Jia's point is also very important.

Because for Sun Quan, it is in his interest that Liu Bei falls.

This also means that as long as Sun Quan is not stupid, when most of Liu Bei's main force is transferred to Hanzhong, he should send surprise troops to attack Jingzhou.

That's why Guo Jiacai said that he has great confidence.

It's just that this is still too risky for Cao Cao. Although he likes to take risks, the older he gets, the more he hopes to be safe.

After pondering for a long time, he said to Guo Jia: "Aside from this, is there any other reason?"

Guo Jia put down the jug, straightened his waist and cupped his hands and replied, "There is one more thing, to deter Han Sui and Ma Chao, and force them to surrender."

"Well."

Cao Cao stroked his beard and nodded: "This is also a lonely thing. After all, their families are in Yecheng as hostages. Maybe they just want to have a good home after surrendering. They only plan to go to Guanzhong next year. First, they hope that the army will suppress the situation and force They surrender. The second is to meet with them in person to negotiate peace, and it is best to convince them of this matter."

Guo Jia added: "The second point is to test Liu Bei's reaction. Liu Bei's advisers also have resourceful people. I deduced before that Han Sui and Ma Chao had protons in Yecheng, and Liu Bei would definitely think that they wanted to join them. Attacked them, but unexpectedly he held back."

This is the difference in information.

At the beginning, Fa Zheng, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and others thought that Han Sui and Ma Chao should be attacked to prevent them from submitting to Cao Cao.

But they didn't know that even though Yecheng had their family members as hostages, the two still chose to separate from one side, and had no intention of submitting to Cao Cao at all.

So it was this poor information that made Fa Zheng, Pang Tong, Xu Shu and the others make a wrong judgment, and almost forced Han Sui and Ma Chao to defect to Cao Cao.

The counselors such as Guo Jia and Xunyou naturally knew the attitude of Han Sui, Ma Chao and others who had been unwilling to submit.

Therefore, they set up a plan to suggest that Cao Cao be friendly with the two, and send envoys to appease them from time to time. At the same time, they declared to them that Liu Bei would harm them, and they should submit to the court as soon as possible to keep themselves and their families safe.

The purpose of doing this is very simple, to win over in advance.

Once Liu Bei sent troops to attack Han Sui and Ma Chao, when they were beaten to nowhere, it was self-evident whether they would surrender to Liu Bei who sent troops to attack them, or to Cao Cao who was friendly with them.

As a result, Guo Jia and others never expected that Liu Bei had an expert around him, so that Liu Bei did not send troops to Han Sui and Ma Chao, so that the trick was seen through.

So test Liu Bei's reaction to see if he had premeditated it or was it a coincidence.

Cao Cao nodded again: "Good."

Guo Jia said: "Even if Liu Bei doesn't come out of Hanzhong to compete with us in Xiliang, if the prime minister walks away, he can cut off their source of horses."

"Well."

Cao Cao responded.

Guo Jia finally said: "As for the alliance between Sun and Liu that the Prime Minister is worried about, Jia believes that unless Sun Quan is short-sighted and ignorant, he will never accept it. Therefore, this time to send troops to Xiliang Pass seems to be a dangerous strategy, but it is actually a steady victory."

Cao Cao thought about it, and sneered: "The battle of Hongkou, Sun Quan's son, who has such a large advantage, can be defeated. He is just an incompetent person. Maybe he should send an envoy to lobby."

Send envoys to lobby?

Guo Jia thought for a while and replied, "Prime Minister, it is still impossible to send envoys."

"Why?" Cao Cao was puzzled.

"We have a relationship in the land of Jingyi. Liu Bei has a relationship with us and Sun Quan. The prime minister, don't forget about the court. He has always been dissatisfied with the prime minister. If the news leaks, Liu Bei will know that we have sent an envoy. We must be able to guess that we want to join forces with Sun Quan, which may put him on guard."

Guo Jia said: "Now I see that Sun Quan and Liu Bei are married and ceded to him such an important military area in the south of Lujiang County. I think it is like Gou Jian who tried his best to let Liu Bei relax his vigilance. The prime minister sent an envoy, Sun Quan was afraid I have to kill the envoy Mingzhi."

"Well."

Cao Cao mused, "Sun Quan is more afraid of Liu Bei than I am. But Gu is afraid that this guy is as timid as a mouse. Even if the main force of Jingzhou enters the pass, he will not dare to send troops to Jingzhou."

In his opinion, Sun Quan is stupid. If he can't send an envoy to explain clearly, he is afraid of creating opportunities for the other party, and he will be useless.

