By October 29, after midafternoon, Shen Chen had already gone south and joined Liu Bei Guan Yu in Zhile Township.

At this time, Cao Jun did not take the initiative to attack when the two were marching.

Because Cao's army is too small.

The number of elites is only three or four thousand, and the remaining seven or eight thousand are second- and third-line troops, and even some are auxiliary soldiers who are temporarily transferred, both old and weak.

So even when Liu Bei and Guan Yu were on the march and looked quite weak, they didn't dare to attack.

The most important thing is that Yingchuan is a smooth road, due to Cao Cao's relocation and development, so that the surrounding areas of Xudu are fields and rivers, and there are very few forests, and there is no way to ambush them, and there are very few bows and arrows, so they naturally cannot be attacked.

So the armies of the three parties smoothly converged in this way, and because the second-line troops defending the city in the rear were also mobilized, their men and horses seemed to be quite strong at this moment, close to 20,000 troops, and swept through Xudu.

Zhile Township is located in the east of Xudu City, less than ten miles away from the city, on October 29, three people were stationed here, and everyone held a small meeting in the evening to discuss how the next road should go.

In the camp tent, Shen Chen pointed to Yutu and said: "Everyone, today's scouts have just received the news that Cao Cao has let go of the prisoners of the Yuan army and personally went south, with his footsteps, he will be able to return to Xudu before tomorrow, so at least tomorrow we must evacuate, but before evacuation, we must not let Cao Cao have a good time." ”

Liu Bei suddenly thought about it: "Little sir, I sent someone into the city to contact Wen Jugong before, and he told me that the city is extremely empty now, and if we attack the city, it is very likely that Cao Cao's grain and grass will be burned and the Son of Heaven will be taken away, so Cao Cao will not be bound to perish?" ”

"yes."

Mi Zhu was also surprised: "Yuan Shao has been greatly injured, we will immediately withdraw to Nanyang after we get the Son of Heaven, and after Cao Cao is destroyed by himself, we will send troops north to sweep Yingchuan and recover the entire Henan." ”

Shen Chen smiled bitterly and said, "Xuande Gong, you have also dealt with Cao Cao for so many years, you don't know who he is." There are still so many tuntian households around Xudu, and if he burns his grain and grass, he dares to rob all the grain and grass of the tuntian households, and no matter how bad it is, he can still eat human breasts."

Hearing this, everyone's faces changed, and Liu Bei's face was actually not good-looking, because he remembered the most unbearable past at the beginning.

Cao Cao eats human flesh, but he was also distressed at the beginning, and his soldiers once ate the corpses of starving people, although they did not eat living people, but dead corpses, but let the soldiers eat human flesh itself is a morally corrupt thing, so this is the biggest regret and guilt in his heart.

Now that I think about it, with Cao Cao's temperament, he really did it, and it was the people of Yingchuan who would suffer when the time came.

"Alas, Cao Cao's brutality, I also know it very well."

Liu Bei sighed.

Shen Chen said: "Not only that, but the Yingchuan family must also have surplus grain, if we welcome the Son of Heaven, plus the ministers and officials, it is inconvenient to move, Cao Cao has replenished grain and grass in Xudu, and we will inevitably pursue, I am afraid that if we can't run to Xiangcheng, we will be caught up by him." ”

"I see, Mr. Xiao is right, so what are we going to do now?"

Liu Bei asked.

Shen Chen said: "Even if you want to evacuate, you can't let Cao Cao pursue, so I plan to burn Xu Du!" However, I must not implicate the innocent people of Xudu, Xuande Gong, and please evacuate the residents of Dongcheng when I attack the city, and give them a certain amount of grain, grass and coins as compensation. ”

"Oh?"

Liu Bei was surprised: "Mr. Xiao is really righteous." ”

Shen Chen smiled bitterly: "It's just a helpless move, fortunately, we have a lot of grain and grass, and we have gained a lot in recent days, and we have robbed a lot of the assets of the Yingchuan family, so there is no shortage of money." ”

Now Shen Chen has hit the northwest region of Yingchuan, and almost half of Yingchuan has been captured by him, Xiangcheng, Yingyang, Yangzhai, Dingling, Qiaoqiang, Zhaoling and so on.

They are innocent of the people, and they will not be soft on the Yingchuan clans who support Cao Cao, and they have plundered many local families.

There is not much grain and grass, but there is a lot of money.

There are too many coins in troubled times that are difficult to transport, so it is better to use them to distribute them to the people and buy people's hearts.

Therefore, most of the five-baht coins along the way were given to the poor people, and only the precious silk silk, gold, silver and jewelry remained.

Now is the time to use them.

Burning Xu Du would definitely hurt the innocent, so Shen Chen decided to ask Liu Bei to dismiss the people and give them money, so that he could get a good reputation.

Fame may seem like a virtual thing, but once you use it, it's very useful.

