Chapter 161 Cao Cao's Methods [Subscription Request]

The moonlight is bright and clear.

Around the hour of Hai, Cao Cao walked into a makeshift tent halfway up the mountain.

Liu Biao did not dare to go to Cao Cao's camp and put himself in danger.

The same goes for Cao Cao.

So they set up a temporary camp to meet.

Cao Cao brought Dian Wei and Xu Chu with him to the meeting.

Inside the tent, Liu Biao sat in the middle, wearing a reddish-brown Han robe.

He is tall and has a kind face, and is followed by several personal attendants, all of whom are skilled fighters.

【Liu Biao, courtesy name Jingsheng, was a native of Gaoping County, Shanyang Prefecture. He was a member of the royal family and a famous scholar in the late Han Dynasty, and a descendant of Liu Yu, the King of Lu Gong in the Western Han Dynasty】

Liu Biao was well-known in the world when he was young and was one of the "Eight Talents" of his time.

In his early years, he was implicated in the Party and Faction Ban because of his participation in the Taixue Movement and was forced to flee. After the party ban was lifted, he was appointed as an official by General He Jin and served as the Lieutenant General of the Northern Army.

When Dong Zhuo was in power, he recommended him to Jingzhou to take charge of the area.

When he first took office as the governor of Jingzhou, he had no soldiers under his command, while there were many powerful people in various parts of Jingzhou.

He entered Jingzhou alone, and joined forces with the Kuai brothers, Cai Mao and others to assist him. He used tough means to kill the leaders of the clan bandits, quickly controlled most of Jingzhou, established a government to employ scholars, and became a local lord.

He was attacked by Yuan Shu before, and Sun Jian, known as the fierce tiger, led his troops to attack Jingzhou, but also died under his command. This shows how capable Liu Biao was.

However, he was a suspicious person who liked to sit and talk, and discuss things over and over again, so he missed many opportunities.

Moreover, as he grew older, he was more determined to stay conservative and had no ambition to expand into other areas.

In history, after Liu Biao died of illness, Cai Mao and others deposed the eldest son and enthroned the youngest son, Liu Cong, as the leader.

Then Liu Cong surrendered the state to Cao Cao.

"Meng De, you sent an envoy to contact me, saying that you have something important to discuss. It would be beneficial for both sides to cooperate, so I am glad to come."

After Cao Cao took his seat, Liu Biao said in a deep voice, "But you are obviously insincere."

He was referring to the fact that Cao Cao came and captured his son.

Liu Cong didn't know before that his father came here to meet Cao Cao.

Cao Cao marched quickly all the way and arrived earlier than the agreed time.

Therefore, Liu Biao did not expect that Liu Cong would run into Yin and Diao Chan on a whim and be captured alive when he went out hunting at night.

"Governor Liu has wronged me."

Cao Cao said calmly: "I came here to ask for something."

It sounds nice, but there is no attitude of begging at all... Liu Biao raised his eyebrows slightly: "Why do you have to kidnap my offspring before you can tell me?"

"I admire the way you brought the powerful to justice in Jingzhou," said Cao Cao.

After Liu Biao became the governor of Jingzhou, he curbed the local powerful and aristocratic families.

The method used is to punish the main culprit and then pacify his followers.

That is to kill those who strongly oppose him and support another group of people to control the situation.

Liu Biao's methods relied on his royal family background.

It was difficult for the nobles and powerful families to unite and directly fight against the top leader of Jingzhou who was from a royal family, because it was not legitimate.

Cao Cao said he admired his method of controlling Jingzhou. Liu Biao thought about it and understood:

"You want to take over Yuzhou, and you want me to be the bad guy?"

Cao Cao's plan to control Yuzhou was simple and direct.

More than half of the nobles in Yuzhou united to guard against Cao Cao's control of Yuzhou and damage to their interests.

Cao Cao was prepared to retreat instead of advance. On the surface, he withdrew his troops from Yuzhou, and ordered the neighboring Jingzhou to advance troops into the western part of Yuzhou. He killed several troublesome nobles by swords, making an example of them.

