"Huan'er, don't make trouble, I want to wait until we enter Xuchang City, let's make love in the imperial city."

After muttering a sentence, Deputy Director Tao, who had only slept for less than two hours in two days and two nights, tilted his head, and leaned on Tao Ji and fell asleep. The army of the Cao thieves is coming! ”

"Cao Thief's army is coming?" Deputy Director Tao opened his triangular eyes suddenly, and the drowsiness on his face was suddenly swept away, and he jumped up and looked south, and saw that a red firework really rose in the dark night sky, and it was indeed the Xuzhou scout who was monitoring Xuchang's movements to send a signal to the camp, Deputy Director Tao did not hesitate, and immediately shouted: "Do what you want, the gentleman's army attacked, the infantry lined up the camp, and blew the bed trumpet!" Tell the whole army to get up and prepare for battle! ”

In the sound of singing, the gentleman's army, which had already ridden on the war horse, immediately rushed out of the camp, and rushed to the south with torches to contain the slow advance of the Cao army, and the 3,000 infantry who had not slept all night also quickly lined up out of the camp, and went to the open area outside the camp gate with torches to prepare for battle.

It was also at this time that Deputy Director Tao, who was wiping his face with cold water soaked in a cloth, remembered a major event and hurriedly asked the guard next to him, "What time is it?" ”

"My lord, the first hour has just passed." The guard with the brass basin replied.

"Just after the first hour?" Deputy Director Tao was so surprised that he forgot to wipe his face, and exclaimed: "It's dawn soon, Cao thief robbed a bird's camp?!" What is the purpose of Cao Thief choosing this time to attack?! ”

After exclaiming, Deputy Director Tao's triangular eyes rolled, and he immediately came to his senses again, and said with a smile: "It turned out that I wanted our army to have no chance to eat breakfast, and fighting on an empty stomach would affect combat effectiveness. Fortunately, Lao Tzu also has ...... prepared. ”

In the sound of the horn continued to reverberate, the main soldiers of Xuzhou, who were well-rested, got up one after another, checked their weapons and equipment, excreted their body wastes, and hurried to the open space in the camp to assemble in a hurry, and then took out dry food under the orders of the supervisors of each battalion, and ate with a continuous supply of boiling water for 24 hours, and then lined up out of the camp in an orderly manner, assembled behind the three thousand friendly troops who had completed the formation, and according to the requirements of Deputy Director Tao, set up a crane wing formation with both offense and defense against the large battalion, and prepared to meet the battle in a hurry. Thirty new weapons were also pushed out of the battalion, pushed to the forefront of the position, lined up, and sent heavy troops to protect them.

At this time, Jia Lao Poison and Liu Ye, Shi Yi and others also came to Deputy Director Tao, congratulations to Deputy Director Tao for succeeding in his trick, and finally lured Cao Jun out of the city for the decisive battle, Jia Lao Poison carefully reminded: "Lord, although our army has succeeded in luring the enemy, Cao Mengde must have made up his mind to die in breaking the cauldron and sinking the boat, and must have spent a lot of effort to boost morale and boost the morale of the army. ”

"What Mr. Wenhe said is extremely true." Deputy Director Tao nodded, rubbed his finger joints and calculated: "It seems that I have to think of a way to beat the morale of Cao Thief's team first............." ”

At the same time, five miles south of the Xuzhou camp, the Junzi army had already exchanged hands with the Cao army, because it was impossible to retreat to the camp and attack the front of the Cao army's brigade, Tao Ji also cleverly chose to arrange the Junzi army to make a detour and attack the flank of the Cao army with archery and cavalry, which did have a certain effect, killing and wounding many Cao soldiers and causing chaos on the flank of the Cao army. In this regard, Boss Cao, who had been mentally prepared, immediately ordered, "Continue to move forward at full speed, return fire with a strong crossbow, and just delay the villain army a little, don't worry about casualties!" ”

The order was conveyed, and the flank of the Cao army continued to stride forward, ignoring the casualties caused by the bows and arrows of the Junzi Army to the ranks of the own army, but only returning the Junzi Army with a strong crossbow with a longer range as much as possible, so that the Junzi Army, which relied on bows and arrows, did not dare to be too rampant, and then took all the injured companions who could be brought, and continued to stride forward, racing against time to kill the Xuzhou camp, trying his best not to give the Xuzhou army too much time to respond.

