Relying on the strong financial support of Xuzhou, Xiaopei's moat was repaired by the famous general Qiao Rui to be very perverted, and the widest point reached a hundred steps away from the introduction of Si Pao living water, not only the water flow is difficult to fill, but also even the bow and arrow can not be shot on the Xiaopei city wall - there is a river embankment between the moat and the city wall of twenty steps, so after careful discussion between Cao Boss and the strategists, he still had no choice but to give up the slow river reclamation and siege plan, and decided to directly break through the strong stone bridge on the moat of Xiaopei that is two and a half zhang wide. Then launch a siege.

Fortunately, Cao Boss also has some siege weapons in his hands, in addition to the Xiangyang cannon captured on the Guandu battlefield can threaten the Xiaopei defenders on the city wall, Cao Boss also built a large number of siege ladder vehicles, rushing city vehicles and countless simple ladders, in addition to building some floating fortresses to build pontoon bridges, very well prepared, at the same time, Cao Boss also believes that as long as his army ants attach to the city, they will be able to easily attack Xiaopei City, and the total annihilation combat effectiveness is far inferior to the Xiaopei defenders of his own army.

The siege battle of the Cao army began with the destruction of the fortifications outside the city of Xiaopei, in order to open the way for the ant army, Cao Boss concentrated more than 60 Xiangyang cannons, and bombarded the sheep and horse wall composed of the antlers under the city wall of Xiaopei, but like Guandu, the fortification destruction battle soon evolved into a projectile weapon bombardment battle between the warring parties, and the Xiaopei defenders also sent a large number of Xiangyang artillery to bombard the stone throwing position of the Cao army. However, because the Xiangyang artillery of the Xuzhou army was hidden inside the city wall, the losses were much smaller than those of the Cao army.

Of course, Cao Boss did not hang himself from a tree, and pinned all his hopes for the destruction of the fortifications on the slow-firing Xiangyang cannon, and while the slinging weapons were bombarded, Cao Boss also sent infantry to cross the river to destroy the defenders' fortifications. And the Xiaopei defenders were not polite, once they found that the Cao army crossed the river, they immediately used countless strong bows and crossbows to entertain them, and at night they also lit the jue cave under the city wall at all times, and arranged a large number of troops to take turns on duty at night, without giving the Cao army the slightest chance to sneak attack.

On the sixth day, which was also the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month, the prepared Cao army finally launched a formal siege, and the Xiaopei defenders, who were ordered to defend the lonely city for 30 days, were ready to meet the challenge with all their might.

This is a vicious and bloody battle that is extremely difficult for both the offensive and defensive sides, although the Xuzhou army has a strong city to rely on, condescending to take advantage, but Cao Jun's soldiers are mostly elite soldiers in the southern and northern wars for many years, experienced and high morale, and the successive servants continue to impact Xiaopei City, and it only took more than an hour for the soldiers to rush to the city wall, creating huge pressure and panic for the Xuzhou army.

Cao Jun's side is even more uncomfortable, although the team is elite, but Xiaopei City is too strong, and the preparation for defending the city is also very sufficient, Cao's army team lost countless soldiers only during the crossing of the river, and then rushed to the bottom of the city wall, countless sheep's head stones and lime bottles fell on the city wall, and when they were about to climb to the top, they had to face the threat of flail and hook guns, and from time to time there was a huge yaksha roaring and smashing, and all of them were killed immediately, so although the Cao army's offensive was fierce, it was the more fierce it was, the greater the casualties, and it was never able to rush up the city wall quickly and in large quantities, Even if a few soldiers were able to storm the walls occasionally, they were quickly broken to pieces by the defenders' reserves, unable to capture and expand the walls.

