At this time, Cao Cao has experienced a hundred battles, and his personal military talent has entered the peak, and he is no longer the stunned young man who was beaten by Xu Rong to lose his armor when he crusaded against Dong Zhuo. Unless, like Zhou Yu, he was taken by surprise with a very well-thought-out and almost completely impeccable strategy, it would not be easy to inflict heavy damage on Cao Jun.

What annoyed Yuan Xi was that he risked his life to come to support Yecheng, but as a result, he and the trial partner fought hard in front, and the third brother Yuan Shang actually missed the appointment. In the final analysis, although Yecheng is nominally Yuan's, it is actually Yuan Shang's personal - your own territory, you don't contribute yourself, and you want to rely on me to defend it for you, isn't this a lack of heart!

"Cowardice, garbage!" After dawn, Yuan Xi counted the fallen soldiers and learned that 2,000 people had been killed in battle, and scolded bitterly.

He is no richer than Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan, and the land of Youzhou is barren and secluded, even if Yuan Xi has worked hard here for five years, all the soldiers and horses available for him to mobilize are less than 20,000.

So where did Yuan Shang go?

- Hiding in the mountains.

There is a mountain to the west of Yecheng, which the locals call West Mountain, and when you climb this mountain, you can have an unobstructed view of the situation below the mountain. Due to Yuan Shang's large number of soldiers and horses, when the two armies fought last night, Cao Cao's subordinates found that there were also torches on the mountain over there, and hurriedly reported to Cao Cao. After hearing this, Cao Cao analyzed: "This must be Yuan Shang's army, and the strategy he formulated before the war with the trial and others must be to attack our army's camp in the east, west, and north directions at the same time, so that our army will not be able to take care of the head and tail." ”

"Then do you want to leave a garrison in the camp west of the city to prevent Yuan Shang from raiding?"

"No, all the troops in the west of the city will be transferred to the north of the city, and I will meet the trial!"

"Then if Yuan Shang leads his troops to rush down from the mountain......"

"Don't worry, he won't come, this person is cowardly and incompetent, and mean and unkind, he can't even tolerate his biological eldest brother, how can he not be jealous of Yuan Xi, whose ability is far better than Yuan Tan."

Sure enough, until Yuan Xi and the trial were defeated and retreated, Yuan Shang's tens of thousands of troops did not descend a single step. A few days later, Cao Cao mobilized 50,000 men to surround the mountain and prepare to attack Yuan Shang, who was so frightened that he led his army to abandon the mountain and flee. Soon after descending the mountain, Yuan Shang's army was overtaken by Cao's army and surrounded by the banks of Zhangshui.

"I surrendered, I surrendered!" Yuan Shang saw the turbulent Zhangshui in front of him, and the murderous Cao army behind him, who was pressing step by step, couldn't suppress his fear, and said with a crying voice: "Who will go to see Cao Cao for me, if this general leads all the soldiers of Jizhou to surrender to him, can he be canonized as the Marquis of Wanhu?" ”

His subordinates went to Cao Jun and told Yuan Shang's original words, Cao Cao laughed after hearing this: "Yuan Shang's children are dying, and he still wants to do what he wants to do, you go back and tell him, if you want to fight, you will fight, and if you want to surrender, Jizhou is already in my bag, and if you can spare him a dog's life, even if Cao is extraordinarily gracious." ”

His subordinates reported back to Yuan Shang, but Yuan Shang was at a loss after hearing this, so he had to order his subordinates to cut off Ma Ting and Zhang Kai, and he abandoned all the general's seals, runes and other things, and continued to flee north with a few followers. After Ma Ting, Zhang Kai and Cao Jun encountered, they surrendered without a fight, and asked themselves to be their guides to assist Cao Jun in pursuing Yuan Shang.

Cao Cao asked the two generals: "By the way, what about Yuan Xi's army, why did this person never appear again after the battle of Yecheng?" ”

"Just yesterday, there was news in Youzhou that Yuan Xi's generals Jiao Touch and Zhang Nan heard that Yuan's army had suffered a defeat in Yecheng, and they felt that Yuan's general trend had gone and their demise was imminent, so they launched a coup d'état and were attacking Jicheng. Yuan Xi heard that there was a fire in the backyard and withdrew his troops back to Youzhou overnight. ”

"Hahaha." Cao Cao looked up to the sky and laughed: "God really help me, our army went north this time, originally only wanted to take Jizhou, but now it seems that it is expected to take the entire Hebei in one fell swoop." Yuan Shang is already a lost dog, don't chase it first, you will follow me to meet Yuan Tan...... Cao Hong, you take the first step and send Yuan Tan's daughter back to him. ”

Before the Battle of Yecheng, Yuan Tan sent his daughter to Cao Cao's army to show his sincerity in forming an alliance with Cao Cao, wanting to marry Cao Cao as his sons and daughters. Now seeing that his daughter was suddenly returned by Cao Cao for no reason, Yuan Tan knew that something was wrong, and ran wildly with his subordinates overnight, wanting to flee to Wuhuan outside the Saiwai, but encountered Cao Jun on the way, Yuan Tan was defeated, and then was caught up by Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry, and cut off his head with a knife.

