Cao's army retreated.

It was already past the afternoon, and the spring breeze was blowing on the riverbank.

Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu, Hu Che'er and others rode horses and came to the front of the Ganning army.

"General Zhang."

Gan Ning and Shen Chen greeted him.

Zhang Xiu arched his hand and said, "Xingba, Ah Chen, thank you for this battle." ”

He speaks with a lot of affection.

"The general's words are serious, not to mention that I have a deep blood feud with Cao Cao, just that we have cold lips and teeth, and we will help each other."

Shen Chen waved his hand, looked at the old man in his fifties beside him and asked, "Could this be Mr. Wenhe in the famous earthquake pass?" ”

"Don't dare to be famous, or a young man like you is the one who is terrible."

Jia Xu also looked at Shen Chen, his narrow eyes narrowed into a line: "Xiaolang looks like he is only fourteen or fifteen, but he can shake Cao Cao, he is really a young hero." ”

Shen Chen is actually only eleven years old this year, and he will not turn twelve until October. It's just that he developed relatively early, and he often exercised his body, practiced martial arts and bows and arrows diligently, and his meat, eggs and milk were not pulled down, so he looked like he was fourteen or fifteen years old.

However, he did not correct Jia Xu, but said with a straight face: "Mr. Wenhe is too modest, I am just doing my best to deal with Cao Cao." This fang killed hundreds of thousands of people in Xuzhou and wiped out more than 100 of my relatives. ”

Jia Xu's face twitched slightly.

In fact, he didn't participate much in this battle, and watched from a distance throughout the whole process, almost without saying a word.

In fact, Cao Cao's tactical style of play is all in his eyes, as a veteran who has been in the Xiliang Army for many years, how can he not know the command of the battle?

With his prestige in the Xiliang Army, which made Duan Xuan, a veteran Dong Zhuo's cronie, feel threatened, it would definitely be no problem to command Zhang Xiu's army.

At that time, if he came to command this battle, even if it was because of too few troops, he would still be unable to defeat Cao Cao, but it would be easy to immediately adjust the formation and hold on longer.

As soon as the reinforcements from Ganning arrived, the Cao army would not be able to defeat Zhang Xiu in a short period of time, and the three sides would encircle it, not to mention the total annihilation of the Cao army, at least most of the Cao army would be left.

Even Cao Cao himself may die in this chaotic army.

But he chose to wait and see.

The reason is simple.

Jia Xu didn't think about continuing to rely on Zhang Xiu at all.

From the bottom of his bones, he thought that Cao Cao got Liu Xie, and he would definitely be able to sit in the north in the future.

Therefore, in this war, he is the one who most hopes that Zhang Xiu will lose.

As long as Zhang Xiu is defeated and realizes the gap between him and Cao Cao, then persuading him to surrender to Cao Cao in the future will have a lot less resistance.

It's a pity that he never expected that a Shen Chen appeared in the middle and played an extremely crucial role.

Although Zhang Xiu was also defeated in this battle, he did not break his muscles and bones, as long as Cao's army retreated, there was no chance to regain his strength in the future.

On the other hand, Cao Jun.

The battle was a heavy one.

Cao Ren's 5,000 troops were annihilated, and half of Lejin's soldiers were annihilated.

Coupled with the loss of troops in the Battle of Wancheng and the Battle of Turbulence just now, the loss of troops alone is almost 13,400.

Then several generals were lost, Dian Wei Cao Ren Lejin, and his son Cao Ang's nephew Cao Anmin.

The stark contrast made Jia Xu a little doubtful of life at this time.

Could it be that Cao Cao really can't do it?

This thought in his heart only flashed, and his eyes looked at Shen Chen, and suddenly became a little different.

It's a pity.

If it weren't for the fact that this kid had a blood feud with Cao Cao, maybe he would have been able to join the court with him.

For a while, Jia Xu's heart was full of regret.

However, the people around didn't know what Jia Xu was thinking at the moment, looking at Jia Xu's speechless appearance, Zhang Xiu's face was not very good-looking.

Because Shen Chen had reminded him before he came, when facing Cao Jun in the future, Jia Xu was very likely to be unable to work.

