The first day of the first month of the fourteenth year of Jian'an, the first day of the Lunar New Year.

Wancheng County Mansion Mansion.

The city has indelible traces for Cao Cao.

When he came here again, passing through the sunset gathering in the north of the city, Cao Cao could not hide his sadness.

The eldest son Cao Ang, nephew Cao Anmin, and the general Dian Wei were all buried here.

There is also the younger brother Cao Ren who died in Xinye Huangmen Pavilion, and the general Le Jin died on the bank of the Shushui River east of Nieyang and west of Jianyang.

All kinds of sorrow welled up in his heart, which also made Cao Cao feel a lot of emotion and worry in his heart.

Fortunately, this emotion only lasted for a few days, and after the memorial service in the place where Cao Ang and Dian Wei died, Cao Cao embarked on a new journey.

From the beginning of December last year to the end of December, for nearly a month, Cao Cao and Liu Bei confronted each other in the Wancheng area.

Taking advantage of this, Cao Cao forcibly relocated the Li people in this area and forcibly conscripted them to live in Runan.

Originally, these people lived and worked here in peace and contentment, had land and houses, and then they had to leave their hometowns overnight, so they were naturally unwilling, and for a time they aroused the anger and grief of the heavens.

But what can be done?

Although Liu Bei also had 50,000 horses, he was unable to fight with Cao's army for a long time due to various reasons, leaving the people unsheltered and eventually displaced.

However, this situation only lasted until the end of the thirteenth year of Jian'an, and on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Cao Cao summoned Xun You, Dong Zhao, Mao Jue, Hua Xin, Cao Hong, Li Dian, Xu Chu and other generals who were currently stationed in Wancheng with him for a meal.

At present, the main force of Cao's army is about 30,000 people in Wancheng, and the rest are stationed in the surrounding cities of Wancheng such as Wuyin, Bowang, Xi'e, and Duyang by Li Tong, Zhu Ling, Lu Zhao, Feng Kai and other departments.

The same is true of Liu Bei's side, the main force is stationed about fifty miles south of Wancheng and about ten miles north of Jianyang County, while Wen Ping Gan Ning and others are scattered in the cities north of Xinye such as Yuyang, Nieyang, and Biyang, facing each other head-on with the Cao army from all sides.

And in such a needle-to-wheat situation, Cao Cao was not worried about Liu Bei.

Because Xun You, Dong Zhao, Mao Yu, Hua Xin and others have long analyzed the gap between the enemy and us, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of both sides.

They believe that first, Liu Bei is a guest army, and he is not in the Jingzhou military system, so he is not recognized by the Jingzhou army, and it is difficult to give orders.

The second is that Liu Bei, Wen Ping, Gan Ning and others are not subordinate to each other, and there are many Dongzhou soldiers under them, and they are homesick for the New Year, so their morale may not be very high.

Third, there is a certain gap in the combat effectiveness of the two sides, and the soldiers in the north are stronger than those in the south.

Therefore, all things considered, Cao Cao's strategists believed that even if the number of soldiers and horses was about the same, Cao's army was still far stronger than Liu Bei's army.

Cao Cao also agreed with their claims.

Because what they said is right, aside from the fact that the morale problem has been solved by Liu Bei, the problem of subordination is actually only barely solved, and when it comes to actually giving orders, it must be far less commanding than Cao Cao.

More importantly, the Cao army itself is one of the elite in the world, even before the battle of Guandu, Fu Zhu said that the soldiers of the Cao army are far stronger than Yuan Shaojun in terms of individual ability and team cooperation, which shows that the Cao army is the strongest army in the north.

In the ancient feudal period, although the southerners may be uncomfortable to hear, in terms of military combat effectiveness, even the ancients recognized that the northern soldiers were stronger than the southern soldiers, for example, the "Book of Han" clearly recorded that the Guanzhong soldiers, Hebei soldiers and Shandong soldiers were the most elite soldiers in the world.

Therefore, the soldiers of the Cao army are the strongest soldiers in the north who are praised even by the frustrated soldiers, not to mention the comparison with the southern soldiers, several battles of Nanyang, Liu Biao's army can not find the north, which is the best proof.

Only this time Cao Cao's main elite were placed in the north to compete for Youzhou and the state, and the second-line troops were slightly worse in the south.

