was rounded to his rear by Cao Cao, and he did not kill Cao Cao, Ma Chao realized the urgency of the battle situation.

Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info He knew that if Cao Cao was allowed to sweep away the grain and grass he had hoarded in the rear, then he would lose the war.

No matter how brave he is, he is not a god after all, and he can't do it to the point of ignorance of fireworks in the world.

What to do?

Ma Chao led the team back to Huayin and told his uncle, Han Sui, another leader in the coalition, about the matter.

Han Sui also quickly realized that trouble was coming.

Originally, it was the right thing to stop Cao Cao's army at the crossing of the river.

But because Han Sui didn't believe the situation reported by Ma Chao's subordinates, he didn't allow Ma Chao to lead a large group of men and horses to ambush Cao Cao, so that the victory passed by a little bit away from him.

Now although Cao Cao is a little embarrassed, and his military strength has suffered some good losses, he is ahead of himself in his strategic arrangement.

When Cao Cao had successfully appeared in his rear, there were only two ways in front of him: quickly capture Tongguan and seize the grain and grass of Cao's army in Tongguan or take the cavalry as the lead and return to Chang'an to keep his own grain and grass before Cao Cao.

Siege or return?

This is a problem.

Ma Chao and Han Sui didn't dare to be self-conscious, so they quickly brought their subordinates to discuss with them the solution to the problem.

"Let's go back! I don't want to take that risk. We have been attacking Tongguan for several months, but we have not defeated it, how can we reverse the previous situation in this short period of time? ”

Someone replied in a whisper.

"How can this work?"

The man's words, while right, undoubtedly pierced the pride of most of the people in the tent.

Although the generals in Guanzhong have their own tempers, they have one thing in common in terms of personality, that is, they like to talk big and be strong.

At that moment, someone sharply reprimanded the person who said that he wanted to return to the division: "Gather our strength, what is the Tongguan City in front of us that has been divided into troops?" As long as we take Tongguan, Cao Cao will be like a chicken stuck in the neck, but we will still have to deal with it. ”

"There's some truth to that, but ......"

There are still people who are worried about something.

Although the generals of Guanzhong gathered together to defeat Cao Cao, they did not form an army as a whole with each other, but were quite independent.

If Ma Chao and Han Sui give orders on their own according to their own decisions, act first, and then use the behavior that has become a fact to force those who hesitate to follow their direction, it is good or bad, and there is still a letter to follow.

However, it is difficult to reach an order that can be accepted by everyone in such a discussion as it is now, and everyone can speak their minds democratically.

The controversy in the tent lasted from morning to evening, and a whole day passed in this endless quarrel.

The controversy between the generals could last so long, which was really beyond Han Sui and Ma Chao's expectations.

Seeing that the sky was gradually getting dark, Han Sui had no choice but to make a forced decision: divide the troops, let Ma Chao lead all the way to pursue Cao Cao, and he led the army to attack Tongguan urgently.

This is also a strategy, and in the eyes of most people in the account, it is still very feasible.

According to Ma Chao's observation of Cao Cao by the Weishui River.

Most of Cao Cao's army, which was behind him and ready to attack Chang'an, was infantry, and its number was about 100,000.

To deal with Cao Cao's 100,000 infantry, he only needs to send 30,000 cavalry on his side.

After all, as long as Cao Cao can catch up, these 30,000 cavalry are enough to wipe out Cao Cao's 100,000 people with the long knives in their hands.

As for the remaining 100,000 people who attacked Tongguan in the face of the 200,000 defenders in Tongguan City, even if it is unlikely to make progress, it can still give the enemy a certain amount of pressure, making them think that their side is still full of all the people in the pass.

This is very important, because only in this way can Cao Cao be notified through the enemy here, let him know that he is safe behind him, and he can move forward with confidence - dispatching more than 100,000 people to attack the city, in fact, is to cover the success of Ma Chao's army back to the division.

This is a superficial division of troops, but in fact supports the strategy of returning to the division.

However, because Han Sui said this strategy very secretly, it did not cause many people to be dissatisfied.

Thus, the course of action was thus determined.

Ma Chao, his younger brother Ma Dai, and the general Pang De led 30,000 cavalry, one man and two horses, and set off in the starry night to pursue Cao Cao's team attacking Chang'an.

