In the fourth year of Jian'an, the two sides of the Yellow River in the north and south of the Yellow River were still in a state of highly tense confrontation. Friction and large-scale clashes in the border areas have become the norm, and the main forces of the two sides are gearing up for battle, but for the people on both sides of the strait, it is a completely different experience.

The land of Henan under Cao Cao's command has suffered nearly 15 years of turbulent war since the Yellow Turban Uprising. Especially since the reign of Cao Cao, the annual wars have continued, and the people have suffered from conscription, food and labor, and they have become more and more withered and tired. Although there are many wars in Hebei, which is across the river, they are not as frequent and repeated as those in the Central Plains. Just look at the process of Yuan Shao's unification of Hebei, it is nothing more than taking Han Fu's Jizhou first, and then trapping Gongsun Zan to beat Zhang Yan.

Therefore, the life of the people of Hebei before the war was relatively peaceful. There is no military service and conscription, and there is no heavy food and tax that is as heavy as the eyes of the people. More than ninety percent of the people in Hebei are not much worried about the imminent outbreak of this big war that can determine the trend of the world. After all, the current strength of Hebei is really not something that a single Cao Cao can resist.

If it was a year ago, when you Cao Cao occupied Nanyang, all of which were based on Sizhou, Yanzhou, Yuzhou and Xuzhou, Yuan Shao really couldn't swallow you Cao Cao in one go. But now, you Cao Cao not only failed to pacify Huainan to unify the Central Plains, but was eaten by Zhang Xiu, and when his vitality was greatly injured, he was beaten by Liu Bei.

On the other hand, my Yuan family has been adhering to the development strategy of steady and steady recuperation, although the speed of unifying Hebei is really slow, but it is better to make Hebei roughly maintain stability, retaining a not thin foundation. Now it is even more recuperated, millions of soldiers, tens of thousands of horses, countless money, silk and grain, and there are many talented and good generals under the account, and I am also Yuan's Weide reputation all over the world, and the protégés and officials are all over Kyushu, not to mention taking the Central Plains, according to such a trend of seeking progress in stability, it is not a problem for the fourth to be the third prince and the fifth emperor in the fourth world.

Therefore, in February of the fourth year of Jian'an, Yuan Shao held a high-profile ceremony to worship the heavens and swear in Yecheng, and set out for the second time to go south.

Yuan Shao's dispatch of troops this time was obviously different from the sudden declaration of war and hasty truce last time, but it integrated the main forces of the four states of Hebei, and put on a posture of killing Cao Cao in one go.

This time it was just a pioneer who took the lead, that is, sent 100,000 military horses! You must know that the last time Yuan Shao suddenly declared war, the total number of fronts sent was only tens of thousands, and the total number of soldiers and horses before and after the capture of Liyang was only 300,000!

There are more than 100,000 vanguard troops, this time, Chun Yuqiong, who used to be the eighth lieutenant of Xiyuan and is now among the generals of Hebei, is only in the position of deputy general in the 100,000 vanguard army, but this time the vanguard commander is Yuan Shao's famous general, who is known as one of the four pillars of Hebei - Yan Liang!

Not only is there a super-high configuration of the main and deputy generals, this time Yuan Shao also specially allocated a military division to the vanguard army. It should be noted that this military advisor is not like an ordinary supervisor who has no decision-making power and is a dispensable role, but he is a heavyweight in Yuan Shao's think tank - Guo Tu Guo Gongze!

Because Liyang, the heavy port of the Yellow River, had fallen into the hands of Yuan Shao, Yan Liang's task was very simple, just further clear the stronghold of Cao's army in Hebei, and it would be best if he could severely damage the former army sent by Cao Cao.

Under the guidance of such a strategy, Yan Liang led the army south to attack the White Horse City, the residence of Liu Yan, the Taishou of Dongjun under Cao Cao. And Yuan Shao slowly led the main force of the Hebei Army from Yecheng to Liyang.

Liu Yan is a cautious person, otherwise he would not have been sent by Cao Cao to such a tiger-like place in Dongjun, where Yuan Shao had just sworn to set off, and Liu Yan here received a tip, and informed the nearby Cao army generals while secretly telling Xu Du overnight.

Cao Cao's general in Hebei was none other than Cao Cao's army, a good general who was known for his strict and cautious behavior, in fact, Yu Ban learned of Yuan's army's movements earlier than Liu Yan, and after receiving the letter, he led his troops to move towards White Horse City.

Yan Liang marched quickly, surrounded the white horse before Xu Du gave a reply, and did not take any rest, let alone wait for the siege equipment to arrive, and directly started the rapid attack mode.

Liu Yan and Yu Ban, who were guarding the city, also had nothing to say, Yan Liang's subordinates were really 100,000 horses, and the two of them totaled only a few thousand, in the final analysis, they did have the capital to attack indiscriminately.

Since there had been no instructions from the Xu capital, Liu Yan and Yu Ban could only hold on to White Horse City, the only stronghold of Cao's army on the north bank of the Yellow River. None of these two people believed in their own martial arts, so they never took the initiative to go out of the city to fight, and the two worked together to defend the city, but did not give Yuan Jun, who only used ladders and ropes to climb the city wall, a chance.

The operation efficiency of Cao Cao's group is extremely high, after a short period of small discussions, Cao Cao waved his hand, and directly asked his generals to put on armor and get on the horse, without holding any Lao Shizi's oath meeting, and directly ordered troops to go north to resist Yuan. There is no need to plan logistics and grass, and Xun Yu and Xun Lingjun, who stayed behind, are always the solid backing of Boss Cao.

