Chapter 9 Chase the Central Plains 40th Section Small Pottery Pavilion. Cao Ren's wish was disappointed. The Northern Frontier Army did not stop attacking after the darkness as he imagined, on the contrary, as the *night* (**please redact) became thicker and thicker, the Northern Frontier Army's attacks became more and more fierce.

Xin Bi and Cai Yang once again asked Cao Ren for help, and the western defense line was about to be broken through by the enemy. During the day, Lu Yi was worried that Cao Cao and Liu Bei's army would break through the blockade of Xiping Pavilion and kill him in the back, so he kept a battalion of men and horses just in case.

After night fell, Lu Yi learned that Cao Cao and Liu Bei had stopped attacking, and immediately threw Chang Gong's shooting battalion into the battlefield.

Xin Bi and Cai Yang, with the help of Li Hui, had just stabilized the battle line, but before they could catch their breath, the Northern Xinjiang Army roared and killed them, giving them a heavy blow.

Cao Ren has no troops to adjust at the moment. To the north, Wang Zhong's chariot array was caught in flames, and his defeat was imminent. To the east, Lü Bu commanded the army to forcibly cross the river and stubbornly advance to the hinterland of Xiaotaoting.

Although Xiahou Yuan tried his best to stop it, the morale of the Yanzhou army had been lost, and the soldiers were panicked and could only fight and retreat.

Just when Cao Ren was desperate, Cao Cao's letter was delivered to Cao Ren by water. In his letter, Cao Cao told Cao Ren that the main force of the army had suffered heavy losses at Xiping Pavilion today, and had lost the sharpness to continue the attack.

Injustice, Jiyang and other places have been controlled by the Northern Xinjiang Iron Cavalry, the back road has been blocked, the grain and grass have been cut off, and the survival of the army is in jeopardy.

After careful discussion with Lord Liu, I decided to withdraw to Fengqiu and Chenliu to join Yuan Shao before it was completely surrounded by the Northern Xinjiang Army.

After the army retreats, you are left to fend for yourselves. At the end of the letter, Cao Cao told Cao Ren that I would send a ship to meet you, and that you would escape as much as you could.

After Cao Ren read the letter, he was silent in the dark for a long time. Mao Jue quietly walked up to him and asked in a low voice, "When will the Prime Minister hit Xiao Taoting?" Cao Ren shook his head and threw the letter in his hand into the bonfire.

"Your Excellency will send a ship immediately, and we will evacuate. Go and gather the officials of the prefectures and prepare to get on board and evacuate. Mao Jue was shocked, and looked at Cao Ren in amazement for a long time without speaking.

Fast horses came quickly. The Northern Frontier Army lit a fire on the battlefield on the west side, illuminating the battlefield as bright as day.

The iron cavalry of the Huns also appeared on the battlefield on the western side, and with the cooperation of the infantry army in the northern Xinjiang, they launched a fierce attack on the Yanzhou army.

Xinbi couldn't resist it, and retreated again and again with the remnants of his troops.

"Tell Lord Xin that there are no more reinforcements. If you can keep it, if you can't keep it, you will retreat to the Chinese army. Cao Ren then ordered Xiahou Yuan and Wang Zhong that if they could not block the attack of the Northern Xinjiang Army, they would all withdraw and defend the Chinese army's chariot formation.

The only way to successfully escape the pursuit of the iron cavalry in northern Xinjiang was to bring more heavy chariots so that a chariot formation could be formed at any time to block the attack of the iron cavalry.

So whether it is Cao Cao, Liu Bei, or Cao Ren, the first thing that comes to mind when retreating is not speed, but safety.

With the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army, with a strong car formation, and with the long arrows in the hands of the soldiers, they were confident enough to withdraw to Chenliu safely.

The wagons brought out by Cao Ren from Dingtao City played an important role in the fierce battle. While the Yanzhou army was slowly retreating, forty large and small ships slowly approached the river embankment in the *night* (**please delete).

Cao Ren ordered his personal guards to garrison the embankment, extinguish all the torches on the embankment, and strictly forbid anyone to approach the embankment for 100 steps.

Xin Bi, Xiahou Yuan, Cai Yang, Wang Zhong, Li Hui and others each led their troops and withdrew to the Chinese army one after another. The soldiers who fought fiercely for a day and the night were covered in blood and exhausted.

The Northern Xinjiang Army also seemed to be tired, and tens of thousands of troops approached the surroundings of the car formation, surrounding the Yanzhou Army.

