My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 284 Xu You surrenders to Cao Cao, Guandu ends

After Cao's army stopped sacrificing lives to widen the trench in front of the pass, Yuan Shao's side could not immediately resume a full-scale attack.

Yuan's army would have to spend two or three days observing and confirming that Cao's army had no other tricks. Then they would gradually organize a tentative attack and fill in several sections of the road that were large enough for ladders and Ge Gongche to pass before the attack.

During this process, Jia Xu also gave Cao Cao some additional tactical advice.

Jia Xu is not good at technical tactics, so he cannot be relied upon. However, Jia Xu's understanding of human weaknesses is definitely among the top three in Cao's camp.

He keenly observed that Guo Tu, an outsider and military supervisor of Yuan Shao's army, was greedy for merit and reckless, and often used harsh punishments to force the front-line generals to fight fiercely and without regard for losses.

At the same time, it was also observed that most of the generals of Yuan Shao's army were locals in Hebei. They were somewhat dissatisfied with Guo Tu, an outsider, for consuming them at any cost. Then Jia Xu seized this point and made Cao Cao do this and that in the subsequent defense...

After all, Yuan Shao's advisers came from all over the country, but not his generals. Few warriors from other states came all the way to Yuan Shao. The Yuan family had three officials in four generations, and their students and former officials were all over the country, attracting scholars from all over the world, mainly literati.

Most of those warriors and tyrants serve the local lords. They don't care whether you are a foreigner or a senior official for four generations. What does it have to do with them?

After hearing this, Cao Cao suddenly realized something and adopted Jia Xu's observation. He decided to focus on attacking the relationship between Yuan's civil and military forces in the subsequent defensive counterattack, and to combine the blocking during the battle and the spreading of rumors after the battle.

……

A few days later, Yuan Shao's army initially filled up several trenches outside the wall of Guandu Camp, which were large enough to allow heavy siege equipment to pass through, and then resumed the general offensive.

The military supervisor Guo Tu arranged a schedule, with Zhang He, Gao Lan, Jiao Chu, Zhang Nan and other generals taking turns to attack according to the dates. The progress of the generals on their day of rotation would also be assessed so that they could compete to see who worked harder, killed more enemies and achieved more results.

After all, Yuan and Cao had been in a stalemate at Guandu for more than five months. After a long time, both sides would become slack and fight less and less.

Yuan Shao was also a little troubled by this situation, but his mind was not that flexible. He only noticed this pain point and did not think about solving it.

Guo Tu was the one who was best at catering to his superiors' wishes. He keenly observed this and came up with various "performance appraisal" methods to please Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao thought it made sense when he heard it, so he allowed Guo Tu to carry out rewards and punishments, forcing the Hebei generals to roll up their sleeves.

On this day, it was Zhang He and Gao Lan's turn to attack. The soldiers pushed Ge Gong's cart and rushed forward under the rain of arrows.

Everything went smoothly at first, but when we got to the village wall, we realized that the last dozen steps behind the trench were very difficult to push. The land seemed to be piled up to form an upward slope, which was not easy to notice from a distance. When pushing the cart, the weight of the cart was more than a thousand pounds, and even a slope of five or ten degrees could make the soldiers exhausted.

After much effort, they added two or three times the number of people to push the cart up. In the process, many of the extra soldiers pushing the cart were shot dead or injured because they had no cover. Finally, they started to put up the planks to prepare for the attack, but suddenly a few thick battering rams came from the top of the wall and hit the front of the Ge public car.

The Ge bus was already tilted backwards by about ten degrees due to the slope, and its center of gravity was high and shaky. It was hit hard by the huge tree and collapsed backwards. The soldiers on the bus also fell badly, and those who were crushed were directly crushed to mud.

It turned out that Cao's army used a self-developed technology improved based on the experience observed by Zhou Yu to crack the tactics of Ge Gongche this time - Cao's army did not directly use the crossbows installed on the wall of the pass for side shooting, equipped with iron feather arrows with thick hemp ropes and pulleys and boulders to pull down Ge Gongche.

