My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 166: Fall out of love
Cao Cao issued an edict to Liu Bei and Liu Biao in early October of the third year of Jian'an.

It was already the end of the month when he was sent to Liu Biao. Liu Biao discussed and negotiated internally, and tried to see if Zhang Xian was willing to contribute in order to make a final decision. This process took almost half a month. He then tried to persuade Huang Zu to hand over power and run away, but failed. This process took another half a month, and he had to send him back to Xudu.

Therefore, it was at least mid-November before Cao Cao received Liu Biao's official reply that he was "unable to send troops". Then Cao Cao could issue an order to Liu Bei in Wuhu, stating that the previous agreement was valid and asking him to fight Huang Zu for the court.

Liu Bei received the final order at least in the twelfth lunar month. It was impossible to deploy troops in the cold winter, and it was not suitable to deploy troops during the Chinese New Year. Lujiang and Jiujiang counties were severely damaged by Yuan Shu last year. Liu Bei must now focus on restoring production, and the busy spring farming season must be eliminated...

All things considered, Liu Bei would have at least a few months to recuperate and resume farming production.

Although Liu Bei's main combat troops can be fully or partially employed, fighting a war requires more than just combat troops. At least twice as many auxiliary troops and corvée laborers will be recruited to repair roads and transport military supplies.

The conscription of these corvées must be avoided during the spring ploughing season, otherwise the people in Liu Bei's jurisdiction might not have enough food to eat next year.

The territory that had just been taken back from Yuan Shu was in such a desolate state.

However, Cao Cao didn't really care when Liu Bei would send troops to deal with Huang Zu.

What Cao Cao cares about is not giving Liu Bei a chance to deal with Sun Ce for at least one or two years in the future, allowing Sun Ce to gain a foothold behind Liu Bei, and at the same time ensuring that the relationship between Liu Bei and Liu Biao will not be good. That's enough.

Attacking Huang Zu was just a means to restrain Liu Bei and give him something to do.

Cao Cao himself had other important things to do this winter.

In October, Yuan Shu had just been defeated and forced to hide in the Dabie Mountains. He had to wait until the spring of the following year when the snow on the mountains melted before he could deal the final blow to Yuan Shu.

In the blink of an eye, it was November, and Cao Cao, who had only stayed in Xudu for less than a month, personally led his troops out of Beijing and began to deal with his next enemy, Lu Bu.

There is no need to say much about the old grudge between Lu Bu and Cao Cao.

That is to say, last winter, thanks to Yuan Shao's secret pressure on the Yang Biao case, which allowed Lu Bu to "clear the court and get rid of cruel officials", Cao Cao had to temporarily tolerate Lu Bu and accept it in order to destroy Yuan Shu first.

Man Chong, who was identified as a "cruel official" by Lu Bu, was not punished, but until the first half of this year, he was stripped of all his positions by Cao Cao and was kept in prison.

Man Chong had to stay in jail until the storm had passed and he had fallen out with Lu Bu again, and then he was released.

Now that Yuan Shu had been forced to hide in the mountains by Cao Cao, he was doomed to fail and temporarily had no one to fight back. Cao Cao would certainly not let his army sit idle, so he found an excuse and launched another attack on Lu Bu.

When fighting Yuan Shu, it was impossible to obtain food from the enemy, because Yuan Shu's people had been completely destitute in advance. When fighting Lu Bu, at least you could obtain food from the enemy.

Cao Cao had massacred the people of Xuzhou several times, and he knew that the people of Xuzhou would not remember his kindness, so it didn't matter.

Moreover, Liangjun and Xiaopei, which are currently controlled by Lu Bu, belong to Yuzhou administratively. Liangjun was originally a territory governed by Cao Cao himself, where he implemented the military farming system.

In Cao Cao's view, if he attacked and asked the people of Liang County to raise military supplies locally, he was just taking back what belonged to him. How could this be considered robbery?

As for the excuse for the war itself, it was actually very easy to find, because as early as the beginning of September two months ago, when Cao Cao and Lu Bu were fighting for the counties in Qiao, they had already had some minor frictions due to the uneven distribution of the spoils.

