Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 428 Pre-War Planning
Tian Yu came out to greet Yuan Xi, and found that besides Sun Li, there was another guard beside Yuan Xi, who was not necessarily tall and strong, with an iron mask covering half of his face, except for a pair of eyes.

He had already persuaded Yuan Xi to find a strong bodyguard to make up for Sun Li's shortcomings. Although Sun Li was very talented in martial arts, after all, his body had not yet matured, and his martial arts had not yet mastered it. That's all in the formation, but when you meet a master like Yang Feng, it seems a bit insufficient.

When they met Yang Feng for the first time, Tian Yu and Sun Li teamed up and almost let Yang Feng succeed. Sun Li was naturally brooding, and Tian Yu also felt quite ashamed.

In Tian Yu's view, the best way to deal with a man like Yang Feng who is flexible is to form a circle with more than a dozen strong people, exhaust his strength, and kill him alive.

The young master is attacking Montenegro this time, Yang Feng may come to make a surprise attack, and bring an extra guard, is it enough?
At this time, Tian Yu found that Gao Shun beside him had a weird expression on his face, staring straight at the new guard, thinking, what's so weird about this?
After everyone went in and sat down, Yuan Xi told about Yan Rouwei's appointment as Captain Karasuma, Guo Jia said: "This official position is quite appropriate, but I'm afraid it is the corresponding official position."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "I have already asked Zilong to take care of it."

"Brother Guorang."

After hearing this, Tian Yu replied, "The end is here."

Yuan Xi signaled Zhao Yun to take out the seal and ribbon, and said: "Zilong also asked for the seal of the country, and the emperor ordered that brother be the captain of the guard Karasuma."

After hearing this, everyone thought that this was appropriate. Colonel Hu Karasuma was used by the Han court to monitor Captain Karasuma. If it was someone else, Yan Rou might still have a grudge in her heart, but if Tian Rou had a good personal relationship with Yan Rou Yu, that would save a lot of trouble.

Tian Yu took the seal ribbon from Zhao Yun, and muttered in his heart, the young master really wants to hand over Youzhou to Zhao Yun?

How dare you, you must know that the young master's family members are all in Jicheng, in case Zhao Yun has a different heart
Yuan Xi seemed to see the doubts in the hearts of everyone, including Tian Yu, and said, "The matter of the Son of Heaven conferring Youzhou Shepherd is indeed slightly different from my previous calculations."

"It's very thoughtful for the emperor to do this."

"However, one person cannot concurrently serve as the shepherd of two states. This arrangement has given me a justifiable excuse."

"Everyone can rest assured that the affairs of Youzhou will be arranged as usual in the future, and Zilong will respond to orders in Youzhou as if I personally issued them."

Everyone took orders immediately, and they didn't need to argue about what Yuan Xi had already decided. Besides, it was a bit awkward at first thought, but Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and others who owned several states actually did the same.

But think about it, the thirteen states of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Yuan Xi, who he followed, also owned two states in name!
Yuan Xi then said: "The top priority is to take down the Black Mountain and completely eliminate the hidden dangers of the Black Mountain Army. Only then can we stabilize the surrounding area of ​​Youzhou, and at the same time, we can also plan to merge the state and occupy as much land as possible in the Hetao area."

The Yellow River has all kinds of harm, but only richness. The Hetao area can be said to be the most suitable place for growing food near the northern Great Wall.

Moreover, due to the Ice Age at the end of the Han Dynasty, the weather in the north has become colder in recent years. As a result, many areas with undeveloped water conservancy are only suitable for planting cold-resistant and drought-resistant food crops, and the Hetao area is very suitable for planting wheat.

As for Youzhou, water conservancy facilities can be used to eliminate the impact of cold weather as much as possible to grow rice with higher yields, but this approach is only suitable for places with sufficient water sources.

After all the calculations, raising a soldier and horse of about 300 people in Youzhou would cost about [-] million shi for a year's supplies converted into food.

Of course, this is the conversion of all the soldiers' expenses and food, including staple food, meat, milk, vegetables, salt and seasonings, etc.

