On February 18 of the fourth year of Jian'an, more than 30,000 people of Yan Liang's army of Yuan Shaojun stationed in Liyang, in the case of just receiving the envoy of Cao Jun's request for peace, suddenly launched a rush to the south bank of the Yellow River, and Liu Yan, the Taishou of Cao Jundong County, who was stationed in the important place of Baima, hurriedly led the army to meet the battle, trying to prevent Yan Liang's army from landing on the south bank, but the troops were insufficient and the defense was relatively lax, and the death squad organized by Yan Liangjun seized the ferry, and Yan Liang's army, which had been preparing for several months, had a steady stream of boats and boats to cross the Yellow River, which was far inferior in width and flow to the Yangtze River. Liu Yanjun, who had few troops and weak troops, was forced to retreat to the city of Baima, and confronted Yan Liang's army, which was six times his strength, with the strong fortifications he had built before, and at the same time sent fast horses to Xuchang Cao Ying and Yu Ban's troops stationed in Yanjin to ask for help.

The self-proclaimed leader of the Cao League, Yuan Sangong, finally made a move, and as soon as he made a move, he was the only way to storm and march into Xuchang, and the white horse military heavy formation, the news reached Xuchang, and the boss Cao, who was looking forward to the good news, was dumbfounded on the spot, so shocked that he didn't even notice the brush in his hand landing, and the strategists of the Cao army, who were discussing how the main force of the army should go south to fight a decisive battle with Deputy Director Tao, were also dumbfounded, their expressions were extremely disbelievable, and they were so shocked that they forgot how to speak.

"How is this ...... possible?" After opening his mouth for a long time, Boss Cao exclaimed in disbelief: "Kong Wenju also wrote a few days ago saying that Yuan Shao treated his envoys with courtesy, and the plan to send Kong Wenju to ask for peace and move the capital was deliberately leaked to Yuan Shao in advance, why did Yuan Shao send troops to attack me?" ”

Screaming at this, Boss Cao suddenly felt a pang in his heart, and exclaimed: "Could it be that I fell for Yuan Shao's plan to hide a knife in his laughter?" The messenger who treated me well on the surface actually arranged a sneak attack and killed me by surprise? ”

"Prime Minister, it shouldn't be a knife hidden in a smile." Xun Yu said quickly: "Let's not say that Yuan Shao doesn't have this brain, although Yan Liang's rush is sudden, the timing, route and breakthrough point of the choice of the troops are not like a sneak attack. did not pretend to accept our army's request for peace, and deceived our army into completely relaxing its vigilance, the timing was not right; did not highlight the surprise troops, attacked the weak point of our army's lax garrison, and chose to attack our army's strongest garrison Baima Ferry to break through, resulting in Liu Yan being able to defend according to the danger and drag Yan Liang's advance! The route and breakthrough point chosen by Yan Liang did not seem to be a sneak attack, but rather seemed to be equally ill-prepared, unable to quickly adjust tactics according to local conditions, and could only adopt the original and prudent battle plan. ”

"It's also like a lack of preparation, so you can only choose a safe tactic?" Boss Cao thought about it carefully, if he was the third prince of the Great Yuan, he would definitely launch a sneak attack on the night of the conclusion of the peace agreement, so as to achieve the greatest sudden effect - and also show his noble character by the way, but now the third prince of the Great Yuan launched the attack without taking it lightly, which is enough to prove that Yan Liang's move to cross the Yellow River was not deliberately arranged in advance, but a temporary decision.

After concluding that Yan Liang did not intend to sneak attack, new questions arose, Yuan Shaojun suddenly launched a war to cross the Yellow River, was this the decision made by Yan Liang privately? Or is it the instruction of the Great Yuan Sangong? If this is an order from the Great Yuan Sangong, then why did the Great Yuan Sangong do this? But because of the lack of intelligence support, Boss Cao can only guess the reason and purpose of Yuan Sangong's doing this out of thin air, and as a result, our Deputy Director Tao was naturally shot while lying down, becoming the biggest object of suspicion of Boss Cao and others, and was once again hated by Boss Cao and his lackeys, only Sima Lang snickered in his stomach.

No matter how much you want to bite off Deputy Director Tao's egg, it's useless, Yuan Sangong has already hit the door, Cao Boss can only wait to be killed if he doesn't fight back, and in desperation, Cao Boss can only quickly turn the spearhead that has been pointing to the southern front, quickly organize and gather 40,000 troops, and rush to Baima in two teams to meet the battle, Cao Boss personally led 20,000 elite soldiers first, preparing to take advantage of the opportunity that Yuan Shao's main force has not yet crossed the river, first kill Yan Liang's river-crossing team, frustrate Yuan's army and boost his own morale, so as to fight with Yuan Shao in the future.

