"The pottery thief has divided his troops, as I expected, and as my army expected."

"It is impossible to succeed in the plan to transfer the tiger from the mountain, and it is impossible to hide the pottery thief, and it is destined to be recognized by the pottery thief from the beginning, I know this very well, and Mr. Wen Ruo also warned me afterwards, saying that the pottery thief cannot be tricked! Our military will only give the pottery thief the opportunity to plan and plan the tiger's departure from the mountain. ”

"I'm not afraid that the pottery thief will plan it, everything is in my and Mr. Wenruo's expectations, it doesn't matter if the pottery thief doesn't show his flaws, I'm great but I don't miss the plan, and I don't give the pottery thief the opportunity to fight with me in the wild. But as long as the pottery thief shows the slightest flaw, I can immediately count and calculate, and break the pottery thief! I am confident in this, and Mr. Wen Ruo is also sure! ”

"There is only one thing that I and Mr. Wen Ruo did not expect in advance, that is, the pottery thief will divide his combat team into two, 20,000 will stay in the camp, and 20,000 will go west to block the reinforcements that we can't exist! Mr. Wen Ruo and I have made thousands of calculations before, but we didn't expect that the pottery thief would divide the troops like this! ”

"The pottery thief did not have a plan, in order to lure the pottery thief into the plan, I ordered the defenders of Ye County to abandon the city, and the whole army returned to Xiangcheng, and asked the Ye County team to divide a team to guard the mountain roads in the southwest of Xiangcheng, and many banners were used as suspicious soldiers to deceive the pottery thieves who were unfamiliar with the situation in the southwest of Xuchang."

"The pottery thief even sent scouts to reconnoitre, and directly divided the troops, which is enough to prove that the pottery thief has long understood that I am transferring the tiger away from the mountain, in order to lure our army out of the city for a decisive battle earlier, the pottery thief simply exempted the scout from covering up, and directly divided the troops."

"The pottery thief is luring our army out of the city, but the pottery thief is even more provocative! In defiance and agitation of our army! Laughing at the remnants of our army's strength, he can't even fight half of his strength! ”

"The pottery thief is telling me that Cao Mou, he doesn't take me seriously anymore, so he gave me a chance to fight a fair battle with him in a desperate gamble, and he only used half of his strength to face my last strength head-on! If I don't take this last chance, I won't have a chance to defeat him again! Honor and disgrace, standing and kneeling and living, are already between my Cao Mou's thoughts! ”

After lyrically introducing the current general situation, and also analyzing the vicious psychology of Deputy Director Tao, Boss Cao was silent for a moment, adjusted his tone and emotions, and then said to the civil and military ministers of Cao Jun in front of him: "Princes, speak, do you think, I, Cao and you, should seize this opportunity to fight to the death with the pottery thief team that is divided into two by the main force?" ”

"Fight!" Almost all the generals of the Cao army roared angrily, "The pottery thief despises our army so much, fight him to the death, let the pottery thief taste our strength!" ”

"Prime Minister, where has the pottery thief's division arrived?" Cheng Yu is concerned about another important question, "Is it possible to quickly return to the Xuchang battlefield?" ”

"Early this morning, the team of the pottery thieves crossed the river in Yingyin, forty miles away from Xuchang, and then continued to move westward. Boss Cao replied briefly.

"In this way, our army will at least have to wait until tomorrow morning, and there is no need to worry about the pottery thieves dividing their troops to return to the battlefield." Cheng Yu lowered his head and calculated the distance, then raised his head, and said hesitantly: "Prime Minister, Yu thinks that he can consider breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat, the 50,000 troops of the pottery thieves have taken away 20,000, and the remaining 30,000 troops have to protect the Yanling granary and stay in the main camp, and the most troops that can be used are only 20,000. However, our army has a city to defend, and can dispatch about 30,000 troops to attack, and the troops have an advantage. ”

"War is not simply the addition or subtraction of troops." Xun You objected: "Even if our army can dispatch 30,000 troops, there are many wounded in our army, and the composition of the team is complex, and the combat effectiveness of each unit of the first and second line teams is uneven, so it may not be able to form an overwhelming advantage over the 20,000 main force of the pottery thief." ”

"Although Mr. Gongda's words are reasonable, Mr. Gongda may have forgotten one thing, our army is a mourning soldier." Cheng Yu retorted: "The pottery thieves took advantage of the danger of people, taking advantage of the opportunity of our army and Yuan Shao's hard battle to take advantage of the fire to rob, our army officers and soldiers have long been filled with righteous indignation, as long as the army and battalion know the reason of life and death in this battle, it is not difficult to inspire the morale of our army to a high state, high morale will be inspired, and the military will be bold, which is enough to make up for the impact of injuries." ”

