However, to everyone's surprise, Yuan Xi not only did not covet Yecheng, but also welcomed Yuan Shang into the city. The two parties actually joined forces!
This completely shattered Guo Tu's plan. While Guo Tu's face was tarnished, he was forced to come up with remedial measures.
When Cao's army advances to Yecheng, the Yuan family will inevitably fight with it. If it's a city defense battle, that's it. If it's a field battle, then Yuan Tan's opportunity will come!
At that time, Yuan Tan's army can lurk near Yecheng and wait for the two sides to fight until the sky is dark. When the number of troops stationed in Yecheng decreases, Yuan Tan can suddenly attack Yecheng and raid Yecheng!
After discussion among the counselors, Yuan Tan adopted this plan and led his troops to hide.
Soon the opportunity came.
What made Yuan Tan happy was that Yuan Xi actually used all his troops to go out of the city for a decisive battle. This situation was much better than previously expected, which meant that only Yuan Shang's Jizhou Army was in the city.
When the time comes, Yuan Tan waits for an opportunity to make a surprise attack. Although it is difficult to attack the city, firstly, he has internal support in the city, and secondly, because he goes to Yecheng more this time, he does not need to worry about the losses and subsequent aftermath.
As long as Yuan Tan can enter Yecheng, everything will be settled!
So when the Battle of Yecheng started, Yuan Tan had been listening to the movements on the battlefield. It was not until Yuan Shang appeared on the battlefield that Yuan Tan was shocked to realize that the development of things once again exceeded his expectations!
In Yuan Tan's expectation, the battle between the two sides would take at least two or three days. When neither side can get away, it would be the best time for him to intervene.
At that time, Yuan Xi was too busy to take care of himself, and he would definitely not be able to respond in time to the Cao army's offensive. Even if he got the news that Yuan Tan was attacking Yecheng, he would be in vain.
But Yuan Shang personally led his troops into the battlefield, which shows that Yuan's plan is to fight quickly. If he defeats Cao's army and returns to Yecheng, Yuan Tan will have no chance!
But on the contrary, Yuan Shang's departure from the city is Yuan Tan's best opportunity. At this time, the interior of Ye City must be empty. As long as he rushes to the city, he will definitely be able to force his way into the city!
So Yuan Tanjun was ready to leave without hesitation.
But Yuan Shang also had backup in Yuan Tan's army. Yuan Tan's actions were immediately reported to others desperately.
Although two of the three spies died, one of them ran away in the end and passed the news to Yuan Shang. Therefore, after Yuan Shang learned the news, he decisively chose to rush back to Yecheng.
The goal of war is to achieve the goal, but if the gains after achieving the goal are not as good as the losses, then naturally you can only choose to give up.
In Yuan Shang's eyes, the benefits brought by pursuing Cao's army are far less than the loss he would suffer from losing Yecheng. After all, without Yecheng, Jizhou would have lost more than half of it, and it would be difficult for him to stand up by then.
In Yuan Xi's view, the outcome of the Battle of Yecheng will determine whether Cao Cao's development momentum can be suppressed in the future, and even pave the way for a complete defeat of Cao Cao in the future, so he will not give up now.
Yuan Xi was sitting in the tent, and Lu Xun next to him was quickly flipping through the information delivered today and summarizing it. At this time, he paused and picked up a roll of bamboo.
This was sent by spies from the direction of Sili. It said that Ma Teng, Han Sui's army and Yuan Shu's army had entered Sili's territory, pointing directly at Huaicheng.
He blurted out: "There is indeed something wrong."
Yuan Xi stood up suddenly and said, "What did Boyan see?"
Lu Xun spoke up: "According to the latest intelligence, Cao Cao did not appear on the Yecheng battlefield."
Yuan Xi said: "He is in charge of Juancheng, which is only a few dozen miles away from the Yellow River ferry. It's the same."
Lu Xun shook his head and said, "No, he shouldn't be in Yanzhou either."
Yuan Xi was startled, "What did Boyan mean?"
Lu Xun said solemnly: "I suspect that Cao Cao was not involved in this battle at Yecheng from beginning to end."
Yuan Xi suddenly realized that Cao Cao was neither in Jizhou nor Yanzhou, so the only place he could go to was either Yuzhou or Sili!
His face darkened, "Does Boyan think that the movements of Yuan Shu and Ma Teng's armies in Huaicheng are related to Cao Cao?"
Lu Xun looked heavy, "Brother is right, I suspect Cao Cao has entered Sili!"
Yuan Xi fully figured it out and exclaimed: "It's broken!"
"Marquis Wen is in danger!"
He immediately wrote an urgent letter in handwriting, and asked people to set off overnight to rush to Sili to deliver the letter. However, both he and Lu Xun knew that if Cao Cao had premeditated it, it would be too late to send the letter at this time, just for peace of mind.
Lu Xun saw the regret on Yuan Xi's face and said in a deep voice, "Brother, don't blame yourself. This was my mistake."
"But now that the distant water cannot quench the near thirst, I can only focus on the present. At least we can completely repel Cao's army before we can make other plans."
Defeat Cao Jun? Yuan Xi was no longer thinking about this. He asked Lu Bu to take precautions, but he just didn't expect that Cao Cao would go to Sili in person.
If this is the case, Lu Bu's can't defeat Cao Cao!
Lu Xun saw Yuan Xi's expression, and felt a little unwilling to do so. To say that Cao Cao was toying with everyone's applause was rather to say that he had neglected his duty as a counselor.
Cao Cao's three attempts to attack the east and the west were really clever.
