I don't know if Cao Ren and Cheng Yu did this on purpose, the time for Cao Jun's team to break through Licheng was neither early nor late, and it happened to be stuck in the most uncomfortable rhythm for Da Yuan Sangong, which made Da Yuan Sangong, who was already annoyed that Cao Jun did not listen to the command, once again became furious.

Of course, it would be best if Cao's army broke through Licheng earlier, just as Deputy Director Tao said, once the Qingzhou coalition army that was facing off with Yuan Sangong on the bank of the Yellow River was poked in the waist, it could only retreat and suffer a big rout, which was the most favorable tactical situation for Yuan Sangong.

It would be good if Cao's army broke through Licheng a little later, because the capricious plain Gao Tang made Liu Ping turn against him again, and sent his brother Liu Gaomi to the army of the Great Yuan Sangong to ask for surrender, expressing his willingness to act as an internal response to the attack of the Great Yuan Sangong crossing the river, and the Great Yuan Sangong listened to Xun Chen's suggestion, and also accepted the explanation that the Liu Ping brothers were isolated and forced to temporarily succumb to the thief, not only agreed to the Liu Ping brothers' request to surrender, but also secretly dispatched troops and boats to prepare to launch a rush at the Gaotang Ferry to break through the Yellow River defense line of the Qingzhou coalition army, First of all, a nail was hammered on the south bank of the Yellow River, so that it would be convenient to monitor the movements of the Qingzhou coalition forces, and it would be more convenient to immediately launch a pursuit and receive the main force to cross the river.

But just when the partial division was about to be arranged in place, the news that the Cao army had broken through Licheng came, and the Tiankong coalition army, which was poked in the waist, in order not to be cut off from the back road, immediately burned down the wharf, and also burned all the ferries and most of the unimportant baggage, and arranged a strong team of elite soldiers and generals, and immediately launched a great retreat, and the Great Yuan Sangong had already divided his troops to Gaotang, weakened his strength, and hurriedly launched a pursuit that could not immediately reassemble his strength, and was blocked by the Yellow River, and the team could only cross the river in batches. Hurriedly one team after another threw themselves into the pursuit battlefield, so the effect of the pursuit can be imagined.

In a word, a defeat battle and a chase battle that should have been smooth sailing, Leng was pitted by Cao Jun into a battle and a battle to add oil, the capture was far smaller than expected, and the casualties were far greater than estimated. Therefore, while quickly concentrating forces to continue to pursue and kill the Qingzhou coalition army, the Great Yuan Sangong Shao had no choice but to send a letter to Cao's army in a hurry, ordering Cao Ren to immediately go north to Zhuxian and cut off the retreat and return of the Qingzhou coalition army at all costs! Otherwise, Da Yuan Sangong will have to settle the new account and the old account together!

The order of the Great Yuan Sangong was relatively easy, but this order was sent to the Cao army, but it made General Cao Ren, Mr. Cheng Yu and our Uncle Liu Huang want to cry without tears, because even after the hard fighting, the Cao army team not only suffered heavy casualties but was also exhausted, and at the same time, the Licheng defender Shan Jing was also a ruthless character. The Cao army team that received a small amount of supplies in Dongping and the two counties is about to run out of food and grass, and in this case, rashly going north is simply a joke with the surnames of the soldiers of the whole army!

So there was no way, and the poor General Cao Ren could only decide to explain the reason to the Great Yuan Sangong, asking the Great Yuan Sangong to understand the difficulty of his own army, and preparing to refuse to carry out the order of the Great Yuan Sangong, which was difficult for a strong man. However, this time Cheng Yu, the staff officer of the army, did not dare to agree with General Cao Ren to offend Yuan Sangong again, so he could only persuade him: "General Zixiao, we can no longer intensify the contradiction between our army and Yuan Shao, before our army did not listen to Yuan Shao's order to attack Licheng in advance, although it was an excuse not to receive this order, but it was already a great anger to Yuan Shao, this time if you directly refuse to implement Yuan Shao's order, the consequences will be unimaginable, but the plan now can only be to temporarily obey Yuan Shao's command and continue to make false promises with it." ”

"But the grain and grass ......." Cao Ren's face was worried.

