Deng Ai led a thousand cavalry to the outside of the city, and insulted Cao Pi for his great rebellion, usurpation of the throne, anger and resentment, and so on.

Duan Zhao, the defender of Sucheng, was furious when he heard this: "The thief army doesn't know whether to live or die, and it has been harassing for a few days, but I can't help it, but now I dare to speak wildly, I don't know whether I am alive or dead!" ”

Duan Zhao gathered 3,000 soldiers and horses to line up, and Cao Jun scolded Liu Bei and Guan Yu in unison, approaching the Han army to provoke. Deng Ai had already seen the crossbowmen behind Cao Jun, his more than 1,000 cavalry, and several rounds of arrows were enough to scatter, so he didn't dare to fight hard.

Deng Ai commanded the Han cavalry to stay away from Cao's army, and with the maneuver of the cavalry, he pretended to retreat south. Duan Zhao approached more than two hundred steps, no longer pursued deeply, sent scouts to monitor, and the soldiers and horses withdrew.

Deng Ai saw that most of Cao's army did not chase after him, so he reflexively went to the city to provoke. Duan Zhao commanded the Cao army to force back the Han army again, the two armies went back and forth several times, Duan Zhao saw that the Han army no matter how to drive it away, and his own soldiers were mostly foot soldiers.

Cao Ren had to report a detailed inquiry, but the person who came was unknown, so he told a lot about how the Han army was rebellious.

Cao Ren interrupted impatiently: "You just said that the thief army has a thousand soldiers and horses, unsaddled the horse, and sat cross-legged on the ground. When our army advances, the thieves retreat, and when our army stops, the thieves come, and no matter how you drive them away, they blindly entangle? ”

The person who came responded: "Yes, insult Your Majesty there!" ”

Cao Ren suddenly doubted in his heart: "I know, you go back and tell Captain Duan that he did the right thing, the thief army's behavior is strange, it is very likely that there is fraud, let him wait for my support before acting!" ”

After the people left, Cao Ren ordered the cavalry captains Xie Tong and Yang De to assemble the cavalry to stand by, gather the scouts, and strictly ordered them to listen to all the possible ambushes around Sucheng, and if necessary, they should dismount and search, and wait for the five scouts to act together. Four people searched, one person guarded, and if any abnormality was found, it was reported quickly.

After Cao Ren gave the order, Jiang Mi, the adjutant general who was waiting on the side, stepped forward and reported: "General, the thief army dug a trench in the northeast of yesterday's fortification in an attempt to build another camp. ”

Cao Ren nodded and said, "Very good, who will be the leader of the thief?" ”

Jiang Mi said: "I don't know, in the past, Deng Ai and Zhao Lei were the two people who built the fortification, but today I don't see the two!" ”

Cao Ren said: "Deng Ai led the cavalry to scold the battle in Sucheng, and the people who have always led the cavalry in the confrontation with Guan Yu are Pang De and Guan Ping. Today, Deng Aitong, who has been in charge of building the fortification, led the cavalry to provoke, and the thief army is suspicious!

You send more scouts to keep an eye on each camp, and if there is any change in the thief army, report it immediately, counting that Guan Yu's grain and grass will not last long, and in the near future, you must especially guard against the thief army fleeing south! ”

Jiang Mi agreed: "It's the general!" ”

After Jiang Mi left, the cavalry captains Xie Tong and Yang De came to report to Cao Rendao: "General, the cavalry has been assembled and is waiting for the general's order!" ”

Cao Ren got up and tidied up his clothes and armor and said, "Follow me to support Duan Zhao!" ”

Xie Tong hurriedly stepped forward and said: "The general is slow, I think that we have been entangled with the thief army under the city for nearly ten days, the thief came to my aid, and the thief retreated and I was too passive, and it was definitely not the best policy."

The walls on all sides of Sucheng are almost built, it is not difficult to defend itself, our army ignores the Sucheng thief army and turns to attack Lu Hun, the cavalry ambushes on the path of Lu Hun in Sucheng to return to Lu Hun, the thief army rescues, takes advantage of the situation to fight, and forces the thieves to fight.

In the next thought that our cavalry and foot soldiers are far superior to the thief army, taking advantage of the people, the thief army is running for a long time, and the soldiers and horses of Jingxiang are not familiar with the geographical advantages, our army can take advantage of the geographical advantage, and the frontal fight is enough to break the thief! Yang De echoed.

Cao Ren said with a smile: "It's rare that you are thinking about thieves, I have thought about this method, but I can't implement it."

Why do the thieves keep building fortifications? It is nothing more than trying to advance in the direction of Luoyang step by step, and our army can neither let the thief army get close to Luoyang, nor can the thief army not see the hope of breaking into Luoyang, and give up retreating south.

