Just Zhou Yang gave Cao Cao confidence with Xun Yu's "Ten Defeats and Ten Wins Theory".

However, if the three problems behind it cannot be solved, then Yuan Shao's title of "Cooperation" is actually a letter of war that persuades surrender, and will not be able to respond.

Guo Jia pointed out that if he faced Yuan Shao head-on, Xiliang would definitely take the opportunity to attack Chang'an, and Xudu's rear would also be harassed by Zhang Xiu, and Sun Ce from Jiangdong would definitely sweep up.

By then, Cao Cao would face a situation of being scrapped and destroyed.

However, while Guo Jia pointed out these key points, he had already thought of a solution. No wonder he was so calm.

The two warlords in Xiliang are mainly regarded as hidden dangers, but Ma Teng was living in Xudu at this time, so he could just send an envoy to appease him and enthrone Ma and Han as officials in the name of the court.

As for the threat from the Eastern Wu, Guo Jia believed that Sun Ce had just swept across Jiangdong shortly after, and the killing was too much, and he would inevitably have a great conflict with the local gentry.

Just send several assassins to the local area to cooperate with the gentry and assassinate Sun Ce together, and there is no need to worry about Eastern Wu.

As for Liu Biao's cowardly and peaceful character, he dared not act rashly before the victory and defeat between Cao Yuan, but it did not mean that he would not continue to support Zhang Xiu in Wancheng.

Therefore, only Xudu’s rear is most worried and the most difficult to solve.

Zhang Xiu had the greatest conflict with Cao Cao before. Not only did he kill his beloved general Dian Wei, but he also let Cao Ang die in battle to protect the lord.

In the end, he even killed Cao Anmin, who disguised himself as Cao Cao, obviously trying to kill Cao Cao.

Such a difficult enemy, there is no possibility of reconciliation.

Therefore, before the war between the north and the south started, the most troublesome thing about the worries was Zhang Xiu.

"Then how do we respond to this letter of war?" Zhou Yang asked.

"Let's use the slow-down strategy first!" Guo Jia continued to offer advice, "The lord can write a letter, which means that we have two factions of main war and main gang, and there are still controversies. However, the lord's idea is to avoid fighting and main gang, so he has to spend some time to appease the war-seeking sentiment of our soldiers."

"Good idea!" Cao Cao said happily, "From my understanding of Yuan Shao, although this guy is smart and capable, he is very arrogant, so just reply like this!"

"As for strengthening the layout, we have to do it quietly, so as not to find that we have no intention of getting along with each other," Guo Jia suggested.

"But Yuan Shao is not a fool. We will inevitably sneak into Hebei spies here." Cao Cao said, "As long as we make any movement, the other party will definitely notice it."

"Guandu." Zhou Yang suddenly spoke, "I will strengthen the defense in this place."

"Kundu?"

Cao Cao and Guo Jia were puzzled together, and both were puzzled by this.

At present, Yuan Shao has occupied the entire Hebei region and has no worries. Every piece of land north of the Yellow River belongs to him, and he can go south from anywhere.

Cao Cao was attacked from all sides. Except for Yuan Shao in the north, the generals of Guanzhong were still waiting and watching, Liu Biao and Zhang Xiu refused to surrender in the south, and Sun Ce in the south was even more ready to move.

But why Zhou Yang chose to strengthen defense in Guandu, but only he himself knew.

"What Zhou Taishou meant is that if Yuan Shao raised his troops south, he would take Xu Du directly?" Cao Cao couldn't help asking.

"The possibility is extremely high." Cao Cao thought for a while, "At present, in addition to our political advantages, even if we do not have the situation of being attacked from all sides and concentrating on dealing with Yuan Shao, it is difficult to have the capital to compete with him."

"It is better to focus on one place than to divide the troops to defend." Guo Jia said, "I agree with the proposal of Zhou Taishou."

"Okay! It's in Guandu." After getting the unanimous agreement between the two, Cao Cao immediately clapped the table and decided.

So Cao Cao sent Xu Qian and Cao Hong to Huainan to contact the Jiangdong gentry, and then ordered Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun to strengthen training in Xudu for the needs of preparing for war. He organized an army of more than 10,000 people to go to Guandu.

As for whom I was going to send to Xiliang, I didn't know what to do.

Zhou Yang thought of Yang Fu in his heart. This person was already optimistic about Cao Cao's political advantages and was even more a court official in Xiliang. It was most appropriate to send him there.

In addition, only Zhang Xiu from Wancheng was left.

Cao Cao is by no means a person who is left to fate, and he will not ignore the overall situation because of personal hatred.

Before the army was reorganized to Guandu, he asked Emperor Xian to draft an edict, sent Zhong Yao to Wancheng to enthrone Zhang Xiu in the name of the court, and ordered people to prepare more than a dozen boxes of generous gifts.

Because Zhang Xiu became the biggest future of war between the north and the south, and was also one of the enemies that made Cao Cao the most troublesome.

Except for Zhou Yang, no one is sure that Zhang Xiu will compromise so easily.

This is the biggest reason why Cao Cao was worried all the way through this trip to Guandu to set up defense.

But Zhou Yang knew that he might be bored, but he immediately stepped forward and asked, "My father-in-law, the son-in-law has some things hidden in his heart for a long time and has always wanted to ask."

Cao Cao glanced at him, but said, "If it is something that has nothing to do with the war, don't ask."

Zhou Yang still gritted his teeth and said, "It doesn't matter, but my son-in-law..."

