Chapter 721 Personal Expedition
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 2nd, Yingchuan and Yangdi.
At Yinshi, when the sky was dim, Chen Gong and Yuan Shao were already sitting on the mat and began to read the military reports sent by the generals on the front line, and replied to each general in detail.
And Yuan Shaoru has been so diligent for three years. From this point of view, this gentleman is worthy of being popular in the Central Plains.
Today Yuan Shao not only has to deal with the military reports of these generals, but also monitors the movements of princes in other directions.
Judging from the current situation, the Allied forces in other directions are acting according to their previous discussions.
Among them, Yuan Shu in the west reported that he had contained the main force of the Taishan Army, and asked Yuan Shao to allocate a group of war horses. He said that there were currently no horses in the army, and he was often at a disadvantage during the outposts. He hoped that Yuan Shao could Support a little.
Seeing this, Yuan Shao just snorted coldly.
Because he understands that his younger brother is richer than him. Nanyang is the largest county in the world, with a population comparable to that of a state. Which of the powerful families in the county does not have hundreds of good horses? Yuan Shu can get thousands of war horses with a little recruiting.
Besides, Nanyang is located closer to the northwest than Yuzhou. From the Wuguan Pass, you can continuously obtain good horses from the northwest. Although the Kansai side has repeatedly banned good horses from leaving the customs, how can they ban them with such huge profits?
On his own side, many wealthy merchants from Guanxi sent horses to sell, but how could there be fewer on Yuan Shu's side?
And now because of the joint effort to deal with the Taishan Army, the Kansai side has also relaxed the horse ban, so now Yuan Shu's side is still short of horses?
Therefore, Yuan Shao just casually approved the gift of a hundred horses, and then looked at the information from Kansai.
The letter was written by Liu Bei of Kansai. This king did not stay in Shu after pacifying the rebellion in Shu. It is said that he was squeezed out of Shu by Li Jue.
During this period of time, Liu Bei had been the liaison between Guanxi and Yuzhou. As for Grand Master Dong Zhuo, it seemed that he did not bother to talk to Yuan Shao.
In the letter, Liu Bei explained the current situation to Yuan Shao in detail.
To sum up, the Fenshui front line is still in confrontation, and the Weihan front line has been occupied by Kansai and is heading towards Xin'an.
This news cannot be said to be very good, but it is enough to make Yuan Shao happy.
He did not expect that the military strategy in Kansai seemed to be really being implemented, and they wanted to join forces with him from the west and south to strangle the Taishan Army in Gyeonggi.
In fact, this is because Yuan Shao underestimated Dong Zhuo's military ability.
Although Dong Zhuo didn't think much of Yuan Shao, he felt that Yuan Shao's ability was not enough to fight against the Taishan army. But he never gave up on taking Kyoto.
For Kansai within the four fortresses, if they want to help the Han Dynasty, they must establish a foothold in the Heluo area and use Heluo as an advance base to navigate the Central Plains.
The Kyoto area was not only military for the Kansai court, but also political.
For the Kansai court, their strength is gradually recovering, and the biggest restriction now is their orthodox status.
When Liu Hongbo moved to Chang'an and left Kyoto to the powerful rebels in Henan, the legitimacy of Liu Hong's throne actually weakened. When Liu Hong died and Liu Bian of Kyoto came to the throne, the lineage of the Han Dynasty was actually transferred to the Kanto side.
Because here is the capital and emperor of the Han Dynasty. And what does Liu Xie, who is remote in Kansai, have? He seems to be just a group of puppets coerced by the Kansai people.
Therefore, only when Kansai regains Kyoto and controls both capitals, will the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty return to Liu Xie.
This is the importance of Kyoto to Kansai, and this is ten times more important than its military significance.
In the history of another dimension, the Tang emperor Li Longji hurriedly entered Shu, and the prince Li Heng went north to Lingwu to ascend the throne. At that time, the mastermind Li Mi proposed to attack the rebel Youzhou rear directly from the Shuofang area.
But why did Li Heng refuse? How about gathering all the troops to attack the two capitals where rebels gathered?
It's not that he is stupid, but that he understands that only by regaining the two capitals can he, Li Heng, secure his position and become the new orthodoxy.
And this moment is just like that moment.
Therefore, Yuan Shao underestimated Kansai's determination to regain the capital, but this did not prevent him from praising Liu Bei in his reply.
He replied in the letter, saying that after Kyoto was recovered, he would go to Yuntaizuo to inscribe his name.
I don't know if Yuan Shao's words are true or not. He has already become a guest of the Han Dynasty and is thinking of replacing him. He also wants to be loyal to the Han Dynasty.
After he finished approving the Kansai side, the last thing he read was Cao Cao's letter.
Unlike other eloquent letters, Cao Cao's letters have very few words, only one word:
"Just wait and see, great things are coming soon."
