Yuan Shao's death didn't seem to cause much trouble, and it didn't even seem like Lu Bu or Cao Cao took advantage of it as Xu You thought. Everything seemed to be no different from before.
In fact, this was definitely a depth bomb. People under the undercurrent had their own plans because of Yuan Shao's death.
Not to mention, the reason why Sima Yi felt that the Sima family could not hide away was because he saw that Yuan Shao's death would cause turmoil and tilt the balance of victory in the Central Plains towards Cao Cao, so he decided to go to Huai County;
For example, Chen Deng also felt that judging from the general situation, Cao Cao had the upper hand. With Yuan Shao's death in battle, the Northern Congress fell into a long-term split. In terms of plunder, Lu Bu was no match for Cao Cao, so the resentment accumulated in his heart began to explode. .
The thoughts of the two people are actually a reflection of the thoughts of the major families.
This is true for the aristocratic families, let alone the biggest beneficiaries of the Cao and Lu families.
If it weren't for Guo Jia's general strategy and the frequent flattery of the Cai family in Jingzhou, he really had the idea to attack Jizhou, especially with the autumn harvest, not to mention attacking the city, and plundering the land, he could take away two people. Three hundred thousand stones of food and grass.
But he never made any move.
Of course, in addition to Guo Jia's grand strategy, there is another very important reason, that is, Xuzhou can endure it and does not take any action.
Cao Cao had to worry about a problem. If Yuan Shang did not follow common sense and led his army to confront him, the front line would become a huge quagmire, giving Lu Bu a preemptive advantage.
After thinking about it several times, Cao Cao still chose to calm down, but he sighed in his heart that Lu Bu was becoming more and more stable now.
But how could Lu Bu himself have such good patience? You must know that his gains in the Central Plains War are completely different from Cao Cao's.
Therefore, as soon as the news of Yuan Shao's hatred reached Xuzhou, Lu Bu began to gear up for a big war, because at this time Qingzhou must be in panic and the military morale was unstable. It was the perfect time to kill all sides and seize the territory.
Zhang Xiu and others even came to ask for a fight several times, but Lin Mo refuted them all.
For this reason, Lu Bu felt very depressed. If it was his previous character, he might have his own way.
Here, I can only say that Wei Xu's death is still very valuable. When I think of what Lin Mo said after that big defeat, no matter what time, the opinions of the two men in the army should be the same, otherwise it will only be Bring it upon yourself.
Therefore, Lu Bu has learned to be smart. No matter how unhappy he is, he still has to be patient and grind it out with Lin Mo.
"Yunwen, are you worried that when I lead my troops north, Cao Cao will take the opportunity to launch an attack? I have discussed this issue with Gongtai, Wenhe, and, yes, Yuanzhi. We can consider plundering the land first, no. Siege the city.
I would lead an army of 20,000 to the north. At this time, Yuan Tan would not dare to go out of the city to fight me, so he asked his soldiers to take the opportunity to harvest the wheat fields in Qingzhou. At least he could earn more than ten or two hundred thousand dan of grain and grass.
I don't think the problem is big. If you are really worried, you can transfer the troops and horses in the city to Xiaoguan first to scare Cao Cao. If there is really a danger, it won't take me two days to come back. You know the speed of red rabbits and horses. . "
In Pengcheng, Lin Mo at the Examination Office turned his back to Lu Bu and turned a deaf ear to his good words.
He walked to the millstone nearby, held up a hand of powder, frowned and said, "It should be almost done. After high-temperature calcination, it should theoretically be finished cement."
Then he took it in front of Lu Bu and said with a smile: "Master Yue Zhang, these are good things. With them, Huainan will not be destroyed by water bursting from time to time."
During this period, Lin Mo was obsessed with making various inventions, one of which was cement.
It is not too difficult to make cement in this era, and the technical barriers are strong enough, so it is worth spending some time.
The first natural raw materials are quicklime, clay, iron ore and coal.
Clay is the main material of pottery. This stuff has been around for a long time. As for iron ore and coal, it is not too difficult to obtain, except that quicklime is a bit troublesome.
Quicklime has not been widely used in this era, but Lin Mo knows how to obtain it. It is just to find limestone and then calcine it at high temperature to become quicklime.
With the current human and financial resources of the nine counties, it is not too difficult to find these.
However, after several attempts, Lin Mo found that the viscosity and hardness of the cement he made were far from those of later generations.
Finally, I remembered that I forgot to mix the gypsum into the finished product and grind it into powder.
What is in front of him is the final product. Although it has not been tested and used, Lin Mo feels that it is pretty good.
Although cement has technical barriers, it is not realistic to make money from it.
