However, Guan Yu's movements were fast, but Cao Cao's movements of Xu Huang and Cao Ang were not slow. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoJia Xu's intelligence organization assumed the role of heralds in this matter, and they brought the news of Jiangdong's dispatch to Xu Huang and Cao Ang almost at the same time as Guan Ping came to Guan Yu's army. Cao Ang learned the news and immediately prepared to follow and pursue Guan Yu. After Xu Huang received such news, under the guidance of Cheng Yu, a military strategist, he calculated Guan Yu's very likely retreat route.

"Guan Yu is a famous general, and he knows the critical situation he is in now. Therefore, it is impossible for him to retreat directly to Runan from Lingbi and Xia Cai to the south, but will attack instead of defending, enter Pengcheng State, turn to Peijun, and go from Jiuli Mountain and Mangdang Mountain to Runan from Xiyang. He didn't want to join Liu Bei like this, but wanted to go around to the back of the lord and launch a flank attack on the lord through such a thousand-mile march. After receiving the news that Dongwu had captured Shouchun, Cheng Yu made such a judgment under a slight groan.

"So what are we going to do?" Xu Huang hurriedly asked this wise man in his army.

"We can rush to Jiuli Mountain, ambush in the mountains, and let Lü Meng move from Linsi to Xiao, and encircle Guan Yu's army from the south. I guess that with Lu Meng's means, he must have something in his hands that Guan Yu is extremely afraid of. Guan Yu must have thought of this, so he wanted to avoid Lu Meng so much. As long as the Lü Meng army is in contact with the Guan Yu army, the Guan Yu army will definitely have a large-scale rout, and when the time comes, Cao Ang Gongzi will catch up after the Guan Yu army, and the Lü Meng army will approach from the south, and our army will outflank from the north of Guan Yu's army, but it will inevitably stop Guan Yu here. At that time, no matter how much Guan Yu's Chitu travels thousands of miles a day, he will definitely not be able to escape the current lore. Cheng Yu said with a smile, but this smile was obviously a little cold.

"I see." Xu Huang nodded understandingly, "I will do it according to Mr.'s deployment." As he spoke, he stood up, turned and went out of the account, and quickly gave the order.

Xu Huangjun took action because of this. His battle plan was reported to Cao Cao by Jia Xu's intelligence organization, and Cao Cao approved it, and sent it to Lü Meng and Cao Ang respectively to order them to cooperate with each other. Because both Cao Cao and Sun Quan were firm in eliminating Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Sun Quan were rarely working together at this moment. When Guan Yu was still in a hurry, a tenacious net had already shrouded Guan Yu's army. As the distance between the various sides became closer and closer, the net gradually became denser. Some means other than war began to be applied to Guan Yujun's body - the power of rumors gradually exerted his effect.

Rumors began to spread among Guan Yu's army at some point, and under the power of rumors, Guan Yu's military horses began to disperse. Although Guan Yu tried his best to refute the rumors, with the scattered Shouchun soldiers who appeared around the camp inexplicably and the letters from home that somehow appeared in the hands of Guan Yu's soldiers, Guan Yu's refutation of the rumors became a ridiculous statement. Compared with Guan Yu's single words, the soldiers believed the words of those embarrassed deserters and the letters they collected in their hands.

As a result, the escape appeared in Guan Yu's army. First, the new Ding who was recruited by Guan Yu in Huailing slipped away one after another, and then slowly changed to affect the veterans in Guan Yu's army. From a few or dozens of people at the beginning, to hundreds or nearly a thousand people later, under the real rumors with noses and faces, Guan Yu's strict orders to stop them are useless. Although the letters handed over to them by Soochow all indicate the well-being of their families, Soochow is an enemy after all, isn't it? It's okay now, but if he continues to follow General Guan Yu, he knows if there will be any changes on the Dongwu side that day. And just like that, they began to fall apart. As the people disperse, the morale of the army will also disperse. When he arrived at Jiuli Mountain, Guan Yu's army of 20,000 was now only a mere 5,000 people, and they were all unstable in their military spirits.

