Unable to stand the contempt of his son-in-law for himself, he couldn't bear it, and Yuan Sangong, who originally planned to rest for a period of time before entering the army, decisively ordered to send troops, personally led the main army south, and first rushed to Guandu to meet the team of the second son Yuan Xi, and then took the eldest son Yuan Tan as the vanguard, taking Yuanling, Changshe and Yanling and other places, and traveled forty miles, aiming directly at the old nest of Cao Laoda, the current honorary capital of the Han Dynasty - Xuchang City!

When the news reached Xuchang, Boss Cao, who was afraid that the third prince of the great Yuan would not enter the decisive battle, breathed a sigh of relief, and once again congratulated himself on his luck - every time he encountered a decisive battle with the third prince of the great Yuan, the third prince of the great Yuan always did something that the boss of Cao wanted the third prince of the great yuan to do. But fortunately, Cao Boss still does not dare to take it lightly, because the current Yuan Cao's strength is still huge, Xuchang in addition to the advantage of not needing to protect the grain road, it is not a battlefield for Cao Jun, there are still many problems in front of Cao Boss, and the success or failure of the decisive battle in Xuchang is still two or two, difficult to predict.

Roughly introduce the geography of Xudu, Xuchang City in the Cao Wei era is located in the east of Xuchang County, Henan Province, fifteen kilometers east of Zhangfan Township near the ancient city village, in the western edge of the Zhongzhou Plain, from the terrain is surrounded by mountains on three sides, surrounded by Song Mountain, Funiu Mountain and Dabie Mountain Range, but the city is built on the open plain, and the east is the endless North China Plain, so strategically speaking, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so that the Cao army has a large number of antenna passes to defend, and it is difficult for the attacker to attack the city of Xuchang. From a tactical point of view, the city of Xuchang is easy to attack and difficult to defend, too open terrain can attack the city of Xuchang from all directions from the attacker, but the defenders of Xuchang must take care of each section of the city wall, and it is very difficult to defend the city.

At the same time, the Xuchang battlefield also had a huge weakness for the Cao army, that is, the open terrain was very conducive to the mobile operation of the Jizhou army with a large number of cavalry, and the Cao army, which had a sparse cavalry, would fall into the unfavorable dilemma of being attacked from all sides. In addition, due to the influence of Cao's financial resources, the size of Xuchang City is not large enough, which also makes it difficult for Cao's army to enter the city, and a part of the army must be stationed outside Xuchang City, which will be conducive to the Jizhou army to break the last main force of Cao's army.

In terms of the army, in addition to the more than 20,000 main forces brought back by Cao Boss from the Cangting front, Cao Boss transferred Cao Ren's 15,000 troops from Guandu, Cao Hong's more than 10,000 troops from Nanyang and Sili, and 5,000 troops from Runan, and finally added the original nearly 10,000 troops in Xuchang, Cao's army had about 70,000 available troops on the Xuchang battlefield, but the combat strength of the teams pieced together from all directions was uneven, the local army was tired from afar, and the wounded three or four out of ten in the main force were even more tired, so although the strength seemed to be 70,000, However, the combat effectiveness is far from being comparable to the main force of the Cao army on the Cangting and Guandu battlefields before, and the overall combat strength has declined very seriously.

On the side of Yuan Shaojun, although part of the troops were divided to occupy the counties and cities of Yanzhou, and there were also a large number of troop losses during the war, the strength of Yuan Shaojun, who accompanied the Great Yuan Sangong to the south, still reached more than 140,000, and the strength was still twice that of Cao's army, of which the cavalry accounted for more than 30,000, and the number of cavalry reached five times that of Cao's army.

In view of the inability to retreat all of Xuchang City, Xun Yu, the most trusted of Cao Boss, suggested that only more than 10,000 troops should be left to guard Xuchang City, and the remaining 60,000 troops were all stationed outside the northern city of Xuchang, so as not to give the Yuan army a chance to break through. Although Boss Cao accepted Xun Yu's suggestion to leave only more than 10,000 troops to defend the city, he rejected the proposal to camp outside the north gate of Xuchang, and decided to camp the army outside the east gate of Xuchang and fight Yuan Shao's army in the most open east around Xuchang.

Hearing Boss Cao's decision, Xun Yu was of course surprised, and when he quickly asked the reason, Boss Cao replied calmly: "Of course, it is to induce Yuan Shao to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible, in order to resist the enemy, our army has transferred a large number of troops from the local area to reinforce Xuchang. ”

As soon as Cao Boss's words fell, an urgent report came from Nanyang, and Wei Chong, who replaced Cao Hong stationed in Nanyang, sent someone to report the emergency, saying that he had found that Liu Biao had accepted Liu Bei's suggestion, and decided to send 30,000 troops to join Liu Bei and Zhang Xiu's team to go north and launch an attack on Cao's army in Nanyang, with the aim of recovering the entire territory of Nanyang, and then acting at the opportunity, and never ruling out the possibility of continuing to attack Xuchang in the north.

