When Cao's army retreated, they carried away all the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and the defenders at the head of the city did not attack and stop them, because if they allowed these thousands of dead bodies to pile up under the city, they might infect the city with corpse poison and plague in a few days.

On the other hand, none of the generals of the Cao army dared to throw the corpses of these dead soldiers at the foot of Tancheng at will, and if they really did so, they would not only lose the morale of the army, but might even cause the soldiers to roar and mutiny.

Although this was an era of decay, people still respected the tradition of the dead, and soldiers who died in the city needed to be buried, even if tens of thousands of people were buried in a large pit, but the corpses must not be exposed to the wild.

In Cao's camp, the atmosphere became even more oppressive and dreary.

The whole day of siege operations exhausted the courage and determination of Cao's army, and thousands of soldiers were killed and wounded, telling everyone an indisputable fact: Tancheng is not easy to attack, and the Xuzhou soldiers defending the city are not easy to deal with!

Cao Jun now knows the truth that Tai Shici, the general of Jizhou Zhenwei, came to Xuzhou to help defend the city, and also knows what the long curtain hanging out of the city a few days ago means, the more this is the case, the more irritable and anxious they feel.

Although Tai Shici did not come to Xuzhou with thousands of troops and horses to help in the war, with his reputation in Jizhou and his true skills, it is possible to call all the soldiers and horses in Tancheng together. And those long lists hanging at the head of the city, like a super large "letter of surrender", tied the defenders in the city to a rope, no one dared to abandon the city and surrender lightly, and could only carry out desperate resistance and defense.

Inside the tent of the Chinese army. Cao Cao twisted his eyebrows and listened to the losses reported by the various armies, and then let out a heavy sigh: "Alas, Liu Shiren of Youzhou still made a move!" ”

The left and right Wenwu did not dare to accept Cao Cao's words, because everyone knew that no one would believe them if they said something nice at this time, but if they said something unpleasant, it would make Cao Cao unhappy.

Cao Ren couldn't help but say: "My lord, although our army has suffered a lot of losses today, the defenders in the city are also uncomfortable. In this way, it is only a consumption of the Mi family's private soldiers. Maybe it can lead to infighting among the defenders in the city. ”

Cao Ren's meaning was to give up the plan of attacking the city on three sides at the same time, and just grabbed the Mijia troops defending the west gate to attack and attack fiercely, exchanging human lives for human lives. Once the Mi family lost too much. It may be necessary to change to other soldiers and horses to defend. In this way, it will cause all roads in the city to fight each other, and even infighting, which will take advantage of it.

Cao Cao pondered for a moment. Feeling that Cao Ren's proposition was meritorious, he said: "Send someone to guard the outside of the north gate tonight, and if there is any movement in the city, come and report to me immediately." Tomorrow, only one army and horses will be sent out to continue the attack on the west gate. ”

"My lord, why do you only need to pay attention to the north gate?" Cao Zhen asked a little puzzled.

Cao Cao said with a smile: "Now it has been found out that it is the Chen family's private soldiers and Liu Xuande's subordinates who are defending the north gate, and these two people are not of the same mind as Mi Zhu. If Mi Zhu guards Tancheng, there will be nothing to do with Chen Yuanlong and Liu Xuande in the future! ”

Everyone understood Cao Cao's thoughts, so they went their separate ways.

In Tancheng, after a fierce battle during the day, although the gates were defended, there were not a few dead and wounded soldiers, and at night it was also miserable and dull, and there was not much joy and relief after victory.

If you talk about heavy losses, the first is Zhang Min on the south gate, followed by the Mi family's private army on the west gate, and the last is the troops of Liu Bei and Chen Deng on the north gate.

The reason why Zhang Min's troops suffered the most losses had a lot to do with the fact that they had not fought against Cao's army before and that it was Cao Ren's subordinates who were responsible for the siege. Although the Mi family's private army on the west gate had fought close to Cao's army, and it was personally commanded by Tai Shici, it was facing an army of 20,000 under the personal command of Cao Cao, so the losses were not small. About half of the combined forces of Liu Bei and Chen Deng, who defended the north gate, had seen Cao's army attacking the city, and the two fierce generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei personally supervised the battle, and the losses were the smallest.

Seeing that Cao Jun retreated, Mi Zhu invited the guards of each gate to enter the state pastoral mansion to discuss matters, because Tai Shi Ci made his identity clear, Mi Zhu no longer worried about whether everyone was looking for a reason to avoid it this time.

Tai Shi Ci made it clear that Liu Yu and his son were sent to help Xuzhou, and now that he has revealed his identity, it means that he will stand in a more fair position to mediate the contradictions of all parties, as long as everyone does not betray Xuzhou, Tai Shi Ci will not take sides at will, let alone black hands on the weak forces.

Just as Mi Zhu guessed, after Cao Bao, Zhang Min, Chen Deng, Liu Bei and others saw the messenger sent by Mi Zhu, they did not hesitate too much, and they all rushed to the state pastor's mansion one after another according to the agreed time. Everyone understands that Tai Shici came to Xuzhou, naturally not to "release water" to Cao Cao, he now has no soldiers and horses, and if he wants to complete the important task of defending Tancheng, he must rely on the big family to make a joint effort.

In addition to the four guards all present, Zhao Yu, Wang Lang, Sun Qian and others were also invited to the mansion by Mi Zhu to discuss the plan to resist Cao.

In order to highlight Tai Shici's status, this time Mi Zhu asked him to sit side by side with him in the center, and everyone had no objection after seeing it, except for Cao Bao, the corners of his mouth moved, and everyone else had a natural expression.

