Cao Pi returned to the Cao army camp and was praised by Cao Cao. Cao Pi was happy and suggested to Cao Cao:

"Although the Shenpai army in the city was defeated by us and hid in the city again, the fighting spirit was still not diminished. Now we have seized Yuan Shang's seal, scepter and other personal belongings, which can just show these things to the guards in the city, which can destroy their will."

Cao Cao felt that Cao Pi's advice was very good, and ordered the soldiers to raise Yuan Shang's seal and scepter high for the guards in the city to see.

Not only that, Xinpi also suggested that Cao Cao splashed the captured Yuan Shang's clothes with blood, and declared to the city's garrison that Yuan Shang had died in Qishan, causing the city's garrison to lose his backbone, and urged Shen Pei to surrender as soon as possible.

Cao Cao promised and asked Xinpi to complete this matter. In his opinion, Xinpi was an old minister of the Yuan family, so it was perfect for him to go.

Xinpi raised Yuan Shang's clothes covered in blood with his right hand and shouted to the city guard:

"The soldiers in the city! Your lord Yuan Shang has been killed in battle. It is meaningless to resist now. I think you must be hungry and unable to eat. You should surrender early! Lord Sikong is generous and will definitely treat you well!"

When Shen Pei stood on the roof of the city tower, he saw Xin Pi, and thought of the official Xin Pi leading his army to stop him from breaking through yesterday, he suddenly felt angry and scolded Xin Pi as a person who was betrayed the Lord and asked for honor. He also beheaded all the Xin Ping family who stayed in Yecheng to vent his anger.

After being poor, Shen Pei thought of Yuan Xi, who was stationed in Youzhou. He personally wrote a letter to the dead soldiers who were quietly swimming through the grooves in the night and rushed to Jicheng to ask Yuan Xi for help. On the other hand, he also wrote letters to Yuan Tan on the plain and the senior officials of Shangdang, respectively. In the letter, he accused Yuan Tan of recognizing the thief as his father and hurting his brothers and sisters regardless of his family affection. If Cao Cao occupied Jizhou, Yuan Tan would not survive for a long time. If Yuan Xi and the senior officials attacked Cao Cao who surrounded Yecheng from the east, north and west directions, he would definitely win a great victory, and the prosperity of Yuan Shao's life was just around the corner.

After receiving the letter, the senior official beheaded the envoy who risked his life to deliver the letter without saying a word, and presented his head to Cao Cao to show his goodwill.

Yuan Tan was worried at this time because he was under Cao Cao's lingering breath. Shen Pei's letter made him feel ashamed and could not help but cover his face in front of Guo Tu and others and cry.

At this time, what Guo Tu thought was completely different from Shen Pei. He not only advised Yuan Tan not to send troops to attack Cao Cao, but instead suggested that Yuan Tan take advantage of the gap where Cao Cao placed all his main forces in Yecheng. Yuan Shang was defeated by Cao Cao in panic, and gathered troops to seize the eastern part of Jizhou and cultivated his own power to avenge Cao Cao and Yuan Shang.

Yuan Tan, who did not want to be dependent on others, was moved by Guo Tu's words, threw Shen Pei's letter aside, held high the banner that helped Cao Cao eliminate Yuan Tan's tangled forces in the plains, and seized Bohai County at a very fast speed, then swallowed Hejian and Anping, attracting people's hearts, and for a while, the strength map expanded rapidly.

In order to confuse Cao Cao for a chance to breathe, Yuan Tan personally led a large army to attack Yuan Shang of Zhongshan after occupying Anping.

When Yuan Tan's troops entered Anguo, Sima Yi had just stepped into Zhongshan.

After arriving at Lunu, Sima Yi was in panic in the entire Changshan Kingdom. Yuan Shang killed the former Changshan Kingdom county magistrate and seized military power. He forcibly issued a conscription order to rectify the military's situation and intended to repel Yuan Tan who was invading a large-scale invasion.

Most people were unwilling to follow Yuan Shang to engage in unnecessary wars, but they were unable to resist Yuan Shang's tough policies. For a while, the people suffered a lot and complained a lot.

Looking at these innocent people affected by the war, Sima Yi deeply understood the truth that the world is in a bad state and the lives of people in troubled times are all over the country.

In order to escape Yuan Shang's conscription order, Sima Yi carefully avoided Yuan Shang's recruitment soldiers and quietly came to Puyin. When he stepped into Puyin City, he realized that the atmosphere in the city seemed unusual:

White banners were hung at the door of every household, and there were old, weak, women and children wearing mourning clothes at the door. When they saw Sima Yi, the strange face, everyone went into the house to close the doors and windows, making the whole street look even colder.

