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Winter went and spring came, and it was the early spring of the tenth year of Jian'an. In the past few months, the situation in Jingzhou was calm. There was neither the Jiangxia army's attack on Jiangling nor the fierce battle between the Jiangxia army and the Cao army.

But under the calm situation, the undercurrents were still surging, and all forces were preparing for war. The Cao army gradually increased its troops to Nanyang and Fancheng in October, making the total strength of Cao's army from Nanyang to Fancheng line reach 10,000.

The world's materials gathered in Nanyang. It was also from October that Cao Cao ordered the transfer of civilians from the original and the twelve counties of Hebei to transport the amount of grain, tents, weapons, tins, tins, timber, and other military supplies to Nanyang. This transportation lasted until the following year, almost clearing the Xuchang warehouse, which was originally in stock.

At the same time, Jiangxia is also preparing for war. It was also starting from October last year that Xiangyang City, Xiakou City and Wuchang City were lifted and reinforced at the same time, and auxiliary cities were built on both sides of Xiakou City to strengthen defense against Xiakou City.

In order to support the Jiangxia army, the Tao family generals transported nearly 100,000 stones of grain in the warehouse in Jiuzhong, Jiangdong, all of which were transported to Jiangxia as military rations, and took out half of their property as military expenses to support the Jiangxia army in full resistance to Cao.

Sun Quan of Jiangdongfang appointed Zhou Yu as the governor of the navy, Cheng Jin as the deputy governor, and Lu Su as the chief secretary. A total of 50,000 troops and 1,000 warships were sent. It was still from October that Zhou Yu led his army to train troops in Poyang Lake.

While the army was invading the west, Jiangdong also began to transport various military supplies and food to the west. Less than a mile away from Wuchang County, Qichun County on the east bank of the Yangtze River was a major logistics site for the Jiangdong Army. Jiangdong built more than ten warehouses here and stationed 10,000 troops, commanded by Cheng Jin.

As the war wheels continued to roll forward, almost everyone realized that the battle between the Central and Southern War, which was related to the fate of China, was about to begin in the decade of Jian'an.

Xudu, since Cao Cao moved the capital to Yecheng a few years ago, Xuchang City has been serving as a sub-capital. In the first month of two months ago, in order to conquer Jingzhou, Cao Cao moved Tianhe military officers to Xuchang, and gathered troops from all over the world in Xuchang, and hundreds of thousands of troops gathered in Xuchang.

At the beginning of the month, Xuchang City should be a season of flying bells and growing grass and blooming flowers, but something happened in Xuchang at this time. Kong Rong, the 20th generation grandson of Kong and the leader of the northern aristocratic clan, was killed by Cao Cao for joining his disciples and trying to commit evil deeds. This case shocked the court and the public and caused an uproar in the world.

Xuchang City is full of soldiers patrolling and guarding, and people are not allowed to walk with you or gather for discussion. All public places such as taverns, hostels, gambling halls, brothels, etc. are closed, and even the old farmers selling vegetables at the city gate must be ten steps apart.

Xuchang City was shrouded in terror, and everyone was in danger. Every family closed their doors and doors. After dark, the streets became silent as if they were dead.

In front of the Prime Minister's Mansion, he was even more vigilant, and he was killed by anyone who tried to approach the Prime Minister's Mansion.

In the study, Cao Cao was changing his court robes, beside him, while Sima Yi was reporting on the situation of the scholar. Sima Yi was ten years old this year and served as a steward last month, responsible for the management officer, and within his power.

"The troubles of the prime minister and the scholars have basically subsided, but it is not that they have stopped, but that they have all returned to their hometowns. In the past few days, 70% of them have left, and the prison is empty."

"Enough"

Cao Cao interrupted Sima Yi's report unhappily. Sima Yi immediately kept silent. Cao Cao glanced at him again and asked coldly: "Zhongda, I seem to be a little dissatisfied when I hear your tone."

"I don't dare to do so, but I just can't stop my return home, and I feel ashamed."

"If you want to leave, let them go. There is no regret. The gentry left, just for the cold clan. Zhongda, I hope you can use this opportunity to change the rules for recruiting students and give them more opportunities. It is better for Jiangxia and Liu Jing, no matter whether it is a scholar or a commoner, only talent is the only way to cultivate truly talented scholars."

Sima Yi lowered his head for a while and said nothing. Cao Cao felt a little strange and asked again: "Do you disagree with me?"

"Not not"

Sima Yi hurriedly shook, "It's just that I don't want to."

His speech was hesitant, which made Cao Cao even more suspicious, "What do you want to say?"

"I don't want to take care of things anymore, and I'm willing to handle military affairs for the Prime Minister." Sima Yi finally expressed his thoughts.

Cao Cao laughed, "So that's it. Then why don't you go if Lian asks you to be his aide?"

Lian is Cao Hong. Cao Hong asked Sima Yi to do his plan several times, but Sima Yi refused to agree. Now he wanted to go to the army again. Cao Cao certainly understood Sima Yi's thoughts. Sima Yi did not want to offend the gentry at this time. In fact, he went to the army to avoid disaster.

However, because of Guo Jia's death, Jia Xu surrendered and lacked some advice. Sima Yi is a capable person. He refused to let him go to the army several times. It is rare that he brought it up today. This is not a bad thing. Cao Cao pondered for a moment and said, "Let me do this and I'm going to hold a Nanzheng discussion soon, and you can also participate."

