Thanks to the Hongfu of the villagers, after conquering Hefei, it took the Xuzhou army five days to basically complete the preliminary aftermath work -- the poor city of Hefei was harmed by the civil strife initiated by the Danyang soldiers, and almost every street was set on fire by the Danyang soldiers, and almost every house was destroyed, and the residents in the city were killed, robbed, and homeless, and the corpses were piled up in the city, and the ruins were everywhere, forcing the Xuzhou army to take out the captured military rations and hire civilian workers to clean up the battlefield, and carry the corpses out of the city to burn and bury. To avoid the outbreak of the plague, it made the poor Deputy Director Tao waste countless money and food.

What made Deputy Director Tao even more depressed was that the cheap villagers were still very economically savvy, and after the success of the turmoil in Hefei, the first thing they did was to rob the county treasury in the city, and rob the Cangli Mansion Treasury in Hefei City and the military expenses of the Hefei defenders. But when things got to this point, it was impossible to get the Danyang villagers to spit out the money they had grabbed, so Deputy Director Tao had no choice but to pay for the soldiers out of his own pocket with tears in his eyes, and because of the serious shortage of five baht coins, he was forced to use gold reserves instead of copper coins to distribute rewards, and suffered a big loss in monetary value -- in troubled times, the value of gold was much higher than the value of copper coins.

In any case, although it suffered a big financial loss and seriously made ends meet, but after taking Hefei, an important town in Huainan and basically annihilating the defenders in the city, the overall situation of the Huainan battlefield was more and more favorable to the Xuzhou army. If the main force of Xuzhou wants to hit that important town first, you can hit that important town first, and if you want to besiege the city to send reinforcements or break through each one, you can also see how Deputy Director Tao feels, but poor little Yuan Sangong can only be beaten passively, and he can suffer from Deputy Director Tao's birdishness.

On the sixth day after the capture of Hefei, with the complete stabilization of the situation in Hefei City, the completion of the reorganization of the troops and the basic completion of the battlefield cleaning work, the work of drawing up the next military action plan was naturally put on Tao Ying's desk, and just as Tao Ying summoned Jia Xu, Lu Su and Chen Ying and other senior staff officers to discuss this important matter, an unexpected guest came to Hefei City -- the Xuzhou army in the south of the Yangtze River Hardcore 'ally' Liu Miao sent his eldest son Liu Ji as an envoy to ask Tao Ying to meet to congratulate the Xuzhou army on the great victory of Hefei and by the way, to negotiate with Tao Ying the next step to join forces to clean up the military action plan of Xiao Yuan Sangong.

Since he is the envoy of a hardcore ally, Xuzhou Changshi, who is in charge of Xuzhou's foreign affairs, and our Yang Hongyang Changshi, do not dare to slack off and make things difficult, and quickly led Liu Ji to the Chinese army's tent, let Liu Ji wait outside the tent for a while, and personally entered the account to report Liu Ji's intention to Tao Ying, and also interrupted the discussion meeting on the military plan that Tao Ying had just held. After hearing Yang Changshi's report on Liu Ji's preliminary intentions, Tao Ying was overjoyed at first and said, "Okay, someone sent a pillow to sleepy, I just want to know about Liu Ji's next step, please." ”

"No." Yang Changshi respectfully agreed, and was about to turn around and go out of the account to invite Liu Ji in person, but Tao Ying suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly shouted: "Slow! Mr. Zhong Ming, you repeat, Liu Ji is here to congratulate our army on the breakthrough of Hefei, what else does he want to do? ”

"Negotiate with the lord for the next step of joining forces to break the enemy?" Yang Changshi replied suspiciously. Lu Su and Chen Ying next to him also had puzzled expressions, and they didn't quite know why Tao Ying paid attention to this matter - isn't it normal to negotiate with allies face-to-face to discuss the plan to join forces to destroy the enemy?

