Zhang Liao was surrounded by the Han army when he retreated in Fancheng and almost wiped out the entire army. If Cao Cao had not used great political conditions to redeem his army, even Zhang Liao himself would have become a prisoner of war for the Han army. However, Cao Cao did not neglect him because he almost wiped out the entire army. On the contrary, when Cao Cao withdrew his troops back to Yedu, he reused Zhang Liao again and ordered him to lead 50,000 troops to regain Hefei.

After knowing shame, he was brave. Zhang Liao was filled with resentment in Jingzhou, and finally poured all this resentment behind the Jiangdong Army. After 50,000 troops forced the Jiangdong Army to retreat from Qiao County, they rushed to Shouchun and burned the Jiangdong Army warships in the fire of the water. Three hundred warships of the Jiangdong Army were burned, and more than 100 troops escaped, and the rest of the soldiers died under the fire and arrows.

Zhang Liao was decisive in his style and immediately led his army south to attack Hefei. At this time, there were only more than 10,000 defenders left in Hefei. The chief general Huang Gaisin was frightened and sent a letter to Sun Quan for help overnight.

Zhang Liao had been besieging Hefei for more than ten days, and he attacked Hefei City twice. Both sides suffered losses. However, the base of Cao's army was 50,000, while the base of Jiangdong army was only 10,000. Losing thousands of people was not of great significance to Cao's army, but it had a huge impact on Jiangdong. Huang Gai's troops were less than 10,000. How could he still defend Hefei City?

However, Zhang Liao was not in a hurry to capture Hefei at this time. He was waiting patiently for the reinforcements from Jiangdong to come and used the strategy of besieging the city to attack the aid.

The Cao army camp was located outside the northern city of Hefei, stretching for more than ten miles, with tents one after another, with a spectacular momentum. This was Zhang Liao's adoption of the stove-in-stopping plan, with only 50,000 troops, but it set up a scale of 100,000 troops. This put great pressure on the Jiangdong Army in the city, causing the Jiangdong Army to be sluggish and panic all day long.

In the Cao army's tent, Zhang Liaozheng and deputy general Li Dian discussed countermeasures. This time they cooperated very well. There was no subtle contradiction in Jingzhou. Although some things were not explained, both of them knew in their hearts that when they were killed in Jingzhou, in addition to Zhang Liao's personal soldiers, the other person was Li Dian. Apart from Li Dian, how could Cao Hong know the details of the time?

But neither of them said it out loud, and after arriving in Hefei, Zhang Liao stopped caring about the small actions Li Dian did behind his back. The two went all out to deal with the Jiangdong army, and gradually forgot about the dissatisfaction of their relationship.

"Now the main force of the Jiangdong Army has passed Chaohu, about fifty miles away from Hefei."

Zhang Liao pointed to the Chaohubei section on the sand table with a wooden pole and said in a deep voice: "It is said that the main force of the Jiangdong Army was led by Sun Quan himself this time. If we can completely defeat Sun Quan in this battle, then Sun Quan will not dare to look north again for at least five years, which will break the significance of the alliance between Liu Jing and Sun Quan."

Li Dian nodded, "Wen Yuan said it well, it is true. We cannot focus on regaining Hefei. We must also consider the overall situation and completely dispel the ambition of the Jiangdong Army's northern expedition. In this way, when we deal with Liu Jing, we don't have to worry about something in the southeast."

Speaking of this, Li Dian took the wooden pole and pointed at Jiang Xia, and asked, "Do Wenyuan think Jingzhou will send troops to help Jiangdong?"

Zhang Liao sighed, "This is also what I worry about. If Jiangzhou sends troops, either to Anlu County and cut off our retreat through Runan. This is a land route. Then take the Yangtze River waterway and rush to Hefei. This is a water route. Although the land route is close, Jingzhou's advantage is the naval army. I think they will not give up their advantages and take disadvantages. Especially Cao Zhen once led the cavalry to severely damage the Jingzhou naval army. Gan Ning should still remember it fresh."

