Wait until dawn. The other three people couldn't help but be very shocked when they heard that Xiahou Yuan's troops were attacked at dawn and suffered heavy losses. They originally thought that Xuzhou Tao Qian was cowering in Xiapi City and did not dare to move because he was afraid of the four-way coalition army, but now it seems that it is really not so simple.

Since the defenders in the city dared to launch an offensive against Xiahou Yuan, it was enough to prove that the morale of Xiapi's army had hardly been greatly affected, and if it continued to be so empty, no one knew when the next Xuzhou soldiers would attack.

After conspiracy, the commanders of the four leading troops unanimously decided to launch an offensive from now on, and no longer delay until everything was ready to take Pi, although the casualties may increase, but it is better than being attacked by the Xuzhou army at night in three days and eaten up.

Since the time had reached the middle of June, which was unbearable, the time for the siege of the coalition forces outside the city was brought forward to the time of dawn, and this arrangement was quite unexpected for the defenders in the city. Because the troops participating in the battle and feint attack at dawn are now the time when the men are sleepy and tired, and the soldiers are sleeping soundly while the temperature has not yet risen, and at this time they get up in a hurry to fight, and their combat strength must be reduced.

Despite the loss of thousands of infantry, Xiahou Yuan did not show a look of pain and jealousy on his face, he just summoned his generals with a heavy face, and held a secret meeting before launching an attack, as for the content of the meeting, it was how to break through the city gate as quickly as possible, and kill the head of Tao Qian's old thief in Xiapi City.

This time, Xiahou Yuan was really angry, so he was ready to fight an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and use the gunpowder he carried with him to blow up the west gate of Xiapi City, so that the Xuzhou soldiers could also taste the taste of gunpowder.

Having learned the lesson of Yuan Shaojun's self-detonation of gunpowder under Linzi City last time, and secretly receiving the use of gunpowder sent by Zhang Fei, Xiahou Yuan had a clear idea of how to correctly use gunpowder in the siege battle. How could Xiahou Yuan know the correct way to use gunpowder? This has to start with his niece and son-in-law Zhang Fei, whom he recognized last year.

Last year, Zhang Fei married a wife from the Xiahou family, but at first he did not know that this daughter was Xiahou Yuan's niece, but later someone from Xiahou's hometown came to defect, and only then did he learn that this daughter was actually a niece who had been separated from Xiahou Yuan for many years (Note 1). Subsequently, Xiahou got in touch with Xiahou Yuan. When Xiahou Yuan learned that his niece was married to Zhang Fei, the general of the Northern Army, he was overjoyed, so he prepared a rich gift and appointed his eldest son Xiahou Heng to recognize his relatives. After coming and going, Zhang Fei had a personal friendship with Xiahou Yuan, and Cao Cao and Liu Bei had to face Zhao Xing, so they secretly taught Xiahou Yuan the correct use of gunpowder.

Xiahou Yuan's plan was to send hundreds of agile soldiers, each of whom tied a few catties of gunpowder sealed with tarpaulin, covered with clothes, mixed with the siege soldiers, approached the city under the city, drilled into the city gate through the ladder on the moat, and then put down the gunpowder on his body and joined the siege battle. Although the speed of transporting gunpowder through this way of ant moving is slower, it is not easy for the defenders of the city to find out, and once it has accumulated enough amounts, it can blow up the Xiapixi City Gate in one fell swoop. Once the city gate collapses, the defenders in the city will inevitably flee in panic, and the Xiahou army can take advantage of the victory to pursue and take the city of Pi first.

Just when the coalition forces were about to start, an army of tens of thousands of people had crossed the sea from the north a few days earlier, first boarded the forward base of Yuzhou Mountain to rest for a while, and then crossed the Quyu Strait at the fastest speed, and rushed straight down Picheng from the direction of Quxian County. This force wiped out several remaining troops along the road with a thunderous force, and finally arrived at Liangcheng, 30 miles east of Xiapi, in the evening of yesterday.

The commander who led this army across the sea was named Zhao Yun, and the accompanying generals were Zhang Liao and Lu Bu. Didn't Zhao Yun preside over the overall situation on the Jizhou battlefield? Didn't Zhang Liao confront Zhu Jun in Jizhou? Didn't Lu Bu guard against Gongsun Du in Youbeiping? Why did they all come to the Xuzhou battlefield like a swarm? By the way, why didn't Tai Shici, the commander of the naval division, see anyone?

