The sacred and unbreakable alliance between Deputy Director Tao and his third brother-in-law Yuan Shang finally cracked, or a huge crack that was difficult to repair, and the culprits were none other than Deputy Director Tao and Yuan Shang, a pair of good uncles who were once so close that they almost wore a pair of pants!

After the Second Guandu War, Yuan Tan, who was defeated by the Xuzhou army, was unable to resist the main force of Xuzhou led by Deputy Director Tao because the main force of the southern front was basically wiped out, so he had no choice but to lead the remnants of the defeated army to flee to Hanoi and go to Bingzhou to try to make a comeback, and at the same time ordered Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu to abandon Puyang, Liyang and other Yanzhou controlled areas that had actually been isolated, and give priority to saving the army to withdraw to Hanoi to join him.

As mentioned above, when Yuan Tan abandoned Guandu and retreated to Hanoi, the main force of more than 40,000 Yuan Tan troops led by Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu was being surrounded by the Jizhou team led by Yuan Shanggongzi and the Xuzhou army Chen Zhi's team in the north and south, at that time, Chen Zhi's team was stationed in Lihu, forty miles south of Puyang, and Yuan Shanggongzi's team was stationed in the Dangyin area eighty miles away from Liyang. Severely damaged and weakened the most capable team under Yuan Tan's command, the situation was quite favorable to Tao Yuan's coalition army.

The bad thing is that in this concerted effort, Deputy Director Tao ordered Chen Zhi to lead 30,000 partial divisions to be stationed in Lihu, nominally to receive Yuan Shang, and the actual purpose was to monitor the main force of Yuan Tan's army, so that they could safely and quickly return to the battlefield to help Guandu. I never thought of being cannon fodder for Yuan Shanggongzi. And unfortunately, Yuan Shanggongzi has been looking forward to his brother-in-law's team as cannon fodder, hoping that the battle will be fought by his brother-in-law, and the people will let his brother-in-law die, and he will take advantage of it himself.

When Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu's troops withdrew from the last Yanzhou control area, they took the road from Chaoge to Huaixian, and from a geographical point of view, Yuan Shangjun should have undertaken the main pursuit task, and Chen Zhi's team, which was located south of the Yellow River, was at most an auxiliary. But Yuan Shanggongzi wanted to preserve his strength. He even ordered Chen Zhi to lead the army to pursue with all his strength in a letter. also whimsically ordered Chen Zhi to seize Ji County at any cost and cut off the return route of Yuan Tan's army; However, Chen Zhi was not Yuan Shang's subordinate, and he also received a secret order from Deputy Director Tao to preserve his strength, so he naturally did not want to obey Yuan Shang's order. Just immediately led the army north. took the important town of Puyang, which was abandoned by Yuan Tanjun.

It's not enough to take Puyang. Chen Zhi's subordinate general Yang Yan was ordered to monitor Yuan Tan's army to withdraw across the Yellow River, and when he followed all the way to the Yellow River crossing in Liyang, he found that Yuan Tan's army stationed in Liyang City had also abandoned the city. Yuan Shanggongzi's team, which was too far away, had not yet arrived at Liyang and took over this important military place, and the greedy Yang Yan simply did not stop doing anything, and simply crossed the Yellow River to take over Liyang City, and won this bridgehead that could be directly inserted into Yecheng for the Xuzhou army.

The importance of Liyang to Jizhou is only occasionally mentioned in the previous article, here is a detailed introduction, from a strategic point of view, only a few thousand people of Liyang small city can definitely be regarded as the first strategic point of the southern line of Jizhou, because this city is not only next to the White Horse Ferry, but also from Yuan Shangjun's base camp Yecheng is only less than 300 miles away, is the Xuzhou army must pass through to attack Yecheng. What's even worse is that the Baigou water under the city of Liyang is still the northward entrance to the hinterland of Jizhou, and the Baigou water entrance of Liyang is controlled, and the ships of the Xuzhou army can directly send grain and grass to the city of Yejun and the hinterland of Jizhou through canals and natural rivers, and even to the territory of Youzhou, and to the heart of Youzhou, which was called Jimen at that time and is now called Beijing! In history, Boss Cao defeated the Yuan brothers and took the two states of Jiyou, and all the grain and grass were transported north from this white ditch!

