Chapter 266 Yuan Shu’s Countermeasures
Yang Hong frowned, thought about it for a long time, and then continued: "How about we send someone to have a good talk with Ambassador Liu? We have nothing to do with each other. Deep hatred, the so-called snipe and clam fighting for the fisherman's gain, I guess Liu Shijun doesn't want others to gain, right?"
Yang Hong's words attracted shocked looks from everyone around him, but Yuan Shu didn't expect to get angry. Instead, he pondered.
After a while, Yuan Shu said: "What do you think of what Guangwen said?"
Everyone couldn't help but admire Yang Hongsheng a little.
Originally, they thought that what Yang Hong said would definitely lead to a scolding from Yuan Shu, but they didn't expect that Yuan Shu would actually be tempted.
In terms of trying to figure out Yuan Shu's thoughts, Yang Hong really did his part.
In fact, Yuan Shu himself is fierce in appearance but soft in heart, strong in appearance and weak in heart, and he never minds being humble and small.
It’s just that his origin gave him so many resources that there weren’t many things that could reveal his true colors.
Historically, when he was trapped in Lucheng, he was very tolerant of Sun Jian who was sent to Nanyang County. Later, when he asked Lu Bu to attack Liu Bei secretly, he was also condescending and even touted Lu Bu as his benefactor for three generations.
Growing up, he and Yuan Shao were at odds with each other, and he insulted Yuan Shao all day long for being a maid who gave birth to a son.
But later on, he still licked his face and begged Yuan Shao to accept him, and even boasted that Shao was destined to be his destiny.
It can be seen that Yuan Shu has never been a truly strong person, his strength is just a disguise, and Yang Hong has seen through this layer, so he can guess Yuan Shu's thoughts repeatedly.
“What Chang Shi said is feasible!”
Yan Xiang stood up and was the first to support Yang Hong, not because he had a good relationship with Yang Hong, but because he really felt that Yang Hong was This strategy is indeed good.
Yuan Shu liked to seek scholars, but he could neither obtain nor use them.
Everyone under his command is mediocre. Even if they are talented like Yang Hong and Li Ye, they are more selfish. They often neglect public affairs for private purposes and flatter Yuan Shu instead of insisting on their own opinions.
Only Yan Xiang is talented, far-sighted, and can give impartial and forthright advice.
Yuan Shu was already moved, but now he saw that Yan Xiang also agreed, and nodded immediately: "Okay, since the chief secretary also agrees with this method, let's follow this plan. Then who can take on this important task? "
Yuan Shu glanced across the hall, seeming to be selecting candidates for the envoy.
Yang Hong thought for a while, then took the initiative to stand up and said: "Yuan Yaoqing can take on this important task."
When Yuan Shu heard this, his eyes immediately fell on a young scribe in the hall.
This person has a low-key personality and never takes the initiative to speak. He just stays silent in the last position.
To be honest, he and Yuan Shu are distant ancestral relatives. His surname is Yuan, his name is Huan, and his courtesy name is Yaoqing. He is the son of Yuan Pang and a direct descendant of the Yuan family in Chen County.
Although the Yuan family of Chen County is not as good as the Yuan family of Runan, it is still a well-known family of celebrities in Henan. Their ancestors also had three sons, and they had two thousand stones in their lifetime.
Yuan Huan and his father Yuan Pang were officials to Situ, and the father and son had a special advantage in that they never spoke ill of others.
Yuan Pang was able to survive between two party imprisonments, which is inseparable from this.
And Yuan Huan became even more famous. Lu Bu even threatened Yuan Huan with a sword and wrote a letter scolding Liu Bei. As a result, Yuan Huan would rather die than write it. In turn, he taught Lu Bu a lesson and even subdued Lu Bu.
However, at this time, Yuan Huan was still under Yuan Shu. Because he took refuge between the Jianghuai River and the Huaihe River, which happened to be Yuan Shu's territory, he was forced by the other party to serve.
It’s just that Yuan Huan usually never takes the initiative to speak unless Yuan Shu asks.
But once Yuan Shu asked, Yuan Huan's opinion was always completely different from his.
Furthermore, every time Yuan Huan advocated the right path, he was upright and awe-inspiring. In addition, Yuan Huan's words were sharp, and Yuan Shu could not refute him. Therefore, although Yuan Shu could not use Yuan Huan, he still respected him and did not dare not treat him with courtesy.
This time Yang Hong recommended Yuan Huan as an envoy to Liu Bei, not out of any selfish motives, but because he was indeed a very suitable candidate.
Because Yuan Huan is a talented person recommended by Liu Bei, there is a kindness between the two, so many things can be discussed easily.
