The Nameless of the Common Clans

Luoyang, General's Mansion.

"My Lord, urgent news from Jingzhou!" Dian Wei hurried into the hall with a scroll of bamboo slips and bowed to Chen Mo.

"Is Jingzhou sending troops to Nanyang at this time?" Xun You frowned. This was also what they had been worried about before. If Liu Biao and Cao Cao joined forces, Nanyang might be in danger.

Chen Mo took the bamboo slips and quickly scanned them. His originally solemn expression gradually eased. He shook his head and handed the bamboo slips to Xun You: "Nanyang is safe!"

Xun You was a little surprised to hear this and took the bamboo slips to read.

Liu Biao was seriously ill and had not seen anyone for more than a month. Almost all the orders in the Chu Palace were issued by Cai. The main content of the intelligence was that Cai Mao was defeated by Sun Ce in Xiakou. Now the Jiangdong navy has occupied Jiangxia, and Cai Mao is suspected of surrendering.

In this case, Jingzhou really has no spare energy to provoke Nanyang in order to guard against Sun Ce.

"My lord, if Sun Ce gets Jingzhou, it will be as threatening to our army as Cao Cao." Xun You said solemnly.

Chen Mo nodded. Once Jiangdong annexed Jingzhou, the Jiangdong navy could go upstream and reach Shuzhong. If Sun Ce took control of Jiangdong and Bashu, he might not be as good as Chen Mo, but with the strategic location of Shuzhong and the natural barrier of the Yangtze River, it would be difficult for Chen Mo to completely sweep the world.

Moreover, even if Chen Mo won this battle and took over the Central Plains, it would take a lot of time to sort it out, so Sun Ce must not succeed.

"Order people to pay close attention to Jiangdong's actions." Chen Mo looked at Li Ru, who was sitting on his left hand, and said solemnly.

"Yes!" Li Ru bowed and accepted the order.

Even though Chen Mo knows that the other party is a threat, his main focus is on Cao Cao. Chen Mo has no time and no power to intervene in the battle of Jingzhou. Moreover, the battle of Jingzhou has just begun. It is too early to judge the final result. Let's put it aside for now. After defeating Cao Cao and establishing the position of the overlord of the Central Plains, the next step is Jingzhou!

"Let's talk about Cao Cao!" Chen Mo shook his head, stood up and looked at the huge map hanging on the wall and said, "What do you think?"

Li Ru stood up, walked to the map and pointed at it, saying, "Although there are battles everywhere now, from the intelligence sent from various places during this period, our army has won more than lost in several battles in Zhongmu, and Cao's army is a little exhausted. If it weren't for General Yu Sheng's caution, our army could even expand the results of the battle to Chenliu. It seems that our previous calculations were wrong. On the contrary, in the direction of Yecheng, Cao's army was quite fierce. General Wuyi and General Xu Huang suffered a lot and almost lost Qinghe."

Chen Mo's previous speculation was that the main direction of Cao's attack this time should be the Heluo area. Once Luoyang was captured, it would be like a nail in Chen Mo's throat, and Chen Mo's strength could not be concentrated.

In order to avoid being calculated, Chen Mo not only added troops to Yu Sheng's side, but also sent Xu Shu to assist Yu Sheng.

But the battle situation presented to Chen Mo now is that Cao's army is attacking Jizhou fiercely. Several times, the defense line built by Wuyi and Xu Huang almost collapsed. Nanyang was not very hot, and Heluo, except for the surprise attack on Guandu at the beginning, did not make the defenders feel pressure.

The current battle situation made Li Ru waver in the strategy set at the beginning. According to the current situation, it seems that the troops stationed near Luoyang should be transferred to Jizhou.

Chen Mo nodded. Li Ru spoke based on the battle situation. The current battle situation is indeed like this. It is not ruled out that Cao Cao expected Chen Mo to guess their direction and chose to take a different approach, first taking Jizhou and then Heluo.

But in this way, even if Cao Cao took Jizhou, he would not be able to advance. And most importantly, unless Cao Cao gave up Suiyang and prepared to establish another capital, otherwise, if the middle road is really empty, Chen Mo can directly push the battle line to Suiyang City with a strong army at this time. At that time, the war can be ended in advance.

Even if Cao Cao's power is not as good as his own, it will not be too far behind. There is no need to take such an extreme approach. Moreover, from the perspective of the entire battle situation, the best way for Cao Cao to overturn the current situation of strength and weakness is to take Heluo. This is too important for Chen Mo. If Heluo is lost, he has to retreat to Chang'an, and the connection with Jizhou will become weak. Cao Cao can take advantage of the situation to seize Jizhou and Youzhou. It seems that they are similar, but in fact they are far apart. If Jizhou is taken first, not to mention that Chen Mo can directly threaten Cao Cao's rear, just with Chen Mo's troops stationed in Youzhou, if Cao Cao really captures Jizhou, Chen Mo can also gather troops in a very short time to retake Jizhou.

You know, Taishi Ci and Zhao Yun stationed in Youzhou are two strong armies.

So even if the current situation is not favorable for Jizhou, Chen Mo still has not sent troops to support it, but now Qinghe is about to be lost. If he does not support it, he will lose a piece to Cao Cao soon after the battle begins.

Moreover, this move is not the key. The key is that Cao Cao will take the initiative. Then... I am afraid that I will be brought into Cao Cao's rhythm. On the battlefield, once the rhythm is controlled by the opponent, that is the beginning of the real disaster.

