If the Han army advanced quickly and broke through Chaohukou in a short time, and even captured Hefei City, which was the key to Feishui north of Chaohu, could not return to Huainan County Defense Zone even if Li Dian ran out of the Dabie Mountains.

Of course, it’s not like that Li Dian will be completely finished, because he can continue to throw away all supplies lightly and continue to retreat by land north. At that time, he will probably be blocked back to the battlefield in Yuzhou led by Cao Cao and the Runan County Defense District.

Along the way, losses were inevitable. Fortunately, Li Su did not pursue the annihilation of Li Dian immediately. All he wanted now was to take Huainan, annihilate Cao's army in the Huainan Defense Zone, and kill Cao Ren.

As long as Li Dian is separated from the battlefield, it is nothing to survive for the time being. Sooner or later, it will be possible to kill him. Just don’t bother Li Su to kill Cao Ren now.

After understanding Zhu Zhi's sincerity in surrendering and fighting against the enemy, Li Su replied to Zhu Zhi's messenger at that time:

"When I go back, I tell the prefect Zhu that if he wants to continue to be the prefect of Lujiang in the future, then he will take the initiative to go out of the city to pursue Li Dian. Don't worry, I don't want the two tigers to compete for food to watch success or failure, and consume his troops.

I also know that he is not Li Dian's opponent, and the old Huaisi troops relying on Lujiang are not enough. He just needs to harass and bite Li Dian's tail, so that Li Dian cannot retreat quickly and cannot successfully arrive at the Xifei River coast from Shiting, even if he succeeds.

What I want is to break through Chaohukou and when the soldiers surrounded Hefei, Li Dian could not return to Hefei. After all this was done, in order to commend the sincerity of surrender, I will report to Your Majesty Zhu Zhi to continue to serve as the prefect."

After Zhu Zhi's messenger confirmed Li Su's instructions, he immediately stated that he would go back and inform Zhu Zhi.

When Zhu Zhi heard that he had the opportunity to retain his official position, he did not care about preserving his strength. He actually brought his former Huai Si troops out of Wan County to pursue Li Dian.

Li Dian originally didn't expect Zhu Zhi to pursue him, so he did not set up an ambush behind the withdrawal of troops, otherwise he could have killed Zhu Zhi.

But when things came to an end, there was no room for maneuver. The two armies were just north of Shiting, and fierce battles broke out at the southern entrance of a mountain road called "Wuqiangkou" on the Dabie Mountains, both of which were without any fancy frontal resistance.

Zhu Zhi's troops were not as powerful as Li Dian. He was indeed defeated after a bloody battle, and his casualties and self-trampling after the collapse exceeded 2,000.

But Zhu Zhi and other old ministers in Huai and Si knew that Prime Minister Li was very loyal and would fulfill the conditions agreed upon when negotiating with other princes and generals.

Therefore, in order to maintain their official position and wealth, they still had the will to take the old brothers to defeat without being discouraged, and chased and bit them, so that Li Dian could not even get rid of them like a candy.

...

From this we can also see that Li Su's long-term subtle construction of political philosophy theory in Liu Bei's camp can ultimately feed back to military operations on the battlefield.

You have repeatedly emphasized that Liu Bei's court is trustworthy and will always be fulfilled. You are already preparing for the long-term peace and stability in the future and establishing prestige.

And it is actually performed with actions and implemented in the reward and punishment system for daily operations within the camp. So sooner or later, outsiders will see it.

Other hesitant hostile camp civil and military officials will work hard because they know that they are safe and secure after they are voted over.

In the surrender chain of Chinese civilization, there is a common sense called "the first righteous person rewards, and the last surrender kills", which refers to the single game logic of the bird that can be kept hidden and the rabbit is dead and the dog is cooked.

Because the first surrender must be treated well in order to seduce more people to surrender later.

Even if the last surrender is not treated well, the ruler reveals his true colors, completely deprives the conditions he promises, and even kills the last surrender.

It is because the rulers felt that "the world has been unified, the repeated game has been ended, and it doesn't matter if the last time he showed his shameless true face, because no one in the world has come to accuse me of this wave of shamelessness, so we must maximize our interests."

The most typical example of this is that Qin Shihuang is against King Jian of Qi. (Some people say that Goujian treats Fuchai earlier, but here I want to emphasize that Goujian did not treat Fuchai as "if he has the conditions, he will not keep his word.

During the Goujian period, international credit was still required, so the condition that Fu Chai gave him was to "leave five thousand households and keep the surrounding areas of Kuaiji". After Goujian successfully counterattacked, the conditions were reduced ten times, requiring Fu Chai to leave only "a hundred families with 100 families, four hundred households, and move the islands of Ningdong to become marquis."

