The main army is gradually increasing, it is easy, at least when Deputy Director Tao is deploying troops, deploying troops and arranging expeditions, he no longer needs to be like before, he can't wait to tear the pitiful elite soldiers in his hands in half and use them, and he doesn't need to use the Danyang hooligan soldiers who have not yet developed discipline habits as the core backbone. is also ready to rescue his own soldiers who were injured by this group of Uncle Danyang - like that, Deputy Director Tao doesn't know how he survived until now.

No, after finalizing the current strategy of helping Yuan Weak Cao, Deputy Director Tao generously distributed 10,000 of the 30,000 elites he brought from Xuzhou to Lu Su, so that these 10,000 main soldiers who had the ability to gain a foothold on the northern battlefield stayed in Jiangdong, and was specifically responsible for bullying the weak and poor Jiangdong princes. Then Deputy Director Tao named Lu Su as the governor of Jiangdong, in charge of the military of the southern front; Feng Zhang Zhao is the commander of Yangzhou and the Taishou of Jiujiang, and is in charge of the money and grain civil affairs of the southern line; Feng Xu Sheng was the general of Zhennan and the Taishou of Lujiang, the chief of the Lujiang and Jiujiang armies, Feng Qiaorui was the Taishou of Yuzhang, Jiang Qin was the deputy governor of the Danyang Taishou and the Water Army, and Zhou Tai was the captain of the Naval Division and led the Wu County Minister. After making these necessary personnel arrangements, Deputy Director Tao led the remaining 20,000 elites back to the north and returned to Xuzhou to preside over the overall situation.

Even so, Deputy Director Tao was very extravagant to divide the 20,000 elites into two, the infantry was thrown to Xu Chu, Wei Yan and Gao Shun to lead the slow north, and the cavalry returned to the division under the leadership of Deputy Director Tao himself, and it took only nine days to return to Pengcheng from Danyang County south of the Yangtze River, and Chen Deng, who stayed in the rear, was already ready for the logistics of the main force to go north to attack Cao after receiving the letter order from Deputy Director Tao, and the main force of Xuzhou led by Chen Dao, Xu Huang, Lu Yi and Tao Ji has also been assembled. Always ready to set off northward - it is no exaggeration to say that Deputy Director Tao can even order a large army to go out as soon as he arrives in Pengcheng without waiting for the rear army to arrive, and he can still form a double advantage in the quantity and quality of Cao's army on the southern front.

Of course, although Deputy Director Tao and the decision-makers of Xuzhou are a group of bad seeds, they are also a group of rational and cautious bad seeds, so Deputy Director Tao did not immediately order troops after arriving in Xuzhou, but first let the accompanying team rest at ease, and then learn more about the current situation of Cao's southern front, and finally formulate the tactics of attacking Cao. And before that, Chen Deng, who was in charge of staying behind in the rear, asked Deputy Director Tao very cautiously: "Lord, are you sure that you have made up your mind to break Cao?" After the Cao is broken, our army will be directly bordered by the Jizhou army, is the lord mentally prepared for this? ”

"Yuanlong, although rest assured, this strategic choice is definitely not an impulsive act on my part, in fact, I have long had this idea." Deputy Director Tao replied: "Although the Jizhou army is strong, it is far less dangerous than the Cao thief team, since our army is destined to compete with the winner of the battle of Cao Yuan, then I would rather choose to let the Jizhou team win." ”

Seeing that Deputy Director Tao had already made up his mind, Chen Deng didn't say anything more, but immediately submitted a selected and summarized report on the enemy situation. In this report, Xuzhou has roughly figured out the situation of Cao's army's defense on the southern front of Yanzhou, and found out that Cao's army has about 20,000 troops on the southern front, with Shanyang County governing Changyi as the core of the defense line, the elite soldiers and strong generals are deployed in the Changyi area, the auxiliary troops and the second-line army are guarding Jinxiang, Liangqiu and Wutangting and other places, and the nearest to the Changyi garrison is still the Liu Dai team of Dingtao, and the Dongping area in the north of Changyi is guarded by the general of the Cao army.

