But the question is what to do after that?

Yuan Shu only ordered him to lead an army of 50,000 to attack Xuzhou, and did not clearly indicate where to attack and which direction to attack?

If he meant to ask Ji Ling to annex the entire territory of Xuzhou with these 50,000 troops, then what should Ji Ling do?

After all, he boasted about Haikou before, and promised in front of Yuan Shu that as long as he gave him 50,000 troops, he could break through Xuzhou City and escort Tao Qian Lao'er to Yuan Shu.

Unexpectedly, now that Yuan Shu really gave him an army of 50,000, could it be that Yuan Shu really took his words seriously?

This number of troops, not too much, not too little, it depends on how the generals who lead the troops use, if the people who lead the troops have such peerless talents as Sun Wuzi or Wu Qi and Han Xin, these 50,000 troops are not to say that they have captured a mere Xuzhou, even if they fight all over the world.

It's a pity that Ji Ling is not Sun Wu, nor is he Wu Qi or Han Xin, he is just a fierce general with excellent martial arts, and it is not a problem to charge into battle, but when it comes to the talent of leading the troops and the attainments in the art of war, he does not dare to compliment.

Even if Xuzhou is now overwhelmed by Cao Cao's army, Ji Ling will take the 50,000 army to attack and plunder the important towns and fortresses on the border of Xuzhou that lack troops to defend, and he will probably only rely on the absolute superiority in troops to attack and crush the past.

If the other party sees that Ji Ling's troops are numerous, loses resistance, abandons the city and flees, or surrenders, it is the best, otherwise, he will definitely attack head-on until the city is broken.

In this way, it is okay to break through some towns and fortresses on the border of Xuzhou that lack defensive strength, but if you want to achieve greater results, you will inevitably pay a tragic price, and after capturing the city, you still need to leave troops to defend, these 50,000 people, I don't know how many can be left after arriving in Xuzhou City?

Not to mention the situation of the others, although they each got 100,000 troops to defend the border and prevent Cao Cao and Liu Biao from sneaking attacks, but it sounds simple, you know, now Yuan Shu occupies Huainan, the whole of Yangzhou, and part of Yuzhou, are under his control, and Cao Cao's hundreds of thousands of troops are now in Xuzhou, and the northern part of Yuzhou is Cao Cao's territory Yanzhou

If Zhang Xun wants to take precautions, he not only needs to deploy heavy troops on the border between Yangzhou and Xuzhou, and build fortifications to strengthen them, but also keep an eye on the direction of Yanzhou, whether there will be an army that will take the opportunity to sneak attack through Yuzhou.

These 100,000 troops seem to be a lot, but if they have to be distributed on various military fortresses and passes on the border, and they have to arrange defenses, not only will the troops be seriously dispersed, but the generals in charge of guarding them will have too many things to take care of, and they will not be busy at all.

The situation is the same for the defense of Jingzhou in the southwest, which is a difficult task for Zhang Xun and Qiao Rui, who are not considered to be great generals, because they can't judge where Cao Cao and Liu Biao will come from, if the forces are evenly distributed on all the passes and fortresses on the border, then the 100,000 troops in their hands will soon be dispersed into a small number of troops, in case Cao Cao or Liu Biao gather a large army to attack in one direction, then it is very likely that reinforcements from other places will not come to the rescue, the border was breached.

With Yuan Shu's personality, if the general who defends the border fails to keep the enemy out of the country and let the enemy invade Huainan, it is an unforgivable crime, not only to cut off the head, maybe it is possible to be exterminated, he is such an unreasonable person, his subordinates have achieved war exploits, all of which are his credit, but if his subordinates make mistakes, even if it is the order he ordered to go down, and it leads to failure, the blame is all on his subordinates, with his ingenuity, how can there be a miscalculation in this world? If you fail, you must be incompetent or take it lightly, if you don't take it seriously, how can you warn others? Therefore, Yuan Shu would punish his subordinates who made mistakes, no matter what the reason was, with extremely severe means.

This is also the reason why several of them are upset.

"The last general commands!"

Ji Ling, Zhang Xun, and Qiao Rui, the three of them glanced at each other, and they all took the order helplessly.

Since Yuan Shu named the three of them to carry out the order, it was difficult to disobey the military order, and if they didn't accept it, the end would only be worse, so even if they were unwilling, they could only take it head-on.

"Very good, then I will wait for the good news from the generals!"

As he spoke, Yuan Shu turned to the palace and said, "As long as there is the blessing of the gods, our army will."

Yet victorious, invincible! ”

Seeing Yuan Shu like this, of course, everyone greeted him with interest and shouted together: "Congratulations to the lord!" God bless! ”

Yuan Shu laughed and said: "This is all the favor of God, and sure enough, I will welcome the Venerable God over to me, which is the most correct!" ”

After that, he ordered to reward the gods and others with hundreds of catties of gold and silver, as well as countless silk and satin.

When the crowd dispersed, Ji Ling, Zhang Xun and Qiao Rui cheekily walked towards Yuan Lian's residence, because they knew that the only person who could save them now was this truly resourceful person.

They had wanted to stop Yang Hong and ask for a way, and the idea of attacking Xuzhou came from his mouth, so he had more than half of the responsibility, but who knows, this guy slipped away in a blink of an eye, and even if he went to his house, he couldn't find his people, it seems that this guy guessed that a few of them would come to ask him about something, so he hid early.

As a last resort, the three of them could only go to the one named Yuan Lian, because among all the people, he was the only one who was worthy of the name and resourceful, and the others were almost the same as them, all of them were first-class in their bragging, but they couldn't take out their real ability.

As soon as the three of them arrived at the door of Yuan Lian's house, they heard someone stop them: "Are the generals looking for Mr. Yuan Lian?" ”

When they turned around, they saw a young man of medium to thin stature, standing behind them and talking to them.

The man bowed his head slightly, his back was slightly bowed, and although he was talking to the three generals, his eyes never raised to make contact with them.

They knew this man, and he was also one of the few advisors of Yuan Shu, named Yan Xiang.

Unlike Yang Hong, who is good at sycophancy, Yuan Lian is honest and honest, this Yan Xiang's sense of existence is too low.

Because he usually rarely goes out and walks around except for official business, let alone visits with colleagues, he doesn't even have many friends, it is said that he is still alone, living alone, no one knows what interests he has, only that he is a taciturn, simple and simple strange person, if not necessary, he can even go without talking for a few days, which shows how unique this person is.