Outside Anyi City, two armies of Cao Cao, one in front and one behind, had joined forces.
Inside Cao Jun's tent, Cao Ren and Xia Houyuan looked ashamed and knelt on the ground on one knee, not daring to raise their heads.
The person sitting at the top is actually Cao Cao!
No one expected that he would personally take risks and lead his army to trek hundreds of miles from Yanzhou to Hedong just to take charge of the overall situation in person!
Behind Cao Cao, on one left and one on the right, stood two young men.
The eldest son Cao Ang and nephew Cao Anmin.
These are the two most respected people among the younger generation of the Cao family. In order to train them, Cao Cao took them with him whenever there was war in the past few years and taught them carefully.
The next ones were Xun You and the generals in Cao's camp. Cao Ren and Xia Houyuan wanted to apologize for not taking Huaicheng when they first came to join Cao Cao.
Cao Cao was still bitter about not taking Huaicheng, which was equivalent to cutting off his retreat. Even if he got the emperor, if someone stopped him, he would be in a real dilemma.
But he knew that this was not the time to pursue the case. The most important thing at the moment was to please the emperor, so he waved his hand and said: "That's all, it's an accident and a crime not committed in war. You guys should get up first."
After Xia Houyuan heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly stood up. However, Cao Ren was keenly aware of the word "first" in his words, and he thought that Duke Ming was still very worried.
Thinking about it, Huaicheng has not been captured, and we are already alone. Even if we welcome the emperor, we have to find a new way back, which is not easy to walk.
Li Jue and Guo Si are in the west, Yuan Shu is in the south, the Black Mountain Army is in the north, and Lu Bu is in the east. No matter how you think about it, you are surrounded by many enemies.
He did not dare to speak, so he lowered his head and stepped aside with Xia Houyuan.
Cao Ren's guess was correct. Cao Cao pretended to be nonchalant on the surface, but in fact he felt extremely aggrieved.
It’s not that he didn’t leave a way out for himself, the Montenegrin Army just made a secret move.
Even if Cao Ren did not capture Huaicheng, if Cao's army captured the Emperor, they could go north and enter from the border of Heishan Army, then go south from Jizhou, and then return to Yanzhou to avoid Yuan Shu and Lu Bu in the south.
Although the Black Mountain Army fought with Yuan Shang, they were concentrated at the central pass of the Black Mountain in Zhao County and the southern pass in Wei County, which was still passable.
But the bad thing is that the Youzhou Army sent two armies south one after another, one led by Zhao Yun Ju, which destroyed Cao Ren and Xia Houyuan's attempt to capture Huaicheng.
The other army was actually led by the Yuan family's fierce tiger himself. By chance, it blocked the South Pass. And news came that this fierce tiger actually killed Yang Chou, the secret chess he had laid!
Yang Chou was actually very important to Cao Cao. He was not only a subordinate of Zhang Yang, but also had a close relationship with the Black Mountain Army. As long as he was alive, he could send messages behind the Black Mountain Army and even use it to drive a wedge between Zhang Yang and Lu Bu.
As long as there are rumors about Yang Chou's pretentious things, Lu Bu will be suspicious and will definitely become suspicious of Zhang Yang. If Huai City is in chaos, Cao Jun will take advantage of it.
But after the ferocious tiger killed Yang Chou, he joined forces with Lu Bu to take control of Huaicheng and drove back the Montenegrin army at the southern pass of Montenegro. Now things were very troublesome!
Cao Cao felt that he couldn't see through this fierce tiger of the Yuan family. Did the other party block his path intentionally or by coincidence?
Is it possible that the other party was prepared for what he did?
Cao Cao was horrified when he thought about what this fierce tiger had done in the past two years. He had secretly restrained himself from planning and had failed several times.
Is it true that, as Cao Chun said, there is a traitor among his subordinates?
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
He slowly scanned the crowd, as if trying to find someone with an unnatural expression.
