(Thanks to the Great Alliance.) Zhao Wuxian 2014, UFGW, xiaodaidai, Drunken Dream Dead, You Have Me, Bookworm 478)

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In the Battle of the White Horse, Yan Liang gave the head; In the Battle of Yanjin, Wenchou was defeated. The opening was a success, and both battles were won, which greatly boosted the morale of Cao's army, and at the same time, it also aroused the anger of Yuan Shao, who was full of confidence before, and strictly ordered Chun to cross the Qiong River to attack Cao.

On March 22, Chun Yuqiong led an army of 15,000 to cross the river and stationed in Yanjin.

Cao Cao's troops deployed on the front line of Baima and Yanjin at this time were: Liu Yan's 2,000 men, Cao Ang's 3,000 miscellaneous soldiers, Cao Hong, Guan Yu's 7,000 (the original 5,000, 2,000 prisoners), plus his personal 3,000 Chinese troops, which happened to be 15,000 people. Among them, there were not only elites, such as Cao Cao's central army, and Cao Hong's forward army, but also miscellaneous soldiers, such as Cao Ang's department, and unstable factors such as the newly surrendered Hebei soldiers. For Shangchun Yuqiong, it's really hard to say the winner or loser.

More importantly, once it is Chun Yu Qiongjiao, Yuan Shao's successor army arrives and will be surrounded by Yuan's army.

There is a huge disparity in the strength of the enemy and us, and since the goal of destroying the enemy has been achieved, Cao Cao will naturally not blindly harden the top.

At the beginning of April, Cao Cao decisively abandoned the White Horse front, and the army retreated in an orderly manner. All the way through Wuyuan, Yangwu, Fengqiu, until the edge of Jishui, finally there is no way to retreat, the camp is set up in a flat land in the southwest of the intersection of Jishui and the chasm, the locals call it Guandu.

This place is only more than 200 miles away from Chenliu, the base camp of Cao's Group, and it is indeed irreversible.

When Cao's army set up camp at Guandu and made every effort to build the last line of defense, Yuan Shao's army also crossed the Yellow River one after another and landed at Yanjin and Baimajin respectively. Although he lost two generals and lost nearly 10,000 horses, for Yuan Shao, who still had 70,000 soldiers and horses. The strength is still more than three times that of Cao Cao, and all Cao Cao can do is to defend, wait patiently for the opportunity, or counterattack, or survive until winter, and then finish the work. Cao Cao didn't know whether he could repel Yuan Shao, but judging from the current battle situation, there would probably be no problem until winter. As for defeating Yuan Shao...... Cao Cao never thought about it.

And right now, Yuan Shao thinks about it the most. is to defeat Cao Cao, it is best to capture this person alive and bring it to yourself. Well, what about the humiliation? Or is it so generous to raise a glass to invite? You have to think about this, think about it......

In mid-April, Yuan's army approached Guandu, and the two armies were separated by a chasm. Build a camp, set up obstacles, and build a fortified tool.

At this time, Xiahou Yuan and Xu Chu had converged. Cao's army has 20,000 troops, which is the largest force that Cao Cao can gather at the moment.

The two armies confronted each other across the river, and each other's large camps stretched for miles, especially Yuan's army. There were five large battalions, each with a capacity of 20,000 men, including the servants. An army of 80,000 or 90,000. The large and small camps are one after another, and there is almost no end in sight. I have to say that this numerical advantage has put a lot of psychological pressure on Cao Jun.

Next, the two armies began to test each other, each sending out sentry stints, doing everything possible to find out the opponent's military situation and logistics routes. At the same time, from time to time, small groups of infantry and cavalry were sent to fight, three or five hundred today, one or two thousand tomorrow, and within a month, there were no less than ten battles, and there were victories and defeats against each other, but there were not many soldiers and horses who lost each other.

In the middle of May, Cao Cao got the first piece of information from Luoyang, and the whole information did not contain a word, only a few place names: Baima, Pingyang Pavilion, Wating, Changyuan, Pucheng, Kuangcheng, Pingqiu. Finally, a circle was drawn at the Linji Pavilion south of Pingqiu and by the Jishui River, and among this string of place names, a zigzag red line runs through it.

Although there is no explanation, with the IQ of Cao Cao and Xun Yu, they can understand at a glance what this red line represents.