In this way, Guan Yu led the people and horses to the approaching Xiao County. This is a small city, the city is not high, and the defenders are only a few hundred, Guan Yu just put his team under the city and the defenders on the city opened the city and surrendered. This city was so easy to get, but it made Guan Yu stunned. He asked someone, but learned that the county magistrate in the city had already left the place a few days ago, and a sense of uneasiness suddenly rose in his heart. He recalled that the city he passed through a few days ago was not defended by more than a thousand Cao troops, although the combat power of those Cao troops could only be described as a piece of garbage, but it would not be as weak as it is now.

"Could it be that this is just a trap?" Guan Yu was thinking about it, and he was waiting for his Tanma to send out a reconnaissance of the situation of the city guards, but suddenly heard a shout outside the city, but it was the Cao army of the brigade who came out of an unknown place and surrounded the Xiao County.

"How can this be born?" Guan Yu, who was exhausted, was not in the mood to break through at this time. While he ordered the army to lead the defense of the city, he personally went up to the city to see the situation outside the city. When he found that there were tens of thousands of enemies outside the city, he did not say anything more than to order the soldiers to be good at their hands. He knew that his army was exhausted at the moment, but he did not have the strength to break through immediately. Therefore, in the absence of any strength to force the soldiers to die, he had no choice but to let these soldiers rest first. "When we're rested, we'll break through!" This is also Guan Yu's helpless choice at the moment, he can see from the military situation outside the city, the army outside the city seems to only want to surround themselves here, and do not have the idea of attacking the city immediately.

And so the night passed. The outside of the city surrounds the inside of the city, but it is completely peaceful. It was only the next day that there was a striking change.

To the east, Cao Ang held high the banner of Cao Zi and led 10,000 Pi troops to reinforce him; In the south, the Lu character handsome banner of the Jiangdong Army appeared. 30,000 new reinforcements came in, and together with 50,000 Xu Huang's soldiers who arrived under Xiao County one after another, Xiao County was surrounded by regiments. It seems that it is no longer possible for Guan Yu to break through now.

However, what made Guan Yu feel a little surprised. No matter how large the enemy's forces outside increased, they didn't seem to have any intention of sending troops to attack Xiao County, as if they were just trying to find a place to make friends, their armies met, but they were just noisy back and forth with each other, and they didn't care about Guan Yu's army in the city. Of course, this is not completely ignored, at least after Guan Yu planned to break out, he was repeatedly blocked by Xu Huang. Xu Huang himself went into battle in person, and blocked Guan Yu's approach with the big axe in his hand, preventing Guan Yu from having a chance to escape.

Xu Huang can't beat Guan Yu, but it's still okay to drag Guan Yu and drag him to the point where the whole army is annihilated. Due to Xu Huang's obstruction, Guan Yu's several breakthroughs were unsuccessful, so he naturally had to give up.

Although Guan Yu retreated helplessly, he still thought vigorously: "These people attack but don't attack, they only lock me here, and they are so strict about my breakthrough, don't they want to starve me to death here?" Well, that's a possibility, but there's no need to put so many troops, right? Guan Yu was puzzled by this.

However, doubts are doubts, and incomprehension is incomprehensible, no matter how Guan Yu's mind turns, he didn't expect that the reason why Cao Cao and Sun Quan temporarily did not move him was because of the larger direction. Anyway, Guan Yu only has so many 5,000 people, and he can't escape from his own grasp of anything, so instead of eating him directly, it is better to leave him there and attract Liu Bei to come to the rescue. If you can use one Guan Yu to deal with Liu Bei, so as to destroy Liu Bei's army, this is also a refreshing thing. Originally, Sun Quan was still reluctant to do this, but Lu Su persuaded him after sighing: "Since we have already offended Liu Bei to death, why don't we make more efforts to completely destroy Liu Bei?" I know that the lord wants to let fierce generals like Guan Yu and Zhang Fei come over, but this is too impossible. Can the lord imagine that Zhou Lang in the past would surrender to the enemy? Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are both Liu Bei's brothers. ”

"This is also ......" Sun Quan finally made up his mind to cooperate with Cao Cao: "Destroy Liu Bei......"

