As the forefront of Chen Mo's border with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, Chenggao, Aocang and Xingyang are all strategic cities, and the people in the city have long been moved to the east of Chenggao.

And the people on Cao Cao's side will not run to this side, although there is land in this area, but no one cultivates it, and after a long time, it will gradually become barren.

Yan Liang fought with the idea of a quick battle and a quick victory, so he led an army of 10,000 and went out day and night, in order to avoid knowing the news in advance.

"General, there are people in the high places, and they just left, they should be the other party's sentinels!" In the forest of the morning light, Yan Liang led the men and horses to hurry, but saw a figure shaking in the high ground in the distance, and when he wanted to chase it, it was too late, and the high view was generally the best, everyone understood this truth, so for excellent scouts, every time they arrived, the first thing was to determine whether there were people or traces of the enemy on the high grounds, Yan Liang here, naturally there was no shortage of excellent spies.

"I'll wait day and night, in order to avoid enemy sentry spies, and then ......" Yan Liang frowned when he heard this: "Not many people know about this march, so how could Yu Sheng arrange sentry spies here in advance." ”

"The general doesn't know, this Yu Sheng is cautious by nature, most of the time on weekdays, it's not that the whereabouts of our army have been leaked." Yan Liang's deputy general is Jiang Qi, who previously served as a guard general in Hanoi, and he still knows a little about his neighbor across the river.

Yan Liang had also heard some of Yu Sheng's character before, and knew that he was cautious in his use of troops, but he didn't expect to be so cautious, without the slightest news of the battle, he set up a bright card and a secret post outside the city, and he went out day and night, hiding his tracks all the way to this point, but before he had time to surprise attack, he was seen through by the other party, which is really indescribable.

"General!" At this moment, several scouts came back and said, "There is an anomaly on the eastern heights, it should be that an enemy sentry has just appeared!" ”

"There are also traces of enemy scouts in the northern highlands!" The other scout bowed.

Yan Liang: "......"

Sneak attack? Scold~

"Pass my military order, assemble the three armies, and prepare for a strong attack!" Yan Liang shook his neck, his chest was a little suffocated, he felt like a fool when he was cautious all the way, since the surprise attack was not good, then there was only one way to attack, just Ao Cang, the strong attack was just a matter of effort!

"Whoa!" The officers and men of the three armies were given the order and began to march rapidly to Aocang, which was already less than twenty miles away from Aocang, and should be able to arrive at dawn.

It's just that......

The three armies marched less than five miles, and the soldiers who were walking in the front row suddenly felt empty under their feet, and the ground that seemed to have nothing unusual under their feet suddenly collapsed, and the six soldiers who were not prepared at all screamed and fell, followed by a terrible scream, and the ground collapsed out of thin air A huge pothole, which was covered with wooden thorns up to three feet long, the soldiers fell down suddenly, and were instantly pierced through the body by wooden thorns.

The experienced scout quickly interrogated and looked at Yan Liang and said, "General, I'm afraid this trap has been laid out for a while!" ”

"Keep going and watch your step! Send multiple scouts ahead to detect traps! Yan Liang's face turned a little dark, and the people and horses around him bypassed the trap and continued to move forward, and after a few steps, there was a sound of exclamation, but it was in the flat ground, someone hung up the dead vines on the road, and as a result, three crossbow arrows suddenly burst out of the ground, and the soldier was suddenly shot through the chest by the crossbow arrows.

The scout hurriedly stepped forward and dug a hole in the earth, where a crossbow was placed, apparently having been touched by someone who had set up the trap beforehand.

"Continue to ......" Yan Liang was about to give an order with a dark face, when he suddenly heard a roar, several boulders rolled down from the hillside, and the three Jizhou soldiers who had no time to dodge were crushed into a blur of flesh and blood.

"Slow down your march, scouts do their best to check for traps around you!" Yan Liang snorted angrily, but he also knew that it was impossible to continue the rapid march now, although there were not many people who died, but it made people tremble, if it continued like this, if it didn't wait to rush to Aocang, the morale of the soldiers of the three armies would fall to the bottom.

The speed of the march slowed down, and the scouts began to check the traps around them with all their might, most of these scouts were from Orion, and they had a keen intuition about traps, and where to put traps, the strangeness on the ground basically could not escape the eyes of these experienced scouts.

There were so many traps found along the way that Yan Liang was a little stunned.

What did Yu Sheng think, the road to Aocang was full of traps, how did their grain and grass get in, and how did their people get out?

Originally, he could have arrived in the morning, but he was dragged to the afternoon, and when Yan Liang led the army to arrive in Aocang, looking at the city wall that had obviously been reinforced many times, as high as three zhang, and the Guanzhong soldiers who were waiting for the city wall, and then looking at the morale of the soldiers under his command, Yan Liang's mood felt as disgusting as eating!

If it was possible, Yan Liang really wanted to rush up and find that Yu Sheng single-handedly, split his skull to see what was in his brain? How can anyone in this world fight like this?

It's just that the remnants of reason made him not do this, and ordered to set up camp, with the current state of the Jizhou army, it is obviously impossible to break through such a city.

