After weighing it repeatedly, several generals discussed it again, and decided to retreat back to Xiapi first, and wait for Cao Cao to come to his senses.

Watching the Wei army retreat, although he didn't know that Cao Cao was unconscious, Sima Yi still grabbed Ma Chao, who wanted to catch up, and suggested that he should hurry up and attack Guangling, and Tanxian would be handed over to Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun also seconded his Eighth Division and Fourth Cavalry Division to Ma Chao to help him attack Guangling City.

Xiahoudun and others escorted Cao Cao to carefully withdraw from Tanxian to Xiapicheng, and immediately sent a letter to Cao Pi and others in Pengcheng, and at the same time invited famous doctors to diagnose and treat Cao Cao.

When Cao Pi and Xun Yu heard the news, they hurried from Pengcheng to Xiapi, accompanied by Cao Cao's other family members, such as his wife, his youngest son Cao Chong and others.

The Tiger Ben Legion was heavily fortified in Xiapi and the surrounding area, and the Waihan army took the opportunity to make trouble.

As the lord of a country, Cao Cao was unconscious, and many things that needed him to make decisions could not be decided, or even forgotten, such as the plight of Guangling City.

The people of Wei forgot about Guangling for Cao Cao's health, and the Han army was worried about it.

Ma Chao and Sima Yi returned to Guangling City with the four divisions that had returned victoriously, and reunited with Lu Su, Chen Dao, and Zhang Yan.

This time, the Han army was about to launch a formal siege of the city, and the invincible artillery units in the lead were naturally invincible, field artillery and mortars, which suppressed the defenders at the head of the city to the death, causing great losses to the Wei army with weak protection.

Although there were 40,000 state troops gathered by Mao Jue from all over the county in Guangling City at this time, and 20,000 reinforcements brought by Cao Xiu from Xiapi, these 60,000 people were all weak in battle.

The whole army together is less than 10,000 muskets, and the fact that the city can be held these days is all due to grenades.

They didn't know about Cao Cao's coma, but they were looking forward to this reinforcement every day and night, but they were delayed, but they found that there were more and more Han troops besieging the city.

When the Han army began to attack the city on a large scale, Mao Jue and Cao Xiu could feel the huge pressure even more, and their subordinates had never seen firearms at all, let alone artillery.

When the Wei army defending the city faced the bombardment of artillery, they did not know how to deal with it, and they only struggled for another day with the power of grenades.

When the Han army launched another fierce offensive the next day and attacked Guangling, the Wei army, which had finally run out of grenades, could only engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Han army.

The Han army skillfully used bayonets for white-knuckle combat, and in the face of spears and broadswords, they did not fall behind.

And the Han army also has grenades, before rushing to the city and fighting hand-to-hand with the Wei army, they will also throw out a few grenades, and if they can't be killed, they will be injured, and if they are injured, how can they have any advantages?

When the Han army occupied the city, it became the Wei army to seize the city wall, and the Han army defended the city.

When the city gate was blown open by explosives, the Wei army defending the city began to be defeated.

Mao Jue and Cao Xiu had no choice but to abandon the city and flee, Mao Jue was captured alive by the Han army on the way, while Cao Xiu disguised himself as an ordinary Wei soldier, escaped by luck, and ran back to Xiapi.

Of the 60,000 defenders in Guangling City, 40,000 were taken prisoner, excluding those who died in battle and escaped.

After occupying Guangling City, Ma Chao sent various brigades and regiments to recover the counties of Guangling County.

A few days later, Cao Cao was awakened by the famous doctor of Wei, and when the busy people remembered Guangling, the overall situation of the entire Donghai County and Guangling County had been decided, and all the county towns had been captured by the Han army.

In these two counties, the troops of Haotian Army and Zhao Yun and the Marine Corps of Lu Su were fully assembled, and the strength of nine divisions was sufficient, and the Wei army could not digest it even if it wanted to launch a counterattack.

When Cao Cao received the stimulus and fell unconscious, the battle situation in the direction of Xiangyang also changed.

The Han army first began to attack the county seat of Fuyang, wanting to cut off Tongbai Dafu Mountain, the last supply channel for Xiangyang.

In order to decide whether to abandon Xiangyang, Cao Ren, the Taishou of Nanyang County, and Zhou Yu, the commander of the Wu army, had a serious disagreement.

Of course, Zhou Yu didn't want to wait until the retreat was cut off, and then try to break through.

And Cao Ren accepted Cao Cao's trust, painstakingly managed Xiangyang City, and spent several years of hard work to build Xiangyang City into a solid foundation, you want him to abandon Xiangyang, emotionally he can't accept it, and he doesn't think that Xiangyang City has reached the point where it can't be defended.

Since Zhou Yu promised Cao Cao to help him stabilize the situation in Xiangyang, when the situation was not irreparable, he had to temporarily compromise for a few more days.

The bombardments and grenades that were blown up by the Han army have been resupplied with smooth transportation and strong military production capacity.

The Han army was able to resume their effective siege methods again, and they used field artillery and mortars to bombard the northern gate and the northern city wall for three consecutive days, and had already blown down two city walls.

The Wei army's shells and grenades in the city were almost simultaneously exhausted, and without the support of artillery and grenades, the Wei army really could not hold Xiangyang.

This time, Cao Ren no longer insisted on his own opinion, and agreed to break through with the Wei army and the Wu army.

However, at this time, Fuyang had been captured by the Han army, and the passage of Dafushan had been closed by the Han army.

Zhou Yu thought about it on the map for a long time, and could only withdraw to Runan County by detouring to Luoshan in Jiangxia.

Fortunately, the important strongholds of Caiyang, Zhangling, and Suixian are still under the control of the coalition forces.

Still breaking through at night, Cao Ren sent Zhou Yu and Cao Zhen away, but he stayed in Xiangyang.

He insisted on staying at the end, and he also needed someone to hold off their pursuers for them and buy time for a successful breakout.

Cao Zhen held back tears while retreating with 50,000 Wei troops and Zhou Yu.

The process of breaking through was very difficult, and they missed the best opportunity chosen by Zhou Yu, and there were Han troops chasing and intercepting them along the way.

The rifles of the Han army occupied an overall advantage in range, rate of fire and hit rate, and there were a large number of artillery pieces to help in the battle during the day, and only at night was the world of the Wei-Wu coalition army.

In fact, it was just that the Han army was unwilling to make senseless sacrifices, and when the night battle was fought, the gap between the two sides was actually just narrowed, and the Han army was still very concerned about the lives of its own soldiers.

To be honest, night combat is also an advantage for the Han army, because night combat training is one of the regular training subjects of the Han army.

Cao Ren's desperate persistence in Xiangyang was the most crucial factor in Cao Zhen and Zhou Yu's army finally breaking through and returning, and on the third day of the breakout, the Han army finally attacked Xiangyang City.

After another day of fierce street fighting, the defenders were completely annihilated, and in the street fighting, the Wei army also appeared warriors who rushed towards the Han army with grenades or explosives, so that the Han army was in awe of these opponents.

In the end, only 6,000 Wei troops were captured, most of them wounded, and more than 40,000 Wei troops were killed.

At the last moment, when the Han army rushed into the Taishou Mansion from all directions, the guard Cao Ren resolutely faced the east, drew his sword and killed himself, fulfilling his name of loyalty and martyrdom, and also fulfilled his promise to Cao Cao with death.

(End of chapter)