Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 199 Three Years of Jian'an
In November of the third year of Jian'an, Yuan Shu, who was retreating steadily under Cao Cao's offensive, chose to abandon his last base and go north to join his brother Yuan Shao.

It is rumored that Yuan Shu has agreed to transfer the throne and the jade seal to Yuan Shao. At the same time... Yuan Shao has a population of more than 200 million households after unifying Qingjiyou and merging the four states, and his strength has expanded astonishingly.

For a time, the argument that the world belongs to Yuan became rampant again...

However, Yuan Shu's movements were noticed by Cao Cao in advance. Not only did many generals in Zhong's army no longer want to follow Yuan Shu, but turned to Cao Cao. Even before Yuan Shu detoured to Nanyang, he was blocked by Cao Cao.

Ji Ling cut off the rear and died. In the end, Yuan Shu had less than 3 troops around him, and with no food or water, he was desperate.

Yuan Shu fell seriously ill because of this. When he was dying, he still shouted to people: "I want to eat rock candy!"

The general who followed him was also extremely annoyed, "Rock candy? There's no rock candy left. There's only cold rainwater slapping on your face randomly!" Out of anger, his saliva sprayed on Yuan Shu's face.

"You, you...I, Yuan Shu...why did I do this!" Yuan Shu died on the road.

Later, Yuan Shu's son Yuan Yao, son-in-law Huang Yi, and Yang Hong, who was still loyal to Yuan's family, mourned Yuan Shu's death and took refuge with Liu Biao.

In fact, two years ago, Yuan Shu and Liu Biao had always been allies, and their relationship was similar to that between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. However, after Yuan Shu became emperor, Liu Biao had to draw a clear line between him and him. Even so, Liu Biao did not officially send troops to Yuan Shu.

Historically, after Yuan Shu's death, his son and son-in-law wanted to defect to Liu Xun or even to Sun Ce.

After all, Liu Xun and Sun Ce were both Yuan Shu's generals, and they would not treat them badly even if it was just to look good.

This is indeed the case. This group of people was finally taken over by the Sun family. Sun Quan also married Yuan Shu's daughter, and later married his other daughter to Yuan Yao's son, Yuan Shu's grandson, and the biggest one inherited Yuan Shu's legacy. "heritage".

This was the case with the exchange of favors, or the change of power, in the Eastern Han Dynasty - even though Yuan Shu was infamous all over the world after he proclaimed himself emperor, but... after Yuan Shu died and his descendants no longer proclaimed themselves emperor, there were still "disciples and former officials" "The relationship legacy is in.

But now the entire Huainan and Jiangdong have been annexed by Bai Tu, and even if they are killed, they dare not come to Bai Tu to kill them, so they have to defect to Liu Biao, who was at least once an ally, or even half a vassal.

Liu Biao was also shameless and pretended. He first hit Yuan Shu's coffin with his sword to show that the Han and the traitors were incompatible, and then he hugged Yuan Shu's coffin and cried loudly, saying that he was crying for an old friend, not a crying man. Thief, the Han thief has been whipped to death by him.

Blatantly and openly...

However, in the context of the Eastern Han Dynasty, instead of being criticized much for his actions, he received a lot of praise, thinking that he could distinguish right from wrong.

Of course, the main reason is... Liu Biao's reputation among scholars these years is not in vain!
When he rode down to Jingzhou alone, except for the imperial court's order, which was also issued when Dong Zhuo was in power, Liu Biao relied on his "face" to get started.

Before coming to Jingzhou, Liu Biao was a famous person in the clan. After coming to Jingzhou, he became more concerned about his "strengths".

Especially after the chaos in the world, Liu Biao actively took refuge with famous scholars.

It can be said that before Bai Tu was born, Liu Biao was the prince with the best reputation. There is no other reason - in today's world, the voice of scholars is very loud!
For such a person, it can be said that everything he does makes sense, because there is a group of Confucian scholars who will help him brag. When three people become a tiger, right and wrong can be reversed.

Then Liu Biao naturally accepted Yuan Shu's remaining troops and ordered them to be stationed in the area from Xiyang to Fuyang.

