The First Military Division of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 501 Cao Cao's Layout
As Xun You said, Liu Bei's current food and grass are indeed not enough to support the army's battles, and now it is just barely maintaining the daily consumption of soldiers and horses everywhere.On the contrary, Cao Cao still has some surplus food, and Cao Cao is close to Yizhou, so he doesn't need many troops to enter Yizhou. This is Cao Cao's advantage.

This is why Chen Ziming is determined to take Liangzhou and Hanzhong. Cao Cao is too close to Yizhou. If Liangzhou and Hanzhong are not taken, Chen Ziming can only watch Cao Cao take Yizhou, even if he sends a large army to contain Cao Cao. With Cao Cao's strength, it is not a big problem to divide his troops to attack Yizhou.

"No." Dong Zhao objected: "Liu Bei was short of food and grass before, but it was not difficult to mobilize tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and I heard that Liu Bei's rebellion in the north has been put down, and Yizhou has harvested a large amount of grain. .”

That is to say, once they make a mistake in their judgment, if Liu Bei has enough food and grass, and with the soldiers and horses in Liu Bei's hands, he will give Cao Cao a ruthless blow, and the matter will be a big deal.

"If Liu Bei sends troops, Yanzhou will bear the brunt, so we have to guard against it." Cheng Yu frowned. Yanzhou is surrounded by Liu Bei's territory on three sides, and Liu Bei has hundreds of thousands of troops.

"Yanzhou must not be lost." Cao Cao immediately said, to protect Yanzhou, you must know that Yanzhou is the place where he started, and it has a large population, many talents, and fertile land. The most important thing is that Yanzhou is lost, which is a blow to Cao Cao's morale too big.

If it is because of capturing Yizhou and losing Yanzhou, Cao Cao thinks it is worthless, and once Liu Bei sends troops, he will not only take the land of Yanzhou. If Cao Cao cannot stop Liu Bei's offensive, he will even let Liu Bei's army drive straight in.

"Zhicai, is there a way to break the situation?" Cao Cao saw that everyone couldn't come up with a good solution. Once Liu Bei sent troops, they had no choice but to abandon Yizhou and deal with Liu Bei with all their strength.

"If the prime minister approaches Yizhou with troops, Liu Bei will definitely send troops to stop them." Xi Zhicai said firmly: "And he will do his best to prevent the prime minister from entering Yizhou, and soldiers from Hanzhong and Liangzhou will also take the opportunity to attack Yizhou. "

"However, Liu Bei has been fighting all year round, consuming a lot of food and grass, and he has newly won Liangzhou, Beidi, Hanzhong and other places. He can't take care of everything, and he will not send a large army to travel long distances to attack Yizhou through Beidi, Liangzhou, etc. Therefore, Liu Bei will not have too many troops to attack Yizhou."

"Besides, the Prime Minister and Liu Bei just had a truce. The soldiers and horses were exhausted, and food and grass were in short supply. They sent troops to Yanzhou, but there were no more than [-] troops. If General Cao Ren of Yanzhou is careful to guard against them, Yanzhou will be safe."

Xi Zhicai's words reassured Cao Cao a lot. Thinking about it carefully, it is indeed as Xi Zhicai said, Liu Bei is not much better now. Although Liu Bei has many troops, his territory is large and widely distributed, and it is too difficult to move troops from east to west. , and there is not much food and grass to go there.

"But the prime minister doesn't have many soldiers at his disposal." Hua Yun said in a deep voice, "In the previous battle, food and grass were consumed a lot, soldiers and horses were exhausted, and morale was low."

Cao Cao is not much better now. Fortunately, Cao Cao has a lot of food and grass. Before the war, he not only hoarded a lot of food, but also got a lot of food and grass from Liu Bei, and also got a lot from Jiangdong and Yizhou. There are not as many soldiers and horses as Liu Bei, and less consumption.

What's more, Cao Cao's territory is almost crowded together, so it is easy to move troops and horses, and the consumption is less, unlike Liu Bei, who cares too much and has more loopholes.

