Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 535: Pinched by Persimmon
Xu Huang suddenly felt a little regretful!

Yang Feng and Han Xian were killed. Xu Huang knew that Liu Guanzhang was powerful, and even if he fought desperately, he had no ability to take revenge.

In addition, he was captured by Yuan Xi, so he stopped thinking early, thinking that whether it was to survive or linger, surrendering to Yuan Xi was better than surrendering to Liu Bei who killed Yang Feng and Han Xian, so that he could feel more at ease.

When I arrived at Yuan Xi's military camp, I saw that Yuan Xi's sworn brother was actually Liu Bei's son-in-law. Isn't this a family!
He actually bowed his head to Yuan Xi because he wanted something, but now it seems that it is difficult!

He opened his mouth several times and saw that Yuan Xi had been talking to several counselors, and it was hard to ask for help directly. While he was struggling, Sun Li came back with someone.

He came over and said to Yuan Xi: "Brother, the bodies of the two generals have been found."

Then he angrily said: "When I went to Heitan Tou to ask for General Han's head, he still wanted to embarrass me, but Liu Yuzhou came over and agreed."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said to Xu Huang: "I think that even if the two generals Yang Feng, Han Xian and brother Gongming died in battle, they should be buried in peace and let Sun Li bring their bodies."

"Why don't we bury him on the spot and pay homage to him?"

Xu Huang was suddenly speechless. This was the purpose of his previous surrender to Yuan Xi.

Since Xu Huang returned eastward with the emperor's motorcade, no one has tried to win over him in the past year or so, but they have always offered him high-ranking officials, generous salaries, money and beautiful concubines.

But the young fierce tiger in front of him acted differently and did not promise him any military position. However, Xu Huang was extremely touched by the matter of collecting Yang Feng's corpse.

During the Han Dynasty, there was a dual monarch relationship, that is, the emperor and his ministers were monarchs and ministers, but they were not monarchs and ministers with their ministers' subordinates.

The relationship between ministers and their subordinates is that of a monarch. The subordinates regard their superior as their emperor and their father. The relationship is extremely close. If their superior dies, their subordinates must observe filial piety.

Under such circumstances, Lu Bu received so much criticism for killing the two leaders. Now Xu Huang has the same relationship with Yang Feng.

Yang Feng was the master of Xu Huang's examination. Although there were many faults, Xu Huang held the courtesy of disciple and minister. It would be unjust if he left Yang Feng's body alone.

He was struggling with how to speak, but he didn't expect that Yuan Xi seemed to have guessed his thoughts and helped him get things done in advance!

He bowed deeply and saluted Yuan Xi, "Huang deeply appreciates your great kindness and will never forget it."

Yuan Xi thought to himself that he had guessed it right. The more capable and ideal a person is, the more he cares about spiritual things.

Judging from later generations, Xu Huang paid great attention to reputation and the evaluation of the world. As long as he took the right medicine, he would figure out his thoughts sooner or later!
Yang Feng and Han Xian died in the battle in Hefei, and most of the soldiers were lost. News that Hefei was besieged soon spread to Shouchun, hundreds of miles away. People in the city were in a state of confusion, and some people were already preparing to escape.

Without him, Hefei was too close to Shouchun, and no one thought that Yuan Xijun and Liu Beijun would go up the Yangtze River, risking their retreat, and hit Yuan Shu's rear!

Above the main hall of Yuan Shu's palace, all the officials looked ugly, and the one who looked even worse was Yuan Shu.

He was almost roaring: "Can anyone tell me why the weakest party was the one who hit us first?"

Listening to Yuan Shi's attitude, the officials seemed to want to hold those who had previously proposed to attack Xuzhou accountable, and their hearts raised in their throats. During the meeting that day, all the officials agreed!

It is normal to say that Lu Bu invaded Yingchuan in the name of Emperor Liu Xie. It was not easy to directly confront him. After all, although Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, he still did not dare to overtake the Emperor, so he could only call himself Zhongshi, which meant The second emperor.

In addition, Lu Bu's reputation as a warrior was well-known throughout the world, and Yuan Shu's officials had no confidence in defeating Lu Bu, so they had to look elsewhere.

