.

Fifty thousand Cao's army was stationed in Huaiyin County, forming a confrontation with Liu's army stationed on the north bank of the Huai River.

.

Looking carefully at the map, Cao Cao frowned and was thinking about something.

After a while, Cao Cao raised his head and looked at Xun You and Liu Ye, a staff officer in charge of the army, and said to himself as if he was asking and talking to himself: "Why haven't they crossed the river and retreated?"

According to the advance predictions of Cao Cao, Xun You and others, Liu Jun would definitely seek to cross the Huai River in the shortest time to cope with the crisis of the ban on the south invasion and the Guangling rebellion. However, the development of the matter was much beyond expectations——

Liu Jun was still stationed in Huaiyin and had no intention of retreating at all. This made Cao Jun, who was originally planning to attack while the enemy crossed the river, feel a little confused...

"The civil strife in Guangling, and the prefect Yu has confirmed that he has crossed the Huai River. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei have no reason to stay in Huaibei." Xun You pondered for a moment and analyzed, "Even if he is ready to give up Guangling, they should never ignore the prefect Yu's army.

After the prefect crossed the Huai River, he could attack Shouchun near, cut off the pass, and Zhang retreated; he could attack Lujiang from afar, directly threatening Liu Bei.

Although Liu Bei occupied the entire Yangzhou territory, he had been fighting for years and had limited troops and had to be stationed in various counties to stabilize public security. Zhang's army at this side was less than 50,000, which probably accounted for half of Liu Bei's military strength, and they were all elite troops.

In this way, how many troops can there be in Shouchun and Lujiang? Could it be that Guan Zhang is sure that he can block the 15,000 army of Yu Taishou if he doesn't return?"

"I'm afraid, there are also concerns that we will be raided by our army after evacuating rashly..." Liu Ye said softly.

"Will it be closed? Zhang has already crossed the river at night, and Huaibei is just an empty camp?" Xu You suddenly contacted and made a very bold guess.

"It's unlikely..." Xun You shook his head, "Forty or fifty thousand people crossing the river, how big a big deal will it cause? How could our army be ignored? Moreover, the scouts had reported that they had been fully hunted by nearly a thousand enemy cavalry.

If the enemy crossed the river, how could he keep such important combat power in Huaibei?"

Cao Cao didn't want to make any unnecessary guesses and asked Xun You: "Where has Wenhe gone? Why haven't new news been sent back?"

"Lord..." Just as Cao Cao asked, Jia Xu just lifted the curtain and entered the tent, "There is a war report in Jizhou!"

"Yuan Rang?!!!" Cao Cao was slightly surprised at first, and then asked anxiously, "Where is the battle report?"

Jia Xu took out a silk book from his sleeve with a little body temperature and respectfully presented it to Cao Cao.

"...The Bohai Sea was conquered!" Expand the silk book. Cao Cao saw a gratifying news at the first glance.

When the Bohai Sea was defeated, all the civil and military officials in the tent couldn't help but feel energetic.

The Bohai Sea is the gateway between Hebei and Youzhou, and its geographical location is extremely important. It is also the last foundation of Yuan Tan in Jizhou. It has always been guarded by Shen Pei, an important official under Yuan Tan. Shen Pei is outstanding in wisdom and strategy. Under his overall coordination, Bohai City is as solid as a rock.

Without almost no support from Yuan Tan, Shen Pei forced himself to resist Cao Cao's army for two years with an isolated city. And Shen Pei was loyal to the Yuan family.

Knowing that he had no way out to persevere, he still had no intention of killing as many as six groups of envoys who came to persuade him to surrender, which made Cao Cao completely discouraged.

Such an unbreakable city finally became Cao Cao's possession. He obtained the Bohai Sea. The door to Youzhou was completely opened, how could it not be happy?

Just as everyone was talking about this matter softly, Cao Cao's expression suddenly changed drastically.

Xun You, Liu Ye and others were careful and immediately noticed Cao Cao's expression changes. I knew that there must be some information, but I'm afraid something is still a bad thing.

"Ba~!" Cao Cao slapped the table suddenly and said with a pale face, "What a Shen Zhengnan!"

"Prime Minister, why are you angry?" Xun You asked cautiously when he knew Cao Cao was extremely angry.

Cao Cao threw the silk book on the table and signaled Xun You to see it himself, but he stood up. He turned his back to everyone, as if he was suppressing his anger.

Xun You picked up the silk book and browsed it quickly, and couldn't help but be alarmed by the contents of the war report.

Although Xiahou Dun conquered the Bohai Sea, the losses suffered were also amazing——

According to Cao Cao's order, Xiahou Dun led a large army to launch a crazy attack on the Bohai Sea. Perhaps because the Bohai Sea's combat power had been exhausted during the two-year siege, Xiahou Dun was surprised to find that the resistance of the defenders had significantly weakened.

After more than a month of siege, there were many loopholes in the defense of the Bohai Sea. Many generals and clans in the city expressed their intention to surrender to Xiahou Dun in private.

Four days ago, the defender of the southern gate of Bohai Province Kaicheng surrendered and welcomed Cao's army into the city. As a result, Yuan's army completely lost the will to resist and surrendered in large numbers. As a last resort, Shen Pei led a few troops to retreat to the inner city.

Bohai is Yuan Shao’s place of fortune. Yuan Shao had carefully repaired the Bohai City and specially built an inner city with the county magistrate as the center, thinking that it would be used to hoard food, grass, gold and silk.

After controlling the situation in the outer city, Xiahou Dun immediately led his army to surround the inner city. After the persuasion of surrender was ineffective, Cao's army immediately launched an attack. Since there were not many soldiers following Shen Pei and fled into the inner city, the inner city fell under a fierce attack.

