Although Cai Mao escaped from the battle very unjustly, Cao Cao, who got the battle report from the front, couldn't blame him cheekily.

Cai Mao said before that was completely right, Chen Qun should have deceived the fire attack, even if Cao Cao believed in his heart that Chen Qun was coerced by Liu Bei, he could not protect Chen Qun in public at this time - then don't say that the Jingzhou army wants to rebel, and his subordinates who are not from the Yingchuan family must also have opinions.

In this operation, if Cao's army had not been hit by a major epidemic, it might have been another result. If his soldiers had been able to fight when they were attacked, they wouldn't have done it now.

After the failure of the attack on Yuan Shang, Cao Cao reflected on his own use of troops. He believed that he was too good to the soldiers, and that only rewarding and not punishing would lead to extremely disastrous consequences. He later issued an order that those who harbored deserters should be dealt with, but now that the war situation is still like this, Cao Cao feels that he is still not strict enough.

I will give the order that all the families of the deserters should be killed! I'll see who dares to run away after that!

In the midst of the rage, Cao Cao looked back, only to see the people behind him in the skylit firelight, although the number was still quite large, even more neat than the defeated Yuan Shaojun in Guandu (there was no large-scale surrender to the enemy and a large number of leading generals were killed), but Cao Cao really felt the bitterness and helplessness of his old brother Yuan Shao.

He's not young anymore.

When he went south, he thought that in a few more years, he would be able to hold the world in his own hands before closing his eyes, and he could even leave something for future generations, and then slowly repair his already broken reputation.

People will forgive the winner, and as long as he wins, everything he has done before will be forgiven.

But now he didn't win......

Cao Cao was in a trance, and suddenly heard someone next to him calling him:

"Prime Minister, the road ahead is getting muddy and muddy, and it is difficult for the war horse to walk, so please dismount the Prime Minister." This is Dong Zhao's voice.

Cao Cao, who was accustomed to bumps on horseback, dismounted this time very clumsy, and by the light of the fire, he could see the road ahead.

After the disappearance of Guyun Mengze, it became a large area of small lakes and swamps. Many local barbarians drew nets to fish nearby, surrounded by abandoned wooden boats and tangled nets. Under the light of the fire, the ground was littered with footprints, as well as a number of abandoned swords, which were clearly left behind by the pioneers of the previous carving.

Chang Diao did not leave anyone to wait to guide Cao Cao, and this Cao Cao did not blame him. He was just a personal guard under Cao Ren, and it was normal not to think of this kind of thing.

But at least that shows that there should be no big problem ahead.

For a while, Cao Jun fell into silence, and after a long time, Cao Cao suddenly raised his head and laughed, which frightened Dong Zhao and Chen Lin to jump.

"Prime Minister, this?"

Cao Cao looked at the scene in front of him and smiled with some emotion:

"Liu Bei, I am also. But it has to be too late; Set fire to the envoy early, I have no class! ”

There was a large area of dense forest in the area of Ulin that they had walked before, and if the Sun-Liu coalition army set fire early, the rear army of Cao's army would definitely suffer huge losses.

Now the southeast wind is still non-stop, and it is getting stronger and stronger, Cao Cao's smile made everyone worry that Liu Beijun suddenly came back to his senses and set fire, and hurriedly moved forward, for fear of falling behind a little.

But this area is too muddy, and people can barely pass through, but the Cao army still has a large number of cavalry teams and camel beasts, and they can't all be lost to the Sun-Liu coalition army behind. Not to mention anything else, just because the military rations were lost, they had to eat human flesh to rush back to Gangneung.

Cao Cao thought about it again and again, and regretted a little why he didn't run lightly, and now that the army is here, he can only think of something else.

"Let the sick soldiers fill these mud puddles with thatch, quickly!"

Cao Cao gave an order, and Cao Ren and Cheng Yu immediately set out to drive the sick old and weak soldiers in the army to collect thatch and fill the surrounding mud and puddles.

No matter how this order sounded, Chen Lin and Dong Zhao frowned in embarrassment, but Cao Ren and Cheng Yu firmly carried out Cao Cao's order.

In the midst of the defeat, these remnants are not only useless, but will consume food, and now is the time to put them to good use.