"Judging from the tactical deployment of Cao Thief on the Southern Front, Cao Thief's Southern Front Guard Tactics are very clear." Chen Deng analyzed: "That is, to stick to the important town of Changyi, choke the throat of our army's northward and westward advances, so that our army can only pull out the nail of Changyi to move north or west with confidence." This is also a very smart tactical choice, Cao thief's southern line of Yanzhou is the same as Xuzhou, the terrain is open, easy to attack and difficult to defend, and dispersing troops to defend various parts of the city will only give our army a chance to break through, concentrate on one point, but it can play a role in containing the main force of our army, so the lord went north to attack Cao this time, and the vicious battle of Changyi was inevitable no matter what. ”

"Have you gotten the city defense map of Changyi?" Deputy Director Tao asked again.

"Got it." Chen Deng hurriedly pulled out the map of Changyi City in the official document, and explained: "This is a detailed and stealing drawing by our army, and the terrain is basically accurate, but how the defenders deploy their defenses is because they can't sneak into the interior of Cao's army, so they can't spy carefully." In addition, our army also marked the number and location of wells in Changyi City in detail, and the lord could ask someone who was proficient in hydrology to analyze the underground water veins around Changyi, so as to launch an underground siege if necessary. ”

"Yuanlong is really careful."

Deputy Director Tao praised it, and when he lowered his head and went to look at the map of Changyi City, Jia Lao Poison spoke, and said: "Lord, although I have not been to Changyi, I have heard that when Lu Bu made trouble in Yanzhou, Lu Bu once relied on Changyi to resist the combined forces of Yuan Shao and Cao Ying, so it can be seen that Changyi City is definitely not so easy to take, if the lord does not want to lose too many troops and time in the siege war, the battle of Changyi, the lord had better make more fuss in the field. ”

"Mr. Wenhe wants to lure the enemy out of the city?" Chen Deng took over the conversation and said with a wry smile: "But this time I'm afraid it's not so easy, the main force of Cao Thief is confronting Yuan Shao's main force in Cangting, although there is no time to divide troops to save Changyi, but nine out of nine have already issued an order to Xiahou Yuan to defend Changyi and strictly prohibit fighting." In addition, the news that the lord had just received when he entered the city, Cao Thief sent Xu Shu, a famous man from Yingchuan, to join the army for Xiahou Yuan, and rushed to Changyi to assist Xiahou Yuan in defending the city. ”

"Xu Shu is also a human being, and he will make mistakes, even with his assistance, our army may not have a chance to lure Xiahou Yuan out of the city for a decisive battle." Jia Lao Poison replied with a smile - although this answer is a bit arrogant, there are not many people in this world who are qualified to evaluate Xu Shu so arrogantly, but Jia Lao Poison definitely accounts for one of them.

"Mr. Wenhe's words are exactly what I want, no matter how smart and wise Xu Shu is, it is impossible not to make a mistake at all." Deputy Director Tao is not very taboo to do Xu Shu, who only overturned Cao Ren once, surnamed Suo didn't even bother to look at the Changyi city defense map, put down the map and asked Jia Lao Poison: "I don't know if Mr. Wenhe has a clever plan to lure Xiahou Yuan's team out of the city for a decisive battle?" ”

"How to lure Xiahou Yuan out of the city, this point needs to be improvised under the city of Changyi." Jia Lao Poison replied: "But as long as our army grasps the mind of the Cao army and makes a big fuss, it will not be difficult to lure Xiahou Yuan's team out of the city. ”

"What is Cao Jun's mind?" Deputy Director Tao asked.

