It may be that Deputy Director Tao is destined to be at odds with the old man, when Jia Lao Poison proposed that the provocative and threatening letter be sent to Da Yuan Sangong, the timing was very inappropriate, Da Yuan Sancheng was furious for the frustrated anti-ear advice, and Deputy Director Tao's letter was sent to Da Yuan Sangong at this time, which was equivalent to pouring a basin of gasoline on the fire.

The reason for the fire of the Great Yuan Sangong is this, in view of the fact that the main force of the Cao army took the initiative to give up the difficult to hold the White Horse for a long time, and the important place of Yanjin retreated to Guandu to garrison, the main force of the Yuan Shao Army personally led by the Great Yuan Sangong crossed the Yellow River with great ease, and then the Great Yuan Sangong who must be avenged first ordered to destroy the Baima fortifications that caused the self-army to defeat miserably, and killed the people around Baima who refused to retreat to Zhongmu with the Cao army, and then did not hesitate to order the whole army to advance to Guandu, and decided to go to Guandu to fight to the death with Cao Laoda, and hated before the snow!

Hearing this order, of course, the frustration that inherited Tian Feng's mantle and made trouble for the third prince of Yuan also jumped out, and objected with all his might: "The lord doesn't have to be so anxious to enter the army, our army has enough food, and the grain route is unblocked, which is conducive to a long-term war; The drought and locust drought in Yanzhou is serious, and Cao's army has been plagued by a food shortage for many years, and has not improved so far. That being the case, our army can be a battalion step by step, fight steadily, slowly approach Guandu, and then make a long-term plan with deep ditches and high bases, and within March, the Cao thief will be exhausted. And if the lord insists on rushing into a rapid battle, and rushes the army to Guandu to seek a decisive battle, it will inevitably fall into the hands of Cao thieves. ”

Hearing that Fu Zhu pointed out his tactical mistakes, Da Yuan Sangong's face was longer than a donkey, and he said angrily: "Shut up! Our army is 300,000, and Cao Apu only has 50,000 or 60,000, and a battle can be decided! How dare you talk nonsense and slow down the hearts of our army? Demoralize me? ”

"My lord, if you don't distinguish loyalty, it will be disadvantageous to war." It is true that he can't speak, and repeatedly stimulates Da Yuan San to be fair: "Although our army is numerous, but the courage is not as good as the Cao army, although the Cao army is fine, but the grain and grass are not as good as our army, you can only hold it for a long time, and you must not rush forward and fight quickly!" ”

Hearing the frustrated advice, the Great Yuan Sangong, who had gradually shown signs of Alzheimer's disease, was inevitably furious, and was about to be furious, and the matter that stimulated the Great Yuan Sangong even more finally came, Deputy Director Tao's messenger not only brought a provocative and threatening letter, but also showed the Great Yuan Sangong the passage document issued to him by the Cao army, implying that the Xuzhou army had begun to cooperate with the Cao army team to a certain extent.

When he saw that his son-in-law, who had always been well-behaved, dared to refuse to obey orders, and hinted that he threatened to join forces with Boss Cao to commit a crime, Yuan Sangong, who was already known for his bad temper, immediately became angry and roared angrily: "Bold erector, dare to threaten me!" If I hadn't come forward to shelter you, you would have been destroyed by Cao Agui, and now you dare to threaten to join forces with Cao Thief to attack me! Has your conscience been eaten up by dogs?! ”

Seeing that the Great Yuan Sangong was so out of shape and scolded, the left and right civil and military naturally had to hurry up to ask the reason, and then when the Great Yuan Sangong made the shameless letter of Deputy Director Tao public, most of the Jizhou civil and military officers present were also furious, and they all angrily scolded Deputy Director Tao for being ungrateful and taking kindness as an enemy. Only a few people such as frustration and trial did not agree, but only calculated and analyzed the meaning of Deputy Director Tao's move.

"Come, push the potter's messenger out of the camp and behead the public!"