"The big-eared thief of the heavenly killing, sure enough, is the same as Tao Ying's thief, they are all shameless people who are cunning to the extreme!" Boss Cao cursed a dirty word, and then gritted his teeth and ordered: "Order Wei Chong to defend Wancheng, if Wancheng can't hold it, immediately retreat to Yexian County to gain time, and after I break Yuan, I will go back to the big-eared thief and Liu Biao Lao'er to settle accounts!" ”

Of course, there is good news, during this period, Xiahou Yuan, who lost the important town of Changyi, also returned to Xuchang, knelt down in front of Cao Boss and pleaded guilty, and Cao Boss who was employing people did not embarrass Xiahou Yuan, and gave Xiahou Yuan a demote, so that he could stay in the army and make meritorious contributions.

There is only this one good news, at the same time, the bad news is also flying like snowflakes, in addition to the main force of Yuan Shaojun's getting closer and closer, the local heroes Qu Gong, Zhang Chi and others in Runan also launched a rebellion neatly, and the smoke in Runan County is everywhere, Runan is too full of favor and is unable to send troops to suppress it, so he can only wait for Cao Laoda to come back; Then there was an urgent report from Guanzhong, Xiliang Ma Teng received the news of Cao's military cangting fiasco, and decisively played the banner of Fengyi with an edict to attack Cao and entered Guanzhong, fortunately, Cao Boss did not mobilize the Guanzhong army to return to Xuchang because of the distance, so Zhong Xuan and Pei Mao, who were guarding Guanzhong, should be able to support for a while.

In addition, there was also a big trouble in Hanoi, the Bingzhou army controlled by the Great Yuan Sangong sent troops to attack Hanoi, and there were almost no troops to defend in Hanoi, Duan Xuan, the general of the Cao army guarding Hanoi, also simply surrendered Yuan Shao's team, and it was only a matter of time before the Bingzhou army crossed the river to support the main force of Yuan Shao's army.

These are not counted, there is another point that worries Boss Cao, that is, the main force of the most dangerous Xuzhou army is retreating towards Changyi, although it is not ruled out that the Xuzhou army seriously injured by the commander has the possibility of directly retreating to Xuzhou, but it is also possible to advance west along Surabaya and Jishui to attack Dingtao and Chenliu and other places! So after receiving this news, Boss Cao immediately gritted his teeth and scolded, "Heaven damn Tao Ying thief!" I bet that this thief will definitely take advantage of the fire to rob again, and if our army is defeated, he will definitely immediately seize the two counties of Jiyin and Chenliu, and then annex my Yuzhou counties! ”

In view of these circumstances, Xun Yu finally understood the good intentions and helplessness of Cao Boss's decision to garrison the east gate, and when the Cao army team set up a stable camp outside the east gate of Xuchang, the Jizhou army finally arrived outside Xuchang City, and set up a large camp twenty miles northeast of Xuchang in the open terrain, and the granary was carefully arranged in Yanling City, which was still guarded by the son of Fu Zhu - don't look at the three princes of Da Yuan began to be more and more unwilling to see Fu Zhu, but there is still trust in Fu Zhu's father and son.

On the third day of arriving in Xuchang, it was also the day of August 29 of the fifth year of Jian'an, the third day of the camp was completely stabilized, and immediately led the army to fight outside the Cao military camp. Cao Ren acted according to the order, deliberately defeated Yuan Tan Gongzi in the fighting generals, defeated back to the camp and retreated, Yuan Sangong waved his troops to attack the camp, but the Cao army camp was quite strong, Yuan Shaojun was eager to attack, and in the afternoon he ordered to collect troops and return to the camp to celebrate the victory of the first battle.

