It is easier to increase the main force gradually. At least Deputy Director Tao no longer has to tear the pitifully few elite soldiers into two when he dispatches troops, deploys troops and arranges expedition teams.

Half-use, there is no need to use Danyang rogue soldiers who have not developed discipline habits as the core backbone. On the one hand, they must be supported and coaxed, and a large number of war supervisors and military doctors must be arranged to follow them to suppress these Danyang gangs at any time.

The riot caused by the uncle, and he was always ready to rescue his own soldiers who were injured by these Danyang uncles. Deputy Director Tao still doesn't know how he survived.

No, after finalizing the strategy to help Yuan Ruocao, Deputy Director Tao generously gave 10,000 of the 30,000 elites he brought from Xuzhou to Lu Su, so that these 10,000 would be able to fight in the northern battlefield.

The main force of Shangzu's soldiers stayed in Jiangdong, responsible for bullying the weak and pitiful Jiangdong princes. Then Deputy Director Tao made Lu Su the governor of Jiangdong, in charge of the southern military; Zhang Zhao was made Yangzhou bieji and Jiujiang prefect, in charge of the south.

Line money, food, and civil affairs; Xu Sheng was made General of Zhennan and Grand Administrator of Lujiang, in charge of the Lujiang and Jiujiang armies; Qiao Rui was appointed Grand Administrator of Yuzhang; Jiang Qin was appointed Grand Administrator of Danyang and Deputy Governor of the Navy; Zhou Tai was appointed Navy Captain and Prime Minister of Wu County.

After making these necessary personnel arrangements, Deputy Director Tao led the remaining 20,000 elite troops back to the north and returned to Xuzhou to take charge of the overall situation.

Even so, Deputy Director Tao extravagantly divided the 20,000 elite troops into two parts, and threw the infantry to Xu Chu. Wei Yan and Gao Shun led them slowly northward, while the cavalry returned first under the leadership of Deputy Director Tao himself.

, it only took nine days to return to Pengcheng from Danyang County south of the Yangtze River. Chen Deng, who stayed behind, had already made logistical preparations for the main force to go north to attack Cao after receiving the written order from Deputy Director Tao. Chen Deng

By the time they arrived, Xuzhou's main force led by generals such as Xu Huang, Qu Yi and Tao Ji had also been assembled and were ready to head north. It is no exaggeration to say that Deputy Director Tao did not even need to wait for the rear troops to arrive. He immediately gave the order as soon as he arrived in Pengcheng.

When the army went out to fight, it could still form a double advantage in quantity and quality of troops on Cao's southern front.

Of course, although Deputy Director Tao and Xuzhou's decision-makers are a bunch of bad guys, they are also a bunch of rational and prudent bad guys. So after Deputy Director Tao arrived in Xuzhou, he did not immediately order the dispatch of troops.

First let the accompanying team rest peacefully, and then learn more about the current situation of Cao's army on the southern front. Finally, he formulated the tactics of sending troops to attack Cao. And before that, Chen Deng, who was responsible for staying behind, asked Deputy Director Tao very cautiously: "My lord,

Are you sure you have made up your mind to defeat Cao Cao? After defeating Cao Cao, our army will directly border the Jizhou Army. Is my lord mentally prepared for this?"

"Yuanlong, please rest assured. This strategic decision was definitely not made impulsively by me. In fact, I have had this idea for a long time." Deputy Director Tao replied: "Although Jizhou's army is powerful, it is far less dangerous than Cao's bandits. Since our army

If we are destined to have a showdown with the winner of the battle between Cao and Yuan, then I would rather choose to let the Jizhou team win."

Seeing that Deputy Director Tao had already made up his mind, Chen Deng said nothing more. He just immediately submitted a selected and summarized enemy situation report. In this report, Xuzhou Xizuo had already roughly figured out Cao Jun's defense deployment on the southern line of Yanzhou.

According to the situation, it was found that Cao Jun had about 20,000 troops on the southern front. Changyi, governed by Shanyang County, was the core of the defense line. Elite troops and strong generals were deployed in the Changyi area. Auxiliary troops and second-line troops guarded Jinxiang, Liangqiu, Wutangting and other places.

, the closest to the defenders of Changyi is still Liu Dai's team from Dingtao, and the Dongping area to the north of Changyi is guarded by General Cao's chariots and horses. It is not very likely that soldiers and horses from both places can provide assistance to Xiahou Yuan's team.

"Judging from the Cao thief's tactical deployment on the southern front, Cao thief's southern line defense tactics are very clear." Chen Deng analyzed: "That is to hold on to the important town of Changyi and choke our army's northward and westward advance, so that we can

The army can only move north or west with confidence by removing the nail in Changyi. This is also a very smart tactical choice. The Cao thieves' southern line of Yanzhou is the same as Xuzhou. The terrain is open and easy to attack and difficult to defend. They disperse their troops to defend various areas.

