In this wave of crazy expansion of the army in the early winter of the fifth year of Zhangwu, how many mob recruits Cao Cao had expanded, it really took a lot of gods to calculate clearly.

Among the recruits, the smallest part was the population that Cao Ren retreated from Huainan to Huainbei during his lifetime.

Of course, since Cao Ren himself was dead, these people were finally defeated by Li Dian and Cao Zhen, mainly relying on Cao Zhen. After all, his retreat along the way was relatively the most orderly.

The reason why these civilians were conquered was not to join the army at the beginning, but to transport early rice from Huainan to Huainbei. After serving the grain transport labor service, they directly recruited the men and turned into exiles. The total number was about 50,000 to 60,000.

The most common part of the recruits are the civilians who were pulled from Hebei. Their nature is the same as that of the civilians in Huainan, but the scale is three or four times larger, with nearly 200,000 people, and most of them are poor farmers who have just been assigned to the fields this year.

The reason why this work can be accomplished so efficiently is that Latin is so large because its implementer has a very strong execution ability, which was conducted by Cheng Yu, a vicious man who could come up with a certain military ration in history.

During the process of retreating, Cheng Yu implemented the scorched earth policy in an orderly manner and forced migration, and deceived the poor peasants who were divided by Cao Cao, making them fear the Liu Bei regime and temporarily came to be a strong man for Cao Cao.

The last part of the expansion of the military source was to expect Cao Cao's remaining two and a half states to continue to force recruitment, but these people were all with their families, which was not as easy to manage as the homeless people captured from Hebei.

In addition, Yan and Yu people were not the main beneficiaries of the land distribution last year. They were not as easy to be deceived by the Cao Cao regime as poor peasants in Hebei. They were more familiar with the local area and could still leave their hometowns and escape when they met the strong men.

So in the end, Cao Cao only attracted 100,000 strong men on his own territory, about half of that in Hebei.

This also caused more than 200,000 people in the three counties of Yuzhou and Pengcheng and Langya in Xuzhou to be displaced, secretly crossing the border to exile in Liubei's occupied areas.

For a moment, some counties on the edge of the area occupied by both sides even had a large scale of escape, nine out of ten households and nine out of ten empty rooms.

It creates serious logistical difficulties for both sides who want to play the role of offensive in the next stage. Because when the army fought, no people would serve you as labor service and transport food.

This is also an important reason why Cao Cao could only fish out of the land and fish in the people from Hebei, but could not collect the people in Henan so much:

After the Hebei civilians came, they were not familiar with the place and didn't know where to run.

Moreover, these people have been forced to Henan, and they want to return to their hometowns, separated by a Yellow River. All the ships were searched and controlled by the government. It is impossible for ordinary people to swim across the Yellow River again without transportation.

In contrast, a lot of land on the north bank of the Huai River has been occupied by Li Su's troops. Under the rule of Cao Cao in the three counties of Yuzhou and the two counties of Xubei, the people have to run away without considering crossing the Huai River. Of course, the proportion of escape has increased exponentially.

Under the influence of various factors, when the clock of history finally reached the twelfth month of the fifth year of Zhangwu, the total expansion of Cao's army reached 350,000!

This terrifying number is almost the same as the total scale of the original Cao army, which means that the Cao army has directly doubled!

Among the 700,000 Cao troops, the veterans who had been in the army before the Battle of Guandu in 195 and had a service age of more than six years further dropped to 50,000.

Before he killed Yuan Shu in 197, he joined the army and had more than four years of service, about 60,000 veterans.

After Yuan Shao suffered a stroke in 199, he joined the army and had two years of service, which was 60,000.

There are still 180,000 new troops that were expanded at the beginning of this year, and their service period is about ten months.

The last 350,000 was just expanded in winter, and the service period was only more than one month.

Basically one-quarter of veterans, one-quarter of new recruits in a year, and one-half of strong men over a month.

Although there are many people, combat effectiveness, discipline and morale are really unavailable.

In addition, considering that Zhao Yun was always waiting for an opportunity to move in Pingyuan County on the other side of the Yellow River, and Taishici's fleet was harassed along the Donglai coast by sea, it was already the limit that Cao Cao left at least 80,000 new recruits to guard the rear, and it was no longer a small amount.

Zhuge Liang and Zhou Tai threatened Pengcheng and Langya, and they also had to distribute tens of thousands of people to delay.

Therefore, the total number of Cao's army's 700,000 people could bet on the decisive battlefield, as many as 560,000 to 70,000, and as much as no more than 600,000.

Liu Bei, opposite them, seems to have only 260,000 people, but at least tens of thousands are veterans who have served for more than five years, and half are "new soldiers" who have been training for two years and have been in actual combat for one year (that is, those troops Gao Shun trained in Nanyang for two years, and this year he fought a stalemate war with Liu Bei and Cao Cao for more than half a year)

Cao Cao hoped that he would take the initiative to attack and swallow Liu Bei's 260,000 people, and was crushed by Liu Bei in equipment, which was obviously very difficult.

