On the second day, a white flag was erected on the city wall of Jizhou, which read: "The people of Jizhou are willing to surrender."
After receiving the news, Cao Cao went to see it personally and said: "This must be because there is not much food in Jizhou City. Let the people surrender. Then during the surrender process, troops will definitely be sent to attack."
So Zhang Liao and Xu Huang were ordered to ambush on both sides of the road with three thousand soldiers and horses each. Then they rode their horses to the city to accept the surrender. Sure enough, they saw that the city gate had been opened, and the people were supporting the old man and their young children. Walked out with a white flag in hand.
Before the people could fully come out, a pair of men and horses suddenly came from the city, mixed in with the people. Cao Cao smiled, waved the red flag in his hand, and Zhang Liao and Xu Huang went out to kill indiscriminately. The people are still the troops in Jizhou City.
The troops in the city had no choice but to return. Cao Cao personally led his troops over and tried to enter before the city gate closed. As a result, when they got to the drawbridge, crossbow arrows were fired from the city. There were a lot of them. One of them hit Cao Cao's helmet and almost destroyed his helmet. After being shot through, the generals quickly rescued Cao Cao and returned to their own camp.
Cao Cao changed his clothes and horses and led everyone to attack Yuan Shang's camp. Yuan Shang came out to fight in person. All Cao Cao's troops came out to kill him. The two armies engaged in a melee, but Yuan Shang failed and returned.
Yuan Shang led his defeated troops to retreat to a stronghold near Xishan Mountain, and sent people to urge Ma Yan and Zhang Wei to rescue him. What he didn't expect was that Cao Cao had already sent Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang to recruit the second general An.
They were indeed recruited, surrendered directly to Cao Cao, and were granted the title of lord.
So he took his troops and horses to attack Xishan, first sending Er Lu, Ma Yan, and Zhang Wei to cut off Yuan Shang's grain road.
After Yuan Shang got the information, he knew that Xishan could not be defended, so he left Huankou at night. Before the camp was set up, fire broke out below, and it turned out that there was an ambush of Cao's army. Yuan Shang had no time to put on his clothes and go riding, and was captured. The ambush troops rushed in, Yuan Shang was defeated, and retreated fifty miles. There were not many people around him who could fight, so he could only send Yin Kui, the governor of Yuzhou, to go to Cao Cao's camp on his behalf to ask for surrender.
Cao Cao pretended to agree with Yuan Shang's surrender and sent Zhang Liao and Xu Huang overnight to intercept the camp.
Yuan Shang abandoned all the seals, ribbons, axes, clothes and armor, and all the baggage, and then fled into some deep mountains and old forests.
When Cao Cao led troops to attack Jizhou, Xu You came up with a plan and said, "Why don't we break the dam of the Zhang River and let the water flow into the city to flood it?"
Cao Cao agreed to this plan and sent his sergeants to dig some trenches outside the city, expanding the area to forty miles, but the depth was very shallow.
Shen Pei patrolled the city wall every day. When he saw it, he smiled and said: "He is planning to drain the water from the Zhang River into the city. If the trench is deep, it can be poured in. If it is so shallow, it will have no effect."
So he didn't take it seriously. At night, Cao Cao suddenly increased the number of people ten times to dig together. The trench was dug deep. By the next day, the depth was about two feet. He used Zhang water to irrigate it. The water in the city was several feet deep. , and there was no food and grass for a long time, and the sergeants all starved to death.
Xin Pi was outside the city, using a gun to pick up Yuan Shang's seals, ribbons and clothes, and recruited the people in the city to surrender.
Shen Pei was very angry and beheaded more than 18 people in Xinpi's family on the city wall in public, and then threw their heads off the city wall. When Simpi found out, he was very sad and cried endlessly.
Shen Rong, Shen Pei's nephew, had a good relationship with Xin Pi in the past. When he saw that Xin Pi's family was innocently killed like this, he felt very angry, so he secretly wrote a letter, tied it to a bow and arrow, and shot it down the city. .
The sergeant picked up the letter and gave it to Xin Pi. After reading it, he handed it to Cao Cao. Cao Cao ordered that if he entered Jizhou, no one in the Yuan family would be killed, and those who surrendered could forget the consequences.
On the morning of the next day, Shen Rong opened the west gate of the city and let in Cao's army.
Xinpi rode in, and the others followed him and entered Jizhou. Shenpei was on the southeast tower and saw that Cao's army had entered the city. He led several cavalry to the city to fight to the death. He happened to encounter Xu Huang. Xu Huang quickly captured Shenpei and tied him out of the city.
On the way, he met Xinpi. He gritted his teeth, whipped Shenpei on the head with a whip, and said: "Evil thief! You will die today!"
Shen Pei cursed: "You are the thief! Lead Cao Cao to attack our Jizhou. I can't wait to kill you now!"
Xu Huang took Shen Pei to see Cao Cao. Cao Cao said, "Do you know who the person who opened the west gate is?"
Shen Pei said: "I don't know."
Cao Cao smiled and said: "It is your nephew Shen Rong who opened the west gate."
Shen Pei said angrily: "It's because of him that this situation happened!"
Cao Cao said: "Yesterday I brought my soldiers and horses to the city. Why did I feel that there were so many crossbows in the city?"
Shen Pei said: "It's not much, I still think it's missing!"
Cao Cao said: "You are still very sincere to the Yuan family, and you have no choice but to do this. Are you willing to surrender to me now?"
Shen Pei shook his head and said, "I will definitely not surrender!"
After hearing this, Xin Pi quickly knelt down in front of Cao Cao and said, "More than eighty members of my family were killed by this thief. I hope the prime minister will kill him and help me avenge him!"
Shen Pei said: "I was born as a minister of the Yuan family, and when I die, I will be the ghost of the Yuan family, unlike you, the sycophantic thieves! You can kill me quickly!"
Cao Cao nodded and had someone lead him out. Before he died, the judge scolded the executioner and said, "My lord is in the north. Don't let me die facing the south. So he knelt down to the north, stretched out his neck, and let me die." The executioner beheads.”
After Shen Pei died, Cao Cao sympathized with his loyalty and had him buried in the north of the city.
The generals invited Cao Cao to enter Jizhou City. Cao Cao was about to leave when he saw the swordsman and axemen coming with a man. Cao Cao looked and saw that the man was Chen Lin.
Cao Cao said to him: "You wrote a petition for Yuan Shao before, stating my charges. Why did you bring my grandfather with you?"
Chen Lin replied: "The arrow is on the string and must be fired."
They persuaded Cao Cao to kill him. Cao Cao felt that this man was very talented and it would be a pity to kill him, so he pardoned him and appointed him as an official.
Cao Cao had an eldest son named Cao Pi, named Zi Heng, who happened to be eighteen years old. When he was born, there was a cloud, which was blue and purple in color and as round as a car hood. It lingered over the place where he was born all day long. Some people saw it. After that, he secretly told Cao Cao, saying: "This is the breath of the emperor. Your son's fate is unspeakable!"
Cao Pi was able to write some articles at the age of eight. He was talented and knowledgeable. He liked riding horses, archery, and learning martial arts.
At that time, Cao Cao conquered Jizhou. He did not follow his father in the army. He first took the soldiers with him to Yuan Shao's home, drew his sword, dismounted and entered.
Someone advised: "The Prime Minister has an order. We are not allowed to enter Yuan Shao's house without permission."