Cao Ren summoned the generals and gave a general description of the current situation,

"The Prime Minister will retreat tomorrow, and we will fail to break through." The generals' expressions were gloomy, and the atmosphere in the big tent was extremely depressed.

"There are forty boats on the Jishui River, and they were sent by the Prime Minister to pick us up." Cao Ren met the surprised gazes of the generals and said calmly,

"Forty ships, at least two thousand people can survive, but who should leave? Once the soldiers see the hope of survival, no one will give up. It's going to be fratricidal and chaotic right away, and you can't get out of the last one. ”

"We collapsed in an instant, and the Northern Xinjiang Army will be able to concentrate its forces immediately to encircle and intercept the Prime Minister." Cao Ren sighed,

"The injustice has been lost, and the army will not be able to safely cross the Jishui River and go south without protection." The joy on the faces of the generals gradually faded.

Cao Ren's meaning has already been said, he does not plan to evacuate, he wants to continue to hold on to Xiaotaoting and hold back the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army, so as to cover the safe withdrawal of Cao Cao and Liu Bei's troops across the Jishui River.

"Don't worry, my lord, we will all listen to you." Cai Yang slowly combed the red tassels on his helmet, and said with a calm smile,

"It's worth exchanging a few thousand lives for tens of thousands of troops."

"The Prime Minister has rushed back from thousands of miles and has been here to save us, and he has done his best." Wang Zhong raised his head and drank a sip of cold water, and said calmly,

"We're here to stay. We thank him and that we are willing to continue to follow him in the next life. ”

"Master Xin, you can leave by boat." Xiahou Yuan pointed his finger at Xinbi and said gratefully,

"This time, we were able to hold on to Dingtao for more than ten days, all because of your rescue. You've done enough for us, it's time for you to go. Simbi smiled and shook his head,

"At this time, how do I go? If I leave you alone to escape, will I be able to live in peace for the rest of my life? Do I still have a face to live in the world? He patted the dust on his armor with a serene expression, and said unhurriedly,

"What do people want in this life? Just to make a name for yourself. Miaocai, do you want me to live my whole life under the eyes of contempt? ”

"It's up to you." Xiahou Yuan laughed,

"If you have to die here, I won't stop you." The generals swept away the frustration and despair just now, and suddenly they talked and laughed, without any fear at all.

Cao Ren picked up a roll of bamboo slips from the desk,

"I have drawn up a list, including the commander, the military candidate, the military commander, and the school captain. There are about 20 people, and I've sent someone to invite them. He handed the bamboo slip to Xiahou Yuan, and then said to Xin Bi,

"Lord Xin also selected a group of people from his own men. Yingchuan's soldiers can't all die here. There are always some people left behind, and they can also help adults rebuild the Yingchuan Army in the future. ”

"I'm dead, Yingchuan County naturally has a new Taishou, and when the new Taishou rebuilds the Yingchuan Army, more heroes and heroes will be recruited in Yingchuan." Simbi shook his hand,

"Don't forget, Yingchuan is a good place for outstanding people."

"You go with them." Cao Ren said very resolutely,

"Miaocai, and a few of you, all leave, leave immediately." The generals were stunned. Xiahou Yuan stood up suddenly, and just wanted to speak, but was stopped by Cao Ren reaching out his hand,

"The Prime Minister ordered me to stay, and ordered you all to leave."

"What about the order? What about the eldest brother's letters? Xiahou Yuan shouted,

"Don't lie to us." Cao Ren took out a piece of white silk from his arms. Xiahou Yuan hurriedly opened it, and there was not a word on it.

"Zixiao ......"

"Take them away." Cao Ren snatched the white silk and stuffed it into his arms, reached out and patted Xiahou Yuan's back, and said in a low voice,

"If you don't leave, there's no one here. Tell my eldest brother that I will do my best to hold back the Northern Frontier Army. Xiahou Yuan was extremely sad and indignant, roared angrily, and rushed out of the big tent in quick steps.

The Northern Xinjiang Army found a boat on the Jishui River, and the news reached Li Hong's hands as quickly as possible.

Li Hong immediately ordered Lu Yi and Lü Bu to command the northern and southern armies to launch an attack and kill the rebels on the banks of the Jishui River.

The rebels shrink their defenses. Thousands of people crammed into the narrow car formation to resist stubbornly, and it was really not easy to attack it.

In the middle of the night, the soldiers were already very tired, and if they attacked forcibly, the losses would be too great.

The iron cavalry of the Huns was also helpless in the face of the rebels' chariot formation.

