Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 178

In the spring and March of the seventh year of Jian'an, Cao Cao's soldiers and horses left behind in Xudu withdrew to Yingyin, Linying, and Liqiang counties.

These three counties are the southwest barrier of Xudu, Yingyin is in the west, Linying is in the southwest, and Liqiang is in the south. Each county is only more than 30 kilometers away from Xudu, about a day's journey.

So basically when you arrive in these three counties, you are outside Xudu City.When Shen Chen came to Xudu for the first time, he occupied Linying County and sent cavalry scouts to cruise around Xudu City, shocking Yingchuan.

After learning of this, Zhang Yun was overjoyed, and immediately marched northward to station his troops at Zhounan Pavilion, probably in the area of ​​Daguo Town to the west of Linying County in later generations, facing the enemy across Yingshui.

From the time he set off to the present, Zhang Yun’s uncle Liu Biao has been sending him a lot of official documents every day. On the short road of more than 200 kilometers from Xiangyang to Yingchuan, there are messengers coming and going, at least three times a day. Above the seal, always pay attention to the battle situation.

Since the strategy adopted by Cao Hong, Xiahou Dun and others was to destroy the bridge and hinder the advance of their large troops along the way, Zhang Yun set off in January and was trapped in Xiangcheng, Dingling and other places in February, unable to move forward.

Liu Biao was of course very upset that he hadn't done anything for more than two months, and hadn't even had direct contact with his opponent.He sent more than 3 troops, and the enemy was only [-] to [-], and the battle had not even started.

So Liu Biao scolded Zhang Yun severely in the document, which put a lot of pressure on Zhang Yun. Now that he started to retreat, of course he happily ordered the generals at all levels to choose to pursue.

But what ability does Zhang Yun have?
There is almost no planning and command ability, just some basic arrangements, such as who goes first and who goes behind, who is the vanguard, who is the front army, middle army, rear army and so on.

But there is basically no specific time, how to go, route allocation, and front and back arrangements.

This caused the entire team to be extremely chaotic, with soldiers crowded on the road without knowing their generals or generals.All kinds of shouts, collisions and even fights can be heard endlessly.

Those who knew knew that they were chasing them, but those who didn't know thought that the [-] army had been defeated, broke up and was being pursued by the enemy.

So in such a chaotic march, Zhang Yun's army spent several days chasing Xiahou Dun to Yingyin.

Overlooking the entire Yingyin area from a high altitude, you will see that the army commanded by Zhang Yun is laid out on the Daoye like countless dense black spots. The people migrated.

Standing on the Yingyin City Pool and looking at the horizon in the distance, Xiahoudun spit on the ground when he saw the disorganized formation, and said to the left and right lieutenants: "Hey, you dare to come to Yingchuan with this little leadership ability, Han Hao !"

"The end is here."

His deputy Han Hao stood up and said.

Xiahou Dun said: "Look at the city, I will lead 2000 troops out of the city and charge for a while."

"General."

Han Hao hurriedly persuaded: "Sikong told us to just garrison the city."

"Ok?"

Xiahou Dun revealed displeasure in one eye, and said, "Am I supposed to be so indifferent while watching an enemy that can be defeated?"

"General."

"Needless to say, I have my own idea!"

Han Hao wanted to say something, but Xiahou Dun had already made up his mind to go, and he had no ability to stop him.

At that moment, Xiahou Dun immediately gathered two thousand elites.

Cao Cao stayed behind with 3 horses, and now they are basically all around Xudu. From Yingyin, Linying, Liqiang to Xudu, there are Cao troops in densely packed villages and important places.

However, the number of Cao troops in the three cities was not large, with 5000 each, led by Xiahoudun, Cao Hong, and Li Dian respectively. Among them, Xiahouyuan and his old partner Xunyu in Xudu commanded the remaining soldiers and horses. Xu Du lacked troops and was attacked by surprise.

Due to the heavy losses of Yuan Shao's main elite, it was already difficult to carry out an all-round attack like in the Battle of Guandu, which gave Cao Cao a great sense of oppression.So Cao Cao even had spare energy to send Zang Ba northward to attack Qingzhou to contain Yuan's troops.

Therefore, although there are currently only 3 people in Xudu, the situation is slightly stronger than last time.It would not be like Shen Chen did last time, running around with a small force, making them exhausted due to the shortage of soldiers.

At this moment, Zhang Yun's army appeared in disorder in the west of Yingyin, the [-] army spread like locusts, and the wilderness, farmland, and villages were densely packed with Jingzhou soldiers without military discipline.

