With Xiahou Yuan's sudden death, Cao's army of course quickly collapsed and collapsed.

Zhang Fei, with the remaining two thousand cavalry and more than four thousand infantry of Wei Yan, continued to pursue and intersperse the killing, surrounded and forced a large number of Cao's defeated troops.

This pursuit lasted for more than half an hour. As Zhang Fei's besieged troops from both the south and north directions of Handan City also arrived at the battlefield, forming a pincer attack. Finally, all the Cao troops surrounded were surrendered.

Only then did Zhang Fei have the time to bandage and treat the wound, but asked Wei Yan to take a general count of the results of the battle on his behalf and organize the cleaning of the battlefield.

The Han army lost less than 1,000 people in this battle, mainly because of the loss of the battle with Xiahou Yuan at the beginning. More than 200 people were killed or injured in the subsequent hunting stage.

In contrast, Cao's army on the opposite side was captured and killed more than 3,000.

More than 4,000 people were divided and intercepted, and chose to surrender, or were captured after being injured.

Unfortunately, Xiahou Yuan's breakthrough troops were mainly composed of cavalry, and Zhang Fei had only three thousand cavalry on the front blocking battlefield at the first time. It was really difficult to fully encircle and cut off the enemy with a small number of enemies.

Therefore, among the seven thousand Cao troops that were damaged, there were five thousand Cao troops alone, and only two thousand cavalry casualties. Especially Zhang Fei stared at Xiahou Yuan to fight, which bought time for the Cao troops who were fleeing in all directions.

So in the end, there were still Cao's cavalry with a scale of more than 10,000 people who were not directly eliminated. Although they might not necessarily return to the team after they fled far away.

It's a slight flaw.

Fortunately, the gains from the entire battle are far more than the frontal battlefield.

It is obvious that there are some remnants of Cao's army in Handan City that are not direct. As Xiahou Yuan abandoned the city and broke through, those troops must have no intention of fighting. Even if they did not surrender immediately, they would only be besieged for a few more days, slowly attacking and persuading them to surrender without having to fight too much.

Yecheng in the south was also captured. As Guan Yu and Ma Chao returned to the army to clean the battlefield, the prisoners in the city would be quickly incorporated. Including the losses of these abandoned people, the total loss of Cao's army in the Hebei station was estimated to be close to half.

After all, there are still 20,000 troops in Nanpi, Bohai County, and the entire army is safely defended. The total strength of the Cao army in Hebei can be reduced by nearly half, and the Wei County battlefield has suffered heavy losses.

...

The next morning, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao finally met and arrived in Yecheng City, where order had been restored.

It was very rare to restore order in just one day after the war, which showed that the Han soldiers did not burn, kill, and loot at all.

This is very rare. On the one hand, it is due to the Han army's attack on Yecheng this time. Basically, after completing the preparations, it was only three or five days before the official attack was formally attacked and the battle ended.

In ancient times, even if it was a benevolent and righteous army, if it encountered a very difficult bloody battle, it would be possible to allow troops to rob one in order to motivate and maintain morale. Unless it was easily taken, it would be fine if it was not robbed.

On the other hand, it was because Yecheng was too poor and there was no way to grab it. Just eight months ago, Cao Cao had already tortured his salary three feet ago.

All the Jizhou families who were pro-Yuan and the core support class of the ninth-rank Zhongzheng system were blood-slaughtered by Cao Cao. So in addition to the official warehouse in Yecheng, there was also some money and grain supply, and the people were almost so poor that they were "equal to the rich and the poor".

Well, to be more precise, it is just "equal poverty" and not rich.

Guan Yu and Ma Chao let it go and took over the remaining military rations in the treasury, and the others did not need to eat anything ugly.

So much so that more than half of the wine rewarded soldiers after winning the battle were brought with the army, and only each soldier could symbolically drink three bowls to celebrate the merits.

As for meat, soldiers can only eat jerky brought with them, and the fresh livestock seized is enough for the officers to eat a little.

After Guan Yu and Zhang Fei met, they couldn't help but drink and celebrate, talking about the experiences of their respective army. As for the vulgar topics such as "how to distribute the credit, what official positions can be promoted after this victory?", brothers naturally would not talk about it.

