Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1218 Confrontation
Hearing the voice, Cao Zhi shuddered and turned his head subconsciously, then saw Cao Pi striding towards him with a dozen guards.

Cao Pi had a smug look on his face and laughed, "I knew there was something wrong with you two. I've been listening to it for quite a while!"

"Now everything is clear. You actually betrayed the Cao family. Now I've caught you red-handed. You're doomed!"

After hearing this, Cao Zhi was so frightened that he looked at Cao Qing for help, but found that Cao Qing's face was unusually calm, as if she had expected such a thing to happen.

Cao Qing raised his head and said calmly: "Since Third Brother knows, why not kill us now and hand our heads over to Father."

Cao Pi and Cao Zhi were stunned when they heard this, especially Cao Pi, who was unable to react for a moment. Shouldn't Cao Qing kneel down and beg for mercy immediately?

Cao Qing turned to Cao Zhi and said, "Fourth brother, you are different from me. If you ask for mercy from second brother, you may be able to save your life. After all, you are brothers."

"But in the end, we'll have to see how Father will deal with you."

Cao Zhi's lips trembled, and he finally understood at this moment, and said in a trembling voice: "Sister, you knew that my second brother was here, so you deliberately put us in this situation?"

Cao Qing smiled and said, "Fourth brother is very smart, but he is too weak, so he needs me to push him from behind."

"By now, Fourth Brother, you should understand that there is no way out now. What's the point of staying here?"

"If you want to recite poetry and read scriptures, you should stay away from this vortex. Why not follow me now?"

Cao Zhi suddenly hesitated. How could he make the decision in such a short time to give up his status as Cao's descendant and run away to live under someone else's roof?
Cao Pi reacted immediately and waved to the guards around him, "Catch them!"

The guards rushed forward and were about to burst into the room, but saw Cao Qing calmly take out a bamboo tube from the secret compartment beside him, put it on the oil lamp beside him, lit it, and then threw it out.

The bamboo tube drew an arc, crossed the threshold, bounced a few times on the ground, and then fell into the crowd.

The guards reacted immediately after seeing it and screamed, "Oh no! It's the Jin army's fire bombs!"

They scattered in panic, and Cao Pi was dragged away by several guards. Then, seeing that the bamboo tube was about to explode, several guards threw Cao Pi to the ground and pressed him under them, almost killing him.

The next moment, with a loud bang, the bamboo tube exploded, and hundreds of iron nails flew everywhere, knocking the nearest guards to the ground, who rolled on the ground and screamed.

Cao Pi poked his head out and shouted angrily: "Catch them!"

Before he could finish his words, three or four bamboo tubes were thrown out from the door. Everyone was completely numb and screamed as they ran away.

Cao Pi was dragged away face down by the guards at a high speed. His upper body was rubbed against the ground in unbearable pain, and he could not help shouting. However, as soon as he opened his mouth, the mud on the ground was stuffed into his mouth, causing him to cough uncomfortably.

Everyone scattered in panic. Some hid in the corners, some lay in the flower beds, and some hid behind the trees. It was a very ugly scene. They squatted on the ground with their heads in their hands, waiting for the bamboo tube to explode. As a result, they waited for a whole cup of tea, and the yard was still unusually quiet.

They waited for a while, but nothing happened. Finally, a guard noticed something was wrong. He found a shield to cover his body, walked tremblingly to the bamboo tubes, and kicked them with his leg at a high speed.

The bamboo tubes were kicked into the air and bounced a few times on the bluestone road. The crisp sound made everyone present realize that these bamboo tubes were empty!
cheated!
Cao Pi climbed up and angrily gave orders to the guards to rush into the house to search, but as expected, Cao Qing and Cao Zhi were gone.

Cao Pi could not hide his joy. If he caught the two men, Cao Cao might spare them out of kindness or let them go. But now they chose to escape, which meant they were giving up the position of crown prince. The fight for the crown prince was now settled!

But he was afraid that Cao Qing and Cao Zhi would escape to Cao Cao to beg for mercy, which would cause changes, so he ordered the guards to find the trace and chase after them. At the same time, he ordered that if the other party resisted, they could be killed on the spot!

Cao Zhi was being pulled by Cao Qing as he stumbled out of the back door. It was still dark, and in the dim light, the streets were in chaos, with smoke and screams everywhere.

The two of them walked quickly along the wall, and Cao Zhi couldn't help but ask, "Sister, where are we going?"

Cao Qing said without even turning her head: "First find a place to hide, and then find a way to leave the city."

Cao Zhi listened to the shouting and screaming coming from the city wall in the distance, and thought to himself, in this situation, the four gates have long been sealed, how can he get out?

On the top of the city wall, Sima Yi was directing his soldiers to prepare rolling stones and wooden planks, ready to be used when the Jin army attacked the city. But up to now, the Jin army had not yet approached the city to shoot from a distance, and could only throw stones from a distance.

Sima Yi suppressed his anxiety. He knew that the situation in the early stage would inevitably be stalemate. Whoever lost patience first would make mistakes first.

He believed that the Jin army was worried about not being able to capture the city and then being surrounded by Cao's reinforcements, so they would inevitably adopt a suppressive offensive at the beginning. Sima Yi was worried that the Jin army outside the city would block the Wei army inside the city and then cooperate with the Jin army from several other routes to surround and attack the Wei army's reinforcements, and after gradually eroding the Wei army's manpower, they would completely surround Yecheng.

