Seeing that it was useless to surrender, Cao Cao then began to attack the city fiercely. Zang Hong still resisted tenaciously. Soldiers from both sides fought up and down the city wall, but there was still no sign of the end of the war.
During this period, Zang Hong repeated his old tricks several times and hung up straw men at night. However, after Cao Jun suffered a loss, he no longer fell for the trick. Each time, he only fired tentative shots. When there was no movement, he laughed at the defenders outside the city.
After a few days, as the advantage on the city gradually expanded, Cao Jun became more and more proud. He felt helpless in the city and even canceled his probing shots.
Unexpectedly, when Zang Hong saw this situation, he immediately led 600 men to lower the city. Cao Jun was unprepared and the Han army rushed into the horse corridor. Cao Jun's camp was immediately in chaos. They were heavily armed and trampled on each other without distinguishing between ourselves and the enemy. Fortunately,
Gongsun Ji stopped the chaos in time and did not let the commotion turn into a roar of the camp and ultimately affect the entire army. However, with this move, Zang Hong was able to cut off the heads of thousands of people and retreat safely into the city.
After this incident, Cao Cao's army could neither attack nor defend. Cao Cao had to make up his mind and divided all the troops into small teams, and each team took turns patrolling the camp to guard against Zang Hong's night attack. Although the effect was
It was obvious, but the soldiers privately discussed that it was a rare and rare occurrence in ancient and modern times for a city with ten times the number of soldiers to surround a city that had been fighting for a long time, but to close the camp and defend it.
The number of soldiers patrolling the camp increased, and Cao's army's offensive naturally slowed down. As soon as the pressure in the city was reduced, Zang Hong ordered Lei Shang to shout at the top of the city, claiming that he was not willing to defend the city and die. If Cao's army could retreat thirty miles, they would
Then you can leave the city with peace of mind and return to the Eastern Capital.
When the news reached Cao Cao, Cao Cao sneered: "Zang Ziyuan has succeeded several times, and he already thinks I'm a fool! Should I retreat thirty miles now and let him destroy my watchtower fortress?"
However, there were quite a few war-weary generals who were very moved when they saw that he was willing to abandon the city. They still advised the marshal: "If he really intends to leave, wouldn't he have missed a good opportunity?"
Cao Cao looked at the man coldly and said: "Such a genius, instead of killing him in an isolated city, I can let the tiger return to the mountain and lead an army alone?" The generals were suddenly silent. Cao Cao continued: "
If we can kill Zang Ziyuan, but only tens of thousands of troops, what a waste!"
While they were talking, another scout came from outside the tent to report that Zang Hong saw that Cao Jun was not responding. He also sent a message to the top of the city, claiming that if the whole army could not return, he could also give thirty horses as a gift. As long as Cao Jun gave way to a small road, he would
Go out of the city with your guards.
When the scout was about to go down, Cao Cao stopped him and said, "Do you know who is coming out to shout? It must not be an ordinary person!"
The scout replied: "I believe it is a thief named Lei Shang, who is said to be Zang Hong's right-hand man and extremely powerful!"
Cao Cao thought for a moment and then told Cao Ren: "Send a few sharpshooters to shoot that Lei Shang to death and kill Zang Hong's spirit." Cao Ren nodded and said yes.
Not long after, Cao Ren rode a white horse and arrived at the city with more than ten personal guards. He shouted to Lei Shang at the top of the city: "Where is Jun Lei? Cao Ren has been ordered by the marshal to come to discuss with you!" <
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As soon as he finished speaking, a man suddenly stretched out his head at the top of the city and looked at the crowd below. Cao Ren squinted his eyes and looked around, confirming that it was Lei Shang, and continued: "Lei Jun, the marshal ordered me to ask, I let Lu Shang go."
Yes, but your army already has horses, so why ask for them?"
Lei Shang also recognized Cao Ren, and he replied: "There is no beans in the city, and the horses are fat, how can they run out? If Cao Gong refuses to send the horses, then we will have to hold on."
Cao Ren laughed when he heard this, and said in a calculating tone: "If you want good horses, don't we have many troops? The marshal himself only has five or six good horses. If not, ten good horses, twenty
How about a pack horse?"
Lei Shang was about to say more, but unexpectedly, the man leaned forward slightly and suddenly fell behind him. It turned out that he was hit by an arrow that came from nowhere!
Seeing this, Cao Jun suddenly shouted. Unexpectedly, not long after the shouts started to boil, Lei Shang actually stood up again. The arrow entered from the right cheek and passed out from the other side. Lei Shang's teeth were broken and his mouth was full of water.
The blood was terrifying. The people around him were frightened and gathered around to save him. However, Lei Shang acted as if nothing had happened. He stretched out his hand to break the arrow shaft, and then pulled out the middle section from his cheek bloody. As he followed
He spat out the blood in his mouth, and his mouth was full of broken teeth.
Even though he was hit by an arrow in the face, Lei Shang still stood upright. However, he could not speak clearly at this time and could only talk to his attendants in a coquettish manner, asking him to convey to Cao Ren in the city: "This arrow has a good target, but it is a pity that it is few.
"How much strength?" He then said, "In that case, let's wait until you go to the city again!" Seeing Lei Shang's tenacity, the officers and soldiers of Cao's army all sighed: "Could it be that the thieves are being cared for by gods? Why are they as solid as stone?" However, when Cao Jun was frustrated, the atmosphere of the Han army in the city was also extremely heavy. At this time, Zang Hong was sitting under the tower, discussing matters with his generals. Dozens of them first took off their heavy armor, and then
The dirty uniforms were soaked with sweat, and the smell of sweat and blood mixed together for a while, making them feel nauseated.
