In the county government, Cao Zhang relayed Cao Xiu's worries to Chen Deng. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info Chen Deng said: "What Cao Sima said is very true, Liu Xun is definitely not Sun Ce's enemy, I am afraid that it will be destroyed in a few days, Lujiang County and Shouchun are connected by Shaohu Lake, the waterway is less than 300 miles, and it will not take two days to go upstream, we should indeed prepare early." ”

Cao Xiu said: "Not only that, after Sun Ce occupies the Lujiang River, he can also enter Huainan from Shucheng, and the two armies by waterway will advance together, all the way to Shouchun, all the way north from the land to Xuzhou, which is really impossible to prevent." ”

Chen Deng said: "In this way, we still need to garrison troops in Hefei, which is at the junction of the Lujiang River, with their backs to Chaohu Lake, and tightly choke into the mouth of Huainan. ”

Cao Zhang sighed: "It's a pity that Captain Man has already led the troops back to Runan, otherwise the problem of dividing the troops into two routes can be easily solved." ”

Chen Deng said: "At that time, we didn't know that Yuzhang would surrender to Sun Ce, and now we can only improvise, the third son, Shouchun is an important town, since he should be guarded with heavy soldiers, there are 20,000 soldiers under Deng's command, and 15,000 sergeants are allocated here to assist the third prince to protect Shouchun, Dengzi led 5,000 people to guard Hefei, so that Sun Ce could not march into Huainan after capturing the Lujiang River, and also asked the third prince to go to the imperial court and garrison troops in several fortified cities in Huainan to resist Sun Ce's advance. ”

Cao Zhang knew that there was no better choice at this time, so he nodded and said, "In this way, according to what Chen Tingshi said, Brother Wen Lie, you will go to the handover with Chen Tingshi." ”

Cao Xiu agreed and left with Chen Deng.

The next day, Chen Deng left Shouchun with his army and went to Hefei, while Cao Zhang and Cao Xiu led Chen Deng's troops to guard Shouchun.

On this day, Cao Zhang and Cao Xiu came to the south city wall of Shouchun, this city wall leaned against the Shaohu Lake, there was no city gate, only two bucket arches for ships to enter and exit, there was a fence on the bucket arch, after putting down, this exit could be blocked, and the Shaohu Lake was connected with the Huaishui in Shouchun City.

Cao Zhang looked at the Peony Lake, only to see the sparkling waves, there was no end in sight, and there was mist on the lake, thinking that if the other party drove a boat to attack at night, it was not impossible to break the city by impacting the fence, because the fence was soaked in water all the year round, so it was made of giant wooden branches, not metal, and it was not indestructible.

Thinking of this, he said to Cao Xiu: "Is there a craftsman in the city who can do a throwing machine?" We placed the throwing machine on the city wall, and then threw hemp balls made of sulfur saltpeter, supplemented by rockets, and the boats had sails and were made of wood, which were more prone to fire, so that we could avoid the threat of an attack by the enemy's water. He learned this trick from Jia Xu, and Cao Ang died under Jia Xu's trick back then.

Cao Xiu said: "It should be able to be found." After that, he went to execute it.

Then Cao Zhang went to the post house where Hua Tuo was placed, and discussed with him the problem of treating the sergeant's ringworm, the two of them sat opposite each other in the house, Cao Zhang said: "Sir, now Sun Ce dominates Jiangdong, I am afraid that he will attack Lujiang in the near future, Lujiang and Huainan junction, I must wait for it, this treatment of ringworm please carry out as soon as possible, I heard that Mr. is going to collect medicine, it is best to set off quickly, and when the whole city is on alert, it will be inconvenient to go out of the city." ”

Hua Tuo said: "In this case, the old man can go out of the city to collect medicine today. ”

Cao Zhang said: "I will send ten tigers and leopards to protect Mr. ”

Hua Tuo sighed: "Is the third prince afraid of old decay and running away? ”

Cao Zhang replied with a smile: "Mr. thinks too much, I am worried about poisonous insects and beasts in the wild, so I sent troops to protect them." ”

Hua Tuo said silently for a long time: "Third Prince, please forgive the old man for saying bluntly, most of the diseases in the march are typhoid fever and ringworm caused by water and soil adaptation, and the old man is only slightly involved in this aspect, not a master of this way, if the third prince wants to find someone who is good at this way, the old man can recommend a person." ”

Cao Zhang asked casually, "Who?" ”

"Changsha is too shou Zhang Ji, Zhang Zhongjing, this person is obsessed with medicine, he has no intention of being an official, and now he is still in the court, as long as the third prince goes to the court to let him enter Beijing, he will inevitably agree, and the treatment of typhoid fever is exactly what he likes, and this Zhang Taishou will definitely be happy to do it." Hua Tuo replied.

