Chapter 135: Comprehensive Military Strategy [Subscription Request]

Yuan Shu put all his efforts into dealing with Yanzhou this time. He marched quickly, united many allies, and used a series of strategies.

He first gave up on getting entangled with Liu Biao of Jingzhou, and would rather suffer some losses in order to take the initiative in dealing with Yanzhou.

In addition to allying with Tao Qian of Xuzhou and Gongsun Zan of Youzhou and using the Black Mountain Army as a diversionary force, Yuan Shu also had another group of troops as hidden reinforcements, which were kept secret.

After entering February, Yuan Shu ordered his troops to be stationed on the border of Jingzhou, ready to go to war with Yanzhou at any time.

Yuan Shu also prepared a trump card.

It is the imperial edict.

At this stage, the imperial power has fallen into the hands of others and all parties are seeking their own interests.

But the imperial power is not without any constraints.

Cao Cao's Yanzhou Mu has not yet been officially appointed.

If Yanzhou is in turmoil, the reaction of the local gentry will be the key to victory or defeat.

This is the effect of the imperial edict, the weakness of Yanzhou.

Yuan Shu had Yuan Wei's support in Chang'an, who issued an imperial decree to appoint him as the rear general and announced the dismissal of Cao Cao from his post as governor of Yanzhou, thus gaining the reputation of being righteous.

Front Army Camp, early morning.

Yuan Shu asked his adviser Yan Xiang, "How is the progress of secretly contacting the Yanzhou nobles?"

"There are always some noble officials who are loyal to the court and the imperial power. Our people secretly entered Chenliu with the imperial edict and have persuaded some officials.

Cao Cao stole the throne of Yanzhou, and some people were dissatisfied with his actions. "

Yan Xiang said, "Dongjun sent a message that Cao's army took the lead and attacked the Black Mountain Army."

"How's the outcome?"

"The Black Mountain front army was defeated, and Zhang Yan's troops retreated. There is no further news at the moment."

"Can't wait any longer."

Yuan Shu: "Declare war on Yanzhou, and send a message to Xuzhou to join us in the attack."

Previously, Sun Jian was killed in his expedition against Liu Biao, and then his ally Gongsun Zan was defeated by Yuan Shao.

Liu Bei was tying down the troops in Yanzhou, but was defeated by Cao Cao.

The successive bad news made Yuan Shu a little restless.

He was eager to achieve success and defeat Yanzhou in order to regain the lost part of Yuzhou.

"My uncle also said that he has made arrangements and will cooperate with me."

After Yan Xiang left, Yuan Shu thought: My former Yuan officials are all over the country, and I have the title of orthodoxy. Yanzhou is internally unstable, and there are many places that can be used. I am trapped both internally and externally. This time, Cao Cao is definitely not my opponent...

----

After Cao Cao made arrangements to deal with the Black Mountain Army, he turned south from Dongjun.

If Zhao Yun stayed behind to deal with the Black Mountain Army, it would be a waste of his talent.

The bandits formed an army, recruited refugees, and fled when they were defeated. They have never had any integrity. Cao Cao could roughly foresee the result.

He galloped for two hours after nightfall, then set up camp to rest, and continued on his journey at dawn.

And at noon the next day, they arrived in Chenliu County.

Under the current circumstances, there is actually no reason for Zhang Miao to rebel against Cao Cao.

During this period in history, in addition to Cao Cao being the governor of Yanzhou, Yuan Shao also sent his brothers Yuan Yi and Yuan Xu to Yanzhou to serve as governors of the two counties.

In fact, it was Cao Cao and Yuan Shao who jointly controlled Yanzhou.

So when Zhang Miao learned that Yuan Shao asked Cao Cao to kill him, he was horrified.

He felt that Cao Cao would eventually abandon him because Yuan Shao was more important to Cao Cao.

In addition, with the collusion of local nobles such as Chen Gong, and the merit of Lu Bu in killing Dong Zhuo, Zhang Miao was forced by the situation to rebel against Cao Cao and welcome Lu Bu.

But now Lu Bu did not kill Dong Zhuo, the situation in Chang'an was still in chaos, and Lu Bu had not even started the process of wandering for half his life.

However, Cao Cao made rapid progress and accomplished many things within a year.

Now the initiative is in their hands. Cao Cao is coming here to nip any subsequent changes in the bud.

"The governor has arrived."

