After leaving, Yuan Shao wrote two secret orders and sent them to Youzhou and Qingzhou, muttering to himself: "Children, I have given you the opportunity to compete fairly, I hope you will not let me down, and you can live together peacefully in the future!" ”

Three days later, Yuan Shao made Yuan Shang the commander and led 100,000 elite soldiers to attack Xuchang. As soon as the news came out, Cao Cao sneered, he really didn't know what his opponent Yuan Shao thought, so he asked Guo Jiadao: "Fengxiao, what do you guess Yuan Shao's idea is, he is so big, he actually sent a yellow-mouthed child to attack Xuchang, it is really beyond his strength." ”

Guo Jia was also puzzled when he heard the news before, remembering that Yuan Shao's two sons Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi were both on one side, Yuan Shao probably wanted to give Yuan Shang the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, and then choose a successor according to his ability. Guo Jia's physical condition was not very good at this time, and when he saw Cao Cao asking, he coughed a few times, his face flushed, and replied with difficulty: "Yuan Shao's beloved son is very heartfelt, and he wants to give Yuan Shangye a chance to make meritorious contributions, so he will let him lead the troops to the battle." ”

Cao Cao listened to what Guo Jia said, and also sneered: "Yuan Shao is indeed a good father, in order to give his children a chance to perform, he actually joked with the lives of the Jizhou army, but unfortunately he is not a qualified general." Let me teach him how to be a good leader! ”

In the face of Yuan Shang's 100,000 army, Cao Cao did not show weakness, and directly dispatched 80,000 main forces from the Central Plains to the north, fought a quick battle, and did not give Yuan Shao a chance to react, and directly entered the Cangting to fight with Yuan Shang. Yuan Shang didn't expect Cao Cao to despise him so much, and he was suddenly angry, so he ordered Gao Ran and Han Meng to be the vanguard and attack Cao Cao. The Jizhou army waited for work, and suddenly entered, Cao Cao was caught off guard, and retreated for several miles, Yuan Shang was victorious, and said to the generals: "Cao Cao is nothing more than that, and I hope that the generals will continue to work hard to capture Cao Cao as soon as possible, and we will also capture Xuchang to celebrate." ”

Although Yuan Shang won for a while, Cao Cao was scheming, and it was not easy to underestimate the enemy, so he proposed that Yuan Shang fight steadily. Yuan Shang didn't listen, thinking that Cangting was close to Yecheng and he had a geographical advantage, so he continued to pursue Cao Cao.

Cao Cao saw that he was careless, underestimated Yuan Shang, and was won by him, he was unhappy, and saw that Yuan Shang was carried away, and he wanted to teach Yuan Shang a lesson, and his adviser Cheng Yu offered a plan: "Lord, I have a plan to win against Yuan Shang." Yuan Shang is earnest, our army can be defeated repeatedly, will lead to the bank of the Yellow River, our army is facing a desperate situation of life and death, must be a Jedi counterattack, in the defeated soldiers from all sides besiege Yuan Shang, Yuan Shang will be defeated. Cao Cao was overjoyed and asked Cheng Yu what his plan was, only to know that this was an ambush on all sides that imitated Xiang Yu's shipwreck and Han Xin's ten-sided ambush.

When Yuan Shang was chasing Cao Cao, he successively defeated Cao Cao's Li Dian, Xiahou Shang, Cao Xiu and other generals, morale was high, and he was frustrated that Cao's army was deceitful and should not be chased anymore, Yuan Shang said angrily: "The front is the mouth of the Yellow River, as long as you are chasing a few miles, you can be done." The frustrated prison army always persuaded me to quit the army, what is my intention? Could it be that only Yuan Xi can defeat Cao Cao, and I can't? ”

Seeing that Yuan Shang was angry, he was also fearless, and said: "The general ordered me to be the supervisor of the army, naturally to remind the general that I had good intentions, and if the third prince insisted on going his own way, I would be helpless!" ”

Yuan Shang snorted coldly and said: "I have been familiar with military books since I was a child, so I naturally know whether Cao Cao is cheating, and now Cao Cao has no way to retreat, if he is persuaded to surrender on the edge of the Yellow River, Cao Jun will definitely be grateful to me for giving them a way to live, and they will give up resistance when faced with a choice between life and death!" Yuan Shang did not listen to the words of frustration and continued to chase Cao Jun.