In this way, the Marshall people pursued for a day and a night, and when the dark blue curtain once again hung over everyone's heads, Ma Chao and the others finally saw the little bonfire on the plain.

"It's Cao Cao's Army"

Ma Chao discovered them, and they also discovered Ma Chao's team based on the sound of iron hooves that resounded on the ground.

All of a sudden, the two sides confronted each other there.

However, the confrontation did not last long, and Ma Chao quickly launched a surprise attack on Cao Cao's army, regardless of the fatigue of his own soldiers and horses.

Of course, his raid was also a surprise attack taking into account the strength he possessed on his side, although it was a little reluctant, but it was not too much, but he gathered around Cao Cao's army from time to time, looking at Cao Cao's mistakes, like a vicious wolf, he pounced on Cao Cao and bit Cao Cao, and then fled away.

Because of the good grasp of the opportunity and the adoption of correct tactics, the Cao Cao army that was caught up fell into a painful situation, they were bleeding all the time, although the number of people who bleed each time was not very large, but the voices of one after another screamed miserably, all the time resounded in the night sky, so that the morale of the Cao army fell again and again.

It was like being tricked all night in the dark, until dawn, Ma Chaojun seemed to have run out of energy, and gradually went away, which made Cao Jun's people breathe a sigh of relief, and they collapsed to the ground in twos and threes.

Facing the exhaustion of his soldiers, Cao Cao sighed deeply, but he was also helpless.

He didn't think that Ma Chao's cavalry, which had caught up with him, could still quickly launch an attack while catching up with him, let alone that this attack that didn't seem so powerful would make him so embarrassed.

"Look at it like this, I can't make it to the road today."

Cao Cao thought about it, and felt even more bored in his heart.

It would be better if it was simply impossible to travel, for fear that the enemy, after now leaving to rest, would repeat that terrible scene tonight, and that would be terrible: "If there were one or two more battles like last night's, my army would not want the enemy to attack, but would have been scattered." That tactic like a wolf pack biting will not cause our army to lose many soldiers and horses, but it will greatly affect the morale of our army. Alas...... If only there was a city that could defend me. ”

Cao Cao thought more and more about the benefits of having a city to defend.

"What should I do?"

Cao Cao pondered this question and stepped out of the tent with light steps.

This year's winter came early, and it was only the eighth time of the leap season, and the weather was already cold.

Cao Cao walked through the camp that didn't seem to have many tents because of the lack of logistical supplies, thinking about how to prepare for Ma Chao's surprise attack, and watching the reaction of his own sergeants after the headache of harassment last night.

When marching and fighting, morale is very important, and Cao Cao naturally understands this, so he pays close attention to the every move of his soldiers.

He listened to their talk, watched their individual actions, and walked forward step by step.

Suddenly, a soldier's complaint reached his ears, and he couldn't help but be ecstatic: "What are you doing? The weather is so cold, I only fetched a bucket of water last night to boil it for today, but I don't want to freeze into ice. Trouble, do you want the ice to be broken? It's harder than a stone. ”

"Harder than a stone?"

Cao Cao knew that this was just an exaggeration.

But if the water can freeze into ice so quickly, it may be able to be used to build a city.

As long as he could build such a wall around his camp that Ma Chao's cavalry could not directly attack him, he himself could hold out here and use infantry bows and arrows that could shoot farther than cavalry bows to entertain a guy as annoying as Ma Chao.

Cao Cao thought of this method, so he happily arranged for people to do it.

In the evening, when the weather was getting colder, Cao Cao ordered the soldiers to build a square of soil and pour river water, which actually condensed the originally loose soil into solid bricks.

Seeing that such a miraculous thing had happened, nearly 100,000 soldiers had built four unadjacent horizontal walls in less than two hours, although they were only half a man's height, but they were enough for the archers to take cover.

In the second half of the night, Ma Chaojun led the attack again, but he was taught a lesson by the foot archers hiding behind the horizontal wall with bows and arrows.

Cao Cao had many soldiers, and naturally there were many foot archers.

He took ten thousand horses on each side, and taught them to line them up in several rows, and when he heard the sound of horses' hooves in the darkness of the night in that direction, he ordered their bows and arrows to be shot in that direction.