It was to leave 500 households for Fuchai to be the savage king in Zhoushan Islands. Fuchai was unwilling to suffer this humiliation and felt that there was no hope of turning the tables. He committed suicide because Goujian opened negotiation conditions and went back on his word)

This suspicion chain develops to the later stages of great harm, because in the process of unification of any subsequent dynasty, even if the court treats the areas that first surrender,

Those areas that surrender later and have not yet been unified will also use this to brainwash the local people: "Don't believe it! They are just acting for surrender first! That's because we haven't surrendered yet!

If we surrender, they will reveal their true colors! Not only will we not have a good life, but we will even lower the standard of the good treatment we enjoy first!"

For the long-term centripetal force of Chinese civilization, Li Su of course had to attack this bad habit.

In history, Liu Chan surrendered first and was able to be named Anle Gong, and Sun Hao surrendered later. Moreover, there was no one behind Sun Hao, so he could only be named a marquis. In this regard, it was certainly because the Han Dynasty was more orthodox than Wu, and there was also the consideration that Sun Hao did not need to set an example after surrendering.

Even Qiao Zhou saw this clearly before Liu Chan surrendered, so Qiao Zhou gave Liu Chan a note:

The King of Jin will definitely treat His Majesty well, because the Eastern Wu has not yet been destroyed, and the King of Jin needs His Majesty to set an example. If the King of Jin doesn’t even understand this despicable principle and doesn’t even give it to His Majesty. Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I went to Luoyang to argue with the truth. Why should I treat those who surrender first?

Qiao Zhou's considerations in history were obviously because Qiao Zhou read a lot and was well aware of Qin Shihuang's approach to King Jian, so he thought that the rulers would definitely imitate it.

In fact, Sima Yan did imitate it, but Sima Yan was not as good at Sun Hao as Qin Shihuang's actions against King Jian, and Qin used his own destruction to warn those who came later.

As for all these dirty considerations, as Li Su mastered the highest official ideology of Chinese civilization, it was obviously no longer necessary. He also had to do his best to cleanse the poison every time.

The right way that Li Su taught Liu Bei to follow is that no matter whether the surrendered person has any examples that require you to "be a role model" after you, you must deal with it according to the law and principles.

This is the fundamental concept of the rule of law. If you do not abide by the law in major matters such as political and internal power distribution charters and international exchange principles, and want to see if there is an enemy who sees it and decides your own behavior, then what else can you expect to have a common law?

Isn't that pure utilitarianism like Han Feizi's magic power, using techniques and momentum anytime and anywhere. Li Su must strictly remove the Legalist's treacherous arts from the power structure.

The world is not over, history has not ended, and now there is no other newcomer in the world to persuade surrender, which does not mean that the scope of China has been solidified.

As long as you have a broad vision in the future, develop science and technology, colonize and explore a new world, do you want to persuade newcomers to surrender?

So why do you have to deprive the little benefits that the last-defying people deserve in terms of legal benefits for this little bit of profit?

(Of course, if the last surrender repeatedly persuades the person to surrender, and finally he is hit by a military blow and has to surrender before putting down his weapons, and other bad circumstances, he will definitely be severely punished according to law.

However, all Li Su's judgments are based on law, which is equivalent to "confession", "successfulness" criminals who still have to treat them in layers and situations to distinguish their subjective malice. However, in this decision-making process, they do not consider whether there is a next game, and they all need to be treated as repeated games.)

Therefore, in this life, the vassals who surrender in the future will not judge who will be the last one and will be punished with additional punishment. The other branches of the Cao Yuan and Sun family should not be psychologically burdened. If you want to surrender at any time, you should surrender, as long as you are willing to accept transformation.

At this moment, Zhu Zhi and Lu Fan, who want to surrender and die well, and they are best able to maintain their official position, obviously they have fully seen the future and are willing to fight to the death like this.

For a moment, Zhu Zhi had an illusion: he didn't even work so hard when he was fighting for the Sun family.

After all, the Sun family’s rewards are not as good as Liu Bei’s credit! Liu Bei is a loyal elder at least, and he fulfills the conditions he agrees to those who come to surrender.

Li Dian was bitten by Zhu Zhi and failed to retreat to Hefei in time. He returned to Shouchun to meet.

This led to Cao Xiu, who was still at Chaohukou, who was still at Chaohukou, who was still at Chaohukou, who was cut off in order to prevent Li Dian from withdrawing from the Huainan War Zone from retreating, he always guarded Chaohukou and did not dare to give way, and did not dare to let Li Su's fleet enter Chaohu on a large scale.

Liu Xun from Hefei was also dragged down and did not dare to shrink in advance to move closer to Cao Ren in Shouchun, strengthening the walls and clearing the fields.

