In the battle of Hangu Pass, the Cao army team lost unusually aggrieved and depressed, and the loss was far greater than the Cao army decision-making level imagined, because the terrain of Hangu Pass was placed here, and the valley road with only more than ten meters at the widest point was more than ten Han miles, and there was basically no space and room for roundabouts in the valley, as long as the Cao army team did not risk rushing out of the valley road, the Xuzhou army had almost no chance of surrounding and annihilating a large number of Cao army troops.

Therefore, before this, the decision-making level of Cao Jun unanimously determined that even if the treacherous and abnormal Deputy Director Tao suspected that Cao Boss was cheating death to lure the enemy, and arranged a large army to respond to the sneak attack army, and even concluded in advance that Cao Boss was just cheating to death, and in turn setting up an ambush to encircle and annihilate Cao Jun's troops out of the pass, it would be difficult to cause big losses to Cao Jun. As long as the Cao army team does not be greedy for merit and chases out of the valley road and goes deep into the open area east of the narrow valley road, then no matter how many ambushes the Xuzhou army has arranged and how many elites have been dispatched, the Cao army team can also calmly retreat to Hangu Pass by virtue of the terrain advantage, and will not pay big losses.

But what poor Boss Cao, Guo Jia, and Cheng Yu never dreamed of was that Deputy Director Tao would be vicious and evil to this extent, and would even make all his sneak attack team wear Cao Jun's clothes, and use the cover of night and smoke to blend into the Cao army's exit team, forcing Cao Boss to the point where he didn't dare to let the exit army go back to the customs to flee for his life!

As a result, all the wishful thinking of Cao Boss was completely frustrated, and in the case that the strength was far inferior to the Xuzhou army, he was forced to let Zhang Liao's team and the main force of Xuzhou start a field battle, or in the case of Zhang Liao's team mixed with a large number of Xuzhou meticulous work, and the main force of the Xuzhou army to start a decisive battle outside the pass. A big battle came down. Of the nearly 7,000 troops who went out to fight Cao's army, less than 1,500 were able to escape back to Hangu Pass, and the rest were either captured or annihilated by the Xuzhou army, and the casualties included a large number of the main combat forces in Zhang Liao's team, as well as Zhang Liao's deputy Feng Kai.

Fortunately for Cao Laoda, whose talents are withering day by day, Xiahou Shang and Niu Gai successfully escaped back to Hangu Pass, and Zhang Liao, the general of the palace, with the help of ropes, also escaped back to the wall - the price was that more than a dozen of his own soldiers who covered Zhang Liao's retreat were all killed, and Zhang Liao, who was hard tied to the rope by his own soldiers, was also shot by the bow and arrow of the Xuzhou army when he was in Shangguan. With a lot of injuries.

Lost about a fifth of the team in one go. Boss Cao, whose vitality has long been injured and can no longer be injured, is optimistic and free, and it is inevitable that he will be so angry that he will cough up blood on the spot, and his condition will worsen and he will almost faint on the wall, and he will be sad and angry. Boss Cao was inevitably a little suspicious and surprised. I don't know exactly where I'm exposed. Let the unscrupulous son-in-law completely conclude before the war that he is just cheating to death to lure the enemy? Arranged such a shameless and ruthless poisonous plan to harm yourself?

Killed 1,000 enemies and lost 800 themselves, although the Xuzhou army had the upper hand from beginning to end during this war. , but because Zhang Liao's team was desperately resisting in a desperate battle, the Xuzhou army also paid a lot of price in this battle, with more than 1,800 soldiers killed, and less than 200 of the 500 elite soldiers who wore Cao Jun's clothes and blended into the enemy group, and only less than 200 people returned to the main force - more than 300 Neiyingzhong who sacrificed, and quite a lot died under the swords and arrows of the Xuzhou army soldiers. With the initiative fully in control, the casualty ratio of the weaker enemy barely reached 1 to 3, which was definitely a crushing victory.

Whether it is a big victory, a miserable victory, it is always a happy event to be able to win a battle, so after the war, when the Xuzhou army cleaned up the battlefield, the team was still full of festive atmosphere, and there were many Xuzhou soldiers who showed their taunting skills, shouting and scolding outside the range of the wall, provoking the Cao army team that did not dare to show their heads in the pass, and some Xuzhou soldiers with reckless personalities pulled out a Cao army soldier who hid in the pile of corpses and pretended to be dead, and pulled him to the pass to punch and kick, abuse and humiliation, in order to punish him for the crime of hiding. By the way, vigorously provoke the Cao army team on the wall.

After drinking these reckless Xuzhou soldiers, Deputy Director Tao personally picked up the Cao soldier who had been beaten to the blue nose and swollen face, and apologized to him face-to-face, saying that he was not thoughtful, and had forgotten to explain the prohibition of abusing prisoners, so that he was wronged, and the Cao soldier was grateful, and quickly kowtowed to Deputy Director Tao in public to thank him, expressing his willingness to surrender.

