"The lord should have said that he really planned to do so, Chen still thought that the lord wanted to lure Yuan Tan's army to concentrate on the decisive battle in Yecheng, and he was worried that he would not be able to do this, he knew that the lord just wanted Yuan Tan's life, Chen had already offered a plan, why wait until today?"

Xun Chen, who didn't know the inside story and was familiar with the internal situation of the Jizhou Army, finally learned the inside story, so he naturally had to complain about Deputy Director Tao, and by the way, vent Deputy Director Tao's dissatisfaction with not paying enough attention to himself, but Deputy Director Tao would not bother to pay attention to Xun Chen's dissatisfaction, but quickly pulled Xun Chen back to the Chinese army's big tent for interrogation, and ordered Xun Chen to hand over the treacherous plan to kill Yuan Tan.

"Actually, it's very simple, just separate." Xun Chen replied very simply, and said: "The relationship between Yuan Tan and Gao Gan has made the two suspicious of each other, and they are on the same footing. ”

"It's as simple as that?" Deputy Director Tao was a little stammered.

"It's unlikely, isn't it?" Liu Ye was also surprised and said: "Judging from the information that our army has, Gao Gan has always been loyal to Yuan's father and son, and he is Yuan Tan's cousin, and he is connected by blood, and it is still difficult to use scheming to divide the world, how can Gao Gan kill Yuan Tan?" ”

"Mr. Ziyang is right, it was difficult to separate Yuan Tan and Gao Gan in the past, but now it is different." Xun Chen smiled and said: "In the previous war, our army also captured some prisoners of Yuan Tan's army, and when Chen learned from them about the enemy's military situation, he inadvertently learned from some soldiers of Bingzhou that Gao Gan had complained in the Bingzhou army that Yuan Tan insisted on going to war with Yuan Shang, and killed each other and cheapened outsiders. speculated an answer, Gao Gan must have been against Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang's fratricide, so he was deliberately brought to Jizhou by Yuan Tan, leaving his cronies Jiang Yiqu to guard and merge the state, in order to prevent Gao Gan from playing ghosts on the backup grain and grass and sabotaging his plan to destroy Shang. ”

Deputy Director Tao was silent, carefully calculating this possibility, Liu Ye thought quickly, and quickly nodded and said: "There is this possibility, I was a little strange before." Gao Ganjiu town and state. Familiar with the geography and people's conditions, it can be regarded as a very good match for the state army, and it stands to reason that he should stay in the state in order to effectively resist our army's attack on the state. Why does Yuan Tan want to sacrifice his strengths and weaknesses. Partialize Jiang Yiqu to guard and merge the state? Now listen to Mr. Youruo's analysis. It should be that Gao Gan was deliberately brought to Jizhou by Yuan Tan because he opposed the Yuan brothers' cannibalism. ”

"This is just an inference, and there is no clear evidence." Deputy Director Tao still refuses to easily agree with this judgment. I am very cautious and doubt that this conclusion is the wishful thinking of Xun Chen and Liu Ye.

"My lord, there is evidence." The silent and calculating Jia Lao Poison opened his mouth and said, "Didn't the lord think that one thing was very strange? Yuan Tan divided the garrison into two, half inside the Tuncheng and half outside the Tuncheng, forming horns with each other, and the senior cadres were far above Lu Kuang in terms of qualifications and positions, according to common sense, the senior cadres should be responsible for the soldiers outside the city, but Yuan Tan used his henchman Lu Kuang to command the troops, and did not use the cousin Gao Gan of the official seal assassination history to command half of the troops, which is enough to prove that Yuan Tan does not trust Gao Gan. ”

"It makes sense, there must be something wrong with the relationship between Gao Gan and Yuan Tan, and we have a chance!" Deputy Director Tao slapped his thigh, and then hurriedly asked Xun Chen: "Mr. Youruo, in your opinion, how should our army move to divide the wedge?" ”

"It's very simple, one light and one dark letter are enough." Xun Chen suggested: "The lord can repair a letter with Gao Gan, go through all kinds of sins of Yuan Tan's fratricide, and promise Gao Gan to be a high-ranking official, and let him kill Yuan Tan to surrender." Then one or two prisoners of war were selected from the prisoners of war, and they were rewarded heavily, and then they were sent back to Yecheng disguised as scattered soldiers. ”

