On March 20th of the first year of Xingping, north of Kaiyang County of Langya Kingdom, a troop of only a few thousand soldiers and horses slowly moved southward along the official road.
Liu Bei was riding on horseback, occasionally looking back at the troops following him in the distance behind him.
They say they are tribesmen, but they are actually thousands of hungry people.
They had no armor, no weapons, no horses, they were in ragged clothes and dishonorable, and they slowly and arduously advanced with the large army.
Qingzhou is not at peace now. The Yellow Turbans are rampant and bandits are everywhere. Beihai Prime Minister Kong Rong was besieged by the Yellow Turbans. Liu Bei, then Pingyuan Prime Minister, accepted Kong Rong's invitation to relieve the siege of Beihai.
As a result, Cao Cao and Tao Qian fought in Pengcheng last year because of Cao Song's incident.
After the Battle of Pengcheng, Tao Qian's main force was almost completely wiped out. Currently, there are less than ten thousand soldiers and horses trapped in the East China Sea, and Cao Cao's army attacks again.
Under this situation, Tao Qian could only send Mi Zhu, his charioteer, to help his old friend Kong Rong. Kong Rong had just driven out the Yellow Turbans from Qingzhou and was too busy to take care of himself. Liu Bei happened to be in Beihai, so Kong Rong hoped that Liu Bei would come to the rescue.
After learning that Cao Cao had massacred Pengcheng last year and threatened to pacify Xuzhou this year to avenge his father, Liu Bei understood his righteousness and immediately borrowed some troops from his old classmate Gongsun Zan, plus several hundred troops from Tian Kai, the governor of Qingzhou appointed by Gongsun Zan.
Maru Huqi marched towards Xuzhou.
Along the way, many people who had lost their land due to war wanted to join his team, but everyone knew that these people had no ability to fight. They only followed Liu Bei because they could barely eat a mouthful of food.
Only a thousand or more of his troops were armed, and only a dozen were equipped with horses and armor. The rest were unarmed and hungry people. It was not easy to rescue Xuzhou with this few manpower.
But Liu Bei did not regret doing this, even though there were many old, weak, women and children in his army, and there was not much food and grass left brought from the plains, and Kong Rong did not have much food and grass to supplement him.
"Brother, look."
Guan Yu called Liu Bei and motioned him to look southwest.
Following the direction he pointed, Liu Bei saw a city not far away, which was Kaiyang County.
Mi Zhu on the side immediately warned: "Your Majesty, please be careful. Zang Ba gathered his troops and stationed troops in Kaiyang. He thought he was handsome and did not listen to Tao Gong."
"Well, I understand."
Liu Bei nodded, reached for the sword at his waist, and said to Zhang Fei: "Third brother, you lead 300 men ahead and lie down in the road. If they come out of the city to attack our army, you will stand aside to respond."
"Don't worry, brother."
Zhang Fei said hello, led 300 men and horses quickly ahead, and hid in the woods outside Kaiyang City.
In terms of military ability, Liu Bei may not be as good as Cao Cao, but after all, it has been ten years since the Yellow Turbans campaign, and he can still do some basic marching knowledge and troop formation.
Seeing Liu Bei's arrangement, Mi Zhu nodded with satisfaction. Thinking of Tao Qian's old age, Mi Zhu couldn't help but look at Liu Bei.
If Liu Shijun were the lord of Xuzhou, he should be able to keep Xuzhou safe.
He thought so.
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On March 22nd, in Pengcheng State, Lu County, Cao Cao lived in the county government.
At this time, his strength had not yet grown, and there were only four advisers around him: Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, Chen Gong, and Xi Zhi.
The generals include Xiahou Dun, Xiahouyuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Yu Jin, Le Jin, etc.
But this time when he came to attack Xuzhou, Cao Cao didn't bring any counselors with him.
Because he had already made up his mind.
Kill all the chickens and dogs in Xuzhou and leave no one behind!
Xun Yu, Chen Gongxi, Zhicai and the others have always been kind to women. If they knew what he was thinking, they would definitely oppose it.
Therefore, Cao Cao simply asked them to stay in the rear and supervise the transportation of grain and grass for the front line.
