Shi Wengong listened to Li Xiaozhong's words and knew that they were friends rather than enemies, so he put away his weapons, released each of his prisoners, and led him and his party to see Cao Cao.
When the two met, Li Xiaozhong told him his origins. Cao Cao said happily: "When I passed through Qinzhou, I heard the name 'Longyou Hero' and regretted not seeing him. Unexpectedly, we met here."
He told him that he had passed through the Xingqing Mansion, and took a Xia sword handle obtained from the treasury of the Xixia Palace, and gave it to Xiaozhong. Xiaozhong was greatly grateful, and immediately expressed that given the situation in the country, he was determined to contribute, and he was willing to lead all the brothers. , look at Lao Cao's horse head, and follow him to kill the enemy.
Lao Cao was very happy to have gained a new force from him. He talked about the next steps twice, and then there was a scene where Lao Cao pointed out the battle situation and predicted the enemy's strategy.
According to Li Xiaozhong's original thought, the Xingqing Mansion was destroyed and the chaos in the Xixia territory was completed. He could then slowly deal with the Xia army. After all, there were less than 20,000 people on both sides together. It seemed that there were only Beat the drum and use the strength of cooperation.
But people like Lao Cao, no matter how many soldiers they have under their command, have never thought about who they want to cooperate with. They just feel that wherever I am, the main battlefield will be there. It is impossible to talk about how to deal with things slowly. Fighting every battle into a decisive battle is the true nature of Lao Cao's military use.
Therefore, Lao Cao made a plan to let Li Xiaozhong pretend to be the main force and attract the enemy's siege. He would take the opportunity to jump out of the enemy's sight and launch another thousand-mile attack.
It's just that the last time they attacked was Xingqing Mansion, which had few soldiers, but this time the goal was Taiyuan City, where the main force of Xixia was located.
After Li Xiaozhong was impressed, he obeyed his orders and was willing to sacrifice himself to become a chess piece.
After the two parties reached an agreement, they immediately packed up the food and supplies from Qingzhou and headed straight for Yan'an Prefecture.
Why go to Yan'an Prefecture? Just because this place is an important town on the Yongxing Military Road, it is a wall made of rammed earth and surrounded by huge stones. It is three feet high and stretches up and down with Fenghuang Mountain to the west and Yanhe River to the east. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
When the Western Xia invaded in a large scale, Mr. Xiaozhong led the troops of the King of Qin and turned back. He just defended this place with the intention of counterattack. After several attacks by the Xixia people, they could not be shaken.
Unexpectedly, Kui Xiangyang suddenly arrived and asked Mr. Xiaozhong to lead the army to Bianliang. He made a big fuss and killed several generals of the Western Army to establish his authority, so that the morale of the army was shaken and almost changed. At this time, Wanyan Wushu led the army. Jurchen soldiers came to fight, but due to internal and external troubles, they fell.
Nowadays, there are only about 500 people left in Xixia to guard Yan'an Mansion. When they saw Lao Cao's army coming, they sent messengers to ask for help and closed the city gate tightly, obviously intending to defend to the death.
However, Lao Cao did not attack directly. He only ordered a platform to be set up under the city. A wooden frame was erected on the platform. A fire was lit next to the wooden frame, and a large cauldron was set up on it. The pot was stewed until the water boiled——
This operation made the defenders on the city dumbfounded. They thought, what is this dwarf going to do? Could it be that he wants to cook in front of everyone, feast on food, and starve us to death?
While they were discussing, they saw Song Jun push out a young man who was tied up, untied the rope, tore off his clothes, and hung him naked on a wooden frame on the platform. The young man was all dressed in white flesh, and there were some good men among the defenders who could not help drooling. Tick tock.
The guard didn't drool. He stared at him for a long time and finally found out why the fair-skinned boy looked familiar!
His face turned pale on the spot, but he exclaimed as if his parents were dead: "Ah! Damn Song Dog, the one hanging there is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
The defenders were shocked when they heard the sound. These Song soldiers took off their prince, tied him up, and boiled a large pot of water. What were they going to do?