During the stride charge, the tragic sound of the military song also echoed in the Cao army, "The vast Hanhai, kiss my family." Rolling dust, leisurely my garden! Lang Lang Qiankun, men are hot-blooded! The vast sky, bless my big man! The vast sky, bless my prime minister! The vast sky, bless me to win forever! The vast sky, bless me forever————! ”

The military song is loud, sad and sonorous, the footsteps are powerful, the flag is fluttering, the swords and guns are like a forest, the head is like a sea, the last 28,000 Cao soldiers hold their heads high, against the rain of arrows that come from time to time and rush like a dragon, the tide continues to advance towards the Xuzhou camp, the arrow falls, gets up and continues to move forward, is hit by the bow and arrow, but also staggers and continues to move forward, until the blood is exhausted, the strength is exhausted, only helplessly fall on the road of the charge, until the spear in the hand does not fall, the flag does not fall, the mouth is bleeding, but still singing vaguely, "...... Lang Lang Qiankun, men are hot-blooded! The vast sky, bless my big man! The vast sky, bless my prime minister............! ”

In the face of such a stubborn and tenacious enemy like a single-celled creature, even if it is already recognized as an invincible opponent in the world, the ranks of the gentlemen's army also have a feeling of fear for the first time, a feeling of fear from the heart, Tao Ji who led the team is even more worried, "The Cao thief team is so stubborn and desperate, the morale is so high, the second brother only uses half of his strength to face ......, is it sure to win?" ”

Wearing heavy armor and carrying the necessary weapons and baggage, almost all of them were infantry, and there were countless light and serious wounded in the ranks, as well as the harassment and destruction of the Junzi army, ten miles away, the Cao army only walked for more than a quarter of an hour, and there were almost no drops on the way! And just when Boss Cao was proud of his soldiers, what appeared in front of Boss Cao was the 20,000 Xuzhou army that had already poured out of the camp and completed the formation, the formation was tight, the soldiers were calm, the torches were like a sea, and the open area south of the Xuzhou camp was reflected in a bright light, and the three thousand infantry of Xuzhou who first came out of the camp and did not sleep all night were also withdrawn to rest and take on the responsibility of protecting the camp under the grace of Deputy Director Tao.

"The team of pottery thieves reacted so quickly?!"

Boss Cao's surprise was not trivial, and he suddenly understood that the self-army had lost the best opportunity to attack the chaos with a whole blow, and when he was hesitating whether to immediately launch a charge, the opposite Xuzhou team had already rushed out of a horse, holding a white flag and torches and running quickly in front of Cao Jun, shouting: "Meng Degong, my lord has given you the opportunity to stand firm, quickly line up, we never take advantage of the danger of others!" ”

"Phew!" Boss Cao spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm, and disdained the Xuzhou army that boasted that it never took advantage of the danger of others to the extreme-can there be no one in the world who is better at robbing while the fire is burning than the Xuzhou army?

"Prime Minister, morale can be boosted." Xun You reminded beside him: "Taking advantage of the high morale of our army, we should immediately attack!" ”

Boss Cao nodded, and was about to order a general attack, but the Xuzhou cavalry on the opposite side shouted again: "Meng Degong, my lord is for your good, you charge now, and you will only suffer the loss!" Take a closer look, what is it in front of our army?! ”

Boss Cao reflexively looked up into the distance, and by the gradually brightening sky, Boss Cao also saw at a glance that in front of the Xuzhou Chinese army, twenty two-wheeled carts covered with straw mats were lined up. At this time, the Xuzhou soldiers next to the two-wheeled cart also lifted the straw mat on the cart, revealing twenty wooden pillars thicker than the sea bowl, the tail of the wooden stake was obliquely inserted into the ground, and the top was facing the sky, I don't know what the effect is. Then the Xuzhou knight on the opposite side shouted again: "Meng Degong, look carefully, what kind of fate will you have if you charge now!" ”

After shouting, the Xuzhou knight immediately raised the small white flag and torch in his hand above his head at the same time, and the Xuzhou soldiers next to a cart in the distance also immediately used the torch to burn the tail of a wooden pillar, when Cao Lao was inexplicable, but suddenly saw that the top of the wooden pillar suddenly erupted fire, and then a loud thunder suddenly came, as if a sudden thunder was hit on the battlefield, and then countless small iron horns and small round stones landed in front of Cao Jun more than five hundred steps away, as if there was a burst of stone rain and iron rain. Cao Jun was shocked, and the neat shouts of Xuzhou soldiers sounded in the Xuzhou army formation, "Invincible!" Invincible! Invincible!! ”

"Hmph, hum!" After sneering twice, the Xuzhou cavalry on the opposite side turned their horses' heads and quickly ran back to their own flag array to hand over the order, leaving the earth-colored Cao Boss and Cao Jun soldiers in the same place, and they are still immersed in the horror of the debut of the Xuzhou pine cannon and can't extricate themselves - to be precise, the pine cannon with very little power, Deputy Director Tao made these pine cannons, the biggest purpose is to scare the enemy, ready to suddenly use when the war falls into a stalemate, completely blow the enemy's morale and boost the morale of the army, I didn't expect how many enemies these primitive wooden cannons could actually kill.

