Three Kingdoms: God of Swallowing

Chapter 191 The Battle of Guandu

Cao Cao wrote to Xun Yu, discussing to retreat to Xudu, Xun Yu wrote back and said: "Yuan Shao gathered the main force at Guandu, and wanted to compete with the public. The public is weak and strong. If you can't control it, you will be exploited. It is the key to determine the general trend of the world. When Chu and Han were between Xingyang and Chenggao, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were not willing to take a step back. They thought that if they retreated first, they would be subdued. Now the public is counting as ten, guarding the key points so that Yuan Shao cannot advance. It has been half a year. The situation has become clear, there is no room for maneuver, and a major change will take place soon. This is the opportunity for a surprise victory, and we must not let it go."

So Cao Cao decided to continue to stand by and strengthen the defense at the same time. He ordered Ren Jun, who was in charge of logistics supplies, to adopt a 10-way column as a part to shorten the distance between the front and rear of the transport team, and use a second formation (two formations) to strengthen the guards to prevent Yuan Jun from attacking; On the one hand, he actively sought and captured fighters, defeated Yuan Jun, and soon sent Cao Ren and Shi Huan to intercept and burn thousands of Yuan Jun's grain vehicles, which increased Yuan Jun's supply difficulties.

In October of the same year, Yuan Shao sent another cart to transport grain, and ordered Chunyu Qiong to lead an army of 20 people to escort them. They settled in Gushi (in Yanjin County, Henan Province), about [-] kilometers north of Yuan Jun’s camp, and Wuchao (now southeast of Yanjin, Henan Province). ).

At this time, Xu You, Yuan Shao's counselor, defected to Cao Cao, suggesting that Cao Cao's light soldiers should surprise Wuchao and burn his belongings.Cao Cao immediately put it into practice, leaving Cao Hong and Xun You to guard the camp, personally leading 5000 cavalry, falsely using Yuan Jun's banner, binding a horse to his mouth, each with a bunch of firewood, and using the dark night to walk a path to sneak attack on Wuchao.Immediately after arriving, besieged and set fire.After Yuan Shao learned of Cao Cao's attack on Wuchao, he sent Qingqi to rescue on the one hand, and ordered Gao Lan to lead heavy troops to storm Cao's camp on the other hand.But Cao Ying was strong and could not be attacked.When Cao Jun rushed to Wuchao Chunyu Qiong camp, Yuan Shao's reinforcements were already approaching.Cao Cao mobilized his men to fight to the death, defeated Yuan Jun, killed Chunyu Qiong and others, and burned all their food and grass.Gao Lan heard that Wuchao was broken, so he surrendered to Cao Cao, which caused the army's morale to be shaken, internal divisions, and the army collapsed.Yuan Shaocang returned to Hebei with 800 cavalry in panic. Cao Jun annihilated and pitted nearly 10 Yuan Jun successively, and all the rest of his troops were brought under his banner. In this way, Cao Cao's troops increased rapidly, reaching more than 30 at once, and his military strength increased sharply. However, it is precisely because of too many troops that Cao Cao is obviously indigestion now.

The Battle of Guandu, after more than a year of confrontation, ended with Cao Cao's overall victory.With a force of about 15, Cao Cao won by surprise, defeating Yuan's army of 30.

As far as Ye Tian was concerned, he was not idle either. While developing gunpowder, he wandered around on the battlefield. He absorbed the energy of 20 or [-] creatures. Mosquitoes are small meat, so they shouldn't be wasted.

In the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao defeated the strong with the weak, and wrote the most glorious page in his life. Yuan Shao returned to the north, and finally died of depression due to defeat. Cao Cao took the opportunity to completely destroy the Yuan's military group, and then he conquered the Wuhuan, at this point, the war-torn north has been unified.

After the Battle of Guandu, Cao Jun captured Jushou alive.Jushou has always been appreciated by Cao Cao. At first Cao Cao pardoned Jushou and treated him favorably, but in the end Jushou was killed by Cao Cao because he wanted to return to Yuan Shao's camp.

Cao Cao discovered in Yuan Shao's camp that Xu County and certain personnel in the army had written letters to Yuan Shao to express their allegiance, and he ordered all the letters to be burned to show appeasement.

The Battle of Guandu was a turning point in the struggle between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao for supremacy in the north.Cao Cao was at a disadvantage in the early stage of the war, and it was thanks to three people who turned the situation around for Cao Cao-Liu Ye, Xun You, and Xu You.

