Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 783 Changes in Dilemma

The days passed and summer came soon.

The news that Jiangdong was defeated and that many generals were seriously injured soon spread to the Jianghuai area and also to Xuchang.

Along with this, there were also rumors that Jiangdong sent envoys to discuss peace with Yuan Xi.

If the former made Cao Ying's counselors feel a little gloating about their misfortune, the latter made everyone feel a heavy weight on their hearts.

Because the terms of the peace negotiation are likely to greatly affect Cao Ying's next strategy.

Xun You and others suspected that Fierce Tiger might take the opportunity to form an anti-Cao alliance, mediate the relationship between Jiangdong and Jingzhou, and jointly put pressure on Cao Cao's rear with Shouchun, where Yuan Xi was located, as the center.

In this way, with Jianghuai heading north to threaten Yuzhou, Jizhou against Yanzhou, and Bingzhou attacking Sili, Cao Cao's power will never have peace. If he is not careful, the entire battle line will be defeated.

However, although Cao Cao is in the center of the encirclement, he also has the advantage of easy mobilization. As long as he gathers the troops from Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Sili, and the three states, plus Xiliang Ma Teng's cavalry, it may not be impossible to defeat them individually.

But the key question is, who should strike first?

After all the calculations, none of Cao Cao's enemies are easy to deal with now. They are all quite cunning. If they are attacked, they will probably retreat and defend. If Cao Cao's camp attacks them with all their strength, other forces will definitely miss this opportunity and will definitely take advantage of it. Attack Cao Cao's rear.

Therefore, if Cao Ying wants to take action, he must kill him with one strike in the shortest possible time without giving other forces time to react.

The initially selected targets were not Zhang Xiu of Wancheng, Liu Bei of Xinye, or Yuan Xi of Shouchun, but Yuan Shang of Jizhou.

The counselors headed by Chen Qun proposed to lure the enemy deep and let Yuan Shang's army go south to Guandu, then cut off his food route and trap him to death in Yanzhou, and then instigated Yuan Tan and Sili Zhong Yao from Qingzhou to mobilize troops to attack Yecheng. If everything goes well. , Yuan Shang can be completely destroyed.

The plan originally went smoothly, and Yuan Shang also sent a large army to cross the Yellow River and advance towards Wuchao Baima. However, what frustrated Cao Ying's counselors was that Yuan Shang actually stood still and even had the intention of shrinking his defense and retreating to build a defense line along the Yellow River. .

This caused Cao Cao's army, which had been preparing to attack, to miss, and the shaking was extremely uncomfortable. Xun You guessed that Jizhou's counselors had discovered his intentions, while Cheng Yu felt that Yuan Tan's army had exposed his intentions too early.

At this time, he said angrily: "Yuan Tan Shuzi has ruined a big thing!"

"Originally, he wanted to at least attract Yuan Shangjun to Guandu so that he could do things easily, but he took action right after Yuan Shangjun captured Wuchao!"

"He sent people from Pingyuan to march to Jizhou, and it was clear that he was plotting Yecheng. How could Yuan Shang not be on guard against such an obvious intention?"

"This is a good time, but the success is in vain. It's really a lack of strategy!"

After hearing this, Chen Qun hurriedly stopped him and said, "He is now an in-law of the Cao family. Zhongde should be careful what he says."

Cheng Yu said nonchalantly: "I don't have a few more years to live, so what are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid that this person is an unfamiliar wolf. He can even betray his own father. He may not betray Duke Cao in the future."

"If he occupies Yecheng, there is a high possibility that he will rebel again. Don't you understand?"

Everyone else present smiled bitterly. They were the core advisers, and Cheng Yu spoke so freely. This was also because of his aloof status.

But this doesn't sound right, because Cao Cao's biological father, Cao Song, is still imprisoned in Yecheng!

Everyone knew that if Ye City was about to be captured, Cao Song would be brought up sooner or later as a warning, which would disgust Cao Cao. At that time, Cao Cao would have no choice but to imitate Gaozu's story.

Not to mention that Cao Song was thrown into Yecheng as a hostage, which was criticized by other families. Even when Cao Cao sent troops to rescue Cao Song, the result was quite thought-provoking.

It was just a matter of rescuing Cao Song, but he accidentally killed his eldest son Cao De. This incident was too coincidental, and everyone only dared to think about it in their stomachs. The truth was no longer important.

The important thing is that Cao Cao is now the head of the Cao family, and behind him are hundreds of people from the Cao family and the Xiahou family. The fate of these people has long been closely linked to Cao Cao.

Xun You turned his head and found Xun Yu sitting in front of the table, looking at the bamboo slips attentively. He didn't say a word the whole time, as if he didn't hear everyone talking. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He, his uncle, didn't know how to adapt.

Xun You naturally understood what Xun Yu insisted on and what he wanted to do. Although he admired it, he did not agree with it.

Because in Xun You's view, the general trend of the world has changed.

The Han Dynasty experienced several unjust and unjust emperors in a row, and started the disaster of party imprisonment, which offended the nobles all over the world. Although it was to strengthen the imperial power, but because it was done so unscrupulously, it affected everyone in the world, and the imprisonment of the nobles also That's all, the ordinary common people did not get any benefits, there was famine and famine everywhere, and there were several such emperors in succession.

In this regard, Xun You felt that since the Han Dynasty had lost its way, it was time for the world to change its dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty and Qin Dynasty were so powerful at the beginning, wouldn't they also change dynasties in the end?

Therefore, Xun You was very puzzled by Xun Yu's insistence. He felt that his uncle should not be such an inflexible person. If the Han Dynasty had another unscrupulous emperor who brought trouble to the world, would his uncle still be loyal to the Han Dynasty?