At this time, Lao Cao slowly came onto the stage, with his sleeves rolled up high and holding a sharp knife with sharp ears. He stood next to Li Renai on the stage and shouted loudly: "Hey! The soldiers in the city will listen to the truth! Your country is unjust and invades our territory. The Han Dynasty How can we allow you to add to the blockage of our Tianwei family? Now, the prince of your country, Li Renai, has been captured by me. You who know the truth, please obediently offer the city. If you are too late for a long time, I will chop your prince alive and cook him. The pot of 'Prince Xixia Soup' will be distributed among the armies to try it out."
After saying that, he waved his backhand and nailed the sharp knife to Li Renai's shoulder. The prince screamed, and bright red blood flowed down half of his body.
Lao Cao laughed heartily and shouted again: "I am not talented. I once studied in Bianliang and learned how to behead a living person. After 3,600 cuts, he was extremely talented! Hahahaha, if you don't believe it, And Haosheng will count for me. If there is one wrong stroke, I am willing to accept the penalty ten times and cut him ten more times."
Then he pointed at the boiling iron cauldron: "Let's cut one knife and boil one knife. You guys should count them!"
After saying that, he rubbed his hands and went to draw the sword happily.
When Chu and Han were fighting for hegemony, the overlord of Chu wanted to cook Liu Bang's own father. Liu Bang's expression remained unchanged and he smiled and asked for a share of the soup. This has been passed down as a "good story" through the ages.
Nowadays, none of these Xia soldiers have read this story. In short, they don’t have Liu Bang’s forbearance. Cao Cao pulled out the sword from the prince’s shoulder, and the guard shouted: “The city is for you, don’t hurt my prince!”
Cao Cao laughed, waved his hand and said: "You are such a disappointment! That's all, Xu Qian, get out of here in one moment!"
The guard didn't dare to try to get the prince back, so he immediately ordered his troops, opened the gate on the other side, and ran away in a pissed off manner.
Therefore, the heroic city of Yan'an Prefecture returned to the Song Dynasty without any bloodshed - it can be regarded as the Song Dynasty!
Li Xiaozhong saw that Lao Cao chose this city as a joke, and he admired it so much that he sighed: "I have also read several history books, but I have never seen anyone naming a city so easily."
Lao Cao smiled, shook his head and sighed: "I still have to build a stage, light a fire, boil water, and sing an opera. How can I call it easy? If it is easy, it is really easy for the Liao people to invade Bianliang."
After hearing this, Li Xiaozhong couldn't help sighing: "I heard about this before, and I still find it incredible."
Cao Cao sneered and said: "What's incredible? But everyone regards world affairs as their own personal agenda. Just like this Xixia guard general, if he sits back and watches me behead the prince, no matter whether the city is guarded or not, he will There is no way to escape death, so I have to go with the flow and escape. If I am held accountable in the future, it can at least be said that I am worried about the prince's health."
Li Xiaozhong shook his head and said: "His emperor has entrusted him with the city, so his responsibility is to defend the land and defend the enemy, not to protect the prince. If it were me, Brother Wu's strategy would definitely not work."
Cao Cao couldn't help but smile bitterly and said: "A person like my dear brother, who carries the burden on his shoulders, is only moral and righteous, and what he thinks in his heart is only justice and chivalry. If I meet the Lord of the Ming Dynasty, I will be a hero who will shine in history. If I don't meet him, I'm afraid A good brother will die without a burial place."
Li Xiaozhong looked at Cao Cao and said, "I wonder if Brother Wu can be called the Lord of the Ming Dynasty?"
Cao Cao smiled magnanimously: "I don't want to be a wise master, but I want to be a good brother! Everyone starts with loyalty and ends with loyalty. Among brothers, if there are those who can do things with a straight heart, let him do it. If there are those who want to use power for personal gain, Then let him let go and enjoy wealth and leisure."
Li Xiaozhong asked curiously: "What if my brother refuses to let go and turns against you?"
Cao Cao spread his hands and said: "He doesn't recognize me as his brother, how can I be so shameless as to recognize him as my brother? Of course I have good brothers to fight for me."
Li Xiaozhong laughed loudly, and then solemnly clasped his fists: "Brother entrusted me with Yan'an Mansion. Although I dare not lie that I am qualified to do the job, I will dedicate myself to it. I am here in the city!"