All parts of the city will only give our army opportunities to defeat each other. Concentrating our strength on one point can play a role in containing the main force of our army. Therefore, the lord goes north to attack Cao this time, and the fierce battle in Changyi is unavoidable no matter what.

"

"Have you obtained the city defense map of Changyi?" Deputy Director Tao asked again.

"We got it." Chen Deng quickly pulled out the Changyi city map from the official document, and explained: "This is a secret painting made by our army. The terrain is basically accurate, but how the defenders deployed their defenses was unclear because they could not sneak into Cao's army.

The method is to investigate carefully. In addition, our army has carefully marked the number and location of water wells in Changyi City. The lord can ask someone who is proficient in hydrology to analyze the underground water veins around Changyi so that he can initiate action when necessary.

Underground siege.”

"Yuanlong is really attentive."

Deputy Director Tao praised him and lowered his head to take a closer look at the map of Changyi City. Jia Laodu opened his mouth and said, "My lord, although Xu has never been to Changyi, he has long heard that when Lu Bu made a big fuss in Yanzhou, Lu Bu once

Relying on the strength of Changyi to resist the coalition forces of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao for many days, it can be seen that the city of Changyi is definitely not that easy to win. If the lord does not want to waste too much troops and time in the siege battle, the lord will be the best choice in the battle of Changyi.

It’s better to make more fuss in the field.”

"Mr. Wenhe wants to lure the enemy out of the city?" Chen Deng took over and said with a wry smile: "But this time I'm afraid it won't be that easy. The main force of Cao's thieves is confronting the main force of Yuan Shao in Cangting. Although he has no time to divide his troops to rescue Changyi,

However, it was 90% likely that Xiahou Yuan had already given an order to defend Changyi and strictly prohibit going to war. In addition, the lord Cao Cao had just received the news when he entered the city. Cao Cao sent Xu Shu, a famous scholar from Yingchuan, to join the army for Xiahou Yuan and rushed to Changyi to assist Xiahou Yuan in defending the city.

, this is a ruthless character that even Uncle Xun Yu and Guo Jia are afraid of. It is definitely not that easy to get him out of the city."

"Xu Shu is also a human being and will make mistakes. Even with his assistance, our army may not have the chance to lure Xia Houyuan out of the city for a decisive battle." Jia Lao Poison replied with a smile. Although this answer is a bit arrogant, in this world, he has the right to evaluate Xu Shu so arrogantly.

There are not many people there, but Jia Lao Poison will definitely be one of them.

"Mr. Wenhe's words are exactly what I want. No matter how smart and wise Xu Shu is, it is impossible for him to make no mistakes." Deputy Director Tao was not very jealous of Xu Shu, who had only beaten Cao Ren once, and even the defense map of Changyi City was not very taboo.

Too lazy to read, he put down the map and asked Jia Lao Poison: "I wonder if Mr. Wenhe has a clever plan to lure Xia Houyuan's team out of the city for a decisive battle?"

"How to lure Xiahou Yuan out of the city specifically? We need to go to Changyi City to adapt accordingly." Jia Laohu replied: "But as long as our army seizes the thoughts of Cao Jun and makes a big fuss, it will not be difficult to lure Xiahou Yuan's troops out of the city.

."

"What are the thoughts of Cao Jun?" Deputy Director Tao asked.

"Of course, Cao's army believed that our army would not really attack Changyi with all its strength." Jia Lao said with a smile: "In the previous battle of Guandu, our army did not launch a real attack after encircling Changyi in order to preserve its strength.

City, this time Cangting fights again, and our army once again sends troops to Changyi. Cao's army must hope that our army will repeat its old tricks. They besiege Changyi without attacking, and sending troops is just to deal with Yuan Shao. The lord only needs to seize this lucky arrangement of Cao's army.

If you deliberately expose some flaws, it will be difficult for Xia Houyuan and Xu Shu not to fall into the trap."

"Mr. Wenhe's plan is brilliant." Deputy Director Tao applauded with joy and said with a smile: "Everyone knows that our Xuzhou army does not engage in loss-making business. This time, even if we are determined to suffer losses and lose our capital, Cao's bandit team will also

It must be suspected that our army is just perfunctory with Yuan Shao and is not really going to attack Changyi."

After laughing, Deputy Director Tao discussed with Jia Laohu and others how to set up the illusion. It was soon decided not to use Xuzhou's elite troops who had returned from the southern expedition, but only to dispatch the northern troops who had been recuperating for a long time to attack Changyi.