This battle obviously verified that Shen Chen's words were true.

It also made Zhang Xiu further suspicious of what Shen Chen had told him before, that Jia Xu still wanted to vote for Cao.

It's just that now is not the time to talk about this, after Zhang Xiu thanked Gan Ning and Shen Chen, he talked about some things about forming an alliance with Liu Biao again, and then evacuated in the direction of Yucheng.

Gan Ning looked at the direction where Xiliang Jun was going and asked Shen Chen, "Ah Chen, is this the end?" We don't seem to have eliminated Cao Cao either. ”

"Uncle Xingba, be content, we have already achieved a lot of results in this battle."

Shen Chen shook his head and said, "Liu Yuanjun will not send troops, he doesn't want to go north to march into the Central Plains." ”

"Why?"

Gan Ning was puzzled: "This is a God-given opportunity to annex Henan." ”

"And then there's an extra son of heaven above your head?"

Shen Chen shrugged, turned his horse's head and said, "Let's go, Liu Yuanjun's ambition is not something we can guess." ”

Gan Ning touched his head, although he had read books and was relatively smart, the political wisdom in it was not very clear, which was puzzling.

However, Shen Chen's words are not wrong, from the beginning of February Cao Cao came to Nanyang to the present, the battle has been fought for almost a month, Liu Biao still has no movement, it seems that he really doesn't want to die.

The army went south to the direction of Anzhong, and after Anzhong, you can reach Xinye along the turbulent water, because Xinye is the intersection of turbulent water and muddy water, so it is not very far away.

On the way, Shen Chen was thinking about the direction of the future.

Liu Biao's dispatch of troops was something he expected.

At the beginning, he did not send troops because Liu Biao knew that Zhang Xiu surrendered, and it would be meaningless to send troops to Nanyang again, so it was better to defend the periphery of Xiangyang.

Deng Hong had already gone to Xiangyang a few days ago, and the news must have been reported to Liu Biao, but now there are no soldiers and horses coming, which can only prove one thing - Liu Biao has no intention of eliminating Cao Cao at all.

Now Liu Xie is a piece of fragrant bread in the hands of a foreign surname, and Cao Cao can coerce the Son of Heaven to order the princes when he gets him.

But in the hands of the clan, it was a hot potato.

If Liu Biao goes north to eliminate Cao Cao and gets Liu Xie, what should he do?

can only be respectful to him as a loyal minister.

Because he was born in the party, and he is a royalist of the Liu family.

Now the royalist faction in Xuchang is not weak, and Liu Biao eliminated Cao Cao's involvement, and he will inevitably be coerced by Yang Biao, Zhao Wen, Zhang Xi, Fu Wan and other royalists to work for Liu Xie.

Compared with serving the emperor in Xuchang, how can you be at ease as the supreme emperor in Jingzhou?

What's more, Liu Biao himself also has bad intentions.

So thinking with his toes, he wouldn't do anything to deal with Cao Cao.

And if it weren't for Liu Biao's strength, with Shen Chen's current strength, it would be impossible to go north to shake Cao Cao's foundation.

This time he was able to defeat Cao Jun, first, Cao Cao did it himself, and he had to engage Mrs. Zou.

Second, it has an information advantage.

If these two factors are eliminated and he directly attacks Yuzhou in the north, Li Tong, who is stationed in Runan, will be enough for him to drink a pot.

Therefore, Shen Chen could only choose to hibernate, strengthen himself first, and slowly wait for the opportunity.

So when is the next time?

Battle of Guandu!

Thinking of this, Shen Chen understood that his next step was to prepare for the battle of Guandu.

Returning to Huangmen Pavilion, on the second day, Deng Hong returned.

He conveyed Liu Biao's meaning, Gan Ning continued to guard Huyang, not to pursue Cao Cao, and went to Yucheng again, sent a batch of grain and grass materials to Zhang Xiu, and re-concluded the alliance.

So the situation in Nanyang was set again, Zhang Xiu was stationed in the city, and the surrounding counties that had originally surrendered to Cao Cao were reattached to him.

His influence gradually extended out, including Wancheng, Niyang, Anzhong, Jianyang, and Yuyang.

