Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1119 Bait
Xun You also learned about what happened in Ji County. He was as troubled as Zhong Yao at this time. He would rather the previous ferocious tiger had 100,000 more soldiers than have to face the current ferocious tiger who was vindictive.

There is no other reason. When what the enemy does exceeds the psychological endurance limit of their own soldiers and generals, it will cause an irreversible blow to morale. Now when the soldiers in Cao's camp heard about the revenge of the fierce tiger, many of them had this tendency in their hearts.

Although Cao's army's headquarters was in Xudu, and the soldiers' families were also settled in Xudu and Yingchuan, which seemed far away from the front line, Ji County of the Western Liang Army was even farther away. Didn't it still get raided?
At this time, they were still unclear about the details of Ji County, and did not know that the main force behind the massacre was the Qiang and Hu tribes who had a feud with the Xiliang Army. After all, the Liangzhou Army had been the main force for the Han court to suppress the Qiang and Hu tribes for the past hundred years. The entanglement between the two sides was extremely complicated and it was difficult to explain it clearly in a few words.

However, the capture of Ji County had another far-reaching impact. The rear of Xiliang, which Cao Ying had spent a lot of effort to stabilize, was now proven to be unsafe. Yuan Xi's army had demonstrated its ability to capture cities in the enemy's hinterland, which was a huge blow to the morale of Cao Ying.

At the same time, this incident greatly accelerated the pace of Cao's army's mobilization, because the Western Liang army led by Ma Chao was too radical, which led to a crazy counterattack by Yuan Xi's army, resulting in an imbalance of military forces on both sides of the border. At the same time, Ma Chao's army could not continue to suppress Yuan Xi's army, but was repeatedly defeated by the other side. The situation deteriorated rapidly and seriously disrupted Cao's army's deployment.

What's even more terrible is that the battle in which Pang De was killed and Ma Chao fled the day before was caused by Ma Chao's anger, who insisted on going deep into Youzhou for revenge. As a result, he took the Yijing Passage, which happened to attract the generals of Yuan Xi's army stationed in Yijing to encircle him.

Surrounded and attacked by four top-notch generals of the time, even a strong man like Ma Chao could only escape with injuries, and his deputy general Pang De was killed in the battle, but at the same time a team of Cao's army was also implicated.

This Tiger and Leopard Cavalry was led by a general of the Cao family and consisted of 800 elite Tiger and Leopard Cavalry soldiers. In order to distract Ma Chao's army from paying attention to Yuan Xi's army, they advanced northward through the passage between Hejian and Changshan and tried to sneak into the vicinity of Youzhou's northern new city. Then they divided themselves into dozens of teams and wreaked havoc in the rear of Youzhou, fighting to support the war and thereby attacking the logistics and morale of Yuan Xi's army.

To be fair, this is a good idea. A small group of dozens of troops moves quickly and is very difficult to track down. Catching dozens of cavalry in a place as large as Youzhou is like finding a needle in a haystack. If Yuan Xi uses all the means of investigation, he may be able to get there, but there is no way he can reach the front line.

This Cao army planned its route in advance and deliberately marched only at night while avoiding possible scouts. After walking for another seven or eight days, they finally arrived near Yijing. With only three more days to go, they would be able to enter Youzhou, and then transform themselves into dozens of gangs of thieves and wreak havoc.

As luck would have it, Ma Chao also thought so. However, Ma Chao's army was large in number, so he did not hide at the beginning, but chose to break through quickly.

So both sides coincidentally took the Yijing Passage. After all, this was the fastest way to Youzhou, and the flat terrain was also conducive to the performance of cavalry.

However, they never expected that they would run into the muzzle of a gun. At that time, Yuan Xi secretly came to Yijing to take charge, so his generals were stationed nearby. When they heard that Ma Chao's army was coming to attack Yijing, they immediately dispatched the entire army and blocked Ma Chao's army.

In one battle, thousands of Ma Chao's soldiers were almost wiped out. Not only was Pang De killed in the battle, but he also triggered the alarm intelligence network of Yuan Xi's army in advance. All spies within a radius of hundreds of miles were put into action, and they accidentally found the traces of the sneaking Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

After Zhao Yun and others returned to Yijing, they learned that the attacking Cao army had less than a thousand cavalrymen. They couldn't help but laugh and cry. They thought that it was Cao's army cooperating with Ma Chao's army to attack Yijing, so they returned to defend for safety. In the end, they were scared off by such a large number of Cao's army!
The few people who were at a loss whether to laugh or cry led their troops out of the city again. After a battle, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry that had launched a surprise attack on Youzhou were almost completely wiped out, and the remaining people fled back to Yecheng in a panic.

When Cao Cao learned about this, he was furious. His original intention was to let Ma Chao tie down Yuan Xi's army for several months, but Ma Chao was too arrogant. After several battles, less than half of the 20,000 Western Liang troops were left. This greatly affected Cao Cao's future arrangements. What's more, Ma Chao also implicated the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry who went to cause trouble!
But Cao Cao knew that he was not kind either. His original intention was to weaken Ma Chao's strength so that he would be easier to control. Therefore, he did not intervene in Ma Chao's actions from beginning to end. He only told Ma Chao to give him the power to make decisions and he would not interfere.

Ma Chao did not understand Cao Cao's thoughts at all. Instead, he was extremely grateful. After gathering the remaining soldiers and fleeing back to Yecheng, he personally came to Cao Cao to confess his crime. Cao Cao naturally had nothing to say, so he had to comfort him with kind words and let him go back to recuperate for a while.

At the same time, because Ji County was massacred, in order to appease Ma Chao, Cao Cao also found a woman from the Cao clan and married her to Ma Chao as his legal wife.

