Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 919 Xinye Siege
The news that Wancheng in Jingzhou surrendered and that Xinye was besieged soon spread throughout Nanyang County. When they heard that Cao's army was making a comeback, the people and scholars in Nanyang County and even the surrounding areas were so frightened that they left one after another and fled south to Nanjun and Wuling Changsha.

Xinye is now on the front line, and Zhang Fei is leading his troops to defend it. Liu Bei of Fancheng sends Guan Yu north to assist Zhang Fei, and he is stationed in Fancheng as a backup. The situation is extremely critical now, because if Xinye is lost, Fancheng will bear the brunt, and Jingzhou is across the river from Fancheng. Xiangyang, the administrative center, is also in danger!

Liu Biao refused to listen to the dissuasion of a group of counselors, and insisted on taking charge of Xiangyang himself to support Liu Bei in Fancheng, because he knew that if he left, some capitulationists in Jingzhou might sell Liu Bei. If Xiangyang was lost, Jingzhou would still be in danger. Can it be defended?
However, Liu Biao's advisers were not optimistic about the prospects of Xiangyang. They said that Xiangyang, as the seat of Jingzhou, was too close to the front line. They all suggested that the state be moved to Yiyang in Changsha County or the Public Security Bureau of Nanjun.

When Liu Biao heard this, he couldn't help but sneer in his heart. He knew what these Jingzhou scholars were planning. These two places represented the direction of the base camp of the two factions that supported his two sons.

Now, bad signs have appeared for Liu Biao. Jingzhou scholars are divided into two factions, openly supporting Liu Biao's eldest son Liu Qi and second son Liu Cong. The struggle between the two factions has begun to be put on the surface, and Liu Cong's power is obviously greater than Liu Qi's. Much more.

As the titular supreme ruler of Jingzhou, Liu Biao was naturally very troubled by this. Yuan Shao had learned from his past mistakes. These local powerful families would not consider the issue of unity at all in the face of their own interests!
At the moment, Liu Biao can only place his hopes on Liu Bei. Xinye Fancheng is already the last gateway to Nanyang. If it is really broken, it will be a matter of time before he is completely cannibalized by Cao Cao.

At the foot of Xinye City, Zhang Fei, covered in blood, stood in front of the city gate with his spear raised, shouting: "Who else is there!"

In front of another city gate in Xinye, Guan Yu stood on horseback with a horizontal sword, and in front of his crotch was the head of a general Cao, who was confronting Zhang Xiu who was attacking the city.

Xia Houyuan, the leader of the army, looked at Guan Yu and Zhang Fei in the formation, and secretly sighed that these two brothers Liu Bei were really difficult to deal with.

Cao Jun has been besieging Xinye for more than ten days. Although Zhang Fei repelled Cao Jun several times at first, under Cao Jun's desperate saturation attack, Xinye was in danger and was almost about to be breached.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Guan Yu interrupted Zhang Xiu and shouted: "There is no need to talk about deceiving yourself and others, I will see the truth behind you!"

As soon as he said these words, a hint of red appeared on Guan Yu's face. He said angrily: "Okay, let me see what you are capable of!"

Especially in the past few years, Cao's army has been fighting, and the generals have been depleted very quickly. Now the generals supporting the overall situation are mainly the generals directly from the Xiahou family of the Cao family. However, Xiahou Dun and others are good at internal affairs, and only a few of them, such as Cao Ren and Cao Hong, go into battle to kill the enemy. Others are generals with foreign surnames, such as Le Jin Yu Jin, Xu Chu, Li Dian and others.

Zhang Xiu's face turned red, he raised his gun and said: "Everyone is his own master. Today, Xiu is following the orders of Duke Cao to punish the people and pacify all parties and separatist regimes for the Han Dynasty."

After saying that, he dismounted his horse and charged towards Zhang Xiu. Zhang Xiu did not dare to neglect and immediately blocked him with his spear.

