Lu Bu: My wife comes from two thousand years later

Zhang Mo was talking about the end, not winning.

The meaning is very clear. If they still cannot defeat the enemy when the economy can no longer sustain it, they can only withdraw their troops and cease fighting. No one can do anything to the other side, and the world will continue to be divided. This situation will continue for a considerable period of time. Perhaps neither she nor Lu Bu will see the day of unification in their lifetime.

But if a complete victory can be achieved within three to five years, this battle will not only eliminate Cao Cao, but will also deal a fatal blow to Eastern Wu and Shu Han, and the trend towards unification will be very clear.

"During the Chu-Han contention, Emperor Gaozu and Overlord were deadlocked for four years. Finally, Han Xin decided the outcome at Gaixia, and Overlord committed suicide at the Wujiang River, ending the Chu-Han contention. Your Majesty must be mentally prepared for a protracted war, but there is also a chance to decide the outcome in one battle. What we need to do now is to gather our forces, make strategic plans, and seek opportunities for a decisive battle during the confrontation," said Jia Xu.

Lu Bu nodded and asked, "How are the troops gathering from all over the place?"

Jia Xu replied, "On the eastern front, General Wenyuan's 30,000 combat troops and 40,000 auxiliary troops are gradually heading towards Taishan Commandery. Commander Zang led 5,000 vanguards into Langya State in Xuzhou three days ago and engaged in two small skirmishes with Cao's army. Naval Commander Gan Xingba's 20,000 troops are also gradually converging on Donglai Harbor. If Dongwu doesn't send its navy, they could cooperate with Wenyuan in attacking Xuzhou by sea, but this is obviously impossible."

"General Ziyi on the western front is mobilizing troops towards Yangping Pass, Dasan Pass, and Wu Pass. Five thousand troops have already arrived at Yangping Pass, commanded by Zhang Junyi. As for the central front..."

Jia Xu paused and said, "In recent years, Zilong, Anren, Gongming and others have frequently harassed Yanzhou. The war here actually started a long time ago."

Yanzhou and Jizhou are across the river from each other. Half of the land of Yanzhou Dongjun is north of the Yellow River. In recent years, it has been harassed by the Tang army. Cao Cao has abandoned those counties in the north and completely shrunk the front line to the Baima-Puyang-Dong'a line south of the Yellow River, building a solid defense chain in this area.

However, because Chenliu County was originally separated by Chen Gong, the areas west of Bai Ma between Chenliu and the Yellow River were gradually abandoned by Cao Cao. To be precise, the first stop on the west side of his defense line is Puyang and Lihu cities, all the way to Cangting, Dong'a, Jibei State, and Taishan County in the east.

In addition to strengthening the city walls, Cao Cao also built strong barriers at the three main ferry crossings along this line: Puyang, Qinting, and Cangting to prevent the Tang army from crossing the river head-on.

Of course, the Tang army could cross the river from Bai Ma, or even from Yanjin and Luoyang further upstream. However, if they wanted to continue advancing to Yanzhou after crossing the river, they would have to capture the two cities of Puyang and Lihu. The troublesome thing was that the two cities were only twenty miles apart and relied on each other, so it was not so easy to attack them by force.

As for bypassing Puyang and attacking Yuzhou directly from Chenliu County, or going south to Yingchuan from Xuanyuan Pass in Henan Yin, it is almost impossible. First, Liu Bei is restraining the western front, and the Yongzhou and Liangzhou military regions under Taishi Ci can only stay in Guanzhong to deal with Liu Bei, and cannot come to Henan Yin for support. The Sizhou army alone cannot push forward all the way, and insufficient manpower is one reason.

Secondly, Yuzhou and Yanzhou are located in the heart of the Central Plains, with densely populated cities. If the defense line of Dongjun is not broken, and instead an isolated army advances from there, it will most likely be divided, surrounded and annihilated by the enemy. Moreover, Yanzhou is surrounded on three sides by Chenliu, Jizhou and Qingzhou, and Chenliu County is also surrounded on two sides by Yuzhou and Yanzhou. In addition, there are densely populated cities to the south of Chenliu, so if you attack from there, you will have to attack one city at a time.

Instead of doing that, it would be better to take Yanzhou first. As long as the main force of Cao's army is destroyed and his front line is pushed back, it will be much easier to attack those cities later.