"Of course, just such a letter is unlikely to make Gao Gan do it immediately." Xun Chen added: "After the lord sent the first letter, he could repair the book again with Gao Gan, and he also promised to be a high-ranking official, so that Gao Gan led the troops of Bingzhou to launch a rebellion and receive our army into Yecheng. Then send a prisoner back to the city to deliver the letter, so that he pretended to be loyal to Yuan Tan, and deliberately sent the letter to Yuan Tan, Yuan Tan was violent and unkind, and he must be furious after getting the book, and he was even more suspicious and mean to Gao Gan, and even more cut the soldiers under Gao Gan's command, Gao Gan was humiliated, and when he saw the first letter of our army, he would inevitably cut off Yuan Tan. ”

"However, Chen must remind the lord again, Gao Gan is loyal to the Yuan family, even if he is forced to surrender, it will not be sincere, the lord promised to order him to guard the place with his official position, and he will rebel again in the future." Xun Chen reminded: "So it's best to get rid of such people as soon as possible to avoid future troubles." ”

"There is no need to be afraid of the rebellion of the high cadres." Deputy Director Tao muttered: "Although Mr. Wen Ruo's plan is wonderful, but he is really not very sure, acting like this, the senior cadres may raise troops to receive our army into the city, but they may not really kill Yuan Tan." ”

"Don't hesitate, this plan is worth a try." Jia Lao Poison suggested: "Acting like this, even if you can't really make Gao Gan kill Yuan Tan, it can also make Yuan Tan and Gao Gan have a rift and be suspicious of each other, which is conducive to our army's next move." ”

"Then ......, then let's try it." Deputy Director Tao hesitated for a moment, but nodded and said: "The left and right can no longer exercise the plan of diverting water to besiege the city, so use this strategy to weaken the enemy first, and then take one step at a time." ”

After that, Deputy Director Tao immediately arranged for Chen Ying to write a book, according to Xun Chen's strategy, and arranged for Xun Chen to personally select prisoners to send letters, and then Liu Ye suggested: "Lord, since it is no longer possible to lead water to besiege the city, then our army no longer has to deliberately show weakness to lure the enemy, we should strengthen the attack as soon as possible, first break the enemy's army outside the city, hit the enemy's morale, and boost the morale of our army. ”

"That's all it can be." Deputy Director Tao nodded and sighed: "Brother-in-law, you must fight for your anger, don't rush to break through and flee for your life, otherwise it will be difficult to kill you." ”

The secret letter to Gao Gan was sent out on the same day, and a captive of the state nationality who had received a heavy reward also returned to Yecheng and entered the city smoothly, looking for an opportunity to deliver the secret letter to Gao Gan. Three days later, the Xuzhou army finally dug a trench around the camp with difficulty, erected antlers to prevent horses from standing up and stabilized the camp. Deputy Director Tao immediately led an army of 30,000 out of the camp to attack Yuan Tan's camp outside the camp.

In the southern suburbs of Yecheng, Deputy Director Tao, who was dressed in filial piety clothes, went out to scold Yuan Tan for killing his mother and being unfilial, and threatened to cut Yuan Tan with thousands of knives, crush bones and scatter ashes, and Yuan Tan was furious and made Zhang Yi go out to fight. Deputy Director Tao also flew out of Wei Yan, who was deliberately defeated last time. After only ten battles with Zhang Yan, he shouted and beheaded Zhang Yi under his horse, and Lu Kuang, who had won Wei Yan three days ago, hurriedly came out to fight again, but this time Wei Yan said that he would not deliberately defeat anything. A dragon sparrow big ring knife dances like a tiger and a tiger. The knife is not far from Lu Kuang's vital point. Lu Kuang barely supported for more than twenty years and couldn't resist it, so he hurriedly defeated back to the flag formation, and saw that no one in the generals of the Yuan army dared to come out of the battle. Wei Yan obtained his consent, and led his headquarters to storm the enemy's formation and start a battle with Yuan Tan's army.

