On October 25th, Shen Chen went south and occupied Yanling.
In this way, Guan Yu in Yulin Pavilion, Liu Bei in Wangtian Pavilion, and he was in Yanling, showed a tendency to surround Xu.
The Cao army around Xudu was also at odds with them. Xia Houyuan and Cao Hong were around Yulin Pavilion, and Li Dian and Han Hao were around Wangtian Pavilion. The two sides formed a confrontation.
The Weichuan Fire burned for a day and a night, turning several square kilometers of surrounding land into scorched earth and causing so much dust that it could be seen even from a distance of more than ten miles.
Soon the messengers from Xudu and the Guandu front line who were traveling to Weichuan discovered this situation and quickly reported back to Xun Yu and Cao Cao respectively.
Xun Yu was shocked that night. This was no longer something he could face alone. He quickly sent someone to Guandu to inform Cao Cao of the current predicament Xu Du was facing.
At the same time, he contacted the powerful families in the city, hoping to form a private army to stop Liu Bei's Chenchen army.
By the 26th, news of Shen Chen's third invasion of Xudu had spread throughout the streets and alleys, with rumors and rumors everywhere.
This kind of thing cannot be hidden, and the news has already spread all over the city.
In Xudu City, the city wall was still not built, Cao Cao was still fighting on the front lines, and there was not enough money and population in the rear to build the city, so the planning of the entire city was a bit like Luoyang.
Luoyang has a city wall, but the city wall is the imperial palace and the inner city, where the emperor, officials and dignitaries mainly live. The outer city has no city wall protection and is populated by ordinary people.
The streets are criss-crossed and the houses are lined up in rows. The outer city in the south of Xudu City is five times the size of the inner city. Looking around, there are endless shops and large and small signboards all over the market.
Even during times of war, due to the capital of a country, a large number of public officials, and the gathering of powerful families, it also attracted countless people.
Just like during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, victims from all over the world would instinctively run to Luoyang, causing Luoyang's population to exceed two million.
Although the current Xudu is not as popular as Luoyang's population of more than one million during the reign of Emperor Ling, it still has a population of 200,000 to 300,000, and the outer city is home to more than 100,000 people.
Some of these people were slaves brought by wealthy families, some were common people who served these people, and there were also a large number of traders engaged in commerce and handicrafts. Together, they promoted the short-lived commercial prosperity of Xudu in the late Han Dynasty.
Suzaku Street in Nancheng is wide and clean, with restaurants, cloth shops, and groceries. In a tavern on the cross street, some merchants and middle- and lower-level officials who have a little extra money and can afford to drink, and the middle class composed of powerful small aristocratic families, are drinking.
The city has actually been under martial law recently, and people are not allowed to move around at will. However, due to the shortage of supplies, if you don't go to the streets to buy food, you will starve to death, so Xun Yu still stipulated some special periods when people can go to the streets.
At this time, everyone gathered in the tavern to relieve their addiction. Nowadays, there is a shortage of food everywhere. The court does not allow the use of grain to make wine. It can only be purchased from Jingzhou. Therefore, it is expensive and can only be bought bowl by bowl.
The people at the bottom of the class don't have enough to eat, and the middle class has a hard time. Everyone gathers in the tavern, and the casual drinking has turned into small sips. They don't dare to buy the most expensive liquor in Nanyang, they only dare to buy some rice wine and millet. Wine, etc., taste carefully.
"Did you hear that?"
The people in the tavern kept their voices low, because from time to time Cao Jun in black armor would pass by with neat steps on the street outside the door, so they could only talk in low voices with their friends at their tables.
Among them, there was one table with the most people. More than ten people gathered together. It was a table formed by the children of several aristocratic families. Unlike the common people, they had the best information.
Many people now don't even know that Liu Bei's army arrived in Fenqiu. They only vaguely heard that Nanyang's army arrived in Rangcheng.
Most of the children of these aristocratic families already know that Liu Beijun has passed Fenqiu and arrived in Yulin and Wangtian. Now the court is keeping the news tight, and other information is not known yet.
There were several children at the table who were middle-level officials in the Xudu court, and one of them was the son of Rong Shao, a servant of Shangshu. Rong Shao was not a big celebrity in history, but his official position was very important, and he was Xun Yu's deputy.
Rong Shao's son was named Rong Bin. He mysteriously said to many of his friends: "That Shen Chen is here again."
"You just know?"
Someone curled their lips and said, "I found out yesterday that General Zuo is in Yulin now."
Rong Bin said: "That's not it. This morning I vaguely heard my father discussing with friends in the hall, saying that Shen Chen had arrived in Yanling."
"What?"
Everyone was shocked and said: "How is it possible?"
"How is it impossible?"
Rong Bin said: "I heard this with my own ears."
Someone said suspiciously: "It's not like you're not listening, or you're joking and spreading rumors, your father won't even be able to protect you."
"It's not a joke, and it's not a mistake."
Rong Bin frowned and said, "Besides, how do you know this can't be false?"
The man hesitated for a moment.
He is Huan Kang, the youngest son of Guang Luxun Huandian, and the younger brother of Cao Shuang's think tank Huan Fan. Although his father has no real power, he happens to be the minister of history now. Every time Xun Yu writes a letter, as long as he is on duty At that time, letters had to pass through his hands before being delivered, so he knew some inside information.
So Huan Kang knew that Xun Yu had transferred Ren Jun to Yanling.
However, these people also know what information should be said and what information should not be said. They are all circulated in their own small circles, and they are all things that everyone knows. Even if they know confidential things, they will not make it public.
So he was hesitant to say it.
Someone said: "Ji Ning, you were on duty the past two days. Could it be that you have some news?"