Under the anger, the third prince of Da Yuan really moved the idea of cutting off the friendship, the unlucky Xuzhou messenger cried and begged for mercy, and the judge quickly stood up to stop it, and said: "Lord, the two countries are fighting each other, and they don't kill the envoy, besides, this is still the messenger of your son-in-law, and I hope that the lord will take a break from the anger of the thunder and listen to the words." According to the worthy opinion, although Tao Ying's move was rude, it was also because the lord repeatedly refused to assist the war horse ....... ”

"Shut up! I don't have this ungrateful son-in-law! Da Yuan Sangong interrupted with a wave of his hand angrily, and shouted: "Quickly push the messenger out of the tent and behead him, and hang his head in the gate to show that he will break off friendship with the pottery thief!" ”

"My lord, please think twice." Frustrated and uninteresting, he stood up and quickly persuaded: "The pottery thief asked to check the original edict of the Son of Heaven, implying that he threatened to join forces with the Cao thief to attack our army, so it is indeed hateful to take revenge, but the Tao thief is quite strong, and the abundance of grain and grass is not under our army, if he really joins forces with the Cao thief to form an alliance against our army, then our army will be attacked on two fronts!" It's better to endure the anger for a while, take a step back and open the sky, and make a temporary appointment with the pottery thief, and wait until after breaking Cao's ....... ”

Before the words of the frustrated professor were finished, the furious Yuan Sangong couldn't listen to it anymore, first roared to stop the frustrated admonition, and then again ordered the guards to push the Xuzhou messenger out of the big tent and behead it, the left and right guards did not dare to disobey, so they had to quickly push the Xuzhou messenger who was crying and begging for mercy out of the tent and cut off the head, and then hung the head to the gate to show the public. Although the frustrated and the judge and the others had a sad face, they didn't dare to say anything more, but Yuan Tan Gongzi, who went out with his father, jumped out, and couldn't wait to give up his hand and said: "Father, the pottery thief is so rude, please lead an army to the south to crusade against the pottery thief to ask him for his crime." ”

Da Yuan Sangong was a little tempted, but he sneered and said: "The eldest prince is ambitious, but I remember that our army has been rewarded, saying that the gentleman's army of pottery thieves also came to Yanzhou with the main force, when the pottery thieves attacked Hulu, Changyi and other cities, the surrounding Cao army teams were all frightened by the name of the gentleman's army, and no army dared to go out of the city to fight with the gentleman's army!" If the eldest prince is sure to break the pottery thief army, he will support it! ”

Thinking of the tragic picture of his time when he fought against the Junzi Army, Yuan Tan Gongzi shivered, quickly closed his mouth, and hated him to the extreme in his heart. Da Yuan Sangong snorted heavily, and scolded his son very dissatisfied: "You retreat, now the strong enemy of our army is Cao Apu, and then the pottery thief hypocrite!" ”

Yuan Tan's son resignedly retreated, but on the other side, Yuan Tan's sworn friend Guo Tu stood up and arched his hand and said: "The lord is really clever, the primary target of our army at the moment is indeed a Cao thief rather than a pottery thief, and the order of priority must not be reversed." But Tu believes that the pottery thief can't be unguarded, and Tu proposes that the lord divide an army alone, go south from Changyuan to take Pingqiu and Jiyang, and cut off the road for the pottery thief to aid the Cao thief in the west, so as not to make the pottery thief angry after hearing the news that the messenger was beheaded, and really join forces with the Cao thief to form an alliance and sneak attack on the back of our army. ”

"What the public rule says is very true." Da Yuan Sangong nodded, very satisfied with Guo Tu's flattering words and respectful attitude - 10,000 times stronger than dislike, so Da Yuan Sangong quickly decided: "Then let Ju Yi lead an army of 30,000 to take Pingqiu and Jiyang, Ju Yi's first camp is the cavalry nemesis, and the white horse Yicong who broke to Gongsun Zhan can just restrain the hypocrite army of pottery thieves." ”