With the addition of some coarse grains, the 300 million shi of wheat and rice may not be needed in the end, but more than half of the amount is needed. The reason why wheat and rice were chosen instead of other crops is because the former has an advantage in yield.

Even so, it is difficult to support these expenses with just a few counties in Youzhou, not to mention that the first few years are the period of breeding and selecting the best. If the experiment fails, it is easy to fail, which will affect the harvest.

Yuan Xi controlled the number of soldiers so carefully, not because he couldn't recruit more soldiers, but because if more troops were added, Youzhou would be dragged down alive.

And many other princes adopted the method of fighting to consume, and when the soldiers died, the cost would naturally be less. As Yuan Xi, he was very unwilling to adopt this method.

Therefore, Yuan Xi covets the Hetao area, which can grow grain and raise horses, and the weather will become colder in the coming years, which will affect the pastures in the grasslands outside the Great Wall, resulting in a large-scale reduction in production.

If the nomads can't feed their livestock, there are only two options.

One is to move westward, looking for a place with more abundant aquatic plants, which of course will inevitably lead to conflicts with other nomadic peoples.

The second is to go south to plunder, enter Senei, and rob the border residents of Liangzhou in Youzhou and Bingzhou.

Relatively speaking, the second option is more likely to be accepted by nomads, because westward migration is unreliable, and there may be no pastures, or other pastures may also be affected.

But going south is different. Not only can they rob the food grown by the Han border residents, but now the world is in chaos, and the Bingliang army defending the frontier has all participated in the civil strife, and the frontier fortress is almost undefended.

Yuan Xi predicted that within five to ten years, the northern Xiongnu and Xianbei outside the Great Wall would go south to plunder on a large scale. Before that, he would use all forces to build a defense line in the Hetao Plain of Bingzhou to stop the foreigners.

However, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shang and others, limited by the limitations of the vision of the times, would not take such a long-term view. The main reason why the Yuan family wanted to occupy Bingzhou was because of the source of soldiers and war horses of the Southern Huns.

In this regard, Yuan Xi, who mainly wants to farm land, and Yuan Shang, who wants to fight horses, actually do not have too much conflict in their goals, and the two sides can still cooperate.

As long as the two sides open up the Heishan passage together, they can enter Bingzhou. On the one hand, Yuan Xi used the strength of the Yuan family to back himself up, on the other hand, he used the edict of the emperor to intimidate the Southern Huns, and established a military town and camp in the Hetao area to ensure the safety of farming. During the window period of these few years, try to accumulate strength as much as possible.

Of course, the premise is that the troublemaker Black Mountain Army must be wiped out.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi said: "I have obeyed the emperor's edict to attack Heishan and at the same time persuade the Yuan family. I will save face on both sides, and try to avoid soldiers' casualties."

"I want to ask you first, what's your opinion?"

Ju Shou waited for a while, and seeing that Guo Jia hadn't spoken, he opened his mouth and said, "The Son of Heaven said that he turned hostility into friendship. If he really wiped out all the Black Mountain Army, I'm afraid you will be criticized by the Han court."

"This old man thinks the best outcome is for the Black Mountain Army to surrender, and the Young Master will recruit them."

Yuan Xi sighed: "I really want to do this too, but we can't eat it now."

"Our military rations are also consumed a lot. If we fight for another month, I'm afraid Youzhou will have to take out the rations planted in autumn."

"Even if their Montenegro army surrendered to me, I can't afford to support so many people."

Ju Shou said: "But the Black Mountain Army is about to lose its hold."

"If they surrender to Yuan Shang, we may not gain anything by attacking Montenegro this time."

Guo Jia said at this time: "I have a slightly different opinion from Mr. Gong and Mr."

"If Yuan Shang really dared to eat all the hundreds of thousands of Black Mountain troops, within half a year, Jizhou would be emptied."

"When the famine breaks out and the situation in Jizhou is in chaos, won't your son's chance come?"

As soon as this remark came out, the faces of everyone present became stiff. Can you also say this?

Why do you always think about bringing down Jizhou?

Yuan Xi smiled wryly and said, "Let's not talk about this matter for now. Now that our strength is still weak, if something happens in Jizhou, Cao Cao will have an opportunity to take advantage of it. We can't compete with him."

