The princes of the Eighteenth Road were divided into four places, the first coalition army was in Suozao County of Chenliu County, the coalition army was Yanzhou and Yuzhou, mainly Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, Bao Xin and others, the second road army was the army of Ji and Youzhou, mainly Yuan Shao, Liu Yi, Wang Kuang, and the third army was headed by Yuan Shu of Luyang, Jingzhou, including Yuan Shu, Sun Jian and others, and the last army was the army of Xiliang Ma Teng.

The four armies were sent from the east, west, north and south directions, pointing at Luoyang. Among them, Wang Kuang in Hanoi, Cao Cao and others in Suozao County, and Yuan Shu in Luyang, these three teams are the closest to Luoyang. The rest were on their way at this time.

In Luoyang City, the news of the allied troops from all over Luoyang came one after another, and the people in the city were panicked.

At this time, the busiest place in Luoyang City belongs to Dong Zhuo's Mansion.

Dong Zhuo adopted Cheng Yu's suggestion before, and the troops were divided into three routes, first to deal with the nearest three teams, among which Dong Zhuo sent his general Xu Rong to lead troops to block Cao Cao, sent Li Yu and Guo Yan to block Yuan Shu, and Lu Bu and Niu Fu led troops to besiege Wang Kuang. He led the rest of the soldiers to sit in the imperial capital.

At this time, Dong Zhuo's army can be simply divided into three systems:

The first is the Liangzhou department, which is Dong Zhuo's descendant army, with Dong Zhuo himself as the commander, and the original team he brought is his most trusted army, among which the generals are mainly Dong Zhuo's younger brother Dong Min, son-in-law Niu Fu, Zhonglang general Dong Yue, descendant general Li Yu, Guo Yan, and the rest are Zhang Ji, Zhang Xiu, Li Meng, Fan Chou, Wang Fang, Yang Ding, Hua Xiong and others.

The second is the Luoyang department, after entering Luoyang, Dong Zhuo annexed the Northern Army in Luoyang City and promoted Xu Rong, the general of the Northern Army at that time.

The third is the Bingzhou system, and the main representative of the Bingzhou system is the general Lu Bu under Ding Yuan, the former leader of the Bingzhou Army, after Lu Bu killed Ding Yuan by mistake, he surrendered Dong Zhuo with the Bingzhou army.

Li Yu, Guo Yan, and Niu Fu are all Dong Zhuo's old subordinates in Xiliang, and they should take on this important responsibility. Lu Bu is Dong Zhuo's righteous son, and it is understandable that he and Niu Fu will lead an army, only this Xu Rong is neither Dong Zhuo's relative nor Xiliang, and like Lu Bu, he is also a halfway monk who defected to Dong Zhuo, even so, since Dong Zhuo can arrange Xu Rong alone to block the army of Cao Cao and others, it is enough to explain his status in Dong Zhuo's heart.

In the autumn of 187 AD, the army of Cao Cao and others went all the way west, crossed the Bianshui, and came to the territory of Sili.

As soon as he entered the division, Cao Cao thought about occupying Chenggao County, which was more than ten miles away from Luoyang, and then slowing down Luoyang.

After making up his mind, Cao Cao told Zhang Miao, Bao Xin and others about his thoughts.

Cao Cao's people, in terms of military talent, Zhang Miao and others are not Cao Cao's opponents at all, originally with Zhang Miao's intentional support, Zhang Miao planned to promote Cao Cao to be the person in charge of everyone, but when they heard that Cao Cao had only 5,000 people, Bao Xin and others expressed their dissatisfaction, and after several discussions, Cao Cao still did not become the person in charge of this team.

After hearing Cao Cao say that he wanted to directly capture Chenggao County, everyone began to discuss together, and after discussing for a long time, Cao Cao finally couldn't hold it down

When they wanted to get angry, everyone agreed to Cao Cao's plan.

So Cao Cao and others began to march westward and went straight to Chenggao County. Unexpectedly, before he had gone far, he met Xu Rong's army in Xingyang County, Luoyang County, who had come to stop him.

Cao Cao's army had nearly 30,000 people, while Xu Rong's side had less than 15,000 people. The only disadvantage on Cao Cao's side was that Xu Rong had already occupied Xingyang at this time, while Cao Cao and the others could only garrison troops on the plains outside Xingyang.