In the evening, the afterglow of the setting sun dyed the sky red.

Cao Cao's carriage arrived at the seat of Chenliu County.

The personal troops were left to Zhao Yun to defeat the enemy.

Cao Cao only brought Jia Xu, Dian Wei and Xu Chu with him.

Bian Mei also had other things to do on the way, so she left first.

Thinking of Zhao Yun, Cao Cao felt quite pleased.

He ordered Zhao Yun to lead the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to defeat the Black Mountain Army.

Zhao Yun volunteered to fight, believing that attacking the Black Mountain refugee army would not be enough to deter all parties, and he was determined to fight thousands of miles away.

He asked for orders to lead the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, defeat the Black Mountain Army, and then attack another target.

After this battle, Zhao Yun will be famous all over the world, and the power of Cao's camp under my command will also increase greatly... Cao Cao got off the car and entered the county town where Zhang Miao was.

Zhang Miao was entertaining guests at his house and the banquet was just beginning.

The entertained guest raised his glass and said, "Meng Zhuo, I will always be grateful for your hospitality and will never forget it."

The person he entertained was actually Han Fu, the former governor of Jizhou.

When various princes rose up to fight against Dong, Han Fu was one of them.

Later, Han Fu was attacked by Gongsun Zan, defeated, and became terrified.

Yuan Shao took the opportunity to send Xun Chen, Guo Tu, Zhang Jingming and others to persuade Han Fu to give up the position of Jizhou Mu to himself.

Han Fu was in danger of being killed if he was defeated again, and he was terrified and anxious.

Xun Chen went there and first compared Yuan Shao's strengths with Han Fu, saying that under the current circumstances, it would be better to give the position of governor to Yuan Shao, so that he could save his life, escape danger, and gain a good reputation for giving way to wise men.

Yuan Shao will be grateful to you, and your own position will remain very stable.

Han Fu is facing a life-and-death crisis.

Considering that he was a former official of the Yuan family and could save his life by giving up his position, he agreed to give it to Yuan Shao.

He sent his son to Liyang to present the seal and ribbon to Yuan Shao, thus giving up his throne.

But then Yuan Shao made a series of plans to prevent Han Fu from changing his ways and becoming a disaster.

Soon Han Fu's family was destroyed, and his son's legs were broken in front of him by Yuan Shao's men. Although he was later humiliated by his generals, he was executed by Yuan Shao.

Han Fu didn't dare to stay in Jizhou any longer.

He escaped and took refuge with Zhang Miao.

Zhang Miao had a good relationship with Han Fu in the past, so he took Han Fu in.

At this time, Han Fu was in a miserable state.

He was not very courageous to begin with, and the days of life-and-death crises had made his hair gray, his body thin, and his eyes dull. He could only keep thanking Zhang Miao for taking him in.

The two were drinking when the doorman came to report that Cao Cao, the governor of Yanzhou, was visiting.

Han Fu was shocked:

"Cao Cao and Yuan Shao are friends for life and death, and now they have formed an alliance to fight against the enemy together. He must be here to kill me and help Yuan Shao get rid of the trouble."

Zhang Miao: "Meng De and I are close friends. Please go to the inner room and I will ask you about the reason."

Han Fu was shocked and went into the inner room.

Cao Cao was led in by his followers, followed by Dian Wei and Xu Chu.

The mansion used by Zhang Miao was the same mansion Cao Cao lived in when he was the prefect of Chenliu.

He came in as if he were back home.

"Meng Zhuo is in a good mood, drinking and relaxing here."

Cao Cao calmly sat in the seat where Han Fu had just sat.

"Benchu ​​wrote to me and told me that you, Meng Zhuo, took in Han Fu. Han Fu had bad intentions and wanted to unite you and the local nobles in Yanzhou to seek the position of governor of our province."

Cao Cao got to the point in his first sentence.

Zhang Miao was shocked and angry: "Meng De and I have been friends for many years, this is simply nonsense.

I took Han Fu in, but I had no other intentions."

In Cao Cao's opinion, this matter was easy to solve.

"Call Han Fu out so I can talk to him."

Zhang Miao asked, "You want to kill him?"

"No, how about giving him some money, helping him hide his identity, and letting him become a rich man and live out his life?"

Cao Cao said this not out of kindness, but because he was considering the long-term.

Han Fu was previously the governor of Jizhou. If we keep him in good condition first, it might be useful for expanding Jizhou in the future.

