Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1231 City Search
After the explosion at the north gate, Sima Yi, who was stationed there, immediately responded. Not only did he not block the moat under the city gate, but he immediately sent soldiers to dig at the explosion site.

He expected that the Jin army would not give up if they failed to break through the gate. If they transported explosives to blow up the city gate, his side would be too passive. It would be better to take the initiative to dig over and prevent the other side from transporting explosives to the bottom of the city gate!
After receiving the order, Cao's soldiers immediately dug in the opposite direction. The accidental explosion of the city gate inevitably had an impact on the other two city gates. This caused the two sides, who were still tentative at the beginning of the war, to be quickly involved in a more intense fight.

In just half a day, the casualties of soldiers on both sides had far exceeded the average of the past. No strategy was of any use at this time. Both sides could only be forced to continuously send in people. The entire Yecheng was like a huge vortex, constantly devouring lives.

Xiahou Dun in the city, contrary to the expectations of all the aristocratic officials in Yecheng, began to lead soldiers to search the mansions of suspected aristocrats, turning the mansions upside down and searching for evidence of treason and weapons for rebellion.

This tactic of making a show of force had an immediate effect. During this period, two Jizhou noble families had already secretly colluded with the Jin State. When they saw Xiahou Dun searching the city, they thought that the conspiracy had been leaked, so they panicked and rebelled. However, how could they defeat the well-prepared elite troops of Cao's army? In less than a quarter of an hour, the entire mansion was slaughtered.

Afterwards, Xiahou Dun rushed to the next family without stopping, which was also the one he thought was most likely to rebel.

Qinghe Cui family.

When Xiahou Dun arrived, he was ready for a battle, but unexpectedly, Cui opened the door and welcomed Cao's army in.

As soon as Xiahou Dun entered the room, he saw dozens of people from the Cui family standing neatly on both sides, with extremely cold expressions on their faces, and many of them had linen belts tied around their heads.

Xiahou Dun was very unhappy when he saw this and asked, "Who died in the family?"

Cui Yan stood in front of the hall with a mocking smile on his face, "General, you are a forgetful person. It must be the girl from the Cui family who died in the Xu family the day before yesterday and was engaged to the Fourth Young Master."

Xiahou Dun was stunned. He certainly knew the whole story and was extremely angry at Xu Chu for doing such a thing. He had wanted to report Xu Chu after Yecheng was relieved, but he had never expected that Cao Zhi would escape from Cao's mansion because of this incident and his whereabouts have been unknown since then.

This left Xiahou Dun with no place to use his strength. After all, Cao Zhi's move was tantamount to betrayal. What else could he do?
He immediately waved his hand with a sullen face, and hundreds of Cao soldiers rushed into the house like wolves and tigers, searching everywhere and throwing tables, chairs and curtains everywhere. When Cui Yan saw this, he was calm and did not show any panic at all.

When Xiahou Dun saw this, he began to wonder in his heart, could it be that Cui really had no intention of causing trouble?

After the near-death experience a few days ago, it's reasonable to say that he should be somewhat dissatisfied, right?
Or is it because these Jizhou families are actually weak and have no courage to resist?

While he was thinking, the soldiers came back to report that everything was normal in the mansion.

Xiahou Dun was puzzled, so he searched several houses himself and even had all the floor tiles lifted up, but he did not find any secret rooms.

This made Xiahou Dun feel quite frustrated. He walked back and saw white curtains hanging in the front hall, which was obviously set up as a mourning hall.

He was immediately startled and asked, "This girl from the Cui family?"

"Why haven't you buried him yet?"

"How many days has it been?"

Cui Yan, who was following behind, said: "Yecheng is under siege, and we cannot be buried, so we can only stay in the mansion."

After listening to this, Xiahou Dun remained silent. He walked quickly to the mourning hall. As soon as he entered, he smelled a faint foul odor coming from the coffin in front of him, and he felt inexplicably uncomfortable.

He walked around the mourning hall twice and didn't find anything unusual, so he turned around and looked at the coffin. He found that the coffin lid had not been completely nailed shut, with only two nails in it. He walked over and shook it.

Cui Yan said calmly: "If the general wants to examine the body, I can ask someone to open the coffin now."

Xiahou Dun was holding the coffin with his hand, and suddenly he felt a movement inside. He was frightened. He didn't believe it at first, but he had heard that the death of Miss Cui was extremely miserable. He immediately felt a chill in his heart, and quickly took his hand off the coffin, turned around and walked out.

He saw the Cui clan members standing in two rows in the courtyard, waiting, with numbness on their faces but a strange look on their faces. He hesitated. This Cui clan didn't seem normal no matter how he looked at it. They would have to give up Yecheng in a few days anyway. Should he just find a reason to kill them all?
But when the words came to his lips, Xiahou Dun remembered that Cao Zhi was very respectful to him on weekdays, and Xiahou Dun actually had more confidence in Cao Zhi at the beginning. However, now the overall situation has changed, if he does not make his attitude clear to Cao Pi,
He slowly raised his hand, and the Cao army soldiers present subconsciously raised their weapons when they saw this. When the Cui family members saw this, their faces turned pale and their legs trembled.

But until the end, Xiahou Dun still hadn't made up his mind. He walked out and said to Cui Yan behind him: "This house with its many floors and carved buildings is indeed the best in Yecheng. I'm afraid only the King's Bronze Sparrow Tower is slightly better."

