The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 285 Volume : Hindsight

Before leaving, the emperor left a plan for Liu Bei.

But the specific time of implementation depends on Liu Bei himself.

At this moment, Liu Bei was discussing with Zhuge Liang.

"Sun Ce and Zhou Yu have already left Jiangxia with a land and sea force totaling 30,000, intending to take Yangzhou directly and catch Yuan Shu off guard."

"Now, should we inform Cao Cao of the news and let him start attacking Xuzhou?"

Drive away the tiger and devour the wolf!

This is the strategy left by Liu Xie.

As soon as Sun Ce left Jingzhou, Liu Bei could inform Cao Cao of Sun Ce's attack on Yuan Shu.

How could Cao Cao remain indifferent after learning such news?

"Although the emperor supports Sun Ce in his campaign against Yuan Shu, he does not want to see Sun Ce completely occupy Yuan Shu's territory and become a giant dominating the south."

"So, he wanted Cao Cao to attack Yuan Shu as well and let Cao Cao occupy part of Yuan Shu's territory. This way, he could weaken Sun Ce, who had annexed Yuan Shu, and make Cao Cao stronger, making Yuan Shao more wary of Cao Cao."

After Zhuge Liang learned of the emperor's plan, he also sighed that it was a wonderful way to kill two birds with one stone... no, it was a wonderful way to kill three birds with one stone!

First, he killed Yuan Shu, the first person who dared to proclaim himself emperor.

Second, it prevented Sun Ce from completely inheriting Yuan Shu's territory.

Third, because Yuan Shao suffered a great defeat in Anyi and his strength was damaged, while Cao Cao's losses in Nanyang were not actually heavy, once Cao Cao captured Xuzhou or even Huainan, his power would likely surpass Yuan Shao, making the power of the Hebei court even more divided.

"The emperor has really planned everything in Guandong thoroughly, and only then did he return to Guanzhong to continue recuperating."

Zhuge Liang knew that the emperor returned to Guanzhong this time to recuperate and accumulate strength in order to march east to sweep across the world.

Since we are accumulating strength, we should not only increase our own strength, but also suppress the enemy's strength.

And allowing Cao Cao to become stronger is a good way to suppress the power of the princes in Guandong.

"What does the emperor want Cao Cao to do?"

Hearing Zhuge Liang's question, Liu Bei thought carefully and said: "Your Majesty said that at least Cao Cao should be allowed to seize Xuzhou."

"If possible, it would be best to let Cao Cao lead his troops to attack Shouchun, occupy Huainan, and seize Hefei!"

Hefei!

This is the border where the emperor most hopes Cao Cao and Sun Ce will border.

If Cao Cao could occupy Hefei, he would be able to control Huainan and push Sun Ce's most relied upon navy back to the Yangtze River, preventing Jiangdong ships from appearing in Xuzhou, Yuzhou, or even further north.

The timing to decide all this now lies in Liu Bei's hands.

When Zhuge Liang heard the emperor's request, he thought for a moment and then stopped Liu Bei.

"If Cao Cao wants to occupy Xuzhou, seize Shouchun, and enter Huainan, he must wait until Yuan Shu transfers a large number of troops to the south to resist Sun Ce."

"Sun Ce has just set out. If we inform Cao Cao of the news and ask him to lead the army to attack Xuzhou, Yuan Shu will surely rush to transfer the army to the north. This will actually create convenience for Sun Ce and is not in line with the emperor's plan."

Liu Bei thought for a moment, "So we have to wait until Sun Ce's military might overawes Yuan Shu before we can leak the news to Cao Cao?"

When to reveal the news to Cao Cao becomes the key step in fulfilling the emperor's expectations.

If it was earlier, Yuan Shu might not have transferred his troops from the north, which would have allowed Sun Ce to completely annex Yuan Shu's territory.

If it was too late, Cao Cao might have shown his power and taken advantage of the stalemate between Yuan Shu's army and Sun Ce's army to directly annex Yangzhou.

Therefore, the timing must be just right, that is, Cao Cao attacks Shouchun just a little earlier than Sun Ce, so that Cao Cao can block Sun Ce's attack to the north.

Liu Bei is now worrying about when this "opportunity" will come.

Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan and smiled without saying a word.

When Liu Bei saw Zhuge Liang like this, he immediately knew that Zhuge Liang might have already prepared a draft in his mind, and he laughed: "Kong Ming, don't keep us in suspense. Tell us the truth quickly and don't delay the emperor's important event!"

Zhuge Liang did not rush to answer Liu Bei, but instead asked Liu Bei: "Uncle, what do you think of the emperor's battle in Anyi?"

"Naturally very beautiful!"

That was definitely a large-scale troop operation!
Moreover, it was a large-scale battle at a disadvantage!
And the opponent is the powerful Yuan Shao!
Anyway, Liu Bei knew that if he were put in the position of the emperor and asked to command this war, there would be almost no chance of winning!

Zhuge Liang asked again: "How do you think the emperor won the battle of Anyi?"

How to win?

Liu Bei was full of pride: "It is because I am the emperor's destiny!"

……

Zhuge Liang remained silent.

"The Emperor is destined to be the emperor, but the most important thing is that he has mastered the art of war and is good at striking first before striking first."

When Zhuge Liang talked about the emperor's battle of Anyi, he was also full of awe.

"Although this battle seems to have many coincidences now, the emperor seems to be truly destined by heaven and protected by the gods."