However, Cao Jun was sure to win the new field, so how could he be willing to do so? Xiahou Yuan ordered Zhang Xiu, who had just surrendered, to fight. Although Zhang Xiu had no choice but to fight against Guan Yu, the two fought for several days. Although there was no winner, Zhang Xiu was obviously better than Guan Yu. Not as good as Guan Yu, after several fights, Zhang Xiu became more and more at a disadvantage.

The reason why his fate is different from that of Shenpei is that Cao Cao has no shortage of counselors now. Diehards like Shenpei are naturally used to scare chickens and monkeys, but the more generals, the better.

But in fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that it is difficult for generals with foreign surnames to enter the inner circle in Cao Ying. Especially Wen Chou knew better that people like Cao Cao would only believe in his direct descendants. This can be seen when he broke his promise and attacked Yuan Tan. A spot.

Guan Yu looked coldly and said to Zhang Xiu: "I didn't expect that the Zhang family has been a general for generations, but today, there are always treacherous people."

At this time, Guan Yu led troops to help, catching Cao's army off guard as they were attacking the city. After both sides suffered considerable losses, Xinye was still defended by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

After the two generals rushed forward, Xia Houyuan turned to the general next to him and said: "General, please help Zhang Xiu."

The general raised his head, and his face was clearly that of Wen Chou who had been captured in the Battle of Jizhou.

Zhang Xiu also became angry after hearing this, and sneered: "Stop pretending to be a hypocrite. Do you think I don't know the whereabouts of my aunt?"

He led troops to resist the coalition forces of Cao Cao and Yuan Tan, but was defeated by several times the force. The Jizhou army he led was almost wiped out, and he himself was captured by Cao's army.

Wen Chou did not surrender at first, and was imprisoned until Cao Cao captured Yecheng. Later, Shen Pei refused to surrender and was killed. Wen Chou still wanted to persist, but he learned that all his family members had been captured by Cao Cao's army, so he had no choice but to surrender to Cao Cao.

"Let me see what face the traitorous rat has before me!"

Seeing this, Xia Houyuan said to Cao Hong and Le Jin: "You two go fight Zhang Fei."

But these generals, compared to Yuan Xi and even Jiangdong, still had less to offer, so Cao Cao treated the generals who surrendered very leniently, and this was how he lured Zhang Xiu with huge profits and used his family to blackmail Wen Chou.

However, Wen Chou had no other choice. It was better to die than to live. What's more, he couldn't bear to watch his family die. Anyway, all his old masters were dead. He couldn't survive alone, so he had to make do with it.

He immediately received Xia Houyuan's order and led his men on horseback towards Guan Yu. Guan Yu was fighting with Zhang Xiu. When he saw Wen Chou coming, he immediately sneered and said, "Well done!"

"Let Yu kill you two treacherous people today!" Zhang Xiuwen Chou was furious and immediately surrounded Guan Yu in the middle and attacked from both sides.

Guan Yu was surrounded here, and Zhang Fei also fought with Cao Honglejin. Xia Houyuan also had some ideas in making this arrangement. Compared to Guan Yu, Zhang Fei's kills were slightly lower, so it was Cao Ying who was sent to contain Zhang Fei. A trusted veteran.

Cao Hong had a violent temper and used a big sword to fight Zhang Fei head-on, while Le Jin was harassing Zhang Fei from the side.

Le Jin is short in stature and may be the shortest in Cao's camp, but his status is still above the ban. Apart from certain reasons, his brave character is the decisive factor for him to become the number one general in appearance.

He was the first general with a foreign surname to defect to Cao Cao, and he simply admired Cao Cao's reputation, and perhaps because of his figure, Cao Cao admired Le Jin quite a lot, and asked Le Jin to return to his hometown of Yangping to defend the country to recruit troops.

After Le Jin successfully recruited thousands of people, Cao Cao turned these people into Le Jin's private army. Le Jin burst into tears with gratitude. From then on, Cao Cao's army charged forward in every battle and climbed first every time. This laid the foundation for Cao Cao's camp. status.

