Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 261
"Ah!"

In the twelfth lunar month of winter, although there is no heavy snowfall in Hebei, it is still windy and bleak, with light snow mixed with moderate rain.

Guo Jiali walked out of the house wearing a large crane cloak on the third floor and the third floor, but the oncoming wind and rain still made him sneezed.

At this time in history, he had already died of illness in Liaodong, and the grass on his grave should be three feet high.

But now he is still alive.

It's not that he is in good health, but that he didn't go to a bitter cold place like Liaodong like in history, and he fell ill due to the long march.

In fact, his health has not been very good, and his skin is so pale that it is unreasonable.

In addition to the fact that it is winter and the north wind is fierce, what is more important is that Guo Jia has always been unrestrained, addicted to wine and sex, and has no restraint.

This seems to be a common problem among scholar-bureaucrats during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In addition to wine and sex, they will have to add Wushi powder in the future.

At this moment, Guo Jia was accompanied by several women, chirping, Yingying, Yanyan nestling beside him, hugging and reluctantly saying goodbye.

The person who came to pick him up outside the door was Xu Ding, the governor of Cao Cao's Huben army, who was Xu Chu's elder brother.

Compared to his younger brother Xu Chu who was introverted and taciturn, Xu Ding was able to speak a few words. Seeing the smell of rouge, spices and alcohol on Guo Jia's body, he said with a smile: "A military division drinks and indulges in lust every day. If Chen Changshi Seeing it, I’m afraid I’ll have to join the army division again.”

"Chen Qun is a pedantic child, not good enough to compete with the Analects of Gao Shi."

Guo Jia's face was flushed with alcohol, he responded with a smile, got into the carriage with Xu Ding's support, and then asked: "Sikong called me at night, what's the matter?"

"Sun Quan sent someone to deliver a letter."

"Oh? Is it a messenger sent here, or was Wen Hui, the governor of Yangzhou, sent it urgently?"

"It was sent urgently by Inspector Wen, and it just arrived at Sikong Mansion."

Xu Ding was guarding him on horseback, and it was still raining lightly, pattering on Xu Ding's coir raincoat. He licked his lips and said, "It is said that Sikong's face changed drastically after reading the letter, so Xingye called for sacrificial wine. General Fenwu discusses matters."

"Well, I know why Sikong called me."

Guo Jia leaned his head on the back of the carriage seat, propped his forehead with one hand, and leaned against the carriage with the other hand, half lying in the carriage.

Xu Ding was surprised and said, "Does the military division know?"

"nature."

Guo Jia yawned and stretched his waist: "Sun Quan used to be an envoy to form an alliance, and he often said his words solemnly. This time, Wen Hui was rushed to send it here suddenly, which can only show one thing - there has been a big change in Jingzhou !"

The carriage spun around and slowly stopped at Sikong's mansion along the bluestone slab.The umbrella cover on the car kept ticking and raindrops fell, and there were already people waiting nearby.

Seeing Guo Jia's carriage approaching, the servants of the Sikong Mansion rushed to the side of the carriage with bamboo mats to greet him.

And Chen Qun was wearing a black robe and an ordinary high mountain crown on his head, standing on the high platform under the eaves of the gate of Sikong Mansion, condescending, watching Guo Jia lazily getting off the carriage with very indifferent eyes.

When the servant brought Guo Jia to him, the smell of alcohol, rouge and spices that came to him made people frown.

"Military division sacrificial wine."

Chen Qun couldn't help but said: "Since seeing Sikong, why is he full of wine and lust?"

Guo Jia said with a smile: "The weather is cold, I drank some wine to warm myself up, and slept at home with my wife and concubine in my arms. Sikong summoned him temporarily, and there was nothing he could do if he didn't have time to take a bath. Is this also wrong?"

"you."

Chen Qun was very displeased.

Guo Jia said with a smile: "Besides, Chang Shi is no longer a curator and servant of the censor, so let's do his job well first."