"But if you think about it carefully, this battle has been planned by the emperor since the beginning."

Zhuge Liang said: "After the emperor heard that the Grand Master had passed away, he immediately took the dragon flag to Hedong to attract Yuan Shao." "The emperor knew that Yuan Shao was ambitious and thought that he had a strong army. He wanted to capture the dragon, so he would definitely give up the easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack Jinyang City and choose to go directly south and win quickly."

"After Yuan Shao arrived at Quewei Valley, the emperor correctly judged Yuan Shao's character, which was cautious at heart but lenient on the outside. He knew that Yuan Shao would specifically recruit General Xu Rong, so he ordered General Xu Rong to pretend to surrender first and then be brought into the army."

"When the decisive battle comes, the emperor is sure that Yuan Shao will not use his trusted troops to resist the Xiliang cavalry on both wings of the court, but will choose to let the side troops such as the Southern Xiongnu and Zhang He resist the most elite troops of the court. This is precisely Yuan Shao's biggest failure and the emperor's only chance to win!"

At this moment, Zhuge Liang was analyzing the Battle of Anyi fought by the emperor after the war. The more he looked at it, the more he could sense the ingenuity of the emperor's layout, so when he talked about this, he was already full of admiration.

"Therefore, when the emperor goes to war, he never actively seeks victory, but guides the enemy to make arrangements that best suit his expectations. This is what is called preemptive strike."

"Once the enemy reaches the position you expect, victory will follow naturally. This is what we call striking back after the enemy has been attacked."

"Now, instead of worrying about wasting time, why don't you follow the emperor's example and take the initiative to completely control the situation?"

Liu Bei's head tilted and his eyes became small.

Obviously, Liu Bei was still a little unclear about what Zhuge Liang meant.

Seeing this, Zhuge Liang could only make it clearer -

"Instead of worrying that Yuan Shu's mobilization of troops will not meet expectations, why not take the initiative to let Yuan Shu mobilize his troops?"

Liu Bei's ability to fight was obviously not at this level yet. He shook his head and said, "How can I mobilize Yuan Shu's army when I am thousands of miles away?"

"Why not?"

Zhuge Liang was confident of victory and gave Liu Bei a solution:

"Wouldn't it be enough if the uncle told Yuan Shu in advance that Sun Ce was going to attack him?"

"When Yuan Shu knew that Sun Ce was going to attack him, he would be extremely panicked and would move the troops from Xuzhou to the south in advance to resist Sun Ce. When that time comes, the emperor's uncle will leak the news to Cao Cao and let Cao Cao take Xuzhou, right?"

Instead of betting on when Yuan Shu will mobilize his army, it is better to find a way to make Yuan Shu mobilize his army.

If Yuan Shu was informed of Sun Ce's intention to attack Yuan Shu in advance, wouldn't Yuan Shu be able to transfer the troops in the north that were guarding against Cao Cao to the south in advance, thus creating an opportunity for Cao Cao?

Liu Bei was stunned at this moment!

War... can it be played like this?

He had already agreed to Sun Ce's plan to attack Yuan Shu, but he revealed Sun Ce's intelligence to Yuan Shu first.

The reason for doing this was to hope that Yuan Shu would transfer his troops to the south, leaving Cao Cao with an opportunity.

The reason why a gap was left for Cao Cao was that the imperial court did not want to see Sun Ce, who had completely inherited Yuan Shu's power, appear in the south of the Han Dynasty.

Even though Cao Cao is still an enemy of the imperial court, if Cao Cao becomes stronger, it will actually make Yuan Shao more suspicious, which will weaken the power of the Hebei imperial court...

Just as Zhuge Liang said, if the enemy is being led by the nose, then they can be defeated easily, right?
……

Liu Bei suddenly became extremely depressed.

Hasn't fighting always been a simple matter?
For Liu Bei, fighting is basically -

After Zhang Fei comes on stage, Guan Yu comes on stage.

After Guan Yu goes up, Zhao Yun comes up.

After Zhao Yun finished, he went up...

Thanks to the extremely high quality of his generals, Liu Bei's style of fighting was actually invincible to a certain extent.

But its premise is only a battlefield with less than 10,000 people.

After all, the more people there are on the battlefield, the weaker the general's personal role will be.

After listening to Zhuge Liang's understanding of war, Liu Bei suddenly felt that he had fought in vain in the first half of his life...

"If you can master Kong Ming's fighting style, wouldn't you be invincible and unstoppable?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head slightly.

"This fighting style is indeed brilliant, but it is always restrained by another type of fighting style."

"What tactics?"

"Unmoving as a mountain."

Zhuge Liang was also somewhat helpless when he mentioned these four words.

No matter how powerful your plan is, if the other party just hides in his shell, what can you do?
Zhuge Liang only hoped that he would not encounter such a terrible opponent in his lifetime.

But at this moment, Sima Yi's figure lingered in Zhuge Liang's mind...

Although he had never fought a war with Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang still sensed Sima Yi's terrible war instinct from Sima Yi's previous battle to defend Xiangyang City against Cao Cao.

If we were to ask who is most likely to display the "unmovable as a mountain" stance in front of him, it would probably be only Sima Yi!

"Fortunately."

Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan lightly.

Fortunately, it is unlikely that he and Sima Yi will meet on the battlefield in this life.

I'm afraid there will be only one kind of relationship between the two on the battlefield in the future -

That is to cooperate sincerely and expand the territory for the Han Dynasty together!
(End of this chapter)