Cao Cao won a battle first, defeated the 100,000 army led by Zhang He, directly killed 20,000 Yuan troops, captured more than 30,000 Yuan soldiers, and countless grains, grasses and ordnance.

Cao Cao was naturally overjoyed, especially when he saw Guan Yu so brave, he liked it even more in his heart, and he hated to let Guan Yu immediately recognize himself as the master.

Such a fierce general, if he can't be used by him Cao Cao, Cao Cao will regret it for the rest of his life.

Cao Cao knew that if he wanted to get Guan Yu, he had to show him more kindness. Immediately on behalf of the emperor to seal the marquis, seal Guan Yu as the marquis of Hanshou Pavilion, Pegasus returned to Emperor Xudu, cast a gold seal, and sent to White Horse City overnight to send Guan Yu.

In this ancient era, who doesn't want to be a marquis and worship the prime minister? For the hearts of people in ancient times, being able to pay homage to the prime minister is the greatest honor in their lives, and it is an incomparably glorious and glorious thing. Cao Cao thought, he gave Guan Yu such a great honor, how could Guan Yu feel himself, right?

It's a pity that Guan Yu received the golden seal of the Marquis of Hanshou Pavilion, but he still looked sad and joyless, and his expression was as calm as a pool of still water. It seems that the honor given by Cao Cao is none of his business at all. You must know that Lu Dao, Cao Cao has so many ministers and generals, who has been made a marquis by Cao Cao? Feng Guan Yu is the Marquis of Hanshou Pavilion, and I don't know how many people Lu Dao envied, which made many Cao Cao's generals red-eyed.

Cao Cao's presence in front of Guan Yu made him feel a little frustrated, and the joy of winning just now was also diluted a lot.

At this time, it was suddenly reported that Yuan Shao's army had moved again, and an army had already set out from Liyang and advanced west along the north bank of the Qing River.

Cao Cao was shocked when he heard the report, and it was as he expected. As soon as Cao Cao received the report from the secret agent, he immediately explained Yuan Shao's intentions.

Before Cao Cao, Cao Ren and Yu Ban led the army to guard the thousand-mile-long defense line of the Yellow River. In addition to guarding against Yuan Shao's army crossing the river to the south to attack Yanzhou, didn't Cao Cao want to use his own forces to attract Yuan Shao to put the main battlefield in the area around Puyang?

Cao Cao has always understood in his heart that his own troops are inferior to Yuan Shao, so it is best to attract Yuan Shao to divide his troops to confront him along the banks of the Yellow River and the Qing River. In this way, the many advantages of Yuan Shao's military horses can be diluted to some extent. At the same time, Chen Bing was on the south bank of the Yellow River. also wanted Yuan Shao to feel a little pressure, so that Yuan Shao misunderstood that he was not only worried that Yuan Shao would attack him, but he was also likely to move his army north to capture his Jizhou. Cao Cao just wanted to use this method to force Yuan Shao not to dare to move lightly. Even if it's going to war. They are also only fighting and entangled in Qinghe, Yellow River and other places.

Generally. Cao Cao's greatest concern was that Yuan Shao would concentrate his superior forces to attack his own points, especially some of the most critical and important cities.

For Cao Cao, the importance of White Horse City is that whoever occupies White Horse City can have substantial rule over the area around Puyang. However, this is only relative to the importance of the Puyang area.

The movements of Yuan Shao's army made Cao Cao understand it immediately. Yuan Shao's target this time is no longer White Horse City, but Yanjin.

Yanjin is located in the upper reaches of the Qinghe River. Located at the boundary between the Yellow River and the Qing River, that place is not a matter of a few hundred miles of Puyang, but a security issue for the entire Henan region. Therefore, Yanjin cannot afford to lose.

What shocked Cao Cao was that what he was most worried about still happened, you must know that if Yuan Shao did not fight Puyang first, he would not attack his own territory from the lower reaches of the Yellow River, but concentrate his superior forces to attack Yanjin. This is the rhythm of forcing him Cao Cao to fight with him.

Yuan Shao's move was a little tricky and a little caught off guard. Because, Cao Cao's military horses could not be assembled in a short period of time, even if the 150,000 troops who set out from Xudu before, only 50,000 rushed to White Horse City, and the other 100,000 military horses were stationed in the Chenliu area and stationed in Yanzhou East County.

In the military horses in the area of Chenliu and Guandu, Cao Cao did not dare to move, and the military horses of Dongjun did not have time to support Yanjin.

