Ma Chao asked someone to come in and take a look, but it was a young man of twenty-three or four, with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, full of Confucian image. The young man didn't dare to slack off when he saw Ma Chao, bowed down and bowed, and said respectfully: "Xuzhou Thorn Shi is engaged in pottery merchants to meet the general!" ”

Ma Chao returned the half-salute and said: "Tao is not polite, but I don't know what the relationship between you and Xuzhou Tao Envoy Jun is?" ”

Tao Shang said: "It's my father!" Said the former general wedding, because there was a yellow turban rebellion in Xuzhou, blocking traffic, so that the number of ceremonies was missing, and now the father came to make up the congratulatory gifts, and there was also a handwritten letter from the father! With that, eight strong men walked into the hall carrying four boxes of belongings, and they themselves delivered a piece of silk.

Ma Chao opened it and took a look, got up and said angrily: "Okay, you Cao Agui, you dare to mix personal grievances with the people, slaughter my people, kill my people, and not be the son of man!" ”

The pottery merchant responded: "It is exactly like this, since ancient times, although the two armies have often robbed the people, but unscrupulous, wanton massacre of the people is rare, when the general led the army to recruit the northern alien tribes and left women not to kill, but that Cao Mengde did not even let go of the women and children, his virtue is really outrageous!" Please also ask the general to uphold justice! ”

Ma Chao pondered for a while, and he was also in a dilemma, if he dared to send troops to Xuzhou, it was likely to cause the Central Plains War, and its scale would exceed the Guandu Battle in history. At present, Youzhou and Qingzhou have not been recovered, if they go to war with Yuan Shao and other princes, they may be attacked on three sides, after all, Tian Kai of Qingzhou is actually Gongsun Zhan's subordinates, and there are Cao Ying and Yuan Shao and other princes in the south of the Yellow River.

But if he doesn't send troops, these princes can't honestly wait for him to clean up, and once their forces are formed, it will be even more difficult to exterminate them one by one. The more important thing is that the vitality of the Han nation can't withstand such a toss, and the people are gone, so what can they do to conquer Western Europe and the American continent?

After pondering for a long time, Ma Chao decided to send troops to Qingzhou to test and fight a local war first to see how Yuan Shao and others reacted. made up his mind, and immediately said: "The people of Xuzhou are my Han people, and Tao Yuanjun is also an official appointed by the imperial court. You can tell the specific situation of Xuzhou to the general in detail, and then hurry back to Pengcheng to report to Tao Envoy, who will immediately dispatch troops, not to mention that he is about to rush to Xuzhou to exterminate the Cao thief! ”

The potter was overjoyed and bowed his hand and said, "Thank you, General!" Then he carefully explained the current situation in Xuzhou.

Ma Chao knew in his heart, no wonder Xuzhou could repeatedly repel the yellow scarf, but he couldn't resist Cao Ying's attack, and he dared to love Zang Ba, an anti-bone boy, who refused to go all out to fight with Cao Thief.

Zang Ba was originally a Taishan man, the nephew of the spear prodigy Yuan, and he also learned the half-hung Hundred Birds Chaofeng Gun, and he could barely be regarded as a first-class general. Zang Ba is nominally a subordinate of Tao Qian, but in fact, he is not. During the early Yellow Turban Uprising, Zang Ba and Sun Guan, Wu Dun, Yin Li and others gathered the army, and Zang Ba was the commander, stationed in the Kaiyang area, and became the overlord of his own party. Later, Tao Qian served as the assassin of Xuzhou, and tried his best to win over Zang Ba, showing him as a cavalry captain, collecting troops in Xuzhou, providing him with grain, grass and military supplies to pacify the Yellow Turban thieves. Therefore, Zang Ba and Tao Qian are cooperative relations, not subordinates.

Zang Ba has more than 20,000 elite soldiers, and with Tao Qian's full supply of grain and grass, he has repeatedly repelled the Yellow Turban Thieves. Seeing that Cao Ying's strength was great, he stationed troops in Langya County and did not move, and he had no intention of sending troops to resist Cao. And although Tao Qian has more than 50,000 county soldiers in his hands, there are no generals who can lead the troops, and most of them are newly recruited soldiers, how can he be Cao Ying's opponent?

