"Daddy!"

With the miserable cry of Lu Die's little Luoli, and with the fainting of this little Luoli in Tao Ying's arms, the battle for Yanzhou, which lasted for nearly two years and had twists and turns, finally came to an end, and the Lu Bu army, which once almost captured the entire territory of Yanzhou, was wiped out, and the commander Lu Bu was also shot by Cao Jun and died in the heart. The Cao army, which had lost almost all of its city territory, counterattacked, relying on the direct help of its ally Yuan Shaojun and the covert assistance of the Xuzhou army, and successfully turned the tables and recaptured all the cities and lands of the eight counties of Yanzhou.

It was a long and brutal battle, and although the honorary victor Cao Jun recaptured the land and the city, it also paid a huge price, and the most prosperous and rich land in the eight counties of Yanzhou was almost razed by the war, with a large loss of population, an economy on the verge of collapse, and a serious weakening of its overall strength. Yuan Shaojun, who always stood on the same front as Cao's army, also paid a lot of price, and was forced to support Cao's army with a large amount of money and food, losing a considerable amount of troops, which in turn affected the battle between Yuan Shaojun and Gongsun Zhan's army in Youzhou, so that Gongsun Zhan's army in Bo Xishan won a period of respite, but in the end it was almost nothing.

What makes Cao Boss hate is that he hugged his thighs by riding on the wall and watching the wind, and skillfully chose the timing of his shot, and the Xuzhou army, which had a grudge against Cao Boss to kill his father, unexpectedly became the biggest winner of the Yanzhou War, and in the case of only paying part of the price of money and food, the Xuzhou army first used Lu Bu's army to seriously weaken the overall strength of Cao Jun, and successfully hugged Yuan Shao's thick thighs, betrayed Lu Bu's army at a critical moment to join the victor's camp, snatched the biggest victory in terms of military talent, and strengthened its own strength. At the same time, the five counties of Xuzhou, which had suffered a great loss of vitality, also won nearly two years of recuperation, not only did their own land not be ravaged by the war again, but also took the opportunity to restore the people's livelihood and economy, further widening the economic gap with Yanzhou, and consolidating the money and grain base necessary for the war.

No matter how much it hurts, there is no way, Tao Yingzheng, who hugged Yuan Shao's thick thighs, and Yuan Shao's beloved son Yuan Shang had a hot fight, so good that the honey was blended with oil, and the overall vitality of Cao Boss, who had just been hit hard, just ate the leopard's gall, and now he did not dare to risk offending Yuan Shao and immediately started a war with the Xuzhou army, he could only watch the Xuzhou army snatch the most elite soldiers of the Lu Bu army, and finally had to thank Yuan Shaojun and the Xuzhou army for their kindness, and carefully invited the two plague gods out of Yanzhou, signed a joint alliance with the Xuzhou army, and swore never to offend each other.

Of course, Boss Cao is not for nothing in terms of talents, at least Chen Gong, the number one think tank of the Lu Bu Army, and Zhang Liao, the cavalry general of the Lu Bu Army, were captured by the Cao Army, but Chen Gong's hatred for Cao Boss is not the slightest bit, whether it is Cao Boss with affection or threat, he refuses to surrender to Cao Boss by force, and he only begs for death, Cao Boss is forced to be helpless, and he does not have the courage to hand over this dangerous role to Yuan Shang or Tao Ying, so he can only behead Chen Gong and put him to death, and then take Chen Gong's wife and daughter-in-law back to Dongjun to support him.

As for Zhang Liao, although Tao Ying secretly found Boss Cao and expressed his willingness to take out some money and grain to redeem Zhang Liao on the basis of keeping his promise to hand over the sketch of the Xiangyang cannon, but Boss Cao said that he would not agree to anything, and at the same time Zhang Liao himself also expressed his willingness to surrender to Boss Cao, so Tao Ying could only watch with great regret as Zhang Liao threw himself into Boss Cao's arms, and the sketch of the Xiangyang cannon that he promised to Boss Cao before was only exchanged for more than 600 ordinary prisoners of the Lu Bujun army - although Deputy Director Tao wanted to break his promise this time, However, considering that Cao Jun and Yuan Shaojun still need to contain each other, and the horses traded with Yuan Shaojun must pass through the land of Yanzhou, and also considering that the gravity lever of the Xiangyang cannon is not high, even if it is not given, it is difficult to keep it secret, so Tao Ying can only grit his teeth and fulfill his promise, and hand over the sketch of the Xiangyang cannon to Cao Boss who has done some tricks, in exchange for a short period of peace with Cao Boss, and the road to war horse trade is unimpeded.

