When Cao Cao returned to Nanpi City, he heard that Donglai County and Huang County had been captured by Gongsun Du. The entire eastern part of Qingzhou's combat power had been almost exhausted by Xiahou Yuan. All the counties were quickly conquered by Gongsun Du.

Gongsun Du had five thousand cavalry, all of whom had been trained for many years. Their weapons and armor were much better than Cao Cao's. Although Liu Xin destroyed the iron castle, Gongsun Du opened several iron-making workshops based on the iron mines in the southern part of Pingzihe City.

Liaodong has been developing peacefully in recent years. Although there are only 20,000 people, its combat power cannot be underestimated.

When Cao Cao saw this, he personally led Nanpi's 20,000 strong men to resist Gongsun Du. As soon as his army arrived in Beihai Kingdom, he saw Gongsun Du's Yang Yi leading the cavalry. Cao Cao defeated Yang Yi's cavalry first, so that he could

Gongsun Du knew how powerful he was. Although he only had a thousand cavalry and not elite soldiers, his generals were powerful!

But the result was something no one expected. Cao Cao personally led the army, and he had more than 20 generals including Guan Yu, Xiahou Dun, Xu Chu, Xu Huang, Yu Jin, Le Jin, Cao Hong, and Cao Bao. However, the 20,000-strong army was defeated by Yang.

Yi's five thousand cavalry.

All the horses of these five thousand cavalry are the best horses in Liaodong. They have a greater advantage against infantry. The Liaodong cavalry has thousands of heavy armored cavalry, which is one of the main reasons for Cao Cao's defeat. In addition, the broadswords used by the Liaodong cavalry are all

They are very elite. From the beginning of the battle, Cao Cao's army was at an absolute disadvantage.

Fortunately, Cao Cao saw that something was wrong and ordered his generals to lead the cavalry to fight to the death and save the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers. However, this battle also made everyone see Cao Cao's weakness.

Cao Cao began to dispatch large armies from counties and counties in Qingzhou to resist Gongsun Du's attack. He knew that he could not defend the entire Qingzhou. Gongsun Du had large ships in the coastal areas and could attack him at any time, so he sent officials and soldiers from the counties along the coast of Qingzhou to the central part of Qingzhou.

Gongsun Du quickly established a foothold in Qingzhou. He took over the counties along the eastern coast of Qingzhou and was locked in an anxious struggle with Cao Cao.

Although Zhang Xiu won this battle by luck, the food and grass he had saved for a year was almost exhausted. With the infantry unable to fight too much, his cavalry could only suppress Cao Cao and could not capture the Hejian County.

County town, because Xia Houyuan is not easy to deal with.

The battle between Cao Cao and Gongsun Du in the east was fierce. Cao Cao was always at a disadvantage, and his territory was gradually occupied by Gongsun Du. However, his generals were so powerful that it was not easy for Gongsun Du to defeat Cao Cao. By August, Cao Cao had only

The four counties of Jizhou and the two counties of Qingzhou struggled to survive under the attack of Zhang Xiu and Gongsun Du.

Because of this year's war, Cao Cao's food harvest will inevitably be greatly reduced, and he will only become weaker and weaker. Gongsundu's base camp is in Liaodong, and Zhang Yan's Bingzhou and southern Jizhou are in much better conditions than Cao Cao. Therefore, looking at the current situation, Cao Cao is different from what he once was.

He is so similar to Yuan Shao. If there were no accidents, he would have fallen like Yuan Shao.

In August, Zhang Xiu was unable to capture Xiahou Yuan in Hejian County. He had insufficient food and could only wait for the autumn harvest before settling accounts with Cao Cao.

He returned to Yecheng and his counselor Jia Xu suggested that Zhang Xiu should be on good terms with Lü Bu and ask Zhang Xiu to propose marriage to Lü Bu and marry Lü Bu's daughter.

The family knows that Zhang Xiu is very similar to Lu Bu, and his opponents are mainly from the wealthy families under his rule. Lu Bu is stronger than Zhang Xiu, but Zhang Xiu has the advantage of being young. Zhang Xiu is 11 years younger than Lu Bu, and Lu Bu is now 47 years old.