Cao Cao was overjoyed at first, and then asked Xun Yu: "Is it credible?" ”

Xun Yu asked rhetorically: "Ming Gong thinks that the horse hussar is willing to see me die at the hands of the Yuan family?" ”

Cao Cao no longer doubted, and ordered Xiahou Yuan to lead 800 cavalry to attack.

Xiahou Yuan received the order and asked the 800 cavalry to carry a bundle of hay and a small pot of fire oil on their backs, and leave the camp from the rear of Guandu and head towards Chenliu. Yuan Jun's sentinel saw it from afar and reported to the camp, but Yuan Shao only regarded it as a normal transfer of Cao's army and didn't care.

After Xiahou Yuan left the camp for fifty miles, he confirmed that he had gotten rid of Yuan's sentry and turned his horse eastward, from Junyi and Xiaohuang to Dongdu, making a big bend of more than 200 miles. Subsequently, the army turned north and went straight to Jishui. A day and night later, 800 cavalry troops appeared on the south bank of Jishui, and on the other side of the river was Linji Pavilion.

Here, mountains of grain and straw have been piled up, and hundreds of servants, either pushing pallet carts or driving horse-drawn carriages, have crossed the river from pontoon bridges to transport supplies to the front line for stockpiling.

The cavalry of the Cao army suddenly appeared, which caught the Yuan army's grain guard team by surprise, and before they could line up to resist the enemy, 800 cavalry soldiers were already under the command of Xiahou Yuan, like a huge arrow, shooting at a rapid pace, and breaking in in an instant. Subsequently, the giant arrow turned into a fire arrow, turning the pontoon bridge and grain cart in front of the Rinzai Pavilion into a fire dragon.

Xiahou Yuan's 500-mile raid was a great success, and Yuan's army suffered heavy losses, and was forced to abandon this transportation route.

Soon, the enraged Yuan Jun also retaliated.

At the end of May, the generals of the Yuan army, Zhang He and Gao Lan, each led a cavalry of about 300 men, also bypassed a big bend, avoided the eyes and ears of Cao's army, smuggled from the upper reaches of the chasm, and killed Chen Liu. In one day, six pavilions were destroyed. When Chen Liutai Shou Xiahou Yuan heard the news and led the army out of the city, the second general had already led the cavalry back along the original road, leaving only a village with thick smoke billowing and wailing.

This time, Yuan's army raided the rear of Cao's army, which also shocked Cao Cao and Chen Liuwei.

In this game, Yuan Cao and the two seem to be evenly divided. As a result, Yuan Shao began to consider choosing a secret and safe place to hoard grain. Cao Cao was also shocked by the intelligence capabilities of the Luoyang side, and it was then that he realized how important it was to "provide intelligence", one of the terms of the secret treaty that he didn't care about at the beginning.

The two battles of sneak attacks on the rear made both sides extra cautious, strengthened their vigilance, and released the patrol as far as a hundred miles. This sports war will not be able to be fought for a while and a half.

Yuan Shao, who was unwilling to be lonely, played a new tactic and started a long-range attack and harassment war.

He asked his soldiers to build a high earthen platform along the chasm, stretching for hundreds of zhang, and built a tower on the high platform, and then selected strong crossbowmen to climb the high platform and shoot at Cao Ying.

For a while, arrows rained down, and the soldiers who patrolled, stood guard, and guarded in front of Cao's camp were hit by arrows one after another, and even the camp prostitutes, servants, servants, and sergeants who went out of the camp to the river to freshen up were all affected. Under the random arrows, many people fell into the river and were swept away by the torrent. Some people even ran for their lives while holding the wooden basin while blocking the arrows, but the wooden basin was too small to cover the upper and lower parts, and they fell down with arrows in their legs, and finally they could not escape death......

Cao Cao had no choice but to evacuate the soldiers of the former battalion. So can Cao Cao also concoct the same method, and the high platform is still colored? The answer is no. Because no matter what kind of high platform he builds, it is within the range of the opponent's attack, and building a high platform against the rain of arrows is no different from sending him to death.

Yuan Shao is worthy of being a master of earth warfare: defeating Gongsun Zhan. relied on drilling holes in the wall, using tunnel warfare to increase fire, and broke Gongsun Zhan's thousand-heavy building; Fighting Cao Cao, he went the other way, building a high platform, and the arrows rained down, making Cao Cao lose his temper.

