At the end of the winter moon, heavy snow fell, but the war in the north was still in full swing.

Although the armies of all sides on the frontal battlefield were stalemate and motionless, the fighting on the battlefields on all sides and rear gradually heated up, so that from time to time it stimulated the tense nerves of the commanders of all sides.

Under the city of Jinyang, Yuan Shao's army besieged the fortified city, could not be attacked for a long time, Cao Yuan, Gongsun Xu, Xu Shu and others in the city held on to it, in desperation, Yuan Shao had decided to send a large number of soldiers and people before the Fenshui froze, and broke the embankment to dig a ditch and divert water to pour into Jinyang City.

Although the city wall of Jinyang City is tall and strong, it is built of rammed earth after all, and it will be soaked and washed down sooner or later under the backflow of Fenshui.

At the same time that tens of thousands of Hebei soldiers and civilians were like worker ants, distributed in many ditches outside Jinyang City, other attacking Hebei soldiers and horses also sent back battle reports one after another.

Zhang He led his troops north, and after a bloody battle, he killed the defenders Yang Chou and Zhenggu, and finally conquered the earth and the sky. But because he was afraid of the Hun cavalry led by Xu Kun and Hu Chuquan, the cautious Zhang He did not rush north to recover Yanmen.

Gao Ran led his army south to attack the mountain trail leading to Hedong, but was blocked by the enemy generals Niu Song and Hao Zhao, and the strong attack was not small, and the losses were not small, so they could only withdraw their troops and retreat to Wu County to rest and recuperate, in order to fight again.

After receiving reinforcements from soldiers and horses, Shangdang Wenchou defeated the enemy army and led his troops to besiege Xu Huang and Ma Lin in Huguan, cutting off the contact between the enemy generals and the reinforcements in Hanoi. However, Hanoi then also sent reinforcements led by the enemy general Zhang Liao, so Wen Chou left He Mao, Wang Mo and other generals, and led the army to turn around and attack Zhang Liao's reinforcements, but Zhang Liao avoided the battle according to the danger, and Wen Chou attacked many times, but was unable to break through Zhang Liao's camp.

In addition, Yuan Shao also received an urgent report from Daijun and Shanggu, this year, a large number of Xianbei cavalry entered the border land of Kou, plundered the countryside, and many Wuhuan tribes in the territory were looted or coerced, and the officials of the two counties were unable to expel them, so they could only protect themselves from the city.

In this regard, after Yuan Shao and the ministers discussed, the response was to order Zhang He to garrison Juzhusai to block the Xiongnu cavalry from going south to rescue Taiyuan, and send envoys to Xihe, Yanmen and other places to divide the nobles who plotted against the Xiongnu and slaughtered the nobles Hu Chieftain; Increasing his troops, he ordered him to attack the Sparrow Mouse Valley again, and be sure to open the passage south to the east of the river; The herald ordered Wen Chou to capture Huguan as soon as possible, defeat Zhang Liao's army, and recover the entire Shangdang County.

As for Xianbei's entry into Koudai County and Shanggu, although Yuan Shao and the ministers vaguely felt that it was related to Yan Yan in Guanxi, the Xianbei cavalry that had plundered over the years lacked siege equipment and could not threaten the important cities and passes of Hebei, and often retreated quickly after plundering.

Therefore, Hebei's response strategy was to focus on the overall situation, stick to the city pass, block the news, prevent the Xianbei cavalry from invading the hinterland of Hebei, and did not dispatch the soldiers and horses to rescue Daijun and Shanggu.

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At the foot of the North Mountain.

Yan Xing, who confronted Cao's army, also learned of the news of the instability in the rear, and Zheng Gan, Wang Zhao and others in Fengyi County suffered from the increase in taxes and labor in Guanzhong during the war.

After the war, the cangli was exhausted, and the taxes and labor services of the counties under Yan Xing's rule were all increased and levied, among which the richest Feng Yi County, Hedong County, and Hanoi County were even more heavily endowed.

But Yan Xing's determination to repel the Cao army and protect the three rivers has not wavered, the cold winter has come, the soldiers and horses of the Yuan, Yan, and Cao families are not comfortable, and the battle situation has reached this point.

And Pei Qian and Wei Xuan in Jinyong City have reached the point where they have to kill horses and eat, demolish houses and cook, and Yan Xing's soldiers, horses, grain and grass that want to enter the city are intercepted and blocked by Cao's army, and they cannot be successfully transported into the city.

It is conceivable that Cao Cao was waiting for the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city to run out and conquer Jinyong City in one fell swoop, which would trigger a chain reaction of the morale of the southern aid Yan army, so as to seize the opportunity and defeat the Kansai army led by Yan Xingqin.

After receiving the military report that the Hebei army had not captured Jinyang and that the roads leading to Hanoi and Hedong had not been opened for a long time, he had already sensed that Yuan Shao's selfishness was playing tricks again.

Once the Yuan army cut off the back road of the Yan army, the dilemma and demoralized Yan Xing had no other way but to return to the division and Yuan Shao desperately trying to open the way back to Guanzhong.

If the Yan army remained in Henan, the confronting Cao army would not even need to engage to defeat the Yan army or force Yan Yan's Guanxi army to surrender.

These are not what Yuan Shao wants to see.

Therefore, Cao Cao could only and must rely on his own strength to gain an advantage on the battlefield as soon as possible in order to force Yan Xing's Guanxi soldiers and horses to retreat.

During the confrontation between the two armies, skirmishes continued one after another. Although the Cao army harvested the wheat in Henan, it also tasted enough of the hardships of the cavalry under Yan Xing's command, and although the swift Guanxi enemy cavalry could not break through the Cao army's camp and enter the city of Jinyong, they could constantly harass and hunt down the soldiers and people of the Cao army to draw water and collect salaries, and provoked and lured the Cao army to pursue into the ambush circle they set up.

