Lu Bu, who was rashly advancing, was defeated repeatedly under Cao Zhen's series of multiple blows, and basically completely lost the opportunity to counterattack. Fortunately, Chen Gong's support was able to retreat safely to Xia Pi City, thus temporarily avoiding the danger of being captured alive by Cao Cao.

However, the battle situation in the south of Xia Pi City seemed less optimistic. Gao Shun seemed unable to defend under the joint strangulation of Xiahou Dun and Chen Deng. Under tremendous pressure, in order to avoid the complete annihilation of his own troops, Gao Shun ordered the defenders to retreat and handed over all the positions on the south bank of the Si River to Xiahou Dun and Chen Deng.

What's worse is that Cao Cao moved the base camp to Lu County. Cao Zhen's troops on the western front had approached the banks of the Yishui River. Liangcheng and the officials in the north of Xia Pi were also firmly guarded by Xiahou Yuan. As for Quyang in the east, they had already blocked Chen Deng's rebellion after he sent troops to rebel. Xia Pi City was still an isolated space, and for a moment it was called Tiantian and the earth was not effective.

Just when Lu Bu was worried about this, Chen Gong brought him good news:

That is, Chen Deng's three younger brothers were captured by Lu Bu's soldiers while escaping, and proposed to use this as a negotiation condition to make Chen Deng turn against Xiahou Dun, so that the siege in the south of Xuzhou would be destroyed without attacking. Lu Bu felt it very reasonable. On the one hand, he ordered his general Zhang Hongyan to closely guard Chen Deng's three younger brothers, and on the other hand, he wrote a letter to Chen Deng, who was planning to cross the river and attack Xia Pi.

Chen Deng was naturally very indignant when he received the letter, but he did not turn against Lu Bu at the last minute as Lu Bu's request. Instead, he handed Lu Bu's letter to Xiahou Dun, and replied to him firmly rejected Lu Bu's request, but instead accelerated the progress of attacking the main city of Xia Pi.

When the news came to Xia Pi, Lu Bu was furious and immediately wanted to kill the three Chen brothers. Chen Gong advised him not to be impulsive at this time, and he thought of tied the three Chen brothers to the north bank of the Si River. He asked the soldiers to beat them day and night, and the wailing sounds reached the other side.

Chen Deng did not respond on the surface, but his heart was already in chaos. Although he did not want to surrender, he no longer had a calm mind to think about how to attack Xia Pi. He had no progress for several days except for firmly surrounding Xia Pi.

Seeing this, Xiahou Dun did not dare to attack rashly, and quickly reported the situation to Cao Cao.

After hearing the news, Cao Cao thought about it and decided to rescue the Chen brothers and then attack, so he ordered Xiahou Dun to secretly organize the rescue. However, several times of crossing the river to rescue were discovered and stopped by Lu Bu's army, and the war was in a deadlock for a while.

In this way, the three Chen brothers suffered a lot on the banks of the Si River. Chen Gong's move was just to disrupt Chen Deng's mind. Although the methods were a little more vicious, they did have the effect he wanted to achieve.

At this time, Cao Cao thought of defeating others without fighting. After calming down, he found that it seemed that it was a good choice to bring a powerful general like Lu Bu to his command. After all, talent was rare.

He revealed his thoughts to Guo Jia and Xun You, and Guo Jia nodded after hearing this:

"No matter what, the war in Xuzhou should not be delayed too long. If Lu Bu is willing to lead all the defenders of Xia Pi to surrender, he can pacify Xuzhou as soon as possible. Without the stumbling block of Lu Bu, he can use him to go south to eliminate Yuan Shu, so that we will increase the favorable capital to fight with Yuan Shao in the future."

Xun You agreed with Guo Jia's concept: "Injuring the enemy for 10,000 and hurting himself by 8,000. This is a way to end the war in Xuzhou as soon as possible. Considering that Lu Bu's repeated actions in the past, he can be a general, but not a general."