"It shouldn't be a big problem." Cheng Yu hesitated and said: "Zhu County is where the grain of the Qingzhou thief army is located, and the main force of Yuan Shao's army is chasing after the main force of Qingzhou, there is no problem for our army's grain and grass to persist until the soldiers reach the county, as long as we meet with Yuan Shao in the county, even if the grain and grass are not enough, Yuan Shao will definitely be able to solve some problems for us, and then persist until the county is broken, the grain and grass problem will not be a problem." ”

"That's the only way, it's really soft-mouthed, and short-handed."

With a long sigh of helplessness, the poor General Cao Ren could only stubbornly raise his troops to the north, and hurriedly marched to the county to fortify and intercept the retreat of the main force of the Qingzhou coalition army. Fortunately, General Cao Ren listened to Cheng Yu's suggestion, and ordered the soldiers to rush to the predetermined battlefield in just one day, and the order was not in vain, and the soldiers of the Cao army did not work in vain, when the Cao army team hurried to the southern suburbs of the county, Tian Kai and Kong Rong's coalition army had just arrived in the western suburbs of the county, seeing that there was Cao Jun blocking the road in front, and Yuan Shao chasing after him, Tian Kai, a veteran of Youzhou who personally led the army to the battle, did not hesitate, and immediately led the main force that was already quite tired to settle in the county. General Cao Ren barely succeeded in carrying out the order of the Third Duke of Yuan.

At about Shen Shi in the afternoon of the same day, the main force of the Great Yuan Sangong also arrived at the county seat, and the Yuan Cao coalition army finally blocked the main force of the Qingzhou Coalition Army in the county town on the bank of the Luoshui River, but the matter was not over, in the evening of the same day, when Cao Ren led Cheng Yu and Liu Huangshu to visit the Yuan Shao military camp, he was scolded by the Great Yuan Sangong and asked: "I ordered Er and others to launch the Licheng War on March 25, why did you start attacking Licheng on March 18?" And where is the messenger whom we have sent to communicate with you? ”

"Yuan Gong, the last general really didn't receive that order!" Cao Ren said: "If the last general received an order from Yuan Gong, he would definitely postpone the battle according to the order, but the last general really didn't receive that order, and he was eager to attack Licheng to support the main battlefield of the plain, so there was the Licheng incident, but the last general was really kind and kind." ”

"yes." There was no evidence of death, Cheng Yu also stood up and said: "The messenger of Duke Yuan suddenly disappeared in Yanzhou, and my lord and General Zixiao are very concerned about this matter, and they have also instructed the local government to strictly investigate this matter, and once there is a result, I will definitely give Duke Yuan a satisfactory answer." ”

Da Yuan Sangong is not Alzheimer's yet, of course he knows that Cao Ren and Cheng Yu are cheating, but there is no evidence that Da Yuan Sangong is so angry and there is nothing to be done, so he can only shout with a blue face: "Well, tell your lord, if there is an explanation of this matter that satisfies me, then it is easy to say anything!" If not, don't blame me for my years of friendship with him! ”

"Please rest assured that Gong Yuan, we will definitely report Gong Yuan's words to the lord truthfully." Cao Ren and Cheng Yu agreed in unison - in fact, Cao Ren and Cheng Yu were also very helpless, the reason why they killed the messenger of the Great Yuan Sangong and launched the Licheng War in advance was to disrupt the tactical arrangement of the Great Yuan Sangong and drag the Jizhou Army and the Xuzhou Army into the quagmire of the war of attrition, but they lifted a stone and shot themselves in the foot, which did not receive the effect and offended the Great Yuan Sangong again, and he had long regretted that his intestines were turning green.

The matter was still not over, and after glancing at Cao Ren and Cheng Yu viciously, Da Yuan Sangong suddenly asked, "How much grain and grass did you bring this time?" Last time in the Lu Bu Rebellion, your lord Cao Mengde borrowed more than 300,000 grains from me before and after, this time in the Qingzhou War, how much do you plan to pay me back? It just so happened that my military rations were a little insufficient, so I sent 100,000 Hu over to help me first. ”

"What?" General Cao Ren and Cheng Yu, who were about to borrow grain from the Third Duke of Great Yuan, were all dumbfounded.

