After taking the small city of Hulu, the Xuzhou army, which had been preparing for three days to attack the city, rested for three days and three nights, and then marched slowly to the northwest to attack the important town of Changyi, where the Cao army was heavily stationed.

As a standard good father-in-law in the Three Kingdoms era, the reaction of the third prince of the great Yuan did not make the son-in-law Deputy Director Tao feel half surprised, in the case that he had already received the son-in-law's troops, the third prince of the great Yuan has always been on the move, and there is no response to the son-in-law's request for assistance from the war horse, as if he has stayed out of the matter, hiding in the luxurious and extravagant Yehou Mansion and watching the son-in-law and Boss Cao merge with cold eyes.

After a long time, the leader of the Cao League, Yuan Sangong, made a move, and the voice within the Xuzhou army was of course quite dissatisfied, but Deputy Director Tao did not have the slightest complaint about this, and in turn comforted the generals under his command, saying that he firmly believed that Lord Yuezhang would definitely send troops as soon as possible to meet and join forces with the Xuzhou army, and in private, Deputy Director Tao kept sending letters asking Yuan Sangong to send troops as soon as possible, and his tone was constantly anxious, vaguely revealing timidity and weakness, afraid that his lone army would be the opponent of Cao's army.

Five days later, after the Xuzhou army crossed the two cities of Fanghe and Jinxiang that were abandoned in the war, they set up camp twenty miles away from the city of Changyi, and began to arrange preparations for attacking the city of Changyi. On the same night, Cao Lao's secret envoy to the Prime Minister's Mansion Cao Peng Mao Jue also secretly came to the Xuzhou camp to ask to meet Deputy Director Tao and was allowed.

Although he knew that Deputy Director Tao definitely did not have the courage to fight to the end with Cao Laoda, but the situation was here, Mao Jue, who had asked for Deputy Director Tao, still did not dare to be the slightest slack in his words, let alone pointed out to his face that Deputy Director Tao's dispatch of troops to Yanzhou was just a perfunctory and lure of Yuan Sangong, and in the conversation with Deputy Director Tao, he only persuaded Deputy Director Tao to defect and join forces with Cao Jun to fight against Yuan Sangong, who was the strongest in the world, and then promised to send half of Jizhou and the entire Qingzhou to Deputy Director Tao after the matter was completed, Cao Tao's two armies will always form an alliance and never offend each other.

In addition, Mao Jue repeatedly hinted that Deputy Director Tao's alliance conditions could be discussed, but Deputy Director Tao was unmoved, just shook his head and refused, and said with a heartfelt voice: "This time the army should be sent not for himself, but for the country, Cao Mengde bullied the monarch, dictatorship, the blood edict of the Son of Heaven ordered the princes of the world to raise troops to levy, should be a Han Chen, the world eats Hanlu, if you do not obey the holy order but unite with your army to fight against the edict of the thief Ben Chugong, wouldn't it be to help the Emperor to abuse?" Acting for the Tiger? ”

"Didn't you pottery thief blush when he said this?" Mao Jue muttered in his heart, and said on his lips: "Make the king worse, then Yuan Shao is the rebel thief, the so-called blood edict in his hand, the Son of Heaven has also issued an edict to refute it, and he personally proved it to be a false edict. ”

"The blood edict in the hands of Lord Yuezhang is fake?" Deputy Director Tao sneered and asked: "If that blood edict is fake, then after Lord Yuezhang spread the blood edict of the Son of Heaven to the world, why did Meng Degong execute hundreds of the Son of Heaven's close attendants in one go, and ordered General Cao Hong to take over the Imperial Forest Army and prohibit the Son of Heaven's relatives and clans from entering and leaving the palace gate?" And why did he issue a strict decree threatening to behead anyone who visited the Son of Heaven without the permission of Meng Degong, no matter who it was? ”

Mao Jue was silent, and said after a long time: "Envoy, my lord is also a good intention, if the envoy insists on refusing to accept the kindness of my lord, then my lord can only accompany the envoy to the end - don't hide it from the envoy, my lord has personally led 30,000 elites east into Changyi, and he is here to come, and it is also my lord's first salute and then soldier." ”

"Father-in-law Meng De came with 30,000 elites?" Deputy Director Tao smiled and sneered: "Meng Degong is really courageous, the vanguard of the Jizhou army has already been stationed in Liyang, Baima, Yanjin and Dongjun are in an emergency at the same time, Meng Degong still has the courage to personally lead the army to Changyi, such courage, it really makes Ying admire the five bodies." ”

"If the prince does not believe, send someone to hear it." Mao Jue said slowly: "According to the distance, the army led by the lord should also arrive in Jiyang today, and Dingtao can be reached within two days, and the Tao envoy can send someone to inquire." ”

Deputy Director Tao's pupils contracted suddenly, but he said with a smile on his face: "If this is the case, then it would be great, as a son-in-law, he can finally fulfill his filial piety for Lord Yuezhang at a critical moment." ”

"If Tao Yuanjun insists that the indecisive Yuan Shao can make up his mind so quickly, then Mao Jue has nothing to say." Mao Jue's acting skills are also quite good, shaking his head bitterly, as if he regrets Deputy Director Tao's obsession, and then Mao Jue arched his hand and said: "Thank you for your hospitality, if you don't mind, then Mao Jue will leave first." ”

"Mr. Xiaoxian, please go slowly, there should still be military affairs, so I won't be far away to send Mr., come here, send Mr. Xiaoxian out of the camp."

