In the winter of the ninth year of Jian'an, Liu Pingping's first battle in the Central Plains kicked off in Nanyang.

When everyone thought that Liu He would attack Yanzhou by besieging it from three sides, Liu He secretly mobilized the Shenxi army to return to Danshui from Wuguan in Lantian Valley Road, and then mobilized the Zhenbei army stationed in the Kaifeng area to launch a rapid and fierce attack on Liu Bei entrenched in the Nanyang area.

At this time, it was winter, the climate in Nanyang was not very cold, and it was in the agricultural season, and the two armies besieging Liu Bei set off from the east and west roads at the same time, which not only did not affect agricultural production along the road, but also increased a lot of income for nearby farmers.

The reason why Liu He wanted to besiege Liu Bei with the force of thunder was not only to cut off the connection between Liu Bei and Cao Cao and avoid being harassed in the Jingshi area when attacking Cao Cao, but also to deter other forces, so that they could see their strength clearly and not do things that took advantage of the fire.

When the Zhenbei Army was stationed in Kaifeng, Liu Bei was very vigilant and nervous, although he now has nearly 30,000 troops under his command, but in the face of the Zhenbei Army, the main force that has been famous for a long time and has great achievements, he still does not dare to have half a bit of luck and arrogance. Liu Bei asked Guan Yu, who was old and heavy, and Xu Shu, who was full of wisdom, to lead 20,000 troops to guard near Lushan and confront the Zhenbei army commanded by Xu Rong.

The veteran Xu Rong kept Liu He's explanation in mind before sending out his troops, he controlled the rhythm of the troops' advance to the south, and when the main force encountered Guan Yu's interception, he did not urge the troops to fight to the death with Guan Yu's troops at any cost, but slowly circled around Lushan with Guan Yu. Xu Rong fought like this, but it was to build a fighter plane for the Shen Xi Army, who secretly returned to Danshui.

Liu Bei, who stayed in Wancheng, learned that Liu He had finally made a move, and immediately sent someone to warn Cao Cao, and at the same time asked Cao Cao to immediately send Cao Ren's army stationed in Chenliu to reinforce Lushan. After Cao Cao received Liu Bei's letter asking for help, he knew that the relationship between the two families was cold at this time, so he immediately ordered Cao Ren, who was stationed in Chenliu, to send troops to attack the back of the Zhenbei army.

Cao Renjun had just entered the territory of Yingchuan from Chenliu, but the Xiao cavalry guards, who had been standing still, suddenly came out of the Tiger Prison Pass and drove straight into the territory of Chenliu. There were signs of cutting off Cao Ren's army's grain route, and Cao Ren had no choice but to return to defend Chen Liu.

However, when Liu Bei was still worried about Lushan, the Shenxi army, which had been assembled in place, plus several forces around Sanhu Pavilion, totaling 30,000 troops, launched an attack from Danshui County to Wancheng at the fastest speed.

In this battle, in order to buy time and reduce damage, the Shen Xi army used a very powerful firearm, which could not only cause great damage to the city gates and walls, but also shook the sky when it was launched. A hundred times more terrifying than when the catapult was launched.

This terrifying firearm is the first generation of cast bronze cannon finally finalized by the School of Mechanical Engineering of Yenching University and the Ordnance Department of the Command Department after years of research!

As early as ten years ago, Liu He personally led the research and development of black powder, and then the research of gunpowder and gunpowder weapons in the Ordnance Department has never stopped. Liu He in the previous life, although he was a liberal arts student, he still had an impression of the development history of gunpowder weapons, and he proposed the design ideas of cannons to the scientific researchers of the Ordnance Department and the School of Mechanics, and at the same time proposed the direction of improving the explosive power of gunpowder. It is not an exaggeration to then work day and night on the design and implementation of these researchers, and then to create artillery weapons in ten years.

In many cases, a research idea that guides the direction is often much more important than a specific technological advance, because the idea is the highest level of discovery in the field of human thought.

