Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1233 Retreat

Xu Chu thought to himself that his strength was among the top five among the generals he had ever met in his life.

Judging from Zhao Yun's past battle records, his spear skills are mainly agile and swift. Even when he is using all his strength, he often retains some strength.

In this back and forth, there should have been an obvious difference in strength between the two sides, but at the moment when Xu Chu swung his long axe diagonally to block Zhao Yun's angry spear, he felt his wrist shake violently and the axe handle almost flew out of his hand.

This startled Xu Chu, and he quickly gripped the axe tightly. The next moment, Zhao Yun fired his second spear straight into Xu Chu's throat. Xu Chu retracted the axe in a panic. The two weapons collided, and there was another loud noise. Xu Chu's body was hit and fell backwards.

Xu Chu fell heavily on the saddle, thinking to himself that something was wrong. When his legs were not injured, he could use his legs to clamp the saddle to avoid losing balance in this situation. But now he underestimated Zhao Yun's strength, and he was at a disadvantage with the second move. Moreover, the strength in his legs was not enough to support him to sit up immediately!

Xu Chu thought to himself that something was wrong. With his military sense, he knew that the next shot would be aimed at the exposed part of his body. He immediately lay on the horse's back and swung the long axe rapidly, drawing a huge circle, trying to force Zhao Yun away.

As a result, he swung the long axe from the left side of the horse's neck to the right side, but it did not produce the expected impact. The next moment, he felt a sharp pain in his left knee, which had been pierced by the iron spear.

Xu Chu felt a chill in his heart, not only because his leg was injured even more and was probably completely disabled, but also because Zhao Yun had taken advantage of the time difference and calculated that Xu Chu would swing the axe horizontally. So he deliberately waited for a long time, and when Xu Chu's axe moved away from the left side, he aimed at his knee and shot!

The spear was so powerful that it pierced through the leather knee pad. Xu Chu's eyes turned black with pain. In the critical moment, he roared, and forced himself to sit up from the saddle despite the pain. He forced Zhao Yun away with two axes, then turned around and fled into the city.

However, Zhao Yun did not chase after him immediately. Instead, he took a deep breath for a moment, allowing the blood color on his face to fade away. Then he spurred his horse to chase after Xu Chu.

Just now, Xu Chu had the bad luck to anger Zhao Yun with Tu Changshan's trash talk. As a result, Zhao Yun was furious and activated his secret technique, using a combination of power and speed in a short period of time, which far exceeded the limit of his body, so he was able to severely injure Xu Chu with just three moves.

But the secret method undoubtedly has significant side effects. After using it, Zhao Yun's eyes turned black, his arms became weak, and he no longer had the strength to pursue in time. He was also taking a gamble. If Xu Chu blocked these three moves, Zhao Yun would be the one who would fall into a passive position.

Thinking of how Taishi Ci had used this secret method in every battle, Zhao Yun felt a complex and inexplicable feeling in his heart. Taishi Ci might have treated every battle as the last one, and it was a miracle that he had been able to hold on for so many years with his awareness.

As soon as Xu Chu turned around and fled, more than a thousand soldiers under his command were immediately defeated. Zhao Yun took advantage of the situation and led his men to kill all the Wei soldiers.

When Cao Cao saw this on the top of the city wall, he couldn't help but curse Xu Chu in his heart for being useless. He had originally thought of several strategies, wanting to lure Yuan Xi's central army over and then find a way to try to kill Yuan Xi, but now Xu Chu, who was leading the charge, was defeated in the first encounter. How could he continue to fight?
Seeing Zhao Yun and his soldiers attacking the city gate, he had to order all the archers to shoot arrows to resist. Zhao Yun saw that the arrows were so dense that the soldiers could not get through at all, so he reined in his horse and challenged the enemy when the arrows were shot.

When Cao Cao saw Zhao Yun's majestic appearance on the top of the city wall, he couldn't help but envy and hate Yuan Xilai. Why did the opponent have so many useful generals, while his own generals were always inferior to him?

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but stick his head out and shouted, "General Zhao!"

"I am following the emperor's order to fight against the enemy. Your general has been loyal for generations, so why are you following the enemy?"

"Moreover, Xionghu is narrow-minded. The general has made great achievements in battle, but he has not been promoted for five years. As a result, the general has been surpassed by later generals. It is really a waste of talent!"

"If the general surrenders, I will treat him as the general!"

Zhao Yun sneered after hearing this and said, "The King of Wei is really good at deceiving himself."

"I am still waiting to ask the King of Wei for the lives of the people of Changshan!"

Cao Cao said to himself: "When two armies fight, there will be casualties. This is all unintentional and I didn't mean to do it."

Zhao Yun snorted coldly, "King Wei, you don't need to say anything. We can't work together if we don't share the same ideals. When the city is broken, I will also demand revenge from Ma Chao, the adopted son of King Wei!"

"The only person who can surrender to the King of Wei is someone like Ma Chao who doesn't care about the revenge for his father's murder!"

Cao Cao's face turned purple, and he was about to speak when Yuan Xi's central army gave an order and threw stones at the top of the city wall. The generals next to Cao Cao hurriedly pulled Cao Cao down the city to avoid them.

But Cao's archers were not so lucky. They suffered heavy casualties from the falling rocks. Cao Cao looked back and saw the situation. He felt depressed. The situation was far worse than he had expected before the war. If the battle continued like this, Yecheng might not be able to hold out for five days!
Due to insufficient intelligence, Cao Cao did not know that Yuan Xi had already invested more than half of his ammunition reserves today. This greatly shook his confidence. If it were ten years ago, when Cao Cao was in a state of complete victory, he would have a much better understanding of the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. At that time, he might have been able to make a relatively comprehensive and accurate judgment on the situation in Yecheng.

