"Not good! Hit the trick! Lu Bu secretly said that it was not good, turned around and shouted: "Quickly retreat!" Get out of camp! Before the words fell, the gongs and drums around were noisy, and the Cao army, which had been in ambush for a long time, came out from all sides, and there were tens of thousands of people, shouting and killing to the sky.

Lü Bu was surrounded by the enemy on all sides and was surrounded by Cao's legions, Xiahoudun and Gao Ran led troops to block the front and rear doors, and archers released arrows from all sides, and arrows rained down. Lu Bu rushed left and right, and could not break through for a while, and after a while, Cao Jun used rockets to ignite the military tent and the stacked firewood and grass, and the fire was great.

Xiahoudun laughed and said, "Lu Bupifu! Even if you have the ability to reach the heavens, you don't want to escape the net announced by my family master, and suffer death! "Let's lead the army to rush over.

Although Lü Bu had 2,000 cavalry, it was difficult to use it in the narrow place of the military camp, and he was surrounded and killed by Cao's army on all sides, and suffered heavy losses. At the moment, he led Hao Meng, Song Xian, and Sun Guan to rush through the back door, and happened to meet Gao Ran and Cao Chun. The second general did not dare to fight with Lu Bu, so he only sent archers to snipe from a distance, and at the same time, there were spearmen who erected countless spears at the door, and if they rushed forward, they would only be pierced into hedgehogs.

Cao **'s appetite is not only Lu Bu, it is expected that Lu Bu will come to the nest, and at the same time send Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong, and Li Dian to lead 10,000 troops to attack Dongping City. Fortunately, Chen Gong still has 3,000 elite soldiers in his hands, which is enough to protect himself in terms of defense. And Cao's army did not have large-scale siege tools, and he couldn't take Dongping City in a hurry.

But Chen Gong was very anxious at the moment, he saw Cao Ying's flames from afar, and couldn't help but worry about the situation on Lu Bu's side, Cao Jun was obviously prepared, if he laid a net in advance, Lu Bu would be difficult to fly. He, Zhang Miao and other officials welcomed Lu Bu into Yanzhou, which had already greatly offended Cao **, if Lu Bu was destroyed by Cao **, they would definitely not have good fruit to eat.

After a little contemplation, Chen Gong ordered to burn the grain and grass in the city, and sent the county soldiers in the city to resist the siege of Cao's army at the head of the city, and he led 3,000 elites to quietly break through from the north gate, and actually abandoned Dongping City and rushed to Cao Ying. Without these 3,000 elite soldiers, how could some of the remaining miscellaneous armies be able to block tens of thousands of Cao troops, Xiahou Yuan occupied an empty city in less than half an hour.

However, it was said that the purpose of Chen Gong's abandonment of Dongping City was to rescue Lu Bu, and the three thousand people traveled all the way, and they came to the vicinity of Cao Ying in a short time. I saw that the entire Cao camp was lit up with a sky-high fire, and Lu Bu led hundreds of horsemen to rampage, but he couldn't kill the encirclement. Cao's camp was surrounded by a fence, with deep pits and horses outside, and archers and spearmen hid outside the fence to fire cold arrows, and if anyone approached, they would stab them with spears.

A raging fire broke out in the camp, and the heat wave hit the face, and most of the 5,000 soldiers brought by Lu Bu were killed and wounded, leaving only more than 400 cavalry and 7800 infantry troops, and they were in a state of embarrassment. All the soldiers, including Lu Bu, were already desperate in their hearts, and if they continued like this before dawn, they would all be annihilated, and they would not even have a chance to escape.

Chen Gong saw the situation clearly and immediately led his troops to kill at the front door. Xiahoudun was taken by surprise by being killed, and coupled with the fact that the troops did not have an advantage, he was quickly killed. When Lu Bu and the others saw that Chen Gong had brought troops to the rescue, they were all overjoyed, and immediately led troops to the front door to kill. The two armies were in one place, numbering about 4,000 people, all of whom were in disarray.