Chen Qun was speechless, so he turned around and walked into the mansion to lead the way.

Although the Chen family and the Guo family are both top aristocratic families in Yingchuan, Chen Qun was born in the main line of the Chen family, and Guo Jia is just a side branch, so the two naturally have no friendship.

After Cao Cao recruited Chen Qun, Chen Qun first served as Sikong Cao Cao, and then turned to governing books and serving Yushi. He was promoted to Sikong Changshi only last year.

Because he couldn't understand Guo Jia's indiscretionary behavior, he went to the street to molest women from good families when he had nothing to do, and he often undressed in public, so when he was serving as a secretary and censor, Chen Qun asked Cao Cao to impeach Guo Jia every day, so that the two of them could be impeached. The relationship is very bad.

But Cao Cao is not a good guy either, both of them like beautiful women, so Guo Jia's little hobby is similar to Cao Cao's, and Cao Cao naturally wouldn't blame Guo Jia for such a trivial matter.

This caused Guo Jia to still go his own way, displaying his so-called celebrity demeanor, while Chen Qun still had nothing to do with him, and was pissed to death.

A group of people soon came to the central hall.

At this time, Cheng Yu and Xun You had just arrived in the hall, and the three of them were almost in front of each other.

"Sikong."

Guo Jia entered the door and bowed his hands.

Cao Cao nodded slightly and said, "Sit down."

Everyone sat down.

Cao Pi, who had been looking around in the hall, cupped his hands and said, "Father, the child has stepped back."

"Hold on."

Cao Cao glanced at Cao Pi and murmured, "Stay here and make records with Chen Qun."

Cao Pi was taken aback for a moment, and then said happily, "Thank you, father."

Cheng Yu, Xun You, and Guo Jia were Cao Cao's three most trusted military advisers. Not to mention their relatives, they were all two thousand stone officials in terms of their positions. In the past, Cao Pi was not qualified to attend the discussions.

Now he was suddenly allowed to stay. Although he was just sitting on his knees as the recorder of the meeting minutes like Chen Qun, this was already a great improvement.

Cheng Yu, Xun You, Guo Jia and the others also looked at Cao Pi in surprise. For them, they also understood Cao Cao's signal.

It seems that after Cao Chong's death, Sikong has already started to retrain other heirs.

Soon the hall door closed.

Outside the door, brothers Xu Chu and Xu Ding stood like two iron towers and mountains.

Cao Cao heard the sound of rain, snow, wind and frost knocking on the wooden window outside the door, looked around the crowd and said, "Sun Quan sent a letter, inviting Gu to attack Liu Bei together, and said that he would share Nanzhou with Gu."

Several people did not speak.

Because they all knew that since Sun Quan would make such a move, it must mean that something must have happened in Jingzhou.

as predicted.

Cao Cao pondered for a moment, then continued: "He said in the letter that the alliance between Liu Bei and Liu Qi has wiped out Cai Mao, and now only Zhang Yun is left in Jingzhou with tens of thousands of horses in his hands. This is a good time to raise troops to go south , what do you guys think?"

All three knew that this was a question Cao Cao was asking them whether they should send troops.

Cheng Yu thought for a while and said, "Go out."

"Ah."

Xun You nodded.

Guo Jia said: "If you don't send troops, Zhang Yun and Sun Quan may not be Liu Bei's opponents. If you let Liu Bei win Jingzhou, the south will gain it. Therefore, even if you want to prevent Liu Bei from succeeding, you must send troops."

This is like fighting Hanzhong by force. It is much easier for Liu Bei to fight Hanzhong from Yizhou than to fight Hanzhong from Guanzhong. Therefore, even in order to prevent Liu Bei from getting Hanzhong or getting the population of Hanzhong, Cao Cao must also forcefully attack Zhang Lu. .

"If I can get Nanyang alone, what if I give up Jingzhou to Liu Bei?"