However, at this time, the new bad news came, in order to exert further pressure, Deputy Director Tao, who had not seen Cao Lao's reply, took advantage of the opportunity that the main force of the Cao army did not dare to go south, and also took advantage of the weak combat effectiveness of the Liu Dai division of the Cao army, and suddenly divided the troops to attack the camp of Liu Dai of Dingtao, Liu Dai timidly abandoned the camp and retreated to the city to hold on, Deputy Director Tao sent the surrendered Liu Dai to send a fake book into Changyi City to ask Cao Chun for help, and pretended that the main force of Xuzhou attacked Dingtao in a very urgent manner in Liu Dai's tone, and asked Cao Chun to rescue quickly, Worried about being cut off from Xuchang, Cao Chun quickly sent 5,000 troops west to rescue Liu Dai, but plunged into the trap of the Xuzhou army, the four ambushes were exhausted, the Cao army was defeated, and the 5,000 army only had less than 1,000 people fled back to Changyi.

After receiving Cao Chun's urgent letter, Boss Cao, who stole the chicken and rice, almost wanted to cry without tears, and regretted that he could not accept the harsh and sincere reconciliation conditions offered by Deputy Director Tao, which led to the current two-front battle and the enemy on his back. It was at this time that Kong Rangli and Yang Yihe, who had been expelled from Yecheng by the Third Duke of the Great Yuan, also sent a letter, tremblingly reporting the incident to Boss Cao, and then reporting the news that the Third Duke of the Great Yuan had decided to personally lead an army of 300,000 to defeat Boss Cao - by the way, You Heng's head was also sent to Boss Cao along with Kong Rangli's letter, and it was the Third Duke of Yuan who specially ordered Kong Rangli to send it back, in order to express his sincerity in not sharing the sky with Boss Cao.

There is no way to describe the expression of Boss Cao at this moment, in short, after seeing the letter of You Heng's head and Kong Rangli, Boss Cao almost fainted, his black face was blue and white for a while, and there were no expressions of anger, trance, despair, remorse and crying and laughing, and after a long time, Boss Cao looked up to the sky and roared, "Headless mad ghost!" Bad for me! It's a big deal————! ”

.................. "Send you Heng to ask Yuan Shao for peace?" With such a genius idea, how did Cao Thief come up with it? ”

It is also impossible to describe Deputy Director Tao's wonderful expression when he received the news, in short, after receiving the news that You Heng was making trouble in the Yehou Mansion, Deputy Director Tao was also the same as Boss Cao, holding his heart with his right hand and almost fainting on the spot, and then a little white face suddenly turned into Guan Erye's red face, his face was full of schadenfreude and unbelievable ecstasy, and he finally laughed wildly, "God bless!" Heaven forbid! Cao Thief has always been too good at employing people, and he even sent You Heng to ask Yuan Shao for peace, which helped me a lot! What a great help to me! ”

"I didn't expect You Zhengping to be such a person." No matter how deep the Jia Poison City Mansion is, his face will be full of schadenfreude, and he is quite glad to say: "Fortunately, Cao Mengde didn't send You Heng to negotiate with us before, otherwise, our position would be difficult." ”

"How can You Heng be such a person?" Liu Ye was also both gloating and rejoicing, and said: "Ye has long heard of your Zhengping's name, when he accompanied the lord to the north to Qingzhou before, he also had the idea of persuading the lord to send an envoy to the plains to recruit him, but fortunately, Ye was worried about Yuan Shao's reaction, and did not dare to open this mouth, otherwise, we will have a lot of fun now." ”

"Mr. Ziyang, don't worry, even if you open your mouth at that time, I will never agree." There is a confidant named Luo Guanzhong, Deputy Director Tao, waved his hand again and again, and said: "** like You Heng, I know too well, obviously he is inferior to the extreme, and he wants to use eye-catching to cover up his inferiority, and he also likes to have his head in water, brain convulsions and talking without thinking, so he was invited to the Xuzhou team - with the style of a few of us, I can't be scolded by him for three days?" ”

Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye, who had valuable character, nodded again and again, and deeply agreed with Deputy Director Tao's words, and they were all glad that Boss Cao had a good eye and used You Heng as a superlative, or did he use it as a messenger to ask for peace with the Great Yuan Sangong - isn't this a big favor to help the Xuzhou army in a different way? Finally gloating enough, Liu Ye hurriedly bowed his hand to Deputy Director Tao and said: "Lord, Yan Liang rushed across the Yellow River to besiege Baima, and the contradictions between Cao and Yuan are irreconcilable, it's time to relieve some pressure on Cao Ying, otherwise, once Cao Thief can't resist Yuan Shao's offensive and suddenly falls, our army will have to face Yuan Shao's power alone." ”

