Cao Cao assigned Xiahoudun to lead the left army, Cao Hong to lead the right army, and himself to take Xiahou Yuan, Li Dian, Le Jin, and Dian Wei into the city according to that agreement.

Li Dian was afraid that there would be a conspiracy, so he said: "My lord, you are still waiting outside the city, let us go to the city to take a look first, if there is no problem, you can come in again." ”

Cao Cao smiled: "Being a shrinking turtle at this time will cause panic in the army, and if I don't go, then who wants to go?" So he himself led the procession into the city.

The time is according to the final news provided by Tian, the moon has not completely come out, only the sound from above the west gate is heard, but it is very small, and it is intermittent, the torches on the door are burning very strongly, the city gate is also opened, and the drawbridge is also put down, Cao Cao hurriedly rode in on horseback, but after entering the city, there is no one on the street, and there is no one at the county mansion, this is obviously a trick, Cao Cao hurriedly turned around and shouted, "Quickly retreat!" ”

Suddenly, a cannon rang out from the county commander's mansion, and all the surroundings were full of flames, falling from the sky, and shouts were all around, almost drowning Cao Jun. Zang Ba came out of the east alley, took Cao Cao directly, and approached to cover up. Cao Cao fled to the main gate, and Hao Meng and Cao Xing came out again, chasing and killing for a while, Cao Cao could only flee in the direction of the south gate, Gao Shun and Hou Cheng came to block again, Dian Wei could only grit his teeth and rush out, Gao Shun and others could only avoid.

Dian Wei killed all the way to the drawbridge, but found that there was no Cao Cao behind him, turned back and entered the city, and met Li Dian at the door, Dian Wei asked, "Where is the lord?" ”

Li Dian replied: "I don't know, I'm also looking for him." ”

Dian Wei said: "I know, you hurry out of the city to move the rescuers, and I will go to the city to find the lord." ”

So according to this plan, Li Dian went out, and Dian Wei continued to kill in the city, and went deep into the city, but still didn't see Cao Cao, and then went inside to kill, saw Le Jin, and Le Jin asked: "Where is the lord?" ”

Dian Wei said: "I killed two laps here, but I couldn't find the lord." ”

Le Jin said: "Okay, let's kill the Savior together." ”

So the two of them arrived at the door, and the city wall was full of artillery fire and rolled down, and Lejin's horse had no way to enter, so Dian Wei could only smoke and kill in the city, looking for Cao Cao everywhere.

Cao Cao followed Dian Wei at that time, but Dian Wei killed too fast, Cao Cao did not follow at all, and could only intercept the enemy's horse in the confusion, and wanted to go out from the south gate, but the south gate had been sealed, and walked in the direction of the north gate, and in the firelight, he saw Lu Bu walking over with Fang Tian's halberd.

Cao Cao secretly sighed in his heart, this is not gone, fortunately, he has a strong adaptability, messed up his hair, and then covered his face with his hands, deliberately bent his waist very much, and secretly walked past Lu Bu.

Lu Bu followed him, stabbed Cao Cao's helmet with a halberd, and asked, "Have you seen where Cao Cao has gone?" ”

Cao Cao pointed to the person behind him: "The one riding the yellow horse is Cao Cao, hurry up and catch him." Cao Cao deliberately lowered his voice and tried his best to disguise himself, for fear that Lu Bu would see something wrong.

Lu Bu was very happy after hearing this, abandoned Cao Cao, galloped in the direction of the yellow horse, Cao Cao saw that Lu Bu went away, quickly turned the horse's head, galloped towards the east gate, just happened to meet Dian Wei who came to the rescue, so Dian Wei protected Cao Cao, and killed a bloody road, to the edge of the city gate, the flames burned very strongly, there were weeds under the city, there were flames everywhere, Dian Wei used an iron halberd to push it away, and rode a horse to break through the fire quickly, Cao Cao also followed.

When he reached the gate, he suddenly came down from the top of the city gate and hit Cao Cao's horse's buttocks, and the horse was also knocked down. Cao Cao struggled to push the beam away and put it on the ground, his arms and hair were burned, Dian Wei rode back to rescue, just happened to meet Xiahou Yuan arrived, so the two of them rescued Cao Cao together, broke out of the fire, Cao Cao took Xiahou Yuan's horse, Dian Wei opened the way in front, and the melee did not end until dawn the next day, Cao Cao was able to return to his camp to rest.

Everyone thought that Cao Cao had gone through these three failures, and they probably felt uncomfortable and wanted to step forward to comfort him.

Unexpectedly, Cao Cao just raised his head, and laughed: "I just accidentally fell for the trick of the puppet, I swore that I must report it!"

Guo Jia stood aside, observed Cao Cao's injury, and said, "If there is a strategy, it should be started earlier." ”

Cao Cao said: "Now we will make a plan, and lie to the outside world that I was burned by the fire and am on the verge of death, and when Lu Bu hears the news, he will definitely bring troops to attack us." I ambushed in this place of Malingshan, and when their army was only halfway through the mouth, I attacked them, so that I could capture Lu Bu alive. ”

replied: "The lord has a good plan! ”

So he sent a sergeant Dai Xiao to mourn, publicizing that Cao Cao had lost his life in the fire, and in order to make the momentum bigger, Cao Cao deliberately sent someone to cry very loudly and loudly.

The news soon reached Lu Bu, who was depressed because he had found the wrong person, because he was indiscriminately identified as Cao Cao, and he really killed the person on the yellow horse, only to find out that it was his own person.

When Lu Bu heard about the situation, it turned out that Cao Cao was burned by the fire, and the burns were very serious, and he died because of the ineffective treatment in the camp. He naturally will not miss this opportunity, immediately ordered his own soldiers and horses, to the direction of Maling to kill, when he was about to get nearby, a drum sounded, ambushes emerged from all directions, Lu Bu hurriedly fled, and finally killed a very pair of soldiers before breaking out of the encirclement, this battle lost a large number of people, since then Lu Bu is also honest, dare not come out to challenge again, but stick to Puyang City.

At this stage, it is the season of locust infestation, and the grain harvest is not good, because the grain production is very small, so the price is soaring, and many people in the people do not want money, but want food.

As the two sides of the war, Lu Bu and Cao Cao also had no way to continue the war because of the problem of food, so Cao Cao temporarily returned to Juancheng with his soldiers and horses to station, while Lu Bu took his soldiers and horses to eat in Tunshanyang, and the two places stopped fighting.

In Xuzhou, Tao Qian was thirty-six years old, and suddenly contracted a disease, a little heavy, so he called Mi Zhu and Chen Deng to participate in the proceedings, in fact, Tao Qian's health has not been good. Mi Zhu said: "Cao Cao was able to retreat this time for two reasons, one was because Lu Bu suddenly attacked Yanzhou, taking it as his base camp, and the other was because of Liu Bei's face. Now because there is no food, the two sides have withdrawn their troops, and by next spring, they will definitely make a comeback. The lord wanted to give up the position to Liu Bei twice, at that time because you were still quite strong, so Liu Bei refused to accept it, now you are seriously ill, take this opportunity, you must hand over the seal ribbon of Xuzhou to him, he should not refuse. ”

Tao Qian thought it was very reasonable, so he sent someone to Xiaopei to find Liu Bei to discuss the matter of retreating.