: Deploying Troops and Generals

While I was thinking about it, the team had already entered Chang'an City.

When the emperor returned from a tour, as usual, the ministers of the court and central government would line up outside the city to greet him, led by the three princes. Then the emperor would get off the car in advance and walk to greet the three princes and the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty before continuing into the city.

But this time Liu Xuan's return was a special one. The original plan was not to come back today. It was all because of an urgent letter from Liu Dai that Liu Xuan returned to Chang'an in advance despite the snow.

The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, who had received the news in advance, did not come to greet him at Liu Xuan's signal, but waited for the emperor's return in the Jinhua Palace - Liu Xuan wanted to discuss matters directly with the ministers, so after entering Chang'an City, the team rushed straight to the palace without stopping.

, Liu Xuan even changed into his imperial robes in the car. When he arrived at the place, he simply wiped his face and walked directly into the Jinhua Palace.

At this time, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty had been waiting in the palace for a long time. After performing the rituals in accordance with the law, there was no prelude and they directly discussed the most important matters at present.

Grand Tutor Yuan Wei now seemed to have completely gone to the emperor's side. This time he was the first to express his concern about the matter: "Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou, is in urgent need. He said that the attack of the Yellow Turban bandits is very fierce and it is difficult to

Parry and ask the imperial court to send troops to suppress the bandits."

To the imperial court, the Yellow Turban Bandit Army was an out-and-out bandit army.

When Situ Wang Yun saw Yuan Wei speak, he continued: "This time the Taiping Road Yellow Turban bandit army came very fiercely. During your western tour, your Majesty not only occupied the eastern part of Yuzhou, but also captured the western part of Xuzhou."

As well as several counties in the northwest of Yangzhou, Yangzhou Mu Sunce also gradually stabilized the situation after losing several battles in a row."

"I didn't expect that the Yellow Turban rebel army would suddenly march north in autumn and catch the governor of Yanzhou by surprise. If the weather hadn't suddenly turned cold and there was a heavy snowfall, I'm afraid that more than half of the counties in Yanzhou would have fallen into the hands of the traitor army."

Liu Xuan nodded and remained silent while the two of them were talking. Although he had understood the situation before coming, he was not as detailed as the people in the court. He would first listen to see if there was anything he didn't know before comparing it.

If there is no problem with your previous plan, then it is the right way to tell it.

After listening to this for a while, he found that the general situation was no different from what he had learned. The reason why Yanzhou did not fall was actually due to a heavy snowfall, which surprised him a little.

There was no so-called greenhouse effect in this era, and winters were very cold. Basically, heavy snowfall would occur from time to time north of the Yangtze River in winter. It was not like that later. It basically didn’t snow much on both sides of the Yangtze River, except for the Yellow River area and further north.

It snows often in this area.

"Then Liu Dai's troops are more incompetent than I thought..."

After knowing the true situation, Liu Xuan didn't know whether he should be grateful that Liu Dai's incompetence gave the court a great opportunity, or whether he should feel depressed that the princes who were nominally subordinate to the court were so useless.

No matter what, the Yellow Turban Army attacked Yanzhou and the governor of Yanzhou asked the court for help. As an emperor, he should make a decision as soon as possible.

"Mengde!"

"I'm here!"

Liu Xuan named Cao Cao as soon as he opened his mouth. Since both civil and military officials in the court were quick-thinking people, they immediately understood what the emperor meant: This was to let Cao Cao lead his troops into battle. Otherwise, why would he call him Cao Cao as soon as he opened his mouth?

I just heard Liu Xuan casually ask: "If you lead the troops to Yanzhou, how long will it take to prepare?"

Sure enough, the emperor confirmed everyone's guesses as soon as he opened his mouth. He didn't ask if it could be done, but directly asked how long it would take to prepare. There was almost no suspense about Cao Cao's command of the army.

However, no one in the civil and military affairs of the DPRK felt that there was anything wrong with this. After all, there were only a few people in the imperial court who were suitable for commanding troops.

Not counting the members of the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, we only talk about the current full-time military generals. Lu Bu counts as one; Zhang Liao counts as one; the other one is Cao Cao!

In comparison, Zhang Liao is still a bit young, and he has never had any achievements. The civil and military forces of the DPRK really don't trust him in such a war. And Lu Bu is obviously not suitable for this kind of defensive battle, and Cao Cao is the most suitable person. What's more, Cao Cao has always been

It has always been highly valued by the emperor, so it is not strange to use it at such an important moment.

In fact, Cao Cao himself had long expected that he would lead the army this time. The reason was naturally clear. Therefore, he did not appear very excited when Liu Xuan called his name. He even asked Liu Xuan questions in advance.

Thinking of it, a very clear time was given directly at this time.

"As soon as the New Year is over, the army can set off and enter Yanzhou before the spring flowers bloom and the snow melts!"

Nowadays, Yanzhou's biggest barrier is the sudden blizzard. When the blizzard starts, coupled with the cold weather at this time, it is basically impossible to break away this winter.

This undoubtedly has a fatal impact on marching and fighting, but it is also the only natural barrier that Yanzhou can rely on at present.

Cao Cao said that he should stationed in Yanzhou before the spring flowers bloom, not because of anything else, but because once the snow melts and there is no obstruction of snow and cold weather, and the Yellow Turban Army can fully exert its combat effectiveness, the soldiers and horses in Yanzhou will not be able to fight at all.

It cannot be sustained any longer.

"How many troops and horses are needed?"

