[Three Kingdoms] Burning incense and sacrificial wine

Yuan Shao summoned all his advisers, and before he even started to speak, he found that one of the main military divisions was missing.

"Where is Xu Ziyuan?"

Guo Tu immediately said, "I don't know."

The rest of the counselors remained silent.

Yuan Shao was very annoyed, and he called for a messenger, and said displeasedly, "Where is Xu You!"

The messenger stammered: "Mr. Xu said in the middle of the night that he had a stomachache and was going to the forest to relieve himself, but he has not returned yet."

Yuan Shao was furious.

Few people knew about his storage of grain in Wuchao, and Xu You was one of them.

When the incident happened tonight, Xu You happened to be relieved and did not return. How could it be such a coincidence?I'm afraid I heard the news in advance and sneaked away.

No matter how angry Yuan Shao was, he knew that this was not the time to pursue Xu You.He sent a five-member team to pursue Xu You, but he ignored the matter and turned to his counselors for advice.

"Wuchao was raided by Cao Jun, what should I do?"

Ju Shou said: "My lord is fighting on a long-distance line, and the matter of food and grass must not be lost. In the past, I asked my lord to send Jiang Qi to accompany the army to escort him to prevent Cao Cao from plundering food and grass, but the lord refused to listen. Now the situation cannot be delayed. I hope the lord will listen to my words. Immediately dispatch Jiang Qi to lead the army to rescue."

Yuan Shao knew the importance of food and grass, and he understood that Ju Shou's words were correct.But there was a thorn in his heart, and seeing that Jushou's words and deeds were upright, he secretly competed with Jushou several times, and was beaten in the face. At this time, listening to Jushou's straightforward words, he only felt that it was extremely harsh.

Seeing Yuan Shao's silence for a long time, Guo Tu rolled his eyes and said, "My lord, this is a golden opportunity!"

Yuan Shao was waiting for others to pass the steps, when he saw Guo Tu's speech, he hurriedly asked, "How do you say that?"

"Cao Cao wants to cut off our army's food and grass, so we must expect that our army will send more reinforcements to rescue. In this case, just in case, Cao Cao must have sent a large number of troops, which can be said to be dispatched halfway. Why don't you take this opportunity to capture Cao Cao's territory with all your strength? Headquarters?"

Feng Ji has always been at odds with Guo Tu, and he sneered at the words: "If Cao Jun's camp cannot be captured, and Wuchao is breached, what should we do?"

Guo Tu also sneered back: "Our army is stronger than Cao Jun's soldiers, and now Cao's camp is dispatched halfway, which is empty. If our army attacks with all its strength, it will only be a blink of an eye to break through Cao Jun's camp. But Wuchao Although most of our army's food and grass have been piled up, it is not the throat of our army. Han Yong has transported thousands of carts of food and grass to the south, and they will arrive on the same day. It is not too much hindrance. On the contrary, it is an opportunity to attack Cao Cao's camp. This is only one time, and it will never come back."

Listening to the arguments of the counselors, Yuan Shao only felt that each side's concerns were reasonable, and he suddenly suffered from difficulty in choosing.

In fact, according to his true thoughts in his heart, he was more in favor of Jushou's strategy of rescuing food and grass.A few hours ago, Zhang He sent him a letter of military information, which also included a proposal to "be careful of Cao's army, and if there is any change, do our best to rescue the food and grass".

However, he couldn't bear to admit his mistake.What's more, he has severely frustrated Jushou's prestige in the army. Wouldn't it be a failure to compromise at this time?

While Yuan Shao was upset, he caught a glimpse of Xun Chen who was standing on the edge and was extremely silent from the corner of his eye.

He immediately asked: "How about you, if you want to?"

Xun Chen, who had been a transparent person for a long time, became the focus of attention of all advisers.

Everyone knows that this man has great literary talent and eloquence, but he has no outstanding talent or achievements in military strategy. It is only because of his birth from a family and his achievements in persuading Han Fu to surrender that he has a place in Yuan Shao's army.

Therefore, on weekdays, the relationship between the counselors and Xun Chen is weak, and they are not very concerned.Seeing Yuan Shao suddenly interrupting the dispute at the critical point of disagreement today, and asking Xun Chen what he thought, the counselors were a little surprised, each shut their mouths, and looked at the "transparent man" Xun Chen.

Xun Chen received everyone's attention and remained calm.

He bowed to Yuan Shao and said slowly: "Food and grass are the foundation, and the most important thing is to pay attention to grain and grass."