Deputy Director Tao returned the salute with a smile, and ordered the guards in the tent to send Mao Jue out of the camp for him, and Mao Jue arched his hand and said: "Envoy, please forgive me for being wordy, my lord's sincerity in reconciling with your army is very sufficient, no matter when the envoy has figured it out, you can send an envoy to contact, and our army will definitely welcome the envoy." ”

Deputy Director Tao didn't speak again, just smiled and nodded, indicating that he had understood, Mao Jue no longer spoke, and bowed respectfully, and when Mao Jue disappeared outside the big tent door, Deputy Director Tao, who was still smiling calmly just now, jumped to the map sand table next to the big tent like a rabbit that had been shot, and began to look for the location of Jiyang on the sand table, calculating the distance from Changyi. Next to him, Jia Lao Poison, Liu Ye, Chen Ying and others also came up and began to discuss with Deputy Director Tao that Boss Cao personally led the army to reinforce Changyi.

"It cannot be ruled out that Cao Ying personally led the army to reinforce Changyi." This is the conclusion that Liu Ye reached, and then Liu Ye analyzed: "Yuan Shao has been talking to Cao for two months now, and he has always stood still, and his intention is obviously to let our army and Cao's army fight each other, and then choose a ready-made cheap, and it is not difficult to see through Yuan Shao's intentions with Cao Shao's deception." Therefore, it must not be ruled out that Cao Ying made a desperate gamble and personally led a large army to the southern front to deal with our army. ”

"Cao thief, isn't afraid that Yuan Shao will take the opportunity to attack him Xuchang?" Chen Ying asked: "Cao thief personally led the army to save Changyi to resist our army, once the war is delayed for a long time, Yuan Shao will send troops to the northern front again, Cao thief will be the enemy on his back?" ”

"Two possibilities." Liu Ye replied: "First, the Cao thief seeks a quick victory, and the second is that the Cao thief is here to intimidate our army, forcing our army to retreat to Xuzhou, making Yuan Shaoqian angry with us, and also taking the opportunity to try to form an alliance with our army against Yuan - judging from Mao Xiaoxian's tone, the second intimidation may be the greatest. ”

"Whether it is intimidation or not, we must find out whether there is really an army to rescue Changyi, and if there is, we must also find out the situation of this team, whether it is led by Cao Thief himself." Deputy Director Tao groaned, and then instructed Liu Ye: "Mr. Ziyang, you are personally responsible for this matter, and when you send scouts, you must find out the situation of this support army." ”

"No." Liu Ye bowed down and agreed, and asked again: "Lord, what about the preparations for attacking Changyi City?" Do I need to pause? ”

"No, keep preparing, preparing with great fanfare." Deputy Director Tao shook his head categorically, and snorted coldly: "There must not be the slightest sign of weakness, the more tough our army behaves now, the more the situation will develop in favor of our army!" ”

In the next few days, in addition to sending a large number of scouts to reconnoiter the situation of Cao's army coming to the west, the Xuzhou army also responded to Cao's intimidation with a tough attitude according to the requirements of Deputy Director Tao, using wood transported from the Surabaya River to create a large number of siege weapons, and specially created a special earth-transporting shrimp and toad cart for filling trenches - it was Huang Yueying who invented a new weapon to buy the hue of Deputy Director Tao. Then, under the instruction of Deputy Director Tao, he deliberately let the soldiers practice a shrimp toad cart in the field to fill the trench in public, so that the two shrimp toad carts only took half an hour to fill a trench as wide and deep as the Changyi moat, which in turn intimidated the Cao army in Changyi City.

Let's not talk about whether Deputy Director Tao's actions scared the Cao army team here, but Deputy Director Tao himself was scared enough by Cao Boss - four days later, five scouts came to report, saying that there were indeed a large number of Cao army soldiers and horses advancing to Changyi, the number was at least about 30,000, and now they have arrived at Dingtao City, whose name is very unlucky for Deputy Director Tao, and what makes Deputy Director Tao even more frightened is that this Cao army team is indeed under the banner of Cao Boss's prime minister!

