Chen Qi took the lead and said: "Lord Qiqi, my subordinates think that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if they can unite with Lu Bu and attack Cao Cao together, with the strength of the two armies, they will definitely be able to completely drive Cao Cao out of Yanzhou." ”

Zhang Yan said: "Well, I also think that this is the best time to send troops. If Cao Cao can really be driven out of Yanzhou, then Tao Yuanjun and the people of Xuzhou who died can also be blinded by the knowledge under the spring. ”

Chen Qun hurriedly said: "Lord Qi, it's not impossible to send troops. However, although Lu Bu has the courage of a tiger and a wolf, he has no heroic strategy, and this person is capricious and mercenary. I'm worried that after our army and his alliance defeat Cao Cao, Lu Bu will bite our army in turn, which is really a tiger breeding problem. ”

Zhang Yan couldn't help frowning when he heard Chen Qun say this, he was familiar with the history of the Three Kingdoms, how could he not know Lu Bu's personality. And that's exactly what he's worried about.

If you put it back in the past, Lu Bu was just a brave horseman for a while. And now there is a resourceful Chen Gong by Lu Bu's side, but it is also a little more difficult to deal with.

Zhang Zhao said: "Although Lu Bu is greedy and insatiable, and he is a repeated villain, Lu Bu is brave and good at fighting, and the soldiers raised under his account are also elite, if he can unite with him, Cao Cao will be defeated!" ”

Zhang Hong immediately added: "If our army gives up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it will be a little too difficult to confront Cao Cao with the strength of our army alone. Lu Bu is also a brave and unscrupulous person, although Chen Gong has advice for him, but Chen Gong is too cautious in everything, which has caused him to come up with a clever plan for too long. Looking at Cao Cao again, he has a lot of talents, including Xun Yu, Xun You, Guo Jia, Cheng Yu and others, and Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong, Dian Wei and others. Moreover, Cao Cao's soldiers are all elite divisions that have been in battle for a long time, and Lu Bu has recently recruited tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, just a simple training, when he is really facing the enemy, although Lu Bu has many soldiers and horses, he may not have any advantages. Once Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu, he would point the finger at our army, at that time, our army was alone, and Cao Cao had no worries, so he would naturally go all out to deal with our army. Once Cao Cao gets Yuan Shao's help again, what chance does our army have of winning? ”

"The lord has defeated Cao Cao twice, and his reputation has shocked Xuzhou, and now our army has 100,000 soldiers and horses, how can we not deal with Cao Cao?" Xu Sheng heard Zhang Hong say some frustrating words, and immediately stood up and said loudly.

Zhang Hong laughed and said, "The lord has indeed defeated Cao Cao twice and forced Cao Cao to withdraw from Xuzhou. But these two times were not head-to-head confrontations with Cao Cao, and they both avoided Cao Cao's main force, to put it mildly, these two victories were completely dependent on luck. Once Cao Cao defeated Lu Bu, he had no worries and dealt with our army wholeheartedly, although our army had 100,000 soldiers and horses, there were very few elites who were really brave and good at fighting. And Cao Cao's soldiers are all elite who have been in battle for a long time, and if they really fight, our army may not have much advantage. The soldiers are in the fine, not in the number of soldiers and horses. When the battle is approaching, the soldiers are very cowardly, no matter how many soldiers and horses, what is the use? It's just a rabble......"

"How can you say these discouraged words? Grow the ambition of others and destroy your own prestige! Xu Sheng said unconvinced.

Zhang Hong did not have the same knowledge as Xu Sheng, but arched his hand and said to Zhang Yan: "Lord Qiqi, my subordinates think that they should immediately agree to join forces with Lu Bu and jointly attack Cao Cao. Although Lu Bu was repeated, compared to Cao Cao, he was nothing more than a wolf, and Cao Cao was a sleeping tiger. Compared with the two, which one is more harmful, I think everyone should know in their hearts. ”

After Zhang Yan listened to Zhang Hong's words, he also deeply agreed, and said slowly: "Mr. Zigang is reasonable, I have also made a decision to unite with Lu Bu to jointly expel Cao Cao, a tiger. However, after Cao Cao is driven away, we will strike first, and in turn clean up Lu Bu, the unruly wolf. I don't know if all of you here have any clever plans to drive away the tiger and devour the wolf? ”

Zhang Hong immediately hugged his fists and said: "Enlighten the lord, our army can first pretend to promise Lu Bu, let Lu Bu rest assured to attack Cao Cao, and then our army will sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and when Lu Bu and Cao Cao are both defeated, the lord will lead the elite division and send troops to attack Cao Cao's main force, then Cao Cao can be defeated in one battle." On the other hand, the lord could also send troops to harass Cao Cao's rear while Cao Cao was fighting with Lü Bu, so that he would have some scruples. Once our army captures the city on which Cao Cao depends, it will leave no place to live and nothing to rely on. If the two prongs are taken together, Cao Cao will definitely be defeated! ”

"Haha...... Mr. Zigang's strategy is really a clever plan! After Zhang Yan heard this, he immediately gave Zhang Hong a thumbs up.

Subsequently, Zhang Yan discussed with everyone again, and ordered Zhang Zhao to prepare grain and grass, and sent Zhou Tai and Jiang Qin to lead their headquarters to Huailing and Dongcheng counties in Xiapi to assist Yuan Shu in guarding Chen Jiao in Huainan in Xiapi.

In addition, Zhang Yan ordered Yu Ban to temporarily assume the post of general of Fenwei, commanding the three troops and horses of Mi Fang, Deng Yi, and Chen Ying, waiting for his orders at any time. Then, Zhang Yan led Tai Shici, Xu Chu, Niu Jin, and Xu Sheng, with Zhang Hong and Chen Qi as military advisors, gathered the army, and rushed to Changyi.