"How's the fire attack?" Koji Yi looked at Fan Li and asked,

"Didn't you just burn the rebels' northern front chariot formation? Why did you do it again and burn this car formation? Fan Li smiled bitterly,

"My lord, the oil is gone. Today, Lord Yu Poison burned a fire in Xiping Pavilion, and I burned another one just now, and the oil ran out. Koji Yi opened a pair of eyes wide and glared at Fan Li fiercely,

"Can't you save some? It's not your family's fire oil, it's happy, right? Then he looked at Dong Zhao again and complained loudly,

"You are in charge of supervising the grain, grass and ordnance, how can such a mistake occur? If you let the rebels escape, I'll impeach you. The people knew his temper, and he scolded him.

Captain Chang Gong suggested that strong archers should be recruited to rush to the river to shoot and block the retreat of the rebels with a dense array of arrows.

In order to block Cao Cao's rescue of Dingtao this time, the Northern Xinjiang Army consumed a large number of arrows, so there were a lot of long arrows transported from Jizhou recently, which was enough to waste a luxury.

Koji was angry, pointed at the bow and scolded,

"You don't have a brain, do you? Nonsense. Do you know how wide the Jishui River is? You transferred the archers to the river to shoot nonsense, what should I use to attack Cao Ren? Stay on my side, and don't talk nonsense. Chang Gong's face was red, and he ran behind Jade with his head shrunk, and opened his mouth wide in anger and gasped.

Fire attack can't work, strong attack can't work, you can only bomb indiscriminately, see if you can force the rebels to jump over the wall and kill each other.

After all, there are not many boats on the river, and the rebels must fight for ships in order to escape, as long as the rebels are in chaos, the opportunity to attack will come.

"Cao Ren, this bastard, shrinks his head and becomes a turtle at every turn." Koji Yi smashed his fist on the table and yelled at the generals,

"Smash his tortoise shell for me and smash his head out." Lu Bu personally rushed to the front line to supervise the battle. Zhang Zhen of the Tiger Ben Battalion of the Northern Army, Chang Gong of the Shooting Battalion and Guo Xun of the Wuwei Battalion of the Southern Army were responsible for the frontal attack.

"The general is worried that the rebels will turn around and flee, and he asks us to fight quickly at any cost." Lu Bu pointed to the car formation in front of him and said,

However, the Koji Lord cherished the casualties of his soldiers, hoping to deter the rebels by force and force them into chaos, so as to achieve victory at the lowest cost. In my opinion, let's compromise and let the soldiers try to storm a few times under the cover of the arrow array. Just open a gap and we'll be able to get in. The three of them discussed it carefully and decided to let the strong archers and stone cannons shoot from a distance to suppress the enemy archers in the car formation.

Cross-fire the ballistas to cover the attacking soldiers as they approach the formation and try to open the gap. A fierce battle began.

Cao Ren sat in command of the Chinese army and fought back. Dawn crept in to the rumbling drums. Li Hong was stationed at Ma Gaopo, looking at the mist on the river in the distance, anxious.

Lu Yi and Lu Bu had been attacking for two hours, but they still hadn't taken Cao Ren. The scouts came to report that the boat that had arrived at Xiaotaoting last night had returned to the river around Xipingting, but they did not see a large number of soldiers disembarking from the boat.

It is estimated that it was not to respond to Cao Ren's retreat, but to transport grain, grass and ordnance to Cao Ren. In addition, the scouts also reported a strange incident, the rebels had removed all the food and ordnance loaded on the ships on the river in the area of Xipingting last night, and then these empty boats frequently traveled back and forth between the two banks, as if to transport soldiers to cross the river.

"The rebels are leaving." Li Hong exclaimed, turned around and shouted at arbitrarily,

"Quick, tell Liu Bao urgently. Crossing the river, immediately led 10,000 iron horsemen to cross the river to the south, rushed to the Taoqiu area to outflank the rebels, attack the rebels, and ...... quickly" agreed arbitrarily, and was just about to order the herald behind him, Li Hong shouted again,

"Urgently tell Yan Rou and ask him to hurry to the Taoqiu area to meet Liu Bao. The Huns could not act alone, and once they burned, killed, and plundered in the counties, our sins were great. Tell Yan Rou that this matter is urgent and cannot be delayed. A few heralds galloped away like arrows from a string.

