NOVPUBCao Cao was taken aback, and his face grew even more somber. Little did he know that at this time, Le Jin was already surrounded by Lyu Bu’s men in Faan County. If it weren’t for his duty to defend Faan County, he would have retreated long ago, and upon receiving the news of Cao Cao’s crushing defeat, he would have certainly pulled back to Chenliu directly.
"Of the sixty-three thousand strong army, less than fifty remain..." Cao Cao muttered to himself. These sixty-three thousand could be said to represent all of Nanyang’s stored grain – the most affluent region under heaven. It took over a year and constant fighting against Yuan Shu to train these seasoned troops, comprising Cao Cao’s ultimate resources and efforts, and to think that they were now utterly obliterated in a single morning.
"Lord, we can recruit more soldiers if we’ve lost them, we can forge new weapons and equipment, and as long as we return to Yanzhou, Wen Ruo will undoubtedly take care of these matters," Cheng Yu said without hesitation, bringing Xun Yu into the conversation. At this time, only Xun Yu could save the situation; there was no hope in anyone else.
"Let’s go, back to Yanzhou!" Cao Cao didn’t have much to say; Cheng Yu was unaware of the true situation and thought there was still grain in Nanyang, but Cao Cao was painfully aware that there was none left.
[Alas, it will be impossible to engage with Liu Xuande again without two years of accumulation. Nanyang, known as the richest place under heaven, has exhausted all its wealth to train over seventy thousand troops within a year. Such an opportunity will not come again in this world.] Xun Youi thought bitterly. Over sixty thousand veteran soldiers, equipped with full armor and weapons, were just like this, buried in the Xuzhou Plain.
[Wen Ruo is not invincible; even the most clever woman can’t cook without rice. Having lost this wave of veterans, we will have no means to participate in any battle in the short term, and even with the remaining ten thousand old soldiers and over a hundred thousand Tuntian Soldiers in Yanzhou, defending Yanzhou itself is problematic. Without years of training and at least five battles’ experience, it’s simply impossible to have that many veterans again.]
Cao Cao took the lead, his heart aching as he thought of the sixty thousand battle-hardened veterans. Initially, Xun Wenruo recruited an entire hundred thousand new army. During the continuous struggles against Yuan Shu, he always replenished the ranks with Tuntian Soldiers to maintain numbers; now, barely over seventy thousand had been preserved!
Now, besides the ten thousand given to Cao Ren to defend Wancheng and three thousand to Le Jin to guard Faan County, the rest of the over sixty thousand men were sacrificed at the hands of Liu Bei.
[Even if this year’s harvest is bountiful, we can only rely on the new army for now. At the earliest, and if our food supplies remain unharmed, it will not be until next April that we can have the first batch of soldiers that can be barely considered trained veterans.]
At this thought, Xun Youi felt a sense of despair; in Yanzhou, there were at most fifteen thousand combat-ready veterans left. As for the Tuntian Soldiers numbering over a hundred thousand, they were merely frightening in quantity; on the battlefield, they probably wouldn’t even qualify as auxiliary troops.
[If this year’s harvest is as bountiful as last year’s, there might be a turning point. Otherwise, our army, needing to train new recruits while guarding against attacks from Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Bei on Yanzhou, will definitely not have enough food supplies.]
Cao Cao looked bitterly up at the sky, silently praying for good weather this year, as otherwise, he would have to give up the majority of Yanzhou. With no soldiers to utilize, the troops on hand were utterly incapable of defending the vast region of Yanzhou, let alone the defense of Nanyang, Chenliu, and Yingchuan.
[Hopefully, my uncle can come up with a solution, as this is no longer an issue of leadership, but of a genuine lack of available soldiers. There are no natural defenses left to hold in Yanzhou.] After repeated deliberation, Xun Youi could only helplessly give up. As he said, they were entirely out of soldiers in Yanzhou.
