When Cao Boss's secret envoy Mao Jue was still on the road to the south, the main force of Xuzhou led by Deputy Director Tao himself had already arrived at the southernmost Hulu City in Yanzhou, and Cao Chun's general Gao Qian, who guarded the small city of Hulu, did not dare to face the battle, and closed the city to defend it, and the people and merchants in the border cities outside the city also rushed to flee, fearing that they would be affected by the war, and Deputy Director Tao issued two orders in a row, one was to strictly prohibit the indiscriminate killing of innocents, the annihilation of silver women and the plundering of people's property, and let the people of the border city leave; The second is to inform the people of the edict of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and the edict of the three princes of the Great Yuan to show that he is famous as a military division.

Deliberately did not publicize the hatred of Cao Jun's slaughter of the city in Xuzhou, and killed a soldier who robbed the people's property in public, Xuzhou's military discipline was suppressed, and the people of Hulu who were once panicked to the extreme gradually calmed down, and some of the people also began to take the initiative to improve the intelligence in the city for the Xuzhou army, and assisted the Xuzhou army in attacking Hulu City, but even if there is no such leading party, it doesn't matter much, relying on the previous border city business and travel exchanges, military expenditure accounts for more than half of Xuzhou's total military expenditure. He had already felt the situation in Hulu City clearly, and Deputy Director Tao not only knew that there were less than 1,500 defenders in the city, but he also knew that section of the city wall was in the most disrepair.

The enemy is outnumbered, and he has an extremely clear grasp of the enemy's situation, and it is simply sorry for the many years of education in the public servant school if he does not fight such a tailwind battle, so after three days of careful preparation, Deputy Director Tao decisively ordered to launch a siege and serve as the task of the siege vanguard, and was also grabbed by the Danyang army led by Wei Yan by drawing lots.

On the fourth day, it is also the sixteenth day of the first month of the fourth year of Jian'an, the siege battle began, in the loud military song, twenty Xiangyang cannons first began to exert their might, throwing more than 300 catties of giant stone projectiles on the city wall, and then the long shield strode forward with the shield in hand, the archers followed shortly, rushed to the edge of the moat and formed a small temporary fortification with long shields and sandbags and other things, the archers hid in the small fortifications and desperately threw arrows on the city wall, and the Xiangyang cannon joined forces to suppress the defenders of the city.

In view of the fact that the moat of the small city of Hulu is relatively narrow, and the widest part is only about three zhang, so the Xuzhou army simply saved the trouble of carrying soil and picking stones to fill the river, and directly dispatched thirty flying bridge cars that are more than three zhang long after folding, relying on the long shield to cover the flying general approach to the south gate of Hulu, just close to the moat directly put down the auxiliary bridge, and set up temporary bridges on the moat, although the defenders of the city also used rockets and dovetail torches to deal with these folding flybridge cars, It's a pity that these flybridges have already been coated with thick mud, and the joints that are easy to be hooked up with by the dovetail torch are simply wrapped with mud-soaked straw mats, so the effect is very low.

When it came to the link of the siege of the city, the Danyang soldiers under the command of Wei Yan were very impressive to the generals of Xuzhou, in the earth-shattering sound of war drums, the Danyang soldiers who were fighting and bullying friendly troops almost every day were abnormal, not only did they no longer have the usual laziness and slackness, but also moved forward side by side with their arms hooked, and the special military songs of the Xuzhou Danyang soldiers also echoed loudly on the battlefield, no matter how violently the war drums of the enemy and us beat and how chaotic the slogans and shouts were, None of them could hide the neat military songs of these two thousand Danyang soldiers.

"Do you say you have no clothes? with the Son. Wang Yuxingshi, repair my spear. Enmity with the Son.

How can you say that you have no clothes? With the Son. Wang Yuxingshi, repair my spear halberd. Work with the child.

How can you say that you have no clothes? with the Son. Wang Yuxingshi, repair my armor soldiers. Walk with the son. ”

In the neat military song, but also in the surprised gaze of countless Xuzhou soldiers, two thousand Danyang soldiers strode to Hulu City two hundred steps away with their arms hooked, Wei Yanling, who took the lead, waved the flag, and the military song stopped abruptly, replaced by a roar of shouting and killing, two thousand Danyang soldiers were instantly divided into twenty teams of 100 people, carrying a flying ladder and rushing to the folding bridge car, waving the round shield in his hand to block the rain of arrows in the city, stepping on the bridge to cross the river with red eyes, putting a simple flying ladder on the city wall, biting the hands and feet of the weapon and climbing the wall with flying, The bloody and brutal ant-possession war also began.

