Chapter 450 Wishful thinking
The first people to feel Tian Ze's change of mind were Guo Jia and others, followed by Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and others.
Sometimes the person who knows you best may be your enemy.
Huangfu Song's coming out of seclusion, Xu Rong's stationing north of the Yellow River, a large number of cavalry transferred to Jizhou, and Tian Ze's further expansion of the army all reflect one point.
Tian Ze can’t wait any longer.
Before this, Tian Ze had been trying his best to balance the situation in the world, showing a defensive trend, and slowly expanding his territory by cannibalization.
However, with the battle in Central Plains, the offense and defense changed, and Tian Ze had changed his attitude just like them.
They who once wanted to break out quickly now only hope to delay and wait for the right opportunity, while Tian Ze becomes eager to unify the world.
Cao Cao was not surprised by this. If it were him, he would have started working on this matter a long time ago.
But what made him feel powerless was Tianze's military equipment configuration.
Although Tian Zezhi did a good job in anti-reconnaissance work, he was not clear about how many troops there were in Sili and Jizhou areas and how they were deployed.
But based on his understanding of Tian Ze, he could guess that the amount was probably at least one million.
After all, the Great Qi was at peace internally, and most of the localities were in reserve. The barbarians in the north and northwest borders were chased away by Lu Bu and Gongsun Zan.
Most of the troops must be stationed in the two main battlefields of Jizhou and Sili.
As people with ulterior motives, every time Tian Ze expanded his army, Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and others would secretly arrange spies to investigate. And before and after each major battle, they would carefully sort out the general situation of Tian Ze's troop deployment in various places.
Combined with the excellent intelligence analysis capabilities of Xu You, Mao Jie and others, it has been calculated that Tian Ze's current army is approximately million.
Finally, it was concluded that there were a million troops in Jizhou and Sili areas.
Push back a little further.
How many troops does Tianze need to leave behind?
An army of at most 300,000, with 100,000 in Sili and 200,000 in Jizhou, would be enough to completely give up the idea of counterattack.
The number of troops that can be used for the attack is probably no less than 700,000!
Even if Gan Ning's navy and Zang Ba's mountain army were excluded, there were still a total of 500,000 troops.
How many troops will be mobilized to attack Tianze in Yizhou?
I'm afraid two hundred thousand is the maximum.
The reason is simple: the logistical pressure of attacking Yizhou was too great.
The road to Shu is harder than climbing to the sky, and this is not an empty statement.
Zhuge Liang had to withdraw his troops from the Northern Expedition to Qishan several times due to food problems, let alone attacking Yizhou from the outside.
In the historical Battle of Hanzhong, logistics was one of the extremely important reasons why Cao Cao had to withdraw his troops.
In this case, where would the remaining 300,000 troops be placed? They would definitely be sent to the Central Plains.
"Once the Jizhou army marches south, there will be at least 300,000 to 400,000 elite troops, including at least 100,000 elite cavalry. Benchu and I alone will not be able to stop them."
"Even if we can block it once or twice, what about after that?" Cao Cao sighed.
The situation he and Yuan Shao faced at this time was even more difficult than the situation they faced during the Battle of Guandu in history.
Because Tian Ze not only had a strong military force and was steady in using his troops, but he also had a large number of elite navy.
If it was just the former, they could rely on the natural barrier of the Yellow River and hold on to several major ferry crossings to resist.
But the navy's flaws are fatal.
Although Sun Ce is loyal, he is not one with them after all.
Moreover, the Yellow River is too far from Jiangdong. If Sun Ce's navy is sent to the Yellow River, what will happen if Tian Ze's navy goes directly south to Jiangdong? Sun Ce must have considered this.
Jiangdong's navy was just okay, and the strength of its cavalry and infantry was simply not enough in the face of the now fully upgraded combat intensity. Unless Yuan Shao and other princes sent elite troops to Jiangdong to assist in defense and make up for this shortcoming, but that was absolutely impossible.
Because in this way, the command and dispatch of the armaments of all parties would be completely messed up. Moreover, if so many allied troops were stationed in one's own territory for a long time, there would inevitably be problems.
This is the drawback of the alliance of small countries.
It does not mean that resources can be fully shared by forming an alliance. The resources belong to different entities, so it is impossible to share them without reservation.
Although alliances can complement each other's strengths and enhance overall strength, they still pale in comparison to having all resources integrated by a single major power.
Once a big country controls these resources, it can utilize them in all aspects, allowing its own strength to grow exponentially, several times or even ten times that of a single small country.
Therefore, the cooperation among small country alliances is just minor repairs and cannot compete with the powerful strength of big countries after integrating their resources.
What's more, alliance is only relative.
"Although Liu Xuande wants to help, he is powerless. His eyes have always been on Yizhou. Compared with the Central Plains, Yizhou is what he cares about most. He will never give us much reinforcements." Cao Cao said incisively.
"Let's not even talk about Liu Fan, who can't even protect himself. Even if Sun Bofu is the only one left, how many times can he support us? The Jiangdong family has already started to develop Yizhou."
Cao Cao's deep eyes seemed to see through everything.
Mao Jie couldn't help but remain silent when he heard this.
When it comes to insight into situations and people's hearts, his lord Cao Cao is one of the best in the world, and even better than him.
In the two previous wars in the Central Plains, why did Cao Cao and Yuan Shao almost give up everything, and even showed an attitude of preferring to die in glory rather than live in disgrace.
It means that they have anticipated the situation they will face if they fail.
There is no place to retreat, and Cao Cao now doesn't even know where to retreat to.
Although Nanyang is a good place, would Liu Bei be willing to cede it? Unless Liu Bei gets Yizhou, there is still a certain possibility.
Not to mention the Lianghuai area. The prerequisite for taking it is that Yuan Shao is completely defeated by Tian Ze, and he snatches this place from Tian Ze's mouth.
But after taking it, can this place really be held for a long time?
The Central Plains could not be defended because of the lack of large-scale cavalry, and could only passively take the beating. It was only a matter of time before it was divided and devoured.
The key to defending the Huai River and Huai River areas lies in the navy.
Sun Ce might be able to help him temporarily, but he couldn't always rely on Sun Ce. And his naval forces had no foundation at all.
What's more, the area of Lianghuai is extremely small. What can one achieve by settling here?
Therefore, Cao Cao’s so-called retreat routes were still almost all dead ends.
But the advantage is that the Central Plains is easy to attack but difficult to defend, not only for them, but also for Tianze.
Tian Ze conquered the Central Plains. Without the natural barriers, it would be difficult to maintain the current airtight defense.
As long as he can hold on, there is still a chance.
As long as Tian Ze took control of the Central Plains, he would have the opportunity to suck blood by fighting to support the war.
Of course, this is just his wishful thinking.
But at this point, Cao Cao could only brainwash himself in this way.
As long as the civil and military troops under his command are still there, there is a chance to make a comeback.
His thoughts have changed now. He can do his best to help Yuan Shao, but he will never fight for it. Because even if he fights, it is meaningless. The Central Plains is a place of bloodshed, and they are destined to be unable to defend it.
(End of this chapter)
