(PS: Pure and kind newcomer Wolf is asking for votes. Both monthly and recommended votes are required for Pure Wolf.)

I believe there is no need to explain or introduce in detail why the kind and strong Lu Die and Xiao Luoli visited Deputy Director Tao at night. There is no need to waste words and words here. On the contrary, it is the first meeting between Cao Ling and Lu Die.

It is worth mentioning that after taking a closer look at Lu Die and Xiao Luoli’s face, and knowing the real purpose of Lu Die and Xiao Luoli’s painstaking efforts to visit Tao Ying, Cao Ling simply wanted to strangle Tao Ying to death and even scolded her.

, "Such a good girl, why did you let a nerd like you get into trouble? A flower stuck in cow dung!"

Tao Ying was not in much mood to judge whether Cao Ling's words were correct, because it was only then that Tao Ying discovered that his judgment on the severity of the situation inside and outside Xuzhou was still too optimistic.

Among the princes, there is no truly reliable friend to whom I can trust my back. On the road to conquering the world, there are still countless thorns and traps. If I am not careful, I may fall into it.

A place of no return.

Tao Ying's two think tanks, Lu Su and Chen Deng, also had the same idea. After learning that Lu Bu had secretly formed an alliance with Yuan Shu, Chen Deng and Lu Su both took a deep breath. After a long time, Lu Su finally

He said with a wry smile: "I didn't expect that we all underestimated Marquis Lu Wen. In the past, we all thought that no matter how capricious Marquis Lu Wen was, he should at least follow some rules. Now it seems that we are all wrong. In Marquis Lu Wen's eyes, only

One rule, that is himself."

"It is a great misfortune for our army to have such a wolf-like nature to ally with him." Chen Deng agreed, and then handed over to Tao Ying and said: "My Lord, Lu Bu has sinister intentions. My Lord, do you need to reconsider your marriage and alliance with him?"

?”

Tao Ying did not answer in a hurry, and after thinking about it for a long time, Tao Ying shook his head and said, "I have thought about it carefully and again. I feel that we still cannot give up on the alliance between our army and Lu Bu. Lu Bu is indeed hateful. But Cao Cao and Yuan Shao are more difficult to deal with than him.

Now we cannot lose the northern barrier of Lu Bu, so even if we drink poisonous wine to quench our thirst, I have to drink this poisonous wine with all my strength."

"My lord's opinion is not unreasonable, but..." Chen Deng, who was at odds with Marquis Lu Wen, hesitated for a moment, then handed over his hands and said: "Since my lord has made up his mind, we have to guard against the north. Based on Deng's opinion,

My lord can use the excuse to march north to support Lu Bu and take the opportunity to send troops to strengthen the defense of Xiaopei. Xiaopei is the first strategic point in the north of Xuzhou. As long as Xiaopei is defended, all eventualities can be prevented."

"This is a wonderful plan." Tao Ying nodded and ordered: "After I get engaged to Lu Bu's daughter, I can ask Qin Yi to lead an army of five thousand to the north with grain, and then move to Xiaopei to assist Sun Guan in strengthening Xiaopei's defense.

"

Chen Deng and Lu Su agreed. Then Chen Deng asked: "Lord, how will Yuan Shu's affairs be handled? Lu Bu has already agreed to form a secret alliance with Yuan Shu. Zhou Yu, who was deeply feared by the lord, became Yuan Shu's son-in-law and confidant. Yuan Shu sent troops to invade.

Xuzhou is a foregone conclusion, my lord needs to take precautions and formulate countermeasures early."

"This matter cannot be rushed. We must make a decision before taking action." Tao Ying shook his head and said: "We are still not sure of Yuan Shu's main attack target. Xuzhou only has 70,000 troops, of which more than 50,000 are to guard the city passes of the five counties of Xuzhou.

, the mobile force is less than 20,000. Once you misjudge the direction of Yuan Shu's troops and want to make temporary adjustments, it will be too late. And once the main force of our army is mobilized, our neighbors to the north will have to make new calculations.