Seeing that Cao Cao was sullen and silent, everyone did not dare to breathe and lowered their heads.
Cao Cao looked at his generals, Cao Ren, Xia Houyuan, Cao Hong, Cao Chun, Le Jin Yu Jin, and most of his generals were present.
Then there was the big man standing at the door of the camp.
He has a muscular back and a muscular waist, eight feet tall and weighs more than 200 kilograms. He is like an iron tower. Although the two short halberds in his hands are made of ordinary iron, they have one unique feature.
Heavy!
The two halberds total eighty kilograms, thirty-nine in the left hand, and forty-one in the right hand. There are almost no people who use weapons of this weight in infantry combat or even immediately!
You know, if a weapon weighs more than 20 kilograms, it has almost no actual combat value because its swing speed is greatly reduced.
The weight of these two halberds is the same as the stone locks used by military commanders to practice martial arts. They are fine for training strength, but how can they be used to chop people?
The two short halberds used by Lu Lingqi weighed less than ten kilograms in total. She also tried to make the weapon heavier, but found that it was inconvenient to swing. Although the lethality was high, the swing speed was greatly reduced, and it could not cut anyone, so it was useless.
Now, Dian Wei was holding this 40-pound short halberd and shaking it gently in his hand, as if he was holding an extremely light toy.
He also constantly uses the double halberds to strengthen his arms. He is worthy of being a famous martial arts idiot in Cao Ying!
Cao Cao withdrew his gaze. None of the people present would betray him. Even if there was a traitor, would he not do anything?
Moreover, Cao Cao was sure that, not to mention whether there were any ferocious spies among his subordinates, there must be Yuan Shao's spies, but whether he was able to guard against the light or the dark, in the end, it all depended on his strength.
The reason why Yuan Shao left him alone was because he felt that he was still weak, otherwise he would have had the opportunity to serve the emperor in his turn?
Cao Cao felt that in the past two years, although his expansion of power was not as good as expected, he had accumulated a lot of trump cards, and the next two years would be his best opportunity.
After Yuan Shao defeated Gongsun Zan, although it looked like a great victory, Gongsun Zan was not a mediocre person. The last battle had actually damaged Yuan Shao's vitality a lot, not only killing many elite soldiers, but also draining his life.
After the Jizhou grain depot was opened, the grain obtained from Yijing was far from being able to make up for the shortfall.
Xun You, Cheng Yu and others estimated that it would take at least two to three years for Jizhou to fully recover.
This is why Jizhou hesitated when it planned to send troops to Montenegro. It was afraid that it would be dragged into a war of attrition, and Jizhou could not support it.
Compared to Yuan Shao, Cao Cao has a bigger headache, but the Yuan family’s fierce tiger!
They seem to be extremely militaristic and have been fighting for the past two years. However, in fact, the number of troops used is not very large. Most of the time, they are suppressed to a few thousand people, and they often use defensive battles to reduce losses.
In the several battles of the Youzhou Army under his command, from the Battle of Qingzhou to the Battle of Yijing, and then to the Battle of Xuzhou, they all used others as the main force. However, the Youzhou Army itself did not suffer much losses, and gradually became weaker and weaker.
The sound gradually grew stronger.
This time Youzhou sent troops, they also used Yuan Shangjun and Lu Bujun!
Thinking of this, Cao Cao became even more alert. This man was causing too much trouble. If possible, it would be best to get rid of him as soon as possible!
He looked around at everyone and said, "The emperor is now in Anyi City, and the city is controlled by the Baibo Army."
"A few dozen miles west of Anyi is the Liangzhou army of Li Jue and Guo Si, and possibly Zhang Ji."
"Yuan Shu's army from the south is coming from Luoyang."
"Lü Bu and the Youzhou Army will arrive in a few days from the east."
"Now we have not received the emperor's edict. In order to let the Baibo thieves in the city relax their vigilance, we did not enter the city just now, but we cannot continue like this."
"We must find ways to enter the city. I want to hear your opinions."
