Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 129 The Battle of Jinche Township

"Sikong is back, Sikong is back."

The news quickly spread throughout Xudu, and the panicked situation immediately settled down.

It's not that everyone knows that Cao Cao is the backbone, but that these people are standard scumbags. When Yuan Shao was powerful, they wrote letters to Yuan Shao to make friends with him secretly.

Now that Shen Chen is leading the army to the north, and Xu Du's troops are extremely empty, these ministers mistakenly think that Shen Chen is powerful, and they come and go with him one after another.

Now that Cao Cao is back, everyone knows that Cao Cao is a ruthless person. Now that he is causing trouble, the probability of death is too high, so these so-called princes of the family all settled down and waited for the development of the matter.

In summary, although they are useless, they will only wave their flags and shout behind them.But still the same sentence, they will help whoever wins, at least now they have to wait for a result.

Cao Cao galloped back to Xudu in a starry night, and Xun Yu, Xia Houyuan and Li Dian immediately came to plead guilty. Outside the north gate of Xudu, everyone saw a large cavalry galloping from a distance.

"Sikong!"

When Cao Cao came close, Xun Yu, Xia Houyuan, Li Dian, Cao Hong, and many other civil servants and generals guarding Xudu came forward to kowtow and plead guilty.

"Ah."

Cao Cao nodded. When he came back this time, except for five thousand cavalry, he did not bring any generals. Only Guan Yu and Xu Chu followed him like two bodyguards.

At this moment, Guan Yu had just beheaded Yan Liang and made a great contribution. A few days ago, he went to Liu Xie to ask Liu Xie for his contribution, and he was granted the title of Marquis of Shouting of Han Dynasty, but he returned to Xudu today.

After Cao Cao entered the city and saw many officials, he just nodded his jaw majestically, without blaming them, then rode into the city with a high profile on horseback, glanced left and right, walked around the streets of the city, and then returned to Sikong's mansion .

The reason for doing this is naturally to put everyone's minds at ease first. When they reached the gate of Sikong's mansion, Guan Yu and Xu Chu led the knights to cultivate their tired bodies first. After returning to the mansion hall, he looked at Cao Hong with serious eyes and said: " Zilian, what's going on?"

Cao Hong said with a very ashamed face: "Brother, that day we learned that Shen Chen bypassed Ye County in the middle of the night and went north to Kunyang. He is going to attack Xu Du."

"Snapped!"

Cao Cao kicked the case over the table and shouted at Cao Hong: "Do you think he will really come if he is going to attack Xu Du? Xu You Wen Ruo and Miao Cai are here, no matter how bad they are, they can stick to it for a few days. You Wouldn’t it be okay to send someone to investigate during the day? Why do you have to leave in such a hurry? How could you fall for such a low-level bluff? Really stupid!”

Many soldiers and Cao Cao's confidantes were anxious for a while, and they dared not show their anger.

And Cao Cao glared at Cao Hong, with a hint of hatred that iron can't be made into steel.

This time he was really angry, because if he hadn't dealt with Yan Liangwen Chou as soon as possible, and if he came back a few days later, Shen Chen would really have beaten Xudu outside the city.

If he united with Zhang Xiu again, the consequences would be disastrous.

It's not a big deal for Xu Du to be destroyed, but the key is that once Liu Xie is lost, he will instantly become the target of public criticism.

At that time, even if Yuan Shao was beaten back, the scene of Xu Du with a large number of aristocratic families will disappear in an instant, and his reputation in the aristocratic family will drop to the bottom in an instant.

We must know that from only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Yanzhou, until now almost the entire Henan and even Xuzhou and Shandong have been separated, Liu Xie's golden signboard has contributed a lot.

Cao Cao knows better than anyone what will happen once he loses the support of the aristocratic family.

Therefore, facing Cao Hong's dereliction of duty, he couldn't cover it up.

Cao Hong was not only stingy, but also very staunch. Hearing Cao Cao's words, he immediately said, "It's Hong's fault. Brother Cong, please allow me to commit suicide."

After finishing speaking, he was about to pull out the swords of the left and right guards and commit suicide.