The battle entered the white-hot stage when the Cao army invested in the large-scale siege weapons to siege the city, when he saw that the soldiers of the self-army had gradually pinned down the defenders of the city, Cao Boss decisively ordered to rush the city vehicle, ladder car and hook car attack, dozens of soldiers pushed a large weapon, through the solid and flat stone bridge is easy, but in the difficult way around the stone bridge at the end of the bridge to repair more than two zhang thick wall, but the city wall flew out of countless swallowtail torches and oil-filled bundle grass, Cao army's siege weapons are then smeared with silt such fireproof treatment, Unable to stand so many torches and Sokcho burning, it soon ignited a sky-high fire, which not only could not rush to the city to attack the city, but also burned a large number of its own soldiers to death, and blocked the path of siege weapons behind.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to block the follow-up reinforcements of the Cao army, the equally experienced Xiaopei guards surnamed Cao and Yin Li also took the opportunity to launch a counterattack, smashing stones, ash bottles and gold juice like money, and also put down twenty or thirty fire curtains, although the city defense weapons invented by Mozi are somewhat outdated, but they are very effective in killing and injuring ants to attach to the enemy, just like a huge fire tent fell on the heads of the Cao soldiers, and the Cao soldiers who were climbing the ladder were crying wolves. Like hail raindrops, they fell from the flying ladder one after another, and when the fire curtain shook again, the Cao soldiers on the surrounding flying ladders also began to be unlucky, one by one either their clothes were set on fire or their hair and eyebrows were ignited, screaming and falling off the ladder, either falling to death or being injured.

Cao Jun has a headache and the yaksha hanging at the top of the city wall, this kind of whole body is full of sharp iron thorns, the big wood is extremely heavy, usually hung on the top of the city wall with hemp rope, once put down it is a bloody storm, it has to fall off the flying ladder if it is hung up, once it is smashed, it is either a broken tendon or a broken brain, and even the flying ladder is directly smashed to pieces. At the same time, what made the Cao army soldiers cry without tears was that because Xiao Pei was the only danger for the Xuzhou army to resist the Cao army, and the important surname was incomparable, so the wealthy Xuzhou army arranged more than 300 expensive yaksha rings on the city wall, which smashed the Cao army to the point of flesh and blood, and the corpses were like mountains.

Cao Boss is a very determined good boss, although he saw the heavy casualties of the siege team of the self-army, but Cao Boss still refused to give the order to Mingjin, and also invested 3,000 troops to cross the river in one breath, while continuing to attack the city, while grabbing the pontoon bridge and destroying the remnants of the fortifications outside the city, and at the same time personally killed a self-defeating general who fled across the river, and beheaded more than a dozen soldiers who escaped from the battle, forcing the soldiers of the self-army to continue to storm Xiaopei City.

Sometimes it is not necessarily a good thing to be strong-willed, at least Cao Boss is not the right time to be firm this time, under his coercion, the Cao army soldiers who are afraid of Cao Boss like a tiger are all fighting bravely, but the strength of the Xuzhou army has increased greatly, and the experienced Cao surname is also commanded very properly, and the guard is lawful, plus the perverted city defense left by Qiao Rui to Xiao Pei, so no matter how fierce the Cao army is attacking the city, it is impossible to rush to the city wall to occupy the city wall position, but was killed and wounded by the condescending defenders, Beneath the city walls was a thick layer of corpses of Cao soldiers.

This siege battle began in the early morning, until the sky became dark after Shen Shi, seeing that the casualties of his own soldiers were really heavy, Cao Lao finally had no choice but to order Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, it was a battle, Cao army casualties exceeded two thousand, more than 20 large siege weapons were burned, the losses were extremely heavy, but the results were minimal, only five pontoon bridges that could be destroyed at any time, although the killed and wounded defenders could not be counted, but it was certainly not much. So after collecting the troops and returning to the camp to count the casualties, Boss Cao also sighed rarely, "I didn't expect Xiaopei City to be so difficult to attack, and I underestimated the enemy." ”

"Xiao Pei is the only danger for the pottery thieves to resist our army, and it is not surprising that he has been operating here for many years, and has built the city very strong." Guo Jia coughed and said: "With such a strong city, a forcible attack will inevitably cause huge casualties and take a long time, so the prime minister might as well try to outwit it." ”

Boss Cao nodded, turned to the strategists and asked, "How to outwit?" Do you have a clever plan to help me break the city? ”

The strategists of Cao Jun, who had always been resourceful, were silent, and they all took out the city to meet the unwilling Xiaopei defenders, but Xu Shu arched his hand and said: "Prime Minister, when you were under Liu Bei's account, I once heard Liu Bei introduce the situation of Xiaopei, although Xiaopei is surrounded by water on three sides, the underground water veins are not rich, and the soil is extremely thick. Even so, the sheep and horse walls outside Xiaopei City have been destroyed by our army, why don't our troops first fill Xiaopei's moat with earth and stones, and then either attack head-on, or enter the city through caves. ”

"Don't bother with this idea, I can't afford to spend so much time." Boss Cao shook his head, gritted his teeth and said: "The pottery thief dug Xiaopei's moat nearly a hundred steps wide, when will such a wide river be filled?" ”

"If it's not time-consuming and labor-intensive, why should I give you this idea?" Xu Shu snorted coldly in his heart, but his face remained silent.

