(Thanks to Dameng, Zhao Wuxiu 2014, for his support from the Charter.)

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In early February of the first year of Xingping, the spring was chilly, and the military and civilians in Xuzhou had already felt the arrival of spring in advance. On this day, the huge shadow that had been pressing on the heads of the military and civilians in Xuzhou for nearly half a year - the butcher Cao Cao, finally left.

Cao Cao made three requests: apologize for the crime, compensate for military expenses, and stationed troops in Yangdu (north of Xuzhou). Tao Qian met all of them - as long as he could send this plague god away, even if there were three more conditions, he had to agree!

The situation of Cao's army's food shortage was already very serious. Once they received a satisfactory reply, Cao Cao immediately drove the camp and returned westward, leaving Cao Ren's other troops to temporarily station in Pengcheng. One was to monitor Xuzhou and prevent it from chasing him and cut off the rear of the entire army; the other was to put pressure on Xuzhou, which would help the compensation be in place as soon as possible. After the entire army returned to Puyang safely and the compensation was in place, Cao Ren's other troops would withdraw from Pengcheng. Only then would the Cao army truly evacuated Xuzhou.

Before Cao Cao left, Sheng invited Ma Han to lead his troops to Chenliu as a guest, and had a long talk, but Ma Han refused. Cao Cao again made a request to the court and transferred him to Yanzhou, which made him clearly the intention of recruitment. He was also rejected by Ma Han. This made Cao Cao, who was in the limelight recently and felt good about himself, feel very sorry, and was also puzzled: In the west of Liao, a poor cavalry commander, how about the cavalry commander in the Central Plains of Yanzhou? Why should he fall in love with him? Could it be that Cao Cao, who is not as good as Gongsun Shengji?

Cao Cao's good self-feeling also comes from the surrender of an important general of Yuan army, who was under Yuan Shao's command of the cavalry commander Zhu Ling. The generals sent by Yuan Shao to assist Cao Cao in attacking Xu naturally returned to Jian after completing the task, but most of them returned. The only one Zhu Ling thought that he had found the wise ruler and led his troops to stay. He changed his course and abandoned Yuan and joined Cao.

In fact, Cao Cao had pulled all the Yuan army generals one by one, but only one Zhu Ling was pulled. It's not that Cao Cao's way of winning over was not good. Ah Man was very good at making friends with others and winning people's hearts. This can be seen from his performance when he first met Ma Han and Zhao Yun. The most important reason why Cao Cao was able to get Zhu Ling was that Zhu Ling was a lonely man.

How do you say this? Zhu Ling, a native of Chengcheng, Qinghe Kingdom, was originally a general of Yuan Shao. Before the Jieqiao Battle, Ji Yong, a native of Qinghe, surrendered to Gongsun Zan for betraying Yuan Shao. Gongsun Zan sent troops to defend Chengcheng. Yuan Shao sent Zhu Ling to attack him, but Zhu Ling's family was all in the city, so Ji Yong placed Zhu Ling's mother's brother on the city and lured Zhu Ling. Zhu Ling looked at the city and said, "When her husband was born, how could he take care of the whole family again!" So he fought hard to capture Ji Yong and captured Ji Yong alive, but Zhu Ling's family died.

There is a very important feature in the Three Kingdoms era. It is that family members are the quality. If there is quality, it is not easy to rebel, and if there is no quality, it is easy to rebel. There are three representative figures and events that can illustrate this problem.

Zhu Ling was incompetent in the hands of Yuan Shao. Therefore, he took the initiative to return to Cao and never returned.

He was also a subordinate of Yuan Shao, Ju Su. After being captured in the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao treated him very well. Ju Su did not surrender because his clan members were all in Yecheng. He also tried every means to escape, and eventually angered Cao Cao and died.

Zhang Xiu surrendered and then rebelled. Not only did he almost kill Lao Cao, but he also gave Cao Cao a son, a nephew, and a powerful general, which deeply influenced the history of Cao Wei. Later, when Cao Cao reviewed the matter, he said that his biggest mistake was to appease Zhang Xiu, and did not use his family as a charity. He also told his subordinates that he would never make such a mistake again.

The reason why Cao Cao used such great strength to Ma Han was that Zhao Yun was because neither of them had a family member in Xiangping, and their resident was far away from Xiangping, and they belonged to other departments, and they formed their own forces and stayed at will. This was very similar to Liu Bei's situation in Gongsun Zan's camp, and the affiliation relationship was relatively loose, so they could leave as soon as possible.

