Tiger Guards

Chapter 432 Riding a Tiger and Being Difficult to Dismount
Puyang was a place where powerful figures of all sizes migrated from time to time.

When powerful families wanted to migrate, they had many ways to persuade their fellow villagers, retainers, slaves, and commoners to migrate together.

However, Zhao Ji's cavalry arrived quickly, in groups of several hundred, searching for and capturing these powerful figures who had hastily migrated.

These powerful clans did not unite, nor did they purify their ranks; the entire migrating caravan was a mixed group of men and women, with no proper tactical formations or combat preparations.

Even armed men, with their families nearby, would prioritize protecting their own families rather than obeying the armed group and engaging in fighting.

With the local powerful families of Yanzhou leading the way, and the Qingzhou soldiers in a frenzy, coupled with the repeated instigation by Zhao Ji, Sun Ce, Zhang Liao, Chen Gong, Zhang Yang, Cao Ang, and others, the order of the entire Yanzhou region was completely destroyed.

Southeast of Puyang, Zhao Ji's old and new cavalry forces totaled over ten thousand, resembling swallows flying wildly under dark clouds, or swarms of mosquitoes vying for food.

The vanguard knights even reached Juye Marsh, making contact with Zhang Liao and Gan Ning, thus linking their forces together.

In such a chaotic situation, it was either they who overwhelmed the people of Yanzhou in terms of momentum, or the people of Yanzhou who overwhelmed them.

Zhao Ji's divided army consisted of Zhang Liao and Gan Ning on the eastern front and Zhao Yun and Wei Xing stationed at Baima on the western front, resembling two claws of a crab searching for food in the mud.

The captured people would be transported along the Ji River to Honggou, then to Mengjin in Hanoi, and finally through the Zhiguan Pass to Hedong and Taiyuan.

Chen Gong was powerless to stop Dingtao City in the middle reaches of the Ji River. It wasn't a matter of whether Chen Gong wanted to save it or not, but rather that the people of Jiyin County who had sought refuge with Chen Gong had already received protection from Chen Gong and the imperial court, and did not want to offend Zhao Ji again.

The people of Jiyin County were not cooperating, and Chen Gong only had less than a thousand men at his disposal. What could he do?
The consensus among the people of Yanzhou to unite against a common enemy and help each other had long been undermined and shattered by Cao Cao. Faced with Cao Cao's butcher's knife, the people of Yanzhou surrendered one after another, abandoning their partners who had sworn to drive Cao Cao out.

How could the various counties of Yanzhou possibly unite as one in the face of Zhao Ji, who killed Cao Cao?
Trust takes time to build, and interests also take time to be negotiated.

At this moment, the people of Yanzhou were like a flock of sheep that had been disturbed. It was already difficult enough for them to take care of themselves, so how could they risk getting into trouble by helping others?

Zhao Ji remained in Chenliu, quietly awaiting changes in the situation.

War is very inhumane, but it doesn't mean that brutal fighting destroys the beauty and brilliance of humanity.

Rather, it is the process of pursuing victory and avoiding defeat that inflicts both physical and mental torment on commanders and participants.

This is no longer the kind of sharpening and tempering that is done by sharpening a knife, but rather like scraping a smooth bronze mirror with a rough stone.

Suffering and perseverance are two different things.

After enduring much suffering, one naturally becomes cold-hearted.

People die every moment during war, and people starve to death even when there is no fighting... Why can't it be outsiders who die in battle or starve to death?
As long as you preserve the army's vitality and bring about victory, the army will naturally unite closely around you.

Public opinion among scholars seemed to be far less important than the support of the army.

It is only because scholars control public opinion and pens that they repeatedly say that the will of the people is important and the opinions of the people are important.

If it's really that important, why support the border troops with the entire nation?
Zhao Ji's thinking kept changing, and he became more and more like a qualified warlord.

Compared to him, Lü Bu, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, and Liu Bei all seem like second-rate warlords.

He could barely be called first-rate, and the one who could be compared to Zhao Ji was Sun Ce.

The older generation's ideas are too outdated. Although they witnessed the chaos of the times, their thinking is not adapted to the full picture of that era.

Sun Ce was different; from the moment he came to understand the world, it was already engulfed in war.

The world in Sun Ce's eyes was inherently burning.

In Chenliu County, Zhao Ji inspected various parts of the city during his leisure time, and the army had already entered the city.

Most of the houses in the city were unclaimed and were used by Zhao Ji to garrison troops.

In order to speed up the troop assembly and avoid conflicts between the various armies due to daily frictions, the garrison in the city has begun to renovate the city in the past two days.

Some alleys were blocked off, and many courtyard walls were broken open, creating relatively closed neighborhoods and small military camps throughout the city.

Modern people call this kind of urban planning "Duting," but in Zhao Ji's eyes, it's called "unit-based governance."

Only when he was inspecting the camp could Zhao Ji relax a little.

While in Chenliu, he needed to keep an eye on the activities of those around him.

The daily losses of horses and the disappearances of scouts alone represent a significant cost.

Not to mention that battles would break out when people were kidnapped in various places, and the people being escorted would also take the opportunity to cause trouble during the transfer.

There are casualties every moment, and these are all the manpower of Xizhou, which is Zhao Ji's capital for establishing himself in the world.

Although military officers at all levels were constantly gaining experience and knowledge, and the number of people they captured was greater than the number they lost, the loss of men and troops still came at a price.

The compensation alone could become a burden for the next decade or more. Therefore, the loss of troops must be kept within a certain range.

Annual losses must not exceed five percent.

This is the ideal data in Zhao Ji's eyes. However, after soldiers from all sides die in battle, desert, or die of disease, new soldiers are added to the ranks. Even without fighting, the loss and replenishment rate is at least one-fifth per year!