First of all, ordinary people have thatched houses built with mud bricks, and they cannot afford to buy poor cement.
As for the aristocratic family, they actually don't need it, because they have no shortage of serfs. If there are any quality problems with the houses, they can just repair them.
Even the princes from all walks of life are not really flocking to cement, because this thing is to strengthen the city wall by breaking through the sky. But even in the Central Plains region, unless important passes or strategic towns will add cement on the outside of the rammed earth city wall. Blue bricks, others cannot be reinforced at all.
So, in the final analysis, this thing is for your own use.
However, Lin Mo still needs cement right now, because he found that in the past two years, too much manpower and financial resources have been invested in repairing river bursts and water damage in areas such as Lujiang, Jiujiang, and even Guangling.
If the river embankment can be reinforced with cement, then the investment in these aspects can be greatly reduced after a period of time.
Moreover, in the long run, cement will have to be made sooner or later.
In Lin Mo's opinion, it was also an artifact-level invention.
But in Lu Bu's view, compared with the invasion of the Northern Kingdom, this thing was not important at all. He directly grabbed a handful of cement perfunctorily, nodded and said: "Okay, okay, it is another disaster for the country and the people. No, it is beneficial to the country and the people." Invention, so can the North Country send troops?"
"Master-in-law, I know you are in a hurry, but please don't be anxious yet."
Lin Mo patted the cement in his hand, and the dust flew up, and explained casually: "If we lead the troops north now, why did we return the northern prisoners of war to Yuan Tan before? Wouldn't we be shooting ourselves in the foot?"
Lu Bu disagreed and shook his head: "At first you did this and asked me to write a letter of invitation and peace to Yuan Tan. I thought it was so that both sides would have enough time to rest and recuperate after the troops stopped. In this way, even after the Northern Kingdom regrouped, the pressure would only be on Cao Cao. On the other side, we can watch the fire from the other side.
But this time and that time, Yuan Shao was not dead at that time and the Northern Kingdom was not in chaos. Now"
"There is no such thing as one moment or another. Everything is progressing on the path I envisioned. So, please be more patient, Mr. Father-in-law."
When Lin Mo said this, Lu Bu was a little confused.
What does it mean that everything is progressing on the path you imagined? He looked back at Lin Mo, "Is it possible that you knew that Yuan Shao would die of illness?"
Okay, there are some things that I don’t know how to explain. It’s okay to use some myths. Lin Mo nodded and said: “After the war in the Central Plains, I watched the sky at night. I already knew that Yuan Shao was not going to die soon. Once he died, our plan would be half successful. .”
Hiss~
Lu Bu suddenly felt goosebumps all over his body. Don't you only know how to compete with Ling'er at night, and you actually know how to observe the sky at night?
This sounds like a high-level skill, which always makes people think that the other party has special powers.
Seeing Lin Mo's calm and calm expression, Lu Bu began to believe that this was true.
Although there have been rumors that his son-in-law has the magical power of Six Ding Liujia, the old father-in-law knows clearly that his son-in-law is indeed talented, but he definitely does not know any magical powers.
Now, he felt that he still didn't understand his son-in-law well enough. Most of his inner anxiety subsided and he asked, "Then how should I deal with myself?"
"I heard that Yuan Shang took over Yuan Shao's position. This young master must be very jealous of Yuan Tan. Shouldn't my father-in-law write a letter to Yuan Tan to appease him?"
"Appease him?" Lu Bu became more and more confused about what medicine Lin Mo was selling in his gourd.
"Master-in-law, as I expected, after Yuan Shang stabilizes the situation in the North, he will definitely deal with Yuan Tan. With the soldiers, horses and food he has on hand, he will not be able to compete with Yuan Shang."
Lin Mo made a gesture of invitation, pulled his old father-in-law away and said: "Yuan Tan, who is at the end of his rope, may give up resistance because of this, but if his father-in-law gives him a way to survive, will Yuan Tan be grateful? Or even use it as support?”
Lu Bu stopped suddenly when he was halfway through the journey, and carefully tried to figure out the meaning of Lin Mo's words.
After a while, his pupils suddenly gathered and he exclaimed: "I understand, you want to use Yuan Tan to take over the Northern Kingdom?"
"This will save a lot of trouble. Moreover, after all, the Yuan family is the fourth generation and the third prince. There are many aristocratic families in the northern country, and there are many soldiers, horses, money and food. Not to mention that we can't fight, even if we eat, we can't sit still."
"So, you are threatening Yuan Tan to order the Northern Kingdom." Lu Bu was completely enlightened.
My son-in-law doesn't have any thoughts about the North Country. His thoughts are much bigger than mine. He just wants to enjoy the autumn wind and earn some benefits. You are better off, because you want to eat up the North Country in one go.
