Thinking of this, Yuan Yao suddenly remembered something again, and hurriedly asked Ji Ling.

"General Ji Ling, how many days have passed since we sent news to Lu Bu?"

Ji Ling frowned and quickly counted.

"It's been eleven."

"Eleven days, well, count the days, if Lu Bu acted quickly, he should have killed Xuchang, the news came and went, and it was estimated that the changes in Xuchang also reached Cao Cao's ears."

Thinking of this, Yuan Yao understood why Cao Cao chose to retreat at this critical point in time.

Most of it is Xuchang's matter, he already knows, Lu Bu led the army to kill Xuchang, although Lu Bu is not worried, but Xuchang is Cao Cao's top priority, once there is a loss, the blow to Cao Cao is not small.

If you ignore it, once Xuchang is taken by Lu Bu, these soldiers and horses outside Cao Cao are afraid that it will be a problem to even go back.

So I'd rather give up attacking Huaibei than go back to rescue Xuchang.

"What Lu Bu, what Xuchang?"

At this moment, Qiao Rui, who was standing beside Yuan Yao and Ji Ling, was a little confused.

Don't look at Qiao Rui who went to Xuzhou with Yuan Yao and them, but Yuan Yao didn't see him as his own person at that time, so he didn't tell Qiao Rui about the conspiracy with Lu Bu, and Qiao Rui naturally didn't know the plan between Yuan Yao and Lu Bu.

"Oh, General Qiao forgot to tell you that when Xiahoudun attacked a few days ago, I sent someone to inform Lu Bu, and asked Lu Bu to lead his troops and horses to attack Cao Cao's lair."

"Huh?"

Qiao Rui suddenly realized, but then frowned again.

"Isn't Lu Bu at war with our army, why would he go to Cao Cao's trouble?"

Qiao Rui couldn't figure out these things, but Yuan Yao didn't bother to explain them to him.

"I don't have time to explain these things to you now, the top priority is to stop Cao Cao's soldiers and horses, and don't let him go back to support Xuchang."

"Ji Ling, quickly gather people and let all the people go out of the city to pursue Cao Jun!"

"Even if we can't intercept all the Cao troops, we have to let them go back to Xuchang later to support!"

Yuan Yao immediately commanded Ji Ling, and Qiao Rui didn't dare to slack off, knowing that these things were very important.

After having Yuan Yao's order, the defenders in Zhuxian City quickly took action, and Ji Ling quickly gathered more than 4,000 people, ran out of Zhuxian County directly with these people, and quickly pursued them in the direction where Cao's army had withdrawn.

Originally, when Ji Ling left the city, he should have encountered the defenders left by Cao Jun outside the city, but unfortunately those who stayed behind had no intention of fighting at all.

Immediately after seeing the gates open and the defenders inside rushing out, they were immediately frightened.

He didn't plan to fight with Yuan Yao's men and horses at all, and ran straight back.

A few hundred men and horses can't stop the defenders out of the city at all, and they won't be bored.

Anyway, when Cao Cao left them, he didn't let them deal with the defenders in the city, but just stayed and pretended, staring at the defenders in the city, and didn't let these defenders chase after them.

It's just that Cao Cao didn't expect that these defenders would be so fast, Cao Jun had just left on the front foot, and Yuan Yao had already chased after him with his men and horses.

There were only six or seven thousand soldiers and horses under Yuan Yao's command, and there were some casualties when defending the city before, and there were no more than five thousand people who could still move.

The five thousand men could not be taken with them, and some of the defenders of the city had to be left behind to watch the city.

However, there are too few people with him, not only can he not play the role of pursuing Cao Cao, but he is also easily killed by Cao Cao and annihilated in one fell swoop, and at that time the gains outweigh the losses.

Therefore, it is more appropriate to take 4,000 men out in pursuit.

Four thousand men and horses, if you say too much, if you say less, if Cao Cao does not spend twice as many troops, it will be extremely difficult to repel Yuan Yao's pursuit in a short time.

In this way, Yuan Yao took the men and horses, and quickly went to the direction where the Cao army left, although he did not have cavalry, he could go into battle lightly, and the Cao army had baggage transportation, so it was impossible to go too fast.

Yuan Yao's men soon chased him to a place less than five miles away from the main force of Cao's army.

After the break, Cao Jun had even discovered that there were pursuers behind him.

"Ming Gong, Ming Gong is not good!"

Cao Cao, who was riding on a horse, listened to the rapid cry coming from behind, and stopped to look back.

I saw a scribe dressed in Confucian clothes chasing after him.

"What's the matter?"

Cao Cao patiently asked the scribe behind him.

"Just now, the spies came to report, saying that Yuan Yao actually went out of the city and pursued him with soldiers and horses."

This scribe's words immediately made Cao Cao's face change greatly.

"How can this be justified, how can this be justified!"

"Yuan Yao Xiao'er, I don't want to trouble him, he still dares to send troops to pursue!"

"Come on, form a formation immediately, we will wait for him here, I want to see, he Yuan Yao has some ability, dare to go out of the city to pursue the old man!"

As soon as Cao Cao heard that Yuan Yao was chasing after him, where could he still bear it, anyway, it was not bad for this time, and he fought here and annihilated Yuan Yao in one fell swoop.

Anyway, I can first relieve the sullenness in Cao Cao's heart.

But the left and right generals immediately opened their mouths to suggest to Cao Cao.

"Ming Gong, no."

"Our top priority is to return to Xuchang for rescue, if we delay here, I am afraid that Xuchang will have something to do because of this, not to mention that Yuan Yao dares to go out of the city to pursue, he must know something."

"He also has thousands of defenders in the city, this time the pursuit is coming, even if we want to win, it is not easy, with the current manpower of our palace, I am afraid that it will be a lot of money to win, if it is really a loss of soldiers, even if it returns to Xuchang, what is the use?"

Guo Jia and Cheng Yu both suggested that it was not appropriate to send troops at this moment, and they would retreat first if they could retreat.

If Yuan Yao pursues and really wants to fight, it will not be too late to fight.

The top priority is to retreat.

Cao Cao listened to the advice of the two strategists, and for a while, even if he really wanted to separate himself from Yuan Yao, he didn't say much, in his heart, Xu Chang's weight was still very heavy.

"Since Feng Xiaodu said so, then it will be according to your words."

"Don't pay attention to Yuan Yao's pursuit, let's retreat, let them pursue behind, and if they really dare to step forward, we will fight him!"

Cao Cao first agreed with Guo Jia's words, and then gave orders to the Confucian scholars on the other side.

Cao Jun then continued on his way, but soon, Cao Jun ran into trouble.

They blindly rushed to go back to rescue Xuchang, but the speed of the march should not be slow, but those who transported the baggage, as well as those who were wounded, the speed of the march was much slower than that of ordinary soldiers.

These people couldn't keep up with the speed of Cao's march, and soon fell behind.