Of the 2,000 men and horses who left the city, less than 100 came back alive, although they won a lot, but in the end, they still lost.

Wei Yan leaned against the closed city gate, panting violently, the feeling of escaping from death was a little complicated, distressed by the death of the soldiers, regretting his recklessness, in fact, when Ma Chao was golden, Wei Yan should have retreated, but he wanted to expand the results of the battle and further hit the Xiliang army, and Fang You was later killed by Ma Chao.

The person who can cut Cao Cao's beard and abandon his robe is really extraordinary!

Taking a hard breath, Wei Yan gritted his teeth, although he didn't want to admit it, he had enough reasons and excuses, but when he faced Ma Chao just now, he did have cowardice.

"General, are you okay?" The deputy general led people down the city and looked at Wei Yan's one-way street.

"Then Ma Chao has withdrawn?" Wei Yan shook his head, stood up and asked.

"It's gone!" The lieutenant nodded.

"What a Ma Mengqi." Wei Yan bared his teeth, but at this moment he found that he had a color on his arm, and his heart was filled with fear before, and he didn't feel anything, but when he relaxed at this moment, the blood began to seep out, only to find that he was slashed by someone and the thief hurt.

The deputy general hurriedly ordered someone to invite a medical craftsman to come over to help Wei Yan bandage his wounds, and helped Wei Yan with a wry smile: "That Ma Chao has been fighting with his father since he was a child, and the name of bravery is the best in the northwest. ”

The Qiang people are different from the Han people, the most important warriors, and Ma Chao's prestige is mostly killed by killing the Qiang people, but because of this, the Qiang people are quite respectful of Ma Chao.

Wei Yan nodded, he didn't believe that someone could make a defeated army regain its strength on the battlefield with momentum alone, but now he believes it, I'm afraid that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei don't have this ability, this is not just a matter of prestige, but the fear and admiration of Ma Chao in the bones of those Xiliang troops has overcome the fear of defeat, that is killed, and Ma Chao may not be able to do this with a Han army.

"It's a pity that I broke 2,000 soldiers in vain, and this is my fault!" Wei Yan sighed and said, this is indeed caused by his command error, if he is steady and steady, and if he sees a good situation, this battle is not only no fault, but it can be regarded as a small victory, but now, he has lost 2,000 men and horses.

It is also that the defenders of Yangping Pass are sufficient, with 8,000 defenders, otherwise the casualties of these 2,000 people will directly make Yangping Pass hurt and fall into a complete disadvantage in the next battle.

"I don't blame the general for this battle." The adjutant general hurriedly said.

Wei Yan glanced at the deputy general, laughed, and said with a smile as he walked back: "But I have seen the power of the broken army crossbow, that Ma Chao is enough to make that Ma Chao scruples!" ”

The first time the Broken Army Crossbow was powerful on the battlefield, the effect was really amazing, even Wei Yan and the others never thought that this Broken Army Crossbow would be so powerful, and after three rounds, it took away three hundred lives, to say the least.

Don't look at the fierce battle at Yangping Pass, but because of the limited terrain, the number of troops put into the battlefield every day is not much, the casualties of these three hundred people are not small, and the three waves of broken crossbows bring the enemy's defensive loopholes, and the casualties brought by the ordinary arrow clusters that follow are even greater, plus the normal losses of the battles between the two sides before and after and the casualties of Wei Yan rushing to kill with men and horses, Ma Chao's losses in this battle are at least three thousand or even four thousand.

However, there is nothing to be proud of when the battle to defend the city is like this, and in general, Wei Yan still feels that he has lost, and he almost lost his own life.

On the other hand, although the Xiliang Army finally regained a city under Ma Chao's strong counterattack, and the Shu army was defeated, but after collecting the troops and returning to the camp, the atmosphere in the tent of the Chinese army commander was not very high.

Ma Chao sat behind the handsome case with a gloomy face, Pang De and several other generals were separated, the power of the weapon to defend the city in Yangping Pass was really amazing, even if it was these Xiliang Army, who were used to killing, even if they were against Cao Jun, they had a sense of powerlessness, the powerful crossbow was one aspect, and the most important thing was that in a narrow place like Yangping Pass, the power of the crossbow was too great.

"How many casualties did you have in this battle?" After a long time, Ma Chaofang opened his eyes, looked at the generals, and asked.

"In this battle, our army lost more than 4,000 people, and the front army was defeated, and the rear army fought together, causing our army to suffer a lot of losses." The general who was in charge of recording military exploits came out and bowed to Ma Chao.

It is also that Wei Yan is too vicious, if the city defense equipment is clearly illuminated at the beginning, it will not cause such a large casualty, but Wei Yan chose to use the crossbow when the Xiliang army's offensive was the most intensive, and the crowd was the most dense, at that time, three rounds of arrows came down, and there were a lot of direct losses, but what was worse was that the formation was scattered, and a large number of shield hands were killed, which directly exposed the troops without shield protection in the back row to the opponent's archers, and the casualties brought were more terrifying than the casualties brought by the crossbow.

Ma Chao didn't speak, coupled with the previous siege losses, the 20,000 horses he brought had already lost more than 6,000 people before they really entered Hanzhong, and it seemed that there was no hope for breaking through Yangping Pass.

