Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 141: Crusade against Yuan Shu
In February of the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao, representing the imperial court, agreed with Liu Bei, the governor of Xuzhou, and Bai Tu, the governor of Yangzhou, to raise an army and attack Yuan Shu, who proclaimed himself emperor in Shouchun!
The situation on the Baitu side was relatively good, as they were "very restrained" and only sent troops to Wankou.
Taking into account the special terrain from Wankou to Wancheng, Yuan Shu didn't even want to pay attention to him... He just needed to concentrate on dealing with the double-pronged attack from Cao Cao and Liu Bei.
The Xuzhou cavalry and infantry, led by Liu Bei himself, started from Xiapi, passed through Xuyi, and attacked Zhongli.
The navy, led by Guan Yu, started from Hongze Lake, passed through Sanhe to Fanliang Lake (which is Gaoyou Lake in later generations), and then went south by water to attack Guangling.
From west to east along the Huai River, there are four major cities, namely Shouchun, Zhongli, Xuyi and Huaiyin. Between Xuyi and Huaiyin is the Hongze Lake, which is rich in water veins. Before this, the Xuzhou navy had been stationed and training in Hongze Lake.
Now Liu Bei wanted to attack Shouchun, but at the same time he did not forget to recover Guangling County which had been controlled by Yuan Shu for a long time, so he divided his troops into two routes, one to the west and the other to the south.
In comparison, Cao Cao's attack on Shouchun would be more difficult and he would need to attack Runan first.
Bai Tu, on the other hand, showed no sincerity at all. Everyone knew that if they sent troops from Wancheng by land, they could only go north to Shiting and Jiashidao because of the existence of Dabie Mountains . This area was easy to defend but difficult to attack for both sides. Even in the Three Kingdoms period in later generations, Wei and Wu fought here with feigned surrender and suspected attacks, but there was no winner!
Yuan Shu was also very angry. Originally, after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, the first person he wanted to tear down was Bai Tu. Now the Zhong family is the only force that officially criticizes Bai Tu...
However, Bai Tu didn't put much effort into it. Instead, Cao Cao and Liu Bei had no intention of "surrendering" at all, and even jumped up to fight him!
However, Yuan Shu's claim to the throne was not without benefits. At least his army of more than 100,000 soldiers were all buffed because of "founding a country", and the generals at all levels of the army also greatly improved their strength because of their status as "founding heroes"...
Normal promotions in official positions can promote the transformation of military tokens and official seals, let alone such a prestigious identity as "founding hero"?
Even though Yuan Shu's Dazhong Dynasty was of a lower level of "founding", it still occupied Huainan and a small part of the Central Plains as its territory, both of which were rich areas, and it also had the imperial seal that was said to carry the mandate of heaven. Therefore, Dazhong's founding generals and generals of chariots and cavalry had a much greater effect on promoting the improvement of the Han Dynasty's strength than the ordinary grand marshals of the Han Dynasty.
Ji Ling, who was originally at the peak of the gilded rank, was directly promoted to the rank of Gold Jade during the founding ceremony because he was awarded the title of "General of Chariots and Cavalry"...
After all, Ji Ling was considered a fierce general, and even Liu Xun was forced to reach the level of gold and jade just because he was named "General"!
Previously, Liu Xun's military talisman was only gilded with gold due to the light of the troubled times...
The tens of thousands of new recruits, who were originally recruited through exploitation of manpower, became no weaker than elite troops after receiving the bonus of the founding number.
Thirty thousand elite soldiers have directly reached the level of a battle-hardened army...
The negative impact on military morale caused by last year's series of defeats was also swept away.
Even in the various cities within Dazhong’s territory, although public opinion has not improved, but... under the buff of “founding a country”, because the base numbers of all aspects of the city have increased, they can achieve an effect similar to that of improving public opinion!
It is also undeniable that the level of loyalty of the grassroots civil and military officials under Yuan Shu has indeed increased significantly.
After all, they have not yet accurately understood the severity of the situation, but... the benefits they have gained from founding the country are already before them.
In the Huainan Army, many grassroots unknown soldiers who were one or two levels weaker than Song Xian were given the titles of lieutenant or even lieutenant general, and were promoted to the rank of gilded...
To some extent, Yuan Shu was not completely stupid - compared with the price he would have to pay to become emperor at this time, he might not have made a profit, but at least he did not suffer a huge loss.
In history, Yuan Shu was eager to become emperor in order to take the opportunity to integrate the internal affairs and appease the people's hearts. However, in the world of Cheng Ji, it was expressed in a simpler and crude way!
Besides, Yuan Shu himself didn't expect that the effect would be so good...
Logically speaking, the Han Dynasty is still here, and there are still Han officials on Han territory and under its command. If Da Zhong is forcibly established, the effect of founding the country will be suppressed by the fortune of the Han Dynasty.
Although Wang Mang did not leave any strategy for replacing the Han Dynasty and Yuan Shu did not know how much suppression there would be, it seems that the suppression should not be great. Is the Han Dynasty so weak?
This is actually true!
Normally, with the remaining luck of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Shu's division of the land to found a new country should only suppress the buffs in various aspects, and it will not directly backfire and cause a drought that occurs once in a century.
However, due to Xi Zhicai's arrangements before his death, the fortune of the Han Dynasty was overdrawn and backfired, and all of it was concentrated on the "drought"...
Moreover, there is no chance to rehearse such things. Xi Zhicai only realized this before he died.
In order to prevent others from seeing his death and also because he himself did not want to see other people's grief, Xi Zhicai did not notify anyone at the time. When he finally wanted to notify Cao Cao, it was too late.
Yuan Shu was indeed decisive in this regard - after discovering that founding a country was "profitable", he immediately overdrew his capital to catch all the fish in a dry pond.
He was the General of Chariots and Cavalry, the General-in-Chief...he was given all the titles!
You should know that these are not military positions set up on a daily basis. In the Han Dynasty, the highest-ranking military officer was the "Taiwei". The "General of Chariots and Cavalry" was the highest commander who was only set up during a national war. He was established during the war and removed from office after the war. The "General" was a title reserved for powerful officials, and normally no emperor would take the initiative to appoint a general.
But why would Yuan Shu care about those things?
If there is a use, he will exploit it as soon as possible...the same attitude he has towards the human and material resources under his rule.
Sustainable development? It doesn’t exist. As long as I overdraw fast enough, the backlash will not catch up with me!
As a result, Yuan Shu really gave them a chance to survive.
Facing the pincer attack from Cao Cao and Liu Bei, Yuan Shu sent Ji Ling to garrison Zhongli, Guangling and Runan to fortify their defenses and delay the enemy as much as possible...
The route led by Liu Bei himself was the smoothest one to Shouchun. As long as they could capture Zhongli, they could basically reach Shouchun!
Therefore, Yuan Shu's plan was to first defeat this group of troops, and then focus on dealing with other groups of troops.
As for Wancheng...
Yuan Shu did not send any reinforcements at all, but asked the general... Liu Xun, who was also the prefect of Luling, to coordinate the deployment himself.
Liu Xun was undoubtedly a senior general under Yuan Shu. Although his prestige in the army was slightly lower than Ji Ling's, Liu Xun was from a real aristocratic family, not a wild person like Ji Ling, and he was also more selfish.
Facing Jiangdong's attack on Wancheng, Liu Xun... responded by increasing troops and building walls at Jiashidao, as if he was going to meet the enemy at Jiashidao, and he didn't care at all about whether Wancheng would be lost!
