Qinghe Xiaozhu, in the grass house by the river.

Frustrated Professor looked at the scroll, raised his head blankly, stared at Cui Yan with incredible eyes, and asked in a trembling voice: "Cui Jun, voted for Cao Cao?" ”

"Voted for the Son of Heaven."

Cui Yan corrected his statement, he did not sincerely belong to Cao Cao, and went to Xu Capital as an official, and his official nationality was also in Han.

However, he didn't plan to be like other old Hanchens, to criticize Cao Cao verbally and penally, and to disobey the yang and the yin.

Those people seemed to welcome Cao Cao on the surface and didn't dare to speak angrily, but in fact, they didn't respect him in their hearts, and they even still disdained him.

After all, Cao Cao's father was passed on to Cao Teng, the eldest autumn of the year, and in the final analysis, it is still a eunuch background, and the name of the scholar clan and the eunuch are mixed together, and the family's reputation will be tarnished.

"Judging from the facts, Prime Minister Cao Cheng took office as an auxiliary minister, and the world was a lot more peaceful, so I naturally support Prime Minister Cao Cheng and become an official in the same dynasty, all for the sake of the Han Dynasty."

"Frustrated, let's read this book again."

With a long sigh, he threw the book directly on the ground, but after thinking about it, he climbed out and picked it up again, put it in front of the table, and read it again.

Always staring at the sentence written by Yuan Shao himself.

"Frustrated, Tian Feng, insulting me too much, arrogant and arrogant, vainly trying to attack, I am determined to kill and remove hidden dangers for the Yuan family's government."

In this sentence, Yuan Shao was already going to abandon him and prepare to execute him with Tian Feng, and Tian Feng was in Yecheng Prison, and he was in the camp back then, and later there was a lot more.

From this point of view, it is not that I have failed the old master.

But the old lord was ready to abandon me first.

"Yuan Shao, although he is talented, as he grows older, he is not as decisive as he was back then, and after owning various states and counties, he is no longer the ambitious rider we know."

Frustrated was in a state of frustration.

Before seeing this letter, he didn't think that he would be killed by Yuan Shao, he actually had a murderous intent.

Before the war, he was indeed talkative, and said a lot of things that contradicted Yuan Shao's military orders, which may indeed be easy to demoralize the rest of the sergeants, but the suggestions such as dividing the troops and Wuchao are all heartfelt strategies, although they cannot win a big victory, they can guarantee that they will not be defeated.

"I didn't expect that because those strategies could not be adopted, the lord actually wanted to kill me."

Cui Yan stood on the wooden stack near the river with his hands behind his back, his eyes were distant and clear, the corners of his mouth were lowered, and he said in a deep voice: "It's not that I killed you because I didn't adopt it, but because what you said was right." ”

"Yuan Shao was open-minded back then, but in his old age, he was gradually provoked by the many civil and military factions under his command to be stubborn and self-serving, and he was quite suspicious, and he didn't want to let the kings say anything and make decisions, so he couldn't be wrong."

Frustrated and sighed, he really couldn't refute this, Yuan Shao's temperament gradually became forward-looking after his old age, and the more territories he ruled, the more reluctant he was to consolidate his foundation.

Maybe it's because you want to leave too much for future generations, which leads to this result.

What really made him uncomfortable was that Yuan Shao actually regarded him as a trouble, and wanted to kill him in the heart of the army, so as to deter the rest of the strategists, so that the strategists under the intricate command of the faction did not dare to blatantly mess around.

"Alas, I can't imagine that one day I will become the chicken that kills the chicken to show the monkey."

"It's not appropriate to say this," Cui Yan said in a deep voice: "It's just to vent his anger, Yuan Shao wants to kill you, it is already a betrayal first, you don't have to stick to the foolish and loyal things, so that the family will lose its way of life from now on, at least the name of Qinghe Frustration still has to be preserved, and the people and scholars still remember the integrity and virtue of the frustrated king." ”

"If you die, it's not worth it."

Frustrated was silent.

At this time, his heart was disturbed and quite devastated.

First, because Cui Yan is such a celebrity with thick eyebrows and big eyes, who is upright and upright, he actually joined Cao Cao, which he didn't expect.

The second is Yuan Shao, who actually wanted to kill himself at the beginning, but because the army was defeated too quickly, he never had time to do it.

"I have always been concerned about the kindness of the Yuan family, it seems that in the past ten years, I have not been able to become a confidant of the Yuan family, is it really worth following all these years?"

"And now, if I join the Cao family, what will happen in the future? Is it better than it is now? ”

Cui Yan stood with his hands in his hands and said: "I also volunteered to come to persuade me, in fact, no one came to ask me again, but in my opinion, if the frustrated monarch devotes himself to Xu Du, the Son of Heaven will also help, and the same ending will not be disappointed, but I have a clear conscience." ”

"That's it."

Cui Yan turned around and left, leaving the frustrated professor alone to meditate in the grass house, for him, this letter was sent to the front, but there were only two results, either the frustrated professor figured it out, and decided to devote himself to Xu Du and join the Cao family.

