Although the 150,000 troops of Dong Zhuojun's Jingzhou Army surrounded Runan City and surrounded it, 1,500 catapults and tens of thousands of foot bows could wipe out all the defenders on the Runan city wall at any time, and the mountains of military rations piled up in the rear were no problem to eat for a year. And Liu Beijun in the city only has 50,000 people, poor equipment and scarce military food, plus the periphery of Runan is all plains, Liu Beijun wants to run everywhere, and it is still difficult for Liu Beijun to protect himself under several attacks, let alone reinforcements.

There is such a huge disparity in strength and weakness, but Dong Zhuojun's Jingzhou army never dared to attack the city, not because Dong Zhuojun was greedy for life and afraid of death, not to mention that Dong Zhuojun wanted to use the defenders trapped in the city to reduce the casualties of his own army, but Liu Beijun drove the people of Runan onto the city wall, lined up dense physical shields on the city wall, and used the people's bodies to resist Dong Zhuojun's long-range siege weapons for them. In history, the poisonous plan of using the people of Fancheng in Xinye to block Cao Cao's pursuit of the army was moved by Liu Bei to Runan to deal with Dong Zhuojun, and it was more blatant and unscrupulous.

On the city wall, Liu Beijun showed off his might, and the people of Runan cried endlessly, calling for their children and daughters. The generals of Dong Zhuo's army under the city were angry and angry, chewing their lips and bleeding, but they were helpless. If the city is attacked with long-range weapons, the people who use it as meat shields will inevitably suffer heavy casualties; If it is directly attacked, the defenders of the city can also take advantage of the favorable terrain to give Dong Zhuojun a head-on attack, which will also injure a large number of civilians by mistake. And Kang Peng's deadline for breaking through Runan City within one month is getting closer and closer, and if it is put on hold, Dong Zhuo's generals will fly away.

"We can't hold it anymore, we have to attack the city tomorrow!" In the evening after three days of siege, Ma Chao finally couldn't help but roar: "Not counting military salaries and food, our army's daily expenditure is more than 10,000 gold coins, even if the enemy has no food, he can eat human flesh, and if it drags on like this, our own will be dragged down first!" ”

"There are no eyes on the battlefield, and it is normal for people to be accidentally injured and killed, and the king will understand us in the future." Ma Dai echoed the words of the eldest brother: "We will attack the city directly, the enemy will definitely not be able to stop us, and it will be easy to break through Runan." Although Zhang Xiu and the other generals of the Ma family didn't say anything, the expressions on their faces showed that they were completely in favor of this proposal.

"By no means, whoever has won the hearts of the people since ancient times will win the world." Zhang Ren, who had suffered such a loss in Yizhou, objected: "The king unifies the world, that is, for the benefit of the common people in the world, we wantonly slaughter the people for reunification, not only make the conscience unbearable, even if it is really unified, the people's will is not attached, what is the use?" ”

Dong Zhuojun's generals were arguing when a specially trained herald in charge of communications rushed in, "Military advisors, generals, the king has sent an urgent telegram to give instructions to our army. Xu Shu and the others hurriedly took a closer look, and saw that there were only a few rows of words on it: "It is not allowed to slaughter innocent people, and Runan must be conquered before the 28th of this month, as a gift to the puppet king Liu Bei as the emperor." ”

After reading Kang Peng's telegram that the horses wanted the horses to run and the horses not to eat grass, Xu Shu, Ma Chao and others immediately frowned, and were silent for a long time, before Ma Liang said: "If we can lure the enemy out of the city, and then let the cavalry raid the enemy's rear from the flank, and the frontal troops can rescue the people, then our army will definitely win." ”

"The problem is, Zhuge Xuan has long been guarding against our move, and has already sealed the four gates of Runan, and he is unwilling to fight, how can he lure the enemy out of the city?" Zhang Ren frowned.

Dong Zhuojun discussed for a long time, and never found a way to break the city, unconsciously, the sky was dark, everyone was hungry, Ma Chao ordered the army to have a feast, and feasted the generals in the big tent, everyone obeyed, only the stressed Xu Shu had no intention of eating, and returned to the tent to rest, Ma Chao knew his temper, and did not force him to stay. Until the first shift, Xu Shu was still thinking hard about the strategy of breaking the city, and he couldn't sleep peacefully, so he simply led one or twenty people to patrol the camp to relieve his feelings.

