The two armies walked slowly, and after about half an hour, they finally arrived in the area of Shilipo, but there was a shadow of Cao Ying. Xu Chu knew the plan, and scolded: "Pifu'an dares to bully me? What is the purpose of your visit? Do you want to fight me to the death? "Then pull off the stance, and get ready to start.

Xiahou Yuan took a few steps back, hugged his fists and said: "Xu Zhuangshi, don't blame, although my lord has a little trick, he has no intention of harming him!" If you go back to Xujia Wubao again, everything will be revealed! ”

Xu Chu was worried about his father's safety, so he didn't dare to entangle with Xiahou Yuan anymore, so he hurriedly rode his horse back from the way he came, and dozens of horsemen followed closely. When I returned to the gate of Wubao, I saw that the city gate was closed, the gatehouse was full of Cao Jun, and there were many dead bodies by the city wall, but most of them were Cao Jun's corpses.

After thinking about it for a while, no matter how stupid Xu Chu was, he figured out what was going on, and it turned out that he had fallen for Cao Ying's plan to divert the tiger from the mountain. Cao Ying used these three days to collect local materials and build simple siege tools such as ladders and rope hooks. He took half of his troops with him as soon as he went out, and there were less than 1,000 people defending Wu Fort, and Wu Forts itself was not strong, how could he block the onslaught of nearly 10,000 Cao troops at any cost? Cao Ying only used one meal, and before Xu Chu and the others arrived at Shili Pavilion, they had already attacked Wu Fort, and Old Man Xu and Xu Chu's wives and concubines were all taken prisoner, and the private soldiers in the fort were under the control of Cao Jun.

Cao Ying had been waiting for a long time on the gatehouse, and when he saw Xu Chu galloping back, he laughed and said, "Xu Zhuangshi is okay here?" ”

Xu Chu hated, gritted his teeth and said: "Cao thief! I have no grudge against you, since ancient times, the monarch is the minister, the minister also chooses the king, you are not my king, I am not your minister, why do you have to work hard! ”

Cao Ying shook his head when he heard this: "When there is chaos today, and the princes from all walks of life rise up to fight for hegemony, they should do their best and use all their means!" I love Xu Zhuangshi's talent very much, so I have to make this decision! Don't blame the offense! After that, he turned around and shouted: "Open the city gate and let Xu Zhuangshi go home!" ”

The city gate was wide open, the suspension bridge was relieved, but Xu Chu was hesitant in his heart. Today's nest has become a tiger's den in Longtan in a blink of an eye, but if you don't enter, the old father, his wife and his seriously ill brother Xu Ding are still in Wubao. After a little contemplation, he had to turn over and dismount and strode into Wubao.

Cao Ying had been waiting for a long time, and when he saw Xu Chu enter the door, he knew that most of the things had been successful, and immediately bowed down and bowed down, and said: "Ye has offended, and please Xu Zhuangshi to calm his anger, the family and property in the fort have not committed any crimes, I only ask Xu Zhuangshi to abandon his previous suspicions and work together with Xu Zhuang to create a great cause!" ”

Xu Chu was stunned, he didn't expect Cao Ying to make such a play, Xu Chu is a loyal person, the most loyal and righteous, righteous and thin, but there are not many fancy intestines, he belongs to the kind of people with the surname who recognize one door and run to the black. This time, seeing Cao Ying, as a prince, making such a big gift to him, his heart was inevitably moved, and his hatred was a little less. He said: "Why should Cao Gong be like this! Xu Er is just a rural horseman, how can Cao Gong go to such great troubles? You'd better hurry back to Yanzhou! I am willing to sacrifice 200,000 grains and grass, 1,000 Zhuangding disciples as compensation, Xu Er also has to take care of his father and brother, it is difficult to obey his fate! ”

