In the fifth year of Jian'an, June 13, night.

Ma Hong and Gan Ning led 2,000 Jingzhou troops directly to Wancheng, at this time, according to Wancheng's internal report, more than half of the soldiers of Wancheng's Cao army were infected with the plague due to the infection of the plague. Ma Hong ordered the soldiers to attack the city overnight, adopt the strategy of exhausting the troops, and attack Wancheng every half an hour, and the soldiers withdrew when they arrived at the city, and the cycle continued. Although this tactic was old-fashioned, it made Cao Hong miserable, because Cao Hong had only about 200 soldiers left to defend the city.

Late at night, Ma Hongjing sat on the ground and watched the drummer beating the war drum, suddenly stood up, took off the cotton in his ear, walked to a drummer, took the drummer's drum stick and beat the drum himself. Gan Ning looked at Ma Hong with a little surprise, drummers play a very important role in the battlefield, drumming can not only boost morale, but also use drumming to control the rhythm of the soldiers' advance. The drum beat is high and the drum beat is dense to increase the speed of the march, and the drum is low and the interval between the two drums is slow. Obviously, Ma Hong snatched the drum stick from the drummer's hand because he thought that the drummer's way of beating the war drum was wrong, and he wanted to teach the drummer to play the drum himself.

The drum stick was in Ma Hong's hands, sometimes slow and heavy, sometimes rapid, and the speed of the army's attack was also sometimes fast and sometimes slow, unlike just now, the army just attacked Wancheng with the rapid sound of drums. When Ma Hong beat the drum slowly, the army was outside the range of the archers defending the city, and the soldiers advanced at a normal speed, once the siege soldiers reached the range of the enemy soldiers defending the city, they changed to a rapid heavy attack, and the soldiers changed from slow forward to charge.

"Do you know that you don't just beat the drum, the war drum drives the morale of the army, the drum controls the life of the soldiers, and every time you beat the drum, many soldiers may fall. If you play the drum in the right way, there will be fewer deaths, and if you are wrong, there will be more deaths. Ma Hong said this to the drummer next to him, but his eyes were staring straight at the battlefield ahead.

The reprimanded drummer stood with sweat on his face, bowing his head and not daring to speak. Maybe he was tired from the constant drumming, or maybe he was scared into a cold sweat because he was reprimanded by Ma Hong.

"You're just tired from drumming in the rear, while the brothers in front are desperate, you know?" Ma Hong Road.

"General, my subordinates understand!" The drummer knelt on the ground and said.

"Well, you get up!" Ma Hong handed the drum stick to the drummer.

The drummer quickly took the drum stick and continued to beat.

After harassing Wancheng all night, the Jingzhou army launched a general attack on Wancheng at dawn the next day. The city of Wancheng was strong, and Cao Hong used the city to support it for half a day, but the Jingzhou army still did not break through Wancheng.

On the afternoon of June 14, Cao Hong stood on the tower of the city and watched the soldiers climbing up the ladder, his teeth biting his lower lip and blood flowing onto his beard and drying it out with the wind. Over the years, he has followed his brother Cao Cao to fight everywhere, and he has seen no fewer dead people than he has seen living people, but he knows that if he does not withdraw his army, he will also become dead. Almost all of his soldiers were infected by the plague and died, most of the soldiers died, and half were waiting to die, and there were less than two hundred soldiers under his command, how to defend the city. Cao Hong had already sent a distress letter to Xu Du, and he held on to the city and waited for Xu Du's reply, but Xu Du's never came. Cao Hong knew that the war was tense now, and it was unrealistic for Xun Yu to draw troops to support Wancheng, but he couldn't withdraw without waiting for the letter, because Cao Ang, the eldest son of his brother Cao Cao, died here in this city, and his nephew also died here.

This is a city that makes Cao Cao sad, now Zhang Xiu surrendered, and finally took over Wancheng, now if the army is withdrawn, then the territory between Xinye and Wancheng will be occupied by Liu Biao, and most of the control of Nanyang County will fall into the hands of Liu Biao.

"Hold it off for me." Cao Hong shouted loudly and slashed at a soldier's head, cutting off half of the soldier's head with a quick knife. Then Cao Hong kicked over the oil barrel, the flames burned down the ladder, and there was another scream, and the screams shook Cao Hong's ears a little numb, so that he didn't hear what the guards not far away called him, until he was hit by an arrow in the arm, he realized that the guards were shouting: Be careful with the arrow.