The camp was extremely quiet in the middle of the night, only the footsteps of the patrol and the crackling sound of burning wood echoed in the camp, and in the distance on the city of Runan, the cries and shouts of the people continued to echo in the night sky, and the shouts of Liu Beijun's soldiers could still be faintly heard, "You are starving, it is the Dong thief army under the city that is harmed, and when the king's army beats the Dong thief's army away, you will have something to eat." ”

"If your pseudo-king can really feed the people, he won't use the people as a shield." Xu Shu looked up to the sky and sighed, "There are more than 400,000 people stationed in Runan City, not to mention that there is not enough food, I'm afraid it will be difficult to drink water." Water? Water? Water ......"

Water! A thought suddenly flashed in Xu Shu's mind, he hurriedly looked up at the sky, and saw the cloudless night sky full of stars, the Milky Way was bright, it was obvious that it would not rain in the sky in a short period of time, and in this crisp autumn day, the climate was dry, and the water was easier to evaporate. At the same time, Xu Shu also clearly remembered a piece of information, the lack of groundwater in Runan, very few wells, and the people's drinking water and irrigation water were all quoted by the nearby tributaries of the Huai River!

"Pass the order and organize the army for me immediately." Xu Shu suddenly laughed, ran and jumped and shouted, "Immediately cut off all the rivers and ditches that flow into Runan City for me!" Prepare stone grease water and catapults for me, and burn Runan City for me!" ”

An hour later, Dong Zhuojun's 1,500 catapults all dispatched, approaching Runan City from all sides, before that, tens of thousands of Dong Zhuojun soldiers had set off with sacks of dirt on their backs, looking for all the rivers and ditches that flowed into Runan City, every time they found a river ditch, Dong Zhuojun's soldiers immediately filled with sacks of soil, and dug waterways, so that the water flow changed, and the strength of the people was great, when Dong Zhuojun's catapults were arranged in place, all the large and small waterways flowing into Runan had been blocked, and a drop of water could not flow into Runan City.

After the third watch, the night wind gradually rose, which made it more convenient for Dong Zhuojun's actions, and the movements caused by Dong Zhuojun's large-scale actions had already been reported to the sleeping Zhuge Xuan and Liu Beijun's generals Gong Du and Liu Bi, Zhuge Xuan and others did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered the people to go to the city, and hurried to the city to check. As soon as they arrived at the city, Zhuge Xuan and others saw that Dong Zhuojun's catapult had already suppressed the throwing spoon, and a large number of archers had been assembled. There are so many people in the city, they don't want the hearts of the people of Yuzhou? ”

Before Zhuge Xuan's words fell, a loud roar had already been heard in the distance, "Throw!" The catapult's low-pressure throwing arm suddenly became straight, and a large number of barrels flew out of the air, "Powder kegs!" Zhuge Xuan, Gong Du and the others' first reaction was to jump into the cover of the long shield, and even the top of their heads was covered by a long shield, so as not to be injured by the iron nails and iron pieces flying randomly after the volley explosion of the powder keg.

Contrary to the expectations of Zhuge Xuan and others, the powder keg thrown by Dong Zhuojun did not explode on the city wall, but flew directly over the top of the city wall and flew into the city, falling in the city and smashing to pieces, but still no powder keg exploded, Liu Beijun was inexplicable, the second wave of barrels thrown by the catapult flew again, and still flew to the city and smashed to pieces, except for a few unlucky eggs who were smashed squarely, almost no people were injured. After three or four waves of this, Dong Zhuojun's archers suddenly approached the city wall under the cover of the shield bearer, and immediately retreated after firing a wave of rockets at the city.

Dong Zhuojun's archers still fired arrows at the city, and a few rockets with insufficient strength fell on the city wall and did not hurt a few people, but the rockets fell into the city, and the city immediately ignited a skyrocketing fire, Zhuge Xuan hurriedly ordered the soldiers to organize the residents of the city to fight the fire, so as not to burn to the grain depot, but the night wind howled, and in an instant, half of Runan City was on fire, and there was a tendency to spread. What stunned Zhuge Xuan was that Dong Zhuojun did not immediately attack the city, but put away the catapult and gathered the army, and it seemed that there was a tendency to retreat.

"What are Xu Shu and Ma Liang doing?" Zhuge Xuan looked at Dong Zhuojun, who had already collected his troops and returned to the camp, in a daze, his heart was extremely tempted, Zhuge Xuan was sure that this was a trick by Xu Shu or Ma Liang, but what Zhuge Xuan didn't understand was, what effect did Dong Zhuojun have in doing this? If you want to burn the defenders of the city with fire, it is too naïve, no matter how fierce the fire is, but the defenders and the people have legs, and they can run to dodge; If you want to burn the granary, then Liu Beijun's 50,000 defenders and more than 400,000 people can easily extinguish the fire with a bucket of water.

