Although it can be regarded as an organized and disciplined retreat, under the pursuit of the Xuzhou army, which is good at beating the water dogs, the organized retreat of the Cao army eventually turned into a rout full of blood and tears, and paid a heavy price, but in the end, no formed team was able to successfully withdraw to Dongping to meet the Che Zhou team.

It's not that Deputy Director Tao is particularly ruthless, and the Cao Army team that has abandoned the city and fled is also a killer, the key is that the direction of escape chosen by Cao Jun has committed Deputy Director Tao's taboo, if these demoralized Cao Army defeated troops are fleeing to Dingtao and meeting with Liu Dai's team stationed in Dingtao, then Deputy Director Tao is likely to be a person and leave a line, and not kill all the defeated troops of Cao Jun.

But Xu Shu led these defeated soldiers of the Cao army to retreat to Dongping, preparing to go to Dongping to meet with Che Zhou's team, which Deputy Director Tao could not tolerate - Dongping was the main force of Xuzhou, Qingzhou Sun Guan's team and Rencheng Hou Cheng's team scheduled to meet the place, Deputy Director Tao naturally could not tolerate these Cao army teams that still had the strength to fight in Dongping under the leadership of Che Zhou, increasing the difficulty of the Xuzhou army.

In view of this, after confirming the retreat direction of the defeated troops of the Cao army, Deputy Director Tao immediately sent the Junzi Army and the cavalry team led by Xu Huang and Lu Burma to pursue, and divided these cavalry into three teams led by Tao Ji, Xu Huang and Lu Burma, who took turns to rest and take turns to chase and kill, without giving the Cao army the slightest opportunity to take advantage of it, and repeatedly demanded that the defeated troops of the Cao army must be defeated before the Cao army joins the division, so that they are unable to collude with the chariot and become annihilated, threatening the plan of the Xuzhou army.

Facts have proved that Xu Shu is just an excellent staff officer and tactician, but not an excellent commander of the army, in front of the Xuzhou cavalry who took turns to kill, although Xu Shu also organized some elite teams to intercept the palace, but unfortunately did not have the ability to let these Cao soldiers fight to the death, unconditionally obey the orders issued by Xu Shu Yue Dai, resulting in the team of the palace all unwilling to fight to the death, and immediately collapsed when encountering the impact of the Xuzhou cavalry, and in the end, there were no generals willing to listen to Xu Shu's orders. From the tooth generals to the ordinary soldiers, they all spread their legs and fled for their lives, and no fool was willing to stop and fight to the death, sacrificing himself to cover the retreat of his comrades.

In the face of such an enemy, if the Xuzhou cavalry with war horses on behalf of the cavalry could not win the battle, the Xuzhou generals such as Xu Huang, Tao Ji and Lu Mian should simply launch the Yuanmen and behead them. These Xuzhou cavalry generals did not disappoint Deputy Director Tao, starting from biting the enemy's tail, the poor Cao army's defeated army no longer had the moment of peace and death that was afraid of an hour, often after the gentleman's army threw out countless arrows to retreat, and immediately after the iron cavalry led by Lu Burma came, thousands of snow-bright sabers waved vigorously, and cut the Cao soldiers who had not had time to flee far away with lightning speed, and the corpses were all over the field, and when the Cao army brigade threw down the rear team and desperately opened the Koji Burmese team to chase and kill, The Xuzhou cavalry led by Xu Huang chased after them like hungry wolves, and once again killed the rear team of the Cao army, and then the notorious Junzi army followed up again, biting the Cao army brigade and constantly releasing arrows, desperately releasing arrows like hell.

In the face of such a rotational pursuit, the poor Cao army defeated soldiers have no way to go to the sky, no way to go to the ground, in order to survive can only be a group of fleeing brigades, Cheng Shi into a group of troops to escape by the Xuzhou cavalry targeted by their own large troops, Cao Jun grassroots generals can not restrain it, and then there is simply a situation where Dubo, Tun General and even Qu General fled with the formation, and the grain and grass brought from Changyi City were scattered along the road, and the banners, armor and weapons were thrown all over the mountains, so much that even the Xuzhou cavalry could not carry it, I had to send a fast horse back to Changyi to report the news, and asked Deputy Director Tao to send an infantry team to come and collect the spoils.

