Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3165: Too many people are just too many losers.

Did Lao Cao, or rather the land of Shandong, really develop all its war power?

Obviously, this is not the case.

As mentioned before, if the nobles in Shandong were asked to donate a hundred large sums of money to support the Han Dynasty and let Prime Minister Cao defeat the enemy, then the vast majority of these people would donate, and they would even be unwilling to be left behind. generous donations.

Isn’t it just a hundred big bucks? Who looks down on whom?

But if they are asked to donate all their family property...

Is this...

Damn, who is who?

If the people of Shandong can work together and face adversity together, even ten Feiqians together can't withstand it. After all, even if Feiqian's technology advances, it still needs people, and the land of Shandong has a profound heritage. In history, after the Three Kingdoms were over, there was still the energy to fight a war of bastards. It would not stop until it was completely gone...

But the problem is "unity".

Wanting everything, often failing to do anything well.

Everyone has their own little thoughts.

In Shandong, who could have expected Fei Qian's rise to be so rapid?

Just like a snowstorm, it comes as soon as it comes.

The last time Fei Qian sent troops, he marched straight out of Heluo. The soldiers pushed forward all the way and attacked near Xu County.

This is almost the nightmare of Shandong people, well, to be precise, it is the nightmare of Yuzhou people.

It’s not that Chinese people can’t unite as one, it’s just that it becomes difficult when they have too many possessions. Some people can give up everything and fight for their ideals, but some people will stop because of the increasing number of possessions around them and cannot make any progress. Even in the beginning, they stood together and supported each other.

Just like Jizhou and Yuzhou.

These are the two core forces of Cao Cao's power, belonging to the core positions in the north and south respectively.

In Liu Xiu's time, they were partners, but now they are more like enemies.

Jizhou is a place that is said to be flat and has geographical advantages. There are Taihang Mountains in the west, the sea beyond Qingzhou in the east, a big river in the south, and Yanshan Mountain in Youzhou in the north. There is no problem in making a happy little nest.

As long as we can hold the edge.

When Yuan Shao was in Jizhou, he sent his sons to guard the border, one to Youzhou and the other to Qingzhou. He also tried to use his nephew to plan the merger of the states, and then sent his younger brother Cao Cao to Yanzhou. It can be said that it was "foolproof". 』.

But no matter how good the ideal is, it really won’t work if the person is not good enough.

Otherwise, in the later period of Yuan Shao, when talking about Yuan's grand strategy, future ZTE strategy and other matters, the nobles in Jizhou would be holding red wine glasses... uh, yellow wine glasses and laughing wildly, almost laughing. The kind that would make you fall off your desk.

It's not that Jizhou guys don't support Cao Cao, but they support themselves more.

Just like they supported Han Fu back then and later turned to Yuan Shao, if the head above can't bring them corresponding "benefits", then they don't mind changing to another one.

The current system of local vassals in the Han Dynasty is somewhat like the Federation of the Mi Empire.

Did Han Fu do anything wrong back then?

No, Han Fu was even trying to please him in many ways. He tried to please his own countrymen and provided the Yingchuan people with the opportunity to serve as local officials. At the same time, he tried to appease the local gentry in Jizhou, saying that he still valued the people of Jizhou. At the same time, he also tried to please the Yuan family and accepted Yuan Shao. At the same time, in order to avoid getting angry, he asked people to stand outside Yuan Shao's residence to show Dong Zhuo a look.

Han Fu really wanted everything, but in the end he couldn't get anything.

Coincidentally, after Yuan Shao took control of Jizhou, he wanted everything and had to balance everything, but the result was imbalance.

Now that Cao Pi was in Jizhou, he ended up following the old path of Han Fu and Yuan Shao.

Want everything.

The main sources of troops to attack Bingzhou under Fei Qian's rule were Hanoi and Jizhou.

These two groups of troops were not really meant to conquer Bingzhou, but to hold back Fei Qian's troops so that they could not return to aid Hedong or Guanzhong. If you delay for a while, Cao Cao will have more advantages, and the situation will naturally be better in the future.

If you want to hold back Bingzhou's soldiers and horses, you can only attack them and save them.

Huguan is one and Taiyuan is the second.

The troops that attacked Huguan were mainly Hanoi troops, while the troops that marched into Taiyuan were mainly Jizhou troops. It's a pity that Hanoi is only a county of Sili, and its strength is relatively weak, so it must still need help from Jizhou.

