Chapter 182 Cao Cao's No. Nobleman [Subscribe]

The sun is rising.

Zhang Xiu "escaped" from Wancheng, and then led his troops northward towards Henei.

The process was of course a show, carried out according to Cao Cao's instructions.

Zhang Xiu's grief and indignation were genuine. He originally owned Nanyang and was waiting to sell it at a high price.

Being caught off guard.

The situation took a turn for the worse.

Since ancient times, defeated armies surrendering to the enemy have not been taken seriously.

Cao Cao asked him to take orders, respond to Jizhou's plan, and go north to rescue Zhang Yang in Henei.

Yanzhou and Jizhou were playing chess, both sides were scheming and competing, and he became a chess piece.

Cao Cao not only detained Zhang's family as hostages, but also had people give him a pill to eat, saying that if he didn't take the poison within a hundred days, he would die of the poison.

Zhang Xiu didn't know whether the medicine was real or fake.

He couldn't risk his own life to test the truth, all he could do was to cooperate with Cao Cao's plan and lead the "defeated troops" from Nanyang to the north to meet up with Zhang Yang in Hanoi.

Then, together with the Jizhou army, they attacked Zhang Yan's Black Mountain Army from the front and back in order to achieve the goal of connecting Bingzhou and Jizhou.

After Zhang Xiu left, Cao Cao sat in the county government office, looking down at the map.

He carried with him a map of the states and counties, on which were marked his strategic ideas for each state and county.

At this time, he circled Nanyang County on the map, indicating that it was initially incorporated into the jurisdiction of Yanzhou.

Judging from the map, Cao Cao currently has Yanzhou and Yuzhou as his base, and occupies Sili and Nanyang counties to the west, and a small half of Bingzhou to the north.

If Hanoi Zhangyang is swallowed up by Yanzhou, they will be completely connected geographically and strategically.

To the east of Yanzhou, Xuzhou and Qingzhou were also occupied by Cao Cao to a small extent.

The other half of Bingzhou, half of Qingzhou, plus Jizhou and the entire Youzhou were in Yuan Shao's hands.

The two people's territories are evenly matched.

It seems that Yanzhou has fought many battles to reach its current scale and momentum.

It seemed that Yuan Shao only had to defeat Gongsun Zan to gain a force equal to that of Yanzhou.

There's nothing we can do about it.

Yanzhou was originally a place of war, with enemies all around.

More importantly, the Yuan family of Runan had a high reputation, so Yuan Shao could get some things without any effort.

If Cao Cao wanted to catch up in just a few years, he would naturally have to pay more.

There is still a lot to do to control Nanyang.

Cheng Yu was responsible for contacting local gentry and county representatives.

Nanyang originally belonged to Liu Biao, and he wanted to use Zhang Xiu as a barrier. Now that it was occupied by Cao Cao, Liu Biao must be very nervous.

Cao Cao sat in the county government office, staring at the map and thinking.

Jia Xu and Dong Zhao were also sitting in the lobby where he was.

Cheng Yu went out to see off some nobles and county representatives who had just come to meet Cao Cao.

Compared with the Liangzhou Army that looted and killed people everywhere and incurred public anger, the Yanzhou Army, which was adjacent to Nanyang and had the full support of the Yingchuan Xun family, Chen family and other aristocratic families, was much easier for the people of Nanyang to accept.

This is also the ancestral land of the Han royal family.

Nanyang is willing to be governed by Yanzhou. The underlying reason has a lot to do with the fact that Cao Cao now controls Sili and the emperor also depends on Yanzhou for survival.

This is the benefit of holding the emperor hostage.

Cao Cao glanced at Dong Zhao and Jia Xu.

Dong Zhao sat there with an expression of undisguised excitement.

He was eager to express his admiration and praise for Cao Cao's surprise attack and capture of Nanyang.

If Yanzhou controls Nanyang, it will shock all parties.

With Nanyang, Yanzhou's control over Sili was truly stabilized.

Dong Zhao initially thought that Cao Cao would take the emperor away from Chang'an.