Either he ended his life in this grassland, or he was not a man for life, hiding in the mountains and forests, and willing to be an ordinary person.

The content of this book is concise, Yuan Shao is already sorry for him, and he will no longer think about fleeing to Youzhou.

After this day, Cui Yan went straight back to Zhongshan, followed Cao Cao and waited for the big war to arise, and lived in the inner city of Wuji County in Zhongshan on weekdays, not caring about military affairs, only observing the local scholars.

Yang Xiu saw it, and immediately came to visit him, and asked him to be a guest, but he couldn't decide why he was in the official position, so he could only write a letter to Xu Zhen first, and then ask Cao Cao.

Of course, there was no time to settle Fu Zhu at this time, so he could only let him live in Qinghe first.

After all, this is his hometown, but the problem came again, it was natural for him to live in it, but the ancestral house was pushed again, and now the place where the original home was located is a residential area.

As a result, there was a lot of trouble, and Fu Zhu went back to the grass house to live first, and waited for the army to return from Youzhou.

This directly made him depressed, and no one cared about the time he wanted to enter the office, but the cover letter had been written again, and the imaginary lord and minister met, Cao Cao greeted him, and the scene of Corporal Lixian did not appear.

When I went out, I saw the villagers driving sheep to graze by the lake, and occasionally I could see the guards sent by Yang Xiu, there were not many people, just two, every time they came out, they had to smile kindly and ask a word or two.

In this way, Cao Cao's tiger and leopard rode, and the tiger army passed by the Qinghe River and went to Zhongshan.

And Xu Zhen's soldiers and horses also went out of the Zhongshan border and invaded Youzhou.

Before the Great War, the Son of Heaven sent a message to Youzhou to deter his army.

After the battle with Yuan Shang, Yuan Xi obtained prisoners of war because they were his own army, and Youzhou still had food, so he quickly got a large number of soldiers and horses to supplement the camp, and in comparison, the military strength was stronger than before.

But it is only a hundred thousand, plus the soldiers and horses lost in the war, only 1120,000, how can he resist Cao Cao and Xu Zhen A total of 400,000 soldiers and horses.

So Yuan Xi could only do his best, stick to the main roads in various places, hoard all the soldiers and horses in Zhuo County, starting from Fan Yuting in the southernmost part of Zhuo County, and camp along the five rivers to garrison the army.

Along the way, he ordered to defend the city and resist Cao Cao's soldiers and horses.

After the arrival of the Huben army, the vanguard of the transformation of prisoners of war with the Bingzhou soldiers, plus Zhang Yan's Montenegrin army and the 160,000 army besieged the city for three days and three nights, attacking day and night, and defeated all the cities from Fan Yuting to Fanyang.

Even the city walls collapsed, and Yuan Xi could only keep retreating.

On the fifteenth, he gave up Zhuojun and retreated to Guangyang and Shanggu, and at the same time continued to recruit troops and horses in the territory, wanting to rely on the accumulation of new Ding to defend the city wall, but what he didn't expect was that Cao Cao's determination was so great, besieging and attacking the city, without any rules.

Every time a city is built, it will be devastated, and all the people's dwellings will be destroyed, so as to deter the local people.

Such a march is very different from the attack on Xuzhou back then, but at this time and at that time.

At that time, Cao Cao had nothing in his hands, and the reason for attacking Xuzhou was that Tao Qian did something to his father first, which almost caused Cao Cao's brother and father to die on the road.

Even so, Cao Cao still attacked Xu with benevolence and righteousness, killing people and punishing his heart, so that Tao Qian finally died in disgrace, and Tao Qian's heirs did not even have the capital to take revenge.

Now it's different.

Cao Cao has the edict of the Son of Heaven in his hands, and the people of Youzhou should hate Yuan Xi's rebellion, otherwise how can it cause trouble.

So with this kind of thunderous army, it really played a role in coercion and intimidation, causing all the people of Daijun to flee, and there were not many people left in the ancient county.

In the case of Zhuojun opening the city gate, groups fled south.

Cao Cao, of course, has it all.

The army attacked for a month, killing the Daijun, Shanggu, and Zhuo counties in Youzhou, and the blood flowed like a river, with more than 40,000 dead and wounded, of which 30,000 were Cao troops, and most of the soldiers who died in Yuan Xi fled after the city was broken, and were killed in the pursuit.

When defending the city, there were no casualties in the moment when the city was broken, because Yuan Xi dispersed his forces a little, relying on the city of Youzhou to consume the strength of Cao's army, and delayed the time until the end of the autumn harvest.

Now it was the autumn harvest, and when Cao Cao's first offensive had passed, he would naturally stop and wait for the grain and grass to be delivered to the front line to be stockpiled before marching.

Yuan Xi defended the crumbling Yuyang County, piled up soldiers and horses here, and built an unattainable city tower like Gongsun Zhan's Yi Jing, and collected all the armaments, grain and grass in it, and waited until winter, when the war would end.