Liu Bei came to aid Xuzhou the year before last. After Cao Cao withdrew, Tao Qian placed him in Xiaopei. At the same time, Tao Qian also appointed Liu Bei as the governor of Yuzhou.
Although this governor of Yuzhou was appointed by Tao Qian privately, there was indeed no governor in Yuzhou at that time, so some areas in Yuzhou actually accepted Liu Bei's remote leadership.
Of course, this is only limited to remote leaders. If you really want to recruit troops and food, you have no self-awareness.
Liu Bei was naturally not so arrogant, but he also used a lot of the authority of the governor of Yuzhou, one of which was to promote talents and promote filial piety.
After some in-depth thinking, Liu Bei finally chose to promote Chen Qun as Xiaolian and Yuan Huan as Maocai. At the same time, Chen Qun was also recruited as his chariot.
Just like Chen Qun, Yuan Huan did not support Liu Bei going to Xuzhou, so he simply ran south.
"The recommendation by the long history coincides with mine."
Yan Xiang also recommended Yuan Huanlai: "Yaoqing is a rich scholar, full of knowledge, and an upright man. He should be the best choice."
"Okay! Okay!"
Yuan Shu nodded repeatedly, then looked at Yuan Huan and said: "Then I can only ask Yaoqing to work hard for me. I wonder if Yaoqing is willing to work hard for me?"< br>
Yuan Huan responded calmly: "Huan Ding has lived up to the trust entrusted by Ming Gong."
"Okay!"
Yuan Shu was overjoyed and immediately ordered Yuan Huan to send Liu Bei as an envoy as soon as possible, and asked Li Ye to choose gifts from the treasury. At the same time, he asked Qiao Rui to prepare followers and guards for Yuan Huan.
"Ming Gong."
Yan Xiang suddenly continued: "It would be great if Yao Qing could put his troops in order and put on his armor. But if Liu Xuande insists on going his own way, then Ming Gong will also Make preparations that morning."
After hearing this, Yuan Shu was greatly moved and nodded: "What the chief said is true."
Then, Yuan Shu stood up again and walked around in a circle.
After a while, he stopped and turned to ask Yang Hong and Li Ye: "Chang Shi, what good advice can the military counselor teach me?"
Li Yexian glanced at Yang Hong and saw the other party. Without opening his mouth, he replied: "I thought I could send an army to assist Ruyin first. Ruyin is shaded by Jiujiang and is a big city in Runan, blocking the Yingshui River. As long as Ruyin can hold on, Jiujiang will be safe."
Yuan Shu nodded and suddenly asked: "Is one army enough? Who can lead the army?"
At this time, an army usually controls several captains, with the number ranging from four thousand to one. It varies from ten thousand to ten thousand, but in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, an army generally referred to four thousand people from two schools. There are still only a few people who are as wealthy as Liu Beijun and have expanded their ranks to three captains.
Therefore, the army mentioned by Yuan Shu here is four thousand people.
Hearing Yuan Shu’s questioning, Li Ye felt a little dizzy.
As Yuan Shu's most useful counselor, he knew very well what kind of generals he had under Yuan Shu.
Almost all those who can fight are from the Sun family system.
Among the remaining people, Qiao Rui, Zhang Xun, and Ji Ling are all good generals, but not only compared with Sun Ce, they are also far behind Sun Ben and Wu Jing.
Besides, going to Ruyin at this time is not a good job, and casually recommending it would offend people.
Li Ye hesitated for a moment and then replied: "It is the master's power to employ people. How dare you overstep your authority and take over your job?"
Li Ye's obvious words of evasion really offended Yuan Shu. Itchy spot.
"Yes."
Yuan Shu took a few more steps, looked up and ordered: "Where are Qiao Rui and Li Feng?"
Qiao Rui and Li Feng complained in their hearts, but they had to stand up: "The general is here!"
Yuan Shu issued an order: "You two will each take your own troops out of the city tomorrow and rush to Ruyin. After arriving in Ruyin, , unified command of Ruyin city defense. In this battle, Qiao Rui is the main general, and Li Feng and Lejiu are deputy generals. It is a great achievement to defend Ruyin. If Liu Xuande does not know what to do and the army invades, I will send the army to the rescue. , you don’t need to worry!”
“Yes! General!”
Qiao Rui and Li Feng took orders immediately.
Yan Xiang added at this time: "Ming Gong, Longkang is also an important place and must be defended."
Li Ye and Yang Hong also supported at the same time: "What the chief secretary said is exactly what he said. I hope the public will accept it."
Being reminded by Yan Xiang, Yuan Shu also reacted fiercely.
Although Longkang is farther from Shouchun than Ruyin, it is still an important place.
Once it falls, Liu Bei's army can immediately take advantage of the Lishui River to flank Shouchun from the east.
