Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1044 is in full swing
Yuan Xi was lying on a bamboo chair in the middle of the autumn courtyard. The autumn wind blew by, and the yellow leaves scattered all over the sky.

A palm-sized leaf fell on his face, and he was too lazy to reach out to take it. He just closed his eyes and listened quietly to the music that came to his ears.

After the song was played, the slender hand that strummed the strings of the piano stretched out and took away the yellow leaves from his face. Xiao Qiao's voice rang out, "Why have you been so weak lately? Are you feeling unwell?"

Yuan Xi closed his eyes to rest his mind and said with a smile: "No, it's just that I suddenly became idle and felt a little at a loss."

"It seems that your piano skills are getting better and better. Do you have any other songs that you are good at?"

Xiao Qiao said proudly: "There are still quite a few."

The sound of the piano sounded again, but Yuan Xi's thoughts were dragged far away. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart. It was late autumn, and this year's world war might be over.

Guan Yu finally failed to break into Xudu. After using up almost half of his troops, he finally failed to break through Cao Ren and Yu Jin's desperate defense. When both sides were at the end of their efforts, when the final showdown was about to take place, Cao Cao finally led his army back and blocked Guan Yu's retreat.

Seeing that Guan Yu was about to be divided and surrounded by Cao's army, he had no choice but to withdraw. Cao's army immediately counterattacked and surrounded Guan Yu's army.

Guan Yu fought for three days and three nights, and almost all his soldiers were killed. Liu Bei and Zhang Fei finally broke through the barrier of Cao Jun and came with their troops. After paying a heavy price, they rescued Guan Yu and then retreated to the south together.

He felt guilty for not helping Liu Bei much, but he was already powerless at that time. After all, several battles with Sun Quan and Cao Cao completely emptied his family fortune. Although he still had some troops, he had no food. So, we can only send navy troops to contain Cao Cao.

As for Xichuan, Yuan Xi did not take it seriously. Jiangdong wanted to capture Jingzhou and then take Xichuan. In the final analysis, it still had to maintain its naval advantage. After all, it was extremely difficult to sail from the lower reaches to the upper reaches. It was almost impossible to rely solely on wind or manpower. The downstream breaks into the upstream.

"On the contrary, my second brother almost lost his life because of my anger. If this is really the case, how can I live alone?"

Even if they fail again and again, the three brothers will definitely get up again and again if they work together, right?
Although Yuan Xi did not see the pride at the top of Xiangyang City with his own eyes, he was shocked by Liu Bei's persistence afterwards. After all, only those who maintain their ideals would choose to do such a thankless task as attacking Xudu. Is this it?

Naturally, Cao Cao would not miss this opportunity. He pursued and regained the lost ground until he reached the north bank of the Han River. Seeing Liu Bei's army retreating into Xiangyang, he wanted to take the opportunity to cross the river and attack the city. At this time, news came that Yuan Xi's navy was arriving.

But Yuan Xi doesn't care, because he has other ways. He only needs to wait a year or two and make some technical improvements, and these will no longer be a problem.

Liu Bei and Guan Yu laughed at the same time and stretched out a hand to Zhang Fei. Zhang Fei was overjoyed and quickly stretched out his hands to hold it.

"Besides, it was my decision to let you beat Xu Du. How could I blame my second brother?"

Before that, the first problem he had to solve was to completely break Jiangdong's control over the Yangtze River waters. Without control over the Yangtze River, Jiangdong would be dead even though he was alive.

Yuan Xi is taking a long-term development route, and it is impossible for him to adopt Cao Cao's approach of robbing local people of their food rations to go to war, leading to starvation and death everywhere. If he really follows this approach and lets all the people die, there will still be peace in the world. What's the point?
So all he can do now is to help Liu Bei open up a way out so that he has no worries.

Guan Yu looked at the Han River with a rare expression of shame, and said to Liu Bei: "The second brother is incompetent and has brought trouble to the eldest brother."

Guan Yu was moved, and he and Liu Bei held each other's arms tightly. Zhang Fei saw this and whispered: "I am the same."

After hearing this, Cao Ao ordered Yu Jin to lead his army to Fancheng on the north bank, and then returned to Xudu with the remaining people.

The three of them held each other's hands and looked at the Han River flowing outside Xiangyang City. Although they were unwilling to accept defeat, they felt a surge of unwillingness to admit defeat.

Liu Bei patted Guan Yu on the shoulder, "Second brother, what are you talking about? Didn't we agree to live and die together?"

This exchange was equivalent to Guan Yu once again losing all the territory he had gained in the past few months, returning to the past overnight. At the same time, Liu Bei also lost all the 20,000 troops and horses he had accumulated in the past two years.

Yuan Xi was still very confident in this, because the two most powerful military strategists in the Three Kingdoms period were both on the Yangtze River at this time, one in the upper reaches and the other in the lower reaches.

Not to mention Zhuge Liang who was in Wujun, Xuzhou, Lu Xun in later generations was able to defeat Liu Bei in a head-on battle, and at the same time, no one could match him in terms of military use.

Regarding the Battle of Yiling, many historians in later generations have reviewed it. Excluding the Burning Company section in the novel, Liu Bei did not make such an exaggerated mistake. The real history is that Liu Bei advanced by land and water, and Jiangdong could not resist, so he sent Lu Xun to fight. The two sides were in a stalemate for a long time. Lu Xun first sent troops on the waterway to repel Liu Bei's army, then took the retreat of Liu Bei's infantry, and used fire attacks from both front and rear, resulting in Liu Bei's army was completely defeated.

There was no clever strategy in the whole process. Liu Bei also knew that the opponent would take advantage of his retreat, but he simply never fought.

