While Cao Cao led his army down the southeast to attack Xuzhou,
Lu Bu, who had just defected to Zhang Yang, the prefect of Hanoi, now encountered another big trouble.
Ever since Li Jue, Guo Si and others took control of the emperor and took sole power, they began to post rewards everywhere, promising to pay huge sums of money to capture Lu Bu!
This made Lu Bu feel very uncomfortable.
Moreover, Hanoi County is located in Sili and is close to Guanzhong. It is affected by the rewards offered by the court far more than other places.
So when Lu Bu brought a team of less than a thousand people and their families to Hanoi to seek refuge with Zhang Yang,
Although Zhang Yang sincerely accepts Lu Bu,
But Zhang Yang's generals were already ready to join forces to capture Lu Bu and claim a heavy reward from the court.
Although my good friend Zhang Yang tried to protect Lu Bu,
But unfortunately, Zhang Yang's subordinates seemed to be a little too conceited about Zhang Yang.
In the end, out of desperation, Lu Bu had no choice but to leave Zhang Yang for the safety of his family and himself, and started his journey to find his next home again.
Speaking of Zhang Yang, he does have a big problem with controlling his subordinates.
Later, Zhang Yang died because he wanted to rescue Lu Bu, but was secretly killed by his own generals.
In fact, after Lu Bu's arrival, Zhang Yang's generals dared to ignore their master's intentions, and even did not hide their thoughts about plotting against Lu Bu, which had already laid the groundwork for Zhang Yang's subsequent death at the hands of out-of-control generals.
Being the boss is really a bit of a failure when it comes to taking on this role.
The reward offered by Li Guo in the name of the imperial court was quite powerful. At least here at Zhang Yang, Lu Bu saw the green eyes of the group of people.
If Lu Bu's martial arts hadn't been taken into consideration, they might have been taken away in exchange for bounties when they entered Hanoi...
Therefore, Lu Bu now needs to find a prince who is not afraid of being controlled by Li Jue.
So who is Lu Bu's first choice?
Of course it’s Yuan Shao!
Looking at the princes of Guandong, the strongest ones today are Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.
But Cao Cao is Yuan Shao's younger brother in name, so Yuan Shao is Lu Bu's best choice now.
...
Cao's army of more than 20,000 troops invaded Xuzhou with thunderous force!
The people of Xuzhou originally thought that Cao Jun, who came with the revenge of trying to kill his father, would be extremely violent and would commit murder and arson.
But what they never expected was that,
When the vanguard of Cao's army attacked the city and captured the territory, they only killed some of the defenders and officials who resisted, but did not harm the people of Xuzhou at all!
What makes the people feel even more incredible is that,
Cao's army occupied counties all the way and posted notices everywhere in the county.
The notice seemed to be persuading the people of Xuzhou, and its content was roughly as follows:
"Tao Qian, the pastor of Xuzhou, pretended to be benevolent and righteous, and plunged Xuzhou into the flames of war for his own selfish reasons.
It was only natural for Cao Yanzhou to avenge his father, but Cao Yanzhou was merciful and only killed Tao Qian, the culprit, and would not implicate others, let alone the people."
One notice cannot contain all the contents, so there is another one at the back,
“The door of Yanzhou is always open to the people of Xuzhou!
If the people of Xuzhou are willing to move to the counties of Yanzhou,
Not only will each person be allocated five acres of fertile land, but they will also enjoy preferential tax reduction and exemption policies for the first five years!
Even the people who migrated to Xuzhou owned the fertile land after five years of farming.
This policy is only valid for the people of Xuzhou. If you pass by, don’t miss it!”
Cao Cao learned this skill from Lu Yan's diary.
Special treatment can show a sense of superiority.
It can be seen that in order to strengthen his own strength, Boss Cao has done everything he can!
People were a little hesitant about the content in the notice. After all, the treatment was so good, including tax cuts and land distribution!
Although the people are somewhat hesitant,
However, the generous policies provided by Yanzhou still made some people who were already living an uncomfortable life determined.