Xiahou Dun led 2000 troops out of the city.

This situation is not similar to the Battle of Hefei. The Battle of Hefei was caused by the Hefei God of War. The large army was still far behind, so he brought thousands of people to Hefei City to watch the situation.

As a result, when Zhang Liao rushed out of the city with 800 men, Sun Quan and the thousands of soldiers did not react, and they were separated by hundreds of meters, and quickly came to the front.

Then Zhang Liao slashed and killed, almost pissing Sun Shiwan's pants. Under the protection of the dead, he barely escaped.

The current situation is not that Zhang Yun himself leads thousands of people in front and an army of [-] in the back.Instead, the [-] army had no formation at all, scattered across the entire wilderness west of the city like they were out for an outing, with no sense of combat at all.

Is Zhang Yun stupid?
Yes.

But there is another reason.

He had the same idea with Sun Quan. Sun Quan was fighting against 10 people with 7000 people. I have the advantage. I brought [-] people here. Why do you dare to fight with [-] people?
The same goes for Zhang Yun.

I fight 8 for 5000, and I have the advantage. I bring [-] people here, why do you dare to leave the city with [-] people?
So both of them have nothing to fear.

But both Sun Quan and Zhang Yun made the same mistake.

That is, their strength is strong. First of all, they need to form a team outside the city and treat them seriously before they can display their combat effectiveness.

But before a soldier arrived, he took thousands of guards to the city of Hefei.

A soldier and horse was not well controlled, and the soldiers were not organized into an array, scattered in the wilderness, with no military discipline at all.

Therefore, the whole body is full of flaws, as long as generals with a little ability will choose to take advantage of the opportunity to take the initiative.

Although Xiahoudun has never won a war and has never stopped being promoted, it does not mean that he is weak.

The previous defeats were mainly because the opponent was too strong. For example, the enemies who lost several times were Xu Rong, Lu Bu three times, and Liu Bei. They were all elites of the era.

What kind of stinky fish and shrimp did Zhang Yun dare to touch porcelain?
Then the gate of Yingyin city opened, and Xiahou Dun personally led two thousand infantry, and rushed towards the Jingzhou army.

What was Zhang Yun's reaction at this time?
no response.

The others are still behind, and they don't even know that the enemy is attacking.

Then Han Hu, the general at the front, saw the gate of Yingyin City open, and a large group of Cao Jun rushed out of the city, crossed the bridge and killed them.

In this battle, Zhang Yun's luck was better than that of Hefei God of War, that is, the terrain of Yingyin is close to the river, on the right bank of the river. Although the river is smaller than the river of Yingshui, it is still a medium-sized river.

So Xiahou Dun had to cross the river when he rushed over.

The bridges they destroyed before were the bridges of Yingshui and Rushui. The Jushui bridge was less than one mile away from the city, so a group of troops and horses were deployed by the river at that time. If the enemy attacked directly, they would use fish oil to cover the bridge burn it.

But now seeing the enemy's command ability, Xiahoudun didn't care about destroying the bridge, and immediately led 2000 people to rush out, so that the distance between the two sides was much farther than the battle of Hefei.

Han Hu was the vanguard at the front, only half a mile away from the Yunshui Bridge. He suddenly saw the enemy coming out of the city, rushing across the bridge, and attacking them.

But in such a chaotic situation, how can we get everything in order in a short time? Xiahou Dun galloped his horse, and the soldiers behind him rushed to kill like wild wolves, and Xiahou Dun stood under the horse in an instant. People began to throw away their armor and armor and run away.

They were the vanguard, and they charged farther than the former army. If they had changed to a slightly stronger general at this time, they should have reacted, but Zhang Yun was even still behind.As a result, the front army was rushed and unprepared, and was directly rushed by the vanguard's broken soldiers and horses.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Xiahoudun actually killed Han Hu and a few Jingzhou soldiers. Before he could do anything, the soldiers in the front row just rushed to kill them. The enemy was defeated. He immediately laughed and ordered to continue the pursuit.

But when he dispersed Zhang Yun's 1 pioneers and more than [-] former troops, a team suddenly blocked him.

These troops were not many, only a thousand or so, but they were well-trained. The leader was Huo Du, who was the commander of Zhang Yun's army. At this moment, Hou Dun had already reacted when he left the city early Xia, and sounded the horn to warn the whole army. Array in place at the same time.

The scattered soldiers rushed towards his army, and they were about to disperse his team. Huo Du decisively ordered to shoot arrows, and shot and killed many rout soldiers. The rout soldiers were so frightened that they ran away from both sides of the team like a tide.

