Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 823 Never bow down

Yuan Tan couldn't hold it in any longer. He summoned his advisers again and shouted: "If this continues, how will we fight this battle?"

"I wanted to fight to the death with my second brother, but he didn't confront me head-on. Didn't I fall into his trap?"

Guo Tu and Xin Ping also felt frustrated because, as Yuan Tan said, the counselors here were not aware of Yuan Xijun's intentions!

This misstep caused the Qingzhou Army to be passive everywhere. The food route was intercepted twice, which was a huge blow to the morale and strength of the Qingzhou Army. Because Qingzhou is not a wealthy place, it is not easy to mobilize food for tens of thousands of troops. .

Yuan Tan also used all his wealth to make a final decision, but the development of the situation did not go as everyone expected. The opponent did not compete with Yuan Tan for the big city, but avoided fighting and waited for opportunities to snatch Yuan Tan's food and grass. Wait until Yuan Tan's morale is extremely low before he strikes back!

Xin Ping's face was solemn: "Now we are in trouble. The other party did the opposite. They abandoned the city and focused on field harassment. No wonder they allotted fields to the common people. It turned out to be to win over them to pass on the news and destroy our food routes!"

Guo Tu, however, did not quite agree with Xin Ping's statement, "According to what you said, could it be that the common people in the plains were also bribed by him?"

"The ferocious tiger divided the fields in Beihai, not on the plains!"

Xin Ping said: "This means that Pingyuan has been infiltrated by his spies!"

"The most suspicious thing is the Zhen Family Trading Road, with the Fierce Tiger behind it. It has done a lot of business in recent years because it has provided a lot of pleasures to the local aristocratic families, and it is quite popular. Now that I think about it, this It is most likely an important means for Fierce Tiger to plant his spy!"

Guo Tu secretly cursed in his heart, who doesn't know that among the officials and nobles in Qingzhou, there is no one who has not received gifts from the Zhen Family Trading Company and has not benefited from them?

Everyone is pretending to be stupid. If you, Xin Ping, have not benefited from it, why are you talking about it now?

You didn't mention it earlier, but you just said it now, what do you mean?

However, Guo Tu also felt bitter in his heart. He admitted that he was indeed greedy for the benefits of Zhen's Trading Company and turned a blind eye to its somewhat suspicious behavior.

He had blackmailed the Zhen Family Trading Company one by one and asked them to give generous gifts. Guo Tu was proud of this for a long time. Now it seems that he is the one who is really stupid!

I ignored the opponent's ambitions and plans, and did not expect that the opponent would infiltrate Qingzhou into holes. But at this time, how could Guo Tu admit it?

So he changed the topic and said: "It is meaningless to doubt such unfounded things now. The top priority is how to deal with it!"

"The Fierce Tiger Army has obviously hidden its main force and only sent out a small group of cavalry and bandits to consume us. Then we must take powerful countermeasures as soon as possible, otherwise we will only be dragged to death by it!"

Everyone was convinced, and Yuan Tan spoke up: "What's your plan?"

Xin Ping thought for a while and said: "We must find the main force of the Fierce Tiger as soon as possible. We can send more spies to find out its location so that we can do things better."

Yuan Tan said impatiently: "I know this too, but I couldn't find it before, and now I can find it?"

"If he hid well, should I wait in the city for food to run out?"

Guo Tu's eyes flashed, "The fierce tiger has most likely hid its main force in the mountains."

"What he relies on is just the local people to help him cover up. In this case, we will send troops to search and torture every village and town. Sooner or later, we will find out the clues."

"Even if we can't find them, we still need to control the people in the villages and towns. First, we can use them as reserve soldiers, and we can also take the opportunity to regain the land and collect food. The fierce tiger wants to use Qingzhou land as a favor, how can he be allowed to do so? "

Xin Ping did not agree, and said to Yuan Tan: "Your Majesty, this is tantamount to dealing with the people under your rule with your own hands. I'm afraid it will attract bad publicity. I hope you will be more careful."

Yuan Tan hesitated when he heard the words, but Guo Tu said coldly: "Now is the battlefield, where life and life are at stake. If you still care about the common people, you will sacrifice the first and the last."

"If you lose Qingzhou, what's the use of winning the hearts of the people?"

"And we can't afford to delay it. The tens of thousands of troops only have half a month of food and grass. Yuan Shang is watching from behind. The ferocious tiger is directly going to destroy the foundation of the envoy. The kindness of a woman at this time will only ruin the big thing!"

After hearing this, Yuan Tan finally made up his mind and said to Guo Tu: "Sir's words are in my opinion. Now I will ask you to plan this matter!"

Guo Tu said quickly: "Don't worry, Tu will definitely force the fierce tiger out!"

In the next few days, under the command of Guo Tu, the Qingzhou soldiers in each city sent small groups to search and sweep the villages and towns. At the same time, they were also tasked with collecting military rations, so wherever they went, there was a lot of chaos. People in the villages were panicked, and the people began to become more and more dissatisfied with Yuan Tan.

News of the Qingzhou Army's massive raids quickly spread throughout Beihai, and then all over Qingzhou.

At this time, Yuan Xi, whom Yuan Tan was searching for, was on a large ship outside Donglai Port, watching the news coming from Beihai.

He said to Zhuge Liang: "Yuan Tan is really straightforward in his work."

