Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 569 Do the opposite

Everyone in Cao's camp, including Xun You and Cheng Yu's counselors, all raised their heads in surprise when they heard the meaning of Cao Cao's words.

Cao Cao's idea was too unexpected. He promised to fight Yuan Shu, but suddenly turned around and went to fight Yuan Shao?
The key point is that Yuan Shao is no better than Yuan Shu. His troops are well-prepared and his advisers and generals are not ordinary people. Moreover, Cao Ying has been fighting hard for a long time and is almost at the end of its war effort. Now it has to use its exhausted army to deal with Jizhou, which is replenishing its energy. Soldiers?
Why fight this long-distance battle at this time?
Cao Cao saw what everyone was thinking and said in a deep voice: "Think about it, how much benefit can we get if we attack Yuan Shu?"

After everyone heard this, they began to think.

Not long after, Xun You and Cheng Yu shook their heads together. They had to admit that even if they defeated Yuan Shu, the benefits they could gain were very limited.

Not to mention that Cao Cao did not train a naval force, it would be difficult to cross the Huai River, and most of the Lujiang and Jiujiang counties in the south of the Huai River were occupied by Yuan Xi.

Even if he invades Shouchun, Cao Cao can only control a line north of the Huai River. Although Huaibei is Yuzhou, Cao Cao cannot take it alone, because the brothers Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang also invaded Yuzhou!
Not only that, Yuan Shangjun has followed Yuan Shu's attack route to Jingzhou from the border between Jiujiang County and Runan of Yuzhou, encroaching all the way there. In other words, Cao Cao is going to compete with three Yuan family members for Yuzhou!

Moreover, there is news that Yuan Shang is preparing to support Liu Bei as the shepherd of Yuzhou. Since Liu Bei was attacked by Cao Cao, he has become a mortal enemy of Cao Ying, and he will inevitably confront Cao Cao in Yuzhou.

Surrounded by the Yuan family's descendants, how many of them can reach Cao Ying's mouth at the end of the Shouchun battle?
Cao Cao sighed: "To me now, attacking Yuan Shu is no longer worth the loss. In this case, it is better to choose a path that allows us to get greater benefits."

"After much deliberation, the only one left is Jizhou."

Xia Houyuan asked in confusion: "Why Jizhou and not Jingzhou?"

"Yuan Benzhu's strength is still a bit strong for us, right?"

Cao Cao sighed: "I'm not forced to do this, and I don't want to do it."

"But if you think about it, Yuan Shao was already wary of me. Now he is tolerant of my actions, not because he has a good temper, but because I am still useful."

"He was able to pretend that nothing happened when he intercepted and killed the ferocious tiger, just because he also needed to use me to attack Yuan Shu, which also greatly damaged my strength."

"So he will never sit back and watch me accept Yuan Shu's territory and increase my strength. Instead, he will definitely not benefit me much from the war."

"The third son of the Yuan family vaguely knows that we are in the middle, so we can see his intentions!"

"And the most important point is that now there are two Yuans fighting in the world. After defeating Yuan Shu, what use will I have?"

"Why does he need to keep me?"

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but be horrified. Cao Cao was right. At that time, Yuan Shao didn't need Cao Cao at all!

As long as Cao Cao is defeated, Yuan Shao can unify the Central Plains and occupy the seven states. Even if the remaining princes join forces, they will not be Yuan Shao's opponent!
Cao Cao said in a deep voice: "So the current situation seems to be dull, but in fact it is at the end of our lives. I don't want to bet, but the current situation has reached the point where I have to bet!"

"And as I said before, this opportunity is really good. As long as we return to Yanzhou, Yuan Shujun will target the nearest Yuan Tan, and he will definitely not be able to escape for a while."

"And because Yuan Shang didn't have a naval force, he didn't choose to fight Shouchun. Instead, he went to pursue Yuan Shu's army near Xinye."

"As for Yuan Xi, the fierce tiger who poses the greatest threat, he is in Hefei and has three routes back to Yecheng."

"One is from Jiujiang to Runan, and then to Sili. That side has been blocked by Yuan Shu's army."

"The other option is for Xuzhou to return to Jizhou via Qingzhou. Now that the relationship between Xuzhou and Yuan Tan is not good, and both sides are wary of each other, it is unlikely to take this route."

"The third option is to return to Youzhou and go south to Jizhou."

"But no matter which way we take to get back to Yecheng, it will take more than a month at the fastest."

"And this period of time is the best opportunity for us to pretend to persist, secretly retreat to the main force, and then suddenly attack and fight Yuan Benchu!"

"I never brought Wen Ruochangwen here, but asked him to take charge of internal affairs in Yanzhou. This is why."

"Previously, I almost drained Yanzhou Sili and hoarded troops and food just for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"

After hearing this, everyone was shocked in their hearts. The counselors including Xun You all admired them sincerely. In terms of tactics, they thought they were not much different, but when it came to the world's pattern and overall planning, Cao Cao's vision was far beyond everyone else's. It’s no longer on the same level!
Cao Cao saw that everyone was in high spirits and looked happy, but there was a trace of bitterness in his heart.

Now he can only give everyone confidence in this way, because this time, he feels that he has little chance of winning.

But he couldn't let his subordinates see his wavering, otherwise Cao Ying's military morale would be even more unstable.

But speaking of it, he also has many hidden tricks. Since he is at a disadvantage on the battlefield, he can only use some shady tricks in private to make up for the disadvantages of both sides.

Winner or loser, no matter what means are used, whether they are fair or despicable, as long as the final victory is won, everything will be worthless!If Yuan Xi were present and had a complete understanding of the major changes in decision-making in Cao's camp, he would definitely lament that changes in history are both accidental and inevitable.