Liu Biao continued to guard his one-third of an acre of land, and the entire Jingzhou, except for Nanyang, was the northern defense belt around Xiangyang, and Dengxian, Fancheng, Caiyang, Huyang and other places north of Xiangyang.

Although Cao Cao left Nanyang, he sent Cao Hong to garrison Ye County, which was regarded as leaving a nail in Nanyang, and the three forces divided Nanyang North, Nanyang Central, and Nanyang South.

Nanyang is calm again, no matter what, life still has to go on. Most people will not be affected by the war, and they still have to work hard.

People who are not in ancient times have no idea how difficult it was for the ancients to survive.

Later generations of modern times had chemical fertilizers, high-yielding seeds, and mechanized farming, which greatly reduced the time that farmers needed to contribute, and they were often only busy when sowing and harvesting.

In ancient times, without modern technology, not only did they have to rely on the weather for food, but they also had to work in the fields most of the time, weeding, pest control, irrigation, digging ditches, and raising seedlings, without stopping for a moment.

And even if they take care of millet and wheat seedlings all the time, the yield cannot be compared with that of later generations, so often a person has to cultivate more than ten acres of land on average to maintain food and clothing, and the degree of hardship is ten times more difficult than that of farmers in later generations.

There were nearly 20,000 people in Huangmenting, most of whom fled to Huyang for refuge before the war, and returned here after the war, and by the beginning of March, it was back to its former prosperity.

Shen Chen returned to the clan and immediately began a new plan, recuperating from the damage suffered by the war, Cao Jun's corpse was dragged to a distant place to be burned and buried, digging ditches, repairing walls, and preparing to harvest last year's wheat, without stopping for a moment.

He didn't have much time to stay in the clan, and after Deng Hong completed Liu Biao's mission, he would go back to Huangmen Pavilion to pick him up, Shen Chen continued to go back to Xianshan Academy to study, and Deng Hong continued to return to the state pastoral mansion to serve.

On the 4th of March, several knights suddenly went south from the north and found the Yellow Gate Pavilion.

Today happened to be the time when Shen Chen was preparing to go south.

Deng Hong came back yesterday, and after packing up the salute, the two ancestors and grandsons and the Cai family, hundreds of large and small slaves, were going to Xiangyang again.

Shen Zhen and his wife and Shen Chen's eldest brother and sister-in-law prepared a banquet for him early in the morning, slaughtering chickens and sheep, and sending Deng Hong and Shen Chen off.

After lunch, when he was about to set off, someone outside came to him to report to him that there was a letter from Runan.

"Let them in."

Shen Chen was grooming and dressing up at home, and the ancients also had to dress up when they went out.

A gentleman pays attention to appearance, so he must wash it cleanly, put on brand new clothes, and tie his hair well before going out.

He happened to be tying his hair, and at the age of twelve he didn't need a crown, so he simply tied his long hair with a cloth and wrapped it in a silk scarf.

Although I really want to cut my hair and shave a small flat head that I used to cut in my previous life, it is a pity that the ancients paid attention to the parents of the body.

At that time, cutting hair was a very terrible thing, because in the Han Dynasty there was a very harsh punishment called "髡 punishment", which was one of the five punishments.

This punishment is nothing else, it is to cut off all your hair and give you a whole bald head.

Shaving the head is a heavy punishment, which shows the severity of cutting hair.

After arranging his hair, Shen Chen walked out of his room and came to the front hall.

The eldest brother, Shen Zhong, was entertaining them.

The leader of the person who came was a strong man with a height of eight feet, with two halberds on his back, extremely long arms, and a similar body shape to Zhao Yun.

When he saw Shen Chen come out, he got up from the seat and asked, "But Mr. Shen?" ”

Mr. Little is the nickname given to him by Liu Bei.

Shen Chen smiled: "Exactly, I don't know the honorable name?" ”

"My name is Tai Shici, the word Ziyi, I am the subordinate governor of Uncle Liu's account, and I was ordered by Uncle Huang to deliver a letter to Mr. Xiao."

The person who came was Tai Shici.

(End of chapter)