Boss Cao nodded slightly, agreeing with Cheng Yu's point of view, in fact, Boss Cao has also been guiding the emotions of the Cao army's team, when the Xuzhou army aggressively and frantically hunted and killed the Cao army scouts, Cao Boss repeatedly refused the orders of the generals under his command to go to war, the purpose is to make the army soldiers full of grievances, let these humiliations turn into anger, brewing and fermenting in the chests of the Cao army soldiers, when the anger accumulates to a certain extent, Cao Boss suddenly orders to fight, these anger will naturally erupt like a roaring volcano, Let the combat effectiveness of the Cao army soldiers be doubled.

"Even if it is ......, it is all up to the prime minister to decide." Xun You hesitated, but still chose to back down, and said to Boss Cao: "You just want to remind the prime minister one last time, in the battle of the back of the boat, if you win, all problems will be solved, and if you lose, you will be defeated, and our army will have no hope of turning over, at least on the battlefield of Xuchang." If the prime minister insists on holding the city, after a long period of time, our army may not have a turnaround. ”

"What other opportunities can our army have?" Boss Cao, who was all in the eye, smiled bitterly.

"Yes! The prime minister has two more turnarounds! ”

After Xiahou Yuan returned to Xuchang, he selflessly admitted to Boss Cao that the defeat of Changyi was all his own carelessness, and insisted that the battle had nothing to do with anyone, and Boss Cao, who had always thought that Xu Shu was the main person responsible for the defeat of Changyi, was embarrassed to shield his relatives, and he did appreciate Xu Shu's talent, so he pardoned Xu Shu Prison, and gave Xu Shu a charge of ineffective assistance to Xiahou Yuan, and was demoted, and Xu Shu had the opportunity to speak in front of Boss Cao again.

may have gone through a prison sentence and learned a lesson, Xu Shu this time no longer tricked Boss Cao into sending troops to fight a decisive battle with Deputy Director Tao, but just bowed his hand to Boss Cao and said: "Prime Minister, as long as our army persists, there are still two possible turning points, one is Liu Bei, Liu Bei's hatred of Tao Ying's thieves is far above the hatred of the prime minister, and the coalition of Liu Bei and Liu Biao is approaching Xuchang, as long as our army can hold on until the Erliu coalition army arrives at the Xuchang battlefield, we can win the opportunity to form an alliance with the Erliu coalition army to break the pottery." ”

"The second is Yuan Shao." Xu Shu continued to say calmly: "Maybe the prime minister will think it's ridiculous, how can Yuan Shao be our turning point?" But the prime minister may not know that when the pottery thief was in Xuzhou, he once said that he was not afraid of god-like opponents looking for trouble, but he was afraid of stupid pig-like teammates dragging his feet. Shu feels that although this sentence is vulgar, it is very reasonable, Yuan Shao is undoubtedly such a pig teammate, Yuan Shao's army has not retreated, and it is possible to make a comeback, as long as our army can hold out until that day, it is not difficult to find a flaw in Yuan Shao's body, and then break the Yuan Tao coalition that is not in concert. ”

Boss Cao was silent, and Guo Jia stood up, coughing and said, "Prime Minister, Mr. Yuanzhi's words are also reasonable, Prime Minister may wish to think twice." While both turnarounds are slim, they are not hopeless. ”

In front of everyone, Boss Cao never said a word, and after waiting for a long time, Boss Cao slowly stood up and said slowly: "Mr. Yuanzhi, it does make sense, but it ......." ”

Speaking of this, Boss Cao suddenly raised his voice and roared angrily: "However, my life is up to me!" Passive stubbornness, striving for these two pitiful hopes, pinning victory on outsiders, this is not my Cao Ying's style! I have made up my mind, concentrate the last strength, and fight to the death with the pottery thief! Victory is victory, defeat is defeat, even if I die on the battlefield, I will die standing up! ”

"I am willing to serve the prime minister!" Cao Jun, who was present, knelt down together and shouted loudly, "We swear to follow the prime minister to the death, and swear to fight to the death with Tao Ying's thieves!" ”

Xu Shu, who suggested that he was waiting for change, lowered his head and sneered in his heart, "Sure enough, I'm crazy, don't say that, I'm afraid you, a thief, will not be able to make up your mind for a while." ”

