On June 15 in the summer of the first year of Xingping of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao swore in Luoyang and led an army of 100,000 to conquer Tao Qian.

However, Cao Cao refused all of this, and said to the persuaders: "If your father is killed, I don't believe you can exercise restraint!" ”

Han to filial piety to rule the world, filial piety is known as the first virtue, because filial piety and killing, not only can escape the charge, but also can obtain a very high reputation, although Cao Cao no longer needs this reputation, but he wants to use this as an excuse to annex Xuzhou, here after Tao Qian's governance for many years, has already become extremely rich, especially by the sea of Guangling, the East China Sea, Langya three places, but also with a strong salt industry and eye-catching.

Now Pei Qing occupies Runan has a huge salt mine, there is no need to worry about salt at all, and even because of the boiling salt industry and bring huge profits, especially recently Pei Qing and the Xiongnu opened a field, with a huge amount of salt from the Xiongnu in exchange for a large number of military horses, cattle and sheep, sheep is just a mouthful, but the role of cattle and horses is too great, cattle can find a way to domesticate into cattle, and horses are a weapon in battle, a cavalry threat will definitely be much greater than infantry, Especially when fighting in the plains, the role of cavalry is even more obvious, of course, with the exception of perverted troops like Chen Zhi's Bai Yu Army.

However, Cao Cao's territory has few salt mines, so his forces need to be forced to buy salt from other places, and even when buying salt, they have to look at people's faces, not to mention paying more money, and they will be coerced by others at any time to cut off the supply of absolute salt.

What's more, Tao Qian dared to take in Lu Bu, this is obviously against himself, Lu Bu has an elite cavalry under his command, this cavalry did not make him suffer less when Cao Cao pacified Yanzhou, but the number is small, plus Lu Bu has just come to Yanzhou, and he has not yet won the hearts of the people, so he can quickly fall, and now Lu Bu is in Xuzhou, he must also defeat Tao Qian with lightning speed, drive away and even kill Lu Bu, otherwise once it takes time, let Lu Bu's strength really grow, it will be his disaster.

So this time Cao Cao made up his mind that he would break through Xuzhou no matter what, drive away or even kill Lu Bu, otherwise, he would be the one who suffered in the end.

When the news reached Xuzhou, Tao Qian's face immediately turned pale, and he immediately ordered someone to go to Langya to invite Lu Bu, hoping that Lu Bu could help him deal with Cao Cao together.

However, he didn't expect that his envoy didn't see Lu Bu at all, and was blocked back by Lu Bu's subordinate Hou Cheng, on the grounds that Lu Bu had no generals in his hands to resist the enemy and went to Chang'an and had not returned, they were just generals, and they didn't dare to be the master at all, and in fact, Lu Bu had already returned to Langya a few days ago, where he recruited troops and horses, trained soldiers, and desperately expanded his strength.

Tao Qian was so angry when he heard this that he almost vomited blood, he was kind enough to take in this Lu Bu, he originally thought that he could help him at a critical moment, and this matter really has a lot to do with Lu Bu, if it wasn't for Lu Bu, how could Cao Song leave Xuzhou in a hurry and be killed? But I didn't expect Lu Bu to help at all, and he said the reason so high-sounding.

At this time, I could only hear Cao Bao, the general, say in front of Tao Qian: "Hmph, if Lu Bu doesn't go, we don't have to pay attention to it, as long as there is a general, it is enough to resist Cao Cao's attack." ”

Tao Qian was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly said with a smile: "General Cao really deserves to be my first general in Xuzhou, as long as you are here, how can Cao Cao be an opponent?" He claims to be a descendant of Xiangguo Cao Shen, but where can he compare to you, a genuine descendant of Cao Xiangguo? ”

Cao Bao sneered when he heard this: "The Cao family of Qian County, who deceived the world and stole his name, claimed to be the descendant of Cao Xiangguo, but only I know that this is simply nonsense, because Cao Xiangguo is a Xiaopei person, who is the Cao family of Qian County?" What does it have to do with the ancestors? In this battle, I will let his fake Cao Xiangguo's descendants see my ability, the real Cao Xiangguo's descendants! ”

"Good! The future of my Xuzhou depends on General Cao. Tao Qian was greatly amazed when he heard this, and hastily gathered 50,000 soldiers in Xiapi and handed them over to Cao Bao, and these 50,000 soldiers were almost all the troops in the entire Xuzhou except for Guangling Zhao Yu and Langya Lu Bu.

At this time, I saw Chen Deng, a man from Xiapi, arching his hand and saying: "Envoy, this Cao Bao is very loud and angry, and his ability is only mediocre, it is impossible for Cao Cao to be Cao Cao's opponent, once he is allowed to resist Cao Cao, I am afraid that many of these 50,000 troops will not survive." ”

However, Tao Qian had great trust in Cao Bao at this time, Chen Deng was just a twenty-four-year-old young man, how could he see it in his eyes? Immediately scolded loudly: "What do you know? General Cao is a descendant of Cao Xiangguo, and as long as he learns a point in kung fu, he can beat Cao Cao. ”

Later, Tao Qian did not listen to Chen Deng's persuasion, insisted on taking Cao Bao as a general, and led the army to Pengchengguo to resist the hasty attack.

Seeing this, Chen Deng looked up to the sky and sighed, and said secretly: "It seems that my Xuzhou will inevitably have a sword robbery, and it will soon change hands, but I don't know if the new lord of Xuzhou is Lu Bu or Cao Cao?" I think that except for Pei Qing, no one in my Xuzhou can hold it, even Cao Cao is no exception. Although Cao Cao's strength is strong, it is still quite inferior to Pei Qinglai. ”

Tao Qian confidently sent Cao Bao to resist Cao Cao's invasion, thinking that he would definitely return with a great victory, but he did not expect that after less than three days, news came that Cao Bao was defeated by Cao Cao, and nearly half of the soldiers of the whole army were lost. Cao Cao ordered the slaughter of the city after his victory, and then attacked Xiangben County in Donghai County, slaughtering the city again, and hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered.

"What? How could such a thing happen? Tao Qian's face suddenly changed when he heard this, and he squirted a mouthful of blood violently under the anger of his heart, and suddenly fainted.

After some emergency treatment, Tao Qian finally woke up, he saw Chen Deng who was guarding the side, he felt extremely guilty, and said slowly: "I regret not listening to Yuanlong's past advice, resulting in the defeat of our army, I don't know what Yuanlong thinks, who else can save me Xuzhou?" Tao is not talented, you can not be this Xuzhou pastor, if someone can be saved, I am willing to support Xuzhou. ”

Chen Dengwenyan sighed: "If Zang Xuangao is still there, he will definitely be able to help the king guard Xuzhou, but unfortunately now he is in Hongnong, so that only Yuzhou and Langya can be ours, if you want to save Xuzhou, you can only ask for help from Pei Xiang Lu Su and Langya Minister Lu Bu respectively, hoping that they can help us defeat Cao Cao in time." ”

"Alas, it's a pity that this Zang Xuangao." Tao Qian didn't know until this time that a mere false name was really not worth mentioning compared to a powerful warrior like Zang Ba.