Several soldiers pushed Gao Shun in front of Cao Cao, pressed him to the ground, and shouted: "Kneel down!"
Gao Shun's face was pale and he knelt on the ground obediently without struggling.
Cao Cao saw Gao Shun and said with a smile: "Isn't this General Gao Shun who led troops to resist in Xiaopei in the past? How did he end up in this situation?"
Gao Shun's hands were tied behind his back. He raised his head with calm eyes, "General Cao defeated Xiapi with water. Can this happen again? Liu Shijun has a tough temperament. Even if Xiapi is defeated,
, will continue to fight. I was caught by the general today, and I just left a few days early. When the general reorganizes Guanzhong and leads the army to the east, General Cao will be like me now!"
The smile on Cao Cao's face suddenly solidified. What Gao Shun said was exactly what he feared deepest in his heart. He narrowed his eyes, stared at Gao Shun for a while, and said, "Where are you at Liu Bei? It's just a remote place."
General, if you are willing to surrender to me, I will entrust you with some responsibilities. If not, push him out immediately and kill him!"
Gao Shun said calmly: "Please lay down the axe."
Cao Cao was a little disappointed. He and Xuzhou soldiers fought from last year to this year, and they knew that Liu Bei only had four generals: Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Gao Shun, and Chen Dao. The other generals, such as Cao Bao and others, were insignificant. If Gao Shun was
If you can surrender, you will not only know the truth about Xuzhou, but also find out a lot about Guanzhong. But since Gao Shun refused to surrender, he could only kill him.
He adjusted his mood and said with a smile: "Then do you have any last words?"
Gao Shun thought for a while and said, "I have nothing to say. I just regret that I have never been able to see my old master again since the Battle of Guanzhong."
Cao Cao laughed and said, "What's so difficult about this? I'll just send your head to Chang'an and attach a letter to it."
Gao Shun heard this and said, "Thank you so much, General Cao."
The expression on Cao Cao's face became solemn and he shouted: "Push it out and kill it!"
The soldiers pulled Gao Shun out of the tent. After a while, a soldier came in with his bloody head on a wooden plate and said, "Lord, Gao Shun's head is here!"
On the wooden plate, Gao Shun's face was pale, but he still maintained a calm expression, which was completely different from those who watched the beheading in the past. When Cao Cao saw it, he felt a little regretful and thought to himself: It's a pity, if Gao Shun can be used by me,
The speed of capturing Xuzhou will be greatly accelerated!
In such long-term confrontations, Cao Cao's army won almost every battle involving more than ten thousand people, so Cao Cao did not doubt that he could defeat Liu Bei. It was just that Liu Bei was too difficult to deal with. Every time he was defeated, he would quickly pull back.
Soldiers and horses, and then came back, giving him a headache.
After Xiapi was defeated, Cao Jun finally had no worries, and then crossed the Surabaya River in large numbers and rushed towards Xiaqiu City where Liu Bei was located. While Liu Bei was recruiting soldiers, horses, food and grass to prepare to defend Xiaqiu City, he also urgently asked for help from the surrounding princes and the court.
.In the letters he wrote privately to Liu Biao, Fu Qian and Chen Cheng, he enumerated Cao Cao's crimes and told the miserable situation of the people in Xuzhou. Every word was so bloody that one could feel a sense of blood just by reading the letters.
The breath came to my face.
After receiving Liu Bei's letter asking for help, Liu Yao gave Xuzhou thousands of old, weak, sick and disabled people as well as some money and food, and then continued to quarrel with the local tycoons in Jiangdong. Liu Biao actually sent tens of thousands of troops to the borders of Jingzhou and Yuzhou, and then
.....There will be no more. Liu Biao, you may say he is not very courageous, but he was able to kill dozens of powerful families in Jingzhou in one go.
However, after establishing a foothold in Jingzhou, Liu Biao seemed to have lost his enterprising spirit. He did not think about opening up new territories externally, nor did he think about further strengthening his power internally. It seemed that after becoming the shepherd of Jingzhou, he had already
All his subjective initiative was exhausted. There were more and more literary people under his command, but he had no ambition to expand abroad.
After Fu Qian received Liu Bei's letter, he sent the letter and Gao Shun's head to Chang'an. Xu Rong, the governor of Sanhe (Hedong, Hanoi, and Henan), led two thousand soldiers and horses eastward out of Hulao Pass and transferred to the border of Yanzhou
They walked around to get a closer look at Cao's army. After Cheng Yu sent out his army, he immediately retreated.
These things put a lot of pressure on Cao Cao. Although the people around him did not really come to embarrass him, they showed a very dangerous trend. So Cao Jun became more and more fierce in attacking Liu Bei, and his methods became more and more sophisticated.
Ku Lie. When the spring plowing was just over, Cao Jun's soldiers cut off the seedlings that had just grown in the fields to feed the livestock, and took away the people's rations to survive wherever they went.
Yanzhou also squeezed out the last bit of stored food and sent it to the frontline army. The soldiers of Cao's army who were fighting hungry in the front had not had enough to eat for a long time. After getting the meat, they were a little confused. The army was already running out of food and grass.
After a long time, how could I suddenly find a butcher shop to eat? But in front of the meat, the little doubt I had quickly disappeared without a trace.
"My lord, the soldiers are having their meal. How about I get you a bowl of broth?"
Facing the solicitude of his soldiers, Cao Cao showed disgust on his face. He waved his hand and said, "Just get me a fish. I don't want anything else."
The scale of the war in Xuzhou is further expanding. Both Liu Bei and Cao Cao are gritting their teeth and fighting to the death with their opponents. The reserve soldiers of both sides are close to depletion, and food shortages in the army are common. Xuzhou has always been
As rich as they are, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and others often go hungry, and the treatment of the soldiers below will only become even worse.