Li Dian pondered for a moment and said, "Actually, I am worried that the Jingzhou naval army will arrive in time. I am afraid that our forces will be unable to deal with the Sun and Liu coalition forces. I suggest going out as soon as possible and defeating the Jiangdong army before the Jingzhou reinforcements arrived. In order to shirk responsibility, Sun Quan will definitely accuse the Jingzhou army of ineffective rescue efforts, which will cause conflicts between the Sun and Liu families."

Zhang Liao raised his thumb and smiled, "The Prime Minister often told me that Mancheng's talented coach is a famous coach, and he thought carefully, and listened to thunder in silence. It's true. I followed Mancheng's words and defeated Hefei today and prepared to face Sun Quan's main force."

Zhang Liao immediately ordered: "Tell me my order, and the army will attack the North Gate!"

He also said to Li Dian: "Huang Gai's lack of troops will definitely be lucky. He believes that the northerners are not familiar with water wars and will not enter the city through water. Man Cheng can lead three thousand troops to cross the river from Xiaoyaojin to the city, and to defeat the enemy tonight."

It was already evening, and the war drums in the Cao army camp suddenly rumbling. The Jiangdong army at the top of the city suddenly became nervous. Someone rushed down to the city to report. Soon, Huang Gai and Lu Meng rushed to the city to hear the news. The Cao army under the city was mobilized on a large scale. The Cao army was like a river and a river, gathering from all directions outside the northern city. The battle flags were like clouds, spears were like forests, and the momentum was huge.

Huang Gai looked extremely serious. He had only six thousand defenders in the city now. How could he resist Cao's large-scale advance? He sighed and said to Lu Meng: "The strategy of Cao's army is very obvious. They are reluctant to attack the city, so they are siegeing the city. When our reinforcements arrive, now that our reinforcements have arrived, Cao's army has decided to attack the city. This is a formal siege. They must have wanted to capture Hefei before tonight."

Lu Meng said worriedly: "Our reinforcements are about to arrive, and we can arrive as early as tomorrow morning. Can we hold on until tomorrow morning?"

"I don't know!"

Huang Gai shook his head, the worry in his eyes became deeper, and he resolutely said to Lu Meng: "Anyway, we must do our best to defend Hefei. Judging from the river filling situation of Cao's army these days, Cao's army will attack the North Gate and the West Gate. I am responsible for guarding the North Gate. Ziming can lead two thousand troops to guard the West Gate. As long as we stick to the arrival of Wuhou, we will make great contributions."

"Abide by the orders!"

Lu Meng bowed and led an army to hurried to the west gate. At this time, Huang Gai took a deep breath and shouted loudly: "Tell me my order, all soldiers and civilians will go to the city to participate in the defense!"

The Jiangdong Army not only had 6,000 soldiers, but also recruited 20,000 young and strong civilians, and briefly trained and distributed weapons to them, and then participated in defending the city together. These 20,000 civilians were also Huang Gai's last hope.

As soon as the sky was getting dark, the 50,000 Cao's army had already assembled. They divided the troops into two groups, one by one, 20,000 people attacked the Xicheng, and Zhang Liao personally led 30,000 people to attack the Beicheng. Outside the city, Cao's army lit torches, and tens of thousands of torches shone inside and outside the city like day. Amid the intense sound of war drums, Cao's army began to rush towards the city wall like a tide.

After more than ten days of siege, although the Cao army did not attack the city, they were not idle. Instead, they used the night time to continuously fill the moat with soil. It took more than ten days to fill most of the moats in both the North and West cities. It turned out that part of the moat that was dozens of feet wide had disappeared, and the gap in the disappearance of this moat became the main battlefield for Cao army to siege tonight.

Tens of thousands of Cao troops rushed towards the two-mile-long gap, as dense as an ant colony. Behind them, ten huge nest cars were slowly driving towards the city wall.

"Dong!Dong!Dong!"

