Xuchang, as the largest city in the Central Plains, did not give in in the face of 400,000 Hebei troops. It took a month to fill the moat of Xuchang, and then it was time to really test Cao Pi, and the Hebei army would begin to attack the Xuchang city gate in an all-out way.

Cao Pi faced the Hebei army attacking Xuchang like a tide, and suddenly felt that his scalp was numb, and he didn't know how long his 100,000 army could last, so he asked his subordinate Xia Houen: "Have the messengers who went to Wancheng, Runan, and Guanzhong come back, and when will the reinforcements from all over the country reach Xuchang?" ”

Xiahouen, as Cao Pi's personal guard, listened to Cao Pi's question, and replied respectfully: "Eldest prince, the reinforcements of General Xiahou Shang of Wancheng are already on the way, and General Li Tong of Runan has also led the troops to come, but General Cao Hong is unwilling to send troops, saying that Yuan Shang's 100,000 army is attacking Hangu Pass and is unable to support. ”

Cao Pi said angrily: "Hangu Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack, with 30,000 people guarding it, which is enough to resist Yuan Shang's 100,000 army. It turns out that Cao Pi and Cao Hong have personal grudges, and Cao Hong supports Cao Zhi, he prefers Cao Zhi's frankness and integrity, and does not like Cao Pi's hypocrisy and artificiality, but if Cao Hong forgets his public affairs for selfishness, then he has wronged him, he is indeed leading the army against Yuan Shang, although there is Hangu Pass, but in the face of the attack of the Bingzhou army, it is not as easy as Cao Pi said.

In the following days, Xiahou Shang's Wancheng reinforcements arrived, and Li Tong's reinforcements from Runan had also arrived, to Cao Pi's surprise was that Cao Ren's Chen Liu's army also arrived in Xuchang with Runan reinforcements, and Xuchang also had nearly 300,000 troops, Cao Pi's confidence increased greatly, and he said to the generals: "Although the Hebei army has 400,000 people, the siege has been more than a month, and it has been exhausted, and my Xuchang reinforcements have arrived, and the morale is high, and it is the time to break Yuan Xi." ”

Cheng Yu also supported: "What the eldest prince said is extremely true, now the Hebei army thinks very highly of itself, besieges the city on three sides, and wants to drag our army down, our army should be broken individually, in the humble opinion of his subordinates, Yuan Xi's army is the strongest, Zhao Yun on the left is second, and Pang De is the weakest, so it is better to take Pang De to the knife." ”

Although Pang De was a fierce general of Xiliang, his reputation did not spread in the Central Plains, and he was regarded as a soft persimmon by Cao Jun. After deliberation, Cao Pi, with Cao Ren as the main general and Cao Chun as the vanguard, led the tiger and leopard cavalry to launch a surprise attack on the Hebei army led by Pang De.

The army in the city of Xuchang raided, and the Pang De army who was besieging the city was defenseless, and there was a great chaos, and the siege equipment was nearly destroyed and confiscated by the tiger and leopard cavalry. Pound was not a blind and arrogant reckless man, seeing that the tiger and leopard were very brave, he was unwilling to compete with him, and slowly retreated while stabilizing the situation.

Cao Ren saw that the Hebei army was losing and retreating in the face of the attack of the tiger and leopard cavalry, and personally led an army of 100,000 to pursue Pang De. In the face of the flexible tiger and leopard ride, Pang De did not want to dispatch his killer ironclad chain horse, the effect was not very strong, and now Cao Jun thought that he was defeated and led the army to chase, which was just the opportunity to give himself a meritorious service.

Under the command of Pang De, a heavily armed black ironclad cavalry stood in front of the formation, very similar to Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry, except that the cavalry and cavalry were all linked by iron chains, and they held heavy axes in their hands. With an order, this cavalry launched a charge towards the Cao army, and this indomitable momentum was that the tiger and leopard cavalry led by Cao Chun was also suppressed, but Cao Chun knew that once the tiger and leopard cavalry could not resist, the Cao army behind would suffer.

The Tiger and Par Cavalry relied on their amazing combat ability, while the Iron Armored Chain Cavalry did not focus on combat effectiveness, but on the power of the charge. The tiger and leopard cavalry could not exert their combat effectiveness, and they could not use their own machetes to the enemy army at all, but were impacted by Pound's ironclad chain horse, and were directly knocked to pieces, and fell to the ground one after another, completely crushed.

After a round of confrontation, Cao Chun knew that he had made a mistake, this cavalry relied on impact power, and the tiger and leopard cavalry paid attention to skills, and he had to fight hard with Pang De. The tiger and leopard rider is more flexible than the ironclad chain horse, if he wants to retreat, Pang De can't stop it, and he didn't think that he could destroy the tiger and leopard rider, but he wanted to defeat Cao Ren's army behind the tiger and leopard rider.

The Cao army led by Cao Ren was mainly infantry, although Cao Chun reminded him to prepare in advance, but in the face of Pang De's ironclad chain cavalry, it was also a little powerless. Although there are only 5,000 ironclad chain horses, even in the face of 100,000 Cao troops, they are not afraid. Although Cao Ren led the elite of the Cao army, it was far worse than the tiger and leopard riding, and the powerful impact of Pang De's ironclad chain horse made the Cao army start to be afraid, trampling on each other, and suffering countless casualties.

Pang De led the army to follow up, although Cao Ren's 100,000 troops resisted Pang De's stormtroopers, it was too late to eliminate this cavalry, the Hebei army had already caught up, Cao Ren could only give up encircling and suppressing this cavalry, and did not want to retreat, but stabilized the position and met Pang De's army.

