In addition to using Sima Yi, Cao Cao also recruited a group of civil servants and military generals. Cao Cao, who was well armed and well-fed, had only one thought in his heart at this time, that is, to wave the army south and dominate the country.

Regarding the matter of the southern expedition, Cao Cao's subordinates had different attitudes. The generals are gearing up one by one, and they all want to show their skills and make new contributions. Wenchen suggested that Cao Cao continue to suspend his army and raise the people, and wait for the time. Xun Yu persuaded Cao Cao: "Now that the people are determined, the lord sits on half of the country, and he should obey the will of the people, govern benevolently in all directions, and deploy soldiers in the frontier." If this can be done, Liu Bei, Liu Biao, Sun Quan and others will not dare to attack, and civil strife will start. At that time, the lord waved his army south, and it was decided to fight. ”

Xiahoudun heard the words and said: "Recently, I heard that Liu Bei practiced soldiers every day in Xinye, and Sun Quan broke Huang Zu to catch up with Liu Biao. ”

Cao Cao knew that what these two people said basically represented the two views of the subordinate martial arts, and although Xun Yu's plan was safe, he didn't know when to wait, but what Xiahou Duan said was exactly what Cao Cao wanted. The ancients generally did not live long, and now Cao Cao is more than forty years old, and he also wants to see the unification of the world in his lifetime. So he didn't listen to Xun Yu's words and decided to send troops to fight Liu Bei first.

The decision to march south was not because Cao Cao was arrogant, but because Cao Cao had the confidence that he could pacify the south in one fell swoop. In fact, Cao Cao's mentality is very easy to understand, as long as you have played strategy games, you can understand it. It's like a player occupying half of the territory and resources, while the other half of the territory is still in a state of division between the six forces. At this time, the player who has the absolute advantage naturally wants to wipe out the remaining forces as soon as possible to win the game, rather than waiting for the six forces to fight and then take advantage of the chaos to attack, because the game can already be over.

Cao Cao ordered Xiahoudun to be the governor, Le Jin, Li Dian, Xiahoulan, and Han Hao as deputy generals, and led 100,000 troops to attack Xinye Liu Bei first. In Cao Cao's view, 100,000 horses are already several times the number of Liu Bei's people, and they can completely crush Liu Bei.

Xun Yu saw that Cao Cao insisted on sending troops and admonished: "Liu Bei is related, Zhang Er is the general, and Zhuge Liang is the military advisor, if the general Yuan Rang goes, he must not underestimate the enemy." ”

Xiahoudun said: "Liu, Guan, and Zhang are just defeated, and Zhuge Liang's nameless villager is like a mustard, why be afraid!" I am willing to capture Liu Bei alive for a while, capture Zhuge alive, and sacrifice the heads of the two to the prime minister. ”

Cao Cao said magnificently, and couldn't help laughing: "I'll wait for your good news to comfort my heart." When Xiahou heard Cao Cao's words, he led his troops straight to Xinye.

However, he said that Liu Bei had been treated like a teacher by Kong Ming, and Kong Ming tried his best to assist Liu Bei in practicing the soldiers and teaching the formation method. In the past, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei trained soldiers mainly to train physical fitness and fighting skills, while Zhuge Liang trained soldiers to emphasize orders and prohibitions and cooperation with the army. There is no difference between the two training methods, it can only be said that Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's training focuses on individual combat ability, while Zhuge Liang's training focuses on corps cooperation.

Zhuge Liang emphasized that the training formation was also a good guide for the situation, because there were two parts of soldiers and horses under Liu Bei, one was the veterans who had followed Liu Bei since Xuzhou, and the other was the recruits recruited by Xinye. Those veterans have been imprisoned all the year round, and General Zhang Er's training has gone through countless bloody battles, and there is no room for improvement in physical fitness and skills, but the cooperation of the battle formation can still be improved. And it is not realistic for those recruits to improve their physical fitness and skills in the short term, Zhuge Liang asked them to abide by military discipline and cooperate with each other, but they can quickly form combat strength and not escape from the battle.

Liu Bei admired Zhuge Liang's training method very much, but Guan and Zhang Erjun disagreed, thinking that Zhuge Liang's battle formations were all showy, although they were neat and beautiful, they had no practical value. Zhuge Liang didn't explain to the two, but just stepped up training.