The overwhelming pursuit lasted for a day, and when it was dark in the evening, it was also embarrassed and fled to the shore of Juze Lake, and the more than 4,000 Cao army defeated soldiers who escaped from Changyi were already completely defeated, and the frightened Cao army soldiers fled all over the mountains, scrambling to flee in all directions, and there was almost no Cao army team of about 100 people on the battlefield, and the Cao army soldiers around Xu Shu were less than 30 people, but the Xuzhou cavalry still took turns to pursue. The Junzi Army, who has always disliked close combat, also took the opportunity to practice hand-to-hand combat, giving up bows and arrows to kill the enemy directly with swords and guns, and desperately collecting and winning to practice melee combat. Seeing that the general trend had gone, Xu Shu also gave up his efforts to gather the team, simply changed into an ordinary soldier's clothes, and led the last 20 or so soldiers around him to flee to Dongping by night, no longer caring about the life or death of his own defeated soldiers, and allowing the cavalry of the Junzi Army, which had amazing endurance, to wantonly slaughter the defeated soldiers who collapsed alone.

In the first battle of Changyi, in the case of only part of the main force, the Xuzhou army annihilated the main force of the Cao army in the southern line of Yanzhou, Xiahou Yuan's team, not only pulled out the nail stuck in the throat of the Xuzhou army in the north, but also completely smashed the shadow in the heart of the Xuzhou army, even the veterans of Xuzhou who participated in the Yuan Tao War in the Tao Qian era no longer think that the Cao army is invincible, I believe that with the existing strength of the Xuzhou army, it is enough to face the main force of the Cao army for a long time, so the battle of Changyi has just ended. The Xuzhou army also went from senior generals to ordinary soldiers, and unanimously asked Deputy Director Tao to immediately send troops north, to attack Dongping and then directly attack the back of the main force of the Cao army.

Morale can be drummed up, from the help Yuan weak Cao strategy has been only one foot away from the door of deputy director Tao of course will not suppress the soldiers' pursuit of the war **, after the breakthrough of Changyi only one day of rest, deputy director Tao left the surname Cao to lead the army of 5,000 to guard Changyi, immediately led the army to the north again, the army is divided into two ways, one is led by Deputy Director Tao personally, through Juye directly north to Dongping, one route led by Chen Zhi, first detour back to Rencheng and Hou Cheng to join the division, and then from Rencheng escort grain and grass to the north, and the main force in Dongping Lucheng.

At the same time, Deputy Director Tao sent a fast horse to order Sun Guan, ordering Sun Guan's team to seize the opportunity to step up the offensive, and strive to break the reinforcements sent by Che Zhou to Snake Hill, and join the main force in Dongping County. In addition, Deputy Director Tao had no choice but to send messengers back to Xuzhou, ordering Xu Chu, Zhao Yun and Gao Shun, who were still resting in Xuzhou, to abandon the plan to go north to reinforce and rest and defend the base camp with peace of mind.

"My lord, do you send a messenger north to contact Yuan Shao to inform him of the news that our army has taken Changyi, and strengthen Yuan Shao's determination to hold on and wait for help?" Liu Ye suggested.

