When Tai Shici got up to leave, it was already time for him, and Guan Yu personally sent him out of the camp. There was a carriage parked outside the camp gate, and more than a dozen men dressed in the clothes of Mi family soldiers were waiting quietly, which should have been sent out to pick up Tai Shici after Mi Fang returned to the Ximen camp.

Tai Shi Ci hugged his fists and said goodbye to Guan Yu: "Brother Yun, I have a lot of fun drinking tonight, if you have leisure in the future, you can come to the Ximen camp to reunite!" ”

Guan Yu nodded, watched Tai Shi Ci board the car and leave, turned around and returned to the camp.

Zhang Fei asked Guan Yu with some anger: "Second brother, why are you so polite to Liu He's eagle dog?" ”

Guan Yu comforted Zhang Fei and said: "This person has a special identity in Tancheng, and has a great impact on the Mi family, we are now on the weakest side, if we fight with him, not only will the eldest brother be in danger, but the only soldiers and horses we have left will be difficult to protect." Although Tai Shici is Liu He's subordinate, this person is righteous and bold, not a small-bellied person, and I have interacted with him in order to ease the tense relationship between them, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble. ”

After listening to Guan Yu's explanation, Zhang Fei didn't say a word, and went back to his tent to sleep. People are under the eaves and have to bow their heads. Although he was still dissatisfied in his heart, Zhang Fei also knew that the second brother of Lu Dao did this out of helplessness, who let them only have more than 2,000 soldiers and horses left now? With Second Brother Guan's cold and arrogant personality, it is really difficult for him to get along with Tai Shici like this.

When Tai Shici returned to the barracks, Mi Fang had not slept yet, and it seemed that he had been waiting for him to come back.

Mi Fang asked Tai Shi Ci: "General Tai Shi, then Guan Yu and Zhang Fei didn't embarrass you, right?" ”

Tai Shi Ci shook his head with a smile: "It's just drinking, nothing else." Zifang hurry up and rest. ”

"It's already this time, and the Cao army won't attack tonight?" Mi Fang asked a little uneasily.

"If I were the commander of the Cao army, I would never attack at night."

"Why?"

"The light is unclear at night. The besieging side could not see the situation of the defenders at the head of the city at all, and if they launched an attack, not only would they not hurt the defenders, but they would accidentally injure their own people. ”

"However, with the help of the cover of night, Cao Jun can also make us unable to figure out the truth and the truth?" Mi Fang was a little puzzled.

"The side that occupies the geographical advantage in this battle is us, even if the soldiers defending the city cannot see the reality of the enemy army outside the city. But because I am familiar with the environment, I only need to stay in my own position. On the other hand, the Cao army, even if they spent their efforts to cross the moat. But because you can't see the situation at the head of the city, you will inevitably pay a heavier price when the ants attach to the city! It's like in a house without light, if the owner of the house fights a thief of equal strength, the thief will definitely suffer. ”

Tai Shici's analogy is easy to understand. So that Mi Fang thinks all about it. In fact. Tai Shi Ci didn't tell Mi Fang that a night attack sounded like a good idea, but it required certain prerequisites, otherwise it would be self-defeating and self-defeating. For example, night raids generally need to receive internal news in advance, and find out the distribution of the defenders' camps and night passwords before the action; For example, soldiers participating in night raids must be well-trained. Soldiers like blindfolded (night blindness) are not able to move at all......

Tancheng is not a temporary camp in the wilderness, and the defending army is as many as 20,000 or 30,000. If there are fewer soldiers sent by the Cao army to attack at night, it will not be enough for the defenders at the head of the city; There are too many night raiding soldiers to be dispatched, and it is impossible to get close in concealment, and the suddenness of the attack is greatly reduced. Therefore, as long as Cao Cao is not confused, he will definitely not launch a night attack.

Mi Fang asked again: "Will the Cao army launch a more fierce attack tomorrow?" ”

Tai Shici shook his head: "It's hard to say, the initiative is in their hands, and we can only see the moves." ”

"Alas, if only there was a strong army like Youzhou in Xuzhou, I would take the soldiers and horses out of the city now to sweep the Cao army away!" Mi Fang said with some emotion.

