Chapter 410

But until now, there was still no news coming.

Intuition told Cao Cao that it was likely that Cao Chun and Zang Ba had met with an accident.

Worried, he had to send scouts to rush to the main road from Yanzhou to Qingzhou to investigate the situation.

A few days later.

The scout returned with fear and reported to Cao Cao the news that Zang Ba and Cao Chun's entire army had been wiped out.

"Ah!!!"

"How could it end up in such a situation?"

"In their hands, there were a full sixty thousand troops."

"Even if they were sixty thousand pigs, I'm afraid they wouldn't have been wiped out entirely, right?"

A bowl of Cao-style rice fell.

Cao Cao's heart was filled with doubt and incomprehension.

He didn't understand, a full sixty thousand troops, how could they suddenly disappear?

Xi Zhicai and Guo Jia on the side opened their mouths, wanting to speak but stopping.

"My lord, I'm afraid the ones who ambushed General Zang Ba and General Cao Chun were not ordinary troops."

"But the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry and the Xiliang Iron Cavalry!"

The reminder from the two advisors made Cao Cao recall the predicament of being dominated by these two elite iron cavalry units under Sishui Pass and Hulao Pass.

Is Cao Cao powerful?

Of course powerful!

If there were no Gu Yi.

At this time, Cao Cao would have almost completed the two major events of "welcoming the Son of Heaven and holding the Son of Heaven to command the lords."

But now.

Although Cao Cao occupied Qingzhou through thunderous means.

But how could the dilapidated Qingzhou compare to his lair, Yanzhou?

Don't look at the fact that in history, Cao Cao's lair, Yanzhou, often suffered natural disasters and fell into the dilemma of grain shortages.

But Yanzhou suffered natural disasters, could it be that other provinces didn't have natural disasters?

Actually.

In the late Han period, Qingzhou was the most disaster-ridden province!

Millions of refugees left their homes and left Qingzhou to go to the neighboring Yanzhou and Xuzhou to make a living.

Investigating the root cause, why was Qingzhou in the late Han era so miserable?

Because the uncle doesn't love it, and the grandmother doesn't love it.

Without strong lord forces occupying this place, Qingzhou became the favorite gathering place for mountain bandits and wandering bandits.

As everyone knows.

The two provinces of Jizhou and Yuzhou, as the top two in the Great Han's GDP, were far more prosperous than other provinces.

Qingzhou's division in terms of territory belongs to the four provinces of Hebei.

But at the same time, the relationship between Qingzhou and the other three provinces of Hebei was not so close.

Among the Central Plains regions, the two provinces of Yanzhou and Xuzhou, although their prosperity was not as good as Ji and Yu, at least these two provinces communicated with each other.

Between each other, they had a not-small sense of cultural identity.

(For example, later generations' Shan. dong and Xuzhou, the relationship between each other is quite close.)

And Qingzhou is awkward.

If you say it belongs to the four provinces of Hebei, the other three provinces don't recognize it.

If you say it belongs to the Central Plains, the several provinces in the Central Plains region don't play with it either.

Of course.

It's not that Qingzhou hasn't been prosperous.

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, Qingzhou could be called the paradise of the six eastern states!

The capital of the Qi state, Lin Zi, was even within the territory of Qingzhou.

But…… times have changed.

With Qin Shi Huang sweeping away the six states.

Qingzhou's development subsequently became very awkward.

During the reign of Emperor Guangwu, Liu Xiu, among the twenty-eight generals of Yuntai, there wasn't even a single person from Qingzhou.

On the contrary, Qingzhou also belonged to one of Wang Mang's core bases.

This is very awkward.

Liu Xiu, who defeated Wang Mang, naturally had to incline resources more toward investing in his own Jizhou and Yuzhou.

And Qingzhou……

Sorry, you are not an initial shareholder.

You are even considered to have joined at the end; not liquidating you is already giving you face.

Of course, in some Three Kingdoms novels of later generations, they might boast about how prosperous and powerful Qingzhou is.

emmm, actually this point is very easy to verify true or false.

Looking at the hundred years from the Yellow Turban Rebellion to the Three Kingdoms returning to Jin, the role played by Qingzhou has always been soy sauce.

It has never become a place that must be contested by military strategists, or a place for lords to dominate.

This is why a mere Kong Rong could gain a foothold in Qingzhou.

It is really…… hands on hips, can't find an opponent!

Like the leader of the Yellow Turban remnants, Guan Hai.

What he was thinking about was actually just letting the Yellow Turban bandits under his command eat their fill.

Never thought about how to dominate the world.

In the original history.

The reason Yuan Shao sent his eldest son Yuan Tan to capture Qingzhou.

Actually, the main purpose was not to kill Kong Rong.

But to take Qingzhou, to facilitate opening up the second battlefield to crusade against Gongsun Zan of Youzhou.

In other words.

In the eyes of the lords, Qingzhou could not become a place to establish a career, at most it was just an auxiliary role.

But nowadays.

Besides Qingzhou, Cao Cao had no place to stand in the north.

Of course.

There is another way.

That is, to grab Gongsun Zan's Youzhou.

But how easy is that?

Since nominally defecting to Gu Yi, Gongsun Zan's back had become straighter than before.

If Cao Cao wanted to kill Gongsun Zan and seize Yanzhou, besides considering Gongsun Zan's combat power, he also had to consider Yuan Shao's feelings.

After all.

Yuan Shao had always regarded Youzhou as his own pocket.

If it were suddenly "snatched" by Cao Cao, how awkward that would be.

At this moment.

Cao Cao's heart was filled with worry about the future.

The loss of Zang Ba and Cao Chun, as well as the sixty thousand troops, made his situation even worse.

……

Compared to Cao Cao's worry.

Chen Deng, Cao Bao, Mi Zhu, and others in Xuzhou had been much more comfortable recently.

After driving away Cao Cao, these three could be described as having "a small banquet every three days, a big banquet every five days."

Ever since the coalition of lords failed in their first crusade against Dong Zhuo.

Cao Cao, a lord who took Yanzhou as his foundation, became a thorn in the side of the father and son Tao Qian and Tao Shang of Xuzhou.