"

Deputy Director Tao was so cautious and suspicious that Chen Deng and Lu Su could not say much. They could only carry out preparations step by step. While sending countless scouts to closely monitor Yuan Shujun's every move, under the leadership of Tao Ying, they met

Lü Bu formally married, that is, he asked Tao Ying to enter into a marriage contract with Lü Die, and pretended to be a trick to temporarily stabilize Marquis Lu Wen. At the same time, in the name of being a subordinate, he took the initiative to give Marquis Lu Wen 50,000 dendrobium of military rations, a thousand bolts of cloth and 500 catties of gold. Consider this.

When Marquis Lu Wen was faced with the current food shortage dilemma, Tao Ying also offered to have the Xuzhou army immediately escort the grain to the north. After hearing the news, Marquis Lu Wen was also overjoyed and formally recognized Tao Ying as his future son-in-law. He also sent Zhang Liao to assist the Xuzhou grain escort team to go north, but

They completely failed to notice that after the 5,000 Xuzhou troops went north, they did not return to Xuzhou at all, but instead stationed themselves in Xiaopei, consolidating the defense of Xiaopei, a key buffer area.

After struggling for less than half a month, 50,000 hu of army rations were successfully delivered to Changyi. The well-fed and drunk Lu Bu army finally stabilized the situation and blocked the fierce offensive of Cao and Yuan's coalition forces, allowing Cao and Yuan's coalition forces to quickly drive away Lu Bu's army.

The sweet dream of leaving Yanzhou was completely shattered. Boss Cao scolded Tao Ying's child for not being a thing, and secretly laughed at Tao Ying's child for seeking skin from a tiger. He predicted that Tao Ying's child would die at the hands of his future father-in-law, and Boss Cao was also indispensable.

Pay close attention to Yuan Shu's every move in Huainan, and hope that Yuan Shu will send troops as soon as possible to bite Tao Ying'er's insidious snake that is getting bigger and bigger for him!

Yuan Shujun did not disappoint anyone. Almost at the same time that Lu Bu regained his position, the detailed information sent by Xuzhou to Huainan finally received accurate news - as Tao Ying expected, Yuan Shujun was also secretly in Liyang area.

An unknown number of troops were assembled, and a large number of ships and supplies were also mobilized. They may have launched a cross-river offensive to attack Liu Yao, but they may also have been preparing to go down the river and raid the important town of Guangling in the southernmost part of Xuzhou.

At the same time, what surprised Tao Ying and Xuzhou's decision-makers was that Jiangnan Liu Yao also took the initiative to send valuable information about Yuan Shujun's possible attack on Guangling, and detailed Liu Yao's reconnaissance of Yuan Shujun's troop mobilization and ship preparations.

Waiting for the situation, all the money was given to Xuzhou decision-makers for free. As for the purpose, of course it was to form an alliance with the Xuzhou army and jointly deal with Xiao Yuan Sangong who had robbed Liu Yao's territory.

After confirming the news again and again, Chen Deng and Lu Su admired Tao Ying's tactical genius and quickly made suggestions to Tao Ying together to immediately increase the number of troops in Guangling to strengthen the defense and not give Yuan Shu any loopholes to exploit. However, Chen Deng and Lu Su

Su was extremely surprised and dumbfounded that after listening to the correct suggestions from Chen Deng and Lu Su, Deputy Director Tao, who is more cunning than a fox and timid than a mouse, not only did not accept it immediately, but instead took Liu Yao's letter and turned it over and threw it away.

I read it over and over again in the past. I still frowned and muttered, "Guangling? Guangling? Is it really Guangling?"

"My lord, I really don't know what to say about you." Lu Su was angry and funny at the same time. He knew that Tao Ying never cared about his outspokenness, so he simply accused him: "My lord, are you too suspicious?

Before, you suspected that Yuan Shu’s army’s main attack direction was not Pengcheng but Guangling, but now your judgment has been proven correct. Why do you still doubt it again? Could it be that you think that Yuan Shu’s army is also an empty force in Liyang?”

"Our opponent is Zhou Yu. We must be as careful as possible. If you act impulsively, once you fall into Zhou Yu's scheme, it will be too late to regret." Tao Ying shook his head and asked again: "Zijing, Yuanlong, do you feel,

Are there two doubts about this matter?"

"Please give me some advice, my lord." Zhou Yu, who also felt that Tao Ying was too suspicious, asked curiously.

