My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 243 Sun Ce is ordered to attack Liu Bei

After Yuan Shao took the reassurance that "attacking Cao Cao is in compliance with the imperial edict", he was still very decisive in his execution.

His army was already in a state of war, and food and supplies were stored in advance near Liyang, an important ferry crossing on the north bank of the Yellow River, and were heavily guarded.

Therefore, within just three to five days after the order was issued, all the troops gathered in Liyang.

During this period, Chen Lin's new version of "On behalf of Yuan Shao to Yuzhou" was successfully completed and sent to all counties. However, due to the change in the situation, the part about Cao Cao's crimes and the wording of the final alliance were modified.

The part that enumerates Cao Cao's crimes adds a section on Cao Cao's war crimes of revenge against his righteous ministers after the crime of "Cao wanted to stop people from speaking out, so Tan Shou immediately killed Zhao Yan" and before "appointed the General of the Fa Qiu and the Captain of the Mo Jin to personally excavate the tomb of King Xiao of Liang".

In other words, the war in which Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu after defeating Yuan Shu was characterized as "killing dissidents and avenging military remonstrances."

The purpose of this modification was of course to help Yuan Shao find more legitimacy for the crusade, but it also indirectly elevated Lu Bu's historical status by writing him together with Yang Biao and Zhao Yan, loyal officials who were persecuted by Cao Cao. Although Yuan Shao also hated Lu Bu, he knew what was important and what was not, so writing him this way was a helpless move.

In the final part about building an alliance, Chen Lin was supposed to write "From today on, the four states of You, Bing, Qing and Ji will advance together. When the letter reaches Jingzhou, he will mobilize the troops to coordinate with General Jianzhong." However, the sentence about "General Jianzhong" has now been directly deleted.

Because "General Jianzhong" is Zhang Xiu, and in this life Zhang Xiu has clearly surrendered to Cao at this point in time, and Jia Xu even helped Cao Cao to suppress the rebellion in Xudu. Chen Lin certainly would not mention Yuan Shao's failed diplomatic attempt to win him over.

However, in contrast, Chen Lin mentioned Yangzhou and General Liu Bei before he mentioned the alliance with Jingzhou. Obviously, in Yuan Shao's diplomatic roadmap, the governors of the two states of Jingzhou and Yangzhou in the south should be promoted together and go north to jointly destroy Cao.

Finally, because Liu Bei became a General of Chariots and Cavalry and formed an ally instead of being "an object of persuasion to surrender", the title and heading of Chen Lin's entire article had to be changed.

Historically, the title of this article is "The Left General Leads Yuzhou Governor and Counties and States Guardians:", which means that this manifesto was nominally written to all local officials in Yuzhou, headed by Liu Bei, the "Left General Leads Yuzhou Governor". The purpose was to make these Yuzhou officials abandon their evil ways and join Yuan after reading the manifesto.

Chen Lin actually played a trick here: historically, when he wrote this article, Liu Bei had just surrendered to Yuan Shao, and the outcome was already a foregone conclusion. But Chen Lin played with the time difference, making it seem that he "had no idea that Liu Bei had surrendered" in the article, and even pretended to write in the tone of someone trying to persuade Liu Bei and others to surrender.

In this way, after the article was sent to various places, other outsiders would not know that there was a time difference, nor would they know that Chen Lin shot the arrow first and then drew the target.

Then many people were deceived and mistakenly believed that Liu Bei "repented after reading Chen Lin's manifesto, gave up his duties as the governor of Yuzhou, gave up working for Cao Cao, and joined Yuan Shao."

Many uneducated people who only follow the crowd will be shaken by the thought that “Could it be that this manifesto really makes so much sense that the top figure who is being persuaded to surrender has surrendered directly? Why don’t we surrender too?”

Obviously, Chen Lin also had a selfish desire to gain more political merit and qualifications for himself. He did rely on this to raise the status of this article in history.

But in this life, Chen Lin was destined not to be able to play this trick. Liu Bei was originally a foreign vassal and a general of chariots and cavalry, so it was not Chen Lin's turn to persuade him to surrender to Yuan Shikai. Therefore, Chen Lin's article was destined to be impossible to be as famous and influential as it was originally in history.

After the manifesto was issued, its effect on persuading local people to surrender and shake them up was slightly worse than the same period in history, simply because of the lack of the exemplary role model of Liu Bei who "led the surrender".

(Note: Yi Zhongtian often emphasizes that Liu Bei was popular, and the evidence is that when he surrendered to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao personally went 200 miles outside to welcome him. But in fact, the main reason why Yuan Shao attached so much importance to him was that Liu Bei was nominally the most powerful and representative target of wooing in the manifesto written by Chen Lin for him.

As soon as you send out your manifesto, the top target you want to win over will come to surrender. This has great political significance and is very helpful for boosting your morale, so Yuan Shao must put on this show. The facts cited by Yi Zhongtian are correct, but the reasons are completely misinterpreted.)
……

All preparations have been made and the manifesto has been sent out.

On the fourth day of March, Yuan Shao himself went south from Yecheng to Liyang and officially began his personal expedition.

