Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 198: The Third Year of Jian'an
In November of the third year of Jian'an, under the attack of Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, who was retreating step by step, chose to abandon his last base and head north to join his cousin Yuan Shao.
Rumor has it that Yuan Shu has agreed to transfer the throne and the imperial seal to Yuan Shao. At the same time... after unifying the four states of Qing, Ji, You and Bing, Yuan Shao has a population of over two million households and his power has expanded dramatically.
For a time, the argument that the world belongs to Yuan was once again rampant...
However, Yuan Shu's movements were detected by Cao Cao in advance. Not only did many generals in Zhong's army no longer want to follow Yuan Shu and turned to Cao Cao, but even before Yuan Shu could bypass Nanyang, he was stopped and sent back by Cao Cao.
Ji Ling died while covering the rear, and in the end Yuan Shu had less than 30,000 troops around him, and they were out of food and water, and seemed to have no way out.
Yuan Shu fell seriously ill because of this. When he was dying, he still shouted to people: "I want to eat rock sugar!"
The accompanying general was also very annoyed. "Rock sugar? Where is there any rock sugar? There is only cold rain splashing on your face!" In anger, he spit on Yuan Shu's face.
"You, you...I, Yuan Shu...why would you do this!" Yuan Shu died on the way.
Later, Yuan Shu 's son Yuan Yao, son-in-law Huang Yi, and Yang Hong, who was still loyal to the Yuan family, mourned Yuan Shu while defecting to Liu Biao.
In fact, two years earlier, Yuan Shu and Liu Biao had always been allies, with a relationship similar to that of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao. It was only after Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor that Liu Biao had to draw a clear line with him - even so, Liu Biao did not officially send troops against Yuan Shu.
Historically , after Yuan Shu's death, his sons and sons-in-law and other remnants wanted to defect to Liu Xun or even Sun Ce.
After all, Liu Xun and Sun Ce were once generals under Yuan Shu, so he would not treat them unfairly even for the sake of face.
This was indeed the case. This group of people was finally taken in by the Sun family. Sun Quan also married Yuan Shu's daughter, and later married his other daughter to Yuan Yao's son, Yuan Shu's grandson, and became the biggest inheritor of Yuan Shu's "legacy."
This was the way interpersonal relationships, or the succession of power, worked in the Eastern Han Dynasty - even though Yuan Shu became infamous after he proclaimed himself emperor, but... after Yuan Shu died and his descendants no longer proclaimed themselves emperors, the legacy of the "disciples and old officials" relationship still remained.
However, now the entire Huainan and Jiangdong have been annexed by Bai Tu, and they would never dare to come to Bai Tu to give up their lives, so they had no choice but to surrender to Liu Biao, who was at least once their ally and even half a vassal.
Liu Biao was also shameless. He pretended to strike Yuan Shu's coffin with a sword to show that the Han and the traitors could not coexist. Then he hugged Yuan Shu's coffin and cried, saying that he was crying for his old friend, not for the Han traitor, whose corpse he had already whipped.
Blatantly acting as a hypocrite...
However, in the context of the Eastern Han Dynasty, his approach not only did not receive much criticism, but instead received a lot of praise, as people thought he was clear about right and wrong.
Of course, the main reason is... Liu Biao’s reputation among Confucian scholars over the years is not in vain!
When Liu Biao rode alone to Jingzhou, apart from a transfer order from the imperial court, which was issued when Dong Zhuo was in power, the only thing he relied on to get to his position was his face.
Before coming to Jingzhou, Liu Biao was a famous scholar among the royal family. After coming to Jingzhou, he paid more attention to his "strengths".
Especially after the world was in chaos, Liu Biao actively responded to the refuge of famous Confucian scholars.
It can be said that before Bai Tu came out of nowhere, Liu Biao was the most famous prince, and the reason was simple - in today's world, the voice of Confucian scholars is very loud!
For such a person, it can be said that everything he does is justified, because there is a group of Confucian scholars who will help him to blow his cover. When three people make a tiger, even black and white can be reversed.
Then Liu Biao naturally took over Yuan Shu's remaining troops and ordered them to station in the area from Xiyang to Fuyang.
