Xiahoude, who was galloping on his horse, heard that the evil wind behind him was not good, but he didn't know how to dodge it at all, so he instinctively lowered his body and lay on the horse's back. But even so, the tip of Fang Tian's halberd still cut through his armor and slashed his left shoulder, leaving a wound more than ten centimeters long and several centimeters deep, and the blood instantly stained the armor.

"Ah~" Xia Houde let out a cry of pain, clamped the horse's belly with his legs, in case his left arm was weak to hold the reins and fall off the horse, and knocked the war horse hard with both feet, so that the war horse could run faster.

Charhoud's reaction was completely instinctive, and it would have been good if he had been on flat ground, but he didn't pay attention, and the rocky ground was right in front of him.

"Sigh~" Xiahoude's war horse was in pain, and rushed towards the giant stone henge outside Xuchang City, but the horse's hooves stumbled on a boulder, and even the people and horses flew out horizontally.

Nan Ye controlled Lu Bu to stab Xia Houde with a halberd, and then controlled the Red Rabbit Horse to slow down. Under Nan Ye's control, the red rabbit horse is extremely flexible, not to mention drifting and stopping, even if it is dancing, it is no problem. The Red Rabbit Horse stopped in front of the Stone Formation with a sudden brake, and then watched Xia Houde fall and fly out. Nan Ye estimated that Xia Houde would be seriously injured if he didn't die this time, and the halberd just now didn't have this fall.

For Xia Houde, who was motionless in the dust, Nan Ye completely lost interest, and controlled Lu Bu to turn around and kill into Cao's army formation, and slashed again. Although the effect of the three armies of Yongguan is good, there is a time limit, Nan Ye can increase the skill duration by one second for each additional general star, that is to say, Nan Ye can maintain the skill state for about ten minutes, and there will be a period of weakness after the time passes, so Nan Ye must effectively use these ten minutes to expand the results.

Even if the Cao soldiers led by Xiahoude did not have Lu Bu to join, they could only flee for their lives, and at this time, there was no more Lu Bu to survive, and they fled desperately one by one. Fortunately, the number of vine armor troops was small, and it was impossible for Lu Bu to stop all the defeated troops alone, and nearly half of Cao's army fled to Stonehenge.

A Cao soldier stumbled and fell into a. He got up and cursed, and was just about to continue running, when he heard a weak voice behind him: "Help me go back to the city!" ”

Cao Bing was startled when he heard this, but then he reacted, estimating that it was the seriously injured robe that tripped over him just now. Cao Bing hesitated for a moment, but decided to look back. He is not a good old man, and he doesn't plan to save everyone, but he has been a soldier for a long time, and everyone has a few friends in life and death, if it is a comrade-in-arms he knows, he will not die without saving, but if he doesn't know him, then I'm sorry, and no one can risk his life for someone he doesn't know.

Charhoud was lucky to have not only woken up from his coma, but also struggled to tripped over a soldier with his only movable leg, which recognized him. Of course, Xiahoude could not be the life-and-death friend of Cao Bing who fell to the ground, but that Cao Bing did not dare to see the boss die without saving him, so Xiahoude was helped up by Cao Bing, and then called more Cao Bing, finally checked his life, and fled back to the city.

Li Ru didn't expect that the shouting and killing in the south was the least, and the loss of soldiers and horses was the least, but Xia Houde was the most seriously injured. I didn't expect that Deng Yi, who went north, was the latest to come back without encountering the enemy. Of course, this also shows that the other three people who went out of the city lost too quickly.

20,000 soldiers left the city, and less than 10,000 returned, of which 5,000 did not participate in the battle at all, this result made Li Ru have to be impressed by the combat effectiveness of the Jiaozhou army. According to the information brought back by the soldiers and horses from all walks of life, there are indeed only Nanye soldiers and horses left among the three large battalions under the city, and the number is definitely not 100,000, but the combat effectiveness is definitely not low. Li Ru estimated that even if the whole city was dispatched, it would be a tough battle to take Nanye.

On the one hand, it is the huge benefit of capturing and killing Nan Ye, and on the other hand, it is the risk that the whole army may also be defeated. Li Ru must think carefully, even though he still has a hole card.

Li Ru glanced at Xiahou De, who was still stubbornly sitting in the hall with injuries and still stubbornly reporting the military situation, and asked, "General Xiahou, can you be sure that the sergeant of the Nanye Battalion is less than 20,000?" ”

As soon as Xia Houde wanted to nod, a sharp pain came from his neck, so that he could only grin: "That's right! There will be no more than 3,000 people fighting with me, Lu Bu, Ma Yunluo and other generals are all there, and Nan Ye must be among them. The other three people were not able to join the siege, and I didn't see it in person, but the number of soldiers and horses would never exceed that led by Nan Ye. ”

Li Ru nodded when he heard this, Xia Houde's assertion was very credible. Judging from the timing of Nan Ye's ambush, the people and horses encountered by Xia Houde are definitely the strongest, if this team is less than three thousand, then the remaining three teams will definitely be less than three thousand.

30,000 people! Based on the feedback from the enemy horses encountered on the three roads, Li Ru came to a conclusion that there were only 30,000 soldiers and horses outside the city. As for the men and horses in the northern ambush, Li Ru has automatically ignored them, and that team is only more than a thousand people at most, and the difference between 30,000 and 31,000 is negligible.

