Tao Qian was afraid of Cao Cao's power, so he killed Que Xuan and presented Que Xuan's head, thinking that Cao Cao could be persuaded to temporarily extinguish the anger in his heart and withdraw his troops. However, Tao Qian's idea was too simple, Cao Cao was bent on taking Xuzhou, and now he had found this rare opportunity, where would he let it go, naturally he would not listen to Tao Qian's verbosity, but still marched into the army, launching wave after wave of attacks on Tao Qian's Zhipei County.

Finally, Tao Qian knew that Cao Cao's power was too strong, and the Peixian county town he was defending was too contemptuous to resist the enemy, so he finally had no choice but to make the decision to retreat to Peixian. Of course, before making this decision, Chen Deng, who was actually in Tan County, had persuaded him that if things were not good, he could temporarily return to the East China Sea to take care of it. When it was, Tao Qian didn't understand the deep meaning of Chen Deng's words, and thought that Chen Deng was frustrating his own military morale, so he didn't agree. After holding on for a long time, he saw that he could not withstand Cao Cao's onslaught, and finally had to compromise and retreat the soldiers back to Yinping in the East China Sea.

Of course, Cao Cao had a Pei County useless, seeing that Tao Qian was gone, he immediately raised a large army, chased after him, and then surrounded Tao Qian in Pingyin. Tao Qian looked at the vast people under the city, and his heart was already furious. To be honest, he didn't expect that he would have raised troops to attack Zang and dominate Kaiyang, but in the end Kaiyang was not captured, and the situation would be reversed into this way within two months, and he was chased and beaten by others at the door of his home, which is really unreasonable. At this time, whether he is annoyed or remorseful, anyway, the matter has come to this point, and he can only take one step at a time. However, when he thought of the sharpness of Cao Cao's soldiers and the lack of generals on his side, he really had no belief in victory, and even thought that if the East China Sea was not guaranteed, what would his future be like in Xuzhou, would he not wait for his son to take over, and Xuzhou would fall into the hands of Cao thieves? Thinking of this, Tao Qian's eyes were even more dim and unremarkable.

Fortunately, two days after this, reinforcements from Tan County arrived. There were only 3,000 reinforcements, and Tao Qian asked Chen Deng to gather them urgently. Although there are fewer people, it is better than nothing. What's more, with the arrival of reinforcements, there is also a letter from Chen Deng. Chen Deng said in his letter that he was very ashamed that he could not go to the state with the envoy while he was sick. On the other hand, Tao Qian was advised not to fight with the thieves, but only to defend the city, wait for the enemy to change, and then act in a cloudy manner. Tao Qian got this letter, and he also read it inexplicably, Chen Deng was in the rear, how could he know that the enemy situation would change? But when he thought about it, or maybe Chen Deng was comforting him by saying so.

No matter what Chen Deng's intentions were, Tao Qian's confidence increased slightly because of Chen Deng's letter. Here, according to Chen Deng's orders, he only gathered the men and horses into the city, firmly held Pingyin City, and did not open the city to fight. Tao Qian made this shrunken turtle, and it was impossible for Cao Cao to engage him if he wanted to, so he could only supervise the construction of equipment to prepare for the next war. However, Cao Cao besieged the city for a long time, and only then did he realize that problems came one after another.

First of all, if you can't pull out the thief city after a long battle, the soldiers below will complain. After all, sending troops in winter is against the norm, soldiers are also people, most of them have not changed their winter clothes, how to resist the cold weather that is stronger every day? Second, Cao Cao raised so many soldiers and horses, and gathered many surrendered troops, and the consumption of grain and grass was serious. In addition, the battle line is lengthened, and the transportation is more time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is really difficult to keep up with the assistance. What's even worse is that when he first started the army, it was because the thieves came to his door and had to do it. To put it bluntly, his attack was 'self-defense', and most of the soldiers were Yanzhou people, so they naturally worked harder. And now, the thieves have withdrawn from Peixian, showing that they are weak, but they still have to fight, and go deep into the enemy's hinterland, so their troops have invisibly changed from the original 'self-defense' to today's aggression, the nature is different, and the morale is naturally different.

Once the troops are frustrated and they can't pull out the thief city for a long time, the morale will naturally decline, and the following complaints will naturally breed. Many soldiers even said that they could no longer control their own soldiers and horses, saying that if they did not withdraw their troops, they were only afraid of the danger of bombing the camp. In this realm, even if Cao Cao had a hundred more abilities, he would already have to consider the issue of withdrawing troops. The spirit of the army is the key, and the grain and grass are secondary, if the division outside cannot guarantee these two points, then the war will continue...... Cao Cao also knew that there would inevitably be chaos. Although Cao Cao finally caught such a great opportunity to invade Xuzhou, it would be a pity if he gave up lightly. But he is not a brute, and since he knows that morale is not available, he can only make the decision to withdraw his troops.

Looking at the Pingyin City and the faces of the surrounding soldiers, Cao Cao sighed lightly in his heart, but said with a smile: "The ancient saying is that the teacher does not prosper in winter and summer, but it was he Tao Gongzu who forced me to go against the convention and had no choice but to send troops." Now it seems that since the teaching is powerful, we should also conform to the principles of heaven, and everyone should go back to Yanzhou for the New Year. As soon as Cao Cao said this, the civil and military forces on both sides were naturally happy, and they all nodded one after another, praising the lord for his wisdom! Cao Cao laughed, and immediately waved his hand to pass down the military order and withdraw the troops on a certain day.

