Shouchun City, two days ago.

After Liu Zheng was ambushed, Cao Hong, Cheng Yu, and Zhang Chao retreated to the big tent in Shouchun City.

"Lord, your guess is really right, Liu Zheng did bring people to appear from the place where we set up an ambush."

In the big tent, Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, Liu Dai and others, when they saw that their soldiers and horses had returned, immediately looked at the three deputy generals with concern, and wanted to ask these people how the battle was going.

"How is the battle going, but Liu Zhengna has been wiped out?"

Cao Cao was still more concerned, and after seeing his brother Cao Hong coming back, he immediately asked Cao Hong.

"Lord, we did encounter Liu Zheng and his soldiers and horses, and the ambush was successful, but unfortunately we did not kill Liu Zheng, nor did we defeat Liu Zheng's men and horses, but lost a lot of people and horses."

Cao Hong could only tell Cao Cao what happened on the ambush battlefield, and when he said this, not only Cao Cao was a little surprised, but even Liu Dai and Zhang Miao felt that something was wrong, and they all looked at Cao Hong and Cheng Yu and others with puzzled expressions.

"What the hell is going on?"

Liu Dai took the initiative to ask Cheng Yu.

Cheng Yu is a scholar and has a clue about it, so he began to explain what happened to everyone.

In the words, the people in the big tent finally understood what happened, but they all fell into deep contemplation.

After about half a while, Cao Cao, who had not spoken, finally spoke again.

"After listening to your description, that is, the three of you combined 15,000 troops, set up an ambush to attack first, and fought with Liu Zheng's 20,000 soldiers and horses, not only did not defeat Liu Zheng, but were stabilized by his men and horses and retreated?"

Cao Cao didn't believe in this result, after all, the ambushed side, not only did not defeat the opponent, but was repulsed, if it weren't for his own brother Cao Hong to follow him personally, Cao Cao would think that Cao Hong was lying to himself.

But Cao Cao's ability, Cao Cao still knows, it is precisely because of Cao Hong's presence that Cao Cao believes that Liu Zhengjun's strength is even more powerful than what he had seen in Runan before.

"Yes, after our first round of arrow rain was fired, we immediately let the infantry charge, originally thinking that it was to delay Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses, so that their people would be in chaos and flee in all directions, who knows, Liu Zheng's men quickly woke up from the panic, and then quickly formed a battle formation, and began to confront our people in a squad situation."

"A few years ago, when Liu Zheng was still in the Yellow Turban Army, his men and horses were all some Yellow Turban thieves, which was already quite difficult, and now Liu Zheng has developed for a few years, and his men and horses have followed him to fight in the north and south, including veterans for several years.

Cao Cao still did not blame Cao Hong and others, but was able to understand the defeat of Cao Hong and others, but Zhang Miao was a little incomprehensible.

"You guys, you waste, such a good opportunity, you didn't kill Liu Zheng, leave him, but it will become a scourge!"

Zhang Miao looked at Cao Hong, Cheng Yu, and his younger brother Zhang Chao with an attitude of hating iron and not steel.

On the contrary, it was Liu Dai, who was silent and did not express his opinion.

"Tell me about the battle damage."

Cao Cao is more concerned about this.

"My lord, we have lost two thousand men."

Cao Hong spoke first.

Then Cheng Yu and Zhang Chao also glanced at each other and spoke.

"I have 1,600 dead and wounded."

"I'm about the same, more than 1,700 people."

The three forces combined, the loss of soldiers and horses, more than 5,000 people, more than the losses on Liu Zheng's side, in fact, the main casualties were after they gave the order to retreat, some of the men and horses, there was no time to retreat, Liu Zheng's people were left on the battlefield, and they were not able to escape.

Hearing the loss of soldiers and horses from the three parties, Cao Cao's face became slightly more unsightly.

He only led 20,000 people under his command, in fact, he only had 20,000 people under his command, because Cao Cao at this time did not have his own territory, and he used his own money to crusade against He Miao, but he also used his own money to recruit some village warriors, and united Chen Liutai to guard Zhang Miao, and formed together, which is why he has always stayed with Zhang Miao, a good relationship is on the one hand, and on the other hand, he actually belongs to Zhang Miao.

This time, the loss of 2,000 soldiers and horses left Cao Cao with only 18,000 men.

Although Zhang Miao had more than 20,000 men, this time he only brought 20,000 people from Chenliu to Huainan, and the loss of soldiers and horses would also make him feel distressed.

Of course, the most distressing thing is Liu Dai.

Although Liu Dai had an army of 30,000, when he attacked Huainan, he divided part of his troops and went out, and here in Huainan, there were only 25,000 soldiers and horses.

In the first few days, he attacked Shouchun City and lost thousands of soldiers and horses, so that Liu Dai's men were actually almost the same as Cao Cao and Zhang Miao.

Now that he has lost nearly 2,000 people again, Liu Dai's soldiers and horses are the same as Cao Cao, and if such a loss of soldiers and horses continues, it will be a little difficult for him to besiege Shouchun.

"Although our army has some losses in manpower, but Liu Zheng also lost a lot of manpower, I think the loss is at least more than 4,000, he only led 20,000 people this time, and the rest of these people should not dare to continue to come."

After Cao Hong finished talking about the situation on his side, he spoke again to the others in the camp.

"Even if Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses lose a part, but there are more than 10,000 people, if we pursue, it is inevitable that we will encounter Liu Zheng's ambush, there is no need to pursue, we continue to besiege here, as long as Shouchun is broken, when the time comes, we will join forces and go to Poyang together, Liu Zheng will definitely not be able to fight with us, so we can only retreat to Jiaozhou."

Cao Cao did not advocate pursuit, he was because he had pursued Liu Zheng and suffered a loss under Liu Zheng's men.

"Brother Meng De, at this time, we should take advantage of the victory to pursue, then Liu Zhengxin is defeated, and there are not many people, we raise 60,000 troops, go over and kill him directly, can't we directly recover the entire Yangzhou?"

Zhang Miao advocated pursuit, wanting to defeat Liu Zheng as soon as possible.

But Cao Cao immediately said again.

"Brother Meng Zhuo, raise 60,000 troops to pursue Liu Zheng, what about Shouchun?"

"If we leave some people behind and continue to besiege Shouchun, then our 30,000 soldiers and horses, can we defeat some of Liu Zheng's people?"

"And if we divide the troops, if Shouchun's side is rushed over by Yuan Shu's reinforcements, won't we be in a dilemma?"

Cao Cao asked a series of questions, and Zhang Miao, who asked, was speechless. I had to give up.