Yuan Shao first ordered Guo Tu, Wen Chou and Chunyu Qiong to lead an army of 100,000 to cross the river and attack Yanjin and Bai Ma on the opposite bank.

The first wave of Cao's army to hold the line was undoubtedly the troops of Liu Yan, the prefect of Dongjun, which has not changed compared with the same period in history.

However, Cao Cao would no longer have Guan Yu and Zhang Liao to rescue Yanjin and Bai Ma, so there were fewer generals he could mobilize.

Finally, after repeated reinforcements and a seesaw battle, Cao's army still relied on Xun You's strategy of "letting the vanguard troops abandon their property before the battle, luring Wen Chou's troops to rob property and disrupt their formation, and then turning back to fight", paying a huge price, killing Wen Chou and slightly weakening Yuan's vanguard.

This development is not surprising, because in history, Wen Chou was not killed by Guan Yu as described in the novel, but died in the chaos of the army. The credit should be attributed to Xun You's strategy.

However, without Guan Yu and Zhang Liao, Cao's army was ultimately exhausted. After nearly a month of fighting on the Yanjin-Baima front, they finally could not withstand the subsequent fierce attacks from Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong and were forced to retreat to Guandu.

In history, Cao Cao at least killed Wen Chou and temporarily repelled Yuan's army before retreating. Now, he retreated directly. The price he paid was that the soldiers of Dongjun were completely annihilated, either killed or captured or surrendered. Liu Yan, the governor of Dongjun, was also killed by Yuan's army because of this butterfly effect, which made Cao Cao lose another harmless talent.

In May, after retreating to Guandu, Cao Cao desperately gathered his forces to hold the city, and also pulled Zhang Xiu and other newly surrendered fresh troops to the front line. He built high fortifications and deep trenches, relying on the defense line that had been built since the winter of last year, making it temporarily difficult for Yuan Shao to make any progress.

If we take a careful inventory, the force Yuan Shao used in the Battle of Guandu in this life was actually not much different from that in the original history - although Cao Cao's side lacked Guan Yu to kill Yan Liang, after all, thanks to Lu Bu's replacement last year, most of the things that Guan Yu should have done were done.

Qu Yi was also seriously injured by the bullet. Yuan Shao was already dissatisfied with Qu Yi, so he took the opportunity to hide him in order to prevent him from being unruly and overconfident. Although Qu Yi was not dead yet, he was also very angry, his health deteriorated, and his recovery was not smooth.

Therefore, after the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao's team of civil and military talents was basically the same as in the original history.

In terms of military strength and situation, he also destroyed Zhang Yan. Although the war potential of Bingzhou has not yet been digested and requisitioned by Yuan Shao, at least he does not need to divide his energy to defend the western flank.

On Cao Cao's side, Lu Bu, who was heavily used in the late autumn of last year, was ultimately a double-edged sword. Although he helped him get rid of Yan Liang and Qu Yi, he also backfired on Cao Cao's side, Hou Cheng, Wang Bi, and Cao Chun. In addition, Cao Cao had fewer talents from Lu Bu's camp in Xuzhou than in the same period in history, and Liu Yan had just died in the fight against Wen Chou. So in the end, according to statistics, Cao's army had six fewer people than in the same period in history: Chen Deng, Zhang Liao, Hou Cheng, Wang Bi, Cao Chun, and Liu Yan. (As for not counting, Guan Yu also left after killing Yan Liang in history)
In addition, there was the loss of more than a thousand elite soldiers (casualties suffered in the fight against Dong Cheng and Lu Bu during the Yidaizhao/Xu Du mutiny), plus the fact that Lu Bu's camp did not receive the surrendered troops in Xia Pi City, nor did it receive the territories of the two southern counties of Xuzhou.

In a nutshell, Cao Cao, who lacks six civil and military talents and two counties' territories and troops, needs to fight against Yuan Shao, who is as strong as Yuan Shao at the same time in history.

Although Cao Cao is still struggling to hold on, in the long run, he is definitely not as tenacious as his historical peers. If he wants to turn defeat into victory, he must pay a greater price or become more decisive and dare to risk his life.

……

The confrontation and fighting between hundreds of thousands of troops on the Henan battlefield lasted for a long time, and it was difficult to determine the outcome for a while.

At the same time, there was another hot land in the Han Dynasty that was about to be ignited by the flames of war. The level of tension was no less than that in Henan. That was Jiangdong controlled by Sun Ce.

One day at the end of February, just one or two days after Yuan Shao learned the truth about the Yidaizhao.

Zhuge Jin, who was in Wuhu, suddenly received a report from Liu Ye and Xu Qian, who were in charge of intelligence blockade and patrol along the river, and obtained an important piece of information.

After Liu Ye surrendered, he had not been given any chance to make meritorious contributions and promotion. At most, he improved the catapult and provided some tactical suggestions during the siege. Now his official position is just a military officer under Zhuge Jin.

Zhuge Jin held the posts of General Fubo and Governor of Danyang. He had many things to do and had great power, so he needed a team of staff for each of his two posts. Liu Ye was a member of General Fubo's team.

