Since Yuan Shao and Cao Cao made a move against Qingzhou, Yuan Shu of Yangzhou and Liu Yan of Yuzhou, who were close to Xuzhou, also began to sit still.

Qingzhou and Xuzhou were also the territories of the Han Dynasty, so why did the imperial court sit idly by and watch the forces of other states divide them? It was only because Qingzhou Kong Rong and Xuzhou Tao Qian were too close to Zhao Xing.

A friend of an enemy is his enemy, and an enemy of an enemy is his friend. Although the Han Dynasty still nominally served as the central core and governed the empire, people of insight such as Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang also clearly saw the status quo of the division of the princes.

For the Central Dynasty, the biggest threat currently comes from Zhao Xing in the north, and although the princes of the other states are not good men and women, they at least maintain nominal respect and obedience, and will pay a certain amount of taxes on time every year. Just like not long ago, although Yuan Shao entered Qingzhou, he still returned the remaining two counties of Jizhou to the imperial court, instead of giving it to Zhao Xing.

In the face of the increasingly powerful Jin Kingdom Group (including the Jin Kingdom, Youzhou, and Liang Kingdom), instead of keeping Qingxu Erzhou and secretly providing Zhao Xing with money and grain income, it is better to let Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Yuan Shu and Liu Yan and other forces divide it up together. If it weren't for the fact that there were several states between the Sili region and the land of Qingxu, even Liu Bei would want to step in and get a piece of territory for himself.

When a tiger chases its prey, he will look very dashing and calm. But when the tiger notices that there are suddenly more leopards, hyenas and lions joining the chase team, they will desperately hunt their prey first. Today's Yuan Shao and Cao Cao have this mentality.

Qingzhou has basically been carved up by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, in addition to Linzi, where Wu'an is stationed, is a hard bone, there is also a well-defended fortress in each of Le'an and Buqi counties, which is difficult to take for a while. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao had already learned that these two fortresses were bought by the Jin State Navy Division from the government last year, and they were defended by the Jin State's army, so they did not dare to take them for the time being.

Soon after the occupation of Qingzhou by the combined forces of Yuan and Cao, Yuan Shu and Liu Yan also unceremoniously launched an offensive against their neighbor Tao Qian, and Yuan Shao and Cao Cao were like tigers and lions whose prey had been robbed, and immediately rushed into Xuzhou with their teeth and claws.

The four forces attacking Xuzhou tacitly chose a suitable part of the mouth and tried their best to avoid friction and conflict between them. Yuan Shao's army started from Qianqian with the goal of taking the northeastern part of Langya and then seizing the property of the Mi family in the East China Sea; Cao Cao's army set out from Linting in Taishan County to seize the southwestern part of Langya and then continued south to attack the western part of Donghai County; Yuan Shu's army set out from Zhongli in Jiujiang and Jiangcheng in Danyang by two routes, all the way to capture Xiapi and all the way to Guangling County; Liu Yanjun set out from Peiguo and aimed directly at the two counties of Xiapi and Pengcheng.

In this way, the territory of Xuzhou has a total of five counties (countries), Yuan Shao is divided into several counties in the northeast of Xuzhou, and Cao Cao is divided into two counties in the northwest of Xuzhou that only half of them remain, and there is also a county together, Yuan Shu occupies the southeast of Xuzhou, and Liu Yan naturally took the southwest of Xuzhou. Generally speaking, because Yuan Shu grabbed the first move and had the geographical advantage, he grabbed the largest territory.

When the four hungry beasts finally tore off most of the fat on their prey, they couldn't even care about the dirty blood on their lips, so they invariably aimed their greedy eyes at Xuzhou's heart, Xiapi.

Xiapi City was the seat of Xuzhou, and Tao Qian and his civil and military staff handled official affairs in this city. When Yuan Shao and Cao Cao made a move on Kong Rong at the same time, Tao Qian hurriedly asked Zhao Xing for help, but Zhao Xing's reply to him made him a little disappointed. Zhao Xing said in the letter: "Stick to Xiapi, and the heavenly soldiers will fall!"

Disappointment is disappointment, but it is better than despair. Even if Zhao Xing didn't suggest that Tao Qian stick to Xiapi, he would do so. After all, Tao Qian also had 20,000 available soldiers under his command, and 10,000 of them were brought back from the Jin Kingdom by Cao Bao and Chen Deng. At that time, Cao Bao led 10,000 troops from Gaotang in Qingzhou to the south, and when he arrived in Xiapi, Tao Qian almost didn't recognize that the general who led the team was actually Cao Bao, and thought that the army of the Jin State was coming.

Why did Tao Qian almost fail to recognize his old subordinates? It was only because Cao Bao and the 10,000 troops he led had really changed from when they went north two years ago, and even Tao Qian, an old scholar who had never led a soldier, could clearly feel the murderous aura of the 10,000 soldiers behind Cao Bao from the inside out.

With the 10,000 elite soldiers brought back by Cao Bao, as well as all kinds of city-defending equipment that Zhao Xing specially supported Xuzhou, as well as some kind of terrifying weapons that could not be easily revealed, Tao Qian's confidence in sticking to Xiapi was still relatively sufficient. Especially when he heard the news that Yuan Shao's generals Yan Liang and Wen Chou were deflated one after another under Linzi City, he was even more confident in defending Xiapi.

Xiapi City and Linzi City, have been through the Jin Dynasty land engineering master under the guidance of the original, specially renovated and repaired, although not like Linzi City built on all sides of the Acropolis, but Xiapi City also has its own characteristics.

It may be that the civil craftsmen sent by Zhao Xing were "poisoned" by the original design ideas of Crouching Tiger City, so they helped Tao Qian design Xiapi City to absorb the functional characteristics of Crouching Tiger City without any scruples, that is, the city wall is scary high, and the moat is wide enough to be used for boats. With these two characteristics alone, Xiapi City has become the first Xiongcheng in Xuzhou, even if Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, Yuan Shu and Liu Yan have more than 100,000 troops in the four-way alliance, they will not be able to help Tao Qian for a while.

Although Xiapi City was repaired by Tao Qian to be strong and abnormal, easy to defend and difficult to attack, there is also an unavoidable problem, that is, logistics supply. As a prosperous state-governed city, there are more than 500,000 people living in Xiapi City, these people need to eat every day, once the food reserves in the city are used up, there is no need for the coalition forces outside the city to attack, but I am afraid that the people in the city will also rise up and rebel, and directly overturn Tao Qian to the ground.

It seems that several coalition forces outside the city have seen the characteristics of Xiapi City that are easy to attack and difficult to defend, so once again, everyone coincidentally left only part of the troops outside the city, wanting to trap Tao Qian and the defenders in the city alive. As for the main force of the coalition army, it marched hand in hand to Donghai County, the last rich land in Xuzhou. It is said that since the Mi family in the East China Sea married their daughter to Zhao Xing, they have made a lot of money over the years, and they are simply rich enough to rival the country, this time, I am afraid that it will be difficult to escape......