In the pleading voices of dozens of officials, Cao Cao's anger decreased slightly, and he glared at Yang Xiu and shouted: "Zhongqing intercedes for you, and Gu will spare you the great mistake you committed this time." But the death penalty can be forgiven, but the living sin is unforgivable! Ordered Yang Xiuguan to be demoted by one level and punished with twenty rods to set an example! In the future, if there are any more people who withdraw from the army lightly, they will not be forgiven! ”

Yang Xiu looked at Cao Cao fixedly, and only after a long time did he kneel down to Cao Cao and salute: "Minister...... Thank you for the king's grace not to kill. Subsequently, two Tiger Guards stepped forward, set up Yang Xiu, took Yang Xiu to the open space of the military academy field, and beat the twenty boards fiercely. Yang Xiu was originally a literati, how could he have suffered such a heavy responsibility? Before he could be beaten with ten sticks, he had already fainted in pain, and by the time the twenty sticks were finished, Yang Xiu's back was already covered with flesh and blood, and then he was taken back to the camp where he lived like a dead dog by the Tiger Guards.

In fact, this is also Yang Xiu's own suffering, he usually relies on his own cleverness, always likes to guess Cao Cao's thoughts, and every time in the public, Cao Cao's inner thoughts are made public, and over time, Yang Xiu's approach caused Cao Cao's dissatisfaction. On the surface, Cao Cao has been praising Yang Xiu's talent and intelligence, but in fact, Cao Cao has long looked at Yang Xiu unpleasantly. Cao Cao's personality is changeable and suspicious, as a superior, what he dislikes the most is that his subordinates can peek into their own minds, if Yang Xiu can be like Guo Jia, after peeking into Cao Cao's thoughts, he can solve problems for Cao Cao, arrange some things for Cao Cao that he is not good to come forward with, or block some things for him that he verbally promised, but in fact did not want to do that, then Cao Cao may be very serious to Yang Xiu; But Yang Xiu didn't do that, while he guessed Cao Cao's thoughts, he didn't know how to be flexible, and he didn't make any suggestive plans for Cao Cao in essence, but was complacent, repeatedly showing off in front of people, and telling Cao Cao's thoughts in a straightforward manner. With the ability to guess Cao Cao's thoughts, and Guo Jia is simply one heaven and one underground, it is not surprising that Cao Cao took the opportunity to kill Yang Xiu.

That night, several officials who had a good personal relationship with Yang Xiu came to visit him in Yang Xiu's tent, and one of them inadvertently said that the secret word of the patrol soldiers tonight was "chicken ribs", Yang Xiu couldn't help but smile and said: "I'll just say, I understand the king's thoughts best." How could you guess wrong? The king had actually decided to withdraw from the army in his heart, but he was embarrassed to give the order directly in front of everyone during the day. After a few people go back, they can pack their luggage, and the king will soon retire from the army, so as not to panic when he arrives. ”

After hearing Yang Xiu's words, one of them hurriedly covered Yang Xiu's mouth and said in a low voice: "During the day, you suggested retreating, and the king almost beheaded you." You don't repent, but you lie like this! ”

Yang Xiu slapped away the hand covering his mouth, and said with a smile: "'Chicken ribs', it's a pity to abandon it if it's boring to eat." The king used chicken ribs as the code words of the patrol soldiers, and he must have seen the current situation of our army very clearly, our army is really in a dilemma at present, and the king is just worried that the withdrawal of the army will cause a low morale in the army. But rest assured, within three days, the king will order the army to retreat! ”

Yang Xiu's explanation. The other people suddenly realized, so after comforting Yang Xiu a few more words, they left in a hurry, each returned to his tent, and began to pack his luggage and prepare for the retreat.

Cao Ren, who was in charge of the inspection, couldn't help but wonder in his heart after seeing these civil officials packing their luggage, and after careful inquiry, he knew that Cao Cao used 'chicken ribs' as the meaning of the code word, and hurriedly began to pack up and prepare to withdraw at any time.

However, it was said that Cao Cao couldn't sleep at night because of the fiasco during the day, and he couldn't sleep after lying on the bed for a long time, so he simply put on a piece of clothing and walked out of the Chinese army's tent and began to patrol around the camp, but unexpectedly found that nearly half of the soldiers were packing their bags, as if Cao Cao had given the order to withdraw the army.

Enraged, Cao Cao called Cao Ren over and reprimanded him fiercely. Cao Ren didn't dare to hide it, so he relayed Yang Xiu's words to Cao Cao. Cao Cao was furious when he heard this, pulled out his Heavenly Sword and cut off the table, and said angrily: "Lone is suitable to say that he retired from the army?!" Yang Dezu is unrepentant and has repeatedly disturbed the hearts of our army, and he must not be spared this time! Cao Ren! You immediately lead the Tiger Guards to capture Yang Xiu, and immediately ask for beheading! ”

Cao Ren has been following Cao Cao for more than 20 years, knowing that Cao Cao is really angry, and he also knows that when Cao Cao is angry, no matter who persuades him, it will be useless, Cao Ren had no choice but to give a military salute to Cao Cao, and then turned around and walked out of Cao Cao's Chinese army tent, and went straight to Yang Xiu's tent with thirty Tiger Guards, and dragged Yang Xiu, who was directing the scholar to pack his bags, to the military academy field, and then the famous Tiger Guards cut off Yang Xiu's head with a knife, put it in a tray and sent it to Cao Cao. Cao Cao pointed to Yang Xiu's head and scolded for a long time, only then did he feel relieved, and ordered Yang Xiu's head to be buried separately from the corpse, so that Yang Xiu ended up with a miserable end without a corpse.