Instead, they slightly adjusted the mechanical structure that converts the gravitational impact force of the falling boulder into pulling force through a sturdy pulley system and used it separately.

Cao's army craftsmen used two sets of pulleys, tied the rope on one end of the pulley to a huge striker made from a tree, and tied the other end to a boulder, just like when Chen Deng defended Guangling. Then they pushed the boulder down the wall. When the pulley pulled the thick hemp rope, the tree would be thrown out and hit the Ge Gong car in front. (There will be a diagram in the Easter egg chapter later. If you don't understand the text description, you can look at the picture)

The Ge Gongche, which is usually difficult to push over even with the manpower of dozens of people, could be pushed over with the help of the mechanical force of the gravitational potential energy of the huge rocks. In addition, there was an uphill slope in front of the wall and the enemy's Ge Gongche was originally tilted backwards.

However, this thing can only be used to push down the Ge Gongche within five steps, because the big tree is directly tied to the hemp rope, not shot out. If it is farther away, the tree will not be long enough and the power will be weakened.

In short, after Cao's army was forced to come up with new technology, many of Zhang He and Gao Lan's siege equipment were knocked over, and the scene was in chaos.

Of course, this technique is not perfect, and there are always times when it fails. For example, the thick hemp rope of the pulley block in some places is not strong enough, or it is subjected to too much force, and it breaks and is thrown out, even killing several Cao soldiers who are operating the equipment.

Some of the battering ram was knocked off balance when it was thrown out, and did not hit the Ge bus.

At this time, Cao's army needed to block the entrance and fight while organizing the second wave of sabotage deployment.

However, Cao Cao listened to Jia Xu's pre-battle advice and deliberately left a few gaps when "finishing the attack". Finally, after destroying most of the heavy siege equipment with great difficulty, he deliberately left two Ge Gongche without destroying them, but concentrated a large number of archers to the positions around the surviving Ge Gongche, and then suppressed the area with fire.

After most of their equipment was destroyed, Zhang He and Gao Lan were already stunned by this unexpected blow. They once requested to withdraw their troops, study Cao's new technology, and fight again after finding a countermeasure.

However, Guo Tu, the military supervisor, personally inspected the area and saw that there were still a few pieces of equipment that had not been destroyed. In order to win credit for the victory over Yuan Shao, he firmly disagreed with Zhang He and Gao Lan's temporary retreat and search for countermeasures. He strictly ordered them to use the remaining equipment to continue climbing the wall and fighting to the death! Absolutely no retreat! No waste!

Because Yuan Shao did not know the situation well enough, he did not go to the front line to watch the battle at the wall. Instead, he just drank and listened to reports in the camp in the rear, and thus agreed with Guo Tu's opinion.

Zhang He and Gao Lan had no choice but to fight again. However, with more than half of the siege weapons destroyed, the remaining troops had to rely on a small number of passages to climb the city, so they had to maneuver a long distance in front of the pass, which also caused congestion.

Cao's army took advantage of Yuan's army's confusion, lateral maneuvers, and congestion in the city to use massive bows and crossbows to cross-shoot at multiple angles, bleeding Yuan Shao's army. The last few remaining siege weapons became bait for Cao's army to bleed.

Zhang He and Gao Lan ultimately suffered a crushing defeat. After the war, their performance appraisals were controlled by Guo Tu and they were criticized by Yuan Shao, so they dared not speak out.

The Cao army only used a modified and abridged version of the technology to withstand Ge Gongche's offensive, which was a turnaround in the situation.

The tactic of "bed crossbow plus huge stone plus rope" was hidden by Cao Cao after this battle. He can wait until the next time when Yuan Shao can come up with a solution to the problem of using a big tree and a huge stone pulley to knock down Ge Gongche, and then use it to defeat Yuan Shao again.

