While the summer hills of Xuzhou sent away the old year in a drifting snowflake, Puyang in Yanzhou ushered in the New Year in the warm winter. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThe snow here has fallen several times before the Chinese New Year, shrouding the entire Puyang City in white, and the city looks like an ice carving from a distance, full of holy beauty. Although the weather was sunny for a few days, the temperature was still pitifully low, and except for some roads that had been swept out of necessity to show their original colors, the rest of the places were mostly decorated with snow to look like they were covered in silver.

The Taishou Mansion in Puyang is a large courtyard. Although it was originally not that big, it was after Cao Cao officially took possession of Yanzhou, Yuzhou, and even part of Qingzhou last year. As the base camp of Cao Cao's forces, this Taishou Mansion also had to be expanded. Of course, this expansion does not refer to the use of a large number of gold and silver building materials to repair the golden wall of the Taishou Mansion is brilliant and luxurious. It only expanded the area of Taishou Mansion and built more than a dozen green tile houses of such a size. This was necessary for Cao Cao, who had already recruited a lot of people and had to build and provide them with space for their offices.

Cao Cao is a person who aspires to the world, and he is very talented in his own right, so he naturally understands the importance of mastering talents. Therefore, he always gave his men the gold and silver that he said he had given without hesitation. Perhaps, these rewards do not seem very rich, after all, the current Cao Cao is not very powerful, but as a monarch's heart to his subordinates, it still makes many people feel the possibility of meeting the lord in their hearts.

It's just that the many people here don't include the most important ones under him. For example, Xun Yu, Xun You, Cheng Yu, Guo Jia, Liu Ye and others who just joined Cao Cao's forces half a year ago. These people are all famous and resourceful people, who came for Cao Cao's prestige and the possibility that Cao Cao might become the end of the troubled times, and they are not completely unconcerned about the rewards of these gold and silver luxuries, but they will never take it to heart.

"To really get the help of these people, when my power is still weak, I must firmly grasp their hearts." Cao Cao thinks so. He is a smart man and naturally understands what to do under what circumstances. So, making an appearance of humbly asking for advice and not being ashamed to ask, constantly mixing with these newcomers, asking them all kinds of questions, and constantly instilling their own ideals in them, so that they know that they understand themselves, has become something that Cao Cao needs to carry out in three days. He knows that only through constant communication with each other can he get the approval of the other party.

Standing at the top of the lobby of his mansion, holding up the wine bottle on the desk with one hand, looking at so many of his subordinates who are all outstanding people, he couldn't help but feel proud in his chest. He originally invited everyone to discuss this year's strategic plan today, but after discussing it for a long time, he had to set up a banquet in this mansion. This is certainly a bit casual and irregular, but for these people under him, it can also be seen as a sign of the Lord's closeness to him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, many things happened last year: at the end of March, Dong Zhuo, a traitor in the imperial court, was betrayed by his subordinate Lu Bu and died, and Situ Wang Yun became the leader of the imperial court. But he didn't want to think that in less than two months, Wang Situ was attacked by the traitors Li Dao and Guo Yan and was defeated and died, and the court was covered with dust again. At that time, the Yellow Turban in Qingzhou was prosperous, attacking the people, and attacking the prefectures and counties shocked the world. Of course, I know that this is not the emperor's true intention, but the hearts of Li and Guo. However, this trip was beneficial to the court, the country, the community, and the people, and I still obeyed the will of the court.

It was convenient to march into Shandong in August, and finally put down the Yellow Turban Rebellion in Qingzhou by dozens of battles in November. Therefore, the imperial court appointed me as the pastor of Yanzhou, the general of Zhendong, and had the right to open the government and govern affairs, so he invited all the gentlemen to come. I think that all the gentlemen are either famous and resourceful, or they are excellent in martial arts, and they are all handsome. Following me Cao Cao at this moment is really like manna falling from heaven on dry land, which is the grace of heaven. With your help, why should I Cao Cao worry about not building a great cause and not succeeding in it. At this moment, it is the New Year, which should be a time for individuals to reunite with their families, but because of me, they are stranded here, which is Cao Cao's fault, and he should punish himself with three cups and all gentlemen. Cao Cao said loudly and drank all the liquid in the wine bottle, followed by three more glasses, and looked at the people below with a slightly red face.