Only Liu Zhang's territory was relatively stable. The closer one got to the core area of ​​the Central Plains, the more exaggerated the turnover of military personnel became.

Each generation's replacement signifies the demise of the previous generation of young and strong men.

The daily calculations were making Zhao Ji somewhat weary of the war.

He himself had begun to tire of the war, so naturally the officers and soldiers below him also felt war-weary. However, since they were currently in a superior position and it was time to reap the spoils of war, the overall morale was still able to suppress this negative sentiment of war-weariness.

After completing his inspection, Zhao Ji returned to the command center centered on the city tower. Upon arrival, he saw several bamboo scrolls on the table, which he knew contained the recently compiled data on the losses of various armies and the number of people captured.

Although he disliked looking at this data, he had to keep track of the army's real-time status.

Suppressing his discomfort, Zhao Ji quietly read the bamboo slips. After finishing, he asked, "What is the General's plan?"

"As the Grand Marshal predicted, after sending 3,000 troops to Fugou yesterday, Song Xian led 5,000 troops out of Fule today and stationed them in Yu County."

Zhang Hong approached and replied that in the past few days, Zhang Hong had replaced Zhao Jian and become the de facto chief clerk in the army.

Zhao Jian is getting old and his energy is waning; while Zhang Hong is young and strong, and he has fought alongside Sun Ce in Jiangdong, making him perfectly suited to the current pace of war.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ji got up and went to the map. He raised his hand and placed it on Yu County, which was only about sixty li away from Chenliu.

Zhao Ji immediately smiled and said, "Two thousand on the first day, three thousand on the second day, five thousand today, it can't possibly be ten thousand tomorrow, can it?"

Zhang Hong smiled and said, "I guess it's around seven or eight thousand, divided into two routes. With Honggou as the boundary, the western route will send out another two or three thousand men to garrison Fugou, while the five thousand men in Fugou will move forward thirty or fifty li when the opportunity arises. If we're being conservative, it should only be thirty li."

As Zhang Hong spoke, his gaze shifted to Chenliu, Yongqiu, and Yuxian on the east bank of the Honggou Canal. Yongqiu was east of Chenliu and north of Yuxian, bordering the south bank of the Sui River.

Back then, Zhang Chao defended Yongqiu to the death. After Cao Cao captured Yongqiu, Zhang Chao committed suicide and his entire family, including Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao, was executed. Yongqiu was massacred.

Just like the white horse slaughtered by Cao Ren, although there were still some people in the county, these people could no longer support the county's economic operation.

In addition to the necessary population, a county also needs skilled workers with various handicraft skills.

These skilled workers determine the production and economic advantages of counties compared to townships and ordinary villages. If the loss of skilled workers is not significant, they can continue to attract ordinary agricultural workers.

Unfortunately, the entire population using this technology was wiped out during the massacre, and the county lost its advantage.

Unless the newly appointed government can bring in skilled workers from other places and assemble a workforce that covers almost all industries, the recovery of the counties will be very, very slow.

Therefore, apart from the military and civilian settlements that were relocated here, Yongqiu now has very little population.

Military and civilian settlements, which had strong subordinate relationships, had already been incorporated into Zhang Yang and Chen Gong's forces and were taken away with them.

In Zhao Ji's eyes, Yongqiu was a perfect place for a fight.

There were few eyewitnesses; after the battle, the outcome depended entirely on how Lü Bu and Lü Bu fabricated the story.

If one person dares to fabricate something, and the other doesn't expose it, then who can question anything?
As Zhao Ji pondered, Zhang Hong pointed to Yongqiu: "As expected, tomorrow Song Xian's 5,000 troops will travel more than 30 li from Yu County and station themselves in Yongqiu; and behind them, another 5,000 troops will station themselves in Yu County. This layered advance, moving forward along the entire front, is the most secure approach."

Zhang Hong analyzed the situation and looked up at Zhao Ji: "Grand Marshal, if we don't stop them, tomorrow there will be seven or eight thousand, and the day after tomorrow the General will personally lead the central army to approach Fule to spy on our army. If I'm not mistaken, in three days at the earliest, or five days at the latest, the General will deploy more than ten thousand troops on the west bank of the Honggou Canal, and there will be more than thirty thousand on the east bank, totaling no less than fifty thousand on both banks."

Zhao Ji looked at the map and raised an eyebrow: "I've already had Qin Yi pass on the message. If he wants to come, I'll wait for him. But before that, if Song Xian dares to leave Yu County tomorrow, then he shouldn't go back. If we wipe out Song Xian and he still dares to come, then don't blame our army for being ruthless."

As he spoke, Zhao Ji's gaze fell on Zhao Yun's chess pieces, and he felt a pang of regret that he couldn't bring Zhao Yun into battle with him.

Looking at the war game pieces of Lü Bu's side in the Xuchang area, things had come to this point, and Lü Bu had no choice but to accept it.

If Song Xian's advance goes smoothly, then Lü Bu himself cannot afford to falter and will definitely lead his troops to follow.

If Song Xian is defeated by him, Lü Bu will have to head north even more, otherwise how can he win over the people?

At times like this, the emperor and high officials should step forward to mediate the conflict, but these people are turning a deaf ear... We can only hope that Lü Bu doesn't go too far, otherwise we'll have no choice but to fight him without restraint.

It is clear that while killing Cao Cao was certainly satisfying, that satisfaction was only temporary.

Some people live for a reason; there is meaning to their existence.

If he could make the choice again, Zhao Ji would probably let Cao Cao go and allow Cao Cao to continue to annoy Lü Bu.

Stubbornness won't help; if you feel you're wrong, you have to admit it.

(End of this chapter)