As the sun sets, a group of well-fed black magpies hovers over the ruined Lihu City, and a group of hungry wolves are burying their heads among the corpses, enjoying a delicious meal.

In the air, there was a strong smell of blood, and corpses were everywhere on the ruins of Fox City, broken skulls, broken limbs, and even more everywhere.

Around the bloodstained city wall, there were piles of corpses, like small hills. The devastation left by the war was everywhere, and the ground was littered with broken arrows, weapons, broken armor, and broken siege equipment.

Lihu City was devastated, and many corpses had been hollowed out by wild beasts, leaving only a stump of corpses.

Seeing such a scene, you can see the tragic situation of Yujian at that time.

Neither Cao Cao's soldiers nor Lu Bu's soldiers disposed of the corpses, so they were abandoned in the wilderness.

Zhang Yan frowned, glanced at the corpses in the wilderness of violent corpses, and immediately ordered the whole army to be divided into two, one part was responsible for camping outside Lihu City, and the other was responsible for cleaning the battlefield and burying the corpses so as not to cause epidemics.

By nightfall, the camp had been erected, but the bodies were still being buried. The Xuzhou soldiers, who were responsible for burying the corpses, were busy for two hours before they were all buried.

Although no clear statistics were made, in the process of transporting the corpses, Xu Sheng, who was responsible for burying the corpses, still found some clues: the number of dead in Lü Bu's army was actually twice as many as the dead soldiers of Cao Cao's army.

Zhang Yanjun's scouts, most of them were the dead soldiers rescued by Xu Sheng from the Futu Temple, and after Zhang Yan detoxified them, he followed Zhang Yan with all his heart, and became a scout for Zhang Yan wholeheartedly, and the management of the scout team was also handed over to Xu Sheng.

If the scout is a spy, then Xu Sheng is an out-and-out spy leader. Moreover, Xu Sheng and the others almost didn't know how to read, and because of this, Zhang Yan was relieved to let them pass on important information such as letters.

The information that the scouts spied on was all passed on orally, and it was directly reported to Xu Sheng and Zhang Yan.

Therefore, Xu Sheng was familiar with it, and gradually kept an eye on it, and he was also very sensitive to the news that was transmitted.

It was late at night, but Zhang Yan was still busy in the barracks and did not rest.

In the big tent, Zhang Yan was discussing things with Zhang Hong and Chen Qi, but when he saw Xu Sheng walking in from outside the tent, he looked panicked, so he asked, "Is there news coming again?" ”

Xu Sheng shook his head and said, "Lord Qiqi, when my subordinates buried the body, they found a clue......

"What's the clue?" Zhang Yan asked hurriedly.

Xu Sheng said: "When the subordinates buried the corpse, they accidentally found that the soldiers killed by Lu Bujun were far more than those killed by Cao Cao's army, almost twice as many as Cao Jun......"

Zhang Yan asked softly: "The soldiers of the Cao army are all elite, and Lu Bu's soldiers and horses have all been recruited in recent months, and they were formed in a hurry, so naturally they cannot be compared with the Cao soldiers, and the number of dead is naturally high." Is there anything strange about this? ”

Xu Sheng said: "Yesterday, the scout came to report, saying that Lu Bu fought here and won a success, broke Cao Cao, and forced Cao Cao to retreat to Puyang, judging from the number of soldiers killed, it was Lu Bu's army who lost the army, so what about Cao Cao to withdraw the army?" ”

At this time, after hearing this, Chen Jue laughed out loud and said: "The battlefield is changing rapidly, and it is not possible to make inferences about victory or defeat based on how many people are killed. Sometimes, the winning side may pay a much greater price than the defeated side......"

Zhang Yan said to Xu Sheng: "What Lord Chen said is very reasonable, you are becoming more and more cautious now than before, which is worthy of appreciation." Okay, you're tired from the day, go back early and rest. ”

Xu Sheng didn't think about it anymore, so he hugged his fists and said: "The last general will retire!" ”

As soon as the words fell, Xu Sheng turned around and walked out of the big tent.

When Chen Qi saw Xu Sheng come out of the big tent, he sneered and said to himself: "We and other resourceful people haven't seen any clues, and he can see the clues even if he doesn't even know a word?" ”

Zhang Yan hurriedly said: "Xu Sheng's cautious actions are not necessarily a disadvantage, at least, it proves that he thinks with his brain." Lord Chen, will our army come to Puyang City tomorrow? ”

Chen Qi said: "There is no need to rush to the city of Puyang, first look at the battle situation of Lu Bu's army and Cao Cao's army, and then make a decision." ”

"Mr. Zigang, do you have any suggestions?" Zhang Yan glanced at Zhang Hong, who had not spoken, and asked.

Zhang Hong said softly: "The soldiers will march thirty miles, and then set up camp, let's wait and see what happens." ”

After some deliberation, Zhang Yan made a decision to send Chen Qi and Zhang Hong back to the camp to rest, and issued an order to leave the camp early tomorrow morning and go to Puyang.

At dawn the next day, Zhang Yan and others set up camp, and the army marched forward and headed towards Puyang.

However, Zhang Yan and the others walked very slowly, a total of dozens of miles, Zhang Yan arrived in Puyang in the evening, and set up camp in a place ten miles away from Puyang City.

After the army was properly settled, Zhang Yan took Tai Shici, Xu Chu and a hundred elite horsemen to the city of Puyang to watch the battle between Lü Bu and Cao Cao.