Originally, based on the strength of Lu and Cao, it would have been almost no difficulty to capture Yanzhou under this situation. But now with the participation of Liu Bei and Sun Ce, the strength of the Tang army has been greatly diluted. In addition to being restrained by Liu Bei on the western front, Gan Ning on the eastern front will probably be entangled by the navy of Eastern Wu.

From Guanzhong to Henan Yin, Henan Yin to Taishan County, and even to the Yellow Sea, the battle lines between the Tang State and Cao, Liu and Sun covered the entire southern border of the Tang State.

After explaining the overall situation, Jia Xu concluded, "Right now, it seems that only the eastern front may be the easiest to break through."

“I’m afraid it won’t be easy!”

Just as Jia Xu finished speaking, Zhang Mo spoke up, "The commander of Cao's eastern front is Xiahou Dun. While he's not particularly skilled in tactics, he excels at governance. Crucially, he's extremely self-aware and doesn't covet power. He's willing to hand over areas he's not adept at to others. Over the years, he's built water conservancy projects in Lu and Langya, diligently cultivated agriculture, treated the people well, and shown generosity to his soldiers. This has won the hearts and minds of the people, uniting the army and the people. It's going to be difficult for our army to achieve a major breakthrough."

Jia Xu said, "The cities there aren't as densely packed as those in Yanzhou and Yuzhou, so they're relatively easier to attack. General Qu has been deploying troops along the river these days, and the main force of Cao's army will surely gather along the center. Wenyuan will face a much smaller enemy force. Furthermore, General Xu and General Gongsun's campaign in the Three Han states should be nearly over. If they can then lead another 20,000 troops across the sea, our chances will be even greater."

Du Fei said, "Only Mahan is left. The two generals previously went on a killing spree in Jinhan and Byeonhan, severely intimidating those Koreans. The Mahan army and people no longer have any intention of resisting. It is expected that they will completely conquer the Three Han in less than a month."

"Bangzi?" Jia Xu asked doubtfully, "What do you mean?"

Du Fei shrugged, indicating he didn't know. Zhang Mo gave a dry laugh and explained, "It means 'big club,' referring to the people of the Three Kingdoms of Korea."

"Where does this allusion come from?"

In order to ease the dull atmosphere of discussing the war, Zhang Mo told everyone the origin of the stick.

"It is said that the leaders of the Three Hans came to the Han Dynasty to pay homage to a certain emperor. His Majesty hosted a banquet for them. Before the meal began, the palace maids each brought a basin of water filled with flower petals for them to wash their hands. The three men thought it was an appetizer soup given by the palace, so they took it and drank it. To show their sincerity, they repeatedly praised the deliciousness of this "soup".

The emperor burst into laughter upon seeing this and said, "Hahaha, you are such a fool!"

The three men did not understand the meaning of these words and thought he was praising them, so they quickly stood up and knelt to thank the emperor for his praise.

This amusing gesture made everyone present laugh, and from then on, the people of the Three Kingdoms of Korea were called "Bangzi", implying their ignorance.

The more she spoke, the more confused everyone became. Jia Xu asked, "Is this true? How come I have never heard of it?"

The others looked at each other, saying that they had never heard of it, and it seemed that there had never been a time when the leaders of the Three Han countries came to pay homage to the Emperor of the Han Dynasty at the same time.

Zhang Mo lied and said, "I don't know either. My master told me."

After she finished speaking, she took the initiative to change the subject. "In general, the defense of the three fronts in the east, middle, and west, plus the decisive battle, will require a total of about 300,000 troops. With so many troops to be deployed to the battlefield one after another, logistics and supply are of utmost importance. I don't think Bo Huai can handle the mobilization of laborers, food, fodder, and military equipment from all over the country alone. I'll let Bo Hou help manage the logistics first."

The war had just begun. Both sides were actually busy transporting food and gathering troops. At the beginning, only small-scale battles would occur. When the troops were almost gathered and they were ready to attack cities and seize strategic points, the war would be considered to have begun.

The meeting ended, and everyone went about their business. Lü Bu and his wife returned to the earthen building. As they reached the door, Lü Bu suddenly asked, "How about... we go get Liu Da'er first? Do you think that's feasible?"