Water! Zhuge Xuan's heart suddenly flashed this thought, and before the angry Zhuge Xuan rushed to check, Gong Du had already run angrily, and shouted from afar: "Military advisor, the evil sect, the rivers and ditches that usually have a lot of water have suddenly dried up, and the well water alone can't extinguish such a big fire." ”

"Ahh Zhuge Xuan's beast howled, knelt on the ground and slammed the ground, crying bitterly: "I have calculated everything, why did I forget to count the water?" Finished! Finished! Our army is going to be driven to death by water! ”

"Strategist, our army was forced to death by water?" Gong Du was puzzled: "How can you be forced to death by water?" What's going on? ”

Zhuge Xuan, who was usually gentle and elegant, suddenly jumped up from the ground like a madman, grabbed Gong Du's collar and kept shaking, and shouted frantically: "How did you be forced to death by water?" Now that Dong Thief has cut off the water intake ditch in Runan, and there is a lack of groundwater here, do you see that on this day, will it rain in a short time? There are less than fifty wells in the city, how much water can be drawn per day? With a population of nearly 500,000 in Runan City, how much water do you need to drink every day? Within ten days, we were all dying of thirst or killed by the people! ”

In the earth-colored Gong Du's mouth stammered, Zhuge Xuan rushed to the head of the city frantically, no matter how many people were tied to the city, he pulled out his waist and smashed it in the direction of Dong Zhuojun's withdrawal, and scolded: "Xu Shu thief, you are ruthless!" Deliberately set fire to the city, consume all the water stored in the city, and want us to die of thirst sooner! I won't kill you, I won't be a man! ”

……

The scorching sun was scorching, the clear sky was cloudless, the leaves hung weakly under the sun, and the howling hot wind took away all the moisture in the air. In the two days since Dong Zhuojun cut off the water source, all the people in Runan City have not drunk a drop of water, and the water from less than fifty wells has been given priority to Liu Beijun's high-level management, and even most of Liu Beijun's soldiers have not had the opportunity to taste the sweetness of the water, not to mention the ordinary people who were arrested by Liu Beijun as a shield?

Because the upstream was cut off, under the wind and sun, the moat under the city of Runan had dried up, leaving only a pool of thick mud, digging the ground to find water, squeezing the juice of leaves, drinking urine, and really using cloth strips to squeeze horse manure to get water, Liu Beijun has exhausted every possible means, but Dong Zhuojun is still trying in every possible way to cut off Liu Beijun's last way to get water, several local people rescued by Zhang Xiu's troops helped Dong Zhuojun, and helped Dong Zhuojun find the underground water flow that flows through Runan City, although the groundwater is very small, But Dong Zhuojun still unceremoniously blocked them all, causing a sharp decrease in the amount of water from the wells in Runan City, and even fewer Liu Beijun soldiers had the opportunity to drink water.

Suddenly, several soldiers in Dong Zhuo's army under the city came over with white flags and buckets of water, without the command of the general, Liu Beijun's soldiers in the city had consciously put down their open bows and arrows, and looked at the water carried by Dong Zhuojun's soldiers, as if they had drunk it in their mouths. Those Dong Zhuojun put the bucket under the city and shouted to the city, "Liu Beijun's brothers, you must be very thirsty, right?" Our king has always wanted us to play humanitarianism, so we sent you ten buckets of water, you can drink it with confidence, we are not Dong Erye's subordinates, and we will not poison the water. ”

As if the incident of the Tiger Prison Pass ten years ago was repeated, the Dong Zhuojun soldiers who carried water to the city had just left, and hundreds of ropes with hooks were hung down on the city to hook the ten buckets of life-saving water, you fought for me, there were seven buckets of water falling to the ground in mid-air, quickly seeping into the dry land, and the remaining three buckets of water were hung on the city wall and caused a fire among Liu Beijun's soldiers, who wanted to drink a mouthful of life-saving water, but there were more people and less water, Liu Beijun's soldiers had to rely on force to decide who could live, and even the bare-handed people joined the ranks of grabbing water. In the scramble, I don't know how many Liu Beijun and the people were killed by their companions, and there were also soldiers and civilians who were squeezed off the city wall and fell to death and were injured, as long as these were not dead, they dragged their injured bodies and slowly crawled to Dong Zhuojun's team, they were greeted by the water and food provided by Dong Zhuojun's team, and were encouraged by the example, a large number of people and soldiers jumped off the city wall at the risk of falling to death, and surrendered to Dong Zhuojun, this momentum was stopped until Liu Beijun's generals ordered to shoot arrows to kill.

