Chapter 866

In Gao Yi, in Yuan Shao's mansion, civil officials and military generals were lined up in two rows, looking at Yuan Shao who was angry at the head.

The table was not only kicked over but also had a corner cut off. Fruits and wine were spilled all over the floor, and a Han sword was thrown on the ground, very messy.

Yuan Shao had already been angry once when he received the news, but now that he had summoned the sages to discuss matters, and mentioned again that the Rebel Wang had suddenly raised an army to attack, with over six thousand people fighting over ten thousand people, and Qu Yi's army actually failed to resist, collapsing at one blow, and Qu Yi, this great general, was captured alive, and Huang Zhong led the Xuanwu Guard to march into Gaoyang County, the more he spoke, the angrier he became, and he broke out, resulting in such a mess.

After being silent for a while, the great general Yan Liang cupped his hands and stepped out: "My Lord, I am willing to lead twenty thousand elite troops to take Huang Zhong's dog head."

Yan Liang's words broke the silence, and the upright Tian Feng spoke: "Last year I heard that Lu Bu left Yanmen to surrender to the Rebel Wang. The general is brave, can you match Lu Bu?"

"Hmph, the world says Lu Bu is brave, and even says the Rebel Wang is braver than Xiang Ji, but I don't accept it. Whether I can match him or not should be determined by strength on the battlefield, deciding life and death. Sir, you are afraid just by relying on a name, which inevitably lowers others' morale and destroys your own prestige, being afraid before fighting is not the right way."

Hearing Tian Feng's words, Yan Liang gave a cold snort, and his speech was also very impolite. He was also a fierce general who had killed his way out, and he couldn't stand those who bragged, and even more couldn't stand these weakling strategists saying sour words.

But he didn't know that Guan Yu had to fight Lu Bu in a group with Liu Bei and Zhang Fei, and even then, Lu Bu was able to leave unscathed. And Guan Yu killing him only took one slash. Converting it, Lu Bu fighting Yan Liang would also just be a matter of one halberd.

Of course, this kind of battle is actually in line with common sense. How could so many people fight for more than ten minutes, fighting a hundred rounds, and still be on horseback? That would take at least half an hour.

A proper battle is basically a matter of one encounter; if you don't die, you have to be crippled.

Two generals charge at each other on horseback, both holding weapons over four meters long, playing tricks back and forth, adjusting their weapons, constantly analyzing where the other side is going to attack, and also constantly thinking about how they are going to attack, and then the two collide, and it depends on who is more clever. One pass, and it's a life. And the past of this life has won many other lives.

This is also a good explanation for "one general succeeds and ten thousand bones wither." A military general who is killed by others, the other military generals and small soldiers he killed, at least start at one hundred...

Yuan Shao waved his hand: "The Rebel Wang attacked without notice, we must respond. You are all dedicated to the public, speak your mind, just say it."

"Attacking without notice" was said well, meaning that if Wang Yan wanted to fight him, he had to inform him first. This statement must have problems, but in fact, the problem is not big. Because the Han Dynasty is still there, everyone is considered a minister of the same dynasty, and fighting people also needs a reason, no matter how far-fetched it is, this is called having a famous teacher. It's just that Wang Yan is a great rebel with rebellious bones on his forehead, saying he will fight you, he will fight you, where does he need to find a reason. If there must be one, it's that he can't live anymore.

Xu You cupped his hands and said: "Now the war situation is unclear, I don't know what the Rebel Wang is planning. If he attacks on a large scale, Xu Shui, Baxian, and Quanzhou will all move. Xu Shui is not far from Gao Yi, and should have received news of the war, but now there is only Baxian, Qu Yi was defeated and captured, and Huang Zhong marched into Gaoyang.