, in this way, it can not only give the southern expedition team enough time to rest, but also make Cao's army more convinced that the Xuzhou army is just perfunctory and has no real determination to take Changyi.

In addition, Jia Laohu also suggested that Deputy Director Tao use the relationship between Xia Houjuan and Xia Houyuan to deliberately ask Xia Houjuan to write a letter to Xia Houyuan, saying some greetings about family feuds, and then send Xuzhou officials to formally deliver it to Xia Houyuan.

Xia Houyuan thought that this was a deliberate signal of goodwill sent by the Xuzhou army, and that sending troops to Changyi was just to deal with Yuan Shao's problem. Deputy Director Tao followed this and immediately arranged for female secretary Guo Huan to handle the matter.

At this time, Wang Ze, the messenger personally sent by Boss Cao to contact Deputy Director Tao, also arrived in Pengcheng. Deputy Director Tao was overjoyed when he heard the news and immediately decided to use this opportunity to directly send a signal of goodwill to Cao Jun. However, Mr. Jia immediately objected.

, suggested: "My lord should have a tougher attitude in front of the king. Cao Cao is suspicious. If my lord treats his envoys well, Cao Cao will definitely suspect that my lord is not well-intentioned, but he will be even more worried that our army is really sending troops. So my lord must be careful."

He used verbal threats and intimidation in front of Wang Ze, and even offered to exchange hostages so that our army could fight with Cao's army. In this way, Cao's thieves would believe that the lord was bluffing, and sending troops to Changyi was just to perfunctory Yuan Shao, and he took the southern front lightly."

Deputy Director Tao was overjoyed and once again accepted Jia Lao Poison's suggestion. First, he deliberately treated Wang Ze slowly. When he formally received Wang Ze, Deputy Director Tao deliberately threatened him, saying that he was sending troops to Changyi to break through the southern defense line of Cao's army and join the Jizhou army.

, asked in person to exchange the hostages in order to start the war, and Wang Zewei, who came on the pretext of visiting Cao Ang, made a promise. After getting a letter from Deputy Director Tao asking Boss Cao to exchange the hostages, he immediately said goodbye and left. He hurried back to Changyi to report to Xia Houyuan first.

The deputy director responded.

Jia Laodu suggested that Deputy Director Tao arrange this fake game and it was very successful. When Wang Ze brought Deputy Director Tao's threatening words back to Changyi City, the resourceful Xu Shu sneered on the spot and commented that Tao Thief is really such a despicable person.

The villain, Cao Chun, the general of the Cao army who is always known for his calmness and wisdom, also showed sarcasm and said an eternal famous saying, "A dog that bites cannot bark; a dog that barks cannot bite."

It may not always be a good thing if the strategy is too unpredictable. At least Xia Houyuan, the commander-in-chief of Cao's army in Changyi, became furious because of this and shouted that as long as the Tao thieves dared to come, they would definitely let the Tao thieves' team taste their own power.

Xia Houyuan laughed and pointed out that this was just a bluff by the Xuzhou army. Xiahou Yuan suddenly realized that the Xuzhou army was sending troops this time just to deal with Yuan Shao's troops. And one day later, when the Xuzhou messenger sent Xiahou Juan a letter to greet his uncle's health.

, Xia Houyuan, Xu Shu and others also immediately understood that this was a deliberate display of goodwill by the Xuzhou army, and expressed their position in a different way, saying that the Xuzhou army's march north was just a perfunctory matter. Then Xiahou Yuan listened to Xu Shu's suggestion and was kind to the Xuzhou envoy. He wrote back to ask about Xiahou Juan's situation and gave it to his niece.

He brought gifts and in turn neglected the morale of Xuzhou's army, making Xuzhou's army believe that Changyi's army also had no intention of decisive battle.

After successfully relaxing the enemy's mentality, on May 29th, Deputy Director Tao once again led 35,000 Xuzhou fresh troops to the north. Chen Dao, Xu Huang, Cao Xing, Tao Ji, Chang Xi and Qin Yi did not participate in the southern expedition.

The Xuzhou generals who had just returned to Pengcheng from Jiangdong all stayed behind to rest and recuperate. Although Xu Chu, Zhao Yun and other generals actively requested battle, they were flatly rejected by Deputy Director Tao, but Taishi Ci and Ma Zhong

The newly surrendered generals were brought by Deputy Director Tao to give them the opportunity to make meritorious deeds. In addition, considering that Deputy Director Tao did not take the opportunity to bully the cute and pitiful little girl Guo Huan during the Southern Expedition, Yuan Fang readily agreed to Deputy Director Tao's request.

