The night was deep, and a bright moon hung in the sky, shining on the earth with a bright moonlight, and the whole earth was shrouded in this moonlight.

Under the shroud of the moonlight, Zhang Yan, Tai Shici and others retreated sharply all the way, and only then did they shake off the pursuit of Yuan's army.

At this time, people were sleepy and tired, and there happened to be a village not far ahead, so Zhang Yan led the soldiers towards that village.

A moment later, Zhang Yan and the others arrived at the village, which was as silent as death, and there was not even the sound of dogs barking. Out of caution, Zhang Yan first sent a few people in to investigate, only to know that there was no one in this village.

Yuan Shu led the army from Huainan to Huaibei, the pioneer bridge burned and looted, like a group of bandits, looted everywhere they passed, once they encountered resistance, they would even kill all the people in this area, and set fire to this place, most of the nearby villages heard the news, and they all fled.

Therefore, along the way, there are countless uninhabited villages.

Zhang Yan then led his army into the village and stayed in the village for one night.

At dawn the next day, the scouts came to report that Yuan Shu had led the army from Xiangxian, and threatened to capture Zhang Yan alive and set foot in Xuzhou, and with Huaiyi Captain Sun Ce as the vanguard general, Le Yu and Liang Gang as the auxiliary, led the horse infantry army of 5,000 to advance.

And Sun Ce's vanguard was already approaching Zhang Yan's village.

Zhang Yan felt that the goal of blocking Yuan's army had been achieved, and he expected that Chen Qun, Xu Sheng, Wang Bo and others were almost ready in Zhuyi City, so he led Tai Shici and others to retreat quickly and went to Zhuyi to garrison.

Under Zhang Yan's order, all the cavalry mounted their horses, withdrew from the village as fast as they could, and galloped all the way north.

Zhang Yan had just left less than three quarters of an hour, Sun Ce led Le Jie and Liang Gang to chase after him from behind, Sun Ce took a look at the unusually quiet in this village, worried that there was an ambush in the village, so he ordered the army to stop and personally led people into the village to check.

Sun Ce and the others cautiously approached the village, and tried several times in a row, but there was still no movement in the village, so Sun Ce had the courage to enter the village.

As soon as he entered the village, he saw traces of people living in the village, and the bonfire had only been extinguished not long ago.

Sun Ce waited for 2,000 cavalry to go first, but let Liang Gang follow behind with 3,000 infantry, and the gap between the two armies widened.

An hour later, Sun Ce led the cavalry to chase all the way to the county seat of Qixian along the horseshoe prints left by Zhang Yan and others, and a strong smell of blood came to his nose.

Sun Ce was very vigilant and became cautious, when he came to the gate of the county seat, he saw that the city gate was wide open, and when he looked around, there were dead bodies all over the city gate, and the dried blood coagulated on the ground in the city, which looked like a purple sauce carpet was laid in the city.

Twenty or thirty wild wolves were shuttling through the corpses of the city, burying their heads greedily at the corpses, some of which had their internal organs ripped everywhere, and swarms of flies crawled on them.

These corpses were all dressed in uniform and were none other than the soldiers of the Yuan Army who died in Qi County yesterday.

When Sun Ce saw such a scene, he frowned, and sent people into the city to investigate, and after making sure that there was no one in the city, he led the cavalry to continue the pursuit.

Before leaving, Sun Ce left a cavalry to wait here, and asked this cavalry to tell Liang Gang behind him, and asked Liang Gang to pick up the soldiers who died in the battle yesterday in the city, pull them all outside the city, and bury them on the spot.

Sun Ce took Le and waited for the cavalry, continued to chase, all the way to the north, and soon came to the bank of the Hun River, looking at the river in the wide Hun River, Sun Ce and the others could only look at the river and sigh.

"Zhang Yan, they must have crossed the river, they must find the boat to cross the river!" Sun Ce ordered.

The cavalry divided into several groups and went along the river in search of ships, but found nothing.

Zuihou, a cavalryman captured a civilian, Sun Ce asked about the ship, and the people told Sun Ce 1510.

It turned out that Zhang Yan sent people to collect boats here early in the morning, and when Zhang Yan arrived, he led the army to cross the river, but all the boats were burned on the opposite bank, which directly caused no boats to be available within a radius of dozens of miles, so as to prevent Yuan's army from crossing the river.

Seeing that the opportunity had been lost, Sun Ce had his soldiers temporarily stationed by the river, then cut down large trees from the woods by the river, borrowed the thick branches of the trees, and tied them into rafts, where he waited for Yuan Shu's army to arrive.

Zhang Yan successfully escaped Sun Ce's pursuit, and drove all the way to Zhuyi, where he encountered towns and villages, he informed them that Yuan Shu's army was coming, and asked them to take refuge elsewhere to avoid being disturbed by the war.

For a time, people from all over the country moved their families and took refuge in other places. The four counties of Qi County, Xuan County, Fuli County, and Zhuyi all got the news, and the people in the county took refuge in Xuzhou, where public security was relatively stable, because of their proximity to Pengcheng.

In just two days, the four counties of Qi County, Gong County, Fuli, and Zhuyi were all afraid of being implicated in the war, and people went to empty buildings, and they could not meet a single figure within a radius of 100 miles.

