The Taishan Army marched south from Pingcheng in October and reached Taiyuan in the tenth month of the month. Not to mention the fierce battle with the Guanxi Army that followed, this incident alone had shocked the world's princes.
The most shocked among them was Cao Cao of Qingzhou.
It was the cold moon, and there was another heavy snowfall in the Dongping Mausoleum of Jinan, Qingzhou.
The whole city is wrapped in cold clothes and is particularly enchanting.
In this heavy snow, the patrols in the city still patrolled the streets faithfully. Some officials were also carrying firewood to nearby houses in the heavy snow.
In the early morning, when the heavy snow had just fallen, Cao Cao, the lord of Qingzhou, ordered his officials to distribute firewood and winter clothes to the poor in the city to help them survive the cold winter.
These actions made Cao Cao more popular among the people of Dongpingling. It can be said that the three years that he took charge of Dongpingling did benefit the people here.
But even with such a foundation of popular support, the aides of the state shogunate were still persuading Cao Cao to move the state government from Dongpingling to Linzi of Qi State.
There are two main reasons why they moved to the state. One is that Dongpingling is too close to the plain front line and is unsafe. Another is that Qingzhou's main business direction will be south in the future, and Dongpingling is too far from Xuzhou, which is beyond reach.
But Cao Cao refused to accept it and still used Dongpingling as the location of the shogunate. However, Cao Hong was ordered to go out to control Qi State, and his intention was unpredictable.
At this time, in the shogunate of the Eastern General of Qingzhou Army Town, Cao Cao was warming wine and enjoying the snow.
The shogunate where he is now is not the original prefect's palace, but was rebuilt on a different foundation.
This is not to say that Cao Cao started to enjoy his great cause before he accomplished it.
But he had to take Xun Yu's emotions into consideration.
There were too many sad memories of Xun Yu in that prefect's mansion back then. Especially the dilapidated building behind the house is where his father died.
Although Xun Yu never showed any abnormal emotions, Cao Cao had to consider it.
In addition, he had previously conquered Xuzhou and killed Tao Qian in one fell swoop. The positions of Xuzhou Mu and Zhendong General were vacant.
Later, the Kyoto court played a little trick, which was to split Tao Qian's position in two. He gave the title of General Zhendong to Cao Cao, but gave the seal and ribbon of Xuzhou Mu to Chen Deng.
Of course Cao Cao knew this simple method of checks and balances, but he also disdained it.
If you don't give it to him, he will go and get it. So how can Chen Deng be his opponent?
However, now that he had obtained the Jiedu of Zhendong, Cao Cao naturally began to prepare for the construction of the shogunate and built this mansion.
The pavilion where he admires the snow is his daily place to relax.
On both sides of the pavilion are written:
"The Duke of Zhou vomits food, and the world returns to its heart"
Its meaning is lofty and heroic. But only Xu Chu and other personal guards knew that whenever the Lord was in deep sorrow, he would always come here silently and drink by himself.
What unsolvable worries did Cao Cao encounter?
In fact, Cao Cao has developed very well this year.
Since he took control of Jinan in the second year of the Republic of China, he has gone through a series of deep-rooting efforts, recruited scholars from Yingchuan, and gained the courage of the country to become a self-contained entity. After that, it went south to gather Qi and north to join the plains. Wherever it passed, the wind was invincible and the world was shaken.
Then, he successively fought against the two main forces of the Taishan Army in the Central Plains, winning and losing each other. It was also thanks to this battle that Cao Cao secured his position in Qingzhou and became the hope of all the northern warriors and Qingzhou natives.
In the second half of the year, he went south to attack Xuzhou. Although he failed to capture Xuzhou in one breath, he still captured half of Xuzhou. The rest was just food on the plate and could be destroyed at any time.
But since October, the situation has changed subtly.
This change did not come from Cao Cao's side, but from the Taishan Army.