"War or peace?"
"Who do you fight with and who do you make peace with?"
After hearing this, the generals began to discuss one after another. Everyone felt that the Baibo bandits were inferior to Cao's army, but if the Baibo bandits refused to defend the Anyi city and Cao's army attacked the city, they would suffer great losses.
At this time Xun You said leisurely: "You have something to say."
"The Baibo thieves are mostly peasant bandits in the mountains. Their military discipline is weak and they are vulnerable to attack."
"But if he threatens the emperor and makes us throw a rat weapon, it will not be easy to handle."
"Even if we can defeat them, we cannot retain sufficient strength to deal with other enemies."
"But we don't want to delay it any longer. We have to solve it quickly, otherwise our food and fodder will also be a problem."
Cao Chun said: "I am willing to break into the city at night and kill all the Baibo thieves!"
Cao Ren objected: "The Baibo thieves are not stupid. They can defeat Li Jue and Guo Si, and they will not be able to steal the city so easily."
Cao Chun had nothing to say, but he still felt that what Cao Ren said seemed strange?
Xun You said: "Now is the time to use strategy."
"If we can cause the Baibo bandits to cause civil strife, or attack others, and wear out both parties, our chances of success will be greatly increased."
"And we must have a good reputation and obtain the emperor's edict to quell the chaos in order to convince the world."
After hearing this, Cao Cao nodded and said, "Gongda's words are very much what I like!"
He waved everyone to leave, leaving Xun You to stay, and asked: "I wonder who is best to fight with whom?"
Xun Yu smiled and said: "Of course it is the biggest one around the emperor."
"The Emperor is already wary of him. If he is desperate, he will definitely seek help from us who are closest to him. All we need now is a push."
So several secret letters were sent out from Cao's camp that day, brought into the city by spies, and handed over to several people.
That night, rumors began to spread faintly among the officials and ministers in Anyi City, and even among the common people, that Dong Cheng was secretly colluding with others to kill Yang Feng and Han Siam!
The news soon reached Yang Feng and Han Xian, and they couldn't sit still. Dong Cheng was the most powerful person around the emperor Liu Xie. Not only did he have the support of many ministers, but he also had his own soldiers. If he was against Bai Bo,
When a thief becomes murderous, people like himself are in danger!
Strike first to gain the upper hand!
As for whether the rumor was true or false, they didn't bother to verify it. So what if it was false?
The Baibo thieves will break up with Dong Cheng sooner or later, and now they just need an excuse!
I was really dozing off, and someone brought me a pillow!
Yang Feng and Han Xian immediately mobilized the Baibo thieves in the city to attack Dong Cheng's military camp. Dong Cheng was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. While resisting with all his strength, he ran to Liu Xie and cried.
Now he still has some soldiers, but they were suddenly dispersed and unable to make an effective counterattack. He can only place his hope on Liu Xie.
He knelt on the ground, crying and crying: "Your Majesty! Please save my life!"
Liu Xie looked at Dong Cheng on the ground and felt a little happy in his heart. You also have today?
But Liu Xie understood that Dong Cheng could not die, otherwise there would be no one around him who could fight against the Baibo thieves, and he would be completely reduced to a puppet manipulated by others.
Liu Xie immediately said: "Don't worry, I will mediate for you."
Liu Xie asked the palace servants to bring a message to the Baibo thieves to mediate. The correct response was that Dong Cheng had deceived the emperor and deserved death. The Baibo thieves only killed one of them.
When Dong Cheng heard this, his face was ashen and he kowtowed desperately. Dong Guiren on the side saw this and knelt down too, with tears streaming down his face.
Liu Xie thought to himself, I don’t have any soldiers now, what else can I do?
At this time, a man walked out, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, the Baibo thieves are becoming more and more unscrupulous. If this continues, sooner or later there will be trouble. They should be eradicated as soon as possible."
Liu Xie took a quick look and saw that it was Zhong Yao who spoke.