Compared with Li Dian and others who have a happy face and an excited heart, the current Cao Cao and his generals such as Sima Yi and Cao Hong are all sighing in their hearts, their faces are sad, anxious like a lost dog, swaying like a fish that has slipped through the net, starting from the east gate of Puyang and going straight to Dunqiu, hoping to escape to Hebei by wading through the river.

"I really didn't expect Liu Qi'er to have this kind of siege equipment that can break the city in an instant, and we still can't know what this siege equipment is after so much effort. Zhongda, what happened to the thing that this king asked you to do before? There was no joy or anger on Cao Cao's face, but his voice was heavy, just like his current mood.

Seeing Cao Cao's inquiry, Sima Yi hurriedly stepped forward and said softly: "Please rest assured, this matter has already been arranged, although many sergeants surrendered to Liu Qi tonight, but there are also many secret agents among them, I believe that they will be pervasive, all over Liu Qi's country, when the time comes, not only those powerful weapons, even Liu Qi's many secret decisions may be heard by us." However, you also know that this matter will never work in the short term, and if our people want to play a role, they need to gain the trust of the other party first, and this matter must not be rushed, it will take a certain amount of time. ”

"A certain amount of time? How long exactly? Although Cao Cao knew that what Sima Yi said was the truth, he was still very anxious in his heart, and when he heard Sima Yi's words, he was silent for a moment, and then couldn't help but ask.

Sima Yi thought for a moment, and then said: "It will take at least three years, this is still the most conservative estimate, if we marry the most core information, such as a new type of repeater, the kind of feather arrows that can set fire, the rotary catapult, and the mysterious city-breaking equipment used by the Chu army today, it will probably take longer." ”

Cao Cao couldn't help but sigh deeply when he heard this, in fact, Sima Yi's prediction was not that he didn't know. But now that I heard the other party say it in person, my heart still sank inexplicably.

"Three years, it will take another three years, now Liu Qi is aggressive, seeing that the land of Henan is no longer guaranteed, in another three years. Maybe Liu Qi'er should plot against me in Hebei. Cao Cao secretly sighed in his heart, and there was a hint of depression in his expression.

Thinking that he has dominated the world in this life, how could he have come so sluggishly? At that time, the Kwantung coalition army joined forces to defeat Dong Zhuo, and the army could not advance, and even later Dong Zhuo moved to Chang'an, and the army did not dare to pursue, but he raised troops to pursue, although he was defeated, even he was injured by a stray arrow. If it weren't for Cao Hong risking death to save him, he might not even be dead, but he would not be discouraged in the slightest.

Later, in the process of conquering Xuzhou, Cao Cao was betrayed by Chen Gong, Zhang Miao, Zhang Chao, Xu Yan, Wang Kai and others, and the entire Laochao Yanzhou was left with Juancheng, Fanxian, Dong'e and other places, but Cao Cao still did not waver and reorganized his armaments. calmly led the army to fight against Lü Bu, and later defeated Lü Bu three times. Killed Zhang Miao and others and pacified Yanzhou.

In the second year of Jian'an, Cao Cao confronted Zhang Xiu for the first time, because he secretly wooed Zhang Xiu's henchman Hu Che'er and privately accepted Zhang Xiu's aunt Zou and other reasons, which caused Zhang Xiu, who had surrendered, to rebel again. As a result, Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, nephew Cao Anmin, and the fierce general Dian Wei were all killed in battle.

In addition, there are also the battles of Guandu, the battles of Weinan, etc., Cao Cao has been defeated repeatedly, but he has always been calm. Even in the Battle of Weinan, he was almost killed by Ma Chao, but he still smiled: "I am trapped by thieves today!" ”

But today, Cao Cao really felt a kind of discouragement in his heart, he had been working hard in the Central Plains for nearly 20 years, but he didn't expect it to fall into the hands of Liu Qi'er so lightly, no matter how he thought about it, he was unwilling.

But Cao Cao knew that Liu Qi had almost no history of defeat since he became famous by defeating himself in the Battle of Anzhong, and in his own camp, only Guo Jia's plan made him suffer some small losses, and in addition to that, he really didn't seem to have encountered defeats, although he refused to admit it, he also knew in his heart that maybe today's Yanyu Erzhou was just like the Xuzhou he was determined to take back, and it has become an unattainable utopian dream since then.

"I really didn't expect Liu Jingsheng to be a mediocre person, and the son born to him would be so promising, I knew that today, it was better not to persecute Cai Mao too early, let him kill Liu Biao and support Liu Cong, if now as the lord of Jingzhou is still the guest Liu Jingsheng, does he have such accurate vision and so much courage to annex Bashu, occupy Huaiyang, and chase the deer in Guanzhong? If Liu Jingsheng didn't have that much courage, Liu Qi'er would probably have nothing to do even if he was dissatisfied, and between Liu Jingsheng's hesitation, I'm afraid that I would have pacified Liu Bei a long time ago, occupied the entire Guanzhong and Xiliang, and even Bashu might be annexed. Hehe, I didn't listen to Fengxiao's advice at the beginning, and I was in a hurry, which led to today's situation, which is really digging my own grave. ”

Cao Cao smiled wryly and shook his head gloomily, Sima Yi and the elites of the Cao family and the Xiahou family around him also seemed to feel Cao Cao's sorrow, and at the same time they were sad about Xiahoudun's death, all of them were silent and sad.

