Chapter 320: The fierce man who killed Cao Cao and cut off his beard and abandoned his robe, we must pay special attention to him! Not attacking Xuchang? What does Liu Bei want to do?
Yangping Pass is known as the most strategically placed pass in Shu, but how could it be breached so easily by Cao Cao?
Zhang Lu actually lost Hanzhong in just two months?
Or should he surrender and hand over Hanzhong to Cao Cao?

This piece of information really shocked Liu Bei and everyone else.

It is not surprising that Zhang Lu was defeated by Cao Cao. What is surprising is that he was defeated so quickly.

"Prime Minister, do you have clairvoyance? How did you know that Zhang Lu would surrender to Cao Cao?"

Zhang Fei threw down his wine glass and was the first to jump up, shouting with his eyes as big as bells.

Liu Bei came back to his senses, his eyes full of surprise:
"Jinglue, how do you determine that Zhang Lu will surrender to Cao Cao?"

Everyone's surprised eyes were all focused on Xiao Fang.

"Because of Yang Song."

Xiao Fang gave four words lightly.

"Yang Song?"

Liu Bei was stunned.

"The Yang family is a large family in Hanzhong. Yang Song is the head of the Yang family and a favored counselor of Zhang Lu. He holds a high position under Zhang Lu."

Pang Tong pointed out the origin of Yang Song.

Liu Bei nodded slightly, but still said blankly:
"Jinglue, what does this Yang Song have to do with Zhang Lu's surrender to Cao Cao?"

Everyone nodded, with the same doubt in their hearts.

"If Zhang Lu wanted to resist Cao Cao, he would have ordered his brother Zhang Wei and Ma Chao to lead the army to guard Yangping Pass and confront Cao Cao by relying on the natural barrier."

"Given the danger of Yangping Pass, let alone Cao Cao, even if the king leads his army there, with the Hanwei cannon in hand, it would be extremely difficult to attack by force."

"If Cao Cao wanted to break through Yangping Pass, he would definitely use a trick to lure Zhang Wei and Ma Chao into battle, first annihilate the elite troops of Hanzhong led by them, and then take advantage of the opportunity to break through the pass."

"In this case, the key lies in how to lure Zhang Wei and Ma Chao to cross the border for a battle."

"Given the wisdom of Guo Jia and Jia Xu under Cao Cao, it would be easy for them to think of using the strategy of sowing discord to force Zhang and Ma to go to battle."

When Xiao Fang said this, Lao Liu and the others still seemed to understand and still didn't realize what it had to do with Yang Song.

"Yang Song is greedy for money and has the trust of Zhang Lu. Cao Cao will most likely send someone to bribe him with a large sum of money and promise him a high title to persuade Yang Song to rebel."

"Then you can ask Yang Song to slander Zhang Lu, saying that his brother Zhang Wei is in collusion with Ma Chao and has the ambition to take over Zhang Lu's place by raising his own troops."

"Zhang Lu will naturally urge Zhang Wei and Ma Chao to join the battle, so as to defeat Cao Cao as soon as possible and regain his military power."

"When Generals Zhang and Ma went into battle, it was exactly what Cao Cao wanted, and they were defeated by him."

Xiao Fang took his time and finally stated his overall speculation.

Everyone looked at each other, with surprise and suspicion still coexisting in their eyes.

It’s not that Xiao Fang’s speculation is unreasonable, but how could Xiao Fang have such insight into Yang Song, Zhang Lu’s strategist?

How could he know even such a secret thing as his greed for money?

Liu Bei came to his senses and hurriedly took the silk book handed to him by his personal guard. He unfolded it and could not wait to read it carefully, fearing that he would miss every word.

After a while, the suspicion and guesswork on his face disappeared, replaced by deep amazement.

The silk book is closed.

Liu Bei looked up at Xiao Fang and exclaimed in admiration:

"How could I have forgotten that you, Jinglue, know everything about the people and things in the world!"