The first time he made an attack on the east and west, he first attacked Xuzhou, but with a false shot, he not only defeated Liu Bei, but also led Yuan Xi to fight head-on, and finally retreated decisively, leading Yuan Tan and Yuan Shu to fight.
The second time he attacked Shouchun via Yuzhou, he led the three sons of the Yuan family to Shouchun. In fact, they suddenly launched a counterattack and aimed directly at the empty Yecheng. If Yuan Xi had not returned to defense in time, it is difficult to say what the consequences would have been. how.
The third time he attacked the east and west, while attacking Yecheng, he instigated Yuan Tan to disrupt the situation in Jizhou. However, Cao Cao himself probably went to Huaicheng to kidnap the emperor!
The beauty of this plan to attack the east and attack the west is not that the plan to attack the east is a false move. On the contrary, behind the false and true, there is a backhand that always makes the most of the false and the false. As long as the party being plotted cannot stop this false move, The feint will immediately turn into a real killing move, sealing the throat with one sword!
Lu Xun felt a sense of frustration in his heart. He was still too young. Cao Cao's camp randomly pulled out a counselor whose experience and strategy were no less than his own. He really failed to live up to Yuan Xi's expectations!
But Lu Xun also had some doubts in his heart.
If he couldn't see it himself, couldn't it be that Guo Jia and Jushu didn't see it either?
In Lu Xun's heart, these two people were the top counselors in the world. Is it possible to say that they were not aware of Cao Cao's plan at all?
In fact, Lu Xun's suspicion was not wrong.
The reason why Guo Jia did not remind Yuan Xi was because he felt that Yuan Xi had already embarked on his own path, so there was no need for a puppet emperor to support his appearance.
In Guo Jia's view, the Han Dynasty lost its deer and the whole world was expelled. This shabby imperial court could no longer support it. Yuan Xi was not suitable to be a tinkerer, so he simply smashed it and redid it.
On Jushou's side, his thoughts were much more complicated.
He stood at the top of Ye City and looked in the direction of Huaicheng.
As one of the earliest counselors in Yuan Shao's camp who proposed to serve the emperor to order the princes, in fact, at the beginning, he was very supportive of welcoming the emperor to Jizhou.
But when Yuan Xi originally sent him and Zhao Yun to Anyi to welcome the emperor, Jushou keenly discovered that the emperor Liu Xie was not willing to be subordinate to others.
On the contrary, Liu Xie was very thoughtful and action-oriented. If he were a feudal lord, he might have done better than most people.
But he is the emperor.
Not only did he want to maintain the status quo, but he also wanted to revive the dilapidated Han Dynasty, and he also wanted to unify the entire world.
This goal is really too difficult.
It's so difficult that no one else would be able to do anything.
But Liu Xie had no other way out, because he was the emperor. The moment he ascended to this position, he was destined to have the only way forward.
Therefore, Liu Xie will never be willing to be used by anyone. On the contrary, he will try every means to subdue the princes for his own use.
However, now he does not have the ability to obtain this power openly, so he can only take risks.
But the consequences of taking risks are that people around him are likely to be killed. Of course, Liu Xie himself will not die.
On the way from Anyi to Huaicheng, Jushou saw clearly Liu Xie's character and thoughts. He felt that Jujun's death was in vain, so he gradually gave up the idea of serving the emperor.
Especially when Liu Xie was extremely wary of Yuan, it was even more difficult to get him to cooperate almost submissively.
So Jushou wisely gave up his efforts. He also saw that Cao Cao had already done the same thing. Jushou was sure that Cao Cao's actions would definitely usher in a strong backlash from Liu Xie.
Therefore, even if Jushou noticed that Cao Cao might have a plot to capture the city, he did not mention it to Yuan Xi.
Because Liu Xie might have to suffer a big loss before he could finally realize that Yuan Xi was valuable to him, but now Liu Xie doesn't care about Yuan Xi's help.
So Jushou is waiting.
Wait for Huaicheng to change.
The reason why he didn't tell Yuan Xi only overlapped with Guo Jia's concerns.
Lu Bu.
In the eyes of both of them, Lu Bu was a burden to Yuan Xi, both in terms of reputation and status.
Yuan Xi's feelings for Lu Bu are harmful rather than helpful, and even a huge obstacle to the road to world hegemony.
Therefore, the two people, who had never discussed each other, chose the same behavior in a tacit understanding.
Sit back and watch Lu Bu being plotted.
This is actually unfair to Lu Bu, because he escaped from Chang'an and took refuge with Yuan Shao. After escaping, he raised an army from Chenliu to rebel against Cao Cao, then went to Sili to welcome the emperor and became a general of the Han Dynasty. He made no mistakes along the way. What.
His biggest problem is that he killed the two leaders Ding Yuan and Dong Zhuo when he started.
No matter what his reasons were at the time, or whether there was anyone behind the scenes, he did such an outrageous thing, and what stayed with him for the rest of his life was the ingratitude and disloyalty that he could never get rid of. The mark of righteousness.
No matter what he does, this mark will stay with him throughout his life and come back to bite him.
Now the backlash has arrived.
When he was being plotted against, even the counselors in Yuan Xi's camp who had a very close relationship with him did not want him to live.
However, there are only a few people in the world who still care about him. They are either trapped in themselves or limited by their vision and ability, and they have not been able to remind him in time.
In Huaicheng, Chen Gong advised Lu Bu: "Marquis Wen, things are deteriorating in Huaicheng, so we should make preparations early."
Lu Bu said: "What preparations?"
"The emperor wants me to block foreign enemies, so I will go out of the city to fight. What else should I prepare?"
(End of chapter)
