The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 356 Volume Facing Each Other Across the River
"Did the emperor really order the boatmen to tow the boats from Guanzhong to Guandong?"

Yuan Shao didn't believe it at first.

After Zhang He's failure in his battle for Yanjin and Bai Ma, the scholars in Hebei realized that the emperor would inevitably cross the river and enter Hebei.

But everyone was still hoping for a lucky break, knowing that the emperor had no boats and could not transport his troops across the river.

Others speculated: "The emperor will certainly build a floating bridge to transport troops across the river. As long as we can send people to patrol the riverside day and night and be cautious, we will definitely be able to stop the court south of the river!"

But I never expected that the slap in the face would come so quickly.

The boats from Guanzhong and Hedong were being dragged through Sanmenxia by boatmen, which obviously foreshadowed the emperor's next tactics.

Attack and cross the river!

As long as the Xiliang Cavalry is sent to Hebei, Yuan Shao will no longer have a chance of winning!

At this point, Yuan Shao no longer had any thoughts and could only gather his troops from all over to the south of Hebei.

How to play.

How to play.

Where to fight.

Everything was always under the control of the emperor, without any mistakes.

This is exactly the same as the last battle of Anyi!
The only difference is.

In the Battle of Anyi, it was clear that Yuan Shao was arranged in his arrogance.

In the Battle of Hebei, Yuan Shao was clearly arranged to act timidly.

All the struggles and reactions were basically within the emperor's expectations.

Fight along the river!

This is the battlefield that the emperor chose for Yuan Shao!
The only thing that made Yuan Shao feel fortunate was that the war chosen for him by the emperor was relatively fair.

As long as the river can be defended, Hebei still has a glimmer of hope!
"Pass on my order, have Jiang Yiqu lead his troops to Huai County in the west, and have Yuan Tan lead his troops to Yin'an in the east."

"The rest of you, follow me to Liyang!"

If the emperor wants to cross the river, there are only three places.

The most likely one is naturally Liyang, which is located in the middle.

Yuan Shao's decision to personally command Liyang was actually somewhat tragic.

Therefore, upon hearing the transfer order, Yuan Tan hurried to Yuan Shao's tent and asked Yuan Shao to let him lead his troops to guard Liyang, so that Yuan Shao could retreat temporarily to avoid endangering his life.

Yuan Shao was very pleased to hear Yuan Tan's request.

"Among my three sons, Tan is the most virtuous."

"Xiansi, tell your father the truth. Do you blame your father for giving you to your uncle as his stepson and for sending you to Qingzhou, far away from the central government?"

Yuan Tan's appearance was similar to that of Yuan Shao, he was kind and handsome.

After hearing Yuan Shao's words, a look of panic suddenly appeared on his face: "I dare not!"

Yuan Shao was quite satisfied.

"I sent you to Qingzhou, not because I hate you."

"You need to know that Qingzhou is not like Jizhou. It was plagued by the Yellow Turbans, and only one out of ten aristocratic families survived. It is the most suitable place to develop military strength without being restricted."

"So the troops under your command are least affected by the nobles and can be easily mobilized and controlled. It's not like being a father, always being controlled by others!"

Yuan Shao sighed, "Especially since the Battle of Anyi, when the emperor let Zhang He go and sent Ju Su back, the power in Hebei has become extremely strong! Even I, your father, cannot control it."

"So Xiansi, remember this. If your father is defeated on the battlefield, you must return to Qingzhou as soon as possible, bring the Qingzhou soldiers to cooperate with Cao Cao, and look for an opportunity to retake Hebei!"

Hearing Yuan Shao's instructions, which sounded like instructions for his last affairs, Yuan Tan could not help but be horrified!

"Now that the war has not yet begun, why does father have to say such discouraging words?"

Yuan Shao waved his hand and said: "At this point, can't Xiansi see the current situation?"

"When the emperor deployed his troops, he always made calculations first and then laid out his plans."

"Since he dares to fight with my father here, he must have made all preparations."

"Just like the Jinyong City in Luoyang, the emperor never fought a battle without preparation."

"The reason why I chose to use the troops in advance is simply because I found that my father had contacted the Wuhuan and Eastern Xianbei, which was somewhat beyond his control, so I took the initiative to strike first."

Only then did Yuan Tan remember that it seemed like he hadn't heard any news from the Wuhuan and the Eastern Xianbei for a long time.

"Father! Since the emperor is so afraid of Wuhuan and Dongxianbei, why not summon him to fight with you?"

Yuan Shao shook his head again.

"I was actually thinking about this before."

"One Han is equal to five barbarians."

"With the Xiliang Iron Cavalry in hand, the emperor should not be afraid of fighting the Wuhuan and the Eastern Xianbei."

"It was not until recently that I realized that the emperor was afraid that an empire like the Xiongnu would appear again on the northern grasslands to threaten the Han Dynasty. That's why he chose to use troops in advance to prevent Kebi from unifying the Eastern Xianbei and then unifying the entire grasslands!"

"If we really summon the Wuhuan and Eastern Xianbei to Hebei, we will actually eliminate their threat... maybe the emperor will be ecstatic and use a trick to wipe them out at once!" When he said this, Yuan Shao smiled mysteriously.

"But the more he fears something, the more he will do it."

"I have reached an agreement with Kebineng. After he unifies the Eastern Xianbei, he will immediately attack the Budugen tribe of the Western Xianbei and the Liubao tribe of the Southern Xiongnu to unify the grasslands!"