Cao Ying got up and said: "It's not a secret, there is a big enemy Lu Bu, this person is extremely brave and unstoppable, and the previous battle almost killed him under this person's arrow." Invite Xu Zhuangshi out of the mountain today, firstly, to help destroy Lu Bu, and secondly, to make Xu Zhuangshi a generation of famous generals. After that, he didn't give Xu Chu a chance to refute, and continued: "Looking at the world, Yuan Shao has decided to send troops to attack Ma Chao, and Qian County is the border area between Yuzhou and Yanzhou, and it will be a place of war at that time. Xu Jiawu Fort can't even resist my thousands of soldiers and horses, how can I resist the millions of troops of all the princes at that time? If Qiao County is obtained by Ma Chao, it will be difficult for a big household like the Ruxu family to gather people to gather in Tuntian! It's better to plan ahead! As long as Xu Zhuangshi is willing to go out of the mountain to help him, your father is my father, and your brother is my brother! You and I join forces, why worry about not creating a great career! ”

Xu Chu frowned when he heard this, he is now twenty-six, and seeing that he is about to reach the age of standing, it is impossible to say that he doesn't want to go out for a while. However, his old father is nearly seventy years old, and his brother is riddled with stubborn diseases, if he, the backbone, leaves his hometown, once there is a small offense, the foundation of the Xu family will be difficult to protect. The blueprint depicted by Cao Ying, who heard it today, was a little moved.

Just as he was hesitating, the elderly father Xu didn't know when he had come to the front, and said with a complicated expression: "It turns out that Cao Gong has taken a fancy to my son's bravery, so that the little second child decides for himself, don't be bound by your father!" Cao Gong is resourceful, does not stick to the practice, and has great ambitions, corporal Lixian, although he is in a difficult situation at the moment, but he is also a master, my son can assist him, maybe in the future can be magnified my Xu family lintel is not known! ”

Cao Ying was overjoyed when he heard this, Old Man Xu said ten words to him, and when he heard that Old Man Xu came out to persuade him in person, he immediately bowed down and said: "Thank you Uncle for your care, if you achieve great things, the Xu family will become one of the best families in the world!" I also treat Xu Zhuangshi with brotherly courtesy! ”

Xu Chu was moved when he heard this, his tiger eyes were full of tears, and he immediately bowed down and said loudly: "Chu is willing to serve the main public service of dogs and horses, and since then he has no two hearts before and after the saddle!" ”

Cao Ying was overjoyed, and secretly said that his hard work was finally not in vain, and he immediately helped Xu Chu up, laughed and said: "I have General Xu, such as Gaozu Fan Xu!" Why worry about Lu Bu's immortality? Why worry about Ma Chaowei? ”

Xu Chu was also impressed by Cao Ying's bearing, and was grateful, and Old Man Xu also agreed to move his family to Yanzhou to settle down. It was agreed that in addition to leaving some soft things, the Xu family dedicated all the 500,000 grains in the family to Cao Ying, and the more than 2,000 diners of the Xu family were also incorporated by Cao Ying. The large and small forces that attached to the Xu family also expressed their attachment, either sending money and food or sending domestic slaves and strong men, which made Cao Ying make a big fortune.

Cao Ying is also interesting enough, named Xu Chu as the lieutenant general of the cavalry, and gave Xiahou Yuan's sister Xia Houling to Xu Chu as his second wife, since then the two have been brothers-in-law and brother-in-law, and naturally released their previous suspicions. Half a month later, Cao Ying first collected hundreds of carriages, all the money and grain obtained were loaded on the carriages, and a group of more than 20,000 people rushed back to Yanzhou, not only to be a fierce general, but also to harvest countless money and grain, and more than 10,000 private soldiers.

And Yuan Shao is not stupid, he knows that his strength plus Cao Ying, Liu Biao and others may not be able to defeat Ma Chao, while deploying troops, he sent Xu You, Feng Ji, Guo Tu, Xin Ping and other strategists to Yuzhou and Yangzhou to lobby them to fund the crusade against Ma Chao.