"How?" Seeing that Cao Ren and Cheng Yu's expressions were wrong, Da Yuan Sangong couldn't help but start a fire again, and asked, "Could it be that you don't want to pay back any grain?" Do you still want to borrow food from me? ”

The next situation will not be described in detail, in short, when Cao Ren and Cheng Yu finished talking about the serious shortage of food in the army, the manpower and material resources have been completely inclined to the northern line of the big Yuan Sangong jumped like thunder, in front of Cao Ren and Cheng Yu, Cao Boss shamelessly scolded a bloody head, Cao Ren was furious and retorted, and immediately completely angered the big Yuan Sangong, causing the big Yuan Sangong to order Cao Ren to be beheaded, although this matter was finally dissuaded by Xun Chen and Yuan Tan, but it also led to the deterioration of the relationship between the Yuan and Cao families, the gap is deeper.

Immediately afterwards, in order to retaliate against General Cao Ren's confrontation, the Da Yuan Sangong, who was absolutely not lenient enough, naturally arranged the Cao army team to be stationed at the east gate of the county - this is also the direction in which the Qingzhou coalition army is most likely to break through, and the Cao army team must participate in the siege of the city. In addition, the third prince of Da Yuan also ordered Boss Cao to send reinforcements to the Qingzhou battlefield to act as cannon fodder, so as to repay his kindness for helping back then.................................... Because Yuan Sangong stayed in Yecheng, Deputy Director Tao of course could not grasp these details, but he only knew that Yuan Sangong and Cao Jun had already joined forces in Zhuxian County and had surrounded the main force of the Qingzhou coalition army. But this is enough, after receiving this military intelligence report, Deputy Director Tao applauded and laughed on the spot: "There is a good show, with my father-in-law's surname, it must be a battle to Cao thief to fight, people want Cao thief to die, the city to Cao thief attack, but the spoils are accepted by my father-in-law and his old man, Cao thief's team is to suffer a dumb loss when he obeys the order, and if he does not obey the order, he offends my father-in-law. ”

There was a burst of happy laughter in the conference hall, Chen Deng, Liu Ye and Chen Ying and other sycophants naturally had to pat themselves in front of Deputy Director Tao, and praised Deputy Director Tao for being far-sighted and taking precautions, and luring Yuan Sangong into the Qingzhou battlefield early, otherwise, with Yuan Tan's hatred for Deputy Director Tao, this kind of unlucky thing would definitely be the Xuzhou army. And after the compliment, Liu Ye longed again: "I don't know if this incident will cause the Yuan Cao family to completely turn their faces and turn against each other completely?" If this situation can occur, it will be too beneficial for our army, whether it is Cao Ying or Yuan Shao, we must go all out to win the support of our army. ”

"Maybe it's not a big surname." Deputy Director Tao shook his head, reclined down in a big way, shook Erlang's legs and said: "Cao Thief is by no means an ordinary thief, and the large group of strategists under his command are not fuel-efficient lamps, knowing that their situation is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and they will never dare to easily turn against the most powerful neighbor Jizhou Army, and push themselves into a desperate situation on all sides." So I expected that Cao Thief would be holding on to a little more dumb loss this time, and hated my father-in-law to the bone marrow in his heart, but he would never dare to openly turn his face with my father-in-law! ”

"Is the lord willing to let Cao Ying and Yuan Shao completely turn their faces?" Jia Lao, who had always been steady, suddenly spoke, and asked Deputy Director Tao with a smile.

"Mr. Wenhe has a plan?" Deputy Director Tao's eyes lit up, and he quickly sat up straight again and asked.

"I don't dare to say a clever plan, but there is a trick for carving insects." Jia Lao Poison said very modestly: "But even if this plan can't make Cao Ying and Yuan Shao completely turn their faces, it is sure that the relationship between the two families will deteriorate to the extreme, so that the lord can use clever tricks to provoke the two families to completely turn against each other." ”

"Mr. Wenhe, please give it a try." Deputy Director Tao quickly urged, and Chen Deng and Liu Ye next to him also pricked up their ears, wanting to hear what kind of immoral idea the world-famous old poison had come up with.

