Wei Yan's personal martial arts are now among the top five in the Han Dynasty, and in such a small-scale chaotic battle, the role that personal martial arts can play is actually very large.

Cao Tai watched Wei Yan look like a killing god, cutting down more than a dozen Wei troops who were protecting him along the way, and when he was the closest, it was less than twenty paces away.

Cao Tai suddenly panicked.

After all, Cao Tai was a little bold, and he would not have ordered the soldiers to move closer to him when the war had just started and the outcome was unknown.

But it was precisely because Cao Tai spared his life that he made the third and most fatal mistake.

Seeing that Wei Yan was about to be killed in front of him, Cao Tai, in order to save his life, hurriedly called the guards around him and protected himself to retreat to Guanxia.

Of course, if he just went down to avoid Wei Yan's edge and continued to command the soldiers to fight, Cao Tai would not lose Tongguan. But the first thing Cao Tai did after leaving the pass was to order the soldiers around him to protect him and go directly out of the pass.

He chose to run away.

In this way, who else can fight with peace of mind in the Wei army left by Cao Tai in Tongguan.

In this way, Wei Yan only used more than 200 casualties to completely control Tongguan and even most of the city's defense equipment was not damaged, and it was intact by Wei Yan.

As for the rest of the Wei army. Whether it was someone who surrendered on his own initiative or someone who desperately escaped from Tongguan, Wei Yan did not pursue them, but let them leave.

Wei Yan knew how bad the situation he was going to face next, if he left these Cao Wei troops, he would leave a time bomb instead, in case the situation was unfavorable one day, he would not have time to deal with these bad things.

did not arrest and execute all of these Wei soldiers, which can already be regarded as a manifestation of Wei Yan's bottom line in his heart.

As for whether he will increase his enemies after letting these Wei troops leave, this Wei Yan is really not worried.

In the future, what you will face may be a siege by tens of thousands of troops, and it makes no difference whether there are so many thousand more or so many thousand.

Therefore, after Wei Yan let go of these Wei troops, he immediately ordered the gate to be closed, and then began to collect all the equipment for defending the city, and seized all the time to arrange the customs guarding.

And Cao Tai. After Cao Tai escaped from Tongguan, he finally realized what he had done.

When he ran like this, it was tantamount to cutting off Cao Zhen's back road. If he goes back like this, he will definitely not be able to save his head.

He is not Xiahou Nan, he took Cao Pi's sister as his wife, and he has a talisman. Although his father is Cao Ren, his uncle's name is Cao Hong.

In Cao Pi's place, the status of Cao Ren and Cao Hong cannot be compared with Xiahou Yuan and Xiahou Yuan brothers.

Although Cao Rong has now succeeded to the throne and become the son of Great Wei, this person's attitude towards the clan general is not as good as his father!!

Cao Tai felt that with such a big sin as he lost Tongguan, he probably didn't need to report it to the Son of Heaven Cao Rong, once Cao Zhen knew, he probably could cut himself directly.

Therefore, Cao Tai immediately wrote a letter to Cao Zhen asking for help.

In the letter, Cao Tai did not tell Cao Zhen the fact that Tongguan had been lost, but lied that Tongguan was only attacked and he was still holding on, but the enemy army was too numerous, more than 10,000 people, so he hoped that Cao Zhen could send some reinforcements to him.

After writing this letter, Cao Tai immediately began to send people to the vicinity to collect the Wei army that had escaped from Tongguan, reorganize his army, and plan to wait for Cao Zhen's reinforcements to arrive, and then counterattack Tongguan himself.

As long as Tongguan is recaptured, then he can be regarded as making up for his mistakes, and then in the name of the Cao clan, he will ask the clan elder to intercede, and I believe that Cao Zhen, who knows the truth afterwards, does not necessarily have to cut himself.

After all, you can't write two Cao characters with one stroke, everyone is their own family.

Yes, at least in this regard, Cao Tai is a little more ambitious than Xiahou Nan, Xiahou Mao only thinks about escaping back after the defeat, and Cao Tai at least thinks about making up for his mistakes.

But. I really can't understand where Cao Tai's confidence comes from.

When Wang Chang found Cao Tai with 3,000 soldiers and horses, Cao Tai thought that Wang Chang was a reinforcement sent by Cao Zhen, and hurriedly asked Wang Chang to obey his orders and attack Tongguan, the whites of Wang Chang's eyes were about to rot.

How many people are there in the enemy army, who is leading the army, after they occupy Tongguan, I don't know what the arrangement of the city defense equipment in Tongguan City is, you let me take 3,000 people to attack a Xiongguan?!

That's not how you look for death.

Besides, you Cao Tai lost Tongguan, but you want me to help you take it back. There is no such cheap thing in the world.