Li Hong looked at their backs that gradually disappeared into the mountains and forests, and his heart was excited. Dingtao won the battle, if the victory pursued, Cao Cao, Liu Bei's army encircled and annihilated on both sides of the Jishui River, the Central Plains battle of the chance of victory is very large.

After Cao Cao returned from Jianghuai to the Yanzhou battlefield, he was defeated once at Cao Pavilion and another at Xiping Pavilion, and with the losses of continuous attacks in the recent period, his army of 40,000 still had 30,000 men at most.

After Liu Bei received the news of Guan Yu's defeat in Jucheng, he would definitely divide his troops to return to Xuzhou, and if he divided his troops to 10,000 to help, he still had 20,000 troops.

In this way, the two add up to no more than 50,000 people, and perhaps if you are wrong, the losses of the rebels may be even greater.

However, considering the arrangement of troops, it is better to be conservative, lest we miss the opportunity to encircle and annihilate due to underestimation.

If he can annihilate all these 50,000 people, the blow to the rebels can be imagined, and Hebei can also rely on this battle to lay the advantage of seizing the Central Plains and pacifying the world.

The more Li Hong thought about it, the more excited he became. After Cao Cao and Liu Bei failed to rescue Dingtao, there were only two ways to escape, one was to go north and join the Henan army on the front line of Yancheng and Fengqiu.

One is to go south, go to Chenliu or go to Liangguo in Yuzhou. Comparatively, the danger of going north is too great. The north is a large plain, and a flat river is conducive to the pursuit of the iron cavalry in the north.

In addition, if Cao Cao and Liu Bei wanted to completely get rid of the pursuit of the Northern Xinjiang Army, they had to cross the Pushui River. The Pushui River is about three hundred miles away, and Cao Cao and Liu Bei can't outrun a four-legged war horse no matter what.

Even if Cao Cao discarded all the baggage and rushed to the Pushui River in advance before the iron horse, he still had no means to cross the river because he discarded the baggage, and he still had a dead end.

It's much safer to go south. First, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao's army will definitely receive him. At this moment, it is already the end of April, Yuan Shao's army should be rested, Liu Biao's army should also arrive, in order to prevent themselves from capturing the Central Plains, they must rescue Cao Cao and Liu Bei no matter what.

Second, there is the Jishui River as a block. The Northern Xinjiang Iron Cavalry is now divided into three, one on the north bank of the Jishui River, and it will take time to cross the river in pursuit.

An army that pinned down Yuan Shao and Liu Biao in the Jiyang and Chenliu areas, and was also responsible for cutting off Cao Cao's grain routes, and this part of the iron cavalry would not participate in the siege.

An iron cavalry is on the south bank of the Jishui River, but it is responsible for protecting Changyi, and will not devote all its forces to attacking.

In this way, the safety of Cao Cao's escape to the south will be greatly increased. Cao Cao will definitely choose to flee south, and there will be no mistake, but as a precaution, it is better to send an iron cavalry to roam around the area of Boiled Zao City.

Cao Cao has a tiger and leopard rider in his hand, and the number of this iron rider cannot be too small, so as not to have an accident.

"Liu Ming, who has issued an unjust sentence, guards the city carefully, and sends scouts to investigate the movements in the area of Boiling Zao City."

"The herald Shan Yuting's Zuo General Hu Yan Yuanji, Zuo Dadang Hu Lanrong immediately rushed to Xiping Pavilion to assemble and attack the rebels with me."

"General, Hu Yan Yuanzhen is attacking Cao Ren with Lord Koji Yi in Xiaotao Pavilion......" Arbitrarily just wanted to ask clearly, Li Hong had already interrupted him,

"The matter of attacking Cao Ren will be given to the two adults, Lu Yi and Lu Bu, and we will lead the iron cavalry army to hunt down and kill Cao Cao." On the morning of that day, there was a spectacular scene in the rebel camp.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians rushed out of the camp like a flood with large and small parcels on their shoulders and large and small packages, and then scattered along the large and small roads.

At the same time, hundreds of large and small boats shuttled back and forth on the river, transporting the people to the south bank without stopping.

When they came ashore, they also dispersed. After Li Hong heard the news, he rushed to the vicinity of the rebel camp as fast as possible to check what was going on.

The gate of the rebel camp was opened, flags fluttered in the camp, and rows of baggage carts could be faintly seen, and occasionally a few ballistae attached to the baggage carts could be seen.

In the depths of the camp, there was a crowd of people and a lot of people. I don't know if it's the rebel soldiers, or the people waiting to cross the river.