Some of these powerful families are local families, and many of them are powerful people who have fled from the north. Since Ma Chao arranged for the Black Mountain refugees to enter the Southern Xiongnu Hetao area, he began to suppress the Haoqiang family. Subsequently, in Bingzhou, Jizhou, Sili Guanzhong and Qingzhou, the local families who annexed land and raised slaves and tuntian were mercilessly suppressed. Most of them were annihilated by force, and some fled to Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, Jingzhou, Yizhou, and even Jiaozhou, south of the Yellow River.

Now that Ma Chaogang has planted his forces in Xuzhou, many Haoqiang who have fled to Xuzhou and have not yet gained a firm foothold have become frightened birds, and after hearing the news, the family moved out of Xuzhou, and most of them entered the adjacent Yangzhou Jianghuai area. Even many local families in Xuzhou have rolled up their family wealth and brought their slaves to move their families. It can be said that in addition to a small part of the powerful family under Ma Chao's rule, there is almost no good end for the rest.

Of course, these people are all big landlords who have annexed thousands or even 10,000 acres of land, but the rich peasants with less than 500 mu of land are not within the scope of the crackdown. These powerful landlords who had left their homeland all hated Ma Chao and sent assassins to assassinate Ma Chao many times. However, Ma Chao has Dian Wei's personal protection, and the personal soldiers around him are even more extraordinary, and he also has amazing martial arts, and trying to assassinate him is tantamount to a moth to a fire.

Now that I heard that Yuan Shao was going to raise troops to fight against Ma Chao and drive him back to Xiliang in one fell swoop, all the landlords and powerful families applauded. Coupled with Yuan Shao's words and deeds of empty checks, families of all sizes have donated their wealth and domestic slaves, and the specific number of domestic slaves cannot be counted for the time being, and Yuan Shao has received tens of billions of "donations" in less than a month.

Yuan Shao, who had money, was full of confidence, and immediately ordered people to buy fine iron, grain and horses from the people, but no one was willing to sell grain and iron for a few days. When no one was able to sell it, they had to raise the purchase price from 200 yuan per corn to 300 yuan, 100 yuan per pound for fine iron to 150 yuan, and horses from 10,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan.

The effect is there, but it is minimal, Yuan Shao was angry and continued to increase the price, and finally reached 2,000 yuan for a piece of grain, 1,500 yuan for a pound of iron, and 100,000 yuan for horses. But even so, there are still very few people who come to exchange money. As everyone knows, Ma Chao has already let the Wei family and the Zhen family buy a large number of fine iron and other materials at a high price in the south, and at the same time, a large amount of five-baht money has flowed to the south.

In the south, both the common people and the landlords saw that it was profitable, so they exchanged the remaining materials in their hands for five baht coins and gold and silver. Over the past two years, a large amount of grain, fine iron, silk, cloth, ploughing cattle and other materials have flowed into the north. Due to the scarcity of materials in the south, prices began to rise continuously, and there was even a phenomenon that some places could not spend money. The north is rich in materials and prices are falling.

But even so, Ma Chao still did not let go of the economic plundering of the south, and after completely controlling the Yellow River, he sent heavy troops to guard the major ferries and block the trade between the north and the south, so that the materials from the south could enter the north, but the materials from the north were not allowed to cross the Yellow River.

Of course, this move also offended many businessmen, and Ma Chao adopted a policy of wooing, first buying the materials in his hands that were ready to be transported to the south, and then letting him go to the south to buy cattle, grain, refined iron and other things, and then buy them at a high price. Seeing that it was profitable, the merchants gladly agreed, and they became accomplices in Ma Chao's economic plundering of the south.

Of course, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are two thousand miles long, and Ma Chao cannot completely prevent merchants from smuggling, but these small fights will not affect the overall situation at all, as long as Yuan Shao and other princes do not find out about this matter, they can go all the way. (To be continued.) )