Seeing that it was useless to surrender, Cao Cao then began to attack the city fiercely. Zang Hong still resisted tenaciously. Soldiers from both sides fought up and down the city walls, but there was still no sign of the end of the war.
During this period, Zang Hong repeated his old tricks several times and hung up straw men at night. However, after Cao Jun suffered a loss, he no longer fell for the trick. He only fired tentative shots each time. When there was no movement, he laughed at the defenders outside the city. military. A few days later, as the advantage on the city gradually expanded, Cao Jun became more and more complacent. He felt that he was unable to support himself in the city, and even canceled his probing shots.
Unexpectedly, when Zang Hong saw this situation, he immediately led 600 men down the city. Cao Jun was unprepared and the Han army rushed into the horse corridor. Cao Jun's camp was immediately in chaos. He heavily armed himself and trampled on each other, not distinguishing between ourselves and the enemy. Fortunately, Gongsun Ji stopped the chaos in time and did not let the commotion turn into a roar of the camp and ultimately affect the entire army. However, this move allowed Zang Hong to cut off the heads of thousands of people and retreat safely into the city.
After this incident, the various departments of Cao's army could be said to be neither offensive nor defensive. For this reason, Cao Cao had to make up his mind. He divided each department in the general into small teams, and each team took turns patrolling the camp to guard against Zang Hong's night attack. Although the effect was remarkable, the soldiers privately commented that it was a rare and strange thing in ancient and modern times to have to close the camp and defend the city with ten times the number of soldiers for a long time.
As the number of soldiers patrolling the camp increased, Cao's army's offensive naturally slowed down. As soon as the pressure in the city was reduced, Zang Hong ordered Lei Shang to shout at the top of the city, claiming that he did not want to die defending the city. If Cao's army could retreat thirty miles, they could leave the city in peace and return to the east capital of the army.
When the news reached Cao Cao, Cao Cao sneered: "Zang Ziyuan has succeeded several times, and he already thinks I'm a fool! Should I retreat thirty miles now and let him destroy my watchtower fortress?"
However, there were quite a few war-weary generals among the generals who were moved to see that he was willing to abandon the city. They still advised the marshal: "If he really intends to leave, wouldn't he have missed a good opportunity?"
Cao Cao looked at the man coldly and said: "Such a genius, instead of killing him in an isolated city, I can let the tiger return to the mountain and lead an army by himself?" The generals were suddenly silent. Just listen to Cao Cao continue to say: "If we can kill Zang Ziyuan, it only costs tens of thousands of troops, so what a waste!"
While they were talking, another scout came from outside the tent to report that Zang Hong saw that Cao Jun was not responding. He also sent a message to the top of the city, claiming that if the whole army could not return, he could also give thirty horses as a gift. As long as Cao Jun gave way to a small road, he would surrender. Leave the city with your bodyguard.
When the scout was about to go down, Cao Cao stopped him and said, "Do you know who is coming out to shout? It must not be an ordinary person!"
The scout replied: "I believe it is a thief named Lei Shang, who is said to be Zang Hong's right-hand man and extremely powerful!"
Cao Cao thought for a moment and then told Cao Ren: "Send a few sharpshooters to shoot that Lei Shang to death and kill Zang Hong's spirit." Cao Ren nodded in agreement.
Not long after, Cao Ren rode a white horse and arrived at the city with more than a dozen personal guards. He shouted to Lei Shang at the top of the city: "Where is Mr. Lei? Cao Ren has been ordered by the marshal to come to discuss with you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a man suddenly stretched out his head at the top of the city and looked at the crowd below. Cao Ren squinted his eyes and looked, and after confirming that it was Lei Shang, he continued: "Lei Jun, the marshal ordered me to ask, I can open the road, but your army already has horses, why do you need to ask for them?"
Lei Shang also recognized Cao Ren, and he replied: "There are no beans in the city, and the horses are fat. How can we get out? If Cao Gong refuses to send the horses, then we will have to hold on."
Cao Ren laughed when he heard this, and said in a calculating tone: "If you want good horses, don't we also have many troops? The marshal himself only has five or six good horses. If not, ten good horses, twenty How about a pack horse?"
Lei Shang was about to say more, but unexpectedly, the man leaned forward slightly and suddenly fell behind him. It turned out that he was hit by an arrow that came from nowhere!
When Cao Jun saw this, he suddenly shouted. Unexpectedly, not long after the shouts started to boil, Lei Shang actually stood up again. The arrow entered from the right cheek and came out from the other side. The teeth in Lei Shang's mouth were shattered and his mouth was filled with blood. The shape was terrifying. The people around him were frightened and gathered around him to save him. Lei Shang, however, acted as if nothing had happened. He stretched out his hand to break the arrow shaft, and then pulled out the bloody middle section from his cheek. As he spat out blood, his mouth full of broken teeth also fell out.
Even though he was hit by an arrow in the face, Lei Shang still stood upright. However, he could not speak clearly at this time and could only talk to his attendants in a coquettish way, asking him to convey to Cao Ren in the city: "This arrow is accurate, but it is a pity that it is too small."
A little bit more force. " Then he said, "In that case, let's wait until you go to the city again!" Seeing Lei Shang's tenacity, the officers and soldiers of Cao's army all sighed: "Could the thieves be protected by gods? Why are they as solid as stone?"
However, at the moment when Cao Jun was frustrated, the atmosphere of the Han army in the city was also extremely heavy. At this time, Zang Hong was sitting under the city tower, discussing matters with his generals. Dozens of people first took off their heavy armor, and then took off their dirty military uniforms soaked with sweat. For a moment, the smell of sweat and blood was mixed. Together, they themselves felt a little nauseous.
