Chapter 635 Cao Cao Enters Yanzhou
It was nearly 2,000 miles from Xi'an to Luoyang. Huangfu Chaobo and his entourage of nearly 10,000 horses took more than ten days to finally reach Luoyang. On the second day of May, Huangfu Chaobo and his entourage finally returned to Luoyang.
After returning to Luoyang, Huangfu Chaobo did not have much time to rest and immediately devoted himself to government affairs. Although Tian Feng and others had already handled daily government affairs, there were still many things that Huangfu Chaobo had to deal with himself.
After handling some government affairs, Shi A submitted the intelligence he had sorted out for nearly a month. The first thing he saw was the war situation in Runan. In mid-April, after Xu Jing led the army to Runan, he did not immediately go to war with Yuan Shu's army. Instead, he first arranged the troops of various units and then led the army south. Zhao Yun's 10,000 cavalry were hidden among the infantry by the army.
On April 20th, the Yuzhou army arrived at the foot of Baoxin City. Under the counselor of Xu Shu, Xu Jing ordered the Yuzhou army to attack Yuan Shu's army. A fierce battle with Yuan Shu's army that was attacking Baoxin, when the two sides were in a stalemate, Zhao Yun led 10,000 cavalrymen with Baima Yicong as the vanguard to raid Yuan Shu's army.
Although Liu Xun and his generals had taken precautions against the Yuzhou army, they did not expect that the raid was actually a special type of soldier, the Zhema Yicong. Although they fought hard, they still could not save the defeat of Yuan Shu's army. Finally, the Yuzhou army successfully defeated Yuan Shu's army and lifted the siege of Baoxin.
Liu Xun and Yuan Yin led the army to retreat to Anyang and Xinxi. Later, under the advice of Xu Shu, Xu Jing personally led the army to station under Xinxi City, ordered Zhao Yun to be the main general, and He Yi, a subordinate who was in charge of the world, to be the deputy general, and led 20,000 elite troops to march lightly, and suddenly attacked Yuanlu and Fubo at lightning speed.
The garrisons in the two cities did not expect that the Yuzhou army would suddenly appear under the city. Unprepared, the two county towns were successively recaptured by Zhao Yun.
On the first day of May, Zhao Yun recovered the two cities of Yuanlu and Fubo, arranged the defense of the two cities, and returned to the Yuzhou Army camp under Xinxi City. After a day of rest, the Yuzhou Army began to attack Xinxi County.
Unfortunately, although there was a strong general like Zhao Yun, the Yuzhou soldiers were not strong soldiers. On the contrary, the Yuan Shu army was strong. In addition, the Yuan Shu army was backed by the Huai River and had continuous support, so the army's attack for several days was defeated.
Although Xu Jing intended to let Zhao Yun lead the attack, the Baima Yicong was only a cavalry and was not good at attacking the city. So in the end, Zhao Yun could only lead his personal guards to assist in the attack, which did not have much impact on the battle situation.
After several days of continuous attack, the Yuzhou Army suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, so Xu Jing and others retreated. In addition, the war had been going on for more than a month, and the Yuzhou Army also suffered many casualties and the soldiers were exhausted. In desperation, the generals wrote to Kong Rong, hoping to withdraw their troops. As for the four counties occupied by Yuan Shu's army, they would take the opportunity to recapture them after the army rested.
Two days later, Kong Zhu's order came, ordering Xu Jing to arrange the army to defend Baoxin, Shenyang, Yuanlu, Fubo and several other cities on the north bank of the Huai River, and the other armies returned. Seeing the large army of Yuzhou gathering, Yuan Yin and Liu Xun sent troops to guard Anyang and Xinxi, and then withdrew the army to their respective territories, and the war between the two families ended.
At the same time, another piece of news caught Huangfu Chaobo's attention. In the middle of April in the third year of Chuping (192), more than one million people of the Yellow Turban Army of Qingzhou attacked Yanzhou, captured Rencheng (now Jining, Shandong), and killed Zheng Sui, the prime minister of Rencheng. Then, near Dongping (now Dongping, Shandong), they defeated the government troops that came to suppress them and beheaded Liu Dai, the governor of Yanzhou.
