In troubled times, the weak eat the strong, there is no reason at all, no one will sympathize with the weak, and there will be no princes who are ambitious and have the benevolence of women.

It is an indisputable fact that the soldiers and horses under Tao Qian's command are not strong in combat and have been in war for a long time.

If he feels that he is invincible to the Qingzhou soldiers under Cao Cao, he can completely follow the example of Jizhou Han Fu and dedicate Xuzhou to Cao Cao.

Perhaps, this is Cao Cao's original intention to raise troops to attack Xuzhou in the name of avenging his father. He hoped that Xuzhou Tao Qian, like Jizhou Han Fu, knew that he was invincible, cowardly and cowardly, and then there was a large army of Qingzhou soldiers to press the border, maybe Tao Qian would obediently give in to the six counties of Xuzhou to Cao Cao.

Yuan Shao's occupation of Jizhou was not to see that Han Fu was timid and cowardly, and with a little trick, Han Fu couldn't stand it, so he gave up the huge Jizhou. As Yuan Shao's ally and friend, seeing Yuan Shao occupy Jizhou so lightly, it would be absolutely impossible to say that Cao Cao had no idea at all. It's a pity that Cao Cao has never had such an opportunity, nor has he met a fat sheep like Han Fu, so he can only rely on his own strength to work hard step by step, and after several years of fighting, he has gained a firm foothold in Yanzhou and occupies most of Yanzhou.

However, what you want to do, opportunities always come quietly.

Cao's father was murdered by Tao Qian's junior colonel Zhang Min on the way from Langya County to Yanzhou, and when the news reached Yanzhou, Cao Cao was grieved, and immediately felt that his long-awaited opportunity had come, and a fat and old big fat sheep was sent to the door. And this old sheep is Tao Qian, who is over the age of old, and the reason why he is fat is not that he himself, but the six counties of Xuzhou in his hands.

It was with this wishful thinking that Cao Cao was disdainful when he saw Tao Qian's sincere letter of apology, but he scoffed at Tao Qian's large sum of money and food. It was precisely Tao Qian's cowardly behavior, as well as his incomparable desire for Cao Cao's forgiveness, that made Cao Cao feel more and more that Tao Qian was the second Han Fu, and he, Cao Mengde, would also occupy the six counties of Xuzhou bloodlessly after Yuan Shao.

After making up your mind. On the day of Cao Cao's funeral for his father Cao Song, he led the army south to Xuzhou, putting on a posture of killing his father and hating each other, hoping to scare Tao Qian out of the city and ask for surrender.

However, Cao Cao made all calculations, but he ignored the most critical detail, that is, although Tao Qian of Xuzhou was old, he was a military general in his early years. Moreover, Tao Qian once fought on the border of Youzhou, and together with Gongsun Zhan, he resisted Wuhuan and Xianbei barbarians. Later, he followed Huangfu Song to Xiliang to quell the rebellion, and fought on the battlefield for more than ten years. It wasn't until he was over the age of sixteen that he was ordered to serve as the assassin of Xuzhou, and at the beginning of his tenure, he quickly swept away the remnants of the Yellow Turban in Xuzhou.

Therefore, Tao Qian and Han Fu cannot be compared at all. The two are two types of people with different origins.

Han Fu was a protégé of the Yuan family in his early years and had a close relationship with the Yuan family. Fortunately, Yuan puppet was able to serve as the pastor of Jizhou. Therefore, the relationship between Han Fu and Yuan Shao is quite deep. In addition, Han Fu is a pure scribe and scholar, timid and cowardly by nature, he is in charge of government affairs but does not understand military affairs, he has not personally led troops to fight, and naturally he has not won a battle. So. When he faced Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zhan from both sides, out of nature, he naturally chose to send Jizhou to Yuan Shao in order to protect himself.

Compared to Han Fu. Xuzhou Tao Qian is different.