Xiyang and Fuyang belong to Nanjun and Nanyang counties respectively, both of which are near the Huaihe River. Xiyang County is the first county where the Huaihe River flows from Runan to Jingzhou, which is... together with Xinxi and Anyang of Yiyang County under Bai Tu's control. The counties face each other across the Huaihe River.

Fuyang County is close to Tongbai Mountain at the source of the Huaihe River and belongs to Nanyang County. There are also three counties between the two, namely Fuguo, Pingchun and 黾 (the orthographic character is Erdao, but the input method cannot be found), which are also close to the Huaihe River.

If Liu Biao accepted Zhang Xiu to guard against Cao Cao, then accepting Yuan Yao and Yang Hong was obviously to guard against Bai Tu!

Although Jingzhou and Jiangdong are adjacent to each other from east to west, on both sides of the Yangtze River, there are Dabie Mountains in the north and Mufu Mountains, Jiuling Mountains, and Luoxiao Mountains in the south. They are convenient places for large-scale military deployment. The only areas from Chaisang to Xiakou are along the Follow the Yangtze River dispatch.

As for further south, it is close to Jiaozhou. Although the mountain roads are not as difficult and dangerous as the Dabie Mountains or the Shu Road, it is an area with the most mountains.

This area of ​​mountains, towards Yangzhou is Shanyue, towards Jingzhou is the so-called Wuling Barbarians, also known as Wuxi Barbarians. In short, it is the place where the barbarians are entrenched. To use troops here... you have to pass by the sect commanders in the mountains. , Yue Ji’s super-large barbarian tribe, you know how difficult it is.

However, after Baitu also included Huainan, he could follow the Huaihe River and bypass the Dabie Mountains - the Dabie Mountains are originally an important watershed between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River, and the water sources in the mountains also flow into the Yangtze River from the south and the Huaihe River from the north.

Therefore, Liu Biao needed someone to block this road...

Bai Tu also immediately warned Liu Biao, urging him to return from his lost ways and not to cover up the eternal sinners who massacred the city and discredit the clan, otherwise he would not be able to see his ancestors in the future.

Anyway, Liu Biao understood it - he was about to send himself to the Nine Springs!

Naturally, he could not erase the power that could protect him, which strengthened his determination to use Yuan Shu's remaining troops to garrison the front line of the Huaihe River.

At the same time, Bai Tu also applied to Cao Cao, or rather to the imperial court, to investigate those who surrendered to the Huainan army and participated in massacres and looting of the people!

The words are extremely strong. In a word - if the imperial court does things unfairly, the people of Shouchun will not agree, the people of Huainan will not agree, the people of Yangzhou will not agree, and the people of the whole world will not agree.

Not only did Cao Cao have to face Yuan Shao's pressure, but... he also had to try his best to appease Bai Tu and put the blame on Qiao Rui, who had died in the battle.

As for why Qiao Rui died in the battle?
He wanted to surrender to Cao Cao, but Cao Cao did not want to accept it, and deliberately tried to kill Qiao Rui when he defected to Ji Ling. Outsiders had no idea that Qiao Rui had secretly communicated with Cao Cao for a long time!

After all, Qiao Rui's ability is average, but he has a lot of troubles - if Qiao Rui is still there, Bai Tu will definitely keep his eye on this big target.

If Cao Cao accepts Qiao Rui, he will be in a dilemma. After all, if it is after the opponent surrenders, Cao Cao cannot hand him over to Bai Tu for the purpose of "buying horse bones for a thousand gold coins", so... let him die in the damned place. when.

As for the generals under Qiao Rui, there is a lot of debate. In short, on the one hand, Cao Cao represented the court and commended Bai Tu for his service to the people. On the other hand... he also quickly split up Yuan Shu's remaining troops and integrated them into his own military and political system, strengthening the itself!
Cao Cao had also figured out at this time that there would be a battle between himself and Bai Tu sooner or later, but not now.

Yuan Shao saw that in the north, he was about to form a tendency to swallow up the whales, and he and Liu Bei were the first to face its pressure.

