Cao Boss's eyelids have been jumping very hard, not the left eyelid of jumping wealth, it is the right eyelid of jumping disaster, as we all know, Cao Boss's sixth sense has always been very smart, so although he defeated Liu Pan's team, broke through the dangerous terrain of the waterless pass, hit the Yexian County and the side of the Yanshui River, and opened a good start to the success of the breakthrough by force, but Cao Boss always had an ominous premonition, and always felt that this force breakthrough was not so easy.

You can't blame Cao Lao for being bold and suspicious, mainly because the current situation is not particularly favorable to Cao Jun, although Liu Pan's team was ambushed by Cao Jun's strength and was forced to retreat to Yecheng to defend it, but the vitality still exists, and there are still about 7,000 troops that can still fight, and Cao Lao Da has only more than 8,000 troops in his hands, and there are still interceptions of Yanshui, Junshui and Luyang on the breakthrough road, which not only scores out an army to step forward to open the way, but also scores a slow army to protect grain and grass and two thousand nearly three thousand family members, He had to leave a team of elite soldiers behind the palace to block Liu Panjun's pursuit, and the strength in his hands was stretched to the extreme, so no matter how optimistic and confident Boss Cao was, he didn't dare to take it lightly at this moment.

The messenger who ordered the rear army to go north had already been sent out, but it was already mid-morning, but there was no news from the rear army, but a large group of crows came from the northeast noisily, and swept through the Cao army camp from the air, and two of the crows were extremely unhygienic and pulled the two large lumps of excrement to Cao Lao's handsome banner, annoyed that Cao Lao's tent in front of the lieutenant Dian Wei was scolding, and personally took a bow and arrow to shoot the crows, but because the crows flew too fast, none of them were shot, and finally Dian Wei had no choice, He could only slam a good horned bow to the ground and scolded: "Dog! Kill you all one day! ”

"Strange? How do you fly from northeast to southwest? Boss Cao, who was walking outside the tent and moving his legs and feet, also noticed this situation, but Boss Cao didn't mind the crows insulting his handsome flag, but just asked Xun Yu who was accompanying him suspiciously: "Wen Ruo, have you found that the situation is wrong?" How did this flock of crows fly from northeast to southwest? ”

"Flying from northeast to southwest?" Xun Yu was a little strange, and he was also puzzled and said, "Why does the lord care about such a trivial matter?" It's autumn now, and the birds are gradually migrating south, so what's so strange about the crows flying southwest? ”

"Isn't that weird?" Boss Cao first shook his head, then patted his forehead, and said with a smile: "It's the wrong person I asked, Wen Ruo, you stay in the rear all the year round and rarely go to the battlefield, so you don't know these details, I should ask Gongda, Fengxiao or Zhongde about this question." ”

"Oh, then please advise the lord, what's so strange about this?" The humble and studious Xun Yu hurriedly asked.

"Crows like to eat carrion, so after a big war, the battlefield full of flesh and corpses will always attract the surrounding crows to look for food." Boss Cao explained: "Our army fought with Liu Pan yesterday in the south of the waterless city, and we didn't have time to bury the corpses of the enemy and our soldiers afterwards, so according to common sense, the surrounding crows should have flown to the south of the waterless water due south, but this group of crows came from the northeast and flew to the southwest, so I think things are strange." ”

"I see, it's really learned everywhere in the world, and Yu has been taught." Xun Yu sighed, and then said: "But this is not surprising, this place is more than thirty miles away from yesterday's battlefield, and this group of crows may not have discovered yesterday's battlefield, so they flew southwest." ”

"Really?" Boss Cao was not very receptive to this explanation, because the diligent and studious Boss Cao not only noticed that crows like to eat carrion, but also knew that scouts used a common means of judging the enemy's situation when reconnoitring - that is, from the flight of birds in the woods, to determine whether there were ambushes in the woods or whether there was a team walking in the forest, so after a little calculation, Boss Cao, for the sake of prudence, still arranged a team of scout sentinels to reconnoiter in the northeast direction, and explained that it was necessary to expand the reconnaissance range to the east of the water, just in case. Although Xun Yu and Cao Junzhong felt that Boss Cao's move was a little too cautious, they did not object.

