As soon as the golden gong sounded, the only Zhang He team that did not enter the battlefield immediately protected Cao Boss and slowly retreated, the team was strictly organized, the military appearance was clean, the forerunner was not impatient, and the latter was not afraid, and retreated to the camp in an orderly manner, showing good combat quality and psychological quality, and also made the Xuzhou cavalry Xu Huang team on the opposite side dare not act rashly.

Seeing that it was not easy to survive until the Cao army was defeated and retreated, Deputy Director Tao wanted to order a general attack with drums, but Jia Lao Poison on the side grabbed Deputy Director Tao and said quickly: "Lord, there is no need to launch a general attack, this place is only three miles away from Cao's camp, even if the general attack is immediate, it will not expand much success, and it will increase the casualties of our soldiers." Rather than this, it is better to let Cao Mengde's right flank retreat, concentrate superior forces, and first eat the left flank and the Chinese army of Cao Thief, who are entangled by our army. ”

Deputy Director Tao, who knew Jia Lao's poisonous ability, resolutely gave up his plan, and sent Kuaima to order Xu Huang's team not to pursue Zhang He's team and wait for follow-up orders, and at the same time sent Kuaima to order the team surnamed Cao on the flank, so that he could lead the army to the main battlefield for reinforcements. And Boss Cao saw that the reserves of the Xuzhou Army were still standing still in Zhang He's team, and he was also shocked and angry in his heart, and scolded: "The dog pottery thief is really calm." ”

At this time, although the Dian Wei team was still trapped in the formation, it was difficult to break through the left and right, but the Li Dian team on the flank had begun to retreat, and no matter how the Danyang hooligan soldiers surrounded and intercepted, it was difficult to effectively expand the results, and Deputy Director Tao did not have time to discuss with Jia Lao Poison, so he decisively ordered Xu Huang's team to divide two thousand cavalry and rush to the right flank of the army to reinforce Wei Yan and help the Danyang hooligan soldiers to intercept the return of Li Dian's team. When Jia Lao Poison saw that Deputy Director Tao had made a good dispatch, he did not open his mouth to object.

In a moment, Xu Huang's deputy Lu Myanmar rushed to the right flank of the Xuzhou army, and stopped Li Dian's team in a roundabout way, although the exhausted Li Dian team fought hard, but the physical strength has been seriously reduced, and it was impossible to break through the formation of the Xuzhou fresh army to intercept, and the Danyang soldiers who were good at beating the water dogs rushed fiercely again, and the Li Dian team quickly showed defeat, and a large number of soldiers scattered and fled without obeying the order, and the team gradually collapsed, and the speed of dispersion was getting faster and faster.

At the same time on the battlefield of the Chinese army, the Dian Wei team with a large number of auxiliary soldiers had already begun to disperse, and the collapse speed was far more than Li Dian's team, the panicked Cao army soldiers rushed to the gap between the armies in Xuzhou to flee for their lives, trampling and pushing each other, the chaos did not form a queue, the Xuzhou army that was lined up and fighting wantonly slaughtered and slaughtered, Dian Wei could not restrain it, so he had to lead the elite soldiers around him to rush to break through, the Xuzhou Chinese army cheered, and the killing became more and more violent.

Although seeing that the second army of Dian Wei and Li Dian was already doomed to defeat, but Boss Cao was also more than capable of doing so, the only Zhang He team that maintained the formation was not only stared at by Xu Huang's cavalry team, but the team surnamed Cao was also rushing towards this side, and Cao Boss dared to act hastily, if it was not good, the whole line would be defeated and lost even worse, so Cao Boss, who was good at making trade-offs, could only ignore it expressionlessly, and only concentrated on leading Zhang He's team to retreat to the camp.

