Sure enough, when I saw that bright woman's dress. Adou didn't show too much excitement.

"Zhang Wei, bring me the clothes." Adou spoke.

"Your Majesty, this ......"

"If you want to take it, you can take it, what are you doing with so much nonsense!"

"Obey." Zhang Wei had no choice but to go down, reluctantly picked up the women's clothes, and at the same time glanced at the messenger angrily, and then took the women's clothes to Adou.

Adou took the women's clothes, looked at them carefully, frowned slightly, and said at the same time: "This Cao is really stingy, and he doesn't send a better one for clothes, just this fabric, and he is embarrassed to take it out to show off, what kind of general...... I think your Wei Kingdom is really poor. ”

When Adou said this, he said to Zhang Wei next to him: "Zhang Wei, go and get a few good Shu brocades, let this messenger bring them back, it can be regarded as a return gift to Cao Zhen, and let Cao Zhen take it to make a few sets of clothes in case of emergency." Let's also let Cao Zhen see the wealth of our dynasty! ”

Hear Adou's words. The generals in the tent and the messenger of the Cao army all looked at Adou in surprise, and no one could guess what kind of medicine Adou was selling in the gourd.

In the envoy's opinion, Adou was not provoked, which shows that the city is very deep, but Adou even sent someone to send a few Shu brocades as a return gift, which is a bit too strange. Now that the two armies are fighting, and the battle has not yet begun, the two sides have begun to give gifts to each other, which makes the envoy completely confused.

The envoy nodded, as the main task of the envoy is to pass the news back and forth, from the etiquette point of view, people sent Shu brocade, and the envoy is obliged to bring Shu brocade back to Cao Zhen.

……

Cao Jun camp.

The envoy knelt down in front of Cao Zhen and said with a depressed face: "General, the minister is incompetent......"

"Get up, no wonder you!" Cao Zhen shook his head: "Then Liu Chan refused to send troops to fight, I also expected that Liu Chan was already quite resourceful, and Zhuge Liang was by his side, Zhuge Liang was notoriously cautious, how could Liu Chan send troops." ”

"General, then Liu Chan also asked me to bring back a few Shu brocades, saying that they were a return gift for you......," the envoy said cautiously.

"A return gift? Shu brocade? This is fresh...... Bring it up and show me. ”

The soldier took two horses of Shu brocade, the outside of the Shu brocade was wrapped in paper very well, and it was completely impossible to see what color and pattern the Shu brocade inside was, and could only judge from the shape that it was a cloth thing.

"Open it for me, this Shu brocade is in Yecheng. But it's comparable to the price of gold. Kindness? Cao Zhen suddenly stopped his voice.

The paper was torn open, and what appeared in front of Cao Zhen was a patch of white.

"Uh, this ......" Cao Zhen looked at the Shu brocade with some surprise, it turned out to be pure white, and there was no pattern.

Most of the Shu brocade is based on the warp color stripe, and the color stripe is icing flowers, its pattern is prosperous, the texture is fine, the color is elegant, unique, the more common patterns are Qingfeng New Year Brocade, the lantern brocade, the flower peacock, the Ruyi peony, especially those embroidered with a variety of flowers of the Shu brocade, the most beautiful and beautiful, it can really be described as "icing on the cake".

The colors of Shu brocade are very bright, and with some fine workmanship patterns, the price of selling to Yecheng is comparable to gold. Even if Cao Zhen is worth a lot, Shu brocade is also a rare thing, and the pure white Shu brocade without a pattern, Cao Zhen has never seen it.

"White ......" Cao Zhen instantly understood what Adou meant.

"Send me Shu brocade to make clothes, I don't think you Liu Adou is so kind, send white Shu brocade over, you want to make me a shroud! Okay, you're Liu Adou...... I really don't want to eat at all. Cao Zhen laughed angrily.

This round of confrontation. Cao Zhen didn't take advantage of it, and sent a woman's clothes to humiliate Adou, and Adou also changed the color of his clothes, sent white Shu brocade to Cao Zhen, and asked him to make a shroud, which is much more ruthless than sending a woman's clothes.

……

Cao Jun Xiaohu distributed grain, although it could save food, but it made many soldiers hungry. Cao Bing are all young and middle-aged, and the amount of food is very large, after Xiao Hu distributes the grain, the soldiers can't eat enough at all, and the soldiers can't eat enough, so they complain, and the morale of Cao Jun also began to decline.

Cao Zhen knew that if it continued to drag on, it would be more and more unfavorable to Cao Jun, but Cao Jun still had hope in his heart that reinforcements would come soon.

