Jia Xu was captured, and the water and road army that Zhang Liao attacked Anyi was severely injured and counterattacked. With such a severe blow, even if the land army led by Zhang Liao himself was well preserved, he was powerless.

At that time, Lu Bu asked Zhang Liao to "annihilate the main force of the enemy's water camp outside Anyi City, and take advantage of the weakness of the Anyi defenders, and siege them without fighting. At the same time, they divided their troops southward to cross Zhongtiao Mountain to intercept Guanyu's rear route, and just hold them down for a few days."

But Zhang Liao himself knew very well that if he relied on more than 20,000 troops to wipe out half of Xu Huang and Zhang Ren in this battle, leaving only less than 10,000 troops left in Anyi, he could consider surrounding Anyi and dividing his troops south.

The situation has completely reversed now, and he only has more than 10,000 people left, but Xu Huang and Zhang Ren are almost motionless. The strength of 20,000 people is well preserved, and they are still besieging and seizing troops.

Take 5,000 people to surround 20,000 people? Then divide 5,000 people to cross Zhongtiao Mountain to block Guan Yu's retreat? That's not nonsense and seek death! Xu Huang and Guan Yu have to make dumplings in turn, and the entire army is annihilated in Zhongtiao Mountain!

Zhang Liao was very aware of the current affairs and immediately took his men to retreat to Wenxi, intending to rely on the remaining 10,000 people to guard Wenxi, a bridgehead that communicated with the waters of the Songshui River and the middle reaches of the Yellow River, so as to preserve the fire for Yuan Shao's camp to attack this road next time.

After all, as long as Wenxi County is still in the hands of Yuan Shaojun, Yuan Shaojun can slowly increase troops here, and then spend a year and a half or even more preparation time here to build ships.

After building enough ships, they could still fight downstream, break Anyi, Jie Liang, and attack Chang'an through Pubanjin.

Unfortunately, how could Zhuge Liang let Zhang Liao get his wish? So the day after Zhang Liao retreated, Zhuge Liang asked Xu Huang to lead his troops to pursue him.

Xu Huang was injured and lying for a few days before, and now his injuries have recovered well. Zhuge Liang is very clear about the talents of the generals under Guan Yu. Since he is playing a defensive counterattack, he can temporarily rely on Zhang Ren in the defensive stage, so Xu Huang must take action in person during the counterattack stage.

Xu Huang's status is not comparable to Zhang Ren, and he doesn't have to obey Zhuge Liang. But considering Zhuge Liang's previous operation of turning decay into magic and Zhuge Liang's backstage, Xu Huang did not dare to decide his attitude based on his official title and rank.

Moreover, Zhuge Liang also gave him face, and basically suggested him in a deliberate tone. Xu Huang chose to accept it humbly.

Xu Huang took 15,000 people to fight back against Wenxi County, leaving only less than 5,000 to Zhang Ren to guard Anyi.

It is said that 15,000 people attack a city with 10,000 people defending, and it is quite difficult. After all, the defense has obvious geographical advantages.

But Zhang Liao had lost his strategist and his ability to grasp the opportunity on the battlefield was greatly reduced, making him afraid to go out of the city to fight back as easily as in Hefei in history.

On the other hand, Wenxi County was originally from Liu Bei's camp half a month ago, and Zhang Liao himself attacked for two or three days. Finally, he took advantage of the despairing morale of a small number of defenders in the city to collapse before surrendering.

This kind of small county town is not a county seat, and its defense facilities are not very strong. Wenxi is located at the source of water. The nearby river water is not wide and deep, and the water volume is small, so the moat in Wenxi County is also very shallow and narrow.

When Zhang Liao sieged the city, he filled the key section of the moat within two or three days, so that siege weapons such as ladders and chariots could reach the city directly. Later, he wanted to enter Anyi and concentrated all his manpower on logging and rafting, and never thought about restoring urban defenses in rural areas like Wenxi.

So when Xu Huang, Zhuge Liang and Dian Wei chased Wenxi, the city defense facilities in Wenxi City were still the same as when they were just breached last time.