Guo Tu arched his hand and sang the promise, and even praised the great Yuan Sangong for his good use of soldiers and the proper deployment, but Xun Chen, Xu You, and the judge and others looked at each other and smiled bitterly, and said secretly: "It's just a pig's brain!" Obviously, if you tolerate it for the time being, you don't have to divide your troops, you have to sink the messenger who cut down the pottery thief, force yourself to divide your troops to guard against the pottery thief, or use the main front-line soldiers to go to the mountains and remote places to station idle-based calculations, if the lord goes to do business, he has to lose all his family! ”

So, after sacrificing an inconsequential messenger, Deputy Director Tao, who is very calculating, also achieved two key purposes at the same time, one is to induce the old man to fall into the name of beheading unrighteousness, and lay a moral foundation for stabbing himself in the back in the future; Second, it successfully induced the old man to divide his troops to guard against himself, which indirectly reduced the positive pressure on Cao Boss in Guandu, and added a brick and a tile to the strategic plan of weakening the old man with the help of Cao Boss.

The most ecstatic person for this is, of course, Boss Cao, when he learned the news of the division of troops by the three dukes of Da Yuan through the exploration of the horse, Boss Cao was almost crazy, and applauded again and again: "Thank you Tao thief, thank you Tao thief, I actually shared Ju Yi's team for me, although Ju Yi is arrogant and arrogant, and is gradually hated by Yuan Shao, but the team under the command of this horse is the first-line elite soldiers who captured Youzhou, especially the first camp, which is more famous than the camp and the hypocrite army!" Yuan Shao was unwise, and he actually sent these teams to a remote town to beware of pottery thieves, which really helped me a lot! ”

Happy to be happy, but now is obviously not the time for Boss Cao to take it lightly, because even if he was weakened and frustrated, suddenly became hostile to his allies, and was forced to divide his troops to guard against the sneak attack of his allies in the past, but the local strength and overall strength of Da Yuan Sangong are still far superior to Boss Cao - and even far better than the total strength of Boss Cao and Deputy Director Tao combined, so Boss Cao still played a twelve-point spirit and was careful, while closely monitoring the every move of Yuan Shaojun's main force, while strengthening the contact with Deputy Director Tao again, A large number of capable and meticulous workers were arranged to lurk along the road to communicate with the Xuzhou army, and to ensure smooth communication with the Xuzhou army at any cost, so as to obtain the help and rescue of Deputy Director Tao, a former rival, at a critical moment.

By the way, what Boss Cao hopes most is that Deputy Director Tao can help him with a batch of grain and grass to alleviate his urgent needs, but the official road and Jishui shipping have been cut off by Yuan Shaojun, and Deputy Director Tao can't send it even if he agrees, so Boss Cao can only fight against an enemy five times his size when the grain and grass may be cut off at any time.

On the second day of the fifth month of the fourth year of Jian'an, the main force of Jizhou led by Yuan Sangong finally arrived at the Guandu Pass, although Cao Boss was also mentally prepared for the strength of Yuan Sangong's army, but when he climbed to the high place at night and really saw the full capacity of Yuan Shaojun's main force, Cao Boss was still a little heartbeating, his breathing was nervous, and the generals and soldiers on the left and right were all pale, and some even trembled with their legs and looked desperate.

No way, the main force of Yuan Shaojun's army is too terrifying, in the dark night, Yuan Shaojun's campfire is like the galactic stars, spreading to the end of the earth beyond the sight, until it merges with the starlight in the sky, and half of the sky is reflected red, the campfire is undulating tents and countless kinds of military flags, the naked eye can not see the end at all, flags, bonfires, camp tents and the endless Yuan army team together form a vast sea, which may swallow and submerge the Guandu boat at any time.

"Prime Minister, our army scouts are coming to report at the right time." Guo Jia coughed and said: "Yuan Shao is thirty miles away from Guandu, and he has set up sixteen camps, connecting more than twenty miles, and the farthest back village has reached Wuchao. ”

Boss Cao remained silent, and only sighed after a long time: "I finally understand, why did the pottery thief help me at this critical moment?" It turns out that this thief is afraid that I don't have the confidence to hold on! If he doesn't turn around in time and support me, I'm afraid I really won't have the confidence to hold on. ”

