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The generals of Jizhou were all above the generals of Yanzhou, which was not the most distressing thing for Cao Cao.★What a big deal, it was not a matter of trouble. Just put them in a divine way, just let them be worshipped without realism and all of them were finished.

What made Cao Cao the most important was that Yuan Shao granted more than 200 "marquises" who were more than 200 "marquises" during his lifetime, and more than 300 famous marquises with titles and fiefs.

This is a huge trouble, and it can be called a bottomless pit.

So many "marquises" gave him all their salary and fiefs, and the number of fiefs and the vastness of fiefs, which was amazing. If you really recognize Yuan Shao's edict and fulfill your promise, you can divide the two counties into one fief and fief, and they are wealthy counties with a large population. Otherwise, three counties would need to be given to reward them.

Even if they are not given fiefs and fiefs, they must be given their salary.

I have been owed for more than two years before, shouldn’t I be cashing out now?

In this way, it would be a salary of three and a half years. This amount is so great. Even if the gold, silver, and money and grain accumulated by the Jizhou treasury for many years is not enough for their salary for three years. This price is too great!

The treasury was empty and the rats were starved to death. What should I do if Cao Cao's army was more than 600,000 and tens of thousands of officials? Where did their food supply and salary come from?

Once the army and officials' food and salary are cut off, the consequences will be unimaginable. By then, the lord Cao Cao will be over and will be torn into pieces by the soldiers and turned into powder.

Losing control of the army and prefectures and counties, what is the use of Cao Cao raising these fat and big-eared "marquises"? It is better to raise a group of pigs to be affordable.

However, if Cao Cao refused to admit his account and refused to fulfill his promise. He said that the promise he made on the day he entered Yecheng Prefecture's Palace was all farts, and now he no longer remembers it. But how could he have the face to take over Jizhou? How could he convince the seven million people of Jizhou and Qingzhou? How could he lead the 600,000 army?

The root of all this is that Jizhou was not the one he led the troops to capture, but the territory that was picked up without bloodshed. I thought I had taken a huge advantage, but now I know that there is no good product for the advantage, and that I will suffer great losses sooner or later. It is true that I have picked up such a huge Jizhou for free, but it also brings endless troubles. It is really a mess, which can be cut and messed up. It is all a bunch of confusing accounts.

For a whole year and seven months, this confusing account made Cao Cao die and miserable. Every day, just like a person without any business, he had a verbal battle with these "prime ministers" who held the imperial edicts and enfeoffments. He repeatedly reiterated his words and never broke his promise and fulfilled his promises. He explained with great consolation: "The current treasury is empty, money and food are short, Yanzhou and Qingzhou have been drought for years, and locust plagues are frequent. I really can't afford it. I just wait for the better of the year, and the taxes of each prefecture and county will be paid, and they will definitely pay their salary for the past years in a lot of money!"

Cao Cao said these words at least ten times a day, and at least a few thousand times in a year and a half. This made him say this in his sleep at night. The pain can be imagined.

Look, there are a lot of three princes and nine ministers, the general and the marquis have not yet been resolved, and Yuan Shao's two precious sons Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang are making trouble again, jumping up and down, trying to make a comeback.

To be honest, Cao Cao was so angry that he really wanted to order the borers parasitized under his control to cut them out in one stroke and kill them. He completely relieved his troubles that had tormented him for almost two years. However, this thought flashed away, it was just a thought of entertaining himself. In order to have a moment of happiness, he would never do this. If he really wanted to do this, it would be like digging his own grave. The good situation would be gone in an instant, and most of his life's hard work would be wasted, and he would end up in a very likely way to die and be broken into pieces.

The superiors may not have a handsome appearance or a brave man to gallop on the battlefield. Even if they are powerless, it doesn’t matter. They cannot be without prestige, without faith, and cannot go back on their word, and they will be untrustful and untrustful, especially those under their command, and the people.

It is precisely because of this kind of concern and bond that Cao Cao worked hard for a year and a half, but failed to achieve results. He did all the work of wiping Yuan Shao's butt. He was so tired that he still didn't improve in the end, which was far from the expected goal.

The only political achievement that first achieved results was to rectify the administration. To be on the safe side, Cao Cao adopted the strategy of suppressing a group, appeaseing a group, and then suppressing a group, and steadily advancing step by step, doing things very cautiously, with a taste of water passing through stones. After more than a year, the first achieved results were all replaced by county and county officials in the three states and ruled by the three states and were all righteous and talented, subduing about 60% of the famous families in Jizhou and further consolidating his dominance. This was the only commendable achievement, and it was also the result of Cao Cao and many civil officials and counselors working hard for a year and a half.

Compared with government affairs, Cao Cao, who had made great determination to rectify the army, felt deeply frustrated. He worked hard for more than a year, but in the end he still achieved little success. Although the combat power of the Jizhou army was slightly inferior to that of the Yanzhou army, it was defeated by many soldiers. In addition to the rebel Ju Yi leading 50,000 elite troops to betray the enemy, the Jizhou army gathered all the soldiers and horses from Jizhou and Qingzhou, totaling more than 346,000 soldiers, including 50,000 cavalry, 100,000 chariots, 50,000 naval troops, and the rest were all infantry. This was the number of soldiers and horses that had fought decisively with the Western Liang army in Jizhou the previous year. Before the war, the Jizhou army had as many as 400,000, and its strength was far above Cao Cao.