In addition, after repelling Zhang He and Gao Lan, Cao Cao prepared for the second wave of technical defense while following Jia Xu's advice and sending out spies to spread rumors. He was simply complaining in Yuan Shao's army that "Guo Tu, a foreigner, doesn't care about the lives of Hebei soldiers at all. As a military supervisor, he only cares about his own wealth and glory, and only wants to force the people of Hebei to die in exchange for his own fame and fortune."

When spreading the rumor, he did not forget to add two sentences, "Generals Zhang, Gao, Jiao and others are all angry but dare not speak out", further tearing the relationship between the civil and military officials of Yuan's army apart. When the rumor reached Guo Tu's ears, he became more and more worried about the laziness of the frontline generals and tried every means to stop their complaints.

A few days later, Yuan Shao's army finally figured out the reason for their defeat the day before:
Because the center of gravity of the Ge Gongche was unstable in the front-to-back direction, the ladder part at the rear of the car should be sloped to make it look like a step platform, which would be more stable when it was pushed over. In addition, because Cao Jun was mean, he created a small slope in front of the wall, which caused the Ge Gongche to tilt backward when it leaned against the wall.

After discovering the problem, Yuan's army would of course have to sacrifice more lives to level the land in front of the wall before the assault, which required sending more auxiliary soldiers and civilians to dig and fill the ground.

Previously, so many people in Cao's army were shot to death in order to dig a wide trench. Now, the situation has finally changed and it is Yuan's army's turn to die in order to level the ground.

After a lot of hard work and preparation, Yuan's army launched another general attack. This time, Cao's army finally used Chen Deng's original tactics that Zhou Yu had observed, using crossbows for side-firing fire, coarse hemp ropes, and pulley systems with huge stones.

After the emergency modification of Yuan Jun Ge's bus, it was not easy to be pushed down from the front, but it was pulled and dragged from the side.

Then Jiao Chu and Zhang Nan were also tricked by Jia Xu's vicious scheme. After deliberately destroying most of the weapons, they left a few baits to lure Yuan's army to gather together, and used crossfire from bows and crossbows to bleed Yuan's army.

After Jiao Chu and Zhang Nan were defeated again, Yuan Jun finally lost confidence in Ge Gongche. More importantly, when Zhang He and Gao Lan failed, Guo Tu could still blame them for not fighting for their lives. But Jiao Chu and Zhang Nan also failed, which shows that Guo Tu's supervision and performance evaluation were unreasonable.

This shows that Guo Tu, the human resources officer, just makes random decisions when setting targets!
The generals angrily complained to Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shao also severely criticized Guo Tu.

Unfortunately, the generals had only a short time to interact with Yuan Shao, while Guo Tu could be with Yuan Shao every day. So after a few days, Guo Tu relied on careful and continuous flattery to change Yuan Shao's attitude. However, he was ostracized by the generals, which naturally left him with deeper resentment.

In this life, Xu You had no chance to offer advice to Yuan Shao.

Mainly because at this time in history, Yuan Shao had no chance of breaking through during the stalemate, so Xu You needed to think of a trick. In this time and space, Yuan Shao had the opportunity to defeat the enemy head-on and annihilate Cao Cao with various technical and tactical means, so he didn't care about those tricks.

Xu You did offer one or two strategies, but after being ignored by Yuan Shao, he became disheartened and chose to keep quiet and wait and see.

But regardless of whether Xu You offered advice or not, Shen Pei in the rear would definitely deal with him. What happened in Yecheng had nothing to do with the front line. Xu You's family had committed corruption a long time ago, and any butterfly effect could not affect Xu's family's greed for money.

So, while Guo Tu was bleeding due to the failure of two sieges and was at loggerheads with the front-line generals, Shen Pei's memorial to capture Xu You's entire family was finally sent to Yuan Shao.

It was just because Xu You did not happen to be in front of Yuan Shao to offer advice when the memorial was delivered in this life, so Yuan Shao did not specifically call Xu You to scold him, nor did he think it was necessary to implicate others in this matter.

In the end, it was Xu You himself who learned two days later that his entire family had been captured by Shen Pei through a servant who escaped from Yecheng and rushed to the army to report the news.