However, Cao Cao now is just a dying man who has been tortured by headaches and other complications of diabetes for many years. This has made him lose the ability to control and analyze the battle situation. Now Cao Cao's level of wisdom is actually lower than Sima Yi's.

But Cao Cao's acting was so convincing that Sima Yi and others could not judge Cao Cao's true condition. Sima Yi's worries about how to deal with the fire in the city were also overshadowed by his inexplicable trust in Cao Cao.

After Cao Cao went down the city, he was shocked to hear that the Jin army had adopted fire attack and that many places in the south gate and the city were on fire, but he was relieved when he heard that Xiahou Dun had already put out the fire. He tried to open his eyes wide. In his blurred vision, the sunset had already set over the city, but the Jin army was still attacking the city tirelessly. At the end of the day, nearly half of the Cao army defending the city had been killed or wounded, so he knew that he had to make a decision immediately.

This kind of offensive is superimposed one after another. If the Wei soldiers can't hold on and collapse tomorrow, especially since the Jin army has already gained the upper hand at the South Gate, they will probably take advantage of the situation to surround the West Gate, and then they will not be able to escape!

In addition, Xu Chu's poor performance in the battle made Cao Cao lose confidence in facing the enemy head-on. Thinking of this, he endured the headache and finally made a decision.

He called Cao Ren over and whispered, "Gather the best troops at the west gate tonight. If there is chaos in the city, open the west gate and gradually withdraw some of the troops toward Luoyang."

Cao Ren understood what Cao Cao meant. He knew that Cao Cao was planning to take advantage of the situation, lure the Jin army into the city, and then attack Yecheng with fire.

Although he had known about the plan for a long time, he was still surprised that Cao Cao made the decision so early. You know, this was only the first day of the Jin army's attack on Yecheng!
His expression was complicated. Xionghu had made sufficient preparations for the siege this time, which forced the Wei army into such a situation. Could it be that he was really the nemesis of Cao?
Under Cao Ren's escort, Cao Cao went all the way back to his official residence without even looking at Xu Chu who was kneeling on the ground beside him the whole time.

It was not until Cao Cao's carriage disappeared at the end of the long street that Xu Chu raised his head. His knee was still bleeding and the pain made his body tremble, but no one came forward. He could even see a look of gloating in the eyes of the generals around him.

Xu Chu felt a chill in his heart. He had ruined a big thing this time, but he had worked hard for Cao Cao for so many years and now he was half-crippled and this was what he got in return?

Do I really have to die to atone for my sins?

Xu Chu didn't know that Cao Cao, who was almost blind, didn't even see him.

As night fell, the Jin army attacking the three gates began to cook and rest in batches, but they did not stop the attack on the city walls. This made the Wei army guarding the city walls miserable. Unlike siege, the defenders could not rest casually. The enemy was fighting all the time, and you couldn't just retreat without someone to replace you, right?
Now the pressure on the city wall is so great that the Wei soldiers below are unwilling to go up to replace them, especially since many generals are outside the city and the generals guarding the city walls are all second-tier generals. Seeing that the situation is not good, many of them have begun to protect themselves and are even less willing to work hard.

Outside the city, the Jin army soldiers took turns eating, resting, and then started fighting again. Under this situation, the situation on the city wall became increasingly grim, and an atmosphere of despair began to spread among the Wei army soldiers.

As time passed, just when the Wei soldiers were almost at their limit, something unexpected finally happened in the city. Almost as soon as a rocket rose into the sky, dozens of places in the city caught fire at the same time, the number of fires was far more than during the day.

At the same time, shouts of killing were heard everywhere, and hundreds of rioters poured out, converging towards the three gates in seven or eight places, apparently preparing to attack the city gates from both inside and outside.

Cao's army at the third gate saw from the top of the city that there was turmoil in the city behind them, and their morale became even more unstable. At this time, they could only defend the city while hoping for reinforcements to come and help.

However, they discovered that the troops with Cao’s flags not only did not come towards them, but instead went towards the west gate where there was no enemy!
Then the west gate was opened wide, and Wei troops continued to pour out and marched quickly westward.

When the Wei army soldiers on the top of the city saw this, many of them began to react and couldn't help cursing. Some even shouted out loud: "Damn it! We are fighting to the death here, but they are already thinking about escaping!"

"Are we just going to die here?"

"It's better to surrender!"

Before he could finish his words, the soldier who was speaking was chopped down by the Wei general behind him. The Wei general shouted, "Those who cause chaos in the army will be killed!"

"The king will not give up on us. If he wants to retreat, he will open a retreat route for us. Just hold on. It is difficult for the enemy to enter the city now, so we can still retreat!"

"You guys guard the city walls. I'll take 500 people to kill the rioters who set the fire!"

After hearing this, the soldiers could only respond weakly, and then they saw the Wei general leading his men to meet the hundreds of rioters rushing towards the city.

This Wei general was of high status and powerful. He saw the various weapons held by the rioters and could not help but sneer in his heart. Such a mob dared to attack the city gate. I will kill you all here!

Just as he was thinking this, Yang Feng, who was mixed in the crowd, suddenly rushed out and stabbed the Wei general with a gun.

The Wei general roared when he saw this, and slashed at the spear with his hands. Yang Feng shouted softly, and the spear head transformed into a dozen phantoms, covering the whole body of the Wei general.

General Wei brought the tip of the spear closer to his eyes and subconsciously covered his face with his sword. Yang Feng pressed down with the tip of his spear, and with a puff, the spear tip pierced General Wei's throat and came out from the back of his neck.

(End of this chapter)