Observing the Rebel Wang's actions, he doesn't start a major war unless his food and grass are sufficient. Although he has taken Youzhou for more than two years, he has expanded his army and recruited soldiers, taken Yanmen, fought Zhang Yang, and collected Bingzhou refugees, with Heishan bandits mixed in from time to time to surrender. Bingzhou land is poor, and his grain consumption must be huge. If his intention is to annex Jizhou, his grain and fodder must be insufficient.

Therefore, I think that this time the Rebel Wang attacked, it is not worth worrying about, his intention is to test."

Xu You, courtesy name Ziyuan, from Nanyang. He was greedy and arrogant, widely associated with party members, and had dealings with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao in his early years. After Yuan Shao and Dong Zhuo "my sword has not been sharp," Dong Zhuo falsely ordered Yuan Shao to be the Prefect of Bohai, and Xu You was with Yuan Shao at that time. Later, in the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao did not accept Xu You's plan to attack Xu Chang, and instead surrendered to Cao Cao. Old Cao's surprise attack on Wuchao was instigated by Xu You.

Finally, because he relied on the merit of Guandu and his early friendship with Cao Cao, he became complacent and too arrogant, and was killed by Xu Chu.

Regardless of whether he was killed or not, Xu You still had a level. From Xu Shui and Baxian, he analyzed that it was not a full-scale war. From Wang Yan's other military actions and territorial expansion, he believed that two years was not enough for him to accumulate too much grain, which proved that Wang Yan did not have the ability to launch a major war. Based on this, he judged that this surprise attack by Wang Yan was aimed at testing.

"Ziyuan, why don't you speak directly, why is the Rebel Wang testing, what is his intention?" A strategist couldn't help but ask.

Glancing at the person arrogantly, Xu You said: "In the past two years, the Lord has conquered Zhang Yan in the west and attacked the Taishan bandits in the east, with three hundred thousand armored soldiers. The Rebel Wang raised an army, intending to test our army's combat power. This is one. The second is that we are developing with peace of mind, without major wars, and Cao Cao and Yuan Shu are both accumulating strength. In this era of great contention, it is too peaceful. The Rebel Wang's intention is to drive us to raise an army to go south. This thief occupies the north and can reap the benefits."

Xu You's words made a lot of sense. In fact, it wasn't just Xu You who thought of it, but it was Xu You who expressed it this time. Everyone in this room, except for the military generals, all had wisdom. After receiving the news of the war, they had already thought of a lot.

Yuan Shao understood the reason, and couldn't help but clench his fists. Because this was truly too humiliating. He sat on three hundred thousand troops, and Wang Yan actually wanted to drive him south? However, thinking of Wang Yan's six thousand soldiers fighting his ten thousand, he relaxed a little. After all, Qu Yi was also a general who could fight and had a hand in leading troops, otherwise, he wouldn't have been sent to defend, which was a heavy responsibility, yet he was still defeated by Huang Zhong in one battle.

And he also understood that although it was a surprise attack, it was not a night attack, and Qu Yi was also fighting in formation, and they were fighting based on the military camp. This was a proper field battle, a proper head-on collision, representing the gap in the hard strength of the army.

Seeing Yuan Shao angry and silent, Shen Pei below said: "My Lord, for the current plan, we should quickly send a part of the troops to reinforce Gaoyang. Observing the Rebel Wang's use of troops, he will surely remain motionless after taking Gaoyang, waiting for our movements, so abandoning Gaoyang and defending outside Gaoyang city is also possible."

"Zhengnan's words are very true, My Lord. In any case, we must first send troops to block the enemy. If there is no obstruction, he will surely drive straight in and attack Gao Yi. North or south, the Lord should make a decision. The Rebel Wang wants to force us south to make the princes fight each other. If the Lord remains motionless, one is losing sharpness, and the other is that it is hard to guarantee that the Rebel Wang will not raise a large army to attack us."

These words were said by Ju Shou, who repeatedly offered plans during Guandu, but Yuan Shao did not accept them and wanted to kill him. After the Battle of Guandu, he was killed by Old Cao.

