But it was said that Ma Chao's Xiangyang artillery attacked for half an hour, and tens of thousands of large and small rocks flew into Xiaopei City. Suffering from this violent blow, the southern wall of Xiaopei City was already in disrepair, and the wooden city gate was about to be burned through. Seeing that the time was ripe, Ma Chao immediately ordered an attack on the city. Gao Shun and Cao Xing, who were responsible for the command and dispatch, first ordered people to set up ladders and ropes, and there were archers under the city ready to shoot the enemy troops on the top of the city. But something unexpected happened. From the time the soldiers set up the ladder to climbing onto the city, no enemy troops appeared on the city, and no resistance was encountered. Ma Chao's heart moved, and he knew that Liu Bei must have abandoned the city and fled for his life. This had been expected for a long time. Liu Bei would never use his hard-earned wealth to fight against him, otherwise Liu Bei would not have run away. . As more and more soldiers climbed up to the top of the city, the city gate was breached, the drawbridge was lowered, and the large group of troops then entered Xiaopei City. Ma Chao immediately ordered the collection of prisoners to appease the people in the city, and made it clear in advance that if any soldiers dared to take advantage of the chaos to rob people of their property or rape women, they would be dealt with according to military law! All the generals, big and small, hurriedly accepted the order and left. In total, more than 10,000 Yellow Turbans surrendered. However, the houses in the city were empty of ten rooms. After asking some prisoners, they found out that Liu Bei was rushing to Lingbi with tens of thousands of people in the city, intending to rush to Shouchun, Yangzhou to join Yuan Shao. Seeing that the sky was getting dark and the enemy army had been gone for half an hour, Ma Chao couldn't help but became furious. Liu Bei's move of leading the people to flee was not a bad move! If he leads the cavalry to pursue him, Liu Bei can mobilize the people to resist and take advantage of the chaos to escape. This will inevitably cause casualties to the people. He, Ma Chao, will be charged with killing innocent people indiscriminately and massacring people. If he didn't pursue him, he would be playing into Liu Bei's hands. He only had to travel through the night and reach Yangzhou before dawn, thus entering Yuan Shao's sphere of influence and escaping calmly. After pondering for a while, Ma Chao quickly made up his mind that Liu Bei was not an ordinary person and he would not be allowed to escape. Otherwise, there will be endless troubles. At present, Wenpin and Gao Shun are stationed in Xiaopei. Responsible for guarding the prisoners and cleaning the battlefield, he led Chen Dao and Cao Xing to lead eight thousand cavalry out of the city to pursue them. It is now dusk, and night is coming. Ma Chao calculated that Liu Bei could not move too fast with tens of thousands of people. The army had only traveled twenty miles before they encountered a sparse and straggler of civilians. Then run seven or eight miles. I saw a large, dark crowd ahead, as many as 70,000 to 80,000 people, including men and women. There are young and old. When these people saw Ma Chao's cavalry approaching, they immediately panicked and fled in all directions. There were also many of Liu Bei's troops mixed in. Under the mobilization of their respective generals, they formed a simple formation to confront Ma Chao, with tens of thousands of people. Ma Chao frowned. At this point, he finally understood Liu Bei's true intention. This move was just to escape. Imagine that at night, nearly 100,000 soldiers and civilians are mixed together. Who can find Liu Bei? Once these people fled for their lives, how could a mere seven or eight thousand cavalry control the situation? In this way, Liu Bei could fish in troubled waters and escape calmly. As for being separated, it's easy. As long as Liu Bei escapes to a safe place and spreads the news, people will come to him one after another. Seeing people disappearing into the night, the situation was completely out of control, and Ma Chao couldn't think of a perfect way to find Liu Bei. Moreover, there are few war horses among these people. Maybe Liu Bei had fled early and deliberately left these people to torment him. In desperation, Ma Chao had no choice but to launch a financial offensive and shouted: "Fathers and fellow villagers in Peicheng, don't panic! I am the imperial general and the champion, so is Ma Chao! This time I led the troops to attack Xiaopei, just to wipe out the rebel Liu Bei, I have no intention of harming the people of Xuzhou! "Please don't panic!" After the words fell, the people nearby were relieved. After all, Ma Chao's name was not fake, and it was impossible for the people of Xuzhou not to hear it. At this moment, a middle-aged man suddenly stood out from the crowd and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Have you forgotten what Cao Cao did to massacre the city in Xuzhou a few days ago? Ma Chao is kind in appearance and evil in heart, even more so than Cao Cao! I don¡¯t know how many people have died at the hands of Ma Chao in Jizhou and Luoyang over the past few years. You must not believe his sweet words! Let¡¯s run away at night!¡± After that, he quickly got into the crowd in the darkness and stopped. Can't find it. Ma Chao was furious and secretly thought that Liu Bei was very capable. He became more and more determined to get rid of Liu Bei completely. He immediately shouted: "It's fair to say right and wrong, the truth will be revealed in the future! As I said, I will kill Liu Bei! If anyone can Point out Liu Bei or inform him of his whereabouts. Once verified, I will reward you with a hundred catties of gold. I will never break your promise!" Tens of thousands of people were in an uproar. Seeing that Ma Chao had no intention of taking action, many people who were planning to escape also stood in place. But these people were all instigated and forced to come by Liu Bei, and Liu Bei was never seen again after leaving the city. It was difficult to provide him with useful clues, and Liu Bei was determined to escape, so naturally he would not leak any information. In the middle of the night, he could achieve his goal by running in any direction. Ma Chao had no choice but to try to annihilate the recruits first.Let¡¯s talk about what Liu Bei left behind. As for Liu