Immediately afterwards, Deputy Director Tao issued an order to all the officers and men of the army to strictly prohibit the abuse and humiliation of the captured or surrendered enemies by the ranks of the Privy Army, and announced that the officers and men of the Cao Army who surrendered and were captured would be treated the same as the soldiers of the Privy Army. Then Deputy Director Tao ordered the guards to go to Hangu Pass with white flags in hand, and loudly explained that the torture of the prisoners by the Xuzhou Army officers and soldiers just now was only a personal act, and not from the Xuzhou Army's decision-making level and Tao Taiwei, who loved the people like a son, and publicized Deputy Director Tao's order to treat Cao's prisoners of war well, so as to redeem the influence, buy people's hearts and shake the enemy's stubborn determination to resist.

After personally whipping the chief of Xuzhou, who took the lead in abusing the captives, in public, Deputy Director Tao returned to the command platform, and did not rush to order the withdrawal of troops, but just asked the guards to bring the Cao army soldier who was personally rescued by himself to the front, first comforting him with kind words, and then asking the guards to bandage his wounds, and then asked his name, place of origin and team. And the Cao Jun soldier thanked Deputy Director Tao for his rescue, so he truthfully answered the questions one by one, saying that his surname was Chen Mingtie, a native of Liangzhou Fufeng, who had joined the Cao Army team for less than three years, and belonged to the team under the command of Zhang Liao's deputy Feng Kai.

"It turns out that you are a corporal under General Zhang Wenyuan." Deputy Director Tao nodded, and suddenly asked the Cao army soldier named Chen Tie: "This time you went out to fight, can General Zhang He's team participate?" ”

"This ......, it doesn't seem to be." Chen Tie replied honestly: "Master Taiwei, the villain is just a pawn, I don't understand and I don't know if there is a team under General Zhang He to participate in the battle, but there should be none, General Zhang He is in charge of the rear army, and his team generally does not come to the east gate of Hangu Pass." ”

"No wonder I couldn't find Zhang Junyi's corporal among the prisoners." Deputy Director Tao said suddenly, and then Deputy Director Tao pondered for a moment, and then asked Chen Tie: "Chen Tie, are you willing to surrender to our army?" ”

"Yes, yes, a hundred villains are willing." Chen Tie hurriedly knelt down on his knees, kowtowed and said, "If it weren't for the Taiwei Master to save his life just now." The villain may have been killed by several generals, the lord is gracious, the villain will never forget it in his life, the villain is willing to surrender, and the villain will do whatever the lord wants the villain to do. ”

"Good." Deputy Director Tao nodded with satisfaction, and suddenly said: "Chen Tie, from now on, you are a member of the imperial court, and I will reward you with two catties of gold and silver." Thirty acres of fertile land. If you want to continue to be a soldier, I will make you Dubo, and if you don't want to be a soldier, I will make you a county city gate tax collector. Let you have no worries about food and clothing for a lifetime. ”

"Master Taiwei. Are you serious? Chen Tie was so surprised that he felt that he must have heard it wrong. Trembling and asked, "Master, do you really want to be so good to the villain?" ”

"Of course." Deputy Director Tao smiled and said, "Of course." It's certainly not for nothing that I reward you so much, you have to do something for me, and I can give you these rewards when I do it. ”

"Huh?" Chen Tie's surprise froze on his face, and it took a while to come back to his senses, and he kowtowed again and said: "Okay, the master is the villain's life-saving benefactor, don't say that the lord still has a heavy reward, but there is no reward, what the lord wants the villain to do, the villain will do." ”

"That's it." Deputy Director Tao was still satisfied with Chen Tie's reaction, and first asked the guard to take a small golden cake to reward Chen Tie, and then said: "This is the reward for you first, not counting the reward I promised you, what I want you to do is not difficult, you heard about it......." ”

………………

After cleaning up the battlefield, Deputy Director Tao finally ordered the withdrawal of troops and left, and also arranged for Wei Yan to lead the elite soldiers, with all the wounded soldiers and prisoners, and carefully withdrew from the narrow Hangu Guangu Road, and the Cao army team did not dare to chase, but sent some scouts out of the pass, monitoring the withdrawal of the Xuzhou army from a distance, and beware of the Xuzhou army suddenly turning back and attacking. But fortunately, nothing like this happened, and at the same time, to the surprise of Cao's team, Chen Tie, a soldier of his own who had been dragged to the pass by Xuzhou soldiers to beat and abused, was actually left at the scene by Deputy Director Tao, and he also held a letter saying that Deputy Director Tao wanted to give it to Cao Boss himself.