In addition, Cao Zhen tried all kinds of methods to provoke Adou to fight, but the Han army was dead or alive, Adou gave a death order, and anyone who dared to fight without authorization, regardless of victory or defeat, was a decisive decision. Under the heavy punishment, none of the generals of the Han army dared to fight.

At this time, Cao Zhen's situation was like Zhao Kuo in the Battle of Changping, trapped in one place and lacking reinforcements. There is a lack of food and grass supplies, and the surrounding area is full of enemies.

……

In the middle of the night, the lights in Cao Zhen's tent had not been turned off, and Cao Zhen was still sitting at the table, looking at the map carefully.

There is not much food left, the morale of the soldiers is also very low, as for the reinforcements, there is not even a shadow, Cao Zhen has realized that the arrival of reinforcements is already an impossible thing.

"You have to break through, or the army will be buried here!"

Inexplicably, Cao Zhen remembered the Battle of Changping in the past, when Zhao Kuo made a mistake in command, but the 400,000 army was surrounded, and finally surrendered to Cao's army and was killed by Bai Qi.

Cao Zhen asked himself, he didn't make any mistakes in command, but in the end he ended up with the same fate as Zhao Jun that day, looking back, the more Cao Zhen found it difficult to understand.

The sudden appearance of Zhang Ren broke all of Cao Zhen's plans. Cao Jun is obviously a large number of people, but he is at a disadvantage.

"Smack!" Cao Zhen's finger pointed fiercely at the Han army camp opposite, and then Cao Zhen closed his eyes, and when Cao Zhen opened his eyes again, he had already made a decision in his heart.

"Capture the thief and capture the king first, the main force of the Han army is on the opposite side, and Liu Adou is also on the opposite side, as long as they can be defeated, the situation will be directly reversed. After all, I am a lot of people, so why should I be afraid of him...... Since the reinforcements can't arrive, I can only take risks. Let's see who's going to have the last laugh! ”

……

Meanwhile. Adou and Zhuge Liang were also discussing something in the tent.

"Prime Minister, Cao Jun's food should not be running out, I think in the next few days, Cao Zhen should break through. This time, Cao Zhen is more than 100,000 people after all, and he is moving slowly, I think it would be good if these 100,000 people could get rid of 20%. Adou said.

Zhuge Liang gently shook the fan in his hand, and the wind slightly drove the shaking of the candle flame next to him, and then Zhuge Liang stopped and said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Cao Zhen will probably not break through." ”

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your Majesty, if I am Cao Zhen, I also understand that the army moves slowly, if no one answers, it will inevitably suffer heavy losses if I break through the siege rashly, in comparison, if I attack my camp, the effect is much better, after all, Your Majesty, you are in the camp, Cao Zhen only needs to force His Majesty away, and he will be able to drain the morale of our army, of course, attacking my camp will also have great losses. But since they are all losses, I think Cao Zhen will definitely choose to attack my camp to win a chance to turn defeat into victory.

"If he Cao Zhen really attacks, it is easy to say, we just defend, Cao Jun has no food, compared to the consumption of offensive and defensive battles, they do not have an advantage. As long as we hold on for a while, Cao's army will collapse when it lacks food. To say that Cao Zhen's biggest disadvantage now is that there is not enough grain and grass. Thanks to the Wudang Flying Army this time, if they hadn't trekked through mountains and rivers to raid Xingyang, we would definitely not have such an advantage in this battle. ”

……

A day later, the battle that both sides had been waiting for finally began.

Cao Zhen's goal is simple. It is to break through the camp of the Han army and capture Adou, even if Adou can't be caught, Adou must be forced to retreat, as long as the emperor's Luan drives away, the morale of the Han army will inevitably be lost, and the situation of the war can be reversed at that time.

And the goal of the Han army is equally simple, hold the camp, delay time, and protect the safety of Emperor Luanjia, as long as the Cao army loses its sharpness, the Han army will win.

The two sides began a fierce fight, on the battlefield, arrows, weapons were constantly intertwined, flesh and blood flew sideways, and the shouts of killing shook the sky.

The battle lasted from morning to evening and then into the night, but Cao Zhen had no intention of stopping. Cao Zhen knew that what the army now relied on was nothing more than this sharp spirit, and if it wanted to win, it was necessary to defeat the opponent in one battle. What's more, Cao Zhen himself also knew that the grain and grass in the army could no longer support the army to rest a few times.

At the beginning, the two sides fought very anxiously, and even Cao Jun, as the attacker, faintly occupied some initiative, but as time went by, the resilience of the defender slowly reflected.

This is an unequal war, in fact, since the moment Cao Zhen was unable to counterattack Xingyang, the result was already doomed.

