Chapter 269 Finally, there is no need for soy sauce

Cao Wei was also shocked.

Only more than a year after Liu Feng paced Dongwu, he launched a full attack on him with the army of the country. The launch of this war was somewhat hasty.

Cao Jian immediately understood that in fact, he forced Liu Feng to launch the Northern Expedition in advance.

The original plan of this Prime Minister Cao was to reduce the pressure on the front line of Hongnong, and then maximize the advantages of the population and restore the strength of 400,000 soldiers and horses in three to four years.

All this is just Cao's best plan. In fact, he should be very clear that Liu Feng is not Liu Biao. This young overlord will never sit back and watch him recover.

The enemy's fist had been issued, and Cao Wei had to respond.

Except for the 50,000 newly recruited troops, Cao Can use as many as 200,000 troops, which is no more than 50,000 different from Liu Feng's Northern Expeditionary Army.

In terms of military strength, Cao Hen does not lose the disadvantage. The biggest disadvantage of Cao Hen is that he will lack talent.

In the previous years of war, Cao Yan lost Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xia Houyuan, Le Jin, Li Dian, Zhang Yi, Wen Ping, Zhang Liao and many other good generals.

These generals are all long-standing generals since Dong Zhuo's era. The so-called thousands of troops are easy to get, and one general is difficult to find. The loss of these generals is more harmful to Cao than the loss of hundreds of thousands of troops.

In contrast, Liu Feng, over the years, there have been a lot of talents under his command, and the stars have gathered.

Cao Jian, who claimed to be a counselor under his command, felt the pain of lack of talent for the first time.

In this case, Cao Yan had to use a large number of young generals. With Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, Xia Houshang, and the veteran Zang Ba, he led 70,000 troops stationed on the front line of Yanzhou to resist the two enemy forces in the east.

On the front line of Xuchang, Cao Jian, with Yu Ban and Zhu Ling as generals, commanded 40,000 troops, and set up defenses on the front line of Xihua, Changping and Ruyang to the east of Xuchang to block the enemy in the direction of Yingshui.

On the front line of Yangcheng, south of Luoyang, Cao Yan led 30,000 troops with Xu Huang to deal with Wei Yan's Nanyang army.

For the defense of Luoyang City, Cao Qian handed over to Xiahou Dun and ordered him to command 30,000 troops. In addition to defending Luoyang City, he was also responsible for the defense of the line from Hangu Pass to Luchi in the west of Luoyang, in case Liu Bei took the opportunity to breach the contract and march eastward.

Cao Wei himself, the self-supervised army of 30,000, sat in Xuchang, and transferred all the armies.

In the whole semi-circular curved defense line, Cao Shen has used all his family resources. The newly recruited 50,000 troops can only be deployed in the Hebei prefectures because they have not yet formed combat effectiveness.

Liu Feng's army started at the end of August, and the two water armies in the north marched smoothly. They defeated Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu and other young generals and forced them to retreat repeatedly. They could only retreat to Chen Liu, Dongping and other counties in the north of the Yellow River to prevent the enemy's water army from entering the river.

On the side of Nanyang, Wei Yan went all the way** and defeated Xu Huang several times in a row, forcing him to retreat.

Only Yingshui all the way, Yu Ji and Zhu Ling are experienced, and their strength is not inferior to the weak. In Ruyang and Zhang Ren, there are several battles, regardless of victory or defeat.

Hearing that the progress of Yingshui's army was not good, Liu Feng had to unify the Chinese army from Pengcheng to the south to Shouchun, and went north along Yingshui to support Zhang Ren and other troops.

Cao Jian heard that Liu Feng had arrived, and he also led Xu Chang's soldiers out. Cao Liu's two armies had nearly 200,000 troops, so they formed a confrontation in the area of Ruyang.

########## Luoyang City.

In Sima's mansion, Jiang Ji visited again, but this time, he came from the back door.

Since the Northern Expedition of Liu Feng's army, Luoyang City has entered a high level of vigilance.

Although Cao Wei is in power, there are still many opposition forces in the government and the opposition. These people were afraid of Cao Wei's power before, so they could only pretend to be obedient.

In the current situation, Liu Feng's army is approaching, and it is not known who will die in the end. In this case, those opposing forces are naturally ready to move.

Since Cao Wei led the army to leave, Luoyang City has been surging undercurrents at this time, and all kinds of people with ghosts are plotting a way out.

Xiahou Dun, the general who stayed in Luoyang, had to strengthen the patrol in the city in order to prevent people from making trouble, and secretly strengthened the surveillance of those civil and military officials who were not Cao's cronies.

Although Jiang Ji nominally belongs to the pro-Cao faction, Sima Yi is not a "person in the circle". In such an extraordinary period, Jiang Ji visited the door and naturally had to keep a low profile to prevent people's eyes and ears.

In the secret room, Sima Yi is playing chess.

Black and white chess pieces, entangled and intertwined.

A big dragon of Heizi is surrounded on all sides, but as long as it rushes out of the encirclement, it will be impossible to take advantage of it.

Lala~~Jiang Ji grabbed a piece of chess and messed up a game of black and white chess.

"Zitong, you ruined all my good game of chess." Sima Yi flattened his mouth and complained.

Jiang Ji sat down, shook his head and sighed, "Zhong Da, Luoyang is attacked on all sides. When is it, don't pretend to be calm anymore."

Sima Yi smiled and said, "I'm not pretending to be calm, but really calm."

Jiang Ji was stunned.

Sima Yi put the chess pieces into the chess basket and said, "We are loyal to the emperor of the Han Dynasty. What's the matter who wins and who loses?"