Cui Yan said calmly, "This was the old house of the Zhen family of Jizhou. After the whole family moved to Youzhou, no one lived there. After the king obtained Yecheng, the Cui family bought it from the king with money." "If the general likes it, I will give it to the general."

Xiahou Dun shook his head and said, "Forget it, what do I need these for?"

He thought that the Wei army was about to abandon Yecheng, and by then it would probably be reduced to ashes. The Cui family would definitely be abandoned, so let them be buried with Yecheng.

After watching Xiahou Dun finally leave, Cui Yan slowly turned around and glanced casually at the place where the coffin was in the mourning hall.

Next, Xiahou Dun launched a large-scale search and slaughtered several suspicious families. The news quickly spread throughout the city, and people in the city were immediately in a panic, especially the Jizhou gentry. Although they knew that this was a warning to scare the enemy, they could not help but panic. After all, it would be too late to resist if the knife fell on their heads.

In a thatched hut, Yang Feng heard the news from the spy and immediately frowned.

She had previously contacted many families, waiting for the right time to attack the city, and then looked for a good opportunity after dark to start the rebellion, and open the city gate with the help of both sides. However, she never expected that the Cao army had already started to clean up the city after only half a day of fighting!

This caught Yang Feng off guard. Even if she launched the attack now, she would have to wait until night. But the remaining half day was enough for Cao's army to wipe out the problematic family!
Thinking of this, Yang Feng couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. He didn't know what Yuan Xi was doing outside the city. He just came in and blew up the city gate. Didn't he know that it would alert the enemy?
She knew that she couldn't just wait. If she waited another day or two, until Xiahou Dun wiped out all the families, there would not be enough people in the city to attack the city gates, and her infiltration this time would be meaningless!
She thought for a moment, then said to the spies around her, "Send an order to set fires everywhere in the city to attract Cao's army's attention."

This was something she and Guo Jia had discussed before. In case of any unexpected changes, they wanted to delay time as much as possible. Fighting head-on was too irrational, so the most effective way was naturally to set fire.

After receiving the order, the spy quickly slipped to a remote place and released a rocket.

The rockets shot up into the sky and exploded over Yecheng. The spies lurking everywhere looked up and saw them. They took out kerosene, poured it on the pile of firewood prepared in advance, and then set it on fire.

Soon, more than a dozen thatched houses in Yecheng caught fire and began to spread to the surrounding areas.

When the people living nearby discovered the fire, it was already too big to put out. They didn't care about the city restrictions and quickly fled with their belongings.

Upon hearing the news, Xiahou Dun, who was carrying out a large-scale purge in the city, suddenly changed his face and immediately sent people to summon the idle soldiers in the city, asking them to rush to the fire site and find water sources nearby to put out the fire.

At this time, Sima Yi, who was on the top of the north gate, saw the fire in the city and his face changed drastically. He wanted to go down the city to send people to help, but when he looked carefully at the location of the fire, he calmed down instead.

What Sima Yi was worried about was that the fire would spread to the place where he and Cao Cao had previously agreed to bury kerosene and firewood, which might cause a big fire, and then the fire attack plan would fail!
But after careful observation, he found that the places where the fire broke out did not overlap with the places where his troops were deployed. As long as he arrived and put out the fire within half an hour, there would be no impact.

As he was thinking this, he noticed that the fires in several places in the city had begun to go out and the smoke was gradually dissipating.

Sima Yi couldn't help but be stunned. How could it be so fast?
This seems a little too fast. Who is in charge in the city now?
Xiahou Dun?
Sima Yi couldn't help but curse inwardly. Xiahou Dun was one of the few people in Cao's camp who knew about the plan to burn down Ye City. No wonder he was so anxious to put out the fire!

The speed of extinguishing the fire was too fast, much faster than normal. Wouldn't it seem a bit deliberate? If the Jin army knew about it, they might guess something.
Sima Yi was thinking hard when he heard another loud noise under his feet, which scared him so much that he fell to the ground.

After a long while, he stood up carefully. When he got down from the city wall and went to check behind the gate, he saw that most of the soldiers he sent out to dig the tunnel were killed by the explosion, and the rest were lying in the tunnel wailing.

Sima Yi seemed to have realized something. The enemy must have discovered his reverse digging action and was afraid that the Wei army would dig through and counterattack, so he had to detonate the gunpowder in advance. However, due to the hasty situation, the explosion was much smaller, the smoke dissipated quickly, and no extra cracks appeared in the gate.

Sima Yi realized that the other party's original purpose of digging the tunnel was not to dig through the city wall, but to dig under the city gate and then blow up the gate for a strong attack.

The first explosion was probably an accident, resulting in insufficient power and failure, and most of the tunnel was blown down. The second explosion used a backup passage, which was not well prepared, and there was no time to dig under the city gate, so it was hastily detonated after being discovered.

Now it seems that the enemy’s two passages have been blown up and cannot be used, so this city gate is safe for the time being!

He guessed that the Jin army had no time to dig other passages, so the soldiers immediately filled the ground to compact the area under the city gate and shifted their focus back to attacking and defending the city walls.

However, this explosion caused him to temporarily forget about the fire in the city.

Tian Feng outside the city was also extremely depressed. He thought that he had done a very bad job this time. Originally, the North Gate was the most fully prepared and was the most likely to be the first to break into the city, but he had wasted two opportunities in vain. Now he had no extra explosives!
(End of this chapter)