Cao Zhen didn't have no chance to turn defeat into victory, but the reinforcements were controlled by Xu Shu, a lone army, and could only be forced to play a tragic role.

Three days later, Cao's offensive was far less sharp than at the beginning, and the soldiers were already showing fatigue.

The Cao army had no reinforcements, and the Han army also had no reinforcements, but the Han army had food and medicine, which was exactly what the Cao army did not have.

The people take food as the sky, the soldiers need to eat, the war horses also need forage, and the wounded soldiers also need medicine, all of which are very short of Cao's army.

On the side of the Han army, Adou had already expected that this battle was very important, so he had already spared no expense in investing, in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, Adou ordered that all the soldiers on the front line should have meat to eat.

This requirement does not seem complicated, but under the conditions and backward productivity at that time, it was still very important to ensure that 100,000 people had to eat meat at a time. The state treasury has to spend at least a lot of money for this, and a large amount of materials are also continuously transported from Luoyang to ensure the supply of the front.

The Cao soldiers only drank a few sips of gruel and hurried to the battlefield, and when the Han soldiers went to the battlefield, they could even see a trace of greasy at the corners of their mouths.

Under such a trade-off, the original anxious battle finally changed, Cao Jun was still brave and still very combative, but the fighting spirit could not fill his stomach, and the feeling of hunger in his stomach was conveyed to his body, making his gestures become so weak.

In the depths of the Han army camp, a high platform was erected, and a large flag of surrender was erected.

In the distance, Wang Ping led a group of firefighters, adding firewood to make a fire, a large cauldron was set up, and next to it, bags of wheat were piled up into a hill.

The fire was hot, the pot was hot, and a stream of heat came out faintly.

"Put all the wheat in there!" While Wang Ping spoke, he did not forget to pick up a piece of lard from the bucket next to him with a knife.

Fresh wheat, mixed with lard, kept stir-frying in the pot, and the firehead soldier was bare-chested, holding a huge shovel in his hand, constantly shaking back and forth, stirring, and gradually, a smell of fried wheat came out.

The lard had melted, and under the stimulation of the fatty lard, the aroma of the fried wheat became a little more abundant and a little stronger, and then the fragrance slowly drifted out with the wind.

The fragrance wafted to Cao Jun, and those Cao soldiers, who had not eaten for many days, pricked up their noses one after another, sucking in the air hard, squeezing out the faint fragrance, but smelling the aroma could not solve the hunger. The harder I sniffed, the hungrier I felt.

In the past few days, Cao Jun, who only drank some gruel and did not eat much dry food, was already short of oil and water in his stomach, and now the attack of this grain aroma has made many people lose the desire to fight, and many soldiers are more willing to find a place to squat quietly and suck in this long-lost fragrance.

Cao Zhen's face became unprecedentedly ugly. Originally, Cao Zhen thought that the Han army would fight with him head-to-head, but he didn't expect that the other party would use this kind of trick, which was completely hurtful!

"Damn!" Cao Zhen scolded secretly, but at this time, Cao Zhen had little to do except scold.

Since this aroma appeared, Cao Jun's combat level seemed to have dropped a lot all of a sudden, and Cao Zhen faintly felt that the sergeants were no longer as hard as they used to be.

"No, it won't work. If we continue like this, we're done! Cao Zhen frowned tightly, how could a soldier fight if he couldn't eat enough and didn't have the strength.

After a long time, Cao Zhen finally made a decision.

Cao Zhen got off the horse, gently stroked the horse's head, and muttered, "Old friend, I'm sorry for you......"

Then Cao Zhen took a deep breath, and then said sharply: "Come on, give orders, kill the horse!" Horse meat stewed into a thick soup and distributed to everyone! ”

"General, what did you say?"

"I said kill the horse! Kill all the horses and feed the brethren! Cao Zhen said coldly.

"General, think twice!" The generals next to him immediately came out to dissuade them, and these horses and weapons are undoubtedly the second life for the generals. As a soldier, even when it is absolutely necessary, he is not willing to kill war horses.

"Poof!" Cao Zhen suddenly drew his sword and stabbed it into the heart of his war horse, and the war horse obviously didn't expect that his master would suddenly give him a sword.

Cao Zhen drew his sword fiercely, and the horse's blood suddenly spurted out and splashed on Cao Zhen's body, covering most of Cao Zhen's body. Then, the horse fell unwillingly, but his eyes could not be closed for a long time, but he stared at Cao Zhen tightly.

Cao Zhen's face was gloomy, without any expression, but his heart was like a knife, this war horse had followed Cao Zhen for many years and experienced countless battles, and Cao Zhen had already treated it as a relative.

"Didn't you hear my command, I said, kill the horses!"