The battle situation during the battle was extremely fierce and cruel, because Yuan Tan Gongzi still had some elite soldiers under his hands - that is, when the Xuzhou army attacked for the second time, Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu kept Yuan Tan's elite soldiers in the south of Jizhou, so even if the Danyang hooligan soldiers in the Xuzhou army were able to charge the battle, in the case of scattered attacks, they could not quickly break the enemy formation, on the contrary, they were dragged into a war of attrition by Yuan Tan's army, and they failed to impulse Yuan Tan's army for a long time, and the casualties were not small.

Seeing this scene, Deputy Director Tao, who had plenty of soldiers in his hands, planned to send the army to charge the battle again, but the wind and snow were suddenly huge, and the snowflakes were unable to see clearly, and it was difficult to command the battle, Deputy Director Tao could not see the enemy's position even on the high ground, so he had no choice but to listen to the advice of Liu Ye and Xun Chen, and ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, and collected his troops back to the camp without scoring the victory or defeat and did not achieve the intended goal.

The sudden increase in the wind and snow helped Yuan Tan Gongzi, and also indirectly helped Deputy Director Tao, because after the main force of the Xuzhou army went north to Yecheng, he had lost for a while and tied for a while, and Yuan Tan Gongzi, who was greatly injured, unexpectedly achieved a good record of one win and one draw, so in this way, Yuan Tan Gongzi, who originally planned to consider giving up if he really couldn't hold Yecheng, unconsciously strengthened his determination to defend the city, thinking that the main force of Xuzhou was nothing more than that, and he had great hope of holding Yecheng with his existing strength. When Jiang Qi and Zhao lead the main force of Youzhou to the south, he will definitely be able to repel the main force of Xuzhou, and maybe he will be able to capture Deputy Director Tao.

By the way, Mr. Guo Tu, Yuan Tan Gongzi's number one henchman, also believed that the last time the self-army was defeated in Guandu, it was just because the main army was mostly on the Liyang battlefield, and it could only be defeated by the second-line team, so it was suggested that Yuan Tan Gongzi did not need to rush to war, first stick to the camp and the city, find an opportunity to attack, and wait for the main force of Youzhou to go south to respond. Yuan Tan Gongzi thought so, so he sent a messenger north to urge Jiang Qi and Zhao to lead the army south as soon as possible.

Of course, there are also voices that are not river crabs, at least the senior cadres who dissuaded Yuan Tan Gongzi from rushing to battle before jumped out to warn Yuan Tan Gongzi again, saying that he already knew the war, and the Xuzhou army was only forced to pay gold because of the increase in wind and snow, and in fact did not fall into the disadvantage, nor did it show real strength, so it is best for the self-army to fight cautiously, and must not expect such luck every time. Hearing this, Yuan Tan Gongzi was of course very dissatisfied, but fortunately, Guo Tu also persuaded Yuan Tan to fight cautiously, give priority to preserving his strength and waiting for the opportunity to counterattack, and Yuan Tan Gongzi reluctantly accepted Gao Gan's suggestion.

At this time, Deputy Director Tao sent and mixed into the team of Yuan Tan's army, and also met Yuan Tan Gongzi all the way through official channels, explaining that he was captured by the Xuzhou army, but he was loyal to the old master, even if he was captured, he was unswerving, and he also escaped back, and then presented Yuan Tan Gongzi with a letter from Deputy Director Tao ordering him to try to hand over to Gao Gan, Yuan Tan was anxious to get the letter, and saw that the letter turned out to be Deputy Director Tao to his cousin Gao Gan Xu Jizhou Assassin History, knighthood, and lure Gao Gan to lead the Bingzhou team to launch a rebellion. Received the Xuzhou army into the city.