Li Hong's thick eyebrows were tightly locked, and he really couldn't think of what Cao Cao wanted. Want to fight yourself? Since there is a decisive battle, the army needs people.

When the war reached a critical moment, the role of the people was particularly important. Let the people go, how can tens of thousands of troops fight?

Isn't it important to send ordnance? Long arrows, in particular, consume a lot of money, and if you want to shoot continuously, you have to rely on the people to carry them continuously.

Want to retreat? The people have all run away, who will transport the grain and grass? Cao Cao wouldn't let his soldiers run away with dry food, a pot of arrows on their backs, and a spear?

Isn't that self-defeating? Suddenly the war drums in the rebel camp sounded in unison, the neighing of war horses came with the wind, and the strong murderous aura suddenly spread throughout the field.

Li Hong thought that the rebels were going to attack out of the camp, so he hurriedly retreated to the back of the blocking battle formation with iron cavalry. However, until the sun hung high in the sky, there was not a single shadow of a traitor.

The scouts of the Northern Xinjiang Army moved around, arrested many people for interrogation, and the answers they got made Li Hong even more confused.

The people said that the prime minister ordered them to go home, and gave them food and goods. The prime minister told them that the army was about to fight a decisive battle with the Hebei rebels, because Li Hong killed people without blinking, and brought the Huns into the Central Plains together.

Worried that after the defeat, these hundreds of thousands of people were killed by Li Hong, or taken to the Huns to be slaves, so it was decided to dismiss them first and let them escape back to their hometowns as soon as possible.

Therefore, the people respected Cao Cao as a god, regarded Li Hong as a bloodthirsty beast, and feared Li Hong to the extreme.

When asked about the movements of the rebels, the people said that the barracks were heavily guarded, and ordinary people could not approach them at all, and they did not know anything.

Li Hong became more and more uneasy, and always felt that something was wrong here. Cao Cao distributed food and property to hundreds of thousands of people, and dismissed them, even if he completely annihilated Cao Cao, he would not be able to capture any booty.

But Cao Cao's purpose was clearly more than that. Cao Cao divided all the food and property, what should he do with tens of thousands of soldiers?

If he surrounds him, after a long time, he and tens of thousands of soldiers will have to drink the northwest wind.

"Summons Lu Yi and Lu Bu, immediately take down the small Tao Pavilion for me, and move to Xiping Pavilion to encircle and annihilate Cao Cao." The Northern Frontier Army successfully tore open the car formation and roared in.

Under the indiscriminate bombardment of the Northern Xinjiang Army, the Yanzhou Army has suffered heavy casualties and its morale is low. Seeing that the car formation was broken, the Northern Xinjiang Army rushed in, and the Yanzhou soldiers surrendered one after another.

Captain Li Hui fought to his death. Cao Ren resisted stubbornly, and was finally captured due to serious injuries and exhaustion. Lu Bu had a deep hatred for the Yanzhou army and ordered all of them to be killed.

Seeing that he was surrounded by ballistas, the Yanzhou army soldiers were full of heart and gall, knelt on the ground and pleaded, shouting that they were originally the Qingzhou Yellow Turban Army, not Cao Cao's descendants.

The cry of the soldier alarmed the bitter chief and many former Yellow Turban Army generals, and everyone came forward to intercede. Lu Bu couldn't listen to it at all, and insisted on killing.

Koji Yi knew the pain in Lu Bu's heart and remained silent about it. The bitter chief hurriedly sent someone to report to the general Li Hong.

Li Hongda was furious. In this kind of emergency, the general of the unified army was not in a hurry to encircle and annihilate Cao Cao, but he had the leisure to kill the prisoners.

Li Hong asked him to go in person and asked him to tell Liyi and Lü Bu that the prisoners could not be killed, and that the losses of the army could be directly supplemented.

Seeing that Cao Yi, the subordinate of the General's Mansion, came to Xiao Taoting to convey the order in person, Lu Yi and Lu Bu were secretly shocked.

The general was furious, and the two immediately ordered to reorganize the army and move to Xipingting in a hurry. At dusk, Li Hong gathered about 60,000 troops to attack the rebel camp.

The attack went very smoothly and went down in one go. There were only 500 soldiers in the camp, as well as a letter from Cao Cao.

Li Hong trembled with anger and smashed Cao Cao's letter to the ground. For the first time in more than a decade, he suffered such a humiliation.

"Yuntian, gather an army of foot soldiers, cross the river immediately, and attack Chen Liu."

"Iron cavalry, follow me north to chase and kill the rebels." Jump to