Therefore, to a certain extent, except for the 3,000 Huangmen soldiers who belong to the trapped camp and the super first-line troops at the level of the tiger and leopard cavalry, Liu Beijun and Wenpinjun can only be regarded as second-line troops, and the Cao soldiers are second-line troops slightly stronger than them.

In addition, this second-line army was personally commanded by Cao Cao, and its combat effectiveness was definitely comparable to the elite first-line troops of Cao's main force placed in the north of Jizhou, so defeating Liu Bei was naturally easy in their eyes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's the New Year, in the past, everyone was originally at home for the New Year, but today they want to accompany Lone to fight here, and Lone set up a thin wine to entertain you."

Cao Cao sat on the main seat, looked around at the many strategists and generals in the audience, raised his wine glass with a smile and said, "Come, drink this cup." ”

"Thank you, Sikong."

Everyone raised their glasses and drank them all.

After Cao Cao drank the wine, he put down the wine glass, and said loudly in the gap between the attendants adding wine: "Liu Bei's subordinates were defeated, hitting the stone with an egg, and a few days ago Lone wrote a letter to him, asking him to surrender and return to the Chen Capital Court, but he replied to the letter and scolded Yu Gu angrily, he really didn't know the current affairs. ”

Hua Xin said with a smile: "Sikong is about to sweep the north, and there are millions of soldiers and horses, and no one can stop it." Liu Bei is only thirty or forty thousand horses now, can An be able to fight against Sikong? ”

"Hahaha."

Cao Cao laughed, raised his glass again, and said, "Come, drink another glass." ”

And they drank again.

Xun You put down the wine glass, wiped the corners of his mouth and said: "Ming Gong, even so, but we still have to be careful in this battle, Liu Cong and Zhang Yun are incompetent, and Liu Bei sent Guan Yu to contain only 30,000 horses, the most important thing now is to look at the situation in the east of the Baqiu River." ”

"yes."

Cao Cao suddenly sighed and said: "I didn't expect that one day, whether or not he can win depends on Sun Quan's face." However, this Sun Quan Xiaoer also has a bit of guts, and he actually joined forces with Lone, carved up Jingzhou, Jiangdong Tiger Sun Wentai, but gave birth to two good sons, the eldest son Ku Xiao's father, and the second son is not bad. ”

Dong Zhao clasped his hands in his sleeves, nodded slightly, and said, "Sikong, in this fierce battle, we really need to wait for news from Baqiu." Although our army should be stronger than Liu Bei's army, it is not easy for him to attack the city camp stationed in the city. ”

"According to the detailed report, there are only 30,000 people in the Jiangxia Naval Division, but there are 50,000 in the Jiangdong Naval Army. The two sides confronted each other in Baqiu, and Zhou Yu was also a talented man and should be able to take the advantage. ”

Xun You pondered: "It's just that we still have to plan for the worst, if Zhou Yu can't conquer it, and Liu Cong can't resist it, we will continue to consume it in Nanyang, which will only delay the time to recover the north, so it is not in vain to move the people to Yingchuan in Runan and fill the Dingkou in the Central Plains." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao raised his glass again and thought carefully.

In this battle, they really have to wait for Baqiu's side to decide the winner, after all, both sides are 50,000 people, although the analysis says that they are stronger than Liu Bei, but how can there be any reason that the strength on paper is strong in the war, and it must be strong?

In the battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao's army of more than 100,000 people, the momentum was like a rainbow, and it gave Cao Cao great pressure like a dark cloud, and in the end, didn't he rely on his surprise attack to achieve success?

Therefore, neither Cao Cao nor Liu Bei dared to start the war easily, and could only rely on the city and camp for defense and confrontation.

Now both sides are waiting for Bachu to divide the results.

Sun Quan won the battle of Baqiu, Sun Quan's soldiers and horses went north, and together with him to attack Liu Bei, Liu Bei was bound to be defeated, and when the time came, he had Nanyang, and Sun Quan had Jingzhou.

If Sun Quan loses, Cao Cao will naturally choose to retreat, but it is not a loss to relocate so many people before retreating.

Therefore, this is the safest way to fight, rather than coming up and fighting to the death with the enemy.

"Report!"

At this moment, a soldier came in outside the door and said, "Liu Bei sent someone to deliver a letter." ”

"Bring it in."