Cao Cao still didn't think about it and said casually: "We need 20,000 forbidden troops and an army of tiger and leopard cavalry!"

Not to mention the 20,000 forbidden troops, after several years of development and a whole year of recuperation, the number of 20,000 forbidden troops seems to be a lot, but the imperial court still sent them out, and it was still under the premise of not affecting the garrison in various places. At the same time,

There will also be a lot of imperial troops left in Chang'an to deal with some emergencies.

The entire Tiger and Leopard Cavalry army consisted of 5,000 soldiers and horses, totaling 25,000, which seems not to be a large number. At least compared to Yuan Shao's millions of troops in the Battle of Guandu, and Cao Cao's 800,000 troops at Red Cliff.

More than 20,000 soldiers and horses are simply not worth mentioning.

But there is one thing to understand.

The 20,000 forbidden troops are real professional soldiers, and most of Yuan Shao's million-strong army are county soldiers, and most of them are even militiamen who only farm and have barely undergone a few trainings. The elite soldiers are just a few.

Small portion.

Not to mention that Hubaoqi has been learning and practicing techniques during this year. Although the progress is not satisfactory, he is still much more powerful than ordinary soldiers.

The most important thing is that the medicine Liu Xuan specially gave to Cao Cao to enhance the ability of war horses has initially shown its effect after a full year of digestion time. Now, although not all the tiger and leopard cavalry are wearing armor,

Heavy cavalry, but after gathering the best war horses, this small group of armored heavy cavalry does not even need additional people to help carry the armor.

The horse is covered with armor, and the knight carrying the full body armor can still run normally, and then directly explodes with terrifying lethality when attacking - such a powerful cavalry can even charge into an infantry phalanx.

.

It can be said that although Cao Cao only had 25,000 troops, in terms of combat effectiveness, the more than 20,000 troops were not inferior to the 100,000 armies of other princes.

Liu Xuan, who had always paid close attention to his troops, naturally knew how powerful these troops were. Coupled with an outstanding commander like Cao Cao and those generals, he really didn't believe that old ghost Nanhua could do it.

The big one wins.

"In this case, we will allocate 20,000 forbidden troops and tiger and leopard cavalry under the command of Meng De. We will start preparing for war from now on. The emperor's uncle, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War will all try their best to cooperate and strive to complete the relevant affairs in the shortest time and enter the garrison as soon as possible.

Yanzhou."

Liu Xuan nodded, which was regarded as a formal battle order.

As soon as the emperor said this, everyone naturally had no objection. The deployment of the imperial army required greetings to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei naturally cooperated in every possible way. If it were not for his status as a guard, it is estimated that the emperor's uncle would have taken the initiative to ask for a battle.

Huangfu Song, the Minister of the Ministry of War, directly told all the information he had, while Xun You, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, also said that the current inventory of the imperial court is enough to ensure the consumption of the army. After all, the bumper harvests for several consecutive years are not just talk.

Seeing that the civil and military forces of the DPRK and China were very cooperative in this battle, Liu Xuan knew that these people had also noticed that this battle was related to whether the imperial court could re-extend its power to the Kanto region. If he jumped out to stir up trouble at this time, it would not only be

Not only was he at odds with the emperor, but he was also at odds with himself.

After all, only when the imperial court is powerful, people like yourself and others who serve in the imperial court will have greater power and higher status. If they come out to cause trouble, wouldn't that be a problem for themselves?

Therefore, the preparations for the war went very smoothly, and every detail was processed in almost half an hour.

During this period of time, Liu Xuan really didn't do anything. He just sat and listened to a few ministers, and then made the final decision at the last moment.

It's not like he didn't do important things. Regarding the generals accompanying the army, in addition to his own generals that Cao Cao would definitely take with him, Liu Xuan directly appointed Zhang Fei and Guan Yu as vanguard officers.

Naturally, Cao Cao was not dissatisfied with this. Because they both served the emperor in Chang'an and both held military positions in the army, Cao Cao knew the two of them relatively well.

Although Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have low positions, they are just captains of the imperial army, but their status is special: they are the adopted brothers of the current emperor uncle Liu Bei, so they cannot help but pay more attention to them - Cao Cao is now a general, and he will definitely use them when sending troops to fight in the future.

The Forbidden Army and the Forbidden Army are all under the control of Liu Bei. In order to be able to hand over troops smoothly in the future, he must have a good relationship with Liu Bei, and of course these two sworn brothers must have a good relationship.

More importantly, these two people have real talents, and Cao Cao, like all heroes, likes talents the most! If the two of them had not become sworn friends with Liu Bei, it is estimated that Cao Cao would try every means to win them over to him.

side.

Even though he couldn't win them over to his side, Cao Cao was still willing to get close to these two men, and Cao Cao could see that the emperor valued these two men, otherwise he wouldn't have appointed them as vanguards immediately after issuing an edict to put him in command.

Official - This is also an opportunity for the emperor to rush to reward these two people with meritorious service. From this, we can know that as long as the two of them perform well in this battle, the emperor will definitely reward them when they return.

In fact, it was almost the same. Liu Xuan was just creating opportunities for the two of them, not only to win over the two brothers, but also to reassure his imperial uncle.

p.s: My eyes have been feeling uncomfortable since the afternoon. Maybe it’s because I didn’t get a good rest yesterday! Baba Jiangjiang wrote a chapter and I owe you a chapter. I’ll try to make up for it tomorrow.

*
Chapter completed!