Liu Xin decisively chose the western front, took Dian Wei and Huang Zhong to set off overnight, and chased them all the way to Xiangxian, but no trace of Cao Cao and others was found. At this time, the sky was already bright, and Liu Xin couldn't help but hesitate, could it be that he had misjudged?

Further north is Cao Cao's territory, but this area has just been swept by the Fifth Army a few days ago, and the government and army have been beaten away, and it is now in a state of anarchy. If Cao Cao had already fled there, I am afraid that he would really be like a fish in water, and he would never be able to catch it again. Liu Xin couldn't help but be a little frustrated.

Suddenly, a small group of cavalry came galloping in. The first one rolled the saddle and fell off the horse, knelt on one knee, and said loudly: "Your Majesty, Yangzhou has sent an urgent report that Cao Cao's traces have been found in the Lu'an area!" ”

Liu Xin was taken aback, it turned out that Cao Cao did not flee to the north, but did the opposite, and entered the territory of the Lujiang River in the south, and couldn't help asking: "Is the news accurate?" ”

The man arched his hand and said, "Your Majesty, a group of soldiers patrolling at night in the Lu'an local army were ambushed, except for one soldier who was seriously injured and unconscious, all the rest were sacrificed, and even the armor of the soldiers was stripped of them. Early this morning, another team of sentries spotted them and woke up the badly wounded soldier. According to the badly wounded soldier's account, the attackers resembled Cao Cao's gang. ”

Liu Xin frowned, raised his hand, and some guards had already spread out a map. Liu Xin stared at the map for a long time, then suddenly pointed with his hand and said, "Let's go, set off immediately, and rush to Sishan within two hours!" ”

Sishan is in the territory of Runan, not far from Qian County. Liu Xin still insisted on his own judgment, if Cao Cao just wanted to find a place to hide in the south, there was no need for him to pretend to be a Han army. Cao Cao stripped off the armor of the Han army patrol posts, just to hide people's eyes and ears, break through the layers of Han army checkpoints, and flee back to the north.

The crowd turned on their horses and galloped away in a southwesterly direction. Along the way, you can constantly see a large group of people and horses hurrying north, these are the various armies that rushed to relieve the siege of Shouchun yesterday. Now, they will go north to Puyang to make the best preparations before attacking Yecheng. According to the latest news obtained this morning, Guan Yu's troops have conquered Liyang, and Yuan Shao's last barrier south of Yecheng is gone.

Liu Xin didn't know how many people were around Cao Cao, and he didn't know how many Han army armor they had robbed, so he had to divide the five thousand guards into ten teams and go south by separate routes, rushing to Sishan while screening the troops he encountered on the road.

Different units of the Han army have their own numbers, and these numbers are also one of the top secrets of the army, and leaking them will be dealt with by military law. Each soldier has a fixed part of his armor with these numbers written on them, and people who are not in the military system do not understand the meaning of these numbers at all, and only think that those special symbols are just decorations. If the soldiers could not answer the number, or if the number they answered was different from what was written, it would be doubtful.

At noon, everyone rushed to Sishan. There were more armies in Runan, including cavalry, infantry, and baggage. Because they had to rush to Puyang to assemble within the specified time, the soldiers all adopted the method of rapid marching, and the original establishment had been dispersed, and often the soldiers of the first, second, and third legions would be mixed together at will, and occasionally they would encounter troops sent by the fifth legion to set up checkpoints everywhere and occupy the city. In this way, it brings many difficulties to screening.

Huang Zhong frowned, and arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, looking for a needle in such a haystack, I am afraid it will be difficult to achieve results, so I will not order all the legions to be stationed in place, and then set off after gathering their respective men and horses." ”

Liu Xin shook his head and said, "After years of fighting, the people have long been miserable. Only by unifying the Han dynasty as soon as possible can the country be prosperous and the people safe. I heard that Yuan Shao is recruiting troops in the north, and if he is late, it will be more difficult, so he can't wait! Cao Cao's elite was lost, even if he could escape back to the north by luck, it would not be easy to make a comeback. Our purpose now is to catch him better, but if we can't catch him, we must also try to drive him out of Yu, Yang, and Xu Zhuzhou! ”

After a short rest in Sishan County, everyone continued to go south under the scorching sun. Along the way, the men and horses of all walks of life who marched north did not rest, and people everywhere shouted and neighed. Liu Xin suddenly had a hunch that Cao Cao was likely to be among these teams, so he couldn't help but order to strengthen the screening efforts, and the speed of the group going south slowed down. When I arrived in Xiyang County, I still found nothing, and it was almost dusk.

At this time, another team came from the south, about 1,000 people, and there were many vehicles in between. Liu Xin immediately led everyone to meet them and blocked the way.

One of the guards stepped forward and asked, "Who are you?" ”

The armor of the guards is different from that of ordinary legions, and they are instantly recognizable.