"It's just as you said, Jinglue. Cao Cao really relied on bribing Yang Song and using a strategy of alienation to force Zhang Lu to force Zhang Wei and Ma Chao to fight, and only then was he able to break through Yangping Pass!"

There was a shock in the hall, and everyone's surprised looks suddenly turned into admiration.

Xiao Fang just smiled.

In fact, Cao Cao took over Hanzhong in less than a few months with the help of Yang Song's move.

Although the course of history has changed dramatically, the remote areas of Hanzhong and Bashu have not undergone major changes.

Then it is reasonable that Cao Cao relied on Yang Song to capture Hanzhong during his attack on Hanzhong.

"My lord, does this intelligence tell me whether Ma Chao will surrender or die?"

That’s Ma Chao from Xiliang.

One of the Five Tiger Generals, a fierce man who was so fierce that he cut off his beard and abandoned his robe to kill Cao Cao.

Xiao Fang naturally wanted to pay special attention to who such a powerful man belonged to.

Liu Bei calmed down from his sigh, lowered his head to take a closer look, and then shook his head.

"This intelligence said that after Zhang Wei was killed by Cao Cao, Ma Chao fled back to Nanzheng."

"Zhang Lu wanted to surrender Nanzheng to Cao Cao, so he wanted to lure Ma Chao to his death, but Ma Chao saw through it in advance and led his troops to attack Nanzheng, and his whereabouts are still unknown."

Xiao Fang's eyes lit up slightly.

The intelligence at least indicated that Ma Chao was still alive, and had neither died nor surrendered to Cao Cao.

This means that this Xiliang Lion, one of the Five Tiger Generals, at least still has a chance to join Liu Bang.

"Since Cao Cao has taken Hanzhong, the next step is naturally to get involved in Bashu, so for us, we must quickly take Xuchang and recover the provinces of Henan as soon as possible."

Xiao Fang pointed at the map with his feather fan, drawing Lao Liu and everyone else's attention back from distant Hanzhong to the battle situation at hand.

"By the way, Jinglue, you just said that you want to quickly capture Xuchang, do you have a good plan?"

Liu Bei's thoughts also returned to the present.

"I believe that if we want to quickly capture Xuchang, we must not allow Yuan Shao to gather a large number of troops in Xuchang."

"In other words, we must not let Yuan Shao think that the main force of our army is attacking Xuchang."

When Old Liu heard this, he became confused again.

Xiao Fang then stood up and pointed at the map with his feather fan:
"My opinion is that the king can order Taishi Ziyi to leave some troops in Xubei to continue to contain Yuan Xi's Qingzhou Army." "Taishi Ziyi can lead the main force of the Xuzhou Army and head west from Pengcheng to Suiyang, the capital of Liang State."

"Your Majesty can also lead the main force of our army to march northeast and join the Xuzhou army to attack Suiyang."

"Suiyang City is in the center of Yanzhou. If we capture this city and head west, we can attack Chenliu and cut off Xuchang's retreat."

"From Suiyang to the north, we can seize Jiyin County, and then our troops can drink from the Yellow River and cut off the provinces of Henan!"

"Yuan Shao will definitely not sit idly by and watch such an important town. He will definitely mobilize all his forces to Suiyang to resist the king."

"In this case, the main force of the Wei army was transferred to the Suiyang front, and the number of soldiers left in Xuchang was at most 10,000 to 20,000."

As he spoke, Xiao Fang pointed to the south with his feather fan:
"Then the task of capturing Xuchang will be handed over to the Jingzhou Army led by General Yunchang."

"Although my Jingzhou army only has about 30,000 soldiers, I can go and give advice to General Yunchang. At this time, there are less than 20,000 soldiers in Xuchang City, which gives me the opportunity to use my strategy."

"I have my own way to capture Xuchang!"

The overall strategy for capturing Xuchang was finally laid out before Lao Liu and his generals.

Liu Bei stroked his thin beard, examined the map, and nodded slightly.

He gradually understood that Xiao Fang's strategy could be said to be another trick to lure the tiger away from the mountain.

However, this time, the scale of the luring of the tiger away from the mountain is even more unprecedented.

