Lu Bu and Liu Bei reached a consensus.
The next day, Liu Bei reorganized his army and ordered Guan Yu to lead 3,000 men and horses as the vanguard. Mi Fang followed behind to guard the grain, and he led the Chinese army to Beihai.
After Liu Bei left, Lu Bu immediately ordered Wei Xu to lead his troops to occupy Xiaopei. From then on, Lu Bu completely occupied Xuzhou.
From the spring of 196 AD, Yuan Tan marched from Pingyuan City, driving Tian Kai to the north, attacking Kong Rong in Beihai to the east, and attacking Haiyu, finally occupying the entire Qingzhou. He was later named the governor of Qingzhou by Cao Cao, and together with Xin Ping, Guo Tu, and Wang Zhao, Cen Bi and Peng An jointly guarded Qingzhou.
After five days, Liu Bei passed through Xuzhou and came to Beihai first.
Yuan Tan was located in Pingyuan County. Liu Bei and Lu Bu were competing for Xuzhou and Cao Cao was taking Nanyang in the south. At this time, Yuan Shao was fighting Gongsun Zan in Yijing, Youzhou. There was not much preparation. How could he have expected that Liu Bei would give up decisively? Xuzhou, come to capture Qingzhou?
His subordinate Cen Bi led the army to guard Beihai City. Since there was no war in Qingzhou, he lived a comfortable life. He drank and had fun all day long and did not train his troops.
Guan Yu led three thousand cavalry straight to Beihai. The defenders of Beihai hurriedly put away the drawbridge and defended the city. Cen Bi was furious when he learned that Guan Yu had come to scold him.
He went out of the city to lead his troops to meet the enemy, and angrily scolded Guan Yu: "You red-faced man, do you know that this is Yuan Shao's son Yuan Tan's territory? You dare to come and offend me?"
Guan Yu said contemptuously: "The land in the world is not Han. Yuan Shao's surname is Yuan, and his destiny belongs to Liu. Our lord is the great-great-grandson of Emperor Xiaojing, the queen of Zhongshan Jing. I should take this land by myself."
"Bold lies, watch the sword!" Cen Bi slapped his horse and drove away with his sword.
Guan Yu's slightly narrowed eyes revealed a fierce murderous aura, and he rode away with his sword in hand. The two horses crossed each other, and they only closed once. Where the steel sword rose, Cen Bi's corpse lay across the horse.
Cen Bi's soldiers were so frightened that they froze in place and did not dare to move.
Guan Yu cut off Cen Bi's head and galloped into Beihai City. His men rode into the city one after another. The leader of Yuan's army beheaded Cen Bi, and none of his men dared to stop him.
After successfully capturing Beihai City, Guan Yu immediately arranged for the defense of the city, and at the same time worked hard to spread the news to Liu Bei.
Liu Bei was overjoyed when he received the letter, and immediately ordered Zhang Fei to lead an army of three thousand to capture Donglai County. He led the Chinese army to Beihai City to prevent Yuan Tan from raising troops to kill him.
…
But he said that Yuan Tan was sitting in the governor's mansion, feeling quite distressed.
He helped his father pacify Hebei, made many military exploits, and his prestige in the army gradually grew. He was expected to inherit his father's business in the future. Unexpectedly, his father Yuan Shao would adopt him to Yuan Ji as his heir, and asked him to go to Qingzhou to guard Qingzhou. His brother Yuan Shang remains by his side.
What is this for?
Abandoning the elder and establishing the young?
After arriving in Qingzhou, he worked hard to drive away Tian Kai, defeated Kong Rong, and held the entire Qingzhou tightly in his hands. However, these achievements were not recognized by his father, and instead of calling him back, Cao Cao asked Cao Cao to declare him as the governor of Qingzhou and stationed in Qingzhou.
Yuan Tan became disheartened.
Unexpectedly, despite his hard work and repeated military exploits, he was not appreciated by his father. Instead, Yuan Shang, who had not yet made any achievements, followed him and became his future successor.
Yuan Tan was dissatisfied.
Because of his outstanding military exploits, he gathered many talents in his hands, namely: Guo Tu, Xin Ping, Xin Pi, Xun Chen, and general Chunyu Qiong.
Now his father is attacking Gongsun Zan in Youzhou. It is estimated that the battle will be over by the end of this year. By then, the Yuan family will be able to dominate the four states of Youzhou, Bingzhou, Jizhou, and Qingzhou, occupy the north, and then send troops to defeat the Yellow River. Cao Cao to the south will be able to dominate the world.
But this world might be taken away by his younger brother Yuan Shang. When he thought of Yuan Shang, a surge of anger surged in his heart.