"Of course, it was Cao Jun's luck that our army would not really attack Changyi with all its might." Jia Lao Poison said with a smile: "In the previous battle of Guandu, in order to preserve its strength, our army never launched a real siege after besieging Changyi, this time Cangting fought again, our army sent troops to Changyi again, and the Cao army team must look forward to the repetition of our army's old skills, besiege Changyi without attacking, sending troops is just perfunctory Yuan Shao, as long as the lord grasps Cao Jun's luck to arrange the illusion, and then deliberately reveals some flaws, Xiahou Yuan and Xu Shu are difficult to think of. ”

"Mr. Wenhe's a brilliant plan." Deputy Director Tao applauded and said with a smile: "Everyone knows that our Xuzhou army does not trade at a loss, even if we make up our minds to suffer losses and lose our old capital, the Cao thief team will inevitably suspect that our army is just perfunctory and not really going to fight Changyi." ”

After laughing, Deputy Director Tao discussed with Jia Lao Poison and others how to arrange the illusion, and soon decided not to use the elite team of Xuzhou who had returned from the southern expedition for the time being, and only dispatched the northern team that had been recuperating for a long time to attack Changyi, so that the southern expeditionary team could not only get enough time to rest, but also make the Cao army more convinced that the Xuzhou army was only perfunctory and did not really have the determination to take Changyi.

In addition, Jia Lao Poison suggested that Deputy Director Tao use the relationship between Xiahou Juan and Xiahou Yuan, and deliberately asked Xiahou Juan to write a letter to Xiahou Yuan, saying some words of greeting from the parents, and then sent Xuzhou officials to officially deliver it to Xiahou Yuan, so that Xiahou Yuan thought that this was a goodwill signal deliberately sent by the Xuzhou army, and that sending troops to Changyi was just perfunctory to Yuan Shao, and Deputy Director Tao immediately arranged for the female secretary Guo Huan to do this.

At this time, the envoy Wang Ze, who was personally sent by Cao Boss to contact Deputy Director Tao, also arrived in Pengcheng, and Deputy Director Tao was overjoyed when he heard the news, and immediately decided to use this opportunity to directly release a goodwill signal to Cao Jun, but Jia Lao Poison immediately objected, suggesting: "The lord should be tough in front of Wang Ze, Cao Ying is suspicious, if the lord treats his envoy well, Cao Ying will definitely suspect that the lord is false and real and uneasy and kind, but more worried that our army is really sending troops." Therefore, it is necessary for the lord to threaten and intimidate in front of Wang Ze, and also propose to exchange the hostages to facilitate the decisive battle between our army and Cao's army, so that Cao thief will believe that the lord is bluffing, and sending troops to Changyi is just perfunctory Yuan Shao, and he will take the southern front lightly. ”

Deputy Director Tao was overjoyed, and once again accepted Jia Lao's poison suggestion, first deliberately treated Wang Ze slowly, and when he officially met Wang Ze, Deputy Director Tao deliberately threatened, saying that he sent troops to Changyi this time to break through the southern defense line of Cao's army to meet the Jizhou army, and asked to exchange hostages in person in order to start a war.

When Wang brought Deputy Director Tao's threatening words back to Changyi City, the resourceful Xu Shu sneered on the spot, commenting that Tao Thief was really such a despicable villain, and Cao Chun, the general of the Cao Army, who had always been known for his calm and wise, also sneered and said a famous saying, "A dog that bites people can't bark; A dog that barks and doesn't bite. ”

The scheme is too high and unfathomable, and it may not be all a good thing, at least Xiahou Yuan, the main general of the Cao army in Changyi, was furious because of this, and yelled that as long as the pottery thief dares to come, he will definitely let the pottery thief team taste their own strength, until Xu Shu laughed and pointed out that this is just a bluff of the Xuzhou army, Xiahou Yuan suddenly realized that the Xuzhou army sent troops this time only to perfunctory Yuan Shao's team. And a day later, when the Xuzhou messenger sent a letter from Xiahou Juan greeting his uncle's well-being, Xiahou Yuan, Xu Shu and others suddenly understood that this was a deliberate release of goodwill by the Xuzhou army, and changed their way to say that the Xuzhou army went north but it was perfunctory, and then Xiahou Yuan listened to Xu Shu's suggestion and treated the Xuzhou envoy back to ask Xiahou Juan about the situation and brought gifts to his niece, which in turn snubbed the Xuzhou army and made the Xuzhou army believe that the Changyi army did not have the heart of a decisive battle.

