At the beginning of February, the spring flowers bloomed, and seven or eight days had passed since Cao Cao's army occupied Wancheng.

Cao Cao's main force was on the west bank of the river north of Wancheng, and Cao Ren and Lejin were sent to attack Chaoyang, Huyang and other places to cut off Liu Biao's reinforcements.

Cao Ren did not rush to take revenge at the beginning, but sent a large number of cavalry to reconnoitre, and then inquired about the local situation.

After Zhang Xiu surrendered, he naturally knew everything and said everything, and deployed all the peripheral troops arranged by Liu Biao in the southernmost part of Nanyang.

Historically, of course, Liu Biao did not deploy troops in Nanyang, but there were not many troops on the front line, and they were basically concentrated in the west of Dabie Mountain.

That is, Biyang, Pingshi, and Wuyin in the northeast of Huyang, which are the areas of Tanghe County, Piyang County, and Sheqi County in later generations.

When Cao Cao conquered Nanyang for the second time, he broke through these places, and finally hit the forefront of the city arranged by Liu Biao's main army, Huyang County, and captured the defender Deng Ji.

In the rear of Huyang, there are three cities, Caiyang, Fancheng and Dengxian, which are the outer barriers of Xiangyang, and Liu Biao can be said to have set up heavy guards here.

Therefore, Cao Cao's three expeditions to Nanyang have not hit this area, and the farthest is to Huyang, and he is still afraid of Liu Biao's strength.

However, although it is impossible to directly attack Liu Biao's main force, it is still necessary to intercept the opponent's reinforcements halfway, so Cao Cao also discharged Cao Ren and Le Jin, ready to fight with Liu Biao.

This time, he came to Nanyang to solve his worries and dispose of Zhang Xiu. The second is to include Nanyang in his sphere of influence, so as to prevent Liu Biao from attacking his rear.

Therefore, he was ready to clash with Liu Biao from the beginning, otherwise, he would not have moved into the nest, and he also arranged heavy troops to respond to it in Runan.

After a few days of investigation, Cao Ren got the news that the current Huyang guard is a little-known person named Gan Ning, with about four or five thousand people under his command, and the Huangmen Pavilion where Deng Shen Er's family lives is located in the north of Huyang.

After learning about this, he rushed to Xinye non-stop.

After Zhang Xiu surrendered, almost all the county orders around Wancheng who were attached to Zhang Xiu surrendered to Cao Cao, only Deng Mao ran back to the clan and hid.

By 2 February, Cao Jun's scout cavalry had already appeared on the periphery of Huangmen Pavilion and Huyang to reconnoiter the terrain and directions.

Because Deng Mao took all the official documents, maps, and archives in the county with him when he ran, Cao Ren had to conduct on-the-spot reconnaissance, and ran outside with the scout cavalry several times to survey the terrain.

Early in the morning of the 4th, after Cao Ren returned from reconnoitering the enemy situation in the area of Tangzi Township in the southwest of Huyang, he immediately convened a meeting of several of his generals.

At this moment, several of his generals Cao Yong, Chun Yudao, Zhai Yuan and others gathered together.

In the Xinye County Ya Mansion, Cao Ren sat cross-legged under the porch, and he used several porcelain cups and bowls from the county government to place them on the wooden board, and when Cao Yong and they came over, they saw him holding his hands on his chest and bowing his head to think.

"Brother, what are you looking at?"

Cao Yong asked.

He is also a member of the Cao clan, but he belongs to the side branch and his status is not high, but when Cao Ren organized rangers in his hometown to cause trouble in the countryside, he joined and his qualifications are relatively old, so he is now the first general under Cao Ren and serves as a military commander.

When Cao Ren saw them coming, he said, "I'm thinking about how to attack Huyang, you guys come here." ”

The three of them approached.

Cao Ren pointed to a porcelain bowl and said, "This is Xinye." ”

He pointed to a porcelain cup in the south of Xinye: "This is Huyang." ”

Then he pointed to a porcelain pot on the east side of the two porcelains and said, "This is the Yellow Gate Pavilion." ”

The location of Huangmen Pavilion is interesting, it is directly east of Xinye County and directly north of Huyang County.

Therefore, if it is connected to the new no-koyo, it will become a triangular relationship.

Cao Ren continued: "I have asked the local people about the current situation of Huangmen Pavilion, they built a manor, and now they have moved the people of Xiangting to Huyang to hold on to the manor. ”

Cao Yong smiled: "It's just a small manor, does it take my brother's trouble?" I will take a thousand men and horses and bring this manor to the ground. ”

"You don't understand."

Cao Ren waved his hand and said: "I heard from the local people that the Huyang guard has a deep friendship with the Deng clan and often goes in and out of the Huangmen Pavilion, do you think it is easy to attack a village or a city?" ”

"What do you mean, brother?"

"I'll wait for a feint to attack Huangmen Pavilion in a big way, bring in Na Gan Ning to help, and ambush him halfway."