Lao Cao waved his hand and said: "That's wrong, brother. Brother Fool is entrusting you with matters not only in Yan'an Prefecture, but also in the northwest. If the Xixia soldiers and horses come, you only need to hold on for ten days, and I can accomplish great things. If it is difficult to defend behind, it will be a disaster." Leave and deal with him slowly. In a word: in the first ten days, the city is more important than life! After ten days, life is more important than anything else."
Li Xiaozhong listened attentively, nodded and said: "Young brothers have all remembered it, and I will certainly live up to my brother's wishes."
Before dawn the next day, Lao Cao quietly left Yan'an Prefecture with his 13,000 troops, bypassed Laoshan and Huanglong Mountains, crossed the Yellow River, and entered Hedong Road.
Three days after Lao Cao left, Brother Richard, the king of the Jin Dynasty of Western Xia, who was looking for Lao Cao everywhere, got the news that the Song army was outside Yan'an Mansion, took the prince as a hostage, and took the city by force. Then they were aggressive and led 50,000 soldiers. Killed to Yan'an Prefecture.
Li Xiaozhong led 4,000 men from his headquarters, mobilized the people, and held on to the city. During his day and night siege, the defense was impregnable.
After a few days, there was no news of the Song army raging from all directions. Brother Richard became more and more convinced that all the Song troops attacking Xingqing Mansion were here, so he no longer cared about anything else and only concentrated on attacking the city every day. Little did he know that Cao Cao was at this time. , has quietly arrived in Qingyuan County——
It was later known as Xu County in the Qing Dynasty, located forty or fifty miles southwest of Taiyuan.
It was already early July, and it had been more than ten days since Lin Chong and others entered Taiyuan.
When Lao Cao came to Qingyuan, he did not just come by himself, but picked up all the young and strong people from more than ten counties along the way. There were more than 70,000 people in total, all of whom were strong and strong.
When he entered Hedong Road, he first did two things:
The first was to send out four powerful generals, Hua Rong, Shi Bao, Yao Xing, and Ma Jin, each with five hundred light cavalry. They supported each other, scouted in advance, and blocked information to avoid being discovered by the Xixia sentry horses.
The second thing is, along the way, whenever you go to a big place, you will ask the rich people in the city to exchange the precious gems they took out of the Western Xia Palace with them for copper coins and grain. Hard, recruiting strong men aggressively.
When we arrived in Qingyuan County, we found the place where Li Kui and Niu Gao had mentioned -
However, when the Tianhu was conquered, in order to prevent the Tianhu from escaping along the Fen River, Cao Cao sent two generals, Li Kui and Niugao, to attack Qingyuan. Unexpectedly, he met the bandit general Zhang Xiong on the way. A dam was built on the Fen River, forcing the Fen River to flow backwards and flooding the city of Taiyuan. Unexpectedly, Jian was defeated early by Li Kui and Niu Gao.
The weather was like this in July, and there would be heavy rain from time to time in the mountains and forests. After thinking about it, Lao Cao thought that if he wanted to defeat his more than 100,000 people with more than 10,000 people, he would still need to borrow external help, so he simply chose Chufang to learn the old plan that had never succeeded. , build a dam around the mountain and flood Taiyuan!
It didn't take long to find the place where Zhang Xiong wanted to build the dam. Lao Cao took a closer look in person and found that the environment was extremely suitable. He immediately mobilized tens of thousands of civilians and worked day and night to build the dam along the mountain in less than three days. It forms a dam to intercept all the water of the Fen River.
In the following days, while people continued to raise the embankment, they cut down countless large bamboos and built many bamboo rafts, which were placed high on both sides of the bank for later use.
By July 15th, everything was ready. During this period, it was drenching and it rained several times. The river water was visible to the naked eye and was much higher.
However, Lao Cao still felt that it was not enough, so he simply asked Gongsun Sheng to come to the altar and pray for a heavy rain.
A good dragon entered the clouds and had been on an expedition with Lao Cao for a long time. Only then was he able to show off his talents. He immediately had an altar built, calculated the time, wore his hair and held a sword, and went to the altar to practice, but he saw——
Stepping on the dougang to reach the Dharma platform, the dragon roars into the clouds and displays his miraculous talent. There is a thunderbolt and the mountains and rivers move, and look at the heavenly soldiers coming up from the water.
(End of chapter)