"Negotiate with me on the next step of joining forces to defeat the enemy?" Tao Ying's eyes turned a few times suspiciously, and he immediately changed his decision just now, and changed his words: "Then I won't see him first, Mr. Zhong Ming, you can find an excuse for me to appease him, first arrange for him to live in the camp, and entertain him with good wine and food, Mr. Zhong Ming, you will try to talk for me, find out how Liu Xianjun wants our army to use troops next, and then come to report to me immediately." ”

"No." Our Yang Changshi agreed again in confusion, and went down honestly to carry out the order. And after Yang Changshi came out of the account, Bo Chen Ying, who was equivalent to Tao Ying's secretary, asked suspiciously: "Lord, you have agreed to meet Liu Ji before, why did you suddenly change your mind?" Also, wouldn't it be better for the lord to understand Liu Miao's joint plan directly from Liu Ji's mouth, why did he arrange for Mr. Zhongming to spy first, and spend an extra effort? ”

"Because I suspect that Liu Ji is not good." Tao Ying replied calmly: "Although Liu Xiangjun is an ally of our army, but everyone has their own interests, each has its own wishful thinking, it is impossible to be truly intimate, now the situation in Huainan has gradually become clear, Yuan Shu's defeat has been decided, in order to maximize the fruits of victory, I can't help but guard against allies." ”

"The Lord is right." Lu Su echoed: "Although Liu Xuan is known as a virtuous name, but his personality may not be as loyal and virtuous as rumored, at least Wu Jingsun Ben, who was just released from Hefei by our army, was overshadowed by him, when the imperial court named him Liu Xuan as the assassin of Yangzhou, most of Yangzhou has been controlled by Yuan Shu, and Yangzhou Prefecture Zhishouchun was also occupied by Yuan Shu, Liu Xuan arrived in Yangzhou with almost nowhere to stay, it was Wu Jingsun Ben who welcomed him to Qu'a foothold, but after he gained a stable foothold, he used the excuse that Wu Jingsun Ben was Yuan Shu's subordinate, and drove Wu Jingsun Ben out of Qu'a by force. It is really chilling to take revenge for such kindness. ”

"Between the princes in troubled times, there are only eternal interests, no eternal friends, if Wu Jingsun Ben didn't want to use Liu Xuan's power to get rid of Yuan Shu's control, how could he lead the wolf into the house by himself?" Tao has no problem with Liu Xuan's ingratitude - because our deputy director Tao will always go too far than Liu Xuan. But no opinion, no opinion, and then our deputy director Tao snorted again: "But if he Liu Xuan wants to do this to me, then he is dreaming in vain, and the person who wants to take advantage of me has not yet been born in this world!" ”

Lu Su and Chen Ying both laughed, and both said that this is exactly the case, and the people in this world who want to take advantage of Deputy Director Tao may not really be born. Only Jia Lao Poison didn't show a smile, and said kindly: "Lord, you and Mr. Zijing and Mr. Yuan Fang just said that the two goals of Liyang and Shucheng are similar, except that you can't consider dividing troops to attack the two cities at the same time, no matter which city you attack first, it is tactically in line with the cleanup, the only difference is the level of difficulty - in this case, then the lord and Mr. Zijing and Mr. Yuan Fang might as well change the way and analyze it from the position of the ally Liu Xuan, which city is the most beneficial for our army to attack first?" Which city will attack first and will it be the most unfavorable to Liu Xuan? ”

"Mr. Wenhe's words are very good!" Hearing Jia Lao's poisonous idea of calculating the lack of morality of his allies, Deputy Director Tao was not angry but happy, and said with a smile: "This is a good way, since we attack Liyang first and Shucheng first, there is not much difference in tactics, and even the distance is almost the same, then let's just not think about taking the easy or giving up the difficult or the difficult first and then the easy, let's just think about it for Liu Xian and Liu Tingshi, let's attack that city first makes Liu Tingshi the most uncomfortable and the most injured?" ”

Lu Su and Chen Ying were amused by Deputy Director Tao's modern words again, and after a little calculation, Chen Ying hurriedly said: "Lord, I want to say it first, our army will attack Shu County first and take the whole county of Lujiang, which is the most unfavorable for Liu Xuan. ”

"Yuanfang, please try to elaborate." Tao Ying said thoughtfully.

