In the next two days, Cao's army on the east bank of Yishui continued to launch a fierce attack on the west gate of Tancheng, resulting in a certain degree of casualties to the defenders of the west gate, and in the process, Cao's army suffered greater casualties than the defenders.

In the face of Cao Cao's tactics of staring at the Mi family for attrition, Tai Shici has always shown a calm and confident side, he is like a strong and majestic city wall, supporting the backbone of the Mi family's private army, so that they do not collapse and escape, stick to the city, and use flesh and blood to block wave after wave of attacks launched by the Cao army.

The defenders on the other three gates of Tancheng paid close attention to the movements on the west gate, Cao Bao was secretly worried about whether Mi Zhu would borrow troops from him again, Zhang Min was worried that the West Gate would be able to withstand a few days, Chen Deng was concerned about how much the Mi family's prestige in Tancheng would grow after this battle, and Liu Bei was paying attention to the movements of Cao Jun and secretly making some preparations.

Zang Ba on the west bank of Yishui continued to engage in skirmishes with Xiahoudun, which greatly increased the pressure on Cao's flanks and rear, and was regarded as the only foreign aid that still played a role since the start of the war in Xuzhou, relieving some pressure on Tancheng's defense.

On the night of the third day, Liu Bei asked Jian Yong to go to Chen Deng's mansion to invite Chen Deng, saying that he had prepared some wine and food, and he wanted to drink with Chen Deng at night. Chen Deng has always had a good relationship with Liu Bei, and he has secretly helped Liu Bei a lot, and at this moment of huddling together for warmth, he will not suspect that Liu Bei will be unfavorable to him, so he came happily and did not make any arrangements.

What Liu Bei said after seeing Chen Deng, there was no way to know afterwards, but they chatted until late at night, and then Chen Deng didn't know how to hand over the talisman and seal letter to Liu Bei for mobilizing Chen's private soldiers at the North Gate. Liu Bei immediately ordered the soldiers to pull out the stones that filled the hole in the north gate overnight, and the act of opening the door and stealing was completely implemented.

The Mi family has been operating in Tancheng for many years, and has a lot of eyeliner, and even the Chen family's private soldiers and the soldiers in Liu Bei's military camp have the Mi family's undercover agents. Liu Bei had just secretly ordered the soldiers who had followed him to Xuzhou from Qingzhou to start digging up the stones at the north gate, and Mi Fang received the news, and he hurriedly came to Tai Shi Ci and asked Tai Shi Ci to take an idea.

Tai Shici was not surprised by Liu Bei's action, he asked Mi Fang to immediately go to the south gate to contact Zhang Min, and asked Zhang Min to send a part of his troops and horses to the west gate for reinforcements. At the same time, he ordered the young general Xu Sheng to rush to the east gate to take advantage of Cao Baoxiao. Let Cao Bao send troops to reinforce the north gate. Mi Fang was a little puzzled. asked Tai Shici: "Now that the north gate has changed, why did Zhang Min's soldiers and horses rush to the west gate for reinforcements?" ”

Tai Shici replied: "I will personally lead the West Gate defenders to the North Gate to deal with this matter, and the West Gate defense will be empty, so Zhang Min needs to send half of his troops and horses to help defend the West Gate." ”

Mi Fang didn't dare to delay. Hit the horse and go straight to the camp of Zhang Min at the south gate. Xu Sheng also hurried to the east gate to persuade Cao Bao to send troops.

Zhang Min had quietly seen Mi Zhu the day and night before. Reached a secret agreement with Mi Zhu, and now that he learned that there was a change in the north gate, he immediately did not hesitate to divide three thousand soldiers and horses to Mi Fang. Mi Fang hurriedly returned to the west gate with his troops, and met Tai Shici with soldiers and horses marching to the north gate.

Tai Shici told Mi Fang: "Beware of Cao Jun's night attack on Ximen, when Cao Jun comes, don't panic, just counterattack according to the deployment, and Cao's army will retreat quickly." ”

Mi Fang felt that she had been training with Tai Shi Ci for a period of time, and she had made significant progress in commanding the city to defend the battle, so she patted her chest and assured Tai Shi Ci that she would definitely guard the West Gate.