As for Cao Cao, he had already borrowed the grain officer's head once, which temporarily stabilized the morale of the army, but it was also in a state of hunger. After more than ten days of hard fighting, Cao Cao's army finally broke through Xiaqiu City. But with the front
Like several times, Liu Bei led Guan Yu and others to jump out of the encirclement, leading the remaining defeated soldiers to retreat to Xu County.
Cao Jun pursued closely, and Cao Cao himself pursued on horseback. He said to his generals: "As long as Liu Bei dies, Xuzhou cannot be pacified! No matter how hard we work today, we still have to take Liu Xuande's head!"
Liu Bei had only five or six thousand soldiers and horses left in his hands, and he retreated to Xu County in Xiapi County. Xiapi County had just been flooded, and the original plains had become muddy. Although Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry were elite, they were
There were a large number of them, but facing large tracts of land soaked by floods, they also lost the advantage of mobility and could only chase after Liu Bei with two legs.
When the battle has reached this point, it is no longer time for the generals and soldiers to play a decisive role. Both Liu Bei's army and Cao Cao's army are holding their breath and struggling to support themselves. Whoever vents his anger first will be completely defeated.
Because the army was short of food and grass, Cao Cao sent Xia Houyuan back to Yanzhou to supervise the transportation of food and grass and maintain the safety of the food roads.
After fighting with Cao Cao for so long and being cut off from food routes many times, Liu Bei also learned this trick. He "repaid others with their own medicine" and sent Zhang Fei to lead the cavalry to guerrilla outside. Because
With the help of the local people in Xuzhou, Zhang Fei repeatedly intercepted Cao's army's food and grass, which made Cao Cao furious and sent many troops to chase Zhang Fei, but failed.
Xia Houyuan returned to Yanzhou with more than a thousand cavalry, found Cheng Yu who was in charge, and asked: "How much food and grass is left in the state? My lord only has three days of food and grass in Xuzhou!"
Cheng Yu, like Chen Gong, was from Dongjun, but he was much older than Chen Gong. Because he was very prestigious in the county and was a stable man, he was given the important task of collecting grain and grass by Cao Cao. Hearing that Xia Houyang went straight in
When asked, a smile appeared on Cheng Yu's face and he replied: "The potatoes planted last year were harvested a lot. I have people ready to send them to the front line at any time."
"how many?"
"Three hundred thousand stones!"
Xia Houyuan couldn't help but smile on his face. He clapped his hands fiercely and said loudly: "Great! With these potatoes, we can continue to persevere!"
These potatoes, sweet potatoes, sorghum, corn, etc. were all introduced from Liangzhou. Because of their high yield and good resistance to harsh environments and insect pests, they spread rapidly in Yanzhou.
The government exploits the common people to their core. Many times, just a potato dug out on the roadside or in the woods can save a person's life.
Xia Houyuan was happy for a while, then suddenly remembered something, and immediately frowned. Cheng Yu saw it from the side and asked, "General, do you have any other difficulties?"
"No," Xia Houyuan's brows were still furrowed. He raised his head, looked to the east, looked at the disciples who were enveloped in blood and fire, and said slowly: "We have three hundred thousand stones."
Potatoes, of course this is a good thing. But potatoes and sweet potatoes are all passed down from Liangzhou. If we can have them, doesn’t Liu Xuande not have them?"
Cheng Yu had obviously thought about this problem and said disapprovingly: "Our army has a strong front. Even if the Xuzhou soldiers can harvest some miscellaneous grains, how can they be our opponents? As long as Xuzhou is captured, all the manpower and material resources there will be lost."
It can be used by me!"
It would be great if we could capture Xuzhou, but what if we couldn't defeat it?
Xia Houyuan still couldn't let go, but he pretended to agree on his face and said, "Mr. Cheng is right!"
After returning home, Xia Houyuan picked up his hungry son and took him to play outside. His wife grabbed a handful of rice from the rice vat and carefully put half of it into the pot. She thought about it and spread her hands again.
, counted twenty grains, put them into the water, and poured the rest back into the rice vat.
While cooking porridge, Xia Houyuan put down his son and asked, "Is there enough food at home?"
The wife wiped her hands and said, "It's not enough to eat. All the grain harvested from the fields has been confiscated by the government."
She complained a little: "You are a general after all, so can't you ask the government not to collect our food?"
Xia Houyuan was silent for a while after hearing this. He looked around and asked, "Where is Juan'er?"
Xia Houjuan is the daughter of Xia Houyuan's late brother and was adopted by Xia Houyuan. She is now eight or nine years old. His wife replied: "I went out to dig wild vegetables in the city."
While they were talking, Xia Houjuan walked in from the door carrying a small basket. After seeing Xia Houyuan, he was very happy and shouted: "Father!"
Xia Houyuan had a smile on his face, stepped forward to take the basket, and said warmly: "It's too dangerous to go out of the city, so you have to go with your neighbors, you know?"
Xia Houjuan nodded solemnly, reached out and pulled out the wild vegetables in the small basket, revealing a few potatoes that were about the size of her fist. She took out the precious potatoes and said, "Father, I was digging in the woods today.
When I get a few potatoes, my brother can have a full meal."
Xia Houyuan's eyes couldn't help but become moist. He forced a smile and said: "My brother is still young and can't eat much. You have to eat it yourself first."
But at this moment, his son rushed forward, grabbed Xia Houjuan's clothes, and said in a milky voice: "Sister, I'm hungry!"
Xia Houjuan smiled and said to his younger brother: "Just wait, I'll cook the potatoes and vegetables together and serve them to you."