"No." Chen Ying agreed, cleared his throat first, and then said loudly: "Our army's first attack on Shu County is the most unfavorable to Liu Xuan, and the key lies in the alliance between our army and Liu Xuan. Before, when our army and Liu Miao agreed to join forces to attack Yuan Shu, it was agreed that our army was responsible for the main attack, Liu Miao was responsible for containment, and after breaking the enemy, the Yangtze River was drawn as the boundary, and our army occupied the two counties of Lujiang and Jiujiang, and Liu Miao occupied the two counties of Danyang and Yuzhang, and the alliance was good forever, and they did not invade each other - of course, these two sentences are nonsense, once Liu Miao integrated the two counties of Danyang and Yuzhang and freed up his hands, he either attacked us or Wang Lang and Yan Baihu. ”

"What about now?" Chen Ying analyzed: "Our army is responsible for the main attack, and has successively broken Yuan Shu's main force on the northern front and the reinforcements of Lujiang and Liyang, and beat Yuan Shu to the point that he can only parry, without the power to fight back, and has captured all the important towns and most of the city land in the north of Huainan, if there is no particularly big accident in the rear, it is only a matter of time before our army takes the two counties of Lujiang and Jiujiang." On the side of Liu Xuan, who was in charge of containment, although he fulfilled the covenant and firmly contained Yuan Shu's Liyang garrison and relieved some of the resistance pressure for us, his main force was also contained in Niuzhu by Liyang Yuan Shu's army, and he couldn't spare his hands to attack the city and seize the two counties of Danyang and Yuzhang that we promised him. ”

"Because Liu Xuan's strength is far inferior to our army, he can't be like our army, and he still has enough troops to stay in the rear while expanding the territory, so he can only try his best to get rid of the containment of Liyang's Yuan Shu army as soon as possible, and free up troops to attack Danyang and Yuzhang." Chen Ying concluded: "Therefore, I think that our army should first attack Shucheng and seize the whole county of Lujiang, and let Liu Miao and Zhang Xun continue to contain them in Liyang and Niuzhu, which not only reduces the pressure on our army to attack Shucheng, but also makes Liu Miao unable to free up his hands to attack Danyang and Yuzhang, and can also allow Zhou Shang and Zhou Shu to win time to prepare for the war, and increase the difficulty of Liu Miao to capture the whole county of Danyang and Yuzhang, which is conducive to our army's future Jiangnan strategy." ”

Chen Ying talked a lot, but Tao Ying remained silent, until Chen Ying finished talking completely, and then thought about it a little, Tao Ying turned his eyes to Lu Su and Jia Xu, and asked: "Zijing, Mr. Wenhe, what do you think of Yuan Fang's opinion?" ”

"This ......." The honest man Lu Su was a little dumbfounded, hesitated for a moment and said with a wry smile: "Lord, don't embarrass me, the unworthy Xuzhou military advisor, Su is not good at this kind of intrigue and stabbing in the back, how to make our army more beneficial, Su can also think of some way, how to make the enemy or ally the most disadvantageous, Su is helpless." ”

After that, Lu Su added, "However, in Su's humble opinion, it is more advantageous for our army to attack Lujiang first, and Liu Xun will contain Liyang Zhang Xun for our army, and our army will attack Lujiang first, even if Zhang Xun sends reinforcements to support Yuan Shu, he will not dare to send out the nest, which is conducive to the siege of our army." ”

Lu Su is a famous and honest man, he can only see where his own interests lie, and he doesn't know what intrigue is, stabbing in the back and quietly stumbling, but fortunately, there are two masters in this area - or the top masters! After continuing to be noncommittal, Tao Ying turned his gaze to Jia Xu again and asked, "Mr. Wenhe, what about you?" ”

"The lord is noncommittal, naturally he already has a plan in his heart, why bother asking Yu Xu again?" Jia Xu asked with a smile.

"If you listen to both, you will understand." Tao Ying also smiled and said, "Mr. Wenhe has no last resort, far-reaching vision, and he must have more unique insights than Zaixia." ”

"Then it will be ugly." Jia Xu said calmly: "If Xu is not bad, Liu Xuan sent his son to our army this time, and he must have asked his son to persuade the lord to attack Lujiang first, and then take Liyang, and he will say something useless, and he will contribute to the capture of Jiujiang and Lujiang for our army to the end." Therefore, Xu is the same as the judgment of the lord, thinking that Liyang will be taken first, and then Lujiang will be taken, so as to make Liu Miao uncomfortable to the bones! ”

"Same as the judgment of the lord?" Lu Su and Chen Ying's eyes widened when they heard Jia Xu's words, and they didn't quite understand why Jia Xu expected this. Tao Ying was concerned about another point, and hurriedly asked: "Mr. Wenhe expects that Liu Ji is here, is he going to persuade our army to attack Lujiang first and then take Liyang?" Liu Xiangpifu, who doesn't even understand the truth of dead lips and teeth, can have such a long-term vision? ”

"I don't know much about Liu Xuan, and I don't know if Liu Xuan can have such a long-term vision." Jia Xu replied calmly: "But Xu can be sure of one thing, even if Liu Xuan doesn't have such a long-term vision, Yuan Shu will remind him to do so." ”

"Yuan Shu reminded Liu Xuan? Aren't they not in the same place? The more Chen Ying listened, the more confused he became.