………………

In fact, compared with the Northeast threat that only shows a little clue, Boss Cao should pay more attention to some threats from the front, that is, the threat from Yexian County, because in Yexian County, there is also a fledgling Pang Shiyuan who is not very willing to give Liu Biao his life, but is also very uninterested in Boss Cao. And although Boss Cao already knew about the existence of Pang Tong from the mouths of Xu Shu and Mao Jue, and also listened to Xu Shu's boasting about Wolong and Phoenix Chicks, but because Wolong Zhuge Liang has not performed prominently so far, Boss Cao does not care very much about the threat of Pang Tong, and as a result, this naturally gives Pang Tong the opportunity to correct the name of Mr. Shuijing's disciple.

At the beginning, Pang Tong still wanted to be lazy and didn't want to make a move, but Liu Pan refused to give up after the fiasco in Zhongfu, and was ready to go out of the city again to fight with Cao Jun, as a result, Pang Tong just didn't want to make a move, so he quickly stopped Liu Pan and said: "The young general can't go to war, Cao thief annihilation, there are many fierce generals under his command, and there are not a few who can be with General Hansheng for a long time, and the Cao thief team has already made up its mind to break through to the north, up and down, with the same hatred of the enemy, morale is very high, if the young general rushes to fight, it will be broken by Cao thief." , maybe there will be no chance to retreat to Yexian County to defend the city. ”

After finishing speaking, Pang Tong added in his stomach, "Originally, whether you can return to Yecheng or not, it's none of my business, but if you really can't come back, Cao Thief takes advantage of the victory to take Yecheng, then I'll be in trouble, either the head will fall to the ground, or I have to be coerced by the Cao thief to escape to Guanzhong Sili, that kind of ghost place, I don't want to go!" ”

"Mr. Shiyuan's words, although they are reasonable." Liu Pan was puzzled: "But if our army does not go out of the city to fight and passively defend the city, what if Cao thief takes the opportunity to break through the water?" ”

"Sure enough, I'm still staring at the treasures in the Cao thief's team." Pang Tong muttered in his heart, and then said lazily: "If the young general wants to defeat the Cao thief, it is not impossible, the young general can arrange for your deputy Yang Ling to come forward to deceive the surrender, and make an appointment to lure the Cao thief to come to Yexian City tonight, and then you can take the opportunity to break the enemy." ”

"Tempting Cao thieves to sneak attack Ye County?" Liu Pan was overjoyed at first, and then he was puzzled: "Although Mr. Shiyuan's strategy is wonderful, it still doesn't work, Yexian is a small city, there is no urn city at the four gates, and it is extremely difficult to ambush, and if you are not careful, you may lure the wolf into the house, so that the Cao thief really kills into the city?" ”

"Major General, do you think Cao Thief will really be fooled?" Pang Tong made an exaggerated expression of wanting to faint, and exclaimed: "Young General, why don't you want to think about who Cao Thief is?" How could it be possible to send someone to deceive such a carving insect trick from Cao Mengde's eyes? Tong dared to bet on the head of the Xiangshang, no matter what excuse we used to go to Cao Ying to surrender by fraud, it was also a fraud as soon as the envoy entered Cao Ying, and the Cao thief immediately understood that we were using a trick to surrender! ”

"Huh?!" Liu Pan, Huang Zhong and the others widened their eyes first, and then Liu Pan exclaimed: "Mr. Shiyuan, since the deception plan can't hide the eyes of the Cao thief, then why do you want me to send someone to deceive the surrender?" ”

"Of course, it's a serial plan, and the trick will be calculated by luring the thief." Pang Tong said in a tone of hatred that iron is not made of steel: "Such a simple truth, don't you understand the young general?" We sent someone to deceive us, and after the Cao thief saw through it at a glance, could he not have the intention of taking down Ye County without having a plan? If Cao Thief wants to make a plan, he must use the elite soldiers under his command, and his camp will inevitably be empty. When the Cao thief found out that the plan hurriedly returned to help, we will kill from the city again, and the surprise soldiers out of the city will attack the Cao thief team before and after, this battle is really difficult to win. ”