"Order Cao Ren to take precautions and order Le Jin's army to move closer to Yanzhou." Just in case, Cao Cao decided to mobilize Le Jin, who was defending Yuzhou, to the north to reinforce Yanzhou at any time.

"Where are Wenpin's soldiers and horses now?" The only one Cao Cao can mobilize now is the [-] elite soldiers in Wenpin's hands who attacked Hanzhong. The other soldiers and horses are exhausted after a year-long battle. , and the gap is very large, it needs to be rectified and replenished, and it is difficult to form combat effectiveness for a while.

"General Wenpin's army had already withdrawn from Hanzhong when the soldiers and horses retreated in Yizhou. Now they are in Shangyong, and they can re-enter Hanzhong at any time." Dong Zhao replied hastily.He knew that Wenpin was still waiting for an opportunity to see if he could win Hanzhong.

"Let Wenpin troops go south to Yiling." Cao Cao did not give up this great opportunity to take control of Yizhou because of Liu Bei's threat. Yiling is west of Jingzhou, and the west of Yiling is the edge of Yizhou. Yizhou is the most convenient.

Of course, it is also close to Yizhou from Shangyong, but from Shangyong to Yizhou, you need to go through Hanzhong. Now Hanzhong is in Liu Bei's hands. It is impossible to take this road, so the soldiers and horses have to detour.

"Prime Minister, the doctor said that the Prime Minister needs to recuperate for a period of time and should not move lightly. Now that he is in Yizhou, who can be the main general?" Seeing that Cao Cao had made up his mind, Cheng Yu asked Cao Cao who would be the main general after being silent for a while.

Wenpin is the commander of the army and is also valued by Cao Cao. However, Wenpin joined Cao Cao late and lacked qualifications. After all, Yizhou is not as good as Hanzhong. Yizhou is Liu Zhang's territory. The most important thing is that Liu Zhang is now the emperor, with a special status. Go, you may not be able to suppress it.

Moreover, the land of Yizhou is special and the matter is of great importance. It is impossible for Cao Cao to hand over such a large state to Wenpin, a general with a foreign surname. It's old.

"Hmm." Cao Cao frowned after hearing Cheng Yu's words, and occasionally looked up at the people below, especially Cao Pi who looked suspiciously at him. Cao Pi was so scared that he almost knelt down to plead guilty. Fortunately, Cao Pi did not disappoint Cao Cao, but just trembled down.

"Yuan Rang is the commander-in-chief, Wen Pin and Miao Cai are the deputy generals, Zhen'er, Zhang'er, and An Min are with the army, and Lao Zhongde and Gongren are with the army."

In the end, Cao Cao decided on a candidate. In order to be safe, Cao Cao appointed Xiahou Dun as the general. With Xiahou Dun's qualifications and ability, he was able to suppress Wenpin and others. He also sent Xiahouyuan, Cao Zhen, Cao Zhang, Cao Anmin and other juniors to follow. It is a member of the Cao family, and if Yizhou is taken down, it will not fall into the hands of others.

Cheng Yu is the main adviser, Dong Zhao is the assistant, and it should be enough to deal with Liu Zhang and Sun Quan.

Cao Cao wanted to conquer Yizhou himself, but his health is really bad, he is getting old, and his brain disease is a big problem, and now he is in pain, if it is not for discussing major issues now, he will go back to rest.

"Prime Minister, you can order Tong Guanjun to mobilize troops and horses to pretend to attack Liangzhou and contain Zhao Yun in Liangzhou. You can send troops to store up outside Sanguan to contain Huang Zhong's troops in Hanzhong." The horse is restrained.

"Yes, order the forbidden soldiers to leave Tongguan, and there is no need to go deep."

"Cao Chun was ordered to throw [-] soldiers and horses to break through and threaten Hanzhong."

Anyway, it's not a real battle, it's just a show, to contain the soldiers and horses in Liangzhou and Hanzhong, and it's enough to drop some tired soldiers to deal with it.

(End of this chapter)