Hearing that Yuan Shang's whereabouts are unknown, Yuan Tan is dead, and Yuan Xi has returned to Youzhou, the Yuan army stationed in Jizhou and Qingzhou then collectively gave up resistance, and the assassin Shi Gaogan, the leader of the Montenegrin army, Zhang Yan and others also sent letters of surrender, hoping to serve Cao Cao. Cao Cao took advantage of this bloodless soldier to subdue almost the entire Hebei in one fell swoop, and was finally able to gather the main force, re-encircle Yecheng, and continue to fight with the trial.

Soon after, because of the betrayal of his nephew Zhenrong, Yecheng was broken by Cao Cao, and the trial was captured, and Cao Cao finally took the Yecheng he wanted to get. He immediately sent people to surround the mansion of the general of Yecheng with heavy troops, and only waited for him to deal with a series of large and small matters such as surrender, and then came to pick up the spoils. However, Cao Cao did a lot of calculations, but he still didn't count that someone was ahead of him, and when Cao Cao beheaded the match, he would meet a group of Yecheng officials who surrendered to him, and then when he went to the general's mansion, there was only one old lady left in the mansion - Yuan Shao's wife Liu.

"Where's your daughter-in-law?" Cao Cao asked angrily.

"Snatched by your son." Liu explained with tears in his eyes.

Cao Cao raised his forehead: I broke this city for this woman, and I don't want to prevent thieves day and night! Fortunately, although Zhen Ji is lost, there are still two Qiao. He had no choice but to push the boat down the river and officially give Zhen Mi to Cao Pi. At that time, Yecheng was the world's premier super metropolis (Luoyang and Chang'an were seriously damaged by the war and needed to spend a long time to repair, while Xudu was too small in size, only Yecheng was not only rich, but also because of the long-term siege of Cao's army in this war, it was still basically intact after the war), Cao Cao admired its magnificence and prosperity, and he didn't want to leave when he came, so he went to the table and asked to resign from Yanzhou and reappointed as Jizhou Mu, and since then Cao's up and down have settled in Yecheng.

At the same time that Cao Cao and Cao Pi's father and son were happily moving to marry a wife, promoted to become a wealthy official, Yuan Xi, who had returned from rescuing Yecheng in vain, was fighting to the death with the Youzhou rebels led by Jiao Touch and Zhang Nan. Fortunately, he knew that these two people would rebel, before leaving Youzhou, not only only brought only half of the army, but also repeatedly told the defenders to be careful to beware of these two people, Jiao Touch, Zhang Nan siege the city for half a month, until Yuan Xi returned to Youzhou, failed to capture Jicheng, after that, the two and Yuan Xi lined up to fight again, but still failed to win, so they had to take their subordinates to Yecheng to join Cao Cao.

Cao Cao saw Jiao Touch and Zhang Nan coming to surrender, personally summoned him, and asked the second general: "In the coming year, this prince wants to personally conquer Youzhou and completely relieve the trouble of the Yuan family. ”

Jiao Touch and Zhang Nan knelt down and bowed: "Although Yuan Xi's talent is slightly stronger than Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan, with the prestige of Ming Gong and the courage of Cao Jun, wherever he goes, there is no danger." But ......"

"But what?"

However, the last generals believed that Yuan Xi would not resist, but fled in advance, and went to the northeast from Youzhou, not only the two major Hu tribes of Wuhuan and Xianbei, whose strength should not be underestimated, but also Gongsun Kang, who had been separating Liaodong for a long time and had no less than 100,000 troops. These forces were afraid of the Yuan clan's strength before, and they all obeyed the Yuan clan's orders, but they were afraid that after the remnants of the Yuan clan gave up Youzhou, they would flee to them to seek refuge, and it would be difficult to eradicate them at that time! ”

"Hmm!" Cao Cao stroked his long beard with his hand, nodded and said: "This duke thinks the same, in fact, even if the Wuhuan and Xianbei people are fierce and good at riding and shooting, our army is a division of victory, and the fierce generals are like clouds, so there is no need to fear them at all." It's just that if our army doesn't have a guide who is familiar with the terrain outside the Saiwai, it will not be able to find the location of the nomadic tribes of Wuhuan and Xianbei. The two of you immediately return to Youzhou, search for the local soldiers and civilians, and be sure to find a person who is familiar with the terrain outside the Seychelles for your father before the spring of the next year. ”

"Yes."