At that time, Liu Bei surrounded Shouchun, and Zhao Yun also captured Yicheng (Bengbu), cutting off the retreat route of Yuan's army in the Qiao counties in Huaibei to Huainan through the Woshui waterway.

The morale of Yuan Shu's army in Qiao soon collapsed, and some chose to abandon their baggage and ships and flee to Runan by land. The rest who could not escape surrendered on the spot to other attacking princes.

Liu Bei did not participate in the fight for the Huaibei Plain because he knew that he was at the end of his strength. Zhuge Jin also advised him not to be impulsive, because the Huanghuai Plain was flat and the southern princes, who lacked large-scale cavalry, could not gain a foothold in such a place without strategic advantages. If they intervened rashly, they would only fall into a bottomless pit of consumption.

Therefore, the matter of accepting the surrender of Qiao was fought over by Cao Cao and Lu Bu. Cao Cao took at least 80% of it, while Lu Bu took only 20% at most.

Lu Bu was already holding a grudge in his heart because last year, he accepted the imperial court's enthronement and stabbed Yuan Shu in the back. As a result, Yuan Shu concentrated his main forces on attacking Lu Bu for the next six months and hated him extremely for being a traitor.

Yuan Shu had completely lost his mind at that time. He was in an attitude of "I can lose the war, but Lu Bu must die", and he would fight Lu Bu at all costs.

Lu Bu was badly weakened by Yuan Shu, and in the process of Yuan Shu's downfall, he got almost no benefits, allowing Cao Cao and Liu Bei to reap so much advantage.

South of the Sui River, Lu Bu only picked up Zhi County and Fuli.

Despite this small gain, there was later a situation where "the magistrate of Zhi County was unaware that Shansang County to the south had already surrendered to the court when Lu Bu attacked, so he had no choice but to temporarily surrender to Lu Bu. After learning that he was bordering the area controlled by Cao Cao's court, the magistrate of Zhi County turned from darkness to light within just a few days."

When Lu Bu learned that Yuan Shu, the fake official who had already surrendered to him, dared to surrender to Cao Cao again, he was of course furious and lost his composure.

At that time, he directly ordered Gao Shun to lead troops to capture a small city like Zhi County, and then had the county magistrate torn to pieces as a punishment. He also killed a lot of people to deter other potential traitors and let other surrendered pseudo-officials see clearly the fate of betraying him, Lu Bu!
This friction accident occurred around the end of September, and the news did not reach Xudu until October.

Cao Cao didn't care about the life and death of a mere county magistrate at first. At that time, he was still chasing Yuan Shu in the Huai River plain area of Runan, so he didn't care about Lu Bu. He just glanced at the report and threw it into the pile of old papers.

But as heavy snow blocked the mountains and made it impossible to pursue Yuan Shu, Cao Cao began to become curious. He vaguely remembered that something like this had happened before, so he brought up the old account again and used it as an excuse to go to war with Lu Bu.

Lu Bu actually dared to kill the loyal minister who had abandoned the dark and surrendered to the light and took the initiative to submit to the direct jurisdiction of the court! Even if this person surrendered to Lu Bu first and then to Cao Cao, Lu Bu had no legal right to pursue him!
Because Cao Cao felt that he represented the imperial court, and "Han is me", the things in my pocket are of course mine, and the things in other people's pockets are also mine after they run into my pocket, they all belong to the Han Dynasty!
This statement was of course unanimously approved by the court in Xudu, and even Emperor Liu Xie did not dare to say much. Then Cao Cao officially declared war on Lu Bu!
Cao Cao knew very well that during the fall of Yuan Shu, he got two and a half of the six counties directly under Yuan Shu, and the other half, located deep in the Dabie Mountains, could only be taken after the snow melted next year. Liu Bei got two, Lu Bu got half, and Huang Zu got half. Liu Bei's benefit from destroying Yuan was second only to Cao Cao. So Cao Cao had no time to farm and feed the people. He had to seize time as soon as possible in the next stage of destroying Lu Bu and quickly get more territory. Otherwise, Liu Bei would also recover and would definitely compete with him for Xuzhou.

