When Cao Ang heard that Cao Cao wanted to deal with the Zhang Miao brothers and Zang Hong, he was worried and said: "Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao should be killed for betraying my father."
"But Zang Hong has done nothing wrong. He nominally belongs to both his father and Duke Benchu, and has a high prestige in Dongjun. If there is no legitimate reason, he may cause trouble."
After hearing this, Cao Cao stroked his beard and said, "My son can see it very clearly."
"But how can you be timid when doing things for your father? I have already sent troops to Dongwuyang. If Zang Hong doesn't obey, we can only temporarily imprison him."
"It's the Xuzhou side that worries me even more."
"Then if Yuan Xi takes Guangling, he will definitely collude with Liu Bei in Haixi to the north. If they counterattack Sun Ce and retake Xiapi, it will be difficult for us to intervene in Xuzhou."
"Now you take my secret order, together with Miaocai (Xia Houyuan), and an army of horses, together with Zixiao (Cao Ren), to capture Tancheng no matter the cost!"
After hearing this, Cao Ang quickly accepted the order. When he was about to go out, Cao Cao said: "Go tell Zixiao and be careful of Yuan Xi. This person has many tricks and is very hostile to my Cao family. You must be on guard!"
When Cao Ang went out, Cao Cao fell into deep thought. This world has been completely corrupted. The princes from all sides are all acting for their own selfish interests. If this is the case, let him wipe them out one by one!
Just when Cao Cao was planning to eradicate what he considered to be the traitorous jujube coalition, Yuan Xi, whom he feared, was lying on the top of the city, watching Taishi Ci and Tian Yu go out to fight in the city.
As Sun Cejun arrived one after another in the past few days, the strength of the two sides gradually became balanced, and Yuan Xijun could no longer take advantage.
Sun Ce's army on the opposite side can be said to be like a cloud of fierce generals. When they were fighting under the city and reporting their flags one by one, Yuan Xi remembered that the owners of these faces were not far in front of him when they were on the mountain that day, and couldn't help but tremble.
It was really bad luck that he came back safely that time. In the future, when the enemy's situation is unclear, he will not leave the city easily even if he is killed.
What troubles Yuan Xi now is that Sun Ce is a handsome man who can personally lead troops to fight, and he has a large number of powerful generals. The siege puts great pressure on Yuan Xi.
Defending the city cannot just be a passive defense. It is necessary to go out and counterattack to boost morale in order to find a chance to win. Therefore, Yuan Xi sent out Taishi Ci Tianyu and led the cavalry to attack and harass every now and then. However, Sun Ce's generals defended airtight, which made Yuan Xi feel like a rat.
Pulling the turtle makes you feel like you have no choice but to eat it.
Now that the two sides are facing each other, neither can do anything to defeat the other. Yuan Xi has a stable mentality. As long as he maintains stability in the city and prevents spies from starting civil strife, it will be difficult for Sun Ce to capture Guangling City.
Of course, he was also prepared for the worst, and had already transferred all the fleet from the Yangtze River to the Jianghuai Canal north of Guangling. If there was really a problem in the city, he could evacuate in time via merchant ships.
Sun Ce was too difficult to deal with and his strength was so strong that Yuan Xi could only wait for changes to occur.
One is Liu Bei's reaction in the north, and the other is Cao Jun's coveting of Tancheng in the west.
He didn't believe that Sun Ce could endure it forever.
Yuan Xi's guess was indeed correct, Sun Ce could no longer hold on.
He attacked day and night, and he did not bring much military rations. Moreover, after being discovered by Yuan Xijun that day, his plan to sneak attack Guangling had actually failed.
However, he still couldn't bear to leave. After all, there was General Qiao Rui who was close to him in the city, and Mrs. Wu who was probably trapped in the city!
Sun Ce couldn't be sure whether Mrs. Wu was dead, captured, or escaped!
Currently, only Sun Ce and Zhou Yu know about Mrs. Wu's whereabouts. What makes Sun Ce crazy is that he dare not tell others at all, for fear that the news will spread to the enemy, which will expose Mrs. Wu's identity and make her
Fall into a trap.
Sun Ce squinted and stared at the head of Guangling City. He already knew that the person who was with Tai Shici that day was the fierce tiger of the Yuan family!
Thinking that he had missed a golden opportunity, Sun Ce's teeth ached. If he captured Guangling and captured Yuan Xi, he would definitely cut him into pieces!
However, he could only think about it. There was not much time left for Sun Ce. He had already received news that Cao Ren led troops to attack Tancheng. Zhou Yu had a hard time resisting, and Cao Cao was likely to increase his troops!
What makes Sun Ce even more worried is that Liu Bei in Haixi to the north cannot miss this opportunity. Calculating the time, at most three days, reinforcements will come to cooperate with Guangling to deal with him.
Sun Ce punched the table hard, strode out of the tent, and shouted: "Follow me to attack the city!"
The screaming lasted for a whole day, and finally the sky turned dark, and Sun Ce's army returned to the camp without success.
Seeing that Sun Ce's army was exhausted when they retreated, Taishi Ci walked to Yuan Xi and whispered: "Do you want to rob the camp at night?"
Yuan Xi recalled that when Taishi Ci was under Liu Yao in his previous life, he fell into a trap and was caught by Sun Ce, and said decisively: "No, they can't hold on anymore, there is no need to take risks."
After hearing this, Taishi Ci no longer persisted. When talking about defending the city during the day, he couldn't help but praise: "Although the military force in the Young Master's formation is not very good, he has already mastered the essence of military art in defending the city. Based on this alone,
He is already on par with the world’s famous generals.”
Yuan Xi's face lit up with joy. It was not easy to get Tai Shici's recognition.
Then he automatically blocked the comment about his own strength. If he couldn't beat him, he couldn't beat him. He had given up on his dream of becoming a strong general.