Because we want to seize the opportunity of Guan Yu's rash attack to annihilate the thief army, our army is planning a flip-flop.

One of the thieves went deep into the hinterland of our army, and it was difficult to transport grain and grass, and it was delayed for a long time to be transported by the grain route, and the army was in chaos.

Second, the attack of the thief army came suddenly, and the troops and horses of our army have not yet been fully mobilized, and it will take time to arrange before we can be sure of the total annihilation of the thief army.

The three thief army marched forward with great courage, relying on the courage of Guan Yu, Gan Ning, Xu Shu and others, and the outcome of the battle was unpredictable, and it was difficult to annihilate the thief army in one battle.

If the thief army fails to advance and has no hope of retreating quickly, the Central Plains will be shaken, and the south of the Yellow River will be difficult for the state to control.

Why am I patient to go back and forth in Sucheng, giving Guan Yu hope that Sucheng can be won and not letting Guan Yuzhen take it, it's a pity to give up, I can't take it, and catch the thief army.

I stared at Guan Yu and didn't let him run away, and every day I delayed had a better chance of winning. At present, if according to what Captain Xie said, the setback of the thief army is likely to cause the intention of retreating south, but it will be a bad thing. ”

Xie Tong and Yang De arched their hands and said: "The general is wise!" ”

Cao Ren said: "The law of using soldiers is a matter of confidentiality, and the two of you are my cronies, so don't spread it to you." When the siege of the thief army is to attack me desperately, there is no shortage of opportunities for you to make meritorious contributions! The two of them were overjoyed.

Cao Ren didn't say another reason in his heart, Cao Pi told Cao Ren what he doubted, and left a message: drag Guan Yu in Luhun, the longer the time, the greater the possibility of Luoyang's so-called inner ghost falling out, seize the opportunity to do it once and for all, both inside and outside.

Cao Pi didn't know that the so-called inner ghost was in his heart, and he had to say that Xu Shu's plan to make something out of nothing was very successful (see Chapter 161 for details).

Cao Ren led the cavalry to a stop more than ten miles away from Sucheng. The scouts of the Cao army reported back and forth: the Han army was not found in ambush for the time being, and the 1,000 cavalry of Deng Ai under the city showed no signs of leaving, but instead made a fire and cooked in a big way.

Cao Ren synthesized all kinds of signs, his suspicions increased, and he felt that Guan Yu would not order a thousand cavalry to die in vain, and he was afraid that he would see that Sucheng would be completed, and wanted Deng Ai to lure Cao's army to chase after him, ambush and annihilate him, and take Sucheng when the soldiers and horses of Sucheng were lost.

Cao Ren hesitated, taken by Guan Yu's prestige, and after thinking about it again, Cao Ren sent his lieutenant Yang De to lead 2,000 cavalry to expel Deng Ai.

Cao Ren instructed: "If you enter Deng Ai, Deng Ai will definitely retreat, you hang far away, near and far, forcing thieves to run, but don't chase deeply, pay attention to the terrain on all sides, and don't enter a place where soldiers and horses can be hidden, in case of ambush!" ”

Yang De led the order to lead the cavalry to come, and the Han army scouts quickly reported to Deng Ai, Deng Ai listened to the summoning of Zeng Xia, Li Mao and others to discuss: "The Cao army has nearly 10,000 cavalry, and less than 3,000 cavalry are now sent (the approximate number of Han army scouts is not accurate, the actual Cao army is 2,000 cavalry), and it must be suspicious and hesitant to dare not bring all of them to fight and fight."

I pretended to be pestering precisely to make Cao Jun misunderstand that our army was setting up an ambush elsewhere, so that Cao Jun would continue to test and delay time. Today, Cao's army is scheming, and the troops and horses sent will have no fighting spirit, and our army can secretly prepare and break Cao with one drum, so that Cao's army will not be able to understand our army's intentions! The people promised.

Deng Ai divided the 1,000 cavalry into five teams, Deng Ai took off his armor and handed it to Zeng Xiadao: "You put on my clothes and armor in Ming, the thief army is coming, you run south under my banner, so that Cao Jun thinks I am cowardly and escapes, with the heart of Cao Jun!" Zeng Xia took the order.

Deng Ai said to Li Mao again: "Zeng Duwei is running south, you go east, Cao Jun will see our army fleeing, and he will want to seize all the merits, divide the troops to besiege, mess up the enemy's army formation, and divide the enemy's troops!" Li Mao promised.

Deng Ai instructed the rest of the people: "I raise the red flag and wait to quickly step on the war horse and approach the Cao army, I will be the main attack, and the left and right teams will respond, before I kill the Cao army, I must block the Cao army on both sides, and help me capture the thief and capture the king." "The people took the command.