Xiyang and Fuyang belong to Nanjun and Nanyangjun respectively, both are near the Huai River. Xiyang County is the first county where the Huai River enters Jingzhou from Runan, that is...across the Huai River from Xinxi, Anyang and other counties in Yiyang County controlled by Bai Tu.
Fuyang County is located in Tongbai Mountain, close to the source of the Huai River, and belongs to Nanyang County. There are three other counties between the two, namely, Xiguo, Pingchun, and Min (the correct character has "耳刀" in it, but the input method couldn't find it) County, which are also close to the Huai River.
If Liu Biao accepted Zhang Xiu in order to guard against Cao Cao, then accepting Yuan Yao and Yang Hong was obviously to guard against Bai Tu!
Although Jingzhou and Jiangdong are adjacent to each other from east to west, they are blocked by the Dabie Mountains in the north and the Mufu Mountains, Jiuling Mountains and Luoxiao Mountains in the south on both sides of the Yangtze River. This makes it difficult to deploy troops on a large scale. The only place to dispatch troops is from Chaisang to Xiakou, that is, along the Yangtze River.
As for further south, it is close to Jiaozhou. Although the mountain roads are not as dangerous as those in Dabie Mountains or Shu Road, it is the area with the most mountains.
This range of mountains, towards Yangzhou is the Shanyue, and towards Jingzhou is the so-called Wuling barbarians, also known as the Wuxi barbarians. In short, it is the place where the barbarians are entrenched. It is easy to imagine how difficult it is to use troops here... and to pass through the super-large barbarian tribes with commanders and Yue princesses in the mountains.
However, after Bai Tu took Huainan into his possession, he could bypass the Dabie Mountains along the Huai River. The Dabie Mountains are an important watershed between the Yangtze River and the Huai River, and the water sources in the mountains flow into the Yangtze River in the south and the Huai River in the north.
Therefore, Liu Biao needed someone to block this road as well...
Bai Tu also warned Liu Biao at the first opportunity, advising him to turn back from his wrong path and not to shield the eternal sinner who massacred the city and bring discredit to the royal family. Otherwise, how would he face his ancestors in the afterlife?
Anyway, Liu Biao understood it - this was going to send him directly to hell!
Naturally, he could not wipe out the power that could protect himself, which further strengthened his determination to use Yuan Shu's remaining troops to guard the Huaihe River line.
At the same time, Bai Tu also applied to Cao Cao, or to the imperial court, to investigate those who participated in the massacre and looting among the surrendered troops in Huainan!
The wording was extremely strong. In a nutshell - if the court handled things unfairly, the people of Shouchun would not agree, the people of Huainan would not agree, the people of Yangzhou would not agree, and the people of the whole world would not agree.
Not only did Cao Cao have to face the pressure from Yuan Shao, but he also had to try his best to appease Bai Tu and put the blame on Qiao Rui who had already died in the battle.
As for why Qiao Rui died in battle?
He wanted to surrender to Cao Cao, but Cao Cao did not want to accept him and deliberately plotted to kill Qiao Rui when he defected to Ji Ling. Outsiders had no idea that Qiao Rui had been secretly communicating with Cao Cao for a long time!
After all, Qiao Rui’s ability is average, but he causes a lot of trouble - if Qiao Rui were still alive, Bai Tu would definitely keep a close eye on this big target.
If Cao Cao accepted Qiao Rui, he would be in a dilemma. After all, if the other party surrendered, Cao Cao could not hand him over to Bai Tu for "spending a lot of gold on horse bones", so... he let him die when he should die.
As for the generals under Qiao Rui, that was a matter of debate. In short, Cao Cao, on the one hand, represented the court and commended Bai Tu for pleading for the people. On the other hand... he also quickly split up Yuan Shu's remaining troops and integrated them into his own military and political system to strengthen himself!
Cao Cao had already figured out by now that there would be a battle between him and Bai Tu sooner or later, but not now.
Yuan Shao was about to swallow up the north, and he and Liu Bei were the first to face his pressure.
