At this time, Yuan Shao was concentrating his forces to give Gongsun Zan the final blow.
Without capturing Youzhou and stabilizing the rear, he would not dare to rashly expand southward.
At this moment, Yuan Shao's army has broken through the gate of Yi Jing, Gongsun Zan's last line of defense. He is watching his Hebei soldiers fiercely pass through the broken gate and enter the city.
Once the city is broken, Gongsun Zan will have no way to retreat and will definitely be defeated.
The corners of Yuan Shao's mouth raised, revealing a faint smile.
"Congratulations, lord!"
Guo Tu first said: "After this battle, Gongsun Zan will definitely die. The lord will completely control the four northern states. He has many soldiers and generals. It will be easy to expand southward."
"good!"
Yuan Shao just liked hearing such words.
Guo Tu also knows how to say these flattering words to please Yuan Shao.
"Lord."
Shen Pei came forward from the rear, bowed and said: "General Gao Gan sent someone to quickly pass a military report back. Zhang Yan, the Black Mountain bandit who wanted to rescue Gongsun Zan, was repelled by General Gao and has now returned to Black Mountain."
This was also good news. Yuan Shao was very happy, but when he thought about Zhang Yan, he gritted his teeth and said, "When I take control of Youzhou, I will settle the score with those Black Mountain bandits."
Zhang Yan is Yuan Shao's most troublesome enemy and has been teaming up with Gongsun Zan to deal with him.
Black Mountain is located in the Taihang Mountains.
Yuan Shao tried to destroy them all more than once, but Zhang Yan relied on the advantage of Black Mountain to repel Yuan Shao's army many times.
As soon as Yuan Jun retreated, the Black Mountain Bandits came out.
When Yuan Shao was about to suppress the bandits again, the Black Mountain bandits immediately returned to the mountains and went back and forth several times, which made Yuan Shao lose his temper and could do nothing to these Black Mountain bandits.
But this time, he had to concentrate his forces and send troops from Jizhou and Bingzhou at the same time. Those Black Mountain bandits would look good.
"Lord."
Yuan Shao's general Ju Yi came out of the city at this time and said: "Gongsun Zan is still resisting and is trapped in a high building by us."
"Enter the city."
After Yuan Shao received this good news, he could no longer hold back and wanted to enter the city, thinking that Gongsun Zan was nothing more than that.
If he wants to enter the city, it means that the whole army has to enter the city.
Yi Jing was quickly controlled by Yuan Jun. The army protected Yuan Shao and rushed to the high-rise building where Gongsun Zan was trapped. At the same time, Wen Chou followed him.
Yuan Shao was also afraid that there would be some extreme people in the city who would assassinate him for Gongsun Zan, so Wen Chou was the best bodyguard.
But before they reached the tall building, they saw fire shooting into the sky and thick smoke billowing.
"My lord, Gongsun Zan knew he had failed and set fire to commit suicide."
Another general, Jiang Yiqu, ran back and said.
Yuan Shao pondered for a while and said: "Fight the fire and try to capture Gongsun Zan alive."
The fire is burning, and it's definitely too late to put out the fire now.
When the fire in the high-rise building was extinguished, all they could find was Gongsun Zan's body.
Seeing his enemy who had been against him for many years die like this in front of his eyes, Yuan Shao felt like a master was lonely. Gongsun Zan, the strongest in the north, was gone. Who else in the south could be his opponent?
"Send Gongsun Zan's head to Xu County to Cao Cao and give him a warning."
Yuan Shao showed no mercy to Gongsun Zan's body and said: "If Cao Cao does not want to die, come to Yecheng to see me as soon as possible and give them military power."
His next plan is to plan Henan.
South of the Yellow River, the first person to face was Cao Cao.
Yuan Shao even hoped to capture Cao Cao's territory without any blood and strengthen his own power.
The people around him cut off Gongsun Zan's head and rushed south as fast as possible to send him to Xudu.
"Congratulations, lord."
Guo Tu and the others shouted again.
He said a lot of flattering words that Yuan Shao liked to hear.