By then, Liu Biao's cruel methods of destroying the gentry as soon as he arrives will terrify other gentry.

Yuzhou, which is not heavily guarded, is like a piece of fat meat.

If the nobles wanted to protect themselves and resist Liu Biao, the best person to turn to for help was Cao Cao, who had a powerful army at his disposal. There was no other choice.

At that time, Cao Cao will be able to divide and control these gentry.

If he himself does not play the villain, he can avoid the backlash from the nobles, and this method is the fastest.

There are many risks in doing this.

First of all, we must give Liu Biao enough benefits to make him agree to send troops.

At the same time, we must also do the opposite and strictly prevent Liu Biao from turning his fake play into reality and actually occupying Yuzhou.

Cao Cao's previous plan was to withdraw his troops in public but secretly keep them behind.

If Liu Biao dared to keep his troops stationed there, Cao's army would fight him in Yuzhou and defeat the Jingzhou army, which would have the same effect.

This was also one of the strategies discussed before by Cao Cao, Jia Xu, Guo Jia and others.

But now Liu Biao's youngest son, Liu Cong, fell into Cao Cao's hands, which was equivalent to a negotiation between the two countries, in which the most important hostage of one of the two sides was captured.

The possibility of Liu Biao's reversal was greatly weakened.

The benefits that Cao Cao originally planned to pay could also be saved.

Liu Biao was silent for a long time: "Have you made all the other arrangements?"

"In the past few days, my troops have been gradually transferred southwards to the western front of Yuzhou, bordering your Jingzhou, and the defense line is empty."

Cao Cao said: "Your troops can come in at any time to attack Yuzhou and help me eliminate a few noble families."

"How can I trust you that you will not eat up the troops I sent to Yuzhou, attack Jingzhou, and seize Nanyang and other counties?"

Liu Biao pondered and said, "Zhang Liao's troops under your command have moved south. But Chenliu and Dongjun to the north have heavy troops.

If my Jingzhou troops enter Yuzhou, your northern and southern divisions can cut off the passage between Yuzhou and my Jingzhou at any time, and then you can turn around and close the door to slaughter my troops. Wouldn't that be a loss for nothing?"

Cao Cao had previously intended to pledge two to four cities at the border of Yuzhou and Jingzhou in exchange for Liu Biao's trust. The two sides reached a cooperation through mutual "mortgage".

This has been a very common approach in history.

But now it is obviously not necessary, as Liu Cong is in Cao Cao's hands.

"As far as I know, after leaving Chang'an, Yuan Taifu has secretly returned to Runan and united with the nobles to prevent me from taking control of Yuzhou."

Cao Cao said, "Yuan Benchu ​​has taken Youzhou and Jizhou, and will surely move south. Yanzhou is currently under attack from all four sides, so why would I declare war on you?"

Liu Biao nodded slightly.

He had agreed to meet Cao Cao because he saw that Yanzhou would not plot against him at this stage, hoping to ask for a high price and gain some benefits.

"When do you want me to send out the troops?"

"The sooner the better." said Cao Cao.

The two sides negotiated on the details.

On the next morning, Liu Biao and Cao Cao returned to their respective camps.

As soon as Liu Biao returned, his second wife, Mrs. Cai, came to greet him crying.

Her niece was Liu Cong's wife.

In history, Liu Cong was able to use his status as the youngest son to persuade Liu Biao to pass the throne to the younger son instead of the older son. Mrs. Cai's advice played a big role in this.

"Cong'er fell into Cao Mengde's hands. Didn't my husband manage to save him?" asked Mrs. Cai.

"Cao Mengde will rely on my Jingzhou troops to help him quell the threat from the Yuzhou nobles, so he won't do anything to Cong'er for the time being."

Liu Biao said angrily, "Zicong has been spoiled by you guys. He coveted the beauty of Cao Mengde's concubine and fell into her hands. Even I have to work for Cao Mengde for nothing. The loss is not small."