This division of labor is actually very good, but it was unfavorable for Lejin to attack Huguan, which resulted in Jizhou having to supply Cao Cao with food and grass while also adding troops to Huguan. Then Xiahou Dun urged to ask for food and grass again, and then Cao Chun was in You The northern part of the state has encountered a problem, and it needs money, food and soldiers...

So Jizhou was completely ruined.

And Qingzhou...

It was almost hollowed out by Cao Cao.

Youzhou, once disturbed by the barbarians, is no longer viable.

Therefore, Jizhou now completely refuses to provide supplies to any party, regardless of victory or defeat. Although there seems to be no resistance on the surface, in fact it is dragging its feet, waving its hands and feet seemingly very fast, but in fact it is standing still.

In other words, the entire northern region of Cao Cao has been shut down on a large scale. The regional counties and central authorities are at odds with each other. They can do things like spitting, but no one is actually doing the work.

Looking at the southern part of Cao Cao's power, the situation is not very good either. Cao Cao's southern power is probably south of the river, including Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Jingzhou, and Xuzhou. I won’t mention Xuzhou. Lao Cao really didn’t do anything good in Xuzhou back then. Even if Xuzhou has recovered a little now, he still stays away from it. Otherwise, Lao Cao wouldn’t have been plotting against Chen Deng and then killed him in office. .

The situation in Yanzhou is also very bad. At the beginning, there was the Suanzao Alliance. The coalition forces dug into the ground and left nothing but piles of feces and urine. Later, Zhang Miao and Lu Bu rebelled and killed a lot of people. Before they could recover, When they came over, Yuan Shao led his troops to attack again. As a front-line soldier, he was beaten to the point where he could no longer take care of himself.

After finally defeating Yuan Shao, Cao Cao was about to resume production when he discovered that Yanzhou was actually facing the front line of Guanzhong!

Therefore, Yanzhou's overall strength has always been relatively weak, its population has been severely displaced, and its recovery is far away.

The situation in Jingzhou was good at first, but after Liu Biao's death, it was cut up. The three families of Feiqian, Cao, Cao, and Sun Quan ate the meat. Let's not talk about who got the big ones and who got the small ones. Let's just say that after this cut-up, Jingzhou itself... Even if he didn't die, his vitality would be severely damaged, and it would be difficult to recover in a short time. In addition, the Nanyang area was ruined by Yuan Shu, a prodigal son. Therefore, in the entire south of Cao Cao, only Yuzhou was relatively healthy.

In terms of military strength, the Central Army directly under Cao Cao had about 100,000 people, mainly led by the Xiahou family of the Cao family with the Central Army as the core and the Central Guard Army as the core. Moreover, not all of the 100,000 Central Army troops with high loyalty values ​​can be brought to the battlefield. About 15,000 of them are used to maintain the two core points, namely Yecheng and Xu County, as an existence similar to the "Forbidden Army" , in charge of city defense, palace gates, and important military affairs in the city. The rest of the soldiers are the old soldiers who followed Cao Cao, that is, at Tongguan.

As for the other soldiers of Cao Cao's army, there are about 200,000. These are troops composed of surrendered troops that Cao Cao collected at various stages, as well as personnel recruited from various places.

A big fat man was constructed with Cao Cao as the core, Cao's Xiahou clan as the subordinate generals, and the central leading army and central guard army as the backbone.

This is an army system built by Cao Cao based on the old system of the Han Dynasty.

In the old military system of the Han Dynasty, the source of troops was also composed of the central army, which can be roughly understood as the northern and southern armies, plus local field troops garrisoned, or called caiguanlouchuan, etc., plus the mobile forces assembled for expeditions in times of emergency. Strength is composed of three levels called "running for life" and "recruiting courage". After the arrival of Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty, perhaps fearing the disorderly expansion of local military force, Emperor Guangwu abolished local field troops, that is, Caiguanlouchuan, etc., which led to an increase in local military force at the lowest level and the proliferation of private tribes.

So it's not that the system in Shandong is necessarily bad, but the key is the people who implement it. It can be seen that Shandong's overall military strength still has great potential that can be tapped, but it is a pity that Cao Cao can't tap much at the moment.

