Xuzhou is a smaller state east of the Central Plains, with four counties under the jurisdiction of Langya, Donghai, Pengcheng and Xiapi. During the rebellion at the end of the Han Dynasty, Xuzhou also experienced disasters and suffered huge population losses. A large number of people fled to Jiangdong and Jingzhou, so that there was no rooster crowing thousands of miles in Xuzhou, and there was one hundred people left behind.

However, after Cao Cao unified the north, Xuzhou also settled down. Over the past decade, the population has grown, wasteland has gradually recovered, and vitality has gradually recovered.

Xuzhou was Cao Ren's garrison. At most, Xuzhou had 80,000 troops and 300,000 shi of military rations. As the war in Hefei lasted for a long time, Xuzhou was also greatly affected. All the troops were transferred to Shouchun, and the military rations were also aired. Fifty thousand civilians were conscripted one after another. The entire Xuzhou was in fear of war.

At present, there are only 3,000 garrisons in the entire Xuzhou area, and the defense is very empty. At this time, the focus of the Han and Cao armies was on Shouchun and Hefei. Except for Xuchang, which had 20,000 garrisons in Xiahou Dun, the rest of the counties had no troops to defend, and only some county soldiers were responsible for maintaining order.

That afternoon, in Zhuyi County, at the junction of Qiao County and Pengcheng County, an army of about 10,000 people was marching northward on the official road. This army was a 10,000 Han army led by general Wei Yan, who sneaked into Xuzhou under the order of Liu Jing.

This sneak attack on Xuzhou was exactly what Jia Xu had in his pocket, using Xuzhou to exchange for the maximum peace talks and concessions from Cao's army.

Jia Xu knew that Cao Cao could only last until one month at most. After the New Year, all aspects needed food, and the Cao Wei crisis would break out at this time. Cao Cao could not hold on anyway, so he had to seek peace to end the battle in Hefei.

Of course, the Han army could also force Cao's army to make concessions by refusing to negotiate and continuing to attack, but if Xuzhou could be captured, it would add important weight to the Han army's negotiations, and then it would not be as simple as giving up a city in Hefei.

Moreover, in capturing Xuzhou, the Han army had room for strategic choices in the next step, which made the Cao army dare not easily support Jiangdong. This was Jia Xu's plan to kill two birds with one stone.

Wei Yan looked at the sky. It was at least one hour before dark. He immediately shouted: "Go faster and stay in the camp after dark!"

Ten thousand Han troops accelerated their speed and marched towards Pengcheng County.

Xuzhou Prefecture is Pengcheng County, which is today's Xuzhou. Since Lu Bu was defeated by Cao Cao, Pengcheng County was also destroyed by the chaos. Later, the city was rebuilt and the county town was restored.

Cao Ren later stationed in Pengcheng. He also felt that the city was too low and was not conducive to defense, so he ordered the recruitment of 30,000 civilians to increase the height and widen the city wall. Although he had undergone these two major renovations, compared with Pengcheng in the Lu Bu era, the current city still seemed not tall and wide enough. Of course, it was enough to deal with bandits.

The main general who is currently stationed in Pengcheng is named Zhou Liang, who is Cao Ren's subordinate. He was originally Yuan Shao's subordinate. After the Guandu War, he surrendered to Cao Cao and was assigned to Cao Ren as his subordinate.

After Cao Ren's army went to Hefei, only 3,000 troops were left in Pengcheng. Zhou Liang was also quite worried that Xuzhou's defense was empty, and once the Han army attacked Xuzhou, his army would be unable to resist.

However, as time goes by, his worries faded day by day. After the New Year, he completely lost his worries. He indulged in wine and sex all day long and rarely cared about city defense.

Now he is the main general of Pengcheng, and he will no longer hurry to enjoy the taste of the main general. Once Cao Ren comes back, he will have to wince his head and tail again.

That night, Zhou Liang, like usual, came to the largest brothel in Xuzhou, Bifenglou, to drink and buy spring. The Bifenglou is full of singing and dancing, and the winding spirits are flying, and it is extremely lively.

