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The personal soldiers who had just rested for less than a quarter of an hour were back on their horses again. Cao Ren ran northeast along the official road, but after less than a mile, there was a fire in the valley on the left, and a Han cavalry broke out and intercepted Cao Ren's team.

As a general, with a heavy date, holding a big knife in his hand, a majestic Thousand Mile Horse under his crotch, it was Wei Yan, Wei Yan and Lu Meng who were responsible for intercepting Cao Ren and fleeing back to Xuzhou. They had already expected that Cao Ren might go to Liang County. Wei Yan led a thousand troops to ambush in Dang County, and indeed intercepted Cao Ren.

Wei Yan laughed proudly and pointed with a big knife, "Governor Cao won't get off his horse and surrender, when will he wait?"

Cao Ren's heart seemed to sink into the abyss. He only brought famous personal soldiers. How could he fight this battle? He looked back and found that he was also intercepted by the Han army behind him. He had no other plan except to break through.

Cao Ren shouted loudly and waved his sword to attack Wei Yan. Wei Yan also shouted loudly: "Good it!" He urged his horse to run forward and waved his sword to greet him.

Both of them were great generals with great martial arts skills, with equal strength and a flash of swords. The two fought fiercely and fought for more than ten rounds. Wei Yan became more and more brave, but Cao Ren did not want to fight again and wanted to get out of it.

The two horses intersected, Cao Ren knocked back with a knife. Wei Yan had expected that the sword was swinging and Cao Ren was waiting for this opportunity. He suddenly grabbed the horse's belly with his feet, and the war horse ran out and fled eastward. The Han soldiers in front rushed forward and stabbed them with spears.

Cao Ren knew that this was his last chance. If he couldn't escape, he would die here. Cao Ren roared, swung his sword and slashed several people in an attempt to break out of the siege. At this moment, Wei Yan hung up a big knife. He sneered, took off his longbow, pulled out a wolf-toothed arrow from his back, pulled the bow like a full moon, and aimed at Cao Ren's back.

The string was loosened, and the wolf-toothed arrow shot out like lightning. The arrow hit Cao Ren's back. Cao Ren shouted, his body shook, and fell from the horse. Wei Yan shouted, "Catch him alive!"

More than a dozen soldiers rushed over, pressed Cao Ren tightly and tied it up with a rope. Cao Ren sighed and closed his eyes helplessly.

....

In June of the 20th year of Jian'an, the Central Plains War broke out in order to compete for Qiao County. The Han and Cao armies successively invested 180,000 troops on the battlefield, twice as much as the Cao army. In the end, they defeated 80,000 main forces in Qiao County with absolute military strength. The Xuzhou Grand Governor Cao Ren and the Provost Man Chong were captured by the Han army. Deputy General Li Tong was seriously injured in the breakthrough and eventually died.

After learning that Cao Ren was defeated, Niu Jin, the garrison general of Qiao County, was unable to withstand the siege of the Han army of 200,000, and eventually led his army to surrender.

In this Central Plains Battle in Qiao County, the Han army fought against the 100,000 Cao army with an army of 250,000. The Cao army was finally wiped out, with more than 20,000 people killed in battle, while the Cao army surrendered more than 100,000 soldiers, and only thousands escaped from the battlefield. This is also the heaviest loss that Cao army has suffered since the Battle of Red Cliff.

The victory of the Central Plains War caused the strength of the Han and Cao armies to be balanced. The Han army's strength increased to 500,000, while the total strength of the Cao army was sharply reduced to 150,000. The Han army rectified the army in Qiao County. Ten days later, Liu Jing personally led an army of 200,000 to prepare to march towards Xuzhou.

At this moment, Cao Pi sent an emergency military order from Yedu, ordering Cao Xiu to give up Xuzhou and withdraw his troops back to Qingzhou. At this point, except for Xu Huang defending Luoyang to the death, the Han army had captured the entire Central Plains.

...........