Looking at Cao Cao's riddle, Yuan Shao was completely confused. Is Meng De going to do something big? After thinking about it, he asked Li Dian, who was on duty outside, to come in.
Li Dian, wearing an iron pocket and bright silver armor, looked majestic and faced Yuan Shao, kneeling on the ground, waiting for Yuan Shao's order.
Yuan Shao looked at his beloved general with a smile on his face and said warmly:
"Is there any news from Qingzhou?"
All forces attach great importance to intelligence exploration, and the established Chen State is naturally no exception.
Today, Chen Guo's intelligence system was formed from the interpersonal network of Yuan's retainers, covering Jiang, Huai, He, and Si. And now the person in charge of eastward intelligence for Yuan Shao is his tooth general Li Dian.
As a general of the Yamen, no matter what happens in the Yamen, he should not be allowed to do anything other than those who are trustworthy and loyal to the Lord.
However, Li Dianzhong was brave, fruitful, filial, righteous and talented, so Yuan Shao believed in him and made him the general of Yamen, responsible for the whole army and the assassination of traitors.
After hearing Yuan Shao's question, Li Dian recalled it and then told some news:
"My lord asked about it, but there are a few strange things. First, Duke Cao of Qingzhou is quite interested in letting Nanshan go. He has not patrolled the army for ten months. Another thing is that the Guan thieves from Taishan seem to be attacking. Although no specific information has been sent about the movement in the direction of Yanzhou, it is obvious that the Taishan Army’s sentry cavalry has become more frequent in the direction of Lu State.”
Yuan Shao frowned and asked:
"Why were these things not reported to me?"
Li Dian fell on the ground and explained:
"The military situation is complicated, and there are many messages from various places but they are often contradictory. For example, the Lu State reported that there were frequent sentries and riders from the Guan thief tribe, but Shanyang also reported that there were thief sentries and riders on their side. A summary of various news No one can do it, the general needs to check it one by one. The master is busy with military aircraft, so the general will not dare to report it falsely. "
Li Dian's explanation convinced Yuan Shao.
He had been in charge of the family's intelligence network before and was experienced in intelligence work. What Li Dian said is exactly the complexity of intelligence work.
Sometimes it's not that there is too little information, but that there is too much information. Valuable intelligence is drowned in junk information, and the person in charge of the work must have a very keen insight to grasp the truly valuable things.
Yuan Shao nodded, and then asked Li Dian a question:
"How does Mancheng view the situation in Qingzhou? Will Cao Cao take any action?" Li Dian thought about this question, and then replied after sorting it out:
"Currently, Duke Cao told us that he would go north to Jizhou and attack the rear of the Taishan Army. The general is still doubtful about this. But as for the specifics, the general cannot tell."
Yuan Shao himself recalled Cao Cao's letter just now, and he had a vague idea in his mind. He nodded to Li Dian, asking him to pay more attention to Eastern affairs, and then asked Li Dian to retreat.
After Li Dian retreated, Yuan Shao took out the military report that he had kept at the bottom from the pile of documents.
This is a merit letter sent by Ju Yi from the front line. The letter contains a list of those who have achieved meritorious service in the Battle of Otaniguchi and needs Yuan Shao's confirmation.
This was not the first time Yuan Shao read it. In fact, the first thing he read was the military report sent by Ju Yi. Naturally, there was no problem with the reward. However, Ju Yi mentioned in the letter a request to withdraw from Dagu Pass, but Yuan Shao Still can't decide.
Ju Yi explained his thoughts in the letter. He said that the previous combat goal was to annihilate the first army of Taishan Army to achieve the effect of boosting the morale of the army.
But now that the Bohai Navy has been disabled, the Zhaoyi Army has been defeated, and the original combat goal has been achieved. Ju Yi believes that if he moves forward with his current military strength, he will inevitably be surrounded by the Taishan Army, so he wants to take his troops to stay at The area around Otaniguchi is waiting for Yuan Shao's follow-up orders.
When he first saw Ju Yi's military report, Yuan Shao was more inclined to Ju Yi's idea. After all, no matter how excited he was on the outside, he was still worried about the Taishan Army in his heart. So he also had the idea of taking advantage and withdrawing.
But now after comprehensively reading the intelligence from all directions, Yuan Shao has changed his mind. He believes that the current situation is very beneficial to him.
Putting aside Cao Cao, who still couldn't understand, and Yuan Shu, who was unreliable, he was excited by the movements in Kansai. At this time, the Kansai Army had arrived in the Mianchi and Xin'an areas, which was actually less than a hundred miles away from Kyoto.
If he asks Ju Yi to retreat, then the Kansai side will inevitably retreat back to Guan, and then the great offensive that was supposed to be a southwest flank attack will be ruined.
