At the end of autumn, the wind is clear, the clouds are high and the air is crisp. When it is almost cold but not yet cold, the wild geese are about to fly south.

General Wei Gongsun led a hundred thousand people to Handan City, but he did not enter this city that he was very familiar with throughout the whole process. He only stationed himself in the camp south of the city where Yuan Jun had hurriedly left.

Within three days, he did not make any unnecessary moves, did not think of any clever strategies, and did not suddenly decide on any fate. Even several military advisers led many generals, staff, and military officials in the army to discuss the matter.

He didn’t get too involved in the formation of troops... Two hundred thousand troops from both sides were gathered between two cities that were only thirty miles apart. What kind of cunning strategy could be done in seconds? What space and time were there to go?

Giving?

In a sense, a war of this scale becomes less and less worth mentioning the closer it gets to the battle... But when it comes to the final stage, it's like throwing a dice, and whatever happens is what happens.

At this time, just like when both parties held the dice in their hands, they were going to throw it out anyway, so why bother covering their sweaty hands?

In fact, Gongsun just visited the military camp these days and chatted with various people to exchange trivial matters.

For example, for the new recruits from various counties in Youzhou, Gongsun would ask them about their specific place of origin and talk about the customs of their hometown; another example would be the former Yicon who left Baima Yicong, entered the army, and became officers in the division, and asked them if they had ever married, and if so,

The war in Japan has subsided, what are the plans for the future? Also like Shen Pei, Dong Zhao, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Pan Zhang, Guo Jia, and even Handan's local in-laws Qin family, Wei Song who has been teaching in the city during the siege, these have been around for a long time

He also used every opportunity to specially summon people he had never met or met for the first time, but he did not talk about official matters. Instead, he only chatted about daily life, and presented some weapons, books, war horses and other personal belongings...

At noon on the last day, that is, the day before the decisive battle, when Yuan Shao sent an envoy Shi Yi to visit and give gifts, he simply found him in the accompanying camp. At that time, General Wei was in the camp that Dong Zhao had brought.

In the companion camp, who was dismissed as a companion by the entire army because of his defeat, he had a meal with the clan traitors who had rebelled against him in the south of Julu County in the past... lunch, a meal of wine and meat shared by the entire army before the war.

In other words, Shiyi's trip was actually just a routine matter to satisfy Yuan Benchu's spiritual needs. He had no other intention. After he sent a gift and reiterated the agreement to fight the next day, he ate a bowl of mutton stuffed dumplings here, and then

Then he said goodbye and returned to Liangqi City in the evening.

everything goes well.

However, when he finished reporting to Yuan Shao and Chen Gong, returned to his residence, and was about to go to bed, another colleague hurriedly visited, forcing him to fight back his exhaustion and get up to deal with it... because there was someone coming.

It's Xi Liu.

Xi Yu was a disciple of Zheng Xuan. After Cui Yan left Yuan Shao's side and became the Prime Minister of Pingyuan, he became the leader of Zheng's disciples. In addition, Wu Anguo of Beihai suddenly died on the battlefield inexplicably, so there was a conspiracy.

Due to a mistake, this person unexpectedly became a representative figure of the Qingzhou faction beside Yuan Shao.

Of course, Qingzhou was annexed by force. In Yuan Shao's case, it was not as valued as Yanzhou as the foundation, nor as favored as the counties in Hebei because they were directly at the front line. In addition, although Qingzhou has six counties, it is not as important as Yanzhou.

Because the largest plain county is located in Hebei, it is treated separately, so it inevitably appears weak... The so-called Qingzhou faction is more like a vassal of the Yanzhou faction to Yuan Shao.

However, one characteristic of these people in Qingzhou is that because many local generals need to stay in the area to manage the farming affairs of the Yellow Turbans and deal with the Taishan bandits who cannot be wiped out no matter how hard they are, there are relatively few generals gathered around Yuan Shao. Mainly

They were some civil servants and staff. However, these civil servants and staff were often related to Zheng Xuanneng because of the trend of the times, so they had a close relationship with the top, bottom, left, and right, and they could be considered to have some footing.

And this is the reason why Xi Lu boldly came to look for Shiyi this time.

"Since Ziyu has seen it with his own eyes, how dare he ask who General Wei is?" The two sat down in the back hall, and Xi Lu got straight to the point. "What do you think about tomorrow's victory or defeat?"

"Winning or losing depends on the next scholar who doesn't know how to fight." Shi Yi thought about it for a moment, but he didn't hide it. "However, when I saw him today, I really felt that General Wei had extraordinary bearing and was a man who could achieve great things...