Cao Cao in the north cannot be chosen. Not only did he defeat Lu Bu, but Cao's army and Yuan Shu's army had fought several times before. Not only did Yuan Shu's army not take advantage at all, but they were also defeated so badly that when Yuan Shu led his army to attack the north of Yuzhou, Hearing that Cao Cao was personally leading troops, he immediately fled back to Shouchun in panic.

Neither Lu Bu in the west nor Cao Cao in the north can do it, so we can only find a way to the east.

As luck would have it, there were two soft persimmons on the east side that officials Yuan Shu thought were easy to pinch.

One is Liu Bei, who has almost never won a battle against princes from all sides.

From Qingzhou to Xuzhou, Liu Bei lost to Yuan Xi, Cao Cao, and Sun Ce one after another. His wife and daughter were all beaten, and it became a laughing stock for a while. Therefore, Yuan Shu's officials unanimously suggested to attack Pi!
As for Guangling, east of Xiapi, after a debate among officials, they recently agreed to attack it together.

After all, although Yuan Xi is known as the Fierce Tiger, his reputation is based on cavalry. Guangling is surrounded by water on both sides, and the cavalry cannot be used at all. Moreover, Yuan Xi's current base camp is in Youzhou, and it is too late to send troops to help thousands of miles away. Guangling is isolated and helpless.

With this almost blind confidence, Yuan Shu's counselors formulated a three-pronged attack plan.

The west road is Pengcheng, the Chinese army is at Xiapi, the east road is Guangling!

And there is another advantage to attacking Xuzhou. The locusts in Yuzhou have exhausted the food. Yuan Shu's army of [-] will soon be out of food.Sili and Yanzhou were both hit by locust plagues. In comparison, Xuzhou, which had harvested grain in advance, became a huge granary in Yuan Shu's eyes.

Therefore, Yuan Shu doesn't care at all how many people will die, and how many mouths will be lost if they die, but if Xuzhou is captured, the army will not be short of food!
Driven by this idea, Yuan Shujun advanced in three directions, intending to capture Xuzhou in one fell swoop.

But as soon as the battle began, Yuan Shujun discovered that something was wrong. Liu Bei and Yuan Xi were far more difficult to defeat than previously imagined!

There were tens of thousands of troops in Xiapi City and tens of thousands of troops in Guanglingtang. They fought for nearly a month, but they didn't even reach the top of the city!

In this era, attacking a city is easier said than done.

For example, Hefei, which is currently surrounded by the armies of Yuan Xi and Liu Bei, is in danger and is in danger of being breached at any time.

The reason for this is that the city of Hefei at that time was not large in scale. There were only tens of thousands of people in the city, but the number of supporting soldiers had previously reached more than [-]. This extra mouth was created out of thin air, and with the food stored in the city, It cannot be supported at all.

In addition, there was a food shortage due to the locust plague in the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. Not only was there already a food shortage in Hefei City, but even the reinforcements from Yang Feng and Han Siam did not bring enough food.

In this case, Yang Feng's idea of ​​rushing out of the city for a decisive battle was undoubtedly correct, but the reason for his defeat still lay in his hesitation in dealing with the battle situation.

He was indeed prepared for a battle out of the city, but he was not prepared for a desperate battle.

Yang Feng still had the idea in his heart that in case of failure, he would retreat to the city to defend and wait for reinforcements. However, in this way, he had the idea of ​​​​storing food and did not feed the soldiers before the battle.

If it were Cao Cao and Liu Bei, they would have allowed the soldiers to rest for two days. During this time, regardless of the amount of food left, they would have eaten enough to build up their strength. This way, when they went out to fight with all their strength, their chances of winning would be much greater.

Yang Feng wanted to win but was afraid of losing. He chose to act too hastily when his soldiers were tired after marching and had not yet recovered. As a result, Liu Bei's army first beheaded the general and finally defeated the rest of the army easily while their morale was low.

At present, Yuan Xijun and Liu Bei's army have surrounded Hefei. They are relying on the waterway of Chaohu Lake to supply supplies. They are not attacking. They will only wait for the only food in Hefei to be exhausted and the city to collapse.