"First, where is the main force of Yuan Shu's soldiers? In Dangtu or in Liyang?" Tao Ying analyzed: "Yuan Shu is very happy with his achievements, and he likes to fill up the numbers when building an army. His team is quite large, but the main force of soldiers is

Basically, they are only under the command of Ji Ling, Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun, and the others are almost a mob. They are scary because of their numbers. This means that the only one who can really pose a threat to us is Ji Ling.

Of the three teams of Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun, the only thing we can be sure of now is that Zhang Xun's team faced off with Liu Yao's main force in Niuzhu. Where are Ji Ling and Qiao Rui's team? Our detailed work did not figure this out.

In important situations, it may be that the details are incompetent, or it may be that Yuan Shu is deliberately concealing it!"

Lu Su and Chen Deng nodded silently, feeling that Tao Ying's suspicion was not unreasonable. Yuan Shu had too many mobs, and it was indeed very easy to use miscellaneous troops to cover the whereabouts of the main force. However, Xuzhou Xizuo did not figure out where the main force of Yuan Shu's army was.

If it was really Yuan Shu's deliberate arrangement, then it would be proof that Yuan Shu had a ulterior motive and planned to make a surprise attack in the east and in the west.

"The second doubt lies in time." Tao Ying continued: "More than twenty days have passed since our army received the news that Yuan Shu was preparing to attack Xuzhou. During this period, why did Yuan Shu keep his troops stationary? He

Don’t you know the value of military speed?”

"At this point, it is possible that Yuan Shu is waiting for Lu Bu's reply." Chen Deng analyzed.

"It is possible." Tao Ying nodded and said quickly: "But there is another possibility. Yuan Shu's army is waiting for us to move first, wait for us to show our flaws, and then take advantage of it and catch us off guard! Otherwise, with

The old thief Yuan Shu has a bad temper. I'm afraid he has lost his composure and started taking action long ago, and he won't have the patience to wait for us to arrange things calmly."

Lu Su and Chen Deng were silent. After a long time, Lu Su said: "My lord, your suspicion is indeed justified, but the possibility raised by Brother Yuan Long is not nonexistent. Maybe Yuan Shu is waiting for Lu Bu's reply. Now we have

After confirming Lu Bu's agreement to form an alliance with Yuan Shu, it's time for Yuan Shu's envoy to bring the news back to Shouchun. If we don't respond and Yuan Shu suddenly takes action, it may be too late to temporarily mobilize troops."

Tao Ying considered not answering, then turned his attention to Chen Deng, who was also good at tactics, and asked: "Yuanlong, what do you think?"

"My opinion is that my lord should be prepared for both things." Chen Deng replied: "The doubts raised by my lord are indeed reasonable. The location of Yuan Shu's main force is unknown. We cannot easily determine Yuan Shu's real main attack direction. But I think that,

Regardless of whether Yuan Shu's main force is in Dangtu or Liyang, his main attack target is Pengcheng or Guangling. Therefore, by spreading suspicion to lure our army to move first, he just wants to lure our army to concentrate his main force on either Pengcheng or Guangling.

, and then attack the weak points of our army, but our army has insufficient intelligence and is temporarily unable to tell which road is the real main force of Yuan Shu's army."

"In that case." Chen Deng suggested: "Then my lord can first send some reinforcements to Guangling, hold on to the important town of Guangling at the southernmost tip of Xuzhou, and prevent Yuan Shu from raiding Guangling, and then wait and see what happens, and wait until Yuan Shu has a clear plan before dispatching.

It won’t be too late for the main force of our army to engage in battle.”

A clever woman can't make a meal without rice. When the enemy's situation is unclear and his own army's maneuverability is limited, Chen Deng's method is the only foolproof strategy. In addition, there is not much preparation time left for the Xuzhou army, so Tao Ying finally weighed it up and decided

He accepted Chen Deng's suggestion and decided to send Chen Dao and 5,000 troops to Guangling to assist Zhang Lie in guarding the important town of Guangling - Zhang Lie had 8,000 troops in Guangling County, plus Chen Dao's 5,000 fresh troops.

It should be able to hold off Yuan Shu's army for a period of time. However, in this way, Deputy Director Tao, who has limited troops, only has about 10,000 mobile troops left.