Tai Shi Ci told Mi Fang earnestly: "Any strong army is not strong from the beginning, and most of the soldiers of several extremely powerful troops in Youzhou are actually converted from the surrender of Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao. These tens of thousands of soldiers in Tancheng have experienced this war, and those who survive will be able to fight in the future, and if they fight a few more battles, they will become a strong army. ”

That night, Cao Jun really didn't move.

In the early morning of the second day, Tai Shici carried a wooden box more than a foot long and climbed into the half-collapsed corner tower alone, and then skillfully took out the "clairvoyant mirror" from the wooden box, opened the dust caps at both ends of the mirror tube, and carefully observed the Cao military camp outside the city.

After a while, Tai Shi Ci climbed down the corner tower with a solemn face with a wooden box, and then pulled Mi Fang into a corner where no one was around, and said in a deep voice: "The Cao army is organizing a large number of soldiers to form a long line to dig desperately to dig the earth, I am afraid that they want to dig a ditch to connect the moat, and then lead the water in the river to Yishui, which is more than ten miles away. ”

"What? There is such a thing! Mi Fang's face was horrified. No matter how big Mi Fang's nerves were, he knew what would happen next once the water in the moat was drained.

"You can't be mistaken, can you? There are more than ten miles from Tancheng to Yishui, and Cao Jun organized soldiers to dig soil and ditches. Mi Fang really couldn't believe such a thing.

"You can't be mistaken! Yishui is fifteen or six miles away from Tancheng, Cao Jun has 50,000 troops, if 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers are specially dispatched to dig ditches, the average amount of labor to a soldier's head is not large, Tancheng is located in a soft sandy soil zone, Cao Jun only needs three or five days to dig the canal under the moat. ”

Tai Shici has been in Jizhou for several years, and has been learning arithmetic and geometry according to Liu He's requirements, and now he can guess the progress of Cao Jun's project with a little mental arithmetic.

Mi Fang asked with some panic: "Now that Cao Jun is digging the soil and opening the ditch, what should we do?" Do you want to dig out the stones blocking the city gate and immediately organize a large army out of the city to fight a decisive battle with Cao's army? ”

Tai Shici reprimanded Mi Fang: "What are you panicking about? Cao Jun now wants the defenders to go out of the city and fight them outside the city! If they want to dig a ditch to divert water, then let them toss, and we will treat Tancheng as a dry city. There was never a moat. You've also been to the north, where most of the cities are uncovered by moats, so how did the soldiers of Youzhou let the enemy capture the city? ”

Mi Fang saw Tai Shici's face displeased. whispered: "Cao Jun made such a big move, it is estimated that the defenders of all gates will soon be able to know the way, I am worried that the army will be unstable at that time, and there will be panic and fear of war." ”

Tai Shici nodded, agreeing with Mi Fang's judgment, so he whispered a few words to Mi Fang.

After Mi Fang listened to Tai Shici's instructions, her eyes widened and widened. Later, I couldn't help but laugh "hehe". "Ha Lu Ha...... The general's countermeasure is really too bad! If it is known that you came up with the idea, I am afraid that tens of thousands of people in the city will hate you to death! ”

"As long as you can keep Tancheng, you are not afraid of being hated. Who is not convinced, go to Jizhou to reason with me in the future! Tai Shici looked indifferent.

As Cao Cao's military advisor Xi Zhicai had predicted, when the soldiers guarding Tancheng saw Cao Jun's actions outside the city, the nervous and panicked mood immediately spread like a plague. The small win at Simon yesterday. It was simply not enough to resist the impact of Cao Jun's digging of canals to divert water. For a while, the battalions in the city were gloomy, and the soldiers began to think about the way out after the city was broken.

In the face of such a drastic downward trend, Mi Zhu didn't think about it, but he couldn't think of any good countermeasures. Just when he was worried, suddenly Xu Sheng came in from outside and told him a piece of news, and Mi Zhu settled down.

