Liu Du and Zhao Fan immediately found Cao Yin and said that they would take the troops back, Cao Yin knew that once the two left, he would be alone and would never be Liu Zhang's enemy, so he resolutely refused to allow it, the three of them were all small princes, no one was more noble than the other, and the strength was about the same, of course the two would not obey Cao Yin's orders, and the three of them were out of harmony, and they almost drew their swords against each other.

In the end, under the hard persuasion of the three thinkers, they sat down again, but neither side was willing to compromise, and no result was discussed that day.

Cao Yin had to let the two go back to their residence first, wait for everyone to calm down, think about the gains and losses, and discuss it tomorrow. Liu Du and Zhao Fan knew that Cao Yin was strong, and this was his old nest, if the attitude was too tough, and let Cao Yin be vicious, they would be in danger, so they agreed to Cao Yin's decision.

The two sympathized with each other, and after leaving the Wuling Taishou Mansion, they naturally got together; Cao Yin was worried that the two would leave without saying goodbye at night, so he secretly ordered his cronies to strengthen the defense of the city gates, and ordered that no one should be released out of the city without his handwritten official document!

On that day, rumors spread in Linyuan City, true and false, uncountable, and rumors that did not argue true or false spread to almost every corner of the city, like Lingling and Guiyang fell into the hands of Liu Zhang; What Cao Yin wants to put the people of the whole city on the city wall, once Liu Zhang, the great Han clan, attacks, Cao Yin will let the people of the whole city be martyred; What Cao Yin and others assassinated the imperial court officials, the emperor ordered to arrest them, and persuaded everyone to draw a line with them as soon as possible, otherwise they would be punished for the same crime, if someone arrested or killed three people, they would be given the position of Taishou of the three counties; Liu Zhang urged the soldiers and civilians in the city to give up resistance and welcome the Yizhou army into the city, otherwise it would be difficult to ensure their physical safety due to the war......

These rumors immediately caused panic and demoralization in the city, and the people dragged their families and prepared to flee, but when they came to the city gate, they saw only cold swords......

The soldiers are even more at risk, because the rumors also say that most of the soldiers have defected to Liu Zhang, and Liu Zhang agrees that they will be guilty of the merit, of course, to let them do it to those "stubborn" people around them......

Cao Yin soon heard a rumor, which clearly showed that Liu Du and Zhao Fan were very dissatisfied with Cao Yin's refusal to allow them to lead the army back, and once their foundation was occupied by Liu Zhang, then they could only be regarded as Cao Yin's subordinates, and could only rely on Cao Yin's snort to survive, and they could be sent to the front line by Cao Yin at any time to be cannon fodder for Cao Yin. Knowing that they would be defeated and even die at any time, Liu Du and Zhao Fan were unwilling and discussed surrendering to Liu Zhang, hoping that Liu Zhang would open up the net and spare their lives, and Cao Yin would be their vote. And the people who Cao Yin arranged to monitor Liu Du and Zhao Fan also reported back to Cao Yin, and Liu Du and Zhao Fan talked secretly for a long time after leaving the Taishou Mansion......

Liu Du and Zhao Fan also heard a rumor, saying that Cao Yin knew that it would be difficult to keep them, once they led their troops to leave, Linyuan's troops would drop by fifty percent, and it would be difficult for more than 20,000 troops to stop Liu Zhang's 70,000 troops, so Cao Yin decided to capture them when they discussed again tomorrow and annexed their generals in one fell swoop. Liu Du and Zhao Fan were already wary of Cao Yin, and after hearing this rumor, they immediately believed ninety percent, and then let people check, the gates of Linyuan have been closed, and Cao Yin sent heavy troops to guard them, with a posture of closing the door and beating dogs......

Unsurprisingly, that night, a scuffle broke out in Linyuan City.

Five miles away, Liu Zhang's camp could be heard with fierce shouts and fires. Xu Huang asked to bring troops into the city immediately, but Xi Zhicai thought it was inappropriate, first, if this was the enemy's plan to lure the enemy, Xu Huang led the army into the city, wouldn't he fall into the enemy's trap; Second, the Yizhou army did not know the terrain in the city, and if it entered the city overnight and started a night battle with the enemy, it would be difficult to exert its combat power, and it would be easy to cause chaos and even kill each other. Therefore, Xi Zhicai proposed that the troops should not be moved for the time being, and the city should be encircled first, and a decision would be made after dawn.

Liu Zhang thought to himself, let them kill each other, and when the people are almost dead, they will go into the city to pick peaches again, and the resistance will be very weak, so that it can greatly reduce the casualties of the Yizhou army, why not? So, Liu Zhang decided to stay put, and wait for the dawn.