He is already past his prime, and Zhang Xiu is 36 years old, which is exactly the age when Lu Bu fought against Liu Guan and Zhang alone in front of Hulao Pass.

Zhang Xiu listened to Jia Xu's suggestion. He now needs to use Bingzhou as his rear area, defeat Cao Cao to obtain Jizhou and Qingzhou, and then capture Youzhou. By then Lu Bu will be old, and he will go south to conquer the world. Wouldn't it be better?

.

When Zhang Xiu's envoy came to Xuzhou to find Lu Bu, Lu Bu was worried about something. Yuan Shu had just sent an envoy to hope to marry Lu Bu. He wanted his eldest son to marry Lu Bu's daughter Lu Lingqi.

"My lord, Yuan Shu married us to prevent us from attacking him. My lord's daughter will definitely become Yuan Shu's hostage when she arrives in Yangzhou, and we will be controlled by others in every way.

And Zhang Xiu is very powerful, and there are only five people who can defeat him in the world today. If the lord's daughter comes to Jizhou, the relationship between the two parties will be stable. Yuan Shu is not too strong. I heard that Sun Ce started attacking Yuan Shu again in the south of Yangzhou. This is

We have a rare opportunity. As long as we capture Yuan Shu Shouchun, it will not be a problem to defeat Sun Ce with our lord's ability. By then the situation in the world will be clear, and I think the Yanzhou family will know how they should choose." Chen Gong suggested to Lu Bu.

, is to make good friends with Zhang Xiu and attack Yuan Shu. In fact, Lu Bu also thought so.

"Tell Zhang Xiu that he must marry my daughter in a grand way and become his wife. If my daughter suffers a little injustice, I will lead the troops to destroy Zhang Xiu. The dowry will be a hundred cars, an army of five thousand, and a slave of thirty thousand." Lu Bu said.

Lu Bu agreed to Zhang Xiu's proposal of marriage. Zhang Xiu breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. The autumn harvest time had arrived. Zhang Xiu moved his army to the east while sending the harvested grain to the front line. Now everyone knows Cao Cao's difficulties.

Mao, they will kill Cao Cao no matter what this time.

Lu Bu saw Zhang Xiu's troops heading north, and Sun Ce started fighting Yuan Shu again. He also led troops to attack Yangzhou from Xuzhou, and it seemed that he would not give up until Shouchun County was captured.

Everyone in the Central Plains was busy. Even Liu Biao organized nearly 100,000 troops to confront Zhao Yun in the south of Nanjun. Ma Teng occupied the entire Yongzhou after repelling the Qiang tribe. He originally planned to occupy Sizhou, but the population of Liangzhou and Yongzhou he occupied was

It was too sparse, and the population of Sizhou was not large. Being aggressive could only distract his troops, so Ma Teng's thoughts were basically on resisting the Qiang people and recuperating.

Everyone has forgotten one person, and that is Liu Bei.

After Liu Bei led 3,000 troops into Taishan County, he wiped out all the bandits and confiscated grain and grass for military use. The 600 big-eared soldiers were so powerful that no bandit was Liu Bei's opponent. Soon Liu Bei unified many mountain villages, and he gave them to his subordinates.

He set rules and prohibited the killing of innocent people indiscriminately when collecting protection fees. As a result, Liu Bei became a benevolent master in the hearts of the people, and many aristocratic families came to join him.

Liu Bei spent a year unifying two or more mountain villages in Taishan County. During the autumn harvest, he found that one Taishan County had received 900,000 shi of grain and grass tax revenue, which showed how wealthy Taishan County was.

After hearing about the battle between Cao Cao, Zhang Xiu and Zhang Yan, Liu Bei's men all clapped and applauded. They also hoped to leave here as soon as possible one day. After hearing that Zhang Xiu had defected to Cao Cao, because Cao Cao insulted Zhang Ji's wife, Zhang Xiu rebelled and killed Cao Cao.
Chapter completed!