At the end of November of the second year of Xingping, when the first winter snow fell on the land of Yanzhou, Tao Ying said goodbye to his third brother-in-law Yuan Shang, and also bid farewell to Cao Laoda, who had long been eager for the Xuzhou army to get out, and led the Xuzhou army to set off south, returning to his current base camp Pengcheng, Xuzhou, and the 10,000 Xuzhou troops at the time of departure had become more than 14,000 people. At the same time, Tao Ying brought back to Xuzhou, as well as Lu Bu's family and Lu Bu's coffin - Tao Ying wanted to buy people's hearts, and Cao Boss didn't want to be infamous for blaspheming the enemy's body.

Of course, in order to disgust Tao Ying and indirectly contain the Xuzhou army, when sending off the Xuzhou army, Cao Boss deliberately took out the Tao Cao Covenant signed by Tao Ying, and asked Tao Ying to fulfill the last article of the Tao Cao Covenant and reduce the garrison of the Xuzhou army in Xiaopei to 1,000 people, Tao Ying didn't even blink his eyelids, patted his chest and assured Cao Boss: "Please rest assured, uncle, the little nephew may not have other strengths, but he has always been able to handle it in terms of credibility, and Xiao Pei is definitely only stationed in 1,000 troops, There won't be a single soldier! ”

"I hope that the virtuous nephew will keep his word." Boss Cao sneered, and said: "If the virtuous nephew doesn't mind, the old man wants to send Manchu Boning as an envoy to Xiaopei to supervise the virtuous nephew to reduce the garrison." Of course, the virtuous nephew can also send an envoy to Hulu to supervise the inventory of the old man's garrison in Hulu. ”

"There's no need for this, the little nephew can trust the uncle." Tao Ying waved his hand very generously, Cao Lao Lianlian sneered, while saying goodbye to Tao Ying, he sent Cao Hong and Man Chong to lead a thousand elite soldiers to the south, supervising the Xuzhou army to go south and reducing the Xiaopei garrison, and also prepared to let this elite army be stationed in Hulu County, which had been abandoned in the war, and build Hulu into a bridgehead to attack Xuzhou, and at the same time, Cao Boss decided to stay in Shanyang with tens of thousands of regular troops to indirectly contain the Xuzhou army, so that the Xuzhou army could not develop southward with peace of mind.

The reason why Cao Boss repeatedly asked the Xuzhou army to reduce the Xiaopei garrison, the five counties of Xuzhou are located in the North China Plain, although the territory is full of flat land that can be cultivated and planted, but there is no decent mountain range to defend, except for a small Pei city surrounded by water on three sides can be used as a barrier to the northern line, other cities are not dangerous to defend, surrounded by enemies, once Xiaopei City falls into the hands of Cao Jun, Xuzhou's Pengcheng and the East China Sea two major towns are immediately exposed to Cao Jun's blade, so for Cao Boss, The garrison of the Xuzhou army in Xiaopei is naturally as few as possible, and in the future, the Cao army will suddenly turn around and make a move, as long as a surprise attack takes Xiaopei City, the hinterland of Xuzhou will have to be in a hurry everywhere.

At the same time, if the Xuzhou army drastically reduced the Xiaopei garrison, in order to strengthen the northern defense line, it was bound to increase the garrison in other cities in Donghai and Pengcheng counties, which not only dispersed Xuzhou's troops, but also increased the burden of money and food, and could not put the main forces into the southern front battlefield.

When Tao Ying sent the Hulu Cao Army to inform the Xiaopei garrison that the reduction had been completed, the Cao Jun envoy walked sixty miles to Xiaopei City to count the Xuzhou garrison, and the first thing that caught Man's eyes was that although there were indeed only 1,000 Xuzhou regular troops, there were more than 3,000 Xiaopei County officials!