Le Jin's luck was better than others. He won almost all the battles he participated in, so letting him fight in the new field this time also showed Cao Cao's ambition to win Jingzhou.

At this time, he cooperated with Cao Hong to attack Zhang Fei from both sides, and kept his spear close to Zhang Fei's throat and face. Zhang Fei became more and more anxious and shouted: "The rats are so cowardly that they don't dare to fight alone!"

He shouted loudly, and a snake spear that was eight feet long was like a splash of wind. He used a method of exchanging injuries for injuries. Cao Honglejin had the advantage and was naturally unwilling to fight with him. He just clung to Zhang Fei. Trying to drain his energy.

Guan Yu looked at Zhang Fei from a distance, fearing that Zhang Fei might make a mistake. He immediately cut Zhang Xiuwen Chou away from Zhang Xiu Wen Chou with a few blows of his Green Dragon Sword. After consciously fighting his horse and retreating, Zhang Fei took the opportunity to jump out of the circle and join Guan Yu in retreating. Four Cao generals chased him for dozens of steps. Arrows rained down from the top of the city, so he was forced to retreat back to the formation.

Seeing Guan Yu and Zhang Fei retreating to the city, Cao Jun took the opportunity to attack the city. Both sides fought until nightfall. After leaving corpses on the ground at the top of the city and below, they each paid gold and retreated.

Xia Houyuan led the generals back to the camp, where Xun You had already been waiting. The general told the audience about today's situation. Xun You sighed: "It's not an option to delay it like this."

Le Jin said solemnly: "But the winter has not passed yet, the city walls are slippery, it is difficult to attack the city, and the soldiers are not strong enough."

Everyone looked at each other. The reason why they were so anxious was because they were forced by the fierce tiger. Who asked him to send troops so early!

They all murmured in their hearts that if Fierce Tiger goes to attack Bingzhou, let him do it. It's freezing and snowy, so I'm afraid he won't freeze to death. Spring is about to start here in Jingzhou, and it will be easy to march or transport food by then. Why can't we wait?

Xun You understood everyone's thoughts and said aloud: "Don't underestimate Fierce Tiger, that man is good at seizing opportunities."

"If we don't take advantage of him now, it may not be easy for us to attack Jingzhou. What's more, if we encounter the rainy season after spring and the roads are muddy, it may not be easy to fight."

Xia Houyuan said worriedly: "There has been no movement over Shouchun. Could it be that they sent troops here to ambush us and wait for us to reveal our flaws?"

After hearing this, everyone felt guilty. Every time the fierce tiger sent troops, he was always surprised. Even Cao Cao suffered heavy losses. Nanyang had learned from the past. Even Cao Cao did not personally supervise the battle this time. Could it be that he was also afraid of the fierce tiger's aftermath? Are you ready?
Xun You heard this and said, "Don't worry, our spies have been monitoring Shouchun. If there is any change in Shouchun, they will definitely know it in advance."

"Right now, we just need to surround Xinye and prevent food from being transported in. Within half a month, the city will inevitably collapse."

"And if he can kill or capture Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, Liu Bei will have nothing to fear. I also ask you to use your lives. Success or failure depends on this one move!"

After hearing this, everyone in Cao camp took the order and spoke out, "Swear to the death to serve Duke Ming!"

In Xinye City, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei summoned the city administrators to discuss matters. After hearing that there were only ten days of food left, Guan Yu said: "If the food doesn't come in, it's a big deal."

"Besides, the food stocked in Xinye is too little!"

He looked at the account books and frowned: "Who did the previous food and grass accounts in the city?"

Someone whispered: "It was Master Mi (Mi Fang) who did it."

Guan Yu looked unhappy, "The food is nearly half less than I expected, so I'm bullying my third brother for not being able to read the account books, right?"

Zhang Fei:.
Guan Yu spoke up: "Send someone to ask your elder brother for help and explain the accounts. This matter can never be solved!"

(End of this chapter)