Cao Cao's killing Kong Rong was not a hot topic, but his far-sighted decision and the inevitable result after destroying Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao's political ambition was to promote poor Legalists. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunities in the chaotic times of the late Han Dynasty to break the trend of controlling famous families that gradually formed since the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, we must break the Confucian situation formed by Emperor Wu of Han’s exclusive respect for Confucianism and rebuild the Legalist idea of ​​governing the country.

Therefore, in the early Ping year, Cao Cao killed Confucian Bian Rang just a test. Today, after destroying his strong enemy Yuan Shao, killing Kong's 20th generation grandson was the real declaration of war on Confucianism. So the later killing of Yang Xiu was also a blow to his father Yang Biao.

The use of heaven to command the princes was just a means for him to realize his political ambitions. In fact, if the people who opposed the use of heaven to command the princes were royal nobles, there was a case of robbery and chariots, generals, Dong Cheng, generals, royal uniforms, etc., including Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Ma Teng, who were Cao Cao's political enemies.

As for the famous scholars such as Kong Rong, Bian Rang, Ni Heng, Yang Biao, etc., he did not oppose the use of heaven to command the princes. If Yuan Shao command the emperor to command the princes, they might even support it.

What they firmly opposed was the thought of Cao Cao's poor Legalists. They wanted to maintain the orthodox status of the Confucian gentry and spared no effort to destroy the legitimacy of Cao Cao's rule. They were Cao Cao's ideological enemies.

When Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu, destroyed Yuan Shao, expelled Liu Bei, and eliminated many political enemies by borrowing the robbery incident, he no longer tolerated the ideological enemies, and it became a natural thing to kill Kong Rong, the seventh chapter of Jian'an.

This also prepares for the legality of Nanzheng that is about to be launched. The so-called legality means that those who dare to accuse him of illegality will be punished. If no one objectes, he will naturally be legal.

Dozens of important counselors and generals have gathered in the hall. This is a typical example of the power of the minister. The court is just a decoration, the emperor and military officers are also vases, but the real military and national affairs come from the Prime Minister's Mansion.

"The Prime Minister arrived"

As the guards shouted, Cao Cao, wearing court robes, walked quickly into the hall from the side, surrounded by sixteen sword-like guards. Everyone stood up and bowed to salute, "See the Prime Minister."

Sima Yi also quietly came in from the side door, standing in the last position, next to him was Mao Jie. Mao Jie smiled at him, but his heart was a little strange, Sima Yi came too.

"Everyone is free from gifts"

Cao Cao sat down in his position, but his eyes quickly glanced at Xun Yu, and wanted to know if Xun Yu would come after he killed Kong Rong.

Without Cao Cao's expectations, Xun Yu was indeed in power, with a calm expression, and seemed to be completely unaffected by the Kong Rong case.

This shows that Xun Yu is just a royal sect and is not with Kong Rong, Yang Biao and others.

Cao Cao's eyes turned to Cheng Yu again, nodded to him, meaning that Cheng Yu said first that Cheng Yu was in Fancheng and Nanyang and rushed to Xuchang just a day ago.

He understood what Cao Cao meant, so he stood up and said to everyone: "Dear envoys and generals, let me briefly talk about the combat readiness of Wancheng and Fancheng. Since September last year, the Prime Minister has built warships with the whole country's strength. Now, more than 2,000 small warships have been moored on Bishui, guarded by 50,000 troops, and repelled more than ten attacks by the Jiangxia army."

A whisper suddenly sounded in the hall. No one expected that in just half a year, Cheng Yu had built more than 2,000 ships. This was not impossible, but how much manpower and material resources needed to be mobilized.

Moreover, many people don’t know that some of the ships in Fancheng come from the Yellow River and other rivers. They just dismantled the ships and transported them to Fancheng to reassemble them, so they could build more than 2,000 small warships in half a year.

The generals didn't care about the process, and the shipbuilding results made them all look happy. They knew very well that Cao Ren was forced to withdraw from Xiangyang because they had no naval forces and no warships.

Cheng Yu and others were slightly calmer and continued: "Many warehouses have been built in Wancheng, which have been filled with grain, weapons and other materials, which is enough to deal with the battle of hundreds of thousands of people. In addition, the official road from Wancheng to Fancheng has also been widened and leveled, making the transportation of materials smoother."

Cheng Yu introduced the combat readiness situation of Fancheng and Wancheng in detail. Cao Cao smiled and said, "Tell me what are the difficulties in the shortage."

Cheng Yu nodded and said, "The most important problem now is that there are insufficient boatmen. Northerners are not good at boating, so it is extremely difficult to recruit boatmen. We need tens of thousands of boatmen, but in fact we only recruit more than a thousand people."

Cao Cao thought about it and said, "Let's talk about this problem, there will be a way to solve it anyway."

He looked at the military generals who were sitting, Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and others. In fact, the purpose of letting them participate in the discussion was to let them understand the combat readiness situation and to discuss combat strategies, the strategists should decide.

Cao Cao smiled at the generals and said, "Dear brave men, let's leave first. I will call you to discuss the specific battle."
Chapter completed!