At this time, the servants came to report in a panic: Liu Bei invaded Qingzhou territory, Guan Yu killed Cen Bi under Beihai City, and Beihai Kingdom was lost.
Yuan Tan was furious. "How dare Liu Bei, a little boy weaving mats, do this? I swear to destroy him!" An order was immediately sent to order 50,000 horses and infantry, with Chunyu Qiong as the vanguard and Xinbi as the military advisor. They placed themselves in the center of the army and sent troops to Beihai.
When Liu Bei learned that Yuan Tan had raised 50,000 troops to cross the Yellow River and head for Beihai, he crossed the Luhe River and went to the village. He ordered Sun Qian to stay in Beihai and led an army of 10,000 to camp out of the city to confront Yuan's army.
Because Liu Bei captured Beihai City, there was plenty of food and grass in the city, so he could stay in the camp for a long time. When Yuan Tan came from afar, it was quite difficult to transport grain from nearby prefectures and counties, so he did not dare to delay for a long time.
The next day, the two armies faced each other.
Yuan Tan rocked his horse forward, pointed at Liu Bei and cursed angrily: "You are a rotten man, you dare to invade our territory, I advise you to stop and capture him, otherwise it will be too late to regret."
Liu Bei said sternly: "Yuan Shao has occupied Hebei and is attacking my senior brother Gongsun Zan. I have come to support you and advise you to surrender as soon as possible to avoid being attacked by swords."
"A common man!" Yuan Tan looked at each other, "I'll capture whoever he is."
"I'm coming!" shouted a loud voice, and at the same time a figure came out from behind and charged towards Liu Bei. Looking carefully, he saw that it was Wang Zhao, the general coming from a distance.
Guan Yu sneered and rode away with his sword in hand.
The two horses met for only one round, and Wang Zhao's body fell across the horse. Guan Yu stood up with his sword drawn and glared at Yuan Tan's army: "Who dares to fight with me?"
Chunyu Qiong was furious: "Don't be crazy, I'm here!"
Guan Yu raised his sword to fight, and the two horses crossed each other. They fought for more than ten rounds. Chunyu Qiong was exhausted and his heart was trembling. He did not dare to fight anymore. He concealed his sword, patted the horse and retreated. Guan Yu angrily shouted: "Where can you escape, cowardly little fellow?!" When he drank, he slapped his horse and chased after him.
Seeing that Liu Bei's morale was greatly boosted, he immediately drew his sword and ordered: "The whole army attacks!"
The drum beats sounded intensively, and Guan Yu led the 3,000 cavalry in front, and Liu Bei led the 8,000 infantry in the back, heading towards Yuan Tan.
Yuan Jun lost two generals in a row, and his momentum was low. Seeing that Guan Yu was too brave, thousands of horses and troops seemed to be in a deserted territory, staring at Yuan Tan to kill. Yuan Tan was so frightened that his scalp was numb, he turned his horse's head and ran away.
The whole army was instantly routed thousands of miles away.
Guan Yu led the cavalry to pursue him all the way to the Yellow River. Yuan Tan was left with only dozens of his personal guards and Chun Yuqiong, who hurriedly crossed the river.
After Liu Bei followed, he gathered Yuan Tan's troops and captured Le'an County, Qi County, and Jinan County. Qingzhou south of the Yellow River fell into Liu Bei's hands.
At the same time, news came that Zhang Fei had captured Donglai County, and Liu Bei was overjoyed.
…
Cao Cao led 100,000 horsemen and infantrymen and traveled for five days to arrive outside Duyang City and set up camp.
This time, Cao Cao learned from the previous experience and arranged scouts within a radius of thirty miles to investigate the surrounding movements in detail, and specially ordered people to investigate Hanshan.
In the large tent of the Chinese army.
Cao Cao said to Xun Yu: "Now that Zhang Xiu has not returned to Lujiang City, the morale of Nanyang's army is unstable. This attack on the city will definitely break through Nanyang, cut off Zhang Xiu's foundation, and leave him without a foothold."
Xun Yu said: "Ming Gong, the winter wheat is not ripe now, and our army's food and grass are limited. Please attack the city quickly to avoid accidents."
Cao Cao nodded and ordered: "Send the order and attack the city tomorrow!"
Cao Cao was fully prepared for this siege and had all the siege equipment available: ladders, catapults, arrow towers and other items.
The next day, Cao Cao's entire army began to attack Duyang City.
After the last recuperation of the 50,000 surrendered troops, Duyang City was seven meters high, and an arrow stack protruding three meters was built on the city wall to deal with the arrow tower.
Hu Cheer was ordered to stay in Duyang City for three days to buy time for the winter wheat harvest in Nanyang.