1 When Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were confronting each other on the white horse, Yuan Shao ordered to build an arrow tower and shoot arrows at Cao Cao's camp for days, which shook Cao Cao's army.Afterwards, Liu Ye presented a thunderbolt chariot plan to defeat Yuan Shao's crossbowmen and make Cao Cao gain a stronghold in Guandu.

2 Cao Cao held a stalemate with Yuan Shao in Liyang. He wanted to return his troops and make another plan. Xun You offered a plan: "Today, the number of soldiers is too small to be defeated. It is better to divide their forces. When the Duke arrives in Yanjin, if he sends his troops to the latter, Shao will go west. Afterwards, light soldiers attack the white horse to hide its unpreparedness, and Yan Liang can be captured." Cao Cao acted according to his plan, and he defeated Yuan's army and beheaded Yan Liang.

3 Beginning in August of the fifth year of Jian'an, the two armies once again faced each other at Guandu, and both sides won and lost each other.Later, Cao Cao's army was short of food. It happened that Xu You, Yuan Shao's counselor, had a disagreement with the soldiers in the camp and defected to Cao Cao.Xu You offered a plan to burn Yuan Shao's army rations, so that Yuan Shao would be defeated without a fight.

4 Cao Cao once thought of giving up during the battle and wrote to Xun Yu of Xudu.But Xun Yu reminded Cao Cao: "When both sides in the war are exhausted, whoever retreats will be passive, and whoever gives up will perish. This is when the opportunity to fight appears." In the end, he helped Cao Cao regain his confidence and continue to persevere.

Cao Cao's ability to accept the words of capable people and win the final victory all depends on the way of employing people.We can look at it in detail: Liu Ye, Xun You, and Xu You are all talents. levels of talent.From this point of view, the proper appointment of talents should be said to be "one plan against ten thousand people".As for Cao Cao, he is a talent who knows how to use talents and can accept other people's words, so Yuan Shao should not be afraid of having many soldiers.

Of course, Cao Cao's victory was also inseparable from his brave generals. Dian Wei killed Yan Liang with a few tricks in the army (Guan Yu killed him in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms), disrupted his army's morale, and defeated Yuan Jun in a weak position , Solved the siege of the white horse, which greatly encouraged the morale of the army.

Other generals such as Le Jin, Yu Jin, Cao Hong, Xiahou Dun, Xiahouyuan, Pang De, Wenpin, Li Dian, etc. all shined in this battle and made many contributions.

When the north was unified, Cao Cao's power immediately stabilized. Like Xuzhou, he also temporarily hibernated and recuperated.

In Yizhou, after Liu Yan died, his son Liu Zhang succeeded to the throne and served as the shepherd of Yizhou.

Liu Zhang was cowardly and suspicious, while Zhang Lu in Hanzhong was arrogant and did not listen to Liu Zhang's orders, so Liu Zhang killed Zhang Lu's mother and brother, and the two became enemies. Liu Zhang sent Pang Xi to attack Zhang Lu and was defeated.

A majestic state shepherd can't even win against his own men. When the news of Liu Zhang's defeat spread, Yizhou immediately fell into chaos. Various forces refused to accept Liu Zhang's jurisdiction and revolted.Under internal and external pressure, Liu Zhang listened to the words of Zhang Song and Fazheng, and welcomed Liu Bei into Yizhou. He wanted to use Liu Bei's strength to resist Zhang Lu.

This time Liu Zhang led the wolf into the house. Liu Bei took the rest of his troops into Yizhou and attacked Liu Zhang backhanded.

When Liu Bei got Yizhou, he immediately rectified the internal affairs and asked Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to lead troops to repel Zhang Lu, so that Yizhou temporarily settled down.

..

Chapter 192 Experimenting with Gunpowder

In this way, the nine states in the world are roughly divided by the three forces. Xuzhou is the strongest, Cao Cao is the second, and Liu Bei is the worst.

blue sky.In late autumn, it is spotless and crystal clear.Blossoming clouds are reflected on the clear Huai River; the ripples of the fish scales and the emerald green river water add to the color of the floating clouds, making them extraordinarily gorgeous.

In the distance, the golden ears of rice are one after another, and it is another bumper harvest year.

The secret military factory in Xuzhou is located deep in the Qinling Mountains. It is guarded by heavy soldiers and barriers have been set up layer by layer. Without Ye Tian's order, even a mosquito would have to be castrated if it flew in.

After nearly two years of hard work, the development of black powder has finally achieved some results.

The test site was placed on a low hill outside the Qinling Mountains. Ye Tian, ​​Tao Qian, Guo Jia, Zhao Yun, Xu Chu, Zhang Liao and others accompanied them. They stood on the hill and arranged the utensils and jars of different sizes on the ground. Together, accept the test of the lord.

