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"Zilian, don't be impatient."

Cao Cao raised his hand to beckon Cao Hong to sit down, and chuckled: "After crossing the river, Yuan Shao will definitely cut off the supply of grain and grass for the princes from all walks of life, but he still wants to continue to command the allied forces, so he needs a reliable ally to help him, and then stabilize his position as the leader of the alliance."

However, among the princes of the alliance this time, who can really support him and make him trust?

It's just me, Cao Cao! ”

As he spoke, Cao Cao turned his head to look at the generals not far away, and whispered to Cao Hong: "I have already secretly discussed with Yuan Shao, after capturing Hangu Pass, our army will be stationed at Hangu Pass, Yuan Shao will lead the Jizhou army to sit in the Chinese army, and the other princes must lead the army to conquer the city." After the success、、、 the Central Plains is limited, and it is too crowded for so many princes to stay together、、、 hehehe! ”

Cao Hong was shocked when he heard this, his cheeks were slightly red, he was quite excited, and looked at Cao Cao in awe.

Previously, he often called Cao Cao Mengde, but since Cao Cao sat on the throne of the deputy leader of the princes' army, he subconsciously changed his words, and now he doesn't dare to call it, and he respects and fears Cao Cao, and regards him as a god.

While being overjoyed, Cao Hong suddenly remembered something and said urgently: "No, lord!" Yuan Shao is kind and ruthless, hiding a knife in his smile, and often does this kind of two-faced and three-knife thing. Now he needs the lord to unite with him to suppress the various princes, so as to ensure that he is firmly on the throne of the alliance lord and controls the army of the princes. After the deed is done, what if he crosses the river and demolishes the bridge and turns his head against us? ”

Cao Cao turned his head when he heard this, stared at Cao Hong in surprise, and after a while, he said approvingly: "Zilian should be my Cao family's thousand-mile horse!" I always thought that Cao Ren was calm and alert. After a little training, he must be a general, and he can be of great use. Now it seems that Zilian is coarse and detailed, thinking long-term, and is not inferior to Zixiao! ”

"The lord has won the prize." Cao Hong's cheeks were slightly red, and he said with rare modesty: "Zixiao is proficient in the art of war, and is good at arranging troops, and his ability to command troops and conquest is indeed far above me, and I am ashamed of myself." However, if you talk about martial arts alone. I am not inferior to Zixiao, and I swear to protect the lord to the death! ”

"Zilian's words are serious." Cao Cao knew the meaning of Cao Hong's words, and he was very helpful in his heart, and said with relief: "We are all our own brothers, and we will both be prosperous and lossy. There's no need to compare yourself with each other, let alone worry about it. All the time. Zilian is loyal to me. repeatedly rescued me from danger, and I will never forget these for the rest of my life. However, Zilian needs to be a little more restrained in the future, don't be greedy for beauty, luxury and pleasure, in this chaotic world, it is a good time for my generation to make contributions, don't waste your time! ”

This 、、、 will know that he is wrong. I won't be satisfied with pleasure in the future. Cao Hong bowed his head with flushed cheeks and replied.

Obviously, Cao Cao's understatement directly hit Cao Hong's weakness, which made him sincerely afraid.

In fact, although Cao Hong and Cao Ren are not brothers. But they have been practicing literature and martial arts together since they were children, and they grew up together, not brothers but like brothers. Whether it is civil governance, martial arts or intelligence, Cao Hong is not inferior to Cao Ren, but he is a person who is content with pleasure and lives an extremely luxurious and erosive life, so that Cao Ren has rarely interacted with him in the past two years, and Cao Cao can't count on him. There are more than 500 maids and dancers in his mansion, and the mansion is more luxurious than Cao Cao's backyard.

Because of this, Cao Cao has always relied on Cao Ren and has the intention to train Cao Ren to become the commander of the army. In contrast, Cao Hong has a tendency to be unable to support the wall with mud, which makes Cao Cao quite disappointed, but because Cao Hong sacrificed his life many times to save him, he had to turn a blind eye and let it go, unwilling to accuse him face-to-face.

However, Cao Hong has a strength that no one else can match, at least for Cao Cao. That is, although Cao Hong is greedy for women and is content with pleasure, he is not greedy for life and afraid of death, he is loyal to Cao Cao, and repeatedly sacrifices his life to save him regardless of his own safety. Therefore, when Cao Cao personally led the army to go on the expedition, he would take Cao Hong with him every time, and subconsciously as long as Cao Hong supported him, he would not have to worry about his own safety.

Seeing Cao Hong bow his head and admit his mistakes, Cao Cao was deeply pleased, and he didn't mean to blame him at all, "It's good to know that you can change your mistakes, Zilian doesn't have to blame himself." ”

"Bang, goo, goo!"

Just as Cao Cao's words had not fallen, a crisp sound suddenly sounded from the cliff on the west side of the valley, and then a nighthawk (owl) appeared over the valley, circling and screaming.

"Huh?" Cao Cao, who raised his head when he heard the sound, was suddenly alert, and the smile on his face quickly disappeared, replaced by a solemn face.

"In the middle of the night, the nighthawk is frightened and flies, screaming and wailing, this is a great omen!" After groaning, Cao Cao asked Cao Hong in a deep voice, "How many soldiers are in charge of the vigil tonight, and have the scouts sent out earlier found anything unusual?" ”

Seeing Cao Cao's expression was different and his tone was not good, Cao Hong did not dare to hesitate, and immediately reported: "The last general arranged 5,000 soldiers to keep vigil at the mouth of the valley, and there were 3,000 soldiers stationed three miles north of the valley, a total of 8,000 soldiers were responsible for the vigil. In addition, after our army entered the valley, the last general successively sent three groups of scouts, totaling more than 1,000 people, to search all the mountains and streams within a radius of ten miles, and not a single grass or tree was missed, and nothing was found. But ???"

