When they set fire to the fire, the fire easily ignited, as if it had been prepared in advance, and in some places there was fire oil stored, and in others it was covered with hay.

What's even more amazing is that it was a windless night, but at this time, a small north wind blew, and the wind helped the fire, and the fire borrowed the power of the wind to burn more vigorously.

There was no one in the county office to put out the fire, and Cao Hong's guards were all killed in the room by grenades.

Wen Ping and his men gradually joined up, and as they withdrew, they lit fires, and many parts of the city began to catch fire.

They were all wearing Cao Jun's uniforms, but with an extra white silk scarf around their necks, and Wen Ping led them to retreat to the West City Gate.

Along the way, there were panicked soldiers of the Cao army, and many people wanted to put out the fire, but they were surprised to find that more than a dozen wells in the city had been damaged in the explosion just now, and there was no water to put out the fire.

Many of them tried to run out of the city, but they couldn't, and the gates on all sides were blown down, and the gravel blocked the holes in the gates.

The fire is getting bigger and bigger, and many people are running up the city wall, wanting to lower the rope and climb down, but where can they find such a long rope in their eagerness?

The Cao army camp outside the city was also awakened by these explosions, and many people wanted to enter the city to put out the fire, but they couldn't open the city gate at all.

The quick-witted sandbags were brought and piled under the city walls to reduce the height of the city head and the ground as much as possible.

Because he was not prepared to attack the city, he didn't bring a ladder at all, only the baggage battalion had a few siege ladder trucks, and Guo Jia asked people to assemble them immediately to save the people on the city.

Wen Ping's subordinates have all gathered near the West Gate, and some people already feel that there are so many unfamiliar faces, and they are all unflustered, very suspicious.

Wen Ping didn't care whether they were suspicious or not, and with an order, he killed all the nearby Cao troops.

Then it was to open the entrance to the secret passage that had been prepared long ago, which led from under the wall of the west gate to a mass grave a few miles away.

Just when the Cao army in the city was busy fleeing for their lives, and the Cao army outside the city was busy saving people, they suddenly killed the cavalry of the brigade from the darkness, and the crossbows in their hands shot out of a deadly crossbow arrow, and the archery skills were exquisite.

Bags of fire oil were thrown on top of the tents, and grenades were thrown into the crowd.

"The enemy is attacking, and the Central Army is coming to rob the camp!" Finally, someone remembered to shout a warning, and the open and secret sentinels arranged outside the camp were clearly the ghosts of the swords.

The explosion of the grenade quickly ignited the fire oil, and the tents were burned, and there was a small north wind blowing vigorously, spreading very quickly.

Guo Jia ordered Xiahou Yuan and Cao Ren to organize their headquarters to besiege these cavalry and prevent them from continuing to wreak havoc.

However, these cavalry of the Central Army did not love to fight, they lit the fire and passed through the camp, and did not entangle too much with the Cao army.

Cao Cao was worried about Cao Hong, and he didn't care about commanding the army to deal with it, so he asked more than a dozen Cao officers and soldiers who climbed down or jumped off the city wall, and finally got the exact news from Cao Hong's adjutant general.

When the deputy general arrived, the entire county government was already in flames, and no one in the county government had fled.

Moreover, the county government was the first place in the city to catch fire, and several grenade explosions were heard, and General Cao Hong was afraid that he had already died in the fire.

When Cao Cao heard the news, he also spat blood from his mouth and almost fell off his horse, but Xu Chu on the side moved quickly and hugged him.

Cao Hong is Cao Cao's own brother, who first followed him to fight in the north and south, fought against the Yellow Turban thieves, fought against Dong Zhuo, saved Cao Cao's life twice, and even escaped with the wounded Cao Cao in the chaos on his back.

Unexpectedly, leaving him in the city to recuperate this time would kill him, and Cao Cao regretted it.

Seeing this, Guo Jia also knew that this battle could not be fought, so he could only order the whole army to assemble and retreat to Xiangyang.

Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan led the most elite infantry of the Cao army alternately covered the retreat of the army in the rear, while Cao Zhang led the cavalry to open the way in front.

At this time, before dawn, from time to time, a group of cavalry of the Central Army would pass by at high speed from any direction in front of the Cao army, either with a crossbow or a grenade, but they would never fight or charge.

If Cao's army sent cavalry to attack, they would have left quickly. If Cao's cavalry dared to pursue them, no one would return after entering the darkness, as if they had been swallowed up by the darkness.

The war horses of the Central Army are all war horses of the Western Regions, which are much faster than the cavalry of the Cao Army, and they cannot be stopped or caught up.

After repeating it several times and losing nearly a thousand cavalry, Guo Jia did not allow Cao Zhang's cavalry to attack again, but only let them cruise around the army.

This method was also very effective at first, and the cavalry of the Central Army would be stopped by the cavalry on the periphery, and they could no longer attack the infantry at will.

However, the Central Army quickly changed its tactics, and they targeted the cavalry on the periphery.

In particular, the cavalry of the Cao Army, who were hurrying with torches, had not received much training in night fighting, and they all became excellent targets, and the sharpshooters of the special operations division would not waste such a good opportunity.

In this way, he was harassed until dawn, and at this time, Cao Jun finally approached Xiangyang City.

Zhou Yu in the city had already received the news that Cao's army had withdrawn and returned, and sent 20,000 infantry led by generals Cheng Pu and Han Dang to respond.

It was only by this time that the harassment forces of the Central Army disappeared.

It wasn't until he withdrew to Xiangyang City that Cao Jun had the opportunity to count his losses.

At the time of departure, the mighty 60,000 Cao troops, the cavalry suffered 4,000 casualties, and the infantry suffered 25,000 casualties, including more than 4,000 burned to death in Xinye Castle.

The Jingzhou army suffered about 20,000 casualties. 90,000 people went out on the expedition and suffered 48,000 casualties, and if you add the more than 10,000 people lost by Xiahoudun and Cao Anmin, Cao's army has already suffered more than half of the casualties.

It was at this time that a Tanma finally brought back the latest information from Bowang.

Cao Cao's eldest son, Cao Ang, was ambushed by the Central Army on the way to rescue Wanxian, and when Cao Ang himself fled, he was pierced by the Central Army's crossbow and arrows, and his subordinates 3,000 Cao Army were also wiped out.

Hearing the news of Cao Ang's death, Cao Cao, who was even hit, vomited blood again and fainted on the spot.

Everyone hurriedly rescued, but fortunately, a disciple of the divine doctor Hua Tuo practiced medicine in Xiangyang City, and applied the method of golden needles, and finally rescued Cao Cao, but he still had a headache.

After Guo Jia and Zhou Yu discussed, they both thought that the battle could not be fought, so they sent envoys to negotiate peace with Zhang Liao and others.

Zhang Liao and others were celebrating the victory in Wanxian County at this time, Zhuge Liang's plan to burn Xinye was simply a desperate plan, and more than 4,000 Cao troops and the general Cao Hong were burned to death, and Pang Tong was also really admired.

Of course, Pang Tong is not bad, his harassment method is deeply respected by Zhang Liao, and the Central Army is good at this kind of hit-and-go tactics.

It caused so many casualties to Cao's army, and the casualties of the Central Army itself were only six or seven thousand, most of which were still the casualties of the Rongyi Division during the Yuxian Blockade Battle.

Later, the fire and night harassment did not cause many casualties.

Zhang Liao, Zhuge Liang, and Pang Tong weighed the pros and cons of fighting, and they didn't think that they could really win a battle and completely defeat the Cao-Wu coalition army.

The other party can be fooled if you use this thing once, and you will be much more cautious the second time.