He made this suggestion in his first letter to Cao Cao.

It is just unexpected that Cao Cao’s choice was to seize Sili first and then Nanyang to complete the strategic macro layout.

The more Dong Zhao thought about it, the more he felt that the current situation was beneficial to Yanzhou.

Behind Cao Cao, his son Cao Ang also stood up meticulously, listening to the conversation between Cao Cao and Jia Xu and others, learning how to govern.

"When we occupied Nanyang, the most nervous person was Liu Biao.

He might think that my next target is Jingzhou."

Cao Cao said, "Gongren, please draft a letter to Liu Biao, using gentle words."

"Tell him that Zhang Xiu led the Liangzhou troops to Nanyang. The people of Nanyang and the Liangzhou army have deep hatred, and they begged us Yanzhou to send troops to eliminate the threat to Nanyang, so we came here. Later, we Yanzhou will not send more troops to the southern line of Nanyang, please rest assured, Liu Biao."

This is an attitude, a means of making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones, in order to appease Liu Biao.

"Wenhe, go spread some true and false news to confuse Jizhou," Cao Cao said.

Jia Xu responded.

Cao Cao asked him to spread false news, referring to Zhang Xiu's marching northward, but there were omissions in both the timing and method.

It is unlikely that Jizhou would be fooled directly and release mixed true and false news. It was a confrontation at the intelligence level to cooperate with Zhang Xiu in leading his troops northward.

Dong Zhao and Jia Xu went out to do some work.

Cao Cao turned around and handed a military book to Cao Ang: "This volume of Taigong Six Strategies, read it carefully. I will test your experience tonight."

Cao Ang took the scroll, performed the ceremony, and left.

Cao Cao asked someone to call Ling Jin in.

Wherever the troops were sent, tomb raiders would be deployed there to take as much money as possible to supplement military supplies.

[Tomb sequence: 174, no tomb found. This tomb is of a high level, a large tomb of an Eastern Zhou noble in Nanyang. The tomb is filled with gold and silver, and contains one of the ten most famous swords in the world, which has been sleeping in the tomb for more than six hundred years]...

A mansion in Wancheng.

A middle-aged man was writing on a scroll: "An incident occurred in Wancheng, and Yanzhou launched a surprise attack to capture Nanyang."

This person recorded all the news, including the news that Zhang Xiu led the remaining troops northward early in the morning, which was full of suspicious information.

He was a spy chief of the Yuan family and held a very high rank.

Because it concerns the war situation in Sili, Bingzhou, and Henei, timely communication is very important.

The spy used the only communication tablet in his hand to pass the message directly to Yuan Shao and Yuan Wei.

morning.

Yecheng, Jizhou.

Yuan Wei and Yuan Shao both sat behind low seats in a silent atmosphere.

The message in front of the two men read "Nanyang Mutiny".

"Yanzhou troops raided Nanyang Wancheng last night."

"We have lost contact with Xu Chun, the envoy we sent to Zhang Xiu."

Yuan Wei said: "What we can confirm now is that Zhang Xiu was captured alive for some time. It is possible that he pretended to surrender and found an opportunity to contact the troops outside the city, and then fled north in the early morning."

"But Zhang Xiu may have really surrendered to Yanzhou. His move north was a trick by Yanzhou to plot against Jizhou."

Yuan Shao felt heavy-hearted.

Everyone thought that Yanzhou had just sent troops to defeat the Liangzhou army in Chang'an, and Cao Cao would contact the various nobles in Changyi to expand and celebrate.

Unexpectedly, he went to attack Nanyang in the blink of an eye.

Jizhou had originally made a plan to use troops to rescue Zhang Yang of Henei who was besieged by Yanzhou and to destroy Yanzhou's control over Sili.

But their plan was destroyed by Cao Cao's surprise attack on Nanyang.

Cao Cao had been cunning since he was young, and Yuan Shao knew it.

This was also his biggest headache, he could not grasp the pattern of Cao Cao's actions. All his judgments about Cao Cao might be wrong.

"Yanzhou occupies Nanyang..."

