As the sun sets, a vulture flutters its wings and skims across the sky.

A moment later, the vulture gathered its wings and descended from the sky and slowly landed on the official road.

In the past, the official road with endless cars and horses has become extinct this morning, and only the artemisia grass in the cracks of the bullet stone grows wildly, almost wanting to annihilate the entire official road.

Almost at the same time as the vultures descended, a low roar suddenly sounded in the grass.

Immediately, a wolf's head poked out of the grass, its upper lip turned up, and it bared out two rows of cold fangs towards the vulture, as if to say to the vulture, stay away from Lao Tzu!

The vulture, however, was indifferent, tilting its head and calmly looking at the wolf.

The wolf also seemed to realize that the vulture was not something it could intimidate if it wanted to, and after roaring twice, he lowered his head again and ate his meal with relish, which was a person, had been disemboweled, and what the wolf was eating was his internal organs, and from the iron armor on his body, it could be seen that he was a soldier.

The vulture waited for a moment, then crept around behind the wolf's ass to prepare for the feast.

The wolf raised his head again, and was about to demonstrate to the vulture again, but a pair of furry ears suddenly stood up, as if he heard something, and the 7↓ vulture, which was about to join the feast, also raised his head, and then turned his head slightly, stared into the distance and began to listen carefully.

Suddenly, the vulture's legs kicked violently, soaring into the air.

Almost at the same time as the vulture rose into the air, the wolf grabbed its tail violently, whined and whispered, and burrowed into the bushes on the side of the official road.

After a moment, the ground suddenly trembled slightly.

The next moment. In the distance, a tidal wave of cavalry appeared. Swarming towards this side.

Hundreds of horses' hooves continued to knock on the official road. With a tidal roar, the wild wolves, who had been hiding in the bushes on the side of the road and watching, hurried into the depths of the jungle.

The cavalry roared over, led by a red-robed young general.

After catching a glimpse of the dead body lying in the artemisia grass, the red-robed young general raised his right arm: "Woo ......"

The red-robed young general tightened the reins of the horse while calling lightly on the horse, and the war horse was in pain, so he immediately began to slow down. The cavalry frenzy that followed behind also slowed down.

The red-robed young man rode his horse back to the dead body, then turned over and dismounted, and began to take a closer look.

After about half an hour, dozens of horses came over to the sound of rumbling horses' hooves, but these dozens of horses were markedly different from the thousands of horses that had preceded them.

The biggest difference is that these dozens of cavalry are all dressed in well-made and expensive fish scale armor.

Moreover, among these dozens of cavalry, there were three middle-aged scribes and a red-robed general, although the four of them were disgraced. But it can still be seen and very human.

This red-robed general is naturally Cao Cao.

As for the three middle-aged scribes. But it was Xun You, Jia Xu and Cheng Yu.

The annihilation of the entire army of 2,000 tigers and leopards led by Cao Zhen gave Cao Cao a great stimulus, and finally helped Cao Cao make up his mind to eradicate Yuan Nuo at all costs, even if it is to chase him to the ends of the earth, because Cao Cao is more and more soberly aware of the fact that once Yuan Nuo grows up, he is definitely a hundred times more dangerous than Liu Bei!

It's just that when Cao Cao personally led the army to cross the Rushui, Yuan Wei had already joined his cavalry camp and ran away first, so Cao Cao naturally would not give up, so he chased after him.

A few days later, the two armies crossed half of Runan County and entered Xiyang County.

Cao Cao rode his horse to the red-robed young general and asked, "Wen Lie, why did you stop?" ”

It was Cao Xiu who got off the horse just now to inspect the dead body, and it was also the Cao family's Qianli horse that Cao Cao said.

Cao Xiu got up and bowed his hand and said, "My lord, the last general found a corpse of Yuan Junxiao's horse. ”

Cao Cao pointed at the dead corpse with a horsewhip and asked, "Why do you see the corpse of Yuan Junxiao's horse?" ”

"Because of the bows and arrows on his body, our cavalry will not carry bows and arrows." Cao Xiu pointed to the short bow on the corpse's waist and the quiver on his back, and continued, "This person should be Yuan Jun's sentry horseman, and he may have been attacked by fierce beasts on the road, because he has claw marks on his body, and it should be a fierce beast such as a tiger and a leopard." ”

Cao Cao nodded, and then asked, "What did you find?" ”

Cao Xiu said: "From this Yuan Junxiao horse, three points can be determined. ”

"Which three?" Cao Cao's face was silent, but he secretly praised it in his heart.