The combat power and charge of the ironclad chain horse are indeed very strong, but the defense is weak, and they will never retreat unless they move forward desperately. was surrounded by the Cao army just now, and if Pang De did not lead the army in time, it is estimated that he would have been wiped out by the Cao army. However, this time the ironclad chain horse can also be regarded as a great achievement, first stepping on the tiger and leopard cavalry, and then attacking the Cao army, causing tens of thousands of enemy casualties, and he only lost less than 2,000 soldiers, which can be called one enemy ten.

Pang De taunted Cao Ren and said: "Cao Ren, don't think that with reinforcements, you will be bold, even if Cao Cao comes in person, it will not change the war in the Central Plains, go back and advise Cao Pi, surrender as soon as possible, and don't make senseless resistance." ”

Cao Ren was not to be outdone: "If there is a kind, let the horse come, of course, when the Marquis of Qin was in Xuchang, I didn't see you so arrogant in Hebei, and you could only take advantage of the Marquis Qin's expedition to Yizhou to dare to come to my Central Plains." The day of the return of the Marquis of Qin will be your end. ”

Pang De laughed and said: "Don't think I don't know, Cao Cao is afraid of our Hebei, and knows that sooner or later he will be defeated by the general, so he will make an excuse for himself and want to retreat to Guanzhong." "The two armies are not fighting, Pang De is good at attacking, Cao Ren is good at defending, and neither of them can help anyone, so they can only fight.

Yuan Xi saw that the reinforcements of the Cao army had arrived, and said worriedly: "The troops in Xuchang City have at least 300,000 troops, which is not much weaker than our army, and the high walls of Xuchang City are thick, and we must always beware of the sneak attack of the Cao army in Xuchang City, I don't know what you think about changing the situation of the war?" ”

The 400,000 Hebei Army consumed huge amounts of grain and grass every day, and if they could not attack Xuchang for another month, they could only retreat to Jizhou to rest. Sima Yi has also accumulated a lot of experience in governing Dongying in the past few years, and he is much more mature than when he first took refuge in Yuan Xi. Not long ago, Gao Shun used Sima Yi's strategy to take Chen Liu, and Sima Yi suggested again: "General, the Cao army has given up all parts of Yanzhou and concentrated its forces in Xuchang, wanting to rely on Xuchang to fight a decisive battle with our army. Our army has the support of the four states of Hebei, and as long as the grain and grass are transported in time, the Central Plains will be obtained by our army. ”

Sima Yi's strategy was to rely on the strength of Hebei to drag down Xuchang, and also advised Yuan Xi not to withdraw his troops, but to actively collect grain and grass from the north to support the southern expeditionary army. Yuan Xi nodded, and also knew that he couldn't hesitate too much in this war, he couldn't be soft-hearted, and he must seize the opportunity of Cao Cao's absence in the Central Plains to capture Xuchang.

Pang Tong has been following Yuan Xi for a while, but since he first made his own decisions and angered Yuan Xi, he has become very low-key and has restrained his personality that no one in his eyes. Although Yuan Xi blamed him once, he still used himself very much, and Pang Tong also recognized Yuan Xi.

When Cao Cao faced Yuan Shao, he also had a sneak attack on Liu Bei, and this time in the face of Yuan Xi, he led the army to attack Yizhou again. Yizhou is not as good as Xuzhou, which is unexplainable to everyone, and the biggest possibility is that he wants to give up the Central Plains and unite Liu Bei and Sun Quan against Hebei.

Pang Tong said his thoughts: "My lord, in Pang Tong's opinion, when Cao Cao chose to attack Yizhou, he planned to abandon the Central Plains and retreat to Guanzhong. Therefore, as long as we put pressure on Xuchang, Cao Pi should give up Xuchang! ”

Yuan Xi pondered Pang Tong's words, Cao Cao should have such a plan, leaving Cao Pi against himself and covering his own capture of Yizhou. If Cao Pi can fight against himself, then he will become the successor of the Cao family as a matter of course, and once he is defeated, he will establish Cao Zhi himself, and no one will oppose it. Moreover, according to Cao Cao's strategy, the people of the Central Plains fell into war, which was also caused by Yuan Xi, leaving a mess for Hebei to clean up, but he would not lose the support of the people, and most importantly, he did not have to fight against Yuan Xi alone. The north is already in the hands of Yuan Xi, and it has also become the target of Liu Bei and Sun Quan's joint confrontation, which can be described as killing three birds with one stone.

On the basis of Sima Yi and Pang Tong, Xu Shu offered another plan: "General, since Cao Cao wants to send the Central Plains to our army, why don't you take it?" My 400,000-strong army besieged Xuchang, and there were many soldiers who could not be used, so it was better to seize Yuzhou, which was weak, and cut off the return route of Shouchun and Xiahou. If Xuchang did not dare to come out to rescue Yuzhou, our army would send troops to Wancheng again, Wancheng would be lost, and Cao's army would be cut off from the road to Guanzhong. Although Wancheng is easy to defend and difficult to attack, Cao Pi does not dare to hold it up, and he will inevitably come to the rescue, as long as our army designs an ambush and defeats Cao's army. Cao Pi saw that our army was ready to cut off its rear road, so he didn't dare to joke with his life, so he would give up Xuchang. ”

Just when Yuan Xi wanted to divide his troops to take Yuzhou, news came that Cao Ren led his troops to attack Pang De, but was repelled by Pang De, and the two armies won and lost each other, and they were facing each other in the east of Xuchang. Yuan Xi ordered Sima Yi to lead his troops to help and send Cao Ren's army back to Xuchang, and sent someone to inform Zhao Yun to be careful not to attack Cao's army. Yuan Xi once again sent Gao Lan, Guo Huai, and Ma Dai to take Runan, take the whole of Yuzhou, and leave Xuchang completely isolated.