The order to pursue and intercept was rejected by the Xuzhou army, and Liyang City, an important place on the southern front, was also robbed by the Xuzhou army, and the anger in Yuan Shanggongzi's chest can naturally be imagined, if it weren't for Feng Ji and Li Fu pulling to the death, Yuan Shanggongzi would simply have the intention of giving up the pursuit of Yuan Tanjun and pulling the army to recapture Liyang City by force! And finally listened to the persuasion of Feng Ji and Li Fu to pursue the remnants of Yuan Tan's army with all his might, Yuan Shanggongzi, who was hiding too far at the beginning of the war, was too late anyway, and after a pursuit, Yuan Shanggongzi only wiped out a few hundred Yuan Tan's army behind the palace, and he also paid the basic same price, watching the main force of Yuan Tan's army withdraw across Qingshui and go deep into the hinterland of Hanoi.

After helplessly ending the seriously ill-prepared pursuit, Yuan Shanggongzi's first thing was to recapture Liyang, Feng Ji and Li Fu once again persuaded him to stop it, and the trial who stayed in Yecheng also sent a letter to dissuade him, explaining that Yuan Tan was not destroyed at present, and he must not turn his face and start a war with the thriving Xuzhou army, and suggested that Yuan Shanggongzi ask Deputy Director Tao to return the important land of Liyang through diplomatic means, and conclude an alliance to destroy Tan, and join forces as soon as possible to annihilate the Yuan Tan team that had been withdrawn to Bingzhou, and not give Yuan Tan a chance to breathe. Yuan Shanggongzi could still listen to the words of the trial, and soon sent Li Fu as an envoy to Xuchang to negotiate with Deputy Director Tao in person.

Because he had never been to Liyang, when Li Fu arrived in Xuchang to submit a letter to Deputy Director Tao, Deputy Director Tao, who was not familiar with the situation in Liyang, complained: "This Chen Dao, he took the wrong medicine, how did he take the city of Jizhou?" Yuan Fang, send a letter to Chen Zhi and ask him to ....... ”

"Ahem! Cough! Xun Chen, who had been in Jizhou for many years, was the first to cough, and then Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye and Shi Yi also thought that they were infected with a cold, and they coughed loudly, Deputy Director Tao glanced at a few accomplice lackeys in surprise, and saw that several accomplice lackeys were killing chickens and wiping their necks to give themselves a look, Deputy Director Tao quickly changed his words and said: "Mr. Zixian has come from afar to work hard, you can go to the pavilion to rest first, and the matter of forming an alliance to destroy Tan, let me discuss it carefully with everyone, Mr. Zixian rest assured, the third son is my brother-in-law, his request, Naturally, I wouldn't say no. ”

Although he knew that Xun Chen deliberately coughed and didn't have any good intentions, but the situation was not as good as people, Li Fu had to pretend not to know, and thanked Deputy Director Tao and went down to rest with the guards. As soon as Li Fu left, Xun Chen immediately took a map of Jizhou from the bookshelf next to the wall and spread it out in front of Deputy Director Tao. said with a wry smile: "Lord, take a closer look at the location of Liyang, especially pay attention to the Baigou water shipping under Liyang City, which can be navigated to Jizhou and Youzhou?" ”

After carefully looking at the map of Jizhou that he had seen, and using his finger to compare the northbound connection of Baigou water shipping, Deputy Director Tao, who was absolutely not able to look away, quickly exclaimed, "My God! Unexpectedly, Baigou Water has a connection with so many rivers, and it can connect almost all the important towns in Jizhou, and it can also send grain and grass directly to Youzhou by ship! How come I've never paid attention to such a nice place?! ”

"It's not just a grain ship." Xun Chen snorted: "Most of the river sections. A warship of about 200 people can also be navigated! It is easy to return Liyang to Yuan Shang. It's hard to get it back! If we turn against Yuan Shang and start a war, Liyang will be the first important town that Yuan Shang's army will hold on to! ”

"It's good that I didn't finish my sentence." Deputy Director Tao almost broke out in a cold sweat, and said happily: "Fortunately, Mr. Youruo and Zhu Gong reminded me in time, otherwise." We're going to lose a lot this time. ”