At this time, Sima Yi had no dry food to fill his stomach. He led the horse to the street and looked around to find the shop that had not yet closed. However, he still found nothing after walking down the whole street.

Suddenly, Sima Yi felt a sharp pain behind his head, his vision began to blur, and his head was dizzy, and then he fell downwards forward.

Climbing beside the steps, he vaguely saw many feet approaching in front of him, looking up along these feet, the men and women who suddenly came into his eyes were looking at him with extremely hostile eyes...

The dry firewood branches were burned by flames in the bonfire, making a cracking sound.

Sima Yi slowly opened his eyes and found that the perspective in front of him was so unnatural:

Everyone seemed to be standing on the wall, several people squatting by the bonfire and flipping around a package, while others surrounded them with their terrified eyes staring at the messy package.

Gradually, a cold touch came from Sima Yi's side face. His hands behind him were also tied tightly by a rope. When he looked at his feet, he realized:

It was not these people standing on the wall, but lying on the ground with their bound self on their side.

An old man with a cane asked the strong men squatting on the ground in an extremely faint voice:

"How is it? Have you found the government's recruitment documents?"

The men shook their heads one after another. One of them threw Sima Yi's clothes on the ground, pulled out the short knife inserted in the gap in the wooden floor and walked to Sima Yi, grabbed his clothes and picked him up:

"Tell me! Are you a spy sent by Yuan Shang, who wants to capture all the strong men in our city and serve as soldiers?"

Now Sima Yi thought of his own situation and finally sorted out the causes and consequences. He looked at the ferocious expression in front of him calmly and replied calmly: "I am not a spy from Yuan Shang, but you, like you, who died of illness in the whole city, may not be so easy to pass the test if you want to hide it from Yuan Shang?"

Everyone looked at Sima Yi with extreme surprise, especially the man who grabbed his clothes. When Sima Yi saw through their intentions, his hands trembled slightly: "You actually saw it... You said you are not a spy?"

Sima Yi had no intention of resisting. He calmly faced the man's eyes, and his breath was not at all confusing:

"At present, Yuan Tan invaded Zhongshan Kingdom in a large-scale invasion, Yuan Shang was not strong enough, so he forced the men to recruit soldiers everywhere. Just now, all the adult men here left the elderly, weak, women and children wearing mourning clothes on the streets on the grounds of death. Isn't this clear at a glance?"

The man was about to stretch out his fist to hit Sima Yi, but another gentle scholar grabbed his arm:

"Wang Ling stopped. He just searched through his luggage but did not find any proof from the government. I guess we were wronged."

The man named Wang Ling saw the scholar's words, so he had to glar at Sima Yi fiercely, let go of his fist, and pushed Sima Yi back hard. Sima Yi felt that this man was rude and was not easy to deal with. He stretched out his hand to sort out his messed clothes and thanked the scholar and said, "Thank you, brother, for your words to help me, don't know the name of honor?"

The scholar also gave a gift: "My name is Gao Rou, who is from Chenliu. He is currently the magistrate of Puyin County, and he has offended him so much."

After saying that, he pointed at the man who was about to move and said:

"He is Wang Ling, and he is a regiment in Puyin County. Yuan Shang issued a conscription order to deal with Yuan Tan, but the people in the city were unwilling to serve him. Therefore, I reported that the plague was prevalent in the city. Yuan Shang did not believe that he sent three groups of spies to investigate. We had no choice but to come up with this bad plan. It is precisely because of this that we misunderstand you."

Sima Yi, who had seen the cruelty of the war with his own eyes, thought of the bloody scenes of the previous battle of Guandu, so he understood Gao Rou's approach very well, and he didn't take what happened just now:

"Sima Yi admires Sima Yi for the welfare of the people of the whole city."

However, Sima Yi still expressed his concerns: "Although you can hide this method from Yuan Shang for a while, it cannot last long. In my opinion, Yuan Shang is already exhausted by just dealing with Yuan Tan. Even if you refuse his recruitment openly, I think Yuan Shang has no way to deal with you."

Gao Rou woke up from her dream after thinking calmly, "It makes sense. There are hundreds of troops in my city. Yuan Tan attacked Yuan Shang's front from north to south. Yuan Shang must be unable to do anything. As long as we rectify our defense, Yuan Shang will not have enough energy to deal with us."

When Wang Ling mentioned the war, his eyes suddenly shone: "Yes, as long as they are repelled once, Yuan Shang will be afraid of being beaten. What's more, Yuan Shang cannot draw too many troops to attack us. We won't have to hide at that time."

"Not only that, most of the soldiers and horses in Yuan Shangsou were unwilling to fight sincerely for him. As long as they were hurt, they would not be interested in fighting, like fine sand in the wind, flying everywhere."