On this day, the Malay newspaper said: "Cao Cao sent Xiahoudun to lead 100,000 troops to Xinye. ”

Zhang Fei has always been belligerent, and when he heard that Cao Bing arrived, he was not worried but happy, and smiled at Guan Yu: "This time, you can let that Kong Ming go to meet the enemy and see what he is capable of." ”

As soon as the words fell, Liu Bei sent someone to summon the two to discuss the matter. Liu Bei saw Guan and Zhang Erjun and said: "Xiahoudun led troops to arrive, how to meet the enemy?" ”

Zhang Fei said: "Kong Ming is a talented man who can be an army of 100,000, and my brother will send him there." ”

Liu Bei heard Zhang Fei say strange things on the side, glared at him and said: "Zhice is all thanks to Kong Ming, and two virtuous brothers are still needed for bravery, if you shirk it, I won't let you fight." ”

Although Zhang Fei said that he wanted Zhuge Liang to fight, he was looking forward to competing with Cao Jun in his heart, and when he heard that Liu Bei would not let him fight, he was honest at that time.

Liu Bei invited Zhuge Liang to discuss again, and Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "The lord doesn't need to panic, it is not difficult to win Xiahoudun in this battle, but the two generals Yunchang and Yide must listen to my orders." ”

When Liu Bei heard this, he handed over all the Lingqi and Lingqi to Zhuge Liang, and instructed the two to obey the order. Zhang Fei said to Guan Yu: "Let's see how he dispatches, the strategy is not effective." ”

Guan Yu opened his phoenix eyes slightly and said: "If you win this battle, it will be fine, if you lose...... Hum. ”

Zhuge Liang looked at the demeanor of the two in his eyes but didn't care, and assigned: "There is a mountain on the left of Bowang, named Yushan. There is a forest on the right, and the name is Anlin. Two places can be used to ambush military horses. Yun Chang can lead a thousand troops to Yushan to ambush ......"

The generals in the tent listened to Zhuge Liang's assignment one by one, that is, Liu Bei had to lead troops to battle, but Zhuge Liang had nothing to do. Guan Yu asked: "We all went out of the city to meet the enemy, what did the military advisor do?" ”

Zhuge Liang smiled: "I only sit in the county seat. ”

Zhang Fei sneered when he heard this: "I'm going to fight, but you are sitting at home, so comfortable!" ”

Liu Bei reprimanded: "Don't you hear that in the midst of strategizing, you will win a decisive victory thousands of miles away?" The two virtuous brothers must not disobey the order. ”

Although the generals didn't know Zhuge Liang's ability, they had to listen to Liu Bei's military orders, and they each led their troops to prepare to go. Zhuge Liang also ordered Sun Qian and Jian Yong to prepare a celebration banquet, and deliberately set the opening time for the morning after tomorrow, as if this battle would be won tomorrow. At this time, even Liu Bei felt that Zhuge Liang was a little too much, but he still followed Zhuge Liang's orders.

However, it was said that Xiahoudun led the troops to the front of Bowang City, and suddenly saw the dust in front of him, and it was obvious that there were soldiers and horses coming, so he ordered people to set up a formation to meet the enemy, and ordered Li Dian and Le Jin to hold down the formation. When Xiahoudun hit the horse forward, he couldn't help laughing when he saw the soldiers and horses in front of him.

Li Dian asked, "Why is the general laughing?" ”

Xiahoudun said: "How can I still think of Zhuge Liang, now look at the soldiers and horses in front of him, all of them are old and weak, and they are not in good clothes, and they are like pigs and dogs fighting tigers and leopards. Capturing Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang alive is today, how can I not laugh? "Say goodbye, and go forward.

Chen Zhi, who led the troops, saw Xiahou Dun coming out of his horse and stepped forward and said: "You should have killed him for no reason, but my lord is benevolent and unwilling to kill." You wait to retreat quickly, I will spare you and you will not die. ”

Seeing that Chen Zhi led more than a thousand old and weak soldiers and dared to shout in front of him, Xiahoudun smiled instead of anger: "You wait to follow Liu Bei, like a lonely soul with a ghost's ears!" ”

Chen Zhi was furious when he heard this, and he came to fight with a spear, and the two horses intersected and combined, Chen Zhi was defeated and left, and Xiahoudun chased after him. Chen was defeated and walked more than ten miles, returned to the horse and fought several times, and was defeated again. Seeing this, Han Hao slapped his horse forward and said to Xiahoudun: "Chen is tempting the enemy, I am afraid that there will be an ambush." ”

Xiahou said with a smile: "I know it, but such old and weak soldiers, even if they are ambushed from all sides, why should I be afraid?" Then he continued to catch up.

