Cao Cao arrived in Kunyang first, took Yu Ban with him, and left only Cao Hong to lead 3,000 people to guard Kunyang, and he led more than 30,000 troops to camp in Ye County.

Although there are several times as many people as Li Xian, it is impossible to besiege the city.

The art of war says that ten sieges and five attacks must be ten times the strength of the enemy army to calmly besiege the city.

Now there are nearly 8,000 men and horses in Ye County, and Cao Cao has 30,000 horses, which is only four times the enemy, and even if he attacks, he may not have a chance of winning.

Because of this, Li Xiancai would not retreat and chose to stick to Ye County.

Xiahou Yuan also led 10,000 horses from Luyang to Bowang County, wanting to cut off the communication line between Wan County and Ye County.

At least it can intercept Wanxian County's inability to transport grain to Ye County, so that Ye County can truly become an isolated city.

If Li Xian had enough food in Ye County, it would be no problem to hold on for a few years, but now that the food in the city could only be eaten for a month, he had to think about going to war and killing Cao Cao away.

Siege is the best strategy, and Cao Cao will not choose to attack the city unless it is absolutely necessary.

After setting up camp and setting up camp, Cao Cao first sent someone to send a letter to Li Xian, mainly saying that as long as Li Xian surrendered the city, no one else would be held accountable except for him and Zhao Yun, who killed Cao Ren. If it does not fall, on the day the city is broken, the chickens and dogs will not be left.

Cao Cao wanted to break their fighting spirit from within, and wanted to force the people in the city to rebel against Li Xian for fear of slaughtering the city.

Li Xian is not stupid, he changed the content of the letter, saying that Cao Cao issued a war letter, and on the day the city is broken, there will be no chickens and dogs.

When the sergeants and soldiers of the army and the people in the city heard this, they strengthened their will to defend the city.

Li Xian also sent a letter back to Cao Cao, saying that he had a hunch that Yuan Shao would be able to destroy Gongsun Zan in a month at most, and then raised troops to Xu Du and welcomed the Son of Heaven to Yecheng.

At the same time, Cao Cao was also asked to be more careful at night, and he might go to rob the camp at any time.

Cao Cao received the letter and was shocked, if Yuan Shao really destroyed Gongsun Zan and the north was worry-free, then he would inevitably raise troops to the south, and Xu Du would be in danger.

Because Li Xian had made accurate predictions several times, Cao Cao also chose to believe Li Xian this time, and felt that the war in Ye County must be ended as soon as possible.

As for the robbery of the camp, it was just Li Xian's threatening words, and Cao Cao didn't take it to heart, but only strengthened his precautions at night.

On the second day, Cao Cao personally led the army to the city to call for battle.

Li Xian and the generals in the city saw that Cao Cao's army was in strict formation and violent, and knew that they were angry about Cao Ren's death.

So the city was closed, and Cao Jun was allowed to shout and curse under the city, and some of the brave soldiers who approached the city wall were shot by the crossbowmen with an arrow.

Seven days later, Cao Cao called for battle under the city for the third time, and Li Xian saw that their military formation was not as strict as the previous two times, and wanted to take this opportunity to play a little momentum.

"Who dares to charge?"

He asked, and Zhao Yun, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao next to him all responded in unison: "The last general is willing to go." ”

It is impossible for all three generals to be released to rush into battle, after all, this is also a very risky battle, and it is difficult to put all three of your generals into it.

Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao were both generals of the cavalry, and he remembered that Zhang Liao had rushed through Sun Quan's battle formation in history, and if the two of them were together, it might be more effective.

The purpose of charging into battle is not to kill the enemy, but to suppress the momentum of the enemy.

When the enemy is strong and the enemy is weak, the battle situation will turn into one of one's own strength and the enemy's weakness, which can no longer be measured by the number of soldiers.

