Chapter 241: Winning with Stability
"Military Advisor, Yuan Benchu invites us to a battle north of Jie Bridge."
"Don't pay attention to it." Xun You said lightly.
The more anxious the enemy is, the more they need to stay calm.
He could roughly guess what Yuan Shao was thinking.
When the opponent is at a disadvantage, it is impossible to win without taking risks, unless you wait for them to make a mistake.
As long as they advance steadily and cautiously, the opponent will be helpless.
"Yuan Shao is also here, and he has less than 150,000 troops left." Guan Yu said with a little intention.
"Don't pay attention to it." Xun You emphasized again.
Looking straight at Guan Yu, Xun You said in a deep voice: "Yun Chang, you must remember that no matter what Yuan Shao arranges, no matter how he provokes, challenges, or shows weakness, you should ignore it."
"Because they have only one goal, which is to lure you into a trap."
"Even if you think you have seen through their scheme, even if you think you can outwit them, don't believe it. Because what you think may be within their expectations. As long as you pay attention to it, there is a risk of falling into their trap."
"We are already in a safe position to win, and we don't need to take unnecessary risks, so don't pay any attention to him. Even if Yuan Shao only has 50,000 troops, even if he demotes you, don't pay any attention to him. It's just the howling of the weak."
Tian Ze once arranged for Tian Feng to give his civil and military officers a separate course, which was about how to win by stability.
The core idea is: how to avoid failure when the strong are against the weak.
Tian Feng was very good at this, and his talent was to know how to deal with all kinds of tricks and schemes. The most reliable way was to delay and use stillness to control movement.
Even if we are led by the enemy, even if it takes some time and wastes some manpower, we must remain steady.
Based on this core idea, not to mention the military generals, even Guo Jia, who is good at making unconventional strategies, rarely offers risky strategies nowadays. Most of the time, he reverses and infers what unconventional strategies the enemy will take, or how to improve the overall strategy.
The reason why Tian Ze did this is very simple. He has a winning card in his hand, and there are many cases in this era where people think they have a sure win but end up failing. Why should he be greedy and rush to win?
Let alone other things, if you randomly pick any one of the three major battles at the end of the Han Dynasty, who could have imagined the outcome if they didn’t know about it?
Therefore, in the previous battle of Hebei, Tian Ze seemed to have been the one being plotted against, and was always in a passive state, looking very miserable. Many counselors also seemed to have made no achievements in the face of the plots of Li Ru, Xun Chen and others.
This made Cheng Yu very annoyed, and many generals felt quite aggrieved.
However, doing so did not give Yuan Shao any room to maneuver, as each line of defense was tightly sealed without any flaws.
The only "flaw" that Yuan Shao grasped was a piece of iron plate.
If we adopt this strategy when the strength of the enemy and ourselves is not much different, it is tantamount to cutting off one's own arm. The enemy will continue to accumulate advantages and thus reverse the situation.
However, the gap in strength between Tian Ze and Yuan Shao was too big. Tian Ze could crush Yuan Shao to death by just fighting a stupid battle.
The reason why Xun You was arranged by Tian Ze to be Guan Yu's military advisor was because of Guan Yu's personality.
As a veteran, Xun You was still able to control Guan Yu. After all, Guan Yu was not so arrogant under Tian Ze's command.
After being repeatedly emphasized by Xun You, Guan Yu gave up the idea of advancing rashly.
However, Xun You, who was still worried, sent a letter to Tian Ze, asking Zhang He, who was originally organizing his troops in Youzhou to prepare to station in Bingzhou, to change his route to the rear of Jizhou just in case.
At the same time, Han Dang, who arranged for the garrison in Donglai, also sent out some naval forces to be prepared. In case of any accident, they would be ready to go up the Yellow River to provide support at any time.
After hearing the news, Tian Ze not only did not think that Xun You was making a big fuss, but was quite relieved.
Years of cultivation have borne fruit.
This group of people finally know how to fight for wealth!
No matter what conspiracies and tricks he has, we have more capital. As long as we don't go all in at once and can defend the basic situation first, and then go round by round, we will win.
When it comes to war, no matter how well prepared you are, you can never win 100%.
