Tiger Guards

Chapter 226 The prospect is worrying
Yecheng was also an important node for Cao Cao to obtain military intelligence.

Since the beginning of the year, after suppressing the Yingchuan and Runan clan bandits... and the Yellow Turban bandits, Cao Cao moved his headquarters to Yingchuan.

Yanzhou is across the river from Yuan Shao, which is too dangerous for Cao Cao.

After all, they were partners and friends who grew up together, and Cao Cao never dared to underestimate Yuan Shao.

If Yuan Shao suddenly had an idea and immediately put it into action, Cao Cao would have no chance to counterattack or respond.

By moving the base camp to Yingchuan, we can avoid Yuan Shao's surprise attack.

South of Xu County, next to Xutian.

Cao Cao drove alone to inspect the area and had great expectations for Xutian.

After all, Xutian was reclaimed a little late and missed the spring plowing season. The wheat that was replanted can only be harvested around early July.

The planting time has an error of more than half a month, and wheat has begun to be harvested.

The grain obtained in Xutian was Cao Cao's own grain.

This is different from the official grain of each county and prefecture. The allocation of this grain depends on the attitude of the county governor and the county magistrate.

It is also different from the food borrowed from the powerful. If you borrow food from the powerful, you must repay the favor.

If you don't repay the favor, who will lend you food in the future?

This is also different from the grain storage of the Qingzhou soldiers. When the Qingzhou soldiers were negotiating to surrender, Cao Cao used a shady trick to lure and kill most of the leaders during the negotiations.

Therefore, although the Qingzhou army is large in scale, it no longer has a reliable leader.

Such a big pond will eventually produce big fish... What Cao Cao has to do is to prevent the big fish from appearing.

The Qingzhou soldiers, who had lost their unified leadership, were settled in the Dong'a and Juancheng areas, where they cultivated land and cultivated crops on their own, becoming self-sufficient and exempting themselves from taxes by serving Cao Cao.

Cao Cao also did not want to manage the Qingzhou soldiers too meticulously. If he maintained such a rough management method, the semi-autonomous Qingzhou soldiers would be loyal to him alone and would have no disputes with the officials of Yanzhou and Yuzhou.

This management method is not new, it is just an old method used by border counties to govern the Hu people.

They are settled in selected places, given titles as leaders, and recruited to serve; in emergencies, they can also carry out deep-level mobilization, which is more like mercenaries.

Up to now, the fate of Cao Cao's family has been firmly tied to the Qingzhou soldiers. The existence of the Qingzhou soldiers can consolidate Cao Cao's position, and Cao Cao's position ensures that the Qingzhou soldiers can maintain this kind of life that allows them to survive, go out to fight, and participate in looting.

It was also the loyalty of the Qingzhou soldiers that allowed Cao Cao to suppress the scholars of Yan and Yu states, making Cao Cao look like a frontier official of the Han Dynasty.

The basis of Cao Cao's rule has never been his personal charm, nor the prestige of the Cao family, nor the authorization of the Han court, but the Qingzhou soldiers who committed heinous crimes!
Cao Cao did not want to rely too much on the Qingzhou soldiers, so this year's military settlement policy was a very important transformation attempt.

Military settlements are nothing new, they are just leftovers from border troops.

By implementing comprehensive military settlements, militarizing the people and integrating farming and warfare, just like in the Warring States Period, Cao Cao would naturally be able to get rid of his dependence on the Qingzhou soldiers and use another system to control the counties.

However, he suffered a heavy loss at the hands of the people of Yanzhou, so he did not dare to conduct a comprehensive liquidation of the nobles and powerful people.

Therefore, in addition to military settlements, there are also civilian settlements as a supplement... If Cao Cao had not been worried about the Yuzhou scholars turning against him and expelling him, then the people of Yan and Yu would all be red names in his eyes and should all be arrested and incorporated into military settlements!
As he was inspecting, this wonderful idea lingered in his mind for a while, and then he drove it away.

It has been a good start, but the external environment is getting worse and worse.

"Report~!"

He reined in his horse in front of Cao Cao's chariot, dismounted, and handed over the silk letter in his hand: "Mingsir, Xun Sima has an urgent message!"