Chen Dao was called to arrange the task, and he repeatedly told Chen Dao to respect the respected senior Zhang Jiao. Chen Dao, who got the opportunity to lead the army for the first time, respectfully agreed, and happily accepted the order and left. Then Tao Ying

Accepted Lu Su's suggestion and decided to accept Liu Yao's request for an alliance. Join forces with Liu Yao's army to deal with Xiao Yuan Sangong - the last time he refused Liu Yao's request for an alliance was because Tao Ying had just made peace with Xiao Yuan Sangong at that time, and Liu Yao's strength

Tao Ying was too weak to look down on him. Now that little Yuan Sangong had taken the initiative to show off his face, in line with the principle that mosquitoes are also meat, Tao Ying could no longer refuse Liu Yao's kindness.

After making these arrangements, it was already evening. Lu Su and Chen Deng were going to prepare food, grass and weapons for Chen Dao to use for the expedition. They did not stay to have dinner with Tao Ying, so Tao Ying returned to the back hall alone.

He was preparing to sign official documents while eating. When Tao Yingxiang entered the back hall with a heavy heart, he was surprised to find that the little girl Cao Ling was among them, holding a plate of dishes that looked like dark cuisine in her hand.

Ruhua greeted Tao Ying: "Bookworm, are you finally willing to come back? Come and try the food I cooked for you myself."

Looking at the plate of dishes that exuded a strange smell, Tao Ying shuddered. He wanted to say that he had already eaten, but he was afraid of hurting the little girl's heart, so he had to bite the bullet and sit next to the table.

He complimented Cao Ling's good craftsmanship without meaning it. He asked curiously: "Why are you here? Didn't you say last time that your mother wouldn't allow you to come to my place alone again?"

"I came quietly." Cao Ling smiled sweetly, took the initiative to sit in Tao Ying's arms, squeezed Tao Ying's thigh, and said fiercely: "I want to check up on a lustful and heartless nerd.

Have you found another woman behind my back?"

"How is that possible?" Tao Ying quickly denied it. Then he skillfully put his hands into Cao Ling's thin clothes, and while stroking Cao Ling's amazingly elastic breasts, he said with a smile: "You are enough for me, why?

Maybe find another woman?"

"You are not allowed to touch, and you are not allowed to mess around today. The last time I was bullied by you four times in one night, my stomach still hurts." Cao Ling blushed and pressed Tao Ying's claws, and then pinched Tao hard.

He responded and asked bitterly: "Who are you lying to? I'm the only one, what about your cocoon? Are you planning to break off the engagement with her and make me your wife?"

"Besides you and Yu'er, there will be no third person." Tao Ying quickly continued his nonsense.

"Do you think I will believe it?" Cao Ling leaned close to Tao Ying's ear and asked with a deep breath: "Let's not talk about that A Li you have already taken over, but where is Sister Zhen'er? If she comes back, can you

Are you willing to refuse?"

Speaking of Mi Zhen, Tao Ying naturally thought of Mi Zhen's desolate and pitiful look and heartbroken eyes on that snowy night, and he couldn't help but feel melancholy and loss in his heart. Cao Ling, who hadn't been taught enough yet, kept chattering and pinching

He listened to Tao Ying's ears and asked: "How is it? There is not only a third one, but also a fourth one? I don't understand how lecherous a nerd like you is..."

"Not only is there a third one? There's a fourth one?!"

Tao Ying's heart suddenly moved, and he suddenly understood why he had been worried. Then Tao Ying jumped up suddenly, which also shocked Cao Ling. He quickly asked Tao Ying what was wrong, but Tao Ying didn't answer and just rushed.

When he got to the door, he shouted loudly: "Come here, come quickly! Bring the map. I want the map of the five counties of Xuzhou and the map of Jiujiang County! Bring it too!"

The guard quickly brought the map. Tao Ying didn't have time to clear up the cases and directly spread the map on the ground. Cao Ling was also smart and quickly brought the candlestick. Tao Ying took the candlestick and looked for the two gathering points of Yuan Shu's army in Liyang.

He and Dangtu, then used their fingers to draw on the map, analyzed and calculated, and found out that there was no problem in Liyang. Yuan Shu sent troops from Liyang, and the only places where Xuzhou could be attacked were Guangling City and Jiangdu Port; then Tao Ying
To be continued...