Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1153 Excitement
Seeing Cao Qing asking questions, Cao Zhi whispered, "I heard about it, but Yang...they asked me not to talk about it."

He hesitated for a moment and said, "But in front of Sister, I will not deny that it is actually the best that Brother is back. How can we compare to Brother even one tenth of him?"

After hearing this, Cao Qing said, "Third brother, this is very kind."

"But remember not to talk about this matter in the future. Even if Father asks you, you have to pretend you don't know. OK?"

Cao Zhi nodded quickly. Cao Qing asked Cao Zhi to leave first, and then she went back to her room to take some things, then called a carriage and left the house.

When they arrived at the gate, the carriage was stopped by the guards. Cao Qing stuck her head out of the carriage and said, "It's me."

When the guard saw him, he immediately smiled and said, "So it's the eldest princess. May I ask..."

Cao Qing picked up the clothes in her hand and said, "I'm ordered to deliver something."

The guard smiled and said, "The token for entering and leaving..."

Cao Qing said coldly: "I didn't mention the token when I was ordered."

"Go ask your father directly."

The guard's face froze. How dare he go to find Cao Cao?
And thinking that Cao Qing had gone out alone several times before, he had no choice but to step aside and watch the carriage go away.

In Cao Cao's room, the maid brought in food. Mrs. Bian helped Cao Cao eat some and then helped him lie back on the couch.

She saw a set of women's clothes placed next to Cao Cao's bed and felt strange. She was the only one by Cao Cao's side these days, with no other women sleeping with him. And the clothes were obviously not for her. Where did they come from?
She thought the maid had put it by mistake, so she reached out to take it, but Cao Cao opened his eyes and said, "Get out."

Mrs. Bian was stunned, but she reacted quickly. She immediately stood up, picked up the lunch box, left the room, and then closed the door gently.

After a while, Cao Cao finally sat up. There was a sinister light flashing in his eyes. He didn't look like he was about to die as usual.
He slowly reached out his hand and took the neatly folded clothes to his knees, with endless murderous intent surging on his face.

This set of clothes was what Mrs. Ding wore when she got married. More than 20 years have passed, but Mrs. Ding still can't bear to throw it away.

Until Mrs. Ding divorced Cao Cao and she returned to Yuzhou, she was wearing this set of clothes when she left. Afterwards, she was captured by Yuan Xi's army and there was no news of her since then.

However, now this set of clothes, even the inner clothes, were sent from Youzhou, and the meaning is self-evident.

Although Cao Cao had many wives and concubines, and he valued Madam Bian very much, Madam Ding was always different in Cao Cao's heart. After all, she was his original wife, and the only female in the mansion who could communicate with Cao Cao on an equal footing.

Even though Mrs. Ding was determined to divorce, Cao Cao still held out a glimmer of hope. But now this hope is completely shattered. Is there any need to imagine what will happen to Mrs. Ding if she is captured by the ferocious tiger?

Cao Cao clenched his fists tightly, gritted his teeth, and his mouth was full of the taste of blood. This ferocious tiger was so shameless that he used Madam Ding to attack him!
If I can capture Jizhou, I will definitely kill all the vicious tigers!

But Cao Cao knew that he might not have much time left. The fierce tiger was younger than him, and not only could he afford to wait, but he was also trying every means to provoke him and wanted him to die suddenly as soon as possible!

Along with the clothes came a few bottles.

Cao Cao recognized them at a glance because he had seen these bottles before.

The Wu Shi San carefully prepared by the Taiping Dao alchemists can indeed relieve pain. At first glance, it seems to be a good medicine for curing diseases, but when it is actually taken, it will corrode the stomach and intestines, causing the user's body to gradually collapse. Moreover, the dosage is very delicate, and it may take one or two years to see the effect.

At the beginning, this batch of Five Stones Powder was transferred through secret channels and finally landed on Yuan Shao's desk. Facts have proved that this method finally worked. According to the news received by Cao Cao, Yuan Shao died of vomiting blood, which was consistent with the description of the alchemists.

Moreover, the timing was very good, as it happened to be the time when the Yuan family's heirs were fighting for power and Jizhou was in civil strife. Therefore, through various means, Cao Cao reaped the benefits while the Yuan family was in internal strife, and finally completed his turnaround from Yuan Shao's guest general to the lord of the Central Plains.

This was a brilliant strategy that Cao Cao had always been very proud of, but which he could not publicize to others. Although it did somewhat disregard his friendship with Yuan Shao when they were young, how could he be so soft-hearted when fighting for the world?

Now that the other party sent these bottles together, the meaning was very obvious. The hatred for killing his father was irreconcilable, and what happened to Mrs. Ding was revenge!
Cao Cao felt a dull pain in his head and was horrified. His current situation was so similar to that of Yuan Shao when he was waiting to die!

If I die now, what will happen to the Cao family?
Is it just like the families of Yuan Shao who were slaughtered and looted when Yecheng was captured?

No, I must hold on. This time in the battle of Jizhou, I must win but not lose. At least I must seriously injure Xionghu, so that I can win a precious chance of a comeback for my heir in the future! Thinking of the prince, Cao Cao's face darkened again. The opponent had too many cards in his hand, not only Madam Bian, but also Cao Ang. If after his death, Xionghu used the excuse of supporting Cao Ang to take back the Cao family to attack Cao Cao's forces, how many officials and generals would surrender to the enemy?
The more Cao Cao thought about it, the more irritated he became. His headache was indeed getting worse, but most of the time, he still pretended to confuse others.