Cao Cao hurriedly came up and kicked Cao Hong to the ground, and said, "You bastard, what do I want your life for? Save your life and pay for your crimes. I just hope you can remember today's lesson and don't do it again. , did you hear that?"

Cao Hong got up from the ground and said with a very ashamed face, "Wei."

Seeing that his face was still full of guilt, Cao Cao's anger almost disappeared. After all, when he was in Bianshui in the early years, if Cao Hong hadn't given him the horse, he would have been killed by Xu Rong long ago, so he didn't really plan to hold Cao Hong accountable. .

Cao Cao did better than Cao Pi in this regard. After all, he was his own relative. If he changed to another general, he would definitely be cut off by Cao Cao, but Cao Hong, Cao Ren, Xiahou Dun and Xiahouyuan were the pillars of his foundation, so naturally he couldn't.

Including the later so-called good generals of the five sons, except for Yu Jin, they basically had no chance to lead the army alone. They were only assigned to the Cao family and the Xiahou family as deputy generals because Cao Cao relied more on them.

Now that Cao Ren is dead, and the four pillars of the Cao family are missing one member, how could Cao Cao be willing to let Cao Hong commit suicide because of this matter?
But he still has to do it, Cao Cao said: "I will demote you to Captain Yingyang, get rid of the title, and reflect on your mistakes."

"Yes."

Cao Hong lowered his eyebrows and looked down, he was already very happy not to die, what extravagant hope did he have?

After punishing Cao Hong, Cao Cao looked at Xun Yu and the others and said, "Wen Ruo, Miao Cai, what's the current situation?"

Xun Yu then said: "Shen Chen stationed troops in Linying. Yesterday Li Dian led the troops to fight against him, but he planned to defeat him. This man just saw the emptiness behind us, and every time he pretended to attack Xudu, forcing us to fight him. Now Xu Du's troops are insufficient, and it is difficult to fight him, so..."

"I see."

Cao Cao nodded and asked, "How many soldiers and horses are there in the city?"

"There are more than 1 people, but these are all temporarily recruited, and among them, there are less than [-] elite soldiers."

Xun Yu looked troubled.

This is the embarrassment of Xu Du. Because Cao Cao mobilized all the main forces to fight Yuan Shao along the Guandu, Sili, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou lines, the rear troops were seriously insufficient. As long as the enemy broke through the defense line of Cao Hong and Li Tong, then Xu Du It's hard.

Cao Cao pondered and said: "Soldiers are expensive and elite, 4000 men are enough."

Xun Yu said again: "General Zhengnan signed the document yesterday, and he has already arrived in Liqiang. I have asked him to make promises in Liqiang."

"Oh?"

Cao Cao frowned and said, "Did you call Li Tong back?"

Xun Yu smiled wryly and said: "There is no way around this. If reinforcements are not mobilized as soon as possible, Xu Du is really in danger of being destroyed. Even if Sun Ce attacks, we must save Xu Du first."

Cao Cao frowned even deeper.

In his opinion, Xun Yu's move was the so-called quenching thirst by drinking poison.

Li Tong was Cao Cao who brought his own soldiers and horses to join him, and he was relatively powerful, with more than [-] troops, so he was able to guard Runan to defend Sun Ce, and Yuan Shao, Liu Biao and others wanted to win him over.

At that time, Cao Cao actually didn't know whether Li Tong was reliable, after all, he had a foreign surname, and at this time most counties and counties in Yuzhou had rebelled, who could guarantee whether Li Tong would surrender?
Therefore, Cao Cao had two concerns when he called Li Tong back. One was that he was afraid that Runan would be empty and Sun Ce would attack him.The second is that Li Tong is afraid of rebellion, and the situation will be worse.

But this time has come to an extraordinary period. In Cao Cao's history, he dared to assign Zhang Xiu, a person who had betrayed once, to the ruthless role of Chen Liu's right wing even after accepting Zhang Xiuzhi's surrender.

He immediately gritted his teeth and said, "I don't doubt the employment of the orphan, and I don't need to be suspicious. Since I believe in Wenda, naturally there is no need to worry about him. Send someone to send a message to let Li Tong go north to join the orphan."