They decided to pack their things when they got back, and then find an opportunity to leave for Yanzhou.
Facing the menacing Cao Jun,
Tao Qian knew that Cao Cao's intention to send troops to attack Xuzhou was not just to vent his anger on his old father.
He, Cao A, concealed his wild ambitions, and I am afraid that he had long secretly wanted to seize Xuzhou.
Even if I don't give him any excuse this time and don't give him a chance to attack Xuzhou,
But as long as Cao Cao becomes stronger in the future, he will still find various excuses to seize Xuzhou.
Long-term pain is worse than short-term pain. Since you, Cao Cao, are here, let’s meet the real chapter! Besides, my reinforcements are already on the way!
After Tao Qian arranged the deployment in other places, he personally led 20,000 horses to garrison Pengcheng and waited for Cao Cao to attack.
Chen Deng has already gone to move the reinforcements. As long as he defends until the reinforcements arrive, Cao Cao will probably be able to look at the city and sigh.
Tao Qian was not the coward in the novel who was so frightened that he cried bitterly when he heard Cao Cao coming to attack.
He crusaded against the Yellow Turbans earlier, and later the princes allied themselves to attack Dong Zhuo. Both times he performed admirably, and he was also a very capable prince.
...
But he said,
Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, and Cao Ren, after entering Xuzhou, divided their forces to mop up the defenders in Xuzhou counties.
Cao Ren led 5,000 troops and acted as the vanguard of Cao's army to attack Pengcheng. They marched all the way and arrived not far from Guangqi County.
Behind Guangqi County is Pengcheng, which is equivalent to the gateway of Pengcheng, so an army of about 7,000 people was stationed and guarded here.
The general stationed in Guangqi County was named Lu You.
During the Yellow Turbans in Xuzhou, he had beheaded countless people and had outstanding military exploits. He was promoted to a general with a different title due to his accumulated merits.
In the following years, there was no war in Xuzhou.
In addition to the Yanzhou general who led the troops this time,
The more famous Xiahou Dun and Xia Houyuan did not come to Guangqi County, only a little-known Cao Ren came.
Lu You had never even heard of the name Cao Ren.
Naturally, he did not take Cao Ren seriously, who only brought 5,000 soldiers.
This is not to blame Lu You,
After all, there was little information in ancient times.
If Cao Ren's performance in the Battle of Yingchuan was not deliberately inquired about, ordinary people might not be able to know...
Among the yamen of Guangqi County,
A scribe advised Lu You: "General, Cao's army is approaching fiercely. We should make preparations in advance and not underestimate the enemy!"
Lu You glanced at the scribe disdainfully and returned:
"Cao's army has arrived from afar and has already become a tired army.
Moreover, I have never heard of the name of Cao Ren, the vanguard of Cao Cao's army. He must be just an unknown general from Cao Cao's clan who climbed up through the ranks through connections. What should I fear?"
The scribe was a little anxious. He thought to himself: "No matter how ignorant you are, Lu You, you can't be so ignorant as this, right? Have you never heard of Cao Ren's name? Are you an unknown young man who climbed up through connections???"
I don’t know if Cao Ren would vomit blood after hearing Lu You’s evaluation of him, but this scribe still knew something about Cao Ren.
"Who is Cao Ren? He is a great general who follows Cao Cao when he raises his troops. Why the hell are you still an unknown general? You are making trouble!"
The scribe was a little anxious. He wanted Lu You to explain:
"But I know that Cao Ren is the prefect of Yingchuan County under Cao Cao's rule. He is good at fighting and extremely brave. Yuan Gonglu led his army to sneak attack Chen Liu and was defeated. Cao Ren also participated in that battle at that time!"
"Yuan Shu?" Lu You snorted and said:
"As Zhou Mu said, Yuan Shu is just a withered skeleton in a grave. What's there to show off if you defeat him?
If I, Lu You, were here at that time, I would have beheaded Yuan Shu long ago!"