By the afternoon of October 29th, Shen Chen had already gone south and met Liu Bei and Guan Yu in Jile Township.
At this time, Cao Jun did not take the initiative to attack while the two were marching.
Because Cao's army had too few troops.
There are only three to four thousand elites, and the remaining seven to eight thousand are second and third line troops, and some are even temporarily transferred from the auxiliary army to combat soldiers, both old and weak.
Therefore, even when Liu Bei and Guan Yu were on the march and looked quite weak, they did not dare to attack.
The most important thing is that the Yingchuan side is a smooth road. Due to Cao Cao's relocation and development, Xudu is surrounded by fields and rivers, and there are very few forests. It cannot be defeated head-on, and there is no way to ambush, and there is very little bow and arrow baggage. Naturally, Unable to attack by force.
As a result, the three armies merged together smoothly. Since the second-line troops guarding the city at the rear were also mobilized, their troops looked quite strong at this moment, with nearly 20,000 troops, sweeping through Xudu in a mighty manner.
Jile Township is located in the east of Xudu City, less than ten miles away from the city. On October 29, the three of them were stationed here. In the evening, everyone held a small meeting to discuss the next road.
In the camp, Shen Chen pointed at the map and said: "Everyone, the scouts just got the news today that Cao Cao has released Yuan Jun's prisoners and went south in person. With his footsteps, he will be able to return to Xudu in the next few days, so at least tomorrow we will We must evacuate, but we must not let Cao Cao have an easy time before evacuating."
Liu Bei suddenly had a whim and said: "Sir, I sent someone to the city to contact Duke Wen Ju. He told me that the city is extremely empty now. If we attack the city, it is very likely that we will burn Cao Cao's food and grass and welcome the emperor away. Wouldn't this be the case for Cao Cao? Will it inevitably be destroyed?”
"yes."
Mi Zhu was also surprised and said: "Yuan Shao has been seriously injured. If we win the emperor, we will immediately retreat to Nanyang. After Cao Cao is destroyed, we can then send troops north to wipe out Yingchuan and regain the entire Henan."
Shen Chen smiled bitterly and said: "Mr. We will rob all the grain and grass from the farmers, and even if they don't help, they will eat human breasts."
After hearing these words, everyone's expressions changed. Liu Bei's expression was actually not good-looking, because he remembered the most embarrassing past event.
It is true that Cao Cao cannibalized human flesh, but he was also in dire straits in Xiapi. His soldiers once ate the corpses of people who had starved to death. Although they were not eating living people, but dead corpses, letting the soldiers eat human flesh was a moral corruption in itself. Therefore, this is the biggest regret and guilt in his heart.
Thinking about it now, with Cao Cao's character, he could really do it, and it would be the people of Yingchuan who would suffer.
"Alas, I am well aware of Cao Cao's cruelty."
Liu Bei sighed.
Shen Chen said: "Not only that, the Yingchuan family must also have surplus food. If we welcome the emperor, plus the ministers and hundreds of officials, it will be difficult to move. Cao Cao has replenished food and grass in Xudu, and we will definitely pursue him. I'm afraid we won't be able to reach Xiangcheng." , we are about to be overtaken by him."
"I understand, the little gentleman is right, so what should we do now?"
Liu Bei asked.
Shen Chen said: "We need to evacuate, but we cannot let Cao Cao pursue me, so I plan to burn Xudu! However, I must not implicate the innocent people of Xudu. Mr. Xuande, please also evacuate the residents of Dongcheng when I attack the city. , give them a certain amount of food, grass, and money as compensation."
"oh?"
Liu Bei was surprised and said: "Young gentleman, you are really righteous."
Shen Chen smiled bitterly and said: "It's just a helpless move. Fortunately, we have a lot of food and grass, and we have gained a lot in recent days. We have robbed many assets of the Yingchuan family, so we are not short of money."
Now Shen Chen has attacked the northwest region of Yingchuan, and almost half of Yingchuan has been captured by him, including Xiangcheng, Yingyang, Yangdi, Dingling, Jianqiang, Zhaoling, etc.
They did no harm to the people, and they were not merciful to the Yingchuan clan who supported Cao Cao. They plundered many powerful local families.
We didn't get much food and grass, but we had a lot of money.
In troubled times, there are too many coins to transport, so it is better to distribute them to the people and win people's hearts.
Therefore, most of the five-baht coins and the like along the way were given to poor people in Guizhou, and only precious silks, gold, silver and jewelry remained.
Now is the time to use them.
Burning Xudu would definitely hurt innocent people, so Shen Chen decided to ask Liu Bei to send away the people and give them money, so as to gain a good reputation.
Fame seems to be a fictitious thing, but once it is used, it is very useful.
For example, when Cao Cao was such a cruel person, the people of Xuzhou became displeased upon hearing about it. However, after he welcomed the emperor and gained a reputation as a righteous man, his reputation suddenly improved a lot.