At this time, Xun You also made a suggestion to Boss Cao, saying that since Xiao Pei was strong and difficult, why not leave an army to monitor Xiao Pei, and then the main force went south to attack Liuxian, which was far less strong than Xiao Pei? Boss Cao was greatly moved, but after careful calculation, Boss Cao changed his mind and said: "According to Mr. Yuanzhi's plan, first take the soil to fill the river, and then try to break the city." ”

Xu Shu, who had just been rejected but was immediately accepted, looked up in surprise, Xun You was also very surprised, and said: "Prime Minister, our army is far away, there are more soldiers and less food, so it is only good to fight quickly, why did the Prime Minister adopt such a slow method?" ”

"It doesn't matter, we still have some time, this year's autumn harvest in Xuchang Tuntian is not bad, except for necessary expenses and spare grain, it is not a big problem to support our army in fighting for two months." Boss Cao smiled and said: "Besides, our army has 70,000 people, and the moat 100 steps wide can be filled in about ten days at most." ”

"But Prime Minister, there are only 7,000 defenders in Xiaopei City, is it worth spending so much precious time for these 7,000 defenders?" Xun You was still a little worried.

"If the pottery thief imagines that the hearts of people like Gongsun Chan are lost, then he will just sit idly by and ignore the seven thousand defenders, I will laugh and accept it." Boss Cao smiled even more relaxedly, and hummed again: "Besides, my goal is not only the seven thousand defenders!" It's so decided, the messenger of filling the river is handed over to Liu Dai and his team, and let Yu Ban and Li Dian take turns to lead the army to protect him, and I will also use it like a pottery thief using Yang Hong's villain, no matter how waste. ”

……………… So, under the order of Boss Cao, poor General Liu Dai and his team were all used, and began to carry soil and stones to fill the moat day and night - this era has not yet invented a shrimp and toad cart for filling the river. Although Yin Li, surnamed Cao in Xiaopei City, had the opportunity to attack and sabotage the Cao army's river reclamation work, because the elite of the Cao army was on the side to protect and Deputy Director Tao also had strict orders not to fight, so Cao surnamed and Yin Li had no choice but to continue to defend the city honestly, and at the same time sent a messenger to report the battle situation of Xiaopei to Deputy Director Tao and ask for countermeasures.

When the news was delivered to Peng Cheng, Deputy Director Tao applauded and laughed, and praised: "Sure enough, as Mr. Wenhe expected, Cao Thief is really eyeing our reinforcement army, so he refuses to move to Liuxian, attack Liuxian, which is slightly weaker, and disperse the elite team in his hand." ”

After laughing, Deputy Director Tao hurriedly asked Jia Lao Poison next to him: "Mr. Wenhe, you already know Xiaopei's situation, according to Mr. Wenhe, do I give an order to let the surname Cao and Yin Li properly attack to prevent the Cao thief from filling the river?" ”

"No!" Jia Lao Poison categorically vetoed and explained: "Cao Ying is suspicious and suspicious, seeing that the general surnamed Cao dares to go out of the city to fight, he will inevitably doubt the true purpose of our army's layer by layer fortification, and it will also expose the current combat strength of our army, only by letting Cao surnamed Cao and Yin Lier continue to hold the city, can Cao Ying believe that our army is buying time and consuming his food and grass for reinforcements, and at the same time, it will not expose the current combat strength of our army and affect the effect of our army's third-step action." ”

Deputy Director Tao immediately ordered Chen Ying to return to the surname Cao, so that the surname Cao continued to hold the city and not fight, and then said: "When will the news of Chen Zhi and Hou Cheng returning to the division be sent to Cao Thief?" I can't wait. ”