On the other hand, Li Su's army had cleared the numerous obstacles set up by Cao Xiu at Chaohukou and officially launched a general attack on Cao Xiu.

The blocking troops of Cao's army at all stages had to fall into the dilemma of being defeated by them.

...

"Zi Xiao's uncle asked Li Mancheng to go to Wan County before, but he just quickly fought to eliminate those capricious Wu Gou! After delaying for so long, he couldn't even withdraw immediately?

It also made us and Liu Xun have to continue to stick to it for a while and ensure his retreat! Li Mancheng is still embarrassed to be a good general under the Prime Minister?

It would be fine if you were not an opponent to deal with Li Su, Zhuge Liang, but even those Wu Gou who would not fight after they got ashore could not be repelled immediately. It was like a living bag!"

On the fifth day of June, when Cao Xiu, who was in Chaohukoushui Village, welcomed Li Su and Zhuge Liang to lead an army of 60,000 and with a sharp and full force, he finally realized that he had not had enough time and couldn't help but curse at his teammates.

As all the obstacles and fortifications were destroyed, although Cao's army had the advantage of the width of the frontal forces at Hukou, they could surround the Han army on three sides.

However, the size of warships on both sides and the elite level of sailors are too far apart.

Not long after the war started, Cao Xiu realized the fierceness of the Han army's frontal offensive power and the invincible and unstoppable warship.

But he couldn't leave before, and it has been a pure tragedy.

Cao Xiu was sent by Cao Ren to guard Chaohukou, although it was to delay the consumption of the enemy, but another important purpose was to cover the shrinking flanks of friendly forces.

When the Han army first entered the country, the troops were sharp and regardless of the left and right cities, they wanted to go straight north along the Ruxu River and Fei River. If no one was delayed at that time, the Han army would easily cut off the main waterway for Cao troops from all over the country to return to Shouchun.

To take a step back, even if the troops can retreat quickly, or even if the waterway is cut off, they can return to defense by land. However, the military supplies and city-defense weapons and consumables deployed in various places cannot be transported by land so quickly.

The weapons and consumables are not too heavy and the weight is too large. The heaviest one is the most difficult to transport and assemble.

Especially the battlefields in Huainan are not as good as those in Hebei and Yuzhou. Henan and Hebei are all wheat crop areas. Eight years ago, the introduction of Linyi rice in the Han Dynasty had no impact on the north, and it was still the autumn harvest in July and August.

Huainan is already a rice-farming area, and it takes two seasons a year to plant it. Early rice is harvested in May and June. The time when Li Su came in was almost half of the early rice harvest in various places.

After Li Su took down the south entrance of Ruxu, advanced along the south entrance of Ruxu to Chaohukou, and destroyed the river barrier fortification deployed by Cao Xiu. It was only then that early rice in various parts of Huainan had been harvested.

But before Cao's army could transport the food back to the city, it was even less time to assemble to some of the most important military strongholds.

For a large army, when the autumn harvest is approaching, the grain stored in the garrison warehouse often falls to a historical low, waiting for the newly harvested grain to supplement military supplies.

If these foods cannot be gathered back to Shouchun, even if Cao soldiers in Huainan retreated to Shouchun, they would not be able to conquer the city. As long as Li Su surrounded him, he would starve Cao's army to death by winter or the next spring, he would starve to death by hunger in the desert or in the next spring.

Of course, unless Cao Ren drove all the people in the city out of the city, leaving only the soldiers behind, and even did not prevent people from eating each other. This would alleviate the food problems caused by long-term persistence.

But this is not cost-effective. After all, defending the city does not require elite soldiers. Even a man can go up to the city wall to throw wood, rocks, and carry soil to build the wall.

Shouchun was the best stronghold in Huainan by Cao's army, and Cao Cao's contribution to destroying the Han traitor Yuan Shu, and killed all the thieves who opposed Han and robbed them. Therefore, the remaining people here were the ones who were most interested in Cao Cao.

Instead of driving these people out of the city due to shortage of food, it is better to try to get time to relocate food. Even if some field soldiers are lost, Cao Ren can bring more guards in Shouchun City. As for whether these people are regular soldiers, it is not that important.

In a siege, food is combat effectiveness, and the amount of food is proportional to the scale of combat effectiveness.

Everything made Cao Xiu and Liu Xun crucified in their respective defense areas and were not allowed to retreat.

It can only be said that their situation is too embarrassing, and Li Su chose the attack time point too subtle, which made Cao Ren stuck in his throat when he was planning, and he couldn't bear to let go of it here and there, and he was constrained everywhere, so he dismissed his troops everywhere.
Chapter completed!