Chapter 57 Chapter 57 Crossing the Yellow River

Because Yan Liang was killed, the subordinate troops led by him collapsed in an instant and kept retreating. Although it was difficult to stop the decline of defeat with the support of the army from the rear, Yuan Shao's main formation was greatly shaken by this. Yuan Shao anxiously asked the surrounding officials, "Who is that enemy who easily beheaded a hero like Yan Liang? Isn't he a mortal?" Ju Shou replied, "This is probably Guan Yu, Liu Xuande's brother-in-law. Except for Guan Yu, there is no warrior in the world who can kill Yan Liang so easily." However, Yuan Shao was still dubious after hearing this, and he retorted: "There is no such reason. Now Liu Xuande has joined me, Yuan Shao, and this time he joined the army and came here with me."

For the sake of caution, he specially called a soldier who had retreated from the front line, and asked, "What kind of general was the one who killed Yan Liang? Tell the truth about what you saw!" The soldier saw the scene of Yan Liang being beheaded with his own eyes, so he said truthfully: "He is a terrible general, he has a red face and a long beard, and he beheaded General Yan Liang with a single swing of a big long handle and wide blade. Then he calmly tied the head of General Yan Liang to the saddle, and quickly returned to his position. Along the way, he also uttered big words, Guan Yu who dares to block me will die."

Yuan Shao had nothing to say after hearing this, and immediately furiously said to his left and right ministers, "Bring Liu Xuande here!" Everyone rushed into Liu Xuande's camp, tied him behind his back and dragged him in front of Yuan Shao without asking any questions. When Yuan Shao saw Liu Xuande, he yelled at Liu Xuande, "You ungrateful guy, how dare you act as Cao Cao's internal support and let your righteous brother Guan Yu kill my most important hero. Yan Liang can't survive, but at least I will Cut off your head and pay homage to Yan Liang's dead soul. Come on, behead this ungrateful beast in front of me!"

Liu Xuande was not afraid after being scolded by Yuan Shao, because he had never expected this incident.He calmly replied: "Wait a minute, please. I don't understand why the general is usually a very wise person, so why is he so angry today? Cao Cao has been trying to kill me Liu Xuande all these years, but why did the general help Cao Cao achieve The purpose? I'm afraid this will have a negative impact on my benefactor's army... Although I heard that the enemy general is a soldier with a red face and a long beard. But I still think that there are many generals who are similar to Guan Yu in the world. Cao Cao is a famous A military strategist, maybe he deliberately recruited such a person to cause internal strife between us. Please think carefully about it, the general. If you listen to a soldier's one-sided words, you will have to pay with my life, Liu Xuande. This is against the general Isn't the kindness towards me a kind of short-sightedness?"

After Yuan Shao heard Liu Xuande's impassioned speech, he immediately felt reconciliation, and he said: "Well, what you said makes sense." An important condition for being a general is to be decisive.This decisiveness is based on keen intuition.Yuan Shao's shortcoming is that his intuition is too slow. Liu Xuande further argued: "Since the fall of Xuzhou, I have been alone under the protection of the general, and I have no news of my wife and relatives. How can I get in touch with Guan Yu? My daily situation, Doesn't the general see it often?" "Oh, you're right.... I've generally figured it out. It's because Jushou is not good, and his words have confused me. Please forgive me."

Yuan Shao regarded Liu Xuande as the honored guest again, and asked Jushou to apologize to Liu Xuande, and then began to discuss strategies to save the defeat. At this time, one of the generals standing there stood up and shouted loudly: "I am willing to replace Yan Liang as the second vanguard and avenge my brother!" When everyone looked at him, he had a crab-like face, white canine teeth protruding from his lips, red and curly beard, and his ugly appearance was terrifying.But he has a gentle personality, usually taciturn, and never speaks excessively big words. This person is the famous Wen Chou.

Wen Chou is the younger brother of Yan Liang and one of the famous generals in Hebei. "Oh, do you want Wen Chou to lead the battle? It's really courageous. Let you go out now, and you must avenge Yan Liang. Hurry up!" Yuan Shao not only encouraged Wen Chou, but also asked him to lead 100,000 elite soldiers into battle. Wen Chou led his army to the bank of the Yellow River immediately. Cao Cao spread out his formation and deployed troops in the Henan area.He specifically instructed the generals defending the formation: "This time you don't need to take the initiative to attack the enemy, just defend carefully."

Wen Chou took a large number of banners, horses and 100,000 elite soldiers, crossed the Yellow River in countless boats, and launched a fierce attack on the other side of the Yellow River. Ju Shou was very worried about this, and he remonstrated bitterly to Yuan Shao: "Although Wen Chou's method of using troops is not dangerous, it also lacks the strategy of being adaptable and skillful in using troops. He seems to think that all he has to do is attack. In fact, the best strategy now is to first Divide your forces at Guandu and Yanjin to attack, and take advantage of the victory to advance slowly. This way you will be safe. If you cross the Yellow River and fight rashly now, if something happens that is not good for our army, there may be no possibility of survival.”

Yuan Shao is usually not a diehard who doesn't listen to good words, but for some reason, he is blindly stubborn at this time.He scolded Jushou and said, "Don't you understand the reason why soldiers are precious and fast? Don't gossip, don't confuse the morale of our army." Ju Shou withdrew silently, went outside, and sighed: "Yuyou Yellow River, are we really going to have trouble getting through?" From that day on, Ju Shou claimed that he could not recover from his illness, and he no longer participated in the formation of troops. Although Yuan Shao regretted afterwards that he had spoken too much, he also felt that if he was invited out again, he would make himself angry, so he simply ignored him.

During this period, Liu Xuande expressed his wish to Yuan Shao: "I usually receive the great kindness of the general, but it is not my original wish to stay in the Chinese army without doing anything, so I want to use this opportunity to repay the general. In addition , I also want to find out who the person who killed General Yan Liang and claimed to be Guan Yu is. So please allow me to lead the battle." Yuan Shao readily agreed to Liu Xuande's request. Soon, Wen Chou came to the Chinese army alone in a light boat. He said angrily to Yuan Shao: "I am the vanguard general alone, my lord is not at ease?"

"Nothing like that, why are you so indignant?" "Liu Xuande was not good at fighting in the past. He was famous as a cowardly general. But now the lord ordered him to be a vanguard general. Why? I really don't understand what the lord is thinking now." "No, no, don't be prejudiced, I just want to test Liu Xuande's talent." "Then can I hand over a quarter of my troops to him and put him in the second line?" "Well, that's fine too." Therefore, Yuan Shao rearranged Liu Xuande's tasks according to Wen Chou's intention. This incident also showed Yuan Shao's weakness in character.No matter what happened to him, he took a hesitant attitude.Regarding war, he had few original ideas and beliefs of his own. He just relied on the style and power passed down from generation to generation by his ancestors and fathers to control his soldiers.Although he has a graceful demeanor, it is difficult to see his flaws at ordinary times, but once on the battlefield, this famous demeanor will not be able to play a role.What is needed on the battlefield is a wise and courageous commander, who can control the fate of the entire army by relying on the ability to judge right from wrong and gain insight into the situation. After Wen Chou returned to the army, he immediately used General Yuan's order as an excuse to distribute a quarter of the weak soldiers to Liu Xuande, and let him retreat to the second-line position, while he deployed superior troops in the first-line position, and began to fight across the board. advance.