Just as Guo Jia had suggested before, Li Jing specifically targeted Yuan Shao's side, which was so powerful that the casualties among the coalition forces, including those of Yuan Shao's family, were much greater than those of Chi You and Cao Cao combined.
To put it simply, if a total of ten soldiers were lost, six of them were probably from Yuan Shao's side, and the remaining four were from Cao Cao and Chi You combined.
The only good thing is that after all, the two sides have not completely found the opportunity, so the successive battles are just some tentative fights, and it has not yet reached the time to start a big war or even a decisive battle.
Therefore, overall, the casualties are not large and are within a controllable range. This is true whether it is the Allied Forces or the Jin Army!
However, even though the casualties were not serious, Yuan Shao still felt unbalanced! This is equivalent to several princes joining forces. They also suffered losses, but Yuan Shao's losses alone were greater than the other two of them combined!
Invisibly, Yuan Shao's power weakened even more, but the weakening of the remaining two families was limited. To put it more seriously, if it continues like this, if it continues to develop like this now and in the future, Yuan Shao's power will probably be inferior to the other two. In this case, how could you ask Yuan Shao to agree!
Let alone Yuan Shao, even Cao Cao or Chi You may not be able to endure this situation!
Why do these princes want to unite? Isn't it just to weaken a common powerful enemy? However, it is unclear whether there was success in the end, but if in the process they had to sacrifice themselves to achieve success for their teammates, how could these princes agree? It’s already great to prevent them from cheating their teammates!
Although these princes have achieved an alliance, in the end, it is all about their own interests. If their own interests are guaranteed in this process, then what's the point of forming this alliance!
What made Yuan Shao most unbalanced was Qin Zheng. After all, at the beginning, Qin Zheng's forces also joined this alliance of princes. Although Han Xin later received Qin Zheng's order and withdrew his troops, in name only Being part of an alliance of princes only withdraws its troops rather than withdrawing from the alliance.
Withdrawing troops and withdrawing from an alliance are not the same concepts. There is still a certain gap in name!
But the remaining princes fought to death with the Jin army here, trying every means to weaken the Jin army. However, Qin Zheng himself kept expanding his territory and annexing Liu Bang's power. This is a place that makes Yuan Shao feel unbalanced!
Even if there is an alliance, there is one problem that cannot be avoided. Yuan Shao's own strategic plan will always be Hebei, and Youzhou is one of his goals. But his target is getting stronger and stronger, making it more and more difficult for him to deal with, but as an ally, he is ridiculously here to consume another enemy!
Your goal is becoming stronger now, but your strength is constantly being damaged. How can you let Yuan Shao be willing to do it?
Therefore, as the alliance lasted longer, the conflicts between the princes inevitably began to manifest themselves.
At this time, Li Jing continued to make moves. Under Li Jing's instructions, 20,000 naval troops headed by Han Shizhong and Jiao Mo kept wandering in the Yellow River, pretending to look for opportunities to attack.
Han Shizhong's Yellow River Navy originally had 30,000 people, but 10,000 people followed Qi Jiguang to Jingbei. Using these people as the backbone will ensure that Qi Jiguang can set up the Yangtze River Navy as quickly as possible in the future, and allow them to Once formed, sufficient combat effectiveness will be formed.
It is precisely because of this that Han Shizhong now only has 20,000 sailors left.
Although they are northern princes, many princes also have naval armies, but they cannot compare with the southern navy in terms of combat power. Just as the North has a natural advantage in cavalry, the South also has a natural and unique advantage in forming a navy. Each has its own merits, which are incomparable.
For example, Li Xiang, Liu Bei, Qin Zheng, and even Dou Jiande all formed navy armies. Of course, although it belongs to Dou Jiande in name, it is actually no different from Li Xiang's. However, Yuan Shao did not have the vision to form a naval army in the north.
Moreover, the naval army is not just formed, you also need to have the corresponding naval talents! If there are no supporting talents, even if the formation is barely successful, the final combat effectiveness will be haha!
Therefore, when the coalition forces did not have naval forces, they could only choose passive defense in the face of Han Shizhong's menacing attitude of taking action at any time. Therefore, Han Shizhong only had 20,000 men and horses, but he had already restrained the coalition's 40,000 troops!
This was enough for Li Jing, and Han Shizhong had only this purpose for sending Li Jing out. It was to let Han Shizhong attract the enemy's strength as much as possible, but not to let Han Shizhong actually take action.
A bow and arrow is always unstrung, but the moment it is not shot is the most alarming moment. The arrow that has been shot is not worthy of constant vigilance!
Next, Li Jing used most of his power to attack Chi You and Cao Cao, but used less power on Yuan Shao.
Moreover, compared with Chi You and Cao Cao, Li Jing was clearly planning to fake the match with Yuan Shao at the beginning, which was obviously to make thunder but no rain.
However, Yuan Shao, who was in an unbalanced psychological state, finally fell into Li Jing's scheme.
Facing the two princes Cao Cao and Chi You's request for help, although his subordinates Cui Hao, Yuan Xi, Ju Shou and other princes continued to exhort him, Yuan Shao obviously made a mistake at this time. The words of these counselors not only did not have the desired effect, but also made him suffer. Yuan Shao became a little impatient.
Fortunately, the personalities of people like Cui Hao and Yuan Xi are completely different from Tian Feng's at the beginning, and they know when enough is enough, and in the final analysis, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shao are the same family. Otherwise, Yuan Shao may once again stage a wonderful performance of sending counselors to prison.
Cui Hao and Yuan Xi were two people who knew each other well. When they secretly observed that Yuan Shao's face was beginning to look a little unhappy, they immediately stopped and silently stepped aside. They also stopped him out of suspicion among their colleagues. Give me a hand.
And Yuan Shao's actions directly contributed to their failure this time, and even more directly caused the failure of their alliance of princes this time!