Tian Yu came over and said, "We have finished counting. There are more than a dozen people killed in today's battle, and nearly a hundred were injured. Among them, more than thirty are seriously injured and are temporarily unable to fight."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi's face became a little ugly. Sun Ce might have died more, but most of the people defending the city were his most direct soldiers. There were so many casualties in one day, which was no longer a small number.
He spoke out: "It is not an option to continue like this. It will only increase casualties on both sides. Why is Sun Cejun so desperate to attack the city?"
Tian Yu and Tai Shici looked at each other and said at the same time: "It's really weird."
In the past two days, Sun Ce drove his sergeants, who were mostly cavalry, to attack the city, as if they did not care about casualties. This was indeed a bit abnormal, which puzzled a few people.
It's just a city, isn't it?
Tian Yu hesitated and said, "Maybe there are some problems in this city?"
"It would be great if I could find someone who knows the truth and can tell me what to write."
Yuan Xi reacted and blurted out: "Qiao Rui!"
He said flatly: "Don't bring him food tonight. Let's eat and rest first, and then we can interrogate him in the middle of the night."
"By the way, let the guard light more oil lamps to shine on him first and don't let him sleep."
Yuan Xi returned to his mansion, and under the care of Cao Xian, he washed it with hot water hastily. Now that the war was tense, it was impossible for him to take a bath every day, but if he did not take care of it properly after removing his armor, he would easily get sick.
In ancient times, if you wore armor for a long time and fought, you would easily get a disease called armor-removing wind. It is said that Huo Qubing died young because of this.
That is to say, after a military general wears armor and exercises strenuously, he is sweating profusely and his body is weak. He returns to the camp and quickly removes his armor in order to cool down. As a result, he becomes uncomfortable due to sudden heat and cold, which leads to illness. In severe cases, it can be life-threatening.
.
From a modern point of view, it may be a type of stroke, but in ancient times there were different opinions. It was often said that military commanders were cursed, so people are not particularly clear about the prevention methods of this disease.
Yuan Xi knew one thing, so no matter how tired he was, he had to find a warm place to remove his armor and take a bath in hot water to slow down the cooling process of his body.
You must know that getting sick in ancient times was much more dangerous than in modern times. Traditional Chinese medicine rarely has immediate effects, and you can only rely on your body and conditioning to survive in a short period of time.
If you encounter a serious illness, half of your life will be lost even if you don't die. Therefore, it is not without reason that the life span of ancient people was short.
Yuan Xi dried his body, put on new clothes, and then said to Cao Xian: "Thank you for your hard work, let's eat together."
Cao Xian listened and nodded quickly.
Zhen Mi brought up this matter. She said that since Cai Zhaoji and Cao Xian were all part of the same family, and the food was all served in the same pot, there was no need to separate the meals at two tables.
When Yuan Xi brought Cao Xianji into the house, Zhen Mi and Cai Zhaoji, who were waiting, had the hot food brought out.
Yuan Xi felt hungry, so he picked up the bowl and took a mouthful of rice, then chewed the amaranth. Feeling that the taste was a bit bland, he picked up a piece of pickled dried radish and put it in his mouth.
He sighed with satisfaction: "After a day of fighting, it's great to have something to eat."
Zhen Mi put a piece of fish meat into his bowl and said with a smile, "Everyone is relieved to see that my husband is back safely."
"Today, people kept carrying injured soldiers outside the house, and blood flowed all over the ground along the way. Everyone saw them and they were very worried about my husband."
Yuan Xi said: "No one will die in a war. This has been settled."
He equipped the soldiers who defended the city with armor. Normally, there would not have been so many casualties. However, Sun Ce's generals came to the battle in person. Each of them was a sharpshooter, specializing in shooting arrows at places where armor could not protect them.
Coupled with the soldiers' desperate attack on the city, if Yuan Xi's men were not all veterans, the number of casualties would have been several times higher.
Cai Zhaoji said softly: "Do you want me and Cao Xian to help with the treatment tomorrow?"
Yuan Xi smiled and thought: "It's not yet that time, and there may not be people with dissident intentions in the city at this time. It's enough for me if you protect yourselves."
"But calculating the time, it's almost time. As long as we survive these few days, Sun Ce will naturally retreat."
The girls felt relieved. After finishing their meal, Zhen Mi said, "I've been feeling unwell for the past few days. Do you want Zhao Ji and Cao Xian to accompany you?"
After hearing this, Cai Yan and Cao Xian hurriedly lowered their heads, their faces turning red.
After hearing this, Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Let's wait until tomorrow. I want to go out in the evening."
When the girls heard this, they became worried. Zhen Mi had a worried look on her face, "My husband is going to attack the camp?"
Yuan Xi shook his head: "Don't worry, I won't take risks, and Sun Ce should be eager for me to do this at this time, so I won't be fooled."
"I'm going to Heguo Rang to interrogate someone. You guys need to rest first. You don't have to wait for me."
The three women saw Yuan Xi out of the house, and then came back depressed. Zhen Mi sighed: "Only now do I know what kind of life your husband has been living these years."
"We women don't have to go into battle, but we are much luckier than men."
Cao Xian said softly: "But on the losing side, the fate of both men and women will not be better."
After hearing this, Zhen Mi began to worry again. When Cai Zhaoji saw her, she patted Cao Xian on the head and said, "Don't talk about this. What are you worrying about?"
Cao Xian didn't expect Cai Yan to sneak up on him, so he jumped away with an ouch and crouched down with his head in his hands.
When Zhen Mi saw it, she couldn't help but laugh.
Cao Xian held his head and thought that I am not young anymore. Although I am not as good as Zhao Ji, I am not much different from Madam.
And I've almost figured out why you two were crying at night!