The Taishan Army feinted a shot and used suspected soldiers to knock him back from the Xuzhou battlefield. In fact, they went to conquer Bingzhou.
From this point of view, this is still good news. After all, Cao Cao has gained more development time. But in the long run, that's not necessarily the case.
If the Taishan Army that was entrenched in the Youji area before was still in a situation of coiling dragons, but after they captured Bingzhou, it became a situation of flying dragons in the sky.
Bingzhou has mountains and rivers inside and outside, and the backbone of the world. It can be said that it extends in all directions.
Once the Taishan Army takes Bingzhou, it will be difficult to check and balance.
However, Cao Cao also saw that judging from the behavior of the Taishan Army in conquering Bingzhou, its subsequent strategy would focus on the two northwest capitals, and his attention would be reduced on the Central Plains and Qingzhou.
Therefore, the coming period will be a critical period for Cao Cao's development.
For Cao Cao, the best situation now is that the Taishan Army is deeply involved in bloody battles in Bingzhou and Guanxi. And he can calmly take care of Xuzhou and then go south to Huaiyang.
But there are still two hidden worries, namely the location of Mount Tai and Yuan Shao's strategic development.
With the development of the Qingzhou Army, it is actually increasingly discovering the shortcomings of Qingzhou's geography. Qingzhou is surrounded by the sea to the east. If you want to develop, you can only develop from the north, west and south.
But to the north of Qingzhou is the Yellow River, which is also an important defensive line against the Taishan Army. Therefore, the strategy in this direction is very clear, which is to deploy layers of barriers and focus on defense.
And what about to the west of Qingzhou? It's Yanzhou.
It is possible to conquer here, but it is blocked by the Yimeng Tailu Mountains.
Cao Cao admired Zhang Chong of the Taishan Army and believed that his strategic vision was among the best in the world. Ever since he left Mount Tai and fought in the world, the Mount Tai area has never given up, and has even become a focus of construction.
And now? Mount Tai was like a knife against Cao Cao's waist, really like a awn on his back.
Did Cao Cao ever think about attacking Mount Tai?
Yes, but he knew it was unrealistic.
The Taishan area is too dangerous. How many soldiers does Cao Cao have to fill it in?
Therefore, Qingzhou's westward development road was blocked by the Taishan Army. Therefore, Cao Cao could only go south to attack Xuzhou.
This integration of Qing and Xu was Cao Cao's pre-planned strategy, so there is no problem with it.
But when Yuan Shao began to leap from Yiyang to Jiangxia, Cao Cao discovered a problem.
That is, there is a major contradiction between his follow-up strategy and Yuan Shao's strategic direction.
In the original plan, after capturing Xuzhou, Cao Jun would attack the Jiujiang and Yuzhang areas of Yangzhou along the Yangtze River. The fundamental purpose was to occupy the entire Yangtze River.
This is the escape route Cao Cao left for himself. Once he fails in the struggle against the Taishan Army in the Central Plains, he will at least have the south. By then, relying on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River, the world's affairs will still be unknown.
But what now? Tell me, Yuan Shao, a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, wants to retreat to the Yangtze River? Didn't we agree that we would have a decisive battle with the Taishan Army in the Central Plains?
Now, once Yuan Shao captures Jingzhou, he will occupy the head of the Yangtze River. And even if he captures the waist and tail of the Yangtze River, he is still at a disadvantage in terms of the overall geopolitical situation.
Yuan Shao in the upper reaches can attack him at any time by going south along the current. When the time comes, I will really depend on Yuan Shao.
However, all of the above are long-term matters, and what worries Cao Cao most is the immediate matter.
That means there are internal worries in the military.
Cao Jun has developed rapidly in the past two years, but the faster it develops, the greater its internal worries.
Among the Cao family's basic base, the most important thing is the three thousand Kwantung Army he brought down from the Weihan battlefield. And now? There are fifty organized battalions under Cao Cao, with fifty thousand soldiers. In addition, plus the generals' troops, garrison soldiers, etc., the number of troops reaches almost one hundred thousand.