Another day of thirst, there were already old and weak people and soldiers who were dying of thirst in Runan City, and Dong Zhuojun under the city changed the practice of sending water to provoke Liu Beijun's infighting - because Liu Beijun no longer allowed the soldiers to accept the water presented by Dong Zhuojun, hundreds of Zhang Xiujun's loud scolders were transferred, but they no longer scolded Liu Beijun, but shouted in unison, "Fathers and villagers of Runan, brothers of Liu Beijun, don't give the puppet king Liu Bei a funeral, surrender, our army only needs Zhuge Xuan, Gong Du and Liu Bi's heads, if you surrender, you will have water to drink and food to eat, don't be a shield for the hypocrite Liu Bei! ”

Dong Zhuojun's shouting hands became more and more, and the voice even drifted into the Liu Bei officer's office in the middle of Runan City, which made the lifeless Liu Beijun generals nervous again, Zhuge Xuan was silent for a long time, and finally ordered: "Organize the soldiers to withdraw the stone wall blocking the four gates, and tonight the second watch, the whole army will break through on all sides." Zhuge Xuan was also forced to be helpless, although there was a shortage of food in the city, there were a large number of people who could provide military food, but the more blood was drunk, the thirstier they became, and the people could not provide drinking water. Under Dong Zhuojun's propaganda offensive, if he doesn't break through, Zhuge Xuan will become Sun Quan's second.

The panicked generals of Liu Beijun's army had long been eager for Zhuge Xuan to give this order, and immediately went down to prepare, Zhuge Xuan called Gong Du and Liu Bi, and commanded in a low voice: "You two lead all the cavalry, and break through from the east gate with me tonight." "For Zhuge Xuan's order, Gong Du and Liu Bi understood that Dong Zhuo's army was mostly cavalry, and the infantry wanted to escape the pursuit of Dong Zhuo's cavalry, which was tantamount to a fool's dream, only cavalry had a glimmer of hope.

At the second watch of the night, the four gates of Runan City suddenly opened, and 50,000 Liu Beijun drove a large number of people to flock out, but after Liu Beijun's regular troops just finished leaving the city, they committed suicide on both sides of Dong Zhuojun, and waved the butcher's knife at Liu Beijun, killing Liu Beijun's corpses all over the place, and the people who walked in front were cut by Dong Zhuojun's soldiers and organized to take shelter in a safe area.

Originally, Zhuge Xuan, Gong Du, Liu Pi and others had every chance to escape, their cavalry was extremely fast, mixed with the people, and just after leaving the city, they ran to the east, but the people of Runan immediately broke out into a roar, "Zhuge Xuan ran to the east!" Zhuge Xuan ran to the east! At first, a few people shouted in hoarse and chapped voices, and finally turned into the roar of tens of thousands of people, "Zhuge Xuan ran to the east!" Zhuge Xuan ran to the east! ”

"Kill!" Countless Xiliang iron cavalry rushed to the east, in front of the well-trained Xiliang iron cavalry in the face of horsemanship, the cavalry of Liu Beijun, who was sparse in horses, competed at a speed of nothing more than an axe, Liu Beijun's cavalry only ran out of twenty or thirty miles and was caught up by the Xiliang iron cavalry, feather arrows and spears with the anger of the people of Runan, raindrops fell on the head of Liu Beijun's cavalry, Gong was stabbed by five javelins, killed on the spot, Liu Bi was caught up by Zhang Ren, a shot stabbed under the horse, and the other Liu Beijun cavalry died or surrendered, none of them escaped.

Zhuge Xuan rode the best war horse in Liu Bei's Runan Legion, and he was also the one who fled to the front, but behind him, there was a bald man who ran faster than the war horse with bare feet, and when the bald man's iron stick smashed on the hind leg bone of Zhuge Xuan's war horse, one of the hind legs of Zhuge Xuan's war horse was immediately smashed into the air, and Zhuge Xuan also fell heavily to the ground.

"I am Zhuge Xuan, the military division of the Xuzhou army, I surrender, King Kang's army does not kill prisoners, especially high-ranking prisoners like me." The first thing Zhuge Xuan did when he struggled to crawl was to surrender to the Xiliang Iron Cavalry that surrounded him, but it was not Dong Zhuojun's preferential treatment of prisoners that greeted him, but a thick rope noose that came to him, wrapped around his chest, and dragged him towards Runan City until his corpse was blurred with blood......

Runan City became the first military town of Liu Beijun to fall into the hands of Dong Zhuojun.