Everything developed according to Cao Boss's expectations, seeing his brother returning triumphantly, Yuan Shanggongzi, who was absolutely above Yuan Tan in his personal force, was angry in his heart, and the next day he asked Yuan Sangong for an order to fight and was allowed, and when Yuan Shanggongzi angrily came to the camp with the army to fight, Cao Boss laughed loudly, and immediately called the general Zhang Liao, arranged for Zhang Liao to lead three thousand cavalry out of the camp to fight, and viciously ordered: "This battle is not allowed to be defeated, if defeated, it will be killed!" But you are not allowed to ask for Yuan Shang's life, if Yuan Shang dies in your hands, it will also be beheaded immediately! ”

Zhang Liao did not hesitate to take over this difficult order, and really fought to defeat Yuan Shanggongzi in the fight, and deliberately showed mercy to his subordinates when he had the opportunity to capture and kill Yuan Shanggongzi, just let Yuan Shanggongzi be defeated and left, and then Cao's army took advantage of the situation to chase and kill, killing many Yuan Shang's soldiers, until Yuan Sangong personally led the army to respond, and then immediately returned to the camp. After Yuan Shaojun collected his troops and returned to the camp, Yuan Shanggongzi was of course depressed, and Yuan Tan Gongzi was naturally arrogant, while pretending to comfort the third brother, while asking Ling to lead the army to fight and avenge the third brother.

After fighting two contact battles that tested the surname, and quietly intensified the contradiction between Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang, on the first day of the ninth lunar month, Cao Boss resolutely led 30,000 troops to take the initiative to go north after careful consideration, and fought outside Yuan Shao's military camp.

It is also a coincidence that on the battlefield of the two armies, in order to completely anger the old friend Da Yuan Sangong, Cao Boss deliberately asked Da Yuan Sangong in public why he didn't join forces with the Xuzhou army to attack Xuchang, and then laughed at Da Yuan Sangong's Cangting victory was just a fluke victory with the help of his son-in-law, no son-in-law sent troops to sneak attack, Da Yuan Sangong was not his opponent at all, and finally simply surrendered Da Yuan Sangong without a son-in-law to fight on the battlefield. The thunderous Yuan Sangong was furious, and immediately waved his army to attack Cao's army.

It was also at this time that the Cao army, which had no way to retreat, also broke out with amazing combat effectiveness, in the face of the crazy impact of Yuan Shaojun, the position has always stood still, relying on the formation and the Yuan army to carry out a bloody battle, the fight was extremely fierce, although the great Yuan Sangong repeatedly increased the number of troops and generals, but has never been able to break up the Cao army's position, and the casualties of the army have expanded rapidly. After a fierce battle until the afternoon, Boss Cao saw that the morale of the Jizhou army was exhausted, so he decisively ordered Dian Wei to lead 3,000 elite soldiers to launch a counter-charge.

In the sound of the Cao army war drums that finally sounded, the three thousand elite soldiers of the Cao army rushed straight to the enemy formation like a tiger down the mountain, the swords and guns were raised, the momentum was like a landslide, the double halberds of Dian Wei flew over, Yuan generals fell off the horse one after another, the blockers were invincible, the soldiers of the Cao army were like tigers into the flock, chopping melons and vegetables, the soldiers of the Yuan army were frightened, turned around and fled, the big Yuan Sangong stood on the horse with his sword, and shouted hoarsely to block the defeated army, but the defeated army was like a tide, and the Yuan army was scattered by his own defeated soldiers. Seeing that the opportunity was rare, Cao Boss immediately ordered to launch a general attack, 30,000 Cao troops rushed to the enemy formation, like the water of the embankment, rushing down, Yuan Shao's army was defeated and left, Cao Jun chased closely, frantically slashed and killed Yuan Jun on the battlefield, Cao Boss personally risked the arrow stone to charge and slash, Yuan Jun rushed to flee for his life, trampled on each other, and countless people died.

Yuan Jun had a lot of soldiers in the end, and received the news of the defeat of the fighting array, Yuan Shang immediately led the army to respond, and killed the Cao army team from the flank in a vain attempt to help his father stabilize the decline, but was attacked by the red-eyed Cao army team, and was also defeated by the Cao army array, and the Cao army chased all the way to the vicinity of the Yuan army camp, until Yuan Tan led the army to respond, and Cao Boss ordered to collect the troops, one is because the Cao army is currently impossible to break the Yuan army camp that is waiting for the battle, and the other is to continue to divide the Yuan brothers.

In the battle, the Cao army killed less than 2,000 people, beheaded more than 6,000 Yuan army heads, and killed more than 20 Yuan army generals, the morale of the Cao army was greatly boosted, and the morale of Yuan Shaojun was severely defeated. Although Fu Zhu and Cui Yan bitterly advised the Great Yuan Sangong to be patient for the time being and not to rush to war, the Great Yuan Sangong refused to listen.

In the next few days, Yuan Sangong, who was completely enraged and humiliated by his self-esteem, launched two large-scale decisive battles, but was also defeated twice by the Cao army team that had no way to retreat, and the casualties were quite heavy. And Cao Boss is not easy to be there, successive high-intensity battles, the casualties of the main combat team are rapidly expanding because they are too tired, and the local second-line army is not as good as the main elite, even if it is used as a core team, it cannot form a combat effectiveness advantage, so the casualties are also heavy, the total loss of nearly 10,000 troops in the three major battles, the already exhausted team is also even more tired, and there are even some teams that are unable to launch a pursuit after defeating the enemy.