The days of Cao Cao's siege were too torturous for Tao Qian. Looking at the vast thieves below, Tao Qian really couldn't understand why Chen Deng said that Cao Cao would retire in the first place. However, when he got up early one morning, Tanma reported that the thieves had withdrawn their troops, leaving only many empty camps outside the city, Tao Qian knew that Chen Deng's words had come true, and the thieves had finally withdrawn. He didn't understand why Chen Deng was able to say this, but when he thought that since the thief was gone, he would really be sorry for Cao Cao if he didn't make any moves here, and it seemed that he was too faceless. At that moment, Tao Qian ordered his troops and horses and prepared to lead his troops to pursue in person, but was dissuaded by Liu Bei and others, so that Tao Qian could not take the risk himself. Tao Qian felt justified when he heard this, so he sent troops and horses, and asked Cao Bao and Liu Bei to lead their troops to pursue Cao Cao, while he sat in Pingyin City and waited for news.

Since Cao Cao decided to withdraw his troops, he naturally had to arrange the troops to break the road in the back, and Cao Cao also had a habit that once the troops were withdrawn, he would personally cut off the troops. So, when Liu Bei led his troops to catch up, Cao Cao had already set up an ambush and defeated Liu Bei and Cao Bao, killing the two of them almost unable to get out of the siege. Fortunately, don't worry about Liu Bei, Liu Bei saw the opportunity quickly, ambushed the soldiers together, knew that it was not good, and hurriedly beckoned his two brothers to go back, leaving all the thieves to Cao Bao to resist. Cao Bao saw that the opportunity was too slow, retreated late, and had to face the thieves ambushing the soldiers, and was almost not captured alive by the thieves, but in the end he escaped by luck. But he was itchy with hatred for Liu Bei's unrighteous actions, and wanted to beat Liu Bei angrily, but Zhang Fei flashed out behind Liu Bei, so he didn't dare to make a move, and walked away.

He didn't get the two of them, but he was beaten by Cao Cao and his nose was blue and his face was swollen, and when he came back to see Tao Qian, he also looked helpless. Tao Qian saw the two of them and wanted to scold them a few words to get angry, but when he thought that sending chasing soldiers this time was his own bad idea, he hurriedly took back the words he was about to throw out, and hurriedly changed them to: "Cao Mengde has returned to Yanzhou?" Cao Bao was slightly stunned, and he didn't know what he meant, but he was right, so he nodded one after another.

Although he failed to pick up the bargain at the last moment, fortunately, Cao Cao really retreated, and Tao Qian also breathed a sigh of relief. In total, he and Cao Cao lost less and won more, and lost a total of more than 10,000 men and horses, and the power was greatly damaged. At this time, he had to endure this breath for a while and returned to Tanxian with all the people and horses.

Of course, in view of offending Cao Cao, Tao Qian knew that Cao Cao would definitely invade Xuzhou again if he seized the opportunity in the future, and although Pei County was in Yuzhou, it could be used as a forward position to resist Cao Cao's soldiers, and it could not be defended. So, Tao Qian weighed it again and again, added 3,000 soldiers and horses to Liu Bei's three brothers, and sent them to Pei County to garrison, and at the same time, in order to justify his name, he also listed Liu Bei as the assassin of Yuzhou. Of course, if there is a big chaos today, if you want to talk about the history of Yuzhou's assassination, I don't know how many, Yuan Shao has a Zhou Ang on his side, the Han family has already sent a Guo Gong, and now there is another Liu Bei. As for the 'upper table', it is just a good one, whether the table book can reach the hands of the Son of Heaven is secondary, the key is that the Han family has a history of assassination, and he has done more, which shows that the people on the table despise the Son of Heaven.

Don't talk about it far away, just say that Cao Cao, the Yanzhou pastor, is also welcomed by the people of the state, and it can't be taken seriously, and then the Han family sent a Yanzhou assassin to the history, and was directly driven away by Cao Cao, we don't admit it, and the Son of Heaven has no choice. Of course, speaking of the Son of Heaven, it is still under the control of others, and most of these exiled thorn histories are just tools for the interests of those in power, so counting it, the 'state pastors' sent by the Han family are actually similar to those of the princes, anyway, the Son of Heaven rarely has the time to call the shots.

In other words, since Liu Bei followed Tao Qian, Tao Qian deliberately cultivated Liu Bei, and he also increased many soldiers and horses before and after, and now with these three thousand, there are a total of seven or eight thousand people in his hands, which can be regarded as a small fortune. Although Liu Bei knew very well in his heart that Tao Qian sent him to guard Pei County, which was deliberately asked to prevent disasters for him, he was still willing to go. Whether Cao Cao can come or not is secondary, the key is that Cao Cao is here, we can't win or go, right? Liu Bei has this mentality, so it doesn't matter.

Of course, Tao Qian gritted his teeth because of the humiliation of Peixian, although he couldn't get cheap in Cao Cao's hands, he had to find a window for catharsis. Tao Qian thought left and right, this Pei County is really hateful, so that he has a great humiliation in this life, in order to remember it, and at the same time in order to belittle the status of Pei County, he deliberately changed Pei County to Xiao Pei. Since then, Pei County has also become Xiao Pei City, which has been included in Tao Qian's sphere of influence, and Liu Bei has stationed his army in Xiao Pei City.