Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 851 It’s your own fault

Yuan Tan rushed to Qinghe Country as quickly as possible. Looking at his defeated army all over the mountains and plains, he felt like a deep mountain that had been burned by fire, with wild boars and rabbits scurrying all over the mountains and fields, and his vision suddenly went dark.

What happened to the rear army?

He caught a few broken soldiers and interrogated them, and then he learned what happened.

Previously, Yuan Tan's rear army did not know where they got the news, saying that the front army had been completely destroyed and Yuan Tan had died in battle. This rumor soon spread in the military camp. The sergeants were panicked, and many of them thought of escaping. Although General Yuan Tanjun tried his best to stop the rumors, one night, the bombing of the camp was inevitable.

The soldiers fled in all directions, and General Yuan Tan quickly led his men to stop them. Although a group of people were killed, many people still took advantage of the chaos and escaped from the barracks. When daybreak, General Yuan Tan saw that the soldiers were even more chaotic. Collapse was imminent, so they hurriedly came together to find the rear army coach Peng An.

Peng An was busy all night and was exhausted mentally and physically. He said: "Stop advancing and send people to search for the deserters. Tell them that as long as they come back, they will forget about it."

After hearing this, the generals took the order and went out one after another. It took more than a day to chase back most of the deserters, temporarily stabilizing the morale of the army.

Peng An saw it and felt a little relieved. He had already lost a lot of marching time, so he planned to march quickly early tomorrow morning, but the news that came later shocked him.

The team at the end responsible for escorting the food and baggage has been overtaken by the enemy and is attacking to seize the food and grass!

The baggage team was not traveling all the way, but several routes starting from various major cities in Qinghe Kingdom. However, enemy information was spread along these routes, and it was later confirmed that both Yuan Xi and Cao Cao took action at the same time!

Peng An's first reaction was, wouldn't Fierce Tiger join forces with Cao Cao?

At this time, he had not even traced the murderer who spread the rumors, and he was worried about how to explain to Yuan Tan. Naturally, he did not know the true situation of Yuan Tan's former army, so in his eyes, Cao Cao had not broken up with Yuan Tan, so he Time was at a loss as to what Cao Jun would do.

Peng An had no choice but to send someone to Wei County to ask Yuan Tan for instructions. As a result, the spies came back within two days, and the news they brought back stunned Peng An.

As a result, the rumors started again, and this time the camp was completely bombed, and Peng An was unable to save himself.

He immediately ordered the entire army to advance westward, ignoring the grain and baggage teams behind him. His most important task now was to meet Yuan Tan as soon as possible and inform him of what happened.

Yuan Xi sighed: "What the sergeant said is absolutely true. Cao Cao is really difficult to deal with. If you are not careful, you will suffer a big loss in his hands."

"But we took advantage of Cao Cao's suspicion, and the rumors we spread earlier had some effect. Now it's up to everyone to see who can gather Yuan Tan's defeated troops faster based on their own abilities."

"Cao Cao is inherently suspicious, especially towards outsiders. What's more, Yuan Tan can betray his family and his late father. Who knows if he will suddenly betray him?"

Cao Jun really took action and flooded Yuan Tan's army in Yecheng!

He sighed to Zhuge Liang: "Cao's army should have started taking action before he knew whether the Yecheng water attack was successful or not."

"This is a taboo for military strategists. No one will miss this perfect opportunity, including us. It can only be said that Yuan Tan was driven by desire and sent himself to a dead end, just like Yuan Shu back then."

"What's more, Yuan Tan has a lot of troops. The sooner this hidden danger is eliminated, the better. Even if Cao Cao can recruit half of his 50,000 troops, he will still make a big profit."

The reason why this strategy was successful was that from the perspective of most people, this choice was much better than being Cao Cao's subordinate, so it became more and more popular, and Cao Cao soon learned about it.

"We knew Yuan Tan's flaw, and in turn used Cao Jun's water attack strategy to fall into the trap. We don't know if Cao Cao had calculated our thoughts."

"This can be regarded as taking a lot of risks. If the water attack fails, it may face Yuan Tanjun's full counterattack."

Zhuge Liang nodded and said: "Cao Cao did take risks, but this time he was very sure of his plan."

Yuan Xi nodded. Many strategies were done on the battlefield, and intelligence warfare was one of them, including but not limited to spying on the enemy, spreading rumors, sowing relationships, etc.

"My lord, you must remember this lesson to avoid making the same mistake again."

Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and said, "I don't think it's possible."

"He probably made this decision simply because he felt that Yuan Tan was difficult to control."

The rumors that Cao Cao got were spread by Yuan Xi that Yuan Tan would return to the Yuan family to deal with Cao Cao together and share the world equally with Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang.

"On the one hand, Yuan Tan was tempted by Yecheng and exposed his intention to rebel against Cao Cao. On the other hand, he was in a hurry to march. This not only exposed his intention to march, but also prevented his army from looking at each other."

At this time, Yuan Xi, who was closely following Yuan Tan's grain and grass troops, was also pursuing them all the way. He sent spies everywhere to guard against a sneak attack by Cao Cao's army who did not know where they were. At the same time, while ensuring the combat power of the Chinese army, he sent out various spies. The general led his troops to capture Yuan Tan's remnant army.

As the news became clear, Yuan Xi learned that more than two hundred miles to the south, Cao Jun was also marching and doing the same thing as himself.

The reason why the spread is so credible is that the main body of the spread is Taipingdao.