After asking about the situation, Ma Chao was confident, and sent away the pottery merchants and began to transfer troops, first of all, the three generals stationed in Chaoge Huangzhong, Chen Dao, and Cao surnamed were transferred to Yecheng, and there were 10,000 cavalry with them. Only Gao Shun and Fu Hu were left in charge of the defense work, and now Cao Ying is too busy to take care of himself, how can he have the heart to enter Jizhou, these two people are enough.

Two days later, Ma Chao handed over all the affairs of Yecheng to Fu Zhu and Ma Xiu, and led Huang Zhong, Dian Wei, Chen Zhi, Cao surnamed and Ma Jun and Kong Ming to lead 13,000 cavalry to the Zhang He garrison in Bohai County.

At the same time, Lu Bu also began to step up preparations, and with Ma Chao's strong support, Guo Jia and Du Xi temporarily joined his command as a guest as a strategist. He also sent Hou Cheng, Zhang Yang, Cheng Lian, Hao Meng and other generals to go out to recruit troops, and at the same time stepped up the sewing of military uniforms, weapons and armor, and recruited more than 8,000 soldiers in less than half a month, plus the original troops, there were 35,000 elite soldiers, including 5,000 cavalry.

At this time, when he heard that Cao Ying's troops were sent to Xuzhou, he couldn't wait to lead 30,000 troops to Yanzhou, and first captured Xuchang with lightning speed, and the troops approached the Liang of Chen Liuzhi.

Zhang Miao led the troops to battle, and the two armies fought outside the city of Daliang, but no one dared to fight with Lu Bu. After a scuffle, Zhang Miao defended the city and did not dare to fight easily. Lu Bu's tempters attacked several times without success, and they did not dare to rush into the army for a while. Although he can follow Cao Ying's example and bypass Daliang City to take the hinterland of Yanzhou, it is extremely unwise to leave Zhang Miao behind, and he may copy his back road at any time, not to mention, and cut off his supply line, the consequences are unimaginable.

At the critical moment when the two armies were stalemate, Chen Gong, who was beaten by Cao Ying's stick in Xuzhou, rushed to Daliang City, and saw Zhang Miao trying his best to resist Lu Bu for Cao Ying, and couldn't help but feel heartbroken. immediately told Cao Ying's atrocities in Xuzhou, and finally said: "The Yanzhou pastor of Cao Apu was just elected by us, and he was not recognized by the imperial court, and now he is massacring the people in Xuzhou, which has already caused public anger. Who in the world doesn't know that the general loves the people like a son? Since the general has promised Lu Bu the post of Yanzhou pastor, he will definitely give his full support to Lu Bu to destroy Cao, and Brother Meng Zhuo is working hard for Cao Thief at this moment, isn't he digging his own grave? ”

Zhang Miao and Lu Bu are also old acquaintances, and they know Lu Bu's bravery, but his relationship with Cao Ying is also extraordinary, not that he can betray him, and he said: "Although Gongtai's words are reasonable, Cao Mengde treats me like a brother, and there is no rudeness, if I betray him for no reason, I am afraid of falling into an unrighteous name!" ”

Chen Gong said: "Meng Zhuo is confused! Let me ask you, how is your friendship with Cao Mengde compared to Cao Thief and Yuan Shao? ”

Zhang Miao frowned and said, "Far from it!" ”

Chen Gong said: "That's right, Meng Zhuo and Yuan Shao have always had a grudge, as far as the palace knows, Yuan Shao sent a letter to Cao Zhuo twice, asking him to offer Meng Zhuo's head, and Cao A didn't say anything. But now that the general supports Lu Bu in his crusade against the Cao thief, the Cao thief is reckless and has taken in hundreds of thousands of Yellow Turban thieves, how can he get so much grain and grass? If you want to repel Lu Bu, you can only borrow grain from Yuan Shao, if Yuan Shao brings up the old matter again, can Brother Meng Zhuo keep the head of Xiang Shang? ”

Zhang Miao felt a pang in his heart when he heard this, when the princes begged for Dong, everyone elected Yuan Shao as the leader of the alliance. After Yuan Shao became the leader of the alliance, he often behaved arrogantly and reservedly. Zhang Miao, Cao Ying, and Yuan Shao are all old friends, so they often blame Yuan Shao and don't save face. Yuan Shao didn't say it on the surface, but he was furious in his heart, so he had murderous intentions, but the princes of the world were in sour dates, and they had to rely on Zhang Miao to provide food and grass support, so they had been forbearing, but the two also turned against each other.