Although Tao Qian is over the age of old, his blood tempered in his decades of military career and more than ten years of battlefield battles is still there, and his health is not good, but his backbone is still there. Cao Song's death, Tao Qian felt that he was wrong, but out of good intentions, he hoped to show favor to Cao Cao; I didn't want to do the wrong thing with good intentions and cause such a big disaster. In addition, there was friction between him and Cao Cao before, and the two had no personal relationship, but they were wary of each other and belonged to different camps.

Therefore, if he wanted Tao Qian to give up the six counties of Xuzhou, unless he was willing, he would definitely not give in to anyone, including Cao Cao.

As a result, when Cao Cao led his troops to invade Xuzhou for the first time, Tao Qian knew what Cao Apu's idea was, obviously to bully him into old age, and tried to force him to force him to surrender Xuzhou obediently.

Cao Cao's move undoubtedly angered Tao Qian. Thinking that he Tao Qian had been fighting on the battlefield for more than ten years, and when he was old, he was so persecuted by his juniors, thinking that he was old and useless, so he became a weak and bullying old man.

But Cao Cao may have forgotten. When he was still wearing the opening pants, Tao Qian was already a county lieutenant; When Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and others were wandering around the Qinglou uninhibitedly, Tao Qian was already on the border of Youzhou, confronting the border with the barbarians, and fighting a hundred battles.

It was for these reasons that Cao Cao's dream of occupying Xuzhou without blood was shattered. And his move of wanting to intimidate Tao Qian with his powerful military might not only did not intimidate Tao Qian, but aroused Tao Qian's long-hidden blood and fighting spirit.

In this way, in the end, Tao Qian knew that the Xuzhou army was invincible to Cao Cao's army, but he still fought to the end and never compromised, as if he would rather be broken than broken.

Therefore, although Cao Cao's first expedition to Xuzhou captured most of Xuzhou, he aroused the people of Xuzhou to unite and resist Cao's attack to the death because of the excessive killing. As a result, Cao Cao's first expedition to Xuzhou did not achieve the expected goal, and in the end, there was a shortage of food and grass, so he had no choice but to withdraw his troops.

In fact, in terms of the number of soldiers and horses alone, Tao Qian has more than 80,000 county soldiers and tens of thousands of Danyang elite soldiers, and the number of soldiers and horses is no less than that of Cao Cao.

However, the combat effectiveness of the Xuzhou soldiers and horses was indeed inferior to the Qingzhou soldiers under Cao Cao. Even the "Danyang Elite Soldiers", known as the elite soldiers, can only be called "elite soldiers" compared with the soldiers of the Xuzhou County Government, and they can be regarded as the generals among the short men. When it came to the real confrontation with Cao's army, compared with the Danyang elite soldiers and the Qingzhou soldiers, they couldn't see the demeanor of the "elite soldiers".

In addition, Xuzhou is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the terrain is flat, easy to attack and difficult to defend, far less than the northern passes. Therefore, in the offensive and defensive battle, although the soldiers and horses under Tao Qian's command were condescending to defend the city, they still suffered heavy casualties, which was almost the same as the number of casualties of the Cao army besieging the city.

Since then, the offensive and defensive battle in Xuzhou is actually a bloody battle of hard work, and soldiers, horses, money, food, and ordnance are all indispensable. If anyone can't hold on, he is doomed to defeat. After all, Tao Qian is fighting locally, occupying a favorable geographical position, although the geographical advantage is not advantageous, but after all, it is better than nothing. If the two armies faced each other on the plain, the battle of Xuzhou would have ended long ago, and Cao Cao's occupation of Xuzhou was almost a certainty.

——————————————————————

The sky was overcast and cloudy.

The attack and defense of Tancheng lasted for five days, and every day was this gloomy weather, which seemed to indicate that Cang Tian was very unhappy with the battle under his nose, and his face was full of gloom.

"Kill——— bangbang!"

In the afternoon, the offensive and defensive battle of the city on the fifth day was still continuing, and the two sides repeatedly fought for the head of the city, and the fierce battle was in full swing.

"Boom ———"

Suddenly, a low muffled thunder sounded in the sky, coming from far and near, making people feel melancholy.

