Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1097 Persistence
Zhuge Liang had followed Yuan Xi for a long time in recent years, and as soon as he heard Yuan Xi speak, he could roughly guess what Yuan Xi was thinking.

This time Yuan Xi's tone was unusual, and Zhuge Liang immediately guessed that Yuan Xi might want to adopt extreme tactics against Cao's army, but this approach would most likely affect innocent civilians, so Yuan Xi vaguely asked about his thoughts.

This approach is most likely a tactic used during a siege. Leaving aside the normal approach, a more extreme approach would be a fire attack, or even a water attack.

Under water attack, the tragic scene of the last battle of Yecheng is likely to be repeated. The casualty rate of this method is extremely high. No matter soldiers or civilians, not many people will survive after this disaster.

To be fair, water attack has always been an extremely threatening tactic for thousands of years since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but it is not a banned method. It is the final solution adopted by the besiegers after trying other methods and failing.

In the late Han Dynasty, water attacks were also used by many princes, and it was also a common strategy used by Cao's army. However, Yuan Xi had never used it in all these years.

When Zhuge Liang heard this, an idea immediately came to his mind: if the lord crosses the bottom line, will he become more aggressive in other things after he seizes the world in the future?
Yuan Xi also saw the hesitation on Zhuge Liang's face at this time, and sighed in his heart.

He knew that in real history, Zhuge Liang was actually quite restrained in using his troops, and both the burning of Xinye and the burning of the rattan armor soldiers were fictional.

The real Zhuge Liang actually always adhered to the way of benevolence and righteousness. Although the story of capturing Meng Huo seven times was fake, it was true that Zhuge Liang adopted a conciliatory policy towards southern Xinjiang.

Yuan Xi had no choice but to be a bad guy. If he did not defeat Cao Cao completely this time, Cao Cao would use the lives of millions of people in Jizhou to fill the gap. By then, the number of deaths would be several times or even dozens of times the population of Yecheng.

For someone in Yuan Xi's position, there is no such thing as a trolley problem. Sometimes human lives in a war are just simple numbers. If you give up the lives of the people of the world for a city, you will not be able to make it to the end.

Unlike Zhuge Liang's surprise, Ju Shou and Tian Feng looked calm and began to think about the feasibility of this approach.

The reason why their attitude was so different from Zhuge Liang's was that members of their clans actually died in the Battle of Yecheng.

When Ye City was attacked by Cao's army, only one in ten people, including the gentry and common people, survived, which naturally included the Yuan family whose population was now dwindling. Therefore, Yuan Xi, Tian Feng and Ju Su had blood feuds with Cao Cao, and naturally had different mentalities.

After seeing this, Zhuge Liang thought to himself: One should not advise others to be good without experiencing their suffering. Is he too hypocritical?

He listened quietly to Ju Shou and Tian Feng competing to speak, and wondered if there was really no way to kill two birds with one stone?

At this time, Ju Su took out several bamboo slips, which contained the latest information he had obtained about Cao's army.

"The number of Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry has exceeded 10,000. Although many of these figures are exaggerated and mixed with many miscellaneous soldiers and new recruits, according to my analysis, there are 3,000 to 5,000 elite soldiers among them."

"The commander of these elite troops is Cao Xiu. He has some ideas in leading troops. Although he may not be as good as Cao Chun in the past, he is almost the same. He is a very tough opponent."

He then sighed and said, "I heard that General Taishi, who shot and wounded Cao Chun and caused him to die, has retired and returned home?"

"It's a pity. General Taishi's archery skills are unparalleled in the world. If he were here to lead the charge, the situation here would be much more stable."

Everyone felt heavy-hearted. Taishi Ci had performed brilliantly in the confrontation with Cao's army in previous years. Now that he was gone, Yuan Xi's army was much more stretched in terms of mobilizing troops.

Ju Su continued, "The other cavalrymen recruited from various places were put together. Most of them were surrendered soldiers from Jingzhou and Yizhou. Although they were numerous, their threat was not comparable to that of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry."

"But this is only a small part of Cao's cavalry. The other half is the 20,000 Xiliang cavalry led by Ma Chao himself."

Tian Feng lost his voice and asked, "What?"

"Ma Chao actually came to Jizhou in person to help Cao Cao fight?"

"Didn't Cao Cao kill Ma Teng? How come he is still fine?"

Ju Su sneered, "Yuan Hao doesn't know that Cao Cao helped Ma Chao get rid of Ma Teng, allowing him to become the head of the Ma family and inherit the Ma family's title of marquis. How could he not be grateful to Cao Cao?"

Tian Feng suddenly realized, "These ungrateful people will get their comeuppance sooner or later."

Ju Su said: "But no matter what, that's 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry."

"The Youzhou cavalry has only grown under the command of the lord in recent years and has become famous all over the world. In the past few decades, among the three states' cavalry, the Liangzhou cavalry has overwhelmed the Youzhou and Bingzhou cavalry."

"To completely eliminate Ma Chao, we must either let him fall into a trap and die, or the price we pay is really high."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "That's right. In the previous deduction, if I wanted to kill Cao Cao's 30,000 or 40,000 cavalry, I would have to pay at least 20,000 cavalry, not including the infantry."

"If my calculations are correct, after Cao Cao has transferred infantry reinforcements from various states, he should be able to gather 100,000 infantry, right?"

Ju Su nodded and said, "That's right. Wei County, where Yecheng is located, has 40,000 to 50,000 troops stationed there. Yuan Hao and General Chunyu have been fighting on the front lines for the past two years, so they should have some experience."