"Order the whole army, seize the time to rest, and prepare to go out of the city to fight!" Boss Cao shouted again: "Then send an order to all the departments and songs, select all the soldiers who charge and fight, the wounded stay to defend the city, and all the soldiers who can still go to the battlefield will go out of the city and fight to the death with the pottery thieves!" ”

The generals of the Cao army sang the promise again, and the boss Cao then shouted: "Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, you two organized the people in the city, the fifth watch was making rice, and the three o'clock dining, good wine and good food let the soldiers eat and drink enough, and the whole army went out of the city at the beginning of the day, and rushed to the enemy camp in Xuzhou to fight to the death with the pottery thief!" Remember, don't miss the time to cook and eat! Those who delay are cut immediately! ”

"No." Xun Yu and Cheng Yu first agreed together, and then asked together in surprise: "Prime Minister, when you make food, and you set out at the beginning of the day, doesn't the Prime Minister plan to launch a night attack?" ”

"The pottery thief divides his troops to lure me to a decisive battle, and I must be prepared at night, and it is difficult to rob the camp, so I can't take risks!" Boss Cao waved his hand and said loudly: "As for the first quarter of the hour, it is because the team of pottery thieves is making rice at three minutes of the hour, and eating at the beginning of the hour!" Even if the Xuzhou thieves are aware of the early warning, they will inevitably have no time to make a fire to make food, and distribute the food to the soldiers, I want to let the pottery thief team fight this decisive battle with me on an empty stomach! ”

"The prime minister's clever calculation is unmatched!" Cao Jun and Wenwu clasped their fists together and praised together, and they were also very sad in their hearts - once upon a time, the invincible Cao army team still needed to take into account the details of the enemy's meal time, and it was necessary to spend great efforts to seize the opportunity of a full stomach versus an empty stomach?

"Let's all go down and prepare." Boss Cao slowed down his breath and ordered: "Let the soldiers rest in peace and prepare for the decisive battle that will determine the life and death of our army." ”

Cao Jun Wenwu sang the promise again, but Boss Cao added in his heart, "It is also the decisive battle that determines the situation of the Central Plains, Yuan Shao has been disabled, no matter who can win this decisive battle between me and the pottery thief, who will become the overlord of the Central Plains." ”

……………… Resolutely decided to lead the last team out of the city to fight to the death with Deputy Director Tao, although Boss Cao was under great pressure, but in order to reduce the casualties of the siege and avoid the long night dream, he resolutely divided the army to lure the Cao army out of the city with only half of the strength to fight a decisive battle, and the pressure on Deputy Director Tao was actually not small at all. At the same time, Deputy Director Tao also has to face an unfavorable situation, that is, when the decisive battle is decided by Boss Cao, Deputy Director Tao can only passively face the battle, whether he can judge the decisive time of Cao Jun, has also become a big problem in front of Deputy Director Tao.

Some people may ask, didn't Deputy Director Tao have a Cao army in Xuchang City who brought his own dry food to destroy Sima Lang? Isn't it easy to find out when Cao Jun will fight? Deputy Director Tao does have such an internal annihilation with his own dry food, but it is a pity that because the Cao army is defending the city, and the four gates of Xuchang are closed and no people are allowed to enter and exit, so even if Sima Lang knows all the plans of Cao Boss and the time of sending troops, there is no way to send the news out of Xuchang City, Deputy Director Tao and the decision-making level of Xuzhou can only rely on experience and all kinds of clues to judge the time of Cao Jun's battle.

Fortunately, although the Cao army team was hiding in Xuchang City to prepare for war, some clues still exposed the signs that the Cao army was about to fight, and in the evening, some abnormal signs of the Cao army team were sent to Deputy Director Tao by the Xuzhou scouts - before the normal rotation time, the Cao army team on the city wall suddenly rotated the defenders, the flag changed a lot, and the volunteer militia who did not wear military uniforms began to board the city wall to assist in defending the city. At the same time, there was a faint noise inside the north gate of Xuchang, and it seemed that there was an army gathered, but there was no Cao army out of the city. All these clues have made the decision-making level of the Xuzhou army understand that the decisive battle is coming!