In two years, the military strength has expanded to such an extent. How can Cao Cao not be worried?
Some of these troops were in the hands of his Qiao Pei clan, some were in the hands of his core Yuan Cong, and some were surrendered heroes, but the most numerous were the plain generals.
What are the plain generals?
They are Shen Pei, Gai Tong, Xian Yufu, Gongsun Yue, Gongsun Fan, Wei You, Cheng Xu and Qi Zhou. Previously, the generals in the plains had as many as 40,000 troops.
Later, Sun Jian, the backbone of the army, was squeezed out by Liu He and could only lead 800 troops southward back to Wu. However, now that he has successively captured Wu County and some counties in Kuaiji, it can be said that the momentum is good. But even after Sun Jian left, the remaining troops were as many as 30,000, accounting for one-third of Cao Cao's total troops.
Although these plain generals also have conflicts. For example, the Gongsun family had a feud with Xian Yufu, and Liu Yu's old tribe represented by Liu Jia did not deal with Shen Pei and his group.
But this still made Cao Cao restless, fearing that one day these people would also collude with outsiders.
After all, Yuan Shao is now much better developed than Cao Cao. In the past, if the Shenpei teamed up with him to defeat Liu Yu's army, it would be possible for him to fall to Yuan Shao again.
But he was worried, and Cao Cao still couldn't do anything drastic against Shen Pei and others.
Therefore, he decided to adopt the strategy of differentiation and disintegration.
The snow was falling heavily, and Cao Cao was still thinking. At this time, Xu Chu came over and whispered:
"Lord?"
Cao Cao raised his head and looked sideways.
Xu Chu continued:
"Lord, Hua Jun is here."
The so-called Huajun? Hua Xin also.
After meeting Hua Xin in Pingyuan Camp, Cao Cao felt that this man was a talent and he was destined to be with him.
Since then, he has been serving in the Pingyuan frontline camp and was very familiar with the Pingyuan generals, so Cao Cao focused on this person as the breakthrough point.
So after hearing that Hua Xin was coming, Cao Cao hurriedly got up and went to greet him.
Then, amid the falling snow, a tall and handsome man came walking through the snow. His snow-white mink fur made this man even more handsome.
This person is Hua Xin.
Seeing Cao Cao coming to greet him, this man hurriedly stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and bowed to the ground, not caring about the thick snow on the ground.
Hua Xin was originally a famous Confucian in Qingzhou, and he knew etiquette best. Moreover, he had great ambitions and was very interested in his official career, so he always treated Cao Cao with great gifts and did not dare to slack off at all.
Over there, Cao Cao saw Hua Xin giving this great gift and hurriedly stepped forward to pull him up. While brushing the snow for Hua Xin, he complained:
"Hua Jun, there is no need for this between you and me."
But after saying this, Cao Cao was very satisfied and secretly believed that Hua Xin was one of his own.
Of course Cao Cao could accept Hua Xin's strong signal of progress.
Over there, Hua Xin became even more respectful:
"My lord, how can the etiquette of people and ministers be ruined? The people in the world are scattered because they don't know the etiquette, and they can't do it even if they know it."
Of course Cao Cao had different views on this answer, but since Hua Xin insisted, of course he was also happy to see it.
Then he took Hua Xin to the pavilion and warmed him a glass of wine himself.
After Cao Cao toasted a cup of Hua Xin, he asked:
"Hua Jun, you are a famous scholar. Please tell me a passage from The Analects of Confucius."
Hua Xin's heart skipped a beat and asked cautiously:
"I don't know which part my lord wants to hear."
Cao Cao replied lightly:
"Just listen to "The Ji family will attack Zhuan Yu"?."
At this moment, Hua Xin's heart was no longer pounding, but beating wildly. He tried to steady his mind and asked:
"I wonder why my lord wants to hear this?"
