In the summer of the first year of Xingping, because Cao's father's family of 100 was killed by Tao Qian, Cao Cao sent troops to attack Xuzhou in order to avenge the killing of his father. The army roughly set out from Juancheng, or went southeast to Pengcheng.

The goals of Cao Cao's army in this war were very clear: to kill people, rob property, and seize food; Bloodbath Xuzhou, chickens and dogs are not left!

Therefore, after the army, ten rooms and ten emptiness, the soldiers arrived, destroying the city like stepping on grass mustard, but if the city is broken, all the people who will breathe will not be left!

The main force of the Cao army was the 100,000 "Qingzhou Army" that had been surrendered before, and it was the Qingxu Yellow Turban that was driven out of Xuzhou by Tao Qian in the past, but it was a veritable "return to the hometown regiment". All of a sudden, it is imperative to report new hatreds and record old hatreds.

Cao Cao's army successively captured more than ten cities, and Cao Jiang conquered Guangwei (east of Pei County) along Surabaya to Pengcheng. Another striker, Cao Ren, did not attack Tao Qian's general Lu You, and after the break, he also joined forces with Cao Cao.

Taking advantage of the fact that Cao's army did not arrive in Pengcheng, Tao Qian urgently evacuated the people in the city and Sixiang, and most of them mobilized to flee to Tancheng, and at the same time transferred all the military rations and baggage in Pengcheng to Tancheng.

This time, Tao Qian learned the lessons of the last battle, and did not fight with Cao Cao in the plains, but fled from Pengcheng, retreated to the East China Sea, and hid in Tancheng to hold on. So Cao Cao took the opportunity to break Pengcheng and Fu Yang again. But because Tao Qian had already transported the grain and grass away. So Cao Cao tried his best to get an empty city.

Tao Qian escaped as the coach, but the people of Peng Chengguo couldn't all flee. Cao Cao did not catch Tao Qian, so he was angry with the people under his rule, so he issued a massacre order.

Those unarmed ordinary people were miserable, driven to the edge of Surabaya by Cao Cao's army, and all of them were slaughtered by Cao Cao as enemies who killed their fathers and killed them in batches. The result of Cao Cao's frenzied killing was that tens of thousands of troops were surrendered, and hundreds of thousands of men and women civilians were all innocently killed, and many corpses were lying in Surabaya, and the red river water was soaked in the corpses of the mess, forming a boundless pool of blood, which was not flowing, and the bloody atmosphere filled dozens of miles.

At the beginning, Luoyang, Chang'an, and Sanfu all suffered from Dong Zhuo's rebellion, and many displaced people came to Xuzhou for refuge. After Tao Qian governed Xuzhou, Xuzhou was a peaceful paradise compared to other states and counties, and many displaced people came to rely on Tao Qian, and most of them lived in various counties in Pengcheng. This encounter with the arrival of Cao Jun, they could not escape the fate of death, they were all caught innocently killed by Cao Jun in this war, and those who were lucky enough to escape were also killed in the third Xuzhou Massacre.

Cao's army attacked and advanced from Pengcheng to the east, conquering five cities along the way, until it reached Tancheng in the East China Sea (at this time, it was the seat of Xuzhou).

Tao Qian, who hid in Tan County, quickly made remedial measures: he immediately sent a special distress letter to Gongsun Zhan, who was allied with him.

Tao Qian sent farewell to Tancheng to rescue the counties besieged by Cao's army, and on the other hand, Feishu sent Chen Deng to tell Tiankai, the assassin of Qingzhou, who was appointed by Gongsun Zhan. The reinforcements to rescue the counties were broken by Cao Ren's cavalry, tigers and leopards.

At the same time, Tao Qian thought of Gongsun Kang, who was active and enthusiastic, benevolent and righteous. also sent Cao Bao to tell Zhang Liao in Qingzhou. (Gongsun Kang was in Liaodong at this time).

Cao Cao chased to Tancheng, Tao Qian learned the combat effectiveness of Cao Cao's army from Pengcheng, accepted a painful lesson, and resolutely did not go out of the city to fight, so that Cao Cao hated but had no choice but to launch a siege war.

Cao's army attacked day and night, and Tao Qian personally commanded the battle in the city, taking the lead, and his behavior touched the soldiers who were originally depressed. Under the encouragement of Tao Qian, the morale of the defending officers and soldiers was greatly boosted, and Cao Cao was repelled many attacks in a row.

Xuzhou is all plains and extends in all directions. Tancheng could not be captured, so Cao Cao bypassed Tancheng and divided into several groups of men and horses to attack Jimo and Kaiyang in the northeast, and attacked the counties of Lang Evil and Donghai to the east. Kaiyang relied on Tibetan tyrants and other defenders to defend the city, and was spared.

In such a critical situation, Gongsun Zhan, who received an urgent letter for help, ordered Tian Kai and Liu Bei, who were in Qingzhou, which was adjacent to Xuzhou, to lead their troops to rescue Xuzhou.

Zhang Liao sent a letter to Gongsun Kang, and on the other hand, according to the plan made by the Liaodong strategists, he brought 8,000 Qingzhou infantry to aid Tao Qian.