The news was sent back to Guannei, and Boss Cao, who had just personally inspected the rescue of the wounded soldiers, did not refuse, despite the fact that his condition had worsened and he had not slept for nearly a day and a night, he asked the soldiers to escort Chen Tie back to the Hangu Guancheng Tower, and asked Chen Tie about the situation in person. Chen Tie replied according to Deputy Director Tao's instructions: "My lord, after the villain was rescued by Master Tao, Master Tao asked the villain to send medicine and rewarded the villain with a golden cake, so that the villain came back and sent a letter for him, so the villain came back again. With that, Chen Tie hurriedly picked up the letter in his hand.

Coughing and thinking for a while, Boss Cao still couldn't hold back the curiosity in his heart, and asked the guard to forward the letter to him, opened the unsealed envelope and took out the letter, but saw Deputy Director Tao write crookedly in the vernacular on the letter: "Lord Yue, my son-in-law kowtowed to you, Lord Yue, although your plan to pretend to be dead is wonderful, but you seem to have forgotten one thing, the medical skills of the son-in-law are even admired by Nanyang Divine Doctor Zhang Ji Zhang Zhongjing and Peiguo Famous Doctor Hua Tuo Hua Yuanhua, is it possible for you to die suddenly, Can the son-in-law not see it? Eat more fish, shrimp and crabs, it's good for your body, goodbye to the son-in-law, well-known. ”

After reading the handwritten letter of his son-in-law, Boss Cao's already ugly face inevitably became even more ugly, and he scolded, "Traitor! Bullying Lao Tzu doesn't know medical skills? Fish, shrimp and crabs are all hair, the more you eat, the more sick you are, and you even persuaded Lao Tzu to eat more, Lao Tzu's daughter married you, it was really bad luck for eight lifetimes! ”

"My lord, what does the letter say?" Guo Jia asked curiously, Boss Cao threw the letter to Guo Jia angrily, and said hatefully: "It's all nonsense, just showing off his superb medical skills as a traitor." ”

Guo Jia picked up the letter that fell on the case, coughed and read it carefully, Cheng Yu also came over to read it together, after reading it, Cheng Yu sighed quietly, some believed that it was really Deputy Director Tao who saw the truth of Boss Cao's illness, but Guo Jia was suspicious, thought about it, and then coughed and said to Boss Cao: "Lord, do you think that Tao Ying's traitorous letter seems to be a little trying to cover it up, and add to it?" ”

"How do you want to cover it? Draw a snake then put legs on it? Boss Cao hurriedly asked.

"Although Jia is not proficient in medical Taoism, he also knows how to check the condition, and he needs to look and hear to know the severity of the disease." Guo Jia replied: "The day before yesterday, the lord and Tao Ying answered on the battlefield, more than 20 steps apart, at that time, the lord and you deliberately pretended to be extremely ill, Tao Ying is proficient in medical skills, how can you determine your condition just by observing 20 steps away?" ”

Raising this question, Guo Jia coughed again and added: "Take 10,000 steps back." Even if Tao Ying really had such miraculous medical skills, why did he write a letter to show off to the lord? And for this reason, he released a prisoner of war of our army and rewarded a golden cake for our prisoners of war? With such a lot of effort, is the pottery thief just to tell the lord that he is a doctor of power? ”

Boss Cao also began to be suspicious, and after thinking about it for a long time, Boss Cao suddenly remembered a big question and blurted out: "Could it be that the pottery thief is covering up for his traitor?" deliberately falsely claimed that it was he himself who found out that I could not have died of illness suddenly, misleading me, so that I would not suspect that there was a traitor hiding in the army?! ”

"It's possible!" Cheng Yu also came to his senses. Busy said: "Lord." Regardless of whether the pottery thief is deliberately showing off or trying to cover up, this matter should be carefully investigated to see if someone has reported your situation to the pottery thief. ”

Boss Cao nodded, and immediately made up his mind to investigate this matter carefully. Then Boss Cao caught another glimpse of Chen Tie, who was still kneeling in front of him. Then he commanded, "Go down." still return to the team as a soldier, and the pottery thief will reward you with a piece of gold cake, and you will keep it carefully. It's none of your business to be captured this time. I don't blame you. ”

"Thank you, Lord." Chen Tie kowtowed and was about to leave the building, but Cheng Yu told him uneasily: "You wait, remember, the pottery thief rewarded you with gold, and you must not publicize it to the outside world, and you have to tell other soldiers that the pottery thief is hypocritical to you because he wants to send you to deliver a letter, in fact, the pottery thief team is desperately abusing and bullying our prisoners, do you hear?" ”

Chen Tie agreed, and then followed the Cao thief guards out of the customs building, and asked Cao Lao Davids where his team was, the guards told Chen Tie that it was Zhang Liao's team, which had suffered heavy casualties, that had withdrawn to the city to rest, and asked Chen Tie to go to the city to find his team. Chen Tie thanked him, but hesitated and refused to go down the wall, because when Chen Tie was escorted to the wall just now, he had already seen that the defenders of the east gate of Hangu Pass had been rotated into the team of the partial general Zhang He, and it was obvious that Zhang He had taken over the injured Zhang Liao to take charge of the defense of the east gate of Hangu Pass, Chen Tie was a pawn who was not subordinate to Zhang He's team, once he got off the wall, it would be more difficult to re-enter the pass than to ascend to the sky, and once Zhang He went up to the wall, he would definitely not go down easily without an order, and it was naturally difficult for Chen Tie to meet him again.

