Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 161 The third visit to Xudu, Megatron Huaxia

On October 25, Shen Chen went south and occupied Yanling.

In this way, Guan Yu at Yulin Pavilion, Liu Bei at Wangtian Pavilion, and him in Yanling all showed a tendency to encircle Xu.

The Cao army around Xudu is like them. Xiahouyuan and Cao Hong are around Yulin Pavilion, and Li Dian and Han Hao are around Wangtian Pavilion. The two sides formed a confrontation.

The Weichuan fire burned for a day and a night, and the surrounding land of several square kilometers was turned into scorched earth, and the dust was flying, which could be seen even if it was more than ten miles away.

Soon Xu Du and the messengers at the front line of Guandu, who were traveling to and from Weichuan, discovered this situation, and hurriedly turned their heads to report to Xun Yu and Cao Cao respectively.

Xun Yu was shocked that night, this time was no longer something he could face alone, so he hurriedly sent someone to Guandu to inform Cao Cao of the current predicament Xu Du was facing.

At the same time, he also contacted the powerful families in the city, hoping to gather private troops to stop Liu Bei and Shen Chen's army.

By the 26th, the news that Shen Chen had come to Xudu for the third time had already spread throughout the streets and alleys, and rumors and rumors were everywhere.

This kind of thing cannot be hidden, and the news is already full of wind and rain.

In Xudu city, the city wall is still not built, Cao Cao is still fighting on the front line, and there is not so much money and people to build the city in the rear, so the planning of the whole city is a bit like Luoyang.

There is a city wall in Luoyang, but the city wall is the imperial palace and the inner city, where the emperor and dignitaries mainly live.

The streets are criss-crossed and the houses are row upon row. The outer city in the south of Xudu City is more than five times that of the inner city. As far as the eye can see, there are many shops and large and small signboards all over the market.

Even in times of war, due to the capital of a country, coupled with the gathering of a large number of officials and powerful families, it also attracted countless people.

Just like during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, victims from all over the world would instinctively run to Luoyang, causing the population of Luoyang to exceed 200 million.

Although the current Xudu did not reach the grand occasion of Luoyang's population of more than one million during the reign of Emperor Ling Zhongping, it already had a population of two to three million, and the outer city had more than 30 people.

Some of these people were servants brought by wealthy families, some were common people who served these people, and there were also a large number of merchants engaged in commerce and handicrafts, which together led to the short-lived commercial prosperity of Xudu in the late Han Dynasty.

Zhuque Street in Nancheng is wide and tidy, and there are many restaurants, cloth shops and grocery stores. In a tavern near Shizi Street, some merchants who can afford alcohol, middle-level and lower-level officials, and the middle class composed of small and powerful families are drinking.

Martial law has actually been enforced in the city recently, and people are not allowed to move around at will. However, due to the shortage of supplies, if you don't go to the streets to buy food, you will starve to death, so Xun Yu still stipulates some special time periods for people to go to the streets.

Taking advantage of this time, everyone gathered in the tavern to relieve their addiction. Now there is a shortage of food everywhere. The imperial court does not allow food to be used to make wine, so they can only buy it from the land of Jingzhou. Therefore, it is expensive and can only be bought bowl by bowl.

The people at the bottom do not have enough to eat, and the life of the middle class is not easy.People gathered in the tavern, and the previous casual booze had turned into sips, and they didn't dare to buy the most expensive spirits in Nanyang, only dared to buy some rice wine and millet wine, and tasted it carefully.

"Have you heard?"

The voices of the people in the tavern are not loud, because Cao Jun in black armor walks by in neat steps on the street outside the door from time to time, so they can only talk quietly with their friends at their own tables.

Among them, there was a table with the most people, more than a dozen people gathered together, and it was a group of children from aristocratic families. Unlike ordinary people, they had the best news.

Many people don't even know that Liu Bei's army has arrived in Fenqiu. They only vaguely heard that Nanyang's army has arrived in Rangcheng.

Most of the children of these aristocratic families already knew that Liu Beijun had gone to Fenqiu and arrived at Yulin and Wangtian. Now the court kept the news tightly and did not know about other situations.

Several people at that table were the children of middle-level officials of the Xudu court, and one of them was the son of Rong Shao, the minister's servant. Rong Shao was not a famous person in history, but his official position was very important, and he was Xun Yu's deputy.

Rong Shao's son is named Rong Bin, and he mysteriously said to many friends: "That Shen Chen is here again."

"You just know?"

Someone pouted: "I found out yesterday that General Zuo is now in Yulin."

Rong Bin said: "That's not it. This morning I vaguely heard my father discussing with friends in the hall, saying that Shen Chen has arrived in Yanling."

"what?"

Everyone was taken aback and said, "How is it possible?"

"Why is it impossible?"

Rong Bin said: "I heard this with my own ears."

Someone said suspiciously: "It's not that you've listened to me, or maybe you're joking about it. If rumors spread, your father can't keep you."

"It's not a joke, and I'm not obedient."

Rong Bin frowned and said, "Besides, how do you know that this matter can't be fake?"

The man hesitated for a moment.

He is Huan Kang, the youngest son of Guang Lu Xun Huan Dian, and the younger brother of Huan Fan, Cao Shuang's think tank. Although his father has no real power, he just happens to be the Minister of History. Sometimes, letters are delivered through his hands, and he knows some inside information.

So Huan Kang knew that Xun Yu had transferred Ren Jun to Yanling.

However, these people also know what news to say and what not to say. They are all circulated in their own small circles, and they are all things that everyone knows. Even if they know about confidential things, they will not publicize them.

So he hesitated to speak.