On the other hand... Bai Tu, who owns the entire Yangzhou, has Jingzhou, which has not yet been integrated, as a piece of fat meat right in front of him. Why should he bother to gnaw on this hard bone and risk being taken advantage of by Yuan Shao?
Bai Tu and his think tanks couldn't fail to see this...
From a moral point of view, he had already killed the evil leader Qiao Rui, and instead Liu Biao took over the "legacy" of Yuan Shu's remaining troops.
It is reasonable for Bai Tu to face the enemy with his back to back now. As for whether Bai Tu will fight Cao Cao in the north and south, or hunt with Yuan Shao in the Central Plains, Cao Cao is actually unsure, but he just acts tough...
As for Liu Bei in Xuzhou, he made Cao Cao hate him to the core - after Xiaopei was no longer defensible, the road from Yuzhou to Xuzhou was basically a smooth one, but... he really couldn't spare the effort.
From Yuan Shu to Yuan Shao, both of them made it impossible for Cao Cao to make up his mind to attack Xuzhou. After all... Bai Tu was still allied with Liu Bei. Although Zhang Liao and Gao Shun had withdrawn, they obviously would not sit idly by and watch Cao Cao annex Xuzhou.
Under Yuan Shao 's watchful eyes, Cao Cao is even more reluctant to go to war with Liu Bei. What's more, what's easier than Bai Tu is that Liu Bei also faces the threat from Yuan Shao directly, so he and Cao Cao are natural allies now!
On the contrary, Bai Tu made Cao Cao less reassured. After all, Liu Biao could not put as much pressure on Bai Tu as Yuan Shao did on him.
Even if Bai Tu really went to war with Jingzhou, there was no telling when his brain would suddenly fail and he might be able to destroy his retreat route...
Now that Cao Cao is facing Yuan Shao, he has the urge to surrender. Even if he tries his best, he may not win. How can he prepare for a retreat?
The only thing that made Cao Cao feel relieved was that now in Chenliu, Yingchuan and other places in the Central Plains where many famous families emerged, the attitude of the major families towards Bai Tu was generally "respect"... but "keep a distance".
He admired Bai Tu's noble character, but he did not like him and even resisted him from the bottom of his heart. Under this resistance, he even became more fond of the major families and Cao Cao's group.
But even so, Cao Cao also hoped to temporarily form a more stable alliance with Bai Tu.
For example, traditional projects - sending protons to each other and forming marriages.
It’s just a pity that Bai Tu has not yet married, so it is unlikely that they will send hostages to each other, and the previous marriage proposal was also rejected.
Cao Cao even had the idea of sending a hostage to Yuan Shao and then concentrating on fighting a decisive battle with Bai Tu, but this idea was eventually stopped by Xun Yu, Guo Jia and others.
The main reason was that Yuan Shao would not leave the fertile land of Central Plains untouched. Since Cao Cao had sent a hostage, he would go to Hetao, Xiliang, Guanzhong... these places were actually his bones.
It would be better for Cao Cao to be a hostage himself!
On the one hand, Yuan Shao was sharpening his sword, and on the other hand, Bai Tu did not give him any positive feedback. Cao Cao was devastated and accepted Xun Yu's suggestion - sending a hostage to Bai Tu.
Originally, in Cao Cao's eyes, only Yuan Shao's strength was worthy of his unilateral sending of hostages. As for Bai Tu... he was not much stronger than himself, so the most they could do was send him to each other, or form a marriage, which was an equal alliance.
But... Cao Cao had to admit that Bai Tu was more stubborn than himself!
The hostage that Cao Cao originally wanted was his second legitimate son, Cao Zhi. Cao Zhi was eight years old this year and was a brother of Cao Pi, so he was naturally also a legitimate son. In comparison, he was not as important as Cao Pi.
After all, in these troubled times, the age of the heir will directly affect the degree of unity among his subordinates, and "a young ruler brings doubts to the country" is no joke.
However, when Cao Cao mentioned this privately at home, Cao Pi suddenly fell to his knees before Cao Cao and cried, "Father! How can you let Xiao Zhi take such a risk? I am older, so it is safer for me to go!"