Who knows if there will be meteorites falling from the sky? Wasn’t that what happened to the last senior who was suspected of traveling through time?
I have divided my troops into three groups. If you can send three rounds of meteorites falling from the sky, I will accept it!
Chen Gong, who was quietly calculating the accounts in the Ministry of Finance, almost crushed the account book in his hand after learning about this. In the end, he could only sigh deeply and add a few more items to the budget allocated for this campaign. In the end, he was the one who paid for Tian Ze's wasteful behavior.
Fortunately, I had kept some tricks up my sleeve when I was settling accounts with Cheng Yu before, otherwise I would have been unable to continue the settlement.
After learning of Tian Zefang's reaction, Yuan Shao's face darkened again.
"Guan Yu and Tian Chengshou are both so cowardly! They are a bunch of rats!"
Ju Su couldn't help but look at Xun Chen, and Xun Chen shook his head slightly to show that he was powerless.
His mood at this time was the same as when Zhuge Liang faced Sima Yi in his later years.
Wrong!
Guan Yu's indifference made not only himself aggrieved, but also Yuan Shao and his advisers.
I had clearly prepared a bunch of strategies and plots, ready to compete with the enemy in a battle of wits, but the other side simply ignored me and relied solely on military force to crush me.
Is this how you fight a war? It's totally unethical!
In order to lure Guan Yu to send troops, Xun Chen also spread a lot of rumors, belittling Guan Yu, praising Xu Huang, and alienating the relationship between the two.
As a result, all of them fell into oblivion without causing any ripples.
Even though Xun Chen blatantly sent envoys to provoke Guan Yu, Guan Yu ignored him and just replied with one sentence: If Yuan Shao really wants a head-on battle, come to Ganling.
I promise that Zhang He’s army will not take action. Let’s fight alone. If you lose, I will give you my head.
Guan Yu's refusal to budge made the envoy feel very aggrieved, and he did not dare to say anything more.
Several envoys who had spoken too harshly before were beaten so badly that they have not been able to get out of bed yet.
After being persuaded by Xun You, Guan Yu had come to his senses. Why bother with so many conspiracies and intrigues? If you really want to fight, come here yourself. Why should I go to you?
"My lord, I'm afraid we have to give up Ji'nan. It's meaningless to go on like this. It will only waste manpower. Besides, we have already dealt with the population that needs to be relocated and the materials that need to be transferred. There's no need to waste time here." Ju Su sighed.
Yuan Shao's soldiers are not leeks that can grow one after another. Especially when the population is small, one less person will die, which is not as good as Tian Ze's big business, and these are all precious combat power.
"Although Guan Yu was not fooled, this also proves one thing. Tian Chengshou will not attack the Central Plains in the short term." Xun Chen said.
The reason why they mobilized such a large force to guard southern Hebei was not to fight a life-and-death battle with Tian Ze.
Because southern Hebei lacks natural advantages, it would be meaningless even if they fought hard. It would be difficult for them to achieve a decisive victory, and they would only be slowly bled by Tian Ze.
Now, everything that needed to be moved in southern Ji has been moved away, and Tian Ze’s attitude has also been tested. It’s time for them to return to Qing and Xu states for stable development.
"How many casualties did our army suffer?" Yuan Shao asked.
"In these two months, the estimated casualties are no less than 30,000, most of whom died in field battles, including no less than 5,000 cavalrymen," Shen Pei said in a deep voice.
"Ma Teng's 20,000 cavalrymen are too threatening, so we have to counter them. But our cavalry is not strong enough, and even with the help of spearmen and crossbowmen, we still suffered heavy losses."
"Where's Tian Zejun?"
"There should be around 10,000 people, of which about 80% to 90% were killed or wounded during the enemy's siege. In a small-scale battle on the plain, the Tianze army has a huge advantage!"
There was a flash of unwillingness in Yuan Shao's eyes, but faced with such a situation, he could only sigh.
"withdraw!"
At this point, Yuan Shao had no choice but to admit defeat.
Tian Ze didn't feel anything about this kind of fighting style, but he couldn't afford it at all.
The population, military resources, financial resources and logistics of the two sides are simply not at the same level. Fighting this kind of war of attrition is exactly what Tian Ze wants.
(End of this chapter)
