Xiaoqi

"Old man, listen to me! My lord is the king of dragons and phoenixes among the people. He holds the power and authority in the world. For many years, no one has dared to talk to my lord like this! Today's visit is for the sake of my lord's wife." , come here condescendingly, you old guy is so arrogant and arrogant, you have repeatedly humiliated my lord. I think your eyes are white, dog eyes look down on people, and you are tired of working!"

Compared with the words that Qiao Gong yelled at Li Li before, Huan Fei's words were truly powerful, scolding Qiao Gong bloodyly, and trembling with fright.

"Bang, presumptuous!" Seeing that Huan Fei was about to attack Mr. Qiao, Li Li jumped up and said sharply, "Flying Tiger, don't be rude, back down!"

"Wenchang" Just as Huan Fei walked back to the hall angrily, a clear and affectionate exclamation came into the main hall.Immediately, I saw a graceful figure rushing towards Li Li, and the moment Li Li heard the sound, his body trembled violently, and he turned around at Mu Ran, and then he opened his arms to embrace the figure in his arms.

"Brother Shenlong, I'm finally waiting for you!" Qianruo Boneless Qianying hid in Li Li's arms, murmured weeping with joy.

Embracing the beauty, the man said emotionally, "Fish beauty, it's really you!"

"Ah! Xiao Qiao, you,,,,,,," just as the two concubines in the hall were embracing each other tightly, Qiao Gong pointed at the woman in Li Li's arms, and screamed in surprise, then rolled his eyes, from the seat The chair slid off and fell unconscious on the ground.

Chapter 527

Night fell slowly, and gusts of evening wind drove away the heat waves.

Xuzhou, Cao Jun Camp.

Prior to this, heavy rain fell intermittently for more than ten days, making the ground muddy and making it difficult for the army to attack the city.

Then the weather cleared up, and the army could finally continue to attack Tancheng. Unexpectedly, the Xuzhou army took advantage of the rain to repair the city, and raised the city wall from more than two feet high to three feet.

Therefore, even though Cao Jun had the ambition to capture Tancheng in one fell swoop, the whole army marched forward bravely, but they were met with the most tenacious resistance of the Xuzhou Army, and they did not retreat in a deadly battle.

In this way, after repeated bloody battles, Tancheng is still in Tao Qian's hands, and Cao Jun is still stationed in place, unable to advance an inch.

The battle has reached this level, both sides are at the end of their strength, and whoever can grit their teeth and persist until the last moment will win the victory.

But in comparison, the current situation is undoubtedly in Tao Qian's favor, playing at home, the right time, place and people are all on his side.However, the Cao army with strong combat power, although the soldiers are fine and brave, and the master is wise and wise, there are many unfavorable factors that plague him, making him in a dilemma.

Around the large tents of the Chinese army, there were flickering torches at first sight, the tents were brightly lit, and there were scattered bonfires in every corner of the camp, the figures were bustling, very lively.

However, at this time, the atmosphere inside the Chinese military tent was solemn and depressing, completely opposite to the lively scene outside the tent.

"Why don't you talk?" In the main seat, Cao Cao still looked strong and steady, with a calm expression and a relaxed expression, as if he was not worried about the current battle situation at all.

On both sides of the steps, more than a dozen generals from each battalion were sitting cross-legged at this time, among which major generals such as Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Yu Jin, and Le Jin sat in the front row.But at the moment, they looked solemn, frowned, and sat upright, all looking like they were suffering and hating each other.

Since the siege of the city.Although Tao Qian's Xuzhou army suffered heavy casualties, almost double the casualties of Cao's army, Tancheng was still as stable as gold and could not be attacked for a long time.The generals of each battalion were naturally not happy when the battle was not going well.

However, there are not many good strategies available in the siege battle. Methods such as luring the enemy out of the city, feigning surrender and defeat, tunnel siege and fire attack and flooding have been used successively, with little effect.In other words, these tactics may be useful to others, but for Tao Qian who never thought of defeating Cao Jun.Useless at all.

No matter what method Cao Jun used or what strategy he came up with, Tao Qian always used one method to deal with it, that is: defend, defend to the death!

