Zhuge Liang expected it well, in fact, Cao Ren had long thought about sending troops to meet Liu Bei's army and withdraw safely to annex the state, but he was also powerless.

At the beginning, Cao Ren adhered to Cao Cao's order and led the army to help Liu Bei guard Guanzhong, but he didn't expect Guanzhong to be defeated so badly, all the generals under Liu Qi were ancestors with intrigue and trickery, and even Ma Chao was able to break through the first Lingqiang, easily occupied the entire Beidi County, and incorporated thirty or forty thousand elite Xiqiang cavalry, and then directly sent troops to Qi County through Guò Beidi, cutting off the retreat of the defenders.

At the same time, Wen Ping used a plan to merge out of the Meridian Valley to force the defenders of Lantian to retreat, and his subordinate Niu Jin led the army to retreat to Chang'an, where he assisted in defending the city with Chang Diao.

But they didn't expect Liu Qi to be cunning, even Zhang Fei could rebel, when they saw Liu Qi's army pouring into Chang'an, seeing that Chang'an was difficult to protect, they decisively led the army to withdraw, and then took a shortcut back to Tongguan, fortunately did not encounter Liu Qi's ambush.

Not long after the return of Chang Diao and Niu Jin's army, Cao Ren received a distress letter from Liu Bei, but he was completely ill-armed, because Ma Chaozheng led 30,000 cavalry from Linjin to launch a fierce attack on Huayin, where Tongguan was located.

Cao Ren could naturally see that Ma Chao's purpose was not to break through the Tong Pass, but to prevent him from leading the army to rescue Liu Bei.

But Cao Ren had already received Cao Cao's order, and Liu Bei couldn't help it, because as long as this person lived, it was a great threat to Liu Qi, and once this person died, Liu Qi would become the only legitimate representative of the Han clan, both in terms of political prestige and morale, and it would be a heavy blow to his side.

Therefore, Cao Ren had no choice but to pull his army of 50,000 out of Tongguan and prepare for a decisive battle with Ma Chao, after defeating Ma Chao. He responded to Liu Bei's retreat with his army, and at the same time took the opportunity to occupy Zuo Fengyi, threatening Chang'an, and after Cao Cao's main army arrived, he joined forces and grabbed Chang'an with Liu Qi.

In Cao Ren's opinion. Ma Chao is just a brave man, and it won't be too difficult to defeat him. And the reason why Liu Bei has been defeated repeatedly is mainly because of the incompetence of the generals under his command.

Therefore, when formulating the battle plan, Cao Ren decided to take advantage of the fact that there were no famous strategists under Ma Chao's command, and strike first to defeat Ma Chao, otherwise once a strategist like Zhou Yu or Fa Zheng arrived, he would have no chance.

At this time, the military advisor Zhao Yan persuaded and said: "General, since Ma Chao can lead the army to break through the first zero. Being able to occupy the entire Zuo Fengyi in a short period of time proves that Ma Chao is by no means a reckless person as rumored, or that there are capable people in his army, and we must not take it lightly. ”

But Niu Jin smiled and said: "Ma Chao's so-called capable people are just used to deal with the kind of barbarians of the Qiang people, as for his ability to take Zuo Fengyi lightly, is it not because Chang'an was besieged, and Zuo Fengyi's guards are all cowardly and incompetent, so he surrendered?" General Zixiao fought for many years. When it comes to the art of war, even ten Ma Chao are not as good as generals. Now that Ma Chao has hit the doorstep, how can we not take the initiative to meet the battle in order to frustrate the enemy's spirit? ”

Cao Ren nodded and said: "General Niu's words are exactly what I want, now that Ma Chao is coming violently, if we don't fight, we will frustrate the enemy's spirit." Isn't it a missed opportunity? However, what Zhao Junshi said is also very reasonable, Ma Chao is not an unknown person, and he is also the new Zuo Feng Yi of the Chu army, and his momentum is flourishing, so we should avoid frontal combat. And you need to use a plan to break it. Now that Zhou Yu is trapped by Liu Bei, Ma Chao is afraid that we will lead the army to rescue, so we will go to the rescue, but when Ma Chao led the army to arrive, he laid an ambush and broke it in one fell swoop, so that he can see and understand, what is resourcefulness? ”

Next, Cao Ren ordered Zhao Yan to lead an army of 10,000 to guard Tongguan, but he personally led the generals Chang Diao, Niu Jin, Gao Qian, etc. to fight against Ma Chao with him.

Cao Ren led the army to quietly open the gate at night and galloped in the direction of Xinfeng, but set up an ambush fifteen miles outside the pass, and made an ambush with Chang Diao, Niu Jin, and Gao Qian, waiting for the Ma super army to come.

However, it was said that after Ma Chao got the news of Cao Ren's troops, he was impatient, and immediately summoned Cheng Gongying, Hao Zhao, Jiang Yin, Yin Feng and other generals to discuss the military situation.