"There's no need." Deputy Director Tao replied: "Changyi was taken by our army, Cao thief in order to prevent leakage of news, must have completely blocked the road and ferry, it is difficult for our army to directly lurk through, and the detour from Qingzhou is too far, and when the messenger arrives at Cangting, maybe our main force has already hit Cangting." ”

"Having said that, it's better for our army to send the news to Cangting as soon as possible." Liu Ye reminded: "Yuan Shao's surname is very noisy, impulsive and irritable, not very patient, Cao Ying is already a fiasco, in order to fight for this last opportunity, it must not be ruled out that Cao Shao jumped over the wall at the last moment, took risks, and unscrupulously forced or induced Yuan Shao to launch a decisive battle." If Cao Ying is lucky enough to succeed and force Yuan Shao to a decisive battle and is defeated by Cao Ying by deceit, then not only will our army's strategy of helping Yuan weaken Cao will be wasted, but our army will also be forced to fight a decisive battle with Cao's army, which quickly returned to the division, and the situation will be very unfavorable to our army. ”

"What Mr. Ziyang said is extremely true, this point really has to be guarded against, and Cao Thief can definitely do such a thing as a dog jumping over the wall in a hurry." Deputy Director Tao nodded, took the map and calculated for a moment, Deputy Director Tao quickly ordered: "Send someone to see Tao Ji, and tell that stupid boy to come to see me immediately." ”

……………… When the news of the annihilation of Xiahou Yuan's team was delivered to Boss Cao, Boss Cao, who had always claimed that Mount Tai had collapsed in front of him and his face did not change, could no longer do anything not to be surprised, so he simply sat down on the ground, his black face was pale and the color of a dead man, and his whole body was sweating like pulp, trembling as if he was swinging. The strategists of Cao Jun present were all stunned, and they were so dazed that none of them thought of stepping forward to help Boss Cao.

Boss Cao's personal cultivation is obviously much better than that of Yuan Sangong, after trembling for a long time, Boss Cao not only stood up slowly, but also did not roar and scold hysterically like Yuan Sangong, on the contrary, he also showed some smiles, bitter and sad smiles, and said in a calm and helpless tone: "The biggest mistake I have ever done in my life is that I did not slaughter Tao Ying and the thief under the sword in Xuzhou City, and now it has been proved that this is a legacy of raising tigers, and the blame is to blame." ”

Xun You, Cheng Yu and Mao Jue were silent, Guo Jia, who suggested the release of Deputy Director Tao back then, burst into tears, once again knelt down on his knees in front of Boss Cao, kowtowed and pleaded guilty, and regretted his decision to be covered with lard more than Boss Cao, and even persuaded Boss Cao to let Deputy Director Tao go back to restrain Uncle Liu, but Uncle Liu, the tiger, was not raised, but accidentally raised a snake! Viper! Also Nima is the most poisonous five-step snake!

After personally picking up Guo Jia and comforting him with kind words, Boss Cao said to a few strategists: "Princes, you all know the situation, our army is about to face the dangerous situation of being attacked by the enemy on the belly and back, where to go, what are the high opinions of the princes?" ”

All the strategists were silent, and after a while, Mao Jue said cautiously: "Prime Minister, how about dividing the troops to resist?" Although the pottery thief used tricks to trap the main force of our army on the southern front, he did not dispatch all the elite of the main force in Xuzhou, and our army divided an elite army to meet the battle, and there may not be no chance of victory. Even if there is no chance of victory, there is a great hope of blocking the northward movement of the pottery thief team. ”

"Then I will be consumed alive by the pottery thief and Yuan Shao!" Cao Boss waved his hand and gritted his teeth and said: "The money and manpower advantages of the pottery thief and Yuan Shao are too much better than our army, Yuan Shao's grain road is convenient for transporting grain, the rear grain and grass of the pottery thief is sufficient, and the grain road is relatively safe, so it can easily ensure that there is no shortage of grain and grass in front, and the grain and grass of our army must be transported from Xuchang and Chenliu, thousands of miles away. ”

"Don't divide your troops, it's too risky to divide your troops to meet the enemy!" Xun You also objected: "The northern line is better, Yuan Shao's wisdom and martial arts are far inferior to the prime minister, even if there is a change, there is nothing to be afraid of, the southern line is different, the pottery thief and Jia Xu are both scheming, and the best at winning by surprise with soldiers is unless the prime minister goes to the southern line, no matter which general is sent south, I am afraid it is not the opponent of the pottery thief." ”