[It seems we can only start a massive recruitment drive for able-bodied men, trying to find a way to overcome this difficult challenge. But to defend the whole of Yanzhou with a new army, without at least three hundred thousand soldiers, defense is impossible, not to mention the incredible amount of provisions needed for three hundred thousand new recruits…]
Cao Cao’s complexion was pale. Even if he were to drain both the Hedong Wei Family and Wei Clan of Chenliu, it would still be impossible to maintain an army of three hundred thousand. Thinking further, he’d have to train them, acquire new weapons and armor, and nurture the quality of these arms. Cao Cao deeply understood that without more than a year, it was completely impossible for him to catch his breath.
"How does Liu Xuande manage to support so many soldiers? His Tuntian Soldiers are always training; where does he find so much food? Moreover, he has implemented universal education and significantly improved the welfare of his soldiers." Xun You furrowed his brows. He had not paid much attention before, but now that he thought about it, how had Liu Bei raised such a large army of one hundred and thirty thousand?
Liu Bei had no idea of Xun You and Cao Cao’s concerns. He was currently hosting a banquet to celebrate the great victory. To Liu Bei, having slain Cao Cao and captured over forty thousand from the Cao Army, along with enough weapons and armor to equip more than sixty thousand men, was sufficient to field a new army of over sixty thousand fully armed soldiers at any time. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
It must be said that Liu Bei’s situation differed from Cao Cao’s. His Tuntian Soldiers also underwent training at the expense of a significant amount of food and resources.
Although the intensity of the Tuntian Soldiers’ training just barely reached half that of the regular soldiers, after all, there were hundreds of thousands of Tuntian Soldiers.
If necessary, Yu Jin could directly select strong young adults from amongst these hundreds of thousands of Tuntian Soldiers for over a month of intensive training. Then, he could incorporate these sixty thousand-plus men into the ranks of the old veterans and reorganize all the soldiers under his command.
A new army regiment, consisting of two-thirds veterans, would not diminish in combat power. In other words, Liu Bei this time could easily select sixty thousand men from the Tuntian Soldiers to create a new corps without worrying about weapons, equipment, or new recruits. Cao Cao had unwittingly solved Liu Bei’s problem of building a new regular army.
Meanwhile, the bedridden Tao Qian listened to Chen Deng reading him the reports and waved his hand to signal that Chen Deng could leave.
At this point, Tao Qian had come to view many things lightly. Cao Cao certainly had not received his message, and Liu Xuande had never really considered interfering in Xuzhou affairs—he truly despised Cao Cao’s actions and came to confront Cao Cao in a life-or-death struggle.
"Alas, if only I knew what today would bring, why did I even bother back then. I’ve become a persona non grata to everyone." Lying on his sickbed, Tao Qian realized he might not hold out much longer. "Fortunately, Liu Xuande is indeed a man of virtue. If I entrust Xuzhou to him, my two sons will surely be safe under his protection. This is also good, very good indeed."
Feeling somewhat guilty, Tao Qian thought, a dying man’s words are kind. Now fully resolved to make plans for his children, he no longer sought anything else but the protection of his family’s legacy. So why not go with the flow and deliver Xuzhou to Liu Bei? Since Liu Bei also disliked those nobles who treated the common people as livestock, there was no conflict in their philosophies.
"Cao Bao, oh, you Cao Bao, your death is not a pity. Liu Xuande must appease Xuzhou and certainly can’t take action against your family; thus, I will cleanse Xuzhou of these scourges for Liu Xuande, letting them accompany you below!" Tao Qian’s eyes flashed with cold light. He had always tried to limit the nobles, but he never thought that having been persistent in hunting geese, he would end up being pecked by one. These scourges could not be allowed to continue their existence.
"Liu Xuande, this is all I can help you with. I hope you will not be blinded by the nobles as I was. There’s not much more I can do for you before I die!" Tao Qian sat up, his body frail but his eyes sparkled with vigor. The nobility had restrained him in Xuzhou for many years; he could not let them continue to trouble his successor.
(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please vote and give monthly tickets at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)