I saw Ma Chao say: "Now Cao Ren ordered Zhao Yan to stick to Tongguan, and led the army to rescue Liu Bei, once Liu Bei was rescued by him, Yu Zhugong's plan was probably unfavorable, and he planned to send troops to pursue, I don't know what to do with the public's will?" ”

But I heard Cheng Gongying say: "General, this plan is not appropriate, Cao Ren has been fighting for many years, and he knows how to use soldiers, how can he really abandon Tongguan and go to meet Liu Bei?" Aren't you afraid that we will set up an ambush on the way and cut off their way back? Therefore, according to the lower officer, this is Cao Ren's plan, luring the general to lead the army to chase, but he set up an ambush on the way, wanting to break our army first, and then go to meet Liu Bei, the general is as good as the plan, and ordered a soldier and horse to fight under the banner of the general, to pursue, luring Cao Ren to ambush the army, but the general led the main army to attack its back, so that Cao Ren can be defeated, and our army will follow the defeated army, Tongguan is at your fingertips, as long as the general gets Tongguan, the land in my pass can be invincible, and then Cao Cao will be uneasy to sleep. ”

Cao Cao listened to Cheng Gongying's words, his heart was suddenly overjoyed, he looked at Hao Zhao, and saw that he also agreed with him, so he nodded and smiled: "Gongying's plan is really good, if this is the case, then we will act according to the plan, but the soldiers who go to lure the enemy will fall into the siege of the enemy, and if you are not careful, you will have to worry about your life, not to mention that there is a soldier and horse under your command?" So. It takes a bold and knowledgeable person to be a ......"

Ma Chao didn't finish a sentence, and then heard Hao Zhao say angrily: "If the general does not give up, Zhao is willing to take on this important task and lead the army to lure the enemy." ”

Ma Chao was overjoyed when he heard this, and said with a smile: "I have this intention, if it is not Hao Bodao, he can't take on this heavy responsibility, even so, the general will order Bodao to lead 10,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry under his command, under the banner of this general, set up more banners and drums, go to lure the enemy, and wait for the enemy to ambush the enemy. ”

"No, the last general will do his best and never let the general down!" Hao Zhao waited quietly for a while, waited for the military order to be issued, took it respectfully, and then prepared to send troops.

Cao Ren naturally didn't know about Ma Chao's plan, and had already laid an ambush in the mountains and forests more than ten miles outside Tongguan, and sent spies to investigate closely, so he must get the news of Ma Chao's soldiers as soon as possible.

After about half a day's work, Cao Ren suddenly had to probe the horse to report, saying that Ma Chao really led the army to catch up, the army was mighty, the momentum was extraordinary, it seemed that there were 20,000 or 30,000 troops, plus the army was fighting under the banner of Ma Chao, it was expected that it should be Ma Chao's main force.

Cao Ren was overjoyed when he heard the news, and immediately ordered the army to be ready to attack at any time, but he stared at the road for a moment, looking forward to Ma Chao's figure appearing earlier.

After a while, the sound of hooves in front of me was heard, and the dust was everywhere, and a well-armored infantry cavalry appeared in the dust, and came to a short distance in front of him along the road.

Cao Ren looked at this cavalry strong horse, and couldn't help but feel awe-inspiring in his heart, the secret Xiliang Iron Cavalry was really elite, if he didn't use an ambush strategy, but directly confronted it, I'm afraid there was really no certainty of victory, but now that he had laid an ambush, naturally he didn't have to worry, he believed that as long as the ambush soldiers came out in all directions, the enemy army would definitely panic and the formation would be chaotic, which would help him break the enemy.

However, after watching it for a while, when he saw clearly what happened to the enemy's commander, Cao Ren was still slightly disappointed, because the enemy's leading general was not Ma Chao, but a young general he didn't know.

"Unexpectedly, Ma Chao escaped this catastrophe and cheapened him, but his army couldn't run anyway."

Cao Ren saw that the enemy army completely fell into his own ambush circle, and immediately ordered an attack, so the ambush troops were exhausted on all sides, Chang Diao was on the left flank, Niu Jin was on the right flank, and Gao Qian was behind, Cao Ren personally led the army to attack the enemy in the front, and besieged this army like an iron bucket.

Cao Ren couldn't help but be triumphant, he had even imagined the panicked appearance of the enemy, but unexpectedly, the young general suddenly encountered an ambush, and there was no trace of panic, and he commanded the soldiers very calmly to form a formation to resist the enemy.

Seeing that the front row of the opponent's cavalry quickly got out of the way, and then saw that the infantry in the back row skillfully took out a one-man high shield to block the sharp arrows shot by their own side, and stretched out a spear in the gap between the big shields to prevent Cao Jun from charging into battle, and constantly shot arrows in the gap to fight back, while the cavalry behind was deployed on the left and right flanks to prevent Cao Jun's two wings of cavalry from outflanking this scene, Cao Ren's enthusiasm suddenly dissipated a lot, because he could fully see that the young general in the enemy army was so calm and calm, and the military deployment was so skillful, By no means an unknown person, he couldn't help but ask: "Who is the enemy general?" It's so capable! It seems that this time we are still underestimated. ”

Despite this, Cao Ren still did not want to give up the current opportunity, and ordered the army to continue the attack, even if it cost some money, to inflict heavy losses on the enemy army.

But the development of things was as expected, the first round of crossbow arrows went down, Cao Ren found that the enemy's resistance was very tenacious, not only stubborn, but also because the enemy's formation was very conducive to defense, so the losses were very limited, far from his expectations.

"Hmph, this young general really has two hits, but I, Cao Ren, am not so easy to deal with, the order goes down, the spearmen rush up, I don't believe it, I can't deal with only 20,000 enemy troops with 40,000 elites in a dignified manner, and the ambush soldiers are exhausted!"

Cao Ren's face seemed to be covered with frost, and he ordered in a deep voice.

"No." Cao Yong, the herald on the side, nodded, raised the order flag, and issued the order.

"Kill." With a loud shout of killing, Cao Ren's elite spearmen rushed over with a roar, looking at their posture, this time they will be like a greedy beast, eating the besieged enemy soldiers in one bite, and there will not be even a bone left. (To be continued......)