.................. "Why hasn't the news of the reinforcements from Qingzhou been sent yet?" Xu Yuanzhi's analysis must not be wrong, if the pottery thief reinforcements are in Langya and Donghai to detour back to Xuzhou, my precious time these days will be wasted. ”

At the same time, while the news of Chen Zhi's return to the team was sent to Boss Cao as soon as possible, Boss Cao himself was also looking forward to the news being delivered to him as soon as possible, and he was once worried that Xu Shu would make a mistake in judgment and waste his precious time. Fortunately, during this period, in addition to using trebuchets and bows and arrows to delay the filling speed of Cao's army, the Xiaopei defenders did not go out of the city to destroy once, so it is expected that the Xuzhou army does not have the courage to fight a decisive battle with him, but Cao Boss can also be a little relieved, and continue to wait patiently with the mentality of sharpening knives and cutting wood.

Seven days later, in the night, Yanzhou Luguo County finally came with 100,000 urgent fast horse news, 20,000 Xuzhou troops under the leadership of Xuzhou generals Chen Zhi, Hou Cheng and Tao Ji, and really advanced towards Luguo County, not attacking the city or slightly, but just speeding south, but for the time being, it is impossible to judge whether this Xuzhou army wants to directly return to Xiaopei, or to capture Rencheng to threaten the back of Cao's army! Hearing the news, Boss Cao, who had already undressed and gone to bed, jumped up barefoot, and laughed wildly for the third time: "Okay, you Tao Ying thief, you are really fighting the idea of Qingzhou reinforcements!" Good come, good come, 20,000 troops, I laugh and accept! ”

After laughing wildly, Cao Boss immediately raised the account overnight, convened the subordinate martial arts to discuss the military situation, after the Cao army arrived at Qi, Cao Boss first announced to everyone the news that the Xuzhou reinforcements had returned, and then said straight to the point: "This is a God-given opportunity for my army to break the main force of the Tao thieves, Chen Zhi and Hou Cheng and other thieves led the army back to the division, whether it is directly to aid Xiaopei, or to capture Rencheng to gain a foothold, threatening the grain road behind our army, it is inevitable to pass through South Pingyang, I want to personally lead the elite north overnight, set up an ambush in South Pingyang, and annihilate the 20,000 Xuzhou thief army!" ”

"You secretly think that the prime minister can't go in person, just appoint a general to lead the army north." Xun You stood up and said: "The pottery thief is deceitful, Xiaopei is only one hundred and twenty miles away from Pengcheng, if the enemy finds that the prime minister personally led the army north, the pottery thief will definitely take advantage of the weakness to attack." Only by appointing another general to ambush in the north, the prime minister sits in the army, and then the prime minister appears outside Xiaopei City every day, so that the pottery thieves are afraid of the power of the prime minister and dare not act rashly, so as to avoid our army being attacked by the main force of the pottery thieves after dividing the troops. ”

Considering Deputy Director Tao's cunning and cunning, Boss Cao still accepted Xun You's proposal after a little calculation, and then Boss Cao asked again: "Who is willing to lead the army north to ambush the Tao thief reinforcements?" ”

"The last will go!"

Almost all the generals of the Cao army stood up and asked for a fist order, seeing that the generals were seeking to fight strongly, Cao Boss was also very satisfied, first nodded, and then said by name: "Xiahou Yuan, Zhang Liao, Yu Ban, Le Jin, you four people led 20,000 soldiers and horses from the headquarters to the north to South Pingyang, ambushing the Tao thief's reinforcement division, Xiahou Yuan is the main general." Moreover, the five thousand elite horsemen of our army will also go north with you. The four generals were overjoyed and hurriedly bowed down to agree.