Shen Pei, who was standing on the roof of the county magistrate's mansion, was surprisingly calm when facing Cao's soldiers surrounded by them.

After kneeling down toward the southwest (Yuan Shao was buried in Yecheng, and Yecheng was southwest of the Bohai Sea), Shen Pei smiled deeply after looking up at the sky.

Just as the Cao army was surprised and puzzled, a sound arrow soared into the sky from behind Shenpeng. Then, the four gates of the inner city and all the buildings were on fire. With the strong northwest wind, the entire inner city turned into a sea of ​​fire in a moment.

In addition, Shen Pei ordered people to lay many items such as sulfur and saltpeter in the city, causing a series of explosions.

The total of more than 6,000 elite Cao's army invaded the inner city, except for more than a hundred people who saw the opportunity and escaped in time, most of them accompanied Shen Pei to the fire, including Xiahou De, cousin of Xiahou Dun.

Xiahou Dun himself was also lucky. He was entangled by more than a dozen surrendered Bohai rich people, so he did not personally lead his army to attack the inner city and escaped from the disaster. Afterwards.

From the surrendered nephew Shen Rong, Xiahou Dun learned that the inner city of Bohai was designed and responsible for the construction of Shen Rong. But even Shen Rong didn't know what secret passages there were in the inner city.

After his death, Shen Pei fulfilled his loyalty to the Yuan family, and even tricked Cao Cao hard before his death.

.

After reading Bi Juan's books one after another, everyone in the tent showed no joy. The young Cao Zhen was so angry that he gritted his teeth. He was of the same clan as Xiahou Defen and had a very good relationship.

After a while, Cao Cao slowly turned around, and the anger on his face had disappeared: "What a Shen Zhengnan, what a Shen Zhengnan!" Although his words were just like before, he no longer had the inclination of murderous intent.

"How lucky is his Yuan family! First there were Tian Feng, Ju Su, and now Shen Zhengnan, all of them are loyal and righteous men from Hebei!" Cao Cao shook his head and sighed.

Xu You's expression changed slightly under the tent. Xu You was originally a counselor under Yuan Shao, but he secretly surrendered Cao Cao during the Guandu Battle. Now he heard Cao Cao praise Shen Pei and others as righteous men in Hebei.

Xu You couldn't help feeling that his face was bleak, and he felt that Cao Cao was igniting himself.

Cao Cao was not unaware of what Xu You was thinking, but he didn't care about this. He turned to Jia Xu and said, "Wenhe, I will order Yu Yuanrang. Let him not be embarrassed to be worthy of his family and escort him to Xudu carefully."

"The whole family of Shen Peidi was burned to death in the inner city of Bohai..." Jia Xu replied softly.

Cao Cao was slightly stunned and shook his head after a moment.

"Prime Minister, except for the war report in Jizhou.

Scouts who have just sent out to inquire about the enemy's situation also rewarded..." Jia Xu continued slowly, "It has been confirmed that the main force of Zhang Dajun is still on the bank of Huai River, but it seems that the enemy's local ships were mobilized last night, and the specific situation is still unknown!"

Cao Cao's eyes lit up, he looked straight at Jia Xu, and asked anxiously: "Have you ever discovered that the enemy navy went out to sea?"

Seeing that Cao Cao had just stopped the key points of the problem, Jia Xu quickly replied: "Xu has ordered the scout to go to Laian, Likou (a few key places where the Huai River flows into the sea) and other places to investigate, but there is no news yet.

But if the enemy navy searches for rivers from Guangling County and walks around the sea, it may be difficult for the scouts to find out..."

"Wenhe means..." Xun You would also be surprised, "Guan, Zhang Yimi sent a few troops to take the navy to Guangling south?"

Jia Xu nodded slightly.

"Depending on the wind direction and wind power these days, if you take a boat south, you may be able to reach Guangling within half a day.

With such a fast speed and waterway, the Guangling Rebel Army may not be able to be prepared for it!" Xun You said with a slightly changed face, "If the situation in Guangling City has been settled, it would not be a big deal; but if it is still in a stalemate, I am afraid..."

Although Xun You did not say it clearly, everyone knows what "I'm afraid" means.

"The Navy..." Cao Cao pressed his right hand heavily on the table, muttering in complex meaning.

With a Jinfan Navy Army, Liu Bei's army occupied a great advantage in mobilizing troops, horses and supplies, and in combat. Under the control of the Jinfan Navy Army, the Huaihe River became a natural line of defense in Liu Bei's army.

It is hard to imagine, if one day the Jinfan Navy controls the Yellow River, what will be waiting for Cao's army...

"Sorry Lu Qian to step up the training of the navy..."

…………………………………………………

Lujiang, the provincial capital

"Lord, General Wen Chang just sent an urgent letter from the Lord!" Xu Shu presented a silk book to Liu Bei.

"Haha..." Liu Bei handed the silk book back to Xu Shu and said with a smile, "It seems that Yun Chang and Kong Ming are preparing to keep Yu Wenze in Huainan..." Recently, news about the ban on the invasion of the south and preparing to invade Lujiang has been circulating in Lujiang City, and has caused panic in the hearts. Some civil and military officials even advised Liu Bei to go to Jiangdong to avoid it for a while.

But Liu Bei himself was surprisingly calm. He calmed down the panic caused by the unpredictable people with a notice, and smiled and refused the kindness of "temporary avoidance".

"Lord, the prefect of Jiujiang Lu (Lu Xun), the He Zhengwei of Danyang (He Qi), and the general Jinlang of Wujun, a total of 15,000 soldiers were coming to Lujiang on boats, and they would arrive at the latest tonight." Xu Shu quickly introduced the reinforcements.
Chapter completed!