"Our army has not spied on the secret contact between Yuan Shu and Liu Xuan, but Yuan Shu's situation has reached this point, so can he still take care of those previous grudges?" Jia Xu smiled and said: "If Yuan Shu secretly sent an envoy to Liu Xuan to ask for peace or even ask for help, then it must be to persuade Liu Xuan with the truth that his lips are dead and his teeth are cold, and remind Liu Xuan that once our army takes the Lujiang River and Jiujiang and controls the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, then Liu Xuan, who is in the lower reaches, will naturally be in danger." In this way, even if Liu Shu still holds a grudge and refuses to agree, he has to consider his position and situation, and he will definitely have the idea of letting Yuan Shu continue to linger and contain our army. ”

"Understood." Tao Ying nodded immediately and said: "Although it is not clear whether Liu Miao has seen a more far-reaching step, at present, if he can prompt our army to attack Lujiang first, it is also very in his interests, if our army succeeds in attacking Lujiang first, Zhang Xun of Liyang is not worried, Liu Miao can let go of Danyang and Yuzhang, and even sit back and enjoy his surrender, at least part of the Liyang army, and strengthen his strength." ”

"If our army attacks Lujiang and the war is unfavorable and the progress is slow, so that Yuan Shu insists on the mediation of Yuan Shao, who he dreamed of, or wins the rescue of Liu Biao in Jingzhou, then his position will be more favorable, or in exchange for sending troops to support Yuan Shu, he can get Yuzhang and Danyang through negotiations, or take advantage of the opportunity of our army to beat Yuan Shu to a great injury, and seize Yuzhang and Jiujiang by force. Mr. Wenhe, are you right? ”

"The lord is discerning, and that's exactly what happened." Jia Xu also nodded, and said calmly: "Although it is not confirmed whether Liu Miao saw the hidden danger caused to him by our army taking Liyang first, if it can promote our army to attack Lujiang first and gain time to wait and see, it can allow him Liu Miao to stand in a favorable position of attacking and retreating, watching the fire from the other side, and enjoying the success." ”

"There are really no eternal allies in the world, only eternal interests." Deputy Director Tao said quite sadly and indignantly, "I can't imagine that I am working so hard for him Liu Xiangpifu to eliminate the enemy Yuan Shu, he is still calculating me behind my back, wanting to take advantage of me!" Since he is unkind, don't blame me for being unjust! It's decided, hit Liyang first, and then Lujiang, and let him watch the fire from the other side of the river and dream in vain! ”

"Wait, lord." Lu Su and Chen Ying, two honest people, were stunned by the words of Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao's poison - this is a discussion, it is simply a meditation machine! Therefore, Lu Su and Chen Ying hurriedly asked: "My lord, Mr. Wenhe, what are the interests of our army after attacking Liyang first and then taking Lujiang?" What hidden dangers can it cause to Liu Xuan? ”

"Attacking Liyang first, and then taking Lujiang, can reduce the battlefield pressure of our army." Tao Ying explained: "In addition to the role of Liu Xuan's army in restraining the Liyang army, there is also Yuan Shupifu's cowardice and selfishness, seeing that our army attacked Liyang first, he will not send reinforcements to save Liyang, but will only let Zhang Xun defend Liyang to buy time." On the contrary, if our army first attacks the Lujiang River and then takes Liyang, not only Zhang Xun will definitely send troops to contain the rescue, but Yuan Shu may also give up Liyang and concentrate his forces to defend the Lujiang River, which will increase the pressure on our army on the battlefield, and further cheapen Liu Xun in vain. ”

"By capturing Liyang, our army can calmly implement the established strategy of forcing Yuan Shu to cross the river and disrupting the situation in the south of the Yangtze River." Jia Xu also explained: "Yuan Shu is very strong, the most cherished his surname, seeing that Liyang is lost, Shucheng is already isolated, will not give birth to the idea of crossing the river to take refuge, as long as he gives birth to this idea, our army can use various means such as cutting off wings and opening up the road to force and induce Yuan Shu to lead the army to cross the river, to the south of the Yangtze River to fight with Liu Xuan, to prevent the current strongest Liu Xiang south of the Yangtze River from sitting on the throne, and increase the difficulty for our army to seize Jiangdong in the future." ”