Because the data within the range of various rulers had already been calculated during the day, at night, when it was impossible to see, all the archers only needed to draw their bows and shoot arrows mechanically.

After all, under such a dense rain of arrows, as long as you enter the range of the bow and arrow, you are basically shot by the arrows, and there is no way to avoid it.

The results of this night are very different from last night, Ma Chao is a little "oily"

He didn't catch it, and lost thousands of men and horses under the counterattack of Cao Cao's archers.

During this period, his army also tried to fight back with bows and arrows, but the range of the horse bow was not as good as that of the infantry bow, and even if the arrows reached the perimeter of Cao Cao's army camp in front of them, most of them were blocked by the newly built parapet walls, and had little effect.

In this way, Ma Chao saw that there was no effect, so he led the army to retreat and disappeared into the darkness.

Cao Cao knew that he did not go far, but hidden, quietly watching himself in a certain place, waiting for him to leave the place and head for Chang'an.

“…… At that time, our army was on the plain, and the Ma Chao army was all horse army, and the horses were fighting against each other, and what the final result would be, think about it. ”

Cao Cao thought about it for a while, and sneered coldly: "Meng Qi has a good idea. But did he think that the only way I wanted to cut off their supplies was to attack Chang'an? The place I am in at the moment is the main road between Zheng County and Huayin, and it is also the grain road that can threaten Ma Chaojun. If I expand the parapet wall like tonight, I can still block Ma Chao's grain and grass transportation. Hmph, I'll see what to do with this Ma Chao then. ”

Seeing that tonight's fortification had an effect, and thinking that the weather would get colder and colder in the future, Cao Cao pondered but came up with such a local method.

He decided to build a moat, to cross the city wall to the north along the river, and to build a small port along the river to facilitate the supply of food, grass, and ordnance for 100,000 men.

Then, with the support of these grains, grasses and ordnance, with 100,000 people, and 30,000 Ma Chao's army fought a war step by step.

"The greatest advantage of the cavalry is not in his attack power, but in his mobility. And the method we use to resist the mobility of the Ma Chao army is the defensive power that we combine with the parapet. Don't think about eating Ma Chao in one go, just expand our camp little by little and block the connection between Ma Chao's army and Chang'an. This is where Ma Chao's grain road is, as long as the camp we built can incorporate this grain road into our own attack range and intercept Ma Chao's grain army, then we will completely win the war. Because we have already encircled Ma Chaojun and limited it to a certain range. There are many cavalry in the Xiliang Army, and the grain and grass are consumed quickly, once the grain and grass are intercepted, they can't support it. ”

In the big tent, Cao Cao pointed to his generals on the desk, causing them to nod their heads again and again.

This is definitely the right strategy.

When Cao Cao put this strategy into practice, with the gradual expansion of the Ice and Earth City, it became more generous little by little, and the initiative on the battlefield naturally shifted to Cao Cao's hands little by little.

Originally, for Cao Cao's strategy, Ma Chao and Han Sui should have done to suspend the attack on Tongguan and return to the division with all their might, and return to Chang'an before Cao Cao's horizontal wall was completely built.

But I don't know if the generals in Guanzhong were too arrogant, or Cao Ren who was stationed in Tongguan deliberately showed weakness, perhaps because of both reasons, the main force of the Xiliang Army did not return to the division, but attacked Tongguan day and night, and completely consumed his strength under the fortified city.

By the time Cao Cao finally built the horizontal wall and blocked the grain route of the Xiliang army, the Xiliang army, which had been holding on to Tongguan, had less than 100,000 people left, and on the other hand, there were about 150,000 Cao Ren defenders on Tongguan.

The iron wall was finally closed, and the grain road was blocked by Cao Cao.

Looking at the food that was scarce every day, the generals in Guanzhong in Huayin County finally felt the existence of failure.

At this moment, they have been completely suppressed in the narrow land between Zheng County and Tongguan, which is not much wider than the valley, with the surging Weishui and the Yellow River to the north, and the steep Huashan Mountain to the south.

"A road from ancient Huashan"

It is impossible for them, the 100,000 horsemen of the infantry army, to flee over Huashan.

"What should I do?"

Now it's the turn of these big guys in Kansai to think about this problem.

Because it was an imminent problem, they had to use their brains one by one, which did not seem to be developed.