At that moment, the left seat was raised by Guo Jia, and the right seat was raised by Xiahou Yuan, and they all raised the wine bottles in their hands and thanked Cao Cao: "The ministers don't dare." If there is no master who knows people, rest assured to appoint us, we are only afraid that we are still ambushed in the grass today, but how can we have the hope of spreading our wings and smell the voice of tomorrow. Even if you are waiting for the prime minister on a different day, you will also be blessed by the grace of the Lord. After that, he also drank all the wine in the bottle, which can be regarded as a tribute to Cao Cao.

After that, everyone opened their minds. Here, the literati and strategists all spoke softly and chanted poems against each other. The generals over there laughed heartily, drank soup in large bowls, and ate meat, but they also ate so lively. And the one above looked at the people under him with a smile and didn't think it was a pestle. As Cao Cao, who has just developed and has not achieved high positions and powers, he still treats his people with a relatively peaceful attitude.

Half an hour passed, and it was all over. After the dishes in front of everyone's desk were cleaned up, Cao Cao cleared his throat and began the afternoon topic. Because, after a whole morning of discussion, everyone has reached a clear conclusion on whether to attack Tao Qian - "Tao Qian must be attacked, Xuzhou must be occupied, and all the talents of Xuzhou must be used." Therefore, the discussion in the afternoon revolved: "How to attack Tao Qian." "to carry it out.

"Tao Qian killed my father, I can't wait to eat his flesh and bones. And according to Fengxiao's words, our army is now not sufficient in military resources, grain and grass, and it is already strong enough to support the 300,000 Qingzhou soldiers and 1100,000 people who have newly returned to Shun, and if we do not rapidly expand our army's territory, I am afraid that if we do not need others to attack, our army will be in chaos. At present, there are two targets that our army can choose from: Tao Qian in the west and Yuan Shu in the south. Although Yuan Shu fought with me once in Xu and fled to Shouchun in Yangzhou, his main forces were not lost, and he still had some combat effectiveness.

And we are still in Yuan Shao's camp now. Everyone understands the relationship between the two brothers, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu. Even if Yuan Shao hates Yuan Shu now, once Yuan Shu is beaten by us, he submits to Yuan Shao, and the strength of the two Yuan is combined, and we will never come out.

However, if we attacked Tao Qian instead of Yuan Shu, everything would be very different. Tao Qian is considered to be Yuan Shu's camp, but now he is quite unhappy with Yuan Shu. And his other ally, Gongsun Zhan, was at war with Yuan Shao and could not rescue him at all. There is a huge Xuzhou, but now it is just a lonely shadow. As long as we go to Xuzhou in the name of revenge and blood hatred, no one will rescue Xuzhou. This will give us a better chance of winning. Hmph, he Tao Qian has the world-famous Danyang soldiers, and I, Cao Cao, also use the Qingzhou soldiers that make everyone have a headache. He Tao Qian does not have a useful general under him, but I Cao Cao has so many famous generals under me, I think we will win this battle. Cao Cao listed the situation of both the enemy and us one by one, and shouted quite inclammatory: "Destroy Tao Qian, slaughter Xuzhou, avenge the family, and establish military prestige." ”

"Oh! Destroy Tao Qian, slaughter Xuzhou, avenge the family, and establish military prestige. "The first to echo Cao Cao were the generals of his own clan, such as Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, etc. They are Cao Cao's closest and most trusted people, and they always take Cao Cao's wishes as their responsibility. They supported almost unreservedly everything Cao Cao did.

And those strategists who had just been sent by Cao Cao Luo were not so eager to react to Cao Cao's oaths. In addition to Guo Jia is nodding with a smile on his face, such as Xun Yu, Xun You, Cheng Yu, etc., were either completely calm and silent, or shook their heads slightly with unhappiness. As scholars, it seems that Cao Cao's heart is still too cold, and they don't seem to be able to bear such blood.

"Don't they know that in order to accomplish great things, many people must die? If I don't use some bloody means to deter those who dare to provoke me, the entanglement in the future will definitely be endless. It is better to teach me to bear the people of the world, and not to teach the people of the world to bear me. Anyone who dares to stop my Cao Cao from advancing will have no choice but to kill him. "Cao Cao, who had only achieved a great victory in Qingzhou not long ago, suddenly had a strong army, and the arrogance in his heart became stronger and stronger. Faced with the fact that his father was killed, there was always a scorching fire burning in his chest, and the heat brought by this burning made him really crazy.

