Yuan Xi stood up and walked around, all the inconsistencies in the past information flooding into his mind.
Cao Cao's army, which has great military strength and speed, has not yet appeared, and it is unknown where he is planning what.
The remnants of Yuan Shu's army ran from Yuzhou to the border of Qingzhou, which was located at the junction of Yuan Tan's and Cao's forces.
Yuan Tan marched from this area recklessly, but Cao's army showed no response.
Who gave Yuan Shu the confidence to attack Jingzhou even though he was surrounded by enemies from both sides, so that he would not be afraid of being cut off?
But Yuan Shu had left the Yuan clan and his harem in Shouchun before. If he voluntarily gave up Shouchun and these people, would he have that much courage?
Yuan Xi thought that when a person does something, he must have a motive, which is the benefit obtained from the matter. Only by gaining benefits can people be motivated to take action. So what is Cao Cao's purpose and motivation?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong, so he asked Sun Li to invite Jushu and Lu Xun. After they arrived, Yuan Xi explained his doubts. Jushou thought for a while and said: "I am good at military affairs, but I don't know much about strategy." He is good at it, and besides, we currently lack intelligence on Cao Jun’s actions, so we dare not make any hasty conclusions.”
"No one knows whether he is spying on Yecheng somewhere, waiting for the young master to send troops, and waiting for an opportunity to sneak attack on our soldiers?"
"Bo Yan is responsible for collecting intelligence. He knows more than me. Do you have your own ideas?"
Lu Xun cleared his throat and said, "In the past five days, I have sent out more than thirty groups of spies, and seven or eight of them have returned."
"The scope of its exploration was as far as 200 miles outside Yecheng, and it focused on searching mountains, dense forests and other locations."
"I deduce from the news that Cao Jun has at least two troops on the periphery, but the number is unknown."
Jushou said: "Two?"
"Is it a little missing?"
"How many people are there in each team?"
Lu Xun replied: "In total, there are at least 20,000 to 30,000 people."
Ju Shou nodded slightly, "If this is true, this number seems to be the main force of Cao's army."
Yuan Xi also agreed with Cao Cao's judgment. After several battles with Yuan Shu, Cao Cao was able to maintain a strength of 30,000 troops, which was already extraordinary.
But he was still uneasy and asked a question, "Is Yecheng Cao Cao's most important goal right now?"
As soon as these words came out, both Jushou and Lu Xun were a little silent. Finally, Jushou said in a deep voice: "Yecheng looks good, but it is not easy to take it down, and it is indeed not easy to hold it."
"Jizhou has a vast plain, and there is no natural barrier blocking Yecheng. A large number of troops must be put in to defend the city, but there are also more people than the attackers. For Cao Cao, who likes mobile warfare, it may not be suitable."
Yuan Xi said to Ju Shu: "If Yecheng is not important to Cao Cao, then where is the important place?"
"Or in other words, what does he most want to do?"
Lu Xun thought hard, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration and raised his head, "Actually, Cao Cao's previous attempt to seize Xuzhou and even Yuzhou proved to be a false shot, but if the young master hadn't ruined his good deeds, he would definitely have made the mistake. "
"Whether he pretended to attack Xuzhou and actually attacked Shouchun, or pretended to attack Shouchun and actually attacked Yecheng, in the final analysis, it was the young master who ruined his original plan, so he was forced to change to other plans."
"If the young master had not stopped him, then he would have benefited the most by continuing to attack Shouchun, Xuzhou. After all, he mobilized troops and horses but achieved nothing, which would be a huge blow to morale."
"Now that I think about it, according to Cao Cao's character, now that the young master unexpectedly rushed back and occupied Yecheng, has he already begun to plan other countermeasures?"
Jushou spoke up: "Bo Yan is saying that maybe Cao Cao has changed his original goal?"
Lu Xun hesitated: "I am just guessing. If this is the case, then Cao Cao's three troop dispatches from Xuzhou all had backup strategies. This is a bit unbelievable."
"I can only think of this. His true intention is really difficult to guess."
Yuan Xi was silent. In the final analysis, he still did not have enough information about Cao Ying to draw further inferences, so he said: "If Cao Cao is really feinting this time, then where is he most likely to attack? "
Ju Shou said: "The worst case scenario is that Cao Cao and Yuan Shu and Yuan Tan join forces in private."
"The territory of the three people covers a wide area, almost spanning the entire Jianghuai region. Within this range, all goals are possible."
"The Young Master's Xuzhou Youzhou, Sun Ce's Yangzhou, Liu Biao's Jingzhou, Liangzhou's Ma Teng and Han Sui, and even Sili's Emperor"
Yuan Xi suddenly raised his head, "That's it!"
"If it were me, I would most likely take action against Huaicheng!"
Ju Shou was stunned, "Although I once proposed to Duke Benchu that he could hold the emperor hostage to make his ministers unwilling to surrender, it was because Duke Benchu's power was not able to subdue the world at that time, so I made this suggestion."
"But now most of the world is in the hands of the Yuan family. If Cao Cao can be defeated, the world will only have remote places like Yangzhou, Jingzhou and Yizhou that cannot determine the general trend of the world. At this time, the emperor is no longer so important."
"The same is true for Cao Cao. If he captures Jizhou and adds Sili of Yanzhou, he can occupy the Central Plains and no one in the world can compete with him."
