Although Cao Cao accepted Zhao Weisun's surrender, he did not send any officials to take over the place, but let Zhao Weisun continue to rule everything here. This made Zhao Weisun very grateful, so he became more loyal to him.

In 193 AD, Cao Cao and Tao Qian attacked each other. After several fierce battles, Tao Qian was defeated and retreated. Both sides temporarily stopped their troops. However, Tao Qian felt hatred for this and sent troops to kill Cao Cao's father Cao Song on his way to Yanzhou and passed through Xuzhou.

Cao Cao was furious and once again led his troops to conquer Xuzhou. The army was invincible and attacked the East China Sea in one fell swoop, and Tao Qian was unable to resist.

In fact, according to the plan formulated before, Cao Cao used the flag of revenge to fight against Tao Qian in the east. His real purpose was to seize Xuzhou. Therefore, Cao Cao followed the advice of Xun Yu and Xi Zhicai to treat the people of Xuzhou well along the way. However, when the army was temporarily stationed in the East China Sea, the people of the East China Sea didn't know who said that Cao Cao's purpose was to slaughter Xuzhou and not keep people and animals.

The people in the East China Sea were panicked. When Cao Cao's army had just entered, they attacked Cao's soldiers through various channels for self-protection, resulting in the Cao army being forced to have conflicts with the people, and the scale of the conflict became larger and larger. Although the riots were pacified, the news of Cao's massacre of the people in the East China Sea spread wildly.

The Cao army's marching then completely lost the support and cooperation of the people of Xuzhou, and the army's actions became very difficult.

Despite this, Xun Yu and Cheng Yu still urged Cao Cao not to impose an iron-fisted suppression on the people, but the increasingly serious situation changed Cao Cao's original intention. In order to stabilize the situation, he began to order that everyone who encountered resistance from the people would be executed.

Because Cao Cao vented his anger and considered the safety of the Cao army's soldiers, he completely ignored the suggestions of the two advisers Cheng Yu and Xun Yu, and brutally slaughtered the people of Xuzhou. No one dared to walk on the streets in the city he passed by, and there was no sound of chickens and dogs.

For a time, Cao Cao's reputation was greatly impacted.

As expected, Chen Gong, who was secretly hating Cao Cao because of the Bian Rang, heard that Cao Cao was massacred in Xuzhou, which led to his complete betrayal of Cao Cao, and he went from being a follower who supported Cao Cao to occupy Yanzhou to an enemy who was trying to seize Yanzhou and seized his way.

Chen Gong took advantage of the empty defense of Cao Cao, joined forces with Zhang Miao, Wang Kai and other Cao Cao's old acquaintances to launch a rebellion, and welcomed the exiled Lu Bu into Yanzhou as a pastor. Cao Cao's rear was unstable and hurriedly evacuated Xuzhou to fight with Lu Bu in Puyang.

Puyang and Liyang are not far away. When Zhao Weisun heard that Cao Cao and Lu Bu were in a stalemate, he wanted to send troops to attack Lu Bu with Cao Cao, but he had doubts in his heart that Liyang belonged to Jizhou, and Jizhou had been occupied by Yuan Shao. At this moment, he was fighting with Gongsun Zan and had no time to take care of himself. But if he sent troops, Li Yang would be in danger of being attacked by Yuan Shao again.

After repeated doubts, he found Sima Lang and Zhao Ji to discuss. Zhao Ji said after hearing this:

"It's no different to add firewood all over the sky, and cold snow and little fur to give clothes is a kindness. Cao Cao has always been a hero, and although Lu Bu is brave but has no strategy, you can take this opportunity to show your importance and thus be valued by Cao Cao."

On the contrary, Sima Lang was worried about Yuan Shao in the rear. He had doubts but could not find a reason to refute Zhao Zi, so he had to agree with Zhao Zi's statement. After discussion, Zhao Weisun decided to lead 800 Iron Cavalry Stars to send troops at night to support Puyang, leaving more than a thousand people to defend the city.

Before leaving, Zhao Weisun said to Sima Lang who was saying goodbye: "If I have any accidents, Rui'er will entrust you."

After Sima Lang returned home, he told Sima Yi about their arrangements that day. After hearing this, Sima Yi immediately stood up straight and looked very serious:

"When will General Zhao leave the city?"

Sima Lang was a little surprised to see his younger brother's reaction: "It's been more than two hours since he left the city."

After hearing this, Sima Yi sighed helplessly: "It's too late."

When Zhao Weisun arrived in Puyang, Cao Cao was fighting with Lu Bu. Lu Bu's cavalry dispersed Cao Cao's Qingzhou soldiers. Under the chaos of the formation, Cao Cao had to retreat with his horse. The cavalry general chased him and was about to stab Cao Cao with a shot. Fortunately, when will Zhao Weisun lead his army arrive and blocked the attack of the general. Cao Cao's robe was lifted on Zhao Weisun's horse's back. Zhao Weisun shouted:

"Ming Gong is about to stop panic, and I will be here!"

Cao Cao was very happy to see Zhao Weisun coming: "General is a true righteous man!"

In desperation, Cao Cao hurriedly waved his whip and drove away under the cover of Zhao Weisun.