As time gradually came, there was a magnificent bedroom with laughter and laughter. Zhou Liang was drunk and several prostitutes were taking turns to accompany him. At this time, a soldier rushed over. He was about to break into the room, but was stopped by Zhou Liang's personal soldiers and angrily scolded him: "If you don't understand the rules, can you go in at this time?"

The soldier said anxiously: "Abnormal situations occur outside the city, and we must report them to the general immediately."

"What's the abnormal situation?"

"The scout who went out for inspection in the morning has not returned yet. General Li is worried that something will happen, so he asked me to report to General Zhou."

"What's the big fuss about this? What happened to the scout, such as patrolling farther places, so there should be no problem when you can't get back."

"But General Li said that he must report to General Zhou."

General Li is Li Qin, the tooth general on duty tonight. His personal soldiers did not dare to be too hasty, so they had to say outside the house: "General, general!"

"What's the matter?" Zhou Liang's impatient voice came from the room.

"General Li said that the scout who went out to patrol today did not come back,"

"I understand, let's talk about it tomorrow!"

The personal soldiers had no choice but to spread their hands to the report soldier, saying that he had no choice but to turn around and leave, and rush back to the city to report.

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Although the main general Zhou Liang was addicted to wine and sex, it did not mean that all the guards were relaxed like him. The tooth general Li Qin was one of them. Li Qin was one of Zhou Liang's three tooth generals, a native of Xuzhou. He was not worried that the Han army would attack Xuzhou thousands of miles, but that the rioters would attack Xuzhou City.

After the Battle of Chibi, Xuzhou was also greatly affected. The number of recruits from five households to one household now, and the current three households were entrusted. A large number of young and strong people were lost, which affected agricultural production. In addition, the heavy taxes in recent years have caused the people of Xuzhou to be complained and overwhelmed. The bandits that had been destroyed for many years have also emerged again.

Since last year, two bandits appeared in Xuzhou, with hundreds of people robbing families and forcibly robbing women, which made people in Xuzhou panic. Just as Cao Ren was about to send troops to combat the bandits, the Hefei war broke out and the plan to combat the bandits had to be postponed.

As a local, Li Qin hated the bandits particularly. Although he did not receive military orders to combat the bandits, protecting Pengcheng and preventing the bandits from taking advantage of the situation to attack the city became the top priority of Li Qin's defense.

Today he discovered an abnormal situation. Only two of the three patrol teams that went out early in the morning came back, and there was still a twenty-person patrol team that did not come back, which made him very worried. Not only was he worried about the accident that this patrol team encountered, but more importantly, if they encountered bandits, it means that the bandits who were active in Xia Pi area had transferred to the territory of Pengcheng County.

After a moment, he ran back to the subordinate who reported the news and bowed and said, "General, General Zhou Liang said he knew, I will talk about this next year!"

Li Qin frowned and asked, "He is in Bifeng Tower now?"

"That's right, it's inconvenient for him now, and his personal soldiers are not allowed to report to the house."

"Damn it!"

Li Qin cursed softly and punched the city wall. He hated Zhou Liang's debauchery and shamelessness. A foolish and incompetent person was able to rise to his position because he was Cao Ren's confidant, but a truly talented person was suppressed and had no chance to make a comeback.

After resentment, he did not dare to show it too much. Zhou Liang is a man with great grudges. Once he knows that he is dissatisfied with him, he will definitely put on small shoes for himself. This is not the first time.

Helplessly, Li Qin had to hold back his anger and said to the soldiers around him: "We must strengthen our guard tonight, and we must not be careless."

As soon as he finished speaking, a sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the city, attracting the attention of all the defenders on the city. A cavalry rushed over and soon arrived at the city, shouting: "Who is the main general on duty?"

Li Qin recognized this person as one of the patrol scouts, and suddenly felt refreshed and said loudly: "I am on the main general, what happened?"