End of September.

Both the Cao army and the Xu army stopped and stationed in Zhuo County, while constantly sending outposts into Yuyang to investigate the military situation.

Yuan Xi ordered 100,000 people to start construction at the same time to build a huge city tower in Yuyang, including the Yushui River behind him to ensure water supply.

Then collect the grain of the people from all over the country and hoard it in the city tower, which placed a large number of troops on the high wall, built arrows and prepared rolling stones every day, and guarded against Cao Cao's march at any time.

So after several unsuccessful attacks, Cao Cao really temporarily retreated and surrounded the army, not daring to waste his army in vain, and really let Yuan Xi drag him down.

Inside the Yuyang City Tower.

Yuan Xi sat on the main seat, looking at the map with a solemn face, his expression was even a little desperate, and the lead in front of him smiled bitterly, "Major General, the situation is very bad now." ”

"We are in Dai County, there are not many troops in Shanggu, and the Cao army can't capture Yuyang, so they began to march into these two counties, and now half of Youzhou is in the hands of the Cao family, and Liaodong is in the hands of Gongsun Du."

"All we have are Yuyang and Youbeiping counties, and there is still no letter from General Gao Lan......

"I don't know if the outpost has broken out of the encirclement."

For Yuan Xi, this is a situation that borders on despair, when Cao Cao first started to move his troops, he had already sent a lookout to merge the state, please Gao Ran, for the sake of the same source, immediately lead the army to the rescue.

But twenty days have passed, and Gao Ran's army has not yet arrived.

Yuan Xi was unwilling to accept this fact, he could only think that the soldiers of the state were blocked.

"Detective Sentinel, he must have arrived in Bingzhou, but Guo Tu has an enmity with me, Gao Ran will definitely be willing to lead troops to rescue, but he may not be willing to go all out."

Yuan Xi sighed, "Gao Ran led the troops, Guo Tu obstructed, if they encountered Xu Zhen's soldiers and horses halfway through, they would naturally not struggle to move forward, and only cared about keeping their own troops." ”

"However, the good thing now is that the situation has stabilized, at least in winter, it is impossible for Cao Cao to march."

"Prepare for the collection of grain and grass in the territory now, be prepared to defend to the death, and at the same time explore the way out of the Saiwai, if Youzhou can't hold it, we will abandon the city and go to the Saiwai to fight for survival with those horseback clans."

Yuan Xi took a sip of wine, and at this time, a little water and wine could not get him drunk.

But if one calms down and thinks about it, one can understand that the current situation is so critical that it is almost impossible to turn defeat into victory.

Unless Liu Biao of Jingzhou in the south raised troops to attack the south of Cao Cao at this time, this was the only chance, but it was impossible for Liu Biao to make this choice.

Yuan Xi let out a long sigh, and his despair grew stronger.

This battle, even if it is fought by the resurrection of his father, even if he is in the heyday of the year, he can only defend it and wait for the opportunity.

But it's definitely not easy to turn defeat into victory.

"Wait!"

Yuan Xi smiled bitterly, "Before the autumn harvest, there will be no more large-scale attacks, the climate in Youzhou is cold very fast, the march is difficult, we have already survived." ”

"Recruit and distribute military salaries and food to the brothers, and ask them to patrol all places again without slackening, and must wait for winter to come before they can rest."

"Whoa!"

At this moment, after receiving the signal, he issued a large amount of military salaries to the officers and men in the army, gave pensions to the dead soldiers, and spread Yuan Xi's words throughout the army.

Slowly stabilized the already turbulent military heart.

Let tens of thousands of people be stationed closely on the main roads in various places, guard the high walls of the city towers, and at the same time slowly become the same enemy, stabilize the heart of the army, and then stick to the city wall, so if you want to break through Youzhou in winter, Cao Cao will inevitably pay a greater price.

……

At this time, in the camp in the north of Zhuo County, Cao Cao's expression had changed a lot after the war, and he always felt tired these days.

The main thing is the casualties, which are greater than expected.

Even the soldiers and horses under Xu Zhen's command lost more than 10,000 people, but if the attack on Youzhou was slow, I am afraid that it would be even more unsuccessful.

"It's winter soon, and as a result, only Zhuo County was captured, and maybe Dai County and Shanggu could be obtained, but Yuyang is still in Yuan Xi's hands after all."

"If you want to take Youzhou this year, you still need to strategize."

"Once winter comes, it's hard for us to march."

Cao Cao was at a loss at this time, and he had a headache, but it was still not too troublesome, as long as he waited for the spring of the next year, he could still continue to besiege the city.

A few years later, Yuan Xi's grain and grass could not be supported, and the people's hearts were scattered, and sooner or later he would lose.

At this moment, among the ministers on the left, no one spoke, and Guo Jia, who has always had many tricks and tricks, was thinking about it at this time.

"In winter, I have a plan to take down."

Xu Zhen suddenly spoke, attracting everyone's attention.

(End of chapter)