Frightened, Deputy Director Tao, who was far more protective of his life than ordinary people, could only divide 10,000 troops to the west of Changyi, build fortifications to prevent Boss Cao from suddenly attacking, and at the same time began to plan the route and method of returning to Xuzhou. However, what is quite surprising is that after these 30,000 Cao troops arrived at Dingtao City, which was hundreds of miles away, they stopped moving, and began to build camps outside Dingtao City to station their troops - there were not so many troops stationed in the city. As a result, Jia Lao's poison, which was three points higher than the thousand-year-old fox, found out that something was wrong, and quickly found Deputy Director Tao to express his opinion.

"My lord, I'm afraid that the army of Dingtao may not be Cao Ying's own rate." Jia Lao Poison analyzed: "If the army of Dingtao is really led by Cao Ying, then Cao Ying will definitely advance for a long time until he is encamped under the city of Changyi, so as to intimidate our army to retreat, and it is also convenient to directly come forward to persuade the lord to join forces to attack Yuan, but after this support army arrived in Dingtao, it immediately stood still, and also built a camp and fortifications to do a long-term plan - this is very suspicious, the northern line of Yanzhou is in danger, Cao Yingna dares to waste precious time at will? ”

"Maybe the thief Cao was to prevent my dog from jumping off the wall in a hurry, and really started an all-out war with him, so he deliberately left room for mitigation." Deputy Director Tao was also very modest and used an idiom very appropriately.

"There is such a possibility, but I think that a messenger should still be sent to meet Cao Ying to find out whether Cao Ying is really in the Dingtao army." Jia Lao Poison suggested: "Mao Jue said before that if the lord intends to form an alliance and reconcile, he can send an envoy to contact him at any time, so the lord may wish to send an envoy to pretend to discuss the exchange of Cao Ang for the lord's brother, and go to Dingtao to visit Cao Ying, and try to find out if Cao Ying is in the Dingtao army." ”

At that moment, Deputy Director Tao immediately sent Song Kai, a diplomatic liar in Xuzhou, to follow the plan, but when Song Kai came to the camp of the Cao army in Dingtao to explain his intentions, Mao Jue, a strategist of the Cao army who had returned to Dingtao from Changyi, immediately understood Song Kai's intentions, and said to Liu Dai and Wang Zhong, who really commanded the second-line Cao army: "The Tao thief really deceits, and he has already doubted whether the prime minister is in the Dingtao army. ”

"How does the gentleman know?" Liu Dai, who had been the assassin of Yanzhou and was one of the princes of the Eighteenth Road of Dong in the past, asked in surprise.

"It's simple." Mao Jue replied: "The pottery thief has previously sent Chen Qun in Xuzhou to Xuchang to visit the prime minister, asking for the exchange of hostages from both sides, although Chen Qun is still detained by the prime minister in Xuchang, Chen Qun's correspondence with the pottery thief is unimpeded, and now the pottery thief has sent a messenger to discuss this matter, which must be an opportunity to test whether the prime minister is here." ”

"In that case, how about we find an excuse to refuse for the prime minister?" Liu Dai asked again.

"No, the pottery thief is incomparable, Jia Xu and Liu Ye are also resourceful people, if the prime minister refuses to meet them, they must know that the prime minister is not here, not only will they mistake the prime minister's major event, but our army will also be in danger." Mao Jue shook his head, smiled again and said: "But there is a plan, but it can make Tao Ying and the thief believe that the prime minister is here, and he doesn't dare to make a slight move." ”

"What is your plan, sir?" Liu Dai and Wang Zhong asked with great joy.

"In three steps." Mao Jue introduced: "The first step, the two generals can send someone to inform the pottery thief envoy, saying that the prime minister is busy with military affairs, let him wait a little time in the army, and wait until the prime minister is busy with official business and then take time to meet with him, and temporarily cultivate the thief envoy." ”

"In the second step, the two generals can quickly go to the army to find a person who looks roughly similar to the prime minister, bring him to me, and let me teach him how to deal with it."

"The third step, when it is completely dark, let the fake prime minister put on a brocade fox robe, dress up luxuriously, and light less candles in the tent, so that people can not see the face of the fake prime minister, and then I will escort the fake prime minister to meet the pottery thief, and send the pottery thief envoy back to Changyi to report the news in a few words, so that the pottery thief doesn't think that the prime minister is here?"

"Sir's Brilliant Idea!"

Liu Dai and Wang Zhong applauded and laughed together, and then hurriedly went their separate ways, Wang Zhong went to receive Song Kai, a diplomatic liar in Xuzhou, and Liu Dai, who was very familiar with Boss Cao, went to the army to look for soldiers who looked similar to Boss Cao, leaving Mao Jue in the tent and sneering, "Tao thief, don't you claim to never be tricked?" This time, I'm going to see if you get the hang of it! ”

(To be continued)