"Mr. Ziyang is right." Jia Lao Poison nodded, and said: "Cao Ying arranged 20,000 main soldiers in Juancheng and Fan County, led by his henchman Xiahou Xuan, in order to prevent Yuan Shao from going south to cut off the connection between Xuchang and eastern Yanzhou, but in fact, it is to prevent our army from suddenly turning virtual into reality, seizing eastern Yanzhou or joining forces with Yuan Shao. ”

"Although the two gentlemen are reasonable, how can they relieve the pressure on Cao Thief?" Deputy Director Tao asked rhetorically: "Of course, it is a direct and effective way to withdraw to Xuzhou, but in this case, how can our army explain to Yuan Shao?" How to face the verbal criticism of the world? ”

"How about using Yuan Shao's excuse to accept Cao Ying's peace envoy?" Liu Ye suggested: "Yuan Shao, as the leader of the Cao League, openly summoned Cao Shao's peace envoy when our army invaded Yanzhou, intending to go up to the house to trap our army in the danger of fighting alone, and it is also very appropriate to use this as an excuse to break the alliance with Yuan Shao and retreat." ”

"This excuse is ......, a little reluctant." Deputy Director Tao hesitated and said: "It is unrighteous for Lord Yuezhang to meet the envoy of Cao Thief for peace, but there is nothing wrong with it, after all, I and Lord Yuezhang did not say anything in advance, no one can accept the surrender of Cao Thief alone, and the matter has not caused any consequences that are unfavorable to our army, as a son-in-law, because of such a trivial matter, I will turn my face and destroy the alliance with my father-in-law, I am afraid that I will not be able to explain ...... to the people of the world." ”

Speaking of this, Deputy Director Tao added rather embarrassedly: "And you also know that my consistent advocacy is to rather teach the people of the world to bear me, and stop teaching me to bear the people of the world - if I destroy the alliance and withdraw because of such a trivial matter, the glorious image that I have built up with great difficulty will be completely finished." ”

"Glorious image? My lord, your glorious image seems to be the well-known cunning pottery thief, right? Would you rather teach the people of the world to bear me, and stop teaching me to bear the people of the world? Such shameless words, I really don't know how embarrassed you are to say it, lord? ”

Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye slandered together, and then Jia Lao Poison arched his hand and said: "Lord, please rest assured, this matter is not difficult, if nothing happens, Cao Ying's secret envoy should soon come to visit the lord and secretly negotiate with our army to join forces against Yuan." Xu suggested that the lord could make peace with Cao Ying secretly, promise to confront Cao Ying's small number of troops without fighting, and let Cao Ying use all his elite troops to fight Yuan Shao, so that he could have the best of both worlds. ”

"It's a good idea." Deputy Director Tao snapped his fingers, and said in embarrassment: "But Cao Thief is too suspicious and suspicious, we made peace with him secretly, and we can't even write a covenant in white silk and black letters, so there is no basis for saying this, how can Cao Thief believe in the sincerity of our army, and rest assured that the elite soldiers of Yanzhou will go to a decisive battle with Yuan Shao?" ”

"It's not hard." Jia Lao Poison said gloomily: "Why don't you fight Uncle Dong Guo and their idea? ”

"Betraying that morality?" Deputy Director Tao was taken aback.

Jia Lao nodded solemnly, and said: "For the lives of the five counties of Xuzhou to not be devastated by the war, and for the innocent people of Yanzhou not to be ravaged by Yuan Shao's team, it's time to sacrifice these chess pieces." Besides, if you don't help Cao Ying get rid of these Yuan Shao, if they really take over Yuan Shao's success, Cao Ying will suddenly fall, and our army will also suffer. In exchange for Cao Ying's belief in the sincerity of our army, it is not only weighty, but also can eliminate hidden dangers. ”

Speaking of this, Jia Lao Poison added, "As for the line of Mr. Zhongming's student Sima Yi, the lord can also rest assured, with Dong Cheng's bitter hatred for Cao Ying, he will definitely not betray this Sima Yi who can put Cao Ying to death, and even put Cao Ying's entire party to death, so even if Dong Cheng falls, Sima Yi should be safe and sound." ”

Deputy Director Tao played with the arrow on the case and refused to speak, and after a long time, Deputy Director Tao suddenly spoke, turned to Chen Ying on the side and ordered: "Yuan Fang, write a letter to Yuan Shao in my identity, the words can be more intense, condemn my father-in-law for the unrighteous act of summoning the envoy of the Cao thief alone, and then formally inform my father-in-law, just say that I, Tao Ying, am a Hanchen and a man of the world, and I must not sit back and watch the Son of Heaven suffer and abandon him, so even if he accepts Cao Thief's request for peace, I will fight to the death with Cao Thief to the end!" Finally, I told my father-in-law that if he made peace with Cao Thief again, the relationship between Weng and his son-in-law would be immediately severed, and the alliance between our army and Jizhou would be immediately nullified! ”

"Lord, it's too intense, isn't it? Uncle Ling's temper is not very good, huh? Chen Ying was a little worried.