"By then, even if the emperor takes Hebei, there are the Xianbei army outside, watching covetously, and the remnants of the nobles inside, hiding and causing chaos. Why should we worry that Hebei will not be in chaos?"

"When that happens, your chance will come!"

Yuan Tan was shocked when he heard this!
He never expected that Yuan Shao had already made such a plan!

But Yuan Tan still had one thing he didn't understand.

"Father, since you have this plan, why don't you stay out of the spotlight for now and head to Qingzhou? Once Kebi is able to unify the grasslands, we can attack him from both sides."

Since Yuan Shao had already left a way out for Yuan Tan and found a way to defeat the emperor, why didn't he use it himself?

With Yuan Shao's prestige, if he were to do this, wouldn't it be twice the result with half the effort?
"Fool, you still don't understand scholars after all."

"Those people will never learn to unite unless they are faced with death."

"Only when the emperor attacks Hebei and kills them until they feel pain and are frightened, will they know how to unite and do things."

Speaking of this, there seemed to be nostalgia in Yuan Shao's eyes.

"When Dong Zhuo entered the capital, my father and I were the most alert. We saw at a glance that Dong Zhuo was not a good person."

"After that, my father gathered all the princes to fight against Dong Zhuo, explained the pros and cons to them, and told them that if Dong Zhuo came to power, there would be no place for us to rest in peace in this world... But because Dong Zhuo's knife did not really fall on them, they all harbored evil intentions and were unwilling to contribute."

"It's the same now."

"Unless the knife in the emperor's hand actually falls on them, they won't feel the pain."

"Only when the emperor grinds their bones to dust will they feel the pain of having their flesh scraped off!"

"When that time comes, they will naturally remember the good things about our Yuan family. Only then will you be able to rally the people and once again stand on equal footing with the emperor!"

Yuan Tan was horrified for a moment, but he couldn't help but hug Yuan Shao and cry bitterly.

"I have remembered everything my father said!"

……

As the Hebei army moved, the imperial court's troops in Bingzhou and Henan were also mobilized.

Xu Rong and Xu Huang in Taiyuan were transferred to Hedong, leaving only Zhang Liao and Zhang Xiu to guard the city.

Niu Fu led the 30,000-strong Hedong army, passed Puzhen, went through Hangu Pass, and headed to Luoyang to meet the emperor.

Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang were left in charge of guarding Yuzhou, while Liu Bei led Pang De, Pang Tong and his own original troops, a total of 20,000 troops, to Yanzhou.

The remaining 10,000 soldiers led by Lu Bu and Gao Shun were to guard the ferry. The total 60,000 troops of the imperial court were all stationed on the south bank of the river!
As Yuan Shao's troops had to quell the rebellion in the rear and defend against the Bingzhou army, they only had about 40,000 troops deployed in various locations on the north bank of the river.

From Luoyang to Puyang.

From Huai County to Yin'an.

The tents of both sides were closely connected together. Looking closely, they were more than a hundred miles apart.

This mother river that gave birth to civilization also gave birth to the climax of civilization - war!
Liu Xie stood by the river, watching the roaring water, but suddenly thought of a famous poem and couldn't help humming it:

"The rolling waters of the Yangtze River pass eastward, and the waves wash away the heroes. Right and wrong, success or failure, are all gone. The green mountains are still there, and the sunsets are red several times."

"White-haired fishermen and woodcutters on the river bank are used to looking at the autumn moon and the spring breeze. We are happy to meet each other over a pot of wine. Many things in ancient and modern times are all talked about with laughter."

Although the melody of this tune is a bit strange, and I don’t know why the name of the Yangtze River appears when everyone is clearly by the river...but people around can still hear that this is indeed a top-notch masterpiece.

Yang Xiu, who was standing by, said with emotion: "Your Majesty has not written a poem for several years! I didn't expect that this poem is still so good!"

Liu Xie: “This is a poem.”

Yang Xiu: “???”

However, Liu Xie smiled and said, "Although this poem is beautiful, it is somewhat inappropriate to the situation."

"And if I sing such a sad tune about what I am about to do, it would be a bit of a letdown and not very meaningful!"

Yang Xiu took a tiger step!
"Your Majesty, would you like me to compose some Yuefu poems to liven up the atmosphere?"

Seeing Yang Xiu showing off his talent, Liu Xie couldn't help laughing.

"No need for that. I have another poem here that is definitely better than yours, Dezu!"

Yang Xiu was dissatisfied: "Even if Jia Sheng or Sima Xiangru came, they would not be able to write two masterpieces in a short time! Your Majesty, aren't you too arrogant?"

Liu Xie simply asked: "If I can really do it, what should Dezu do?"

"If Your Majesty can really do it, I will..."

Just when Yang Xiu was struggling over what to bet on, Sima Yi wanted to get involved and said jokingly, "If Your Majesty can make a decision, how about Dezu take the sign of "second place" and lead the horse for me?"

"Why is Zhongda joining in on the bet between me and your majesty?"

Liu Xie knew that Yang Xiu had always been brooding over the fact that he had missed out on the first top scholar in the Han Dynasty. Although he admired Sima Yi's talent, he still felt a bit resentful in his heart.

As the saying goes, it’s better to watch the fun than to worry about the big things. Liu Xie also made the decision directly: "Okay! Let’s bet on this!"

(End of this chapter)