After a few days of rectification and rest, Cao Cao's army was full of morale. Soldiers asked for a fight and demanded to attack Zaoyang.
Within five days, Zaoyang City went up and down, shouting for killing, shaking the earth as if it was shaking, and the land was stained red with blood.
Liu Xun stood silently on the city, surrounded by Zhao Yun and a group of soldiers guarding carefully.
Liu Xun watched the battle and listened to the rising number of casualties every day, making him feel uncomfortable.
The battle was very fierce, with a few arrows flying from time to time, and the death toll on both sides was on the rise. All the generals were also bloodied.
Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers are worthy of being among the best in the world. They have full experience when attacking the city. As long as there is a small mistake, a group of Qingzhou soldiers will rush up the city wall.
However, Liu Beijun is not a vegetarian either. All soldiers used their strength to forge a steel line of defense. The soldiers will take the lead in each hand with weapons, and fight tightly on the front line.
At this time, Samoko hurried over, and saw that his whole body was covered with blood, his hair was hanging down, and there were smudge marks on his face. It was obvious that he had just gone through a hard fight.
Sha Mo Ke came to Liu Xun's side and said: "The son, Cao Cao's army general Xu Huang suddenly led the army to attack the South Gate. After the brothers' resistance to the death, they finally repelled them."
Liu Xun patted Samoko on the shoulder and said, "General Samoko has worked hard. All the soldiers in Wuxi are good. Tell everyone, after the battle, I will be rewarded with great rewards!"
After Shamoko heard this, he was overjoyed and thanked Dade for returning.
Soon after, another person came to report: "Master Qizhen, General Wei has repelled Li Dian's 30,000 people at the west gate, and beheaded Li Dian."
"Well, what a Wei Wenchang, it's really not easy. Now Cao Jun can't do anything to us for a while."
Liu Xun was in a good mood when he got the news. Li Diannai had a very high status as Cao Ying's veteran. Cao Cao had already followed Cao Cao when he launched his army. He was a rare general who was a man and a stable man.
Wei Yan was able to win more with less, defeating Li Dian, who is known for his alertness and stability. It can be seen that he does have some abilities, and Liu Bei's army has one more general.
Liu Xun smiled and ordered: "Come here, Wei Yan, the enemy general, Li Dian, has done a great job and rewarded one hundred gold."
The eyes of all wise people in the world gathered in Zaoyang. Zaoyang's gains and losses represent whose victory, whether it is Cao Cao or Liu Bei will ultimately depend on whose hands Zaoyang is.
Did Cao Cao take it? Liu Beijun held it.
This is related to the prestige of the Cao and Liu family.
The two families dare not sloppy. Strange tactics emerge in endlessly. The city walls of Zaoyang also changed hands several times, but they were eventually taken back by Liu Beijun.
However, the northern city wall of Zaoyang has been slammed into a corner by the giant horn, and the situation is extremely critical.
Zaoyang City Wall.
Liu Xun looked at the soldier who was blocking the gap with his body, with a wry smile. Since the opening of the gap, in order to prevent the gap in the city wall from being filled again, the soldiers have launched waves of attacks on the gap. However, Liu Xun's soldiers repelled Cao Jun and immediately repaired the city wall.
That night, Cao Jun was in the tent.
Cao Jun's ministers are discussing tomorrow's siege plan.
Cao Cao's mood at the moment was naturally extremely happy. Although Zaoyang had not broken through, as long as he surrounded the four gates and attacked one with all his strength, the soldiers in the city would attack the south to save the north, and the north to save the south. Within a few days, even if the soldiers in the city were not exhausted, they would not be able to fight.
Even if the four gates are guarded together, it will only disperse the forces. Cao Cao's army can choose a city gate with few soldiers and poor defense as the main attack.
Almost half of Zaoyang is now in Cao Cao's pocket.
At this time, the result of the deliberations of the counselors had come out, and everyone had adopted Liu Ye's plan to confuse the enemy. First let a large group of troops attack the west gate to attract Liu Beijun's main force, and then let a group of people use thunderbolt carts to forcibly bomb the city wall at the south gate. This is a win-win strategy, no matter how Liu Xun chooses, the consequences are only the same.
If Liu Xun chooses not to save, then the Thunderbolt at the South Gate can collapse the city wall within a few hours. If rescued, the cracks in the wall of Beicheng that had already collapsed would be exactly the target of Cao Cao's army. With this win-win strategy, Cao Cao's hope of obtaining Zaoyang is closer.
Cao Cao accepted Liu Ye's strategy and retired everyone, leaving only Guo Jia.
In the controversy between all the advisers just now, Cao Cao found that Guo Jia had been looking down and thinking, and did not react at all. I couldn't help but asked curiously: "Does Feng Xiao's thoughts have something to do with Zhuge Liang."
Guo Jia nodded and raised his own question: "In the past two months or so, our army has fought against Liu Xun almost every day. He is calm and intelligent, good at military guides, and platoons. Zaoyang is in his hands. It was almost indecent. It took our army nearly 100,000 troops to force it to where it is now. After Zhuge Liang took Nanjun, it stands to reason that he should rush to Zaoyang immediately, but he did not do so, which is really unbelievable. solution."
"It's really weird for Feng Xiao to say that." Cao Cao frowned slightly, and there was a sense of irritability in his heart for no reason.