"Why don't you go?" Old David Cao asked strangely.

"It's ......." Chen Tie hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't resist the temptation of Deputy Director Tao's heavy reward, so he said: "General, the villain was originally on duty, and a change of clothes was placed on the wall, and the villain wanted to get it. ”

"Okay, where? I'll take you to get it. Cao Junwei said casually.

"No need, the villain can just get it himself, don't bother the general." Chen Tie hurriedly refused.

"No, close the walls and don't allow people to move around." Cao Jun's guards stiffened their faces.

"That's ......, that's it." Chen Tie didn't dare to insist, so he stepped down and said, "Don't take it, the villain doesn't want that dress." ”

Of course, those who can be Cao Lao David's soldiers are not ordinary soldiers, and in this era of backward productivity, a piece of clothing is not an ordinary object that can be dispensed with, so this guard of Cao Lao Dawei soon found that something was wrong, and shouted: "Stop, where are your clothes placed?" Take me to see it! ”

"General, no, the villain doesn't want it." Chen Tie's words trembled a little.

"I don't care if you want it or not!" Old David Cao shouted: "Say, where did you put that dress?" ”

"Little ......, the villain forgot."

Chen Tie had no choice but to cover up the previous lie with another lie, but Boss Cao's guards did not hesitate, and immediately grabbed Chen Tie, and said with a cruel smile: "Do you want to stay on the wall, do you want to get clothes, or do you want to do something?" Say! ”

Chen Tie's face became even more panicked, and he answered even more with the donkey's lips on the horse's mouth, and quietly took the thing hidden in his waist, ready to throw down the wall to destroy the evidence, but as soon as his hand moved, Cao Boss's guard immediately grabbed his hand, twisted his arm and pressed it, and then quickly touched Chen Tie's belt, and soon touched a hard object in Chen Tie's belt, and when he took out the hard object, Cao Boss's guard was immediately pleasantly surprised to find that this hard object turned out to be a sealed wax pill!

The next thing is simple, Chen Tie, who had just been sent out of the Guanlou, was immediately escorted back to the Guanlou, and Cao Laoda, who was analyzing with Guo Jia and others whether there might be a traitor, was shocked when he heard the report, and shouted at Chen Tie in anger: "Bold pawn, dare to cheat for Tao Ying's traitors, and say, what is going on?" Otherwise, heavy punishment will be served! ”

"The lord spares his life, the lord spares his life." Chen Tie hurriedly kowtowed, and said cryingly: "The villain doesn't dare, it was Master Tao who forced the villain to do this, if the villain doesn't do this, he will kill the villain!" ”

Crying and shouting, Chen Tie hurriedly and obediently reported the truth to Boss Cao, introduced the heavy rewards promised to him by Deputy Director Tao, admitted that he was greedy for these heavy rewards and promised to the Xuzhou Army as an internal response, and ventured back to Hangu Pass to deliver the letter. Boss Cao was shocked and angry when he heard this, and scolded: "The traitor raised by the son of a bitch actually came to plan again, pretended to write a letter to humiliate me, and took the opportunity to use the messenger to send another letter!" Say, who does the pottery thief want you to give this wax pill to?! ”

"Give it to General Zhang He." Chen Tie replied tremblingly.

"Zhang Junyi?!" Boss Cao was taken aback, and quickly crushed the wax pill found from Chen Tie's body, and took out the small cloth strip hidden in the wax pill, but saw a sentence written on the cloth strip in small characters, "Contact the messenger, unfortunately died in the chaos last night, send another messenger." In addition, Zhang Liao was injured and tried to take over the defense of the East Gate. ”

After turning over and looking at this three-inch-long strip of cloth for a long time, Tie Qing thought about it for a long time with a black face, and Boss Cao suddenly slapped the case and roared: "Discord plan!" Damn traitors, use the trick in the plan! I want to kill my love general, Zhang Junyi! ”

"It's a pity that it was exposed too soon." The master next to him, Bo Sima Lang, remained silent, and said secretly in his heart: "If this Chen Tiepifu was discovered by Cao Thief's eyeliner when he was delivering a letter to Zhang He, then the effect would be the best." But it's okay, at least I don't have to worry about being immediately suspicious for the time being. (To be continued......)