Cao Jun's camp, it was not Cao Ren who was in command, but Cao Xiu, who was transferred back to lead the troops after taking Nan'an County, and Cao Ren was going to Longxi County in person.

Cao Ren failed to attack Jixian several times, after all, Jixian was besieged by Ma Chao and Zhang Lujun for ten months, and finally took the initiative to surrender before breaking the city.

It was not easy for Cao Ren to besiege the outer city for two months, and after seeing Zhou Budo's defensive methods, Cao Ren decided not to attack it anymore and turned to besiege it.

Turning his attention to the war in Longxi County and the movement of soldiers and horses in Liangzhou, since Xiahou Yuan's westward advance went smoothly, Cao Xiu defeated Zhao Yun and took Nan'an County's administrative office, everything was fine. It's just that during this period, Cao Ren began to report the news of General Yang Fu's defeat one after another, asking for reinforcements!

The deployment seems to be meticulous, and the operation of the successive abnormalities makes him worried, Yang Fu said that the loss of troops is as high as 30,000, and Xiahou Yuan is alone in the south, and Ma Chao's cavalry is unstoppable, and the battle situation of Qiang Di to help the battle block the road is reported to Cao Ren.

After reading it, Cao Ren shouted: "Cao Zilian mistook my whole army!" ”

Cao Ren hurriedly recalled Cao Xiu, who was going to Longxi to support, and Cao Ren felt that the situation was no longer something that Cao Xiu could handle, and he needed to go himself. Cao Ren handed over the affairs of Tianshui to Cao Xiu to preside, and Cao Ren informed Cao Xiu of his deployment in detail.

Cao Xiu is very perceptive, he can understand it at one point, and quickly control Cao Ren's intentions! Cao Ren was quite pleased. Cao Xiu led 20,000 soldiers and horses to continue to besiege Ji County, Tianshui County, and sent 20,000 soldiers and horses to harvest wheat fields.

Yu Ban led tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in his headquarters to defend the grain road in the direction of Jieting! Although Longyou wheat can be used as military food, Cao Ren did not dare to completely pin his hopes on Longyou wheat! After all, the war is changing rapidly! Guanzhong grain and grass should be transferred normally!

He ordered Jiao Bing, the general to guard Nan'an, which had been taken, harvest wheat fields, and transport grain and grass to Longxi, so that the army would not run out of food.

Cao Ren made it clear, with the general Wang Shuang as the vanguard, and led 20,000 soldiers and horses to Longxi County to deal with the crisis! Cao Ren dealt with it quickly, and after all, he suffered a step later in the delivery of news.

Cao Ren hurried to Longyou County to meet Yang Fu. Ma Chao had already annihilated Xiahou Yuan and was recruiting the Qiang cavalry to rendezvous.

Cao Hong, Yang Fu, and Zhang He still have nearly 28,000 people, and they have nearly 50,000 troops with Cao Ren!

Cao Ren sat down in the big tent, and Yang Fu and the generals who stayed behind came to see him.

Cao Ren didn't see Cao Hong and Zhang He, and asked, "Yang Taishou, where are Cao Hong and Zhang He?" ”

When Yang Fu heard this, he stepped forward and reported: "Back to the general, the two generals led their troops south to attack the Qiangqi thief soldiers, so as to open up the contact with General Xiahou as soon as possible!" Now General Xiahou has not been in contact for nearly ten days! ”

Cao Ren's face changed and said, "How is the battle going!" ”

Yang Fu said in a low voice: "All the paths north of Lintao have been destroyed. The thieves dug trenches, set up horses to keep horses, and erected fences. Our cavalry has been completely lost by my previous defeat, and it is difficult to gather even a thousand cavalry now.

Without cavalry, we lost our mobility, so we had to fill in the trenches, pull out the fences, and keep the horses away. The battle situation of the root army in the past few days has found that the thief army is very cunning, and once we break through to the distance of two trenches from the thief army, they will retreat and do not entangle us at all.

These Qiang thieves have horses, and we can't keep up with them. In addition, the pasture was burned down, and the southward movement had to bring grain and transport grain from livestock, and the loss of pasture was equivalent to the loss of forage for livestock.

