The scorching sun made the entire land of Xiapi City in a state of steaming, and occasionally a breeze blew, all with a trace of heat, very sultry.

Cao Ren was sitting in the main hall of a temporary courtyard in the city at this time, inexplicably a little irritable, even if a large pile of ice cubes were placed next to him, it couldn't make him cool down.

At this time, it had been more than ten days since the last short siege by the other party, and during this period of time, Huang Zhong outside the city did not launch any attack, not even the slightest movement, as if he had completely given up on attacking Picheng.

However, the more the enemy army is like this, the more uneasy Cao Ren is, there must be a demon when things go wrong, and if the other party does not move, it is very likely that he is secretly plotting something, and he has to be vigilant and careful.

"General, General Li Dian asks to see!" At this moment, the guards guarding the door suddenly reported.

"Let him in!" Cao Ren's face was overjoyed, and he said hurriedly.

"General, a certain has come back from the Mi family!" Li Dian quickly walked in and arched his hand to Cao Ren.

"Did you find anything?" Cao Ren asked with some expectation.

"Nope!" Li Dian shook his head and said: "According to the investigation these days, Mi Zhu's life is still the same, in addition to reading books every day, he is dealing with some family business, and he has not been in contact with any strangers these days, and his mansion has been very calm recently, which can basically rule out the possibility that he will act as an internal response for the enemy army!" ”

"That's weird!" Cao Ren showed a hint of disappointment on his face, and said softly: "For more than ten days in a row, Huang Zhong's puppet did not attack the city, did not attack at night, and did not dig tunnels, and now it can be confirmed that the other party did not use the relationship between Lu Xuantong and the Mi family to persuade the Mi family to be the internal response, so what does Huang Zhongpifu mean?" ”

"Maybe the other party wants to deliberately wear down our patience, make us unprepared, and then break the city in one fell swoop?" Li Dian said uncertainly.

"Hmm!" Cao Ren nodded, and said thoughtfully: "There is a certain possibility that you say this, and it seems that only this reason can be said to be in the past!" ”

After that, Cao Ren seemed to convince himself, and soon smiled again: "If that Huang Zhong Pifu really wants to paralyze our army in this way, then he is looking for the wrong person, how could a certain person who is entrusted by the lord slack off the city defense military affairs because the enemy army has not attacked for a long time!" ”

"The general has both wisdom and bravery, and naturally he is not comparable to those mediocre generals." Li Dian echoed.

Cao Cao smiled faintly, and just wanted to say something, but Xu Huang's figure suddenly broke in, and his steps were a little anxious.

"Komeito, what's wrong?" Cao Ren's eyes shrank, and he quickly stood up and said.

The reason why I asked this was because Cao Ren knew that Xu Huang had always been brave and steady, and if there was no important matter, the other party would not come in without being reported by the guards, on the other hand, Xu Huang was in such a hurry, there must have been something very important.

"According to the report from our army's spies, Huang Zhong has withdrawn last night, and the camp of their garrison has also become empty!" Xu Huang didn't talk nonsense, and reported directly.

"Withdrawn?" Cao Ren was a little surprised: "Then how could Huang Zhong give up Xiapi so easily?" ”

This made him a little unbelievable, after all, the other party had as many as 50,000 troops, except for the first day, not even a decent siege had been held, if he retreated like this, it would inevitably be a bit anticlimactic, and Lu Xuantong did not hesitate to tear up the alliance, presumably he would not just satisfy his own generals to achieve this kind of result.

"General, I'm not done yet!" Xu Huang smiled bitterly, and said: "The other party is not just about retreating, their purpose seems to be to return to Huainan and attack Yuzhou!" ”

Cao Ren's face froze, and he asked very cautiously, "Where did this news come from, is it credible?" ”

"This is something that our spies overheard from the other party's military households disguised as the local people, not to mention that the other party has retreated to Huainan, it should be true!" Xu Huang said.

"I see!" Cao Ren nodded, and then thought of this period of calm, he already believed eight points in his heart, and he couldn't help but say: "I said why the other party hasn't moved for so long, it turns out that he is planning to retreat and go to Yuzhou!" ”

"General, Huang Zhong, what should we do now?" Li Dian, who had been listening from the side, asked.

"There is no other way, we will also transfer troops to Yuzhou!" Cao Ren said without hesitation: "Where the other party wants to attack, we will go to defend it, and before the lord returns, we must not let them do whatever they want in the Central Plains!" ”

Before sending him out, Cao Cao's order to him was to block Huang Zhong, and now that Huang Zhong wants to change places, they naturally have to chase after him, otherwise they will only defend this Pi, and then there will be chaos in Yuzhou.