The battle in Linyuan lasted all night, and when the sun rose in the east, Liu Zhang gave the order to attack from all sides.

This time, Liu Zhang sent Dian Wei, Xu Chu, and Zhou Cang out to attack the city together with Xu Huang, Zhang Ren, Zhang Fei, etc., and strive to enter the city in one go.

Last night's battle had greatly weakened the city's defenses, and the few defenders who had escaped the cold blades were lying behind the walls, and what happened last night made them realize that there was no friendship on the battlefield, and that friends who drank together during the day might take advantage of your unpreparedness and stab you in the back in the stomach at night! They were physically exhausted after the night, but the exhaustion in their hearts was even worse, they felt that the meaning of putting on the armor seemed to become ethereal, they didn't know what they were doing it for, they didn't know what they were going to do next! No one told them that when the war was raging, they never received orders from above, and they didn't even know Cao Yin's life and death. So, when Liu Zhang's army attacked, most of them gave a cold look at the rapidly approaching Yizhou army, and then continued to lie on the city wall. A few soldiers picked up their bows and arrows to resist, and the people next to them immediately crawled away, with a mocking smile on the corner of their mouths, without the slightest intention of reminding or dissuading. Sure enough, the rain of arrows of the Yizhou Army instantly shot all those who dared to resist into hedgehogs. Seeing that the situation was not good, some people abandoned their weapons, took off their armor and fled to the center of the city, and some clever ones cut off the latch, opened the city gate, and welcomed the Yizhou army into the city......

Almost bloodless, the Yizhou army occupied the important town of Linyuan, which was defended by more than 40,000 elite soldiers. The blade of the Yizhou army did not see much blood, but the city was already full of blood, Xu Huang organized soldiers to take prisoners on the one hand, and reported the situation to Liu Zhang. Liu Zhang has no plans to enter the city for the time being, although he has seen a lot, but he is still very disgusted with the dead corpses and blood in his heart, he can completely imagine what kind of scene it is in Linyuan City now, it is better not to go in and be stimulated by that. He ordered Xu Huang to deal with the search for Cao Yin and others, treat the wounded, clean up the streets, bury the dead, issue notices to the people, etc., and ordered Zhang Fei and Zhang Ren to lead 5,000 elite soldiers to capture Wuling counties, and at the same time ordered Kuaima to give orders to Yu Ban and Zhou Tai that the fish were gone, so they could collect the bait.

In the following days, the good news spread frequently, and where the Yizhou army passed, the defenders all fell in the wind, and Chongxian, Youyang, Qianling, Yuanling and other counties fell into the hands of Liu Zhang. The search for Linyuan City also had results, Liu Du died in the chaos, Zhao Fan disguised himself as an ordinary soldier to surrender to Liu Zhang and wanted to fish in troubled waters, but he was captured for less than an hour, and he was identified by others, Cao Yin relied on his own years of operation, and fled into a house purchased early, relying on the cover of many henchmen, he escaped several searches, but the search of the Yizhou army did not stop, and there was a great intention of not holding him and vowing not to give up, Cao Yin knew that he would not be able to escape if he stayed, So he decided to venture out of the city, but he did not expect that the strict search in the city was to startle the snake and let him expose himself, and he was captured alive as soon as he reached the city gate.

Liu Zhang originally planned to spare the two of them for their lives, after all, they were the official of the imperial court, and Liu Zhang spared the mastermind who assassinated him, and he could also win a reputation for magnanimity and revenge with virtue, but when Xu Huang told Liu Zhang, more than 3,000 innocent people were killed in Linyuan City in the chaos of the night, hundreds of women were killed, thousands of houses were burned, and countless people were looted......

Liu Zhang couldn't help but be furious, he even regretted his decision that night, if it weren't for the fact that he was afraid that the Yizhou army would suffer heavy losses and was unwilling to attack the city overnight, most of the casualties of these Kegu people could have been avoided, as long as he attacked the city overnight......

In the night of war, more than 10,000 soldiers were killed and thousands injured in Linyuan City, and he didn't feel any guilt, because they were warriors, and the weapons in their hands were their destiny to kill or be killed, but the people were different, they were unarmed, and those who swore to protect them showed their fangs to them in the blink of an eye!

For the innocent people, someone must stand up and take responsibility, Cao Yin and Zhao Fan were soon executed in public, and more than 100 people with obvious crimes were beheaded together. Liu Zhang then announced that the people of Wuling County would be exempt from tax for one year and one and a half years, and that Ding Nan of Wuling County would be exempted from military service within three years (Liu Zhang had issued the same order after the disaster in Changsha County).

In less than ten days, the counties under the jurisdiction of Wuling, Lingling, and Guiyang (including the counties occupied by Cao Yin and others in Changsha County) all came into the hands of Liu Zhang.