The two sides have fought several times with each other, and they have won and lost each other, and it can be said that neither of them has taken advantage.

Outside Xingyang, inside Cao Cao's army.

Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, Bao Xin, Qiao Mao, Liu Dai, and Yuan Yi were sitting in the big tent of the Chinese army.

Although there is no one who is in charge, but at times like this, it is generally Cao Cao who comes up with a suggestion first, and then everyone begins to discuss the feasibility of the proposal, only to see Cao Cao pick up a dead branch on the ground, point to the simple topographic map spread in front of everyone and say, "As far as Cao knows, Dong Zhuo has now divided his troops into three parts, going to block the princes from all walks of life, and Luoyang City must be empty at this time, so I suggest that our six teams be divided into two, three of them will stay to drag Xu Rong, and the other three will lead elite troops to raid Luoyang!" ”

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Miao on the side immediately seconded and said, "Meng De's words are exactly what I want, as long as we start fast enough, Dong Zhuo's family will definitely not be able to react, when the time comes, let's enter Luoyang first, kill the Dong thief, and make a name for all generations, won't it all belong to me?" ”

Hearing Zhang Miao say this, the remaining four people glanced at each other and did not object for a while.

Seeing that everyone had no objection, Cao Cao was overjoyed, so he pointed to the map and continued, "In this case, Brother Boye (Yuan Yizi), you have more elite soldiers, you, me, and Meng Zhuo (Zhang Miaozi) brother, the three of us will lead the troops to take a detour from the path and go to attack Luoyang. Lord Bao, Lord Qiao and Lord Liu, the three of you will stay here and get out of Xu Rong's army, after the three of us capture Luoyang, Xu Rong will definitely break down, and then the three of you can come to Luoyang to join us! ”

The reason why Cao Cao arranged it this way was that he still had his own selfishness, for Bao Xin, Qiao Mao and Liu Dai, Cao Cao had little contact with the three before, and he didn't know much about the temperament of the three, while Zhang Miao and Yuan Yi were different. Needless to say, Zhang Miao is Cao Cao's close friend, and Yuan Yi is Yuan Shao's cousin, when Cao Cao and Yuan Shao played, they could always meet Yuan Yi, so Yuan Yi and Cao Cao were also old friends.

Faced with such an arrangement, Zhang Miao and Yuan Yi naturally had no objections, but Bao Xin and the three of them on the side stood up to express their opposition.

"Brother Meng De, I'm afraid it's not appropriate for you to arrange it like this, right?" Jibei Prime Minister Bao Xin looked at Cao Cao with a displeased face and said.

Qiao Mao, the Taishou of Dongjun next to Bao Xin, also echoed when he heard this, "I heard that Dong Zhuo's Xiliang Army is brave and good at fighting, and can be ten at a time, and now the three of you have taken away most of the troops, leaving only the three of us to drag Xu Rong down, isn't this clearly asking the three of us to be cannon fodder for you?" ”

"Why do you want to be cannon fodder? Brother Meng De meant to let you drag Xu Rong down, not for you

We all annihilate Xu Rong, you only need to garrison troops outside Xingyang City, and you don't need to attack in a big way! ”

Hearing Zhang Miao's words, Liu Dai, the largest official among the several people, stood up.

"Lord Zhang, you can't say that, you left with the army, if Xu Rong comes to attack, how do you tell the three of us to deal with it?"

Don't look at Liu Dai as a Yanzhou pastor, Cao Cao and others are supposed to be his subordinates, but compared with Liu Yu, Liu Yan and others who are also state pastors, he, the Yanzhou pastor, may not be as capable as a county guard, and the reason why he can be a state pastor is entirely because he is a member of the Han family.

Seeing that Liu Dai had spoken, Cao Cao and Zhang Miao didn't dare to say anything more, so they could only sigh secretly in their hearts, and then asked Liu Dai, "Since the adults said so, I don't know how we should distribute the troops according to the adults' ideas?" ”

When Liu Dai heard this, he touched the goatee on his chin and began to think.

After thinking about it for a long time, just when Cao Cao and Zhang Miao couldn't bear it anymore, Liu Dai finally raised his head and looked at everyone, "In my opinion, we should wait and see what happens now, and then make plans after he and the princes from all over the world have arrived!" ”

As soon as these words came out, Cao Cao suddenly began to secretly scold Liu Dai in his heart.

