The autumn of 202 was a little cool, and Tao Ying sat on a recliner of his own design and closed his eyes and thought about some questions. With the arrival of September, Cao Cao promised Tao Ying that he would be willing to send Cao Chong to Xuzhou as a hostage, on the premise that Cao Pi would return to Yanzhou, and at the same time sent troops to the north to Liyang again. Liyang is the barrier of Yecheng in Jizhou, if Liyang is broken, Cao Cao can directly send troops to Yecheng, and the consequences will be unimaginable.

Yuan Tan occupied Liyang and asked Yuan Shang to allocate his soldiers and horses, but Yuan Shang was afraid that Yuan Tan would become bigger, so he did not give him soldiers. But with Cao Cao's northward movement, Yuan Shang also knew that if he didn't save Yuan Tan, he would die, so he personally led troops from Yecheng to guard Liyang.

Cao Cao's journey north, with the start of the war, Yuan Shang had to seize the time from Nanpi to customize more powerful cannons, and then purchase more stone-throwing carts and steel knives. In order to suppress the increasingly powerful Cao Cao in terms of force, Tao Ying promised Yuan Shang to sell Yanzhou twenty second-generation Taoling cannons. In order to be able to suppress Cao Cao, Yuan Shang sent an envoy to promise Yuan Tan to serve as the assassin of Youzhou, and Tao Ying paid the condition that he would not sell the second-generation Taoling cannon to Cao Cao.

At the end of September, Tao Yinggang drove out twenty Taoling cannons, but news came from there that Cao Cao had conquered Liyang, and Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan had to withdraw their troops.

After withdrawing the troops, Yuan Tan led the troops back to Bohai, and Yuan Shang led the troops back to Yecheng to garrison. Cao Cao wanted to lead his troops to continue the attack on Yecheng, and the Xuzhou General Commercial Bank was busy marching day and night, transporting the second-generation Taoling cannon from Nanpi to Yecheng. The second generation of Taoling artillery was soon erected on Yecheng, Cao Cao led the troops to besiege Yecheng, the attack was heavy for more than a month, seeing that it could not be overcome, and heard that Cao Cao went north to attack Jizhou, Tao Ying wrote a book again, if Cao Cao did not withdraw his troops, he led his troops to attack Xudu from Shanyang, so Cao Cao had to lead his troops south to protect Xudu.

When Cao Cao went south, Yuan Shang sent troops to let Guo Yuan, Gao Gan and others lead troops to attack Cao Cao from the west. Guo Yuan led his troops to attack Hedong County, and at this time, Zhong Xuan, who was guarding Hedong County, was busy dispatching troops to deal with Guo Yuan's attack.

Zhong Miao was afraid that he would not be able to resist Guo Yuan's attack, so he wrote to Cao Cao again, and Cao Cao wrote another letter to ask Xiliang Ma Teng to help. Although Ma Teng was loyal to the imperial court at this time, he also knew that the Son of Heaven had been controlled by Cao Cao. But at this time, looking at the world, Yuan Shao, who handed over to him, died, Hebei was torn apart, and Cao Cao was left with the most powerful force, so Ma Teng had to follow Cao Cao.

So Ma Teng sent his son Ma Chao to lead troops to help resist Guo Yuan. After several months of war, Ma Chaobu beheaded Pang De and Yuan Shang's general Guo Yuan, and dedicated Guo Yuan's head to Zhong Xuan.

When Zhong Miao saw Guo Yuantou, he cried bitterly. If nothing else, this Guo Yuan is not an outsider, but his own nephew! But at this time, he is a national thief, and he is a Han courtier, and it is useless to cry.

So Zhong Xuan dedicated Guo Yuan's head to Xudu. After the news reached Xuzhou, Tao Ying lashed out at Zhong Xuan in the Pengcheng Monthly News. Zhong Xuan may not be well-known, but his son Zhong Hui is known to everyone in the late Cao Wei period.