When Cao Jun chased to Bowangpo, suddenly a drum sounded, and Liu Bei led a thousand soldiers to kill and fought with Cao Jun in one place. Seeing that Liu Bei's soldiers were also old, weak, sick and disabled, Xiahoudun couldn't help but smile at Han Hao and said, "What can I do with such an ambush?" I don't swear to stop until Shinno tonight. ”

After a moment of fighting between the two armies, Liu Bei was defeated and left, and he joined forces with Chen Zhi to seize the road and run wildly. At this time, it was late, the clouds were thick, there was no moonlight, and the night wind was very strong. Xiahoudun only cared about urging the army to kill and capture Liu Bei alive, but he didn't know where to chase him.

Li Dian and Le Jin paid attention to the terrain while chasing, and found that there were reeds on both sides, and they were shocked, and hurriedly caught up with Xiahou and said: "The road here is narrow, the trees are thick, and it should be a fire attack." ”

Hearing this, Xiahoudun hurriedly ordered the army to be withdrawn, but the 100,000 army marched late at night, where could he stop for a while? At this moment, I heard the shouts of killing behind me, and a fire rushed to the sky, and the reeds on both sides were burning. It turned out that the two young generals, Guan Ping and Liu Feng, each led 500 soldiers to set fire here.

The reeds are flammable, and in an instant, they become a sea of fire in all directions, the night wind is strong, the fire is more fierce, Cao soldiers trample on each other, and countless people died. Xiahoudun went forward in flames but was blocked by Liu Bei and Chen Zhi, the two armies fought for a while, and the Cao soldiers who rushed out of the sea of fire were nine out of ten, leaving only one percent of the tiger and leopard cavalry to guard Xiahoudun to break out of the encirclement.

Seeing that the momentum was not good, Li Dian and Le Jin did not follow Xiahoudun to rush hard, but retreated to Bowang City. Unexpectedly, as soon as he came out of the sea of fire, an army of fire blocked the way. The first general, holding the Qinglong Yanyue Knife, was Guan Yu. The two generals knew that they were invincible, and after a scuffle, they rode away.

Xia Houlan and Han Hao wanted to save the grain and grass, but they saw that the grain and grass vehicles were all burned, and they were about to return to the horse and leave when they encountered Zhang Fei leading the troops to kill. Zhang Fei wielded the Zhangba snake spear to fight the two generals alone, and stabbed Xiahoulan under the horse within ten combinations. Han Hao was full of heart and gall and walked away from the path.

Liu Beizhong fought all night, and did not collect his troops until dawn, killing Cao Jun's corpses all over the field, and the blood flowed like a river. Xiahou lost more than half of his 100,000 horses and did not dare to fight again, so he packed up the remnants and returned to Xuchang.

Guan and Zhang Er will return victoriously, and when they meet halfway, they can't help laughing: "Kong Ming is an unpredictable prophet, comparable to Guanghua National Teacher." ”

When the generals gathered their troops and arrived at the city, they saw Zhuge Liang leading Sun Gan, Jian Yong and other ministers to greet them. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei dismounted to meet them, and they were all convinced of Zhuge Liang's clever calculations. Liu Bei ordered the soldiers to be rewarded with the grain and grass they had obtained, and then returned to the city to celebrate, and the banquet prepared in advance was just used, and the soldiers and the people were all happy.

After the celebration banquet, all the generals danced with their eyebrows and talked about how to kill Cao Jun in this battle. Only Zhuge Liang's face was gloomy, and Liu Bei couldn't help but wonder: "Why doesn't Mr. like it?" ”

Zhuge Liang said: "Xiahou is defeated, and Cao Cao will personally lead the army to come." Ten times the enemy can still be counted, and a hundred times the enemy is not a strategy to win. ”