Yang Feng has sneaked into Jizhou from Heishan and instigated the Taiping Taoists who are loyal to her to spread rumors. Of course, there are also Cao Cao's people in the Taiping Tao, but this does not affect Yang Feng's actions, but allows the rumors to spread to Cao Cao's ears faster. Use this channel in reverse.

Cao Cao should have known that this was a rumor, but he didn't dare to take the risk, especially if this rumor spread to Yuan Tan's ears some time later, it might really affect his decision!

Because from Yuan Tan's perspective, if he learns that Cao Cao knows the rumors about him, in order to protect himself, the best choice is to betray Cao Cao!

Maybe he already knew that, so he rushed to Yecheng, so Cao Cao decisively struck first and used the second water attack strategy originally used against the defenders of Yecheng on Yuan Tan. This time Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang are no longer a conspiracy, but a conspiracy to calculate people's hearts. Even if Cao Cao knew that Yuan Xi might be causing trouble, he could only follow the trend and seek the greatest benefits for himself instead of risking a complete defeat. Let the three sons of the Yuan family join forces.

The twists and turns in their thoughts were analyzed bit by bit by Guo Jia, Zhuge Liang and others. Yuan Xi had to admire their careful observation of people's hearts, so he sent a secret message to Yuan Shang, asking him to cooperate and lure Yuan Tan to Under Yecheng.

It can be said that Yuan Tan was tricked to death by everyone. After all, his betrayal of Yuan Shao made everyone unwilling to believe him, so he could only walk to death step by step.

Including rumors of Yuan Tan's defeat spread among Yuan Tan's rear army, they also passed through the channels of Taiping Dao sergeants, but among them were people from Yuan Xi and Cao Cao, all with the same purpose.

While Yuan Xi lamented the great impact of the intelligence war, he was also thankful that he had Yang Feng's help to compete with Cao Cao. Otherwise, in the intelligence war at the level of Taiping Road, he would only be crushed when facing Cao Cao.

Only then did he suddenly realize that his own comprehensive level of battlefield strategy was gradually able to counter Cao Cao, instead of being led by the nose like before!

He was looking forward to where Zhuge Liang, Lu Xun and others would reach in time when they grew up and had the much more comprehensive conditions he had prepared for future generations.

He said: "Kong Ming thinks, what should we do next?"

Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said, "Master, are you talking about Yecheng?"

"With all due respect to Liang, Yecheng has been completely submerged in water, and it will be difficult to save them without the navy."

"But the Zhang River can approach Yecheng, but the Yellow River cannot. The lord's navy is of no use."

"At this point, Cao Cao has already taken the initiative. What we have to do is, on the one hand, to try to hold Yecheng, and on the other hand, if nothing can be done, we will find a way out to allow him to evacuate as much as possible."

"Before this, it is not advisable for us to go deep alone. After all, Qingzhou in the rear is not at peace. Cao Cao is more familiar with the terrain of Qinghe Kingdom than we are. If we advance rashly, we may fall into the opponent's plan."

"Besides, before that, Yuan Tan is afraid that something will happen between him and Cao Cao, and we can take advantage of it then."

Yuan Xi's eyes flashed, "The military advisor is saying..." He then sighed: "This is really possible, I'm afraid this would be in line with his character."

He sighed: "It's just a pity."

"If he hadn't betrayed the Yuan family, why would he be in this situation now?"

Zhuge Liang said solemnly: "So in the end, the only one you can rely on is yourself."

"After all, not everyone can accept and understand the lord's ideal."

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "But military advisors can, right?"

Zhuge Liang was startled, then laughed, and shook his feather fan lightly, "My lord is really a contradictory person."

It was already three days before Yuan Tan and Peng An met.

When he heard Peng An tell what happened to the rear army, he couldn't help but feel cold all over. He couldn't help but cough a few times. He was speechless for a while. After a long time, he lost his mind and said: "This is my betrayal." Retribution from the Father?”

He suddenly became furious, "I'm not wrong!"

"If my father hadn't been so partial and handed over Jizhou to Yuan Shang, how could Cao Cao..."

His voice came suddenly. Wasn't he the first to seek refuge with Cao Cao?

Yuan Shang and himself actually guessed most of what happened with the Five Stone Powder later. However, Yuan Shang insisted on sticking to Yecheng, but he betrayed his father because of his position as the head of the family. At that time, what he was thinking in his heart was not that since his father was dead, it was better to go get more. Real benefits?

Having come this far, who can I blame?

He looked at the silent servants under the tent and found that everyone was lifeless. He knew that they had lost their spirit. I was afraid that after this defeat, it would be difficult to raise their heads!

Now that there are three parties surrounding him, he no longer has the power to fight against any of them. If he wants to save his life, he can only find someone to join forces. To say that he is joining forces is just bowing to others.

The remaining defeated generals he has gathered now only amount to more than 10,000 people. They are no longer able to fight against any party. If they want to survive, they can only choose to join one party.

Cao Cao? Yuan Shang? Or Yuan Xi?

He smiled bitterly. First of all, Yuan Shang was absolutely impossible. Secondly, Yuan Xi actually held a grudge more than Yuan Shang. He had never taken his bastard brother seriously before, but Yuan Xi was actually the one who forced him into this situation. It played a big role, right?

While everyone was silent, a soldier came in and said that Cao Cao's reply had arrived.

Yuan Tan asked Yang Xi to read the letter, and the expressions on everyone's faces were extremely exciting, because the letter was so shameless.

(End of this chapter)