There was no way, Cao Cao decided not to stick to White Horse City anymore, and transferred the military horses of White Horse City to Yanjin to garrison.

Of course, even so, Cao Cao felt that the time was too tight, and his military horses might not have time to reach Yanjin.

In fact, Cao Cao had already figured out, Yuan Shao sent a vanguard army of 100,000 to advance to Yanjin, and was led by Gao Lan, the general under Yuan Shao's account, and Gao Lan, who first led the seven horses and horses to advance lightly, and the speed of the march was much faster than Cao Cao's military horses. What made Cao Cao hate was that Liu Bei was actually used by Yuan Shao as the deputy general of the vanguard army to protect the grain and grass for Gao Lan's vanguard army and advance to Yanjin.

Well, when two armies fight, they must first rob food. This is already common sense, if it is under normal circumstances, Cao Cao really wants to lead the army to rob the rear army of Liu Bei's vanguard army, and seize the grain and grass baggage that Liu Bei guards.

However, Cao Cao knew that the grain and grass escorted by Liu Bei was only the grain and grass for a short period of time for the 100,000 soldiers and horses of his vanguard army, and it was useless to lead the army to rob him, and it might not affect the normal actions of Yuan Shaojun. After all, on the north bank of the Qing River, even if he lost the batch of grain and grass that Liu Bei was guarding, Yuan Shao could replenish Gao Ran from elsewhere at any time, and it would never affect the morale of the vanguard army.

Therefore, Cao Cao dismissed the idea of robbing grain, and urgently ordered the 50,000 military horses in White Horse City to quickly march west and enter Yanjin.

Rushing from White Horse City to Yanjin, it is not far away, and it is not close to it, less than two hundred miles away.

Cao Cao and a group of generals personally led the army to Yanjin.

At this time, the situation is really a bit delicate, and both sides must pay attention to the speed of the soldiers, and it depends on who can hurry up to Yanjin first.

The matter was so delicate that the Cao army and the Yuan army only advanced to the upper reaches of the river across the Qing River, and the soldiers on both sides could see each other, and occasionally, the sergeants on both sides could scold each other across the river, of course, everyone did not forget to march and hurry. This situation is somewhat similar to the situation of the Red Army during the Long March, when the Huding Bridge was captured, and the Red Army and the White Army were facing each other across the river and marching towards the same destination. It's just that it's daytime, and the story of the march to capture the Huding Bridge happened at night.

Cao Cao soon became keenly aware that the situation did not seem to be good for him. Because, his own military horses carry too much grain and grass. The pace of the march did not seem to be as fast as Yuan's army on the other side. In addition, Yuan Shaojun is also a northern army after all, there are more cavalry in the army, 70,000 vanguard troops, most of them are cavalry, Yuan Shaojun has faintly rushed to Cao Cao's army under the situation that he was originally lightly armed. Seeing that Yuan Shao's vanguard army was about to get rid of Cao Cao's army and rush to Yanjin first.

Fortunately, Cao Cao had an idea. Hurriedly ordered his whole army, let the military horses with heavy grain and grass go first, and led the army to lag behind for some distance.

The general of the army responsible for escorting grain and grass for Cao Cao was Lü Qian, and he saw that his army was not as fast as Yuan's army on the north bank of the Qing River. If according to Cao Cao's orders. If you let the grain and grass go first, wouldn't that slow down the marching pace of your own army even more? He found Cao Cao and asked Cao Cao puzzled: "Lord, what do you mean by letting the grain and grass go first?" Now, Yuan Shao's army on the other side of the river is about to rush ahead of us, so won't the speed of our military horses march even slower? ”

Cao Cao glanced at Lu Qian. He said meaningfully: "General Lu, the grain and grass are behind." It was mostly plundered, so the order came first. As for the Yuan army on the other side, most of them are cavalry troops, even if we don't have food and grass to delay in front, our whole army is rushing at full speed, do you think we can rush to Yanjin one step earlier than the Yuan army? ”

"This ...... But now, if the Yuan army, who rushed to our front, crossed the river and plundered our grain and grass, our army and horses would be behind, and it would be difficult to keep our grain and grass. Lu Qian still didn't quite understand, and couldn't guess what Cao Cao meant by marching like this.

"Then let's deal with that situation, quickly order the grain and grass first, and don't get too close to each other after the infantry lags behind." Cao Cao undoubtedly ordered Lu Qian, so that he didn't have to say more, just follow the order.

Lu Qian was suspicious, but he didn't dare to say more, and hurriedly commanded the heavy army and horses, and drove the grain and grass to the front.