It is said that Cao Cao had Liu Ye to offer a "thunderbolt car" and used the earliest catapult in the history of Chinese warfare to destroy Yuan Shao's arrow tower, which was able to recover the decline. But on this plane. As a descendant of the royal family, Liu Ye could not vote for a local warlord. In fact, Liu Ye, who lived far away in Lujiang, had received the edict of the Son of Heaven at this time, and the Hussar General's Mansion was set up, and he was packing up. is ready to go north to serve his life, and there is no possibility of intersection with Cao Cao.

Cao Cao, who did not have a thunderbolt, except for the crossbowmen of the Yuan army who looked at the high platform arrow tower every day, and the sergeants who were named by the arrows of the Yuan army from time to time. There is also a growing list of casualties in his hand, which is depressed. Looking at the time, it's only July. There are still three to four months before Ma Han's requirements, and then, how can I survive?

What bothered Cao Cao even more was that there was not much food. The food support promised by Ma Han could only be mobilized from Yuzhou because it was inconvenient to export it directly from Hugao Pass. However, Yuzhou has been in turmoil, and it is difficult to raise food, so it has not arrived.

Just when Cao Cao was anxious, Liu Bei proposed to Cao Cao that he could use his relationship with the Han clan to ask Liu Biao in Jingzhou for help.

I don't know if Liu Bei's words were sincere and his performance was in place, which moved Cao Cao, or Cao Cao was sick and rushed to the doctor, and he actually agreed.

Liu Bei pressed the ecstasy in his heart, and the next day he carried Cao Cao's handwritten letter and the symbols to show his identity, and took all the white soldiers and more than 100 foot soldiers on the road, and entered Yuzhou from Chen Liuwu. Because Liu Bei was an envoy, Liang Guoshou general Ren Jun did not stay in trouble and let him pass.

At this time, Xun Yu, who had returned to Chen to recuperate, heard this, and hurriedly arrived in an ox cart, and said to Cao Cao as soon as he entered the camp: "Liu Yuzhou will not return on this trip." ”

Cao Cao was eating breakfast and was about to beckon Xun Yu to eat together, when he was stunned when he heard this, he couldn't believe it: "But Xuande's two righteous brothers are still in the camp, is it possible that he wants to abandon his brotherhood?" ”

Xun Yu shook his head: "Guan and Zhang will not be in the camp." ”

Cao Cao hurriedly sent someone to investigate, and the reward was that one of the two said to patrol the camp, and the other said to pick the camp, each with dozens of pawns, and disappeared early in the morning.

Cao Cao dropped the bowl on the spot.

Yes, Liu Bei defected, and abandoned Yuan to Liu, because the two generals of Yuan's army fell into the hands of his two righteous brothers. With Liu Bei's understanding of Yuan Shao, he knows that everything can no longer be done, and beheading Yan Liang can be said to attract Yuan Shao's attention, and Xuwen Chou's face is just a slap in the face. It is difficult to ensure that you will not be put on small shoes in this way, and maybe you will be hated, so you simply re-choose the main family and go south to Liu Biao.

Liu Bei's defection dealt Cao Cao a hard blow and dealt a heavy blow to his confidence. Just like the battle of Xiapi against Lu Bu, at the critical moment, Cao Cao was shaken again.

In mid-July, Cao Cao convened a military meeting in the tent of the Chinese army to discuss the feasibility of evacuating Guandu and retreating to Chenliu.

Most of the generals did not dare to express their stance lightly, only Xun Yu stood up and objected: "Although there is little food in the army today, it is not as good as Chu and Han in Xingyang and Chenggao." At that time, Liu and Xiang Moken retreated first, and those who retreated first were also succumbed. It has been half a year since the public lived in a very large number of people, painted the ground and guarded it, and choked its throat and was not allowed to enter. Seeing that the situation is exhausted, there will be changes, and this strange time must not be lost. ”

Cao Cao looked at Xun Yu and sighed: "Wen Ruo, are you telling me to grit my teeth again!" ”

Xun Yu said very seriously and bluntly: "Exactly, bite again, okay?" ”

What else can Cao Cao say? Real men can't say "no......

When Cao Cao struggled to support himself in Guandu and gritted his teeth for the last five minutes, Ma Han was also like a steppe wolf, patiently lying on the side and waiting for the opportunity.

On July 17, Yuan Shao, with his second son Yuan Xi as the main envoy and Xu You and Xin Ping as the deputy envoys, arrived in Mengjin from Hanoi and entered Luoyang to contribute to the Son of Heaven and ask for a title.

The long-awaited time has come. (To be continued......)