After Tian Yujie burned Yuan Shu's food and grass, he immediately sent people to Xuyi to report to Liu Bei.
Therefore, Liu Bei learned the news earlier than Yuan Shu.
In the tent, Zhou Ping, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhuge Jin and others were all there.
"It's such a pity that so much food was burned down!"
Liu Bei was overjoyed, but he couldn't help but lament.
"My lord, this is a last resort. Yuan Shu has many troops and horses and is coming fiercely. If not for this, it may be difficult to repel him." Zhou Ping advised.
Liu Bei nodded slightly, knowing in his heart that those in charge of the army should be benevolent but not merciful.
It is a pity that food is destroyed, but compared to killing each other on the battlefield, this is nothing.
"Zhong Kang and Zhong Kang have made great contributions this time. However, Mr. Angelica, the first contributor, had he not had this wonderful plan and arranged it in advance, I am afraid it would not have been so smooth."
"Haha, the ones who contributed the effort to kill the enemy were Guo Rang and Zhong Kang Yun Chang and other officers and men. Ping just talked about it, but he took only a small amount of credit." Zhou Ping said humbly, "Besides, Yuan Shu has not yet retreated, so it is not the time to judge merit.
If Yuan Shu loses this food and grass, he will not be able to stay here for a long time, and he is not willing to retreat like this. In my opinion, he will probably raise his troops and come to the city to ask for a battle in the next few days."
"Brother, sir, if Yuan Shu comes to fight and asks me to take the lead, I will kill the enemy general with one spear like his second brother did."
Zhang Fei was excited when he heard that there was going to be a war. Seeing his second brother Guan Yu making great achievements, he felt itchy in his heart.
Guan Yu narrowed his eyes slightly and seemed not to care about this. If he really wanted to go into battle, I believe his elder brother would still let him go into battle.
Moreover, the enemy soldiers outside the city were too weak and could not compare with Cao Cao's troops. It was not difficult at all to win.
Zhou Ping said with a smile: "If we go to war this time, it will be a big battle, and you will definitely have a chance to fight. However, if Yuan Shu comes to ask for a fight, we can't go out of the city immediately to fight. We will have to delay him for some time, which will make him extremely anxious.
, this way we can win more easily."
Zhang Fei, however, didn't quite understand: "Sir, the second brother has already defeated him for a while, and now he has burned his food and cut off his food routes. You can win by going to war, why do you have to delay it any longer?"
"Haha, this is called not fulfilling the enemy's wishes. Yuan Shu is impatient and wants to fight, so we will not fight him. When he is impatient and impatient, we will send out troops again to recharge our batteries to slow down the attack, and we will be able to defeat him.
win."
Zhou Ping seemed confident and victory was within grasp.
Guan Yu opened his eyes at this time and said: "Sir, if Yuan Shu comes to ask for a fight and we don't fight, I'm afraid it will affect morale and make the officers in the city think that we are afraid of the enemy."
Liu Bei also nodded in agreement: "Yes, if you refuse to fight, you may be cowardly."
Seeing that his two brothers were worried, Zhang Fei shouted: "I think if Yuan Shu dares to come to fight, we don't need to delay. We can just send troops to fight him. If we win for a while, Yuan Shu will definitely retreat."
Zhou Ping kept a smile on his face, looked at Zhuge Jin who was standing silently beside him, and asked: "Tzuyu, what do you think?"
Zhuge Jin saw the question and hurriedly replied: "If we refuse to fight, it will damage our morale. If the enemy comes and we rush to fight, it will be like the enemy's intention, which seems to be disadvantageous to us. This matter is really difficult."
With Zhuge Jin's talents, it might be appropriate for him to be appointed as a governor or a county guard to govern the people. It would indeed be difficult for him to let him manage the army, fight wars, and make plans.
Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were all looking at Zhou Ping at this time. They believed that Mr. Wen An must have a good plan to deal with it.
"Yes, if we don't fight, we will lose morale. If we fight, we will fulfill the enemy's wishes. But we can neither refuse to fight nor go to war immediately."
After Zhou Ping finished speaking, he inspected everyone and saw Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin all nodding slightly with joy on their faces. Only Zhang Fei was still looking forward to Zhou Ping's words.
"Sir, you have finished speaking. What should we do?"
Liu Bei replied with a smile on behalf of Zhou Ping: "Sir, what you want is to take it easy."
Zhang Feiruo had some realization: "Slow down for a moment? Sir, what you want to say is that we will fight again in a few days?"