By the way, letting the volunteer militia who did not wear military uniforms go to the city to help the battle was a bad idea given to Cao Boss by Xun You, a master tactician of the Cao Army, and it was deliberately so, the purpose of which was ............ "Cao thieves will definitely come to rob the camp tonight!" Liu Ye, who is good at intelligence analysis, fell for Xun You's annihilation plan, and made a wrong opinion in front of Deputy Director Tao: "Judging from the abnormal movement of Cao Thief's soldiers and horses, Cao Thief has already discovered that our army divided his troops last night, and he must have noticed that the main force of our army has been divided into two, in order to seize this last opportunity to turn defeat into victory, Cao Thief will inevitably come to attack our army's camp tonight!" Our army should immediately prepare to deal with the robbery of the camp by Cao thieves! ”

It was the appearance that agreed with Liu Ye's judgment, and Deputy Director Tao also felt that the decisive battle was likely to be tonight - after all, Boss Cao was too good at robbing camps and sneak attacks, and among Boss Cao's neighbors, except for the cunning Deputy Director Tao, there was no unlucky neighbor who had not been attacked by Boss Cao like this, so Deputy Director Tao also began to suspect that Boss Cao was repeating his old tricks, and he was ready to give himself such a sudden.

"Not necessarily." Fortunately, there was also a reliable strategist under Deputy Director Tao, Jia Lao Poison, who asked: "Lord, didn't you find something very strange?" Our army attacked the Cao army scouts so fiercely, covering our army scouts can go straight to Xuchang City to reconnoitre, Cao thieves are ready to sneak attack and rob the camp, why do they arrange so many volunteer militiamen who are not wearing military uniforms to go to the wall to help the battle? Didn't the lord feel that Cao Mengde was deliberately letting our army find out that he was going to raid the camp at night?! ”

Deputy Director Tao, who was suspicious and suspicious and was never under Boss Cao, also began to be suspicious, but Liu Ye said suspiciously: "Although Mr. Wenhe's words are reasonable, there are not many combatable soldiers in the hands of Cao Thief, if you don't arrange for volunteers to go to the city to help fight, how can his combat team take turns to rest and prepare for battle?" ”

"Then why didn't Cao Mengde let the people change into military uniforms?" Jia Lao Poison smiled and said: "Xuchang is already Cao Mengde's last granary and baggage warehouse, can't you even take out thousands of sets of military uniforms?" In front of such a wise opponent as the lord, it is really unreasonable for Cao Mengde, who is famous for his deceit, to make such a mistake. ”

Liu Ye was speechless, and said in surprise: "If Cao Thief doesn't come to rob the camp, then he is ready to start a decisive battle with our army?" ”

"Can't tell." Jia Lao Poison shook his head and said, "Maybe it's now, maybe it's tomorrow morning or morning, or even ......." ”

Speaking of this, Jia Lao Poison hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Even if you still want to come to rob the camp, Cao Mengde is resourceful, the virtual is real, the real is false, and he is no better than our lord in this regard." ”

Deputy Director Tao frowned, because Deputy Director Tao didn't dare to rule out Boss Cao's hand, and Liu Ye couldn't help but be embarrassed and said: "This is difficult, we can't judge the time of the Cao thief team, our army can't always prepare for battle all night, right?" The soldiers are not well rested, and Cao Thief has chosen to fight tomorrow morning, so the combat effectiveness of our army will have to be affected somewhat. ”

"Change with change." Yi Yi, who is good at Yang Mou, opened his mouth and said in a deep voice: "In the main camp of our army, including the Junzi Army, there are about 24,000 people, the lord can make this arrangement, continue to order the scouts to monitor the four gates of Xuchang, and if he finds that the Cao thief team is out of the city to assemble, he will immediately light the fireworks and alarm; The Junzi Army, which has the strongest mechanical power in our army, and its 3,000 troops are not allowed to rest tonight, always preparing for battle, and when they find that our army scouts are alarming, the Junzi Army immediately takes the lead in attacking, pinning down the Cao army so that it cannot immediately approach our army's camp, and 3,000 infantry go out of the camp to line up to buy time for the main army to attack. In this way, no matter whether the Cao army comes to attack or not, the main combat force of our army can get contingency and rest time. ”

Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye praised each other, and Deputy Director Tao also clapped his head and said: "That's it, I will personally lead the army to keep vigil tonight to protect the main team and rest in peace!" ”

……………… It is night, it is very quiet and terrible, the moon and the stars in the sky are sparse, the five fingers are not visible on the ground, the night wind is cold and biting, it makes people fall into the ice cave, the whole world seems to be immersed in the tranquility before the war, Deputy Director Tao led three thousand Xuzhou infantry and gentlemen to undress and unarmour, horses do not unsaddle, sit around the bonfire and talk quietly, always prepare for war, but Xuchang did not see any movement, so that more than 4,000 Xuzhou soldiers waited for a night. The fifth watch is about to be outdated, and Deputy Director Tao, who has been highly nervous all night, finally couldn't resist the invasion of the sleeping demon, and leaned on Tao Ji and fell asleep.