Although the actual power is very pitiful, whether it will explode every time it is launched depends on luck, but this is enough, the range distance of more than 500 steps, and the loud sound like thunder, is enough to hit the Cao army from a state of high morale to the point of fear, a cannon shot, not only the Cao army up and down the face is like dirt, morale is greatly reduced, Cao Boss is even more frightened, subconsciously dismissed the plan of immediate general attack, and ordered instead: "Array, 600 steps away from the pottery thief team, set up a crane wing formation, and stabilize the formation." ”

The order was conveyed, and the Cao army immediately followed the order, Zhang He and Zhang Liao, the two teams with the strongest combat effectiveness, spread their wings left and right, like cranes spreading their wings, and the rest of the team quickly moved closer to Cao Laoda, laying down a tight phalanx, with guns and halberds outside, and bows and crossbows inside, which were fast but orderly, showing good battlefield discipline. However, after seeing this, Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison and other bad species were not worried but happy, and laughed together, and then Liu Ye also smiled at Deputy Director Tao: "Congratulations to the lord for the success of the intimidation, and the thief Cao is frustrated!" In the last battle, Cao Thief did not dare to arrange a charging formation such as fish scales or sharp arrows, and chose a crane wing formation with both offense and defense, which shows that Cao Thief was already timid in his heart, and he did not dare to have confidence in victory. ”

"It's not enough, we have to hit Cao Thief's spirit again." Deputy Director Tao smiled, and then took the lead with a pat on the horse, and the civil and military generals on the left and right hurriedly followed, and the stars surrounded the despicable Deputy Director Tao like the moon, ready to answer with Boss Cao in front of the battle.

At this time, Cao Jun's side has also been firmly established, seeing the Xuzhou army flag door opened, the white-robed and silver-armored deputy director Tao came out of the battle surrounded by the generals, Cao Boss hesitated, but also led a cadre of civil and military generals to pat the horse out of the battle, to the front of the battle and Deputy Director Tao answered, at the same time, in order to hit the enemy's morale and boost the morale of the army, Cao Boss also shouted violently as soon as he came out of the battle: "Tao should destroy the thief!" Don't you really want me to lead the army into battle? Now that I'm here, I'd like to see what you can do in the field except send the villain army to harass the guerrillas! ”

As the sky got brighter, the hippie smile on Deputy Director Tao's face was already faintly recognizable, and he said with a cynical laugh: "Meng Degong, don't beat your swollen face and become fat, if I didn't take the initiative to divide the army into two and lure you into battle with half of my strength, with your little courage, you would dare to go out of the city to fight a decisive battle with our army?" But it's a pity, you have fallen for the trick, the division of our army is already returning to the Xuchang battlefield at full speed, Meng Degong, you will soon even be cut off from the way home! You're done! Hahahaha......! ”

"The person who slaps a swollen face and fills a fat man, I'm afraid it's you a pottery thief, right?" Cao Lao laughed loudly: "Our army has already found out that your division of troops crossed Yingshui on all fronts yesterday evening, and they just plugged in their wings, and I am afraid they will not be able to fly back." ”

"Meng Degong, you are almost deceiving the poor soldiers under your command with these words, you can't deceive me!" Deputy Director Tao laughed and said: "If you say that my division of troops arrived at Yingshui yesterday evening to camp and rest, maybe I will be worried, but unfortunately, my order to the partial division is that after arriving in Yingshui, I am not allowed to cross the river, and immediately return to the Xuchang battlefield!" There are 10,000 cavalry in my detachment, and they will be less than twenty miles from your back, according to the time. ”

"The lord really lied and didn't blush, are you worried that Cao Thief is monitoring the movements of our army's partial division, obviously ordering Xu Huang's team to come back to help after arriving in Xiangcheng?"