"Then why did he abandon the near for the distant, abandon Jizhou and go to Huaicheng?"
Seeing that Lu Xun also voiced his approval, Yuan Xi felt uncertain again. If he had not known Cao Cao's behavior in later generations, he would not have believed that Cao Cao still had such a big obsession with the emperor at this time.
What does capturing Huaicheng mean to Cao Cao now?
The key is, with Lu Bu over there, does Cao Cao have the extra troops to do such a thing?
He thought for a long time and said to Lu Xun: "Bo Yan, please pay more attention to the information sent by Huaicheng."
Lu Xun listened and nodded quickly to accept the order.
But none of the three expected that the news from Huaicheng would come so quickly. That night, an unsigned letter was sent to Yecheng through the Black Mountain channel.
It's a coincidence that this letter was originally sent to Heishan Pass, then to Beixin City, and then to Jicheng. Guo Jia handled it uniformly, summarized the important information, and then sent it south to Yuan Xi's office.
However, something happened recently in Montenegro. Due to the march of Yuan Shang's army in the south of Montenegro and the fighting with the bandits there, the message delivery channel in the south of Montenegro was cut off and could no longer be sent to Beixin City.
Therefore, the spies arranged by Yuan Xi in advance took the emergency route from the Sili area directly to Jizhou and were sent to Yecheng by fast horse.
Yuan Xi took the ball of linen cloth and uncovered the paint seal. There were two extremely strange symbols on the paint surface underneath.
One represents the highest level of information transmission.
The other one showed that Huaicheng's insiders had sent out intelligence for the first time.
The words inside are very simple, only a few words.
If the imperial edict is leaked, a disaster is imminent.
When Yuan Xi saw this, he stood up suddenly.
Something happened in Huaicheng!
And combined with the knowledge of later generations, Yuan Xi can even guess what will happen.
This shows that not only Liu Xie in Huai City is in danger, but also the lives of his officials and ministers, including Lu Bu!
Yuan Xi immediately understood the seriousness of this matter. If Cao Cao dared to attack Huaicheng, he would have deployed enough troops in Huaicheng in advance to suppress everyone!
Where did his soldiers come from?
Yuan Xi's body was shocked, Yuan Shu?
Is that so?
Jushu and Lu Xun looked at Yuan Xi's serious face and were still thinking about how to speak. Yuan Xi told them all their suspicions.
After Yuan Xi finished speaking, the two discussed it in a low voice, and suddenly discovered that Yuan Xi's guess was probably right!
Yuan Xi said: "Now our choice is, what should we do?"
"Should we continue to defend Yecheng, or send troops to rescue Huaicheng?"
Ju Shou said in a deep voice: "If this is the case, when Yuan Shang's army is about to arrive at Yecheng, Cao's army will launch a large-scale attack to hold the young master back."
"I suggest you wait and see what happens before you respond. After all, if he really has a plot against Huaicheng, he has already taken action now. I'm afraid it will be too late to rush over."
Unfortunately, Ju Shou's words were indeed true. Zhang He arrived at Yecheng first the next day, and at the same time, two pieces of news came from spies in the west.
The first news was that Cao's army began to gather and move towards Yecheng.
The second news is that Lu Bu previously defended the Sili border and confronted the Xiliang army, but as if he had received some news, he quickly withdrew his troops and returned to Huaicheng.
And Ma Teng and Han Sui's Xiliang army marched towards Huaicheng under the banner of cleaning up the rebels around the emperor.
At the same time, approaching Huaicheng, there were tens of thousands of Yuan Shu's troops who were apparently attacking Nanyang, Jingzhou, but had actually entered Sili.
In other words, Lu Bu is now trapped in Huaicheng, facing a siege force that is ten times his size!
After Yuan Xi heard the news, his first reaction was to throw Yecheng to Zhang He and lead his troops to Huaicheng to fight Yuan Shu.
He regretted a little, why he didn't kill Yuan Shu's army before!
But now I think about it, after I captured Shouchun, I was originally planning to pursue Yuan Shu's army westward, but I hurried back because I got the news that Ye City was attacked by Cao Cao, and then I temporarily let Yuan Shu go.
Looking back now, was it Cao Cao who moved the chess pieces on the chessboard, making false and false claims, attacking the west, and toying with the applause of everyone in the world?
Now Cao Cao posed a difficult problem for Yuan Xi, how to choose between Yecheng and Huaicheng?
Yuan Xi knew in his heart that Huaicheng was not actually important to him. What he could give priority to was Lu Bu, who was not sure whether he was a burden or not.
An idea arose in his mind. If he didn't care about Lu Bu's life or death, this choice would actually be easy, wouldn't it?
Yuan Xi was horrified. He suppressed his anxiety and faced Zhang He as he entered the city.
When Zhang He learned that Yuan Xi had arrived at Yecheng early, he was still a little uneasy. He was afraid that Yuan Xi would not let him enter the city, so it would be difficult to explain to Yuan Shang.
However, he was glad that there were no setbacks. As soon as he entered the city, he saw Yuan Xi coming up to him and said bluntly: "Please Jun Yi return immediately and let Xianfu rush back to Yecheng as soon as possible."
Zhang He was stunned, was he asking himself to go back?
Don't play like this!
(End of chapter)
