The Mythical Version of the Three Kingdoms: The Evil God Arrives

Chapter 254 Yuan Shao: This is an open conspiracy!
Although Yang Ji didn't know how Yuan Shao and his men were going to solve the problem of food shortage, there were only a few ways to solve the problem.

If they tried to rob them of their food, not to mention how much combat effectiveness Yuan Shao's army, whose morale had fallen to the bottom, could exert, if Yang Ji didn't set his sights on them, they would just happily leave.

Right now, Yuan Shao and his men should be praying that Yang Ji will not send troops to attack and harass them at this time. After all, given their current situation, it is very likely that a wave of Yang Ji's charge will defeat them.

In other words, the entire Liu Bei's rule is now full, otherwise Yang Ji would have to send troops to harass the retreating Yuan army and at least scare them.

In addition to directly seizing the food and grass in Gongsun’s camp, Yuan Shao could also hope for food and grass transferred from other places.

However, if food and fodder are transported from other places, it will take at least a month to reach Jieqiao.

If food and fodder were really transported from other places, the soldiers of Yuan's army would probably have starved to death by the time they arrived.

Yuan Shao and his core civil and military officials, as well as some sufficiently elite soldiers, may not be affected by the food cut-off, but ordinary soldiers will definitely starve to death.

In this situation, Yuan Shao actually had only one option, which was to collect food rations from local people to help Yuan's army survive this month.

However, one should not have too much hope for the integrity of the ancient army. When Yuan's army was collecting food and grass from the people, there would definitely be bandits passing through the border, who would be even more cruel than bandits.

Throughout history, the number of armies that have truly achieved the goal of not harming the civilians can be counted on one’s fingers.

Yang Ji said to Liu Bei: "We should wait until the Yuan army on the other side withdraws completely before we move the people. Then we can save some energy in reasoning."

Liu Bei thought about it for a moment and did not fully agree with Yang Ji's proposal. Instead, he looked in the direction of Yuan's army camp.

"I hope they can just collect food and grass, and not do anything to condone bandits to plunder." At this point, Liu Bei paused, his eyes flickered, and finally continued: "Zi Yu, go and transfer the White Horse Volunteers from Pingyuan County here.

If there are signs of banditry, don't worry about the overall situation and just wipe out the bandits."

Perhaps Liu Bei himself lacked confidence, so he added a sentence at the end: "...Apart from bandits, would my Han army rob the people?"

"Yes!" Yang Ji did not refute Liu Bei's order and directly agreed to Liu Bei's arrangement. After all, what Liu Bei wanted to do was also what he wanted to do.

Anyway, they were destroying a gang of bandits that was robbing the people, and it had nothing to do with Yuan Shao...

Well, the bandits are from Jizhou, so it’s still Yuan Shao’s fault. Let’s put the blame on Yuan Shao when the time comes.

……

"My lord, Yang Ziyu on the other side has transferred a group of white horse volunteers from Pingyuan County, and this group of white horse volunteers has been keeping an eye on our team collecting food and fodder.

My Lord, do you want to mobilize the vanguard to wipe them out?" Shen Pei walked in from outside the tent and reported to Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao, who was originally eating, put down his bowl. On the table in front of Yuan Shao, in addition to the steamed buns passed from Taishan, there were also several dishes of meat and vegetables, which were in line with Yuan Shao's usual eating habits.

Yuan Shao frowned and asked, "Have you figured out why they transferred the White Horse Volunteers from Pingyuan County?"

Although Ju Yi and Xiandeng had removed the shadow cast by the White Horse Volunteers on the entire Jizhou army, Yuan Shao was still wary of the White Horse Volunteers.

Even though in the Battle of Jie Bridge, Ju Yi led the Vanguard Death Soldiers and the Great Halberd Soldiers and seemingly easily destroyed Gongsun Zan's seven thousand fast white horses.

However, others are not aware of the horror of the White Horse Volunteers. Don’t they, who have been suppressed for more than half a year, know the fighting power of the White Horse Volunteers?

Indeed, today's Xiandeng is completely able to defeat the White Horse Volunteers of the double talent level. As long as they are covered by a round of cloud and rain of arrows, no matter what the legend of the fastest white horse is, those who deserve to die will still die.