"It's a pity, the city is too high, and this arrow can't kill Cao Hong." Gan Ning shook his head.

"What a good bow, without poison on the arrows?" Ma Hong asked, bending down behind the shield soldier.

"It's a waste of money to shoot so many arrows in a battle, and each one is coated with poison." Gan Ning said this, and drew another arrow and shot it.

"What is the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, as soon as the battle is fought, the original form will be revealed, Cao Hong's soldiers are only one or two hundred, and they are exhausted, and our two thousand people can't even attack it." Ma Hong sighed.

Gan Ning said: "It is naturally easier to defend the city, and it is only a matter of time before we take Wancheng, but the casualties will be greater." ”

On the city tower, the guards stuck to Cao Hong's side, Cao Hong gritted his teeth and shouted bitterly: "Resist, kill those who retreat!" ”

"General, Xu Du sent a letter asking the general to withdraw from Wancheng." The herald ran to Cao Hong's side and whispered.

Cao Hong nodded, looked around and saw the deputy general, waved his hand to let the deputy general rush over and order the deputy general to resist, and he led the army to evacuate first.

Two hours later, the army led by Gan Ning and Ma Hong completely controlled Wancheng, and Ma Hong rode on a war horse and said to Gan Ning beside him: "I heard that Cao Hong is extremely fond of money, and there must be a lot of property in his house, Cao Hong must have left a lot of property in a hurry." ”

Gan Ning clapped his hands and applauded, the two led their troops to loot Cao Hong's mansion, and half an hour later, the two sat on the ground and looked at each other with a disgraced face, Gan Ning's eyes were full of anger.

"Cao Hong, when he escaped, he didn't forget to take away his belongings." Gan Ning scolded angrily.

"Haha! It seems that Cao Hong has been prepared for a long time, he is really a greedy person, but there are still some beauties in the house, Xingba, you can choose a few beautiful women. Ma Hong smiled.

Gan Ning knocked the knife in his hand on the ground and said, "Do you say that there is something wrong with this Cao Hong, why are the women he likes so fat." ”

Ma Hong smiled: "Xingba, do you like to be thin?" ”

Gan Ning smiled and said, "I like to be thin, your maid named Lian'er looks good, why don't you give it to me?" ”

Ma Hong glanced at Gan Ning and said, "Then don't think about it, go and deal with those soldiers who were abandoned by Cao Hong!" Those soldiers are all infected with the plague, and it would be bad if the plague spread. ”

Gan Ning said: "I have ordered the soldiers to gather all the captives and kill and incinerate them. ”

Ma Hong nodded and said, "I also have to investigate to see if the plague spreads." ”

Gan Ning nodded, but he didn't mean to stand up at all, because he was too tired.

When the news of Ma Hong's capture of Wancheng reached Xiangyang, Cai Mao was shocked, he did not understand why Ma Hong and Gan Ning only captured Wancheng with 2,000 troops, and Xinye's secret letter to him only stated that Ma Hong went to Jianyang to deal with the plague. Cai Mao threw Wenpin's secret letter into the brazier, her face was very embarrassed, and she said to herself: This son should not be underestimated.

In Liu's mansion, Liu Biao was washing his face when he heard the news, and he smiled and wrote a document to Ma Hong and Gan Ning, ordering the two to lead the army to rectify in Wancheng and not to march to Cao Cao again.

On June 24, in Xunfu, Xudu, Chen Qun was sitting next to Xun Yu.

Xun Yu was reading an unsigned letter, Xun Yu frowned after reading the letter and said to Chen Qun: "Changwen, who do you guess is the person who wrote this letter?" ”

Chen Qun shook his head.

Xun Yu handed the letter to Chen Qun, who didn't look at it and just put the letter on the bookcase.

Xun Yu asked, "Why don't you watch it?" ”

Chen Qun said: "It's not good for me to watch it. ”

Xun Yu said: "Liu Biao's letter, Liu Biao said in the letter that he has ordered Ma Hong to stop marching towards us, if the lord is defeated by Yuan Shao, let me take His Majesty to Wancheng, he will send Ma Hong to meet the holy car." ”

Chen Qun pondered for a while and said, "Then how should my father respond?" ”

Xun Yu said: "The best answer is not to respond." ”

Chen Qun nodded and said, "According to the report from the spies, Liu Bei led an army to Runan, how should we deal with it?" ”

Xun Yu said: "Report to the lord first, and then inform Cao Ren, Cao Ren knows what to do?" ”

Chen Qun nodded, stood up, and bowed to Xun Yu before retreating.