"This ......"

The generals looked at each other.

Chun Yudao said cautiously: "General, I'm afraid he won't come to help." ”

Cao Ren said with a smile: "It's better if you don't come to help, then first break the Huangmen Pavilion to avenge the original ear cut, and then go south to attack Huyang City." ”

"Well, that's true."

"It's still my brother who thinks it through."

"That's it."

A few people thought about it, as if this was the truth, and nodded in approval.

In fact, at the beginning, Cao Ren also considered that Huangmen Pavilion was just a township pavilion, and there was no need to go to great lengths to go all out, as long as a small force was sent.

But when I learned about the relationship between Gan Ning and Deng Hong, and learned that Gan Ning often went to Huangmen Pavilion to have fun, I had another idea.

That is, in the name of revenge, he took the initiative to attack Huangmenting, but in fact, he ambushed Ganning's army halfway.

If Gan Ning comes, it's best if he doesn't, it doesn't matter, anyway, the Huangmen Pavilion itself is going to be destroyed.

Therefore, after making an attack plan, he sent Cao Yong as the vanguard, led 2,000 troops, pretended to be 5,000 men and horses, and marched out of the city in the direction of Huangmen Pavilion.

Cao Ren himself personally led 3,000 men and horses to the left bank of Bishui, preparing to ambush Huyang on the way to rescue Huangmen Pavilion.

At the same time, he wrote another letter and sent someone to shoot into the Huangmenting Manor, which probably meant that he had a personal enmity with Shen Chen, and if Huangmenting handed over Shen Chen, he could avoid the war.

At three o'clock in the morning, Shen Chen received this letter.

"Huh."

At this time, in a cave in the mountain behind the Huangmen Pavilion, the clan elders gathered together.

There were the Deng brothers and the two clan elders of the Shen clan, as well as Deng Zhao, Shen Zhen and others, looking at the letter that shot into the manor, Shen Chen sneered: "This is a plan of the weak enemy, hand me over, they will not let go of the entire clan." ”

Compared with Deng Hong, people like Deng Zhao who have fought are more bloody, and roared angrily: "Cao Ren has a blood feud with our old man in Huangmenting Township, and today we will let him die here!" ”

"Okay, three years of operation, right today."

"Ah Chen, you say, what we should do, listen to you."

"This battle requires his Cao family to pay a price, not only for the gathering of hundreds of relatives in Jinyang, but also for the hundreds of thousands of people in Xuzhou."

Everyone had a common enmity with Cao Ren, and they shouted one after another.

Shen Chen actually didn't know where Cao Ren came from to claim to have a grudge against him, just because he didn't have an ear?

What about the lives of hundreds of Deng Shen relatives gathered in Huangmen Pavilion and Zhangyang?

What about the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Xuzhou?

Perhaps in the eyes of these big families, the lives of the people at the bottom are not as important as his ears.

But Shen Chen is going to tell him today, you Cao Ren, are nothing.

Seeing that the elders of the clan were full of righteous indignation, he immediately said: "Uncles, rest assured, I have a certain victory in this battle. Act according to the plan first, uncle, lead people to the manor tower first, and then retreat to the back mountain when the situation is not good. ”

"Okay."

Deng Zhao nodded, he was the cousin of Shen Chen's mother, the Deng family, so Shen Chen wanted to call him uncle.

Shen Chen said to his father Shen Zhen again: "Father, you lead someone to pick up your uncle, and after he withdraws, you will immediately enter the cave and defend it with a cage." ”

"yes, I see."

Shen Zhen nodded, he had also been a soldier before and knew what to do.

Shen Chen looked at everyone again: "Uncles, this battle is a matter of life and death in Huangmen Pavilion, and I hope you must be calm, just don't go out in the basement." When Uncle Xingba's army arrives, Cao Ren will die without a place to be buried! ”

"Okay."

The people did what they were told.

At that moment, everyone began to perform their duties, and Deng Zhao came to the main gate of the manor with five hundred people, where a certain number of bows and arrows were stored for temporary resistance.

After all, the manor of Huangmen Pavilion is not a city wall, there are only some wooden platforms inside, and there is an arrow tower at the four corners of the east, west, north and south.

About an hour later, at three o'clock in the afternoon, on the western horizon, I saw the arrival of Cao's army.

Outside the manor are fields and countless rural farmers, there were once more than 20,000 people at the peak, just like a town, and there was even a street to the west of the manor as a bustling market.

But now that it was empty, Cao Jun followed the post road all the way to the market, and all the soldiers, under the leadership of officers of all ranks, began to occupy the main roads in good training.

They occupied all the markets outside, and then Cao Yong personally led the team to the outside of the manor and shouted inside: "The general has an order, hand over Shen Chen, surrender and avoid death!" ”

"Whew!"

He was greeted by an arrow.

