Cao Jun retreated, and the soldiers in the city first found out early the next morning that Cao Jun's camp had been empty, and he didn't dare to slack off and immediately come back to report. Tao Qian hurriedly invited Liu Bei to come over to discuss the matter.

There was not much time, Liu Bei took Han Fei to the meeting hall, and when he heard that Cao Jun had retired, Liu Bei was also very happy. However, Han Fei didn't see it that way, Cao Jun just retreated after a small defeat, and there must be fraud in it.

Tao Qian was already asking Liu Bei for advice at this time, and Liu Bei replied: "We should send more scouts to inquire to see if Cao Jun really retreated, or if it was his plan to lure the enemy." ”

Tao Qian listened to it and thought so, and hurriedly sent all his scouts to reconnoiter all the four directions outside Xuzhou City. After the scouts were dispatched, Liu Bei took Han Fei back to the barracks when he had nothing to do, and on the way Han Fei said to Liu Bei: "Lord Cao Jun is retreating, if the state pastor proposes to chase you, don't agree!" ”

"Zicong doesn't think there's fraud in it?" Liu Bei asked.

"Cao Cao's current advisor is named Guo Jia, he is an extremely powerful opponent, this time Cao Jun and completely failed, but he retreated so easily, I think Guo Jia must be using a trick! It's just that I haven't thought about how he's going to behave! Han Fei explained.

"In that case, I'll tell Brother Gongzu!"

"The lord must not do this, we have no evidence now, so I dare to tell you that Tao Qian will be suspicious of us." Han Fei hurriedly stopped.

"That's it! Am I just looking at it like that? Liu Bei frowned.

"I'm afraid that's the only way to go, let's wait and see what happens!" Han Fei said helplessly. Liu Bei nodded when he heard this, and the two of them stopped talking.

At noon, Tao Qian invited Liu Bei to a banquet again, during which he told Liu Bei that Cao Cao had indeed retired. The scouts went hundreds of miles from all sides, but there was no trace of Cao's army. Liu Bei remembered what Han Fei said in the morning, and had the heart to remind Tao Qian. But when he saw Tao Qian's happy face, he swallowed back the words to his lips.

At this time, Tao Qian suddenly said: "Hey, we are here for a banquet, but the innocent soldiers and civilians in Pengcheng are still alive and bones, how about I want to ask you to go to Pengcheng on my behalf?" ”

"This ......" Liu Bei hesitated for a moment, his eyes aimed at Han Fei. When Han Fei heard Peng Cheng, his heart was like a lightning bolt, and he instantly understood Guo Jia's plan, and he was almost 100% sure that there would be an ambush in Peng Cheng. So he raised his head and shook his head gently at Liu Bei.

Liu Bei was about to open his mouth to refuse. Not wanting Cao Bao to speak first at this time, he stood up and arched his hand to Tao Qian and said, "Lord, Liu Qingzhou is tired from coming from afar, and he has already fought with Cao Jun before. This time, there is nothing important, so I will lead the troops to take back Pengcheng! ”

Tao Qian felt justified when he heard it, he had a large number of soldiers under his command, and he couldn't beat Cao Jun because there was no general, but it should be no problem to take back the city. So he said to Cao Bao: "In this way, General Cao will take 20,000 horses and horses to go, and be sure to take back the city of Napeng, and the corpses of the soldiers and civilians in the city must also be properly disposed of." ”

"Yes!" Cao Bao took the order. At the end of the banquet, Liu Bei and the others returned to the camp without mentioning it. Speaking of Cao Bao alone, he also has his own ideas. This Pengcheng is now like an ownerless thing, and in the name of occupation, he intends to expand the power of his Cao family to the entire Pengcheng. Therefore, when he returned home, he summoned the housekeepers of the family to a meeting in the name of the head of the family, and then brought the people and horses of the Cao family with him after the army.

In this way, Cao Bao set off with 20,000 horses and went straight to Pengcheng! After 20,000 horses, Cao Bao's cousin Cao Biao accompanied more than 800 people from the Cao family.