Although he didn't like Pang Tong's arrogant tone very much, after listening to Pang Tong's analysis, Liu Pan was still overjoyed, and hurriedly dispatched according to the plan, first gave up the plan to go out of the city to fight, ordered the army to seize the time to rest and prepare for the night battle, and then asked another deputy Yang Ling to come forward and arrange for a confidant to go out of the city with a book, pretending that Yang Ling was dissatisfied after being punished by Liu Pan because of his ineffective combat in the war yesterday, and decided to surrender to Cao Boss to sacrifice the city, and agreed to raise fire at the third watch at night. Open the east gate of Ye County, which he is responsible for, to welcome Cao Jun into the city.

As Pang Tong expected, seeing Yang Ling's surrender book, Boss Cao analyzed it with his toes and knew that this was a fraudulent surrender - Boss Cao, who fell into Pingyang, is now how miserable and miserable it is, Yang Ling, who is good in Jingzhou, will only do the thing of sacrificing the city if he takes the wrong medicine, betraying Liu Biao, who has food and territory, and going with Boss Cao to Sili Guanzhong, who can't even eat, to suffer the crime!

However, it was still expected by Pang Tong that although he knew that Yang Ling was just deceiving the enemy, Boss Cao never planned to expose the matter at all, not only happily rewarded the envoy, but also said that he would personally lead the army to attack Yecheng at that time, and Yang Ling would definitely be rewarded after the matter was completed, and Yang Ling's personal soldiers were also overjoyed, and hurriedly brought Boss Cao's reply back to the city to report the good news to Yang Ling. At the end, looking at the back of Yang Ling's personal soldiers leaving happily, Boss Cao also sneered, "Xu Yuanzhi blew Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong as celestials, and it seems that this is nothing more than that!" Since the pottery thief asked for one of Zhuge Liang's legs, this time I will want Pang Tong's life! ”

Cao Boss was still behind, sent away Yang Ling's messenger, Cao Hong and Yu Ban and other generals led the Cao army rear army to protect the grain and grass and the family, and finally crossed the water pass to the north and went north, and the main force to meet in one place, Cao Boss was happy to go to the rear army to greet him, and his wife and concubines and children to meet, and at this time Cao Boss has nine sons and four daughters, and the number of wives and concubines has reached 12 peopleWhat Boss Cao didn't know was that this was his last family reunion.

When the family reunited, trouble gradually came to the door, first of all, the time was already in the afternoon, and it was too late to cut down wood and build a village for the rear army anyway, so Cao Boss was forced to be helpless, and he had to let the rear army set up a temporary camp, and let the rear army camp overnight when the garrison was so weak that there was almost no one, fortunately, Cao Jun's family and his family had been used to the life of exile for nearly a year, and no one complained, and at the same time, in order to stabilize the army's heart, Cao Boss did not let his wife and concubines and children move into the camp for the night, Instead, they were allowed to camp with the rear army - but in fact, it was about the same, because of the time, the fortifications of the Cao army's camp were also very weak.

Another trouble is that Cao Boss sent scouts to the northeast, although the scouts sent to the banks of the Junshui River have been reported, saying that there is nothing abnormal until the water, but the several Cao scouts who crossed the water to the northeast to reconnoiter have not heard back, and they don't know whether they were deserters or suffered some accidents. In this regard, Boss Cao, who had very thin troops in his hands, was completely helpless, so he had to send scouts to closely monitor the situation in the northeast, do a good job of early warning, and gain a pitiful response time for the main force.

Seeing that the time is approaching, Cao Boss immediately ordered the general to send troops, and decided to personally lead 6,000 troops to the north to attack Yecheng, and ordered Zhang Liao to be the vanguard to play his own handsome flag, and went to the east gate of Yexian County to attack the city, and Cao Boss himself personally led the main force to follow behind, preparing to ambush Liu Panjun's ambush in turn.

