The next morning, Huang Zhong followed Qiao Ren's instructions and brought two hundred of Qiao Ren's personal guards, Ghost Face Knights. These ghost-faced knights can finally be regarded as serious cavalry, they have experienced several battles in Chibi, Lujiang, and Hefei, and the horses have also been replaced by Bingzhou horses, holding a short board Miao knife made of 100 steel, and hanging a three-shot repeater crossbow (Zhuge repeater is ten rounds, and there are three repeaters in the Han Dynasty) wearing a fish scale armor made of 100 steel, with a penetrating ghost face on the face, in order to scare the enemy in battle, it may be funny in modern times, but in ancient times, people were superstitious about ghosts and gods, and the effect of these terrifying ghost masks is still obvious.

The reason why he only brought so many people was also to escape, too many people were a drag on Huang Zhong, and two hundred cavalry was just right.

"Phew! Where is Prime Minister Cao? ”

Huang Zhong's flowing white hair is still a little chic in the wind, but it hurts those patrolling Cao Jun, what is this called? A general of the Wu army ran outside the camp of the hostile forces with two hundred cavalrymen wearing terrifying masks, shouting to see the enemy boss, and politely used the honorific title. The three heads of these Cao Jun's soldiers were not enough to react.

This can't be blamed on Huang Zhong, Qiao Ren's tone in the letter is to call Cao Ying as an elder, he Huang Zhong can't just say where Cao Thief is when he comes to deliver the letter!?

Cao Jun's big tent.

"Prime Minister, General Zang Ba urgently reported that Liyang had been occupied by the Wu army, and Sun Yi led 60,000 troops to take Shouchun by himself." Xun You, the military advisor of the army, opened his mouth and said that he knew the truth of self-preservation better than his uncle, and he still won Cao Ying's trust.

Xiahoudun's remaining eyes opened and closed, almost narrowing into a slit, "If Sun Ce is asked to take Shouchun, the back road of our army will be cut off, except for Xuzhou, which is the eastward advance, the only way to recapture Shouchun is to recapture Shouchun, but our army's grain and grass are only used for less than a month, which is the real trouble." ”

Shouchun is not just the retreat of the Cao army, Xiahoudun in order to pass through Huainan to put the grain and grass in Shouchun, there are 400,000 stones, in addition to 5,000 armor, 10,000 knives, it can be said that Shouchun is the general logistics base of Cao's southern expedition, and the supply of more than 100,000 Cao troops will be cut off as soon as Shouchun is lost.

The civil and military forces in the tent are not unwise, so they naturally understand the depth of this, and there are only three paths in front of them to choose from. One is to return to the army Shouchun, but there are two problems, Cao Jun may not be able to rush back before Sun Ce breaks Shouchun, and this road is also very likely to be attacked by Qiao Ren and Sun Ce, which is not advisable in the eyes of everyone. The second is the life of the three armies, to occupy Hefei before Sun Ce breaks through Shouchun, but is Hefei so easy to occupy? In the past month, the corpses of more than 10,000 Cao Jun have proved that Hefei is an iron thistle, and it is not possible to touch it, and Sun Ce may not return to the army to rescue Hefei. In the end, the only thing left was to withdraw the army immediately and take advantage of Xuzhou, but in this way, Huainan would be lost, and no one could afford this responsibility.

Therefore, all the civil and military forces in the tent were silent for a while, except for one person, "What about General Zang Ba?" Sima Yi came out and asked, and the object of his question was naturally Jia Xu, who was in charge of intelligence.

Jia Xu stared at Sima Yi in surprise, and thought to himself, "I just received this information, he shouldn't know, so it seems that this person should not be underestimated." Although he was wary of Sima Yi in his heart, he said with that dead fish-eyed expression on his face: "Zang Xuzhou led the remnants of the army to Shouchun after losing Liyang. ”

Zang Ba actually did not meet with Cao Ying after losing Liyang, but judged the situation and decided to return to Shouchun, I am afraid that he expected Sun Ce to go north to Shouchun at the beginning!