After calming his mood a little, Cao Cao glanced around at everyone in the hall. The incomparably sharp and majestic gaze slid over everyone's faces one by one, making everyone here involuntarily shudder in their hearts. The generals stopped shouting, but the scorching light in their eyes still satisfied Cao Cao. As for those civil officials, although he saw that there were relatively few people who sincerely agreed with his proposal, as long as they did not speak up against him clearly, then Cao Cao would not be too much.

"How do you think this battle should be fought?" Cao Cao asked his men. Although he already had a plan for this battle in his own mind, he was still willing to listen to everyone's opinions. He wanted to find out from these people where he might be overlooked, and he also wanted to further express to these people that he valued them. After all, he Cao Cao is the superior, and most of the people in the hall are the subordinates, and the question of the superior to the inferior is called shameless questioning. It may be just an attitude, but it's enough to be heartbreaking.

There was a brief silence in the hall as everyone pondered the question.

Guo Jia, who would soon be praised as a "ghost talent" by Cao Cao, took the lead in opening his mouth: "I think it is necessary to score three ways to attack Xuzhou." ”

"Which three?" Cao Cao asked.

"One route set out from Taishan County to attack Dongguan and Langya two counties; One route set out from Zou County to attack Xiaopei, Pengcheng, and Xiabil; The last road was also from Zou County, Xiaopei, Pengcheng, and Xiabil, but it crossed Xiabillet and directly attacked the second county of Guangling. Guo Jia briefly introduced.

"Why is that? Let's just rush all the way and fight it, won't it be over? Dian Wei on the side muttered loudly, he didn't understand this very well, and thought it was very wordy.

"The general is brave, but he doesn't know the current situation. At present, although Gongsun Zhan's main force is contained by Yuan Shao and cannot go south, Gongsun Zhan's Qingzhou Thorn Shi Tian Kai and Beihai Taishou Kong Rongdu still have some mobile forces that can reinforce Xuzhou. And there is Zang Ba in the north of Xuzhou, the only guy in Xuzhou who can fight. It can be said that the main task of the army attacking Dongguan and Langya is to deal with the southbound rescue troops of Tian Kai, Kong Rong, and Zang Ba. As for the team attacking Xiaopei, Xiabil, and Pengcheng all the way, it is naturally needless to say that it is a direct attack on the Xuzhou Governance Office and dealing with Tao Qian's headquarters. And the men and horses who attacked Guangling and Donghai on the last road were specially used for plundering. It must be known that Guangling is the richest place in Xuzhou, and there is naturally a lot of money and grain. Guo Jia didn't answer Dian Wei, but Liu Ye, who was watching from the side, quickly understood Guo Jia's intentions and explained directly to everyone, "These three people are indispensable." ”

"I see." Now everyone understands.

Now that the strategy has been decided, Cao Cao began to send troops next: he asked Cheng Yu and Xun Yu to lead 30,000 troops to stay in Zhencheng, Fanxian, and Dong'e counties, and kill Xuzhou with a large army. Among them, Ling Yuban was the vanguard of the Northern Army, Xiahou Yuan was the general of the Northern Army, and Lu Qian was engaged in the Northern Army, leading 50,000 troops to attack Dongguan and Langya; Xiahoudun was the vanguard of the Southern Army, Cao Hong was the general of the Southern Army, and Mao Jue was the marching Sima, leading 50,000 troops to attack Guangling; And Cao Cao led the 170,000 troops in the middle of the road, with Dian Wei as the vanguard, Guo Jia as the military advisor, Man Chong as the marching Sima, and Liu Ye as the army, mainly attacking the billet. He ordered the governor of Xunyou to supply grain and grass from all walks of life, thinking that he was behind the army.

Because it was still cold and frozen, and it was the time of the New Year's celebration, it was not good to send troops to attack immediately, so Cao Cao asked his subordinates to prepare first. He raised a division to attack Tao Qian in the name of revenge, so it was indispensable to wear clothes such as Ma Dai Xiao, white clothes and white armor, and blades wrapped in white cloth were also indispensable. Cao Cao gave his men a few months to prepare for this, while training his soldiers. The first is to raise the combat power of his sergeants to a higher level, and at the same time let them know that this time they can kill with their minds as before, and use all their strength to grab; The second is to prepare all these needs, so that the whole army will be approved in filial piety clothes and wear white armor to attack.

When everything was prepared, the time had come to May of the fourth year of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty. In the same month, Cao Cao swore an oath in Puyang and led the three-way army to Xuzhou in the east in the name of "obeying filial piety and avenging his father".