Cao Yong drew his knife and sneered: "Kill yourself, attack!" ”

At the sound of an order, a thousand people behind him slowly walked out of the market, surging towards the manor like a surging tide.

At the same time, in the north and northwest corners of the manor, other Cao soldiers attacked the manor separately.

The reason for this is that the manor design of Huangmen Pavilion is very particular, with the Shahe River in the south and the back mountain in the east, and there are only two places that can be attacked, that is, the west and north of the manor.

There were many structures like this in the Han Dynasty, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. There are even frenzied ones, such as Xiangyang City, which is completely built on the water, and the Han River protects all sides of the city, and it is necessary to rely on ships to get out of the city.

It's just that Huangmen Pavilion is not a city after all, even if it is an ordinary county city wall, it is generally more than two zhang, that is, four meters. Like Chang'an and Luoyang, they are more than five or six zhang, while Huangmenting Manor only has one zhang and four, which is 3.2 meters.

Not to mention an ordinary ladder, even a well-trained soldier can go up with the help of two people to help build a ladder. Therefore, it is almost impossible to defend against the Cao soldiers who are pouring in from all directions.

"Arrows, arrows, arrows!"

Deng Zhao stood on the built-in platform and kept waving the ring-head knife in his hand.

Although the soldiers trained all day and experienced fighting with the Yellow Turban Army, they were still slightly behind the elite soldiers like Cao Jun, and they were all very nervous, and the speed and accuracy of archery were much worse.

Fortunately, there are still some veterans in it, and when the soldiers were recruited, they were mainly young and strong and veterans who had been on the battlefield, and these veterans had excellent psychological qualities and killed and injured many enemies.

Clusters of arrows rained down, and many of the soldiers at the front of Cao Junchong fell to the ground. But these soldiers were not afraid of death, and braved the rain of arrows to carry the ladders all the way, and soon several ladders had reached the outside of the manor.

When the manor was originally designed, it was planned to dig a trench to divert the water of the Shahe River in the periphery, because the Shahe River itself flows from north to south, and flows from Bishui to Shuishui, which is a tributary between the Tang River and Baishui in later generations, and it is convenient to dig a moat.

But later Shen Chen overturned this idea, believing that there was little point in holding the manor, and that it would be easy for the enemy to break through the manor and enter it in a large-scale war. It is better to have a wider moat and a deeper water, but the flow of the Shahe River is very small, and the average water depth is between half a meter and one meter, which cannot bear the task of a moat at all.

So without a moat to block it, Cao Jun easily killed under the manor.

Deng Zhao swung his knife to slash and kill, and at this moment, someone came to report: "Chief, the north of the manor has been broken through." ”

"Where are they?"

"It's already coming this way."

"So fast? Retreat, retreat to the back mountain! ”

Knowing that the other party had broken through the north gate of the manor, Deng Zhao didn't care about anything else and immediately ordered a retreat.

The soldiers immediately breathed a sigh of relief, jumped off the platform one by one, took their weapons and equipment, and ran in the direction of the back mountain.

By the time Cao Yong came in, the manor was already empty.

"What about people?"

He was puzzled, and when he looked around, there was no one.

Since the back mountain is the forbidden land of the Huangmen Pavilion, non-people are not allowed to enter, so even the villagers who joined the Huangmen Pavilion later did not know what was in the back mountain, only that they were not allowed to go there, so Cao Ren did not know that Shen Chen's real defense point was in the back mountain.

A soldier came to report: "Sima, they are running to the mountains over there." ”

He pointed to the mountain path behind the manor.

Cao Yong raised his head and saw that there were several small hills standing on the east side of the manor, the mountains did not look high, the high ones were only forty or fifty zhang, and the short ones were only twenty or thirty zhang, and the only thing that was a little strange was that there seemed to be a lot of rammed earth towers hanging on the top of the mountain.

"Strange, what's that!"

A low-level officer with a pergola in his hand also saw the towers.

Cao Yong said: "No matter what it is, let's take it down first, the general said, I want to level the entire Huangmen Pavilion." ”

"Yui."

Many officers expressed their understanding, and under Cao Yong's order, they began to assemble troops and march towards the back mountain.

And at this moment, Shen Chen was standing on the top of a cage.

There was a wide field of vision, and although there were no telescopes, he could already see dense black dots in the distance surging towards the back mountain.

The exterior and interior of the Qionglong resemble a stupa, but the difference from the stupa is that there is a door underneath the stupa, while the outside of the Qionglong is sealed and can only be accessed through a tunnel.

In the later generations of the Qionglong site in Gansu, people found that this thing can not only resist the enemy, but also live.

At the bottom, you can even raise livestock, and then use livestock manure to grow grains, in the Qing army's attack on Jinchuan, Qionglong made the Qing Dynasty suffer, and it was not captured for several years.

Therefore, Cao Yong would never have thought that if he continued to attack in the direction of the back mountain, he would encounter anything.