Cao Cao was very clear about the excuse he used to conquer Hebei, and the so-called excuse of inspecting and annexing the state on behalf of the Son of Heaven could not be concealed from many people at all, and in fact it was just a statement to give the soldiers. Since they have all made up their minds to take back Jizhou, which was originally given up in order to appease Lu Bu, this is just to leave enough time to prepare for war before the forces of the two armies officially tear their faces apart because of the Jizhou incident.

Cao Cao actually figured it out after a conversation with Xun You and Cheng Yu before. When the self-military forces were worried about expanding outward, they were afraid that they would be copied by Lu Bu. And compared to the extremely long territory now and the collapse of the three states, if you think about it carefully, the most worrying person should be Lu Bu, who has always adhered to the policy of elite soldiers! Cao Cao has always had a generous attitude towards the situation of Lü Bu's forces, and he has sprinkled a lot of money out, and has also obtained a lot of accurate information about the interior of Lü Bu's army, knowing that Lü Bu's standing army, plus the Xuzhou and Jiangdong forces actually controlled by Qin Xu, will never exceed 150,000 in total number. If you add auxiliary soldiers and soldiers from various states and counties, it will not exceed 200,000 people.

200,000 people! At first glance, it does seem like a lot. But in fact, if you talk about the territory alone, although the four prefectures of Qingxu and Yangjing under Lu Bu are as many as the barren places such as Huiji and Lingling, they are more than twice as vast as the territory that Cao Cao could control before the annexation of the state. To maintain law and order in such a large territory, the army required will definitely not be in the minority. It can be said that if these 200,000 people were divided equally among these many counties, Cao Cao ordered people to calculate carefully. It is necessary to maintain law and order, to protect the territory, and to stick to the passes everywhere. If there are at least a thousand people, I am afraid that there will not even be a splash, this is only a rough calculation, and the actual implementation, the number will definitely be far greater than this number. Therefore, the troops that Lu Bu can mobilize in Qingzhou will definitely not be too many. At most, it is the Lu Bu personal guard battalion, trapping camp, and Xiao cavalry battalion currently stationed in Qingzhou, adding up to more than 20,000 people. If there were more, Cao Cao even dared to guarantee that as long as Lu Bu dared to bring more people. If Linzi is empty, he Cao Cao dares to immediately withdraw his troops and directly attack Linzi. A war will surely eliminate the worries of the future. Therefore, although Cao Cao did not lead many troops this time, there were still 10,000 cavalry in the annexed state. But faith is sufficient.

From Xuchang to the state of the party. There is a Yanzhou in the middle, which is nearly a thousand miles away. With the marching speed of 30,000 infantry, it will take at least more than ten days. It is also a loss that the army is marching within the territory of the army, and it is summer, and the military rations have just been collected, Xu Huang, as the vanguard general, has also opened up the best path, so that the army can get food on the spot in terms of supplies along the way. It also sped up the speed of the army a few times, otherwise not to mention anything else. Nearly 30,000 people, including the auxiliary soldiers, chewing horse food every day will also be a huge expense enough to make Cao Cao's flesh ache.

The news of Cao Cao's dispatch of troops was not deliberately concealed, so the army was nearly 100 miles a day, and the marching route directly to the state appeared early on the case in front of several people in Jizhou. The nine counties of the state, in addition to the Yanmen County and Youzhou have a canyon connection, there is only the Huguan under the rule of the party county, which is connected to Jizhou, Cao Cao's army is about to Tunjizhou, the intention is naturally self-evident, but it can not be blamed, and it can only be based on stubbornness, and must not leave Cao Cao with the excuse to send troops. Therefore, after the news of Cao Cao's troops came, in order to show his "sincerity", Liu Bei, who came to help Jizhou, sent Guan Yu to lead 5,000 men and horses of his headquarters to help defend the town, and at the same time sent Zhang Fei to lead 10,000 cavalry to station in the direction of the plain outside the city to deal with Lu Bu's troops. Only took Zhao Yun and the headquarters soldiers and horses into Yecheng. Liu Bei's clear posture with Cao Cao and Lu Bu is indeed worthy of his ability to buy people's hearts in the past, at least the people of Yecheng, because of Liu Bei's arrangement, coupled with the rumors that Cao Cao, who did not know the source but was rumored to attack Yecheng, will spread rumors that the city will be slaughtered, which has eased their attitude towards Liu Bei.

In contrast, Yuan Shang was much more nervous. After Liu Bei's "help", sending the prestigious Guan Yu to guard the pass, and sending Zhang Fei as the first line of defense to block Lu Bu's "kindness", Yuan Shang did not listen to Tian Feng's words that he asked him to send troops to "cooperate" with Guan Yu to guard Huguan, and transferred the only combatable troops at hand, the 7,000 halberd soldiers with Zhang Jaw, into the city, guarded around the governor's mansion, and transferred back to the Wenchou cavalry stationed outside the city, and stationed troops on the side of the city, so that he could sleep with confidence. On the contrary, he handed over the defense of Yecheng to Liu Bei and the 5,000 soldiers brought into the city by Zhao Yun. And when Tian Feng learned of this and hurriedly wanted to stop it, he had already received the news that Zhang Jaw had handed over the city defense warrant. Military orders are like mountains, especially in such a time of rumors, Yuan Shang's prestige as the lord of an army is absolutely not allowed to be destroyed. Otherwise, it is very easy to attract the instability of the soldiers, and it is not conducive to the war, this is common sense! Therefore, the lesser of two evils, although Tian Feng knew that doing so was tantamount to seeking skin with the tiger, but now he got the news that Cao Cao was only less than two hundred miles away from Shangdang, and in desperation, Tian Feng could only do something else.