Yuan Shao felt a little elated, thinking that no one in the world could be his opponent.
——
Gongsun Zan's head sped south for eight hundred miles.
When Cao Cao received the Zhuojun genealogy and was about to arrange for the person to be changed, the head arrived just in time, almost at the same time as the genealogy.
Seeing Gongsun Zan's head, Cao Cao knew that Yuan Shao had completely captured the four northern states. It seemed that the time to start a war with Yuan Shao was indeed becoming increasingly urgent, and the war was almost about to break out.
Thinking that Yuan Shu had been defeated by him, and with Chen Zhou's assistance, Cao Cao was still full of confidence.
However, he called Chen Zhou over again and showed Chen Zhou the head.
"Whose head is this?"
Chen Zhou had never seen Gongsun Zan. When he saw the human head pickled with lime, he felt disgusted and didn't want to look at it a second time.
Cao Cao said: "It belongs to Gongsun Zan."
When Chen Zhou heard this, he understood: "The four northern states are all in Yuan Shao's hands. We will soon start a war against Yuan Shao. Even if we don't take the initiative, Yuan Shao will."
Cao Cao nodded and said: "Du Zhi is right. Yuan Shao sent Gongsun Zan's head to warn me."
The warning is particularly obvious.
At the same time, it also brought certain pressure to Cao Cao.
"It's just a head. If he wants to warn him, that's up to him."
Chen Zhou said nonchalantly: "As I said before, it's easy to defeat Yuan Shao, but the genealogy is here, right?"
Cao Cao said: "It has been revised."
Chen Zhou said: "First deal with Liu Bei so that we will have no worries internally, and then declare war on Yuan Shao."
Even if Liu Bei could not escape Yecheng, it was inevitable to declare war on Yuan Shao.
We may not be able to fight this year, but there is a high probability that we will be able to fight next year.
"The next two steps of the plan after crossing are still going very smoothly."
Cao Cao was as trusting as ever.
Chen Zhou said: "Not necessarily, you need to pay attention to Chen Gong."
In the original incident of the Belt Edict, Chen Gong was already dead.
Now Chen Gong will definitely get involved and interfere. This is beyond Chen Zhou's knowledge. Chen Gong is not a simple person. He emphasized: "You must keep an eye on Chen Gong in Liu Bei's camp."
After thinking about the next thing, Chen Zhou added: "After the genealogy incident is over, we will first control Liu Bei. By the time the emperor makes a private appointment with Dong Cheng, the plan will be almost completed."
"I know how to do it."
Cao Cao nodded.
Chen Zhou was sent away.
Cao Cao looked at the head again and decided to go find Liu Bei.
Arriving at Liu Bei's house, Zhang Fei immediately glared at Cao Cao. Cao Cao acted as if he couldn't see it and said: "Xuande, alas... I have something not very good to tell you."
Liu Bei felt nervous. Something bad happened. Could it be that Guan Yu was killed?
He saw again that Cao Cao was carrying a baggage.
Judging from the shape and size, it looks like a human head.
Although he was a little dissatisfied with Guan Yu, he was also very afraid that Guan Yu would really be killed.
"Xuande."
Cao Cao opened the baggage and sighed: "Yuan Shao asked someone to give this to me. You... just have a moment of silence!"
A human head appeared in front of Liu Bei.
"Senior Brother Gongsun!"
Although Gongsun Zan's head was smoked black and covered with a layer of lime, Liu Bei could still tell at a glance that it was Gongsun Zan.
"Xuande."
Cao Cao said again: "I've given you the head, take it and bury it properly! By the way, I've got the genealogy of Zhuojun, and the Han genealogy of Luoyang is also in the hands of Da Zongzheng. I'll see if you are free in a few days." , let me help you prove your identity."
After speaking, he strode away.
Liu Bei looked at Gongsun Zan's head and was silent for a long time. He thought about the genealogy again, but he did not expect that Cao Cao would really help him determine his identity.
But was Cao Cao really helping him to determine the identity of the emperor's uncle?