Ma Chao was extremely grateful for this and swore in front of Cao Cao that as an adopted son, he would serve Cao Cao without hesitation.

After Cao Cao asked Ma Chao to withdraw, he immediately summoned all his advisers and asked them to draw up a military plan within three days. This led to the meeting between Zhong Yao and Xun You.

The two of them had put a lot of thought into this. Cao's camp had already been preparing for war. As long as the route strategy was determined, they could send troops immediately. Although they were not well prepared, the disastrous defeat of Ma Chao's army showed that Yuan Xi's army had already prepared for war in advance. If Cao's army was still waiting slowly, the other side would have taken the initiative!
Zhong Yao and Xun You, as the most skilled strategists in Cao's camp at formulating large-scale strategies, were naturally given the important task. So the two of them drew circles on the map for two days and two nights, and finally decided on the general strategy. They went to see Cao Cao together with the map in their hands.

When they entered the hall, they saw Cao Cao with dark circles under his eyes, sitting in front of a map and muttering to himself. They knew that Cao Cao had not been idle these days and might have some ideas. It would be embarrassing if the suggestions they offered this time did not meet Cao Cao's expectations!
When Cao Cao saw the two men coming in, he hurriedly stood up and walked forward to greet them, saying, "Yuan Chang, Gong Da, you are here."

His body swayed, and the two men hurried forward to support him. Cao Cao waved his hand and smiled, "It's nothing, it's just that you sat there for too long."

The two men were worried, as a war was imminent. The most taboo thing was that their lord was in poor health or fell ill during the battle, which would be a huge hidden danger.

This was the case with Yuan Shao at the beginning. He was in a stalemate with Cao Cao. Although he suffered minor losses in several battles, the overall strength of Yuan Shao's army was still superior. If the fight continued, Cao Cao's army might not be able to cross the Yellow River.

However, Yuan Shao's condition worsened, causing the situation to deteriorate completely in a very short period of time, allowing Cao Cao to seize the opportunity and successfully counterattack.

Now, as the two men supported Cao Cao, a thought arose in their minds at the same time: Cao Cao defeated the Yuan family by luck, but now he was facing Yuan Xi, the young and strong head of the Yuan family again. The situation seemed to be completely reversed. Will Cao Cao still be the ultimate winner this time?
Cao Cao stood still, pointed at the map and said to the two men: "I have some ideas in mind, but before that, you tell me your ideas first." Zhong Yao and Xun You looked at each other, and when Zhong Yao gestured, Xun You said: "Then I will tell you first, which routes are necessary."

He walked to the front of the map, pointed to the area around Changshan County in Zhao County of Jizhou, and said, "We need at least 10,000 people to block the exit of Black Mountain and set up camps to prevent the Jin army from sneaking south to attack Wei County."

Then he pointed to the Qinghe area of ​​Yanzhou and said, "We will need at least 20,000 people to break into Qingzhou and dig the Yellow River."

"The Yellow River bursts its banks, and Qingzhou and Bohai downstream will inevitably be affected, unable to provide effective support to the Jin army in Jizhou. More importantly, the river becomes shallower, and the navy that Xionghu relies on for its pride will be useless."

"But we have to grasp the opportunity very well. If we are late, they will stop us and we will fail to dig the river. If we are early, they will send troops from other routes to stop us and we may fail to dig the river."

"The way to kill two birds with one stone is to pretend to attack Bohai County from the direction of Qingzhou, so as to attract the fierce tiger army to come to the rescue. Then, we can dig up the Yellow River in one fell swoop, so that the reinforcements will die without a burial place!"

Cao Cao nodded slightly after hearing this, and then said, "It's not easy to trick a fierce tiger."

"Why would he send someone to stop us just because we entered Qingzhou Bohai from Yanzhou?"

"He could just ignore it and concentrate his superior forces to attack Yecheng directly."

Xun Yu thought that he was worthy of being the lord, who pointed out the most critical problem in one stroke, and said: "There is no need to mobilize the main force, just to eliminate as many Jin soldiers as possible, with the loss greater than the number of our soldiers, and at the same time delay part of the Jin army in Qingzhou, then we will achieve our goal."

"If you want to trick the fierce tiger, you naturally need something that is attractive enough to the fierce tiger."

Cao Cao immediately understood what Xun You meant, "Gongda, are you saying that we should send an army as bait?"

Xun You lowered his head and said, "That's right."

Cao Cao had a half-smile on his face, "Who do you think is the most suitable?"

Xun You said cautiously, "It must be that the fierce tiger army is extremely hostile and wants to kill him as soon as possible."

Cao Cao laughed loudly, "Gongda, you dare to say it. Do you want my adopted son to die?"

Xun You's expression remained unchanged. "This matter is up to you, my lord. I am only offering advice and suggestions."

He was not afraid of being disliked by Cao Cao. Ma Chao was just an adopted son. How important could he be?

In comparison, the Battle of Jizhou determines who will rule the world. If one can gain the world, even sacrificing the lives of dozens of adopted sons will be worth it!
Cao Cao did not comment, but sighed, "Although all of our Cao clan generals are brave and skilled in fighting, very few of them can fight against the fierce tiger general. I really can't bear to let them go."

Zhong Yao, who had been silent until now, said, "The Xiliang army has many generals, and it is not necessary for the lord's adopted son to go out."

"Oh?" Cao Cao turned to Zhong Yao, "Who does Yuan Chang think is suitable?"

Zhong Yao heard this and said without hesitation: "Zhang Xiu of Wancheng is also from Xiliang, brave and good at fighting, and can be responsible for the task."

When he spoke, he emphasized the word "Wancheng" a little more. After listening to him, Cao Cao stared at Zhong Yao for a moment, then suddenly laughed and said, "The one who understands me is Yuan Chang."

(End of this chapter)