Nothing happened overnight.

Xu Chu, Lu Meng and others spent the night outside Handan City, so Haode rested for a while and was able to recover his tired body.

In the morning of the next day, as soon as the sky was bright, Xu Chu, Lu Meng and others ate some dry food to fill their stomachs, and then they gathered the team and all came to the south gate of Handan City.

As the capital of Zhao culture, Handan City's defense is very strong, and like Ye City, Handan City also has a moat on the periphery, if you don't put down the drawbridge, the army will not be able to pass through the wide moat.

Of course, if you know how to swim, you can swim there easily. But when the enemy is present, will the enemy soldiers on the tower watch you swim to the other side of the moat?

Xu Chu led Lu Meng and a thousand other light horsemen to the south gate of Handan City, and stopped at a distance of fifty steps from the moat, within this distance, it was a safe range, and the enemy archers standing on the city wall could not shoot here.

"The people inside are all listening to me, I am Xu Chu, the general of Huben, and I came to arrest the thief Cao Cao by the order of the Son of Heaven, if you know each other, hurry up and hand over Cao Cao to me, I can save you from death! In addition, the regent has an order, the crime is only Cao Cao, as long as the rest of the people surrender, they will not be prosecuted, and they are still loyal and good generals of my Han Dynasty, if you dare to help the abuse, the regent will lead an army of 100,000 to level this city! Xu Chu rode forward and shouted loudly at the people in Handan City.

On the tower of Handan City, there were soldiers of the Cao army, one of whom wore an iron helmet. The man in iron armor said to the people around him: "Don't listen to his nonsense. The Son of Heaven had just ascended the throne. is still young, a child who is less than a year old, still at the age of breastfeeding, can know anything, all of this is secretly manipulated by Zhang Yan, Zhang Yan is called the regent, but in fact he is a thief who steals the country. Don't listen to this reckless man! ”

The person who spoke was none other than Cao Hong, who had just been rescued by Cao Cao from Yecheng.

After hearing Cao Hong's words, the soldiers on the city wall felt that what Cao Hong said was very reasonable. The death of Liu Xie, the Son of Heaven, in the battle between Yuan Shao and Zhang Yan this year, is already a well-known thing, as for whose hands he died, it is said that the public is justified and the mother is reasonable, and there is still no conclusion.

There are two versions, one says that Yuan Shao killed him, and the other says that he killed Zhang Yan. For a while, there were different opinions, and it was difficult for many people to guess.

It was then. Liu Biao of Jingzhou and Sun Ce of Jiangdong learned that Liu Xie had died on the battlefield, and they both heard these two different versions of the news, but they did not take any action, but sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight.

Among them, Sun Ce did not have the strength to start a war with Zhang Yan, he was under Chen Deng's economic sanctions, some materials in Jiangdong were extremely scarce, and on the side of Sun Ce's couch, there was also a fierce Shanyue, if he started a war against Zhang Yan, those Shanyue who were suppressed by him were likely to take advantage of the situation and break his lair.

And Liu Biao's choice is extremely simple, that is, to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, he not only maintains friendship with Zhang Yan, but also secretly supports Yuan Shao, the two heroes are in a decisive battle, no matter which side loses, he will not be offended.

Therefore, at the time of the decisive battle between Zhang Yan and Yuan Shao, Liu Biao's moderation helped Zhang Yan to a certain extent. If, at that time, Liu Biao responded to Yuan Shao and led a large army to attack Zhang Yan, then Zhang Yan's victory would not have come so quickly, and he might even be endangered and perished under the attack of Yuan Shao and Liu Biao.

Of course, the reason why Liu Biao chose not to send troops is also his reason. Since Liu Biao appointed Liu Bei as the governor of Jingnan, the four counties of Jingnan have been under Liu Bei's jurisdiction, and their population and economy have all increased, and even their military strength is even better than that of Zhang Xian, who rebelled before.

In addition, Cai Mao kept saying bad things about Liu Bei by Liu Biao's side, so that Liu Biao began to gradually doubt Liu Bei, so even if he knew that he and Yuan Shao might join forces to destroy Zhang Yan and thus enter the Central Plains, but the rear had some concerns, even if he could win the Central Plains, once the backyard caught fire, in case it burned to the Xiangyang area, it would be worth the loss.

This is the reason why Liu Biao chose not to send troops, and after that, he began to pay attention to the situation in the four counties of Jingnan, and he already had the intention of slowly weakening Liu Bei.

In fact, to put it bluntly, Liu Biao is a self-guarded person, as long as there is no accident with his family's one-third of an acre, he doesn't care about anything else.

A few years ago, he tried to participate in the war for the Central Plains, and even killed Sun Jian, the tiger in Jiangdong, and took Nanyang County occupied by Yuan Shu, forcing Yuan Shu to the Huainan area.

But as he grew older, he lost more and more ambition as he did back then, and in the past few years, Liu Biao devoted himself to the development and construction of Jingzhou, and there were few wars.