Ye Tian grabbed a handful of black powder from the urn and twisted it. It always felt that it was far different from the gunpowder used in modern times. I don't know if the ingredients were wrong, or the production process failed to meet the fine standards of later generations.

China was the first country to invent gunpowder. In the Sui Dynasty, the ternary system gunpowder of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal was born.Black gunpowder officially appeared in the Tang Dynasty.Gunpowder was invented by ancient alchemists. From the Warring States period to the early Han Dynasty, the emperors and nobles indulged in the fantasy of being immortals and immortality, and drove some alchemists and Taoists to refine "elixir". During the refining process, the formula of gunpowder was gradually invented.

However, in this era of melee among the Three Kingdoms, no one thought of using the formula of gunpowder to be used in the military field. Even if a batch of gunpowder powder is produced now, the composition of the powder is still a problem.

"ignition!"

Ye Tian gave an order, and a captain of the remnant wolf lit the wick with a torch tens of feet away.

In an instant, there was a sound of "嗤", and the gunpowder in the urn ignited, pushing the cork high, but the urn did not burst, obviously the seal was not good, and after the heat and pressure inside expanded, the cork was directly pushed away. However, no explosion of the container occurred.

"No, seal the cork tightly and order again!"

After the second urn was ignited, there was a sound of 'canopy', and the urn exploded. Although it burst, the pieces of the urn were only scattered all over the place, and there was no explosion as imagined.

"There's too little gunpowder, and it's a little mixed and impure, not powerful enough!" Ye Tian frowned, pointing out the lack of primary gunpowder.

Tao Qian said from the side: "This is the first batch of trial production recently. The two rows were developed in the next two stages, and they can be tested one by one."

Ye Tian ordered the guards to ignite the second batch of trial-produced gunpowder again, this time the sound was much louder, fragments of the urn were blown up, and a small pit was blown out on the ground where it was placed.

The surrounding advisers, generals, remnant wolf soldiers, and ordinary soldiers were all shocked when they saw this scene. Unexpectedly, an urn filled with this powder would explode. Injured by flying urn pieces.

"It looks a little bit, but the power is far from enough, let's try the last batch!" Ye Tian nodded slightly, looking so-so like igniting gunpowder, but it was far from being used on the battlefield.

The captain of Canlang Lighted the last batch of gunpowder urns in the distance. This time, there was a "boom" and the smoke billowed. The force was so violent that several of the nearby wooden stakes were blown off.

Ye Tian said happily: "This batch of gunpowder is probably ready. How is this gunpowder made? Can anyone tell me the process and what needs to be improved."

Tao Gong stroked his beard and said to the soldiers behind him, "Quickly pass on the real Ruoxu!"

"Yes! Your lord!"

The soldiers retreated, and after a while, an old man with white hair who was over sixty years old was brought along.

The old man's face was covered with burn marks, like centipedes lying on it, looking extremely terrifying. He was wearing a green shirt with fluttering sleeves, and he looked a bit immortal.

Ye Tian originally planned to laugh at him for pretending to be mysterious, but when he saw the scar on his face, he suddenly gave up. God knows how many gunpowder explosions he encountered when developing these gunpowder. He must have had a hard time in the past two years. Bar.

"See Lord State Shepherd!"

The white-haired old man bowed his head.

"Excuse me, excuse me." Ye Tian waved his hand and said, "I invited you here today to ask about these gunpowder manufacturing methods. I have also done some research on this thing, so I should be able to give you my opinion."

"Master Zhou Mu has also made gunpowder?" The white-haired old man was slightly taken aback.

Ye Tian nodded and said, "That was a long time ago."

It was indeed a long time ago. When he was a gangster in the orphanage, he prepared gunpowder by himself. However, in his era, making gunpowder was too simple. Unlike this era of cold weapons, it would cost a lot of raw materials Most of the time.

"Tell me about the production process of this gunpowder." Ye Tian said.

"Yes! Master State Shepherd!" The old man nodded, pointing to those pots and said: "The first kind is simply mixed together in proportion, combustible but with little effect; Fire, etc. are made by mixing, which improves some effects, but the third batch is more complicated. First, two liang of sulfur and saltpeter are ground into powder, put in a silver pot or sand pot, and then a pit is dug. Put the pot in the pit at the same level as the ground, and fill it with soil on all sides. Light three soaps that have not been eaten by moths one by one, then put them in the pot, and set the sulfur and saltpeter on fire. Wait until the fire can no longer be fired, then Take charcoal and stir fry until one-third of the charcoal is eliminated, then anneal, before cooling, take the mixture, and then refine, burn, and sublimate to obtain it."