Unfortunately, Gongsun Zan thought that this was very secretive. Cao Cao would not know, but he didn't know that Cao Cao's strategists had already expected that Gongsun Zan would sneak attack Yuan Shu and attack Xuyi.

Among them, Chen Deng was very sure that Gongsun Zan would attack Xuyi, because Chen Deng had followed Tao Qian before and helped Tao Qian resist Gongsun Zan, who was already aggressive in Guangling at that time, and knew Gongsun Zan very well.

After receiving the affirmation of his subordinates, Cao Cao then waited for Gongsun Zan to set off halfway and began to launch a sneak attack on Gongsun Zan.

This time, Cao Cao used the tiger and leopard cavalry to open the road, and used Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong, Cao Xiu, Le Jin and other grand prizes as vanguards, and raided Xuzhou in one fell swoop.

Xiao Pei, who was the first to bear the brunt of the sudden attack from Cao Cao, couldn't resist it for long before Xiao Pei fell into Cao Cao's hands.

Xiao Pei can be said to be Gongsun Zan’s first line of defense against Cao Cao and the most important line of defense. This line of defense was broken through, and Xuzhou was stripped naked like a woman.

Breakthrough through Xiaopei is equivalent to breaking into Xuzhou.

The Cao army, who drove straight into the army, left Gongsun Zan's soldiers completely unprepared and collapsed at once, and fled one after another. At this time, Gongsun Zan's generals and officers discovered that their lord had gone where they had gone and could not find a backbone. In the end, they also ran away with their heads, unable to stop or prevent, so they could only escape.

In the end, when Gongsun Zan received the news, half of Xuzhou had fallen. He hurriedly led his troops back and could not stop this decayed situation. In the end, he could only cut off his arm and give up the occupied areas. He hurriedly built defense lines in Pengcheng, Xiapi and other cities to resist Cao Cao's attack and protect his last territory.

While planning to attack Xuzhou, Cao Cao did not forget Cao Ren in Shouchun because he knew that once Shouchun was wrong, Sun Ce's temper would definitely use Shouchun as a base and continue northward.

If Sun Ce and Gongsun Zan join forces, even Cao Cao would have a headache, so Cao Cao sent a messenger to contact Liu Biao, Jingzhou, and asked him to send troops to attack Sun Ce, reducing Cao Ren's pressure.

Cao Cao succeeded in attacking Xuzhou, and Gongsun Zan retreated to Xia Pi Guangling and other places. When Sun Ce heard the news, he withdrew his troops. There was no doubt that Cao Cao was the biggest beneficiary of this battle between the princes.

It occupied a large area of ​​land such as Huainan in Xuzhou and has a population of hundreds of thousands, greatly enhancing his strength. At the same time, his prestige in the court was further enhanced.

After this battle, Cao Cao's confidence in being ravaged by Liu Zhe has recovered a lot. He ambitiously stared at the territory that did not belong to him on the map, and was about to prepare to deal with Gongsun Zan in one go. However, he was dissuaded by his subordinates and temporarily stopped and waited for the opportunity.

In Jiangdong, Sun Ce had to retreat his troops home in shame, and felt a big loss of face, so he vented all his anger on the rebellious bandits. Under his leadership, the bandits were beaten to cry and cry for their parents. Many people fled back to the mountain village in the deep mountains, but they still couldn't escape Sun Ce's pursuit, and even the mountain village was pacified by Sun Ce.

After the bandits were settled, Sun Ce planned to settle the score with Liu Biao, but Liu Biao was very vigilant. Sun Ce returned to the court. He immediately asked Huang Zu to retreat and firmly defend Jiangxia, so that Sun Ce could not do anything to him for the time being.

After all, Jiangxia is also a big city. She just hit a wall in Shouchun, and Sun Ce has not yet recovered his confidence to attack Jiangxia.

So for a moment, Sun Ce temporarily endured it and waited until the next time to deal with Liu Biao. What Liu Biao did not expect was that because of this time, Sun Ce made a decision that if he didn't deal with Jiang Xia, he could send troops to deal with him. Sun Ce would not go north to confront Cao Cao.

So Sun Ce's next offensive target has been decided to be Jiang Xia.

This time, Sun Ce temporarily let Jiangxia go because of his exhaustion of troops and continued to deal with the bandits.

I don’t know who was provoking it, but Sun Ce felt that all the bandits in Jiangdong had come out to cause trouble.

"hateful…"

Sun Ce slapped the information he received on the desk and was very angry. Another county town was captured by bandits and robbed property.

After Sun Ce vented, he felt a sense of fatigue in his heart, although he brought people to wipe out the bandits after he came back.

However, bandits are not like army. They are often dozens or hundreds of people in a group, and they do not gather together. Even if many are wiped out, there are still many bandits that cannot be wiped out.

They live in the deep mountains and forests, and they are elusive, shooting from east to west, making people unable to defend themselves. They do not aim at capturing the towns, but for the purpose of robbing, they rob things, kill people, and run away after setting fire.

They have few people and are very convenient to move. Often when the government troops arrive, they have already disappeared without a trace.

Facing such an opponent, even Sun Ce, even if he killed countless bandits, he still felt powerless.

The suppression of bandits during this period made Sun Ce very tired physically and mentally, and it was the first time he felt so tired.

Before he knew it, Sun Ce slowly fell asleep. He was too tired during this period.

While sleeping, Sun Ce suddenly felt something was happening around him and immediately woke up alertly.
Chapter completed!