Before he could speak, Cao Cao interrupted, "Since it doesn't matter, it's better not to ask. If the road is boring, it's better to find Miaocai and others to learn about marching and fighting. Although you have the talent of a strategist, you have no ability to lead troops. Now that the war between the north and the south is imminent, you have to learn even if you don't learn."

Zhou Yang could not find out from many aspects how Cao Cao killed Lu Bu after the Xuzhou War, but he dealt with Lu Lingqi.

Now he was speechless and could only swallow his concern for this woman back into his stomach.

When he arrived at Guandu, Cao Cao personally arranged troops on various strongholds, but did not set up more than half of the strongholds.

Zhou Yang asked the reason and realized that if there were suddenly more defensive strongholds in the boundary south of the Yellow River, it would inevitably lead to Yuan Shao's awareness, so he could only rely on the strongholds in front of him to defend.

However, on the seventh day after Cao's army arrived at Guandu, Yuan Shao sent someone to send a letter.

The letter roughly means that Cao Cao was cunning and said that the cooperation was temporarily suspended, but in fact he sent troops to Guandu. Since you intend to go to war with me, then my Hebei army will lead his troops south and attack from Guandu to see how many troops you have can block my white horse army.

He didn't even need any surprises, and planned to face me head-on and attack my strongest defense." After reading it, Cao Cao tore off the letter and said angrily, "It's simply arrogant."

Sure enough, when there was a trend in Yanzhou, Hebei immediately noticed it.

However, the delaying strategy still gained a lot of time, at least the main force of Cao's army has arrived at Guandu.

Zhou Yang knew the key and difficulty of this battle, so he suggested mobilizing Luoyang's troops to come.

Cao Cao naturally agreed immediately, and the one he lacked the most is the warable soldiers.

The battle in Xuzhou has a great chance of victory, and there are many political factors, so it is possible to use non-our army troops to attack Lu Bu.

However, the war between the north and the south is extraordinary, and no one can take such a risk to die. Zhiyuanduo and Yang Feng and some external troops were even more unknown about this and had already reorganized their troops to return to the north to observe the changes.

This means that if Cao Cao was defeated in this battle, he would not only fall into a passive situation, but would be surrounded and eroded by neutral forces from all directions.

Not to mention losing the political ace of Emperor Xian, he may even suffer a destruction.

Half a month later, the spies had found out that Yuan Shao had gathered 100,000 troops in Yecheng.

"100,000?" Guo Jia was stunned and analyzed, "Since Yuan Shao took over Qing and Ji prefectures, his strength has increased greatly, and his total strength has exceeded 200,000. Later, he successively conquered many Yellow Turban Remnants, including the Black Mountain Army of Guanggu and Tao Sheng. In addition, he defeated Gongsun Zan and pacified Peiping, and then incorporated tens of thousands of white horse troops, which combined with at least 500,000 military forces."

"Brother Fengxiao means," Zhou Yang was sweating in a cold sweat when he heard this, and couldn't help asking, "Yuan Shao's 100,000 troops are not their main forces?"

"No!" Cao Cao said in a deep voice, "On the contrary, these 100,000 troops are the most qualified and standardized troops that Yuan Shao trains, and are also the most elite troops to fight for a hundred battles."

"How can I see it?" Zhou Yang asked again.

"According to the returns of spies from various places in Hebei, Yuan Shao dispatched all the troops of his headquarters this time, and there was no other newly recruited soldiers to increase the loyalty of these 100,000 people, coordinate and combat experience, and make it easier to dispatch troops and generals." Cao Cao said.

"In other words, Yuan Shao is bound to win this battle. As long as he takes Guandu, the Hebei army can march straight into Xudu." Guo Jia closed his eyes and said.

At this time, Xu Huang, who had dispatched troops from Chang'an and Luoyang, came to report that after the joint press, the number of Cao's army increased from more than 13,000 soldiers to 16,000.

However, some of the more than 10,000 people were recruits who had just been trained from Xu Du and had no practical experience; some were only used as defense failures, and some were old infantry who were experienced but had a lot of years of experience.

The strength is still far from that of the Hebei Army, so Zhou Yang ordered people to transfer 3,000 cavalrymen from Luoyang.

Xu Huang said in surprise: "If these three thousand cavalrymen are lost, Luoyang will become a weak city with almost no combat power, with less than a thousand guards left."

Zhou Yang said: "If Guandu is lost, the entire Yan, Yu, Si, and Xu will face a catastrophe. Besides, there are three gates of Chang'an in the west and our main army in the east. Only in the north are more dangerous, but the generals of Zhongguan still have a wait-and-see attitude. Only by winning the battle of Guandu can alleviate all pressure."

Guo Jia also said: "Prince Zhou is right. At present, we must gather all available troops to fight against Yuan Shao's 100,000 troops."

Xu Huang sighed and responded: "I understand. The last general immediately sent someone to Luoyang to transfer General Xu Rong's three thousand cavalrymen to assist in the defense."

Zhou Yang said again: "In addition, hundreds of Black Mountain disciples from Zhang Yan will also be transferred to Guandu, and I will also send someone to talk to Zang Ba. This person has always admired his father-in-law very much. If he can get his help, even if he cannot participate in the battle of Guandu, he can at least be a reliable military force to stabilize Xuzhou."

Finally, Cao Cao made the decision: "Just decide like this, and pass the order. From now on, all the war zones on the border south of the Yellow River will enter a first-level alert state."
Chapter completed!