After hearing this, Guo Jia showed a look of regret, thinking that Mr. Xindao is still so soft-hearted.

Guo Jia actually secretly meant that Jizhou was in chaos, and the Youzhou army took the opportunity to seize Yecheng!
And he believed that Yuan Xi must have understood, and he was just pretending to be stupid.

In fact, this is the fastest way Guo Jia can think of to capture Jizhou. Although the risk is high, it is necessary to take risks to compete for the world.

But since Yuan Xi denied this idea, Guo Jia said: "Since Youzhou and Jizhou can't afford it, then the Black Mountain Army can only be defeated, and some refugees will be forced to go south to Hanoi."

"When the time comes to let go of some of the Black Mountain Army, we only need to focus on Yang Feng, the son's highest priority."

"In this way, the goals of the three parties can all be achieved. When we deal with Zhang Feng, the Yuan family defeats the Black Mountain Army, and at the same time release some of the defeated soldiers to the Han court, we can also give the emperor an explanation."

At this time, Guo Jia’s deduction is after the failure of Montenegro. It seems that he has considered it a bit early, but everyone present understands that these situations must be dealt with in advance. When the Montenegro army really surrenders, they will be thinking about resettlement. it's too late.

Guo Jia finally said: "I suggest to wait and see what happens in the next few days, and when Yuan Shang suffers, then we can negotiate terms with him."

Ju Shou said: "I heard that Jizhou sent Zhang He Gaolan to lead troops to reinforce, and now Yuan Shao has all three courts and pillars, and his strength has greatly increased. What if the Black Mountain Army is directly defeated by him?"

Guo Jia heard this, and said, "The Black Mountain Army is not easy to deal with. It cannot be completely wiped out with two generals."

"And the most troublesome thing is that the terrain of Montenegro is dangerous and the forests are lush. Soldiers can only fight in twos and twos. The advantages of the Jizhou Army's strong bows and crossbows and cavalry cannot be fully utilized."

"Besides, Yuan Shang is afraid that he wants to monopolize the credit. If he doesn't suffer a big loss, he may not be willing to let us intervene."

After hearing this, Ju Shou nodded and said, "It is indeed as Feng Xiao said, when soldiers are tired, it is better to recharge their batteries."

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "According to what you two said, let the soldiers rest for two days."

"At the same time, step up the reorganization of troops, be proficient in mountain combat, and be ready to deal with changes at any time."

Yuan Shang sat in the camp tent, looking at the counselors and generals under his command complacently.

When the reviewer came back from requisitioning grain and grass, and with Pang Ji, his two great counselors arrived.

The main general under his command, Wen Chou, Gao Lan and Zhang Yun, together with more than a dozen other generals such as Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang, are already the strongest combat power that Jizhou can fight.

A total of nearly 3 soldiers were dispatched to reinforce the soldiers, as well as the logistics of the former soldiers, and the transportation of grain and grass. If the Montenegrin Army cannot be defeated, there is really no way to go back and explain.

He waved his hand, "Everyone, go back and attack tomorrow!"

The judge said: "Young Master Xian Yi."

Yuan Shang didn't take it seriously and said: "What's the matter with his thousands of soldiers? If he gets involved, will I share the credit with him equally?"

After hearing this, everyone thought that this was in line with Yuan Shang's character, but it was also reasonable.

In the past few years, Yuan Xi has won several big victories and gained a lot of fame, but Yuan Shang has almost no military achievements, and urgently needs a decisive victory to prove himself.

At this time, if Yuan Xi is allowed to attack the Black Mountain Army together, even if they win, the rumors that spread out will probably be Yuan Xi who played a decisive role in it.

In this way, wouldn't Yuan Shang himself be taken advantage of?

And now that the Jizhou army has an absolute advantage in terms of strength and generals, whether Yuan Xi participates or not does not affect the overall situation, so Yuan Shang will not let Yuan Xi participate in the decisive battle.

In Zhang Yan's camp of the Black Mountain Army, Yang Feng said: "General Zhonglang, I will attack tomorrow?"

(End of this chapter)