Before the news of taking Leping reached Puyang, Guo Jia received another news and hurried to the mansion.

"Ming Gong, there is a large number of Cao troops transferred, it is suspected that it is to reinforce Leping!"

Gongsun Du had just finished handling the official business from Zhuo County, and when he heard Guo Jia's words, he couldn't help but wonder: "A large number? Leping? ”

Guo Jia nodded and said, "According to the news, about 120,000 Cao troops are heading north from Jiyin and Dongping City, and it is likely that they will reinforce Leping. ”

Gongsun Du frowned slightly, and said, "With so many Cao Jun hidden in these two counties, why didn't there be any news before?" ”

Guo Jia also felt incredible, with Qiao Yanglou's intelligence ability, the two counties had at least 140,000 troops (except for reinforcements, shouldn't the rest of the cities be guarded?). There were so many Cao Jun, Qiao Yanglou didn't even notice it, it was really ......

Guo Jia thought for a while and put forward a guess, saying: "It is reported that in the past two years, the Cao army has expanded its army vigorously and moved frequently, and it is likely that it was hidden at that time. ”

"So, isn't Cao Cao hearing Zhang Xiu's news and wanting to avenge Cao Ang?" Gongsun Du exhaled lightly and said.

Guo Jia was stunned for a moment, then understood, and then nodded.

Gongsun Du took out a cigarette, lit Meimei and took a puff, and then said slowly: "However, my Ming army is very strong, especially good at field battles, how dare Cao Jun send so many people out?" Aren't you afraid of being defeated by a certain move? Cao Mengde wants to be cunning, he shouldn't think of this! Moreover, although the strength of Cao's army has grown rapidly in the past two years, there are less than 300,000 in the end, and even if it is hidden, it is impossible to exceed 400,000. ”

"What Ming Gong said is good!"

Guo Jia continued: "In this way, the choice of Zhang Xiu is actually just a coincidence, revenge is only incidental, if you can defeat all the way, the situation of Cao Jun will be very good." And before that, General Lü's army was attacked and suffered heavy losses, and we were bound to choose between reinforcing General Lü and General Zhang, no matter which way we chose, the other way would inevitably suffer a thunderous blow. ”

Gongsun Du smiled and said, "Whether Cao Cao has such thoughts or not, or if he has other ideas, but the appearance of his 120,000 army means that the troops in other places are already insufficient, especially in the west. ”

"That's right." Guo Jia also laughed.

From a strategic point of view, a direct attack on Yanzhou, not to mention the difficulties, let's just say that Yanzhou is the starting place of Cao Cao, and the people's support for him is the strongest, so you can know that the difficulty of taking Yanzhou is very huge.

Under such circumstances, why did they insist on attacking Yanzhou?

Is Gongsun Du arrogant?

Or is it that Xi Zhong and others have a bad brain?

Do you think the Ming army is invincible in the world?

The invincible army is going to perdition after all!

Gongsun Du won't, and Xi Zhong and others won't.

So, Yanzhou is actually ......

"Get out of the way!"

Gongsun Du let out a sigh of relief and said solemnly.

"Yes, Ming Gong."

Guo Jia responded, and said: "But Zhang Xiu was defeated by Xu Huang before, and now there are a large number of Cao army reinforcements, or will they not be opponents, do we want reinforcements?" ”

Gongsun Du understood what he meant, but he was just worried that Zhang Xiu would be defeated again and cause heavy losses. Such worries are very reasonable, yes, Gongsun Du thought about it and said: "The current situation is unclear, and it is difficult to guarantee that it will not be ambushed by Cao Cao in a hurry." ”

The tactic of encircling and sending reinforcements is nothing new.

In this way, summon Li Ru and ask him to be more careful, if he can't be defeated, he will focus on containment. A certain Yi sent a message to Liaodong and ordered the naval army to come to reinforce it, and when the time came, even if it could not win, it would not be possible to lose. ”

"Really?"

Guo Jiafei didn't believe it, but he was particularly shocked, the navy can be regarded as one of the killer features of the Ming army today, and when he will unify the north and go south in the future, the navy will suddenly appear, and it will inevitably be able to give Sun Ce and Liu Bei in the south a head-on attack, especially their naval ships and cities, as well as cities close to the river.

"In this case, it should be worry-free!"

The order was passed down quickly, but the next day, he received good news from Zhang Xiu and a secret letter from Li Ru.