After the arrangement was completed, Boss Cao personally told Zhang Liao: "Wen Yuan must remember that there is no urn city in Ye County, and the enemy will set up an ambush, so he will inevitably install a falling gate at the end of the city gate, so as to cut off the connection between your army entering the city and the rear army, and now every soldier of our army is extremely precious, so after you open the city gate, you must not risk entering the city, just destroy the city gate and sling, and then immediately retreat!" Don't worry about Liu Pan's ambush outside the city, if Liu Pan's ambush appears, I will immediately kill and attack Liu Pan with you! ”

Zhang Liao hugged his fists and sang a promise, knelt and took over the handsome flag of Cao Lao, and then immediately hurriedly led two thousand former troops out of the camp, while Cao Lao still left Xun Yu, Cao Hong and Yu Ban, who was already blind in one eye, to guard the camp to protect the grain and grass family, and personally led more than 4,000 main forces to go out of the camp later.

The black light sneaked for more than an hour, and when the two teams of Cao's army arrived at the pre-booked battlefield successively, the time was close to three watches, and when he heard that Zhang Liao's team had successfully lurked outside the east gate of Yexian County, Cao Boss sneered, and hurriedly ordered the army to rest on the spot, and seize the time to recover his strength and prepare for battle. However, at this time, Boss Cao's right-hand man Cheng Yu led a few entourages to hurry from the rear, and Boss Cao, who knew Xun Yu's steady surname, was shocked when he heard the news, and hurriedly passed Cheng Yu to the front, and asked with a slashed face as soon as they met: "What's wrong?" ”

Cheng Yu looked left and right, didn't dare to say anything, Boss Cao was even more shocked in his heart, hurriedly drove away the surrounding soldiers, and ordered Cheng Yu to come over and speak in his ear, Cheng Yu whispered in Boss Cao's ear: "Lord, the big thing is not good, the scouts you sent to the west of the water found on the bank of the Rushui River that Yuan Tan's remnants in Xuchang had abandoned the city and were rushing towards the side of Ye County. ”

"Yuan Tan's remnants have abandoned the city? Are you still coming this way? Boss Cao spun around for a while, and blurted out to ask, "Did the pottery thief chase after him?" ”

"I don't know." Cheng Yu said in a depressed tone: "The scout team of our army who found Yuan Tan's former army accidentally encountered the scouts of Yuan Tan's former army, two of the five people died, two escaped back, and one was captured alive and failed to detect a farther position. ”

"Ah......h It took countless efforts for Boss Cao to finally press his roar back into his chest, clenched his fists and slammed them hard, his nails stabbed blood out of his palms, and he forced his anger and said: "It's troublesome, not only can we not confirm whether the pottery thief is chasing after us, but our situation has to be exposed." ”

"My lord, Mr. Wen Ruo and his subordinates also think so, this time there must be a big trouble." Cheng Yu said in a low voice: "Yuan Tan and Liu Biao have concluded a mutual protection agreement, although the two thieves don't have the courage to really join forces to fight a decisive battle with the Tao thief, but they join forces to attack our army that has reached the end of the road, these two thief armies must be happy to take advantage of the fire to rob, so Mr. Wen Ruo specially sent Yu to report this matter to the lord, and also ask the lord to think carefully, whether to consider giving up the ambush plan, giving priority to preserving our army, and then finding another way?" ”

"What time is it?" Boss Cao asked with a straight face.