In this way, relying on the response of Cao Chun's team, Cao Boss's Zhang He's team was intact and withdrew to the camp, but Dian Wei and Li Dian's team was a motherless child in the Huanglian field, and it couldn't be more bitter, the establishment was rushed into chaos by the team surnamed Xu Huang and Cao, and it was completely defeated, and then it was wantonly slaughtered by the Xuzhou soldiers who fought in line with a whole blow, and finally Li Dian's team finally escaped back to the camp, and the soldiers had reached more than seventy percent, and almost all of them were wounded; Dian Wei's team was even more miserable by the heavy soldiers of Xuzhou, only less than 800 people fled back to the camp, Dian Wei was hit by two arrows, and the rest of the soldiers were either wiped out by the Xuzhou army, or became deserters or prisoners, and the Xuzhou army won a complete victory.

After roughly cleaning the battlefield, the sky was already dark, although many Xuzhou generals proposed to attack the camp overnight, and the rear army also sent torches and oil and other things for night fighting, but considering that the main force was already very tired, Deputy Director Tao still gave up the plan to attack the camp overnight, and ordered the troops to return to the camp, preparing to let the army rest for the night, and at the same time rescue the wounded soldiers as much as possible, and then come back to attack the camp the next day.

In this regard, some Xuzhou generals raised concerns that Cao Lao would flee for his life at night, and Deputy Director Tao replied: "Cao Thief will not retreat, if his elite team is fast enough, he will be able to return to the battlefield for reinforcements the day after tomorrow, Cao Thief has suffered such a big loss today, how can he retreat immediately?" ”

Deputy Director Tao, who gradually lost the advantage of the prophet, finally miscalculated once, and after Cao Laoda, who knew that his main force was difficult to quickly return to help, withdrew to the camp, he immediately ordered to prepare to withdraw to Changyi, and decided to lead the army by himself, and arranged for Zhang He to lead the army to the palace, Cao Chun led an army and Zhang He's team five miles away from each other to protect the flank of the army. If the Xuzhou army sent cavalry to make a detour to block the return of Cao's army, then Cao Chun's team could not only meet it immediately, but also Zhang He's team could immediately reinforce it.

It was halfway through the third watch of the night, and the prepared Cao army suddenly abandoned the camp and retreated to Changyi, two hundred miles away, overnight. Fourth, the sentry horse sent the news to the Xuzhou camp, Deputy Director Tao hurriedly got up and discussed countermeasures with Jia Lao Poison, Jia Lao Poison suggested that the troops should be sent to pursue overnight to expand the results, but Deputy Director Tao had some concerns, and said: "Not to mention Cao Thief's extermination, there must be preparations for retreating, if the Cao thief is too badly damaged, so that he is unable to compete with Yuan Shao, I am afraid that the interests of our army will also be damaged." ”

"The lord must not look ahead and miss this great opportunity to win." Jia Lao Poison replied: "Cao Mengde withdrew his troops overnight, it must be because he did not order Xiahou Yuan's elite to return to reinforcements quickly, knowing that it was useless to hold on, so he withdrew his troops overnight. ”

Listening to Jia Lao's poisonous words, Deputy Director Tao also made up his mind to launch a pursuit on the spot, and when he hurriedly raised his account to order the troops, although the Xuzhou generals who had been tired for a day asked for orders to lead the army to pursue, Jia Lao Poison took out a few strips of cloth and said to the Xuzhou generals: "The generals don't have to fight, Cao Ying is deceitful, there must be an elite soldier behind the retreat, and there are complete preparations, whether our army is directly pursued, or light cavalry to block the return of the Cao army, it will inevitably be intercepted or even ambushed by the Cao army's elite soldiers, and it is extremely difficult to win!" ”

The generals of Xuzhou closed their mouths, but Jia Lao Poison smiled again: "But there are not many elites of the Cao army, after the first chasing army of our army is intercepted and ambushed, the second chasing army can easily catch up with the Cao army brigade and kill, so our army now needs a general who has suffered defeat, the generals might as well catch lots, whoever catches one, who will eat the defeat, go to the hard fight to buy time for the friendly army, whoever catches the second, who will slaughter the fat sheep and get the greatest military merit, but I don't know what the generals want?" ”