When Tai Shici led the army to the north gate, he was stopped by Zhang Fei and others on the long street. Tai Shici was unceremonious this time, and without saying a word, he directly ordered the crossbowmen to start firing arrows and fight with Zhang Fei's troops in the streets and alleys.

Liu Bei learned that Tai Shici led his troops to fight fiercely with Zhang Fei in the city, and hurriedly urged Guan Yu to command the soldiers to step up the stone strips of the Saimen, and at the same time raised a fire at the head of the city to ask for the support of Cao's army outside the city. Seeing the light of fire outside the city, Cao's spies immediately reported to Cao Cao, and Cao Cao ordered a force to launch a night attack on the west gate with great fanfare. Seeing this, Mi Fang, who was stationed at the west gate, immediately commanded the soldiers to respond with gongs and drums at the head of the city, making the appearance of being prepared.

Tai Shi Ci and Zhang Fei fought in one place, the two fought inseparably, Zhang Fei had a slight advantage, but he couldn't take Tai Shi Ci's life lightly, because both of them were hung with color, Tai Shi Ci's right arm was pierced by Zhang Fei's snake spear, Zhang Fei's left shoulder was split by Tai Shi Ci's flying halberd, and both looked like they had just been fished up from the pool of blood.

After the battle, the north gate was finally opened by Liu Bei's soldiers, Liu Bei took Jian Yong and Liu Deran and other henchmen, wrapped in the unconscious Chen Deng, and fled from Tancheng in panic under the escort of his second brother Guan Yu. Easy-going, Zhang Fei led his soldiers to fight and retreat, and also withdrew from the north gate. Cao's army, which had already been ambushed outside the north gate, did not intercept the soldiers in the city when they saw the soldiers fleeing outside, but gave way to a road to the west and let Liu Bei escape. When Zhang Fei also rushed out from the north gate with the remaining troops, Cao Zhen gave an order, and thousands of soldiers rushed to the north gate.

At this critical juncture, Tai Shici, who had already fought fiercely, led his soldiers who were not afraid of death to rush to the front, relying on the cover of the Saimen knife car, to withstand the impact of the Cao army, and did not let the Cao army rush into Tancheng from the north gate. Some of the Mi family's private army brought by Tai Shici guarded in the city gate cave, and the rest rushed to the north gate and shot arrows at the Cao army outside the city, preventing the Cao army from attacking the city at night.

When the battle was inseparable, Xu Sheng suddenly led a force to rush to reinforcements from the east gate, which greatly relieved the pressure on the defenders, and Cao's army saw that there was no chance to take advantage of it, and finally retreated.

After Cao Jun retreated, Tai Shici, who had already been overdrawn, fainted, and was quickly snatched into the camp tent vacant after Liu Bei left by several henchmen brought from Jizhou, and the defensive command of the north gate was temporarily represented by Cao Bao's cousin Cao Hong.

The Cao army, which was only making a feint attack on the west gate, retreated shortly after the troops at the north gate withdrew from the battle, and Mi Fang knew that it was a false alarm.

Next, the internal forces of Tancheng carried out a major reshuffle, the Mi family because of their great contribution in the defense of the city, is to completely occupy a dominant position, Liu Bei and Guangling Chen's forces completely withdrew from Tancheng, Cao Bao and Cao Hong two brothers fought openly and secretly, and Zhang Min attached themselves to Tancheng together, willing to accept Mi Zhu's dispatch.

After Liu Bei withdrew from Tancheng with the old foundation of Qingzhou and Chen's private soldiers, he entered the territory of Pengcheng, and originally wanted to take advantage of Cao Cao's attack on Tancheng to recruit troops and horses in Pengcheng to expand the team, but a few days later, Cao Ren, the vanguard of the Cao army, actually led a large army to Pengcheng to follow. Liu Bei was helpless, so he hurriedly led the team to the west again, and in one breath he ran to the mountain mulberry near Runan.

