Guan Yu took Yanjin and Li Yang, turned to Junyi, and Chen Liu besieged Liu Yan, while many former Yuan family officials in the Wei County area of ​​Hebei were already ready to move.

After all, Liyang belongs to Wei County, and an important Yellow River port city in Wei County has changed ownership, which is too obvious to Wei County.

The coach Xiahou Yuan, who stayed in the Hebei Defense Zone, had to stop during this period.

During the slack season in the first two months, Liu Bei's camp was very calm on the side of Wei County. The main harassment of Jizhou was from Bohai County further east, and from Youzhou to cross the Yishui coast south of Youzhou.

At first, Xiahou Yuan was a little puzzled by the enemy's deployment. Later, he gradually understood the situation and realized that this was because the main food and grass of Liu Bei and the Youzhou army had to be supplied by Liaodong Mizhu.

The most convenient way for Mi Zhu to rescue Youzhou in the battlefield is of course to transport grain along the coast of Bohai Bay. Who made Mi Zhu have a sea flotilla that has been operating for more than ten years? It can be said to be traversing the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea.

Therefore, in the past summer slack season, the place where Jizhou has the greatest defense pressure is not Yecheng near Taihang to the west, but Nanpi in Bohai County to the east.

Xiahou Yuan himself had to lead the team to rescue Nanpi several times to resist Zhao Yun's invasion. Fortunately, there were 80,000 regular Cao army troops in the Jizhou War Zone in Xiahou Yuan, and there were many temporary men who were forced to pull him. The total size of the total force was barely enough to divide the troops.

However, Xiahou Yuan, who had to put out fires everywhere, was unable to do anything after all.

In addition, Liu Bei's camp on the opposite side also had time difference calculated between the various groups, so before Guan Yu officially launched a full-scale attack, Zhao Yun had just harassed 10,000 or 20,000 cavalry in Bohai County, and seduced Xiahou Yuan, Zhao Yun retreated again, leaving Xiahou Yuan exhausted.

Therefore, when Li Yang fell, Xiahou Yuan himself was not in Yecheng. Yecheng's defense was entrusted to the chief adviser Cheng Yu, the military generals were Zhang He, and Yin Kai and other officials who joined Yang Xiu to join Cao to help.

When Xiahou Yuan learned that Guan Yu was advancing along Henan, his ambition was not only in Henan, but also dared to cross the Yellow River north to attack Li Yang, of course, Xiahou Yuan was immediately alert and took him to help Nanpi's direct confidant troops and immediately returned to defend Yecheng without stopping.

It only takes time for the army to transfer, and Xiahou Yuan's troops are not all cavalry. Even if they are forced to march in the inside line without food, they will take seven or eight days to complete the return defense from Nanpi to Yecheng.

Both sides actually knew about this news, so before Xiahou Yuan came back, Cheng Yu and Zhang He were very alert. The forces who were dissatisfied with Cao Cao also knew that they should seize this opportunity, and there would be no such store after passing through this village.

...

June 19th, Yecheng, Yang Mansion.

This was once the Great Honglu Mansion of the Puppet Dynasty of Kanto. He lived in Yang Xiu, who was ranked as the Ninth Minister at the age of 24 (now 28).

When Yuan Shao was there, this mansion was nothing to the Yang family. After all, Yang Biao, the previous generation of the Yang family, was still the Grand Marshal at that time. The father and son of the Yang family had two generations, one was three dukes and one was nine ministers. When Yuan Shao was in power, he was extremely proud, and the people and the mansions were all very grand.

However, with the fall of the Yuan family, Yang Biao, the Grand Marshal, was forced to retire by Cao **. Yang Xiu had the merit of offering Yecheng. He relied on the final match with Shen Pei and took Shen Pei's head, which made Cao Cao not dare to touch him for the time being and was dragged by him.

However, Cao Cao was still not very relieved about Yang Xiu. When he moved the court to a temporary trip to Juancheng, he asked Yang Xiu, who was the Nine Ministers, to accompany him so that it would be easy to control.

However, Yang Xiu had good acting skills and was also clever. On the one hand, the design made Cao Cao feel a little relaxed. On the other hand, the retired old father pretended to be depressed and became sick. Yang Xiu prayed to step down for a while and take care of his father's illness at home.

Cao Cao was also happy to see the Yang family voluntarily remove the authority of the official position. Both sides had their own plans, so he formed a tacit understanding. So Cao Cao appointed another Da Honglu, intending to wait for Yang Xiu to leave another year after he left his post. No one noticed Yang Xiu and found another excuse to kill him.

With all these operations, Yang Xiu was able to stay in Yecheng for the time being.

Unfortunately, Cao Cao also miscalculated. He calculated everything because he used his own scrutiny. So he could not have imagined that there would be such a person in the world who could protect his teammates by dying.

Cao Cao could not have thought that even if Yang Xiu no longer held any official position, Yang Xiu still had great influence and control over the officials who followed him to play the game and offered the head-to-head to Yecheng for life.

At this moment, Yin Kai, the former prefect of Zhongshan who was loyal to the Yuan family, Gao Fan, the former prefect of Wei County, and two other local civil and military families, all secretly sent people to Yang Xiu's mansion to secretly discuss and act according to the opportunity.

What they discussed was actually easy to guess, that is, since they could offer Yecheng for the first time, they could offer Yecheng for the second time now.

However, this time it is much more difficult. Even if Xiahou Yuan himself is not here, Cheng Yu is very cautious and will not give those old ministers of the Yuan family the power of military power.