Sima Yi could naturally see Cao Cao's unhappiness, and at this time he also played deeply, not saying a word, just hurrying away.

However, when the army could not go out of five miles, Cao Cao suddenly felt the earth tremble violently, and then the sound of huge horses' hooves stomping on the ground came, Cao Chun, who was familiar with horse warfare, was shocked when he saw this, and listened to it for a while, and then said with a pale face: "King, what is being chased should be Ma Chao's Xiliang Iron Cavalry, the number is no less than 30,000, I think it is Ma Chao's cavalry who chased after him."

Cao Cao's face suddenly changed miserably when he heard this, and he was at a loss for a while, so he looked at Sima Yi with an inquiring gaze.

I only heard Sima Yi say: "King, for the sake of today, we can only order an army to fight to the death in the palace, and then protect the army and retreat." ”

As soon as Sima Yi finished speaking, he heard Cao Hong, Cao Chun, Xu Chu, Cao Xiu, Xiahou Shang, Cao Zhang, Zhang He, Guo Huai, Wang Ling, Sun Li, Lu Qian and others all come forward to ask for their lives, willing to swear to the death to protect the retreat of the army.

Cao Cao looked at the generals who were willing to die for him, felt a little comforted and excited in his heart, slowly glanced at the generals who were willing to stay, and finally stopped his eyes on Lu Qian, and said slowly: "Zike, how many years have you been with me?" ”

Lu Qian said respectfully: "In the third year of the first peace, the king was the pastor of Yanzhou, and the end of the expedition will be engaged, and now it has been nearly twenty years. ”

Cao Cao's face immediately flashed a deep touch, and he sighed slowly: "In the blink of an eye, it has been twenty years, in the past twenty years, Zi Ke has guarded Taishan County for this king for a long time, trained elite soldiers, begged thieves, and made great achievements. From today on, this king will order you to be the general of Weilu, lead the history of Xuzhou Thorn, seal the Marquis of Yishou Pavilion, and allow the descendants to be enthroned and hereditary. ”

When Lu Qian heard this, he was immediately grateful, and hurriedly thanked Cao Cao, and then took the initiative to ask for orders to lead the army to block the pursuers.

Cao Cao didn't say much, so he ordered Lü Qian to lead the elite of the 5,000 Qingzhou army, line up to stop the pursuing soldiers, and then lead the generals and the rest of the army to leave quickly.

After Cao Cao left, Lü Qian did not delay for a moment, and immediately ordered the army to line up to meet the enemy, and then defended the position with the determination and courage to die, and did everything possible to delay the pursuers.

When Ma Chao's army arrived, Lü Qian's army had not yet formed a formation, in order to delay as much time as possible, Lü Qian ordered the sergeants to continue the formation, but he came to the two armies with a white flag, saying that he was going to surrender to the Chu army.

Ma Chao didn't think that Lu Qian was surrendering by fraud, and thought that this nameless general had already been deterred by his own military might, and surrendering was actually a logical thing, so he ordered the army to stop, and then according to the general surrender procedure, he asked Lu Qian to order the sergeant to lay down his arms and then stand in the designated position.

But I didn't expect that at this moment, Lu Qian's sergeant suddenly raised his spear and stabbed at the unprepared Ma Chao army, who had already dismounted, and for a while saw swords and guns like a forest, murderous in the sky, although Ma Chao had an army of 30,000, but thought that this was Cao Cao's trick, and he couldn't help but panic in his heart, and hurriedly waved his army to retreat.

The army retreated for five or six miles, and when it seemed to be outside Puyang City, Ma Chao found that the enemy army did not catch up, and after counting the number of people, he found that he had lost more than 1,000 people, and he couldn't help but feel ashamed, and hurriedly reined in the soldiers and horses, and ordered the spies to go to find out the news.

After a while, Ma Chao was rewarded, saying that the enemy army was only a few thousand people, and it was still in the same position, looking at the posture, it was obvious that it was a willing victim to be left behind to cover Cao Cao's retreat.

Ma Chao was furious when he heard the news, as a dignified general, with several times the number of soldiers, but also with cavalry against the infantry, he was actually frightened away by an unknown general, if this matter spreads, what kind of face do he have to see Liu Qi, the king of Chu, and the civil and military forces in the court?

Therefore, Ma Chao, who was furious, immediately led his troops back, this time he must capture the nameless general alive, and then kill him personally to vent the hatred in his chest, as for the sergeants under his command, they will all be killed, and no one will be left.

Looking at the angry Ma Chao led 30,000 Xiliang iron horses, swept like a torrent, Lu Qian's painstakingly arranged formation in front of him was like a chicken and a dog, and collapsed in an instant, his soldiers were assassinated by spears, killed by sabers, trampled to death by iron hooves, and the 5,000 army supported it for less than half an hour, and it was already dead and wounded, and even Lu Qian himself was captured and became the only prisoner of this army.

But Lu Qian's heart was not half afraid, his heart was full of infinite pride and gratification: "I, Lu Qian, not only successfully completed the mission of the lord in this battle, but also killed more than 1,000 Xiliang iron horsemen, but this battle is still glorious although defeated, hehe, with this battle alone, I Lu Qian can go down in history, and it is not in vain to go in this world." (To be continued......)