He blocked most of the gates of Tancheng.Only one south gate for supplying food and grass was left, and the entire south of the city was built into an urn city.Since then.As long as the city wall of Tancheng is still there.Before it completely collapsed and the defenders were not dead, Cao Jun would never want to capture the city.

The most important thing is that Tao Qian never thought about what to do to Cao Jun, let alone defeat Cao Jun.Everything he did had only one purpose, and that was to stop Cao Jun's attack, burning, killing and looting at all costs.Cao Cao was forced to retreat.That's all.

If you don't want to be strong, you can stand on a wall.

No matter who encounters an opponent like Tao Qian, they will be very distressed. Apart from attacking and killing Tao Qian by force, all kinds of schemes will be in vain.

That's it.For more than a month, Cao's army had nothing to gain except the city they captured before. They were blocked under the city of Tan for nearly two months without gaining an inch of land.

After hearing the question from the lord Cao Cao, all the generals bowed their heads in silence, their fighting spirit was far less than that at the beginning of the expedition.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Seeing that everyone was silent, the general Cao Ren coughed a few times, moistened his dry throat, and said in a low voice: "My lord, since the attack on Tancheng, I have tried everything, beheaded Tao The tens of thousands of soldiers under Qian's tent are considered to have made considerable military exploits. In the past half a month, our generals have not feared life and death, and took the lead in attacking the top of the city, trying to gain a firm foothold on the tower and take the city in one fell swoop. However , the three brothers Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei each guarded a gate. They are highly skilled in martial arts and never retreat in deadly battles. If we can't capture Tancheng to replenish food and grass, then we can only return to Yanzhou.

Therefore, the general suggested to build as many catapults as possible. I don't believe that the city wall of Tancheng is an iron wall that cannot be smashed.Within half a month, we will fight Tao Qian to the death. If we still can't take this city, then we,,, have no choice but to withdraw our troops. "

Cao Ren's remarks were not so much a suggestion as a way to exonerate the general in the account, but they were actually a disguised form of persuading Cao Cao to withdraw his troops.

In fact, Cao Ren asked about the food and grass situation in the army yesterday, and the result was very bad. The army only had five days' food left.This means that if the army withdraws at this time, they can barely drink some porridge on the way, and they will not return to Yanzhou hungry; if they continue to fight, they will run out of food in four days.

However, Cao Ren would never disclose such a top-secret matter, so he just lied that the army still had half a month's supply of food, just to reassure the generals of the battalions, so as not to panic and shake the morale of the army.

"Do you have any objections to Zixiao's words?" Cao Cao's thick eyebrows frowned slightly upon hearing Cao Ren's words, and his eyes lost focus for a moment, but this uneasy expression was fleeting and no one noticed.

Apparently, Cao Cao had already shown no signs of emotion or anger, and no one could see the clues from his face, let alone understand his thoughts.

"I have no objection, my lord, please make a decision." All the generals in the hall got up one after another and bowed in response.

"Yeah." Cao Cao nodded slightly, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, he waved his hand and said, "Since that's the case, let's do what Zixiao said. It's been a day of bloody battle, everyone, go down and rest early."

"Promise!" All the generals took orders in unison, and then left the big tent one after another, each leaving.

After everyone left, Cao Ren and Cao Hong brothers still stayed in the military tent and did not leave, still sitting in their respective positions.

"Hey! If Xun Yu is here, he must have a strategy to defeat the enemy. Unfortunately, he stayed in Yanzhou and couldn't escape." Watching the generals leave, the smile on Cao Cao's face disappeared instantly, and he sighed with a gloomy face.

"My lord, don't worry too much. Victory or defeat is a common matter in military affairs. What's more, we have captured more than half of Xuzhou this time, and we are not defeated." Cao Ren said in relief.

Cao Cao shook his head slightly, and said in a deep voice with deep eyes: "Zixiao doesn't need to comfort me, and don't be too optimistic. We attacked Xuzhou twice, and although we captured more than ten cities, we did not kill Tao Qian after all. We captured Tancheng If Tao Qian is not dead, it means that we will not be able to get Xuzhou, as long as our army withdraws, all the cities we occupied before will return to Tao Qian's hands sooner or later."