The only old general of the Yuan family who stayed in Yecheng, Zhang He, was definitely unable to lower his face and bow his head to surrender to Liu because he had an old marriage with Liu, Guan and Zhang opposite him, so Yang Xiu could not count on him.

This time, they were not able to surrender just by wanting to surrender. It was difficult to even offer a city gate.

After all, even if you get the opportunity to change your defense, it is impossible for you to offer even the urns inside the outer city gate?

The only thing that is to rely on is that once the war is in a stalemate, take advantage of the opportunity to control certain sections of the city walls, and then when the enemy ants reach the city, they will offer a section of the city wall and directly crawl into the city streets when they meet.

Whether this can be achieved depends on whether Guan Yu is advancing, whether he is rushing to attack Yecheng, and how fast the enemy's reaction is.

As long as the Han army can arrive, the city defense in Yecheng is not a big problem. Last year, Yecheng was not caught until winter. The city defense was very ruined when Cao's army attacked the city.

Later, Cao Cao was also eager to plunder and expand his army to consolidate his direct territory, but he really didn't have enough money to repair the city defense of Yecheng. Therefore, the gap between the facilities in Yecheng now and when Yuan Shang just defended the city last year was still very big.

The smashed location is simply filled with rammed earth, and it may not be rammed very well, nor is it used for three-dimensional soil. Where the city tower collapses, there is no money or manual use of thick and good wood to rebuild the building again.

It can only be to directly pile up a towering earth platform instead of the city tower, with no cover covering on it, and the defense of crossbows is OK, but when encountering the high-spreading trajectory gravel rain from a long-range trencher, it will definitely make the defenders on the earth platform miserable and difficult to avoid.

...

"Mr. Yang, this time, can you dare to give out Yecheng before Xiahou Yuan returns to the defense and sit in person, but it depends on whether you can lead everyone to think of a proper way."

"The Cao thief is really cruel to our Jizhou family. Although we temporarily saved our lives by pretending to betray the Guan Gong, we can see clearly that if Cao Cao continues to take power, we will be liquidated sooner or later by the loyal Yuan officials in Jizhou in less than two or three years."

"So Sikong Cui Yan, although it was Hua Xin, Kong Rong joined Cao and was forcibly promoted and appointed as the third duke by Yuan Shang, he was quite famous, and it was not his fault to be Sikong! Cao Cao was in power for only a few months and killed Cui Duke.

Even Mr. Cui was able to attack him so without blinking. How could he have pity for us? Other famous scholars such as Ying Shao and Li Fu have killed so many! How could we forget that face when we were tortured in Yecheng!"

In front of Yang Xiu, among the other four accomplices who had conspired with each other, Yin Kai, Chen Lin and Gao Fan, all expressed their opinions, asking Yang Xiu not to be suspicious and to lead them to work together.

Yang Xiu's face was as deep as water. Tonight he was just drinking to see everyone's reaction. Seeing the crowd excited, he first comforted him:

"Our few of us, except for the Yin Fujun, have a little military power, some of us who were defeated from Zhongshan and Changshan last year, had no military power, and we could only gather some servants.

Our Yang family has calculated better. After all, my father served as the Grand Marshal for many years, and according to the court's etiquette, there are 300 Hu Ben as the guards. All of these people are added together. If there is no Han army besieging the city, it is to hit the stone with eggs, so you should be careful.

Mr. Xun, what do you say? You were the scheming master of Mr. Yuan, and you also have relatives in Cao Cao. Our four families are afraid of the Cao thieves' settlement. You don't have to be afraid. With Xun Lingjun protecting you, it seems that you don't have to take risks with us."

In the second half of Yang Xiu's words, he asked about the last of the other four loyal Yuan officials who he had saved, Yingchuan Xun Chen.

Historically, Xun Chen served as Yuan Shao's planner on the eve of the Battle of Guandu, especially after Tian Feng and Ju Su lost his trust.

In this life, Xun Chen's status was even lower, mainly because Xun Chen had misjudgment experiences before the Battle of Hanoi in Yuan Shao and Liu Bei's camp, which led to Yuan Shao's losses. So later, his status was lower than that of Ju Su, Xu You, Shen Pei and Guo Tu early on.

Before Yuan Shao's death, Xun Chen's position among Yuanying's counselors ranked fifth at most. After Yuan Shao's death, he was gradually on the edge.

But Yang Xiu did not dare to trust Xun Chen completely. One important reason was that the Xun family bets on both sides of Cao Yuan. His cousin Xun Yu served as the Minister of the Shangshu after Cao Cao took control of the court.

Therefore, even if Cao Cao wanted to liquidate other civil officials who were loyal to Yuan Shao, he would definitely not be able to liquidate Xun Chen. Xun Chen would not have to worry about his personal safety issues. He could be a rich man if he was out of trouble.

As soon as Yang Xiu said this, the other Yin Kai, Gao Fan and Chen Lin naturally changed color.

Among them, Yin Kai, who had been the prefect and had mastered the army, and Gao Fan and the other two subconsciously pressed the hilt of the sword. It seemed that Xun Chen dared to betray his accomplice, so they were about to clean up the traitor.

The pure literati Chen Lin didn't think much, nor did she have the ability to think much.

Xun Chen is also a vigilant and wise man. Of course he knows the current situation, so when Yang Xiu asked him, he immediately responded to the statement:

"Why did you say this? I and Benchu ​​should have been a friend of life and death. He failed to achieve great things. The middle way has passed away and the foundation has collapsed. I feel deeply regretful! Now I should join you in the grand event!
Chapter completed!