Lü Bu's army was stationed outside Puyang City, only two miles away from Puyang City, and only a few defenders were left in the camp, and the army was gathered under Puyang City, and under the command of Lü Bu, they launched a fierce attack on Puyang City.

The city wall of Puyang City is more than two zhang high, there is a moat around the outside of the city wall, about one zhang wide, the river water in the moat has already dried up because of the great drought, and now it is just a huge pit with a deep heart, but Rao is so, and it also plays a role in preventing the invasion of the enemy.

However, under the advice of Chen Gong, Lu Bu asked the soldiers to carry the soil to fill the blockage, and he was stunned to fill a few sections of the moat with the soil, so that the soldiers could charge under the city wall without any scruples.

Now, the arrows on Puyang City are raining down, and Lu Bu's army, under the leadership of the general Gao Shun, is desperately borrowing a cloud ladder to climb Xiangshang.

In addition, Lu Bu even asked his generals Hao Meng, Song Xian, Cheng Lian, and Hou Cheng to lead an archer to cover the left and right flanks.

On the city wall, Cao Cao personally commanded the city, Li Dian on the left and Cao Hong on the right, each led the army to resist to the death and fought hard to kill the enemy.

The arrows came and went between the two armies, dense like a torrential rain, and the officers and men of the two armies damaged each other.

However, Cao's army was well defended, and although Gao Shun and others were athletic and brave, they were never able to climb the city wall.

Lu Bu rode on the red rabbit horse, frowning, and his eyes were even more fierce, eager to eat Cao Cao alive.

Chen Gong also looked at the front at a loss, and saw that the number of soldiers killed in battle was increasing, so he persuaded him: "Lord, if we continue to attack like this, I am afraid that our army will lose more soldiers." Puyang City is easy to defend and difficult to attack, why don't you withdraw the army back to the camp for the time being, and then think of his method? ”

Seeing this, although Lu Bu was reluctant, he was also very helpless, he had been attacking for half an hour in a row, losing nearly 3,000 soldiers, if he continued to attack, he was afraid that the casualties would be even worse.

He glanced at Cao Cao on the city tower again, and said indignantly: "Mingjin withdraws his troops!" ”

The order was conveyed, and the voice of Ming Jin immediately sounded in the army, and Gao Shun, Hao Meng, Song Xian, Cheng Lian, Hou Cheng and others led their subordinates to retreat.

On Puyang City, watching Lu Bu withdraw his troops, Cao Cao also breathed a sigh of relief.

Lu Bu retreated back to the camp, and before he took off his armor, he saw a personal soldier walk in, hugged his fists and said: "Lord Qiqi, Xuzhou Mu Zhang Yan led more than 100 cavalry to ask for a meeting outside the village. ”

"He's finally here!" A smile appeared on Lu Bu's face, "Hurry up, please!" ”

"Whoa!"

The soldiers answered, and were about to turn around and leave the tent, but they heard Chen Gong shouting: "Wait! ”

Chen Gong walked to Lu Bu's side and said to Lu Bu: "Lord, Zhang Yan has been named Xuzhou Mu and General Anton by the imperial court, and he has also been named Liuhou, in terms of official rank, he is much higher than the lord, it should be the lord who personally greeted him outside the walled gate." ”

"What? You asked me to meet him? Lu Bu said in surprise.

Chen Gong nodded and said: "Zhang Yan's arrival is undoubtedly beneficial and disadvantageous for our army, and if the lord wants to completely defeat Cao Cao, he must rely on Zhang Yan." The big husband can bend and stretch, as long as he can achieve his goal, why care about anything else? ”

Lu Bu frowned, although he was reluctant, he still agreed to Chen Gong.

Zhang Yan led more than 100 horsemen such as Tai Shici and Xu Chu to wait quietly outside the camp of Lu Bujun.

After a while, Zhang Yan saw Lu Bu leading Chen Gong, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others out of the camp, so he turned over and jumped off the horse.

Seeing each other, Lu Bu, Chen Gong, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao and others all said in unison: "Meet Zhang Andong!" ”

Zhang Yan saw that Lu Bu and the others were very polite, and he also respected him, so he hurriedly said: "They are all your own people, why are you so restrained?" General Lu, hurry up and excuse me! ”

Lu Bu said with a smile: "Now that Zhang Andong's identity is different, he has become the pastor of Xuzhou, and he has been named General Anton, which is far higher than me, how can I be rude?" ”

Zhang Yan said: "In front of Brother Fengxian, no matter how big my official position is, it is small. Brother Fengxian, as soon as I received your letter, I actively reorganized the soldiers and horses, and rushed here non-stop, along the way I also heard that you said that Cao Cao fought and retreated, and retreated to Puyang City, I am really happy for Brother Fengxian. On the way, I was still wondering if Brother Feng had already defeated Cao Cao before I arrived. ”

Lu Bu smiled: "Zhang Andong said that he was joking, if I can really defeat Cao Cao, what if I want to write to Zhang Andong?" This is not the place to speak, Zhang Andong inside, please! ”

Zhang Yan nodded and followed Lu Bu into the camp together, Chen Gong asked Zhang Liao to arrange the cavalry that came with Zhang Yan, and Tai Shici and Xu Chu followed closely behind Zhang Yan and followed Zhang Yan into Lu Bu's Chinese army tent.