Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 822 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron

Originally, Yuan Tan and his advisers planned to connect various major cities and build defense lines to put pressure on Yuan Xi's army, leaving them with no basis to advance or retreat. They would then rely on the big cities as strongholds to attack and wait for opportunities to find weak points for Yuan Xi's army to engage in, thereby gradually pushing Yuan Xi's army back. Weaken and defeat.

Yuan Tan is actually very confident about this idea. After all, Qingzhou is his territory and has been operating for several years. The local gentry landowners have almost been bribed and subdued. Yuan Xi worked hard on the expedition and did not know enough about the local situation. This alone will make him suppress him.

However, the expectation was one thing, but the reality was completely different from what Yuan Tan had previously thought. As soon as he entered Beihai, local gentry landowners came in groups to cry and complain that their land and property had been distributed by Yuan Xi to his servants and slaves. Landless poor people.

Yuan Tan was furious and expressed that he would seek justice for him. At the same time, he was secretly happy in his heart. Yuan Xi couldn't understand why he went against the local landlord. Once a war started, who could support him?

But after careful inspection, Yuan Tan also had a headache, because Yuan Xi's land division this time was quite a thieves. Even Guo Tuxinping shook his head after learning the inside story.

The slaves and common people were not stupid. They naturally knew that after dividing the land from the noble landlords, they would probably be retaliated by the landlords after Yuan Xi left. Therefore, at the beginning, almost no one dared to take over the land.

But Yuan Xi only used one method to dispel most of their concerns.

Every time he went to a county, he not only took away the official household registration, but also confiscated the slave rolls and deeds of the major landowners!

As a result, the Qingzhou officials and nobles have no idea of ​​the number and situation of the population under their rule, and have almost completely lost the ability to manage the common people and black slaves!

After Yuan Tan learned about it, he couldn't help but grit his teeth. Yuan Xi was trying to cut off his own roots!

Now that he has no control over the lower-class population, how can he collect labor, recruit troops, and collect grain with just a hundred nobles?

Not only that, Yuan Xi allocated land to the common people and reorganized the household registration title. No one except Yuan Xijun and the common people himself knew who was assigned which piece of land!

Moreover, these slaves escaped and hid, and scattered their belongings and food everywhere, making it extremely difficult to hunt down. Moreover, it was not the time for farming and harvesting, and they could not be found at all.

After Yuan Tan learned about it, his face was extremely ugly, so he summoned Guo Tuxinpi and other Yuan Shu to discuss the matter, and first asked about Guo Tu.

Guo Tu racked his brains for this, but couldn't think of a way to deal with it for a while. He said to Yuan Tan: "The fierce tiger's plan is extremely sinister. Someone must be giving him advice!"

Xin Ping spoke up: "I heard that this time he went south from Youzhou and defeated Yuan Shu and Cao Cao in Jiangdong. He brought his mastermind Guo Jia with him."

"Now Gongze has met his opponent. If he doesn't suppress Guo Jia with strategies, it will be difficult to defeat Fierce Tiger."

After hearing this, Yuan Tan nodded slightly, turned to Guo Tu and said, "What is Gongze's response?"

Guo Tu cursed in his heart. Xin Ping was really praising him on the surface, but in fact he was playing a trick on the matter of giving advice. This was putting himself at the head of the spear!

How else can he suppress Guo Jia? The other party has assisted Yuan Xi in recent years and has become famous all over the world. When it comes to competing with him in strategy, Guo Tu has no confidence at all!

He coughed dryly and said, "To completely resolve this matter now, it is natural to re-register the household."

Yuan Tan asked: "How to register a household?"

Guo Tu hesitated and asked: "As long as you win one place, you can gather the people and create a new register?"

Yuan Tan laughed angrily, "How to win?"

Guo Tu:.

Yuan Tan snorted coldly: "Registering a household is extremely time-consuming and is often calculated in years. This is a time of war, how can we have such a margin?"

Guo Tu was forced to have no choice but to say hurriedly: "Please don't be anxious. It is impossible to establish a comprehensive household registration, but the soldier population must be controlled to some extent."

"Although I don't know who owns the land, I don't believe that the local landlords didn't have the map and title deed secretly hidden in advance. They just want to make the monarch fair."

"The envoy can announce that he will take back the land on his own, capture the escaped slaves, and at the same time let him temporarily take charge of the local land, carry out summer harvest and planting, and resume work. This will be safe."

Xin Ping hesitated and said, "Would it be too indulgent to let the landlords search and seize the land on their own?"

"If they take advantage of the opportunity to seek personal gain, falsely identify themselves and arrest people, it will inevitably arouse public anger. Wouldn't this ruin the reputation of the envoy?"

Guo Tu sneered and said: "So what? The emperor is at war now, so how can he have time to care about these things?"

"If those people go too far, the worst they can do is arrest a group of them and kill a group of them to scare the monkeys and win the support of the people below."

"This is a plan to kill someone with a borrowed knife."

Yuan Tan heard this and praised: "Gongze has extraordinary knowledge, what a brilliant plan!"

Xin Ping worried: "But those noble landowners are not stupid either. Do they dare to arouse public anger at this time?"

Guo Tu shook his head and said: "That is not what we are worried about. After all, the most important thing is to defeat the fierce tiger. These expedient measures are just to stabilize people's hearts."

"The sooner the winner can be determined, the less of a problem these things will be. Otherwise, hidden dangers will erupt after the summer harvest and planting."