"Liyang must not be returned." Yi Ye, who has a good character, said categorically: "Liyang is in the hands of our army. Our army can be attacked. Retreat can be defended, not only to occupy the strategic initiative of the northern line of Yanzhou, but also to prevent Yuan Shang from coming when there is a change in our southern front! ”

"I can't pay it back." Liu Ye also nodded. He also suggested: "My lord, you might as well use Yuan Tanyu's party Youzhou Jiang Qi as an excuse to say that we plan to assist Yuan Shang in exterminating Jiang Qi and transport grain to help him need the waterway entrance of Liyang, and refuse to return Liyang on this ground, at least not for the time being, and borrow it from him for a few years." ”

"Isn't that too much? In any case, Yuan Shang is also our ally. "Deputy Director Tao is rarely hesitant about the thickness of his skin.

"Su Ye bluntly said that the close alliance between the lord and Yuan Shang may also come to an end." Liu Ye replied: "Judging from Uncle Chen's report on the military situation, the purpose of Yuan Shang's alliance with our army is obvious, that is, to use the hands of our army to eliminate Yuan Tan and help him unify the three states of Jiyou and You, and still hope that our army will destroy Yuan Tan. ”

"Of course I know that." Deputy Director Tao nodded, and said: "The only thing I'm worried about now is that we forcibly occupy the strategic land of Liyang and don't return it, Yuan Shanghe must understand that our army will attack him sooner or later, and indirectly force them to Yuan Tan's side, if Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang brothers join forces to fight against our army, it will be a bit difficult for us to annex Jiyou and Sanzhou." ”

"On this point, the lord definitely doesn't have to worry." The treacherous and slippery Jia Lao Poison finally spoke, and said with a smile: "Although Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang are half-brothers, named flesh and blood, they are actually enemies, and they each have their own parties, fighting with all their might, and the contradictions cannot be reconciled, not to mention that joining forces may be minimal, even if we really force Yuan Shang to Yuan Tan's side, the Yuan brothers will never really abandon their previous suspicions and work together." Not only that, after the Yuan brothers concluded an alliance and truce, they would take the opportunity to annex the other party! Therefore, the lord can rest assured that he will refuse to return Liyang, and while taking the opportunity to digest the newly occupied land in Yanzhou, he will sit and watch the movements of the Yuan brothers, wait for them to change, and wait for them to become, which can be decided in one fell swoop! ”

Deputy Director Tao pondered for a long time, and finally nodded and said: "Okay, just do it, under the pretext that Yuan Shang needs a waterway entrance to help him defeat Jiang Qi, and refuse to return Liyang!" By the way, by the way, I will give Yuan Shang an official position of Jiyou and Sanzhou Mu, which can be regarded as compensation for him Yuan Shang. ”

By the way, friends may have noticed that Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison and others seem to have forgotten to consider a question, what if Yuan Shang recaptures Liyang by force? The answer is very simple, Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison and others would like Yuan Shang to do this, because in this way, Deputy Director Tao, who used to have an extremely close relationship with Yuan Shanggongzi, has an excuse to start a war against the third brother-in-law, right?

……………………

Li Fu returned to Yecheng with Deputy Director Tao's reply and Emperor Han Xian's will to canonize Yuan Shanggongzi as Jiyou and Sanzhou Mu, and Yuan Shanggongzi, who had previously proclaimed himself Jingyou and Qingyan Wuzhou Mu, also suddenly exploded in anger, and despite everyone's dissuasion, he tore apart Emperor Han Xian's holy decree and Deputy Director Tao's letter on the spot, and roared and scolded: "Traitor! Dog thief! After receiving a lot of great favors from my Yuan family, now that my wings are hard, I want to ride on my head to and pee! Pass the order, gather troops and horses immediately, and I will personally go to recapture the Liyang land! ”

"My lord!" The judge hurriedly dissuaded and said: "The recapture of Liyang by force will inevitably lead to a full-scale war between our army and the Xuzhou army, and Tao Ying is already sitting on the land of Sizhou. The soldiers are strong and strong, and the armoured soldiers under his command have exceeded 400,000, and our army is surrounded by enemies on all sides, and there are rebellions in Jizhou, and the strength is at an absolute disadvantage. ”

