He didn't expect that Young Master Zhi would actually make the Prime Minister admit his mistake!
Young Master Zhi's analysis was really a classic of strategy.
I see that Young Master Zhi not only has outstanding literary talent, but his literary talent and martial strategy are probably not below Han's Zhang Liang and Han Xin!
Everyone was shocked when they saw Cao Cao stand up and admit his mistake.
"Prime Minister, don't say that. This battle is all our fault!”Zhang Liao said.
"General Wen Yuan is right. I hope Prime Minister will take back what you said. This battle is all our fault!”Cheng Yu, Li Dian. Wen Pin and the others also agreed.
"Prime Minister, please take back your words and punish the defeated general for his crime!”All the officials apologized to the Prime Minister.
Cao Zhi stood in the middle of the crowd, but he did not say anything. Instead, he watched this scene indifferently.
He had expected this reaction from the crowd and knew how Cao Cao would respond. He was just waiting to see Cao Cao's final move.
Cao Cao stretched out his hand and stopped everyone. Then, under everyone's gaze, he slowly said,"This defeat is indeed my fault.”
Soon after, under everyone's gaze, Cao Cao walked solemnly to Cheng Yu and the others. He then bowed to Cheng Yu, Jia Xu, and Xun You and said,""It's because I didn't observe, was headstrong, and didn't accept the loyal advice of the three gentlemen, resulting in today's defeat! I am to blame for this war! It was my arrogance that caused Zhongde, Wenhe and Gongda to suffer from exile and escape. I deeply regret it. I hope that the three gentlemen can forgive Meng De's fault. Even if you don't forgive him, I hope that you can make a request. I will give it to you to express my regret!”
"Prime Minister, you must not do this!" When Cheng Yu and the other two heard Cao Cao's words, they immediately sat up from their seats in shock. They immediately knelt down and said in unison,"This defeat is due to our lack of intelligence. Prime Minister, please do not belittle yourself! The Prime Minister's actions are really shocking!”
Cao Cao wanted to say something more, but he saw that the three of them had their heads lowered, wishing they could bury them in the ground. Moreover, Cao Zhi had also happened to remonstrate with Cao Cao at this time, so Cao Cao did not insist on punishing him. He helped the three of them up and sat down.
However, after experiencing this incident, Cheng Yu, Jia Xu, and Xun You looked at Cao Zhi with meaningful expressions. If one were to observe carefully, one could even faintly feel a trace of attachment and gratitude.
The three of them had completely changed their impression of Cao Zhi!
Originally, when they talked about Cao Zhi, they would not think much of him. They thought that Cao Zhi was just a scholar who played with words. Although he was talented and had a lot of poetry, he was also deeply doted on by the Prime Minister. However, literature was nothing more than an artsy thing. To these three people, it was useless to recite poems and compose Fu with Yang Xiu, Ding Yi, and the others all day long.
Therefore, even though Cao Zhi was greatly admired by Cao Cao and received countless favors and rewards, these three people had never tried to get close to Cao Zhi. She was even deliberately distancing herself from him!
The reason was self-evident, because these three people had long seen Cao Zhi's ending clearly. It would be the same as in history, unable to seize the throne, unable to achieve great things, and could only step down in the cruel power struggle in the end, spending the rest of his life in poverty.
However, these three people now had a completely different view of Cao Zhi!
This child is very talented in literature and martial arts! His martial strength was comparable to Guan Yu's. He was able to see through the situation and was calm. With such intelligence, coupled with the fact that he had saved the Prime Minister and that the Prime Minister valued him so much, he would definitely become a great person in the future! His future was limitless!
The three of them exchanged glances and saw the deep admiration for Cao Zhi in each other's eyes.
Cao Zhi took in the expressions of the three of them and was pleasantly surprised in his heart, but on the surface, he was not moved at all.
He didn't intend to poach his father's talent. The reason he did this was to build a good relationship with the top strategists under Cao Cao. After all, whether it was conquering the world or fighting for the throne, they would definitely support him.
Of course, these considerations were for later, so he would not mention them for the time being.
After Cao Cao returned to his seat, Cao Zhi began a new round of speeches.
Since he had analyzed the reason for his failure, now he had to explain his next goal.
"After the Battle of Red Cliff, our military forces suffered a great loss. A conservative estimate is that it will take five to ten years to recover.”
Everyone nodded in agreement when they heard Cao Zhi's words.
However, they knew very well that it would take more than five or ten years to adjust. It would probably take at least 20 years before he could have the strength to unify the world!
Indeed, after this defeat, if the Cao army wanted to develop normally, it would take at least ten years for them to stop coveting the world.
But to Cao Zhi, all of this was nothing.
As a transmigrator, Cao Zhi had at least 20 methods and channels that could allow the Cao Army to develop rapidly.
Therefore, even though it was said to be five or ten years, in Cao Zhi's mind, this was considered as long as possible.
Of course, Cao Zhi naturally could not say these words out loud. What the Cao army needed the most now was to regain their confidence. They could not let the negative emotions of defeat continue to spread.
"However, although we lost the Battle of Red Cliff and our foundations were greatly shaken, it did not harm us in any fatal way. With just Liu Bei and Sun Quan, it's not enough to devour us just because of this battle.”
"But now, the Cao army is filled with grief and sorrow. The soldiers are dejected and have lost all will to fight. In my opinion, this is really heartbreaking!”
"Failure is not scary! Although we have lost this battle, we still have the capital to fight again! We are still the strongest force in the Great Han Empire! No one can compete with him!"
"Since we have already lost this battle, there is no use crying. What we should do now is to regain our confidence, consolidate the land we have obtained, and continue to develop ourselves. After all, our territory is large, which means that we have a source of soldiers and money. Moreover, we have the support of the burly man behind us! We occupy the orthodox position of the Great Han Dynasty and have a good name for our army. Liu Bei, Sun Quan, and the others are just rebels. We were summoned to fight against the rebels, but they held their troops and respected themselves. This is a victory!”
"With these two victories, even if Sun Quan and Liu Bei won this battle, they wouldn't be able to replace our position. What we need to do now is to try our best to stop Sun Liu's momentum. First, we need to defend Jing Xiang and stop the formation of the three forces. This caused internal conflict between the Sun and Liu families.”
"As long as we persist, our army will definitely win!”
"We can lose once, twice, ten times, a hundred times, but Sun Liu can't afford to lose. If we lose once, we can take their lives!”
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