Tao Ying was also very dissatisfied with Ma Teng's troops. He actually mixed up with Cao Cao, Ma Chao and Pang De were so brave, how could they let them help the abuse? Tao Ying has become more and more aware that the time has come to liberate the north! At the end of 202, the new year was about to arrive, and Tao Ying ordered that before the end of the year froze, the naval army transported all combat units from the three ports of Qingzhou and had to arrive at Yingkou Port.

The military department also came up with a combat plan, and in order to experiment with the strength he had accumulated in three years, Tao Ying exhausted his own thoughts. When everyone else is training in the army, if you blindly develop, even if your own civilization is a thousand years ahead of this era, what is the use? For example, in the later Ming and Qing dynasties, civilization relied on strong force to ensure that it was not invaded by barbarism!

Therefore, Tao Ying also used various warships with modified third-generation guns produced by himself in the operation of Liaodong, not only that, but this time Tao Ying also incorporated artillery into the siege combat unit. In addition to the cavalry responsible for the charge, the vanguard was also armed with heavy artillery. When the combat formation was reorganized, the only unit that was strengthened was the trapping camp of Gaoshun in Langya.

Originally, the trapping camp had less than 800 soldiers and horses, and as a defender of Langya Town, which was twice as large as Peng Chengguo, Tao Yingxuan expanded the trapping camp to 4,000 people. Of the 4,000 people, there are nearly 500 artillery and nearly 30 cannons. The amount of equipment of this cannon is almost equal to that of a vassal state!

Not only that, in order to make the combat effectiveness of this famous siege force under Lu Bu in the past reach the level of the strongest infantry in Xuzhou, Tao Ying also equipped them with advanced ladders, explosive barrels, heavy armor, steel knives and other equipment, and raised their treatment to the level of the local characters. The most powerful army in Xuzhou is the backup of heaven and earth.

There are two soldiers and horses under the banner of the Son of Heaven, one of which is the tactics that the former White Horse Yi led by Zhao Yun learned from Gongsun Zhan. The second is the Sky Eagle Army led by He Qi, who is not familiar to the outside world but is known to everyone in Xuzhou, who bears the heavy responsibility of suppressing bandits in their own territory. There are also two military horses of the earth generation, the first is the Hell Demon Army led by Cao Chun, who served as the commander of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry in history, and the second is the new infantry reform sample led by Gao Shun, the strongest infantry on the ground, which Tao Ying focused on building - trapped camp!

After the deployment of the military horses, in order to capture Liaodong in one fell swoop in the coming year, Tao Ying even asked his spy agency Surveying and Mapping School to hurry up and draw a map of Liaodong before the arrival of spring. This autumn and winter, the whole of Xuzhou is immersed in the preparation in front of the station.

Just when Tao Ying was immersed in recovering Liaodong by himself, and then occupying the iron ore and building Liaodong into the largest steelmaking base in Xuzhou, the Ministry of Finance came to complain, saying that Xuzhou's money was not enough to spend!

The military expenditure was only enough to maintain the expenses of the army, and the military rations were also sold at a high price, and then the money obtained was invested in the construction of Pengcheng! In particular, the newly established Ministry of Communications, they spent nearly three years of financial expenditure in Xuzhou, they want to widen the river, to build ferries, and so on, the cost is huge. Moreover, Zhuge Jin is ambitious, and wants to open passenger ship transportation to various places within five years.

Not only that, with the establishment of major factories in Pengcheng, the items produced in Xuzhou are popular among the people. Therefore, Xuzhou General Commercial Bank and the Ministry of Communications opened a state-owned water transport line, and they jointly funded the construction of water transportation steam engine ships, and then used them to transport Xuzhou's materials to all parts of Xuzhou.

For this passenger line, Xuzhou has paid nearly two years of financial revenue to make this freight line like a passenger line through the whole Xuzhou. After hearing the news, Tao Ying frowned. Tao Ying asked Zhang Zhao of the Ministry of Government what his opinion was, and why no one told him about such a major matter? But the officials of the Ministry of Finance said that it was approved by the Ministry of Political Affairs, and if the Ministry of Government did not approve it, they would not lend, and now the Ministry of Military Affairs has come to ask for money, and the treasury is really not enough to support such a war!