It's just that compared with the scale of Yuan Shao's soldiers and horses in Hebei, the number of soldiers and horses of Cao's army in the north is really pitiful. Although it can be regarded as a nest dispatch, it is only a hundred thousand horses when it is full, and it is only tens of thousands more than the vanguard of Yuan Jun. I really didn't look at it, and when I set out, I found that I didn't know when it would start, and the army of the overlord of the Central Plains was so cold.

With only these hundreds of thousands of horses, Cao Jun didn't care about the forward and rear army, and directly rushed to the north under the leadership of Cao Cao.

In the eyes of Cao Cao now, mosquito legs are all meat! There are still tens of thousands of soldiers and horses and tens of thousands of people on the north bank of the Yellow River, and it is a little bit to be able to save a little bit under the Hebei Iron Cavalry. Soldiers and horses are needed to hold Nanyang, and Guanzhong, which is stable and newly subdued, also needs men and horses, and soldiers are needed to guard against the embarrassed Zhang Xiu and Liu Bei stabbing knives in the back, and there is no extra manpower anywhere!

Last time, the reason why Yuan Shao declared that he did not fight Cao Cao had already figured it out. It is nothing more than wanting to let Cao Cao and Liu Daer first consume a wave of hard work, and then he easily leads 300,000 horses to directly occupy the Central Plains. Of course, Liu Bei is not stupid, and he knows the truth of accepting it when he sees it. After occupying Pengcheng, Xiapi and other important counties in Xuzhou, it stopped. And Cao Cao himself knew that the main force of the Cao army, which had suffered the defeat of Shouchun, no longer had enough strength to defeat Liu Da'er, who had the advantage of He, under the watchful eyes of Zhang Xiujun in Huainan.

Then, the best result is not to fight Xuzhou. Beat Xuzhou, no matter whether he wins or loses, then in the end, whether it is himself, or Liu Daer and Zhang Wenjin's generation, they do not have the strength to support a blow under Yuan Shao's hands. Instead of being so easy and cheap Yuan Shao, it is better for everyone to have some tacit understanding with each other.

Of course, Yuan Shao dispatched 300,000 people to make such a big move, it is impossible to have only one goal, in addition to the purpose of taking advantage of the fisherman, Yuan Jun also needs to take Liyang, an important port on the Yellow River, before officially launching the battle of the Central Plains, to create enough ships to berth enough to ensure the need.

It's a pity that in the end, the secondary goal was achieved, but the main goal was far from being effective.

Since the political tricks and tricks that can be used are useless, then there is nothing to drag the ink, let's fight a decisive battle!

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While the decisive battle between the north and the south of Yuan Cao kicked off, Zhang Xiu finally returned to Shouchun, which had been absent for several months.

Originally, Zhang Xiu planned to solve the Shanyue problem for a year and a half, but fortunately, the situation was not as complicated and serious as Zhang Xiu imagined. Although the Shanyue people have shown a lot of centrifugation with ordinary Han people, this trend is not irreversible, especially when Zhang Xiu, the supreme decision-maker, does not "treat Shanyue differently", and the Jiangdong civil and military appointed by Zhang Xiu are also quite enlightened, the Shanyue problem is not a problem.

The fundamental reason for Shanyue's long-term alienation is nothing more than the need of the government and the ruling class to maintain their own rule and interests, but now the small and medium-sized scholar class represented by Zhang Xiu and the poor class do not have fundamental resistance to Shanyue, so everything can be easily solved.

This may seem like an uneasy thing to accept, but it is true. For example, in the past, the government was hostile to Shanyue, mostly because of the pressure of the local clan. The wealthy clans of the world were afraid that these uneducated Shanyue people would encroach on their fertile land when they came out of the mountains, so they vigorously drove the poor people into the mountains, and the other vigorously encouraged the government to confine the mountain people to the deep mountains, which formed a huge number of Shanyue tribes.

And now in Jiangdong, the family family was slaughtered and wiped out by Zhang Xiu, and the surviving families such as the Gu family and the Lu family are now only Zhang Xiu's horse head is saddle. So since there is no longer the power to resist Shangoe, it is very natural to accept Shangoe.

Let's talk about the few people appointed by Zhang Xiu to serve as the Taishou Lord Bo and Duwei of Jiangdong, Wenchen such as Gu Yong, Han Song, He Kui, Yu Tuo, Kan Ze, Yan Jian and Bu Qi, Wu Rutai Shici, Zu Lang, Quan Rou and Xu Sheng, all of whom are enlightened and knowledgeable, and none of them will drag Zhang Xiu back. One by one, they can not only govern and prosper the country, but also suppress rebellion. In the end, the Shanyue problem only needs Zhang Xiu to take the lead to make an overall plan, and the rest will not be bothered by Zhang Xiu.

In cooperation with the Shanyue tribe that Zhang Xiu appeased, Zhang Xiu personally made the decision to assign good land and formal household registration, and everything was treated preferentially. If they don't cooperate and want to be independent, not to mention that Tai Shici and Zu Lang want to go further in front of Zhang Xiu, let's just say that young generals of the Young Zhuang faction such as Xu Sheng and Lu Meng have been waiting to prove themselves! Gathering a crowd to rebel? Wow on the appetite!