The cavalry led by Xu Huang rushed to Xuzhou and entered Langya County, blocking Yuan Shu's troops.
But Yuan Shu still had five troops to attack the city and capture territory in Xuzhou.
Although Yuan Shu did not massacre the city, every time he captured a city, he allowed his soldiers to burn, kill, and loot.
Some were lucky and could escape the disaster. Those who were unlucky died directly at the hands of Yuan Jun, and all their family belongings were taken away.
In the more than 20 cities occupied by Yuan Shu, more than 50,000 ordinary people have died unexpectedly, and more than 100,000 people have been displaced, unable to return home, becoming miserable refugees, who may starve to death on both sides of the road at any time.
Yuan Shu only cared about his own interests and did not care about the lives of the people.
In his eyes, ordinary people are just slaves to be driven by him.
Xu Huang faced off against Zhang Xun, the general under Yuan Shu.
However, Zhang Xun also knew that Xu Huang led all cavalry, so he set up camp outside Langya County and dug three trenches around the camp.
Xu Huang led the cavalry to make several tentative attacks, but was unable to overwhelm Zhang Xun's army.
Zhang Liao and Ji Ling had a stalemate in Xiapi City.
Ji Ling led an army of 30,000 men, which far exceeded Zhang Liao's 5,000 troops.
Zhang Liao is currently trapped in Xiapi and does not dare to leave the city easily.
Unless he can kill Ji Ling with one shot in the military formation, it will be difficult to make up for the gap in military strength.
He has no cost of trial and error.
The people around Xiapi City fled into the city. Now there are nearly two hundred thousand people in the city.
If Ji Ling were to capture Xiapi City, how would Zhang Liao face these 200,000 people?
Wang Ding received news every day that Xuzhou was breached.
But he couldn't just let the soldiers rush on without reservation in order to get to Xuzhou as soon as possible.
Wang Ding leads all elite troops, who can march hundreds of miles steadily every day and ensure that they still have sufficient combat effectiveness.
Three days later, Wang Ding finally led the army and arrived at the border of Xuzhou.
Three of Xuzhou's six counties have fallen into Yuan Shu's hands. Only Xiapi Langya and Donghai counties are left.
There are more than 500,000 people in the three counties and twenty-eight cities. They are living in fear these days. They don't know when they will be killed by Yuan Shu's soldiers.
Entering Pengcheng County, you can see bodies lying on the road from time to time.
They were all ordinary people in ragged clothes. After the city was broken, they fled with their families, but they still couldn't survive.
Wang Ding gritted his teeth and said, "Yuan Shu deserves to die."
He expected that Yuan Shu would not treat the people of Xuzhou well.
But he didn't expect that Yuan Shu really didn't care about the life and death of the people in Xuzhou.
There were many refugees on the road. When they saw Wang Ding's army from a distance, they hid in the woods.
They didn't know whether this was Wang Ding's army or Yuan Shu's army.
Nowadays, when they face any large army, they will feel frightened and just want to avoid it.
The people of Xuzhou have lost confidence in the army. In the eyes of the people, both Wang Ding's troops and Yuan Shu's army are more terrifying than those bandits and bandits.
Seeing the refugees running into the mountains and forests in panic, Wang Ding's eyes became colder and colder.
Regardless of whether he was dealing with Cao Cao or Yuan Shao before, Wang Ding's purpose was to unify the Han Dynasty and avoid further wars. Wang Ding had no intention of killing Cao Cao or Yuan Shao.
But now he wanted to kill someone and wanted to cut Yuan Shu into pieces.
In addition to Dong Zhuo who has been killed, Yuan Shu is the person Wang Ding wants to kill the most right now.
All six cities in Pengcheng County were looted by Yuan's army. There were still a large number of people in the cities, but there was no food.
For these captured cities, Yuan Shu did not leave any army handlers behind. He only looted the food, gold and silver treasures in the cities.
When Wang Ding and his army arrived at Pengcheng City, the city gate was wide open and the city gate was empty, not a single person could be seen.
Originally, there were many people coming in and out, and there was no food in the city. They wanted to look for food outside the city, but after seeing the army, they all disappeared in an instant.
"My lord, be careful, Rong Mo will go into the city first to investigate." Seeing that Wang Ding was about to enter the city directly, Wei Yan pulled the reins and rode his horse to Wang Ding's side.
Wang Ding pulled the reins. This morning Wang Ding had learned about the situation in Pengcheng from the spies from Tianji Pavilion.
He doesn't think there is any danger in Pengcheng now.
However, Wei Yan wanted to enter the city first, and Wang Ding did not refuse, but just waited for a while longer.
Although Yuan Shu's army has already evacuated from Pengcheng, there may be a few assassins left behind, so be careful and make no big mistake.
Today's Wang Ding must not put himself in danger.
Wei Yan led a group of troops and slowly walked into the city gate, his eyes scanning left and right.
A pair of eyes were secretly watching Wei Yan as he entered the city, but their expressions were completely different.
Wei Yan's eyes were like torches, with a faint hint of murderous intent.
But the eyes hidden around him were filled with fear and anxiety, and the bodies hiding in the dilapidated house were trembling.
Wei Yan looked at the houses on both sides and ordered: "Search them all. Remember not to hurt anyone."
He knew Wang Ding's attitude towards the people.
Wei Yan himself also carried a spear and entered a private house. The door had already been damaged.
In the yard were several broken earthen jars.
rustle!
The moment Wei Yan stepped into the courtyard, he heard the rustling of hay piled in the corner.
He shouted toward the haystack: "Come out."
A woman in linen clothes walked out of the haystack, lowering her head and not daring to look at Wei Yan.
However, in just a few days, a family that was originally relatively well-to-do was in ruins.
"Is there anyone else at home?" Wei Yan asked, his tone cold and his expression indifferent.
As a general on the battlefield, he has long been used to seeing separation between life and death. Women's faces are covered with dirt, and their clothes are dirty, with several holes hanging on them, and the skin can be seen.
The woman did not dare to speak and just shook her head.
Wei Yan would not feel sympathy for women just because they were miserable.
He looked at the woman and ordered two soldiers to enter the room to search.
The two soldiers came out quickly. There were not many things in the house. Almost everything that could be moved out before was moved away by Yuan Jun.
All that was left were broken wooden doors and windows, and broken earthen jars.
The food in the house and the iron pieces on the farm tools were all confiscated by Yuan Shu.
There was only one woman left in the originally happy family. In these troubled times, I don’t know if she can survive.
Ignoring the frightened woman, Wei Yan left the house with two soldiers.
Watching Wei Yan leave, a trace of confusion flashed in the woman's eyes, and she didn't even notice that her body was no longer shaking.
Wei Yan didn't care what the woman was thinking. He just wanted to make sure that there were no people around who were ambushed by Yuan Shu, and that Wang Ding would not be assassinated when he entered the city.
The Han army had strict discipline. The soldiers brought over by Wei Yan inspected the surrounding houses very carefully, but they did not touch any of these ordinary people.
They can tell at a glance whether they are assassins or not. They mainly search for hidden bows and crossbows.
In the time of a stick of incense, Wei Yan led his people to check all the hiding places within fifty feet. After ensuring safety, he came to Wang Ding and said respectfully: "My lord, there are no assassins around, you can enter the city."