Guo Jia, standing in front of the carriage, stepped forward, picked up the silk scroll, and handed it to Cao Cao. Cao Cao glanced at it, then handed it back to Guo Jia, saying with emotion, "What the Zhao boy said is true. All the ministers in the court are incompetent!"

His tone was full of hatred, and Cao Cao wished he could catch Zhao Ji and hack him to death with his sword.

He never had actual control over Yuzhou, and it was only in winter that he officially sent troops to Yingchuan and Runan; King Chen Liu Chong was sandwiched between these two counties and Yanzhou.

Unfortunately, he had no legitimate reason to punish or attack King Chen. A Pei person was not qualified to be the governor of Yuzhou, so he could not do anything to King Chen.

Although Yuan Si, the prime minister appointed by Yuan Shu, was forced to surrender by him, this prime minister was just a decoration. The King of Chen had his own prime minister, and the counties of Chen State were still loyal to their king.

Especially this year when drought and locust plagues occurred, King Chen actively provided disaster relief, and victims from Yanzhou and Yuzhou all fled to Chen.

The State of Chen had less than ten counties, each of which was a large county, and the chaos in Guandong did not affect the King of Chen.

The current population of the State of Chen, including the victims of the disaster, is no less than one million. If this makes the King of Chen angry, he will be able to arm an army of 100,000 in one breath!

There was another reason why Cao Cao did not dare to offend King Chen. Cao Cao was from Qiao County, Pei State. Qiao County was located in the westernmost part of Pei State, close to Chen State.

Prince Chen could go downstream and massacre Qiao County in the blink of an eye.

If Prince Chen massacred the people of Qiao County, the people of Qiao County who followed Cao Cao would go crazy and hate Cao Cao. As for whether Prince Chen dared to massacre the people of Qiao County... When Emperor Ling was in his prime, Prince Chen dared to take the prime minister to the suburbs to offer sacrifices to heaven. What else could Prince Chen not dare to do?
The prime minister, who was sent by the court and Emperor Ling to the State of Chen to monitor King Chen, was actually convinced by King Chen and started to act recklessly with him... Emperor Ling had no choice but to forgive King Chen generously.

Instead of doing what they did to King Bohai Liu Kui, they imprisoned him, forced him to commit suicide, and then killed more than a hundred people in his family.

This King of Bohai, Liu Kui, was the brother of the current King of Pingyuan, Liu Shuo, and both were younger brothers of Emperor Huan.

Emperor Ling did not want to force Prince Chen to rebel because Prince Chen really had the courage and strength to rebel.

During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Yellow Turban Army in Jizhou captured two vassal kings... The fighting on the battlefield was so intense that the imperial court had to send people to contact Zhang Jue to redeem the two vassal kings.

The situation with King Chen Liu Chong was simple. All the Taiping Dao believers in the entire Chen State knew how powerful their king was, and no one dared to respond.

The county magistrates of the State of Chen did not dare to obey the imperial edict and arrest and kill suspected Taiping Dao members.

The Taiping Dao followers of the Chen State did not participate in the rebellion, nor did the officials force the people to rebel, so the population and economy of the Chen State did not suffer any losses.

When the heroes were fighting against Dong Zhuo, King Chen also pretended to raise an army. However, when he saw that the princes had nominated Yuan Shao as the leader of the alliance, he wisely withdrew his troops and defended his position, and did not get involved in external disputes.

The more devastated all the counties were, the more wise and decisive King Chen seemed... The more this happened, the more the scholars in Guandong actually resisted King Chen and the more they could not tolerate his growing power.

If a person like King Chen became the emperor of the Han Dynasty, many people would be in trouble and their corpses would be whipped repeatedly.

The scholars professed loyalty, but were more active than ever in rebellion. They were simply fed up with the Han dynasty's distribution system. They wanted more, but the court couldn't give it to them. Instead, it slapped them in the face, awakening them... The only option was to rob! They would do whatever it took!

On a deeper level, the main body of scholars, like the Yellow Turban Army, wanted to destroy the world and establish a new one.