Bei¡¯s movements, it won¡¯t be too late to ask about Liu Bei¡¯s movements later. In advance, Huang Zhong and Xu Huang each led a team of elite troops to ambush on both sides of Jiulong Mountain, completely blocking Liu Bei's escape to Yangzhou and Yuzhou. He was afraid that Liu Bei would be hiding in some village or mountaintop and would not be able to come out, or he would flee to neighboring Yanzhou at night, otherwise it would be impossible to escape from his dragnet. Having made up his mind, Ma Chaoti immediately stepped forward and shouted to the tens of thousands of remaining soldiers: "Liu Bei is an unjust man. He has already abandoned you and fled for his life. Do you still want to fight for me with your life for him? Isn't it possible?" I will give you one last chance to lay down your arms and surrender to my general, and protect and persuade these people to return to Xiaopei to live in peace. In this way, I will not only not hold you accountable for your faults, but also allocate land to you near Xiaopei, and you will become a thief without the identity of a thief. Civilians!" The nearly ten thousand thieves were very moved when they heard this. These people are all strong and powerful Yellow Turbans recruited by Liu Bei in Beihai, and their loyalty will never be lower than that! Furthermore, shortly after escaping from Xiaopei, Liu Bei personally led them to take the people hostage and march towards Lingbi, and ordered Guan Yu to lead five thousand elite troops to break up the rear. However, Ma Chao pursued him without encountering any obstruction. Now Liu Bei is nowhere to be found. They have obviously been regarded as abandoned sons to attract Ma Chao's attention. There are also smart people among these people, who have already figured this out. Seeing Ma Chao offering such generous terms, some people immediately dropped their weapons and prostrated, saying loudly: "I would like to surrender to the general!" Some people took the lead and just listened " Jingle bells!" There was a sound, and the defeated soldiers who had just wanted to fight dropped their weapons and surrendered. The remaining small number can only follow the crowd, only hating Liu Bei for being unrighteous and running away on their own at the critical moment. The people of Xiaopei didn't really believe that Ma Chao would massacre the city. Now that they saw Ma Chao recruiting the Yellow Turban thieves as civilians, they felt more reassured. Would a general who didn't even kill the Yellow Turban thieves massacre them? There was no need for Ma Chao to detain these common people and surrendered people. While sending several groups of cavalry to inquire about the news, he organized the common people and surrendered troops to slowly rush towards Xiaopei City. After walking a few steps, a small-looking officer suddenly came to Ma Chao and bowed down in front of him. He said respectfully: "I have met the general. I have something important to report!" Ma Chao felt happy and said loudly: "What do you have to report? If you have something to report? It's valuable, and I will definitely give you a big reward!" The little leader said: "To inform you, General, although Liu Bei has disappeared, his family is still under our protection! And General Taishi has just led a group of troops to attack! If they flee in the direction of Lingbi, Liu Bei might follow Tai Shici!" Ma Chao's thoughts turned and he asked anxiously: "Are Guan Yu, Jian Yong and others among them?" "No! General Guan was arranged not long after he left the city! It's over, he's no longer in the army!" Ma Chao nodded, but he didn't expect that Tai Shici was among them. However, it was unlikely that this person would join Liu Bei, otherwise how could Liu Bei keep him and not take him away? He did not want to let go of the famous general Tai Shici, but he would definitely be ambushed by Huang Zhong on his way to Lingbi, so it would not be difficult to capture him. There is no need to chase after him at this time, just wait for the good news from Huang Zhong. He immediately said: "This is very good, you should be rewarded! Later you can go to Lord Bo Zhugejin to receive ten gold as a reward!" "Thank you, general!" The little leader was overjoyed. This is not a strange thing, he Ma Chao will find out sooner or later if he doesn't come to report, so he continued: "But I don't know what the general will do with that Miss Gan? I don't ask for a bounty, I just hope that the general will hand this person over to the care of the villain!" Ma Chao secretly said It's funny. After taking a closer look, I found that this little boss is still a naughty boy. No wonder he dares to miss Liu Bei's Mrs. Gan. Immediately he said: "This general has made his own decision in his heart! No matter how unworthy Liu Bei is, he is still a prince. If this general gives his wife away casually, he will definitely be criticized by others! This matter cannot be mentioned again!" After that, he turned to a man. The leader of the team ordered: "You quickly bring a pair of soldiers and horses with this brother to protect Mrs. Gan. No one is allowed to touch her without an order from me!" "No!" The little leader's expression changed. , obviously very reluctant in his heart, he leaned down and clasped his fists and said: "General, wait a minute, I have something to say!" Ma Chao felt impatient, frowned and said: "What do you have to say, please tell me quickly! I don't have time to talk to you, general. You're talking too much!" The young leader clasped his fists and said, "To tell you the truth, this villain is not a Yellow Turban bandit, but a native of Xiaopei, and he has just become the commander of Liu Bei's personal army! Youkong Beihai is a matchmaker, but the wedding ceremony has not yet been held for the two of you. Therefore, Miss Gan cannot be called Mrs. Gan. Now that she has become a prisoner of the general, I only hope that the general can understand the people's sentiments and return Miss Gan to her husband. My mother-in-law, I am willing to follow the general to the death, and I am loyal to you!" Ma Chao felt moved after hearing this. From these words, it is not difficult to see that this little boss does not want to take Gan Qian as his own, and his words are full of pleading and pleading. Sincerity, without any hint of lewdness, could there be some kind of relationship between the two of them? Then he asked: "I would like to ask you, what is your relationship with Miss Gan?"(To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!