It's still a step too late.

On the night when Gan Ning sent a letter to Liu Bei, Cao Jun, who was opposite Guandu, suddenly crossed the river in a big way. Gan Ning is naturally a soldier to block, water to cover the earth, personally lead people to meet the battle, or to bully these Hebei landlubbers.

What Gan Ningwan didn't expect was that he kicked the iron plate this time. As soon as the boat left the water village, Gan Ning was startled: the enemy army was actually connected by iron chains, and the whole group formed several huge water fortresses, slowly pressing towards the south bank.

Although surprised, Gan Ning had no choice, so he still had a hard time with the other party. As a result, as soon as the battle began, their own ships and fighting ships were smashed into pieces by the opponent's chain of warships. Gan Ning was anxious, and dispatched the turtle boat to collide again, not wanting that although the turtle boat could break one of the other party's chain warships, but under the entanglement of those iron chains, the turtle boat was also bound, and in the end he could only watch the other party kill Henan.

Then it was even more passive, after the enemy army came ashore, Gan Ning was forced to fight a decisive battle with him in the water village. After a scuffle, the 30,000 Jingxiangshui Division suffered more than 10,000 casualties, and Gan Ning was forced to take Songshan Avenue and withdraw in the direction of Wancheng. In fact, Cao Jun's casualties were no less than 20,000, counting those who fell into the water and died. But in any case, the waterway of the Yellow River has finally been completely opened. After occupying Guandu, Cao Zhang immediately ordered people to use these ships to build a pontoon bridge for subsequent reinforcements. At the same time, he sent people to contact Cao Ren and Xu Huang, preparing to attack Xuchang and instigate Cao Ying's withdrawal from the siege.

"Third brother!" Just when Cao Zhang was in full swing, Cao Pi suddenly led people to Guandu.

"Second brother, there is chaos here, you don't stay in Yecheng, why did you come here?" Cao Zhang was also taken aback when he saw Cao Pi coming to Guandu.

"Yecheng has Mr. Gongda stationed, forgive me no big problem. I discussed with my husband, and this time I sent troops to Xuchang to rescue my father, so I led the last 5,000 tigers and leopards to help in the battle! Cao Pi pointed to the tiger and leopard behind him and said with a smile. Cao Zhang nodded when he heard this, he knew that with the tiger and leopard to ride, then the chances of rescuing Cao Ying were even greater.

"The sword has no eyes on the battlefield, the second brother needs to be careful!" Cao Zhang hesitated for a moment, but still reminded. It is said that he is the younger brother, and it is very inappropriate to speak to the elder brother like this. However, Cao Pi waved his hand and said: "The third brother is too worried, you and I have accompanied my father on the expedition to Xianbei, and I have seen a lot of battles on this battlefield, and the foolish brother will pay attention to it." ”

"That's good!" Cao Zhang nodded. At this time, Xiahoudun's army had all crossed the river, and everyone was united in one place, except for the 100,000 reinforcements who fell into the water and drowned when crossing the river, and there were about 70,000 people left. At the moment, he followed Xiahoudun's suggestion, first stationed in Chenliu, and then joined more than Liu Wanren of Liang County, who had joined Cao Ren, and then went to Xuchang to rescue Cao Ying.

"Father still has tens of thousands of horses there, plus us and Uncle Ren, the three armies and horses together are only afraid of no less than 200,000, and they are all elite soldiers who can fight a hundred battles. Manga said that rescuing his father, even if he took advantage of the situation to defeat Liu Bei, it would be no problem! In Chen Liucheng, Cao Zhang was also excited.