Zhang Miao sighed and said, "Meng De's suggestion is very good."

He added: "Han Fu was frightened and ran to me from afar. Almost all his followers and family members were killed or injured. His brain is not very good anymore. In his current state, how can he still have the heart to fight with Benchu ​​for Jizhou..."

Cao Cao did not say anything. Seeing that there were many fruits and poultry on the table, he signaled Dian Wei and Xu Chu to eat some of the food, as it would be a waste to leave it alone.

The two of them were already hungry, so they immediately bent over the table and started eating.

Zhang Miao hurriedly sent someone to call Han Fu to meet Cao Cao.

In a moment, the family members who went to call Han Fu came back in a panic: "Han Wenjie is dead."

Han Fu had been frightened for days and was in a trance, thinking that Cao Cao was coming to kill him.

He was already on the verge of collapse, but after hiding himself, he had an idea. He felt sad and as if he was worse than a straw dog. He felt sorry for himself and thought that it would be better to die quickly than to die at the hands of others.

Zhang Miao's men went to look for him and went out to meet Cao Cao.

It made him feel hopeless and think that death was imminent.

He used the excuse of going to the toilet and committed suicide on the toilet bowl with a knife used to scrape bamboo slips.

When Cao Cao heard the news, he shook his head secretly.

It’s a good thing that Han Fu died like this, he can’t blame anyone.

Cao Cao stayed at Zhang Miao's house for one night, and received the news the next day.

Yuan Shu officially sent troops and declared war on Yanzhou.

His vanguard, led by his general Liu Xiang, ran two hundred miles yesterday night and entered Kuangting, Changyuan County, east of Chenliu County.

Ji, an official in Changyuan County of Chenliu, took the initiative to open the city gate for Liu Xian and welcome Yuan Shu's troops into the city.

Ji, an official of Changyuan County, joined forces with others to denounce Cao Cao's appointment as governor of Yanzhou as improper, on the grounds that Yuan Shu had an imperial decree and was following the emperor's orders.

Yuan Shu represented the court to restore order and called on all parts of Yanzhou to welcome Yuan and defeat Cao.

The county official Ji was a prominent family in the local area, and his family was an old friend of Yuan Wei.

When Yuan Shu attacked, he welcomed Yuan's troops to defeat Cao, also to protect his own power.

Yuan Shu brought the imperial edict, announcing the removal of Cao Cao from his post as governor of Yanzhou.

The imperial edict spread throughout Yanzhou in one day, calling on all parts of Yanzhou to rebel against Cao.

Anyone who captures and kills Cao Cao will be rewarded handsomely.

At the same time, Yuan Shu personally led the army into Chenliu Fengqiu, and formed an angle with Liu Xiang's troops in Kuangting to support each other.

At the same time, Cao Cao received news from Huang Zhong through the communication beads.

Huang Zhong has deployed his troops to the north of Xuzhou and is waiting for Cao Cao's order to launch a full-scale attack on Xuzhou.

Huang Zhong had just conquered Pingyuan County where Liu Bei was stationed a few days ago. It would take at least half a month to dispatch troops from Pingyuan and then to Xuzhou before he could use his troops in Xuzhou.

But Cao Cao and Huang Zhong used a strategy to conceal their true intentions.

At that time, Huang Zhong was the commander-in-chief of the central army.

When he went to attack Liu Bei and occupied Pingyuan County, he secretly hid a troop and moved towards Xuzhou.

Afterwards, everyone thought that Huang Zhong was in Pingyuan.

Little did they know that after he captured Pingyuan, he left his troops behind to deal with the aftermath, and he himself rushed to Xuzhou the next day.

The troops in Pingyuan remained stationed, but Huang Zhong went to Xuzhou, took over another team that had arrived earlier, and prepared for battle.

This is called the strategy of stealing troops and changing commanders in military strategists. It makes it difficult to distinguish the real situation from the fake, and it is impossible to see the real combat intention and the time to use troops.

As for Cao Cao, he brought Zhang Miao with him to prevent any unexpected changes.

On the morning of February, Cao Cao personally marched to Kuangting and issued several military orders to Zhang Liao, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun, and to Taishi Ci, Le Jin and other generals stationed on the border of Xuzhou and Yuzhou, urging them to use their full strength.

After so much preparation, the battle among multiple states and counties has officially begun!

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(End of this chapter)