Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 327: Helpful Gan Xingba
Bai Tu looked at the military intelligence reports from Yanjin and Bai Ma that were concentrated in the past two or three days, and could not help but be "amazed" at the performance of Cao's army and Yuan's army!
The Yuan army, which was originally riding on the dragon's face, used actual actions to show that the army is not "the more the better" for everyone. In the following defeats, it was almost impossible to take care of the overall situation. There was no tacit cooperation between each other, and the communication channels were completely dependent on the enemy's rumors, which was a negative example...
He's like a giant with an atrophied cerebellum. He looks huge and terrifying, but he tends to twist his foot every time he swings a punch, and will fall head over heels if someone takes advantage of his opponent's force.
Cao Jun, on the other hand, was just like a flexible martial arts master, holding a sack in one hand and a brick in the other...
He quickly put the sacks on them and started slapping them randomly, with the sacks being placed on the left and right. Yuan Jun cried and turned his arms, but he couldn't take them off!
It took only seven days from the time Cao Cao's elite troops dispatched to Yanjin to the time Xiahou Yuan pursued Yuan Shao's defeated army and forced his young son Yuan Shang to death.
It is a bit of an exaggeration to say that Yuan Shao's "million-strong army" was wiped out, but it was indeed completely defeated and could only gather little by little in Hebei, and a large part of them could not go back.
Cao Cao not only captured Liyang and had a bridgehead in Hebei, but also greatly frustrated the morale of Hebei and captured a large number of Yuan Shao's soldiers...
At this time, apart from the General's Mansion and Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, only Yizhou Prefecture is relatively stable and has the bonus of family ties. Even if the generals are captured, they will find a way to go home. The loyalty of the armies of other princes, except for some core generals, is very low!
The grassroots generals of the General's Mansion have always emphasized a sense of honor, mission, and belonging since the very beginning of their training. As for Zhang Lu...the generals are all believers of Tianshi Dao, and their loyalty is guaranteed.
The grassroots generals of other princes basically only followed the generals. If the general surrendered, the army would certainly follow suit without any resistance. At least the middle-level generals had some autonomy, and the probability of being coerced was also extremely high. As for the lower-level generals... basically only those who were extremely concerned about their families would find opportunities to escape back on their own.
Even if the general was killed, few of the captured soldiers, except for his personal guards, would rather die than surrender!
The more courageous princes can break up the captives and use them directly. The less courageous ones... can also recall the Ji Zao soldiers and overdraw all the generals and become useless.
Because overdrawing the manpower of the prisoners requires the cooperation of the other party, otherwise they can only be executed directly. After overdrawing naturally, at least you can save your life and continue to live as a salted fish.
What they were more worried about was that because of the problem of food and grass, and it was not the middle or late period of the Three Kingdoms, many princes felt that - people? Aren't people infinite? Aren't there endless descendants? So sometimes those who found it troublesome would just kill the captives!
For Cao Cao, having tens of thousands of prisoners at once was not only a great joy, but also a burden on military rations. However... because the granary in Liyang was directly occupied by Cao Cao, Yuan Shao could be said to have given a complete gift this time!
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After seeing the final battle report, Bai Tu immediately ordered people to copy the Cao-Yuan battle during this period into the official newspaper - not the civilian newspaper, but the official newspaper specifically for generals at all levels to read.
On the one hand, it allows everyone to learn from Cao's army's hard work, courage, good fighting skills and clever fighting. On the other hand, it allows everyone to absorb the experience and lessons of Yuan's army. If you face Cao Cao in the future, you must be careful!
As for the civilian newspapers, they naturally did not praise Cao Cao so much. They only said that it was a great victory in Xudu, and emphasized the description of Cao Cao's face when he was bluffing...
Through artistic processing, even Cao Cao's psychological activities and the cold sweat on his face when he lied were described, and linked to the example of Cao Cao using a stroke to deceive his uncle when he was a child, implicitly pointing out that this was Cao Cao's strong point. In short, no one should believe what Cao Cao says from now on!
Of course, in name only, Bai Tu and Cao Cao were still allies, and Bai Tu was "of the same mind" as the Xu Du court, so they did not directly discredit him, and expressed their condolences and appreciation for Cao Cao's successful campaign against Yuan Ni.
Although Bai Tu was surprised at the outcome of the Battle of Yanjin, he was mostly secretly happy in his heart.
Although Yuan Shao suffered heavy losses and lost a son, he escaped with his life, and... a son died!
This is not a grammatical error.
The death of Yuan Shang was a great blow to Yuan Shao. After all, he was his favorite son. It was even said that Yuan Shao fell ill after returning to Yecheng. When Cao Cao attacked Yecheng, Yuan Shao did not even supervise the battle in person, but Zhang He and Gao Lan were in charge of the defense.
But even so, objectively speaking, this is a very good thing for Yuan Shao's group!
Yuan Shang was already doomed, so Yuan Shao no longer had to consider deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son, which naturally eliminated the instability within Yuan Shao's group.
As long as Yuan Tan is not stupid, and gives some "sweets" while giving threats, the civil officials who originally supported Yuan Shang will naturally gradually turn to him.
Even if Yuan Shao really died at this point, there would not have been the embarrassing situation of internal strife within the Yuan family like after the Battle of Guandu!
As a result, although Hebei was seriously injured, its foundation was still there. Although Cao Cao won a great victory this time, he only gained the Liyang area and a quarter of Jizhou.
After that, Cao Cao attacked Yecheng...but he just made a show of force and then retreated immediately. It was obvious that he knew that he could not win.
The battle between Yuan and Cao is far from over!
Moreover, Yuan Tan also suffered a defeat in Qingzhou. Yuan's army in Qingzhou was not a frontline force to begin with, and Yuan Tan's Qingzhou Prefecture's staff and generals were just a beggar's version of Jizhou Prefecture...
Even though the configuration of Xuzhou Prefecture was far inferior to that of the Prime Minister's Mansion at this time, Guan Yu was still beating Yuan Tan all the way in Qingzhou.
Not only did Liu Bei occupy most of Qingzhou, almost all of it south of the Yellow River, but Bai Tu was also pleasantly surprised to find that he had gained an advantage.
Or rather, Gan Ning helped him take advantage!
After the summer, Gan Ning returned from Dajin, Liaodong, which is later known as Lushunkou. He did not follow the original route, but followed the ocean current to Qingzhou.
Qingzhou is roughly the area of the Shandong Peninsula in later generations, and is separated from Lushunkou by only the Bohai Strait.
Originally, Gan Ning didn't know whether he would have the chance to land. After all, in his impression, Qingzhou was still Yuan Shao's territory, and the battle between Yuan and Cao was just in the prelude.
Yuan Shao must have learned some news , and even knew that Gan Ning went to Liaodong. In this case, the Qingzhou coast is likely to be on guard...
However, when they arrived at the coast of Donglai County, they found that there was almost no defense!
Then why would Gan Ning be polite?
They landed directly from Mouping, which is the port of Yantai in later generations, and quickly captured Mouping City. When Gan Ning learned that Yuan's army was defeated on the front battlefield and Qingzhou's army was struggling to fight Xuzhou's army, as the naval commander of the General's Mansion, he immediately carried forward the spirit of the soldiers of the General's Mansion who were not afraid of hardships and difficulties and put supporting the Han Dynasty at the top of their hearts...
They attacked directly the capital of Donglai County, which had a weak defense - Huangcheng, which was later Longkou Huang County.
How far is Yantai Port from Huangxian? One hundred and fifty miles, which would be an hour ...