"Gongda?" Chen Mo turned his head and looked at Xun You beside him and said, "What do you think?"

Xun You thought for a moment and said, "My lord's original speculation was not wrong. The art of war says that if you can, show that you can't, and if you can't, show that you can. The magic of the art of war lies in the difference between the real and the fake. Maybe Cao Cao's goal is still the land of Heluo, but if Qinghe is lost, I think the opponent may not turn the fake into the real."

This is also what Chen Mo is worried about. He can be sure that Cao Cao's ultimate goal is still Heluo, but if he continues to do nothing and allows Cao Cao's Qingzhou Army to attack and Jizhou falls, it will also be a great loss for Chen Mo. It was equivalent to breaking Chen Mo's arm, and the strength between him and Cao Cao would be reversed.

Xun You smiled and said: "For the current plan, we can send a general to lead an army to Jizhou to support him. In addition, we can send a light cavalry to Suiyang to test the strength of Cao's army. If Cao's army really puts its focus on Jizhou, our army will be ready." You can turn the imaginary into reality and seize Suiyang!”

"Pass my military order." Chen Mo thought for a moment and said, "Order Gao Lan to lead our troops to help Wuyi."

As for the idea of ​​using tactics to lure the enemy, Chen Mo just thought about it. If Cao Cao was so easily fooled, he would not be worthy of being ranked alongside Chen Mo as the two heroes of the Central Plains.

In the early days, the disputes between the princes were based on their family background. Whoever had a strong family background would have an advantage. In the early days, the world was almost a situation where two Yuan Dynasties were competing for power. But now, the disputes among the princes have become so big that even the princes of Yuan Shao's family background are in trouble. They have all been destroyed. For those who remain, family background is not the most important thing. The princes who can still stand in the world are all mediocre. If you want to take advantage of the situation at this time, you will not only look down on your opponent, but also look down on yourself.

"Also, let Ma Chao come to see me!" Chen Mo looked at the map and after thinking for a long time, he added.

Now that Cao Cao has taken action, if I don't give him some response, I will really think that I am helpless.

Soon, Ma Chao walked in quickly, saluted Chen Mo and said, "Master, are you looking for me?"

"Yes." Chen Mo turned his head and looked at Ma Chao and said, "I order you to lead ten thousand Qingqi and march directly from Chenggao to Suiyang."

"The last general takes command!" Ma Chao was overjoyed when he heard this. Now he saw the war starting, but he stayed in Luoyang and failed to participate in the war. For Ma Chao, this was extremely uncomfortable. Now that he could go to war, Ma Chao was very happy. As for where to fight? That's not important.

"Wait!" Seeing that Ma Chao was about to leave, Chen Mo quickly stopped him before he finished speaking.

"What other orders does the lord have?" Ma Chao stopped and looked at Chen Mo doubtfully.

"You are sending troops this time to test the truth. You will go deep alone. Remember to be cautious. If you find something wrong, withdraw immediately. Don't be reluctant to fight." Chen Mo said in a deep voice. These ten thousand light cavalry are not all cavalry. In fact, they are all cavalry. There are only two thousand cavalry in Ma Chao's headquarters, and the rest are infantry, but they will not bring too much baggage. With these few people and horses, if they go deep alone and encounter Cao Cao's main force, they are likely to be surrounded by Cao Cao's main force, so Chen Mo reminded He said: "Remember, there are no reinforcements. After testing the strength of Cao's army, you must withdraw immediately!"

"Here!" Upon hearing this, Ma Chao bowed solemnly and bowed to leave.

After Ma Chao left, Chen Mo was a little worried. Ma Chao had the ability to lead troops, but he was too bellicose and irritable. After thinking about it, Chen Mo ordered someone to send an order to Pang De and Zhang Xiu, ordering them to lead the cavalry. You don't have to go with Ma Chao when you leave the customs. You are just responsible for responding to Ma Chao when he is in danger.

It was said that there was no support, which also made Ma Chao restrain himself, but after all, it was his favorite general. If he was really defeated, Chen Mo would definitely not be able to bear it, so he sent Pang De and Zhang Xiu to take charge of the response.

"The battle in Nanyang..." After arranging things here, Chen Mo turned around, looked at the map and frowned in thought. In terms of the entire battle situation, the battle in Nanyang is the most inconspicuous. The battle between Zhang Liao and Cao Ren was not fierce, and Zhang Liao was still He had to guard against Jingzhou. Seeing Cao Ren's attitude, he had no intention of capturing Nanyang. However, Chen Mo now had many soldiers. He thought about whether he could trick Cao Ren and take the opportunity to occupy Yingchuan. In this way, his military strength would be greatly reduced. You can completely spread it out and force Cao Cao to fight him decisively.

Neither Chen Mo nor Cao Cao wanted the war in the Central Plains to last too long. If it continued like this, it would be a devastating blow to the people's livelihood in the Central Plains region. However, there was no need to rush into such a war, so Chen Mo had been Thinking about how to expand his advantage, it would be best to force Cao Cao to come out to fight with him if he wins Yingchuan.

"Lord, there is no need to rush!" As soon as Li Ru heard this, he knew what Chen Mo was planning, and quickly advised him that impatience is the most important thing in this kind of battle.

"I know." Chen Mo nodded, but in his mind he was calculating the feasibility of this matter.