He could understand the situation outside the city. As long as the city could be stabilized, the troops outside the city would not be able to attack the city so quickly.

Lu Qian hesitated for a moment and replied: "To report to Duke Ming, we now have more than 4,000 soldiers in the city. As for the situation in the city... there are less than a thousand people in the city, and there is a shortage of food..."

Cao Cao waved his hand and told Lu Qian not to say any more. With these two words alone, Cao Cao knew what the situation would be like in the coming days.

"Haha, the people of Pengcheng are actually willing to abandon their homes and food and run away with Liu Bei..."

"Ming Gong, the people of Pengcheng followed Tian Yu." Lu Qian immediately corrected him.

"Tian Yu followed Liu Bei, didn't the people of Pengcheng follow Liu Bei?" Cao Cao looked very unhappy, "You said that he went to Xuzhou alone and killed so many people in order to impress him, is it really inferior to Liu Bei, a man of benevolence and righteousness?

Name?"

Lu Qian mumbled and didn't know how to answer.

"Are you afraid of being alone?" Cao Cao suddenly looked at Lu Qian and asked.

"Ming Gong is so powerful all over the world, Qian has nothing but respect for Ming Gong, why should he talk about being afraid?" Lu Qian replied carefully.

Cao Cao looked outside the city and seemed to be thinking to himself: "Respecting but not being close to me, is it that I have power but no virtue?"

Lu Qian didn't dare to answer anymore, and Cao Cao didn't let him answer. He sighed to himself: "I wonder what happened to Yuan Rang?"

Cao Cao still doesn't know the news about Xiahou Dun.

Lu Qian hesitated again and answered hesitantly: "Ming Gong, General Xia Houyuanrang, he...he died in battle!"

He heard from the cavalrymen who had just escaped from behind that Xiahou Dun was killed by Guan Yu.

This seemed to be what Cao Cao had expected. He looked up to the sky and sighed: "Yuan Rang, Miaocai, Zixiao, Zilian, I have harmed you all! If I had listened to your words, I would not have welcomed the emperor to Xu County."

, Why is this happening today! The emperor is in hand, but Gu is not strong enough. Dong Zhuo is in front, but Gu is following in his footsteps, hahaha..."

Dian Wei and Lu Qian looked at each other, neither of them dared to speak.

Cao Cao stood looking outside the city for a long time. It was not until night fell that he asked Lu Qian: "How many days will the food in the city last?"

"Fifteen days at most." Lu Qian replied.

"Arrest all the people in the city, lock them in one place, and put people under guard." Cao Cao ordered.

"No." Lu Qian responded quickly.

"Hold the city gate."

After Cao Cao finished speaking, he took Dian Wei away.

After Gan Ning, Zhang Xiu and Liu Bei led their troops and set up camp outside the city. Later, Ju ordered people to send food so that everyone could eat.

These grains were all obtained from Cao Cao's camp.

In order to prevent Cao Cao from escaping, Liu Bei and Jushou Zhang Xiu discussed again and decided to use Zhang Xiu's Nanyang troops to surround Pengcheng to the south, Yan Liang to lead 20,000 troops to surround Pengcheng to the west, Jushou and Wen Chou to lead the remaining Jizhou troops to surround Pengcheng to the north, and Liu Bei to lead the Xuzhou troops to surround Pengcheng to the north.

Mawei is east of Pengcheng.

All parties deployed troops and horses overnight, and each deployed 3,000 troops as mobile troops. If Cao Cao broke through, two nearby mobile troops would rush to help and must stop Cao Cao.

A peaceful night together.

After dawn, on the way from Yanzhou to Pengcheng, Zhou Ping, Zhang Fei, Xu Chu and others were on their way.

Zhou Ping wanted to rush back to Xuzhou quickly and watch Cao Cao's defeat and death with his own eyes. Only in this way could he feel at ease.

Otherwise, if Cao Cao does not die, it may be difficult for Liu Bei to defeat Yuan Shao in the future.

"Sir, look quickly, there are Cao soldiers ahead."

Zhou Ping heard the soldiers shouting urgently and followed the sound. Sure enough, he saw twenty or thirty horsemen in front of him. The people on the horses were all wearing the clothes of Cao soldiers.

Among them, there was a man wearing Confucian clothes who was particularly eye-catching.

Zhou Ping took a closer look and discovered that the man wearing Confucian clothes was none other than Guo Jia and Guo Fengxiao.

"Why is he here?" Zhou Ping thought to himself, and then looked behind him, but no longer saw anyone.

Although he was confused, Zhou Ping didn't think much and immediately ordered: "Stop them and capture them."

As soon as Zhang Fei saw Cao Bing in front of him, his hands were itchy and he patted his horse and rushed out.

Over the past few days, he had been urging Zhou Ping and everyone else to leave quickly, just to rush back and kill the enemy as soon as possible.