Although Yang Xiu was beheaded, the difficult situation Cao Cao was facing now did not improve because of this. On the second day, Ao Lie ordered 800,000 elite soldiers of the Northern Han Dynasty to rise up from the village, advance forward five miles again, and set up camp less than ten miles away from the Wei army's Dazhai, and continued to maintain the coercion of the Wei army soldiers by boiling frogs in warm water. In this regard, Cao Cao was helpless, so he could only order more guards, patrolling back and forth within five miles of the camp day and night to prevent Ao Lie from leading the army to launch a surprise attack. As long as the morale of the two sides could not return to the same starting line, Cao Cao would never rashly launch a counterattack, because he knew that in the case of a huge difference in morale between the enemy and us, he could only hold on and never engage the enemy.

What Cao Cao thought in his heart was exactly what Ao Lie thought in his heart. It's just that the two have different stances on the issue. Cao Cao wanted to revive the morale of the army in the short term and strive to close the gap with the Northern Han soldiers; What Ao Lie wanted was to keep the morale of the Wei army suppressed, so that they would always be at a low point and unable to launch a counterattack.

Therefore, on the third day of the confrontation between the two armies, Ao Lie once again ordered to advance five miles, and approached the Wei army's Dazhai to set up camp, the two Dazhai were only three miles apart, and each other could even clearly see every move in the other camp. At a distance of three miles, it has entered the edge of the range of red-clothed ballistas, and the hundreds of red-clothed ballistas displayed in the Han military camp have already been loaded with crossbows, scattering a terrifying cold light in the direction of the Wei army's camp. However, Ao Lie did not give the order to activate the red-clothed ballista, and his purpose in putting the red-clothed ballista out was not to cause damage to the Wei army, but to further disintegrate the Wei army's will to fight. Let's ask, surrounded by red-clothed ballistas, who in the world can sleep peacefully?

The soldiers of the front battalion of the Wei army, after spending a day in trepidation and fear, did not get Cao Cao's order to withdraw the army, and when the night came, they were all bitter, and they did not even dare to go into their tents to sleep, lest they were in their sleep, and they were taken away by the red-clothed crossbow shot from the air. As a result, in the direction of the Wei army camp closest to the Northern Han Dazhai, there was a rare scene in a hundred years, groups of Wei soldiers gathered together, set up several layers of thick wooden planks five feet above the ground, and put seven or eight shields upside down on the wooden planks, and then sat together in crowds, staring at the dark night sky with wide eyes, and the tent that was supposed to be for them to rest was empty.

At the same time, looking up at the night sky, there was also Ao Lie.

Ao Lie tilted his head and looked at the night sky intently, as if there was something special in the night sky that attracted him. Zhuge Liang, who was standing beside him, also looked up at the night sky several times, but he didn't see anything, the dark night sky didn't even have a star, which made Zhuge Liang, who was the best at stargazing at night, feel that the night sky tonight was really boring, and he really didn't understand what Ao Lie was looking at.

After a long time, Ao Lie withdrew his gaze looking at the night sky and said slowly: "Kong Ming, are you wondering, what is so-and-so looking at?" ”

Zhuge Liang replied honestly: "Yes." ”

Ao Lie turned his head to look at Zhuge Liang, showed a smile, showed two rows of neat white teeth, and said mysteriously: "Actually, something is not watching. Just now, I was just wondering if Cao Cao would be standing under the same night sky as us, and he was also looking up at the night sky. If he's looking, guess what's he going to see in the night sky? ”

Without waiting for Zhuge Liang to answer, Ao Lie seemed to ask, and said as if talking to himself: "The night sky is as dark as ink, and there is not even a star, which may make Cao Cao feel a little lonely, right?" After a pause, Ao Lie's tone suddenly changed to affirmation, and he said seriously: "Guandu is a good place. At that time, a certain person was in the north and Cao Cao was in the south, and they jointly attacked Yuan Shao, and he defeated Yuan Shao's southbound troops at Guandu, thus establishing the status of the overlord of the Central Plains. Now, it's time for Guandu to once again become a place of new witness to history. ”

Zhuge Liang listened to Ao Lie's words word for word, and after pondering for a moment, he bowed his hand to Ao Lie and said, "Liang understands." Please rest assured, eldest brother, Liang will definitely try to force Cao Cao to Guandu, where he will start a decisive battle with him. Guandu will surely become the main battlefield of another battle, this time, it will be us who will decide the world in the battle of Guandu! ”

Ao Lie smiled, his smile was filled with endless confidence: "The victory in the first battle of Guandu belongs to Cao Cao, where he won more with less, and fought the most beautiful battle of his life, and now, so-and-so is going to completely defeat him in the place where he became famous!" Guandu is the best place for him to bury his bones! This is the reincarnation of his fate, and it is the end of my Han world! (To be continued......)