Before leaving, Cao Cao once again summoned all his cadres and family members to the hall of the Taishou Mansion. After looking at the generals, strategists and strategists who were also dressed in white armor and white robes, with white cloth wrapped around their heads, as well as their wives and children sitting beside him, he calmly sorted out his thoughts, and opened his mouth calmly and seriously: "This time I came to you to arrange the future. Although we have a good chance of winning this time, anything can happen on the battlefield. In the unlikely event that I die now, my sons are still too young to inherit my business. Once such a situation occurs, you can entrust my family to Zhang Mengzhuo. He was my brother when I was younger, and he should have taken better care of my family. ”

"Please be cautious, where can such a situation occur in this battle?" Everyone was prostrate on the ground and did not dare to look up at Cao Cao. The person who thought about things like this before the war, and even thought about what happened after his death, seems to be the only one in everyone's memory. It's just that this is not a good word, on the contrary, it tastes a little unlucky.

"Haha! It's just talk. If my life is due to heaven, how can I die so easily? Looking at the prostrate crowd, Cao Cao suddenly laughed out loud. He laughed so arrogantly that no one could figure out what was going on in his heart.

After a cup of tea, Cao Cao's laughter stopped. I could only hear him shouting, "Let's go!" He shook off the white cloak behind him and strode out of the hall.

Looking at Cao Cao's delicate and imposing figure, the young Xun Yu whispered to his uncle Xun Yu with a complicated expression: "Uncle, do you think our choice is correct?" With 270,000 Qingzhou soldiers going with a sense of revenge, I am afraid that millions of people in Xuzhou will die and have no place to be buried. They were driven out of Xuzhou by Tao Qian, and their hearts were full of hatred for Tao Qian, coupled with the inciting ...... of the lord, isn't this a river of blood? The lord is too ruthless, do you think he can achieve our ideals? ”

Xun Yu looked around cautiously, and saw that no one was paying attention to him, so he also whispered to the nephew who was older than him: "Our ideal takes time to complete. The current turbulent times can only be brought to an end by the truly powerful. The Lord is our choice, and we should further support him. No matter how ruthless he is, he is a strong man who cannot be slandered. Although he is not too strong now, he can be relied on more than Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, so we can only let him end the war first. As for this Han family, that's something to be discussed later. And to accomplish the whole great cause, it is necessary to sacrifice some people. ”

"But......" Xun You wanted to say something more, but when he saw his uncle glaring at him with an unkind expression, he secretly pouted and didn't say anything.

As soon as the army came out, Cao Cao immediately sent someone with his letter to Yuan Shao in Hebei, asking him to send troops to Gongsun Chan in Youzhou to exert some pressure, and make sure to entangle Gongsun Chan so that he could not go south to support Tao Qian. At the same time, he secretly asked people to go to all parts of Xuzhou to fan the flames and create some momentum for the arrival of Cao Cao's soldiers. Although Cao Cao himself thinks that Xuzhou is very weak now, and it should be easy for him to break through Xuzhou, as a smart person, he still doesn't plan to fight Tao Qian. He planned to use some other means to make Tao Qian weaker and make his army easier. Even Guo Jia agrees with this.

Three days after the troops were out, as soon as Cao Cao's army arrived in Nanpingyang, he received the latest information from the front: "Tao Qian ordered Zang Ba to lead 20,000 troops to defend Dong'an, Cao Bao to lead 50,000 troops to defend Pengcheng, Zhao Yu to lead 40,000 troops to guard Guangling, and he personally led 30,000 troops to defend Xiabil. ”

"What do you think of this deployment?" Seeing that Tao Qian seemed to have come up with a trick to deal with him, Cao Cao quickly summoned his generals and strategists to discuss countermeasures.

"There should be no problem with Xuzhou's Zang Ba being in charge of Xiahou Yuan and Yu Ban. And Cao Bao in the middle of the road was personally led by the lord to attack him, and he was also able to break his courage in a battle. Only if Zhao Yu of Guangling relies on the city to compete with us, then we will not be able to take it eagerly for a while. Not only because it is the farthest road, but also because the depth of Guangling City is not under the billet, and there is grain and grass to support it. As one of the main sources of tax revenue in Xuzhou, there are also 40,000 Danyang soldiers to defend, but I am afraid that the 50,000 horses of the two generals Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong may not be able to break through. Looking at the intelligence, Guo Jia quickly made his own analysis, "Tao Qian seems to be focusing on the defense of Xia Billet and Guangling. This is also easy to understand, the billet is the governance of Xuzhou, which naturally has to be guarded, and Guangling is the warehouse of money and grain in Xuzhou, and it is also an indispensable target. No matter how many places we capture in Xuzhou, as long as Xuzhou is not targeted, then he Tao Qian will always have a comeback. ”

"Hmph, he Tao Qian still wants to make a comeback? I want his life now. Cao Cao said viciously. He really hated Tao Qian to death.