Food for men and fodder for livestock! I am worried that the situation will not be optimistic after we get in touch with General Xiahou. Our infantry became tired soldiers, and General Xiahou's cavalry and horses ran out of fodder and lost their combat effectiveness.

Ma Chao must have been prepared, at that time we had to deal with the repeated attacks of a large number of Qiang thieves plus the elite cavalry led by Ma Chao! The situation is unfavorable! ”

Cao Ren smiled bitterly: "It's a good thing to be able to meet Xiahou Miaocai, I'm afraid that Xiahou Miaocai is already more than lucky!" ”

After being silent for a while, Cao Ren said: "Cao Hong is a big deal for me!" I should have known that I should have appointed you Yang Fu as Xiahou Miaocai's lieutenant general instead of Cao Hong! This is my selfish motive, and I want him to be rewarded for his meritorious service!

Miaocai too, why go south in person? Won't they send troops and horses to besiege Huang Quan? ”

Yang Fu glanced at Cao Ren and said, "General, General Xiahou considers that no one can use cavalry to fight!" Moreover, General Xiahou is familiar with the terrain and can achieve victory with minimal losses! The only thing I didn't expect was that no one wanted to bring out Liu Chan! ”

Cao Ren said irritably: "Then where did Liu Chan go?" Caught it? I'm afraid Cao Hong hasn't even seen anyone! After so many years, the general has not even seen through this little trick, greedy for war merits! Greedy for war exploits! It's like this! ”

Yang Fu waited for Cao Ren to vent and said: "The general still has to take down the Qiang thief soldiers as soon as possible for now, and don't pay attention to the others for the time being!" ”

Cao Ren nodded and said, "I've thought about it, the Qiang thieves mainly want to hold us back, and they don't want to go head-to-head!" Yang Taishou, you and General Cao and General Zhang take turns to attack. Where is Wang Shuang? ”

Wang Shuang promised, and Cao Ren said: "Since Qiang Di doesn't want to fight hard, then I will fight with them." General Wang, tonight, you and I will lead the brave men to raid the positions of the Qiang thieves in various places. ”

Yang Fu said: "The general wants to disturb the thieves?" General Cao Hong and General Zhang He had raids, but the effect was not good! Soldiers are easy to fall into! ”

Cao Ren sneered: "How did you raid, at most one or two raids. I will raid all the Qiang thief positions within ten miles, and I will not only disturb them, but also take advantage of the chaos to attack and kill them!

I have commanded them to go down and strike not from the front, but to the north of the trench, and drive them into the fence of the trench which they have dug themselves! ”

Yang Fu exclaimed: "Then if something happens, no one will answer it, and the whole army will be wiped out!" ”

Cao Ren said firmly: "Don't stick to the form when it's extraordinary!" So it's the ones who dare to fight to the death! There is no way out, either you will be killed by the thieves or you will kill all the thieves! Yang Fu silently bowed his hand.

Cao Ren made good arrangements, and that night Cao Ren ordered Wang Shuang to lead the dead soldiers to raid the farthest thief soldiers, in order to set an example for Cao Jun in other places! Unexpectedly, the raid went exceptionally well.

After a night of fierce fighting, all positions within ten miles were pulled out, and the number of prisoners killed was not very small, less than two thousand.

Cao Ren was very strange, and when he interrogated the captives, he learned that the main force of Qiang Di had already advanced eastward and had been away for two days! Cao Ren said hatefully: "It must be to besiege Miaocai!" Order, attack at all costs, send the cavalry to find out the news of Qiang's movements, and contact Xiahou Miaocai! And they were commanded to go.

Cao Hong came to ask for guilt, Cao Ren looked at Cao Hong kneeling on the ground and didn't know what to say, and he didn't know how to get out of his heart.

After a long time, he said: "Zi Lian, Zi Lian!" What's the use of talking about all of this now! If you have the kung fu to ask for sin, it is better to think about how to respond to Xiahou Miaocai to come back! Don't hurry up and lead the attack! Cao Hong had nothing to say and left as promised.

Three days later, the cavalry sent found a few remnants of the escaped soldiers, and got the exact news that Xiahou Yuan's entire army was annihilated, and the Han army did not know where to go!