Yuan Tan looked solemn after hearing this, "My second brother is not that easy to deal with!"

"Since we are preparing for a quick battle, we will send a message to the counties in Beihai and ask them to speed up the search for the location of the second brother's troops. Once we get the news, we will send troops for a decisive battle!" "Before this, Gongze Zhongzhi dispatched officials, old, young, women and children. Don’t worry about it for now, let’s re-register the young and strong labor force in the city and requisition them at any time, after all, they must be used first in the war!”

Guo Tuxinping quickly accepted the order, and for a time, Yuan Tan's political orders were carried by messengers to various places in Beihai, using various cities as transit. The war was about to break out.

However, what surprised Yuan Tan was that his letter just disappeared into the sea and there was no response.

Two days later, Yuan Tan became more and more anxious. He once wondered whether the messenger was intercepted and killed by Yuan Xi. However, Xin Ping believed that Yuan Xi could not be so powerful, and the time was too short. Maybe the counties were too late. Just a response.

Another day passed, and news finally came from nearby counties, saying that no trace of Yuan Xijun had been found within a radius of dozens of miles.

When the counselors under Yuan Tan heard the news, their first reaction was that it was impossible. Where could Yuan Xijun hide?

On the way, Yuan Tan had been sending spies, not only to inquire about Beihai, but also to the neighboring Qi State and Donglai County to find out whether Yuan Xi had bypassed the two wings.

However, the responses from both counties were normal, and spies from Beihai County also proved that until two days before Yuan Tan entered Beihai, Yuan Xi's army was still dividing the land on a large scale. How could he escape without a fight?

Guo Tuxinping instinctively felt that something was wrong, but they had no clue for a while until Yang Di, the chief secretary, said, "Could they have taken a detour through Taishan County, entered the plains, and raided the Qingzhou Administrative Office?"

As soon as these words came out, the hearts of everyone present sank. Guo Tu gritted his teeth and said: "If he dares to do this, we will simply go south to Langya and penetrate Xuzhou to see who can resist it first!"

Xin Ping shook his head and said: "That's inappropriate. Not to mention that the opponent is in unstoppable power in Langya. They must have something to rely on. If we go deep alone, whether it is the Youzhou Army, Chen Deng's Xuzhou Army, or even the Taishan Bandits, they may ambush us."

"Besides, even if we capture Xuzhou, Youzhou will only lose its vitality, but if we lose Qingzhou, we will lose our foundation."

"Not to mention that if we are frustrated in defeating Langya, we will be in a dilemma."

Seeing that he was retorted, Guo Tu's face turned ugly and he snorted coldly: "What's wrong with the exchange? Giving up Qingzhou will keep you away from Yuan Shang and avoid being attacked from both sides. Moreover, Xuzhou is much richer than Qingzhou and borders Yanzhou. Will we be able to concentrate on accumulating strength soon?"

Seeing that Yuan Tan seemed to be interested, Xin Ping said: "But if you give up Qingzhou, you will be far away from Jizhou, and you may never have the opportunity to enter Yecheng again!"

"Does the envoy think that Cao Cao will help the envoy capture Ye City?"

"Cao Cao's desire for Yecheng is definitely no less than anyone else!"

After hearing this, Yuan Tan blurted out: "Zhongzhi is right, how could I give up my original intention just for temporary gain and loss now!"

"I will not only defeat the second brother, but also the third brother, and obtain the title of Yecheng and the head of the family in a dignified way!"

"From now on, we will step up recruitment and training, connect all counties, and be sure to find the main force of the second brother!"

"No matter where he appears, whether it is Qi State, Taishan County, or Donglai, I will personally lead the army to completely defeat him!"

After hearing this, the officials present stood up and responded: "Here!"

Everyone's enthusiasm did not last long. Two days later, a piece of news came, pouring cold water on everyone's head.

Yuan Tan's grain transport troops were attacked.

In fact, this is not a very rare thing in a battle. After all, attacking the enemy's supplies is also the key to victory or defeat.

But what is unsettling is the location of the attack.

Not Beihai, nor Donglai Qi State, but Yuan Tan’s base camp plain!

Calculating the time it took for the message to be delivered, when Yuan Tan had just arrived in Beihai and had not yet sent anyone out to inquire about the news, he had already sent a troop of troops in advance to attack the convoy transporting food from the plains to Beihai!

Moreover, the opponent had obviously planned for a long time. Not only did they have cavalry to break up the grain transport team, but they also ambush a large number of soldiers on both sides of the mountain road in advance. According to the news, their actions were very similar to mountain bandits.

Yuan Tan could guess who these people were without using his brain. Not only was he gritting his teeth, they were probably the Taishan thieves who had eaten everything inside!

Moreover, so many people were dispatched on the opposite side to grab food, not to burn it on the spot. After they defeated the food transport defenders, they disappeared into the mountains and forests with the food they grabbed, leaving the reinforcements coming from the plains to say nothing.

What made Yuan Tan vomit blood even more was that two days later, the second grain transport team from Donglai to Beihai was also attacked!

This time, the enemy was even more powerful. They directly transported the looted food to the dock and transported it away by the Youzhou warship!

Only then did Yuan Tan realize that the opponent's plan was to fight quickly, but the key was that the opponent only targeted his own food. If this continued, his own side would run out of food before the war started, and his morale would collapse!

(End of this chapter)