Chapter 410

“This is not good news!”

“Yuanchang, do you have any way to sow discord between them?”

Zhong Yao, standing to the side, shook his head helplessly: “At this moment, more than half of Xuzhou is already in your hands, my lord! With the life and death of Liu Bei and Lu Bu at stake, it will be difficult to sow discord again!”

“However! It is not that there is no way at all!”

“Oh?”

Cao Cao had not held much hope, but he did not expect Zhong Yao to have a good idea, so he could not help but look at Zhong Yao and ask: “Does Yuanchang have any good ideas? Speak quickly! If it is truly effective, I will definitely reward you heavily!”

Zhong Yao replied immediately: “Returning to my lord, there are indeed two ideas;”

“One, my relationship with the Chen clan, a great clan of Xuzhou, is quite good, and I am also an old acquaintance of Chen Chen Yuanlong!”

“According to my understanding, Chen Deng is a man of extraordinary talent and values the interests of his family the most;”

“It is impossible for him to follow Liu Bei and Lu Bu to the end!”

“Currently, many of the Chen clan’s businesses and fields are in the northern commanderies of Xuzhou, which are in your hands, my lord!”

“As long as we send suitable personnel to contact him, I believe we should be able to persuade him to seek refuge with you, my lord;”

“And this person is already one of the most important and trusted strategists under Liu Bei’s command;”

“If we can get his help and work from the inside and outside, it should not be difficult to break this Xiapi City!”

“Hmm!”

Cao Cao nodded in understanding: “This plan is feasible! What about the other method?”

Zhong Yao continued to reply: “The other is the method of water attack!”

“My lord, please look; this Xiapi City is adjacent to the Si River, and the terrain is relatively low;”

“At this time, Xuzhou is about to enter the rainy season! If we build multiple dams on the upper reaches of the Si River to intercept the river water;”

“When the rainy season arrives, we will inevitably be able to accumulate a large amount of river water;”

“At that time, by destroying the dams directly, the massive amount of accumulated river water will inevitably submerge the entire Xiapi City.”

“At that time, Xiapi City will break without being attacked!”

“However, this method harms the harmony of heaven and will cause a huge disaster to the people near Xiapi City, leading to countless deaths;”

“If it can be avoided, it is best not to use it!”

“Otherwise, afterwards, my lord will only get a rotten Xiapi City and the low-lying land for hundreds of miles around;”

“At the same time, it will cause the people of Xuzhou to be full of resentment, which is unfavorable for my lord to win the hearts of the people of Xuzhou.”

Of course, that is what he said, but in reality, Zhong Yao did not care about the lives of those people at all.

He is a member of the Yingchuan Zhong clan, a great noble clan; the common people are not worth mentioning in his eyes.

No matter how many were injured or killed, he had no ripples in his heart.

If he really cared, he would not have offered this strategy just now.

The reason for saying these things was just to present an outward appearance of worrying about the country and the people, and to establish a good persona.

“Hmm...”

Cao Cao frowned: “Water attack? It does indeed harm the harmony of heaven!”

In fact, Cao Cao himself is also a ruthless person; to achieve his goals, he can also be unscrupulous.

But he had concerns at this moment and did not dare to act so recklessly.

Because he had to consider Su Xuan’s thoughts.

If he really did something like flooding Xiapi, leading to countless deaths and injuries of the people, he did not know if Su Xuan would intervene or use troops against him in advance.

This is very possible.

Looking at Su Xuan’s new policies in Jingzhou, one can clearly see that Su Xuan truly put benevolence and righteousness into his bones and implemented them in practice.

He cares very much about the lives and livelihoods of the people.

It seems as if he is afraid that they will not live well.

Many policies are actually biased towards the common people, wanting to make them wealthy and their lives better.

Cao Cao could even roughly guess why Su Xuan allowed him and Lord Yuan Shao and other warlords to compete for hegemony in the Central Plains and the northern provinces, while staying in Jingzhou to develop and not expand outward.

Is it really just because he doesn’t have enough officials for his new policies?

Not necessarily!

And no one stipulated that after taking territory, one must rush to complete the reforms quickly, right?

It is completely possible to take it step by step, slowly!

At most, some hidden dangers will be left for the time being, but these can all be cleared one by one in the future.

But Su Xuan did not send troops,

Firstly, because Su Xuan has absolute confidence in his own strength.

He feels that even if he, Cao Cao, and Lord Yuan Shao and other warlords continue to expand their power, they will not be his, Su Xuan’s, opponents in the future.

Secondly, because Su Xuan does not want to cause too many casualties among the people.

He wants to reduce the number of wars and wait for these warlords to expand with all their might, then finish the work in one battle.

“Yuanchang, you first find a way to contact Chen Deng, try to incite him to rebel, and then let him be our inside agent!”

“As for the water attack, we can make preliminary preparations for now; if we can avoid using it, we should try not to use this strategy. It really harms the harmony of heaven too much and is not worth the loss!”

“I want an intact Xiapi City, not a ruin!”

“Otherwise, it would be better to let Liu Bei and the others occupy Xuzhou!”

Cao Cao ordered Zhong Yao immediately.

“Yes!”

Although Zhong Yao was very surprised in his heart, feeling that this did not sound like something Cao Cao would say, he still agreed.

The strategy had already been offered; how Cao Cao chose was not something he could control.

Cao Cao is not a master who is easy to fool or manipulate.

At this moment, the conversation here was heard clearly by Jia Jia Shisan using his spirit beast.

His face changed slightly: “I really almost forgot about this!”

“If they really use a water attack to deal with Xiapi City, then hundreds of thousands of people will likely suffer!”

“This is absolutely not allowed!”

Saying this, he had someone call Chen Deng, and then told Chen Deng the contents of Zhong Yao’s two strategies.

Then he said: “Chen Yuanlong! It seems our previous arrangements were not perfect enough! We may need to make adjustments!”

“No matter what, we cannot let Cao Cao choose the water attack method in the end!”

“Otherwise, we will not be able to answer to the lord!”

“In addition, I will pass this news to the lord later; I believe the lord will not agree to let Cao Cao have the opportunity to use a water attack!”

“So, you may have to be wronged and secretly surrender to Cao Cao, and then act as an inside agent to help Cao Cao break the city. What do you think?”

This would undoubtedly damage Chen Deng’s reputation and burden him with the curse of betraying his lord.

“That is nothing!”

Chen Deng shook his head: “I actually expected this, so from beginning to end, I never recognized Liu Bei as my lord!”

“I have always addressed him as the King of Qi, just to prevent this kind of situation from happening!”

“So, there is no need to worry about me; secretly surrendering to Cao Cao is not a problem!”

“Actually, from the moment I knew the lord was not prepared to take Xuzhou for the time being, I understood that this situation would arise!”

“Afterwards, I even have to betray Cao Cao, so I am not prepared to completely surrender to Cao Cao either; it is enough to maintain a simple superior-subordinate relationship!”

“Anyway, our family has always given outsiders the feeling that everything is based on family interests;”

“If things are completely contrary to family interests, we will stop losses in time and make corresponding changes;”

“Now, this is just right to utilize this point!”

“Of course, this will make Cao Cao not trust my Chen clan too much afterwards, and it is impossible to give me heavy responsibilities, but this is also what I want!”

“It is enough to continue to guard Xuzhou and remain in office afterwards!”

“I am waiting for the day the lord sends troops to Xuzhou, so I can act as an inside agent to help the lord take Xuzhou easily!”

“So, there is no grievance!”

“Only, in this way, it may not be possible to delay for too long!”

— Author's Notes —

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