Just when the Han army achieved brilliant achievements in the Central Plains War and shocked the world, Cao army also tried to save some of the face in Qingzhou, and Cao Pi placed his hope on Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao led Wan Youzhou army to cross the Yellow River and advance quickly towards Qingzhou. Tianhou and Zhang Liao's army arrived in the area of ​​Taishan County, and Wan Cao's army was stationed in Laiwu County, close to Qi County.

In the big tent, Zhang Liao stood alone in front of the sand table and pondered for a long time. At present, the Han army was mainly distributed in Jinan County, Qi County and Le'an County, but he did not know the specific military deployment of the Han army, and insufficient intelligence plagued Zhang Liao's decision-making.

But Zhang Liao had another problem, that is, the army he led was not easy to command, nor did he say that he could not command this army, but after his orders were passed down, it would always be a little later when it was executed, without the speed of military orders as fast as a mountain.

Zhang Liao also understood in his heart that this army was Cao Zhang's Youzhou Army, which he had been running for many years, and only obeyed Cao Zhang's orders. It was only because Cao Zhang was forced to hand over the military power under the pressure of his father, but it was Cao Pi's order to take over the Wan Youzhou Army. In this way, how could Cao Zhang let himself command this army at will? It is not surprising that Cao Zhang still has the shadow of Cao Zhang in the army.

On the one hand, it was insufficient intelligence for the Han army, and on the other hand, it was poor command of the army. The two major problems really made Zhang Liao feel helpless in the Qingzhou battle.

At this moment, a personal guard reported at the door of the tent: "You reported to the general, there was a person outside the camp, claiming to be a fellow general, and he is currently the governor of Beihai County. He specially asked to see the general."

Zhang Liao frowned. He was a fellow villager and the governor of Beihai County. He thought about it and suddenly realized. He asked quickly: "Is the person who came here surnamed Li?"

"It seems that his surname is Li."

Zhang Liao was immediately overjoyed. He knew who the person was and said anxiously: "Come in quickly!"

Zhang Liao is from Mayi County, Yanmen County. He was born into a wealthy family in the county. There are two wealthy families in Mayi County. One is the Zhang Liao family and the other is the Li family. It is said that Zhang Wuli. The two families have had a good relationship for generations and even have a marriage relationship.

If he remembered correctly, the Li County Magistrate of Yidu was the second place in the Li family, named Li Kan. They studied together since childhood and later lost contact. Zhang Liao only knew that Li Kan was an official in Qingzhou, so he should be him.

After a moment, a middle-aged man was led into the tent and bowed and smiled: "Brother Yuan, don't be fine!"

It was indeed Li Kan. Although they hadn't seen each other for twenty years, Zhang Liao still recognized him at a glance. He stepped forward and grabbed the other party's hand and smiled: "Brother Li is still the same as before, and his appearance has not changed much."

"Is that so? I'm still so young?" Li Kan touched his face and smiled.

The two laughed, and Zhang Liao quickly invited Li Kan into the tent to sit down, and ordered his personal soldiers to serve tea. Zhang Liao said, "God, have we not seen each other for about twenty years?"

"I haven't seen each other for twenty-one years. The last time I met was when I returned to my hometown to worship my ancestors in the Jian'an year. We drank and drank. At that time, I was just the little chief clerk of Yidu County, but I was already famous all over the world."

"Don't mention this famous all over the world, ashamed!"

Zhang Liao waved his hand and asked with a smile: "I have never understood, how could Chong be an official in Qingzhou?"

Li Kan smiled and said, "I am Beihaijun's disciple, don't you know?"

The King of Beihai was Kong Rong, who once served as the governor of Qingzhou and had disciples all over the world. Then Zhang Liao realized that his fellow villager was Kong Rong's younger brother. Could it be that he was an official in Qingzhou?

Li Kan smiled again and said, "I was recommended by my mentor to serve as the head of Yizhou, and gradually promoted to the magistrate of Beihai County. I heard that I led my army to Qingzhou, so I came to meet you very much."

