Chapter 266: The Change in Cao

"Gongsun Zan must be supported, and Zhang Bao and the others can also continue to be supported."

"Although the combat strength of the Yellow Turban Army under Zhang Bao's command is not strong, those Yellow Turban Warriors of theirs still possess significant lethality."

According to news from the Dark Owls, more than half of the tens of thousands of casualties suffered by Yuan Benchu's army were caused by those Yellow Turban Warriors.

Speaking of these Yellow Turban Warriors, they are comparable to infantry tanks and are truly quite terrifying.

If there are no powerful Qi-Refining generals to intercept them, letting them charge would likely be the same as facing those Heavy Cavalry.

After all, they are impervious to blades and spears, and they feel no pain, much like robots; thus, even elite soldiers find it difficult to inflict much damage upon them.

Those capable of inflicting damage are at least at the Strength Refining Seventh Layer of cultivation or above.

A person with such cultivation, if placed in the army, could be a Colonel in charge of five thousand troops.

They count as mid-level officers, and such people are inevitably not very numerous.

With a cultivation of Strength Refining Seventh Layer, even within Su Fan's million-strong army, there are likely at most only a thousand.

And this is only after he has spent years selecting them and expending vast resources to cultivate them.

Below Strength Refining Third Layer, it is easy to cultivate; generally, ordinary people who enter the army and undergo training might reach the first or second layer of Strength Refining after a few years.

Of course, this is under the training of Donghai Ling; other warlords do not have such a high volume of training or nutritional supplements.

Above Strength Refining Fourth Layer, it is not so easy to break through; it requires some talent and constant effort, and as for the Strength Refining Seventh Layer, that is even harder.

It is likely that many require decades of effort.

Of course, those with innate talent do not count; for people like Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, they had already broken through to Qi-Refining by the age of twenty, so there is nothing to be said about such people.

Su Fan spent a great price, yet he only managed to cultivate this small number of elites.

Yet the Taoist Sect, relying only on some Taoist masters, can quickly create a batch of Yellow Turban Warriors comparable to the Strength Refining Fifth or Sixth Layer, which shows the terror of this Magic Technique.

Of course, Su Fan knows that this actually requires prerequisites; first, the casters themselves must have high cultivation.

Secondly, as a vessel, the body must be strong, especially if one wants to reach the Strength Refining Fifth or Sixth Layer; the vessels usually have a cultivation of around the Strength Refining Second or Third Layer beforehand.

Moreover, once the technique is cast, even if the Yellow Turban Warrior survives, they are considered ruined.

Calculated this way, the cost expended is not small.

Zhang Bao's million-strong army can at most cast the spell to release a thousand Yellow Turban Warriors at a time; the flaw is still quite significant.

But regardless, the Yellow Turban Army in the Taihang Mountains remains a force not to be underestimated.

According to the Dark Owls' news, there are many young and strong men among the Taihang Mountains Yellow Turbans, and it seems to be the last remaining force of the Yellow Turbans; there are also quite a few elites, as Zhang Jiao did preserve a portion of the Yellow Turban elites back then.

If they could be armed, their combat strength would increase further.

"With our current resources, even providing for both sides poses no pressure, and exhausting Yuan Benchu's military strength and his foundation as much as possible is also a good thing for our Lord."

They are certainly happy to see the enemy becoming weaker and weaker.

Regarding the great battle in Beidi, from the very beginning, Guo Jia and Xun You did not look favorably upon Gongsun Zan, primarily due to Gongsun Zan's personality and ability.

Indeed, Gongsun Zan is a good hand at leading troops in battle; on this point, none of the strategists present disagreed.

Even generals like Taishi Ci could not refute this; when it comes to commanding cavalry in battle, no one among Taishi Ci and the others dared to claim they were better than Gongsun Zan.

However, leading troops in battle is just leading troops in battle; this is an advantage for a general, but it is not necessarily so for a monarch.

A monarch may not need strong military talent, or even strong political talent, which is fine; he only needs to know how to use people well.

If he can regulate internal personnel relations and let internal talents exert their respective abilities, that is already an extraordinary monarch.

If he also possesses some talent in internal affairs and military matters, along with a broad vision, then he can be considered a man of great talent and bold strategy.

Clearly, Gongsun Zan is not such a person; he can only be considered a general.

However, it is very difficult for such a general to achieve success as a warlord.

The ceiling of the general world, Bawang Xiang Yu—in terms of leading great battles, was his ability not strong?

It was absolutely very strong, but after proclaiming himself king, he kept going downhill; this is a warning from the past. Can Gongsun Zan's ability compare to Xiang Yu's?

No one would think Gongsun Zan is comparable to Xiang Yu; he doesn't even compare to one-tenth of Xiang Yu.

Therefore, his failure was destined.

And as for Yuan Shao, another major warlord in the North, if we compare him to the High Ancestor Liu Bang, not to mention the abilities of the two.

In terms of comprehensive ability, Liu Bang inevitably surpasses Yuan Shao.

But in the early stages, Liu Bang was in no way comparable to Yuan Shao.

Comparing them this way, it is clearly obvious.

A long time ago, a group of strategists had already frankly stated how long Gongsun Zan could hold out.

They had even prepared long ago; the fact that Gongsun Zan could hold out for several years actually had a lot to do with Donghai Ling.

Because of commerce, after Gongsun Zan obtained Youzhou, he passively developed a portion of commerce, which gave him a bit more money and grain.

Otherwise, with his terrible internal administration, the money and grain would likely have been empty in the first two years, and earlier, when trading warhorses, Donghai Ling had specifically transported a batch of military equipment.

At that time, the great battle in the North had not yet truly begun.

It can be said that Donghai Ling's support for Gongsun Zan was absolutely the greatest, and it was continuous.

Unfortunately, in the end, Gongsun Zan still did not defeat Yuan Shao.

This point also made Su Fan feel quite helpless; he wanted to change it, but he did not change it.

However, in reality, the current Divine Han is already very different from history.

In the south, Sun Jian has not died, and the current emperor is not Liu Xie but Liu Bian.

To a certain extent, his arrival triggered a turning point in fate.

Of course, there is another change, and that concerns Cao.

At the beginning of the sixth year of Chuping, Cao actually led troops to Luoyang City; of course, it was not to rescue the Son of Heaven, but by imperial decree.

Regardless of whether Cao had thoughts of rebellion in his heart, at least for the moment, he was still a loyal subject of the Divine Han, loyal and devoted to the Divine Han.

As soon as he received the imperial decree, he happily led his troops to Luoyang City.

In reality, it was not just Cao; the feudal lords in every region received the imperial edict, especially Su Fan, who was promoted and granted a title, his official position changing directly from Provincial Governor of Yuzhou to Grand Minister of Agriculture.

Good heavens, one of the Nine Ministers, and as for his noble rank, it reached the peak: County Marquis.

The prerequisite was that he had to go to Luoyang to pay homage to the Son of Heaven.

Others such as Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and the rest were all the same; Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers, in any case, they just wanted to make them enter Luoyang.

At a glance, this thing was clearly not a good thing; going to Luoyang, wouldn't that be like a sheep entering a tiger's den?

Except for Cao, the others did not pay any attention to the Imperial Court and directly ignored the other party; anyway, they had all seen the weakness of the Divine Han Dynasty and had absolutely no scruples at all.

Regarding Cao's choice, Su Fan was actually still somewhat surprised.