At this moment, in the county government residence, Cao Cao was surrounded by only Cao Ren and Cao Hong, two close confidants of the Cao family. He also left Xiahou Dun behind to stay behind, while Xiahou Yuan was transporting grain.
The three of them were sitting in rows. Cao Cao asked Cao Hong, "Zilian, how much food and grass do you have now?"
"Brother, it can now be used by the army for half a year."
Cao Hong replied.
Cao Cao's narrow eyes were filled with murderous intent, and he said softly: "Okay, last time I couldn't kill Tao Qian because I ran out of food. This time, I must bloodbath Xuzhou to avenge my father!"
Cao Ren stood up and said: "Brother, give me the order. We must avenge my uncle's revenge even if we risk our lives!"
"Um."
Cao Cao nodded: "Zixiao, I order you to lead an army of five thousand, cross the Si River and capture Liangcheng. Zi Lian will respond with three thousand troops and horses. I, the leader, will go south and defeat Xiapi first."
"Ah?" Cao Ren said in confusion: "Brother, why do you want to break Xiapi first?"
Cao Cao said coldly: "I want to avenge Tao Qian, but I also want to win Xuzhou. However, Yuan Shu is far stronger than me. If I win Xuzhou, he will attack, so he will kill Xiapi first, and he will come from Huainan."
Going north, we will not be able to replenish military supplies for hundreds of miles along the way. If there is an attack, our army will be ambushed."
This is Cao Cao's plan. At this time, his strength is not strong yet, with a total force of only more than 40,000, while Yuan Shu already has an army of 100,000. If he annexes Xuzhou, Yuan Shu will not miss this opportunity and come north to attack.
The two Yuan Dynasties fought, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao formed an alliance, Yuan Shao faced Gongsun Zan in the north, and Cao Cao faced Yuan Shu in the south. The two sides fought a big battle at Kuangting last year, and that time Yuan Shu also came to attack from a long distance.
At that time, Runan was in dire straits. Yuan Shu, together with Jin Shang, the governor of Yanzhou appointed by the imperial court, sent an army to attack Yanzhou. The road from Huainan was more than a thousand miles away. When they arrived at Yanzhou, their descendants were exhausted and their horses were exhausted. Cao Cao waited for work, and defeated the enemy with the weak. This was a great victory.
Very important battle.
After that battle, Cao Cao also realized another problem, that is, the world is now in chaos and there is a shortage of food and grass everywhere. Although he defeated the Qingzhou Yellow Turbans the year before last, he gained a population of one million, which added a large number of people to Yanzhou.
However, Yanzhou has been at war in the past two years and has no time to control it. Therefore, the food and grass can only barely support the army, and cannot allow him to work on expeditions. At most, he can attack the surrounding areas.
Therefore, although Cao Cao was eyeing Xuzhou with covetous eyes, he also knew that it was impossible to annex Xuzhou with his own strength.
However, if Yuan Shu captured Xuzhou, using Huaibei and Yinfu as a springboard would seriously threaten his rear, so Cao Cao was determined to completely slaughter Xuzhou.
This is an artificial buffer zone.
Runan County is desolate because the hardest-hit area of the Yellow Turban Rebellion is in Runan. Millions of Runan Yellow Turbans were killed by Huangfu Song in Changshe. As a result, the population of Runan dropped sharply and Henan became a wilderness.
Yuan Shu attacked Yanzhou from Runan, but the entire route was covered with white bones, farmland was barren, villages were dilapidated, and military supplies could not be replenished, so he was defeated.
Now that Cao Cao has massacred Xiapi again, if Yuan Shu chooses to go north from Huaibei to attack Yanzhou, it will have the same effect. It will be dilapidated along the way and the military supplies will still not be replenished.
The territories of the two sides were not contiguous, and Yuan Shu had to travel long distances every time he came to attack, giving Cao Cao the advantage.
For Cao Cao, if the population is gone, he can plunder and grow again. If his territory is gone, then there will be nothing. Therefore, compared to the population of Xuzhou, he is more concerned about letting Yuan Shu win Xuzhou.
Nor can he be allowed to grow again based on Xuzhou.
Cao Ren and Cao Hong did not care about morality as much as Xun Yu, Zhicai, Chen Gong and others. Since Cao Cao gave them an order, they would just carry it out. Therefore, the two of them had no objections and immediately led their troops to act according to the plan.