The same question has already been asked by the surprised Mi Zhu on Yuzhou Mountain Island. Coach Zhao Yun's explanation is: Now that the frontal battlefield in Jizhou has turned into the defensive stage, there are 60,000 infantry of the Xiongwu Army and the Black Mountain Army to garrison it, and the Xiong Zhen Army secretly went north to replace the Flying Tiger Army, and the Flying Tiger Army rushed to Quanzhou Naval Division City, and went directly south to Yuzhou Mountain after boarding the ship. Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao followed the dragoon army down the Zhangshui River, boarded a ship at the mouth of Bohai County and headed south, and after joining the forces of Tai Shici and Lü Bu on the way, they split in two. Half of it was temporarily assigned to Tai Shici for mobilization, and he landed directly in Le'an, Qingzhou, and went straight to the camp of Yuan Shaozhong's army, and carried out a beheading operation to relieve the siege of Linzi; the other half of the men and horses merged with the Flying Tiger Army and rushed to the East China Sea in Xuzhou to rescue Tao Qian.

That is to say, this time Zhao Xing ordered 30,000 Jin Navy Divisions, 20,000 Flying Tiger Army, and 30,000 Dragoon Army to go south from different landing sites one after another, and then split into two roads above the sea off Donglai County, all the way to rescue Qingzhou and all the way to Xuzhou. Such a large-scale maritime troop transportation operation is really unheard of, and it is tantamount to a thorough examination for the nascent Jin State Naval Division. However, looking at the current situation, Tai Shici, the admiral, can score at least 90 points or more, and as for the remaining 10 points, he can get them after he leads the army to kill Yuan Shao.

In fact, within a few days of Mi Zhu leading his people to land on Yuzhou Island, more than 30,000 troops led by Zhao Yun personally arrived in the East China Sea. If the time is calculated accurately, it was arrived a few days ago when Chen Deng and Tao Qian were plotting to counterattack the coalition forces outside the city. From this point of view, the saying "those who help themselves will be helped by heaven" is not false at all, if it weren't for Chen Deng, who first relied on themselves to delay the siege time of the four-way coalition army, and won three precious days for Zhao Yun, who needed to rest, I am afraid that even if Zhao Yun led the army to arrive, Xiapi City would have already been blown up by Xiahou Yuan's secret army.

The Dragoons were infantry cavalry, and the Flying Tigers were ace cavalry, and these two troops came across the sea, not only most of the landlubber soldiers were shaken at sea, but even the horses they rode were unstable on all fours, and they all lay down in the bilge foaming at the mouth and became weak.

After landing on Yuzhou Island, Zhao Yun immediately ordered the accompanying military doctors and veterinarians to conduct conditioning examinations on the soldiers and war horses respectively, and picked out the soldiers and war horses who were particularly seasick and weakened, and the people on the island took care of them alone. After three days of cultivation and adaptation, the Shadow Squad members who were dispatched in advance had already delivered the news that the first counterattack of the Xiapi defenders had been successful. After a little analysis, Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao realized that Chen Deng must have sensed the danger, so they launched a counterattack, so they immediately led the army across the sea and rushed to Xiapi to help in the starry night.

When the army marched to the area of Houqiu, Zhao Yun received a secret report from the shadows that Yuan Shao's other army, Yan Liang's 20,000 troops, was galloping from the direction of Licheng in the East China Sea to help Xia Pi Wenchou. So Zhao Yun ordered Zhang Liao to lead 15,000 men to turn north and face Yan Liang head-on, while he and Lu Bu continued to rush west with 20,000 Flying Tiger troops.

What would be the result of Zhang Liao's 15,000 dragoons against the 20,000 troops under Yan Liang's command? What kind of results would the Flying Tiger Army, which was still 30 miles away from Xiapi City, create under the leadership of Zhao Yun and Lu Bu?

Note 1: In the ninth "Biography of Xiahou Cao" in the Ninth Book of the Three Kingdoms, Chen Shou recorded "Yuan's wife, Taizu's inner sister." "At the end of the article, Pei noted that Xiahou Yuan's son Xiahou Ba had a great deal [Wei Luo said: In the fifth year of Jian'an, Shi Ba was thirteen or fourteen years from his sister, and in this county, he traveled to Qiaocai, which was obtained by Zhang Fei. Fei knew that he was a daughter of his conscience, so he thought that he was a wife, a daughter who gave birth, and was the queen of Liu Chan. At the beginning of the abyss, he died, and his flying wife invited him to be buried. 】