—184 A.D.——

Qingzhou, Jinan military camp big tent.

Xi Zhicai was sitting on the main seat, looking at a stack of information sent by the scouts, and there were Li Dian and Le Jin, who had been serving Cao Cao for a short time, on the left and right.

"Luoyang has issued a decree to order all counties and counties to arrest anyone who participates in Taiping Dao activities, which has caused those who still have doubts about the recruitment of Captain Zhang to surrender one after another," Xi Zhicai, dressed as a scribe, sat behind the table, casually flipped through two pages of information and looked at Zhang Jue: "The statistics two days ago show that there are 8,000 Taiping Daoists who have joined the lord, I wonder if the number is true?" ”

Zhang Jue had already changed out of his nondescript Taoist robe at this time, dressed more like a military doctor, and said in response: "Because of the robbing of the treasury by the Guancheng, in the past two days, thousands of shallow believers have come to vote in order to avoid being angered by local officials, and the total number has exceeded 10,000. ”

"In this way, according to the instructions of the lord, you are allowed to form a separate army, named the 'Qingzhou Army', and any Taiping Daoist disciples will be incorporated into this army in the future, however, this army will not be incorporated into cavalry, do you know why?" Xi Zhicai handed Zhang Jue a tiger talisman and asked at the same time.

"Hmm, you want to free up horses for the 'tiger and leopard horses' of the two Xiahou generals?" Zhang Jue took the Qingzhou Army Tiger Talisman and put it away properly, and then asked tentatively.

"No, because the 'life and death talismans' needed to heal horses are five times as many as ordinary people." Xi Zhicai said seriously: "It is inevitable that General Zhang's department will fall into the dilemma of saving people or horses first, so horses are not equipped." ”

"......" Zhang Jue was sluggish.

"Hahaha!" Li Dian, who was beside him, suddenly laughed, and hit Le Jin next to him with his shoulder: "Why are you stunned?" Laugh. ”

"What's funny?" Le Jin looked puzzled.

"Strange, my sixth sense tells me to laugh at this moment......" Li Dian muttered twice, and laughed again: "Hahaha!" ”

"Hmph, forget it," Xi Zhicai waved his hand: "If Wen Ruo or Feng Xiao are here, they will definitely find out where that words are ridiculous - now, the generals will listen to the order." ”

Li Dian hurriedly stopped laughing, and Zhang Jue also gave up thinking about why he didn't equip him with cavalry and waited for orders with the generals present.

"Order, General Lejin is the vanguard and leads 5,000 cavalry to chase after Guan Cheng and his subordinate 'Taiping Army', who harass the feudal states." Xi Zhicai issued a token.

"The last general will destroy and capture it as quickly as possible!" Le Jin stepped forward to take the order.

"No, you are only allowed to win this battle, not to chase, if the opponent starts to flee instead of putting on a posture to fight, immediately stop the attack and rest in place." Xi Zhicai said.

"Huh?" Le Jin looked confused again.

"General Li Dian, I order you to lead another 5,000 cavalry, follow the Lejin Division, and when he defeats the enemy, he will come forward to chase, but he is not allowed to engage the enemy head-on, once the other party stops, send a message to General Lejin to fight with him." Xi Zhicai issued another token.

"Uh...... Tired of soldiers? Li Dian shook his head and took the order.

"You can continue to guess~" Xi Zhicai smiled and turned to Zhang Jue: "General Zhang Jue led all the Qingzhou soldiers under his command, carrying twice the baggage, followed by the two generals, waving more flags, receiving the materials dropped by the other party, and persuading the prisoners to surrender." ”

"Military advisors can rest assured that those 'Taiping Army' are just being managed and carried around, and there are many people in our army who are familiar with them, and they will definitely be able to persuade most of them to surrender." Zhang Jue commanded.

"Now, you can guess what if the Guan Cheng escapes all the way and doesn't give us a chance to fight?" Xi Zhicai picked up his hand, and Shi Shiran asked.

"Uh-huh......"

————

Jinan, Prime Minister's Mansion.

Cao Cao, Cai Wan, Yuan Shao, Cao Ren, and Dian Wei were discussing their next plans in front of the map, with Cai Yan and Cao Ang present.

"Meng De, there are at most three or five thousand people under the management, why do you send 20,000 troops to conquer?" Yuan Shaozheng asked Cao Cao while teasing Xiao Cao Ang.

"Because the prime minister of the feudal state is only allowed to have a maximum of 20,000 soldiers," Cao Cao looked at his son who was pinched and wanted to cry or not, and replied helplessly: "If you like children, why don't you become your own child?" ”

"Hmph, no, those noble ladies of the family are like monkeys one by one." Yuan Shao began to pull Cao Ang's face to both sides.

Are you qualified to speak to others!

The words turned around Cao Cao's mouth, but in the end, he still didn't say anything.

"If the upper limit is 20,000, as long as you make a big show during the march, people will think that Jinan is defenseless at this time," Cao Ren took over the topic that Yuan Shao left behind: "But even if there is not a single soldier in Jinan, I Cao Zixiao will not let them step into the city half a step!" ”

"Hmm...... I believe that Zixiao is worthy of being the 'iron wall of the Cao family'. Cao Cao had no choice but to respond.

