Just as Ao Lie continued his journey, Cao Cao had already ended a series of battles. At this moment, Cao Cao sat comfortably in the hall of the Yanzhou Prefecture Governor's Mansion, gently stroking the handle of the chair with both hands, the ambition in his eyes was magnified little by little, and after a long time, Cao Cao sighed and said: "Power, it is really a very charming thing. In the past, Mou's ambition was just to be a county lieutenant; Later, when a certain became a Yellow Gate Order, he thought that he must be an official with real power in the future; Soon after, a certain was appointed by Emperor Ling as one of the eight captains of the West Garden, and he was in charge of two thousand forbidden troops. Later, Dong Zhuo's rebellion broke out, and a certain rebel soldier Qin Wang followed Ao Mohan through more than ten battles, and each battle must be defeated. Today, a certain is based in Yanzhou, and the number of elite soldiers under his command has reached 100,000, but a certain still feels dissatisfied, you say, why is this? ”

The people who can hear Cao Cao's heartfelt words are naturally people that Cao Cao trusts very much. In the hall, there were more than a dozen civil and military officials, and the generals were Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan brothers and others of the Cao clan; Wenchen is Xun You, Cheng Yu, Guo Jia and several others. Guo Jia was moved by Cao Cao's sincerity, coupled with Cao Cao's eclectic use of people, and like Ao Lie, he did not value family background and identity, but only valued talent, so Guo Jia put away his arrogance and willingly joined Cao Cao's command.

After hearing Cao Cao's question, Cao Ren said with a grin: "The water flows to a low place, people go to a high place, the eldest brother's talent is outstanding, not to mention just a state pastor, it is more than enough to be a metropolitan governor like Ao Mohan." ”

"It's a rough statement, but it makes a lot of sense." Guo Jia stood up and said: "My lord, Fang is down today, there are two tigers in the north, Ao Lie and Yuan Shao, fighting; In the south, there are three wolves, Yuan Shu, Sun Jian, and Liu Biao, who prey on food; In the northwest, there are Li Dao and Guo Yan, who are not dead in their hearts; In the southwest, Liu Zhang and Zhang Luming fought in the dark; Only the land of the Central Plains seems to rise together. In fact, in addition to the lord, the rest are idle people, it is a good time for the lord to show his talents, in the troubled times, there must be heroes, if the lord does not take this God-given opportunity to stay for eternity, is it not in vain God's favor? ”

Xun You also said: "Lord, what Feng Xiao said is very reasonable. The princes from all walks of life are too busy to take care of themselves, which is a good opportunity for the rise of the lord. Yuzhou Thorn Shi Kong Ling has no ambition and is not the master of the master. The lord should plan it as soon as possible. When Yanzhou and Yuzhou are connected, the main power has been achieved, and it should be able to compete with Ao Lie, Yuan Shao and others. ”

Cao Cao thought carefully for a while, and said: "It's not that some greedy for pleasure, a little wealth is peace, but the attack on Yanzhou has exhausted our army, if it weren't for Guo Fengxiao's conspiracy, I'm afraid our army wouldn't even be able to defeat Yanzhou." At present, Yanzhou has been decided, and the people's will is not attached. At this time, I am going to attack Yuzhou, I am afraid it is a little inappropriate. "Cao Cao is Cao Cao after all, no matter what, he is a generation of heroes. Although the ambition in his heart was extremely inflated after taking Yanzhou, prompting him to want to take Yuzhou as soon as possible and connect his power as Xun You said, Cao Cao was not carried away by the victory. Soberly pointed out his own shortcomings.

What Cao Cao said is exactly what Cao Jun is short of right now. Cao's army originally had less than 20,000 men, and was able to quickly take Yanzhou, which supported an army of 100,000. It can already be said to be a miracle, with 20,000 tired divisions, commanding 100,000 unstable Yanzhou soldiers, it is not too easy, if you are attacking Yuzhou rashly, the battle is going well, there is no problem, but if there is a stalemate or the war is unfavorable, Yanzhou's 100,000 soldiers may mutiny.

Guo Jia smiled and comforted Cao Cao: "The lord doesn't need to worry. The war in the north has no possibility of ending within a few years, Yuan Shao has repeatedly stabbed Ao Lie in the back, and the two of them will have a battle sooner or later. With Yuan Shao's barrier to resist Ao Lie for our army, the lord can rest assured. Similarly, Yuan Shu entrenched in Huainan and occupied Yangzhou, and just blocked the ambitious Sun Jian for our army, so our army could calmly plan and arrange the time for the march. For the time being, it is necessary to cultivate for a year and a half, and subdue the hearts of the military and civilians in Yanzhou. ”

Cao Cao said with a smile: "What Feng Xiao said is with a certain mind." Yuzhou Thorn Shi Kong Ling, a person who does nothing. Yuzhou is in the bag sooner or later, so there is no need to be in a hurry. It's just that the rectification of Yanzhou is really urgent, and you have to worry a lot. In addition, I heard that there are many heroes in Yanzhou, and the heroes should not be buried in the people. Zhong De, a little later, wrote a proclamation to recruit talented people to serve in the state pastoral office. ”

Xun You suddenly stood up and said, "Lord, when it comes to heroes, you think of someone. This person is deeply praised by Wen Ruo, the nephew of the family, and is a famous celebrity in Yingchuan, named Xizhong Zi Zhicai, who is a fellow villager of Fengxiao, and presumably Fengxiao has heard a lot about this person. ”

"Yes, Xi Zhicai is full of wealth, and he is really a rare talent, and the lord should take it under his command as soon as possible." Guo Jia nodded and said.

