It is no exaggeration to say that at this moment, Li Li has become a curse hidden in Cao Cao's heart, an endless nightmare.

Li Li did not die for a day, and he Cao Cao could not sleep and eat peacefully, like a fish in his throat, like a mang in his back, and there would never be peace.

Four days ago, he was most proud of the fact that Li Li had become a turtle in an urn, and it was impossible to escape from it, but although Li Li did not put on his wings, he finally escaped.

This battle of Hebei was indeed won by Cao Cao, and he made a lot of money, the real big winner. However, this big victory was a fluke, a sudden victory, and a victory without force.

After the big victory, Cao Cao knew deeply that as long as Li Li escaped alive, the battle of Hebei would not end, and at most it would be halfway through, that is, the first half of the game. At present, although he won the first half of the game, he has revealed all the deployment of the second half of the game in Li Li's eyes. As a result, the situation in the second half of the game is worrying, and whoever wins the second half of the game means having a qiē, including a temporary loss or victory in the first half.

Only when you laugh at the end can you smile brightly, but Cao Cao really can't laugh at this time. Even if he was smiling in front of people, in the dead of night, he was worried, tossing and turning, and it was difficult to sleep.

Cao Cao, who had been standing under the corridor for a long time, suddenly walked down the jade steps slowly, paced in the courtyard, and muttered: "Singing about wine, what is life?" For example, the morning dew is bitter in the past. Be generous and unforgettable. How to solve the problem? Only Du Kang. Qingqing Zijin, leisurely my heart. But for the sake of the king, he has been chanting to this day??????"

"Tom tom!" Just as Cao Cao was still muttering, a rush of footsteps disrupted his thoughts, causing him to wake up in shock. Turning to look at the comer. When he saw who it was, he instantly frowned, and vaguely guessed that it was not a good thing for Xun Yu to come late at night. Must have brought back news about Liley.

"Wen Ruoke brought the news of Li Thief?" Without waiting for Xun Yu to speak, Cao Cao hurried up to meet him and asked in a deep voice.

Xun Yu breathed a sigh of relief, nodded and said, "Fortunately, the lord has not gone to bed yet, otherwise he would have disturbed the lord in the future." As he spoke, Xun Yu took out a stack of brocade silk from his arms and handed it to Cao Cao with both hands. Wheezing again.

It is true that Xun Yu's words were not polite, but rather gratifying. If Cao Cao had already fallen asleep at this time. He really didn't dare to rush into the bedroom to report to Cao Cao, because Cao Cao had a strange habit of killing people in his dreams. This habit is not innate, it is completely acquired.

And the source of this vice is the habit that Cao Cao gradually developed after he failed to assassinate Dong Zhuo in the past and was extremely frightened on the way to escape. And it is closely related to Chen Gong, the chief strategist under Xuzhou Lu Bu's account. Day. Cao Cao fled from Luoyang in a hurry after the failure of assassinating Dong Zhuo, and was captured by Chen Gong, who was the county commander at the time, when passing through Zhongmu County, and then Chen Gong was moved by Cao Cao's assassination of Dong Yi, and resolutely gave up his current official position, and was willing to follow Cao Cao to escape from Si Li and conspire with him.

However, the two fled together and stayed at the house of Cao Cao's uncle Lu Bohao, but because Cao Cao was suspicious by nature, he mistakenly killed Lu Bohao's entire family. And resolutely refused to admit his mistake afterwards, and kept saying: "I'd rather bear others than others bear me." This made Chen Gong completely disappointed in Cao Cao. thinks that he has seen his true face clearly, and believes that Cao Cao is a treacherous villain who is like a true and treacherous villain.

That night, the two lived in the same room, Chen Gong tossed and turned, and Cao Cao, who killed Lu Bohao's family, slept soundly. So Chen Gong was furious, and when he got up, he wanted to draw his sword and kill Cao Cao to seek justice for Lu Bohao's family. However, Chen Gong couldn't do it after all, thinking that he had a good acquaintance with Cao Cao, and saved him before, if he killed him again at this moment, wouldn't he become a capricious villain? Immediately inserted the drawn sword into Cao Cao's bedside, Gu Zi left overnight, and since then Chen Gong and Cao Cao have parted ways.

