Cao Zhang has been afraid of Liu Cong since he had such an idea. The city defense affairs were left to Cheng Yu, Zhou Xing and others to arrange for him to send someone to deliver a letter to his father. After that, Cao Cao lay in the yamen all day long. I'm waiting on the wooden couch in my bedroom for my father's reply.

But after waiting for a few days, my father didn't get any information. Then I got the news that Liu Cong had led his troops to attack the city.

[So Cao Zhang hurriedly found Cheng Yu and Cao Ren to discuss the city defense. Even Ma Teng also came.

Because Cao Zhang knew that Ma Teng's son Ma Chao was commanding hundreds of thousands of troops in Xiliang at this time, he mistakenly thought that Ma Chao was still with Cao Cao at this time.

So everyone discussed the city defense issues of Yecheng together.

Cao Zhang has some brute strength and knows some things about leading troops in battle, but he is far inferior to his father Cao Cao.

Basically, it can be said that Cao Zhang was just a mediocre general. Among the military generals in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, he was a simple-minded person with well-developed limbs.

It's just that his father, Cao Cao, was worried about leaving hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers to other commanders, so he gave him this important task.

Besides, Cao Cao knew his son's abilities, so he sent Cheng Yu and Cao Ren to assist him before the start of this double-attack attack on Liu Cong [

However, both Cao Ren and Cheng Yu had experienced Liu Cong's prowess and were all defeated by Liu Cong, so they did not weigh their words after they came over. Some of their strategies were rejected by Cao Zhang, which led to the defeat of this battle.

If I hadn't escaped from a small road, how could I have escaped to Yecheng? Now I might have become Liu Cong's prisoner.

Since Cao Zhang is such a loser, there will be no regulations at this point. Seeing everyone coming in, Cheng asked with a sad face: "I heard that Liu Cong has led his troops to occupy Yanzhou. At this time, he is leading his troops to attack Yecheng. I'm afraid they will kill him in three days." I have reported the situation of this battle to my father and asked him to give instructions on the next step. I haven’t seen the letter yet, but Liu Cong has led his troops to kill again. Let’s discuss what we should do next.”

When Cao Zhang said this, he felt anxious and regretful, his face was full of sorrow, his voice was choked with sobs and he almost cried.

No one had any chance to recover. They all knew that things were going to be difficult, so they kept their mouths open and kept silent.

After staying for a while, Cheng Yu spoke. He said: "Little General, we have all seen the current situation. Liu Cong is powerful and our army is weak. In this case, the only way is to hold on."

After years of construction, Yecheng has a strong moat, a wide area, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Besides, we still have tens of thousands of elite troops here. As long as we work together, we can hold on to Yecheng.

Besides, the Prime Minister has not sent any instructions yet. Maybe the scouts are on the way at this time. We only need to hold on for ten days and we will receive instructions from the Prime Minister. So in my opinion, we must be determined to hold on. There is no other good way.

Besides, it would be a bad idea if we abandoned the city and ran away.

Why do you think the prime minister entrusted the Hebei troops to your leadership just to let you defend the ground in Hebei?

If Yecheng is lost, then Hebei will no longer be the prime minister, and all the major events in the world will go away.

From this point on, we must hold on to Yecheng and wait for the Prime Minister's instructions."

When Cheng Yu said this, Cao Ren nodded frequently and continued: "Mr. Cheng is right. We can only stick to Yecheng and wait for the Prime Minister's instructions."

Besides, the Prime Minister is currently deploying troops at Hangu Pass. As soon as Hangu Pass is broken, Luoyang will be in the hands of our army. The Prime Minister will fight out of Luoyang and within ten days, Xuchang can be recaptured. As long as Xuchang is recaptured, the Prime Minister will lead his troops to the north. We can defend Yecheng here and respond to each other from a distance. It makes it difficult for Liu Cong to take care of himself

Haha, if everything goes well, who will win the battle in the Central Plains?"[

When Cao Ren said this, he looked up at everyone and said: "I agree with Mr. Cheng's analysis. The best option for us at the moment is to hold Yecheng and wait for the Prime Minister's instructions."

"But Liu Cong has brought hundreds of thousands of horses. He has already left Yanzhou and can reach here in less than three days. We only have 10,000 horses." This was what Cao Zhang said. Although he said it hesitantly, everyone could hear that Cao Zhang had already I no longer have the confidence to defend Yecheng.

At this time, Ma Teng was sitting on the side with a dignified look on his face, sneering in his heart and said to himself: "I never expected that Cao Mengde and his son would be reduced to this. Haha, we are at the end of our rope."

Defending Yecheng is really a wishful thinking. Liu Cong led hundreds of thousands of troops to kill from Yanzhou. It was really powerful.

There were less than 10,000 Cao soldiers in Ye city, and they were all in panic. As soon as Liu Cong's army arrived, it was overwhelming and it took less than three days to conquer Ye city.

Haha, Cao Cao, Cao Cao, how did you treat Yuan Shao and his son back then? Today, you can also taste the taste of Yuan Shao's failure."

It turns out that before Liu Cong sent troops from Yanzhou, he sent plainclothes scouts to deliver a message to Ma Teng, instructing him to secretly take action in Yecheng.

