Chapter 765: Separate Missions
According to Sima Yi's strategy, Huangfu Chaobo indeed only has the territory of a dozen cities around Luoyang. As for Huangfu Chaobo's allies, Gongsun Zan and Liu Yu have already carried them, and it is impossible for the army to go south to threaten Yuan Shao. Even if they send troops, with a small number of troops and horses, Yuan Shao's strength is not a concern at all.
As for Han Fu, in the eyes of everyone, he was already a dying man struggling to his death.
Another one is Yuzhou Kong Min. I believe that with Yuan Shu's restraint, it is impossible to have the energy to take care of Sizhou.
Several people discussed for nearly a day, and finally decided on a strategy. Cheng Yu was sent as an envoy to Hebei, Sima Yi was sent as an envoy to Bingzhou, Xunyu was sent as an envoy to Yangzhou, and Chen Qun was sent as an envoy to Chang'an to persuade several princes to form a joint crusade again. military. If all goes well, the army will send troops to attack Sizhou in early September.
Originally, Cao Cao's suggestion was for Sima Yi to secretly return to Hanoi and contact those aristocratic families, but Sima Yi's words made Cao Cao give up the idea. The Hanoi aristocratic family had nearly uprooted Huangfu Chaobo the year before, unless Huangfu Chaobo's power was destroyed. Otherwise, there is simply no way to recover.
A few days later, at the Chariot General's Mansion in Nanpi City, Bohai County, Cheng Yu was on his second mission to Hebei. Last year, he joined forces with Yuan Shao to send troops. It was Cheng Yu's mission to Hebei that persuaded Yuan Shao's army to send troops, which made Cao Cao We were able to capture two counties in Xuzhou.
Yuan Shao and all his staff and generals were very dissatisfied with last year's war. Yuan Shao's army sent nearly 100,000 troops and only got a dozen empty cities, while Cao Cao got the two counties of Xuzhou.
Moreover, this year, Cao Cao suddenly sent troops to Qingzhou, taking half of Qingzhou, which Yuan Shao regarded as his backyard, but the other half was taken advantage of by Huangfu Chaobo.
So this time Cheng Yu rushed to Jizhou again and wanted to join forces with Yuan Shao to send troops again, but he was opposed by many people under Yuan Shao's command. Cheng Yu, who rushed to Hebei again, did not immediately try to persuade Yuan Shao, but quietly sent people to bribe Yuan Shao's counselors Xu You and Guo Tu, plus counselors Xun Chen and Shen Pei who had originally agreed to send troops. , Yuan Shao's eight counselors already accounted for more than half, and together with the neutral Chen Lin, the only ones who opposed sending troops were Feng Ji, Xin Ping, and Xin Pi.
In this way, Cheng Yu's chances of motivating Yuan Shao to send troops will greatly increase.
As for the generals, Cheng Yu was not worried. These generals only cared about whether they had the chance to send troops, and they didn't care who they sent troops to.
However, just to be on the safe side, Cheng Yu secretly visited Yuan Shao's third son, Yuan Shang. Nowadays, everyone knows that Yuan Cheqi prefers his third son, Shang, just because Shang Gongzi is handsome and resembles Yuan Shao in his youth. Therefore, it is also a little thought of Cao Cao and others to cultivate the relationship between Yuan Shang and his eldest son Yuan Tan.
After taking such actions, Cheng Yu officially proposed to Yuan Shao about jointly sending troops to Sizhou. As expected, everyone in Cao camp was afraid of this.
Cheng Yu and Yuan Shao's staff were at loggerheads, and finally persuaded Yuan Shao to send troops to Wei Commandery again. However, Yuan Shao's condition for sending troops was still that Cao Cao would send troops to attack Sizhou first, and then Yuan Shao's army would send troops to attack Wei Commandery.
Now there seems to be signs of war between Gongsun Zan and Liu Yu in the north. After Gongsun Zan truly pacifies Youzhou, he will no longer have any worries. Then by then, Yuan Shao's Jizhou will be in danger of being attacked from both sides.