However, thinking of Liu Xie now, Xun You had to admit that this person was very confusing and indeed looked like a wise king. Unfortunately, he was born at the wrong time. Even if he wanted to do something, he was powerless. What's more, he had completely fallen out with Cao Cao. From now on, I can only live as a puppet on strings.

However, Cao Ying is now in crisis step by step, especially who to fight next. Everyone has always had objections. No matter which side seems to be able to fight, neither side seems to be easy to fight!

Xun You spoke up: "Who do you think is the greatest threat to Duke Ming now?"

Everyone had no objection to this, and all agreed that it must be a fierce tiger.

Chen Qun said in a deep voice: "Every time Duke Cao mentioned this person, he might gnash his teeth and hate him for killing many generals' family members, or sigh with regret, lamenting that he could not be used for his own purposes." "But I vaguely discovered that Ming Gong even I hope that he can earn money by investing in Cao Ying. Although Ming Gong also knows that this is absolutely impossible, but if it were really the case, the world would have already belonged to the Cao family."

Everyone has the same feeling. Without Yuan Xi, all other powers in the world would be insignificant!

Xun Yu spoke out at this time: "The world now belongs to the Han Dynasty."

Seeing that Chen Qun was choked, Xun You made a fuss about himself and quickly smoothed things over: "Who do you think is best to target next, uncle?"

Xun Yu sneered and said, "If you ask me, I'd say beat Yuan Tan first and kill this man who has no king and no father."

"If we get Qingzhou, we can connect the Central Plains, and Jizhou will be in a situation of being attacked from three sides. Isn't it easy to besiege the city by then?"

"The fierce tiger's territory will also be divided into two. When the time comes, we will use Qingzhou's seaport to cut off its troop transportation route. If Youzhou and Xuzhou cannot look at each other, it will naturally be difficult to accomplish anything."

"You all know that after Yuan Tan takes Ye City, he will most likely betray Duke Cao. Do you still want to raise a tiger to cause trouble, continue to allow him to grow up, and become the second vicious tiger?"

All the counselors smiled bitterly at each other. Xun Yu's words hit the nail on the head, but they seemed to be too rude and meant something vaguely.

Cheng Yu spoke up: "This is indeed a good idea, but if we attack Yuan Shang, it will appear that Duke Ming has betrayed his trust. I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to other allies."

Xun Yu sneered: "To whom should I explain?"

"Is it Ma Teng and Han Sui, who was honored by the Han Dynasty but became a traitor to the Han Dynasty, or is it Zhang Lu, who supports the way of the Heavenly Master and is self-reliant?"

He woke up and realized that he had made a mistake, so he silently picked up the bamboo slips and started reading.

Xun You, however, was thoughtful. Did Zhang Lu of Hanzhong also have contacts with Duke Ming?

Everyone discussed the use of troops for a long time, but still could not reach a consensus. Finally, Chen Qun said: "The key to everything lies in Yecheng."

"Yecheng is the closest to Yanzhou. If we can capture it, Jizhou will get half of it."

"Other forces are more or less in trouble, especially in the Jianghuai area. The ferocious navy is really difficult to deal with. It can defeat the Jiangdong navy. But we have no advantage on the water. We can't even compare with the Jiangdong navy. superior."

"Unless we can get Jingzhou, we can get a large navy to compete with Jihu and Jiangdong."

Xun You said: "I took a look around and found that Yanzhou now has the fewest troops stationed in Xuzhou. What if we join forces with Yuan Tan and attack Xuzhou from a double flank?"

Cheng Yu sighed: "Ming Gong has thought of it a long time ago and asked Yuan Tan to send troops to contain it. Now the Taishan thieves Zangba are attacking the Haixi area, but the progress is quite slow."

"The person facing him is Zang Hong, who is good at defending the city. Moreover, the two sides faced off at the border of Langya East Sea. The battle was not fierce, but more like they were doing it for others to see."

Chen Qun snorted coldly: "Zang Ba is a man with deep knowledge and is good at playing both sides."

"Previously, the Fierce Tiger fleet went north to rescue Yecheng. If Zangba hadn't let the fleet go with ulterior motives, we might have captured Yecheng!"

After hearing this, everyone felt the same. Apart from too many accidents in the previous battle in Yecheng, the biggest variable was Yuan Xi. Without this person, the Yuan family might have been destroyed!

Cheng Yu said in a deep voice: "The key to the matter lies in how to suppress the fierce tiger."

"This man has become a serious threat to Duke Cao, and he is extremely cunning. He even pretended to be assassinated in Youzhou, took the opportunity to mobilize troops to defeat Yuan Shu, and launched a surprise attack on Duke Cao."

"It would be fine if it only had advantages on the battlefield, but it also had shortcomings at the beginning, which were foreign affairs."

"Now he is colluding with all parties in Shouchun. He is obviously aware of this. If he unites with Jiangdong to attack us, the situation will get worse."

Chen Qun wondered: "Based on the behavior of those people in Jiangdong, they should bow their heads temporarily and not sacrifice their lives for them, right?"

Cheng Yu sighed: "But the hatred between Jiangdong and us is even more intractable."

"He should be able to understand that Sun Ce's death has something to do with us."

Chen Qun thought for a while and said, "Not necessarily."

"I think Sun Quan is a person who forgets justice and is treacherous."

"His ability to stab a fierce tiger in the back is obviously someone who doesn't pay much attention to reputation. When he knows the benefits of being the lord of Jiangdong, he may not let go of Sun Ce's hatred."

"As long as we promise huge profits in the name of the Emperor, we may not be able to give in and turn around to deal with the fierce tiger again."

Everyone was curious and asked: "What kind of conditions?"

(End of this chapter)