Speaking of this, Cao Cao paused for a moment, and then said rather annoyed: "I underestimated Tao Qian too much before! I thought he was over [-] years old, at best he was just dying. He is old and nothing to be afraid of. In addition, the Xuzhou army has been out of battle for a long time, and its combat power is weak. Although there are many soldiers and horses, they are vulnerable to a single blow. Unexpectedly, the result is now like this. Tao Qian's influence in Xuzhou. It is precisely because of the will of the people. That's why Tao Qian has been able to hold on until now. Right now he still has the power to resist, but our army is running out of food and grass, so it is difficult to fight for a long time. Tao Qian If the sun does not die, I, Cao Cao, will not be able to attack Xuzhou, and the old thief Tao Qian deserves to die!"

After hearing these words, Cao Ren and Cao Hong nodded in agreement.But the expressions on their faces were very heavy, resentful and melancholy.

While deep in thought, Cao Cao faintly heard the sound of galloping horses, and his expression was shocked.He asked Cao Hong urgently: "Miaocai and Yuanrang led their troops to follow Li Li for a month, right? Has there been no news before?"

Cao Hong nodded and said: "My lord Meng,,, what you said is right. It has been a full month since Miaocai left the camp, and it has been more than a month, almost two months, since elder brother Yuan Rang led the dead men of the family to follow Li Li. But before I haven't received any spy reports from their trip, it must be because Li Li is so scheming and extremely alert that Yuan Rang and they have no time to send someone back to deliver the letter."

Cao Hong originally wanted to call Cao Cao's name directly, but when he thought of Xia Houyuan and Xiahou Dun's brothers, he felt a palpitation inexplicably, so he immediately changed his words, for fear that Cao Cao's irritability would be blamed on himself.In addition, although he intended to comfort Cao Cao in his words, he was actually comforting himself.

After Cao Cao heard the words, his face showed worry, and he tapped on the Shuai case with his fingers, so as to relieve his worry and anxiety.

Seeing this, Cao Ren said in a low voice: "Miaocai and Yuan Rang fought together, and there were more than 300 family dead soldiers accompanying them. If the soldiers and guards accompanied him, then he would definitely be doomed this time, and would definitely die in the hands of Yuan Rang and Miaocai. If Li Li hadn't gone south secretly, the two brothers must have returned to Dongjun long ago. From this point of view, they must have I found the whereabouts of the little thief Li Li, and then led my troops to follow along, waiting for the opportunity to strike. If my judgment is correct,,,,,,"

"Report to the Eastern County to explore the horse urgently!"

An urgent report interrupted Cao Ren's words, and then he saw his soldiers walking into the tent with bamboo slips in their hands, while Cao Cao, who was in command, had already got up, ran up to him, snatched the slips, and signaled his soldiers to retreat.

"Huh, huh, huh!" Flipping through the bamboo slips quickly, Cao Cao's slightly dark and thin cheeks showed surprise and surprise.After reading the letter, his expression was dull, and his eyes were filled with extremely complex expressions. Hesitation, astonishment, sadness, surprise and other emotions appeared in his eyes one after another, but in the end he stayed above surprise.However, the expression on his face was very heavy, with a hint of sadness.

"My lord, what happened?" Seeing that Cao Cao looked sad and dazed, the two brothers Cao Ren and Cao Hong hurriedly got up and moved closer to them.

Cao Cao woke up when he heard the sound, handed the bamboo slips to Cao Ren without saying a word, then walked slowly to the handsome seat and sat down.

"Ah! Yuan Rang is dead?" Flipping through the slips quickly, Cao Ren exclaimed in surprise, and then said in shock: "The more than 300 family members were almost killed and injured, and there were only three people left after the war, including Lian Miaocai! ,How can this be?"

Cao Hong leaned next to Cao Ren, saw the contents of the letter, and then said with a dull face, "Yuan Rang is dead? Miaocai is dying. How bad is it?"

"Li and Li are dead too!" Seeing the unbelievably horrified expressions of Cao Ren and Cao Hong, Cao Cao said word by word in a serious tone.

"This,,,,,," brothers Cao Ren and Cao Hong were astonished when they heard this, and the expressions on their faces were also extremely complicated, mixed with sadness and joy, and with mixed feelings.

Xiahou Dun died tragically, Xiahou Yuan was in danger, and Xiahou's family members were killed and injured, but they finally dragged Li Li into the torrent and died at the bottom of the water.It's just that the price is too high!