Chapter 1242: The War Ends

Under Cao Cao's personal decision, gradually abandoning Yanzhou and Yuzhou and shifting the development center to the south has become Cao Jun's next important strategy. How to solve Liu Biao and Liu Yan at the fastest speed and at the lowest cost is also a matter for Liu Bei and Liu Bei. The most pressing problem Cao Cao needs to face.

After Cao Cao and Liu Bei discussed all night, early the next morning, Liu Bei commanded the 100,000 elite troops supported by Cao Cao and marched into Hanzhong. As for the name, it is naturally to crusade against the traitor Zhang Lu.

Speaking of it, Liu Yan is also a sad reminder. In name, he is the shepherd of Yizhou, the lord of Yizhou, a large state in the world, but in essence he is angry everywhere. Fortunately, Yanhuang transferred its development center to Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and other Southeast Asian countries, otherwise Liu Yan would have died long ago.

Even if the influence of Yanhuang is ruled out, Liu Yan's life is not smooth, and he still has Zhang Lu, a second-five boy under his command.

Zhang Lu gained Liu Yan's trust by taking advantage of his mother's good health, "having little capacity", "holding the ghost way" and going to and from Liu Yan's family. Su Gu, the prefect of Hanzhong, rebelled, and Liu Yan ordered Zhang Lu and Zhang Xiu to march into Hanzhong to crusade.

As a result, Zhang Xiu killed Su Gu, and Zhang Lu took the opportunity to kill Zhang Xiu, seized his military power, occupied Hanzhong and became a de facto separatist prince.

In the early stage of the Discussion War, Zhang Lu shouted for the princes of the Discussion, but after Shang Ji gained the advantage, he quickly changed his camp and began to support Shang Ji.

Liu Bei seized this point, openly played the banner of begging for Zhang, and began to march towards Hanzhong.

Cao Cao also frequently mobilized troops, constantly mobilizing elite troops and main generals to gather in Nanyang, nominally to prepare for the fall of Yanzhou and Yuzhou, but in fact to take the opportunity to seize Jingzhou.

Of course, this kind of thing is inseparable from Sun Ce's cooperation. Cao Cao sent Sima Yi as an envoy to Jianye to have a secret talk with Sun Ce, and used Jiaozhou to reward Sun Ce as a bait in the future to lure Sun Ce to participate in the plan.

Sun Ce discussed with his advisors Lu Su and Zhou Yu for a whole day, and was finally convinced by Zhou Yu that "Shang's army is powerful, and Lianheng can fight against it, and the second Liu is weak, so it is not enough to conspire with him." He persuaded him and joined Cao Cao and Liu Bei's small circle.

It's a pity that Liu Biao, the shepherd of Jingzhou, doesn't know anything at this time, and is still providing Cao Cao with food, grass and military support in a foolish way. He is a silly and sweet character.

Once Cao Cao made up his mind, his actions were quite decisive.

However, giving up Yanzhou and Yuzhou does not mean that Yanzhou and Yuzhou were handed over to Shang Ji for nothing. In line with the principle of preparing for crossing the river and causing trouble for Shang Ji, Cao Cao's army began to collect taxes on Yan and Yuzhou in a predatory manner.

He tried every means and all means to transfer the wealth of Yanzhou and Yuzhou in the shortest possible time. For this reason, he even did not hesitate to offend a large number of aristocratic families, and even blatantly robbed them.

Although Cao Cao's drastic means gained a huge amount of wealth in a short period of time, it also aroused the rebellion in Yanzhou and Yuzhou. The uprising activities in the two prefectures once surpassed that of Jizhou, which was the most chaotic before.

In this situation, the Shang Ji army attacked more swiftly, and even many wealthy families who were persecuted by Cao Cao took the initiative to stand on Shang Ji's side. If the land replacement method is actually implemented, merchants generally will not harm their lives, let alone plunder floating wealth.

But Cao Cao was different. Rumor has it that Cao Cao even adopted a stranger's suggestion and used a torture method called a stick to dig out the gold that many aristocratic families had stored for hundreds of years.

By the way, Cao Cao did not forget his old business in history. While plundering Yuzhou indiscriminately, he also invited folk masters and appointed him as Faqiu Zhonglang General to be responsible for excavating tombs and stealing funerary objects in the tombs.

Although the means are disgusting, the effect is very good.

Yanzhou and Yuzhou have a long history. There are many emperors buried here, and there are countless princes and generals. Through the excavation of tombs,

Cao Cao not only got a lot of gold and silver, but also got a lot of precious props that money can't buy.

Cao Cao's abnormal movement can hide Liu Biao, but it can hide Shang Ji.

However, Shang Ji has no good solution for the time being. He can only order the Jin team to step up the attack. At the same time, he arranges Qian Huan and Ying Yi Mi Wu to contact the rebel forces in Yanzhou and Yuzhou to repel Cao Cao as soon as possible.

Don't look at Shang Ji's majesty now, but Shang Ji himself can understand the pain.

The newly occupied area became a mess, and bandits swarmed up, even affecting the logistics security of the Shang Ji army; the army has not been effectively repaired since the Chenzhou War. declines to varying degrees.

Diao Chan's Chang'an Army, Lu Bu's Bingzhou Army, Yuan Shao's Jizhou Army, and the Himiko Yamatai Army who surrendered earlier, plus Shang Ji's own Pingzhou Army and the captured Cao Cao Army and Liu Bei Army, six or seven forces intertwined Together, the contradictions in it make people feel dizzy!

Among the hundreds of millions of troops, Shang Ji's direct line headquarters accounted for less than one-tenth of the total number. Now it is all supported by Shang Ji's personal prestige and reputation of invincibility, otherwise troubles would have occurred long ago.

As for the return of Liu Yi's expeditionary army, it is mostly a bluff. The Japanese war is still a long way from the end, and there will definitely be a long-term public security war in the future. If you don't have half a year to send troops back from the Japanese country, otherwise there is a risk that all previous efforts will be wasted. .

In fact, Shang Ji has changed his strategic goal to conquer Yanzhou and occupy the part of Yuzhou except Runan County. As for the hard bone of Runan County, Shang Ji intends to talk about it slowly.

However, Cao Cao's active retreat helped Shang Ji solve a big favor. Cao Jun retreated steadily, and Shang Ji's army advanced triumphantly. It took only two months to flatten Yanzhou and Yuzhou. Most of Cao Cao's army retreated to Nanyang, leaving only a few Some of them are stationed in Yiyang County, which can be regarded as leaving a nail in Yuzhou.

So far, after occupying Yuzhou and Yanzhou, the Shangji army also completely lost the ability to continue to attack.

In order to delay Shang Ji's offensive, Cao Cao burned down a large area of ​​immature farmers in Yuzhou and Yanzhou, artificially creating a famine. Unless one takes extreme measures to raise food regardless of the lives of billions of people in Yanzhou and Yuzhou, Runan County in Yuzhou is the limit that Shang Ji can reach at present.

As the Shang Ji army stopped attacking, the war in the north gradually subsided, and the mighty negotiation war came to an end. Yuan Shao was dying, Liu Bei returned to the pre-liberation, Diao Chan and Lu Bu surrendered, Cao Cao lost half of his life, and the princes The number directly plummeted by about half, and the ownership of the world was basically clear.

The north has calmed down, but the south is fighting again.

After two months of preparation and planning, Cao Cao finally showed his fangs and launched a fierce attack on Jingzhou.

Cao Cao, who had been defeated repeatedly in the north, finally found his confidence in Liu Biao. The army was like a broken bamboo, advancing all the way, quite like a businessman fighting Cao Cao in the north.