Xiahou Yuan saw that he couldn't catch up with Sun Guan, and was worried that the grain and grass would be burned by the fire, so he hurriedly returned to the army to fight the fire. When he put out the fire, there was not one in ten thousand loads www.biquge.info of grain and grass.

Cao Cao, Guo Jia and other important people under the protection of Xu Chu took advantage of the fire like daylight, found a dense forest that had not yet caught fire, plunged into it, and went straight to the north exit. It was not only their group that fled into the dense forest, but also the Cao soldiers who needed to flee in front of them on all sides, and there were also countless Cao soldiers rushing behind them, which did not seem abrupt.

"The last general Xu Huang is late to save the car, please punish the prime minister!" Cao Cao and his entourage had just come out of the valley, Xu Huang saw it from afar, knelt on the ground, wept silently, and saw that Cao Cao had no worries about his life, so he let go of the worries in his heart.

"Xu Gongming is calm and has the style of Zhou Yafu, and in danger, he organized soldiers to block Lu Bu from taking the opportunity to seize Huai'an, this is a great achievement, what is the crime?" Cao Cao straightened up his hair and beard that had been curled by the fire, and then helped Xu Huang, who was kneeling on the ground.

Cao Cao saw Xu Huang lined up on the side guards, and still patted his chest with palpitations, if he hadn't sent Xiahou Lian to pretend to be him to resist Daxu, I am afraid that he would have died under Lu Bu's knife without being buried in the sea of fire at this time. Cao Cao lined up the rear army in a battle formation and waited at the mouth of the valley, two hours passed, and still did not see Lu Bu waving his army to cover the killing, let alone seeing a soldier from the rout of the front army, thinking that most of the tens of thousands of troops were burned by Lu Bu in a fire, tears rained down. regretted not listening to Guo Jia and Cheng Yu's words and withdrew the army back to Xuchang, and folded its wings several times in a row, and there were less than one or two of the 100,000 troops left. The remaining soldiers are afraid that their morale will be lost, and everyone will be in danger, and they will not be able to fight in a short time.

"Lu Bujun is here!"

Cao Bing's rear army saw the sound of horses' hooves behind him, and the soldiers behind the big formation shouted in a panic, and they were about to scatter when they dropped their weapons and pennants.

"Bomb the camp! Li Dian, Le Jin, and Zhu Ling quickly suppressed it. Cao Cao hurriedly ordered the soldiers to pass the order to Li Dian Lejin.

"Rioter kill!" During the period, Li Dian, who slowly gathered the rout and returned from the rout, took the pro-soldiers around him as the supervising team, and brought 2,000 people into the battle, and stabbed the ordinary soldiers of the Cao soldiers who were dispersing. Li Dian was indeed unable to stabilize the defeated soldiers in the distance.

Cao Cao watched the rest of the army fall apart and was about to fall apart, so he could only rub his hands and feet.

"Cao Ren is here, return to the team quickly!" In the distance, the tiger and leopard rode galloping, the number of scattered Cao soldiers was too right, there was no time to dodge, the tiger and leopard rode left and right, the speed was too fast, the body of Cao Bing was hit by the war horse and flew more than ten steps, Cao Ren ordered the soldiers to hang the corpse in front of the horse and gallop back and forth, shocking the Cao soldiers who still wanted to flee. Cao Ren gathered countless deserters along the way, blocked the way of the Cao soldiers in the bombing camp, and it took a while to calm down the bombing camp.

Cao Ren's voice is like a heavenly sound. Cao Cao waited for Cao Ren to control the rout before asking, "Why is the rear on fire?" ”

"Lu Bu sent soldiers to burn all the grain and grass of our army, and General Miaocai is chasing the thieves." Cao Ren replied.

Hearing that the grain and grass were destroyed, Cao Cao just sighed, he could accept the heavy losses of tens of thousands of troops in front of his eyes, let alone the grain and grass. Anyway, at present, I can't afford to cut down Lu Bu anymore, so what's the use of asking for food and grass? Cao Cao saw that the soldiers in front of him could no longer be used, and he was worried that Lu Bu would kill him, so he couldn't wait to go back to Xuchang to beware of Yuan Shao hearing that he was defeated and took advantage of the fire to rob.