The key section of the moat was invalid and abandoned, and the rammed earth collapsed on the city walls were not repaired. Even the city tower on the gate that Zhang Liao attacked was half collapsed, no one cared about it.

A master of siege like Zhuge Liang even participated in the battle of attacking Chang'an, which can be said to have rich experience in attacking and dispatching. The young Zhuge Liang is better at attacking and defending cities than in field battles.

As soon as the troops approached Wenxi, Zhuge Liang inspected a little under Dian Wei's protection and made a decision: temporarily encircle two and two, surround the west and south sides of the city, and release the east and north sides.

Because Wenxi's east is near the water, and Zhang Liao's origin is the way he came to force Zhang Liao to abandon the city and could not defend himself and run away.

Xu Huang had no objection to the deployment of the besieged position, but he couldn't help but ask Zhuge Liang: "Zhuge Sima, do you think Zhang Liao will run away?"

Zhuge Liang was not arrogant and admitted frankly: "To be honest, I was not sure. But this arrangement is not a loss. Regardless of whether Zhang Liao runs or not, he will definitely worry that Wen Xi will not be able to hold on sooner or later.

General Guan has successfully retreated. The king will definitely switch General Guan’s tired army to the rear to defend Chang'an. In this way, whether it is to replace General Ma or someone else to reinforce us, it will definitely be faster than Lu Bu and Wen Chou.

Moreover, Master Li said that Yuan Shao was extremely greedy for small profits and indecisive, and it was difficult for him to make the decision to adapt to the situation and expand the war. If his initial plan was to rob Luoyang and Hedong, and ensure that the east and west divide Shaanxi and govern, like Zhou, summon the story.

Then, once Yuan Shao finds that the sneak attack phase is over, he will have to invest five times or ten times the result in the subsequent expansion, and he may not be able to make this decision immediately. Therefore, as long as we make Zhang Liao realize this, he will not ignore the future.

When Wenxi was seized, there were still a lot of supplies in the city treasury, and the Zhouyangyi Wharf at the source of water was even more so. I believe that Zhang Liao was in an offensive before. After he took these places, he would not immediately think about transporting the supplies back. He would definitely rely on these weapons to use them to subsequently attack Anyi and Puban and expand the results of the battle.

Now that the offense and defense are easy, he will not consider withdrawing the materials from these places to Dongyuan or even Hanoi. Although the distance from Hanoi here is even further than Shangdang. However, from this, the whole journey to Shangdang is to cross the mountain road to Wangwu Mountain, so Zhang Liao will never plunder the harvest and transport it back to Shangdang.

As long as Zhang Liao feels that Wen Xizhan will soon divide his troops to transport supplies, it will be the time when we put pressure on the city. However, the seized weapons and other valuables in the city will definitely be plundered by Zhang Liao. At most, some of the heavy food will be left to see if Zhang Liao set fire to the granary before breaking through the city."

Zhuge Liang had a very solid psychological judgment on the enemy, and the rest was the physical work of siege and oppression.

The troops spent a few days slowly building siege weapons, and various attacking calls to attack the enemy's anger, telling the city's defender Yuan Shao that would not come to support them, and Guan Yu had retreated successfully and would soon turn to regain his hometown in Hedong.

The effect of various physical psychological blows was quite good, especially the Hedong Army soldiers who had surrendered and captured in the city gradually became an unstable factor, forcing Zhang Liao to consider the way out.

Wenxi's revival is only a matter of time. Whether she can wait until Ma Chao comes to give the last blow, it will be harmless.

...

When analyzing the war situation in Hedong with Xu Huang and others, Zhuge Liang had a last consideration and did not tell them. The main reason was that Zhuge Liang felt that there was no need to analyze those political considerations with pure military generals.

Zhuge Liang realized that if Li Su had no problem with Yuan Shao's personality analysis, the two emperors of the world were about to become emperor at the critical moment. Since Yuan Shao knew that he was not sure to expand the results of the battle in a short period of time, he would definitely take advantage of the largest area of ​​his territory and win the most battles in a short period of time to make Liu He officially become emperor.