That's what fame brings.
It's just that Cao Cao's reputation was borrowed from Liu Xie, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, and it was the reputation that the Han Dynasty had built over the past four hundred years.
Liu Bei and Shen Chen had to rely on their own efforts to achieve their goal of becoming famous all over the world.
Just like Shen Chen returned the pig coins as a gift before in Longzhong Township.
The melon field does not accept shoes, and the plum tree does not have its crown trimmed.
A gentleman must never do anything that would make the world suspicious.
Attacking Xudu at this moment cannot make the people think that they are causing trouble in all directions in the name of serving the emperor.
So before Shen Chen left, he asked for his name!
And he wants to be famous all over the world.
His target was the Yingchuan family, and he was extremely friendly to the officials and officials in Xudu City.
Kong Rong had a very good relationship with Liu Bei, and they both hated Cao Cao.
Although Yang Biao was suppressed by Cao Cao, he still resented Cao Cao for being arrogant and domineering. In addition to torturing himself, he also imprisoned the emperor.
The royalists still have a certain say. If they can win over hundreds of famous people in Henan, then Shen Chen's strategy of occupying Nanyang in the south and Yuzhou in the north will really be realized in the future.
At that moment, Shen Chen began to make arrangements according to the plan, and based on the detailed operations in the city, Xun Yu had already summoned many Cao troops outside the city to the city, using the inner city as the basis to defend.
So Shen Chen prepared to lead his army in person, attack Cao Jun's many strongholds in the east city, suppress Cao Jun back to the imperial city, and then surround Xudu with Liu Bei. At the same time, Liu Bei led the rebel army deep into the outer city, dismissed the people, and knocked on the door of every house to let them leave.
In normal times, this work would have taken a long time, but now it is a war, and there are not many people in the city. Most of them are officials from aristocratic families, powerful merchants and their servants. Most of the ordinary people are farming outside the city, so there are only a few people in the city. Thousands of people, and fearful of war, will definitely obey.
After the matter was settled, everyone took action without further delay. Shen Chen and Gan Ning and Zhang Fei personally led 5,000 troops and began to station in the streets of the East City. The city was already trembling, and a large number of Cao's troops gathered at the East City Gate to watch.
There were not many Cao Jun strongholds outside the city, and they were quickly cleared. At that time, the inner city of Xudu had a moat, but the outer city did not, so the soldiers could only form arrays outside the moat.
Behind him, Liu Bei personally led the army and knocked on the door of every house.
Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Tai Shi Ci, Jian Yong, Sun Qian, Mi Zhu, Mi Fang, Shi Ren, Liu Yan, Yuan Wei, Xia Hou Zuan, Deng Zhao, Shen Tao and other generals and counselors in the army also led their soldiers one after another to push for use. The baggage trains distributing money and food went deep into the southern city of Xudu and began to evacuate the people.
Of course they couldn't say that they were going to burn Xudu, but they were saying slogans that they were going to attack the palace and rescue the emperor. They were afraid that the war would cause harm to the people and hurt innocent people, so they gave money and food to the people to escape from the city.
For a time, all the noble families and powerful merchants didn't even want the money of Liu Bei and Shen Chen's army. Driven by the army, they drove their carriages out of the city one after another. The common people helped the old and young, carrying the food and property given by Shen Chen's army on their backs. He took all the valuable things at home and fled quickly.
In fact, when Liu Bei and Shen Chen's army arrived in Jingle Township, the news that the enemy was attacking outside the city of Xudu could no longer be concealed. Starting yesterday, a large number of officials and dignitaries fled Xudu. Only today did the common people know the news. It's very panic.
Fortunately, after Shen Chen's army entered the city, Qiu did not commit any crime. Instead, he shouted slogans, saying that he wanted to welcome the emperor. He was afraid of hurting the people, and persuaded the people to leave the city to take refuge, and would also give them money and food.
Although many people didn't want to leave their homes, no matter how kind their troops were, they still knocked on the door with bright swords and guns in their hands and gave them a considerable amount of living expenses. I guess even Zhang Fei's violent temper would probably be enough. We can only stay under the eaves and have to lower our heads.
So starting from noon on October 29th and lasting until the morning of October 30th, the people in Xudu City were evacuated like a torrent, chaos mixed with order, slowly flowing out of the city.
It was relatively lucky for the people. Since there was no city wall in the outer city of Xudu, and most of Cao's troops were forced into the palace in the inner city, there was no one to stop them.
After they received their belongings, they immediately left the city at the urging of Liu Bei and Shen Chenjun.
But for Cao Jun in the city, it was a torture.
They are so short of supplies.
There is no shortage of food, but there is a serious shortage of equipment to defend the city.
In order to fight the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao moved almost more than 95% of the supplies to the front line of Guandu. Now there are very few defensive equipment in the city.