Let's talk about Gao Ran, he is usually low-key, but he doesn't want to be low-key in his heart. In terms of martial arts strategy, he consciously will not be much worse than Zhang He, so now that Zhang He has failed, he was injured by Cao Jiang, if he can win a big battle now, then his limelight can surpass Zhang He and become the first general under Yuan Shao's account.

Who in the world does not live for fame and profit? Gao Ran has been waiting for the opportunity to make a splash. At this moment, he felt that the opportunity had come.

The military horses of the two sides have been facing each other along the Qinghe River for so long, and they actually have some understanding of the deployment of the other side's troops. Yuan Shao suddenly changed his order, asking him to give up attacking White Horse City and instead attack Yanjin further upstream of the Qinghe River, and Gao Ran was even happier.

Because, Cao Cao personally guarded the White Horse City, and there were at least 70,000 military horses, and after a delay of one or two days, who knows if Cao Cao came with more reinforcements? What's more, by Cao Cao's side, there are generals like Xu Huang and Zhang Liao, and there is also a fierce general who is suspected of being Guan Yu. To be honest, although Gao Ran thought that the fierce general did not need to be afraid through analysis, he really didn't have much confidence that he would really let Gao Ran guarantee that he would definitely take the White Horse City guarded by Cao Cao personally.

But the capture of Yeonjin was different. He knew that Yanjin was originally just a ferry between the mouths of three rivers, and the south bank was Guandu. Later, it slowly developed into a town with enough people, and during the reign of Emperor Guangwu, it began to officially build the city, and now, in fact, it is only a slightly larger county town. Earlier intelligence showed that in Yanjin, there were only 5,000 Cao troops at most. As soon as his 100,000 troops and horses arrived, the small city would not be able to stop his troops at all.

Gao Ran also saw that Cao Cao was leading his army to march west along the south bank of the Qing River, and he also knew that Cao Cao must have wanted to wave his army to support Yanjin, so it was up to him to see who arrived in Yanjin first.

Gao Ran's heart was actually very calm, because among his 100,000 military horses, there were 30,000 cavalry, and the speed of the cavalry advancing lightly was much faster than Cao Cao's military horses. He saw that the military horses of both sides were stretched wide along the banks of the Qing River, like two long snakes marching side by side along the riverbank. He immediately led 30,000 cavalry to go first, and it didn't take long for Cao Cao's military horses to be left behind. He believed that at the speed of his cavalry, he rushed to the upper reaches of the Qing River to cross the river, and then captured Yanjin, Cao Cao's military horses were afraid that they had not yet arrived.

It won't take long to reach Yanjin in less than thirty or forty miles.

Gao Lan's scout came to report, saying that in the Yanjin area, there were already Cao troops defending along the river, and it was estimated that the 5,000 Cao soldiers in Yanjin City also learned that there was a Yuan army marching towards their Yanjin, and knew that Lu Dao could not hold such a small city, so he simply abandoned the city and wanted to use the wide river surface of the Qing River to prevent the Yuan army from crossing the river.

Hearing this information, Gao Yan didn't hesitate. Because, the river bank line is so long, and there are 5,000 military horses in Yanjin. If you can hold it? What's more, Gao Ran wouldn't be so stupid, why did he want to cross the river at the bank guarded by Cao Jun? Isn't it okay to cross the river early?

Now, the Cao army on the other side of the river who rushed from White Horse City to support Yanjin is far from hurrying, and the shadow of the Cao army has long been gone. Gao Ran believed that after his military horses crossed the Qing River, Cao Cao's military horses probably hadn't arrived yet.

As a result, Gao Yan is on a seemingly gently gentle river. Immediately ordered people to build a pontoon bridge, and led a three-horse cavalry army to cross the Qing River.

In this way, Gao Ran only needs to lead the army to kill Yanjin. You can easily take Yanjin.

But when Gao Ran had just crossed the Qing River and was about to lead his army to Yanjin. Suddenly, the scout came to report again. The scout reported to Gao Ran the current situation of Cao Cao's army, saying that Cao Cao's army actually rigidly marched according to the marching discipline, and marched according to the principle that the three armies marched first without moving grain and grass. Its grain and grass are heavy. The infantry army was behind, and the grain and grass were separated from the rear army by several miles.

When Gao Ran heard this, his heart couldn't help but move again.