At the request, Guo Huan was lent to Deputy Director Tao to serve as a reporter and they went on the expedition together.

At the same time, in order to convince Xia Houyuan and others that he had no ill intentions in going north, Deputy Director Tao deliberately arranged for Xuzhou's often-defeated general Qin Yi to be the vanguard and lead 3,000 auxiliary troops. The poor general Qin Yi could not shirk it and had to bite the bullet.

After taking over this unlucky job, Qin Yi couldn't help but question in his mind, "Master, besides raising beautiful little girls for your own use, do you also have the hobby of liking other people's beautiful wives? Otherwise, why would it be so easy every time?

Send me all the unlucky people who lose their heads?"

It is still a mystery whether Deputy Director Tao still has a hobby of wife-mongering, but when Xi Zuo reported the situation of the Xuzhou army to Xia Houyuan, General Xia Houyuan was greatly tempted, and hurriedly found his deputy Cao Chun to discuss with his adviser Xu Shu, thinking

We need to send an army south to take the initiative to fight. We must first eliminate the Xuzhou army's rookie vanguard team and get a good start.

"General, you must not do this." Cao Chun objected: "The order given to us by the Prime Minister is to hold on to Changyi. To strangle the Tao thieves from heading north, the Tao thieves deliberately showed weakness and used the second-line general Qin Yi as the vanguard. This was obviously telling our army

He is still perfunctory with Yuan Shao by sending troops this time. If our army severely damages his vanguard, it will not only disobey the Prime Minister's order, but will also completely anger the Tao thieves and provoke unnecessary war."

Xia Houyuan didn't want to listen to Cao Chun's opinion, and when he turned his attention to Xu Shu, Xu Shu replied lightly: "Whether we go to war or not depends on how the general plans to fight the Changyi War. If the general just wants to join forces with the Xuzhou bandit army to deal with it,

Yuan Shao, then the general does not need to go to war; if the general does not want to take advantage of the Tao thieves and wants the Tao thieves to suffer some hardships in the siege, then he might as well attack resolutely, severely inflict heavy losses on the Xuzhou vanguard, deliberately anger the Tao thieves, and induce the Tao thieves to attack Changyi.

Fortified city."

Xia Houyuan nodded his head, feeling that Xu Shu's words made sense. When Cao Chun objected with Boss Cao's order to stick to Changyi, Xu Shu smiled and said: "General Zihe, the prime minister had an order for our army to stick to Changyi, but he didn't.

Isn’t it good to order our troops to defend the city blindly and show weakness, and never allow our troops to go out to fight in the city?”

"Mr. Yuan Zhi's words make sense." Xia Houyuan slapped his thigh and immediately ordered his general Du Xi to lead three thousand troops out of the city and go south to proactively confront the vanguard of the Xuzhou army. Cao Chun's persuasion was useless, so he had to quickly write a letter about the situation and go behind Xia Houyuan's back.

He quickly sent the letter to Cangting and handed it over to Boss Cao, asking Boss Cao to make a decision.

One day later, Cao's army led by Du Xi approached Fang Yu. Just when they received a report that they were less than twenty miles away from Qin Yi's army, the vicious military song of Xuzhou's No. 1 Ace Gentleman Army was heard on the way from the south.

Hearing the neat and loud sound of "Guan Guan Ju Jiu", Du Xi and his team all looked pale, and quickly formed an array with many strong bows and crossbows ready to meet the enemy. Then,

The Gentlemen's Army, which was lined up in five loose battle formations, also appeared in front of Cao's army. The Gentleman's banner was fluttering in the wind, and the shameless secondary flags of benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, trust, gentleness, respect, and thrift were fluttering coquettishly. Cao's army, who had long heard about the reputation of the Gentlemen's Army, had their legs flying up and down.

I was trembling, worried about whether my infantry team could escape the pursuit of the gentleman army.

To the great surprise of Cao Jun, the Junzi Army led by Tao Ji did not fire a barrage of arrows when they came up, nor did they let the three war gods Lu Bu, Guan Yu or Zhang Fei come to the front of the formation to challenge them. Instead, they sent a soldier to hold a white flag.

The cavalry swaggered to the front of Cao's army and shouted with the utmost arrogance: "Listen to the team of Cao thieves on the opposite side, go back and tell Xia Houyuan that for the sake of his niece, I will spare your life today! Again!"

Tell Xia Houyuan that if he dares to send troops out of the city to fight in the field again, even if a hundred thousand troops come, our gentlemen army will always accompany him to the end! If you don’t know how powerful our gentlemen army is, go back and ask Cao Chun how his tiger and leopard cavalry were defeated by our gentlemen.

The army killed them all!"
To be continued...