In the end, I don't know which one of the generals asked a question that seemed idiotic, and Han Sui adopted: "It's better to ask Cao Cao for a decisive battle." Bring out the soldiers and horses on this field, and you will see a high and low in life and death. ”

"Well, that's all!"

Han Sui sent someone to send the challenge letter out, and threw himself into Cao Cao's camp on the west path.

Cao Cao accepted the challenge letter and agreed to Han Sui's request for a decisive battle, but he really played Han Sui: when more than 100,000 people under Han Sui and Ma Chao rushed to the decisive battle, there was nothing in front of them except the endless wilderness.

The army of Cao Cao they were looking forward to had not even seen a shadow at all.

"Cao Cao, an old horseman, doesn't keep his promises, it's really annoying to me."

Han Sui, who has always been treacherous, was also provoked by Cao Cao's rude behavior.

He impulsively proposed to attack the Guancheng defended by Cao Cao with a large army, which was agreed by everyone.

However, at this moment, the Guancheng has been strengthened and expanded day and night by the 100,000 soldiers under Cao Cao, and has become a tall checkpoint that does not need to be much worse than Tongguan.

Although this level is really a bit long, there are many people who are used by Cao Cao to guard this level, and Han Sui himself came in a rage and did not bring siege equipment.

So the result of attacking Guancheng became very miserable: Han Sui wanted to attack the city with his troops, but he was shot back by a rain of arrows on the city wall, except for the loss of more than 10,000 people and the anger in his stomach, but he gained nothing.

Han Sui, who had suffered a lot, led his troops back to Huayin, and Cao Cao did not chase him, but a few more days passed like this.

Cao Cao finally received a message that he had been waiting for for a long time, "The Xiliang army in Huayin City has run out of food. ”

Cao Cao was overjoyed, and quickly gave up the defense of Guancheng, and together with Cao Renbu of Tongguan, Huayin City was tightly enclosed.

At this moment, Cao Cao's army is 240,000, and the Xiliang army in Huayin City is 80,000, and they lack food and clothing, and they die every day because of the increasingly cold weather.

By this time, Cao Cao had already locked in the success of the war.

For now, all he had on his mind was how to reap the fruits of this victory.

"What the hell should I do?"

Just when Cao Cao was thinking and meditating, two bold lieutenants in Cao Cao's army jumped out, saying that they wanted to offer advice to Cao Cao.

"Oh? You say you have a way to solve these 80,000 people in Huayin City without spending a single soldier? ”

Cao Cao looked coldly at the two middle-aged generals who said that they had a plan to dedicate to him, and seemingly unintentionally played with the short knife in his hand, and said lightly: "I hope you don't want to lie to me." If not, I'll take your heads. ”

"Don't dare, don't dare."

The two swallowed their saliva and seemed to be a little unconfident, but under Cao Cao's cold eyes, they still stood there fixedly, without leaving, "This plan has been considered by us for a long time." Used to deal with this rabble in Huayin City, we have eight points of certainty to ensure success. ”

"Eight points? That's not small anymore. ”

Cao Cao smiled faintly and asked, "Will Ji be released?" ”

"I heard that although the generals of Guanzhong have always been led by Ma Teng and Han Sui, they only obey the orders of the two on the surface, but in fact they are quite independent. When Ma Teng was alive, Ma and Han were only amiable brothers on the surface, but they were secretly competing with each other. Now that Ma Teng is in chaos and dead, the generals of Guanzhong are fighting against us in the name of Ma Teng's revenge, and it is conceivable that among them, Ma Chao is the only one who really wants to defeat us completely. Maybe Han Sui also has some ideas, but his idea is to establish his position as the first leader of Xiliang by using the fact of defeating us, as for the other individuals, they have their own ideas, and they may not really contribute. It can be said that the generals of Xiliang gathered together to form a coalition army, but this coalition army was ordered to go out of many ways and could not be unified, almost the same as the Kwantung coalition army that crusaded against Dong Zhuo in the past, they were all rabble, but it was a pity that the lord was not Dong Zhuo's stupid. ”