Huo Du was like the mainstay, the magic needle in the middle of the river, forcing the scattered soldiers to the two sides and facing Xiahou Dun alone.

When Xiahou Dun came to kill, arrows clustered like rain, and flew towards Cao Jun.

"Get out!"

Seeing that the enemy was blocked by an army and the rain of arrows was coming, Xiahou Dun quickly gave an order to retreat.

For a while, Cao Jun left dozens of corpses and fled in a hurry.

On the other hand, the rout of Hanhu dispersed the front army, and even the central army was almost in chaos. If Huo Du hadn't tried his best to turn the tide, there might be a big defeat in the Battle of Feishui.

Knowing that at this time, Zhang Yun had no choice but to order the generals of the Chinese army to gather up the defeated soldiers, and he led the rear army to retreat ten miles and set up camp.

Afterwards, the two sides investigated, and Xiahou Dun's loss was more than 40 soldiers shot and killed by Huo Du.

What about Zhang Yun?
Han Hu's vanguard was hacked and killed less than a hundred people by Xiahou Dun's army.

The rest of the former army and pioneers were nearly a thousand dead and injured, a small number of them were the rout soldiers shot and killed by Huo Du, and most of them fell and were trampled and injured during the escape.

This made Zhang Yun feel ashamed. After two days of rest, he regrouped and challenged again, which was another matter.

At the same time, Cangting front line.

Yuan Shao paid as much attention to Liu Biao's Army as Cao Cao did. Almost when the Jingzhou Army's three troops began to encircle Xu Du, the scouts had already rushed north to report.

Three days later, Fengqiu Yuanying, [-] kilometers away, received the information that Cao's army retreated three days ago, and Zhang Yunwen hired Liu Bei's army to go north to pursue it.

This news is obviously relatively late, because it took Zhang Yun just three days to catch up with Xiahou Dun.

This also means that almost when Yuan Shao got the news that they were going north, Zhang Yun met a thorn in Yingyin City today, and Xiahou Dun took the initiative to attack, almost beating 8 people to the verge of collapse.

But Yuan Shao didn't know.

At this moment in the Yuan camp, Yuan Shao summoned several counselors to hold a meeting.

On the eve of the Battle of Guandu, the two main advisers, Jushou and Tian Feng, one was deposed by him and the other was imprisoned by him.

Ke Jushou fled back to Hebei. Taking Shen Chen and Liu Bei as examples, he encouraged Yuan Shao with some words, and made Yuan Shao restore his former generosity, released Tian Feng, and improved the status of the two.

In fact, to some extent, before Guandu suppressed them, it was mainly due to the numerous factions of counselors under Yuan Shao's command.For example, the Jizhou School such as Jushou, Tian Feng, and Shenpei, the Yingchuan School such as Xin Ping, Guo Tu, and Xun Chen, and the Nanyang School of Fengji and Xu You.

The local faction in Jizhou was too strong, and Yuan Shao was afraid that he would not be able to suppress it, so he supported the Yingchuan faction.Like Xin Ping, Guo Tu, and Xun Chen are his most valued advisers, but Xun Chen died of an accident, so he can only rely on Guo Tu to restrain him.

Under normal circumstances, now Xu You rebelled and Xun Chen died of illness.The local faction in Jizhou is too powerful. Even if Jushou fled back to Hebei, Yuan Shao should abandon him and Tian Feng, and then support Xin Ping, Guo Tu, and Feng Ji to fight against the local faction in Jizhou.

But the Battle of Guandu stimulated him too much, so Yuan Shao no longer engaged in any means of balancing the emperor's mind, and simply let Ju Shou Tian Feng be the mastermind. Although this would make the Jizhou local faction who supported Yuan Tan stronger, in order to defeat Cao Cao also went all out and stopped doing these messy things.

Then, under the suggestion of Jushou Tianfeng, the two sides confronted each other in Pingqiu last November, and now it has been more than four months. At least Yuan Jun still has a certain initiative advantage. Cao Jun has provoked countless times, and still Stand still, calm and relaxed.

At this time, news came from the south. In the general's tent, Yuan Shao looked at Jushou, Tian Feng, Guo Tu, and Feng Ji, who were under his command, raised the official document in his hand and said: "The document came from the south, and the Jingzhou army divided into three groups to attack Yingchuan. , Cao Cao's soldiers and horses left behind had to retreat to the surrounding area of ​​Xudu, what do you think?"

