In order to find the missing Liu Xie, the river crossing plan that should have been urgently implemented was temporarily suspended.

The king's army is in a crisis situation of being completely surrounded.

Li Jue and Guo Si's troops kept shouting and demonstrating around the royal army to intimidate the entire army, and the morale of the army was more or less disintegrated. Sima Fang once asked Guo Jia about how to escape the crisis before leaving. Guo Jia smiled but said nothing. Sima Fang was confused. When asked again, Guo Jia said: "In fact, there is one person in the royal army who can help you."

"Who is that person?" Sima Fang was surprised and happy after hearing this, and his tone was very anxious.

Guo Jia glanced at Dong Cheng not far away and asked Sima Fang to come over, and then said the person's name in his ear.

Seeing that all the ministers were discouraged, and even some generals under Yang Feng's subordinates were leaving, Dong Cheng and Yang Feng were very anxious. Fu Shou and Dong Guiren took care of Liu Xie's daily life and food. At this moment, Sima Fang disappeared.

There was a bonfire on the bank of the Yellow River. There was a fish grilling on the wooden rack above the bonfire. The person who was grilling this fish seemed to be about forty years old, but he was still energetic. His eyes against the fire light showed a spirit that could see through the world.

"Isn't it very quiet to sit here alone?"

He raised his head and looked at Sima Fang who was walking towards him. He glanced coldly before continuing to look at the bonfire.

Seeing that he ignored him, Sima Fang was not angry, and walked to the opposite side of his bonfire and sat on the ground:

"It is said that the 'Eight Scholars of Yingchuan' have great ambitions except Hu Zhao. I didn't expect that Zhong Yao, one of the eight Scholars appointed by Zuo Ci, was ranked at the top of the world's talented and capable people. The situation was so steep that he had the leisure and grilled fish on the ground. He really convinced your brother."

Zhong Yao could hear Sima Fang's words were arousing him and did not pay attention to him. Instead, he raised his left hand to hold the branch of the grilled fish skewers, pinched the charred fish skin with his right hand, and then put it under his nose to sniff it. Sima Fang, who was sitting opposite him, said to himself: "The way to avoid the fish being burned is very simple. Just take it out of the bonfire in time before it turns into coke. It doesn't matter who takes out the fish at this critical moment, but some people care so much for the first bite of the fish."

His words seemed to mean something else, and Sima Fang could understand Zhong Yao's dissatisfaction with Dong Cheng:

"At present, the power is all in the hands of Dong Cheng and Yang Feng. They wanted to cross the river as soon as possible according to Zhongda's suggestion, but all the officials began to be frightened and suggested that Dong Cheng make peace with Li Jue and Guo Si. The two are still undecided now."

"Make peace?" Zhong Yao sneered: "Now we are surrounded by Li Jue and Guo Si. Even if Li Jue and Guo Si agree to the peace talks, it must be an alliance under the city. At present, in order to achieve the goal of defeating the troops without fighting, they sent a small number of iron cavalry to shout back and forth around our army to disrupt the morale of the army. If Your Majesty does not want to become a puppet again, he should cross the river as quickly as possible while the army has not yet completely surrounded. Hesitation will be a moment of danger."

After returning to Liu Xie, Sima Fang bypassed Dong Cheng and told Liu Xie directly about Zhong Yao's idea. After hearing this, Liu Xie immediately adopted it and decisively asked the waiters around him to call Dong Cheng and Yang Feng to come.

After the two came to meet, they didn't understand why Liu Xie, who had never taken the initiative to make decisions, summoned them at this time.

After looking at each other, Dong Cheng took the lead and bowed: "I wonder what happened to Your Majesty summoning the empress?"

"The plan to cross Hedong County in the north is that I and Zhongda have already decided. Today, Li Jue continues to increase his troops, so why is his beloved slow to move forward?"

In order to avoid irritating Dong Cheng and Yang Feng's sensitive nerves, Liu Xie's tone was particularly gentle, as if he had completely put down his airs as the king of a country. He understood that once Dong Cheng and Yang Feng also lost their loyalty to him, they would likely be held hostage to Li Jie to seek protection in front of him. It is very necessary to comfort them at this moment.

Dong Cheng and Yang Feng both remained silent, and no one dared to propose peace first.