Xu Qian was born as a Chaohu thief, and later made some contributions in the final stage of the destruction of Yuan Shu, and was retained in Wuhu as a naval commander. In contrast, his old colleague Zhang Duo did not catch up with that opportunity to make meritorious contributions, and finally had to follow Bu Zhi to Minzhong to assist Wang Lang in fighting Sun Ce.

Xu Qian's naval combat capability was actually not that strong, and he was not as strong as the two Chaohu thieves Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin in Sun Ce's army.

However, Xu Qian had been a thief for many years and his eyesight was quite good. He could often do a very good job of following and monitoring certain merchants and patrolling the river to find suspicious individuals. After all, when you are a pirate, you often need to see through the disguises of wealthy merchants and pick out the fat sheep to slaughter.

Even if a guest was dressed in rags, Xu Qian's sharp eyes as a pirate could tell at a glance whether the other person was rich or noble.

This time Zhuge Jin came prepared, as he knew that Cao Cao would definitely send someone Sun Ce trusted to convey his orders to Sun Ce, so he made the best use of people and resources. He had Liu Ye and Xu Qian patrol and conduct secret visits to the key crossing points along the river early on.

On this day, Liu Ye and Xu Qian finally brought back good news to Zhuge Jin.

"General! We have received a report from Chu County that our spies at Tangyi Port have discovered a strange group of merchants who are transporting heavy and worthless goods with donkeys and horses, but they have deliberately crossed the mountains around Chu County and insisted on finding boats to go downstream on the Chu River, saying that they are going to Hailing.

We found it suspicious, so we moved the civilian boats of Tangyi away in advance, saying that they were out of the harbor fishing, and asked them to wait for a few days. Later, among the scouts sent by our army to scout, there was a military officer who was originally from the Yuzhang County soldiers. He recognized the leader of the other side as Hua Xin Hua Ziyu! The Yuzhang military officer had served Hua Xin before, so he recognized him! "

After listening to Liu Ye's report, Zhuge Jin couldn't help but stroke his moustache: "Hua Xin Hua Ziyu? Wasn't he reluctantly sent to Xudu as an envoy by Sun Ce two years ago, and then was retained by Cao Cao and ranked among the nine ministers in the court?"

Liu Ye: "This is as clear as day! Cao Cao must have known that the Lord would have a falling out with him, so he was afraid that if he sent an envoy to Sun Ce to announce the decree, he would be intercepted by us on the way.

But if he was a Han envoy and sneaked through the border and arrived at Sun Ce's place, Sun Ce would also be skeptical and worried that Cao Cao had plotted against him. Was it really the imperial decree from Xudu, or was it forged by Cao Cao?

Therefore, after weighing the two options, Cao Cao could only reluctantly let Hua Xin serve as an envoy. Hua Xin has always been respected by Sun Ce. After serving as an official in the capital for two years, he returned to announce the imperial edict. How could Sun Ce doubt it? Therefore, for now, should we release him..."

Zhuge Jin: "Of course we should release him. In one or two days, let Chu County know that there are fishing boats returning to the port, and they can help him. Pretend that you know nothing, and let Hua Xin go to Moling smoothly to complete his mission."

……

So, two days later.

Hua Xin thought he had done it without anyone noticing, but in fact he was escorted out of the country by Zhuge Jinli. He took a small boat across the river from Chu County, Nan Ge's younger brother, to join Nan Ge.

Until the moment of departure, Hua Xin still ordered his servants to tell the boatman that he was going to Hailing County in Guangling County for the purpose of selling goods.

However, after setting sail, Hua Xin and his party exposed their true purpose only 20 to 30 miles downstream. He asked his men to take out several huge ingots of horseshoe gold and give one ingot of gold to each captain of the fishing boats in exchange for them not to cause any trouble and to dock their fishing boats near Moling City on the south bank.

Being threatened with a knife and seeing that there was gold to be taken, the fishing boat owners immediately cooperated wisely.

Hua Xin didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he safely reached shore.

"That was a close call. Along the way, we disguised the imperial angels' banners and tokens as ordinary treasures and wrapped them in linen. This is really a disgrace to the dignity of the Han Dynasty! Hurry up, beat up all the banners and other ceremonial objects!
We have returned to Envoy Sun's territory and are safe now! We must be well-organized and not let Envoy Sun underestimate us!" Hua Xin ordered with a proud look on his face. He was not doing this for his own face, but because he was afraid that he, as an envoy, would appear too weak and be suspected and looked down upon by Sun Ce, which would affect his ability to complete his mission.

After a while, Hua Xin and his party got themselves in good shape again. The landing of such a group of people obviously attracted the attention of the nearby river defense patrol forces of Sun Ce's army.

A group of Sun Ce's soldiers patrolling the river approached with swords and bows drawn, shouting and asking about their origins.

"I am the imperial edict envoy, Grand Herald Hua Xin! I have come to announce the imperial decree to appoint Sun Ce as the governor of Yangzhou and the general of the southern expedition! Why don't you report back quickly!"

(End of this chapter)