"Prime Minister, it will never work if it goes on like this." After being keenly aware of these circumstances, Xun Yu, who was in charge of guarding the city, came to the camp overnight to meet Boss Cao, and warned him in person: "The main force of our army has been fighting in the east and west for many years, and there are many wounded, and the decline in physical strength after successive battles is very serious. ”

"Of course I know that, but how do you win?" Boss Cao shook his head tiredly, and asked again: "Mr. Wen Ruo went out of the city to see me overnight, is there any way to break the enemy?" ”

"Yu did come up with a way to break the enemy, but he wasn't very sure." Xun Yu said: "Presumably the prime minister also knows that there are many courtiers in Xuchang City who are dissatisfied with the prime minister's monopoly on power, and have secret dealings with Yuan Shao, even so, why didn't the prime minister order Fu Wan, the father of Queen Fu, to make a book, and said that Fu Wan had secretly colluded with many ministers of the court, preparing to launch a rebellion in Xuchang City, and receiving Yuan Shao's army into the city. Yuan Shao must be overjoyed when he hears the news, and maybe he will personally lead the army to attack the city, and then the prime minister will lay an ambush and break Yuan Yi. ”

"Brilliant plan!" Cao Lao was overjoyed, and immediately clapped his hand and said: "That's it, I'm too familiar with my little Yuan Benchu, he has been defeated in battles in the past few days, he must have been angry and dizzy, there is this opportunity to end our army's granary in one fell swoop, he will definitely not miss it, he will definitely lead the army to come in person, and he will definitely not listen to anyone's advice!" ”

"That's it, Mr. Wen Ruo can return to the city as soon as possible, force him to write a book overnight, and then send someone to Yuan Shao's camp overnight to send a book." Boss Cao ordered decisively.

"Prime Minister rest assured, the book is ready." Xun Yu smiled and took out a letter from his arms, and said with a smile: "It didn't take much effort, although he was a little reluctant, but Yu asked why he had a secret relationship with Mu Shun, the palace servant, and immediately agreed to write a book in exchange for Yu not reporting the matter to the prime minister." ”

"In addition, Yu also brought a Fu Wan family member, ready for the prime minister to send books, the prime minister rest assured, although this Fu Wan's family has followed Fu Wan for many years, it is our army placed in Fu Wan's home, Fu Wan through Mu Shun and Queen Fu secret contact, but also this family secretly told me."

"Hahahaha......!" Boss Cao laughed loudly, patted Xun Yu's shoulder and boasted: "In the end, Mr. Wen Ruo is still careful, sending such a person to deliver a letter, no matter how much Yuan Shao has worked in Xuchang City, he will definitely not be able to distinguish the true from the fake." ”

……………… At the same time, more than 400 miles away outside the city of Dingtao, a group of Cao soldiers who lost their armor suddenly came to the east gate of Dingtao, opened their mouths and shouted the city, when the defenders of the city asked where the soldiers and horses were, these Cao soldiers replied: "We are the team arranged by General Liu Dai to garrison on the shore of Heze Lake, in the evening, a Xuzhou soldier and horse suddenly came east to attack our camp, and our soldiers could not support it, so they fled back to report the news." ”

"The Xuzhou thief army is coming to settle the pottery?" The defenders of the city were so frightened that the guards hurriedly ordered a few torches to be dropped, and ordered: "Shine torches on your faces, and report your identities and names one by one." ”

"No." The soldiers of the Cao army under the city agreed, picked up torches to shine on the faces of the soldiers in the team one by one, and loudly reported their names and identities, seeing that these soldiers were indeed their own soldiers and horses, the city guards did not hesitate, and immediately ordered to open the city gate and let these defeated soldiers enter the city.

The drawbridge was put down, the city gate was opened, the Cao soldiers outside the city you helped me and then walked into the city gate, at this time, the dark place outside the city suddenly killed everywhere, a large group of Xuzhou soldiers rushed madly, the city defenders were shocked, and quickly ordered to close the city gate and pull up the suspension bridge, there were already Xuzhou soldiers riding fast horses rushed to the suspension bridge, wielding axes and desperately cutting the sling, before those Cao soldiers also suddenly shot, wielding knives to kill the Cao soldiers who tried to close the door, the leader kept shouting, "Brothers, hold the city gate, As long as the Xuzhou army enters the city, we will be rewarded with 10,000 yuan each! A reward of 10,000 dollars! ”

(To be continued)