Tian Feng caressed his beard and said: "Duke Ming, there are not many troops left behind by Cao Cao in Xudu. Liu Biao's troops have entered and reached the surrounding areas of Xudu. This shows that Cao Cao is likely to retreat. But Cao Cao has always been cunning. If you really want to retreat, you must first stand still, and then withdraw at Xingye."

"Well."

Yuan Shao nodded and said, "Cao Cao is used to fighting at night, and I wonder if he will leave at night."

Ju Shou said: "If he leaves at night, it is not easy to send scouts to check around Cao Ying, but you can send scouts to lurk along the road he must pass to see if he will go south at night."

"it is good."

Yuan Shao said in a good manner: "Then follow the advice of the public."

None of them doubted authenticity.

If Liu Biao hadn't marched, Cao Cao would have retreated for no reason, and he would certainly not be able to hide Jushou and Tian Feng.

But Cao Cao spent a lot of money this time, and directly used Xu Du as bait.

How can there be any reason in this world to use the old nest as bait?

Isn't he afraid of being destroyed in one day?
Therefore, they all took it for granted that Cao Cao's rear was empty, and Liu Biao's army pressed in, putting too much pressure on Cao Cao.

Everyone thought that Cao Cao would inevitably withdraw his troops and go back to defend Yingchuan.

According to Yuan Shao's understanding of Cao Cao, Meng De was the best at conspiring, either by making a surprise attack or withdrawing troops at night.

So they all felt that the night of these two days was likely to be the time when Cao Cao retreated.

The moment the order was issued, the scouts went out one after another.

It is too difficult to place scouts around Cao Ying. There are countless scouts around. Yuan Shao is no longer the Yuan Shao before Guandu, and his strength cannot be crushed, so he can only retreat and choose the official way to start.

However, it is not easy to detect news on the official road where Cao Cao withdrew his troops. The rear is the grain road and the official document transportation channel. There are countless Cao troops coming and going every day, and there are many guard posts along the route.

Just as Cao Cao had to go through many Yuan Shao guard posts in the Battle of Guandu to go to Wuchao, it was also very difficult for Yuan Shao's scouts to break through the blockade and lurk beside the road.

So in the end, they broke up into parts and chose to use the team as a unit to hide in the woods, hills, and fields along the tens of kilometers behind and hide in places that are not easy to be found by Cao Jun's scouts.

March [-]th.

This was the second night after Yuan Shao received the news.

In the middle of the night, Yuan Ying was silent.

At the same time, the rear of Cao Ying was busy, and a large number of torches headed south.

Along the south for more than ten miles, there are mighty long dragons of torches.

This situation naturally alarmed Yuan Jun's scouts, and hurried back to Yuan Ying to report to Yuan Shao.

However, it was difficult for Yuan Jun's scouts to go back, the distance was long, and they could not take the official route but could only take the small road. It was not until dawn that Yuan Shao learned the news.

"what?"

Yuan Shao just got up at this time, wearing a plain silk undershirt, when he heard that the scouts came to report, he immediately said while dressing, "Go down first, where are the guards?"

After scouting down, the guard at the door came in and said, "General."

"Ling Ju sent Tian Feng and Guo Tu to come here."

"only."

The guard immediately went to deliver the order.

After a while, Yuan Shao put on his clothes and waited in the big tent for Jushou Tianfeng and Guotu to arrive.

He watched the three of them come in, and laughed loudly: "As expected, Cao Cao withdrew his troops at midnight yesterday, and only a small number of troops remained in the camp at this time."

Tian Feng pondered and said: "Cao Cao is used to surprise soldiers, I was wondering if he would deliberately set up an ambush to repel us first, and then go south to Xudu?"

Yuan Shao said: "The scouts have investigated, Cao Jun ran for tens of miles, and went all the way south, there must be no fakes."

"I'm afraid it's a trick of suspicious soldiers."

Ju Shou frowned and said: "Cao Cao would not have imagined that if he goes south at night, we will chase him immediately. If he can't defeat Liu Biao within a few days in Xudu, we will be attacked by the enemy as soon as our army arrives. If I were Cao Cao, I would retreat us first , Let us not dare to pursue, and then go to break the siege of Xudu."

Although Xun You used Xu Du as a bait to deceive the sky, he managed to convince them that Cao Cao was eager to return to Xu Du for rescue.

But Tian Feng and Jushou are not fools either.