Therefore, Wang Chang directly deprived Cao Tai of his command. incorporated the last remaining more than 1,000 Wei troops of Cao Tai, and then wrote to Cao Zhen, telling the most authentic information now to this general who was once again cheated by his own people.

Tongguan has been lost, hurry back to the army, and if you wave it again, something will really happen.

As for Tongguan, Wang Chang didn't plan to attack by himself anyway.

Wang Chang is not Cao Tai, and he stupidly went to attack a Xiongguan without knowing anything. He had already concluded by asking the escaped Wei soldiers and his own observation experience that the Shu thieves in Tongguan were about 3,000 people, and they had already mastered most of the ordnance materials originally used to guard the pass.

In addition to the fact that it is uncertain who the general of this Shu thief is, Wang Chang already has a rough idea of the opponent's situation.

I have a total of more than 4,000 people on hand, and I went to fight a Xiongguan guarded by 3,000 people, right?!

Therefore, Wang Chang directly set up camp outside Tongguan.

On the one hand, we can't give the Shu thieves the opportunity to calmly arrange defenses, we must let them know that they will face the attack of the Great Wei at any time, and put pressure on the hearts of the Shu thieves in Tongguan.

On the other hand, Wang Chang was also waiting, waiting for Cao Zhen's reinforcements to arrive, and then launch an attack to retake Tongguan.

During this time, Wang Chang was not idle, and began to look for wood nearby to build siege equipment.

In the face of such a Xiongguan, if you want to fight it without siege equipment, unless the Shu thieves defending the city are at the same level as Cao Tai and take the initiative to open the gate, don't even think about it.

Therefore, siege engines are necessary.

But then, Wang Chang suddenly found that in the direction west of Tongguan, within a radius of twenty miles, there were no mature trees to be found!!

And the reason, I can't blame others, I can only blame Wang Chang himself - when Wang Chang was still the general of Tongguan, he personally ordered to clear all the trees within twenty miles west of Tongguan.

This is done to prevent the enemy from attacking and using local materials to build siege equipment from adult trees. This is military common sense.

Now, if Wang Chang wants to build siege equipment, he must go further west to find suitable wood, and he will have to waste a lot of time back and forth.

Therefore, Wang Chang stayed under the city of Tongguan for three days, until Dai Ling came to help with 5,000 soldiers, and he did not build enough siege equipment.

And Dai Ling. Dai Ling was also a little dumbfounded when he saw Wang Chang stationed outside Tongguan City.

The order he received was to reinforce Cao Tai, who was still holding Tongguan. You, Wang Chang, as the first batch of reinforcements, did not stay in Tongguan, but ran to the field to set up camp. What's the matter, you don't sleep in a bed, you like to sleep in the wilderness, right?!

Then, Dai Ling, who learned the actual situation, was also furious.

However, there is no way.

Wang Chang dared to directly control Cao Tai and remove Cao Tai's military power, which was already a relatively outrageous move, even if Dai Ling was dissatisfied with Cao Tai, he couldn't do anything to others.

After all, the surname of the family is Cao, and the surname is the same as that of the Emperor of Great Wei.

So, Wang Chang persuaded Dai Ling, and now there is no practical point in regaining anger, so let's think about how to retake Tongguan.

Wang Chang had more than 4,000 men, and Dai Ling brought 5,000 people, adding up to 10,000 people.

The number of troops is enough, but the siege equipment is still a little insufficient, so Wang Chang's suggestion is to wait for a few more days, on the one hand, to wait for himself to send people to build enough siege equipment, and on the other hand, to wait for the general's reply.

In case General Yi personally returned to help, then Wang Chang felt that it was better for them not to waste their troops.

But Dai Ling disagreed with Wang Chang's idea.

Dai Ling said that when he came, the general didn't know that Tongguan had been lost, and the military report sent by Wang Chang, when the general would see it, and whether he ordered the whole army to retreat after seeing it, it was too much of a waste of time for the two of us to stay here and do nothing.

Don't forget, as soon as Tongguan is broken, the supply of food and grass for the army is also cut off, and every day we delay means that we are consuming a day's food.

As far as our remaining grain and grass reserves are concerned, we can't afford such delays and consumption.

Again, according to the information provided by Wang Chang, the Shu thieves have just conquered Tongguan for a few days, which means that no one can be sure whether the Shu thieves still have a large number of reinforcements if not, wait for a few days, it doesn't matter if they concentrate their forces, but if there is, it will be troublesome.

Therefore, Dai Ling believes that he should take advantage of the opportunity that the Shu thieves have just captured Tongguan and have an unstable foothold, and immediately launch an attack on the Shu thieves in Tongguan to consume the vitality of the Shu thieves in the city.

This must be done, even if it will cost a lot of money.

After all, Tongguan, the Shu thief would like to be consumed like this, but General Cao Zhen really can't afford to wait.

(End of chapter)