In order to prevent the Xuzhou scouts outside the city from noticing the movement, the grassroots generals woke up the soldiers almost one by one, and the soldiers of the Cao army rubbed their eyes and got up, got up under the light of a few torches, and went to the room to get breakfast. At the same time, in order to let the soldiers have enough physical strength to fight the decisive battle, Cao Boss also made a bloody capital this time to let the soldiers eat and drink enough, Cao Jun soldiers all have oil and meat in their bowls, and the hot meals are fragrant, which makes Cao Jun soldiers have a great appetite, and everyone has a happy smile on their faces.

Cao Boss was ready to send 30,000 troops this time, but after the inventory in the afternoon of the first day, Cao Boss was stunned to find that he had gathered less than 30,000 soldiers to fight, because of the continuous high-intensity combat and the lack of medicine, many of the wounded soldiers of the Cao Army not only did not recover their combat effectiveness, but also because of the lack of hemostatic and anti-inflammatory drugs, the wounds worsened, minor injuries became serious injuries, and the seriously wounded who had the hope of healing lost their combat effectiveness forever.

For this reason, Boss Cao also lost his temper with his brother-in-law Ren Jun in charge of logistics in public, and once planned to re-run Ren Jun, but Ren Jun did not shirk his responsibility, but just knelt in front of Boss Cao and cried, "Prime Minister, the last general doesn't want the soldiers to be like this, but Yuan Shao's thief army has just withdrawn, and the team of Tao thieves will immediately kill under the city of Xuchang, and the medicine cannot be supplied, so the last general can only watch the wounds of these loyal and brave soldiers deteriorate, and they are completely powerless." ”

"Prime Minister, you may not know." Xun Yu wiped his tears and said: "General Renxian, the only son of General Ren, was hit by an arrow in his right arm during the battle with Yuan Shao, and the wound was inflamed and pus, General Ren gave all the medicine to other soldiers, but General Ren Xian's right arm could not save ............. ”

Before Xun Yu's words were finished, Boss Cao had already knelt down to Ren Jun, hugged Ren Jun and cried together, and the wounded soldiers of Cao Jun present also cried bitterly, knelt down one after another to ask for orders, and vowed to fight to the death with the Xuzhou army. In the end, under the advice of the generals under his command, Boss Cao relaxed the selection of the wounded, and cobbled together an army of about 28,000 or so to go out of the city to fight against the most despicable demon, the most shameless hypocrite, the most insidious snake, and the most vicious jackal in the late Eastern Han Dynasty - Xuzhou Tao Ying annihilated the thief, and fought to the death!

At the beginning of the hour, with the sudden sound of the gong, the fire was rising, the three gates of Xuchang, east and west and north suddenly opened at the same time, more than 28,000 Cao army troops lined up with torches, ignoring the stunned eyes of the Xuzhou scouts in the distance and the fireworks signal sent out in a hurry, just rushed to the open area outside the north gate of Xuchang to assemble, people rushed to the horses, almost flew to the predetermined position to assemble into an army, the Han Prime Minister Cao Zi banner fluttered in the wind under the night sky, the Cao army soldiers who were still wrapped in gauze in their old clothes and armor were full of energy, strict as a forest.

In the midst of the swords and guns, Boss Cao was dressed in gold and armor, and shouted loudly on his horse, "Soldiers, don't say more, this is our battle of life and death, life and death, honor and disgrace, we have already fought here!" Hold our swords and guns tightly, hold our banner high, and fight to the death with the shameless thief Tao Yingxiaoer! If you don't break the pottery camp, you swear not to collect the troops! ”

"If you don't break the pottery camp, you swear not to withdraw the troops!" More than 20,000 soldiers of the Cao Army roared in unison, reaching into the sky.

"Let's go!" Cao Lao's horse whip pointed to the north, and the first one rushed to the direction of the Xuzhou camp, and more than 20,000 Cao soldiers lined up to follow, and the slogan of not breaking the pottery camp and vowing not to withdraw the troops echoed endlessly, earth-shattering.

At the same time in the Xuzhou army camp, Deputy Director Tao, who was woken up by Tao Ji, yawned, and fell asleep with his head tilted..................

(To be continued)