Chapter 16: Taking Control of Dongjun

I picked up the seal that Cao Cao had thrown on the ground and said, "My lord! Liu Dai's private appointment of officials is not legitimate. Other princes and the people of Dongjun are also dissatisfied. As long as the lord submits to the leader Yuan Shao to wipe out the remnants of the Yellow Turbans in Dongjun, Yuan Shao will certainly agree to the lord's entry into Dongjun."

Cao Cao walked back and forth for a few steps and asked, "Do you have enough soldiers?"

After this period of time, Cao Cao really began to show his treacherous nature. When he asked me if I had enough soldiers, it was obvious that he was not asking whether the troops were enough to wipe out the Yellow Turbans, but whether they were enough to resist the attack that Liu Dai might launch against his interests.

I said, "Enough! Jia has two hundred family soldiers who are being trained quickly and will arrive soon. These family soldiers can fight ten at a time. Jia is willing to offer them to the lord!" This time, I took out the soldiers trained in the smallest settlement. I was reluctant to give away the soldiers in the main settlement. And only taking out two hundred people at a time was also to prevent the situation where the lord was weak and the ministers were strong.

Cao Cao's generals, who had seen my family soldiers attack an army of 500 with only 20 men, were immediately excited when they heard that I offered 200 men at once. Cao Cao was also delighted and said, "Great! Fengxiao's family soldiers are brave and good at fighting. These 200 men are better than thousands of elite soldiers."

As expected, after receiving Cao Cao's letter, Yuan Shao immediately appointed Cao Cao as the governor of Dongjun in the name of the leader of the alliance to be responsible for eliminating the Yellow Turbans in Dongjun.

Because the prefectures and counties in Guandong rose up to attack Dong Zhuo, the remaining Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou and the Black Mountain Army of Hebei in Shandong and Hebei were able to take a breather and each rapidly developed to a million people. The Black Mountain Army, led by Yu Du and Bai Rao, began to advance towards Yecheng, the hinterland of Yizhou, with the momentum of a gust of wind, and there was a movement to cross the Yellow River and enter Yanzhou. The million Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou, who were attacked by Zang Hong, the governor of Qingzhou appointed by Yuan Shao, had divided their troops into two groups and moved to Hebei, with a great momentum to join the Black Mountain Army. If the two peasant armies were allowed to successfully join forces, the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River would undergo drastic changes. At this time, Yuan Shao had just forced Han Fu to give up Yizhou and appointed himself as the governor of Yizhou. Yuan Shao, whose strength had greatly increased, became more and more ambitious. On the one hand, he used blocking or interception methods to destroy the plan of the peasant army's joining forces, and on the other hand, he wanted to use this opportunity to expand his influence to Yanzhou, connecting Qing, Yan, and Yizhou, so that the fertile land in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River could be under his control. If Yuan Shao wanted to achieve this strategic intention, he had to prevent other princes from making trouble for him. Cao Cao, who had experience in suppressing the Yellow Turban Army but had no territory, was the person who could help him. Moreover, Cao Cao's actions during the alliance also made Yuan Shao feel a little guilty, so he wrote a big stroke to charge the Dongjun prefect appointed by Liu Dai with a crime of being too weak to resist the Black Mountain Army, and ordered Cao Cao to lead troops into Dongjun to encircle and suppress the Black Mountain Army.

When he arrived in Puyang, Cao Cao coaxed Liu Dai's people away with the cooperation of local celebrities Cheng Yu, Chen Gong and others, and began to reorganize the troops, horses, money and food. Dongjun was still a rich place at that time, otherwise Liu Dai would not have been able to spy on it. He gathered nearby officers and soldiers and recruited a lot of family soldiers from wealthy families, with a total force of more than 30,000.

When I arrived with the army, most of Dongjun had been controlled by Cao Cao. Under the guidance of the soldiers, I arrived in front of the prefect's mansion. As soon as I got off the car, I saw Cheng Yu, a man with a beautiful beard, stroking his long beard under his chin and walking into the prefect's mansion. I hurried to greet him and said, "Mr. Cheng, how are you? I am Guo Jia, your student, and I am polite."