"My lord." Pang De took a step forward, bowed down and said, "Now it seems that Yangping Pass cannot be attacked. ”

Judging from the current situation, even if the Xiliang army brought by it is exhausted, it may not be able to take Yangping Pass, and it is obviously not advisable to attack it, so you can only think of some other ways to break the city.

Ma Chao nodded silently, Pang De didn't say, he didn't dare to attack anymore, today he reversed the situation and recovered some disadvantages, but Ma Chao can't guarantee that there will be this effect every time, not to mention that Wei Yan dares to go out of the city easily after this defeat?

It's only been a few days?

Ma Chao was a little distressed, his family didn't have much, and now he had lost half of this Yangping Pass, even if he broke through Yangping Pass, would he still have the strength to attack other cities in Hanzhong?

In my heart, I couldn't help but feel a little retreating, but Ma Chao didn't say it, now that he said to go, this trip to Hanzhong will become a joke, and Ma Chao's prestige will also drop greatly.

In the next few days, Ma Chao sent people to call for battle under the pass every day, but he did not forcibly attack the city again, Wei Yan had seen Ma Chao's terror, so he naturally would not go out of the city easily, just guarded the city pass every day, and at the same time went up the mountain from time to time to watch Ma Chao's military camp, in case Ma Chao thought about anything else.

However, Ma Chao did not give up completely, and in the past few days, he has been sending people around to search for whether there is a road to go around to bypass this Yangping Pass, or to make a direct detour and directly enter Hanzhong from other places.

However, such a road is not easy to find, Hanzhong also borders the Qiang people, but the road that needs to be detoured is too long, and the logistics cannot be supplied at all.

Ma Chao was even more reluctant to retreat, and began to convene Pang De and others to discuss the withdrawal of the army.

"Lord, General Yang said that we don't have to worry about food and grass, and retreating like this is afraid of making people laugh!" One of the generals frowned.

Laughing?

Ma Chao shook his head a little tiredly, what about the shameful smile, Yangping Pass can't be broken, is it possible to waste grain and grass here every day? Besides, in the land of the three counties of Longyou, how many families there are, Ma Chao knows better than anyone else, the army has been traveling for a month, and the little grain and grass hoarded has almost bottomed out.

"Pass my military order, withdraw the army!" Standing up, Ma Chao waved his hand and asserted that he had made up his mind and no one could change it.

"Whoa!" When the generals heard this, they responded to the order one after another, and began to pack on the hour and prepare to evacuate.

Wei Yan always paid attention to Ma Chaojun's movements, and Ma Chao began to set up camp, and Wei Yan naturally found out.

"General, did you take the opportunity to attack?" When the adjutant general saw Ma Chaojun pulling out the camp, he looked at Wei Yan with some excitement.

If it was in the past, Wei Yan would definitely not ask Ma Chao to leave so easily, but with the experience of chasing and killing last time, this time, Wei Yan didn't dare to hold it up, and after hesitating for a moment, Wei Yan still shook his head: "I will wait for the order to guard the pass, then after Ma Chao retreats, send more scouts to explore the surrounding movements." ”

Although Ma Chao is gone, Wei Yan knows very well that the crisis in Hanzhong is not over, and I am afraid that Ma Chao is not the only one who really covets Hanzhong, and the real enemy has not yet emerged.

Compared with Cao Cao, Ma Chao is indeed not a big trouble.

But......

Wei Yan suddenly thought of a question, if Cao Cao wants to attack Hanzhong, Ma Chao's three counties of Longyou are behind Cao Cao, if he is Cao Cao, he will first calm Longyou, relieve his worries, and then attack Hanzhong.

But why did Cao Cao not have the slightest intention of attacking Ma Chao's rear for so long?

"You immediately send someone to catch up with that Ma Chao and send a letter for me!" Wei Yan suddenly looked at the deputy general and said solemnly.

"Huh?" The adjutant general couldn't react, he was still fighting yesterday, and now that Ma Chao has withdrawn, why do he still have to send a letter? Could it be that you want to humiliate that Ma Chao? Subconsciously asked: "General, if this matter provokes that Ma Chao, and he returns to attack again, won't it cause more trouble?" ”

"Not to insult him, but to save him!" Wei Yan shook his head and said: "The traces of the Cao army have been found in the Meridian Valley, obviously the Cao army is also plotting in Hanzhong, but if the Cao army wants to attack, it must first level the three counties on the right side of Longlong to get rid of the trouble, but since Ma Chao came here for twenty days, the supply of grain and grass for the Xiliang army is endless, I am afraid that the Cao army wants Ma Chao to attack first, at this time Ma Chao retreated, Yu Cao army is worthless, I am afraid that Cao Jun has already ambushed in the middle of the road." ”

"That's the case, why did the general remind that Ma Chao?" The deputy general said with a puzzled face, what does Ma Chao's life and death have to do with them.

"If Ma Chao can stabilize in Longyou, Cao Jun will not dare to attack rashly, this is a cold mouth!" Wei Yan shook his head and said, in terms of the overall situation, Wei Yan is the top among the generals under Liu Bei, and in this regard, I am afraid that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are not comparable.

"Whoa!" When the adjutant general heard this, he hurriedly agreed, and turned around to arrange for someone to report the news.