If the world situation in the ninth year of Taixing is a chess game caused by Fei's latent expedition to the Western Regions, then both sides of the chess game basically put their chess pieces on the table, and the rest is the means...

…

…

"Wuguan!" 』

When heavy snow fell in Shaanxi County, Tongguan, the Wuguan area became a new chess eye.

Qin and Chu have been fighting endless battles here for hundreds of years, and now they have fallen into the quagmire of war again.

Wenpin is from Jingxiang. He was born in Jingxiang and grew up in Jingxiang. But now he is fighting someone who is not Jingxiang for the sake of someone who is not Jingxiang.

Nowadays, Wenpin's name is not among the most dazzling generals of the Han Dynasty, but this does not mean that Wenpin is incompetent.

In history, Wenpin was also recorded as a person who "cryed", but unlike the Han emperor who cried wherever he went, Wenpin only cried once.

Historically, Cao Cao won Jingzhou, and Wenpin was in northern Jingzhou at the time, which was within the scope of Liu Cong's power. Liu Cong naturally asked Wenpin to surrender with him. It is recorded in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms that Wen Pin was very sad and said, "Pin cannot be the whole state, and he should be treated as a crime." Later, after Liu Cong returned and surrendered, the handover procedures such as military symbols, seals, and letters were completed, but Wenpin still didn't come to see Cao Cao. Cao Cao called Wenpin over and asked, "Why are you here?" 』

Wen Pin said, "I was unable to assist Liu Jingzhou in order to serve the country. Although Jingzhou was gone, Chang Yuan defended Hanchuan and preserved the territory. He lived to be worthy of being alone and weak, and died worthy of being underground. He had no choice but to end up like this." I am really sad and ashamed, and I have no face to see my ears early. 』

After Wenpin finished speaking, he said, "I'm crying."

"欷歔" refers to the appearance of a person crying uncontrollably and breathing rapidly.

As a military general, he was used to seeing life and death, so he naturally believed in not shedding tears easily. But at this moment, Wenpin burst into tears because he could not be loyal to his old master. Even Cao Cao was filled with emotion after hearing this, and praised Wenpin as a loyal minister...

So the implication is that the other ministers who followed Liu Cong and surrendered to Cao Cao, such as Nasana, were not good birds.

Cao Cao may have said this intentionally or unintentionally. Anyway, after he said it, Wenpin's life was not easy.

Wenpin is an honest person, so he naturally fights martial arts honestly.

Honest people often have to do dirty work.

Cao Ren asked Wenpin to do the most tiring and offensive things. Because only Wenpin will do it honestly, and the others...

Wuguan is obviously very important, and it is precisely because both sides know that this place is important that the generals of both sides have always been on the safe side until they officially fall out. They do not dare to act rashly, for fear that their own actions will alert the enemy. But in fact, there have always been battles behind the scenes. Even when the two sides are fighting head-on, small-scale infiltration and penetration are indispensable, and then they find each other's weaknesses to attack. But the honest man also made Liao Hua helpless, because what he faced was a head-on confrontation, and there was no room for trickery.

Cao Ren did the trick.

When playing black and white in Go, sometimes a quick breath can determine the outcome.

Cao Ren wanted to give this chess position in Wuguan another breath of life. Even if it could not determine the life or death of the dragon, he could still have one more calamity material at the end of the game.

Before Cao Ren marched, he didn't have much direct contact with the Shen brothers, but after sending troops, Cao Ren sent people to Shangyong and directly asked the Shen brothers to cooperate in the battle.

Speaking of cooperation, it is actually equivalent to asking the Shen brothers to take some measures to support Cao's army and serve as Cao's army's internal agents to take down Hanzhong as soon as possible. In return, Cao Ren promised that the Shen brothers would have greater rights in Shangyong and settle in Shandong. The position given to them was also very good and very attractive.

Shen Dan believes that this deal is not impossible, but we still need to see the strength of Cao Jun before making a final decision. After all, the grass on the wall will completely collapse only when it encounters the wind.

Fortunately, Cao Ren was unambiguous this time. He not only immediately asked Cao Zhen to serve as the advance troops, go straight up the river and march into Shangyong.

The Shen brothers felt that Cao Jun's actions were fast, but in Li Dian's heart, they felt that they were too slow.

Spring plowing is just around the corner. If we continue to plow for several more months, wouldn't this year be wasted?