Jia Lao, the only one who knew the inside story, muttered in his heart, and the Xuzhou soldiers all showed joy and confidence, while Boss Cao was furious and said: "Okay, I want to see when your partial division will be able to return to the Xuchang battlefield, and I hope that your 20,000 rabble can hold out until they come back." ”

"Meng Degong wants to break each one, then just come, I will accompany you to the end." Deputy Director Tao did not show weakness, and said with a sneer: "But to be honest, I really admire you Meng Degong, the timing of the decisive battle out of the city is good, not to rob the camp in the middle of the night, choose to attack in the early morning, before the soldiers of our army have breakfast to attack our barracks, forcing the officers and soldiers of our army to fight a decisive battle with your well-fed division on an empty stomach!" Really good intentions, good means! ”

"Of course." Boss Cao laughed proudly: "To deal with a thief like you, of course, you have to use some extraordinary means!" How's it going, pottery thief, you should be hungry too, right? Do you want me to give you some time to make a fire? ”

"Thank you, no need." Deputy Director Tao smiled and took off a cloth bag, took out a bowl-sized thing from it—something that Boss Cao had never seen before, put it to his mouth and took a bite, and said with a smile while chewing: "I have dry food, I can talk to you while eating." ”

"Dry rations for the march?" Boss Cao took a pinch - it was not that there was no marching dry food in this era, but the marching dry food of this era was either dry and hard as iron dried meat, or dead wheat flour cakes that were harder than stones, and they could not be eaten without cooking, at least they had to be soaked in cold water for a period of time, otherwise they would not be able to bite at all, like this kind of dry food that could be easily chewed in the hands of Deputy Director Tao, Boss Cao did not say that he had never seen it, or he had never heard of it.

"Meng Degong must be very strange, right? How can I eat my dry food without blistering or boiling it? This time, the deputy director of Tao was proud, and simply smiled: "Why don't Meng Degong try it too?" This thing is called meat buns, whether it is hot or cold, it is very delicious, come on, send a bun to Meng Degong. ”

Smiling, Deputy Director Tao handed the cloth bag in his hand to a guard, and asked the guard to ride a horse to send the cloth bag to Cao Boss, Cao Boss hesitated, and finally ordered someone to step forward and take the cloth bag curiously, and then took out a bowl-sized gray-white object from the cloth bag, weighing about ten taels, very soft to start, but it is definitely made of wheat noodles, and it has been processed and cooked. When Boss Cao, who had only eaten dead dough, was surprised at why the cooked wheat dough could be so soft, Deputy Director Tao shouted again: "Meng Degong, put it aside, there is a filling in it." ”

Boss Cao hesitated for a moment, but still opened the bun in his hand, and found that the wheat noodles were indeed hidden in the meat filling made of green onions, even if it was cold, it was still extremely soft and fragrant. At this time, Deputy Director Tao shouted with a smile: "Meng Degong, take a bite, keep it to your satisfaction, I have invented several kinds of marching dry food, and this kind of bun tastes the best." ”

"Oh, by the way, by the way, let me tell you one thing, after our army divided the troops, I issued an order, let each of my soldiers receive two such meat buns per meal, but they are not allowed to eat them as a meal, eat the dinner they receive at breakfast, eat the breakfast they receive at dinner, and specially explain the strict supervision of the supervision of each battalion, and those who secretly eat it in advance will stand ten sticks! What is the purpose of my arrangement, with Meng Degong, your cleverness, you won't not understand, right?! ”

"Thief!" Boss Cao scolded helplessly, picked up half of the meat bun again, took a heavy bite and chewed it in his mouth, as if he was chewing the flesh and blood of Deputy Director Tao, the meat bun was soft and delicious in the mouth, and the taste was abnormal, but Boss Cao tasted the same as chewing wax.

"All the opportunities have been offset by the pottery thief, what should I do?"

Quickly thinking about the next step, Boss Cao subconsciously took another bite of the meat bun made of fermented old noodles, but at this moment, Deputy Director Tao suddenly exclaimed, "Meng Degong, why did you really eat it?" That meat bun of yours is the poison bun I used to medicate rats, and there is arsenic in it, spit it out! Spit it out! ”

"Poisonous?!" Cao Jun was panicked, Cao Boss was also shocked, and subconsciously quickly opened his mouth to vomit, Xun You also flew a water hyacinth to rinse Cao Lao's mouth, and complained: "Prime Minister, the pottery thief is a notoriously despicable villain, how can you eat his things?" ”

"Hahahaha!" Deputy Director Tao laughed again and said, "Meng Degong, don't worry, I'm playing with you, why don't you want to think about it, how can the meat buns taken out of my dry food bag be poisoned?" Am I not afraid to take the wrong one and eat it myself? ”

"Hahaha!" The Xuzhou team burst into laughter, but Boss Cao was furious, threw the water hyacinth, and yelled: "Who is with me to capture the pottery thief?!" ”

"The last will go!"