The window of opportunity for him to use his high-ranking position and the imperial edict to hold back Liu Bei will not last long. He must seize this window of opportunity to maximize the appeal of the court.

As Cao and Lu resumed their war, Lu Bu, who had been exhausted by Yuan Shu, was unable to withstand Cao Cao's offensive.

It can be said that Cao's army has now stabilized in other directions and can concentrate all its efforts on fighting Lu Bu.

There was only one Cao Hong in Cao's army who was on guard against Zhang Xiu, and Cao Ren who was on guard against Yuan Shu and Liu Bei. The relationship with Yuan Shao in the north was still very harmonious, so there was no need to set up defenses.

So Cao Cao personally led Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Dun, Yu Jin, Le Jin, Xu Huang, and a large number of the court's main troops, and marched towards Liang County, which was captured by Lu Bu last year, in order to recover the lost territory in Yuzhou first.

Lu Bu felt betrayed and was very angry because Cao Cao found an excuse to attack him, so he became hot-blooded and unwilling to show weakness.

After losing several small counties in the outlying areas, Lu Bu, who could no longer tolerate this, made up his mind and took Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, Hou Cheng, Wei Xu and Song Xian with him to fight a decisive battle in the field with Cao Cao outside Suiyang City.

Lu Bu originally thought that with the last Bingzhou cavalry and a few Xiliang cavalry, as well as the sharpness of the Xianzhen Camp, he might be able to break through Cao Cao's army formation, attack the center army directly, and destroy Cao Cao's command system, so that he might have a chance of victory.

Unfortunately, Lu Bu’s current strength is far from what it was more than a year ago.

Cao Cao had fought with him many times and was very familiar with Lu Bu's tactics. He had made comprehensive preparations in advance to guard against the enemy cavalry's sudden attack and killing of generals.

Cao Cao arranged a thick formation of long spears and large shields in front of his central army, covering his central army in a full semicircle, and deployed hidden crossbows with cross fire in the crane wing formation on the left and right wings.

Lu Bu asked Gao Shun to help him lead the central army, and then he personally took Zhang Liao to try to break through the enemy's formation and kill the generals, destroying Cao Cao's center at all costs. A fierce bloody battle broke out between the two sides.

Lu Bu's Xianzhen Camp was indeed the strongest army in the world. Although Gao Shun was not allowed to lead the charge personally, they still tore a huge hole in Cao Cao's spear and shield formation, and both sides were engaged in a bloody battle.

The last of the Bing and Liang cavalry fought desperately along the gap, and at one point they were within two or three hundred steps of Cao Cao, but the number of Cao's troops was three times that of Lu Bu's, and Cao Cao's ability to command troops was also extraordinary, and he deployed a large number of reserve troops to block the gap.

In the melee, Zhang Liao fought with Le Jin, who came to block the entrance, for more than ten rounds. At the cost of being stabbed by Le Jin, Zhang Liao finally knocked Le Jin off his horse.

Both sides were wearing black armor, and swords and knives could not cause serious injuries unless they stabbed firmly. However, Le Jin used a long sword, and Zhang Liao avoided the vital angle before being hit, so Le Jin only cut him with the sword, which did not break the armor. He just caused a surge of blood and qi, and suffered some internal injuries.

Zhang Liao's attack was just an old one, and he also failed to break through the armor and kill Le Jin, but he relied on his proficiency in cavalry sprint and knocked the opponent off his horse. Le Jin, who was wearing black armor, was seriously injured and had several broken ribs. He was rescued by his subordinates at the risk of his life.

Unfortunately, Zhang Liao's charge was limited to this. He was pinned down by Le Jin and trapped by Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. After Zhang Liao fought hard and killed five or six Tiger and Leopard Cavalry officers, Cao's Left and Right Crane Wing infantry crossbows had already arrived to reinforce him.

