Because Cao manipulated the fact of disarmament, the original 2 million army began to be disbanded as an organization for a while, and only seven days later, only about 500,000 people remained in the 2 million Wei army under the new city.

What Cao Cao didn't expect was that some of the original veterans also took this opportunity to return to their hometowns, could it be that they really didn't think well of themselves?

The army of nearly 2 million has been sharply reduced to 500,000, and the expenditure on military expenditure is much smaller, but the strength of the Wei army has naturally decreased a lot, and it has been for a few months to raise a million troops in vain, which has made the Wei army's finances also have a huge deficit.

This result was completely unexpected by Cao Cao, originally he thought that the tiger had learned good skills from the cat, but now he knows that the master will always be the master, not the apprentice can be compared.

"Your Majesty, we only have 500,000 soldiers now, do you want to return to Yuzhou first?" Seeing that after the army was reduced by more than half this time, the strategist Xun You immediately raised his worries.

"Report!"

Just when Cao Cao wanted to approve of his forehead, the sound of a scout was completely heard outside the door, and then a scout with a three-color red flag on his back entered the tent, and then he knelt down on the ground without saying anything: "Your lord, around our army, I suddenly found a large number of soldiers of the Celestial Empire, look at their banners, there are vanguard legions, five legions and seven legions. Order, many of the soldiers who retreated from the army actually turned around from the mountains to the direction of the Heavenly Empire, and most of them threw their weapons in front of the mountain, which seemed to have thrown themselves into the enemy. ”

"What?" Suddenly hearing such news, Cao Cao's face turned pale, and then he suddenly covered his head with his hands, and then shouted, "Kill me." Suddenly, he passed out.

Originally, everything was not going well, Cao Cao's old problem and headache were committed, and now he was suddenly hit again, and he fainted.

Cao Cao was dizzy, and the whole tent was immediately chaotic, but fortunately, Xun You was calm, and he also heard the report of the scout captain just now, and knew that the situation outside was very bad, so he immediately said: "Come here, prepare a chariot, and send the king to Runan (Cao Cao called the king of Wei when he built the capital in Runan, which is far away from the Celestial Empire, and it is a relatively safe place). General Xiahoudun, you are responsible for the safety of the king's journey. ”

"Okay." Xiahoudun agreed, but when he thought of the situation in front of him, he still said with some worry, "It's just that I'm going to protect the king, what should I do here." ”

"I'll stop the Celestial Empire army." Xiahou Yuan stepped forward at this time. When attacking Liang County, he did not make meritorious contributions, but Cao Cao did not blame him, it made him feel extremely uncomfortable, and now that he has the opportunity to perform, he does not want to miss it.

With Xiahou Yuan standing up, Cao Hong and General Li Dian also made their debuts separately: "We are willing to cooperate with General Yuan to repel the siege of the Celestial Empire's army." ”

"Okay." Originally, Xiahoudun was still a little worried about Xiahou Yuan's safety, but when he saw Cao Hong and Li Dian both standing up, he finally nodded reassuringly, "In this way, I will leave an army of 400,000 to you, no matter what, to block the iron cavalry of the Celestial Empire, it is best to hit them hard." ”

In Xiahoudun's opinion, with these three famous generals, plus 400,000 elite veterans, it is still very possible to block the army of the three legions of the Celestial Empire.

"Okay." Xiahou Yuan, Cao Hong and Li Dian hugged their fists and responded to Xiahou Yuan.

In this way, the 500,000 troops were divided into two routes, with the 300,000 troops led by Xiahou Yuan's three generals to stay, and Xiahou Yuan with the other 100,000 troops and military ministers escorted the unconscious Cao Cao Nanzhong and retreated sharply.

That is, as soon as Xiahoudun and the others left, there were scouts who came to see that Lu Bu, who was the vanguard legion, actually led a large army to pursue Cao Cao, and at the same time, the fifth and seventh legions of the Celestial Empire also came to them in a left and right attack.

"It's so deceitful." Hearing that the Celestial Empire wanted to fight the king's idea, Xiahou Yuan was willing to follow, and immediately said to Cao Hong and Li Dian beside him: "Two generals, I promise you 100,000 soldiers and horses for each of you, and you will definitely block the soldiers of the Seventh Legion, the commander of the Fifth Army, and I will take 200,000 people to pursue Lu Bu, and this time I will definitely let him have no return." ”

"Get the order, take care, general." After hearing this, Cao Hong and Li Dian immediately clasped their fists and faced Xiahou Yuan, obviously they also knew that Lu Bu was not easy to deal with, and they had to be careful when they found such an opponent.

"Okay, take care of the two generals." Xiahou Yuan also clenched his fists and said, and then said to Niu Jin, the deputy general beside him: "Prepare war horses and armor, and gather soldiers and horses to pursue Lu Bu." ”

At this time, Lu Bu was indeed going around the new city and chased straight towards Cao Cao, who was fleeing.