It turned out that Mi Fang gathered all the scholars who could write in the city, and then gave them a list of the soldiers who were rewarded by the state governor's office. Let these scholars take the largest brush and copy it on the white silk. After the list was transcribed, Mi Fang hung the oversized list on the edge of the city wall outside the west gate. It is facing the Cao army camp.

Then, a news broke out in the city: the silver money that the Prefecture Pastoral Mansion gave to the soldiers of various armies a few days ago was the wealth that Zhang Min snatched from the Cao family after he intercepted and killed Cao Cao's father, Cao Song!

Now, everyone has divided the money together, and the list has been hung on the city wall by Mi Fang, a thing lacking in virtue, which is equivalent to telling Cao Cao fruitfully: The money that your father Cao Song has saved for decades as an official has now been divided up by the brothers, and you have the ability to bite us!

At this moment, the originally panicked battalions suddenly stopped, because all kinds of retreats had been completely blocked by the two brothers of the Mi family! Now even if anyone wants to go out of the city and surrender to Cao Cao, Cao Cao will not be able to forgive him, because everyone has taken the Cao family's desperate money, and Cao Cao is already an endless blood feud......

In Cao's military camp, Cao Cao asked several military advisors: "What is the movement of the defenders of Tancheng today?" ”

Xun You replied: "The defenders on the west gate hung a long white silk on the outside of the wall, and the names of people were densely written on it, but I don't know what the purpose is. ”

Cao Cao frowned, and he couldn't figure out what the defenders wanted to do with this trick. "No matter what god the defenders are and what the hell they do, when the canal is dug tomorrow, the water of Tancheng will be drained away, and then the army can attack the city on all sides at the same time, I don't believe that the defenders in the city can still resist!"

In Kaiyang City, more than 200 miles away from Cao Ying, Zang Ba once again got together with several of his subordinates to discuss the retreat of Cao.

Zang Ba said: "It has been a few days since Cao Jun arrived in Tancheng, and this time Mi Zhu has made up his mind to defend Tancheng, and has let people seal the gates of Tancheng with stone bars from the inside, Cao Jun wants to take Tancheng, but I am afraid that it is not so easy." We have a relationship with Tancheng, and if Tancheng is lost, Cao Cao will inevitably send troops to attack us next. For the sake of the overall situation, Ben General is ready to personally lead the army to Tancheng to help in the battle, and join forces with Mi Zhu to fight against Cao! ”

Sun Guan said: "As long as the soldiers and horses of all walks of life in Tancheng have the determination to defend Tancheng to the death, and will not leave without a fight like last time, we are naturally willing to contribute from the side." ”

Wu Dun and Yin Li also nodded, feeling that they should send troops to assist Mi Zhu in defending Tancheng, so as not to lose their lips and teeth when they got it, and they would be cleaned up by Cao Cao.

"This time, I will take 15,000 men and horses to Tancheng to help in the battle, Sun Guan and Wu Dun will stay in Kaiyang, don't be negligent!"

Zang Ba made a plan, assigned tasks to several of his subordinates, and immediately led 15,000 men and horses to leave Kaiyang.

Under the nervous gaze of the defenders at the head of the city, the Cao soldiers buried their heads and worked hard, and finally gradually dug an aqueduct to the vicinity of the moat. The soldiers in the city tried to scare away the Cao soldiers who were close to the moat with bows and arrows, but the Cao army, who had been prepared, pushed out some leather-covered cave carts to block the front of the digging soldiers, and some soldiers simply hid in the carts to continue digging.

Eventually, the top of the aqueduct extended into the moat, and the water level in the river was slowly decreasing at a visible rate, and the soldiers in the city felt their hearts sink as well......

Cao Cao, who personally went out of the camp to observe, looked at the defenders at the head of the city with a gloomy face, and thought to himself: Without the cover of this moat, I want to see who else can withstand the attack of the army under my command! (To be continued......)