Chapter 256: The Situation in the North

After a year, Su Fan returned to Donghai Ling once again.

Having traveled for a year and walked across parts of the Shenhan World, Su Fan had gained a certain understanding of the geography of the Shenhan World.

At the same time, he had a better understanding of those warlords in the Shenhan World; after all, the information from the Dark Owls was not as accurate as what he had seen with his own eyes.

Moreover, the strength of the Dark Owls was far inferior to his own; many things he could perceive, the Dark Owls were often unable to investigate clearly.

From south to north, Su Fan personally observed the strength of several major warlords; as of now, the orthodox authority in Luoyang could be considered the greatest power.

Occupying the moral high ground, combined with portions of the Imperial Guard and the Liangzhou Army, as well as Lv Bu's Bingzhou Army, these were all elite forces.

Although the various factions within Luoyang City were fighting for power and profit, lacking a unified voice, even the Yang Clan could not have absolute say like Dong Zhuo.

Therefore, while they were the strongest on the surface, it was very difficult for them to launch a campaign; however, if someone were to attack Luoyang, these people would indeed unite.

Thus, the threat from Luoyang was not great; they only had defensive capabilities and little offensive power, and the high officials in the court, apart from fighting for power and profit, were mostly living in a drunken stupor.

Next, the warlords of the north were undoubtedly Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan.

Liu Yu of Youzhou was defeated by Gongsun Zan and died in battle, with most of his territory falling into Gongsun Zan's hands.

Meanwhile, Jizhou fell to Yuan Shao.

Both major warlords harbored covetous designs on the other's territory.

Yuan Shao coveted the warhorses of Youzhou, while Gongsun Zan coveted the wealth of Jizhou.

Thus, both sides tacitly agreed and raised their armies to start fighting.

The war between the two major warlords was quite intense; in terms of troops, Yuan Shao had millions under his command.

Jizhou was wealthy and populous, even surpassing Yuzhou, so ever since Yuan Shao took Jizhou, he immediately activated his "troop-bursting" mode.

In just a few short years, he had raised millions of troops.

This was the style of a wealthy tycoon; because there was no shortage of money and grain, the Yuan brothers could recruit soldiers to their hearts' content, which other warlords could not do.

If you raise an army, never mind paying military salaries, you at least have to feed them; the daily grain consumption was a terrifying figure.

Most warlords had only just obtained their own territories and had not yet digested them, so they fundamentally lacked much money or grain.

Therefore, it was very difficult for them to "burst" their troop numbers.

In the entire Shenhan World, only the two Yuan brothers had armies exceeding one million; others, such as Liu Biao of Jingzhou and Liu Yan of Yizhou, only had armies of several hundred thousand.

Of course, due to the geographical locations of those two places, there was no need to "burst" their troop numbers.

However, in recent years, Jingzhou had also begun to recruit soldiers because Yuan Shu was constantly attacking, forcing Liu Biao to recruit to cope.

Gongsun Zan of Youzhou was even more miserable; Youzhou was a bitter, cold land, not much different from Bingzhou.

The population was small and it was not wealthy, and Gongsun Zan was poor at internal affairs, making his governance of the region even worse; after obtaining Youzhou, he had no money or grain, otherwise he would not have set his sights on Jizhou.

With little money or grain, his troops were not numerous; after swallowing up Liu Yu, he had barely reached six hundred thousand.

However, although his troops were not numerous, the proportion of elites was extremely high; after all, Youzhou was located at the border and often had to fight against the Barbarian Race of the Caoyuan.

Even many of the troops originally under Liu Yu were elite soldiers.

It was precisely because of this that Gongsun Zan had the confidence to fight Yuan Shao.

In his view, although Jizhou had many troops, they were similar to the Yellow Turban Army and had no combat effectiveness.

They might not even be as good as the Yellow Turban Army, as the Yellow Turban Army had Yellow Turban Warriors and a group of devout soldiers who could often exceed their limits in combat.

The troops of Jizhou were all green recruits; how could they compare to his Youzhou soldiers?

In the war between the two major warlords, the Jizhou troops were indeed no match for Gongsun Zan's Youzhou forces at the beginning.

After all, the quality of the soldiers could not be compared, especially since Gongsun Zan's cavalry was extremely formidable; the White Horse Righteous Followers were not Heavy Cavalry, but belonged to light cavalry.

Yet they were almost invincible on the battlefield; whether it was charging formations or long-range harassment, the Jizhou troops could never mount any counterattack against them.

Therefore, in the early stages, whenever the two armies clashed, Jizhou usually suffered greater losses, and Gongsun Zan even captured more than one commandery of Jizhou territory.

Unfortunately, although he captured such a commandery, it was difficult to gain much from it; after all, he had not completely defeated Yuan Shao, so the great clans of this commandery naturally would not fully submit to him, and all he could obtain was a small amount of grain.

After all, most of the grain was in the hands of those great clans, and he did not dare to seize it lightly.

The power of the great clans was such that even the peak Shenhan World did not dare to suppress them excessively, let alone now.

The last person who suppressed and slaughtered the great clans was already dead.

For Gongsun Zan, taking a commandery did not yield that much; instead, after several major battles, the soldiers under Yuan Shao were tempered, especially those military generals, who progressed extremely quickly after experiencing a few battles.

Added to this was Ju Yi, that fierce general of Jizhou; one must know that before Yuan Shao obtained Jizhou, the "Great General of Jizhou" was not just Pan Feng alone, as Jizhou also had another great general, Ju Yi.

Of course, in terms of personal martial prowess, Pan Feng was stronger, but in terms of leading troops in battle, Ju Yi could crush Pan Feng and the others.

Ju Yi himself came from a humble background, hailing from the land of Liangzhou, and had fought his way up from the Border Army since he was young; later, he gained the appreciation of the previous Inspector of Jizhou and became a general in the Jizhou army.

Capable people are naturally very arrogant, and Ju Yi was no exception; he looked down on Han Fu, believing Han Fu to be incompetent.

Therefore, when Han Fu became the Inspector of Jizhou, he was quite suppressed.

Later, when Yuan Shao and Han Fu went to war, he was the one who led the defection to Yuan Shao, and it was also he who caused Han Fu to quickly lose to Yuan Shao.

After all, his status in the Jizhou army was still very high; Pan Feng had great personal strength but was not a general who understood warfare, and the soldiers knew of Pan Feng's personal bravery but knew he was not good at fighting wars.

Ju Yi was different, and most of the soldiers were more willing to follow Ju Yi.

It was precisely because of Ju Yi that Yuan Shao was able to easily take Jizhou.

In the great war against Gongsun Zan, it was also Ju Yi who had been resisting on the front lines; if not for Ju Yi, Yuan Shao would likely have been defeated even more miserably.

After all, in history, Yuan Shao was not Gongsun Zan's match in the early stages either.

It was even more difficult now, because in the current Jizhou, military generals were scarce; half of the famous generals of Jizhou had fallen into Su Fan's hands.

This caused the quality of Jizhou's military generals to drop by fifty percent all at once.

People like Zhang He and Gao Lan, although not experienced at first, would inevitably become formidable generals after experiencing a few battles.

Unfortunately, they were all gone; it was for this reason that Yuan Shao was retreating steadily in the face of Gongsun Zan's offensive, and it was only through Ju Yi's desperate efforts and the help of the Yuan Clan Sorcery Group that he was able to block him.

Of course, with half a year of slaughter, Gongsun Zan's soldiers were also exhausted, and the fighting gradually ceased.