Winter went and spring came, and it was the early spring of the 13th year of Jian'an. In the past few months, the situation in Jingzhou was calm. There was neither the Jiangxia army's attack on Jiangling nor the fierce battle between the Jiangxia army and the Cao army.

However, under the calm situation, the undercurrents were still surging, and all forces were actively preparing for war. The Cao army began to increase troops to Nanyang and Fancheng one after another, so that the total strength of Cao's army from Nanyang to Fancheng reached 80,000.

The world's materials gathered in Nanyang. It was also from November that Cao Cao ordered millions of civilians to be drawn from the Central Plains and the 12 counties in Hebei to transport a large amount of grain, tents, weapons, tins, tins, timber, wood and other military supplies to Nanyang. This large-scale transportation lasted until January of the following year, almost clearing the Xuchang warehouse, which was originally in stock.

At the same time, Jiangxia is also actively preparing for war. It was also starting from November last year that Xiangyang City, Xiakou City and Wuchang City were lifted and reinforced at the same time, and a auxiliary city was built on each side of Xiakou City to strengthen the defense of Xiakou City.

In order to support the Jiangxia army, the Tao family generals transported nearly 300,000 stones of grain in the warehouse in Jiuzhong, Jiangdong, all of which were transported to Jiangxia as military rations, and took out half of their property as military expenses to support the Jiangxia army in full resistance to Cao.

In the Jiangdong side, Sun Quan appointed Zhou Yu as the chief commander-in-chief of the navy, Cheng Jin as the deputy governor, and Lu Su as the chief commander-in-chief. A total of 50,000 troops and a thousand warships were sent. Starting from November, Zhou Yu led a large army to train troops in Poyang Lake.

While the army was invading the west, Jiangdong also began to transport various military supplies and large amounts of grain to the west, less than a hundred miles away from Wuchang County. Qichun County on the east bank of the Yangtze River was a major logistics site for the Jiangdong Army. Jiangdong built more than 30 warehouses here and stationed 10,000 troops, commanded by Cheng Jin.

As the war wheels continued to roll forward, almost everyone realized that a war between the North and South that was related to the fate of China was about to begin in the 13th year of Jian'an.

Xudu, since Cao Cao moved the capital to Yecheng a few years ago, Xuchang City has been serving as a sub-capital. In the middle of the first lunar month two months ago, in order to conquer Jingzhou, Cao Cao moved the emperor and civil and military officials to Xuchang, and gathered troops from all over the world in Xuchang, and hundreds of thousands of troops gathered in Xuchang.

In early March, Xuchang City should be a season of flying bells and growing grass and blooming flowers, but at this time something big happened in Xuchang. Kong Rong, the 20th generation grandson of Confucius and the leader of the northern aristocratic clan, was killed by Cao Cao for the crime of "recruiting disciples and trying to do something wrong". This case shocked the court and the people and caused an uproar in the world.

Xuchang City is full of soldiers patrolling and guarding. Three people are not allowed to walk with you or gather for discussion. All public places such as taverns, hostels, gambling halls, brothels, etc. are closed. Even the old farmers selling vegetables at the city gate must be ten steps apart.

Xuchang City was shrouded in terror, and everyone was in danger. Every family closed their doors and doors. After dark, the streets became silent like death.

The Prime Minister's Mansion is even more vigilant, with three steps and five steps. Anyone who attempts to approach the Prime Minister's Mansion will kill him.

In the study, Cao Cao was changing his court robes, beside him, while Sima Yi was reporting on the situation of the Taixue Scholar. Sima Yi was 30 years old and served as a literary officer last month, responsible for managing the official school, and the Taixue was also within his authority.

"You have reported to the Prime Minister, the troubles of the Taixue Scholars have basically been calmed down, but it is not that they have stopped, but that they have all returned to their hometowns. In the past few days, 70% of them have left, and the Taixue Scholars' prison is empty..."

"Enough!"

Cao Cao interrupted Sima Yi's report unhappily. Sima Yi immediately kept silent. Cao Cao glanced at him again and asked coldly: "Zhongda, you seem to be a little dissatisfied with your tone!"

"I don't dare to do so, but I just can't stop the students from returning home, and I feel ashamed!"

"If you want to leave, let them go. It's no pity. The gentry students left, which just made way for the cold students. Zhongda, I hope you can take this opportunity to change the rules of recruiting students in the Taixue School and give them more opportunities. You might as well learn from Jiangxia Liu Jing. Whether it is a scholar or a commoner, only talent is the only way to cultivate truly talented scholars."

Sima Yi lowered his head and said nothing. Cao Cao felt a little strange and asked again: "Do you disagree with me?"

"No! No!"

Sima Yi shook his head in a hurry, "It's just... I don't really want it..."

His speech was hesitant, which made Cao Cao even more suspicious, "What the hell do you want to say?"

"I don't want to...be in charge of the affairs of the Imperial Academy anymore, and I am willing to handle military affairs for the Prime Minister." Sima Yi finally expressed his thoughts.

Cao Cao laughed, "So that's it. Why don't you go if you ask you to be his aide?"

Zi Lian is Cao Hong. Cao Hong asked Sima Yi to be his planner several times, but Sima Yi refused to agree. Now he wanted to go to the army again. Cao Cao certainly understood Sima Yi's thoughts. Sima Yi did not want to offend the gentry at this time. In fact, he went to the army to avoid disaster.

However, because of Guo Jia's death, Jia Xu surrendered and lacked enough counselors. Sima Yi is a capable person. He refused to let him go to the army several times. It is rare that he took the initiative to propose it today. This is not a bad thing. Cao Cao pondered for a moment and said, "Let's do this! I'm going to hold a southern expedition for a moment, so you can participate together!"

