The next day, the Cao army attacked Anyang City once more. However, they returned without any success, only leaving two thousand corpses behind.
Anyang City did not move.
In Ye City, Tian Yu and Murong Ping had already reorganized and selected soldiers.
According to Bai Xiaowen's request of 'half the number of soldiers selected', only sixty thousand strong soldiers were selected and sent to Anyang.
The remaining sixty thousand were not of high quality, but they were more than enough to farm. They could also be used as the outer walls of Ye City.
It should be mentioned here that the spiritual energy particles also had an effect on the maturity of food crops.
Just like how the mutated beasts on Earth could reproduce in a few months, the maturity of crops was reduced by a lot. Moreover, it was not affected by the temperature. Even in the regions north of the Changjiang River, the crops did not need to go through the winter.
Using wheat as an example, the wheat that was planted in a month would start to grow and mature in a month and a half.
Maybe some people would ask, if farming was so easy, why did the Three Kingdoms have a grain shortage problem?
There were three main reasons.
First, the armies of the Three Kingdoms had a much larger appetite than normal armies. One person could eat as much as two or three people.
Second, the transportation of grain was difficult, and the consumption on the way was huge.
Third, which was the most important reason, was that the ratio of the army to the total population exceeded the warning line.
Using Yuan Shao as an example, let's look at the total population when the warlords ruled.
Based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, after Cao Cao took over Jizhou, there were only three hundred thousand registered people. Even so, Cao Cao happily said to Cui Yan, "Jizhou can be said to be a big province."
Of course, to avoid taxes, many people hid, and there were also aristocratic families. The actual population was much higher than the registered population. However, no matter how one calculated, Jizhou's total population was only a few hundred thousand.
Yuan Shao mainly controlled Jizhou. As for Youzhou, Qingzhou, and Bingzhou, he only controlled a small part of them. Moreover, they were very desolate. The total population would not exceed a million.
In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it said that Yuan Shao had a million people and hundreds of thousands of armor. Pretty much one out of every three or four commoners would be recruited into the army. Excluding the women and children, all the young men were recruited. Even the old soldiers were not spared.
What about the three kingdoms of the Spirit Realm?
After Bai Xiaowen took control of the four prefectures, he checked the household register and found that there were 180,000 households and 970,000 total population, which basically matched the historical records.
Farming wasn't difficult. What was difficult was that no one was farming.
Therefore, it was not surprising that there was a shortage of rations.
Now that Bai Xiaowen ordered the old and weak soldiers to return to the fields, it was tantamount to disarming the army in disguise, allowing the 60,000 laborers to return to the fields and farm. In today's Ji Zhou, there was a large area of wasteland that could be reclaimed.
In addition, Xun Yu, as the Ji Zhou Imperial Steed, had a passive skill that increased the speed of farming by 30%. Ren Jun, as the Assistant General of Agriculture, also had a skill that increased the speed of farming.
According to the characteristics of food crops in the Spirit Realm, they would be able to enjoy the fruits of farming in one and a half months. Only with enough food and soldiers could one conquer the world.
However, the most important thing right now was to defeat Cao Cao. If they did not defeat Cao Cao, they would not be able to complete the first Grand Unification Main Storyline, not to mention the rest.
Anyang City had an increase of twenty thousand elite troops, while the West Stronghold had an increase of thirty thousand elite troops. The remaining ten thousand elite troops had long been brought by Tian Yu and Murong Ping to Wei County.
On the third day, the Cao Army did not attack anymore. They only sent Xu Chu to fight under the city walls. Bai Xiaowen locked himself in and took the chance to repair the arrow stacks.
The fourth day was the same.
At this point, the spies sent to Henan finally sent back the first batch of intel.
Cao Cao borrowed three hundred thousand kilograms of grain from Zhang Lu and used the three auxiliary lands, including Chang An, as a pledge.
From the perspective of this transaction alone, Zhang Lu had definitely profited greatly. The three auxiliary lands were known as Guanzhong, and it was the cornerstone of the Qin Emperor's success. It was also the first place that Liu Bang took down after he left Sichuan. It was also the ancient capital, and it held great political significance.
However, Zhang Lu still suffered a huge loss and was played by Cao Cao.
At the same time, Cao Cao used the three auxiliary lands to exchange for Xiliang Horse Teng's grain and horses.
With that, Cao Cao's grain was enough to last two hundred thousand troops for at least a month. It also temporarily solved the unstable situation in the west, killing two birds with one stone.
Moreover, Liu Biao of Jingzhou was attacked by Sun Ce of Jiangdong after he failed to capture Xudu. Now, half of Jingzhou's nine counties belonged to Sun Ce. Fortunately, Liu Bei's group assisted Liu Biao and protected Xiangyang. Currently, the outcome of the confrontation with Sun Ce was unknown.
With that, Cao Cao did not need to worry about Jingzhou, Yangzhou, Hanzhong, Xiliang, etc. Along with the grain he borrowed, the army was reinvigorated. Only then did he raise the army to attack Hebei.
Yuan Family camp, Anyang high ranking military meeting.
Bai Xiaowen shook his head and sighed, "Zhang Lu and Ma Teng were too easily fooled. Cao Cao's plan was not smart, but they were too short-sighted."
Dong Zhao said, "Zhang Lu is the Lord of Guarding Cheng and Ma Teng is a Xiqiang savage. They also do not have any capable people to help them. If Cao Cao used such a plan on Milord, he would be asking to be humiliated. However, if he used it on Ma Teng and Zhang Lu, it would not be surprising if it succeeded. "
Tian Feng said, "Cao Cao brought the army to Anyang and only attacked for two days. Yesterday and today, he only sent generals to fight and did not really attack. Is this a trap? We gathered a lot of troops here and are worried about Fanyang and Weixian. "
Tian Feng had not finished speaking when a scout came to report that Fanyang City had fallen the day before yesterday. Cao Xiong led three thousand auxiliary troops into Wei County.
Dong Zhao said, "Milord, Cao Xiong is Cao Cao's fourth son. Cao Cao sent him to attack Weixian. Is there a reason for that? Three thousand troops are not a problem. However, if Cao Cao pretended to attack Anyang and secretly sent elite troops to support Cao Xiong, then Weixian would be in danger. "
The strategists under him all felt that Cao Cao's actions were suspicious. If not, why would he suddenly stop attacking Anyang after attacking for two days?
Furthermore, Cao Xiong was Cao Cao's son and only brought three thousand troops to go deep into Jizhou. No matter how one looked at it, it was not normal. Cao Cao would definitely send troops to support his son.
Bai Xiaowen squinted his eyes and said, "Weixian has Tian Yu, Qiao Rui, and Murong Ping, three generals. They lead ten thousand elite troops and can protect themselves. As for the matter of Cao Cao sending reinforcements, there is no need to worry about it. We just need to send more scouts to find out whether or not Cao Cao has any plans to secretly move troops. "
On the fifth day, the scouts that were sent out really did return with a report.
Cao Cao secretly led troops to Fanyang to support Cao Xiong.
When they heard this news, Tian Feng and Dong Zhao were shocked. They tried to persuade Bai Xiaowen to lead troops to assist Weixian. If the troops in Anyang City did not understand, they could send Zhang He or Gao Lan to lead the elite troops of the west stronghold to save Weixian.
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