"General Li, we were ambushed by bandits. Eight of the brothers died. The rest of the brothers were being pursued and begged the general to support him."

Li Qin was shocked and asked anxiously: "How many rioters are being pursued by them?"

"About one hundred people!"

Li Qin was anxious and said without hesitation: "Five hundred brothers in the front camp guard the city, and the brothers in the back camp followed me to rescue!"

The city gate opened, Li Qin took the lead and ran out of the city first, followed by five hundred soldiers. Li Qin asked loudly, "Where is the person now?"

"In Monkey Mountain Nest!"

Monkey Mountain nest is north of Yunlong Mountain, about twenty miles away from the city. Li Qin was worried that the soldiers would be in trouble, so he didn't even ask in detail, so he urged the horse to run south.

Hundreds of officers and soldiers ran nearly twenty miles along the official road in one breath and gradually approached Yunlong Mountain. At this time, Li Qin suddenly felt suspicious, and the patrol soldiers were also retreating. He should have met them long ago, so why are there no one yet?

He tied his horse and turned around and asked the soldiers sternly, "What happened and where are the people?"

The soldiers reported the news seemed very panicked. Suddenly turned their horses and fled, running deep into the forest. Li Qin was shocked. Before he could react, there was a gong ringing around him and countless black shadows rushed out of the forests on both sides. They surrounded Cao's soldiers. Cao's soldiers were stunned, holding spears and swords in their hands, looking back to back, trying to find a way to break through.

Li Qin calmed down instead. He found that there were at least ten thousand people surrounding them, spears like forests, battle flags like clouds, and armor reflected cold light under the bleak moonlight. This was definitely not a rioter.

"Who are you?" Li Qin shouted loudly.

At this time, hundreds of torches were ignited, and Cao's soldiers were in an uproar. A dense army appeared in front of them, layer by layer, surrounded them. The leader of the general rode out, waved his sword and shouted loudly: "I am the Han general Wei Yan. Why don't you surrender soon?"

Li Qin was stunned. It turned out to be the Han army. He turned around slowly for a while. Seeing that the soldiers under him had put down their weapons and some soldiers took off their armor, they were obviously about to surrender. Thinking of Zhou Liang's incompetence and incompetence, he couldn't help but sigh, turned over and dismounted and knelt down and said, "General Li Qin is willing to surrender to the Han army, and only begged General Wei to treat the people of Xuzhou well."

Wei Yan was overjoyed. He hurriedly stepped forward to help him up and smiled and said, "The Han army's military discipline is strict and will never disturb the people. His Highness the King of Han treats the people of the world well and the general is loyal to the Han Dynasty. This is a wise move!"

Half an hour later, Li Qin led 500 soldiers back to Pengcheng County. The 500 soldiers behind him were all resurfaced by the Han army. In the darkness a mile away, Wei Yan led 10,000 Han troops and was ready to attack at any time.

Li Qin rushed to the city and shouted: "Open the door quickly in the city!"

The soldiers guarding the city were all his subordinates. When the lord general returned, they quickly lowered the suspension bridge and opened the city gate. Li Qin urged his horse to enter the city. The Han soldiers immediately controlled the city gate and lit a pile of fires at the city gate. Seeing the critical situation, Li Qin hurriedly shouted: "Let all the brothers guarding the city come to see me!"

After a moment, two hundred soldiers guarding the south gate rushed down from the city. Li Qin whispered loudly: "I came to save everyone's lives. I have surrendered to the Han army. If I want to survive, I will put down my weapons immediately. Otherwise, my life will be difficult to protect."

The soldiers looked at each other, not knowing the truth. At this moment, black shadows appeared outside the city, and overwhelming Han soldiers came to the city gate. Wei Yan took the lead and rushed into the city first. The soldiers saw it and were so scared that they threw down their weapons and knelt down to surrender.

Ten thousand Han troops silently entered Pengcheng, crowding the streets and alleys near Nancheng. Wei Yan asked loudly: "General Li, where is the military camp?"

"General Wei, please follow me!"
Chapter completed!