Chapter 123 Chapter Eighteen

In the first month of the ninth year of Jian'an, Cao Mengde's food and grass team sailed from the Yellow River into Hanshui River, and then entered Baigou along the northeast.In February, Yuan Shangliu Shenpei and Su You defended Yecheng, and he led an army to attack Yuan Tan's base in Pingyuan County. Cao Mengde still adopted the strategy of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao" and directly led his army to attack Yecheng.This time Cao Mengde once again mobilized several large armies, including Xiahoudun, Cao Hong, Zhang Liao, Lejin, Zhang He, Xu Huang, Li Dian, and Xu Chu, with himself as the commander-in-chief; Xia Houyuan was in charge of logistics supplies, including Yanzhou, Yuzhou and Xuzhou. The transportation of grain and grass; Xun You and Guo Jia are still the staff officers of the whole army.

Everyone can see Cao Mengde's true intentions from all aspects of this Northern Expedition. When the army arrived at the Huanshui area 50 meters southeast of Yecheng, Cao Mengde suddenly received information that someone planned to sacrifice Yecheng as a domestic servant.It turned out that Su You, the general of the Yuan army who guarded Yezhou, realized that his fate was already like this because of his disagreement with the judge, so he might as well be a favor to find a way out. Of course it makes people happy to reduce the bloodshed to seize Yecheng.Cao Mengde immediately ordered Xiahoudun's army in front to advance quickly.But soon it was reported that Su You's rebellious actions were leaked. Street battles broke out between the rebel army and the troops assigned by him. Because the rebel army was too small in number, they had to withdraw from Yecheng and defected to Cao's army outside the city.

Cao Mengde never let go of his whip, and personally went to the front of the battle to order the three armies of Xiahou Dun, Zhang Liao, and Cao Hong to attack Yecheng with all their strength.This move undoubtedly greatly encouraged the soldiers who charged forward.However, Yecheng's fortifications are very strong under the painstaking management of the examination and distribution.Cao Mengde ordered to dig a tunnel to attack, but the judge also responded to Cao Mengde by digging trenches in the city.Cao Mengde then imitated the method of attacking Guandu in the past, and built a towering tower outside the city, overlooking the earthy hills in the city, and then sent archers to rain arrows into the city.However, there were too many bunkers in the city, and the arrows were used by the judge to launch them outside the city.

In this way, from February to April, for more than two months, Cao Jun's attack seemed to have made no progress. A raging flame suddenly ignited in Cao Mengde's mind, and he thought of Wuchao Jieliang.So he immediately sent people to find out Yuan Jun's grain route, but the siege did not stop, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the judge. According to the intelligence, the supply of Yecheng came from Shangdang, and Yin Kai, the county magistrate of Wu'an County stationed in Maocheng, was in charge.Cao Mengde repeated his old trick, left Cao Hong's army to besiege Yecheng, and led Xiahou Dun and Zhang Liao's army to cross Yecheng and attack Yin Kai directly.Yin Kai fought to the death and retreated to the northwest.Cao Mengde came back victorious, and captured Handan City guarded by Jushou's son Juhu like a sheep.

This military operation was completely focused on strategic needs. The fall of Shangdang Maocheng cut off the assistance from senior officials in Bingzhou, and the capture of Handan blocked Yuan Xi's possible support in Youzhou. Cao Cao ordered Xu Huang's army to guard the newly occupied area, leaving Yecheng completely isolated. Xu Huang, Han Fan, the magistrate of Yiyang, and Liang Qi, the magistrate of Shexian County, were old friends. After hearing what Xun You said, Cao Mengde immediately instructed Xu Huang to instigate rebellion.Xu Huang quietly contacted these two people, affirming the righteousness, asking them to recognize the situation in the world and stop being the Yuan brothers' scapegoat with their heads covered, so the two agreed to be internal responders.

Xu Huang also suggested to Cao Mengde: "All the counties in Jizhou are still on the sidelines, and they are at both ends of the head. It is better to reward Han Fan and Liang Qi. They will definitely be able to instigate other counties to leave the Yuan family and join us." Cao Mengde granted Han Fan and Liang Qi the Marquis of Guannei. Sure enough, many magistrates of Jizhou counties in the northwest fell to Cao Ying. The effect of instigating the rebellion was unexpectedly good, so Cao Mengde decided to set up the idea of ​​guarding the city of Ye.So he summoned his subordinates and asked everyone to try their best to remember whether they had anything to do with the guards in Yecheng.Zhang He was originally a fierce general of Yuan's group, thought for a long time, and said: "I have a general named Feng Li, who is said to be in Yecheng." Some of the yellow cranes were killed by Yuan Shao, and they found such a small general after searching.Thinking of the prestige of the army in the past, Zhang He was very sentimental.

With Zhang He's efforts, Feng Li agreed to defect.But Cao Mengde put a bigger goal on Yuan Chunqing, the prefect of Wei County in Yecheng, so he invited Yuan Chunqing's father, Yuan Zhichang, from Yangzhou, and Dong Zhao wrote a confidential letter of persuasion to Yuan Chunqing, However, Yuan Chunqing handed over the letter to the judge, which revealed all the plans of instigating rebellion. Fortunately, Feng Li's line has not been exposed, so Cao Mengde has a glimmer of hope.The reviewer knew early on that the army besieged the city, and instigating rebellious actions definitely existed. This military common sense has always strengthened the work of counter-instigating and rebelling.

In the middle of the night, Feng Li secretly opened the gate of the city, allowing Cao Jun to swarm in. As soon as the two teams entered the vicinity of the fence, they were discovered by the gatekeeper. At that time, the fence was sealed, and Cao Jun was unable to advance or retreat. More than two hundred people, including Feng Li, were all smashed to death in the chaos. The attack on Yecheng was carried out so arduously and slowly.The loss of Cao's army was much greater than that of the defenders in Yecheng, and Cao Mengde was very anxious.It's May in a flash, and the water level of the Zhang River is slowly rising without people noticing. "Yes!" When Cao Mengde was at his wit's end, he was walking along the bank of the Zhang River with several advisers and generals, staring at the water of the Zhang River for a long time, when Cao Mengde suddenly slapped his thigh.This action shows that Cao Mengde must have come up with some clever plan.

Cao Mengde ordered to destroy the earth hills and tunnels, and instead dug a ditch around Yecheng, which was forty miles long, just to surround Yecheng.But the first ditch was so shallow that anyone could jump over it.Seeing it from the city, the examiner thought it was ridiculous, and said: "Cao A and I are hiding in Yecheng mainly because of our fighting spirit. This time we will definitely compete!" Cao Mengde asked the sergeants to take turns to rest during the day. At night, Cao's army was densely packed on both sides of the forty-mile ditch. With the cover of night and the cover of the deliberate noise in Cao's camp, the ditch quickly widened and deepened.At dawn, all the trenches for forty miles had turned into two-foot-wide ditches. After the judge found out, he wanted to send troops out of the city to stop them, but it was too late.

The dam of the Zhang River was broken, and the river water slowly poured into the ditch. The water volume gradually increased, and the water level gradually rose. The forty-mile ditch turned into a river, flowing around Yecheng. Although the water flow of the Zhang River is very large, the flood season has not really come, and the main city of Yecheng has a high terrain, so it will take a long time to be submerged in the water.However, seeing the rising water level, the trial and allocation still could not calm down. By mid-June, part of the outer city of Yecheng was already under water. At the end of July, Yuan Shang led more than 10,000 soldiers who attacked Pingyuan County and rushed back to rescue.Faced with this new situation, Cao Mengde was discussing new countermeasures.