Someone said: "Ji Ning, you were on duty two days ago, could there be some news?"

"I'm not on duty today, so I don't know what happened."

Huan Kang smiled wryly and said: "And there are some things, you also know that you can't talk about it casually, the higher-ups will blame you."

"It's all my own, in private"

Several friends are persuading.

Suddenly someone from the next table asked, "Did you know about the fire yesterday?"

"What fire?"

"Weichuan is on fire, I just came back from Yanling last night, and saw the fire in the direction of Weichuan in the north."

"real or fake."

Everyone at the table was muttering in low voices.

But Huan Kang's expression changed in shock, he turned around to find the man, walked over to hold him back and said, "When did it happen?"

The man was taken aback, seeing that the other party was wearing gorgeous clothes and had a bronze seal on his waist with ink ribbons. He knew that he was a petty official under six hundred shi and he couldn't afford to provoke him, so he hurriedly told the story.

It turned out that this person was a merchant, and he was running around carrying goods. The recent war caused a shortage of grain prices. There were a large number of farm households around Yanling. At that time, Cao Cao’s exploitation of the farm households was not serious. There is a little food left.

So this person went to Yanling to buy some grain and prepared to sell it back to Xu, making a little difference.Unexpectedly, on the way back yesterday, I saw a huge fire in the distance, and the flames that filled the sky almost dyed the entire sky red.

Mountain fires and forest fires were very common in the Han Dynasty. There were more than a hundred recorded fires in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there were countless unrecorded ones. People at that time took it for granted.

Although he didn't know the cause of the fire, he didn't burn himself after all, so this merchant was just a conversation piece after dinner.

At this moment Huan Kang heard and got the news, when he returned to his desk, his face was already pale, Rong Bin and others looked surprised, and asked: "Jining, what happened? "

Huan Kang said in a deep voice: "It seems that the news Jun Qian said is true. I was on duty the day before yesterday, and I ordered you to write a letter to ask General Ren to transfer to Xudu. Yesterday there was a fire in Weichuan, and there was news of Shen Chen's arrival in Yanling. General Ren's entire army has been annihilated, so Shen Chen will be in the thrice!"

Everyone opened their mouths wide, already at a loss.

.

.

On October 27, the Guandu front line.

Cao Cao didn't know the news yet, because Xudu was nearly [-] kilometers away from Guandu, and even a fast horse would have to resupply along the way.

Previously, the communication between Xudu and Guandu was Xudu-Yanling-Wei's-Guandu.

You can change horses in the middle without changing people, and you can pass the book within a day.

But as I said before, a horse can only run at full speed for a few minutes. Even if it rests, it has to run for a while and rest for a while.And you have to bring a lot of bean fine feed to feed it, so that it can last.

But now that the Wei's garrison was wiped out, Shen Chen occupied Yanling, and there was no supply point on the way, so even if he was riding a horse, he couldn't report to Guandu immediately.

This caused Cao Cao to still not know what happened to Ren Jun.

At this time, he is proud of himself.

Because Yuan Jun surrendered.

Early this morning, Zhang He Gaolan saw that the food and grass were about to be exhausted, and Yuan Shao sent his troops to question him again. In desperation, he sent someone to write to Cao Cao, hoping to accept their surrender.

Knowing this, Cao Cao immediately agreed, and the two of them led their troops to vote.

When they arrived, Cao Cao immediately led his elite troops to attack Yuan Shao's camp.

When the news reached Yuan Ying, Yuan Jun was caught off guard. There was an instant chaos, and all of them collapsed at once.

Cao Jun took advantage of the situation and attacked several camps. Wherever they went, Yuan Jun surrendered one after another. There were almost no resistance from [-] elite troops.

Only Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan escaped on their own in a hurry, and fled back to Hebei in a panic.

By evening, Cao Cao had already captured all Yuan Jun, and the aura of Cao Jun in Guandu reached its peak, and his smile never stopped.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Standing on the earth hill south of Cao Ying, Cao Cao saw his soldiers escorting all the captured Yuan Jun to his camp in the distance, with a smile on his face and full of ambition.

This battle wiped out a large number of Yuan Shao's vital forces, and the previous haze was swept away. For Cao Cao, it was indeed a proud thing.

When he was happy, the quartermaster came to report in a hurry and said to Cao Cao, "Report, Sikong."

"What's the matter?"

Cao Cao asked.

The quartermaster said: "There is not much food and grass in the army, and now there are 8 more people, and the food and grass are not enough for one meal."

"Ok?"

Cao Cao frowned.

Yuan Shao's food storage was burned up in Wuchao, but his food and grass really couldn't hold up.

Now there are [-] more mouths, and the little food in stock can't eat a meal.

The most important thing is that these Yuan Jun are all from Hebei. Even if they surrendered to him, their loyalty might not be too high.

So Cao Cao thought for a moment, and a killing intent flickered in his eyes: "Fengxiao."

"Jia is here."

Guo Jia stood behind him like a ghost in the shadows.

"Make people dig a pit and kill all the prisoners."

Cao Cao said lightly.

"only."

Guo Jia gave orders to Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Xu Chu and others.

After a while, he came back and said, "Duke Ming, you have already told the soldiers."

"it is good."

Cao Cao grinned: "Gu defeated Yuan Shao today and wiped out Hebei. It's just around the corner, hahahahaha!"

"Report! Xu is in danger!"

At this moment, the messenger came on horseback, arrived at the foot of the earth mountain, knelt on one knee and said: "Shen Chen laid down and killed General Ren, and the army surrounded Xudu!"

Cao Cao's smile froze immediately, and the air around him also seemed to freeze.

(End of this chapter)