"But what? Don't ramble, you say! Cao Cao's voice changed when he heard this, and he asked urgently.

Seeing that Cao Cao was so eager, Cao Hong suddenly felt bad, and a sense of crisis that he had never felt before filled his heart.

He immediately reported truthfully: "An hour ago, the last group of 300 scouts was sent into the north of the mountain stream to survey the terrain, and strictly ordered them to check the situation of the northern exit, but until now none of them have returned. I didn't care if I thought that the mountain stream was full of rocks and rough and difficult to walk, and that it was difficult to travel at night. ”

While speaking, Cao Hong was afraid that Cao Cao would be angry, so he didn't have time to slow down, so he immediately explained: "Before our army came here, the last general sent scouts to explore the terrain of the entire mountain stream. This mountain stream is called 'Feiyundu' by the local people, it is a tributary of the Yellow River during the flood season, the whole mountain stream is flooded, inaccessible, and the birds are extinct, so it is called Feiyundu. However, as the midwinter approaches, the water level of the Yellow River drops sharply, drying up the mountain streams and turning the river into an intermittent stream that can accommodate our troops.

The mountain stream is seventeen miles long, and the valley mouths at the north and south ends are relatively open, and each has a valley about three or four miles long, just like the valley we are in. The north side of the mountain stream is the Yellow River, and there is a ferry port more than ten miles to the south, which is built by the surrounding people to dock the raft when they are fishing, and it is very simple to dock the warship. Directly in front of the ferry is a relatively flat mountain road, built around the cliff on the north side of Feiyundu, which can be used for horse-drawn carriages to pass guò, with a total length of 38 miles, and the exit of the mountain road is at the mouth of the valley of the gourd valley where we are, which is connected with the official road leading to Hangu Pass.

In contrast, although the mountain road is a little farther than the mountain stream, it is smooth and easy to walk, and the distance is not much worse, and it is only half an hour at most. Therefore, even in the middle of winter, this mountain stream is rarely visited, not to mention that it is late at night, and it is impossible for anyone to pass through here. ”

After finishing speaking, Cao Hong took a deep breath, and finally expressed his worries: "However, the last group of scouts of our army have not returned yet, and now that I think about it, it is indeed a bit abnormal. There are only more than ten miles of mountain streams, no matter how difficult the mountain streams are, a whole hour has passed before and after, and they should come back anyway. Yes, the last general、、、 the last general feels that something may have happened to them! ”

"Something?" Cao Cao was shocked when he heard this, and frowned and muttered: "Are you saying that it is possible for them to encounter the Xiliang army, or they were directly ambushed and killed by the Xiliang army?" If the scouts are discovered by the Xiliang army, then we 、、、"

Speaking of this, Cao Cao's face changed drastically, and he exclaimed: "Ah! It's not good, the whereabouts of our army have leaked! ”

"Leaking whereabouts! How is this possible? Cao Hong was stunned and said: "Along the way, our army marched day and night, did not play banners, did not light fires or cooked, all of them lived on dry food, and did not contact outsiders. How could such a stealthy march be leaked? ”

Cao Cao shook his head when he heard this, lowered his head and walked out from under the rock, and said in a deep voice: "This time, our army is alone in the depths, and once the whereabouts are leaked, the consequences will be unimaginable. In the midst of danger, everyone should be cautious and cautious. Zilian, immediately set off as a whole army and evacuate this place quickly! ”

"Ahh Cao Hong was stunned when he heard this, and said excitedly: "Evacuate, is there such a strict zhòng?" We have been marching for more than ten days, lurking here in cold and starvation, and now we are retreating like this, and the last general is really unwilling! ”

Cao Cao looked up at the nighthawk hovering in the moonlight, and said in a deep voice: "Now that Yanzhou is in the hands of Lu Bu, we only have three small cities to live in, and the only thing we can rely on is the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in our hands. If the soldiers and horses are completely lost, although the world is big, where is there a place for us? Our army is under the nose of the Xiliang Army, and once the whereabouts are revealed, more than 60,000 Yanzhou soldiers, including you and me, will be buried here. Therefore, Zilian doesn't need to say much, he would rather believe it or not, and immediately set off as a whole army, without mistakes! ”

"No, the last general will obey!" Seeing that Cao Cao had said this, Cao Hong didn't say much, so he had to bow down and take the order.

"It's nice to have friends from afar! Cao Mengde, since he is here, why rush to leave? You and I have a good talk tonight, it's not easy to wait for a trip, so let's stay all! Hahaha! ”

Just as Cao Hong beckoned his generals to assemble the team and prepare to leave, a loud laugh suddenly came from the cliff more than 30 zhang high behind him.

"Roar!"

When Cao Cao, Cao Hong, and tens of thousands of Yanzhou soldiers looked up when they heard the sound, a deafening roar of the giant beast shook everyone's ears and their heads buzzed. Immediately, but I saw a wild beast on the top of the cliff in the east of the gourd valley at some point, with a golden mane shining in the moonlight, and a huge body, the beast's roar was earth-shattering, and the sand and stones on the cliff flew down with a roar. However, this is not the most terrifying, what frightened Cao Jun the most was the majestic figure on the back of the giant beast.

Although everyone couldn't see the person's appearance clearly, the identity of this person who controlled the giant beast had long been famous all over the world. This person is the famous and powerful hussar general, Wuwei Hou Li Li Li Wenchang!

―――――― (To be continued......)