Seeing that Xun You, Guo Jia, and even Xun Yu under Ao Lie's command all admired Xi Zhong, Cao Cao could almost conclude that Xi Zhong must be a virtuous talent. Cao Cao has always attached great importance to talented people, and he immediately made a decision to take Guo Jia to visit Xizhong tomorrow and bring Xizhong under his command.

After discussing some things with everyone, Cao Cao made proper arrangements for the problems in front of him and let everyone implement them. When everyone took the order and left, and Cao Cao was the only one left in the hall, Cao Cao stretched out his hands again, slowly put them on the armrests of the seat, and gently stroked them. This is what it is like to hold power, and this feeling makes Cao Cao's psychology feel very enjoyable. Cao Cao, who had just sat in Yanzhou for a month, was full of pride, and at the same time, a stronger dissatisfaction began to take root in Cao Cao's heart, and grew rapidly, he was no longer satisfied with just owning Yanzhou.

While stroking the armrest of the seat and looking at the south, Cao Cao had endless reverie on his face, and whispered to himself: "The seat in Yuzhou Mansion, compared with Yanzhou, I don't know which seat is more comfortable?" ”

The next day, accompanied by Guo Jia, Cao Cao visited Xi Zhong with a generous gift and had a long talk with Xi Zhong for nearly two hours. No one knew what they were talking about, not even Guo Jia could enter the room and hear the conversation between the two. But everyone found that since this long talk, Cao Cao's body seemed to have changed a little more. The intelligent Guo Jia keenly felt that Cao Cao's ambition had once again increased by a slight margin. Although this increase is very small, Guo Jia believes that with the increasing power and status, Cao Cao will one day have the ambition and desire to dominate the world.

Whether Cao Cao is a loyal minister of the Han family, or a hero who intends to dominate one side, for a poor scholar like Guo Jia, it is not the most important, the important thing is that following Cao Cao's side, you can experience a lot of unexpected wonderful, which is what a poor scholar like Guo Jia values, because Cao Cao provides them with a platform to display their ambitions, so that they can break the long-standing suppression of the scholars and give full play to their talents. Guo Jia and Xi Zhong are two of the more prominent of these poor scholars, and from the moment Cao Cao came to visit, their fate has been closely linked to Cao Cao.

With the promulgation of the conscription order, a large number of poor scholars in Yanzhou came to Cao Cao after hearing the news. Different from the situation of Youhe and Erzhou, because of its location on the frontier, before Ao Lie took office, it was invaded by foreign people all the year round, so many big families living in Youhe moved to Jizhou or the Central Plains further south. At the beginning, Ao Lie also issued a recruitment order, but the effect was not as good as Yanzhou, attributed to the reason, it is nothing more than that the talents in the territory of the annex are not as rich as Yanzhou in the Central Plains, and there is no oppression of the scholars, many poor sons are not willing to come out to be officials, until Ao Lie established the Yanjing Academy, this situation has been improved.

On the other hand, Yanzhou, located in the Central Plains, has a rich product that leads to Yanzhou's economic prosperity, and is a good place for big families to multiply, and the population is relatively dense, but the area is relatively narrow, a large number of fertile land and land are monopolized by the scholars, and a large number of official appointments and dismissals are also decided by the local scholars. However, with Cao Cao's conscription order, a large number of poor scholars saw hope, and there were two vivid examples of Guo Jia and Xi Zhong, which prompted many talented poor scholars to recommend themselves to Cao Cao, trying to get Cao Cao's approval, and then give full play to what they had learned. Even many people in Yuzhou rushed to try their skills when they heard the news. In addition to the scholars of the poor family, some famous people also came to Cao Cao, resulting in a grand scene of crowds in front of the Yanzhou Prefecture Pastoral Mansion.

Of course, not all people who come to the door to recommend themselves will be hired by Cao Cao. While Cao Cao asked Guo Jia and Xi Zhong to show up to speak, he also took on the task of assessment, and the hiring of all personnel was decided by these two people. Cao Cao's approach not only won the heartfelt gratitude of Guo Jia and Xi Zhong, making them more dedicated to their work, but also able to screen the good and bad among a large number of poor scholars, so as to achieve the effect of reserving the fittest, and then ensure that there will be no uneducated and unskilled people mixed into his command. For Cao Cao, who has great ambitions, what he needs is someone who is truly talented, not some people like Mr. Nan Guo.

After screening, some talented people were recognized by Guo Jia and Xi Zhong, and they recommended these people to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arranged suitable positions for them according to each person's strengths. Among them, there are some particularly outstanding people who were kept by Cao Cao's side to hold important positions. Chen Liu's Mao Ji, Ping'a's Jiang Ji, Le'an's Guoyuan and others are among the leaders; In addition, there are some military generals who have also been reused by Cao Cao, such as Le Jin of Yangping and Lu Qian of Rencheng are among the representatives.

The attachment of a large number of talents has greatly increased Cao Cao's strength and fame, and at the same time, it has also catalyzed Cao Cao's determination to use troops in Yuzhou. So, after half a year of rest, Cao Cao decided to send troops to attack Yuzhou. (To be continued......)