Guo Jia thought for a while, then smiled suddenly: "This matter is easy, the prime minister can go to Huainan himself."

"The lonely conquer Huainan?"

Cao Cao was at a loss: "Isn't this...huh?"

He was stunned for a moment, then suddenly came to his senses, turned his head to look at Guo Jia, and said with a big laugh, "Following filial piety is really unpredictable."

"Thank you for the compliment, Prime Minister."

Guo Jia cupped his hands and smiled, his pale face showed a tinge of blood, and he seemed to be much healthier.

The two chatted about other things, and at the end of the evening, it was already dark, and Cao Cao saw that Guo Jia was a little tired, so he left his mansion.

For Cao Cao today, the harvest is very big, and he needs to go back and digest it.

On the second day, Cao Cao thought it over again, and called Xun You, Cheng Yu, Dong Zhao and others for a secret discussion. The final result of the counselor group's discussion was that this plan was feasible.

If it succeeds, it is really possible for Liu Bei to lose Jingzhou carelessly.

Even if it doesn't succeed, I believe that Cao Cao's ability is enough to wipe out Xiliang Guanzhong. Even if Sun Quan is gone, everyone will be Cao Cao destroying Han and then Ma Chao, Liu Bei destroying Sun Quan, and finally the north and the south will confront each other.

Moreover, Cao Cao's elimination of Han Sui's Ma Chao has another advantage, that is, it can completely cut off Liu Bei's source of horses and limit the development of cavalry in the south.

Once such a situation is formed, the southern soldiers are generally inferior to the northern soldiers, and Cao Cao's total force is more than that of Liu Bei, and there are still a large number of cavalry. At least in terms of North-South confrontation, Cao Cao has already gained a huge advantage.

Therefore, many counselors also approved Guo Jia's strategy, because the worst plan would not be a loss for Cao Cao.

So in the end Cao Cao decided to implement this strategy.

At the end of the 18th year of Jian'an, it was spent in this heavy snow. After the end of the new year, by the end of January of the 19th year of Jian'an, Yecheng became lively, with soldiers and horses coming and going, and a large amount of food and grass piled up.

Preparing for a big battle obviously takes a day or two. The recent change of soldiers and horses in Yecheng also attracted the attention of Liu Bei Group who was stationed in Yecheng, and immediately sent the news back to the south.

By February, Liu Bei had already known the news. Since he couldn't figure out what Cao Cao wanted to do, he also made preparations immediately.

Before Yizhou's soldiers and horses moved, Nanyang's soldiers and horses immediately became vigilant. Shen Chen sent Wenpin to guard Ye County and guard the passage into Nanyang.

Because the army in the direction of Hanzhong adopts a defensive position according to the strategy, Hanzhong is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Although there are no more than [-] troops stationed, even if Cao Cao comes with an army of [-], it is impossible to easily break through Yangping Pass.

And even if Cao Cao wanted to attack Hanzhong, he would have to travel for several months to send troops from Yecheng to Hanzhong, not counting the preparation of food and supplies and the arrival time of luggage.

So even if Cao Cao wanted to compete with Liu Bei for Hanzhong, Liu Bei would have enough reaction time to counter and increase his troops, so he was not worried about Hanzhong.

During this period of time, the Cao army from the Yingchuan direction in Runan also began to gather in the Wuyang area of ​​Kunyang. Neither side had the intention of going out of the city to fight in the field. One was guarding the Nanyang passage, and the other was guarding the two entrance cities of Nanyang, facing each other dozens of kilometers apart.

In this silent confrontation, another half year passed.

Cao Cao was obviously preparing for a large-scale military operation. In the middle of the 19th year of Jian'an, the ready Cao army began to slowly move south, all the way into the territory of Yuzhou.

After the news came, Liu Bei couldn't sit still, and immediately dispatched troops and generals to Nanyang in person, preparing to resist Cao's army.

At this time, the strength of the Liu Bei Group reached 33 after four years of development.

The main force is 20 soldiers, and the second-line county soldiers are 13.

Among them, there are about [-] main soldiers in Yizhou and [-] county soldiers.

In the 15th year of Jian'an, Yizhou had only [-] main forces and [-] county soldiers. The Jin army had not yet been trained, so the available soldiers were [-].

Now that four years have passed, in terms of the main combat troops, [-] cavalry and [-] well-trained soldiers have been added.

The reason why the size of the second-tier county soldiers in Yizhou has been doubled is that Zhuge Liang is training the local county soldiers.

