Ma Chao fled back to Hanyang in embarrassment, and now the army is gathering here, ready to go directly to Chencang after getting his order, but now he saw Ma Chao fleeing back with the remnants of the defeated general, and the whole army was shocked.

In order to cover himself, Ma Chao saw that Zhong Miao had become a prisoner, so he said to the generals: "I really didn't expect this Zhong Miao to be so shameless, it turned out that he secretly surrendered to Pei Qing at the beginning, and secretly communicated with Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu's uncle and nephew. ”

"What? Is there such a thing? Hearing Ma Chao's words, everyone was surprised, they really didn't expect that it would be Zhong Xuan, an angel, who betrayed and colluded with Pei Qingkeng to harm himself.

"So what do we do? Pei Gong will definitely retaliate next, how can we be his opponent with this little strength? Therefore, it is better for you to take the initiative to admit your guilt and accompany the courtesy. "The person who spoke was a young man, this person's name was Jiang Xu, the word Boyi, a native of Ji County, Hanyang County, then Hanyang Gongcao, at the beginning when Ma Chao attacked Chen Cang, he did not approve, but Ma Chao was bewitched by Zhong Xuan at that time, coupled with his own ambition, he did not listen to dissuasion, insisted on attacking, and returned defeated, Jiang Xu took the opportunity to persuade Ma Chao, took the initiative to admit his guilt, and maybe he could avoid a disaster.

However, Ma Chao said lightly: "The matter has come to this, we have already been riding a tiger, how can we say give up?" Besides, with Pei Qing's temper, even if I confessed, he might not be willing to quit, maybe he had been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. ”

Then Ma Chao didn't listen to Jiang Xu's advice, and immediately issued an order, the whole army assembled, and immediately rushed to Chencang, and captured Chencang City at all costs, now Pei Qing's army has not yet arrived, Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu's uncle and nephew are not many troops there, if they attack strongly, there is still a chance to capture it.

At this time, another young man also persuaded: "General, this is a little inappropriate, before the general has led the army to prepare to plot against Chencang, Zhang Ji must have been prepared, and Chencang is dangerous, the city defense is strong, as long as there is a good defender, even if it is a hundred thousand troops may not be able to break through, we plan for now, only deep ditches and high bases, avoid fighting with it, and at the same time connect the Qiang people to support them, maybe there is the possibility of self-preservation, like the general like this to attack with all his strength, if he wins, it is okay, but once he fails, everything will be irreparable." ”

This young man's name is Yang Fu, the word is Yishan, he is also from Ji County, Hanyang County, and Jiang Xu is his cousin, Yang Fu is slightly younger, and now he is a scholar in the county, and on the issue of Pei Qing, he and his cousin Jiang Xu hold the same view, that is, try to avoid war with Pei Qing, in order to maintain the current peaceful situation in Hanyang County.

However, Ma Chao did not agree with their opinions at all, thinking that the members of these local clans avoided the war and protected themselves, and their purpose was for their own interests, without taking into account the interests of the overall situation, so Ma Chao did not react to Jiang Xu and Yang Fu's words at all, and still had a very tough attitude and ordered the whole army to assemble and attack Chen Cangcheng with all their might.

At this time, Jiang Yu, Zhao Ang, Liang Kuan, Zhao Qu, Yin Feng and others from the same county made a statement to Ma Chao, asking Ma Chao to take back his life, but he didn't expect Ma Chao to be furious, accusing these locals of forming a township party and hindering Ma Chao's great cause, so he ordered Jiang Xu and Yang Fu to be thrown into prison, and for others, their salaries were deducted as punishment, and they were ordered to go back to reflect on themselves, and they must take the matter of Jiang Xu and Yang Fu as a warning, if they don't reflect well, they may be the ones who will be put into prison in the future.

Later, Ma Chao left Zhang Heng to lead a thousand soldiers to guard Hanyang County, the main purpose of which was to supervise those local clans and prevent them from betraying after Ma Chao left, and then Ma Chao led the whole army of 50,000 soldiers to attack Chencang.

In Ma Chao's opinion, Chen Cang is no more than 5,000 people at most, he attacked Chen Cangcheng with ten times the strength, even if he was scared, he could scare the other party to death, maybe after seeing that he had so many troops, Zhang Ji would directly surrender on his knees, even if Zhang Ji did not choose to surrender, it is estimated that the soldiers under his command would take the initiative to surrender after seeing so many troops.

This is called overwhelming people with power, Ma Chao feels that with his momentum of 50,000 people, no matter what kind of preparation the other party has, it can only end up being a failure.

Therefore, after Ma Chao arrived at Chencang City, he first went out in person to persuade Zhang Ji and Zhang Xiu's uncle and nephew to surrender, he said that he could ignore the past suspicions, and hoped that Zhang's uncle and nephew could take the initiative to surrender.

However, what is unexpected is that Zhang's uncle and nephew decisively refused, of course, what was unexpected was Ma Chao, for Zhang's uncle and nephew, this is naturally expected, if Zhang's uncle and nephew choose to surrender, this is unexpected.

Seeing this, Ma Chao suddenly became even more angry, and he shouted loudly: "Originally, I didn't hold you accountable for the sake of taking care of the overall situation, but I didn't expect you to be so ignorant, since this is the case, then don't blame me for being rude, kill me!" ”

Then Ma Chao gave the order for a general attack, only to hear the sound of drums, 50,000 soldiers swept in the direction of the city wall like a tide, and launched a fierce attack on the city.

Ma Chao thought that it would not take much effort to attack a small Chencang City with his strong strength, although Pei Qing learned the news of his rebellion, but when Pei Qing recruited soldiers and came to Chencang, it would take at least half a month, and after half a month, it was estimated that he would have completely occupied Chencang. As soon as Pei Qing's main force withdrew, he immediately waved his troops to attack Wuwei, and at that time, he completely occupied Yongliang Erzhou, and he could be regarded as having the capital to compete with Pei Qing.

However, he thought very well, and gradually discovered that something was wrong when he actually fought, although he attacked Chen Cangcheng day and night with ten times the number of troops, but the result was not satisfactory, the two sides fought for nearly ten days, and his 50,000 army lost nearly 10,000, but he never firmly occupied the city, and every time he climbed the city, he was finally able to be driven down by the other party.

Ma Chao suddenly felt a little bad, he used such great determination and consumed so much strength to attack Chen Cangcheng, but he didn't expect that in the end it would be such a result, which he couldn't accept no matter what.

So Ma Chao began to use various siege methods, such as burning, tunnels, catapults, wells, and rushing cars, but they didn't work at all, and Chen Cangcheng was still firmly in the hands of Zhang Ji's uncle and nephew.

"This, what can I do? Seeing that half a month has arrived, Pei Qing's main army will arrive soon, but we haven't even captured Chencang City, if this continues, once Pei Qing's main force arrives, we are afraid that it will be completely finished. Ma Chao finally felt a strong worry now, shook his head and said with a wry smile.