Although the Cao army also had its own cavalry, it was not as elite and numerous as the cavalry under Yan Xing's command, and in the tug-of-war, sabotage battle, ambush battle, pursuit battle, anti-ambush battle, and counter-pursuit battle back and forth, it was obviously Yan Xing's infantry and cavalry that had the advantage.

For Cao Cao, only by capturing Jinyong City, or threatening Yan Xing again on other battlefields, could Cao's army break the deadlock and win in one fell swoop.

There were soldiers and civilians in Jinyong City, and there were strong reinforcements outside, and the Cao army could not overcome it in a short time, and Yuan Shao's army on the north bank was unreliable, and Cao Cao, who was actively creating fighters, could only set his sights in the direction of Nanyang County.

Send a partial division from Nanyang County to Wuguan and threaten Guanzhong?

Cao Cao's first thought was his relative general Xiahou Yuan.

There is a saying in Cao Junjun's army, "Xiahou Yuan, the captain of the military academy, five hundred in three days, and one thousand in six days", what he praised was the speed of Xiahou Yuan's troops and horses, and the speed of being able to move thousands of miles against the enemy.

If Xiahou Yuan led the troops, with lightning speed, passed through Nanyang, passed through Wuguan, and attacked Guanzhong, not asking him to be able to sweep the enemy's territory, as long as there was a Cao army flag inserted in the rear of Yan Xing's army, Cao Cao did not believe that Yan Xing would not be able to retreat.

It's just that the urgency from Cao Ren in Nanyang finally made Cao Cao's plan fail.

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Nanyang, Wancheng.

As Cao Cao's relative generals who stayed in the south to defend the side, Cao Ren's achievements and prestige in the army were among the best.

Crusade against Dong Zhuo, fierce battle against Yuan Shu, attack Tao Qian, defeat Liu Biao, eliminate Lu Bu, almost every major battle of Cao Jun, Cao Ren participated in the battle, he was brave and strategic, he attacked the city and killed the generals, repeatedly made military exploits, with his always outstanding performance, this can be appointed by Cao Cao as a general.

Long before Jingxiang massed forces on a large scale and went north, information had already leaked into the hands of Cao Ren, the defender of Nanyang.

Cao Ren, who learned of the enemy's situation in advance, immediately sent a fast horse to report to Cao Cao at the front of Xudu and the front, and fortified the wall to clear the wilderness, and actively prepared for defensive operations.

Although Jingxiang's soldiers and horses were numerous and menacing, and most of Cao's main forces followed Cao Cao to conquer Henan, Cao Ren was not worried about the enemy situation from Jingxiang.

Thanks to Jingxiang's intricate interior, Cao's army, which was defending the city, did not give Liu Biao's army a chance to attack him. Moreover, it is now winter, the weather is cold and snowy, Liu Biao's soldiers and horses are attacking northward, and the soldiers and horses are under the fortified city, and the rear has to transport grain and grass for a long time.

Cao Ren could steadily use the city wall and climate to consume the morale and physical strength of Jingxiang's soldiers and horses, and when Cao Cao's reinforcements arrived, he would be able to make Liu Biao's exhausted soldiers and horses lose their troops and return defeated.

Therefore, Cao Ren was not in a hurry to fight with the menacing Jingxiang army at first, he took the initiative to give up the cities of Suixian, Yuyang and other cities, and after the rapid advance of Jingxiang's forward soldiers and horses was stopped in Jianyang City, he retreated his soldiers and horses to stick to the county of Nanyang, Wancheng, boosted morale, inspected the city defense, and prepared to fortify the city accordingly and consume Liu Biao's northward army.

However, the result of the attack and defense of Wancheng was that the two sides attacked and defended for less than ten days, the defender Cao Ren was seriously injured, the morale of the Cao army was greatly weakened, and the Cao army, which abandoned the city overnight and retreated north, was pursued and ambushed on the way, and suffered heavy losses, and Wancheng fell.

The remnants of the defeated army fled all the way north, and along the way, they told the officials of the cities they passed through that the Jingxiang soldiers and horses had a large siege stone throwing vehicle called "Xiangyang Cannon".

The guard Cao Ren was wounded by this kind of stone-throwing cart that was laid far away outside the city when he was directing the defense on the city gate.

On the same day, the enemy troops outside the city manipulated the Xiangyang cannon, threw huge stones to bombard, several stone bullets were in the center of the city gatehouse, the city guards did not have time to react, the beams and pillars were broken immediately, and the city tower collapsed.

In the roar, the gravel and broken wood flew, and the power was not inferior to that of a strong bow and crossbow, although Cao Ren, who bore the brunt of the attack, was wearing armor and had his own soldiers to protect him, but after he was rescued from the wreckage and ruins by the sergeant at the head of the city, he still vomited blood and fell into a coma.

Xiangyang artillery, became famous in a fight.

The specific situation comes out of the mouths of different people, and the content is varied, but one thing is for sure, the "Xiangyang cannon" mastered by Jingxiang soldiers and horses can throw larger stones and farther distances than ordinary stone throwers. ”

Jingxiang aspect, after quickly conquering Wancheng, Liu Bei, the chief general of Jingxiang's army, took advantage of the victory to use troops, Nanyang's Pheasant County, Xi'e, Duyang, Wuyin and other cities all fell, and the defenders of the city either fled or surrendered, only Xi'e ordered Du to attack the city and inspire the people to resist Jingxiang's soldiers and horses, but they were outnumbered, Xi'e still inevitably fell, and most of the soldiers and civilians defending the city died in battle.

This winter, for all parties, is destined to be a difficult winter.

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