The next morning, Cao Cao woke up to the sound of roosters, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the cold and glistening blade of the sword, which was only an inch away from his head. At that moment, Cao Cao was so frightened that he was terrified, his heart was terrified, and he didn't dare to move for a long time, until he confirmed that he was unharmed, he stared at the sword and slowly got up, and then left in a hurry, rushing back to his hometown day and night.

Since then, Cao Cao always has a short dagger in his hand when he sleeps at night, which can be touched by his hand, and he is extremely vigilant when he sleeps, waking up immediately at the slightest movement, and then stabbing with a knife without asking the reason. For this reason, the maids and servants who served him were often killed in the middle of the night, and the reason was only that the maids and servants saw him kick off the quilt, or went to close the lattice window, or saw him tiptoe in to blow out the oil lamp after falling asleep, but unexpectedly woke up Cao Cao in his sleep, and then incurred the disaster of killing.

Over the years, the personal attendants who served Cao Cao have changed batch after batch, all of them are frightened by the murderous habits in his dreams, and would rather sell themselves in the Qinglou or die on the battlefield than follow him and become the ghost of the knife in his sleep without explanation.

However, Cao Cao's self-justifying claim that "I am good at killing people in my dreams" may be able to deceive most people, but it cannot deceive the intelligent and wise Xun Yu. As early as a few years ago, after Cao Cao killed a waiter who had served him for many years in the middle of the night for the first time, Xun Yu privately found out the whole story, and has been careful since then, lest one day he accidentally become the soul of Cao Cao's murder in his dreams.

In fact, Cao Ren, Cao Chun, and other Cao family relatives also broke into Cao Cao's bedroom late at night, but none of them were killed. This invisibly confirmed Xun Yu's judgment that Cao Cao was not a murderer in his dreams, but was frightened by Chen Gong's actions that night, and since then he has left a shadow, always suspecting that others are trying to kill him while he is asleep. So he claimed that "I am good at killing people in my dreams", so as to deter the attendants around him from not daring to approach him while he was asleep, otherwise he would be plotting against him and would die innocently.

?????? In the midst of his thoughts, Xun Yu soothed his breathing, adjusted his breath, and followed Cao Cao into the inner hall.

Seeing Cao Cao spread out the brocade silk with the light and looked through it, Xun Yu explained in a low voice: "This is what General Cao Ren sent someone to just deliver." According to the report of the sentry cavalry, this letter was obtained by General Cao Ren by intercepting and killing the Xiliang sentry cavalry, and the letter silk intercepted at noon was transmitted back by the sentry horse. After receiving this letter, he did not dare to delay, so he came late at night to report to the lord. After explaining the origin of this secret letter in detail, Xun Yu said no more. Wait for Cao Cao to read the letter word by word.

Cao Cao took the letter and read it three times, and then handed the letter to Xun Yu, and was silent. Walked to the side of the desk and sat down, staring at the wine cup for a long time.

There are not many words on the letter, only more than 100 words, and its content is that Li Li ordered Zhang Yan, who had defeated Changshan State, to lead his troops to retreat to the state, and replenish the troops on the spot, and all the required ordnance and baggage were reported, and then the general's palace unified replenishment and distribution. It's as simple as that. There was no other information, not a word.

However, it was this seemingly worthless letter that smashed on Cao Cao's heart like a hammer. It made him heartbroken and remorseful.

This military order for Li Li to dispatch troops and horses revealed many things that Cao Cao was eager to know. First, more than 1,000 black-clothed soldiers led by Liu Bei and Guan Yu failed to intercept and kill. And it was the annihilation of the whole army. Including Liu Bei and Guan Yu, none of them slipped through the net. Second, the soldiers and horses of the Xiliang Army besieging Jizhou are shrinking their forces, quickly replenishing their troops and horses, and actively restoring their strength, while the armament and baggage reserves in the Chang'an General's Mansion are sufficient, which is enough to replenish all the weapons and equipment that have been damaged. Third, and most importantly, Li Li is still alive. It has returned to the state unscathed, and is in the process of mobilizing troops. Maybe it will come back soon, and the army will be overwhelming. And this is precisely what Cao Cao worries about the most.