Cao Ren was so shocked that he stood up from his seat when he heard the news, and he was mentally prepared, but when the facts were in front of him, it was a different taste.

Cao Ren said tiredly: "Cavalry, 25,000 cavalry have been lost so far!" How so! The great horde will bow their heads and be silent.

After a while, Yang Fu spoke: "General, now is not the time to be lost. Counting up, I still have at least 80,000 soldiers and horses on the right side of Long, and it doesn't matter if there are no cavalry.

Our army can set up obstacles layer by layer, arrange defenses, and encroach on Longyou and confront the Han army for a long time. Take Tianshui, in Xialongxi County, and annex Guangwei County. If you have land, you can grow food and be self-sufficient! Stay for a long time! ”

Cao Ren leaned close and said, "Well said, indeed!" I previously estimated that if the wheat from Nan'an and Tianshui was harvested, it would be enough for the whole army to eat for two months! Now the wheat in Longxi County can be said to be ours! The generals whispered.

Cao Ren said: "Yang Taishou, you lead 20,000 soldiers and horses to guard this Longxi County. Keep looking for news about Miaocai! Gather the remnants! Then there is the harvest of wheat in Longxi County and Guangwei County!

Guangwei County did not send troops to besiege it, but it was a place that could only defend itself, and it was not a big problem to be careful about it! I'll block you in the direction of Tianshui! Yang Taishou, is there a problem? ”

Yang Fu responded: "No! I estimate that the soldiers and horses in Liangzhou were mobilized by Huang Quan and Ma Chao! Just in case, I'll send troops to strengthen the Zhongti guards!

We can just use the fence and horse rejection set up by the Qiang thieves to prevent Ma Chao from killing from the south! I'm afraid the general's troops are insufficient! ”

Cao Ren waved his hand and said, "You don't have to worry about me!" Sometimes too many people are bad! ”

While everyone was deliberating, his subordinates reported in the account: "General, it's not good! General Zhao Qu, who besieged Longxi County, was defeated and died! ”

Cao Ren was excited, his eyes widened and said, "Ma Chao killed from Di Dao to Longxi County again?" ”

The subordinate said: "The villain doesn't know, the person who came is outside the account?" ”

Cao Ren knocked on the table and shouted, "Let him get in!" ”

The person who came was one of Zhao Qu's partial generals, and he was about to give a salute, when Cao Ren shouted: "How did you lose?" Where are the soldiers and horses? Isn't it Ma Chao? Tell me quickly! ”

The general was frightened, and some were incoherent. Cao Ren was even more annoyed.

Yang Fu stepped forward and said, "General, I'll ask!" ”

Cao Ren shook his hand and said, "Ask!" Stammering, where is like a general? ”

Yang Fu asked: "Let me ask you, is it Ma Chao who leads the troops?" "The general denies.

Yang Fu continued to ask, "What is the flag?" Who is it? ”

The partial general replied: "The leading general reports Zhao Yun!" ”

Cao Ren frowned and said, "Zhao Yun! Zhao Yun was originally in Tianshui County, but he moved to Nan'an County to fight with Cao Xiu and Yu Ban, and was defeated and disappeared. I've come around here! ”

Yang Fu continued: "How to defeat the army, let's talk about it in detail! ”

The partial general detailed the fact that Zhao Qu was flanked by Xu Miao and Zhao Yun before and after, resulting in defeat and death.

Cao Ren was furious after hearing this: "Xu Miao has no faith in his words, and he dares to deceive me!" I'll ask him! ”

Yang Fu said strangely: "Xu Miao is not a man of his word and has no faith, Zhao Yun is just a remnant of the army, and he can't completely relieve the siege of Longxi, how can Xu Miao not know!" There must be a mistake in it, and the general must not be rash! ”

Cao Ren calmed down and said, "I know, I have to ask for an understanding!" I also want to use this incident to persuade Xu Miao to surrender! He doesn't keep his word and loses! If he is willing to abandon the darkness and turn to the past, it will also be more beneficial to our next actions! ”

Yang Fu opened his mouth to say that it was unlikely, but in the end he didn't say it. Cao Ren ordered Cao Hong and Zhang Hexian to lead 30,000 troops back to Tianshui Ji County, and came from Xiangwu City, Longxi!