Jia Lao's poisonous approach was very fair, and the generals in Xuzhou naturally accepted it happily, but as a result, Wei Yan became the lucky one to win the battle, and Xu Chu became the unlucky one to eat the defeat. Seeing Xu Chu's dejected and depressed appearance, Deputy Director Tao laughed heartily with the generals, and said with a smile: "Zhong Kang doesn't have to be discouraged, as long as you can fight to the death to bite the Cao thief elite soldiers and win time opportunities for our rear army, you will be the first merit in this battle." ”

The competitive Xu Chu finally showed some smiles, and after Deputy Director Tao arranged for Xu Chu to lead an army of 10,000 to pursue, he instructed Wei Yan: "Wen Chang, your headquarters has suffered a lot of casualties today, and the soldiers are also very tired, so you don't take your headquarters to chase, I asked Tian Xiang and Lu Mian to lead 5,000 cavalry to accompany you to chase Cao Thief, and let them listen to your command, if you can prove that you can also lead cavalry, then Lord Yuezhang just rewarded me with the 5,000 war horses, I will hand them all over to you, and upgrade your team to cavalry!" ”

Wei Yan was overjoyed, and hurriedly hugged his fists and sang a promise, and Deputy Director Tao told Wei Yan a few words to be careful, to listen to the advice of the two cavalry generals Tian Xiang and Lu Burma, and not to be greedy for merit, and then arranged for Zhao Yun to lead an army to prepare to receive Xu Chu to prevent what happened, and then waved his hand to disperse, let the armies act separately, patiently wait for the results of the pursuit, and by the way, see if Jia Lao's analysis of the enemy situation is as terrifying as the legend.

It is the same as the judgment of Jia Lao's poison, when the sky is light, when the team led by Xu Chu caught up with the Zhang He team behind the Cao Army's palace, it was really attacked by the Zhang He team, Cao Chun also killed from the flank, and attacked Xu Chu's team on both sides, Xu Chu's army fought hard and suffered heavy casualties, but fortunately, Zhao Yun's rear army arrived in time and caught Cao Chun's team from the flank, and the four armies were in a melee, and it was difficult to distinguish the winner for a while.

The news was sent to Boss Cao through a fast horse, and Boss Cao, who had already withdrawn from Hulu, laughed, and said repeatedly: "It's ridiculous that the pottery thief has no plan, Jia Wen and Shaozhi, they don't know the reason why there must be a strong army after withdrawing troops from the battle?" Ordered Zhang He and Cao Chun, let them fight hard, and be sure to kill the Tao thief pursuers! ”

Before the words fell, Boss Cao's little black face immediately turned into a little white face, because Boss Cao suddenly heard that in the distance from the south of the snowflakes, there was a thunderous sound of horses' hooves, and the slogan of capturing Cao Thief could be vaguely heard, and Boss Cao scolded in anger, "The pottery thief Jia Wenhe, there are still chasing soldiers after the chasing soldiers!" Such a shameless tactic, you can use it! ”

After scolding, Cao Boss had to order the generals to turn back and fight to the death, Dian Wei, who had an arrow wound, also stubbornly lifted his halberd and got on his horse to prepare to fight, but after the Xuzhou pursuers chased close to the Cao Army Brigade, they refused to directly impact the back of the Cao Army Brigade, but took advantage of the tragedy in this area to open the terrain, bypassed the Cao Army to block the team, and directly killed the baggage team at the waist of the Cao Army Brigade, and the team also spewed out countless flames unique to the flying muskets, Cao Lao was shocked, and hurriedly ordered Dian Wei and other generals to lead the army to the rescue.

Dian Wei and other generals led the army just walked not far, in the depths of the snowflakes in the south, suddenly broke out a new horseshoe slogan, the original quite resourceful Wei Yan knew that Cao Boss would block his own army with soldiers, so he ordered his deputy Tian Xiang and Lu Myanmar to lead two thousand cavalry to go first, detour back to charge the waist of the Cao army, and he led a thousand cavalry to ambush behind the snowflake cover, and when the Cao army went to rescue the baggage team, he led the army to kill.