·

The pursuit speed of the Sun-Liu coalition army was indeed not fast, to be precise, whether it was Liu Bei, Zhou Yu or Cheng Pu, they never thought that they could directly annihilate Cao Cao's army here.

This time, Cao Cao's naval army was all finished, and even if he returned to Jiangling, he would not be able to gather a warship, so he could either choose tens of thousands of people to continue to nest in Jiangling and wait for the Sun-Liu coalition army to surround him, or he could only choose to withdraw most of his troops and horses to Xiangyang. No matter how you choose, the battle of Gangneung after that is the focus, and it is a very dangerous thing to pursue Cao's army in the dark.

After all, most of the soldiers were seriously deficient in vitamins in these years, and night blindness was very common, so if they were ambushed by Cao's rear team in the cold night, they would have to pay a lot of losses.

But Guan Ping was reluctant to give up.

He clearly remembered that Yun Shanshan said that he had made an unprecedented contribution to the killing of Cao Cao in history with Huarong Dao, and that the previous tongue battles and the borrowing of the east wind had been successful, and he must usher in his great reputation in history today to prove that the little devil's book was a forgery.

Under the leadership of Zhang Yun, Guan Ping, Wei Yan, and Huang Zhong led only 300 people, ignoring the many defeated troops of Cao's army, and directly marched along the defeated line of Cao's army.

The rout of the Cao army was too much, and the team of more than 300 people was like a trickle among the many fleeing soldiers, and most of the Cao army soldiers were hurrying with their heads bored, and they didn't find that Guan Ping's soldiers and horses were mixed in the crowd for a while.

Zhang Yun, who led the way, was worried about something, for fear that something would go wrong - Cao Cao was very polite to the Jingzhou army before, and did not use their family as hostages, but if he was discovered in Guan Ping's army, it was naturally conceivable what consequences awaited him and his family.

He wanted to escape into the rout of Cao's army several times, but when he looked at Wei Yan, who was always staring at him not far behind, he quickly dispelled this thought.

"Little General, forget it. There are old thieves who open the way, and there are people behind the palace, there are too few of our people, just chase and kill their remnants, and then go forward, and when it is dawn and someone finds out, it will be surrounded. ”

Guan Ping didn't say a word, and his feet didn't stop at all.

Not only him, but even the elderly Huang Zhong adjusted his breathing and followed behind unhurriedly.

Liu Beijun and the others were silently afraid of people, there was no cheering in the pursuit of the war, and there was no decadence and helplessness driven away by Shangguan, Zhang Yun had led the army for a long time, and it was the first time he had seen such a scene.

No, it isn't.

He had seen the barbarians in the Jingxiang area before, the barbarians in several villages were split, and everyone regarded death as home, and the fight was really earth-shattering, and it could be called one of the strongest soldiers in the world. Liu Biao envied the combat power of these barbarians and incorporated them into the army, but after they joined the army, they quickly became infected with the habits of most generals.

The army under Guan Ping did not kill people to vent their anger, and second, they did not pick up spoils, but braved the cold night and hundreds of people to advance like one person.

Not only did Zhang Yun not figure it out, but even Guan Ping didn't expect his soldiers to have such a sharp spirit.

If it weren't for the Mandate of Heaven, he hardly knew how to describe why this army, which was almost entirely composed of Jingzhou people, was suddenly so brave and resolute, and even had such a sharp spirit without too much mobilization.

Whoever dares to stop us tonight, we will make him pay!

After a night of fierce fighting, Cao's army gradually recovered from the initial panic, and there were constantly generals galloping behind the formation on horseback, ordering the scattered soldiers to stop.

These routs feared the authority of the Shangguan and had little food, so they could only obediently obey orders, and soon the aimless rout of Cao's army began to improve, which made Guan Ping's rapid march even more abrupt.

"Stay all of you!" A grizzled Confucian said in a tired voice, "Stop, stop, line up with me, don't be chaotic." ”

The voice was steady and elegant, and Guan Ping instantly heard that the enemy was extraordinary.

"Who is this?" He asked Zhang Yun.

Zhang Yundi's lips twitched a few times, and he said in disbelief:

"Yes, it's Xun You!"