When Zhang Yan heard that these people were going to take refuge in Pengcheng, he ordered Chen Qun, Xu Sheng, Wang Bo and others to transport them by boat, transporting more than 50,000 people across Suishui and into Pengcheng, and asked the county magistrates in Pengcheng to properly arrange these people.

Zhuyi County is adjacent to Suishui in the north and Tuohe River in the south, with vertical and horizontal ditches and abundant water resources, most of which are used to irrigate farmland.

Zhuyi City is built next to Suishui, surrounded by water on three sides, only the south gate is a city gate, and there is a wharf in the city, and the Suiyang Wharf located in the territory of Liang Country in the upstream, and the Wharf in the lower reaches of the territory of Xiapi, together form the three important wharves of Suishui, which are well-known far and near.

On weekdays, most of the ships of Caoyun stop at Zhuyi Wharf, which is a convenient place with convenient transportation and accessibility. Therefore, there are many boats in this area, and it is a necessary place to cross the Suishui.

If Yuan Shu's army boarded a ship here, they could divide their troops into two routes, advance by land and water, all the way across Suishui to attack Pengcheng, and all the way down the river by boat to attack Xiapi.

Therefore, Zhang Yan sees this place as very important.

As early as three days ago, Chen Qun, together with Xu Sheng and Wang Bo, led the army to Zhuyi City, while dispersing the people, while collecting boats, all close to Zhuyi City, even if the ships from the upper reaches arrived in Zhuyi, they were also seized, and sent people to the upper reaches of Suishui to spread the news along the way, saying that there were water bandits in Suishui, specializing in plundering ships, burning, killing and looting, and doing all kinds of evil.

As a result, there were fewer and fewer boats upstream, and Chen Qun gradually controlled Zhuyi and the entire Suishui.

Zhang Yan and Tai Shici went to Xiang County to take the initiative to challenge Yuan Shu, and on the way back, they successively burned the boats within a radius of dozens of miles of the Huhe River and the Tuo River, successfully blocking the itinerary of Yuan Shu's army and buying time for Chen Qun to prepare in Zhuyi County.

This time, most of the soldiers brought by Zhang Yan were Cao soldiers who had surrendered, although they didn't trust them very much, but in the face of Yuan Shu's threat, they had to let these soldiers go to the battlefield.

These Cao soldiers who surrendered were all Cao Ren's subordinates, and since Zhang Yan captured Cao Ren, he has been locking Cao Ren in a cell in Pengcheng, and giving Cao Ren special preferential treatment, serving him with good food and drink, but he didn't kill him, and he didn't care about Cao Ren.

However, Zhang Yan claimed to the outside world that Cao Ren had surrendered to him. And from time to time, Zhang Yan will take Cao Ren to the school field for a turn. Seeing that Cao Ren was still alive and had surrendered to Zhang Yan, these surrendered soldiers naturally had nothing to worry about, and they accepted Zhang Yan's reorganization one after another.

This time, Zhang Yan also secretly brought Cao Ren over, let Xu Sheng's subordinates keep strict guard, and kept him in a cell in Zhuyi County.

When Zhang Yan learned that Yuan Shu's army had crossed the Tuo River and was less than fifty miles away from Zhuyi, he and Xu Sheng went to the cell.

In his cell, Cao Ren was held in a steel cage, handcuffed and shackled, and chained in the shape of a large character.

"General Cao, don't come unharmed!" Zhang Yan walked to the front of the cage, glanced at Cao Ren, and asked when he saw Cao Ren's disdainful look.

"Humph! What are you here for? Do you want to taunt me again? Cao Ren said coldly.

"General Cao, don't get me wrong, I have always hoped that General Cao would abandon the darkness and surrender to me, so I haven't killed you for so long. Couldn't General Cao still realize my sincerity? Zhang Yan said.

"Want me to surrender? Dream! Don't forget, you and I have a common enmity. My younger brother Cao Chun was shot to death by your own hands, how can you say that I will surrender to you? Cao Ren said resolutely.

Zhang Yan said: "At that time, you and I were our own masters, if I didn't kill him, he would kill me, war is like this, there is no right and wrong, only victory and defeat." Not only did I kill your brother, but I also took you prisoner, and I am the victor for you. I don't kill you, it's a favor to you, and I also fancy your talent, and I can't bear to kill you. If you are obsessed with it again, I will really be unkind to you. ”

"Haha...... I still say the same thing, if you want to kill or chop, listen to it. If you want me to surrender, there are no doors! Cao Ren regarded death as home, and there was no fear on his face.

Zhang Yan shook his head and said, "Since you insist on this, then don't blame me for being ruthless." ”

"Come on! The head fell off, but it was a scar the size of a bowl, and eighteen years later, Lao Tzu is a good man again! hahaha......"

The cell was filled with Cao Ren's hearty and fearless laughter.

Zhang Yan waved his hand at Xu Sheng, Xu Sheng immediately understood, and immediately ordered the soldiers to open the cage, untie the chains, and open Cao Ren's shackles, and pushed Cao Ren out of the cell.

"General Cao, I admire your courage and your spirit of seeing death as home, so I plan to give you a decent way to die."

Cao Ren said: "Anyway, it's all death, any kind of death is the same, you can give me a good time!" ”

Zhang Yan smiled and said, "General Cao, don't worry, you will die a heroic death." ”

As soon as the words fell, Zhang Yan said to Xu Sheng: "Feed General Cao to drink anesthetic!" ”

"Whoa!"