The ministers did appear somewhat incompetent, and it was not known whether they were truly incompetent, but they were unable to control the situation.

But the ministers were not really incompetent. When the heroes in Guandong were tired of fighting and had no strength to continue, and the officials and people in Guandong were tired of war, when the imperial army led by Li Jue, Li Meng and others reached Chenliu and Dongjun... Dong Zhuo was killed by the ministers.

In short, under the control of the nobles, it was difficult for the court to mobilize forces from the overall perspective. It could only watch the two Yuans grow stronger. Cao Cao also followed Yuan Shao and gained a place to stay by fighting Yuan Shu.

But now Zhao Ji coerced the court and instigated all parties by forging imperial edicts. In less than three months, he formed a coalition army to besiege Yuan and Cao.

How could Cao Cao remain calm under this situation?

And now reliable information has come from Yecheng that the little thief has kidnapped the emperor and marched to Shangdang.

After defeating Shangdang, wouldn't it be necessary to unite with Zhang Yang in Hanoi and then besiege Yuan Shao together with Zhang Yan and Gongsun Zan?
If Yuan Shao couldn't stop him, what would Cao Cao do?
His military settlement project had just begun. He couldn't just give up Yuzhou and run to Dong'a to join forces with the Qingzhou soldiers and become dependent on Yuan Shao in Hebei?

There was no smile on Cao Cao's face, and he looked towards the north with a sad expression.

Yuan Shao still has a thorny figure, Zang Hong, to deal with. The commanders of the Yuan army besieging Dongwu City do not want to be stained with Zang Hong's blood emotionally.

After all, Yuan Shao was not the imperial court. What decent reward could Yuan Shao give them for killing Zang Hong?

The nature of the Hebei army determined that the generals did not rely on Yuan Shao's rewards and distributions, and they had relatively higher autonomy.

I don’t want to kill Zang Hong, I just don’t want to kill him.

Even Yuan Shao himself had a romantic side and didn't really want to kill Zang Hong.

They also wanted to force Zang Hong to surrender by means of a long siege, starvation and death.

For the sake of the lives of all the soldiers, civilians, men and women in the city, Zang Hong should surrender. He should not let all the men and women in Dongwu City die just for the revenge of Zhang Chao.

Yuan Shao was waiting for Zang Hong to surrender... What was the reason for Zang Hong's rebellion?
It was Yuan Shao's refusal to send troops to rescue Zhang Chao that led to Cao Cao killing the three clans of Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao brothers!
Suppose, if Yuan Shao allowed Zang Hong to take revenge on Cao Cao and pardoned the officials and people of Dongwu City, would Zang Hong surrender to Yuan Shao?
So the Yuan army besieged Dongwu City for nearly a year, which was just Yuan Shao waiting for the opportunity.

After success, Zang Hong will be a sharp weapon against Cao Cao!
The only good news was that during the siege, Gongsun Zan defeated Ju Yi, who was then killed by Yuan Shao, bringing Yuan Shao's development to a standstill. Otherwise, if the north was stable, he would definitely turn against Cao Cao.

With a moral role model like Zang Hong, the people of Yanzhou will surely rise up again!

Cao Cao understood Yuan Shao, Zang Hong, and the people of Yanzhou.

Now, it is very likely that Zhao Ji will release Zang Hong and let him take over Yanzhou.

Zhao Ji had not yet defeated Gao Gan, but Cao Cao had already foreseen the tragic scene of Yuan Shao and himself being besieged.

All development plans will be interrupted and everything will fall apart!
When Yuan Shao was unable to stop the rebellion, the various Yuan troops surrounding Dongwu City... would most likely transform themselves into the imperial army, and either attack Jizhou or follow Zang Hong to take over Yanzhou.

Since the world has been in chaos, all kinds of strange things have happened, and Cao Cao has become accustomed to it.

Guo Jia also looked at the contents of the silk book with a serious expression.

Both he and Cao Cao were men of foresight and had almost foreseen the second rebellion in Yanzhou.

It’s not that Zhao Ji is so powerful, nor that the righteousness of the imperial court is so appealing, it’s simply that the internal conflicts are too intense, and they are prone to explode at any moment!
(End of this chapter)