"

Xi Lu was startled for a moment, and then he hurriedly asked again, "Why is Ziyu so extraordinary? Why don't you tell me in detail?"

"Brother Yu has invited you." Shi Yi still didn't mean to cover up at all, but said a small matter. "Today when I went down to Handan City, I happened to encounter the Northern Army killing pigs and sheep. I wanted to have a meal before the battle.

As an envoy, I ate the meal with General Wei in the accompanying camp..."

"This can be called eating with Ziyu." Xi Lu frowned slightly. "But to be honest with Ziyu, today our entire army also had meat meals for lunch, and our Yuan Cheqi also ate with the tiger guards around us.

, it’s just that I didn’t go to any companion camp... And I think that companions are not the main force in the battle, but criminals. Sharing food with them is not as good as sharing food with ordinary soldiers to win the hearts of the people!"

"I thought so at the beginning." Shiyi sighed slightly. "But something happened during the dinner, which made me suddenly realize..."

"Ziyu, please speak."

"It's like this. Halfway through eating, General Wei was suddenly hit in the tooth by a foreign object in the dumpling. He was bleeding from the mouth for a while. Naturally, he was furious. He immediately summoned the cooks from the camp and scolded him in public.

, saying that the other party actually didn’t bother to prepare the food because it was for the servants to eat, so that the extra meal before the war was mixed with sand and gravel, and at that time he wanted to behead the cook to show the public." Shi Yi said with emotion. "And.

The cook knelt down to plead guilty and swore to God that making dumplings required chopping the fillings, and gravel would hurt the knife, so he would not be so stupid as to mix gravel into the filling. After hearing this, General Wei

After personally inspecting the blood stained by his vomiting, he discovered that it was just a sheep bone, not sand and gravel... So he apologized to the cook again, rewarded him with some money, and sat back to continue eating."

Xi Lu was a little confused: "I won't hide it from Ziyu, I vaguely feel that there is something to say about this matter, but I can't figure it out for the moment. Please explain it clearly."

"I only figured it out on the way back." Shi Yi replied seriously. "The reason why General Wei ate in the companion camp is because the companions are the lowest people in the army. If you don't even have their food, you will have to eat with them."

If the food consumption of the entire army can be guaranteed to be unimpeded, then the expenses of the entire army will naturally be unimpeded. In other words, General Wei is using this to check the food consumption of the entire army, not to win some hearts in front of him...Brother Yu, think about it,

How many people can a hundred thousand soldiers buy their hearts and minds with just one meal before a battle? Rather than acting like this, it is better to examine the system that is established in daily life and try to make the whole army less worried."

Xi Lu suddenly realized.

"It's not just that." Shiyi continued. "Since General Wei found out that he had made a mistake, he immediately apologized to a cook. According to my observation, the man was really ashamed at that moment and was not deliberately showing off.

A cook can be so sincere, let alone others. After this incident, I finally understood why people like Zhang Yide had to turn around and help him even though they were thousands of miles away. I also understood why Shen Zhengnan and Guan Yunchang were abandoned by him.

After so many years, he is still loyal, and I understand better why no one in the army who was General Wei's old corps is willing to speak ill of him... So Brother Yu, General Wei can indeed win people, gather people, and even use people.

, what I said is extraordinary and is absolutely not false.”

Xi Liu nodded slowly, but couldn't help but shake his head: "I already know General Wei's demeanor, and I don't hide it from Ziyu. I am here today not just to inquire about this matter, but also because you are not here today. There is something

You don’t know the matter yet, so I came here to tell you..."

"Brother Yu speaks frankly."

"Today at noon, when we Yuan Cheqi went to Huwei to eat, Chen Changshi held a meeting with the generals in the Chinese army's tent. Then Xu Ziyuan suddenly came out and scolded me and everyone else in public..."

"What did he curse?"

"Criticizing those military generals as tyrants who ruined the people, all of them should be regarded as barbarians according to the law; and scolding us scribes as incompetent people who monopolize official careers by virtue of their birth, and I don't know how many corrupt scholars who have no understanding of things are mixed in.

I don’t know how many ridiculous villains are hidden... Someone wanted to refute, but he kicked the chief executive, pulled out a knife in front of everyone, and questioned us, saying that the world has collapsed, isn’t it the work of us people? How come there are still

Are you pretending to be here?"

"..."

"What do Ziyu think?" Xi Liu didn't have time to ask.

"This is not a scolding, this is a morale booster... This is someone playing the role of General Wei, imitating the words of Weiyang Palace, reminding us that in the eyes of General Wei, we are all sinners, and none of us can be General Wei.