One of the two stepped forward and said, "Now, the lord has used a method to surround them in the city, and even if we don't do anything, in a month or two, they are afraid that they will die." However, with the benevolent personality of the lord, I am afraid that he will not use such a desperate means to besiege and die. And attacking the city with all his might, although it can take this place in a short time, it is a heavy loss for our army, so the lord is not willing to use this one. Since they should not attack in a hurry, and they are not willing to slow down, why didn't the lord start from their independent relationship with each other and use divisive means to deal with them. Most of the generals in Guanzhong are big and coarse, only Han Sui still has some schemes, but he only has one mouth that can't say anything about others, not to mention Ma Chao, a brave and resourceless general. Taking advantage of the private opposition between Han Sui and the Ma family and Ma Chao's fierce personality, I think that as long as there is a letter, it will be enough to cause civil strife among the guys in Huayin City, so that they can open the city and surrender to the lord by themselves. ”

"With letters? I don't know Han Sui well. It's not a good letter. ”

Cao Cao said with embarrassment.

"You don't have to write anything important. The lord only needs to write a letter to an ordinary friend, so ordinary things will do, and these should be written clearly and clearly. As for the things that Han Sui wanted to ask him to do, he might as well write them down clearly, and then deliberately smear them to make them vague, which would be enough to make everyone who saw this letter think about him. ”

Hearing Cao Cao say this, the other of the two became anxious and directly told Cao Cao how to write this letter.

"What? How can such a do it? ”

Cao Cao listened to their explanations and was groaning in understanding, but Xu Yu, who was standing next to Cao Cao, asked in the voice of the second monk who was puzzled.

If such a letter is written in the hands of ordinary people, outsiders will naturally think that it is a mistake of the sender and ignore the past. But the person who used this kind of smearing of the epistle was a wise man like the lord, and that was different. The lord's wisdom is famous all over the world, and Ma Chao and they naturally don't think that the smearing of this letter is a mistake on the part of the lord, but will think that this is Han Sui's own denial and sophistry. Therefore, it is much more useful for the lord to send such a vague letter than ten clear letters to Han Sui. ”

The other explained with a smile.

"It's insidious. It's just that you people are so insidious, but fortunately, you are not my enemies. ”

Xu Chu said innocently.

Although he is already a general, his natural personality has not changed, and perhaps it is precisely because of his simplicity that Cao Cao is so relieved to entrust his safety to him.

"Huh!"

Seeing that it was Cao Cao's confidant general Xu Chu who said this, the two could only smile bitterly and were speechless.

At this moment, Cao Cao had already come back to his senses from his thoughts, and when he saw Xu Chu say this about the two of them, he smiled and said, "Zhong Kangxiu wants to talk nonsense, this is wisdom." ”

As he spoke, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the two of them who suddenly offered him such a clever plan, and his eyes suddenly changed slightly: "Two great talents, they have been hidden in my army for so long, but they don't know it, and they almost missed it, it's really a mistake." This strategy, the two must have been thinking about it for a long time. If not, how can you even grasp the details clearly? By the way, I still don't know about the two high-sex daimyos? ”

"The lowly Liu Yan, the word Boshen, that is the lowly brother Zhou Ji, the word Yuanfang, we were originally under General Xiahou Yuanrang, and we were only reorganized in the army like the lord when we were in Chibi, and because we participated in several battles and made some contributions, we were awarded the post of lieutenant colonel."

The man who spoke earlier introduced himself and his brother to Cao Cao.

"Oh? I see, you must be from Runan. I remember that Xiahoudun guy was stationed in Runan before Chibi, so you must have joined the army in Runan? ”

Cao Cao asked about their backgrounds as if he was chatting with them.

"That's not the case, we are from Xiyang, Jiangxia, because of the original Xiyang County Order, the current Changsha Taishou Li Sheng suppressed bandits in Xiyang, and our family suffered a military disaster, so we had no choice but to go to Runan to join the army."

Liu Yan replied calmly.

He knew that Cao Cao could easily find out these things, so he didn't dare to lie when he answered.

"Actually, our plan is not what we think."

