Chapter 681

Jiujiang County, Hefei.

Hefei is located on the Bank of the Wanshui river. It has a strong city and is located in a key position. It is a place that the strategists must fight for. Therefore, all the dynasties built cities here. The center of Jiujiang county is Hefei. As long as it can keep Hefei, the northern army will be able to resist the northern expedition of the southern army. If the southern army can occupy Hefei, it will be able to lay a foundation for the northern expedition.

Therefore, in the history of the eastern Wu Dynasty, Hefei was plotted more than once. For example, after the battle of Chibi, the victorious Sun Quan led a hundred thousand troops to encircle Hefei. If Zhang Liao had not led his army directly to Sun Quan's middle army, he would have lost the city.

Above the city of Hefei, a man stands erect. He is not tall or even short. His face is white and his beard is dark under his jaw. A pair of small eyes twinkle with fine light. At first sight, he knows that he is a worried man.

A gust of strong wind blew, and a young general in the rear stepped forward and put the brocade robe on him. He said, "prime minister, the wind is strong in the city. Come down?"

"Oh, Wenlie, it's OK."

Cao Cao waved his hand with a smile, and looked at Cao Xiu with appreciative eyes: "Wenlie, do you think that our army is secretly seeking Lujiang County, can Jiangdong army detect it?"

Although he was young, he had big eyes, a high nose, and a tight lips. His features revealed a firm color. He was Cao Xiu, the nephew of Cao Cao, with the character of Wenlie.

When Dong Zhuo came to Luoyang, the world was in chaos. The Cao clan fled for their lives. The Cao family fled to Wujun. When he heard that Cao Cao was fighting against Dong, Cao Xiu convinced his family to return to the Central Plains with his mother and join him under Cao Cao's command. When Cao Cao saw Cao Xiu and inquired about the art of war, they all had high opinions. Therefore, he praised him as "a thousand li horse of our Cao family".

Because Cao Xiu had been in Wujun for some time and was familiar with Jiangdong, Cao Cao sent troops to Lujiang County and ordered Cao Xiu to accompany him.

Cao Xiu thought carefully for a while, and then he replied, "prime minister, I'm sorry to say so. When someone was in Jiangdong, he heard other people's words, but the song was wrong. Zhou Langgu said it was Zhou Yu

Cao Cao said with a smile, "Oh? Is Zhou Yu also proficient in temperament? "

Cao Xiu nodded: "Zhou Yu is very talented, but only in this way, he has never heard that he will lead a war."

When Zhou Yu lived in seclusion in Lujiang County earlier, although he was famous, he began to follow sun CE across the river to attack Liu Yao. At that time, Cao Xiu had already gone to the north to go home, so it was not clear.

"Sun CE, known as little overlord in the world, may not be as brave as king Xiang, but he can be regarded as a rare military genius, as can be seen from his months in Pingjiang East."

Cao Xiu analyzed: "it is said that Zhou Yu and sun CE are close friends. Therefore, sun CE is entrusted with the important task of leading the army, but the strategy is just like this."

Cao Cao shook his head with a smile: "Wenlie, don't despise Zhou Yu."

"Oh? Did the prime minister have information Cao Xiu doubted.

"No

Cao Cao said slowly, "it's no ordinary person to be appointed as the commander of troops and horses by the sun family of Jiangdong? A general feeling that this strategic fear has been discovered by Jiangdong Army... "

Cao Xiu refused to accept the way:" but prime minister, it is uncle Zixiao who is responsible for leading the army this time. Uncle Zixiao has strict military discipline and is hard to expose. "

"Hehe, if you don't mention this, whether Zhou Yu is on guard or not, as long as he and Li Shu fight first, the situation of our army will be favorable."

Cao Cao gave a smile and looked at the horizon. After a long time, he worried: "the only thing I worry about is whether the scale of the war between Yanzhou and Jizhou will expand. If so, our army will fight in many ways, and the pressure will be quite great."

Cao Xiu comforted him: "prime minister, don't worry. Liu Ye mobilized tens of thousands of troops to Hebei Province. After a long campaign, the grain and grass were exhausted. How could Liu Ye hurt others with his own strength and strength, and the two prefectures of Qing and Xu carried out military garrison and hoarded more than 100000 stones of grain and grass? "

In ancient times, the consumption of grain and grass was totally unequal to fighting or not fighting. If the army does not go to war, it is fair to say that once the army enters the combat readiness state, the amount of grain and grass consumed will rise sharply. First, the soldiers' physical strength was greatly consumed and their natural food increased greatly during the daily campaign. Secondly, the grain and grass needed to be turned around in the middle of the way, which inevitably led to the loss of food. After all, the civilians who transported the grain could not help eating or drinking. Thirdly, the war horses ate more than the people, and the horses in large families had to feed the fine fodder, soybeans and eggs, and the maintenance of the war horses was even more laborious.

Horses can eat grass, but not for a long time, just like people have to eat, can not always drink porridge. If you eat grass all day and don't eat concentrate, the horses will lose fat and can't be used.

Therefore, when it comes to the battle, the horses must be fed regardless of the cost and fatten up rapidly, otherwise the horses may die in the middle.

So why are the nomadic horses so fat? Are they richer than the people in the Central Plains? Tens of thousands of war horses use concentrate and eggs?

Of course, this is not the case, because there are few horses in the Central Plains due to the difference between the horse raising mode in the Central Plains and that in the grassland. As for the nomadic war horses with 100000 horses and large-scale stocking, there are a large number of horses with a wide range of choices. Naturally, there will be fat and strong fighting horses. Moreover, nomadic people often have two horses or even three horses for one person, so the horsepower consumption will be less naturally if they change to ride.

"Hurt people with this?"Cao Cao pondered the four words repeatedly and frowned: "with Liu Yuqing's talent, Xunzi, Jia Xu and Guo Jiazhi's wisdom, we can't allow our army to attack Jiangdong, and we'll certainly respond. If we really get to the point where we hurt people with this..."

once Liu Ye is willing to "hurt people with this", he will fight against Cao Cao if he tries to exchange injuries for injuries. Cao Cao Cao can't rule the land of three states, and his overall strength is strong Nature can't match.

"In this case, our army should speed up and take the Lujiang River with lightning speed!" Cao Xiu resolutely said: "our army should fight fast and hard. When Liu Yuqing reacts, our army has already drunk the horse and the Yangtze River. In this way, even he can do nothing."

Cao Cao laughed, patted Cao Xiu on the shoulder and said, "Wenlie, you are right!"

"Zhongde!"

Next to him, a man of letters, eight feet tall and strong, came up to meet him. It was Cheng Yu.

"What do you want from the prime minister?"

Originally, the most quick witted man in Cao's army was the playwright. However, in recent months, he suddenly fell ill, and his condition became more and more serious. Therefore, Cao Cao left him in Xuzhou to recuperate and rest, and went south together with Cheng Yu.

Cao Cao pondered for a while and ordered: "Zhongde, you write on behalf of the prime minister, inform yuanrang and Zilian, and order them to intensify their harassment of Yanzhou and Jizhou, regardless of casualties. It is better to give the Liangzhou army a false impression that our army is in a certain position. We should do it in a real way."

Cheng Yu nodded and added, "prime minister, you can invite Yuan Shao to attack Jizhou in coordination, so as to increase the pressure on Xu Huang's Ministry."

"Yuan Shao suffered heavy casualties. Will he send troops?"