Cao Zhang said with a smile: "Oh, then I will ask the saint to summon this person to Beijing when I return to Xudu, whether I have the ability or not, I will know at that time, if it is really as Mr. said, I will let Mr. continue to practice medicine in the world." ”

After saying that, Cao Zhang left and went to prepare for the defense work with Cao Xiu and Chen Deng's subordinates.

At the beginning of August, Cao Cao finally sent a Taishou, and this Taishou is still Cao Zhang's acquaintance, it is Li Dian who has been in charge of transporting grain before, Li Dian is quite serious, or very handsome, he came to Shouchun as Huainan Taishou, and with 20,000 people, is preparing to integrate them into a new army, because the battle with Yuan Shao is imminent, so Cao Cao can no longer afford to give sergeants, can only provide equipment.

Not long after Li Dian arrived in Shouchun, there was news that Sun Ce broke Liu Xun in Lujiang, and for a while everyone in Shouchun cheered up and prepared to defend against Sun Ce's attack, Sun Ce beat Yangzhou down in just a few years, it can be seen that his martial arts are superior, so it is not impossible to take advantage of the situation to attack Huainan, these are the reasons why Cao Zhang did not return to Xudu immediately, because he has a tiger and leopard to ride, and it is still a deterrent to Sun Ce's main force.

After another ten days, the news about Sun Ce came again, it turned out that after he broke Liu Xun, he had 30,000 Yuan Shu's troops and people's husbands, and more than 2,000 ships, and had the advantage of a naval army, so he went west to attack Jingzhou Huangzu, which made the generals breathe a sigh of relief, which showed Sun Ce's might.

Sun Ce went to attack Huang Zu, whether it could be defeated or not, Huainan was temporarily safe, because Huang Zu's garrison Jiangxia was still some distance away from the Lujiang River, and it was unlikely that Sun Ce would return to the army to fight Huainan after beating Huang Zu this year, so Cao Zhang decided to take the tiger and leopard back to Xudu, as for Li Dian and Chen Deng, they still stayed in Huainan, and Chen Deng led the army back to Xuzhou after Li Dian gained a firm foothold.

Just as Cao Zhang was about to return to Xudu, the defeated Liu Xun took one of his advisers Liu Ye to lead two thousand remnants of the army to Shouchun, claiming to take refuge in Cao Cao, Cao Zhang naturally welcomed them into Shouchun, as soon as he entered the city, Liu Xun put on an elder style, saying that he had served as the county magistrate in Cao Zhang's hometown Xiaopei a Jianping County, and Cao Zhang's Laozi knew each other when he was in Wei.

Cao Zhang's heart was not very happy when he heard this, a general of the defeated army who came to take refuge still talked to him about the elders and young, and his attitude was so arrogant, of course Cao Zhang was not very happy in his heart, he even cut off the guy who Liu Bei shouted that he was a relative of the Han family every day, how could he have a good impression of Liu Xun, who was babbling?

Around this, Cao Zhang still set up a banquet to entertain them, but to Liu Xun's adviser Liu Ye, Cao Zhang has a good impression, this Liu Ye looks like he is in his early twenties, handsome, gentle and polite, and he is also very funny when he speaks, when he talks and laughs, he shows that this person is erudite and talented, from him, Cao Zhang sees some characteristics of Guo Jia and Xun Yu, and Liu Ye is like Guo Jia and Xun Yu are not mature when they are combined.

And what Cao Zhang values most is that this Liu Ye is a serious Han family member, and his family still has a lot of land, but he doesn't want to support the army, so he is committed to Liu Xun.

This is very interesting, at the end of the Han Dynasty, the heroes rose together, Youzhou Liu Yu, Jingzhou Liu Biao, and even the dead ghost Liu Bei, all of them claimed to be relatives of the Han family, supported the army and respected themselves, and did not forget to intervene with Liu Bei's shallow foundation, but this royal Liu Ye took his clan to join others, what does this mean? There is only one thing that can be explained, he also saw that the Han family was in decline and could not help it, so he accepted the reality and found another way!

A descendant of the royal family can see the reality clearly and deny his own clan, his wisdom and vision of judging the situation are beyond doubt, and he is still so young, this person can be of great use! Cao Zhang thought so.