Because if some territory is pushed back by Liu Bei's camp in the future and Yuan Shao will support Liu He to become emperor again, will he not be able to "take advantage of the defeat and become emperor"?

It was like in history that after Liu Yu made an attempt to restore the two capitals in the Northern Expedition, he hurriedly went back to replace the Eastern Jin Dynasty. However, as soon as Liu Yu became emperor, Chang'an he regained was lost again and occupied by the Northern Dynasties.

Although Zhuge Liang could not know the historical materials that would not happen in later generations, the principles were the same. If any warlord wants to be emperor, he must take advantage of the rising military prestige to get things done.

Therefore, Yuan Shao would not be distracted from letting his direct troops reinforce Zhang Liao now, just as when Liu Yu was busy becoming emperor, the defenders of Chang'an Luoyang had no time to reinforce.

Everything was as expected by Zhuge Liang. Although Zhang Liao stayed with Wen Xi for several days in order to transport the supplies, it was only delayed until the first day of June.

On the first day of June, in Yecheng, Hebei, Yuan Shao held a ceremony for the throne of King Liu He in Yecheng Palace. Of course, the country's name was still Han, and Luoyang was still the capital and Yecheng was the place to go during the war.

This design also considers that Luoyang is too close to the front line of east-west confrontation, which is not as safe as Yecheng. Moreover, controlling the emperor under his nose is also convenient for a better puppet.

Obviously, the date of ascension chosen by Yuan Shao for Liu He was just one month earlier than the date of ascension planned by Liu Bei. Who made Liu Bei hurriedly encounter the negative factor of Guan Yu being attacked during the preparation period. In order to prevent bad news on the happy day or the factors that would hurt morale, he had to be more stable.

On the side of Yecheng, after the new emperor ascended the throne, the first major national affairs was to reiterate the "Nine-rank Official Law" as the basic national policy of the Han official system.

This policy is still very popular with the people of the aristocratic families. In addition, Luoyang City did surrender to Yuan Shao. In the past half month, Yuan Shao moved most of the officials of Luoyang's old dynasty to Yecheng.

Before when Liu Xie died, there were more than 300 mascot officials in the court who had no real power but only false names (at least 400 stone level, not even smaller). When Yuan Shu was a flash in the pan, he killed dozens of young men who were particularly uncooperating and unaware of the current affairs. Therefore, when Yuan Shao took over the court, there were still 270 to 80 people.

Among the 270 or 80 people, more than 220 people surrendered to Yuan Shao and continued to serve as officials in Liu He. Only fifty or sixty people fled from the court during Yuan Shu's control and defected to Liu Bei. It can be seen how attractive those guys who "are the rotten wood above the court is the official, and beasts between the palace eat the fortune" were to be the law of the ninth-rank official.

Eighty-most all officials of the old court's mascot voted for Yuan, which made Yuan Shao very happy and felt that he was becoming more orthodox.

The day after Liu He became emperor, he promulgated several important enthrones:

He was granted Yuan Shao as the Grand Sima and presided over the country's military and political affairs; he was granted Ju Su as the Minister of the Shang Dynasty, and was in charge of all affairs of the six internal courts;

Xu You was the Sikong, and Yang Biao continued to be the Taiwei. He re-established the position of censor and Tian Feng was appointed as the chief supervisor of all officials.

The other Jizhou governors were Shen Pei, Qingzhou governors Guo Tu, and Youzhou governors Feng Ji, all of whom were promoted to Yuan Shao's position.

Yuan Shao's three sons and one nephew (a senior official) also served as the inspectors of a state first.

Que Yi, Wen Chou, Zhang He, and Gao Lan respectively got the front, back, left and right generals.

In terms of the generals of the outer town, Lu Bu was the General of the Cavalry, Cao Cao was the General of the Cavalry, and Sun Ce was the General of the Guard. These three people had a respectable status to win over the princes, but in fact they did not bring additional real power. Their power was determined by the actual territory they had, and the provincial governors of the ranks they had continued to take the same leadership.