"What about Liyang?" Yuan Shang shouted: "The pottery thieves occupy Liyang, and they can send troops to attack Yecheng at any time, and they can also transport grain north by water at any time to attack the major towns in Jizhou." Is it just that he was put a knife on my neck all the time? Do it when you want? ”

"The strength is not as good as others, so I have to put up with it for the time being." The judge replied dejectedly, and said with a strong spirit: "Fortunately, the pottery thief has just occupied the entire territory of Yanzhou. Time is urgently needed to stabilize people's hearts. Wipe out the remnants of the rebellious cities everywhere. It is difficult to fully invade Jizhou in a short period of time, so the lord only needs to endure it for the time being and acquiesce to the pottery thieves to occupy Liyang. You can buy time to prepare for war, and when you stabilize the interior of Jizhou and give full play to the advantages of our Jizhou money and food population in the world, you don't need to be too afraid of the threat of pottery thieves. ”

"My lord, what Mr. Judge said is very true." Li Fu also persuaded: "Your Majesty's envoy to Xuchang this time has witnessed Tao Ying's military appearance, and the strength and morale are indeed far above our army, and there are internal troubles in our army such as Wang Ling of Zhongshan and Zhang Yan of Montenegro. It is better to tolerate it for the time being according to Mr. Judge's words, maintain friendly relations with Tao Ying for the time being, gain time to stabilize the interior, and then break Yuan Tan and Jiang Qi first, accept and seclude Erzhou, and finally try to take revenge. Otherwise, once our army starts a war with Tao Ying, and Yuan Tan takes the opportunity to attack, how can he resist? ”

To put it mildly, Yuan Shanggongzi finally dispelled the idea of retaking the important town of Liyang by force, and when asked what to do next, the judge suggested: "I think that at present, we should take the opportunity of Yuan Tan's defeat in Guandu, and divide the troops into two ways, all the way to Zhongshan to quell Wang Ling's rebellion, and all the way to attack Huguan Heavy Land, as long as Huguan Heavy Land is taken, our army will also grasp the initiative in the battle against Yuan Tan, advance can be attacked, retreat can be defended, and be invincible!" ”

Yuan Shanggongzi nodded yes, and at that moment Yuan Shang immediately wrote a book with his brother-in-law who bullied, agreed to lend Liyang to his brother-in-law temporarily, and divided the troops into two ways, one was led by the trusted general Yin Kai with an army of 15,000 and sent troops west to attack Huguan Throat, and one was led by Yuan Shanggongzi himself, and sent 20,000 troops to attack Zhongshan Taishou Wang Ling, who launched a rebellion, and the trial continued to stay in Yecheng. At the same time, Yuan Shanggongzi listened to the suggestion of the trial, and sent an envoy to Youzhou to contact Jiang Qi, give gold, silver and jewelry to appease, and recruit Jiang Qi as much as possible, at least not let Jiang Qi send troops to meet Wang Ling.

Jiang Qi, who had lost direct contact with Yuan Tan, was quite well-behaved, knowing that his prestige was not enough to raise troops independently, so he simply played the banner of neutrality, and did not refuse to buy Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, and no one would fight or say that he would not help, so naturally it was even more impossible to help the nephews of the old stubborn Wang Yun, the little stubborn Wang Ling and Yuan Shang, to resist to the end, and categorically rejected Wang Ling's repeated requests for help. In addition, Yuan Tan Gongzi was injured after the defeat of Guandu, and he was unable to provide strong support for Wang Ling, and he couldn't even besiege Wei to save Zhao, so Yuan Shanggongzi went north to quell the rebellion smoothly this time, and it only took more than 20 days to break through Lunu City, Wang Ling followed the example of his uncle Wang Yun, refused Yuan Shang's invitation to surrender and scolded the thief and died, and the whole family was also executed by Yuan Shang, and the civil strife in Zhongshan was quelled.

