Gao Shun defeated Yuan Shao, which can be regarded as helping Dong Zhuo get rid of a heart disease; Then Gongsun Chan took refuge in Gao Shun, which made Dong Zhuo shocked into a cold sweat, and secretly called luck, fortunately he had a four-year appointment with Gao Shun in advance.

However, Gao Shun then stopped the attack, did not embarrass Cao Cao's forces, and asked Dong Zhuo to put his hanging heart back in his stomach.

In order to go south with confidence, Dong Zhuo adopted Li Ru's suggestion, named Cao Cao as the marquis of Yangcheng County, and appointed Cao Cao as the Taishou of Yingchuan County, hoping that Yingchuan County would become a buffer zone between him and Gao Shun's forces, and Cao Cao could not surrender to Gao Shun even if he did not take refuge in him.

and transferred the former Yingchuan County Taishou Wei to the south of the Yangtze River to fight.

At the end of the year, the imperial court received a million stone grain tax from Gao Shun, which gave him more confidence to go south, thinking that Gao Shun was really a trustworthy person.

The south is progressing smoothly, and Niu Fu, with the assistance of everyone, has won successive victories, has recovered Jiangxia County and Nan County's territory south of the Yangtze River, and is advancing to Changsha County.

Liu Pan and Liu Du had to shrink the line, and adopted Gao Shun's suggestion, spent a lot of money, and invited Wuxi Man to participate in the war.

At this time, there was good news coming, which made Dong Zhuo's heart bloom, it turned out that Yangzhou Mu Qinguan replied to the letter, obeyed the orders of the imperial court, resolutely quelled the rebellion for the imperial court, and must remove the rebellious party Yuan Shu and Sun Ce for the imperial court.

Li Ru also felt incredible, after the Yellow Turban Army surrendered to the imperial court, it was so loyal to the imperial court, not only sending food, but also preparing to dispatch troops to quell the rebellion for the imperial court; No matter what the result is, the development trend of things is good, as long as the Yellow Turban Army fights with Yuan Shu and Sun Ce, it is the imperial court that will benefit in the end; And there is the Yellow Turban Army to contain Sun Ce, so that Dong Zhuo can save a lot of worry, and he doesn't have to worry about Sun Ce creating trouble.

Qin Guan had long hoped to destroy Yuan Shu and occupy Xin'an County, but Gao Shun did not agree before, and now that he had an order, he immediately sent troops; He hasn't seen the weak Yuan Shu yet, only Sun Ce's power is still a little difficult.

Yuan Shu began to have an army of more than 50,000 people, but Xin'an County could not feed so many people, Yuan Shu had to increase the intensity of looting, even so, the life of the officers and soldiers was very difficult, coupled with Yuan Shu's extravagant life, which exacerbated the economic difficulties.

As a result, a large number of people fled, and a large number of officers and soldiers fled, all of whom were accepted by Qinguan and settled as people.

Now that Yuan Shu's army is less than 20,000, how can he resist the army of Qin Pass?

Qin Guan was not prepared to dispatch crossbow troops, and even regular troops were not ready to dispatch, but regarded the war against Yuan Shu as a military training, and all the troops dispatched were newly formed; The combat effectiveness of the newly formed troops is not low, and there are a large number of Shanyue and Fujian people in it, and their physical fitness and combat level far surpass those of the Han people, but they are still a little rusty with each other and battle formations.

The physical fitness of the Han people in Jiangnan is much weaker than that of the northerners, if there is no participation of these Shanyue people, Qin Guan will never have the confidence to fight against Sun Ce, after all, most of the officers and soldiers led by Sun Ce are veterans of a hundred battles; The number of systematic soldiers and horses left by Gao Shun was too small, and he had to garrison the counties; If the Shanyue soldiers were trained, plus the Danyang soldiers, cavalry, crossbow soldiers and trapping camps, the Qin Guan side would have the certainty of defeating Sun Ce and occupying Yuzhang County.

Before the war, the military advisor Liu Ye wanted to personally lead the troops to the battle, eliminate Yuan Shu and Sun Ce as soon as possible, and prepare to fight against Dong Zhuo, but was vetoed by Qin Guan, and promised: "Military division, Yuan Highway is at the end of the road, let a few generals practice their hands, a little damage can promote their improvement; After stabilizing Xin'an County, the military division will personally go out to eliminate Sun Ce. ”。

Liu Ye felt that this was not bad, so he agreed to Qin Guan's suggestion, but he still explained to Ling Cao that he would get rid of Zhenrong immediately after occupying Xin'an County.

