The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 288: The End of Yuan Shu
After discussion, Cao Cao finally decided to attack Yuan Shu in two directions.

One of the routes was led by Yu Jin and Xiahou Yuan, who directly captured Xiaopei and Pengcheng, then went west to capture Xiapi and Donghai, and completely occupied Xuzhou.

The other route was led by Cao Cao himself, with generals such as Cao Hong and Le Jin under his command. They went to Qiao County, approached Xiacai, and looked for an opportunity to cross the Huai River and capture Shouchun.

Finally, he left Cheng Yu, Cao Ang and others to guard Xu County to guard against Liu Bei in Jingzhou.

When Cao Cao passed through Qiao County, he saw bandits besieging a fort, so he stepped in to rescue them.

The people in the fort came out to express their gratitude, and when they heard that it was Cao Cao's name, they wanted to lead their troops to surrender.

Cao Cao was naturally delighted and asked his name, only to find out that his name was Xu Chu.

"Although I lost E Lai, I got Zhong Kang! This is my Cao Cao's good fortune!"

Just after setting out on the expedition, he met a powerful general! This time, luck was finally on Cao Cao's side.

The other side.

Yu Jin and Xiahou Yuan easily took over the weakly defended Xuzhou!

It was at this time that Yuan Tan in Qingzhou learned the news that Sun Ce and Yuan Shu had gone to war in the south, and he quickly reported the news to Yuan Shao in Yecheng.

When Yuan Shao learned that Cao Cao took the opportunity to capture Xuzhou, he was furious!
"How could Aman march on his own? Does he still take the imperial court seriously?"

Then, Yuan Shao asked the Hebei court to issue an official document to reprimand Cao Cao!
However, Ju Shou and Guo Tu rarely reached a consensus and asked Yuan Shao not to make things difficult for Cao Cao at this time.

The two of them had the same reason, that is, with the defeat in the Battle of Anyi, Yuan Shao lost tens of thousands of elite troops in Anyi and his strength was greatly damaged.

A significant loss in Yuan Shao's strength means that Cao Cao's strength will increase.

If the Hebei court...or the Guandong gentry want to resist the Guanzhong court and the Guanzhong government troops, they must rely more on Cao Cao's power.

If Yuan Shao went to reprimand Cao Cao at this time, it would probably do more harm than good!
Although Yuan Shao felt aggrieved, he had no choice but to accept this reality.

In the end, Yuan Shao not only did not reprimand Cao Cao, but rewarded him instead, promoting Cao Cao to the rank of general and commander-in-chief of the military forces of Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou.

However, everyone knew that Yuan Shao must have been resentful of Cao Cao, and the relationship between the two eventually began to crack due to the imbalance in their power.

Driven by various factors, Cao Cao's rise has finally become unstoppable. He is about to rise completely and dominate the Central Plains!

Cao Cao's unstoppable rise means another thing:

That was Yuan Shu’s irreversible demise.

Yuan Shu was stationed in Shouchun, and when he first heard that Sun Ce had rebelled, he was not very panicked.

But then, bad news kept coming.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu led their troops to Jiangdong, and finally had a decisive battle with Ji Ling at Caishiji!

Ji Ling was also a rare general under Yuan Shu who was able to act independently. He personally wrote to Yuan Shu, stating the pros and cons of this war.

Ji Ling wrote to Yuan Shu: "Sun Ce has come from afar, but he is fighting us with only half of Jingzhou that he has just recovered. This is actually a taboo in war! As long as we hold on to the city and wait until Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's baggage is exhausted or something happens in the rear, we can naturally win easily."

Originally Yuan Shu had agreed to Ji Ling's request.

But when Yuan Shu learned that Cao Cao had also begun to use troops against him, he finally panicked and demanded that Ji Ling must quickly defeat Sun Ce!

Ji Ling’s family knows their own business.

If he had held on, he could have forced Sun Ce to retreat and won the final victory.

But if he were to fight head-on, how could he be able to defeat Sun Ce and Zhou Yu?
Ji Ling wrote another letter to explain the pros and cons, but Yuan Shu, who was frightened by Cao Cao, began to urge Ji Ling to go into battle.

For this reason, Yuan Shu sent thirteen golden medals in one day, asking Ji Ling to defeat Sun Ce quickly, and then immediately go north to resist Cao Cao!
Ji Ling had no choice but to go into battle.

as predicted.

In the frontal battle, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu easily defeated Ji Ling and captured Caishiji, an important town in Jiangdong! Ji Ling led his troops to retreat all the way to Zhenjiang in the east before retreating.

At this time, there were only a hundred or so soldiers left around Ji Ling.

Some of his subordinates and confidants advised Ji Ling to cross the river to the north, but Ji Ling cried and said, "As a general of the Yuan family, I cannot resist the rebels. How can I go back to see Your Majesty?"

After saying this, Ji Ling jumped into the river and left, leaving behind a group of soldiers to mourn for him.

The counties in Jiangdong were originally conquered by Sun Ce himself.

Upon hearing that Ji Ling was defeated by Sun Ce, the four counties of Jiangdong immediately sent people to present Sun Ce with a seal to express their obedience.

After Cao Cao in Xiacai learned that war was inevitable, he immediately ordered his troops to cross the Huai River and attack Shouchun!

Cao Cao followed Guo Jia's plan and first sent people to build a large number of conspicuous large ships in a conspicuous place upstream, filling the entire river surface with them. But secretly, he collected small boats from the surrounding fishermen and secretly moored them at the downstream ferry.

When Yuan Shu's navy was attracted upstream, Cao's army secretly crossed the Huai River in small boats and arrived at the city of Shouchun.

The bureaucrats and generals under Yuan Shu generally had a "fear of Cao".

Chen Lan and Lei Bo, who were originally responsible for defending Shouchun, abandoned Yuan Shu and led their troops to flee to Luling County to become bandits after hearing that Cao Cao had crossed the Huai River.

The rest of the officials also fled or scattered, with no cohesion at all.

It was at this time that Yuan Shu finally realized what a joke it was to declare himself emperor!
He stumbled into the palace where he usually held court, and saw that it was empty, which made him feel even more sad.

"His Majesty."

The sudden movement startled Yuan Shu.

After a closer look, I found out it was Shangshu Ling Li Ru.

"Wenyou didn't leave me?"

Yuan Shu was extremely pleased at this moment.

"I really didn't misjudge him. Wenyou is the true loyal minister!"

Li Ru saw that Yuan Shu was still wearing the emperor's robes instead of putting on armor to meet the enemy, so he knew that Yuan Shu was completely finished.

But Li Ru still bowed and said: "Your Majesty's kindness to Li Ru is as great as a mountain. I really dare not let you down."

"But now the situation has become like this, Your Majesty cannot just sit there and wait for death."

After hearing Li Ru's words, Yuan Shu seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw!

"Wenyou still has a plan to save me?"

Li Ru nodded.

"Although I cannot save your majesty's imperial title, if it is managed properly, it may be able to save your majesty's life!"

Being able to save his life was already a great blessing, so why would Yuan Shu refuse?
"Wenyou please speak!"

Li Ru coughed a few times, and finally told his plan -

"Your Majesty can seek help from Yuan Shao."

Yuan Shu's expression froze.

But Li Ru seemed not to notice and continued to persuade:

"Yuan Shao is your majesty's elder brother after all, and we are related by blood! Now that your majesty is in trouble, how can Yuan Shao just stand by and watch him die?"

"As long as Your Majesty says that you are willing to give the title of emperor to Yuan Shao and let Yuan Shao inherit the throne, perhaps the feud between us and Yuan Shao can be resolved!"

(End of this chapter)