Tian Yu went out to greet them and found that besides Sun Li, there was another guard beside Yuan Xi. The guard was not that tall and strong, and he had an iron mask covering half of his face, leaving only a pair of eyes visible.
He had long advised Yuan Xi to find a tall and strong guard to make up for Sun Li's shortcomings. Although Sun Li was very talented in martial arts, his body had not yet fully grown and his martial arts had not yet been mastered. He was fine in daily battles, but when he met a master like Yang Feng, he seemed inadequate.
When they first met Yang Feng, Tian Yu and Sun Li teamed up and almost let Yang Feng succeed. Sun Li was naturally very resentful, and Tian Yu also felt quite ashamed.
In Tian Yu's opinion, the best way to deal with a flexible person like Yang Feng is to have a dozen strong men form a circle around him, consume his energy, and exhaust him to death.
Young Master, when you attack Black Mountain this time, Yang Feng may come for a surprise attack. Will it be enough if you bring one more guard?
At this time, Tian Yu discovered that Gao Shun beside him had a strange expression on his face and was staring at the new guard. He wondered what was so strange about this?
After everyone went in and sat down, Yuan Xi told them about the appointment of Yan Rou as the Wuhuan Captain. Guo Jia said, "This position is suitable, but I'm afraid it's not the corresponding position."
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "I've asked Zilong to take care of it."
"Brother Guo Rang."
Tian Yu heard this and responded, "I am here."
Yuan Xi motioned for Zhao Yun to take out his seal and ribbon, and said, "Zilong has also requested a title for Guo Rang. The emperor has decreed that you be the commander of the Wuhuan Guard."
After hearing this, everyone thought that this was appropriate. The Protector of Wuhuan was appointed by the Han court to monitor the Wuhuan Captain. If it were someone else, Yan Rou might still have some resentment in his heart, but if it was Tian Yu, who had a good personal relationship with Yan Rou, then there would be less trouble.
Tian Yu took the seal from Zhao Yun and began to murmur in his heart, "Young Master, do you really want to hand over Youzhou to Zhao Yun?"
How dare he? You know, the young master's family is in Jicheng. What if Zhao Yun has other intentions?
Yuan Xi seemed to see the doubts in the hearts of everyone including Tian Yu, and said, "The emperor's appointment of Youzhou governor is indeed slightly different from my previous calculations."
"The emperor has a lot of ideas in doing this."
"But one person cannot serve as governor of two states at the same time. This arrangement gives me a legitimate reason."
"Everyone can rest assured that the affairs of Youzhou will be arranged as usual. Zilong will issue all orders in Youzhou as if they were issued by me personally."
Everyone immediately responded by saying they would obey orders. Since Yuan Xi had already made the decision, there was no need for them to argue about it. Besides, this matter seemed a little awkward at first thought. However, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and others who controlled several states actually did the same thing.
But think about it, among the thirteen states of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Yuan Xi, whom he followed, nominally owned two states!
Yuan Xi then said: "The most urgent task is to take down Black Mountain and completely eliminate the hidden dangers of the Black Mountain Army. Only then can we stabilize the area around Youzhou, and at the same time we can also plan to take over Bingzhou and occupy as much land in the Hetao area as possible."
The Yellow River has a hundred disadvantages but one benefit. The Hetao area can be said to be the most suitable place for growing crops near the northern frontier.
Moreover, due to the ice age at the end of the Han Dynasty, the weather in the north has become increasingly cold in recent years, resulting in many areas where water conservancy has not yet been developed being suitable only for growing cold-resistant and drought-resistant grain crops, and the Hetao area is very suitable for growing wheat.
As for Youzhou, water conservancy facilities can be used to minimize the impact of cold weather and grow higher-yield rice, but this approach is only suitable for places with sufficient water sources.
After much calculation, the annual cost of maintaining an army of about 10,000 people in Youzhou would be around 3 million dan of grain.
Of course, this is the total cost of all the soldiers' expenses and wages, which includes staple food, meat, milk, vegetables, salt and seasonings, etc.