"pottery thief, here again for this!" Yuan Tan Gongzi, who had already suffered a loss in Guandu, was furious when he saw the letter, slapped the case in front of him loudly, and roared: "Shameless traitor, every time he attacks the fortification, he plays tricks, do you want to be ashamed?!" ”

"The lord is reasonable, the treacherous and shameless pottery thief is indeed rare in the world, fortunately the lord is blessed with all the heavens, and my soldiers are loyal and take the initiative to present the letter to the lord. This averted a catastrophe. Guo Tu, the biggest victim of the discord plan last time, first slapped a sycophant, and then said cautiously: "Lord, didn't you find something strange? There are dozens of generals in our army, why did the pottery thieves choose high-ranking cadres to buy, what is the reason? ”

"Why?" Yuan Tan asked rhetorically.

"If the minister's expectation is correct, it should be that the pottery thief has found out the news and knows that General Gao Gan is already dissatisfied with the lord." Guo Tu confidently analyzed: "General Gao previously opposed the lord to send troops to Jizhou and recapture Yecheng by force, and then opposed the lord to stick to Yecheng, and wanted to take the opportunity to return to the old land of Bingzhou. Repeatedly disagreeing with the lord's opinion. There are many people who know this in our army, and the pottery thief must have found out about it, and it is expected that Gao Gan has been dissatisfied with the lord, so he chose Gao Gan General to start! ”

Seeing Yuan Tan Gongzi nodded thoughtfully. Agree with your own judgment. Mr. Guo Tu said in a cold tone: "That's the case. In the matter of the senior general, the lord still needs to act cautiously, because the pottery thief can't make a plan. Inevitably, there will be another plan, if the oil and water on the senior general are not squeezed out, the pottery thief will never give up, if the lord is not good at handling this matter, when the pottery thief succeeds, he will regret it. ”

"That's right, you have to be careful in this matter!" Yuan Tan nodded vigorously and asked again, "What should I do then?" With this letter, I can't kill Gao Gan, right? ”

"There are two strategies to help the lord solve this matter." Guo Tu said quickly: "One strategy is to order Gao Gan to lead an army to storm the pottery thief's camp and kill it with the hands of the pottery thief. One strategy is to ascend and descend secretly, under the pretext that the senior cadres are well versed in civil affairs and military strategy, they are appointed as the governor of the supervising army, and they are responsible for the legal affairs of the army full-time, and take the opportunity to confiscate the military power of the senior cadres, and also let the senior cadres offend the generals in the army too much when implementing the military law, and reduce their prestige, so that even if they have two hearts, they have no party members to use. ”

"Brilliant plan!" Yuan Tan was overjoyed, and then calculated: "Sending senior cadres to death on purpose is a bit excessive, not only will it damage the troops in vain, but it will also shake the hearts of our army, it is better to make him the governor of the prison army, no matter what, he is always my cousin, as long as he is obedient and doesn't mess around, why should I kill him?" ”

"The lord is merciful, affectionate and righteous, and he is really admired." Guo Tu hurriedly flattered.

Although Yuan Tan and Guo Tu's abacus played well, it was a pity that they underestimated Gao Gan too much - compared to Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang's two cousins, Gao Gan was more kind, but this did not mean that Gao Gan was a stupid person, so the next day, when Yuan Tan Gongzi summoned Gao Gan to announce his new appointment, Gao Gan immediately understood Yuan Tan's sinister intentions, and immediately roared: "Lord, what did the last general do wrong?" Why deprive the last general of his military rights? It is true that the last general disagrees with you, but the last general has always been loyal to you, why should he do this to me? ”

Yuan Tan was a little speechless, Guo Tu quickly stood up, and poured soup while playing a round game, saying that the recent laxity of military law is not conducive to the military situation, and General Gao Gan is innocent and majestic, and he is the most suitable candidate for the governor of the army. Hearing what Guo Tu said, Gao Gan's anger subsided slightly, and he said: "Okay, I can be appointed as the governor of the supervising army, but the more than 3,000 iron cavalry under my command must be directly commanded by me!" ”

"General Gao, charging into battle is a matter of pawns, and you are the ...... of the Assassin of the Prefecture."

