Returning to the sour date, Cao Cao arranged for the various departments to set up camps.

Li Xian is now under the command of Xiahoudun, although he has been promoted to the commander of the tun, but after the battle of Xingyang, there are fewer soldiers, and he actually has only about 30 soldiers under him.

Outside the sour jujube city, there are more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, including Chen Liutaishou Zhang Miao, Yanzhou Thorn Shi Liu Dai, Dongjun Taishou Qiaomao, Shanyang Taishou Yuan Yi, Guangling Taishou Zhang Chao, and Jibei Xiang Bao Xin.

At that time, Yuan Shao, the Taishou of Bohai, and Wang Kuangtun, the Taishou of Hanoi, were in Hanoi, the later general Yuan Shu was in Nanyang, Jizhou Mu Hanfu was in Yecheng, and Yuzhou Assassin Shi Kongling was in Yingchuan.

And it's not like in Romance, the princes of the Eighteen Roads gathered in sour dates, General Pan Feng, Guan Yu Wenjiu beheaded Huaxiong, and Sanying fought against Lu Bu, all of which were nothing.

Gongsun Chan and Liu Bei were also not there, Gongsun Chan was still in Liaodong at that time and refused to ask for Wu Huan, and Liu Bei was also still in Gaotang as a county magistrate.

In the big tent of Liu Dai's military camp, bigwigs from all walks of life gathered in one tent and were drinking happily.

Cao Cao watched everyone drinking and singing, and he was bored for a long time before he spoke: "The monarchs rebelled against Dong Thief, but now they are staying here to drink and sing. Don't you want to get drunk and beat Dong Zhuo? ”

Zhang Miao drank all the wine in his hand, put down the wine glass and said: "Brother Meng De, Dong Zhuo Bingqiang, you have personally experienced it in Xingyang, although we have a lot of people, but the leader of the alliance, Yuan Shao, is in Hanoi. If the leader of the alliance does not move, where do we dare to move. ”

Cao Cao sighed and said: "It was the same at the beginning, but the troops did not move. If he leads the people of Hanoi to Mengjin, we will send troops to defend Chenggao, Aocang, Saiyuyuan, and Taigu, and occupy all the dangerous places.

Then let General Yuan Highway lead the army of Nanyang into Danshui, Xixian, and Wuguan, so as to shock the three auxiliaries. Dong Zhuo's soldiers are strong, we don't want to fight with them, they are all high and deep walls, they are suspicious soldiers of each other, show the trend of the world, and they can be established by obeying and disobeying.

Now the armies are suspicious and do not advance, losing the hope of the world, and they are really ashamed of the kings. ”

Everyone was silent, continued to drink, and didn't take Cao Cao's words seriously, even if they had a heart, they couldn't help it.

Now Yuan Shao is the leader of the alliance, and in terms of fame, the two Yuan are the highest, and the two of them are the first to speak.

Cao Cao was so angry that he got up and left the tent and returned to his camp.

When he returned to the big tent, he summoned the generals and said: "Now that the troops are not moving, we have lost most of the troops in the first battle of Xingyang, so I want to go to Yangzhou to recruit troops again." Xiahou Miaocai led the army to recuperate here, and the others went to Yangzhou with me. ”

After Li Xian knew that Cao Cao was going to Yangzhou to recruit troops, he remembered that Cao Cao would plot a rebellion on the way back from this recruitment, so after the generals dispersed, he came to Cao Cao's big tent to ask for a meeting.

The guards entered the interior to report: "General, the tun commander Li Xian asked to see him, saying that there is something important to report." ”

Cao Cao was stunned for a moment, and then remembered that this Li Xian was the one who killed the enemy bravely in Xingyang.

"Let him in."

After entering the big tent, Li Xian waved his hand to Cao Cao and saluted, "Meet the general." ”

"You said you had something important to report?" Cao Cao looked at him and said.

"Will the general go to Yangzhou to recruit troops?"

"Well, yes."

"Li Xian has had a hunch since he was a child, and he has a premonition that the general may have new recruits plotting to rebel on the way back from the Yangzhou recruitment, so I just hope that the general will be extra vigilant."

Cao Cao laughed when he heard this, and laughed for a while before he said: "I, Cao Cao, have never believed in the theory of ghost and god induction, and I think that when I was in Jinan Mansion, I forbade the worship of ghosts and gods, and the people were safe." Today I will not cure thee of deception, but thou shalt go with me, and if it is not fulfilled, I will cure thee of incitement of demagoguery. ”

Li Xian withdrew from the tent, knowing that it would be difficult to convince Cao Cao of the premonition. I only hope that this recruitment is really like what history records, otherwise my life will really be difficult to protect, and it seems that I will have to say less in the future.

On the second day, Cao Cao took Xiahoudun, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, and Li Xian and dozens of other people to set off.

Although Cao Cao didn't quite believe Li Xian's hunch, he still brought a few Qu military candidates and tun commanders and asked them to lead the newly recruited soldiers.