In terms of titles, Yuan Shao himself was created to be duke, and his fief was Bohai County. He called Bohai County Duke. This was a canonization that changed the Han Dynasty's ancestral system after Liu He became emperor. However, the resistance he received was not as fierce as when Cao Cao was originally enthroned in history.

Mainly, Yuan Shao also gave in and did not require this "public" to set up a temple for his ancestors to worship.

Although the Duke did not have one in the Han Dynasty, it was strictly not considered a violation of Emperor Gaozu's White Horse Alliance. The White Horse Alliance only said that it was not allowed to be a king unless it was the Liu family, and it was not allowed to be a marquis unless it was a hero. As for the Duke, it was not mentioned at all because it was not within the twenty-first-class titles that the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system.

Four hundred years have passed, and it is not impossible to discuss whether to learn from the old system of the Zhou emperor to redesign the duke.

When Cao Cao was granted the title of Duke of Wei, he caused such a big rebound mainly because Cao Cao wanted to establish a "principality" and then build his own ancestral temple to sacrifice, which was a taboo.

Yuan Shao has temporarily taken a big step back. As long as he is a fief of the county and does not change that county into a state, he will not establish a ancestral temple. Naturally, others cannot say too much.

To put it bluntly, this duke's treatment is still the marquis' treatment. It is just that the marquis' fiefs of an ordinary county marquis have one or several counties, and the monarch's fiefs have at least one county.

In addition, in order to operate all this political manipulation, Yuan Shao's military adventures became more restrained during the last period before Liu He became emperor. He no longer sent troops to the front to expand the results of the battle, which was also related to his need to divide his energy to stabilize the internal situation and suppress opposition.

After Yuan Shao successfully established the throne of county duke, Cao Cao and Sun Ce were still temporarily only county marquis. Cao Cao was named Juancheng Hou, and Sun Ce was named Wu Hou (Wu County is not Wu County), and each of them was fled to five counties and three counties, with fiefs of 30,000 households and 20,000 households respectively.

In exchange for Cao Sun's support, Yuan Shao also hinted that they would have the same heart and virtue to deal with Liu Bei in the future and as long as they set up a new territory from Liu Bei, they would have one day as a county duke.

Although Cao Cao and Sun Ce knew very well that these false names were worth nothing, even if they had fiefs of 50,000 or even 100,000 households in the future, they were taken out of their own territory, with their left hand facing the right hand.

But no matter what, the current situation is destined to join Yuan Shao in a while, and they all submitted their support.

In Yecheng, there was a moment of laughter and joy, and the lights were decorated, and it seemed that the world was peaceful again. No one expected that the series of ceremonies here had not been finished yet, and Zhang Liao had lost Wen Xi on the Hedong battlefield, and only brought seven or eight thousand cavalry to retreat back to Dongyuan in shame.

Wenxi County was restored by Zhuge Liang and Xu Huang and others, and Liu Bei also saved enough military victory before becoming emperor. At least the last battle was Liu Bei's counterattack and lost territory was recovered.

The two armies temporarily achieved a pattern of division of Shaanxi and rule. In the northern territory of both sides, there was bounded by Wushan Hangu Pass. After crossing the Yellow River, Wangwu Mountain, Zhongtiao Mountain and Luliang Mountain were bounded by Wangwu Mountain, Zhongtiao Mountain and Luliang Mountain. Because they did not penetrate the springboard of each other's water system, there was no risk of bones being stuck in their throats for the time being.

Yuan Shaojun suffered a loss in Lu Bu and Zhang Liao. After Guan Yu escaped, he fully realized the logistics gap with Liu Bei's camp. Since the fall of this year, he has been crazily studying new vehicles and ships.

On the one hand, I wanted to copy some good boats from Cao Cao, and on the other hand, I also began to copy and improve and put into mass production based on the Liu Bei army's amphibious caravan that was damaged on the battlefield.

In order to make up for the logistics experience shortcomings of Yuan Shaojun's "never left his nest for more than 500 miles" in previous years, we will prepare for a comprehensive expedition.
Chapter completed!