"Don't be angry, lord!" The people in the tent hurriedly comforted.

Cao Cao sat back in his place angrily, and after a while, his anger dissipated a little, and then asked Guo Jia again: "What do you think should be done now?" Is the Southern Army still going to attack Guangling? ”

"No need." Guo Jia shook his head gently, "Since Tao Qian himself scattered his troops, will we soon become idiots if we divide our troops?" The grain and grass under the billet were supplied by the water route to Guangling. We attacked Guangling to plunder the grain and grass, and to cut off the supply of the billet. Now that the garrison has been added to the lower billet, it is not in a hurry for us to attack it. Then we must cut off the supply of the billet as our first priority. ”

"You mean attack the prime minister?" Cao Cao listened to Guo Jia's words, turned around and looked at the map behind him, and asked.

"Not bad." Guo Jia nodded with a smile, "The next phase is located between Xuzhou and Guangling, and it is also a city on the edge of the Surabaya River. Whether it is the ship of the billet going south, or the ship of Guangling going north, it must go through the lower phase. And unlike the two counties of Xia Bi and Guangling, because Xia Xiang is only a county, the city is one size smaller! As long as the 50,000 soldiers on our southern road pass, we can break through Xiaxiang in a battle and completely cut off the connection between Xiabili and Guangling. ”

"Okay, let Cao Hong attack the prime minister." Cao Cao slapped his thigh heavily and made a final decision.

Cao Cao's army set out from Nanpingyang and marched south through Fanxian to conquer Xiaopei, Tao Qian's forward position. This was originally the territory of Yuzhou, but after the death of Kong Ling, the assassin of Yuzhou, the imperial court did not appoint a new Yuzhou assassin history. Although the original land of Yuzhou mainly fell into the hands of Cao Cao, there were still some remote "border" counties that belonged to others, such as Xiaopei was occupied by Tao Qian, and Runan was owned by Liu Pi and Gong Du, who were remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and so on.

The battle ended before it began. Tao Qianjun completely abandoned the defense of Xiaopei and left an entire county town to Cao Cao. Because this is still the boundary of Yuzhou, Cao Cao did not carry out the massacre of the city. He hastily replenished the grain and grass, and then sent his troops to attack Pengcheng.

The army marched to Liuxian, and suddenly heard that Yuan Shu's Jiujiang was too guarded by Bian Rang because he had a good relationship with Tao Qian, and he couldn't get used to Cao Cao's arrogance of slaughtering the people of Xuzhou, so he did not follow the order of his lord Yuan Shu and privately led 5,000 soldiers and horses to rescue Tao Qian. Faced with such a guy who suddenly appeared and didn't know whether he was alive or dead, Cao Cao was furious when he heard this, and immediately ordered the Southern Route Army Xiahoudun and Cao Hong to lead 50,000 soldiers to stop him. As a result, Xiahoudun and Cao Hong were in Wuxian County and exchanged hands with Bian Rang. After a day of fierce fighting, Cao Hong and Xiahoudun broke Bian Rang, and killed this guy who dared to come out to fight Cao Cao at the first moment, and captured more than 1,000 of Bian Rang's soldiers.

At that time, Cao Hong asked Cao Cao how to deal with these captives.

Cao Cao didn't think about it, so he ordered: "Kill all these people for me, and I will use their blood to tell the whole world: 'If anyone dares to rescue Xuzhou, they should be conceded with them.'" ’”

As a result, more than a thousand heads fell, and all those who paid attention to this revenge battle were shocked by Cao Cao's seriousness, toughness, and cold-bloodedness. Whether it was Gongsun Zhan, who was still friendly with Tao Qian but was overwhelmed by Yuan Shao's soldiers, or Yuan Shu, who had the heart to annex Xuzhou, he had to weigh whether he still had the courage to provoke Cao Cao. They all broke off their hearts to rescue Tao Qian, and turned to wait and see the war. They were all shocked by Cao Cao.

On May 15, Cao Cao's troops entered Pengcheng. It's also an empty city. After hearing that Cao Cao had completely slaughtered the Bian Rang army, Cao Bao, the defender of Pengcheng, was timid for a moment and fled with his 30,000 Danyang soldiers. He is a timid man, and although he knows how to train soldiers, he has little courage to speak of. At that moment, the people of Benpeng City were lost to Cao Cao.