Seeing this, a lieutenant in the team hurriedly stepped forward and said, "This brother, we are the trebuchet operator under General Zhang of the Third Legion. ”

The guards took a look at it, and saw that the ruts were very deep, so they couldn't help but nod and said, "There are a lot of stone bullets on the car." Three years ago I was also an operator. ”

The lieutenant suddenly became excited, turned his head and said, "Brothers, have you heard it, who said that being an operator is not productive, as long as you do a good job, you can still be selected as a personal guard." Cheer me up, strive to rush to Puyang as soon as possible, and kill the enemy to make meritorious contributions! ”

Being able to become a personal guard is the expectation of all Han soldiers. This is not only because the guards are well paid and prestigious, but also because the guards can follow their beloved emperor, so the troops shouted in unison: "Meritorious!" Make contributions! ”

He has become an idol worshiped by others, and the guard is also a little fluttering, and is about to wave his hand to let them pass, when he caught a glimpse of Liu Xin riding a horse standing behind him, he couldn't help but shiver, and secretly said that it was dangerous, and hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Although they are all their own people, please show your number." ”

As he spoke, the guard stared into the lieutenant's eyes. Outsiders wouldn't even know what the number was, and if this captain was Cao Jun pretending, he would definitely be at a loss. However, the lieutenant lifted a piece of iron armor from his right arm and said with a grin: "Brother, look. ”

The guards swept their eyes, the look on their faces couldn't help but relax, and they stepped aside and said, "If you are offended, you can pass." ”

The lieutenant nodded, walked forward with the team, and saluted when he passed by Liu Xin, Dian Wei, Huang Zhong and others.

Liu Xin was about to ride his horse to the south, when he suddenly saw a military horse pulling a cart, he suddenly felt suspicious, couldn't help but raise his hand, and shouted in a deep voice: "Wait! ”

Hearing Liu Xin's order, Dian Wei waved his hand, and five hundred guards rushed up and surrounded the team.

The lieutenant didn't know Liu Xin, so he hurriedly lifted the tarpaulin covering the roof of a large car, revealing the trebuchet parts and a pile of stone bullets inside, and said, "This general, please see, the last general is not lying." ”

Liu Xin pointed to the horse pulling the cart and asked, "Where did this horse come from?" ”

The vehicles used by the Han army to transport trebuchets were generally pulled by oxen, because horses were quite precious to the Han army, and they were generally reluctant to use them to transport such heavy materials. And there are more than 20 carts of this team that are pulled by horses, how can they not make Liu Xin suspicious?

The lieutenant hurriedly bowed down and said, "General Qiyu, the last general has sheltered a few stragglers on the road, they don't know the road, and they want to partner with us, so they lend their horses to us to pull the cart, and we just take advantage of them." ”

Among the major legions of the Han army, the cavalry is the most elite unit, how can there be such a thing as falling behind, and more than 20 people are falling behind together? Moreover, for the cavalry, the war horse is not only their weapon, but also their partner and friend, and which cavalry is willing to let his war horse do the work of pulling the cart? These two points alone made the more than 20 stragglers very suspicious.

The careful Liu Xin also found that although the stirrups were also hung under the saddles of these horses, they swayed back and forth as the horses moved, and they were not at all as firmly fixed under the saddle as the stirrups used by the Han army.

Liu Xin was already convinced that these twenty or so stragglers must be Cao Jun pretending, maybe Cao Cao and the others were hiding inside. Thinking of this, Liu Xin suddenly laughed and said, "No matter which legion you belong to, as long as you are all soldiers of the Han Dynasty, you should help each other." You've done a good job of calling those people over, and I'm going to give them a good encouragement. ”

Although the lieutenant didn't know Liu Xin's true identity yet, the person who could command hundreds of guards was definitely not an idle person, and being able to get Liu Xin's praise made him full of joy, and he quickly turned his head and shouted: "Lao Xia, you guys come here!" ”

A few people at the back of the team staggered to the front, and the first one asked, "General Zheng, what are you waiting for me?" ”

It turned out that the captain's surname was Zheng. Captain Zheng snorted at Liu Xin and said, "It's a good thing." See, that is a big man in the guard, he wants to see you, if you can win his favor and transfer to the guard, it will be a great future. ”

The person who was called Lao Xia didn't dare to slack off, arched his hand towards Liu Xin, and said, "The cavalry team of the First Legion is a general. ”

Liu Xin didn't answer, but glanced at the guards beside him.

The guard stepped forward quietly, lifted a piece of iron armor on Lao Xia's right arm and glanced at it, then slowly retreated to Liu Xin's side, and suddenly said a series of numbers.

From beginning to end, Lao Xia didn't raise his head, as if the string of numbers reported by the guards had nothing to do with him, and the few people who came out with him didn't react much, but Zheng Xiaowei was taken aback when he heard this string of numbers, and blurted out: "Lao Xia, you lied to me!" ”

Captain Zheng exclaimed in surprise, and Lao Xia, who was originally motionless, suddenly pounced on Liu Xin, the cold light flashed in his hand, and there was already a sharp short knife.