So when Li Dian found out that Cao's army was really marching, he immediately withdrew his soldiers from Shangyong.

Cao Zhen led the army slowly, and the scouts around him ran back and forth, reporting on the military situation.

"The Hanzhong Army withdrew from Jing County and garrisoned at Mulan Village. 』

"Withdrawal?" ” Cao Zhen was a little confused.

The scout said: "That's right, we evacuated immediately, and we evacuated very simply, without even setting off any fire." The entire Jing County gates were wide open, defenseless. 』

Jin County is a county along the Han River.

Not big, not small.

At first, Cao Zhen thought that Li Dian had some conspiracy, such as setting up an ambush in Xin County, or planning to burn Xin County, but he sent people in to search carefully, but found nothing... …

So Cao Jun captured an "important town" on the Han River "without a single blow."

As the news spread, those who were waiting and watching were naturally filled with excitement.

"The Shen family came from Shangyong, two hundred miles away from here, with two thousand soldiers..."

"I want the King of Liang to come from Pingyang Mountain and have a tribe of five thousand people..."

Cao Zhen, who was stationed in Xin County, heard the new report, but frowned and said, "Where are the food and supplies for these people?" 』

The scout hesitated for a moment, "It looks like he didn't bring much..."

Cao Zhen nodded.

The scout retreated.

There were quite a few people who came to cooperate with Cao's army.

If there was no comparison with the Guanzhong Hussars, Cao Zhen would not be happy, but now he is more worried. Whether it is the Di people's troops or the Shen clan's tribesmen, they cannot be as well-trained as the hussars. They must be peasant soldiers.

When it comes to eating and shitting, of course I won't lag behind others, but when it comes to fighting bravely...

Regardless of whether they are trash or elites, they all need to eat, and it is possible that trash will eat more. So the arrival of these powerful forces is indeed a good thing, but it also means thousands more mouths, which suddenly increases the pressure on logistics.

So, it seemed like there was only one way left.

Do things to the enemy.

And around Shangyong, there are not many areas where Cao Jun can actually eat.

Shangyong is the private land of the Shen brothers. Even if Cao Zhen thought about it, he couldn't attack Shangyong right away, so it must be in other areas. As for the surrounding areas of Shangyong, they are mostly mountainous and hilly. , there was not much development during the Zhang Lu period. Later, after Fei sneaked into Hanzhong, due to the ambiguous attitude of the Shen brothers, the focus was still on developing the surrounding areas of Nanzheng, and entrustment was adopted for the more remote Shangyong, so Shangyong surroundings The level of development is also far behind that of Nanzheng.

As a result, if Cao Jun wanted to obtain additional supplies, he could only start from the mediocre and diren cottages around Shangyong.

At first, the Shen brothers and King Liang felt quite happy. After all, with the support of Cao Jun, they could attack the mediocre and disloyal people around them who they usually didn't deal with very much. Suddenly, the war was everywhere.

But then the problem came.

The cottages of the mediocre and the poor do have some savings, but how much savings can these cottages in the mountains have?

Tens of thousands of troops opened their mouths and conquered a mountain stronghold. Then they found that the supplies in the stronghold were not enough to eat, and the scraps of copper and iron were useless. As the nearby strongholds along the way were conquered, more and more supplies were inevitably needed. Attack farther away, and the distance and effort spent on the march will become increasingly disproportionate to the gains from attacking the stronghold.

At the same time, because of this kind of plunder and destruction, the mediocre and Di people in the Shangyong area who might have remained neutral or did not care whether it was ruled by the Fei army or the Cao army began to change their attitudes.

No one likes their property to be taken away without reason.

After Cao Zhen discovered that his efforts could not be effectively replenished, he also tried to stop this behavior. The Shen brothers could more or less obey orders, but if they killed the dizzy Di people and asked Liang Wang, they were already out of control. Even if Although they heard Cao Jun's orders, they turned a deaf ear. After all, the scraps of copper and iron that Cao Zhen and Cao Jun disdain are considered good things to the Di people. If you pass this village, there won't be this shop, right?

At this point, Cao Zhen suddenly understood that Li Dian's abandonment of Xixian County was not a conspiracy, but a conspiracy!

When did this Li Mancheng become like this?

Was it because Li Dian's potential hadn't been discovered before, or did he have any new skills under the hussar?

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