So he used his 80,000 main forces, plus Taishi Ci's 30,000 Xuzhou legion, a total of 100,000 troops as bait to lure Yuan Shao's main force from the Xuchang line to the Suiyang line.

The task of capturing Xuchang was instead undertaken by the 30,000-strong detachment led by Guan Yu.

Although Guan Yu had few soldiers, the key point was that there were also few Wei troops stationed in Xuchang. As long as there were few soldiers in Xuchang, Xiao Fang would have room to implement his strategies.

"it is good!"

After weighing the pros and cons for a moment, Liu Bei happily waved his hand:

"According to Jinglue's strategy, I will personally lead the main force to lead Yuan Shao to Suiyang."

"Xuchang, Jinglue and Yunchang will take it!"

...

Xuchang City, Palace of King Wei.

Yuan Shao sat on the throne, his brows furrowed and his face grim as he flipped through the piles of urgent reports in his hands.

That was an urgent report sent overnight from various counties in Yanzhou.

The governor of Runan County has led the entire county to announce its surrender to Liu Bei.

The seven southern counties of the Chen State have all announced their defection and changed their flags.

The six counties in the northern part of Pei State all openly surrendered to Liu Bei...

The chain reaction after the disastrous defeat in Guling had quickly manifested itself in just ten days.

Those local officials who were originally under the jurisdiction of the State of Wei, seeing the reversal of the strength of the Chu and Wei armies, immediately changed their stance and chose to defect to Liu Bei.

Even his hometown, Runan County, decisively betrayed him and announced its allegiance to Liu Bei.

Not only did this battle result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, but also the loss of a large area of ​​land. The loss was so heavy that it is difficult to estimate.

"You are a bunch of disloyal, shameless people. Sooner or later, I will wipe out your entire clan!"

The more Yuan Shao read, the angrier he became. He cursed angrily and threw the silk book in his hand onto the table.

All the ministers below the stairs were shocked and dared not breathe.

Feng Ji rolled his eyes a few times, then boldly said to comfort him:
"Your Majesty, please calm down and take care of your health."

"The Third Young Master has returned to Yecheng and is recruiting new troops for the King. With the richness of Hebei, we will be able to train another 100,000 elite soldiers for the King within half a year."

"Then we recovered our strength, defeated the big-eared thieves, and recovered the lost territory with ease."

"At that time, the king can exterminate all nine clans of this group of disloyal and unrighteous people who betrayed our Great Wei with a single order!"

After hearing Feng Ji's comfort, the anger on Yuan Shao's face subsided a lot.

Yuan Shao took a deep breath, pretended to be calm and domineering, and snorted coldly:

"Pass on my order, and order all the troops south of Xudu to retreat to Xudu."

"I will stay in Xudu and fight that big-eared thief for a while. We will stay at home for now and let that big-eared thief show off his power and do whatever he wants for a few days."

"When Xianfu sends 100,000 elite troops from Hebei, I will turn defense into offense and avenge my previous humiliation!"

Feng Ji and others all agreed and praised Yuan Shao for his wisdom.

Ju Su, however, had a frown on his face, a gloomy look and eyes full of worry. It was obvious that he did not agree with Yuan Shao's optimism and confidence.

After hesitating for a long time, he was about to speak.

The personal guards rushed into the hall holding up the urgent message.

"Your Majesty, urgent news from Liang State!"

"The Wei general Taishi Ci advanced westward from Pengcheng, successively conquered our Xiao County, and captured several cities in Yi, and is heading straight for Suiyang."

"Liu Bei has led 80,000 Chu troops to change their route to the north, and has successively captured Kuxian and Wuping, and is also approaching Suiyang."

"The Chu army has the momentum to attack Suiyang from both directions, joining forces from the east and west!"

The hall was instantly in an uproar.

Yuan Shao's face suddenly changed, and he exclaimed:

"The big-eared thief didn't lead his army to attack Xuchang? He actually turned to attack Suiyang?"

"What does he want to do?"

(End of this chapter)