.........

Cao Cao's killing Kong Rong was not a whim, but his far-sighted decision and the inevitable result after destroying Yuan Shao.

Cao Cao's political ambition was to promote poor Legalists. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunities in the chaotic times of the late Han Dynasty to break the trend of controlling famous families that gradually formed since the middle of the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, we must break the Confucianism situation formed by Emperor Wu of Han’s solemnity and rebuild the Legalist idea of ​​governing the country.

Therefore, Cao Cao killed the great Confucian Bian Rang in the third year of Chuping, just a test. Today, after destroying his strong enemy Yuan Shao and killing Confucius' 20th generation grandson was the real declaration of war on Confucianism. So the later killing of Yang Xiu was also a blow to his father Yang Biao.

Using the Emperor to command the princes was just a means for him to realize his political ambitions. In fact, those who opposed using the Emperor to command the princes were mainly royal nobles, so there was a "robbery and edict incident", such as General Dong Cheng, General of the Carriage, Prince General, and Prince Costume, including Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, and Ma Teng, who were Cao Cao's political enemies.

As for great scholars such as Kong Rong, Bian Rang, Ni Heng, Yang Biao, etc., he did not oppose wielding the emperor to command the princes. If Yuan Shao had wielding the emperor to command the princes, they might even support it strongly.

What they firmly opposed was the thought of Cao Cao's poor Legalists. They wanted to maintain the orthodox status of the Confucian gentry and spared no effort to destroy the legitimacy of Cao Cao's rule. They were Cao Cao's ideological enemies.

When Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu, destroyed Yuan Shao, expelled Liu Bei, and eliminated many political enemies by borrowing the robbery incident, he no longer tolerated the ideological enemies, and it became a natural thing to kill Kong Rong, the leader of the seven sons of Jian'an.

This also prepares for the legality of Nanzheng that is about to be launched. The so-called legality means that all those who dare to accuse him of being illegal will be killed. If no one objectes, he will naturally be legal.

Dozens of important counselors and generals have gathered on the lobby. This is a typical example of the power of the prime minister than the power of the monarch. The court is just a decoration, the emperor and civil and military officials are also vases, but the real military and national plan comes from the Prime Minister's Mansion.

"The Prime Minister is here!"

With the guards shouting, Cao Cao, wearing court robes, walked quickly to the lobby from the side, surrounded by sixteen sword-bearing guards. Everyone stood up and bowed together, "See the Prime Minister!"

Sima Yi also quietly came in from the side door, standing in the last seat, next to him was Mao Jie. Mao Jie smiled at him, but he was a little surprised that Sima Yi had come too.

"You guys are exempted from gifts!"

Cao Cao sat down in his seat, but his eyes quickly glanced at Xun Yu, and wanted to know if Xun Yu would come after he killed Kong Rong?

Without Cao Cao's expectations, Xun Yu was indeed in power, with a calm expression, and seemed to be completely unaffected by the Kong Rong case.

This shows that Xun Yu is just a royal sect and is not with Kong Rong, Yang Biao and others.

Cao Cao's eyes turned to Cheng Yu again, nodded to him, meaning that Cheng Yu said first that Cheng Yu had been in charge of combat preparations in Fancheng and Nanyang, and had arrived in Xuchang three days ago.

He understood what Cao Cao meant, so he stood up and said to everyone: "Dear envoys and generals, let me briefly talk about the combat readiness of Wancheng and Fancheng. Since September last year, the Prime Minister has built warships with the whole country's strength. Now, more than 2,000 warships of all sizes have been caused, and they are anchored on Bishui, guarded by 50,000 troops, and repelled more than ten attacks by the Jiangxia army."

A whisper suddenly sounded in the lobby. No one expected that Cheng Yu had built more than 2,000 ships in just half a year. This was not impossible, but how much manpower and material resources would be mobilized?

Moreover, many people don’t know that most of the ships in Fancheng come from the Yellow River and other rivers. They just dismantled the ships and transported them to Fancheng to reassemble them, so they could build more than 2,000 large and small warships within half a year.

The generals didn't care about the process, and the shipbuilding results made them all look happy. They knew very well that they were embarrassed by the Jiangxia naval army in Fancheng last year, and Cao Ren was forced to withdraw his troops from Xiangyang because they had no naval army and no warships.

Cheng Yu and others were slightly calmer and continued: "More than 100 large warehouses were built in Wancheng, which were already full of grain, weapons and other materials, which was enough to deal with a major battle of hundreds of thousands of people. In addition, the official road from Wancheng to Fancheng has also been widened and leveled, making the transportation of materials smoother."

Cheng Yu introduced the combat readiness situation between Fancheng and Wancheng in detail. Cao Cao smiled and said, "Tell me if you don't have enough! What are the difficulties?"

Cheng Yu nodded and said, "The biggest problem now is that there are insufficient boatmen. Northerners are not good at boating, so it is extremely difficult to recruit boatmen. We need 30,000 boatmen, but in fact we only recruit more than 3,000 people."

Cao Cao thought about it and said, "Let's talk about this problem! There will be a way to solve it anyway."

He looked at the military generals sitting, Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang and others. In fact, the purpose of letting them participate in the deliberation was to let them understand the combat readiness situation and to discuss combat strategies, the strategists should decide.

Cao Cao smiled at the generals and said, "Dear brave men, let's leave first! I will call you to discuss the specific battle."
Chapter completed!