"only."

Xun Yu went down to work.

Cao Cao looked left and right and said, "Shen Chen is just a child. Relying on the emptiness behind him, he thought he could attack Xudu. It was really wishful thinking. Now that he returns alone, he should capture this child alive. Go back first, Li Dian. Cao Hong, Xia Houyuan, you lead the troops to guard Xudu, let me go to the palace to appease the emperor, and tomorrow I will enter Linying with my troops."

"only."

All the soldiers and counselors retreated one after another.

After Cao Cao and others left, he braced his body and went to the palace to meet Liu Xie. After a superficial comfort, he immediately returned to Sikong's mansion to rest.

People are not made of iron.

It took more than 90 kilometers from Guandu to Xudu, and they drove all night. Almost every hour of walking, the horses had to rest for two hours. Running at an average speed of [-] kilometers per hour, both horses and soldiers were exhausted.

So it is unrealistic to lead the troops out now, at least one day of rest is required. Apart from the soldiers, the most important thing is that these war horses must be fed with fine feed, eat, drink and sleep well before they can send troops.

So on the third day when Shen Chen's soldiers entered Linying, Cao Cao finally finished his rest. At this time, Li Tong arrived in Xudu yesterday and joined Cao Cao's soldiers. In this way, the number of Cao Cao's elite troops reached nearly 2, a mighty force. Coming towards Linying.

But Shen Chen already had eyes and ears in Xudu. A few years ago, he sent someone to buy a store in Xudu, pretending to be a business owner. In fact, he secretly raised a few horses in a farm outside the city. Cao Cao had just entered the city. People went to report.

Knowing that Cao Cao had arrived in person, Shen Chen withdrew to Xiangcheng yesterday.

He didn't bring much food and grass. Basically, each soldier brought dry food for ten days. Once Cao Cao besieged the city, he would either break out of the siege or plunder the people of Linying.

But how could Cao Cao let him go?
After rejoicing that Li Tong did not rebel, Cao Cao asked Li Tong to hand over the soldier talisman to Xia Houyuan and let him be Xia Houyuan's deputy.

Then he personally led the cavalry, took Guan Yu and Xu Chu, and before Shen Chen retreated from Xiangcheng to Kunyang, he had already galloped over, intending to intercept him halfway.

Although he had only [-] cavalry, and the cavalry of the Han Dynasty did not have stirrups, horseshoes and high bridge saddles, the speed of the cavalry was still too fast. Then encounter.

At this time, Shen Chen's current location is near Jinche Township, about ten kilometers south of Xiangcheng, and more than 20 kilometers north of Kunyang. There is a famous name here in later generations-Pingdingshan City.

But of course he is not in the urban area of ​​Pingdingshan, but in the Ziyun Mountain area to the east, which is the only mountainous area near Xiangcheng, and Kunyang is to the south.

It was early summer, and after the light rain in the past two days, the weather was fine today. After Shen Chen withdrew his troops, he followed the official road all the way south.

On their right is Ziyun Mountain. The official road is in the east of the mountain. At the moment, the forest is lush and green. Occasionally, a few families can be seen at the foot of the mountain. Villages and fields are scattered all over the place.

After Huangmenting's soldiers broke up, Gan Ning's army walked in front, and 8000 people lined up in two long lines along the wide post road, stretching for about two miles, and walked towards the south at a leisurely pace.

"Enemy attack!"

"Boo! Hah! Hah! Hah!"

At this moment, a sharp whistle sounded throughout the wilderness.

There were a few scouts on horseback at the rear, and they quickly warned the front. They were the scouts arranged by Shen Chen to follow behind the team.

There is no need to send out to investigate, just follow behind the troops. Once the enemy is found, they will gallop over immediately to catch up with Shen Chen's team and give them a warning.

In an instant, whistles sounded one after another, and the soldiers of the Gan Ning Army were at a loss, while the soldiers of Huangmenting, led by officers at all levels, gathered on the plain on the right side one after another, and then Shen Chen gave combat instructions , act now.

(End of this chapter)