As Ma Chao and Xue Rengui's reinforcements arrived one after another, the number of Zhang Yi's troops around Xuchang slowly surpassed Cao Ren.

Cao Ren was extremely worried in his heart, Xuchang has been run by the city of Chi Shen over the years, and he himself is also very good at defense, and there is no problem for a while.

But there are more problems in Yanling, Cao Chun and Cao Zhen are good at cavalry combat, and the other is a fledgling, and the city wall is not too high, and there are not many materials to defend the city. Most of the soldiers under the command of the two were cavalry, and there was not much military rations.

Cao Ren was worried that Yanling's food would be insufficient, so he wanted to find someone to transport military food to Yanling, because it was only thirty or forty miles, so he didn't consider Cao Xiu.

At this time, his general Changshi Liu Yan suddenly came over to ask for his life, Cao Ren thought that he did not have any experience in leading troops and did not want him to go.

Liu Yan said: "If Xuchang is besieged by the enemy today, and the general is alone in the city, it is the time to employ people, and the generals need to defend the city." It is not a pity to die for a useless person. If Yan successfully reached Yanling, the enemy's strength was insufficient, and the general could continue to hold out for some time; If Yan is killed by Zhang Jun, the enemy must be strong, and the general should consider withdrawing his troops. ”

When Cao Ren heard this, he took Liu Yan's hand and said to him: "Be careful when you resign, if there is any disagreement, return to Xuchang immediately, a loyal person like Gong is what the imperial court needs." ”

Liu Yan set off to Yanling with a grain transport team, and it is not uncommon to say that he is a loyal man. Liu Yan was Liu Bei's subordinate at the beginning, and it was Liu Bei who served Liu Bei when he was in Runan.

According to the original historical trajectory, Liu Yan followed Liu Bei all the way to Jingzhou and Shu, and it can be said that Liu Bei was a staunch supporter, that is, the anti-Cao faction.

In history, Liu Yan's ending was not too good, he had a beautiful wife, and he was often talked to by the queen. Liu Yan suspected that Liu Chan and his wife were having an adulterous affair, so he made a lot of nonsense and said a lot of inappropriate things. Liu Chan was very angry and killed him.

In this time and space, Liu Yan went incognito after Liu Bei's demise. He always thought that Liu Bei was the hope of the Han family, and after Liu Bei was eliminated by Zhang Yi, he thought that Zhang Yi killed the last hope of the Han family. So he hated Zhang Yi and chose to take refuge in Cao Cao.

Liu Yan is very beautiful, a member of the Han family, and an upright person, and is the talent that Cao Cao wants the most. Although he issued a meritocracy order, he said that meritocracy was a meritocracy. But wouldn't it be better if the person was both talented and virtuous?

After nearly ten years of promotion, Liu Yan became the long history of the general Cao Ren, and there was a previous scene.

Liu Yan is a staunch supporter of the Han family, but he doesn't think that the Han family will flourish here here in Liu Xie. But he still supported Xun Yu's proposition, and after Xun Yu died, he no longer had any illusions about the Cao family, but specifically blocked Zhang Yi.

He believes that Cao Ren should choose to break out now instead of staying in Xuchang. Because Cao Ren's current form is similar to Liu Bei's original. If Liu Bei chose to break through, there would still be a way to live, but Liu Bei didn't, so he was eliminated by Zhang Yi.

The lesson from the past is here, Liu Yan also persuaded him many times, but Cao Ren still wanted to stick to it, so Liu Yan could only use this persuasion.

Liu Yan set off from Xuchang with 500,000 Hu of military rations and rushed to Yanling as fast as possible.

But halfway through, a group of men and horses came out on both sides of the road, waving a big Suzi flag.

This is Su Lie's army, Su Lie had already set his sights on Liu Yan when he left the city, and then ambushed him halfway.

Liu Yan saw that he had been ambushed, but he was relieved, and said to the soldiers as if he were dead: "Ignite the fire!" ”

Cao Jun immediately lit a fire and set the grain cart on fire. Liu Yan had already prepared flammable materials on the grain truck, and he already knew that he would not be able to go back alive, and he would have to block Zhang Yi before he died.

The flames ignited very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, they were already burning very strongly. Those cattle and horses pulling grain and grass were frightened by the flames and strung around, knocking many Cao soldiers to the ground and trampling to death.

When Su Lie saw this situation, he didn't let the soldiers go to put out the fire. There will definitely be a lot of unnecessary casualties when you go in at this time, which is not what Su Lie wants to see.

"Shoot the arrows!" Su Lie ordered.

Since you can't go in to rescue, then shoot Cao Bing and the cattle and horses, these cattle and horses lost horses and very thin cattle, although there is some value, but compared to the war horses are still far away, it is not worth cherishing too much.

There is no shortage of cattle and horses to cultivate land under Zhang Yi's rule, and Zhang Yi's attention to people's livelihood has not decreased over the years. In order to let people eat less cattle and horses, he popularized the technique of inciting pigs, solved the problem of pork fishiness, and made pork the favorite meat of the people at present.

And he also promoted many of the recipes he knew about pigs, such as Sichuan white meat, blood sausage, fried large intestine and so on.

And the development of fish has been increased, not only limited to fish in rivers, but also a large number of marine fishing, and even scallops, oysters and other marine ingredients, to increase people's choice.

The arrows were shot over, whether it was Cao Bing or Niu Ma, they were shot one after another.

After Liu Yan lit the grain cart, he laughed, everything happened according to his expectations, and he also completed the last act of blocking Zhang Yi, how could he have no choice? How not to laugh?

"Poof!"

An arrow shot into Liu Yan's chest, Liu Yan's laughter paused abruptly, his body gradually lost its strength, and he fell to the ground, but there was no pain on his face, but with a smile, he was relieved!

As early as ten years ago, his heart had died with Liu Bei's death, and now it was just his body that died.

Su Lie looked at Liu Yan's crazy appearance and felt inexplicable, what happened to this person?

Liu Yan died, but it woke up Cao Ren. Cao Ren immediately chose to retreat north, and burned the grain he couldn't take away, and also set a fire in the Han palace.

Lu Xun had no choice but to go into the city to put out the fire and gave up the pursuit of Cao Ren. The palace of the Han family is not a pity, just burn it and build it again. But if the fire is not extinguished, it may sweep through the city, and many people will suffer.

Cao Ren took advantage of the fire to ask for the pursuit, and immediately went to Yanling to join Cao Chun, and then with the tiger and leopard cavalry as the pioneer, broke through the obstacles and retreated into Chenliu County.

Since then, Cao Wei's strength has withdrawn from Yuzhou, and only the four states of Jizhou, Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Yanzhou have been retained. In two months, the three semi-states of Sili, Yuzhou, Xuzhou, and Qingzhou were discarded.

Moreover, Zhang Yi's offensive is not over yet, and a steady stream of soldiers is marching towards Yanzhou.