Cao Cao returned to the Taishou Mansion, and after understanding Yuan Shao's meaning, he immediately made a decision, it is better to ask for others than for himself, and send troops!

The next day, Cao Cao gathered all the soldiers and horses, a total of more than 8,000 people, and took Guo Jia, Xun You, Dian Wei, Cao Hong, Li Dian and others to Dingtao, and sent people to inform Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, and led the army to settle with him in Dingtao, leaving Xun Yu and Yuan Shao in Puyang to hand over the land of seven counties, and deal with money and grain, and sent Cheng Yu and Cao Xiu to Dongwuyang to take all their families to Puyang.

Yuan Shao heard the news of Cao Cao's dispatch of troops and personally came to see off this former confidant.

Outside the city gate, Cao Cao's army was assembled, the army was ready to go, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao stood at the city gate, and said respectfully: "Brother Benchu, Puyang City will bother you to guard for me, I will leave Xun Yu to hand over the matter of ceding seven counties to you, and when I am not there, he can deal with some problems for me." ”

"Meng De, although you can rest assured, there is a brother who is guarding Puyang, and Zhang Yan and Lu Bu do not dare to attack. I await your triumphant news! Yuan Shao said with a smile.

After the two separated, Cao Cao ordered the army to set off and march southward.

Yuan Shao stood at the gate of the city, watching Cao Cao's army leave, at this time, Tian Feng walked to his side, and he asked: "Now that Meng De is in trouble, I am his confidant and old friend, but I sit back and ignore it, is it a little too unkind?" ”

Tian Feng said: "The lord is now a hegemon, no matter what he does, he should put the interests of our army first. Cao Cao is the lord of the father, but he is also a dominant figure, if he is willing to use the lord, the lord helps him, this is understandable. But Cao Cao is eloquent and ambitious, and he refuses to be subservient to the lord, so that's another matter. Our army has sent troops to help Cao Cao solve his urgent needs, crush Lu Bu and Zhang Yan's intention to flank Cao Cao, so that Cao Cao can be temporarily preserved. Moreover, helping Cao Cao pacify Yanzhou is not beneficial to our army at all, so why should our army lose troops and lose troops for this? ”

After hearing this, Yuan Shao sighed softly and didn't say anything.

Tian Feng continued: "My lord, in the affairs of Yanzhou, our army should not interfere. When the lord entered the court at a young age, he became famous at home. When it is abolished, it can carry forward loyalty; Riding away alone, Dong Zhuo was terrified. If you cross the river to the north, you will obey the Bohai Sea; Hold the pawn of a county, and gather the people of Jizhou. The prestige crosses the river, and the fame is more important than the world! Now the lord only needs to wave his army to the north and pacify Gongsun Zhan, and he can deter the Xianbei, Xiongnu and other tribes. Then go west and merge with the state, and the east of Qingzhou, you can have the land of the four states of the Yellow River, dominate Hebei, and then collect the talents of heroes, gather millions of troops, welcome the Son of Heaven in Xijing, and restore the temple in Luoyang. With this command, who would dare to disobey the world and punish the rebellious? ”

After listening to Tian Feng's words, Yuan Shao's spirits were greatly lifted, and he immediately said: "What Yuan Hao said is extremely true, Gongsun Zhan is my confidant, and it is indeed inappropriate for our army to interfere in the affairs of Yanzhou." ”

While the two were talking, Yan Liang came to Yuan Shao's side, and said with a panicked face: "Lord Qi, the trial sent someone to send news from Jizhou, Gongsun Zhan is assembling an army in Zhuo County, ready to go south at any time, and the trial and match ask the Lord Gong to speed up the army to return to Yecheng, so as not to take advantage of Gongsun Zhan's situation." In addition, the Montenegrin thief Zhang Yan and others heard that the lord led the army to Yanzhou, and they were also ready to move. ”

Tian Feng immediately said: "My lord, Jizhou is the foundation of our army, we must not afford to lose, we should immediately lead the army back to Ye, and naturally we can dispel the actions of Gongsun Zhan, Zhang Yan and others." ”

Yuan Shao said: "As soon as Meng De left, I withdrew my troops back to Ye, isn't it too ......?"

Tian Feng said: "The lord had previously sent Zhu Ling to lead the army to help Cao Cao, it is better to let Zhu Ling lead the men and horses of the headquarters to stay, and the rest will return to Jizhou, and write a letter to tell Cao Cao, explain the reason, and leave him some money and food, I believe Cao Cao can definitely understand the lord's distress." ”

"Okay, let's do it!"

Yuan Shao then immediately issued an order, except for Zhu Ling's army, all the rest returned to Ye, and sent someone to inform Wen Chou, who was stationed in Shouzhang, to withdraw his troops. In addition, Yuan Shao also deliberately left his nephew Gao Gan and asked Gao Gan to do the matter of handing over the seven counties with Xun Yu in Puyang.

Xun Yu heard that Yuan Shao was going to withdraw his troops, so he hurriedly went to see him off, and personally sent Yuan Shao to the Yellow River crossing, and then returned to Puyang.

After Yuan Shao withdrew his troops, Xun Yu handed over the land of the seven counties with Gao Gan, and received a lot of money and grain from Yuan Shao, and informed Cao Cao of this matter.

Cao Cao was still on the march, and suddenly heard the news of Yuan Shao's withdrawal, and his heart seemed to have overturned a five-flavor bottle, sweet and sour, bitter, spicy and salty, all kinds of tastes.

In this way, it also strengthened Cao Cao's belief that everything must rely on himself, so he urged to speed up the march, once Lu Bu and Zhang Yan learned the news of Yuan Shao's withdrawal, they would inevitably lead the army to attack Cao Cao again, Cao Cao must rush before Lu Bu and Zhang Yan got the news, first attack Lu Bu, as long as Lu Bu is cut off, the remaining one will be easy to deal with.

