Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1096 Bottom Line
Zhuge Liang's temporary residence was nearby, and he rushed over immediately after hearing the news. Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang chatted about family matters for a while, and then asked casually, "How is Madam Xian these days?"

"She must be very unhappy that I exiled her to Jicheng, right?"

Zhuge Liang replied: "Jicheng is safer than anywhere else. I am fighting in the Central Plains and I am worried about her following me."

"Besides, Jicheng is changing every day. Although its foundation is not as good as the big cities in the Central Plains, it will surely be on par with Luoyang and Yecheng in time."

Yuan Xi said: "That will happen many years later."

"Thinking about this matter, I still feel guilty towards Kong Ming. At that time, I only wanted to punish her a little, but I didn't take into account that the military advisor had no children yet. It has been three or four years since the military advisor got married, right?"

Zhuge Liang replied, "I am still young. My lord's officials and generals are all busy in the army. There are many wars and they are separated from each other. Many of them have children in their forties or fifties. I am not in a hurry."

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "How can that be possible? Having a child in old age is certainly a good thing, but if the child wants to take care of the parents but they are no longer around, isn't having a child late also a disguised way of preventing the child from fulfilling his filial duty?"

"From now on, it is better for the military advisor to bring his wife with him. Having a child to take care of and teach in person is also a very important thing in life."

In later generations, Zhuge Liang gave birth to Zhuge Zhan at the age of 47, but died at the age of 54, resulting in Zhuge Zhan not learning many skills from Zhuge Liang. Finally, when Shu Han was conquered, Zhuge Zhan and his son Zhuge Shang both died in battle in Mianzhu, which is really a pity.

Zhuge Liang didn't take it seriously and agreed without thinking, saying, "This is a critical period. Cao Cao has not launched a full-scale war with you in the past few years because he has not yet pacified the internal affairs and cannot fully focus on the external affairs."

"Cao Cao has now completely surpassed the emperor in prestige by killing Empress Fu. He has also pacified Liang Province, occupied Jing Province, and is about to capture Yi Province. His prestige is growing day by day. The time is ripe for an open war against the lord."

"There is news that he is personally stationed in Yecheng, and nearly 100,000 soldiers have been recruited from all over the country. Dozens of Cao generals have entered Jizhou. I am afraid that there will be a big move in the early spring of this year."

Yuan Xi agreed, "Indeed, I am under a lot of pressure for the war next year."

"Cao Cao has realized that he has no chance of winning a battle with me in a place with dense water networks. He should have given up the fight for Jianghuai and focused on fighting me on the Jizhou Plain."

"If I lose, not only will I lose the three counties of Jizhou, but also Youzhou, Bingzhou, Qingzhou and Xuzhou. Not only will I withdraw from the Central Plains, but I will also lose the possibility of competing for the world."

"So this time Cao Cao will definitely use all his strength to fight me with his land and cavalry."

"The big cities in Jizhou are all far away from the Yellow River. My warships can only be used to transport food and supplies. They will be of little help in the battle."

Zhuge Liang also frowned slightly. "So Liang predicts that the future battle for Jizhou will be a head-on confrontation between the two parties. It will be a pure competition of strengths, and it will be difficult to take advantage of it."

"Perhaps Mr. Gong and Mr. Yuanhao will have some clever ideas."

While the two were talking, a guard came in to report that Ju Shou and Tian Feng had arrived. Upon hearing this, Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang went outside to greet them.

He saw Tian Feng pulling Ju Shou down from the carriage, with alcohol reeking from their mouths and their steps shaky, so he smiled and went up to them, "Mr. Yuan Hao, have you tasted the fine wine brewed in Jicheng?"

Tian Feng blushed and quickly apologized, "The taste of Youzhou's wine is very different from that of Jizhou. I drank a few more cups. Please forgive me, lord."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "It's okay. Today we just meet to sort out what to do next. There are many countermeasures that we need to think about carefully when we go back. It won't take one or two days to find a solution."

After the four men entered the room, they sat down and began to sort out the important military tasks one by one. This was a combination of two old and two young, but Ju Shou and Tian Feng did not dare to take advantage of their seniority.

Needless to say, Yuan Xi fought more battles than the three of them combined. Zhuge Liang's military achievements in the past two years were no less than those of Ju Shou and Tian Feng, so the two of them did not dare to underestimate Zhuge Liang's opinions.

Yuan Xi said, "The information from the Northern Procuratorate was collected by you, sir. Please tell me about the current situation of Cao's army."

Ju Su accepted the order, cleared his throat, and said, "Jizhou is now divided into two parts. The lord has completely occupied Bohai and Anping counties, as well as part of Changshan and Zhongshan counties."

"Cao Cao occupied Weijun, Zhaojun, Qinghe, and Julu counties, as well as part of Changshan and Zhongshan."

"But because Changshan County borders Heishan, Cao's army did not protect Changshan tightly. After all, there were too many troops tied up, so they gave up the mountainous area of ​​Changshan County and wanted to lure the Heishan army out."

Tian Feng interrupted, "Although Xiahou Dun, who was stationed in Ye City before, was not good at fighting, he had a lot of military strategies. Cao's army was not good at mountain warfare, so he simply retreated to the plains and lured the Black Mountain Army out of the mountains to fight."

"Including Zhang Xun, several generals stationed in Black Mountain have tried to go out of the mountain to fight, but Cao's army relied on the complex city defense lines to attack from all directions. In addition, after Cao Cao incorporated the Liangzhou cavalry, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had become powerful, and a large number of fast cavalry was difficult to deal with."