Cao Jun retreated to the mouth of the Yellow River, with his back to the Yellow River to form a formation, Cao Cao encouraged: "In the retreat is the Yellow River, everyone is a dead end, it is better to fight to the death, if there is a retreat, I will personally kill it." Cao Jun was suddenly refreshed and his morale was high, and he rushed towards Yuan Jun as if he had been beaten with chicken blood.

Yuan Shang didn't have time to get complacent, and was about to open his mouth to laugh at Cao Cao and persuade Cao Bing to surrender, but he didn't expect Cao Jun to start a counterattack. Yuan Shang was not afraid, he had just been able to chase Cao Jun to the point where he could escape, and now he could force them down the Yellow River. Yuan Cao's two armies were fighting, the situation was not as simple as Yuan Shang thought, Cao's army was no longer about to collapse at the touch of a button, but fought to the death and did not retreat, and what was even more terrifying was that Cao soldiers kept coming out from all directions, and Yuan Shang had been trapped in the formation unconsciously.

Seeing that the situation was not good, he said to Yuan Shang: "Third son, we have been ambushed by the Cao army, and the Cao army has constantly surrounded us with ambushes, and if we don't break through, our army will be in danger." Yuan Shang also knew that what he said was reasonable, although he was unwilling, but keeping his life was the most important thing, and ordered a breakthrough. Fortunately, he reminded in time that the Cao army had not completely besieged Yuan Shang, and Yuan Shang escaped from the encirclement of the Cao army, but he also lost tens of thousands of people.

Just when Yuan Shang was sad, regretting not listening to the dissuasion of frustration, Yuan Shao personally led his troops to arrive, Yuan Shang saw Yuan Shao, and naturally cried about his defeat, hoping that Yuan Shao could avenge himself. Yuan Shao nodded, and said sternly: "Now you know that the military is dangerous, I hope you remember today's lesson, don't be in a hurry to make meritorious contributions, Cao Cao is not something you can deal with now!" Yuan Shao was more like a stern parent at this time, criticizing Yuan Shang, and Yuan Shang was a child who made mistakes, listening to his father's nagging unconvinced.

After Yuan Shao taught Yuan Shang a lesson, he looked at Cao Cao who led the army, maybe this was the last battle between himself and Cao Cao, remembering the good time the two had spent together before, and said with high spirits: "Meng De is okay, I didn't expect that last time Guandu said goodbye, we can meet again, it's really rare." ”

Cao Cao saw that Yuan Shao's face was not good, thinking that it was caused by Yuan Shang's defeat, so he pretended to be kind and persuaded him: "Don't blame the virtuous nephew at the beginning, I just discipline the child on your behalf, don't underestimate the heroes of the world, this time it's okay to be me, if I change to someone else, maybe my head is different." ”

Yuan Shao was not angry, but said lightly: "Meng De is worthy of being my friend Yuan Benchu for many years, understand my hard work, I believe that Xianfu will also learn a lesson." Meng De's providence makes people, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers, today you and I will make a decision. Yuan Shao drew his sword, pointed forward, and ordered the whole army: "Whoever catches Cao Cao will be rewarded with 10,000 taels of gold, and you can seal the marquis of 10,000 households." "Under the heavy reward, there are brave men of their own, and in the face of great temptation, more than 100,000 Yuan troops launched an attack on Cao's army.