Although Cao Cao did not agree with Liu Dai's opinion in his heart, Bao Xin and Qiao Mao strongly supported Liu Dai's suggestion.

In the end, due to official reasons, Cao Cao and Zhang Miao had no choice but to agree to Liu Dai's suggestion and stay put.

After a few days, Cao Cao's side was still stationed outside Xingyang City to inquire about the news of the princes from all walks of life, and he had no intention of attacking Xingyang at all.

Seeing that Cao Cao and the others had been holding their troops still, Xu Rong in Xingyang City began to gather his subordinates to discuss a strategy to break the enemy. After discussing for a long time, Xu Rong made up his mind to say to the people in front of him, "Tell me to go down and attack the camp tonight!" ”

"No!" After the generals answered, they hurriedly ran down to prepare.

That night, the sky was cloudy and pitch black.

After dinner, Cao Cao and the others began to discuss the enemy's strategy in the tent.

"Everyone, I see that there is no star and moon tonight, I expect that Xu Rong will definitely come to attack the camp, we should prepare early!" Cao Cao pointed to the night outside and suggested to everyone.

Hearing this, everyone looked outside, and then Bao Xin and Qiao Mao turned their heads and looked at Liu Dai on the side, and saw that Liu Dai had no objection, so the two also agreed with Cao Cao's suggestion.

So according to Cao Cao's orders, after nightfall, the soldiers in the camp were ambushed on both sides of the camp in two ways, leaving only a few soldiers in the camp to patrol the guard.

Staying until ten in the middle of the night, when everyone was a little sleepy and couldn't stand it, Xu Rong really led his troops to attack the camp.

After Xu Rong led a large group of men and horses to quietly touch the vicinity of Cao Cao and others' camp, seeing that the camp was as quiet as usual, Xu Rong shouted, and then took the lead and rushed to Cao Cao's camp with the army.

Unexpectedly, Xu Rong and the others had just rushed into the camp, but they saw that the camp was empty except for dozens of soldiers patrolling the guard.

"Oh no, I've been tricked!" Xu Rong shouted, turned the horse's head and was about to flee,

Unexpectedly, before he got out of the camp, he saw that the lights on both sides outside the camp were suddenly bright, and the army of Cao Cao and others rushed up with shouts.

After the death battle of the guards around him, Xu Rong was able to escape from the encirclement of Cao Cao and others after paying the price of killing and wounding half of the generals.

Seeing Xu Rong fleeing in the direction of Xingyang City with the remnants of the defeated army, Zhang Miao hurriedly ran to Cao Cao and asked loudly, "Meng De, shall we chase or not?" ”

Hearing Zhang Miao's words, Cao Cao squinted his eyes and looked at Xu Rong, who was about to disappear into the darkness, and made up his mind.

"Xu Rong must be killed tonight!" After speaking, Cao Cao and the others led the army to chase in the direction of Xu Rong's escape.

Because the sky was too dark, Cao Cao and the others didn't see how many men and horses Xu Rong had brought before, but when they saw Xu Rong in the array, they thought that Xu Rong was coming with a large army, but they didn't know that Xu Rong had only brought less than 4,000 people before.

In the army of Cao Cao and others, because there were too many people, it was impossible to guarantee that everyone had torches in their hands, and in order to ensure that they did not get lost and scattered, only one person among dozens of people had torches. There were not many torches, and it was dark tonight, so visibility was very limited.

Just when Cao Cao and the others wanted to hunt down Xu Rong, in the darkness on both sides of the army, hundreds of enemies dressed in the same costumes took advantage of the night to blend into the army.

Gradually, the torches were extinguished one by one, and the army behind Cao Cao and the others immediately fell into darkness. Without the lighting of torches, the soldiers could only move closer to Cao Cao and others in front of them in the dark, and those enemies who had blended into the army no longer hid their identities at this time, and drew their knives and slashed at the people around them.

Listening to the screams coming from behind him, Cao Cao and the others immediately reined in their horses and looked back, and when they saw that it was pitch black behind them, Cao Cao suddenly shouted, "Not good!" ”

"Xu Rong, this guy dares to use himself as bait to lure me into the trap!"

(End of chapter)