The winter night in the south of the Yangtze River is also cold, but there is no heavy wind and snow in the north and west of the country, and the melting moonlight is sprinkled in the courtyard like a light veil, and everything around the mountains and rocks has become a little hazy.

Under the moonlight, the handsome young man's voice is like water, moving with all his might, without joy or sorrow.

"My brother wants to compete for power in the Central Plains, and there are three problems that need to be solved urgently...... If the army wants to go north, there must be a way to go, and now Huainan and Xuzhou are blocked by the enemy, if the road cannot be opened as soon as possible, everything will be suspended. If you want to open up the road, strength is the foundation, Jiangdong's population is limited, and all kinds of waste are waiting to be rebuilt, if you want to start from scratch, build Tuntian, and resume production, it will be difficult to see its achievements in three or five years......"

Zhou Yu sighed softly: "The hussar generals crisscross the north, they are invincible, and the generals under their command are also vying for the lead, although Hu Lu is cunning and traps Gongsun Zhan, but looking at its momentum, I am afraid it will be difficult to do more this time." ”

Sun Ce wanted to listen to Zhou Yu finish speaking in one breath, but when he heard this, he couldn't help it, and asked with a frown: "Gong Jin thinks Wang Pengju has won?" ”

"It's hard to say." Zhou Yu's answer was somewhat ambiguous.

Seeing that Sun Ce frowned, he further explained: "Yu has been in Jianghuai for a long time, and he doesn't know much about the affairs of Biansai, so he doesn't dare to make a conclusion. But it is said that this time the Xianbei departments eliminated the feud and joined forces against the enemy, and there were many Liu Yu and Xu Yu mediating in the middle, Liu Yu has been ancient, but Xu Yu is still in the Xianbei camp, he has experienced the Hebei War, and has been a military aircraft for Liu Xuande, so he knows the risk of the decisive battle of the whole division. ”

"What does Gongjin mean ......" Sun Ce groaned slightly, raised his head after a while, looked directly at Zhou Yu, and sought verification, but there was a strong unwillingness in his tone: "Hu Qi will withdraw from the border pass to avoid the edge of the Qingzhou army?" ”

Compared with Wang Yu's successive battles, he scared away the army of more than 100,000 Hu people. He would rather hear the news of a decisive battle between the two armies somewhere, and a great victory for the hussars.

Although the latter is surprising, after all, it is commonplace, and after all, it is impossible for the hussars themselves to be unharmed by the repulsion of hundreds of thousands of Hu cavalry, and it is impossible to return to the Central Plains without stopping, which leaves time for Jiangdong to forge ahead.

Words of the former......

Xianbei and Wuhuan made such a big battle, and even Gongsun Zhan, the Great Wall, was trapped by them, and they didn't take advantage of anything. Even his hometown was stabbed by Zhao Yun, and then he just retreated like this? Failing to cause enough consumption to the Qingzhou Army is one of them, and more importantly, they mobilized the army, purely to help Wang Yu, right?

If Xianbei retreats. Gongsun Zhan was really saved by Wang Yu once, and with this person's arrogance, it is impossible not to say anything about it. On the same day at Jieqiao, Gongsun Zhan transferred the remnants of the righteous soldiers to Wang Yu, on the one hand, he was ashamed of his old brother, and on the other hand, he also had the meaning of repaying the favor.

Therefore, after the Hebei War, the Gongsun army remained independent. I went my own way, but no one talked about the battle of the Boundary Bridge.

This time, Gongsun Chan lost his troops, from any point of view. It is impossible to continue to maintain independence, if Xianbei retreats, for Wang Yu, the purpose of the Northern Expedition will be successfully achieved.

There is another general under his command who can take charge of himself. From now on, the northern frontier will no longer have to worry about trouble, and he can concentrate all his efforts on navigating the Central Plains. Compared to these benefits. With his strong military might and combat achievements, his reputation of directly scaring off 100,000 Hu cavalry is almost negligible.