Cao Cao glanced at Hua Xin with a smile, and then laughed at himself:
"Isn't this what Duke Xun said a few days ago when he advised me not to attack Xu? I just want you to explain it for me."
Hua Xin knew about this.
Duke Xun was Xun Shuang, Xun Yu's uncle. He was an upright and strong man. He was invited by Xun Yu to come to Qingzhou to assist Cao Cao. Because of his high moral character and high prestige, Cao Cao always respected him as Duke Xun.
At that time, after Cao Cao arranged some plain defenses and determined that the Taishan Army's main attack direction was northwest, he wanted to immediately send troops south to Xuzhou.
But at that time Xun Shuang warned Cao Cao directly with "Ji's general will attack Zhuan Yu".
Although Xun Shuang only mentioned it at that time, whoever was present was familiar with the Analects of Confucius. Wouldn't they know that the most important sentence in this article is "I fear that Ji Sun's worries are not in Zhuan Yu, but within Xiao Qiang." .”
Who is Zhuan Yu? It’s very clear, of course it’s Xuzhou.
But who is responsible for Xiao Qiang? Or who does Cao Cao think?
For a while, even Hua Xin didn't dare to think too much.
He could only tell this story to Cao Cao honestly.
Cao Cao just listened and drank slowly, not in a hurry, until Hua Xin finished speaking and finished the glass of wine.
Warm wine is comfortable to drink but it is also easy to get drunk. But at this moment, Cao Cao was in good spirits. He slowly put down the wine cup, stroking his beard and sighed:
"Yes, it's true. Master said, 'The tiger comes out of the coffin, the tortoise and jade are destroyed in the coffin. Whose fault is it?'"
Then Cao Cao looked at Hua Xin and asked:
"If I know clearly that my worries are within the Xiao Qiang but do nothing about it, am I not to blame?"
Hua Xin was under tremendous pressure and forced a smile:
"The Master's words are of course gold and jade. But there is one thing that is inappropriate, that is, neither the tiger or the turtle is a human being. They are either chaotic and ignorant, or they are dead objects, so naturally they cannot be responsible for the results. But humans The reason why we are human is to listen to advice.”
Cao Cao smiled vaguely and chewed:
"Listen to advice? Hum, it's good to listen to advice."
Hua Xin actually understood that the "Ji family will attack Zhuan Yu" just now was all fake. This means that the Lord has become suspicious of Shen Pei and others.
Why was Hua Xin so sure that Cao Cao was suspicious of Shen Pei? This is the cleverness of Hua Xin. He understands that the reason why he is listening to this passage here is because he belongs to the line of plain generals.
And he, Hua Xin, happened to be the bridge between Cao Cao and Shen Pei. If he doesn't answer well, it will undoubtedly be a disaster for Shen Pei and others.
So he answered a key point, that is, the problems of Shen Pei and others were not as serious as Cao Cao thought, and they were far less serious than Xiao Qiang.
To paraphrase one sentence, it is just an internal conflict and does not reach the level of conflict between ourselves and the enemy. Since it is internal, education should be the main focus. Hua Xin said that people like Shenpei and others are the most aware of current affairs and will never resist forcefully.
Seeing Cao Cao chew on these two words at this moment, Hua Xin secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that the Lord is also one who listens to advice.
Finally, as if to make sure, Cao Cao asked again:
"Do you think they really listened to the advice?"
Hua Xin nodded hurriedly.
"Then how to persuade?"
Hua Xin immediately replied:
"There is no need for the Lord to worry too much, as long as the Lord calls you to come over and have a drink."
Cao Cao stroking his beard and thinking for a long time finally spoke:
"Okay, then it's up to Mr. Hua to worry about it. You can make an appointment for me to come to my cold pavilion for a get-together."
"Just say that I, Cao Cao, want to cook wine with everyone and listen to Hua Jun talk about "The Analects of Confucius."
Hua Xin rolls up his sleeves and sings.
A crisis seems to be resolved, but it seems as if it never happened.