Seeing that they began to shake, Sima Fang said, "Your Majesty has sent Zhong Yao to cross the river and pegases to Henei County to ask the prefect Zhang Yang to send troops to protect him. This person has been in Shangdang to suppress the bandits and is very loyal to the Han Dynasty. At that time, we will pass Jiguan from Dayang County and head south to Luoyang."

Seeing that Liu Xie and Sima Fang had planned so carefully, Yang Feng no longer hesitated and stood up and said that he would rather die than escort His Majesty into the capital. Dong Cheng was a little hesitant, but he also agreed to his opinion. They urgently won the hearts of the people and arranged for Liu Xie and Empress Fu and others to board the boat, crossing the Yellow River first. By the time Li Jue and Guo Si discovered it, it was too late.

Standing by the Yellow River, Li Jue looked at the several ships floating away, and was so angry that he threw the horse on the ground.

After Zhong Yao's lobbying, Zhang Yang raised an army without hesitation and met with Liu Xie in Dayang County.

But before they could gain a foothold, the messenger panicked and reported the urgent news:

Zhang Ji's nephew Zhang Xiu actually cut thousands of wood overnight, mobilized tens of thousands of troops to build dozens of ships in just one day, and led tens of thousands of troops to the middle of the river, and would not reach the north shore soon.

Zhang Xiu's bravery and good at fighting are well known to everyone. He is known as the "Three Zhangs" together with Zhang Ren in Yizhou and Zhang He in Hebei. It is rumored that they all learned from Tong Yuan, the "Penglai Gun God Sanren" and had extremely superb marksmanship.

At present, Zhang Yang brought only three thousand light cavalry and more than a hundred crossbowmen. Once the enemy went ashore, it would be difficult to resist the surging Zhang Xiu. At this time, a white pigeon fell from the air on Xiahou Yuan's arm. Xiahou Yuan took off the secret letter from Xi Zhicai of the pigeon. It said that if the situation was very critical, he could protect His Majesty to Puyang, and Cao Cao would respond there.

It can be seen that Xi Zhicai, Cao Cao and others had a very accurate judgment on the situation. However, when Xiahou Yuan reported Cao Cao's suggestion to Liu Xie, he was fiercely opposed by Dong Cheng and Yang Feng. Even Zhang Yang, who came to protect the enemy from Hanoi, did not agree to appease him. In order to appease everyone, Liu Xie had to reject Xiahou Yuan's suggestion and did not agree to go to Puyang.

Time passed minute by minute, and in desperation, Dong Cheng ordered the entire army to retreat to Anyi, Xiahou Yuan scolded:

"We will be completely wiped out by favorable positions along the coast so easily, once the enemy goes ashore, we will take the initiative!"

Xiahou Yuan's suggestion was not adopted. He was disappointed and left the royal army camp in anger and returned to Yanzhou alone.

Within half a day, Zhang Xiu's army crossed the river and camped along the banks. Sima Fang and Fu Wan thought of going north to seek Yuan Shao's help. However, although Tian Feng and Ju Su tried their best to urge Yuan Shao to temporarily postpone the attack on Gongsun Zan, who was trapped in Yi, and sent troops to rescue Emperor Xian of Han to establish his dignity, Guo Tu explained to Yuan Shao at this time that there should be no trouble. It was unpredictable to fight with Li Jue and Guo Si, and it would be difficult to get out of it once it was in war.

Yuan Shao finally agreed to Guo Tu's opinion and replied to the envoy ambiguously, without intention of sending troops, and the situation took a sharp turn for the worse.

At this time, Dong Cheng thought of asking for peace with Li Jue and Guo Si again, and proposed this idea to Liu Xie. Liu Xie was furious after hearing this, but thought that the army was basically under his control, and suppressed the anger in his heart, so he had to agree with his thoughts.

Just as he was about to get his figures, Zhang Yang and Zhong Yao came to the tent to meet him. When he heard that Liu Xie was going to discuss peace, Zhong Yao immediately scoffed at Dong Cheng and then said, "If Your Majesty wants to make peace, you should not go at this time. At present, Zhang Xiu has not yet established a stable foothold and does not know the reality of our army. We should take the initiative to attack and attack one of them first, so that we can have enough chips during negotiations."

"It's easy!" Dong Cheng sneered: "What a man Zhang Xiu. We attack first is like hitting a stone with eggs!"
Chapter completed!