Mi Zhu was the first to speak: "Although Cao Jun temporarily retired today, the war is not over, for the safety of Tancheng, I invited you overnight to discuss major matters. Next, I will ask General Taishi Ziyi from Jizhou to analyze the changes in the situation between us and the enemy. ”

Tai Shici did not shirk, and said loudly: "Previously, because of the need for confidentiality, a certain person had offended several adults in Xuzhou, and I apologize to you today!" After saying this, Tai Shici got up and saluted Cao Bao, Liu Bei, Chen Deng and others, with a very sincere attitude.

After the politeness was over, Tai Shi Ci's words changed: "I don't think there is much to say, you also know the significance of Tancheng to the Liu clan in Youzhou, Cao Cao previously teamed up with Yuan Shao and other warlords to secretly attack Youzhou, and Lord Taifu and Gongzi will definitely not sit back and watch the ambition of the Cao clan to annex Xuzhou come true." Entrusted by Lord Taifu and Liu Shiren's son, he came to Xuzhou to assist you in defending the Sangzi land of King Gong in the East China Sea, so he had no conflict with you, and after the Cao army retreated, he immediately returned to Jizhou. ”

"In today's battle, all the adults have the same hatred for the enemy, which made Cao Jun taste great, and he also paid a lot of price for it. Now it seems that only General Cao, who was stationed at the east gate, did not lose a single soldier and horse. In order to ensure that Tancheng is not lost, I propose to transfer 4,000 soldiers from the east gate to supplement the other three battalions, of which 1,000 are added to the north gate, 2,000 are added to the south gate, and 1,000 are added to the west gate. ”

Tai Shici looked at Cao Bao expectantly, making Cao Bao uncomfortable.

Of course, Cao Bao refused to agree to 1,000 in his heart, but Tai Shici's request was not excessive, but 4,000 soldiers and horses were transferred from his command to other battalions, which did not hurt his roots, if Cao Bao opposed it in front of everyone, it would be equivalent to offending Tai Shici, Mi Zhu, Zhang Min, Chen Deng and Liu Bei. Under the pressure of the situation, Cao Bao had no choice but to bite the bullet and say: "General Taishi's proposal is very good, for the safety of Tancheng, Cao should do his best!" ”

Chen Deng and Liu Bei were replenished by a thousand soldiers out of thin air, and their hearts were dark for a while, so they praised Cao Bao for his deep understanding of righteousness. Zhang Min was afraid that everyone would not be able to tolerate him, so he cut off his head and sent it to Cao Cao outside the city to ask for peace, and now he suddenly had two more soldiers to replenish, and he was very grateful to Tai Shi Ci in his heart.

Tai Shi Ci then said: "The bodies of the soldiers who died in the city today need to be stored in a temporary place in the city alone, and the wounded soldiers need to be treated as much as possible, and they should not be abandoned. The number of wounded soldiers in each battalion is large and can be distinguished according to the severity of the wounded, and those who are seriously wounded may be sent to the homes of the residents in the city and asked to take care of them. After today's battle, Cao Jun was greatly frustrated, and he must no longer have the heart to despise him. Cao's expedition to Xuzhou has taken nearly a month, and the consumption of grain and grass and military funds is serious, and Zang Ba, who is stationed in Kaiyang, is also a great threat to its flank, so as long as we hold the confidence to hold on, it will not be long before Cao's army will inevitably retreat. ”

After listening to Tai Shici's analysis, everyone felt that it was reasonable, and their confidence in defending Tancheng increased a lot.

In the dead of night, only Tai Shici and Mi Zhu were left in the governor's mansion. Mi Zhu asked Tai Shici: "According to Ziyi's view, are there hidden dangers in Tancheng?" ”

Tai Shi Ci shook his head and said, "Any speculation may be false without sufficient evidence. Just in case, you can only be prepared for emergencies. Now all the gates of Tancheng are sealed by heavy stones, anyone who wants to open one of them from the inside, the movement will not be small, as long as we send people to stare these doors to death, once we find an abnormality, we can respond immediately. ”

Mi Zhu nodded, understanding what Tai Shici meant.

Still late that night, there was a sudden fire on the west bank of Yishui, and the camp where Xiahoudun was stationed was suddenly attacked by Zang Ba.

Zang Ba came here, with 15,000 soldiers and horses, and was familiar with the terrain of Xuzhou, so he quickly figured out the deployment of Cao's army, and also heard the results of the defense of Tancheng, so he gave a fierce blow to Xiahoudun, who was stationed alone on the west bank of Yishui.

Xiahoudun had 10,000 soldiers and horses, and the purpose of guarding the west bank of Yishui was to prevent the retreat of the army from returning to Yanzhou from being cut off by Zang Ba, so he was very vigilant and did not dare to be sloppy in the slightest. Despite this, when Zang Bazhen led the army to help in the war, he still shocked Xiahoudun and Cao Cao into a cold sweat.

Zang Ba did not let the soldiers launch a strong attack on Xiahoudun's camp, when he came to attack at night, he asked the soldiers to hold a bundle of firewood, and when they approached the place where Xiahoudun was garrisoned, they stacked the firewood neatly, and then lit it together, causing obvious fire and smoke.

Xiahoudun's soldiers and horses were blocked in the camp by Zang Ba, and the black lights did not dare to come out to fight with him, so Cao Cao only saw the fire rising from the west bank of Yishui, and thought that Xiahoudun's camp was burned down. Cao Cao hurriedly sent a scout horse to cross the river overnight to investigate Xiahoudun's losses, for fear that he would capsize in the gutter this time. (To be continued......)