They felt that Cao Cao would not be so stupid as to ignore Yuan Jun directly, and would find a way to deal with it no matter how urgent he was, and it was very likely that he was arranging suspicious soldiers, just borrowing the matter of Xu Du to lure them to pursue, so as to achieve the strategic goal of quickly repelling Yuan Jun .

Yuan Shao hesitated and said, "Then according to Gong Yu and Yuan Hao's intentions, should we stand still?"

"If Cao Cao just made us suspicious and held back, wouldn't it be a missed opportunity? When Cao Cao goes south to repel Liu Biao, it will be too late for us to march again."

Guo Tu finally spoke at this time.

In the Battle of Guandu, his strategy failed several times, causing his status in the army to plummet, and now he finally found a chance to fight back.

What is rare is that Jushou and Tian Feng did not refute him.

Because what he said was the truth.

If Cao Cao took advantage of their suspicious psychology, went south to surprise Liu Biao with lightning speed, defeated Liu Biao, and then went north to meet them, then they would have missed a good opportunity.

So this is where Jushou and Tian Feng also struggled.

chase it.

Fear of an ambush.

Don't chase it.

I'm afraid there will be no ambush.

It makes them feel like riding a tiger.

There was silence for a moment.

Yuan Shao let out a long breath, looked at Ju Shou Tian Feng, and said with some displeasure: "Gong and Yuan Hao, let's make up an idea."

Ju Shou pondered again and again, and finally said: "Ming Gong can attack Cao Ying first today. At this time, Cao Ying has few people. After the breakthrough, we can go south and march. Don't be too hasty. Instead, send the vanguard and the former army to pursue, and the main force will be slow. Ambush can also keep the army safe."

"Ah."

Yuan Shao nodded. This is a relatively safe suggestion. Although it will still be a step late, it is necessary to attack Cao Ying no matter what.

You can't leave Cao Ying's 1 people alone, just go after Cao Cao.

Then what should he do with the follow-up food?
Therefore, Yuan Shao did not hesitate at the moment. On the early morning of March [-], after Cao Cao withdrew from the warehouse three hours ago, he gathered his troops and horses and began to storm Cao's army.

At this time, Cao Ying had very few troops, and Yuan Jun launched a full-scale attack on Cao Ying in the morning. At noon, the Cao Ying, which had few major generals, could not hold on. .

Yuan Shao ordered Lu Kuang to be the vanguard and Jiang Qi to lead 5000 men to pursue Cao's army. He led 3 men to follow behind as the Chinese army, and the rest of the army escorted the baggage.

In the afternoon, Lu Kuang and Jiang Qi started chasing Yu Jin who was retreating south.Yuan Shao's main force followed them about ten miles away, approaching the south in a mighty way.

After passing Cangting and heading towards Huang County, Yuan Shao on the way suddenly heard a piece of news.

Since Xudu is nearly [-] kilometers away from the front line of Cangting, news from the south often takes three or four days to arrive. The news Yuan Shao got before was that Liu Biao's army surrounded Xudu, but he didn't know that at the same time he got the news, General Xiahoudun Zhang Yun was almost defeated.

"2000 people almost defeated the [-] Jingzhou army?"

Yuan Shao looked at the messenger with a look of disbelief.

The messenger replied: "Exactly!"

Yuan Shao looked at Jushou Tian Feng and the others on the left and right, and looked at each other in blank dismay.

Although it is a consensus that the southern soldiers are not as good as the northern soldiers in foot combat, but [-] vs. [-] is almost a disastrous defeat?

Is Liu Biao's army a bunch of idiots?

"not good!"

Ju Shou widened his eyes, and suddenly said: "Liu Biao's army is far less aggressive than Cao's, which means that Cao Cao shouldn't worry about Xu Du, there may be fraud in it!"

Yuan Shao also sensed something was wrong, and immediately said: "Let Lu Kuang and Jiang Qi come back."

"Report!"

Almost at the moment when this order was issued, a knight rushed towards the army. Yuan Shao turned over and landed in front of the horse, knelt down on one knee and said, "General, General Lu and General Jiang were suddenly ambushed by Cao's army. Big defeat!"

Yuan Shao's brows frowned instantly, and he glanced at Jushou, feeling a little rejoiced.

Fortunately.

If it was him in the past, he would definitely go his own way and order to pursue him.

Fortunately, Ju Shoutian Feng had a sound plan, and now he only lost the former army and vanguard, and it is not a serious problem.

So he ordered: "Retreat!"

"withdraw!"

A new order was issued, and tens of thousands of Yuan's troops evacuated northward like a tide.

(End of this chapter)