"General Zilong, General Wenyuan, I order you two to lead five hundred cavalry out of the city and charge into battle. Remember, don't fall in love with war, killing the enemy is not the goal, as long as you can kill the enemy's spirit, you will be the first achievement. ”

"No."

Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao took the order and left.

Five hundred cavalry is all the cavalry of Li Xian in Ye County, in order to win the battle, even if all the five hundred cavalry are lost, it is worth it.

"General Pepin, you lead the camp at the city gate to prepare to respond."

"No."

Gao Shun also obeyed the order.

Fu Zhu said worriedly: "The general let Zilong and Wen Yuan go to battle, if it is unfavorable, it will definitely cause a great blow to the morale of the city." ”

Li Xian smiled and said: "Gong or don't worry, I believe that Zilong and Wen Yuan, both of them are tiger generals, and they will be fine." Moreover, I let the two of them go out together, mainly to show their might in a battle, so that the enemy army will be frightened and dare not fight again. ”

Fu Zhu didn't say anything anymore, he believed in Li Xian's judgment, and also believed in Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao's bravery.

Cao Cao was sitting bored under the cover, the first two times Li Xian couldn't fight, he had several times his troops, and it was estimated that he would not dare to fight this time.

Li Xian had also sent someone to negotiate with Yuan Shao a few days ago, asking him to send troops south to Yanzhou as soon as possible, and the condition he gave was not to let Zhang Yan send troops to assist Gongsun Zhan.

Zhang Yan also had 100,000 people in Changshan, Jizhou, and if he promised not to help Gongsun Zhan, it would be much easier for Yuan Shao to defeat Gongsun Zhan.

However, Yuan Shao is also a treacherous spirit, he said that Gongsun Zan will not be destroyed, and he will not rashly send troops south.

Li Xian had no choice, so he just begged him to kill Gongsun Zan quickly, so that he could fight with Cao Cao, so that he could have a chance to develop.

Otherwise, with his current strength, if he directly confronts Cao Cao, he may be consumed to death in less than a year.

Cao Cao also understood Li Xian's thoughts, so while Gongsun Zhan was still in Youzhou, he wanted to destroy Li Xian as soon as possible and solve his worries.

Just like Cao Cao in history was eager to send troops to fight Zhang Xiu and Liu Bei, if he didn't solve his rear, when he fought a decisive battle with Yuan Shao, he would stab the rear again, then he would definitely be defeated.

Therefore, regardless of whether Cao Ren died or not, as long as Nanyang fell into the hands of Li Xian, Cao Cao would lead his troops to attack.

And Cao Ren's death just gave him a good excuse, and it also made his soldiers angry and more morale.

At this time, it was almost noon, and his soldiers had stood in formation for more than an hour, and in another half an hour, if there was no battle in the city, he would have to withdraw his troops and return to the camp.

"You say, why didn't Li Xian fight?"

Cao Cao asked casually.

"Li Xian, this is to demolish our morale, if he doesn't fight today, he will definitely play next time. There were nearly 10,000 people in his city, and if he always avoided fighting, it would have a great impact on his own morale. ”

Guo Jia looked at Li Xian on the tower of the city gate in the distance and said.

"In my opinion, Li Xian will definitely fight today, they don't have much food in the city, and they also want to fight quickly."

Xun You also looked at Li Xian on the tower of the city gate in the distance and said.

Cao Cao stood up on the chariot, stretched his waist and said: "I thought that Li Xian was brave and would fight on the first day, but I didn't expect him to hold back, I really don't understand him anymore." ”

Cao Cao didn't know enough about his son-in-law, and always felt that Li Xian was an unfathomable person.

If he didn't betray himself and trusted and used it for himself, he would probably be in Jizhou at this time.

and his own Ang'er, if he didn't die, Li Xian wouldn't betray him, alas, why didn't he listen to Ang'er in the first place.

Cao Cao blamed himself in his heart and sat down again.

At this time, I saw the city gate open, and a group of cavalry rushed out of the city......