Dian Wei roared wildly, and took the lead in rushing to Deputy Director Tao, not waiting for Deputy Director Tao's orders, Xu Chu had already met with a knife, not to mention fighting with Dian Wei, and although Dian Wei's force was slightly above Xu Chu, he had no choice but to have injuries on his body, not only was it difficult to defeat Xu Chu for a while, but also fell into disadvantage in front of Xu Chu's strange power. Seeing this scene, Boss Cao bowed to Xiahou Yuan next to him, and Xiahou Yuan immediately rushed up, determined to take advantage of the numerical advantage of his own fierce generals to win a few battles among the generals first to boost morale.

Seeing Xiahou Yuan rushing up, Deputy Director Tao also bowed to Tai Shi Ci, Tai Shi Ci rushed forward with his will, and also caught Xiahou Yuan fighting, and then Deputy Director Tao did not wait for Boss Cao to send a third general out of the battle, and immediately instructed Ma Zhong, the captain of the pro-army: "Ma Zhong, prepare for the dark arrow, the number of fierce generals in our army is not as good as Cao Thief, and the fighting generals will suffer." ”

Ma Zhong nodded, quietly took out a bow and arrow, and then suddenly rushed out with a war horse, and Cao Boss over there also said that Deputy Director Tao was planning to fight with him to the end, and when he was sending Cao Hong to fight to the end, Ma Zhong had already suddenly shot an arrow, right in Xiahou Yuan's shoulder blade, and Tai Shici, who had cooperated with Ma Zhong for the longest time, did not hesitate, and immediately slapped a gun on Xiahou Yuan's back, causing Xiahou Yuan's back armor to shatter and spit blood, and quickly fled back to the flag formation in embarrassment.

"Shameless!" In the roar of the Cao army's soldiers, Ma Zhong shot another arrow, the arrow broke through the air, and went straight to the door of Dian Wei, Dian Wei was frightened and hurriedly lowered his head to dodge, Xu Chu had already been cut with a knife, forcing Dian Wei to turn over and abandon the horse, and fled back to the flag formation on foot, but fortunately Xu Chu was arrogant and refused to take advantage of the danger of others, and did not chase and kill, so Dian Wei escaped on foot.

"Shameless! Despicable villain! In the noisy roar and scolding, the angry Cao Hong also pulled the bow and arrows, and shot an arrow at Ma Zhong, but the sky was getting brighter, Ma Zhong was quick to see and move, and immediately shot an arrow, the arrow broke through the air, and actually shot Cao Hongyu's arrow in high-speed flight, and split Cao Hongyu's arrow in the air into two, Cao Jun's angry scolding suddenly turned into an exclamation, Cao Hong himself was even more soulless, and quickly fled back to the camp with the horse, saying that he didn't dare to continue to fight with the little monster Ma Zhong, Cao Boss's face was pale, and he gritted his teeth.

"Meng Degong, let me introduce you, this General Ma Zhong is my personal captain." Deputy Director Tao smiled and said loudly: "It is my fellow Danyang villager, and it is also the first archery master of our army, before joining our army, he once shot General Zhao Yun's helmet with an arrow, and after joining our army, he won the first arrow surnamed Cao in the archery gambling battle." ”

"Snap" sounded softly, the handle of the horse whip in Cao Boss's hand couldn't withstand the angry grip, and was pinched into two, and then Cao Boss angrily threw down the broken whip, pulled out the sword at his waist, pointed to the Zhang He team on the right flank, and shouted: "The right wing attack, impact the enemy on the opposite side!" Today, I say that I will not break the pottery thief, and I will not collect the army! ”

"Don't break the pottery thief! Swear not to withdraw troops! In the sound of neat shouts, Zhang He's team went out and killed the right flank of the Xuzhou army opposite.

"Swear not to withdraw the troops? That's a nice thing to say, if you dare to withdraw your troops at this time, I can kill half of your lackeys with one impact! Deputy Director Tao sneered loudly, and then ordered: "Raise the banner and order the left-wing Chang Feng to act according to the plan!" ”

The red flag waved, and the left flank of the Xuzhou army, which was lined up in an oblique formation, quickly shrank back, as if it wanted to form a square circle array to resist the charge of Zhang He's team............ Because more than 400 steps away, when Chang Xuan's team retreated, ten pine cannons hidden in the formation were suddenly revealed, and ten Xuzhou soldiers also lit the tail fuse.

(To be continued)