So, Yuan Shu immediately ordered: "Liang Gang, your troops will also leave the city tomorrow and rush to Longkang to ensure that Longkang is fine, otherwise we will come to see you!"
Liang Gang hurriedly went out to respond to the order.
After the distribution was completed, Yuan Shu was worried. There were only 20,000 cavalry in Shouchun City, but now 6,000 people were sent out in one go, leaving only 14,000 people. He was really worried. Therefore, Yuan Shu finally ordered: "Send people to Liyang quickly, let Sun Ben lead 10,000 people northward, and then transfer 6,000 people from Lujiang to return reinforcements. Let Sun Ben and the Lujiang army gather in Hefei, and then all go northward."
In this way, when the reinforcements arrive in Shouchun, there will be 30,000 soldiers ready to fight.
The Shouchun City was already tall and strong, and it had a moat of fertile water. It contained enough food for a year, and with 30,000 soldiers, it was enough to ensure peace of mind.
"That's right!"
Finally, Yuan Shu remembered something and ordered: "The Jiangdong side will also send people over, let Bo Fu select the elite, and quickly cross the river to return reinforcements, saying that I am in Shou Chun is waiting for him!"
"Wait!"
Just a moment after saying that, Yuan Shu added: "Tell Bo Fu that as long as he comes back for help this time, no matter whether Shouchun or not If he is trapped, I will declare him as the governor of Jiujiang."
Yuan Shu really didn't make any mistakes this time.
He sincerely wanted to commend Sun Ce as the governor of Jiujiang and at the same time keep him by his side.
Before, there were no enemies around him. Those he fought were either local rebels or local pirates.
Qiao Rui, Zhang Xun and his like are naturally victorious and invincible.
But when Yuan Shu faced Liu Bei's threat, he realized his own weakness, and it was at this time that he remembered Sun Ce's ability.
Therefore, what he said this time was indeed true, and he no longer meant to deceive Sun Ce.
*******
The time has entered August, in a wilderness outside Xiang County, Runan.
Liu Feng was accompanying Liu Bei to review the newly formed artillery unit.
Out of the habit of his previous life, Liu Feng named the counterweight trebuchet the Han Cannon, and transferred more than one-third of the twenty-four artillery groups he had just trained to Xiang County.
The reason why it is Xiang County is that in June, the magistrate of Xiang County Liu Ang sent people to Suiyang of Liang State to ask for surrender.
Liu Bei was immediately overjoyed. You must know that Xiang County is an important town in Runan. It is not only located at a traffic choke point, but also stuck at the intersection of Yingshui River and Langtang Canal.
By capturing Xiang County, we can receive logistics supplies from the two waterways of Yingshui and Langtang Canal. At the same time, we can also establish an advance stronghold in Xiang County and stockpile grain, grass and weapons.
This shows the importance of Xiang County.
This place was actually also influenced by Yuan Shu, and all taxes and taxes were collected by Yuan Shu.
It’s just that Yuan Shu has always imposed extortionate taxes, and even though Runan is his hometown, he can no longer control it at this time.
The taxes borne by Xiang County in the past two years have almost doubled from previous years.
If Yuan Shu had not dominated the Huaisi family, the people of Xiang County would have been unable to bear it any longer.
A small number of people in later generations praised Yuan Shu for his strong operational ability, being a big nanny, and giving blood transfusions to Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Lu Bu. They also praised Yuan Shu's economic ability as 90 points.
This is simply ridiculous. Yuan Shu, a leader of the remnants of the people who does not know anything about business but only knows how to exploit and plunder, is actually worthy of talking about financial capabilities?
It can be said that Yuan Shu's family fortune is almost non-renewable, and the places he has exploited will only become more and more declining, and will eventually perish.
Therefore, when Liu Bei began to mobilize his troops repeatedly with the intention of heading south to Runan, the magistrate of Xiang County immediately rebelled and surrendered to Liu Bei. Moreover, he did not surrender alone. In the entire Xiang County, from the nobles to the powerful to the common people, no one supported Yuan Shu.
The county magistrate Liu Ang discussed with the local nobles and powerful men. Seeing Liu Bei preparing his army, there is a high probability that he will go south.
Once Liu Bei goes south, anyone with a little strategic vision knows that Xiang County will be the first to bear the brunt.
Nowadays, there are only more than a hundred county soldiers in Xiang County, and no powerful nobles are willing to contribute money or effort.
Under such circumstances, Liu Ang simply jumped back and surrendered to Liu Bei.
After Xiang County surrendered, the local nobles were afraid that Yuan Shu would send troops to attack them. They even begged Liu Bei to immediately send troops to take over Xiang County on the day they asked for surrender.
To show their sincerity, they even expressed their willingness to bear the food supplies for four thousand Liu Bei's troops.