"Third brother, don't be careless!" Cao Pi motioned to Cao Zhang to calm down, and then sighed: "I discussed with Mr. Gongda before I came, and he thinks that in the battle of the Central Plains, Liu Bei can mobilize at least 400,000 troops. ”

"Will there be so many?" Hearing Cao Pi's words, Cao Zhang was also a little stunned. Cao Pi nodded, and then explained carefully: "Liu Bei's old foundation is the Xuzhou Army, and he has the help of Mi Zhu and Chen Dengzhi to gather more than 100,000 elite soldiers. Later, he occupied Huainan, Jiangdong and Yuzhou, and gained more than 100,000 soldiers. Liu Biao sent Jingxiang to Liu Bei, and there were many people in Jingxiang, which was enough to raise more than 100,000 soldiers. With the addition of Jiaozhou and Qingzhou, Liu Bei can also get about 100,000 more soldiers. And I heard that Liu Bei recruited Shanyue, Wuxi barbarians as an army, there are seventy or eighty thousand, these alien races are brave and good at fighting, and their combat power should not be underestimated! In addition to garrisoning Qingzhou to defend General Gongming's military horses, and the defenders of Wancheng, Liu Bei was enough to mobilize 400,000 troops to fight a decisive battle with us. In fact, he also missed a calculation: Jia Xu's poison plan last time, coupled with Guan Yu and Zhang Liao's offensive, another 40,000 or 50,000 Cao troops were absorbed by Liu Bei.

"That's it!" After listening to Cao Pi's words, everyone also had a little numb scalp. Xiahou Ba was stunned for a long time, and finally asked weakly: "In this case, why don't I wait for more military horses?" ”

"I want to too, but the border army there is naturally not able to move, plus the previous expedition against Yuan Tan, although it was smooth sailing, it cost a lot of money and food. In this case, at most, another 100,000 troops can be dispatched. Mr. Gongda said that even if he rescued his father, he would end the battle as soon as possible. Otherwise, the military rations will inevitably not be available. Cao Pi sighed.

"I see!" Only then did everyone understand that they did not have a lot of money on hand when they sent troops this time. At this time, the Malay newspaper reported that Cao Ren's army had already left Liang County, and it was estimated that it would take at most two days to reach Chenliu. Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts.

Xiahoudun breathed a sigh of relief, but Liu Bei was now feeling very stressed. Under the city of Xuchang, Liu Bei had received news that Cao Zhang had led his army to successfully cross the Yellow River and settle in Chenliu, and at the same time, Cao's army in Liang County also began to move towards Chenliu.

Liu Bei understood that Cao Zhang and Cao Ren were going to join forces and come here to compete with him. Thinking about this, Liu Bei also worked quickly. Withdraw all the men and horses from Guandu and even Xutian, and leave them in Xuchang to prepare for a showdown with Cao Jun. At the same time, the rest of the military horses left as reserves were also mobilized, ready to give Cao Ying a heavy blow under Xuchang City.

"King Wei, wolf smoke is burning in the north of Shicai, it seems that Brother Ren and their reinforcements have arrived!" In Xuchang City, Cao Hong excitedly trotted over to Cao Ying. The latter was also stunned when he heard this, and then hurriedly ran up to the city to look north, and sure enough, it was the agreed wolf smoke.

"Zilian, pass the order, reorganize the army, and prepare to break through!" Cao Ying ordered in a deep voice, and Cao Hong rushed away when he heard the words. Jia Xu on the side looked at the wolf smoke, thinking about the upcoming breakthrough battle, but he didn't have any foundation in his heart, it seemed that he still missed something, but he couldn't remember it when he thought about it.

The offensive and defensive sides, which had been idle for several months, immediately began to operate, and the atmosphere under the entire Xuchang city suddenly became tense. Three days later, the army of Cao Ren and Xiahoudun slowly appeared on the horizon east of Xuchang.

"It's coming!" On a hillside in the distance, Liu Bei and others were all in the ranks. Looking at Cao Ren and Xiahoudun, who were getting closer and closer, Zhang Fei, who had always been noisy, was also silent. At this time, after Liu Jun's hard work in the past few months, several defensive fronts had been constructed, and the trenches and traps were all traversed in front of Cao Ren and Xiahoudun.