Cao Cao narrowed his eyes.

Guo Jia said: "Sikong is right. Nanyang is the foundation of Jingzhou. If Jingzhou goes to Nanyang, half of Jingzhou will be cut off."

"such a pity."

Cao Cao sighed, his eyes full of regret.

The three of them actually knew what he was regretting.

Unfortunately, he couldn't do his best.

Although Yuan Tan has just been eliminated, Cao Jun has not completely occupied Jizhou.

In the northern part of Jizhou, such as Hejian Kingdom, Zhongshan Kingdom, and Changshan Kingdom, there are still a large number of Yuan's old clan remnants.

Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi were even more entrenched in the Zhuojun area of ​​Youzhou.

There are also high-level officials in Bingzhou who have a good relationship with the forces of the Southern Huns and the Xianbei forces in the central region, and they are also threatening the north.

More importantly, the Yuan family has always been friendly with the Karasuma forces in Youzhou. It is said that this time Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi contacted Ta Dun, the leader of Karasuma in Liaodong, and invited him to Youzhou for help.

Therefore, once Cao Cao took his main force south to conquer Jingzhou himself, the backyard would immediately catch fire, and the Jizhou he had just obtained would probably have to be taken back by Yuan.

Therefore, it is impossible for Cao Cao's main force to go south with a large number of troops. He can't even send too many troops, so he can only send a small group of troops south to harass Nanyang.

"We have also been sending people to the south to check for news over the years."

Guo Jia said: "The details of Jingzhou are reported. Liu Bei has only 3 to [-] soldiers and horses, and Liu Qi has even fewer troops. There are about [-] horses in total, and we only need to send [-] to [-] people, and it may have a miraculous effect."

"Twenty to thirty thousand people?"

Cao Cao stroked his chin beard, narrowed his eyes and thought.

After the battle of Kuangcheng, he was defeated and lost a lot of troops.

However, after Yuan Shao died of illness, he gradually recovered, and the number of soldiers and horses increased day by day.

Especially after the capture of Ye City last year, Zhang Yan specially brought hundreds of thousands of Black Mountain troops to join him because he was an old enemy with the Yuan family, replenishing him with a large number of people and soldiers.

After eliminating the old and the weak and selecting elite soldiers, Cao Cao currently has a lot of soldiers and horses under his hands, with a total of [-] to [-].

It is definitely not as good as this time in history.

In history, he led an army of 20 to the south, which in itself shows that his total strength is more than 30.

And now the strength may be less than half of the history.

But even so, after Yuan Shao and Liu Biao's forces collapsed, Cao Cao has become the number one prince in the world.

It's just that his north has not been determined, and the border between Jizhou and Youzhou still needs a lot of soldiers and horses to defend. If the main force goes south at this time, the rear will be extremely empty, so we can't do anything with all our strength.

But grit your teeth and squeeze 5 to [-] horses, it should still be possible.

Thinking of this, Cao Cao shook his head and said, "Liu Bei, Shen Chen and his like have been operating in Nanyang for many years, how can [-] to [-] can shake their foundation? Gu decided to lead [-] troops to the south and conquer Nanyang himself!"

"Sikong's personal conquest?"

The three counselors all looked at each other, and it was unexpected that Cao Cao would choose to conquer the situation in the south again.

Cao Cao said in a deep voice, "That's right, conquer Nanyang!"

Cheng Yu dissuaded him: "I know Sikong's intention is to restrain Liu Bei, but the most important thing for us now is to pacify the north. Next year, we should wipe out the remnants of the Yuan family in Bingzhou and Youzhou, so as not to worry about the future. If we go south at this time , dragging it into the southern war situation is not good for us."

"Yes, Sikong."