"No." Jia Lao Poison agreed very respectfully, and said politely: "In fact, if this strategy can be successful, the first merit should be remembered by Mr. Zhong Ming - since Mr. Zhong Ming came forward to appease Zhang Ji's uncle and nephew for Liu Biao, he was arranged by Liu Biao to be stationed in Wancheng, and his purpose is naturally to use the strength of Zhang Ji's uncle and nephew's Xiliang army to resist the threat from the north. ”

"But in this way, another situation has been formed, Wancheng is only more than 500 miles away from Xuchang, as long as the Xiliang Iron Cavalry is willing, the army can come to Xuchang City within five days at the earliest! And what is even more troublesome for Cao Ying is that between Wancheng and Xuchang is an open plain with a flat river, there is no danger to defend at all, so although the team of Zhang Ji's uncle and nephew is slightly weaker, it is like a sharp knife, always stuck in Cao Mengde's heart, so that Cao Mengde is like a thorn in the back, always threatening the safety of Cao Jun's hinterland! It can definitely be regarded as a thorn in Cao Ying's eye and a thorn in the flesh! ”

"Therefore, for Cao Thief, if he doesn't pull out this thorn in his eye and this thorn in the flesh, he won't dare to do anything at all!" Jia Lao Poison smiled a little again, and said: "If Xu is not bad, after the wheat is ripe, Cao Ying should also attack Zhang Ji's uncle and nephew in Wancheng, in this case, why not ...... the lord?" ”

"Wonderful!" Before Jia Lao's words were finished, Deputy Director Tao, a highly talented student who graduated from the Public Servant School, had already puffed up his palms and said with a smile: "Mr. Wenhe really has a clever plan, if I ask Lord Yuezhang for an alliance on behalf of Uncle Zhang Ji's nephew, and Lord Yuezhang agrees to accept the attachment of Uncle Zhang Ji's nephew, Cao Thief can't cry!" Either I will try to offend my father-in-law and pull out Zhang Ji's thorn in the eye and flesh at any cost! Either I swallow my father-in-law's order, coexist peacefully with Uncle Zhang Ji's nephew, and let this sharp knife be stuck in his back and heart forever! ”

"The lord is clever, and he has said everything he wants to say."

Jia Lao Poison smiled and flattered, Chen Deng and Chen Ying brothers were also smiling, Deputy Director Tao did not hesitate, and said on the spot: "Just do it, Yuan Fang immediately wrote two letters for me, one to Zhang Ji, telling him that I intend to introduce him to my father-in-law, so as to promote his friendship with the Jizhou army, and ask him to send an envoy to Jizhou to contact my father-in-law and ask for attachment. ”

"Another letter to my father-in-law is that Zhang Ji begged me to introduce him to him, hoping to be attached to the command of Lord Yue, obey the command of Lord Yue, and accept the protection of Lord Yuezhang. Then I took a few more sycophants for me, and begged my father-in-law to accept this request for the sake of his filial son-in-law. ”

Chen Ying agreed, and when he quickly picked up the pen and wrote the letter, Liu Ye next to him stood up and said very worriedly: "Lord, Mr. Wenhe, although this plan is wonderful, but Zhang Ji is the exiled general of Xiliang, the fourth and third dukes of the original duke, I'm afraid he may not be able to look down on General Zhang Ji?" ”

"It shouldn't be a big problem." Jia Lao Poison replied quietly: "As the lord said, Yuan Gong is a person who likes to take advantage, and Cao Mengde is also a person who does not like to suffer, after they are in the county, they will inevitably have many contradictions with each other, conflicts continue, and the relationship is getting worse, plus Yuan Gong is very jealous of Cao Mengde's coercion of the Son of Heaven to make the princes, and he has long had the intention of seizing the Son of Heaven by force, and he will definitely not refuse a sharp knife that can be inserted in Cao Mengde's heart!" ”

"Mr. Ziyang's worries are not unreasonable." Deputy Director Tao likes to be safe, and generally will never demolish without preparing the bulldozer, so after a little calculation, Deputy Director Tao said: "In this way, for the sake of safety, we will simply do another thing." ”