Sun Quan and Cao Cao moved frequently, with a murderous appearance, while Liu Bei fell into a panicked gloom. The news of Guan Yu's siege reached Liu Bei, but there were all kinds of things. Some say that Guan Yu has been killed, and some say that Guan Yu is still surrounded and waiting for rescue, and they are all excited, but no matter which one is mentioned, that is, Sun Quan's role in this series of battles - the news obviously came from Cao Cao's side, in fact, only Cao Cao's side would be so taboo to hype up Sun Quan's betrayal.

"Blue-eyed children, red-haired rats, dare to betray like this, I really can't wait to pull your skin and eat your flesh. If my second brother really has three strengths and two weaknesses, I will have to destroy your Jiangdong foundation......" Liu Bei in the tent cursed in a deep voice, and his whole body was full of anger, and he no longer had the mellow and amiable appearance of the elder he usually had. At this moment, he was furious, but there was no one around him to stop him. Maybe there used to be, but by this time, it was gone. Although Liu Bei in a rage will not kill people like Cao Cao, he will casually scold people. Born in a civilian country, he also scolded people very poisonously, but many people couldn't stand it after a few times.

"Alas......" Before he approached Liu Bei's big tent, he heard the scolding from the big tent, Ma Tan, who had a good background, couldn't help but shook his head gently, he couldn't stand this, but he understood his lord's mood at the moment, so after hesitating outside for a long time, he still lifted the curtain of the big tent and went inside to see Liu Bei: "The exact news that the lord has just received is that more than 5,000 people of General Guan Yu are trapped in Xiao County, and they are tightly surrounded by the Lu Meng Department of Eastern Wu, Cao Cao's Xu Huang Department, and Cao Ang's Department. ”

"What ......? Yun Changtai is still alive? Liu Bei was slightly stunned and then became excited, "Let's go, let's withdraw from here and pick up Yun Chang." Liu Bei was excited and quickly gave an order, but he planned to rush to pick up Guan Yu like this. As for how many troops Cao Cao and Sun Quan encircled, and whether Cao Cao's team in front of him would make further moves because of his retreat, he didn't care so much. For him at this moment, rushing over to keep his second brother's safety is the most important, and other things such as the Emperor's Hegemony and hundreds of thousands of horses are not as important as this - generally speaking, he is a little crazy at the moment.

"Slow down! This matter needs to be considered. After listening to Liu Bei's words, Ma Yan, who knew that he was a little crazy, stopped Liu Bei anxiously. He Liu Bei was anxious to the point of giving orders indiscriminately, but he hadn't gone crazy yet. What Cao Cao will do, what Sun Quan will do, he can guess a few points. Therefore, he completely wanted that if Liu Bei recklessly led the people and horses to join Guan Yu like this, he was afraid that not only would he not be able to save Guan Yu, but even he would fall into a desperate situation of destruction. “…… That's not going to work. "Liu Bei is very good to him Ma Tan, and the atmosphere in Liu Bei's army is also very good, Ma Jian is absolutely unwilling to help himself up and his master will collapse like this.

"What? ...... young? Saving soldiers is like fighting fire. If we just plan and discuss like this, I'm afraid that before we can come up with a result, Yun Chang won't be able to bear it. Liu Bei said anxiously. If he had wings behind him right now, I am afraid that he would have to fly up at this moment and go directly to Guan Yu to fight the enemy with his second brother.

"If the deliberation is not made for a long time, it is not a deliberation, but a hesitation; But if you rush over like the lord and don't think about more, it's not first aid, it's recklessness. Although Ma Tan was also very anxious in his heart, he still maintained his calm and calm appearance on the surface.