For example, Cao Cao is such a brutal person, and the people of Xuzhou have changed their color when they hear it, but after he welcomes the Son of Heaven, he has a righteous reputation, and his reputation is much better all of a sudden.

That's the benefit of fame.

It's just that Cao Cao's fame was borrowed from Liu Xie, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, and the overdraft was the credibility that the Han family had built in the past four hundred years.

And Liu Bei and Shen Chen have to rely on their own efforts to achieve the goal of becoming famous all over the world.

Just like Shen Chen returned the pig and gave coins in Longzhong Township before.

The melon field is not accepted, and Li Xia is not crowned.

A righteous man and a gentleman, you must not do those things that make the world suspicious.

Attacking Xudu at this moment must not make the people feel that they are causing trouble in the name of welcoming the Son of Heaven.

So before Shen Chen left, he wanted to be famous!

And it has to be famous all over the world.

His spearhead was aimed at the Yingchuan family, and he was extremely friendly to the hundred officials and ministers in Xudu City.

Kong Rong had an excellent relationship with him and Liu Bei, and both hated Cao Cao.

Although Yang Biao was suppressed by Cao Cao, he did not resent Cao Cao's arrogance in his heart, and in addition to torturing himself, he also imprisoned the Son of Heaven.

The royalists still have a certain right to speak, if they can win over the fame of the people in Henan, then in the future, Shen Chen's strategy of taking Nanyang in the south and Yuzhou in the north will really be realized.

At that moment, Shen Chen began to arrange according to the plan, and reported according to the details in the city that Xun Yu had summoned many Cao troops outside the city to the city, and defended the inner city as the foundation.

Therefore, Shen Chen was ready to personally lead the army, attack the many strongholds of the Cao army in Dongcheng, suppress the Cao army back to the imperial city, and then surround the Xu capital with Liu Bei, and at the same time let Liu Bei lead the rebel army into the outer city, dismiss the people, and knock on the door of every household to let them leave.

If it was in the past, this work would have taken a long time, but now it is a war, and there are not many people in the city, most of them are the princes of the family, the powerful merchants and their slaves, and the ordinary people are mostly farming outside the city, so the people in the city are only tens of thousands, and they are afraid of the war, and they will definitely be obedient.

After the matter was arranged, everyone acted immediately without further ado. Shen Chen and Gan Ning Zhang Fei personally led 5,000 men and began to settle in the streets of Dongcheng, and there was already a rumor in the city, and a large number of Cao troops gathered at the Dongcheng Gate to watch.

There were not many strongholds of Cao's army outside the city, and they were quickly cleared. At that time, there was a moat in the inner city of Xudu, but there was no in the outer city, so the soldiers could only line up outside the moat.

And Liu Bei, who was behind him, personally led the army, knocking on the door of every house.

Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Tai Shici, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, Shiren, Liu Yan, Yuan Qi, Xiahou Su, Deng Zhao, Shen Tao and other generals and strategists in the army also led the soldiers one after another, pushing the baggage carts used for the distribution of money and grain, and went deep into the southern city of Xudu and began to do the work of dismissing the people.

Of course, they could not say that they were ready to burn Xudu, but they said slogans that they were ready to attack the palace and rescue the Son of Heaven, fearing that the war would cause the people to be injured and innocent, so they gave money and food to let the people take refuge in the city.

For a while, all the ministers, wealthy and powerful businessmen didn't even want Liu Bei and Shen Chenjun's money, and under the drive of the army, they drove the carriage out of the city. The people supported the old and the young, carried the grain, grass and property given by Shen Chenjun, brought all the valuable things at home, and hurriedly fled.

In fact, when Liu Bei and Shen Chenjun arrived in Zhile Township, the news that the enemy had attacked outside Xudu City could not be concealed. Since yesterday, a large number of ministers and magnates have fled from Xudu, and today, the people know the news, and they are very panicked.

Fortunately, after Shen Chenjun entered the city, Qiu did not commit any crimes, but shouted slogans, saying that he wanted to welcome the Son of Heaven, for fear of hurting the people, persuaded the people to take refuge in the city, and would also give money and food.

Although many people don't want to leave their homes, no matter how kind the army is, they still knock on the door with bright knives and guns in their hands, and give them a considerable amount of living expenses.

Therefore, from noon on October 29 to the morning of October 30, the evacuation of the people in the city of Xudu was like a torrent, mixed with chaos and order, and slowly poured out of the city.

For the common people, it is relatively lucky, because there is no city wall in the outer city of Xudu, and most of Cao's troops are forced into the inner city palace, so no one can stop them.

After they received their things, they immediately left the city at the urging of Liu Bei and Shen Chenjun.

But for Cao Jun in the city, it was a kind of torment.

They are so short of supplies.

There is no shortage of food, but there is a shortage of equipment to defend the city.

In order to fight the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao almost moved more than 95% of the materials to the front line of Guandu, and now there are very few defensive equipment in the city.