Guo Jia pondered for a while, then looked up and said: "It feels a little strange, but I can't tell where it is strange. It may be that Kato has filtered out, and Jia has retired."
Guo Jia walked out of the handsome account, looked at the stars in the sky, and muttered to himself: "I hope nothing goes wrong."
The next day, another general offensive by Cao Cao's army began. More than 100,000 troops gathered at the north and south gates and launched the strongest and fiercest attack on the city gate.
On the city wall, Liu Xun's expression was a bit heavy. The soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and there were only more than 30,000 people remaining. The men who can be recruited in the city have also been recruited. But if this continues, if Zhuge Liang is not there yet to support, Zaoyang will definitely not be able to keep it.
In the east of Zaoyang City, Pili Che madly threw huge rocks towards the city wall. There were 30,000 troops standing by to prevent people from leaving the city to destroy Pili Che.
Defender Zhao Yun had nothing to do. They had no long-range machinery and could not attack Cao Cao's army. With 10,000 tired soldiers in his hand, he couldn't fight against the 30,000 elite under the city. He only kept harassing with arrows, but the effect that could be obtained was minimal.
The city wall was also broken in a mess, maybe within a few days, the city wall will collapse.
In the north of Zaoyang city, an army of one hundred thousand was divided into three siege echelons under the leadership of Xiahouyuan, Xu Huang, and Li Dian, and they took turns to launch a fierce attack towards the collapse point in the north of the city.
At this moment, Cao Cao is waiting for the battle report in the handsome account.
"Master Prime Minister, everything is going well in the east of the city."
"Master Prime Minister, the three generals in the north of the city have met tenaciously, and the outcome is undivided."
The soldiers in charge of observing the battlefield situation quickly reported the situation on the battlefield to Cao Cao.
"Not far from the broken city!" Cao Cao said excitedly.
At this time, an eight hundred li express was passed to Cao Cao's hands, and Cao Cao's face turned pale in an instant.
"Yuan Shao issued a discussion about Cao Cao's text and officially declared war on Cao Cao!"
As soon as the news came, Cao Cao's handsome account almost exploded. How powerful Yuan Shao's strength is, the strategists know very well that if they don't return to the army in time, then Xuchang is likely to be brought down by Yuan Shao's army. Cao Cao used 200,000 troops for this battle, and the rear forces were obviously insufficient.
"My lord... It's not good. When our army was attacking the North Gate with all its strength, it was suddenly attacked by Huang Zhong from the Han army in the back and suffered heavy losses."
"My lord... It's not good. Our army's attack on the East Gate was attacked by Huo Jun from the Han army behind. The losses were heavy and all five small Perak cars were destroyed."
"What, isn't Huang Zhong and Zhuge Liang in Southern County? Why did they suddenly appear behind our army! Who is this Huo Jun?"
Unfortunately, one after another, Cao Cao was overwhelmed. As soon as his mood fell to the bottom, he was anxious and frustrated.
"I know." Guo Ruo said thoughtfully, "After Zhuge Liang took over Nanjun, the reason why he has not appeared. On the one hand, to wait and see Yuan Jun, let us spend it under Zaoyang City, so that Yuan Shao would be willing to send troops to attack. We; on the other hand, it is for us to gain the advantage first and then relax. In this way, when our army relaxes, he can lead the army to attack us behind and hit us by surprise."
"Zhuge Piff, it's really vicious!"
Cao Zhang was also frustrated.
"Now that we are facing the enemy back and forth, how can this be good?"
Cao Cao sighed and said, he had realized that this time he might fall short again.
Guo Jia said: "Dangduan will continue to suffer from its chaos. Now Yuan Shao is our arch enemy. We should first make peace with Liu Bei and try our best to get rid of Yuan Shao."
Cao Cao looked back at Guo Jia and said, "Oh, why did Feng Xiao say that?"
Guo Jia said: "Liu Bei has only six counties and only a hundred thousand soldiers. Yuan Shao owns four states and there are many people. If we can defeat Yuan Shao, we will be able to occupy his territory and our strength will be greatly increased. , Other princes, don't worry about it."
Cheng Yu said happily: "Feng Xiao said that if our army wins Hebei, it will be more vigorous, then what can Liu Bei do to me?"
Cao Cao nodded and said, "Yes, but Liu Bei is not so kind. If I get Hebei, can his Jingzhou six counties be kept?"
Guo Jia said: "Yuan Shao has been operating in the four states of Hebei for many years and cannot be easily obtained. It will take a few years at the earliest. With this period of time, Liu Bei will have sufficient time to develop his own power."
Cao Cao gritted his teeth and said: "Liu Bei, the rat generation of weaving seats, should have killed him in Xuchang. If it weren't for him, Jingzhou would have been mine."
Guo Jia said: "There are forty to fifty counties and hundreds of cities in the four states of Hebei. Compared with Jingzhou, which is more important, please think twice."
Cao Cao said, "What if I insist on hitting Liu Bei?"
Guo Jia said: "It has been more than two months for hundreds of thousands of soldiers of our two armies to attack Zaoyang and Fancheng, but they have not been able to move forward. Besides, Zhuge Liang has already taken Nanjun, and now he has sent troops to assist Liu Xun. It's even more difficult to attack. If you send troops for a long time, you will delay the day. Yuan Shao will send his troops to the south, and then the jade will be burned."
After Cao Cao heard this, he sighed deeply, then pondered for a long time...