Yuan Shu and Cao's army fought in Chenliu for two months, and during which time, the two sides fought in small battles, and the two sides won and lost. Liu Biao from Xiangyang to Wancheng (Nanyang) cut off Yuan Shu's food route. Yuan Shu's army collapsed without fighting and retreated to Xiangyi and Ningling. He was attacked by Cao's army and Jingzhou army. Yuan Shu retreated continuously until Huaibei, and was not allowed to use Sun Jian's son Sun Ce to capture Shouchun and occupy Yangzhou before stabilizing the formation. Yuan Shu, who was seriously injured in vitality, felt it was difficult to develop in the small Yangzhou, so he ordered Sun Ce, who had gained his trust, to lead his troops across the Yangtze River to overcome the south of the river.

Cao Cao and Liu Biao jointly drove Yuan Shu to Yangzhou and returned their troops. At this time, news came from Langya that Cao Song was unwilling to come to Yanzhou. This made Cao Cao very anxious, and he quickly wrote a letter to show that he would fight Tao Qian in Xuzhou soon.

Cao Cao's grandfather Cao Teng served the four emperors of Emperor Shun, Emperor Chong, Emperor Zhi and Emperor Heng in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. Although they were not powerful, they were also a very high-ranking elder among eunuchs. Because of his merits in the welcoming, Emperor Heng appointed Cao Teng as Marquis of Feiting after he succeeded to the throne. During the reign of Emperor Shun of Han, the power of eunuchs reached a new height, which forced the emperor to order the eunuchs' adopted son to inherit the title. Cao Cao's father Cao Song was adopted from the Xiahou family because of this order.

Although Cao Teng's political style was different from other eunuchs and had won over and promoted many bureaucrats and literati, the eunuch's physiological defects also caused his special hobby for money. And with the help of Cao Teng, Cao's sons, nephews and brothers were mostly high-ranking officials. They were called "fathers, sons, brothers, and occupied prefectures and counties". During the heyday of the eunuchs' power, the economic strength of Cao's family increased day by day, which can be seen from the fact that Cao Song could easily pay 100 million to buy the Taiwei.

So, when Cao Song, who ran from Chenliu to Langya to take refuge in seclusion, received his son's second letter and hurriedly packed up his luggage and moved his family. He brought hundreds of attendants and hundreds of cars to pull them down. In addition, Cao Cao's brother Cao De's family's family dozens of people, the team that lasted for several miles was coming towards Yanzhou.

There are still many debates about Cao Song's death in history. Among them, the records in Lao Luo's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are the most widely circulated, but it is the Romance after all. To be on the safe side, I arranged for Wei Yan to go to the second settlement to get my family soldiers secretly escort along the way.

Taoism passed through Xuzhou, and the prefect Tao Qian, whose courtesy name was Gongzu, knew that Cao's father had passed by, so his subordinates suggested that Cao Song be detained. Tao Qian said: "Although we may have to fight Cao Cao, the battle has not yet begun, so it is inappropriate to seize the court's relatives." Not only did he not send anyone to intercept him, he also ordered Guo to pass along the way.

Cao Song led his family to Hua, and spent room. It was late summer and early autumn. Heavy rain suddenly came, so he had to go to an ancient temple to rest. The monks of the temple were connected. He was resting in the temple at night and suddenly heard the sound of killing around him making loud noises and fires were rising. Cao Song hurriedly came out to check it out, and saw Cao De stumble in blood and ran in and shouting, "Go away." Then he fell to the ground.

Cao Song hurriedly took his inner family to escape to the backyard, but saw dozens of people climbing over the wall and frightened to the ground. The leader shouted: "Is the Grand Marshal Cao?"

Seeing that the person coming didn't look like a thief, Cao Song shouted, "What a man, who are you?"

The leader said, "The last general is the family general of Mr. Guo Jia, who is under the command of my husband, and he will take his troops to Yanzhou to serve Cao Gong. When he passed by, he saw the old man driving the car. He would have visited him tomorrow and set up camp nearby. He saw the fire rising to protect the old man."