Yang De led 2,000 cavalry to arrive, and from a distance, he saw the Han army either scolding in front, or sitting cross-legged on the ground, or standing next to the horse, or lying on the back of the horse, and the slack was obvious.

Yang De galloped while galloping, and shouted: "The thief army does not know whether it is alive or dead, and it actually despises our army, and kills half of him with me, and then drives the rest of the thief army, trying to find out the truth and truth!" ”

Deng Ai had already set it up, and all the Han troops were already engrossed, staring at the flag in Deng Ai's hand. Deng Ai calculated the distance and lifted it suddenly. The Han army ran back and forth, pretending to be in a panic, and got on their horses one after another.

Yang De saw that the Han army was in chaos, Zeng Xia and Li Mao fled separately, and only six or seven hundred people rushed to kill him and laughed: "Isn't that Deng Ai's banner, haha!" Deng Ai ran away and sent hundreds of people to delay our army, which is ridiculous.

The general asked me to test the thief army, but I was so vulnerable that I didn't run in one direction when I fled. Pass my order, don't let go of the thief army, the left and right lieutenants each lead 500 soldiers and horses to chase, I can deal with a few hundred people. Yang De said, urge the horse to take the lead in the battle.

Cao Jun looked down on the Han army, opened on both sides, and wanted to surround the Han army, but the formation between gallops unconsciously loosened, and the number of troops failed to exert their full strength.

The Han army seemed to be flustered, the formation was kept very neat, the Han army gradually raised the speed of the horse, but the few soldiers were fighting hard, the Han army experienced war, Pang De was ordered to leave the commander, the chief, the captain, etc., to fill the combat strength of the Han army.

The two armies clashed in an instant, the Han army entered the Cao army in one fell swoop, and almost broke through the Cao army array with its sharp energy, and Yang De was separated left and right in an instant, Deng Ai led the Chinese army straight to Yang De, Yang De was surprised by the combat power of the Han army, and his heart was shocked.

Deng Ai was wearing ordinary soldiers and horses, and he had already paid attention to the banner of Cao Jun and Yang De's armor, judged Yang De's identity, and quietly deceived himself.

Yang De waved his knife left and right, slashing the two Han soldiers under his horse, Deng Ai saw the opportunity to raise his gun and sweep, Yang De waved his knife sideways to intercept. Deng Ai was calculating, and Yang De saw that Deng Ai was mistaken for an ordinary cavalryman, and he didn't care about it.

Yang De's knife momentum was just halfway through, Deng Ai used the flexibility of the gun to change the sweep into a stab, Yang De had no time to deal with it, and was stabbed to death with a shot in the chest.

Deng Ai pulled out his saber and cut off Yang De's head, Yang De's personal guards came to the rescue, Deng Ai opened fire and killed several people in a row.

The Han army hung Yang Deren's head on the flagpole and erected it, and shouted: "General Cao will give the head!" ”

Capture the thief and capture the king, Deng Ai killed Yang Dezheng in the middle of Cao Jun's vital point, and Cao Junjun's heart was shaken. Deng Ai led the Han army back and forth to rush into battle, shouting and shouting, and the momentum was terrifying.

Deng Ai, who Zeng Xia and Li Mao saw, put up a big banner and immediately lined up and turned around to entangle the Cao army on both sides.

Duan Zhao was not in a hurry to fight when he saw the arrival of reinforcements, and wanted to wait for the reinforcements to fight with the Han army.

I didn't want the two armies to fight each other as soon as they met each other, and Cao's army was quickly suppressed. Duan Zhao led his troops and horses to support Cao's cavalry, and the cavalry had already begun to rout. Deng Ai saw Duan Zhao coming to help, and led his troops to drive the Cao army's cavalry in the direction of Duan Zhao, wanting to use the Cao army's rout to disrupt Duan Zhao's formation.

The cavalry of the Cao army was uncommanded and fought separately. Deng Ai commanded the Han army to oppress the Cao army in columns, and the Cao army was forced to retreat step by step. When Duan Zhao saw this situation, his heart was not good, so he stopped Cao Jun, lined up on the spot, and lined up in formation.

The cavalry of the Cao army approached one after another, hoping to use Duan Zhao's reinforcements to stand their ground. Duan Zhao sent dozens of cavalry to guide the cavalry of the Cao army to go around the rear of the formation from both sides, and dared to rush straight forward and force back with arrows. Avoid disrupting the formation.

Deng Ai saw that there was no gap, he had too few soldiers and horses, and it was not the best policy to be too entangled, so after killing all the scattered soldiers of the Cao army, he gathered the soldiers and horses, moved around Sucheng, and continued to entangle and delay.