Originally, Lu Bu was very puzzled by Zhang Chao's strategy of defending one city for three days and 50,000 soldiers in one city, and even asked Pang Tong, the military advisor on the side, but on this matter, Pang Shiyuan, who is known as a phoenix, could not get a glimpse of it, he just thought that this was a strategy to block the troops, and it was a kind of cannibalization by means of the city wall.

However, it was not until five days ago that they suddenly received a military order from Zhang Chao, saying that once they found that some soldiers in the Wei army had begun to flee the camp, they should be ready to annihilate Cao Cao before Xincheng.

Lu Bu was very puzzled by this sudden military order, after all, although there were Cao soldiers who fled at that time, it was not very serious, he really couldn't figure it out, it was not enough to defend the city with their strength, how could he take the initiative to attack?

It's just that this is Zhang Chao's order, and everyone doesn't dare to disobey, and Lu Bu also sent a large number of scouts to pay attention to the Wei army's every move.

Under this observation, it was discovered that the deserters of the Wei army were not a single star, and even a large area began to flee, and nearly two million enemies fled in a few days, and there were less than 500,000 people left.

This result surprised Lu Bu, and thinking of Zhang Chao's military order before, he hurriedly notified Xu Huang and Zhang Liao, asking them to join forces with him to encircle Cao Cao, and strive to destroy the main force of Wei in a battle.

When the order was issued, Lu Bu rushed out of the periphery of the new city with the vanguard army according to the previous plan, but at this time he happened to get the news of Cao Cao's defeat and escape, so he led the army to abandon Xiahou Yuan and others, but chased straight in the direction of Cao Cao's escape.

In the process of pursuit, Lu Bu also asked Xiang Junshi excitedly, why can the emperor make a judgment first, and what is the basis for all this?

Regarding Lu Bu's question, Pang Tong was ashamed, because he couldn't guess how Zhang Chao learned about this situation first and judged it so accurately.

In fact, this is also based on the judgment of human nature. Zhang Chao knew that it was impossible to hide the act of sticking tickets from Cao Cao, who was wise and scheming, forever. In the early stage, he was fooled, and he was carried away by countless benefits, but once he encountered his plan to block the enemy, he must have figured it out quickly, and at that time, he was likely to make the decision to take the initiative to disarm.

Although it may seem that active disarmament will be disadvantageous in the near future, it is clear that the long pain is better than the short pain compared to having a large army that cannot be sustained until there is a mutiny.

What kind of person is Cao Cao, that is a generation of heroes, and his vision is long-term and has a long-term view of the overall situation. For this reason, Zhang Chao guessed that Cao Cao would cut his troops, so he informed Lu Bu in advance to prepare for the siege.

Of course, if Cao Cao does not disarm, Zhang Chao will only be more happy, because after a long time, the army will not be able to pay more money, and the soldiers will not have food and drink, then not only will they run away, but they may rebel, if so, the Wei State can be self-defeating.

It's just that Cao Cao finally made the right decision and began to disarm, but he never expected that Zhang Chao expected the enemy to be the first, and the preparation would be so sufficient, and he also saw through the result one step ahead of himself, so he fell into passivity.

Lu Bu naturally couldn't think of so many things, what he had to do now was to catch up with Cao Cao, if he could capture him alive or give him the head, it would definitely be a great achievement.

The vanguard legion is full of elite cavalry, and their movement speed is naturally extremely fast, just after running for three hours, you can see the dust and smoke of Cao Cao's army from a distance.

The scouts in the Wei army obviously also noticed the army of Lu Bu behind them, although they didn't know what Xiahou Yuan and the others were doing at this time, but Xiahou Yuan, who was in charge of the army, discussed with Xun You, and still made the decision to send General Lejin with 30,000 soldiers to block the enemy.

With 30,000 against 200,000 vanguard cavalry, there is naturally no advantage, but there seems to be no better choice at this moment, as long as you can wait a little longer, presumably Xiahou Xuan's troops will definitely chase after him, and at that time everything will be handed over to him.

After Le Jin received the task, he took 20,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry and began to fortify in place.

For Lu Bu who came, Le Jin had no fear. The general died in a hundred battles, and the day he joined the army, he thought about such a result, which was nothing more than life and death one day earlier and one day later. Moreover, for the so-called world's number one general, Lu Bu, he also wants to compete.

Lu Bu was chasing with the cavalry in the vanguard regiment at this moment, and the scout scout in front suddenly came to report, saying that there were 30,000 Wei troops in front of the defensive formation, as the first fierce general Lu Fengxian said with excitement on his face: "I don't know who is coming?" But is it Xiahoudun? ”

Xiahoudun is the first fierce general under Cao Cao, and Lu Bu has long wanted to take his head, but he has been suffering from not having a chance.

"No, it's Lejin leading the team." The scout said in return.

"Lejin." Hearing this name, Lu Bu's face was a little unhappy, obviously feeling underestimated by the Wei army knowing that he had indeed sent such a general who was not very outstanding.

However, Pang Tong, the military advisor on the side, smiled and said: "Lejin this person, I have heard the emperor say that if you have some abilities, if you can, you might as well capture them alive, and the emperor will be very happy to come." ”