On the way, I met Qingzhou Thorn Shi Tian Kai and Pingyuan Xiang Liu Bei, because Gongsun Zhan and Gongsun Du and Gongsun Kang had a good relationship, so the two families divided Qingzhou equally, but they were safe and sound, and did not disturb each other. Now that they have met, there are talking and laughing together to rescue Xuzhou.

Liu Bei only had more than 1,000 soldiers under him, and after arriving in Xuzhou, Tao Qian saw that he had fewer soldiers and horses, so he allocated another 4,000 Danyang soldiers to Liu Bei.

As a warlord in Xuzhou, although Tao Qian does not have high-quality generals in his hands, he holds an elite "Danyang soldiers". Danyang Bing means to point out the elite soldiers in the area of Danyang (now Xuancheng, Anhui), which is famous for its elite soldiers.

"Danyang Mountain is dangerous, the people are more fruitful, good martial arts, noble strength, the land of elite soldiers", in the Eastern Han Dynasty, when the generals of the dynasty appointed officials to recruit troops here, and even in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, when they were against Dong, Cao Cao and Bao Xin had come here to recruit troops, and they were rich in elite soldiers because of this.

So don't underestimate these 4,000 people, enough to be used as 20,000 people, because the Danyang soldiers are one of the most powerful elite soldiers in the history of the Three Kingdoms, and they are the fierce soldiers who can be compared with Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry.

Cao Cao continued eastward to the East China Sea, and after the Lang Evil Kingdom, he turned around and returned, and fought a battle with Liu Bei, Zhang Liao, Cao Bao and others on the plain in front of Tancheng. Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry was too fierce, and Liu Bei, Zhang Liao and others were defeated and retreated into Tancheng.

Cao's army continued to return west, and conquered Xiangben, which had not been captured before. This way came and went, according to the record of "Three Kingdoms", it was "too many killings".

Cao Cao had never been a brute man, he gave up a frontal attack on Tao Qian, and led his troops to carry out a sweep in Xiapi in the southern bank of Surabaya, and successively captured the counties of Tseji (southwest of present-day Suining, Jiangsu), Xiaqiu (present-day Sixian, Jiangsu), and Suiling (present-day Taipei, Jiangsu).

The power of revenge is terrible, after taking the counties, Cao Jun still implements the "three lights" policy, in general, it is one word, kill! As a result, in these places, let alone pedestrians, they can't even see the shadow of chickens and dogs, and the methods are too despicable and bloody.

Book of the Later Han Dynasty. Tao Qian's Biography": Cao Ba's considerations, Suiling, and Xiaqiu were all slaughtered. Where hundreds of thousands of men and women are killed, there are no chickens and dogs, Surabaya does not flow, and it is the city protection of five counties (Pengcheng, Fuyang, Juling, Xiaqiu), and there is no trace of repetition.

If things develop according to the convention, it is only a matter of time before Xuzhou is finished, but things have taken a turn for the better - Cao Jun is short of food.

The first round of massacres ended in the summer of the first year of Xingping (194). The reason for stopping the slaughter was not that Cao Cao suddenly found out in his conscience and wanted to put down the butcher's knife and turn back, but because there was no military rations. It was at this time that Cao Jun began to eat human flesh. Historically, it was Cheng Yu who made human flesh into jerky and supplied it to the army. Now Cheng Yu is not in Cao Cao's camp, and no one carries the black cauldron, but Cao Cao's army is still eating correctly, and if he doesn't eat, he will starve to death, and he has no choice.

When Cao Cao was fighting vigorously, he found that his military rations were about to run out, and the hungry soldiers could not fight, so Cao Cao had to lead the army to retreat from Xuzhou with regret and returned to Yanzhou, the battle in Xuzhou, and the second round was over.

Xuzhou ushered in a period of tranquility. It's a brief moment of calm before the next storm.

Tao Qian is really very benevolent and righteous, after Cao Cao retreated, he recommended Liu Bei as the assassin of Yuzhou, and let Liu Bei be a soldier Xiaopei. Xiaopei is located on the western border of Xuzhou, adjacent to Yanzhou, and is also the direction of Cao's army's attack, so the two decided to focus on defense and stop Cao's army on the south bank of Surabaya.

And Zhang Liao proposed: "My Liaodong iron cavalry is invincible, absolutely no less than Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry." "It is recommended to set aside two pieces of land on the seaside of Langxi County and Donghai County for the Liaodong Army. Liaodong paid for the construction of the wharf, so that the next time Cao Cao came, Liaodong could use a big ship to carry Liaodong iron horses to aid Tao Qian.

Tao Qian was in a hurry to seek medical treatment, and generously set aside thirty miles of land for each of the Lang Evil Kingdom and the East China Sea Country by the sea. It was given to Liaodong and let Liaodong build a wharf. and subsidized 30 million copper coins and 20,000 stone of grain.

Gongsun Kang knew that Cao Cao would invade Xuzhou again in two months, as soon as the autumn grain was harvested. Therefore, a large number of people were sent from Liaodong, and workers were recruited on the spot in the Langxi Kingdom and the Donghai Kingdom, and the people of Langxi and the East China Sea were attracted to work with generous salaries to build a large wharf together.

Of course, in order to protect the dock, in order to ensure that the cavalry can land smoothly, Liaodong built two more castles, which cover a large area and wrap the docks inside.