"Lu Xiang died in battle? Wang Sect surrendered to the enemy? Our Youzhou cavalry was wiped out?"

The next afternoon, Yuan Xi, who had already had an ominous premonition in his heart, finally confirmed the bad news.

The bad news was brought by a few Yuan army cavalry who fled back. After all, it was fighting in the dark, and Zhang Fei could not ensure complete annihilation.

Six thousand cavalry killed more than a thousand, captured four or five thousand, leaving hundreds of orders of magnitude behind. It is normal.

At this moment, Yuan Xi completely realized why Zhang Fei looked so casual before, and stopped moving after he reached Zhuo County.

There is no intention of crossing Guangyang County where Ji County is located and first enclosing Yuyang County or even Youbeiping, which is to only surround half of the west side of Ji County, and there seems to be no interest in the land east of Ji County.

Zhang Fei deliberately seduces you to think that the three counties in the east are still rescued, and wants to give Yuan Xi a chance to withdraw more of the main force from Ji County to ensure the territory behind the eastern region. As long as Yuan Xi leaves the city, Zhang Fei will be sure to divide and annihilate, thereby reducing the difficulty of finally attacking Jicheng.

At this moment, Yuan Xi understood the predicament before Gongsun Zan's death: he defended Yijinglou himself, and the generals of the outside counties, who were besieged by Yuan Shao, were not allowed to divide their troops to rescue him, and they had to rely on their generals to fight to the death.

Gongsun Zan's decision led to his peripheral generals surrendering to Yuan Shao, and the Wang Sect also surrendered to Yuan Shao at that time.

But now it seems that Gongsun Zan has to choose? If he divides troops to rescue and leaves the troops in Yijinglou Fortress, he will be eaten as much as he goes out, and in the end, there will be no enough defenders in Yijinglou.

Today, if we compare the place name Yijinglou with Jixian, isn’t it a perfect replica of the situation back then?

Yuan Xi has no solution. In the face of an absolute gap in strength, no strategy is useful.

But during this decision, Yuan Xi could not blame anyone. It was made by himself, not by Liu Ye. Liu Ye also helped him check a few important doubts, and then let the insider come to see him.

Unfortunately, even after explaining the doubts that Liu Ye reminded, his decision was still wrong.

The last attempt to change destiny by relying on one's own strength was killed like this. In the end, only waiting for others, waiting for external forces, waiting for elder brother and Cao Cao.

Yuan Xi doesn't know yet, and the support from his elder brother and Cao Cao will never reach Yishui or Jixian. If he knew, he would probably be even more desperate.

After that day, Yuan Xi began to reduce inspections and defense, and gradually began to drink and sink. Two days later, as Zhang Fei's encirclement tightened again, there was no chance to break through, Yuan Xi was waiting for another bad news that was getting worse:

The senior official who had retreated to Ji County with Lu Xiang, his cousin secretly used his authority to transfer the hundreds of remaining cavalry horses that escaped from the night of the beheading of Zhang Fei and assigned them to the senior official's own soldiers.

Then, the senior officials took five hundred officers, personal guards and staff, and went out of the east gate to break through and fled Jixian. They turned to Xu Wu, and collected soldiers and horses along the way, leaving the Great Wall to seek refuge with the Xianbei Tuoba Liwei.

The senior officials knew very well that it would be dangerous to go back to Jizhou by land, and the situation in Jizhou was changing rapidly. I heard that in recent days, Yuan Shang's situation seemed to have a new collapse.

Therefore, the senior officials have a simple heart similar to Qiao Zhou: How can they be humiliated again?

Whether you join Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan, it is not a long-term solution. Yuan Tan seems to be a little more glorious than Yuan Shang, and probably will soon become a puppet of Cao Cao. I wonder how many family slaves you will be when you go there.

It’s better to get it in one step and just surrender to Xianbei.

At least the Xianbei will not intervene in the Central Plains' battle for hegemony and will not be repeatedly washed away.

It is estimated that Liu Bei would not be busy attacking the Xianbei before he unified the world. He would probably have a few more years of stable life.

...

It is not unreasonable for a high-ranking official to judge that Yuan Shang has not had much time.

Because just as Yuan Xi was gradually being squeezed by Zhang Fei's noose, Yuan Xi had sent envoys to risk his life to deliver a letter to Yuan Tan and express his surrender and seeking help, which did indeed play a role.

Yuan Xi sent Lu Xiang and Wang Menbai to send envoys to the south through Yijing and Quanzhou, and along Bohai County, and alternated with water and land.

When the envoy asked for help came to Yuan Tan and then moved to Cao Cao, Yuan Xi had not given it in vain.

This information really made Yuan Tan happy, and he immediately discussed with Cao Cao how to save his second brother and take over his territory.

After all, Yuan Xi's statement was to directly dedicate all the Youzhou territory to Yuan Tan. Since it was his own thing, there was no reason not to try hard to save it.

And those who have a little understanding of military geography know that Youzhou is a place of beauty compared to Jizhou. Even if Youzhou is very poor and has a small population, money and food, it is dangerous for Yanshan to make water.

Youzhou is in the hands of the enemy, and Jizhou is in a situation where there is no danger to defend. Similar to the Northern Song Dynasty, there were no sixteen states in Yanyun in Hebei, and it was like he could come and leave as soon as he wanted to come.

Even if the land in Youzhou has been destroyed this year, and there is no spare energy to start another war, nothing will happen. Isn’t it just like I want to come next year and the next year?