During this period, if Shouchun sends reinforcements, Yuan Xi and Liu Bei can completely surround the city and call for reinforcements. Therefore, for Yuan Shu, the current Hefei City is neither a rescue nor a rescue. It is like useless.

The reason why this situation occurs is because the supply of the defenders is cut off, and the supplies of the siege are sufficient. In the end, whoever can afford it will be the final winner.

When Yuan Shu's army initially attacked Xia Pi Guangling, the situation was completely reversed.

The huge amount of food consumed by Yuan Shu's army far exceeded that of Xiapi Guangling. Moreover, Xuzhou was rich and had accumulated a lot of food, so the morale of the army in the city was stable.

Guan Zhang was guarding Xiapi. To gain an advantage in defending the city, he had to go out to destroy the opponent's siege equipment. Both Guan and Zhang were experienced in this regard. They often led people out of the city to harass and attack. They came and went freely, destroying Yuan Shu's army's supplies of food and grass. , and can also protect one's own food routes, making Yuan Shu's army's siege useless.

Not to mention Guangling, facing water on both sides, Yuan Shu's army was unable to cut off Yuan Xi's army's water supply route.

Under such circumstances, it was much more difficult to siege a city than to defend it, so Yuan Shu's army suffered successive defeats. In the end, even if they united their forces, they still could not capture Xiapi.

In the end, Cao Cao's army raided Liu Bei's rear and occupied Tancheng Pengcheng. Liu Bei's retreat was cut off and he hurriedly withdrew. Yuan Shu's army took advantage and occupied Xiapi.

But after occupying Xiapi, Yuan Shujun suddenly discovered that he could no longer attack the north!
Previously, Cao Cao had just conquered Tancheng. He also took advantage of Yuan Shu's west group to attack the south gate of Pengcheng, and raided the north gate of Pengcheng from behind. He occupied Pengcheng before Yuan Shu's army, forcing the west group to retreat to Jiujiang.

Cao's army was at odds with each other in Pengcheng and Tancheng, making Yuan Shu's army in Xiapi unable to advance or retreat. It would be a pity to abandon Xiapi, but there was not enough army rations to go north, so tens of thousands of people wasted their time in Xiapi.

As a result, at this time, Yuan Tan, who had previously attacked Donghai from Langya, entered the scene. He led tens of thousands of troops, occupied Tancheng, which Cao Jun had inexplicably abandoned, and went south to attack Xiapi!
This time, Yuan Shujun in Xiapi was completely paralyzed. No matter how stupid he was, he understood that Yuan Tan had secretly reached an agreement with Cao Cao and wanted to invade Jiujiang from Xiapi and go straight to Shouchun!
In addition, Zhang Xunqiao Rui who went north was defeated by Cao's army. Now Yuan Shu was besieged by five princes in four directions. The fastest one was hundreds of miles away from Shouchun. The situation was already extremely bad.

When Yuan Shu's army was divided into five groups and attacked in three directions at the same time, who would have thought that any one of the soft persimmons from before would be more powerful than Yuan Shu's army?

Baiguan couldn't help but begin to doubt life. Could it be that Yuan Shu, whom he was attached to, was the weakest one?
Yuan Shu was almost losing his composure. He pointed at the officials in the hall and said, "Tell me, what are your strategies for retreating from the enemy now?"

"I can't defeat any of them. Is it because I don't know the people well or the general I found is too incompetent?"

All the officials did not dare to speak. There were too many unexpected factors. Who knew that when a hundred thousand troops came out, Yuzhou would be hit by a locust plague?
Could it be that Zhong Gong was really punished by God for his independence, and was he not the one who led the Han people to be the one who answered Tu Gao's prophecy?
Many people under his command could not help but think of the rumors about another descendant of the Yuan family.

The man's name is also very suitable. It is said that he was helped by an expert in stargazing. It is said that Xuzhou also escaped the locust plague. Is that man the destiny?
At this time, Yuan Shu saw his brother Yuan Yin. He knew that it would be impossible if he kept silent, so he hurriedly came out and said: "Your Majesty, the top priority is that we can no longer disperse our troops."

"We should quickly recall as many extra soldiers as possible and then concentrate them to attack the city that needs relief the most."

(End of this chapter)