The two talents who had such a chance to get were unmoved, which was even harder to deal with than the war general Zhu Ling. This really made Cao Cao very puzzled, and he didn't know what these two were trying to do. Everyone at that time wanted to find a wise master in troubled times. Why did these two people care about it? This hit Cao Cao, who had just been praised as a wise master by Zhu Ling, was quite a blow.

When he was about to part, Cao Cao was reluctant to leave and wanted to hold his hand (this is one of the three axes that Cao Cao won over), but was rejected by Ma Han without showing any expression. Cao Cao did not attract attention and sighed: "I wish I could achieve great things with you!"

Leaning on the high slope of the horse and watching the clouds of flags passing by, Zhao Yun said to Ma Han with emotion: "Cao Gong is magnificent and generous, and is eager to seek talent, and he is also a wise master."

Ma Han breathed lightly: "Yes, if I met him two years ago, I might really be the main one."

Zhao Yun also said: "If I met him a year ago, it would be the same."

The two looked at each other and laughed, both of them were honest and refreshed.

Cao Cao got Zhang Kai, and his father was revenged. He took this as a stipulation and stepped down and withdrew his troops to return west. Not to mention Tao Qian, he was simply escaping from death. Both of them took their own needs, had their own gains, and they were all very happy. Next, it was Ma Han who deserved it.

On the seventh day of the second month, Tao Qian sent an envoy to invite Ma Han to enter the city of Shancheng. At present, the capital of Xuzhou is not in Xia Pi, but in the city of Shancheng. At the same time, those who went to the city of Shancheng to celebrate were Liu Bei, Tian Kai, Zang Ba, Sun Guan and other ministers who had made contributions to the fight against Cao Baoxu.

Ma Han and Zhao Yun led a hundred White Wolf Strong Cavalry (this is the upper limit of escorts allowed by Xuzhou) into the city. Of course, the Eagle Slave had to accompany him. In addition, there was another person who asked to go with him. Who? Gan Mei, the young lady of the Gan family. Ma Han considered that there would be some female relatives at the celebration meeting, and he needed Xuzhou's intelligence very much. Where is the easiest and most valuable information? Of course, it was from the mouth of Xuzhou officials. Taking Gan Mei with him might be useful, so he agreed.

Zhou Cang and the remaining hundreds of White Wolf Cavalry, hundreds of stewards of boatmen, boatmen and others stayed behind. Ma Han repeatedly reminded him to keep a warning and not be slackened at all. Zhou Cang and others responded voluntarily.

...

Five miles north of Yancheng, on the west bank of Yishui, a group of grand welcome teams lined up at the ferry entrance, waiting for them. When a team of cavalry holding various flags appeared, the crowd suddenly became riot and shouted, "Come here." Although the cavalry team was slow, the speed was still very fast, and soon appeared a hundred steps away.

When they got close, the team suddenly divided into three, lifted the flag and several school flags high and flew in the wind.

"Liu", "Guan", "Zhang".

"field".

"Zang" and "Sun".

Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Tian Kai, Zang Ba, and Sun Guan, came together.

The three brothers of Liu Bei and Tian Kai stationed Xiangben and Lanling were all east of the city of Shancheng, while Zang Ba and Sun Guan stationed Kaiyang City in Langya County was north of the city of Shancheng. At Liu Bei's suggestion, Tian Kai finally agreed to wait in Xiangben City, and waited for the whistle cavalry to report that a team under the banner of "Zang" and "Sun" appeared in the north, and went out to greet them together. After the heroes met, they went to Shancheng together.

In terms of position, Liu Bei, who was the prime minister of Pingyuan, was on par with Zang Ba, who was the commander of the cavalry. However, Liu Pingyuan not only waited for the greeting, but also invited a Qingzhou governor to meet him. With such a simple act, Zang and Sun were greatly promoted - Liu Envoy was kind and humble. It was indeed worthy of his reputation!

Liu Bei only stood down the city lightly and skillfully, and received favorable praise from an important force in Xuzhou. This skill is probably more clever than Cao Cao.

"Tian Jun, Brother Xuande, Yun Chang, Yide, Xuan Gao, Zhongtai. Zi Zhong is courteous." In the welcoming team, the first man in the thirty years old and elegant, raised his sleeves and robe, hanging around the ground, swaying like waves under the strong wind of the river. The big sleeves fluttered and the flowing clothes and skirts were so elegant that they made people feel heart-breaking.