Subsequently, the new emperor Liu Feng ascended the throne, and Zhang Yan continued to be regent as the king, and issued an edict to the world.

It can be said that now everyone in the world knows that the emperor is a baby less than one year old, and he is still in the stage of waiting to be fed.

Nominally, this world is still the world of the Han Dynasty, no matter where you go, it is the land of the Han Dynasty, and those who are officials in this land will still be subject to the management of the imperial court.

It is precisely because of this advantage that Zhang Yan can gain a foothold in the Central Plains and be domineering.

At this time, Xu Chu was shouting outside, but the soldiers of the Cao army on the city tower ignored Xu Chu.

So, Xu Chu didn't bother to talk anymore, and then singled out Dian Wei, wanting to compete with Dian Wei.

When Cao Hong heard this information, he immediately sent someone to the city to inform Cao Cao and ask how to deal with it.

Cao Cao was staying in the arsenal of Handan City at this time, Dian Wei was guarding Cao Cao's side, in addition, Xun Yu, Xu You, and Xun Chen were all around Cao Cao, inspecting how Wang Lun and the others configured the Thunderbolt Fire Thunder.

In the last war, Cao Cao used the thunderbolt to attack the city for the first time, and Cao Cao appreciated it very much, and he also tasted the sweetness of the thunderbolt.

For this reason, as soon as Cao Cao, who returned to Handan City, immediately ordered Wang Lun to hurry up the production of thunderbolt fire and thunder, and sent an additional 1,000 people, all of whom obeyed Wang Lun's command alone, and was specially responsible for the production of thunderbolt fire and thunder.

Cao Cao was leading everyone to inspect the arsenal, and a soldier ran in from outside, came directly to Cao Cao's side, and said with his fists clenched: "Lord Qi, Zhang Yan's vanguard army has arrived at the city of Handan, and the person who came claimed to be the general of Huben Xu Chu, and shouted outside the city that he wanted to fight to the death with the captain, and claimed to cut off the captain's head as a ......."

When he said this, the soldier squinted at Dian Wei beside Cao Cao, and saw that Dian Wei's forehead was already frowning, so he didn't say any more.

Who knows, Dian Wei really wanted to know what Xu Chu said, so he asked: "What the hell did Xu Chu say, tell me the truth, otherwise, I cut your tongue!" ”

The soldier's face was as frightened as earth, and he immediately said: "Xu Chu said that he would cut off the head of the captain and use it as a night pot......"

"Too much deception!" As soon as Dian Wei heard this, he was immediately angry, and his clenched fist smashed directly into the wall, only to hear a dull sound of "bang", and a hole was smashed out of the wall, which shows how big Dian Wei's anger is.

Seeing this, Cao Cao said to Dian Wei: "If you want to fight, you can go." However, you must bring Xu Chu's head back to me! ”

Pawn Wei immediately clenched his fists and said, "Huh! ”

As soon as the words fell, Dian Wei turned around and left, and disappeared into the arsenal in a puff of smoke.

Xun Yu saw that Dian Wei was angry and left, so he said to Cao Cao: "Lord, Xu Chu is obviously provoking Dian Wei, now there are not many generals who can be used under the lord's account, and Dian Wei is the lord's close attendant, in case he has a mistake, who will protect the lord in the future?" ”

Cao Cao said: "Wen Ruo doesn't have to worry too much, Dian Wei's martial arts are strong, Lu Bu can't help him, just a Xu Chu, why worry about it?" Besides, letting Dian Wei fight is also to improve the morale of our army. Once Dian Wei kills Xu Chu, wouldn't that improve the morale of our army even more? ”

Xun Yu stopped talking, said goodbye to Cao Cao, and was about to go back to the mansion to deal with some things, when he walked to the door, he happened to see a scout running over, still holding a letter in his hand, so he took it directly and asked, "Where did it come from?" ”

"Urgent report from the state!"

After hearing this, Xun Yu suddenly "chuckled" in his heart, and did not dare to delay at all, and immediately entered the arsenal again, came to Cao Cao's side, hurriedly handed the letter to Cao Cao, and said: "And the state is urgent!" ”

Cao Cao took the letter, immediately opened it to read it, and after reading it hurriedly, his brows furrowed, and he said to himself: "It's really a disaster!" ”

Xun Yu, Xu You, and Xun Chen were all curious, and hurriedly asked, "Lord, is there something wrong with the state?" ”

Cao Cao handed the letter to Xun Yu, Xu You, Xun Chen and others, and asked them to circulate it.

The letter was sent by Taiyuan Taishou Wang Ling, Tai Shi Ci and Xu Huang divided their troops into two ways, suddenly attacked Shangdang, and occupied it, and then, Xu Huang divided his troops to occupy Huguan, Tai Shi Ci and Xu Huang joined forces to march north, directly approaching Jinyang.

At this time, Xiahoudun and Guo Jia led the army to resist the Xianbei people in Yanmen Pass, most of the army was in Yanmen Pass, and Jinyang had fewer troops, and he was afraid that he was not the opponent of Tai Shici and Xu Huang. (To be continued......)