Ling Cao happily accepted the order, Zhen Rong's character was too poor, which was shameful, and he could avoid future troubles after being removed.

The troops are divided into two routes, all the way from Guyan County, to the Xin'an County Zhiwanling City, this road with Ling Cao as the main commander; All the way from Wuhu, first occupy the nearby Chungu County, cut off Yuan Shu's escape route from the water, and then march into Wanling City, the road army to Zhang Ying as the guard, Dong Xi sat in Wuhu, for the two road army to provide logistics baggage, this is also Qin Guan's assessment of Zhang Ying.

Qin Guan felt that among Liu Xuan's several generals, Zhang Ying's level was not bad, and he was more valuable than Yu Mi and Fan Neng, so he gave him a stage to play, and then promoted after he made his military achievements.

In addition, Zhenrong's 16,000 army came from the west, and it was not difficult to deal with Yuan Shu at all.

Zhenrong has already recovered Huang County and occupied the land of the two counties; This time, troops were dispatched from Huang County and approached Lingyang County.

Zhenrong is now obedient to Qin Guan's words, he is the Taishou of Xin'an County appointed by the imperial court, he is eager for Qin Guan to assist him in recovering Xin'an County, he is worthy of his name, so Zhenrong's troops are fighting very hard, so that Yuan Shu has to gradually shrink the line, Lingyang County and Jing County were occupied by Zhenrong one after another.

In just one month, the three-way army met outside Wanling City to complete the encirclement of Yuan Shu.

Zhen Rong guarded outside the west gate, Ling Cao sat at the east gate, Zhang Ying sat at the north gate, and Liu Pi, Dung Du, Liao Hua and others were stationed outside the south gate, blocking the water around Wanling City.

At the beginning of the war, the military advisor Yang Hong suggested asking Sun Ce of Yuzhang County for help, but Yuan Shu was proud of his high level and directly rejected this suggestion; Sun Ce and the others were originally his generals, how could he surrender his identity to ask the traitor Sun Ce for help?

After being rejected, the military advisor Yang Hong had no plan.

It is impossible to take refuge in the imperial court, it was the melee of the princes provoked by the Yuan family, which led to the war in the world, how could Dong Zhuo and the imperial court tolerate Yuan Shu?

Yuan Shu's identity is prominent, and it is impossible to take refuge in other people, such as Qin Guannai in Jiangdong is the Yellow Turban Army, extremely humble, Lu Su in Jiangbei is born in a small local tyrant, and he is not in the eyes of the scholars, and Liu Pan in Jingnan is difficult to protect, and he is not an ideal person to take refuge in, otherwise it is an insult to Yuan Shu's identity, and he will rather die than obey.

Sima Lingcao of the other department was the commander-in-chief of the siege and led 54,000 men to besiege the city; Among them, there are 10,000 recruits and 5,000 soldiers and horses led by Ling Cao, and Sima Zhang Ying of the other department leads 10,000 recruits and 5,000 soldiers and horses of the headquarters; Zhenrong had 12,000 soldiers and horses here, and his other 8,000 soldiers and horses were stationed in the four western counties.

The generals of the Yellow Turban Army who came to defect also followed the expedition, such as Liu Pi, Dung Du, He Man, Liao Hua and others, all of whom served as military commanders, each leading 3,000 infantry, a total of 12,000 people. When the Yellow Turban Uprising in the Central Plains failed, they were either captured and placed as a people, or hidden, and after Qin Guan raised the banner of the Yellow Turban Army again in the south of the Yangtze River, it developed rapidly.

Ling Cao's strategy is to besiege but not attack; However, Zhen Rong was very anxious, and attacked the city several times in a row, but was met with fierce resistance, resulting in the loss of troops and heavy casualties.

Several of Yuan Shu's generals were still very loyal, and even when they reached the point of exhaustion, they still did not give up; Even went out of the city several times and defeated Zhen Rong in a row, if it wasn't for Ling Cao's timely rescue, Zhen Rong would have died in the chaos.

General Ji Ling personally arranged the city defense, and inspected the city wall from time to time, urging everyone to stick to their posts, and Wanling City was defended very firmly.

Yuan Shu also had nearly 20,000 officers and soldiers, with Ji Ling and other strong generals, relying on the protection of the strong city wall, Wanling City was difficult to overcome.

The eastern, northern, and southern gates have not been attacked, which has relieved the people in the city a little.

In the siege of March, the food in Wanling City was almost consumed, and the generals were very anxious, so they asked Yang Hong, Yuan Zhao, Yan Xiang and others to negotiate countermeasures.