"I personally led my army south to fight the pottery thieves?" Xun You's words reminded Boss Cao, and also made Boss Cao have the idea of personally leading the army south to fight Deputy Director Tao, but after hesitating again and again, Boss Cao finally dispelled this idea, first, the current enemy in Jizhou, the division of troops will definitely attract the Jizhou army to attack, and there will be trouble and danger on the northern front, and second, ......, to be honest, Boss Cao is not sure that he will be able to defeat Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao's poison annihilation team, and now the situation is far inferior to people. Boss Cao was even more unsure of defeating the ruthless and black combination of Deputy Director Tao and Jia Lao Poison in one fell swoop.

"Prime Minister, it's better to withdraw from the army." Xun You also suggested: "Taking advantage of the fact that the pottery thieves have not blocked the retreat of our army, our army will first retreat across the Yellow River to ensure the way back, and then act at the opportunity." ”

"You can't quit." Cheng Yu objected: "Our army and Yuan Shao have been in a stalemate for more than two months, both of them are exhausted, morale is exhausted, retreat at this time, our army's morale will be severely damaged, Yuan Shao not only immediately understands that our army's southern front has changed, but also will definitely go all out to pursue our army, our army must cross the Yellow River and be dangerous, if Yuan Shao's army is raided when crossing the river, our army will inevitably suffer a heavy defeat, and the consequences are unimaginable!" ”

"Now that the troops are withdrawn, our army still has hope of preserving the main force." Xun You retorted: "But if we don't seize the opportunity to retreat now, and wait until the pottery thieves break through the chariot and continue to go north to cut off the return route of our army, it will be difficult for our army to return to Xuchang." ”

Refuted Cheng Yu, Xun You said again: "As for Yuan Shao's pursuit, this is not difficult to deal with, although the pottery thief has broken Xiahou Yuan, but it is inconvenient for him to contact Yuan Shao, even if he immediately sends a fast horse to detour to Qingzhou to send the news to Yuan Shao, it will be difficult to succeed without ten days and half a month, so our army only needs to tightly block the Yellow River crossing and the southern line checkpoint road, and do not give the Tao thief the opportunity to secretly deliver the news, and our army can win the precious time to calmly withdraw the troops." Then our army set up some more illusions, and disguised the retreating troops as a lure to the enemy to go deeper, so it would not be difficult to deceive Yuan Shao and calmly withdraw across the Yellow River. ”

"Mr. Gongda's plan is feasible." Mao Jue jumped out and arched his hand and said: "The scout of Yuan Shaojun, who was captured by our army before, said that he asked them to secretly count the number of cooking stoves in our army during the patrol period, obviously to guard against our army's secret withdrawal from the Yellow River. ”

Mao Jue's idea is really good, not only Xun You and Guo Jia are good, even Cheng Yu, who previously opposed the withdrawal of troops from the battle, also nodded his head and praised: "Mr. Xiaoxian's plan is wonderful, Yuan Shao is suspicious and indecisive, and he is cautious in using troops, although Cui Yan's surname is still not known, but the prime minister has always been known for his resourcefulness in using soldiers, Yuan Shao and others have repeatedly suffered big losses, even if they perceive that the situation is not good, they must also suspect that our army is luring them to fight, and they dare not take risks easily, so that our army can win the opportunity to withdraw calmly." ”

A few strategists boasted of themselves and said fieryly, but Boss Cao himself was always silent, his triangular eyes were just nervously calculating, and finally waited until a few strategists finished praising each other, and then Boss Cao groaned and said slowly: "Princess, I don't know who still remembers the battle between the Tao thief and Liu Bei Xiaopei back then, Liu Bei suddenly gave up Xiaopei and left when Lu Bu's reinforcements could arrive at the Xiaopei battlefield for reinforcements in only one day?" ”

