Guo Jia hurried over and saw Sun Yi, he stroked his forehead and celebrated.

"General, now I can finally feel at ease."

Sun Ce was also very happy, but his face still showed no expression. He invited Guo Jia to take a seat, and while having breakfast, Sun Yi told him about his experience, especially the matter of Bencao Cottage in Changyi. Guo Jia was very surprised. He arranged for a detailed work in Changyi, but knew nothing about the existence of Bencao Cottage, and he didn't even know that Hua Tuo was in Changyi.

"It seems that Cao Ang has stole a lot. In contrast, Yuan Shao is the most incompetent. He only learned a little bit of hair but did not learn the essence. He spent so much manpower and material resources to create a pile of waste."

"Of course, he is the leader of the alliance, and his military strategy is also famous. How could he be as unbearable as Cao Ang?"

"This may not be. I heard that Cao Cao has studied quite well." Guo Jia laughed. "Bencaotang, Mu Academy, county school, military farming, and no one has fallen behind. Liu Bei also learned well. In the battle of Zhuo County, it tasted like a general Xiao Huang and Jiang Qi. However, I was most worried about Yuan Tan. He lived in Gepi for the longest time and was a prisoner of war, so he had a stronger motivation to study."

Guo Jia said, the smile on his face faded, revealing a bit of worry. He raised his hand and scratched his eyebrows with his tail finger. "General, it seems that Yuan Shao cannot die yet."

"You said yesterday that you would keep Yuan Shao in Henan so that he would never drink the water from Yecheng again."

"Did I say that?" Guo Jia looked confused.

"Look, you'd better stop drinking in the future. You'll get drunk as soon as you drink, and you'll forget what you say."

"Hahaha..." Guo Jia laughed. "It's not good to be too sober, and you have to get drunk occasionally. For me, it's easy to be sober, but it's rare to be confused, and so does the general."

While eating, Sun Ce discussed with Guo Jia. After hearing his plan, Guo Jia felt that it was too risky, but he did not object to Zhuge Liang's analysis and planning, so he just regarded it as after-school homework. The one who surprised him the most was Xu Sheng.

"If you can really use the four words "fair and real" well, you will be a famous general." Guo Jia commented, looking at Sun Yi and Sun Shangxiang, and raised his hand to point his temples. "They will have five virtues, wisdom, trustworthiness, benevolence, courage, and wise, and bravery are the fourth, and this courage is great courage, not the courage of ordinary men."

"Yeah, yeah." Sun Shangxiang nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking at rice. Sun Yi blushed and nodded in agreement.

——

Sun Yi was back, but Sun Ce did not intend to announce the news. He decided to hide it for a while. In addition to letting Sun Jian inform him of his peace of mind, he ordered the blockade of Sun Yi's safe return, and then replied to Guo Tu, willing to exchange hostages with him, but if one is changed, he would only use He Yong to exchange for Sun Yi. As for Zhang Miao, Yuan Shao will redeem it.

It’s not about money, but about grain. Three thousand golds are used to redeem 300,000 stones of grain, and no grain can be lost.

Yuan Shao received the reply and was so angry that he cursed, but Guo Tu persuaded him. Guo Tu told Yuan Shao that Sun Ce was deliberately asking for a price everywhere, just to make you reject him. If you refuse, Zhang Chao would not refuse. He would trade with Sun Ce and exchange 300,000 s of grain for Zhang Miao. Zhang Miao is back and it has nothing to do with you, and Chen Liu has no food anymore. Naturally, he refused to send troops to help and continue to watch from the wall.