After pondering for a while, Zhang Miao said: "Meng Desu came to Xinyi, if I hadn't provided him with food and grass supplies, Cao Mengdeyan would have been able to have this day, and he wouldn't be unfavorable to me in the future!" ”

Chen Gong said: "The difference between Meng Zhuo's words, if you only know one thing, you don't know the other, you only know the surface, you don't know the inside. Cao thief is benevolent and righteous on the surface, but he is actually a deceitful and vicious, and ungrateful villain! Brother, listen to my coming", he told the story of Cao Ying's killing of Lu Bohao's family after the failure of the assassination of Dong from beginning to end, especially emphasizing Cao Ying's sentence "I would rather bear the people of the world than the people of the world bear me." Famous quotes.

"There is such a thing!" Zhang Miao's face was full of disbelief when he heard this.

Chen Gong said: "This matter is true, the palace has seen it with his own eyes and heard it with his own ears, and he will never dare to lie about it!" After a pause, he said: "Today, there are many talents, the world is divided, Brother Meng Zhuo has a rich land in Chenliu, with more than 10,000 soldiers under his command and a large population, but he is in a situation where he is surrounded by enemies on all sides. But now that he is controlled by others, wouldn't it damage his identity to put the head of Xiang Shang on Cao Thief? Today, the main force of Yanzhou marched east to Xuzhou, the interior was empty, and Lu Bu was the fierce general of the world, the best at charging into battle, and had the support of the edict of the Son of Heaven and the general. Helping Cao thief to fight against him is an anti-thief, and indirectly fighting the general as an enemy, it is better to usher him for the time being, occupy Yanzhou together, wait and see the situation, and act with the camera, maybe he can achieve something great. No matter how bad it is, you can also use this credit to show favor to the general, and you don't have to worry about the future! ”

Zhang Miao was very moved when he heard this, and he pondered for a long time, and suddenly laughed and said: "If there is no public platform, the foolish brother almost missed a big thing!" Lu Bu has the support of the edict of the Son of Heaven and the general, and welcomes him as the pastor of Yanzhou! ”

Chen Gong was also overjoyed, and arched his hand: "That's right, Ming said, the two of us will go out of the city to welcome Lu Bu into Yanzhou." Cao thief has been in charge of Yanzhou for less than half a year, and officials from all over the country have not really returned to him, and the people are uncertain. ”

The two discussed it carefully at the moment, and then sent someone to the military camp outside the city to deliver a letter to Lu Bu. Lu Bu was overjoyed, and he was afraid that the two would cheat, so he hesitated for a while, so he called Guo Jia and Du Zheng to ask for advice.

Guo Jia nodded after reading Zhang Miao's handwritten handwriting: "Although Wen Hou can rest assured, my lord has already expected this step, so Jia Cai tried his best to persuade Wen Hou not to rush into the army, with Zhang Miao and Chen Gong and other local officials coming forward, Wen Hou can take most of the counties and counties of Yanzhou without a single soldier, and when Cao Thief returns with his army, I am afraid there will be no place to stay!" ”

The next time, Zhang Miao and his brother Zhang Chao, together with Yanzhou officials Chen Gong, engaged in Zhonglang Xu Yan, Wang Kai and others went out of the city to welcome Lu Bu to settle in Yanzhou. Seeing that Zhang Miao only brought 500 men and horses, Lu Bu was convinced, and immediately ordered the whole army to pull out the camp, and more than 20,000 troops marched into Daliang City. (To be continued.) )