After discussing with Wang Ling, Gao Rou decided to follow Sima Yi's advice.

The next day, all the white banners in Puyin City were torn off, and soon the secret spy of the outer guard Yuan Shang learned about Puyin's intention to refuse order. Yuan Shang, who was burning with eyebrows, was furious after hearing this and hurriedly dispatched 800 soldiers to pull out the hidden danger behind him.

In contrast, hundreds of men in the city were ambushed in the city under the command of Wang Ling. When Yuan Shang's army arrived, they used the three-row archery array deployed by Guo Jia during the Battle of Guandu to give the invading enemy a headache.

Then Wang Ling led the male man from the city to break out of the city. When Yuan Jun saw this, he turned around and ran away, scattered and fled.

The news of the failure to fight against Puyin reached An Xi. Yuan Shang was angry but no longer dared to send troops to attack him. He had to let them go and concentrate on dealing with Yuan Tan who was invading in front of him.

Because of the victory of Yuan Shang's frontal resistance, Tang County, Wangdu and other counties around Puyin were all favored and Wang Ling followed the lead, forming a small area of ​​influence.

Seeing that the crisis had been resolved, Sima Yi said to Gao Rou and Wang Ling: "The two gentlemen are superb in their wisdom, and Sima Yi has no place to use it here, and I still have private matters to deal with, so let's leave."

Gao Rou held Sima Yi's hand and said emotionally: "If it weren't for the advice of Zhongda's brother, Wang Ling and I wouldn't have thought of living against the current. Don't want you to take care of yourself today. I believe we will always be reunited in the future."

Wang Ling, who was on the surface of being disdainful to Sima Yi, saw Sima Yi leaving, pulled out the short dagger from his waist and inserted it on Sima Yi's belt, and said coldly: "Hebei may be in chaos for a while. If a person like you who can only talk like you meets a few unreasonable people like me, even if you have ten lives, it will not be enough for you to lose."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gao Rou laughed and said, "Wang Ling will take the initiative to reveal his shortcomings. It's really rare."

Sima Yi could see that Wang Ling was a stingy man, and Sima Yi understood his feelings:

"General Wang is good at fighting in battles, and there was no casualty in Puyin's defense. He will definitely have great achievements in the future and achieve great achievements."

The two of them bid farewell to Sima Yi and left the city. Gao Rou returned the gray-maned horse that had been held down by Sima Yi before. Sima Yi stepped on the horse and clasped his fists at them: "The green mountains will not change, and the green water will flow forever, so we will have a date in the future."

Gao Rou and Wang Ling also clasped their fists and said goodbye: "Be careful along the way."

Yuan Tan's actions were conveyed by Cao Cao to Shen Pei, who was still fighting in the city. After hearing this, Shen Pei closed her eyes helplessly:

"Although the first lord is indecisive in his work, he will never be filial to such an act of extermination of the clan. If he saw the former united Hebei land in the nine springs, it turned into what he is today, he would definitely curse Yuan Tan!"

Seeing that Yuan Tan could no longer count on him and the high-ranking officials did not make any moves, Shen Pei could only hope for Yuan Xi, the governor of Youzhou who Yuan Shang valued the most during his lifetime: "I hope that even if the second prince can lead his army to arrive, there will be room for improvement in everything."

However, reality still extinguished the only remaining fire of hope that Shen Pei had. After Yuan Tan defeated Yuan Shang in the Battle of An Xi and expelled him from Jizhou, a large rock that had been buried in his heart fell to the ground. He actually allowed the soldiers to burn, kill, and plunder in An Xi City, completely betraying the promise he had promised to the people of An Xi before.

At this point, Gao Rou and Wang Ling, who wanted to lead the northern counties of Zhongshan Kingdom to surrender to Yuan Tan, dispelled the previous decision after hearing the tragedy in Anxi City, and joined forces with the counties to boycott Yuan Tan's army to continue northward.

It was because of the chaos in Zhongshan that Yuan Xi, who received a letter from the Seipa, immediately mobilized troops to rescue Yecheng, was blocked in the area of ​​Peking and could not move forward any further.

After meeting with Yuan Xi in Peiping, Yuan Shang, who fled north, threw away the emergency situation of Yecheng and even encouraged Yuan Xi to help him defeat Yuan Tan first and regain the counties that were looted by Yuan Tan.

The clear-headed Yuan Xi did not follow Yuan Shang's advice and wanted to actively contact Gao Rou and Wang Ling, hoping that they would let themselves pass through Zhongshan Kingdom, but was rejected by Gao Rou and Wang Ling.
Chapter completed!