Liu Cong said in the letter that Ye City was the northern political, economic and military center established by Yuan Shao and Cao Cao over more than 20 years. After Cao Zhang fled here, he would definitely defend Ye City and wait for help in order to protect Ye City from destruction and the common people of Li from war. "Ask General Ma to mobilize some people among Cao's soldiers who are willing to abandon Cao and defect to the Han Dynasty to secretly stir up trouble and put Cao Zhang and other major generals under house arrest."

At this time, Ma Teng was listening to Cao Zhang and the others talking while plotting a plan to deal with Cao Zhang. Although the plan was not thorough, Ma Teng already knew what Cao Zhang and the others were planning. Knowing that they were determined to stay here and wait for help, he secretly cheered and said to himself: "When the time comes, I will definitely repay Liu Zhizhong for his great kindness to me."

So after the meeting, Ma Teng went home and secretly informed several of his acquaintances. Cao Bing and the generals told them to be ready and secretly take action when the time came.

Liu Cong came here not by himself but with a large group of soldiers and horses. After he came, he surrounded Yecheng and began to attack the city. However, the siege was not intense and I don’t know why.

First, three thousand Jingzhou cavalry lined up in a column, holding dozens of black flags in front, and circled Yecheng several times amidst the sound of drums. Then they returned to the hill outside the east gate of the city and stopped. The Jingzhou infantry formed another square formation and paraded around the city to the sound of drums. Whether they were cavalry or infantry, they were very majestic. Their swords and guns reflected the sun and their armor was dazzling.

Cao's soldiers were all dumbfounded when they saw it. They were confused and didn't know why Liu Cong did this. "Is this an act?" Cao Zhang asked Cheng Yu on the city wall, trembling with fear.

Cheng Yu looked back from the city and stared at Cao Zhang with a pair of presbyopic eyes. He said, "Young general, Liu Cong is demonstrating to us. He has no other intention than to conquer the enemy without fighting. Wait, it's late today." He won't attack the city tomorrow; normally he will send people to issue a gauntlet tomorrow. The beginning of the gauntlet will "force" our army to surrender within a limited time and ask us to surrender. If we don't surrender, he will attack the city."

When Ma Teng heard this, he happily said to himself: "Hahahahaha"

Besides, after Liu Cong led his troops over, he set up his camp on a high hill to the east of Ye City. He then ordered Zhang Liao, Wei Yan, Deng Bao, Liu Feng, and Guanping to lead troops on a parade around the city. When Xu Shu saw this, he was a little confused and asked, "My lord, your troops have already arrived." Why are we still parading when we are all here and we can attack the city?"

Liu Cong smiled and said: "You see, I am playing tricks on Cao Zhang here. I patrolled the city for three days and captured Cao Zhang alive without even a single soldier. Why don't you do such a good thing?"

Xu Shu has never seen such a fighting method. When Liu Cong said this, he knew that Liu Cong already had a plan and stopped asking.

Liu Cong waited until the parade was over before ordering the troops to set up camp. When it got dark, all the three armies settled in tents and rested.

However, Liu Cong did not rest and ordered the barracks: "After dinner today, the entire camp, except the sentries, will rest and no one is allowed to light a lantern."

After the order was passed on, the Cao soldiers on the city did not see any movement from the Jingzhou soldiers below the city until the third watch.

The more the Jingzhou soldiers did this, the more nervous the Cao soldiers in the city became. Cao Zhang also didn't sleep a wink all night.

The next day during the day, Ma Teng led his troops to patrol the city wall and came to the east gate tower. When he looked down, he saw a large group of Jingzhou soldiers resting in the camp. Only a few small groups of troops were patrolling around Yecheng. Ma Teng wrote what he had already written. The secret message was tied to the arrow shaft and he waited for the chance to "shoot" the secret message down the city when the sentry disappeared.

When the Jingzhou soldiers patrol saw it, they hurriedly picked it up and returned to the camp to present it to Liu Cong. Liu Cong opened it and smiled and said: "The plan has worked out, hahahaha."

Then he ordered Wei Yan, Deng Bao, Liu Feng, and Guanping to "each lead two thousand troops to attack the four gates of Yecheng. Wei Yan attacked the east gate, Deng Bao attacked the west gate, Liu Feng attacked the north gate, Guanping attacked the south gate, and acted immediately."

All the generals looked at each other and looked at Liu Cong but did not move.

Liu Cong asked: "Why haven't you taken action? What are you waiting for?" Wei Yan, one of the generals who dared to speak, said: "My lord, you ordered us to attack the city with only two thousand men and horses each. Isn't this intentional to create problems for us? Two thousand." There are too few people, not to mention ladders and cars, and there is no such high city wall. It is impossible for one person to climb it with bare hands. How can we conquer Ye City?"

Liu Cong smiled and said: "Wei Yan, you really believe that my arrangement must make sense. There is no need to explain it for the moment."

All you have to do is lead your troops to attack the city. It's not even an hour yet. It will be dark in an hour. After dark, lead your troops back to the camp. After dinner, take a short rest. At the second watch, the four of you will lead five thousand men and horses to quietly ambush. Look outside the four gates and see the third watch. No matter which city gate it is, as long as you see the city gate open, there will be people coming out. You can lead your troops to greet Cao's soldiers who are covering their way out of the city. Stop outside the gate of our camp. I have my own arrangements. "012
Chapter completed!