Cao Xiu replied: "First, from this bag of dry food that Yuan Jun Xiao rides, we can know that Yuan Jun's military rations are about five days left, and even if there are discrepancies, there will not be much difference; Second, Yuan Jun did go to Shansang County; Third, judging from the ** degree of this dead body, Yuan Jun has only been three days at most! ”

"Wen Liecheng deserves to be my Cao family's thousand-mile horse." Cao Cao stroked Cao Xiu's shoulder and praised him a few words.

After the praise, Cao Cao turned his head and ordered Xu Chu: "Zhongkang, hurry up and get the map." ”

Xu Chu turned around and made a gesture, and a tiger guard untied the bamboo tube made of bamboo strips on his back, and took out a map of the land drawn in silk books from it.

Xu Chu personally unfolded the map and sent it to Cao Cao.

Cao Xiu walked over, pointed to the map with a horsewhip and said, "Lord, please look, this is Shansang County." ”

After seeing the location of Shansang County clearly, Cao Cao's brows immediately frowned, and said: "In the heyday of the Han Dynasty, Shansang was only a small county with a population of thousands, and there were deep mountains and old forests within a radius of hundreds of miles. ”

"The main thing is that the road is difficult to walk." Xun You pointed to the barren official road where the artemisia grass had grown out of the half-human height, and said, "This is still just out of Xiyang County, if you go further, the road condition will only be worse, or even there is no way to go at all. ”

Xun You is not alarmist, there is no compass in this era, and the ancients do not know how to determine the direction by identifying the texture of the trees, once they enter the dense forest, the only thing they can rely on is the sun, but now they have entered mid-autumn, and the rainy weather may come at any time, once it rains, it is not impossible to get lost.

Cao Cao was still a little unwilling, turned his head and asked Cheng Yu, "Zhongde, you really can't find a guide?" ”

Cheng Yu shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Lord, I have searched for dozens of miles within a radius of Xiyang County, but I haven't found a single living person, in fact, this is also reasonable, in the entire thirty-four counties of Runan, those who can run have run away, and those who don't want to run have basically gone into the mountains to become bandits, and the few serious people left have also let the bandits give the scourge to the light." ”

"But it's cheaper." Yuan Wei said hatefully, "He has a thief as a guide." ”

Cheng Yu could only smile bitterly, since Cao Jun entered Runan, he has fallen behind everywhere in intelligence, and one of the most important reasons is whether Yuan has local bandits to help.

At that moment, Cao Cao said hatefully: "In this way, I can only take a detour." ”

Xun You said: "Lord, the art of war is not in the clouds, and the poor are not chasing, and it is the best policy to detour." ”

Cao Cao said: "There is nothing else, I am afraid that it will delay the time and let Yuan Wei Xiao'er run away." ”

Jia Xu said: "Calculating the time, Mr. Fengxiao should almost go to Danxian County to meet General Zixiao at this moment, right?" ”

Hearing this, Cao Cao felt a little relieved, nodded and said: "I hope that Feng Xiao has arrived in Dan County at this moment, as long as Feng Xiao can arrive in Dan County in time, Yuan Wei Xiao'er wants to cross Pei County and go north to Jizhou, but it is wishful thinking." ”

(Dividing Line)

"Yawn, yawn, blow." Guo Jia suddenly sneezed three times in a row.

Cao Ren looked back at Guo Jia with concern and asked, "Strategist, are you okay?" ”

Guo Jia tightened the big slug on his body, shook his head and said, "It's okay, it's just that I'm in a hurry and I'm a little tired." ”

Cao Ren turned around and instructed Cao Chun: "Zihe, hurry up and find a soft couch and put a few more woolen blankets." ”

Cao Chun took the order and left, and after a while, he took his own soldiers to carry a soft couch over, on which a full three layers of woolen blankets were padded, and Cao Ren personally helped Guo Jia to lie on the couch, and then ordered his own soldiers to carry Guo Jia forward.

While walking, Cao Ren couldn't help but complain: "Strategist, what kind of bird battle is this?" The brothers have been guarding this barren mountain and drinking the northwest wind all day long, but they have not even seen the shadow of Yuan Jun. I can tell you, the soldiers below are about to quarrel. ”

"General Zixiao, don't be impatient, this battle will soon be clear." Guo Jia waved his hand tiredly, and asked again, "It's just that I gave you the supplies in the letter before I came, how are you prepared?" ”

"It's all set." Cao Ren hurriedly said, "Five hundred catties of sulfur, five hundred catties of fire nitrate, three thousand catties of charcoal, or more than 100,000 catties of hay, all of them are ready, but, military advisor, what are you going to do with so many things that ignite fire?" ”

Guo Jia smiled coldly and said, "Naturally, it's useful." ”