In the bloody battle, the Danyang hooligan soldiers continued to step up the ladder under the rain of arrows and falling rocks like crazy, and they also fell from the height of the city wall one after another, but the brave and fierce Danyang hooligan soldiers still rushed to the city head endlessly, rushing to the enemy one after another, and the stubborn and stubborn ruthlessness like a single-celled organism made even the Cao soldiers who had experienced a hundred battles frightened. Soon, the first Danyang soldier rushed to the head of the city, although he was quickly chopped into pieces by the tide of Cao soldiers defending the city, but more Danyang hooligan soldiers rushed up the city wall one after another with his sacrifice, occupying the city head position inch by foot, covering more companions to rush to the city wall.

At the same time, the second wave of siege teams also set off, and this time they launched an attack on the north, south, and east gates without the protection of the Surabaya River at the same time. However, the main battlefield was always the south gate finalized by Deputy Director Tao before the war, and he invested 2,000 troops in one breath to attack the lake and land city walls like a knife.

Before the war, the accomplices and lackeys under the command of Deputy Director Tao also put forward suggestions to avoid frontal storming of the city, suggesting to try the ingenious tactics of luring the snake out of the hole, diverting the tiger from the mountain or besieging the city to send reinforcements, so as to avoid excessive casualties in the frontal battle. However, Deputy Director Tao did not hesitate to reject these kind proposals and resolutely decided to take the most difficult frontal attack.

Of course, there is a reason for Deputy Director Tao's refusal to be sympathetic to the soldiers' decision, when the accomplices and lackeys asked about the purpose, Deputy Director Tao also replied calmly: "Of course, it is for the psychological problems of our army, five years ago, our team in Xuzhou was killed by the Cao thief team like a river, and the corpses were like a mountain, and the psychological shadow of the fear of the Cao thief team has been left in my heart, and later although our team also annihilated the tiger and leopard cavalry of the Cao thief, but that was the record of the Junzi Army, and it has nothing to do with our other teams, and most of the Xuzhou soldiers still have a shadow in their hearts!" The only way to break through this shadow and shatter the fear of the Cao thief team is to defeat the Cao thief's team on the battlefield! Otherwise, such fear will always accompany our army! ”

Deputy Director Tao's good intentions finally got a certain reward, and when he saw the first wave of the Danyang soldiers on the city wall, the timidity of the countless Xuzhou soldiers watching the battle in front of the Cao army team was suddenly greatly reduced, and they began to gradually stop being afraid of the Cao army team that had almost wiped out the Xuzhou army five years ago. Compared with the Cao army team that killed countless people back then, it is not much different, and it can even be said that it is not inferior at all.

The fierce fighting continues, and the strength advantage of the Xuzhou team is also being shown bit by bit, especially after the Xuzhou army in the east and north gates also began to attack the city, the city defense force in the hands of the lake and land defender Gao Qian is even more stretched, and the Xuzhou army, which has an absolute advantage in strength, took the opportunity to rush and fight, rushing to the city wall one after another, and fighting for the position of the city head with the Cao army defending the city inch by inch. It also forced Gao Qian to send out the only reserve in his hand to reinforce the main battlefield of the South Gate only an hour after the start of the ant annex war.

"Didn't General Zihe (Cao Chun) say that the pottery thief might just be perfunctory to Yuan Shao? Does this seem perfunctory? It's real fun! This is also the only thought in General Gao Qian's mind at the moment.

Although the number of Cao army troops arranged by Cao Chun to garrison in Hulu is not much, but for the sake of the valuable character of Deputy Director Tao suddenly sneak attack, but they are the main soldiers of the Cao army team on the southern front of Yanzhou, and their combat effectiveness is quite strong, so even if the Xuzhou army has made great progress, the strength occupies an absolute advantage, and the morale of several siege teams is generally high, but it is not so easy to take the small city of Hulu, and it has been fighting for two hours since the ant attachment, and the Xuzhou army is still only limited to attacking the head of Hulu City, and did not be able to penetrate a single step into the city, let alone achieve the decisive result of cutting down the enemy's banner and opening the city gate.