The enemy and us were killed in the chaos, and we couldn't see clearly. Lu Bu rode his horse around looking for Cao Cao. Suddenly he saw a general riding a red robe on his back. Lu Bu looked very familiar with him. He suddenly thought that this was Cao Cao's battle robe, so he let go of the soldiers who were about to be stabbed by him and asked, "Is that man Cao Cao?"

The soldier glanced at Zhao Weisun not far away and said, "It's General Cao!"

Lu Bu, who was eager to kill Cao Cao, let him go, rode a horse and rushed to Zhao Weisun and shouted: "Don't leave Cao thief!"

When Zhao Weisun saw Lu Bu coming, he hurriedly fought. After a few rounds, he was stabbed on the horse. Lu Bu cut off his head and shouted: "The thief Cao is dead!"

However, when he took the head to the tent to show off to Chen Gong, Chen Gong saw at a glance that it was not Cao Cao's head. Lu Bu was furious and threw his head on the ground and roared: "Cao thief! Traitor!"

The first thing Cao Cao did when he returned to the camp was to call Li Dian and Le Jin. After the second future, he immediately ordered:

"Now Liyang City is empty, you will quickly lead a thousand iron cavalry to Liyang!"

Everyone was puzzled by the idea, and Le Jin asked, "At this moment, the enemy is in front of us, we should focus on dealing with Lu Bu, why divide the troops?"

Cao Cao said: "Li Yang is behind Lu Bu. Zhao Weisun is dead. Li Yang will definitely have no leader. If Lu Bu goes to get Li Yang, we can clean up the food and supplies in the city, and our pressure will be even greater. This is a good result. If Yuan Shao takes advantage of the opportunity to retrieve Li Yang, the entire gateway to the north of Jizhou will be closed by him. It will be difficult for us to move north in the future!"

After obeying the order, Li Dianlejin immediately led his troops to go there.

Several soldiers who fled back to the city told Sima Lang and Zhao Zi that Zhao Weisun had died in battle. The two were shocked. At this moment, Sima Yi was next to him. He immediately walked to Sima Lang and said, "Don't spread the news that Zhao Weisun is dead, otherwise there will be chaos in the city. On the one hand, we must contact Cao Cao quickly and ask him to send a reliable general to lead troops to guard the place. On the other hand, we must actively prepare for war."

However, it was still one step late. Yecheng was also very close to Liyang. Yuan Shao had been paying attention to the battle between Cao Lu and sent people to inquire about the information. He was very happy to learn that Zhao Weisun rushed to assist Cao Cao and died in the battle. However, he was afraid that if the troops were not successful at this time, he would probably be involved in their battle. At that time, the situation would be very bad if the north and south resisted the enemy and were trapped by Gongsun Zan and Cao Cao.

After hearing the news in the mansion, Guo Tu hurriedly ran to Yuan Shao without hesitation. It happened that Tian Feng was there at this time. The two had always been disagreeable, but their ideas were the same at this moment, that was to urge Yuan Shao to take down Li Yang as soon as possible.

"Cao Cao is now attacking Lu Bu, and he has no time to invest a large number of troops to capture Liyang. After we take down Liyang, Yecheng will be guaranteed and Jizhou will be completely in our hands. At that time, there will be a barrier of natural danger to the Yellow River. Yecheng will not have the threat from the south. He can do his best to deal with Gongsun Zan. The lord must not miss this opportunity!"

The two major advisers agreed, so Yuan Shao had no worries and ordered Han Meng and Jiang Qi to lead three thousand troops to Li Yang.

At this time, Lu Bu also followed Chen Gong's advice and sent Zhang Liao to lead his troops to Liyang. For a time, the three forces gathered here together.

Sima Lang and Zhao Zi were anxious when they received the report. Sima Yi thought about it and said to Sima Lang:

"Now Yuan Shao's troops are closest to here, and there are many troops. We cannot defend them. Even if Cao Cao's troops arrive, it will be difficult to win. The best way now is to bring the soldiers and horses in the city, abandon the guards of the old and young, Li Yang, take the initiative to go out of the city to meet Cao Cao's troops and horses, and leave the empty city for Lu Bu to compete with Yuan Shao."

Sima Lang felt that this suggestion was feasible, so he sent troops to summon the people in the city in a short time, collect food, fodder and supplies, and quickly evacuated here. However, some people were unwilling to leave, so Sima Lang had to leave and persuade Zhao Zi to meet Cao's army first. However, Sima Lang's bitterness did not win the recognition of the people. When I was in a hurry, Sima Yi persuaded him again:

"Although Yuan Shao is not a wise ruler, in order to unite the military and civilians of Jizhou, he should not do anything to them. We should leave quickly."

Helpless Sima Lang had to take Sima Yi and others away. Just as he left the city, Sima Lang suddenly realized that Zhao Weisun's daughter Zhao Rui was not there, so he quickly turned around to search for her. Sima Yi had to wait behind the Xicheng Gate with his young Zhao Chunhua and his younger brothers. After Zhao Weisun's mansion was found, Zhao Rui was unwilling to leave and said she wanted to wait for her father here. Sima Lang had no choice but to tell her that Zhao Weisun's demise was dead. Zhao Rui collapsed and made a big fuss.

Seeing that Yuan Shao and Lu Bu's troops were about to arrive, Sima Lang had no way to force Zhao Rui to leave.
Chapter completed!