If Li Li mobilized a large army to attack Jizhou again, he Cao Cao would face an extremely grim situation, even if there were hundreds of thousands of troops, it would be difficult to resist the counterattack of Li Li's army. This is because he needs time to reorganize the nearly 200,000 troops left by Yuan Shao, and he also needs time to reorganize the officials of the counties and counties under the jurisdiction of Jizhou, rearrange his descendants to take over the counties and counties of Jizhou, and train soldiers and horses to form one or several powerful cavalry teams.

In the past, he wanted to form cavalry but was forced to lack excellent war horses, but now he has war horses, and the number is huge, enough to form a war horse of 50,000 people, and these war horses are the best war horses captured by the Xiliang army after the victory in Yecheng. According to post-war statistics, in the battle of Yecheng alone, Cao's army captured no less than 50,000 war horses, as well as more than 10,000 wounded war horses. In the other three battlefields, thousands or tens of thousands of Xiliang war horses were also captured, which can be said to be a lot of gains. All the captured war horses add up, totaling more than 70,000 horses, which is undoubtedly a huge strategic resource. As long as Cao Cao was given enough time, he would be able to use all these horses to form an elite cavalry that could compete head-on with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry.

And the cavalry is the strongest combat force that Li Li can dominate the world, and it is also the key to the Xiliang army's strength to suppress the princes of various towns. Cao Cao had long wanted to form a war horse that could compete with the Xiliang army, but he was forced to have no source of war horses, but after this battle, it was not a problem. What he needs most at the moment is time, time to grow his strength, time to thoroughly digest Jizhou, and time to build a strong army.

After reading the letter, Xun Yu walked lightly to the handsome case, put the letter, and then turned back. He knew what Cao Cao was thinking at the moment, after all, he had followed Cao Cao for many years, and although he didn't dare to say that he had completely understood Cao Cao's mind, he could at least guess seventy percent.

Seeing Cao Cao's frowning, Xun Yu said softly: "The lord doesn't have to worry. If the expectation is good, Li Thief will not attack Jizhou again in the short term. First, in this battle of Hebei, Li Thief lost his troops and generals, and his soldiers and horses suffered huge losses, and he could not recover his strength in a short period of time. Second, at present, Li Li has to face more than one of the princes, and it can be said that he has enemies on all sides, which forces him to be unable to fight to the end with us.

Third, the Xiliang army was newly defeated, the soldiers were frustrated, and their morale was low. From this point of view, it is very likely that Li Thief resolutely gave up Jizhou, reduced his forces, restored his strength, and adopted a defensive posture. There is no need to worry about the lord, now the strength of our army is not weaker than that of Li Thief, and I am not afraid that he will lead the army to attack. ”

After a pause in his voice, Xun Yu changed his words and said in a low voice: "At this moment, I am not worried that Li Thief will lead the army to attack Jizhou again, but I am more worried about the situation in Jizhou in front of me. Yuan Shao's two sons fled abroad, and the Jizhou family did not agree with the lord's promotion of Jizhou, and the Jizhou generals and our army generals were full of contradictions; There is also Jizhou General Ju Yi who supports the army and respects himself, and now he has divided the two counties of Changshan and Zhongshan, and his attitude is unclear, and he seems to be still waiting.

The current situation is complicated, if the lord wants to completely control Jizhou, these problems in front of him must be solved one by one, and the most difficult to solve is Yuan Shao's son and Ju Yi, who supports the army and respects himself. Therefore, the situation we are facing today is really internal and external difficulties, and we must be cautious at every step, otherwise Jizhou, which has already arrived, may gain and lose, and rejoice in nothing. ”

Cao Cao bowed slightly, and said indignantly: "Yuan Shao's two sons are indeed a big trouble, they can't be beaten, scolded, or killed, otherwise I, Cao Cao, will have a bad reputation for being ungrateful." Hey, if Yuan Shao hadn't died, these things would have been solved, but now that he is gone, he will leave me and others with a lot of trouble! ”

—————— —————————————— to be continued(To be continued......

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