He felt that many aristocratic families and powerful families in southern Yizhou and ethnic minorities were extremely negative towards government orders and were likely to launch a rebellion, so he appointed Huo Jun as Qiang as prefect to train troops in Bodao.

So at present, Yizhou has about [-] infantry, [-] cavalry, [-] well-trained soldiers, and [-] county soldiers from various places, and [-] county soldiers from Bodao to guard against the south of Yizhou.

Jingzhou has 13 main troops and [-] county soldiers.

In the 15th year of Jian'an, the total strength of Jingzhou was 17. Shen Chen led 5 troops to garrison Nanyang, Liu Pan led 2 troops to garrison Changsha, Huang She had 3 troops to garrison Jiangxia, and [-] soldiers from other counties and regions. Thousands of embroidered cavalry, and [-] barbarians from Shamoko.

Four years later, the Jiangxia navy was expanded and returned to a size of 5 people.Then Zhao Yun guarded Lujiang County, took away about 20 county soldiers, and expanded the rear with another [-] Yangtze River Navy along Jiangling, so the total force was [-].

This time Liu Bei brought only [-] white eucalyptus soldiers from Yizhou. When passing by Yidao, he ordered General Jianwei and Wuling Taishou Shamoke stationed in Jianling to lead his troops northward to join him and immediately support Nanyang.

At the same time, soldiers from various counties were mobilized, preparing to go to Nanyang to gather and fight Cao Cao to the death in Nanyang.

It is worth mentioning that after Liu Bei acquired Jingzhou and Yizhou, within four years, after the advice of the counselor group, the administrative division of the two places was re-determined.

For example, Nanyang County is still the same as before, divided into Nanyang in the north and Zhangling County in the southeast of Tongbai Mountain.Jiangxia County divided a part of the northern part of the Yangtze River, probably the Qichun area in later generations, plus half of Lujiang County, and changed it to Xiling County.

Wuling County was changed to Wuling County in the north and Yuanling County in the south.The west of Changsha County and a part of Lingling County were designated as Hengyang County, and Guiyang County was not changed for the time being because it was lent to Sun Quan.

In this way, the south of Jingzhou used to be four counties, but now there are Yuanling County and Hengyang County, and it has become six counties.

At the beginning, there were three counties north of Jingzhou, only Nanyang County, Jiangxia County and Nan County.During the period of Liu Biao, Zhangling County was designated in Nanyang County, which remained unchanged at this time. On the basis of the four counties, half of Lujiang County was added, and Xiling County was added.

The land of the earliest seven counties in Jingzhou, after Liu Biao period and then to Liu Bei period, has changed for more than 20 years and has become eleven counties.

Yizhou also carried out such a division. For example, Qianwei County was divided into two, and Bodao to Wuyang in the west, that is, the area from Yibin to Pengshan in later generations was still Qianwei County, and Jiangyang to Han'an in the east. That is, Luzhou City in later generations was changed to Neijiang City and changed to Jiangyang County.

Then Berkshire was divided into four, with Chongqing as Berkshire and Zhixian County, that is to say, the Fuling District of Chongqing later became Fuling County, the Three Gorges area became Badong County, and later Nanchong, Bazhong, and Dazhou were called Brazil County.

The remaining Shu counties were divided into Wenshan County, Guanghan into Zitong County, and Hanzhong into Shangyong County. Shu County was renamed Hanjia County, and Guanghan Country was renamed Yinping County.

The south side of Yizhou has not been changed yet.

The main reason is that the Liu Bei Group's development focus is in the north of Yizhou and Jingzhou. Zhuge Liang is even guarding against the aristocratic families and ethnic minorities in the south of Yizhou, so don't move in the south and wait for the future.

Therefore, there were originally seven counties in the north of Yizhou, but now there are Jiangyang County, Fuling County, Badong County, Brazil County, Wenshan County, Zitong County, and Shangyong County, becoming fourteen counties.

At present, soldiers from all counties and counties have been transferred one after another. With the addition of more than [-] main forces in Nanyang, the total strength of Nanyang will soon reach [-], and this number will continue to increase.

It was only in August of the 19th year of Jian'an, when the total strength of Nanyang exceeded [-], Liu Bei found that his punch seemed to be empty.

Cao Cao only deployed heavy troops to defend Yingchuan and other places in Runan, but his main force actually went south, passed Yuzhou, and went to Huainan, as if he was going to attack Jiangdong.

For a while, the entire Liu Bei Group began to be surprised by Cao Cao's movements, and had no idea what he wanted to do.

Only Shen Chen, who sits in Nanyang Wancheng, has already deduced Cao Cao's plan.

(End of this chapter)