Knowing that Xun Chen and Guo Tu were from the same village, Feng Ji taunted him: "Mr. Xun's elder brother held an important position in Cao Cao's mansion, and he held a high position in Cao Cao's mansion; and his nephew served as a military adviser in Cao Cao's army. Xun was in charge of the army. I really can't believe the words of the military division."

Yuan Shao's complexion became ugly.

It's not that he suspects that Xun Chen harbors bad intentions.After all, Xun Chen is very low-key on weekdays, handling ordinary documents in a well-behaved manner, and rarely offers advice.He knows almost nothing about important military aircraft such as his own military, and even if he really has a different intention, he can't make a few bad moves.

What really put Yuan Shao in a bad mood was the other person Feng Ji just mentioned—Xun Yu.

Everyone knows how capable and virtuous Xun Yu under Cao Cao's tent is. With his unique vision and connections, he has attracted many talents for Cao Cao, and they are all qualified for their positions... But no one knows that Xun Yu should be him Advisers under the account!

In the second year of Chuping (191 A.D.), Xun Yu led the whole family to Jizhou to escape disaster, and he had the intention of serving Yuan Shao.Yuan Shao immediately treated Xun Yu as a guest of honour, and treated him with courtesy. He thought that the win-win was a sure thing, but unexpectedly, half a month later, Xun Yu ran away... ran away...

Not only abandoned him, but also defected to Cao Cao who had nothing at that time.

At that time, Yuan Shao seemed to have been slapped in the face, and he was very annoyed. He thought to himself that Xun Yu abandoned the pearl and served the fish eye, not knowing what it meant.Unexpectedly, in just a few years, Xun Yu assisted Cao Cao to gain a firm foothold, and he was on par with him.

From then on, while secretly annoyed that he had lost a great talent, Yuan Shao also complained a little to Xun Chen who "looks not as good as Xun Yu".

Xun Chen noticed Yuan Shao's ugly face and ridiculed him.

But he still maintained a calm look on his face, and ignored Feng Ji's slander.

Xun Chen didn't care much, but Guo Tu was very dissatisfied with Feng Ji's remarks.

He retorted and said, "Nonsense. Just now I proposed to the lord to attack Cao Cao's base camp directly, and I took the bottom of the pot, but you thwarted it. Now Junjun Xun disagrees with me. I implore the lord to put Wuchao as the most important thing, and you take the uncle and nephew of Junjun Xun as the most important thing." On the grounds of Cao Ying’s employment, he sarcastically pointed out that he has bad intentions. You oppose my idea of ​​sending troops to attack Cao Jun’s main camp, and you also disagree with Xun Junjun’s strategy of guarding food, so what are you going to do? Sit and wait for death?”

In order to exclude political opponents before, Feng Ji, who had blindly denied the opponent's words and had no consideration, suddenly lost his voice.But being able to stand out from the talented Yuan Ying and be entrusted with important military tasks, Feng Ji is by no means a fool.He immediately said:

"No. In my opinion, it is advisable to make a compromise. Each party sends half of the army to attack Cao Cao's base camp while assisting Wuchao, taking advantage of the situation to contain Cao Cao's main force."

The proposals of Ju Shou, Guo Tu and Feng Ji each have their advantages and disadvantages.

As long as Yuan Shao chooses any of them, Cao Jun will be in danger.

Seeing that Yuan Shao did not answer for a long time, Ju Shou knew that he had committed the problem of "seeing things late" again, so he said eagerly:

"Cao Cao may capture Wuchao at any time, there is no need to delay, please make a quick decision, my lord!"

Yuan Shao hesitated again and again, and finally said: "Notify the whole army! Attack Cao Cao's camp with all our strength!"

Guo Tu didn't have time to smile, and Yuan Shao added: "Let Jiang Qi lead 5 people to Wuchao to help."

Guo Tu was taken aback.

Although 5 people are not too many, the plan of "drawing salaries from the bottom" proposed by him is speedy. The lack of these 5 people is very likely to affect the time required to siege the city.If it was just that little bit of time difference, and Cao Jun attacked Wuchao and returned to the army to rescue them, wouldn't they lose both ends?

Guo Tu opened his mouth to speak, but when he thought of Ju Shou, who was alienated because of his frankness, and Tian Feng, who was imprisoned for his courageous advice, he swallowed the words back.