"Report! There is Wu Jun outside the prime minister asking to see! A tiger guard passed on the words of the governor on his behalf.

Cao Ying is also confused, what kind of trouble is there at this time? Wu will ask to see Lonely. Cao Ying was full of doubts and asked, "What do you mean?" ”

It was also the first time that the tiger guard saw Cao Ying's puzzled expression, and he was shocked and still said truthfully: "There is a veteran with white hair outside the village, saying that he wants to see the prime minister!" ”

"Meng De, I'm afraid it's a war book, just go and see it!"

"Good!"

Half an hour later, Cao Ying read a silk book with a smile on his face, looking at the crow's feet in the corners of his eyes more obvious, and the weird smile made the people in the tent secretly frightened. Suddenly, the atmosphere in the tent became more stressful than it had been discussed before.

"Haha!!" Cao Ying stroked his beard and laughed: "Qiao Ziyan doesn't bully orphans!" ”

At this time, Jia Xu also became interested and asked, "Prime Minister, what did Qiao Ren say?" ”

Cao Ying glanced at Jia Xu, whose face of the dead man had changed slightly, and secretly laughed, this Jia Xu has always been a dead man's expression, and this time it will actually move him, but for this real henchman, Cao Ying has nothing to hide. "Qiao Ziyan said to me, 'Spring water Fangsheng, the public should go quickly. Uncle is not dead, and his heart is not at peace.'"

"Oh!" Jia Xu also heard the three flavors, this previous sentence seems to be a little abrupt, but in fact, it is Qiao Ren who is demonstrating! The spring rain is about to fall, and the water level of the various rivers in Huainan is about to rise, and then the warships of the Hou Wu army can drive directly from Chaohu Lake to Shaobi, but the Cao army has nowhere to escape. The latter sentence looks a bit like looking forward to Cao Ying's death, but in fact it is an out-and-out compliment, Cao Ying made it difficult for Qiao Ren to sleep in Huainan!

"Then how is the prime minister going to prepare?" Jia Xu asked Cao Ying quietly, if he didn't grasp Cao Ying's thoughts, Jia Xu would never take the initiative to make a plan.

Cao Ying has long been accustomed to Jia Xu's habits, and he is not a pestle, and said lightly: "The lonely body fell into the root of the disease in the past, and the joints were sore in the rainy season!" ”

"Since the prime minister is wet and cold, don't stay in Huainan for a long time, I heard that there is a herb in Hanzhong that can cure this disease, and I think that the prime minister might as well go to Hanzhong to take a look." The light in Jia Xu's eyes can't deceive people, I'm afraid this herb is Zhang Lu.

Hanzhong? That's right, Liu Bei is the enemy. Sun Ce is brave but only stronger than the water army, what if he gives Shouchun even Huainan to him?! If he dares to enter the Central Plains lightly, Lone will teach him a lesson. Hanzhong is going to be decided!

"The lonely mind has been decided, and the army has retreated to the Central Plains." Cao Ying stood up and looked at Hefei City not far away and said.

Xiahoudun, the general of the unified army, spoke, "Where to withdraw the troops!?" ”

"Shouchun!"

Don't look at Shouchun only has thousands of soldiers and horses and Sun Ce has 60,000 troops, but it is not so easy to fight, and there is no Wu army to the east of Shouchun, even if Shouchun loses it, he can withdraw from the east of Shouchun. The most important thing is that Cao Jun's grain and grass are only the weight of January, of course, they have to retreat to the nearest Shouchun, and Liyang is not a little bit far from Shouchun, even if Wu Jun leaves five or six days early, it may not arrive in Shouchun before Cao Jun.

The wind is surging, Cao Jun is worthy of being called the elite, and even the retreat is orderly, Qiao Ren in Hefei City suddenly looked at the retreating Wu army, but he was thinking in his heart whether Cao Ying would give up Shouchun and directly shrink the defense line to the Central Plains.

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