Zhou Ji told Cao Cao: "In fact, this ploy was used in the past when Li Sheng cleared the opposition to Xiyang, and made Liu, Zhou Erren, Zhang, Chen and other thieves who were trapped in Xiyang City turn against each other, and Chen Sunjing opened the door and surrendered, so that Li Sheng got rid of Xiyang and got Xiyang." Because we are relatives of Liu and Erren, we have personally experienced this incident, so we have a deep impression of this plan. The situation of the lord in Huayin is very similar to the situation of Li Shengzhi in Xiyang in the past, so I suggest that the lord use this strategy to deal with Ma Chao and Han Sui. ”

"I see. Well, no matter whether you came up with this strategy by yourself, or borrowed it from Li Sheng's strategy in the past, in short, you have offered such a strategy here to help me solve the difficult brick of Huayin, and I will naturally not treat you badly. Go down first. If this plan can be accomplished, I will add the first credit to you when you record the merits in the future. ”

Cao Cao said with a smile.

"Thank you, my lord!"

Liu Yan and Zhou Ji happily went out of the tent, not knowing at all that Cao Cao was in the big tent not long after they left, and Jia Xu, who was recruited into his big tent after they left: "Wenhe, please help me pay attention to these Liu Yan and Zhou Ji." They said that they were the relatives of Liu Erren, the former leader of the Xiyang bandits, but I suspect that they are the Liu and Erren who fled after defeat. It doesn't matter to me who they are, but I want to have unidentified people under my account, you know? ”

"Yes!"

Jia Xu nodded and left.

Cao Cao believed that Jia Xu, who was old in this accident, would handle this matter steadily.

The next thing is naturally to carry out the plan of separation according to the arrangement of Liu Yan and Zhou Ji.

Cao Cao could see that what Liu and Zhou said was very reasonable, and there was nothing wrong with their plan, so he naturally completely copied Liu and Zhou's advice, and shot the smeared letter into the hands of Han Sui's men when Han Sui and Ma Chao's soldiers were on duty through bows and arrows.

Of course, the archers were afraid that Ma Chao would not know that Han Sui had received Cao Cao's letter, and shouted loudly: "Please Han Zhoumu must do what is agreed in the letter." ”

Yunyun.

The letter was sent to Han Sui, and Ma Chao got the news that Han Sui had received the book.

When he arrived at Han Sui, Han Sui had just opened the seal of the letter.

Ma Chao asked Han Sui to see this letter, and Han Sui felt that it was no big deal, so he agreed.

When an obviously altered letter appeared in front of Ma Chao and Han Sui, Ma Chao smiled, this smile was cold, and Han Sui was overwhelmed with surprise.

"Can you explain what's going on?"

Ma Chao asked sharply.

"Maybe Cao Cao misplaced the letter?"

Han Sui replied in an uncertain tone.

"Cao Cao is a delicate person, how could he misplace the letter?"

Ma Chao didn't believe Han Sui's words.

"What do you think?"

Han Sui felt the hostility in Ma Chao's eyes.

"Han Zhoumu himself should know what is going on."

Ma Chao said this coldly, swept the faces of Han Sui's generals with a sharp gaze, and then left without a head.

Han Sui felt it, and Ma Chao's suspicion at the moment was already deep.

If it weren't for the fact that there were so many people around him at the moment, and Ma Chao who came over only brought one or twenty relatives, he was afraid that Ma Chao would attack on the spot and kill himself.

"I'm in danger, Ma Chao, a stupid man with no brains, the devil knows what he will do. I had to be prepared. ”

Han Sui intuitively thought that Ma Chao had unscrupulous intentions against him, so he decided to take the lead against Ma Chao.

Just as Li Sheng used the book to deal with Liu and Erren in the past, so that Xiyang City happened, and Zhang Wu and Chen Sun fought against Liu and Erren, after Cao Cao sent the book to Huayin City, the generals of Guanzhong in Huayin City also fought with the confrontation between Ma Chao and Han Sui.

As a result of the firefight, Ma Chao, Ma Dai, and Pang De led the soldiers and horses to break through, Han Sui was disabled, Li Kan died, and Yang Qiu, candidate and others surrendered to Cao Cao.

At this point, Cao Cao's crusade against Ma Chao was over.

At this moment, it was the end of November of the sixteenth year of Jian'an, in the face of Ma Chao's army who fled to the west of Anding, Cao Cao did not continue the pursuit because he was worried about the instability of the southeast, and returned to Chang'an, but appointed Liangzhou to join the army Yang Fu, the governor of Liangzhou military, in order to guard against Ma Chao, and moved Weikang to Liangzhou to be responsible for the post-war stability of Liangzhou.