Guan Yu noticed that Zhang Fei did not tie his hair, but was disguised as a savage, with gauze vaguely wrapped under his hair, and he cared about his injuries.

Zhang Fei said carelessly: "It's okay, it's just that there is a gap in his ear. In order to shoot this arrow, Xiahou Yuan didn't even have time to replace his weapons, so he was stabbed to death by me with a spear."

Guan Yu: "Then you are only allowed to drink these three bowls today! Write down the rest, and you can only drink it when the injury heals! Then double it will be!"

Zhang Fei was very depressed and was not even in the mood to ask for help. He went back to sleep without alcohol. Only by sleeping can he relieve the depression of not drinking.

After the request for merit was over, the generals calmed down the next day before they began to discuss the plan to continue chasing and annihilate the remaining enemies.

After all, Jizhou has a vast territory and has eliminated so many vital forces in the enemy army. However, the territory it has captured is only two and a half counties.

There are Qinghe, Hejian, Bohai, Julu, Pingyuan, Leling in the entire Jizhou... at least six counties and two feudal states, with a total of eight county-level administrative units, and they are not occupied. The population of the enemy-occupied area in Jizhou is still three million.

The Hebei Plain is flat and the heavy army is annihilated. It is a good opportunity to encircle land and chase the north, and it should not be missed.

After the three parties discussed, they decided to divide the labor and cooperate.

Zhang Fei continued to walk the northern line, interspersed and divided the division from Wei County to the northeast, and tried to meet with Zhao Yun of Bohai, so as to make dumplings in the northern half of Jizhou and take down the Bohai County, which Zhao Yun was the main attack.

Guan Yu and Ma Chao advanced from Wei County along the north bank of the Yellow River, and successively cleaned up the Qinghe, Pingyuan, Leling and other places bordering Yanzhou.

Zhang Fei had to face fewer enemies along the way, mainly because of the 20,000 Bohai defenders who had been trapped in Nanpi by Zhao Yun. There were only two or three thousand weak new recruits or even strong men in other counties along the way.

Guan Yu and Ma Chao were going to deal with Cheng Yu and Zhang He who broke through Yecheng. Cheng Yu might have gathered some of the remnants of Xiahou Yuan's cavalry who broke out and gathered their troops again.

But Guan Yu was not worried that Cheng Yu would dare to defend himself one after another, because all Yecheng was lost and the people in Hebei were panicked. Even if Cheng Yu insisted on resisting, there would soon be powerful people everywhere to respond to the court.

Cao Cao's rule in Jizhou was only nine months old, and there was no solid foundation at all. The aristocratic families and powerful people were completely offended. Only those originally poor peasants who were assigned to the fields supported Cao Cao.

However, the problem of poor peasants is not unsolvable. On the one hand, these poor peasants lack weapons, and Cao Cao could not organize them regardless of production. On the other hand, Liu Bei's camp can also recognize Cao Cao's land division result.

In history, after the land was divided, the poor peasants fought to the end with the land-dividing regime. It must be based on "the landlords will take away their land after they return home." But if Liu Bei also recognized it, these poor peasants would not have fought so hard.

In this regard, the situation in Jizhou is completely different from that in Yizhou ten years ago. In Yizhou ten years ago, it was because he had almost never experienced the wars at the end of the Han Dynasty. Only Liu Yan killed a group of people, and Liu Bei beat Liu Yan and killed a little, so the population of Yizhou has always been at its peak.

The contradiction between too many people and too few fields is very sharp. Those who are assigned to the fields must rely on supporting the Liu Bei regime to protect their land. Jizhou is now being tug-of-war, with ten years of war, and more than half of the population has died, and the origin of land rights is difficult to test.

Liu Bei followed the flow and admitted the status quo, and there was no pressure. This was also a policy that had been agreed upon before the war, and Guan Yu and others could just follow the publicity.

...

As the Han army established rule step by step and accepted all classes' inputs in a flat manner, the pacification work in Hebei was orderly.

Cheng Yu initially tried to strengthen his men, but then found that Liu Bei's army was also quite popular with the people, so he had to choose to preserve his strength and quickly asked Cao Cao for instructions.