Li Dian sighed at this time and said: "That Huang Zhong is really cunning and cunning, relying on the land of Huainan, which is a four-way place, seeing that Xia Pi can't attack it, he directly gave up to counterattack Yuzhou, which is determined to annex the four states of the Central Plains of the lord!" ”

"Hmph, the more this is the case, the more Huang Zhong is afraid of us!" Cao Ren pursed his lips and said with great disdain: "How can Ben General do what he wants, no matter where he goes, he will not let him succeed, pass the order, and the army will set off in a few days and rush to Yuzhou." ”

、、、、、

Huang Zhong was on his way to Huainan at this time, and behind him, he was followed by a group of 40,000 troops in a neat queue.

Originally, according to the actual number of people, there should be more than 48,000 people in this army, but now there are 8,000 less, so it was naturally secretly hidden in the East China Sea by Jia Xu.

In order to prevent leakage of news, no one knew about this matter except Huang Zhong, even if the soldiers and lieutenants asked, Huang Zhong only said that Jia Junshi heard that there was a lord in the nearby county who had been looking for thousands of years, and led people to track it down, and played the banner of Lu An, so the soldiers naturally didn't ask more.

"General, there is an urgent report from our army spies!" When the army marched to a plain, a fast horse rushed from the rear and handed Huang Zhong a secret letter.

"Hmm!" Huang Zhong opened it, and a faint smile quickly appeared on his face, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily hooked.

"Cao Ren, Cao Ren, no matter how solid you are, this time it's not the calculation of Jia Junshi, this defense of the empty Xiapi City, a certain Huang Han has been promoted to my master."

、、、、、

Xiapi, Mifu

After Mi Zhu finished dealing with the family's business today, he nested in his study and read books quietly, these days, he has been maintaining such a state of life, except for the business exchanges that must be carried out every day, the rest of the time, all nested in his mansion to study, one door does not step out of the other, but like a scholar more than like a businessman.

In fact, Mi Zhu was not like this before, although he often reviewed books before, but he was not too obsessed, and the reason why he now specializes in studying every day is mainly because he was scared by Cao Ren some time ago.

The Mi family has been in business for generations, although it is not a powerful family, but when it comes to Mi Zhu's hands, it is already one of the most powerful families in the world, and as the most outstanding person in charge of the Mi family in the past hundred years, Mi Zhu has a keen intuition in addition to the unique shrewdness of businessmen.

Mi Zhu's intuition is very smart, over the years, the Mi family's business decisions have rarely made mistakes, several times because of Mi Zhu's intuition has played a role, including the commercial trade with Lu An at the beginning, in fact, it is also Mi Zhu's intuition, he feels that Lu An is a hero in troubled times, and there will be an immortal foundation in the future, if they can make friends, then their Mi family will take this line to get rid of the embarrassing position of the business tycoon.

Although in the eyes of many people, the Mi family is the world's rich family, which is enviable, but Mi Zhu also has pain in his heart, Shinong industry and commerce, in the Han Dynasty, the status of businessmen is very low, although they have money, but there is no big power, simply put, that is, the ancestors have never produced a big official, and the people are not prosperous, to their generation, there are only three brothers and sisters left, although their two brothers have entered the official career, but there is no influence in the world, others say that the Mi family, they all know that it is a giant, but in addition to the giant, Nothing.

Therefore, Mi Zhu has lived very carefully over the years, and even walked on thin ice, because he was a little afraid that in this troubled world, if there is only wealth and no power, then money will not be so important, but may bring disaster, later, Mi Zhu figured it out, this is a troubled time, but also an opportunity, there will always be heroes born in troubled times, if their Mi family can catch a hidden dragon, then there will naturally be a day when the tide rises, and then, Mi Zhu chose Lu An and married his sister.

Facts have proved that Mi Zhu's vision is not bad, Lu An has become the master of Jingyangjiao Sanzhou, and can be called one of the overlords in the world, but before Mi Zhu can enjoy the treatment of rising tides, embarrassing things will come.

The Mi family lives in Xuzhou, and Xuzhou is Cao Cao's territory, and now that Lu An is attacking Cao, the situation of his Mi family has become a little delicate, anyway, since Cao Ren garrisoned here, Mi Zhu's intuition feels that something is wrong, and he always feels that someone is monitoring his every move.

Out of trust in his intuition, Mi Zhu felt that it was very likely that Cao Ren was secretly observing him, so he decided to keep a low profile during this period of time, and did nothing except necessary business affairs every day, just hiding in the room to read books, so as not to be targeted and calculated, after all, his in-law relationship with Lu Xuantong is well known to the world.

And this low-key has been low-key for almost a month, even if Cao Ren's garrison has withdrawn from the city a few days ago, and the faint sense of crisis has dissipated, Mi Zhu still maintains the original trajectory of life, because, after so many days of studying, he suddenly likes this mode of life, and he can enrich himself while maintaining an absolute low profile, why not do it.

"Master, someone is looking for you outside!" I don't know when, the old housekeeper suddenly walked into Mi Zhu's study and reminded him.