In theory, this level of stimulation should be slightly lighter than the same period in history, and would not cause Xu You to directly surrender to Cao.

However, because Jia Xu took advantage of Guo Tu's greed and recklessness, and Zhou Yu's technology spread, Yuan's army had just been bleeding twice, causing tension between the civil and military officials in Yuan's army. Now the generals in Hebei have no trust in the "foreign civil officials and advisers" group.

Zhang He, Gao Lan and other Hebei generals even thought that after returning, they should ask the lord to release Tian Feng, and re-employ Ju Su who was hidden because of his great achievements, and add Shen Pei. In the future, only counselors/military supervisors from Hebei should be used to assist in military affairs!

Xu You was also from the south, and he was implicated by Guo Tu's public outrage.

After experiencing the hostility of Zhang He and Gao Lan twice in the camp, Xu You felt that he was not from Hebei and had little chance under Yuan Shao. All his family members were arrested, and the non-Hebei faction might fall in the future.

After all, Cao Cao had won two small victories, and it seemed that the period of decline had been slightly overcome. Xu You decided to join Cao and take a chance.

His idea was similar to the one Jia Xu had thought when he persuaded Zhang Xiu, that "it is easier to add flowers to a rosy flower than to provide timely assistance. Yuan Shao is complacent and proud, and will not tolerate others being used. Even if you help him, you will not be able to achieve unprecedented achievements, and he will not think it is your credit."

In the end, Cao Cao's temporary "bounce back" and Guo Tu's early creation of Hebei's military generals' hatred of foreign civil officials, these two factors completely offset the remaining loyalty of "Xu You himself was not scolded in person by Yuan Shao in this life", and Xu You finally chose to flee to Cao's camp at night.

Because the time and situation of surrendering to Cao had changed, Xu You did not bring the intelligence and suggestions of "Wuchao Burning Grain" to Cao Cao this time. After the time changed, the grain transportation progress of Yuan's army also changed.

But no matter what, Xu You was well aware of the latest internal intelligence of Yuan’s army, and he could always help Cao Cao attack Yuan Shao’s weakest points.

When Cao Cao heard that Xu You was coming, he naturally welcomed him with open arms.

"Oh my, Ziyuan is willing to come. My plan is a success! Please come and invite him in!"

Faced with Cao Cao's utmost courtesy, Xu You also felt a huge gap, and revealed all the strategies he had thought of along the way to defeat Yuan, as well as all the secret intelligence he knew.

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PS: The above is already 4,000 words. Just a few words, this chapter ends the Battle of Guandu, and I will leave some space for how Xu You defeated Yuan later.

The next chapter, which will be this afternoon, will return to the perspective of Zhuge Jin fighting Sun Ce and continue the main storyline.

As mentioned in the previous chapter of this book, if Yuan Shao won the Battle of Guandu, he would have unified the north directly, which would definitely be disadvantageous to the protagonist. Only if Cao Cao won, the tug-of-war between Yuan and Cao could continue. In this book, Yuan Shao will definitely die, but the Yuan family will definitely not perish, and they can keep holding Cao Cao.

In addition, maybe some people want to see Yuan Shao as the ultimate BOSS, and they keep pointing fingers. I generally don't like to advertise old books, but I doubt those people have not read "The Three Kingdoms Begins with Deceiving Liu Bei". I have already written a book about Yuan Shao as the ultimate BOSS three years ago. If I write about Yuan Shao as the ultimate BOSS, I can save trouble because I can copy myself.

But I have integrity, I will never plagiarize myself. I wrote this book from the beginning to write an ultimate villain with treacherous spirit. I have verified in the previous book that Yuan Shao, as the ultimate villain, can be tyrannical, but you can't write a treacherous character.

I won't repeat myself. This is my professional ethics. I just want to write about adultery.

If you want to see Yuan Shao as the ultimate villain, please read "The Three Kingdoms Begins with Tricking Liu Bei" first. It will definitely meet your requirements. After reading it, if you feel tired of that path and want to see something a little treacherous, you will find this book novel.

(End of this chapter)