Although it might make his subordinates unstable, as long as the Fierce Tiger Army advanced recklessly, he would appear in a healthy posture, stabilize the morale of the army and then launch a counterattack. Cao's camp would surely be able to burst out with amazing combat power in a short period of time, thus catching the invading Yuan Xi army off guard and even defeating it!
But ideals are beautiful, and reality did not go as expected. Yuan Xi did not launch a large-scale attack, but retreated step by step using trench warfare, determined to consume the enemy's forces.

Not only that, the other party even had time to go to Xuzhou to fight the landlords and divide the land!
This made Cao Cao quite depressed, because he had been secretly planning in Xuzhou for several years, and many aristocratic families had been bribed by him. They were just waiting for the arrival of Cao Zhen's army to attack Xuzhou, and then they would launch a rebellion in Xuzhou with internal and external support, and then flood Qingzhou, which would completely cut off the logistical route of the fierce tiger and change the battlefield situation in Jizhou.

Cao's camp certainly could not afford to fight a war of attrition with the Jin army, so Cao Cao came up with the strategy of using Qing and Xu at the same time to cut off the source of the problem.

However, man proposes, God disposes. The upper reaches of the Yellow River dried up, completely destroying Cao Cao's plan to flood Qingzhou. Afterwards, Cao Cao learned that the other party's response was to release water in the upper reaches of the Hetao Plain. Although it flooded a large area of ​​land in the Hetao Plain, much of it was wasteland. Compared with the losses in the downstream Qingzhou, the losses were much smaller.

As for Xuzhou, whether it was a coincidence or Yuan Xi had learned the news in advance, he slaughtered the rebellious landlords in Xuzhou with lightning speed. At the same time, he ambushed troops in advance, repelled Cao Zhen, and even pushed back to Yuzhou!
What Cao Cao didn't know was that this was mostly a coincidence. Yuan Xi went to Xuzhou because Chen Deng was seriously ill. It happened that the Xuzhou gentry saw that Chen Deng was about to die and wanted to make trouble, and they happened to run into Yuan Xi.

Although the two incidents had different causes, they followed the same cause and effect relationship. In other words, there was inevitability in chance. This seemed to indicate that Cao Cao's actions were doomed to fail from the very beginning.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao sighed. Compared with Yuan Shao, Yuan Xi made him feel more like a worthy opponent. If it were ten years ago, Cao Cao might have been happy to have such an opponent, but now he only felt fear and irritability, because time was not on his side and he could not afford to delay any longer!

He stood up and walked back and forth on the ground. It was almost autumn now. If he could not make progress in Jizhou in the next two months, the situation would only become worse next year, and Cao's camp would be powerless to save the situation!
Where is the breakthrough?
While he was thinking, there were several knocks on the window, and then a piece of silk book was stuffed into the gap, and then the footsteps faded away.

Cao Cao knew that this was a spy from the Imperial Household Department who came to report to him. Unless it was an emergency, the letter would not be delivered during the day. So he walked over, picked up the silk book, glanced inside, and almost had a cerebral hemorrhage.

Yuan Xi left Xuzhou, then headed west to the Huai River. After joining forces with Lu Xun's navy, he began to attack Yuzhou. Cao Zhen could not resist and was defeated in successive battles, having lost half of Runan!

Cao Cao almost couldn't breathe. He had already urgently summoned Le Jin for reinforcement, and it was calculated that there would be ten days left for him to arrive. But the fierce tiger didn't even give him this little time?
If Yuzhou is lost, his defense line in the Central Plains will completely collapse!

He threw the silk book away. He could not wait any longer. He had to identify the crown prince as soon as possible and stabilize the people's hearts in Yecheng. Only then could he launch a counterattack from Jizhou, relieve the pressure on Yuzhou, and retain that tiny possibility of a turnaround!

Thinking of this, he stepped back and opened the door. Madam Bian, who was sitting outside, stood up in surprise when she saw Cao Cao coming out. Then she heard Cao Cao say to her, "Send an order to have Yuan and Yuan Chang and a few others come over."

When Xiahou Dun, Zhong Yao, and Xun You arrived at Cao Cao's room, they saw Cao Cao sitting at the head of the table. They were surprised and delighted, and asked, "My lord, are you feeling better?"

Cao Cao snorted coldly, "If I don't do well, you will lose all the Central Plains!"

Xiahou Dun's face showed shame. In the past few years, he had more defeats than victories. Yuan Xi's generals and advisers had a great success. If he had not suffered a setback in the battle in Yecheng, Cao Cao would not have come here in person.

Cao Cao saw this and snorted coldly: "It's useless to mention the past. The most urgent task now is to change the situation in Jizhou!"

"Have you heard about what happened in Yuzhou?"

Seeing several people nod, Cao Cao said: "It is too late to send troops to rescue Yuzhou now!"

"The current strategy is to surround Wei to save Zhao, or in other words, focus on Jizhou, the key, and don't worry about Qingzhou and Xuzhou!"

"As long as we can defeat the main force of the fierce tiger in Jizhou and defend Yecheng, the Central Plains will not be lost!"

"The front line is currently at a stalemate. Do you have any plan to break the deadlock?"

Xiahou Dun and the others hesitated for a moment, and no one spoke first. Seeing this, Cao Cao said irritably, "If you can't think of it, I'll tell you!"

"Isn't it just trench warfare?"

"Break the river and divert the water to break it!"

Xun You whispered: "I tried it before, but the other party seemed to have a drainage channel, and the effect was minimal..."

Cao Cao said coldly: "That's because the water is not enough!"

"Pass on my military order to dig up all the rivers in the war zone of Jizhou!"

(End of this chapter)