The massacre began. Cao Cao showed mercy to the people of Pei County, who were also in Yuzhou, but it did not mean that he would show mercy to the people of Pengcheng who belonged to Xuzhou. After conquering Pengcheng, Cao Cao ordered his army to surround the city in all directions, and then led his troops to clean up the area except for his own army.

The clean-up began in the out-of-town outcasts. The inhabitants of makeshift huts were evicted from their homes one by one. In front of them, they put grass cut from the four corners of the city and set it on fire. Although these huts themselves were the kind that collapsed in the wind, they were still set on fire by Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers one by one. In the scorching firelight, the original people were distinguished one by one, whether they were men, women, old or young, behind them there was a smiling Qingzhou soldier standing with a blade. With Cao Cao's order, these rejoicing soldiers quickly struck a fatal blow at the object they were watching, either slashing, stabbing, or snatching. They were very neat, and slaughtered the miserable people as they usually were in training, and then immediately crouched down and searched for Nayu's bloody belongings over the corpses that had just died. For their lord had promised that all that had been gained from the people in this battle would go to the soldiers.

The fire burned overnight and was finally extinguished. When the corpses outside the city were thrown into the Surabaya River south of Pengcheng, and the massacre inside the city had already been carried out in the captivity* of Mowgli*, the ground on the outskirts of the city, where more than 10,000 people were originally inhabited, had already turned slightly brownish.

Cao Cao's army stayed in Pengcheng for three days. In these three days, the task of the soldiers was to search out the Xuzhou people hiding from the ditch and ditch coffins and kill them. The so-called massacre of the city is to kill the people of the whole city one by one. If there is no one in the city, Cao Cao, who has a strong personality, will not stop.

Looking at the bluestone pavement soaked red with blood, smelling the smell of blood in the air, and listening to the screams faintly coming from afar, Cao Cao nodded with satisfaction and laughed happily and excitedly. Here, the arrogance in his heart was satisfied, and his heart, which was completely occupied by the hatred of killing his father, was slightly soothed. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes a little intoxicated.

"This is true revenge." Cao Cao thinks so.

This is just the beginning, though. Before killing Tao Qian's entire family or slaughtering the people of Xuzhou, all the bloodshed was only temporarily soothed, and the hatred in his heart was just that.

Cao Cao's army on the middle and south roads is smoothly advancing in the realm of Xuzhou. Although the later counties were all placed there because of the precedent of Pengcheng, and they all tried their best to resist the advance of Cao Cao's army for their own lives, the strength of these cities was too small and too few, and the cities were not well repaired, so they could not resist the attack of Cao Cao's army for even a day. As a result, Cao Cao attacked Fuyang on May 20, conquered the Mind on June 3, and broke through Suiling on June 12, slaughtering the people of these three cities.

On June 20, Cao Cao surrounded the billet. He immediately made further changes to the operations of the Southern Route Army, and he divided the Southern Route Army into two parts: one of them, Xiahoudun led the 50,000 horses of the original Southern Route Army to capture Xiang; On the other hand, Cao Hong was the main commander, and Cao Cao's Chinese army allocated 20,000 horses to attack Xiaqiu, Xuxian, and Huaining. Although these three places are all small cities, it is impossible to threaten Cao Cao's rear, but these three places have the existence of the people of Xuzhou, and Cao Cao will be more and more unwilling to kill him if he does not attack.

Because, when he was besieging Xiabil, he just got a very bad news: "Xiahou Yuan and the Northern Route Army under the command of Yu Ban failed to attack Zang Ba and was firmly blocked under Dong'an City." At the same time, Gongsun Zhan officially decided to send troops to rescue Tao Qian. Although Gongsun Zhan's main force, Bai Ma Yicong, was still restrained by Yuan Shao's army and could not be mobilized at will. However, Gongsun Zhan ordered Qingzhou Assassin Shi Tian Kai to lead the troops to attack. ”

Of course, this Tian Kai is not to be worried, but Liu Bei, the minister of the plains under Tian Kai's tent, is a headache for Cao Cao. After all, Liu Bei plus his two righteous brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei can't even deal with Lu Bu, the world's number one fierce general. "Things have changed. It looks like there's going to be a tough fight. Cao Cao frowned and thought, and he immediately gave an order: "The whole army, give me a general attack on the lower billet." ”