There is no crossbow, and the number of arrows is less than 10,000. There are only a small amount of rolling stone wood and some lime. The other more important ones are like a car crash, a fork pole, a flying hook, a yaksha hammer, a ground listener, a fierce fire oil tank, a swallow-tailed torch, a flying torch, There are no gold cupping pots or other items at all.
Therefore, there is almost no comparison between the combat effectiveness of the two sides. This is why no one dared to intercept Guan Yu and Liu Bei during their march. It was really a fierce battle in the wild, and Cao Hong, Xia Houyuan and others came to die.
By the afternoon of October 30th, after a day and night of evacuation, Xu Du was close to an empty city. Starting in the afternoon, Shen Chen officially prepared to attack the city.
From yesterday to now, he certainly didn't do anything. Instead, he sent people outside the east city gate to build earthen hills and build towers. With enough arrows, he almost suppressed Cao's army at the top of the city with bows and arrows. I can't even lift my head.
In the afternoon, we started preparing to cross the river using the trench bridge we made.
But the moat in Xudu is still relatively wide. Although it is not as exaggerated as Xiangyang, which is over a hundred meters, it is still more than twenty or thirty meters long. Building moat bridges is very labor-intensive. In a hurry, I only built twenty or thirty of them, just to cross the river and attack. .
As a result, they rolled stones and wood and smashed many trench bridges, so they had no choice but to retreat.
In the evening, Shen Chen continued to attack from the east gate and south gate. The resistance on the top of the city was extremely fierce. Relying on the rush of Shen Chen's army, unlike Yuan Shao who had a large number of siege equipment, both sides carried out fierce defense around the city.
At the most critical moment, seeing that Shen Chen's army was about to rush up from the east city gate under the cover of arrows, Cao Hong had to order the fish paste stored in the palace to be poured down and set on fire to the ladder.
When Shen Chen saw this scene in the distance, he immediately had an idea, so he immediately ordered the soldiers to withdraw their troops and not to close the trench bridge when they retreated.
Soon a large number of ladders were burned, and the flames spread to the trench bridge built under the city, and then spread to the east of the city.
Shen Chen deliberately did nothing to put out the fire, but pretended to be defeated and retreated.
Soon the fire spread rapidly in the East City, thick smoke filled the air, and flames shot into the sky. At night, the fire ignited the houses near the city, and then burned everywhere, surrounding the South City and North City.
On the contrary, the inner city was almost unscathed because of the natural isolation zone of the moat, and the city walls were made of earth, stone and bricks with very few wooden tools. In addition, Cao Jun's defense was protected against fire.
"Ming Jin, withdraw your troops!"
Seeing that Cao Jun helped him complete the task of burning Xudu, Shen Chen had no intention of staying. After the fire raged, he ordered to light fires in other places in the city and evacuated the city.
It was not until midnight that the raging fire in Xudu reached an almost unquenchable level before Shen Chen withdrew his troops and headed south.
What was even more damaging was that he also sent people to a place more than ten kilometers south of Xudu City to tell the people who had not fled far away that Cao's army had set fire to the city and they were unable to attack the city and were forced to retreat. They would come back to welcome the emperor and save all the people in the future.
Anyway, Cao Hong ordered Shen Chen's trench bridge ladder to be burned with fish paste. Tens of thousands of enemy and friendly soldiers around him saw it. The families of these soldiers were all outside the city. If they wanted to hide it from so many eyes, they would definitely not be able to hide it, so they went along with the flow and blamed the crime on Cao Hong is the best.
At the same time, Cao Cao's army had actually arrived at Weichuan Pavilion in the north of Yanling, less than thirty kilometers away from Xudu.
The fire in Weichuan Pavilion has been burning for four or five days, and the fire has basically been extinguished because the surrounding vegetation was burned. The original mountain forest was completely dark, and the ashes in the sky were still mixed with the residual heat of the flames.
Because the ground was hot for his feet, Cao Cao had to choose to take a detour. But looking at Weichuan Pavilion from a distance, he still sent someone to check on Ren Jun and the others.
At night, the scouts who went to investigate came to report that all of Ren Jun's more than 4,000 troops had been burned to death. The soldiers were all strange and horrifying. There were only a large number of carbonized mummies left in the place. It was impossible to tell who was who. Ren Jun.
Cao Cao could only sigh and send people to hurry up and return to Xudu before the early morning of the next day.
On October 31st, at three quarters on the first day of the week, that is, around four o'clock in the morning, it was still dark, and it was dry weather again today.
When Cao Cao's army passed Yanling, Cao Cao was about to send scouts to find out the news. Before the scouts could go further, they saw the light of fire reaching the sky.
Cao Cao was riding on horseback, standing by the post road leading to Xudu, his eyes wide open and his face full of disbelief.
He saw the black smoke covering the sky and the earth, and the flames seemed to dye half of the sky red. Even from more than ten kilometers away, it seemed that he could smell the smell of paste in the air.