The news of Cao Cao's start of the attack was soon discovered by Di Qing, who was preparing to attack Cao Ren and preparing to inform Zhang Yi at the same time.

Zhang Yi got the news, thought about it for a while, sent someone to call Xue Rengui, and then asked him to take the men and horses of his headquarters, that is, a thousand soldiers of Xia Cai, to Yangquan Country and serve under Di Qing.

After Xue Rengui received the order, he immediately rushed to Yangquan Kingdom, and rushed to Yangquan Kingdom before Di Qing sent troops.

Di Qing summoned the generals, the school captains Hua Rong, Yang Zhi, and Xue Li, who Zhang Yi had just sent.

"Liu Bei strictly guarded the beginning, Cao Cao was based on Si County, Cao Rendong refused to fight against Tate, and we want to save Liu Bei, which is nothing more than a few roads. The first is to directly attack Qi Si, the second is to attack Cao Ren, and the third is to make a detour from Tatexian County and go straight to Gushi. Di Qing pointed to the map and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Gushi, Qisi, Tatexian, Yangquan and other places are very close to each other, and Gushi is now Gushi County. Gushi is the southeasternmost county of Runan County, is a strong city, since ancient times is the north-south thoroughfare, south of Dabie Mountain, north of Huaishui. Qisi (now Si Town) is about 40 miles northwest of Gushi, Tatexian County is more than 60 miles east of Gushi, and Yangquan is more than 60 miles north of Tatexian County, which is 100 miles away from Qisi.

Therefore, if you want to rescue Gushi from Yangquan, only the three roads that Di Qing said are the closest. Why didn't Di Qing garrison Tatexian County, but only garrisoned Yangquan and Anfeng? Because first, we have to guard against Xiahou Yuan in Shenxian County, and secondly, we have to leave a buffer zone between ourselves and Cao Cao. Cao Cao has been famous for too long, and Di Qing still has a certain fear of Cao Cao.

Hua Rong said: "Cao Cao has been famous for a long time, and he is not an ordinary person, and it is not advisable to think directly. And Cao Ren is also a veteran general in the army, famous for his good defense, if he attacks Cao Ren, I am afraid it will be fruitless. If it is not in Tatexian County, it is a good place, and it has become a corner. ”

Yang Zhifa said: "Brother Hua is too conservative! Cao's army is brave, but our army is not bad! Cao Cao attacked the beginning of the fierce attack, and there were many generals, and it was not easy to attack. But Cao Ren is only 5,000 soldiers and horses, as long as Cao Ren is defeated, Cao Cao will definitely be afraid. ”

Listening to the words of the two, Di Qing also nodded, what the two said had a certain amount of truth, Hua Rong was cautious, and Yang Zhi was aggressive. But these are not his thoughts, he has tens of thousands of troops in his hands, all of whom have been trained for more than a year. And in Lujiang County this year, there have been countless bandits and invincible, so he thinks he can do more.

At this time, Xue Li stood up and arched his hand and said, "What Captain Yang said is very true, as long as Cao Ren is defeated, Cao Cao will definitely be frightened!" However, if it is a surprise soldier and raids Cao Cao, it will make Cao Cao even more jealous! ”

Hua Rong frowned a little, this Xue Duwei is too bold, he likes to take risks, if he has the ability, it's fine, if he doesn't have the ability, I'm afraid it will affect the whole army. Yang Zhi had a certain affection for Xue Li, after all, Xue Li agreed to his proposal just now. However, he also felt that Xue Li was too bold, "This plan is too bold, for fear of being seen through by Cao Cao." ”

Di Qing was very interested, and asked Xue Li, "What specific strategies can Xue Duwei have?" ”

Xue Li knew that his opportunity to perform had come, so he said: "Our army can be divided into two parts, one to contain Cao Ren, and the other to raid Cao Cao. Those who contain Cao Ren must ensure that Cao Ren does not move in the camp, and cannot let him attack the Lujiang River, nor let him return to the defense period. Raid Cao Cao, as long as the main focus is on deterrence, should be based on cavalry, and quickly raid Cao Cao. If you can win, you will drive Cao Cao to the north, and if you can't win, you will have to stand up, so that Cao Cao will not dare to move! ”

Di Qing's eyes were full of brilliance, and he asked Xue Li, "If Xue Duwei led his troops to raid Cao Cao, what would you do?" ”

Xue Li said: "If I attack Cao Cao, I will go straight to the battlefield, and I will show my strength!" Then he cruised to the rear of Cao Cao and made his heavy troops escort grain and grass. By the way, he attacked the counties, destroyed the farmland, prevented Cao Cao from taking the grain of Runan, and forced him to divide his troops to alleviate the offensive of Gushi. ”

"Good!" Di Qing applauded and praised, "I have 3,000 cavalry under my command, so I will hand it over to Xue Duwei to raid Cao Cao!" ”

Hua Rong stood up and said: "Let the king think twice, the lord only has 4,000 cavalry, if these 3,000 cavalry are damaged, the lord will definitely blame!" ”

"Raising soldiers for a thousand days and using soldiers for a while, this is the right time to use soldiers, why is it a pity?" Di Qing handed over the tiger talisman of the cavalry to Xue Li, "Captain Xue, the cavalry is the army that the lord attaches the most importance to, you must be cautious!" ”

Xue Li calmed down and promised, "Don't worry, General, Li will definitely bring them back safely." ”

In this way, Xue Li took 3,000 cavalry and went west along the Huaishui into Qisi County, crossed several tributaries of Huaishui, and came to the vicinity of a Qisi County.

After a little rest for a day, Xue Li began to send a large number of scouts to inquire about the situation of Cao Cao's army, as well as the situation of the surrounding counties, to see how many Cao troops there were around.

Cao Cao himself is good at sneaking up on others, so he is also afraid that others will sneak attack him. This may have suffered a loss when he courted Dong ten years ago, so he will remember it for life.

Therefore, Xue Li's troops were soon caught by Cao Cao's Tanma, and Cao Cao summoned Xun You and Guo Jia, so he asked: "Tanma found a cavalry unit nearby, it should be Zhang Yi who sent troops to attack our army's grain road." Is there any way to capture this cavalry? ”

The enemy is not terrible in the light, but only the enemy in the dark is the most dangerous. Cao Cao's thoughts are naturally known to the two strategists, but Xun Yu is not very good at this kind of thing, he is even better at some general strategies, this kind of thing is a tactical thing, which Guo Jia is better at. Speaking of which, Cao Cao's strategists have talents at all levels, including Xun Yu and Zhong Xuan in the national plan, Xun Yu and Jia Xu in strategy, and Guo Jia and Cheng Yu in specific tactics.

Of course, it's not that these people can only be on one level, but they are better at it.

Guo Jia said: "If you want to rob the grain and grass, you will definitely detect the grain road, and the lord can use a batch of grain and grass to let the enemy army rob it!" ”

When Cao Cao heard this, he immediately laughed, found Cao Chun, and whispered to him.

Cao Chun found some troops to return to Pingyu County, which was now garrisoned by Li Tong and was Cao Cao's logistics base. After arriving in Pingyu, Cao Chun found some grain carts, but they did not contain grain, but loaded soldiers, and then marched towards the future.

Cao Chun's movements, Xue Li didn't know. However, Xue Like never thought of robbing the grain this time, he had to do more!

He finally figured out Cao Cao's approximate strength, and then gradually approached the Gushi battlefield! Cao Cao's camp was well defended, it was stupid to charge the camp with cavalry, cavalry is a field type of troops, there are Cao Cao's siege troops to attack, why not attack directly? Instead, they are going to attack the camp?