Guo Tu originally wanted to persuade again, but Gao Gan said angrily: "If the lord insists on handing over the more than 3,000 iron horses of the state and the state, it is okay, as long as the lord asks the general to return to the state, the last general will immediately hand over the military talisman!" Otherwise, I will never hand over the army, I will hand over the entire annexation of the state to the lord, does the lord still want to take away even the descendants of the last general?! ”

Things have come to this point, the self-defeating Yuan Tan and Guo Tu are extremely difficult, after exchanging a few glances, Yuan Tan said very reluctantly: "Since my cousin insists on commanding the army to fight, Tan is not strong, I will pick another person to supervise the army, so I don't have to bother my cousin." ”

"Thank you, Lord." Gao Gan gave up his hand and walked away angrily, leaving Yuan Tan and Guo Tu to grit their teeth in the room, dissatisfied with Gao Gan to the extreme.

It stands to reason that another letter from Deputy Director Tao, if it can be successfully delivered to Gao Gan at this time, then even if it can't be successful, it will definitely bury an introduction in Gao Gan's heart and lay the foundation for Deputy Director Tao's next plan, but Deputy Director Tao's luck in the Northern Expedition this time is really not very good, on the same day, the person who was bought by the Xuzhou Army with a lot of money and was from the state of the state happened to be compiled into the Yuan Tan army outside the city, and was forced to go out of the city, and naturally failed to send the letter to Gao Gan in time. In the future, there has also been a huge change in whether or not the letter can be successfully delivered.

Deputy Director Tao is not only unlucky, this winter Yecheng area does not know why it is particularly cold, the wind and snow for days continue to be unable to fight, the temperature has been below zero, frozen even Zhangshui has formed thick ice, even if the Xuzhou army is well prepared, ordinary soldiers have received winter clothes before, but there are still some cases of freezing to death and frostbite, especially the soldiers from the warm south, that is to suffer enough in such weather, the situation of frostbite is more serious, and the soldiers have complained, Morale inevitably suffered.

In this regard, the decision-making level of Xuzhou was both anxious and helpless, seeing that Xun Chen's strategy had never worked, Deputy Director Tao had the idea of retiring the army, and once convened a few strategists to discuss the withdrawal of troops and return to Yanzhou to avoid the cold, and wait until the spring is warm before coming to the decisive battle.

After hearing Deputy Director Tao's plan, Jia Lao Poison immediately stood up and resolutely opposed, saying, "Our army must not take half a step back!" Our army's dispatch this time was stuck at the critical moment when the enemy's front strength was exhausted and the rear strength was not born, and Yuan Tan was not given the slightest chance to breathe, forcing Yuan Tan to only lead the main force to fight our army to the end! So that Yuan Tan can't spare manpower, material resources and energy to unify the three states, he can only desperately oppress the existing control areas and lose the heart of the people! ”

"That being the case, if our army retreats at this time, Yuan Tan will inevitably be greatly boosted by this, the hearts of the people in the three states will be in the same direction, and the three states of Jiyou and the three states that still have vitality will also take this opportunity to reunite, and our army's deliberately indulgent Yuan Shang will also be easily wiped out by Yuan Tan because of the loss of the opportunity for foreign aid, and when our army returns to Jizhou, it will lose almost all the opportunities, the battle will be more difficult to fight, and the time to unify the three states will be more protracted!"

"And this harsh winter is not all bad for our army." Jia Lao Poison said again: "Our army is unable to fight due to the severe cold, Yuan Tan is as stable as Mount Tai in Yecheng, and he will inevitably have the mind of guarding Yecheng for a long time, and will try his best to mobilize the main force of Youzhou to go south to participate in the war, Youzhou is remote, if Jiang Qi, Zhao and others are in danger, our army's northern expedition can not be destroyed in a year or two, but if they lead the army south, it will give our army a god-given opportunity to wait for each breakthrough!" Therefore, our army must not retreat, not only in order not to give Yuan Tan a respite, but also to seize the rare opportunity to quickly break the enemy's main force! ”

Deputy Director Tao is a good director who can listen to persuasion - at least when the nail household is about to commit suicide, Deputy Director Tao can order the suspension of demolition and relocation to save people's lives first, so after listening to Jia Lao's persuasion, Deputy Director Tao quickly made up his mind and said: "It makes sense!" Ordered all battalions to cut more firewood to make a fire for warmth, and confront Yuan Tan to the end, so as not to give Yuan Tan a chance to breathe! (To be continued......)