On the other hand... Bai Tu, who is sitting on the entire territory of Yangzhou, has an unintegrated Jingzhou in front of him, and such a fat piece of meat, why bother to chew on his own hard bone, and risk being benefited by Yuan Shao?

It is impossible for Bai Tu and his think tanks not to see this...

Morally speaking, Qiao Rui, the evil leader, had been killed by him. Instead, Liu Biao accepted the "legacy" left by Yuan Shu's remaining men.

Due to emotions and reasons, Bai Tu should face the enemy "back to back" with him now. As for whether Bai Tu will fight Cao Cao in the north and south later, or whether he will join Yuan Shao to hunt in the Central Plains, Cao Cao actually has no idea, but he is very tough...

As for Liu Bei in Xuzhou, Cao Cao hated him even more - after Xiaopei was no longer in danger, the road from Yuzhou to Xuzhou was basically smooth, but... he really couldn't take action.

From Yuan Shu to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao couldn't make up his mind to attack Xuzhou. After all... Baitu still had an alliance with Liu Bei. Although Zhang Liao and Gao Shun had already withdrawn, they obviously would not sit back and watch Cao Cao annex Xuzhou.

With Yuan Shao watching, Cao Cao is even more unwilling to go to war with Liu Bei. What's easier than Bai Tu is that Liu Bei also faces the threat of Yuan Shao, so he and Cao Cao are now natural allies!

On the contrary, Bai Tu made Cao Cao less reassured. After all, Liu Biao could not put as much pressure on Bai Tu as Yuan Shao put on him.

Even if Bai Tu really goes to war with Jingzhou, there is no telling when his brain will twitch and he may be exposed to a wave of retreat...

Now that Cao Cao was facing Yuan Shao, he once had the urge to surrender. Even if he tried his best, he might not be sure of victory. How could he defend his retreat?

The only thing that pleased Cao Cao was that in Chenliu, Yingchuan and other places where famous families emerged in the Central Plains, the attitude of the major families towards Bai Tu was generally "respectful"... but "at a respectful distance".

I admire Bai Tu's noble character, but I don't like it, and even resist from the bottom of my heart. Under this kind of resistance, I even become more attracted to the major families and the Cao Cao Group.

But even so, Cao Cao hopes to temporarily form a more stable alliance with Bai Tu.

For example, traditional projects - sending protons to each other and marriage.

It's a pity that Bai Tu is not married yet, so it is impossible to send protons to each other, and the previous marriage was also rejected.

Cao Cao even had the idea of ​​sending the proton to Yuan Shaona, and then concentrated on fighting with Bai Tu first, but in the end this idea was stopped by Xun Yu, Guo Jia and others.

Mainly because Yuan Shao could not leave the sacred land of the Central Plains untouched, because after Cao Cao sent the proton, he went to Hetao, Xiliang, Guanzhong... these are places where bones are.

It's better for Cao Cao to be the hostage himself!

On the one hand, Yuan Shao was busy sharpening his sword, but on the other hand, Bai Tu did not give any positive feedback. Cao Cao collapsed and accepted Xun Yu's suggestion - to send protons to Bai Tu.

Originally, in Cao Cao's eyes, Yuan Shao's strength was worthy of him unilaterally sending protons. As for Baitu... he was stronger than himself but only to a limited extent. At most, it would be a mutual gift or marriage, that is, an alliance of equals.

But...Cao Cao had to admit that Bai Tu was stronger than himself!

Originally, Cao Cao's preferred hostage was his second son, Cao Zhi. Cao Zhi was eight years old this year. He and Cao Pi were from the same mother, so he was also his legitimate son. In comparison, he was not as important as Cao Pi.

After all, in these troubled times, the age of the heir will directly affect the degree of unity of his subordinates. "The master's young country is doubtful" is not a joke.

However, when Cao Cao mentioned this matter in private at home, Cao Pi suddenly fell down in front of Cao Cao and cried loudly: "Father! How can you let Xiaozhi take such a risk? I am older, so I should go." It’s safer for me to go!”

(End of this chapter)