"Yes, yes." Zhou Yu was unwilling and unhappy with Sun Ce, but he didn't mean to take a detour, but said bluntly: "Hu Cai's tactics were originally better in guerrilla warfare, and he could use the elongated battle line in Qingzhou to carry out a tentative attack on the whole line, but now several tentative attacks have been frustrated. In fact, this is advantageous, with the containment of Xianbei and Wuhuan, even if Wang Yu takes Youzhou, the northern Xinjiang is not peaceful, compared to the victory or defeat in the first battle, it is more secure. ”

Regarding the situation in northern Xinjiang, Zhou Yu is far from being as he said, only a little bit of it, but he has worked hard, and it is an exaggeration to say that he is more confident than Wang Yu and Gongsun Zhan, but compared with Zhuge Liang and other Qingzhou civil and military forces, his understanding is equally profound.

Before the Battle of Youzhou, Xianbei's alliance was only temporary, and if this battle was won, in order to compete for the results of the war, maybe these people would soon have another internal strife. However, if they retreat without success, they will have to unite closely in the face of the aggressive hussars.

"Wang Huqi's personality is very ...... is weird, he seems to have a kind of unwarranted hatred for Hu Ren, so that day in Sour Zao, he and Gongsun Zhan hit it off at first sight, and they had a good relationship. The Xianbei people will retain their strength and withdraw, maybe he will chase and fight fiercely, so that the main force of Qingzhou will be pinned down for a longer time, which is beneficial and harmless to our army. ”

Zhou Yu continued to analyze: "Of course, these are all Yu's own opinions, speculation, not necessarily to the truth, but the general direction should be correct. In short, our army should not be too pessimistic, nor should it be left to chance, guard against arrogance and rashness, and give priority to self-enlargement......"

As he spoke, he looked at Sun Ce, slightly worried.

According to the temper of the righteous brother in the past, the more brilliant Wang Yu's record, the more intense the restlessness in his heart will be, and that somewhat senseless appointment battle is one of the manifestations of this emotion.

Zhou Yu can make judgments very responsibly, as long as Sun Ce's mentality does not change, there is no hope of winning in the face of Wang Yu.

Fortunately, after that battle, Sun Ce's edge has converged a lot, and he can listen to opinions more when encountering problems. But that is the state of facing people or things other than Wang Yu, and Zhou Yu is not sure if the old state will arise when the righteous brother faces Wang Yu's light again.

“…… So, Gong Jin, you also support continuing to attack Jiangxia and strengthening your strength? After a moment of silence, Sun Ce used a rhetorical question to dispel Zhou Yu's concerns.

"Jingzhou was the least affected by the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and although there were frequent wars afterwards, it never experienced a major war. And after Liu Jingsheng became the master, he adopted the strategy of ruling by inaction, and the local heroes received great preferential treatment, and in the past few years, the accumulated wealth was far greater than before. Because of this, Jingzhou has shown a situation of weak expansion and more than self-defense in recent years. ”

Letting go of his thoughts, Zhou Yu's mood was obviously much more excited, and his speech speed accelerated a lot: "If our army wants to grow rapidly, it must take Jingzhou's money and food!" ”

War requires resources, and there are only two ways to get them. self-production and external plunder.

Zhou Yu is not blindly eager for quick success, but it is too late to rely on his own development, and development needs land and population. The land in Koto is very rich, but the population is a big problem.

The inherent population of Jiangdong is very small, otherwise the Han Dynasty would not have enclosed the scope of Yangzhou so large - if you look at the map alone, the area of Yangzhou can be more than the sum of Yan, Henan, Qing, and Xu.

It can be seen that Yangzhou is a sparsely populated place. At present, the territory occupied by the Jiangdong Army is less than half of Yangzhou, and the territory around Jianghuai is Yuan Shu's.

In the mouths of the ministers of celebrity and merciful. Population is usually a burden, because one more person means one more mouth to feed.

But when it comes to real governance, everyone knows that the more populous the place. The more prosperous, the easier it is to develop, because one more person means one more laborer, and one more tax!

And increasing the population is also a difficult and simple proposition. It's simple in troubled times. If you take out a little food and do good governance, you can gather a large number of displaced people. But if there are no displaced people, the population will multiply and increase on its own. That's going to be a long cycle.

