Cao's army has retreated, and it should not continue to attack in a short time, the battle is over, but Yuan Yao's matter is not over.

He still has to settle the account.

After Lu Bu's army withdrew from Huaibei, in fact, the battle on Zhang Xun's side had already ended.

Calculate the time, when Cao's army came to besiege the city, in fact, Zhang Xun's side was completely capable and sent troops to support him.

If Zhang Xun sent soldiers and horses to help him at the beginning, not to mention that the 30,000 people of Cao Jun went back to support Xuchang, it was still a matter of two things whether he could leave Zhuxian.

Zhang Xun obviously has a chance, and he has enough soldiers and horses to come to Zhu County to support Yuan Yao.

But he didn't come over, what kind of calculation he had in his heart, Yuan Yao naturally knew it.

Cao Jun captured Zhu County, if Yuan Yao escaped, lost Zhu County, and returned to Shouchun, Zhang Xun must be held accountable to Yuan Yao, even if Yuan Shu does not hold Yuan Yao responsible, he will lose confidence in Yuan Yao, and will only think that Yuan Yao is an incompetent person.

And if Yuan Yao didn't escape and was captured by Cao Cao in the Battle of Zhuxian, it would be even more incompetent.

In case Yuan Yao dies on the battlefield, this is even better for Zhang Xun.

Therefore, supporting Zhu County is beneficial and harmless to Zhang Xun, why should he do such a thing.

Anyway, it's a big deal, Yuan Yao asked, Zhang Xun could directly throw the pot, the Huaibei defense line was more important, and Cao Jun had no chance to fight Huainan.

"Childe, what should we do next?"

After the battle in Zhuxian was over, Ji Ling was a little curious about Yuan Yao's next plans.

In fact, at this level, Yuan Yao could never go to Zhang Xun's trouble, but Zhang Xun still has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and Yuan Yao can't confront Zhang Xun head-on at present, but he can take advantage of this opportunity to increase his strength.

Originally, Yuan Yao's idea was to occupy the Lujiang River, and then look for an opportunity to go south and attack Yuzhang and Jiangdong.

But Sun Ce on the Jiangdong side is developing too fast, and Yuan Yao's current strength has no way to compete with Sun Ce.

So now he has set his sights on Cao Cao's Yuzhou again.

Cao Cao after this battle, the army was greatly damaged, the previous time in Wancheng, and suffered Zhang Xiu's loss, two successive defeats, so that Cao Cao's strength suffered a heavy blow.

Now he can only shrink back to Xuchang, and he does not dare to easily provoke a war.

And Zhu County, where Yuan Yao is located, is not far from Lujiang, and next to it is Runan County in Yuzhou.

Yuan Yao decided to take advantage of the retreat of Cao Cao's troops to defeat Cao's Ruyin, Xincai, Xiangcheng and other places in one fell swoop.

These county towns are far away from Cao Cao's Xuchang, and at this moment Yuan Yao sent troops to attack these county seats, Cao's army was unable to organize effective reinforcements, and Cao's army occupied Runan for a relatively short time.

Runan-gun.

This place can be regarded as a more complicated place.

Runan is not only the largest county in Yuzhou, but also has more than 30 county seats, and more importantly, Runan is the most populous county in the entire Han Dynasty.

reached a staggering two million people.

A single county alone has a population of more than 2 million, which is even more than the population of some border counties.

You must know that the thirteen prefectures of Dahan, Xiliang and Bingzhou, have only a population of hundreds of thousands, and Jiaozhou has a population of only one million.

Youzhou, Xuzhou, Qingzhou and other places have a population of just over 2 million.

Runan County, on the other hand, has a population of more than two million in just one county, which is comparable to a state capital.

Because of this, more than ten years ago, when the Yellow Turban Army revolted, Runan County was also one of the hardest hit areas.

Bocai, Peng Tuo and other Yellow Turban thieves and handsomes, in Yingchuan, Runan, Nanyang and other places, wantonly attacked the city, gathered hundreds of thousands of people, and the momentum was huge.

A large part of the reason why the people gathered was that Runan, Nanyang, and Yingchuan were the three most populous counties in the Central Plains at the end of the Han Dynasty.

Combined, the population of the three places exceeds 5 million.

Even if the uprising of the Yellow Turban Army was suppressed by the imperial court later, the remnants of the Yellow Turban Party have always been active in these places.

For example, Liu Pi, Gong Du, He Yi, Huang Shao and others have been active in various parts of Yuzhou.

It wasn't until Cao Cao occupied Yuzhou last year that he began to eliminate these remnants of the Yellow Turbans.

These remnants of the Yellow Turban were actually attached to Yuan Shu at the beginning, because the land of Runan has always been Yuan Shu's territory, and the base camp of the Yuan clan of the fourth and third princes is in Runan.

Last year, Yuan Shu and Cao Cao clashed, and Cao Cao occupied Runan when he exterminated the remnants of the Yellow Turbans.

Now that it is less than a year away, Cao Cao's occupation of the major cities in Runan is not yet secure, and Yuan Yao can take the opportunity to regain these territories.

In just two days, Yuan Yaoming Qiao Rui and Ji Ling led 2,000 soldiers and horses respectively and began to attack the major counties in Runan.

In less than three days, three county towns were taken one after another.

There are less than 500 defenders in the county towns of Runan, and many of them are old county commanders from all over Runan, and they have more or less kindness with the Yuan family.

As soon as he saw that it was the Yuan family's soldiers and horses, he naturally had no obstruction and directly looked at the wind and descended.

Some even opened the city gates directly to welcome Yuan Yao's army into the city.

In less than half a month, Yuan Yao took half of the county seat in Runan under his command.

With more than ten county seats, Yuan Yao's power swelled up in an instant.

And quickly used the name of guarding against Cao's army to recruit men and horses in these cities and form soldiers and horses.

When he was at war with Cao Cao, he got a lot of baggage from Cao Cao, and he had some money under his hands, plus a deal with the Mi family in Xuzhou.

In just half a month, Yuan Yao rapidly expanded from the original 6,000 soldiers and horses to 16,000 people.

In half a month, Yuan Yao sent to the first line of heaven and invited Tai Shici over.

In the past, Yuan Yao only served as a county magistrate of Qianxian County, a small county town, and there was no way to accommodate Tai Shi Ci and these horses under Tai Shi Ci.

It can only temporarily make them cower on the mountain with a glimmer of heaven.

But it's different now.

Cao Cao was hit hard, and he couldn't pose any threat to him for a while, and Lu Bu was an alliance with him for the time being.

As for Yuan Shu, after successive defeats, the men and horses under his command have lost their troops and generals, and they have begun to decline, and this year's drought has been severe, and they are trapped in the quagmire of war in the autumn.

The people under his command have no harvest, and this winter will be full of displaced people, disaster victims, whether Yuan Shu can resist this winter is still a matter of two words.

Naturally, he will not be afraid.

As long as he strengthens himself, it will be too late for Yuan Shu to contaminate him, so how can he make trouble with his own son.