Ju Shou's words came out, and it was a mess. It was nothing more than the two choices of going north or south, and a group of civil officials and military generals were buzzing with their own opinions.

Some thought that with three hundred thousand troops in hand, and the Rebel Wang still having to guard against the grasslands and Han Sui, which involved part of his military strength, the army they could mobilize was seventy or eighty thousand people. And they could pull in Zhang Yang and tie Kong Rong together to fight, and they could gather forty thousand troops. Comparing this on paper, no matter how you look at it, they won.

Another part of the people who preferred going south naturally had their own arguments. The Rebel Wang had fought two battles in Changli and Xuantu in Liaodong, both with five thousand fighting twenty thousand. In recorded battles, the Rebel Wang had never been defeated. He had operated Liaodong for nine years, the grasslands for more than six years, and Youzhou for more than two years, with a population of three million, truly strong soldiers and horses.

If they really fought, within a month, the Rebel Wang could mobilize sixty or seventy thousand troops to participate in the battle, in two months he could mobilize another fifty thousand, and after three months, if he raised his entire army, he would also have thirty thousand troops. If the war dragged on, there would be no chance to surrender. After all, the Rebel Wang's army had already been recruited, and it was absolutely impossible to send these people back. Even if they didn't want to fight, they had to fight, and then they would be finished.

Relatively speaking, with thirty thousand troops, leaving ten thousand troops to guard the home, Wang Yan was content with developing internal affairs and wanted to reap the benefits, so he would definitely not go south, so they would take twenty thousand troops to act. First swallow Qingzhou, then plan for Yanzhou and Xuzhou. Fighting all the way to the north of the Yangtze River, with such stronger power, they would turn back to attack the Rebel Wang.

Obviously, compared to this, it seemed better to follow the Rebel Wang's intention to go south. Now they might not be able to win, and fighting later, they might be able to win. Although it was the same, there was always a "later." If they fought now, the probability of losing now was too great.

This is not the time of Guandu. Yuan Shao had five or six hundred thousand troops, and Cao Cao only had seventy or eighty thousand. With the advantage in hand, Yuan Shao would definitely catch Cao Cao and fight fiercely. Of course, this troop strength was also fictional. In the actual Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao had one hundred thousand troops, and Cao Cao only had twenty thousand.

It seems that there were fewer troops, and it was not awesome enough to write about, without passion. So, hey, Great General Wang could now pull out thirty thousand troops...

And from another point of view, Wang Yan's knife was right there. For the powerful clans, he really killed them. These people were all well-informed, and they all knew what each other was like. One by one, no one could run away. Many of them were actually not afraid of death, but they were afraid of the way they would die after being caught by Wang Yan. It was said that Gongsun Zan's bones were all polished. Especially Yuan Shao, if he was defeated, if he didn't run away, he was sure his end would be the same as Gongsun Zan's.

Medical matters were not a secret, and Wang Yan even invited powerful businessmen to watch, and there were people who introduced them specifically—whose skeleton this was, and who the person who had been processed and exposed muscle tissues was. He was arrogant and outputting to his face, Wang Yan was deliberately disgusting the powerful clans. They endured the disgust and still had to do business with him.

On the other hand, there was another reason, because the Rebel Wang now intended to annex Bingzhou, and had already controlled Yanmen Pass. He must use troops there. If they didn't fight, the Rebel Wang would definitely plan for Bingzhou.

People all want to drag it out, so Yuan Shao's attitude was understood.

Yuan Shao patted the table. This was the table that his subordinates had changed for him, and wine and food were placed again. After the buzzing sages quieted down, he ordered: "I have made up my mind, go south!"

As he spoke, he gritted his teeth and patted the table fiercely again, ignoring his numb palms, expressing the huge humiliation in his heart at this moment.

He continued: "Zhang He, Gao Lan, you two lead thirty thousand troops to Gaoyang to resist the enemy. If Huang Zhong does not lead the army to advance, there is no need to fight, just resist as before."