After Yuan Xi studied it, he found that Lu Xun was very good at attacking by water, going around the opponent's rear, and then the two groups coordinated to attack the opponent, so he assigned Lu Xun with Zhang He's cavalry, making it even more powerful, and captured the enemy in a short time. He captured Xiakou, then took the opportunity to subdue Jiangxia and beat Jiangdong into a state of disarray.

The capture of Xiakou also restrained Sun Quan and Zhou Yu who were about to make a move in Yuzhang, leaving them in a dilemma.

The loss of Xiakou, the rear base that it relied on for protection, made Jiangdong's army dare not easily send troops to rescue Wujun from Yuzhang, in case Lu Xun cut off the retreat. The downstream Zhuge Liang and Ganning's continuous bloodletting of Wujun made Jiangdong complain endlessly. , If this continues, Jiangdong Army will never be able to recover!

Yuan Xi thought to himself that he could not do better than Zhuge Liang and Lu Xun, so he now felt at ease staying in Shouchun City to focus on production and farming. After all, he had to recuperate with the people during the war. What would happen next year What, he doesn’t know.

However, the spies in Xudu reported some extremely secret information to Yuan Xi. After learning about it, Yuan Xi remained silent and could only ask the spies to step up arrangements in Xudu. However, as for what Cao Cao was going to do, Yuan Xi It seems impossible to stop it.

Yuan Xi was right. Cao Cao, who was in Xudu and had returned to his army not long ago, finally took action.

In response to the rebellion in the cities around Xudu, several ministers close to Liu Xie were arrested and tortured, and more people were soon confessed. Xudu once again started to stir up trouble.

Of course, the scope of the impact this time was not as large as the number of people who died in the Huaicheng Rebellion last time. However, the sensitive identities of some people made people in the know dumbfounded. They couldn't figure out why these people would betray Cao Cao?

They suspected that these people had been wrongly accused, fearing that someone was taking the opportunity to attack their political opponents, but at this time no one dared to stand up, lest they be mistaken for being a comrade.

Some people privately cursed Chen Qun, who succeeded Cheng Yu in taking charge of the school affairs office, saying that he was even more sinister than Cheng Yu. Isn't it possible that all the people who are constantly being arrested in this city are the work of this person?
However, Chen Qun was already very popular at this time, and Cao Cao greatly appreciated his prompt decision to seize Ma Teng's military power. Without these Xiliang soldiers, it is still unknown whether Xu Neng could stop Guan Yu's army.

Of course, these Xiliang soldiers received generous rewards afterwards, and were promised the right to plunder at will in the Sili Sanfu area.

A large part of the scope designated by it was in Hongnong. For a time, the people in Hongnong were miserable and fled everywhere. Not only the people, but also the women of the Yang family in Hongnong were affected.

When the news reached Yang Xiu's ears, he couldn't help but gnashed his teeth, thinking that this piece of shit Cao Cao was clearly warning the Yang family. Could it be that he had offended him just because of his private words?
However, Yang Xiu has been feeling quite uncomfortable recently. After Cao Cao returned to Xudu, he not only carried out a large-scale liquidation, but also accelerated the pace of making the king. At the same time, another extremely sensitive matter made Yang Xiu a little panicked.

Originally, Cao Cao hated Cao Pi very much, but for some reason, after Cao Cao came back, his attitude towards Cao Pi changed drastically. He often took Cao Pi with him when he went out, and taught Cao Pi by words and deeds. It seemed that he was going to train Cao Pi as his successor!

After Yang Xiu heard this, he couldn't help but feel dizzy. Why was this happening? What did his group ignore?
Or was Cao Cao discovered and disgusted by Cao Zhi's attitude towards being close to the Han Dynasty?

But no matter what, the calls for Cao Pi to become the crown prince are getting louder and louder, and Cao Pi seems to have grown up overnight. He behaves well, advances and retreats appropriately, speaks appropriately, and answers well-founded, showing all the good qualities of a crown prince. virtue.

This made Yang Xiu wonder, did Cao Pi receive guidance from an expert, or was everything he did before just an act?
Yang Xiu found that there seemed to be little time left for his faction, because Cao Cao would be crowned king at the earliest in winter or next spring at the latest, and it was foreseeable that the crown prince would be established soon after.

This will be the first and last time that the two factions supporting Cao Pi and Cao Zhi will face off head-on. The winner will be the king and the loser will be the enemy!
Cao Cao's preparations for the title of king are in full swing. Of course, he wants to build momentum in advance, and this time he brought in Sun Quan to step up.

Cao Cao knew that Sun Quan would be as happy as a dog to eat shit for the title of king, but now that he had laid the groundwork, his intention to occupy Jianghuai failed, which also made him somewhat lacking in confidence in terms of momentum.

If you want to be crowned king, you still have to come up with something hard, so after Cao Cao returned to Xudu and confirmed that Yuan Xi and Liu Bei were temporarily unable to send troops, he immediately made a decision that surprised everyone.

Send Xia Houyuan as the commander-in-chief, Cao Hong as the deputy general, and Yue Jin as the forward, and send troops from Hanzhong to attack Liu Zhang in Yizhou!

This decision was so bold and adventurous that even Cao Cao's camp counselors were dumbfounded. Ma Teng was captured and Liangzhou was in turmoil. There were strong enemies around at this time. Why did Cao Cao go to Yizhou?

However, it turned out that Cao Cao was right.

In the name of Cao Jun taking the emperor's edict, the Yizhou nobles switched sides and surrendered one after another, paving the way for Cao Jun to attack Chengdu. For a time, Cao Jun was unstoppable and went straight into the hinterland of Yizhou!
(End of this chapter)