In a fit of rage, Man Chong hurriedly found Sun Guan, the general of the Xuzhou Army, who was guarding Xiaopei, and Sun Guan pointed to the 'government officer' in the city and said with a heartfelt expression: "Mr. Man, please see clearly, they are not the army, they are the government service!" It is a servant who maintains the law and order of Xiaopei! In the covenant between your and our armies, is there a provision that Xiaopei County is not allowed to have a government service? ”

Looking at those Xiao Pei's 'government officials' with regular army weapons, he was dumbfounded, and naturally shouted again, "There are only more than 8,000 people in Xiaopei City, and there are more than 3,000 government officials in the county government, and there is one government officer in less than three people to maintain law and order, and there are such strange things in the world?" ”

"There may be a little more servants, but it doesn't matter, there are more servants." Sun Guan replied with a hippie smile: "Besides, the money and food for raising these servants are not borne by your army, and Mr. Man does not have to worry about the excessive expenditure of money and food for us." ”

"I'm convinced, Tao Yuanjun's face is really thick." Full of pet sighed helplessly. And after the news was transmitted back to Changyi, Boss Cao, who was smiling and waiting for the news in Changyi City, was dumbfounded, and inevitably sighed: "I can be regarded as convinced, the face of this Tao Ying thief is even thicker than Xiaopei's city wall!" ”

When Boss Cao sighed so helplessly, Tao Ying had already led the team back to Xuzhou City, and began to reward the Lu Bujun for surrendering troops and generals, scattering the elite veterans of the Lu Bu Army, and reorganizing them into the various teams of the Xuzhou army, so that these veterans and elite soldiers could undertake the task of training and help the young master soldiers in the Xuzhou army improve their combat effectiveness. The only team that has not been reorganized is the trapped camp, and Tao Ying also adopted Gao Shun's suggestion, so that Gao Shun selected some elite soldiers from the surrender of Lu Bu's army, and made up the number of 800 to the trapped camp, making it the ace of infantry combat of the Xuzhou army.

Finally finished the reorganization of the army, the time has entered the middle of the month, and seeing that the New Year is coming, Tao Ying plans to reward the three armies again, and when Chen Deng and Lu Su discuss the reward amount, Chen Deng said with a wry smile: "Lord, you really haven't counted the amount of money?" Do you know how much gold, silver and copper money is left in our state treasury? Not to mention rewarding more than 70,000 soldiers of the army, even the salaries of the army in the first three months of the next year are dangerous. ”

"We have no money?" Tao Yingleng was stunned and said in surprise: "No, I remember that last time we counted the state treasury, we still had more than 3,000 catties of gold, more than 2,000 catties of silver and more than 60 million dollars, why didn't we have them?" ”

"My lord, you're talking about the state treasury in May." Chen Deng took out the list of expenses and said with a wry smile: "In the past six months, our army has first fought the Battle of Zhuyi, and rewarded a large number of meritorious soldiers, enveloping the elite soldiers and strong generals under the command of Lu Wenhou, plus the Yanzhou War, supporting Lu Wenhou, seeking peace with Yuan Shao, expanding the army, building warships and the lord's preparation to marry Yuan Benchu's daughter, the gold, silver and copper coins left by the old lord have long been tossed to the bottom. ”

After reading the list of gold, silver and copper coins he squandered, Tao Ying, the number one loser in Xuzhou, pursed his lips and stopped talking, and Chen Deng said again: "Of course, if the lord just wants gold, silver and jewelry, this is not difficult, as long as we let go of the grain and cloth trade, some of the princes around Xuzhou want to buy grain from us, and the price can be sold at a high price." ”

"Can't let go." Tao Ying shook his head decisively and said in a deep voice: "In this troubled era, grain and cloth are hard currency, and they are also the most important strategic materials. Besides, we only have a slight surplus of grain and cloth, and if we let it go and sell it, we will be stretched thin if there is another war. ”

"Then this year's New Year, we can only use grain and cloth to reward the three armies." Chen Deng said helplessly.

Tao Ying pursed his lips again, Tao Ying is not reluctant to take grain and cloth to reward the three armies, the key is that once these grain and cloth are rewarded, it is likely to be sold for cash or gold and silver by soldiers who are not short of food and clothing, and these grain and cloth will flow to the market, and then they may be smuggled out of the country, in exchange for the gold and silver jewelry that Boss Cao dug up from the grave, and these gold and silver jewelry can only be circulated within the five counties of Xuzhou after flowing into Xuzhou, and there is no decent thing to buy from the surrounding areas. What's the point of taking such gold and silver jewelry?