Cao Song was overjoyed: "General, please protect me and leave."

Wei Yan said: "My elder must be worried. I am here to be Jinghou. Wait for us to arrest the thief and ask the elder to interrogate him." After that, he asked twenty soldiers to protect Cao Song and his subordinates, and then took people to kill him in the temple.

The one who came to rob and kill was Zhang Kai, the guard general of Yinping. When he saw that the Yellow Turban Army was in great power, he joined the Yellow Turban Army. Then the Yellow Turban Army was suppressed and immediately surrendered to Tao Qian. He was a little capable and appointed as the guard general of Yinping. Most of Cao Song's family and military units had long followed Cao Cao to raise an army. This time they were all attendants, and the prefect of Taishan Ying Shao only brought fifty soldiers, so Zhang Kai led his men to rush out for a while and no one resisted. Ying Shao rushed out with a few personal soldiers and looked back at the ancient temple in the fire. He thought that Cao Song's family could not survive and dared not stop for too long, so he led a few personal soldiers to surrender to Yuan Shao overnight.

After Zhang Kai killed the last few resisting family members, he was looking for Cao Song. He happened to meet Wei Yan. Wei Yan didn't politely slash and slashed Zhang Kai alive in just two or three strokes. Cao Song behind him was still uneasy, but when he saw Wei Yan and other soldiers' extraordinary skills, he suddenly became energetic and shouted: "Kill them all to avenge my son."

Wei Yan raised his sword and killed Zhang Kai. When the other bandits died, they immediately fled in panic and fled. After dawn, they cleaned up the mess, and Cao Song's attendants were killed and injured, especially Cao De's death made Cao Song heartbroken. Wei Yan did not dare to waste time here to protect Cao Song and flee to Yanzhou.

After receiving the news from the family soldiers sent by Wei Yan, I was helpless. Whether Zhang Kai's death was due to his own bad intentions or Tao Qian's order to make him secretly rob Cao Song. However, this time he saved Cao Song's life, and there should be no situation of massacre in this year's Battle of Xuzhou.

When Cao Cao and Cao Song and his son met, they heard that their brother Cao De was killed, and their father almost lost his life. He also heard that his father said that it was Guo Jia's generals and ministers who were rescued. He remembered that I had reminded him, and after settling down Cao Song, he immediately ordered someone to invite me.

As soon as I got off the car, I saw Cao Cao bowing to me outside the gate. I hurriedly hid aside and said, "Why is this lord?"

Cao Cao said, "Thank you, Fengxiao, for saving my father."

I said, "Jia knows nothing about this matter, it is all due to Wei Yan's contribution. If you want to thank the lord, let him become an official and serve the lord."

Cao Cao laughed and said, "If you have filial piety and make plans, there is no need to be humble. Wei Yan asked him to go to Yuan Rang's office first to listen to it."

Returning to the inner hall, Cao Cao said, "I want to send troops to Xuzhou to avenge my brother. What do you think of filial piety?"

I said, "Xuzhou is rich, and it is beneficial to the lord's hegemony. However, Tao Qian has been in Xuzhou for many years and is highly anticipated. Although Xuzhou is not good at fighting and has no strategy, it may be difficult to fight if he wants to fight."

Cao Cao said: "I have a deep heart for filial piety, but at present, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan have no time to fight. Yuan Shuxin was defeated and was powerless even if he wanted to send troops. Now is a great time to send troops to Xuzhou."

I said, "If the lord must send troops, Jia has advised him. That is, to conquer the city and territories, we should focus on appeasement, and we should commit more killings. Will the lord listen?"