"Prime Minister, please relax." Guo Jia comforted: "Not to mention that the pottery thief will never allow our army to fall, and will definitely help our army at a critical moment, even if the pottery thief has been standing still, it is nothing, with the wisdom and wisdom of the prime minister, and the elite of our army's soldiers and soldiers, Yuan Jun will never be the opponent of our army!" ”

Although he knew that Guo Jia was saying something good and obedient to comfort himself, Boss Cao still forced himself to pluck up some courage, nodded and said: "What Feng Xiao said is reasonable, Ming said that the army will go to war, take advantage of Yuan Shao's unstable foothold, first win a battle to boost morale and frustrate Yuan Shao's spirit!" ”

The abacus played very well, Cao Boss did put into action, the next day he personally led 30,000 troops out of the camp to fight against Yuan Shaojun, but unfortunately Cao Boss suffered a defeat this time, sent Zhang Liao to meet Zhang He, fought dozens of rounds without winning or losing, Dian Wei went out to help the battle, but was caught by a Zhao surnamed fierce general transferred from Qingzhou by Yuan Sangong, and fought upside down in the battle, and finally Cao Boss was a little breathless, and sent Xiahoudun and Li Tong each led 3,000 elite soldiers to attack the enemy formation, As a result, Yuan Shaojun, who had been prepared, met the head attack with a strong bow and crossbow, and had to retreat with heavy casualties, and the big Yuan Sangong with the edict in his hand took the opportunity to wave the division, and the Cao army was defeated, and fled back to the Guandu camp in embarrassment, Yuan Shaojun did not give up, and continued to storm the Cao army camp.

Fortunately, Cao Jun has spent more than half a year to build the Guandu camp, the camp fortifications are very perfect, and it is easy to defend and difficult to attack by the mountains and rivers, Yuan Shaojun has been shot back by Cao Jun with random arrows several times to attack the camp, and there are many dead and wounded in the trap trench full of sharp piles in the chaos, and the victorious Yuan Sangong is not willing to attack such a strong camp in the case of insufficient preparation.

After the battle, in view of the fact that the Cao army took the initiative to attack with a few outnumbered people, Fu Zhu once again asserted in front of the great Yuan Sangong that the Cao army must be short of food and grass, and suggested that Yuan Shao adopt the tactics of deep ditches and high bases to confront the Cao army, and survive until the Cao army ran out of food to easily win, but unfortunately the great Yuan Sangong, who had been carried away by the victory in the first battle, did not listen at all, and chose to listen to the suggestions of the trial, and allocated troops to build a building in front of the Cao army camp, piled up like a mountain, and prepared to shoot the Cao camp with bows and arrows, which further hit the morale of the Cao army and shook the heart of the Cao army.

How to crack this tactic does not need to be explained, Cao Boss is also a master who lacks morality, in the case of Xiangyang cannon technology that has long been ahead of the times for thousands of years, he deliberately did not immediately use Xiangyang cannon to prevent Yuan soldiers from building buildings, but waited for Yuan Shaojun soldiers to build these temporary fortifications, and the soldiers drove up to a high place to release arrows, Cao Boss suddenly used a large number of Xiangyang cannons, easily destroyed all Yuan Shaojun's temporary fortifications, and took the opportunity to send troops to assault, defeated Yuan Shaojun's bow and crossbow team, and captured countless bows and crossbows.

Of course, Boss Cao did this, but also reminded Yuan Sangong, who also had Xiangyang cannons in his hands, decisively ordered a large number of Xiangyang cannons to be built, preparing to use Xiangyang cannons to destroy Cao Laoda's camp fortifications. But at this time, a new accident appeared, Cao army general Li Tong was lazy and slack during the night patrol, was scolded by Cao Boss for the military stick, Li Tong was furious and sent his son Li Xu to sneak out of the camp to ask Yuan Sangong to surrender, saying that he was willing to set fire to Cao's army camp at night, and received Yuan Shao's army to attack the camp.

When Wen Chou and Gao Ran led the army to attack the Cao army's camp at the appointed time, they were naturally ambushed by the Cao army, and they lost more than 10,000 troops and fled back to their own camp. Da Yuan Sangong was furious when he heard the news, and strictly ordered the craftsmen in the army to step up the construction of Xiangyang cannons, preparing to attack Guandu head-on and kill Li Tong's father and son to take revenge!