Cao Cao looked around and said jokingly: "Liu Bei sent a letter from Liu Bei in the New Year, isn't this guy going to give me a New Year's greeting?" Hahaha. ”

"It's another year and every year, Liu Bei has no foundation, so I'm impatient when I think about it."

Hua Xin echoed and smiled.

Xu Chu had already taken the letter from the soldier at this time and presented it to Cao Cao's case.

Cao Cao took the letter, and said in his heart that Liu Bei was really extravagant, and several times he communicated with him with precious paper, although paper has been popular in the south, but in the north it can only be used by powerful people like him, and the value is still very large.

Then he unfolded the letter, snorted, laughed, looked around at everyone, and saw that everyone was looking at him with curious eyes, so he couldn't help but smile and said to them: "Hahahaha, it's really interesting, do you know what Liu Bei wrote in the letter?" ”

"It can't be an offer to fight us."

Hua Xin made a joke.

"Not bad."

Cao Cao said with a smile: "Liu Bei came down to fight the book and asked Gu to fight tomorrow, which is really interesting." ”

"Strange."

Mao Jue, who had been silent before, pondered and said: "It is impossible for Liu Bei not to know that he has a gap with us, and forcibly fight with us, even if it is a fierce battle in the wild, he may not be able to win us, why do you still have a war letter?" ”

"There are only three possibilities, one is that the battle of Baqiu has a result, no matter whether Sun Quan wins or loses, he will fight with us!"

Xun You analyzed: "After all, if Sun Quan wins and the Jiangdong Army goes north, he will definitely lose, so he will choose to try to defeat us first, and then break Sun Quan in the south, so as to break them one by one." If Sun Quan loses, he will fight a decisive battle with us, hold us back, and wait for the arrival of Jiangxia Navy reinforcements. ”

"What about the second possibility?"

Cao Cao asked.

Xun You said: "The second possibility is that the battle of Baqiu has not yet been decided, but the continued disadvantage of the Jiangxia sailors makes Liu Bei extremely anxious, afraid that Sun Quan will win, so he wants to defeat us as soon as possible, so as to gallop south to help Baqiu." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao stroked his beard and nodded slightly, Xun You's analysis was to the point and very reasonable.

Xun You continued: "The third possibility is that Liu Bei has found reinforcements. ”

"Reinforcements? What reinforcements can he have? ”

Cao Cao sneered.

"Yes."

Dong Zhao also said: "Don't forget, there is an embroidery in the west!" ”

Zhang Xiu?

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes.

This madman who killed his eldest son and henchman Dian Wei.

At the beginning of the Battle of Guandu, he kindly accepted his surrender, but as a result, this guy repeatedly lost his trust, and they completely lost the possibility of unity.

After all, the battle of Guandu Cao Cao was precarious, and in order to increase his strength, he could only endure the revenge of killing his son and killing the general.

But now that he has become a big trend, he still endures a fart?

Now even if Zhang Xiu kneels in front of him, he will kill him!

"What's the latest news from Baqiu?"

Cao Cao asked suddenly.

Xun You said: "Was it sent yesterday, or the news five days ago, Zhou Yu repeatedly attacked Baqiu and almost annihilated Shen Chen, because Liu Pan came to help in time, so he barely repelled Zhou Yu." ”

Shen Chen was the Jiangdong Naval Division defeated in the Hongkou Fire on December 27, the thirteenth year of Jian'an, and four days have passed since today.

Jiangxia sailors rested in Baqiu for two days, and then went north, two days, at this time they had actually arrived in Fancheng.

In ancient times, due to the underdevelopment of communications, the news was extremely lagging behind, so Cao Cao's latest information was the news that Zhou Yu led a large army to storm Baqiu five days ago and almost defeated Shen Chen.

Knowing this, Cao Cao nodded slightly and said: "Zhou Yu currently has the upper hand, and it is impossible to be defeated in just a few days, so he thinks that Liu Bei can only be anxious to fight Gu because Baqiu is in danger." At most, Zhang Xiu will be added to this battle, so there is no need to worry. ”

Xun You was surprised: "Is Sikong planning to fight?" ”

"Naturally!"