If I hadn't experienced the night attack the day before yesterday, how could a mere double-talented White Horse Yicong dare to appear before my eyes? I will beat you to ashes.

But the bad thing is that the White Horse Volunteers from Pingyuan County arrived at an inappropriate time, which is very embarrassing.

It’s not that Yuan Shao and Ju Yi were unable to deal with the White Horse Volunteers, but it’s a question of whether it’s worth it.

If Yang Ji mobilized the White Horse Volunteers from Pingyuan just to guard against them, then they could just ignore it. Anyway, Liu Bei would not choose to go to war with Jizhou at this time.

If a war really broke out, the first to suffer would be Yuan Shao and Jizhou, and the second to suffer would definitely be Liu Bei and his people.

Once Yuan Shao and Liu Bei started fighting in Jizhou, Yuan Shu in the south might send troops to capture Nanyang and Yingchuan, while Liu Biao in Jingzhou might also send troops to Xiangyang or Jiangxia County.

Liu Bei, who defeated Cao Cao and annexed Yanzhou, was really too enviable. If other princes could restrict and delay Liu Bei's development a little, they would surely not hesitate to help. After all, it was Yuan Shao who was leading the way.

Shen Pei paused for a moment and said, "According to our observation, the white horse was just watching our troops collecting food and grass from a distance, and did not make any other moves."

Yuan Shao frowned even deeper. Liu Bei... No, it was Yang Ji on the opposite side who was thinking what? Why did he send out the White Horse Volunteers to monitor their movements?

Could it be that Yang Ji wanted to attack them during their withdrawal and now sent out the White Horse Volunteers to observe which legion is the weak one?

"Hiss~Ha——" Yuan Shao touched his heavy chest. Even if he racked his brains, he couldn't figure out why Yang Ji on the opposite side sent out the White Horse Volunteers.

Yuan Shao glanced at Shen Pei, who seemed to have something to say but also seemed to have nothing to say, and couldn't help asking, "Zhengnan, do you have any guesses?"

"My lord, Yuan Tu and I do have some guesses about this." Shen Pei confirmed Yuan Shao's question. He did have some guesses about Yang Ji's behavior.

"Oh, tell me quickly, what is the situation on the other side?" Yuan Shao felt a little relieved when he heard Shen Pei's guess, and hurriedly urged Shen Pei, saying that it was comfortable to have a counselor with unparalleled wisdom and strategy.

"We suspect that Fenggao has targeted the surrounding people." Shen Pei said with a hint of uncertainty.

Seeing Yuan Shao's astonished expression, Shen Pei quickly explained, "If Liu Xuande only occupied Qingzhou and Taishan County, then they wouldn't be short of population after receiving the million Yellow Turbans from Qingzhou. But with the addition of Yanzhou, there will be a large population vacuum under Liu Xuande's rule. There aren't many people living in the eastern counties of Yanzhou now."

"This..." After listening to Shen Pei's explanation, Yuan Shao's brows, which had just relaxed a little, frowned again.

What's going on with the generals under Liu Bei? Why did they come to our Jizhou to rob the people?
"Are there any countermeasures?" Yuan Shao asked Shen Pei. If Yang Ji just wanted to observe their withdrawal, Yuan Shao would not bother to pay attention to him. At most, he would just fight another battle.

However, Yuan Shao could not tolerate Yang Ji plundering the surrounding people and filling the sparsely populated eastern part of Yanzhou.

It's fine that I can't restrict your development, but now I have to subsidize a part of your population for development? Then what are my hundreds of thousands of troops for?
At this time, Yuan Shao only felt angry. He was angry that Yang Ji dared to do this and did it openly.

If you have the guts, do it secretly, just don't let me know and save my face...

"Bang!" Yuan Shao, who was getting angrier and angrier, directly put the rice bowl on the table, and then used chopsticks to push the rice scattered on the table back into the bowl, and said to Shen Pei: "I'm fine, you continue talking."

"We have no countermeasures. This is an open conspiracy." Shen Pei said with his head down.

"Open conspiracy, open conspiracy!" Yuan Shao looked around to see if there was anything he could smash, then looked at the bowl in his hand. Finally, he gently put the bowl down and did not smash his own bowl.