This not only shows the wealth of Xiang County, but also shows how bad Yuan Shu's reputation is in his hometown. It can be seen that Runan, who was originally close to Yuan Shu, later jumped back and supported Yuan Shao, which was completely forced by Yuan Shu.
Liu Bei immediately ordered Xiahou Bo to settle in Xiang County and investigate the situation in Ruyin.
As soon as Xiang County is reached, there is no barrier in front of Runan.
The army sets off from Xiang County and can reach Ruyin City within seven days.
What surprised Liu Bei even more was that after the news spread that Xiang County had taken refuge with Liu Bei.
Seeing Liu Bei and Xia Houbo's troops successfully settled in Xiang County, Yuan Shu did not react at all.
The entire counties in northern Runan were actually invincible. In just one month, Nanton, Yilu, Xinyang, Songguo, Sishan and Chengfu successively asked for surrender.
Almost all of these cities are located in the northern part of Runan, and Yuan Shu can only reach them and is unable to rage.
If he really dared to send troops to conquer, Liu Bei, who was sitting in Suiyang, would laugh out of his dreams.
The surrender of these counties will bring Liu Bei not only taxes, money and food, but also a huge reputation bonus.
Especially Chengfu, as soon as he surrendered, not only Qiao County was covered, but Longkang downstream of the Lishui River immediately lost its barrier.
Zhang Fei can directly enter Chengfu County and head south from here. Within ten days, he can reach Longkang City.
It can be said that Yuan Shu's side is already showing signs of collapse before the war begins.
Liu Bei's army already had good geography, but this wave of surrender in northern Runan directly gave Liu Bei's army a better situation.
Liu Beijun's advance base moved directly south for more than a hundred miles, and also took control of the Yingshui waterway in advance, directly turning into a Tianhu opening.
At this moment, Liu Bei followed his eldest son to watch the artillery camp drill with great ambition.
In the past few months, Liu Feng trained a total of twenty-four artillery crews. In addition to leaving six of the best artillery crews as instructors in Tancheng, he also sent a cannon to Chen Deng. Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were sent two artillery groups each, Guangling prepared three artillery groups, and the remaining ten artillery groups were all concentrated in Xiang County.
These artillery groups are mainly composed of artillerymen and craftsmen.
The former is responsible for firing cannons and performs simple elevation calculations to improve the accuracy of the trebuchet. The latter is responsible for the construction and maintenance of counterweight trebuchets to ensure that the trebuchets can maintain full combat effectiveness.
A gun crew consists of thirty people, with the number of artillerymen and craftsmen split equally.
At the same time, there are five craftsmen who are specifically responsible for managing civilians, that is, responsible for arranging materials and construction for the other ten craftsmen.
This time Liu Feng accompanied Liu Bei out just to watch the actual combat performance.
In the outskirts of Xiang County, more than two hundred civilians recruited from Xiang County have built two counterweight trebuchets under the command of craftsmen.
As long as there are enough materials, it can be built in one or two weeks, but it still requires a lot of manpower to collect boulders and polish them into a round shape.
"Master, Young Master, the artillery crew is ready."
This time the artillery crew is led by Xian Yuyin's deputy Yan Guang. This guy has just turned sixteen, but People are already quite sophisticated. Working with craftsmen all day long, Yan Guang himself also has certain woodworking mechanical abilities, and is especially talented in arithmetic.
So, after he came out this time, he was appointed by Liu Feng as Sima of the other departments, and temporarily commanded each artillery crew of the artillery camp.
Liu Feng told Yan Guang in advance that Liu Bei would personally observe this test.
Therefore, Yan Guangpo was striving for perfection like crazy. He even had to personally check the polishing of the projectiles before he could feel relieved.
Liu Feng recognized Yan Guang's work very much, and at the same time, he also saw a look of satisfaction on Liu Bei's face.
This area has been ordered to be cleared a long time ago. Moreover, it is surrounded by a wilderness and there is no place for anyone to hide, let alone cavalry coming and going to search and detect.
So there is absolutely no problem with confidentiality, and it will not cause accidental damage.
“Okay, let them fire.”
Liu Bei immediately ordered the cannon test to begin.
Liu Bei gave the order, and Liu Feng nodded towards Yan Guang.
The target Liu Feng set for the artillery crew this time was a mound of dirt 160 steps away. The mound was about twenty square meters in size, and he also marked it on the mound. Circles of different sizes.
The goal of this test is the hit rate. The closer the circle is hit, the higher the score.
Yan Guang immediately waved the flag.
After seeing the flag in the distance, the artillery crew pulled the embedding hook at the same time.
Two 70-kilogram boulders rose into the air, flew more than 240 meters, and hit the ground heavily.
(End of this chapter)