Cheng Yu laughed and said, "It's been many years since I last saw Yingchuan. Today, I see that Fengxiao's style is even better than that day!"

After a few humble words, I went in hand in hand with him. Cao Cao and the generals were out inspecting the city defense. There were only three or two people in the main hall sorting out documents. When they saw Cheng Yu coming, they all bowed and saluted. Cheng Yu called one of them and pointed at me and said, "Chen Gong, come here. This is the genius Guo Fengxiao I mentioned."

Chen Gong, who was originally full of smiles, put away his smile and said, "So the wise man Guo Jia mentioned by Cao Gong is so young and promising!"

The hostility coming at me made me feel puzzled. Have I ever offended him? Saying that I am young and promising is clearly a satire on my youth and ignorance. Unfortunately, there is not much information for me to figure out the whole story, so I can only laugh and say, "The word wise man is the lord's love, Jia is ashamed."

Cheng Yu didn't expect Chen Gong to be so disrespectful, and it was difficult to say anything else. He pulled me to sit aside and talk about some Go experience to kill time. Fortunately, Cao Cao came back soon, and the generals behind him looked gloomy. I noticed that there was another person behind Cao Cao who looked very familiar but I couldn't remember where I had seen him. After asking Cheng Yu in a low voice, I learned that this weak official was named Xi Zhicai and was also from Yingchuan. I had seen him walking around in the academy before, but I had never interacted with him.

Cao Cao was very happy to see me in the room, and ordered me to sit on his right, while the rest of the people sat or stood.

Cao Cao said, "Scouts reported that the front of the Black Mountain Army, the Bai Rao Army, has entered Dongjun, and the 100,000-man army will soon be at the gates of Puyang. I wonder if you have any good ideas." After saying that, he looked at me deliberately.

Chen Gong had saved Cao Cao's life before, and his talent was indeed extraordinary. This time he served under Cao Cao, and he was originally thought to be a minister of the righteous. But after joining the army, I heard Cao Cao mention a person's name every day. I thought he had great talent, but today I see that he is just a yellow-mouthed child. So Chen Gong, who was eager to win, said first: "The Bairao army of 100,000 is just a mob, and the elite are only more than 10,000. They have been exhausted from the thousands of miles of raid. As long as Cao Gong sends a general to lead the troops to wipe out the elite, the enemy army will disperse."

Cao Cao nodded and asked: "What do you think, Fengxiao?"

I noticed that Chen Gong's eyes were more hostile, and I sighed in my heart. Cao Cao has led the army for many years and has made great achievements in the battles to suppress the Yellow Turbans. How could the small Bairao army be his opponent? The so-called asking for advice is just a formality. Although Chen Gong is outstanding in talent and learning, he is too bookish in dealing with people, and this person does not seem to be broad-minded. From his performance, I already know roughly why he is hostile to me, but I don't plan to argue with him at the moment. It's not too late to deal with you after you abandon Cao Cao and help Lu Bu.

I said, "It's easy for the lord to catch these little thieves."

Chen Gong felt contemptuous after hearing what I said, and he was more and more convinced that I was just a villain who knew how to flatter. Cao Cao gave me a look that said "those who know me are filial". Xi Zhicai watched Cao Cao and I exchanged glances with interest.