The Cao army's hidden crossbows knew that it was Zhang Liao, and they fired at Zhang Liao's group of people in the melee without distinguishing between friend and foe. At the cost of accidentally killing more than 20 Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, they also killed more than a dozen Bingzhou elite cavalry around Zhang Liao. More importantly, Zhang Liao himself had his armor pierced by two powerful crossbows shot from the left.

Fortunately, these crossbow arrows were crossfire from the side, and the projection area of Zhang Liao's side was not very large, so he was hit by few arrows. Moreover, two arrows pierced his left arm and left leg respectively, without damaging his internal organs or severing the aorta in his thigh, so it was not fatal.

Zhang Liao, who had lost his fighting ability, howled miserably several times, endured the pain, turned his horse and fled.

On the other side, Lu Bu had already killed more than a dozen Tiger and Leopard Cavalry officers and was still trying to break in. Seeing that Zhang Liao was seriously injured and his deputy general was killed, Lu Bu was shocked and knew that it was impossible to do anything.

He waved his Fang Tian Ji wildly, forcing back and killing several people, and rushed forward dozens of steps with all his might. Until the forest of spears in front of him was like hedgehogs and he could not go any further, Lu Bu drew out his strong bow made of several stones and shot several arrows at Cao Cao who was nearly 200 steps away.

Unfortunately, Cao Cao was surrounded by numerous large shield guards, and Xu Chu was shielded by two shields. Lu Bu finally shot and killed two Tiger and Leopard Cavalry through the gaps in the shield wall, and shot an arrow into the thigh of Xu Chu who was holding the shield, but did not hurt Cao Cao himself at all.

Then Lu Bu immediately turned his horse and fled, fearing that he would also be trapped in Cao's hidden crossbow formation.

Zhang Liao was seriously injured, Lu Bu retreated, and Gao Shun wanted to hold his ground and retreat slowly, but it was impossible. After half a day of bloody fighting, the Battle of Suiyang ended with Cao Cao's complete victory.

Although Cao's army also suffered thousands of casualties, Lu Bu's main field force was defeated after this battle.

Lu Bu fled in a hurry with Gao Shun and was forced to abandon Liang County within a few days. As for the county towns in Qiao area north of Sui River, they were all abandoned as well.

Lu Bu himself took Wei Xu and Song Xian to retreat to Pengcheng to defend it, and asked Gao Shun and Hou Cheng to retreat to Pei State for defense. The seriously injured Zhang Liao could only retreat to Xia Pi in the rear under the protection of Cao Xing and let Chen Deng look after him.

At this point, Lü Bu had completely lost all the benefits he had gained by playing around in the past two years. Compared to the territory he had just occupied when he succeeded in stealing Liu Bei's territory, he only had the support of Zang Ba and the bandits of Mount Tai, and his troops were severely depleted. He was no longer able to fight in the field and could only defend the city.

Zang Ba and the Taishan bandits are obviously unreliable. They are all fence-sitters. Once Cao Cao wins the decisive battle, the Taishan bandits will turn against Cao Cao again. Lu Bu is very clear about this.

At present, Lü Bu nominally still had Pei State, Pengcheng, Xiapi (excluding the three counties of Xuyi, Xuxian, and Huailing along the Huai River in the south, which were occupied by Yuan Shu when he invaded Xuzhou two and a half years ago, and were later beaten back by Liu Bei, and nominally belonged to Xiapi County), most of Donghai County, plus Langya and Taishan.
Among them, only the first four counties are direct descendants, and the last two counties are fence-sitters.

Having been beaten into a cowardly state, Lu Bu had no choice but to send Chen Deng to Liu Bei again, trying to strengthen friendly relations with Liu Bei. He accused Cao Cao of betraying his original intention of "not settling accounts and clearing the court of corrupt officials" and hoped that Liu Bei would turn against Cao Cao and join him in fighting Cao Cao.

However, just as Lu Bu sent a letter to Liu Bei requesting an alliance, Cao Cao's imperial edict promoting Liu Bei in the name of the emperor had already been delivered to Liu Bei more than half a month earlier.

(End of this chapter)