We are not allowed to use it half-heartedly." Shiyi replied directly without thinking.

"That's right!" Xi Lu sighed. "Peng Zhizhang and I discussed this in the afternoon and both felt that this was what it meant. And now, it is indeed as Xu Ziyuan reminded us. Our position has been established and there is no room for improvement.

Having said that, now all we have to do is work hard."

"It's just..." Shiyi suddenly looked confused again and shook his head. "Why did Xu Ziyuan do this? Although he is arrogant and rude, he is a real villain. He only seeks profit and has no desire for power or responsibility.

What he meant was that although today's incident reminded everyone not to be half-hearted, it also offended everyone above and below! In addition, when he reminded the troops to withdraw, he actually mocked Yuan Che in public on the general platform at the foot of Handan City.

There is no distinction between light and heavy riding, strong on the outside but timid on the inside, more planning and less decisive... Why is this necessary? With his intelligence, doesn't he know that if the situation is solved in the future, no matter he wins or loses, he will be evil both above and below.

Judging from the overall situation, will everyone use him as a target?"

"I don't know." Xi Lu said with a wry smile. "Some people say that he is too proud of himself because he was the first to follow Yuan Chaqi and was recognized by the world as Yuan's running friend and confidant from the beginning..."

"It's possible, but not necessarily. Zhang Miao and Bao Xin are both Yuan Cheqi's old friends. Liu Chong and Zang Hong are Yuan Cheqi's former confidants. What are they like now? Didn't Xu Ziyuan see the fate of these four people with his own eyes? When

There are some people who he personally took care of. Even Cao Mengde, a young prince of Yuan Gong, once became a prince, he also swayed among the three families." Shi Yi obviously disagreed.

"Then there is only one explanation." Xi Liu continued with a smile. "I heard that Xu Ziyuan made tens of millions in Julu this time, but before he could transport them across the Zhang River, they were all intercepted by Zhang Yide on the river bank... So Li Ling lost his mind.

."

"I'd rather believe this!" Shi Yi couldn't help but laugh, but stopped abruptly. "In troubled times, it's not easy. When we were in Qingzhou, we saw with our own eyes the fall of the prefecture and county, from two thousand stones to the poor.

The people are all in danger, and now we are in the middle of the overall situation of the world, who have the right to laugh at others?!"

Xi Lu also looked solemn for a moment, but then stood up helplessly: "Well, Ziyu has a rest for a while. No one can escape in the big battle tomorrow. You and I are the military counselors, so we are going to accompany you...be sure to take care!"

"Brother Yu, please take care." Shiyi immediately put aside all his thoughts and stood up to salute him.

Not to mention how people's hearts are secretly moving below, but the overall situation is like a wheel that can't be stopped.

The next morning, when the sky was dark, the city inside and outside Handan City and the city of Liang Dynasty were already busy. It was not a simple matter to send out a hundred thousand troops at once... In a sense, Gongsun used the method he used to deceive those people.

A certain sophistry is reasonable. When the number of troops in a local area reaches a certain level, the cost of management and operations really becomes more and more difficult to justify as the number of people increases.

However, fortunately, this is not the first time that Yuan Benchu ​​has controlled such a large number of people. It is only the first time that he has allowed 100,000 people to act together. And Gongsun has a rich military career. He has often deployed 50,000 to 60,000 people before, so both sides

Surprisingly, there wasn't any big trouble.

But even so, by the time the sentries on both sides stopped chasing, and the armies of both sides were harvesting crops to the beat of drums, and had completed their formations two hundred paces apart on the endless North China Plain, it was still noon.

The sun above the head is not blazing, and even the clouds are light and the wind is light, but everyone is a little nervous... The endless military formation, the flags in the sky, the neighing of war horses, the life and death of 200,000 people, the fate of tens of millions of people,

They will all be decided in the cruelest yet most helpless way... Veterans also have a desire to fight, let alone new recruits?

In fact, not to mention the soldiers, many generals and officers who prided themselves on their bravery before the war; counselors and soldiers who prided themselves on their intelligence, now looked at such a formation, but they were also horrified.

This kind of horror is easy to understand, because everyone suddenly wakes up. In such a majestic formation, among the magnificent military forces, once a war starts, everyone's fate will not be controlled by themselves... No matter whether you are a person with a body of two thousand stones or a

The lowest servant in the army, it doesn't matter whether you are a universally recognized general or an auxiliary who has just learned how to draw a bow.

In front of the forest spear formation, the mud and sand are falling together!

While the cavalry was galloping, both jade and stone were destroyed!
To be continued...