"Mr. Ziyang, you also wrote two letters to Tian Kai and Kong Rong for me, telling them that I am scheduled to send troops on May 15, and attack Zhuxian through Langya, and then go through Pingchang, Gumu, Anqiu, Yingling and Pingshou to attack Xixian County, and then turn west from Xixian County to Linzi! The number of troops, more than 40,000, is led by me personally! Then I sent the two letters directly to Beihai and handed them over to Kong Rong, and the other to the county battlefield, first to ask my father-in-law to look at them, and then to Tian Kai's army! ”

Liu Ye nodded yes, and then Deputy Director Tao turned to Chen Ying and instructed: "Yuan Fang, add two paragraphs to my father-in-law's letter, one is the time, strength and route of the troops I just said, and the other paragraph tells my father-in-law, saying that I consider that his army is fighting on two fronts, and it will be difficult to transfer grain and grass, so after I join him, I will immediately send him 100,000 pieces of military food to reduce his logistical burden and show a little filial piety." ”

"No." Chen Ying nodded in agreement, and said very worriedly: "But my lord, although 100,000 Hu military rations are not a big problem for our army, but from Xuzhou to the hinterland of Qingzhou, this journey consumes a lot of food?" ”

Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison both laughed, Chen Deng also laughed, and complained to Chen Ying with a smile: "Third brother, you are really confused, when did our lord do something that suffered?" Our wheat is ripe in Xuzhou, is it not ripe in Qingzhou? Beihai County is the richest county in Qingzhou, and if Beihai County is taken, not to mention 100,000 Hu military rations, it will not be a problem to have 300,000 Hu grains? ”

"It turns out that the lord is going to take Kong Rong's grain to be filial to his father-in-law? should be ashamed to have the same name as the lord, but it is really a shame for the lord. ”

Chen Ying suddenly realized, scratched his head and smiled ashamedly, and Chen Deng smiled again: "The lord's move, in fact, is to compare with the Cao thief, on the one hand, it is to steal and destroy the Cao thief who is slippery and unwilling to work hard for the Jizhou army, and on the other hand, he is obedient and well-behaved, filial and generous, comparable to the twenty-four filial piety of the son-in-law, can the original prince not give the lord a face, and agree to the lord's request for attachment on behalf of Zhang Ji?" ”

"Then the thief has to cry!" Chen Ying cheered, and then hurriedly buried himself in writing.

........................ "Ahh Ahh Ahh ”

At the same time in the Prime Minister's Mansion in Xuchang City, Boss Cao, who had always been in good health, suddenly sneezed several times one after another, rubbed his nose and muttered that someone must be calculating me, and then made a mess of the letter group of the Great Yuan Sangong who had just been sent, and threw it into the hands of the guards next to him, and shouted: "Keep it, take it out when I go to the toilet in a while, I will use it to wipe my belly!" ”

The guard agreed, and carefully classified the letter of the third prince of Yuan into the category of rubbing, and Xun Yu under the hall asked: "Lord, if you give Yuan Shao an answer?" ”

"Ahh Let's be perfunctory as before. Boss Cao sneezed and said: "The locust plague in Yanzhou, the drought in northern Henan, the soldiers and horses are scattered in various realms and it is difficult to assemble for a while, and when I am ready, I will definitely send troops to him Yuan Benchu to send food, anyway, Yuan Benchu's surname has always been bad, and he will definitely forget it after a few months." ”

"Yes." Xun Yu nodded and said: "Kong Rong is just a sword and a rotten Confucian, Tian Kai is just an insect that is not stiff, not Yuan Shao's opponent at all, delay for a while, and wait until the situation of the war in Qingzhou turns to Yuan Shao's advantage, I think Yuan Shao will not ask us to send troops and food again." ”

"Wancheng! Wancheng should speed up preparations. Boss Cao advised: "After the wheat is ripe and put into storage, immediately send troops to the south, pull out the nail of Zhang Ji, and level the hidden dangers in the rear of our army, this is the first major ...... our army at present, ah!" Damn, who's scheming against me behind my back, why does this sneeze keep coming?! ”

(To be continued)