Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 977 An unexpected gain
Zhang He loosened his fingers, and the arrow flew out from the string, knocking off his horse a cavalryman who was trying to rush over from a distance.

But the others didn't know whether it was their ferocity that aroused, or they recognized Zhang He as a general on Yuan Xi's side, and wanted to steal someone's head to perform meritorious service. When they saw their companions being shot to death, they couldn't help but not be afraid, but rushed forward without fear of death. He was holding a gun and wielding a knife, and his appearance was extremely ferocious and terrifying.

When Zhang He saw this, he couldn't help but feel a headache. Is the morale of Cao's army so high?
He secretly cried out that he was unlucky. Originally, he led thousands of cavalry across the Huai River from Shouchun to Runan, Yuzhou to be responsible for harassment. The effect was quite obvious at first, causing Cao's soldiers to panic and close the city.

But then Cao Renle came in with reinforcements and set up targeted blockades in several cities, and Zhang He began to feel that it was difficult.

So Zhang He thought twice, so he divided his thousands of cavalry into several teams, relying on the Huai River, and attacked and harassed them separately, with the intention of tearing apart Cao Jun's blockade.

This trick worked as expected. Zhang He's lieutenants were all old men in the Youzhou army. They were familiar with this tactical method that had been tested in actual combat in Qingzhou, and they soon tore Cao Jun's defense line to pieces.

Just when Zhang He wanted to penetrate Runan in one go and march north into the hinterland of Yuzhou, a spy reported that a large number of Cao troops had arrived for reinforcements and encountered the cavalry sent by Zhang He.

There were only a few hundred cavalrymen. When he saw that the enemy was at least tens of thousands, he knew that he was unable to defeat them. So the cavalry commander fought and retreated until he retreated to Huai River and took a boat to evacuate. Then he immediately informed the commander who was supervising the battle in Huai River. Lu Xun.

After Lu Xun received the news, he was afraid that Cao's army would outflank the retreat of all the armies. To be on the safe side, he ordered all Yuan Xi's troops in Yuzhou to retreat to the south of the Huai River. After receiving the military order, Zhang He retreated south from the northern border of Runan County. , encountered a Cao army.

Zhang He's troops were not many, but there were seven or eight hundred men. Cao's army had about a thousand men, but there were only more than two hundred cavalry. The rest were defeated by the infantry escorting the food and supplies. Therefore, after the encounter, Zhang He Not too timid, he decisively began to use cavalry diffraction to deplete the opponent's morale.

But to his surprise, after fighting for two full hours, less than half of the people on the other side were left, but no one could escape. Instead, everyone refused to retreat. Seeing that they could not escape, they rushed over like crazy to chase and kill them. Zhang He's cavalry army.

Zhang He felt strange. He hadn't fought against Cao Jun for more than a year. Could it be that everyone on the other side had taken medicine?
Seeing that the battle was stalemate, he no longer held back. He immediately used all his strength, put his hand back, and pulled out another arrow from the quiver on his back. Without even aiming, he let go and shot out, hitting one person in the middle. Face door.

Then, without waiting for the bowstring to stop vibrating, he pulled the bowstring again and shot out another arrow. In just a dozen breaths, he had shot out all seven or eight arrows in the quiver. They were actually the chain arrows that Zhang He seldom used!

The cavalry on the opposite side were hit by arrows and fell off their horses, but there were still more than a dozen people left. They took the opportunity to rush to Zhang He. Zhang He put away his long bow, stretched his sore arms and shoulders, cursed in his heart, and reluctantly drew out his iron spear to meet him. Go up.

Seeing this, his personal guards quickly defended Zhang He on both sides and started fighting on the opposite side. Zhang He took the opportunity to charge into the enemy's formation with an iron spear dancing like a swimming dragon. Wherever the tip of the spear touched, Cao's soldiers fell to the ground. .

After fighting for more than an hour, Cao Jun's thousand-man team only had a few dozen people left, and because Zhang He sent troops in advance to block the retreat, almost no one could escape.

Zhang He saw that the remaining people were still guarding more than a dozen carts, and wondered, could there be anything valuable in the baggage he was transporting this time?
He was afraid that someone would escape to report the news, and if Cao's army came to rescue him, he would not be able to escape. He immediately waved his hand, pointed at the Cao soldiers who were stubbornly resisting, and said, "Kill them all!"

As the Youzhou soldiers bent their bows and mounted fire twice, all the Cao soldiers guarding the cart were shot to death on the ground. Zhang He saw this and waved his hand: "Clean the battlefield, count the baggage, burn everything that cannot be taken away, and then Retreat immediately!"

After hearing this, the soldiers dismounted and stripped off the armor from Cao's soldiers. They took away their weapons and hung them on the backs of their horses. They piled the grain and grass in the carts on the ground and ignited them with flints. The fire started.

Zhang He was directing his men to free up the carts to transport his wounded soldiers, but a personal guard came over and said that they had found several women in the carts and asked Zhang He what to do with them.

Zhang He originally wanted to just drive away, but then he changed his mind and followed his guards to the cart. He saw several carts carrying several women wearing common people's linen clothes.

At a glance, he noticed that several women were old and young. He subconsciously thought that they must be the people captured by Cao's army. After fighting in the past few years, Zhang He knew that there were military prostitutes in Cao's camp. He was afraid that these women would also be coerced into doing this kind of thing. Making a living.

Thinking of this, he didn't take it seriously, thinking that he would leave a car for them later and let them fend for themselves.

Suddenly Zhang He was stunned, turned his horse's head again, and came to the front of the carriage. After a melee, the roof of the carriage had already been chopped into pieces by weapons, and several women were hugging each other and huddled in the corner of the carriage.