Cao Cao, who was on the front line of Yuzhou, suddenly heard the news of Xiahou Yuan's death, and felt more and more desperate and powerless. After grief, Cao Cao discussed with Guo Jia, wrote a letter to communicate with Xun Yu in the rear, and finally came to a conclusion:

Xiahou Yuan is dead. Although Jizhou is vast, its subsequent territory is expected to be gradually swallowed by Liu Bei within a few months.

In Huainan, although Cao Ren is not dead, he will definitely not be able to save him. Li Su, Zhuge Liang and Gan Ning and Zhou Tai have both crossed Shouchun and expanded their occupation northward. Shouchun is now surrounded by numerous sieges, an isolated island in the enemy-occupied area, and it will definitely be done before winter comes. Cao Ren is just buying time for the overall situation.

It's meaningless to wait for change again. If you continue to waste, you will die of chronic blood loss. You are slowly tightened by Liu Bei's noose and finally suffocated.

However, the Han army generally launched an attack on the eve of the autumn harvest, which was also the opportunity to harvest grain in the five states of Guandong. From this perspective, even if Cao Cao knew that Jizhou and Huainan were about to finish, he still had to delay the time he should delay.

Otherwise, I finally managed to divide the land and stimulate the enthusiasm of the people to produce. Before I even got the harvest in the first season, I was occupied by Liu Bei and was attacked by Liu Bei because of food. How could I bear this? Isn’t all reforms in vain?

In Huainan, Cao Ren did a good job in this regard, which is also due to the fact that early rice was harvested in Huainan. Cao Ren delayed the time to grab all the grain. Li Su could only hurry up and plant late rice to rescue the people and reduce the burden on military ration supply.

In Hebei, because of single-season crops, there was no time to harvest them before. Now Xiahou Yuan is dead, but the work of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields and concentrating grain cannot be stopped!

Cao Cao has made up his mind. It will be a matter of time before the entire Huainan and Hebei are lost, but we must put the grain in this season into the warehouse. It is best to force military harvest regardless of the lives and death of the people, and grab as much as possible! Don’t treat the land as your own! Don’t farm or build it! Fishing in the end of the lake!

Then, the former landless poor peasants who were divided by Cao Cao's camp and gained the benefits of Cao Cao would be the best. After the autumn harvest, they would train for a few months or two while the farming slack in the early winter, and then directly dragged them to the battlefield! Gather all their troops and fight a decisive battle with Liu Bei's main force on the Yanyu Plain! Cao Cao took the initiative to attack!

It depends on this wave of death or life. If you continue to be operated by Liu Bei, it will be a death!

Moreover, once such a determination is made, Cao Cao's mobilization efficiency can be increased exponentially, and the number of new recruits will surge in an instant.

Because he didn't even have to consider "so many soldiers were recruited, whether the treasury's food was enough for soldiers to eat until next autumn harvest."

Among the strong men who were pulled by Cao Cao as their last fight, maybe half of them would not survive the spring famine, so why would they consider "Is it enough to eat the autumn harvest"?

The logic of "flying the last wave of fishing out of the lake" and the logic of "sustainable development" are just two sets.

Just like when Li Jue and Guo Si thought life was too long, and when he relied on plunder to maintain military supplies, his explosive power in a short period of time was also amazing. Two hundred thousand soldiers could be exploded by just one Chang'an area.

Of course, Cao Cao also knew that even if he wanted to take the initiative to attack in a decisive battle, he could not do so on the battlefield that was stalemate with Liu Bei. The current battlefield was moving too slowly and had already built solid camp fortifications.

If Cao Cao suddenly changed his temperament and turned into defense to offense, Liu Bei would definitely be alert and rely on the fortifications to turn into defense. In this way, once the attack and defense are well-equipped, even if Cao Cao doubled his troops, he might not be able to swallow up the 200,000 elite soldiers from Liu Bei's direct line.

Therefore, it takes two or three months to prepare before the final battle.

Cao Cao wanted to boost men and train simplely. On the eve of the decisive battle, Cao Cao had to pretend to lose and then implement the scorched earth strategy.

While retreating, he destroyed all cities, towns, and construction fortifications along the way, ensuring that hundreds of miles of white land were left behind and there was no danger to defend. After seducing Liu Bei's main force to chase the scorched earth and white land, Cao Cao turned around and fought back, forcing Liu Bei to avoid it and fight a final battle.
Chapter completed!