However, the soldiers of both sides who were fiercely fighting for the head of the city turned a deaf ear to this and still fought bloodily. The sound of weapons clattering, the sound of flying rocks and rolling logs falling to the ground, the sound of stray arrows breaking through the air, the crackling of earthen pots, and the screams of the soldiers of the two armies as they were dying, these sounds were mixed together, huge and noisy, far overshadowing the muffled thunder in the sky.

The soldiers couldn't hear it, but the three brothers Tao Qian and Liu Guanzhang, who were supervising the battle on the city tower, could hear it, and Cao Cao, who stopped on the north bank of the moat, could also hear the muffled thunder.

"In the summer, it rains in Xuzhou. It's raining at this time, and the situation is not in our favor! In front of the formation of the Le Ma Zhongjun, Cao Cao frowned slightly and looked up at the sky above his head, and said in a deep voice.

Hearing this, the generals standing behind Cao Cao looked up at the sky, and their expressions couldn't help but become gloomy. Then the generals looked at the siege form in front with melancholy faces, and their eyes became more and more eager, and they couldn't wait to go into battle to seize the city in person.

At this time, Cao Hong, who was standing behind Cao Cao, said with confidence: "Meng De doesn't have to worry, the weather changes are beyond the reach of man, and it is useless to think too much." We waited for five consecutive days to storm Tancheng, the Xuzhou army suffered thousands of casualties every day, so if the battle continues, there must be three more days, Tao Qian Lao'er will not be able to hold on, and Tancheng will not be attacked! ”

Among the many generals under Cao Cao's command, there are not many people who dare to call Cao Cao's name in public, even if the Cao family is noble, but Cao Hong is not among them. In the battle of Xingyang in the past, if he hadn't stepped forward to block Lu Bu desperately, and sacrificed his war horse to cover Cao Cao's escape, I was afraid that Cao Cao would have been dead for a long time. For this reason, since then, although Cao Hong's art of war is not as good as Cao Ren's, he has won Cao Cao's deep trust and trust, and allows him to call himself by his first name, without too much taboo.

After Cao Hong finished speaking, Cao Cao turned his head to look at the generals behind him, grinned, and said disapprehantly: "Zilian's words are biased, after repeated battles, the casualties of our army and Tao Qian's generals are similar, and even thousands of casualties are more than those of the Xuzhou army. Such a hard-fought war is occasionally acceptable, but in the long run, my army may return again in vain.

What's more, after all, this is the lair of Tao Qian's old thief, and his troops are not strong, he can recruit strong men to defend the city at any time, and he has no worries about running out of food and grass. As long as the city is in his hands, he will be able to consume us until he drags us down and withdraws our troops.

This is the second time we have sent troops to Xuzhou, if we can't capture Xuzhou this time and kill Tao Qian's old thief, I'm afraid that all the princes of the Central Plains will see my Cao Cao's jokes. Others don't say it for the time being, Yuan Shao of Jizhou and Yuan Shu of Yangzhou will inevitably despise me and laugh at me for the incompetence of the soldiers in Yanzhou, and even Tao Qian, an old man who is about to die, can't deal with it, how can it become a big deal! ”

"The lord is too worried." Before Cao Cao's words fell, Xiahou Yuan, who was standing side by side with Cao Hong, continued: "According to the detailed report, Yuan Benchu's dispatch of troops to exterminate the Black Mountain thieves was not smooth, and he held on to the Black Mountain Thieves for more than two months, and fought more than ten battles, but they won and lost each other, and failed to completely exterminate the Black Mountain Thieves. Jiujiang Yuan Shu is even more unbearable, the previous letter to the imperial court recommended Jin Shang as the assassin of Yanzhou, and secretly colluded with the Southern Xiongnu Yufuluo and the Black Mountain thieves to try to seize the foundation of our Yanzhou; As a result, the rabble was vulnerable, and within a few months they were defeated by the lord and fled. Now Yuan Shu fled to Jiujiang, trying to seize Yangzhou, and now he is attacking the city everywhere, and his power has not succeeded, and he is barely protecting himself, so why do you have the face to laugh at me! ”

———————————— (To be continued)

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