Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1134 Accident
The conclusion that Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang finally came to was that the only way to deal with the problem now was to take precautions, calculate the movements of Cao's army in advance, and then mobilize superior forces to defeat Cao's army one by one.

This is easier said than done. Relying on the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, Cao's army can mobilize very quickly. They often pull Yuan Xi's army's defense line in large-scale movements to find opportunities to fight. The Youzhou Iron Cavalry, which Yuan Xi was proud of, could not gain an advantage in this regard.

That's why Yuan Xi came up with the idea of ​​trench warfare, hoping to compress Cao's army's movement space. Cao Cao naturally knew this, so his response was to expand the scope of the battlefield.

Qingxu was the first to be hit, and Qingzhou, the frontmost, suffered from floods, with water everywhere. It was no longer possible to use trenches for defense, which instead gave the cavalry room to operate.

Zhuge Liang said, "Before we can achieve a turning point in the Jizhou battlefield, we can only fight attack against attack and cavalry against cavalry."

"Although the battle site is on the lord's territory, which is extremely disadvantageous to us, if we don't stop Cao's army, the losses will only be greater."

Yuan Xi said helplessly: "Then we can only transfer Yan Rou and Xian Yu Fu over here."

"Chanyu Tatun, oh no, he is the fourth king now. Although Chanyu Louban and Tatun have been honest in recent years, I cannot completely trust them, otherwise I could have recruited the Wuhuan cavalry."

"However, the Wuhuan cavalry has poor discipline and harassed the people in the south of Qingzhou. Asking them to help in the battle may cause more harm than good."

Zhuge Liang said in a deep voice: "The North does not need so many kings. My lord has already become king. This hidden danger will be solved sooner or later."

"If it were Cao Cao, this problem would be easy to solve. We could issue an imperial decree in the name of the emperor to confer titles on them. They would definitely be happy to do so."

"But if the lord issues an edict in the name of the King of Jin, they will be somewhat reluctant."

Yuan Xi waved his hand and said, "Ignore them for now. My expectation for them now is that they don't cause any trouble and can check and balance the Xianbei outside the pass."

"But speaking of the direction of Bingzhou, there is something to be said for it."

Zhuge Liang said: "I heard that Han Sui brought 20,000 Xiliang infantry and cavalry to help. Cao Cao only mobilized a part of them. Most of them are blocking the exits of the Black Mountain Eight Passes to guard against the Black Mountain Army of the lord."

Yuan Xi said: "The Black Mountain Army cannot stay in the mountains forever. Now Cao Cao is using Qingzhou to contain me, so I will also fight back."

"Send an order to Zhang Xun, tell him to immediately organize his troops, advance to the southern exit, set up camps along the way, and cut off the enemy's Huaicheng supply line."

"At the same time, send a letter to Gao Gan, asking him to send troops to the Yellow River from Taiyuan Passage to the south, wait for an opportunity to cross the river, directly attack Henei County, and cut off the Xiliang Army's logistics route."

"At the same time, send a letter to the Hongnong Yang family, asking them to wait for an opportunity to rebel. If they succeed, the connection between Xiliang and Jizhou will be completely cut off."

Zhuge Liang said, "I'm afraid Yang won't agree."

"They only have a few thousand private soldiers. How could they dare to confront Cao Cao Xiliang?"

"And I heard that the wife of the head of the family, Yang Biao, is Yuan Gonglu's sister. I'm afraid she is holding a grudge against the master?"

Yuan Xi waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter. Anyway, I am the current head of the Yuan family, so it's better to give it a try."

"What I am most worried about now is not the territory I am fighting in, but the other three directions that I have no time to take care of."

"Liu Zhang of Yizhou, Liu Biao of Jingzhou, and Sun Quan of Wu."

"I'm afraid Liu Zhang will have a hard time holding on, and Sun Quan may come out to take advantage of the situation."

"Liu Biao is even more troublesome. I heard that he is seriously ill. Most of the scholars in Jingzhou are surrenderists. If Liu Biao dies, they will definitely surrender to Cao Cao. At that time, the Jianghuai defense line may change."

"Liu Biao's two sons have not yet decided who will be the heir. Although I wrote a letter to remind him of this matter at the time, judging from Liu Biao's behavior, he either didn't take it to heart or he couldn't control the situation."

Zhuge Liang agreed: "It seems that the latter is more likely."

"It's not that he can't see the hidden danger, but his body can't hold up, so he can't control his subordinates. I'm afraid that what he said is meaningless."

"Cao Cao was in a similar situation, so he had to go to the battlefield in person to suppress some of his subordinates who had some ideas."

What Yuan Xi said was well-founded. The biggest defeat Cao Cao suffered in the last ten years of his life was not the Battle of Chibi, but the Battle of Hanzhong.

The Battle of Hanzhong was of great significance. It was the most dazzling achievement Liu Bei had ever achieved against Cao Cao in his life. He took back the seemingly impossible-to-take Hanzhong from Cao Cao, re-stabilized the West Sichuan defense line, and indirectly caused Cao Cao's death.

The historical records show that Cao Cao took the initiative to withdraw his troops, but this is actually a hidden meaning. According to his actions at the time, Cao Cao would definitely not raise a tiger to cause trouble, but should continue to put pressure on Hanzhong to drag down Liu Bei. This is a more reasonable response. Because from a geographical point of view, Cao's army is much less stressed from Chang'an to Hanzhong than Liu Bei from Chengdu. The former has a flat land for logistics and can use horses or partly go by water. In comparison, most of the roads from Chengdu to Hanzhong are steep mountain roads. In some places, even mules and horses cannot pass through, and transportation can only be done by manpower.