Two days later, when he arrived in Yangzhou, Cao Cao took everyone directly to Danyang, and Cao Hong went to Shouchun because he was familiar with Chen Wen, the assassin of Yangzhou.

Danyang is the land of elite soldiers, Danyang mountain is dangerous, the people are more fruitful, good martial arts, noble strength, and the mountains are copper and iron, and they cast armor soldiers.

Therefore, the general He Jin once sent the commander Wuqiu Yi to Danyang to recruit troops, and it happened that Liu Bei whipped the superintendent and abandoned the official to escape, walked along the road, and met a thief in Xiapi, and won the battle, and Liu Bei became a secret man again.

Later, when Liu Bei led his troops to help Tao Qian, Tao Qian said that he would give him 4,000 Danyang soldiers, and Liu Bei immediately turned his back on Gongsun Zhan and Tian Kai and joined Tao Qian, which shows how important Danyang soldiers are.

Sun Ce was able to start a business later, relying on Danyang, the source of soldiers. At first, it was his maternal uncle Wu Jing who was the Taishou of Danyang, and after being forced to leave by Liu Xuan, Yuan Shu appointed Zhou Yu's uncle Zhou Shang as the Taishou of Danyang.

And Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were already little buddies at that time, so Zhou Yu led troops from Danyang to help Sun Ce, so as to take Jiangdong.

But the current Danyang Taishou is Zhou Xin, and Zhou Xin's brother Zhou Qiao is in Cao Cao's army at this time and is Cao Cao's military advisor. Therefore, Cao Cao was able to go to Danyang to recruit troops, otherwise how could he go to Danyang to recruit troops for no reason.

With this relationship, things are much easier, and after more than ten days, Taishou Zhou Xin helped Cao Cao recruit more than 2,000 soldiers.

Later, Zhou Xin continued to send tens of thousands of soldiers to Cao Cao, if Zhou Xin was not beaten away by Sun Ce and Wu Jing, Cao Cao might develop stronger faster.

Cao Hong had previously served as the magistrate of Qichun County, Jiangxia County, Jingzhou, which was adjacent to Lujiang County in Yangzhou, so he was more familiar with Chen Wen, the assassin of Yangzhou, and was also familiar with the Shou of Lujiang County.

Therefore, he also easily recruited 2,000 Shangjia soldiers in Lujiang and led 2,000 soldiers to Longkang to meet Cao Cao.

Long Kang is in the territory of Peiguo, Yuzhou, adjacent to Jiujiang County, Yangzhou, where Cao Cao camped and waited for Cao Hong.

Li Xian vaguely remembered that the soldiers and horses raised by Cao Cao were rebelling in the place of Longkang.

At this time, he had also been promoted to Qu Junhou by the military Sima Xiahoudun, and he commanded 500 soldiers in his hands.

Xiahoudun didn't know what Li Xian and Cao Cao said, the recruits needed their own people to lead, except for those low-level officers led by the Tun Chang team who were selected from the recruits, and Qu Junhou was all the people he brought to serve.

Li Xian had just been promoted to the commander of the tun, but Xiahoudun saw that Cao Cao asked him to go with him, thinking that Cao Cao intended to promote him, so he let him wait for Qu's army.

Li Xian has been thinking about why the recruited recruits rebelled, because there is no detailed record in history.

When he saw Cao Hong also coming with two thousand Lujiang soldiers, he understood. It should be that the Danyang soldiers and the Lujiang soldiers disobey each other and have contradictions, so they will rebel.

He wanted to tell Cao Cao to let him camp the soldiers of the two places separately, so that he might be able to avoid a rebellion. But then I thought about it, if this is the case, then my hunch will not work.

He didn't want to avoid a rebellion of the recruits now, but he hoped that they would indeed rebel, after all, it was important to save his own life.

But other people's soldiers can rebel, but their own soldiers can't rebel.

When it was time for Long Kang to camp for the night, he summoned all the leaders of his tent to the tent for discussion.

There was no wine or meat, so he could only take out all the 10,000 money that Cao Cao rewarded him after the Battle of Xingyang, put it in front of everyone and said: "Brothers, I only have this 10,000 yuan now, and I will take it out today to share it with everyone, I just hope to share the blessings and difficulties with everyone."

In the future, it will be good for everyone to make meritorious contributions and be rewarded. As long as I have meat to eat, people don't just drink soup. ”

These Danyang soldiers under Li Xian are all rural mountain people, and they came out to be soldiers just to make a fortune, only when they have money can they speak, and only when they have money can they be loyal.

It was useless to reason with them with the righteousness of Zhongjun, so they divided the money, and all of them swore to Li Xian: "Only listen to Li Junhou's orders." ”

Li Xian was very satisfied when he heard it: "Very good, no matter what happens tonight, everyone takes care of the soldiers in their hands, and they are not allowed to move, and everything is under my orders." ”

Everyone replied in unison: "Obey the military order and wait for the army." ”