Now, Yanjin is in sight, take Yanjin, and defend the city by yourself, as long as Yuan Shao's army arrives. You can make a difference. However, such a credit. It's not anything special, because, even if he wasn't high-looking, if he changed any general, he could rush to Yanjin one step ahead of Cao Cao and take Yanjin down. If he does this, then he will not be able to show the uniqueness of his high view. This credit will not be too significant.

However, if you can defeat Cao Cao while capturing Yanjin, then this is completely different. Defeating Cao Cao is the real credit.

However, Yanjin is in sight, as soon as his military horse arrives, he can go down with the trend, there is no difficulty, this is not in a hurry, what is urgent is to grasp the fighter plane, and when there is a flaw in Cao Cao's marching army, it is necessary to seize the opportunity. Otherwise, if Cao Cao woke up to the problem with his marching rank and changed it, it would make Gao Ran lose a good opportunity to make meritorious contributions. Also, Gao Ran was also worried that if he took Yanjin now, if Cao Cao knew that it was pointless to rush to Yanjin again, would he immediately return to White Horse City?

No way! Cao Cao could not be allowed to return to White Horse City, he had to seize the opportunity of meritorious service, and immediately launched an attack on Cao Cao's army when there were flaws in Cao Cao's army, defeated Cao Cao in one fell swoop, and created an immortal career.

As soon as Gao Ran thought of this, he immediately ordered that the 30,000 cavalry troops who had already crossed the Qinghe River should immediately meet the Cao army coming from the west and kill them.

In front of the meritorious service, Gao Ran took the lead and led the three-horse cavalry to rush towards the Cao army like a tide.

It didn't take long for Gao Ran to see Cao Jun slowly advancing, and he didn't say anything, he directly rode his horse and spear, and killed Cao Cao's first grain and grass baggage team.

The cavalry led by Gao Ran came in a hurry, and the momentum was also very fierce, and the soldiers of the Cao army, who were responsible for escorting grain and grass, did not have time to line up to confront each other before they were killed by Gao Ran's army.

For a while, the menacing Yuan army killed Cao Jun and fled in all directions.

Lu Qian, who was in charge of overseeing the army, saw that the enemy army was too fierce, and knew that he was invincible, and he did not dare to fight with the coming generals, so he turned his horse and fled.

And Cao Cao, although there were still several miles away from the grain and grass baggage team, but the shouting of killing had already made Cao Cao know that his first army had been attacked by Yuan's army.

When he was about to send someone to inquire about the situation, Lü Qian had already fled back and reported to Cao Cao that the grain and grass had fallen into the hands of the Yuan army.

After Cao Cao heard the report, he did not panic, but looked confident, and nodded calmly to indicate that he had already understood.

He surveyed the terrain left and right, and ordered his horses to retreat to a dirt port behind. After arriving, Cao Cao also ordered the sergeants to disarm their armor and let the sergeants discard their armor and horses everywhere, making it look like their army and horses were also defeated. He also ordered that if Yuan's army was killed, his own army would retreat and retreat to White Horse City.

The strategists and generals around Cao Cao don't know why Cao Cao is so, because now they can just lure the enemy to counterattack, but why do they say that they want to retreat directly to White Horse City? However, Cheng Yu, the military advisor of the army, knew Cao Cao's meaning and did not say much. And Cao Cao didn't explain much to his subordinates.

Not long after, Gao Lan, who was chasing and killing Cao's army and routing the army, really saw Cao Cao's military horses on the earthen port, saw those Cao soldiers staggering, their armor scattered all over the place, and some war horses, scattered around those Cao soldiers.

Although Gao Ran has done his best to Cao Jun's food baggage and won countless chariot battles, those things are not too valuable, what is really valuable is Cao Jun's armor and war horses. At the moment, Gao Ran didn't think about ordering his military horses urgently, and rushed forward to snatch Cao Jun's armor and war horses.

I don't want to, the clothes and armor war horses scattered all over the place, the cavalry of Gao Ran, have to dismount and seize, when there are clothes and armor everywhere and even money, those Yuan army cavalry who dismounted and seized, in order to rob the property, are messed up, and they are no longer in a formation.

Cao Cao then ordered the sergeants to stop retreating and turn back to attack Yuan's army.

And Xu Huang, Zhang Liao and other generals who had already been secretly ordered by Cao Cao, came out from the left and right, shouting to kill and surrounded the cavalry of the Yuan army.

Gao Lan's cavalry, where would they have thought that Cao Cao could still set up an ambush for them under such circumstances? For a while, everyone panicked and wanted to run for their lives. (To be continued......)