As long as Liu Bei found out that he chose not to fight, the offensive and defensive situation alone would be enough to waste Cao Cao.

Therefore, Cao Cao had to cooperate with some strategies, such as first showing weakness and retreating, strengthening the wall and clearing the country. He put Liu Bei in, seducing him to a battlefield where there is no danger to defend and no obstacle, and then turning to offense to seek a decisive battle.

...

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Cao's army was about to complete the preparations for the decisive battle.

Chen County, the county government of Chen County, Yuzhou, has been temporarily changed to Cao Cao's central commander's garrison.

Cao Cao himself has never left Chen County these days, and he has deployed various details before the decisive battle here.

Cao Cao knew very well that the decisive battle must start within more than ten days, and the latest war date cannot be delayed until the late twelfth lunar month.

The reason is also very simple. This time node is a key time node after the expansion of our side has just been completed and the soldiers have also trained a little.

If it were earlier, the soldiers would not be recruited thoroughly, or the most basic military discipline queue would not have time to emphasize that their combat power was too weak.

If it is later and delayed until the first month of next year, then Liu Bei's troops across the country will not be 260,000.

At that time, more Han troops in Jizhou and Huainan will be able to further divide their troops to reinforce the front battlefield because of the smooth progress of the work of eliminating bandits.

According to Guo Jia's estimate to Cao Cao, Li Su can send 20,000 or 30,000 more people to Liu Bei until the first month of the year, and Zhang Fei from Hebei can also draw so many more people.

If the spring plowing sowing season passes, Liu Bei can hand over more rear garrison work to temporary civilians, and then draw more regular army reserves to the front line, which will free up tens of thousands of people.

Therefore, starting from the first month of next year, during the entire spring, Liu Bei's army may increase by 30,000 to 50,000 for every additional month!

When Liu Bei completely reacted, he would not have been 600,000 to 260,000. But it might be 600,000 to 300,000 to 400,000.

This decisive battle must be fought in the twelfth month of this year!

This is a turning point that compares the strength scheduling curves of both sides on the front line, which is most beneficial to Cao Cao!

In previous years, using troops in the cold winter was actually a taboo. The weather was too cold and soldiers were prone to freezing and starving, not fighting and reducing personnel. In history, when Cao Cao launched the Battle of Red Cliff, a very obvious disadvantage was that the war started in winter, which was not good for the attacking party.

The only weather advantage of the war in the cold winter is that "the corpse-type plague will be less transmitted after large-scale fighting". The main reason is that corpses are rotten more slowly and viruses and rot worms are also reproductive.

However, the corresponding outbreak rates of typhoid and respiratory tract plagues will increase.

It’s not that Cao Cao didn’t know these common sense of military tactics, but he still chose to fight the decisive battle in the twelfth lunar month. It can be seen that the two evils are the least of the two evils, and there is no way to do so.

...

On this day, Cao Cao had made almost all other preparations and basically sorted out his strategic ideas.

He was about to urge the last batch of newly trained Hebei Zhenggong recruits and Qingzhou recruits to arrive at the front line and make the troops in the front officially reach more than 500,000.

Coincidentally, in the afternoon of that day, tens of thousands of new soldiers rushed from the rear and arrived at the east bank of Honggou. They were only a few dozen miles away from Chen County, and then turned to camp on the spot.

After all, a unit of 500,000 people is enough to station most of Chen County everywhere, and it is impossible to pile up on a battlefield. The war zone stretches for 200 miles, which is common.

After the troops were stationed, officials of the supervising troops also came to Cao Cao's office to ask for a meeting with Chen Qing. Cao Cao thought he would be a general, but was sent by Xun Yu, who was guarding the rear, to escort him, but in the end, Xun Yu himself came with him in person.

Cao Cao hurriedly sent Xun Yu into the temporary tent of the county government: "Wuan Ruo personally supervised the army here? Could it be that something happened to Qing, the rear of Yan?"

Xun Yu sighed: "There are changes every day, but General Cao Hong is still diligent. Zhao Yun cannot cross the Yellow River for the time being. Taishi Ci also withdrew his troops because of the cold winter. Those small problems can be maintained."

Cao Cao: "Then this is..."

Xun Yu felt a little embarrassed to speak. For more than a year, he had not participated in the military aircraft in the front, but was coordinating production and military supplies and recruiting troops later. But after doing this for a long time, he began to feel unbearable.

Before, when Cao Cao divided the land, Xun Yu supported this matter, and even felt that Cao Cao was selfless.

After all, if Cao Cao fails and divides land with the extreme poverty in the land of Wuli, this action itself is good, and the rulers who will win the world in the future can also enjoy this legacy bonus.

Therefore, Xun Yu has always supported Cao Cao and deepened reform wholeheartedly.

However, after the autumn harvest, Cao Cao's various changes made Xun Yu's conscience shake. He ran out of the lake and fought fiercely for the strong men. This was obviously a serious destruction of the Han Dynasty. Even if Cao Cao won, he would not be able to win the world in one fell swoop.