Now both sides were worried about unexpected events, so Zhuge Liang was attacking and Sima Yi was defending, both waiting for the other side to make mistakes. Sima Yi was very patient about this, as his sharpness had already been honed on the border of Weijun. Facing the terrifying grenade attack of the Jin army, it would be foolish to force his way in!
As for whether the reinforcements live or die, it has little to do with the city. The most important thing is to defend Yecheng.

Sima Yi was destined to be a coward, and Zhuge Liang under the city was also frowning. After he guessed that the person on the top of the city was most likely Sima Yi, he began to have other ideas.

He discovered in the past two months that although Sima Yi was young, he was very patient and it was difficult for him to make mistakes on his own initiative. In this case, he had to make plans for a long-term siege.

This plan would be fine under normal circumstances, but now it has two major problems. One is that Cao's army may have reinforcements arriving at any time, and the other is that if the rioters in the city cannot leave the city, they will be completely wiped out by Cao's army in the city in just one day.

In this way, we will miss the best opportunity to capture Yecheng, and perhaps we will never have it again in the future.

Zhuge Liang's mind raced. What could he do in this day?
A counter-espionage tactic? A feint to the east and attack in the west? Besiege Wei to save Zhao? A sneak attack to Chencang?

Flooding Yecheng?

Zhuge Liang was shocked, because this idea had always existed in his mind, but it only became clear at this moment. It was not because he could not think of it, but because his instinct rejected this option.

Because water attack is not like fire attack. Fire attack allows people in the city to escape, while water attack traps people in the city to death. If it is not controlled, it will turn Yecheng into a dead city again, just like the Cao army flooded Yecheng a few years ago.

Although Yecheng had become the base camp of Cao Wei, there were still many people from Jizhou. Zhuge Liang thought to himself that if he used all his means, he would have a good chance of taking Yecheng, but the negative impact that would be caused afterwards would be too troublesome.

He thought about it for a moment and decided to put it aside and try another approach.

Under his command, the trebuchets began to adjust their range and replaced new projectiles, a kind of ball wrapped in linen and ignited, filled with a kerosene mixture.

The outer shell of the sphere was made of extremely thin pottery pieces, which reduced the weight to the maximum extent. When thrown by the catapult at the maximum range, hundreds of balls flew out with a whistling sound, drawing arcs of smoke in the sky, passing over the top of the city wall and smashing into the houses in the city.

The houses in Yecheng are all made of wood and thatched structures, and are closely arranged. The closer to the outer city wall, the more crowded they are. Now, the range of these balls filled with kerosene has more than doubled. After flying over the city wall, they hit the thatched roofs one after another.

The ball exploded, kerosene splashed out, and the roof was instantly ignited. Dozens or hundreds of flames rose up, and people fled from the houses one after another. In just half a quarter of an hour, the flames spread to the entire street, and even blocked the route of Cao's army coming to support.

When the rebels of the Jizhou nobles who had been hiding in the city because of the suppression of Cao's army saw this, they sneaked out to the streets and set fire. For a time, the streets of Yecheng were in chaos, and many people began to rush towards the city gate.

When Sima Yi saw this, he sent soldiers to issue orders, and mobilized some archers to turn around and shoot arrows, killing more than a hundred people who were attacking the city gate, and forcing them to flee in all directions.

Sima Yi looked back at Yecheng and wondered what Cao Cao was doing now. How were Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren defending the city?

When will the reinforcements from Yecheng arrive?
He had a vague feeling that since there had been no news of Cao's reinforcements so far, he was afraid that things were not that simple.

Sima Yi's guess was correct. In the three directions within a hundred or two hundred miles from Yecheng, the Cao army's troops who wanted to return to the rescue were fighting fiercely with the blocking Jin army.

Cao Hong looked at Zhang Xiu who had escaped with injuries, his face gloomy, and said: "The enemy's attack on Yecheng this time is not a sneak attack at all, but a full-scale attack!"

"We were all wrong. Winter is less than a month away. We thought they would wait until next year for the final battle, but we didn't expect them to decide the outcome this year!"

The doctor beside Zhang Xiu was removing the arrowhead from his thigh and applying herbal medicine. Although it was extremely painful, Zhang Xiu gritted his teeth and endured it. At the same time, he said, "I was careless. Chunyu Qiong's attack was not fierce before. I didn't expect that he would send so many people to surround and kill me today!"

Ever since he was assigned to the same team as Cao Hong, he had been thinking about how to defeat the combination of Chunyu Qiong, Lu Su and Jiang Qin. However, after a few months, the opponent did not seem to attack Zhang Xiu, but instead wanted to lead this team towards Qingzhou.

Cao Hong naturally did not dare to advance rashly. If his defense line was disturbed, the enemy might use this side as a breakthrough point.

What made him depressed was that Cao Cao sent Zhang Xiu to take advantage of Jizhou's anger towards the Xiliang soldiers and use Zhang Xiu as a pawn to attract the offensive of the Jin army. However, he did not expect that the Jin army did not fall into the trap and was rather patient. After two months, Cao Hong saw that the enemy's offensive was not fierce and began to be careless. It was not until he learned that the northern defense line had been breached that he wanted to return in a hurry. As a result, the Jin army took advantage of the situation and caught up with him.

Zhang Xiu went into battle as usual, but the other side directly sent out four generals who had never appeared before and had just arrived.

Tibetan Ba ​​Chang Xi and Yan Rou and Xian Yu Fu, two of whom were close and two of whom were far away, were no match for Zhang Xiu alone, but when they surrounded and attacked together, Zhang Xiu could not resist. After more than ten moves, he was shot in the thigh by Yan Rou and fled back injured.

(End of this chapter)