The next day, when Han Meng, the grain guard, transported the grain and grass to the Chinese army, the grain and grass loaded in the sack turned out to be moldy and could no longer be used. When the Great Yuan Sangong was furious and ordered to investigate the cause, he found that these grains and grasses were poorly kept when they were transported from Yecheng and were soaked in rain and caused mildew, but who caused the mildew in his hands could not be traced in Guandu, and the Great Yuan Sangong was even more angry, and urgently ordered the internal affairs experts to return to Yecheng with a fast horse to investigate the culprit, and then there was to supervise the transportation of grain and grass to ensure that there was no shortage in front of the army, and he was also eager to return to Yecheng to discuss major matters with Yuan Shanggongzi The trial and order was taken, and the post of chief staff officer of the Yuan army was taken over by Guo Tu.

Da Yuan Sangong is only a little distracted by the grain and grass, but Cao Boss is about to vomit blood for the grain and grass, because this year's Central Plains hinterland continues to be drought, Runan and Chen Guo and other places are almost out of harvest, there is a little grain in the east of Yanzhou and can not be supplied because of the road blockage, Guanzhong Sili was ruined by Dong Boss and his party, Nanyang plague is rampant and grain production is seriously reduced, so only Yingchuan County and Hanoi and Chenliu half of the counties can provide military food support for Cao Boss, Xun Yu, who is responsible for the supply of grain and grass, is desperate. The grain and grass that can be provided for Boss Cao are pitiful, so that Boss Cao's team is threatened by food shortages at all times, and it is possible that they will run out of food at any time because of insufficient supply.

It was also at this time that Boss Cao was inevitably more jealous of Deputy Director Tao's good life, not to mention the famine in the five counties of Xuzhou in the rear, and there was also a farming genius like Chen Deng under his rule, who started to supply grain in Tuntian six years ahead of himself, and built a large number of water conservancy irrigation and wasteland, so that the Xuzhou army dared to squander grain and grass even in the case of a drought in the two counties of Huainan. After remembering Deputy Director Tao who was hiding in Changyi City, hundreds of miles away, watching the excitement, Boss Cao thought about it again and again, and finally wrote a letter to Deputy Director Tao in person, and there was only one sentence on the letter - my grain and grass may be cut off at any time.

"Give this epistle to the most reliable messenger, and send it to Changyi to be delivered to the pottery thief." While Boss Cao personally put the letter into the letter bag, he instructed Xun You, who was next to the waiter: "Tell the messenger well, the faster the better." ”

"Prime Minister, just this sentence, can it work?" Xun You asked worriedly.

"A thief like Tao Ying, talking too much will only be counterproductive, it's better to just write this sentence and let the thief decide for himself." Boss Cao said helplessly: "Fortunately, this thief has taken the initiative to anger Yuan Shao, and he doesn't want our army to be defeated in front of Yuan Shao, although it cannot be ruled out that this capricious thief will fall to Yuan Shao, but he is more likely to support our army to defeat Yuan Shao." ”

"Prime Minister, please think carefully." Xun You was still a little worried, and reminded again: "Yuan Shao is powerful after all, our army has not yet found a chance to win, the pottery thief has always liked to be a wall grass, and Yuan Shao has a son-in-law, if the pottery thief repeats again, the truth of our army's grain and grass with Yuan Shao, then our army ......." ”

"It's possible, but it's not big." Boss Cao clasped his hands to his chest and said slowly: "The pottery thief is indeed cunning and impermanent, and what he is best at is riding on the wall and watching the wind, but I can see that he, like me, has the ambition of the world." At this moment, if he falls to Yuan Shao, he can only survive at most, but if he falls to me, then he will have the opportunity to share Yuan Shao's land and city with me, and then compete with me for the world. Now, I may die if I ask for help from the pottery thief, and I may die if I don't ask for help from the pottery thief, so it is better to gamble and bet that the pottery thief will reach out to me! ”

(To be continued)