Vol 2 Chapter 2896: The army was besieged internally and externally and was disheartened. Cao Ren w

Chapter 2896 The army was besieged internally and externally and was disheartened, and Cao Ren was forcibly surrendered (Part 1)

Chapter 2892: The army was besieged internally and externally and was disheartened, Cao Ren was forcibly surrendered (Part 1)

I have to say that it was really not easy for Cao Ren. Cao Cao ran away and left such a mess to him. The key is that he couldn't accept it.

After discovering the fire in the underground granary, Cao Ren immediately organized people to put out the fire. Only after he personally directed the rescue efforts of tens of thousands of people, the fire was finally brought under control.

 But fires on the ground are easy to control, but fires underground are not so easy to put out.

Cao Ren used various methods, such as blocking the entrance and pouring water into the ground, but Jia Xu had predicted these in advance.

The most important thing for an underground granary is to prevent moisture and fire, so before Ah Qing and others set the fire, they opened all the vents. Cao Ren only blocked the entrances and could not stop the underground fire from extinguishing itself.

As for the watering, it was entirely because the fire was too big. Cao Ren asked the soldiers to carry water little by little, but the amount of water was too small and not enough to put out the fire.

Seeing that it was almost dawn, Cao Ren knew that if this continued, he would not be able to save any of the food in the granary. By then, the 100,000 troops in the city would be out of food immediately, and there would be no need for the Qin army to attack. Otherwise, they would be gone in a few days. will collapse on its own.

Just when Cao Ren was about to despair, he suddenly thought of a way, which was to directly dig down the basement, use the land to bury it to extinguish the fire, and then dig out the unburned grain and grass.

 Cao Ren didn't know if this method would work, but at this point he had no other choice but to try it out.

Under Cao Ren's personal command, 30,000 troops dug above the basement, and dug continuously for two hours before part of the basement collapsed. However, this also triggered a chain reaction, eventually causing the entire basement to collapse. Collapse.

Under the cover of soil, the underground fire was basically extinguished instantly. The next step was to dig out the food that had not been burned from the ground.

 But after such a long period of burning, how much food and grass can be left?

 Cao Ren had no idea about this, but there was no other better way besides trying his best to dig out.

Although there were sufficient manpower in Chenliu City, the area of ​​the underground grain depot was also very large. It was impossible for Cao Ren to dig out the entire grain depot again, so he used fixed-point excavation, that is, digging the location of the grain storage point on the ground.

In addition, since the fire at the first to fourth grain storage points was the largest and the closest to the entrance, it was theoretically impossible for any food to survive, so Cao Ren directly gave up on the first four grain storage points and switched to Concentrate manpower and material resources to dig out the next six.

Cao Ren and his men dug from morning to evening, and finally dug through the fifth and sixth grain storage points. Unfortunately, all the grain in the fifth grain storage point had been burned, and although there was still grain and grass in the sixth grain storage point, it survived. , but the food that was rescued was only a mere hundred stones.

Such a result naturally made Cao Ren's face extremely ugly. After all, if this trend continues, even if there is still grain that has not been burned in the next three grain storage points, it is estimated that the amount will not be very large.

 Cao Ren went all out to dig out the collapsed grain depot, not to save these residues, but at this time he had no choice but to continue digging.

　　People will not always be unlucky, God will favor Cao Ren after all.

The seventh grain storage point was dug out. After counting, it was found that there were still thousands of stones of grain and grass that had not been burned.

This result instantly made Cao Ren feel as if he had been given a shot of blood. After all, the fire became smaller the further back he went. In other words, the remaining grain in these three grain storage points was definitely more than that in the seventh grain storage point.

As Cao Ren expected, after digging through the seventh grain storage point, three thousand stones of grain and grass were rescued. If you save some money, it would be enough to feed an army of 100,000 for two days.

 The next step is to dig out the three food storage points, No. 890, which has the smallest fire. It is estimated that the remaining food in them should be enough for seven or eight days.