Although the first generation of artillery manufactured by the Ordnance Division was far less powerful than the cannons of later generations. However, in this era when cold weapons are still the mainstay, the curtain of weapon innovation has been lifted. The terrifying sight of dozens of artillery guns firing at the same time at Wancheng was enough to frighten the soldiers defending the city.

In this battle, although Wancheng had 10,000 defenders. Liu Bei was even more in charge himself, and there were two fierce generals Zhang Fei and Zhang Xiu by his side, but he still couldn't resist the indiscriminate bombardment of the Shenxi army that used large artillery. In less than a day, it was breached.

When the city was broken, the fierce general Zhang Fei was left behind, but he was shot into a humanoid hedgehog by the warriors of the Shen Xi army who rushed up with steel crossbows. When Zhang Xiu escorted Liu Bei to evacuate from Wancheng, he was hit by an arrow in the back and fell off his horse, and as a result, he was taken prisoner again. Liu Bei fled to Xinye in a panic, but was ambushed by a special operations team sent by the Command on the way, and was hit by three arrows in the head and chest, falling from his horse and dying.

After Wancheng was broken, Jia Kui left part of his troops to guard the prisoners of war and maintain order in the city, and then immediately led the main force to attack Lushan, forming a north-south flank attack with Xu Rong's Zhenbei army against Guan Yu.

When Guan Yu learned that Liu Bei and Zhang Fei had disappeared, he vomited blood and fainted on the spot. Seeing that the general trend had gone, the military advisor Xu Shu sent people out of the camp to ask Jia Kui for surrender. Jia Kui agreed to Xu Shu's conditions, allowing Liu Deran and others to escort Liu Bei and Zhang Fei's family members out of Nanyang and go to Shuzhong to live in seclusion, Xu Shu ordered Guan Yu to be tied up in a coma to prevent him from committing suicide when he woke up, and then surrendered to Jia Kui and Xu Rong with all his troops.

The battle of Nanyang lasted less than two months, Liu He only sent two troops to completely wipe out Liu Bei's forces, after the news came out, not only made Cao Cao greatly shocked, but also made Longxi Li Dao and Guo Yan, Liangzhou Ma Teng and Han Sui, Hanzhong Yuan Shang and other forces more honest, dare not have half of the heart of the land of Gyeonggi.

When Guan Yu woke up, he had already been sent to Luoyang, and there was Zhang Xiu with him. Liu He personally came forward to visit him, and asked Hua Tuo to personally condition his body, but Liu He did not mention the words of letting Guan Yu switch to the camp. Liu He now has no shortage of generals who can fight well, as long as he uses the current few generals well, it is enough to sweep away all kinds of bulls, ghosts, snakes and gods.

Xu Shu and Liu Bei are only in partnership, not a trilogy or a sworn worship, so although they are sad about Liu Bei's death, they will not be heartbreaking, or even discouraged. He was not very optimistic about Liu Bei and Cao Cao's alliance against Liu from the beginning, and now that Liu Bei is dead, he will also end this relationship. When Liu He met Xu Shu, he told Xu Shu that he had three choices, one was to go to Ningzhou to assist Zhang Liao in commanding the Yue cavalry guard, one was to go to Youzhou to study for a period of time, and the other was to return to Yingchuan to take care of his mother.

Xu Shu finally decided to move his family to Youzhou, not only to take care of his mother, but also to study in Youzhou.

After Liu Bei's power collapsed, he also left Chen Zhi, Fu Wei, Deng Fang and other generals, who accepted Liu He's recruitment and were sent to Jicheng Martial Arts Hall for training.

After Nanyang was taken, in order not to irritate Liu Biao in Xiangyang, Liu He only let the troops be stationed in Wancheng and Nanyang, and within 300 miles from Wancheng to Xiangyang, there was not a single soldier stationed.

Liu Biao was satisfied with Liu He's restraint, so he continued to bury his head in being his ostrich, ignoring Cao Cao, who was already jumping to his feet in a hurry, and did not receive the people sent by Cao Cao at all.