"This ......" Liu Bei can still listen to the words of his military advisor to some extent, at this moment he already knows that Guan Yu is still alive, and his original angry mood has also recovered a little, so he agreed with Ma Tan's advice after pondering for a long time: "Then military advisor, what do you think we should do now?" The enemy was so strong that it was obvious that our troops had fallen into a situation of being flanked. The stakes are at stake for us. ”

"Survival is at stake, that's not wrong at all. The current situation is a real life for us. Cao Cao and Sun are powerful, and we can't compete with them in a hurry at this moment. Even if the lord can successfully rescue the second general, I am afraid that after this, we will lose the fruits of our efforts in the past few years. Ma Tan sighed along Liu Bei's words, but it was obvious that he would lose something after that.

"That's nothing. As long as people are there. Liu Bei waved his hand nonchalantly and answered Ma Tan's question easily.

"Oh?" Ma Tan raised his eyebrows, but he admired Liu Bei's answer very much in his heart: "As long as there are people, it's fine." The lord is so right. After all, as long as there are people, no matter how many things are lost, they can be regained. Thinking of this, he nodded involuntarily, but said in his mouth: "In this case, the lord may be able to arrange it according to what I said." First of all, consider the worst-case scenario: this is to rescue the second general, it is very likely to succeed in a battle, that is the best. But it is not impossible to die in the ground. What to do in such a high-risk situation is a question that needs to be considered. To put it simply, we have failed, so how should we arrange the aftermath? That's all we have, but what about our children? No matter how dangerous the situation is, we can't afford not to think about it. ”

"You're really direct,......," Liu Bei smiled bitterly. It wasn't that he hadn't encountered this kind of imminent defeat before, but at that time he was just one person, at most adding this group of people under him, and this group of people had no heirs like him. It can be said that at that time, they were all lightly armed, but they didn't need to worry so much. However, now it is different, the brothers have settled down, and the heirs have been owned one after another. This made him, as a father, have to think about these things before making the final desperate effort. He said that Ma Jian really directly referred to this - the aftermath, although it is indeed necessary to arrange the possibility of the aftermath, but outside of Ma Tan, I am afraid that no one will remind him of this until he dies. This thing does make people feel a little uncomfortable to hear, but what should be thought about has to be thought about.

"Do you have any good suggestions?" Before Ma Jian reminded Liu Bei of this matter, Liu Bei himself had not thought about this question, because he was asked by Ma Jian now, but he didn't have an idea for a long time, so he had to finally ask Ma Yan.

"At present, the world is divided, and Cao Cao and Sun Quan are our enemies. Is there anyone else we can rely on besides Li Sheng from Xichuan? Ma Jian sighed, but said helplessly.

"Not really." Liu Bei replied happily, but his heart was already active, and he turned to Ma Yan: "What do you mean by letting me entrust my children to Li Sheng?" ”

"It's not just our own children, I'm afraid that after we rescue the second general, we can only continue in this troubled era by taking refuge in Li Sheng. From the very beginning, our territory has survived between the cracks of several major forces. Now that the east and north are our enemies, will we survive in this world if we don't try our best to move west? Ma Tan asked Liu Bei rhetorically.

"Can't ......!" Liu Bei smiled bitterly: "Okay, I'll send someone to let Yide handle this matter." Alas...... At this age, I still have to go to others. My life is really bad. "It's rare that Liu Bei will be a little discouraged.

"But I think in the heart of the lord, although this result is not good, it is always acceptable." Ma Tan looked at Liu Bei with a smile.

"That's also ......" Liu Bei smiled bitterly, but his mood was slightly better: "Now it's time to discuss how to rescue Yun Chang." This route ......"

"Ruyin, Xiyang, Xiangxian ......" Ma Tan read the names of these three places, but the connection between them was the fastest distance from Runan, where Liu Bei was located, to Xiao County, where Guan Yu was besieged. Obviously, Liu Bei wanted to save Guan Yu as soon as possible, and there was only one way to go, and naturally there was not much room for choice.