If some coarse grains are mixed in, in the end, we may not need three million shi of wheat and rice, but we will need more than half of that amount. The reason why wheat and rice were chosen instead of other crops is because the former has an advantage in yield.
Even so, it would be difficult for just a few counties in Youzhou to support these expenses. Moreover, the first few years were the period of breeding and selection. If the experiment failed, it would be easy to have no harvest, which would affect the harvest.
The reason why Yuan Xi controlled the number of soldiers so carefully was not that he could not afford to recruit more soldiers, but that if he added more soldiers, Youzhou would be dragged down.
The solution adopted by many other princes was to fight and consume resources. If soldiers died, the cost would naturally be less. However, Yuan Xi was very reluctant to adopt this method.
Therefore, Yuan Xi was salivating over the Hetao region, where he could grow crops and raise horses. Moreover, in the coming years, the weather would become increasingly cold, which would affect the pastures outside the Great Wall, leading to a large-scale reduction in production.
If nomadic people cannot feed their livestock, they have only two options.
One is to migrate westwards in search of places with more abundant grass and water, which of course would inevitably lead to conflicts with other nomadic peoples.
The second was to go south to plunder, enter the Great Wall, and rob the border residents of Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou.
Relatively speaking, the second option is more easily accepted by nomadic peoples because migrating westward is not reliable. They may not be able to find pastures, or other pastures may have been affected by disasters.
But it is different if we go south. Not only can we rob the grain grown by the Han border residents, but the world is in chaos now, and the Bingliang troops defending the border are all involved in the civil strife, leaving the border almost undefended.
Yuan Xi predicted that within five to ten years, the Northern Xiongnu and Xianbei outside the Great Wall would march southward on a large scale to plunder. Before that, he would rely on the strength of all parties to establish a defense line in the Hetao Plain area of Bingzhou to stop the foreign invaders.
However, Yuan Shao, Yuan Shang and others were limited by the times and did not look so far ahead. The main reason why Yuan wanted to occupy Bingzhou was that he was attracted by the manpower and war horses of the Southern Xiongnu.
In this regard, Yuan Xi, who mainly wanted to farm, and Yuan Shang, who wanted war horses, actually did not have too many conflicting goals, and the two sides could still cooperate.
As long as both sides can open up the Black Mountain Passage together, they can enter Bingzhou. On the one hand, Yuan Xi uses the strength of the Yuan family to back himself up, and on the other hand, he uses the emperor's edict to intimidate the Southern Xiongnu. He establishes military camps in the Hetao area to ensure the safety of farming, and then accumulates strength as much as possible during the window period of these few years.
Of course, the prerequisite is that the Montenegrin Army that is causing trouble must be eliminated.
Thinking of this, Yuan Xi said, "I am following the emperor's order to attack Black Mountain and persuade the Yuan family at the same time. Not only do I have to give face to both sides, but I also have to try my best to avoid casualties among the soldiers."
"I would like to ask you first, what do you think?"
Ju Su waited for a moment, and seeing that Guo Jia didn't say anything, he said, "The emperor said that he wanted to turn hostility into friendship. If the Black Mountain Army is really wiped out, I'm afraid you will be criticized in the Han court."
"I think the best outcome is that the Black Mountain Army surrenders and you recruit them."
Yuan Xi sighed: "I want to do this, but we can't eat it now."
"We have also consumed a lot of military rations. If we fight for another month, I'm afraid that Youzhou will have to use up even the grain planted in autumn."
"Even if the Montenegrin Army surrenders to me, I can't afford to support so many people."
Ju Su said: "But the Black Mountain Army can no longer hold on."
"If they surrender to Yuan Shang, I'm afraid there will be no benefit from our attack on Black Mountain this time."
Guo Jia said at this time: "I have a different opinion from Mr. Gongyu."
"If Yuan Shang really dares to swallow up all the hundreds of thousands of Black Mountain troops, Jizhou will be completely devoured within half a year."
"When famine strikes, the situation in Jizhou will be in chaos. Wouldn't that be your chance?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present suddenly turned pale. Is that something you can say?
Why are you always thinking about destroying Jizhou?
Yuan Xi smiled bitterly and said, "Let's not talk about this for now. We are still weak now. If something really happens in Jizhou, Cao Cao will have an opportunity to take advantage of it. We can't defeat him."