"Uncle Yuanrang, let me lead the tiger and leopard to rush through a bloody road to the city of Xuchang and rescue my father!" Looking at Xuchang City, which was close at hand, Cao Zhang couldn't suppress his fighting spirit more and more. Before Xiahoudun could speak, Cao Ren on the side had already said slowly: "No, Liu Bei has laid too many traps in front." If the tiger and leopard ride directly into the battle, I am afraid that there will be heavy casualties. I think it's better to go to the infantry first, and after clearing the road, then reopen a bloody road with tiger and leopard cavalry, and enter Xuchang to rescue the lord! ”

"What Zixiao said is very true!" Xiahoudun also agreed more with Cao Ren's prudent strategy. At present, under the command of Cao Ren, the Cao army was divided into two thousand people, and all kinds of foot soldiers began to slowly advance under the city of Xuchang under the command of Du Bo and Tun Chang, and people kept falling into traps along the way. These traps are all plugged with sharpened hard branches, and there is no chance of survival after falling.

"Shoot the arrows!" Seeing that Cao Jun had already entered the range of the bow and arrow, Chen Zhi, who was in charge of sniping, roared angrily, and all kinds of crossbow arrows that had been waiting for a long time began to exert their might. At the front row are the most powerful bed crossbows, then the tread crossbows, and the brass box crossbows. Next, there are all kinds of ballistae and ordinary bows. Using powerful ballistas to break through the enemy's shields, and then sniping Cao's foot soldiers who had lost cover with all kinds of other crossbow arrows, Chen Zhi exercised such a strategy.

"What a powerful arrow!" Cao Ying at the head of the city, Cao Ren and Xiahoudun under the city saw that among the crossbow arrows of Liu Jun's angry roar, their own foot soldiers were like pieces of paper in the wind, and they were shot through one after another. The large shield made of mulberry wood was easily broken by the opponent's bed crossbow, which was simply useless. As for the soldiers who lost the cover of their shields, it was even more common for them to become live targets naked, and it was even more common for them to be shot into strings of sugar gourds.

The sniper battle under Xuchang City this time is different from Zhao Feng's sniper against Xiahou Yuan in the Street Pavilion. Zhao Feng has only been stationed in Xichuan for more than a year, although he has been working hard to build it at night, but the various crossbow arrows of the Sichuan army are equipped with a lot of crossbow arrows compared to the Jingzhou army and the Xuzhou army in the Central Plains, whether it is quantity or power. Now Cao Ren and the others have seen the power of real crossbow arrows, and they are like killing machines.

"Zixiao, if it goes on like this, I'm afraid it won't work, so let's gather all the horses and horses and rush together!" Xiahoudun looked at the two thousand people who had walked no more than a few dozen steps after entering the firing range, and now there were less than a thousand left. If you use the refueling tactic like this, unless you use up the opponent's arrows, you can't imagine that you can get close to the city of Xuchang.

"That's right, I didn't expect Liu Bei's bow and crossbow to be so powerful!" Xiahoudun also felt that his back was cold, even if they were a battle-hardened thousand-person general, they didn't expect that there would be such a powerful crossbow arrow in the world. At that moment, the two of them were no longer sending people in waves, but gathered all the foot soldiers, completely dispersed the line, and then rushed towards the other party's sniper position.

"Cao Ren, this is going to be desperate?" Liu Bei, who was on the dirt slope, was also startled when he saw this scene. If the army were to rush together, the crossbow arrows would cause more damage than before due to the close relationship between the soldiers and soldiers. Almost every step he took, hundreds of Cao soldiers were shot to death.

"This is also a helpless way, only such a large army presses in and quickly breaks through our army's position, can the casualties after it be reduced. Otherwise, it will be delayed for a long time, and it will only lead to heavier casualties! Lu Su sighed after reading it. Liu Bei nodded silently, and at this time Pang Tong also spoke: "Lord, now that Xiahoudun and Cao Ren have all come here, let's act according to the previous strategy!" ”

"Exactly!" Liu Bei nodded, and then a flag soldier played a flag and remotely commanded Chen Dao behind the crossbowman. After the latter saw the flag, he also commanded the bow and crossbow to continue firing, and at the same time ordered to go down and prepare the second step of the battle plan.

(To be continued)