This small tactic temporarily arranged by Wei Yan almost changed the trend of the whole world, because Boss Cao had already sent Dian Wei and other generals to the front to rescue, and he stayed in the rear team to sort out the team. And Wei Yan saw Boss Cao riding on a horse in a red robe from a distance, although he didn't know who it was, he also understood that he must be an important figure in Cao Jun, and then relied on his riding skills and rope stirrups, and took out a portable bow and arrow in the high-speed charge, without saying a word, an arrow was shot, and his character exploded, and he was impartial in the middle of Cao Boss's face.................. "Ah!" When the left and right guards rushed to rescue Cao Boss, they saw that the arrow was in the middle of Cao Laoda, not only shot Cao Laoda into the three-petal mouth of a rabbit, but also shot down two front teeth of Cao Laoda - fortunately these two front teeth were blocked, otherwise, the arrow would be directly inserted into Cao Laoda's throat and exploded.

Seeing that he shot down the red-robed ministers of the Cao army, Wei Yan, who still didn't know the identity of Cao Boss, threw a bow and raised a knife to behead him, and the guards hurriedly picked up Cao Boss and retreated, fleeing into the depths of the crowd, Cao Sergeant ran and fled for his life, and the crowd was chaotic, Wei Yan couldn't find the red-robed ministers and had to give up, and instead led the army to rush and kill the Cao army's rear team, slaughtering the panicked Cao army's rear team, Dian Wei and others, who hurriedly returned to help, did not dare to fight with Wei Yan because they heard that Cao Boss was hit by an arrow, and their souls were scattered, but they were looking for Cao Boss's whereabouts in the chaotic army, which led to the complete defeat of the Cao army. trampled on each other's countless dead, carried heavy cattle and horses, and scattered the roads, Wei Yan's team rushed to kill as much as they could, and won a lot of money.

It was also at this time that Wei Yan finally found that he seemed to have lost his luck, because Wei Yan vaguely heard a Cao soldier shouting the slogan that the prime minister had been hit by an arrow, and in surprise, Wei Yan hurriedly led the army to grab a Cao soldier who shouted this slogan, and after asking, he learned that he had actually shot Boss Cao by walking shit - maybe he had shot Boss Cao to death! Under the ecstasy, Wei Yan hurriedly ordered his soldiers to shout the slogan that the Cao thief was dead, which shook the heart of the Cao army more and more, and then rushed to kill the Cao army team more violently, and the Cao army was even more defeated, and the top and bottom abandoned their baggage and fled north for their lives.

Wei Yan's arrow also helped Xu Chu and Zhao Yun a lot, when the news that Cao Boss was shot and might have died was transmitted to the battlefield behind the palace, Zhang He and Cao Chun's team, which originally had a certain advantage, suddenly panicked, and hurriedly led the army back to help, Xu Chu and Zhao Yun took the opportunity to chase and kill, defeated Zhang He and Cao Chun, and annihilated countless enemies.

After a pursuit battle, the Xuzhou pursuers captured almost all of Cao's baggage - what was not captured was because it was burned, killed more than 10,000 enemies, and captured nearly 8,000 Cao soldiers - of course, nine out of nine were auxiliaries and people, and won a complete victory. Cao's army was completely defeated, the armies fled separately, and the 70,000 troops at the time of the expedition except for the 25,000 people who went north to South Pingyang, and finally fled back to Changyi with Cao Boss There were less than 10,000 people, and most of them were wounded, all of them were frightened, fortunately the guards rescued them effectively, and rescued Cao Boss in time to go north, poor Cao Boss was lucky not to be a prisoner of Deputy Director Tao.

In fact, the overwhelming Xuzhou army can further expand the results of the battle, and even take advantage of the situation to attack the city of Changyi, but Deputy Director Tao considered that killing Boss Cao at this time would definitely only cheapen the old man for nothing, so when the team of Wei Yan, Xu Chu and Zhao Yun chased after the abandoned Fang and Cheng, Deputy Director Tao also decisively ordered to stop the chase and recall Wei Yan and other generals to reward him, and at the same time, the Xuzhou army also moved to Hulu, one is to prevent Cao Boss from making a comeback after meeting with Xiahou Yuan, The second is to take advantage of the situation to take Rencheng and the second county of Luguo, and further strengthen the liaison with Qingzhou and consolidate the flank of the territory.