Lu Bu's face was scorched and covered in blood, and he was ashamed and grateful when he saw Chen Gong. Turning over and dismounting, he bowed down and saluted: "I regret that I didn't listen to the words of the public platform at the beginning, so that I fell for the Cao thief's annihilation!" If we come to the rescue, I'm afraid we will all be trapped here! Please bow down! Sun Guan, Hao Meng and others also bowed down.

Chen Gong hurriedly helped Lu Bu up and said urgently: "Why did the general make such a big gift? At present, the situation is critical, and Dongping City has also fallen into the hands of Cao thieves, so we should get out first, and then learn a lesson and think about it in the long run!"

Lu Bu got up and said, "What does the public think should be done now?" ”

Chen Gong sighed slightly: "Although the Cao thief has won Dongping City, our side still has an absolute advantage, and the best way at the moment is to retreat to Dongjun to rest, so as to fight again later!" ”

Lu Bu nodded, now they can't retreat, Dongping has been lost, all the grain and grass on their hands have been burned, and most of the troops have been lost, so they can only wait for death if they stay. After the agreement was completed, the 4,000 remnants of the army retreated to Dongping at night.

After this battle, the 10,000 elites brought by Lu Bu lost more than 6,000 people, Hou Cheng died in battle, and lost a city. Compared with Cao **, he suffered heavy losses, plus the losses on Cao Ren's side, 80,000 twists and turns lost nearly 30,000 people, and most of them were elites, although they captured Dongping, but it was only an empty city.

Ma Chao was overjoyed when he heard the news in Beihai, and in his opinion, the best outcome was for both sides to lose. After Lu Bu returned to Dongjun after his defeat, he sent people to ask Ma Chao for war horses, trying to gradually destroy Cao. Ma Chao thought about it, but did not agree to this request, now Qingzhou has been taken by him, and all the ferries in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are controlled by him, and with this advantage, he can control the flow of war horses from the north into the south.

The good horses of the Han Dynasty came from Bingzhou, Youzhou and Liangzhou, and although there were horses in the south, they were limited to farming and pulling carts, and they were slightly insufficient for war horses. Sooner or later, these princes were enemies, and it was naturally impossible for Ma Chao to let good horses flow into the south in large numbers. And Lu Bu is a capricious person, for him, having milk is a mother, and cooperating with this kind of person is extremely dangerous. If Lu Bu becomes big after destroying Cao **, it will be self-defeating, and it will take a lot of effort to do it at that time.

initially controlled Qingzhou, and Ma Chao's next target was Xuzhou. Now that Liu Bei has been stationed in Xiaopei, Tao Qian is also dying, and Liu Bei must not be allowed to gain a firm foothold in Xuzhou, so he has to find a way to clean up Liu Bei.

After making up his mind, Ma Chao left Xun Yu and Zhang He to sit in Qingzhou, and personally led Huang Zhong, Dian Wei, Cao surname, and Chen Zhi to lead 30,000 troops to Xuzhou, under the pretext of using the road to crusade against Cao thieves.

Tao Qian knew that Ma Chao had the heart of Xuzhou, but he didn't dare to disobey, so he had to order the pass along the way to let him go. Ma Chao traveled for seven or eight days, and finally arrived at Xiapi City, which is less than 100 miles away from Pengcheng. Tao Qian led the civil and military officials to welcome him, and set up a banquet in the city to wash the dust for Ma Chao.

After the greetings, Ma Chao hugged his fists and said: "I haven't seen you for three years, and now I will be overjoyed to see Tao Envoy's demeanor!" ”

Tao Qian looked ashamed, hugged his fists and saluted back: "The general is polite, in the past, he was taken care of by the general, and he was sorry and grateful, but now he said that Xuzhou was in trouble, if it wasn't for the general appointing Lu Bu as the pastor of Yanzhou, Cao Thief would not have been able to withdraw so easily." ”

Ma Chao said: "Cao thief is ** also! In the name of avenging his father, he slaughtered people in Xuzhou, looted materials, and provoked the resentment of the people. This is here to completely exterminate the Cao thief and give justice to the people of Xuzhou! ”

Tao Qian and a group of Xuzhou officials were overjoyed when they heard this, Cao ** in Yanzhou has always been a thorn in their hearts, and if they don't get rid of it, the people of Xuzhou will be worried about it, for fear that Cao ** will make a comeback in the future.