"The soldiers who went to collect food treated the people very roughly, and there was even bloodshed. The people were very resistant to our collection of food, and there have been many conflicts so far."

Shen Pei glanced at Yuan Shao and continued, "I think they are planning to trick the people into going to Yanzhou by giving them food after we withdraw our troops."

Shen Pei's words left Yuan Shao silent. What Shen Pei said was right. This was an open conspiracy, a conspiracy that they could not crack now.

If they wanted to withdraw their troops slowly, they would have to collect rations from the surrounding people. But how could the people give away the rations they needed to get through the cold winter to the soldiers who came to ask for them?

Yuan Shao knew very well what would happen between the people who were unwilling to hand over their food and the soldiers who had to get food from the people.

[However, for the sake of my great cause, I will let you suffer a little. My army needs your food, and I will double the compensation when the time comes.] Yuan Shao thought to himself.

"Tell the people below to try not to conflict with the White Horse Volunteers when collecting grain, and at the same time collect enough grain as soon as possible." Yuan Shao said to Shen Pei with an expressionless face.

"Yes!" Shen Pei nodded his head and did not raise any objection to Yuan Shao's order. After all, in their minds, only Yuan Shao and the army under his command were the most important, and everything else was just details.

As for taking these people away with them? Sorry, this option has never appeared in the minds of Yuan Shao, Shen Pei, Feng Ji and others.

What a joke! The reason they are collecting food rations from the people is to allow their army to survive the period before he returns to Yecheng.

Taking these civilians with them may not have any effect, but it will definitely increase the rate at which their food and grass consumption increases.

In this case, it would be better to collect their rations and give them to the army under their command, and then let Liu Bei move them away.

Liu Bei needed their population, and they needed food in the pockets of these people, and both got what they wanted.

Isn't this a best of both worlds solution?
Anyway, they have a large population in Jizhou, so the loss of tens of thousands of people is not a big problem at all. They can just move some people from other places to fill the gap when the time comes.

……

"It seems that they have realized what we are going to do." Liu Bei, who was mixed in with the Baima Yicong, turned and said to Yang Ji beside him.

"Yuan Benchu ​​has many wise men under his command. Considering our situation, it is not difficult for him to guess our purpose." Yang Ji said casually as he looked at the Yuan army soldiers who had restrained their movements.

"Indeed." Liu Bei nodded. Even he could think of such a method, so it would not be difficult for the wise men on the opposite side to guess the reason why they did this.

Although Liu Bei's original intention was just to allow these people to have food to survive the winter under his rule.

But since they think so, then so be it, the result will be the same anyway.

"Fengxiao, how is the preparation work for relocating the people going? Judging from the performance of Yuan's army, they should withdraw in the next two days." Liu Bei turned his head and asked Guo Jia on the other side.

"My lord, everything is almost ready. The food, fodder, doctors and carriages needed for the migration are all in place." Guo Jia bowed to Liu Bei.

To be honest, when Guo Jia received the order from Liu Bei to prepare these things, he thought they were prepared for the 100,000 soldiers, but he didn't expect that they were prepared for the surrounding people.

Although it is difficult to relocate people in this season, it is not a very difficult thing for them. After all, Jieqiao is quite close to the plains.

After sending these people to Pingyuan, Gan Ning's navy then transported them to Puyang by water. After resting in Puyang for a winter, they were dispersed to various counties in the eastern part of Yanzhou.

Or we could let Zhao Yun come to pick up the people and disperse them directly to the counties in the eastern part of Yanzhou. Then the government would allocate relief food to them.

When Liu Bei's order reached Guo Jia, a series of subsequent solutions had already appeared in Guo Jia's mind.

Moreover, at the beginning, Guo Jia thought that this ingenious idea of ​​relocating the surrounding people was proposed by Yang Ji.

After learning that this wonderful recipe was proposed by Liu Bei, Guo Jia was in a daze for a long time. It turned out that his lord had grown to this level.

"Well, that's good." Liu Bei nodded, "By the way, after moving the people here, how do you plan to arrange for them?

Do you plan to send them to Pingyuan County first, or send them directly to Yanzhou to be settled by Zilong's farming troops? "Liu Bei asked Guo Jia about the follow-up settlement of these people.

This is not something that can be easily dealt with.

(End of this chapter)