"I'm not on duty today. I don't know what happened."
Huan Kang smiled bitterly and said: "And you also know that you can't say anything casually, as the higher-ups will blame you."
"We are all our own people, in private"
A few friends are trying to persuade me.
Someone at the next table suddenly said: "Do you know about the fire yesterday?"
"What fire?"
"There's a big fire in Weichuan. I just came back from Yanling last night and saw the sky full of fire in the direction of Weichuan in the north."
"real or fake."
Everyone at the table was muttering quietly.
But Huan Kang's expression changed with shock. He turned around to find the man, walked over and grabbed him and asked, "When did it happen?"
The man was startled when he saw that the other party was richly dressed and had a copper seal hanging on his waist with an ink ribbon. He knew that he was a minor official with a price of less than 600 dan and could not afford to offend him, so he quickly told the story.
It turned out that this man was a merchant, traveling around to sell goods. With the recent war and the shortage of food, there were a large number of farming households around Yanling. At that time, Cao Cao's exploitation of the farming households was not serious. The two sides distributed grain on a 50-50 basis. After the harvest, the farming households returned. There is a little surplus food.
So this man went to Yanling to buy some grain and returned to Xudu to sell it and make a small profit. Unexpectedly, on his way back yesterday, he saw a huge fire in the distance, and the flames almost dyed the entire sky red.
Mountain fires and forest fires were very common in the Han Dynasty. There were more than a hundred recorded fires in the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, and there were countless unrecorded fires. People at that time took it for granted.
Although he didn't know the cause of the fire, he didn't get burned after all, so the merchant just treated it as something to talk about after dinner.
At this moment, Huan Kang heard the news and got the news. When he returned to his desk, his face was already pale. Rong Bin and others looked surprised and asked: "Ji Ning, what happened? "
Huan Kang said in a deep voice: "It seems that the news told by Jun Qian is true. I was on duty the day before yesterday and ordered you to write a letter asking General Ren to mobilize Xudu. Yesterday there was a fire in Weichuan and there was news that Shen Chen had arrived in Yanling. General Ren's entire army has been wiped out, and Shen Chen has come to Xudu for the third time!"
Everyone opened their mouths and were at a loss what to do.
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October 27, Guandu front line.
Cao Cao didn't know the news yet, because Xudu was nearly a hundred kilometers away from Guandu, and even fast horses had to be resupplied along the way.
In the past, the correspondence between Xudu and Guandu was Xudu-Yanling-Weishi-Guandu.
You can change horses without changing people in the middle, and you can pass the message within one day.
But as I said before, a horse can only run at full speed for a few minutes. Even if it rests its horsepower, it has to run for a while and rest for a while. And it has to be fed with a lot of fine bean feed in order to continue.
But now that Wei's garrison has been completely wiped out and Shen Chen has occupied Yanling, there is no supply point on the way. As a result, even if he rides on horseback, he cannot report to Guandu immediately.
This resulted in Cao Cao still not knowing what happened to Ren Jun.
He was very proud of himself at this time.
Because Yuan Jun surrendered.
Early this morning, Zhang He Gao Lan saw that his supplies were about to run out, and Yuan Shao raised an army to accuse Yuan Shao. In desperation, he sent someone to write a letter to Cao Cao, hoping to accept their surrender.
Upon learning of this, Cao Cao immediately agreed, and then the two of them led their own troops to surrender.
When they arrived, Cao Cao immediately led his elite troops to attack Yuan Shao's camp.
When the news reached Yuan's camp, Yuan's army was caught off guard and was thrown into chaos and collapsed.
Cao's army took advantage of the situation and captured several camps. Wherever they went, Yuan's army surrendered one after another. There was almost no resistance from 80,000 elite troops.
Only Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan fled in panic, each riding alone, and ran back to Hebei in panic.
By evening, Cao Cao had captured all Yuan's troops. The momentum of Cao Cao's troops in Guandu reached its peak, and his smile never stopped.
"Ha ha ha ha."
Cao Cao stood on the mountain to the south of Cao's camp and saw his soldiers escorting all the captured Yuan troops to his camp in the distance. His face was full of smiles and satisfaction.
This battle wiped out a large number of Yuan Shao's effective forces, and the previous haze was swept away. For Cao Cao, it was indeed a proud thing.
Just when he was happy, the quartermaster hurriedly came to report and said to Cao Cao: "Report, Sikong."
"What's the matter?"
Cao Cao asked.
The quartermaster said: "There is not much food and grass in the army anymore, and now there are 80,000 more people. The food and grass are not enough for one meal."
"Um?"
Cao Cao frowned.
Yuan Shao's grain reserves were burned up in Wuchao, but his grain and grass were indeed unable to withstand it.
Now there are 80,000 more mouths, and that little grain reserve can't even feed a single meal.
The most important thing is that these Yuan Jun are all from Hebei. Even if they surrender to him, their loyalty will probably not be too high.
So Cao Cao thought for a moment, and a killing intent flashed in his eyes: "Follow me."
"Jia Zai."
Guo Jia stood behind him like a ghost in the shadows.
"Let people dig holes and kill all the prisoners."
Cao Cao said lightly.
"only."
Guo Jia then issued orders to Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Xu Chu and others.
He came back after a while and said: "Ming Gong, I have already told the soldiers."
"good."
Cao Cao grinned: "I defeated Yuan Shao today and wiped out Hebei. It's just around the corner, hahahahaha!"
"Report! Xu is in danger!"
At this moment, the messenger came on horseback, got to the foot of the mountain, knelt on one knee and said: "Shen Chen ambushed General Ren, and the army surrounded Xudu!"
Cao Cao's smile suddenly froze, and the surrounding air seemed to freeze.