"Count the time, after our army takes Liyang, the news of whether Yuan Shao will come forward to mediate the war in Huainan should also be sent to the Huainan front." Tao Ying went on to explain: "Because of the Son of Heaven, the current relationship between Yuan Shao and Cao Ying has cracked, in order to contain the Cao thief and force the Cao thief to hand over the Son of Heaven, Yuan Shao will definitely not be too embarrassed by our army, Yuan Shu saw that it was hopeless to beg Yuan Shao to mediate, so he naturally gave birth to the idea of crossing the Yangtze River in the south." ”

"Attacking Liyang first can also avoid weakening Yuan Shu excessively, causing him to be unable to effectively balance Liu Xuan after crossing the river." Jia Xu added: "If our army attacks the Lujiang River first, Yuan Shu waits for Yuan Shao's news with a glimmer of hope, in addition to definitely resisting our army with all his might, he will definitely mobilize the Liyang army to reinforce the Lujiang River, and once our army weakens Yuan Shu too much on the battlefield, then even if Yuan Shu is finally forced to cross the river, he is not Liu Xuan's opponent, and Liu Xuan will still sit on the south bank of the Yangtze River." ”

"In the same way, judging from the current situation, the progress of our army's Huainan war is far smoother than expected, as long as we are willing to pay the price and wipe out Yuan Shu south of the Yangtze River, it is not hopeless." Tao Ying spread his hands again and said: "But I must not eliminate Yuan Shu now, because we don't have the Yangtze River Navy now, and if we can't cross the Yangtze River, we can't restrain Liu Miao from sitting big, so I can only drive Yuan Shu, who has the Yangtze River Water Army, across the river and borrow his hand to stop Liu Shu from sitting big." ”

Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison said a word, the honest people Lu Su and Chen Ying were dumbfounded, and finally waited until Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison finished speaking, Lu Su and Chen Ying didn't know how to speak, and after a long time, Chen Ying said cautiously: "Lord, since this is the case, why don't our army simply wait for the news of Yuan Shao's mediation to reach the front line, so that Yuan Shu can see that there is no hope of keeping Huainan, and then try to force Yuan Shu's Lujiang Army and Liyang Army across the Yangtze River together?" ”

"Then after Yuan Shu crossed the river, how could Liu Miao check and balance Yuan Shu?! Wouldn't it be more troublesome to let Yuan Shu sit south of the Yangtze River?! Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao asked in unison.

"What a gap! This is the gap between being a human being! The honest people Lu Su and Chen Ying sighed in their hearts at the same time.

"Lord, lord!" At this time, our Yang Changshi ran back to the big tent, saluted happily and said: "Lord, the envoy you gave to has already been done by your subordinates, and Liu Xuan's attitude has already been figured out." ”

"Oh, so fast? What attitude? Tao Yinghuan asked.

"The young man has no hair on his mouth, and he can't do things well, and his subordinates only used three words to get the situation out of the mouth of that Liu Ji boy." Our Yang Changshi was very proud, and said: "Congratulations to the lord, congratulations to the lord, Liu Ji is here to show his attitude on behalf of his father Liu Ji this time." Liu Ji said that in view of the fact that the Qu'a army had no size on the battlefield before, in order to repay the lord for his revenge-breaking kindness, they decided to continue to make every effort to contain Yuan Shupifu's Liyang team, so that our army could attack Lujiang with all their strength without distraction! If our army does not take the entire territory of the Lujiang River for a day, their Qu'a army will bite Zhang Xun for a day and will not let go. ”

"Sure enough." Tao Ying nodded with satisfaction and said: "Then please ask Mr. Zhongming to invite Liu Ji Gongzi, Qu'a army is so concerned about the interests of our army, I can't abandon the interests of my allies, trouble my allies to stay in Niuzhu for a long time without any achievements, I have already decided, first send troops to Liyang and Qu'a army to join forces to kill Zhang Xun's team, and then send troops to fight Lujiang - this point, Mr. Zhong Ming can tell Liu Ji Gongzi in advance, so that he can also be happy." ”

(To be continued)