"Smuggling?" Thinking of this word, Tao Ying naturally remembered another thing, and hurriedly shouted, "Cao Hong." ”

Behind the screen, he silently walked out of the old lackey of the Tao family and the biggest spy leader in Xuzhou that Tao Qian left to Tao Ying, and walked up to Tao Ying with a fist salute, Lu Su and Chen Deng didn't even blink an eyelid, they already knew that Tao Ying had two sets of guard teams around him, on the surface there was a personal guard led by Xu Chu, the former captain of the tent, and secretly there was an internal guard led by Cao Hong, all of whom were composed of Danyang veterans, unless Tao Ying opened his mouth to summon, he would never take the initiative to show up.

"What's new in Mi Zhu's business?" Tao Ying asked.

"Since Liu Bei disappeared on the battlefield in Yanzhou, Mi Zhu has stopped smuggling to the north, and the nine smuggling secret roads in the north and south have all been closed." Cao Hong replied in an orderly manner: "In terms of Jiujiang Yuan Shu and Qu A Liu Xuan, the excuse given by Mi Zhu is that our army is very tightly inspected and does not dare to export grain and cloth. Gongsun Zan and Tian Kai in the north are too low for their prices, and Mi Zhu wants to raise the price. The situation in Yanzhou is unknown, it is estimated that because Liu Bei disappeared, there was no one in the center to contact Cao Thief, and Mi Zhu was forced to stop temporarily. ”

"All off?" Tao Ying snorted and said, "I'm afraid I smell danger, right?" Our army temporarily reconciled with Cao Thief, and formed an alliance with Yuan Shao, and if he dared to sell grain to Gongsun Zhan, he might be discovered by Yuan Shaojun at any time and sue me. Yuan Shu and Liu Xuan, the crisis on the northern front of our army has been alleviated, the main force is gradually leaning southward, and the fresh face has reached the southern front, and if he does not relent, he will look for death. ”

Cao Hong nodded and didn't speak, Tao Ying asked again: "Have you found out that Liu Bei has resumed contact with Mi Zhu?" ”

"Nope." Cao Hong replied respectfully: "The four eyeliners that the last general planted in Mi Mansion did not find this situation, and the two Liu Bei secret envoys who contacted Mi Zhu before did not show up in Xuzhou City. ”

"Good, keep staring." Tao Ying nodded with satisfaction, and then ordered: "This time, if you find Liu Bei's secret envoy, you can't let them meet with Mi Zhu, and immediately arrest them secretly." ”

Cao Hong sang a promise, and walked back to the screen silently, and it was only at this time that Lu Su cautiously asked: "Lord, do you want to kill the sheep and cut the meat?" ”

"Those who know me, Zi Jingye." Tao Ying said with a smile: "Mi Zhu turned out to be worth hundreds of millions, in the past two years Yanzhou grain shortage, Gongsun Zhan and Yuan Shao fought to the death, Mi Zhu relied on grain smuggling, it is estimated that he has earned a lot of money, it's time to take it back as military expenses, and it's time to completely eliminate this hidden danger." ”

Lu Su nodded, and Chen Deng next to him warned: "Lord, although the crisis on the northern front of our army has been basically alleviated, and the time is ripe to attack Mi Zhu, but after all, the Mi family is deeply rooted in Xuzhou, and it is inextricably linked with the major scholars in Xuzhou. ”

"Of course I know this, so I asked General Cao Hong to cut off contact with Liu Bei." Tao Ying blinked his triangular eyes and smiled: "Zijing, Yuanlong, according to your opinion, is Mi Beijia in a hurry now?" Anxious to restore contact with Xuande Gong? ”

Chen Deng had much more bad water in his stomach than Lu Su, and as soon as he heard Tao Ying finish speaking, he immediately raised his eyebrows and asked tentatively: "Isn't the lord trying to send someone to pretend to be the secret envoy of Xuande Gong, to get in touch with Mi Beijia instead of Xuande Gong, and to get ironclad evidence of Mi Beijia's crime that is enough to destroy Mi Beijia's house?" ”

"Those who know me, Yuan Longye." Tao Ying smiled and put on a high hat for Chen Deng, and then said with a smile: "Let's discuss, how to act, what kind of evidence can allow us to borrow some money from Mi Beijia to solve the financial problem." ”

(To be continued)