However, Guo Jia still expressed his concerns: "But even if Lu Bu wants to surrender, I'm afraid Cao Gong's old friend will not let him submit. On the contrary, it is very likely that Lu Bu will hold on to the end."

Speaking of this old friend, Cao Cao knew in his heart that what Guo Jia was referring to was Chen Gong.

"No matter what, it is necessary to be polite and then soldiers. Mr. Cao might as well write a letter of sincere and willingness to persuade Lu Bu to express his strength. Then, let's decide whether Lu Bu surrenders or not."

Cao Cao adopted the method of two strategists and wrote a letter in person to send someone to Xiapi City.

After reading Cao Cao's letter, Lu Bu thought of his own situation and had a little intention of stopping the army and saying goodbye. However, the news of Cao Cao's sending envoys to deliver the letter reached Chen Gong's ears, and he immediately stopped Lu Bu's idea of ​​surrendering:

"The general holds the six counties of Xuzhou, and is a prince in Jianghuai. If he surrenders to Cao Cao, he will be a general under his tent at most. Besides, I am an old acquaintance with Cao Cao, and he is a treacherous and suspicious person. He will be a hero like him for his future and be prepared for him sooner or later."

Seeing that Lu Bu had been shaken, Chen Gong continued:

"Cao Cao came from afar. Although his attack was fierce and he won consecutive battles, he was just like the saying that one can do his best, and then he will lose three times. His strong momentum will definitely not last long. I have a way to turn defeat into victory and solve the danger of Xia Pi City in one fell swoop."

Chen Gong's persuasion gradually brought Lu Bu's thoughts back to his side. Lu Bu asked skeptically:

"What kind of methods can Mr. Gongtai help me defeat the enemy?"

"The general can send a group of troops to guard the Tushan Mountain ten miles northeast of Xia Pi City. The terrain is high and easy to defend and difficult to attack. Xia Pi is surrounded by water on three sides, and there is no way to support a large number of troops to attack from areas outside the north. If Cao Cao attacks the general Xia Pi, he will lead a group of troops to attack behind him. Their battles on both sides will inevitably not last long; if they send troops to attack the general, I will send General Gao Shu out of the city to attack behind him, and I will also be able to escape the siege of the general. If Cao Cao's food supply is insufficient, his intention to fight will naturally fade away. At that time, we will rush out of the city and launch an assault on them, and then ask Yuan Shu to send troops to help, and we will definitely win a great victory."

After hearing Chen Gong's words, Lu Bu realized that he had not yet reached the point of surrender, so he tore Cao Cao's letters apart, completely disregarding Cao Cao's kind words and planned to make arrangements according to Chen Gong's suggestions.

However, when Lu Bu said goodbye to his wife Yan and his daughter, he was kept by Yan's crying cry.

Finally, he gave up the idea of ​​leaving the city alone and asked Yuan Shu for reinforcements to fight back Cao Cao.

Yuan Shu, who had no intention of fighting with Cao Cao, finally pretended to agree to Lu Bu's request for help under the persuasion of Xu Si and Wang Kai, but proposed the conditions to send Lu Bu's daughter to Shouchun, and Lu Bu had to agree due to the situation.

In fact, Yuan Shu had already decided with Sun Ce, so he could not risk the empty rear to do this loss-making business.

In order to avoid being discovered by Cao's army and avoid being injured or captured by Cao's army, Lu Bu personally wrapped his daughter in silk and tied it to the horse's back despite Yan's opposition, and rode alone on a Red Rabbit horse to rush out of the siege of Xia Pi.

However, on the way, Xiahou Dun's troops discovered that Cao's army was firing thousands of arrows at once, and Lu Bu could not move forward and had to retreat into the city.

At this time, Guo Jia found that the Tushan in the northeast of Xia Pi City on the map was a threat, so he decisively ordered Chen Deng to draw some troops stationed in Quyang to occupy Tushan. It was too late when Lu Bu wanted to adopt Chen Gong's suggestion.
Chapter completed!