The army walked for two days and came to the vicinity of Pengcheng, which at this moment was like a ghost town. There was silence in the city, and there was nothing but corpses all over the city. Cao Bao did not enter the city, he ordered people to go to the city to burn the corpse, and the ashes were buried in a large pit outside the city. The 20,000 men split up, and in a few moments a few puffs of smoke rose from the city.

Due to the fact that there were so many people who died, the corpses were only half disposed of until the evening, and the rest could only be burned again the next day. Cao Bao left a few men to patrol the city at night, and the brigade withdrew to the Taoist camp, only to wait for the city to be completely cleaned tomorrow before entering the city.

The soldiers were tired for a day, and Cao Jun had retreated, so they all relaxed, and even the people on duty at night dozed off together. At ten o'clock in the middle of the night, the two groups of men and horses quietly touched the vicinity of the camp, and it was the Cao army that was supposed to retreat.

It turned out that this was really Guo Jia's plan, using Peng Cheng as a bait to lure Liu Beijun to come. What I didn't expect was that it wasn't Liu Beijun who came, it was Cao Bao who came! But such an opportunity is really rare, no matter who comes, you have to fight it first.

Seeing that it was the third watch, the two brothers Xiahoudun and Xiahouyuan each led a group of men and horses into Cao Bao's camp. In an instant, there was chaos in Cao Bao's camp! Cao Bao was sleeping in the tent at this time, when he suddenly heard the sound of shouting and killing, and he sat up suddenly. At this time, Qin Bing rushed in and reported: "The general is not good, Cao Jun has come in!" ”

Cao Bao's face turned pale when he heard this, and he didn't care about putting on armor and shoes, so he fled barefoot on his horse and outside the camp, and the guards followed him and fled outside the camp together. I didn't want to meet Xiahou Yuan halfway, Xiahou Yuan saw that this person must be a general in the battalion, and immediately raised his knife and rushed to Cao Bao to kill.

Cao Bao saw that the frightened soul was not possessed, how could he dare to make a move with Xiahou Yuan, and he would take the road and flee with the horse. Who is Xiahou Yuan, how could he let him leave, he cut off Cao Bao's horse head with a knife, and the headless war horse fell to the ground, crushing Cao Bao's left leg under the horse.

Cao Bao's guards saw that two people dismounted to save Cao Bao, and the remaining few people rushed to Xiahou Yuan to kill him. Xiahou Yuan smiled coldly, and with a few swings of the big knife, he killed those people on the spot! At this time, the two guards finally pulled Cao Bao out.

The three of them were just about to escape, but Xiahou Yuan came to him on horseback, and slashed the two guards with two swords. Cao Bao was only frightened at this time, and his body was like a sifting chaff, and he trembled. Xiahou Yuan looked him up and down, did not kill him, but ordered his subordinates to tie up Cao Bao.

The battle ended quickly, and seeing that Cao Bao was captured, most of the Xuzhou army disarmed and surrendered. There was also a small scattered breakout, which was nowhere to be found at this time. The Xiahou brothers didn't care either, and sent someone to deliver a letter to Cao Cao, while they occupied the magpie's nest and directly occupied Cao Bao's camp.

Cao Cao's army rushed over before dawn, and the two armies were one, and there were a lot more men and horses than before. Cao Cao summoned Cao Bao in the Shuai Tent, although they were all surnamed Cao, but this Cao Bao was indeed frightened. As soon as he saw Cao Cao, he fell to his knees and asked for mercy again and again.

Cao Cao looked at Cao Bao who was kneeling at the bottom and was very disgusted, how could such a character be worthy of the surname Cao. However, this person is still useful, so he pretended to smile and said, "Didn't I ask you to invite General Cao here?" The people who came didn't hurry up to loosen the seat for General Cao. ”

The soldiers on both sides stepped forward to untie Cao Bao's ropes, and Cao Bao sat on the stool next to him tremblingly.