And this will definitely destroy Yuan Shao's prestige. After all, it was Yuan Shao who initiated and led the encirclement of the Taishan Army this time. If he shrinks, who will care next time?
Putting aside the prestige, honor and disgrace, Yuan Shao was also tempted by the hidden benefits of continuing to go north.
He trembled all over as he thought about how he and Kansai were hunting Kyoto, and how Taishan's army was at a loss and hurriedly withdrew from the capital.
So Yuan Shao called Xu You over and discussed with him the future combat strategy.
Seeing that Yuan Shao had made up his mind, Xu You did not refute, but carefully checked for any omissions and filled them up.
This attitude of not asking what to do but how to do it may be the reason why Yuan Shao valued Xu You more than Guo Jia.
Finally, the two discussed their first battle plan.
This military strategy is to take the Ju Yi tribe as the vanguard and continue to move north, first occupy the north and south banks of the Yishui River, and then divide the army to the southwest, along the Yishui River to open up contact with Yuan Shu, first annihilate the Taishan Army under the Yique Pass, and finally fight with Yuan Shu The armies marched north side by side, threatening Luoshui.
At the same time, Yuan Shao also needs to get in touch with the Guanxi Army in the Xin'an area to the west and let them march eastward along the Jianshui River to the west bank of Luoshui.
Afterwards, Yuan Shao personally led the second echelon army to Yishui, and the troops joining Ju Yi also arrived at the south bank of Luoshui.
In the end, Yuan Shao coordinated with the other two directions, and the three parties crossed Luoshui from three directions and regained Kyoto.
By then, whether the Taishan Army is fighting or leaving, it will no longer matter to the overall situation.
The reason why this plan is the first version is because Xu You is relatively opposed to Yuan Shao going to the front line and presiding over the general attack on Kyoto. After all, this is no joke.
Yuan Shao listened to Xu You's suggestion this time, so he appointed Chunyu Qiong as the original commander-in-chief.
Xu You was stunned for a moment, thinking that it would be better for Yuan Shao to go alone, but he couldn't say this, so he nodded and remained silent.
Xu You is such a person.
He was indeed resourceful and extremely capable among party members. He rescued murdered party members many times during the party's imprisonment movement, and also organized several hunts and killings of eunuchs' children.
As a wise man, he is ruthless, tough, and resolute in his work. For example, in the implementation of the manor samurai system, it was not all smooth sailing. There were always some local tyrants who wanted to keep their land but also wanted to stay out of the Yuan family's system.
But in the end, they were all wiped out by Xu You.
Therefore, as a wise man and executor, Xu You is undisputed. But now as the chief of the Chen Kingdom, and even more so the Prime Minister, he is a bit inferior.
As the prime minister, that is the political pole of Chen State. He needs to have his own strategic opinions, and he must dare to persist when Yuan Shao is confused.
But Xu You was not. He tried his best to avoid conflict with Yuan Shao and went to Yuan Shao's favor. He knew that Yuan Shao valued family background, so Xu Youpiju's staff were all descendants of Nanyang from noble families.
Yes, the children he promoted were not children from Runan, Yingchuan, but from Nanyang, his hometown. Nanyang was an imperial hometown, and the powerful families in the county were much better than the Yingchuan scholar families.
But unfortunately, not all children from aristocratic families can have the Yingchuan style of study.
Yingchuan, as the seat of the Legalist school in the past, attached great importance to pragmatism, so it often produced talented people who could manage the world.
But what about the children of Nanyang nobles? He is good at talking but not practical, and many of the policies he formulates often deviate from reality. This can be seen from the fact that the military resources deployed by the shogunate to the front line were accumulated in Yingchuan during these days.
Not to mention, Xu You's character is greedy.
And this is always where Yingchuan scholars criticize Xu You. His family was greedy for money, and even Yuan Shao often heard about it.
Originally, the Yingchuan scholars were dissatisfied because Xu You vigorously promoted the Nanyang people, and later "forced" Guo Jia to leave, which was regarded by the Yingchuan faction as a signal to suppress them.
Therefore, he could neither persuade nor accept him. As the prime minister and assistant, Xu You was really a bit reluctant.
But this time he was able to persuade Yuan Shao to stay behind, which was very rare for Xu You. But fortunately, Yuan Shao still listened to the advice.
So Xu You and Yuan Shao discussed other details and went back with peace of mind.
On the way back, Xu You was still thinking about this while sitting in the car.
Chun Yuqiong's abilities are still a bit lacking, and he still needs a few staff to assist him. Just when Xu You was thinking about how to arrange the candidates, Li Dian suddenly came running behind him.
And the first thing Li Dian said to Xu You was:
"Zaifu, my lord has decided to go on the expedition himself. Please come back quickly to discuss the candidates for the expedition."
Xu You was silent, and it took him a long time to say something:
"Okay, here we go."