Two days later, Cao Cao led 30,000 troops to defeat the Bai Rao Army, the vanguard of the Black Mountain Army, outside Puyang City, beheaded 10,000 people, and captured 50,000. The treatment of these 50,000 captives was not as simple as I had thought. The local wealthy families who had donated money and food all wanted to share a share, and several wealthy families asked for thousands of strong laborers as slaves. Although the population at the end of the Han Dynasty was not valuable, such free labor was still very attractive to the landlords who had annexed a large amount of land. In order to win people's hearts, they had to give them 10,000 of them. Naturally, the generals and counselors under him had to be rewarded, and another 5,000 people were taken out to share, and I also got 100 slaves. After the reward, there were only 30,000 captives left, 10,000 of which were reorganized into an army. However, these troops can only be used to waste enemy arrows and fill the moat when attacking the city. The remaining 20,000 are basically the elderly, women and children. According to many people's opinion, they were all killed. I, who have received modern education in the 21st century, could not tolerate such a thing, so I suggested to Cao Cao to use these people for farming. Cao Cao readily accepted it, but Puyang no longer had land to accommodate so many people. It happened that the person who went to Yuan Shao to report the victory came back and said that Yuan Shao had recommended Cao Cao as the governor of Dongjun. So Cao Cao moved the governor's mansion from Puyang to Dongwuyang, preparing to start farming and training there.

In this era, in order to save food and equipment restrictions, the army had to stop training in winter, not to mention fighting. But I know very well that soldiers trained in the cold winter are much stronger than those trained in other seasons in terms of psychological quality and combat effectiveness, so I suggest to carry out training activities in the coming winter. Cao Cao thought it made sense, and since the supplies just seized were enough for this winter, he agreed with my idea. In the process of annihilating the Bairao Army, my 200 soldiers showed super combat effectiveness, which amazed Cao Cao and his generals, so he wanted me to be responsible for winter training.

I was stunned. If I were given a few dozen people to train, it would probably be no problem, but it would be difficult for me to get tens of thousands of people at once. Just when I was trying to refuse, I heard that Yu Jin, a native of Juping, Taishan, came to surrender. This guy is a famous master of training. So I recommended this person to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was skeptical at first, but after a conversation with Yu Jin, he praised Feng Xiao for his ability to judge people, and entrusted the training to him.

When the cold winter was approaching, one day when I was bored at home pretending to be sick, my family came to report that an old friend from Yingchuan was visiting outside the door. Please come in and see that it is my creditor Xun Yu and Xun Wenruo. As soon as he saw me, he smiled and said, "After several years of separation, do you still recognize your old friend?"

I was overjoyed and said, "Brother Wenruo, you are making fun of me. We just said goodbye in a hurry that day. Brother Wenruo, how are you?"

Xun Yu said, "No, no! How can it be good without drinking the wine you brewed!"

When friends meet, they naturally tell each other about their separation. It turned out that Xun Yu and Xun Chen wanted to serve Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, the year before last, but were robbed by Yuan Shao on the way. They thought they had joined a wise master, but after observation, Xun Yu found that Yuan Shao was not a person worthy of his service, so he ran away from Yuan Shao on the pretext of returning home, and came here to serve Cao Cao.

Although I knew that I could serve as a minister in the same palace with Xun Yu, I was still very excited when I really heard the news. After all, I am not the real Guo Jia in history, and I can't have Guo Jia's incomprehensible and amazing talent. The reason why I always hid at home on the pretext of illness after arriving in Dongwuyang was that what I was shielding was nothing more than some non-official history that I had seen in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which had been dramatized. So what I could do now was to be careful not to change history while strengthening Cao Cao's strength, because I wanted to use what I knew to help Cao Cao end this chaotic world at the most critical moment. A few days ago, I couldn't bear the old and weak prisoners of war being killed, so I proposed the strategy of farming and made farming appear several years earlier, which has made me uneasy for a long time. So before the decisive battle with Yuan Shao, Cao Cao's biggest enemy in the north, I would not do many things that I already had the conditions to do. Xun Yu was different. He was a person of this era. In theory, what he was going to do was already determined under a certain condition and would not change history. Let's call this certain condition "destiny".

First there were Cheng Yu and Xi Zhicai, and now there is Xun Yu, who was praised by later generations as a person with the talent of a king's assistant, and later a large number of wise men joined him. Cao Cao's power will continue to grow and develop according to the trajectory of history.

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