Moreover, Yuan Xi and Yuan Tan had no grudges that they could not let go. Yuan Xi was quite conscious of the current affairs among Yuan Shao’s three sons, and he had always hoped that his elder brother and his third brother would cease the battle.

He nominally admitted his third brother and his father's last order, but in fact, his third brother asked him to send troops to fight his eldest brother, and he did not send troops. This historical attitude made Yuan Tan accept him without any pressure.

So, in the end, whether Yuan Tan can save Yuan Xi is not in terms of political attitude, but in terms of strength.

After discussing with Cao Cao, Cao Cao also suggested that Yuan Tan: Youzhou can be saved, and it is very necessary to save it. However, there is a priority and Yuan has not yet settled yet, so he can only set up a side division to monitor Zhang Fei, but he cannot easily fight to avoid being defeated by Zhang Fei.

As long as Zhang Fei shows no sign of breaking Ji County in a short period of time, there is no need to hurry. I believe that Yuan Xi can survive for a while.

At the same time, the coalition forces of Yuan Tan and the Cao family must take advantage of this critical moment to resolve the decisive battle against Yuan Shang.

Yuan Tan was a little afraid to look forward to it. He believed that although the current situation was weakened many times, there were still 100,000 troops. Moreover, it was not time to siege Yecheng, and there were several enemy troops to support each other. How could the battle end so quickly?

Could it be that the situation between the third brother and the third brother cannot be distributed to save the second brother before it has changed decisively?

Cao Cao was confident about this and said that he had many counselors under his command, and there were so many senior officials from the Yecheng court and moral models who came to join us. He could use Yuan Xi's change of banners to make a fuss and further guide public opinion to build momentum.

All the enemy-siding tricks were used upwards to differentiate and disintegrate Yuan Shang's army.

Attacking the city is the best, attacking the heart is the best.

Yuan Tan thought it made sense, so the two agreed on a time:

First, a cavalry division was sent within a few days, and the kind that was very flexible in mobility was to take over the entire Bohai County by land, and then monitor Zhang Fei's troops on the other side along Yishui to ensure that Ji County, which Yuan Xi guarded, was not at risk of being destroyed by the city.

At the same time, we will accelerate the differentiation and disintegration of Yuan Shang's territory, and strive to achieve a decisive power tilt within half a month. In this way, even if there is still the last stronghold in the city and cannot be broken and Yuan Shang himself cannot be killed, at least most of the troops on the battlefield of Wei County can be liberated.

After the two sides agreed to share the spoils, they each implemented the plan according to this plan.

Five days later, Yuan Xi also sent Lu Xiang and Wang Menbai to give him two days later, a cavalry unit of Yuan Tan and Cao Cao went north to take over the entire Bohai County, and by the way, he ensured the Yishui defense line and monitored Zhang Fei.

Four days later, Cao Cao completed another round of attacks and oppression against Zhang He and Gao Lan in military terms, and then took advantage of the victory to send envoys Xu You, Wang Xiu and others to Liyang, and Zhang He, who was in Neihuang, persuaded surrender in Gao Lan's camp.

Wang Xiu was Yuan Tan's man, so he asked Wang Xiu to go with him to show his position, which shows that this time he persuaded surrender was not simply to let Zhang He Gao Lan surrender to Cao, but to surrender to the eldest son of the Yuan family. This could alleviate Zhang He Gao Lan's concerns about betraying the master.

...

On the second day of June, Zhang He's army had just retreated from Liyang to Neihuang.

Zhang He and Gao Lan and the other two were both covered in dust, with exhausted expressions, and had these irrelevant minor injuries on their bodies.

A few days ago, the 30,000 Bingzhou soldiers under the command of the senior officials who were sent to support them were gradually lost after fighting for nearly twenty days of flanking blocking.

Yuan Shang realized that the situation was hopeless, so he allowed Zhang He and his troops to retreat one after another during this period, from Liyang to Neihuang, and then retreated to Anyang and finally retreated into Yecheng.

However, if the 70,000 to 80,000 troops are transferred, it will definitely not be achieved overnight. The scoring part will retreat in a rhythm, otherwise it will be a defeat.

As Yuan Shang's direct troops, Zhang He and Gao Lan should not have interrupted and blocked them, but their troops were the farthest station and in fact became the most difficult rear team in the fight.

Even if you retreat to Yecheng, what? Bear Yecheng to the death? What is the value of defending without foreign aid?

I heard that Bohai County, the largest county in Jizhou, has been gradually subdued by Yuan Tan recently, and Hejian County has changed its banner earlier.

Yuan Shang could not have any foreign aid anymore, and he could not expect Liu Bei to break through Huguan and then support his old enemy Yuan Shang?

Zhang He Gao Lan's confusion in his heart indeed reached its peak.

It was in this case that they waited for a group of messengers, who came from the enemy camp that stuck to them.

Xu You made great contributions to suppressing Cao Cao for Yuan Shao, so he also had the title of Three Duke in Liu He's court. He went straight into the tent without anyone stopping him. He didn't have to perform any etiquette when he saw Zhang He and Gao Lan. He started to shout with a few polite words:

"Zhang, the second general of Gao, you are also famous generals from Hebei and a noble man. Yuan Shang tampers with his father's orders and forges the will of the saints. Why should you be in harmony with Yuan Shang? If the foreign aggression is not peaceful, but the brothers are fighting against each other, can you deserve the spirit of the general in heaven?"
Chapter completed!