"Then let's get ready to go. However, it seems that we have to solve the problem of Cao Cao's pursuit first......" Liu Bei nodded and talked about the current difficulties.

"That's simple......" Ma Tan smiled and said next to Liu Bei.

"...... this possible?" Liu Bei looked at Ma Jian in surprise.

"With Cao Cao's suspicion, how can he stand it if he comes so many times?" The thief laughed and looked to the west gloomily, which was full of conspiracy.

Liu Beijun in Yuncheng fell silent because of this, and there was no news for several days, and some people observed that there seemed to be a large number of hoof prints of military horses in the direction of the west gate of Yuncheng, so that the strategists in Cao Cao's army and Cao Cao himself came to such a conclusion: "Liu Beijun is running away!" ”

"Pursuit?" Cao Cao asked himself such a question, but he quickly gave himself an answer: "Chasing, how can you not chase?" Although he is quite old, the little blood in his chest does not seem to have been annihilated, and he always attaches great importance to Liu Bei, an opponent who is entangled with him. Of course, he didn't care much whether he was the general who beat Liu Bei, but if he had the opportunity to defeat Liu Bei with his own hands, he would still do it. He quickly raised his account, and quickly discussed a result with the strategists in his own army, and sent Cao Pi, Cao Ren, and Xiahou Dun to send three soldiers and horses. Surrounded on all sides, this is the plan set by Cao Cao. It can be seen that Cao Cao wants to wipe out Liu Bei's people before Liu Bei returns to Dingying.

Their respective abacus have been decided, and the next thing to look at is the performances of Liu Bei and Cao Cao.

On the third day after Liu Bei escaped from Yuncheng, Cao Cao personally led a group of men and horses, but with cavalry as the lead, pursued behind Liu Bei's ass. They are not worried that they will not be able to catch up with Liu Beijun. Because they had already received information from Jia Xu: "In order to cover up his policy of fleeing, Liu Beijun used the strategy of day and night, and his march was erratic, but the speed was really not fast. ”

"That means that as long as we find out the news of Liu Beijun before Liu Bei crosses Yingshui, we will be able to catch up with Liu Beijun." Cao Cao thought like this, and felt that such a grasp was still quite big, so he quickly attacked. However, he did not forget to give his subordinate Jia Xu a warning before attacking: "Pay attention to the investigation of Liu Beijun's whereabouts, and pay attention to the movement of soldiers and horses on the three roads of Ziheng, Zixiao, and Yuanrang." This is a big plan, I don't want to catch up with Liu Bei and find that this whole encirclement network has not been completed. ”

"Please rest assured, I won't let Liu Bei escape." Jia Xu said with a smile, but he looked confident.

"That's good......" Cao Cao nodded, and he was very relieved to turn his horse away and catch up with the advancing team.

The pursuing party marched quickly. Although it is not a dead pursuit, there is no kind of urgency that cannot be stopped for twelve hours, but the pace of the army is still very compact, and it is only two days of effort, and Yingshui in front is already in sight. All this seems to be going very smoothly, but Liu Beijun seems to have disappeared out of thin air, and there is still no trace at this moment. This made Cao Cao a little strange while wondering: "Where did Liu Bei go?" ”

"Wenhe, is there still no news over there?" When Cao Cao heard that twenty miles ahead of him was the gurgling water, he couldn't help but feel a little anxious. Twenty miles, that was already the range of his scout, and his scout always told him: "Everything is normal ahead." ”

"Nope." Xun You, the military strategist who was following Cao Cao at this moment, shook his head again and again and gave Cao Cao such an answer.