Ju Su, Tian Feng, Guo Tu, Xu You, Feng Ji and other famous strategists.

In addition, before the battle against Gongsun Zan, Zhang He, Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Gao Lan and other civil and military officials from Jizhou gathered together and led their troops to surrender.

"If Cao Cao occupies Nanyang, Sili will have a southern barrier. Food and supplies can be continuously delivered to Sili from Yanzhou and Yuzhou without any interference."

Ju Su, Tian Feng, Yan Liang and others were all worried.

"Based on Cao Cao's plan, he probably released Zhang Xiu on purpose to disrupt the situation in Hanoi."

Tian Feng pinched his brows:
"We included Zhang Xiu in the scheme, and we were already caught in Cao Cao's scheme, so our consumption increased greatly.

I suspect he saw that we were short of food after the attack on Youzhou, and he was deliberately exhausting us."

As early as when Yanzhou sent troops to Chang'an to fight against the Liangzhou army.

Tian Feng suggested to Yuan Shao that he should send light cavalry from Qingzhou to launch a surprise attack on the east of Yanzhou, which would not only support the cooperation with Xuzhou, but also hinder Yanzhou's military action against Chang'an.

But Yuan Shao did not make a decision immediately.

Yanzhou acted decisively and established its military advantage over Sili in just a few days.

By the time they reacted, the situation had already been decided.

This time too.

"I have a plan that may be able to conquer Yanzhou."

As soon as Yuan Wei opened his mouth, Tian Feng subconsciously glanced at Ju Su.

He and Ju Shou recently discovered that what Yuan Taifu did in the past few years has been of great help to Yanzhou.

Every time he used a trick, it was Yanzhou that benefited in the end.

Three years ago, Yuan Wei was cleverly used by Cao Cao in Luoyang to take advantage of his power to deal with Dong Zhuo.

Later, Yuan Wei signed an order from the Secretariat to send Cao Cao away to serve as the governor of Chenliu.

Without that appointment, Cao Cao would never have been able to successfully operate a business in Yanzhou, quickly gather strength, and reach his current height within a few years.

That’s not all. Yuan Wei then made careful plans to contain Yanzhou and explained the importance of Yanzhou to Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu therefore gave up competing with Liu Biao of Jingzhou and decided to take Yanzhou first. Then he was chased by Cao Cao for thousands of miles and fled to Jiujiang.

Cao Cao took advantage of the situation to occupy the thousand-mile land and expanded his power from Yanzhou to Yuzhou.

Afterwards, Yuan Wei left Chang'an and returned to Runan to gather the gentry to fight against Cao Cao. He also helped Yanzhou to completely take over Yuzhou and eliminate the threat from the gentry.

Yuan Wei also contacted Li Jue and Guo Si to attack Chang'an, and was then taken advantage of by Cao Cao, who sent troops to Sili and defeated the Liangzhou army.

Cao Cao's gradual rise was certainly due to his ability to use power and make proper plans.

But at critical moments, Yuan Wei was often behind the scenes planning.

You are Cao Cao's benefactor.

While others have not figured out Yuan Wei's powerful "ability to support Cao", Tian Feng and Ju Shou are quite intelligent and see the key.

When they heard that Yuan Wei had another plan, they were both surprised.

Tian Feng did not dare to let Yuan Wei speak, and rushed to say: "No matter what Yanzhou plots, we cannot let it mess up our own plans."

Just as Yuan Wei was about to speak, Ju Su said, "We in Jizhou must first store supplies internally to give the people a chance to recuperate and recover.

Yanzhou is carrying out military farming. I have carefully studied their methods and found that they are quite different from the military farming methods of the past. We might as well imitate them. "

"To the outside world, we will implement the original plan first. But whether Zhang Xiu is leading his troops northward is true or not, we must never trust or cooperate with him again."

After several people discussed it, Jizhou took action.

The news that Nanyang was captured and fell into the hands of Yanzhou spread quickly.

At the same time, Cao Cao received a piece of news that shocked him.

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(End of this chapter)