In addition, Deputy Director Tao naturally had to send someone to listen to the movements of Changyi, when he learned that Boss Cao finally escaped back to Changyi with injuries, Deputy Director Tao was not only not disappointed but also overjoyed, and said with a sigh of relief: "The dog Cao thief, Lao Tzu is worried for a long time, if you die, Lao Tzu will be in great trouble." ”

"Lord, it's time to ease the relationship with Cao Mengde." Jia Lao Poison next to him said: "In my opinion, the lord may wish to send an envoy to Changyi to contact Cao Ying, and ask Cao Ang to exchange Cao Ang for the lord's brother in order to continue the war. ”

Deputy Director Tao hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Of course I don't want to continue fighting with Cao Thief, but Cao Thief has just suffered such a big loss, in case he is annoyed and angry, and insists on continuing to fight......." ”

"No way!" Jia Lao Poison vetoed this possibility categorically, and said: "If it is Yuan Benchu, then it is very likely to fight to the death with us, and we will never stop if we don't fight for face, but Cao Mengde is different from Yuan Benchu, Cao Mengde only thinks about interests, and continuing to fight will only damage his interests, and it is impossible to ease relations with him in vain, so Cao Mengde will definitely retreat!" ”

Speaking of this, Jia Lao Poison added with a smile, "In terms of cooperation, Cao Mengde and the lord are very similar, no matter how big the grudge is, even if it is the enemy who kills his father, as long as it is profitable to work together, Cao Mengde can work with the lord without blinking an eyelid." ”

"Mr. Wen He's words are wrong, how can my character be as despicable as Cao Thief? I only wanted the people of Xuzhou not to be devastated by the war, so I joined hands with Cao Thief against my will. Deputy Director Tao Tian shamelessly boasted to himself, and nodded again: "Okay, just let Jiang do a hard trip, Ziyi is also a famous man in Jiujiang, and Cao Thief will not kill him casually even if he doesn't want to stop fighting." ”

After making this decision, Deputy Director Tao thought about it for a while, and for the sake of insurance, he still instructed Chen Ying: "Yuan Fang, write a document for me to report the victory to Lord Yuezhang, report to him the news of our army's victory over Cao Thief, and also report to him the details of our army's victory, the more detailed the better." Finally, tell him that Cao Thief may have been seriously injured and died, please don't worry about the war in Xuzhou, just rest assured, recover the army, and wait until the time is ripe, and then join forces with our army to destroy Cao! ”

"The lord is writing this letter, is he trying to get away with it?" Chen Ying, who had already been brought a lot of damage, asked tentatively: "Deliberately persuade Yuan Benchu to hold his troops still, so that Yuan Benchu suspects that Yanzhou is profitable, and immediately sends troops to Yanzhou to take revenge and relieve the pressure on our army?" ”

"Yuan Fang has really grown." Deputy Director Tao laughed and said: "I remember that Cao Thief once had such an evaluation of my father-in-law, do great things and spare your life, and die when you see small profits!" If I don't say the opposite, and lure him to his advantage, how can my father-in-law, send troops as soon as possible? ”

Three days later, Jiang Gan returned to Hulu from Changyi and reported that Boss Cao categorically rejected the request to exchange hostages, and stated that if the Xuzhou army wanted to exchange hostages, there were only two places, one was under the city of Xuchang! The second is under the city of Pengcheng! Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison laughed when they heard the news, and at the same time received the news that Xiahou Yuan's team had slowly retreated to Changyi under the threat of the Junzi Army, Deputy Director Tao immediately ordered Chen Zhi and Hou Cheng's team to stop coming back and capture the two small counties of Lu and Rencheng, and then calm down and wait for Cao Lao Da to withdraw to Xuchang with peace of mind.

(To be continued)