There are no bed crossbows, less than 10,000 arrows, only a small amount of rolling stone and some lime, and other more important things like crashes, forks, flying hooks, yakshas, ground listening, fierce fire oil tanks, dovetail torches, flying torches, golden fire pots, etc., are completely absent.

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the two sides can hardly be contrasted, which is why no one dared to intercept Guan Yu and Liu Bei on the march, it was really a fierce battle in the wild, Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan They came to die.

In the afternoon of October 30, after a day and a night of evacuation, Xu Du approached the empty city, and from the afternoon, Shen Chen officially prepared to attack the city.

From yesterday to now, of course, he did not do nothing, but sent people outside the east city gate to carry the earth to build the earth mountain, build the wall tower, and have enough arrows, and almost suppressed the Cao army at the head of the city with bows and arrows so that he couldn't lift his head.

In the afternoon, he began to prepare for the river crossing with the made moat bridge.

But the moat of Xudu is still relatively wide, although it is not as exaggerated as Xiangyang to hundreds of meters, but there are more than twenty or thirty meters, it takes a lot of effort to build a moat, and only twenty or thirty are built in a hurry, and they want to cross the river to attack.

As a result, the first stone and wood were smashed, and the trench bridge was smashed a lot, and the troops had to retreat.

In the evening, Shen Chen continued to attack from the east gate and the south gate, and the resistance on the head of the city was extremely fierce, relying on the hurried situation of Shen Chen's army, unlike Yuan Shao, who had a large number of siege equipment, and the two sides carried out fierce defenses around the city.

At the most critical moment, seeing that under the cover of the arrows, Shen Chenjun's army was about to rush up from the east city gate, Cao Hong had to give an order to use the fish paste and grease stored in the palace to pour it down and set fire to the cloud ladder.

Shen Chen, who was in the distance, saw this scene and immediately had an idea, so he immediately ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops, so that when the soldiers retreated, they should not put away the trench bridge.

Soon a large number of ladders were burned, and the flames spread to the moats and bridges built under the city, and then to the east of the city.

Shen Chen deliberately did not act to extinguish the fire, but pretended to be defeated and retreated.

Soon the fire spread rapidly in the eastern city, thick smoke filled the sky, and flames soared into the sky. At night, the fire ignited the houses near the castle and burned in all directions, surrounding the southern and northern castles.

On the contrary, the inner city is almost safe because of the natural isolation zone of the moat, and the city walls are all earth, stone and bricks, and there are very few wooden tools, plus Cao's army is guarding against flames.

"Mingjin, withdraw your troops!"

Seeing that Cao Jun helped him complete the task of burning Xu Du, Shen Chen did not have any intention of staying, and after the fire was raging, he ordered to light fires in other parts of the city while withdrawing from the city.

It wasn't until midnight that the monstrous fire in Xudu had almost reached the point of being inextinguishable, and Shen Chen retreated south.

What's even worse is that he also sent people to more than ten kilometers south of Xudu City to tell the people who had not yet gone far that Cao's army set fire to the city, and they could not attack the city and were forced to retreat, and they would come again in the future to welcome the Son of Heaven and save all the people.

Anyway, Cao Hong ordered Shen Chen's trench bridge and ladder to be burned with fish paste and grease, and tens of thousands of soldiers around him saw it, and the families of these soldiers were all outside the city, and they would definitely not be able to hide so many pairs of eyes, so it was best to push the boat down the river and push the crime to Cao Hong.

At the same time, Cao Cao's army had actually reached the Weichuan Pavilion in the north of Yanling, which was less than thirty kilometers away from Xudu.

The fire in the Waichuan Pavilion has been burning for four or five days, and the fire is basically extinguished because the surrounding vegetation has been burned. The original mountain forest was already pitch black, and the ashes in the sky were still mixed with the afterglow of the flames.

Because of the burning feet on the ground, Cao Cao had to choose to walk on a detour. But looking at the Weichuan Pavilion from afar, he still sent someone to see Ren Jun's situation.

At night, the scouts who went to investigate came to report that Ren Jun's more than 4,000 troops were all burned to death, and the soldiers had their own abnormalities, and their appearance was extremely horrified, and only a large number of carbonized dried corpses remained in the same place, and it was impossible to distinguish who was Ren Jun.

Cao Cao could only sigh and send people to step up his pace and return to Xudu before the early morning of the second day.

October 31, the third quarter of the weekday, that is, around four o'clock in the morning, the sky has not yet dawned, and today is another dry day.

When Cao Jun passed Yanling and Cao Cao was about to send scouts to investigate the news, before the scouts could go to investigate, and if he walked further, he had already seen the light of the fire.

Cao Cao rode on horseback and stood by the post road leading to Xudu, his eyes wide open and his face full of disbelief.

He saw that the black smoke in the sky covered the sky, and the flames seemed to stain half of the sky red, even if it was more than ten kilometers away, it seemed that he could smell the mushy smell in the air.

Xu Capital City.

It's burning!

(End of chapter)