But after careful consideration, this is indeed a brilliant move. Once Yuan Tan is in a desperate situation and he shows his kindness several times, he will definitely come to his aid, and that will be the perfect time to enter the Northern Kingdom.
After entering the Northern Kingdom, Yuan Tan opened the way as the Yuan family, and many aristocratic families and people loyal to Yuan Tan would respond.
In this battle, you only need to face Yuan Shang alone, and even the subsequent troubles of appeasing the people can be greatly reduced.
The division is well-known and can be used in Qingzhou without spending a single soldier.
Wonderful.
How wonderful!
As for Yuan Tan's final destination, at most he would be able to provide food and drinks like Cao Cao, and he was absolutely sure of taking care of a poor young man.
"Okay, okay! I'm going to write a letter to Yuan Tan now! I won't go to Qingzhou. If necessary, you can ask him if he is short of food and grass, haha!" Lu Bu smiled from ear to ear.
Sure enough, this kid was never idle. Fortunately, I learned wisely this time and didn't use force, otherwise I would have ruined Yunwen's plan.
"You, if you have any big plans in the future, you should tell me in advance. These days, I have trouble sleeping and eating." On the way back, Lu Bu felt a little resentful.
"Aren't you just trying to see if your father-in-law will have his own way?" Lin Mo joked with a smile.
"presumptuous."
Lu Bu glanced at Lin Mo and lectured: "Forget it this time, if you dare to do it again, you will not be spared lightly."
Lin Mo shrugged. The old father-in-law was so happy, right? He wouldn't scare anyone anymore.
Qingzhou, Pingyuan County, Pingyuan County, in the government hall, Yuan Tan paced back and forth uneasily.
His situation was worse than Lin Mo expected.
After Yuan Shao died, he had the intention to go back to attend the funeral, but when he thought of Yuan Shang's accession to the throne, he was really afraid that he would take the opportunity to make trouble. Even the Xin brothers did not advise him to go back at this time.
However, not going back does not mean that Yuan Shang has no way to deal with him. After ascending to the throne, he has the absolute power to take charge of the Northern Kingdom. For example, in front of him, messengers came to Yecheng and asked Yuan Tan to return to Yecheng immediately, otherwise the end would be over. His supplies of food, fodder, and ordnance.
Don't look at the fact that Yuan Tan still has a hundred thousand troops on hand, as for Qingzhou, there is also some tax harvest in the autumn harvest, so there will be no trouble in the short term.
But if he disobeys this military order, it will be tantamount to betrayal.
If they are declared as rebels, not only will their food, grass and weapons be gone, but many local aristocratic families will immediately cut off contact with them.
This can almost be regarded as a conspiracy. No matter what Yuan Tan does, he will fall into passivity.
To say that Yuan Shang doesn't understand strategy is obviously not the case.
He is just an expert in civil war and an outsider in foreign war.
"Sir, what should we do now?" Yuan Tan looked helplessly at the Xin brothers.
In the past, the two of them were high-spirited people who criticized Fang Qiu, but after being in this situation, they began to cherish words like gold because they had not made up their minds on what to do.
It was obviously impossible for Yuan Tan to return to Yecheng. Once he returned, it would be equivalent to being captured without mercy. Based on the past conflicts with Pang Ji and Shen Pei, the Xin brothers would not be able to escape the fate of being buried with them.
No return? There must be an excuse. If Yuan Shang directly declares them as rebels, the Xin family will be imprisoned directly for this.
In fact, the two brothers had no intention of advising Yuan Tan at this moment, because they first wanted to ensure their own future. Didn't they support Yuan Tan because they thought he was the heir apparent.
Now that they have lost this important position, the two of them have begun to waver.
Before his death, Tian Feng once said that the Xin brothers were flatterers, but it was a pity that Yuan Tan didn't listen. He didn't know that Tian Feng had nothing wrong with people.
If history does not change, when Yuan Tan asked Cao Cao for help, he would have sent Xin Pi as the envoy.
Good guy, after this guy arrived, he directly suggested to Cao Cao to capture Yuan Tan. It couldn't be called disloyal.
What advice can you give these two brothers right now? They are too busy to do anything on their own.
"Report! Young Master, there is a messenger asking to see you!" A sergeant ran in and bowed his hands.
The three of them were startled by the movement.
At this time, any messenger may come with a reminder.
Yuan Tan frowned, closed his eyes, and said solemnly: "Bring him in."
Now that things have come to this, it’s time to face whether it’s a blessing or a curse.
Regret, regret for not doing so.
If Mr. Tian were still here, An Neng would have led me to this dead end.
(End of chapter)