After successfully relaxing the enemy's mentality, on May 29, Deputy Director Tao once again led 35,000 Xuzhou troops to the north, accompanied by Xuzhou generals who had not participated in the southern expedition, such as Chen Zhi, Xu Huang, Cao surname, Tao Ji, Chang Xian, and Qin Yi, and the Xuzhou generals who had just returned to Pengcheng from Jiangdong, all stayed in the rear to rest and recuperate. In addition, in view of the fact that Deputy Director Tao did not take the opportunity to bully the cute and poor little girl Guo Huan during the southern expedition, Yuan Fang also readily agreed to Deputy Director Tao's request, and lent Guo Huan to Deputy Director Tao as a secretary to go on the expedition together.

At the same time, in order to convince Xiahou Yuan and others that they had no malice in going north, Deputy Director Tao deliberately arranged for Qin Yi, a defeated general in Xuzhou, to serve as the vanguard and lead three thousand auxiliary soldiers to go first. Otherwise, why would you send me every unlucky messenger who is prone to losing his head? ”

Whether Deputy Director Tao still has a hobby of wife control is still a mystery, but when Xizuo reported the situation of the Xuzhou army to Xiahou Yuan, General Xiahou Yuan was very moved, and hurriedly found his deputy Cao Chun to discuss with the think tank Xu Shu, wanting to send an army south to take the initiative to meet the battle, first destroy the rookie vanguard team of the Xuzhou army, and make a good start.

"The general must not do that." Cao Chun objected: "The order given to us by the prime minister is to stick to Changyi and choke the throat of the pottery thief going north, the pottery thief deliberately showed weakness, and used the second-line general Qin Yi as the vanguard, obviously telling our army that he was still perfunctory Yuan Shao this time, if our army hit his vanguard hard, not only disobeying the prime minister's general's order, but also inevitably completely angering the pottery thief and provoking unnecessary war." ”

Xiahou Yuan didn't want to listen to Cao Chun's opinion, and when he turned his gaze to Xu Shu, Xu Shu replied lightly: "Whether to go to war or not, it depends on how the general himself is prepared to fight the battle of Changyi, if the general just wants to join forces with the Xuzhou thief army to perfunctory Yuan Shao, then the general does not have to fight; If the general is unwilling to cheap the pottery thief and wants the pottery thief to suffer some hardships in the siege battle, then he might as well resolutely attack and hit the Xuzhou vanguard to deliberately provoke the pottery thief and induce the pottery thief to attack the fortified city of Changyi. ”

Xiahou Yuan nodded his head, feeling that Xu Shu's words were very reasonable, and when Cao Chun objected with Cao Boss's insistent order, Xu Shu smiled again and said: "Zihe General, the prime minister has an order for our army to stick to Changyi, but he did not order our army to blindly defend the city to show weakness, and our army is absolutely not allowed to go out of the city to fight, which is not bad, right?" ”

"Mr. Yuan Nao has a point." Xiahou Yuan slapped his thigh, and immediately ordered his subordinate general Du Xi to lead an army of 3,000 out of the city, and went south to take the initiative to meet the vanguard of the Xuzhou army.

A day later, the Cao army led by Du Xian approached Fang He, and when he had just received a report that Qin Yi's team was less than twenty miles away, the sound of the bad taste of the military song and the rumbling horse's hooves of Xuzhou's first ace gentleman army came from the south. Hearing the sound of this neat and loud 'Guan Guan Ju Dove', Du Xi and his team were all colorless, and hurriedly lined up with strong bows and crossbows to prepare to meet the enemy, and then, the gentleman's army lined up in five loose battle queues also appeared in front of the Cao army's team, the gentleman's banner fluttered in the wind, and the shameless deputy flag of benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and gentleness, courtesy, and frugality scratched the wind, and the Cao army's team, which had heard the famous reputation of the Junzi Army for a long time, trembled its legs, all worried about whether their infantry team could escape the pursuit of the Junzi Army.