In contrast, Cao Cao's troops originally had more than 300,000 troops, a 100,000 less army than the Jizhou army. Although the Battle of Jizhou was an unprecedented victory, the Cao army still paid no less than 100,000 soldiers and suffered heavy losses. If the troops lost by the Jizhou army were added, Cao Cao did not take much advantage in the Battle of Jizhou, and lost 230,000 troops (including the Jizhou army) in the entire Hebei battlefield, which was almost the same as the casualties of the soldiers under Li Li.

The reason why an elaborate tactic of luring the enemy into depth was that in order to lure Li Li to the bait, Cao Cao saved the lives of 70,000 elite soldiers at the beginning of the war in order to lure Li Li. Then, on the battlefields such as Julu, Changshan, and others, although Cao's army succeeded in sneak attacks and recovered the lost territory, they paid a heavy price for it. Nearly 100,000 troops died in the attack and breaking through the Western Liang Iron Cavalry. It is no exaggeration to say that in addition to the crushing defeat in Yecheng, the Western Liang army did not suffer any losses on other battlefields. Although they lost cities and camps, they gave Cao's army and Jizhou army a heavy blow and saved their own vitality.

The reason why this battle was regarded as an unprecedented victory by Cao Cao was because he exchanged the relatively weak army of more than 200,000 troops under Li Li's command for more than 200,000 infantry and cavalry, among which the Xiliang Iron Cavalry was annihilated. Therefore, although the casualties between the two armies were roughly the same, Cao Cao actually won, and it was a great victory that he could not imagine before. He achieved great success and seized more than 60,000 war horses, weapons, armor and armor in one fell swoop. With these seizures, he was enough to form an elite cavalry of 50,000 people. In addition, he had 100,000 war cavalry (there was 80,000 left after the streamlining). As a result, he had the strength to face the Xiliang Iron Cavalry head-on and launch a cavalry decisive battle with the Xiliang Army in a vigorous manner.

Cao Cao was full of expectations and fighting spirit, and firmly believed that the tiger and leopard cavalry under his command would never lose to the Xiliang Iron Cavalry under Li Li's account.

Today, while the Yuan and Tan brothers were planning to be indiscriminate today, Cao Cao also received two secret reports, one from Xiliang and the other from Jingzhou.

Before receiving these two secret military reports, Cao Cao was quite satisfied with his achievements in one and a half years. Although he had not achieved his expected goals, he was not discouraged. He knew that all the things he had to sort out slowly and progress step by step, and he should not be eager to achieve success. However, after reading the contents of the two secret reports, the cold sweat on his forehead instantly flowed down, and he felt that his achievements over the past year were almost negligible compared with Li Li and Liu Biao, and could not be compared at all.

According to the secret report, in the past year, Li Li secretly sent troops to attack Yizhou under the pretext of rest and recuperation, and seized the two rivers in less than half a year. After recapturing the entire territory of Yizhou, Li Li returned to Chang'an last winter, but left Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu in Yizhou to continue the battle and sent troops to suppress the southern barbarians. This was a secret report that he had worked hard to send back from Xiliang.

The second secret report recorded the great changes in Jiangdong and the secret alliance between Jiangdong and Jingzhou Liu Biao. The content was almost exactly the same as the secret report Li Li received, except for the slightly different words.

After reading these two secret reports, Cao Cao received a secret report about the Yuan brothers sent by the eunuch. Suddenly, Cao Cao felt that the situation was extremely serious, and his emotions were extremely low, and he was distraught by the Yuan brothers jumping up and down, so he was full of indignation and furious.

Sitting in the hall and pondered for a while, Cao Cao calmed down completely. This time he was truly calm. Faced with the increasingly severe situation in the world, he had no choice but to be calm and would not get angry easily anymore.

During the silence, he handed over the two secret reports to Xun Yu and the six people for circulating them. Perhaps because of his furious anger, Cao Ren, Cheng Yu and others were surprised to see the contents of the secret reports, but they held their breath and kept their voices without saying a word, for fear that they would interrupt Cao Cao's thoughts and would inevitably bring his thunderous anger.

"Li thief easily captured Yizhou, and obtained more than 100,000 troops and millions of food, grass and weapons in Yizhou. We knew nothing about it. We didn't get information until the war ended and the dust settled. There were many deep reflections in it." While pondering, Cao Cao paused and then changed his tone: "However, Li thief attacked Yizhou, which was unexpected. Gu was not surprised. As early as a few years ago, when Li thief led his troops to attack Hanzhong, his intention to plot against Yizhou was fully exposed, showing that he was determined to win Yizhou. Compared with Li thief, Liu Biao in Jingzhou did surprise me this time. His actions were completely beyond Gu's expectations. He could be called a magical stroke. If he didn't make a sound, he would have made a big splash! I wonder what Wenruo had to think about this?"

"The world has become a three-pointer. I suggest that the lord make up his mind as soon as possible. Now is an excellent opportunity that is once a lifetime."

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ps: [Heartly thanks: Book friend "yuyang2001" monthly ticket support, thank you!]
Chapter completed!