"Prime Minister, the division of troops is too much, right?" Cheng Yu was a little worried, "The team under the command of the four generals is the front-line soldiers of our army, and if we send out the most elite five thousand light cavalry of our army, there will not be many elite soldiers in our army's battalion." ”

"It doesn't matter, the ordinary soldiers of our army are already enough to resist the elite of the pottery thieves." Boss Cao replied proudly, and then instructed Xun You: "Mr. Gongda, you are the wise master of our army, and this time you will also go north with the army to help Miaocai annihilate the pottery thief's reinforcement army." Wonderful, although you are brave on the battlefield, you lack resourcefulness, you must listen to the advice of Gongda, and do not act impulsively. ”

Xiahou Yuan and Xun You clasped their fists together and sang a promise, but Xu Shu stood up and said: "Prime Minister, after our army divides its troops overnight, we should put up more flags in the vacated camp, light the smoke as usual, and it is best to build another camp, so that even if the pottery thief team notices that our army is moving in the night, they mistakenly think that our army is sending more troops to the front line, and they dare not act rashly." ”

Boss Cao laughed again, and accepted Xu Shu's suggestion on the spot, and praised Xu Shu a few words of encouragement, Xu Shu was humble on his lips, but he was humming in his heart: "Don't think that I am offering a plan for you Cao thief, the more tragic the fight between you Cao thief and Tao thief, the greater the casualties, the more satisfied I am." ”

Xu Shu's clever plan was obviously in vain, and the Cao army team was destined to be tossed in vain, because when Cao Boss made the decision to divide the troops, Cao Boss's confidential secretary Bo Sima Lang was in the tent, and he listened to Cao Boss's tactical arrangements bit by bit, so before dawn the next day, a carrier pigeon had already flown out of Cao Jun's camp, spread its wings and soared, all the way to Pengcheng in the south............ By the way, let's expose the insidious and terrible things of the Xuzhou spy team, in addition to a carrier pigeon that flew out of Cao Jun's camp, when the army led by Xiahou Yuan and others hurriedly passed through Hulu, a gray-white carrier pigeon also flew out of a small village next to the road that must lead to Nanpingyang from Hulu, first flew into Xiaopei City, and then Xiaopei City also flew out of the carrier pigeon, spreading its wings and heading south to Xuzhou, so Cao Laoda's division of troops, don't say that you can't hide it from Deputy Director Tao, that is, even the defenders in Xiaopei City can't hide it............ In the evening of the next day, the carrier pigeons released by the Sima Lang brothers first flew to Pengcheng, and received the news of Cao Laoda's division of troops. The order went down, and sent troops north overnight to fight to the death with Cao Thief in Xiaopei! ”

"Lord, let the soldiers rest for the night." Jia Lao Poison said quietly: "It's cold, it's too hard to travel overnight, it's better to let the soldiers rest for another night, and let Cao Ying's elite team go a little farther, and it's not too late to set off tomorrow morning." ”

Deputy Director Tao smiled again, nodded and said, "Okay, then let the soldiers rest for another night, and then set off to the north tomorrow, and let Cao Thief laugh happily for a while." ”

Another night passed quickly, in the early morning of the second day of the first month of the fifth year of Jian'an, after spending the New Year with peace of mind, more than 35,000 people in Xuzhou, who had been recuperating in Pengcheng for a long time, suddenly poured out without warning, and under the personal leadership of Deputy Director Tao, they rushed north and rushed to Xiaopei, one hundred and twenty miles away, to meet the Cao army team that had already divided its own troops!

This is also the elite of the Xuzhou army out of the nest dispatch, the generals involved in the battle are Xu Chu, Zhao Yun, Xu Huang, Wei Yan, Gao Shun and Lu Yi are famous generals, the world-famous teams in the army are, Danyang soldiers, Fengyu army, trapped camp, first camp, and more than 9,000 Qingji iron cavalry! These elite teams of Xuzhou who do not have any shadow in their hearts have only one common slogan, "Flatten the Cao Army!" Catch the thief alive!! ”

It is said that the main force of Xuzhou marched 80 miles and arrived in Liuxian in the evening to join Gao Shun's army, gathering more than 40,000 troops. And Boss Cao also arrived at the time when the third watch of the night was approaching, and only then did he receive the news that the main force of Xuzhou was exhausted, and after hearing the news, the elite team had been walking north for two days, and then he yelled hysterically.

"Hit the mark! The pottery thief and Jia Xu had long expected that I would break each one, deliberately showed weakness and fortified layer by layer to make me light the enemy, and then transferred Chen to wait for the thief to return to the division to lure me to divide the army, and in turn break our army in turn! I've got it! I've fallen for the thief's trick again! ”

(To be continued)