"It's okay, this matter is his injustice first, if he doesn't take a tough attitude towards him, he will definitely think that my son-in-law is easy to bully, and he can knead the round and flatten it at will, and he will be more aggressive." Deputy Director Tao shook his head and snorted again: "Besides, if I don't bury some foreshadowing, how can I be embarrassed to suddenly turn my face with him in the future?" Suddenly stabbed him in the back? ”

Chen Ying stopped talking and began to bow his head and write, and it happened to be at this time that a herald suddenly came in outside the tent, and reported to Deputy Director Tao that there was a person who claimed to be surnamed Mao Mingzi Xiaoxian, and there was something important to visit Deputy Director Tao to ask for an audience, Deputy Director Tao was happy when he heard it, and said with a smile: "It seems that Cao Thief is more anxious to transfer reserves than us, so come in." Mr. Wenhe, Mr. Ziyang, Yuan Fang, don't mention Dong Cheng's matter for a while, I have my own opinions. ”

The herald sang the promise with Jia Lao Poison and others, and after a while, Mr. Mao Jue, who was dusty and bloodshot in his eyes, was invited into the big tent, and after the ceremony, Mao Jue's buttocks were just stained with the cushion, and he immediately arched his hand and said: "Presumably, after the envoy has received the news, your only condition is that my lord has already done it, and now you can discuss the alliance between your and our two armies to resist Yuan, right?" ”

"Did you do it? Did Meng Degong really do it himself? Deputy Director Tao asked with a smile, "If Meng Degong was really sincere, how could he send an envoy to ask my father-in-law for peace?" Are you going to stabilize the northern front for the time being, and then attack me with all your might? ”

"You misunderstood." Mao Jue said without even blinking his eyelids: "My lord sent an envoy to sue for peace, not to stabilize the northern front and then turn around and fight a decisive battle with your army, but to have a compassionate heart for the people, in order to save the lives and people of the two states from the flames of war, so he tried to seek peace with the original prince." Moreover, my lord also knows that as long as the original prince accepts our army's request for peace, your army will also take the lead and immediately withdraw to Xuzhou, and the living beings and people of Xu and Yan can also obtain stability and peace in this way. ”

When he met someone who was even more shameless than himself, Deputy Director Tao couldn't refute Mr. Mao Jue's shameless words for a while, and could only hum: "In this way, since Lord Yuezhang has rejected your army's request for peace, I can only be Lord Yuezhang's head and continue to fight with your army to the end?" ”

"Please don't talk angrily." Mao Jue arched his hand and said very sincerely: "It is indeed reasonable to say a thousand ways and ten thousand, so that you are dissatisfied with our army and ask Yuan Shao for peace alone, but the current situation makes you also know that my lord has used the wrong person because of a moment of negligence, which is already self-defeating, but suffers from it, so that no matter how angry you are, it should be eliminated, right?" I also hope that Jun will remember the friendly coexistence between your and our armies over the past few years, and also remember the reason that your lips are dead and your teeth are cold, and abandon your previous suspicions and join hands with our army to fight against Yuan and protect the territory together. ”

Seeing that Mao Jue confessed, Deputy Director Tao, who didn't want Boss Cao to fall immediately, didn't continue to attack, but just snorted: "Then what is Meng Degong going to do?" ”

"Please send your troops to help." Mao Jue said tentatively: "I don't know if the envoy can turn the spearhead and send troops to attack Qingzhou?" ”

"Of course not." Deputy Director Tao shook his head categorically, and said righteously: "Yuan Benchu is my father-in-law, as a son-in-law, it is already a great unfilial piety not to help him attack you, how can I still commit a crime and attack the Qingzhou land city of Lord Yuezhang?" ”

"Sure enough, I still don't see a rabbit or an eagle." Mao Jue snorted coldly in his heart, but said on his lips: "Even so, then my lord does not dare to force it - but please ask your army to temporarily withdraw from Yanzhou and return to Xuzhou, the envoy of this small request should be able to agree, right?" ”

