Chapter 387 Party Conflict
Cao Cao knew Yuan Shao best.
I would rather break than bend! I would rather die than yield!
All along, Yuan Shao's attitude towards Tian Ze has been to fight to the death, and he has never thought about surviving.
For Yuan Shao, if he could not defeat Tian Ze and seize the world, it would be meaningless for him to rule a certain area.
Compared to them, Yuan Shao was too proud.
Therefore, this battle meant much more to Yuan Shao than to them.
If he lost, Yuan Shao’s backbone would be completely broken.
In this case, it doesn’t matter whether Qingzhou is lost or not.
Therefore, Cao Cao believed that Yuan Shao would definitely give up everything just for the chance to win this battle.
Not to mention Qingzhou, even if Xuzhou was added, Yuan Shao would probably not have any hesitation.
"Yuan Benchu's choice is different from ours."
"This battle is his last chance."
"Therefore, although he will fortify his city and clear the countryside, he will definitely not leave too many soldiers and horses behind, nor will he care about the gains and losses of Qingzhou. He won't even care too much about Xuzhou."
"He will definitely deploy all the troops he can mobilize to the northwest border of Qingzhou, and fight with Tian Chengshou for the last chance, regardless of the gains and losses."
Upon hearing this, Xi Zhicai and others were all silent.
They didn't know how to comment on Yuan Shao's move.
How stupid, yet how brave!
This kind of courage is truly worthy of Yuan Benchu.
"So, should we be prepared to take over Xuzhou?" Jia Kui asked untimely.
Cao Cao heard this and smiled proudly: "No need."
"Yuan Benchu has such courage, how can I, Cao Mengde, not join him in this gamble? In addition to the troops that have been assigned to defend and contain Sili, all other troops will be transferred to the northern part of Yanzhou."
"Don't have any other thoughts. We must be determined to win this battle."
"Only by giving everything can we win."
"This is not only Yuan Benchu's last chance, but also our last chance."
Naturally, the troop movements of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao could not be hidden from their two allies Liu Bei and Sun Ce, and they themselves had no intention of hiding it.
Cao Cao was lucky. Although he only left a small number of troops, with the cooperation of the fortress built by Jia Kui in imitation of Tian Ze, he could barely hold on even if he was attacked, and at least ensured that most of the territory would not be lost.
Yuan Shao was almost defenseless, especially towards the south.
The deployment of troops in various places gave Liu Bei and Sun Ce an illusion that they only needed to mobilize 30,000 to 50,000 troops to attack Huanglong and easily capture Xuzhou.
"My lord, is Yuan Benchu crazy?" Cheng Pu looked at the troop deployment of Qing and Xu states on the map, his eyes full of eagerness.
"Qingxu is empty. This is a good opportunity. We only need 20,000 elite soldiers to occupy at least Xuzhou before Yuan Shao can react."
Upon hearing this, Sun Ce's face showed no emotion at all, but was extremely solemn.
"Gongjin, say something!" Seeing Sun Ce's reaction, Cheng Pu hurriedly said to Zhou Yu beside him.
In his eyes, there is no such thing as the general trend of the world. Expanding territory is everything.
Moreover, as the commander of the navy, Cheng Pu also has his own unique vision for the defense of Jiangdong.
To defend the Yangtze River, we must defend the Huai River!
As long as he takes advantage of this opportunity to capture Xuzhou and occupy the Jianghuai area, with the navy of Jiangdong, Zhou Yu and his ability to lead troops, he will not be afraid even if Tian Ze's million-strong army marches south.
The perfect strategic defense system he had dreamed of was within reach, and he couldn't help but be excited.
However, Zhou Yu also frowned and looked at the situation in various places on the map without saying a word.
"Gongjin, what do you think?"
When Zhou Yu heard Sun Ce's question, he was very hesitant.
How could he not understand the importance of the choice at this moment.
This is an extremely important opportunity for them.
If we take this opportunity to capture Xuzhou, Yuan Shao will not be able to take it back no matter what, and he will not even have the energy to care about it. In this way, the situation in Jiangdong will be determined.
Next, no matter whether the Central Plains princes win or lose the battle with Tian Ze, they can sit back and watch the fight, or even reap the profits. For the sake of the overall situation, Yuan Shao will definitely swallow this loss.
He had countless reasons to do so, but he couldn't.
"My lord, Xuzhou cannot be taken!"
Sun Ce smiled when he heard this.
"Why?"
Zhou Yu slowly turned around and looked at the puzzled civil and military officials: "Because what we want is for the Lord to ascend to the throne, not to hide in Jiangdong and become a dog guarding the house."
"If you just want the safety of Jiangdong, you can attack Xuzhou. But if you want to defeat Tianze, Xuzhou cannot be touched!"
"This is our last chance!"
Zhou Yu, who was always elegant, showed a rare serious look at this moment.
"Why do you say that, Governor? If we were able to defeat Gan Xingba before, we can defeat Tian Chengshou as well."
"Commander-in-chief, we don't need too many troops to attack Xuzhou. We can just split the troops into two groups."
"Governor, if that doesn't work, can we just seize the land south of the Huai River?"
……
Many civil and military officials did not understand what was said and asked questions one after another.
Sun Ce drew the sword from his waist and split the table in front of him into two halves with one stroke.
Upon seeing this, the originally noisy civil and military officials suddenly fell silent, shut their mouths, and looked terrified.
The nickname of Jiangdong Little Overlord is not for nothing.
Although Sun Ce looked kind and straightforward on weekdays, he was broad-minded and would not make a fuss about trivial matters with his civil and military officials.
But once it comes to issues of principle and Sun Ce gets angry, they cannot bear it.
Previously, two powerful people in Jiangdong were uprooted because they touched Sun Ce's sore spot.
It was no use for anyone to plead for mercy, even General Huang Gai was beaten with fifty sticks.
"Gongjin, please continue."
Putting the sword back to his waist, Sun Ce said calmly.
Zhou Yu bowed slightly and looked at this group of civil and military officials composed mainly of people from Jiangdong and Huaibei, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
Sure enough, the contradiction still arose.
Factional strife broke out among Tian Ze's subordinates, and the factional strife among other princes was even more intense.
Especially Sun Ce in Jiangdong.
The local aristocratic families and powerful people already had a strong sense of xenophobia, and coupled with the fact that Sun Ce's foundation was shallow, the internal struggle naturally became more intense.
In the past, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu had always worked closely together, one playing the good cop and the other the bad cop, giving each other a sweet treat after a beating, and only then could they barely maintain internal harmony.
But now that the common interests of Jiangdong and Huaibei Groups are involved, the conflict has unsurprisingly arisen again.
The Jiangdong family did not want to miss such a good opportunity to expand their territory.
You know, the Xuzhou families had been wiped out after several wars. For them, that place was a treasure land that was unoccupied and urgently needed to be developed.
Once Xuzhou is captured, the harvest will be tremendous.
The Huaibei Group naturally also wanted to take over Xuzhou and retake their hometown so that they could develop better and gain a firm foothold in Jiangdong.
Today, most of the civil and military officials under Sun Ce have almost the same idea.
However, this idea was obviously in conflict with Sun Ce's strategy and long-term interests.
For Sun Ce, not only was it a difficult problem to make a choice, but how to control the civil and military officials under his command was even more of a problem.
(End of this chapter)