Mrs. Cai cried:
"It's okay to help him do something, as long as Cong'er is safe."

Liu Biao snorted.

……

After leaving Chang'an, Yuan Wei secretly returned to Runan and secretly contacted the gentry in Yuzhou.

Its purpose was to resist Cao Cao's control of Yuzhou and build up momentum for the upcoming battles for Jizhou and Yanzhou.

Runan County, the ancestral home of the Yuan family, has the most important status in Yuzhou.

Therefore, Yuan Wei was certain that Yuzhou was headed by Runan, and no matter how Cao Cao planned, he would not be able to control Yuzhou in a short period of time.

At this time, Yuan Wei returned to Runan and opened a secret mansion, summoning trustworthy people from various aristocratic families to gather.

"…Cao Mengde was helpless against us before Lord Yuan returned, let alone now that Lord Yuan is back and in charge of the situation."

At noon, the sun is shining brightly.

Wei Yu, the head of the Ru'nan Wei family, was in his early fifties, with a fair complexion, and sat below Yuan Wei:
"Every one of us has withheld food and manpower, and will not provide Cao's army with even a grain of rice or a meal."

"Some of the nobles in Yanzhou also responded to us, such as famous scholars such as Bian Rang, who wrote many articles to denounce Cao Cao."

"Now, as long as Lord Yuan gives an order, we are all willing to follow."

"When Benchu ​​goes south, or the road leads the troops north, we will join forces to meet them and drive Cao's army out of Yuzhou."

Yuan Wei looked around and felt quite satisfied.

As long as we stabilize the gentry and control the resources in various parts of Yuzhou.

It was of little use for Cao's army to simply occupy Yuzhou's military defenses.

All parts of Yuzhou refused to obey the order.

Cao Cao was unable to pass administrative orders and no one listened to him.

"Yingchuan is headed by the Xun and Chen families. It is somewhat unexpected that they chose Lian Cao." Ji Chang, the head of the Ji family, said.

"If Xun Wenruo is appointed as Sima in Yanzhou, it is not surprising that the Xun family supports Yanzhou. But it is indeed strange that the Chen family is allied with Cao."

Yuan Wei said: "They just want to make a profit from it.

It doesn’t matter. Even if Cao Cao gets the support of Xun and Chen, he can only control one-third of the prefectures at most.”

"I will unite with you all to deal with Cao's army."

"Cao Mengde used the method of using the nobles to fight against the nobles in Yanzhou. If you want to use the same method in Yuzhou this time, you will find that it will not work at all."

"I have sent a message to Gong Lu, asking him to make a sign in Yangzhou that he is heading north to retake Yuzhou, in order to distract Cao Cao's attention."

"In the past few days, Cao's troops have been withdrawing from my Yuzhou."

Yuan Wei stroked his beard and thought about his arrangements.

What he didn't expect was that in order to unite the gentry, he would use the common tactics among scholars such as tripping others up, colluding with others, and refusing to accept Cao's control over Yuzhou.

But this time Cao Cao planned to fight with force and kill someone with a borrowed knife.

Mid-August.

The troops of Yanzhou were openly transferred out of Yuzhou.

As agreed, Liu Biao sent his great general Kuai Yue, with 15,000 elite troops, to invade the country suddenly and seize Yuzhou.

On the fourth day after entering the country, the Jingzhou army entered Runan and broke into the home of the Wei family in Runan.

Liu Biao's Jingzhou army did not kill anyone, but they plundered the entire Wei family and took them to Jingzhou.

Their roots in Runan were uprooted and taken away, leaving nothing behind.

As soon as Cao's army left, Liu Biao of Jingzhou led his troops into Yuzhou, which was beyond the expectations of Yuan Wei and even the various aristocratic families.

After the incident, many noble families in Runan and Yuzhou felt insecure.

Cao Cao brought Liu Biao into the game and did not play by the rules at all.

This kind of armed fighting method completely disrupted the arrangements of Yuan Wei and other nobles, and broke them into pieces.

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(End of this chapter)