It was easy to clean up the Wang Ling rebels with only a few thousand local soldiers, but it was not so easy to attack Huguan, and when the Yuan Shangjun led by Yin Kai attacked Huguan, they were stubbornly resisted by Xia Zhao, the defender of Yuan Tan's army, and they were unable to take Huguan for nearly a month, and they suffered a lot of casualties. When the news arrived in front of Yuan Shang, Yuan Shang scolded Yin Kai for being incompetent, so he had to hurriedly return to the division to help Yin Kai attack Huguan, but when Yuan Shanggongzi led the army to Huguan, Huguan finally ushered in Yuan Tan Gongzi's first support army - although the strength of this support army was only about 3,000 people, the general who led the team was called Hao Zhao.

Huguan City, which was originally easy to defend and difficult to attack, coupled with Hao Zhao, who was the first to defend in the late Han Dynasty, Yuan Shanggongzi's fierce attack on Huguan is naturally conceivable, and after three sieges, Yuan Shangjun killed more than 3,000 troops, but he was always helpless to take Huguan City. As a last resort, Yuan Shanggongzi could only accept Feng Ji's suggestion, temporarily retreat to Yecheng to regroup his troops and horses, and have a chance to rest with the main force, and the war between the Yuan brothers also temporarily subsided.

At this point, the Central Plains melee caused by the stroke paralysis of the Great Yuan Sangong came to an end temporarily, in this Central Plains melee that lasted more than half a year, Deputy Director Tao, Cao Laoda, Yuan family brothers, Liu Huangshu and Liu Biao and other princes took turns to appear on the stage, around the control of the Central Plains hinterland launched nearly 100 battles, our Deputy Director Tao also relied on the most powerful strength, the most correct strategy and tactics, became the biggest winner of this big melee, and finally won the whole territory of Yanzhou, and obtained the political advantage of coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, once again consolidated and increased the advantages of the princes of the world, and became a well-deserved overlord of the Central Plains.

From a geographical point of view, if the territory of the late Han Dynasty is like a rooster with its head held high as it is now, then Deputy Director Tao's control is the fist that smashed into the rooster's chest, and the territory occupied has reached the Bohai Sea in the north, facing Liaodong, the Korean Peninsula and the four islands of Japan across the sea, crossing the Yangtze River to the south to reach Taihu Lake, and reaching the Songshan Mountains in the west.

As for Deputy Director Tao's poor enemies, Boss Cao was the worst, he was completely kicked out of the Yanzhou base camp that was finally run, and was forced to go to the dilapidated and withered Sili Pass to survive, dreaming of how to make a comeback and kill his son-in-law; Yuan Tan Gongzi was the second miserable, and before his ass was hot in the position of Yanzhou and the prime minister, he was driven to the state by Deputy Director Tao, and the control area was also divided into two, and Youzhou, which was honorably subservient to himself, was completely isolated. Yuan Shanggongzi took advantage of a small advantage, taking advantage of the opportunity of his brother-in-law to send troops to attack Yuan Tan, and still basically controlled the twelve counties of Jizhou under the condition of forging a will, and succeeded in fishing in troubled waters; In the end, Liu Biao lost Liu Pan's team, but he was only injured and took the opportunity to recover the entire territory of Nanyang, which can barely be regarded as a gain more than a loss.

is still the same sentence, whether it is the worst and the more miserable, or taking advantage of a little advantage and gaining more than loss, in front of Deputy Director Tao, who has rapidly expanded into a behemoth, Deputy Director Tao's good neighbors, there is still no one who can resist Deputy Director Tao's rampant domineering and rape alone, so these good neighbors of Deputy Director Tao inevitably have such a thought, "Since we have no chance of winning against Tao thieves alone?" So if we join forces, I am afraid that we may not be able to destroy this traitor who is hypocritical and despicable to the extreme, right? ”

At the end of the Han Dynasty, there were many practical factions, and with this idea, naturally some people began to put it into practice, but at the same time that these good neighbors were sneaking around, our complacent Deputy Director Tao gradually began to get carried away, so that in front of the tribute envoy sent by a certain country, Deputy Director Tao also said something like this, "I heard that the queen of Himiko in your country is good-looking, go back and ask her to come to our Han in person as soon as possible, if she looks the same as the big snake Wushuang, I can consider personally rewarding her." (To be continued......)