Zhang He looked at them carefully, and doubts suddenly arose, because he found that although the faces of several women were dirty, their demeanor was not very embarrassing. If they were Cao Ying's military prostitutes, they should have the physical characteristics of being tortured, and these few Although the woman was dressed simply, the skin on her exposed hands and face looked quite delicate.

Doubts suddenly arose in his mind, so he rode forward a few steps, reached out the tip of his spear, tapped a woman's shoulder, and said, "Raise your head."

The woman slowly raised her head. When Zhang He saw it, he became even more puzzled. The woman looked quite old. She looked about forty, but there were not many wrinkles on her face. Although it took up a lot of dust, her facial features were quite... She is dignified and majestic, with a plump and smooth forehead. She doesn't look like a common woman.

He said out loud: "Open your palms." Upon hearing this, the middle-aged woman hugged the girl in her arms tighter, and then stretched out her hands.

Zhang He saw that the woman's palms were quite rough, and he was not sure. If she was a noble woman, her skin should be quite smooth. Could it be that he had guessed wrong?

He couldn't figure it out for a moment, and wanted to leave right away, but when he glanced at the other two young women beside the middle-aged woman, he suddenly thought deeply. He immediately took out the tip of the gun and pointed it at the most panicked woman among them. He said: "Let me ask you an answer. If you dare to lie, I will kill you directly."

After saying that, he stretched out his spear, and with a pop, he poked a hole in the car panel in front of the woman.

The woman finally couldn't bear it anymore and collapsed on the ground, crying: "I'm just a maid, General, please spare my life!"

The middle-aged woman next to her changed her face when she heard this. Zhang He knew what was going on and shouted: "Handmaid?"

"Whose maid are you?"

After listening to the maid's trembling confession, Zhang He suddenly realized why those Cao Cao soldiers were so fearless to death. It turned out that this middle-aged woman was Cao Cao's first wife, Mrs. Ding!
After Mrs. Ding fell out with Cao Cao because of Cao Ang's death, she returned to her hometown of Qiao County. Cao Cao also wanted to reconcile with Mrs. Ding, but Mrs. Ding was determined to ignore Cao Cao. Cao Cao was furious and reconciled with Mrs. Ding. Separate, both sides have nothing to do with each other.

That's all, but Mrs. Ding still brought Cao Qing. This was originally negotiated by the Cao family and planned to marry her to the emperor Liu Xie and replace Fu Shou as the queen in the future. Although Mrs. Ding was reluctant, there was nothing she could do. Can wait for Cao Cao to send Cao Qing away.

It happened that Yuan Xi came to Shouchun at this time and sent Zhang He to harass and attack Yuzhou. When Cao Hong, who was in charge of Yuzhou, heard about it, he was afraid that Mrs. Ding and Cao Qing would be affected, so he sent more than a thousand Cao soldiers. After finding Mrs. Ding and Cao Qing, they escorted them without explanation. He returned to Xudu.

In fact, Cao Hong had a good intention. With this excuse, he could not only protect Cao Qing, but also bring Mrs. Ding back to meet Cao Cao. Maybe the two parties would get back on good terms, which is unknown.

The reason for this is that the Ding family and the Cao family in Qiao County have a very good relationship. As a member of the Cao family, Cao Hong naturally hopes that Mrs. Ding will return to power, not Mrs. Bian who was born in a wealthy family.

But Cao Hong's good intentions turned out to be bad. If Mrs. Ding stayed in Qiao County, it would be fine. After all, Zhang He led cavalry and could hardly attack the city.

But it was so unlucky that after the convoy set off from Qiao County, it received news from spies that several groups of Yuan Xi's troops had appeared. In order to avoid danger, the convoy went further and further away, and finally chose a side road.

However, by chance, Zhang He's army penetrated deep into the hinterland of Cao's army and needed to withdraw from remote roads. As a result, the two sides met unexpectedly.

After a deadly battle, Cao Cao's army was wiped out in order to protect Mrs. Ding. After all, if Cao Cao's wife was lost, it would be fatal to go back, so they fought to the death.

After Zhang He learned the cause and effect, he couldn't help but secretly cursed whether he was lucky or unlucky. He hit such a hard nail and caused so many extra deaths and injuries to his soldiers!
But now he did not dare to delay. With a wave of his hand, the cavalry escorted Mrs. Ding and the wounded soldiers' cart and retreated south overnight.

When Cao Hong arrived with his people, he saw the corpses on the ground and the disappearing convoy. He couldn't help but beat his chest and thought that he was in big trouble. How should he explain to Cao Cao?
Not to mention the chaos in Yuzhou, Liu Bei who is now in Xiangyang is also impatient and restless. Cao Cao did not come to fight him, but went around to fight Shouchun. Whether it was false or true, it was actually not good news for Liu Bei.

If Cao Cao can defeat Yuan Xi and seize Shouchun, he will seize Jianghuai and Jiangdong to encircle Liu Bei. Liu Bei will not be far from being destroyed by then.

Therefore, both emotionally and rationally, Liu Bei should send troops to support Shouchun and attack Cao's army with Yuan Xi's army.

But if this is Cao Jun's plan to lure the enemy, and he waits until Liu Bei's army leaves the city and ambush Liu Bei's army, then Liu Bei's situation will be even more difficult.

So Liu Bei, now hesitant, went to Xu Shu and Pang Tong for advice.

Pang Tong heard this and said: "Xiangyang is in a critical position and it is difficult to send troops."

"But the location in Fancheng is fine."

(End of this chapter)