"But it looks like he has no scruples anymore, otherwise he would never have been able to do something like this that could easily arouse public outrage."

Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan lightly and said: "He was forced by the master."

"I have learned about what happened a few years ago. My lord was very tolerant of him. On the one hand, he was taking the overall situation into consideration, but on the other hand, he was also deliberately letting him get carried away, right?" "Judging from his reaction, he really shouldn't have expected it. The lord can turn against him so completely and decisively."

"And because of his face, he still can't bring himself to negotiate peace with the lord. If he is in trouble, it will be too late if he wants to go back and negotiate terms with the lord."

Yuan Xi admitted: "I really had no choice but to make this decision. It's a pity that the local people became the victims of his venting. If it weren't for the purpose of pacifying Qingzhou as soon as possible, I wouldn't want to do this."

Zhuge Liang sighed slightly, "There is no kindness for women on the battlefield, let alone Yuan Qingzhou who should be the most responsible for the welfare of the people of Qingzhou."

"He abandoned the people and went on a dead end. What the lord has to do now is to defeat him as soon as possible and rescue the people from his hands."

Yuan Xi nodded in agreement, "The military advisor is right, it's time to take the next step."

He walked onto the bow of the ship and faced the Donglai Port in the distance. He turned to the counselors and generals standing behind him and said, "Get ready to attack the city!"

News of the successive falls of Donglai ports soon spread to Beihai. After Yuan Tan saw it, he felt a mouthful of blood welling up in his throat.

The other party ignored him at all, but was still minding his own business!

To be fair, Yuan Tan was very good at training the Qingzhou soldiers. Under his leadership, the Qingzhou soldiers were no worse than the Jizhou soldiers. This is why Yuan Shang and Shen Pei were under Yuan Tan's troops at Ye City. The reason why they swallowed their anger and tried their best to avoid a decisive battle with Yuan Tan's main force was because with the same strength, they really had no confidence in defeating Yuan Tan!

However, the composition of Yuan Tan's soldiers also has a characteristic, which is that they are mainly infantry.

Yuan Tan fought with Yuan Shao and was best at large-scale frontal battles, so he had great experience in commanding light and heavy infantry.

Infantry is very cost-effective. A well-trained infantry formation can deal with almost any situation, including bow and arrow shooting and cavalry raids, but its only weakness is that it does not move quickly.

And Yuan Tan is now targeted by Yuan Xi. He does not fight Yuan Tan head-on. He either uses cavalry to harass him or uses bandits to lurk and attack.

And now he launched a fleet to attack Qingzhou Port, knowing that he was taking advantage of the fleet's maneuverability to bully Yuan Tan's weak navy. In Yuan Tan's view, this was simply abominable!

Yuan Tan knew that the counselors on his side were strategically suppressed by the other side. He had no intention of pursuing it now. He had to find a suitable time to break the situation, otherwise he would really be dragged to death!

What made Yuan Tan even more uncomfortable was that Yuan Shang had already launched a counterattack. It was said that Wen Chou led the army and pointed directly at the plain. Faced with the aggressiveness of his two brothers, Yuan Tan finally couldn't sit still.

He asked Guo Tuxin to comment on several people and said: "This cannot continue. I am going to ask Cao Cao for help."

The counselors looked at each other, knowing that there was no other way. They also ignored Yuan Xi's difficulty, which caused Yuan Tan to be poorly prepared for this mobilization and fell into a disadvantage. This made the counselors feel depressed. The fierce counselor was really Is that much taller than me?

But now the situation is very critical. In the past few days, urgent messages have been coming from Donglai, saying that the fierce northern and southern fleets are about to merge. Almost all the coastal ports of Donglai have been captured. Yuan Tan will not be able to win this battle. I can't even run away!

Xin Ping said: "This is indeed the best way at present, but now that Cao Mengde is no longer on guard against Jizhou, he may not send troops."

Guo Tu's eyes were gloomy, "Unless there is enough price to make him tempted."

Everyone was silent. They naturally knew what price they could pay for it, but no one was willing to speak out.

Yuan Tan wanted to stand up, but finally sat down slumped, "I plan to use Qingzhou as a betrothal gift and send my eldest daughter to Qingzhou to marry Cao Cao."

As soon as these words came out, everyone present felt extremely aggrieved. Is this the same Yuan Tan who once had the ambition to seize Jizhou and become the head of the Yuan family?

However, Yang Xi said aloud: "We both bow our heads, so why can you only bow your head to Cao Mengde, but not to the fierce tiger?"

When Yuan Tan heard this, he became furious and shouted: "Shut up!"

Yang Di was so frightened that he lowered his head tremblingly, thinking, aren't we all brothers?

He is a man whose brothers are all legitimate sons, but he doesn't understand Yuan Tan's psychology.

Yuan Tan looked at Yuan Xi the same way Yuan Shu looked at Yuan Shao before.

A bastard brother who looks like a domestic slave only deserves to be treated with mercy by himself. Suddenly one day, when his brother suddenly discovers that his bastard's status and achievements are higher than his own, the arrogant and arrogant children of the aristocratic family will never accept this reality.

This is the mentality of preferring friends to friends rather than domestic slaves. People like Yuan Tan would rather dedicate their family property to their enemies than to those lowly people who want to stand on top of themselves and be looked down upon by them. Will admit his failure.

(End of this chapter)