Xun You also said: "When the King of Qin unified the six countries, he used the strategy of attacking from far away. He first destroyed Han, Zhao, and Wei, which were closer to Guanzhong, and then defeated Chu, Yan, and Qi. It was a step by step encroachment, and it could not be achieved overnight. " The Spring and Autumn Annals also says, "Respect the king and fight against the barbarians." Only in Annei can one respect the king, and only by respecting the king can one fight against the barbarians. How can you send troops out of the south when the north is not peaceful?"

Both of them disagreed.

Guo Jia did not speak, he has been watching Cao Cao's face.

As a counselor who is best at controlling people's hearts, Guo Jia often does not consider immediate interests, but considers what the superior wants.

After he thinks about this clearly, he will work hard in the direction Cao Cao wants and find ways to help him achieve it.

of course.

The premise of all this is that Cao Cao's idea is possible to realize.

However, from the bottom of his heart, Guo Jia also understands that taking one-third of the army south to attack Nanyang at this time is not a good thing for the Cao Cao Group, which has just won more than half of Jizhou.

Because although the situation in the south is not good, Liu Bei may become bigger, but obviously the north is more important.

At present, Jizhou has not been completely obtained, the remnants of the Yuan family have gathered forces, and Yuan Shang, Yuan Xi, Gao Gan, Ta Dun and others are eyeing them, and they will make a comeback at any time and attack their rear.

From the perspective of real interests, Cao Cao should let Liu Bei, Sun Quan, Liu Cong, Liu Qi, Zhang Lu, Liu Zhang, etc. in the south continue to fight internally, and he should intensively pacify Bingzhou, Youzhou, and the rear of Liaodong before considering The matter of sending troops to Jingzhou.

But since Cao Cao has such an idea, Guo Jia is naturally willing to listen to it, unless it is impossible to realize it, and then try to persuade Cao Cao to give up this idea, otherwise, he is more willing to keep the same idea as Cao Cao.

"Your worries, Gu naturally knows."

Cao Cao waved his hand and said, "Compared to Liu Bei, high-ranking officials like Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi are not enough to make Gu Wei fearful. This generation is young, and Gu Gu can be leveled in less than a year. But if Liu Bei wins Jingzhou, Gu Gu will Couldn't sleep all night."

"Jia believes that Sikong's words are justified."

Guo Jia said: "Mr. Zhongde once said that Liu Bei was a man of great talent and won the hearts of the people. It's just that Duke Ming wanted to accept the heroes of the world. He didn't want to kill him and lost the hearts of the world. Although the north is important, if Liu Bei is left alone, he will fear future troubles. Infinity. Sikong's foresight is admirable."

"It's just that"

Xun You pondered for a while, and finally said: "I still need to ask Sikong to think twice. If Liu Bei is not defeated in this battle, even if he returns without success, it will be a delay in recovering the entire north. It can be done next year. After two or three years of rest and recuperation, we will be able to gather millions of soldiers and swallow the power of the world at once, maybe we will have to wait a few more years."

Cao Cao said: "I have made up my mind. If I can defeat Liu Bei, even if I can't get Nanyang, as long as Liu Bei can't get the whole of Jingzhou, so what if I wait a few more years? Besides, I know this battle well, if I can't win , the teacher will return to court immediately."

"If that's the case, then obey the Sikong order."

Xun You and Cheng Yu no longer objected.

They knew that Cao Cao was a measured person.

If it really doesn't work, he will naturally make a trade-off.

At that moment, Cao Cao said: "The soldiers and horses in Jizhou will not be mobilized. Let Zhang Liao and Cao Chun come back. Gongda Fengxiao will go south with me, and let Xiahoudun and Xunyu guard the city of Ye. Zhongde, you will go to the Bohai Sea to meet Xiahouyuan. Together with Xu Huang, we will wipe out the remnants of the Yuan family in Jizhou and threaten Youzhou."

"only!"

Three lead.

So in late November of the 13th year of Jian'an, Cao Cao, who was supposed to be in Chibi in history, officially sent troops to the south, rushed to Jingzhou, and personally conquered Liu Bei.

(End of this chapter)