"Ming Gong, Li Junshi's approach is really great, it can not only contain part of Cao's army's troops, and even give a fatal blow at the right time, but also reduce the excessive number of soldiers and horses in the city and prevent the waste of troops." After reading it, Guo Jia couldn't help but admire.

"That's not the point."

Gongsun Du knocked lightly on the table and said, "The key is that they took down Leping and caught Xu Huang." ”

"Although Cao Cao has a large number of troops under him, there are only a few who have the ability to lead troops alone, and one of them is this Xu Huang."

Guo Jia echoed: "Not bad! ”

"This person was able to defeat Zhang Xiu, so that Li Junshi could only retreat to Liaocheng, which shows that his ability to lead troops is very powerful. To be able to capture him is equivalent to cutting off the arm of our Prime Minister Cao, and I don't know what to think now? ”

"Haha, no matter what he thinks, let Zhang Xiu and Li Ru treat them well, and don't let them be disgusted." Gongsun Du said with a smile.

"Hmm."

Guo Jia nodded in response, then tilted his head, and said, "What did Li Junshi say, what did Ming Gong think?" Are we going to spread the word about the white horse? Maybe he can use this to break the heart of Cao Jun's army and win without a fight! ”

Gongsun Du was moved by this proposal, but he frowned and thought about it for a long time, and finally shook his head and said, "Although the idea is good, the possibility of it being realized is extremely low. ”

"The matter of the plague is very important, and it is natural for Cao Cao to hide people's eyes and ears, otherwise wouldn't he destroy his reputation?"

Guo Jia nodded, and Gongsun Du continued: "Spread it, who will believe it?" Tell them we can cure the plague? Who will believe it? ”

"Besides, since Cao Cao dares to send troops, he is naturally ready, we are ready to spread this news, it is useless to spread it, maybe we will be splashed with dirty water, we can't do it."

In fact, Gongsun Du still didn't say a word, Cao Cao's main force controlling the imperial court was not Xu Huang and others, otherwise why couldn't they get relevant news? And what Cao Cao really relied on was the Xiahou family and the Cao family, which had a large number of talents, distributed in various places under Cao Cao's hands, and controlled the people under his control.

Don't mention Gongsun Du's side, look back at Leping.

On the second day of the siege of the city, Cao's army directly launched a fierce attack, at least tens of thousands of soldiers, attacking from the four city walls, and even one or two rushing chariots and others accompanied the siege.

"It's a tentative attack!"

Li Ru made a judgment in an instant, but he did not lower his vigilance, but suggested to Zhang Xiu: "General, maybe our side is just a feint, and the main direction of attack is on the other three sides, and I also ask the general to send people to let them be vigilant." ”

Cao's army besieged the city on all sides, Zhang Xiu mainly defended the west, and Cao Cao's Daxu was on this side. The other three sides are guarded by Tai Shici's son Tai Shixiang, Han Meng's son Han Feng, and Zhang Fei's son Zhang Shao.

"Well, the Cao thief is treacherous, and you have to be cautious."

Although Zhang Xiu was eager to cramp and skin the Cao thief, he also had to admit his strength, and immediately called the soldiers on his side and asked them to go to give orders.

Tai Shixiang and the three of them were young and vigorous, and when they received the order, they were extremely dissatisfied with Zhang Xiu, a "latecomer", who was "ambushed and defeated", especially Zhang Shao.

In the previous battle when he was ambushed, if he hadn't fought to the death to stop the enemy, the final loss would have been much greater, but he was also seriously injured because of this, and now he is just able to pick up the blade and barely fight. If it weren't for the battle to defend the city, he only needed to calm down and command, and Li Ru would never dare to let him stand alone.

Not to mention anything else, just Zhang Heizi's violent temper, Li Ru doubted that if his second son died because of him, he would be beaten to death directly.

However, the Ming army was strictly disciplined, and no matter how dissatisfied the three of them were, they could only follow the order. Gongsun Du influenced, their generation, and the behavior of cherishing their subordinates has been deeply rooted in their bones.

After a fierce battle, Cao's army retreated at sunset. Only left less than 2,000 corpses under the city, which made Li Ru more and more sure that Cao Jun had other plans, but he couldn't think of what was plotting for a while.

At the same time, inspections were carried out in various parts of the city, and three secret passages were found, all of which were strictly guarded. As for the excavation of the city wall, it has not been discovered for the time being.