The fierce sound of war drums seemed to break the heart of a person. The arrows on the city were like storms, forming a large cloud of black arrows, which made the soldiers on the city and under the city breathless.

More than a dozen heavy catapults of Cao's army projected in turn, smashing huge rocks onto the top of the city, gravels flew around and the walls collapsed. Amid the screams of the Jiangdong army, the soldiers of the Jiangdong army were also red in their eyes and smashed the siege ladders of Cao's army with big stones and rolling wood. A series of Cao army soldiers were smashed down to the city and screamed shrillly.

"General, the Northeast is in crisis, brothers can't stand it!"

A soldier urgently reported to Huang Gai, "The nest car is approaching the city, and the enemy forces are too strong."

Huang Gai also saw three nesting cars close to the northeast corner, and countless Cao troops rushed towards the city along the nesting cars. More than a hundred Jiangdong soldiers fought to the death, but they were indeed almost unable to hold on. Huang Gai was so anxious that he was sweating profusely and turned around and shouted: "All reserve troops will go to reinforce the northeast corner!"

"Report to General, the reserve troops have all been suppressed."

"Then let the civil servants transfer three thousand civil servants to the city." Huang Gai shouted.

At this moment, another soldier rushed over and reported urgently: "General Huang, Xicheng is in danger and can't resist it anymore. General Lu requested support."

Huang Gai took a deep breath, waved his hand, and signaled the soldiers to wait for a while. At this time, he ran out of the quest to summon the civilians and ran back in panic and reported: "General Huang, all the civilians and husbands have run away, only a few dozen people are left."

Huang Gai was stunned. He quickly walked to the female wall and looked down. He saw that the people gathered were empty and there was no one in sight. All kinds of weapons were thrown all over the ground. Tens of thousands of people ran away, making Huang Gai's heart fall into an ice cave. The soldiers asked for help said to him: "The people in Xicheng also ran away, and they refused to work hard for the Jiangdong Army."

Huang Gai was so confused. What should I do? He couldn't stand it in just one hour. Do you really want to abandon the city and run away?

He suddenly remembered something and suddenly turned around and asked, "What's the situation over Xiaoyaojin?"

"Report to the general, Xiaoyaojin's side is very quiet, and there is no attack from Cao's army."

When Huang Gai deployed his troops, he was worried that Cao's army would enter the city from Xiaoyaojin in the east, so he specially deployed a thousand troops there. The thousand soldiers became his life-saving straw at this time. Most of the Cao army was soldiers from the north and were not good at water battles. The possibility of entering the city from Xiaoyaojin was extremely small. Although there was a little possibility, Huang Gai didn't care about it now. He immediately ordered: "Order General Zhang to give up the defense of Xiaoyaojin and immediately lead his army to support the North and West cities."

The thousand Jiangdong defenders in Xiaoyaojin received the order from Huang Gai and rushed to rescue Beicheng and Xicheng in two groups. Xiaoyaojin's defense disappeared. At this time, the Cao army ships that had been waiting for a long time appeared, with more than a hundred small boats loaded with three thousand Cao troops quietly heading into the city.

The Cao army was indeed not good at water battles, but Huang Gai ignored the fact that Cao Cao had been training the navy in Xuanwu Pond north of Yedu for many years. After several years of training, the Cao army was no longer as weak and afraid of water as the Cao army during the Battle of Chibi. At least there was no problem with taking a boat, let alone the calm water surface in Xiaoyaojin and the unremitting waves had no effect on the Cao army at all.

Li Dian held a spear and shield in his hand, staring sharply at the front. He could not see any enemy troops. Small boats slowly landed. Cao's army was about to land. Li Dian jumped ashore. He looked around for a moment of vigilance. With a wave of his hand, countless Cao's army got off the boat and got on the shore and quickly assembled.

Soon after the three thousand Cao troops gathered, Li Dian shouted, "Brothers, it's time to break the city tonight. The first person to kill the city will be rewarded with a hundred taels!"
Chapter completed!