In fact, Yuan Shao has become a powerful general in recent years. After several years of development, Yuan Shao has recruited eight military advisors, plus nearly twenty famous historical generals. It can be said that he is firmly positioned as the number one prince in the world. Although Yuan Shao's territory is not the largest at present, when it comes to counselors, generals, soldiers, horses, money and food, it is well deserved to be the first.
However, Yuan Shao was too manipulative and indecisive. In addition, several of his military advisors were divided into several factions and criticized each other. In addition, Huangfu Chaobo rescued him several times. This was why Han Fu failed to defeat Han Fu even though he sent out troops several times. achievement.
However, if we send troops this time, Cheng Yu has done so much work that I believe Huangfu Chaobo will be unable to recover.
In Bingzhou, Jinyang, and in Marquis Wen's mansion, young Sima Yi was also trying to persuade Lu Bu.
He persuaded him to go south to Sizhou to attack Huangfu Chaobo. Regarding his suggestion, Lu Bujun's military advisor Chen Gong and chief general Zhang Liao were opposed to it. First, Sizhou and Bingzhou have always had a very good relationship, and Bingzhou needs the food and grass. Nearly half of the weapons were purchased from Sizhou.
Secondly, when Bingzhou goes south to attack Sizhou, there are only two roads. One is from Shangdang to Hanoi via Tianjingguan, and the other is from Taiyuan, passing through Queshu Valley and heading south to Hedong. No matter which of these two roads is taken, it is not possible. So easy to go.
Another point is that most of the Bingzhou army is now in Yanmen and Dingxiang counties in the north. If you want to go south to attack Sizhou, you must mobilize the army south. No matter where you attack, you must mobilize a large number of infantry, which will cost a lot of money. Money and food are not a small sum of money.
Moreover, another point is that the Sizhou army is tightly defended at Tianjingguan, and all the Hanoi families have been wiped out by Huangfu Chaobo. Without internal response, just relying on the soldiers of Bingzhou to attack will cause too much loss, and the gain will not be worth the loss. . Therefore, the final route can only be to go south to Hedong, but Hedong has been fighting for two years, and there are not many benefits to be gained now.
These were the reasons for their opposition. However, Lu Bu had been moved by the benefits Sima Yi said. In addition, generals like Wei Xu longed for the prosperity of the Central Plains and spared no effort to encourage Lu Bu to send troops to Sizhou, so in the end the two had no choice but to agree to send troops.
In fact, long before going north to Bingzhou, Cao Ying had already planned the route for Lu Bu to send troops south to Hedong. For Henei, it was too difficult for Bingzhou to send troops to Henei, so the best direction was still Hedong.
Since they had agreed to send troops, Chen Gong and his men began to make full preparations for the dispatch of troops. Under the planning and arrangement of Chen Gong and his men, the Bingzhou army began to secretly gather troops and horses, mobilize food and grass, and prepare to attack Hedong in the south.
In Huainan, Shouchun City, the General's Mansion, after Xun Yu arrived, with the second son of the Yuan family, he didn't need Xun Yu to do more provocation. Yuan Shu hurriedly promised that as long as the news of Cao Cao's dispatch of troops was confirmed, his Yangzhou army would march north and head straight to Runan.
However, after Xun Yu left, Yuan Shu summoned his advisers to discuss matters. In the General's Mansion, after Yuan Shu and his subordinates arrived, Yuan Shu informed everyone of Cao Cao's suggestion and prepared to order the army to prepare for battle.
When he was about to give the order, he was opposed by Yan Xiang.
Yan Xiang's opinion was that since Cao Cao could no longer look south, he would definitely choose the softest persimmon to squeeze first. Now Xuzhou was at its weakest. If the army suddenly sent troops to Xuzhou, Xiapi and Guangling counties could be taken down in one go. At that time, they could turn around and send troops to Runan, which would kill two birds with one stone.
If Cao Cao's troops were free after this battle, he would definitely send troops to Xiapi. By then, Xuzhou would be in Cao Cao's pocket.