After so many years, it was rare for Yuan Shao to say such warm words to his inconspicuous second son, and Yuan Xi's heart was shocked when he heard it in an instant, and he was a little sour.

He didn't dare to be a little proud, and hurriedly said: "The third brother's ability is far above his son, if he goes to guard Liyang, I'm afraid that he will lose even more." ”

As soon as Xu You heard this, he became angry, and glared at Yuan Xi again and again, thinking to himself, how can you be so unproductive.

Yuan Shao's expression became more and more appreciative, and he nodded: "I didn't expect you to be so modest, not bad, not bad, the current situation requires you to have such a calm and calm attitude." ”

Xu You didn't expect Yuan Shao to praise him, he was secretly happy in his heart, and hurriedly said: "In this case, why don't the lord recall the third prince and let the second son go to guard Liyang." ”

As soon as Yuan Xi heard this, his face immediately changed in fright, and he hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, no, no, with my ability, I can't afford this heavy responsibility." ”

Tian Feng hurriedly said: "I have persuaded before, the lord has to personally go out to guard Liyang, now that the matter has come to this, Liyang City has been surrounded, in this case, how to change the general, can only let the third prince continue to be firm." ”

Yuan Shaoben was still hesitating, and when he heard Tian Feng's words, he had to give up.

He took a deep breath and said proudly: "Fortunately, I have strengthened Liyang in advance, as long as Shang'er doesn't make any more mistakes and holds Liyang for me, it will definitely take time when the thief's spirit is exhausted, and at that time, it will be the day when I will go south with my army and take revenge!" ”

……

The siege began.

Yuan Shao's wishful thinking was good, but Yuan Shang in Liyang City didn't know, seeing that the rescue was delayed, he gradually became uneasy in his heart, and he didn't know if he was given up by Yuan Shao.

The siege of the Soviet army completely cut him off from the outside world, and he could only defend it in uneasiness.

Su Zhe showed twelve points of patience this time, for nearly three months, every day in addition to digging a ditch outside the city, digging a ditch, three layers inside and three layers outside, trapping Liyang City to the point that even a fly could not fly in.

Of course, Su Zhe has the capital to spend with Yuan Shao.

The tuntian system, which was implemented in the early years, finally blossomed and bore fruit at the critical moment of this Northern Expedition and played a huge role.

Huainan, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Yuzhou, Jingzhou, and millions of grains and grass obtained from Tuntian in all directions converged in all directions to Yanjindu on the south bank of the Yellow River, and then transported across the Yellow River to the Liyang front.

The granaries in various places have long been full, and the people do not have to worry about eating grain, and the grain collected is enough to supply his army of more than 100,000 for a year.

The grain and grass are not worried, and Su Zhe naturally has the confidence to go down with Yuan Shao.

And his opponent Yuan Shao did not have such a good time.

Previously, in order to destroy Su Zhe in one fell swoop, Yuan Shao collected nearly one million grains and grass, but he did his best to fish, and wantonly scavenged grain and grass from the people.

If Yuan Shao had won the battle of Guandu and seized the Central Plains, the consequences of exhausting the water and fishing could naturally be easily offset.

But now that he has been defeated, he has not been able to get the Central Plains states to make up for the loss of Jizhou's population and land, and the direct consequence is that the fields cultivated by the counties have decreased sharply this year, and the grain that can be harvested has naturally decreased sharply.

In addition, Su Zhe has not been idle in the past three months, and has used meteorological satellites to launch several meteorological disasters against several major grain-producing areas in Jizhou, which has made Yuan Shao worse and made Yuan Shao's food crisis even worse.

Yuan Shao was short of food, so he naturally did not dare to lead the army south to save Liyang, so he could only keep dragging it back, and at the same time, he could use drastic means to wantonly loot the people's rations.

In this way, the people are naturally complaining, not to mention fleeing one after another, and there are even many counties that openly killed the county order and rebelled, stirring up Jizhou is panicked and turbulent.

Su Zhe was so consumed, drinking big bowls of wine all day long, eating meat in large chunks, not moving a single soldier, and sitting and watching the Yuan Tong District collapse.

Before I knew it, it was winter.

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers have thick winter clothes to keep out the cold, and they don't have to worry about having enough to eat every day.

And the Yuan army, who was besieged in the city, had a miserable life.

Yuan Shao put a lot of grain and grass in Liyang City, but it only lasted six or seven months at most, but he didn't expect that Su Zhe was so patient that he would be sleepy for more than half a year.

Seeing that the surplus grain was less than a month left, and he didn't know when Yuan Shao would come to the rescue, Yuan Shang had no choice but to order a reduction in the soldiers' rations, hoping that the remaining grain and grass would be eaten as long as possible.

As soon as the rations were reduced, the already low soldiers of the soldiers were naturally hit again, and the complaints in the city became stronger and stronger.

In addition, Yuan Shang did not expect that he would be besieged for so long, and did not equip the soldiers with winter clothes, now that it is winter, the weather is getting colder and colder day by day, but his soldiers are still wearing single clothes, shivering in the cold all day.

Hunger, coupled with the gradual loss of contact with the outside world, what little hope Yuan Jun had left was being imperceptibly eroded.

In the blink of an eye, another month passed, and the weather was getting colder and colder.

The soldiers of the Yuan army in the city were close to running out of food and grass, and nearly a quarter of the soldiers were frostbitten and were on the verge of collapse.

As for Su Zhe, after nearly seven months of consumption, the consumption of grain and grass is huge, and the pressure of grain and grass transportation in the rear has gradually increased.

After all, although his national strength is stronger than Yuan Shao, it is not strong enough to be crushed, and there is no way to support him and Yuan Shao to grow old.

Su Zhe ordered the decision to continue the siege of Liyang City, after all, at this time, he was only one last kick away, how could he give up halfway.

As for Yuan Shao in Yecheng, although he lost contact with Liyang City, he knew the torture suffered by Yuan Jun in the city.

After a heavy snowfall, the temperature dropped sharply, and Yuan Shao finally couldn't sit still.

He knew that if it continued like this, it wouldn't take a few days for Yuan Shang to be unable to support it, and when the time came, as soon as Liyang City was broken and the gate of Yecheng was opened, Su Zhe's army could drive north and go straight to Yecheng.

He must not let Yecheng face the Soviet army.

So, on a day of wind and snow, Yuan Shao could only hold on to his unhealed body, and in the case of insufficient food and grass, he led an army of 70,000 to leave Yecheng and go south to relieve the siege of Liyang.

Of course, Yuan Shao knew that his troops were insufficient, so he naturally did not dare to confront Su Zhe head-on, but deliberately showed weakness to Su Zhe, wanting to induce Su Zhe to lead his army north to fight him.

Su Zhe showed enough patience this time, and didn't pay attention to Yuan Shao's plan to lure the enemy, and only sent tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to camp north of Liyang to resist Yuan Shao's southward movement, and the rest of the soldiers and horses still surrounded Liyang.

He was going to force Yuan Shao to be in chaos, so he had to come to Liyang to fight him.