Zhang Liao's heart moved. It was only a few days after he came to Qingzhou, and Li Kan actually knew that his news was so fast. Could it be...

At this time, the personal soldiers brought in two cups of tea. Zhang Liao took a sip of tea, and then asked in a casual tone: "How do you know that I am leading the army here?"

"To be honest, I received a letter from the Han army, and only then did I know that the army was coming, so I rushed to meet."

Zhang Liao didn't expect Li Kan to be so frank. He pondered for a while and asked, "Have you surrendered to Han?"

Li Kan smiled slightly, "It is inappropriate to say this far away. As far as I know, Wei State only includes the Central Plains and Hebei. Bingzhou and Qingzhou are not part of the Wei State, and they are still directly under the jurisdiction of the court. Therefore, I was originally a Han minister and loyal to the great Han heaven. The Han State is also a vassal state of the Han Dynasty. Why do you say that you surrender to the Han State?"

Zhang Liao smiled bitterly for a while. Although what Li Kan said was true, the Han Dynasty was in name only and was known to everyone in the world. Therefore, the current chaos was caused. Wei replaced the Han Dynasty, and the Han Dynasty was regarded as the orthodox Han Dynasty. Yedu still had a great Han Heaven, and sometimes even Zhang Liao was confused.

Li Kan understood Zhang Liao's thoughts and smiled and said, "This time the Han army raided Qingzhou. Qingzhou's troops were empty, and all counties did not resist. The Han army did not make things difficult for us. They treated each Han minister. Just two days ago, I received a letter from Sima Lu to each county, saying that he had led Cao's army northward. Sima Lu hoped that all counties should focus on people's livelihood and not make unnecessary resistance, so I am still a Han minister."

Although Li Kan said this, Zhang Liao did not believe it very much. Since Lu Xun still sent a letter to the counties, it means that they were actually loyal to the Han State. However, Zhang Liao did not want to say it out loud. He knew in his heart that if these local officials did not maintain the order of Qingzhou, Qingzhou would have to be in chaos. Even if they had surrendered to the Han State, they would not dare to touch them easily. Besides, this was not something he could decide, and Cao Pi needed to decide on appointment and removal.

Zhang Liao was more concerned about military affairs. He thought about it and asked again: "Does the Han army have garrisons in Beihai County?"

"Originally, there were 10,000 Han troops stationed, but before I set off, the Han troops also withdrew. I heard that not only Beihai County, but also the Han troops of Qi County were also withdrawn."

Speaking of this, Li Kan took out a letter and handed it to Zhang Liao, "This is a letter left by Sima Lu when he evacuated Beihai County. He asked me to transfer it to Yuan, please take a look at it."

Zhang Liao sighed in his heart. Li Kan really came with a purpose, not as simple as seeing himself. Although he sighed in his heart, he still took the letter without saying a word and read it quickly. Lu Xun wrote it very clearly in the letter that the Han army was stationed in Le'an County and did not want to fight against the Cao army. If the Cao army insisted on his own, the Han army would never give in.

From this letter, Zhang Liao saw two key points. One is that the Han army had withdrawn to Le'an County and concentrated its forces to prevent them from defeating each one. In addition, the Han army would maintain its existence in Qingzhou and would be willing to maintain a confrontation with Cao's army.

Zhang Liao stood up, quickly walked to the sand table, and carefully looked at the location of Le'an County. Le'an County was backed by the Yellow River estuary, with Jishui and Zibo River main streams, and a large area of ​​sea areas. No wonder the Han army wanted to occupy Le'an County. If you retreat, you could leave by boat and sweep Qingzhou.

This time, Zhang Liao's mission was to recover Linzi. It seemed that the mission could be completed, but whether to fight the Han army and recover the entire Qingzhou was necessary to ask Cao Pi, which would be decided by Cao Pi.
Chapter completed!