After hearing this, Guo Jia showed a look of regret, thinking that the young master is still so soft-hearted.
What Guo Jia secretly meant was that Jizhou was in chaos and the Youzhou army took the opportunity to seize Yecheng!
And he believed that Yuan Xi must have understood it and was just pretending to be stupid.
In fact, this is the fastest way Guo Jia could think of to seize Jizhou. Although it is very risky, fighting for the world requires taking risks.
However, since Yuan Xi rejected this idea, Guo Jia said: "Since Youzhou and Jizhou can't afford to support them, we can only let the Black Mountain Army collapse, and some refugees will be forced to go south to Hanoi."
"When the time comes, let some of the Black Mountain Army go, and only focus on Yang Feng, the young master's top priority."
"In this way, the goals of all three parties can be achieved. We deal with Zhang Feng, and Yuan defeats the Black Mountain Army. At the same time, we release some of the defeated soldiers to the Han court, and we can also give an explanation to the emperor."
At this time, Guo Jia's deduction was about the failure of Black Mountain. It seemed that he had considered it a little too early, but everyone present understood that these situations must be dealt with in advance. Once the Black Mountain army really surrendered, it would be too late to think about resettlement solutions.
Guo Jia finally said: "I suggest that we wait and see what happens in the next few days. When Yuan Shang is defeated, we can then negotiate terms with him."
Ju Su said, "I heard that Jizhou sent Zhang He and Gao Lan to lead reinforcements. Now Yuan Shao has all three pillars under his command and his strength has greatly increased. What if the Black Mountain Army is directly defeated by him?"
After hearing this, Guo Jia said, "The Black Mountain Army is not easy to deal with. We can't completely destroy them with just two generals."
"And the most troublesome thing is that the Black Mountain is in a dangerous terrain with dense forests. Soldiers can only fight hand-to-hand, and the advantages of the Jizhou Army's strong bows and crossbows and cavalry cannot be brought into play at all."
"Besides, Yuan Shang might want to take all the credit. If he doesn't suffer a great loss, I'm afraid he won't be willing to let us get involved."
Ju Su listened and nodded, saying, "It is just as Feng Xiao said. The soldiers are tired, so it is better to rest and recuperate."
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Let's follow your advice and let the soldiers rest for two days."
"At the same time, we will step up the training of our troops, make them proficient in mountain warfare, and be ready to respond to unexpected events at any time."
Yuan Shang sat in the tent, looking at his advisers and generals with complacency.
Shen Pei came back with food and fodder, and together with Pang Ji, his two main advisers had arrived.
His main generals Wen Chou, Gao Lan and Zhang He were all there, plus a dozen other generals including Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang, they already formed the strongest fighting force that Jizhou could muster.
A total of nearly 30,000 soldiers were dispatched to provide reinforcements, as well as logistics and food transportation. If they failed to defeat the Black Mountain Army, they would have no way to report back.
He waved his hand, "Everyone go back, we'll have the general attack tomorrow!"
Shen Pei said, "Master Xianyi, over there."
Yuan Shang said unconcernedly, "What good are his several thousand soldiers? If he gets involved, will I have to share the credit with him?"
When everyone heard this, they thought that this was consistent with Yuan Shang's character, but it was also reasonable.
In the past few years, Yuan Xi had won several great victories and made a great name for himself, but Yuan Shang had almost no military achievements and was in urgent need of a decisive victory to prove himself.
If Yuan Xi were allowed to join the attack on the Black Mountain Army at this time, even if they won, the rumors that would leak out would most likely indicate that Yuan Xi played a decisive role.
In this case, wouldn't Yuan Shang himself become the scapegoat?
Moreover, the Jizhou army now has an absolute advantage in terms of manpower and generals. Whether Yuan Xi participates or not no longer affects the overall situation. Therefore, it is not reasonable for Yuan Shang to let Yuan Xi participate in this decisive battle.
In the Black Mountain Army's Zhang Yan's tent, Yang Feng said, "General Zhonglang, do you want me to lead the attack tomorrow?"