"This...," Cao Cao hesitated and said: "From the incident of Jin Shang this time, it can be seen that after Bao Xin left, local officials in Yanzhou were dissatisfied with me, especially Chenliu and Zhang Miao, who had many high positions in Chenliu and Zhang Miao, had many complaints about me being appointed as the governor of Yanzhou. Therefore, in this attack on Xuzhou, in addition to not leading too many troops, we must also fight quickly. Split troops to protect the towns along the way would make our army insufficient troops in the decisive battle with Tao Qian, and we would not kill all the people in the towns where we passed, for fear that the people in Xuzhou would break up the food route of our army after the army."

I had a headache. I was very puzzled by the killings of Cao Cao when he attacked Xuzhou when he watched the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In theory, Cao Cao, in the entrepreneurial stage, should have tried every means to win people's hearts, and avenging his father should be a good excuse to send troops to Xuzhou. No matter how much Cao Cao was stimulated, he would not have made such a big mistake with his treacherous nature. Now I personally experience it myself, in addition to lamenting that Cao Cao was involuntarily and ruthless, he could only sigh that the people in this era were just tools for the world in the eyes of the princes.

Fortunately, I have been planning for this matter for many years, and said with confidence: "My lord must worry that there are no soldiers to guard the food road. I have 400 soldiers to reach 30,000 troops! As long as the lord ordered the army to be uninflicted, I will definitely let no one in the towns along the way up to cause trouble."

Cao Cao grabbed my hand and widened his eyes and asked, "Be honest about Fengxiao's words?"

I asked back, "Jia Ke has ever lie to the lord?"

Cao Cao stood up and stomped back and forth in the hall and laughed: "Feng Xiaozhen is a minister who was bestowed by God on Meng De!"

Before sending troops, Cao Cao gathered to discuss matters. Cao Cao said, "My father was robbed and killed by Tao Qian when he passed by Xuzhou, causing my brother Cao De to be killed. I want to raise an army to avenge my brother. What are your opinions?"

Chen Gong advised him: "Tao Qian is a gentle man, and he is not a person who likes profit and forgets righteousness. The robbery and killing of the elders is definitely not a deliberate act. It must be a rebellion of his subordinates greedy for money. Please think twice and start a light weapon."

Xun Yu said: "The public platform is too arbitrary, and Xuzhou has always been rich. If Tao Qian's subordinates were greedy for money, why wouldn't they pretend to be bandits to rob local wealthy people? Instead, they are not greedy for money early and not greedy for money late, and they just waited for the elders to pass by before they became greedy? This matter must be Tao Qian's instructor!"

Cheng Yu also said: "Wen Ruo said it well. Although Tao Qian was gentle, he had many cunning people under his command. Even if Tao Qian was not instructed, it was the work of his important officials under his command. It is natural for Cao Gong to raise an army to avenge his brothers!"

Xun You, Liu Ye and others also expressed their agreement to send troops.

Chen Gong was angry. He knew that Cheng Yu had been an official under Tao Qian but could not be used to return to Dongjun. He supported Cao Cao to send troops to Xuzhou and said that he had said that Xun Yu's brothers and his plan also had an opposite tune. He thought that he had made great contributions to Cao Cao's entry into Yanzhou and should be the leader of civil officials. However, these later people were either at the same level as him or had surpassed him in their official positions. At this time, the plan of different Taoism and no one was related to the plan.

Although Chen Gong wanted to argue a few words, Cao Ren suddenly came out and cried: "My brother was killed, so I should avenge my brother. Please ask the lord Xingyi army to attack Tao Qian."

After hearing this, Cao Cao slapped the table and said, "I have made up my mind, I will say more to you at the end of the office." Then he dispatched troops and generals to send troops to Xuzhou.

(To be continued)

Note: The records in "The Records of Emperor Wu of the Three Kingdoms", "Biography of Ying Shao in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty" and "Shiyu" are all Tao Qian sent someone to rob Cao Song. The view in "Biography of Tao Qian in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty" is that Tao Qian's Yinping guards and soldiers intercepted and killed them. "Book of Wu" records that Tao Qian specially sent Zhang Kai to lead troops to escort him, and Zhang Kai intercepted and killed them halfway.
Chapter completed!