Liu Bei took the three generals and dozens of elite soldiers who had not yet been separated, hesitating, not knowing where to go, this was a good opportunity to leave Cao Cao, but he was very reluctant, leaving Cao Cao at this time, there would be nothing. The soldier has lost everything, and he hasn't even got an official position, how can he be willing? However, after he returns, will Cao Cao put the blame for the defeat of the army on him? His former army surveyed poorly, and Cao Cao had every excuse. Liu Bei wants to go back but is very worried about his own safety, if he doesn't go back, where is the place to stand?

A person thought about it for a long time, and finally gritted his teeth and came back to his senses, not to mention leaving Cao Cao's reputation now, he has no name, no soldiers, no power, and no place in the world, and he secretly made up his mind to find a high-sounding reason before leaving Cao Cao.

"Let's go, go back and see Cao Cao." Liu Bei called Cao Cao's name in front of Guan Yu and Zhang Feichen, and he just wanted to take this opportunity to hint at the three of them.

Cao Cao did not gather up until dawn and fled back to 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers, and the former army commander and deputy general Liu Bei were not able to come back, Cao Cao was very sad in his heart, and he lost two more generals.

"Report! General Liu Xuande returned to the camp. ”

Not long after Cao Cao collected his troops and returned to Huai'an, a soldier came to report.

"Please." Cao Cao hurriedly said, thought about it, stopped the soldiers, and personally led people to the south gate to greet Liu Bei. Liu Bei didn't run! Cao Cao didn't believe until this moment that Liu Bei was truly following him.

Liu Bei saw Cao Cao coming from afar, ignoring the broken armor hanging on his body, prostrate on the ground, and cried loudly: "I have the great trust of the prime minister, which caused the army to be buried in the fire, and I came back with all my life to receive the prime minister's punishment." ”

The more Liu Bei cried, the more sad he became, it was really sad for the hearer to cry, and with his upright demeanor, there was no trace of pretentiousness, and the image of loyalty and righteousness was three points into the bones.

Cao Cao didn't intend to punish Liu Bei, Liu Bei was just a deputy general, and he couldn't punish Liu Bei if he wanted to punish him, of course, he didn't know now that Liu Bei was the first to take the lead in escaping, but he didn't know if Cao Cao would have the intention of killing Liu Bei after Yu Ban came back.

"This is not Xuande's fault, but the fault of the enemy, please hurry up." Cao Cao cautiously pulled Liu Bei up from the ground.

Not long after Yu Ban also returned to Huai'an with a disgraced face, Cao Cao wanted to punish him severely, but saw that Yu Ban's hair and eyebrows were all burned, his face was blackened by thick smoke, and tears washed out strips of gray-white skin on his face, embarrassed, and couldn't bear to scold, just to appease.

Cao Cao waited until the next day, when the reconnaissance soldiers came back to report that Lü Buzhengtun's army had already set up a large camp on the shore of Baima Lake. Cao Cao now knew that Lu Bu really used Guangling as a bait to tempt him to lead his army to pursue. Lu Bu's army is stationed on the shore of White Horse Lake, isn't it just to implement the delaying strategy again?

Cao Cao didn't even have the mood to draw his sword and smash things, but said hastily: "Xiahou Yuan is the main general, and Cheng Yu is the military advisor who stays in Huai'an and guards 10,000 soldiers." Be sure to block Lu Bu's counterattack to capture the city, Huai'an will not be lost, and Lu Bu will not be able to take Xuzhou. ”

Since Lu Bu has strengthened Huai'an, then hold Huai'an to the death, and prevent Lu Bu's army from going north, Cao Cao now has no way to capture Lu Bu.

Cao Cao walked up to Zuo Ci, he had never begged so sincerely in his life, bowed to the ground, and said: "Please also ask the immortal master to think about the people of the world, protect Xuzhou, and beware of Lu Bu's demonic arts." ”

Cao Cao hastily arranged the matter and returned to Xuchang with more than 40,000 remnants of the defeated army. The crusade against Lü Bu was in vain, but Lü Bu dragged his army exhausted, complained, and unable to fight again, making him full of despair about the upcoming battle with Yuan Shao.