After taking off their clothes, it is not difficult to find that each of these officers has more or less bruises and cuts. Even Lei Shang's disfigurement is not the most serious among his colleagues.
They were changing dressings on the wounds while talking, comparing the number of beheadings with each other, but as soon as Zang Hong opened his mouth, they all fell silent.
Zang Hong glanced at Lei Shang, and then said: "There are still more than a dozen horses in the city, and there is not much salt, but the bandit army is not fooled. In three days, I guess the horses will all be eaten."
Everyone was silent after hearing this. When Cao Cao originally attacked, the Han army in Yanzhou used Chenliu to store grain and Dingtao to block the enemy. However, Chenliu was defeated by Cao Cao in a battle, and Zang Hong had to continue to defend without help.
The city had enough food to last the army for four months at first. However, as Cao's army invaded, people from around the city poured into the city, and the number of residents in the city increased to more than 20,000. This led to rapid depletion of food and fodder. If it had not been for some captured from Cao Hong's camp,
I am afraid that Dingtao will have run out of food at the beginning of February. Therefore, at the beginning of the month, Zang Hong began to kill horses for food. Today, the horses in the city are almost exhausted. If he does not think of other methods, the city will fall.
It was only a matter of time. Thinking of this, everyone could not help but be pessimistic, and they all said: "The death of a gentleman is morally justified, and the worst he can do is die with the other gentlemen."
When Zang Hong heard this, he could not help but sigh in his heart, but he still said encouragingly: "Meng Zhuo and Ting Jian are both my close friends. As long as we persist and never give up, reinforcements will surely arrive!"
Having said that, on the third day, the remaining horses in the city had also eaten, and the soldiers had to eat porridge to survive. However, the people in the city had no food supply, so they began to eat grass roots and peel tree sap. In less than seven or eight days,
People began to starve to death one after another.
Seeing this, Zang Hong couldn't bear it, so he summoned the officials in the city and said: "We have defended the city to this point, and we can hardly hold on any longer. I, Zang Hong, died for righteousness, and I died without regrets, but there is no need for you to end up like this."
." He sighed for a long time, unwilling to accept it, and finally said: "You will die from starvation in the city, but you may be able to survive if you leave the city. Now that the city has not been broken, you still have a chance to escape. Get out!
” However, the people in the middle of the city all said, “Why can’t the envoy tolerate us? Should we bear with the envoy?” In the end, no one left.
Due to lack of food, they first caught mice, and then shot the birds in the city. After all the mice and birds in the city were eaten, they began to eat the leather on their weapons and chew it along with the cooked weeds.<
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It lasted until mid-March when all the salt in the city was eaten. After four or five days of lack of salt, many people began to suffer from edema. In mild cases, their hands and feet were swollen, their movements were slow, and in severe cases, their stomachs were swollen and they could not sit or stand. Military and civilians
As a result, malaria and plague began to appear again. One day, some people in the city found some dried fish in the cellar. They were pickled with salt and tasted very salty. The defenders found them and found a treasure. Zang Hong shared them all.
It was given to the man who lost his bow in the city, and he licked it to survive every day.
But as a result, the soldiers were hungry day by day, their physical strength was greatly weakened, and they were unable to resist. Cao's soldiers who were attacking the city noticed it and immediately strengthened their offensive. The city head was once captured. In the end, Zang Hong led his troops to fight bravely and defeated Cao's army.
Fight back.
At this time, almost everyone thought that the city could not be defended for three days. Unexpectedly, that night, Zang Hong suddenly asked his men to have a meal at his house. The guards saw two large cauldrons cooking in the hall, and one large cauldron was boiling water.
Everyone was tired of eating porridge every day, but what was cooked in the other big cauldron was actually meat! Everyone emptied the two cauldrons immediately, just like the rain after a long drought.
It wasn't until they finished eating that everyone remembered that something was wrong. Where could there be meat in the city now? So someone asked Zang Hong. Zang Hong was silent for a long time and told everyone with difficulty that what they had just eaten was his concubine Xiao Ping.
and their only son Zang Feng. Only then did everyone realize that the two people who used to go to the city to share food and encourage them to eat had disappeared.
Zang Hongfa's wife died early, and he only had one concubine, and his only son Zang Feng was only ten years old. Now he killed them all and used them as food for the entire army. When the soldiers heard about it, they burst into tears and cried.
No one dares to look at Zang Hong.
The next day, Cao Jun attacked again, but was repulsed by Zang Hong.
The situation in the city was so difficult that Cao Cao could not imagine it. What he did not expect was that he had wasted more than a month in Dingtao City, and even today, his efforts were still in vain. p>
After the hard battle of the 130,000 troops that surrounded Dingtao at the beginning, more than 10,000 people died in battle, and more than 20,000 people died of serious injuries. Then the spring breeze revived, the rain continued, and flies and mosquitoes returned.
Since then, the plague in the city has gradually spread to Cao's army outside the city. Hundreds of people fell ill every day, so that the soldiers began to dig large pits outside the camp and fill the corpses layer by layer. Sometimes,
The digging of pits could not keep up with the filling of corpses, and the morale of the army continued to decline. Although the soldiers did not talk about it, they looked north at the river from time to time, feeling vaguely homesick.
Seeing this situation, Cao Cao couldn't help but lamented to Shen Pei: "Anwu had previously advised me to attack Xu, but I didn't follow him. It's all my fault."
At this time, Bao Xin, who was in Xingyang, suddenly sent a letter saying that the Han army in Luoyang seemed to have made some changes, and there were many more flags that they had never seen before. They captured several prisoners, saying that Guanzhong had finally sent troops. p>