Zhou Ping looked at Zhang Fei with relief and said with a smile: "Yes, if Yuan Shu comes to ask for a battle, we can make an agreement with him to fight in seven days. In this way, the morale of the army will not be damaged, and the enemy will become more anxious. Yuan Shu's army rations were burned and no food was delivered.
, and there is not much food in his army, so if he waits for a long time, he will become more anxious. After seven days, he may be impatient and impatient."
Zhang Fei finally understood and said with a smile: "Hehehe, it's just these seven days that I have become impatient."
"Hahaha..." Everyone in the tent suddenly laughed in unison.
Two days later, Yuan Shu left only 3,000 men to guard the camp, and led 40,000 troops to Xuyi City. He formed a formation, with Ji Ling as the front line, and asked Liu Bei to fight.
Liu Bei led Zhou Ping and other generals to stand on the city gate tower, looking at the enemy formation outside the city. They saw that the lineup was not very neat. Although there were many people, they lacked a mighty force.
"Sir, if we fight now, we can win!" Liu Bei pointed at the enemy formation outside the city and said.
Zhou Ping also looked at the enemy formation outside the city and replied: "It is easy to win, but the enemy soldiers still have the will to fight. If we go to fight at this time, we may lose many soldiers. After seven days, the enemy soldiers' fighting spirit has been greatly reduced, and again
If we are eager to win, chaos will result. When we go to war, we may be able to defeat ten thousand with one thousand."
Liu Bei was a little worried: "Well, I'm just worried that Yuan Shu is short of food now, and I'm afraid he won't be able to wait and retreats! If we can't defeat him completely this time, he will definitely come back after retreating, and we will be exhausted.
Accepted the challenge."
"Yuan Shu can still wait for seven days. He will never retreat unless he is defeated."
Liu Bei sent someone to respond, saying that the city must be prepared, but that he would go out of the city to fight with him in seven days.
Yuan Shu was eager to ask for a battle and sent people to the city several times to ask for a battle, but the city always responded in this way.
In the end, he had no choice but to lead the troops back to the camp and summon the grain officer to ask: "How many days will the army's food be enough?"
The grain official replied: "It can be eaten for fifteen days."
"So few?!"
"yes."
"I know, let's go down."
Yuan Shu was anxious after sending away the grain officer.
We can't fight, let alone attack the city. There are so many soldiers and horses guarding the city that we can't attack at all.
It is not possible to retreat. If you retreat now, your morale will be completely lost. Liu Bei will definitely lead his troops to pursue him. Moreover, if you retreat like this, you will lose your authority in the world. Who else will be willing to surrender to you in the future.
After thinking for a long time, Yuan Shu couldn't think of a countermeasure, so he summoned his confidants Zhang Xun and Qiao Rui to discuss.
"General, why not move your troops to pretend to attack Dongyang, and then divide your troops to raid Guangling and capture Guangling City? Then we will have food and a foothold, and it will be much easier to capture Xuzhou." Qiao Rui first offered his advice.
However, Zhang Xun was a little worried: "If we move our troops to attack Dongyang, Xuyi's soldiers will definitely come to rescue us. Moreover, it is a long way to Guangling and it will be difficult for each other to take care of each other. There may be something unexpected!"
"What can we do? Do we just wait like this?"
"Liu Bei doesn't want to fight at this time, so what can he do if he doesn't wait?"
The voices of Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun were full of helplessness.
Yuan Shu listened to the two arguing, but he was thinking in his heart, why did Liu Bei agree with him to fight again after seven days? Is there any conspiracy in this?
He thought for a long time and finally thought of something: "Yes, Liu Bei left many soldiers and horses by the Huai River on the other side of Huai Ling City. Maybe he was waiting for reinforcements to arrive before he dared to go to war. It seems that Liu Bei is still afraid of us."
Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun thought about it at this time and felt that it was right. Liu Bei left more than 10,000 troops and horses to garrison beside the Huaihe River. A few days ago, he sent thousands of troops to Dongyang. There were not many troops and horses in Xuyi City, so they delayed the date.
It must be waiting for reinforcements.
The two men quickly expressed their agreement to Yuan Shu.
"What the general said is absolutely true, and Liu Bei must be true."
"Liu Bei is afraid of us. Even if he has reinforcements coming, we have nothing to fear. We will definitely defeat him this time and capture Liu Bei's head."
Yuan Shu looked at the two generals in front of him seriously: "Remember, the matter of the robbery and burning of food and grass must not be leaked, otherwise the consequences will be unpredictable."
"promise."
Qiao Rui and Zhang Xun cupped their hands and replied, of course they knew the seriousness of the matter.