After hearing this, Yuan Shao felt that Sun Ce was insidious and even cursed Guo Jia. If Guo Jia was not Guo Tu's follower, maybe the entire Guo family in Yangdi would be in trouble. Guo Tu was not in a hurry. When Yuan Shao got angry, he continued to say that of course we can't exchange 300,000 shi for Zhang Miao, but the lord cannot miss this opportunity. You can contact Zhang Chao and say that we want to redeem Zhang Miao, but there is not so much food, and we are willing to buy it with money and buy grain from Chenliu to redeem Zhang Miao. Sun Ce's request for 300,000 shi is a blackmail. Now

The price of grain is no longer a hundred coins per stone, more than five hundred, but Zhang Miao cannot surpass Yuan Tan, so we paid 300,000 coins for 300,000 s. Zhang Chao had nothing to say. If he didn't sell it, the responsibility for not being able to redeem Zhang Miao was not with us. If he sold it, we would have an extra 300,000 s of grain, which was enough for the army to eat for a few months. As for whether to redeem Zhang Miao, when it will be redeemed, it doesn't matter. Sun Ce asked for a sky-high price. Can't we pay back the money on the spot? We went back and forth for a few months, and the battle might be decided.

Yuan Shao was overjoyed and told Guo Tu to go and send someone to contact Zhang Chao.

But Jiang Gan immediately arrived at Chenliu and made a suggestion to Zhang Chao. If Zhang Chao chose to redeem Zhang Miao through Yuan Shao, then 300,000 stones would not be missing. If Zhang Chao abandoned Yuan Shao, the intermediary and contacted Sun Ce directly, it would only be 50,000 stones, an average of 600 stones per stone, which was higher than the market price. If you had more grain to sell to us, we would still buy it at this price, and you could buy it with money, or exchange it with weapons or medicine.

Of course, if you don’t believe us, I have another good suggestion. You can tell Yuan Shao that you only have 50,000 shi, and let Yuan Shao raise the rest. You can see what he wants to do. Five thousand shi can only be given to Yuan Shao’s army for about ten days, and Chen Liu can take it. Even if it is embezzled by Yuan Shao, it doesn’t matter and it will have little impact on the entire battle situation.

Zhang Chao repeatedly weighed the pros and cons, and finally accepted Jiang Gan's suggestion and sent someone to reply to Yuan Shao. He also told Yuan Shao that I really don't have much food, but I can provide some other things in exchange, such as brocade weaving. Xiangyi's brocade weaving is famous all over the world, and it used to be the court's tribute. Now that the court is moving westward, these things are no longer needed. I am willing to present these brocades to you.

After receiving Zhang Chao's reply, Yuan Shao was both moved and entangled. What he was moved was that Xiangyi was indeed a rare thing, especially the added value brought by the tribute, which was extremely attractive to him. What he was confused about was that no matter how good the brocade was, he could not eat it. The most urgent thing was that what he needed was food. He had no food to eat and was hungry. Even if the clothes he wore was beautiful, it was useless.

Yuan Shao was unable to make a decision for a while.

When Yuan Shao was struggling, Zhuge Liang and Xu Sheng came up with their own plans one after another.

Zhuge Liang and Lu and Shi Tao and the other two discussed repeatedly, and then broke down Guo Jia's entire plan into three steps: first, to lure the enemy. It is best to lure Yuan Shao's main force to the south of Junyi, preferably near Xu County. Xu County has grain and city, and Sun Ce can defend the city; secondly, to cut off the back. It is to transport the tower ship that can be loaded with stone throwers, strong crossbows and other heavy weapons to the Junyi area to cut off Yuan Shao's retreat; finally to annihilate the enemy. When Yuan Shao retreated due to poor food, Sun Ce launched a counterattack, compressed Yuan Shao in the Junyi area, and launched a fierce attack while he was crossing the water, achieving the tactical purpose of severely damaging or even annihilation of Yuan Shao.

Considering the gap in military strength between the two sides, it is very dangerous to directly lure Yuan Shao's main force to Xu County. It is likely to backfire and lead the wolf into the house, allowing Yuan Shao to occupy Yingchuan and threaten Runan. In order to reduce this possibility, there are two points to pay special attention to: First, the timing is very important, avoid the harvest season and cannot allow Yuan Shao to obtain a large amount of food smoothly; second, it is necessary to severely damage the troops of Qu Yi and Xun Yan first to reduce the gap in military strength between the two sides to avoid losing control. Especially at the latter point, regardless of whether this plan is implemented or not, it is necessary to fight against Qu Yi and Xun Yan as soon as possible to avoid affecting Yingchuan's wheat harvesting and rice planting.
Chapter completed!