The next day, Zhang Yan sent Zhang Liao away first, and asked Zhang Liao to go back and inform Lü Bu that he would arrive with his army in a few days.

On the third day, Zhang Zhao had prepared all the grain and grass baggage, Zhang Yan personally led Tai Shici, Xu Chu and other cavalry first, and let Niu Jin, Xu Sheng and other infantry escort the grain and grass, and then the 20,000 army marched towards Changyi City.

Two days later, Zhang Yan, Tai Shici, Xu Chu, and Zhang Hong led 3,000 cavalry to arrive in Changyi first.

After seeing each other and saluting, Zhang Yan asked: "In the past few days, have there been any movements between Cao Cao and Lu Bu's two armies?" ”

Bao Xun replied: "According to the scout's report, Lü Bu had already led an army of 30,000 to Puyang yesterday, while Cao Cao had been holding his troops. ”

A group of mermaids entered the city, and under the arrangement of Bao Xun and Bao Shao, the soldiers were arranged to live in the barracks, while Bao Xun prepared a separate courtyard in the Taishou Mansion, which was specially vacated for Zhang Yan to live in, and Zhang Hong was arranged next door to Zhang Yan's room.

On the same day, Zhang Yan changed his outfit and wandered around the city alone. It's said to be hanging out, but in fact, it has a little purpose. Since he occupied Changyi, he appointed Bao Xun as the Taishou of Shanyang, and Bao Shao as the long history of Shanyang, and let the two brothers govern Shanyang County together, and the appointment and dismissal of county orders in each county were also directly appointed to Bao Xun.

When he passed through several counties under the rule of Shanyang County along the way, he did not enter the city, but asked some local people, and then learned that after Bao Xun took office, he abolished a number of county orders and selected young and promising people to serve as county officials, and these county orders were diligent in political affairs and governed the county in an orderly manner.

As the Taishou of Shanyang County, Bao Xun praised each other in the mouths of the people and won the love of the people in the county.

For this reason, after he came to Changyi, he called it a hangout, but it was actually an unannounced visit, wanting to thoroughly see whether Bao Xun was qualified and whether he had done anything out of the ordinary.

As a result, Bao Xun, who was too guarded, was very qualified, first made three chapters with some rich gentry in the city, and then asked his brother Bao Shao to lead people to focus on cracking down on the bullies in the county, using both soft and hard, which greatly improved the security in the county.

In addition, Bao Xun also specially recruited 3,000 soldiers, trained them, and formed an army, which could at least play a role in defending the city.

A month ago, the Yellow Turban Army, which was entrenched in the area of Runan, due to the shortage of food, went out to copy and plunder, first attacked Chen Guo and Liang Guo, and where they passed, the official army could not resist, and then entered Jiyin County, jumped from Shanfu County to Shanyang County, and plundered the territory. After Bao Xun learned about it, he led the army with his brother to resist this group of Yellow Turban Army, and killed more than 1,000 Yellow Turban thieves in Fangdong County, which made the Yellow Turban thieves frightened and forced to withdraw from Shanyang County.

In short, in the few months since Bao Xun became the Taishou of Shanyang, he has governed Shanyang County in an orderly manner, and has also trained an army that can protect itself, which makes Zhang Yan feel very gratified.

After Zhang Yan returned to the Taishou Mansion, he praised Bao Xun and rewarded Bao Xun with some gold and silver treasures, but Bao Xun refused.

No matter what Zhang Yan said, Bao Xun just didn't accept the reward. So, Zhang Yan no longer imposed it, but silently kept it in his heart, preparing to appoint Bao Xun as the assassin of Yanzhou after defeating Cao Cao.

The next day, the scouts came to report that Cao Cao heard that Lü Bu was leading an army to attack, so he led his army to Lihu and prepared to defend Lü Bu there. Lü Bu sent an envoy to Changyi and asked Zhang Yan to send troops to attack Cao Cao with him and fight a decisive battle at Lihu.

On the one hand, Zhang Yan replied to Lu Bu perfunctorily, saying that his army had not yet arrived and it was inconvenient to move, and on the other hand, he sent people to secretly observe the movements of Cao Cao and Lu Bu's armies. In addition, Zhang Yan also specially wrote a letter to Yu Ban, ordering Yu Ban to lead a large army to attack Fan County and Dong'e, and copy Cao Cao's back road.

On the third day, Niu Jin and Xu Sheng led the army to Changyi, but Zhang Yan did not act, but let the soldiers rest in Changyi.

In the afternoon, the battle situation of Cao Cao and Lu Bu came, and the two armies started a big battle in Lihu, and the two sides won and lost each other.

On the fourth day, Lü Bu's envoy came to Changyi again and asked Zhang Yan to send troops.

After Zhang Yan promised Lü Bu's envoy and sent him away, he led the army north and arrived at Chengshi County in Jiyin County that night.

In the early morning of the fifth day, the scouts again reported the battle between Lü Bu and Cao Cao, and Lü Bu's army won a series of battles in Lihu and defeated Cao Cao. Cao Cao retreated to Puyang, and Lü Bu led his army in pursuit.

Zhang Yan then set up camp again, set off from Chengshi, walked for a day, and the army arrived in Chengyang.

On the sixth day, Lü Bu's troops besieged Puyang, Cao Cao held on without fighting, Lü Bu could not attack the city, and the two armies confronted Puyang.

Zhang Yan led the soldiers and horses, set off from Chengyang in a hurry, and arrived at Lihu in the evening of the same day, only a few dozen miles away from Puyang......