Tian Feng said, "Indeed, Cao Cao's soldiers have strong fighting spirit. If they lose the battle, their families will be implicated, so they are unwilling to flee even if they die in battle. Such enemies are very troublesome to deal with." "Cao Cao's cavalry and infantry combined are probably only 140,000 or 150,000. If we capture a few more people, we can have an army of 200,000, right?"

Ju Su said: "Almost the same, and Cao Cao's infantry commanders are not weak. In addition to Cao Ren and Cao Hong, there are also foreign commanders such as Le Jin, Yu Jin and Li Dian, who are good at attacking and fighting fierce battles."

Yuan Xi said, "Comparatively, even if I use all my troops, I'm afraid I can't gather 100,000 men."

"I can barely gather 10,000 Youzhou cavalrymen under my command. Yan Rou, Xian Yu Fu, and Bingzhou can also gather more than 10,000 in total, which makes 20,000 in total. Whether they can offset the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, or Ma Chao's army, is still unknown."

"And what I'm good at is controlling and utilizing vision, obtaining intelligence faster, transmitting orders, and making infantry and cavalry fight more coordinated, so as to rely on quality to defeat the enemy with superior numbers."

"But this time it's a war covering an entire state and county. The battle line stretches for thousands of miles, and there are enemies everywhere. There is little room for maneuver on the battlefield."

"Moreover, controlling 100,000 people to participate in the battle requires too many orders to be dispatched. The battlefield situation changes rapidly, and the orders issued a moment ago may not be effective. In this case, we can only rely on the commander's on-the-spot performance."

"In the end, I'm afraid it will just become a pure meat-mincing battle of heads."

Zhuge Liang suddenly said, "A good general can be as powerful as a thousand or ten thousand men. If we use a trick to trick the enemy general into falling into a trap, kill him and seize his flag, can we change the situation?"

Ju Shou and Tian Feng looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time. Tian Feng said, "It's possible, but if two or three generals fall into the trap, it won't make up for the difference in military strength between the two sides."

"Besides, Cao Cao is in charge of the Cao army, so they are not so easily fooled. Even if we kill one or two of their vanguards, their rear troops will certainly be on high alert, making it even more difficult for them to act."

"Strange strategies and clever tactics are not the right way to go. In the end, if you want to win, you still have to rely on an upright duel."

Zhuge Liang lowered his head and said nothing. He admitted that what Tian Feng said made sense, but as he said, using a strategy is also a last resort because the weaker party is the one who has to do it. Isn't that the case now?
He said, "I heard that when the Yuan and Cao families were at a stalemate in the distance, Mr. Yuan Hao offered advice to Lord Benchu ​​to send a surprise force to harass Cao Cao's base camp in Yanzhou. Isn't this also a brilliant strategy?"

“Why can’t it be used now?”

Tian Feng replied casually: "When Cao Cao occupied Yanzhou, Yanzhou was naturally an enemy, but Jizhou is different. Jizhou originally belonged to the Yuan family. Sending troops to destroy it now is not..."

Ju Shou also agreed, but then they both suddenly came to their senses and laughed at the same time: "This time we were taught a lesson by Kong Ming."

"We are still thinking that Jizhou was the same as when Lord Benchu ​​was here, but now the opposite side has become the enemy's territory."

Tian Feng asked back: "From what I saw from Kong Ming's expression just now, I don't agree with cutting off the life of Yecheng. Does he think our method is too cruel?"

"No," Zhuge Liang shook his head and said, "I just think that if you take the world as your responsibility, you should treat everyone equally and have the world in mind."

"If we go too far, there will be hidden dangers even if we seize the world in the future. So Liang thinks that it is better not to use this method if possible."

Ju Su said, "But if we can't win this battle, we will all be defeated and die. All these words are just empty talk."

Zhuge Liang spoke up: "So before we take the final step, I am willing to do my best to offer advice and suggestions to avoid this situation."

"As a military advisor, isn't it time for you to play a role?"

Tian Feng raised his eyebrows, "How to do it?"

Zhuge Liang hesitated for a moment. "Although the idea is not yet mature, I have a rough idea, which is to muddy the waters."

"Since a huge chaotic battle is difficult to command, how about dividing it into dozens of small battlefields, extending it to the entire territory of Jizhou, or even beyond?"

"As long as we can use enough balloons to collect battlefield intelligence, we will be able to know all the enemy's movements and analyze their possible responses. By using the speed of our intelligence transmission, we can maximize the speed of our cavalry, concentrate superior forces, and defeat the enemy one after another. Isn't it possible?"

Ju Su pondered for a moment, "It is indeed possible."

"But this requires issuing at least hundreds of orders per day, without any mistakes, and possibly staying up for days. If this intensity lasts for several days, even an iron man would die of exhaustion..."

Zhuge Liang said, "I am willing to give it a try. If I fail, I will be punished by military law."

Ju Shou and Tian Feng looked at each other in bewilderment. Yuan Xi said, "Thousands of my subordinates and officials will be involved in this war. Everyone is working together. Why should the military advisor take all the responsibility on himself?"

Zhuge Liang stood up, bowed to Yuan Xi, and said solemnly: "Because Liang does not want the lord to become a person like Cao Cao."

"Liang will do his best, even if he dies, to find a righteous way for the master and create the peaceful and prosperous world that Liang hopes for!"

(End of this chapter)