To the delight of the Cao army, the Junzi Army led by Tao Ji did not come up with a random arrow, nor did it let the three great war gods of the Junzi Army, Lu Bu, Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, fight in front of the battle, but sent a cavalryman with a white flag in his hand, swaggered to the front of the Cao Army's formation, and shouted arrogantly to the extreme: "Listen to the Cao thief team on the opposite side, go back and tell Xiahou Yuan, for the sake of his niece, spare your dog's life today!" Tell Xiahou Yuan again, if you dare to send an army out of the city to fight, it will be an army of 100,000, and our gentleman's army will accompany you to the end at any time! I don't know how powerful our gentleman's army is, go back and ask Cao Chun, how did his tiger and leopard ride be killed by our gentleman's army back then! ”

After saying this, the cavalry of the Gentleman's Army who shouted laughed arrogantly and left, and the Gentleman's Army team also turned their horses' heads together, and left even more arrogantly, completely treating the three thousand Cao soldiers of the Du Raid team as if they did not exist, and although the Du Raid team was so humiliated, no one dared to stand up and fight back and scold, and after the Gentlemen's Army was completely far away, they were happy to be thunderous, glad that the army had escaped from death, and then Du Raid gave an order, and the three thousand Cao troops hurriedly fled the way they came, ran so fast that he only hated his father and mother for giving birth to two legs.

At the same time, in the ranks of the gentlemen's army, Gao Zhong and Nian Bin, who had been completely damaged, came to Tao Ji one after another, saying that the enemy's battle formation was chaotic, and it was a rare fighter that beat the water dogs. - It is indeed a rare fighter, since the Jizhou Iron Cavalry led by Yuan Tan Gongzi was the last to be planted in front of the Junzi Army, there is no longer that army that dares to fight in front of the notorious Junzi Army in the open area.

"Chase the fart! Don't let them turn around and bully Qin Yi, that waste! Tao Ji replied angrily: "The second brother has a death order, and we are not allowed to bully this small team of Cao thieves who went out of the city, so scared that the Cao thieves dare not go out of the city to fight again, and want to put a long line to catch big fish!" ”

In the second watch of the same night, Du Raid's team fled back to Changyi City in embarrassment, and after learning that Du Raid was frightened by a few words from the Junzi Army, Xiahou Yuan was furious, and wanted to behead Du Raid who had lost his military prestige on the spot, fortunately Cao Chun led the generals to persuade him to stop, Cao Chun also said: "General Du can escape back to Changyi with the team completely, it is already good, don't say that General Du Raid's team is infantry, our tiger and leopard cavalry, Lu Bu's Bingzhou Iron Cavalry, and later Jizhou Iron Cavalry, Didn't that one be wiped out in front of the Lilliputies? In the face of such an enemy, General Du immediately decided to withdraw to Changyi, not only not guilty, but also should be credited. ”

"Get down!" To put it mildly, Xiahou Yuan finally spared Du Zheng's life, and then hammered the case with a heavy fist, and shouted helplessly: "Could it be that there is a hypocrite army here?" Our army can only be passively defended?! ”

"The army of hypocrites is not invincible." Xu Shu said slowly: "The hypocrite army of the pottery thieves is afraid of fighting in formation, the second is afraid of fighting in a narrow area, and the third is afraid of close combat. ”

Xiahou Yuan nodded slowly, but Xu Shu said: "General Xiahou, Shu thinks that the general might as well write a detailed battle report on the situation of the pottery thief's troops, and send a fast horse to Cangting to present it to the prime minister, so that the prime minister knows that the pottery thief is obviously very light on the enemy, and our army may not have a chance to break the enemy. Or do you want to make a proper sortie and look for enemy fighters? ”

"Does Mr. Gennao think this is necessary?" Xiahou Yuan asked.