"Hahaha! In the past, when I saw Zi Zhong, I was always worried about the affairs of the state, and my eyes were covered with my eyebrows. Now that the enemy has retreated, I finally saw Zi Zhong's style. I am indeed a gentleman in the East China Sea!" Liu Bei laughed and brought everyone forward to pay a gift.

In terms of position, Tian Kai, the governor of Qingzhou, is the highest. It should be the main one, but it depends on how to understand the governor of Qingzhou. At this time, there were two governors of Qingzhou, one was Yuan Tan appointed by Yuan Shao, the governor of Jizhou. The other was Tian Kai appointed by Gongsun Zan, the governor of Youzhou. None of these two governors were formal officials, and they were appointed by local warlords themselves, and their value was not high. Tian Kai was named Qingzhou governor, and actually only occupied two counties and states: Pingyuan County and Jinan. The value of this governor further decreased. Moreover, Tian Kai was not famous and was not very good at socializing. When he met Liu Bei, a great man with the highest skills in socializing in the world, he could not do anything except stand aside. As a result, he was dominated by him, and Tian Kai was quite willing and had to praise Liu Bei's skills.

The person who came to greet Liu Bei and his party was the second-ranked figure in Xuzhou. Bie Jia was engaged in Mi Zhu and Mi Zizhong. Since Liu Bei, Tian Kai and others led their troops to the aid, Xuzhou was responsible for contacting, supplying food and grass, and replenishing troops. As for Tao Qian, he was embarrassed and had been ill in bed.

In Qingzhou reinforcements, most of them were Liu Bei. One of these two men was a hero who was very good at winning over the hearts of the people. The other was because the old master was missing and was looking for a strong new master. They hit it off and were like fish in water. When they met at this moment, they were intimate.

After chatting with the three brothers of Liu Bei, Mi Zhu greeted a tall man with long hands and long legs, light and soft armor, narrow face and strong face: "Fortunately, Xuan Gao, Zhongtai, Wu (Dun), Yin (Li), and Sun (Kang) for dealing with each other, he would not fall into the hands of Cao's army. You have made great contributions and Zhu Daizhou's governor thanked him." After saying that, he went to the ground for a long time, which was a great gift for his peers.

This person with a strong general was Zang Ba, the cavalry commander. The rough and strong man beside him was Sun Guan, the deputy captain. The two of them bowed their salutes together, but they dared not, and thanked the governor of the state for sending reinforcements for help. Although several reinforcements sent by Tao Qian were defeated by Cao Ren and Shi Huan, they also dispersed the forces of Cao's army and reduced the pressure from Kaiyang. Only then did Zang Ba and others be able to successfully defend.

The joint fight against Cao was completed, and now it is time to taste the fruits of victory. These Xuzhou people were all full of spring breeze, chatting and laughing, and took a boat to cross the Yishui River and entered the city from the north gate of the city.

At this moment, the city at the entrance of the North Gate City was crowded with people, and the welcome scene was extremely huge.

Zhang Fei, who was wrapped in a red scarf on his head and was as majestic as a lion, grinned and said, "So many people? Is the city in Shancheng so beautiful?"

Mi Zhu smiled and said, "Zhang Sima (Zhang Fei was the Sima of the Infantry Army at that time) didn't know. After Cao's army withdrew, many people fled to Xia Pi, and Guangling had all returned. There were also county magistrates and gentry coming to celebrate. There were many accompanying members, and the city's Dingkou increased dramatically. Only half of what Zhang Sima saw."

Guan Yu stroked his beautiful beard and said with satisfaction: "Half is welcome outside the city, half is waiting in the city, and the whole city is out, which shows the big brother's expectations."

Liu Bei hurriedly said, "Don't say this. Xuzhou is insured. First, Tao Gong ignored his illness and bravery, and was in front of the enemy. He was well-organized. Then there were Tian Envoys, Xuan Gao and Zhongtai who were able to help. You and my brother were just attached to the wings of the king, how dare you make a contribution?"

This naturally caused everyone to speak humbly, while Liu Bei was humble and extremely respectful, and he was a humble gentleman.

At this moment, the crowd was suddenly in a commotion in the north of the city, and the crowd was excited, as if shouting something. Then it suddenly dispersed, and most of the city was lonely and lonely. The moment before, there were still crowds of people, flags were waving, and the next moment, they were all gone.

This sudden scene made Liu Bei and his party stunned, and they were like ducks listening to thunder, and they were on the spot.

After a long time, Tian Kai couldn't help but speak: "Zi Zhong, what's going on?"
Chapter completed!