Of course, Zhou Yu will not fail to see the benefits of collecting the displaced people, and Sun Ce will not be stingy with money and food, but the problem is that after they pacify Jiangdong. There are no longer large groups of displaced people in the Jianghuai area.

The establishment of Sui'an and Linhuai counties was established in a very short period of time. There are a lot of homeless people who have been absorbed. In line with the yearning for Qingzhou's new policy and the current situation of poverty, not only the homeless, but also many poor people have joined the ranks of migration - Qingzhou is too far away, but Sui'an is near his hometown, and it will be convenient to settle down in the future, go home to sweep the ancestral graves, and worship the ancestors.

Although Jiangdong is only one step behind, it has fallen behind in this battle for population.

In terms of today's situation, if we adopt the suggestions of Zhang Zhao and others and focus on development, the gap between Jiangdong and Qingzhou will only become wider in three to five years. Therefore, foreign plunder is the king.

"Where did the plan come from?" The necessity of attacking Jiangxia, there is no need for Zhou Yu to say more, Sun Ce is only worried that the progress of the strategy is too slow. The previous battle was fought so smoothly, but only a few county towns were captured, and if it continued like this, when Wang Yu returned to Gaotang, the Jiangdong Army might not be able to defeat Shangchangcheng.

Zhou Yu slowly said eight words: "The three families are divided, and they can be down within the year!" ”

"Three families divided?" Sun Ce's heart suddenly froze.

To put it bluntly, Zhou Yu's countermeasures are not complicated at all, and if he can't eat it himself, he summons a few helpers. Zhou Yu's favorite helper is obviously Cao Cao and Yuan Shu, if these three join forces and face Jingzhou, it will be the overwhelming trend of Mount Tai, no matter how much Liu Biao can defend, he can't parry.

The only problem is the distribution of benefits after the war, and whether the other party can be persuaded to join the alliance, and then there is Sun Ce's own psychological barrier.

If Hu Ren's temperament is like a wolf, Sun Ce is a tiger, in his career, he rarely joins forces with anyone, and he has always been alone. The three families are divided, not only to ask others for help, but also to share a large part of the benefits, for Sun Ce, this is a difficult problem to face calmly.

Zhou Yu said in a deep voice: "Jiangdong's strength is inferior to Jingzhou, it is to attack the strong with the weak, but the strong can't defend it, even if there is a plan, there is no way to use it, if you want to win quickly, there is no other way." ”

Sun Ce took a deep breath, suppressed the flames that were beating in his heart, and asked, "Cao Cao is also a traitor, will he agree to help?" Although Runan can lead to Jingzhou, after all, the road is far away, and Yuan Shu will be willing to send troops? ”

"Cao Cao sent a letter, which originally meant to strengthen ties with the lord and capture Jingzhou together. It is not difficult to unite with it, it is just a matter of bargaining. Gu Yuan's quick thinking and eloquence are just a good candidate for the envoy...... "At this moment, separated by distant time and space, Zhou Yu and Guo Jia, the two wise men, resonated.

Rather than continuing to risk the opposite purpose and design to consume Ma Teng, it is better to change course and make it beneficial to Ma Teng, so that it can become a combat force against Qingzhou. But in this way, the westward expansion will not be able to reap the full success, and must find another way, in terms of the current situation, Jingzhou is also the only way out for Cao Cao! ”

I saw him smiling and said confidently: "Although Yuan Highway is famous, his temperament is like a vulture and a jackal, let him take the initiative to provoke Qingzhou, of course he doesn't dare, but he and Liu Biao have a vendetta first, Cao and Sun Alliance is a success, Jingzhou is in danger, even if the lord doesn't mention it, how can he sit idly by?" ”

Zhou Yu's voice turned low: "Yuan Highway is so happy, he has always had a thought, if everything goes well, the lord's road to the north may also be able to open the ......."

"Killing two birds with one stone?" Sun Ce's eyes suddenly lit up.

"Kill two birds with one stone!" Zhou Yu smiled.

"With the help of Gongjin, how fortunate is it?" Sun Ce's face was swept away, he patted Zhou Yu on the shoulder, and laughed: "Gong Jin said that he had three worries before, but now he said two, but what is the last one?" ”

"Without him, only to fight against the law of the Qingzhou Iron Horse."