Compared with other counties, Runan County is indeed a very difficult bone to gnaw, so after Cao Ren led the army into Runan County, he was resisted by the Runan Yellow Turban Army in Dingying County.

Liu Pi, He Man and He Yi led 20,000 elite Yellow Turban troops to resist the crusading army led by Cao Ren.

Chen Gong observed the situation of this Yellow Turban Army before the battle, and found that many of them were using standard weapons.

Wearing armor, wearing helmets, and cavalry, and waving the banner of "Chen", it seems that he thinks he is the army of the pseudo-Chen Empire.

"It seems that what the intelligence said is not wrong, Runan Yellow Turban responded to Yuan Highway and was named a general by Yuan Highway, and all of them were absorbed, and now this Yellow Turban Thief is already Yuan Highway's army, and the army is much better equipped than other Yellow Turban Army, Cao Yangwu cannot be underestimated."

Chen Gong cautiously assessed the strength of this Yellow Turban Army.

Cao Ren also carefully observed the formation of this army, and felt that this army was not weak, and the morale was not weak, so he retreated more than ten miles and camped on the spot.

Then he sent his subordinate general Yan Liang to lead a force to feint and test the strength of this Yellow Turban Army.

Yan Liang led the army to feint to attack the Yellow Turban Camp The Yellow Turban Camp was built on Dingying County, and the defense was quite strong, Yan Liang didn't dare to get too close, so he sent people to challenge.

At the beginning, the Yellow Turban Army refused to fight, so Yan Liang sent people to scold according to what Chen Gong said, and the more ugly the scolding, the better.

Sure enough, the Yellow Turban Army couldn't help it, He Yi led an army of 3,000 to engage in the battle, and the two fought face-to-face.

After Yan Liang returned to the camp, he told Chen Gong and Cao Ren about the situation, and Chen Gong and Cao Ren knew that they were not impatient, and waited here for the arrival of large ordnance such as trebuchets in the rear.

Then send Yan Liang to challenge and scold every day.

The Yellow Turbans did not react.

After being defeated by Yan Liang once, he seemed to realize that Cao Ren's side was relatively strong, and he didn't dare to rush into battle, wanting to consume Cao Ren's military rations by defending to the death.

Cao Ren was not worried at all, his heart did not fluctuate, and he even wanted to laugh.

If we drag you for a few days, we won't be able to fight, and all the grain guards should be beheaded.

Just take this opportunity to give the army that forcibly marched to break through Yingchuan for a few days to recuperate, eat something good, recuperate, and prepare to break the enemy in a battle later.

It is said that after the implementation of the tuntian system, the two prefectures of Qingyan have been very mature.

Except for the peasants themselves, the grain handed over had basically met the needs of the army, and Guo Peng's army was probably the only army of all the warlords that was not plagued by food shortages.

In this context, Guo Peng began to seek to improve the treatment of the army, increase some military salaries, and then improve the richness and taste of military food.

In ancient China, military rations paid the most attention to filling the stomach and paid the least attention to taste, or it can be said that the military rations of all countries in the world were the same.

There is no doubt that only crops that are commonly cultivated and have considerable storage space can be used as military rations, and Guo Peng, on the premise of achieving sufficient military rations, began to consider increasing nutrition for the army and training more elite soldiers who are good at fighting.

It is in this context that the strategy of raising ducks and controlling locusts is proposed.

Ducks can control locusts, so that there has been no locust plague in Qingyan Erzhou in recent years that is enough for Guo Peng to warn, not that there is none, but the scale is quite small, not enough to endanger the harvest of grain, and directly sent people to extinguish it.

After the ducks grow up, they are purchased from the farmers at military expense for the meat of the army, and they can also give the farmers a little spare money, which can be regarded as a move to benefit the people, so Guo Peng's army is also the only army in the whole Han Dynasty that can eat meat on time.

In addition to this, Guo Peng will also pay attention to other nutrients of the army, and will pay attention to providing fish, vegetables and fruits for the army.

Not all the tuntian is planted with grain, but there are also places where vegetables and fruits are grown on a concentrated scale, and there are also organized coastal fishermen who concentrate on fishing, both of which Guo Peng will supply to the army on time and in quantity.

In addition, in order to ensure that the army can eat enough salt and have enough strength, Guo Peng organized people to make special salt, and then make easy-to-store pickles for the army.

So while other armies were going up the mountain to pick fruits and go down to the river to fish in order to have a full stomach, the 200,000 troops under Guo Peng had already stepped into a new field.

Although it is expensive, it is important to be able to assemble an army that is strong enough and loyal to fight.

If the army is not well fed, it will certainly not be able to lead the soldiers, and if the army is not well fed, it will not be able to enhance the combat effectiveness and loyalty of the army.

The Kuomintang army was far more wealthy than the communist army, but in terms of the real treatment of grassroots soldiers, it never exceeded the treatment of grassroots soldiers of the communist army.

Guo Peng knows this very well, so he has never slacked off in the treatment of the army.

A portion of the taxes collected and the profits from the war horse trade were always used to ensure the supply of the army, and he was the only warlord like him who valued the treatment of the army.

Therefore, no matter what time it is, Guo Peng's army can always maintain relatively strong morale and combat effectiveness, and more importantly, dare to fight, which is incomparable to most other warlord armies.

Therefore, the Yellow Turban Army is the Yellow Turban Army, although it has been slightly more regular equipment, but neither the training level nor the tactical strategy can be compared with Guo Peng's regular army, and the Yellow Turban Army is still not out of the category of bandit army.

Therefore, in Chen Gong's entire plan, the Yellow Turban Army is just a small trouble, and it is not difficult to occupy the entire Runan County, but the more difficult thing is that after occupying Runan County, it is necessary to disperse the troops to suppress the bandits everywhere.

In addition to the Yellow Turban Army, there are also quite a lot of bandits in Runan, one hill after another, bandits are numerous, and if the bandits are not suppressed, they will not be able to smoothly occupy Runan County, and they will not be able to smoothly resume their rule and production, let alone make strategic preparations for going south to Jingzhou in the future.

Guo Peng decided to plan tuntian in the entire Runan County, and mobilized the strength of at least 300,000 households to tuntian to make food reserves for the subsequent expedition to Jingzhou.

In any case, grain must be put in the first place, and no matter where he seizes, Guo Peng must first see whether he can cultivate farmland, whether he can establish administrative villages and townships, whether he can implement his own policies, and whether he can gather a certain amount of mobilization force.

This is the main one, and everything else is secondary.

In particular, Runan County, which was destroyed by bandits and the Yellow Turban Army, had almost all normal order, was of greater significance to Guo Peng.

On September 27, the second year of Xingping, all the ordnance that Cao Ren needed was delivered, and the powerful suppressive firepower brought by fifty trebuchets arrived, Cao Ren smiled, and Chen Gong also smiled.

On the 28th, Cao Ren commanded the army to form a complete army formation to attack Dingying County, and the Yellow Turban defenders saw that Cao Ren had launched a general attack, and immediately defended with all their might, strictly guarding the camp and the city, and refused to fight, but this soldier could not stop Cao Ren's offensive.

The trebuchets were in front, and thirty of the fifty trebuchets were dispatched, lined up in a row, aiming at the camp of the Yellow Turban Army.