Cao Cao saw that the pursuing troops had been attacking Tancheng for a long time, and the morale of the army had shown signs of instability, so he decisively withdrew to Yishui Xi'an, first with Zang Ba's troops at a fierce battle thirty miles south of Zhangshan, and then pursued Zang Ba's troops to the vicinity of Jiqiu, so he ordered Cao Ren to lead 15,000 men south to Pengcheng and Xiapi to plunder, so as to boost the morale of the army and reduce the impact of Tancheng's defeat. After a series of battles, Cao Cao's army was reduced from 50,000 when he first entered Xuzhou to more than 30,000, and the threat was not so serious for the nearly 20,000 troops left behind in Tancheng.

Soon after Zang Ba led his army to retreat to Jiqiu, he learned that Xiao Jian, the prime minister of Langya, led 3,000 private soldiers to rebel and establish himself as king in Yangdu, so he hurriedly led the army to withdraw to Kaiyang, and then sent his subordinates Sun Guan and Yin Li to lead 10,000 troops to Yangdu to defeat Xiao Jian.

Before the war, Zang Ba and Mi Zhu had an agreement that in the future, the military and political power of Langya County would actually be controlled by Zang Ba, and Yangdu would be located a hundred miles north of Kaiyang.

After Cao Ren led the troops into Pengcheng, in order to vent the anger of the defeat of Tancheng, he did a lot of cruel and unkind things, two percent of the people of Tancheng and Xiapi died directly or indirectly under the trampling of the Cao army, three percent of the young and strong were captured by the Cao army as porters, and three percent fled to Guangling and Yangzhou, and the remaining two percent of the old and weak women and children remained in the dilapidated post-war land, which looked very miserable and depressed.

The battle of Xuzhou lasted for half a year, Cao's army plundered around Tancheng to make up for the losses caused in the early days of the war, coupled with the rebellion of Zhenrong and Xiao Jianzhi, more than seventy percent of the counties in Xuzhou were wrapped in the quagmire of war, Tao Qian saved money and worked hard for seven years to bring about the stability and prosperity of Xuzhou, and the people of Xuzhou fell into boundless suffering and precarious darkness.

In September of this year, the vitality of Cao's army recovered, and Cao Cao wanted to fight Tancheng again, but suddenly received an urgent report from the direction of Changyi, but it was Chen Liutaishou Zhang Miao and Chen Gong who united some families in the county who opposed Cao Cao to rebel together, disrupting the situation in Yanzhou. Chen Liuxi is near Luoyang, which is the only place for Yanzhou to enter and exit the two capitals, and Cao Cao absolutely did not allow Chen Liujun to lose, so he hurriedly led his troops and horses back to Yanzhou to quell the rebellion.

Cao's army withdrew, and Xuzhou temporarily turned the corner. In mid-September, Lu Zhi, the former Jizhou Mu Lu Zhi, held the Xuzhou Mu Seal Letter issued by the imperial court, made a detour from Qingzhou to Xuzhou, and officially announced that he would take over Xuzhou.

After the news came out, the people of Xuzhou were all looking forward to it, and the people who were eager to see Lu Zhi's appearance filled the road, which became a beautiful talk later.

When Lu Zhi entered the territory of Langya, Xuzhou, Xiao Jian's forces had been solved by Zang Ba's subordinates, so Lu Zhi made a favor and appointed Zang Ba as the Langya Taishou, abolished the setting of Langya State, and changed from a country to a county. In order to show favor to Lu Zhi, Zang Ba sent a team of soldiers and horses to personally escort Lu Zhi until he sent Lu Zhi to the vicinity of Tancheng.

Tai Shici, who was injured in his right arm while defending Tancheng, was carefully treated by Hua Tuo, a divine doctor invited by Mi Zhu, and completely recovered his strength in his muscles and bones. By the time Lu Zhi arrived, Tai Shici could already lead the army out of the city to greet him.

Cao Cao, who had just returned to Changyi, was so angry that he didn't say anything for a long time when he learned that Lu was the lord of Xuzhou, and in the end, he only came out with the sentence "Liu Shiren is so ambitious!" (To be continued......)