Despite such a huge logistical gap, Cao Cao actually chose to retreat. He must have had his own reasons. I'm afraid that at that time, there was already a tendency towards instability within Cao's camp.

Although the reasons are unknown, the result is that Cao Cao hastily withdrew his troops and died of illness a year later. There are rumors that he was injured in the Battle of Hanzhong. Of course, it is also possible that the battle of Hanzhong forced Cao Cao to travel thousands of miles and personally supervise the battle on the battlefield, which exhausted his health.

But no matter what the reason, the setback Cao Cao suffered in the Battle of Hanzhong was actually far greater than that in the Battle of Chibi. His experience in the Battle of Chibi was very similar to that of Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu. Although they suffered defeat, they were not seriously injured. If they could make a comeback, the outcome would be unknown.

But history did not give either of them a chance, and their final fates were extremely similar. Both of them died of illness during the critical strategic counterattack period, leaving behind a mess for their descendants.

Yuan Xi thought that Liu Biao would also face this problem, and felt that things were unpredictable, so he said, "I cannot allow problems to arise in Jingzhou during the period of stalemate in the Central Plains."

"What I am worried about now is that Liu Zhang will not be able to hold on, Cao's army will take over Xichuan, and then take advantage of the situation to move eastward, instigating the scholars of Jingzhou to seize Jingnan, and then threaten my Jianghuai rear from Yiling."

"Jianghuai is my logistics base. If the food supply route is damaged, it will have a great impact on Jizhou and may even affect the entire game."

"So I would like to trouble you, military advisor, to write a letter in my name and your personal name, trying to persuade Huang Zu to meet with Liu Biao and persuade him not to pin his hopes on Cao Cao."

"If Liu Biao persists, I can only think of extreme measures. After all, Jingzhou falling into Cao Cao's hands is too threatening."

Zhuge Liang understood what Yuan Xi meant. He wanted Huang Zu to take charge of Jingzhou after Liu Biao's death. Huang Zu also had the support of big families, and he was the only one who could fight against big families like the Cai family and the Kuai Jia family.

As for extreme measures, if the Jingzhou surrender faction refuses to repent, Yuan Xi will have to resort to military means.

After Zhuge Liang returned, he sent letters to all parties in Youzhou, Bingzhou and Jingzhou according to Yuan Xi's instructions. He thought that the current situation was really like the world was a chess game, and every state and county had become a chess piece. Some were fierce and deadly moves, and some were timid and idle moves, but the dangers hidden behind them were even worse than the former.

He recalled that Yuan Xi did not specifically mention Jiangdong until the end. Was it because he felt that the other party was no longer able to stir up trouble, or was it because he believed that Liu Bei could contain Sun Quan?

A few days later, information came from Jianghuai, verifying Zhuge Liang's guess that Liu Bei and Sun Quan had started fighting.

Unlike later generations, the conflict between Liu Bei and Sun Quan at this time was actually far from a life-and-death struggle. Zhuge Liang guessed that there were two reasons why Liu Bei was so persistent in attacking Sun Quan. One was that Sun Quan had sent people to attack Liu Bei's rear before, and the other was that both sides were now fighting for Jiaozhou. With new and old grudges added together, Liu Bei would definitely take advantage of the fact that the rear of Jingzhou had not yet fallen into Cao Cao's hands and do his utmost to eliminate this hidden danger.

Originally, Liu Bei's strength was not as good as Sun Quan's, but after Zhou Yu's death, Sun Quan had no worthwhile strategists. Liu Bei also summoned a group of soldiers in Lingling, Changsha. As the strength of one side was weakening, the other was weakening. Liu Bei was actually suppressing Sun Quan in the battle.

After seeing the news, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. This way, there would be no trouble in Jiangdong in the next year or so.

However, the other news was not so good. After receiving the letter, Zhuge Liang hurried to see Yuan Xi.

After reading the letter, Yuan Xi remained silent.

Chen Deng is critically ill.

Yuan Xi once asked Hua Tuo about Chen Deng's condition, but Hua Tuo just smiled bitterly and said nothing. Yuan Xi understood at that time that Hua Tuo was probably powerless to help.

But Yuan Xi didn't expect Chen Deng's condition to deteriorate so quickly. The last time he met him was more than a year ago. At that time, Chen Deng looked good. How come he suddenly became so unwell?
Chen Deng's serious illness brought about a series of problems. The most direct impact was that all parties were secretly working for the position of the next governor of Xuzhou, and some disputes had become semi-public.

After all, Xuzhou is too prosperous. After five or six years of recuperation, it has not only returned to its pre-war prosperity, but even surpassed it. Moreover, as the only state without war under Yuan Xi's rule, its wealth is equal to that of two Youzhous. Naturally, many people are eyeing this fat piece of meat.

These families all yearn to move up. Although Chen Deng had recommended Bu Zhi before, the time was too short and Bu Zhi might not have established his prestige yet, which led to the current chaos.

This letter was sent by Lu Xun at the border of Xuzhou. The Procuratorate must have discovered that the situation was not good, so it informed Lu Xun and then forwarded it to Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi's face looked very unhappy. He had done his best for Xuzhou over the years. No war was better than anything else. Now these people were not grateful and were even thinking of making trouble secretly?

He thought for a moment and said, "The war is at a stalemate now, and I don't really need to make decisions. The military advisor will stay in Yijing for me, and I will go to Xuzhou in person."

Zhuge Liang also understood that at this time, it would be most appropriate for Yuan Xi to go personally to stabilize the situation, so he immediately accepted the order.

The next morning, Yuan Xi led the caravan along the highway through Bohai County, boarded the ship at the port, and headed for Guangling.

(End of this chapter)