After taking off their clothes, it is not difficult to find that each of these officers has more or less bruises and cuts. Even Lei Shang's disfiguring wounds are not the most severe among his colleagues. They talked while changing dressings on the wounds, comparing the number of beheadings they had done with each other, but as soon as Zang Hong opened his mouth, they all fell silent.
Zang Hong glanced at Lei Shang, and then said: "There are still more than a dozen horses in the city, and there is not much salt, but the bandit army will not be fooled. In three days, I guess the horses will be gone."
Everyone was silent after hearing this. When Cao Cao originally attacked, the Han army in Yanzhou used Chenliu to store grain and stop the enemy in Dingtao. However, Chenliu was defeated by Cao Cao in a battle, and Zang Hong had to continue to defend the city without help. At first, the food stored in the army was enough for April. However, as Cao's army invaded, the surrounding people poured into the city, and the number of residents in the city increased to more than 20,000. This caused the food to be consumed quickly. If it were not for the capture of some grain and rice from Cao Hong's camp, , I am afraid that Dingtao will be out of food at the beginning of February. Therefore, at the beginning of the month, Zang Hong began to kill horses for food. Today, the horses in the city are almost exhausted. If he no longer thinks of other methods, it is only a matter of time before the city falls. Thinking of this, everyone could not help but feel pessimistic, and they all said, "It is morally right for a gentleman to die. At worst, he will die with all the other gentlemen."
Zang Hong couldn't help but sigh in his heart when he heard this, but he still said encouragingly: "Meng Zhuo and Ting Jian are both my close friends. As long as we persist and never give up, we will be able to wait for reinforcements!"
Having said that, on the third day, the remaining horses in the city had also eaten, and the soldiers had to eat porridge to survive. However, the people in the city had no food supply, so they began to eat grass roots and peel tree sap. In less than seven or eight days, People began to starve to death one after another.
Seeing this, Zang Hong couldn't bear it, so he summoned the officials in the city and said: "We have defended the city to this point, and we can hardly hold on any longer. I, Zang Hong, died for righteousness, and I died without regrets, but there is no need for you to end up like this." ." He sighed for a long time, feeling unwilling to accept it, but finally said: "You will die from starvation in the city. Maybe a few people will survive if you leave the city. Now that the city has not been broken, you still have a chance to escape. Everyone, get out! ” However, all the people in the middle part of the city said, “Why can’t your envoy bear with me? Should we bear with you?” In the end, no one left.
Due to lack of food, they first captured mice, and then shot the birds in the city. After all the mice and birds in the city were eaten, they began to eat the leather on their weapons and chew it along with the cooked weeds.
It lasted until mid-March, when all the salt in the city was used up. After four or five days of lack of salt, many people began to suffer from edema. In mild cases, their hands and feet were swollen, their movements were slow, and in severe cases, their stomachs were swollen and they could not sit or stand. As a result, malaria and plague began to occur among the soldiers and civilians. Occasionally one day, some city residents found some dried fish in the cellar. They were pickled with salt and tasted extremely salty. The defenders found it and obtained the most precious treasure. Zang Hong gave it all to those who lost their bows in the city and licked it every day to survive.
But as a result, the soldiers were hungry day by day, their physical strength was greatly weakened, and they were unable to resist. Cao's soldiers who were attacking the city noticed it and immediately stepped up their offensive. The city was once captured. In the end, Zang Hong led his troops to fight bravely and drove Cao's army back.
At this time, almost everyone thought that the city could not be defended for three days. Unexpectedly, that night, Zang Hong suddenly asked his subordinates to have a meal at his house. The guards saw two large cauldrons cooking in the hall. One cauldron was cooking gruel. Everyone was tired of eating it every day, but the other cauldron was cooking porridge. It's meat! Like the rain after a long drought, everyone emptied the two cauldrons of food and drink immediately.
It wasn't until they finished eating that everyone remembered that something was wrong. Where could there be meat in the city now? So someone asked Zang Hong. Zang Hong was silent for a long time and told everyone with difficulty that what they had just eaten was his concubine Xiaoping and his only son Zang Feng. Only then did everyone realize that the two people who used to come to the city to share food and encourage them to eat had disappeared.
Zang Hongfa's wife died young and he only had one concubine. His only son Zang Feng was only ten years old. Now they are all killed by him and used as food for the whole army. When the soldiers heard this, they burst into tears and couldn't help but cry.
No one dares to look at Zang Hong.
The next day, Cao Jun attacked again, but was repulsed by Zang Hong.
The situation in the city was so difficult that Cao Cao could not imagine it. What he didn't even expect was that he had wasted more than a month in this Dingtao city, and even today, his efforts were still in vain.
After the bitter battle, more than 10,000 of the 130,000 troops that surrounded Dingtao had died in battle, and more than 20,000 died of serious injuries. Then the spring breeze revived, the rain continued, flies and mosquitoes returned, and the plague in the city gradually spread to Cao's army outside the city. Hundreds of people fell ill every day, so the soldiers began to dig large pits outside the camp and fill the corpses layer by layer. Sometimes, the digging speed could not keep up with the speed of filling the corpses, and the morale of the army was therefore affected. Keep falling. Although the soldiers did not talk about it, they always looked north at the river, feeling vaguely homesick.
Seeing this situation, Cao Cao couldn't help but lamented to Shen Pei: "Anwu previously advised me to attack Xu, but I didn't follow him. It's all my fault."
At this time, Bao Xin, who was in Xingyang, suddenly sent a letter saying that the Han army in Luoyang seemed to have moved a lot, and there were many more flags that they had never seen before. They captured several prisoners, saying that Guanzhong had finally sent troops.