Cao Cao did not hesitate, if he did not defeat Yuan Shao this time, I am afraid that he would never have a chance again. Compared with the last battle of Guandu, this time I was more prepared, and it was a good time to fight Yuan Shao. The Yuan army was dominated by cavalry, and the Cangting road was narrow, which was not conducive to cavalry charge, and it did not have an advantage in the face of Cao's elite Qingzhou soldiers. Although there were archers to cover, they still did not cause much damage to Cao's army. On the other hand, the Cao army, the Qingzhou soldiers were brave and good at fighting, brave and fearless, and they simply defeated Yuan Shao's cavalry, and there was no advantage of cavalry against infantry at all.

Yuan Shao saw that the situation was not good, and the road here was narrow, which was not conducive to cavalry combat, so he asked the army to retreat and wait for a flat place to charge again. Cao Cao guessed Yuan Shao's thoughts, but he was not afraid, although Yuan Shao had many soldiers, he did not have a powerful general, and even if Yuan Xi, who was afraid of him, came from Youzhou, it would take a while. As a result, Cao Cao sent his most elite troops, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, to defeat Yuan Shao's cavalry head-on and completely wipe out Yuan Shao's fighting spirit.

Black armor, black war horses, black war knives, when a fully armed pure black cavalry came out, even if there were only more than 10,000 people, Yuan Jun was also under pressure, that kind of ruthless killing atmosphere was terrifying, under Cao Cao's order, he launched an attack without hesitation, without any hesitation, they were like a moving killing machine, although there were many cavalry of the Yuan army, but in the face of this kind of heavy armored cavalry, it was not a level of competition at all, and the Yuan army was defeated.

Just when Cao Cao was about to hunt down Yuan Shao and capture Yecheng in one fell swoop, a familiar voice sounded, which suddenly made Cao Cao's heart half cold: "Cao Cao, I respect you as a hero, let you go back then, but I didn't expect you to reflect in Xuchang and attack my Jizhou, which is really an unforgivable sin." ”

Yuan Xi and Zhao Yun led Bai Ma Yi Cong to arrive in time and saved Yuan Shao's defeat. The tiger and leopard cavalry was also shocked when he saw Yuan Xi, who suddenly killed, and Cao Chun, the commander of the tiger and leopard cavalry, was afraid that Cao Cao would lose, so he abandoned Yuan Shao and came back to deal with Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi won for a while, and he didn't love fighting, so he left quickly, and the tiger and leopard couldn't keep up, so he had to give up.

Yuan Shao was relieved to see Yuan Xi coming, but he was defeated by Cao Cao again, which was a big blow to him, Yuan Shao was not in good health, and soon fell ill. Yuan Shao summoned Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang, and instructed with difficulty: "My life is short, the biggest regret in this life is that I can't defeat Cao Cao, I hope you three brothers can help each other and coexist peacefully." ”

Yuan Shang has been favored by Yuan Shao since he was a child, and now Yuan Shao has passed away soon, and he no longer has the stubbornness and disobedience he had before, and said with crying remorse: "If I hadn't insisted on sending troops to fight Cao Cao, why would my father be like this?" The child knew he was wrong. ”

Yuan Shao stretched out his hand and stroked Yuan Shang with difficulty, and said slowly: "Xianfu, I asked you to lead the troops this time just to give you a chance, and I also want you to know that my father is fair to the three of you, and I decided to pass on the throne to Xianyi, that is for the consideration of my Yuan family, only he can defeat Cao Cao, I hope you three brothers can understand my hard work!" ”

Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang knew that Yuan Tan had become Yuan Shao's successor, although they were unhappy, they didn't have too many ideas, Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi had an agreement, and Yuan Shang had no idea after this fiasco, only Yuan Xi was full of feelings and understood Yuan Shao's hard work, what he was afraid of was that he was gone, and the three children would fight among themselves. Even if he knew that he would lose, he had to fight with Cao Cao to pave the way for himself, and at this time, Yuan Xi realized what it means to be a father's love.