"According to you, could this be a ploy by Liu Bei?" Cao Cao, who trusted both his ability to scout and the ability of his strategists, naturally thought of another possibility: "Maybe Liu Bei didn't go far, but was ambushed somewhere next to Yuncheng." But if that's the case, isn't my perimeter also dangerous? Even Xuchang is no exception...... "Thinking of Cao Cao here, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. Although he himself knew that his suspicion was likely to scare himself, as long as there was a 30% chance of that possibility, he would never be at ease. After all, no one knows better than him that the emptiness of Linying and Xuchang is gone.

"Gongda, are we going to take a step back?" Inexplicably, Cao Cao suddenly said this.

"Ah......?" Xun You, who suddenly heard this, was stunned, and then thought of what Cao Cao was worried about, but he couldn't help but be a little worried: "...... That's unlikely. ”

"Maybe." Cao Cao frowned: "It's better to retreat." Suspicious, he still couldn't rest assured after all.

"The rear army becomes the front army, the former army becomes the rear army, we retreat ......" Cao Cao's order was quickly issued. But not long after this order was issued, Cao Cao saw a flying horse in a red cloak coming in the dust, but it was Jia Xu's spies.

"What's the matter?" Cao Cao asked nervously. Jia Xu's spies generally do not ride horses, but when they do ride, they often have extremely important information.

"Twenty-eight miles southwest of Liu Beijun's actions were found." The flying horse came to Cao Cao's side and stopped, and did not dismount, so he immediately saluted Cao Cao and said quickly.

This may be a very rude behavior in normal terms, but Cao Cao doesn't care about it anymore. After hearing the spies' report, he felt as if he was about to change his orders. Although frequent changes in military orders are not a good thing, there are no more options at the moment.

The order was given again, and Cao Cao's army completed the turn again. Although there was inevitably some confusion in this, the overall situation was still good, and everything could be done in half an hour, which made the corners of Cao Cao's mouth slightly upturned.

With the right guidance, Cao Cao's movements became clear and decisive. Their speed accelerated, but they rushed to Liu Beijun's rear at a speed of nearly fifty percent faster than usual. This is also a helpless thing, because this area is too close to Yingshui, and no one can say where Liu Beijun will cross the river. Although Liu Beijun's Huainan Naval Division had been subdued by Sun Quan, Liu Bei still had a Rushui Naval Army, once this naval army was combined with Liu Beijun's own combat power. Cao Cao, who was hurrying slowly, was very likely to fall into a bitter battle - it was just that Cao Cao's army, which was lightly armed, could deal with Liu Bei's sailor who was equipped with a strong bow and crossbow, which was also a joke.

"There is no choice...... It can only speed up. Hopefully, we can catch up with Liu Beijun. Cao Cao said this, but there was not much nervousness on his face. Because he had already contacted the Xiahou Department closest to here, and asked them to rush here directly, and the Xiahou Department led by the cavalry seemed to have been entangled with Liu Beijun a long time ago. Although it is close to the river, there is still a certain distance in the end, once the two are entangled, Cao Cao believes that with the strength of Xiahoudun, Liu Bei will definitely not be able to go to the river.

Continuing to hurry, Cao Cao once again ordered his army to catch up with the front, but found that things were as smooth as he thought: Liu Bei's army was indeed run over by Xiahoudun's cavalry and fled.

This is also a very normal thing, everyone knows that on flat ground infantry is far from being an opponent of cavalry.

"Kill ......" Cao Cao saw that Liu Bei's banner was slowly retreating to the west. He knew that it was by the river, and there were people who answered Liu Bei, so he roared angrily and waved his army desperately to catch up. At this moment, the distance between him and Liu Bei was about three miles, and Cao Cao was confident that when Liu Bei's main force was restrained by Xiahoudun, he would quickly catch up with Liu Bei and solve him.

“…… In that case, everything should be clear. Cao Cao thought so, and urged his horse very quickly. He was constantly on the road, and he was a little desperate.

But the change happened at this time. Suddenly, the voices of countless soldiers suddenly rose on the flat ground near the river beach, and they shouted loudly and pounced on Cao Cao's army, which was obviously an ambush by Liu Bei's army.