"Absolutely." Xu Shu replied: "Yuan Shao only defended in Cangting without fighting, and made it clear that he wanted to wear down our army, waiting for the pottery thief to go north to respond, and the prime minister had been fighting many times and couldn't find the fighter to break the enemy, if our army could win by surprise and defeat the pottery thief, it would definitely turn the situation around in one fell swoop, and even force Yuan Shao to send troops for a decisive battle!" The opportunity is rare and the stakes are high, so you must report to the prime minister and ask the prime minister for approval! ”

After listening to Xu Shu's analysis, Xiahou Yuan, who was extremely reluctant to defend passively, nodded yes, and immediately picked up the pen to write a letter to Boss Cao, reported the battle situation to Boss Cao and asked for advice, and although Cao Chun was against going out of the city, he saw that Xiahou Yuan was asking Boss Cao first and then acting, so naturally he did not object.

More than two days later, Xiahou Yuan's letter was delivered by fast horse to the Cangting battlefield more than 300 miles away, and Cao Laoda, who was being exhausted by Yuan Sangong, was silent after seeing the letter, Guo Jia, Xun You, Cheng Yu and Mao Yu and other strategists were also frowning, and they couldn't decide whether to let Xiahou Yuan send troops to take risks, even if Cao Boss took the initiative to ask, no strategist dared to stand up and express his opinion.

"Why don't you speak?" Boss Cao asked again: "The Tao thief's dispatch this time is obviously too light on the enemy, Xiahou Yuan asked for instructions whether to take the initiative to find the enemy's fighters, what is the public opinion?" ”

"The pottery thief is resourceful, Jia Xu is cunning, Jia can't judge whether the pottery thief is deliberately luring the enemy, he doesn't dare to make a decision, and he asks the prime minister to decide himself." Guo Jia replied with a cough.

Boss Cao closed his mouth, and he was extremely worried that this was Deputy Director Tao's deliberate lure of the enemy, but he didn't want to miss this rare opportunity to turn the situation around, and it was difficult to decide for a while. At this time, Cheng Yu also opened his mouth and said: "Prime Minister, although it is possible that the pottery thief deliberately lured the enemy in this matter, it cannot be ruled out that the pottery thief is indeed underestimating the enemy, after all, the pottery thief knows the weakness of our army's lack of food and grass, and knows that he does not have to attack Changyi at all, as long as the war is dragged into attrition, our army will inevitably be dragged down by him and Yuan Shao." ”

Boss Cao still didn't speak, and Cheng Yu said again: "There is also such a possibility, the team of Tao thieves sent troops to Changyi, just to contain Xiahou Yuan, so that his main force of the southern expedition can calmly go north after sufficient rest, and directly attack Dongping through Rencheng, cut off the connection between our army and Changyi, and also directly threaten the main force of our army to respond to Yuan Shao behind it." ”

"At that time, the pottery thief doesn't even need to directly send troops to attack our army, he only needs to send his villain army, which is good at wandering battles, to show his face at Cangting Ferry, and sing the disgusting military song of the villain army, the morale of our army will collapse immediately, and the morale of Yuan Shao's team will inevitably rise! The pottery thief is not as rigid and inflexible as Yuan Shao, such a thing, the pottery thief can definitely do it! ”

"There is no danger to defend, the pottery thief's Xuzhou wireless can be defended, and my Yanzhou is also unsafe!" Boss Cao sighed, then stomped his feet and gritted his teeth, and said viciously: "Instead of letting our army be consumed alive by the pottery thief and Yuan Shao, it is better to let Xiahou Yuan gamble!" Bet that he is a thief who sent troops this time to underestimate the enemy's carelessness! Write back to Xiahou Yuan and allow him to act cheaply! But be careful with your troops, and don't miss the chance to break the enemy than risk the total annihilation! ”

(To be continued)