Cao Ren summoned the generals, gave a general description of the current situation, and finally said: "The prime minister will retreat tomorrow, and we will fail to break through." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

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 eyes of the generals and said calmly, "Forty ships can keep at least two thousand people alive, 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 head 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, general, we all listen to you." Cai Yang slowly combed the red tassels on his battle helmet, and said with a calm smile, "It's worth exchanging 10,000 lives for 100,000 troops." ”

"The prime minister rushed back from thousands of miles and killed us all the way to save us, and he has done his duty." Xiahou Ba raised his head and drank a sip of cold water, and said calmly, "Let's stay." We thank him and we are willing to continue to follow him in the next life. ”

"General Wei, you can leave by boat." Xiahou Yuan pointed at Yuanjin 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. ”

Wei Yuanjin smiled slightly, shook his head and said, "At this time, how can 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 and said, "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 and said to everyone: "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 have sent someone to invite them." ”

He handed the bamboo slip to Xiahou Yuan, and then said to Wei Yuanjin: "General Wei also selected a group of people from his own men. 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 violently, and just wanted to speak, but was stopped by Cao Ren with his hand, and said in a deep voice: "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 loudly, "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, no one will leave 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 Yi as quickly as possible. Li Yi immediately ordered Guan Yu and Zhang Yan to command the army to launch an attack and kill the rebels on the banks of the Jishui River.

The rebels contracted their defense, and more than 10,000 people crammed into a narrow car formation to resist stubbornly, and it was really not easy to attack it.

The Northern Xinjiang army attacked and killed in the middle of the night, and the soldiers were already very tired, and if they attacked forcibly, the losses would be too great.

The cavalry of the Hu people was also at a loss in the face of the rebels' chariot formation.

"How's the fire attack?" Guan Yu looked at Li Zhong and asked, "Didn't you just burn the rebels' northern front car formation?" Why did you do it again and burn this car formation? ”

Li Zhong smiled bitterly: "Yun Chang, the oil is gone." Today, General Bian Xi burned a fire in Xipingting, and I burned another one just now, and the oil ran out. ”

Guan Yu widened his eyes, glared at Li Zhong fiercely, and said loudly: "Can't you save some money?" It's not your family's fire oil, it's happy, right? ”

Then he looked at Dong Zhao again and complained loudly: "You are responsible for supervising the grain, grass and ordnance, how can there be such a mistake?" If you let the rebels escape, I'll impeach you. ”

The crowd knew his temper and scolded him. Xian Yufu 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.

Guan Yu was angry, pointed at Xian Yufu and scolded: "You don't have a brain? 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, don't talk nonsense. ”

Xian Yufu's face was red, and he shrank his head and ran behind Xu Huang, opening his mouth wide and panting heavily.

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." Guan Yu smashed his fist on the desk and yelled at the generals, "Smash his turtle shell for me and smash his head out." ”

………………

Zhang Yan personally rushed to the front line to supervise the battle.

"The lord is worried that the rebels will turn around and flee, and he asks us to fight quickly at any cost." Zhang Yan pointed to the front of the car formation and said, "Yun Chang cares about the casualties of the soldiers, hoping to deter the rebels by force and force the rebels, 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. ”

After careful discussion with the front-line generals, Zhang Yan decided to let the strong archers and catapults shoot from a distance, suppress the enemy archers in the car formation, let the crossbow vehicles shoot cross, and cover the attacking soldiers to approach the car formation, and strive to open the attack 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 Yi stood on the high slope of Ma, looking at the mist on the river in the distance, anxious.

Guan Yu and Zhang Yan had been attacking for two hours, but they still hadn't taken Cao Ren

The scouts came to report that the ship that had arrived at Xiaotaoting last night had returned to the river in the area of Xipingting, but they did not see a large number of soldiers disembarking from the boat, and it was estimated that it was not to meet Cao Ren's retreat, but to transport grain, grass and ordnance to Cao Ren.

In addition, the scouts also reported a strange thing, last night in the river around Xipingting, the rebels removed all the food and ordnance loaded on the boats, and then these empty boats frequently went back and forth between the two banks, as if to transport soldiers to cross the river.

"The rebels are leaving." Li Yi exclaimed, turned around and shouted at Dian Wei, "Quick, immediately contact Zhai Ya, cross the river, immediately lead 20,000 cavalry to cross the river to the south, rush to the Taoqiu area to outflank the rebels, attack the rebels, ...... quickly"

A few heralds galloped away like arrows from a string. Li Yi looked at their backs gradually disappearing 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 Ting and another at Xiping Pavilion, and with the losses of continuous attacks in the recent period, his army of 80,000 still had a maximum of 60,000 men. After Liu Bei received the news of Zhu Ling'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.

This adds up to a maximum of 70,000 people. Perhaps my own estimation is wrong, and the losses of the rebels may be greater, but from the perspective of arranging the troops, it is better to be conservative, so as not to miss the opportunity to encircle and annihilate the army by underestimating.

If he can annihilate all these 70,000 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 Yi 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 first line of Yancheng and Fengqiu, and the other was to go south and go to Chenliu or 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 cavalry in the northern frontier. 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 ahead of the cavalry, 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 cavalry of the northern frontier is now divided into three, one on the north bank of the Jishui River, and it will take time to cross the river to pursue. 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, this part of the cavalry would not participate in the siege. A cavalry was on the south bank of the Jishui River, but it was responsible for protecting Changyi and would not devote all its forces to the attack. 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 a cavalry to roam around the city of boiled dates. And because Cao Cao had tiger and leopard cavalry in his hands, the number of this cavalry could not be too small, so as not to have an accident. (To be continued.) )