"No way!" Deputy Director Tao shook his head again categorically, and said more righteously: "Lord Yuezhang has already sent troops to Yanzhou, I withdrew from Yanzhou at this time, and went up to the house to draw ladders to make Lord Yuezhang fight alone, wouldn't it make ten thousand people scold?" Princes are chilled? ”

After speaking impassionedly, Deputy Director Tao looked at Mao Jue, who was pale, and said shamelessly: "However, if your army can withdraw from the ......, oh wrong, if your army can withdraw from Changyi City after symbolizing the resistance of the surname, so that our army has a place to settle in Yanzhou, I can stop continuing to attack your army, or I can consider pulling your army at a critical moment." ”

"Do you want to Changyi City?" Mao Jue's face was embarrassed.

"It's just a place to settle down, so you don't even dare to sleep in the wilderness." Deputy Director Tao said angrily: "Don't think that I want Shanyang County, if I want the land of Yanzhou, I must also want to be Rencheng County and Luguo County, consolidate my team flank in Taishan County, temporarily borrow your Changyi City to settle down, and I will pay you back in the future." ”

Mao Jue thought about it carefully and found that if the Xuzhou army was really greedy for the land in Yanzhou except for Taishan County, then from the perspective of geography and transportation, it would definitely be to extort Rencheng and Luguo Second County, consolidate the flank of Taishan County's strategic location, and also link the control area due north of Xuzhou, and it would be useless to extort Changyi City, which in turn would increase the huge military financial burden. So after thinking about this, Mao Jue, who had a little autonomy with the permission of Boss Cao, gritted his teeth, and quickly nodded and said: "Okay, Jue took the risk of taking this responsibility and agreed to the envoy's request for the prime minister, and after the prime minister's order was requested, our army immediately ceded the city of Changyi." ”

"No, no, your army was forced to withdraw from Changyi City after 'fierce' resistance." Deputy Director Tao reminded with a smile.

"According to the envoy's wishes, our army was forced to cede the city of Changyi after fierce resistance." Mao Jue reluctantly agreed, and then Mao Jue arched his hand and said: "But the envoy, my lord also has a small request, all the promises of the envoy must fall into pen and ink, and please sign the honorific name and stamp the big seal to show sincerity." ””

"No way!" Deputy Director Tao shook his head resolutely again, and said: "I can't believe Meng Degong, in case there is an opportunity for the war on the Northern Front, Meng Degong will send the letter of commitment signed by me to Lord Yue, and I will have a lot of fun, so this matter can only be a verbal promise, and it must be a verbal promise in private!" ”

"It's ......." Mao Jue almost didn't cry, "Tao Envoy, such a big thing, how can a verbal promise be counted?" ”

"What is my credit, Meng Degong knows very well, Mr. Xiaoxian just needs to repay Meng Degong." Deputy Director Tao replied proudly, and then Deputy Director Tao changed his kind face and said with a smile: "Of course, I can't say nothing, so let's ask Mr. Xiaoxian to bring a gift to Meng Degong for me, after Meng Degong accepted my gift, he naturally understood my sincerity to him." ”

"Really?" Mao Jue was overjoyed and asked, "Dare to ask the envoy, what kind of gift is it?" ”

"This thing is two words." Deputy Director Tao raised two fingers.

"Two words?" Mao Jue's eyes widened.

Deputy Director Tao stopped talking, silently picked up the brush on the case, and wrote crookedly in his palm the two words that he was going to give to Boss Cao, and then called Mao Jue to the front and let Mao Jue look at the two words in his hand alone. And after seeing these two words, Mao Jue suddenly froze and muttered: "Ji Ping? What do you mean? Jiping? Is it a name? How do you seem to have heard of this name? ”

Deputy Director Tao smiled and said nothing, while Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye next to him looked at each other, not knowing what Deputy Director Tao meant by writing these two words-because Da Yuan Sangong ordered Deputy Director Tao to sign the Dao Cao Yi Form, there was no name Ji Ping at all.

However, Deputy Director Tao soon couldn't stop laughing, because Mao Jue's face suddenly changed, and he exclaimed: "I remember, Imperial Doctor Jiping!" Xuchang's Ji Taiyi! The prime minister personally conquered the white horse this time, and brought him to the army, ready to serve the prime minister's decoction at any time! Could it be ......?! ”

Speaking of this, Mr. Mao Jue didn't dare to continue to imagine, Deputy Director Tao's face changed completely, and he subconsciously jumped up and shouted: "Then what are you still doing?" Why don't you go back to Changyi City quickly, send the fastest horse and the most reliable messenger, and bring these two words back to Cao Thief?!! ”

(To be continued)