"General Gao Yi, I am grateful, Xuzhou has just experienced a war, hundreds of people have been robbed by Cao thieves, and they have already hurt their vitality, if the general helps, they are not afraid of the threat of Cao thieves!"

Ma Chao nodded and said: "Xuzhou is the territory of the Han Dynasty, and the people of Xuzhou are also my Han people, so what reason would it be?" Tao envoy Junda can implement the 'three-point grain' system and the collective tuntian system that will be formulated in Xuzhou, and must take care of the common people who have been plundered by Cao thieves. If the grain and grass materials are insufficient, they can be reported to the imperial court in time, and they will be able to transfer grain and materials from other states and counties to support Xuzhou! ”

Tao Qian was hesitant when he heard this, once the three-point grain system was implemented in Xuzhou and accepted Ma Chao's support, it was equivalent to announcing to the outside world that Xuzhou had surrendered to Ma Chao's court, and he had since joined Ma Chao's camp.

As the major events gradually become clear today, the princes of all parties are faintly divided into three camps.

The first camp is the Ma Chao Group, occupying the land of the four states of Merge, Hebei, Qingdao and Sili, and its followers include Liangzhou Mu Hansui, and its comprehensive strength is the best in the world.

The second camp is Yuan Shao Group, occupying Yuzhou and Yangzhou, with followers such as Cao **, Sun Jian, Liu Xun and others, ranking second in strength.

The third camp is Liu Yan in Shu, who has cut off all contact with the imperial court since he entered Yizhou, and even has no contact with the princes of all walks of life. It is purely a self-contained existence, and relying on the dangers of Shu to claim to be the emperor, even if the princes from all walks of life have the intention to crusade, they are powerless.

In addition, there are Jingzhou Thorn Shi Liu Biao, Youzhou Mu Liu Yu, Xuzhou Thorn Shi Tao Qian, and Jiaozhou Thorn Shi Tu Change. These four people are between the three major groups, the internal instability, the weakest strength, belong to the state of reading, and their intentions are left and right. But how can they really stay out of it with the power of a single state?

After the Cao ** incident, Tao Qian has been deeply aware of the potential threat of Xuzhou, Cao **, Ma Chao, Yuan Shao and other big princes not to mention for the time being, even a small county Liu Bei dares to covet Xuzhou, in the final analysis, it is because Xuzhou does not have strong military strength, let alone a tough background.

Now, the world has entered the mode of hegemony among the princes, survival of the fittest, survival of the fittest, or rising, or choosing one side of the force to follow, and then it is impossible to stay out of the matter, especially in a place like Xuzhou.

After pondering for a long time, Tao Qian was still hesitant in his heart, and said with his fists: "The general is dedicated to the people, and he admires him very much, but Xuzhou has been implementing the tax exemption system for worshipping Buddha, and now most of the people believe in Buddhism. ”

Ma Chao secretly sneered in his heart, he had to use grace and power to deal with Tao Qian, an old fox, and said at the moment: "Even so, the general will not force it, and if it is necessary in the future, you can send someone to ask for help from the general at any time!" In addition, last time, Ben Jiang had seen the pottery envoy's eldest son, the pottery merchant, in Yecheng, but why didn't he see it now? ”

Tao Qian didn't know what Ma Chao's purpose was, and frowned: "The dog stayed in Pengcheng and never came, if the general has anything, Qian immediately ordered someone to call him!" ”

Ma Chao waved his hand and said: "That's not comparable, I will hear that Tao Envoy Jun has two sons, one is a pottery merchant, he has already seen it, his talent is quick-thinking, humble and polite, and has the style of a father." In addition, there is a son for Tao Ying, I heard that this son is also extraordinary, quite a brave name, I don't know if we can meet today? (To be continued.) )