Just like the beginning of the Battle of Guandu in later generations, strictly speaking, it was not Yuan Shaofang who initiated it, but Cao Cao.

The trigger for the Battle of Guandu in later generations was that Cao Cao, as a vassal of Yuan Shao, took action and occupied Hanoi without informing Yuan Shao in advance.

At that time, Zhang Yang, the prefect of Hanoi, was on good terms with Yuan Shao. Cao Cao sent someone to instruct Zhang Yang's general Yang Chou to kill Zhang Yang, and led Zhang Yang's troops to defect to Cao Cao.

Later, Yuan Shao's secret son Sui Gu killed Yang Chou, re-declared his surrender to Yuan Shao, and took control of the important town of Shedog in Hanoi. Then Cao Cao personally took action and sent Cao Ren Shihuan to kill Sui Gu and occupy Hanoi County.

The reason why Hanoi is important is because it belongs to Hebei and is adjacent to Wei County where Yecheng is located. This means that Cao Cao directly entered Yuan Shao's hinterland!
Moreover, Cao Cao's opportunity was very accurate. It was the decisive battle between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan in Yijing at that time. Yuan Shao was unable to cope with it. By the time he defeated Gongsun Zan, Cao Cao had already established a firm foothold in Hanoi.

Now Yuan Shao knew that Cao Cao had tricked him. In addition, Cao Cao had previously attacked Yecheng. Yuan Shao could no longer bear it. After returning from Yijing, he decisively announced an attack on Xudu in the fourth year of Jian'an (199 AD). ).

This was the cause of the Battle of Guandu.

When Yuan Xi read this period of history, he couldn't help but sigh. In terms of character, Yuan Shao's biggest weakness compared to Cao Cao was that he was too lenient and not decisive enough. Just like Yuan Shao persuaded He Jin in Luoyang, after a lot of manipulation, I was dazzled, but within a few days, Dong Zhuo plucked the fruit.

If the roles of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were reversed and Cao Cao occupied Yecheng, I'm afraid Yuan Shao would have been secretly killed by Cao Cao.

Sometimes what happens in the world is so wonderful. Yuan Xi deliberately planned to advance the battle of Yijing by three years, and tried his best to attack Yuan Shu and compress Cao Cao's territory, but it actually inspired Cao Cao's decision.

So Yuan Cao in this life broke up and came two years early.

Of course, Yuan Xi didn't know how to watch stars at this time, and he didn't know how many trump cards Cao Cao had shown for this battle in which he risked all his wealth. He just stood in the camp, looking at Shouchun City in the distance, and fell into Thinking.

It seems a little too smooth?
He shook his head. Attacking Shouchun quickly was a huge adventure for him. If he couldn't defeat Cao Cao and Yuan Tan before they crossed the Huai River, he would face countless troubles later.

But it is still too difficult to quickly attack a strong city in this era.

Simply based on the price paid, excluding water attacks, the best way to break the city is to use traitors.

When Li Jue and Guo Si attacked Chang'an, no one, including Lu Bu who was defending the city, would have thought that the old soldiers in the city would rebel and open the city gates, causing Chang'an to fall within a few days.

If it were a normal siege, the chance of Li Jue and Guo Si's army conquering Chang'an, which lacked siege equipment, was actually quite small.

Now Yuan Xi has sent hundreds of surrender letters to the city, and promised quite generous conditions. If the opponent loses his fighting spirit and Kaicheng surrenders, that would naturally be the best.

But Yuan Xi would not place all his hopes on this, so what he had to do was to put huge pressure on the defenders.

He walked into the camp and looked at Jushou Lu Xun who was still thinking hard. He thought that this was really difficult for them. He didn't have enough troops, and he couldn't use the human sea tactic to deplete the fighting spirit of the defenders in the city, so he had to use a plan.

There are already ways to break through the city gates, but Shouchun is not like Hefei. There is an urn city inside the outer wall, and there is an inner city wall behind the urn city. Even if you attack it, it will be difficult to break the next city gate.

In addition, Shouchun is close to the Huaihe River and has a rich water system. It is impossible to dig a tunnel. As long as the other party diverts water and pours it back, the people in the tunnel will die.

Yuan Xi had a headache. The Youzhou Army he led was good at defending the city in the field, but not good at attacking the fortified city. The same was true for Liu Guan and Zhang. Under such conditions, how could he give full play to his strengths?

Another day passed, and dozens of trebuchets smashed the walls of Shouchun into spots, but with little effect. When everyone gathered together at night, Jushou said: "Actually, the location of Shouchun is the most suitable for water attack. .”

"Last year, Yuan Shu fought with Cao Cao's army and when he defended Taishou, Cao Cao's army also flooded the city. Yuan Shu's army suffered heavy casualties and was forced to abandon the city and flee. From then on, he no longer dared to confront Cao Cao."

"The biggest problem the young master has now is that he is too benevolent and righteous, so that the defenders on the opposite side still have mercy."

"It is not good to massacre the city at every turn if it is too cruel, but the young master is attacking the city now. If the strategy is too conservative, the lives of his own soldiers will be used to fill it in the end!"

"Since it's a war, a woman's kindness will only kill more people!"

Yuan Xi was speechless and finally said: "That's what you taught me, sir."

Lu Xun came out to smooth things over and said: "Even if there is no water attack, we still have to make this gesture, otherwise the defenders in the city will still not be able to recognize the situation."

Just as Yuan Xi was about to speak, an urgent letter came in.

When Yuan Xi unfolded it, his first reaction was that the information was wrong.

Cao Cao actually retreated?
(End of this chapter)