Subsequently, the Yellow Turban Army moved to Shouzhang (now southwest of Dongping, Shandong). The smooth development of the Yellow Turban Army of Qingzhou in Yanzhou made the officials and scholars of Yanzhou extremely panicked. In addition, the governor Liu Dai was killed, and there was no one in charge in the state, and Yanzhou was in a panic.
At this time, Cheng Yu, a subordinate of Cao Cao, the governor of Qiao County, persuaded the governor of Yanzhou and the deputy governor to welcome Cao Cao to Yanzhou. Bao Xin, the prime minister of Jibei, who was friendly with Cao Cao, also strongly recommended Cao Cao. So Wan Qian, the governor of Yanzhou, and Bao Xin went to Dongjun to welcome Cao Cao to be the governor of Yanzhou.
At the end of April, after Cao Cao entered Yanzhou, he immediately joined forces with Bao Xin to block the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou in the eastern suburbs of Shouzhang (now southwest of Dongping, Shandong). The two armies fought fiercely. The Yellow Turbans had been in battle for a long time and the soldiers were all elite. Bao Xin was killed in the battle.
Cao Cao led the soldiers and encouraged the soldiers. After a fierce battle day and night, he finally drove the Yellow Turbans of Qingzhou out of Fengzhang.
Afterwards, Cao Cao did not pursue the victory, but led his army to Changyi, the seat of Yanzhou. On the one hand, he took over the government affairs of the Yanzhou governor's office, on the other hand, he reorganized the military and rested the soldiers. He also sent people to mobilize most of the troops from Pei State to see if he was looking for a battle formation to prepare for a battle to defeat the Yellow Turbans of Yanzhou.
Hearing this news, Huangfu Chaobo couldn't help but sigh. It seems that the rise of Wei Wu is unstoppable. Now we must consider how to face the attack of one of the three giants.
Not only Cao Cao, but Yuan Shao in Hebei also seems to have made a move. According to the intelligence sent back by the shadow, Yuan Shao has completely controlled the counties under his rule and is currently adjusting the deployment of troops. There seems to be signs of sending troops, but where the troops will be sent specifically remains to be further determined.
However, according to Huangfu Chaobo's estimation, Yuan Shao is most likely to send troops to Zhongshan and Changshan. After all, persimmons are picked soft. As for the movements of other princes, it seems that it is basically quiet.
After spending a few days to deal with the government affairs left over from the past few months, Huangfu Chaobo is ready to leave again. This time, it is not a long journey, but to Huai County. Old man Lu Zhi has already arrived in Huai County. Because Huangfu Chaobo is not in Luoyang, he stayed in Huai County at the invitation of Zhu Jun. Now that Huangfu Chaobo has returned, he must go to Huai County to personally bring Lu Zhi to Luoyang to show respect.
Sitting on the boat to Huai County, Huangfu Chaobo looked at Shi A who was accompanying him and said, "General Shi, has Shadow still not sent back any news about the search for several divine doctors and their apprentices?"
After hearing this, Shi A took two steps forward and said, "General, according to the news sent back by Zilonghui and Luoshenhui, Divine Doctor Hua should be in Xuzhou, and Divine Doctor Zhang should be in Jingnan. I have sent people to search with them, but no news has been sent back yet."
Huangfu Chaobo nodded and just said softly, "Tell the people below to speed up and find people as soon as possible. Please return to Luoyang." Then, he stood at the bow and fell into deep thought.
With the return of all the soldiers and horses, the main defense force beside Huangfu Chaobo, in addition to Dian Wei and a dozen soldiers from the Iron Wall Camp, was Gao Shun's Xianzhen Camp, Zhao Cen's Yuanrong Crossbowmen, and Iron Eagle Sharp Soldiers and Hu Yandu's Tuqi. Under normal circumstances, if they were in Sizhou, there would be only one to two battalions of soldiers and horses accompanying them for protection, but if they went out to fight, each battalion would follow them. Like this time, when Huangfu Chaobo went to Huai County, only Gao Shun led the Xianzhen Camp to accompany him, while the soldiers of the other camps were resting in Luoyang.