All counties and counties in Hebei Province surrendered to the Han army, putting Cao Cao in Xingyang into a serious situation.
But Cao Cao still encouraged his accompanying subordinates: "It's not a big deal.
Think about the Yanzhou Incident.
The entire Yanzhou rebelled against me.
Only three counties were in the hands of the few, and the rest surrendered to Lu Bu.
But that surrender was all false."
Yes, as long as I can defeat Lu Bu, these counties will be returned to my hands overnight.
And now Yecheng, the north of Jizhou, and Youzhou are still in my hands."
Cao Cao said this verbally, but he didn't think so in his heart.
There is a huge difference between the Yanzhou Incident and the current situation.
That year, he concentrated Yanzhou's grain and grass in advance to the three counties he trusted most.
In the same year, Yanzhou suffered from severe drought and locust plagues.
At that time, we had food but the enemy had no food.
In addition, at that time, Lu Bu was only nominally respected as the shepherd of Yanzhou by the powerful people in Yanzhou, but he did not actually obey his orders.
But now Lu Bu relied on actual military strength to forcefully land or attack these counties.
The first problem Cao Cao needs to solve now is the problem of food and grass.
If the food in the north is exhausted, he will have to rely on food and grass from Huainan and Huaibei.
In order to ensure the supply of food and grass for the 100,000-strong army, Zhang He organized special civilian labor to transport food and grass from counties and counties on both sides of the Huaihe River to Xudula.
Ask him to increase his transportation capacity immediately.
Thinking of this, Cao Cao wrote an edict to Zhang He.
But Zhang He's life soon became difficult.
Thousands of Viking-style longships unique to the Han army rushed into the Huai River from the Shahe River, a tributary in the upper reaches of the Huai River.
These ships came from Yingcheng, and they were loaded with horses, knights, infantry, and food and baggage.
Led by Li Su, he easily captured the unprepared and weak Runan with lightning speed.
Then continue eastward along the Huaishui River Their strategy was the same as that of the Han army that conquered Hebei.
It did not aim to capture cities and territory, but only plundered and burned the grain, grass and other war resources of the cities along the way.
Unless the city they attacked surrendered to the Han army, they would leave enough food and supplies for the city for its own use.
The only difference between them and the Han army in Hebei is that they have ships and water control rights, and do not need to set up a fixed base camp.
Their base camp was the fleet, and the materials they looted or collected were stored on the ships.
The cavalry set off from the ships and attacked each target city with lightning speed.
The advantage of this is that the sweep range is larger and the operation is more mobile and flexible.
Counties and counties on both sides of the Huaihe River began to rebel against Cao Wei in droves, but not all of them went to Lu Bu.
In the Jianghuai area, many counties and counties close to Sun Wu defected to Sun Quan.
Sun Quan also took the opportunity to send troops across the Yangtze River to seize the land.
The Han army obviously did not regard Huainan and Jianghuai as its main targets, so it did not collide with Sun Wu's army.
Li Su followed Lu Bu's instructions and placed his main attack direction in the Huaibei and Huanghuai areas.
This is the main area that supplies military supplies to Zhang He's army, and it is also the only place where supplies of food and grass must pass through.
When Cao Wei lost Nanyang and Xu, it lost its cohesion to the Huanghuai, Jianghuai and Jianghuai regions.
With Li Su's eastward advance, most of the cities in Huaibei rebelled against Wei and surrendered to the Han.
However, there are also some counties that continue to be loyal to Cao Cao.
The governors of these counties are basically Cao Wei's relatives or veterans.
Among them, Cao Zhen of Guling is one of them.
Guling is not located on the bank of the Huai River, but is still far away from the north bank of the Huai River.
Cao Zhen had heard about Li Su's eastward march along the Huaihe River.
In addition to recruiting more civilian soldiers to strengthen the city defense, he also set up a large number of secret sentries in the area south of Guling, and the reconnaissance cavalry extended all the way to the bank of the Huaihe River.
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One day, he received a letter from Li Su to persuade him to surrender, but he threw it aside with contempt and killed the messenger.
On a dark night, a section of the river bank in the upper reaches of the Huai River is covered with black shadows.
Countless longships docked on the shore, and horses and knights were unloaded from the ships in a steady stream, as many as three thousand people.
This is 500 iron pagodas, 1,000 cavalry horses and 1,500 ordinary Han cavalry.
After they landed, they lined up and mounted their horses, then galloped toward the northeast.
At dawn, they appeared under Guling City.
The wall of Guling City was not very tall, but it was surrounded by a moat.
Since Li Sudong entered, the gates of Guling City have been closed basically all day long.
Although the hooves of these horses were wrapped with straw, the soldiers on duty on the city wall were still driven away from sleep by the slight trembling of the city wall.
They just started shouting warnings.
Iron Buddha, who was rushing at the front, swung its flying claws across the moat, and then used the momentum of the horse to rush towards the top of the city.
When the sound of "enemy attacks" rang out one after another from the top of the city, the five hundred iron pagodas had basically climbed up to the top of the city, and started to fight with the soldiers on the top of the city while wielding their swords.
More than a hundred sentries at the top of the city were killed almost in a matter of seconds.
Tiefutu controlled the city gate and lowered the suspension bridge.
The sentries on the remaining city walls and the defenders in the city had already noticed the movement and gathered here.
However, they were too late.
The city gate had been opened, and the Han cavalry waiting outside the city poured into the city.
There are only two thousand defenders in Guling, and there are only four thousand civilians recruited by Cao Zhen temporarily.
How can they be the opponent of these three thousand Han army cavalry?
Kill them cleanly.
A hundred people were left to guard the outside of the city tower, while 400 people went to kill the city.
Suddenly, Guling City was filled with loud killing sounds and a sea of fire.
Cao Zhen, who was sleeping with Mei Ji in his arms, also heard the noise and quickly got up and dressed neatly.
Holding two swords, he mounted his horse and rushed out of the mansion with more than ten soldiers.
As soon as he left the gate of the mansion, he saw a dozen horses galloping towards him along the street.
When he was raising his sword and getting ready to face the enemy, he heard the sound of numerous arrows piercing the air, and then felt a sharp pain in his chest.
When he lowered his head, he saw that two arrows had penetrated his fine armor.
Cao Zhen fell on the street together with seven or eight soldiers around him.
Even to his death he did not believe that the Han army's arrows were so powerful.
In fact, it is not the power of the arrows, but the power of the arrows plus the speed of the horse that makes them so powerful.
At dawn, the entire Guling was occupied.
The Han army plundered all the grain and grass in the city's treasury and confiscated the grain stored by the big grain merchants.
After distributing part of the food to the common people in the city on a per capita basis, which was sufficient for a few days, he appointed the chief of a local powerful clan as the county magistrate.
Then they withdrew from Guling with their luggage and food.
At this time, the 130,000 Wei troops led by Cao Cao and Zhang He were in trouble.
Xun Yu persuaded Cao Cao that he could only retreat to Hebei at this time, but in fact, Cao Cao couldn't retreat to Hebei now.
On the north bank of the Yellow River, Han cavalry were often patrolling and patrolling.
When Xu Du and the Han army in Luoyang discovered that Cao's army had retreated, they would pursue them fiercely.
The Wei army without fortifications was like fish on the chopping board in front of the wolf-like and tiger-like Han army.
Under the anxiety, Cao Cao suffered from headache again, and this time he could not afford to be ill
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