 Cao Ren was exhausted after working hard all night and day, so he went to rest after the urging of his subordinates.

Cao Ren just took off his clothes and went to bed. Before he could even close his eyes, his subordinates came to report that his cousin Cao Hong had died of serious injuries. This also made him feel like he was struck by lightning.

Cao Hong is not only Cao Ren's cousin, but the two grew up together. They are better than real brothers even if they are not real brothers.

 So, after learning the news of Cao Hong's death, Cao Ren was stunned. He couldn't care about anything and hurried to Cao Hong's place.

　　When Cao Ren arrived, even Cao Hong's body was cold.

Looking at the huge scar on Cao Hong's chest, Cao Ren could no longer hold back the grief in his heart, and cried loudly while holding Cao Hong's body.

 “Hongdi, my Hongdi…”

After venting his anger, Cao Ren's eyes turned cold and he asked, "Who injured General Cao Hong?"

 “Well, it’s General Cao Youwen.”

After saying that, Cao Hong's guards told Cao Ren exactly what happened and the whole story of Cao Hong's death.

 “Cao Youwen.”

Cao Ren gritted his teeth and read out Cao Youwen's name. At this time, he wanted to kill him immediately, but Cao Youwen had already gone to find Cao Zhen and Cao Bing and his son. He was obviously looking for allies. If he attacked Cao Youwen at this time, he would be forcing Cao Youwen to sink his boat. , Moreover, Cao Hong also made a big mistake in this matter.

Cao Ren is right to ask Cao Hong to catch the traitor, but the prerequisite is that he cannot do it forcefully. Regardless of the authenticity of Li Da's suicide note, just because Cao You heard that he had the suicide note in his hand, without other evidence, he was legally innocent, and no one would be convinced by his arrest if he was innocent.

However, Cao Hong was on the good side. He failed to arrest him by force and launched a sneak attack. This was the most stupid of all stupidities. It was equivalent to giving him a chance to escape.

Even if Cao Hong can successfully get rid of Cao Youwen brothers, what will the other generals in the army think?

Today you, Cao Hong, can directly kill two generals with over 10,000 troops without clear evidence. Can you use this as a reason to kill us tomorrow? At that time, Cao Jun will surely fall into a situation where everyone is in danger.

Cao Ren didn't understand what Cao Hong was thinking at that time. He didn't even think of such a simple truth and did such a reckless thing. But since it had happened and Cao Hong paid the price with his life, then he We can only try our best to help Cao Hong deal with the aftermath.

In fact, if Cao Hong had not taken action, Cao Ren would have had legitimate reasons to attack the Cao Youwen brothers, but Cao Hong did it, which made Cao Ren passive.

“Other than me, who else knows about the death of General Cao Hong?” Cao Ren asked with a cold face.

“Since the news was not hidden, many people should know it.”

Hearing this, Cao Ren felt a chill in his heart. After all, if Cao Youwen knew that Cao Hong died of injuries due to him, he would have to rebel even if he didn't want to.

"Immediately send an order to Cao You to tell you that the truth has been found out. Their brothers are innocent and General Cao Hong's death has nothing to do with him."

Cao Ren obviously hates Cao Youwen to death, but now not only can't he touch him, but he has to comfort him and show off to other generals in order to achieve the purpose of internal stability. I'm afraid only Cao Ren can feel this sense of frustration.

After the soldiers left, Cao Ren looked at the wound on Cao Hong's chest. He always felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was, so he could only sigh helplessly.

In fact, no matter who was present, several of Cao Wei's major military advisers could see the problem. After all, Cao Hong's death was too coincidental, and all coincidences are often caused by man-made things.

But Cao Ren obviously didn't have the wisdom to see through everything, and it was so reasonable for everything to happen. Cao Youwen did kill Cao Hong, so he just vaguely felt that there was something wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was.

At the same time, in the camp of Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son, Cao You heard the arrival of brother Cao Youwan, which naturally made the father and son very happy.

Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son are both surrender factions. They are branches of the Cao family, and their relationship with the main family is not very good. Naturally, they cannot be said to be very loyal ministers. What's more, Cao Wei is now in decline, and they just want to live.

In order to test Cao Ren's bottom line, Cao Zhen and Cao Bing's father and son had clearly opposed Cao Ren before and thus challenged his authority once. As a result, although the Qin envoy was saved, he struggled under Cao Ren's suppression.

Cao Ren's control over the entire army was still very strong. Except for Cao Zhen and Cao Bing, no one else dared to directly oppose them, so that not only did they take up the positions of city gate guards, but even the main camp was placed in a remote place, surrounded by They were even surrounded by Cao Ren's people, obviously to prevent them from rebelling.

Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son were also frightened by what Cao Ren did. They were afraid that they would be liquidated before surrendering, so they became more honest after that. However, Cao Ren, who still wanted to scare the monkeys, would not let them go so easily.

Under the persecution of Cao Ren, Cao Zhen and Cao Bing's father and son became more and more difficult. When they were about to lose their military power, Chenliu's underground granary was set on fire by Qin army spies.

Regarding this, Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son were naturally overjoyed. After all, after such a big incident, Cao Ren must not care about them, and now there is no food and grass. No matter how hard Cao Ren persists, he cannot let the soldiers starve. Is your stomach warping?

Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son both had a premonition that the surrender faction, which was originally weak in Cao's army, would soon develop and grow as the food and grass in the underground granaries were burned. No matter how hard Cao Ren struggled, he would not be able to escape with them. Surrender to fate together.

Although Cao Zhen and Cao Bing were gloating in their hearts, they obviously would not show it. In addition, they sent troops to put out the fire, but the army was blocked by Cao Ren's people before they could leave the camp.

Cao Ren was worried that Cao Zhen and Cao Bing and his son would take advantage of the fire to cause trouble, so he specifically ordered him to stay where he was and not allowed to leave the camp. If he disobeyed the order, he would be surrounded and annihilated.

Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son didn't want to cause trouble, they just wanted to show off. Seeing that Cao Ren was serious, they were not sure of blocking Cao Ren's encirclement from all sides, so they naturally gave up and retreated quietly. wait for news.

What Cao Zhen, Cao Bing and his son did not expect was that they did not wait for news about Cao Ren and Huo Huo, but instead waited for Cao Youwen and Cao Youwan brothers.

Compared to Cao Ren and Cao Hong of the main lineage, Cao Zhen and Cao Bing's father and son have a better relationship with Cao Youwen brothers who are also from the same branch. The reason is that the two families have the same status.

When they learned that Cao Hong had sneak attacked the two brothers and cut off Cao Youwan's right hand, Cao Zhen and Cao Bing and his son looked at each other, obviously shocked by Cao Hong's recklessness.

This also met Cao Youwen. If Cao Zhen and Cao Bing and his son were Cao Zhen and Cao Bing, they would definitely go against it without any room for turning.

 Cao Zhen immediately asked his son Cao Bing to take Cao Youwan for treatment. At the same time, he said to Cao Youwen: "Brother Youwen, Cao Hong did something wrong in this matter. Don't worry, I will definitely support you..."

Before he finished speaking, a soldier broke in and whispered a report in his ear.

After hearing this, Cao Zhen stood up directly and said with shock on his face: "What? Cao Hong died of his injuries?" He looked at Cao Youwen with a look of disbelief, as if to say, why are you so heavy-handed!

Cao You was also shocked when he heard this, and immediately objected: "Impossible, I don't have a dead hand. It's impossible for that knife to kill Cao Hong."

Cao Zhen also showed a solemn look. He naturally believed that Cao Youwen, who had always been calm, was not the kind of person who strikes without measure. But the problem is that in this situation, whether Cao Hong was killed by himself or not, Cao Ren would definitely think that he was killed. .

 (End of this chapter)