"It's ......." Cheng Yu, who had no clock, no watch and no leaky pot, was a little embarrassed, so he could only look up at the waning moon in the sky, and replied: "It's only about half a quarter away from the third watch, right?" Maybe it's less than half a quarter. ”

"Only half a moment away?" At the critical moment, after a little calculation, the adventurous Boss Cao made another gambling decision, gritted his teeth and said: "The ambush plan can't be abandoned, no matter what, we have to gamble, if we can take advantage of the victory to win Yecheng, we still have hope of breaking through, if we give up at this time, we will no longer have any hope of breaking through." ”

Cheng Yu actually knew that he would get this answer, but Cheng Yu didn't dare to object, but just said to Boss Cao: "Since the lord has made up his mind, Yu doesn't dare to object, but the lord asks Yu to remind him, no matter what the battle situation is, before dawn, please also ask the lord to return to the division camp, our camp, the garrison is too weak." ”

Boss Cao nodded silently, and secretly prayed in his heart, praying that God would bless him that Deputy Director Tao's pursuers could arrive at the Yexian battlefield later, otherwise, Boss Cao really didn't know that he would be able to protect his family and break out of the encirclement. And thinking of his family, and thinking of Deputy Director Tao, who opened his mouth to be his son-in-law more than once, Cao Lao naturally remembered his four daughters with outstanding appearances, and then Cao Lao quietly clenched his fists again, and said in a secret whisper: "No matter what, my father will not let you fall into his hands." ”

………………

"Qing'er, your younger brothers and sisters are asleep, you go to sleep, and your mother will do the rest by herself."

At the same time, in the camp of Cao Junhoujun, Mrs. Ding, the wife of Cao Lao, personally checked the sleep of her young daughter, and once again urged her eldest daughter, Cao Qing, who was always accompanying her, to return to the tent to rest. But Cao Qing immediately shook his head and refused, insisting that his mother sleep first, and then he was willing to go down to rest, Mrs. Ding, who was familiar with her daughter's stubborn surname, had no choice but to listen to her daughter's persuasion, wash her face and feet under her daughter's personal attendant, and prepare to sleep and rest.

It was also when Cao Qing brought the clear water in front of him that Mrs. Ding found that Cao Qing's hands were bloodstained, and quickly asked the reason, Cao Qing replied truthfully: "Mother, the weather is getting colder, and the daughter wants to sew a cold coat for her father, but she can't see clearly under the lamp, so she her hand." ”

"You daughter." Mrs. Ding complained and felt distressed, so she quickly grabbed her daughter's white and tender little hands to check it, and sucked off the dirty blood for her daughter with her own hands, and then complained: "Sew winter clothes for your father, you can't sew during the day?" Needlework under the lamp is bad for the eyes, you know? ”

"My daughter knows." Cao Qing replied softly, and said softly: "But if my daughter doesn't hurry up, I'm afraid it will be too late, my daughter knows that my father's war is not very smooth, and I am afraid that it will be difficult for us to find a place to settle in Ansheng in the future, and if my daughter doesn't hurry up, she may not have the opportunity to sew clothes for her father in the future." ”

"Nonsense, your father has won every battle, and no one in the world is his opponent." Mrs. Ding was not very confident in bragging for her husband, and said helplessly: "Except for the thief in Xuzhou, the shameless thief, your father can't do anything about him now." ”

"Mother is talking about Tao Ying exterminating thieves?" When it came to the culprit who had harmed his family to such a situation, Cao Qing had a feeling of crushing his silver teeth, and said hatefully: "Father didn't know what he thought back then, if he cut that thief with one knife, how could our Cao family be where it is today?" ”

"This is what your father regrets the most in his life." Mrs. Ding sighed, and then said casually: "The most infuriating thing is that I heard from your father that the thief has beaten you more than once, and wants to force your father to give you maybe to him." ”

"He's dreaming!" Cao Qing said categorically without hesitation: "Even if my daughter marries a chicken and a dog, she will not marry that thief!" ”

Mrs. Ding nodded, then suddenly smiled again, caressed her daughter's little hand and said: "Actually, if that thief hadn't married a wife, Wei Niang might have persuaded your father to agree to this family business, listen to your brother say that the thief is only brutal on the outside, but very good on the inside, and he is very handsome, and he is a good ......match for you." ”

"Mother!"

Cao Qing's coquettishness interrupted Mrs. Ding's yearning, and when Cao Qing was about to accuse his mother of his mother's nonsense, the war drums suddenly thundered outside the tent, and the sound of killing shook the ground. (To be continued.) )