"The Black Mountain Army's advantage is the mountainous area. They lacked a large number of cavalry to fight on the plains, so Zhang Xun and his men didn't gain any advantage in the end and had to retreat. The two sides thus formed a balance of power."

Yuan Xi frowned and said, "When I attacked Yuan Shu, I fought Cao Cao in Qingxu and paid a heavy price. I almost wiped out all of Cao's cavalry. At the worst time, there were less than a thousand cavalry. Later, I took advantage of Cao's lack of time to seize Jianghuai." "At that time, I thought it would take at least three to five years for Cao's cavalry to recover, but I didn't expect Cao Cao to take control of Liangzhou and obtain tens of thousands of horses, and strengthen the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry again. This was my miscalculation."

Ju Su comforted him, "This is not the Lord's responsibility. The three northern states, You and Bing are all in the Lord's hands. It's just that Liangzhou is too far away and cannot be conquered at once. This is beyond human power."

"And Cao Cao had been plotting against Sili before, so he had obviously been targeting Liangzhou long ago. Moreover, Zhong Yao of Sili was very skillful. If it weren't for him, Liangzhou might have become a serious concern for Cao Cao."

Yuan Xi asked, "I heard that Zhong Yao also went to Yecheng?"

Ju Su nodded, and Tian Feng said, "It can be seen that Cao Cao also attaches great importance to this battle. I am afraid he has tried his best."

Zhuge Liang said from the side: "Liang thinks this matter is not simple."

"Zhong Yao has been managing Huaicheng very well these years. If he leaves Huaicheng now, isn't he afraid that the lord will send troops from Heishan to attack Huaicheng and enter Sili?"

Tian Feng said, "I heard that Liangzhou still has tens of thousands of cavalry stationed near Huaicheng for maneuvering. They will attack and defend Huaicheng, which will be difficult for the attackers to deal with."

"If we want to attack Huaicheng, we will have to face harassment and attacks from the Xiliang cavalry at any time. In addition, Huaicheng has been under attack for several years and its defenses are strong. It is not something that can be taken down by tens of thousands of people."

Everyone was silent. Attacking a city was neither easy nor convenient. If the city was attacked unexpectedly, or if a traitor cooperated to open the city gate, and the defenders were unable to respond or had insufficient troops, a large and sturdy city might fall within an hour or two.

On the contrary, if a city is well prepared and is fully aware of all kinds of enemy attacks, and if it can rely on its geographical advantages, a small city can also withstand an army of 100,000 for several years.

The disadvantage of Yuan Xi's side this time was that they could only be considered victorious in the battle of Jizhou if they recaptured Yecheng.

But Cao Cao didn't need that. He just needed to fight a decisive battle with Yuan Xi's army and find a way to consume Yuan Xi's manpower.

This reflects the different strategic directions and backgrounds of the two sides, which lead to huge differences in combat methods.

Yuan Xi's goal was to recover the lost territories of the Yuan family, so he was unlikely to take extreme measures during the battle. At the same time, he had to ensure the safety of the people and nobles of Jizhou as much as possible to avoid causing criticism.

But Cao Cao was different. When he conquered Jizhou, he only regarded it as a huge military camp for his fight for the world, so he could conscript tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of laborers without hesitation to serve as soldiers to resist Yuan Xi.

This has been Cao Cao's style of doing things over the years. He doesn't care about the criticism from the world at all. After all, the world is accustomed to Cao Cao's way of doing things, and instead thinks it is natural. Even if Cao Cao does a little better, people still think it is a special favor bestowed by Cao Cao.

Just like Liu Bei's conquest of Xichuan, Liu Bei regarded it as a stain on his life, and even said that he felt guilty towards Liu Zhang. Many people in later generations also criticized Liu Bei for this.

But what Liu Bei did would not be a problem at all if it happened to other princes. It was only because Liu Bei had a high moral bottom line that others used high standards to measure him, and their tolerance for Cao Cao was even higher.

This is what makes Yuan Xi depressed. A prodigal son who returns is worth more than gold, a saint should be put to death if he does something wrong, bad money drives out good money, and good people are pointed at guns.

Therefore, the fight between Yuan Xi and Cao Cao for Jizhou was destined to be like boxing with one hand tied. This was also the reason why Ju Shou and Tian Feng had a headache and Zhuge Liang could not come up with a good plan.

Yuan Xi couldn't help but sigh, this damn double standard has not changed much from ancient times to the present.

He Xi has always felt that when good guys fight against bad guys, they are defeated because they are not thick-skinned enough. They are bullied by the bad guys and give up the means that could have led to their victory. As a result, the bad guys are defeated by the bad guys' actions that set a new low. Such things are numerous in history.

This is also the cruelest part. The justice of history ultimately depends on the winner of the competition of strength, and never on the heart of a human being.

If good people want to deal with bad people, can they only be worse than the bad people?

Yuan Xi always believed that if he wanted to defeat Cao Cao, he should use every possible means, so he had no pressure to threaten Cao Cao with Madam Ding and Cao Ang, but the key point was that in such a life-and-death battle, even using Cao Cao's own father would be useless.

If we cannot find an opportunity for a breakthrough, hundreds of thousands of people may die in the war next year.

But neither side has any way out.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi said, "Isn't it that the way to minimize losses is to surround Cao Cao to death in Yecheng, and then find a way to prevent him from escaping?"

"If Cao Cao dies and the Cao family is no longer a threat, will the price we pay in the future be much smaller?"

Zhuge Liang immediately guessed about 70% of Yuan Xi's meaning, and he looked up in surprise.

(End of this chapter)