This sentence shocked Jiang Ji's expression.

"Zhong Da, you mean..." Jiang Ji was a little excited.

Sima Yi poured a cup of tea for Jiang Ji and said lightly, "The current situation is very clear. There is no doubt that Cao Gong will be defeated. Do you still plan to bury Cao Gong?"

Jiang Ji frowned and looked a little suspicious: "At present, Cao Gongyi and Liu Feng are still in a standstill. The number of wins and losses is still unknown. Zhongda, how can you judge who will win or lose so quickly?"

Sima Yi took a sip of tea and sneered, "Mr. Cao is in a standstill with General Liu, but don't forget that there is another person. If he intervenes in this war, he will be able to decide the final victory or defeat."

"You mean Liu Bei?" Jiang Ji suddenly remembered.

Sima Yi pointed to the west and said, "Then Liu Bei has more than 100,000 troops. Once he joins the war with all his strength, isn't it enough to decide the winner?"

Jiang Ji nodded slightly: "The previous time, Liu Bei reached an agreement with Duke Cao to contain Liu Feng, but he has been bluffing all the time. It seems that he does not intend to really use troops against Liu Feng. Zhong Da, it seems that Liu Bei still wants to take the opportunity to attack Cao Gong?"

"Liu Bei's generation of heroes, he will definitely not do things that harm others and himself. I expect that he will station troops in Wuguan just to confuse Cao Gong. As long as the time is ripe, he will definitely renege his covenant and lead his army forward. Moreover, this time, his goal must not be the well-prepared Luoyang, but an empty Hebei prefecture.

Jiang Ji was surprised by his words.

The right middle man thought for a moment, and his expression suddenly changed. He was shocked and said, "Zhong Da, do you mean that Liu Bei will not attack the Hangu Pass in the east, but enter Hedong in the north and want to capture the four prefectures of Hebei from Bingzhou?"

Sima Yi looked confident and snorted coldly, "In addition, I can't think of a second way for Liu Bei to turn the world around."

Sima Yi's judgment made Jiang Ji, who had no clue, feel that the situation was getting more and more complicated, which made him lose his judgment.

"If Liu Bei can capture the four states of Hebei, his strength should be equal to that of Liu Feng. It seems to be another difficult problem for whom we vote for these two Liu." Jiang Ji looked embarrassed.

Sima Yi said, "It doesn't matter who you vote for. The important thing is that we must have a bargaining chip to gain a foothold under the new master."

"What chip?"

Sima Yi stood up, facing the direction of the palace, with a tid smile on the corners of his mouth.

"Han Emperor is a bargaining chip."

########## On the bank of the river, the middle-aged general with a black-bearded charcoal surface stood majestically, and his cold eyes swept at the rolling waves of the river.

The dim yellow remnant sun light sprinkled on the beach, high on the horse. Looking around, I saw that countless soldiers were busy along the river.

All departments are rushing to control the raft and dare not be lazy at all, because their Zhendong general Zhang Yide has an order to cross the river at dawn. If they don't make a bamboo raft, they have to wad in the water and swim across the Yellow River by themselves.

Zhang Fei galloped along the coast. Once he saw a slightly lazy soldier, he scolded him harshly, and even went straight up and whipped him.

Tens of thousands of soldiers were so scared that they didn't even have time to wipe the sweat on their faces. They were afraid that they would be seen by Zhang Fei. They mistakenly thought that they were lazy and were whipped for no reason.

Zhang Fei is very excited and also very irritable, and this kind of irritability has intensified since Guan Yu's death.

He and Guan Yu were brothers. After hearing that Jingzhou had fallen and Guan Yu was killed by Liu Feng, he cried many times and begged Liu Bei to send troops to avenge Guan Yu.

Even after Liu Bei seized Guanzhong, he once wrote a book asking Liu Bei to attack Liu Feng with all the soldiers of Guan Long.

However, all his pleas were gently rejected by Liu Bei, who put the overall situation first.

Zhang Fei, who has a great hatred and a depressed mood, can only borrow wine to sell his worries, and whenever he is drunk, he will enjoy whipping the soldiers.

He regarded the flogged soldier as Liu Feng.

A few days ago, he, who was guarding Tongguan, received a secret order from Liu Bei and ordered him to command 50,000 troops led by Pang De, Zhang Yi and Li Hui, who secretly returned to the north from Wuguan. He took Fazheng as his military division, went north on a starry night, crossed the Yellow River from Pubanjin to the east, and raided Hedong County.

After getting this secret order, Zhang Fei was so excited that he stayed up all night. He knew very well what this secret order meant.

That means that after playing soy sauce for so many years, he can finally act as the protagonist and wash away his inner distress with killing and blood.

After a busy night, at dawn, thousands of rafts were completed. Zhang Fei couldn't wait to lead three thousand vanguard troops, and the first group began to cross the Yellow River in the east.

From a distance, there are no people on the other side of the river. It seems that the defenders of Hedong County are not prepared for Liu Bei's raid at all.

Zhang Fei's 3,000 elite troops successfully crossed the Yellow River. Except for more than a hundred soldiers who unfortunately fell into the water and drowned, they basically landed safely.

On the beach, Zhang Fei ordered to light the wolf smoke and send a signal to the follow-up troops on the west bank to cross the river quickly.

Just as the three piles of wolf smoke were just being set up, suddenly, dust all over the sky rushed up on the wilderness east of the beach.

An enemy lurking in the morning fog suddenly came.

(to be continued)