On June 15, the first year of Xingping in the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao swore an oath in Luoyang and led a 100,000 army to fight against Tao Qian. The world was shocked for a while, and even people in Luoyang City tried to persuade him, hoping that Cao Cao could maintain restraint and not provoke a war.

However, Cao Cao refused all this and said to the persuasioner: "If your father was killed, I don't believe you can keep your restraint!"

The Han Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety, and filial piety was hailed as the greatest virtue. Killing people because of filial piety not only allowed to escape the crime, but also gained a very high reputation. Although Cao Cao no longer needed this reputation, he wanted to use this as an excuse to annex Xuzhou. After many years of governance by Tao Qian, it has long become extremely rich, especially Guangling, Donghai and Langya, which are located on the sea, which are even more jealous of its strong salt cooking industry.

Now that Pei Qing occupied Runan has a huge salt mine, he doesn't have to worry about salt, and he can even bring huge profits because of the salt cooking industry. Especially recently, Pei Qing and the Huns started a fight, and exchanged a large number of salt for a large number of military horses, cattle and sheep from the Huns. It's okay, sheep, but it's just a desire to be tempted to tame cattle, and horses are so powerful that cavalry can be used to tame cattle, and horses are even more powerful weapons in combat. The threat of a cavalry will definitely be much greater than that of infantry, especially when fighting in plains, the role of cavalry is even more obvious. Of course, there are exceptions for perverted troops like Chen Dao's Baili Army.

However, Cao Cao had few salt mines in his territory, so his power would need to be forced to buy salt from other places. Even when buying salt, it would depend on people's face. Not only would he pay more money, he would be threatened by others at any time by cutting off the supply of absolute salt.

What's more, Tao Qian dared to take in Lu Bu, which was obviously against him. Lu Bu had an elite cavalry under his command. This cavalry caused him to suffer a lot when Cao Cao pacified Yanzhou, but the number was small. In addition, Lu Bu had just arrived in Yanzhou and had not won the hearts of the people, so he quickly fell. Now in Xuzhou, Lu Bu must also defeat Tao Qian with lightning speed, drive away or even kill Lu Bu. Otherwise, if Lu Bu's strength is truly strengthened in time, it would be his disaster.

So this time, Cao Cao made a decision to break through Xuzhou, drive away or even kill Lu Bu, otherwise he would be the one who suffered in the end.

When the news reached Xuzhou, Tao Qian's face suddenly turned pale and immediately ordered people to go to Langya to invite Lu Bu, hoping that Lu Bu could help him deal with Cao Cao together.

However, his envoy was blocked by Lu Bu's general Hou Cheng before he saw Lu Bu's command. The reason was that Lu Bu had no soldiers and generals to defend the enemy. He went to Chang'an and had not yet come back. They were just generals and did not dare to be the master. In fact, Lu Bu had already returned to Langya a few days ago, where he recruited soldiers, trained soldiers, and tried his best to expand his strength.

Tao Qian was so angry that he almost vomited blood when he heard this. He kindly wanted to take in Lu Bu. He thought he could help him at a critical moment. And if it were really said, it had a lot to do with Lu Bu. If it weren't for Lu Bu, how could Cao Song hurriedly leave Xuzhou and be killed? But he didn't expect that Lu Bu would not help at all and even said the reason so well.

At this time, only the general Cao Bao said in front of Tao Qian: "Hmph, if Lu Bu doesn't go, we don't have to pay attention. As long as the last general is here, it can resist Cao Cao's attack."

Tao Qian was overjoyed when he heard this and said with a smile: "General Cao is indeed worthy of being the number one general in Xuzhou. As long as you are here, how can Cao Cao be his opponent? He claims to be a descendant of Cao Shen, but how can he compare to you, the authentic descendant of Cao Cao?"

Cao Bao sneered when he heard this: "The Cao family in Qiao County deceived the world and stole the reputation and claimed to be a descendant of the Prime Minister Cao, but only I know that this is simply nonsense, because the Prime Minister Cao is from Xiaopei. Who is the Cao family in Qiao County? What is the relationship with his ancestors? In this battle, I will let his fake Prime Minister Cao see the skills of my true Prime Minister Cao's descendant!"

"Okay! The future of my Xuzhou depends on General Cao." Tao Qian was immediately amazed when he heard this. He hurriedly gathered 50,000 soldiers in Xia Pi and handed them over to Cao Bao. These 50,000 soldiers were almost all the troops in Xuzhou except for Guangling Zhao Yu and Langya Lu Bu.

At this time, Chen Deng, a native of Xia Pi, bowed and said, "Eunuch, Cao Bao is so arrogant that he is only incompetent, and he cannot be a rival to Cao Cao at all. Once he is asked to resist Cao Cao, I am afraid that many people will not survive this 50,000 army."

However, Tao Qian trusted Cao Bao very much at this time. Chen Deng was just a 24-year-old young man. How could he see it? He immediately shouted loudly: "What do you know? General Cao is a descendant of Cao Cao. As long as he learns one point in his footsteps, he can beat Cao Cao up."

Then, Tao Qian did not listen to Chen Deng's persuasion and insisted on using Cao Bao as his general and led his army to Pengchengguo to resist the candle attack.

Seeing this, Chen Deng sighed to the sky and said in secret: "It seems that my Xuzhou will inevitably be a disaster and will soon change its ownership. But I don't know if the new Xuzhou lord is Lu Bu or Cao Cao? I think no one can defend my Xuzhou except Pei Qing, even Cao Cao is no exception. Although Cao Cao is strong, he is still quite inferior to Pei Qing."

Tao Qian sent Cao Bao to resist Cao Cao's invasion with confidence. He thought he would definitely return with a great victory, but he did not expect that within three days, there was news that Cao Bao was defeated by Cao Cao, and nearly half of the soldiers in the army were damaged. Cao Bao was afraid of being punished by Tao Qian, so he fled directly to Langya and defected to Lu Bu. After Cao Cao won the victory, he ordered the city to be slaughtered, and then attacked Xiangben County, Donghai County, and massacred the city again. Hundreds of thousands of people were massacred.

"What? Such a thing happened?" Tao Qian's expression changed drastically when he heard this. He was angry and suddenly squirted blood and fainted suddenly.

After some emergency treatment, Tao Qian finally woke up. When he saw Chen Deng standing by, he felt extremely guilty and said slowly: "I regret not listening to Yuanlong's advice in the past, which led to a great defeat in our army. I wonder if Yuanlong thinks, who else can save me Xuzhou? Tao is not talented and can be the governor of Xuzhou. If anyone can save me, I would like to entrust him with Xuzhou."

Chen Dengwenyan sighed: "If Zang Xuangao is still there, he will definitely help the envoy guard Xuzhou. It's a pity that he is now in Hongnong. In this way, we are only Yuzhou and Langya Kingdom. If we want to save Xuzhou, we can only ask for help from the prime minister of Pei Lusu and the prime minister of Langya Kingdom Lu Bu, hoping that they can provide timely assistance and help us defeat Cao Cao."
Chapter completed!