"The prime minister laughed, how can we forget such a classic tactical deception war?" Cheng Yu bowed down and replied: "The reason why Liu Bei abandoned the city and left was because the pottery thief pinched Liu Bei's fear of Lu Bu's capricious mind, and sent a fake Lu Bu envoy to Xiaopei City, pretending that Lu Bu had broken off diplomatic relations with Liu Bei, so that Liu Bei thought that he was already isolated and helpless, and in order not to be trapped and killed in Xiaopei City by the pottery thief, he fell for the pottery thief's plan to abandon the city and leave. ”

"That's not right." Boss Cao shook his head and said, "There is still a key detail missing, in addition to sending a fake messenger, what else did the pottery thief use to deceive Liu Bei?" made Liu Bei completely desperate for Lu Bu? ”

"A dummy head made of wheat noodles!" Guo Jia replied: "After the Tao thief found out that Liu Bei's envoy was Sun Gan, he pinched Sun Gan's dummy head with wheat noodles, and asked the fake messenger to take it to Xiaopei City to show it in public, completely deceiving Liu Bei, a big-eared thief who was not under Tao Ying. ”

Boss Cao nodded slowly, suddenly patted the case in front of him, and said loudly: "I have made up my mind, first break Yuan Shao, and then break the pottery thief!" Break through each and protect my Yanzhou territory! ”

"Break Yuan Shao first? After the pottery thief? All the strategists were taken aback, and said together: "Yuan Shao can't defend the camp and can't come out, how can our army break it?" ”

"Of course, it's to retreat and lure the enemy." Boss Cao replied with a cruel smile: "Our army first retreated to the bank of the Yellow River, set up camp against the water, and then did not have to do anything the opposite, and directly followed Sun Bin's plan to increase troops and reduce the focus to lure the enemy, and finally ............." ”

Listening to Boss Cao's trick of lacking virtue that he had figured out, Guo Jia, Xun You and others were already ecstatic, and hurriedly saluted Boss Cao together, and said together: "Prime minister's clever plan, ghosts and gods are unpredictable, this time Yuan Shao will be defeated by our army, and Tao Ying's annihilation of thieves will definitely not be enough to worry about." ”

"Don't praise me, if you want to praise, praise the pottery thief." Boss Cao was also modest, waved his hand and said: "If it weren't for the pottery thief's brick throwing, I wouldn't have thought of such a strategy to win in defeat!" ”

After the modesty was over, Boss Cao quickly ordered: "Without further ado, our army must immediately split up, first, immediately block the road checkpoint with the south, and must not give the pottery thief a chance to secretly deliver the news!" Second, order the whole army to prepare for the deployment of the battalion, and as soon as the sky is bright, immediately pull out the camp and withdraw to the Cangting Ferry, and carry the water to the village! Third, immediately go to the army to find soldiers who look similar to Tao Ying's thief, and then bring them all to me, and I will personally select them! ”

All the strategists sang a promise together, and each went down to arrange, that night, more than 20 Cao soldiers who looked similar to Deputy Director Tao were led to Cao Boss, Cao Boss carefully identified and selected one of them, and then rewarded the other soldiers, ordering them to keep their mouths shut about the matter and put it back. In the end, in front of the soldier who looked most similar to Deputy Director Tao, Boss Cao finally said another famous sentence that has been passed down through the ages, "I want to borrow your head for a use, you can rest assured that you can go, and your wife and I will support her." ”

After saying this, without waiting for the unlucky man to open his mouth to beg for mercy, Dian Wei had already rushed up, cut off the head of the unlucky man with only one knife, and then carefully disguised the severed head, and quickly put it into a wooden box containing quicklime, wrapped in red brocade forging for later use, and the unlucky headless corpse was put into a sack by Cao Boss's henchmen and carried to no one for deep burial.

After making these arrangements, in the early morning of the next day, the main force of Cao's army immediately set up camp and retreated to the Yellow River crossing twenty miles to the south. And the scouts of Yuan Shaojun, who were monitoring the movements of Cao Jun's camp, did not dare to slack off, and immediately rushed back to Yuan Shaojun's camp on Pegasus and reported the matter to Yuan Sangong, whose hair was almost gray............

(To be continued)