"I have followed the lord for many years, fought in the south and the north, Karasuma has been beaten, Gongsun Chan has been beaten, Montenegro thieves have been beaten, and Xianbei people have also been beaten, but I have never seen anyone defend the city like this!" When Yan Liang and Jiang Qi were left in the tent, Yan Liang finally couldn't help but burst out, and roared at Yan Liang: "What's the use of those traps? How many enemies can you kill? It's just to disgust me and so on! It's just a day of delay for him, what can you do in one day? Even if Cheng Gao and the Xingyang defenders found out that something was wrong here, they sent reinforcements over, and it was difficult to arrive in one day, right? ”

"The general is angry!" Jiang Qi smiled bitterly: "If it weren't for this, there were only hundreds of soldiers under Yu Sheng's command back then, how could Zhang Yang attack with the strength of Hanoi's troops, but he couldn't break through Jiguan." ”

"Don't compare Ben Jiang with mediocre people like Zhang Yang!" Yan Liang said angrily, Zhang Yang is a fart, if Yuan Shao didn't want Zhang Yang to help him deal with Chen Mo, if he didn't want Zhang Yang to help him deal with Chen Mo, he would have publicized that some soldiers and horses, Yan Liang was confident that 5,000 men and horses would be able to sweep Hanoi, how could he make an unknown person like Zhang Xiu famous?

"General, I have missed a day today, I am afraid that there will be soldiers and horses from the direction of Xingyang and Chenggao to help." Jiang Qi said helplessly.

"You and lead a team of men and horses to guard against someone coming to help, I will personally wave my troops tomorrow to capture Aocang, but I want to see how this Yu Sheng is good at defending!" Yan Liang snorted coldly.

"Whoa!" Jiang Qi nodded in agreement and left.

The advantage of the three cities of Xingyang is also here, between the three cities, each other is horns, no matter which side the enemy attacks from, it is equivalent to facing the soldiers and horses of the three cities at the same time, unless it can be as Yan Liang said, one day to break the city, otherwise the three cities are difficult to break.

I didn't think much before, but this time I came to Aocang, Jiang Qi felt that it was wrong, among the three cities, I am afraid that this Aocang is the most difficult to break, although the war has not yet started, but Jiang Qi estimates that it is not enough to break through Aocang in one day, but now Yan Liang is angry, he said this, the other party may not listen, just tomorrow to take a group of men and horses out, dredge the grain road, set up a sentry, and prevent the Guanzhong army from the rear raid.

There was nothing to say all night, early the next morning, Yan Liang commanded the army to attack the city, Ao Cang was built against the mountain, after Yu Sheng rebuilt over the years, the city wall was not flat, but in a concave shape to build four enemy towers, and the troops besieging the city had to face at least three arrows to attack.

That's not all, what made Yan Liang unbearable was that Yu Sheng actually dug seven trenches in front of the city and hid them, and many city rams, catapults and ladders were directly stuck in the trenches and couldn't move, so they could only let people hold shields and carry dirt to fill the trenches.

In one day, hundreds of corpses were left behind, and the trench could not be completely filled, and the destruction of the city in one day naturally became a joke.

On the third day, Zhang Xiu personally led the army to come to the aid, and Jiang Qi in the rear of a big battle, Jiang Qi was defeated, withdrew, Yan Liang could only give up the siege, personally led the troops to fight Zhang Xiu.

It was only this fight that I found that this embroidery was quite extraordinary, and the two families started a big battle twenty miles outside Aocang, Yan Liang personally led the troops to charge, but still failed to defeat Zhang Xiu, and killed until sunset, and then had to retreat.

"General, you can't stay here any longer, if the Chenggao garrison also leads the army to help, our army's back road will be cut off, and the officers and soldiers of the three armies will inevitably collapse, and then the whole army will be annihilated!" Jiang Qi found Yan Liang overnight, Zhang Xiu was able to kill Yan Liang without a victory under the condition that the troops were equal, which made Jiang Qi very worried, Cheng Gao's guard Xu Huang has not sent troops yet, this person is above Yu Sheng and Zhang Xiu, and his ability is not bad, once Xu Huang is also killed, Yan Liang will be surrounded on three sides, and the most important thing is that the grain road will definitely be cut off, and it will be a dead end at that time.

Although Yan Liang was very unwilling, he also knew that what Jiang Qi said was right, this time he originally thought that Ao Cang was easy to go down, but now it seems that he underestimated Chen Mo's arrangement here, as a place bordering Cao Cao and Yuan Shao at the same time, how could Chen Mo arrange it casually?

Yu Sheng is good at defending, Zhang Xiu is good at attacking, plus Xu Huang who has an overview of the overall situation, Yan Liang's side is not superior in strength, and the grain road is easily cut off by the other party, if he continues, there is no chance to break the city.

"That's it!" Taking a deep breath, Yan Liang looked at Jiang Qi and said, "Taking advantage of the fact that the river has not thawed yet, we will withdraw our troops overnight, retreat to Hanoi to garrison, inform the lord of the information here, and see how the lord decides." ”

Originally, I just wanted to break a city first, to prepare for the south to the Central Plains in the future, who knew that this Ao Cang was so difficult to fight, the three cities were each other's horns, unless a large army was launched, cutting off the contact between Chenggao, Xingyang and Ao Cang, otherwise any city would be difficult to break, but if a large army was really launched to attack, Chen Mo might not sit idly by, and before he could fight with Cao Cao, he would have to fight with Chen Mo first, which was contrary to Yuan Shao's original intention.

"Whoa!"

At that moment, the two of them set up camp overnight, retreated to Hanoi, and informed Yuan Shao of the war here, as for what to do next, it depends on how Yuan Shao decides.