Xu Chu also rushed out, and the soldiers behind him ran forward. Only Zhang Wu and a dozen guards stayed with Zhou Ping.

In fact, Guo Jia and others also saw Zhou Ping in front of them, especially after seeing Zhang Fei, they immediately reined in their horses and stopped. Then when they saw Zhang Fei rushing toward him, they immediately turned around and ran away.

Looking at Zhang Fei rushing towards him, Guo Jia was so nervous that he forgot to run away. He stared blankly at Zhang Fei rushing towards him, thinking that Zhang Fei's snake spear would pierce his body.

He closed his eyes.

However, when he heard the sound of horses galloping by, he opened his eyes and saw that Zhang Fei had already lapped his horse and galloped past him to chase down the soldiers.

Later, he saw Xu Chu and many enemy soldiers running towards him. Guo Jia faced it calmly. Anyway, if he fell into their hands, he would die sooner or later.

Then he was wrong.

Xu Chu and the soldiers did not kill him, nor even looked at him. Instead, they ran after the soldiers behind him.

At this time, Zhou Ping came slowly on his horse and walked up to Guo Jia.

Looking at Guo Jia's pale face, Zhou Ping smiled and said: "Fengxiao, don't worry, Yide and the others won't kill you because you don't have weapons in your hands. They won't kill innocent people indiscriminately. Only Cao Cao and Cao Bing will."

.”

Guo Jia smiled miserably: "Zhou Wen'an, you win!"

Zhou Ping was slightly stunned and asked: "Did I win? Who did I win?"

"Beat me! Both you and I focus on planning. Those who are good at planning should choose the master first, and then the plan can be used. I am far inferior to you in knowing people. You avoid Cao Gong and choose Liu Xuande, but I avoid it.

Yuan Benchu ​​chose Duke Cao. However, Liu Xuande would never have achieved what he has today without you. Not only did you defeat me, you also defeated Duke Cao!"

Although Guo Jia's face was still pale, he smiled, showing his respect for Zhou Ping.

Zhou Ping also smiled back: "You are wrong. I can't defeat you, let alone Cao Cao. The one who defeats you is General Liu's benevolence and righteousness that cares about the people of the world. Only when General Liu Xuande has this ambition can he gather all the soldiers.

How can General Liu eliminate the thieves and quell the chaos without the help of all the soldiers?"

"But what you said is right. I am slightly better than you in understanding people, and I am also better than you in observing the world's situation. The so-called trend, those who follow the trend are positive trends, and those who go against it can gain a temporary advantage.

The situation will eventually be defeated!" Zhou Ping said again.

"You're right, but it's a pity that things have come to this...you'd better kill me!"

Guo Jia now sincerely admits that he is not as resourceful as Zhou Ping.

Zhou Ping smiled: "I won't kill you, but you must come back with me. My lord, General Liu, will decide how to deal with you."

Now for Zhou Ping, if there is no Cao Cao, Guo Jia will no longer have any use.

If he goes to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao will definitely not use him. Even if he is willing to use him, he will be ostracized by others. Guo Jia will definitely not be able to bear it.

If he stayed to assist Liu Bei, maybe Liu Bei would keep him by his side, but he wouldn't trust or reuse him.

After defeating Cao Cao, who else would be more trusted and reused by Liu Bei than Zhou Ping.

According to Zhou Ping, the best place for Guo Jia is to go back to his hometown in Yingchuan, drink and study at home, or find a part-time job as an official to support his retirement, but it is estimated that Guo Jia would rather stay at home than take this part-time job.

.

Zhou Ping now keeps Guo Jia and has not killed him, not only because he and himself are both counselors, but also because of Guo Tu's relationship.

No matter how close Guo Jia and Guo Tu are, they are still members of the same clan. If they don't kill him, they will be betraying Guang Luxun and Guo Tu, which will make it easier for them to talk to each other in the future. After all, it's not time for Liu Bei to have a showdown with Yuan Shao yet.

"Zhou Wen'an, are you saving me?" Guo Jia understood what Zhou Ping meant and took him back to see Liu Bei. With Liu Bei's personality, he would definitely not kill him.

"No one wants to harm you, so how can we save you? You and I are each our own masters, and each has his own agenda. To be honest, if you and I weren't on different sides, I really hope to become close friends with you and drink and chat with you!"

Zhou Ping spoke from the bottom of his heart. He and Guo Jia had no grudge, they just had different stances.

Guo Jia cast a grateful glance at Zhou Ping.

Zhang Fei, Xu Chu and others rushed back with their horses. Before the horses stopped, Zhang Fei shouted: "I killed six, captured one, and ran away three. Sir, they said that the eldest brother has chased Cao Cao to Pengcheng. Now

Cao Cao is besieging the city, let's leave quickly!"

Zhou Ping was overjoyed and said, "Okay, let's go."
Chapter completed!