If you are beaten, you have to stand at attention. Yuan Shao stood very straight. Since he was not prepared to fight, he simply gave Gaoyang to the Rebel Wang.

After Zhang He and Gao Lan accepted the order, Yuan Shao continued to arrange: "Closely monitor the Rebel Wang's movements, and all generals should reorganize and prepare for war. Write to Kong Rong and ask if he will submit. If he submits, then forget it; if not, then attack him. I will personally write to Cao Cao, making him attack Yuan Shu in the south."

After a series of arrangements, everyone went about their own business, and Yuan Shao's subordinates also became busy...

In fact, Cao Cao didn't need Yuan Shao to say much at all. Originally, he was fighting everywhere to expand his territory. He had no one to fight, just Yuan Shu, the Heishan Army, or Xuzhou. The original Heishan Army was still holding the Southern Xiongnu, but ever since Wang Yan started attacking Bingzhou, the Southern Xiongnu ran away. Only a small part was in the Taihang Mountains, mixing with the Heishan bandits, and most of them migrated outside the Great Wall.

So Cao Cao was fighting Yuan Shu himself, on the one hand, to expand his strength, and on the other hand, to reassure Yuan Shao, to show his stance. After all, the current environment of the princes east of the pass was the confrontation between the Yuan brothers.

The most critical thing was that Old Cao was cunning. Although his strength was not much weaker than Yuan Shao's, he didn't send troops to guard the border between Yanzhou and Jizhou at all, just to make Yuan Shao relax his vigilance, so he could fight hard to the south and then turn back to clean up Yuan Shao.

On this point, the current Yuan Shao and Old Cao hit it off, but Yuan Shao wanted to fight to the south and then turn back to fight Wang Yan.

So after receiving Yuan Shao's letter, Old Cao's reply was roughly "Brother, don't worry about things."

Wang Yan received the news a bit slower, because no one sent him a letter. He could only judge Yuan Shao's choice through the news from Huang Zhong and the movements of Taishi Ci and Zhou Cang.

"Report to the Great General, Yuan Shao increased his troops by twenty thousand, stationed ten miles outside Gaoyang City, and then the Gaoyang County Magistrate surrendered the city, and the Military Sima is currently handling civil affairs." The communication soldier reported the news dutifully.

"Handling civil affairs" is another way of saying it, which is slaughtering powerful clans and officials, and surrendering the city also requires killing. Blood must be shed to inspire the commoners in various places and stimulate a new spirit.

Wang Yan nodded and ordered: "Report back to Huang Zhong, lead the Xuanwu Guard to approach the enemy five miles and set up camp to defend, recall three thousand militia, and promote Lu Bu to Military Commander, go."

"Yes." The communication soldier hammered his chest forcefully, turned around, and ran out.

He summoned his personal guards again, and Wang Yan said: "Pass the order down, recruit another three thousand militia, combine them with the militia recruited this time into one unit, named the Baotao Guard, Zhang Wu will be the Baotao Colonel, reorganize and gather for training. Also, write to Guo Jia to find an opportunity to expand. Go."

After scaring Yuan Shao into submission, he certainly couldn't be idle here. Steadily expanding his territory and absorbing the population to seek development was the priority.

His development in Bingzhou was actually very steady. It was far from Liangzhou and not close to Chang'an. He expanded bit by bit, and people didn't take him seriously. Although Han Sui was not sensible, he really couldn't fight in a short time.

But in fact, he didn't need to do anything. Now it is 193, and by next year, Chang'an will be in chaos. Han Sui, Ma Teng, Li Jue, Guo Si, etc., will all fight until their dog brains come out. Later, Han Sui and Ma Teng, the two brothers, will also have internal strife, fighting back and forth.

Yuan Shao will also have movements, driving the princes east of the pass to start attacking and annexing each other. This time Wang Yan is satisfied. Although the world being in chaos will kill many people, chaos is chaos whether it's early or late. In such a world, no one can be spared...