But Ju Shou, who had already had a stalemate with Yuan Shao, endured and endured, but finally couldn't hold back the disapproval in his heart:

"If my lord wants to use the strategy of meeting the army, the 5 troops are far from enough. Cao's army is brave and good at fighting, and they are supplemented by weapons stronger than our army. I am afraid that these [-] soldiers will not be able to successfully stop Cao's army. It is better to have more Sending some troops will help Wuchao guard food, and also stop Cao's army from withdrawing to the camp and attack our siege army at both ends."

When Yuan Shao heard that Jushou began to "advise with loyalty", he was very annoyed.

If he followed Jushou's plan, he would not be happy even if he won the battle—because it would further increase Jushou's reputation, which was contrary to his desire to suppress Jushou.

But in this battle, he, Yuan Shao, had the dominant advantage.As the saying goes, one force will reduce ten meetings. Under the premise that one's own army is far superior to the enemy's army, tactics are just icing on the cake.The left and right are victorious, so why use them as a wedding dress for Jushou?

"I've made up my mind, gentlemen, don't talk too much."

Yuan Shao made a final decision, and all the counselors were silent, and each retreated.

Zhang Yun and Gao Lan on the front line received the order. Although they had doubts, they knew that the military order was like a mountain, so they could not hesitate to attack Cao Ying immediately.

Those who stayed in Cao Ying were Cao Hong, who had made countless contributions to Cao Cao, and his counselors Xun You and Guo Jia.Cooperating with Cui Song's improved ordnance, Zhang Yun and Gao Lan's siege battle was very hard, and they were unable to shake Cao Jun's camp by a single point.

About half a day later, news came that Wuchao had been breached by a surprise army led by Cao Ang and Zhang Liao, and the food and grass had been destroyed.

I heard that Jiang Qi's reinforcements just arrived when the city was broken, and they were about to defend against the enemy and rescue food and grass. They rushed into Cao Jun's trap, startled their horses, and trampled half of the soldiers.After finally waiting for Jiang Qi to rush into Wuchao with the rest of his staff, he found helplessly that Cao Jun had brought many strange machines, which could fuel the fire. Long before they entered the city, these strange things had already set off a big fire , engulfed all granaries.

Afterwards, the Cao army, who had already patted their ass and left, returned to the camp and repelled Zhang Yun's army that had not successfully captured Cao camp.

When Yuan Shao heard the news, he was so angry that he fell ill and was sent back to Yangwu.

Guo Tu was afraid that Yuan Shao would be angry with himself who first proposed the strategy of "attacking Cao Cao's base camp", so he cried to Yuan Shao:

"With the strength of our army, how could it be possible that the empty Cao camp could not be captured for most of the day? Could it be that Zhang He and Gao Lan were resentful because the lord did not accept their proposal, and deliberately let the water fail?"

Yuan Shao didn't quite believe Zhang He and Gao Lan's speculation about letting go of the water, but now he urgently needed an outlet, and Zhang He and Gao Lan became the best candidates.

Feng Ji, who disagreed with Guo Tu, did not sneer at him this time.Like Guo Tu, he was afraid that Yuan Shaoqian would blame him, so he calmly chose Zhang He and Gao Lan as scapegoats.

They didn't know that the soldiers guarding the gate outside the tent were old with Zhang He. Hearing the conversation inside the tent, they broke out in cold sweat. They found Zhang He's cronies who stayed in the back camp overnight and asked him to send a message to Zhang He.

Upon receiving the news, Zhang He didn't change his face, burned all the siege equipment without thinking, and led the army to surrender.

After hearing the news, Guo Tu hurriedly said to Yuan Shao: "My lord! Zhang He and Gao Lan really have disagreements!"

Yuan Shao was about to vomit blood, but he was in such a state of confusion that he didn't know what to do. The bad news came from the north that Cao Jun defeated Han Meng and burned all the food, grass and luggage.

Yuan Shao finally spat out the blood that had been suppressed for a long time.

"The leader of the army... who is it?"

According to the time difference, the Cao army that defeated Han Meng was by no means the same army that broke through Wuchao, but where did Cao Cao get so many brave generals? Although there are only more than [-] people guarding the food and grass, but considering the strategic importance of the food and grass, all the people he sent are elite, how could they be defeated so easily?

"My lord, according to the information, the main generals are...Xu Huang and Shi Huan."

"Xu Huang and Shi Huan? Who are they? I've never heard of it!" Yuan Shao was depressed and shouted, "What about Yu Jin and Le Jin? These two are Cao Cao's capable generals, but they didn't participate in the attack?"

Before the soldier could answer, another soldier rushed in from outside the tent and reported in a trembling voice:

"Report—Cao Jun generals Yu Jin and Le Jin led the army to attack, and the outer city has been surrounded!"