Wubei Zhi (Vol. 11)

Ye; he also cut off their grain supplies. In the fifth month, he dug trenches to encircle the city, a perimeter of forty li approximately 13 miles. At first, he ordered the trenches to be shallow, as if they could be easily crossed. Shen Pei the general defending the city for the Yuan family watched this from the walls and laughed, choosing not to come out and contest the position. Cao Cao, however, deepened them in a single night to a depth of twenty feet original: "two zhang". He then diverted the Zhang River to flood the city. More than half of those within the city walls starved to death.

In the seventh month, Yuan Shang led more than ten thousand men back to rescue Ye. He first sent his Registrar, Li Fu, to infiltrate the city. Li Fu wore a flat-topped cap A clever fellow and, as dusk fell, he untruthfully claimed to be a Chief Commandant. He traveled from the northern siege lines toward the east, reprimanding the guards of the perimeter and meting out punishments according to the severity of their "infractions." He even passed directly in front of Cao Cao’s camp until he reached the southern siege lines. There, he shouted angrily at the guards and had them bound.

With this one phrase, he shows he is superior to others Taking advantage of the opening, he galloped to the foot of the city wall and called out to the men above, who let him in. When Cao Cao heard of this, he laughed and said, "He did not just enter for the sake of entering; he will surely try to come out again."

Li Fu, realizing that he could not risk the siege lines a second time, advised Shen Pei to send all the elderly and the weak out of the city to conserve grain. That night, they marched out holding banners to surrender. Li Fu followed among their ranks and successfully broke through the lines...