The chaotic situation in Yecheng is even more lively because of Liu Bei's joining. As a "third-party party", Lu Bu, who nominally has the power to interfere with the administration and military of Jizhou, has just crossed the Yellow River and entered the plains.

The plain is nearly 300 miles away from Yecheng, and the places in the middle are hilly, which is not conducive to marching. In contrast, it is adjacent to Bohai County. Since Zhang Liao, the commander of the Xiao Cavalry Battalion, has been guarded by Cheng Lian, the commander of the Flying Cavalry Battalion. Cheng Lian was able to become close friends with Qin Xu before, and was deeply trusted by Lu Bu, and became the first general in Lu Bu's army to lead troops to defend one side alone, but when he was in Jinan, he teased the guards of Cao Jun Taishan from time to time, and was ordered by Lu Bu to interchange with Zhang Liao, who was guarding the plain at that time, at least it can also show that Cheng Lian is not actually a character who plays cards according to common sense. said that from Chenglian to guard the plain for more than a year, I am afraid that the Bohai County controlled by Liu Bei does not have much oil and water to fish, which may be one of the reasons why Liu Bei will choose to abandon his family and business and raise the whole army to go to Yecheng.

"My lord! Zhong Ming! ...... "Cheng Lian was a captain under Lu Bu when he started his army in Wuyuan from Lu Bu, and he had a deep friendship with Lu Bu, even above Zhang Liao, who was deeply used by Lu Bu. And because of his cunning temperament, but his brain has few roots, he has been friends with Qin Xu since before he made his career. But since Qin Xu led Xuzhou and was transferred out of Jinan, it has been several years since he saw these two people at the same time. This time, Lu Bu, Qin Xu, and Weng's son-in-law came with troops together, and if Cheng Lian was excited to have another big battle to fight, he really brought a bit of the true temperament of knowing each other.

"Lao Cheng, you have worked hard to guard the plains!" Lu Bu has always been a real temperament, and since he had Lu Chen, the previous ruthless aura on his body has been reduced a lot, and after seeing the old brother who he hadn't seen for a long time, he stepped forward and hammered Cheng Lian's upper body a few times, and his voice was a little out of tune.

"Lao Cheng, why did you start acting like a child? If my mother-in-law saw such a scene, I would not be able to say that my lord would suffer again. Seeing Cheng Lian and Lu Bu seeing each other, Qin Xu was also deeply touched. But he still spoke. This is outside the plain city, as Cao Cao expected, the more than 20,000 troops brought this time have traveled for a long time, and they have not yet rested, they are already extremely tired, God knows whether Liu Bei, who does not play cards according to common sense, will suddenly send someone to stir up and stir up, Qin Xu can only interrupt Cheng Lian and Lu Bu's hug speechlessly, and also make Zhang Liao, who also wanted to go up to join in the fun, crying and laughing.

Zhong Ming's sharp mouth is not at all conceivable. are all fathers of four children, and they don't know how to converge and accumulate virtue! Cheng Lian laughed a few times, arched his hand at Qin Xu, squeezed his eyes a little narrowly, and whispered: "But then again, you and my brother want to have a good drink at night, we have long wanted to ask for advice!" You said that you are really, we have seen it before! The war is very strong, and we are convinced! But we have become such a majestic character when we have been married for many years, and we have supported a girl for seven years, but we can't even compare to you...... You are a tall person, but you have to ask for advice! ”

"Old Cheng!" The generals all laughed when they heard this, knowing that in Lu Bu's army, Wei Chenglian had the strongest friendship with Qin Xu, and they didn't care, just looking at how Qin Xu answered. I saw Qin Xu pretending to sneer and said, "It's not that I said you, this kind of thing can only be said to be your Uncle Qin." This kind of thing, even if you force it, the little brother can't help you! ”

"Coax ......" Qin Xu's sharp mouth, the person who wants to be scolded understands it, and it is estimated that he will turn a few corners. At first glance, it didn't seem to mean anything else when he said something to Cheng Lian, but it didn't take long for him to see the generals of Lu Bujun's army who were close by, and their faces were a little strange. seemed to be trying to hold back a smile, looking at Cheng Lian, who was leading Lu Bu into the city, pointing to the newly built tall and wide city wall, and was complacent with a smug face.

"Zhong Ming, you mouth! Lao Cheng was eaten to death by you! After staying with Qin Xu for a long time, Lu Bu could hear a little bit of the joke in Qin Xu's words, and Lu Bu, who had always been cold to Qin Xu because he wanted to avoid suspicion, finally couldn't help laughing, nodded at Qin Xu, shook his head and scolded with a smile. Only then did he order Cheng Lian to send someone to contact the army to enter the city.

Lu Bu went out this time, and the troops he brought were as Cao Cao expected, with a total of only 10,000 people in the personal guard battalion, 10,000 people in the Xiaocai battalion, and 1,000 people in the trapped camp, and the city defense battalion and the Xiandeng battalion were left by Lu Bu and Qin Xu to guard Linzi and protect their families, so that plus Cheng Lian's flying cavalry battalion, there were more than 30,000 people in total, but it was the same as the troops led by Cao Cao. (To be continued......)