In the blink of an eye, it was the spring of the tenth year of Jian'an, and Liu He sat back and waited for the Yanzhou farmers to finish their spring ploughing, and officially launched a war against Cao Cao.

Once again, to the surprise of the world, the troops attacking Cao Cao's territory in the first round were neither the Zhenwu and Zhenyong troops stationed in Jizhou, nor the Shenxi Army and the Zhenbei Army, which had just won a big victory, but the Langya Army led by Zang Ba and the Yushan Battalion led by Guan Hai!

At the beginning, Cao Cao personally led an army of 50,000 to conquer Xuzhou, causing great harm to the people of Xuzhou, forcing Zang Ba at that time to almost enter Mount Tai and become a bandit again. Now, Zang Ba led 30,000 Langya troops and 20,000 Xuzhou elite Yushan battalions led by Guan Hai from Pengcheng County to Cao Cao's hometown Pei County.

Xiahou Yuan, a general under Cao Cao stationed in Peijun, hurriedly met Zang Ba and Guan Hai, but because of the limited number of troops, he could only fight and retreat. Although Cao Cao knew that Liu He's Shenxi Army and Zhenbei Army left in the Lushan and Kaifeng areas were the main forces to attack Yanzhou, and the powerful cavalry guards would not fall into the criss-crossing water network of Yanzhou, he could not sit idly by and watch Peijun lose, so he had to send his fierce generals Le Jin and Li Dian to lead 20,000 troops to reinforce Xiahou Yuan.

Not long after Le Jin and Li Dian left Changyi, Cao Cao received news that Taishan County was in an emergency, and it turned out that the coalition formed by Tian Kai and Sun Shao had launched an attack on Taishan County from the direction of Qingzhou. Although the combat effectiveness of Tian Kai and Sun Shao's troops could not be compared with the elites under Liu He, they still caused a lot of pressure on Yu Ban and Lu Qian, who were stationed in Mount Tai. Cao Cao gave Yu Ban and Lü Qian death orders, telling them to hold out for two months no matter what.

Before Cao Cao had time to catch his breath, there was another urgent report from the Dongjun side, and the Zhenwu battalion and the Zhenyong battalion attacked the Dongjun at the same time, and were besieging the Xiahou Dun troops stationed in the Dongjun. As soon as Cao Cao saw that the shape was severe, he immediately gave an order to Xiahoudun, ordering him to abandon the defense of Dongjun and urgently lead his army to retreat to Zhencheng, south of the Yellow River. Xiahoudun had already learned of the battle situation in Qingzhou and Xuzhou, and knew that this was not the time to be strong, so he left a small number of troops to be cut off by the deputy general Bao Xun, and he led the main force to urgently cross the river and withdraw to the south of the Yellow River.

Cao Cao had just stabilized his position, always alerting to movements in the direction of Luoyang, but a greater threat came from Xuzhou and Qingzhou again.

Zhang Yanqin, the chief general of the Montenegrin Army, led an army of 30,000 to reinforce Tian Kai and Sun Shao, and the three generals of the expedition to Sanhan, Sun Qing, Wang Dang and Du Yuan, landed in Xuzhou from the Sanhan Peninsula by sea ship and came to help the war with 50,000 troops!

It is said that there are more ants that can bite the elephant to death, Cao Cao is not an elephant, and the Black Mountain Army Headquarters led by Zhang Yan and the expeditionary force led by the three young generals are not ants, the sudden addition of the 80,000 army has completely reversed the situation on the battlefield of Mount Tai and Peijun, and the Xuzhou general Tai Shici has not appeared yet, which makes Cao Cao feel frightened.

Liu He saw that the troops from all walks of life were in place, and he still felt that it was not enough to enjoy it, so he even ordered the Zhang Yang troops and Zhongmu troops stationed in the Luoyang area to also press on the area from Kaifeng to Hujiao Pass, and put on a posture of Mount Tai pressing the top of Mount Tai for Yanzhou. (To be continued......)