Unlike Lejin, who likes to charge ahead, Cao Ren is more willing to defend, but not to guard someone like Dian Wei, but to guard a specific location, Cao Cao once sent him quietly to try his skills in those "village chief weapon fights", and found that the more important the place for the warring parties, the better Cao Ren's protection effect will be, in a certain brawl, he alone protected a certain "village chief" as the base camp of the mansion for nearly half a day, and the "village chief" is still looking for the original "iron wall" until now.

"After all, the division between states and counties is only an administrative division, there is no wall on the border, Yanzhou in the west has no oil and water, Yuzhou in the south is heavily defended, Xuzhou is gathering troops to sweep down the Taiping Dao altars everywhere, so that the Taoists have fled" Cai Wan raised his hand and crossed the map, "Therefore, there will be three 'Taiping troops' from other states and counties to attack Jinan." ”

"It's ridiculous to say, the Qu Shuai and the altar master who really obeyed the orders of the Jizhou Julu General Altar have all surrendered or just defended, but those ordinary little Qu Shuai have raised troops to storm the official mansion, and their actions have caused those who have surrendered to fall into a very dangerous situation." Cao Cao paused and continued: "Perhaps most of those who surrendered will eventually take refuge in the local government that captured them like Zhang Jue, after all, no one wants the 'Fu Shui' that might save their lives at a critical moment to disappear. ”

"Uh...... Therefore, if it is not good for the imperial court to clean up the Taiping Dao, and instead order the arrest of all users of 'Fu Shui', wouldn't it be an enemy of the whole world? Yuan Shao seemed to have finally reacted and said, "...... Why are you looking at me like that? ”

Therefore, Ben was just slow to react, but it was not stupid at all, Cao Cao sighed: "No, it's nothing, you continue to poke Ang'er's face." ”

"Huh? What did you do to Ang'er? How can he look at you with the expression of the enemy who killed his father? Accompanied by a golden light that no one else could see, a "stand-in" appeared in the hall, and the opening of his mouth was a sentence that made Cao Cao not know how to answer.

"Oh, by the way, Xi Zhicai's plan is very smooth, Guan Cheng and his 'Taiping Army' exposed all his hiding places in a panic when they were chased, and most of the goods he stole have been recovered, and now they are about to be driven to the territory of Beihai Kingdom, hehe, I don't know how the descendants of Confucius, who have studied all day and never carried out decent armaments, will deal with this group of chaotic troops who have jumped over the wall in a hurry." "Stand-in," gloated.

In any case, it is impossible for them to ask for help from the lord of Jinan, and the title of the lord of Beihai is on par with the lord of Jinan, and his name seems to be ...... Liu?

Well, at least he's nowhere near in the affection of their respective fathers.

————

In the southeast of Jinan County, at the junction of Qingzhou and Xuzhou, there is a temporary establishment of a simple military camp that can accommodate about 20,000 people.

"Hey, Brother Xuan, you said that the lord sent all his troops out, so doesn't he himself have any troops to defend the city?" Xiahou Yuan stood on the deliberately built high platform in the barracks and looked around, and at the same time said to Xiahouyuan beside him not very confidently: "What if I accidentally miss an enemy army?" ”

"Then he will apologize with death." Xiahoudun said in a tone that didn't look like a joke at all.

"Don't-" Xiahou Yuan screamed exaggeratedly.

Although the soldiers passing by the high platform could hear the scream, they did not look up at it as usual.

"The lord has handed over the most elite troops under his command to our brothers, and if the enemy is allowed to pass through, what face will he have left to see the lord alive?" Xiahoudun looked at the bottom of the high platform, except for the occasional collision, there were many heavy cavalry that came out silently, and his eyes revealed a little fanaticism.

"I really haven't seen this kind of cavalry......" Xiahou Yuan muttered and looked at it as well.

This kind of heavy cavalry is Cao Cao spent three years in Jinan and countless materials to build, referring to the advantages of the "mountain horse" and "trapped camp" on both sides, with excellent heavy armor to cover the knights and horses, especially strengthened the frontal protection, can not hesitate to the gun array or arrow rain assault, the heavy cavalry gun can penetrate any obstacles that block their charging route, even if they fall into the encirclement, you can also use secondary weapons, single-edged thick back slashing saber to destroy the surrounding enemies, The only thing that may make them ineffective is that the knights and horses themselves are exhausted in physical strength, or they have encountered powerful "peerless generals".

"The name of this cavalry is really problematic," Xiahou Yuan looked at it twice, and turned around to look around to try to find possible enemies: "What 'tiger and leopard ride', didn't I say, now the generals under the lord's account, except for Zhang Jue, who can't tear a few tigers and leopards alive, the lord's naming level is really not good...... Hey! There really is an enemy coming. ”

A large amount of smoke and dust rose at the same time on the road leading to Xuzhou and Yuzhou, and at this time, most of the people in various places were ordered to capture the Taiping Road, and if the men and horses of this size were not official troops, they were fleeing "Taiping Army", looking at the number, both sides were more than twice as many tigers and leopards.

"If they are allowed to join forces together, it will be a big trouble," Xiahou Yuan bared his teeth, "I said Brother Xuan...... Brother Brother? ”

Xiahou Yuan turned his head, but found that Xiahouyuan had already jumped off the high platform and ran towards the barracks: "I will not let go of any of those who hinder Mengde's hegemony!" ”