But it doesn't matter, the Xuzhou army is a bit of time now, although Cao Chun's main force, which is closest to Hulu, has more than 10,000 troops, but it is hiding in Changyi City and does not dare to take the next step south - because Deputy Director Tao sent the Junzi Army to Changyi City early to show off his might, Cao Chun, who had been completely wiped out by the Junzi Army, was already three points weak just by hearing the singing of Guan Guan Ju Dove and in Hezhizhou, not to mention that the city was brought to rescue the lake and land through a large open area, plus Cao Boss's order to Cao Chun was also to defend the city, When Cao Chun will be able to make up his mind to rescue Hulu with all his might, I'm afraid only God knows.

After most of the time, seeing that he couldn't take the head position of the city for a long time, Deputy Director Tao decisively ordered the third wave of siege teams to prepare for the battle, intending to rotate the siege, but at this time, Wei Yan's deputy Zhou Hui sent people back to the flag formation, and pleaded with Deputy Director Tao on behalf of Wei Yan and Zhou Hui - begging Deputy Director Tao not to rotate the team to attack the city, and also said that the four thousand Danyang soldiers who had been put into the battlefield would definitely be able to take Hulu City, otherwise Wei Yan and Zhou Hui would be willing to receive military law.

Seeing that the morale was available, Deputy Director Tao was not polite, and agreed to Wei Yan and Zhou Hui's request on the spot, and said that he would never rotate Wei Yan's team or send reinforcements before the unitary time, and give Wei Yan and Zhou Hui another hour, and then Deputy Director Tao also wore silver armor and white robes to climb to the heights, and personally cheered for Wei Yan's team!

When I saw Deputy Director Tao, who was dressed in white robe and silver armor, climbed to the top and beat the drum in person, the earth-shattering cheers of the Danyang hooligans also sounded on the head of the South Gate of Hulu, where the flesh and blood were raging, and the earth-shattering cheers of the Danyang hooligan soldiers also sounded like chicken blood, one after another rushed towards the enemy with red eyes, slashing and stabbing axes, slashing and stabbing axes, desperately fighting with the enemy like crazy, and even a tragic picture of rolling down the city wall with the enemy, Wei Yan, who had been killed all over the blood, was carrying a steel knife that was about to cut the blade. led more than twenty Danyang hooligan soldiers who were also covered in blood and rushed to Gao Qian's banner array.

"Death to those who stand in my way!" Wei Yan roared, and the momentum was like a bamboo, and he cut down two enemies blocking the road one after another.

"Let him come!" Gao Qian also discovered that Wei Yannai was the chief general of the enemy's siege team, and while drinking the soldiers who tried to step forward to stop him, he also raised a knife to meet Wei Yan in person, and the roar in his mouth was even more violent, "Piff, suffer death!" ”

The two generals collided, and the two steel knives were split out at the same time, and it was also when the steel knives broke the wind, Gao Qian suddenly realized that he had underestimated the enemy commander on the opposite side, because Wei Yan's bloody steel knife broke through the air not only louder, but also significantly faster than himself, but Gao Qian regretted it at this time It was too late, the two knives intersected with a loud sound, the steel knife in Gao Qian's hand suddenly flew out, and the tiger's mouth of the right hand holding the knife suddenly broke, and then Gao Qian didn't even have time to react from the shock, Wei Yan stabbed out again, stabbed into Gao Qian's chest and passed directly through his chest.

If you change to another army, the army should basically collapse after the death of the main general, but the elite soldiers of the Cao army in Hulu City still taught the Xuzhou army a good lesson, in the case of Gao Qian's death, Gao Qian's deputy Gao Yu immediately took over the command without hesitation, and continued to command the team to fight bloodily with the Xuzhou army, and methodically resisted the Xuzhou team's wave after wave of offensive, without the slightest sign of collapse.

The Xuzhou army had a lot of soldiers in the end, and fought for more than half an hour, when it was only a moment from Shenshi, the first batch of Xuzhou soldiers finally entered the city, rushed to the city gate and fought with the soldiers guarding the door, and personally rushed to the city with the last self-army reserve Zhou Hui also killed the winch in front of the city tower, and smashed the damned winch with an iron axe, when the high suspension bridge fell to the ground, the Xuzhou soldiers also cut the latch from the door to open the city gate, and the Xuzhou soldiers in the city were thunderous. Deputy Director Tao, whose arm was sore, also decisively launched a general attack, and threw his new force into Hulu City, where the city gate was already open.