Li Ru thought for a moment and made up his mind: "General Xiahou and General Deng will lead the men and horses out of the city tonight to defend the city. His Royal Highness and General Niu quickly went to reorganize the troops. General Beren summoned the people who defended the city and prepared to go out of the city with the army to fight the 30,000 Jiaozhou army of Nanye. ”

Xiahou Shang was shocked when he heard this: "Could it be that Mr. Fei wants to order the whole city to go out of the city to fight Nanye together?" ”

Li Ru nodded and said, "Exactly!" If not, there is no certainty. ”

Cao Chang has been in Xuchang for so long, and he has not seen Li Ru use the people in the city to defend the city, of course, Li Ru has no chance to use it, and in the case of thunderbolt bombardment, even the regular Cao soldiers do not need to go to the city to defend. Cao Zhang's first expedition was his first time, and his understanding of the militia was limited, and he seemed to think that these people were the key to victory or defeat when he heard Li Ru's meaning, and said with some disdain: "How much courage can the people have?" Wen Xiansheng still ordered him to defend the city, and our 80,000 troops were enough to sweep away Nanye's 30,000 soldiers. ”

Without waiting for Li Ru to explain, Xiahou Shang said: "Jiaozhou soldiers are the elite of the world, not to mention that one can be ten or two, and the 80,000 soldiers in the city are not necessarily victorious." Your Highness, do you know how many strong people there are in the city? ”

Cao Zhang shook his head and said, "I don't know this." ”

Xiahou Shang glanced at Li Ru, and when he saw Li Ru nodding, he said: "There are 150,000 people in the city, although there is no armor, but there are knives and guns. Wen Xiansheng can keep Xuchang safe for many years, the people in the city are strong and contributed, and they are trained with the soldiers in the agricultural slack season, which is not far from our sergeants. If he can get this help, Nan Ye can be captured in a battle. ”

Hearing this, not only Cao Zhang gasped, but even Deng Yi and Niu Jin, who didn't know it, were also amazed, unexpectedly that the number of people in the city was comparable to that of the regular army. Only Xiahoude's face was as usual, obviously as early as Xiahou Shang knew about it.

Cao Zhang's surprise was overjoyed, 80,000 regular troops plus 150,000 people were 230,000, and Nan Ye's soldiers and horses were only a fraction, how could this battle be unwinnable?

The absolute numerical advantage does not guarantee victory, and there are countless battles with fewer victories, so Li Ru decided to go out of the city together, lest several generals fall for Nanye's plan. And Li Ru also has a layer of consideration, that is, once there is a disagreement in the team, Cao Zhang, who has a special status, and Xiahou Shang, who has a higher official position, are likely to obey no one, and only he can make them all obey orders.

Cao Zhang and the others were just about to go down to the palace to summon soldiers and people, and a soldier entered the palace and reported: "Three camps outside the city are on fire!" ”

When the generals in the hall heard this, they looked at each other, and they didn't understand why the soldiers and horses had not left the city yet, and the Nanye camp was on fire. Only Li Ru slapped the table and said, "It's not good! Nan Ye wants to withdraw his troops. Quick, hurry up and mobilize the horses. ”

The mobilization of the 230,000-strong army is by no means a moment, not to mention that there are also poorly trained people. By the time the army had assembled and left the city, the sky was already slightly bright. After Li Ru left the city, he found that the fire was not caused by the three camps, but by the thunderbolt cart in front of the camp, and the smell of wheat in the air indicated that a lot of grain and grass were also burned along with the thunderbolt cart. This made the generals more certain of Nan Ye's determination to withdraw his troops, because this showed that Nan Ye left in a hurry, and he didn't even have time to set fire to the camp, and only had time to burn the strategic materials that were inconvenient to carry.

Cao Zhang looked at the thunderbolt cars that had been burned into black charcoal and had not yet turned into ashes and asked Li Ru: "Wen Xiansheng, Nan Ye has already gone away, can I still chase after him?" ”

Li Ru squinted his eyes and said, "Chase!" Nanye's army has already gone north, and Yuzhou in the south is Liu Bei's territory, where can he retreat after burning grain and grass? I saw that Nanye was pretending to withdraw from the army, and wanted to take advantage of the time when I waited for the rescue to go north and return to attack Xuchang, so I didn't burn the camp. ”

Hearing this, the generals nodded yes. Li Ru ordered Cao Zhang to lead 30,000 troops as the vanguard. 50,000 regular troops and 100,000 Minzhuang were mixed into the Chinese army, which was led by Li Ru and Xiahou Shang. Niu Jin led 50,000 people to be the rear team. An army of 230,000 marched south along the road.

Cao Zhang, as a striker, has a great responsibility, in addition to building bridges and paving roads, he also has to investigate the enemy. Cao Zhang, who had been ambushed by Nan Ye, was very careful, and sent the scout horse out to search the mountains, forests and highlands one by one, tracking the traces of Nan Ye's march while exploring whether there were ambushes.

Cao Jun traveled a few miles, and then there was a horse scouting report, and found that Nan Ye Xizuo had fled south from the forest. Cao Zhangwen hurriedly informed Li Ru when he heard the news, and Li Ru smiled: "It can be seen that Nan Ye has not gone far yet!" I'll just keep going. ”

Cao Zhang moved forward again, only to see that the road was getting narrower, and suddenly the horse was injured and reported back: "There are hundreds of Jiaozhou cavalry in front of him blocking the road and shooting our army's horse." Cao Zhangwen heard that he came to report Li Ru again.

Li Ru said with a smile: "Nanye's infantry is not far from here, and the cavalry blocking the road is a delaying measure, you continue to move forward, prepare more spears and big shields, and be careful." ”

Cao Zhang moved forward according to the plan, and sure enough, he saw a group of cavalry blocking the road in front of him, led by a white horse and silver spear, which was Zhang Baiqi who met in the Wu military camp during the robbery.

Zhang Baiqi saw Cao Zhang's horse beating and debuted: "Cao Zhang'er, do you dare to fight with me?" ”