At the same time, Xiahoudun and Xiahouyuan, who received Cao Cao's military order, immediately gathered their troops and horses and went to Dingtao to meet Cao Cao.

The two armies of Xiahoudun and Xiahouyuan set off together, but soon Xiahouyuan's army left Xiahoudun's army far behind, running fast, and in the army, there was such a saying: Xiahouyuan, the captain of the military academy, five hundred in three days, one thousand in six days.

This illustrates the characteristics of Xiahou Yuan, and also shows the key to Xiahou Yuan's use of troops. This person is very good at sports warfare, and he is good at running thousands of miles. He is like a fox on the battlefield, very cunning, often disappearing without a trace, just when you think he has withdrawn and let down his vigilance, he suddenly appears in your back the next day, leading the army to stab you in the back, making you unguarded.

It is precisely because of this that Xiahou Yuan can become the leading general of the Cao army, and his generals far exceed Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong and others, and they are often entrusted with important tasks by Cao Cao.

Two days later, Cao Cao led the army into the Dingtao realm, and after walking forward for less than a few miles, he saw a troop of soldiers and horses waiting there in front of him, and it turned out to be Xiahou Yuan.

Cao Cao was not surprised at all by Xiahou Yuan's appearance, Xiahou Yuan's rapid march had already been expected by him.

When the two armies met, Xiahou Yuan immediately went to greet each other, hugged his fists and said: "The last general will see the lord!" ”

Cao Cao waved his hand and said, "No courtesy." Now that we're here, let's join forces! ”

"Whoa!"

So, the two armies became one, Xiahou Yuan followed Cao Cao's side, Cao Cao asked about Zhang Miao's situation, and learned that Zhang Miao and Zhang Chao were beheaded all over the house, and he was also a pity, and immediately said: "Last year, I went to conquer Xuzhou, and I once told my family that if I can't come back, let them go to Zhang Miao, and Zhang Miao will take care of them for him." Now that I think about it, I really don't know why Zhang Miao will turn against me? ”

Xiahou Yuan said: "Lord, I have already asked Zhang Miao's family, and they all said that Zhang Miao was bewitched by Chen Gong, impulsively, and did something wrong. Zhang Miao also repented, but he was worried that the main guild would not forgive him, so he could only go all the way to the dark. ”

"That's it, people are dead, what's the use of talking about it? It's Chen Gong, if I catch him this time, I must ask to understand, I have always treated him well, but why did he oppose me? Cao Cao said.

The army continued on its way, stopping at a distance of twenty miles from Dingtao, where it set up camp and recuperated its strength.

Cao Cao led his army to attack, and Lu Bu, who was in Dingtao City, got the news early in the morning, but he only had 5,000 soldiers and horses, which was not enough to deal with Cao Cao's army.

On the one hand, Lü Bu sent people to Changyi to ask Zhang Yan to lead an army to help, and in order to show his sincerity, he specially sent Chen Gong to Changyi.

When Chen Gong left, he was not at ease with Lu Bu, and specially instructed Lu Bu not to go out of the city to fight, no matter what happened, but to hold on.

Lu Bu also agreed, and after personally sending Chen Gong away, he returned to the city.

On the other hand, he was also worried about the comfort of his family, so he first asked Wei Xu and Cao Xing to escort his family to Chengwu County, south of Dingtao.

In addition, Lu Bu also specially sent scouts to investigate the movements of Cao's army, and learned that Cao Cao was camped twenty miles away, so Lu Bu took Cheng Lian and Hao Meng to find out.

It was evening, the sun was setting, the twilight was four, and the wind was gradually blowing, so that the big flag in Cao's military camp fluttered in the wind.

The autumn weather was very cool, Lu Bu only stayed with Cheng Lian and Hao Meng, and looked around Cao Cao's camp, only to find that Cao's soldiers were sleepy and tired, and the defense was not very tight, and there were some flammable wild grass around the camp.

As soon as Lu Bu had an idea, he came up with a plan to attack with fire, so he quickly returned to Dingtao, gathered troops and horses, and prepared to launch a night attack.

When Gao Shun heard this, he hurriedly came to Lu Bu and persuaded: "Lord, Cao Cao is very good at using soldiers and is well versed in the art of war, how could he set up the camp in such a position?" Moreover, this person has always been treacherous, and his subordinates thought that this might be Cao Cao's treacherous trick and did it on purpose. Moreover, when the military advisor was leaving, he also told the lord that no matter what happened, he could not lead the army out of the city, and asked the lord to think twice! ”

Lu Budao: "At this time, at that time, Cao Cao came from afar, people are sleepy and horses are lacking, our army is waiting for work, recuperating and recuperating, just when it is a sneak attack, if you don't go at this time, you will miss the opportunity." This time I personally went to inspect a circle, there can be no fake, I must start first, and give Cao Cao a dismount first! ”

Gao Shun persuaded him again, but Lu Bu still didn't stop, so Gao Shun found Zhang Liao again and asked Zhang Liao to persuade Lu Bu not to send troops.

But no matter how Gao Shun and Zhang Liao persuaded Lu Bu, Lu Bu always insisted on going his own way, and finally decided to send troops to attack Cao's camp, and ordered 3,000 soldiers and horses.

For this reason, Lu Bu also deliberately left Gao Shun and Zhang Liao in the city, and only took Cheng Lian, Hao Meng, Song Xian, and Hou Cheng with the four generals, and when the night fell, he took advantage of the night to lead the army out of the city.

Gao Shun was always not at ease with Lu Bu, so he asked Zhang Liao to lead 200 cavalry and quietly followed, secretly protecting Lu Bu.