At this time, Gao Yu had also been stabbed to death by the Xuzhou soldiers in the chaos, and the defenders of the South Gate City, who were less than 300 people, began to flee to the city, but the Danyang hooligans who liked to fight the wind the most were not satisfied, and they were always in hot pursuit, and started street battles with the defenders. After the herald reported the situation to Deputy Director Tao, Deputy Director Tao not only did not stop him, but also encouraged: "Tell Wei Yan and Zhou Hui that you fought beautifully!" Continue to kill me, and strive to kill the Cao thief team in Hulu City for me, and let the Cao thief see how powerful we are! ”

"No!" The Danyang heralds under Wei Yan clasped their fists and sang their promises, and rushed back to deliver the order happily. Chen Ying, who was next to Deputy Director Tao, was a little worried, and said in a low voice: "Lord, isn't this right?" We are just perfunctory Yuan Shao this time, and we don't really want to have a full-scale decisive battle with Cao Thief, if we completely anger Cao Thief......? ”

"Yuan Fang, some people just like to bully the soft and fear the hard." Deputy Director Tao sneered and said: "The more you tolerate him and show mercy to his subordinates, the more he thinks you are a bully, and the less he takes you seriously!" Cao thief, that's the kind of person! ”

"Really?" Chen Ying was a little skeptical.

"Song Xianggong and the Chu army fought in Hongshui." On the other side, Jia Lao Poison spoke, and Yin Yin recited: "The Chu people are not helped, and Mu Yi said: 'I am widowed by the others, and they have not been able to help them. The public said: 'Indecent manners, no fighting'. After the help was gone, he said: 'It can be attacked. The public said: "Indecent manners, wait for it to be presented." 'Chen Cheng, the Song people attacked him, the Song division was defeated, and Xianggong was injured. ”

After the recitation, Jia Lao Poison changed his gentle smile again, and said with a smile: "Xianggongren, the princes laugh, the Qin country is violent, and the countries are afraid." Now the lord sent troops to Yanzhou in response to Yuan Shao, if you learn the benevolence of Xianggong, then Yuan Gong will be angry, Cao Gong will be light, angry will be angry with our army, light will meet our army. If the lord learns the violence of Qin, then Yuan Gong will be happy, Cao Gong will be afraid, and if he is happy, he will send troops to respond, and those who are afraid will be wronged and seek perfection - the lord has a very clear grasp of Yuan Shao and Cao Ying's psychology. ”

"I'm afraid it's the most satisfying for you, right?" Deputy Director Tao muttered with a smile on his face, and after a little calculation, Deputy Director Tao instructed Chen Ying again: "Yuan Fang, write a document for me to report the victory to my father-in-law, and report to him the news that our army has taken the lake and land and annihilated the five thousand defenders in the city. ”

"No." Chen Ying agreed, and reminded: "Lord, the number of defenders is wrong, right? In Hulu City, it seems that there are only 1,500 defenders? ”

Deputy Director Tao smiled again and said, "Yuan Fang, when someone replaces your position as the head of the book that day, I will definitely let you take charge of the money and grain—at the very least, you don't know what it means to report a flower account and deceive your superiors and subordinates." ”

It was a battle, and the Xuzhou army that paid a lot of price basically wiped out the Hulu defenders, and only a dozen Cao soldiers who were proficient in the water surname escaped from the lake and land from the Ximen waterway and returned to Changyi to report to Cao Chun.

After receiving the news that the Hulu defenders had been completely annihilated, Cao Laoda, who believed that Deputy Director Tao was just planning to perfunctory Yuan Sangong, was stunned for more than a minute, and then roared angrily, "Tao thief! Do you want to play for real? If you want to play for real, don't think I'm afraid of you! If it weren't for Yuan Shaopifu threatening my northern front, I would have personally led my army south and fought to the death with you, a thief! ”

No matter how much he roared, it was useless, except for ordering Cao Chun to defend Changyi and give the Xuzhou army a little color in the defense of the city, there was really no good way to clean up Deputy Director Tao - because Cao Boss quickly woke up, the more fiercely Deputy Director Tao led the Xuzhou army to attack on the southern front, the larger the scale of the war, the more likely it was that the indecisive Yuan Sangong in Jizhou would send troops to attack Yanzhou and come to Yanzhou to fight to the death.

So there is no way, in the case that the overall strength is still better than that of Deputy Director Tao, Boss Cao can only send Mao Jue to ask Deputy Director Tao in a low voice, "Tao Envoy, what kind of conditions do you want?" Are you willing to turn the spearhead and hit Yuan Shao's Qingzhou? Money beauty, land city, as long as you offer conditions, I will definitely promise you! ”

(To be continued)