Xun Yu knew very well: Even if Cao Cao won this decisive battle with his ruthlessness and mobilization efficiency, the best situation would be to kill Liu Bei.

That is to take back Jizhou and Huainan, and it is impossible to reunify the world.

Liu Bei's eldest son was born more than seven years ago, and he was eight years old by the beginning of next year. As long as the Prime Minister Li Su assisted him, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and others continued to work hard to avenge the "Lao Emperor", Cao Cao would not be able to enter Hulao Pass, and he might also cross the Yangtze River and Taihang Mountains.

By then, there will be at least another ten-year tug-of-war in Kanto Kanxi.

If you win for a lifetime of death, it will only make the Han Dynasty's bloody war for ten years. It's better to consider how to use the current mobilization and military strength as bargaining chips to talk to Liu Bei about conditions, deposed Liu He, and recognized Liu Bei as the emperor.

Although there were still so many recruits, Xun Yu knew the combat effectiveness of these soldiers best. The 350,000 soldiers who had only been a soldier for more than a month were completely unable to fight, and could only be used to scare people.

Since it can only scare people, isn’t it better to scare people through diplomatic channels than to be real swords and guns?

Cao Cao stopped now, and his sins were at least lighter than Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao held a puppet in the royal family and planned to establish another one. Cao Cao could still shirk his words that he was coerced by Yuan Shao at the time, but he just admitted it.

After all, Sun Quan has surrendered now. Anyway, I heard that he still saved his life. He gave him a prefecture-level official position and left his father Sun Jian's rank of Marquis Wucheng.

It was just that the Marquis of Wu who did not recognize his brother Sun Ce, who made Sun Ce attack Li Su when he was taking the sidelines? So Liu Bei was right to not admit that the Marquis of Wu was right. Cao Cao could not blame this even if he watched.

Xun Yu thought about his words and considerations along the way, and then came to Cao Cao to talk about his thoughts.

Xun Yu organized a wording with difficulty: "Prime Minister... my subordinates thought that our army now has expanded its new army and horses, and it seems to be magnificent, but in fact it cannot fight.

But since the expansion of the army has been expanded, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and countless people have died in vain. These sacrifices cannot be wasted. It is better to send an envoy to negotiate with Liu Bei and express that our army is willing to go... and he is willing to go to the emperor's title.

He re-recognized Liu Bei as the Zhengshuo, and restored unification based on the conditions of surrendering to the four prefectures of Yan, Yu, Qing, Xu and 700,000 soldiers. He followed Emperor Guangwu to surrender Wei Xiang and Ma Yuan.

Although this is not appropriate... But as long as the prime minister's intention to support the Han Dynasty is too much better than Wei Xiang, the future outcome will be much better than Wei Xiang.

Hearing that Li Su repeatedly advised Liu Bei to establish a country with faith and starve to death by Qin Shihuang, he was ashamed of being brave enough to starve King Jian of Qi. He should be prepared for danger in times of peace and not to be unified by the world. He felt that the Han court would not need to surrender and accept rebellion from then on, and would be indebted to be trusted and debauchery.

Judging from Liu Bei's attitude towards Sun Quan, he should have truly adopted Li Su's suggestion, so as long as the envoy sent by the Prime Minister negotiates with Liu Bei and Liu Bei officially agrees, he should not regret it in the future. Only the Prime Minister is careful."

Cao Cao listened for so long, but he didn't interrupt Xun Yu.

The main reason is that he was so shocked. He didn't expect that Xun Yu had followed him for ten years and wanted to teach him how to talk about the "resume conditions"!

He felt that he didn't know Xun Yu anymore.

Cao Cao stood up in surprise, stumbled back a few steps, and then twisted his curled and slightly gray beard. His fingers hunched over like chicken feet and trembled a few times. He didn't even pull off his three beards, just like Parkinson's patient.

Cao Cao pulled his beard and suffered pain. He came back from his unwillingness and pointed at Xun Yu with heartache: "Wenruo! You are confused! Gu couldn't believe this. This was something that you, a person of wisdom, could say!

Since ancient times, those who are righteous will be rewarded, and those who are surrendered will be killed. All of this is performed! Including the many arguments that have spread by Li Su to incite military morale, it is also performed!

It’s just because Liu Bei seems to be loyal and honest, and he acts so hard! Li Su is insidious and vicious, and his cooperation is perfect! Sun Quan can live well now because he is still there. If he surrenders, Sun Quan may die!

When two armies fight, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they are in a formation and fight, there is no way out! If you can fight, you will fight; if you can't fight, you will defend; if you can't walk, you will surrender; if you can't surrender, you will die! What else can you say!"

Xun Yu was disheartened when he heard Cao Cao say this, and knew that he would definitely not be able to persuade him.

The final crux of the matter is Cao Cao's suspicion.

And Cao Cao was so suspicious that no one in the world knew better than Xun Yu.
Chapter completed!