Cao Cao sneered: "Liu Bei's guy is just a defeated general under Lone, and Xuzhou has been defeated in several battles. Later, he was driven out of Xuzhou by Lu Bu, but he still accepted him alone, he was not grateful to me, but he repeatedly opposed me. Liu Xuande thought that he had tens of thousands of people and had the strength to fight Lone, but he didn't know that Lone had long wanted to make him look good. ”

"But."

Xun You hesitated: "Since Zhou Yu has the upper hand, why should Sikong rush it? Wait until Sun Quan defeats that Shen Chen, and go north to attack Liu Bei? ”

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes and said, "Gongda really thinks that Sun Quan is credible?" ”

"What do you mean?"

Xun You's eyes widened, his strength lies in military strategy, that is, tactical play, and he is actually far inferior to other strategists in politics and strategy.

"Sun Quan said that he would divide Jingzhou with me, but no one knows that Liu Biao can have 200,000 people, all because of the large population and land in Nanyang."

Cao Cao said: "Nanyang is the township of Emperor Guangwu, it is said that there were 670,000 households in the heyday, and more than 3 million in Dingkou. Even if only half is left now, there are still 1.5 million people, will Sun Quan willingly give Nanyang to me? ”

"What Sikong means is that even if Sun Quan defeats Shen Chen, he may sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, waiting for us and Liu Bei to lose both?"

Hua Xin asked in surprise: "But if we withdraw our troops, then wouldn't he?" ”

Mao Jue shook his head: "Even if we withdraw our troops, Sun Quan defeats the Jiangxia Naval Division, and it can be said that he can sail on the river, and there is no Naval Division in Jingzhou, who can stop him?" At least Jingnan and Jiangxia should be in his hands. ”

"Not bad."

Cao Cao nodded and said, "Therefore, Sun Quan has to guard against it." ”

There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests.

Although Cao Sun is united at this moment, it does not mean that they are close partners.

The two temporarily allied because of the common cake of Jingzhou, but they would also choose to break up because of this interest.

Just like Mao Jue said.

Even if Cao Cao withdrew his troops, he would not fight Liu Bei, and would not give Sun Quan the opportunity to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight.

But because after the fall of the Jiangxia Naval Division, Jingzhou had no Naval Division, and Sun Quan was already invincible on the Yangtze River, and he had already won too much for this kind of terrain in the south.

With the radiation of Yunmengze and the Yangtze River, at least Jingnan and Jiangxia will definitely become the Sun family's sphere of influence, and then they can slowly encroach on Nanjun.

Therefore, to a certain extent, even if the Jiangxia Naval Division is defeated, Sun Quan will not move, waiting for Cao Liu to be defeated, which is in his best interests.

In this way, Cao Cao's situation will be very embarrassing.

The operation to regain the north is currently at a standstill, and he is deep in the quagmire of the south, and it is very likely that he will make a wedding dress for Sun Quan at that time.

So if he wants to make a gain, he has to defeat Liu Bei and completely incorporate Nanyang into his own territory.

In the final analysis.

The three families of Sun Cao and Liu all have their own interests to consider at this time.

It's just that what Cao Cao didn't know at this time was that the Jiangdong Army, which had the upper hand a few days ago, was already defeated at this moment, and even the commander Zhou Yu died in Hongkou.

Therefore, their conjectures, although correct and without any problems with their strategy, are wrong from the starting point.

"Pass my orders, reorganize the team, and show the banner to strengthen the army."

Cao Cao got up and looked at everyone like a tiger and wolf and said: "Tomorrow, Lone will fight Liu Bei to the death, and Lone must let Liu Bei know that he will always be Lone's defeated men!" ”

"Yui!"

The crowd was amazed.

At the moment, just after the New Year, Cao Cao began to reorganize his troops and horses, gathered the soldiers who stayed in the rear city, and prepared for a decisive battle with Liu Bei.

On the issue of updating,I'm going back to my hometown for the New Year recently.,Book friends should know.,My hometown is in a ravine.,Go to the town for three or four hours to walk.,Take a motorcycle for half an hour.,There is no network in the mountains.,There's really no way to code words.,So I'm all coding in advance.,Or find a way to go to the town to code words.,It's helpless to update and pull down.。 I promise to resume 10,000 years after the year, because I also want to finish it as soon as possible and get the next one as soon as possible. I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.

(End of chapter)